Sariya glanced at Chrystianna questioningly. Chrystianna returned the look.

Britiana smiled. "Mom, this is Sariya. Her parents are from Undirheim. She was stuck on Thelessia after they died,” she informed, gesturing to her friend. “Sariya, this is my mom. She finally came for me and Dari," she introduced with a proud smile. "Sariya is a good friend. She knows about me and Darius," she added.

Chrystianna’s eyes curved with her smile. "Hello, thank you for being a friend to my children," she said gratefully, reaching out to take the other woman’s hand.

Sariya returned the gesture. "It is I who should thank you for sending them to Thelessia.” She honestly meant that. When she met the siblings, she regained the hope she hadn’t had in a long while.

Britiana took a breath when Sariya took her hand back. A rare serious expression crossed her face. "What's wrong? Who's here?" she asked, facing the Eoduun woman.

Chrystianna glanced at her daughter. Her children actually knew more about her than she did them. She didn't know what kind of abilities they had, but she could tell that Britiana must be a powerful Empath. Her own empathic abilities weren't very strong. Her skillset was telepathy and telekinesis. She could empathically scan a room if concentrated, but she didn't have a natural aptitude. Just as she was about to, Britiana touched her arm and shook her head. Until Sariya explained the situation, they couldn't rashly use active psionics.

Sariya wasn't surprised by Britiana's question. She knew about her empathic abilities. "There are people surrounding the inn. I recognize some of their faces as merchants who've passed through lately, but they are no longer pretending to be merchants. I may have ignored them and just told Moira to be careful in case one of her customers brought trouble," she started to explain. This wouldn't be the first time Tarrytown has seen trouble because of professional and personal grudges because of the frequent travelers coming and going.

"But then I noticed that some of them were using equipment made from Dragons," she said. She glanced at a pair, a man and a woman, who sat at the corner table pretending to be traveling warriors who were also lovers. But they continuously scanned the room as if looking for something. They frequently looked in Raziel Voidstalker's direction. With his unique looks, he was very eye-catching. He didn't look like a native Thelessian elf no matter which angle they used. 

"Those two are wearing Dragon scale armor under their cloaks. I think they came for you and your brother," she said.

Chrystianna's heart stopped for a moment and her vision nearly turned black. Her extreme fear even momentarily broke her mental barrier and caused Britiana to gasp aloud at the sudden attack. Chrystianna quickly came to her senses and reinforced her barrier. She quickly apologized.

Britiana shook her head. She understood her mother's fear. Dragon Hunters decimated the Dragons of Emphyralis with a plague and attacked the survivors for nearly a century.

The Dragon Hunters who attacked them looked human but were not. They were long lived, had technological means, and were fiercely brutal. Chrystianna looked at the pair. They looked human, were both tall and almost gaunt but strong. It was the tattoos on their faces and bodies that really gave away their identity. They were indeed the same Hunters they finally defeated only a couple decades earlier. 

"How did they know there were Dragons here?" Britiana wondered. Both she and Darius were always careful when transforming. But they were in their Changing period. If they didn't transform regularly until they mastered the transformation, it would cause problems later in life. 

Chrystianna made a face. "They always know. But it's strange that they appeared on Thelessia. Raziel chose this world because there were no dragons. The people here didn't even have the concept of dragons, even as myths. There was nothing for the Hunters to be curious about. The magic system here also isn't very powerful, and the technology is stunted. Even if people accidentally saw something strange in the sky, how would a Dragon Hunter know to come?" 

She hadn’t sent her children away blindly. She and the Voidstalker chose this small planet very carefully. If anything ever went wrong, she wanted a place where her children would be the most powerful beings. The point was to save their lives, not put them in more danger.

"The only people who know about me and Darius are the gang that raised us and Sariya," Britiana said with a frown. She rubbed her forehead and thought for a while. The gang had been betrayed before. The lure of money can change hearts. One of their own got greedy, questioning why one of the best gangs of thieves in the world would simply redistribute the money they stole to the less fortunate. Why not keep it all?

He'd stolen their latest score and run away, all the way to the western continent and eventually braving the Dark Forest. Eoduun weren't the only things that lived in the Dark Forest. They'd caught him. But did they catch him in time? Dark Wizards also lived in the Dark Forest. It hasn’t been known for a mage on Thelessia to be above second-tier in ages, was there someone among the Dark Wizards who'd made it to third-tier? Given the right rituals, powerful artifacts, and incantations, a third-tier wizard could communicate across time and space.

Britiana shook as she thought about it. Seven years. Seven years was plenty of time for someone to contact the Dragon Hunters. Seven years was plenty of time for them to make their way across time and space to Thelessia. Especially once a beacon was set up. Then it was only a matter of time before compiling reports of any strange atmospheric phenomenon was gathered. A cloud appearing in a cloudless sky. Odd fogs in the forests. Eventually, there would be the news of two siblings who live in the woods and mostly keep to themselves.

She took another shaky breath. "I have to warn Darius. If they're looking for me, they may be looking for him as well," she said.

When she carried them in her womb, Chrystianna had formed mental links with her children when their brains developed enough. But after sending them away, she hadn't felt them in over twenty years. But now, she felt a long dormant twinge. She could feel her daughter reaching out to her son.

<Darius?> Britiana whispered, but his link was closed. He only did that when he was in a dangerous situation. He didn’t want his emotions to leak and make her worry. She closed her eyes, hoping he was just fighting mountain trolls and not Dragon Hunters.

She opened her eyes with a sharp gasp. She felt a killing intent all around the tavern. "They are coming closer. Did they notice my barrier?" she asked.

Sariya shook her head. "That tarty Vella was chatting with the man just now. I couldn't hear what they said, but she made two facial expressions while talking. One she only makes when talking about your brother, like she can't wait to eat his bones clean. And the other when she talks about you, as if she'd pick your bones clean to get you out of the way," she said. Vella was a server at the Oxhead. She was plump, pretty, and popular. Even in glamor, she always looked at Darius like she was hungry. She did not like “Bittany” who she felt was in the way of her happiness. "She also glanced over here.”

Britiana worried her bottom lip. She was on the cusp of being a fourth-tier mage, but she wasn't there yet. She was only in her early twenties after all. Some high-level magic was beyond her. She couldn't make them invisible or freeze time. 

At some point, Raziel disappeared. He must have noticed the barrier and suspected something was wrong. Chrystiana didn't expect him to help her out of this predicament. The Hunters must be using some way to communicate.  If she incapacitated them, would the others know?

Britiana looked at Sariya. "Thank you for helping. If we get out of this, we'll definitely come back for you, but you shouldn't get involved in this," she said.

Sariya shook her head. "I won't be safe. They'll realize I warned you. I'll stay with you. You might need my help," she said simply.

Britiana gave her a grateful look. "Mother, you're experienced facing Hunters. Will a psychic attack work?"

Chrystianna nodded. "But I'm afraid that the others will know," she said.

Briti smiled reassuringly. She took each of their hands. "Now," she said.

Chrystiana looked at the hunters with a grim smile. She reached out with her telepathic abilities before they could react and exploded a wave of mental noise so loud and debilitating that blood leaked from their ears and they fell to the ground. They were shaking and frothing at the mouth, revealing the armor beneath their cloaks made of metallic Silver scales on the woman and stunning iridescent Onyx scale on the man.

Britiana pressed around the wall and pulled both of them into her embrace and said a deep word in Emphyralian Draconic “Halahk.” They disappeared from their seats and appeared on the other side of the wall.  They actually moved through space less than a yard. This kind of teleportation spell was a third-tier spell that was looked down on a lot. Moving through time and space was difficult without a medium and only fourth-tier mages could do it well. This spell that could only move things less than a yard was considered by other mages as nearly useless. 

Yet, at this moment it came in surprisingly useful. If Britiana didn't know the layout and terrain of the inn and couldn't psychically feel where the danger was and wasn't, it would have been a disaster. They could have ended up in the wall, or on top of the Dragon Hunters.

Outside the inn, in the dark cloudy night, they could hear exclamations from the Hunters as they ran to check on their companions. <RUN! Silence your movements!> Chrystianna used her telepathic projection ability to silently communicate with both of them. The three women cast a quick silencing spell around themselves and began running.

Chrystianna followed Sariya and Britiana, who seemed to know where they were going. They seemed to have a tacit understanding. They ran away from the inn and tavern in a particular direction.

The Hunters came into the tavern where the staff was checking on the two who were having convulsions. A big man pushed a server out of the way to check on them. He scoffed. "Psychic attack. Disgusting. Silver Dragons," he said in a language that no one in the bar could understand; it was harsh and guttural. He looked around. He noticed three women chatting as if they were oblivious to the uproar in the room. He strode over to them and slashed a long fiery amber sword, and the illusion dissipated to reveal an empty booth. 

He cursed. "They used a trick. They escaped!" he shouted. "Ull. Treat Kith and Ontha. The rest chase!" he said and ran out. The other band of hunters followed, leaving only one person to feed his companion's medicine. 

Modern hunters were bred to withstand psychic attacks from Silver Dragons. So, the condition of the two being so severe was very strange. Such a powerful Dragon's brain would be quite a trophy. Ull thought about it and hurriedly injected the two from two syringes until they woke up.

Kith and Otha were groggy but angry. They immediately dragged Ull to rejoin their party leaving the staff and patrons of the Oxhead in confusion.