I stare at the bartender, Fareed, who seems hesitant to speak. “. . . I’d rather Elena explain. Though she might not be willing to revisit the memories.”
“Memories of what? Just tell me what’s up already,” Jyrasck starts tensing irritably/
Ross walks up steadily, “hey. Jyra, let’s focus on other things right now. It’s clearly a touchy subject-”
“Oh!” A female voice jumps before a nicely dressed woman comes in shakily for a hug with Jyrasck. “Thank Adonas you’re alright! I was so worried after- after Elri- did Fareed tell you?” The woman looks up, sobbing a little into a handkerchief.
“No..?”
The girl goes silent for a moment, “A-a couple of nights ago… Eldric got attacked.” The lady chokes on her words.
“By who? Is he okay?” Jyrasck suddenly looks worried.
Fareed raises his hand, “we don’t know who, Elena can tell you more later. But we need to get prepped for the morning rush. Not like it’s much of a rush anymore.”
Cana, Ross and I awkwardly exchange glances until Fareed takes notice of us, “oh yeah. We have rooms on the second floor, nobody’s up there so take your pick.”
Ross nods to the bartender as he points to the direction of the stairs before going back to cleaning up the bar. We go up and decide to do rooms side-by-side while me and Cana share a room. I unpack while Cana chooses what bed to take.
“What if I take this bed?”
“Then I’ll sleep in the other.”
“What if I sleep on that bed?”
“I’ll sleep in the bed you don’t sleep in, I have no preference.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“. . . You sure?”
“Yes, I’m positive. The only difference is the bed’s location on the floor, I honestly don’t care.”
“... You positive…?”
I glare at her, “I. Don’t. Care.”
A moment of silence occurs, “okie! I’ll take this one,” she flops on a bed joyfully.
“Then I’ll take the other.”
“I wanna see my files! See-ya!” Cana darts away and out of the room to bother Ross. I sigh, this feels oddly… relaxing. I hook up my satchel bag on a lamp and fix up my bed neatly. I hop a little before jumping into Cana’s bed, I roll over and start to think. Knives, anger, Curio, Jyrasck, Eldric, how do they align? I start to think about Knives and what may have happened to this character. My thoughts almost file themselves away as I close my eyes, I feel the weight of exhaustion as I wake.
“Sir! Sir!” a male voice comes to my ears. “We’ve received the autopsy report.”
“For what again?” I ask, the voice distorted between the spectated and my own.
“For the innkeeper. It looks like we have a terrorist group on our hands,” the officer gives me papers saying ‘Eldric Yoliho’ with the image of an old, salt-and-pepper haired man. I flip through the pages.
“‘Cause of death seems to be loss of blood and internal organ damage from bones not his own’? What is this? How can someone die from another person’s bones?”
“We don’t know, and from the analysis of the material makes me think it isn’t even bone.”
I read more of it, “‘“Bones” were faintly yellowed indicating they were directly extracted and used as a murder weapon, when analyzed further, no identifiable DNA shows up’? And the words near the body were “Kill the Curio, Save the Pure”? This man has no relations to Curio of the Laboratories in any way! What sorta bullshi—” And I fade back to Cana’s bed.
It’s Knives, I know that for a fact, but Jyrasck seems tied to this “Eldric” character somehow. Telling this to them will probably cause distrust and a higher chance of betrayal.
Should I even tell Cana about it? I mean, she’s likely to tell one of them, I muse over that.
“Maybe this isn’t the end of them, but the end of tolerance.”
I jump up, that didn’t feel right. It felt like a vision, but not one of the present. But it feels too odd to be a future premonition. More on edge, I brush off the line as a stray thought and continue to plan until Cana returns and forces me off her bed.