Hal sat alone in a tavern. The trip to this city was long but no more so than any of the others. Still, the journey was tiring. The darkness and Instinct were constant companions, but neither made travel any less dangerous for Hal. He was still physically alone. Sleep was few and far between, like any other trip, but this time was particularly sleepless. Clergy frequented the main roads around here, and Hal was less than enthusiastic about another hunt for his head. So, he'd taken a less traveled road and faced the dangers that came with it, exchanging sleep for safety the entire time.
`Not that safety was a big priority at the moment. If that were the case, Hal would avoid this part of the continent entirely. From the church to laws about the extermination of Cursed races, this place was a den of danger for Hal. But, it was also the only way to obtain passage across the sea. So, Hal took the risk of coming here. The payoff would hopefully be more than worth it.
But for now, a meal and a bed were all Hal had on his mind. Not that either would be anything exceptional. The food would be dry, stale, or barely edible, while the bed would be little better than the ground and a sheet. It wasn't something Hal enjoyed, but he couldn't exactly complain. Discrete cheap and quality, you could choose two of the three while dealing with an establishment. Hal needed discretion, and he couldn't afford to have that and quality, so he would have to settle for what he could get. That had been the case for years. Hal and Instinct were always settling for something worse than they wanted. But, hopefully, across the sea, things would start to change.
So Hal ate his meal in silence, listening to the shadows whisper about the other patrons. All the while, he was plotting a path to the coast on the map in his mind. The sea wasn't far away, nor would it be hard for Hal to find someone willing to make the journey to the other side. However, this was the last city on the way that could be called remotely safe, As proven by the shadow's constant whispers of sharp, glint, poll, tangy, and other odd words. The words themself could mean dozens of things, but Hal had learned to interpret the less reliable information provided by the darkness and its like. In this case, Hal could safely interpret the words as most of the people in this room have some kind of weapon hidden. One of them sounded like they had poison or acid on them, not that Hal could figure out which from the whispers. But, the words let Hal know that an altercation of any kind could turn into a deadly free for all should the wrong person get in the way.
Keeping that information in mind, Hal was put on edge when a man in a large hat sat across from him at the small table he'd claimed for himself. The man had black hair, or at least Hal had to assume as much from the goatee as it was the only visible hair on the man. The hat obscured his eyes and nose, but his mouth was visible. The hat matched the color of the black coat on the man's shoulders. His coat covered everything else about his outfit. The hat itself, the most notable part of the man, was overly large, almost comically so—a black wide-brimmed hat with a golden feather sticking out of the side.
"You're a difficult man to track down." The man started talking to Hal like he knew him.
[ward] Hal whispered the spell name under his breath, and in response, an invisible barrier settled around the table. It wasn't anything complex, just something to prevent anyone else from hearing anything from within, but allowing the sound from outside to come in. Hal didn't know if it was necessary, but he'd learned it was better to take the precaution and feel relieved when he didn't need it.
"I believe you might be mistaking me for someone else," Hal said in a low voice, making sure his hood still obscured his face.
"See, that might be the case, but I don't think so." The man said with confidence. "Names Birnerd, and I'm confident enough you're who I'm looking for that I won't even bother checking," Birnerd said while leaning back in his seat, revealing a longer-than-average nose beneath his hat. "I have a need for someone of your particular talent, and I believe I've got something that will make it worth your time."
Hal had no idea what this guy wanted, but he resigned himself to continue talking as long as the food lasted. "Let's assume I am who you think I am for a moment, which I will say I still doubt," Hal said before taking a bite of his meal. "I highly doubt that you have something I want, let alone something that could make it worth the trouble of dealing with you." Hal took another bite of his meal, trying to finish it before this grew too irritating. "So, unless you can prove me wrong on one of those, I'd prefer the comfort of a bed over talking to you." Hal tried to dismiss the man with that comment, but unfortunately, he was unsuccessful.
"Don't be like that. You haven't even heard what I have to say." Birnerd said jovially.
"And?" Hal said probingly, not that he expected much from this interaction.
Birnerd's smile, which hadn't changed the entire conversation, wavered at this point. "We can't exactly discuss something like this in such an exposed place, can we?" Birnerd said, his smile forced now.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
"well, you either say what you want from me before I finish my meal, or you'll never see me again," Hal said, irritated. Birnerd smelled like deceit, masked with moldy food. And, even without the smell, Hal thought the man looked a little too overdressed for this place as if he was putting on a show.
Hal's response finally broke the smile on Birnerd's face entirely. Whatever he had intended by approaching Hal, it clearly wasn't going to plan. Not that it was Hal's problem, maybe on another day, but today Hal was too tired to care.
"Look, kid, you either come with me, or the whole place hears about a the half-goblin hiding his face in the corner." Birnerd changed his tune in an instant, resorting to threats to get Hal to go along with whatever he was planning.
A younger Hal would have panicked at this moment. He'd have frozen up, and Instinct would have had to step in and deal with the situation. Then they'd have to run and hide and avoid every town for the next two months or so. However, Hal wasn't that boy anymore. So, with a set of two spells prepared, Hal took action to rectify the stupidity of the man in front of him.
"Gust," Hal muttered under his breath. The spell was straightforward and did exactly as the command phrase would suggest. A strong gust of wind blew from Hal toward Birnerd, knocking his seat over and sending him sprawling in the table behind him. The result was as Hal anticipated. The building was filled with drunken men and women, all armed to the teeth. None would take kindly to a man knocking them over, but Birnerd just so happened to fly into and knock over the table of some of the most inebriated in the entire establishment. They looked angry, and while Hal would have enjoyed watching them beat up someone who'd threatened him, he wasn't dumb enough to wait around and let the man scream about what he was.
"Obscure," Another spell formed and cast as silently as Hal could manage. This spell was sufficiently more complex than the previous one. The purpose was to hide something, but whoever the original caster was, they'd clearly come across a few issues with that idea. You could hide something at a distance by having the light curve around it, but up close, that created more problems than solved. The curved light made the area around the object look warped and wavy, As heat did in the middle of Heas. So, to hide something from a closer observer, you had to go further than that. You had to prevent people from smelling it, hearing it, seeing it, or accidentally bumping into it. That was the obscure spell, a spell that hid things cleanly, no warping or odd fluctuations around the hidden object.
That isn't to say the spell is perfect, far from it. Hal, having cast the spell on himself, could barely see the space around him. Add the lack of vision to the fact that he still existed in the area physically, and Hal had a high chance of being discovered by bumping into someone if he wasn't cautious enough. Like his vision, Hal's hearing was also hindered by the spell, an expected side effect of the part that prevented others from hearing him breathe. But, it meant Hal was almost entirely unaware of the situation outside of himself. The shadows could whisper bits and pieces about the area, but that information was only barely useful. It let Hal know that he had succeeded in causing some sort of room-scale altercation, but not if it continued.
So, with as much caution as his restrained senses allowed, Hal made his way to the door. Occasionally he saw vague shapes move past him, some rapid, others like ambling blobs. Hal avoided those shapes, interpreting them as people or other objects from the room, tables, chairs, and the like. Proceeding like that, Hal navigated the room, moving toward where he remembered the door. Thankfully, Hal reached the door without incident. But, when he left the building, he kept the spell going for some time, doing his best to navigate to somewhere beyond prying eyes to safely drop the spell and continue to where he planned to spend the night.
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Birnerd held a cut of meat against his eye. The meeting hadn't gone to plan, and the bruising all over his body was a testament to that. When it happened, Birnerd assumed the leg of his chair broke and sent him sprawling into the table behind him. However, upon thinking over the situation, the kid had muttered something just a moment before Birnerd fell. That, combined with how quickly the kid had vanished after that, left Birnerd to assume that he'd been intentionally flung into the drunks who first hit him. That same vanishing act was why Birnerd had so many more bruises. He'd tried and succeeded in redirecting the attention of his would-be assailants toward the corner of the room with a declaration of a half-goblin being there. That had also gotten the attention of most of the other people in the room. So, when that corner had been empty, all of those eyes had turned back toward Birnerd. But now, they were all a little more than upset at what they perceived as a prank at their expense.
So, Birnerd was beaten, he'd failed at getting the kid to come with him, and he'd been thrown from the building. To add to the misery, someone had stolen his coin pouch during the encounter, leaving Birnerd destitute unless he could once again find the kid, and this time convince him to help with the job. Birnerd didn't even want to take the job, but his employer forced it onto him anyway.
>Threatening him was probably a dumb move.< Birnerd thought to himself. He'd acted like this was one of the types he usually dealt with, but that wasn't the case. Usually, Birnerd dealt with people who owed someone money or stole something they shouldn't have. Those types of people were typically unwilling to fight, and those that weren't usually couldn't back up their bravado. This wasn't the same, and if Birnerd had listened to the warning he'd received at the start of the job, he'd have known not to threaten the kid. He'd also have known not to do it if he'd thought for even a moment about the circumstances of the kid.
"DAMNIT" Birnerd yelled at himself. Because not only was this entirely his fault. Now he wasn't even sure he'd be capable of finding the kid again. A half-goblin in these parts, who knew someone was after him already. He'd be so far gone by morning that Birnerd might not even find a trail. But, he still had a job to do, and if he didn't do it, he'd probably end up dead. So, he'd have to find the kid again. But he'd wait until it didn't hurt to move.