Chapter 37: Arriving in Fern

Sure enough, the next day, the town, known as Fern, came into view. Fern was quite a small place situated on the bank of a river and surrounded by woodland on all other sides, hopefully facilitating their escape later in the afternoon. Around its buildings was a wooden wall that was high enough to not be climbed over and evidently had its own walkway atop it as several guards were standing on it watching over the gatehouse. Judging by the curve of the wall, it looked like the settlement only held a couple thousand people at most and was only a few hundred strides wide.

Not seeing any other way to enter and assuming that they would be welcome within, the group approached the town entrance in full view of the men on the wall and stopped a short distance before it on a track that led to the east. The guards didn't seem to have had word that they should be on the lookout for runaways at least, and they displayed no immediate alarm as it wouldn't make much sense for Krinestadt to start spreading the news they had identified someone that may be Arkadia's last prince. Instead, they stood watching the newcomers until, evidently deciding that they did not look a lot like bandits with there only being one girl and two quite young boys, one shouted down to ask what their business was.

Kira allowed Cat to reply as he was the one who had been briefed on finding the manipulator by Gretyl. "We're here to see Maurice," he shouted back, "She should be expecting us." and they were told to "Wait right there." as one guard went to check with this Maurice that they were actually expected.

"She already knows that we're coming to see her, and I'm assuming that Maurice is the manipulator?" asked Aura, turning to Cat.

"Gretyl has an enchanted object that allows long-distance communication to the person that has the second one in the set. She and Maurice are sisters, you see.

"Sisters…" murmured Kira as the guard returned and the gates swung inwards.

Entering together, they were given the rather stern instruction to not cause any trouble and headed up the street that unfolded before them towards Fern's centre. The houses were packed in against the road, but it still wasn't as claustrophobic as Ostermark's slums and the people going about their daily business did not seem particularly badly off. Instead, the town seemed quite lively, with a market already in full swing in an open square up ahead despite it still being the morning. Before reaching any of the stalls, Cat led them off into a side street on the right of the road and took a couple of turns before stopping outside of a seemingly unremarkable house. "It's this one," he stated and went to knock on the front door.

The house occupied three floors, with the top one being a converted attic, and it was made with the ground floor being stone and the two above being wooden. Each storey had two broad windows facing out into the street, although none betrayed anything interesting inside, and on the bottom floor, one window was replaced with a door. Overall it seemed like a well-maintained place with flowers growing from window-side boxes, and it was in stark contrast to Gretyl's shop.

The woman who answered the door did resemble Gretyl with the same height and facial features, and she certainly seemed just as old but held less of the witchlike figure than her sister had. She looked down at Cat standing below her with a minute amount of disdain, "I don't usually trust this kind of person," Maurice said, whilst gesturing at Cat, "But what can you do; you had better come on in."

Kira was not certain about her and did not particularly like her attitude towards Cat, who hung back and followed closely after him, probably put off himself, but Ghost seemed alright to enter, so he followed it in. They entered into a living room with a low beamed ceiling and two sofas forming a semicircle around a fireplace that sat cold. Around the walls were several bookshelves, all bristling with books, which also held some interesting trinkets and, when looking at them with his aura, Kira thought that a couple were enchanted. The three of them were then made to all sit together, on one couch, facing Maurice on the other, with their bags on the floor at their side, and she made no offer of a drink or any other pleasantry, opting to move straight to business.

"I am an exorcist," she explained, "My ability means that I can remove curses and things placed on people by other manipulators. My sister asked me if I would remove your slave marks. I don't normally work outside of the law, but I guess that I will this time, and I'll do you first." she pointed at Aura.

Some part of Kira was irritated as he should have been the one to be freed first as he was the more important person there but, this time at least, he let it slide. Maurice beckoned to Aura to join her and when she was sitting on the same sofa, opposed to Cat and Kira, their host placed her hand on Aura's neck over the marking. Unsure as to how long the process would take, Kira sat back, waiting to see what would happen as the minutes slid by and an ever-active Cat grew restless beside him. After fifteen minutes, he lost patience and asked, "Exactly how long will this take?" gaining an irritable look from Maurice in return.

"It will probably take over an hour." she replied, "it is not a fast process, you know. Or rather, you clearly don't."

Hearing this, Cat waited a moment longer and then left Kira behind to look around the room. Walking around on the backs of the furniture, he neatly hopped from the last one, landing on the floor, when it threatened to tip over under his weight. He then made a circle of the room as Kira busied himself talking with Ghost about how this would destroy their lead over any pursuit, and his mood soured. They needed to be going northwest, not to be sat here, he thought, as Cat helped himself to a few of the more interesting items from the shelves before placing them back in different places.

Watching the slave mark on Aura, he could see how its own aura was being unfurled and warped by Maurice. It was much like watching someone solve a complex puzzle or try to undo a knot that just wouldn't give up in its attempt to hold in place. Progress seemed slow, but at least he could see it being made, and this served to relax him just by a bit as he thought they should still be done here ahead of when their enemies arrived. Ghost did not agree and, despite being able to watch the mark be removed himself, Cat did not seem to get any enjoyment out of it like Kira. Satisfied that he had looted all there was in the sitting room, Cat disappeared from sight through an archway and into the next room along, which seemed to be the kitchen.

Trying to strike up some conversation rather than exist within the icy silence of the house now that Cat had wandered away, Aura questioned Maurice, "Do you work for Krinestadt as a manipulator?"

And after a moment, she got a rather grudging reply, "No, we're technically within Krinestadt here, but we mainly look after ourselves, and that works for them just fine so long as we occasionally pay them some taxes; even if we withhold some…" and she trailed off when a loud clattering sound, radiating from the kitchen, exploded through the house as though someone had managed to drop all of the cutlery and plates in Fern simultaneously. "Get out of there," Maurice shouted into the other room, keeping her hand on Aura, "I'll clear up," she muttered, "But you had better keep that thing under control."

Cat returned into the sitting room a few moments later, looking quite sheepish, evidently being the source of the noise. He then sprawled himself over Kira's sofa, lying partially across Kira too and facing the seat's back, discovering that it was rather fun to stare at, rather than their host. To keep him out of trouble and from falling, Kira wrapped an arm around him and continued to watch the process of removing Aura's mark.

"I'm not hateful towards demis." Maurice stated, "But that thing bothers me. I heard about it from my sister; she was right to keep a close eye on it when it was in Ostermark."

Hearing her, Cat rolled back to face in her direction and pulled his arms up to look as cute and non-threatening as he possibly could whilst saying, "Come on, am I really that threatening?"

"Not necessarily you but what you represent, yes."

"What he represents?" said Kira, almost rhetorically, finally being interested enough to come out of a conversation with Ghost who, as it turned out, knew a lot of stuff about philosophy.

"You don't know?" responded Maurice before adding a moment later, "He, I'm sorry it, hasn't told you then, I suppose." in the face of her guests' confusion, although Cat seemed to know exactly what she meant.

Aura tried to get him to explain himself, but he kept silent and lay on his back to sleep, or rather pretended to sleep to get her to stop. It didn't matter what Maurice had said though, both Kira and Aura still trusted Cat from experience. After that, time began to pass very slowly once more, and they all settled down to wait until Maurice had finished. It wasn't too long before she took her hand from Aura, revealing that the falcon, and the strange aura that had surrounded it, was gone. Now it was Kira's turn, and the two swapped places, much to Cat's displeasure as he was still trying to balance himself partially on Kira.

When he sat down, the same process began that had Aura had been put through. However, this time it did not take so long as Maurice had thought of something which prompted her to ask, "Is anyone coming after you, from Ostermark, two escaped slaves don't normally gain a lot of attention, but given that it is travelling with you maybe you've got yourself into some more bother."

In this position, Kira wanted to lie, but that could be a dangerous act in itself to a manipulator, and Aura responded for him, "We are being followed, but they are ages behind, so we'll be gone from here before they arrive."

"Great, how far behind?"

"Maybe a few hours…."

"Ok, thank you, you can all go now," Maurice told them, removing her hand from Kira, who shot an angry look at Aura despite knowing that he wouldn't have lied either.

Cat sat up, "But Gretyl said that you would…."

"One of the reasons that I'm not is you; so don't act like you're innocent." retorted Maurice, "If you weren't here, maybe I would have risked it, but you are not something that I like to keep the company of, particularly after you seem to have destroyed everything that I own in my kitchen."

"An accident," Cat murmured whilst retreating over to the house's front door, clearly ready to leave. With there being no more point in talking, Kira followed Ghost out of the building with Aura and Cat in tow, who was being a bit less bouncy than usual in his strides.

They then exited Fern by the northern entrance with less bother than they had had entering as the guards were much happier to let people leave than enter their gates. Back in the countryside, Kira lamented how their visit had been a complete waste of time because, as long as they stayed as a group, it did not matter if one or all of them had markings as they would be found together regardless.

Ghost played into these feelings by telling him that he should have been the one to have had his mark removed, given that this was his journey to make and find the thing. Aura now had no reason left to keep following him, outside of the maintenance of friendship, and he fully expected her to leave at any moment.