Matilda cried out “Where did Brian go? He was resting in bed.”
The entire team scrambled back downstairs to check again if he was possibly downstairs, there was no longer anyone down there as the place had already closed for service.
Adam was really worried, he figured Brian would stay in location until they were back. Then again, it was Brian, they didn’t see eye to eye on a great deal from their time together so far, who knew what he was up to. Vincent suggested it was pointless to go searching this instant between the darkness of the night and that they best wait for dawn to begin their search. Adam agreed adding that a bit of rest before they set off again would most likely help them more than cause issues. Adam settled down for the night, trying to listen to his own rationale on gaining some alertness and thought capacity by getting some rest before they could begin a proper search for Brian, but he continued to wake up several times through the rest of the night. It wasn’t a very good rest, but it was something.
Huddling around outside the inn at the first sign of sunlight, they tried to make a game plan. They agreed to split up. Matilda and Vincent would be led through the remainder of the north western sector of the city that Vincent was most familiar with.
Adam and Tob would check out more of the eastern and southern sections, Tob luckily knowing the entire city like the back of his hand.
They paced down the main road going through the center of the city until they arrived in the central square. It was even grander than the square they had seen near The Cats’ Cradle. With well-built merchant stalls that seemed permanently fixed there and even more entertainers, juggling and singing. This was all built around the landmark of the entire city. Oak itself. The colossal tree from this close up was of unfathomable size. Adam placed his hand on the outer bark, feeling the crystalline, purple coloured bark. It was smooth and cold, it really didn’t feel like a tree but it clearly functioned as one when they had first seen it from way outside the city where they first landed on this planet. He glided his hand across it as he paced around for a minute. Tob just watched with a slight smile and made a single comment “It really is beautiful every time.”
From there they continued straight on their path to cross over to the eastern side of the city.
“Just be warned, the shadier people tend to be on this side of the city.” Tob stated as they kept up the pace. The entire time Tob had been asking passersby if they had seen him, trying to describe him between what he had seen and Adam’s description he could think of. They had no luck at all so far, it was a huge city after all.
A few turns into the depths of the city they were in a long alley with small shops on both sides of them. It was extremely crowded with people of all sorts browsing, walking through and trading. Tob stopped at one place in particular that had a sign reading ‘The Gemonoid”. These ‘shops’ were simply cut out windows facing out onto the alley with all of the merchandise being directly behind the merchant.
“Hello Tob, what brings you to this part of town today?” An elderly woman spoke in a croaky voice.
Tob cleared his throat. “Hello Histo, this is official state business, we have a missing man that needs to be found urgently. Adam helped with the description, going over Brian’s jet black hair and describing some of his features that would be unheard of based on everyone else’s appearance.
Histo listened intently “He must be quite the interesting man if the entire city is after him, after all, how many people go missing, or just die every single day without a peep from the city guard?”
“Well, it’s definitely important to the city.” He replied without giving much up.
She turned her gaze towards Adam “You, young man. He would be with you I imagine? Ah I see, new hikers. This should be interesting Tob.” She laughed as she turned her back to them, organising the wares on the wall behind her, recovering them and shifting the position. She first picked up a small skull that seemed to be stained with some kind of light purple crystalline colour, it was the colour of Oak. It was far too small to be the skull of even a child, but it definitely seemed humanoid.
“What is that? Maam.” He added the last bit after feeling awkward at her age and receiving a glare from Tob.
“Not sure, some say it was found directly inside of Oak itself, that’s probably a fairy tale though, it definitely came from somewhere nearby though, probably just outside the city. Could be something to do with the roots, who knows how far and deep underground those go. Pretty neat, it could be yours for thirty raka.” She held it in her hands in front of his face, he touched it, feeling that same smooth, cold texture from the tree itself on the skull. He shuddered as an odd feeling of being grossed out come over him. “I’ll be okay I think, plus I don’t have a single Raka.”
“Right, you are very new. Of course. Of course.” She murmured to herself.
“Well, your friend has definitely not been over on this side of town I can tell you that, I think I would have heard of it by now, between his unique appearance, his obvious inexperience around the city or any other context that would explain him being here, I would know. Sorry. Anything you are interested in today Tob?” She asked with her arms stretched showing off all of her wares.
“That will be all. Until next time Histo.”
They continued down the Alley, various merchants calling out to them to offer their wares, some not being brave enough and staying silent in the presence of the patrol captain.
“That place gave me the creeps.” Adam couldn’t shake the general discomfort since he touched that skull.
“You’ll adjust.” Suddenly Tob’s eyes widened.
“Wait right here, I see one of my men, I need him to help spread the word and see what he knows. Just, don’t go anywhere I won’t be long at all.” Tob ran ahead to another official soldier walking the same direction down the alley as them.
“Gerald!” He called out loudly.
Adam was now standing near another store front as people continued to bustle past him in both directions, there didn’t seem to be much order on this side of the city compared to the relaxed pace of the western side. Near him was an off shoot of the alley, an even smaller alley with half the width. As he tried to keep an eye on Tob chatting with the other soldier he began to feel shoved and pushed around by the foot traffic of the alley. It wasn’t until it was too late and he was being forced down the off shoot side alley that he realised two men were shoving him in particular and taking him away.
“What do you want, get the hell off of me.” Adam shouted at the two large men, they stood well over his height, by at least an arms length and Adam was not short, back on Earth or from what he had seen so far on Trystoff as the ship had called this planet. Adam had to be careful here, his power was not reliable enough to get him out of the grasp of these two large men without a lot of hassle and a lot of risk. For now, he walked along with them the way he was being guided.
Standing down the end of this off shoot side alley was another man, with a thin wiry frame he used a knife to hack away at a small block of wood, trying to shape it.
“Another one for you boss.” The large man on his left spoke in a completely unsurprising baritone voice.
“Yes, thank you Chabbus. You can let him go now, just keep watch.” He said in a calm voice. The men pushed him forward towards the wiry framed man and took a few steps back.
“It’s quite simple, we’re just here to take your valuables and send you back out on your way. Don’t make it difficult. You look clever enough not to get yourself killed trying to start something.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Adam shifted his eyes to look around the small end of the alley for anything to use, anything that could get him out of trouble.
The man noticed the trajectory of his eyes darting back and forth.
“You should be careful looking around like that, it’s almost as if you are trying to find a way to fight your way out of here. I’m not sure why you think that would be of any use.” He scowled now, walking up closer to Adam.
“Of course not, I’m happy to give you my things in return for my life, but, I don’t have anything.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, everyone has something that can be sold, melted down, utilized in some way. Franpo, Chabbus, pat him down.” He ordered the two large men to each side of Adam as they patted him down, looking for anything on him. He had no money, nothing like a wallet or bag. He really did have nothing for them, this made Adam concerned in how they would lash out.
“What are we supposed to do with you now?” He said in frustration, spitting onto the ground. He grabbed Adam by the wrist and pulled him closer. “You’re gonna have to come up with something to prove useful for us kid.”
Adam’s hiker menu started projecting out with the flick of his wrist as the man pulled. He felt a real danger to his life now.
The man’s eyes widened. “Well, well, this is certainly something. Isn’t this what they say Vincent over on the west side has? Where did you get this?”
“I, uhh, stole it from him.” Was the best he could think of on the spot.
The man smacked him across the face with the back of his hand, some blood started to drip from his lip into his mouth.
“Idiot, no one would believe that. Are you like him? I doubt it since you haven’t fought us off yet, you must not know how to use this thing, I suppose it’s better off with us then, but I don’t see anything on your wrist, how do we take it?” The man was tearing at his wrist, drawing more blood now.
“You can’t, it’s a part of me.” Adam yelled back in pain.
The man grabbed him by the throat “That might not be the smartest thing to say, if we can’t take it from you, we will just use you directly.”
He was really strong, far stronger physically then Adam was. Though he figured a good amount of people on this side of town might be.
Adam began to struggle to breathe as the man continued to choke him.
“Once I’m done with you, I’m going to have my other men eliminate Franpo and Chabbus, they have been beyond useless today and I’m really doubting their loyalty to me, I feel uneasy with them around every single day. The assassinations have already been ordered.” The man said loudly, in clear earshot of Franpo and Chabbus.
The wiry framed man’s eyes opened wide as he spoke the sentences.
“What the hell are you doing to me, don’t put words in my mouth!”
The man had now dropped Adam down to the ground in shock.
“Make you what, tell the truth? I could tell you hated your henchman here without any magical assistance.”
Franpo and Chabbus approached the both of them in an intimidating stance. “We thought something like that might be up. We never thought we would hear you admit it out loud to us directly. I don’t know what you did but get out of here and don’t come back. Barry here is a goner, you probably don’t want to stick around to see the mess either.” The largest of the two, Chabbus said to him. Each of them reached out and shoved Barry down to the ground. Adam scrambled and ran back out of the alley for his life.
He burst out back into the alley and fell down to the ground, Tob quickly ran up to him and pulled him up. “I told you to stay put, what the hell happened?”
“Well, you were supposed to be my guide and while you were chatting away I got dragged away by some huge guys. It’s really not safe here is it?” Adam panted in exhaustion. He was getting exhausted from all the near death scenario's occurring.
“No, it really isn’t. Anyway, this side is covered for now and Brian is most likely not here. Let’s head back to The Cat’s Cradle.” The two got out of the alley and back onto the main road, getting back near the city center with Oak shooting up far into the air.
“How did you get out of that one? You fought off two dodgy brutes yourself?” Tob asked curiously as they walked through the middle of the city.
“Got really lucky, they had some big fight amongst themselves and I escaped in the mess.” Something was itching at Adam’s mind as they paced back towards the center of the city.
“You know that woman who almost killed us out there? She said something, I forget the exact words but something about a council?”
Tob scratched his beard vigorously “Yeah, she did mention something about that, but I wasn’t sure what she meant exactly, I guess she knew I am the Patrol Captain for the city and was trying to influence it somehow. I’ll mention it to my men in case they see anything suspicious.”
Adam wasn’t buying it, he wasn’t some trained interrogator but he just got that gut feeling that something was off, to be fair to Tob he was in an influential position so maybe that really was all that there was to it. He pushed down the feelings for now to focus on Brian and their safe return to The Cats’ Cradle.
Moving back through the middle of the city, back onto the western side via the main road Adam thought about his new ability. He felt disgusted at the idea of it, he knew that he had to use it for his own life and his own mission in the alley there but he thought he should really try not getting accustomed to using it. Compulsion of any kind is a scary thought and easy to abuse, what about free will?
They continued walking through the west side town square and onto the street where the Cats’ Cradle was. They spotted Vincent and Matilda waiting outside.
“Well here we all are in one piece, you can thank Matilda for that one, she took down three thugs on her own, well I kept them distracted but seems she can cast three of those holy bursts at once now.”
“New ability?” Adam asked raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, when we got to level three back at the gates, I had the choice of a status clearing ability or to empower my Radiant Burst so it can split into three. Sorry, I think that status clear might be more useful now but at the time I panicked and was thinking it might get me out of that shell she had us in.”
“You don’t have to be sorry, but yeah it’s probably a good idea for us to consult in the future on our choices with the hiker menu, to synergise and make a good team and such.”
“Seems like you picked up the local term of Hiker pretty quick Adam.” She giggled
“Some rarely discovered areas might have a different term but Hiker has been the term used everywhere I have visited, none that I’ve talked to have been too sure why but maybe some original Hiker named it himself, who knows.”
“Well, no Brian. What do we do now? I can go organise a wider search with the guard.” Tob asked the question on everyone’s mind first.
“No need. Look, that’s definitely him” Adam pointed out the young man himself wandering down the road just twenty seconds of walking down the road. They all jogged up to him. Adam used his psychokinesis to tap him on the shoulder, causing him to stop and look around in confusion.
“Brian! Where have you been” Adam grabbed him by the shoulders. He turned around, stepping back a few steps from the group. Rubbing his hands through his jet black hair he began to sob, collapsing to the ground and heaving as he cried it out in the middle of the busy street.