{-Rennyn-}

They learned hardly anything from their investigation throughout the castle—not helped by the fact that it seemed Merith and his council wanted to get them away from any area that might’ve furthered the investigation. Practically the only substantial place they were able to access was Mira’s room, which held nothing too out of the ordinary. By the time the sun went down, Merith was practically forcing them out, citing some ball or another that, frankly, just sounded like an excuse. So, with another day practically wasted, they headed back to the inn.

The innkeeper was reading a book when they came in and, at first, he assumed she was only going to tell them that their rooms were ready for them. But when they got to the counter, she actually looked up at them.

“By the way, some girl came over and dropped something off for you,” she remarked casually. “One of my kids put it in the room you boys are staying in. They may or may not have looked through it, too. I’ve noticed people seeing you around the castle. Are you helping with something there?”

Rennyn nodded. Given that she undoubtedly knew by now, he figured he might as well be honest. “We’re helping to find Lady Mira again.”

“Maybe you’ll be able to make better sense of it, then. The kids couldn’t, but if that’s what you’re here for, then you just might.”

“But back to something more important—you mentioned a girl came and gave it to you. Was it Allyna?”

“Dunno, she never introduced herself. She looked like you, though. Might’ve mentioned being your sister. So, if Allyna’s your sister, then that was probably her.”

“Do you know where she went after that?”

“I don’t keep tabs on everyone that comes in and out of my inn. All I know is that she came, delivered whatever she had, then left again. You’re going to have to figure out the rest on your own.”

He sighed. “Alright, then.”

“Let’s wait to see what it is until the morning,” Kaylin suggested. “Whatever it is, we can’t go rushing after it now—it’s late and we’ve had a long day. I, frankly, can’t trust you not to do anything with that information if you read it tonight.”

She glanced at Seldir, but he was already one step ahead of her, as he nodded and confirmed, “I’ll keep him from it.”

“What if it’s something important?” Rennyn questioned. “What if it’s something that she needs our help with as soon as possible? Or she’s in danger somewhere?”

The innkeeper shrugged and remarked, “She was pretty casual when she came in with them. Besides, my kids said that no one seemed to be in immediate danger when they read it over. Whatever it is, it can wait until the morning. And I’m only partially saying that because I don’t want to have reserved two rooms that no one was actually going to be using.”

Noa more nervously nodded. “We did a lot today. Resting would be good…”

Rennyn had to admit that he wasn’t going to get anywhere. “Fine. But we’re checking it first thing tomorrow morning.”

…

Of course he found himself unable to sleep, but Seldir had gone as far as placing the letters on the other side of Noa’s bed, which meant there was no way to grab them without risking waking him up. So Rennyn just had to lay there, either staring up at the ceiling or daring to risk what might emerge once he closed his eyes.

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He was quietly trying to prepare himself for the day by the time the sun was starting to come up; that was when he felt like he could justify getting up. Once the other two were up—or, rather, he’d accidentally woken up Noa, and Seldir realized he shouldn’t roll over and go back to sleep—they all went down and waited for the girls.

Honestly, a part of him had to wonder if Kaylin intentionally waited a while before she and Lyrei came down. By the time they finally got there, Seldir had already “convinced”—more like forcefully implied, then simply put into action—Rennyn that they should order breakfast, and all of their food had just arrived.

“Given your expression, I assume you still haven’t seen what’s in the letters?” Kaylin prompted calmly. “At least, they still look like they’re closed, and you didn’t come and drag us down here.”

“They’re not open yet,” he mumbled back. “But you certainly weren’t rushing to get down here, were you? Do you care about what it says?”

“Of course we do, but I doubt whatever it is is going to get any better or worse if we wait a little longer. We need to have clear heads, and that’s something that comes with being well-rested.”

Lyrei casually interrupted to add, “Which is something it looks like you’re lacking.”

“That doesn’t matter.” Rennyn reached for the letters and, since no one stopped him, started to open them. “We’ve got to figure out why Allyna left these. We can eat as we read.”

He could tell almost immediately that they were snippets of correspondence between two people; the names and true intentions of those people weren’t directly stated, but he had more than a couple of guesses. And, frankly, all that did was make him more eager to read it—make him dread whatever they might’ve said just a little bit more.

Things like this never ended well, for anyone involved. Especially not when the five of them found themselves right in the middle of it.

Before he was able to actually read anything, though, Kaylin took it from him. “I’ll read it out loud for everyone,” she explained. “And we’re all going to listen through it all the way through before we determine what we’re going to do about it. Is that clear?”

The others had no objections to it, but something close to panic in Rennyn wanted to argue it. He knew the importance of waiting to see what the whole situation looked like, though, before jumping into it. So why was the idea of it so hard to him? Why was there such a gap between what he knew he should do and what every other part of him wanted to do?

Kaylin waited another moment, then started. “‘My end of the deal is complete. We’ve escorted the miss from her room to a ‘safer’ location. You were right, she’s smarter than she looks—but she was also smart enough not to put up a fight. She didn’t even bother asking questions, just politely followed us along to the rendezvous point. And don’t worry, if any of the citizens noticed we were together, they probably thought we were guards escorting her somewhere. Didn’t see anyone, though. It was pretty late at night.’”

She went to the next letter. “‘Good. With any amount of luck, we’ll be able to handle this whole thing quickly. It’s become quite a problem, and one I don’t want to deal with later… Wait until further instruction. Your pay will be issued shortly.’” That must’ve been it, because she went on to pull out the third—and final, by the look of it—sheet of paper. “This one’s a map. It must be the rendezvous point—though I can’t recognize the handwriting.”

“Let me see.” Rennyn didn’t give her any chances to respond, taking it. “This is Allyna’s. She must’ve figured out where it was and sent this all with us.”

“Hey, so, we’re all on the same page about what they’re talking about, right?” Lyrei asked, smart enough to lower her voice a little. “That this is about Lady Mira..?”

Seldir shrugged. “It’s about the only lead we have at the moment.”

Rennyn quickly stood up. “We’ve got—”

Kaylin tugged his sleeve to force him back down. “Eat something first, then we’re going to figure out if this has anything to do with Lady Mira. You’re not going anywhere until then.”