Runesight

4 - The Palace

Eliax was the type of person who liked to think she saw most things coming. Usually she noticed connections easily, calculating their importance before the rest of the world even realized they should look for them. But with that ability came a startling amount of tunnel vision.

As the musician burst through the door to the bed and breakfast carrying a sack of apples with some type of stringed instrument slung across her back, Eliax reflected that she really should have noticed that the musician had the same facial marks as Alsen.

Eliax looked up from her breakfast, stared at her for far too long, and then resolved to ignore the issue. Chewing on the Reasle meat with a bored expression.

Illila didn't seem to like that idea though. She centered in on Eliax, made a kind of shrieking noise, and was at her side a moment later, vibrating from ear to ear. "You're staying at the Lazy Dryad! This is my aunt's place!"

Eliax set her fork down and tilted her head at the musician. "Huh."

She sat down across from Eliax before she could properly object to the idea. "So I was right! You aren't from around here."

Illila had never voiced that suspicion before. She seemed to want something from Eliax with the statement though, uh...what did people usually respond with? Right... "I'm from Ceruleia."

The older girl whistled slowly, "That explains the weird accent."

Eliax scowled.

Illila grinned, "So how long are you in town for?"

"Just a month or two, I'm investigating something personal."

"Nice nice! So I can show you around then? Are you free...right now?"

Aaaah.

Eliax liked having warnings before this type of thing. Especially if she didn't have much of an idea of what to expect. She contemplated saying no, she was rather busy. Besides, a properly done tour would probably need stronger mental shields than what she currently had up, there was no telling what she might encounter.

But at the same time, she got the feeling that being on Illila's good side would be helpful in the long run. For one her aunt owned this inn, so she would most likely be around the area often, for another, she had a rather obscure skill set and could probably get Eliax into some otherwise unattainable places.

Setting her fork down, Eliax felt a hesitant smile spread across her face, "Alright, give me an hour."

--

"You know where we should start?" Illila asked. Her arms were spread wide as if embracing the air. "The Palace, it's a pretty interesting place." She nearly tripped as the instrument on her back wobbled, but she caught both herself and the device smoothly. The way she walked reminded Eliax of a dancer in some ways.

"Sure."

"What do you know about it already?"

Eliax shrugged, "The Last King lived there? He had like a million children, right?"

The musician nodded, "Yeah. But no one really uses it for anything anymore, it just sits there and looks nice, cause you know, failed succession wars."

"Seems like killing the king wasn't the smartest thing the Hero did."

Illila grinned, "Nope, definitely not, but it's still cool to see the ruins."

Eliax frowned, "Don't they at least chase off squatters or something?" That seemed like a disaster waiting to happen...If anything, the rich people would complain.