Our little group of four didn’t bother lingering in town for much longer. The only thing we did before venturing towards the back gate that I knew led to the standing stones of T?r Gronn was to stop by a local cobbler. The shoes I’d bought Aveline back in Kawamara weren’t exactly unsuited for tromping through the damp, overgrown Herztalian countryside. We found something that fit her fairly quickly, and thanks to the near-supernatural skill of Professions, they were soon fit to her small feet and we were out the door.

  Still, the sight of a little girl in a yellow dress with stompy, child-sized boots was enough to bring a smile to my face.

  And then I offered to put her up on my shoulders anyway, in a complete reversal of why they’d been bought in the first place.

  I just shrugged under the deadpan stares from Azarus and Sena. I mean, it’s not like she had the physical enhancements of an Awoken, even if I suspected she had some link to the System. Aveline was still just a little girl who had spent literal millennia locked up in a stasis pod with the equivalent strength. Better to let her rubberneck from up there, so she could take in the sights better.

  So it was that maybe about an hour after we’d weighed anchor in T?r Gronn, Azarus, Sena, Aveline, and I set out to see the people I’d travelled all this way for. As the four of us turned onto the small path around the back of the central hall of the city, I was surprised when two natives did the same thing. Running a quick eye over them almost instinctively, I saw that they appeared to be one of the few remaining greybeards left behind, accompanying a young boy. Looked to be a grandfather and grandson, to me, dressed in unassuming, workman-like clothing.

  The older man might be a bit advanced in age, but he still seemed strong to me. His back had yet to bend with the furthering of his years, even though his long, shaggy hair had gone completely steel grey. He nodded at me with a faint smile above his neatly kept goatee, plain brown eyes half-lidded in the strength of the morning sun. Meanwhile, his grandson looked to be a bit antsy, to my eyes. It was easy to see a possible family resemblance between the two of them, considering the kid also had grey hair. Could be that he’d used a potion to dye it, but it looked natural to my eyes. I knew that existed from my time in the Nocturne Division, and I’d even used them before. But the boys looked natural to me.

  Might just be a family quirk.

  Oddly, the young boy seemed to initially brighten up at the sight of me, his strangely familiar green eyes staring my way in joy. He started, though, first at the sight of the large saber-toothed feline padding alongside Azarus and me, and then again at Aveline on my shoulders. The boy, whom I wouldn’t peg as being more than twelve at the most, huffed then and turned away from me. I smiled in amusement despite myself, meeting the eyes of the greybeard as I did so. Judging by how his smile had turned wry, he thought it was funny, too. I didn’t hold his mercurial moods against the odd boy.

  Those years could be strange.

  I inclined my head towards the elder as we came to walk together, while the small side gate that led out towards the standing stones loomed down the path.

  It wasn’t that long.

  “Morning,” I said to the man, while Aveline remained shyly silent. She was pretty brave when it counted for a child, but still one nonetheless. Azarus just grunted at the man, while Sena kept quiet as we’d agreed she should do in most human settlements. Still, I caught her giving the pair the side-eye before rolling her eyes at them for some reason.

  “Good morrow, young man,” The greybeard said, inclining his head. “Might you be travelers? I do not recognize your faces.”

  In contrast to the easy tone of the elder, the boy stayed stubbornly silent. In fact, he’d crossed his arms and deliberately turned away from me.

  “We are, yes,” I smiled at the man. “I’m Nate, and this is my friend Azarus,” I nodded to the Dwarf briefly. “And up here is Aveline. Say hello to the nice man, Lina.”

  “Hello,” I heard a small, shy voice say from above me, as I felt the owner clutch at the collar of my shirt.

  The old man’s eyes crinkled in a smile, deep wrinkles forming around them. “Welcome to T?r Gronn, then, the both of you. I am Talfrid, and this here is Fenn. I hope you in particular enjoy your time in our home, little lady. The young should have no burdens upon their hearts, and I sense much shadow in your past. Give it a chance, and the hills can bring you solace.”

  …odd. Very odd. It seems like every time I turned around, I encountered enigmatic old men spouting cryptic, often manipulative advice. I shouldn’t be surprised, though. Considering the extension of lifespans that a Status brought, there was no telling just how old this geezer was.

  You were bound to pick up a trick or two over a span of centuries, no matter your personal strength.

  I could practically hear the blink of confusion in Aveline’s voice. “Um. Okay. Thank you, mister. It’s…very pretty out here, in the Garden.”

  “Garden indeed,” Talfrid said musingly. “In any case, pay no attention to the grump. He’s just pouting because we’ve yet to break our fast. What brings you out this way, travelers?”

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  “Ah…” I trailed off for a moment. “We’re going to visit a couple of old friends of mine. They…live outside the walls.”

  Before Talfrid could answer, we reached the small gate. The guards perked up at the sight of us. I expected them to recognize the old man, but not me as well. They waved everyone through, and once the gate had closed behind us, Talfrid continued speaking. “Oh? Perhaps I know them,” He mused, an oddly teasing note in his voice. “I live outside the walls. I’m long since past my prime, and I prefer the comfort of the wilds these days to the walls of men. As for the boy, he was left with me, and I’ve been teaching him for some time now.”

  “That’s…good of you,” I said slowly, a slight, niggling note of confusion starting to draw my attention. But neither my Core nor my Outer could figure out what was bothering us. “But, uh…you may know them. It’s my understanding that they’re a bit…famous in the area. What about you? What brings you out this morning?”

  “Oh, I’m off to the stones for a bit of prayer,” Talfrid answered casually. He nudged the grumpy pre-teen at his side. “This one has no choice but to follow after, so he gets to pray as well. It’s an essential part of our path. It’s…very particular, you could say, in how it expresses itself. If Fenn,” He said, placing an odd emphasis on the boy’s name. “Hopes to ever progress, he’ll learn his chants by heart.”

  For the first time, the boy spoke up. “I’m trying,” He said grumpily, in a voice that was...oddly familiar to me. I tilted my head at the kid in thought, trying to remember where I’d heard it. This caused his equally familiar emerald green eyes to glance my way briefly. “But it’s hard, Athro. If I mess up once, I have to start all over, and each one takes like ten whole minutes! And I’ve got to do like seven of them to get anywhere!”

  Talfrid snorted. “Bah. Youth, to complain about a mere hour’s work, for a lifetime of benefit. It’ll come to you easier, in time, as you memorize the correct Aetherial flow.”

  “I’d rather be hunting,” Fenn griped in response.

  His words just caused Fenn to pout harder and look away from everyone. As Aveline giggled softly at the byplay, Azarus and I exchanged a puzzled glance. He voiced both of our unspoken thoughts.

  “Boy can’t be sixteen yet,” Azarus said roughly, suspicion in his voice that I thought was a…tad overblown. “How is he manipulatin’ Aether without a Status?”

  Talfrid and Fenn glanced at us then, and Fenn smirked almost tauntingly at the dwarf. A moment later, though, the boy grimaced and clutched at his stomach for some reason, looking uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Talfrid finally turned his eyes on Azarus as we finally arrived at the standing stones outside the walls. His gaze almost looked…assessing, for some reason, as he looked the burly dwarf up and down with almost otherworldly-looking…blue eyes?

  Wait, hadn’t they been brown a little bit ago?

  “So, you’re him, eh?” Talfrid said musingly, stroking his beard. “I can see why you were chosen. He has a habit of picking the headstrong ones to fight his battles. I didn’t see you last time Nathan was here, but I can smell a bit of the other dwarf in you. Grimgar, I believe his name was. And how is he?”

  Grim…gar? For a moment, I didn’t remember who he was talking about. But then it hit me.

  Grimgar had been the cover name Hook had been using the last time we’d stayed in T?r Gronn. How the hell did this old geezer know that name? I don’t think it had ever been said more than like…three times, when last we’d been here.

  “Grimgar…” I said slowly, starting to pick up Azarus’s own suspicion. I knelt down to let Aveline slip from my shoulders and thump quietly into the lush green grass around the standing stones. She hid behind my leg, apparently sensing that something was amiss, but not yet frightened by it. “Is no longer with us. He died in the war. This is his nephew and my friend, Azarus. Now…who are you really, old man?”

  Azarus easily picked up that I’d been talking about Baldric, and he had now assumed an almost defensive position next to me, an almost hostile look in his gleaming gold eyes.

  At my words, Talfrid snorted at me. “You truly haven’t picked up on it yet, Nathan? Maybe I gave you too much credit last time. I’ll give you a hint. When last we met, I was much larger and much more intimidating.” He finished with an almost animalistic growl. As he did so, he leaned forward.

  And as he did, I saw that his formerly normal human teeth had transformed into a mouthful of fangs.

  Azarus and I tensed suddenly, both of us reaching for the single weapon we had taken along with us. Terractus for me, and his hammer for Azarus.

  We didn’t get the chance to draw them. Instead, the tension was cut by Fenn suddenly groaning in discomfort. “I can’t hold it anymore!” He almost whined. Oddly enough, his voice transformed on the last word as well, his whine turning from that of a boy to one almost akin to a…dog? There was an odd popping noise from my right, coming from where the boy Fenn had been standing, followed by a sneeze.

  When I glanced over at him quickly, I nearly had a stroke in my shock. There wasn’t a young, surly, preteen boy standing off to my right anymore.

  Instead, there was a wolf. A Spirit Wolf, to be exact.

  A…familiar one.

  Shaking his head and pawing at his nose was the form of who could only be Fade. My young companion had grown up in the half a year since I’d last seen him. Where before, Fade had clearly been a puppy, now he looked to have matured into the recognizable form of a true wolf. While he still retained a few features of an adolescent, he came up to my waist now, and that wasn’t even counting the respectable rack of antlers growing from his forehead. They weren’t quite the full size I would expect on an adult stag, but they were no longer the stubby little things they used to be. The visibly sharp points of them gleamed in the sun, as did his thick grey coat covering the wiry muscle he looked to have put on. He must have sensed my eyes on him because Fade looked up from pawing at his nose.

  I met his eyes for the first time in half a year, emerald on emerald, and I knew this was my old friend once again. I blinked at him, and in response, Fade almost appeared to grin at me with lupine lips.

  “But…” I started slowly. “If Fenn was Fade, then you must be…?” I said, turning a gaze full of sudden realization on the almost smug form of ‘Talfrid’. “…Taran?”

  I needn’t have even voiced the word. Just laying eyes on ‘Talfrid’ once more was enough to confirm my suspicions. After all, while he still looked like an old human male, he did have one new addition to his frame that had appeared in the split second I’d looked away from him.

  A large rack of bone white antlers that looked much more majestic and much more dangerous than Fade’s, growing from his forehead.

  The disguised form of Taran smirked at me in amusement.

  “About time, Precursor.”