Chapter 314

They reached the town before the sun set, but it was still late in the day before they made it through the open wooden gate. As security went, it was fairly pathetic. The wall was little more than cut logs sharpened to points at the top, the guards were well equipped, but few, and the height of the logs that formed the wall was such that anyone with martial arts could have cleared them in a single bound.

But it was good enough against common bandits and most weaker monsters.

The streets were unpaved, but the buildings ranged from stone to brick to wood, with a few homes that were taller than the walls themselves, denoting the 'wealthy' members of the local township.

The odor of horse and animals was thick and carried on the breeze, leading both Layali and Zesshi to cover their noses. Brain couldn't resist, "Smell that air!" He laughed, and the pair groaned behind him as he led them to the nearest inn.

The unpaved roads were more like wide paths along which people walked, and thanks to the lack of recent rain, at least it was packed hard and was easy enough to walk through. The people they saw were mostly dressed in cheap breaches of black or brown cloth with laced up shirts, and those were carrying farming or fishing tools, and weapons enough to fend off any river creatures.

Some carried axes or wood from the nearby forest, while others carried animal carcasses slung over their backs from a successful hunt.

It could have been any town anywhere, and all Brain wanted to do, was leave it. 'Just a short stay.' He told himself as he opened the door to a building with a cheap wooden sign hanging overhead that had the crude outline of a mug and a bed flapping back and forth in the breeze.

A portly innkeeper stood behind a table and shot to his feet to speak to them, he wore an apron around his substantial gut and a cheery smile on his chubby face. "Welcome to Home Sweet Home." He said, and Brain approached the fellow with an equally false and measured good cheer.

"Hi, my wife, daughter and I need a room for… a while, maybe the night, do you have space?" Brain asked, and the innkeeper's jowls flapped as he nodded up and down.

"Course, course we do, ah, but what with folk passin through to go to Arwintar, the prices are a little higher now… an I can't compromise on them. Cost'll be nine silver per person." The innkeeper said, and Brain sucked in his teeth.

"Are you a bandit, or an innkeeper?" Brain asked with a frown, and the innkeeper's cheery demeanor vanished.

"The price is what it is, bandit or no bandit." The rotund man answered back, and Brain gave a look over his shoulder at Layali's leg.

'I need to rewrap that, I need more herbs… I need to get horses… and a new sword… at least the monster meant we're okay on food for now… fuck!' Brain mentally cursed and then gave a slow nod. "Fine, show them to the room, I'll have to go… sell a few things, where can I do that? I'll pay you when I get back." Brain promised, and the innkeeper thought that over for a moment.

"Round the corner there's a store, mostly sells gear to travelers and whatnot, but they buy most things if they think they can resell it." The innkeeper promised and moved out from behind his table.

"Brain, what are you selling?" Zesshi asked, but he shrugged.

"Just some things. Don't worry about it, just get Layali's bandages unwrapped, I'll be back soon." He promised with a reassuring wink.

"F-Fine." Zesshi muttered, and when the innkeeper walked past them, Zesshi followed to the room.

The floor creaked under every step, and she felt Layali cling tighter while wrapped around Zesshi's body, the footfalls of the innkeeper bowed the cheap wooden steps each time, but they never gave way under his weight.

She followed him to a crude, dark wooden door that had clearly seen better days, it was chipped and rotting in places, having never been sealed against the elements, and even beneath the door Zesshi could feel the draft caressing her feet and denoting the open window within.

'Camping is nicer.' She thought, but waited while the innkeeper unlocked the door with a rusty iron key and opened it to reveal the room within.

It had only a single bed, a rough, unrefined table, a single chair, and no wardrobe or place for clothing. Its only amenity was a single smaller table on which a half burned black and white candle sat with a pair of sparking stones.

The innkeeper held the key up while Zesshi went within and placed Layali on the mattress. The 'bed' creaked more beneath her, and the noise of straw rustling within revealed immediately what it was made of.

"I'll be holdin the key till your husband gets back. If he doesn't have the money, you leave or I'll call the guards." He said, and unsure of just what to do in this situation, Zesshi simply answered him…

"I'll… make sure he's successful."

"Don't leave." Layali whispered from behind her and reached out to grab the cloth of Zesshi's dark shirt. "I don't want to be alone." The young half elf bowed her head, and her tiny voice reached her taller counterpart, but Zesshi turned, took the small fingers that gripped her shirt, and removed them.

She crouched down in front of the girl so that she was looking up into Layali's face. "It'll only be for a minute, the door will be locked so nobody can come in. Just be patient." Zesshi said and brushed the girl's golden hair aside, "Okay?" She asked.

Layali gave a tiny little nod.

The innkeeper, to his credit, waited, until Zesshi went for the door, and true to her instructions, when they were both on the other side of it, he put the key in the lock and turned it with a click.

"Just around the corner?" Zesshi asked when she reached the front door of the cheap establishment again.

"Yeah, can't miss it. And hurry up. If you two abandon your kid here, she's an employee." He said, and Zesshi had no idea whether or not he was joking when she left the building or not, and was almost afraid to ask.

'Is this really what I've been defending all this time?' She wondered, recalling the mockery and abuse of the mob when her half elven heritage was seen, the public abuse of her own brother, and everything between and after… she felt a roiling sense of disgust in her guts when she rounded the corner and approached the store.

At least the innkeeper had told the truth, it was there, the door was open, and Zesshi could even see Brain standing at the counter.

'Spoons… forks… knives?' She asked herself as she saw him dump them onto the counter.

Rather than follow her first instinct, to go in after and speak to him, she paused to listen, remaining behind the door.

"...Listen, these are all solid silver and solid gold, check it, make a little cut, but only if you actually plan on buying, because if you mark them it'll be harder to sell elsewhere." Brain said while he stacked the utensils according to their type.

"Yeah, and how'd you come by em?" A rat faced skinny man with hard, beady dark eyes said as he held a fork up and brought it close to his eye.

"What's it matter?" Brain demanded, "That's my business, your business is buying and selling, well I'm selling, so are you buying or what?" Brain demanded, the drumming of his fingers on the counter stopped and his hand went flat enough, fast enough, to give the sound of a slap that left the rat faced shopkeep briefly startled.

"Listen, I don't much care for your attitude… yeah, I'll buy, but it won't be true value. I gotta move this stuff, you know, and then so'll they. I gotta make a living here." The rat faced man had a wheezy, nasally, whiny voice, his palms rubbed together with nervous energy, and Brain only stood silent to draw the uncomfortable moment out.

When the beady eyed man's gaze began to dart around, Brain finally spoke, "I need two horses, medicinal herb, a new sword, and enough money for the inn for the night. Can you do that or not? And I'd like some money left over."

"Ah hah, a heh, eh, well… yes and no… I got herb, and I got two horses… adventurer, his friends died, survivor sold the horses, got em at a good price, I'll sell em to you, deduct the price from these things… didn't sell no sword though, and while I got em, I won't discount that… see, ah, you'll have enough for the inn, but not much else after that. Maybe a few copper left." The rat faced shopkeep's smile came and went and came again, his tongue darted in and out of his mouth to lick his lips like a lizard tongue, "So… whatta you say, traveler? You can't sleep on these, and the next place you might sell em is days away at best, and you don't got more money for herb do you, or horses… it's this or nothin… you want or not?" The shop keeper's smile spread out as Brain's silence stretched.

"Fine. But… where can I find good work, around here?" Brain leaned forward as he asked the question, "It's important that I find… good work, I'll be gone very early, so I don't need much work… just a bit."

"Ahh heh, ah, well if you're willin, big house, center of town. Mayor lives there, lots a money, lotsa work, you know, an ah, hard drinker." The shopkeeper answered, and then swept the flatware off the counter where it tumbled with a noisy clatter into an open basket on his side of the counter.

"Great." Brain perked up, "Give me the herb, horses, and money for the inn, and I'll make sure to forget this conversation ever happened." He drew his hand away from the counter, and the rat faced shopkeeper began to chuckle.

'What the hell?' Zesshi frowned from where she stood, 'Work huh… something about that all felt… wrong, felt off…' She rushed back to the inn, through the front door, and before the innkeeper could rise she said, "He's just behind me, he'll be here in just a few minutes."

The innkeeper relaxed, a bright, cheery smile on his face, "Well then, go on back to your room for now."

"The key?" Zesshi asked and held out her hand.

"Oh, none of the locks work anyway." He chuckled, "Just head on up."

Zesshi's mouth dropped open, but he'd already stopped listening and paying attention to her, instead he was heading toward a bar on the far side of the room, she didn't linger to see what he did there, she only hastened back to where Layali sat by herself with a false belief in her own safety.