The fire crackled softly in the hearth. Outside the waystation’s protective barrier, the forest had gone quiet. Only a heavy stillness lingered beyond the stone walls, as though the night itself were holding its breath.

Rook rose from her stool, her sword sliding free in a quiet whisper.

"Three shapes," she said under her breath. "Humanoid. Moving together. Off the road."

Damon was on his feet at once. His system pulsed faintly at the edge of his awareness, alert and waiting.

Sera stirred in her bunk, one hand finding her staff before her eyes were fully open. "What’s happening?"

"Visitors." Damon moved toward the door. "Rook, if you’re dealing with them, I’m coming too."

"Fine. Just keep your head."

Rook opened the door only wide enough to slip through, and Damon followed, his palm already warm with mana.

The waystation’s protective runes painted the clearing in a soft golden light, but beyond that circle the forest was nothing but blackness. Damon let his eyes adjust, letting his senses sharpen until he could make out the figures Rook had spotted.

Three stood at the treeline.

They weren’t monsters. They were students.

Academy uniforms. Torn, dirt-streaked, their shoulders hunched in the pale glow spilling from the barrier. At a glance, they might have looked like any other party caught outside after dark, tired and disoriented, maybe even hurt.

But something was wrong.

Their eyes had the same unsteady, manic look as the rogue from the forest. As if they were looking through the world rather than at it.

"Are you three looking to use the waystation as well?" Rook asked. Her tone stayed calm, though guarded, as she shifted her weight and studied them through the barrier’s gold shimmer.

None of them answered.

Not even a gesture. Not even the smallest sign that they understood her.

Then one of them raised a hand.

Fire gathered in his palm, bright and hot, swelling quickly.

A fireball.

[LIGHTNING LANCE]

CRACKLE!

Damon’s twin bolts struck before the spell could fully take shape. The student flew backward, robes singed and smoking, then hit the ground hard. He didn’t get back up.

"Rogues?" Damon asked, keeping his hand raised, mana still snapping faintly at his fingertips.

"Most likely." Rook rolled her shoulders and drew her sword in one smooth motion. The blade caught the barrier light and flashed.

The remaining two students turned toward them at the same time, their heads tilting in that same unsettling way.

Then their hands began to glow.

"Damon, take them out. I’d rather not touch them if they’re infected with something."

"Aren’t you supposed to be the guide?"

"Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my bow." She gave a brief laugh. "So you can handle this."

[LIGHTNING LANCE]

Damon didn’t waste time. Twin bolts tore across the clearing and slammed into the second rogue before she could finish whatever spell she had been forming.

The electricity caught her in the chest and hurled her backward into the treeline. She crashed through the underbrush and fell still.

The third broke into a run.

Not toward them. Toward the waystation.

"Sera!" Damon shouted.

The door burst open. Sera stood in the frame with her staff leveled, golden lightning already curling along its length. Her gaze locked onto the running figure with the cold focus of someone who had spent the last two days hunting boars on her own.

"On it!"

[LIGHTNING LANCE]

Her bolts caught the rogue mid-stride, lifting him off his feet and slamming him into the dirt. He skidded to a stop less than ten feet from the barrier’s edge, smoke rising from his uniform.

For a moment, the clearing fell silent again.

Sera lowered her staff. "Y’know... couldn’t you have finished him off yourself?"

"I didn’t want to waste mana."

"Weird..." Rook sheathed her sword and walked to the nearest unconscious student. She knelt, pressing two fingers to his throat. "Alive. All three of them, you held back."

"I didn’t want to kill academy students," Damon said. "Even if they’re... whatever this is."

"Good instinct. Dead students mean investigations. Investigations mean delays." Rook rolled the rogue onto his back and peeled one eyelid open. His pupil was dilated, the iris faintly ringed in red.

"Same as the one in the forest," Sera said as she came to stand beside Damon. "The red energy. The hollow stare."

"Creepy..." Damon muttered.

Rook stood and brushed dirt from her knees. "We need to restrain them and contact the academy. The waystation should have emergency manacles in the supply cache."

"What about the expedition?" Sera asked. "We’re supposed to reach Thornhaven by tomorrow night."

"Don’t worry. That’s still the plan. We just need to be more careful now. Whatever this is, it could be some kind of mind-affecting fungus... or maybe something like a lich."

"Really...? In the starter area of the academy’s C-Rank Gate?" Sera asked.

"Just a theory. Don’t take my word for it."

***

They secured the three rogues with manacles from the waystation’s supply cache. The cuffs were standard academy issue, built to suppress mana and keep unconscious Resonators from casting involuntarily.

Rook checked each one twice before she seemed satisfied.

"These’ll hold until morning," she said, straightening. "I’ve already sent a signal to the nearest patrol station. They’ll send a retrieval team by dawn."

"What do we do until then?" Sera asked.

"We sleep. In shifts." Rook glanced at Damon. "I’ll take first watch. You and your party get some rest. If these three have friends, we’ll need to be sharp tomorrow."

Damon nodded. "Wake me in four hours."

He went back inside with Sera trailing behind him. Lena was still at the table, her notebook open, her pen paused over the page. She had heard the fighting. She had stayed inside, just as she should have.

"Are they...?" she began.

"Unconscious and restrained. Retrieval team’s coming at dawn." Damon sat across from her. "You alright?"

"I didn’t panic." Her voice sounded as if she were trying to convince herself. "I heard the lightning and wanted to go out there, but I knew I’d just be in the way. So I stayed here."

"That was the right call."

"I know. It still felt awful." She closed her notebook. "Have any idea what’s going on with them?"

Damon had no answer for that. The rogue in the forest had gone on about broken systems and the other side of portals. These three hadn’t said a word. They had only attacked.

"I don’t know," he admitted. "But Rook sent a signal. The academy will investigate."

"And we keep going to Thornhaven?"

"We keep going." He met her eyes. "Unless you want to turn back."

Lena shook her head. "No, I’m not turning back. I didn’t spend this much for a guide just to head back."

Already climbing into her bunk, Sera let out a tired laugh. "Great minds think alike."

***

Damon woke to Rook’s hand on his shoulder.

"Your watch," she said quietly.

He rose, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. The fire had burned down to embers, casting the waystation in dim orange light. Sera and Lena were both asleep. Sera sprawled across her bunk, Lena curled beneath her cloak with her satchel tucked beside her pillow.

Damon took the stool by the door. The barrier runes still pulsed steadily, their golden glow unchanged. Beyond them, the forest remained silent.

So he decided to check his system.

-[SOVEREIGN’S ASSIGNMENT]-

[INVESTIGATE SOURCE OF ROGUES]

[TIME LIMIT: TONIGHT]

[REWARD: ADDITIONAL TRIBUTE SOURCES]

[PENALTY IF FAILED: -20 IN ALL STATS]