It was a normal day in Magnolia. The streets were calm and the sun was shining brightly. The previous day it had rained super hard so the streets were filled with puddles of water and those were reflecting the sun. At times he had to cover his eyes a bit as to not be blinded by the reflections. Chelvaric was out and about to go on a new job. A new adventure in Magnolia the town he was spending most of his day’s now. Although he had a brief excursion to Oberon forest. Where he gained his new status and was entitled to some services he could get from the church he couldn’t get before. Although as always he had to make sure not to run into any inquisitors of Illum or he would be trailed before he could say tree. Not that he had run into any of them yet.

He wasn’t doing the job alone either as he had sent an invitation to snow again. He hoped she had been safe while he was out of town he wondered how she had been. He really should ask her out and ask the big question. But maybe it was still too soon. He really doesn’t have any experience with this. of course there were many girls who tried to flirt with him because of his looks but he had no interest in that sort of thing. He was not really someone who would toy with someone’s feelings like that. It was rather disgusting how people could do something like that.

He shook his head and waited till a couple of horses had passed before he went into the small streets of the center of Magnolia. He was requested here to sniff out some cult. If there even was one. But if there was he would find it. He didn’t like people who used religion for bad things and he saw it as his duty to always take jobs like this. he hadn’t found the captain yet at the location he was supposed to be so he just waited there for snow as he took a green apple out. Chelvaric bit it and the juiced dripped a bit of the corner of his mouth. It was really refreshing and super fresh apple.

Dark, long eyelashes fluttered open, revealing a gorgeous pair of sapphire orbs staring up at the white ceiling. The rays of sunlight peeped through the windows and beige curtains that were draped against the frame, declaring that it was a bright, sunny morning for the day. Snowflake would slowly lift a hand to her face, shielding the blistering sun from her eyes as she looked through the window. The sky was a perfect blue, uninterrupted by the white, puffy clouds while the bright yellow orb glared down upon the lively town of Magnolia. Her eyes were heavy, still drowsy from the sleep and wished to keep laying down on the bed until she falls asleep once again. Snow hated mornings and it was pretty obvious that she was not a morning person nevertheless, she would still wake up early most of the times, for she did not want to waste the entire day sleeping.

The white haired mage pushed herself out of the bed, her hair messy and poked in all directions as she entered the bathroom to clean herself. Meanwhile, she permitted her companion, Vysella to have a few more hours of sleep while she prepares herself for the day. Dressed only in her towel, Snowflake exited the bathroom, her hair drenched wet as drops of water cascaded down her shoulders. There, she noticed an envelope slipped underneath her door, a letter just meant for her. Unfolding the paper, she slowly read through the lines neatly written on the piece of paper which requested of her assistance for a recent quest. The bottom of the paper signed a name of her friend; Chelvaric. Unable to contain her excitement, the corners of her lips crept upwards into a large smile as her eyes sparkled with joy.

Snowflake was aware that Chelvaric was out of town for a while, despite how he never informed her that he would be leaving. It was quite boring for her to do the quests alone while he was gone but since he was back in town, the two of them would be back in action. Dressed in her usual attire, the young maiden exited her room with a white fox clutched in her arms. The animal had grown pretty large, since she had taken it under her wing and she could see how big Vysella would grow in a few years.

”I’m sorry. Was I too late?”

It was very unusual for Snowflake to be late for appointments, but since she had put in extra effort to make herself look representable, it took longer than she had expected. Upon her arrival, she would notice her partner standing in the center of the town, nibbling on an apple that he had brought.

Chelvaric was still noming the apple when he finally heard a voice behind him asking if she was late. Chelvaric shook his head as he turned around to her. He smiled to her and said, “It’s no problem Snow you weren’t really late. I haven’t seen our quest giver either yet.”, Chelvaric said looking at her visor. He really wanted to see her eyes behind it. He knew they would be the most beautiful thing he would ever see. He came closer to her and offered her an apple before he pet the fox in her arms. “How are you and your little pall doing by the way.”, he asked of her and smiled to her.

But right after she answered a strong voice came from behind them. “Chelvaric and Snowflake we meet again it seems.”, the captain who they were waiting for said behind them while raising his hand. Not long ago they did a job for him to recruit more city guards. He wondered if the cultist were giving the city guard troubles. If that was the case then they had to hurry and help the man. “Hello, captain. Nice to meet you again. What is the job that you have for us.” , he asked of the man and looked at his helmet. Wich was a  bit weird but the man always had his visor closed. So Chelvaric could never read the man’s emotions on his face.

“There are rumors going around that a cult is being formed right here in Mangnolia. Now I don’t want that to happen. But my men haven’t found anything yet indicating this. that’s why I want to ask you two to search for clues. You are not city watch so people will be more open to you.”, the captain said and he looked at both of them. Well he was right people would open up more to two people who were lesser known than some city guards that were walking around questions. As a cult they definitely wouldn’t say anything to a city guard. The captain nodded and walked away as more details he didn’t had. “So what you think snow where should we start on this.”, he asked of her as he didn’t really know either.

Cobalt orbs darted around the streets of Magnolia, in an attempt to search for their client. Her attention would drift towards the apple that Chelvaric was biting on and she recalled that she hadn’t eaten anything for breakfast herself. ”We’ve been doing fine. Thanks for asking.” Her tone was still cold and emotionless, although she knew that Chelvaric was probably accustomed to her icy voice by now. It was easier for her to talk to him as well, now that they’ve seen each other for countless number of times, doing quests together. If it was possible, she would like to know more about the man and spend some quality time with him, perhaps. The thought brought a slight blush onto her cheeks as she pondered whether it would be a date if they had decided to hang out together.

Her train of thoughts was interrupted by a deep, hoarse voice behind them, claiming that they’ve met again. Swiftly, she would turn her body towards the source of the sound. It was the captain that they’ve met a few weeks ago when the two of them did a quest to recruit some knights for the city and to be honest, she was surprised that he still remembered them. The young woman bowed in courtesy before lifting her head up again, her eyes fastened onto the harsh features of his face as he explained about the details of the quest. According to the Guard Caption, there were rumours through Magnolia that a cult has been forming though he had not confirmed it himself whether it was true or not and recommended that it was best if they would ask around the town to find something.

”We should start in the streets.”

Chelvaric looked at Snow as she explained her thought on what to do. He agreed with her the best place to start was in the streets. Normal people could always have heard something. Or people who went to taverns to drink always heard the last rumors and would know something. At first, they couldn’t find people because everyone was at their work or doing something. But when they entered a shopping road they found some people wandering around the streets. He was searching the right person. He saw a more shady guy walking past and tried to get his attention. He was sloppy dressed and looked and smelled as a drunk. So he probably would have picked something up. He tapped the man on the shoulder and started to talk. “Sorry mister to bother you but have you heard of any rumors of cult’s around Magnolia?”, he asked the man. The man looked very closely and narrowed his eyes before he spoke to Chelvaric.

“Who are you tooo azk me questions afterz I drank alllllll nightz”, the man said very confusingly. It seemed he had a bit too much to drink so Chelvaric apologized for interrupting and walked further. The drunk still shouted a few curse words at him from afar but he just ignored them. He didn’t want to waste time on the person and rather focus on the task ahead. The next person he saw as a viable person was an old lady. Maybe she had picked something up in her round of rodeling. Old people always saw a lot and talked a lot. They had lots of time so they would sometimes just watch through there windows what was happening outside. Or some other person had picked up something from someone and it would spread like a fire between old people.

“Hello miss, could I grab your attention for a second. Have you heard about any cults around Magnolia.”, he asked to the old lady. The old lady looked at him and then shook no and just walked away while intensly looking at his cat ears. he wondered what happened and looked at snow. “You do the next one I feel a bit sad about what just happened”, he said as he ddin’t know why someone would be afraid of his cat appearance.

As they wandered through the streets of Magnolia, they would ask whoever passed by their direction, searching for possible answers, but to no avail. The first one that they had approached was a drunk and obviously, he reeked of alcohol so much that Snowflake would retreat a few steps back to maintain a good distance between them. She had never been a heavy drinker, she would still consume a bit of alcohol occasionally but never drink so much that she would end up laying on the ground, passed out. Snowflake let Chelvaric handle the person, since she did not like associating with drunks and when she noticed how they couldn’t get the answer they wanted, they would just move onto the next person nearby who turned out to be an old woman. The woman seemed frightened at the sight of cat ears that Chelvaric had pertained and with just a shake of her head, the woman would scuttle away on her fragile legs.

It seemed that Chelvaric was discouraged by how the old woman had treated him. Placing her hand on his shoulder, Snowflake would attempt to comfort her partner while she took her turn to search for possible interviewees. The next person that she encountered was a bulky man, tanned and well-built with muscles protruding from parts of his body. His bald head reflected the sun rays that shone down upon him as he stared down at Snowflake, with a hint of dominance in his eyes. ”What’d you want?”

”Have you heard about any cults, by any chance?”

The word ‘cult’ seemed to have gotten his attention since she noticed how his eyebrows shot upwards upon hearing it from her. With sceptical eyes, he examined her from head to toe before he shifted his attention towards Chelvaric. ”We’re thinking of joining one, which is why we’ve been asking around. He’s a friend of mine, Chelvaric.” It appeared that the man knew something about these so-called cults, which was why she decided to make up a lie to cover up themselves and he bought it easily. The man nodded, his eyes darting around the area to make sure no one was listening before he leaned over to her and whispered in her ears, Illucifan Nagar. No doubt it was the password of the place that the cult was taking place. Afterwards, the man would give them directions to come by a store by evening and quickly walked away.

Chelvaric felt the warmth of Snows hand on his shoulder and smiled to her before they moved on to the next person. The next person was a tall muscular build guy who had a shaved head. He seemed very intimidating. But Chelvaric didn’t back down and stood proudly next to Snow as to make her comfortable. Although she was not really the type of person to feel fear. But still he wanted to make her to feel good. He wondered if it had any effect on her. The guy seemed to be interested when Snow talked about a cult and then Snow had the bright idea of saying they had to join. That was a nice move of her. This should peak the interest of the guy even more. He saw him bending over to snow and then telling her something but he didn’t hear it too well. He then explained how to get to the location but it seemed they had to wait till nighttime before it would start. That was still a while but that was how jobs sometimes went. It didn’t bother him much because he would spend more time with Snow in the meantime. That was never a bad thing. If it was a quick job he would have to say goodbye too soon again.

They walked all the way to the shop and looked around if they could wait somewhere. Chelvaric pointed to the café on the other side of the shop and went to sit on the terrace. “Let's drink something while we wait and eat something there is nothing else to do anyway. Maybe well see who goes in too”, he said to her and pulled her chair from under the table for her. “Her you go miss”, he said like a waiter to her. They sat there for the remainder of the time and talked a lot and had a good time with each other. He was always happy to spend time with her. Before they knew it time had flown by and the night was on them.

Since they had the entire afternoon to spend until evening comes, Chelvaric suggested that they should wait at a café for the moment. The young woman nodded, agreeing to his suggestion and also glad that he picked somewhere she liked. A café was a place where Snowflake would spend most of her time, drinking coffee and staring out at the window and observed the humans, or just to read a book. Her choice was always either a park or a café. As they entered a nearby store, the rich odours of cheese and bread assailed her nostrils and her mouth watered. The fragrance of freshly brewed coffee lingered in the air. The store was small yet, cozy and she liked the ambience of it, the soft tunes playing in the background while the workers silently worked behind the counter cleaning cups and making coffee.

The word ’date’ kept popping into her mind the entire time, no matter how much she pushed it to the back of her mind. Having no experience in romance, the youth wondered if being with Chelvaric in a café would be considered as a date. Her thoughts ran wild as she sipped onto her coffee while Vysella laid quietly on a seat beside her. In the meantime, they would catch up, talking about all the stuffs they had done and Snowflake would question the activities he did while he was out of town. Before she knew, the day had come to an end as her eyes laid steady to the horizon that stretched beyond, face aglow with the orange rays before twilight beckons the stars.

”I suppose it’s time for us to leave.”

Paying their own bills for the meal they had consumed at the café, the two mages would depart before proceeding towards their destination. As night deepened, random lights from the buildings and the street lamps blinked more frequently while they led themselves along the road. Upon her arrival, she knocked onto the oaken door with a small metal window located in the middle. She rapped her knuckles against the door until someone opened the tiny window and peeped through the hole. ”Password?” He’d ask.

”Illucifan Nagar.”

It was the word that the man earlier told her during the day and who would’ve thought he would be extremely useful. There was a clack behind the door before it swung open, revealing a stoic man staring down at her. Without saying another word, they would enter the building, her eyes taking in everything that came into sight.

Chelvaric had a good meal in the tavern and was ready to face the next part of the job head on as the evening had fallen. He wondered what would happen and what they had to do. He followed Snow as she took the lead to the location they had to be for the cult. He wondered how it would look like inside. How did a cult normally look inside its buildings? Probably some place to sacrifice people and then a place to pray he guessed. Well, they would see once they would get there. The streets outside were already being lit as it got dark already. Since its was summer in Magnolia that meant they spend a super long time inside. I guess when you have fun you lose track of time hard. Not that it mattered since he did had a lot of fun while he spend time with her.

It was just the two of them and anyone else could see it as a date he guessed. He wondered if Snow would see it like that. He wondered but that was thought for when the mission was over as she knocked on the door. The door had a small window in the middle and it went open. A harsh male voice asked for the password and snow responded with a weird Password. It sounded like something very foreign. The man opened the door and let them in.

“Follow me”, he said and he took a torch from the wall before entering the back door. He was dressed in a long robe with a hood over his head. His voice was deep and mysterious. He opened the door and entered walked to the wall opposite of the door. He wondered what the man was gonna do them. His hand laying on his sword ready to strike if it was a trap. But the wall opened in the middle revealing a secret entrance. They followed the tunnel all the way down. While everyone was silent. It didn’t seem the time for a chit chat. When they finally entered a cave with red flags adorning the sides of the cave and a pentagram is drawn in the middle of it. A bunch of figures in the same clothes as the first man were standing around it. In the middle a man in a red robe wearing a big amulet that had a rat skull hanging on it. The first man beckoned the leader of the group and he came closer. He was watching both of them in silence.

The two mages were beckoned inside, and they would be led towards a room in the back. The unknown man entered a secret password with a swift movement of his fingers, causing the door to open and the first thing she was see was darkness. Slowly, the place would be lit by candles, creating shadows down the corridors and along the walls of the tunnel. Her eyes shifted towards the man and with the hood of his cloak covering most of his face, she couldn’t see what was beneath. Their entire way down the tunnel was in silence, as if it was a slow torture to reveal what they have been doing inside the entire time. A batch of shuffled footsteps and the clang of soft metal could only be heard since everyone remained silent as if their mouths had been sown shut.

A glimpse of white light could be seen in a far distance and as they approached closer, her eyes were almost blinded by the light that she would have to shield her eyes from the illuminance. Once she fluttered her eyes open, she discovered something she had never seen before. Pillars of stone intricated with unique designs connected the high ceiling and the ground. The room was lit with candles and in the center was a large stone made for either sacrifice or worship. The woman contained her surprise as she looked around the room. While she observed her surroundings, they were approached by a man, who appeared to be the leader of the entire gang and the cause of this cult.

”I heard that you two have decided to join this cult. Has anyone told you what we did the other day?”

The man looked at her straight in the eye with his hands clasped behind him. The question was directed at the two of them, as if he intended to find out what their true intentions were. Panic was beginning to wash over her and she wasn’t sure what she should answer. Having no experience with a cult, she decided to recall all the readings that she had done when she was younger. The term cult refers to a social group defined by its religious, spiritual or philosophical beliefs. Each word seemed to appear in front of her eyes as she would mouth the sentence to herself. She wasn’t sure if this was going to help but it would have been more than fortunate for the two if she was able to get it correct. Silently, she prayed to the Gods above though, never once she believed they existed in her entire life and spurred out the words from her mouth.

”A ritual, I believe. And, a discussion of some religious beliefs.”

Chelvaric looked at the man as he looked at Snow and him and asking them if they knew what they did a while back. Snow answered before he even could think of anything. She was rather smart and quick witted. She said something about a ritual. Chelvaric hoped that they would fall for the lie for now. They had to get them to trust them so that they could find out more before they were going to slip away from them. he looked at the cult leader and tried to see if he was buying it or not. The tension in the air was quite high. But the man spread his arms and greeted them. “welcome friends. Now why do you want to join us?”, he asked slowly and looked at them with care. The man was probably trying to find anything that was not adding up so that he was sure their intentions were true. Chelvaric sighed and tried to think of a good answer to give the man before they were discovered. Otherwise it would be a bad fight there were a lot of guys in the room and they were only with two. Plus their pets of course. He looked at scraggy to see if he had an idea but it didn’t seem likely.

“we want to serve the demon and make it stronger so we can rule the world once again. Down to illum”, Chelvaric said while he bowed his head. The man looked at them for a while and then turned around he started to walk away and It seemed he had believed Chelvarics lie. But that would soon be not true as the man shouted something before he reached the center of the room. “There agents of illum go get them!”, he shouted with a harsh voice. His henchmen jumped up and started to run towards them.

“Run for it Snow!”, Chelvaric shouted to Snow. Chelvaric punched the door open with his shoulder and shouted “Cards of Freya!”. A card appeared in front of snows legs and two cats wrapped around her legs boosting her speed. The ran into the streets and Chelvaric jumped over a cart of food. He didn’t know if snow was following him or not. Some cultist were still behind him so he ran into an ally. He jumped up some barrels and climbed up a raining pipe to get to the roof in one fluent move leaving the cultist behind him. They weren’t as agile as him to keep up with his movements. He jumped over the roofs trying to find snow but then thought that she would go back to where the captain was. He jumped over the roofs and not much later he arrived at the captains location. He hoped that snow had the same idea or it would be hard to find her again in this big town. Although she did stand out.

The man in a cloak threw his arms in the air and somehow, the leader of the clan bought her lie even though, Snowflake was not sure how all of that even worked. He greeted them, clasping his hands on hers firmly as well as Chelvarics. Mentally, she could imagine herself a huge burden being lifted off her shoulders as she heaved out a sigh of relief. Without wasting any second, the man moved onto another question, asking their reason of wanting to join the cult. Unsure how she should answer, her eyes darted towards Chelvaric whom appeared to have taken note of her gaze and went with a suitable answer once again. Silently, she wished that this would work again just like it did before. The men walked away, and just when she thought they weren’t exposed, he commanded all his underlings to catch them.

The rest of the men began to sprint towards them and it wasn’t possible for the two of them to defeat all the numbers alone. Instead, they decided to run. Pushing through the broken door that Chelvaric had punched, she began to rush out of the building as fast as possible. Since she had her legs upgraded a while ago, she could easily outrun anyone inside the building but Chelvaric would be left behind. She noticed how he threw a card towards her, before it locked around her legs and turned into cats. Suddenly, she felt a boost of energy surging through her legs and she was running faster than before and soon, she was already way ahead of the entire pack. Chelvaric, being a cat, he was agile and nimble with his movements for the rest of the cult members to catch up with him.

After reaching at the end of the road, she swiftly changed her course and hid herself behind an alley. When her partner came into sight, he pulled him immediately while her hand was clasped over his mouth. ”Don’t make any noise. It’s me.” Footsteps rushed past them, some claiming they went this way, another pointing into a different direction before they decided on a path. Peeping over the alley, she made sure everyone was gone before revealing herself out of the shadows. Although, their cover up may have been exposed, the mages were able to escape out of the place. Now, the only thing left was to report Captain Devon of the location of the cult and explain him about the entire situation, which would mean the completion of the quest.