Chapter 22 On The Way Out.

The sergeant was deep into the handful of papers Isaac had given him by the time Lenna was done talking with her aunt. “Jala gave up.” Lenna told her mate. “She said it was, and I quote: ‘like swimming through a pool of mucus and trying to find the coin someone threw in.’ end quote.”

Isaac wrinkled his nose at the thought. “She has some colorful analogies.” He commented.

Lenna nodded. “Apparently his short term memory was damaged beyond anything she could handle. She was also having trouble digging deep enough to find anything good.” She continued. “Alexander had just walked in to give it a try himself.”

Isaac just stared at her blankly for a moment. “I completely forgot to ask him to do that.” He confessed.

Lenna shrugged. “It doesn’t look like it mattered.” She comforted him.

“I would have liked if-” Isaac was cut off by Lenna’s aura flaring again and then settling down. “… if we could have gotten something out of him by now.” He frowned and furrowed his brows in thought. “I guess that answers that.” He thought aloud. “If it was Jala or Alexander they wouldn’t be doing it now.” His eyes met hers. “You think it’s your uncle?”

Lenna was quiet for a long moment in thought. “I think the odds are high that it is.” She agreed.

“There is no way that this one is accurate.” The sergeant argued and tossed one of the sheets of paper back onto his desk. “I’ve known him for as long as he’s been alive. He’s a good kid.”

Isaac shifted his attention back to the sergeant. “Then he won’t have anything to worry about when the magistrate questions him with a truth spell.” He replied simply. “This isn’t a list I pulled out of my ass Sergeant. I’m just here to do a job.”

The sergeant eyed Isaac for a long moment. His gaze only briefly flicked to Lenna before returning to the papers in front of him. “Fine, but the captain will be hearing about this.” He assured them.

Isaac shrugged. “Do what you want.” He replied. “Lenna and I already know where the smith is and I’m assuming his apprentice is there with him at this time of day. We can get those two if you want to coordinate with your men to get the other five.”

The sergeant nodded. “That’s fine. Give me an hour.”

Isaac shrugged. “You can take your time. We need breakfast and Lenna needs a bath.” He looked over at her and chuckled. “After getting a bath in Tunnel Horror blood on our way over.”

“Tunnel Horror?” The sergeant asked with slight disbelief.

“Oh yeah, that might be important. There is a Tunnel Horror corpse blocking one of the tunnels along the path here.” Isaac replied casually. “Anyway, we’ve got things to do.” He said and turned to leave. “Just make sure no one can make a break for it before we are all ready to strike.” Isaac told the sergeant while opening the door to leave.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I don’t need you to tell me how to do my job.” The guard countered. “Damn adventurers.” He added in a grumble.

—

The lady running the bathhouse looked on in shock. There usually wasn’t very much commotion in her bathhouse. In fact the last time there was something major was the last time the man and woman standing in front of her were in. “No.” She said simply.

“No?” Isaac asked.

“I ain’t serving you.” She continued.

“Listen lady,” Isaac began. He should have been used to people’s prejudice towards Lenna but he wasn’t. She always took it better than he did. “we just want to use some hot water for a bit.”

“None of mine.” She continued.

Isaac sighed deeply and ran his hand down his face. “Really?” He asked. “Why not?”

“My husband was killed by one of…” She wrinkled her nose at Lenna. “them.”

Isaac just sighed again. “Sorry Lenna.” He said to his mate. “If I would have known that they would be like this I would have just let the Tunnel Horror go instead of killing it before it got to town.”

“It’s fine.” Lenna said. “I didn’t expect any hospitality anyway.”

“But now you’re stuck smelling Tunnel Horror blood until we get to Outpost Charles. At least there they’ll let you wash up because they are folks with some common decency.” Isaac continued. “I’m sorry it’ll be cold water though.”

Lenna shook her head. “I’ll survive. It’s better than nothing.”

“Is that true?” The bathhouse owner asked. “That bit about a Tunnel Horror.”

Isaac looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. “Why wouldn’t it be? You can ask the sergeant. We just came from giving him a report on it.” He only sort of told the truth.

The woman frowned and looked heavily conflicted. “I’m not giving you a discount and nobody will be doin’ your wash but ya can use one of the private rooms.” She told the duo. “Only one of ‘em. I got other customers.”

Isaac smirked. “Thanks.” He said and handed the woman the payment for the room. “The water’ll be hot right?”

The woman nodded. “Yeah, it’ll be hot.” She grumbled. “Boy!” She called towards the back. The same boy that had met the duo last time arrived and looked at Isaac and Lenna with ever widening eyes. “They get one room with one tub o’ hot water.” She told him. “Get on with it.”

The boy just stood there frozen for a long moment. “You sure caused us a lot of trouble last time.” Isaac said while walking past the boy in the direction of the private rooms. “Hurry up, we have places to be.”

Lenna stopped next to the boy and looked down at him. He paled and staggered back a step. “You think I’m scary.” Lenna told the boy and then nodded in Isaac’s direction. “I’m surprised he didn’t kill you for trying to peek at me. You shouldn’t keep him waiting.”

The boy nodded quickly and took off down the hall to show Isaac and Lenna to the room they would use. Once inside, the duo waited for the boy to fill the tub before they closed the door behind him. Isaac leaned against the wall and watched as Lenna peeled off her armor. “I can’t say I’m happy to be back here.” Isaac commented. “I might have to steal the thing that makes this water so nice though.”

“Please wait.” Lenna replied.

“How long?” Isaac asked.

Lenna shook her head. “Until we are planning to be away from Safeharbor for a while.”

“We are away from Safeharbor now.” Isaac retorted with a mischievous smirk.

Lenna narrowed her eyes at him. “At least wait until we are on our return trip.”

“You gave in to that idea a lot easier than I thought you would.” Isaac confessed.

Lenna sighed. “As long as it’s on our way out we won’t have to deal with the guards.”

Isaac nodded. “On the way out.” He agreed. He probably wasn’t going to steal the item. It had been left there by a king in the past after all and that could cause more problems than he bargained for. It was tempting though. Worst case he could just buy it at some point in the future. Isaac wasn’t stupid. He knew that if things continued, at the rate and in the direction that they were going, he would be able to afford all of Ben’s End at some point.

Isaac more or less just stood guard while Lenna scrubbed both herself and her armor clean of the monster blood. He definitely didn’t stare at her for most of the time they spent alone in the room. Definitely not. Eventually they were ready to go and they met a bit of a commotion, as expected, when they went to leave. The boy’s mother had once again arrived to cause trouble and she wasn’t the only one. A full eleven people were waiting just outside the bathhouse for the duo. As irritated as Isaac wanted to be he couldn’t help but have to hide a smirk. Two of the people on the list were among the small crowd. The duo hadn’t met them before and it looked like the stage had been set for one hell of a first impression.