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[h1][color=slateblue]The Riddle of Lindenholdt - A Lonely Walk[/color][/h1][/center]
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	[color=757163]Morning came on the fourth day of Caldores: Eshiran's day. Funeral services were to be held out in the cold, open air. Xiuyang considered attending. It would have been easy to acquire a mourning dress, cover her face in a veil, and remain anon, to keep the emotions of those mourning... uncomplicated—but the people of Lindenholdt did not deserve any more deception.

	Instead, while the majority of the town was sparsely populated, she decided to take this opportunity to go for a walk to clear her head. That walk would take her out of town, deep into the forest. She didn't quite know where, but she knew that the place she wanted to go was out there somewhere, in the general direction of the cabin.

	On her way, she passed several people. All of them, without fail, had multiple bundles of flowers in their arms, and Xiuyang wondered at how the town could have such a formidable supply of them, especially this time of year. She scratched the side of her head in disbelief. Then, all at once, she came upon the answer: the site of her duel with the tier 4 demon. [color=slateblue][i]Oh. The flowers I created that night. Some of them survived?[/i][/color] Looking around, she found the culprits. A few enterprising young girls had plucked and kept them, and were now selling them to the mourning for a pittance. For the poor, the hustle never stopped, not even for a funeral service.

	One of the girls gasped, pointing at Xiuyang. [color=slateblue][i]How careless of me.[/i][/color] She had been trying to avoid children. Their words hurt the most by far. Any minute now, they'd be calling her—

	"Blumendame!"
	[color=slateblue][i]Spider Lady. ...Huh?[/i][/color]

	She turned back around again. [color=slateblue][i]Blooming Lady?[/i][/color] She didn't quite get it right, but she was close enough. One of the girls ran up to her, flowers in hand while the lady in question stood confused. "Blumen!" She presented the small flower wreath excitedly, reaching up as high as her little arms could.

	[color=slateblue]"For me?"[/color] Xiuyang pointed to herself for clarity. The little girl bobbed her head eagerly. "Uh huh!" She stood on her tiptoes. Xiuyang lowered herself into a squat so she could reach, but another of the girls said something in that obnoxious tone of voice they used when arguing over trifles, calling each other a stupid head or some such thing. [color=slateblue]"Don't worry, I'll pay. Here,"[/color] she said, offering the girl a Drachen to hopefully placate her friend. However, the argument seemed to escalate, getting more emotional, and the little girl who had given her the crown of flowers looked hurt. She turned back to the Revidian with tears in her innocent eyes, seeking some validation, but Xiuyang did not know what to say to comfort her.

	"She say Flower Lady can grow her own flowers," a woman beside Xiuyang translated. She turned to look at her, and now recognized both the woman and the child. It was the little girl she'd saved from the demon's cauldron, and her mother. "My daughter want thank you, given flowers. No pay."

	Xiuyang turned back to the girl and reached out her empty hand. The girl tottered over, blinking away her tears and took it with a big smile. [color=slateblue]"I want thank you too,"[/color] she explained, pressing the coin into her palm. [color=slateblue]"Please take."[/color] The girl—with eyes not comprehending, lips slightly parted to make way for a protest she did not have the words to voice—sought her mother's face for clarity, and with a soothing voice of reassurance, she translated. "Okay!" she answered with the happiest smile Xiuyang had seen in a long, long time. She couldn't resist giving back the biggest smile she could make and ruffling the kid's hair fondly—which made her positively scream with childish glee. Without this girl, she would have let the good she did here get completely washed away by the bad.

	The Revidian didn't linger long. There was something she needed to do. She walked out onto the trail, reaching out with all her senses. It was around here somewhere... nope, that was a scagbiist. [color=slateblue][i]Alright, other way.[/i][/color] She wisely turned to take another path, and, after searching for about half an hour, she found it: a body, buried separate from the rest of the freshly-dug graves, lest it be defiled, or cause the others to seem defiled by its presence among them. [color=slateblue]"Hello, Berthold,"[/color] Xiuyang greeted as she found the unmarked grave. It, too, was freshly dug, and the body was headless. She believed it to be him, though she was disinclined to probe it with her senses any further to confirm the truth. The dead, in death, ought be given peace.

	The Revidian had mixed feelings, both about what she had done, and what she was here to do. [color=slateblue]"The gods' justice will have been swifter than mine,"[/color] she began. It felt a little odd, talking to a dead man that she despised. [color=slateblue]"By now, you'll have learned the truth. A false love from a false relative. A head and heart filled with lies and bitterness not your own. A once-in-a-generation talent wasted and a life cut short. I judged you guilty, but I'm not sure if Dami did the same. I don't know where you are, or if you lie in rest or torment."[/color] She pondered. [color=slateblue]"Of all the treachery in Lindenholdt, you suffered perhaps the worst betrayal of all. Now that it's all over, I can see that."[/color] She took a seat on a nearby log. [color=slateblue]"Feels like I'm always regretting the deaths of those I kill. Maybe that's the lesson the gods are trying to teach me—that it's the hearts of those who do wickedly unto others that hold the most pain, and by adding to it, and not showing mercy, we manifest ignorance, and not justice."[/color] It felt unfair, she thought to herself, to watch the evil cause so much suffering that would never be repaid, but the gods' ledger was different from hers, and their justice perfect.

	[color=slateblue]"Do not misunderstand me. I make no excuses for your actions. I hope you regret what you did—what you might have done if I had not stopped you—but I will not make excuses for myself, either. Of all the lectures I've received in my life, this one was the shortest: 'Be ye angry, and sin not.' Vengeance is the hereditary sin of my family, but I swore to be different from my father. I did wrong by you. For that, I am sorry."[/color] She frowned. [color=slateblue]"I should know better than anyone that the gods are merciful. May Dami show you the mercy I denied you, and a double portion of judgment be reserved for the one who used you like a tool. May you someday earn absolution for your sins, and perhaps forgive mine, as well."[/color] She stood up, and walked to the unmarked grave. She removed the crown of flowers from her head, placed it on the grave, and walked away.[/color]