A Mess of a World: the Etched Stone

5.1) Alessida

"My ring?!" Alessida spluttered.

"Jade, come here at once." Zaki'a demanded. The woman's eyes sternly flickered from the guard and then to Alessida.

Bitterly angry at the injustice of the situation, Alessida stomped over.

The white-haired thief scrambled to his feet and ran off with a stagger. At least I hurt him! She thought resentfully.

"It's all cleared up!" The guard called from behind her. "Go back to what you were doing."

Damen waited until passerbyers were out of earshot before saying, "What happened?! We leave for a little while and the next thing we know there's a crowd of people around you and- and whoever that guy was."

"He stole this!" She said, thrusting the piece of jewelry into his hands. "And -EEERGH!- that stupid guard didn't believe me!" She sighed aggravatedly. "You saw him steal it too, didn't you Sama?"

The little girl shook her head regretfully.

"Would you be quiet? They can still hear us." Zaki'a said, alarm in her eyes. She waited until the very last stragglers were gone and then said, "Your first views of Ebin may lead you to believe that it was always like this, but it wasn't. Damen and I were here two months ago and everything was fine. Something has changed drastically and we have to get to the bottom of it."

"You don't have to be a mage to know that there's some kind of magic at play here. D'you feel it? Changing our emotions? I can't go down one street without hearing someone crying. And also," Damen's eyes shifted across the square. "There's corruption in the city. Big time."

"Yeah, no kidding." Alessida said, turning her head in the direction the guard had walked off in. She sighed. "Well, were you able to report to the people you needed to?"

"No. They were gone." Damen said, sighing as well. "Convenient much? Lead-Defender Raxis' excuse was that their trip had been delayed. They should have been here weeks ago."

"So... he was lying?" Alessida clarified.

Sama crossed her arms. "Pfft, I thought you Defend-ys were the ultimate good guys."

Damen and Zaki'a exchanged guilty faces.

Damen scratched the back of his neck and said, "Wellll... That's the ideal version, and the public version. Truthfully, only Zak, me, and a fistfull of others are 'good' people. Like everywhere else, corruption has also crawled into our best organizations." Damen said in a soft voice.

"So... what happens next? We go to Spirit's Wood now?" Alessida offered.

"No!" The two Defenders said too quickly, making Alessida narrow her eyebrows.

"We'll get to that afterwards," Damen added quickly. "But first problem's first; we need to find the source of the magic shrouding the city and put an end to it."

"But Spirit's Wood..." Alessida said testily.

Zaki'a lifted her chin sternly. "Our first priority is to help Ebin."

"And how in Jaerik are we supposed to accomplish that?!" Alessida demanded.

"Easy. we just do a little discreet investigating." Damen said. He then lowered his voice and said, "I also think that the guard's story was a cover-up to keep people out while they deal with the problem. If we take care of it we'll be doing the city a huge favor."

Alessida blinked in surprise. " ' Take care of it'? Like us... help you? Wait... you're actually trusting us? You don't think we'd run off on our own?"

As soon as the words had left her mouth, Alessida wanted to slap herself in the face. Her thoughts were running with her mouth and she had meant it in a more confused way then to make the Defenders suspicious. Yet, judging by their expressions, they had taken it the wrong way.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Zaki'a demanded.

"Err, I hope you girls won't leave, but yes, there's room for a little trust here. Right now, you three are the only people in Ebin I'd put my faith in." Damen said, looking at each of them in turn, eyes lingering on Zaki'a for a second longer.

There was a hesitant pause, but then Sama spoke up. "Right then. Where'll we be starting?"

"I've noticed that the spell only affects those inside the city. Sama and I will go out and question some of the guards, they will have to have some sort of a reasonable explanation. Fake or real." Zaki'a volunteered.

She turned to Damen and said, "Damen, you should look around the inside with Jade and see if you can find anything."

Damen put a hand to his heart as if he'd been hurt. "I never thought I'd live to see the day... You're finally letting me do the easy work..."

Zaki'a rolled her eyes and huffed. "We will meet up here in a while."

She motioned for Sama to follow her and the two marched off to the gate.