We said goodnight to Allirynn and Imiryl and went back to our room. Maylia, Afyne, and I quickly undressed and cleaned ourselves up in the tub, dressed for bed, and climbed under the blanket. We all had a sad and satisfied look on our faces. It wasn't because of what happened with Siada, it was because of the vampires. We had done a fantastic job and made short work of the extermination; but, it also wrecked a lot of lives and would change a lot of the dynamics in the city.

Some of the vampires, like the mayor and council members, held important positions and did a lot of work to keep the place running. I was sure that the queen would send out temporary replacements to help, at least until the locals could be trained up to do the jobs properly. The problem was, all the towns and cities in the kingdom might end up in the same situation, which included the capital. It also meant that we would have to check each and every settlement in the kingdom.

Maylia and I exchanged knowing looks and I leaned over Afyne to give Maylia a quick kiss. I leaned back to give Afyne a kiss on the forehead and the three of us cuddled together. I entered a meditative state to stay alert and to sleep at the same time, then drifted off to sleep. It was daytime and none of us had any trouble sleeping.

We got up about an hour before supper and changed into normal clothes and not our adventuring gear. We brushed each other's hair and left the ties off, so our hair flowed freely, and we left the room to meet with the others. Allirynn had a bit of a smile on his face, which was out of character for the stoic and very tanned man, and Imiryl clung to his arm like a second skin. They were dressed in normal clothes for the first time since they had joined us, and Evus and Diofra came out of their room in similar outfits.

“It looks like this is a casual day for us all.” I said with a smile, and we all went downstairs to the front counter. I paid for another three days to stay at the inn, to everyone's surprise, and we stood there and waited for Viri. She came in and was dressed casually in a normal dress and looked as relaxed as the rest of us. I waved to her and we all went into the dining room to eat. I paid the extra money to the waitress for Viri's meal and not long after we sat down to eat, Kara and the others came into join us.

“I don't think I've ever slept so well and so badly in my life.” Steven said and flopped down onto a chair.

“I have.” Jessica said and I turned to look at her face. She was staring at me, so I reached over with my hand. She took it with a sad smile and I held it and her gaze for several moments. Her sad smile changed into a normal smile and I let her hand go.

“So, where are we going after this?” Josh asked as he and his wife sat down.

“I'm staying here for a few more days.” I said. They were surprised to hear this, too.

“Why?”

“I need time.” I said. “What we just did to this city...” I sighed. “We pretty much gutted a third of the families and businesses.”

Everyone fell quiet at my words. They knew it already; but, having someone say it out loud gave it more weight.

“Before anyone argues, I know it was the monster's fault.” I said to placate them. “It was us that had to get rid of them, though.”

Nods of agreement were given all around.

“We still need to resupply, especially our magical ingredients.” I glanced at Jessica and she nodded. “We've got a few more things to take care of as well.” I pat the second bag of holding on my hip that had all the vampire bodies in it. “A few days should be long enough to wrap everything up.”

“What if more people are dying right now?” Josh asked, his face slightly angry.

“There's no what if, Josh. People are dying.” I said, and I saw the surprise on his face. “You're forgetting about what's happening to the people we helped.”

“I'm not!” Josh said. “We have the healers taking care of them as we speak!”

“Yes, so what about us?” I asked, and he moved back as if I had slapped him. “We need time to adjust to this situation ourselves.” I looked at everyone's faces and saw some understanding. “You do realize that we have to check every person and settlement we go to, even if the queen has already implemented everything we've told her, right?”

I saw Evangeline's arm go around Josh and he reluctantly nodded.

“We all feel guilty already for going to sleep and staying here all day without not moving on.” I said and saw slight nods from everyone. “We aren't automatons. We need rest.” I sighed. “Yes, people are going to die. What you need to realize is, even if we had moved on right away and went to the next town, people in other towns are still going to die.”

Josh sighed. “But, we can help them.”

“If there were a lot more of us, yes.” I said. “By the way, our plans for the cracks can't change.”

“What?” A few of them asked.

“Clearing out a town is going to take time, even if we keep our groups together.” I said. “We also need to deal with the cracks. We are the only ones that can deal with them, while normal people, guards, and adventurers can deal with the vampires in our stead.”

“Do you trust them to...” Josh started to say.

“Of course not.” I said. “We will still be checking the settlements out ourselves as we pass them by. Diofra told the queen how thorough we were and I sincerely doubt that others will be as diligent as us in clearing out the threat that the vampires represent.”

Josh seemed to relax and Evangeline hugged him.

“Three days isn't going to be much, and you don't have to stay with us if you don't want to.” I said and looked at their faces. Jessica's was almost funny in her surprise, as was Kara's. “You are people with your own opinions and can make up your own minds.”

“Stay.” Jessica said right away.

“Stay.” Kara said, if slightly reluctantly.

“Doesn't matter to me.” Steven said. “I'll go with the group.”

Josh looked at Evangeline. “Stay or go?” He asked her.

“I have to agree with the chosen hero.” Evangeline said. “You need time to deal with your feelings and how you confronted them.” She said and gave him a quick kiss. “You've put on this strong front and it's not going to last long if you don't take care of yourself.”

Josh sighed. “All right. Stay.”

I turned and looked at the driver. “What about you?”

“Me?!?” The driver looked at me with surprise. “I'm just the driver.”

“Uh huh. Do you want to stay or leave?”

“I drive the carriage for the emissaries. I won't abandon my post because I'm afraid of being attacked by vampires.” The driver said.

“What about your family?” I asked.

“The Acolytes of Light are taking care of them.” The driver said, his voice sure. “The archmage gave all the information to the head acolyte and she took everyone in all of our families inside the church.”

I nodded. “Good. You only have to worry about your personal safety.” I said. “When we stop for supplies, we'll get you armored up.”

“I can't fight, sir.” The driver said.

“I'm not asking you to, and I won't ask you to.” I said. “It's for personal protection.”

“It's a waste of money.” The driver said, and I laughed.

“Who else is going to drive the carriage if you die?” I asked, and he sighed. “Don't worry. I think just leathers should be good, so you're not weighed down trying to handle the horses.” I turned my head and looked at Afyne. “It's time for you to get a set, too.”

Afyne grinned at me and nodded, so I turned my head a little and looked at the waitress that had stood a little off to the side and waited for us to finish talking.

“Thank you for being patient while we rambled.” I said and her face flushed slightly red.

“You saved this city from terrible creatures.” The woman responded. “I didn't mind waiting.”

I smiled at her and we all ordered supper. I was tempted to order breakfast, since we had just gotten up; but, that would inconvenience the kitchen workers. We didn't talk about much while we waited for the food to arrive, just idle conversation, and then the food came and after a quick whispered prayer, we all ate in relative silence. Meals have been like that recently, and I wasn't sure if I liked that.

“So, Viri, how long have you lived here?” I asked.

“What? Oh, um... all my life.” Viri said between bits of food.

“How is the business going?” I asked and took another bite of food myself.

“It's been really slow for a few years.” Viri said, a little sad. “I'm getting by, but...”

“Things are stagnant.” I said and she nodded. “Well, maybe I can change that.”

“Wh-what?” Viri looked up from her supper. “How?”

“I was going to wait until later; but, now is as good a time as any.” I said and took another bite of food to make everyone wait for me to ask while I chewed.

“You know that's annoying.” Maylia said with a smile.

I covered my mouth to stop food from coming out when I laughed. “I didn't expect someone to call my bluff so fast.”

“We've been together how long now?” Maylia asked and took her own bite of food and started to chew.

I laughed again. “All right.” I looked at Viri. “I want you to join my party.”

“What?!?” Several voices asked in surprise from the other tables. None of my people were surprised.

“It's not a decision to make lightly.” I said and ignored the emissaries. “Things are dangerous, and we ride into danger and not away from it.”

Viri stopped eating and just stared at me. “Is this about...”

“No.” I said. “I've seen some of your skills, and I saw how you handled the situations we ended up in yesterday and last night. You didn't panic, or freak out, or try to run away. You were right there beside us and helped. You even killed some of the vampires.”

“You make it sound like...”

“After last night, you are as much of an adventurer as we are.” I said with a smile, and I saw several nods from the people at my table. “I don't let just anyone join this group.”

“We'd have a monster expert tagging along if he did.” Maylia said.

“And a group of magical healers.” Imiryl said.

“Not to mention a pack of drakolopes.” Evus said with a grin.

“Hey, the beasts could be useful!” I said in my defense, and they laughed.

“A pack of drakolopes! Hahaha!” Viri laughed, too.

I let them laugh for a few moments and looked at Viri. “Your life is going to change, so why not change it a lot?” I asked. “When we leave, come with us.”

“I... Hunter, I...”

“I only ask that you think about it.” I said. “No pressure either way. It's your decision.”

Viri looked down at her meal. “No pressure?”

I chuckled and she looked up at me. “Well, I guess there is some pressure. You saw what our group was like. You just have to ask yourself if you want to be a part of that or if you want to wave to us as we leave.” I saw the doubt on her face and reached across the table and touched her hand. “You have three days to make your choice.”

“Three days to decide if I want my whole life to change.” Viri said.

“I know that's a long time to choose.” I said with a smile, and she laughed. “Eat up and we can go find the supplies we need.”

“We?” Viri asked.

“You can come along, and since you're from here, you can take us to the best places to go and maybe get us some good deals.” I pat her hand and leaned back to keep eating.

“I haven't even accepted yet and you're already using me?” Viri asked with a smile.

“I suppose we could just blunder around and hope we don't get robbed blind.” I said.

“Yes, no pressure at all.” Viri said, and everyone at the table laughed.

We finished eating and left the dining room and Kara and the others started to go to the front desk.

“I took care of it already.” I said and motioned to the front door to leave.

“As long as...” Kara started to say.

“Yes, from the loot.” I said with a smile and we left the inn and Viri took us to the best places to get the supplies and things we would need. I showed her the map of the cracks and we all discussed the best route for us to take to get to the next city and cover as much ground between here and there as possible. Once we had that information, we bought twice what we thought we would need.

Thankfully, with Viri with us, the sales people were more than willing to sell us what we needed and in such huge quantities. We even managed to find a shop that had a half-decent set of leathers to fit Afyne, with only slight adjustments, and the driver gratefully accepted a basic set of leathers that gave him a good boost to his defense and didn't impede his agility or his movement.

The last place we visited was a magic shop and stocked up on the ingredients that were needed to perform the mind block spell. I was very tempted to buy everything in the place, including copies of all the spells they had, then decided against it. The last thing we needed was to have a bunch of spells we would never use. I did ask everyone what spells they thought they would need and paid for several copies of them, then bought the three neutral mana crystals the store had.

I saw Diofra stare at me, and I waved her over. “Give me a hand?” I asked with a smile. She put her hand on the five inch wide crystal and I attuned it to her and myself, then charged it up. The clerk's mouth dropped open at the sight, then I did the other two.

“I think I need to sit down.” The clerk said and a chair appeared from nowhere as she collapsed into it.

I chuckled and gave one of the charged mana crystals to Diofra and she tried to give it back. I mentioned the loot again and she was reluctant even then, so I pat her hand and stored the other two. She sighed and took it, as well as the copies of the spells, and we all left the shop.

“That was fun!” Afyne said and took my hand.

“Only because you weren't agonizing over what spells you had to have.” I said and glanced at Jessica, whose face was red. I leaned over a little to whisper conspiratorially to Afyne and made sure that everyone could hear me. “Should I tell them that I wanted to buy all of the spells in the shop?”

Afyne laughed. “No! Keep it a secret!”

I laughed with her and we all went back to the inn. “I know we woke up not that long ago; but, everything is shutting down for the night, so I'm going up to my room.”

“We might as well do that, too.” Imiryl said and gripped Allirynn's arm tightly. None of us missed the seductive look she gave him.

“Goodnight.” Allirynn said without taking his eyes off of Imiryl and led her over to the stairs.

“I'm glad we found everything we needed.” Diofra said and looked at Jessica. “Want to give these new spells a try?”

“Why not.” Jessica said with a smile, then looked at Josh. “Josh? Can we borrow you for a few minutes first? I want that mind block spell cast permanently on myself, too.”

“Sure.” Josh said. “We're probably going to need it in a few days.” He turned to his wife. “I'll be up to the room soon.”

“Hey, do you think I should get it done, too?” Steven asked.

“Are you afraid of being taken over by vampire mind tricks?” I asked with a grin, and he chuckled.

“No, I just... well, if vampires can mess with people's minds...”

“...what can other creatures do?” I asked and he nodded. “Better safe than sorry, I guess.”

“Do you have enough to do the spell on me, too?” Steven asked Jessica, who pulled out a huge bag full of ingredients.

“Nope. Sorry.” Jessica said, and we laughed.

“You kids go have fun.” I said and made shooing motions with my hand. Jessica, Diofra, Josh, and Steven left to find a good place to set up their small altars to perform the spells.

“I think I'll head home myself.” Viri said.

“Goodnight.” We said, and she gave us a little wave and walked out of the inn. Kara gave her a lingering glance, looked at me for a moment, then walked over to the stairs and went up them.

“What was that about?” Evus asked as he watched Kara leave.

“She's wondering why I'm inviting another woman along with us.” I said and motioned to the stairs.

“Why are you inviting her?” Evus asked.

I, Maylia, and Afyne walked over to the stairs and he followed. “She's a skill scribe and has a pretty powerful viewing bubble.” I said. “It's more like a crystal ball instead of a greenish bubble, actually.”

“Really?” Evus asked as we went up the stairs. “She must be pretty strong in her mana use.”

“She can attune a mana crystal as fast a I can.” I said, and he whistled.

“Yep, pretty powerful.” Evus said and opened his room door. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” We said and went to our own room.

“Are we going to bed again?” Afyne asked.

“Actually, I think we can spend a few hours working on your training.” I said.

“Really?” Afyne looked at Maylia and I with excitement.

“We can't have Hunter's Hunter slacking off, can we?” Maylia asked.

Afyne's face flushed a little red and Maylia gave her a quick hug.

“We can have you up to speed on at least basic movements and attacks in no time.” Maylia said, confidently. “So, are you ready to have some fun?”

“Yes!” Afyne exclaimed, and then her training began.