A Mess of a World: the Etched Stone

9.1) Alessida

An hour of running later, Alessida stumbled through the streets still looking for the inn she and her companions had agreed to regroup at.

Of all people, WHY did I have to run into that stupid thief again?! She rubbed her eyes and angrily sighed as weariness dragged her feet.

Finally, she spotted it and pushed on the door of the wooden building. The door got stuck halfway, and instead of fighting it, she just shimmied through the small opening.

Tables and visible staircases filled her exhausted vision, along with many people of all sorts who wore the same forlorn expression. The Innkeeper stood at the bar at the other end of the building exchanging sad stories with his customers.

Alessida didn't recognize anyone until Zaki'a was right in front of her. Her sluggish movements told that she was just as tired or more. Her eyes also looked glassy and unfocused.

"You're finally here." Zaki'a yawned. She rubbed her eyes awake. "We were not certain if you'd be back, though Damen had faith, and now here you are."

"I found where the spell is coming from." Alessida mumbled, feeling sure about her deduction. Zaki'a's tired eyes widened at her words.

"Truly? Then tomorrow we may be able to put an end to all of... this." She gestured around the room. "We were able to secure seperate rooms for each of us, even at this outrageous time of night. The others are already sleeping."

Alessida let out a yawn herself. At the mention of 'sleep' her limbs turned to jelly. "Thanks. I'll tell you more tomorrow."

Before Alessida could ask Zaki'a where her room was, the woman said, "Follow me." with a knowing look in her eye. She led her upstairs to a hallway and opened the first door on the right.

"Here." Zaki'a said, gesturing into the room. Alessida peeked inside and saw a simple room with a small bed, small window, and a small nightstand with a vase full of the native dark flowers.

"I'll wake you in the morning." Zaki'a said, closing the door behind her.

Alessida sat on her bed and whispered to herself, "This ought to be a nice contrast to the woods."

She crawled underneath the covers and fell fast asleep, but had no dreams.

Minutes had only seemed to past when someone lightly knocked on her door and sunlight was streaming through her window.

Alessida sighed and sat up, forcing herself to wake up. "I'm up." She yawned to the knocker, before getting onto her feet. Slowly the previous day came back to her, bit by bit, and she remembered what was supposed to happen today.

After letting out another sigh, she smoothed her itchy clothes down and leaned over to smell the flowers. She took a long sniff and found that they were scentless. Odd.

Alessida shoved her bangs out of her eyes and got an idea. She opened the nightstand drawer and gasped in relief. She'd finally found a brush, and oh did she need one for her messy hair.

Despite being wooden with spiky bristles, she whispered blessings to it, and began to tear through her hair. With a silent hope that no one would knock again anytime soon, she stayed in her room taking a solid ten minutes until her hair was smooth. Smooth maybe, but not clean. She reminded herself.

As there was no way to clean it at the moment, she wound it tightly into a braid, with her bangs evading her attempts to pull them back and falling out.

Afterwards, Alessida twisted one of the flowers into a tight knot around the end to keep it secure for a little while.

Dirt coated the edges of her loose blouse, the leggings underneath, every exposed piece of skin, and completely covered her shoes. Nothing I can do about that, She reminded herself again. Unless there's a clothes washer around here.

But she wasn't about to ask Zaki'a or Damen if there was one.

As ready as she'd ever be, she went downstairs to where the others were. The inn was drastically empty compared to the night before, and she could easily see her three friends gathered around one table.

When she approached, the sweet aroma of breakfast greeted her and she took a seat. Her companions looked at her with sleepy expressions, but Sama immediately perked up, "Goodness to the goodest that you finally came down! I'm starving!" the girl eyed the untouched food greedily.

Damen rolled his eyes, which were red and puffy. Had he been crying? "Yes, yes, you can start eating and stop complaining."

Same began to help herself, and he looked over at Alessida, "Zaki'a told us that you had found the source of magic. Would you mind to elaborate?"

"Where I was checking, the impact of the spell became a lot harder to resist, and I think that some sort of magical bird is behind this." She told them. Doubt was clear on Zaki'a and Damen's faces, and they exchanged glances.

"Did you actually see it?" Zaki'a asked.

"I was told so... and I believe them. I know where I was last night and I can lead us all over there." Alessida said, biting into a savory roll.

She quickly finished it. "Do you think we should get Lorraine to help us?" Damen shrugged at the suggestion. "Can't hurt, maybe she found out something in that huge library."

Zaki'a disagreed. "Do you honestly think we should trust a rogue mage? We should report her and make sure she gets to a mage college."

"That is what we should do, but isn't going to happen. Zak, you haven't had an actual conversation with this girl. Her life just got torn to bits and eaten by wolves, I don't think a college will do her any help."

"We're Defenders, it's-"

"Not yet." Damen said, handing Alessida a ring. She vaguely recognized it as the stolen accessory she'd been meaning to return.

Alessida and Sama watched Damen and Zaki'a's exchange silently, turning their full attention to their food until there was silence. Sama instantly tried to clear the tension in the air. "So the high and mighty Ebin king knows about this and doesn't do anything?"

"Nobody can get close. I guess guards have been sent before, but when you get too close it paralyzes you."

"How'd you even learn all of this?" Damen asked. His fork fiddled with the small portion of food on his plate, and he seemed tired and distracted.

"I was told about the guards and felt the paralysis first-hand." Alessida said.

Do I really trust what that thief had said? She wondered. He had seemed to be telling the truth, but she had no reason to believe it.

We'll see. She decided, leaving it at that.

"We should be leaving as soon as we can. The condition of this city is disheartening." Zaki'a shuddered. They turned their attention to finishing with their breakfast.

When Damen left to pay, Sama turned to Zaki'a and asked, "So, since when did people in armor get so much money?"

"We're given monthly salaries from the Defenders, but most of our income comes from allowances from home." Zaki'a said offhandedly. "We are not usually deployed, so it is easy to save up the money we do get."

Sama eyed her coin purse. "And so how much averagely? For research."

Zaki'a hid it from her sight. "Funny."

"Ready? Good." Damen glanced at them before pulling open the door. To his frustration it got stuck as it had for Alessida. Annoyed, he yanked on it several times to no avail.

He sighed and put a hand to his forehead. "I do not have the patience for this right now." Zaki'a stepped in front of him and braced herself. She pulled twice with great force, and the door opened up.

"You need to calm down." She said dryly, holding the door open for the others.

He nodded sheepishly and took the lead to Lorraine's house.