A thread to follow

Ninleyn was in the bathroom for about half an hour, and it did not sound like a good time. The noises that came from that corner of the house are the kind that should be reserved for monsters or large wild animals and the smell was equally terrifying. Hera, Bonnie, and Helena were grouped up in the kitchen surrounded by incense and scented candles.

"Did he die in there?" Bonnie asked.

"Fresh bodies smell better. He's been rotting for weeks," Hera was almost shoving a cup of coffee into her nose, trying to smell only her drink.

"Honestly, this is worse than I remember," Helena gasped.

"How can a legacy do that?" Hera shook her head.

"I have no idea. Does Blue have anything like it?" Helena was making a barricade of scented candles on the kitchen table.

"Not as far as I'm aware. But maybe with time, that will show up. I mean, she got it what, a month ago?" Hera's voice was distorted since she was talking into her mug.

There was a moment of silence where the three just tried to survive the assault on their noses. Suddenly, Bonnie gasped, "Oh, no!"

"What?" Hera turned to her.

"Do we have a sewer system here? Or is that like an outhouse?" Bonnie asked.

"It's a mix. There is an enchanted tunnel that breaks down everything and sends it to the fields to make manure. They use like, this big tunnel that is pretty close to a sewer but much smaller," Hera explained. This was a small detail that made her stay in Boothudurn much more pleasant.

A few more minutes passed, and the sounds Hera heard will surely come back to haunt even the monsters in her nightmares, but Ninleyn finally came out of the bathroom feeling refreshed.

"Oh, this one was bad. Then again, it's my fault for eating a bacon cheeseburger," he waved his hand around, and the smell vanished, being replaced by the scent of jasmine.

"Couldn't you have done that while you were in there?" Helena asked.

"Apologies, but the situation inside the bathroom required my undivided attention," Ninleyn replied.

"Why does your legacy do that to you? I thought it would only help you get stronger," Bonnie carefully came out of the kitchen.

"That is… more or less correct. You see, my court specifically is about forest and life. Eating meat or anything that required the organism to die to be harvested can cause interference with my magic. The legacy made me particularly sensitive to the mana present in living creatures, even the small amounts still present in meat," Ninleyn walked back to the couch.

"If it's living things, doesn't that mean that mushrooms are also bad for you?" Bonnie came back to the living room while carrying a scented candle.

"That is correct. My diet is mostly made up of some vegetables, fruits that naturally fall from trees, and animal products that don't require the creature to die, like milk and eggs. That being said, I can still access some of my legacy even when I have eaten meat or other things, but there is this restriction for the more flashy and powerful skills. If I force it, this happens. My body pushes out the incompatible mana in a rather… Unpleasant manner."

"And does the Herald control that? Or is it just an automatic reaction?" Hera asked.

"Oh? You even know about the Heralds. That's peculiar. Not everyone is aware of their existence," Ninleyn smiled, "She can control it but to a point. Without going into too much detail, there is a time limit, but it's long enough for me to never have worried about it during a tense situation. And I'm almost sure that she makes it especially unpleasant at times, but I can't prove it," Ninleyn squinted to the side, to where Hera assumed the Herald was.

"And is it that bad every time?" Bonnie went to take a sip of her coffee but stopped. Her stomach wasn't ready for anything just yet.

"Oh, no. This was still on the easier side, despite it all. I've been following my diet, and the burger was the only hiccup. The first time this happened. That was hell. I honestly thought that the MAZE might create a dungeon because of the smell," Ninleyn laughed.

"Anyway. Back to the main subject. You still haven't finished explaining everything," Helena chimed in.

"Of course. Where was I…." Ninleyn stopped to think for a moment, "Ah, right. The Hero Court. As I showed, this is proof that they existed in some capacity and left their mark in the MAZE. The goal of the order is to uncover more about the Court of Heroes and recover their legacies when possible."

"How do you know where they are? Or where we can find something about the Court of Heroes?" Hera scratched her head.

"Well, this is where our work comes into play. I have found some leads that might direct us in the right direction during my travels, but there are too many for a single person to follow. That's why I created the order," Ninleyn created the illusion of an entangled piece of thread in his hand. One single string came out and straightened itself to the side, "Imagine that this string is a single clue that we have. This might lead to other clues or one of the actual legacies. Each member of the order receives a single clue and can follow it up as far as they want. When they find a new clue, a branching path, if you will, they must choose if they will follow this new lead or continue their previous one. The other lead will be shared with the order so another person can follow it up when they are done with their own lead."

As he spoke, the illusion changed, showing a small silhouette walking on top of the string until the thread unraveled and branched out in several directions. The humanoid illusion followed the main path, but other figures soon appeared, each on a different string. The more they walked, the more paths appeared. Some crossed while others intertwined at times before splitting off again.

"The way I created the order is that at any given time, each member is following a single lead. You are free to have as many people helping you as you want or to give up a clue and get a new one whenever they want. However, there are rules with that. First, any information you gather must be shared with the order. Second, even if you are interested in someone else's clues, you may not interfere with their work. You can try to swap your leads, but you may not try to steal or hinder their progress. This endeavor requires teamwork, and we don't have room for greedy thieves. Oh, and this goes without saying, but if you give up a lead and someone else solves it, you can't complain. After all, giving that one up was your choice. Third, we should do our best to keep the court a secret. Now, I'm not saying you cannot tell your party or the people that will join you in the expeditions about it, but until we can find everything we want, we should avoid talking too much about the Court of Heroes," Ninleyn continued.

"Why is that? Wouldn't it be better if a lot of people knew about it? Then we could cover more ground, even if they don't have a lead," Hera said.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean they will share what they found or that they will give the Courts the same respect I hope you will give. Also, we don't want to share those rewards. I say that we don't have room for greedy thieves because we are already playing that role. We all want a legacy and items that were never seen before, even if they will be underwhelming in comparison with things that we buy today," Ninleyn took a sip of his tea.

"Right, but that clue thing doesn't seem fair. If I found a clue, shouldn't I be the one who gets the rewards?" Bonnie asked.

"To a point, yes. But you can't expect to get the legacy if another person did all the work to get to it. And each lead you find and give to the order will give you contribution points that you can use to get items and basically anything we can offer."

"And what are those leads?" Hera asked.

"Ah, they can be a wide variety of things, from poems to texts, maps, paintings, or anything that might give us a hint of where a member of the court might have passed through. Our goal is to find their final resting place. This is a bit like being a detective. We have to be smart and notice the small details. Before you get your own leads, I will send you on a trial run. We have a member that is currently trying to find something, and she could use some help. If the situation was different, I would've asked Helena to do this. Still, considering both her current situation and her lack of development with her own lead, it wouldn't be a good experience for you."

"And I'll be going with you guys either way," Helena added. When Ninleyn looked towards her with a worried expression, the mage continued, "You are crazy if I'm letting Hera go inside an ancient ruin without me. She's my assistant, and I will be helping her, just like she would do for me."

"Fair enough. But be careful. I understand that you might not be in a good condition to fight," Ninleyn shrugged, knowing it was useless to try to convince her otherwise.

"Do you know what we will be doing?" Bonnie asked.

"I believe that Shane is searching for or has found some ruins that she wants to explore. Either way, I have discussed that with her, and when she is ready, she can tell you where to go," Ninleyn explained.

"Can we take other people with us?" Hera asked. She just reunited with her friends, and the last thing she wanted to do was to split off again.

Ninleyn sighed, "Personally, I don't like to have other people involved in those things. But it will be up to Shane."

"I think it will be ok. If I remember correctly, she's the kind who thrives in a group," Helena added.

"You know her?" Hera turned to the mage.

"Yeah, she's an explorer who helped me out when I was doing some of my research."

"Was she your assistant?" Bonnie asked.

"We never got that far. Besides, Shane is not the type to work for someone else. She's too much of a free spirit," Helena was still moving around the room. Hera noticed that the mage hadn't sat down at all since Ninleyn arrived.

"Anyway. If you want to bring people along, that will be up to her. As I said, we don't control what you do with each lead, but each member can decide how to approach it. I just ask you not to, you know, post these leads online or try to spread what we know," Ninleyn got a refill for his tea.

"If we do that, are we getting kicked out? Or are you just scrubbing that information from the internet?" Bonnie asked.

"What? No, nothing like that. I barely understand social media, much less deleting online data like that. We don't actively try to make people unaware of the courts. We just don't advertise it. After all, the more people know about this, the smaller will be the chances we have of finding the legacies. I believe that Shane herself used the internet to find a specific place once. She disguised it as a game of sorts, I think. I'm not sure, but you can ask her more about it. To make this clear, this is a test for you and for us. The order wants to know how well you can deal with clues and this type of exploration, and you will see at first hand what we expect you to do. If everything goes well, after Shane says you have done your job, you can pick a lead among the ones we have available and take a look at all the information about the Court of Heroes we have."

"So we can still choose not to join the order completely, even after knowing all of this?" Hera asked.

"Well, yes. Like I said, we are not trying to control information. We just avoid sharing it," Ninleyn finished his tea, "Do you have any more questions?"

"What do we get from the order by following the leads? Or is it just about whatever we find in the ruins or whatever?" Bonnie was finally able to drink her coffee again.

"Well, as much as I would wish that just the information about the Courts would be enough, each new lead or piece of information you find will be equivalent to a certain amount of contribution points. You can use those points as a currency that you can use to buy things or request services from the members of the order. It is much like the tasks you have been doing, Bonnie, but if we are talking about gold, you can ask for a refund for any expenses that you have while following a lead. We take care of the bill, as long as it is within reason. We won't pay for new armor, weapons, or things like that, but food, water, supplies, travel expenses, library fees, all those kinds of things are on us," Ninleyn explained.

They kept talking for some time, with Ninleyn explaining some of the finer details about the exchange of points. A way for the order to pay for those expenses was by taking a small cut from any products created with their resources. They had many crafters that improved their skills thanks to the order. Even the guild recognized the skills of some of the members, so much so that they were called to help take down the wall. This gave any member of the order quick access to masters of their craft, and the points could turn into top class equipment. About half an hour later, all questions had been answered, and he gave them Shane's contact. Right now, she was back on Earth with her family taking a short vacation, but soon, she would return and continue chasing her court. This was a good thing. They would have some time to talk things out and work together. Not to mention they could try to get some more dungeons done to improve their teamwork. And, most of all, if this would be a situation where Hera would need to leave some of her friends behind, she wanted to spend as much time with them as possible.