One week before the raid on Nazarick, she appeared.
Workers from all over the Empire had been offered the dirty job, and were making their way into the Re-Estize kingdom to take part in the gruesome plan that Demiurge had cooked up.
As Momon of Darkness, Ains visited the Adventurers Guild in Arwintar. Since unaffiliated Workers were more common in the Empire than guild-affiliated adventurers, he didn't have much hope for the state of the questing boards, but it would still be important for him to participate in his own plan.
As expected, the guild was all but abandoned.
The building was grand enough, with fine wooden furniture and stained glass windows, but there was only one attendant at the questing desks, a young-looking human man with a blonde ponytail who looked particularly bored as they walked in.
The only other person in the room was a short figure in dark clothes, casually slouched near one of the windows, which lit her tanned and freckled face with a colourful glow.
"That human with pointed ears is staring," Nabe muttered, frowning as they passed.
"She is a half-elf, humans do not have ears like that," Momon explained, glancing across the room. The half-elf's posture had shifted slightly, but she was definitely staring. He was momentarily taken aback by her expression; scrutinising, searching, and desperation in eyes that were bright and clear, dark turquoise like a stormy sea. But she said nothing, and she did not move from her seat at the window.
So, he continued up to the questing desk.
The young blonde man at the desk flinched mid-yawn, catching sight of the adamantite plate hanging around Momon's neck. Stuttering, he sat up straight; "A - ah! You're - Momon of Darkness! And Miss Nabe!"
"Are there any available quests?" Momon asked.
The attendant quickly sifted through a few leafs of parchment.
"I'm - I'm afraid that we don't get much in these days, sir! We only have one, but it's far too lowly for an adventurer of your calibre! It's only a gold-plate job, guarding the encampment of a Worker's excursion within the Re-Estise Kingdom. However the client has stated they are happy to pay extra for higher level adventurers, so -"
"That doesn't matter. We will take it."
"Ah, very well, sir! Let me just prepare the paperwork, please take a seat!" In a flustered rush, the attendant ran off into another room.
"You shouldn't go there."
Momon flinched, turning on his heel to see the half-elf standing only a couple feet away from him. Both he and Nabe had hands on their weapons. Closer now, he got a better look at her. She was short, with a stocky athletic build and tanned skin.
Her clothes were clean but simple, and patched in a few places - a dark strappy top that displayed her freckled collarbone under a cropped, hooded dark grey jacket. Flowing wide-leg black trousers, dark shoes made of soft leather, and silver stacked rings on small calloused hands - she wore no makeup, and her dark shoulder-length hair was pulled half-back away from her round, youthful face.
Despite the mithril plate around her neck, she presented a more or less unassuming figure. Hunched shoulders, unarmed and unarmoured, carrying an old leather bag in one hand.
But something else, even more strange than that, nagged at the back of his mind.
She hadn't been there a moment ago, and he hadn't heard her approach. She'd snuck up on him. Or was able to move so quietly that he hadn't noticed? Either way...
It was a feat that a few seconds prior would have been un-thinkable. Even if she were an adamantite adventurer, no one from this world should have been able to sneak up on him that way. It left an uneasy sort of feeling in his stomach.
"Wh - what?" Momon asked, lowering his hand from his weapon, and motioning for Nabe to do the same.
"It's a dirty job, those Workers are going to pillage a tomb. I've heard your name around, you seem like someone with a sense of morality, so I'm warning you. Don't get yourself mixed up with them."
Momon stared down at her, inscrutable past his armoured helmet. A sense of morality? Maybe that's how it seemed to others. Though confusion and surprise ran rampant in his mind, it was curiosity that eventually won out.
"And who are you to look down on them?" he asked quietly. The half elf clicked her tongue in annoyance, thick brows furrowing.
"I can't say I've never done anything immoral in my life. But this is...disgusting. Desecrating an ancient ruin? Risking their lives? For what?" She insisted, and though it looked like she wanted to say more, she didn't. Her lips pressed into a thin line, and then parted in a sigh; "Well, you can do what you want. Don't say I didn't warn you."
She turned to go, but Momon took a couple of quick steps after her, causing her confident stride to baulk briefly.
"Wa - wait - " he stuttered, then cleared his throat, "- this is the only quest available at the guild right now. You're saying you haven't taken it?"
"Of course not. It's a shameless money grab. And I don't do work for the nobility. Besides, the owner of the tomb will know they're coming, it's a death sentence."
Momon's head was reeling, how had the incredible plan Demiurge prepared gotten into the hands of another adventurer? Was this just a coincidence? Who the hell was this angry little half-elf?
"How...how do you know the owner will know?" he asked weakly.
The woman looked up at him for a long moment, clearly mulling over whether or not to give up her information, then glanced past his shoulder at the quest attendant who had come back out to the desk.
"...Because I'm going to tell him myself," she answered in a mutter, shouldering her bag and heading for the door.
Momon stood, bewildered, in the middle of the deserted adventurer's guild as the front doors closed behind her with a click.
Then, snapping back to reality, he turned back toward the quest desks, distracted, only briefly glancing over the paperwork; "That adventurer," he muttered to the blonde man, "do you know her name?"
"Of course, sir. She is the mithril-plated adventurer Yndranth, the shadow demon."
"The…shadow demon?" Momon repeated, ignoring Nabe's snarl of disgust.
"That's what the gold-plates call her, sir."
"No adventuring party?"
"Ah, no, she has always worked solo. I tried to explain that this quest didn't necessarily mean she was joining a party, but…well, even after reading all of the details carefully she still refused quite fiercely."
"Hm." Momon absently signed the documents, thoughts racing.
So she was only a mithril plate? That seemed impossible, since someone so weak could never sneak up behind him the way that she had. Did she have some kind of magic item that buffed her stealth? And what was with other adventurers calling her a 'shadow demon'? What did she mean when she said she would tell the tomb owner herself? She hadn't taken the quest, but intended to go to Nazarick anyway?
Nabe took a step, glaring at the door, hand still clutching her weapon.
"What would you like me to do?" She asked in an angry hiss.
"...Leave her," Momon instructed, "It changes nothing."
On the other side of Arwintar, in the dormitories of the Imperial Magic Academy, a strange pool of shadows formed on the wall of Ike Traugott's dorm room.
The breeze from his open window rustled through his silvery-gray hair, and shifted his sapphire earrings as the shadows grew on the wall behind him, swirling with dark smoke. With a weary smile and a soft sigh, he calmly set down his cup of tea on its saucer, and closed the textbook he was reading.
"Aren't you arriving a bit late, Ynna?" he asked in a pleasant, gentle lilt.
Yndranth finally stepped out of the wall where she had phased through and tossed her bag down onto the floor, rummaging around inside it, searching through her belongings.
"I was at the adventurer's guild," she explained briefly, snatching her mithril plate necklace off and tossing it across the room at Ike, "did you manage to talk to your idiot cousin?"
With a single hand, Ike caught the necklace over his shoulder.
"I'm afraid there's no convincing that religious nut once he's set his mind to something. I even tried to bribe him with his favourite cake," Ike sighed, turning the mithril plate over in his fingers and watching admiringly as the light glinted off it, "he thinks this is his chance to retire to a life of religious study, or something ridiculous like that."
"Well...maybe his god will protect him," Ynna muttered bitterly.
"Oh? First me, then Roberdyk, and now this Momon person... Does this mean you're starting to care about humans after all?"
"Don't ask irrelevant questions. I barely care about you, you're just useful to me," Ynna snapped, taking out a pair of fingerless black gloves and a dark face mask from the front pocket of her backpack, "besides, there's no proof Momon's a human, even if he travels with one."
"Hmm, and here I thought my chances were improving."
Ike stood from his desk, silky azure robes draping around his legs. With an idle wave of a hand and flash of blue magic, the window shut itself, and the curtains pulled closed. Then, he moved easily across the room to a small gilded jewellery box on his vanity, and dropped the mithril plate into it. The metal clinked quietly against all of the other mithril plates already gathered there, "By the way, before you go, won't you do me one small favour?"
Ynna frowned up at him, pulling her gloves on, and strapping the mask around her neck and head, "I already paid you, didn't I? Even though a scholarship student like you hardly needs the money. If you want more from me give me my plate back, the guild charges me for every one I 'lose', you know."
Ike snapped the lid of his jewellery box down with a pouting frown.
"You're so cruel to me. My teleport magic takes much more energy than your dispelling skill, and I've been preparing the circle all afternoon. It's only a little favour...but if you really want something in exchange, maybe I could find you a new ring. Something with a diamond on it..."
"Stop trying to propose, you degenerate," Ynna sighed, though her annoyance was lackluster at best, "fine, show me where it is."
Ike slipped one of his long silken sleeves up his arm to display a bold runic brand that had clearly been imprinted into his skin by magic means. Ynna grabbed his wrist none-too-gently, and tugged the glove off her other hand with her teeth, pressing her rough, tanned palm onto Ike's milky white forearm.
"So rough," he complained, but there was a pleased smile pulling at his pink lips.
"What the hell did you steal for it to be this bad?" Ynna asked, focusing her dark grey magic energy on dispelling the Brand of the Thief.
"Hmm, be a little more rough with me and maybe I'll tell you. "
"Ugh, forget it."
After a few moments of silent focus, the runic symbols faded away, and Ynna tossed Ike's arm away like it was a rotting piece of fruit; "I need to go now. It will be sunset soon and I have to make it to Carne Village before nightfall."
"As you wish," Ike agreed, and gestured casually with a flash of blue magic.
The large woven rug on the floor rolled in on itself to reveal a chalk teleportation circle drawn onto the wooden floorboards beneath. The shapes were perfect, the glyphs were without flaw, as usual it was superb magical craftsmanship from one of the Academy's top students, but Ynna couldn't compliment him, or she'd never hear the end of it.
So instead, she stepped carefully into the centre of the circle, backpack in tow, and put up the hood of her jacket.
"Farewell for now, Ynna," Ike murmured, blowing her a kiss.
Then, the teleportation circle activated with a blinding burst of white-blue energy, and she disappeared.
At the same moment, Ynna appeared in the middle of a grassy valley maybe an hour out of E-Rantel. She rubbed the light-blindness out of her eyes, and then glanced up at the sky. The sun was already on its downward path towards the distant horizon, and the pale blue clouds of early evening were already beginning to tinge orange and pink.
Late. That damn Ike had wasted her time, and even her conversation with Momon had taken longer than expected. At this rate, the only way she could make it to Carne village before nightfall was to run the entire way...
So, she started running.
Heart pounding wildly in her chest, gasping for breath with each heavy step, and with the chill of sweat sticking her hair to the back of her neck, Ynna made excellent time across the hills. Her only company was the cloudy orange-gold light of sunset, and the occasional fluttering of grassland birds displaced by her thumping footsteps.
Every copse of trees, every boulder casting long shadows across the grass made her screaming muscles ache for a break, but she stubbornly refused. She couldn't be out in the darkness. Not here in the countryside. Not tonight.
Finally, at the peak of the next hill, she saw them: the tall wooden walls of the village, and glowing lights from behind them. It was starting to get dark, but she was close enough now that she allowed herself to take the rest of the journey and a weary walk.
But, as she got to the front gate, Ynna frowned behind her mask. Standing above the sturdy walls within the guard towers were not humans like she expected. Instead, stocky and muscular goblins in leather armour and carrying clearly human-made weapons, who called for her to halt.
Ynna adjusted one of her smaller stacked rings - a silver tongue with a small gem set into it - and she injected just enough mana to change the gem's colour to bright green.
"Good evening, brother," she called up to them in the Goblin language, "can I take shelter here? Night fell faster than I expected."
She raised her hands up, palms out, and stopped a little ways off from the gate.
The goblins in the watchtower exchanged confused looks with each other, speaking too quietly between themselves for her to hear. After a few seconds, they shouted back down to her not in Goblin, but in the human tongue:
"Take down your hood and mask!"
Ynna complied, dropping her dark hood, and unstrapping the mask from her nose and mouth. The evening air felt cool on her face, and a strong breeze carried through the hills, blowing her short hair out even more messy than it already was. She also dispelled her Ring of Tongues, letting the gem fade to black; no point in wasting the mana if she didn't have to.
The goblins conversed between each other again, and Ynna fidgeted, glancing over their heads at the last dying rays of violet-pink sunlight disappearing over the hills.
"I'm unarmed, and no danger to you," she called again, "so if you could let me in -"
"- We're asking the village chief. Don't move from there!" One of them shouted down, interrupting her. Ynna forced herself to take in a deep breath, and let it out in a long, shaky sigh.
It would only be a few minutes. Just a few minutes in the darkness outside, she could last that long. But, by the time the front gates slowly opened, a nervous sweat had beaded on her forehead, and her heart beat loudly against her ribcage.
Another surprise, it wasn't a goblin but a human girl who greeted her at the entrance.
"My name is Enri," the girl said with a smile.
She seemed weak and small, definitely not a threat, though she was flanked on either side by an armed goblin guard, "I'm the chief of this village. Before I let you in could you please state your name and business?"
Ynna took a long moment to try and understand the situation before answering.
Goblins didn't usually mingle with humans, but it didn't seem like they were being enslaved either. The little girl was clearly no powerful magic caster or dangerous warrior to gain the goblin's respect. So what, exactly, was going on? She couldn't figure it out, but goblins were usually from honest stock, and they didn't trust easily. If they followed this girl, maybe it would be alright for Ynna to trust her. At least for a night.
"My name is Yndranth Pirn. Ynna for short. Your - your village is just a stop on my way through the countryside, but I arrived a little later than expected and I...I don't like being out at night," she explained in a voice that was frustratingly shaky.
Enri exchanged a look with her goblin guards, and then nodded.
"Please come in, we'll find you a place to stay."
Her smile was surely meant to be polite and maybe even kind, but Ynna looked away from it with a grimace, following the small group through the front gate in silence.
Behind her, where the moon should have been rising, there was only a dark and empty night-time sky too cloudy to even show the stars.
