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The Draaknei Sunset

This town felt wrong. Having been to only one town before I cannot say that I have too much experience in the matter. As such I'm completely unable to determine what exactly feels wrong; if anything it almost seems too normal to be believable. On top of that every fiber of my being seems to be screaming at me to run away from this place like I was just some unicorn. Something about this town must be creating this sense of unnatural fear. On top of that it almost seems like the town has been bathed in perpetual sunset given the way that all the shadows and colors of the building and plants look.

I can tell that the others are picking up on this sense of unease as well, telling me that whatever is causing it isn't aimed just at me. I hear a gasp from someone nearby that doesn't actually sound like it came from anyone in our group and turn back to the road and take a step back as a reaction of what is before us. Staring back at us on the top of the hill are four large creatures, their silhouettes very similar to what I would expect it to be given the image that the others got Fiin to show.

"Draaknei? Here?" Rophan exclaims, oddly taking a step forward to interpose himself slightly between me and these four large creatures.

Knowing full well that what is in front of me is not what they think it is I look at it very closely, trying to find out what is going on. Spotting something I decide to speak up.

"Do you see that?" I ask.

"Yeah," Simon replies, turning his head slightly to the side and his hand pulling his sword out by a little bit.

"Of course he can see it. They're right there."

"That's not what problem. The problem is they aren't right there," Gregory responds, turning around completely and facing back towards the main town.

"See anything?" Simon asks.

"No, nothing looks out of the ordinary."

"What do you mean they aren't there? I can see them quite clearly. We should get out of here before they kill us."

"They're identical," Hashal exclaims, likely suddenly realizing it.

And that is what I had noticed as well. Even though there are four of them there and it is hard to make out any distinctive features, the one thing that is most off is that the silhouette of each of the four, including the shadow coming off the figure is completely identical in every way.

"Exactly," Gregory confirms, still looking around the town, his hand gripping his staff all the harder. "It is impossible to four beings to ever look the same. Among the same species there will always be small differences in height, weight and stature. Even if we were somehow dealing with identical quadruplets, they would not be standing in exactly the same pose. Meaning we aren't dealing with four but one that's been copied three more times."

"And since coming from the source they'd look differently," Fiin adds, catching on to the argument being made, "since they'd be oriented relative to the person casting. Thus the person casting them has to be inside the town."

"In any event," Ceirla comments, "we are very vulnerable where we currently are. I suggest we go about trying to get off the roads as quickly as possible."

"Agreed, make for the town square," Simon says. "Mige, keep your necklaces on," he instructs as he stars backing towards the center of the town.

I cock my head at him slightly though I suppose I can see the merit in his statement. He's obviously referring to my Anaelin. If something were to otherwise incapacitate us but they leave me Anaelin we'd still have one weapon that we can use. Ceirla starts to send her bat to go try and scout out the area but ends up calling him back after a moment, before he can really get that much of a look anyway.

"Whatever's going on in this town," she explains, "it's affecting my connection. I can't have him get too far from me when close to the town square or I'll lose all control over him."

"So what do you think," Gregory says as they retreat further into the town. I look back and see that the four figures have not moved an inch from their spot. "Try the big church?"

"I'd rather know what I'm getting into before going in that direction," Hashal says. "The church is the center of town, the most likely source of that illusion and it only makes sense for that to also be their base of operations."

"Over here," I hear from nearby and see a human trying to get our attention. He doesn't smell anything bad as far as I can tell.

Having no other alternatives at the moment we heed their advice and head over in that direction, Hashal grabbing Cerila's hand to help guide the blind cat to the house as Rophan stays close by me, probably still feeling protective. Gregory and Simon are leading the way, weapons out in case it is a threat. He opens up the door and we find ourselves in a fairly large manor. No longer in view of the fake Draaknei I can no longer feel that sense of oppression. Which is itself a nice bonus. I take a look at our host. Wouldn't quite call him obese but he definitely has quite a rounded gut and rather expensive looking clothes.

"Thank our savior that you are all safe. Those beasts didn't hurt you any, did they?" he asks, seemingly concerned about it.

"We're fine. We just got into town," Gregory says, shaking himself off in the process as if the trek was harder than it was. "Would you be able to tell me how long those things have been here?"

"Oh, a few months, I'm sure. Haven't exactly been keeping track too much," he turns and shouts further into the building. "Hey, Ma! When did those Draaknei first show up?"

After a few seconds they hear a shout of a woman approaching, "It was the Torinn festival, remember? Scared Jezebel half out of her mind in the middle of her song, the poor dear. Oh, you didn't tell me we had guests," she says as she comes into view. She's a plain enough woman with a bit of puffiness in her cheeks and a somewhat yellowish hair. "Come on in, dearies. Dinner is almost ready. I should have more than enough for the lot of you. Just give me a few more minutes to set some more plates. You should have told me you all were coming; I might have been able to whip up something actually worthwhile. I feel like such a disgrace to have to settle for such pathetic scraps to a guest. And don't worry about the monsters. All the buildings have been properly warded, there is no way that any Draaknei could ever get into this house, they'd burn to death even just crossing the threshold." Hashal takes a look at me and I just respond by gesturing that I have no idea what is going on. I had never heard of any ward that could do anything like that. Stop someone from entry, sure, but not absolutely kill them. Of course I know I am safe from any such ward because I know for a fact what it is that will do me in. The man looks and apparently finally notices me, "So are we going to need to tie up your pet or something?"

"Mige is not our pet!" Rophan exclaims, extremely insulted at the comment, which strikes me amusing despite my wariness of him.

"I'm sorry?" the man recoils, not having expected such a response.

"It's all right. I know what I look like now," I say, trying to play up the story we had been given. "Don't mind the elf. He considers it largely to be his fault for what happened."

"I'm sorry to hear it."

"Eh, it's just something I have to live with for the time being. I'm sure I'll be able to find a cure to all this eventually."

"Well I hope you find your cure eventually. You could try asking our reverend if he is able to lift that curse of you later on. He's the reason why we're safe from those pesky demons out there. He created the wards and heals us and blesses us with a decent crop. Anyway, come along all of you, let's get some food into you and you can tell me all some stories of the world around us. It's the least we can all do for each other, after all."

"Tell me about the reverend," Ceirla says as Gregory helps her up the stairs to the landing of the building.

"He's the most gentle soul you'll ever came across. Our previous reverend had," he pauses, trying to find the right word for what he's trying to say, "issues. He meant well. I hold nothing against him. But his ideas were wrong and are likely what lead to his death."

"He died?" Ceirla asks.

"Oh yes, not peacefully either. Likely got poisoned by one of those who got sick of everything he was trying to do. Even had one of those Draaknei come looking for him, attracted by what he was doing. It's how we knew he was truly corrupt. Our new reverend came in after, helped clean things up and has done his best to try and keep the town safe."

Ceirla looks like she very much wants to say something, but decides to hold her tongue for the moment. But as she was the one that wanted us all to go to this town, she either had some business with the old reverend, or this big change has made her uncertain on how open she should be about expressing her reasons. We're all brought over to the dining table. And I notice that there is a lot of plates already set out. And yet I neither smell anyone else or can hear anyone else in the building than us and the two of them.

"Are you expecting anyone else to be coming? Are we interrupting something?" Gregory asks.

"No, it's just the two of us," the man says, completely oblivious to the number of extra seats or table settings.

I frown at this. It makes no sense for all this to be the case. Without anyone else to be eating why would they have more than enough food for us prepared. I don't entirely know if it is the same for humans and these other races. But it seems to me that it would be extremely wasteful to have so much food set aside. Meaning either there are more people expecting to come that are being hidden from us, or they were expecting us. Either way, definitely a reason to stay on guard. The food presented smells nice enough. A nice but simple assortment of meat and vegetables and it becomes a matter of finding a place for all of us.

Once we're sitting down at the table, and I'm given a much higher chair to let me actually see over the top of the chair the man begins to say grace. Rophan seems to be rather outraged by my sitting on this chair but I don't see what the problem is. Though when the food comes out and is placed in front of us I can feel something vibrating against my chest. I look down and see the amulet that would check my food for me is reacting. Gregory and Simon both take a look at me when I look down at the amulet, probably noticing it had vibrated as well.

"I'm terribly sorry to have to impose on you further," I half cough out, playing up the remainder of my sickness. "But I'm still getting over a nasty flu that I had caught on our way to this town," this causes Ceirla and Hashal to look in my way as well, "I'm afraid that this food would be far too rich for me and I wouldn't be able to keep it down. Could I get something far more plain instead? Like some bread and water to eat instead."

"Sure, it shouldn't be any problem," the wife says before taking the plate away and coming back with a bit of bread and a small bowl of water, neither of which make my amulet react in any way.

"Thank you."

"Tch," Simon grunts before standing up quickly, pushing his food away. "This is stupid. We have monsters outside our walls and we're just going to sit down and eat as if nothing is wrong. I'm going to go patrol the building, make sure it's safe. Unless you have objection."

"No," the woman says. "By all means. We have nothing to hide. There are a few locked rooms here that hold our valuables. I hope you'll understand if we don't give you free-reign of our home. What with having only just met you all, after all. Anything not locked feel free to explore so long as you don't break anything. But it shouldn't be all that much of a problem. The wards keep them out well enough."

Simon grabs his sword anyway, "Don't worry, I won't be stealing anything. But I'm not going to just sit idle while there's a threat nearby."

I take a bite of the bread, definitely wanting to have something with a bit more taste to it but I'd rather eat something that hasn't been spelled in some way. Most of the rest of the people travelling with me find some excuse to delay eating. Rophan and the two hosts don't have any problem with eating the food. But something definitely seems to be off about this place. I'd really like to be able to go and investigate as well, but I can't exactly justify doing so, what with my cover story, not to mention I don't know how much help I would be. I've recovered enough that I know I can use some of my magic again, but I wouldn't exactly want to rely on it just this moment.