Stepping out of the inn this time felt refreshing in a way that the last time just didn't. Maybe it was that I wasn't running away from anything. That I had a destination in mind, and people helping me along the way. Thinking about the destination left a distinct bitter taste afterwards though. A feeling I couldn't shake.

"Our first task: acquire new clothes for you." Maud brought me back to my senses, listing out the plan for today. She had insisted after we finished eating to plot out what we needed to do. "At the same time, Drake shall acquire the materials we need for the journey." She punctuated her statement by handing him a slip of paper carefully ripped from her book. "We shall reconvene at the inn, in order to move onto task 2."

Drake, barely giving himself the time to look over the list he was given, began making good time running ahead of us. He seemed to know exactly where the first store he needed to be was, swiftly turning down an alley. Leaving us in the blink of an eye.

"Ok, I know just the place for you!" Q began leading us around, with our first stop having fine silks and extravagant scarves, stuff I had only seen on minor nobility up till now.

"I don't know if I will find anything that'll fit me here, Q."

"Nonsense, they can always resize anything that isn't the right length." I felt like I couldn't tell him that it was far too expensive for me. I already owed them so much.

"Would something more akin to your worker's clothes be better? I know that is my preference when I'm doing field work."

"Yes, that would be wonderful actually." Having Maud save me felt odd, but I wasn't going to turn down such a chance. We moved on with just a downtrodden look from Q.

As we walked to find the next shop, we decided to pass into a newer district. That wasn't to say the building materials were newer though, the opposite was true actually. Most of the buildings on the outskirts of Bogra were made of leftover materials from renovations made on wealthy nobility housing in the middle of the city. It gave the outskirts of town a rundown feeling, despite likely standing for only a handful of summers. This ended up attracting the wrong sort of attention.

I tried desperately to ignore the "Help please!" that was called as we passed by an alley. It really wasn't any of our business anyway, what could we even hope to do. Glancing towards the sound, I glimpsed a large rough looking fellow, who's mere presence seemed to hold the two there, if I hadn't known better. Likely he was holding a small dagger, blocking view of it with his body. He could claim anything if a guard actually came.

Walking ahead a few steps, I realized I was alone again. I heard Q mutter "Maud do it." Looking back, I only saw Maud holding a book while her 'hair' began rising.

"Silence" , and the world went quiet. It was a little disorienting at first, going entirely deaf. Having her statement punctuated by sheer nothingness. Why she decided to cast a spell to make everything quiet, I couldn't tell. But I knew I couldn't see Q, and that did not bode well.

I rushed back to the alley opening, just in time to see Q reach the mugger. He pulled him aside, and against the nearest wall. Already there was a dagger in Q's hand, quickly pinning the other’s hand to the wall. The moment blade met flesh I realized Maud had wanted to silence him more than anything. His silently screaming face was punctuated when his other hand came up and slashed at Q. The cut was surface level at best, and in the time it took for his hand to fall, Q had nailed it with 2 more daggers he pulled from his sleeves.

It seemed the effect of Maud's spell was dissipating, as sound rushed back to fill the cramped space we stood in. "What were you thinking? You could've been hurt!" Looking between them, I wasn't entirely sure who the first statement was for. But the second was squarely aimed at Q.

"But I wasn't. Not really anyway." He licked a thumb and ran it across the new cut just below his eye. The blood smeared, but there wasn't a lot welling to the surface. It would surprise me if it would even be there in the morning.

"Did you expect us to just leave these two helpless citizens to lose whatever he wanted to take?" The two were making their way around us now, leaving as quickly as they could.

I waited until they were fully out of the alley before continuing."Yes! They aren't our concern! We couldn't do anything about them! And besides we're in the city proper, the worst this guy would've done is cut them a little!"

"But we could. And we did." Q met my eyes as he said that. "With barely a scratch, and nothing stolen." He dropped his typical boyish smile. I couldn't say he was wrong either. The proof was right there, nailed to the wall.

"I'm surprised you were so willing to simply leave these folk to it. Especially after a more extreme version of this happened to you?" She didn't phrase it as a question. At least no more than her average statements, when she seemed to question everything.

"Maud that's not fair. Look, Ginger, I won't blame you for not wanting to stop him. Most people would've kept walking. Especially after what happened to you. I just hope you understand we wanted to do this. We had to do this. Just like we have to help you find your mom."

"Yeah. Yeah you're right. It was the right thing to do. I just…didn't expect it to go so well." He brought back his smile. "Now let me see your face." I pulled out one of my filled flasks and dabbed just enough on his cut to ensure it would be gone before dinner. "We can't be going into shops looking like we just killed a guy."

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"Fair enough. We should probably get some guards to take care of this guy." It took a surprising amount of time to actually find any guards. Our guide for the city had decided to stay back. Which makes sense as I have no clue what to do if the mugger broke free, and Maud looks like she’d be too busy figuring out how he did it.

But that still left Maud and me roaming the city looking for any guards. Which really meant me, since Maud was too busy doing whatever she does in her books. “So, what are you writing down all the time?”

“I’m documenting our journey and anything that happens during it in as much detail as I can.”

“Everything?”

“Yes?” She looked at me as if I had asked if water was wet. “That is what I said, is it not?” I had to squeeze past a few people before continuing. It seemed like the time was wearing on and people began flooding the streets to return home from wherever their day had taken them.

“Well I mean, I doubt our story is really that interesting.”

“A back alley brawl with a thief isn’t interesting to you? What adventures have you been on to cause that?”

“Well it isn’t really that unusual. The cutpurse not the fighting back. It wasn’t, anyway.”

“Well you should get used to it. I can assure you if Angie had been here she would be checking every alley for any friends of his. Definitely wouldn’t put up with you leading us to the center of the street.” I hadn’t realized I was doing any leading until she mentioned it. Thinking back, I had started walking a bit ahead of her after departing from Q. And it was towards the center of the street.

“Sorry, we can stay nearer to the alleys if you wish?”

“What would you expect us two to do? Unless you know your way around a blade I fear my methods would be a little much for simple muggers.”

“Well I don’t know, just seemed like-”

“I assure you, we may run into danger at the first sign of it, but only if we know we can get out. Q did ask me before he went in.” She turned aside and proceeded to squigle down more into the papers she had. Looking in the same direction, I caught a glint off some armor. She had found the guards we were looking for.

Looking around I realized I had zero idea where we were. The buildings in the city were all very similar, especially this far in. Slightly worn down but not too old yet, none of them had any distinct markings. My best guess was we had stumbled into a housing area. As to why the city watch was here patrolling, the answer there was in the sky. The sun had already begun to set, leading to a lot of glinting metal both on the patrol and anything else with even a scrap of metal.

“Good evening sirs!” Maud called out as we approached. The guards looked at us through their helmets, each fully enclosing their faces. They all wore the same set of armor, covering their full body with tinks and scraping sounds with every movement. Their chest had a bit of cloth hanging from their neck over the breastplate with the symbol of the city, a golden goose nesting over a green backdrop. The proper approach would be to have gold laced into it but it seemed none of these had gotten that treatment.

“What can we do for you lovely ladies of the night?” A few of the others chuckled a bit. I felt my face flush in anger before Maud responded.

“We have a man pinned to a wall a few streets away. He could do with some penal punishment.” It seemed she wasn’t up for their game, as she turned her book around and showed them the paper. Her air seemed to set them straight too as about half immediately began to march forwards, though not as briskly as I’d have preferred. As she pulled the pages back to her, I caught a glance at the top paper.

“You were making a map?”

“Of course, that would fall under every detail, no?” Again, it felt like she was explaining why the gods existed. “I also spotted a tailor I believe would have the clothes you want. We can visit after reconvening with Q.”

Following the guards back made me realize how circuitous of a route we took the first time. And how maze-like and confusing the streets really were. What didn’t help was that all the streets curve up and down with the natural slopes here. It seemed so easy to take the wrong turn going anywhere when the guards would stop and bicker for a bit at every third corner. But we did eventually make it back. Though if there were any wrong turns I couldn’t tell.

“So, why now do you have this man pinned to the wall?”

“He was attempting to steal from a couple.” Q answered, though I couldn’t see him beyond the group of guards in front of us.

“And what proof do you have? From my perspective it looks like you just pinned a helpless man to a wall and stuffed a sock into his mouth to keep him from yelling. Sounds an awful lot like thief work to me.” Peering around the guards I noticed the newly added gag to the man’s mouth, and the fact he was struggling against it. Q’s eyes began to widen before he stopped himself. After catching his breath a bit, he rummaged around in his coat before pulling out the same medallion he had shown me the previous day.

“Is this enough proof for you?”

The guards took one look and quickly went into a salute. “Our deepest apologies, Lord Matrin.” A few short bows as they began carefully unpinning the man from the wall was the last thing I caught from them. They didn’t seem to stop apologizing from under their breath though.

“Glad to be back with you two. Hopefully that went well without any other incidents, yeah?”

“None to speak of.”

“Nope, though I don’t know if we have time to make it to the tailors.”

“Nonsense. They are still open for the next couple hours at least.” Both Q and I looked at Maud.

“What do you mean? The sun is about to set.”

“Just trust me. What do we have to lose if I’m wrong?”

We decided to rush to the tailor."I don't know if they'll even have your size." Q lamented. “I doubt it was easy to shop growing up.”

“Most of my clothes were hand sewn by my father actually. Modified from his old clothes to be a bit more comfortable.”

“So you’ve never gone to a tailor’s before? It’s so much fun! All the colors and different fabric types.”

“I’d like to just stick with plain wool like I have now. It works for me and what I do.” It only took a few minutes letting Maud guide us to where she had seen it earlier, and I could tell pretty quickly why she believed it would be open after dusk.

The logo was a pair of scissors in front of a crescent moon. Q read out the name “The Witch's Loom?”