Krovukk sat with Xar in a bar. They had left the others to their own devices. He had a hard time being around the all too happy escapees right now, even if most of them were gone now. So they had escaped to day-drink. He was in a strange place where he both wanted to grieve and not. They hadn’t talked about it with Xar, the possibility that they had made it out. It was slim at best. Still, they both knew what false hope did to someone, and after a week in Trupen station, there were still no messages in the adventurers guild or anywhere else.
They had both been irritated at the others somewhat. He knew it wasn’t rational, and suspected Xar knew as well. The kind of irritation because the others were happy when clearly, now wasn’t the time. He made efforts to hide his displeasure though, as he didn’t want to ruin their newfound freedom. Some had already found jobs and traveled to other stations, with help of course but still.
So they escaped to drink in bars, the two of them. Kali had come with them once but it had been awkward between them. She had let them go without her and was instead helping the others go home or find jobs. Everyday the group dwindled a little more as more people went their own way, which was a good thing of course.
Matt was still obsessing over getting better at magic. Which he had thought would be a good thing, but maybe it was a bit much. He could already cast a weak version of fireball now. The hot flaming ball was stable enough to fly for some time before the magic came apart. Enough for it to be useful in combat for sure.
Luckily they weren’t on a ship right now and he could just wait for his mana to recharge naturally here in the station instead of using mana crystals to top up his mana. Being a mage in space could be expensive and even if they weren’t financially in a bad spot, no one wanted to waste money.
Krovukk looked down at his almost empty mug, turned his head a bit and saw Xar on a high chair look into his own mug, head down. They hadn’t even talked for the last thirty minute, they had simply wallowed in their own misery. What was there to say now? It felt like they had said everything already. Their friends were dead. They hadn’t seen them in the hangar at the time. So how could they have escaped? No, Krovukk thought to himself. Now was not the time to start thinking about it all again. He had already thought about it countless times and it wouldn’t change a thing. They were dead, plain and simple, he just needed to accept it.
But that horrible sliver of hope was still there, making it that much harder to accept. If they had seen them die? It would have ironically been a lot easier to process. No doubt would be gnawing at him. Instead of trying to process his grief, Krovukk did what they had been doing last week. He asked the bartender to fill up his cup instead and drank deeply.
The drink burned on the way down in a nice way, letting him know in no uncertain terms it was not good for his body. Maybe that was why it was so appealing. His sluggish brain made less sense as the drinks went down. He saw Xar almost falling off his chair as he tried to stay in precarious balance, unable to sit straight any longer. Xar drank as much as him, and with a body a quarter of the size, it was no surprise he was hammered beyond belief.
He almost envied him, but one of them had to be sober enough to get them home. Or did he? A part of him almost wanted to drink until sweet oblivion, but he couldn’t do that with his best friends in that state beside him. He knew the streets of Trupen station well enough, and one of them had to be somewhat functional. Still, he knew he was a lot slower than normal.
Krovukk caught Xar before he fell off and decided that was enough for now. He himself wasn’t walking completely straight, but he could still think, albeit slowly. It was almost time for lunch too, which would do them good. Picking up Xar and laying him out on his shoulder, he nodded to the bartender and started wobbling towards the exit. Maybe he had drunk a bit more than he thought.
He usually didn’t like to drink, it made him more prone to violence. He just liked to fight when he was drunk for some reason. He would get riled up easily, and knew that he had started brawls quite a few times before he had decided to calm down on the drink. He actually hated meaningless violence when and always ended up regretting it.
Once outside, he heard Xar mutter something, but paid it no mind as he wobbled down the street with the rat on his shoulder, laying like a sack of potatoes. Most people simply stayed out of the way, avoiding the drunk giant. Krovukk saw a man looking at him and sneering, before he could stop himself, he had already opened his mouth.
“What? You think you’re all that? Huh?” His slurred speech didn’t help either, as the guy fled, not wanting to provoke the drunk blue brute.
Smart choice. Further down the street, three girls waved him over, trying to seduce him with their revealing outfits and promising a good time. But he wasn’t in that kind of mood. Not now, so he ignored them completely and continued towards their hotel. They weren’t in the prettiest part of the station, but not the shabbiest. Well, it got really shabby if you went to really poor places, but still, it was… decent where they were.
He soon stood in front of the building in question and frowned at it. It did look like it could use some maintenance on the facade, as he could see how dirty the building was in some places. Nevertheless, he entered the lobby which was better maintained and walked up the stairs to the second floor, where they had taken a big common room for all of them. It had simply been a lot cheaper than to take a room for each and everyone of them.
The room was almost empty now after a week. Most had already left to live their own lives. Kali was out apparently, but like usual, Matt and Philip were here. Matt concentrated on his magic, and Philip looked out the windows. The man was still wanted and rarely left the room. His paranoia seemed to worsen each day.
“Were you followed?” He asked Krovukk.
“Wha?” Krovukk had a hard time processing the question.
“Were you followed?” Philip asked again, less patient this time.
“Of course not, why would we even be followed?” Krovukk asked back.
“Well, you are obviously drunk, again. Because while you drink and waste away each day, I’ve seen more than a few shady people around all of you. You are all being followed, only you are too drunk to see it.” Philip tsk at him, which should have irritated him, but he didn’t have the energy to care or argue with the moron right now.
Why would anyone follow them? Maybe some bounty hunters were after Philip. But the rest of them? Why would they bother stalking them, plus he hadn’t seen anyone. It was simply Philip’s paranoia flaring up. So far he didn’t have a great opinion of the man, too uptight and with a superiority complex that he couldn’t help but constantly lay out on everyone.
Tiring, especially right now. He simply didn’t have the energy to be his patient self, and tended to snap back. Luckily, Philip seemed rather careful around him which was nice. But he could sometimes hear Kali and him arguing over the most useless thing and he couldn’t help but feel for the girl. Couldn’t be easy to argue against someone who knew better on apparently everything, which made it obvious he didn’t know much to begin with.
Apparently Philip was still waiting for a response, but clearly unsure if he should push it, so Krovukk ended his misery.
“I don’t care, I’m going to take a nap over there, and if you wake me, I’ll hurt you. Clear?” He said in a tired tone.
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“Crystal clear.” Philip said as he backed off the grumpy Karkaris. He saw Philip mumbling something before peeking out a window while trying to stay hidden himself. Krovukk couldn’t help but observe the man for a minute, as he went from window to window, constantly alert. That couldn’t be healthy, being stuck in here for a week. He should probably go out and damn the consequences instead of going insane in here with all of them.
But right now, it was not his problem, so Krovukk sat on the bed, careful to lay Xar in his own stretch of bed before laying down himself and closing his eyes. Just a small nap before lunch. It would do them a world of good, he was sure.
******************
Krovukk woke up to the yells of Philip and Kali. They were arguing fiercely. He had planned to try and ignore it to fall back asleep, but spotted the dishes the hotel had brought up to their rooms on some trays, and the smell had woken his appetite. Also now that he heard what they were arguing about, he couldn’t help but get curious.
“I’m telling you Kali, they poisoned the food. I’m sure of it. We shouldn’t eat any of it.” Philip pointed an accusatory finger at the food, which smelled very nice.
“Are you out of your mind? No one is after us Philip. You are simply going insane because you haven’t stepped outside in a week! You can’t hide forever!” Kali yelled back.
“You are mixing everything up! I’m telling you, it was not the usual staff that carried it. It was not the hotel’s personnel! Which makes it obvious they did something to the food.” He crossed his arm and leaned backwards somewhat, ready to defend his stance.
“You are being ridiculous. I’m just going to eat, now please stop making fuzz.” Kali said as she shook her head and reached to one of the trays on the floating table they had been brought on.
To everyone’s surprise, he actually slapped the tray out of her hands and the food fell to the floor. Her expression was shocked, like she didn’t believe what he had just done.
“Are you insane?” She hissed at him.
“Insane? INSANE? I’m saving your life, stupid girl, wether you like it or not.” He yelled back. By this point, Xar and Krovukk were both clearly awake. Krovukk snuck a peek at his friend who still seemed in a haze. He stood up and walked over to the two of them. Kali was about to slap Philip when Krovukk caught her hand.
“Guys, please calm down. If there is poison, as he claims, why not simply test for it?” He said and both of them turned to look at him, anger still visible on their faces, but clearly trying to calm down.
“Thank you, finally a reasonable person. See? Wasn’t so hard was it?” Philip said, clearly egging Kali on even more.
“Well, if it’s not poisoned, you’ll eat that.” She said pointing towards the food on the floor, clearly challenging him.
“Pff! Fine! I’m right anyways. Doesn’t matter.” He simply said as he scoffed.
“Since I’ve known you, you have been more wrong than right, and I can’t wait to see you realize how crazy you’ve been acting.” She spat back. Sheesh. Krovukk was not going to get into it more than that. He simply went over to Xar who was already rummaging through his bag of holding.
“Where did I put it…” He said as he continued to look for something, his hand deep in his bag. It took him another few seconds before he exclaimed in triumph.
"Ah! Here we go. Just put some of this on the food, if it turns red, poison, if it doesn’t change, we are good to finally eat.” He said tiredly as he handed over a bag with some blue-ish powder in it. Xar clearly had seen better days, as the booze hadn’t been pushed out of his system yet.
Philip had been about to take the small bag, but Kali snapped it up in front of him.
“Thank you.” She said, as she moved over towards an untouched tray.
“Let’s show everyone how crazy you have been recently, so we can finally have some peace in here.” She mumbled more to herself but loudly enough for everyone to hear.
“You’ll see.” Philip said, clearly confident on this.
“You’ll all see I’m not crazy, and that we are indeed in danger. All of us.” He said more confidently this time as Kali dropped some of the powder over the food. It landed softly and stayed there.
“See? Blue. Hah!” Kali said as the powder didn’t change colors.
“What? Surely it takes some time to act, are you not even going to wait a bit?” He said, eyes almost bulging out at her. She was already taking another tray and going to sit in a corner to eat.
“You know what? Don’t say I didn’t warn you, die of poison like an idiot then! Pah! See if I care.” He scoffed as he walked off, only there wasn’t really anywhere to walk off too, so he simply went to the opposite corner of the large room.
“Pff, idiot.” Kali said to herself, but again, loud enough for everyone to hear. She was about to put a spoonful of delicious food in her mouth when Krovukk yelled.
“STOP EATING.”
Everyone turned to him, surprised by his outburst. Instead of saying anything, he simply pointed to the plate they had put some powder on. It was turning red, all of it. And not just a bit red, but a very dark red. Krovukk knew what that meant. This was extremely toxic poison. Otherwise it might be a shade between blue and red, depending on the danger it posed.
Kali’s mouth stayed agape as she saw the powder continuing to become redder and darker. At some point she simply dropped her tray in disgust and moved away from it. Even Philip’s mouth was left open, but he soon took up a confident posture, saying something without the need for words. With his smug smile and satisfied expression, he didn’t even need to say it for them to get it.
But for Krovukk, this raised another bunch of questions, and the adrenaline pumping in his veins was making his head clearer every second. If the food had been poisoned, for all of them, then that meant so much more. Not only was someone after Philip, but all of them. This meant it had nothing to do with the bounty, and everything to do with what had happened in deep space.
Someone wanted everyone that had been there gone. And gone completely. Which meant that Philip had probably actually spotted stalkers and maybe even assassins or whatnot. Meaning they were actually in grave danger.
But something was putting a wrench in his thought process. He simply couldn’t understand why. What had they seen that they didn’t want anyone to know about? He turned to Xar sitting on his bed with a questioning look on his face. His friend clearly didn’t need more to understand what he was about to ask.
“They don’t want anyone to know magic is disappearing, or bugging out or whatever.” Xar explained to Krovukk and everyone else seemed to drink in his words, waiting for more. It was Philip who broke the silence.
“That’s ridiculous.” He scoffed and looked around, a look of utter disbelief on his face, he looked at them each in turn, trying to see if they thought it was possible.
“Magic can’t disappear, right?” He asked, clearly unsure now, then pointed to Matt.
“The kid’s been practicing every day!” He exclaimed.
It was true, but why else would someone be after them? The only ones that made sense were the ones they had just barely escaped. And it was plausible too, the Crystal Emporium had the longest reach of them all. It wouldn’t be hard for them to send some agents to get rid of them.
“But then, if that’s the case, what about all the former slaves I’ve helped get jobs on other stations nearby? Or even go back to Dust?” Kali asked, and they all dreaded the answer.
“Kali, did you find a job for all of them?” Xar asked and looked around, only now realizing they were only 5 left in the rather large room.
“Yeah, I just sent Max off an hour ago, he was the last one. We kept finding jobs on nearby stations one after the other.” She explained, dread starting to creep in her expression. They all paused and looked at each other before she spoke again.
“Do you think?” Was all she dared ask.
“When did he leave?” Krovukk asked as he went to a terminal the hotel had for every guest. The small device could be used to order meals and other things, but also look up some useful information about the station.
“They left about forty-five minutes ago. The crew looked trustworthy!” She defended herself. Krovukk navigated on the magical terminal in search of Ships leaving the station and when.
“Impossible.” He said, and the others couldn’t help their curiosity as they all huddled closer.
“What is it Kro?” Xar asked as he looked at the screen displaying rows of information.
“These are all the ships that left today and what time.” He said as he sat there, looking at it.
“What? That’s impossible.” Xar said. Indeed, it should be. The list was empty. No ships had left today. And as Krovukk looked more closely, he saw that no ship had left for the last several days.
“There is only one organization that can reach this far with this kind of influence.” Xar said, and it was Philip who whispered it for all to hear.
“The Crystal Emporium.”