I sat on the shore, meditating on Manaia's words. Everything she said made sense.
Guilds don't just disappear with the death of a leader; the hierarchy passes to the second-in-command. The situation was strange. But this gave me an idea: What if the Demon Empress suffered the same fate? What if she couldn't come in person because the being she spoke of was holding her captive? Maybe it was an exaggeration, but something in my heart told me that the Empress had a lot to lose by revealing so much. It was almost as if she was desperate for me to go... Especially if she was being used to lure more victims, I could be walking directly into a trap set by a powerful being.
I told Manaia, "Thank you for clearing up some of my doubts. Now I have an idea about what I need to do."
