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It was dark, and the night was still, as Aven slowly led Embo out of the guild. Aven had grown restless, and was leaving the guild forever, without saying a word. His party members would be hurt, but this was the only way. He was never any good at goodbyes.
Aven opened the front door and held it for Embo to get through, before climbing onto the stag's back. Now, they could only move forward, far away from here. Far, far away, to somewhere where nobody from the guild would ever be able to find him.
It was after Aven crossed the boundary of Newspring that he saw something strange. A person, running towards the city, barefoot and carrying a very small bag. As the person got closer, Aven almost couldn't believe his eyes, as he saw a tiefling. A *purple* tiefling, with its left horn broken close to the base, wearing a ripped black cloak. They were stumbling, and soon fell, not too far from where Aven and Embo were. Embo, of his own accord, slowly trotted up to the tiefling, nuzzling their cheek in a sign of familiarity, which was strange. Nonetheless, Aven climbed down, and approached the fallen tiefling.
"Excuse me? Are you alright?" As the tiefling slowly picked itself up and looked up, Aven couldn't help but feel as if he was looking into a mirror, at least until the tiefling's eyes widened and it scrambled to get away from him.
"St-stay back! You won't take me back!" God, even its *voice* was so incredibly similar to his.
"I'm sorry?"
"You... you're not Aeshma?" The tiefling seemed to calm down at Aven's confusion, although only slightly.
"I don't even know what 'Aeshma' is, are you okay? Can I help you at all?"
"I..." The tiefling then winced, and that was when Aven noticed that the smell of blood had permeated the air.
"Are you hurt? Let me heal you, I'm a training druid, I can help." The tiefling hesitated, before showing off the wound and allowing Aven to take a look. "What's your name, by the way?"
"L... Lilac..."
"Well, it's nice to meet you Lilac, even in this unfortunate situation. I'm Lavender, but you can call me Aven."