The Dead King

Chapter 21 - Sharp Situations

The rays of the morning sun pierced through the gap where two drapes had met, covering the window. This ray slowly rose in position as the sun's movement changed in the sky, until the ray had just met Gus's face.

His nose twitched, his eyes twitched. In the next moment, his eyes were thrown open. He readjusted himself in the bed of the best suite the Rose Garden had to offer. It was the fanciest hotel in the whole city of Tarenfall.

When he turned his body, he looked over to see Marin sitting with his back turned at a table in the corner.

"Good morning, Gus," Marin offered without turning around to face him.

"Yeah, hi," Gus said sleepily. "What are you doing over there?"

Marin turned around, putting pressure on the seal of an envelope.

"This is a letter going back to Nocturne, letting everyone there know our status. I bet they're curious as to how we're doing," he explained.

"How do you manage to always wake up before me?" Gus asked.

"I don't sleep much."

Apparently, Gus thought to himself. How long had Marin been awake before him? At least the time it took to create that letter. Maybe an hour or less, he guessed. Regardless, Marin had let him sleep in for sometime. He usually was up at the crack of dawn, but seeing the ray of light through the curtain gap, a couple of hours had passed since morning started.

"What time is it?" Gus asked with slight concern.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Marin snapped back. "We've had a long journey. You needed a good rest. I decided to let you sleep as long as you could."

Gus thanked him, but wasted no time getting out of bed. He was on his feet, and getting his gear on. Marin still had on the same beggar rags he had been sporting for sometime now.

Seeing that Gus was getting his gears turning faster than he thought, Marin knew it was time to get the day going.

"So let's get some breakfast first, nothing fancy. Then I want to stop at the post office and mail this letter out. After that, our mission officially begins. I've been pondering how to go about this for a while now, and I have some decent ideas."

Gus nodded while throwing on his armor, listening closely to Marin's itinerary for the day. He was excited to finally get to recruiting, and was interested in knowing what Marin had cooked up for these ideas. It was going to be a decent learning experience for him. He was quite curious to hear Marin talk to other elementals and hear terminology that would probably go over his head.

Once all his gear was on, Gus went for his sword.

"I don't think we'll need that," Marin said.

Gus turned around to face him.

Marin continued. "We can leave most of our gear here since we're not traveling anymore. I don't plan to wander around the city with my bag on."

Gus thought for a moment. "It is a crime-ridden city. Are you sure I won't need my sword?"

"I'll leave it up to you, if that's something you want to haul around."

Gus decided against taking his claymore. What good would it have done him when Marin could stop any attack coming his way? Seemed kind of pointless now.

Marin pushed his gear under the bed as an extra measure of protection. He was already fairly certain there wouldn't be any prying from the staff, but this was Tarenfall, and he wanted to be at peace knowing he had done all he could do. Gus performed the same, and soon they were out the room.