The four sat in silence. Gruzz, Jeria, Gyv and Mekior looked at each other with no one willing to speak first. The silence was awkward. Gyv felt out of place, amongst strangers. She had met the large half-ogre before, abut aside from him none of the others were familiar. Mekior sat, seething, his hatred for fiends roiling beneath the surface and evident in the looks he gave Jeria.

The creaking of the door as it opened caused all heads to turn in its direction; four pairs of eyes followed the halfling that entered the room. Instantly recognisable to those from Weald Hall, Delire’s small steps carried her across the room rapidly.

Delire took a seat opposite them, looking at them one by one before talking.

"For those I have not m et, I am Delire, the leader of the Outwalkers here in weald Hall and a member of the city council.”

“Thanks to you all, for being here today, whether you had a choice or not.” She winked at the Outwalkers as she smiled at the other two. “By now the three of you have heard Gyv's story, how she was bitten by a tainted squirrel, found herself outside the forest, and tried to commit suicide by using the testing pin."

"It would seem that the pin did not kill her but it did destroy the taint. Mekior, you inspected her, tested her, would you agree?"

From where he sat, Mekior leaned forward, a large smile on his face. "Oh, yes. I can happily confirm that I detect no trace or taint of the fiends about her."

At his side, Gyv cringed inwardly, but remained outwardly calm. She saw all the faces around her; Delire who had come to interrogate her and find out her story, the two Outwalkers that had found her and brought her into the city, and the Fiend Hunter that had inspected her and declared her free of taint. If I'm so pure, what is the laughter I hear every night? Why can I not speak of that face, that voice, the laughter that resounds within?

Gyv noticed that the conversation had stopped, that everyone was looking at her, waiting for her to respond. "Sorry, I, uh, just lost track of what was being said."

"It's ok Gyv, you're still recovering. I was just asking if you wished to return home or to remain within the city?" Delire got up, stepped forward to pat Gyv’s hand, her child size hands rough against Gyv's skin, the calluses from training with the sword spoiling any illusion of childlike innocence. "You are welcome to stay here as long as you need. Knowledge of your work has come to us, and we are honoured by your presence." Delire stepped back, sitting back down on her chair, her short legs swinging above the floor.

Gyv bowed her head, thinking. Could she go home when she was unsure of herself, when she did not trust herself or her dreams? She was better off here, in a city with all the protections that her simple home in the House of Souls lacked. She looked up, opening her mouth to tell them her decision, and then unbelieving, listened to what came out of her mouth against her volition. "Thank you. I miss my home, my husband and my children. I do not know where I am, though. I don’t know how I will be able to return. Your city is but a rumour where I live. Since I do not know where I left the forest or how I got into your city I have no idea how I will be able to get back.”

"That is why we are gathered here. Gruzz volunteered to escort you if that was your decision. He offered his skills in your service, as well as improving our knowledge of how the area around us has changed. It has been some time since anyone in the city ventured near where the House of Souls is located. My guess is that he just wants to get out of the city. Jeria is apprenticed to Gruzz and will go where he goes; he needs to learn the ways outside the city and a travel to your home will serve to train him well." She turned to Mekior, looking him in the eyes, "I need to know if you will accompany them. Gruzz is knowledgeable on the outside, as is Gyv, but if there is trouble an extra sword may be needed. I want you to go with. Provide your skills with sword, and, more importantly, your ability to detect the fiends before they can be seen. Outwalkers don’t normally travel with Fiend Hunters, but an extra one on this trip will be for the best."

Mekior looked at Delire, and then at Gruzz. He had worked with both before, knew them, their reputation and knew he could trust them and what their instincts said. The woman and half-fiend were unknown quantities. He trusted the woman's reputation, but he doubted the half-fiend and feared facing the unknown with one such as him at his side. Then, there was the outside. The tunnels were comfortable enough: known, sheltered, part of home and the environment he knew. The outside was, well, the outside. Unknown, dangerous and fiend ridden, the last decided him. He would face the fiends, just as he had faced them in the tunnels, just as he’d faced them and never turned away. Inside he quailed. If he ventured out, would he face them again? He had fled, no one knew it, would they find him if he ventured out? He pushed his own fears down, quelled his instincts to cowardice.

"I'm in. Let us hope we do run into some fiends, I have some scores to settle." He settled back, letting the others talk and plan the trip. He would go along with them with his bow at the ready, his sword there to cut through fiendish skin should any show themselves. The conversation washed around him as he dreamed of fiendish blood pooling on the ground below as remembered images of people strung up and tortured passed before his inner eye.

***

The gap to the outside stood before them. Gruzz had gone first to check on the area outside, to ensure its safety. The rest stood and watched Mekior as he stood before the gap. Sweat came down his face, his hands gripping either side of the gap, knuckles white. He looked back at them, his eyes showing panic. He backed off from the gap, shaking his head.

"I can't do it. Outside. It's too big, too much."

He collapsed, head held between his hands, tears of frustration falling from his face. "I can't do it. Forgive me."

He looked at the others, knowing the assumption that they twould make was that he was scared of the outside, what lay beyond. He could not tell them, could not say what he really feared. Them, those that hunted him, those that would shred and eviscerate all like him. Death by their hands would be slow, excruciatingly so, if they could capture one like him. He thought he had quelled his fear, but at the last he was finding he could not so easily overcome it.

Gyv stood, looking at him, frustrated. Jeria pushed forward, moving Gyv out the way, knelt beside him.

"I went out for the first time a mere four days before I met you. I stood at this gap, felt the air from the outside and wondered how I could exist without the comfort of the cavern, the soothing presence of rock around me." He stopped talking as he saw Mekior turn to him, look at him. He started again, aware that the Fiend Hunter was fixated on his words. "I don't know how I did it, I took that one last deep breath and forced myself out, breaching the gap, entering the world outside the way a babe must leave its mother womb. Once out there, it was a revelation. The air is different, sweeter. And the trees… Ahh, the trees, they are wondrous, not the small little things that you find within eking out an existence on insufficient light; out there they are amazing, huge, beyond your imagination. Just stand, walk to the gap, breathe in and walk out." Jeria stopped, hoping that his speech had been effective.

They waited, watching as Mekior stood slowly, gathered himself, breathed in deeply and virtually dove out the gap. Inwardly Mekior cursed himself, laughed at himself. Let the others think it was the half-fiend’s words, they could not know that it was not the outside he feared. But in front of the half-fiend he would not be shamed, would not be seen as a coward or weakling! He stepped forward, watching Gruzz step out before him. With a deep breathe he pushed himself through the gap.

Jeria followed quickly, knowing he was breaking the exit order they had agreed on, but deciding he needed to be there to see how Mekior handled the outside. He found him hiding behind a tree, his eyes wide open in terror, scanning the forest around them, the sky above. Behind him, he heard Gyv coming out and stepping up beside him.

"Just chuck him inside and let us get moving. He's going to be useless to us."

Jeria looked at her, saw Gruzz come up to the couple standing over the rigid Mekior after he had finished checking the area around them.

"Mekior, you hear me?" Getting no response Gruzz moved over to the fiend hunter and lifted him easily half dragging him to the cover of the trees.

“If he is still like this by tomorrow we’ll send him home. Let him acclimatise, it is no shame when first leaving the city to be overwhelmed.”

Mekior heard the words, and wanted to shout out what he was thinking: You think I fear an empty sky? May you never learn what truly drives my fear!

Gyv followed, automatically erasing the tracks they left. She felt cleaner, safer under the trees, once more on her way to her home but she feared the voice that had spoken for her, that had changed her choice to stay away from those she would not endanger.