Vacant Throne

“Traitorous scum!”

Alyssa sighed. She was about done listening to this guy. From the intelligencer, she knew that he was a mercenary, a hired bounty hunter. She knew his mission was to kidnap some of the monsters from the camp for Yora. After an hour of trying to get some information out of him, she hadn’t learned what had actually happened to his fellow bounty hunters, but she really didn’t need to. Tenebrael was back in play. Once she picked up her little black book from Iosefael, Alyssa could just ask her what had happened.

It got a bit tiring listening to him complain about monsters, about Illuna, about the local government, and everything in between—he seemed especially enraptured with insulting Alyssa because of her friendship with Fela and Iona. Frankly, Alyssa thought he was lucky that Irulon wasn’t anywhere nearby. If she was, he would probably have had his tongue torn out for some of the things he had said.

After ensuring that Matra, the baker, was alright and generally unharmed aside from a shock to her nerves, Fela had loaded the struggling man up over one of her shoulders. They had initially started back toward the hospital, thinking he would calm down after being brought to a safer environment as well as seeing that none of the monsters around intended him harm. His constant shouts had woken up half the market, drawn the attention of several guards, and generally caused a ruckus. After that, Alyssa had been directed to the market guard station. The proper notifications went out to those who had been searching for him as well, letting them know that he had been apprehended safely.

The guard station was just a small building with a single holding cell, generally used as a temporary storage for a single rowdy individual. A place to get someone causing trouble temporarily off the streets. Either to cool down after a minor altercation with a shopkeeper or other customer, or a place to keep them before transferring them to a proper jailhouse if they committed some kind of major crime. As such, it really only had one room. An area for the guards and an area for the prisoner. Thick iron bars separated the two sides of the room.

Which meant that Alyssa had something of an audience as she tried to get some information from the old man. It was a bit embarrassing, really. All those guards stood around with their arms crossed and scowls on their faces at having their relaxing evening interrupted. It was made all the worse by how little information she had actually gotten out of him.

All she had really learned was his name. “Dork,” Alyssa said with another sigh, using that sigh as a means to suppress her smile at his very unfortunate name. She wasn’t quite sure when the term had originated in her world, but it probably meant something different here. Either that or his parents hated him. “I don’t care that you injured a doctor or threatened a poor woman…” She immediately cringed at her phrasing. “I mean, I do care, but that isn’t my job. It is their job,” she quickly added with a thumb over her shoulder toward the closest pair of guards. “All I want to know is what happened out there. Was it a giant snake or something else?”

“Snake? Snake! I wish it was a snake.”

“It wasn’t a snake then?” She honestly wasn’t sure whether or not that was a good thing. Rokien might be happy to know that the carnage hadn’t been caused by someone he knew. But he might also lose out on some bit of hope he had about his brother being nearby.

“Eyes blazing bright as torches,” he said, more mumbling to himself than answering Alyssa’s question. “Scales hard as stone. Fangs as long as your arm!”

“So… it was a snake then?”

The old man lunged forward, grabbing the bars of his cell with one hand. His other hand was still tied up in a sling. It was supposed to have been splinted, but that splint looked to have fallen out of place. It was hard to say whether that was because of his own actions or something Alyssa or Fela had done. Despite his sudden movement, he paused with his face pressed up against the bars. He stared for a lot longer than Alyssa was comfortable with, keeping his beady eyes locked on her.

“It was a monster,” he whispered.

Alyssa blinked twice. “A snake-like monster?”

“Long as a mountain and covered in blood!”

Rolling her eyes and shaking her head, Alyssa could only sigh once more. Brakkt had said that apophis could grow to absurd sizes, so Dork’s comment could fit with that… Except for Rokien’s comment about how their apophis wasn’t really all that large. This old man’s refusal to give a straight answer to any question grated her nerves to the point where she wanted to throw up her arms and be done with it all.

Which was basically what she did. “Alright,” Alyssa said, turning to the pair of guards. “We’re done here. If he says anything that sounds important, let me know. But I just don’t have the time—” or patience “—for this.”

She still hadn’t gotten much to eat. Just that quick slice of jerky on the way to find this guy.

“Sorry you have to deal with him,” she added as she headed out.

After dropping off the guy in his cell, Fela had decided to wait in front of the building with Iona. It had just seemed sensible given his overwhelming racism. It hadn’t helped, but it still seemed sensible. When Alyssa exited the building, she found Fela and Iona right where she had left them. But they had been joined by Brakkt.

A fully armored up Brakkt. The only thing that was missing from his armor was his helmet, which hung from its place on Ensou’s saddle—the draken stood next to him as he questioned Fela. Alyssa glanced around, but didn’t spot any of the other draken. No Izsha, Musca, or Dasca. If there was an emergency, Alyssa would have expected them to be around, so she relaxed a little. Still, seeing him fully armored up was a bit of a surprise.

“Did something happen?” Alyssa asked, waving a hand to his gear.

“An infected corpse picked up by one of the corpse reclamation teams wasn’t quite dead. It is currently unknown whether or not it was purposefully lying in wait for the team to come along or if it simply woke up at the time. I’ve never known infected to sleep, though I suppose they will lie dormant if there is no stimulus to agitate them.”

“The Astral Authority missed one?” If there was one thing she had thought she could count on, it was the Astral Authority actually doing their job. Then again, she had managed to hide from or otherwise avoid the Astral Authority several times. There were some things special about her, but perhaps the same could be said about a handful of infected as well. “Or is it a new victim of the plague?”

“It wasn’t any member of Illuna’s plague containment teams. Of that the survivors are certain.”

“Survivors?”

“Two of the twenty died. The first, apparently, died before he even realized that the body wasn’t quite dead. The other died valiantly, defending his comrades, buying them time to escape.”

“Did he manage to kill it?”

“No. And it didn’t pursue them either. It simply defended itself until they had gone. Which is why I’m heading out there. Trik requested my presence. Even if he had not, it is an oddity that I cannot ignore. It may be defending a location where another pit might manifest.”

Alyssa grit her teeth. That was a massive concern, especially if it happened much closer to Illuna than the previous Owlcroft pit. “Do you need help?”

“The recovery team left roughly a week ago, but Ensou can get me there by morning,” Brakkt said as he patted Ensou on the neck. “They’ve been traveling slowly because of their job. A single infected shouldn’t be a problem for me. I will of course perform some surveying beforehand. If the situation looks… strange, I will send you a Message. Otherwise, I would prefer if you stayed here and continued to investigate the incident that occurred.” He paused a moment, looking to Fela then to the door of the small guardhouse. “I hear the unconscious man is no longer unconscious?”

“I wish he was,” Fela mumbled.

“I don’t know how much we’re going to get out of him,” Alyssa said. “Between his babbling, his outright racism toward monsters, and disdain toward people associated with monsters—which seems to be just about everyone inside Illuna—just talking with him is a chore. I think he did confirm that we are dealing with an apophis, but even that was hard to discern and is suspect.”

Brakkt’s face softened. He let out a long sigh, not one of irritation as Alyssa had expressed several times over the past hour, but one more along the lines of longing.

“I’m sure if we find this giant snake, it will still be around when you get back.”

“I shouldn’t be too long,” Brakkt said. “Might even be back by tomorrow evening. Two days at most, I would imagine. Should I be longer, I will be sure to send a Message.”

“And I’ll send one to you if we do find this monster. Give you something to look forward to upon returning.” Looking toward the door, she sighed a little. “Don’t know if you wanted to try interviewing that guy. I doubt you’ll get much out of it, but…”

“I trust you to have it in hand.”

Alyssa nodded, not really feeling as if the trust were deserved, but accepting his intentions for what they were.

“In any case, I shall meet with you later. Good luck.”

“You too.”

As Brakkt mounted Ensou and started off toward the western side of the city, Alyssa turned to Fela and Iona. Especially the latter.

“The others are probably worried that you haven’t returned by now,” Alyssa said, wondering if it was best to send a Message to Rokien—who couldn’t Message her back—or simply take Iona to the guild for the night. The prospect of walking all the way down to the camp and all the way back up was not appealing. It would be an exaggeration to say that the sun would be up by the time she got in bed for the night, but not much of an exaggeration.

“They won’t worry. I spend lots of nights up here with the humans.”

“Do you?” Alyssa said with a raised eyebrow. She hadn’t heard that one.

“Yeah. Sometimes Susan…” Iona trailed off, ears twitching. “I mean, Susan’s dad has me help out early in the morning to get the first batch of pies ready for sale. It’s too big of a pain to travel all the way up here so early in the morning.”

“Shall we take you back to the pie shop then?”

“No!” Iona started. He hesitated a moment before sucking in a breath. “I mean, it is so late. They probably are already asleep. It would be rude to disturb them.”

Alyssa crossed her arms, tapping a finger against her elbow. She was pretty sure that she was missing something, but wasn’t sure exactly what. A glance to Fela just got her a shrug, so Alyssa shrugged in turn. As long as it wasn’t anything dangerous, whatever was going on wasn’t any business of hers. And she really didn’t need yet another problem on her plate. She had enough as it was.

“Alright,” she said, holding out a hand to grab onto his as if he were a child. “You’re coming with me tonight. We’ll take you down to the monster camp in the morning.”

“Or I could just go straight to the pie shop. In the morning that is, not now. Definitely not now.”

“Is there a problem? Are you having troubles with the humans there?”

“No. No. It’s just…” he trailed off, tapping the tips of his fingers together. “Susan’s parents sometimes… Sometimes after they drink expensive wines…”

Alyssa’s confusion about what she was missing went mostly away. She now had two ideas at the forefront of her mind. One of which she had to address. “Do they get violent with you?”

“No. Of course not. They’re good humans.”

“Then—”

“Can we just go?” Iona said… no, pleaded.

Having a feeling that she knew what went on some nights after drinking, Alyssa simply nodded without further question. They made it five full steps toward the guild before Fela made a noise.

“Ah. The monster with two backs,” she said with a wide grin.

Alyssa knew a euphemism when she heard one. Having not heard this one before, it took her a short moment to actually get it. When she did, she could only shake her head. The mental picture was quite vivid.

Iona, on the other hand, tensed, gripping Alyssa’s hand. He didn’t blush. At least, Alyssa couldn’t see it in the dark of the night, but she could almost feel the awkwardness rolling off him.

“Please, Fela,” Alyssa said, hiding a smile of her own. “He’s obviously embarrassed enough as it is.”

“I thought they were fighting the first time,” Iona practically whispered. “They were trying to be quiet and they said they would try harder the next time, but…” He raised his free hand up to his head. “I have big ears!” he said, flattening one against his head.

Fela let out a deep guffawing laugh. “They’re humans. It’s what they do. You’re not going to get any sleep at the guild if you can’t learn to ignore them.”

“Alright, alright. Settle down,” Alyssa said, not sure she wanted to find out what was going on in adjacent rooms. Or rather, she was sure that she didn’t want to find out. “It won’t be that bad.” Fela felt the need to scoff at that. “At the very least, it is a bigger building and you don’t have to interact with the people in the morning.”

Fela still had a grin on, like she wanted to say something but was holding herself back. Something that Alyssa could appreciate.

Really, Alyssa wished that there were more days like today had been. Not quite the same. Today had been a busy one with her running all around, but it had been mostly just talking with people, gathering information, and delivering information. Relatively peaceful. Most recent incident aside. And even recapturing that old man hadn’t been that big of an ordeal compared to some things.

But an opportunity to just walk around with Fela and Iona was nice. “Have you eaten anything this evening, Iona?”

“Of course. I always take home some of the leftover pies.”

Alyssa, feeling some of those stomach pangs at having missed a few meals today, wondered if it wasn’t too late to rush back to the markets and grab some bread or pies. They wouldn’t be fresh, but she could practically smell some of those home cooked pies. The almost hamburger-like scent of meat combined with chopped potatoes and a garnish of vinegar, all wrapped up in some buttery breading, was enough to make her mouth water.

The scent was so real that she found herself looking down at Iona, wondering if working at the shop made him permanently smell like meat pies. As she looked down, she found Iona holding up a small cloth sack.

“Want one? It’s the last one. Fela ate three while we were waiting for you.”

Alyssa shot a glance to the hellhound. “I hope you didn’t pressure him into giving them to you.”

“He offered.”

“After you begged, I bet.”

Fela shrugged, completely shameless.

“It’s alright,” Iona said. “They always give me some extra to take back to the camp. But I’m not going back, so someone should eat it.”

“Well, if you insist,” Alyssa said as she let go of Iona’s hand to take the pie.

Nice and savory. A bit cold, though the middle was still warm, but if there was one thing that Alyssa had learned from this world, it was not to get overly excited about food. There was always something wrong with it. Either it was cold, flavorless—or worse—or made from low quality goods. If she were a picky eater, she would have starved long ago.

“Thanks,” Alyssa said, finishing off the pie. It had been a smaller one, maybe two thirds the size of most of the normal ones that Alyssa had purchased from the shop on occasion. She had to wonder if that was random happenstance or if the piemakers were deliberately making gremlin-sized pies for Iona to take back to the other monsters.

“Thanks for stepping in earlier,” Iona said after a moment. “I was so worried, I didn’t know what to do. I thought I would jump on that guy, but humans are so big and scary…”

“Like I said, going to a guard would have been the best idea. But… I’m glad you weren’t hurt. And I’m happy to know that you were worried about some humans enough to put yourself in danger. But, I’ll reiterate, you shouldn’t do that. Keep yourself safe, go to the people whose jobs it is to handle such matters.”

Iona nodded twice, seemingly taking the advice seriously.

Hopefully he would keep himself out of danger in the future. Alyssa wouldn’t always be around to rescue him if he got into a spot of trouble.