Bystander Day 1

The morning didn't dawn so much as the rain got a little easier to see in. Hiram frowned at it, hoping vainly that it would make a difference to the sight. To think he wanted to take a walk with Opalneria later.

"Has the sun risen?" Opalneria asked from behind him.

"I think so," Hiram replied. "But I'm not sure. It's not the clearest day."

He felt her come alongside him at the window. "I thought I heard rain."

"Doesn't sound like the most fun day to travel," Hiram said.

"Eh, we have the carriage now," she reminded him. "We don't have to get wet for the whole journey."

"Doesn't make it any easier for the driver, or the horses."

Opalneria chuckled. "No, I guess it doesn't. But that's why they're paid, hmm?"

Hiram turned his frown on her. "I'd rather not put them through something I'm barely willing to put myself through. Even for pay."

Opalneria huffed. "So that means we stay here for today?"

Hiram sighed. "Yes, but not for that reason." He turned back to the window.

In fact, that morning the innkeeper had sheepishly told Hiram as he was trying to prepare the carriage that the road out of Sallah was closed. The local Magistrate had closed it in order to more easily track the movements of people in town, looking for some criminal. He related all of this to Opalneria. "So even if we wanted to try anyway, we can't until the road opens."

"Did he know when it would open again?"

"No. Apparently the Magistrate has stated 'as long as it needs to be closed', or similar." Hiram shrugged. "I'm not going to complain too much about having a nice bed to sleep in for two nights before heading out on the road."

Opalneria snorted. "I'll be complaining less than you."

Of course, this left the question of what they wanted to do for the day. "I guess I can take out some of the more benign samples that we have stored away, and do simple tests on them," Opalneria said. "Not having a lab while we're stuck here is unfortunate, but there's not much we can do about it."

"Go ahead. I'll probably join you later," Hiram told her.

"Oh? You have something that you want to do in town today?"

Hiram acquired a wry smile. "An old friend. I figure I should pay him a visit as long as I'm here."

Opalneria regarded him carefully for a moment. "Do I know this old friend?"

Hiram thought for a moment. It wasn't like Opalneria hated Bartido, or vice versa, but they tended to not have the best encounters. A little white lie here wouldn't hurt anything. "No," he said. "He's a political ally to mother." The only lie was the denial. That should be small enough.

"Alright then," Opalneria said, instantly becoming disinterested when politics were mentioned. "Do have fun with that, then. I'll be in here tinkering, most likely."

Hiram smiled his thanks and then left the room to go downstairs. He shrugged on his raincloak as he descended, looking around the inn's main room. There were quite a few guests around, including the young woman who had nearly run into Opalneria the previous evening. She came out of the room on the far side from the stairs on the ground level. It seemed like there were a couple smaller rooms there, probably for the kinds of patrons that were not quite so highly paying.

Hiram wondered for a moment whether that meant that the young woman wasn't allowed warm baths, but decided that, in the end, he didn't care what the options that the inn offered its patrons.

Of all the guests that were present, however, he did not see Bartido among them. He probably was out doing something. Perhaps something to do with the conversation that Hiram had overheard him having with his servant the night before. Hiram headed out into the driving rain, though he was unsure where he should go. Just that he knew that Bartido was out and about, and there was a chance he could find him.

Not a very good chance, but he knew that he would get very claustrophobic if he remained in the hotel for too long. Even if there was a better chance to catch Bartido in the hotel...

Hiram took the trip as a bit of a stroll. It was a little bit of a trial on his traveling boots, but they seemed to be holding up at least well enough to keep his feet dry (they had better considering how much he'd paid for them during his last trip to visit his mother).

He didn't really expect to encounter someone else who was trying to be on a very similar stroll. Without a raincoat. Or boots. And he wasn't any older than ten.

When Hiram approached, the boy turned to look up at him, completely unfazed about the drops striking him in the face and even his eyes. Didn't even blink. He was... staring up at him, and his gray eyes made it even more creepy. Hiram was taken aback by the child for a few seconds, but he recovered quickly enough. "Why are you out in this rain without a coat or something?" he asked.

"What is rain?" the boy said without inflection.

Hiram rolled his eyes. A smart aleck in addition to being incredibly creepy. He grabbed the boy by the collar. "You'll catch yourself a cold, kid," he said as he pulled the completely willing kid into the nearest building.

The building turned out to be a shop for various herbs and other Glamour-related items, and it was staffed by an elderly woman who looked up when the two entered. "Cavan?" she asked when she spotted the boy. She looked to Hiram's face and obviously took a read of him. "Thank you for getting him out of the rain, young man." She came bustling over to the pair of them.

A voice came from up the stairs. "Who's here, Astoria?"

"A nice young man brought Cavan in from the rain, Amy," the shopkeeper – Astoria – said. She had taken control of the boy – Cavan – and was fussing over him with a towel she had grabbed off the shelf.

This "Amy" came down the stairs. An attractive young woman who was at least a little younger than Hiram, she looked... it was hard to explain in his head, but Hiram likened her expression to something that he had seen on Lillet more than once back in the Silver Star Tower.

Astoria took Hiram's attention when she directed a question at him. "Would you like to stick around for some tea? I haven't seen you around before, and since travelers are stuck here until the Magistrate lifts the restrictions..."

"She wants to thank you in some way," Amy said, coming over with a smile. "We're always grateful for people who watch out for Cavan."

"I see," Hiram said. He then acquired a grin when he realized what he was about to say. "May I take a rain check? I'm currently looking for a friend of mine, but I can come back later if the road isn't ready..."

"Come back any time," Astoria told him. "Just do please tell us your name before you duck back into the rain."

"Hiram."

"Thank you, Hiram," Astoria said. Both she and Amy bowed to him while Cavan wandered over to one of the plant displays. "I hope we will have the opportunity to see you again."

And as Hiram stepped back out into the drenching elements, he found that he hoped the same.

The town was picturesque, having a main thoroughfare with everything from cottages to shopfronts of various things that could be used up over any long trek. All the shops were open, but the hawkers were hard to hear if they were shouting at all; the rain seemed to be keeping people inside. They were probably open anyway because people were stuck at the inns in town, and the captive audience was too much of a possibility. Besides, they were able to stay inside their buildings rather than being forced to come out.

Hiram did think that the town would be a more enjoyable sight if the clouds and rain were not blocking visibility.

Hiram went all the way down to the end of the block, where he could see the barrier that was preventing people from going south out of the town. He turned around and started heading back to the inn. It was clear that whatever Bartido was doing, he hadn't been able to spot him during his little outing. Why had he thought it would be that easy to meet him out here, anyway?

He had just thought this when he spotted his friend.

There he was, standing on the porch of some poor sap. Both of them were arguing about something. It figured, considering Bartido's tendencies, that he would go off and have an argument against the express wishes of his retinue. Though he probably was not in any danger, and least not so much as any person with magical power and training. Hiram, after all, had bound the spirits of three phantoms that he could call to his aid at any time. Against a determined magical attack, it was only a stall tactic, but it would be plenty for a sudden thing, as long as one didn't get hit from behind. Against his own will, Hiram checked behind him, making sure that all that was behind him were falling droplets. When he turned his attention back to the porch, the door slammed shut and Bartido was looking at him with a wry grin on his face.

"I didn't know you were in town," Bartido said when he was close enough that the rain wouldn't drown out his words. "And I also didn't expect you to come out in this driving rain."

"Anything's better than being cooped up when you've been deep inside ruins for the past few days," Hiram replied, shaking Bartido's proffered hand. "It's good to see you, old friend."

"And you. I imagine you're staying at the only inn that is worth mentioning here?"

"Yes, that's when I spotted you, though I didn't get the opportunity to catch you until now."

"Wonderful! Let's head back together; my staff is probably going to look down his nose and lecture at me as it is." Bartido sighed. "Can't a man just take care of his business without having to deal with servants?"

"Why do you think I got out of that sort of thing?" Hiram asked. "And what business did you need to take care of?"

"Speaking to an old friend of mine," Bartido said. "Nothing to worry about. I am glad to see you, though I hope you're not here alone? My, your mother would be angry."

Hiram had to close his eyes. It was both comfortable and infuriating to have Bartido return to teasing so quickly as they walked back to the inn. "Opalneria is here."

"Oh? Oh! You did mention ruins. Research project, I'm guessing."

"Yes," Hiram said. "Not that we found much that would be of an interest to Dr. Chartruse, but there's probably something that'll take up his attention for more than an hour."

Bartido laughed. "What's the latest obsession? He never could get himself to do anything that resembled multitasking…"

"I don't keep track of these things," Hiram told him. "I always could ask you, or him, if I ever cared to know."

"True! Completely true," Bartido readily agreed.

"Cavan!" came a familiar voice. Hiram looked toward the voice's source and discovered that the young woman from the shop was coming out from the shop, calling the boy's name. "Cavan!"

"He ran off again?" Hiram asked when she had walked up to them.

"Yes," Amy said, frowning. "He's been hard to handle all day. Have you seen him?" Both of the young men shook their heads. Amy cursed quietly. "Thank you anyway." Then she froze.

Hiram could easily hear why; a howl that chilled his blood echoed between the houses. All three of them looked around, trying to determine where the howl came from. This, understandably, made Amy more frantic. "And then there's the beast. I really have to find Cavan; excuse me." She ran off in the direction that Hiram and Bartido had come from. "Cavan!" she called once again.

Hiram and Bartido looked at each other, both with clearly the same thought on their mind. Beast? That didn't bode well.

Bartido shook his head, as if to clear it. "Probably a wolf; I think there have been a few packs of those in this area before."

"All the same..." Hiram began, but Bartido knew what he was going to say.

"We should probably get back inside the inn, yeah," Bartido said. "You know a servant is just waiting for that lecture."

"I imagine you give them the opportunity quite a bit," Hiram said.

"A joke! What happened? Did you hit your head?"

Hiram gave into one of his more base impulses and shoved Bartido.

"Hey, that could be an international incident, you know."

"Please. I can shove my best friend when he's goading me."

"A fair point, my friend. A fair point." Bartido opened the door to the inn and held it open for Hiram, then sighed as he walked through himself. "I can already see the lucky servant. It was good to see you, Hiram. Hopefully next time I won't be soaked, or about to be taken to task by a lowly servant..."

And with that, they separated. The lecture didn't happen in public, or at least, Hiram hoped it wouldn't, so he knew he'd have some time to ask the innkeeper about the status of the roads. "Excuse me," he said to the proprietor when Hiram spotted him walking out of the kitchen. "Any news on the roads and when they'll be open again?"

The proprietor shook his head. "Not yet. I'll ask the Magistrate one more time before dinner, but I don't think I'll get anything out of him. He seems like he's stumped."

Hiram thanked the man and went upstairs to dry off. Maybe he could get some extra towels from the bath people... though the last thing he wanted was a bath.

He didn't feel like he was completely dry even an hour after shedding his cloak and plopping himself down in the room he was sharing with Opalneria. His hair was certainly still slick, no matter how many towels he got his hands on. At least Opalneria had been productive with her time in the room, and wasn't all that interested in why Hiram had bothered to get himself soaked for some friend.

She was interested in any updates on how stuck they were, though.

"No updates from the innkeeper about it, and I certainly haven't seen the Magistrate around myself." He looked out the window. The rain was abating, though it was still dark outside. "I'm glad that we didn't leave today though. You know one of the wheels would have gotten stuck, and we'd have been even more bored."

"I'm not bored."

"All the better, then."

Opalneria smiled at him before returning her attention to her specimen.

Hiram leaned back into his chair. He was also glad that he had the opportunity to talk to Bartido, but the argument that he had watched bothered him. Why did Bartido, a diplomat of some import in the Kingdom, as an official ambassador, want to talk to someone who lived in a back alley of a crossroads town? Or have some kind of argument with? Bartido had said it was a friend of his... but what kind of person who would be friends of a foreign diplomat would live in a place like this?

And that was saying nothing about the beast that the young woman had talked about. Or the creepy kid who didn't seem completely alright. It was probably for the best that they were stuck from the trip's point of view... but Hiram hoped that the roads would be open the next day. He didn't think he would be taking that walk outside with Opalneria. Instead, maybe he'd take a look at one of the samples that Opalneria had out; that would probably get his mind off of things.