Everyone silently looked at the flyer Aiden had brought back to the bar.
No one said a word.
Kaelen seemed to shrink more and more as everyone stared at his picture, then at the numbers printed beneath it.
"Okay, so I knew it was bad," Kaelen began, "but I didn't think that, well, um, uh…"
Everyone slowly turned to him with deadpan expressions.
Kaelen's voice grew quieter with each word until whatever confidence he had been trying to summon died a quiet, embarrassing death.
They all turned back to the poster.
Selene pointed at the part about the price for their heads, then looked at Kaelen.
"K-Kaelen, that amount of money is the kind used to hire Ruby-class adventurers," she said. "Those people are often around level sixty. That means three class evolutions. W-We can't just ignore this. It has to be handled."
Kaelen wilted at that.
Aiden turned to the others.
"Since the one who made the bounty is probably his dad, considering the contents, we just need to talk to him and tell him what's going on, right?"
Kaelen shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
Then he mumbled something too quiet for anyone to hear.
"Dude, speak up," Liora said, reaching over and flicking Kaelen on the forehead. "Literally the least you can do considering what is happening."
Kaelen rubbed his forehead and cleared his throat.
"I don't think that's a good idea," he said. "It was hard enough to escape from the estate when I did. For all I know, my bedroom is now a birdcage in the main hall."
Everyone glanced at each other.
Then Jax stepped in.
"We don't have much choice. We either go now, knowing we are approaching to persuade them, or we keep traveling and doing quests until you get kidnapped by someone who could kill us with a twitch."
He tapped the flyer with one claw.
"Then you arrive in a cage with five heads in tow."
Everyone shivered as Jax's words sank in.
They were sitting on a ticking bomb in the form of this bounty.
At best, Kaelen would get kidnapped and never see the light of day again.
At worst, someone would want an additional five hundred thousand gold and decide to bring a few heads with them.
"There is still a problem," Kaelen said, crossing his arms. "We have two months before the event, and even if we agreed to leave right now, Kambuldar is over a thousand miles away by airship. It would take a month and a half minimum to get there if we drove in the vehicle."
Selene reached into her bag and pulled out a small map of Misagen.
She pointed to one spot.
"A-Actually, there is a teleport gate right here in Lushfort. It's only a four-day drive from here."
Kaelen quietly scoffed.
Aiden felt a pang of annoyance.
"This fucker not only knew," Will yelled, pacing through Aiden's mind in a rage, "but he was hoping everyone else didn't. That dickhead!"
Aiden kept a calm, quiet smile on his face.
It did not reach his eyes.
Kaelen met Aiden's gaze, and a cold sweat started to roll down his face.
"E-Even if we get to the teleport gate," Kaelen said, "you need to be a noble to be allowed to use it."
Selene mimicked Aiden's smile.
Then she held up her family crest.
Kaelen started looking at the others.
"W-What about the cost of use? I don't think anyone has enough savings to pay the exorbitant price for gate usage."
Jax joined Selene and Aiden in their expression.
"Your family would understand our need for transport," Jax said. "And I'm sure they would be happy to pay the price to see their darling boy in good health."
Seeing he was losing ground, Kaelen turned to Thalia.
She was the most emotionless of the group, which apparently made her his final hope.
"Thalia, I can't ask you to travel halfway across the world for me just because you got wrapped up in this," Kaelen said. "And we can't leave Thalia behind, guys. What kind of party would we be if we abandoned a member?"
Thalia stared at Kaelen.
Her expression remained neutral and stoic.
Then she glanced at Jax, Selene, and Aiden.
A moment later, she mimicked their smiles too.
Kaelen looked horrified.
"I really don't mind," Thalia said. "Especially if the alternative is being killed by an overleveled bounty hunter with an afternoon to spend earning millions of gold."
Kaelen turned around and pulled off his necklace, returning to his full glory.
His features sharpened back into that almost unfair beauty as he turned to Liora.
The weak link.
At least, when it came to his face.
"Liora," Kaelen said, his voice smooth and desperate, "how can you let them do this to me? Imagine what will happen if I am forced back to my family home!"
Liora responded by mimicking everyone else's expression.
Then she pointed her staff at Kaelen.
A spiral of wind swirled at the end of it, ready to launch directly into his face.
When she spoke, her voice was so soft someone might have thought she was telling a small child everything was going to be all right.
Her words did not match her tone.
"Kaelen, get in the fucking car."
Kaelen looked at all of them with betrayal in his eyes.
Then he swung his hand up to punch himself.
Before his fist could collide with his face, strings wrapped around his arms and legs, snapping them out to his sides.
In an instant, Kaelen went from a noble, beautiful, handsome elf in priestly attire to an oddly squirmy silk moth with an elven face.
Selene lifted Kaelen onto her shoulder as he thrashed like he was dancing on a bed of hot coals.
Before he could squirm too much, Liora grabbed his necklace and placed it back around his neck.
He went from a sculpted statue made in the beauty of the gods to regular magazine-cover pretty.
"Guys—grunt—wait—squirm—you can't do this to—thrash—me!"
"Shut up," Jax said. "We're solving your daddy issues whether you want us to or not."
The people walking down the road stopped for a moment to stare.
Then they quietly turned back to what they had been doing before.
No doubt, the rumors of Kaelen's daddy issues would become the core of the block's gossip for the next few weeks.
The party loaded Kaelen and everyone else into the trailer, then pulled out of the lot and headed back out of the city.
Kaelen was tied up in the front so he would not try to jump from the trailer.
He scowled ahead through the windshield.
Now that they were back on the main road, Aiden reached into his bag behind the seat and pulled out the letter they had gotten from Ymer.
The letter did not say much on the outside, but it did have an address.
Kambuldar, Misagen.
The same place they were headed next.
Aiden had refrained from opening the letter because he had wanted everyone to focus on the tournament before they started focusing on hunting Ymer down.
But now that they were headed to where the letter would have been handed off, he needed to know its contents.
So as they drove down a straight stretch of road, Aiden opened the letter and read it.
One eye and one hand stayed on the wheel.
The other eye and hand handled the letter.
Dear Mr. L,
It has been quite some time.
I am sending this envelope to be delivered in person as a letter of introduction of sorts.
As we both know, the Sons of Blue are starting to finalize their preparations, and at this rate, I give it another fifty years at most before the second war begins.
It is for this reason that people require power now more than before.
The holder of this letter may change hands a few times, but regardless of who they are, be they fateless, fatebound, or fated, help them along.
The world will need power.
More than that, it will need people who are willing to learn and grow.
So give them a good book, a cup of tea, and tell them a story if you have the time.
Purple
As Aiden finished reading, he stared at the letter with a starstruck expression.
They knew who Red was.
Who didn't?
But the terms used in this letter were strange.
Who were the Sons of Blue, he had heard it before but was no closer to understanding what that meant?
What did they mean, preparations for war?
There were fateless, but what were fatebound or fated?
And who in the hells was Purple?