Adventures in Warcester

After stepping out from the portal, Neriss  greeted Mariel  and explained everything she could. After leaving the garrison, she went home to find Ketifa  and Luvon gone. She was then attacked by someone she believed was Erui, as they revealed their true form and taunted her. The shapeshifter killed her. Neriss then went on to explain that she had a sister who died many years ago and, as she had just discovered, became a sorrowsworn of the Raven Queen after her death. Manaia  and Lesandra  had known each other for many years, all the while never able to tell Neriss what had become of her sister. Worried about her sister, Lesandra had Manaia create a bond between herself and Neriss, so she would be able to tell if she was alive. When Neriss died, Manaia knew immediately, and transported herself to her in order to revive her.

Neriss reminded Mariel and Maiwen that Erui knew what Lesandra looked like, as they took on her form to taunt her while they were in Rogue City. She explained that Manaia told her that Lesandra disappeared twelve years ago, and with her having died several decades ago, there was no reason for someone like Erui would know what she looked like, unless they knew her. Knowing that Erui and Elke  were somehow connected, Manaia said that she was going to continue her hunt for Elke in the hopes that it would lead her to Lesandra.

Manaia then left and Neriss asked what our heroes had been planning to do with Ketifa. Mariel replied with the honest answer, they were taking her out of the city and had planned on escorting her to Coltou. All this while, Ketifa had been sitting a distance away, ignoring everything going on. When Neriss tried speaking to her, she gave no sign she had even heard her and announced that she was going to bed, asking Mariel to set up a tent.

Meaenwhile, Valentine  found a tavern in Bamborough and inside met a young woman who introduced herself as Lyenta. After some conversation, she gifted an ornate compass to him. She explained that it was called Wayfinder, and that it used to belong to her brother. She encouraged him to take it, saying that it was meant to be passed around.

Valentine returned the same night, with no towels but a fair amount of wine in his belly. The next day our heroes came across an odd sight: a group of elves transporting an albino giant elk. Compelled to help the creature, Maiwen attempted to buy it using the records of Fletcher's finances she had stolen from his manor. A fight eventually broke out and Maiwen succeeded in rescuing the elk, killing one of the elves in the process. Her fellow companions seemed less than enthusiastic about the newest addition to the party and complained about it rather loudly. Maiwen named the elk, Anagis Alba.

That night, after setting up camp, Valentine entered Ketifa's tent and tried to charm her, believing that she was holding back part of the truth. Ketifa managed to shake the effects of the spell and Neriss realised what was happening. She dragged him out of the tent and punched him, furious at what he tried to do. She threatened to kill him if he ever cast magic on Ketifa again. Frustrated, Valentine left, broke into someone's home, stole their whisky, and spent the night in their attic.

Two days later, our heroes entered Coltou, where they had agreed to part ways with Neriss and Ketifa, who would continue to lie low from there on. Valentine wandered off with barely a goodbye to Neriss and Ketifa. When saying their own goodbyes, Mariel kissed Neriss on the cheek and gave Ketifa a list of tips on how to survive in a city.

After parting ways, Mariel and Maiwen found Valentine and were accosted by Lyra Sybil Corvus, a rather eccentric fortuneteller, when she warned them to "beware of the one with many faces!" Our heroes then decided to have their fortunes told; Lyra recommended a basic reading, one card for the past, one for the present, and one for the future.

After having their fortunes told, the three found a tavern, and Mariel chose to steal Valentine's money to stop him from drinking. They were then approached by a group of metal musicians who hired them to secure the venue for their concert the following evening, a cave that was being lived in by owlbears.

The next day, our heroes set out to clear the cave. Upon finding it, they faced off against an angry owlbear. Maiwen tried to speak to it, however her cheerful attitude and ineffective persuading didn't help to deescalate the situation and Mariel killed it. In exploring the cave, Valentine discovered three young owlbear cubs, as a second owlbear returned to the cave. Already low on health, Mariel barely managed to kill this one as well, at which point Maiwen found the cubs. Upset at what had happened to the parents, she put the three cubs in her bag of holding, leaving the opening open so they could breathe.

Come evening, our heroes returned to the cave to attend the concert, with Valentine having secured himself a job as one of the illusionists hired to create special effects. The illusionists created smoke and flashing lights, they amplified the sound of the musicians voices and instruments and distorted the sound of them to make them sound electric.

Maiwen left during the concert, finding the noise too overwhelming. She instead spent some time with the owlbear cubs and decided that she was going to raise them herself.

The next morning, Valentine confronted Mariel about whether killing the owlbears was necessary and tried to convince her to not kill anything else. Mariel however, said she made no promises.

Our heroes then started their three day travel to Warcester, to become gladiators. Along the way, they met Alkwin and Lorna Morningfallow, who invited them to sit by their campfire and share their food. Alkwin explained that they owned a restaurant in Warcester, Morningfallow's, and that the food they were eating was on the menu there. They were served by a quiet woman who had cooked all the food herself. After the meal, Valentine went to speak to her. Alkwin told him he didn't have to do so, as she was a homunculus. Valentine did anyway, and discovered her name was Winnie.

Our heroes reached Warcester the next day. A mile outside the city, Anagis Alba showed unusual interest in a collection of shrines. Seven ten-foot-tall stones stood in a wide circle off the path. In front of each stone was a slab of raised stone, a small platform for offerings and idols. Anagis Alba headed straight to one specific shrine, a shrine to Fenris, the god Maiwen worshipped. He settled himself down in front of the shrine and Maiwen cast speak with animals. Anagis Alba then revealed that Fenris had sent him to Maiwen, which she misconstrued and announced to her friends that her elk was a god.

Mariel investigated a shrine which she identified as a shrine of Syreth's. Valentine identified another shrine as belonging to Videlium. As they left the shrines, they passed a female elf who went to the shrine of Syreth.

Arriving in Warcester, our heroes discovered that the guards wouldn't allow Anagis Alba inside the walls, so Maiwen asked him if he wouldn't mind staying outside the city for the time being. He agreed to come back when he heard her whistle. She managed to smuggle the owlbears inside by keeping them in her bag. The adventurers then hired a wayfinder to guide them around the city and afterwards watched a match at the Warcester Warrior Entertainment. The match was between the Boulder and Anakim, the latter of which won.

In the evening, Mariel and Valentine had a meal at Morningfallow's and Valentine took the opportunity to ask more about how she lost her tongue. She told him that her sister had been there with her at the time. When asked about her, she revealed that although she didn't know where her sister was, she was not missing, as he initially thought. When asked about her parents, Mariel dodged the question. She then made a quip about her past not being written in Celestial, to which Valentine apologised about not being able to tell her, and that it was a "delicate" matter.

They then found a tavern they had been recommended, The Sword and Spell, a place that the gladiators of the Fantasy WWE favoured. Inside they recognised both Anakim and the Boulder, along with a few others (including a bugbear) that were revealed to also be gladiators. Valentine went to introduce himself, but left with skyrocketing anxiety about not being able to live up to expectations.

The next day, as instructed, Mariel and Valentine went to request an audition for the Fantasy WWE. Maiwen had decided that she did not want to become a gladiator as she was a mother now and instead went to look for information on how to raise owlbears. Mariel and Valentine were auditioned by Sothra. Both passed their audition with no problems, and Sothra said she would arrange a meeting with Bee, the owner of the arena.

Mariel then visited the House of Song to find someone that could dispel Valentine's secret message. Unfortunately, the spell destroyed it in the process, and she was left with a blank scrap of paper. She and Valentine then went to get some outfits tailored, wanting something special to wear during matches.

During their meeting, Bee explained all the rules surrounding matches and helped them arrange their first match for the following day. It was to be against the Revenants, one of two gladiators pairs.

Now gladiators, Valentine and Mariel were allowed accommodation at the WWE dorms, where most of the other gladiators lived. There they were introduced to most of the remaining gladiators they had not met until this point, including the Revenants, Rohiri  and Vidya. Rohiri's appearance briefly caught them off guard, as she was almost identical to Normal, albeit with unfiled horns and shorter hair.

Maiwen decided she would rather not spend money on a tavern and slept outside the city walls, cuddled up to her owlbears and Anagis Alba. When she woke, she found Ferah a few feet away, staring at her. Ferah asked what she was, as from her perspective she saw a young girl curled up with three owlbears and a giant elk, she argued that for all she knew Maiwen could be some kind of fey or a spirit of nature. The two struck up a conversation, quickly becoming friends, and they started to plan what Maiwen could do with the owlbears. Ferah explained what she knew about them, that if she raised them herself they would never be able to return to the wild and that they were always aggressive creatures. They agreed that in two days they would travel to the forest northwest of Warcester to find the owlbears a new mum.

Maiwen and Ferah spent the rest of the morning together, sightseeing, and in the afternoon went to see "Jynx's" match against the Revenants. The match was exciting, with Mariel falling first and Valentine staying invisible to hide from his opponents. Eventually, the Revenants were victorious. Valentine was despondent for the rest of the day, humiliated by the defeat. In the evening, he spoke to Arley who told him why Rohiri and Vidya wore red when fighting. Not so people couldn't see them bleed, as most people might guess, but so people couldn't see that they *didn't* bleed. Arley revealed that they were both homunculi and in return, Valentine revealed that he knew someone who looked eerily similar to Rohiri. He decided that he would subtely ask her about it at some point.

Ferah offered to let Maiwen sleep on her floor for the night.

The next day, Mariel collected her new gladiator outfit in the morning, with Valentine's not to be ready for another couple of days. As they returned from the tailor's, a boy snatched Kravitz away from Mariel and ran off with him. Our heroes immediately gave chase and followed him through the streets until he came to a temple. Along the way, Maiwen noticed a double of the boy hiding behind a crate and chose to chase him instead. Her gamble paid off as it turned out that the boy Mariel and Valentine followed into the temple was an illusion. Three people in uniforms entered immediately after them and tried to tackle Mariel. Valentine tried to help her, however this only led to himself also being caught. Both of them were incapacitated and had their hands bound. They demanded that Mariel state her name. She couldn't, as Kravitz had been taken away from her, and instead she showed them that she had no tongue. The uniformed people called her Harika Aslan and told her she was under arrest for treason and acts of terrorism.

Meanwhile, Maiwen chased the boy, who had Kravitz shoved in a bag, into the Dawn Gardens. After a brief verbal confrontation, he tried to charm her and failed, so in retaliation, she successfully charmed him. Even after she charmed him, he refused to tell her much about himself, only that he needed the cat for a while and would give it back in a few days.

Mariel and Valentine were both taken to the barracks; Mariel was put in an interrogation room while Valentine was put in a holding cell. Mariel was interrogated first. She was given paper to write her answers on. She was asked who she was currently travelling with and where they were; she initially gave fake names for them, then conceded and gave their real names. She was then asked where Renata Aslan and Jun-Seo were, which she could not answer. Renata Aslan was brought up more than once, her interrogator wanted to know what Mariel and her allies planned to do with her. Her tattoos were mentioned, and seemed to be both a point of interest and of suspicion. As the interrogation continued, Mariel spoke about her mother and briefly mentioned her father, who seemed like he wasn't in the picture for very long. She also gave her full name, Mariel Tabris, the first time she had mentioned it to anyone.

Valentine was next to be interrogated. His interrogator, a woman later named as Georgina Sala, initially didn't say anything to him, just stared. He started by apologising for assaulting them earlier and requested to know why Mariel had been arrested. She ignored his question and asked for his full name, which he admitted he didn't have one. She then asked for his companions full names, much to his despair at having to recite Maiwen's full title. Then, he too was asked the whereabouts of Renata Aslan and Jun-Seo. When the interrogation turned to the topic of Mariel, Sala told Valentine that her real name was Harika Aslan. She suggested that perhaps Valentine was unaware of the real situation and that he had just got caught up in Harika's ploy. When told that she was a terrorist from Mefros, he said that it did not surprise him. When Sala suggested a deal, that he would give them any information about Mariel he could and they would help him keep his name clear, he readily accepted.

Meanwhile, Maiwen persuaded the boy to come outside the city with her by hiding him in her bag to keep him out of view of the guards at the gate. Once outside the city, she found a farm and bartered with a farmhand to let Anagis Alba stay in the barn if she did some work around the farm. Apparently forgetting that her charm spell would only last so long, she worked until it had worn off. The boy, still inside her bag, then tried and failed to charm Maiwen again. Looking into the bag, she realised that he had been disguising himself and his own spell had worn off. He was a half elf, and had dark hair and olive skin, the same complexion as the people who had arrested Mariel and Valentine. He persuaded her to help him and his friends get out of the city; she protested that he was already out and he replied that he needed to leave with his friends, frustrated that she wasn't quite grasping the situation. He promised that he would give Kravitz back if she helped him and she eventually agreed to his terms. When asked why he needed the cat, he said that he took it so Mariel wouldn't be able to tell the "soldiers" who she really was when they mistook her for someone else. He mentioned that she would have been arrested and that once the soldiers realised she wasn't who they thought she was, they would have to let her go.

As they began to head back to the city, an invisible assailant held Maiwen at swordpoint and demanded that she let the boy go. The presence of Anagis Alba however, was enough to deter her. Maiwen reentered the city and the boy gave her Kravitz and ran off, after telling her that he did somewhat like her. She told him that the next time they met, she would have her revenge.

Knowing that they had less than three hours until their next match, Valentine and Mariel began to find a way out of their incarceration. Mariel easily got her hands free, but without her thieves tools she had no way of getting out of the locked room. Valentine eventually managed to send a city guard to sleep, stole his keys, disguised the as himself and himself and the man, and locked him in the cell. He then found his and Mariel's possessions before finding where Mariel was being held. After speaking to another city guard, he tried to steal the keys from Georgina Sala, however she noticed and he was recaptured and locked in an interrogation room. Having pocketed Mariel's thieves tools, he used them to pick the lock, but was immediately caught and knocked unconscious.

With around half an hour left before Jynx's match, Maiwen arrived at the barracks, looking for her friends. There she met Georgina Sala, who invited her in to talk about her companions. Sala explained that she and her compatriots were known as the Blood Red Dogs and that they were soldiers from Senedrok. She told her Mariel's real name was Harika Aslan and tried to make a similar deal to the one she suggested to Valentine. Instead, Maiwen tried to bribe her with Fletcher's finances. Taken aback, Sala confessed that she had overestimated her and called her an idiot. Angered, Maiwen released the owlbears. She proclaimed that these were her owlbears and that they ate flesh. Sala quickly left the room and locked the door behind her.

The match's scheduled time came and went, and our three heroes were left alone in their respective rooms for two hours. At this point, Mariel had a visitor. The man who originally interrogated her, Georgina Sala, and one of the healers from the Fantasy WWE. For the second time that day, Mariel was interrogated, this time under the effects of the Zone of Truth spell. She was asked whether she had ever served in the Senedrok military, whether she had ever been to Senedrok, whether she had any connections to anyone from Senedrok, all of which she answered no to. She was also asked if she recognised the names of several people, listed as; Renata Aslan, Jun-Seo, Markku Aslan, Betul Kaptan, Simone Chitan, Sorian Calin, and Terence Erolan. At the very end, Sala asked her about her tattoos, if they meant anything, however Mariel couldn't answer, not knowing herself. She then asked how she lost her tongue, and Mariel said that someone had cut it out.

Valentine was next, and like Mariel, he couldn't answer most of the questions. Maiwen was last and when asked if she knew anyone from Senedrok, she answered "no" but instead what came out of her mouth was "yes." When asked, she spoke about the boy she met, mentioning that he told her that Mariel looked like someone he knew. After the soldiers decided they had heard enough, they told her that she had been arrested and left.

An hour later, Kravitz was given back to Mariel, and she and Valentine were released, briefly spotting Maiwen inside. Upon exiting the barracks, they saw a small group of people waiting for them outside. Ferah, both the Revenants, and a woman who towered over them, standing at nearly nine feet tall. Ferah introduced her as War, the most popular gladiator in Warcester. Ferah explains that after Maiwen missed her match and Jynx missed theirs, she became worried and convinced War and the Revenants to search for them with her. It had been Vidya's idea to bring the healer to aid in questioning. They started plotting to get Maiwen out of the barracks, Mariel especially showing concern towards her wellbeing.

Meanwhile, Sala had brought Maiwen another visitor, Tiberius "The Whisperer", a half elf student at the House of Song. Tiberius was hired by Sala for an unknown reason and was asked to interrogate her using Zone of Truth. Maiwen initially refused to answer his questions, so he started speaking in Elvish, hoping that Sala didn't speak it. Unsure of what he had gotten himself into and feeling for Maiwen, Tiberius agreed to help her escape. After incapacitating Sala with Tasha's Hideous Laughter, they found Maiwen's bag of holding. She and the owlbears got inside, and Tiberius walked out of the barracks with it, bumping into Valentine, Mariel and the other gladiators outside. Mariel, upon recognising the bag, immediately drew her rapier and held it at Tiberis. Startled, he accidentally closed the bag of holding with Maiwen inside and dropped it. Mariel and Valentine demanded that he give the bag to them and explain what he was doing with it. In order to find out whether they really were Maiwen's friends, Tiberius asked them what her real name was, despite not knowing it himself. Whilst Valentine was trying to recite the entire name, Tiberius became distracted as he noticed the gladiators behind them. Star-struck, he told them he was their biggest fan.

After asserting that Maiwen was safe inside the bag and that he had been helping her, they all agreed to take the conversation somewhere that wasn't in front of the city watch barracks. In a nearby alley, Maiwen was released from the bag, and reunited with her friends. Overcome with emotion, she started crying, and Mariel gave her a bear hug, Valentine joining in with onyl mild reluctance. Still star-struck, Tiberius informed the other gladiators that he saved her. After Maiwen told everyone what had happened to her Valentine suggested they speak somewhere more private than even a back alley, and so Tiberius chose an indie venue he often visited with classmates. War, Rohiri, and Vidya parted ways with the group, but not before they had all signed Tiberius's lute.

Arriving at the bar, they found Derek, a classmate of Tiberius's playing contemporary music on the small stage. The music in question wasn't great. Maiwen decided to join in and started playing her flute, much to Derek's frustration. After a while, Valentine managed to call her away and she bounded over to him with enthusiasm. He had her explain to him exactly what happened to her. He surmized that Maiwen had met someone who was a part of the reason why he and Mariel had been arrested. Maiwen said that the boy she met had told her that Mariel looked like someone else, and Maiwen guessed that this meant there was a twin relationship between them. When asked if she had a twin, Mariel gave a vague and unconvincing answer, leading Maiwen to believe there was a sibling who now needed rescuing. Valentine reminded everyone that they shouldn't act brashly and should perhaps lie low for a while. Maiwen reminded everyone of her quest to find the owlbears new parents, and then suggested they go find the boy she met. Mariel agreed and suggested they kill him. Maiwen disagreed, loudly.

After spending the night outdoors, our heroes, with Ferah, Tiberius, and Anagis Alba in tow, set off to find some owlbears. After a few hours of searching, Maiwen found three female owlbears who she persuaded to raise her cubs. As she left, she named them; Maiwen, Awena, and Mikaela.

Deciding that Maiwen and Tiberius should keep a low profile for a while, Mariel, Valentine, and Ferah returned to Warcester with Anagis Alba. On the way there, Mariel asked Valentine about his last name and he told her he couldn't remember it. She said that everyone should have a last name and suggested her own, Tabris. After a while, Valentine asked her about her sister. Mariel told him that she was also a half elf, and while they weren't related, they were absolutely sisters. She said that she was building a place of her own right now. In return for telling him this, Valentine revealed what had been on the secret note she found. He told her that as a consequence of the trouble he got himself into in the southern towns of the Valleys, a minotaur bounty hunter named Horgarth  is after him. He warned that Horgarth might become a problem in the future.

Meanwhile, with nothing else to do but stay hidden in the forest, Maiwen asked Tiberius about his family and was affronted by his lack of enthusiasm for them. He explained that his parents didn't get him and didn't support his passion for music. He had wanted to be a gladiator when he was younger and explains that he wants to fight, he wants adventure. Maiwen then began to recount a previous adventure she went on, the one that ended with the aquisition of Fletcher's finances, which she proudly shows him. After putting skull-patterned henna on his face at his request, he asked to see the finances. Instead, she gave him Fletcher's coded research notes and then went on another tangent, recalling another adventure. While she monologued, Tiberius pickpocketed the finances. He commented that the gods had forsaken them, which sent Maiwen into a shocked fury. She gave him a hold symbol of the Raven Queen she had picked up in Rogue City and pronounced that the Raven Queen was his new god. He tried interacting with the holy symbol somehow, but found that nothing would happen, and said that even the gods didn't get him. Maiwen told him the time would come where he would see. Tiberius told her he could say the same thing to her. He tried to argue that he had saved her back in Warcester, but eventually gave up when she wouldn't budge in her stance. He started to walk away, and Maiwen left in the other direction, however he turned around and followed her at a distance.

After a few hours, Mariel, Valentine, and Ferah arrived back at the city, with Anagis Alba staying outside as usual. They made their way to the dorms, where they met Brankyl and Melrigg, gladiators known as Guts and Glory, who had been away until this point, celebrating their wedding anniversary. Valentine took the opportunity to speak to Rohiri. He told her that he knew she and Vidya were homunculi and asked why they had tried to keep it secret. After some thought, she told him that it wasn't their idea. She revealed that she and Vidya had been sent to the arena a year ago by the woman who created them, Hirlo Rhoken, and between her and Bee they had decided to keep their status as homunculi quiet. Valentine then told her she looked very similar to someone they knew.

Mariel then went to speak with Bee about getting a couple weeks off work to go lie low somewhere. Bee told her that Valentine couldn't leave the city currently. She explained that because he had knocked out and locked up a city guard, he was facing punishment for it. Bee herself had negotiated with the city watch for him to spend three days working with the compost merchant rather than do any jail time. She also explained that they had a new gladiator, a rather young homunculus named Alice. Mariel immediately booked it back to Valentine to find that he had joined Melrigg's reading lesson, despite knowing how to read, and was writing "Valentine Tabris" over and over again in cursive. She told him he needed to leave the city immediately. After she explained why, Valentine called it an outrage and stormed back to speak with Bee. Mariel tried to stop him but failed. He complained to Bee about being innocent and treated badly, and she called bullshit on his reasoning, unable to understand why he would try to escape if he was innocent. She explained that his actions could reflect badly on the arena and affect the livelihood of every gladiator there. She explained that Arley was living in poverty before he became a gladiator, that War would become property of the state - a slave - if she wasn't a gladiator. Valentine then reluctantly agreed to do the community service.

Early the next morning, Valentine began work at the compost merchant. Mariel meanwhile went for a walk with War. They spoke about being a homunculus in Warcester and War explained how she had it better than most, using the Water Mine in Warcester as an example. Mariel wondered if there was anything she could have done for Fletcher's homunculi.

After the days matches, Bee told Mariel that there was a gnome outside the arena who wanted to speak to Rohiri, claiming he was an old friend of hers. Rohiri however claimed otherwise and Bee asked Mariel to get rid off him which she did so. Vidya then spoke to her in private and told her that they had suspected for a while that they and Rohiri were created in the image of real people. They asked Mariel to accompany them to speak with the person who says they used to know another tiefling by the name of Rohiri.

Meanwhile, Maiwen left Tiberius asleep and wandered away from him. She ran into two cockatrices who tried to attack her unsuccessfully for a while as she tried to convince them not to. Eventually one managed to bite her, which turned her to stone.

Waking up to find that the world had turned bright green and blue, Maiwen found herself sitting opposite Mog, a kender who used to train with her clan before he disappeared two years ago. Excited to see him again, she declared that after she got herself out of this, she could return to her clan and project this vision for everyone to see. When asked, Mog said that he was very far away and needed to stay there. He refused to answer any questions involving where he was exactly, but seemed very happy and surprised to see her. As she was talking, Maiwen saw the vision fade, and found herself facing Anagis Alba and a wolf. After she hugged Anagis Alba, the wolf bowed to her. She tried speaking with it, but instead of words, the wolf looked into her eyes, and made itself understood. It had come to help her. It left, and shortly afterwards, Maiwen found that Tiberius had also been petrified. She managed to call back the wolf by howling, but unfortunately it seemed the wolf had already done all it could. She decided to keep him in the bag of holding until further notice.

The next day, Mariel made her way to the House of Song, looking for someone who could scry on someone for her. She was directed to Britor, who turned out to be the gnome she had met the previous day. She gave him a couple of pages from Elke's diary and had him try to scry on her. The spell failed however, so then she arranged a meeting between Britor and Vidya for the evening. During this meeting, Vidya asked Britor about the person he knew as "Rohiri", trying not to let on the truth. Britor revealed that he had met "Rohiri" when they were both students at the House of Song and that she had left suddenly because of some family emergency involving her brother.

Partway through the morning, Tiberius's petrification wore off. Finding themselves without anything else to do, they decided to try and find some form of civilisation within the forest. Maiwen spotted the remains of a campfire and the tracks of three people headed north. After several hours of travel in that direction, Maiwen again noticed something. This time it was a person hiding in a tree. She tried to hit them gently with her slingshot a few times, before they another person suddenly appeared, running away from them. Anagis Alba gave chase, only to reveal that this person was an illusion. The person in the tree jumped down using Feather Fall and Maiwen found herself face to face with the half elf boy she met in Warcester.

Initially suspicious about why she was in the exact same part of the forest as him, he soon went back to his friendly personality and asked for their help in escaping the forest. Maiwen, of course, agreed. He explained that the soldiers that had arrested Mariel and Valentine in Warcester were now surrounding the forest and preventing them from entering a nearby city to escape. He also introduced them to Harika, his twin sister who used sign language to communicate, and Betul, a quiet girl who seemed miffed that he had struck up an allyship with them.

They managed to leave the forest without detection and made their way to Tenby, the nearest city, where they scaled the wall using the night to stay hidden, Markku saying his goodbyes to Maiwen once again. Maiwen and Tiberius stayed the night outside the city and had an argument the next day about whether they should explore the city or not, Tiberius campaigning for "an adventure and civilisation". He decided to enter the city while Maiwen sent a message to Mariel via spirit of nature telling her where they were (some forty miles north of Warcester) and asking what they should do. Mariel was able to reply using the spirit to tell Maiwen not to go any further away and come back. Realising that she had let Tiberius wander alone into the city, Maiwen set off on Anagis Alba's back to find him. When she caught up with him, they both found themselves captivated by the preparations for the Harvest Festival and decided to stay a few hours before travelling back to Warcester.

After finishing his last day of work with the compost merchant, Valentine joined the festivities in the early evening in time to hear a folk tale about Aurora Fairfax, told by the female elf they had seen at the seven shrines outside the city.

Aurora Fairfax was born 190 years ago and died 161 years ago during the Eternal Storm. She was the first child of the lord and lady of Warcester and was first in the line of succession. She embodied everything Warcester prided itself on. She was handy with a blade and was famous for her singing. She was kind to the people of the city, and everyone was eager for her rule. After her death, she was elevated to a demigod power and was revered by the citizens of Warcester.

The story told of how Aurora became known as the "Wayfinder" by leading a group of pilgrims through the Great Western Forest to a temple of Freya. During the story, the group finds themselves lost in a green dragon's territory, however Aurora managed to outwit it and lead everyone to safety. After the tale was told, Valentine approached the elf, who introduced herself as Falynn. He asked about the title "Wayfinder" and whether she had a compass. Falynn explained that she had been a close friend of Aurora and that she had led many travellers on dangerous journeys and did possess a compass, though unremarkable by Falynn's standards.

The next morning, Maiwen and Tiberius arrived outside Warcester and sent another message to Mariel. She and Valentine went to collect them; they decided that while Tiberius would probably be fine due to his new facial design, Maiwen would need a disguise, which Valentine administered using traditional methods. Entering the city, Maiwen noticed that there was a cormorant watching them. She spoke to it, but only managed to find out that it was from the sea before it flew away.

Tiberius sent a letter to his parents, telling them that he was doing well, his music talents were improving, he had met lots of new friends (who were gladiators), had acquired a bow, and had dropped out of college. He signed it with "I'm going on an adventure. Don't worry, it's in civilisation."

Jynx had their second match against Guts and Glory (Brankyl and Melrigg) and lost. In the evening, Brankyl and Melrigg hosted a gathering for all the gladiators. Jynx attended, inviting Maiwen and Tiberius as their plus ones. All the gladiators showed, even Alice, except for Rohiri and Vidya. This fact didn't escape War who, worried about them, left halfway through the evening.

The next morning, Valentine and Mariel went to ask Bee about Hirlo. Bee didn't answer any of their questions, but did reveal that the Revenants hadn't been seen since their match the previous day. Jynx had their next match soon after. They were to fight Onopol and Arley, however, as the gate rose to reveal their opponent, they saw only one person. A large figure, standing seven feet tall, a furred body, large horns, a nosering.

A minotaur. Horgarth.