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Arthur greeted Felicia and they headed off together. Since Arthur had just gone back from the local doctor, he caught Felicia up to date on the situation with regards to Emile and Emilio. Emile was just slightly injured and suffered a slight concussion to the head when it knocked into the wall. According to the doctor's diagnosis, he would recover before the day ended and generally suffered no damage other than the one to his ego.

Emilio though was a completely different story. Even the doctor could not tell what had happened to the man, he showed zero response to all sorts of outside stimulus, from heat to pain. It was as if the man's soul had been sucked out of his body and only his husk remained. The doctor tried all the remedy but none of them seemed to be working.

The doctor had also heard about the story of the divine intervention from Arthur and he had to surrender to the fact that mortal medicine was probably not going to undo the effect of a divine attack. However, he promised to try his best and if all else failed, at least Emilio still had his big brother to take care of him.

"It's karma," Felicia commented with a shrug.

Arthur agreed with her but he asked, "Don't you feel sorry for the man? He would have to spend the rest of his life in this pitiable state. To be honest, I'd rather the goddess kill him and be done with it."

"Perhaps you're right but such is the rule of nature. Like fate, we can never control the decision and movement of the divine. The sun rises from the east and drops at the west, certain things happen for a reason, we might not be able to see it yet but that doesn't mean that it's not there."

Arthur had no idea how this led to a philosophical discussion and since he had no firm stance on this issue, he just nodded along to what Felicia had to say.

Felicia paused and she eyed Arthur with suspicion. "Unless of course, you plan to sneak into the doctor's to deliver Emilio the sweet release of death..."

"No, no, no!" Arthur shook his head immediately. "I'm just curious about your opinion about the whole issue. I don't have any intention to continue the entanglement with the siblings. My business with them is done."

Felicia broke into a laugh. "I'm just joking." After her laughter petered away, Felicia added, "Arthur, you know what, I enjoy having these discussions with you. We should go on more adventures in the future, I never had the chance to have these talks when I was on any of the quests with Billy. The man only knows how to charge forward."

Felicia looked at the position of the sun in the sky. "But charging forward has its advantage because if we continue to move at this speed, the sun would have fallen when we reached our destination, the Spring Leaf Village."

Felicia hurried for Arthur to move faster. After she turned back to the road, Arthur's face was flushed but it was hard to tell whether that was from the sweltering weather or the earlier compliment.

...

Felicia and Arthur arrived at Spring Leaf Village at late afternoon when the weather had turned noticeably cold and the sun was slowly moving down the sky. The stars would probably appear in a few more hours.

Spring Leaf Village was a small settlement whose villagers were mostly farmers and they depended on trades with nearby villages like Armana for their economy. In fact, the place reminded Arthur plenty of Armana, it was just a small village with an enclosed community.

Felicia accosted one of the gentlemen who was going home after a long day of labour in the field. The man was friendly and amiable like most country folks were. Before Felicia could say anything, the man had started introducing her to the local inn and shops where Felicia and Arthur could find lodging for the night as well as the place to restock their inventory should they need it.

Felicia thanked the man for his kindness and she explained that they were there for a purpose. The man told Felicia that he would help in any way that he could.

However, when Felicia asked the man about the missing child, the man frowned. He pointed Felicia to the house that had the missing child but before he left, he warned Felicia to be careful. Felicia naturally asked him why and the man said nothing beyond, "Beware of the Blood Mother," before he hurried away.

Felicia told Arthur of her weird experience with the man and Arthur could not say he had a better explanation for the situation either.

As they made their way to the house in question, Felicia and Arthur bumped into more villagers. They stopped quite a number of them and they all acted almost in similar way as the gentleman from before. They were initially very friendly and welcoming to Arthur and Felicia, but when they heard the two were there to answer the quest of the missing child, their guard turned up naturally.

When asked to give more details on this "Blood Mother", the villagers' mouth clamped shut and they ran away like anything beyond the mention of the "Blood Mother's" name was a taboo.

"Looks like the quest's insinuation of a monster being involved has some grounds to it," Felicia told Arthur.

Arthur nodded and Felicia continued, "Unfortunately, none of the villagers are willing to give us any information beyond her name." Arthur commented, "Perhaps the mother of the missing child will be more willing to talk since she might need our help to bring back her child."

"Hopefully, you're right."

Felicia and Arthur eventually reached the house that was mentioned by the villagers. It was a simple farmer's hut with stone walls and straw roof. Felicia moved to knock on the wooden door and it fell open from her knock.

Framed in the open door was a woman with her head in her hands, long black hair falling over her face, sitting on a chair, weeping softly.