Hiro handed Tilly a cloak at the entrance and threw a matching one over himself, “We do not know the capabilities of the enemy’s network, but if there is even a chance the enemy thinks we are dead, it will be to our advantage.” He then shrugged deeper into his hood and moved out into the deserted street.
They moved with their heads down, and Tilly tried to mimic Hiro's suddenly slumped shoulders as he lost some of the purposefulness of his steps and blended in with their surroundings. The streets became more crowded, and they found themselves in good company, moving through crowds of refugees, worn and weary from their hopeless flight.
Soon Tilly didn't have to try at all to effect a hopeless look to his gait as they moved through crowds of hundreds, then thousands of people doomed to whatever fate awaited them once the city fell. There were too many... Hiro's words from the day before seemed less cold and more pragmatic as Tilly tried to wrap his mind around the logistics of moving these people to some sort of extraction point. Or even if they succeeded, what would they do for shelter? What would they eat?
A ruddy shame began to burn on Tilly's face as his demands from the day before felt childish. He couldn’t help but wince as he thought through just how much the Samurai Lord carried on his shoulders. The leader had been working towards his people's freedom for decades, and now Tilly, among others was putting even more responsibility on those bowed shoulders.
Hiro took him to the side of a building near a particularly busy intersection and grunted to him in a low voice, “Follow me at a distance, we will be entering a shop across the street, but we must not be seen together. I'll go in first and you follow a few minutes after. We are to move to the back of the shop and request a view of some of the more exotic species.”
“What kind of shop is it?” Tilly questioned back, trying to talk out of the side of his mouth as a patrol of guards moved through the crowd at the intersection.
“Ah... I should have warned you. We are meeting in the residence of the only other known human element in this conflict. She apparently has quite a few connections pertinent to our cause.”
Before Tilly could ask another question, the guards shouted to a nearby group of hooded men standing in a huddle and demanded that they reveal themselves and state the nature of their business in the capital. Hiro's eyes hardened, and he nodded firmly at Tilly and then moved off around the edges of the crowd towards a line of shops.
Tilly’s mind was reeling, the memory of the teary-eyed woman barging past him at the top of the Cura’s steps came to the forefront of his mind. Much of the strangeness of his situation had just been shoved in a box at the back of his mind labeled, “stuff I'll deal with when I am not about to die”. But the prospect of meeting another human was suddenly extremely intriguing. Someone else who had been sent to this world from his own and would understand some of his questions on an experiential level!
Tilly growled softly to himself as he shoved the straining lid of the box back down and found a mental lock to fix the latch. He could have a party asking questions later when the possibility of genocide and slavery was no longer looming over the surrounding population.
He watched out of the corner of his eye as Hiro’s figure approached a shop with some sort of stylized plant emblazoned on a sign over the door. Tilly watched the storefront for a while longer and realized under prolonged observation, that the crowd of refugees around the shop were all adolescents or children and some of them seemed to be much more alert than the other groups Tilly had seen populating side streets and alleyways throughout the city. Hiro entered without a problem and Tilly remained on the corner, waiting.
After a few minutes, nothing had gone wrong, and Tilly decided to go for it. He crossed the street as unassumingly as possible. None of the children looked up at him or even acknowledged his presence, but Tilly could tell they were distinctly aware of him nonetheless. Another thing that became apparent as he moved through the small crowd toward the door was that they were sick. All of them.
He could hear it in the troubled wheezing breath of a little female satyr to his left. He saw it in a small gnomish boy who had a disturbing rash spreading over his neck and face. When the boy caught Tilly looking he scowled up at him and then looked away, the sudden contraction of his skin causing a few of the sores to weep a dark gray substance. A hacking cough sounded behind him, and he suddenly couldn't just keep walking past them toward the door anymore.
His feet froze in place and he found himself kneeling down in front of the wheezing satyr girl propped up against the storefront. Her eyes had a glassy sheen as they struggled to focus in on the large shadow that had just blocked out the afternoon sun. Tilly’s medical training kicked in as he assessed rales in the lungs and an altered consciousness, which could be due to septic shock or a prolonged viral infection. He wished he had some antibiotics or fluids to give her, but he wasn’t on the engine anymore and he would have to work with what he had.
“Hey, sweetie… I can hear you having a little trouble breathing. Anything in this shop that can help you?” Tilly asked, the typical gruffness drained from his voice in the face of her plight. He realized he didn't care how impossible the odds were, helping these people was something he had to try or he wouldn't be able to live with himself. He couldn't stand by and let these people be conquered and sold into slavery.
The girl looked up at him confused, but the young gnomish boy with the rash chimed in next to her, “The lady inside has already tried all the normal things. None of them worked. She is keeping us around to try out some stranger remedies… But I don't think they will work either." -Then his voice cracked in hopelessness, covered over by anger.
"We came here to be safe from the scale bellies, but look where that got us. Sick and without family.” Then the boy spit to the side, long-kept fury smoldering behind his eyes. When he saw Tilly looking over at him, he quickly looked away, wiping his shining eyes and refusing to say anything further.
Tilly choked up as he looked back around at the children huddled around the door to the shop. Some seemed watchful and were eyeing him with curiosity, while others like the little satyr girl were in a daze. The weight of their helplessness threatened to topple him over from his kneeling position and he reached for something... anything he could do for them.
The ever-present fire that he now felt in his chest stoked itself. It didn’t grow any hotter, instead, it built up pressure until it overflowed up his throat and hovered, just behind his closed mouth. Following some deeper instinct, he took a deep inhale and then released his breath right into the face of the little girl. No flames appeared, but he did feel some drain on his mana and the feeling of heat bloomed in between their faces. Her short curly hair moved gently in response to his breath and she closed her glassy eyes at the sensation.
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The strangeness of his action hit him and he looked around suddenly embarrassed at the refugee children that were watching him. He got up, pretending that nothing had happened, and wishing that he hadn't done something so strange to a little girl that had no idea who he was. She had already experienced enough. He quickly moved to the door, and the sound of the gnomish boy reacting to his odd behavior followed him in,
“Tinkerer's Ball’s, that was weird. He just blew in Aurelia's face... looked like probably had stinky breath if you ask me. Glad he didn't-”
Tilly hunched his shoulders at the comments as the door swung closed and found himself in an open room filled with plants. He had yet to get a chance to enter a magical shop, and he was not disappointed at finally getting to experience something truly magical. The large open room was choc full of all kinds of plants, each housed in different sorts of magically maintained environments.
Different sections held different crystals above and below them, providing separate kinds of light and temperatures. One tuft of grass in a clay pot to his left was swaying in a breeze that did not exist, another blood-red flower seemed to tip its petals toward him as he walked past, delivering a distinct impression of hunger. Tilly suppressed a shiver at the thought of another plant trying to eat him and quickly moved through the maze of tables and shelves covered in plants to the back counter where a bored-looking female minotaur sat checking a scroll and grinding some seeds into a paste with a mortar and pestle. Tilly approached and drew back his hood,
“Hi, I was wondering where I could go to see some more exotic species?” He stated, making sure to get the phrasing just right.
“Gods, I do hate that Librarian of yours,” she said, looking up from her work with a frustrated expression.
“I mean, we know there is another human in the city now, and there is only one Lord of the lapin people…Do they think I'm an idiot, that I wouldn't know who to let through without a code phrase?”
“Well, I was ju-”
“No, no. Don't bother. Just go through the door and up the stairs mister spy man. The rest of the ‘Cabal’ is up there.” She interrupted, swinging up part of the counter on a hinge and giving him access to the door to the back.
“Uh, thanks,” Tilly said, a little of his frustration bleeding into his voice at the misunderstanding. He moved past the minotaur and through the doorway when he heard her voice call after him.
“Oh, and do not piss off my master. I don't care if you are both humans. She has enough on her plate, and we don't need another of your kind bashing in here and trying to mess everything up by helping.”
Tilly just scowled in response, not bothering to correct yet another set of assumptions about who he was and what he wanted based on his race alone. He moved up the narrow stairs on the left of the hallway that sat behind the doorway and noticed his notification icon blinking again. He toyed with the idea of bringing it up, but then he heard a harsh voice ring out from the other side of the door at the top of the steps.
“Why don't you stop being an ass and tell us, Cornelius! Is he alive or dead? How can we make any plan if the old monster is an unknown variable?” A voice demanded sternly from the other side of the door.
Notification log forgotten, Tilly opened the door to a simple large open room dominated by a center work table that was surrounded by six contrasting figures. They each turned to him as he entered, studying him with expressions ranging from curiosity to suspicion. Unfortunately, the latter expression was held by the speaker of the question Tilly had heard through the door.
She did not seem at all excited to see him, and her near hostility irritated him in a way that was difficult to pin down. Maybe it was the fact that she hadn't even noticed him yesterday, or the fact that he was the only other of her kind in the entire city, and yet she eyed him like he had just been caught eavesdropping or something. The feeling that accompanied being identified pinged in his mind, and he went ahead and identified them all back.
Directly to his right was Hiro, who stood erect with his arms crossed, nodding to Tilly in solidarity. Then there was Elder Kihei, who leaned on his staff wearing an expression of subtle amusement. Next to him was the other human, whose name he did not know. Identify labeled her as:
Level 32 Botanist Surveyor
She wore the same safari-style white blouse and pants with a long leather coat over it all that had a ridiculous amount of pockets. To her left was an impeccable armored Satyr covered in scars. He only offered the human a cursory glance before turning back to the map covering the table.
Level 62 Bastion of the Empire
Next to him was a portly minotaur in relatively rich robes who was sitting comfortably in the only chair in the room, although it did not seem to be doing well holding him.
Level 49 Caravan Leader
The final member was an older satyr in formal-looking servant's garbs, with a prominent badge trimmed in silver pinned to the front.
Level 41 Imperial Steward.
“Why is he here again?” she stated in frustration pulling the attention of the room back to her.
“He may mean something to you Hiro, but he’s only level 12. What could he possibly have to add to this discussion? ” She said, leaning over the table and staring at Tilly like a full trash bin that no one wanted to take out. That was the last straw for Tilly, he was tired of all the unearned hostility thrown his way without him getting any chance to defend himself.
“Look lady, I don't know what I did to piss you off, but I’m just here to help those kids out on the street, and if you-”
“Don't you dare speak to me about helping the children!” She shouted suddenly furious.
“I haven't slept in days, trying to find some way to beat this accursed malady that has infected them. You don't get to come in here-”
The door slammed into Tilly’s back as it was suddenly flung open. He turned to see the female minotaur from behind the counter barging in carrying the little satyr girl in her arms. Following behind her legs was the same little gnomish boy from the front of the shop.
She laid down the little girl with exaggerated care on the table, and the whole room was filled with the crackling liquidy sound of her breathing.
“The children say he did something to her, and she started getting worse. She now has a fever which was not recorded in her documented symptoms.” The minotaur said, looking over at Tilly with open hostility now roiling in her gaze.
“Yeah, hold your nose when he talks to you! I'm pretty sure it was his breath.” the gnomish boy added unhelpfully.