“Arwin?” Rodrick asked, concern passing over his features as he paused with a piece of meat speared upon his fork halfway to his mouth. “Are you okay? Do you recognize the guild name?”
“I’m not sure,” Arwin said slowly, his brow knitting together. He saw the same expression passing over Lillia’s features from where she stood in the doorway. She was thinking the same thing that he was — and neither of them could tell if they were pulling things from nothing or not. “The name Setting Sun is startlingly similar to… something that Lillia and I recall from our past.”
“Before the… thing?” Rodrick asked, glancing at Esmerelda before looking back to Arwin, his eyes widening. “You think Twelve has something to do with that?”
Arwin shrugged helplessly. “I have absolutely no idea. Neither Lillia nor I have figured out anything about the whole situation or how it happened in the first place. We haven’t been strong enough yet. Pushing that question would have led us to more trouble than we were ready to handle. But is Twelve really that strong?”
“I… don’t think so.” Lillia shook her head. “I’ve been around a lot of powerful people. Powerful monsters, too. Twelve wasn’t weak by any stretch of the imagination. He’s definitely a very dangerous opponent — but he’s not at the level that could ever hope to be involved in a conspiracy as large as this one. I don’t think he’s anywhere near as strong as we were before the explosion, much less stronger than we were.”
“Maybe he’s just weak for his guild?” Reya offered. “The others could be stronger.”
“It’s probably safe to assume they are. But if they’re that much stronger, why would they keep Twelve around in the first place?” Olive asked with a frown. “It doesn’t seem like he’s just a chore boy to be pushed around. He’s got his own agenda. It’s possible that this is just a coincidence.”
“Rarely in life have I ever found anything to just be pure coincidence,” Anna said. She pursed her lips, then shook her head. “But I don’t think speculating about it is going to be of much help. We need concrete information, not conspiracies.”
“A truth potion would cause the words to spill from his lips like a rushing river. I could have one made in just a moon,” Esmerelda offered, an uncannily wide smile pulling across her wrinkled features. “It would only cost—”
Their goal hadn’t changed. No matter what Twelve posed or who he worked for, it was still the same. They had to get stronger.
The rest of the day slipped by quickly, and the next was upon them before Arwin knew it. Arwin would have loved to spend a few extra hours in bed doing nothing together with Lillia, but both of them had far too much to work on to afford the luxury.
Both of them rolled out of bed and almost instantly set off to work. The sounds of construction greeted them as soon as they stepped into the kitchen and lost the protective barrier of darkness that surrounded Lillia’s room. Ridley was already hard at work on the modifications to the inn.
Based on how the sound was coming from above them, it seemed that he’d wrapped up his efforts on preparing the bottom floor and was now well onto the 2nd one. He wasn’t the only one that had already gotten the day started. The common room was empty. Unless anyone was trying to sleep through the noise above them — which Arwin highly doubted was possible — the members of the Menagerie had all already set off.
“They’re all out already,” Lillia said, noticing the look on Arwin’s face. “I can sense it. The only other one in the inn right now is Ridley, as I suspect you can tell.”
“Just how much can you tell about the people in the inn?” Arwin asked, tilting his head to the side with an amused grin.
“A lot,” Lillia admitted. “More the stronger I get. The skill I got when I reached Novice 7 is called Pierce the Veil. It gives me information about everyone that enters the Devil’s Den, though I get a whole lot less the stronger someone is.”
“I suppose it would have been too much to ask for you to have been able to read anything about Twelve?”
Lillia gave him a sheepish smile. “Unfortunately not. He’s at least a full tier stronger than we are. I couldn’t get any information on him at all.”
Arwin let out a snort and shook his head. “If anything, that’s just expected at this point. It’s fine. No point worrying about what we can’t control yet. For now, we can focus on improving what we can until Rodrick finds—”
A knock rang against the door.
Arwin and Lillia exchanged a glance. None of the Menagerie would have knocked other than Madiv, and the vampire would probably have been calling to be let in by the time his knuckles met the wood.
Reya and Olive were also meant to be making sure nobody tried to get into the inn while it was under construction — though, given Twelve’s visit the day prior, they weren’t having the best of luck with their task.
Arwin approached the door and pulled it open, preparing to summon his armor at a moment’s notice. It didn’t seem likely that the assassin would just randomly show back up the day after he’d last paid them a visit, but he wasn’t about to dismiss the possibility.