Adam mourned for the loss of his youngest daughter and cursed his wretched brother Mortality. How could he do this to him after he stood by the awkward boy's side despite Mother's reticence? This was betrayal, plain and simple. Dea whispered to Adam, "come to the wildlands." And for the first time, Adam followed.

Not to explore. Never to visit. Adam brought an army to take compensation for what he had lost.

*****

Prestige quest: Enter the Demon War

reward(s): unknown (note prestige quest rewards are highly variable and can range from detrimental to godly)

quest type [chain]: 1, report the demon

You have spotted a demon within the borders of Cinnfhail. Report your finding to the nearest military outpost.

The location has marked on the map, turn on Quest beacon [Y/N]?

Aiden read through the quest prompt for what felt like the millionth time since seeing two little horns poking out of the redhead's soaked hair. He still wasn't quite sure what to make of it. For one thing, a random encounter with a demon in a newb village was just unlikely. Add to that, that the shopkeeper didn't seem even remotely surprised, the girl in question was the bubbly NPC he'd interviewed the day before, and the whole affair felt even more incongruous. What sort of demon dreamt of being a hero?

It was the word prestige in front of quest that did it for him. Prestige quests were relatively uncommon and appeared mostly by random, but they all had the potential to evolve into epic or even legendary tier quests. Aiden felt that something named 'Enter the Demon War’ was very unlikely to turn out as something mundane. The rewards mirrored the evolution of the quest, and while random, they were almost universally useful. This was the first he'd read of detrimental rewards though, and that gave Aiden some pause. Which was why he was sitting out in front of the town hall reading over the quest prompt for the umpteenth time.

"Someone shit on your bed?"

"What? No!" Aiden looked up to find Morrigan and Arthur approaching.

"Then what are you doing sitting out here on the dirt for?" asked Morrigan.

"Thinking."

"About?" she prodded.

"I got a prestige quest."

"Seriously man?" Arthur broke in. "Already?"

"They're mostly random, right? I'm just trying to figure out if it's good or bad luck."

"Obviously it's good! Hey, I'll pretend to be your girlfriend if you share it with me," Morrigan suggested.

Arthur rolled his eyes at his sister's antics.

"Why would I want you to do that?" Aiden asked calmly. His face was certainly not red and his voice definitely did not break.

"Because you're obviously a lonely virgin who's never had a chance with a girl before and I don't want to be your actual girlfriend."

"Again, why?" Not that she wasn't entirely inaccurate, but Aiden wasn't going to admit that.

"So you can brag about being with a pretty girl?"

"You sure are confident while insulting a guy like that."

"Aww, don't take it to heart. You're kind of cute, in a dopy sort of way. Some girls dig that."

"Not helping, sis." Arthur finally stepped in, to Aiden’s rescue. "Aiden, just ignore her; she's full of shit."

"Hey!"

"You think you could tell us about your quest?" Arthur continued ignoring his sister.

"Sure." Aiden looked up and down the street and, noting it was clear of NPC's, explained in a low voice, "I spotted a demon and got a quest to report her at the nearest outpost. It's a chain quest and has a pretty awesome title, but there's a note about rewards possibly being detrimental."

Arthur let out a low whistle and Morrigan muffled a squeal before asking excitedly, "A demon, like a real and actual not-a-bad-human-but-a-demon demon?"

"Keep it down! And yes, a real demon with horns; it was that bubbly redhead we interviewed yesterday."

"Damn girl, that's a good disguise. Bubbly naive ditz on the outside, evil demoness on the inside. I could learn a thing or two from her."

There was a sinister glint in Morrigan’s eye's that Aiden didn't like the look of. A good thing then that he was a friend; he pitied the fool who got on her bad side. Wait, was he a friend? Arthur ignored his sister's antics and kept to the point,

"I get why you might be hesitant but it's a minor risk with the potential for massive rewards, I say go for it! And invite me along too."

Aiden smiled, Arthur had the kind of level head that was great to have around to help clear out his own indecision and Morrigan was fun; it would be nice to have them around. A mental command sent the quest invites over and they were accepted readily.

"Awesome, let's get going!"

Both Aiden and Arthur looked at Morrigan in disbelief.

"No sense wasting our time here, it's only noon!" Aiden was ready to protest but Arthur was already speaking.

"As rushed an idea as that may be," Arthur made his map visible and displayed it, "the outpost is far enough away that we'll have to spend a night outside regardless. If we leave now, we'll arrive tomorrow around dinner."

"But we don't have the supplies to make that kind of journey and the general store is closed." Was Aiden the voice of reason in this group?

"We can just log off to eat, and our renown is so minor that the death penalty is negligible. None of us have identity tied quests they'd lose right?"

No, Aiden was just the worrier. He took out his map and set the beacon. A light shot into the sky some distance away, he couldn't tell how far, the lack of buildings and massive mountains having messed with his sense of scale. Saying the hike would take a day and a half didn't mean much to Aiden as he didn't have any context for it—he'd never walked more than an hour to get anywhere.

"Alright, you've convinced me, let's get going," Aiden acquiesced, deciding he would just have to trust Arthur knew what he was talking about. Was this what it meant to have faith?

"Fuck yeah!" Morrigan was quick to lead the group out of the village and onto the crude mountain path headed towards the beacon.

The journey resulted in some of the first combat where the challenge wasn't chasing the target, rather, they had to avoid being the targets. There was never any great danger, though, the group of three making it to the outpost without any close shaves and a few skills better than before. All that remained was to turn in the first phase of the quest.

*****

Corva watched the trio approach the soldiers silently, unflinching. She watched the soldiers exclaim vehemently at the news and rush to their communication room. The High Marshal must hear of this—would hear of this. So quick and eager they were to spread the news, they needn't have bothered; the war was in no hurry. She watched as older men swore at the news and Corva silently agreed with them. A return to the old times would not be pleasant. Younger men bristled with excitement, eager to banish evil, and maybe for a chance at glory and the hand of that pretty girl they fancied. Was Corva once like that?

Young and foolish with naive determination?

Maybe—she couldn’t recall—it was so long ago.

Her sisters were seeing similar sights across the eleven kingdoms. This was not even one of the first. She should have been prepared, but seeing the coming of chaos greeted so warmly by these men made her want to cry out for them to stop. If she could, that is. She must be getting truly old if she was letting herself be influenced by the habits of humans of all things.

She stretched out her wings and admired their dark sheen. Rid her feathers of that dusty stone grey and returned them to their beautiful obsidian black. She’d been still for so long, watching for so long, but there was nothing here for her now. Her king would need his report, and she had long wished to be by his side once more. Corva took off from her perch, quickly reaching a height where she could soar high above the mountains. Soon, she would clear Dea’s Claw and be soaring over the wildlands and approaching her lord’s keep, high in the world tree. It felt so good to be free of the stone.

Around the world, raven idols were going missing, but few took notice. They’d been there since the coming of age of a new generation and had simply become a part of the scenery. Besides, there were more important matters at hand; like a prince taking over for his ailing father, an army in need of creating and training, or a demon in need of being excised.