"Perhaps I should escort you back to your house." Frey commented.
This time, he surveyed the girl with a more attentive gaze. She was frail and thin, and her face would have been ordinary if not for her large dark eyes. She wrapped herself in the velvet cloak that Frey himself had lent her, clutched the bundle of what she had bought in the village to her chest, and then raised her face to give the dark hero a shy smile that lent beauty to that countenance. pale and famished.
"I'd appreciate it, if it's not too much trouble."
"It's not a bother at all." he replied. "Maybe those ruffians are still lurking out there."
"I doubt that. They seemed to be very afraid of you."
"Let me help you carry those herbs, then."
"The lady she told me exactly what she had to buy. They are to alleviate the effects of frostbite. I will feel calmer if I carry them."
Frey shrugged, and they went outside; the cold was so intense that his breaths formed clouds of vapor.
In the night sky, the Shadowy Mountains loomed like giants, and the moonlight reflected off the snowdrifts that capped them, so that they looked like islands suspended in the sky, floating above a sea of shadows.
They made their way through the grimy hamlet of shacks that surrounded the town's central plaza. In the distance, Frey saw lights and heard the lowing of cattle and the muffled pounding of horses' hooves. They were heading towards a camp where other people were arriving.
Gaunt, sunken-cheeked soldiers in tattered robes bearing the much-faded figure of a grinning wolf escorted carts drawn by skinny oxen. Tired drivers, dressed in peasant clothes, looked at him as they passed. Next to them sat women, tightly wrapped in shawls, their heads covered by a kerchief that almost hid their faces. Sometimes a child would peek out of the back of a car to watch them.
"What's going on?" Frei asked. "It seems that a whole town is on a journey." The girl looked at the carts, then turned her eyes to him.
"We are the people of Baron Garfield Von Deyl. We follow him into exile, into the Theocracy. With the new ways imposed by the emperor of the Kaleth Empire, the Baron was stripped of his peerage."
Frey paused to look to the east, and saw that there were more carts, coming down the road, and behind them came stragglers on foot, limping and clutching poor sacks as if they contained gold. He shook his head in bewilderment.
"You must have gone to the White Water Pass, on the southwestern border of the Kingdom of Lothal, I heard that it is the only safe land path between the Kingdom and the Theocracy." he commented he. He and Elysia had used their superior athletic abilities to traverse the foot of the mountain. "We are well into the cold season for such a large group to transit this area. The first blizzards must be coming up there by now. This place would only be safe during the summer. Also, on the other side of the Shadow Mountains are the Westerlands, so you will have to travel between the mountain ridges without descending into the Westerlands until you reach the great wall that separates the Theocracy from that land full of beings hostile to the Westerlands. humans."
"Our lord has only been given until the end of the year to leave the Empire and he only had permission from the Duke of Riverheim to transit his lands for a month. The other dukes of the Kingdom have not allowed a noble of the Empire to transit his land." She turned and started to move into the circle the carriages had formed to get some protection from the wind. "We got going in plenty of time, but a series of accidents slowed down our progress. On the way up to the mountains we got caught in an avalanche, and we lost a lot of people." She paused, as if she remembered some personal misfortune. "Some say that it is a Curse imposed by a powerful witch in the service of the Emperor, and that the baron is unable to dispel. They say the Witch is one of the young emperor's mistresses and possibly the future empress."
Frey followed her as she nodded, the information she was gathering was magnificent; the next time he made his periodic report he would add this information.
There were some pots on the fires, and a large cauldron from which steam was coming out. The girl pointed to this last pot.
"The cauldron of the lady. She will be waiting for the herbs."
"Is your lady also a witch?" asked Frey, and she looked at him seriously.
"No, good sir. She is a sorceress descended from a lineage of respectable magic users. She is the baron's adviser on matters of magic."
The girl moved toward the steps of a wagon filled with arcane signs. She started to ascend, but she stopped to face Frey.
"Thanks for your help". she said she.
She bowed deeply in thanks, handed the crimson cloak back to Frey, and then turned and opened the door. Frey placed a hand on her shoulder and held her gently.
"One moment". she asked her. "What's your name?"
"Krisvel". she replied. "And you?"
"Frey."
The girl smiled again before disappearing inside the wagon, and Frey stared at the closed door, slightly dazed. Then, feeling like he was walking on air, he returned to the village.
♦ ♦ ♦
"Re crazy?" Elysia asked angrily. "Now it turns out that you want us to travel with an exiled baron of the Empire and the rabble that form his retinue. Have you forgotten that I just killed my owner to free myself from serving a noble?"
Frey turned to make sure no one was looking at them, though he decided that it wasn't very likely that anyone would. He and the cat girl drank their beers in the darkest corner of the tavern. A few drunks were sprawled across the trestle tables, and cat girl's sulky glances kept casual onlookers away. Thus, Frey bowed with an air of conspiracy.
"You have not forgotten why we have come here. Certain? It's not because he's worried that other agents sent by his previous owner might find us."
"Yes, I know." Elysia reminded herself that practically the only way to keep her freedom was to be together with Frey. "But…"
"We will explore the shadowy mountains, and they will travel through it. It will be safer to travel accompanied, it is the most sensible."
Elysia gave him a menacing look. "Are you implying that you are afraid of some danger that may arise along the way?"
Frey shook his head.
"How bold of you. The answer is no. All I'm saying is that it will make the journey more comfortable for us, and that they could pay us for the effort if we can persuade the baron to hire us as adventurers, remember, we are Platinum rank. According to the guild we are capable of facing A rank or lower enemies, but I am sure that I myself am capable of facing enemies of the highest difficulty, SSS rank, with enough preparation, the rat demon we met in the sewers was SS rank"
Elysia perked up at the mention of money. "Deep down, she is a greedy one." Frei thought. Elysia seemed to consider the matter for a second, but then she shook her head.
"Nope. That baron is not going to get his hands on our gold. The treasure is ours, yours and mine." Hunching over, she looked around her with paranoid tension.
With a chuckle, Frey let out a short laugh "Ha, our gold? That sounds like we'll split it equally; most of the treasure is mine, as I will bear most of the fighting."
Frey felt like laughing. There was nothing better than seeing someone affected by gold fever.
Bitterly, Elysia looked directly at Frey. "Whatever, but Frey, we don't even know if there is any treasure. All we have to guide us are the ramblings of a senile terrain explorer who claims to have seen the lost treasure of an old dwarven stronghold. The old man couldn't even remember his own name."
"The old man was a dwarf, and for your information catgirl, dwarfs never forget where they keep his gold."
"If you are so sure. Just answer me this question: why didn't the dwarf go back to look for the treasure himself? He has had many years to do it."
"For sensible economic caution…"
"By stinginess, you mean." I reproach Elysia.
"Whatever you want to call it, cat girl. The treasure keeper crippled him, and he never found anyone he could trust."
"And why is he telling you all of a sudden?"
"Are you implying that I'm not trustworthy, cat girl?"
"Nope. I think he wanted to get rid of us, that he wanted you to get out of his tavern. It seems to me that he invented that implausible story about the biggest treasure in the world guarded by the biggest troll in existence because he knew you would believe it; I knew that would put a hundred leagues between you and his establishment."
Frey's body tensed, and he growled angrily. He knew that Elysia's words were reasonable. But he refused to go back on his word.
"I'm not that stupid, cat girl. The dwarf swore it was true upon the beards of all his ancestors."
"And I suppose" answered Elysia after uttering a groan. "That no dwarf has ever broken an oath or falsely sworn."
"Well, on rare occasions, yes," Frey admitted. "But I believe this one."
Elysia realized that it would do no good to continue the subject. Furthermore, she prayed to any god who would hear her prayers that the story was true.
"It's like a man in love." Elysia thought. "Unable to see the weaknesses of her beloved because of the wall of illusions he has built around her."
Frey stroked his chin with his eyes fixed on infinity, lost in contemplation of the treasure kept by the troll, after a few moments, Frey decided to play the last card he had left.
"It would mean not having to walk." Frey said with a confident and presumptuous air.
"What?" Elysia growled.
"If the baron hires us, we can ride in a carriage. You're always complaining that your feet hurt. This is your chance to give them a break. Think about it". he added she temptingly. "We'll get paid and your feet won't hurt."
Elysia seemed to consider it once more.
"I see that I will have no peace unless I follow your plans. I will do it on one condition."
"Which?"
"That our objective is not mentioned at all; to nobody."
Frey nodded, and Elysia raised an immaculate eyebrow to look at him with a cunning expression.
"Don't think I don't know why you want to travel with the baron so much."
"What do you mean?"
"You've fallen in love with that little girl you left here with a while ago, haven't you?"
"No," Frey mumbled. "What made you think that?"
Elysia let out a boisterous laugh that woke several drowsy drunks.
"If not, why has he made you nervous?" she questioned her triumphantly.2