Alice had proven before that while she was extremely smart, she did not account for everything. Sometimes the gears in her mind were focused a little too much on more complicated things and missed some other factors that should have been rather obvious. This didn’t exactly mix well with Ingrid’s difficulty going against what Alice said. Alice said that breaking and entering was a good idea. The situation was urgent, so they had to bend the rules a little to make sure nothing happened to their friend.
It didn’t occur to Ingrid that snooping around someone’s business and house in an underground section of a city was likely extremely dangerous. It didn’t occur to her that it likely would have been a better idea to announce their presence as soon as they entered to make sure that it was known who they were and what they were there for, and make it clear to the denizens that they meant no harm, and only did this due to the crisis they were currently in.
Those thoughts didn’t occur to her initially, at least. When suddenly, a surprisingly tall dwarf man drops from the ceiling and knocks the wind from your chest, then lifts your head up and puts a knife to your throat before you even have a chance to grunt, it's surprising how many thoughts can run through your mind in quick succession.
Ingrid desperately tried to hold in a groan of pain, as the knife was pressed so tightly to her throat that she feared the tiny movement of her larynx would be enough to press the blade into her flesh.
Alice was fairing only slightly better. Evelynn had her pressed against the wall, an elbow against her own throat and a small hand crossbow directly against her forehead. She wore an awkward smile and kept her hands in the air. Alice was extremely perceptive, so the lack of any sort of noise from the two of them and getting the drop on them was a feat in and of itself. In Alice’s defense, they did get Ingrid first, and used the surprise to get Alice, but Ingrid could beat herself up about that later.
Currently, she was beating herself up for not attempting to sense any life within the building, as that could have easily prevented this. As much as she could say that she now knew that for next time, it would not remove the knife from her throat, the knee pressing against her spine, or her arm being held behind her at an exceedingly painful angle that prevented her from focusing on anything.
“If I said I was just here for that drink, would that make this better or worse?” Alice joked. She was promptly kneed in the stomach. “Worse, gotcha!” she groaned, that stupid smile staying on her face.
“You’re gonna tell us why you’re actually here, or we’re giving your bodies to Glakhon to fertilize plants. Understand?” Evelynn growled, pressing the bolt against Alice’s forehead.
“I uh, I think you’ll need a different threat. Pretty sure Princess here is actually a fan of that idea,” she continued, nodding towards Ingrid.
Ingrid felt her heart stop as Evelynn turned to look at her. Alice wasn’t completely wrong, most Druidkeepers had their bodies used to feed the plants and animals of the wilderness, and their memorials or gravestones were never accompanied by a body. That didn’t mean she wanted that fate to come early though. She gave an awkward smile, desperately hoping that Alice’s jokes weren’t going to get them killed.
She gasped as she felt her arm released, her muscles and joints no longer screaming in pain. The dwarven man got off of her, then picked her up by the back of her shirt like she weighed nothing and held her in front of his face. His beard wasn’t as long as Glakhon’s, but it had the same color. Also unlike Glakhon, he had a full head of hair only slightly darker than his beard. Other than that, they looked remarkably similar.
“Well, your friend here seems like a real comedian,” he said in a deep, gravely voice. “You want to try a different approach?”
Ingrid was still learning how to deal with people and properly interact with them. She did, however, know enough to tell that that was a threat. She held up her hands to show that she wasn’t a threat and spoke quickly.
“O-Okay, we’re sorry we broke into your home! Tavern! Business? Not the point sorry, Evelynn told us her husband was an information broker and I’m assuming that’s you because she said Glakhon was her brother in-law and you look a lot like him but with more hair and a little taller and more muscular-”
“Hey Princess, you ever tried earthshaping magic before? I think you’d be great at it considering you’re digging our graves at record speeds,” Alice grimaced, earning another hit of some sort that she couldn’t see from Evelynn.
The dwarven man’s eyes narrowed.
“Okay, okay, sorry,” she took a deep breath. “We came here because it’s an emergency. Our friend, the short one with the really long white hair, she’s been kidnapped from her room in Glakhon’s inn. The only thing we know in this city is that you deal in information, and we don’t know how much time we have,” she explained, slower than her rambling that she had done before. She gave the man a pleading look. “We’ll pay extra, we just want to know anything we can that might give us a lead on where she could be.”
Evelynn and the dwarf exchanged a look. The dwarf looked back at Ingrid, then dropped her unceremoniously to the floor. “Name’s Tuzmuc. You’re paying double, and my wife is going to have you at bolt point the entire time in case either of you try anything funny. Mainly your friend. You don’t seem the type to pull anything, but I don’t trust her.”
“Hey, he’s good at his job! Gah-!” Alice crumpled to the floor, clutching her stomach. “Gods I need to shut up sometimes.”
Ingrid followed close behind Tuzmuc down into the tavern, Alice close behind. Evelynn stayed behind Alice, the crossbow still trained on the back of her head.
Tuzmuc walked behind the bar, gesturing to two stools for the pair to sit in. They were quick to comply, as a quick glance back at Evelynn showed that her finger was on the trigger, and would tighten ever so slightly if they were slow to move. There was little room to doubt that she’d fully pull it without hesitating.
“So, your friend with the white hair. She’s new in town too, right? Did you lot piss anyone off on your way here?” He asked bluntly, his eyes scanning every tiny movement the two of them made.
Ingrid shook her head. “We’ve barely interacted with anyone since getting here. We showed up pretty late, so all we had time to do was look for an inn and get rooms. We talked to Evelynn and your brother, but that was it.”
He didn’t answer right away, and his eyes flicked to different parts of Ingrid’s face like he was searching for any sign of a lie. She couldn’t help but shrink a bit under his gaze.
“Well then, odds are your friend is at the very least alive. If she pissed someone off enough for them to risk breaking into an inn and her room, they’d have just slit her throat and left,” He said it so matter-of-factly that it almost sent a shiver down Ingrid’s spine. The thought of death being so casual disturbed her.
“They didn’t do a great job either,” Alice chimed in. “Sloppy work picking the lock, took me all of half a second to tell what the deal was. Clearly, whatever they’d be gettin from her is well worth the chance of gettin caught.”
Tuzmuc seemed to think on that for a second, scratching his beard. He looked at Ingrid. “You mentioned her having white hair. What color were her eyes?”
“Um, purple?” she responded, looking at Alice. If this man was an information broker, it made sense that he’d probably have an idea of what espers were, but she wasn’t sure what that would have to do with this.
“I trust you two know what espers are if you were traveling around with one,” he grumbled, seeming to realize something. After they both nodded, he sighed. “To put it in simple terms, your friend is probably in a bad way. Either of you heard of the Obsidian Assembly?”
The name didn’t ring a bell for Ingrid, but judging by the way Alice’s face went pale, she assumed it did for her.
“You’re fucking kidding me, they’re in the city? I thought they stuck to southern Cordelia!” she exclaimed, a look of fear and anger crossing her face.
“Not entirely in the city. But, there are a couple of agents here that like to spy on things. I’m not sure what they’re after, but if some mediocre criminals stole your esper friend to offer her up on a silver platter for them, there’s no way they’re going to say no to that.”
Alice started bouncing her leg. Ingrid knew that face. The one that had thirty different ideas in it and pruning out the ones that didn’t work. She gently placed a hand on Alice’s shoulder. The bouncing seemed to slow, and her face softened a bit as she looked at her.
“No sense leaving you in the dark, Princess. Obsidian Assembly is a group from Oglara, nation south of here. You’re hard pressed to find folk who even know about ‘em,” she started. “Most activity they do in Cordelia is in the south, but… One thing they do is put out bounties on espers. Not specific ones, just in general. You bring ‘em a live esper, you’re a rich person.”
Ingrid gulped. “W-What do they do with the espers…?”
“No clue,” she said, shaking her head. “But given their other business, it can’t be good. We need to find Malori ASAP.”
“Right. Um, Tuzmuc, do you know who could have done it? Names, descriptions, anything!” She asked, a hint of desperation in her voice.
He didn’t answer at first, but looked towards a window. “I was the first to know when they started making moves around the city. I’ve only shared that little bit of info with three other groups,” he leaned forward on the counter. “The only dumbass out of the ones I told would be a Half-Giant named Zelzar.”
Ingrid practically jumped up in her seat. “Where can we find them?”
He raised a hand. “Easy there, you’re racking up quite a bill here. You sure you can affor-”
She cut him off by slamming down a pouch with a satisfying clinking of metal coins. He raised an eyebrow before taking the pouch, tossing it in the air and catching it. His eyes went wide as he did. He immediately looked in the pouch, his eyes going even wider. Ingrid saw Evelynn cock her head to the side.
Tuzmuc reached in and grabbed a few of the gold coins, pulling them out, examining them as closely as he had examined her and Alice’s faces. A smile crept across his face as he put the coins back in the bag and stuffed it under the counter.
“Northwest section of town. Lots of abandoned buildings over there that no one likes to go near. He and his group like to make a little base out of an old warehouse. They’re a pretty big group too. Few dozen of them in there,” he said happily. “My friend, money talks here, and you seem to have a very loud voice. Careful around here, otherwise pockets that heavy are going to get picked.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I got that warning from this one. I can’t thank you enough for all of this though,” They were still in an awful situation, but they had lucked out here. They had a location and a name. Now came brainstorming for a way to get past a few dozen thugs that likely wouldn’t be too picky about whether or not she lived through a scuffle. “Once we work this out, could we maybe come back here tonight? There’s another matter I’d like to ask about, but this kind of takes priority.”
He gave a quiet chuckle. “If you’re gonna pay like this, come by anytime. When the tavern is open. Unless your friend here likes having my wife threaten to kill her.”
“I mean, I can’t say I don’t have a thing for women who could kill me-! Gah! Oh come on, that one wasn’t necessary!” Alice shouted, rubbing the top of her head.
Tuzmuc rolled his eyes. “Evelynn’s never been a fan of flirts. Keep it in your pants, alright?”
“Yeah, no, I got that,” she groaned. “I’d say that it’s a defense mechanism but I don’t think that makes it much better.”
“It doesn’t,” Evelynn grumbled, heading around the bar to start preparing to open.
Tuzmuc looked at the two again. “I recommend you get going. I know most things, but how long it’ll take the Assembly to get to your friend isn’t one of them. You’re on a timer and don’t know when it’s going off.”
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Ingrid nodded, reaching forward and taking his hand in both of hers to shake. “Thank you so, so much. We wouldn’t even have a chance if it weren’t for you,” she said. He seemed a bit surprised by how earnest she was being, but he returned the handshake.
“Hey, you get what you pay for. Now, get the hell out of here and go find your little esper.”
Grabbing a groaning Alice, Ingrid rushed out of the tavern, giving one last wave to Tuzmuc and Evelynn. There was still an underlying panic among it all, and the voices in her head wondering if it was already too late were awfully loud. If her years with Alice had taught her anything though, it was that that line of thinking just guaranteed that something wouldn’t get done.
Alice quickly gained her balance and walked in line with Ingrid, no longer rubbing what was surely going to be a welt on top of her head. She rested her hands behind her head, sighing. “Well, I’m just gonna come out and say it, I have no idea how we’re getting past a few dozen people. Any of your magic that would actually make enough of a difference to get us past them will kinda just let everyone and their mother know who you are and that you’re here.”
Ingrid grimaced. Alice was right, a spell like the one she had used back in Lhanbryde would garner much more attention than either of them wanted. It could slow them down, or even worse, get that Obsidian Assembly following them. She didn’t know how dedicated they were to tracking down and capturing espers, but there was a chance they’d decide to start pursuing them if that kind of display of magic was shown. If they didn’t decide to pursue them anyway.
“You’re sure you wouldn’t be able to sneak past them?” she suggested weakly.
Alice gave a wry smile. “I’m flattered at your confidence in me, and at night, absolutely. However, it’ll be broad daylight above the surface, there will be people watching her, and even if I got past all of them, I’d have to get Malori out. She’s a healing prodigy, but I don’t think stealth is something that would be in her repertoire,” she explained glumly.
The statements weren’t wrong, but Ingrid found herself wishing they were. Maybe when they got there, there would be less people. Or maybe there would be plenty of cover for Alice and Malori to work with. She shook her head. They were ideas, but if they were going to do any sort of preparation, they’d have to do it now. Deciding to gamble everything on chances like that was a good way to make sure Malori wasn’t saved.
As her mind kept racing with different possibilities, she became vaguely aware that someone was talking to her and Alice.
“Sorry miss, are you alright?” The person asked, leaning down to look Ingrid in the eyes while being on level with her.
It was a rather bewildering sight, and certainly one she wasn’t expecting. Alice had already interposed herself between Ingrid and the stranger, but even she seemed off put by them.
The woman was tall. Very tall. Likely a little over six feet, and a full head taller than Alice. She was a human, with shoulder length black hair and deep blue eyes that were almost like sapphires. Her skin was pale, though not as pale as Malori’s. She wore a tattered brown tunic, with tan leggings, and brown field shoes. Ingrid felt bad thinking it, but clearly this woman was impoverished. That thought made the enormous glaive on her back seem that much more out of place. The blade of it extended down past the top of the wooden shaft, giving it almost the appearance of an extremely long axe.
Realizing that she had been silent for a little too long, Ingrid quickly gathered herself. “Oh! S-Sorry, I was caught up in my own head for a bit there. Did you say something?” she managed to force out, hoping it wasn’t too awkward. Given the look Alice gave her, the hope was likely in vain.
The woman smiled. “Well, I was kind of just walking around, and you two seemed stressed out, like you were dealing with something. Anything I can help with?” She said in a kind voice.
Ingrid looked at Alice, who looked back at her in confusion. Shaking her head, Ingrid spoke up again. “Um, well we appreciate the offer, but I don’t really think this would be a good thing to get other people involved in,” she said politely.
“Oh that’s nonsense, I’m always happy to help!” the woman grinned. “Besides, if it’s anything dangerous, that’s not exactly a dealbreaker for me,” she added, pointing a thumb at the glaive.
The woman’s hands and wrists were wrapped in bandages, with just her fingers exposed. Her sleeves were rolled up to her elbows as well, displaying some fairly muscular forearms. Looking at her again, despite the woman seeming rather gangly at first glance, she didn’t seem like she was weak in any sense of the word. Depending on how well she wielded that glaive, this woman could actually be seen as kind of intimidating.
She found herself second guessing the idea of pushing this woman away. If she really did want to help, then they weren’t exactly in a position to say no. The phrase ‘a few dozen’ left a sizable margin of error, in her mind equating to anywhere from thirty-six to sixty people they’d have to fight through.
“Sorry miss…” she stopped as she realized she didn’t know this woman’s name, and a look of panic briefly crossed her face.
The woman seemed to take notice and gave a warm smile. “Oh! My name is Kallen. Nice to meet you!”
Ingrid gave a quick nod. “Okay, Kallen,” she chuckled nervously. “Do you mind if we just have a quick sidebar? We’ll try to keep it brief,” she said apologetically, immediately pulling a very confused Alice off to the side.
“Princess, what are you doing?” She hissed, looking back at Kallen to see if she was listening. She wore a cheerful expression on her face, looking at the two, but it was almost dumb. She had a stare that betrayed what honestly seemed like a lack of any thoughts behind those eyes.
“Okay, look, think about what options we have!” She said, “She’s offering to help! Why shouldn’t we take that? Gift horses Alice!”
“Why shouldn’t we- Because help doesn’t just randomly walk into you on the side of the street!” Alice fired back. “She’s clearly up to something! I barely trusted Malori! I still don’t, quite honestly, but I do enough to want to keep her alive!”
“You were cracking jokes and flirting with Evelynn back there!”
“Yeah, she coulda killed me by sneezing a little too hard and pulling the trigger!” Alice explained, tapping the back of her hand into her other palm to emphasize the point. “That is a clear intention! Why in the name of any god would you just say yes to a random lady in the street with a glaive that could split me or you in half on a whim?”
Ingrid rolled her eyes. “Because what other options are there? Do you think you could sneak past that many people with Malori? If I’m not mistaken I literally just asked you that a couple of seconds ago.”
Alice stopped. She grumbled some gibberish, but didn’t answer. That in and of itself was an answer.
“Okay, what about fighting, can you take out that many people?” She asked genuinely. “You did handle yourself really well when I saw you. If you can do that kind of thing, then yeah, I won’t argue.”
She sighed. “I’m an assassin. I could probably beat anyone there one on one. Maybe even pick off a chunk of them one by one, but they’d figure it out and move Malori. I can’t do that on a time limit. Actual big fights I tend to focus on slipping into blind spots while they’re occupied with someone else,” she explained. “I can’t just run into that many people like some generals can and walk out alive, I have limits.”
It was Ingrid’s turn to sigh. Expecting something like that from Alice wasn’t fair. Expecting it from anyone wasn’t. She just wished there could have been some sort of simple solution.
“Look, Princess, the point is, you can’t trust people like this. If someone is hostile to you, you know that they’re being genuine. If they want something from you and tell you that, you know they’re being genuine. This?” She gestured back at Kallen. “This is a blank slate, and you never trust that. If someone just walks up to you and tries to be some sorta helpful savior, then there isn’t a single thing to trust about that.”
Ingrid felt her chest tighten a little bit. “Is that what you thought of me?” She asked quietly.
She noticed Alice scanning her face and remembered what the dark elf had told her a few years prior. That she had a particular look in her face when she was hurt by something that she always did unconsciously. She hadn’t ever described it, but Ingrid could tell that Alice had noticed it popping up.
“I- Princess, that’s not what I meant,” She relented, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I do trust you, more than anyone. It’s just, come on, you can’t tell me that you’re actually going for this, are you?”
It felt a little bad hearing the hint of desperation in Alice’s voice as she spoke. She didn’t want to back down though. “I can’t see any reason to distrust it. Besides, I’ve asked twice what other options we have, and you didn’t answer on either of them. You haven’t suggested anything either,” she said apologetically. “I’m asking because you’re smart though! You take a bunch of factors into account that Malori and I didn’t, and you’ve told me stories about you screwing around with richer clients. You can make plans around things like these! That’s something I trust too!” she insisted, taking Alice’s hands in her own.
Alice averted her eyes, bringing one hand up to cover her mouth and cheeks, almost like her mask. After a few seconds, she let it drop. “Can I? Maybe, but we don’t know the layout of the building, their exact numbers, how well armed they are. We don’t have any idea how long we actually have either. Every minute we spend here is another minute Malori might be gone,” she pleaded.
“Fine. I don’t trust this in the slightest. I trust you though,” she bit her lip, “If this is the route you wanna take, then I’ll help in whatever way I can.”
Ingrid nodded thoughtfully. “Let’s head to where Tuzmuc said they’d be and bring her. I’m sure you’re sneaky enough to do a little bit of reconnaissance from outside the place, right?”
That confident grin that Ingrid loved to see returned to Alice’s face. “What do you take me for, Princess? It may not be sneaking directly through them, but something like that won’t be any trouble. We work out a plan from there yeah?”
“Right,” she said happily, glad to have somewhat eased Alice’s worries. She looked back to see Kallen still standing by the side of the road, looking down at and making clicking noises at an inquisitive mouse looking up at her. With one last look back to Alice and getting a nod of affirmation, the duo returned to the other woman.
“Oh, hey! I was worried you forgot about me,” she joked. “So, any word?”
Ingrid bit her lip. “We’ll take the help. Do you need a rundown of what the situation is?” There was a bit of hopefulness in her voice. She meant it more as just a pleasantry, but given Kallen’s expression, there was the slightest hint of worry that she’d agree to something blindly.
She seemed to think about it, then shrugged. “Sure, I guess I should probably know what I’m doing. So, what’s the issue?”
Ingrid gave a relieved sigh. “A friend of ours, a shorter girl named Malori, she ended up getting kidnapped. We have a lead on where she might be, but no idea how long we have to find her. Even if she’s there, there are supposed to be a lot of thugs guarding her, and we don’t know if we can get through them all,” she explained, looking to Alice to make sure she wasn’t leaving anything out. “Do you think you can help us with that?”
A wide grin spread across Kallen’s face. “Say no more, of course I can!” she chimed. “Where are we headed? Just point me in the right direction!”
There was a bit of worry from how quickly she agreed without even hearing the exact numbers, but didn’t think that was much of a surprise given what little she knew about Kallen.
Her and Alice gave her a quick rundown of the location, and began heading there. Ingrid and Alice walked next to each other like they did with Malori, but with Ingrid in the middle, she felt a little self conscious about being the shortest person there. With Alice already taller than her and now Kallen towering over her, she found herself wondering if this was what Malori felt whenever they walked.
She shook off those thoughts and tried to focus on staying calm, not getting sidetracked. Kallen’s quiet humming actually helped her on that front. She found latching onto one specific noise in the cacophony of people crowding the streets once they returned to the surface oddly relaxing. Alice recommended they stay on smaller roads and put her hood up. The last thing any of them needed was to have someone start making a scene about her.
Ingrid was grateful for the consideration. She was happy to listen as well, thinking that there was likely a part of Alice that didn’t want to think about that prospect with the task at hand.
After walking for a while, she noticed Kallen lean down to be more eye level with Alice, seemingly scanning her face.
“So, what’s with the hood and mask?” she asked bluntly. Even Ingrid was a little surprised.
Alice gave her a look of confusion, one that Ingrid recognized as her almost confused as to why the question was even asked. She reached up and pulled down on the scarf to show her mouth. “I- Really? We’re in a big city. I don’t want trouble.”
Kallen tilted her head. “Doesn’t that kind of getup make you look like trouble though? I can’t think of many other reasons why someone would cover their face.”
It was Ingrid’s turn to look bewildered. Alice stepped around Ingrid to be next to Kallen before continuing to speak in a hushed tone. “Are you serious? Look at me. You know how many people would take issue with one of my kind just waltzing around in the street?” she tried to explain.
“Yeah I’m not really sure I follow. What’s wrong with what you are right now?” She prodded. If it was under any other context, one could have seen that as a rather sweet comment.
“I’m a Dark Elf, Kallen. People don’t like me. You’re messing with me right now, right? Just trying to bust my ass because my guard is up around new people?” Ingrid almost detected a hint of hope in the last statement, like she was more trying to convince herself than get an actual answer.
“Uh, not really. I guess I haven't seen a ton of people who look like you now that I think about it,” she muttered. “That seems weird though. I’m not sure if I get it.”
Alice groaned, rubbing her face with her hands. “Can we go back to the unassuming silence please? I liked that better.” she groaned.
Kallen shrugged. “I mean I guess. Sorry if I said something bad. I uh, I’m not sure if you could tell, but I’ve been told I’m not exactly smart,” she admitted, rubbing the back of her neck.
“I never would have guessed,” Alice said monotonously, the one eye visible through her fingers staring at Ingrid like she was trying to bore a hole through her.
Ingrid stared down at the ground as they continued to walk. Alice’s annoyance was apparent, but that seemed to be a little above her area of expertise in terms of handling conflict between people. She could almost feel the tension and desire to speak to her radiating off of Alice, but that clearly wasn’t going to happen until they were alone. She hoped she hadn’t done anything wrong.