Deus Ex Machinarium

Anh unfolded and stretched his limbs, then yawned. He spent the night tucked away in the corner, just underneath a bright oil lamp. There, he took possession of a whole table, where he spread all of his writing utensils, comprising several rolls of paper, his set of inkwells, quills, and reed pens as well as a sizable bowl of dried fruit he managed to swindle from the inn’s pantry. He had succeeded in persuading the landlord, using the same logic which earlier failed to impress Brandt, to consider updating the inn's floorplan, and after a short haggling session, he managed to get himself hired, if only for a few coins. Which was a minor boon to what he would have done regardless - he wasn’t particularly sleepy or tired. He would try to find something to keep himself busy during the night to alleviate the boredom. The main hall emptied quickly, and soon there would be nothing to observe and interfere with.

The room was dimly lit by a handful of torches. The fireplace, with the sad remnants of a mostly-eaten half-corpse of an ox, now only emitted a faint glow. The air was thick with smoke and saturated with smells of the day, a nauseating blend of charred meat, spices, and alcohol, mixed with the sweet odor of vinegar and sweat. The last patrons left for whatever place they had for the night's rest. The only ones still present were workers of the inn itself, cleaning the floors, scrubbing tables, searching for lost tankards and plates and sometimes ushering a drunk soul from below the table.

Upon hearing of the plans for the night, Brandt limited his actions to a slight lift of one of his eyebrows, then wished the tanai goodnight and went upstairs, fingering his satchel. Anh ignored him, then proceeded to optimize the arrangement of his work tools and his position by the table, for clarity of view and ease of use.

Once this was done to his satisfaction and he was as comfortable as he could get, he started to work. Sketching, tracing, and calculating trajectories. Occasionally also bothering the kitchen or cleaning staff.

It was certainly a long night, but a fruitful one, as he spent it on perfecting his concept. When the morning dawned a sizable heap of paper sat proudly in the middle of the table. Of the five of the kinfolk, only Birdekk engrossed himself in his private sleep, or meditation, so to speak. This state of tanai’s inner personality, when one of the variunity simply detached him- or herself from the rest and was doing… something, didn't even have a corresponding word in the Cammona tongue, mostly because even the tanai people rarely spoke of this. In the constant cacophony of the inner workings of their psyche, those rare moments of privacy constituted a taboo, rarely addressed and practically never discussed, but always respected and cherished.

-* well look who crawled out of his room *- hissed Tow when they saw Brandt walking into the main hall. The Nord stopped for a drip, looked around, and, noticing that his tanai companion didn't seem to move from his spot, smiled and directed his steps toward Anh's corner.

-” Good morning. ” - boomed the hoomin in a surprisingly fresh and energetic voice -” I am ready to go. Do you need some time to prepare?”

-” What? It’s barely… the time it barely is. Early.” - replied the tanai, blinking.

-” Time is a limited and non-renewable commodity, and we are on business.” - Zerster sat across the tanai and, after a questioning gesture, took the pile of drawings and shuffled through them - “I reckon we should not waste it.” - he added after a few drips of silence.

-*I just might like this man* - snickered Thernohh

-” That, I agree” - responded Anh in part to the hoomin, in part to his kin -” I am done with this, I just need to coin in and we can go.”

-” Glad to hear that. I shall fetch and prepare our steeds. Are you wrapping up right now?”- there was no real reason to say those words because even as Brandt spoke, Anh was already in the process of collecting his things. Seeing this, the hoomin stood up and unceremoniously went towards the outside doors.

-* well, so much for chit-chat*- said Greeo

-* he isn’t the type * but I guess the landlord might be * time to get our shillings *

After a short while Anh emerged from the inn in a pretty cheerful mood. While the landlord did try to haggle her way out of paying, it wasn’t that difficult to convince her otherwise. Which was good. Surprisingly good. Possibly because a year of making ends meet as a merchant sharpened his interpersonal skills somewhat. Or perhaps because she did see the value in the tanai’s contributions. His mood then improved even further when it turned out that outside was bivy, fairly dry, and warm. Quite dissimilar to the last few days.

Anh spotted Brandt leaning against a fence, their small caravan of two mules and a horse tied to a post nearby. The man seemed busy observing three workers packing luggage upon a carriage of azure and yellow, the heraldic colors of the Kingdom, the same three men Anh remembered from last evening’s game of Punt. They clearly had a falling out - instead of gently handling over chests and sacks, they almost threw them at each other, and one sported a black eye.

The tanai approached Brandt, who nodded at the spectacle.

- ” They seemed to have had a fight last evening.” - he said, directing his words to nobody in particular - “You are the cause.”

- ” I’m going to require some explanation.” - tanai said innocently, whilst the kinfolk inside his head roused a commotion, variously assigning blame or taking credit for the idea of interrupting the game.

- “ From what you can observe already, they had a brawl. I overheard that the reason for it happening was their game yesterday. “- Brandt hopped onto his horse -” The one you meddled with.”

- “ That’s unfortunate. For them, I guess.” - Anh busied himself by strapping a bag to the mules he led. Both men directed themselves toward the western gate of the inn proper. Once they entered the open fields, Brandt continued.

- ” I don’t think you should be so dismissive”

- ” How so? If my ‘prank’ was such a massive blow to them, they ended up fighting, well. Does not speak well of their working relationship.” - said nonchalantly Anh - “or sanity, for that matter.”

- “ Yes. This is indeed true.” - the tanai was content with this response, and as soon as he heard it, he started to look around himself, searching for something to distract himself from the voyage -“That is not the issue here” - Brandt continued a few seconds later.

- “ So what is?”

- “ The problem is, we are going into Maargard and we are going to be poking people who don’t take kindly to it.”

- “ Indeed. Yes. What of it?”

- “ Those people routinely have ‘poor working relationships’ or are straight up ‘insane’, as you put it.”

- “ Are you worried, I am going to poke the wrong people for my amusement?”

- “ Yes. If you will, it is going to put us in grave danger.”

- “ Aren’t you, sir, “ - said visibly annoyed Anh - “ a little too suspicious?”

- “ I don’t know” - responded the hoomin - “ Am I?”

- “ You are. I’m perfectly capable of not getting myself in trouble”.