Heir of Obsidian (A Throne of Glass Fanfic)

27 - Snacking on the Job

The ground floor of the shop had been fascinating for the first five minutes, especially when he could feel Asterin's awkwardness about her ex. It was so obvious how embarrassed she was about being there, she kept avoiding eye contact, staring out the window as if she were completely out of it. He wouldn't have picked her for the nervous-ex type but here they were.

He kept up his brotherly act of pretending he didn't notice her odd behaviour, but once she had finally gone he found the flower pot in the corner of the room had became decidedly less... stimulating. He only stopped short of climbing the stairs after her, just to see more of the apothecary, at the stink eye Quinn gave him when he mounted the first stair. It was enough for him to decide that waiting around was not the best option. Surely Asterin would prefer to clear whatever bad air she had with this woman, Jorah, alone right?

Luka and Quinn, on the other hand, seemed content on standing and waiting by the door, not close enough that they were being intrusive but not far enough that they were going to leave. He was shocked. This was blatant violation of their mission operatives. This trip was meant to be the heroic journey, the origin story of Benji, and more importantly, it was proof that he was a true Whitehorn-Galathynius. They needed leads, clues, trails! Why, Valg could be attacking more towns. The more he thought about it, the more he realised. They were merely on borrowed time! He had to set out at once; of course Luka and Quinn would follow. Surely, Asterin could find them again when she had gotten their supplies.

With a decided shake of his head he walked confidently past his friends and towards the door, already filling his mind with places for him and Luka to gather intel. He knew of a few seedy bars. Of course Quinn would come as well, maybe he could put her in charge of grabbing them all lunch? Actually, now that he thought about it he was quite hungry and they still had handfuls of coin that had not yet been used. After all forests didn't use currency or have any good food.

With a nod he swung open the pitted, oaken door and strode out into the courtyard. He turned back to check they had followed him and if not, point out the fact that it would be a waste of perfectly good time to wait for Asterin. The courtyard was empty, which was a little odd since he was sure there had been children there before. The bricks around the fountain were stained dark, as if still wet from a big splash. He supposed that the children must have gotten too rowdy and their parents had come to collect them. He stopped and looked behind him to see if either Quinn or Luka had noticed the sudden evacuation of the courtyard.

It was a good thing he did because as it turned out Quinn had not followed after him and Luka was still staring at the staircase wistfully. In fact, neither of them had even noticed he had walked out the door. He was embarrassed, one meeting in one shop in Adarlan was all it had taken for no one to follow him anymore.

"Luka!" he said, voice pitching oddly at the end. Quinn looked at him and sniggered. He tried to brush past this acknowledgement of his voice break. He was fine, it was cool. He cleared his throat. "Luka!" he said again through the doorway. The other male finally looked his way and he mentally high-fived himself. "What are you doing?"

Luka looked at him, somewhat confused, "Waiting for Asterin?"

"Come on, Luka, really?"

"What?" Luka continued to look at him like he was being strange.

"We have more important things to do! We are in Adarlan for God's sake. The first real civilisation we have been in for ages!" He raised his hands in an exaggerated sweep that had Quinn rolling her eyes. However, like an orchestra when a conductor's hand begins a piece, Luka walked towards him.

"Quinn! Come on!" Benji's imperious tone was natural and he almost scoffed to think of their hesitance and persistence with Asterin. They didn't need her for everything, and besides he was the leader of this trip. Right now she was just using her connections to get them supplies, they didn't need to wait with her to do that.