{-Llewel-}
“We were just about to check on you,” Zetai remarked when they all ran into each other in the hallway. She showed them a piece of paper. “We were able to find this but it’s not complete. We figured you’d probably have the other half.”
Llewel handed her what they’d found and she gave them both to Reynneak. He mumbled something before skimming through them.
“It’s just a report about what they did here,” he announced after a moment. “It mentions the location of a few more documents, though. There’s two in the first room, one behind the mirror and the other inside a box, and one under the bed of the second room.”
“Is the first room the one Kelfin mentioned first, then?” Llewel asked. There wasn’t much to distinguish the rooms aside from how far down the hall they were—usually, at least by his observations, it didn’t matter.
“It doesn’t mention anything specifically, but I’d assume so.” Reynneak shrugged. “Why don’t you and Myr check there and Zetai can look in the second? I’ll stay here and make sure there’s no other important information on here.”
They all nodded and went their separate ways. Llewel went to the room, walked up to the mirror, and carefully messed with it until a piece of paper slipped out. It seemed like it had been torn out of something, but a quick glance gave him the impression that it still had all the information they needed. It didn’t take Myr much longer to find the paper in the box and, when they returned, Zetai had just handed hers to Reynneak.
Reynneak looked through them all again, though it must’ve taken a moment for him to realize a connection. “They all mention a specific place—sounds like it’s still near the city, too.”
Before any of them could ask where, the map popped up to reveal the new location.
“Well, that saves us the trouble of having to find it,” Zetai said casually. She turned back towards the stairs and gestured for them to follow her. “Did anything in the papers make it sound like the Rune Reactivation Project?”
“There’s nothing specifically stating it, but there’s a pretty good chance,” Reynneak responded. He looked at the twins. “It might be a bit of a risk, though. We’re probably not going to be there long, and definitely not long enough for them to pay attention to who we are, but… they’ve got to have learned something about you by now.”
“We’ll be close in case you need our help but far enough away that they don’t notice us,” Llewel decided. “If they start to realize we’re there, we can head back to the inn and wait for you here.”
He knew the best course of action would be to stay at the inn from the start—have no chance of a tricky situation. Yet, partially driven by some muddled memory, he wanted to be able to help if they ran into trouble. He didn’t doubt them or their abilities… but then again, he didn’t doubt hers, either.
“I want to actually help…” Myr muttered.
“It already helps to know you’re both safe,” Zetai offered. “Helps me just focus on beating people up.”
“We don’t even know if we’ll need to beat people up,” Reynneak pointed out. “Let’s not immediately assume we’re going to be fighting people…”
…
Llewel made sure Myr followed him to a less obvious spot while Zetai and Reynneak entered the building. It may not have necessarily been the best spot to watch, but it was as close as he dared; at least he could pretend that it made the two of them less likely to be seen as well.
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It must not have taken them long to notice the players. It didn’t take much longer for several of those inside to dart out, heading in different directions. One of them went close to the twins; with only a moment of consideration, Llewel drew his dagger and hoped their interaction would be short.
“I’d stay there, if I were you,” he said. “You don’t have to look in trouble as long as you don’t move until our friends come.”
The man seemed content with accepting his fate, only letting out a sigh. “They must be talking about it… more and more players are just waiting to capture one of us…”
Llewel bit back what he really wanted to say—they were already stretching their luck, actually drawing attention to it was only going to push it further. At least they could be assured that this wasn’t seen as unusual.
Zetai and Reynneak showed up a moment later to properly take all the attention off of them.
Reynneak, rather kindly, showed the man the papers and asked, “Do you know what any of these are about?”
“I will fight you if that’s what it takes,” Zetai remarked.
“I—I don’t know nearly as much as you think I do! Probably!” The man looked between the four of them, then out towards the streets, to see that there was no way out. “I’m one of the lower guys for the Rune Reactivation Project. They barely tell me anything…”
“Just tell us whatever you know,” Llewel instructed.
In no way willing to find out what would happen otherwise, the man slowly took and looked over the papers. “These must’ve been what some of the others forgot to get when they left the inn—there was a group of us that came from outside of the city to help in the operation. On their own, you probably wouldn’t have been able to figure out where we were… but of course they had to put them in places you could find them.” He shrugged and gave them back to Reynneak. “I don’t think there’s much more I can tell you. Those papers detail our plan to assassinate that politician, as simple as that. He’s always getting in our way and it’s about time we keep him from doing it any longer.”
“Do you have any idea of what they specifically plan on doing?” Reynneak asked.
The man shook his head. “I’m not one of the people that’s allowed to have that kind of information. I know someone that is, though, as long as you’re willing to find him.”
“You’re gonna rat out someone else in the group just like that?” Zetai questioned. “You Rune Reactivation Project guys really don’t care for anyone but yourself, huh?”
“It doesn’t matter anyway,” the man grumbled. “All the others who were caught said the same thing and they’re all still here.”
“One last thing before we let you go,” Reynneak said. “Where is this guy?”
“I honestly don’t know. All I know is that he’s still in the city somewhere. Look for a guy named Tanavir—you’re going to have to figure everything else out on your own.” Then, finding that no one was going to stop him, he walked back towards the base.
Zetai glanced at Reynneak. “Any better idea of where we should start looking?”
He quickly looked over the map and quest menu and said, “It wants us to check in with Gouzla first.”
There wasn’t anything else to say; they wandered back to the building Gouzla had shown them to. Llewel trailed a bit behind to stay next to Myr.
“You’ve been quiet,” he noted casually. “I would’ve figured you’d try to help.”
“Something felt weird after we got there,” she mumbled. “As soon as he came up to us, I felt a spike through my head…”
“I’ll give you some medicine after we talk with Gouzla, alright?”
She just gave a small nod.
An attendant from the building let them in the moment they mentioned helping Gouzla. After leading them to his office and announcing their presence, she left—though it didn’t take long for the door to open.
“Ah, I was wondering when I was going to hear something back from you!” Gouzla remarked, gesturing them all inside. “Were you able to find anything? Did you catch those responsible?”
“No, but we found where one of their bases might be,” Reynneak explained. He pulled up the map and pointed to where they’d just been. “A lot of Rune Reactivation Project members were here. We couldn’t really determine the kind of stuff they had in there, but it might be worth telling you about it.”
Gouzla nodded, writing down the location on a stray piece of paper beside him. “You know, they’re always coming up with new ones. We find the base, the moment we’re prepared to apprehend them they move, and the cycle repeats. Perhaps this is the time we’ll be able to catch them. Thank you for telling me, I’ll be sure to make sure someone keeps an eye on the area—someone they hopefully won’t recognize.”