Heart of Dorkness

Terror Five - Data

I stare at the temple for a while. I don’t know what it is about it that’s so captivating; after all, it’s just some burnt wood and torn down stones.

Maybe it’s less the state of the temple and the idea behind it?

I’m not the cleverest girl around, but I’m hardly an idiot. A glance at the buildings around the temple and I can see that none of them are burnt. This wasn’t a fire that hit all of the temples here, just this one.

Which means that it might have been done on purpose.

“I realize that I’m lacking data,” I mutter.

“What was that, Miss?” Felix asks. Her smile is still on, but there’s a melancholic twist to it.

“Do you know who did this?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “I heard that there was a fire.”

And suddenly I’m disgusted by her. How... why didn’t she tell me about it? But no, it’s not her fault, and I take a deep breath and settle my core.

“I didn’t know it was this temple. Maybe it was an accident?” she continues, unaware of my reaction.

“I don’t think so,” I say.

I need to find out what happened here. Mom would want to know. Better yet, she’d be pretty happy if I’m the one to figure it out.

That means that I need to find someone that I can ask a whole lot of questions to. I consider the other temples for a moment. There are plenty of them here, small as they might be. But I don’t trust them. Mom said that she’s not on friendly terms with... any god, really. There are a few she trusts, but she’s very weird about how she trusts people.

So maybe not the temples then.

Visiting this temple was only part of my chore. The bigger, more important part is securing the next shipment of books.

I swing my backpack off my back and rummage through it until I find a notebook. I took notes when Mom was telling me about my task. Notes are good.

I flip through them for a moment until I notice Felix paying attention. “Are you okay?” I ask.

She nods and glances away. “I haven’t seen many books,” she says. “Only one of the older ones in the Roughs can read. Sometimes he’d read stories to us, when we were really hungry.” She smiled. “It made it easier to forget.”

“You don’t know how to read?” I ask with dawning horror. That’s... that’s just awful.

She shakes her head. “I don’t have eyes. You can't read without eyes, Miss.”

“Yeah, I guess not,” I say. My grip on my notebook tightens. It’s not often that I’m reminded so starkly of how lucky I am. “You could still learn your letters, and how to count and such.”

Felix nods. “I can count. You need to know your numbers to use coins. The people at Mortimer’s will teach you numbers if you want, for free too, and they give you food while you learn!”

“Right,” I say.

Most people probably know that much, then. I eye my notebook, then trace a finger over to a name. Javier Juárez. He’s the man that Mom uses to buy books from all over. A merchant that Mom has blessed in exchange for a good price on the things she wants: mostly more books, but sometimes meat and foods that can’t grow around home.

He’s supposed to have a big home in the capital, but he spends most of his time here, in Santafaria.

I need to find him.

“Come on, Felix,” I say. I do feel bad for her. Maybe I can hire a healer to look at her eyes? It would only cost a few gold, I figure. At the very least, I can get her something to eat and a little silver. “Hey, do you know where the best place to learn stuff would be?”

“What kind of stuff?” Felix asks.

“Like, rumours, what’s going on in the city, stuff like that?”

Felix nods quickly; she looks happy to help. “Yup! I know a few places like that. Most of them are in the Roughs or in the South Quarter. Mostly the taverns, but you can hear lots of rumours in the markets, and some people will buy those rumours.”

I nod. “And what about in the nicer parts of town?” I ask.

“The inns, I think. The fancier folk don’t talk in the same places. I think they do all of their rumour stuff at balls and fancy parties where they have lots of free food.”

I pause in my walk when I realize that I’m not too sure where I’m heading. I just have to walk, and the road seems inviting. “Let’s go to the inns then,” I say. It’s past midday already, and I’ll need a room soon.

“The inns are that way, right?” I ask as I point towards what I think is the west.

Felix follows the direction of my finger, then nods. “Yup. On Innstreet.”

“Imaginative name,” I say.

“It’s where the inns are,” Felix says.

I can’t really fault that logic. Kind of a boring name, but I guess it works. “Was the inn that guard mentioned any good? The Ocuous one.”

Felix shrugs. “I’m not the kind of person that can go to an inn. I know it’s very expensive. Are you sure you don’t want to go to an inn in the South Quarter? They’re only a few silver a night. You even get a bath and some food.”

“That’s alright. I think the security is better around this part of Santafaria.” Midtown has guards. We cross two of them chatting at an intersection, neither doing more than eyeing us quickly, and more of their attention is on Felix, who looks a bit poor compared to the people here.

It’s an eclectic mix. Some workers, but all of them look clean, and there are plenty of others in nicer clothes. Not nobility, I don’t think, just people who are well off.

I shake my head and refocus. The walk is a good opportunity to think.

Someone destroyed the temple. Is it possible that they’ve done more than just that? Mom will be really miffed if someone burned her books, she doesn’t even allow candles in the library.

Once I find Mister Juárez and ask him, maybe things will clear up. I still have the impression that things aren’t nearly that simple.

Felix is good with directions, she cuts across an alley or two, avoiding spots where there are more people on the road, and before I know it, we’re back on Innstreet. “I think it’s that one,” she says, pointing to a fence. “I heard about it from others. No one knows what it actually looks like.”

The Ocuous Inn is hidden by a fence covered in a thick layer of vines that obscure anything behind it. There’s a gate in the fence, with nothing but a plaque next to it with the inn’s name.

I walk up to the gate and push it open. There’s a little garden on the other side, with carefully tended flowers in raised banks, benches and a few big shrubs. The inn itself is just as well maintained: a two story building, with a wide balcony around it and a shingled roof.

Some lights are lit within, so I invite myself in, Felix right on my heels. The girl makes herself smaller, shoulders hunching and head down. She probably doesn’t feel comfortable here.

The interior was just as clean as the outside, with a large dining room behind some sliding doors to one side, and a desk right opposite the entrance. I walked up to the desk and to the man standing behind it. “Hello,” I said.

“Ma’am,” the man says. He looks down his spectacles at me. I don’t know if he's snobbish, or if I’m just short. “May I help you?” He glances at Felix, and I notice his nose twitch.

“Yes, please. I need a room for the night. A decently large one. And enough hot water for a bath... perhaps three baths? Food as well, of course.”

“I see,” he says. I think he’s trying hard to remain professional. “The Ocuous Inn is one of--if not the--finest establishments in Santafaria. Our cost--”

I tug my hand out from within my cloak and place it over the desk, then open it to spill a handful of gold over his guestbook.

“How much is a room for a night?” I ask.

“One gold is sufficient for a week,” he says, somewhat faintly.

“Wonderful! There’s nine gold there, that should be enough for a day or two. I trust that such a distinguished inn knows how to remain discreet.”

“Of course, ma’am,” he says.

I nod. “Can you bring up supper right away? Before the baths. And would it be possible for you to find some clothes for my friend here? She’s in rags.”

Felix doesn’t turn her head my way, but I still have that itchy feeling of having her attention be entirely on my back.

I hope that’s repayment enough for the help she’s provided so far.

***