Octopath Traveler II and... a girl.

A new Traveler.

Temenos walked out of his house. He finally had a goal. He had a purpose to do something. He then suddenly stopped.
"Wait... Where are the Travelers? I don't really know It..."- he thought as he realized It wouldn't be that easy to find them.
"Maybe I can ask around. They're very famous, after all. Someone must know something."- He laughed a bit. It had been a while since he last used his ability coerce, what he called 'interrogation'.

He waited for the night and started with his plan.
-"I will get answers".- He coerced some of them and learned useful information about his mates. A thief of the town knew about a robbing contest, with some refined jewerelly as the item to steal. It would happened at the Abandoned Village. If someone loved jewerelly and contests, that was Throné. He could start by going to her. But Temenos couldn't help but wonder. "Why at the Abandoned Village? What could they possibly steal there?" He had lots of questions, but he would have to wait.

"Should I go there now?"- he chuckled. "Well, is there any reason that would keep me here, anyway?"- he sighed. He thought that he would say goodbye to his workmates the next day.
As he was thinking, something caught his attention. A femenine, though low, soft voice.
-"Excuse me, are you perhaps aware of where the musical performance will be?"- a girl in a foreign, beautiful and confortable black dress asked the armer of town. She had very long black hair and red intense eyes. It was difficult for her to not catch attention. The low voice for her young age was also a big contrast. She had a huge bag with lots of devices.
"She's interesting. And pretty." Temenos thought, someway amused.

-"I'm sorry, miss, but I haven't heard of any musical performance..."- the man answered. The girl sighed softly in annoyance. She then nod.
-"Okay, that's quite alright. No need to worry. Thanks anyway!" -she responded, rushing to other store. The armer chuckled, and sighed, as he murmured something about youngsters. She seemed like the nervous type.

Temenos followed looked at her direction, and soon noticed something was wrong. He saw a form lurking in the shadows, right next to her.
"What if she is in danger...? Let's just make sure that nothing is going to happen..."- Temenos thought, following her discrectly. The girl moved on to a couple more stores, always getting the same response. She went outside and sat on a bench next to an alley, resigned. She took a small gadget out of her pocket and inspected it in detail, very concentrated.

As this happened, the shadow that stalked her was now much closer. Temenos knew then that she was definitely in danger, and approached carefully. Without saying a word he sat next to her on the bench, with a magic book in his hands, pretending to be reading it. The girl turned to Temenos, somewhat surprised.
-"Excuse me, miss, but I'm going to ask you not to make sudden movements. You are in danger. Someone is following you. I had noticed it before and followed you too. Pretend you don't know anything, please, and do exactly what I tell you now. If you do, I don't think anything bad will happen." - Temenos voice was almost silent and gentle. The girl's eyes widened as she looked at her gadget still, doing what Temenos said. She quickly understood the situation and stayed quiet.
-"Okay, thank you for understanding. Now I'm going to ask you to walk slowly towards the tree in front, while you look at your device. I'll take care of the rest, okay?"
She didn't even nod, as she probably thought she could be seen by the other guy. However, she did as she was told, and walked towards the tree. As Temenos expected, the man in the shadows tried to ambush her. Temenos had already prepared a repelling spell, and made the man fall backwards, with a grunt of pain. He walked Up and stood in front of the girl.
-"Why were you following this girl? Did someone hire you to do It?"- Temenos asked warningly, his staff on the man's neck. He pierced Temenos with his look.
-"You damn cleric... So the rumours about you nosing around where you shouldn't were true, huh?"- The man spitted out, clenching his teeth.
-"It would seem so"- Temenos answered, unbothered- "Will you answer my question or not? Well, you know refusing It won't help you..." -Temenos staff started glowing, indicating he may use Magic. A drop of sweat went down the man's chin.
-"N-no, wait! I-I'll tell you, but please, Leave me alone. I was just following orders. I-I don't really know who's behind It all. I just know that someone wants her because of her inventions... "
-"You could have said that earlier"- the girl suddenly said, her head a bit tilted.- "And what is It that they want?"
-"I don't know, really... But they're Up to no good, that is for sure..".
-"Then I'll have to pass"- she answered simply. The man seemed suddenly terrified.
-"No, please! They'll kill me if I don't bring you!"
-"Don't return, then" -She shrugged her shoulders. Her answers were always so blunt. Temenos couldn't help but chuckle. However, he noticed something in the man's hand. His heart accelerated.
-"What is that?"- Temenos took It from him, but It was too late. An emergency call for help flew to the Sky, exploding there like fireworks. Temenos mouth twisted.
-"Damn it"- that was all that he said before taking the girl's hand in his and ran with her.
-"Wowowo, hey! Where are we going? Was that an emergency call or something?"-The girl yelled as they ran, a bit confused.
-"Exactly. We need to run before reinforcements appear"-Temenos said as he continued running.