Back at the inn, business was going relatively well for Yehpweyl. When I entered the common room and sat down to wait for a meal it took her nearly five minutes to get around to my table due to all of the people waiting to be served. The group of fat men was nowhere to be seen, though there were a few grizzled-looking individuals sitting in the darker corners of the room who stole some glances at me. I was hungry but not exactly tired, so I hoped I would be able to eat something before any fights broke out.
“So what can I get-” Yehpweyl asked absentmindedly as she approached my table, pausing once she saw my face. “-you. Do you have that hood on for a reason?”
“Is it a problem?” I asked. I had kept my hood up since leaving the fence's building to keep my face obscured. The chances that anyone associated with the guard was in Yehpweyl's inn was low, but there was no cost to keeping the hood on.
“If you're trying to blend in, yeah,” she replied.
“Other people are wearing hoods,” I countered. My eyes were looking around the room, and I suspected that Yehpweyl might be trying to keep me distracted for some kind of attack plan.
“Other people understand subtlety,” she muttered, “just take the hood off before someone calls the guard. You couldn't look more like a criminal if you tried right now.” I grunted and pulled the hood back, then looked to one of the grizzled men who had been staring at me. He looked away. “By the way, did you take my necklace?” Yehpweyl asked.
“I did, and I sold it for funds,” I replied. Her mouth opened, then closed with a sigh through her nose. What did you expect when you didn't find it? I wanted to ask, but I kept silent. Yehpweyl removed a key from between her breasts and placed it on the table in front of me, then frowned.
“That's for your room,” she said curtly, “you want food now or later?”
“Now,” I replied.
“You're getting what I’m making,” she said.
“Obviously,” I replied. Less likely it would be poisoned this way as well, I added silently. Yehpweyl walked off and I stowed the key in my pants' pocket. A few minutes later she came back with a mug of water, then went off to deal with some of the other customers. Without Koyl to talk to, the wait irritated me. So many humans were talking at once that it was impossible to make out any one of their conversations from any of the others. With nothing better to do, I simply sat in my chair and waited for the food to arrive. I suspected that Yehpweyl was making me wait longer on purpose, but eventually my meal came.
Without Koyl to talk to, eating went quicker. In under five minutes I had totally cleaned the plate in front of me of the mashed tubers, meat, and vegetables that had once covered it. A quick check of my heads-up display showed that I could still gain more nutrients, and my stomach wasn't full at all. I flagged down Yehpweyl, asked her for another plate, then got back to eating once it arrived. Some people at the table beside me watched on with strange expressions as I ate, but I finished quickly again. I think I could do another half-plate, I thought, and flagged down Yehpweyl again.
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Oh I definitely ate too much, I thought as my awareness flickered back into existence. I had been able to get to sleep well enough, but throughout the night I was awoken with discomfort in my stomach and intestines which, to my now rational mind, was obviously because I had overloaded my digestive system. After putting all of my gear back on, minus Koyl’s sword since I wasn't practiced enough to use it, I headed out of the room and locked it behind me. A quick trip to the outhouse, then a wash, should help me remedy the situation, I thought.
I skipped breakfast because I still felt full from the night before, instead exiting the inn and using the sun to determine which direction was west. I need to get that blue leaf, I thought, it's the only thing I can think of which will give me a fighting chance against Yaavtey that can also be acquired quickly. I weaved through the crowds in the streets, doing my best to stay out of the center of the road and use alleys whenever possible. My hood did a good job at hiding my face, I drew glances from people but little else.
Slowly, the architecture changed around me. Wood left the buildings entirely, and the street became tidier. The people I passed by began to wear clothing that looked newer, and oddly the smell of the air changed from toxic into merely off-putting. Frequent patches of incense found my nose and briefly caused it to forget the stench it was ignoring, putting me through the initial process of suffering the city smell repeatedly. There were also strange sounds of laughter and screeching, which I realized were being made by small groups of children wandering the streets unaccompanied.
I've never been to this part of town before, I realized as I glanced around. There were more signs than usual, and the pictograms which commonly occurred with the writing on them were more detailed. Some of the signs were even metal instead of wood, and one in particular looked to be made of some kind of stained glass. More of the passerby were taking issue with my hood, staring obviously whenever they thought I wasn't looking and whispering amongst themselves. I heard some mumbling and looked behind me, then hissed and ducked into a nearby alley. The pair of humans who had made the noise were talking to a guard while pointing at me.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Even the alleys were cleaner than those in the slums. At some point, the streets had started to have cobblestone and brick in them instead of dirt, and the same was true of the alleys. Though many of the bricks showed signs of having been cracked and repaired, the surface was much more consistent and thus easier to move quickly across. As the alley narrowed in front of me, I heard footsteps coming from behind. Without turning to look, I judged the distance between the walls in front of me and then quickly kicked up off of the right wall to the left, then back to the right to gain distance from the ground. A few jumps later I was on the roof looking down at three guards crossing where I had been standing seconds before.
The exits to the town are guarded as well, I remembered with a sigh, how am I going to get out of here? Even worse, how will I get back in?
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Avoiding the guards on rooftop was trivial, though navigation was more complex than I would have liked. Unlike the slums, where at some points it was possible to cross a street by jumping, the part of town I was now in had no such luxuries. The roofs had steeper peaks as well, for those buildings which had peaked roofs, to the point that it wasn't possible to quickly run across them. All in all, it took me quite some time to make my way to the west edge of the city while staying out of sight.
It doesn't look like there are any easy ways out, I thought as I examined my options. Vehrehr had a wall around the outside edge of the city, followed by a deep moat which I could only assume doubled as a sewer outlet of some kind, which could only be crossed by using a bridge. I could have scaled the wall, but there was no way I would be able to cross the moat. I guess I have to get in line and hope for the best, I sighed.
The entry and exit points of the walls were guarded much better in the west than in the south where I had entered. I recalled encountering two guards on my initial entry, but there were no less than seven guarding the exit I was now approaching. Seven that I can see, I corrected myself, could be more across the bridge. People in the line were keeping a surprising distance from me, though my presence was not causing panic. Remembering what Yehpweyl had said, I lowered my hood. They're going to see my face anyway, I thought, It would be better to have more distance to run if they're going to recognize me, than to be spotted when close.
Putting my hood down seemed to set the people around me at ease, and soon enough I approached the guard post. The people in front of me had simply been required to state intent before leaving along with an approximate time of return, so I had prepared answers in advance. And if that fails, I can probably run past these idiots, I thought. I had also been watching the guards and found their behavior to be very lax despite their numbers.
“Name?” the lead guard asked. He had brown hair and a patchy beard, along with red eyes and a large scar across his nose.
“Yuwniht... Lihyveyz,” I replied, pausing before adding my fake surname. The guard raised an eyebrow at me in response, as if expecting me to continue my explanation.
“Reason for leaving?” he asked.
“Foraging,” I replied, prompting a snort for both the guard I was speaking to and two more who were chatting behind him.
“Look foreigner, maybe someone didn't tell you but-” the scar-faced guard started.
“I understand the risk,” I said, interrupting him, “I expect to be gone for a day at most, and I will not be going very far.” The latter part of my statement was a lie, or at least it could have been. I had no idea how far I would need to go into the woods to find blue leaf.
“It’s your life,” the guard shrugged, “you have anybody you want that gear to go to if someone finds your corpse after bear season?” Odd question, I thought.
“Whoever finds it can keep it,” I replied, “can I pass?” The scar-faced guard nodded, and I walked forward at my normal pace. I deliberately angled my head to make scanning my frontal features difficult as I passed by the other guards, who were only paying a small amount of attention to the proceedings. The bridge was a rough thing made of stone that, despite its imprecise construction, appeared quite old. With no fear I crossed it, coming to the other side to find guards to my left and right and a forest under a kilometer in front of me across cleared land.
Okay, now I just have to- I began mentally.
“You, stop there,” a voice said to my right. My first instinct was to draw my weapon, my second was to flee towards the woods, but my rationality clicked in a moment later and stopped both. I turned my head and looked at the man, who looked just as average as most of the guards. The man's eyes narrowed, and he studied my face for a moment while my ears strained to keep track of his partner behind me in case the encounter came to fighting.
“Is there a problem?” I asked, curtly but politely.
“Were you at that arson attack that happened a while back?” the guard asked. “The one in the slums, at the Steelheart office?”
“I was present during, as a guard,” I replied, “why?” The guard grunted, then scratched his chin.
“Are you the one who chopped Thaajh's hand off?” he prodded. I contemplated lying, but the guard continued. “Yeah, it's you. Heard you didn't have scars on your face though,” he said. I reached up and scratched a piece of dirt from the scar on my cheekbone. Despite the accusatory phrasing, the guard’s tone was friendly, so I decided to reciprocate.
“Recent acquisition,” I replied. To my surprise, the guard grunted a few laughs. Is that a good sign? I wondered.
“Just wanted to thank you,” the guard said, “Thaajh has been a lot less of a jhoytshahjh since that whole business. I know you didn't mean to chop his hand off, he told me as much, but if you hadn't Steelheart probably wouldn't've let him retire like he did yesterday.” I took a moment to process the words I was hearing.
“I suppose I accept the thanks,” I said, hinting confusion deliberately in case my response was inappropriate. Once again I got a few grunting laughs.
“He's my wife's uncle,” the guard said with a half-smile. “Anyway, I don't want to hold you up. Best you get back before nightfall.” I nodded to the guard, then began walking towards the woods, ignoring the beginnings of a vocalization that never turned to words coming from behind me. In a few minutes, I reached the edge of the woods. The clearing of the trees stopped abruptly in front of me, creating a hard line where leaves and cover shaded the ground. With only a moment's hesitation, I stepped into the shade and felt its cool wash over me, then strode onward.