"How'd I look?" Asks Feravis as the formal attire he rented swallow his frame.

Andeera tosses an apple in the air before looking at his roommate, shrugging. "Horrible."

"Thanks, but that's not exactly what I was tryin' to go for."

"Big whoop! You and Leopold gets invited to every festival in town as security detail all the time now and you still haven't found a tailor that likes your mug?"

He takes his black coat and dress shirt off. "I don't know what I did to Mary down at Empire Street, but he kept pointing me towards shittier and shittier tailors."

Andeera snorts out a laugh, "wait. You asked, Mary Penbrook, the Mary Penbrook of Fancy Couture for other tailor shop suggestions?"

"Well, he won't do my tailoring again!"

"Of course he won't." He stands up, grabbing open their closet to take out a crisp suit with multiple patchworks on the breast, hem, and shoulder. "You tried having him fix this!"

"The job comes with getting your clothes ripped and it doesn't pay enough, Andeera."

A knock came at the open door, Leopold in his pristine suit and coat. A style that is a bit outdated, but he looks presentable at least. What is captivating is how shiny his shoes are, pure leather that he'd talk someone ears' off on who gave it to him.

Some rich schmuck off of Jardin City that he befriended during one of his runs and was kind enough to give him an old pair he was meaning to throw anyway after seeing the sorry state of his feet. Filled with blisters and running off errands with only slippers.

"Is that the best Mary could give you?" He tilts his head.

Andeera roars in laughter, "not even blindfolded, tied up and only allowed to use his feet could Mary make something horrendous as that."

"You go before me," Feravis waves off. "I'll fix 'em before we start escorting the Lathalia's again."

Andeera whistles, "big shot!"

Feravis pushes Andeera out their room to focus, tossing him a gold coin to treat himself at a tavern nearby. He opens his drawers, pushing out the flyers of festival events that have been littered all throughout the year.

He swears festivities became more frequent now that they've gotten older.

That month, news of the big 18th birthday of the Marquis' only son was all they could hear about. Not even the quiet town of Rapsa could evade it. The adults that once ushered them to train under the Silverion Knights have grown old and they barely go home... at least, the other kids. Leopold and Feravis still stays there as much as they could.

Feravis never had any reason to, but he wouldn't leave Leopold alone.

Sun's gone down before he realized it, the room is growing darker and darker, it gotten so late and the party would start in an hour. With haste, he grabs his adjusted suit, hoping he wouldn't tear it by the shoulder sleeves again from drawing his bow further and further but base on previous performances he shouldn't hope for a miracle.

It wasn't very smart of Jaira to gossip with her gardener boyfriend over a secret entrance she could take if they ever want to have a tryst whenever they want without their masters knowing. Especially not when Feravis have heightened his hearing.

Sneaking in through the garden wall of the Marquis' mansion, the thicket was tall enough to unnerve him. Constantly watching his back, listening for any twigs snapping while crawling under the hole in the shrubbery.

The party is in full swing.

Melody leaking from the ballroom with many guests wandering the courtyard for an evening stroll and more. Feravis definitely saw an affair happening, only to note it on his head that the Countess Goldbloom is tongue deep in Baron Fittlebee for future gossip with Jaira.

Some last name in Wydell really are not compatible at all. Whoever Baroness Bee was should've thought twice before adding her last name with a Fittle.

Alas, poor Count Goldbloom, unknowingly raising a Fittlebloom instead. Though Feravis would admit that it would sound better than Fittlebee.

Peering inside the lustrous ballroom, golden light illuminating the white marbled hall giving this golden image of the entire place, highlighting the nimble blue nobleman as he spins his partner around the dancefloor.

But Feravis didn't come to watch Cecil Evergray woo every ladies and gentlemen available to him, he's here to find the Lathalia family and Leopold so he could do his job.

"You're late."

Feravis jumps hearing the chilling voice of Eulfric Daggercliff behind him. He'd brag about his amazing sense of hearing but against a man as silent as this tall, even shorter and blacker haired with no emotion in his face, he'd always fail.

"I," he starts looking for an excuse, "I wasn't. You just didn't see me. That's all."

He bends down; lips still pressed in a thin line. "I'd like to inform you that the Lathalia family would not want to see you at all. Leave now or I will alert the knights of your trespassing."

"You can't fire me!" Feravis guffaws. "Everyone knows me and Leopold are a set pair."

"He quits."

"Eh?"

"Now, leave before the Lathalia orders me to deal with you." He walks away, leaving Feravis more confuse.

Leopold? Quitting? After finally escaping the Rust Crow Guild menial ladder and becoming the Master's security detail? That couldn't be right.

Surely, he thought. Surely Eulfric is jesting.

When the song ended, the beau of the ball dips their partner and the crowd claps. He exist the stage whilst Feravis walks towards the center of the courtyard.

The sound of gravel being walked on was satisfying but not enough to have his gears turnabout. He sits, behind the fountain, away from where the light of the venue could reach. He'd rather not be thrown out of the party, not without finding Leopold first.

"It doesn't make sense," he muttered.

Leopold wore his best suit and the shoes that was to be an heirloom by the way he cherishes it. To quit now, something must've happened.

Perhaps the Lathalia threatened to punish Feravis that's why Leopold had to put his foot down. That was possible.

He drops on the ground, thinking of that.

"Damn it, Feravis." He muttered.

Before he could descend to a well of self-loathing, he hears it. Rustling of bushes. However, he could figure out exactly where it comes from as he was there mere minutes ago.

He walks over, where the trees are tall enough to hide it. Careful not to touch it at all.

Whoever it was, he missed it as they had already crawled through, but no one said he couldn't follow so he did.

Three pairs of shoes shuffling right on the other side of shrubbery. Feravis couldn't mistake it.

"Y'know, if sneaking out was the reason you quit the job, I would've loved a heads up." He groans, pulling himself out of the shrubs.

"Eek!" Screams a woman and Feravis feel a heavy foot connect with his head.

"Woah! Easy there now!" Leopold says.

"What is this? I asked you to help me, Iverncrest."

"He's my partner."

With a groan, Feravis adds. "We come as a package."

He lifts his head to see Cecil Evergray in the flesh and a peculiar red woman with burning coal features on her skin, glowing orange eyes with black sclera. He doesn't even notice the disguise the two are wearing purely because no amount of disguise could hide their natural appearance.

"I didn't pay for a package."

"The fee was technically for a package."

"Leo?" Feravis dusts himself off, suddenly wary of the woman. "That's a Will'O right there."

The woman turns around to look behind her before pointing at herself. "I'm a Will'O?"

"Can you stop racially profiling my friend?" Gray huffs.

"Oh." Feravis lets out a knowing nod. "I thought you're trafficking her. Being a noble and all that."

If a blue man could turn red, Cecil Evergray must've done so already by Feravis' accounts. He can see smoke escaping his ears at his words.

"Enough of that." Leopold snaps, looking over the garden wall. "We'll have to trek through the woods. Think you could cover our tracks, so no one follows?"

>><<>><<

Rain has caught on to them. There is no land where the water cannot reach and no matter how dense the Evershift Forest is, the rain doesn't come trickling from the canopy. It comes down like silk strands, continuous to the point of softening the ground enough to be hard to traverse in.

Feravis doesn't like this, surrounded by trees once more. He fiddles on the quill of the single arrow he has left, watching Leopold hack through vines to find an exit out of the place.

There is a warning for every soldiers in the Glasse Duchy. Entering the Evershift Forest is a gamble, between going in circle for hours and never going back home.

None was to suggest that the Lady Glasse perhaps got lost in the forest lest they feel lashings on their back by the hands of Odette, the Lady's most loyal companion. Yet it was a decision Monica made without knowing the stakes.

"We already went here!" Gray hisses, stomping his hooved feet on the mud.

Truscott looks around, the shadow envelops them, but she has this feeling that Gray's telling the truth. "We should go this way."

Pointing towards a blanket of trees to thick to be traversing through.

"Quick!" Monica pauses, before they could move again. "Everybody, turn your shirts backwards. Some forest sprites must be playing a trick on us."

"Good idea!" Feravis jumps on board.

Leopold pauses from his hacking, turning to Gray and Truscott whilst ignoring the foolishness of Feravis and Monica. "My sword can't cut through trees that thick. All we need to do is find an exit outta here. Are you sure it's that way?"

"Yes, now tell those two to stop stripping!" Gray snaps his head, glaring. "They're a bad influence on my Truscott."

"I said shirt, I didn't say anything about the pants." Monica laughs at Feravis half-way stripped bottoms.

Tilting her head, Truscott asks. "How could you tell there's forest sprites in the woods?"

"It's just a belief my country has back home."

Leo looks at Monica and her boisterous smile, perhaps the first time he's actually looking at her and not the idea of Sunniva. With clenched jaws, he averts his gaze. "Let them be, Gray."

"Urgh!"

Despite the fit Gray is causing, they traversed through the Evershift forest with more ease now that he's leading it. He's not a man of the forest but this particular woods calls out to him.

He shudders at how the woods always calls out to him. Perhaps it's his lineage but he's never been raised to find being a Hilagran as a source of pride. This side of him always left him feeling barbaric.

But between that and having to stay under this rain, soaked to the bones with dirt, mud and probably insects in the ground surfacing up the waters to not drown, Gray would rather utilize his Hilagran senses, as he calls it.

Steady, the rain falls. The trek is anything but quiet.

"I can't," Gray stops in his tracks. The feeling of grime all over him no longer tolerable. "If you guys want me to continue guiding you, carry me."

"Okay," Truscott volunteers.

She walks over to her friend, bends her knees to carry him bride-style only to sink into the soft, muddy ground from Gray's added weight.

Leo sighs, grabbing Gray from Truscott. Despite being able to to lift the man, he also sank down in the mud.

"I am not that heavy!" Gray complains, grabbing onto Leo.

The man slowly sinking down the mud with Truscott.

"I don't think that's you causing this." Feravis says, jumping out of the mud as Monica yelps at suddenly sinking.

"I hate this! I hate this!" She shrieks, trying to pull her legs out but an equal force pulls her down as well.

Truscott twirls her dagger, stabbing the mud. "It's the forest sprites! They're–––"

Voice fades under the mud.

"Truscott!" Screams everyone but Monica who still believes her name is Roussie.

Gray jumps out of Leo's arms only for him to be swallowed by the ground himself. Feravis looks around them for anything to grab onto, but he couldn't, not even when it's dire, make the same mistake and break a tree branch again.

That is all he sees.

"Go big!" He yells out. "Monica, go big!"

Monica hears this, tries her hardest with eyes closed and held breaths. Every second passing pounded on her head like a ticking clock, telling her Roussie is in danger again but despite the pressure, despite the necessity for her to do this, she couldn't.

"I don't kno–––"

Gone.

The mud swallowed her too.

Gray, kneels, clawing at the mud. Not caring that he's getting dirtier with every soil flung out, he saw Truscott vanish and his world zeroed in on the fact that he couldn't see her in that moment.

Minutes pass; he shows no sign of stopping. It dawned on Feravis a sinister truth.

The Evershift Forest isn't safe for Wydellians...anyone that looks Wydellian. But it is for Hilagrans