So.. things get interesting from now on? Sorry for butchering the dwarf lady part. That took some time to figure out. BUT, we now know what Maryden is. A fire godlike. I wanted something 'unique' like that, but did not like the all-out flaming head part. So I decided she had the heritage but it would only noticeable if Maryden would experience severe emotions, but had a few hints of fiery red hair and such (which will be mentioned if I haven't already) if she didn't experience them. Anyway it won't be heavily present, but mentioned a few times, throughout the story. Like the game, people will react.

Enjoy! But remember, English is not my mother-language and sometimes I'm too lazy to grammar check. So yeah, mistakes can occur.

Chapter 02

"I heard you hail from the Living Lands, that's not a bad place to live.."

Maryden looked up to Calisca from her crouching position, after a short moment of silent contemplation she turned her attention back to the wolf tracks in front of her imprinted in the dirt. She was no ranger but she knew the last pack they'd slew wasn't the only one in the region.

"Are you seriously asking where I come from? Like, right now?" Maryden said and stood up, her eyes setting back on Calisca, the light of the lanterns casting eerie shadows on both of their faces. Calisca diverted her gaze to ground for a moment, before meeting hers again.

"Why not?" She countered sharply. "You've been travelling with us for almost a month, but we almost know nothing about you."

"We also don't know nothing of Salvor."

"He's an Aumaua, you know how they are."

Maryden sighed, rolling her eyes and sat down on a nearby rock, setting down the lantern and wiped the sweat from her brow. The fever was less bad than before. The sooner they found the berries the better, but there is no harm to rest a bit is there?

"The Living Lands might have been my birthplace, but it wasn't home. Not for me," she said with a soft voice. There must have been something on her face that made Calisca pause for a moment.

"Is it because you are a Godlike?"

Maryden stared at the woman, nodding slowly. "I see that you noticed. I thought that I successfully.. never mind."

Against her expectations Calisca also sat down on a nearby rock, a small reassuring smile playing on the woman's lips. "It's hard not to notice when you cut down those wolves, ablaze and all." She continued despite Maryden looking away with guilt.

"Is that why you're going to Dyrwood? To find a home?"

Maryden shrugged, tugging a strand of hair behind her ear. "Maybe. Perhaps I've been trying too long too hard to belong somewhere, so one day I decided to walk where my feet take me and my heart goes to."

Calisca had been silently watching her speak. Suddenly the woman reached out and placed a gauntleted hand on her armored shoulder, grasping it firmly.

"You will find it." It was not a promise coming from her lips, it was a fact.

Maryden nodded, and as she spoke her voice sounded oddly hoarse in her ears. "Yeah."

"I heard that most Fire Godlike had skin like burning coal, hair of fire and the like?"

Maryden could not help but laugh, a bit harsh though.

"Not every Godlike is the same. Some merely have a mark, others are very apparent. With me..-" she paused for a moment, to think about the words she was about to say.

"When I experience a heavy emotion it shows more. And I am told the ends of my hair looks like flickering fire in direct sunlight," Maryden said. It was somehow relieving to find someone open-minded concerning her.. condition? "If I balance myself out, I could pass for an ordinary human."

Aloth took a sip of his drink, what seemed to be some type of wine judging by the smell. "They say that the people of Dyrwood think of Fire Godlikes to be touched by Magran," he said, as if trying to get to a certain topic.

They were both seated at a table in the corner of the inn. Though it the atmosphere was homier than the rest of Gilded Vale, it somehow seemed off again. On purpose, Maryden had taken the seat so that she was with her back to the rest of it, hoping to avoid the concerning visions.

His grey eyes took her in. Maryden wiped her mouth with a piece of cloth that served as a napkin. Despite that she was famished she had still tried to eat with some dignity. Perhaps it was the aristocracy and sophisticated air Aloth had around him, but she somehow wanted to prove that she was not barbaric like he preferred to call the people from the region.

"Are you asking me if I believe?" She looked up from her empty plate and took a gulp from her tankard. The beer wasn't the best, but definitely not the worst that she had on her travels. Any type would suffice right now.

"I'm curious about your own standpoints, as a fellow foreigner."

Aloth watched Maryden look down at the beer in her hands with silent contemplation. He was started to wonder if she was ever going to answer when she talked.

"I want to believe in something, but what that something is I have yet to find out," she explained softly. She sighed and ran a hand through her fringe combing it a bit with her fingers as if it was askew or not to her liking, or as if she was not sure what to do or say. "I don't know. What about you?"

Aloth smiled at her. "I believe in facts and what I see."

"Is that taught where you are from, Aloth?"

"It is to me."

The Elf chuckled and took another delicate sip from his wine, Maryden leant back in her seat as he eagerly told her about his training as a wizard and that he was a forced adventurer. He explained that he was from Cythwood, from Aedyr and that his parents served nobility.

Behind her she could hear the small talk of several patrons. It wasn't crowded, but there were enough people to fill the room and keep the innkeepers busy. She glanced back for a moment, her curiosity about her fellow patrons suddenly present. Her eyes tracked the waitress, swerving between tables with skill and years of practice, her dark hair pulled up in a tight bun to stay out of her face. Aloth's voice seemed to get softer, mingling with the whispers at the edge of her hearing.

The woman stroked away a stray strand behind her ear and sighed as she took another patron's order, nodding her head leisurely in understanding. Her sunken eyes were dull, dark rings of fatigue surrounding them. The whispers seemed to grew louder, or where the sounds from outside getting mute?

It was like a soft tugging at the back of her skull at first, but when Maryden noticed it a strange sensation already pulled her in. Maryden could no longer think, because she was no longer sitting there. Maryden was swiveling between tables, a two full trays balancing on one arm as she placed down drinks with the other as she passed the patrons. Sweat dripped down along the back of her neck into her collar, she could already feel the bun on the back of her head sag but she had no time to readjust it.

When her trays were finally empty she heard a crash. Sighing with frustration causing her jaw to clench she placed down the trays a little harder on the counter and grabbed a towel briskly. She kneeled down on the floor, between the tables and grabbed the wooden tankard, placing it on the table before mopping off the spilled beer.

"Look at this laddie, that's how a real woman should behave. On her knees!" The man at the table of where the tankard belonged to bellowed. Men around them shouted in agreement.

Maryden looked up past her dark bangs at the man. It was a vile one, smelling of beer and piss. He grinned down at her, showing that he missed some of his teeth but those that remained had browned over the years of bad hygiene. She could feel her blood boil as he winked at her and licked his lips in a suggestive matter.

Trying to cool down her temper Maryden stood up with the goal to wring out the towel and grab a clean one to mop up the rest when the man grabbed her by the wrist. Maryden glared at him, straight into his eyes and noticed her reflection. In a reflex she pulled back her hand and slapped-

A hand landing on her shoulder made her start and gasp. Too fast and none too gentle, all the sound around her appeared at once. The hand on her shoulder shook her, hard and urgently. She blinked a view times and reached up to her temple, her head felt like it was splitting in two.

"Maryden!"

The sharp shout of a familiar voice made her look to the side. Aloth was leaning in, his grip still firm on her shoulder as his grey eyes searched hers. A frown etched deeply into his once so smooth face.

"Are you feeling alright? You look very pale.." he began but cut himself off when Maryden stood up, tearing herself away from his grasp. There was a panicked look in her eyes when she glanced around, taking in all the patrons and the waitress looking at her. There was a wariness in their gazes.

"I'm just very tired from my travels. Goodnight," Maryden hastily said to Aloth, almost stumbling over her words and without wasting another second she had turned on her heels and walked up the staircase, taking two at a time.

When she was at her room, she instantly locked the door and sat down the bed, hugging herself as her mind erupted into chaos with the headache pounding away on the inside of her skull.

'What's going on with me?' she feverishly thought. 'Did I just witness a vision? But I was her.. My view was not from a distance.' But no explanation came to her.

Cold sweat pearled on her forehead as claustrophobia suddenly overwhelmed her. Maryden flung up and opened her windows, not caring that it was still raining. Inhaling the fresh air deeply with closed eyes, she felt her heart began to settle and the headache subside when the rain hit her face. But the whispers were still present, just at the edge of her hearing.

It worried her even more now than before.

A curt knock on her door pulled her out of her thoughts. Would she open the door? Did she want to face the person on the other side? If it was urgent surely they would knock again or try to come inside, yet nothing happened.

Maryden closed the window, wiping her face with the back of her sleeve and walked to the door, still hesitating. After standing there for a few seconds she reached out, her hand encasing the cool copper of the doorknob. Not before taking a deep breath she opened it, ready to face the angry owner of the inn that would surely tell her off about her antic down at the common room.

Instead there was no one there.

She frowned and was for a moment worried that aside of whispers she started to hear things, just when her ears picked up the sound of footsteps moving away from her. She leaned outside and looked, her eyes taking in the back of Aloth's head. His smooth black hair swaying with him in his stride as he distanced himself from her door.

'Shall I call out to him?' Before the thought ended Maryden heard herself shout his name.

Aloth stopped in his stride and turned around, eyes fixating on her before walking back to her door, meanwhile occasionally glancing back over his shoulder to keep track of his surroundings. With a gesture she invited him in and closed her door.

It was a simple room, little to no decorations not even paintings, but it held a bed, a table and a chair. Everything was in brown or greyish tones like the rest of Gilded Vale. It wasn't luxury but just enough to suffice the needs of a lone traveler.

"Maryden?" He asked, his voice down but not quite a whisper. There was still a frown on his face and with a serious look in his grey eyes he seemed to take her in. She ventured towards the corner of the room and leaned against the table refraining to sit on it, her arms wrapped around herself. Aloth lingered a bit, his posture uncomfortable.

She opened and closed her mouth, not sure where to start. Would she risk telling a practically complete stranger that she was probably going nuts? She just knew him for a few hours, but he already seemed to accept who she was. At that moment she decided to take a leap of faith and began at the beginning.

"I was part of a caravan. We discovered Engwithan Ruins and decided to camp there, I ran a high fever at the time and could use the rest before the final push to here, Gilded Vale," Maryden said. She explained Aloth about the berries, the Glanfathan tribe that slaughtered the caravan and the bîawac.

"I'm afraid that I must've gotten some sickness on top of the fever, because after the bîawac I'm-" she paused for a moment to find the words. "I think I hear whispers. Not just at moments but all the time, even now. Sometimes I see things, visions."

"What do the whispers say?" Aloth asked, his tone objective but his eyes were not; they seemed sympathetic. He had been silent during her entire story of how she ended up here in Gilded Vale. Maryden had expected him to call her crazy and walk out, but he did not. He had just sat there, listening to her without interrupting until now. She shrugged her shoulders at his question.

"I do not know. It's all gibberish like a thousand voices are talking at the same time. I can't make out a single one of them." She then groaned and pressed the palm of her hand on her head, feeling another strong headache work its way up.

"This has been a very eventful day for you," Aloth said and shifted his weight, his face almost frownless but not quite. "Thank you for confiding in me and if it assures you; I am sure we will find a cure for your illness. It's not something I have ever heard of, but if we find a capable animancer and you explain your situation there must surely be some explanation to this all."

Maryden felt the corners of her lips tuck up in a faint smile. "We?" She followed Aloth to the door. The Elf stammered and his fluster was obvious, despite the weak candlelight that illuminated the room.

"Well, yes. I'm a wizard, you're a good fighter. We are both adventurers in a foreign land and I believe in travelling in numbers. Won't you agree?"

Maryden crossed her arms across her chest and regarded him in a bit of an amused matter, feeling lighter than before now that she was able to share at least some of her thoughts. She briefly thought about her short period of travelling alone to this place. It had been uncertain and simply terrifying as there was no one to measure her sanity with, who knew how it would progress in the future. The decision was quickly made.

"I agree."

"Are you sure about this?" Aloth pressed for the hundredth time. "The locals are not exactly 'friendly' towards anyone out of the ordinary. If they notice something off-"

"My dream is the only lead I have," Maryden said, cutting off the Elf. With each stride her gut wrenched tighter into a nauseating ball of anxiety with her heart hammering against her ribcage. Aloth had followed her, buzzing around her trying to talk some 'sense' in to her.

Was she scared? Perhaps. Did she have to do it? Definitely, but doubt was bubbling up to the surface of her mind. What would she gain? Her thoughts of doubt were silenced when they stopped in front the deformed gallows tree of Gilded Vale.

The air was frisky this early morning, mist absorbed the village giving it a haunting image that did not help. Her eyes searched those of the dead, looking for a familiar face.

Maryden had feverishly dreamt that night of an animancer, a dwarf woman that used to serve Raedric until a few weeks ago, her face already shriveled skin pulled taught over the bones. It had felt real, so real that she still recalled the rancid stench emanating from the dwarf's mouth and how empty and hollow her eyeless eye sockets seemed to stare at her. It was burned into her nerves.

'Watcher.'

She heard her own breath stagnate when she found the face she had been looking for. Slowly, careful not to trip over the trees gnarly roots she made her way to the woman, her surroundings completely forgotten, who was hung on a low branch though still high enough that Maryden could not reach her. The woman's face hung a little to side just like her dream.

There was a strange glow about the dwarf, one that did not seem to emanate to the surroundings but there was tepid warmth to it. Maryden had the urge to touch it, but could not do it with her hands for the woman was out of reach and the glow seemed to come from within.

Suddenly that strange sensation tugged again in the back of her head, it pulled her in and swept her mind away with the current before she could even struggle to prevent this. Maryden did not know what to expect, but certainly not that she remained standing on her spot after the occurrence with the waitress. Had that been different? Maryden looked around but there was no one there, not even other corpses hanging in the tree and everything was covered in thick impenetrable layer of fog. It was just her and the corpse.

Something creaked and on instinct she looked up. Instead of a motionless half-withered body the dead woman now pointedly gazed at her as far as that was possible with her having no eyes. She seemed to smile, a few teeth appeared to be missing.

"Have you come here for me, my dear? Or have you gotten lost?" The smile of the dwarf woman grew with a sudden realization. "Both, I think."

Maryden's mouth opened and closed a few times before she was able to convey words, her thought process staggering in confusion. "What is this? Am I imagining this?"

The woman chuckled. "No you are not. This is very real for you and I."

"How can you speak to me? Who are you?" Maryden asked and gestured to the woman. "You're not exactly in fit condition to talk." The dwarf chuckled.

"Is that what we are doing? Perhaps that is your mind trying to make sense of it."

The dwarf looked down at her own body and clicked her tongue. "But right you are were it not for you. As of who I am; my name is Caldara de Berranzi. I used to be an animancer of Lord Raedric, until he grew tired of me."

"My mind tries to make sense of it..?" Maryden repeated to herself on a whispering tone and took a small step closer, her eyes squinted shaking off the other questions bubbling up to the surface except one. This woman Caldara was an animancer before she died. Perhaps she could give her some answers. "I need to understand something that has happened to me," she began, noticing that her voice had a slight tremor in it.

Caldara glanced back at her, tilting her head. The robe around her neck groaned in protest with the movement. A wind that Maryden did not feel on her skin moved the body slight from side to side, but Caldara's empty gaze did not falter. She appeared to be waiting.

Taking a deep breath, she told Caldara about the bîawac, the whispers and the visions, not only that of the waitress but also in portions those she had seen with a waking mind. To a strangers ear it must have sounded like the ravings of a lunatic, but Caldara merely gave her a look of pity.

"You have seen past the Shroud, dear. Your soul remembers how it sees when it leaves the body, like being reminded of a dream you have forgotten," the dwarf nodded.

"You are a Watcher, now. And a Watcher you will stay."

'There is that word again.'

"What is a Watcher?"

"What it is indeed," Caldara chuckled. "It was not I who studied this, but I will tell you what I know. Souls pass on. They leave the world for a time and then are reborn into it. Sometimes more as before, most of the time less and seldom the same."

"For all souls, there is a time where they do not live. They did not leave and aren't reborn yet, so they wander like you and I. Lost and forgotten," Caldara's stare seemed to intensify. "A Watcher sees them and knows instinctively what to look for. Sometimes they know a person just by looking at them. Know where they've been in ages past and when their bodies were other bodies. See memories even the owner can't recall."

'That explained the waitress,' Maryden thought.

"For more answers, you should see old Maerwald. He is a Watcher just like you. Took an old keep not far from here called Caed Nua, beyond the Black Meadow."

"My friends were killed by the bîawac, why weren't I?" Maryden whispered, but Calderra heard it none the less.

"A soul can be heavy if it stayed in one piece through it's time. Strong souls, we animancers call them." Suddenly a sad look crossed the woman's withered face. "Called, I mean."

Maryden contemplated the woman's words. It explained some of her 'sickness', at least the way she was able to reach to the waitress and Calderra, but it did not explain the visions she saw at day nor the whispers. But she had a feeling that the animancer would not know any of this. Her best shot was with Maerwald.

"Thank you, Calderra," Maryden began, pulling the woman out of her mulling thoughts. Calderra smiled again. "Goodbye, my dear. It was lovely visiting." Then her head slumped forward and a bit to the side like before.

Around Maryden the intense fog seemed to seep away for a bit and she could see the silhouettes of the houses bleeding into vision and people passing by. The corpses above her swung in the wind that was cold and icy on her cheeks. Slowly she stepped over the roots of the tree and stopped next to Aloth who had been waiting on her for god knew how long. Aloth gazed at her with a worried look.

"Are you alright? You seemed lost just now."

Maryden ran a hand across her forehead, noticing that it was wet with sweat but cold to the touch of her own fingertips. She tried to wrap her pounding head around what had just occurred. "What happened?"

Aloth frowned. "Well, you walked to that corpse of a dwarf zoned out for a minute staring at it, turned around and here you are as pale as if you've seen a ghost. Did it help, coming here?"

"I.. yes-" she stammered, her voice off in her own ears. Maryden tried to think but the headache intensified sharply and black blotches appeared in her vision. She remembered herself to take a deep breath, but her knees buckled in the process.

"Hey-!" A voice in the distance shouted, but was not Aloth's. Before Maryden could respond, she was already hurled into darkness.

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