Fight, Flight, or Freeze

A silent air loomed in Paro's home as the three present sat around the table. The food had already been prepared, but no one seemed ready to eat it.

Din and I were patiently waiting for Paro to begin telling us of the place we could head to, but it seemed like he was deep in thought. Karlyn seemed to have noticed the situation and chose to wait for the others to eat first.

Finally, Paro grabbed his spoon and then ate the curry. After a spoonful, some life entered his eyes. He continued to eat.

Karlyn turned to face Din. Din, noticing her gaze, began eating as well. Happy that the other two had finally started eating, Karlyn chose to eat as well.

It was a quick and silent meal. No one said a word.

Grabbing the plates from the table, Karlyn went into the kitchen to leave Din and Paro alone. It was then that Paro finally spoke. "When I left Ravenwalt, the first place I headed to was Mesotic. It's a small port town south of Ravenwalt and my word, it's a beautiful place. That's actually where I met Karlyn. I'm sure you noticed how different she looked compared to the rest of the village, right?"

With a quick cough, Paro covered his smile.

"Mesotic had great food, great people, and a great view to top it all off. But there was one big problem: pirates. Since they were a port town, there would be pirates that would raid their town often and the guards sent by Ravenwalt would be no match for the deceiving thieves. That wouldn't necessarily be a problem if Ravenwalt sent higher ranked guards, but I don't think they cared enough to do that."

At this point, Paro had closed his hands into fists. He looked at Din as he spoke, but he seemed to be gazing past Din, almost as if he was daydreaming.

"During one those raids, I had to kill for the first time in my life. It was horrible. I even froze right after I killed him. I thought I'd be used to the sight of blood from performing surgeries, but this was different. That blood was on my hands because I killed him."

He covered his eyes.

"If it hadn't been for Karlyn, I would've been frozen there and killed sooner or later. But that feeling, it never came to me again. I've had to kill numerous times after that, but that numb feeling never bothered me. That's why, I want you to make sure you're mentally prepared before going into battle and most importantly, always have someone you can trust with you."

"I can do that," Din replied confidently.

Paro spoke in an uneven voice, "There was someone I brought along with besides Karlyn from Mesotic. He saw how I helped the people in his town and wanted to learn medicine. So I decided to take him as an apprentice, I wanted to spread the knowledge to help people. A few months after coming here, he fell in love, but he was rejected by the girl. He didn't take it well and ended up torturing her using the medicine that I taught him."

Both Din and I remained silent.

"You have to make sure you know who you can trust. Right now, Lorelei is someone you can trust, but the other two that you came here with, please do be careful around them. I don't know them and it didn't seem like you knew them for long either."

Din hesitated for a second, but nodded in agreement. I'm sure Din had fully trusted in Tal, that's just the type of person he was.

Seeing as Din seemed willing to not blindly trust others, Paro changed the topic, "The place where you can find out more about Lorelei. It's a place called Aegis."

Din looked as if he wanted to know more about Paro's apprentice, but noticing that Paro wanted to avoid talking about it, he instead asked, "Huh? Is that in Grandel? I haven't heard of Aegis before."

Paro shook his head.

"No, but it's close. Aegis is its own island northwest of Grandel. You can either go to Lanport or Mesotic to get a ship, but if I were you, I'd recommend heading to Lanport. There's a chance you might run into pirate ships if you leave from Mesotic."

"What's in Aegis?" I asked.

Just as usual, Din repeated my question to Paro. Paro answered, "I've met some Spirits on my journey. As far as I know, that's where they went. Most of them probably know less than I do about Spirits, but I know for sure that at least one of them can help you. Like I've said before, I don't think you can ever bring Lorelei back to life, but there might be a chance you can learn more about your unusual situation. It'll be a long and dangerous journey so if you'd rather stay here, you are more than welcome to."

Without a moment's hesitation, Din replied, "Of course we'll be going." Then turned to me, "We'll find a way for everyone else to see Lorelei again."

"Ah, speaking of which," Paro started, "I actually spoke with her last night."

"What? But… I thought you couldn't see her?"

Paro scratched the back of his head, "That's normally the case, but just for a while that night, I could see her and talk to her."

"Do you know how you did it?" Din asked as he moved around the table to be closer to Paro.

"I don't know. I could suddenly see her and then just as suddenly, I stopped being able to see her. I can't tell you how it happened or why, just that it happened. But she seemed like a nice girl so I'm sure you'll be fine if you're travelling together."

All excitement left Din as the answer to my situation was still left open ended.

Paro placed a hand on Din's shoulder, "You'll find your answers in Aegis. Don't give up yet." After seeing Din's enthusiasm rise again, Paro continued, "So to get to Lanport, you need to head past Ravenwalt and then head southwest from there."

"I'll be heading to Newron before that. Tal and Mun went there. I think Newron was just west of Ravenwalt, right?"

Paro nodded. Then he added, "If you'll be in Newron, then I recommend buying ship boarding passes there since they'll be a lot cheaper there than in Lanport."

Both Din and I came to a sudden realization.

Having noticed our reactions, Paro folded his arms and said, "There's no helping it. Don't worry, I'll give you some money for the trip."

"Thank you, Uncle Paro."