The Town of Greenwater was on the horizon, and the group stopped in awe.
"Is that a fucking castle?" Gale demanded when she saw Bree's home resting on a little island in the lake, a stone bridge with large wooden pillars connecting it to the mainland.
"That is a mansion," Billie said.
"Like hell," Vern shot back. "That thing's big enough to fit like three mansions inside of it; there are even towers on it!"
"At least one tower doesn't look connected to the main structure," Zoey noted. As their travel companions attempted to find a reason for the mansion in the lake, Billie's eyes turned yellow, and she spoke to all of her followers.
"I will be passing through the town; I am undercover, so do not approach me; if you do, you must pretend you don't know who I am," She heard all of her minions confirm, and she groaned before adding, "Not you Zoey,"
"Of course," Zoey replied with a blush, having been about to introduce herself to Billie as though they had never met.
"It looks like old Belin got himself an upgrade," Gunter decided. "Remarkable. I leave for two months, and so much changes…"
"Why don't we track down your wife and ask her about it?" Vern recommended, "I bet she misses you,"
"You just want me to go because it will give you time to try and track down that pretty little thing you were flirting with the last time you were here," Gunter chuckled back. "What was her name again? Marry, was it not?"
Vern let out a sigh and made a face Billie had yet to see him make; Vern, the man she had only ever seen be irritable and grump, had a face of pure bliss, "Oh, my darling Marry, I long to hold her in my arms,"
"I do not mind," Billie said happily. "In fac,t I insist we stay the night,"
Over the four days they had traveled together, Gunter had developed a secondary theory on who Billie was. Based on their casual conversations, the trio felt it was the more likely option but kept the slave trader thing as a possibility just to be safe.
"It's entirely possible," Gunter had said to his friends, " That Ms.Zoey is a runaway slave, and Billie is either guiding her to sanctuary or was the one who freed her and their escaping the country together." After saying that, Gale and Bern glared at Billie with a softer but stern gaze.
"She seems fairly nice, but she somehow talked the guild into letting her pay 13 coins for us; slaver or not, she's gotta be good at talking her way around others, so there's no real way to be certain till we get to Reopes and have her investigated,"
"Surely you must have a friend here as well," Gunter noted. "After all, to get so many live crabs is no easy feat,"
"Why, I had the pleasure of meeting the former owner of the town, Belin," Billie replied.
"Former?" Gunter asked. "So old Belin finally gave in, did he?"
"From what I heard," Zoey interjected, "He traded it to an elf to regain his youth," The trio responded with laughter.
"That sounds like the kind of yarn Belin would spin," Gunter said through his laughter. 'It seems he's finally gone off the deep end." The trio walked towards the town but again stopped when they realized a fight was raging in their path.
"Is that Olu?" Gale asked. Vern visibly seized up in fear at the name while Gale clutched her sword. "If he's fighting alone, it must not be serious, but we should still…"
"I do believe the person he is fighting is his commanding officer," Billie noted as Jaden swung her mace at Olu, who sidestepped the attack and, holding his sword in both hands, seemingly disappeared only to reappear behind Jaden, who turned on the spot and halted the strike with her shield.
The Chain mace shot back to her, and she swung it at Olu, who once again rushed out of the way at such speed most onlookers would have sworn he teleported.
"You're getting slow, old timer," Jaden cried out as she shot her chain at Olu, who managed to dodge it. Jaden swung her arm, and the head of the mace lit on fire. She swerved back around at Olu, who jumped over it.
"If I was your enemy, I could easily cut this mace of yours," Olu noted calmly.
"Feel free to try," Jaden shot back as she ran up to Olu with her shield ready. Olu jumped over her and sliced his Katana down. Jaden once again blocked, but upon hitting her shield, it burst into flames, and his sword stuck in place as she swung at Olu. The chain wrapped around his feet this time, and she turned and swung him across the air and into the ground. After a moment, Olu picked himself up and brushed off his shoulder.
"Seems I'm not yet ready to take your place as leader," Olu noted. "My skills are still too heavily tilted towards killing my foe over incapacitating them,"
"You'll figure it out," Jaden declared confidently as she let go of her mace and Shield. They both exploded into flames, and Jaden absorbed the fire into one hand while using the other to catch Olu's sword and hand it back to him.
"That is Jaden!" Gale realized in shock, "When did she become a fighting mage!" Jaden and Olu noticed the approaching group and recognized them.
"Is that Abigale I hear?" Olu asked, turning his attention to them. "My, it's been quite some time; I was starting to think you three were avoiding me," Olu looked at them happily before his eyes went dark; even Billie shivered a little as he turned to Vern. "Where's your sword, boy?"
"Oh, my sword?" Vern asked with the fear of god etched into his voice. "The guild repossessed it to pay off my tab," a dark aura enveloped Olu, who began slowly drawing his blade. Vern's fear visibly increased, "But it's ok; once I finish this job, I'll have enough gold saved up to pay off my tab and get it back; it's not like I would let the katana you gave me rust in someone else's collection,"
Before Olu could speak, Billie looked to Vern as something clicked in her mind. If Olu gave someone a katana, it would have to be good, and she had seen only one katana worth having in the guild.
"Did this katana have gold trimming with ruby eyes in a dragon-shaped hilt?" Billie questioned as she recalled the katana she had purchased at the guild.
"Yeah, let me guess, you saw it on display, right?" Vern said nervously, "With how much they're asking for it, there's no way anyone would pay for it. Anyone with that kind of money makes requests to the guild in the mail, so it's…" Vern stopped talking when Billie reached into her inventory and pulled out the very topic of conversation.
"You mean this sword I bought at the guild was originally yours?" She questioned. The dark aura coming from Olu grew so intense it became visible to the naked eye.
"I will give you literally anything for that sword," Vern begged as Olu stared at him silently.
"Oh," Billie noted, sincerely not wanting to part with it, "I was gonna give this to a friend of mine as a present," During the trip, Bree had spent amble time musing over the sword, switching from using it for decoration to giving it to one of her followers, she had just decided to give it to Silver as a present since the Dullahan had a built-in love for swords even though he was specked to be a ranger.
She reluctantly sighed, "I do not care to watch an innocent man die, so I suppose I'll give it back to you; just know you now owe me," Billie handed it to Vern, visibly not happy about it. Vern looked like he was about to cry as he bowed to her.