Paladins in Chains

With the satisfyingkaplunk of a bamboo water feature for ambience, I was enjoying a soak in the hot-spring-fed bath. Tarte, Tithia, Cocoa, Mimoza, and I were crammed into the large tub included with our room. None of us were bothered by the tight quarters, though, as we enjoyed the warmth of the water.

We were staying in our go-to inn in Snowdia, famous for their in-room baths and good dinners. If the hot spring baths weren’t enough of a giveaway, parts of the inn’s architecture were Japanese inspired, although its overall theme remained medieval fantasy. Now that our party had grown to eight, we’d decided to get a boys’ room and a girls’ room, rather than share a room like we’d done in the past.

We had gone into Underworld Abbey in pursuit of Rodney Hervas—the usurper of Crystalline Cathedral—only to be thrown into L’lyeh’s boss room. After fleeing for our lives and surviving an encounter with a Hydra after that, we’d finally made it back to our inn, utterly exhausted. We wouldn’t have defeated the Hydra so easily if not for the Dragonrider who’d helped Kent and Cocoa on their journey and brought them back to us. The pair hadn’t told me much about the mysterious Dragonrider, but I was completely grateful to him, whoever he was.

“Let’s take the day and rest up,” I said, nestled in the tub. “And we should do something to celebrate Kent