The group emerged from the cave into the cool night air. This time arriving on the surface after the Fur Fellows Jim once again asked. “Find anything cool!?”

  Victor held his hand up high with thumbs up. “We found our first artifact after only 2 days! We’re naturals at this!”

  Serena looked at him almost as if to say. ‘Why would you tell them that.’ She then whispered. “There are 3 groups that have gone missing here and they’ve been here a month, and they tried to kill us yesterday. Telegraphing we have valuable worth stealing is a terrible idea.”

  Clarissa stomped up to them. “Your elf is still trash but I owe you an apology Victor. I shouldn’t have urged my group to attack an angelic knight.”

  Victor confused looked straight down at her. “If you aren’t going to apologize to Brice then not only do I not accept your apology it rings so hollow I can’t even hear it. I don’t care what you say to me, say it to him.”

  She looked over at Brice. “DAMN ELF!” She stomped back to her tent where Stan quickly accompanied her.

  Teresa approached them. “I hear you had a good haul. Anything interesting?”

  Victor said nothing letting Serena speak up. “It’s none of your business. Especially if one of your group still wants to kill one of ours.”

  Teresa seemed rather offended. “I didn’t realize she was so rude.”

  “Protective.” Serena corrected her with a tone so firm it could have brought her to her knees.

  She threw up her hands as Jim walked over. “Very well I shall not pry. We have already caught and cooked food if you’d like some of our stew. I wanted to repay you for yesterday.”

  Victor looked to Serena only for Emilie to cut in. “I’m STARVING! Lets eat!” She sat down pulling out on her gown clearly overheating from being in the labyrinth so long.

  Brice concurred sitting down. “It smells delightful but I am concerned about getting closer to your diminutive mage.”

  Jim waffled about a bit before nodding at him. “I actually feel like an asshole after having more time to think about it. If you don’t feel safe around us, I get it. Just think of this as a peace offering.”

  Brice eagerly licked his lips. “It does smell good.”

  Jenora pushed him forward. “You heard Emilie, lets eat.”

  The group of them approached and sat down. After pouring bowls of stew for each of them Victor fed a little of it to Cawthorn. He spat it out almost immediately. “DISGUSTING! I WILL FIND MY OWN FOOD!” He took off immediately.

  Victor tilted his spoon toward Cawthorn. “He’s not a fan.” Victor took a sip of it. “I on the other hand am.” Victor finished what was on his spoon putting the bowl on his lap and looking up to Teresa as Emilie and Jenora dug in furiously eating. “Why the change of heart?”

  Jim looked down to Teresa. “She talked to me for a while about it. The thing is assuming you’re an angelic knight and you feel this strongly about something you’re probably right, and we’re probably wrong.”

  Teresa chuckled. “We had a long debate on the way down and on the way back up. Even Clarissa felt bad about it. That is why she tried to say she is sorry to you. You devastated her when you refused to accept it. If I had to guess she is in there crying about it.”

  Victor suddenly felt bad as Serena spoke up. “I don’t hear anything.”

  “She silences herself when she cries so no one else can hear her.” Teresa explained. “She’s a real softie and probably feels really bad about it.”

  Emilie swallowed her food. “Oh that’s a good idea!”

  Jenora turned to her. “Don’t do that! You should always be honest about your emotions dear.”

  “Relax Jenora, as long as I have you I’m always going to be happy!” Emilie elbowed her.

  Victor suddenly felt as though he had done something wrong. “May I speak with her?”

  Jim seemed confused. “Sure but Stan might yell at you to go away if you approach her tent.”

  Victor stood up and approached her tent and on queue Stan shouted. “Leave her alone!” His head poked out of the tent. “Haven’t you done enough?”

  “Can I speak with her for a moment?” He asked as she popped her head out of the tent almost hopeful.

  “Yes?” She clearly had wiped off her face a moment ago.

  “Why outside of his race do you hate Brice?” Victor tried to walk her through it.

  “He’s an elf. That’s enough.” She insisted.

  Victor sighed and began telling a story. “Let me tell you a story about another elf I encountered…” He began recounting the tale of the bandits and Zolvorn fighting on the road. He then recounted the encounter with Zolvorn in the city and the death of Lightbringer Luke.

  “A damned elf killed one of your fellow angelic knights! How can you possibly tolerate him?” She demanded.

  “Those two are not the same people. The only traits I can see they share are that they are elves and that they are alive.” Victor noted.

  “They were also both exiled from elven society! They’re criminals by their own volition!” She angrily argued.

  “Hey Brice, want to tell her why you were exiled from elven society?” Victor asked.

  Brice sighed. “I’ll give her the short version. My friend became very sick. She would have died if we didn’t gather a Hokenbloom Lilly for medicine. It was located nearby human lands and they were worried humans would learn of the enclave if we went to gather them so they left her in her bed to die. I disobeyed saving her but getting followed in the process. No elves died in the ensuing battle but I was banished anyway.” He looked her dead in the eyes with a serious expression. “And I’d do it again.”

  Clarissa looked almost deflated her shoulders sinking as her brain processed it. She suddenly tensed up and shouted. “There’s no way that’s true! You’re just taking advantage of his trusting nature!”

  Serena laughed. “She’s definitely half right on that one Brice.”

  Brice nodded. “Undoubtedly! If he wasn’t trusting of me I wouldn’t have even considered letting you know I’m an elf so I could join.”

  Serena looked to Clarissa. “For the record I don’t really like elves either but for now he’s a good enough guy to get a chance. Once I get to know him more and see him make more choices I’ll have a better measure of the elf. Victor would be pissed if I didn’t at least give him a chance.”

  Victor nodded at her. “I definitely would.”

  Clarissa inquired completely baffled. “I don’t understand. How can you trust him?”

  Victor shook his head. “I trust everyone until they give me a reason not to. Give people a chance and they’ll often shock you by how far they will go to keep that trust. Sometimes I get burned but more often I don’t”

  Serena glared at him. “Sometimes he does get burned. I’ll have to nurse those burns later.”

  Victor tugged at his collar. “Yes, on occasion I make mistakes trusting people I shouldn’t but if I didn’t I also wouldn’t be alive today.”

  Clarissa growled. “Fine! I’m sorry elf! I shouldn’t have tried to convince my party to kill you!”

  Brice just paused before replying. “Uh, thanks?”

  Clarissa turned around and closed her tent, Stan went with her. Jim seemed shocked. “I’m really impressed. I didn’t think she’d ever actually do that.”

  Victor turned around and returned to his rock of a seat. “I wouldn’t say that’s a resounding win but baby steps are better than no steps at all.”

  Teresa also noted. “That went far better than I expected. She really hates elves but she also looked up to Lightbringer Luke like the hero he was. If you didn’t share his title she would just ignore you.”

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  Jim chuckled. “The long conversation we had was mostly about you Victor, less about you Brice. No offense intended.”

  “None taken.” Brice nodded.

  “The truth is that we considered something, something that felt horrible. Are we a group that encountered a true hero at the start of his journey that he tells stories of years later? If we are, will we be happy to have our stories told?” Jim looked down at Victor. “I definitely wouldn’t want Lightbringer Luke to tell our tale as a murderous group that tried to kill his friend.”

  “I am not Luke, but I do hope to be that inspiring to others. Even now his inspiration infected others like her to be a better person.” Victor smiled. “I hope that one day I’m half as inspiring as he was.”

  Teresa smiled at him. “You’ve already inspired her.”

  Brice finished his food. “Well having one less person who wants to kill me for being an elf isn’t a bad thing but I doubt he’ll ever get mortal society to actually like elves.”

  Victor wrapped his arm around Brice. “Of course I won’t! That’s your job. I can’t just tell people ‘hey be nice to elves’ I need you to be an elf that I can say ‘Be nice to this elf’ and you’re definitely an elf that deserves a chance. Zolvorn, not so much.”

  Serena crushed the edge of the rock she was sitting on. “I’m going to kill him the next time we fight.”

  Swordie noted. “If we find you a weapon or a powerful artifact that might actually become the truth.”

  “Why do you think I’m currently here? We’re going to find an artifact weapon perfect for me and I’m sure as hell going to have enough points to buy it.” Her voice was filled with a determined resolve.

  Jim looked at her confused. “Points? What are you talking about?”

  Victor explained. “Our guild takes artifacts and keeps them. We earn points as a group and can buy them back with points. We avoid the guild taxing them and keep more value in the guild. Over time we’ll get marginally stronger from artifact hunting mission to artifact hunting mission.”

  Jim scratched his head. “If you’re happy with it I suppose that’s fine. We sell our artifacts at auction for a 30% fee. It’s not good but we need the gold.”

  “Are you looking for a good guild?” Victor asked.

  “Not really. We don’t want to be tied down to one place or one region.” Teresa acknowledged. “The few guilds active in multiple nations like Freedman’s Guild are also outrageously priced and have significant monthly requirements for activity.”

  “Well we currently only operate in Wonora in Peria but we’d love to have you one day if you feel it.” Victor smiled to him.

  “Hah! A guild recruitment from an angelic knight. Unfortunately I think the way we operate wouldn’t function well with a guild.” Teresa smiled.

  “What do you mean?” Victor asked.

  Jim clarified. “The reason she means is that we stay out of cities for literal months at a time. We’d be marked as dead in many guilds. Most guilds that wouldn’t mark us dead would kick us out.”

  Victor turned to Emilie and Jenora. “Is that common?”

  Emilie groaned. “Yes. It’s one of many reasons me and Jenora refused to join any of the guilds we interviewed with. You can put in for an exception but it’s even more paperwork.”

  Jenora finished her food. “I didn’t like the inspection rules for the Golden Guild either. They required a full inspection of everything in your possession when you entered the city and when you left it. The goal was to prevent smuggling items and gold and taxing you for each and every coin you’d earned.”

  Victor turned to them. “We should make sure we don’t have any of those fees. I’ll talk to Forala when we get back in a couple of weeks.”

  Jim raised an eyebrow. “Oh didn’t you say you’re from Wonora? That’s a little more than a week away from here. Are you not planning to stay long? I guess we are oddballs we’d planned to be here for at least 2 months, 3 if we keep finding things the entire time and don’t find something really dangerous.”

  Serena volunteered the information. “We intend to leave in 5 more days. We don’t want to overstay our time here, it is pretty barren after all. My personal opinion is that we just got lucky. We might stay here a month like you and find 1 more artifact or none. I don’t think it’s likely we find 4 or 5 in a month if you couldn’t and several other groups went missing.”

  Teresa added. “I can’t blame you. We’re looking very specifically for more spheres of undeath. They are still selling to the church for full gold without an auction house cut. It’s an incredible opportunity and we appreciate it. Not using it would be wrong for a group like ours.”

  Stan emerged from the tent. “She’s sleeping. I’m glad you spoke with her.”

  Victor smiled warmly at him. “It’s on all of us to do our part to dispel discrimination wherever we meet it.”

  Stan corrected him. “No not that, I’m glad you spoke to her. She was really upset when she realized she briefly wanted to kill you for protecting an elf. Angels are some of her favorite creatures and she was really sorry for insulting you. It’s actually incredible to me she cares more about the approval of an angelic knight than she hates elves.”

  Brice slumped over. “Gee thanks. I hope everyone feels that way about Victor.”

  Victor sighed. “Why do you got to go and ruin his mood?”

  Stan apologized. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation out here. As for the elf.”

  “Brice. His name is Brice.” Victor insisted.

  He continued his apology correctly identifying Brice. “As for Brice, I am sorry she wanted us to kill you. You don’t seem nearly as horrible as the two other elves I’ve met in my life. I want to say sorry for what we did. It was wrong of us to try to attack you and your party. You’ve not yet murdered your own group so at least on that front I was wrong and so was Jim.”

  Victor smirked. “Well Swordie any comment on how I screwed this up?”

  “Your ability to get tsundere women to show their dere side is exceptional. No notes good sir knight.” Swordie answered smugly.

  “Wait what is a tsundere?” Serena asked.

  Emilie turned to Victor. “Yeah what is it Swordie?”

  “A colloquialism from Victors original land. It means brat.” Swordie noted.

  Victor turned red as both of them looked at him. Serena glared at him. “You think I’m a brat?”

  “I don’t! That’s what Swordie thinks.” Victor swore.

  Swordie added. “That is true. Victor thinks you are and I quote ‘A heroic badass far outshining him at every turn’ and he wants to be more like you. Emilie on the other hand…”

  Emilie crossed her arms leaning toward Victor. “You think I’M a brat?”

  “Yes.” Jenora effortlessly saved Victor.

  Emilie burst out laughing and nudged Jenora with her elbow. “Oh you! Come here!”

  Serena raised one eyebrow and leaned toward him. “You think I outshine you ?”

  Victor honestly answered. “Well Zolvorn seemed to think you were a better fighter. You outran me in the rooftop chase. You saved me from the skeletons at the black keep. It feels like most of the time you’re the one saving me.”

  She looked at him almost in disbelief. “Did you forget how useless I was against the skeletal mage? We nearly died because I couldn’t take it out. Even Cawthorn outshined me there and at the black keep Gargrim is the only reason I’m still alive.”

  Victor earnestly admitted. “I’m not jealous of you. I just wanted to stand on equal footing with you because you’re awesome, and you’re awesome because you’re skilled. People think I’m awesome because I’ve been given a gift from an angel.”

  She sat there dumbfounded. Stan spoke up. “You’re special Victor. Skilled rogues and fighters that earn their scars are a dime a dozen in major cities. You’re just clearly not familiar with seasoned veterans that have fought for years. Angelic knights, well I doubt a dozen exist. I only knew of Lightbringer Luke in this country and I’ve been told that there aren’t many left around the world.

  Jim added. “She seems like a great girl so don’t let me discourage you but Stan is right. Your gift far exceeds any skill anyone has. Without an artifact or title of similar strength most people would just lose.”

  Victor smiled to Serena. “Well then we’ll have to find her one. She deserves it.”

  Serena smiled back and leaned against him intertwining her hand in his. “You know it’s not often you say just the right thing to me but when you do it is perfect.” She leaned in and kissed him.

  Teresa added. “Touching. I bet you’d love that from Clarissa wouldn’t you Stan?”

  “What? No! Clarissa is not my girlfriend. She’s just my friend. That’s all.” Stan insisted.

  Teresa smirked. “Yeah yeah, you’re mostly fooling yourself.”

  Serena looked him dead in the eyes. “Tell her or I will rat you out to her.”

  Stan fell off his seat shocked. “Huh!?”

  Jim laughed. “This will be good.”

  Teresa. “Ooh she’s direct.”

  Stan insisted. “You wouldn’t”

  Victor clarified for Stan. “The first night we met she tried to claim me. Then she tried to do the same every night until she succeeded. I don’t think she’s kidding.”

  Stan protested. “She’s asleep! Tomorrow I promise I’ll do it tomorrow.”

  Serena slyly eyed him. “That’s fine but if I see her tomorrow and you haven’t told her I will.” Stan gulped knowing what he must do tomorrow.