{-Noa-}

There was something almost amusing about the fact Kaylin didn’t seem bothered by anything. She was right in the room with the others, tucked away in a corner the innkeeper said she could use. She worked without barely looking up, or seeming to acknowledge what was going on at all. Noa almost hoped it stayed that way, because he wasn’t really looking forward to having to explain it to her.

At some point, someone came to the inn asking for others to help in fighting some monsters, but no one offered. Noa and Lyrei went up to them, though, just to get a little bit of clarification. They confirmed that they’d passed Seldir along the way here, and that Rennyn had been the lone swordsman who was helping the family now.

Noa wished he could’ve been helpful somehow. But he could do nothing more than wait, hoping everything turned out okay, and reflecting on the fact that anything else he tried would’ve just made things worse.

Finally, he was able to let out a sigh of relief when the door to the inn opened and Rennyn, Seldir, and a couple of merchants entered. No one seemed too badly injured, even if Rennyn looked to have gotten beaten around a little…

Rennyn and Seldir walked over to where the others were. Rennyn sat down across from the others, but Seldir remained standing.

“Now that that’s all over,” he said, clearly relieved for the fact, “does anyone want to get some breakfast?”

“To be honest, I think I kind of lost my appetite, but that’s probably a good idea…” Noa responded. Lyrei nodded.

Rennyn gave the much more blunt response of, “I’m not hungry.”

Seldir seemed like he might’ve given a retort, but Kaylin instead stirred from her spot, pushing the chair out so she could stretch more freely.

“I wouldn’t mind something small, as a break.” Then she glanced over at the rest of them, particularly Rennyn. “How did you rip your clothes again? Wait, better question—why are your clothes bloody?”

“You know that giant wolf we encountered earlier?” Seldir said, surprisingly calm despite what he must’ve felt about the whole thing. “Yeah, Rennyn fought at least a dozen of those on his own. Without telling any of us where he was going. And being damn lucky there weren’t any more, and that I’d gotten there when I did…”

Kaylin glared right at Rennyn. “What?”

“I’m fine,” was his mumbled response. “It doesn’t matter.”

Lyrei remarked, “I’m pretty sure we’re all in agreement that it does matter. I don’t really think any of this is going exactly like anyone envisioned it would…”

He muttered something else, but it was undoubtedly only some cynical argument.

Kaylin sighed. “I guess what matters most is that you are alright, even if I feel like you’re just pushing through it. I know it’ll be hard, but I want you to stay here and rest—I’ve got to fix your clothes anyway. Seldir, Lyrei, and Noa can all still go out to town, though. No reason for all of us to stick around here.” She glanced at Seldir. “If you could go ahead and get us all some breakfast, that’ll be appreciated. Tell the innkeeper to add it to our bill for tonight’s rooms.”

Seldir nodded and left.

Kaylin went to ask Rennyn more questions—what he’d done, how hurt he got—which left a lingering silence between Noa and Lyrei.

“I guess we should, ah, figure out where we want to go, huh..?” he prompted after a moment. “I mean, we’re not really going to be able to do anything here…”

Lyrei seemed a little less apprehensive despite how the morning was going so far. “We can probably look around all of the city. There’s bound to be a bunch of stuff we could do, right? Or at least stuff to look at.”

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Noa nodded. “I guess it’s up to Seldir, really—where he’s willing to bring us.”

“Oh, trust me, he’ll go anywhere if you beg him enough. So that’s not really a problem.”

“I still don’t want to drag him anywhere he doesn’t want to go…”

She shrugged. “He’ll get over it.”

“That’s easier for you to say, as someone who’s known him for longer.”

“But at least you know that I know what I’m talking about, right?”

He somehow got himself to manage a small smile. “I guess so.”

…

While Seldir was still eating—he insisted on taking his time, no matter how much Lyrei tried to make him go faster—she went to ask the innkeeper for ideas. She invited Noa, since he’d also finished, but he politely declined. He still hadn’t quite relaxed since the events of earlier in the morning, so he couldn’t muster the same kind of excitement that she had. He hoped he would, though, once they got going.

So, by the time Seldir finished, Lyrei had plenty of ideas. She also got some general directions from the innkeeper so, once determining their course of action, told Rennyn and Kaylin their plans and left.

It wasn’t immediately peaceful, though. Seldir took the opportunity to tell them what had happened when he went to get Rennyn; the things Seldir noticed while he was gone.

“I’ve seen that kind of thing in mercenaries before,” Seldir said as part of his conclusion. “And it never led to anything good.”

“But we’ve got to hope it does, right?” Noa prompted. “We can’t do this without him. We… probably also can’t do this if he’s not willing to talk to us…”

“He’s bound to come around sooner or later,” Lyrei remarked, as part of her reassurances. “When he does, he’ll be able to see that we were all with him from the beginning. That’s the only thing we can hope for, I think.”

Seldir sighed. “Honestly, I’m not even too sure about that…”

Lyrei decided, though, that that was enough troubling conversations. “Well, we came out here to enjoy ourselves, remember? Let’s worry about that later. I want to go see that giant fountain and if you’re any slower then I’m going to go on without you!”

“You’re not going to get out of my sight with a crowd like this.”

“Oh, yeah? Then you better hurry, because I’m not waiting!”

She purposely sped up, with Seldir quickly following after her, leaving Noa—honestly not expecting any real action—to call, “Please wait up for me!”

He was also slower than them because he tended to be the one apologizing for bumping into or otherwise disrupting others. Luckily no one in the crowd seemed to think too much of it, perhaps possibly only seeing them as enthusiastic tourists.

Lyrei abruptly stopped, so Seldir stopped shortly after her, which meant Noa accidentally bumped into him.

“This is it!” Lyrei announced. She turned to the two of them and gestured them closer. “Come on, come on! Stand right here. The sun hits the fountain from just right here, it’s like it’s all magical and glittery!”

“I’d also like to remind you that you’re practically an adult,” Seldir said with a sigh. “A fountain shouldn’t excite you this much…”

Noa shrugged, though. “I don’t know, I think she has a point. It’s… not the kind of thing you’d find in Ilatenes.”

He moved a little closer to them, to see them a bit more closely. There were several fountains; a large one in the center, and several smaller ones more or less scattered throughout the square, synchronized in a performance of water. Lyrei stopped at the largest, which also happened to be the one that had the names of Astiri’s rulers etched into it.

“Ooh, it’s kind of like a genealogy!” She knelt down beside it in order to get a better look, slightly moving to observe other parts of the fountain’s base. “Come on, I want to see if we can find King Merith!”

Noa went to the other side of the fountain to look, too, but Seldir stayed where he was. No one really seemed to pay that much attention to them here; they all just went on with their business, barely anyone even sparing the three a glance. It might’ve helped that the square, as it got later in the morning, became filled with others doing the same thing they were.

“I think I found it,” Noa announced. “I can’t really read it well, but I think this one says ‘King Merith.’”

“Wait, why can’t you read it? Is it written all fancy?” Lyrei quickly moved to where he was, but her excitement was soon replaced with curiosity. “It’s crossed out? And it looks like whoever did that put ‘Queen Mira’ underneath it…”

“All that sounds like is trouble,” Seldir remarked. “I think you should get away from that before someone comes and thinks the two of you did it. We don’t need the unwanted attention.”

Noa nodded and got up immediately, but Lyrei lingered for a moment later.

“I think there’s a little paper here,” she mumbled, pulling out a slip of paper from a crack near the fountain. “And it… looks like it might’ve been from Dhymos?”