Specters

Chapter 2: Trouble in Dulvine!

Kuri is woken up by the rumbling of the cart, followed by Paulie apologizing for the rough awakening. Kuri moves to the front of the cart and is then greeted by the sight of Dulvine in the distance. Kuri began to gather his things, packing his bag, making sure his swords are affixed to his belt and adjusting his scarf. Once they reached the gates, the guards checked him and Paulie, and shortly after they were allowed to enter the city. After a brief goodbye, Kuri passed a note to Paulie and then departed. Dulvine was usually a very lively place, every visit Kuri made here always lived up to being as lively or even more lively than the last. This time was no different, however, this visit had Kuri wondering about the corruption Paulie mentioned. Had the seeds of the corruption been here on his last visit? Could he have prevented this? As he wondered about such things, he went to secure some lodging at an inn he stays at whenever he is in Dulvine, Kirkenheim inn. Upon approaching it, something felt off, but he chalked it up to him just being uneasy and entered the inn. The place was crowded, which is very unusual for this place, as crowded and rowdy as the inn was displeasure was resonating in the air. Kuri then realized that the inn wasn't as crowded as he thought, looking opposite from where the regular patrons were sitting, were many empty seats. All but five seats were empty, those five seats were in the corner occupied but what appeared to guard. Kuri once again shrugged it off, although he had never experienced this kind of behavior before, he paid it no mind. As he continued to talk through the inn, he eventually reached the main desk, no one was there so he decided to wait patiently. After some time, a young lady came by.

"Sorry sir! How may I help you?!" she said. It was clear she was exhausted. But as she was talking to Kuri, she was preparing something for one of the patrons.

"Ah, no worries, I was wondering if you guys have any rooms—" Kuri began to ask.

"Sorry! But there are no open room! "She said as she stormed off to attend to the other patrons.

Kuri was shocked to hear there had been no empty rooms, this place was normally barren but now, barely a year later, it had no empty rooms. Kuri dismissed the thought though. He started heading to sit down and drink before heading out to find other lodging. As he pulled out one of those many seats, he seen open from before, the young lady from before stopped him.

"You really shouldn't go over their sir..." she said. " We're instructed to not let anyone near those tables".

Kuri was confused, as he briefly looked around however, he noticed most of the bar patrons attempting to slyly look at what was going on.

"That's interesting... Do you know why? " He asked.

"I'm afraid I cannot say." she said.

Kuri pushes back in the seat as to not cause any more trouble than he came here to cause. As he smiles and thanks the young lady, another employee yells out to her.

"HAZEL! WE JUST HAD A ROOM OPEN UP!" they said.

Hazel looks over to Kuri asks if he would like that room, naturally he accepted the room and walked away from the tables. He was led up to the room he would be staying in by Hazel and once there, she told him there was some rules that he would need to abide to in order to stay at this place. While she spoke to him about those rules, they did nothing but fall upon death ears. As she spoke, Kuri began to question when this place became so restrictive. Then he remembered what Paulie had told him, while he tried to deny it, he could deny it no longer. Something was definitely up. He now had so many questions but before he could even think of some of the possible answers, he heard a pacing back and forth outside of his door. He walked toward the door, putting his foot against it and waiting for the assailant to do something. But for the next couple minutes nothing happened, tired, Kuri sat with his back to the door.