David slowly explored the Hungerwoods north of Riverwall, following the corpse-finding finger as it lead him from corpse to corpse, all the while trying to avoid anything big and nasty inhabiting these woods. So far he'd spotted another Snug, heard quite a few lupine howls and barks, steered clear of a pair of Gorezilas having a territorial match, and had noticed a creatively named Stone Raptor flying high above, big rocks in its talons and ready to dive-bomb its next meal.

  He had to admit, that was a lot of predators able to take down a grown man in a relatively small area. If the rest of the Hungerwoods were like that, well... the name was well-earned.

  While dodging big and hungry things, he continued collecting dead people. He'd found it easy to differentiate lost adventurers from lost citizens; the adventurers had much more equipment on them, or at least the remains of such. Rusted swords, daggers, axes and arrow tips, foggy or cracked potion bottles, rotting leather armour and backpacks, that sort of things. The citizens had at most a belt and a small pouch or two, maybe a small dagger.

  Since he was focused on the citizens, whenever he started finding only adventurer remains, he would turn back and start searching in the other direction.

  After several bells, near mid-afternoon, he began noticing a pattern. Although it was a bit hard to tell from navigating in the wilderness, he was pretty sure that the citizen remains where spread out in a sort of line, going almost straight north. To confirm his suspicions, he had begun planting sticks with a small red rag at its tip at each remains' location.

  After a quarter bell, using his compass, he aligned himself back towards Riverwall and walked in as straight a line as he could.

  The red-tipped sticks passed him left and right as he made his way back, like silhouettes walking the other direction from him.

  He looked back, to the north, where the trail of skeletons seemed to lead.

  North of here, deeper in the Hungerwoods, there was a destination that people were dying to get to. The question in his mind was if whether they were being sent there, or if they were being called there.

  The second possibility gave him a slight shiver.

  While David was busy retrieving skeletons, Niala was... having a moment.

  She was sitting on a bench in the central market square, an island of frustration in a sea of people going about their day. She looked at the notes she had taken so far from a full morning of speaking with people.

  One thing that had become painfully apparent was that the people closest to the victims were confused about the events. They all said they remembered the missing person, though not all remembered the disappearance the same way. Some of it she could attribute to bad memory or simply being in different places at the time of the disappearance. The troubling thing was that the majority of discrepancies didn't make sense.

  For example, she had interviewed the acquaintances of a victim from three years ago. Her husband had said that he'd woken up one day and his wife was gone. He said he'd gone to report her missing. One of their close family friend was certain that she had simply divorced her husband and left town, while her sister who also lived in town said she had died three years ago.

  Whenever she confronted anyone with another version of the fact, they would get agitated and aggressive, calling her a liar and threatening her with any number of actions if she didn't stop telling lies immediately.

  She'd repeated the experiment half a dozen time. She had the same kind of results every time.

  To make matter even more concerning, she was getting the distinct impression that the people were remembering the events as if from a dream, and they always appeared to have a sudden shift in demeanour whenever she confronted them with alternate versions of their story.

  She'd even went back to talk to a person she'd confronted earlier and they had recalled their aggravation with Niala as something that had happened years ago. They'd apologized for having acted that way, said it was all water under the bridge, and invited her for a cup of tea.

  Niala had politely refused.

  She huffed in exasperation. She wasn't sure if she should continue the interviews. The people were so clearly mentally affected that she wasn't certain she could trust anything they told her.

  But if that had been all, she would have soldiered through. She was no stranger to long, exhausting and directionless experimenting. You didn't become a top-rated alchemist otherwise.

  What really got to her was all the socializing. People just wanted to talk. As soon as she introduced herself and brought up the topic of the disappeared, she'd get deluged with anecdotal stories about their lives as they reminisced. Niala would simply smile and nod, noting down whatever felt like potentially useful information.

  Quite evidently, smiling, nodding and appearing to be paying attention was code speak for “I want to hear everything about your life in excruciating details.”

  She had to wiggle her way out of those conversations, careful not to upset the other person as she tried to figure out what to say to disengage on respectful and amiable terms.

  This all reminded her way too much of her time with her father at the receptions and balls.

  She was so done.

  Slouched on the bench, she idly observed the people at the market while she let her mind wander.

  What could she do to make the conversations faster and more to the point?

  Who did she know that could trample over other people and extirpate what they needed out of them before leaving like a shadow at sunrise?

  David

  She blinked. Yeah, David did that didn't he? Didn't care about being friendly or what the other person thought of him. He was all business, all the time. Except with her. With her he was all teasing and annoying, all the time.

  A small smile came to rest on her face.

  Maybe she should channel her inner David.

  She frowned.

  David was also tall and imposing, what with all those hunky muscles and broad shoulders and-

  Back to the point, girl.

  He was imposing, she wasn't. Could she do anything? What made people cooperative without being defensive?

  Money? Fear? Hope?

  No...

  David was imposing but that wasn't just his looks. He had that air about him.

  She looked down at herself, her clothes, felt her hairstyle, the cute little hair bow.

  Nothing that screamed “I'm here for business, please don't waste my time.”

  As her father had said, you are not your clothes, but to others, your clothes are you. Make sure they see who you want them to see.

  She straightened out, got up to her feet and headed for the nearest clothing store.

  Time to dress up for the job.

  Nearly a bell later, with a quick lunch in her belly, Niala was knocking on the door of another victim's relative.

  They opened the door and saw the short catkin woman, hairs straight and slick, wearing a buttoned-up shirt and a loose pencil skirt, sporting black-rimmed glasses and holding a clipboard with a stack of paper on it.

  The catkin woman slightly smiled. “Hello sir. My name is Niala and I am here on behalf of the town hall. We are filling in gaps in our records for missing people. Would you mind answering a few questions to help us with our investigation?” She asked respectfully.

  That particular interview went swimmingly.

  So did all the others that followed for the rest of the day.

  Calling it a day near sixth bell, she took some time to stock up on a few ingredients before making her way home to get started on a meat stew. With secret All Brew family spice mixes, of course.

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  She thought back to just how much more she had accomplished in the afternoon compared to the morning. She'd had interviewed nearly three times the number of people!

  Thanks dad!

  Now, to go feed the annoying beast...

  She was surprised at how eager she was for that prospect.

  Luckily there wasn't anyone she had to hide her blush from.

  At half past seventh bell, David trudged back home, leaving his dirty boots at the front and making his way to the kitchen where a downright heavenly scent was drifting from.

  As he turned through the kitchen's door, he froze, staring at Niala's outfit. He blinked a few times. She was slowly stirring a pot of something while gently humming and looking at one of her notebook.

  “Hello Ms. Teacher.” David said.

  Niala startled, evidently not having heard him come in. She began smiling as she noticed him, only for the smile to turn blank as she registered what he'd just said, before fiercely blushing. She bolted out of the room, dropping the ladle and her notebook. He heard her stomp up the stairs and slam her bedroom door.

  David shook his head and smirked, proceeding to remove his dirty outer garments before making his way over to the pot to stir it slowly as he had seen Niala do.

  Before long Niala timidly walked back down and back into the kitchen, wearing one of her regular robe.

  “I forgot to change.” She said sheepishly, as she shuffled over to the pot and took over the stirring, thanking him with a nod.

  He smiled and went over the various notebooks and papers strewn about the table, scanning their content – Niala's notes from her interviews.

  “...did I look silly?” She softly asked, staring at the stew.

  He looked up. “Not at all. Different but you looked good. If anything it made you look even more intelligent than usual.” He replied.

  She slowly turned her head in his direction, blushing cheeks in full display, ears wiggling and betraying her happiness. “...more intelligent than usual? You think I'm smart?”

  He blinked. “I... did I never say it?” He tried to remember. “Huh, I guess I never did.” He mumbled, looking in her direction.

  “You've shown yourself to be a very smart person many times Niala. It'd be hard not to notice.” He said warmly.

  “O- oh!” She blurted as she snapped her gaze back to her stew, intently concentrating on it, tail happily swaying.

  A wide smile drew across his face at her repeated antics.

  She is just so cu-

  He vigorously shook his thoughts away.

  They remained like this for several minutes. She focusing on the stew, test-tasting it and adjusting the spices. He just relaxing on a chair and looking at the scene, the silence broken only by the bubbling pot and the infrequent clinks of the ladle.

  He noticed her pensive, tender look as she stirred the stew.

  “Do you like cooking?” He asked.

  She lightly flinched, broken out of her reverie, before glancing at him.

  “I do. It's a lot like alchemy. Ingredients, heat, a recipe, and when it's done right it makes people happy.” She answered softly.

  “I took care of most of my family's meals, since we lost our mom and my father was terrible at cooking. You would think the All Brew would be able to follow a simple recipe but no, he stubbornly wanted to add his personal touch. It always ended up overly spiced and overcooked.” She said, chuckling at the memory.

  She returned her gaze to the stew. “Father was always telling me to leave the cooking to the house staff, that I should spend my time on practising alchemy. He didn't really mean it though, he never insisted. It was his way of telling me I had no obligation to cook. Secretly I think he enjoyed it, I think my cooking reminded him of mom.” She said with melancholy, eyes glistening.

  “Enough wallowing!” She said, perking up. “Stew's ready. I got some fresh bread to go with it. We can eat and then we'll go over what we found.” She half-instructed, half-asked.

  “Hmm. The stew smells really good by the way.”

  She grinned. “Of course the stew's really good. Genius alchemist super cook Niala made it!”

  “One compliment and your ego's already popping out of its britches.” He lamented.

  “Hey! Try the stew first, then tell me I'm not a super cook.” She said as she roughly ladled a bowl and pushed it at him.

  He took the bowl, smelled it, and began salivating instantly. He brought a spoonful up to his lips, blowing on it some before gingerly putting it in his mouth.

  His eyes widened. Mouth full he stared at Niala, who was smugly smirking at him. He swallowed, looked at his bowl and back at her.

  “My apologies, super cook. This is amazing.” He admitted before digging in and giving her a thumbs up.

  She smiled and served herself a bowl, sitting around the corner from him.

  David barely spoke as Niala recounted her day.

  He had seconds.

  Meal done, kitchen cleaned up and left overs put away in the cold box, David and Niala had retreated to the upstairs living room to go over their day's findings.

  “How was your search in the Hungerwoods? Did you find anything new?” Niala asked.

  He nodded. “Somewhat. I did find another 20 or so citizen skeletons, or at least I think they're citizen skeletons. A bunch of adventurer's too but those aren't really relevant I think.” He recounted.

  “I've noticed two things. The first is that once I went past the grumble bear's territory, I started finding much older skeletons. They were incomplete and brittle. The second is that they were all mostly strewn in a straight wide line towards the north starting from the north gate.” He added.

  Niala was tapping a finger against her lips. “If that's true and it holds for the rest of the missing citizens, then it's almost as if there is a destination they try to reach when they leave town.” She posited.

  “If so, then all the dead people you're finding along the way are the ones that didn't make it. Something in the forest got to them first.” She said.

  David dipped his head. “That's my theory as well. It's a little strange that I haven't found any old skeletons around the grumble bear territory, but if I had to take a guess it would be that the bear settled there only in the last 20 to 30 years and its been intercepting the walkers since then.”

  “That makes the most sense... do grumble bears live that long?” She asked.

  David shrugged. “I know they live a long time, longer than the other average bears but I wouldn't be able to tell you how long exactly.” He replied.

  Niala slumped into her couch, pondering David's words.

  She looked at him “So, are you going to keep going further north and try to see what kind of destination the citizens were trying to get to?” She asked, with a slight concern to her voice.

  “That's the idea.” He confirmed. “I might stop trying to gather all the skeletons, that's slowing me down a lot.”

  “What if the destination is... something dangerous?” She posited, worried.

  “Hmm. Then I'll run away. I'm good at that you know?” He said with a grin.

  “I'm serious! What if it's something calling the citizens to feed on them and you're going to wake it up?” She said.

  “I'm serious too. Running away is the best way to stay alive.” He reiterated.

  She worryingly glared at him.

  “Ok, ok... I was already planning to but I'll bring out a few more courier tricks to mask my presence. Keep me extra safe. You can stop trying to make me feel guilty.” He said, holding both his hands up.

  “... I'm just worried. The forest is really dangerous.” She explained.

  “Don't worry, I know.” He shook his head. “What about you? Did you find anything interesting from the interviews?” He asked her, changing the subject.

  She recounted how the people she was interviewing seemed to have their memories messed with, how they didn't appear to be themselves when she had tried to push the issue.

  David gravely nodded. “The more we investigate, the more I'm certain there's something otherworldly involved.”

  She blinked, ears perking up. “Otherworldly? What does that mean? It sounds mysterious.” She thought for a second. “Do you mean incarnations?”

  “Hmm. An incarnation is another word for it. It means something that comes from beyond the veil. A spirit, an arcanae, a devil or maybe even an amalgam.” He explained.

  She squinted. “I kind of know about the first three, but what's an amalgam?”

  “Something very nasty. I've never dealt with one, but I've had people tell me about first-hand experiences and I've ready stories and treatises on the subject.” He pondered for a second.

  “You know how spirits, arcanae and devils are basically reflections of the physical world, right?” He asked.

  She nodded. “Sure, it's more or less general knowledge, like the old teaching goes. In spirits, the will of the world. In arcanae, the will of magic, in devils, the will of the people” She quoted from memory.

  “Right. Nobody is quite sure what amalgams are, but most people would say they're the nightmares of all three made manifest. The treatises I've read dispute that they are even sentient, saying they're closer to conscious ideas or desires.” He tried to explain.

  “I can tell you more later if you're interested. For now all that matters is that amalgams are often both the most powerful but most limited otherworldly entities out there. Either way, if I'm right we're going to need some help. I don't have the tools to really deal with an hostile entity of that kind.” He concluded.

  She eyed him with some curiosity. “There's one more thing. A good number of the more recent disappearances that didn't leave on the same day as all the others seem to all have had one person in common, someone called Castello.” She said.

  He raised an eyebrow. “That sounds promising.”

  “I know! I'm going to finish interviewing the acquaintances of those who disappeared on off-days tomorrow, see if they know of this guy as well, and then I'll go meet him, figure out why he knew all the disappeared from the non-standard dates!” She excitedly explained.

  He eyed her with concern. “When you do, bring at least one guard with you.” He suggested.

  She blinked. “Ah?” She said, before she connected the dots. “Oh... you mean if he's related to so many disappeared people, he might be dangerous.”

  He slowly nodded. “Honestly, I'd prefer we go meet him together, but I get the feeling you're going to refuse and want to finish your “part” of the job by yourself.” He said, preempting her rebuttal.

  She smiled confidently. “Thank you. I'll be careful and I'll ask for a guard escort as you said.”

  He nodded, then stretched and yawned.

  “I think I'll go get showered and then tuck in. Prowling around the forest all day is a chore and a half.” He said.

  “Ok.” She replied, watching him leave for the bathroom.

  Maybe I should brew in a little extra in his morning's old woman tomorrow.

  She blinked a few times.

  When did I start calling that brew an old woman?! He's rotting my brain!

  She glared in his general direction.

  you like an old woman?

  Just like an old wo-