Leon was all over it. In fact, he insisted they leave right away—an idea that Rayne immediately nipped in the bud. Unlike other missions he had taken, this one was a fair ways from Torid, and the odds were good that he would not be home tonight. Which meant he needed to find a place for Issa to stay, because there was no way he was letting her head home to the Dregs alone.

  A quick trip to the Noble District, followed by a not so quick wait for the academy guards to fetch Issa let Rayne inform her of the mission, and after receiving her blessing and a promise that she would stay with friends overnight, he headed back to the guild.

  While he was doing this, both Leon and Syra were gathering supplies. An overnight trip meant that they would need some things. Food, an axe to gather firewood, a pot to boil water in. Thankfully, it was summer, which meant they would not need to worry about it getting too cold at night, but a blanket each was still a reasonable thing to bring, even if it did make their packs bulkier.

  By the time Rayne arrived back at the guild, both his companions were ready. To his surprise, Leon had not stuffed his pack full to the point of bursting with pointless items. Instead, he had packed very light, with only the essentials and a few extra objects that Rayne had not thought of but he could see would be very helpful in a survival situation.

  “We all ready to go?” he asked as he rocked up. Both turned to look at him, and then they were off.

  It was a seven hour journey to the location where the Thrashers had disappeared. Though Rayne had tried to get them a position as caravan guards to speed up the trip, no carriages were headed this way today, and so they were forced to make the trek on foot.

  By the end of the third hour, Rayne could feel the straps of his pack biting into his shoulders, and his feet were going numb in his boots. At the end of the fifth hour, he yearned for the feeling of numbness, as his feet now burned and he could feel fresh blisters being made and popped with every step he took.

  Mercifully, they entered the town of Mizia only half an hour later, where they would be stopping for a bite to eat and to find information on the two parties who had come before them.

  The place to be for both those objectives was the local tavern, a small watering hole by the name of Mizia’s Alemaid. Pushing open the door, Rayne was greeted by a small but bustling tavern, with about ten tables and seats at the bar for eight more, all of which were currently taken.

  “Jus’ grab a table,” a woman called to them, her arms laden with fresh drinks and plates of food. “I’ll be with ya’s in jus’ a minute.”

  There were two tables free, and Rayne made his way to the closer one, collapsing into a seat with a pained groan. Both Syra and Leon followed suit, although neither of them looked to be in the condition he was. In fact, Syra seemed unfazed, while Leon looked like he had just come back from a leisurely walk along the canal.

  Bastards. Doing his best to focus on anything that was not the mass of bruised and bloody flesh below his calves, Rayne looked around the inn. It was not wealthy, and all of the furniture seemed well-used, but it was also well-cared for, and the two women on the floor both whizzed around the room, greeting the guests and bantering with the regulars as everyone enjoyed a hearty drink after a long day.

  “What can I get ya’s?” one of the servers asked, appearing in front of the table with a tray in hand. Several empty glasses were stacked on top, and she skillfully unloaded a pitcher of water onto their table from within the stack of glasses, her eyes never leaving Rayne’s own as she did.

  “Uh…” Rayne’s feet hurt too much to think, so he simply pointed at the table next to them, where three bowls of delicious looking stew were simmering, and looked back at the waitress. “One of those please.”

  Both Leon and Syra followed suit, none of them ordering any alcohol, and the woman whisked off, leaving them to rest as they waited for their order to arrive.

  It only took five minutes for a bowl packed to the brim with meat, vegetables, and a faint aroma of herbs to be slid into place in front of Rayne, and he tucked in immediately, his eyes widening as the amazing scent hit his nostrils. It was not often that he got to eat out, the cost prohibiting most from the Dregs more surely than any ban. But rations would have made their packs heavier, and he did not have the energy to forage for food right now.

  On top of that, both Leon and Syra had argued that foraging was not the correct call when heading into battle.

  “A good meal breeds a good performance,” Leon had spouted.

  Syra’s line had been more direct. “You can’t win a fight with only mushrooms and berries in your stomach.”

  They had both made it clear that this was an ideal rather than a strict rule, but with the tavern right here, that ideal could easily be met. And so, outvoted two-to-one, Rayne had capitulated, and now he was glad he had. The stew was delicious, unlike any he’d had in years, and it filled his body with a warm glow, one that calmed the frayed nerves in his extremities, and even dulled the sensation from his damaged feet.

  Only once he was halfway finished did he remember that they had a secondary reason for coming here, the food reactivating his brain which had turned off at some point in the six hour march between here and Torid. He began to look around the bar with a renewed purpose, searching for anyone who looked like they might hold the information they sought.

  “Madam, if I may, have you seen any adventurers recently?” Across the table, Leon had apparently decided to take a more direct tack, and he asked the waitress directly.

  Balancing her tray against her hip, the woman stared at him. She was built like a barrel, and had a ruddy complexion that shone brightly under the lights. A light sheen of sweat was visible on her forehead, and she wiped it away with her free hand as she considered Leon’s question.

  “Apart from you three, you mean?” When Leon nodded, she pursed her lips tightly. “I believe so. But my memory ain’t what it used to be. Mayhaps if I had somethin’ to jog the ole’ mind…”

  Leon looked puzzled, and Rayne was forced to step in before he could take her request literally. “She wants a bribe, Leon.”

  His mouth taking on an ‘O’ shape, Leon fell silent, and Rayne took the opportunity to slip into the lead role of this interrogation.

  “We’re on a mission from the adventurer’s guild of Torid. Two parties have gone missing, and we suspect foul play. We need everyone’s assistance in order to bring them or their bodies home safely.”

  The woman’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh dear, that’s so unfortunate! And they looked like such good kids too.”

  “So you have seen them?” Leon asked. When she hesitated, he pressed forward. “Please, tell us everything you know. Lives might very well hang in the balance here.”

  With a heavy nod, the waitress began to tell her story. “The first group came through here about…” She hesitated. “Nine days ago, perhaps? They didn’t stop in here at the Alemaid, but purchased supplies at Art’s place.” Seeing their confusion, she stopped. “Oh, Art’s the general store owner. Nice fellow, a bit old now, but his daughter-in-law helps him run the place, and she was telling me that they seemed like a fairly strong group. Shiny armor, nice jewelry, the whole nine yards, ya know?

  “Anyways, they came through, four of ‘em altogether, and then a few days later another group appeared. This time with five people. These kids were younger, about your age, I reckon, and they stopped in here. I got to chatting with them, and learned that they were after a big score. Now you’re saying they’ve both gone missing?”

  With a heavy nod, Rayne confirmed this, and the waitress clutched her heart. “Those poor dearies. If there’s anything I can do, let me know. I’ve got a son who’s about your age, and if he went missing… I just can’t imagine.”

  “Did you see which direction they went from here?” Leon asked.

  She shook her head. “No. But they said they were headed for Maggor’s Wood, just south of here. So I expect that’s where you’ll find them.”

  “Maud! More ale!” a shout echoed from across the bar.

  “Ope, that’s me. Excuse me, dears.” Patting Leon’s shoulder, the waitress took her leave, leaving Rayne and the others to dwell on what they had just learned.

  “So that first group. That was definitely the Thrashers, right?” Syra asked.

  The other two nodded. “Has to be. Nice armor, four people, and obviously adventurers? It doesn’t have to be the Thrashers, but it sure doesn’t feel like it could be anyone else,” Rayne deduced.

  “And the second party said they were headed to Maggor’s Wood which was where the Thrashers original commission was based,” Leon added.

  “Which means that’s where we’ll find our missing adventurers,” Rayne deduced. He sighed as the realization of what came next struck him. “I don’t suppose either of you want dessert?” he asked hopefully.

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  A frosty look fell upon Leon’s face. “Nine people are in mortal danger right now, and you want cake?”

  “It was worth a shot,” Rayne said morosely. They had already paid, and so he rose, wincing as the sensation in his feet returned with a vengeance. “Come on, let’s go.”

  Maggor’s Wood was a large forest to the southwest of Mizia, large, but nowhere near the level of the great forest that surrounded Torid. Still, the trees towered over the edge of the last farmer’s field, and Rayne found himself looking up at them as he gingerly lowered himself into the ditch separating the field and the wood.

  Water rested at the bottom, lying fetid in the hot summer air, and he smacked away several bugs that had been disturbed by his intrusion, as well as a rather disgruntled frog with a mouth full of unsettlingly sharp teeth. Water sloshed gently around his feet, and he moved slowly so as not to fall, the muck clinging jealously to his boots with each step he took as he crossed towards the wood.

  The other side of the ditch was steeper than the first, and Rayne shoved his hands into the thick grass and roots that covered it, using them to haul himself up and into the forest. Both Syra and Leon had already made it, and together, they forged ahead, on guard as they sought the adventurers who had come before them. Or what remained of them at least.

  It was not yet dark, the summer sun descending much later than it did in the winter, and the trio made good use of the extra daylight, following the path as Syra put her tracking expertise to work.

  Gloomy was the word Rayne would use to describe Maggor’s Wood. The trees were densely packed and had grown in a gnarled manner, causing branches to hang low over the path, and obscuring most of the sky. Though the sun still hung there, there was no sunlight, only the diffuse rays that had managed to pierce through the thickset branches and make it to the ground below.

  Mist swirled lightly amidst the trees, catching at their feet and dispersing in little eddies as they walked, following a small path that seemed to be a game trail. Strangely, they saw no animals as they walked, though the sounds of creatures flitting through the forest could be heard from time to time in the distance.

  None of them talked, all keenly aware that something lurked within these woods that had already taken out two adventurer parties, each larger than their own. With the absence of conversation to distract them, thoughts crept in, the eerie woods only magnifying the doubts that lurked within each person’s mind.

  Except Leon’s, of course. Though he carried his sword unsheathed, he looked as unfazed as ever, and he walked with purpose, clearly ready to save the unfortunate adventurers who had wandered in here for a mission and never returned.

  Watching Leon’s sure stride helped Rayne muster his own thoughts, and he did his best to focus. The danger that lurked ahead meant he needed to sharpen his mind, not let it wander with baseless fears. They were adventurers. Monsters should fear them. Or at least that’s what he tried to tell himself.

  “Guys?” Up ahead, Syra’s voice called lowly to them.

  Hastening their step, Rayne and Leon moved to her side, and Rayne felt his stomach drop.

  Nestled in a small depression beneath the roots of a tree sat a man. Blood covered his front, far too much for his wound to have been survivable even if the wound had been fresh. Given that the blood was already black, and the missing bits of flesh on his extremities from animals nibbling on them, it was clear that he had been dead for a few days, and Rayne choked down the bile that rose in his throat. This was not the first corpse they had found in the course of their adventures, but it was the most unsettling.

  “Any idea what he was attacked by?” he asked, looking to Syra in an attempt to shift the conversation and mood in a more helpful direction.

  She shook her head. “There’s a bite mark on his neck, but that wasn’t the killing blow. There’s not enough blood. He was already close to death, if not dead by the time whatever did that found him. A wolf, by the looks of it. Must’ve been scared off if there’s still this much meat left on him.”

  Turning his focus to the body, Rayne studied it. The man wore leathers, new ones that bore the mark of a respected leatherworker in the Artisan’s District. Apart from the blood that covered it, the front was still pristine, but on the side, Rayne could see tears, and he reached forward, gently moving the corpse forward so that they could see its back.

  He gulped. The back of the chestpiece had been completely shredded. Three parallel grooves ran from just below the collar all the way down to the small of the back, a wound that would have been more than enough to dispatch a man.

  “Claw marks,” Syra breathed. “Banivs maybe? Or perhaps kobolds. It could even be a werebear, or a regular bear.” She shook her head. “Plenty of monsters use claws as their main weapon. But not that many leave marks this deep and ambush their targets. We’re up against something intelligent.”

  “So it could be anything.” Rayne clicked his teeth. “Great.”

  “Look at his expression,” Leon remarked. “He was terrified. Whatever happened, he died fast. Before he had time to come to terms with his impending death.”

  “Which means we’re against something that they weren’t expecting on a bronze-rank mission,” Rayne surmised. “Something whose very existence terrified him or made him want to flee. Maybe he didn’t think he could fight it, and tried to run, only to get hit from behind. That would explain the wound on his back.”

  “So not an ambush, but a coward who got punished for it?” Syra asked.

  “Could be, yeah.” Rayne pursed his lips as he ran through the scenario in his head. “They get attacked and this guy tries to flee but gets wounded and separated from his party. The others stand their ground and die on the spot, or were captured perhaps.” Scanning around, he shook his head. “It’s hard to tell because of the mist, but it doesn’t look like there was a fight here. Odds are, he was attacked somewhere else and managed to get away, only to die here. Afraid and alone.”

  It was a sobering thought, and all three of them found their grips on their weapons tightening. Whatever had done it, the fact was that this adventurer had been killed without any companions nearby to help. And for his body to have been left here meant that the party had still not been able to help even after the ambush had been dealt with. Which meant they’d fallen as well, either kidnapped, or worse.

  Rayne swore, quietly so as not to alert any would-be ambushers. Something in these woods was strong enough to ambush and kill a full-fledged bronze-tier adventurer, and incapacitate or kill his party. From the looks of his gear, this man belonged to the second party, the first set of rescuers. That still left the issue of where the rest of his party had gotten to, and the fate of the first party.

  Much as Leon wanted to bury the body, there was no way they could safely do so with the killers still on the loose, and so Leon said a prayer over the dead man, closing his eyes so that he might rest in peace. Then they were off once more, the tension higher than ever as they delved ever deeper into Maggor’s Wood.

  The sun was now setting, and if they had thought the forest unsettling in the day, it was downright creepy at night. Owls flew low between the trees, completely silent until they let out an ear-piercing screech that echoed through the woods. The mist grew thicker beneath their feet, seeming at times to be almost solid as it drenched their boots and socks and made vision hazy, like a mirage that had grown too real.

  For the first time ever, Rayne found himself thinking fondly of his desk at the registrar’s office. At least the only psychopaths roaming around there were his ex-managers.

  “Wait!” Up ahead, Syra hissed and waved her arm frantically, motioning for a halt.

  Immediately, both Rayne and Leon obliged, dropping to a crouch as they moved up behind her to see what she had found.

  It was not a body this time, and for a moment, Rayne did not know what to feel. What stood before them was a clearing, the first they had come across in the entire wood, and what a clearing it was. At least four hundred feet across, it was not the existence of the clearing that was so shocking, but the wooden fortress that dominated its center. With palisade walls and muddy embankments, it was the very picture of a tiny castle. Torches burned on the walls, and blurry figures could just be seen, wandering the ramparts as they watched the clearing for any sign of intruders.

  “Hang on.” With that short phrase, Syra was off, shimmying through the trees as she disappeared into the mist, leaving Rayne alone with Leon to stew on the existence of the fortified encampment before them.

  And stew they did. Sat there in the mists, Rayne’s mind wandered, conjuring up terrifying monsters and terrible apparitions with each fresh noise or movement in the forest beyond. In a way, the clearing was almost comforting with its clear signs of civilization, though the realization that its denizens were likely the culprits they sought did put a bit of a damper on that, and Rayne crouched lower, as if trying to disappear into the ground as they awaited Syra’s return.

  Seconds stretched into minutes, and the minutes felt like hours. After far too long, Syra returned, a slight rustle in the grass the only warning they had as she popped back into existence in front of them.

  Leon’s hand flew to his greatsword, and Rayne had an arrow halfway out of its quiver before they processed who it was, and both exhaled simultaneously. The fact that Leon was apparently just as affected as he was gave Rayne small solace, and they immediately crowded around Syra, eager to hear what she had discovered.

  “Not here,” she said quietly. Motioning for them to follow, she led them away from the clearing—moving west, by Rayne’s estimation—as they skirted the clearing and then moved back into the forest proper.

  After twenty minutes, they came to a much smaller clearing, this one devoid of any forts, and it was here that Syra finally called a halt to their proceedings and indicated that they were to make camp.

  “It's kobolds,” she told them.

  Rayne nodded, nursing a cold loaf of bread as he stared at her through the gloom from his sleeping sack. They had set up a small camp, but unable to light a fire for fear of being discovered, they were forced to subsist on cold rations. Syra’s statement chased all thoughts of that from his mind, though, and he focused on her words.

  “Kobolds? The lizard things from the initiation?” Rayne asked.

  She nodded. “I climbed a tree to try and get a look inside. It was tough with the fog, but I counted at least ten, with several tents that might contain more.” She took a deep breath. “Worse, there are elites. I saw two of them. Big bastards that were way taller than the others. Either way, there’s a lot more of them than there are of us.”

  “So no different from usual then.” Rayne sighed.

  Outnumbered on their opponent’s turf. This was the part of adventuring that really sucked, although the current sleeping conditions were fairly high on that list as well. Not that he had much to complain about. Apart from the dampness in his sleeping sack due to the mist, it was far from the least comfortable place he had ever slept. His and Issa’s first apartment following the death of their parents… Now that had been a tough place to sleep. Between the rats, the mold, the draft, and the old woman they’d found living in their kitchen closet, it had been a true testament to tiredness that they’d ever managed to get a good night’s sleep in that hellhole.

  Beside him, Syra looked on sympathetically. “I’ll take first watch. You want second? Or should I wake Leon for it.”

  Across the clearing, Leon looked a lot more discomfited, but to the man’s credit, he said nothing. Instead, he simply writhed in silence, moving this way and that as he sought a position that would grant him the comfort necessary to sleep.

  “If he’s still awake, let him have it. Otherwise, feel free to wake me,” he replied. Syra nodded, disappearing into the gloom as she looked for a good place to watch over them from.

  Closing his eyes, Rayne wished the noble well in his fruitless quest. It was going to be a long night…