Finding H'aanit was a simple affair in the end, something Olberic couldn't have been more thankful for. The huntress sat on a bench in Quarrycrest's busiest square, Primrose to one side and Linde off to the other. H'aanit curled her fingers gently around her snow leopard's chin, tickling at Linde's face with a light smile. Linde nuzzled against her partner's grasp, purring gladly at the contact. The scene was, in a word, heartwarming, but Olberic didn't have time to express that in full.

Instead, he simply sat down beside H'aanit on the other side of Linde. Primrose seemed to be able to sense something was amiss with him, and she tilted her head to the side ever so slightly. "What are you thinking, Olberic?" she asked. "Is something wrong?"

"I have a question for you, H'aanit," Olberic began. "If you can answer as well, Primrose, then that would be even better."

"Goen on," H'aanit instructed. She looked up from Linde slowly, and the snow leopard butted at her hand in a bid to get the attention back on her. H'aanit gave her partner a charming smile before she continued to stroke at her head.

"Have you felt like someone is watching us?" Olberic questioned, and H'aanit immediately perked up. "I can't seem to shake the feeling that someone is here who shouldn't be. They're watching everything we do. I may just be paranoid, but..."

"You know yourself well enough to believe there could be more to it than that," Primrose finished, and Olberic nodded. The dancer thought about it for a moment before shaking her head. 'i haven't sensed anything, but I suppose I'm not quite as battle-hardened as the two of you are."

All eyes shifted to H'aanit, and she took in a careful breath as she sifted through her thoughts. "I went out to hunte with Cyrus yesterday," she began. "While we were waiting for our quarry to arriven, I felt as if someone was watching us. I thoughten it may have only been my imagination, but the longer we sat there..."

"The more you became sure there was more to it than that," Primrose finished for her, and H'aanit nodded. The dancer sucked in a careful breath through gritted teeth. "I suppose that means there must be someone following us then... What are we supposed to do about it?"

"Until we understanden what the spy wanteth, we cannot do much to keepen them at bay," H'aanit pointed out. She sighed and shook her head. "We should do our beste to remainen on guard. If there is someone who seeketh to spy on us, then we must be careful and cautious."

Olberic shook his head as he looked off to the ground below. "I had been hoping perhaps my paranoia was bothering me, but I doubt that's the case," he admitted. "It would make too much sense if somebody was trying to follow us. I have no idea what they could possibly want, but there are at least a few reasons a person may wish to tail us."

Primrose winced, on the verge of listing off the reasons before she held herself back. "We've certainly gotten ourselves into quite a bit of trouble since joining the Kindling journey," she murmured. "Anybody could have started to follow us at any point."

"Looking back, I believe this was always the case," Olberic frowned. "Hindsight is a poor judge of what is happening in the present moment, but I still think this has been an issue for much longer than I expected. The person following us has been on our heels since I joined the party back in Cobbleston."

"Maybe it has something to do with the Kindling," Primrose offered. "I don't know why the church would send someone to spy on us though... I've never heard of the Kindling coming with an escort, provided by the church or otherwise."

"Perhaps our spy is someone else entirely," H'aanit supplied. "If we assumen that the one following us is doing so because of the Kindling, then that leaveth a wide variety of possibilities open to us. Many people may holden ill will against the church and choose to taken that out by following us as Ophilia carries out the faith and tradition."

"It's certainly possible," Olberic agreed. "I don't know if we would be able to gather the necessary information from Ophilia, Cyrus, or Tressa though. They may have not realized anything was happening at all, and now, we have no way of reflecting on when this began, at least not with accuracy on our side."

"What's this?"

Olberic glanced up at the sound of Cyrus' voice. The scholar sat down beside him easily with everyone else on the bench sliding over to make room for their newest arrival. Olberic watched Cyrus warily, unsure as to how he was meant to phrase his explanation of them being followed by some unknown foe. "We believe there may be someone else in this town who has been keeping an eye on us," Olberic began.

"I suspecten this has been going on for much longer than that," H'aanit supplied. "I believen the culprit behind this has been following us for quite some time. I knowen not what they could wanten from us, but we must keepen our eyes and ears open to understand what is happening before it is too late."

Cyrus hesitated as he tried to think through all that had happened over the course of the journey, and he shook his head. "I believe I understand what you mean when you speak of the sensation of being followed," he murmured. "I've felt as if someone was watching me ever since I set out from Atlasdam."

"In that case, the person following us either showed up while Ophilia was leaving Flamesgrace or when you left Atlasdam," Primrose concluded with a heavy frown. "That certainly narrows things down for us, but there's still a lot we don't understand about the situation with that in mind..."

"Their motivation comes to mind as a primary concern," Cyrus agreed. "There must be a reason for all of this, but if we cannot find it, then what good is that fact to us?" He let one hand come up to rest on his chin as he closed his eyes, allowing his thoughts to consume him.

"We should doen what we can to remainen alert until we can ascertain what the spy wants," H'aanit declared. "If we still feelen that we are being followed over the course of the next few days, then we should comen up with a plan to confront the one behind it."

Olberic nodded, though he couldn't help the sneaking suspicion that perhaps there was more to this that they weren't seeing. Maybe they should find a way to confront the spy sooner than that. Olberic instinctively glanced over his shoulder to see if perhaps the one following them was still there. Even though he saw nothing, he was sure the spy was somewhere in the area, always watching and waiting. Their goals were as much of a mystery as ever, and Olberic felt his stomach tie itself into a knot. He had an awful feeling about all of this.

"Should we tell the rest of the group?" Primrose asked nervously. "I don't want to put anything else on their shoulders if it would only serve to stress them out, but at the same time, I think this is something they should all be aware of."

"We should tellen them all we knowen," H'aanit declared. "This is not a fact we wish to sharen, and we do not intende on telling them lightly. Still, the fact of the matter remaineth that they must understanden the danger so that they might facen it should we need to confronten the spy one day. It wouldst keepen everyone safer in the long-term regardless of inconvenience for the time being."

"Perhaps we can wait until tomorrow to share this with them," Olberic suggested. "Enough has happened today, and I don't want to place any extra stress on Ophilia and Alfyn's shoulders given all they went through while we were in Morlock's manse. We can at least give it one day, especially if the spy hasn't yet acted against us."

"After we leave Quarrycrest then," Cyrus agreed. He glanced over his shoulder instinctually to see if anyone was watching him, but he caught no glimpses of anything out of the ordinary. "I have to wonder if the spy knows we are aware of their presence... They could be hiding anywhere in this crowd, and we would be none the wiser."

"We don't even know what they look like," Primrose muttered with a shake of her head. "That's going to make it much harder to pick the spy out of a crowd if they continue to follow us, which I can only assume they will."

"We shalt keepen our eyes peeled," H'aanit told her simply. "We can watchen ourselves in Victors Hollow and see if anything appeareth out of the ordinary. We must taken each step with caution in the meantime."

"Tomorrow, we'll leave Quarrycrest, and we'll share the truth of what we've uncovered with the rest of the group on the way to Victors Hollow," Olberic declared. "Until then, we speak not a word of this to anyone. I don't know if the spy is aware that we know of their presence yet, but it would be for the best if we kept this to ourselves to maintain the element of surprise." The rest of the group nodded.

"If we get lucky, we might be able to find the person behind this while we're on our way to the next town," Primrose suggested. "If somebody really is following us, then we can keep ourselves ready on the way, and if we notice anyone behind us, we can confront them there."

"The spy may be taking a different path to each town to ensure we don't find them," Cyrus pointed out. "But once we reach Victors Hollow, we have no idea where we're going to be heading next. We could use the Warp Staff from then on, and that will give us at least a little bit more leeway until they can catch up to us."

Primrose nodded. "And we'll have to take advantage of that time as long as we have it. We don't know how long that's going to last when we get the chance to enjoy that luxury," she sighed. She glanced off to the side. "I wonder if any of the others are suspicious of this too... We'll find out when we talk to them tomorrow, I suppose."

"I feel like Ophilia, Tressa, and Alfyn would have mentioned it by now if they were suspicious of someone following us," Olberic frowned. "Therion, on the other hand... I'm not quite as sure if he would bring it up given his line of work and natural inclination for secrecy."

H'aanit, who had been stroking at Linde's head throughout the conversation, fell still as she glanced to the others in the group. "On that note... Wheren is Therion?"

None of them offered a response to that. Therion tended to vanish on the mist when they arrived in each town, always off on his own for some reason or another. He was secretive on the best of days, and they all knew it. This was regular behavior for him, though it could be a pain for the rest of the group, especially ind ark times like this.

Primrose sighed and shook her head. "Business as usual then."

The inside of Aeber's shrine was the same as it had been when the party had stepped inside to fight against the prince of thieves. Therion shouldn't have been surprised by this in the slightest. After all, who in the world would have a reason to walk around in the shrine of a god that deliberately hid itself from the world? It was just him.

No, he wasn't alone. He could feel Aeber's presence all around him, watching his every move. Therion glanced up as he walked to the end of the path, his gaze falling on the stone altar at the far edge of the corridor once he had arrived at his destination. Therion glanced around to make sure Aeber hadn't found a way to manifest elsewhere in the shrine before he pressed his hand against the rock, his fool's bangle jingling along the way.

The world around Therion morphed the same way it always did when the travelers entered a shrine, and when he opened his eyes once again, he was in the battlefield space used for each of the encounters with the gods. Therion scanned the area, always on his guard even though he knew Aeber wasn't going to raise a hand to him. Therion was just there to talk, and the god of chance knew it.

Aeber appeared in a flash of darkness and fire, and even though the god's eyes were hidden, Therion could feel the other man's gaze piercing through him. "Thou hath returned," Aeber said simply.

"Yeah. I'm back," Therion returned, not bothering to dull the sharpened edges of his tone. "And I think it's high time the two of us talked."

Aeber nodded, but his posture did not change. "What is it thou wisheth to knowen?"

"You already know," Therion cut in before he could finish, holding up one hand to prompt the god into silence. "You and I have met before. You.. You saved me."

Aeber hesitated at that, and the air around him seemed to grow cold despite his affinity for fire. "Thou rememberest."

"Of course I do," Therion told him. "You're the reason I'm here at all. If not for you, I would have bled out at the bottom of a cliff somewhere. Aelfric saved Ophilia's life so she could carry out her work as the Flamebringer. You saved my life so I could join her. Am I correct?"

Aeber said nothing for a long moment. The only sound to break through the silence of the shrine was the gentle whisper of the torches lining the wall, Aeber's element listening to his every command to make the quiet a bit less suffocating. "It should have never happened," Aeber eventually managed to force out. "That day should have never ended the way it did."

There was something they could both agree on. Therion's hand clenched into a fist at the mere thought of it. He felt like a fool for ever trusting so much for it to stab him in the back. The dream still haunted him, and it felt like each time he went to sleep, it was a gamble for if he would wake up drenched in sweat and screaming or if he would be spared one more night. He had learned to sleep quieter over the years, to not wake anyone up when his panic and fear got the better of him, but his heart still pounded well into the early hours of the morning against it all.

Therion closed his eyes, and the world around him seemed to morph. Aeber was helping him to jog his memories for the sake of their conversation. Even if Therion remembered some parts of that day all too well, a few other details had been wiped away by the cruel bloodshed that had nearly taken his life back then. Aeber was one of many details that seemed fleeting when Therion imagined it, a whisper on the wind he could never quite grasp in time.

He remembered falling.

That was always the first thing to come to mind. His nightmares began at the climax with his body tumbling backward off the edge of rusty, jagged cliffs toward the abyss below. At the top of the chasm, he could see a smear of green against the crimson rocks and cerulean skies. Damn green. The color haunted Therion's nightmares. There was a reason he preferred the drier areas of Orsterra. If he could at all avoid the greenery of the Riverlands, Woodlands, and Flatlands, then he was going to do it.

The fall ended the same way it had the first time when it actually happened. Therion's body slammed into the rocks below, opening a wide gash across his abdomen that should have killed him. The sickening crunch of bones breaking echoed in his mind long after he finally hit the ground. Somewhere along the way, though Therion couldn't quite put a finger on the detail, he had hit something with his face, and his eye had been scarred to the point of no return. His left eye had bled endlessly afterward, and from then on, Therion had gotten used to living half-blind. There was no way anyone would be able to heal something like that, not after his face had nearly been torn in half by the cliffs around him.

For a while, he had been sure he was dead, just staring up at the sky overhead with his one good eye. The green had won. He was as good as gone.

That was what he had thought when he first landed, but it hadn't quite ended the way he expected. At first, Therion had been sure he was imagining it, but the shadows around him seemed to crawl away from the cliffs before condensing into something tall and terrifying. Fire swirled around the blackness, searching for something tangible to latch onto. Therion had stared blankly through his tears, vision fuzzy and quickly worsening. He couldn't move away even if he wanted to, so he simply watched, praying the source of the magic had enough mercy in their hearts to end his life quickly.

"Thou must not die here," a voice had declared, and Therion had been confident he was losing his mind. The fire and shadow condensed itself into a figure that looked too much like a person for it to be natural, and the man crouched down beside him. Therion couldn't quite make out his features, but the voice was something he would never forget. In some ways, it looked like the man was an echo of himself, albeit older and through a distorted mirror. It didn't seem real. In fact, Therion had thought for sure he was hallucinating when the man first reached out for him. This was his mind's way of offering him one final piece of relief before death finally claimed him. At least it was less painful than dying alone, he supposed. That was one thing he had never wanted to do.

Instead, something strange happened.

Therion began to heal.

The sensation had been fleeting and uncertain at first before spreading across the rest of Therion's body. He stared blankly at the man above him, sure this was all some wild show of his imagination in some way or another. Whatever it was, it couldn't have been real. No person could come back from this. He had been dropped off the edge of a cliff. At least half his ribs were broken, and that was the best outcome he could think of without even factoring in the strike across his stomach or the blindness in his left eye. He should have been drifting off into an early grave. It should have been over.

But instead, the wound at Therion's stomach started to close itself. It was a slow process, but Therion could feel his skin starting to join back together where the gash had been. The man above Therion was holding out one hand gently, a glow around his fingertips, as the thief's body mended itself. It was like every bone was being put back in place after being dropped to the floor in a pile, excruciating but sweet in every way Therion could have ever imagined.

After what was both only a handful of seconds and an eternity, Therion's stomach injury vanished like it had never existed to begin with. His ribs pulled themselves back together, and even though the fall was bound to leave behind a series of brutal scars, Therion couldn't even bring himself to care. He was alive. Even after falling to what he had been sure would be certain doom, he was still breathing. It shouldn't have been possible, and yet, there he was.

The man had crouched beside Therion, pressing one hand against the thief's damaged cheek. Therion could see more of the man now than ever, but that wasn't saying much when he was still fighting off tears and had blood smeared across his face. Something deep in Therion's stomach told him this man was familiar somehow, but he couldn't quite put a finger on it. He hadn't ever met the man of fire and shadow before, but Therion knew him all the same. It was an indescribable paradox and contradiction, but Therion couldn't have mentioned it aloud even if he wanted to. His body was too weak for him to even try.

"Thou is meanten for greater things than this," the man had said softly, the words sacred and confident in Therion's mind. The sentence was ominous, but as long as it would keep him alive, the thief couldn't bring himself to care. He had to keep going. One way or another, he had to endure.

The wound on Therion's eye started to mend itself as the man's hand remained against his cheek. Therion finally felt safe enough to close his eyes, the bittersweet misery on his face hitting him like a punch to the stomach. Something in the back of his mind told him that he had to hold on, had to remain awake for as long as possible, but his body refused to listen to his commands. Instead, Therion's consciousness flowed away and out of his reach before his eye could even heal halfway.

When Therion next awoke, he was in the same place as before. His blood was gone though, almost as if somebody had cleaned it before it could seep into the rusted stones of the Cliftlands. The time of day had changed enough that a nearby crag was casting a large shadow across Therion's body, and he was grateful for the lack of sunlight directly overhead. It would have only made the pounding in the back of his head worse.

It took Therion a few moments to remember everything that happened, and when he did, he pressed one hand against his eye. It was closed permanently because of the scarring, and he winced at the revelation. It shouldn't have been too surprising given the circumstances, but Therion still despised it with everything he had. He was alive though, and he couldn't complain about that. When he had first been pushed off the cliff, Therion had been sure that would be the end for him, but there was something else meant for him yet.

That was what the man from the shadows had said, right? Therion sat up slowly to look around for his savior, and when he did so, he realized just how shockingly fine he felt. His body had pulled itself back together even after his fall, and he barely felt the sting of his injuries at all. His ribs were still bruised and likely would be for quite some time, but he was upright. Therion had been sure before that he would never be able to walk again, and yet, there he was. When he tested his arms, he found them surprisingly cooperative. Somehow, he had found the strength to move as if nothing had gone wrong to begin with.

At the time, Therion had been confused. How in the world could all of this be possible? He should have died. Beyond that, who in the world was the man that had saved his life? Had the man saved his life? How was something like that real? Nothing felt tangible anymore, like Therion was viewing his own reality from the other side of a distorted stained glass window that hid just enough to leave him confused and disoriented.

Therion slowly but surely returned to reality, and he looked over to where Aeber stood beside him. "It was you," Therion concluded as he shook off his memories to the best of his ability. "You were the one who helped me. You saved my life." The god of chance and fortune had taken a chance on Therion. Without that luck and added interference, Therion would have never made it. He hadn't understood the depth of the truth at the time, but now, he knew it was a matter of fortune and gambling on his life at the hands of a god.

"Thou were meanten for greater things than death," Aeber replied simply, his face twisted into a small smile, mischief gleaming in his eyes. "That day should not have ended with thy death."

Therion swallowed dryly. He had known this was what he was going to hear when he spoke with Aeber, but it still felt like a punch to the stomach. Therion hadn't ever been able to stop thinking about the weightlessness of falling and crumbling to the ground, blood seeping into the stones around him. He had done a fine job of hiding the truth of his nightmares around the rest of the travelers, but Therion somehow doubted that was going to be the case when night fell. Speaking with Aeber had reminded him of too much. It was just a matter of time before it all came rushing back to him. He couldn't fight back forever. He knew better than that.

"Thanks," Therion forced himself to say, though the word sat uncomfortably in the back of his throat. What else was he supposed to say? Aeber had saved his life. Once again, a god had rescued one of the travelers from what should have been a certain death. Therion was confident Ophilia had been just as awkward and uncertain of how to speak with Aelfric when she set out to ask the first Flamebringer for information. How could anyone not feel anxious at the mere concept of being saved by someone like that?

Aeber sent Therion a sideways smirk, something Therion had seen a thousand times over in his own reflection and in the way someone else looked at him. It had been a long time since Therion had seen the face of green that had brought about his doom, but Aeber smiled like him in a strange way. Then again, so did Therion. They had a lot in common, or so the green man had claimed. These days, Therion liked to think he knew better than to fall for it. He couldn't say for sure. Nothing about him was sure about anything anymore.

"Thou must tellen them one day," Aeber went on, and Therion noticed Aeber's smile twist into something sad and dark as the words left his lips. "The secret will not stayen hidden forever."

"I know," Therion replied a bit too quickly. The rest of the travelers were going to hear about this eventually. Aeber was right about that much. Therion knew better than to think he was going to be able to escape Darius and all his green forever. It was just a matter of time. He hadn't been able to hold off speaking with Aeber for long, and he wouldn't be able to avoid Darius either. Every day was barely a guarantee of safety at all. Then again, Therion didn't think his life had ever truly been secure. At the very least, it certainly hadn't been secure since that day on the cliff.

"Thou art always welcomed here," Aeber said, his expression somber but still caring in a way Therion couldn't quite put a finger on no matter how hard he tried. "If thou needeth anything from me, thou knoweth where to go." Aeber faded away a moment later, and the familiar voice from a lifetime ago rang in Therion's ears. The thief pressed his eyes closed, and the world around him began to pinch and distort. Light swallowed him once more, as was to be expected, and the imagined realm of the gods vanished around him.

When Therion came back to the real world, his hand was still pressed against the stone marking his arrival in Aeber's domain. His fingers were cold from the rock while the surface itself had grown warm under his contact. Therion sighed as he pulled his hand back, staring at his glove and the fool's bangle hidden beneath his clothing. It was incredible just how quickly everything changed, and he meant that in the worst way possible.

Therion shoved his hand back in his pocket, desperate to be rid of the gentle silver of the bangle around his wrist. At one point, he would have thought himself above making a mistake like that. Even if he had been able to remove the bangle, it was an error he never would have thought he could sink to. Some brutal voice in the back of his mind told him Darius would have never made a mistake like that. After all, Darius knew how to clean up after himself. That was the reason Therion had been sent falling in the first place.

The thief shook his head and started toward the entrance of the shrine. Something in his chest still felt oddly empty. He had known this was how it was going to end, that he was going to hear Aeber had been the one to save his life when he was so sure he was going to die, but it still struck Therion strangely and uncomfortably. Had Ophilia felt this way when she first heard the truth behind the destruction of Creek?

Therion knew he was indebted to Aeber, but thinking of that made him uncomfortable in a way no words could ever hope to articulate. He hated thinking of what Darius had done to him on a good day, but speaking with Aeber had only rubbed the old wound raw all over again. Therion was going to have to talk about it one day, he was sure, but as long as he could hold that off for a short while longer, he would be fine.

It was only fair that Quarrycrest, perhaps the worst town yet, would be accompanied by the worst nightmares for Therion. He couldn't stop it, especially since this was his only chance to speak with Aeber discreetly, but the thief despised it regardless. It was his only option, but that did not make it a good choice.

One day, he would talk, but for the moment, he would purge the color green from his mind.

And after all this time, the Quarrycrest arc is basically done! Finally! The only thing left at this point are two bits of travel banter (Olberic/Cyrus and Tressa/Alfyn) along with the closing conversation for Cyrus' chapter two. Those will be easily tackled in the first half of the next chapter though, and at long last, we will be free.

So, first off, we have the bit with Primrose, Olberic, H'aanit, and Cyrus. I wanted to bring up the idea of the group being followed a bit before the Olberic and Cyrus travel banter since I want to carry it forward as a plot point going forward. It's going to fall into the background naturally given the circumstances, but I still wanted to bring it up. It'll be a while before we get there to talk about Cyrus' chapter three, but the seeds are being planted nice and early, just the way I like them.

At long last, Therion got the chance to talk to Aeber. Whew. That's something I bet a lot of you have been wondering about. Just like with Ophilia, Therion had his life saved by one of the gods. I wondered how Therion was able to survive the fall, and now, there's a bit of an explanation for it. Everything is somewhat vague though since it's not going to be fully addressed until later in Therion's chapter three. For now, here you get small hints.

Alright. Now that the Quarrycrest arc is almost done after 25 chapters total (good lord), I'm going to take a break and slam my face against my desk. Next week, we'll officially leave Quarrycrest and transition into the final chapter two. Finally. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!

-Digital