“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
Abraham Lincoln
We walked back to the inn in stony silence. I was a little sheepish now that I had considered how far I had travelled; what if I had been unable to make it back? Then there was Asta, who was a little crushed by the cold shoulder she was receiving from Namir. And Namir? I was unsure what he was thinking or feeling, but his intimidating presence did not invite continued conversations.
We entered the inn only to nearly bump into Sedjorn just as he was leaving and, judging by the look on his face, looking for Asta. “There you are. Your father said you had gone to the temple. Want to take a walk.” He offered.
“Not tonight,” Asta murmured as she pushed into the inn. Slipping past her suitor, her whole demeanour changed as her face lit up when she started to work the crowd on the way back to the bar. Which face was correct: the sadness we had sensed on the way back or the current cheerful personality bubbling around the tables, picking up glasses as she went? It was impossible to tell, but it was not our problem either way. We were just passing through.
“Kai, room,” Namir commanded as we watched her work the crowd. We headed straight for the stairs to return to our room. Poor Sedjorn was left at the doorway, unsure of whether to actually leave the inn or return and attempt to find a seat when the room was so full and busy.
Even when the door finally closed to our room, Namir still silently stalked through it, gesturing ahead into the small cubby attached to it. Understanding without words, I opened up the entrance to my spatial vault in the tiny privy that came with the room. It was a superficial layer of deception, but it would prevent anyone who barged into the room from seeing the portal. I stepped in ahead of him before Namir followed me into the privy and the portal, closing the door behind him as we went.
Once we had entered, he ordered, “Close the portal.” I closed the entrance, hiding us from the world. “What happened ?” He finally asked.
“Fortuna said hello and even thanked me for spreading her faith and rewarding me with a new skill.” I summarised the conversation we had during that moment of frozen time.
“So . . . teleportation?” I clarified to a hiss of air as he inhaled through his teeth.
‘Yes.” I haven’t tried it yet, but it sounds powerful.” I was excited by my new acquisition.
“It is indeed,” Namir confirmed. “Neither is it easy to get. The only way I have heard of it being gained is as follows. Run, Sprint, Dash, Flash Step, Blink, Teleportation. Congratulations, another Tier 6 Skill.”
“Tier 6,” I grinned, quickly checking my status to see it engrained there. Working with gods was vexing in many different ways, but the rewards were worth it.
“So, how does it work?” He asked, apprehensive of the chaos I might be able to cause when I could instantly disappear from his sight.
“When I touch the shards of the Lodestar, I can use their power to travel back to the Shards I have already logged in my own splinter,” I explained.
“Is that the only way you can use it?” He asked.
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“Well, I haven’t tested it on my own yet.” I pointed out. “But I’m sure I can use it for more than just that.”
“Let’s wait till we are on the road again. Rather than have you appearing down in the common room and causing chaos.” He said, scratching behind his ears with his claws as if vexed by a particularly bothersome itch. “We move on tomorrow. Feed Nyx and get some sleep.”
“Nyx?” I called out as I opened the stone door to the ice chamber where the Ice Giant core rested and pulled out some meat. I expected her to leap down from her own sleeping area within the vault, only to be left waiting.
“Nyx?” I called out, confused. She always attacked her food voraciously seeming to inhale her food until she was unable to cram any more in. It was unlikely for her to leave me waiting even for a moment. The main problem had always been keeping her out of the store room. Hence, the carefully balanced stone door and stone locks keep her out.
“Cursed claws.” Namir’s expletive caught me by surprise. “She’s escaped!” Nyx had been kept in the vault in an attempt to avoid complications. It seemed she had somehow escaped. Was it when we arrived back? Or had it been earlier? Had the teleportation somehow released her from my vault?
These were the thoughts that ran through my head as we dashed down the stairs and back into the common room. I was flaring all my sensory skills, hoping to pick up any trace of her. I was picking up all sorts of interesting information but none of it was pertinent to where on earth she had disappeared off to.
Namir hailed the innkeeper, “We seem to have misplaced our pet, you wouldn’t have happened to have seen her?” He quickly asked.
“A pet? You didn’t mention any pets, and I didn’t see one either.” He answered annoyed we had one or unconvinced that she existed. “No one has been up to your rooms. If that is what you are implying.”
“She is usually no problem. Stays tucked away in our bags or rooms when we are passing through towns and has never caused a problem before on our circumnavigation.”
“Exactly what kind of pet are we talking about?” He asked, concerned that we might actually be telling the truth.
“She is black, about this big.” He gestured an approximation of her increasing size. “Silver speckles, wing span around this much.” He put his arms out.
“Your pet is a hunting bird?” He questioned sceptical once more
“Not exactly a bird.” Namir hedged.
Leading the Innkeeper to the worst conclusion, “A beast? You brought a beast into my inn!” He whispered harshly.
“She’s a dragonling.” I interrupted cutting to the heart of the matter. “Not a beast a noble companion,” I argued.
“Javla! And it’s escaped?” The innkeeper was not taking this well.
“We don’t know. We just know she wasn’t there when we got back from the church. She could have escaped or been taken. A thief tried to take something from our rooms in Drangavik.”
“No one thieves in the River Run,” He objected fiercely, “Asta,” He called her back to the bar and our harshly whispered conversation. “Check the kitchens. Our guests have lost their . . . pet.” He avoided explaining precisely what she was looking for.
“What am I looking for?” She asked, confused.
“You’ll know it if you see it.” He answered abruptly. “Now go.”
“She answers to Nyx,” I added before she passed through the door and she nodded her head in acknowledgement.
“If she’s still here, we will find her.” The innkeeper declared. “But if she isn’t, then you will want to find her before she catches the eye of the local lord. The man is particularly partial to novelty, and if he finds her, he won’t want to let her go.”
Namir nodded in acknowledgement before swiftly leaving with me in his wake. “I’ll circle south. You circle north and remember to try to keep it calm and not cause any more chaos, Kai.” With those parting words, he skipped across the flowing river in a single step to search the south of the town while I tackled the north.
. . .
A brisk walk later, I covered all the local streets north of the River Run, working my way back and forth to the river and then tracing another arc further afield. With my sensory skills running at full strength, I had uncovered and mapped the sewage system below me, the interiors of people’s houses, and noted what those people were up to. But I had yet to come across Nyx. I was beginning to get worried.
“No luck?” I shouted across the river to Namir as we met once more on our arcs. It had not happened often, but we were searching in similar methods and avoiding running or flying and the attention it would draw to us.
“No,” Namir answered. “And I find the lack of tracks suspicious. We find her, and we go.” Namir finally voiced what we had been worrying about.
“I’m nearly at the noble’s house.” Over my travels, I had gotten to know the town and knew I would be soon passing by.
“Leave it till last.” Namir cautioned, “Let’s clear the rest of the town first.”
Neither of us wanted to cross that bridge until we had to. An hour later, we had to.
. . .
“Yes, I saw the beast.” These were the words I needed to hear, but what followed were not the words that I wanted
“Where?” I asked.
“Here, it descended down onto my stall. Remarkably clever, that dragonling. It waited patiently for me to feed it. Never seen one before, mind you, but I’ve heard of them. I didn’t think that they could travel this far north without being looked after and kept warm.”
“It was,” I answered his rhetorical question acerbically. “What happened next?”
“Well, after the initial scare, I fed it some fish, seeing as it had waited so patiently. But the guards had seen it, and no one was claiming it as theirs, so they took it to Lord Njord.” He shrugged, unaffected by the outcome.