Vhalar 23 722
Eternity yawned as she took a look at herself in her bedroom mirror and said, “you look a mess.” Her body ached from walking and carrying things around the last handful of trials. She fetched a comb and ran it through her tangled hair. Every tug caused discomfort but she kept doing it in any case. It was least she could do to look more presentable. As she worked her way through every section of her hair, a small pile of hairs fell down to her feet which she collected and tossed towards the fireplace. Afterwards she tied her hair into a ponytail and sat down to relax. She felt like her strength for the day had already been spent.
Her eyes wandered and settled on her fingernails. They had gotten long and were broken from roughly handling coins and locks. She reached for a file and then started working on managing the damage. She wasn’t good enough to make her nails look good but she was able to smoothen out the rough spots so that she could go a little longer without having to cut them. She hated cutting them because they required her to use a knife or get someone else to do it, neither of which she cared to do when she was so tired.
“There, all pretty now,” she said happily. Her gaze then settled on the plant pots she had outside. She’d only planted seeds in one of them and she still didn’t see any signs of plant life sprouting from the soil. She understood that it took time for plants to grow but since she didn’t actually know what she’d planted, she’d have to wait to see what showed up. That was assuming anything grew at all. She thought about gardening for a bit then let out a big yawn. She’d rested enough and now it was time to go.
One of the reasons she wasn’t very rested was that she kept having bad dreams. She knew she’d had a bad one last night too but she couldn’t recall any details about it. The dreams that had haunted her earlier in the season were distant memories now. All she could recall was fire and fear and a strange feeling that they were connected to her ambition to learn more about magicians. Speaking of magicians, she still hadn’t found one. She was heading to the market to meet up with someone who she’d heard might be able to help her.
The person she sought wasn’t easy to spot. She wandered around the area they were supposed to meet and only noticed his presence when he grabbed her elbow and pulled her to a secluded alley. He wasn’t what Eternity had expected. He was short, even shorter than herself. He had black hair and his face looked mousey. He wore a cloak that looked like it’d seen better days. He casually leaned his shoulder against the wall and dug his hands into his pockets to keep them warm. He looked Eternity over and said, “our mutual friend said you needed some information.” He then turned his gaze away to make sure nobody else was watching them.
“I wouldn’t call him a friend, just someone I happened to run into,” Eternity said while leaning her back to the wall. She wasn’t intimidated by the man, but the way he acted made her feel like she ought to be nervous.
“You’re after a magician, eh? What’s your business? You don’t look like a mage hunter. You looking to hire?”
“I want to learn more about them,” Eternity said, “I’ve read some books but they contradict each other. I thought that if I were to meet one I could learn the facts.”
“So, what, you’re with the university? You have an odd request, lady, and it’s suspicious.”
“I swear that’s the truth,” Eternity replied.
“I suppose it doesn’t matter,” he said. “I know of a place where a mage might be staying. You pay my fee and I’ll tell you where to go.” He emphasized the word “might” and held up some fingers to show how many coins he was charging. Once the money was exchanged, he told her where to go. Before he walked away he added, “if it turns out not to be true we can meet again and I can send you on other leads.”
Eternity was left trying to decide whether she’d wasted her money or not. She’d paid for a rumor, basically. It didn’t make her feel very confident that she’d find what she was looking for. Then again, she felt like she was heading in the right detection. She felt that if she kept looking, she was eventually bound to find one. She didn’t want to waste any time because she had other stuff to do, so she headed straight for the inn where a mage was supposedly staying.
The inn was nothing out of the ordinary. Someone with a better eye for value would have recognized that it was catered to poorer folk. Eternity walked in and chatted with someone who swept the floors who told her to check the dining room where another employee told her to wait until the person in charge came around. She took a seat at a table and waited with nothing to do to occupy her time except look around at the guests who were eating. None of them looked out of the unordinary to her, not that she really knew what to look for. A magician in her mind was some kind of being that pulsated with energy that could crumble this inn with a mere thought. There was certainly nobody like that here.
When someone with authority came around Eternity asked her if she’d seen any mages around and she said, “no, and if I had I still wouldn’t tell you.” That wasn’t helpful at all. Eternity offered to pay her but she promptly asked Eternity to leave.
“So much for that lead,” Eternity thought. She couldn’t get a good read on the manager and couldn’t deduce whether she was telling the truth or not. “What a waste of a morning,” Eternity groaned. She wasn’t ready to give up but she didn’t want to hang around all day when she was so tired. So she headed home and made plans to come back at night and to check things out again.
When it got late in the night Eternity arrived back to the inn so she could snoop around. The only light available was what came from the moon and the dying embers from fireplaces. That meant that she had no clue whether anyone was watching her or not. Just to be safe she still tried to remain unseen and more importantly, unheard. Staying unheard was the hard part because it was hard to be quiet when she couldn’t see all that well. It was especially annoying because there were fallen leaves on the ground. Every so often she’d step on some and it’d make a crunching sound that’d send a shiver down her spine.
The cold of the night motivated Eternity to hurry up and get inside the inn. She put her lockpicking tools into the door’s lock and noticed just how much harder it was to pick things when her hands were cold. She struggled with the lock and had to spend so much energy opening it that by the time the lock clicked open she was panting with exhaustion. She pulled the door open ever so slowly and just enough to squeeze her body inside. She then pulled the door behind her, but not enough to fully close it.
Eternity’s heart pounded. She had no idea what to expect going forward. This was the first time she’d ever broken into a business as opposed to a home. She had no idea what kind of security measures were taken and thought herself stupid for hoping that things would just work out. She crept through the first floor and headed towards the light of the glowing embers. Presently she cared more about warming up than looking for the mage. Her whole body washed over with relief when she saw the fire. Then, as she turned her head, her stomach squirmed.
There were people in near the fire. She hadn’t noticed them at first but she saw them now. They were sleeping on makeshift beds on the floor and Eternity recognized a few of them as employees. That was the last straw. Seeing them there made her want to scream at the top of her lungs in surprise. She whimpered, weighed her options, then decided not to warm up. She was too fearful to do much else other than to walk up the stairs and look blankly into the dark hallway. She’d been too put off by the prospects of getting caught that she lacked the courage to inspect every room. She tiptoed back out of the inn and hurried back home all while hoping that nobody had caught her. It would seem that her mage hunt was at its end, for now.
[Template credit to Pyrre]
