“Is there anything we need to know about her?” Sam asked as the three of them walked down the hall of the second floor.

“Her name is Tonya and she’s a new recruit of ours,” Kevin explained, looking between Ethan and Sam.

“What does she know about Paul Denton?” Ethan pressed him for more information. As anxious as Ethan was to get this meeting over with and get back to his own guild hall, he was tired of feeling like he knew nothing about the guild that had been antagonizing them.

“Honestly?” Kevin pursed his lips. “I don’t know for sure.”

“Well how do you know this is going to lead anywhere?”

“Because,” he sighed, “the last guild she was in before us was Blood Dragons.”

Ethan and Sam stopped suddenly, shocked by Kevin’s revelation.

“Shit, man,” Sam rubbed his hands on his scalp and looked at Ethan. “You didn’t say all that in your message.”

“Yeah, you said to keep it quiet,” Kevin shrugged. “I thought you’d rather hear it in person than in a message.”

“Why should we trust her?” Ethan blinked rapidly. Either she’s a spy or we really lucked out. He hoped that this wasn’t another trap of Paul’s that they were about to fall into.

“We vetted her pretty thoroughly, she had a list of references and I went through all of them,” Kevin crossed his arms over his chest and grinned smugly.

“That doesn’t exactly make me feel better,” Ethan looked at Sam to see his reaction.

“I kind of agree with Ethan on this one,” Sam said, shaking his head. “But we’re here so we may as well see.”

“Follow me then, gentlemen,” Kevin turned and gestured towards the end of the hall. “Hopefully this’ll help you even a little.”

“We’ll see,” Ethan frowned.

“I’m going to have you ask you to store your weapons before we go in,” Kevin announced after leading them to the farthest room from the stairwell. “You’re not going to threaten her.”

“That sounds fair,” Sam immediately stowed his staff and dagger in his inventory and waited for Ethan to do the same.

“Fine,” he immediately felt naked as begrudgingly did as he was asked. Elemental Imbuements work just as well on fists. He thought to himself.

“Now can we go in?” Ethan sighed.

“Just be polite,” Kevin titled his head towards them and knocked on the door. “I’m not getting drawn into another one of your grudges.”

“Hello?” A nervous looking woman with frizzy blonde hair answered, not opening the door more than a crack.

“Hey, Tanya,” Kevin smiled at her, but didn’t push open the door. “These are the guys I told you about. They just want to ask you a couple of questions, can we come in?”

“Umm… sure…” she looked puzzled but opened the door nonetheless. “Sorry, it’s, um, it’s a little messy in here.”

“Not a problem, we won’t take too much of your time,” Sam said calmly, as he sent his familiar to wait outside for them.

“Come, come on in then,” she stuttered out, her eyes grew wide as she glanced between Ethan and Sam.

After a moment’s hesitation, she turned around and walked back into the small room.

Ethan tried to catch Sam’s eye before, hoping to read any kind of expression, but Sam followed her jauntily into the room.

“Be nice,” Kevin commanded Ethan in a low whisper, placing his hand on Ethan’s chest, before entering as well.

He sighed heavily and walked through the door.

Tanya was sitting on her bed, fidgeting with a frayed end of a red and brown blanket. She kept glancing around the room, as if unsure if she was about to be attacked. He noticed Sam had taken position by the window, with Kevin right next to him.

Better just rip the bandaid, he thought.

“I won’t take much of your time,” Ethan began, staring down at the much smaller woman. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sam discreetly gesture to begin recording their interaction. “Do you know who we are?”

She visibly gulped and nodded her head. He saw both Sam and Kevin stand up straighter, unsure if it was because of his question or her answer.

“How do you know us?” Ethan continued.

Tanya looked towards Kevin and then back at Ethan.

“Paul showed us all your faces,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “He said ‘these people want to make villains out of us, but we’re the heroes’."

“What else did he say about us?” Ethan crossed his arms over his chest. He didn’t care about Paul’s opinion of them, he just wanted to find Tae-Won.

“Him and Erin,” she swallowed again, “they said they were going to make you pay for it.”

“Who is Erin?” Ethan looked quickly at Sam. The only two names they knew were Caleb and Paul, having someone else they could ask about might lead to a breakthrough.

“His sister,” Tanya sighed. “She’s the actual leader of the guild, but her and Paul really lead together.”

He scratched his chin and thought about what she had just told them. So Kalinda wasn’t lying about Paul not being the guild leader. Not that it mattered, Calder was deep in her pocket the minute the trial started.

“Did they say anything about what they were going to do to us?”

Tanya looked at the floor and shook her head.

“Do you know where they took my guildmate?” Ethan’s voice was terse as he continued to focus on her, waiting for her response.

She silently shook her head again, still not looking up. ”I quit before that happened, I only ever heard whispers that they were planning something. But never what it actually was.”

Ethan sighed heavily. Of course it’s not that fucking easy. He glanced over at Sam, hoping that he would have something else to ask that might help.

“Tell me about Erin,” Sam said calmly.

“She’s sick,” Tanya grimaced as she spoke. For the first time, Tanya did not stutter or appear afraid of them.

“What do you mean?” He continued.

“From what everyone said, she only played Warlock. Anytime she died she’d leap until she got the class she wanted.” She glanced at the demon perched on Sam’s shoulder. “She liked to hurt things. There was one time we were running a dungeon near Eldergrove and she made sure to use fire spells on every plant monster we saw.”

She paused and took a deep breath before continuing.

“She used to curse players who she didn’t feel performed well enough, or who made a mistake.”

And Paul thinks they’re the heroes? Ethan was aghast at this new information. They hurt their own guildmates to force progression.

“The people in the guild just put up with that?” Kevin spoke up for the first time, his face pale as he looked at his new guildmate. “No one said anything?”

“Paul would make a big show of trying to cover it up as just an accident, say that she miscast or some other lie,” Tanya frowned and didn’t look up from the floor. “He made a big deal of apologizing and tried to make it up to the person.”

“How many people are in the guild?” Ethan tried to bring the conversation back to anything that could help them. Finding out one of their leaders tortured their own players was surprising, but wasn’t going to help them find Tae-Won.

“When I was with them, um, fifteen,” she looked up at Ethan. “I was only in their guild for a couple of weeks. I left right after they got kicked from the raid clan.”

Ethan sighed and rubbed his forehead with one hand. This has been a waste of time.

“Thank you, Tanya,” he said, trying to hide his disappointment. “I don’t think I have any more questions for you.”

“I’m really sorry about what happened to you friend,” she frowned again and looked at him. “If I’d know what they were planning, I would have stuck around longer. It’s… it’s not right.”

“Yeah,” Ethan said quietly. “Sam, you coming?”

“Uh,” he looked at Kevin and Tanya, “yeah, right behind you.”

Ethan made his way back down the stairs and into the bar in silence, replaying the few questions she’d answered in his head. Erin and Paul are siblings and she likes to hurt people. That doesn’t help us at all.

When he rentered the common room, silence fell on the assembled Knights of Aether guild members. He could feel all eyes on his as he trudged towards the exit.

“Run like dog with tail between legs, little bitch!” Galina shouted as he reached for the door knob.

Ethan stopped, his hand on the metal knob, and turned around, wishing he had equipped his swords. He could see Piotr looking embarrassed as he pulled his wife back to her chair.

It’s not worth it, he dejectedly thought to himself as he left the tavern. The entire room full of her guild, I’d be down in a second.

“What the fuck was that in there?” Sam shouted at him when he exited a moment later. “You were rude as hell to that woman! She was trying to help!”

“What the hell are you talking about, Sam?” Ethan stopped and turned around.

“Kevin set that up and you asked, like, four questions and bailed?”

“She didn’t have anything worth knowing,” he said, trying to keep his voice calm. “Surely you saw that, or were you too busy trying to kiss up to Kevin?”

“Screw you man,” Sam’s eyes were wide and he looked like Ethan had punched him in the gut. “I finally come through, and you don’t like who we’re getting help from so you act like a baby?”

“What help?” Ethan cried out. “We didn’t learn shit! Nothing she said in there will help us get Tae-Won, will help us end this!”

“You didn’t even try to ask her anything!” Sam yelled. “You’re so concerned with your beef with her guild that you didn’t even try. I should have come alone!”

“This has nothing to do with Kevin,” Ethan clenched his fists. “It was a lot to hope for that we’d get some information from her, but in the end, it was just like talking to Arianna: we got nowhere.”

“You still could have talked to her,” Sam rubbed the back of his head. “Or let me, but instead you just walked away.”

“Sam, we have five days left to finish getting our gold,” he held up his hand with all his fingers spread wide for emphasis. “We’re within a thousand gold, at this point that’s what I’m focusing on. We can’t waste time chasing leads that go nowhere.”

“So you’re giving up on Tae-Won?” Sam’s eyes went wide as shock replaced anger.

“Christ, no!” Ethan violently shook his head. “But, tell me truthfully, are we going to find him in five days?”

Sam’s shoulders slumped and he sighed. “No, we aren’t.”

“Then isn’t it better to focus on getting the fine paid and then throwing all our energy into hunting them down?” Ethan took a step towards Sam. “It’s not worth the risk to show up without the gold, who knows how else Kalinda would convince Calder to punish us.”

For the last several nights, Ethan had laid awake trying to rationalize what he was saying to himself. This was the first time he’d said the words out loud.

“We are tired, we are worn down and at each other’s throats,” he continued. “When we pay off the fine, we can talk to Tanya again. We will-"

“I need some time to process this,” Sam held up his hands to stop Ethan. “I can’t believe you’d ever even think about letting Leah and Tae-Won continue hurting because you’re ‘too tired’. You’re the one who always says this is our family.”

Sam’s words had stung. It was exactly the self doubt that Ethan had been wrestling with as he tried to convince himself he was right to put the rescue on the back burner. They were his family, and he had just said to let them suffer.

“Sam, even if Tanya had said ‘they’re holding Tae-Won here’ and showed us exactly where, do you think we’re ready to go rescue him?” Ethan stepped forward again as he pleaded. “We’re undergeared because we’re selling everything we get, we’re all so exhausted it’s a miracle we don’t have debuffs. We have to accept that, for the moment, this is a tactical retreat.”

“And when is it just giving up?” Sam glared at him, violet energy crackling in his eyes. “When will we be ‘ready’? Because it’s more than just Tae-Won, the longer we wait, the longer we forfeit the ability to help us all get home.”

“I promise, as soon as this debt is paid, we will find him,” Ethan took a deep, resigned breath, “if we have to mortgage our souls to the House, we will find him.”

“You fucking better,” Sam growled as the mana behind his eyes flared violently and extinguished