Diath paced back and forth in his tiny room at the inn, the floorboards creaking beneath his boots.

One, two, three, turn.

It was stupid of him to worry about Strix. She could take care of herself.

One, two, three, turn.

Just because he’d had to leave her alone for the night to meet a contact, alone outside of a town plagued by bandits…

One, two three, turn.

Just because the town had become a flashpoint of mercenaries, holy warriors, and a rapidly growing militia hell-bent on arresting anyone who so much as looked the wrong way at an unattended copper…

One, two, three, turn.

None of it meant that any of the people who saw Strix as literal hellspawn would find her, and kill her, and it would be Diath’s fault for leaving her alone when he could have hidden with her, waited until the morning and hoped his contact decided to stay another night…

Diath stopped, his hand on the doorknob. He and Strix had agreed that he should stay the night in town and pick up much-needed supplies on his way out the next morning; something about drawing less suspicion from a town just waiting to punish someone for their misfortunes. At the time it had seemed reasonable but now, in the middle of the night, it seemed outright dangerous; who cared if they missed a job or went a bit hungry on the road, as long as they were both safe?

He would just go check on her, he thought as he opened the door and padded silently down the hall. Just a quick walk to the edge of town to make sure there wasn’t any trouble. No one would have to see him, and he would be back before anyone in the inn noticed he was gone (and even if he wasn’t, even if it took a little while to make sure everything really was fine, he had paid up, and it wasn’t any of their business anyway).

Late as it was, Diath could still hear footsteps and muffled voices echoing up the stairs from the inn’s common room, so to avoid notice he slid open a window, climbed quietly down to the ground, and hid himself in the shadow of the inn’s cobblestone wall. The sky was overcast, and in the absence of any moonlight it was almost trivial to creep to the outskirts of town without being seen.

Save for a quiet breeze, the forest outside of town was completely silent, and Diath realized how silly it was for him to have come. He couldn’t see Strix from where he was; she would be hidden well back into the trees, likely near the place they had designated as their meeting spot. As Diath made his way out of town and into the woods, he reasoned that it wasn’t all that much further to go. Really, it would be a waste of time not to keep going, after having come so far already.

The underbrush made it much more difficult to stay quiet, and branches kept hitting him in the face because he could barely see where he was going. He thought he must be getting close, but if Strix had really hidden herself there might not be any way to make sure…

Diath felt a hand clamp over his mouth and reflexively crouched down in an attempt to throw his assailant over his shoulder. Instead he felt sharp claws grab ahold of the back of his shirt as the attacker went halfway over before clinging on to his shoulders, throwing him off balance and bringing them both down. His face smashed into the ground as they landed on top of him, and Diath realized he was being smothered by a very familiar, very smelly mass of rags and dirt.

“Strix!” he wheezed.

Strix scrambled off him. “Why did you throw me?” she hissed.

Diath, annoyed and embarrassed that she had been able to sneak up on him even in the dark, snapped back, “That’s what you do when some maniac grabs you in a dark forest!”

“I didn’t want you to be surprised and yell!”

“That was supposed to be less surprising?”

“It would have been if you weren’t stupid! What are you even doing out here?”

Diath froze, reluctant to reveal how worried he’d been after she had so easily taken him down.

“I’m, uh. Gonna be late tomorrow. The shops open late on,” Diath struggled to remember what day of the week it was, “Wednesdays. Weird, right?”

Strix stared at him for a long, awkward moment in the dark during which Diath willed himself not to fidget.

“You know what?” she grumbled, “I don’t even care. You can do your worry thing wherever you want. I’m going back to sleep.” With that she picked herself up, walked a few paces away, and squeezed under a fallen log Diath guessed must have been her hiding place.

Diath made to go back to town, but had only gone a few paces before he realized that maybe a guard had seen him leave after all and would find Strix the moment he left, or maybe bandits had heard them arguing and were just waiting until he was gone to pounce. He was already out in the woods anyway; it wouldn’t be any more trouble to sleep up in a tree and sneak back early in the morning. In some ways (he did not try too hard to think of what ways these might be), he figured it would be even easier.

“Strix,” he whispered.

Strix didn’t respond. Diath crept closer to the log.

“Strix!” he whispered again.

“What?”

“I’m gonna sleep up one of these trees.”

“I don’t care!” Strix’s staff emerged from under the log just long enough to jab him in the ankle. “Just go to sleep somewhere so I can go to sleep!”

“Okay.”

Diath chose a tree nearby and had just begun to climb when he thought he heard something from under the log.

“What did you say?” he whispered. Strix didn’t answer, so Diath climbed back down and approached the log again. “Strix, did you say something?”

“I said don’t break your neck!” came the response from under the log.

“I won’t.” Diath paused. “Good night, Strix.” Strix poked him in the ankle with her staff again.

Diath climbed the tree to one of its lower branches and spent a mostly sleepless night keeping watch. Nothing stirred in the forest, and just as he planned (because it had been his plan all along), he headed back to town just before sunrise. It was a bit more difficult to avoid notice in the pre-dawn light, but luck (or skill, as he liked to think) was with him and Diath was back in front of the inn almost before he knew it.

Later, Diath would blame his mistake on exhaustion; he was so eager to get even an hour or two of sleep before the day started that he didn’t even consider going back in through the window. As soon as he walked through the inn’s front door he found himself airborne, held aloft by the front of his shirt by an enormous, red-faced man Diath vaguely recognized as the innkeeper, who was nearly apoplectic with rage.

“You!” he screamed, spraying Diath’s face with spittle. “You come back in here,” he slammed Diath into the wall, and the back of Diath’s head connected painfully with the stone as he scrabbled for purchase on the man’s arms, “after what you done?” The man flung him across the common room.

Though his head was spinning, Diath managed to land at least somewhat gracefully. He took a quick glance around and saw to his surprise that despite how early in the morning it was, every seat in the room was occupied by someone who looked at least as tired as he felt. With a sinking feeling he realized that all their eyes were on him, and they looked accusatory.

“What-” he began.

“It ain’t enough that you take from us on the roads,” the man cut him off, every vein in his neck bulging as he screamed across the room, “now you come into our homes and do the same?”

Diath was pretty sure he knew where the conversation was going, and it was nowhere pleasant. He considered his options. The man was a wall of meat; all he had on someone like that was maneuverability, but with the room so packed he was left very little room for any kind of movement. He glanced toward the door and saw that it had been blocked by an armored man. The stairs behind him were similarly obstructed.

“Listen-”

The man charged. Diath readied himself to leap out of the way, but to his great surprise the man skidded to a halt barely a foot away from him. The man was looking down at something, momentarily shocked out of his anger. After a moment Diath tore his eyes from him to see that someone had stepped out in front of the man’s charge; before him stood a woman who had to be at least a foot shorter than either of them.

“Now,” she began cheerily, “an honest man like yourself wouldn’t accuse someone of being a thief without any proof, would you?”

“I got all the proof I need,” the man growled. “The till’s empty and this one,” he pointed a meaty finger at Diath, “was gone.” He stepped forward and, with a hand the size of a dinner plate, attempted to push the woman aside. She didn’t budge an inch. Though she did frown at the smear of grease the man’s hand left on her shoulder, she was smiling by the time she addressed him again.

“Well isn’t it lucky that by the light and mercy of Lathander I had the room right next to him and I heard him leave just half a minute before you came up? Otherwise you might have thrown the wrong man in jail, and that would have been just awful!” The woman laughed as though the very thought was ridiculous, and Diath thought she must be almost delusionally optimistic to believe that without her intervention he would have made it out of the room, let alone all the way to a jail.

“Left with my gold!” the man shouted, nearly purple in the face.

“Not unless he could be in two places at once! He was walking back and forth all night on those creaky old floorboards, and I couldn’t sleep a wink!”

The man worked his jaw silently for a moment, no doubt searching for some other way to pin the crime on Diath.

“Get out,” he said finally.

“My stuff’s upstairs,” Diath replied, worried he was pushing his luck.

“Get it and get out! Both of you!” the man screamed.

Diath needed no further prompting. He made his way quickly through the crowded room to the stairs, edged past the man who had been blocking them (who was still glaring at him, Diath noted sourly), and entered his room to find the entire thing had been ransacked. He swept his belongings haphazardly into his backpack, double-checked that he had left nothing behind, and once again left through the window; he had no desire to walk past the innkeeper on the way out. He reached the ground just as the woman closed the door to the inn behind her.

“Thank you for what you did back there.” Diath addressed her, “Though I’m sorry you got kicked out as well.”

The woman spun around, still smiling. “Oh no I was glad to help!” She approached him nearly at a run. “We haven’t been properly introduced! I’m Evelyn Marthain, humble servant of Lathander and always happy to help somebody in need!” She grabbed his hand from where it had hung limp at his side and shook it vigorously. “What’s your name?”

“Diath Woodrow,” he grimaced, trying not to show how painfully tight Evelyn’s grip was.

“It’s lovely to meet you, Diath!” she said, releasing his hand after what felt like an age.

“You too. Do you uh, have anyplace else to go? Apart from here I mean...” Diath had no idea how to help her if the answer was no, but he couldn’t leave her in a bad spot after all she had done for him.

“Well, I’ve been traveling all around and letting Lathander guide me to where His Light is needed,” Diath nodded, not quite sure of where she was heading, “and I think he must have meant for me to help you, and now that I have I can move on. If you’re leaving too, we could even go together!” She looked so excited at the prospect that even if she hadn’t just saved his life, Diath doubted he could have said no. There was just one sticking point; a dirty, grumpy sticking point that was waiting for him outside of town.

“You’re welcome to come along, I just have to pick up some supplies and then we can meet my friend out in the woods.” Diath regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth; it sounded like he planned to lure her out into the forest for a murder. Eveyln, however, was completely unfazed.

“You have a friend? That’s wonderful! I love making new friends, and the three of us can be our own little group!”

“Sure can!” Diath paused. “My friend looks a little funny, but she’s really nice and I’m sure she’ll be so excited to meet you.” The thought of what Strix would do to him if she ever found out he said that gave him chills.

“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Evelyn grabbed his arm and began pulling him toward the market. As Diath ran along behind her, he tried to think of a way to explain her to Strix. Nothing came to mind, and he had a sinking feeling that his life was about to get a lot more interesting.