Vacant Throne

Alyssa took a seat for what felt like the first time since she woke up this morning. Her thighs didn’t feel particularly great at the moment and the less said about the soles of her feet, the better. Her old boots, the military boots she had been using since she first arrived in this world, were still around, but Alyssa had started worrying that they might not have the lifespan that she needed them to have. They were already fairly old, having been her mother’s service boots from before she left the service. They were designed to be durable, but she wasn’t sure if they were literally-every-waking-minute-of-every-day, walking-for-probably-miles-every-day levels of durable.

Since arriving in Illuna, she had swapped out her military boots for something a little more local. She still wore the military boots when doing anything serious, such as heading out to fight the Astral Authority, but these leather boots had taken over as her daily wear. They were made from brown leather that went most of the way up to her knees and even had the folded cuffs at the top. Not exactly the most comfortable of things. There wasn’t any gel padding or really much in the way of regular padding. But they worked. On days when she didn’t have to walk for miles back and forth, up and down the streets of Illuna, down to the monster camp and back up to the opposite wall, they were fine.

Today had not been one of those days.

Volta had made off with a mere quarter of the supplies that Alyssa had intended on giving out. From there, Alyssa had visited with Irulon. She had been quite excited to learn that Tenebrael really was interested in the prospect of their work on souls—Alyssa had neglected to mention the bit about Tenebrael considering asking Irulon to stop her efforts—but had been significantly less enthused when told about the issues with Claire.

Much like how Alyssa thought, Irulon viewed the intelligencer as being inherently untrustworthy. The guild didn’t have a prison cell to contain her and keeping her close enough to keep an eye on her would just interfere with Irulon’s work. Which was almost finished, in her own words. Unfortunately for poor Claire, Irulon had basically said to simply let her die.

Alyssa wasn’t quite ready to give up on her, hence her trip down to the monster camp. In keeping with her delegation idea, she wanted to find someone who could just beef up security just a little bit. And that was not a pun on Rokien’s species. She had asked Rokien if there were any of his people who might be willing to supplement the guards at the jailhouse. Hopefully someone with a decent sense of smell that might notice any unnecessary ingredients in the food.

Rokien had pointed her to a lizard man—much like Rizk from the whorehouse except with green scales instead of red—who had been rejected for a guard position on account of him being in exceedingly poor health upon first arriving. Starvation, apparently. But in the weeks since, he had regained much of his former muscle mass and was quite a threatening individual that also wanted an excuse to look around the human city.

She had ensured that he knew that he might have to fight off an assassin. He seemed quite confident in both his claws and his scales. And, perhaps more than anything, curiosity of the human city beat out his wariness of any potential danger.

Unfortunately, actually stationing him at the jailhouse required permission from Martin, resulting in another long walk all around town.

And such had been the majority of Alyssa’s day, running hither and thither.

Night had fallen before she made it back to the guild’s tavern for her first sit-down of the day.

Alyssa let her head hit the table, her arms dangled limply at her sides, and she just groaned upon remembering that she was supposed to speak with the cook about Fela’s meals.

Looking up and around the tavern, Alyssa didn’t spot any of the few people still around eating. At least not the cooked meals. Some had dried meat or other preserved foods. Things that didn’t require cooking. Much like when Brakkt had shown up too late to eat after the delegates from Yora arrived, the cook was probably already gone for the night.

At least I can put that off until morning, Alyssa thought somewhat guiltily. Fela had accompanied her for most of the day, so it wasn’t like she had eaten anything served here, but it still was a gross prospect. She could hardly believe that Fela hadn’t mentioned anything sooner. Spitting in food, Alyssa grumbled to herself. She had thought that was an entirely modern problem. But people in this world could probably get away with it a whole lot more.

Food here was not dressed up to be all that visually appealing. Food was food and people ate it because they had to. Only people like Martin got to eat fancy food with spices and actual taste on the regular. Even Irulon and Brakkt were extremely pragmatic in their consumption. Neither seemed to require fanciful meals.

With the slight exception of Irulon’s favored Tyrian wine, which she could not go without for any length of time.

She couldn’t imagine someone like Decorous living like they did. It made her wonder whether the rest of the royal siblings were as keen on roughing it as Irulon and Brakkt were. Or even the Pharaoh. Brakkt even preferred to catch his own food when hunting with the draken. Which… in light of knowing how the cook here at the tavern operated, didn’t sound like that bad an idea anymore.

Despite the disgusting thoughts on food, Alyssa’s stomach was rumbling. Now that she thought about it, she was pretty sure that she had skipped lunch.

For a few long moments, Alyssa considered just going hungry. But, knowing she would regret it later, she dragged herself to her feet. “You want anything, Fela?”

“Food? Jerky, I guess.”

Alyssa nodded. That was about all they had that was easily accessible. Perhaps she could find a pot of soup or some bread, but this time of night, it really was just dried or salted meat.

Immediately after swinging her legs over the bench she had sat at, Alyssa froze. A slight pressure intruded on her mind. The familiar feeling of an incoming Message.

~The patient you brought in woke up, injured a mender, and fled before the guards could stop him.~

“Great,” Alyssa grumbled, waiting for more information. But it quickly became apparent that there was no more coming. She grabbed her deck of cards, about to send a Message back, only to stop upon realizing that she didn’t actually know who that was. She knew the head doctor’s name, but that had definitely not been him. Was he the injured one? Or, given how late it was, he probably wasn’t even at the hospital building.

Instead of sending a Message now—she could send one in a few minutes—Alyssa turned to Fela. “That injured guy we brought in, do you remember what he smelled like?”

“A little porcine-like with a hint of wet dog and about three buckets worth of sweat.”

Alyssa grimaced. She couldn’t help herself. That description was… she could almost smell the sweat and wet dog. She wasn’t sure what a pig smelled like, but…

Actually, she thought with a quick glance around. I might actually be smelling all that. Fela took frequent baths, usually with Alyssa, so the wet dog smell probably wasn’t coming from her. The same could probably not be said about the few people still drinking around the tavern. Hearing what she had already been smelling must have tricked her brain into thinking she was imagining it fresh and pungent.

Shaking her head, Alyssa looked back to Fela. “You think you could track him down?”

Fela’s tail started whipping back and forth. “Are we going human hunting?” she asked, perking up.

“Yes. Yes, I think we are going human hunting.”

“Can we eat first?”

“Probably not.”

Fela’s perky ears immediately drooped. “Oh.” Her tail’s wagging slowed down to a depressed sag.

Alyssa had to frown. Puppy-dog eyes didn’t work on her. Especially not when those eyes had flames jumping from them. But… “One quick stick of meat that we’re going to eat on the way. Alright?”

Fela’s ears pointed skyward and her tail resumed its vigorous shaking back and forth.

With that said, Alyssa quickly snatched a small bit of food and headed out at an accelerated power-walk. The medical facility wasn’t far and it would be the best place for Fela to start tracking down the trail. In addition, she would be able to figure out what happened without having to worry about who to Message.

It was just a shame that the draken were down at the monster camp instead of the guild stables. They probably would have caught the guy in the same amount of time that it took to actually reach the hospital. She considered having Fela carry her, but she had just slightly too much dignity for that. Aside from that, she didn’t feel as if the situation was so urgent that she needed to get carried around.

So they arrived after a few minutes of hastily walking.

And it didn’t take long to get a rundown of what had happened. The guy woke up, panicked and not knowing where he was, wound up shoving the attending mender. Which wouldn’t have been that big of a problem, normally. The guy was still injured, one of his arms was tied up in a tight sling and he still had lacerations all over. But the doctor had the misfortune of being shoved over a small bucket, which he tripped over, fell, and slammed his elbow directly into the hard ground. Part of his arm had shattered, apparently. Not a life threatening injury, but not something that could be laughed off either.

The old man managed to get away before any guards could apprehend him, despite his injuries—the hospital was poorly staffed in terms of guards, especially later at night. There were people out there looking for him now, but that they hadn’t yet brought him back probably meant that Fela would find him first.

Fela spent a few moments around the man’s bed, sniffing around. Which, in light of finding out what Fela thought he smelled like, was a bit gross. But she did so without complaint and promptly started heading off, leading Alyssa down south toward the markets. Every once in a while, she would stop and head over to the side of the road, sniffing around while saying something like, “I think he stopped here for a few minutes.”

Even with the periodic stops, it didn’t take long before Fela brought her into the market proper. It was a bit creepy at night. All the stalls were closed up. The streets were mostly empty. Not completely empty, but mostly. Without any big taverns around, there weren’t too many lights peeking out from the dark buildings. Many of the larger stalls and shops pulled double-duty as homes for the proprietors. As such there were some lights. But even those were mostly dark. People generally went to bed immediately after nightfall if they didn’t have a good reason to stay up.

That was just the way of this world. And of history, probably. People rose with the sun and set with the sun.

Which was why Alyssa wasn’t too surprised that Fela started leading her toward one of the buildings with lights on. The old man would probably have been drawn to one as well. She was just glad that it wasn’t the little pie baker’s shop. Because of Iona and some of the other gremlins, she had developed a rather friendly rapport with them.

That wasn’t to say that she didn’t recognize this shop. It was a quaint little competitor of the pie shop, specializing in baked goods. Butter-heavy breads like croissants, regular bread, and even the rare fried pastries when they got a shipment of sugar in. Allegedly. Those sold out fast enough that Alyssa had never been able to see one let alone try one despite stopping by every now and again. The rest of their wares were quite good, however.

“Inside?” Alyssa asked, slowly walking up to the front door. It did have windows, but, much like Tzheitza’s shop, the storefront was a separate area from the living space in the back. Although a single light was on, no one was in the front room.

“That’s where the trail leads. Don’t know if he is still inside, but haven’t picked up anywhere else he might be.”

“Alright,” Alyssa said as she drew her pistol and spell cards. “I doubt he will be that dangerous given his injuries, but let’s take care.” Would he have taken hostages? Alyssa wasn’t sure if there was a reason to do so, but she couldn’t discount the possibility. There hadn’t been a reason to hurt the doctors either. Who knew his mindset at the moment.

Alyssa hesitated at the door, wondering if she should knock first or simply barge in. If they were right about the man being inside… Those were the wrong terms to think of it in. It wasn’t if they were right. It was can we afford to be wrong? Knocking, making a bunch of noise, and waiting could result in someone being hurt.

With that thought in mind, Alyssa quietly pushed open the door, trying to make as little noise as possible. She considered applying an Empty Mirror spell before deciding that there wouldn’t be much point. Opening the door in the back of the storefront would be noticeable regardless of whether or not she was invisible.

Alyssa made her way across the main floor of the store. She wasn’t sure that customers were normally allowed inside. There were a lot of stone ovens and wooden racks for holding food, but nothing that actually looked like a shop. The few times she had purchased something from this place, she had done so outside.

Fela carefully followed after her. Alyssa hadn’t said anything, but Fela was clearly trying to be cautious about making noise.

Stopping in front of the back door, Alyssa listened closely. She couldn’t hear a thing, but Fela could. The hellhound’s pointed ears twitched. A moment after and two sharp claws were pointed up in the air.

Two, Alyssa thought, staring. Two what? Two people? Two minutes? The peace sign? Is that even a thing in this world?

Shaking her head, deciding that she would just have to deal with whatever was on the other side of the door without any real forewarning, Alyssa placed her hand on the handle. She had a mental debate about opening it slowly or instantly until she decided that the less time someone had to react, the better. She swung the door open hard and fast.

Two people were in the room beyond—a small sitting area with a large fire pit in the middle. One portly woman with red hair who Alyssa had purchased bread from in the past. She sat, tied to a chair by thick ropes, with her eyes wide as she stared at the other occupant.

The old man Alyssa had found. He waved around a thick butcher’s knife while whirling from where he had been facing the woman to look at the door.

Alyssa didn’t hesitate. Chains were already lashing out before she had fully grasped the situation. One set wrapped around the woman, the other around the man. Dismissing the chains around the woman, she gave a hard pull, dragging the man to the ground before he could so much as yelp.

Fela prowled in after her chains, practically jumping on the man’s back in order to keep him pinned down. Unnecessary, in Alyssa’s opinion, but it was good to know that he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

“It’s gonna eat me!” the man screamed, making Alyssa wish she knew which spell Irulon had used to silence the retainer from Yora. “Help. Help! Monster!”

“Sorry for the trouble,” Alyssa started to say, looking to the baker. “As for you—”

Fela moving made her stop. The hellhound, keeping a knee pressed in on the old man’s back, leaned in and sniffed the woman twice. “Don’t relax. There’s someone else here who shouldn’t be.” Her ears twitched as she looked around. “I can hear the heartbeat… and smell the monster camp.”

“Monster camp?” Alyssa said, looking around. The man was still shouting for help and the woman was frozen, still staring with wide eyes—now she was staring at Fela rather than the old man. Alyssa did her best to ignore his shouts. They could both be addressed after she and Fela had secured the area.

“You’ve got him?” Fela asked.

“The chains don’t break on gaunts. I doubt this old man will manage to even strain them.”

Nodding, Fela stood. She dashed over to the side of the room. Another window was open just a crack. It didn’t have any glass in it, unlike the windows out front, and only separated the inside from the outside with slatted wooden shutters. Shutters that Fela shoved open with a bit more force than necessary. Reaching her arms out elicited a yelp from something as she pulled a furry little creature into the room.

“Iona?”

“Don’t eat me.” The little gremlin, suspended in the air by a claw clamped onto the back of his shirt, had his eyes locked on Fela’s bared teeth.

“No one is going to—”

“Another monster. Monsters everywhere! They don’t stop. They’ll keep coming! Pandora has fallen! We’re all going to die!”

Alyssa really wished she had the silencing spell.

“You be quiet. Fela, put him down. Get rid of those ropes,” she said, waving a hand to the poor woman. “What are you doing here, Iona?” Alyssa asked once he was safely on the ground.

“I saw someone who smelled strange going in here, then he started threatening Matra. I… I was waiting for him to turn his back so I could pounce on him.”

“You should have gone to the guards. Matra,” Alyssa said, addressing the woman—she hadn’t known her name before this, but assumed that Iona knew what he was talking about. “Are you alright? Are you injured? Matra?”

It took an extra prompting to get her to respond. “I’m just a bit shaken up,” she said, still staring at Fela.

Is the hellhound who is helping her out of her bindings really more alarming than the guy who tied her up and waved around a knife? Shaking her head, Alyssa looked down at the old man as he struggled against the chains. For being so injured, he was putting up an awfully good fight.

Since Tenebrael had yet to show up, she might as well try to get her answers now.

Though perhaps in a different location. The baker was probably shocked enough for one night.