Lore of Eternal Shadow: The Fugitive King

Chapter Three

Alyssa stirred her tea, watching as the leaves and spices floated in a swirl. Tea was difficult to come by in Galgaroth but not impossible. It was hardly cheap, though, and even now it was a laugh every time a Narbonese trader called it "medicine." She eyed a group of boys that kept tossing looks in her direction. There were five seated around a circular table on the other side of the crowded inn. They all looked to be somewhere between fourteen and seventeen. It was weird to think that she was about their age. They were all dressed in undyed cotton tunics and trousers; they wore boots at great expense. They probably had all coaxed their parents into coughing up a bronze or two for a dinner of thin soup and day-old bread, just so they could have a reason to be cool and hang out away from their family. She was so different, on a completely different level above these boys in their mid-teens. Alyssa bet the only thing these boys had on their minds was how to stay out even further after dark without their parents knowing... and the fantasies playing out in each of their teenaged brains involving Alyssa in some sensual scenario.

Of course Alyssa realized as she sipped her tea that she was quite a looker. Her long orange hair tied into a thick braid shone in the candlelight like woven copper. She was very fit; her muscles were compact and efficient. If there ever was a bar fight in here, she reckoned she could move between and around any male in the room and hit them where it hurt most. Her ears were long and pointed, sticking out sideways from her head about an inch. People on this continent usually ogled over her ears the first time they laid eyes on her because they looked neither like human nor Zey^Rey ears.

She was a tall girl and she realized maybe that was a bit intimidating. Of course the plate chest piece, greaves, leather gauntlets, and nearly-to-her-knee-boots over her linen blouse, skirt, and leggings didn't help her look any less frightening. She figured the boys probably thought she was older than them and also dangerous... and that made her a magnet for any day-dreaming teen boy. To be honest, it was a little disgusting. Part of Alyssa wished she could be on the same level as those boys. She wished she had a group of friends to spend evenings hanging out at the local inn with... She wished she could be a normal teenager.

Alyssa didn't have time for that sort of stuff. She had a job and a contract, much more serious things to worry about than the next pimple on her face. Still, she was a little self-conscious. She was a strange woman drinking a strange beverage in the back of an inn. She knew she looked nearly like she could kill everybody in the room if she wanted to. She didn't want to be so intimidating.

A black cloaked figure entered the inn. He spotted Alyssa and walked over to sit down opposite to her at the small circular table. Alyssa stole a glance at the boys, who all had turned away from her direction. They thought her boyfriend was here. "Salgan, I presume?" asked Alyssa.

The Zey^Rey's eyes darted around. The noise of the inn would be enough to cover their conversation. "I apologize for keeping you waiting," said Salgan, sober eyes filled with pain in the shadow of his cloak's hood, "I was... delayed."

"Two days sitting idle and drinking tea with all expenses paid," Alyssa mused, "I could get used to this."

"Has there been any sign of Zicone or Lauren?" asked Salgan.

"Nobody matching their description," she answered.

"They went beyond my sight three days ago shortly after escaping those ZRDF men," Salgan summarized, "I'll give them one more day to show up here and then you and I are going to go look for them."

"Why here?" asked Alyssa.

"This is the first inn for hundreds of miles if you're coming from the west," Salgan explained, "odds are high they would take advantage of such civilization."