Chapter 344 - Arrivals in departure
The Hartford mansion’s foyer buzzed with quiet tension as evening shadows stretched across the estate. Scarlett sat slightly apart from the others in a low-backed chair near the corner, red journal open in her lap. Garside stood by the entrance, perfectly still, as though carved from the same wood as the doors beside him.
Fynn was seated cross-legged on the floor by one of the walls, eyes closed in meditation. He’d spent nearly the entire day like that, and it unsettled Scarlett — not because it was anything unusual for him, but because she couldn’t help but wonder if it was less a routine and more like a necessity right now.
By one of the staircases, Rosa, Kat, and Allyssa huddled together. Allyssa was rummaging through a spatial bag crammed with potions and various concoctions, deep in concentration as she listed off effects and dosages to the first two. It wasn’t the first time the trio had done this, but the girl was still going over everything like it was a final exam. Rosa listened with feigned ease, Kat with full attention.
Shin leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. His sword and shield rested at his feet, and he watched Allyssa’s recitation with a calm, unreadable gaze. His armour clinked faintly when he shifted weight from one foot to another.
Scarlett flipped another page in her journal, scanning the scribbled notes for what had to be the twelfth or thirteenth time just this last week. Some of it dated back over half a year, and although she’d read every word more times than she could count, there was still a persistent nagging at the back of her mind that told her she couldn’t leave any space for mistakes. What if she missed something? What if one line of a buried memory written in the margin held a detail that would matter when it was already too late?
The time to leave for Beld Thylelion was fast approaching. She wouldn’t delay it any longer. Even just waiting out the day had frayed her nerves. More than once, she’d had to confront the fear that the system might suddenly declare her main quest a failure, erasing her very existence as punishment. Even if she recognised that this worry wasn’t entirely rational, it wasn’t entirely baseless either.
Minutes passed. Eventually, Allyssa snapped her bag shut with a final nod and thrust it into Rosa’s hands, apparently satisfied they knew her mixtures well enough. Despite all the rehearsals, though, she looked more on edge than anyone else in the room.
Scarlett closed the journal and slipped it into her [Pouch of Holding]. Rising to her feet, she stepped towards the centre of the foyer. Her gaze swept the room—lingering on Fynn, then Rosa, Kat, Allyssa, and Shin—before drifting towards the windows that looked out into the now-dark courtyard.
“I trust you are all prepared,” she said evenly. “The time has come.”
Rosa flipped her hair back, adjusting the cloak draped over her shoulders and tugging at the strap of the bag Allyssa had given her. She smirked at Kat, then tilted her towards Scarlett. “You know, one of the perks of working for her is that she always manages to make things suitably dramatic. Makes everything feel grand, doesn’t it?”
Kat raised a skeptical eyebrow. “I could do without the dramatics, honestly.”
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Rosa said with a grin as she walked to join Scarlett.