The high elven woman named Riley stood completely still in front of the door. Her gaze hidden behind her hat appraised each of them in turn, like a predator stalking its feast of prey. Kanae expected Petyr to say something. After all, she finally came face to face with a long lost friend thought dead. Unfortunately, they had no words to exchange. Or maybe their exchange was a silent one.

Pain and guilt wracked Petyr's expression. She chewed on her lower lip, thoughts likely racing to come up with what to say. Riley, on the other hand, was cooler than night in the deserts of Savir. Kanae felt the tension from her companions if this stranger was friend or foe.

Eventually, Riley's posture slackened. It was as if her appraisal of them answered a couple of questions in her mind. Like whatever she was about to do wasn't worth the trouble.

Then, as if time had unfrozen itself, Riley casually moved to a seat. Claudia and Alicia twitched forward, but Kanae lifted a hand to stop them. The elf pulled a chair out from under a table, letting its legs drag and scrape loudly against the grimey floorboards. She sat down and took off her hat, revealing a pretty face still immaculately porcelain. The poncho only partially hid the tender pink of old burn scars that wrapped around her neck. More strikingly, a long scar ran from the lobe of her right ear, down the cheek, and bisected her lower lip in a slant. Her mop of short hair was dry and wiry, but the golden threads were still as brilliant as any one of high elven ancestry.

"Never thought I'd see the day where Petyr would be a thrall for a bunch of succubi," Riley said harshly, her raspy voice hacking through the tension like a machete through vegetation.

Petyr's mouth flopped open with an intent to reply, but nothing came out.

"Petyr isn't enthralled." Kanae took a seat across from the woman. "She isn't charmed either."

Riley scoffed and licked her gums. "Word on the street is that Ortesia lost the war against a kingdom of succubi and demons. Poor, poor Petyr. There goes her ticket to the Lord Council."

The arrogance in Riley's voice struck like a snake, whose fangs dripped maliciously with venom. Petyr didn't respond. It was oddly cathartic seeing the snappy, quick-tempered high elf so speechless. Yet, Petyr was a member of the Amethyst Hall. They might not have gotten along, and their antagonisms still stung like a fresh wound from the war, but Kanae still appreciated her for all she had done so far.

"Petyr's been genuinely worried about you. She might be a bitch, but that bitch made a solemn plea for me to help find you," Kanae said.

"Well, you found me. What now?" Riley's gaze snapped to her old friend.

Petyr swallowed hard. If she swallowed her fear or courage, Kanae couldn't tell. But the paladin joined them at the table. Her eyes darted guiltily between Riley's neck burn and face scar.

"Oh." Riley undid the poncho to show the full extent of the burn on her throat. "I got this when I tripped while escaping the orchard. All our trees, my ancestors' hard work, showered us with ashes and burning debris. Then…" She winced, tracing the length of her scar with one finger. "When soldiers of House Stormcloud arrived, we ran to them for help. One of them offered me his sword instead of his hand. Luckily, my mother yanked me away in time."

"I'm so sorry, Riley." Petyr finally found the courage to speak. "I wasn't there, but I wish I had been. My family told me House Dryoak turned coat. I never believed them, even to this day."

She put her poncho back on and cleared her throat. "Save your apologies. They didn't give us a chance to plead for our innocence. Why should I let you do the same? I didn't purposefully walk into your trap today to talk to you." The ringleader of the Dryoak Consortium turned to Kanae with the same glint as Saviran merchants. "You have in your possession a key to an Under Roads vault. Name your price."

"That's right! You're the ones who roped Seven into your heist. You can forget it. I'm not selling you the key," Kanae said firmly.

"Then I think we're done here. We won't interfere with you again. Not unless someone pays a much higher price." The high elf donned her hat and rose to leave.

Petyr shot Kanae a desperate look for help, to buy time until she figured out what to say. Once Riley left this room, there was a chance they might never see her again.

"Wait." Kanae intercepted her at the door. "Why do you want the key, and how were you going to help Seven rescue Theena? She's in the Harpy King's clutches. If you're working for him, we have a problem."

"The Dryoak Consortium works for no one but themselves. We source and find rare magical items. Not the mundane crap you find in a trinket store. I mean things of legends, ancient artifacts long buried, and dangerous tools hidden away. There's a price for everything. My clients tend to be… influential. How about a new deal? Instead of wealth, I'll tell you where to find that harpy boy's friend?" Riley offered tauntingly, but without any attempts to deceive.

"I… refuse…"

"Not so selfless after all." She sneered.

"I want to make a deal," Edina said, earning Riley's full attention. "And I have coins to. These ogres were keen on getting their grubby paws on my scythe and staff. Said they could sell it to you, because you had a buyer, and the only buyers interested in my shit have gotta be other necromancers. I'm willing to pay big money for a name."

The corners of Riley's lips curved into a grin. It seemed like the head honcho of the Dryoak Consortium wasn't a stranger to selling information either. She struck a deal with Edina. Their whispers were too quiet for anyone to hear, but every now and then the squirreling erupted with shock.

Kanae pouted from being left out when Edina beckoned Renya over into their business deal. The shrewd businesswoman facilitated the rest of the discussions. Their back and forth came to a conclusion when Riley grabbed a fistful of sand from the fire pit, then extended the same hand forward to shake. Renya and Edina took turns in the sand-dusted handshake.

"Pleasure doing business with you." Riley nodded, though no exchange had been made except words.

Well, at least Edina looked satisfied. Renya, less so.

Members of the Dryoak Consortium had vanished while Kanae and their leader was in here. The streets returned to their normal functions, and people milled about as if nothing happened. Finally, when it looked like Riley was going to disappear into the Shaded Pits, Petyr followed her out of the ogre's den.

"Riley!" Petyr shouted, and her old friend paused to spare a glance back. "Remember when we were kids, I received news of my imminent training for knighthood? We vowed to rise to the Lord Council together. I also promised to use my strength and influence to protect you. You can hate me, despise me, revile me… fine. I can live with that. I just want you to know that you will always be my dear friend, and I'll always come to your aid if you need it."

"Is that so? But Petyr, you couldn't keep your first two promises. Why should I expect you to keep your word about the third? We aren't those same children anymore, making hollow promises. Hmph. Maybe you haven't changed. Still expecting things to be handed to you on a golden platter, lording over everyone like you're so important, I… I always hated you," Riley explained venomously before vanishing into the crowded streets of the Shaded Pits.

Left with no closure and a final biting word, Petyr retreated into a shell for the rest of the day. The only time Kanae and the others knew not to push it too far with her were when knuckles turned white.

Short on time, they set off immediately for the mining settlement Dry Gulch in the Nose of Hekaton. Petyr was despondent the entire time. She even paid for her own carriage to ride alone in, so as to not deal with the company.

When night fell and the road was too dangerous to continue traveling, they set up camp between both carriages to shield them from the sands and winds. Petyr hadn't come out of her wagon. The rest of them started a campfire to stay warm by now that the sun was down. Claudia had hunted a desert boar, and Alicia carved it clean for them to roast and eat.

"Yeesh. You'd think the smell would lure her out," Edina said, eyeing the carriage Petyr was inside of.

"I'll talk to her later… How about you? You've been mostly quiet ever since we left the city. You didn't even pull out cards to play this time." Kanae pointed out.

"Thanks to Renya, I got some juicy deets. All for the bargain price of a million gold coins… ugh. Now, I gotta pay Rown Company to transport my payment to the consortium!" she complained.

"Haha! I get a big payday out of the pipsqueak, too!" Renya butted in to exclaim.

The squirreling shoved Renya away by the face and continued, " Anyway, the other necromancer in town is named Riben Crow. But get this, Kanae: he's searching for the Necronomicon, the dreaded Book of the Dead!"

"I already don't like the sound of this…"

Kanae distinctly remembered Lanil Hammerthorn's living grimoire, Chappy, letting this slip. The Necronomicon wasn't just an ancient tome, but another living grimoire that likely possessed a dark treasure trove of magic. An entity like that couldn't possibly be benign… At least it was very unlikely to be a devil. Hopefully.

"Kanae?" Alicia scooted over with Claudia close behind. "It is uncharacteristic of me to say this, but I'm worried about Petyr. Perhaps one of us should talk to him. Not Claudia though."

"Why not? I can get her to open up. One look at me, and she'll be back to normal!" Claudia insisted.

"You're going to just piss her off, no! Fine. I'll talk to her before you guys decide to draw straws." Kanae got up but started having second thoughts in front of the carriage.

"I heard you fools talking. The doors unlocked," Petyr said.

Kanae almost wished Petyr had told her to get lost instead. She entered the Saviran carriage and found the high elf lying flat on the seat, staring up at the ceiling. Petyr was gnawing on jerky rations. A pipe in her hand emitted fragrant fumes filled the enclosed space.

The dragonscale armor and warhammer were piled into a heap at one corner of the carriage. This would have been an unfathomable thing for Petyr to do a few days ago. Despite her haughtiness and pretentiousness, she always put discipline first. She always treated her equipment with the utmost respect, sometimes more so than the people around her. Now, they seemed like nothing more than discarded trash.

"I'm sorry meeting Riley again didn't turn out so well," Kanae said sympathetically.

"It's strange." Petyr sat up and stared blankly past her. "I feel relieved that she hates me. I know I deserve it. Before Riley came through that door, I was expecting to wring the information out of whoever came in. Seeing her in the flesh… I just… I started thinking back to our childhood. Things were simpler then. I wish we could take a stroll through those orchards together again."

"Did you ever find out why House Dryoak was branded a traitor?" she asked.

The elf shook her head. "No, none. Captured conspirators were quickly tried and executed. Father didn't bother pursuing those who escaped. I just don't understand. The houses involved with the supposed betrayal were small! They each had their own militias, but the largest one only consisted of 50 men. My house's military, counting all vassals and prospective squire-houses, is nearly ten-thousand strong. Nothing short of another high house could have hoped to dismantle the Stormclouds."

Neither of them said it out aloud, but Petyr's rant had made them both realize something— only another high house gained from the tragic incident. Small families like the Dryoaks were better off scheming against similar-sized houses, rather than a giant like Stormcloud. The question was who, and why?

Petyr wished to be alone, so Kanae didn't overstay her welcome. The paladin assured her that she wasn't going to be a burden in any of the upcoming battles. But the distracted look suggested otherwise.

If Riley did turn out to be an enemy to them, would Petyr be able to stand against her? Or keep the earlier promise and turn on Kanae to protect her? She didn't want to think about that. Worrying about Jhene and Elaine was bad enough.

Two days into their journey, they finally reached the Nose of Hekaton at midday. Well, close to. Kanae and her party were nearly there and only needed to cross a wide valley first. The massive mesa was completely flat on the top. Steep cliffs offered seemingly no method of reaching the top other than flying. Red and orange horizontal striations ran along the width of the natural wonder, each line a mark of history in its age.

"That's a fat tract of land. It probably stretches for kilometers!" Edina whistled sharply, shielding her eyes from the sun as she squinted in the mesa's direction.

"There appears to be a flock of large birds swarming something below. Does anyone see that?" Alicia pointed to a beaten path.

One of the carriage coaches offered Kanae a spyglass to look through. She peered through the device. A long line of wagons had stopped in the middle of the craggy desert road. Twin-headed carrions swarmed them. Their sharp beaks slashed at the wagon coverings, poked at the poor people defending themselves, and clawing at anything with their talons.

A handful of adventurers struggled to defend the caravan. Their magic and arrows weren't enough to keep the swarm at bay. The carrion were starving and didn't plan to leave without a meal.

However, amongst the defenders, Kanae noticed a familiar and unexpected face. A woman of demon ancestry, whose skin was gray-blue and whose broken horns filed down smooth near the base. She joined the adventurers in battling back the carrion, flailing a shovel at anything that got near.

"Kris?!" Kanae gasped.

"Kris?" Claudia cocked her head.

"No time to explain. We gotta get down there and save them now!" She unfurled her wings and beelined for the caravan.

Dozens of people, realizing that the carrion were too much to fight against, had dove under the carriages as a last ditch effort to save themselves. A twin-headed dire beast screeched loudly. Kris dropped the pickaxe in hand and pressed her ears shut. The monster went for the kill.

"Not on my watch!" Kanae pulled aside her top, flashing her Piercings of Impurity at the carrion and anyone unlucky enough to be caught. The blinding light knocked many of the flying dire beasts down and scared away the rest.

As the only ones who could fly, Alicia, Claudia, and Edina reached the caravan in time to dispatch any remaining twin-headed carrions. Undead archers added to the volley that adventurers were unleashing into the sky. Claudia taunted countless more to attack her, baiting them into Alicia's Fan of Knives that shredded them into pulled chicken meat.

With the danger passed, people began to emerge from underneath the wagons, adventurers checked the injured, and a few cracked open a bottle of liquor to drink. Kanae rushed over to the demon woman who was lying on the ground. Her eyes were squeezed shut from not closing them in time when the flash went off.

"Kris, are you okay?" Kanae asked, offering a hand to help her up.

"Kanae? Kanae! Hi! I can't see you on account of being blinded, but I recognize the voice of that horny minx anywhere. Gosh, am I glad to see— er, hear you. I thought we were going to be bird poop in a few hours." Kris heaved a sigh. Her eyes slowly readjusted and met Kanae's relieved gaze. The two of them clasped hands, overjoyed to see each other again.

"Are you going to introduce us to your friend, Knight-Commander?" Alicia cleared her throat to hide a hint of jealousy in her voice.

As if on cue, Kris dusted herself off and puffed out her chest awaiting Kanae's introduction.

"Everyone, meet Kris. Eccentric explorer. We met her while traversing through Suvius. We would have died of thirst if it wasn't for her," Kanae said.

"Ahem. Intrepid explorer extraordinaire Kris, at your service! Friends of Kanae are friends of mine, but I… whew… I sure could use a drink." Kris reached for the waterskin at her waist, only to miss a swipe and collapse unconscious on the ground.

"Pfft. She's kinda funny. I like her already!" Claudia beamed.