- A Woman

The two women sat across from each other, not daring to give anything away by the silent glares shared between them. One held a glare that could kill, as if the others mere presence was repugnant, while the other simply looked on, as if she could care less to the conversation they were having.

Eventually, the silence was broken by the Town Speaker, who had introduced herself as Kara, spoke first.

"Since you know who I am, I suppose we can drop the formalities?"

Lia nodded, shifting in her chair.

"Good. Then I'll lay out the truth for you then Lia. I believe you had something to do with this 'abnormal' goblin attack. According to the other Hunters, you were quite afraid throughout this raid, as if you were worried someone would find something. Care to explain?"

Lia didn't see any reason not to answer the questions, as she knew she would either be forced to answer them later, or worse, risk her finding the answers from someone else.

And those types of answers weren't always truthful.

"I was afraid for the same reason everyone else was. To say no one but me was afraid is a lie spouted by cowards."

Kara seemed somewhat surprised by the harshness of Lia's answer, but when she realized that the other Hunters were no doubt distancing themselves from her, she didn't blame her rash answer, nor her harsh tone.

"Yes, you could say that. But then might I ask why you rushed head first into the fortress, as the witness claims?"

"My fear didn't come from the monster, but from the chance of my summons, my friend dying at its hands."

Kara snapped her fingers, finding the answer she wanted, and took the opportunity to shift the conversation back to her original question.

"Ah, now that you bring such a topic up, might I also ask what your summons is exactly?"

Before Lia could answer, refusing to comply, Kara held up a hand to stop her.

"Wait. Allow me to tell you that I also know about your summons, this way I don't get information I already know."

Lia shrugged.

"Go ahead."

"Thank you. Now, I know your summons is of Human form, as the witnesses claim that they saw a lone man battling against this monster in question - a large and quite terrifying goblin. But what I can also tell you is that your summons is powerful enough to destroy that entire fortress."

"What makes you think it's destroyed?"

"Simple. No spire of flames like the one I saw would leave anything left alive. Wood, stone, and flesh would burn away."

She leaned forward, her voice growing serious and stern.

"Now, tell me this. If your summons is so powerful, why are you - a Hunter summoner - ranked only C? And for that matter, why keep it hidden? Were you trying to achieve something easy or…something else?"

Lia sighed, a deep breath coming from her lungs, as her mind worked around the questions with a nonchalant attitude.

"I'm rank C because there wasn't enough evidence of my past experiences, or enough experience to rank me higher."

"But you got Rank C? And staring off, which is quite the achievement no doubt."

"If you're trying to congratulate me then you're terrible at it. I and a few others from my party took down a Rank C Silver Tail Spider nest. I also had help from my employer."

"So can I assume then that you did only the bare minimum? After all, if you received that much help from your employer, then I suppose you don't deserve Rank C?"

Lia's mind was burning as she was currently working through the headache that this woman was giving her with all the necessary questions. But on the outside, she was as cold as ice.

"The last I checked, you - being the 'Town Speaker' and all - don't have jurisdiction with the Hunter's Post. So who are you to criticize their choice?"

Instantly, the temperature in the room dropped, and Kara's eyes narrowed in anger. Lia had hit the spot she needed to in Kara's weak defense.

Through gritted teeth, Kara spoke with a frustrated tone.

"Continue."

"Fine."

Lia shrugged and returned to her nonchalant attitude from before, further setting Kara on end, fueling her anger.

"I didn't keep this knowledge hidden. They knew I had a summons but it never occurred to me to tell them what Rank he was. So I can't be blamed for something that slipped my mind during the moment."

"A well thought out excuse. However, you still haven't answered my last question, which I believe wouldn't fly with your 'slipping of the mind' excuse."

"Wow, you're quite the prickly woman."

Lia said smiling, her eyes passing over the door and her ears picking up the sounds of approaching footsteps.

"I try to be."

"That wasn't a compliment."

As she said this, she took a small bit of joy from the fact she could see Kara's veins popping on her forehead. A testament to her anger.

"I have nothing to hide from you or the Post about my summons. If they asked to see him, to even confirm that he does exist, then I would oblige. But they haven't, and so for that matter in question, I won't go above and beyond to prove something they already know."

"But they're not asking you, I am."

"And? Last I checked I was not a citizen of this city, nor am I a registered merchant. So therefore, I should not have to oblige your ill stated request."

"But you're a passer by, someone who has taken up residence in this city. While you are here, resting and living for the time being, you are subjected to my rules, just as everyone that travels through here is."

Lia shook her head, her mind currently signing from the stupidity this woman was trying to use against her.

'Can she just not take no for an answer?'

"I have to follow the laws and rules of the city - yes. However, I am not obligated to hear your demands. If I am being investigated, I can be kept in the city, but that still doesn't mean I have to obey your demands."

Kara's face changed, though only for a minute, as she smiled seeing a chance.

"But you are being investigated, so -"

"As I expected but still, this only means that if I was called to answer questions, that's fine. Present evidence, also fine. However, you cannot force a citizen of Morden, to produce anything without a valid reason, or warrant to search me."

"I don't need a warrant. I can just as easily order one to be served - but that would take too long. This can all be solved if you would just comply."

"Well I guess you're going to be waiting then."

Silence ensued around them once again, as small but subtle voices outside the door argued over something irrelevant to them.

Breaking the silence once again, Kara's eyes passed over Lia's armor and gear - simple leather and chain she had bought in Neverdark with a few tokens spared from Totlac.

And Evegallien.

"I've been wondering…"

She gestured to the blade adorned on Lia's side belt.

"...the way you speak, how you know all these laws in Morden. You wouldn't happen to be from a nobel family would you?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, it would explain your arrogance."

Kara said smiling, thinking as though she had finally laid a jab to Lia.

But she was once again disappointed with herself, and angered by Lia's refusal to obey.

"You mistake arrogance for intellect. Though I can't say that I blame you. After all, you can't understand what you don't have."

The words entered Kara's ears and her mind, but she didn't fully understand them until a few moments later, when she found herself instinctively clenching her fist together.

Anger was the only emotion that flooded her mind.

"Listen here."

Her words were a testament to her anger and frustration, as she spoke through gritted teeth, her fists and nails digging and cutting into her own skin.

"I don't know what game you're playing at, or what plan you have in mind. But I will find out soon enough."

"Be my guest. I have nothing to hide, so don't get angry when you find nothing."

"Don't be smart. I know that there is some connection between your summons and that monster, and when I find it, your head will be on the chopping block by dawn!"

Kara stood up swiftly, her face clenching in anger.

"This is my town - my city, and I will not have some traveler coming in here and playing hero where they don't belong."

Lia said nothing, as she heard the small subtle argument outside the door grow louder, a crash telling her how it ended.

"The only person who I think doesn't belong here Kara…"

The door knob turned, and flooded the lights from the outside, the cheers of the Hunters drowning out the silence that had ensnared the both of them.

"...Is you."

A deep voice said, finishing Lia's sentence as the lights from the main hall flooded in, illuminating the appearance of Randolph standing firmly in the doorway.

Behind him, two other Hunters held back a man dressed in branded iron armor, a guard Kara had stationed outside no doubt, in order to keep unwanted visitors from disturbing her.

Clearly, he had failed.

"Randolph."

Like with Lia, Kara's voice was filled with anger, but it seems to have tripled by the appearance of Randolph, not only interrupted her threats, but also meant that she could no longer pry Lia for answers.

"Kara."

Of course, Randolph shared the same disdain for her, as she held for him.

"You shouldn't be here."

"I'm the Town Speaker Randolph. Where I go, the law follows. I go where the trouble is, and from what I've heard, this girl - Lia - one of your own is responsible for that trouble."

"Oh?"

Randolph raised an eyebrow, leaning against the frame of the door.

"So, rather than come to me and begin an investigation with everyone's testimony, you instead went straight to her and pointed the finger."

He shook his head with narrow eyes.

"Not very leader like, huh, Ms. Town Speaker?"

Kara clenched her fists, similar to the way she handled Lia's defense. Clearly she wasn't good at hearing the word 'no.'

"I'm questioning her on the pretense of what your Hunters claimed happened during the Raid. You can't define a guilty party, especially when the evidence is right in front of you."

"What?"

He looked at Lia, sarcastically questioning her appearance.

"I don't see any proof at all. All I see is a Town Speaker, questioning one of my Hunters, and defying the laws Morden set in place."

"I-"

"You may be the Town speaker Kara, but you are not above country law. As you know there are five clans and their heads that govern five different sections of Morden. They impose the laws in their own lands."

"Yes, I know that -"

"Good. then you must also understand that our glorious clan leader has dictated that both town security and Hunter security are of equal importance. Meaning that if you have a problem with someone in 'my' Post…"

He got closer and closer with each word, until they were glaring into each others eyes, one not daring to drop against the other.

"...you come get me, I write up a witness report, and then we begin the investigation, side by side. We, Kara, are 'of equal value to Morden as town and city security.' So, don't walk in here, and think yourself to be the one in control of everything."

Now Kara was caught between two stones.

If she admitted that she didn't have jurisdiction with the Hunter's Post - a fact Lia had already told her about - she would admit that she was breaching her own grounds, and doing something illegal.

However, if she denied this, she would also be denying a law imposed by their clan head. An investigation would ensue once Randolph complained, and she would lose her position.

And that was something she would never do, as she cared too much about power to lose her grip on it, even to a mere Hunter who refused to answer her questions.

Reluctantly, she conceded, giving Randolph the answer he wanted.

"Fine, I'll step back here, and let you carry out your own investigation as I will do with mine. However…"

He pointed to Lia, who still calmly sat there without showing any signs of moving.

"...if I find that she was lying to me, and is part of this incident involving the deaths of four Hunters, she will pay for it."

Randolph took a long and hard look at Lia, who avoided both of their gazes with her eyes closed as if she already knew the answer to this argument, and the result that would come after it.

"I understand.""

"Good."

With that, Kara left through the open door, her guard following close behind after being let go by the two Hunters.

From the main hall, Lia could hear the sounds of the celebration dying down as Kara was no doubt passing through their ranks, proving to her that Kara was not well liked within the Hunter's Post.

When the sound of the front door closing, the party resumed, and Randolph turned to Lia with a look of pure seriousness.

"What did she ask you?"

Lia shrugged, trying to find any point to the questions Kara was asking, herself.

"Just stuff about my rank, how I don't deserve Rank C, and how she's basically threatening that if she discovered so much a single hair of mine on one of those bodies, she'll kill me."

Lia didn't bother to hold anything back as she laid it all out to Randolph, who stood quietly and listened.

When he had heard all of it, he silently nodded before turning to the two Hunters waiting outside the door.

"Go bring me Carlena, we've got some talking to do."

With a simple nod of the head, they were off as Randolph turned back to Lia with a look of pride.

"I don't care what you told her, or what you revealed. I just want to say that I'm proud you stuck up from yourself. That woman, Kara, is a power hungry witch, who only cares about herself. Anything that she can't control, she'll either get rid of, or be the worst pain in their side they could ever imagine."

His voice grew serious for a moment, as his words matched his tone.

"I suspect that's why she wants to blame you - or find some way to blame you for what happened. She's the only summoner in the town, and for that matter is very powerful. Having another summoner here, whose strength might rival her own, would send anyone into a state of fear. Just be careful from now on."

"It's fine, since I don't plan on staying in the Outpost much longer. My party and I were only stopping for a few days to get some rest, and then move on."

Lia stood up, her eyes dimming in the shadows casted by the fire. All of a sudden, she looked less like a young woman, and more like some ancient strategist, who knew everything, yet knew nothing.

"She'll be happy once I leave the city, and with how things went in the raid, I doubt anyone would complain."

"I'm afraid something like that might not be possible."

Once Lia heard this, her head snapped towards Randolph, a frown already emerging on her face.

"What do you mean?"

He sighed, deeply, weighing in the knowledge of this information, and what it might mean for Lia once she hears it.

"She's begun her investigation, and until that ends…"

He looked to Lia for any change in her expression.

"...you can't leave."