Bad Apples

Fulk looked on in terror as a dome of shadows descended on the party. It had somehow gone from a terrible situation to a genuine nightmare—one so bad Fulk was sure she’d wake up soon.

But she didn’t wake up. Instead, she had to watch as a living shadow murdered each Silver rank adventurer in front of her, one by one, and fed them to the swarm of rats under its command. When they’d finished screaming, it walked over to her, its dripping black blade held in its hand. It pulled her to her feet, and…

Fulk mentally prepared herself for the end.

Nothing happened. She peeked open her eyes that were blazing blue from using manasight to see.

“They told you before to run away into the woods and forget everything you saw, right?” The shadow’s voice was harsh and echoey, but it seemed familiar… “Now’s your chance to do that.”

“Ok! Ok I’ll run away, I…” her eyes settled on his face, realisation coming over her. “I know you!”

Did she see through my cloak? He released the spell, revealing the face of Lawrence. “Alright, you got me. I didn’t want to reveal that I’m a-”

“No, not Lawrence. YOU!” Fulk looked straight into his eyes.

A cold sensation came over him. He drew his knife to her chest.

“No, wait! I- We know each other! From the shop!” she spluttered. “When I- we were kids! My family would deliver food to the Church ward, and you and I and some other kids would play together!”

Kralle’s grip tightened as he studied her face closely. He could remember a warm afternoon with his sister, and playing with the shop girl and… someone else.

“Yeah, I remember.” He didn’t take the knife away. “Your eyes, they can see through illusions?”

“Y-yeah. I break my glasses a lot on hunts so I trained to use manasight, i-it can see through low level illusions like glass. I thought I recognised your mana before, when you were fighting, but I thought…”

“You thought what?”

“That you died in that breakout a half a year ago! When I saw your soul I thought I was imagining it, but… I figured, I’ll take a chance and say it!”

“Yeah,” Kralle said, putting away his knife. “Take a chance.”

Fulk finally exhaled and rubbed her chest where the knife was held.

“So, um…” she looked at him nervously. “Can I ask how come you’re Lawrence now?”

Kralle didn’t respond, but suddenly lost his balance and staggered, his remaining shadow spells all ending at the same time.

“Wah!” Fulk rushed over and helped him sit down.

“That big spell, Realm of Shadows.” He smiled weakly as he held his head in his hands. “It takes a lot of mana. More than I had, so it really drained me.”

Kralle took a candy out of his cloak and popped it into his mouth. A few moments later he stood up and started rummaging through the supplies to see what he could salvage. This party wipe would be a hard one to make appear like they were killed by a monster, so he’d have to hide the evidence.

Fulk watched as he spoke into his cloak, then a swarm of rats dropped out and started dragging the remains of the Silver ranks into the woods.

“Hey,” he motioned to Fulk. “See if any of those bags are fine to use. We can’t take any of their equipment, but we can take a little of this gold… and here, take this-” he threw something tiny to her.

She caught it… it was a small honey candy. “Why do you…?”

“We’ll need the energy for the hike back. And it’s good.”

Fulk popped the candy into her mouth and sucked on it, trying not to mention that she knew who he’d gotten that habit from.

…

It wasn’t long before they’d finished their work and were on the road again, with Kralle redisguised as Lawrence. They’d stuffed as much as they could into the single pack that survived the rampage, including some Dryad remains and a few handfuls of gold trinkets from the wild shrine.

Another day or so and they’d be back within the walls of Marzera, but once evening came they set up a simple camp with a fire. After they ate, it became clear that the questions on Fulk’s mind all afternoon could no longer be ignored, and she was relentlessly fidgeting and glancing at him.

“What do you want, Fulk?”

“Aha, me? What do you mean?”

He glared at her.

“Ah, well, I just wanted to thank you for saving me!” she said, bowing deeply. “It’s a good thing you got those Silver ranks before they got us!”

“I didn’t, not really.”

“W-what do you mean? I'm pretty sure you did get them…”

“I was planning on taking them first when we reached the Dryads, but they were barely a distraction. I didn’t expect them turning on us for a little gold, though… but I should have.”

“Ah, I see-” she turned pale. “W-w-wah? Take them first?”

“Do you know who our party leader was?”

“Of course!” she beamed. “Sir Brandire, Silver rank Light Warrior, 15 years in the Guild.”

“Do you know what he’s done?”

“Well…” Fulk adjusted her broken glasses. “Sir Brandire has successfully lead over 500 Silver rank combat quests, he’s rated the best leader in Marzera south district, and-”

“He’s killed 4 fellow adventurers that I know of, probably more.”

She laughed nervously. “I’m sure he wasn’t, you know, ‘squeaky clean’, but-”

“You saw him try to kill you over a handful of gold, Fulk.” he said, watching the fire. “He was involved in the Rose Plague medicine black market. Do you remember when I was imprisoned?”

“I… I do remember. When you stole- were accused of stealing the medicine…” She trailed off, her mind finally understanding what had happened. She turned to Kralle. “D-did they all know? The Guild Master? The guards?”

He answered her with silence. Fulk breathed deeply for a minute, trying to process what she’d just learned.

“I’m not going to turn you in or anything. I owe you my life at least, and our friendship in the past, um...” Fulk steeled herself. “I’m not as strong or brave as you, but I want to help-”

“No.”

“But-”

“Do you think you can stomach doing what I did today?”

“I..." The thought of it made her unwell. “B-but I can help in other ways! Like, I know everything about the Guild! Every member by name, rank, and experience; everyone who's slated to go on the next Guild Raid; I know who gets the easiest quests, the best rewards, the fastest promotions, the-” she stopped as she realised Kralle was staring at her.

“Are you saying you know who is part of this,” he motioned with his hand. I don’t actually have a name for what these people are doing yet. What do I call it?  “...this corruption?”

“Well, um, I don’t know for sure, b-but I could make a good list of suspects! ”

After returning as Lawrence, it was difficult to infiltrate their groups. The Guild Leader Ranieri and Garrick were his main targets, but becoming trusted enough by them to get close was harder than he thought. When he finally managed to take one of the lower level members out, the rest closed ranks. Then, when he was marked as “cursed”, it became utterly impossible to dig any deeper. He had been tempted to make yet another identity and start from scratch, but Fulk may be the answer he needed…

His time with Nivel and Jasper had taught him something: he’s not alone, and he doesn’t need to fight alone, either. It was such a stark difference from his life before this that he had to keep reminding himself.

No, that’s not true either; I wasn’t alone before. I had help from the Church, Fulk’s family, my sister— and the Guild, until… His mood turned foul when he thought about it.

“Lawrence- Do I still call you that?” Fulk’s voice called him out of his memories.

He nodded.

“What’s your real name?”

Kralle looked at her. “I don’t remember. Do you?”

“No, I…” Fulk frowned. “No I don’t. That doesn’t make sense, I remember everybody’s name. That’s my other spell, Perfect Memory, haha!” She tapped her head. “W-well, maybe not a real skill, and, um, maybe not so perfect. Hah…”

That’s alright, I was forgettable. Like Lawrence is now, but… not Kralle. He smiled faintly. I can’t let the Guild’s betrayal taint me, how I feel about the people and the city.

One bad apple shouldn’t spoil the bunch, right?