Maureen had a suspicious look on her face, a look of questioning as she asked the team what they wanted.
“Vincent is required to help with some church business if you could direct us to where he is.” Adam said shakily.
“Cut the crap, I know you aren’t really with the church, come in, close the door.”
Adam tilted his head back in surprise at her brutal honesty, could everyone see through his charade as easily as she could he wondered.
Walking into the room, Matilda closed the door behind her.
“How did you know?”
“Besides your robes looking a mess? Which is the last thing any priest around here would do. Besides your terrible attempt at our accent? Well, besides all that, that girl right there is as dark as Lafka tree bark.” She said pointing at Matilda rather rudely. Matilda shuffled her feet and
uncovered her hood.
“Oh.” Adam said awkwardly, looking down at his feet.
“I am being truthful about the poor attempt at imitation but I should also let you know Vincent warned me about you three coming, you three are the new hikers. I can’t tell you where he is, he didn’t even tell me unfortunately, but he said I should look out for you if I were to run
in to you. “
“That’s a relief, we could use any help we can get here. It’s not easy to come by it turns out.” Adam felt relief that she was on their side, he was worried she might not be with their introduction, she was certainly a strong character.
“Certainly, the people of Oak are more on the xenophobic side of things. I’m sure your two friends there are well aware of that.” Maureen walked over to a table in the room, pulling her vibrant orange hair back behind her ears.
“You aren’t originally from around here?” Adam said, questioning her word choice.
“Oh no, I am, just don’t quite fit in with most of the culture. Though I probably inherited more than I like to admit still.”
“Just a little xenophobic.” Brian said drily, putting a hand to his stomach after taking a sip of the tea. “I’m sorry, we haven’t ate in quite a while, could we grab anything to eat here, well I’m not sure what our next plan is but I can’t even think properly right now with how hungry I am.”
Maureen nodded in understanding “You three will be heading to far eastern side of the city, you’ll have to be leaving soon. If you three walked all the way here in evening hours in full priest robes, you’ll certainly be getting checked on by a church official pretty soon.”
Adam was confused “What do you mean? I thought priests came to this side of the city.”
“Sure, but big flaw in your plan. The types of robes you are wearing represent the worshippers who would almost certainly be in the church at dusk. Only officials who wear the lighter shaded robes would be seen on this side of the city at this time of night. You probably should have had a better understanding of their structure and such before you pretended to be them.”
She adjusted her long gown and pulled her hair back again. “Well, to be fair, it wasn’t a bad plan at all considering you wanted to get back into the city and look like complete outsiders.”
“How did we get back into the city then? It was already getting dark when we come through the east gates.”
She quickly replied “Normal enough, the worshippers would be entering the east gate to make it in time to begin worship. We don’t have much time, I’m going to give you all a change of clothes and you’ll need to be gone as soon as possible, I can’t give you too much direction on where to go but the east side can be more accepting of outcasts than this western side you have seen will be.” She scrambled through some wooden drawers, pulling out clothes in a rush.
She handed some clothing to Adam and Brian, it looked fairly normal, some trousers and loose fitting cotton shirts. “I only have Vincent’s clothing and my own here, but it will have to do.” She called Matilda over behind a small shutter screen to get changed into some of her own clothing.
“I’ve been to the eastern side before, I think I know a first stop for us to check out. Thanks for helping out.” Adam told Maureen.
“Good, good, if you have talked to them before that is your best bet. It’s a bit rough over there as you probably know but I’m sure the three of you together will be fine. By the way, they have some amazing food over on the east side of the city.” She said with a wink to Brian. “This is going to be a mess to explain when the whole inn sees three people go upstairs in priest robes and come back down in civilian clothing. Oh well, I’ll come up with something, or stall until Vincent is back to explain.” She shooed them back down the stairs of the inn.
They quickly set off through the main walkway out the front door. They got stares from a good chunk of the people still there, the patron who yelled at them before, questioning their presence there got riled up again, he had definitely had a few to drink. Stumbling towards them
“What’s all this? What are you priests up to with Vincent and his wife? They are dodgy I’m telling you, all of these hikers, all of these priests, Fargo himself. Corrupt and pure evil the lot of them!” He was getting in their face and becoming an issue.
Adam tried to push forward past him to get out of the door but he blocked the entire doorway now “We should keep em here, question them, find out what the hell is going on with Oak and the sickness. I bet they are responsible for it. It got sicker and sicker as soon as Fargo took over.”
Brian kept his axe ready, he still was carrying his axe around by holding it at all times, he had no way to keep it on a loop or cover the side with the blade.
Adam pushed into his mind with his truth compulsion, finding less resistance than with anyone else he had tried to use it on so far, when he had used it on that man in the alley it felt like he had to keep pushing past the mental barriers the man had up to make him speak truth, for this drunk, it just slipped through with no issue, with Abbey, an impenetrable wall found instantly. He might have got a little stronger since then, but Adam suspected it was the lowered inhibitions from the booze that made it so easy.
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“What are you doing here tonight?”
“Feeding my date booze until she puts out, that’s what I’m doing.” The man said loudly for the entirety of The Cats Cradle to hear him, including the woman who was sitting with him the whole time. She stood up with a look of rage and disgust and stormed out of the inn, past all of them and the drunk and outside. He went chasing after her “I don’t know what I’m saying. These bloody witches are putting words in my mouth.”
After they exited the building Adam called out to him “Words in your mouth maybe, but they are your own words.”
Matilda scolded him “Why are you risking him becoming an issue again, better to just let him run after that poor lady. Or, maybe not on second thought.”
“No time, either way. We need to get into some side streets if they are sending someone to come check on us.” Brian stated, which brought Adam back into focus when he realised Brian was being the most pragmatic of the lot.
They left the entrance of the inn and continued down the first side street from the plaza and main road. They started heading east, they were still pretty close to the main road but were weaving around different shops and buildings off to the side of the road, Adam stopped suddenly when they come into view of the main road and saw a group of four Church officials walking down the road, headed towards the direction of The Cats Cradle, they had only just made it out with a few minutes to spare, he noted their lighter coloured robes, Maureen was telling the truth around that, Adam did trust her, for now. He still trusted Vincent too but found it odd he didn’t tell his own wife where he was going, but what did he know about their relationship?
After the church officials passed, they continued east through the city.
“Can we please stop for food here, I’m sure we are safe now.” Brian begged.
“It won’t take that much longer, besides she said the east side had really good food so you can get excited for it right?” Adam said in jest, however he was also feeling the pain of hunger just as hard as Brian, Matilda seemed to be the strong one who wasn’t bothered by it.
They had ended up south of the main road when they first left the inn so they made a quick pass over the main road that ran through the city to get on the northern side, the place Adam had in mind was north-east, they had to pass the road that connected the northern gate to the centre of the city as well soon after, the whole city seemed like a big grid Adam thought.
Crossing over the north road they were now on the east side, as the minutes of walking went by they started to come across the familiar, to Adam at least, alleys with small stores on either side.
“This is where I got dragged into an alley and some guys tried to rob me, I was lucky to get away. Be careful of your hiker menus, if people see them they will target you. Hopefully we don’t get any random pop ups.”
The other two nodded “Even Vincent didn’t know of a way to stop the popups like that, he said they always got him into trouble.” Matilda told them.
“So, where are we headed Adam?” Brian asked, still clutching his axe.
“An interesting shop I stopped at with Tob, The Gemonoid, well the shop was boring, but the old lady running it was interesting at least.” Adam had put a lot of hope into his plan of this one particular old lady he barely knew helping them out, but for some reason he seemed to just know that she would.
“Better plan than I have. We are officially east now right? Let’s eat. No more excuses.” Brian was looking at some of the shops in each side of the alley. A few of them served food, though most here seemed to be odd little trinkets.
“Well I’m with you on that, but we don’t have any money right?” Matilda said. The two boys stopped walking simultaneously, how did they forget about that? Adam wondered if he truly believed they would get fed for free. He must’ve.
“I’m poking fun at you, Maureen palmed me some money quietly away from the rest of you, apparently she thought I should be the team treasurer. Vincent had told her to give us some, it’s not much but enough for a few nights rest and food apparently” She pulled out some tiny coins from her pocket that were loosely spread.
“I’m not sure why they made their coins so tiny.” She said, holding one of the shiny silver discs. They had large numbers pressed into them, this one a five, which made up for how small the coins themselves were since you could easily read the number on it.
A man called out to them from a few shop windows down. He had a messy, greasy ponytail and a thick, dark mono brow. “Pa’kash?” He asked as they approached.
Walking up to the window a powerful smell overcame Adam, strong spices hit him in the face, he could feel himself salivating. Brian and Matilda seemed even more captured by the smell of the food.
“How much?” Adam asked.
“2 raka each” he replied, already beginning to serve the first lot onto a wooden board. It was like a large piece of bark but sanded down to have a flat and even surface.
“That’s so cheap, three please.” Matilda answered enthusiastically. “Maureen said we had one hundred raka, I think six for a meal that smells this good is fine. We can’t be picky anyway right, we are practically rotting away.”
He finished serving the three lots onto the wooden boards, they were bark underneath but completely smooth on the top. Adam held his bark, looking at the food. It kind of resembled curry from back home, a thick, strong smelling gravy with, well it wasn’t rice like he was used to, but some kind of fine mashed root vegetable he guessed. How was he supposed eat it, the guy didn’t give them cutlery of any kind.
Looking up he saw Matilda and Brian already getting well into their meal, pinching the mashed vegetable between their fingertips, manoeuvring the gravy into the mix and then pushing the little clump of food into their mouths with their thumbs.
“It’s so good, she was right, East side knows what they are doing, my god” Matilda sounded like she was in heaven. Adam tried to grab at the food with his hand, it was hot and it felt like he was burning his fingertips instantly, he definitely wasn’t enjoying it as much as his friends and he hadn’t even shoved any into his mouth yet. Once he finally tasted some, there was a nice initial burst of flavour and saltiness followed by an intense burning of chilli. He started coughing and choking as his skin grew flushed.
They laughed as Adam struggled to choke down his food, the only thing pushing him through were their limited funds, limited options and intense hunger. He had to cop being made fun of all the way to the Gemonoid about his lousy spice tolerance, well if there was one thing Adam hated, it was being the worst at something, he’d show them, he’d eat there every day until he could handle it better than either of them. Going further east into the city they got closer to the same street where Adam had been mugged last time, when he was with Tob and when he was growing some first suspicions about Tob.
“It was somewhere on this street, just a few shops down from that alley over there.” He said pointing down the dimly lit alley where he felt like he was going to lose his life. He had already grown some confidence since that time, but he reminded himself he shouldn’t get too cocky already, they had the likes of Vincent’s and even worse, Abbey’s running around the place.
The same old lady, Histo, was at her store, her shrivelled skin made her face seem smaller as she hunched over her open window, all of her wares behind her. Various trinkets, weird small skulls and small weapons were stacked on the walls behind her.
Before approaching, Adam warned his team “Just let me talk at first, I know how she is and what she likes, I need to ask for help carefully.” He approached the stall and ancient woman.
“Hi, Histo, I was with the Patrol Captain Tob and-“
“I know who you are, Adam.” She croaked in her raspy voice.
Adam stopped. She continued “You remember, nicely done. You never told me your name, well I know it. I know about your friends Matilda and Brian as well, they can say hello.”
All three were at her window now. They gave their greetings and waited for Adam to continue speaking with her.
She laughed to herself “I see how it is, I see, nicely done! How can I help you? Something interesting must be up for you to come here, without your proud patrol captain this time.”
“We aren’t with him anymore” Adam snapped back. “We need help, we are hiding, from the church, we need to hide out for at least a few days while we gather ourselves.”
“I see, I see. Why would I help a patrol guard loyalist dog like you?” She snarled. The three of them stood there speechless at the mysterious old lady.