Rakyn cheerfully led the four of them down the street to a small restaurant, brushing off Hale’s attempts to ask questions without even looking at the package. Serenity glanced around the street and smiled; he saw a number of small, human-pulled carts set up with food and a couple of smaller restaurants, but this was clearly the nicest one.

It was obvious why Rakyn didn’t want to answer the question before he ate - he wasn’t sure he’d get them to pay for his food if he waited.

Most of the tables inside the restaurant were clearly designed to be used by one or two people, which made sense once Serenity saw the crowd; it was almost entirely individuals. The group of five found themselves sitting at a nicely polished wood table that wouldn’t have been out of place in a fine restaurant. The entire scene was slightly jarring; it was clearly working to present itself as a “nice” full service restaurant, but a lot of little details reminded Serenity more of a fast food joint.

There was a counter with four options for meat - smoked dire boar, glazed dire bear, grilled okwa, or sausage of the day, one type of bread, and grilled mixed vegetables. Hot tea was the only available drink. Each was sold separately, and the food prices were counterintuitive to Serenity. Meat was relatively cheap, while plants - both vegetables and bread - were expensive.

As Hale explained it, there were several dungeons situated in or near the Shining Caverns - in fact, many of the outlying Caverns were located where they were because of a dungeon. They were controlled (Serenity heard Raz mutter the word “Bound”) to produce animals that could be used as meat to feed the city - but while they could provide enough meat, plants were harder. Harvest took longer, and you didn’t generally come out with as much as going after animals, so monster meat was more efficient from the dungeons, and plants simply didn’t grow well on Tzintkra’s surface. They had to be grown in one of the rare protected areas in the Caverns.

It made Serenity wonder if he could grow plants in the Rest from Death dungeon. Perhaps an apple tree, just to find out?

As they sat down at the table, Hale asked, “Remind me how I ended up paying for everyone’s food?”

Katya grinned. “How is it you always end up paying for the food? But this time, it’s because you’re the one getting paid.” She winked.

“Right, right…” Hale muttered as he started eating.

The food reminded Serenity of barbeque. It was serviceable, but not as good as the restaurant at the Whale of a Time Inn … and come to think of it, maybe all the monster meat that restaurant served was locally gathered as well? That would make more sense than importing it.

Serenity had ordered twice as much food as anyone else. That had become his new normal, and as long as food was plentiful, he didn’t mind.

He was still done before anyone else.

When Messenger Rakyn finished his food, he sighed and settled back in his chair. “So, what did you want to know?”

As Hale pulled out the box, Rakyn was leaning forward, but it was clear when he realized what it was. He straightened and seemed to still. All of the small movements he’d been making as he enjoyed lunch simply vanished.

Rakyn didn’t say anything until Hale prompted him. “Where did you get this?”

Rakyn shook his head. “I - I can’t.” He stopped, then woodenly said, “It was handed to me outside the Hall, to take to Guilldmaster Hollis.”

Serenity blinked. He’s a worse liar than I am. Or he’s trying to be clear he’s lying? But why would he want to lie and make it obvious?

Hale’s “Who gave it to you?” was softer than his previous question.

The Messenger said “I can’t answer anything more about that.” Serenity noticed the man’s hands were moving in a pattern he almost recognized. Some form of silent speech, but while it seemed to share some words with ones he’d used in the past - future? - whichever, Serenity was only able to pick out “break” and “follow”.

“Too bad. I guess we’ll have to figure it out some other way.” Serenity’s attention turned back to Hale just in time to see him using the same sort of hand signs, though much less overtly.

As they headed out, Hale tugged Serenity close enough to whisper to him, “Follow the Messenger. He’s expecting it and will make it easy, but keep an eye out for anyone watching you. The rest of us get to distract anyone who’s watching. We’ll meet you at the Whale tonight, don’t go to the Guildhouse.”

Serenity split away from the others and followed the Messenger. A couple of buildings past the restaurant, the Messenger slipped into an alley. When Serenity followed, he found Messenger Rakyn waiting for him.

“Hale said you can break curses?”

Serenity should have known that question was coming. “If it’s Death-based. And I may need a Healer to help, I can’t heal any damage the curse has done.”

Rakyn waved Serenity’s concern away. “Not a problem. Desinka can heal herself. It’s worth trying then … can you hide your wings better?”

Serenity pulled his wings tight and held them that way, where they wouldn’t slip out from under the cloak. He also pulled the hood up over his head, in case his horns were showing.

Rakyn walked around Serenity, then nodded. “Good enough. Put a bag of mail on your back and bend over and it won’t be obvious you aren’t human. Most people don’t pay much attention to Messengers anyway. Wait here, I need to get the mail for my next route.”

It wasn’t long until Rakyn was back. He helped Serenity put the bag on his back and they headed out.

It wasn’t comfortable walking around with his hood up and his wings being squished, but Serenity tried not to complain, even though the messenger still hadn’t explained anything. After the third block, Rakyn headed into each building, but he didn’t take anything in with him, and he only brought something out to place it into Serenity’s pack once before they reached a large building that Rakyn said was their “first stop”. Rakyn dug in the pack on Serenity’s back before running inside with three packages and two letters. He reappeared several minutes later with a collection of letters tied with a piece of string.

As they left, Rakyn commented quietly, “I live pretty close to here, but it’s even closer to the next stop. This route has many of the larger Guild houses on it; we’ll be going by the Bard’s Odeum next.”

Serenity couldn’t resist the question. “Odeum?”

Rakyn chuckled. “I’m pretty sure it’s just a fancy word for a music hall or theater, but you know Bards. They love playing with words. It’s probably from another language and they thought it sounded better. It’s their Guildhouse, but they had to have another word.”

Serenity nodded. He did know Bards, and they weren’t that different from modern performers on Earth - they loved an audience, and many of them truly did love words as well.

It was a longer walk to the Odeum than it had been to the previous “stop”, and Serenity noticed that Rakyn took longer in several of the buildings on the way, though there were still only a total of three letters sent between all of the stops.

When they got to the Odeum, Rakyn dug in the bag for a minute before closing it and telling Serenity to just follow him up the stairs. Once they were inside the building, they passed areas that Serenity recognized as ticket counters and a refreshment stand, even though both were empty at that time of day. The walls of the entrance hall were nearly coated in wall hangings, but once they turned a corner and opened a door, the corridor Rakyn led Serenity into was bare and appeared almost unfinished in comparison. The hall had several doors, but the one Rakyn chose led into the back of a moderately-sized room with several tables and chairs. Two people were in the room, a man and a woman. They looked up when Rakyn and Serenity entered, but only the man said “Hi.” before looking back down at whatever he was working on.

Serenity was frustrated as he looked around; this was the sort of place that was probably well-labeled, but he couldn’t even see the labels, never mind read them. Serenity didn’t remember not being able to read being such an issue back when Vengeance became a draugr.

But then, back then he’d had a group that knew his limitations, and no one had expected him to do anything other than kill enemies. It made sense to have someone who wasn’t undead taking care of interactions with other people. Perhaps it had been a problem, but he’d been left out of it?

As Serenity looked around, Rakyn walked over to one of the tables and waved to Serenity to join him. Once he did, Rakyn started digging in the pack and pulled out a collection of packages and letters, emptying about a quarter of the bag Serenity was carrying on his back. It made an impressive pile on the table.

Rakyn walked over to another table, picked up a stack of letters, and tucked them into the pack before leading Serenity back outside, leaving that one “Hi” as the entire conversation.

“I always thought of Bards as being more inclined to talk than that,” Serenity stated.

Rakyn shrugged his right shoulder. “They get like that sometimes when they’re concentrating on stuff. If they don’t talk, they’d rather I didn’t. Other times they won’t stop talking. Now, if you’ll follow me-”

Rakyn led the way down the street without stopping at any of the buildings to drop off or pick up mail, then around a couple of turns before they reached what looked like a street of small houses nestled next to each other. Serenity thought some of them were probably smaller than his apartment, and it only had two rooms - the bedroom and the living area - plus the kitchen and bathroom. They mostly seemed to have walls of fired brick, at least, so they were better made than many of the buildings he remembered from when they entered the city.

Once they were inside one of the houses, Rakyn waved at the mailbag strapped to Serenity’s back. “You can take that off. I can’t stay, I have to work the rest of my route and make sure no one realizes anything’s happening. I don’t know how much they’re watching me. I don’t think it’s that much, but if I’m wrong-”

The door to the next room opened, revealing a skinny sleepy-looking woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties. “Dad? It’s the middle of the day.”

“Y-yes. So. Uh. Hale said you can break curses. Please break the one on Desinka, or figure out what you need at least. I’ll be back in a couple of hours. Desinka, tell him what he needs to know.” The Messenger grabbed the bag of mail Serenity had set at his feet and hurried out the door.

“What was that about?” Serenity asked as he turned back to the woman - Desinka, he thought.

“He thinks this is his fault. It’s not. It’s mine.” Desinka looked sad. “Please, come on in, sit down.”

Serenity finally took the time to look around the room as he headed over to one of the stuffed chairs against the left-hand wall. There was one window in the opposite wall, and two interior doors, both closed. The other walls seemed to have some sort of cloth hung on them, and the floor had what looked like a woven mat laid on top of it. There were only two chairs, set on either side of a small table.

As Desinka took the chair across from Serenity, he noticed a weaker version of the same feeling he’d had when he saw the cursed man - Lek, he thought - and Syri at the Mercenary Guildhouse. She also gave off a much stronger version of the same feeling he’d noticed around Syri, but he somehow knew she wasn’t a dhampir.

Desinka was a vampire.

It was already too late to remove the curse.