“I wasn’t really following, why did Tain say the guards were useless in this situation?” Maymun asked as they walked back to the Bronze Cudgel. It was already past lunch time as they spent a good amount of time talking with the guard captain.
“Remember what I told you about Antoss before?” Quyon looked over at Maymun and saw her face scrunch up as she tried to remember.
“Uhhh, the king has no power and that it was formed as a sort of truce between Duhnovo and Killian, right?” Maymun answered unconfidently
“Sort of. Because the war between Duhnovo and Killian got so intense, to the point of near mutual destruction, the leaders of both empires decided to create a truce. But if only a truce was declared, there would have been no end to the conflicts as they would just invade each other under the guise of bandits.” Quyon explained. “Therefore the leaders came to a decision and both Duhnovo and Killian gave up some land to form a buffer zone between the two of them, which is the Antoss kingdom.”
“Right, right. I remember now. “ Maymun said with a smile. “So instead of killing each other openly like real warriors, they kill each other in the shadows and with words, like cowards.” She scoffed.
“Better than exterminating each other completely.” Ilon said from behind them. Depression had struck him once he realized they had missed prime time lunch and would likely have to eat questionable stall food that either tasted like a three day old worn sock or salty clay.
“I guess so.” Maymun responded, oblivious to his plight. “But in an all out war between the Shamans of Duhnovo or the Iron Hearts of Killian, who do you think would win?”
“We’ve already had this discussion before.” Quyon said with a bit of distaste.
“But we haven’t heard Ilon’s opinion on it.” Maymun complained.
“Hard to say. If the Traditionalists and Modernistic faction worked together then probably the Shamans, if not then probably the Iron Hearts. It also depends on where they fight.” Ilon played along with her little game. “More importantly, how do you suppose we go about finding our guy?”
“We can go to the Shaman headquarters and I can enhance my hearing to see if there’s any news about him there. Hopefully we can find something that way, otherwise it’s the hard way of using it around the city until we get a hit.” Quyon answered. She was the only one on their team who had any ability that could help them uncover a clue about where Bi’wan was.
“Is it safe to use it? What if scary eyes senses what you’re doing?” Ilon asked. Just like the Horrors, they had no idea about any of what the person with violet eyes could do. All they knew was that Kachuk would lose if he fought him, so there was no doubt in their minds that all three of them would die if they encountered him in a fight.
“It might have to be a risk we have to take.” Maymun said in place of Quyon. “Sorry Quyon, for having you go along with my whims, and you too Ilon. I know that the both of you probably don’t want to be doing this, but I can’t just sit back and do nothing.”
“It’s fine. Although it’s moronic to do in this situation, it’s the right thing to do.” Quyon responded. She didn’t feel like they should take the risk, but it was something she was willing to do for Maymun’s sake.
“Don’t mind me, I’m just being cautious. If you hear anything suspicious then we’ll get out of there as soon as we can. I also vote that we leave the town if you hear about something that we can’t stop, after informing Tain of course.” Ilon said.
“Then, no more complaining. Let’s get some food and rest for today, then we can start tomorrow while being in top shape.” Maymun said with a bright smile. After experiencing what had happened in front of the inn she had wanted to do something, and now she had the opportunity. Although she wouldn’t be able to punch in the faces of the people that did it, like she wanted, at the very least she might be able to cause some trouble for them and potentially stop whatever they had planned. Not exactly what she wanted, but she would settle.
“Sounds good. At least we get to sleep in a proper bed instead of in the forest.” Ilon said in a tired voice. The several hour jog there, the nerve grating search, the life and death battle, the several hour jog back. Although he was able to stay awake for days at a time while keeping a high level of focus, this trip had greatly exhausted him in every way possible.
“Do you think Cudlin will make us some food if we ask him. We did save him and his daughter after all.” Maymun asked as she inspected a street stall selling food. It was some sort of unidentifiable meat that had one side charred near black and the other as raw as what it came from. How they were even allowed to sell that monstrosity, she could only wonder.
“Let’s try. No way I’m eating that. Even a Horror could cook better than that.” Ilon joked.
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“Like how the Horror almost cooked all of us.” Quyon said in a monotone voice. Ilon gave an awkward chuckle at that, while Maymun had a good laugh.
“It got pretty sketchy there for a moment when I decided to attack from underneath it. Looking back on it now, I’m not too sure why I thought that was a good idea. But hey, it worked out so it’s all fine.” Maymun said as they walked away from the stall.
After a few more failed attempts of checking out street stalls, they decided that it was too much work to walk the twenty minutes to the market district to buy something, so they returned to the inn.
“Welcome to the Bronze Cudgel. Oh, you’re all back! Are you all well?” The innkeeper's daughter Fessal was there at the entrance to greet them. She had a smile on her face that still reached her light green eyes. The only difference between now and the first time that Ilon had seen her was that her hands were bandaged up.
“We’re fine, more importantly how are you doing? Should you be working with those injuries?” Ilon asked in concern. A lot of people took a long time to adjust to the trauma that happened to them, while others with stronger mental fortitude could overcome it quicker than most.
“I don’t really remember much of what happened then.” She said as her smile faded from her face. “Just that I had these injuries on my hands and that a lot of people died that day. I just find it fortunate that no one else besides me was hurt in the inn.”
“Well, don’t push yourself too hard. It’s okay to take some time and recover, you know.” Quyon said once she saw Fessal’s smile drop.
“I have to do what I can. A couple of our workers quit after that day so we’re somewhat short-handed at the moment. Plus there have been fewer customers that are outside of our regulars. I want to be able to ease the pressure on Ma and Pa, even if it’s just by a little.” Fessal said with conviction.
“Very admirable of you.” Maymun said as she walked up to Fessal and patted her head. “But make sure to give yourself time to recover as well.” She said with a smile.
“You’re back.” A gruff, exhausted voice sounded out. Ilon looked over and saw Cudlin walking over. He had massive bags under his eyes and he seemed to have lost a couple of pounds in the time they hadn’t seen him.
“Are you okay? You look horrible.” Ilon said as he saw the state Cudlin was in.
“Just haven’t been sleeping well after what happened. Nightmares of … you know.” Cudlin said as he looked at Fessal. Dreaming about your daughter turning into a rabid beast and eating you would surely put someone into the condition that Cudlin was in. Yet, Ilon didn’t miss the love that still remained in his eyes when he looked at Fessal.
“Sorry to ask this, but do you have any food leftover? We’re willing to pay of course.” Quyon asked to change the topic away from their trauma.
“Of course! I’d be willing to make some fresh food for you anytime!” Cudlin said with a bit of energy in his voice.
“If you could, please. That’d be wonderful.” Quyon replied. Fessal led them to one of the empty tables as she got them drinks.
“I just thought of something.” Maymun said as she stared at the back of the leaving Fessal.
“What is it?” Ilon asked as Maymun stayed silent for a couple of seconds after saying that.
“Why is it that Fessal only clearly remembers Bi’wan and not the other two? She only remembers the violet eyes of one of them and nothing about the other.” Maymun said with a bit of doubt in her voice.
“Do you think she’s lying to us?” Quyon hushed her voice. There didn’t seem to be any reason for her to do so, but after Maymun mentioned it, Quyon did think it a little odd.
“I don’t think so. She doesn’t have a reason to or seem to be the type to.” Maymun said. The problem still remained that something strange was going on with Fessal’s memory.
“Is it possible that she misremembered? She sees dozens, hundreds even, of people everyday. She might have gotten confused.” Quyon suggested.
“Possible, but I doubt she would misremember something as out of place as violet eyes. Maybe losing control of herself did more damage to her than we thought. Also, she did hit the ground pretty hard when I pulled her back with my whip.” Ilon said with a bit of guilt. He had only thought of getting her away from Cudlin as fast as possible and maybe used more force than he should have.
“Who knows. We’ll ask her a couple of questions about it when she comes back.” Quyon said.
After a couple more minutes talking about what to ask her, Fessal came over with another waitress who was carrying the food and drinks.
“Thank you. Hey, Fessal. Do you mind if we ask you a couple of questions?” Ilon put on a comforting smile. The last time they had asked her questions she nearly fainted in pain, so he was worried about her rejecting them.
“Sure. What do you want to know?” Fessal asked as the other girl left to go back to her duties.
“Sorry to ask this again, but can you see if you remember anything else about the three people you told us about last time?” Ilon asked gently.
“Huh? What are you talking about?” Fessal said in confusion as she tilted her head.
“What? Uhh, the person with the horn marking on his face and the person with violet eyes.” Ilon replied with even more confusion than her.
“Sorry, I don’t really know what you’re referring to.” Fessal said as she tried to remember. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone with violet eyes before. That sort of sounds cool though, do they actually exist? Have you seen them before?” She said as curiosity overtook her confusion.
“Ahaha. I couldn’t say. Sorry for asking something weird. Thanks again for going through the trouble of preparing food and drinks for us.” Ilon awkwardly said. He didn’t know how else to react to the situation. She sounded like she genuinely didn’t know anything about what had happened before.
“Aww. Anyways, I gotta get back to work. Enjoy your meal.” Fessal said with a bright smile before taking off.
“What was that?” Maymun said in shock.
“Was she just making the stuff up from before? She had just woken up, she could have been in a daze.” Quyon said in a serious tone, yet she didn’t really believe what she was saying.
“I doubt it. But honestly, you never know. It’s also possible that all those affected forgot about that day. We should go talk to Captain Tain about it first thing tomorrow.” Ilon said.
“Sure, nothing’s going to get done by just speculating. Now let’s eat.” Maymun said as she started shoveling food into her mouth. The only thing they got from this was that the enemy could potentially make people forget about what they did. While it was something very useful to know, it also made it a lot harder for them to find out who did this if that were the case.
The three of them quickly ate their meal before Maymun and Quyon returned to their room. Ilon staved off his desire to get into a bed as quickly as possible and chatted a bit with Cudlin to see if there was anything or anyone suspicious while they were gone. After failing to get any extra information, Ilon asked Cudlin to keep an eye out for Bi’wan and tipped him an extra silver for their meal.
He quickly retired to his room and changed into more comfortable clothes before flopping onto the bed. Feeling the sleep tugging him to dreamland he swiftly tucked himself into his bed before succumbing. The sun was high in the sky and the town was abuzz with activity, but in that moment Ilon felt more relaxed than he had in a long, long time.