The ones on the table became silent while Thorn contemplated about what to do with his hand on his chin. He looked towards the old man who's eyes were looking at them with hope. Even though Helmfirth didn't fall under the Sacred Order's jurisdiction, Thorn couldn't just leave the matter be now that he learned of it. He looked around his table first. Turning towards Vine, Buck, Anson, Lonz, Roe and Edana one at a time, he could see that they all had the same look on their faces, they had to help the town solve their problem.
Then he looked around the hall towards his knights and finally, his gaze landed on the rogue seekers, who were busy eating the food that had been brought by an attendant of the inn while they were talking. Sighing, Thorn's firm gaze finally landed on the old man. "Don't worry, we'll find out what's happening here." His words caused the old man's face to visibly relax, and a glimmer of hope rekindled his eyes. "Thank you," he whispered, gratitude lacing his coarse voice.
After finishing their dinner, Thorn gathered a small group to go investigate around the town. The group consisted of himself, Vine, Buck and Roe. The knights were all sent to rest in their rooms and they were given a routine to patrol and watch the inn. As for the rogue seekers, Thorn decided to take Zane and two other seekers with them.
While the chosen group were getting ready to depart, Thorn was at the back instructing Anson, Lonz and Edana to monitor the inn and the rogue seekers. Ending his instructions, Thorn was about to head back to the group when he saw Edana looking towards Zane. "Don't worry, I'll keep a close eye on him." Edana jerked her head towards Thorn and looking at his confident eyes, she nodded her head.
With that, Thorn walked to the front of his group and opened the door of the inn. "Let's go" he announced before heading out, his chosen group following him.
The night air hung heavy as Thorn and the others walked through the darkness-shrouded streets of Helmfirth. Their footsteps made soft echoes as they walked across the dirt path of the town.
Thorn led the way, his hand ready to unsheathe the sword on his waist at any moment. Following him, the group looked around them in caution, their senses heightened, searching for any signs of the thing that haunted the town.
As they made their way through the dirty streets of Helmfirth, Zane suddenly stopped walking. As the sound of their footsteps was making a rhythmic noise in the silence of the night, the group immediately knew that someone had stopped and they all came to a stop too.
Turning back, they could clearly see Zane's pale complexion, which was illuminated by the violet moonlight. Zane turned his head towards Thorn. "What are we doing?" Thorn's icy gaze landed on Zane and his emotionless voice rang out. "What do you mean?"
When Zane opened his mouth to answer Thorn, another voice rang out from beside him. "Yeah! Why did you have to drag us here with you? If the Sacred Order wants to be a hero, you could've done so by yourselves!" It was one of the rogue seekers, Victor, who lashed out. He was a lean fellow with an athletic build, his short black hair accentuating his sharp facial features. His brown eyes were burning with dissatisfaction as he shouted out to Thorn.
"I agree. If you want to solve problems, do it yourselves. We have no obligations to risk our lives and help these people with whatever they have going on here." It was the other seeker who agreed with Victor.
His charming voice attracted everyone's attention to him the moment he spoke. Flicking his long blonde hair to the side, Edgar Wood looked down at everyone with his tall frame and composure. He exuded a feeling of nobility as he looked at everyone with arrogance.
Thorn looked towards the two rogue seekers with displeasure before his gaze landed at Zane. Thorn's face contorted and his scowl pierced Zane to his bones. Feeling Thorn's irritation, Zane thought they were better off following the Sacred Order for the time being.
Zane looked at his fellow rogue seekers and berated them under his breath. "Shut up! Let's cooperate with them for now." Turning towards Thorn, he gave an amicable smile to him. "Please excuse them, they're just angry because they wanted to sleep on the soft beds." He tried to diffuse the situation. "What I meant to say before was, are we only going to patrol the town and hope for something to happen? Don't we need a plan or something?" He finally spoke out his concern.
Still somewhat vexed, Thorn shook his head and replied to Zane. "We are not just randomly walking around." He pointed at his right eye, which suddenly began burning with a blue flame. "We are searching for clues."
Zane looked at Thorn's eyes which were enveloped by the blue flames and nodded. "Is that a scanning spell?" He questioned. Nodding his head, Thorn answered Zane. "Yes, it allows me to see into the true nature of things and scan my surroundings in detail." The blue flames died down and his eyes went back to normal.
Azure Gaze, a potent scanning spell which allowed Thorn to peer into the essence of objects, individuals or surroundings. The Azure Gaze allowed Thorn to gain insight and information on anything he laid his eyes on. He could even see faint glyphs weaving through the surroundings, which he could focus on to get hints on concealed details.
However, as the Azure Gaze eats through essence quickly and demands high concentration and mental focus, Thorn could only use it in short bursts in lower intensity. That's why he had gotten information from the innkeeper about the places where people had disappeared and would occasionally use his Azure Gaze to scan the precise locations.
"But I haven't been able to find out much." Thorn shook his head in disappointment. "Maybe the traces of the incident are gone by now." This was also one of the weakness of the Azure Gaze, it could not show him anything if a lot of time had already passed.
"Then let's keep looking for now, maybe we'll find something in the recent incident scenes." Zane nodded his head and gestured Thorn to continue. Thorn's gaze swept through the rogue seekers before he turned and began walking again.
"Hmph. Why do we have to do as they say." Edgar and Victor was still mumbling at the back while following the Sacred Order. Zane turned behind and shook his head. Looking further to the back, he saw Vine following them silently, watching their every move.
'Creepy fucker...' As Zane was walking without much thought, he suddenly heard a sound from the narrow alleyway to his side.
*Crunch Crunch Crunch*