"A pleasure, Madame Luchie," Tristessa replied as Melian approached them to hand his employer her smoking pipe and a purple cloth bag filled with tobacco. "I see there's no longer any reason to introduce myself."

She didn't want to dig her toes in the mud, not knowing what the Mercer-Archeos had discussed about her. For now, everyone was alive, and there were no signs of hostilities, which was a more than positive scenario. She would have to indirectly gather information if she didn't want to slip up and give that old woman an excuse to consider her dangerous.

"Would it be fair for me to assume that you've decided to let my traveling companions rest tonight at the Outpost?" the girl asked, as Karla finished preparing her pipe and Melian used her thaumaturgy to light it.

She spoke as if that old woman owned the place, and given the power she wielded thanks to those mercenaries, it wasn't so wrong to think that way. She watched her inhale, draw in the smoke, and release it in form of rings toward the sky, which was slowly darkening, revealing the infinite stars of the Cosmos.

"Let's just say the saint I worship smiled upon Jin Mercer and his family, at least for tonight. I'm not thrilled with the idea that a Priestess of the Black Eye might appear and kill us all, but rather than fear for my life, I worship Valdrek. As for you… I have my doubts," Karla replied, her bulging eyes analyzing Tristessa's every slightest reaction. Her long gray hair was barely disturbed by the blizzard, as were the many braids studded with gold rings that fell down her back. "You could submit to his judgment as well."

"The time has come…" she thought, gathering her courage before taking a leap into the unknown. A new, uncharted route. "Yes, it is a possibility… I know that many merchants worship the Saint of Fortune and seek his guidance. But I prefer that you negotiate with me, not Valdrek."

A mischievous smile formed on Tristessa's lips.

"I have a favor to ask, and an offer you can't refuse."

"Oh?" Madame Luchie puffed again on her pipe, her gaze never leaving the young woman, who had sat with her arms resting on her knees. "Bold words, coming from a miss who doesn't have a soul-jewel on her, from what the Mercer-Archeos tell me. You're a vagabond, and yet you boast that you have something to offer me in return for a favor… All right, you have my attention. I'm listening."

Tristessa glanced briefly at Jin and Tiara, who were helping Lufreya and Bran roast fresh Legiana meat by the campfire. She couldn't be sure if they were listening to the conversation, but she could see the hunter's eyes glancing sideways in her direction. Waiting for that moment.

"What I request is that you protect the Mercer-Archeos for a week. Protect them from the Coven, the Empire, anyone who would harm them. Hide them—anything that can ensure their survival."

Madame Luchie didn't blink, showed no reaction to such a request. Calm and making use of the privacy Reiden and Melian had assured her by distancing themselves, she leaned forward and replied:

"You know I'm a merchant, not a bodyguard, right? My mercenaries are there to protect the merchandise and riches I've spent years accumulating, not people. By making that request, you indirectly assumed that the Mercer-Archeos are more valuable than the thousands of soul-jewels in goods I carry in my caravan."

"Seen that way, yes, you could say my interest in them is greater than whatever you carry in your carriages…" Tristessa said, and the old woman took advantage of that small time frame to smoke again.

"And tell me, who are you to judge my riches as insignificant next to them?"

Tristessa gulped, ignoring the pungent scent of Karla's pipe in the air. The conversation was about to get more difficult…

"I am not of this world. I arrived some days ago, summoned by one of the Three Gods and with several Divinities under my power," she replied. "I am what you call a [Stranger]."

A glimmer of unease crossed the old woman's owlish eyes, and she was unable to control the wave of nerves that ran through her body from end to end. The shiver of opportunity, of ideas.

"If you're not lying… The Empire would pay many GSJ for information about you…"

Logical thinking from a person guided by the flow of riches. It was predictable, just as she saw it on the blackboard in the Room of Knowledge in her mind palace. The threads connected, the photographs spoke, and the word [Crywolf] was crucial to cracking that negotiation that seemed hopeless from the start.

With nothing to offer, only a promise for the future.

"You can sell me to the Empire in exchange for soul-jewels… The same Empire that cannot give you the hope of saving your nation from the clutches of the Shadow Queen." Tristessa took a deep breath and said what could cost her her life at that very moment. "But I can."

The old woman heard what she said clearly and finished smoking, inhaling until the tobacco was gone and letting the ashes fall to the ground, tapping the pipe several times with her index finger.

"I won't allow you to joke about that topic," she said after exhaling.

"I'm not. I'm serious."

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"Shut your mouth, child."

"No. I'm willing to…"

"SILENCE!"

That scream was inhuman. As if a monstrous creature lived inside Karla Luchie had just emerged, making Tristessa's heart almost stop. Whatever conversation the mercenaries and family had been having was suddenly silenced; everyone looked startled in the direction of the gray-eyed girl and the caravan owner.

"Madame...!" Reiden exclaimed, taking a step forward, but Karla threw her pipe to the side, shattering it in two and marking the limit of how close he could get.

"Stay put, Reiden! All of you!" she warned her mercenaries. "And you, child... I dare you say that again."

"I can save Crywolf." Tristessa insisted, fixing her frowning, earnest gaze on that wrinkled face that radiated anger. "Protect the Mercer-Archeos for seven days, and I will."

"HOW DARE YOU PROMISE TO SAVE CRYWOLF FROM THE SHADOW REALM?!" Karla spat, having risen from her chair. She sounded like a monstrous beast, her voice echoing throughout the Outpost and drawing the attention of the intimidated hornless beasts. Her eyes had also taken on feline and savage characteristics, the pupils like two slits and surrounded by a deep, glowing ruby color. "Just because you claim to be a Stranger, you think I'll trust your word?! You could also be a threat to Nekrom!"

"No, I'm not. I'm just someone who wants to save that family that helped me…" Tristessa pointed her finger at the Mercer-Archeos, without breaking eye contact with the giant-like old woman standing in front of her, the shadow created by the campfire falling like a veil of darkness. "…and then find the way to return to my world. And if I have to defeat a dark lord to achieve that, I will."

Even if she had to die hundreds of thousands of times to achieve it. Losing her sanity in the face of so much Death and horror. The idea terrified her to the very bottom of her soul… But what else could she do, in a situation as desperate as this?

"You will break the stalemate?! You say so?! It's been five hundred years since my people were displaced from the ancient city; since [Old Crywolf] was leveled! The great [Statue of the Primeval], desecrated and corrupted by malice! Centuries of Emperors and spilled blood, and none could stop the siege that [New Crywolf] suffers even to this day! And you say you will put an end to it?!"

What Tristessa feared most began to happen, as she felt a suffocating heat invading the surroundings, emanating from that old woman: her body had begun to grow massively, metabolizing at extreme speeds and tearing at skin as if she were flaying herself. Her dress didn't survive, of course, given the expansion of her muscles, bones, and blood-stained fur.

Karla grew to twice her original size, and her gray hair was now a long mane that reached her heels. Her fingers were claws, long and so massive that when they closed into a fist and plunged into Tristessa's side, the ground shook and fractured.

And her head, without the long hair of her mane covering it, had been disfigured into a mass of bleeding flesh and broken bones, leaving room for a lupine snout riddled with teeth that, if it so chose, could tear the girl before it to pieces with ease.

"Will you go to the cursed metropolis of [Zaros] and kill the [Dead End King, Alastor]?!" the beast asked, bringing its monstrous mouth closer to Tristessa, who was leaning back, overcome with fear and unable to tear her eyes away from the inside of that mouth full of sharp teeth that emanated hot, tobacco-scented air. "One of the Great Evils who serves the Shadow Queen?! Will you do that, Tristessa Irandell?!"

Behind them, Reiden and Melian looked on, visibly agitated, unsure of what to do. The same could be said of the other mercenaries, but Jin...

"Tristessa! Enough, Tia, let me go!" the hunter demanded to his wife, who had clung to his waist upon seeing him rise from the pile of rubble he was using as a seat. And it wasn't just her: Lucahn had also lunged at his father, enclosing his right leg in a hug. "I have to..."

"Don't do anything, idiot!"

"Please, daddy, don't!"

Tristessa saw the hunter's desperation for a brief second, almost apologizing for not being able to come to her aid. It made her find courage where there was none, driven by the desire to save those people's lives and her own.

To break the loop once and for all.

"Yes! I swear I'll do it, even if I die!" she screamed, getting up from the ground and facing that monstrous head that was almost three times the size of her own. Seeing those beastly red eyes, flooded with a murderous thirst, conveyed to her survival instinct that she was committing suicide, standing there. "I will use my Divinities to save you all and Crywolf! I will put an end to that war, I swear!"

Tristessa had no idea what she was getting into. She had no idea if this Alastor was as terrible as Moebius, another servant of the Shadow Queen she didn't know. She had no idea what hell awaited her at Crywolf, or how many obstacles she would have to overcome to get there, in addition to the existing ones.

And yet, she extended her hand, inches away from Karla's snout.

"Do you accept, Madame Luchie?"

The giant beast growled, hot saliva escaping between her countless teeth, as if she were about to bite Tristessa's arm off... But her gaze had been poisoned by the worst disease one could catch nowadays in Nekrom.

Hope.

That foolish fantasy that led so many to a premature Death. And now it was too late for Karla Luchie, having been tempted by Tristessa's cruel and manipulative meddling of her heart's deepest mechanics.

"…"

Without warning, the beast's body began to shrink, releasing heat and causing fur to fall to the ground. Her limbs, torso, and head deformed again, a painful process given the moans she let out, while her claws retracted, once again becoming part of the human finger bones.

"Madame!" Reiden grabbed a fur blanket from one of the crates and quickly approached his employer when she returned to her original size, to cover her and protect her from the cold as she was completely naked. "Careful…"

But Madame Luchie, even as her face and eyes returned to their original shape, continued to glare at Tristessa. She was no longer a pure beast, but her instincts and nature remained, letting the girl know that she was prey, and herself the predator.

And she shook her hand, squeezing it so tightly she could have broken her fingers.

"I will make sure you keep your word, Tristessa Irandell," she warned, showing new, bloody teeth, thirsty for blood she couldn't taste. "We naturalborn from Crywolf can live for centuries. Have no doubt I will see you liberate my nation or die trying."

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