She got to the Wisier's building within 5 minutes. Gwenn hadn't noticed it before but it was now, by the look of the sun, 11:15 and nobody was in the square selling or buying things. In fact, no one, besides herself, was there at all. The silence filled her ears and she opened and closed the door faster than she had intended.
The room was silent except for the sound of the apprentice shuffling some papers and putting them under a stone. Gwenn walked slowly towards the table; she didn't remember it or the receptionist. "Excuse me, I am here to see Master Wisier."
The woman looked up from her work and stared at her for a moment. "He is busy and anyways, you would have had to make an appointment at least a week ago. I will send someone for you when he is not so busy and we will make an appointment then. Thanks for stopping by." The woman faked a smile and looked back down at her work. It was a clear dismissal, if Gwenn ever saw one. Oh no! I am not leaving yet! She thought viciously.
The woman looked up when she Gwenn didn't leave. "Do you nee-" She started.
She didn't get to finish. Gwenn butted in so hard the woman gasped, "Now you listen here! I don't need a bloody appointment! Since when has he started needing them? Huh? My friend is in great need of his help. And you are going to let me in there, whether I have to tie you to your chair or hang you from the roof! Is that clear?" Gwenn gulped for air, being so angry, she hadn't taken a breath.
The woman smiled again, but with a bit of fear showing through those brown eyes. "You need an appointment, I'm sorry." The apology didn't come out too easy, it seemed.
Gwenn yelled.
…Suddenly everything blurred…
Gwenn was standing in front of the Wisier's Building Door. She cautiously opened it and walked inside. Everything was just as it should be with no woman and no table. There was a white door ajar and she could hear something that sounded like the turning pages of a book. She shoved the door and walked into the Wisier's office. "Master Wisier…" She said, calmly turning to the old man reading a book. She snapped out of her calm state and almost yelled at him about the receptionist before she caught herself. "Master Wisier," she said urgently. "Adom needs you now. He has be-" She stopped talking when he moved.
The wrinkled old man turned to her slowly and stared for a moment. Finally his mouth made a sound not quite comprehensible, though it sounded strangely like no.
"What? Excuse me, did you say no?" Gwenn said unbelievably, peering at him curiously like he had two heads.
"No." He said calmly, "I will not help you. I have given up, I give to people what no other can give, and what do I receive in return? Hmm? A few measly coins!" His weak voice grew louder with every word as he became bolder. "Those coins are nothing to me now! Nothing! Do you hear?" He stood now, not 2 paces away from her, though there wasn't much space in the room to begin with. He smiled, his eyes a bit less foggy, something Gwenn had not noticed before. "I'm sorry child did you say something?"
She turned to leave but whipped back around and spat on his neatly polished shoe. The man didn't move. By now Gwenn was so angry that the door almost fell off of its hinges when she slammed it. Damn it feels good to get my anger out! She sighed. She would just have to take Adom somewhere with real help. She got back to the fountain using no more time than she had used getting to the Wisier Building. Gwenn turned, hoping to see Adom, but instead saw a crumbled fountain, the village's most prized possession, and now it was scattered pieces on the ground. Acid, it looked like, was surrounding the pieces one by one. This would have surprised and so much not happened in the last 3 hours. When she realized Adom was gone again, five minutes had passed.
Oh my god! What happened, where is he? Oh no, those damned voices sent from the Darkest Pit! He better not have hurt himself! Damn him! She thought furiously, then gained a bit of hope when she remembered the inn his father owned, He probably went there, oh thank the Creator, let him be there. She ran as fast as she could to the inn, and thanked the light that she found him in a corner of the common room instead of dead on the street with a piece of the fountain crushing his skull.
But suddenly she found a sense of anger burning inside herself; He should have left a bloody note or something. Making me worry about him like that! She was thankful that he was alright but she hated worrying. "Adom!" She barked, striding to the two chaired table he sat at. "I was worried sick about you! A bloody note would've been nice!" She sighed, I shouldn't be mad, damn it. It's not his fault the fountain blew up. I'm still bloody angry though, damn it! Why does it always bloody happen to me? She wondered how he had known before hand though; he wasn't hurt so he had to have known. Light, this just great, bloody great!
"They told me to leave. It's a good thing I did, you saw what happened obviously, but the voices told me to leave, so I did. They said you would find me, you did didn't you?" He smirked that great smirk of his and stared at her curiously, "That is what you wanted to know, right?" She nodded slightly and he mouthed something that looked like, 'thought so'. This made her angrier.
Gwenn didn't want to hear about the voices any longer and started talking before he could open his big mouth. "He won't help, Adom. We have to leave and find someone who will help you. We HAVE to leave, we have no choice." She said softly.
"Ok, but I don't think anyone can help." He looked guiltily down at the well swept floor.
"Why wouldn't anyone be able to help Adom? How long have these voices been in your head?" Light, please say since yesterday, please! Just say he's not so stupid as to not tell anyone for a while.
"About a month," He mumbled quietly.
"I'm sorry, what?" She hadn't understood him as he was mumbling and all. Please!
"About a month." He said louder, sounding angry but looking guilty all the same.
He is that stupid! Ughh! Is it always going to be me who lives with stupid people? Why couldn't I just live at a palace or something, around people with knowledge? "Adom, what is wrong with you? That is way too long! You say, you have voices in your bloody thick skull, and you haven't told a soul?" Light!
"I told a soul!" He said triumphantly, but his face fell after a few seconds.
Thank the Creator! "Who?" She asked eagerly, though not trusting him all the way. Maybe that was a good thing.
She had to bloody ask! He murmured something like 'amird'. Something she had never heard before.
"A what?"
"A bird, damn it!" He yelled. His face flushed as the other villagers in the common room glanced at him and whispered. "Oh go back to whatever you were bloody doing! There's nothing to see here!" He said, quite loud enough for everyone to hear. Sure enough, they noise started up again, like in all common rooms.
"You told a bird! Wow, that's great! A bird is really going to help!" She said, her voice dripping in sarcasm. "Adom, a fine bird that is! It's just gonna hop up the step to some Wisier building and everyone is gonna come running to help you, because it spoke and told the old man! How smart was that?" She knocked him on the head hard enough to make him glare at her.
"I know, it wasn't the smartest thing I could've done." He paused as she scoffed. "But," He went on, "who was I supposed to tell? Huh? I knew if it told you that you would come up with some 'great' scheme that would risk our lives. Say, running away perhaps. It's not like you know as much as the Wisier!"
"You know what? You're right, I don't know as much as the Wisier, but I do know that he won't help. Okay? So I am the best you've got right now, we ARE leaving." She stood up and stalked to the door. "Be ready by tomorrow morning at 9:00. Meet me at this door." She added as a sign of leadership, "Be here." She left him standing there, eyes wide at how angry she was.
I have a feeling I should not have said that. Adom thought. He shook his head angrily at himself and climbed the stairs to his family's place on the third floor.
He always has to make me so bloody mad! Damn him, I am not stupid. He's the bloody one who didn't tell someone about the bloody voices in his bloody head for a bloody month. He could at least try to be nice once in a while. She huffed as she got to the door of her home. I can't believe I am actually mad about what that wimp said to me, about me actually. He should be sorry he said that to my face. Really, to his only bloody friend, all I'm doing is being nice to him. That jerk, bloody jerk. Next thing I know, he'll probably be falling head over heals for a bloody ditz.
Gwenn met her mother in her room and sat on the lumpy mattress. "Mom?"
"Yes dear?" Her mother stopped brushing her hair to look at her daughter.
"I am leaving tomorrow. Something has come up with Adom and I and I have to go. Don't tell dad, alright? At least not until we are a safe distance away. Please." Gwenn looked at her mother to see a confused smile on her face.
Her mother spoke, "Why are you leaving? You and Adom can be wed here."
She groaned inwardly, "Mother," She drew out. "Adom and I are NOT, I repeat, NOT marrying. Okay? Really," She said to her mother's smile, "some business has come up and it needs tending to. I wouldn't leave if I didn't absolutely have to. Honest." She lied. She had always had a sense of adventure and had wanted to leave the village since she was 12. That old flame hadn't died over that past 4 years.
"Gwenneth, you can't deny that he is a fair man."
"Yes I can! He is my bloody best friend mom; I don't like him like that!" Gwenn sighed, her mother would never learn. Ever since she and Adom had become friends she thought they would be betrothed some time or another, everyone believed it then and still did now, her father had never fully liked Adom after that thought had come about. Even I had believed it at one point. Ughh! She almost shuddered at the thought.
"Watch your tongue with me Gwenn!" Her mother's voice softened, "You will come back to me, right?" The look plastered on her mother's face was full of worry.
"As long as you don't tell dad, mom." She joked. "You know he would try to keep me going anywhere if there was a chance that Adom was there if he could." Her mother knew alright. Gwenn and her father had begun a vicious row a year ago and they both still hadn't gotten over it fully.
"I promise with all my heart that I won't tell a soul until you are past the sign. You and I both know that you're father won't go past, and he has a meeting with a client tomorrow. I won't allow you to leave until tomorrow Gwenn." Her mother smiled slightly.
"Adom and I are meeting at his father's inn at 9:00 tomorrow, mom. Good night, I have to pack." She kissed her mother on the forehead and left the room. It was going to be a long day yet, but she wouldn't know that would she?
