Getting up to start dinner that night, Ben’s course only changed as a knock came to the door, leaving him to find Ceselee behind it with her foot in the way before he could close it again.
“Not so fast,” The guild master told him. “You already told me you wouldn’t complain the next time I needed something.”
“Well, in my defense, I hoped you’d forgotten,” He sighed before opening it wider to let her in. “You need me and Thera?”
“I do.”
“Alright, come on.”
He led her to the living room where both she and Mora were relaxing, Sonya not home that night making it only three, with his girlfriend sitting up when she saw who it was.
“Ceselee, what brings you here?”
“A quest. I only just got word so I came here as soon as I could but you’re both being urgently requested to act as first ranks, come tomorrow.”
“I’m not sure how we could,” Ben said innocently. “Unless it’s in or near Stonewall, that's pretty short notice.”
“Then you should have done a better job of hiding how you use your mini-gates and once again, you promised to be agreeable.”
“Okay, yeah yeah, I will. So what’s the quest and how long will it take?”
“Tracking, but as for how long, indeterminate. You are, however, already somewhat involved so I would expect you to have some interest in how it turns out.”
Somewhat involved? Okay, I see where this is going.
“We’re being sent to help look for Foast then?”
“Correct.”
In the days since Abel had left, he’d gotten no word of the shifter’s discovery nor ascension meaning he was still left missing and as one of the more valuable individuals on the planet, it was easy to understand why they’d gather some more first ranked adventurers and even included another third tier in the form of himself and despite their brief meeting, Ben couldn’t deny that he hoped the other was alright. He’d been a decent enough man to talk to but more than that, he empathized with the other’s struggles with all he’d been put through and the expectations that were placed on him.
And even if he’s not dead yet, there’s no way of telling how things will change the longer we wait.
“Alright, fine. I’m in,” He groaned. “How about you, Thera?”
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“Obviously, it’s been a while since I’ve gotten any proper adventure work and this sounds important.”
“Wonderful, thanks for making this somewhat easy,” Ceselee told them. “Given the short notice, I’m sure you both have arrangements to be made so I’ll leave you to it. Good luck, both of you.”
She let herself out from there, leaving the three of them once more and Ben to collect his thoughts.
Even if it wasn’t desirable, there were some benefits to it, same as his last quest. Namely, it would be a good way to test himself. If there was a demon or group of demons on the world capable of restraining or controlling a third tier for entire days of time then they were a danger he could try to go all out against to see where he’d stack up, a good test for things to come.
Leaving only the issue of whatever sort of powerset a creature capable of handling Foast could have but… Well, I can make my guesses but it’s not going to matter till I actually see them. Worst of all would be if it really is another third tier. Okay, doesn’t matter. For now, there’s other things to sort out.
“Alright, I’ll get dinner sorted quick and then I guess we’ll need to do some running around,” Ben sighed. “After we eat, I’ll run over to see if Fontesh can handle watching Mora and then you can go tell wherever you’re working tomorrow that you won’t be available.”
“Okay, sounds good. Mora, sorry we’re both going to need to leave you on such short notice, are you going to be okay?”
“I will, Fontesh is nice and Delair keeps me busy.”
“Ha, well, hopefully we won’t be gone for too long,” Ben said as he reached out to ruffle the boy’s hair. “But try to have fun while we’re gone, okay kiddo?”
“I will, I like the dryads.”
“Good, in that case, I’ll get food started and then we can sort all of this out.”
“Mmh, you worried at all?” Thera asked him once they were alone in bed, Ben giving the most honest answer he could.
“Genuinely not sure. Like, Foast is alive, we know that much but as for how he could have gone missing… From my one attempt, I can say he’s pretty resilient to mind attacks so he shouldn’t be being controlled by any sort of mind spell but on the other hand, he’s been having sleeping problems so it feels way too possible he could have just been forced to sleep for the past few days to keep him docile for whatever reason but other than that, there really aren’t too many ways to keep him both trapped as well as unable to contact the gods when all that takes is a thought. There’s not enough information to make any guesses, which I’m not a huge fan of.”
“Well, if it is some mind effect then dealing with everything’s going to be on you,” She teased. “I can’t imagine anyone else who’s going to be with us would be as remotely as resistant as you. Maybe you’ll even end up having to fight me again.”
“God, don’t even joke about that. I thought I was going to die when that happened.”
“Hey, you won, didn’t you?”
“After a ton of planning and suffering, yeah.”
“Well, you’ll have a much easier time now if it happens again.”
“Not a huge fan of how you’re trying to scare me out of sleeping.”
“Ha, it will all be fine, Ben. We’ll do our best, like always.”
“Yeah, I know we will,” He muttered. “It’s just… I’ll be a lot more comfortable when the world stops constantly falling apart around us.”
She didn’t answer, sleep capturing her and letting Ben take a few minutes to watch her rest before he carefully got up and slipped out of both the room and the house as a whole, off to the shop. After all, he didn’t know how long he was going to be gone for but given it might have been days there was progress still he needed to make before morning would come for them and after getting to the shop he slipped on his jacket for as much growth as he could claim.