Dungeons & Dragons

Chapter 4

Following Jack upstairs, I feel the weight of the day increase with every step. When we reach the second floor, he takes me to a small room. Jack allows me to open the door, and stays out when I enter. Very thoughtful...or not willing to cross Kelnth. Either way, I turn and nod my head to him with a polite smile. He returns it with a small bow, and returns to his work.

I close and lock the door behind me, then look around the room. A single bed and chest, a desk, and a closet. Now, I'm not stupid. I know better than to go snooping around a questionably sane man's room. I leave everything well enough alone. There is also a good sized window, across from the door.

With nothing else to do, I flop onto the bed. I decide to take out my knife, having it ready in case of emergencies. Twirling it between my fingers, I think over all the weird happenings today. Losing control of my body multiple times is hardly a good sign, I think. Losing control of my mouth, I can almost explain away. I'm used to it. It feels like I'm in a manic episode, turned to a hundred. The magic? The repeated automation of my body? That's terrifying. It gives credence to one of my early thoughts. Maybe this isn't my body, no matter how similar it looks. In which case, will the real owner of this body eventually gain control? Will I cease to exist? This world shouldn't, by all accounts, be real. Only two explanations exist. I'm either dead, or I've been transferred to a different reality. Could I really be dead? The thought makes me choke up.

"Comfy?"

I lean forward, looking around for where the voice came from. "Hello?" Has it really been ten minutes yet?

Kelnth is sitting on the window sill with a single leg hanging inside, and the other propped up on the sill with him. "Glad to see you have some sense in arming yourself. Also pretty glad you don't know how to create a proper crime scene." Idiot, he's fucking lucky I didn't launch this knife at his face. I let my head fall back with a huff.

"Ah, and what were my marks, oh great criminal master?" I don't bother hiding my hissy mood.

"Messy enough, that's for sure, but you got to have at -least- one broken piece of furniture. A mirror, a stand, a drawer grabbed and yanked from a dresser. You know something to show a struggle. Maybe tears in some clothes or something." My head shoots back up, anger momentarily forgotten. He better not have ruined my clothes... "Don't worry I didn't tear your clothes, but I did break the window, and I knocked over the candle in the corner." He looks to the moon, sighing wistfully. "Too bad it wasn't lit, that would have really been convincing." Ah, the Dunmer proclivity for fire. Glad to see that wasn't racist propaganda. I don't validate his wishful thinking with a reply, only raising an eyebrow at him. "Anywho, it just looked like you up and left, or went out for a stroll, they had even left some tea or something just inside the door. So I had to make it convincing." Who on earth just...knows how to do these things? Wait, that's a stupid question. More importantly, what kind of idiot would see a torn apart room, with no occupant that should be there, and just leave it at that!? Better not have been my little servants, or else they're out of a job tomorrow.

"I'll give you the clothes, I hardly wanted to hurt them." I say loftily, trying to hide my anger. On another note, I need to play along. He might be crazy, but Kelnth is my only chance right now. I raise my head yet again, pinning him with all the annoyed confusion of a customer being told they are at the wrong store. "Surely though, the broken ink pot and quill weren't convincing in the context? I even calculated the trajectory for the chair!" I use the knife to accent my points, waving and pointing it as I allow my hands to convey my tone.

Kelnth chuckles. "A chair knocked over in a haste is far more common in running away than a kidnapping. You would have grabbed onto it and drug it to the window as something to hang onto out of panic." His tone isn't patronizing in the ~slightest~. "Again, it's actually encouraging that this is the first time you have done this. Means this actually is a new situation for you." He nods as if I should also consider this a good thing. As opposed to this being a regular occurrence!? What sort of people has this man met?