Grayson, Aiden and Jake sat on a couch in the private room of a tavern, sitting opposite to them was Laura and Molarine, the pugilist now wore a long, open dark coat, giving her an even more intimidating presence than before.
"What... Exactly happened?" asked Grayson, unsure how to bring up the obvious.
Laura was missing three of her four limbs, only her right arm was left.
"We managed to find Dea, it cost us a lot and she ended up fleeing at the last second, it seems like she is under protection of divinations now" responded Laura.
"I wanted to speak to you because after having to have my limbs removed because of infection, my divination skills has become stronger, funny how that works"
"It won't help me in finding Dea but anyhow, the effect that happens when I try to find her is similar to the one I had back when I had tried to find out the master of that wolf-thing, I assumed the one I was trying to find in that moment is the one you three are looking for"
"Well, we aren't certain about th-" tried to say Aiden, the wolf-thing wasn't name a code after all.
"Do you have the name of one of the minion you know is serving that person?" Laura cut him off and Jake was the one to respond with OTA-ZS.
She closed her eyes for a few moments before opening them almost as quickly while nodding her head.
"They do appear to be the same" she concluded and the three men looked at each other before Grayson explained the situation with the name of the wolf-thing, Gevaudan.
"Another otherworlder? That is strange, are you guys attracting one another?" wondered Molarine.
"Anyways, I didn't want to go after that person at first but it seems like them and Dea are linked and currently together, we've exhausted all of the trails that could lead to Dea so we are willing to help you guys find that mastermind of yours, my divinations and Molarine's combat aptitude" Laura made an offer of cooperation.
"I don't see any reason to refuse" Grayson hid the fact that having her divinations would be crucial since they had been a bit lost after the encounter with the thorn faced one, they knew of other strange occurences but with new events rolling in and general difficulties to find anything worthwhile, the group of three had mostly been strengthening themselves.
Grayson wouldn't attempt anything against thorn head but he was fairly certain he would be able to run away now.
"Then that settles it, I already did one by the way, seems like one of you ran into someone who knows the mastermind" Laura simultaneously dropped a bomb and did not, of course they had met someone who knew the mastermind, they had met multiple of his minions.
"By someone, I mean an actual person, I excluded whatever it is that they have serving them, have any of you ran into blonde woman with a sickly complexion?" she asked and the three of them frowned, trying to excavate their memories.
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"It feels like all eyes are on me lately" jokingly said Theli as he sat next to small woman.
The two of them were sitting on the edge of a large fountain, its water was crystal clear, the bottom was littered with various coins of all sizes and colors, Greed would go mad if she was here.
Many people walked around, it was noon and today, only a single medium sized sun had showed up, the woman next to him swung her legs in the air as she was too short for her feet to touch the ground.
Theli had been coming to see her for quite a while now and he had been doing so fairly stealthily since she wasn't just anyone but one of Heilig's elites, he strongly believed that Gloire and Heilig should get along and as such, he practiced his own belief, which translated to hitting on one of their most prized warriors.
He had chosen Bilam because he had believed her knowledge of insects would make her very entertaining to talk to and he had been exactly right.
It wasn't everyday that he could offer a girl an insect without being messing around.
The elite was of the shy type and only spoke with him and her colleagues, her timid nature paired up with her small size made for a great combo in Theli's eyes.
She was only half-halfling but was still only one meter and thirty centimeters tall, taller than halflings in general but incredibly small compared to humans, especially next to Theli who stood at one meter and ninety centimeters.
After some time of in-depth bug talk, Bilam suddenly grew silent as she fidgeted around, clearly, she wanted to say something but didn't manage to find the words for it.
"You can tell me anything you know" he reassured her while rubbing her shoulders, making her straighten up.
"Hum, Theli, we've been talking for a while and all and I was wondering, would you mind coming to my place and huh, you know?" she spouted out, not sure how to say it.
"Sure, no problem" he responded, making the elite brighten up but also a bit apprehensive, only a dense idiot wouldn't notice the subtext here.
Bilam didn't have any experience and Minimil had kept telling her that the first time tended to hurt and also commenting on the fact that since Bilam was so small, it would probably be even worse, the aeromancer hadn't done a great job at reassuring her.
The elite didn't have anyone else to speak to about this, Idil had also never done it and getting anything out of Farsite about this was nearly impossible, wood elves were like most elves and didn't speak freely of such things, asking any of the guys was way too embarassing and weird, leaving Bilam to just go and see for herself.
She wasn't aware of Theli's lengthy track record in that regard but he was almost thirty years old and very handsome, so she didn't doubt he had more experience than her.
Bringing her hands together, she looked up at the sky and prayed.
'Gods, please, let it not be too big'