I slowly awoke from a perfect, dreamless sleep. I decided to keep my eyes closed for a little while longer, however, feeling warm and content. My mind hadn't quite caught up to where I was just yet, and so I reveled in the feelings of warmth and relaxation suffusing me. It was only when I noticed how hungry and thirsty I was, that my thoughts turned to the harsh reality again. Blinking and yawning, I opened my eyes and got a good look at my surroundings: I'd wisely thought to add more wood to the fire a few times, and closed the oven hatch during my period of rest, and so the smoke hadn't suffocated me; apparently, the chimney still worked as intended, too. I flicked a fat green bug from my quilt-covered legs and watched it sail into the corner of the darkened room. Objectively this certainly wasn't luxury, I mused, thinking back to various palaces and grand estates I'd stayed at in the past. And yet, somehow, I felt more free and content right now than I'd done during most of my ascent toward heroism. I'd done my job. Nobody had any stake in my life anymore. Nobody got to tell me what to do next. My life finally belonged to me; I allowed myself the hint of a smile.

From the boarded-over window, no daylight entered the room, so I assumed night had fallen again. I still wasn't sure how long I'd slept: had I only missed a few hours or an entire additional day? I really was extremely hungry, and my throat was parched beyond belief. I would have to find food and drink soon.

At least the rain must have stopped, judging by the lack of noise coming from up above. I stretched my arms and legs contentedly, threw the warm quilt off with gusto, and jumped to my feet. I was still a bit wobbly on my legs, and I was pretty sure casting a lot of magic was still out, but still: I felt a lot better than before. I quickly got the fire going again, using the embers to avoid taxing my mind with the use of more magic, then I left the kitchen. I'd explored the entirety of the first storey, but apart from the room with the gigantic hole in it, I hadn't checked out the floor above yet. The stairs still creaked precariously when I ascended them, and the amount of dust hadn't changed one bit during my sleep, but luckily the construction still held my weight.

To my delight, I found a pair of hole-ridden boots discarded in the corner of one of the rooms, and in the bottom of a wardrobe lay a thick, brown coat. Finally owning some footwear again to go with my new socks, made me feel quite a bit more civilized. Finishing off the ensemble, I put on the felt hat I'd found before, pulling it as far over my pointy ears as elvenly possible. My ears felt constricted, but at least I wouldn't be spotted immediately. Unfortunately, I still hadn't managed to find anything to eat, and no water either, so there was no way around leaving my newly acquired estate soon. In fact, after quickly warming up at the oven again, I decided to extinguish the flames and head out right now.

***

I arrived at the "entryway" on the top floor with a spring in my step: while I was far from recovered, at least I wasn't helpless anymore. Outside, night had, indeed, fallen: it was completely dark in the little alley beyond my home base, with no street lamps or other sources of light to be seen in this part of town. I could hear some obviously drunk men shouting from some streets over, and somebody apparently thought this was the right time to start - what - hammering a dozen nails into their wall? How inconsiderate!

I hopped down the ledge into the muddy alley, sending up a concerning amount of mud and water from the puddle I landed in. The ground was still wet, but far less so than when I'd arrived. I looked down at my newly mud-covered boots, sighing: at least I'd probably fit in a little bit better around here this way.

With no time to waste and a yearning for food driving me on, I walked down the little alley leading away from my little home away from home. Now that I'd gotten some rest, I thought to take a closer look at my surroundings, memorizing every window, entrance and potential cover with the eye of a trained warrior. I quickly assessed all the possible routes out of here, places to hide and good ambush spots to look out for: there wasn't much, truth be told. As I'd figured out on my way in, this was a decrepit, run-down part of town. Everything was dirty, the walls all looked as if they were in the process of crumbling at this very moment, and barely any of the windows were outfitted with glass panes, despite how cheap glass had become in recent decades. This was well and truly an absolute shithole.

I carefully left the alley, pulling my hat tighter around my stubborn ears and made my way back to what one might call a thoroughfare a street over. Don't misunderstand me here: it was still just a mud covered path surrounded by buildings way past their prime, but said path was a bit wider than your usual dark alley. While the sun had gone down already, I felt it couldn't be all that late just yet, going by the odd group of people I could see strolling between houses. It's probably worth mentioning that I saw no other lone person walk in this town at all, probably for a good reason; I'd have to be very careful here. Inconspicuously I followed one such group as they passed through the streets, listening in on their hushed conversation. It was a group of men in dirty workers' garbs, quietly talking using a common form of the imperial tongue - sounding much less refined than the palace guards had.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Their conversation was exceedingly boring: they went over the running of some kind of workshop, making fun of people I'd never heard of and talked for what felt like hours about an upcoming wedding. I was just about to leave in order to find a new group of people to shadow, when I finally heard something of note:

"Remember that ruckus at the palace I mentioned a while earlier?" one of them chattered excitedly, obviously proud of the information he'd procured.

Another man responded, probably rolling his eyes going by his inflection. "It's not like you managed to shut up about it for any length of time today. You'd probably be more useful at work if we'd lock you up in a place without gossip!"

The first speaker gave his colleague a friendly shove before returning: "I have the inside scoop now. But apparently you don't want to hear none of it, so I'll just shup up, huh?" he gave off a quiet laugh and stepped to the side reflexively, avoiding the other man's incoming shove.

"Spit it out already so we can let this stupid thing finally rest, will you," a third man chimed in.

The excited gossiper immediately started chattering again without delay, "I have it on good authority, that there was an attack on the palace," he said proudly, leaving a bit of a pause for the others to interrupt him.

When nobody did, he was clearly disappointed, but continued talking anyways. "Turns out, the rebels tried to assassinate the emperor! Sent in an entire troop of killers wearing black to storm the palace! They even had sorcerers with them, that's where all the noise came from!"

The group stopped walking then, which gave me barely enough time to press myself against a nearby wall, so focused was I on their conversation.

"Hells..." one of them scratched his head. "Not what I'd guessed at all. Where'd you hear that from?"

"Heard it from my cousin who's seeing one of the guards at the palace gates," the first man responded. "The higher ups told them they'd slaughtered the entire group of rebels without losing as much as a single person in the fight. I'm not sure I believe any of that drivel, though. I've heard rumors, you know..."

"When haven't you..." the second man responded again, but he'd leaned in, clearly curious what his friend had to say this time around.

"Rumors say there's a whole bunch of soldiers missing. They want you to believe they're on some kind of expedition, but I have a different theory. Have you noticed how quiet things've become around the palace recently? Where's all the black mist gone, and why's there none of all that frightful roaring coming from up the hill no more?" He leaned in even closer to his friends, and despite my good hearing, I could barely make out the next part: "Some say, the rebels were actually successful... they say, this rotting emperor of ours is really dead."

After a moment of silence, the second man gave the first a quick cuff to the head. "Don't say shit like that! Do you want to get us all in trouble?" He sighed loudly, shook his head and started walking again, his friends following after a second of hesitation. "That sounds like a bunch of made up stories. Let's forget about this nonsense and get to drinking, yeah?"

The chattering one grumbled a few more things, but I couldn't quite make out any of it. With the topic apparently laid to rest, the group went back to whatever they'd been doing before, except they all seemed a bit quieter now, lost in thought.

"Interesting... apparently they're keeping things locked down for now. But they can't hide the truth of their leader's demise forever, I'm sure," I thought, really hoping I was right. I shook off the negative thoughts: my mission was over, and whatever came next was well and truly out of my hands.

"Let THEM deal with it!"

***

While it had certainly been interesting to hear about my own endeavors from somebody else, it didn't resolve my most immediate issue: I had to fill my stomach, and standing around here, thinking about imperial gossip wasn't particularly nourishing, no matter how interesting it was. And so I stalked off in a random direction, hoping to find a pie on a windowsill or something similarly tasty. One can dream, right?

I didn't find any steaming pies, and going by the smell around here, they likely hadn't seen something as heavenly as that in some centuries. However, I did have an epiphany: it was rather unlikely I'd find anything in this part of the city. People were likely far too used to thieves around here, and I had no money to pay with, nor any interest in conversing with the fine imperial people; if any of them caught sight of my ears, they'd probably try to stab me to death for being some kind of demon. Instead, I'd just turn to that oldest of trades in elven history... no, not that one - the other oldest trade! I'd just burgle some rich merchant, who'd likely not even notice missing a few coins and the odd loaf of bread. I was a hero after all, and one of the greatest sorcerers of my time to boot. What was a little burglary for one such as me?