Ero Skill Tree

While the three of us were sat there talking and waiting to order our breakfast, a very tired and worse for wear looking Altria appeared in the guild hall. She slowly made her way across room to us, looking like she hadn't had a minute's sleep. Once she reached us, she flung herself down on a spare seat.

"Need tea and a fry up." She said before resting her head on the table.

"Are you not feeling well this morning Altria?" Asked Serin.

"No… But I expect I'll be fine after some food. I hope." Altria answered lifting her head from the table for a moment, before slumping back down again.

Serin laughed a little.

"Well, I suppose we could order now, but Siofra hasn't come down yet." Explained Serin.

"We might as well order. There's no telling when she will appear, and I doubt she will mind if we have already ordered." Lillia suggested, whilst waving to the waitress doing her rounds at the far end of the room.

The waitress noticed Lillia and started to make her way across the room to us. At the same time another person had descended from the residential floors of the building and slowly made their way to our table. It was Siofra and she was looking in an even worse state than Altria currently did.

"Morning…" She said when she had finally dragged herself to our table.

"Oh Siofra… Morning." I answered turning to see her. "You look awful!"

"Oh great, thanks Theo… I feel like it too." She said whilst almost collapsing into the last seat at our table.

"Are you sure you're okay to be up?"

"Yeah. I couldn't sleep anymore, and this wasn't getting any better just lying there. I had to get up and do something about it."

"Well, you're just in time for food. Hopefully, that will help you feel a little better."

"I hope so."

The waitress came and took our orders. Unsurprisingly everyone went with some kind of fry up for breakfast. We might not all have been felling quite as bad as Altria or Siofra, but all of us were nursing a little bit of a hangover.

Once the waitress left, I decided to ask Siofra about what had been bothering me.

"Um Siofra, I know you aren't feeling your best right now, but there was something that I've been meaning to check with you since last night."

"You want to know if I'm going to tell anyone about what you've been doing with Lillia right?"

"Err yeah…"

"No, not if I can help it. Believe it or not I wouldn't like it if anything bad happened to you."

"Thanks… Can you be sure they won't force you?"

"No… But it's hardly likely that they would. Not that Lillia's family aren't afraid to use any methods at their disposal, to find out what they want from someone like me. Isn't that right Lillia?"

"Yes…" Lillia answered looking ashamed.

"Well, that's why she stopped adventuring with me. She didn't want me getting hurt because of her… Don't worry, I doubt it's something they are likely to suspect, not unless you've done anything to make them."

"I don't think so." I answered.

"Good, but you'll need to be careful. It isn't just me, they have all sorts of contacts within the guild that provide them with information. If I were you, I would make sure no one outside of this circle finds out."

"Right…"

There was only one other, Jules. She wouldn't at least I hoped, not if she had the choice at least.

"Anyway, isn't there something else you should be asking about? Not just from me, but from Lillia and Altria."

"I'm not sure…" I didn't know what Siofra meant by that.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten what that woman said? I'm sure she said something else to you before she combusted too."

She was right, it had slipped my mind. That was something that I had been meaning to press the others about more.

"Yes, I do. Thanks Siofra."

"Don't worry about it. From what I heard when she first spoke. She wanted to know why you were working with two of the taboo breakers. I can only guess that she was referring to the summoning ritual, to Lillia and Altria. If you want to know more, then asking them must be your best bet, right?"

"I think so." I said turning to the pair expectantly.

"But we don't know anything about that. Right Altria? We don't have any idea what she meant by the taboo breakers." Lillia said a little defensively.

"I've never heard it being called that before, no. That isn't something that we would need to keep from you either. My best guess would be the fact that the summoning process results in your death then binds you to this world through the relics." Explained Altria.

"Perhaps… But before she mentioned the taboo breakers, she said the one's that murdered me and brought me here. Why would she say that if they weren't two separate things?" I asked.

"That's true, I heard her say that too. It would be odd of her to have mentioned it like that if they weren't separate things." Serin spoke up agreeing with me.

"Then I have no idea at all what she could be referring to. What was it she said to you before she combusted?" Asked Altria.

"She only said one thing. The demon lord is not who I think it is. What could she have meant by that?" I asked.

"I've no idea. The demon lord is the demon lord. I don't what they could have meant by that." Altria answered.

"I don't what she could have meant either." Insisted Lillia.

It didn't seem that either of them was trying to hide anything from me this time. It didn't feel like it was information that they would need to keep from me either. Not with what I had already been told by Liz. Then it dawned on me who might just be the best person to ask about this. Liz. I had a feeling that she knew or at least suspected a lot more than she was letting on when we spoke before. When I got back, I would have to go and ask her opinion on what the demon woman had told me.

"I don't think they are hiding anything from you." Serin tried to reassure me. "I've never heard of the demon lord being called anything other than that and I've never heard of the summoning ritual being called breaking the taboo either."

"Thanks Serin. For what it's worth, I believe them. I don't think they know what she was telling us anymore than I do… I think it something we need to investigate. It could end up being important."

"When we make it back to Dunshelm we'll look into it. It isn't like we have any other leads on the demon lord anyway." Promised Lillia.

"Thanks. Maybe if we look into it from another angle, we might find some information about their origin and that could give us clues about their abilities. They might have been known by something else before. Maybe there is information available under another name?" I asked.

"That could be a possibility. If that is the case, then what she said could turn out to be really useful to us!" Lillia agreed.

"See, aren't you glad you asked now?" Grinned Siofra.

"Yes. Thanks for reminding me."

I was sure there had to be some meaning in the words of that woman. At the very least it gave us something to research. I would just have to wait and see what Liz thought about it when we got back.

As we finished talking the waitress reappeared with our breakfast. Everyone started to look at little better at the sight of their food arriving. All of us eager to tuck in and hopefully get feel a little better from the previous night's excesses.