[h2][center]Byron Cauna[/center][/h2]
After a few more minutes of conversation with the receptionist, Byron thanked the woman and left, leaving the scant few adventurers who had been paying attention to him out of curiosity somewhat disappointed that nothing had actually occurred. They were, at heart, a raucous sort, and soon enough their attention turned back towards their own friends and personal matters, regardless of what might have been.

Once he had left the establishment, the beastman took a deep breath and took to leaning against the outer wall of the building. While he had never smoked a day in his life (his father certainly had on more than one occasion), if there was any news that would make him want to start, it would be this.

"Damn... Three [i]hundred[/i] years, huh? Not thirty? So much for my siblings, huh? I'm not even sure if I want to look into how they fared after I left at this point. At least the nations are intact, if not significantly less powerful given what bits and pieces I picked up in there..."

Drowning himself in the process of organizing information was probably the simplest way for Byron to try and quell the chaos in his head; the problem of grieving and panicking would do him no good, and anything particularly suspicious in that regard might get him marked. If it had been three centuries since he had been sealed, then information beyond these tidbits was by and large the most important thing to obtain. The state of each country, of the Empire in the years following the war...

The sight of a small crowd forming in front of the bar that Malachi had entered earlier brought Byron's attention away from his own thoughts, though, and given the situation the beastman had no reason not to walk over and check it out. Slipping through the crowd to get a better look, the young man found in the center a Malachi that was far less committed to keeping up a strong front. Given how much he had worried en route to the town, Byron could only assume that the half-elf found out what he had minutes ago.

Brushing away the rubbernecking bystanders, Byron knelt down besides Malachi and patted him on the back.

[i]"At this rate, we're going to cause a scene,"[/i] he whispered, trying his hardest to maintain composure. [i]"I'm not going to say everything's going to be all right or anything stupid like that, but if you're going to grieve, it can't be in the middle of the street here."[/i]

Ideally, Malachi wouldn't lash out at him in return; there was only so much that could be done while trying to keep profiles as low as possible.

[@Lugubrious]

[hr][hr]
The children were wholly entranced by Izel's performance, and for good reason; none of them had even seen such a spell before—at least, not one so fine yet so impractical. Snow in the middle of the summer months was just as exciting, though, and the children were soon off in a huddle trying to come up with a new game in response to their new situation.

The nun, on the other hand, simply turned to Izel in wide-eyed amazement, glancing between the children running about and Izel herself, before finally realizing her actions and bowing her head slightly.

"I apologize, but there is no library in Lefine. The most that we have are scriptures here in the church and official documents in government buildings," she said, bowing her head in apology once more before turning towards Sylphie to address her question. There was a brief pause as the nun considered the way that Sylphie spoke before glancing around nervously.

"The... The raids usually originate from the mountainside, but though many adventurers have explored the area, they often come back empty handed. The bodies of dead monsters and the occasional rewards from clearing dungeons, yes, but beyond that..."

In other words, the nun knew little of their base of operations; given that she was not involved in matters of public safety, that much, it seemed, could not be helped.

[@Rune_Alchemist][@VitaVitaAR]