After the wretched interrogation, Ren and Ed found a room at the closest inn. They were relieved beyond belief to find one open and accepting customers in the middle of the night.
“We’re open all night during Last Light,” the stocky, drunken innkeeper had told Ren with a wink.
She responded to his wink by not tipping.
Ren wasn’t sure if tipping was customary in this part of the world. It was… lesser, compared to Telmaris. In every way.
Just thinking of home invoked a sense of longing and grief in her gut that cut far deeper than the wound to her chest.
King Tobin, Tristan, my royal guard…
Were they alive? Or worse, some half-dead pawns of Somnia?
The thoughts made her want to hurl, so she shoved them away. Deep into the farthest reaches of her mind. Her special hiding place where she stored the things that fueled her forward. That gave her a reason to live and breathe and fight every day.
Right now, that was the only thing she cared about.
And the missing children. She wanted no part of the political drama of this backwater Enclave town. But the children were innocent. Fuck that pig Aldo for caring so little about them. Men like him were the reason children all over Vaalem suffered.
Ed was sprawled on a bed beside hers, snoring loudly. She’d have preferred her room with a single bed. Aldo had given them more than enough silver to afford it. But they were lucky enough to find a room at all. The sounds of men partying late into the night boomed through the inn.
Typical commoner pageantry.
Ren tapped into the presence sharing space in her mind. She appreciated the straightforward and efficient information the System shared with her. It didn’t waste her time, unlike most humans. She started with a status check.
Name: Renodet Farrowsteel
Netheryn Class: Netheryn
Rank: Initiate
Level: 1
Experience: 112 / 100 – LEVEL UP AVAILABLE!
Faction: None
Stat Points Available: 0
Health: 64 / 95
Sanity: 71 / 75
Insight: 1/2
Strength: 4
Dexterity: 1
Resistance: 2
Wisdom: 1
Faith: 1
Perception: 1
Equipped Spells: Conjure Scythe
Her sanity had recovered almost to the maximum, which was promising. Conjuring her scythe only cost five. It barely tickled for her to spend that much sanity at once. She noticed Ed responded much differently when summoning his skeletons. She’d have to ask him about his sanity costs when they got a moment to strategize.
The sandscalp was a mixed bag to her so far. She was impressed by his strategic mind in the heat of a battle. Even that was downplaying it, she had to admit. That battle with the cursed coyotes, when that idiot girl had betrayed her… she’d possibly be dead if not for Ed.
But he was soft. Too soft. She had serious concerns he would be a liability at some point. He may think of her as a pompous royal, but the carefree life of a nomad ceases to exist the second a nomad steps back into civilization.
Ed thought of himself as worldly and cultured, and he wore it on his sleeve. Ren thought he was sheltered and naive.
She sighed, laying back slowly into her bed. She had to lay diagonally and bend her legs at the knee to fit comfortably. The linens felt worn and dirty, and the frame creaked horribly under her weight. She longed for her bed at home, custom-made for her height with silken sheets.
Ren had intended to question the system about leveling up. This necromancer business was going to require a fight, no doubt in her mind. So, she’d need all the power being a Netheryn granted.
But that would have to wait. She fell asleep seconds after her head hit the grimy pillow.
Ren awoke the next morning in a daze. Sun shone into her eyes from the room's open window, blinding her momentarily.
She got out of her slowly, chest still tender. A lump formed in her throat as she looked at the empty bed beside her.
Ed was gone.
“That bastard,” she growled.
Had he taken the money and run? She wouldn’t be surprised. People cared so much about money that it disgusted Ren. There were far more essential things.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Had he abandoned her to look for his traitorous wife?
The possibilities flowed through Ren’s mind like scorched sand, matching the anger rising in her gut.
Ren spotted a hastily written note by the bedside table.
Ren,
I went out to grab some supplies and food.
I split the silver evenly and placed your half under the bed. Just in case someone came looking.
I’ll gather any information I can about the missing children and meet you back at our room tonight. I suggest you do the same.
It would be best if you went see the apothecary first. I checked with the innkeeper. The apothecary’s shop is two streets away from the enclave building. It’s got green doors and a big chimney.
Also, I bought us a change of clothes from a shop across the street. I had to buy men’s for you… nothing in the women’s looked big enough.
Ed
Ren sighed, disappointed in herself. Ed was too simple to take off with the coin. She found her split of silver under the bed, as promised.
This forced partnership was still an adjustment for her. Ed meant well, though she still couldn’t trust him. How could she, after what his wife did?
Ren rummaged through the dusty closet in their room. Ed had left her simple garments: a pair of loose trousers and an oversized shirt. The fabric was rough and scratchy, wholly unlike what she was used to wearing. But they were clean and practical, more than she could say for her tattered leather armor.
She dressed as quickly as her wounds allowed before heading downstairs. Before heading into the streets, she ate a plain breakfast of eggs and sausage. The sun was high in the sky, beating down on Ren so soon after waking. She had never slept in so late before in her entire life.
“Green door and big chimney,” Ren muttered to herself.
She loathed the idea of going to some foreign moronic doctor, but her chest wasn’t healing the way she needed it to. She’d at least get it bandaged.
The town was awake and bustling, the air filled with merchants shouting and the smells of food and industry.
She found the apothecary’s shop easy enough, exactly where Ed’s note specified. Its green doors stood out among the drab colors of the surrounding buildings, and the chimney puffed out a thin stream of smoke.
Ren stepped inside, greeted immediately by the thick scent of herbs and dried flowers. Shelves lined the walls, cluttered with bottles and jars of various sizes. She struggled to navigate through the narrow aisles of the shop.
A small, brownish-orange lumie slept soundly on a table near the front of the shop. It made Ren miss their lumie, who had refused to leave the room at the inn.
King Tobin’s lumie, she reminded herself. She would bring his beloved pet back to him soon.
The apothecary, a middle-aged woman with a massive pair of glasses and wild red hair, greeted her warmly.
“Ello, deary. I’ve been expecting you,” she shouted across the shop.
Ren carefully navigated her way over to the women.
“Delia, pleasure to meet you,” she said with a smile.
“I need something for pain,” Ren said curtly—no point in making this harder than it had to be.
The eccentric woman nodded, eyeing Ren up and down.
“I have just the thing for you. Give me one moment.”
The woman stood up and hurried about her shop. She was grabbing things left and right, seemingly from every shelf.
“Is this really necessary? I just need bandages,” Ren yelled. She could feel her temper rising.
“Of the utmost importance, my love!” Delia said, waving a hand in the air as she traversed her shop.
She returned to the counter, dropping myriad supplies in front of Ren.
Herbs, bottles, bandages, stones… so much junk. Ren figured it wasn’t worth the effort to fight the woman. She’d pay and throw away most of this shit as soon as she left.
The shop was quiet, the only sounds being the gentle clink of glass and rustle of paper as Delia packaged the items for Ren.
“It’s a dark time for Silt,” Delia said.
“How so?” Ren asked.
“Children vanish in the night. The enclave does nothing. Just last week, little Mira, the baker’s daughter from across the street, disappeared. No trace of her since.” Delia shook her head as she spoke.
Ren listened intently, a sense of urgency forming in her gut. Maybe she’d get her money’s worth from this woman after all.
“About the missing children… have you noticed anything unusual? Any patterns or common threads?” Ren asked.
Delia paused, her hands still.
“I’m sure you see a lot of mothers in your shop. Friends, colleagues… I’m sure they tell you things,” Ren pressed.
Delia fidgeted uncomfortably, her demeanor turning solemn. She leaned forward and spoke in a whisper. “It’s not just the children vanishing,” she said. “It’s when. They’ve all gone missing the same days the enclave transports goods to and from the mines.”
Ren raised an eyebrow. “The enclave’s convoys? Are you suggesting…”
Delia nodded gravely. “Yes. Every time a child goes missing, it’s been on a day those convoys pass through town. Nobody dares say aloud that the enclave is involved, but people are thinking it.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Ren mused. “Aldo asked me specifically to look into this for him.”
“It’s not necessarily the enclave itself,” Delia interjected. “But those convoys often hire outside help. Mercenaries, guards from other colonies like Silt… people no one here knows. Strangers, I mean.”
Ren pondered this new information for a moment. It was a lead, which she was grateful for. But a perplexing one… if these disappearances were tied to the enclave’s activities… Either Aldo was unaware of what was happening under his watch. Or he did know.
And if he did, this was probably a trap.
A trap for what? He just released us from his own dungeons. How can you be more trapped than that?
Then again, if this work was the work of random, hired help, the enclave might not be involved at all.
Ren’s head started to hurt. Delia must have sensed her confusion.
“It’s a proper mess,” she said. “Do you have any ideas?”
“Has anyone tried to follow these convoys?” Ren asked.
The apothecary shook her head. “Fear keeps us townsfolk from prying too much. Aldo comes here monthly for routine treatment, but the neighbor’s dog has shared more information with me than he has.”
Ren thanked the apothecary for her help with the medicines and the information.
“I’m going to find those children,” Ren told her as she left the shop.
Delia smiled back at her. It was the kind of smile you force. The kind that doesn’t quite reach your eyes.
Ren’s mind spun with this information. They had a lead, at least. Following the convoys seemed like the obvious option, but they didn’t know what game they were getting involved in. Were the enclave’s guards running some kind of money scheme? Selling off kids to freaks and perverts out in the wilds?
Something darker?
Somnia?
Ren’s ribs throbbed along with her head. She headed back to the inn, eager to discuss this with Ed. Hopefully, he had learned something useful.