The many guards lining the area came together in quick strikes, and Therion ducked beneath the blade of one of them. Orlick's defensiveness of the ruby dragonstone was making itself more than clear given just how many mercenaries were gathered in the area, and the room specifically felt so overwhelmingly crowded that it was nauseating. Therion didn't let that stop him though, and he decided to take advantage of the power that he had been given by Alephan by lashing out with a quick blast of ice magic. It was clumsy and a far cry from the fire magic he was used to utilizing if he was going to use magic at all, but he was at least able to force the guard that was lashing out at him specifically backward by a few feet.

Ophilia reached for the Illumination Staff and raised it in the air before bringing it down hard on the man's head. He stumbled, and Tressa took advantage of that to force him backward with a swift blast of air. Two other guards were caught up in the strike, and they were pushed away from the heart of the battle as a result. Cyrus was the next to respond, flicking his wrist and creating a block of ice that was admittedly much more impressive than anything Therion could ever hope to muster. The ice was able to pin the men in place, and regardless of how much they struggled against the cold solid keeping them trapped, they were unable to escape.

H'aanit could see the men were stuck, and she reached for her axe before raising it above her head and bringing down the hilt. The weapon struck one of the men in the temple and knocked him unconscious. Alfyn took care of the other two guards after pulling together a few ingredients from his satchel. Therion had to admit that he was impressed; he hadn't realized Alfyn was able to do something like that, though he could already tell it was going to come in handy.

The nine other guards in the area were continuing to circle the group, and two of them surged forward before locking blades with Olberic. The warrior threw up his sword in a perfect position to block the two strikes, and while he was able to hold them off, the combined force of the two men was starting to wear on him much faster than they would have liked. Therion's eyes narrowed at the sight before he dashed in the direction of the men, mimicking something he had seen Primrose do so much as he struck with a quick blast of shadows that knocked them both off course.

The pair of guards stumbled, and Cyrus once again pinned them to the wall. This time, a pile of boxes filled to the brim with supplies was knocked over along the way, leaving countless objects scattered throughout the floor. Tressa cleaned it up quickly afterward though, slashing her spear to manipulate the wind and force the items against the wall. It didn't seem like much at first, but at the very least, it would stop anyone from tripping and getting cornered as a result.

Orlick finally seemed to have had enough of letting his guards fight for him, and he let out an angered screech at the sight of all his supplies being sent to the ground. He raised his dagger over his head and decided to attack the person who just so happened to be closest to him: Alfyn. He attempted to stab downward at Alfyn, but he was cut off when H'aanit of all people jumped in his way, one hand on her axe while the other stretched out to grab Orlick's arm. Since Orlick was a scholar and far from being as physically fit as the huntress, he was trapped on the spot, and that was all it took for Linde and Hägen to catch on to what H'aanit was trying to do. The two animals lunged directly at Orlick, and he was sent stumbling backward without mercy.

Orlick's flailing ultimately left him just off to the side of the table where the dragonstone was, and he glanced down at the jewel with eyes that could only be described as hypnotized. He reached out to grab it, but before he had the chance, Ophilia flicked the Illumination Staff in his direction. A column of light exploded at his feet, and Orlick was forced away from the pedestal. The table wasn't at all rattled thanks to Ophilia's pinpoint accuracy, and the man roared in anger.

Cyrus recognized what was happening, and he reached for his tome before finding a page and whispering something under his breath. It had to be from some ancient language Therion had never been able to learn (or at the very least, that was his best guess as to what Cyrus was saying), but it seemed to be successful either way, creating a massive blast of wind magic that once again forced Orlick away from the dragonstone.

Therion couldn't tell what the best course of action was from there, but he looked over to the dragonstone and considered jumping for it himself. If he could get the gem, then maybe they would be able to get out of the mansion with minimal conflict. No, that wasn't going to work. Orlick still had seven guards running around, and given his obsession with the ruby stone, he wasn't going to be letting any of them go quite so easily. They were just going to have to fight off the guards and see where that brought them.

H'aanit raised her axe before once again striking one of the guards. He was able to block the attack with his sword, but he wasn't prepared for her to strike again a moment later, this time slashing upward from where she had finished the last slash. Olberic was the next one to appear, and he struck the man in the side with his sword. The guard was forced away from them at that, raising his blade in a defensive position to mitigate any further damages. He glanced back and forth between the pair frantically, but he could clearly tell that he was outnumbered and outmatched. The warrior and huntress were simply too much for him to handle together.

Alfyn took advantage of the man being distracted, and he continued to mix together ingredients from his pouch before sneaking up behind the guard and shoving a handful of something unknown in the man's face. Given the way the guard slumped over unconscious a moment later, Therion was willing to assume that it was something meant to induce slumber in the target. All things considered, it was rather effective, and it made Therion sure that he never wanted to get on Alfyn's bad side.

Tressa glanced over to the next duo of guards. The numbers were even between the two parties now with seven each, but Tressa wasn't going to let that be true for too much longer. She pushed them backward with a blast of wind before reaching for her spear and following up by slashing in a wide arc. Neither one of these attacks did much in the way of damage, but pinning them down with ice magic was more than effective, and the two men were left trapped where they were. In other words, they were the perfect targets for Alfyn's next bundle of attacks involving a sleeping concoction, and soon enough, the tides of the battle had turned from seven against seven to seven against five.

Orlick could tell that his grip on the battle was slipping, and he ran for the dragonstone once again, desperate to grab it and get away as soon as possible. Therion surged toward him, knife primed at the ready. The two clashed blades in a lucky defensive strike from Orlick, but Therion was able to kick the man's legs out from beneath him while Orlick was distracted. The scholar wasn't meant for physical combat, and Therion was more than happy to take advantage of that as long as the opportunity was presenting itself on a silver platter.

Orlick wasn't going to allow Therion to knock him down so easily, and he raised one hand as the air around his fingers began to shift with energy. Therion winced at the sight. He should have known that if Orlick was terrible at fighting physically, then it was just a matter of time before the scholar lashed out with magic. If he was looking after the dragonstone, then he had to know at least a little bit of magic, and this was likely just the beginning.

Therion could see a magical attack form in the air above Orlick, and he was silently relieved that because of how dazed the scholar was, each attack was broadcasted well in advance. Therion rolled out of the way just in time to make sure he didn't get completely annihilated by the attack, and instead, one of the guards who had conveniently been trying to sneak up behind him at the time was hit square in the chest. Therion turned his head over one shoulder and watched as the man slouched over unconscious, his eyes wide with surprise. He hadn't been expecting that, but he supposed it was something he could consider a victory for the time being.

Tressa was getting cornered by another guard, and he swung his blade in her direction. She raised her spear to block the attack, but she was significantly shorter than the man trying to knock her aside, and her feet dug into the carpet desperately as she tried to keep her balance. Olberic was more than capable of coming to her rescue though, sliding into view before slamming into the man's side, knocking him off balance and forcing him into a senseless stumble. The guard let out a small groan of pain as the air was pushed from his lungs, and Tressa offered Olberic a quick nod before she dashed off in the direction of Ophilia.

The cleric had concentrated her energy briefly on healing the injuries that the guards had left behind, and the air tingled with the promise of magic. However, one of the guards had decided to take advantage of that and was preparing to knock her off her feet while she was distracted. He swung for the space near Ophilia's right shoulder, but Tressa appeared just in time with a stab of her spear to force his hand off target. The man instead only made contact with empty air, and Tressa whirled around with her weapon to strike him in the side of the head with the blunt pole connecting to the head of the spear at the end.

This attack was more than enough to knock the guard off balance, and he went flying to the ground a moment later. Tressa stepped on his chest and pointed her spear in the direction of his face even though she had no intentions of actually doing anything more to hurt him. She glanced over her shoulder to where Ophilia was finishing the healing spell, though the cleric's hands had started to shake because of how rattled she was from the encounter. "Are you alright?" Tressa questioned carefully.

Ophilia nodded, and she concentrated her energy on attacking one of the other guards nearby with a blast of light magic. That left the man stumbling perfectly so he was in the line of fire of both Cyrus and H'aanit, and the scholar and huntress were easily able to pin the man down with ice magic after H'aanit struck him one last time. They repeated the cycle once again with the remaining guards as Alfyn finally arrived at Tressa's side to knock the man beneath her foot unconscious. It was an easy procedure, and Therion was left to wonder silently just how much these guards had been worth. They certainly weren't doing their jobs well if they were being defeated so easily by the travelers, though he supposed that there were many incompetent guards out there. This was probably nothing too out of the ordinary, and chances were that they hadn't seen any interaction with combat in quite some time as long as they had been waiting at Orlick's mansion for the action to come to them.

The final guard from the group of twelve was still clashing swords with Olberic, and the warrior was able to hold up his blade with a single hand as he clenched his fingers into a fist and released an attack of electric magic thanks to the gift Alephan had provided them all with. The guard was hit in the side, and he let out a gasp as he was sent sprawling to the ground. Alfyn dashed over to where the man landed, and from there, spreading his concoction to knock the man unconscious was all too simple.

Just like that, Orlick was the only one left standing against the seven travelers who had barely broken a sweat in the face of the previous fighters. Orlick glanced around to all of them with anger and fear conflicted on his features. He couldn't seem to decide if running or standing his ground would be the better option, but in the end, he wasn't given much of an option. Cyrus read something else from his tome in what Therion assumed was still ancient language, and a blast of wind sent Orlick flying against the wall behind the stone. There were no supplies there, and in that respect, Orlick had been lucky, but he wasn't going to be able to depend on chance to save him from then on.

"The dragonstone is mine! You can't take it! I'm the only one who deserves to research it!" Orlick shrieked with rage. He reached for the gemstone as he shakily rose to his feet, but he wasn't able to do much under the weight of his own weakness from the damage he had already sustained. He wasn't built for battle, and that was no doubt why he had hired so many sell swords to protect his mansion. He couldn't do much, though in the end, they hadn't been nearly as capable as Therion would have hoped they would be. If anything, this was barely a challenge as long as there were seven of them, and it would have been even simpler had Primrose been able to come along.

"You don't know what you're getting involved with," Therion replied all too simply, having given up on talking Orlick down from his tantrums quite some time ago. As far as he was concerned, the best course of action was to simply take care of Orlick and knock him unconscious so they could grab the dragonstone and get as far away as possible.

Orlick raised his dagger once again, and he seemed to be prepared to charge directly at the thief. Therion swapped out his weapon from his knife to his sword just in case he was going to have to block. After all, a larger weapon was going to do him many more favors in that department than a small dagger would. Much to his surprise though, it didn't seem to amount to anything. Orlick instead disturbed the air with magic, gathering the arcane energies of the room and creating a set of spheres that rotated over his head ominously before he flicked his wrist forward. The spheres rocketed toward the travelers, and Therion went wide before throwing up his arms to defend his head from the blasts.

The other travelers all did their best to get out of the way, and Therion managed to swerve out of the way from a blast just before it could make contact with him. At that, he rushed forward with his sword primed at the ready, slashing another sphere of energy out of the way before pushing one hand against Orlick's torso. His fingers flickered with flame, and the magic passing from his body to Orlick's was enough to send the scholar stumbling backward, and he slammed into the wall soon afterward. Along the way, he dropped his knife, and the blade slid across the ground before landing just beneath Therion's foot. The white-haired man kicked the knife backward where it was picked up by Tressa and tucked out of view.

Orlick looked up at the travelers around him, his expression contorted by ghastly shock. "Bested by thieves... How disgraceful...!" he whispered, his eyes wide as could be. That was all he was able to get out in terms of words before he slumped over unconscious, unmoving but still clearly alive based on the subtle rise and fall of his chest.

Therion gave Orlick a brief glance before he shook his head. At that, he approached the ruby dragonstone. "Since you won't be doing much more research, I'll just take this," he murmured. He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a piece of fabric before scooping up the red stone with the cloth, taking special care to not touch it. He didn't know how the dragonstone was able to influence emotions specifically, but he didn't want to accidentally trigger its powers any sooner than necessary. After all, there was still quite a bit of business left to be taken care of while the group was in Noblecourt.

"We're finished here," Therion declared as he tucked the dragonstone out of sight. It was hard to fit the rather large gemstone in the pouch hidden beneath his cloak, but it was the best he could do without broadcasting to the world what they had done while they were on their way back to the inn. "Let's finish our business here and then leave. We can't risk being around the dragonstone much longer than we have to."

There were no objections to that, and the travelers moved in the direction of the door from there. Therion was the one to lead the group, and he gave Orlick one final glance over his shoulder before starting the walk out of the building, the other travelers hot on his heels the whole time.

One down, two to go.

Primrose's anxiety had only spent the last hour mounting, and she was tapping one foot impatiently against the ground of the floor below. She had tried to dance for a short while to get rid of the tension inside of her body, but that hadn't worked out as well as she had been hoping, and in the end, she was right back to waiting directly for the other members of the group to get back. She was desperate to get out of Noblecourt as soon as possible, and hopefully, they would be able to do that sooner rather than later.

Just as she was thinking that, the door opened without a knock, and Primrose glanced up. She reached for her dagger on pure instinct, but her fears were ultimately left unfounded as she caught sight of H'aanit in the entryway, a gentle smile on her face. Therion was at her side, and he reached for his cloak with one hand. "We got it," he told Primrose simply.

Primrose smiled. "And in just one day too. I'm impressed," she said, pretending that her pride was because the group had taken care of the job so quickly and not because she was desperate to get out of Noblecourt as soon as possible.

"We're going to leave in the morning for Bolderfall if all goes well. For now, Cyrus has some research to do about the shrines where we met Aelfric and Alephan," Therion told her, turning his attention over his shoulder to where the scholar was waiting.

Cyrus nodded his confirmation. "If we can learn where the other shrines are, it will no doubt save us time as we continue our journey through Orsterra. The battle against Orlick was a well-won fight, and we have no idea how strong our foes will be from here on out," he explained.

"In other words, it's time for us to do some research and see what we can find," Primrose concluded, and she was met with a nod from Ophilia to show her confirmation. Primrose hummed at that and closed her eyes gently. "In that case, I guess we're just going to have to hope Noblecourt has what we're looking for."

"Orlick isn't the only pretentious and obnoxious scholar around here. If we know where to look, we're going to figure out everything that we might need to know," Therion announced, crossing his arms over his chest. "In fact, I think I might have an idea on where we should be starting if we want to gather information as soon as possible."

"You think we should go back to Barham for advice, don't you?" Tressa questioned with a light tilt of her head to the side.

Olberic nodded. "That sounds like a fine idea. Stumbling through Noblecourt without any guidance is sure to accomplish nothing but slowing us down, and we don't want to be around the dragonstone any longer than we have to," he murmured.

"Why don't we want to be around the dragonstone?" Primrose asked carefully, glancing to the spot where Therion had touched to show that he had the gemstone hiding on his person.

"The scholar we got it from, Orlick, was obsessed with it. Cyrus thinks that's because the dragonstone has the ability to influence the emotions of those around it for the worse," Alfyn replied. "If we can get it back to Bolderfall, then we can trust Cordelia and Heathcote to look after it. After all, they know how to handle these sorts of things."

Primrose nodded, though she was silently left to wonder just how Cyrus had managed to come to such a firm conclusion about the powers of the dragonstone. "Alright," she said softly. "I'm going to trust you all to head out for the search then."

"You're going to stay here for a while longer, aren't you?" Ophilia questioned even though all of them were all fully aware of the answer.

Primrose didn't have the chance to respond though, and Therion tilted his head in the direction of the door. "You can all get going to start seeing if you can find anything around town. We might want to get a few more supplies while we're here. I'll set the dragonstone up here. It's safer than carrying it around in case somebody gets infected by its magic," he pointed out.

The other travelers all exchanged brief glances before nodding and leaving. Primrose assumed that they were going to divide the tasks for the day once they were outside, but something else was on her mind as they departed. She watched Therion carefully, knowing there was something else going through his head in the silence hanging between them.

"I'm glad you were able to take care of the dragonstone while we were here," Primrose decided to say carefully. She wasn't sure where to start, but it had to count for something.

Therion nodded. "Orlick was much easier to take care of than you would have expected," he said simply. The silence came rushing in around them once again before he shattered it. "Are you going to take care of your next step while we're here?"

Primrose was caught by surprise there, and her eyes went wide as she looked at him carefully. "I don't-" she started to say, though she wasn't entirely sure where she was going with this.

"Your hometown is Noblecourt. The fact that you've been so cagey since we arrived tells me that you're trying to not confront the next step of your mission," Therion told her casually. "I get the feeling that there's more going on inside your head than you're willing to admit. I'm not going to get involved if you don't want me to, but I will say that you're lucky we have the Warp Staff so we can come back here again later."

Primrose hesitated before nodding and looking down at the ground. "I suppose so," she admitted softly. She shifted her attention straight ahead next, not daring to peer over in Therion's direction. "I don't know what to do... But we're going to be out of here soon enough."

"Trust me when I say that we're all in a hurry to get out of here," Therion told her. "I don't want to be here any more than we already have. As soon as we can figure out where the shrines are, I want to leave this place behind. Noblecourt is a pain in the ass."

Primrose snickered at that. "I can't say I disagree," she said softly. The town had certainly changed compared to how it was in the memories she held of her childhood, and she somehow doubted it was going to return to the world she had come to know so long ago. She glanced up in his direction at long last, and the two made eye contact carefully. "I hope you and the others are able to find something that will help us to get out of here faster."

Therion nodded. "You wouldn't be the only one," he admitted in a bitter mutter. They were quiet for another beat, and he pulled the dragonstone out of its pocket hiding beneath his cloak. "I guess I should go put this away. Just... Make sure nobody manages to get into Alfyn and I's room to grab it, alright? We don't know what sort of toxic magic this thing has."

Primrose nodded. "Of course," she assured him. She paused as he started to retreat toward the door, and her eyes narrowed as he left. She was speaking before she could even say what she was trying to accomplish. "Therion, wait."

Much to Primrose's surprise, the thief actually did as he was told. He turned to face her carefully, his eyes narrowing as he tried to read what she wanted of him. "What is it?" he asked, almost like he was afraid of the response he was going to get.

Primrose breathed carefully, trying to figure out how she was supposed to phrase this. She didn't know how to handle the subject of Therion's past, but she could see it clear as day that something else was on his mind. She had been distracted by her own issues, yes, but that didn't mean she was completely unaware of what was going on in the lives of others. Therion specifically had been doing a poor job of hiding the truth of how he felt, and Primrose could tell that there was something else crackling just beneath the surface that he refused to show. The least she could do after he had been so patient with her was at least extend an offer to let him know that he was able to count on her if he so chose.

"If you ever need anything..." Primrose eventually decided to begin. "You know where to find me. I want to do what I can to help you and the others. I know it's not easy to trust people. I understand that better than anyone else here. Still, that doesn't mean you have to hide everything you're dealing with from the rest of us. In fact, I think it would benefit you to open up every once in a while. I'm not going to force you if you're not comfortable with talking, but... You know where to find me. All you have to do is say the word."

Therion was still as a statue for a long moment before he managed to shake himself free of his trance. He turned to face the hallway, his face perfectly out of view. "Funny. I always though Cyrus and Tressa were the nosey ones," he murmured.

Primrose smiled sadly at that. She knew this was Therion's way of trying to avoid the subject at hand, but it wasn't going to work as well as he would have hoped. "I want to do what I can to help you and the other members of our group. We're going to be spending a lot more time together from here on out, after all. It's the least I can do," she pointed out.

Therion remained silent and still for another handful of moments before he shook his head and stepped out into the hallway. "Stay out of trouble," he instructed of her carefully. He left soon afterward, closing the door behind him. Primrose watched him go, and a gentle smile continued to make its way across her features. Therion was still struggling to open up to the rest of the group, and while Primrose was making at least some headway thanks to his kindness back in Stillsnow, it was still going to be quite some time before Therion was willing to yield as many details about himself. That was something Primrose could detect at a simple glance.

For the time being though, Primrose knew that she could count on him to think about what she had said. When he was ready, he was going to reach out. She didn't want to intrude if he wanted her to stay out of it, so she decided to take a step back and count on him to take this at his own pace. Therion had a good head on his shoulders, and when the time was right, he would know it. Primrose got the feeling she would be able to sense it too.

Primrose allowed her eyes to slip shut, and for a few brief moments, she wasn't thinking at all about the problems that had come with returning to Noblecourt. She was just glad that she and the other members of the group had managed to succeed in the first step of their mission there. After this, they would be able to head to Goldshore, and maybe then, Primrose would feel better about everything that was taking place around her. It was a small hope, but what other choice did she have?

And there's the Primrose and Therion travel banter at long last!

Since Primrose couldn't exactly wander Noblecourt for obvious plot-related reasons, her staying in the room means that she gets a new travel banter with Therion. I really like it because of its relevance to this story specifically, though it obviously wouldn't work in the game setting. Luckily, it doesn't have to; every choice this story makes is for the sake of its potency in novelization format, so I did what I thought was best, and I think this was a great choice to help both of their characters develop.

As for the rest of the chapter, I must say that I really liked writing the fight against Orlick. It was probably my favorite fight sequence in quite some time, and I hope you all liked reading it as much as I liked writing it. He's out of the story for the time being because the group thoroughly trashed him, and I think that's fine. Rest in peace, Orlick; he'll be back eventually. One day. Way later. As in after the chapter fours probably. We'll see.

Anyways, I'm going to call things here. Next time, we'll start the sidebar search for information regarding the shrines of the gods of Orsterra! Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!

-Digital