Jail wasn't so bad. They'd been given their own cell away from the sleeping drunk who kept crying out in his sleep for women of several different names and a piece of bread to share between them. When questioned on the whereabouts of their picnic basket the guard had shrugged, crumbs falling out of his mustache.
Gwen was on her back the whole time, unable to move without shaking like a newborn deer or even lift herself up so Alouella had let her have the bread, feeding it to her in small bites.
Relief finally came in the form of a familiar face when Wade arrived, red in the face and looking like he might bust from holding his emotions in check.
This did not affect his volume.
“ALOUELLA! GWEN! ARE YOU TWO ALRIGHT!? THEY'RE SAYING YOU BROKE INTO WEATHERWORN'S HOUSE, BEAT UP HIS GUARDS AND TRIED TO ROB HIM!?”
Gwen waved weakly at him and Alouella approached the bars, explaining in a hushed tone that she hoped Wade would adopt.
“We weren't. We had reason to believe that Clarke was being imprisoned in that home.”
He did not take the hint.
“WHAT!? AND YOU DIDN'T CALL ME!?”
He paced side to side, smoothing his hair back over his head frantically as energy burst through him with nowhere to go.
“ARE YOU ALRIGHT?”
“...wade...”
Gwen called weakly from her spot on the straw stuffed cot.
“...can't you see we're having a party in here...”
She held a shaky finger up, twirling it in an oval and her voice cracked as she spoke.
“...whoooo...”
He took a deep breath and held it for several seconds before letting go slowly. If nothing else it lowered his volume.
“There's nothing I can do for you so I'm very worked up, I'm sorry. I don't exactly have any special pull around here and the guy whose house you broke into, you think the guards would show up so quick anywhere else? They were down the street, just sitting there. He has his own city guards on stand-by. That whole area does in fact.”
He took another breath and clenched his hands on the bars.
“And what about Clarke? Why do you think Mr. Weatherworn took him?”
Alouella relayed their findings in Clarke's home, what had led to the break in all the while Wade banged his head on the bars. It was a long shot but he turned as a guard walked in and asked.
“Hey, can you open this up and let them out?”
The guard shrugged.
“Sure.”
He came over and unlocked the door, throwing it wide.
“I'm not moving the dwarf again though.”
He walked away rubbing his lower back. The others just stared, absolutely stunned.
“Wow...they must really like me around here.”
“They don't like you, they like money.”
A familiar voice said behind them. Twinty appeared, traveling cloak on and dressed in earth tones. He looked tired and irritated and he quickly made his way to the prisoners in the cell. A swift flick of his fingers struck Gwen atop her head.
“...ow...”
“Recklessness I might expect from you but stupidity is what I expect from Wade. Is that it? You want to take Wade's job?”
Gwen tried to make a face but all she could manage was a sickly frown. Alouella tried to defend her.
“But sir, she was only worried about-”
Twinty turned on her and flicked his fingers across her head and sent her flinching back.
“But you! I was so happy to see you traveling with all of these lackwits because you have some common sense! Where was it today?”
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She fumbled her fingers together and looked down at her feet.
“It was for a good cause...”
“I could go to a poor town and open up a butcher shop selling cheap human meat to starving families but that doesn't make my method right!”
He turned to Wade and crawled up his side until he could strike him in the head too.
“Ow! What was that for, I wasn't even there!”
“Carry that dwarf. If you had a brain in your head I wouldn't have to tell you. Hurry up, we have places to be.”
Wade hoisted her up and Twinty looked in her eyes, opened her mouth to pull out her tongue and inspect it.
“Well, I can't cure whatever this is so it'll have to run its course but I can give you something that'll cause the opposite effect and we can hope it evens you out.
He produced a vial from his cloak, something red and fizzy that popped like a tiny symphony, and emptied the contents into her mouth. It felt like a thousand tiny pops going off all across her tongue.
“Give it a few minutes and something should happen. Now let's walk.”
He led them from the guard station and out into the orange stretched sky with dusk coming on like wild fire.
“Where are we going?”
Alouella asked. Positioned as the station was between districts they had workers staring after them on one side and the bored people-watching rich at the park on the other, looking towards the gossip of the day.
Twinty rushed them along but explained hurriedly as they went.
“Whilaway wanted to 'have a chat' with me and asked me to come into town. He said he'd been taking care of Clarke and that he'd run up a bit of a medical bill and that payment was coming due.”
Alouella looked miserable at these words.
“So he really was helping Clarke? That makes what we did even worse!”
Twinty chuckled.
“Hardly. Whilaway Weatherworn is about as self serving and criminal as you can get while maintaining a good public face. He did kidnap Clarke for what you found in Whaler's Wharf.”
“I knew it.”
Wade whispered.
“You don't know anything unless someone tells you so shut up and listen. One of my observers happened to be near the scene when Clarke was attacked. They saw him throw some fiery chemicals on his notes and all of the pages in his home meaning every little thing you suffered for, beyond the gold you made selling those jewels you found, is gone.”
He stopped after a few more steps when he noticed everyone had halted in their tracks, all with a shocked stare.
“He did what!?”
“But that was his only lead!”
“So he's the only one that knows what happened with everything!? He is literally the final page torn from an adventure novel!”
Twinty searched around in his cloak for a large pocket and pulled a book free. A metal spine, a familiar cover and beautiful handwriting gracing the adventure stained pages.
“But...”
Alouella accepted it and they flipped it open to confirm. The same handwriting, the same adventures and notes of everything that had happened. On the inside cover was a miraculous set of circles within circles, symbols crossed through with lines that spoke of magic Alouella didn't recognize except for the symbol for fire.
“...you just said he'd destroyed it. And now here it is with some...advanced magic scribbled inside, to put it very lightly. I can't even understand any of this except a symbol or two. Did Clarke do this?”
They rounded a corner to a warehouse and Twinty fiddled with a ring of keys pulled from nowhere, endless pockets in coats and cloaks apparently being an ingrown power in both teacher and student.
“I'd suppose so. Just read the book.”
He stayed silent and Alouella pushed the issue as he squinted at the keys.
“But Clarke can't use magic. At all. I watched him take the tests from my mother as a boy and he can't even cast fire.”
“That's right too. Read the book.”
He was silent again and Alouella tensed her fingers into claws that dug into the book's cover.
“What aren't you telling us?”
Twinty sighed.
“Do you know what I have the rats down here do for me? They observe, listen, report. And they all double dip if they can, telling me things, telling others things. Things we don't want getting around. Just read the book.”
The lock undone, he struggled to pull back the sliding door. Gwen, her shakes worse than ever, tiredness existing alongside far too much energy, grasped the door and flung it along its track.
Inside was a cart, stocked up and ready to move. Wade's giswird stood reined up and ready to pull them where they liked. It chirped at Wade when it saw him and pulled the cart around.
“Bartholomew! You brought him, thank you.”
Wade stroked its face and chirped back at the beast. Twinty shooed them along but Gwen planted herself in front of the old rat.
“But what about Clarke? Where are you sending us and why aren't we going to help him? You think we'd just leave him?”
Twinty laced his fingers before him and gave the dwarf a look that pierced through her and forced her to step back.
“Of course not. Do you really think I'd just let my boy-...”
He paused, his eyes flickering for a moment, something angry and sad taking place that was quickly hidden behind his glare.
“-I mean, my student is in trouble and I'd normally let him stew in his own choices but there's a lot at stake here so I thought I'd send my most reliable asset to help him. Me.”
“But you're so old.”
Wade said from the cart. Twinty gave him a taste of that withering glare.
“I have other abilities gained with age, pup. Believe me when I say Clarke will be with you soon in Wubwé and you'll deliver that book to him. Now get going and if you need anything else look in the book. It's all there.”
Gwen looked unsure but Alouella nodded, climbing aboard beside Wade. She held a hand out to Gwen, a lifeline that told her everything would be fine if she climbed into the wagon and left.
Twinty looked at Alouella.
“Remember, you're the common sense.”
She nodded and Wade snapped the reins, the bird taking off into a dark tunnel that gradually rose until it came out in a topside warehouse, the doors open and letting them out into the road. Wade nodded at the book.
“You heard the rat. What's Clarke's big secret?”
Alouella was already madly flipping through the pages for the start.