Isaac was frozen in place, just inside the storeroom Alecia had taken them to. There were small piles of gear belonging to each adventurer that had fallen or been taken. Those who were taken were logged as missing in action and would have their Guild Cards monitored until the day the soft glow finally went out signaling their end. Claus had died after everyone but Alexis had left so she hadn't noticed, and even if she had, telling anyone wouldn't have mattered before Aria had told Isaac.

Aria and Claus's things were next to each other on the floor. A halberd six feet tall, a bedroll, travel rations, a blanket, a backpack, and a few changes of clothes for a man nearly too large to be human were all that was left of him. The rest of his things were in Outpost Charles and would remain there until a platinum level adventurer went to retrieve them. No caravan would fill their limited space with the belongings of the dead until the situation with the raiding parties was resolved.

Aria was a bit different. The only things that she left in Outpost Charles were spare clothes. She had brought everything that was important to her with her in a bottomless bag that had been stuffed to the brim. It had been turned inside out and all of the items had been caught with a special device that had prevented them from being splattered across a floor or wall. Everything was piled up in pristine condition.

There were the usual things; rations, bedroll, clothes, rope, lanterns, a firestarter and so on. Most of it was things unique to Aria. Isaac slowly approached and crouched down next to the pile. Shamesh rose from his shadow and looked down at what his master was kneeling next to. "Oh." Shamesh's voice whispered just loud enough for everyone to hear. Shamesh knelt down next to Isaac and bowed his head. "I am sorry, Aria, for not being there to protect you. Though your interest in me was passing, you never showed me discourtesy or fear and for that, I thank you."

Tears started to cloud Isaac's vision. He didn't try to blink them away but rather slowly began his task as they were starting to pool and then run down his face. Shamesh's words had broken the hastily made dam that was keeping his tears at bay. "Start cataloging everything." Isaac told Shamesh as soon as his physical shadow had raised his head.

Shamesh bowed his head. "As you say." He replied and pulled a small book of mostly blank pages and a Never Ending Pen out from under his shirt. If Isaac would have registered that Shamesh was carrying things in the same way that Isaac had made Kahtesh carry stuff in the past, he probably would have laughed at the nostalgia of the act.

"Broken pottery, from the vampire civilization." Isaac began and handed the first piece to Shamesh. Shamesh started writing in his book a short description of how the object looked as well as the one that Isaac had given him. Once he was finished, they moved on. "Ritual Candles of El'No witchcraft." He gave Shamesh the next object and continued.

Lenna watched over them both as she thought back over the time that Isaac, Aria, Claus, and herself had together. Specifically their first actual conversation together came to mind. Aria had looked like she wanted to explode when she realized that Isaac had mated with Lenna. Aria had instantly seemed like an older sibling for Isaac to Lenna. It looked like Aria had taken in a wayward boy and decided that he was her new little brother and her partner had just gone along with it.

"Wood carving of Aria and Claus, made by Claus." Isaac's voice nearly gave out twice as he explained the object and handed it to Shamesh. The wood carving was somewhat crude, and little better than silhouettes, but the signature under the base was not something that could be mistaken. Claus had written his name in perfectly clear and legible letters. The halberd and staff, as well as their incredible height difference, was also entirely unmistakable. "A letter, worn from countless reads and refolds." Isaac explained and held a folded piece of paper.

Isaac stared at the letter in his hands for a long moment. He debated if he should open and read it or not. With how many times that it looked to have been refolded, it seemed like it was really important to Aria. There was also the chance that it gave some clue as to the whereabouts of her family. Isaac eventually just decided to open it and read it. If it was something personal, then he could always fold it back up and pretend that he hadn't read it.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Dear Aria,

Words are the tool that I am weakest with. Please forgive me ahead of time. I have been thinking about how to say this for a long time. My decision to follow you was not just to repay my debt. I have thought that you are the most beautiful since I first saw you. I realized over time that you are even more beautiful on the inside and my admiration started to change. I have loved you for a long time by now. At least I believe that this feeling is love. I am drawn in by you in a way that I cannot describe. I hope you will forgive me. When I give this letter to you, I will tell you not to open it. If you are reading this, then that means that you did not listen. Your curiosity is one of my favorite parts about you. I am writing you this, because it is not the place of the guard to fall in love with his ward. If you are reading this, please either pretend that you have not or tell me that you feel the same. It is the only way to either further or preserve our amazing friendship.

Isaac stared down at the letter with a smile on his face as his tears continued unabated. It looked as though Aria had read Claus's first love letter to her hundreds of times. The folds in the paper were so thoroughly crinkled that Isaac was afraid the letter would split in half in his hands. "Claus's first love letter to Aria." Isaac informed Shamesh and refolded it before he handed it off to the skeleton in question.

Shamesh hesitated to take it for a moment before he just nodded and received the priceless memento. He did not open it but simply wrote what Isaac had told him on the list and put the letter back inside Aria's Bottomless Bag.

There was another letter from Claus, thanking Aria for loving someone that she would outlive by hundreds of years. It was clear that Claus adored Aria from the bottom of his heart. She was always his focus and his joy as well as his every exasperation. On an entirely different note, there was also a map of the Innerworld. It had a few locations circled and there were plenty of tiny annotations. Some read: 'Empty' and others were denoted with what had been found there. There were a few locations that Aria had just put question marks around. Those areas were close to drow territory. It seemed that they were places where Aria had wanted to look but hadn't been able to. There were a few small lines scribbled with distance numbers. It took Isaac a moment to realize that Aria had noted how far the objects that she had found were from where she hadn't checked yet.

As Isaac continued to look over the map, he realized that there were three locations that seemed most central to where the things that Aria had found were located. All three of them were between Safeharbor and the drow sister cities. They were well within drow territory but also far enough away from the cities that no civilians would ever venture near them. Some patrols probably passed through those areas on occasion but not often enough to make scouting the areas impossible. Aria seemed to have the same idea as there were a few papers tucked inside the map with detailed paths marked out for how to get to and from those areas the fastest. Maybe if she had gone to check out some of those places, she wouldn't have been cut down by a drow raider, or maybe she would have died far earlier.

The rest of Aria's stuff was either related to Claus or her quest to find the vampires. There was a hand copied excerpt from an account of someone who claimed to have met a vampire in the Innerworld when they had been separated from the expedition of King Ben. The vampire directed them back towards the rest of the expedition and only asked that the man not tell anyone about her. He failed that request almost instantly. It was the kind of story that made someone look insane. Vampires didn't just help people and then let them go. Everyone had probably believed that he had met a ghost or eaten some strange Innerworld mushroom.

In all, it only took around an hour to go through all of Aria and Claus's things. It felt like it was far too short and much longer at the same time. Once everything was cataloged and stored, Isaac had Shamesh remove everything related to the vampire civilization from Aria's things. The rest of both her and Claus's things would be left as they were until their next of kin was found. Claus was a half goliath, hence the name Claus which was distinctly not like Brick, Rock, Stone, Mountain, or Boulder. That narrowed some things down but not that much. Goliaths often left their homeland in search of one grand thing or another. That was how Brick wound up in Safeharbor working for a gang boss.

The Adventurers' Guild would keep Aria and Claus's belongings safe so Isaac and Lenna didn't have to worry about them. Isaac was going to make sure to check out the locations that Aria had marked at some point, but he had time and they were out of the way. Also, Vampires supposedly didn't age, so it wasn't like they were going to go anywhere if they were in the locations that Aria had marked. Isaac had more pressing matters to attend to but finishing her quest was something that he would most definitely do before the century was through. It was almost the end of the seventy-seventh year, so that still left twenty two full years, so it might not be soon after Lenna would be recovered, but it would be soon in the grand scheme of things. Part of him wished that they would be there, but part of him wished that they wouldn't be. If they were, then that meant that Aria was right and had just barely missed the find of a lifetime that she was after. If they weren't, then that meant that her quest would remain unfulfilled for only the gods knew how long. Either way, Isaac and Lenna had taken up Aria and Claus's duties in addition to their own.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.