To Dawn’s surprise, the pce they headed towards was not in the high-css area, but rather a muodest area against the edge of the mert’s distribsp; The only indication their destination was any different thaher houses around it was the presence of a small group of guards patrolling the perimeter and two knights resting in chairs by the door. As they approached, the knights stood up, while Lara waved to one of the guards.

  Seeing Lara, the guards simply let them pass without stopping them, and they tio the door, stopping before the knights. After expining that Dawn was there to meet Lord Jerald in order to pass on a report from her vilge, the knights nodded, one of them entering to inform him of their arrival.

  Shortly afterward, the knight exited the building, waving them in as they did so. Upoering, Dawn was again surprised by hur everything looked - even the inn was more impressive in appearance, which did not at all match what she had heard about how eo live. Once she finished looking around the room, she realized a middle-aged man was standing in a doorway to the side. Immediately, she focused on a rge amulet that looked incredibly out of pce sidering the modesty of everything else, including the rest of the man’s outfit.

  Notig her gaze, he chuckled as he ehe room, waving for them to sit in some of the chairs even as he sat down in one. While doing so, he expined, “Anti-magic defense. Not perfect, but gives a det bit of prote. Have to wear it wheing mages, just in case.”

  Shaking his head, he tinued, “Not like I really , never had any of the issues others tend to have. As you might have figured, I am Jerald, the lord of this region. I hear you have e to share a report? Which vilge do you represent, and what is important enough it couldn’t be sent through the mail?” he asked while appearing quite worried.

  “Don’t worry, it isn’t bad!” Dawn excimed, before tinuing in a more rexed manner, “I was just headed through here anyway, ahought it would be more respectful to share personally. I am Dawn, daughter of Amilya, the leader of Blightfall vilge. She would like to inform you that she received your message, and does not require any assistance despite the Bck Tide. We lost some, but it has its own bes.”

  Reag up to her hood, she pet Niphru’s head before tinuing, “Shortly before, we met Niphru here, a wild Awakened fox. While most did not trust him initially, he was a big help, and cleared out many twisted beasts himself, and led our huo others. Then a group from the Church of flict showed up and uedly ended up taking out the nearby forest lord. bining all this together, the forest is the safest it has ever been, so the hunters will be bringing in far more than normal.”

  Having rexed as Dawn expined, Jerald responded, “That is good news, at least. I will still leave the exemption just in case it is needed, but will gdly accept anything your vilge spare. Floatspire has been having a very rough time tely. Bad enough, in fact, that I am preparing to take a force to assist them soon.”

  He shook his head before tinuing, “Well, at least one of the disasters isn’t major, acc to your report. Sinentioned you were passing through, I will make sure to send a response back via mail. Anyways, now that the official stuff is done, mind if I ask how Amilya is doing with how things are tely? Is old man Monti still with you? And I must admit, the idea of a fox of all things being awakened, not to mention accepted, is quite difficult to believe, despite seeing one calmly resting like this.”

  Smiling at the ck of hostility towards her friend, Dawn replied, “Actually, he would probably be a lot more active if he could. He even knows how to use his illusions to speak with people, but, unfortunately, he was injured while saving me during the Bck Tide. Monti is iill with us, and he suggested it might be a spiritual problem, so hopefully we get help at the capital. As for mother… Well, it has been really busy for her, she had to keep running around solving problems almost nonstop, often having to leave in the middle of the night even.”

  Jerald appeared surprised for a moment at the statement of Niphru being able to speak, but nodded and tinued listening to the news she shared. Upon hearing that Monti was still around, he seemed relieved, and, after she finished, remarked, “I worry about the old man stantly, every year I think ‘this is it, he is going to die,’ but he keeps hanging on. It will be a sad day when we lose him. Let us hope he keeps beating everyone’s predis for a long while yet!”

  After a moment, he queried, “Is Amilya able to handle everything, or should I send people to help out with getting your vilge back together?”

  Dawn was surprised for a moment, but reminded herself that just because the hat Elena and her brother had spoken of were one way, it certainly didn’t mean all of them were. As she went to reply, she suddenly remembered that she was supposed to give a letter to him, and had left it behind in the inn.

  She quickly sidered, and had aurning to Lara, who had been sitting quietly the whole time, and asked her if she could head to the inn ahe letter really quibsp; After nodding in response, and taking the key to their room from Dawn, Lara stood a, with a warning not to leave until she returned.

  Dawn thanked her before turnitention back to Jerald and responding, “I am pretty sure she will be fi is just that in the short term, there is a ton to be done and lots of people think they need her help. And I’m sorry, but I pletely fot about the letter I was supposed to give you. I think it was just about what we talked about already, but there might be other things as well, so I am gd I finally remembered.”

  Fortunately, Jerald seemed fih her blunder, as she had been able to correct it. Instead of lingering over it, he asked her what she thought of the town, and they spent the time discussing different aspects of the town. A while ter, Lara returned, handing over the letter to Jerald.

  After remarking that he should probably get back to his work, they shared farewells, and Dawn headed back outside with Lara. Ohey had left, passing by both the knights as well as the guards, Dawn asked about any other pces Lara thought they should visit, besides the shops from before.

  Once Lara had brought up several options, Dawn picked out a few that sounded iing, and they headed off to rex for the rest of the day.