“Say, does your village have gods?”

Jyl was starting to regret asking that question. From Mirus she would have expected an extensive explanation, but Cecile wasn’t usually this talkative. Especially about a topic that held no relevance to the matter at hand.

Glancing at the woman next to her, she quickly determined that Cecile was trying to keep the news of Jeffrey leaving off her mind.

“I have heard stories about the beast-gods deep within the Forest”, she said, reminiscing about some of the tales her grandfather had told her.

“You pray to beasts?” Cecile exclaimed.

Jyl furrowed her brows. How had she arrived at that assumption? “No, but you asked about gods, and those are the only gods I know.”

The beast gods were evil creatures, only held back from devouring the entire Forest by the dryads. Her grandfather had once assured her that, even if all the village’s hunters combined forces, they wouldn’t even be able to wound one.

“It would be kind of weird, wouldn’t it?” Unaware of Jyl’s thoughts, Cecile nodded in understanding.

At that point, the two of them had arrived in front of a large stone building. Well, most around here was built of stone, but Jyl just couldn’t get used to it.

“This is the female dorm, the one next to it is the male dorm. Make sure you don’t mix them up! During the day this place is usually pretty empty, with everyone either out training or on assignment.

During the evening you’ll find most of the people living here in the rec room though.” She pointed at an open doorway to the right. “The door next to it leads to the shower rooms, and that door near the stairs belongs to the dorm mistress’ office. If there’s anything you want to ask or need to say, you can talk to her. We’ll also need to ask her to get you a room, come on.”

Jyl followed her as she knocked on the engraved wooden door, then immediately entered, not even waiting for a response. Not that the woman inside seemed to mind, as she looked up from her work and smiled at them.

Correction, she smiled at Cecile. When she noticed Jyl her facial expression quickly turned into a frown.

“My friend here needs a room.” Cecile glared at the woman.

She sneered. “Then why don’t you escort the human to the dungeons.”

Anger distorted Cecile’s expression. She had known this woman for many years, and though they weren’t particularly close, she had never experienced anything but kindness from her. That she possessed such an attitude towards humans was not only startling, but also showed that lord Garm’s policies weren’t completely effective. Not that any of that would prevent Cecile from speaking her mind.

Though before she could even open her mouth, another voice sounded.

“I would like to see you try.”

Two pairs of eyes locked onto Jyl in surprise, neither having expected the human who’d been acting nonchalant till now to step in. With one hand on the dagger dangling from her belt, and her eyes glaring imposingly at the overly rude stranger, it was obvious she had taken the comment very seriously.

The woman couldn’t help but tremble under that threatening glare, and immediately knew she had made a mistake. She wasn’t a soldier, only administrative staff, and didn’t have the mental fortitude to withstand this kind of pressure.

“I… I’m sorry”, she whimpered, shrinking further and further into her chair, her gaze unable to free itself.

Jyl, satisfied with the response, relaxed her posture, allowing the woman to let out a sigh of relief.

“So, a room?” Cecile smirked, amused by the way the situation had suddenly taken a turn.

“Ah, yes!” The woman shot out of the chair, jumping at the opportunity to get rid of the dangerous human. “One of the rooms on the third floor still has a free spot. The other three tenants have guard duty at the city walls, so they’re rarely here.”

She grabbed a key from the rack and pushed it into Cecile’s hands. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m quite busy…”

“Yes, yes, we’re going”, Cecile said, still smirking.