Eight Intertwined

136 - Trust

Ophilia was fine with not having to do much of anything the day after the travelers fought Yvon. When she woke up, she found H'aanit, Primrose, and Linde already gone from the shared girls' inn room, but Ophilia could easily guess that they were together and chose to not make anything of it. Instead, she leaned back in bed and stared up at the ceiling silently. She hadn't expected everything to spiral out of control so quickly, and she needed at least a few days to decompress after it before she felt ready to get up and face the world again. 

Ophilia still couldn't believe everything she had seen. She had been hoping the travelers had seen the last of the blood experiments in Quarrycrest, but she had clearly been wrong. Instead, they had been met with Therese, who was left traumatized and weakened. That didn't even mention everything Yvon and Lucia had done to make the travelers suffer. Ophilia had been one of the lucky ones of the group, but she wished there wasn't even a metric for that in the first place. She hoped they never had to put up with any of that again. 

The door opened and pulled Ophilia out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see Tressa standing there in the entryway with Olberic at her side. She was holding a large rolled up paper in her hands, and Ophilia realized she must have slipped out while the cleric was distracted. Ophilia didn't bother with chastising her for leaving on her own though, instead just sitting up in bed slowly. "What is that?" she questioned before the truth dawned on her. "Is that the map Cyrus got from Barham?"

"It is," Tressa nodded. "I went into the boys' room to check on them, but Olberic was the only one awake. I snagged the map while I was in there." She paused, realizing just how much that made her sound like Therion. "I'm borrowing it. I thought Cyrus would be too busy focusing on recovery to try and look at the map again, so I figured we could take over for him."

"I don't think anyone is going to be in much of a mood to fight one of the other gods after everything that happened yesterday," Ophilia frowned. "I don't think Alfyn will let Cyrus or Therion do much of anything anyway."

"But we need to get stronger if we're going to make sure something like that doesn't happen again," Tressa pointed out. "Besides, we don't have to go investigate it right now. I know we're planning on going to Saintsbridge after this, and I respect that. Still... I need to do something with myself, and I thought looking at the map was the best way to fill the time."

"There are five locations marked on the map as being notable as of now," Olberic said. "Given what Therese said yesterday, I believe we can safely assume that we know the truth behind the other marker in Duskbarrow. It is a home of dark magic, and that is why Lucia wishes to travel there now."

"You're probably right," Ophilia nodded. "That leaves four other spots... One of them is all the way out in the ruins of Hornburg, and... I would rather not go that far out if we can at all avoid it. I believe that would be too dangerous."

"So we're going to be able to easily investigate three spots," Tressa concluded. "I think we can work with that." She started by pointing to a location near Wispermill, a town at the far edge of the Flatlands near the border of Orsterra. "Maybe we can start by going here. Cyrus and Primrose both know the Flatlands pretty well as far as I can tell, and I feel like that would be a much safer option for us than going out into the Highlands or Riverlands."

"The Riverlands location would be much closer to Saintsbridge though," Ophilia pointed out. "I understand that distance doesn't mean all that much to us right now since we have the Warp Staff on our side, but... It's something to consider, at the very least."

"As far as I am aware, the Riverlands will be a dangerous place to travel for the sake of investigating potential shrines," Olberic frowned. "This is not necessarily a matter of the Riverlands specifically, but instead the town near where the shrine is. I cannot say I know much about Riverford, but I am aware it is dangerous. No one seems to want to travel there anymore for some reason or another."