“Don’t worry, I’m here to help.” Deimos droned darkly to Melvin alone with a sadistic smile, as if she was a villain herself. Nothing she said would give clear signals whether her intentions would be negative or in their favor, the words conflicting with her eerie tone.

---

Melvin frowned even harder - he had no idea she also possessed a Lorelei Thauma until now. Was this a ruse of her own? The vaguely sinister tone in her voice didn't help the dark elf clue in to her real intentions either. It was like she enjoyed toying with his suspicions. He had to find out what the hell she wanted with him before deciding to kill her.

He concentrated on his Lorelei Thauma and intoned to Deimos, "Meet me at the stable near the abandoned barn. Don't follow too closely or you'll be mistaken for an accomplice."

"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa! Dude, why the hell did you just say that to her!?" his buddy exclaimed. "You're practically admitting to the arson now!"

"Fuck it. The chick has a Lorelei Thauma too, so she heard me say stuff about 'keeping our ruse up'. As long as she cooperates, it won't matter - the important thing is to deceive the authorities. Hell, she looked to be a half-elf as well. Even if she ratted us out to the knights, I bet they wouldn't take her seriously on account of her race and that she doesn't have any hard evidence of our involvement."

"But I was going to tell the knights about the arson, even though I'm a half-elf."

"That's different. You're performing your duty as a citizen to alert them and possibly save some lives."

"I guess so..."

Melvin looked back at the burning temple... or rather, formerly burning temple. He noticed that the flames had died out by now, but he thought the blaze would have lasted longer than that. Someone must have stopped by and extinguished it during their escape.

"On second thought, don't bother. Someone do-gooder's come by to save the temple. They'll probably tell the knights for us. Let's just head straight back to the cellar and intercept this chick for now," Melvin said. With that, the horseman guided the horse around a bend and over some small hills until a dilapidated barn came into view. Even in the late night darkness, the structure had seen better days. Once upon a time, it was a successful wheat barn until the soil ran out of nutrients and the farmers opted to abandon the place. Melvin and his crew used it as one of their many temporary bases across Sord, but with the destruction of Izumo's temple, he doubted they would be staying here for much longer.

The cart reached the barn and stopped. The small group got out and the equestrian got his horse inside the stable. Melvin waited in the abandoned fields, now teeming with grass, weeds and wild flowers, until Deimos would find him.