The little palace Valena resided in buzzed with activity. Not only had the Imperial Princess disturbed His Majesty, but she had come out unscathed with news of mercenaries on their way to help. The staff continued work as usual but Valena was struggling without Jaya. She didn’t know how to dress herself, brush her hair, and went hungry for hours before she realized that she had to fetch her food herself. When the mercenaries arrived to receive the details of their mission, they were greeted with an unkempt girl who looked worse than the maids. They were told to expect a beautiful young girl and almost ignored her in their haste to find the princess. Only Hollow, the head of the mercenary group, realized who she was and knelt down before her.

“Your Imperial Highness.” Watching him bow, the rest quickly followed suit and knelt down as well.

Valena tried to put into practice all Jaya had taught her to command respect. She tilted her chin up and started speaking in as dignified a voice as she could muster. “Gentlemen, thank you for heeding my summons. I trust you’ve been briefed already?”

The men continued to kneel, stifling grins at her disheveled appearance. “We are to search for a woman of the Imperial household and bring her back safely,” Hollow replied.

Valena gave a curt nod, “Yes, her name is Jaya. Please take the utmost care when retrieving her. My servants will provide you with food and clothing with plenty of gold coins to make your journey easier. Best of luck.” The mercenaries rose to their feet and followed a servant to collect their supplies. By the end of the day, they were on their way.

Of course, with how late they left the palace, they were only able to travel a few hours before they were forced to stop for the night. Earlier they had decided to travel for longer then stay in an inn instead of stopping at sundown and spend time setting up camp in the forest. By the time they reached the inn, they were famished. The ‘Hungry Hog’ wasn’t the finest establishment and the food left quite a lot to be desired, but it was the only inn with a restaurant in the entire town so it was always full of travelers.

“By the Blessed, when was the last time we slept in beds!” one of the mercenaries laughed out. He playfully bumped the arm of Andres, Hollow’s younger brother. “Must be nice for us all to stay here so you don’t have to do all the chores huh?” Andres rolled his eyes and smiled back.

“Forget the inn, Andres’ food can’t be beat!” someone yelled in the back. Everyone roared with laughter and a few clapped Andres on the back in mock sympathy. In all honesty, Andres hated his role in the group. Being Hollow’s brother, he was adequately trained and was stronger than most of the members but he was too soft-hearted. He kept getting in trouble for refusing to kill his enemies. Andres believed in mercy, but such kindness was seen as a sign of weakness in his line of work.

Across the room, there seemed to be a crowd gathering around the bar. Most of the mercenaries had sat down at tables or stood for lack of space. All of them were busy ordering food and joking around with each other. As the crew made merry, largely ignoring their resident pack mule, Andres focused in on the restless herd.

“--your past seems to have been filled with misery. I understand things are looking up for you now but if you keep going down this unrighteous path, you’ll surely fall prey to your very successes,” a dignified woman was speaking evenly from the center of the crowd. Her words carried the burden of ages of knowledge, despite her youthful appearance.

“What do you mean ‘my successes’? I’m just a modest merchant!” said the man, having his future read. His face was starting to redden.

“You’re modest now but you’ll become rich and greedy and your children will follow in those footsteps. Pay heed kind soul, for it may not remain kind for much longer,” the Oracle replied. The man growled and reared his hand back, ready to strike, but someone in the front of the crowd grabbed his hand forcefully and yanked him back.

“Who do you thin-” the man started, but was quickly stunned into silence. Before him was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

“Now now, is that any way to treat a lady? You asked for a reading and she gave it to you, for free even!” She was smiling when she said this but her eyes were cold and hard. “Now scram.”

The man’s face grew pale and he stumbled in his haste to get away. The beautiful woman turned her steely gaze onto the rest of the onlookers in the crowd.

“Anybody else feeling brave?” she inquired playfully.

The inn quieted down instantly and the crowd quickly dispersed. Andres stared for a few seconds more before turning his attention to his companions at the table.