Keto was scanning the woods, and while next to her Quartes was doing the same, and likely doing a better job, she had to admit to herself that the woods seemed perfectly…normal.  The undergrowth was pushing in on the trail the village used on its way to larger markets but that was the extent of any the aggression she noted.  The trees stood tall and healthy, splotches of sun working there way through the foliage above.  Come out in night, wander off the trail and get turned around after tripping on a root, sure these things would be disconcerting, but there was nothing that struck her as threatening.  Golems ramming her ankles had proven more of a threat.

“I think these people may be overly superstitious,” she announced.  Quartes came to a stop.  She did the same, turning to with a raised eyebrow to the Landian.  Which was when she felt it.  With no patter of their boots, no leaves crunching underfoot, no words or hummed notes filling the air, there was just silence.  It pressed down on them and Keto felt her shoulders droop forward as a sweat broke out on the back of her neck.  The splotches of light seemed to fade and she looked up to see if a cloud had drifted in front of the sun but instead found only a dark canopy above her.  Next to her she saw the Landian shift, vaguely could hear the rustle of something on his belt but it sounded distant, like pushed under a heavy blanket.

The ear ringing crack that followed broke the silence.  Keto flinched at the sound and when her eyes reopened she noted that the light once more pierced the canopy.  As the echo faded away, bird calls and the rustle of branches flooded in to fill the void that had been the silence.  The sounds came back in a quick cacophony as if they had been held back by some dam.  Keto’s gaze moved about the suddenly alive woods turning about before she once more faced the Landian.  Quartes was returning the Hilt Shard of Lehn to his belt.

“There’s something here.”

*****

It was not a large town but one of the outlying farmers they had encountered did claim that it had an wayhouse, which sounded enough like an inn to Keto to be worth her excitement.  Their arrival had certainly caused a stir.  Keto figured that the town didn’t have many visitors that came marching across the fields and not down the trail that connected the town and its farms to the rest of Koric.  There seemed to be an equal measure of people coming out of doorways or rushing down streets as there were those rushing home and locking doors.

“I see why you don’t usually make an entrance,” Keto muttered besides the Landian as they continued on towards the town’s square.

“The mixed reaction is usually a sign that’s there’s a problem to be solved,” Quartes’ hooded gaze shifted to look at Keto.  “The hope that I may solve their problems keeps them all from staying inside.”  Keto shook her head, trying to suppress a smile and then noted the pair of figures that looked to be waiting for them at the town’s center.

“One of them is armed,” she noted.

“That’s usual,” Quartes answered.  They continued forward, Keto letting the Landian get a bit ahead of her.  When he came to a stop she hovered back in his shadow.  The two waiting figures took a look at each other, shifting from one foot to another, and then back to the Landian.  The smaller, and unarmed, of the two looked to Keto, she offered her fellow Humai a smile.  The man seemed to almost start.  Next to him, the armed Bovini snorted.  Head lowered to point his horns at the Landian, the Bovini looked at them through through narrowed eyes.  A hammer was in his hands and one of his hoofed feet stomped.  Keto took a moment to glance at the nearest wall.  She didn’t like how far she’s to go to put something solid between her and those horns.

Finally, Quartes lowered his hood.  In front of them the Humai fell back a step and about them Keto heard a few gasps and murmurs.  The Landian’s pupil-less eyes blinked a few times, looked about the square, and then settled on the Bovini.  “I’m Quartes,” he announced and Keto noted the shift the Landian made, parting his cloak slightly to reveal the hilt of his old sword.

The Bovini snorted again, shrugging off his companion as he announced, “We don’t want your trouble.”

“Trouble you already have, so we heard from traveller a tenday ago.”  The use of ‘we’ seemed to make the Bovini aware of Keto for the first time and his large ears flicked her way before pointing back towards the Landian.  “I’m here to solve it and then to be on my way.”

“We will solve this,” the Bovini snorted but Keto noted his head had risen, moving the horns out of line with them.  Still, Quartes was not countering and the two of them were quietly staring each other down.

“You could do that,” Keto interjected.  “I’m sure that hammer is a worthy threat,” she continued as all three men turned to look at her.  The Humai looked grateful, the Bovini annoyed, and Quartes…well his stoic face had settled in.  He hadn’t stopped her though and turned back to the town leaders as she continued.  “Succeed though and then every Fey is your problem, you’re the one others will come to for help.  You’ll be the one everyone comes to with their trouble.  Why not let us do it and then trouble someone else?”

The Bovini snorted again, “Then be off with it.”

“Well,” Keto started, flashing a smile, “first I have some questions I want to ask.”

*****

The sun shining without obstruction a reassuring feeling after the shadows of the woods.  The thrumming silence still clung to her and Keto only paused with her face upturned for a moment.  She reveled in its feeling of warmth but then opened her eyes and jumped forward a few steps.  Quartes had not stopped and was getting ahead of her.

“So, we encountered the Fey but didn’t see it,” she picked back up their conversation as she caught up.  “Is that usual?”

“Depends on the nature of their aggression,” Quartes answered, turning to face her for a moment.  “Often they’re very forthright.  They comes bursting out of the brush and charges.  It makes it easy to find them.”

“And to end them,” she offered.  The Landian nodded.  “Killing them is enough to stop them from coming back?”

“I don’t know anything that comes back from death.”  His answer was dry, overly so and Keto caught the hint of a smile as he looked at her.

“Funny,” she teased, “but another one doesn’t just come to take its place?”

“It might in time if someone starts the story anew, but then they have more confidence that it can be stopped.”  They had made a camp not far from the edge of the woods, leaving some of their gear there after they had visited the village.

“They’ll just believe you?” Keto asked, an idea tickling her mind.

“I’ll bring a piece of it if I can, but yes, my word is usually enough,” the Landian had set his pack down and had moved on to removing his bracers.

Keto opened her mouth to note that they could just go and tell the town they had taken care of it but she realized the problem before she had spoken.  Quartes would know that they had not taken care of it.  A Landian’s memory was it’s own problem to deal with.  “There’s not a more permanent method?”

“Not that I know,” bracers freed the Landian sat down on a boulder.  “I do wonder if I made a mistake,” Keto looked to him and waited for Quartes to continue.  “Scaring it with the Shard may make it weary.  I am known for this and that may mean it won’t rise to meet me again.”

Keto eyes narrowed as she thought.  “We’ll need to draw it out, give it something that matches it’s story.”  Quartes nodded.