As the group set away from the doomed village, they did their best to put it from their minds as they resumed a familiar routine of travel. However, only a day away from the village something happened.

While they were setting up camp for the night, a woman came into the camp. She was dressed in dirty clothing and had clearly been on the road for a while.

“H-hello.” She nervously greeted the group. “Could, could I join you for a while?”

“Certainly!” Kurt accepted. “Take a seat right there, I almost have the fire going.”

As they all began to relax around the fire which staved off the cold of the night, they began to talk with the woman.

“So, what brings you out here, miss…?” Sylvester asked.

“Oh! Just call me Brigitt.” She quickly responded, unused to the formality. “I… well… Have you heard about the shape changer?”

“Can’t say I have.” Sylvester admitted, much to the group’s surprise.

“Well, it’s a good thing you came across me then. The shape changer, it’s a monster viler than any other.” Brigitt explained with venom in her voice. “It can change its shape, and it loves nothing more than to copy someone’s appearance and publicly commit crimes with their face.”

“If everyone saw someone commit the crime, then they will be punished for it wouldn’t they?” Neil spoke up, disgusted by the very idea.

“Yes. They would. My… Someone close to me had that happen. Everyone claimed he murdered a woman in cold blood, but I was with him the entire time the murder was supposed to have occurred. One biased woman’s testimony or an entire crowd of others… It was a quick trial.” Brigitt seemed to be on the verge of tears.

“That certainly sounds like mob justice to me.” Val spoke up disgusted. Mob justice was almost always the thing that would get a Succubus caught, no matter how good their alibi or attempts to cover up their crimes.

“It was a bit more dignified than that…” Brigitt denied, though she clearly didn’t feel the same way. “And now all I have left is the clothes on my back and my old flute.”

“You play the flute?” Kurt asked, trying to steer the conversation in a happier direction.

“Yeah, I do. Would you like to hear some?” Brigitt offered, pulling out an old wooden flute.

“Sure!” Kurt agreed.

Brigitt gave a wane smile and pressed the flute to her lips and began to play. Though her heart may not have been in it and the flute in poor condition, it was obvious that she was quite talented with it. The group and their visitor spent the night chatting and enjoying the music.

The next morning, Brigitt stopped them before they could leave.

“Val, would you take my flute?” She asked.

“Why?” Val responded, confused.

“This is really the last thing tying me to my old life. I just want to leave it all behind me and move on.” Brigitt explained, holding out the old wooden flute.

“Alright then.” Val agreed and took the flute. As Brigitt began to leave, however, Val grabbed Brigitt’s hand.

“Something else?” She asked, turning back to Val.

“You got my eyes wrong; they are a shade more vivid.” Val announced, drawing attention to the two’s eyes. For some reason, they had identical eye colors, a turquoise-like green, when Brigitt had definitely had brown eyes earlier.

Brigitt paled and began to struggle against Val’s grip, but she used it to pull Brigitt into a deep kiss. She struggled and seemed to visibly age as Val sucked her vitality out through her mouth.

Val released her, and Brigitt collapsed to the ground, visibly weakened.

“Something you want to explain, Val?” Sylvester asked while holding his Kusarigama at the ready.

“Oh, come off it, Sylvester.” Val rolled her eyes. “This woman was clearly the doppelganger; she didn’t even try to hide it that hard.”

“Y-you! You’re travelling with a Succubus?!” Brigitt shrieked while clambering to get away.

“Bask!” Sylvester called out, causing Bask to leap onto the creature in disguise. At the very least, they wouldn’t have to feed it for a while.

Kurt, Karrank, and Neil were all rightly put off by it, but managed to piece together what Brigitt’s plan had been. She had gone off in search of people unaware of what she did, gotten to know them, and was planning to go somewhere and commit crimes with their faces.

Sylvester directed the group to continue, trying to calm down as he realized how close they had come to having a serious problem. He hadn’t realized, at all, that Brigitt was a doppelganger. He would never admit it, but he hadn’t known, and he hadn’t been ready. He had gotten monumentally lucky that Val had stepped in when Brigitt chose Val as her first mark.

He put those thoughts and worries out of his mind as the group continued their journey. Luckily, nothing else out of the ordinary happened and they were soon nearly out of their two weeks of supplies.

By this point, they had crossed nearly the whole kingdom. They were three weeks of relaxed travel from home and there would certainly not be anyone here who would recognize them.

As they crested a hill, they were treated to a view of their destination: the city of Coruvon. It was an important military site for the kingdom, though it was nearly built on an enormous swamp that could be seen extending for miles. Sylvester frowned as he looked at the city, however.

“Something wrong?” Karrank asked, already looking around for trouble.

“The city… it’s bigger than it should be.” Sylvester commented.

“The city is… too big?” Neil asked, wondering how that could be a problem.

“Coruvon is supposed to be a small city, barely more than a glorified military base.” Sylvester explained. “This, is significantly larger and more developed than that.”

“And this is bad, how?” Karrank asked, annoyed that he had gotten worried over nothing.

“It means, that my information on the city may not be accurate. Alternatively, we may not even be looking at reality at the moment. No matter what, we need to be cautious until I figure out why this is different than it should be.” Sylvester ordered.

The group nodded as they prepared to make the final leg of their journey, down to the city.