Ayuen
Tinkersong, The Grasping Isle
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It took a while before Trïeste returned, as was to be expected. To kill some time, Ayuen talked a bit with Rove, striking up a casual conversation. To her surprise, the Herhor seemed to be receptive. He talked of Tinkersong’s backstory, with her listening diligently. The town got its name due to the legends surrounding its supposed oldest inhabitants, the Tinkers. She’d read about them before back in Marlight. A race of inventors and scientists, made up of metal and gears, holed up in hidden workshops filled with marvels. The stories told that they had all been destroyed when the Saturation happened, the disaster that had led to a sea of arcane energy in the middle of the continent. Subsequently, the world had been saturated with magic seeping into the earth and air, hence the name given to the catastrophe. Life had to adapt. Animals and also the intelligent races of the time. The Saturation had been the jumping-off point for a lot of things, including the eventual emergence of her people and all the other races of the ‘Hybrid’ variety.
“The Saturation, huh? I wonder what caused it. It’s been many millennia since it happened.” Ayuen wondered. Her face lit up, looking at Rove with a giddy expression.
“Did you know that both the Pyrn and the Cloudiz are descendants of Humans? They came from those that were stuck in a magic-rich area according to research. Areas that were not saturated severely enough to kill them, but enough to force their bodies and souls to adapt over time. Like, it was the cause that Tinkers disappeared, yet it made so many more races appear in the long run.”
Before Ayuen could continue though, Rove steered the conversation back to the Tinkers and the amulet.
Maybe the cog was meant to represent the town itself? Maybe a workshop was hidden inside the town? The cog would make sense in that case. But surely any workshop that would be in town would’ve been ransacked ages ago.
The conversation slowly petered out and the two of them decided to just kick back and relax while looking at the passing travellers from the undergrowth. As always, the road was predominantly used by traders, although the occasional Herhor passed by as well. She was rather impressed by the amount of variety in the Herhor trade. She saw a couple of bowmen come by. Both men and women wielded all kinds of tools and blades. Even a grizzled Herhor with a grey and well-kept beard that wielded an array of flintlock pistols, the lucky git.
It was when she had sat up that a familiar man, dressed in brown rags, walked out of the village and headed down the road. He was human, sporting a full black beard and tattered clothes. The man that the two warriors had beaten down earlier.
Both beard and rags seemed clean, however. Which was odd. He stopped a couple of meters away from them when Ayuen cleared her throat. The man gave her a toothy smile when he saw her and Rove. One would expect missing teeth with a tramp, even though his dental hygiene could be better. Up close, she could see that he was thin. The man didn’t have much to eat in the last days to weeks. Rove gave him a doubtful wave, another hand on the pommel of his dagger.
“’Ello mist’r and mistress! Spare somethin’ to eat f’r Sneak?” The man’s hand went down as well, tapping a duo of simple bronze daggers on his belt. He gave Rove a confident grin. “No worries, mist’r. Sneak only wants to ask f’r food. Maybe give you somethin’ in return, yes?”
“We don’t want anything you have to offer,” Rove said bluntly, shooing the man away with an annoyed gesture. Ayuen put a hand on Rove's shoulder, giving him a disapproving look. Even though the man looked like a beggar, he did address them politely and took care of his appearance as well as he could. That had to account for something.
“Wait, mister Sneak,” She kindly spoke up as stood up from the grass. “We can miss some food, and some silver too. In return, we would be in your debt if you could gather some information about a group of armoured people in town. Everything you can find out. But we do require you to be discreet about us and our location.” Better make use of the opportunity to make sure the man didn’t rat them out and maybe even did something good for them. She dusted herself off as she waited for his answer.
“Them cans?” Sneak answered, rubbing his jaw where she could see a large bruise. “Them cans tried to beat Sneak up. Them beatin’ the whole town up. Bunch o’ slime-ridden bastards. Informations you get f’r free, mistress. Sneak is happy to help.”
Now that was rather nice. Ayuen rummaged through her bag, digging up some paper-packed dried rabbit from a couple of days ago. She handed it to him with a curtsy and a smile.
“Here you go, sir Sneak. A gift. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name’s Ayuen. This here is Rove.”
“It is good to make your accutance... acqeera... too,” Sneak said, trying to mimic Ayuen's way of speech with mixed results. Rove humphed amusedly, throwing the man another bag of nuts too.
“Here, it seems to me that you can use this, friend. Thank you for helping us out.”
Sneak caught the bag with one quick movement that was rather precise, the bag disappearing under those dark rags in the blink of an eye. The man bowed before them somewhat clumsily, as if he was only partially in control of his body. Ayuen couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle.
“Thank you, mist’r. Sneak will go and collect what y’need. Yes, Sneak will do that.”
And with one more sloppy bow, Sneak walked back into town, disappearing in the shadows behind one of the warehouses.
“Quite the interesting character, don’t you think, Rove?” She said, shaking her head.
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“Heh, you could say that. A good resource too. Good call. Risky, but we need a local on our side.”
“I just hope we didn’t miscalculate by letting him walk free.”
Rove smiled, conjuring another bag of nuts from a pocket. “Prado is a proud son of a bitch. Even if that Sneak guy would offer the info, I am certain that that nobleman’s pride in him would stop him. Don’t really like admitting it, but Prado’s honour is the real deal. Not sure about his men though.”
“That explains why he ceased fighting you in your deal on the bridge.”
“My conclusion exactly. Saw his men disobeying orders, and went to stop it. Even if it’s to his detriment, he’ll follow that bloody code of his.” The Herhor smiled a sad smile. “He was that way when we were kids too. I’m both relieved and annoyed that that part of him managed to survive our mother’s abuse.”
Ayuen hummed confirmative, scooting a bit closer to Rove. “Alright. With a bit of luck, we’ve got an ally from within. Having a sneaky spy will be useful. Trïeste is handy, but she’s not exactly... subtle.”
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About ten minutes after recruiting Sneak to their side, Trïeste made her triumphant return. She threw a fresh apple to both her and Rove, which they happily devoured. Ayuen informed Trïeste what had happened on their side, while the Vysari girl did the same. Other than Sneak, there hadn’t been anything too interesting that had happened. With the group complete once more, it was time to plan their move.
“We still got about half a day of daylight left, so we’ll sneak around the village edge and head towards the river.” Rove said, slipping into the leader role. “Everyone in favour?”
It was as good an idea as any. If they wanted to get to the Clasp’s Spring without getting spotted, this seemed like a good bet. Wings as big as hers were a pain to disguise effectively, so a pretty woman with a hunchback would stand out. Both she and Trïeste nodded in agreement and they started to sneak around Tinkersong’s perimeter. The town was flanked by the river on one side and steep mountains on the other, which made them have to sneak dangerously close past the buildings. Slowly but surely, they made their way closer and closer to the village, eventually ending up behind the warehouses that stood at the bottom of the mountainside. Inside the wooden structures, Ayuen could hear the workers and traders barter and squabble. They went on with their daily lives and activities, unaware of what was happening beneath their very noses. They laughed and grumbled at each other, and Ayuen found herself fascinated by the bits of conversation she picked up. She was a social woman and a poët, after all, fascinated by the intricacies of the word and the voice.
She heard the voice of an older man harshly reprimanding a younger employee, but with a caring undertone audible underneath. Then a stream of passive-aggressive comments from a voice that sounded as slippery as oil, with underlying threats subtly thrown in against an unseen coworker. At times, the sounds were interspersed with the clanking of armour as well, but fortunately, those sounds were faint and far away.
At one point, however, they found themselves stuck: an open field separating the spaces between two warehouses. To progress any further, they had to step out in the open. Rove was softly muttering and cursing while she looked at the nearby road, frowning at the high number of people walking past.
“Well, guess I get to go into the village proper after all,” Trïeste said, crouching down next to her with a grin on her face. The girl took her pack from her back, conjuring a wooden box from it. With a flick, she opened the container. It was filled to the brim with all kinds of pots and jars, them being filled with an impressive array of substances in turn. “Let’s see…..” The girl murmured while she carefully rummaged through her stuff while Ayuen and Rove looked on, not sure what to expect.
“Ah, here we go. This should give a decent bang.” With a face-splitting grin, she held up a paper-wrapped ball half the size of a clenched fist. “When a spark hits this little friend of mine, It’ll cause quite the stir, hehe. You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to be able to use this.”
She didn’t share Trïeste’s enthusiasm though. So she planned on causing an explosion? In a small town such as this? This wasn’t that good of an idea at all.
“Hold your horses for a moment, Trïeste,” She said, putting her hand on Trïeste’s to try and stem her giddiness a bit. “I’m not too certain that this course of action is the correct one. What if somebody gets injured in the explosion? And why didn’t you use it at the bridge if you have such a thing?”
Ayuen didn’t think it would be possible, but Trïeste's grin grew even wider, a mischievous sparkle glittering in her eye.
“At the bridge, people were already too close for me to reach into my bag. But about this baby, this doesn’t hurt. At least, not in the exploding-fireball-of-death kind of way. It will hurt the ears of anyone who is standing too near though. Together with a nice white flash so people see spots for a second or two.”
Ayuen’s hand went up to her large fur-covered ears.
“So it deafens people?”
“Only temporary! After a minute or so, they’ll be right as rain. Unless they held it against their ear, then their eardrums are probably gone. But that won’t happen, I’ll let it explode nice and quickly. So how about it, do I have your permission?”
Rove was watching and listening silently, nodding to her. He was content with letting her make the decision. After thinking, Ayuen nodded, removing her hand from Trïeste’s.
“If you are certain nobody will get injured in the blast, this might be the best option. You’ve got my permission.”
“Yes, ma’am!” The girl said enthusiastically, chuckling like a little maniac. Ayuen felt Rove's hand, pushing her down into the bushes to keep the two of them out of sight while their companion did her thing.
Trïeste snuck back the way they came, all softly and giddily sniggering to herself as she disappeared out of sight. And so she was left all alone with Rove in some yellowish bushes, waiting for a burst of sound so they could sneak across a bit of open terrain without being noticed too much. If she thought about it that way, it began to sound less and less of a good idea. For a couple of minutes, there was nothing. Ayuen nervously shifted on her feet. Did Trïeste get caught? Maybe something bad happened. She tapped Rove on his shoulder to get his attention.
“So Rove, sh-…” That was as far as she was able to go before a loud bang startled them both well enough that they almost launched themselves out of their hiding space. Her heart racing, she looked wide-eyed at Rove, with him looking back with an expression of disbelief plastered all over his face. She’d never heard anything like that. As if a hundred muskets fired at the same time. The sound left her dazed as the sound echoed around in her skull. Rove was the first one to recover, grabbing her wrist and dragging her to her feet. This was one time that she found herself wishing her hearing to be less accurate.
“That’s our queue. Time to go, now.” Rove’s voice sounded far away, echoing softly. Nonetheless, she stood up and nodded.
The people on the streets were running past frantically in both directions in total panic. Nobody would even give them a single thought most likely. Too stunned to give a coherent answer, Ayuen just let Rove guide her away and it wasn’t long until they found themselves at the last warehouse.
Her head still recovering from being scrambled like an omelette, she finally cleared the last building, heading out of the village. Her hearing was slowly recovering, and the two of them continued sneaking for a good distance still before they finally looked up and down the road. Nobody there. Safe at least. Sitting in the bushes, she heard one more blast coming from the village. What in the blazes was happening there?
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