Nessa found herself unable to sleep, unbearably restless with the discovery still fresh in her mind. The worst and the best of scenarios balanced on a scale out of her reach, but still in her sight. Was it Eve alone that worked with the sellswords, was it Rex that set them upon Nessa and her brother? No introspection could decide what was true, only seeking it out herself was an option.
Nessa tossed within her bed and looked over to her brother. He was completely still, except for the slight movements of his breathing. She knew in her heart that in order to protect her brother and ensure a future for the both of them, that she had to take a stand against whatever tried to stop them. With that decision alight in her mind, Nessa finally drifted off to sleep.
Though morning came without issue, tension still remained for Nessa. She decided to wait for her brother to prepare for the day before bringing the news to him. Outside of the inn, she stood on the doorstep patiently. During her time in waiting, Rex and his allies passed her vision. Nessa felt her heart sink just seeing them again. She desperately wanted to follow them and scold them in a burst of anger. She decided to wait, so she paid close attention to where the trio were going to hopefully follow them.
Half an hour passed before Mair left the inn and met with his sister outside. Nessa hesitated to speak at first, but after a deep breath she addressed her brother.
"Mair, there's something I need to tell you." Nessa remained quick and to the point, standing straight while looking up at him.
"Huh? Am I adopted?" Mair walked past his sister, not yet picking up on the weight of Nessa's tone. Nessa simply sighed in response before pulling out the two arrows she used for comparison.
"I found this identical arrow in Eve's quiver," Nessa informed, "I believe that she was somehow involved with the sellswords being hired against us."
Mair stopped dead in his tracks and grimly looked over the arrows. "Oh. Well you could've led with that. What are we gonna do about this, should we go back to the guild?"
"No, I know it may sound ridiculous, but we still have a mission to do here. We can't just leave Rex and the others to walk free though, we should confront them and figure out the truth," Nessa responded and pointed over past the town, "I saw them leave in that direction earlier this morning. We should follow them."
Mair nodded in agreement and followed his sister. They were both silent as they passed through the town, until Mair spoke up a few minutes into their trek.
"Hey sis, are you feeling alright? You've been quiet all day." Mair walked ahead of his sister to catch her attention as he spoke.
"I'm alright." Nessa forced out a smile but it quickly faded. "This is all just a little eye opening is all. I mean, I wouldn't have figured other adventurers to have gone this low. That's why I want to know their intentions." Their conversation echoed through the tunnels past the edge of town, serving as the only sound in the lonely cavern.
"Well it's sort of like we talked about yesterday. I doubt these jerks represent adventurers as a whole in this sense, and I especially doubt they'd go as far as this even." Mair laughed as he instinctively reached toward his healed wound.
Nessa laughed with him, looking towards the ceiling of the tunnel at the passing star crystals. The unwavering glowing lights shined upon her as she recalled Ilz. She wondered how his search for the truth on the star crystals was going. Her mind wandered to Hela. Nessa wondered if Hela was safe on her journey to the surface, and what similar troubles she might've faced in her time. Nessa wondered how much corruption Hela saw with her own eyes, and she wondered how many people Hela killed.
Those thoughts ran through her as a chill ran down her spine. She eventually shook it off as she heard voices raising further down the tunnel. As the siblings approached, the voices were clearly that of Rex and his companions, though Nessa couldn't yet hear them from where she was.
They cautiously turned a corner into a clearing luminated by a grand spire of star crystals hanging from the ceiling. The cavern floor was littered with boulders and patterns of uneven stone that made the ground rugged. Standing on the opposite end of the open cavern on higher ground, Rex and Kross stood over a bound, young demiserpus with disheveled black hair, fitting the vague description of the thief provided.
"It's about time you showed up, Nessie!" Rex called out, his cocky voice echoed off the cavern walls to reach the siblings, "Kind of rude to do so uninvited, had I not set Eve to scout behind us, I probably wouldn't have noticed." Nessa took a deep breath to calm herself down. The thief was captured at the very least which eased her a bit, even if it was Rex that completed the mission.
"Rex, you know why we followed you here. You worked with the sellswords to attack us. You realize the guild won't accept this, right?" Nessa scolded as she revealed the identical arrows as evidence for her claims.
Kross looked over at his ally awaiting his response, to which Rex only shrugged and handed the binds of the thief off to him. Rex stepped forward to the edge of the elevated ground proudly.
"You're still so naive about all of this, aren't you Nessie." Rex chuckled as he set his copper longsword over his shoulder. "You really think the guild will care about your sob story. That we cheated you out of the mission or supposedly set sellswords on to you? In fact, I think the guild will take our word if we finish the mission and have the lord of this town backing us up, don't you think?"
Nessa's brow furrowed as she grew aggravated. "What are you going on about?" Her hand instinctively hovered towards her wand as she grew unsettled by Rex's confidence.
"The reward for this quest is far from glamorous. Despite that, I'm sure the guild will look fondly on us if we not only finished the mission for you, but also ended up rescuing you from certain death. That was the plan anyway, the sellswords were to capture you and hand you back over to us to fulfill that narrative for the town, and eventually the guild. Unfortunately now, it looks like the dirty work is on our hands now." Rex motioned away to a tunnel entrance about a story's height above the ground.
Out from the cover of the tunnel, Eve revealed herself with an arrow knocked onto her bow. She peeked out from the higher ground, nearly hanging off the edge to let loose the arrow at the siblings. They leapt back in surprise as the arrow hit the ground in front of them. Eve slunk back into cover without a word, refusing to meet the gazes of the siblings. Nessa looked down at the arrow and noticed it radiated a green barrier similar to the ones used in the trials.
"There's no way you're serious about this!" Mair ripped his pike from its sling on his back and stared down Rex with fire in his eyes. "What did we do to piss you off so bad that you'd plan all this out just to screw us over?" Mair growled as he stomped towards the demiserpus.
Rex's smirk faded from his face as he shifted to a solemn expression. "It isn't anything personal. My team has run into issues in the past, and as a result the guild is hesitant to send us on missions and quests of our own. Soon enough, our team will be expelled from the guild unless we can prove our worth. But how are we to prove our worth if we're not given a chance anymore?" Rex swung his sword out at the air in anger, gripping the hilt with a trembling grasp. "I'm willing to take whatever path necessary to not be left behind. Even if it means using those around me!" He motioned out to Eve's hiding spot again.
Without revealing herself, Eve loosed an arrow from her hiding spot that shot towards Rex. The arrow whizzed towards the ground, and yet it curved back up in a cloud of dust and lunged out towards the siblings.
Mair braced himself for the speeding curve shot by keeping his buckler up at the ready. The arrow slammed itself into his shield. The magical barrier around the arrow shattered as the full force of the shot converted into pure blunt impact that washed over his whole body. Mair stumbled back and looked to Eve's cover in confusion. She never revealed herself to fire the shot, and yet it curved perfectly towards Mair.
"How the hell did her arrow do that?" Mair questioned as he kept his buckler up awaiting another shot. Nessa caught up with her brother and inspected the arrow. Despite the strange characteristics of the shot, she couldn't find any magical influence on the arrow past the now broken barrier.
"Come on, let's get behind cover before she fires again," Nessa ordered as she guided her brother over to a spire jetting out of the ground. Her attention turned to Eve's cover as she faintly heard the firing of another arrow. Just like before, the arrow shot from out of view and curved itself to aim at her brother.
Nessa stopped in her tracks and spread her arms apart as a violet barrier unfurled in front of her. A movement of her wand guided the barrier to shield her brother as he leapt behind cover. Her actions proved fruitless though as the arrow curved out of its path once again to dodge the barrier and aim for Nessa instead. She tried to protect herself with a short burst of abjuration magic but the arrow hit her dead on, impacting her with the barrier and knocking her to the ground.
"Nessa! Are you alright?" Mair called out from behind cover, hesitating briefly on whether to rush out into the open.
"As I thought," Rex remarked joyfully, "You're not going to get far in the guild if you can't manage to fight back. I'll give you a chance to give up if you're worried about really getting hurt."
Nessa pulled herself back on her feet and gripped her wand tight. "I'm far from giving up." A burning determination flared in Nessa's dark eyes as she stared down Rex. "If I lose to you here, there's no doubt in my mind that my brother and I would end up in your same position. I want to help you, but what you're doing will only continue this cycle. But if I have no choice but to continue your game, then I'll play it." A violet flare shone at Nessa's wand as she prepared herself out in the open cavern.
Rex scoffed and motioned to Eve once again. Another arrow fired from her spot in hiding and began to curve towards Nessa. In response, Nessa spun her wand to conduct a spell. A trio of mana bolts flung from her shining wand directly towards Rex. After the spell was finished, Nessa stood open to the incoming arrow.
Rex's expression shifted, the sudden realization struck him as he was forced to defend himself. With a swift flurry of strikes from his sword, he managed to cut the bolts out of the air. Rex was forced back off his ground and scowled in annoyance as he was figured out.
Nessa stood proudly as the curving arrow ceased its path and pathetically tumbled to the ground just as Rex was forced to defend himself.
"I had a feeling there was some interference when I found there was no further magic on these arrows," Nessa spun one of Eve's arrows in between her fingers with a confident smile on her face, "Eve naturally had no way of casting while firing, and Kross couldn't have been casting with his hands full keeping the thief in binds. All that was left was you, using the motion you made to alert your ally as a cover for the movements needed to guide the arrows magically."
Rex stood up from his defensive stance and smiled, revealing his snakelike fangs, "Clever, but it won't matter much longer." Rex motioned to Kross, who handed over the binds of the thief back over to Rex. Kross pulled his axe from off his back and stood in front of his leader, "Kross, Eve, take care of them now and show them how outclassed they are!"
With his orders given out, Kross hesitated and sighed to himself. Despite his reluctance, he still rushed out to meet the siblings out in the middle of the cavern floor while Eve nervously stepped out from cover and began to aim down at her targets with shaky form.
"I'll take care of Kross," Mair told Nessa. He held his ground for the serpus's approach.
Nessa nodded in agreement as she broke away from her brother towards Eve. The human archer noticed Nessa's approach and aimed her shot down at the mage. Arrows loosed from her bow, one after another. Each one was halted in their tracks as Nessa pushed barriers forward to stop them.
Eve panicked as Nessa got closer and closer to her position. With a scan of the battlefield, she saw Mair distracted with his duel with Kross. Eve shifted her targeting, aiming an arrow at Mair with hope to catch him off guard.
Nessa took notice of Eve's new target and flipped through her tome quickly, hoping to find a solution to guard her brother from afar with her barrier spells not being fast enough. The time frame Nessa was given was slim, and her options thinned as the arrow was loosed from the bow. In a sudden reaction, Nessa lunged her hand out towards the arrow, a violet and red mist pulsed out from her wrist and wrapped the arrow in a magical fog, slowing it down and dragging it to a halt in the air. Nessa held the arrow aloft, keeping it steady despite the unbearable pain in her wrist. With a sudden twist of her body, she launched the magically enhanced arrow back in Eve's direction. Eve's eyes widened in fear just before she ducked back under cover to avoid the arrow coming towards her.
With an opportunity before her, Nessa caught up to Eve's position. Nessa leapt onto the wall and began to scale towards the elevated entrance of the tunnel that Eve ducked back into. She eventually reached the top and found herself face to face with Eve, who knocked her last arrow and held it pointing to the floor while backing away slowly.
"You said yesterday that you didn't agree with everything Rex did." Nessa held her wand back in preparation, but otherwise tried to calm down her opponent. "Do you still now think everything he's doing is alright? You can still back out of this."
Eve took a deep breath and looked Nessa in the eyes. "I'm sorry, I really don't want to hurt you or your brother." Eve hoisted up her bow and aimed at Nessa. "But I have to support my friends. I know this is wrong. I know it. Despite all my doubts, I owe too much to Rex to let him down here."
Nessa shook her head and guided her wand near her waist. "I can clearly see there's a lot I don't know about you and Rex, but that won't excuse anything."
Nessa's wrist and wand flashed a crimson red light as she began to swing her wand at Eve like a blade. Eve reacted as best she could to let loose the arrow she had prepared. A violet and scarlet slash carved through the air as Eve's arrow sped out from the bow. The magical slash cleaved the incoming arrow in two and immediately ripped Eve's bow out of her grasp, slamming it in pieces against the tunnel walls.
Eve backed away with her hands raised in surrender, while Nessa was brought to her knees. She clutched at her wrist as she felt blood pounding at her arm like there was a second heart underneath the skin. Nessa desperately tried to hold a brave composure in front of her enemy as she stood back up and addressed Eve. "Return to your friend or leave, just don't interfere in this fight anymore." Nessa said briefly before looking out the tunnel for her brother.
Mair stood awaiting Kross's eventual approach while Nessa left to deal with Eve. Behind the red eyes of his opponent, Mair saw the same desire that he felt within himself. The fuel for every warrior's heart is the desire to overcome the challenges and struggles they face. Kross and Mair saw each other as a wall they must overcome, to make up for their draw in the trials.
"This won't be a repeat of our last battle," Kross spoke up as he heaved his axe for the impending combat, the shimmer of the green magic barrier around Kross shone in the light of the star crystal above them, "I won't hold back."
"Good." Mair held his pike with its blade pointed directly at his opponent. "At least this time you won't have an excuse." Mair made the first move with a lunge that landed his pike at Kross' open chest. Kross stood his ground, making little movement to defend himself. He dug his heels as Mair's strike impacted his abdomen. The barrier converted the strike into blunt force, somewhat protecting Kross as he unleashed a prepared counterattack.
The serpus raised his axe up and batted Mair away with a cleaving motion that knocked Mair to the ground. The barrier around the axe shielded Mair from the blade, yet he was still struggling even from just the first strike. Mair stood back up regardless, still gripping onto his weapon with ferocity to fight on. Kross stood back, waiting for Mair to get back on his feet before he would resume the battle.
Mair made another lunge, and another, and another. Kross took each blow and knocked Mair away with a counterattack each and every time. Despite all of it, Mair picked himself up without fail.
"You keep going for the same attack. If you don't take this fight seriously, you'll only make a fool of yourself," Kross growled as Mair readied himself to lunge at Kross once again.
Mair did not respond and instead took advantage of Kross' guard being let down to stab his pike in the same spot once more. Kross took the blow again, growing furious at Mair's strategy. In a show of strength, Kross swung his axe down at Mair just as the stab was delivered. Kross stumbled back from the crushing blow to his weakened chest, breathing heavily as the fight approached its conclusion. Mair was knocked clean onto his face after the devastating strike to his shoulder.
Kross stepped over to stand over Mair's prone body. The dusk elf warrior kept his grip on his pike firm even while he struggled to lift himself up. Kross raised his axe up, preparing to finish the fight by knocking out his opponent.
"Kross!" Rex called out and halted his ally from finishing the fight, "Disengage immediately, that's an order!" Rex yelled out with a hint of worry in his voice.
Kross looked back, his axe still raised as he seemingly questioned his leader without spoken words.
"Your barrier's been shattered at the chest. So disengage, now!" Rex demanded again, prompting Kross to look down at his chest. The magical barrier was broken around his chest and abdomen. He looked down to Mair, who still held his pike pointed at Kross, ready to strike at him again if he didn't back away.
"You're smarter than you look," Kross said quietly as he turned his back to Mair and walked away while clutching at his chest.
Rex took a look around at the battlefield, both of his teammates were retreating back to him with worry painted across their faces. Mair picked himself off the ground and set his sights on Rex, while Nessa jumped down from the elevated tunnel and held her wand in preparation to engage once again.
"I was prepared for it to have to come to this," Rex said under his breath with a faint chuckle. He suddenly lashed out, knocking the hilt of his blade across the bound thief's head, knocking him to the ground unconscious. "In a way I almost expected it." Rex leapt to ground level, directly across from Mair. Rex's familiar smirk was painted plainly on his face, all while his golden snake eyes glared down his prey with a storm brewing within them.
"It's a shame. I didn't want to have to go this far."