Osvald looked at Emrys like he was crazy. "Do you intend to just walk up to the palace and try to speak to the king? That's suicide I have to tell you."
"That's what I was trying to tell him as well." Alannah said.
Emrys stood to his feet. He was tired of talking. He needed to do something. "I don't think you humans understand what's happening. If the demons manage to get through the forest, my home, then there will be nothing stopping them from coming here."
With that he turned to leave.
"Humans? Forest?" Osvald questioned while holding his chin in one hand. Alannah heard this and started to panic on the inside.
"Give us just a moment, father." She quickly rushed after Emrys who was already out the door. "Emrys please wait!"
"I am sorry, but as we sit here my home is dying, in pain and agony. There is no time left." He explained while walking past the maids who were running around carrying out their various tasks.
Alannah was conflicted. She wanted to stop him but did not know how. She saw first hand just how powerful a monster he was if they were to chose violence. Knowing that, there was only one thing she could do. To tell the truth.
"Emrys! I cannot get you an audience with the king. And the small amount of guards we have in our employ would not be enough to make any difference. But you will die if you try to fight your way to the king!" She tried to convince him to find another way.
Hearing this, Emrys stopped in his tracks. He turned around and walked straight up to Alannah and removed his hood. When the enchantment hiding his face faded their were tears crawling down from his bright yellow eyes.
When she looked into his eyes it was like she could feel exactly how he was feeling. All the sadness and pain hit her hard. She felt a tightness in her chest and it became hard to breathe.
Without saying another word, he reached his right hand into his chest. His fingers split the wood as his hand slipped in.
Emrys pulled on the wood covering his chest revealing the core inside. It acted as his heart, just as it does for all monsters.
The part that made Alannah take a step back though was the dark black veins that covered his core, tainting it. The veins moved outward slowly infecting the rest of his body from the inside out.
A gross rotting smell burst from his chest and assaulted her nose and made her eyes water.
"This...this is the reason that I may seem like I'm in a hurry." Their whole conversation had been a telepathic one so when some of the maids passed by they were extremely confused and then disgusted when they seen the same thing Alannah did.
Some of their eyes went wide when they realized he wasn't human and scurried away.
"My life and soul are connected to the forest. If the forest feels pain then so do I."
"Emrys...I didn't know..." She said with both hands covering her mouth and nose.
"My home is dying. Most of my only friends are already dead, and I am not strong enough to fight the demons on my own. Even if going to the palace now will mean certain death, I still must go." Having said this he replaced the piece of wood as it quickly sealed up once again.
"Maybe you can can hire some adventurers to help. I know you don't have any money so I will pay for you." She offered.
Emrys thought about it for a moment. He knew nothing about adventurers. He didn't know how many their were, or how strong. "What are these adventurers you speak of?"
"They are mighty warriors that you can hire with coin." She explained.
"Coin?" Emrys was ignorant in the ways of humans and had no idea about the money systems humans use.
Alannah gave him a brief explanation of how money works. "You don't have to worry about that for now. Just come back to the room and lets talk about this."
Out of options, Emrys agreed and followed her back to the room where her father was still sitting in deep thought.
Osvald looked up as they entered. "Emrys I'm glad you decided to stay. We have much to talk about."
Emrys stayed silent as he sat down on the soft leather couch. Alannah filled Osvald in on the situation as best she could.
"I see. So your some kind of monster but your able to speak and have intelligence on par with us humans. Fascinating!" Osvald was bouncing his leg in excitement. Something like this was a once in a lifetime experience and a valuable one at that. "May I see it?" He asked gingerly.
Emrys hesitated for a moment. This was normally something he would keep to himself. He wasn't even sure why he told Alannah. Still, he relented.
With the sound of splitting wood, Emrys pulled away the wood covering his chest and revealed his core.
Osvald leaned over the table to get a closer look. The happy look on his face was quickly replaced by a serious one as he inspected the details of the corruption inside Emrys.
"It looks quite painful and it seems to act just like an infection we humans get when we don't clean our wounds. Would you mind if I took a small sample of this...what did you call it?"
"Corruption." Emrys replied. "Do as you wish."
Osvald motioned for one of the maids and whispered something to them. The maid left the room and then came back a few moments later carrying a metal tray with a few medical instruments on it.
He grabbed a few of the items and assembled them into a syringe. "If you feel any pain just let me know and ill stop, okay?" Emrys nodded.
Osvald then gently pushed the syringe into one of the blackened veins coming from his core. When Osvald pulled the plunger the syringe was filled with the same gross black substance that was present with all corruption.
There was no pain or discomfort, he actually felt a lot less pressure when this happened.
"That should do it." He placed the syringe back on the tray. "Take this to my study."
"Yes, sir." The maid replied and quickly left the room.
"What do you hope to find with that sample, father?" Alannah asked.
"For now, anything. We have no information about this corruption. We don't know what its weaknesses are, or the effects it has on living beings. Now I cant promise anything, but ill see what I can learn about this corruption and these demons that you speak of."
"While father is busy doing that, I can show you around the capital if you want?" Alannah suggested.
"I supposed if there is nothing to be done right now then I would be happy to learn more about you humans."
"Great!" Alannah grabbed Emrys's hand and pulled him out of the room. Osvald just smiled as they left. "I'm glad she found someone she can be herself with." He said to no one in particular.
Emrys used his left hand to hold his hood down as Alannah pulled him through the mansion and back outside.
She let go of his hand and turned to face him. "So, where do you want to go first? There's the adventurers guild of course. Or we could go to any of the shops and see if there's anything you might need."
Emrys wasn't sure what humans made or traded amongst themselves. "Where do you recommend we start?"
"Oh, I know! Let's go to Maya's shop. She always has the most amazing items that you can't find anywhere else!" And with that they made their way to the merchants district.
The closer they got the more people there were. The merchants district itself was flooded with many people at all times of the day. As they moved through the streets the sun was high in the sky and shining brightly.
When Emrys felt the sunlight on his face he instantly felt some of his burden lessen.
"Here we are. That's her place right there." She said and pointed to a nice little building made mostly of wood with some glass windows in the front. Just looking at the place it was hard to tell what its purpose was.
Alannah entered the building without hesitation and called out for the owner. "Maya! Are you here!"
There wasn't anyone behind the front desk but Emrys could hear someone calling out from deeper inside.
"I'll be right with you in a moment!" The voice said.
Only moments passed by until a rough looking young woman emerged from the back of the shop. Alannah's eyes lit up as she ran over and hugged her tightly.
"Hey your back from your trip. How'd it go?" Maya asked while hugging her back. She looked to be a few years older than Alannah but still seemed a little too young to own her own shop.