While Sefta and Mags moved to the other side of the tavern to have a quiet but heated discussion, Asher joined a curious Samantha and tired Brian at their table.

"How was swim practice?" Asher asked, giving Samantha a quick kiss and taking the seat beside her. He half expected her to taste like salt, before remembering they weren't actually out on the ocean but a giant lake instead.

"It was fantastic!" Samantha said, her face glowing like she'd just gotten out of a spa. "We only trained for a few hours, and already I feel like an actually competent swimmer! Whenever I got too tired, I was able to use Soothing Spring to refresh my muscles a bit, so I got a ton of practice in during our time together!"

"That's amazing, I'm glad to hear it!" he said, turning to look at Brian, whose eyelids were physically drooping. "Brian? Did you have fun?"

"Yeah…" He yawned, nodding aimlessly as he struggled to keep his head up. "Just tired…"

"Swimming is a serious workout, and Mags didn't really go easy on him just because he's twelve," Samantha said, lowering her voice. "Like I said, we were in the water for hours. I'm honestly surprised he hasn't passed out yet."

"I bet he'll drop after he gets some food in him," Asher smiled, motioning for the tavernkeep to come bring them four of whatever was for dinner that night. He'd invited Sefta to join them, but seeing as she and her mother were still quietly arguing with one another off to the side, he wasn't sure if she'd be joining them after all.

Though with how angry she looked at the moment, he figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

"So, what did you spend your afternoon doing?" Samantha asked, also watching Sefta and Mags fight. "You went off to hunt down assassins, and you came back with Mags'… estranged daughter? That's got to be a story."

"No kidding," he snorted. "I ran into Sefta while hunting for a member of the Malrron family like you suggested. Long story short, Poltar actually got rid of their own Guild only a few months back. No assassins to deal with here at the moment. However, I saw Sefta kill a giant serpent monster, so I asked if she had any interest in sparring. We spent the last few hours trying to fight without killing one another."

"Wait wait wait," Samantha said, holding up her hands as if something had only just occurred to her. "You said you met Sefta while hunting for a member of the Malrron family. So she is a noble, then?"

"Yep. She sure doesn't act like one though."

"But if she's a noble…" Samantha muttered, peering back over to where Sefta was literally baring her serrated teeth at her mother. "…Did I just spend the last few hours receiving swimming lessons from a noble?!"

"Oh, yeah, I guess that would make Mags a noble as well," he realized, watching the woman plant her hands on her hips and snap right back at her daughter. "Small world."

Samantha looked back and forth between him and the arguing duo, before letting out a heavy sigh. "Asher, I know you're not from our world, but regular people don't just hang out with nobles like that. Not even close."

"Seems like they do in Poltar," he said with a shrug. "Don't worry about it, you're not going to get in trouble or anything. Mags certainly seemed nice enough. So long as you're not Brant."

"I guess," Samantha muttered, going back to watching the duo argue. By the time the two of them finished, and Mags walked out of the tavern after giving Samantha and Brian one last wave and warm smile, their food had already gotten there. Sefta stormed over to their table, planting herself down on the seat and tearing into her grilled fish without so much as a word. Asher and Samantha shared a silent look, and he cleared his throat.

"Sefta, this is Samantha and Brian. Samantha and Brian, Sefta."

Sefta merely grunted while the two of them gave her polite greetings. Her mouth was far too crammed full of fish to make any actual words, but after forcing it down her throat, she fixed Samantha with a pointed look that held more than a little misplaced anger.

"So. How do you know my mother?"

"She met our caravan this morning when we came to the city, and then she taught me and Brian how to swim," Samantha said, the hunter not backing down from the woman's annoyed glare. While Samantha was certainly worried about acting appropriately in front of a noble such as Mags, it was somewhat easy to forget Sefta was a noble as well while she was shoveling fish into her gullet like it was a trash can.

Asher didn't know if the tavernkeep knew Sefta personally or just had good business sense, but the man dropped two more plates of food beside her before she'd even finished her first one.

"Oh yeah?" Sefta asked, staring at her. "…I don't get along with my mother very well."

"Yeah, we noticed," Asher couldn't help but say, drawing the noble's attention his way instead. "What was that all about anyway?"

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Sefta continued eating for another few seconds, seeming to debate if she even wanted to dignify that with a response. Finally, after finishing off her first plate, she took a large swig from her drink and sighed, letting her mug clatter down onto the table.

"I'll be turning thirty in a few years, and my mother is demanding I try and find someone to settle down with. Raise a family and all that crap. This last argument was because she wanted to set up a meeting between me and another noble from a different city, in the hopes that the two of us would hit it off. Naturally, I said no, but she refused to stop pestering me about it. When I moved out a few years back, I purposefully snagged a house on a rather small city-fragment for times like this, just so I can relocate anytime she starts getting too annoying. She always manages to track me down sooner or later, but it's a big city, and I've managed to hide from her for a little over a month during this latest attempt. It was a new personal record. Until you guys ruined it."

"That's pretty convenient you can actually move your entire neighborhood to avoid your parents," Asher admitted, wondering how many people from Earth would kill for the ability to do just that.

"Yeah, one of the perks of living in Poltar," she said, spraying crumbs across the table as she laughed. "Anyway, talk about a stroke of bad luck. I knew my mom worked as a caravan greeter of course, but I didn't expect to run into her following you back here. Ah, well. I can just move my house again even if she follows me home, so it's not the biggest deal. She'll have to give up on this ridiculous idea of hers sooner or later."

"Is it really that ridiculous?" Samantha asked, putting her utensils down as she gave Sefta her full attention. "The idea of settling down and having a family someday, I mean. Maybe not now, but eventually," she said, her ears turning a soft pink as her gaze flickered toward Asher for just a moment.

"Girl, that's not how I swim," Sefta snorted, raising an eyebrow as she started on her second plate. "Trust me, I'm built for fighting. I don't do that whole settling down thing, and if I had to put up with a smaller version of myself, I'd probably try to drown them. I'm my father's daughter, no doubt about that. My mom just doesn't get it, which is unfortunate. I think my dad all but jumped at the opportunity to flee the city and escape our argument when he was summoned to the capital."

"Wait, your dad was summoned to the capital?" Asher asked. "He's the leader of this city, right? Isn't that a big deal?"

"Eh, probably," Sefta shrugged. "Though it's my uncle that leads the city, my dad's just his right-hand man. I told you, I don't really care about any of that stuff. That said, even I've noticed a lot of weird stuff has been happening lately. A few weeks back, Audrey and Slipstream, our resident truthseeker and griffin, were summoned to the capital as well. That pretty much never happens, or it's way rarer than my dad being summoned at least. And today she took off down the road due to some emergency signal, which is almost as weird. Strange stuff is happening these days, that's for sure."

"Are you, uh, good friends with Audrey?" Asher asked, realizing he might want to put some distance between him and his newfound sparring partner lest he expose himself to yet another truthseeker.

"Nah, she's a bit too uptight for my tastes," Sefta admitted, gesturing around with a fork and accidentally flinging some fish off the table. "Always going on about what's 'proper' and what's 'expected' of us. Honestly, the only reason I can stand her at all is because she's one hell of a fighter. Though I suppose she wouldn't be a truthseeker if she wasn't."

Sounds like even more of a stickler than Bordan, Asher thought, recalling the man's shining, golden aura that was about as flexible as a brick wall. Clare was a bit weirder, but she was something of a special case from what he'd been told.

"Actually, I had a question about her as well," Samantha piped up. "How did she even hear about the caravan having some sort of issue in the first place? Someone mentioned a sending stone, but I didn't hear any more details than that. Do all truthseekers have them?"

"Yeah, it's pretty standard issue for them," Sefta nodded. "Regular sending stones that are only linked to one other aren't super rare, but truthseeker-issued ones are next level. I don't know everything they're capable of, but they can definitely reach out directly to the High Prince all the way at the capital, and I know they can receive emergency signals as well, such as ones given to trusted caravan leaders. Look, I have my own stone, actually."

Dropping her knife with a clatter, Sefta slipped a hand into a hidden pocket that was somehow tucked within the thick, skin-tight outfit that most of the people of Poltar seemed to wear. Pulling out a thin stone with a few glowing runes on it, she showed it to them, pointing at the different runes.

"Because my family is a head family, we get a special allotment of these from the capital. I have a direct line to a few different people of my choosing. Erased my mother's ages ago when she wouldn't stop trying to reach me via the stone, but it's nice to have when I need to reach my dad or some friends."

Asher peered curiously at the stone, noting the different symbols. It looked like a rather primitive cellphone, with nine differently colored symbols spaced around the oval. As he peered at it, one at the very top that was bright green began flashing, and he could tell the stone was vibrating in her hand to get her attention.

"Huh, speak of the demon," Sefta muttered, frowning at the stone as if debating whether or not to answer it.

"What's wrong?" Samantha asked, looking even more interested by the stone than he was. "That means someone wants to talk to you, right? Shouldn't you answer it?"

"Normally, I would, but it's the who that wants to talk to me," Sefta said, her frown deepening as she debated picking up. "That's Audrey's symbol. As part of owning one of these, I have to keep a line to our city's truthseeker open at all times."

"Uh… If a truthseeker is trying to reach you, shouldn't you answer?" Asher asked.

"Yeah, probably." Sefta sighed, tapping the symbol after another few seconds. "Audrey? What's up?"

"Sefta!" A feminine voice erupted from the stone, just loud enough for the three of them to hear it. At this point, Brian had his head in his arms on the table and was fast asleep, his fish only half eaten. "I'm activating the beacon function of my stone, I need you to get over here, now!"

"What? Why?" Sefta asked, almost whining into the stone like a girl half her age. Asher was shocked she would talk to a truthseeker like that, but it seemed she hadn't been kidding when she said she didn't like the woman. "I'm eating with some friends!"

"I don't care what you're doing, bring them with you if that's what it takes, I need your assistance!" Audrey snapped. "It's the caravan that broadcasted an emergency signal this morning! Everyone is dead!"

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