Eight Intertwined

28 - Bolderfall

In a word, Tressa was worried. 

How could she not be? Ophilia had shifted so suddenly when they were on the way to what would have been Saintsbridge, and even after she returned to normal, Tressa couldn't get the image out of her head of Ophilia staring at her lantern in that strange daze of almost not even being there. She could barely focus on anything that was going on as far as Tressa was concerned, always glancing back to the Ember as if she expected it to do something out of the ordinary. Tressa didn't know what she anticipated, but she felt as if something was wrong. Nothing about this could at all be normal, but that only posed the curiosity of what was taking place that could cause everything to skew so far from what it should have been. 

Bolderfall brought an abrupt end to Tressa's wonderings though. Bolderfall was a loud city, definitely the noisiest that they had visited thus far. Not even the clatter of Sunshade in the nighttime had been enough to even come close to comparing to what Bolderfall had to offer. It was the largest city in the immediate area, and the mountain that it thrived on seemed to always be alive with some type of activity. 

"Wow," was all Tressa could bring herself to say at first. She took an experimental step forward as she looked around the city. There were people everywhere, and it made her home of Rippletide seem so small and insignificant by comparison. She didn't think that she had ever seen quite so many people gathered in one area, and she didn't know what to think about it. There were a few merchants among the crowd, though there were just as many people who were clearly trying not to be seen by the common eye. If Tressa had to guess, Bolderfall had a darker side than one would have expected at a first glance. 

"We're looking for a young man with white hair," Ophilia told the rest of the group. She hadn't elaborated on the strange event that had claimed her attention earlier in their journey, but Tressa had the sneaking suspicion that the Ember had told her something out of the ordinary. The Ember had pushed Ophilia to reach out to other members of the group in the past, and it wouldn't be out of the question to say that it was responsible for this series of events as well. 

"Let's go deeper into town. I doubt that we're going to find anything staying on the outskirts of the city this way," Primrose suggested. Olberic nodded his agreement. Cyrus, on the other hand, was still watching Ophilia in notable curiosity over what she had said a few moments prior. It seemed that Tressa wasn't the only one seeking answers for Ophilia's sudden bout of odd behavior, though she had a gut feeling saying that it wouldn't be quite so easy to glean answers from Ophilia's recent actions. She had to wonder if even Ophilia understood what happened when her eyes glazed over with silver and she began to change. 

"It looks like that path over there leads somewhere special," Alfyn commented. The group had gotten deeper into Bolderfall, and Alfyn was pointing in the direction of a set of stairs that seemed to lead elsewhere within the city. The path was much fancier than anything else that Tressa had seen previously in Bolderfall, and she hoped that it would take them somewhere of note. She was desperate to hear something about this mysterious white-haired figure that Ophilia was drawn to all of a sudden. 

However, it quickly became apparent that this path wasn't going to be taking them anywhere. Standing directly in front of the stairway was a man wearing dark purple clothing. He was looking out at the other occupants of the town with a critical eye, almost as if he was searching for something. He didn't seem to notice the group approaching him, and Tressa was glad for that. After all, it meant that he wasn't looking in her direction when she let out a gasp. 

His hair was white. 

"He has to be the one!" Tressa hissed to the rest of the group, though she was admittedly doing a rather poor job of whispering. She had never been the best at such a thing in the first place, and she saw no reason to be too quiet given the situation. The man with white hair was too far away to hear her as far as she could tell, and she had to be at least somewhat loud if she was going to communicate with the rest of her team.