Alice vists Mrs. Fletcher at the Traveler's Rest.

[Dustin]

Alice slips into the common room of the inn late in the evening with a small pale of warm water and a clean rag. She makes her way over to the feverish woman, wets her cloth, and wipes the sweat from the woman's brow.

She whispers, "I've as good as lost her now." She pauses, then continues in a soft voice. "After that, his journal becomes a meaningless sea of bartabs and bounties, as directionless as he was. How long ago did he lose you, the first time?"

[Danny]

"You again! What have you done to me?" She trembles as if very cold, and heat radiates from her skin. "T-two years, it's been. Maybe longer... it's hard to keep track of time under the lash..." she trails off and shivers some more.

[Dustin]

"I wonder which one of you has felt more enslaved during that time. Maric came to Sweetgrove to find you. He never did. When we'd cleared the place of slavers, he fell into a deep depression, apparently giving up on ever finding you. He drank himself nearly to death."

Alice gently brushes the woman's hair from her face, and continues. "He never asked for help finding you. I don't think he even mentioned you. He must have been thinking of you, though, because the loss of you has been driving him for years. He was a curt, bitter, fearsome man. A few weeks ago, he changed, suddenly. His memory seems to be missing many, many things, you among them. I don't know what happened to him, or if it can be changed. I do know that Bishop Joachim said he wanted to forget. Someone, perhaps the Bishop, or perhaps someone else in Sweetgrove, released him."

"Maybe he was bitter at having spent so much of his life looking for you, or maybe he loved you too much to go on without you. I don't know why he did this to himself, all I know is that I like Maric this way. It's a subtle change - the same man, certainly, but clearly without the same burdens. I prefer him like this. I don't want to give him back."

Alice leans back and gazes at the woman, an almost tender expression on her face.
"I've told you what you need to do. You'll feel better if you speak with the Bishop. If he really does have a forgetting potion, then maybe he can give you a new start, too. It's a shame for a nearly freed slave to shackle herself with her past like this."

[Danny]

Tears stream down her face and she clearly struggles to keep her voice steady, "Go. Just go. I need some time to myself." She pulls the cloak closer to herself, "I will not tell you again."

[Dustin]

Alice sighs, "You're the only one who can save you now."

On her way out, Alice assures the innkeepers that the woman is suffering from an 'illness of the soul' and has no contagious condition. She asks to be notified if her condition worsens.