Planning for the Next Step

Elin sat on the bed of the first room them they had rented, which was on the third floor of the inn. Kim stood by the window and Jonas stood by the door. Elin wasn't sure why, but she felt like she shouldn't ask. Neither of them were wearing what could be considered a happy expression, so she didn't think she should say anything at the moment. Especially with what had happened on the road the day before.

Kim looked like she was doing alright now, but Elin couldn't help but still be worried that she hadn't fully recovered from her exhaustion the day before. So many things had happened that her mind was still struggling to make sense of it all.

Maybe she was more tired than she realized herself and that's why she was having trouble making sense of everything, Elin speculated while waiting for Jonas or Kim to start the meeting. She felt comfortable with letting them take the lead, especially since they seemed to understand things, even of this world, better than she did.

Elmo looked like he wasn't sure where to go, as there wasn't a chair in the room, but he didn't look like he could find a place to settle, and almost looked a little lost. Which as Elin thought about it, he had been kind of looking like that since he woke up after having fallen unconscious for reasons Elin still didn't understand, even after having everyone explain it to her separately.

Just what was 'hyperventilating' anyway? If she hadn't seen that word when she'd used her Assess spell to see what was wrong, she'd have thought that they were making the word up. Not only had she never encountered it before, but she hadn't even heard of it happening. How could breathing to rapidly cause someone to fall unconscious?

Despite that, she didn't want to dwell on the subject, but it still nagged the back of her mind. Like a dog that didn't want to let go of the bone it had gotten, even when it was another dog that it was typically on friendly terms with.

"Okay, I'm pretty sure no one else is near us," Jonas said, startling Elin. "So, first, we're not going to stay in this inn for more than a day. I have serious doubts that we'd be able to work off a room to stay here, so we'll have to move on after this. We're also now running low on funds, so we'll have to figure something out soon or we'll have difficulty buying food to eat."

"We could always find ways to earn money," Kim remarked, looking at Jonas like she was trying to push him down with her gaze.

"We could, however, we also can't stay her for very long. Most employers would prefer people to stay for a much longer period of time than we can expect for us to stay," Jonas replied. "Even if we could stay at this inn for a week, I have doubts that circumstances wouldn't force us to move on before that week would be up."

"Why do you say that?" Elmo asked, casting his haunted eyes towards Jonas.

"Because when I looked at the bodies of the men who attacked us, they all had an emblem in common to all of them. It might be an insignia or some kind, but I don't know enough about this world to be sure, however, I did notice one of the guards at the gate of this city had that same emblem on him, so I have a feeling this isn't just some small street gang or anything of that sort."

"What do you plan on doing?" Kim asked, sounding rather suspicious, like she expected Jonas to do something incredibly stupid.

Jonas merely gave Kim a smile. "Probably something I'll regret, but I'll have to go out tonight and see what I might be able to find," he said. "The contact I had in the village we just came from was involved in smuggling, so I wouldn't be surprised if I'll find more of that emblem somewhere."

"And what will you do if you find that it's, say… oh I don't know, an insignia of a mercenary company or something?" Kim retorted.

Jonas nodded. "Then I'll ask that company or 'something' if they'd be willing to tell me who their client was that had them waylay us on the road," he calmly replied. "If they don't tell us or attack us again, then I'll at least be able to get some more money for us to live on."

"How much would you expect to get from that?" Kim asked dryly.

"Not much," Jonas admitted. "But every bit counts."

Kim merely shook her head. "What do you expect the rest of us to do while you're doing that?" she asked.

"You'll all be in here resting. I plan on going tonight. That way if those who have that emblem really are looking for us, I'll be able to find out the most tonight. Assuming they recognized us as we entered the city, which I feel we should assume happened," Jonas answered.

"Shouldn't we all stick together?" Elin asked, unsure if she should be voicing anything at the moment. "What if they come for us while we're here?"

"Then you'll just have to defeat them," Jonas answered, as if it was just that simple. "Though, I doubt they'll attack tonight. I would expect they'd be gathering their forces, since they know the attack on us yesterday failed. Which means they'll likely send more of a force against us, which will take time to assemble."

Elin nodded. She didn't like the idea of a stronger force coming their way, but she couldn't think of how to avoid it. Especially since she was still struggling to keep up with the others. Although, as she glanced at Elmo, she could at least take comfort that she wasn't in the same state that Elmo was.

"Is there any other questions about that plan?" Jonas asked.

Elin looked at the others and didn't seem any sign they did, so she kept quiet herself. She couldn't think of anything to ask, except maybe for some clarifications of a few points, but she didn't want to annoy Jonas or Kim with her questions when she was pretty sure Kim knew what Jonas had explained without having to need any clarification.

After a few minutes of silence, Jonas nodded. "Okay, so next topic. Elmo," Jonas said, and Elmo looked up startled, as if he had been caught not paying attention at his lessons.

"Yeah?" Elmo asked weakly.

"Based on your behavior yesterday, I'm going to assume you haven't had any actual experience fighting other people, have you?"

Elmo looked blankly at Jonas for a minute before slowly shaking his head. "No, I haven't."

Jonas nodded. "Well, we're going to be fighting more people from now on, so if you're not up for it, now's the time to tell us. We're not going to be able to watch you and keep you safe while we fight. If you can't handle fighting actual people, then you're just going to be a liability to us. One that we won't be able to afford when these people move to assassinate the king."

Elmo looked like he wanted to curl up in a ball and try to hide from what Joans was saying, but Elin saw that his eyes were focusing again.

"If you don't think you can hurt other people who are intent on hurting you, then it would be better for you to part ways with us and go your own way," Jonas continued. "That way you wouldn't be a distraction for us in the next fight. However, our enemies know that you're a part of our group, so if you go off on your own, they could still go after you, not aware we've parted ways or to ensure that you didn't bring the knowledge that they aren't happy we have with you."

Elmo looked like he was going to be sick and Elin started looking for something to catch any vomit that might come up. Not that she could see anything in the room. Not even a simple basin was in the room.

"Now, tell me, do you think you can overcome whatever problem you had yesterday in the fight?" Jonas asked, looking into Elmo's eyes direcly, almost like he was trying to bore deep into Elmo's soul.

Elin was starting to think Elmo wasn't going to answer in any manner, with how he didn't say anything for a few minutes, before he weakly said, "Y-yes."

Jonas kept his eyes focused on Elmo's for another minute before he smiled and nodded. "Alright, I'll trust you can do that."

"What will you do if he can't?" Kim asked.

"Then we'll have to part ways then and there," Jonas replied matter-of-factly. "I have no evidence that says Elmo won't be able to, but at the same time I have no evidence that says he will. All I can do is trust in his own judgement of himself. If he isn't able to, then it's possible that our paths won't cross again, so we'll have to just go our separate ways. Which, I'm sure Elmo doesn't want deep down, no matter how he feels of his position in our group."

Kim looked at Elmo. "What do you plan on doing if you can't do it?"

Elmo looked at Kim, his expression losing its 'lost' appearance and looking like Elmo had before the fight. She couldn't help but be happy that Elmo was starting to look like his old self again.

She was certain that this was a sign that things were going to be simpler for them, if not easier too. After what Jonas had discussed, Elin was certain that they'd have better luck against whoever they fought with next. What could possibly stop them?