Fate - First Reply Always the Thirst

[Heike Eisen]

Night had fallen, and Heike wandered into a town of moderate size whose name she did not know and did not see posted on a sign. Rudimentary wooden walls, a small but permanent force of professional guards. This could prove difficult. Risky. But it had to be done, and the night was her ally.

Heike had been injured severely in a recent encounter. She had a gash on her forehead, a slashing dagger wound on her left forearm, a hairline fracture in her skull, a broken right arm, and multiple bruises from blunt force trauma, particularly on her back. The gash and the dagger wound she had wrapped in strips of cloth, a temporary measure. None of her wounds would heal without sleep, and she dared not sleep out in the wilderness. Not as injured as she was. Not after the encounter she had.

But what she needed more than sleep was blood. For the expenditure of blood was necessary for her body to heal itself, and this would leave her already parched throat craving even more. It risked the weakening symptoms of blood starvation to sleep with such a large collection of wounds while she was not fully satiated on blood.

Damn her affliction, and damn this foul and predatory thirst.

* * * * *​

Heike went to a place in town she would not normally go in her situation: the local inn. It was named, simply enough, Ale and Beds. But someone, some drunkard most likely, had taken the time to vandalize the sign by the inn's porch, crossing out everything back to the "Al" in "Ale", and the vandal's new name for the place read: Allways tha Thyrst. Given the misspellings, it was likely the vandal had communicated his already crude idea poorly.

Heike entered, and found favorable conditions. The innkeeper was nodding off--not too surprising at this hour--and the adjacent tavern to the lobby was empty save a few quiet and dreary souls who simply couldn't put their vice down.

Upstairs Heike went. She walked down the dim hallway. Checked doors gently and quietly with her left hand. She was ashamed to know it, but not everyone locked their doors while staying at an inn. Forgetfulness, sense of security being in a town or city, whatever the reason, it was a fact Heike became intimately familiar with ever since becoming afflicted.

And she found one such door. Unlocked.

Heike pushed it open. Closed it. There, illuminated by the moonlight spilling in from the window, someone slept in the single bed. Heike walked as quietly as she could to the bed. Sat down on the edge. Hesitated even now, in her battered and weakened state, from performing the disgusting and degrading act that would make her body well again. But she lowered her mask. Looked to the person under the blanket.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Then her eyes jumped wide open in alarm.

The person was awake. Just like that. Awake and looking up at her.

Awkwardness. Stillness. And tension.

 

[Ye'svonne Airileth]

Ye'svonne had finally began to make his way back home from his venture to visit that plague doctor. The things he'd learned and even helped the doctor himself see was intriguing and terrifying. That disease was not to be taken lightly and the conversations about it needed to be more prominent. He'd been blessed enough to avoid contraction of it himself and he felt amazing about those he was able to help.

Though it didn't prove financially beneficial it was made up for by the knowledge he'd gained. The journey back to Alliria would be a long winded effort and he found it necessary to stop in the middle of it. He'd found a spot in a nearby town that had apparently had their sign vandalized. He smirked a bit at the tomfoolery and went inside. He got himself a room and promptly fell asleep to be prepared for the morning trip to come.

The night went on quiet for a good while. His dreams were peaceful. About his child and wife. Yet it grew strange when his wife had whispered 'I'm sorry' to him in the midst of something peaceful. His eyes shot up as his brain had deciphered something wasn't right only to find Heike Eisen staring him down from above in an awkward frozen state.

He took a long look at the woman before rushing out of bed to the corner of the room quickly. His breaths were heavy and desperate as he lit a nearby candle with a match. He fumbled a bit from the fear but eventually she came into view clearly. Her skin pale and sickly. Covered in incredibly devastating wounds. She looked exasperated and in need of help and as if she was lacking something.

"Oh!" He said in surprise as he finally realized what she was. That 'I'm sorry' was her. He could see in her eyes she did not want to do what she required. He'd encountered very few vampires in his time but they were people once, no? She must have a tremendous amount of guilt from her own affliction. He let out a sigh and rubbed his hand over his eye. After a light chuckle he spoke, "Perhaps nexttttttt time just ask?" He went to the table by his bed and set a goblet upright and then he held his forearm out over it. He replaced the candle with a small blade from the drawer and cut his arm open, filling the goblet.

"What are youuuuuu waiting for? You'll die, won't you?"

 

[Heike Eisen]

Heike scrambled up to her feet and stepped back, her alarm positively ringing through her upwardly curved brows and wide eyes and open mouth. She should have used some her sedative--truly, what better time for it than this?--but she had thought him sound asleep. Now she would possibly have to defend herself and flee the town, all without rest or satiation.

But the person proved to be a startling exception to the scorning and hostile ostracization she had grown accustomed to. He was feverishly searching not for a sword or other weapon, but to light the candle on the room's small table. It wasn't until he uttered an odd "Oh!" that her alarm began to dissipate. The person--a lizardman, this fact at last registering--was not exhibiting any of the telltale signs of imminent aggression.

A chuckle. And the lizardman suggested that she should...ask, next time?

And, furthermore, he set a goblet on the table and actually hurt himself for her perceived benefit, spilling his own blood into the cup. Willingly.

Heike's internal pendulum of emotion had on one end been deep in alarm, swung down into a valley of puzzlement, and swung up now on the other end to meet a sort of gracious shock. She stood there, stunned, looking from the lizardman to the goblet and back to the lizardman, even after he prompted her to drink.

"I..." She closed her eyes, damming the river of thought flooding into her mind, carrying with it the memory of better times. Opened them. "It has become unusual to even be afforded the opportunity to ask. For anything, let alone this."

Heike, slow and careful to project her nonthreatening intent, crossed the small distance to the table upon which was the goblet filled with blood. She did not know if her body would reject the lizardman's blood. But she had thought the same of orcish blood and that proved to be incorrect. Whether her body ultimately did or not was beyond her control, and she would not turn down this charity.

But before she so much as touched the goblet...

"My name is Heike Eisen. And I am sorry to have disturbed you." A small nod that became a small bow of gratitude. "Thank you. This is a rare kindness."

She smiled in appreciation, though the overbearing knowledge of the nature of said kindness shown her and what he had to do to himself to show it tinged her smile with a slight twitch of inescapable embarrassment.

 

[Ye'svonne Airileth]

The alchemist listened to her as he scrambled through his bag to bandage himself up. His time spent as a field medic gave Heike an opportunity she probably could hardly imagine. He had the skill and know how to help her as well as having almost zero resistance to wanting to help whoever he could. "Eh, ssssssssso you stalk the night and drink blood. Humans haven't shown meeeeeee the greatest of kindness in Allira. A need to survive is a much less damning excuse for violence than the prejudicccccccccce I've experienced." He tied off his arm and stood up.

"I'm sure you know all about that, Miss Eisen." He offered a half-hearted smile. "Please." He said pointing towards the goblet. "I know you need it. Your ailment bothers me not. Though I don't know what kind of blood you can intake. If this is newwwwwww to you than it is possible your body will reject it as a foreign substance."

He sat down and opened his back completely up, showing that it itself was an alchemic table when unfolded. It harnessed many different flowers and fungi as well as empty vials. "Hurry now, we've much work to do." He spoke not looking away from his sack of materials. His mind already racing to figure what he should make.

As he began to crush things into a mortar and pestle he asked, "I unfortunately don't know much about vampires. Is there anything else I should be avoiding besides... Wassssssss it garlic? I can hardly remember."

 

[Heike Eisen]

Heike could not say she knew much of the lizardman's people or culture. For that matter, Heike knew little about her the cultures of her own people (still a tight clinging to humanity, even though she knew the truth) outside of Reikhurst; her journeying after becoming afflicted was one of dual discovery, exploring the circumstances of her dreadful new un-life and exploring the enormous breadth of Mankind's civilization, from Alliria to Elbion and many places in-between.

So while initially surprising, the lizardman's insouciant response, it made sense. Szesh had a similar reaction as well, a relative lack of concern regarding her condition, as opposed to humans, elves, all that lot. And, coincidentally like Szesh, this lizardman had his own prejudices weighing on him. Funny. It seemed as though exiles and outcasts of all kinds had their own form of attraction to one another. A drawing together of a strange and ethereal quality perhaps spurred on by that which they lacked: the figurative but very real warmth of belonging. Of acceptance.

Keen, this lizardman. He surmised that her body might reject his blood.

"Yes. It is possible." Heike took hold of the goblet by the stem and raised it up, her right hand still limp at her side. A smile, only slightly crooked, as she added, "Catch me if I fall."

Then, as if taking her own little joke seriously, she sat down on the edge of the bed again, preempting any potential of falling over in spasms. The lizardman unfurled his bag, there inside a veritable alchemist's workshop. The sight of it and his mention of "work to do" cause for a tiny chord of nervousness--of alchemy she was near wholly ignorant--but she allowed herself trust in the lizardman's selfless offering. His gift, really, for it was nothing short of one.

Heike tipped her head back and drank the contents of the goblet all in one partaking, no automatic gulping of air (Ahhhh...) after such a long drink. And there inside her chest that seldom feeling, her heart stirring from stillness and beating and pumping the blood throughout her body. Though the beating was calm and steady, to Heike it was a joyous thundering, a scarce moment to heed and feel an old friend.

She set the goblet down on the table. Looked over to the lizardman.

"Garlic? I'm not sure. There are still things I do not know. I've had my troubles in trial and error. Figuring out the bounds of my condition."

Like the lizardman's blood. She would find out soon enough here if her body rejected it.

A curious glance to the mortar and pestle. "What are you intending to make?"

 

[Ye'svonne Airileth]

He ceased his alchemy and watched her closely as she drank. She already seemed to be returning to normal. He smiled at her warmly. "If you neeeeeeeed more let me know. Can't have you too weak to flee before the sun returns." Then went back to his crafting.

At first the words she spoke didn't resonate with the lizard. He was so ingrained in his work that nothing seemed to catch his attention. He would even flip a couple pages of a book to double check a recipe but as minutes passed he didn't seem to ever respond to the vampire. He'd placed a lily in his mouth and even began eating the damn thing in the midst of all this.

After about fifteen minutes passed the alchemist had three potions in front of him. One was a bright crimson. The other clear as the sky. And the third was dark green.

"Oh, my apologiesssssss." He said, realizing finally that he'd been sitting in silence for almost twenty minutes. "Well it would take a fool to not notice the injuries you've suffered. By something much bigger and stronger than you, I would assume. However it is not my duty to question such things. My duty is to make sure the injured are in fact healed." He stood up and set the potions on the table.

"Clear one first. Don't drink it. Apply it to any open wounds and gashes. It'd also be best if you... bitttttttttttt down on something..." He said rubbing his head. The potion would clear any scabs or lacerations of the skin, but it would hurt. A lot.

 

[Heike Eisen]

The lizardman didn't answer. Heike's heart stopped beating and still he went about his work. His silence kindled a renewed anxiety in her, an assuming of the worst in light of his odd behavior: that she had been deceived, and his kindness was a means to an end of which she was unaware. But as he continued to work--to the exclusion of even being cognizant of her presence--the anxiety faded. Each passing minute served to dilute those apprehensive notions, and her patience won out. It seemed increasingly likely that he was simply the type to become very engaged and invested in his craft.

Then at last he finished the potions he had been preparing. Spoke.

Bigger and stronger. No kidding. But such was often the calling of a knight, to stand before the strong, the wicked, in defense of the meek, the innocent. And it did not matter how big nor how strong her foe: Heike would be honorbound to slay him, her, or it.

Honorbound.

We're getting there. Alliria's a long way away, but we're getting there, I promise.

Honorbound.

Ella. Talk to me. Keep talking to me.

Honorbound.

The old man: Is this course right and noble? Is it just? Will it somehow help this poor girl's spirit?

Honorbound.

The creature: I wonder...what it would have been like to live the life I was given.

The thief of the catalyst: Look at you. Just look at you.

* * * * *​

The lizardman stood up and set the potions on the table, his motions knocking Heike out of the spiral that had taken hold so swiftly and so suddenly in her mind. She stared blankly for a moment, eyes small and distant. Uncertain. Disturbed.

Heike refocused on the lizardman as he explained about the first of his potions, and she pushed away the thoughts that watched her from the far dark of mind.

"It," she said, pointing to the clear potion, "will not work. In the first year of my affliction, I tried. Maybe not that specific potion, but many like it. I do not mean to turn away your gift, but there is only one way to mend the wounds of my body that I know for certain."

A slight gesture of her head toward the goblet on the table. "Feeding, and then sleeping."

Feeding. More often than not off of the meek. The innocent.

 

[Ye'svonne Airileth]

"Whatever did this to you could not have been smaller than a tree by the looks of your wounds." He begrudgingly grabbed his potions and stashed them. At least he knew now that he could not cure vampires. But looking into curing vampirism? That may be a next step in his progression. He started to put his tools away with a sigh. He was clearly upset by his inability to help in this situation. Knowledge was good. Sitting on his hands wasn't. "Do you need more blood?" He asked, pertaining to his offer.

He set his things up on the chair and sat cross legged on the bed next to Heike, scratching the back of his head. "It is unfortunate you do not know much about your affliction. It is something I'd love to study." His eyes were pointed at the door. It didn't seem to him they were being loud but it was hard to tell sometimes. He looked at her. "How long have you been in this state?"

 

[Heike Eisen]

Do you need more blood?

It was with great relief that she could truthfully reply, "I do not know." She felt satiated in a similar way to having drank water after hours of physical exertion and sweating. But now, like then in life, there was room for more even after the dry yearning in her mouth and in her throat had been soothed. Need. Need was the key word. And that she would not know until after she slept and her wounds healed. Thus, she had spoken the truth as she knew it, and her Oath was maintained.

But if the lizardman asked her later--in the morning, say--and she did in fact need more blood...she would be obligated to tell him the truth. And he, in his selfless generosity, would doubtless offer up more of his blood to her. The truth, her sworn Oath, would bring about harm. Suffering. All because of her affliction. However slight the harm and however willingly the lizardman inflicted it upon himself, that stark fact remained.

Thus her relief that for now, in this moment, she need not endure the shame that her Oath of Truth would manifest in this bittersweet circumstance.

"I feel alright. Having..." Heike's eyes shifted the goblet and to the bandage on the lizardman's arm and then back to the lizardman's own, "...partook. There's that."

If it was going to happen, it would have by now, certainly while the lizardman was brewing his potions. But her body seemed to accept his blood. Humans, orcs, lizardmen...these she knew for sure, and a pattern emerged in them.

The lizardman set aside his alchemical ingredients and tools and sat on the bed.

It is unfortunate you do not know much about your affliction.

"Yes..." she said, her voice low and trailing in the wake of a dawning realization ignited by his comment. "It is..."

There were a great many things she did not know: the name of her "strain" of vampirism, where all the other vampires of her strain had fled after Reikhurst, their leader's name, other facets. And there were also some things she thought to be true and possibly were not: the annihilation of the Golden Blade, the complete massacre of the citizens of Reikhurst.

"Five years..." she said, not quite meeting his gaze.

Five years. For five years she struggled with the horrible circumstances of her condition, her failure to fulfill her duty to her Order and her home, and how to overcome and continue on as best she could.

Yes. She had failed. But she was still sworn to uphold the Trinity of Oaths: the Oath of Honor, the Oath of Truth, and the Oath of Justice.

Upon her Oath of Honor, she would need to investigate the fate of the Golden Blade and the citizens of Reikhurst. And upon her Oath of Justice, she would need to learn of her foe...such that she might be better equipped to punish them for their terrible crimes. Five years. Sufficient time to adjust well enough to her affliction. Now it was high time that she act.

In this, she was honorbound. Honorbound. And she must. Not. Fail. As she had with the Golden Blade, Reikhurst, her family, Gunther, Maria...and Ella.

For each long journey, the first step, and the resolve to take it.

Heike looked up with a certain renewed vigor and asked him, "Have you ever been to Elbion?"

Elbion. Where the storied Monster Hunter Fortress was located.

 

[Ye'svonne Airileth]

He looked at her worriedly. She was holding back her need, he thought. Though he couldn't prove that theory, she seemed to kind a soul to ever ask for someone's blood. She was only going to kill him to further her own survival as all things did. It must be a tad humiliating to have had your survival reduced to something so bestial. Maybe that was a cruel line of thinking. She was still herself despite her affliction. It would be wrong of him to see her as her disease alone.

"Five years is long enough to make anyone accccccccommodate. Though your expression says otherwise about the way you feel. I sense a deep shame you feel." He spoke quietly, looking away for a moment.

"I'm sorry." He spoke immediately afterwards. "That was insensitive. It is difficult for me to quell my curiosity sometimes." The lizard stood up from the bed and stretched. Reaching to the orchid behind his ear and placing in his mouth by the stem.

His encounters with vampires were as such:

The first was while he was still a pirate. They were attacked by a small pack while they were docked. They didn't prove to put up much of a fight and it was the first time he'd ever physically seen his wife kill anyone.

The second he was hiding. Having been arrested and thrown in a brig, a riot broke out due to another attack from a much larger group of them. He watched as one fed in fear but was able to get away before it found him. Knowing now that they can stomach his blood made that much more grateful he had managed that.

"I must admit, I'm surprised myself by my lack of fear I feel towards you considering passssssssed circumstances. If it is any respite; you do not have the aura of a monster. Had it not been for my meeeeeedical background I may even have surmised you were human."

 

[Heike Eisen]

Heike listened. The lizardman didn't answer her question about Elbion. But ultimately it did not matter. She was going, for she could see no better option to learn more about her strain.

The lizardman spoke of her shame, and it was of no surprise that he sensed as much; Heike wore it on her sleeve whenever she was so blessed with the luxury of simply talking--cordially--with someone. In the face of the guilty and the wicked, she shoved her shame down and smothered it with rage and contempt, but this merely stifled it for a time. And often it came back heavier, for it watched like a specter even while suppressed. Watched her do horrid things to her once fellow Man.

"You need not apologize," she said.

Lack of fear. That was...refreshing. All across Arethil vampires of all kinds were near universally reviled, and rightly so. Heike herself, if she as a knight met the vampire she was now, would not have felt the same as him. She would have been one of those many people who upon no words said sprung viciously to attack. It was still that way, for she trusted no vampire--ever.

And Heike felt genuinely touched when the lizardman said she, to him, did not have the aura of a monster. She smiled warmly, and even felt the need to avert her eyes for a moment in an affected manner. Under her past circumstances, You are not a monster would hardly be a compliment, but now...it was near the height of what she could expect.

"I'm glad that you are so understanding." Here a minor hesitation, and she said as it passed, "May I ask something of you?"

A tiny sigh, with a fringe of frustration for her present circumstance. "I don't wish to trouble you further, but I have no place else to go. Would you...allow me to sleep in here? So that my wounds will heal?"

And, near instinctually, as if she considered the sound of her own proposal highly suspect, she added, hands slightly raised up (her right as best she could) and palms showing in a miniscule gesture of surrender, "I give you my word that I will only rest. I shall not harm you nor steal from you nor do any malicious act as you sleep."

 

[Ye'svonne Airileth]

Her smile brought him warmth as well. He was a healer through and through. Though he had one outburst during the Alliria showdown. His next steps were figuring out who was involved in trying to harm his business. It was likely that Violetta may know something. Regardless. Seeing her happy even if briefly reminded him of why he took on the field of alchemic medicine to begin with. He loved to see lives given, not taken.

"Of course." He spoke to her sentiment of asking him something. He felt that he'd already made it clear she was welcome. Though her question was appreciated. He smiled, the orchid falling from his mouth onto the ground as he did. "Ah hell." He said watching his snack hit the dusty ground. His eyebrows furrowed as he reached to behind his ear again, feeling no more flowers there. He sighed but looked up at Heike with the same smile.

"I'll do you onnnnnnnnne better. You can have the bed. Defy whatever did this to you by healing perrrrrrrrfectly."

He then sat cross legged on the ground. "You mentioned Elbion, no? I haven't spent a great deal of time there. Though they have an excellent herbal shop. Most cities of magggggggic have an excellent store in regards to alchemy. That's about all I can say on it."

 

[Heike Eisen]

The bed.

Heike's knee-jerk response was to politely protest. It seemed too much, that she should intrude uninvited into his room and partake of his blood and his bed, what he had paid for here. She was perfectly content with simply setting up in a corner against the wall; beds were a luxury partly from the lack of necessity for sleep and partly from the sheer difficulty in securing an agreeable circumstance in which she might safely sleep in one. But she resolved against arguing. The lizardman wouldn't allow her to turn it down, such was the strength of his altruism.

She touched the smooth surface of the bed with her left palm. The softness striking to her, this especially so when compared to the rough conditions to which she had grown accustomed.

"Thank you. Once again." She started to gingerly remove her coat, mindful to ensure that it did not slip from her one-handed grasp. A chuckle escaped her, and she said with a small ember of cheer, "I never did catch your name, friend. I'll need it because I feel that I owe you for this. I don't have many ways in which to repay you, but I will. That I promise." A playful slant of her eyes, a sideways glance, and a smirk, "And you can't say no. It's already been promised."

Heike finished taking off her coat, and she inspected the inside back of it. No stains of blood. And she didn't feel as though she had been bleeding from her back. Good, just bruises then. With a military meticulousness she folded her coat (a job made more difficult with one functional hand) and set it down on the floor beside the bed. Took off her shawl and her mask both from around her neck and folded them both and placed each neatly on top of her coat.

And she slowly lowered herself down on the bed to lie down on her back. Even more careful to keep her head straight, and her left arm placed on top of her chest. She was loath to allow even the remote possibility of her infected blood seeping from the cloths binding the wounds of her forehead and forearm and thus staining the pillow, the blanket, or the sheets.

A little glance to the window. By her reckoning it ought to be a northwest facing window, perhaps slightly more north than west, but even so it would be sufficiently protective angle come dawn.

Oh, he did heed her question about Elbion. Sadly though, it didn't appear as though he would have any useful insight for her. But...

"I asked because I, too, wish to learn more about this affliction; my particular 'strain' of it," she said. "And I reckoned that the Monster Hunters in Elbion might well have volumes on what I seek. Even if..."

...they would all be keen to kill her on sight.

But the archives in the Monster Hunter Fortress seemed to Heike the best--if also the most dangerous--choice. Unless the lizardman knew of someplace better.

 

[Ye'svonne Airileth]

"Hah." He said in response to her to offer of repaying. "I suppose I could always use muscle, lord knows I wouldn't ask my wife to do such a thing. Any place I could seeeeeeeend a letter if I needed a hand?" He said, scratching his head which accompanied his nervous smile. He always felt weird about asking people to be his sword. Asking anyone to endanger themselves was so dicey. Whatever had harmed her meant she could fight things a great deal larger than her. Or so he thought.

He leaned to rest on his elbow. The floor wasn't too bad. He'd spent a great deal of his youth sleeping in random horrible places when he was a pirate. Places much worse than this for sure. He yawned loudly but snapped to at her question. Monster Hunters. Though he didn't know much about them to begin with the impression he'd had made on him by the poachers, if that's what they were, was lasting.

"They might kill you." He said somberly. "It's hard for me to imagine them sympathizing with anything notttttttttt 'normal'. I'd be as careful as you could be when treading their territory. Finding a wayyyyyyy to cover your identity may be more than worth it."

 

[Heike Eisen]

Muscle. That she could do, and that--crude way of saying it or not--was what she was trained for. Given her lack of other notable skills or possessions, it was one of the few things she truly could offer as gratitude.

Any place I could seeeeeeeend a letter if I needed a hand?

"Yes, believe it or not," she said, keenly aware of how odd it sounded to her ear let alone his that a vampire--the near pinnacle of a social outcast--should have a point of contact. Or rather, a person. "Send a letter to or seek out Captain Bronmarch of the city guard in Alliria. Ask about his Reikhurstan friend. He'll handle the rest."

The lizardman yawned. Yes, it was nigh time to rest, and Heike knew that her beleaguered body would have no trouble finding sleep this night.

He then expressed his concern about the Monster Hunters.

Heike stared up at the ceiling. She knew the immense peril of what she planned to do, the near suicidal recklessness of it, but it had to be done. She could see no other way to learn what she now resolved she must learn. Covering her identity as he suggested, infiltrating at night, whatever method she choose promised to be fraught with danger.

"They would without question kill me if they caught me," she said with a sort of serene acceptance. The adamant smile of knowing firmly one's course crossing her face. "If."

She drew in some air through her nose. Tasted life in her lungs. And let it out.

Closed her eyes.

"Goodnight."

 

[Ye'svonne Airileth]

Another enthusiastic "Oh!" came from his lips. "Captain Bronmarch is actually a name I knnnnnnnnnow. Not well, mind you. But I'm from Alliria. The guards names have passed in and out of my ears a few times. Bronmarch for sure. Declan..." A scratch of his head again. "I have some gathering to doooooo but mayhaps we'll see each other in the city some time." He said with a smile.

It really baffled the alchemist the lengths people went to demonize people for who they were. Monsters, afflicted, the minorities of the world. People were so easy to hate what they did not understand. Most things lived for survival and were killed out of a battle for existence. To hate something for trying to live was disgusting. He hoped the monster poachers he'd encountered did not represent the rest of the Monster Hunters.

"You seem capable. I trust you'll make the right decisions." He smiled again. Her eyes were heavy. She shifted to fall asleep. "Til' morn." He replied. Though after all of this, his mind and body were both racing. He wasn't tired at all.

He waited until she was completely asleep. Once he could hear her light snores, he gathered his belongings and began to write her a note.

"Heike Eisen, I've given my room to you. I must be finding my way home to my gathering spot before I return to my wife. If I came home empty handed she'd kill me. No, really. She'd actually kill me. I hope you find your wounds healed and that we cross paths once more. Stay strong and until next time - Ye'svonne Airileth."

Once it was written, he set it on the table near the bed. Before he left he made it a point to cut his arm into the goblet one more time. A little less as he didn't want to grow light headed. But something to make sure she had strength to move when the time came. A quarter glass should do it. He used one of the clear salves he'd made intended for Heike on his new wound and left the inn without so much as a squeak.

He truly hoped she would find what it was she was looking for.