Shadow Whispers

Chapter 4 ☀ Boar's Tavern

Chapter 4 - Boar's Tavern

Khoeli woke up with a throbbing headache, her head pounding. She was lying on a fairly flat bed, and looking around, she noticed the walls around her were made of brown wood and tall ceilings.

"Dear gods, where am I?" she groaned, closing her eyes again. She felt a headache coming on.

"We're at de Boar's Tavern. Maeve, us friend, is de owner o' this sound establishment. She's de one lett'n yous stay e'yer."

"The Boar's Tavern!" Her eyes fluttered open. "I'm supposed to meet someone here at noon!" The young woman scrambled to get out of bed, only to be pushed back down by Nessie's firm hand.

"Relax kid, it's only ten in de mornin'. We stay 'ere sometimes when it's especially cold out. I 'ope ye dun mind, but we guv 'er some o' yer rips as compensation fe 'er silence. Yeh know, it's not everydee where a girl shows up wearin' Brother clothin'."

It took her awhile to get through the accent, but when she finally did, she stared at them with eyes as big as a deer. She'd been found out.

Foster chuckled. "Nessie, you can drop the accent now. We know about her secret about being with the Brothers, so she might as well know what our deal is."

She crossed her arms. "Fine."

"We've got food, miss-"

"Ellie."

"What's your actual name?"

She ignored the question. "What sort of deal are you talking about?"

Foster gave her a warning glance. "Nessie.."

Nessie dropped the subject. "Fine. I won't bug you about your name until after we tell you." She pulled out a chair and plopped onto it. "So. We faked our accents."

"Uh huh." Khoeli interrupted in exasperation.

"Don't interrupt!"

"Okay."

"It all began a long, long time ago..." she started.

"Nessie! Get to the story!" Foster interrupted this time.

"Okay fine!"

Khoeli had to restrain herself from laughing. The two bickered like Felix and her did.

Where could Felix be?

She had no idea how she'd meet up with him again. Her thoughts briefly turned to the upcoming meeting with Cassi.

"It wasn't actually that long ago. I only turned twenty-two last month. We were servants to the lord, like our parents before us, but after we turned eighteen and failed the test, we got kicked out. The lord doesn't want anyone without magic ability, see. They can't control us like they do other servants."

"Oh, why is that?" Khoeli regretted not paying attention in her Magic Theory lessons with the Brothers now.

"Our auras. It's a complicated business, and I don't know enough about it, but the gist is that we don't have ones that are visible to specific magic users, so they aren't able to control us through them."

Foster gave her a nudge. "Tell her about what we do as a job."

Nessie huffed at him. "She should know our story first, Fostie."

He growled under his breath, "I told you not to call me that!."

She smirked at him, shaking her hair back over her shoulder. "We're the leaders of the magic-less revolution, which is based out of here, Aredale. When we first got tossed out on the streets, we wandered around hungry and turned away from others.