Muriel/Route

## Book VI: The Lovers

### 1. Strangers No More

You leave the Palace to head to your shop. You're going there to gather supplies that may aide you on your search for Dr. Devorak. You think of bringing along protective items such as mugwort and sandalwood. When you reach the shop, the door opens on its own, with signs of damage such as gouges and blood by the handle, proving that something forced its way inside before your arrival. Strangely enough, although there was an intruder, you sense that the protections you placed on the door are still there.

You go to investigate, and come face to face with a great hulking wolf. There is blood dripping from its fur, and it growls momentarily before whining at you. It seems to know your shop and can understand you, but cannot communicate back. It wants you to follow it, and so you do, through the city and into the forest.

When you reach the forest, you have a sense that a darkness lurks there. Although you sense danger, your instincts tell you trust the wolf and follow it into the shadows anyway. You race through the forest with the wolf to a clearing where you see evidence of a great battle. In the middle of it all you see a large bloodied man hunched over the corpse of an unidentifiable creature. Inanna, as the man calls the wolf, runs up to him and gently licks blood from his face. He tries to shoo her away, but to no avail.

The man looks shocked to see you and wants you to leave. Inanna, on the other hand, seems to want you to stay. You get a better look at the creature the man was hunched over, and take notice of the gaping cavern left in place of where its heart should be, clearly torn out by rough claws.

You offer to help the man tend to his wounds and he eventually agrees to let you. You try to support his weight on the way to his hut, but are interrupted by the appearance of a twisted goat-like ghost with a missing arm. It tries to attack you both, and you summon a barrier to protect you from its blows. It screams out that you cannot run from it forever, and the man grabs your hand, guiding you on a path. The ghostly figure does not follow, as there are protection charms you recognize to be Asra's set up around the area.

You enter the hut with Inanna and the man. You ask what the ghostly goat that was chasing you was, but he won't tell you. You decide to ask simpler questions, and find out his name is Muriel. You introduce yourself as well, and he says that he is already aware of who you are. You apologize for not recognizing him, explaining that you are missing all your memories from before three years ago. He is aware of this as well.

One way or another his wounds get cleaned and you heal his wound with magic. You pass out on Muriel's chest from exhaustion and awake with no knowledge of your surroundings. The last thing you remember is following Inanna into the forest. All of the time you spent with Muriel has vanished from your memory. Muriel looks annoyed when you don't remember who he is, then gives you a small sachet of myrrh. It makes your memories of him flood back to you, and he explains that when people look away from him they forget him, due to a spell.

Muriel asks you if you have anything important to be doing, and you remember that you're supposed to be trying to find Dr. Devorak on behalf of the Countess. Muriel reveals that Dr. Devorak did not kill Count Lucio. He says he was locked up in the dungeons the entire night, so it was impossible. He also reveals the answer to your previous question about the creature that attacked you. He says that it is all that is left of Lucio, but does not know how he became that way.

As you try to convince Muriel to go to the palace with you as a witness, Asra bursts through the door, panicked about the state of the magic shop. He soon relaxes when he sees you're alright, though wonders how you got there. You wonder the same, and Asra realizes he has a lot of explaining to do.