Set out for Teem

Aron decided that going East to Teem was the safest bet. The Demon's thrall might have told him to go to Stralia but she had likely lied even with her dying breath. It was a woman who had tricked his wife into thinking she was his friends, and tried to tempt and seduce him into giving up his freedom to that same Demon. Everything she had done had been a deception or con of some kind. So he had far more reason to trust some trouble-making stranger who showed up naked at the guild.

He first returned to the house he shared with Ana, to collect a few of her medicinal potions, before bolting the door and setting out East. With a satchel full of medicine and all the gold he had to his name in a pouch at his waist he set out. He took the main road, although he was sure that the Demon would have used side paths and stayed off the beaten track as much as possible. But off the main road, Aron had no idea where to start looking, and if they had hijacked the man's horse whist taking his clothes the Demon would have to confront him on the main road. Even after a day he should still be able to find the markings and track the pair from there.

Every wagon that would stop and every one he met walking towards Coh, he asked whether they had seen anything suspicious or heard any reports of Demon attacks coming from Teem. But no one had seen or heard anything strange. Aron tried not to worry, and pressed on, but doubt began to creep in that he had chosen the wrong path. He was determined to find his wife, no matter what, but he had so little to go on, and a single bad decision could mean that she would be lost forever.

The Demon's tremendous speed meant that Aron walked that road for almost half a day before he came to the area where he was certain that there had been some kind of scuffle. He knelt as he assessed the road. Hoove prints ran in straight lines all along the road, but there was one set, a little faded from yesterday, that had stopped abruptly. And all along the sides of the road, he could see trampled grass. At the very least, someone had stopped their horse here and encountered something at the side of the road. Could be nothing, Aron admitted but it was all he had to go on.

There was pressed grass on both sides of the road however. On one side, they went nowhere but on the other Aron was able to follow the bent grass blades and foot prints to a large rock where he also found torn pieces of rope discarded among the grass. Someone bound here had been freed, and he could only assume the Demon had done it to allow her to get dressed, but he he certain now that this was where his wife had last been seen. Encouraged, he looked for more clues.

Their tracks led him along a dirt path that went up a mountain side, out of sight. But the prints were strange. One went up, but it seemed like two came down. The larger had moved in both directions, whereas a smaller set of tracks had only accompanied him down. Aron could only assume that the Demon Lord had carried his wife up this path, and then they had walked back down together. Together. He shuddered at that thought. He knew that Ana would only ever be obeying the Demon to protect herself and survive, but it didn't make him hate the idea any less.

At a small plateau, there were signs that that the Demon had set his wife down where more grass had been flattened, near where another piece of fabric had been discarded. Aron however couldn't get close to examine the area because someone else was already there. A young man, slender in shape, and fitted with cheap animal skins and similarly fashioned cap was already knelling by the patch of disturbed grass, although he quickly rose as Aron approached.