The Rogue Guardian

Chapter 4: Strangers and Old Friends

You'll notice I have acquired a beautiful new cover, so I'm putting the old one up here so we can still enjoy it :D And about the theory contest-- I'm considering just making it a favorite comment contest, because to be honest some of my favorite comments so far aren't even theories, they're just plain funny! Maybe I'll end up doing prizes for both. Anyway, ONWARDS!

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She woke up to shouts downstairs and it took a disorienting moment to place them as nothing more than a lively crowd in the inn's downstairs room congregating for dinner. With a deep breath, she sat up and pushed her hair back from her face. She wasn't sure if she'd had the dream again, but whatever she had dreamt about, she was certain it hadn't been pleasant. Bloody feet, a scarlet trail, Luca's face and a glimpse of the Sage's green robes-- she pushed herself out of bed before she could think anymore, the familiar panic of the past three days setting in.

She couldn't afford to panic. She was alone-- for really the first time in her entire life-- in a city she didn't know, just barely eighteen years old with no one to tell her what was going on, and barely any money left, much less friends to turn to. Thinking about the odds against her only strengthened her resolve. Somewhere in this ancient tangle of a city was Jaden's friend, or opponent, or enemy, or whatever he was. All she had to do was stay calm enough, smart enough, to find him.

She smiled to herself as she slung her bag over her shoulder. Maybe she wasn't calm, but with time she would manage to adjust. And as for smart, she knew she could handle herself. And if anyone happened to think otherwise, they'd find out how wrong they were.

Fake confidence, Jaden had always said, even when no one can see you. So she locked her door behind her and set out into the warm, sunset-tinted streets as though she had nowhere to be but wherever she chose. It was different from the capital, in almost every way. The buildings were golden-tan brick all around, cracked and patched, and unlike the capital, where tenements leaned over the road as though determined to block the sun, light filled the narrow road. Caer had taught her that Maenar had been the first capital of Solangia, older than the current capital, and she could see its age in every twist of the cobbled street. Rather than the wooden signs that hung over every business in the capital, the names of the shops she passed were carved above the doorways, often decorated with carvings of animal faces. It took her a few minutes to recognize them all as lions, weathered and worn as they were nearly to smooth shapes.

And that made sense. The lion was the symbol of Maenar, its star sign. But for some reason, she twisted her head to stare at each carving she passed, trying to figure out why she kept doing so. There was something else about a lion, wasn't there? It had come up before, she was certain. Tobias and Abram and the Huntress had been born under the Lion, symbolizing Maenar as their birthplace, but that wasn't it... but maybe Tobias had something to do with it. She could picture him, the lines of his face, the cool grey of his eyes staring into hers, gnarled hands bent around a deck of cards-- the tarot cards. In the memory chamber, when he'd shown her the tarot cards, he'd drawn the lion.

Maybe that was it, just her memory grasping at that what moment. But as she pushed open the door to a narrow building, she felt an uneasiness that whispered maybe she was forgetting something. There was something else about a lion that she couldn't quite remember, something that had slipped out of her grasp, maybe something to do with the cards and maybe not.

"Can I help you?" The woman's eyes squinted at her from the back of the dark store, unnervingly pale. "Or are you just going to stand in the door for a few hours?"

She let it swing shut, cutting off the long rectangle of golden light. Two lanterns in the back, on either side of the dusty counter, barely illuminated the shelves that cramped the room. "Is this a pawnshop?"