“Alright, we’re moving.” Joe’s voice cut through the silence of the others as they cultivated.
Nest inhaled deeply, annoyed by the outcome as the stag he’d been carving over the past two days was nearing completion.
He stood and looked at the small figure. He’d always loved carving things, but animals had always been his favorite. “Does anyone mind if I finish this on the way back?” he asked the group. “I only have a few more lines to cut before it’s done.”
“Long as you carry your weight, I don’t care what you do.” Skav replied. The human had formed a distaste for Nest in recent days, since the dwarf showed how readily he was capable of manipulating his energy and spirit. The young man’s cultivation speed was almost already on par with Skav’s own abilities, and the rank difference meant that the human was seriously lacking.
“Can I see it?” Rachel asked, walking up next to Nest. “I had a whole collection of animals like that as a kid. My uncle used to whittle. He would spend hours in the evening making toys for all the kids in our family and we’d play dungeon with them.”
“You’d play dungeon?” Joe asked.
Rachel took the offered stag in her hand and looked it over. “We did. We would hide something, most often a copper, and the others would be adventurers who tried to find it. The dungeon would place their figures around the house to protect the treasure and the adventurers would use their figures to fight the mobs.”
“That’s not how dungeons work,” Skav complained.
“We were five,” Rachel replied. “How would we know that wasn’t how dungeons worked?” Rachel handed the deer back to Nest, wind pulled from the sails of her childhood memory. “It’s beautiful work, Nest. Was that your profession before you came here?”
“Rachel,” Joe spoke sternly.
“What?” she asked. “It’s not like I asked if he lit a village on fire. I’m not asking how he got the knife, I’m just curious about his old life.”
His old life. The words lingered in Nest’s mind for a long moment. He guessed that was true. His life would never go back to the simple one he’d lived before. “I used to be a merchant of sorts. I sold wholesale materials for construction crews. It was a good job and paid well, but you know how it can be in Greed.”
“A Greed merchant?” Skav forced himself back into the conversation. “I knew I was right not to trust you. For the best we aren’t allowed to ask how you got that knife.”
Joe kicked a rock that skipped off Skav’s head, causing the human to collapse and rub the forming lump. “Shut up, Skav.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Rachel shook her head, annoyed by their counterpart. “You know as well as anyone that the sins of the zones stop influencing people once they become sinners. Even if he was a Greed merchant, he isn’t anymore. Now he’s just a sinner.”
“What does he mean you can’t ask me how I got my knife?” Nest looked between the still standing members of the party. “Why would that matter?”
“The fact you’re asking is enough to tell a story,” Joe replied. “Not everyone that feels the pull of a soul item has an easy time collecting that item. Sometimes it gets bloody. That’s why guild law states no sinner can be prosecuted for actions taken to answer the call to ardite. No matter what they have done.”
Nest thought about how it felt when the knife called him. The pull to the blade was strong enough to overpower his reason, causing him to run into the dungeon wilds without protection. Someone less savory feeling that kind of desire might do things that would require some serious forgiveness. “Oh,” he replied weakly.
“That’s right.” Joe nodded. “It’s not against the law to discuss it, but it's a serious taboo to ask.”
Skav pulled himself from the ground and the team settled into an uncomfortable silence.
***
Nest continued to carve away at the small stag. Having only carved while cultivating, he’d somehow missed a vital piece of information that was quickly becoming clear to him. This process was draining. Far more draining than it had ever been. He’d carved dozens of things, from fishing lures to people. But now, he could feel the figure pulling power from within him. His spirit energy was seeping into the stag with every smooth motion.
As he smoothed over the final cut of the piece, he was nearly out of breath.
*Thud*,
Nest shook his head clear of the distraction, realizing he’d walked into the back of Skav. He stopped and took a step back, but realized the human sinner was stepping back as well. No, there was too much weight pushing against Nest.
Skav wasn’t stepping back, he was falling. Nest caught the man but they both fell back onto the ground.
All at once, a group of three stepped out of the brush, brandishing weapons. A high elf stepped out the furthest, telling Nest that this group was undoubtedly other sinners. There would be no other reason for one of his race to be in Greed otherwise.
“Well look what we found here!” The elf called to his team. “Someone dropped all this equipment on the road- and oh my!” He held a disbelieving hand to his mouth. “There are even soul items here. The guild pays especially well for ardite retrieval.”
Nest’s vision was locked on the man until Rachel ran over and broke his focus. He looked down at Skav for the first time and his heart sank.
The reason the human had fallen was clear. An arrow protruded from his eye socket. The man was dead.
Nest’s heart and breath became rapid with fear. Anger filled Rachel’s face and she ran forward towards the elf.
Joe was also on the move, in front of Rachel, but in moments he was carving through one of the weaker men’s legs.
The elf dove into combat. A long, thin blade parried a strike from the gnome.
Nest looked down at Skav once more and surprised himself as he dropped the human and the figure, pushing himself away across the dirt road.
Rachel and Joe were putting up a strong fight. Nest couldn’t tell, but he assumed the teams were pretty evenly matched.
*Thud*,
An arrow erupted from the tree line and Nest realized something that none of them had clocked before the arrow buried itself in Joe’s shoulder. The archer was still hidden.
