Bystander Day 2
The following day dawned with a lot more clarity than the previous day – a fact that was appreciated by Opalneria. She had even thrown open all of the curtains in the room that they were renting (now far longer than they had originally intended), waking Hiram in a most unsatisfactory manner.
Hiram would later appreciate the sunlight, once he was completely awake. The even that truly woke him up though, was not one that he'd prefer to repeat.
"What?" Opalneria shouted, bringing the curious gaze of everyone that was loitering in the foyer. "We're stuck here? Again?"
"Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry, but the Magistrate is insistent that the roads remain closed for the remainder of his investigation into the recent murders. There were more last night, after all."
"More murders?" Opalneria asked, still shouting."There are murders in this town, and you're keeping guests here?"
"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but there's nothing that I can-" The poor man was cut off by Opalneria, who thankfully decided that there had been enough shouting.
"Come, Hiram. I think we have ourselves an appointment with the local Magistrate," Opalneria said before strolling out of the inn.
Hiram cringed, then turned to the unfortunate worker. "Where is the Magistrate's office?"
"Sir? You're actually going to go and talk to the Magistrate about this?"
"I really don't have much of a choice in the matter. Could you tell me where he is so that I can direct her wrath more effectively than at whoever gets unlucky enough to be in her way?"
Apparently seeing the wisdom of this course of action, the worker told Hiram that the Magistrate's office was located in a building that was just down the street from the inn. Hiram thanked him for the information before leaving the inn and looking from side to side to see if he could find Opalneria. When he found her, he found the most intriguing sight.
Opalneria Rain was having a staring contest (though Opalneria was more glaring than staring) with the young boy from the previous day.
Hiram paused, at first unsure as to what to do when confronted with this sight, but quickly decided that the best course was to tell Opalneria where the Magistrate's office was. "Opalneria," he began, but that was as far as he got.
"Hiram, something's wrong with this boy."
"Opalneria, you're being rude," Hiram said. "Cavan, are you alright?"
The boy looked at him. "All is not right." Monotone, and not quite sensical. Yep, definitely the boy from yesterday.
"Definitely wrong, though I'm not sure why or how," Opalneria said.
"Please stop this, Opalneria."
She frowned, but allowed Hiram to lead her away from Cavan. Once they were out of earshot, Opalneria whispered harshly at him. "How do you know him?"
"I met him on my walk yesterday."
"Was he saying insane things then, too?" Opalneria asked.
"Yes. You're probably right in that something is very wrong with him. But that's not why you ran out here, is it?"
Opalneria blinked, then bit her thumb. "No, no it's not what I am out here to do, but I can't just not care."
"So what's next, then? We probably aren't going to convince the Magistrate to open the road..."
"We could if you told him who you are," Opalneria countered.
"I don't want to tell him who we are."
"Even if it will save our lives?" Opalneria said with some heat.
"Are we really in as much danger as the average member of this community?" Hiram asked calmly. "We're two very accomplished Necromancers. We would not have any trouble with something that would be very dangerous for someone who was not schooled in magic."
"That doesn't change that it is dangerous here, and we should leave if at all possible," Opalneria said. "Just because we're better prepared for an attack on our lives doesn't mean that we should welcome the opportunity!"
She had a point, but was one last reason. "So I, as a prince of this Kingdom, should abandon my people because I personally want to be saved from being in danger."
Opalneria narrowed her eyes. "That was low."
"But it's true. If I pull that card, then I have to prepared for the consequences of being known that I was here and used it to leave. That would not be what my duty is, if I'm here as a prince of the realm. While if I'm just here as a researcher from the Silver Star Tower, there's no good reason to exempt me and my partner and retinue from the same lockdown that everyone else is in."
Opalneria sighed. "Great. Now I have to go prepare a few more summons that will allow me to survive a sneak attack. It's a good thing that personal wards aren't hard to set up once you've done it once." She further grumbled as the two of them headed back to the inn.
When the two of them walked in, the poor doorman who had taken Opalneria's ire earlier looked up quickly. Once Opalneria had taken most of the stairs up toward their room, Hiram gave what he hoped was a reassuring thumbs up, but realized belatedly that the man might not know what he meant by it. He walked over to him and said under his breath. "Crisis averted. For now." The young man gave a relieved laugh.
"Do you feel safe enough to go for a little walk?" Hiram asked.
Opalneria looked at him as if measuring him. "Fine. It is a very beautiful day after all. Do you have some wards up?"
"Of course," Hiram said. "No matter what you think of my decision to stay, I'm not interested in becoming a permanent resident."
Opalneria had a wry grin at this. "True... true enough."
Opalneria led the way downstairs, then out into the still sunny and now nearly cloudless day. While walking beside Opalneria was always an enjoyable experience, there was a little too much uncertainty and tenseness between the two of them because of the recent events for it to be completely without stress. But, being able to walk leisurely and take in the town that Hiram had already figured out was picturesque the previous day was completely worth the mild worry that he had in the back of his mind. Plus, with the worry nagging at them, neither of them completely lost themselves in any given sight. And both of them noticed when there was someone following them.
Hiram first noticed when they were walking along one of the side alleys, looking at a particularly well colored roof that fit so well with the perfect blue sky. Out of the corner of his eye, there was someone watching the two of them from behind the adjacent house. Hiram had to wait until they were walking along the alley again before he could whisper to his partner. "Do you see the guy watching us?"
"I'd wondered when you'd notice," Opalneria said under her breath to him as she walked along like they were still discussing shingles. "I think I know a way that we can trick him into running directly into us. You just need to follow me as I decide suddenly to run between the two houses ahead of us on the right."
Hiram looked, and there were in fact two houses that were particularly close to one another and had to be the two that Opalneria was talking about. "Okay, I'm in. Just don't drag me? I'll follow like a henpecked boy."
"But that's what you are," Opalneria said with humor and at a much more normal volume. "Completely wrapped around my little finger."
Hiram opened his mouth to respond, but decided better of it at the last second. Opalneria, unfortunately noticed and he felt her hand pat his head. "Aw, it's okay to know when you have been outwitted."
Hiram turned a mild glare at her, but she was already looking between the houses that they had made it to. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Look at that!" And off she went. Moving extremely quickly.
Hiram was going to lose sight of her at that rate. "Wait!" he called, and he wasn't acting anymore. He had to go to almost full speed in order to get through the alley between the two houses. When he got through he ducked to the opposite side that Opalneria had ducked and stayed out of sight of the small space and looked at Opalneria. She put a finger to her lips, but it was unnecessary. Hiram could already hear the hurried footsteps of someone coming between the two houses.
The man came through, then noticed that the two of them were right there looking at him and made a sound not unlike "eep!" before he made to run away, but Hiram was quick enough to get a hold of his lower arm. "Hold on, there," Hiram said. "We just wanted to ask you a couple questions..."
It was at this point that Hiram recognized the man. It was the same guy that he had watched argue with Bartido the previous day in the rain. He was even wearing the same hat. "Oh!" the man said. Then he laughed, sounding only slightly nervous at this point. "I'm sorry, you two just looked so... romantic. It made me smile, so I wanted to watch you on my walk."
"So when you lost us, you decided that running after us was the best course of action?" Opalneria asked. "When it was just something that fell into your lap and you were doing randomly on your 'walk'? No. Try again."
The man visibly swallowed as he looked at Opalneria's fierce expression. Then he blushed. "You know why I'm following you," he said quietly. "Do I have to say it out loud?"
"When there are people being killed in this town? Yes." Opalneria was not backing down on this one.
He cringed, but didn't argue the point. "You-" he was talking to Opalneria. "You're a very... attractive woman." It was like he was dragging each word out. "You're... not from around here, so I really only had this one shot to look at you and-"
"Alright, that's enough," Hiram said. He really didn't want to hear any more details about this voyeur's thoughts.
"As flattering as your confession is," Opalneria said. "Perhaps when there's a murderer loose, it would be best to not be doing something like this?"
This didn't seem to phase the guy as much as Hiram thought it should have. "There's always a murderer about around here. Has been as long as I can remember. I mean, between the rumors about the Beast and the fact that people are dying daily, that's new but... we're always in danger here... at some point you just have to go back to living your life, you know?"
Hiram and Opalneria exchanged a glance. Hiram certainly didn't want to think about that too hard, but the fact that anyone in this town could take such a situation in stride... that was unacceptable. Perhaps he would have to talk to the Magistrate... just not for the reason that he might have that morning.
Hiram let the man go. "You're an idiot, but you're not dangerous. I only have one more question."
"How do you know Bartido Ballentyne?"
The man froze for a moment, then he said. "I don't know what you're talking about." Then he walked away quickly, looking back every few steps tp make sure that the two others were not following him.
Hiram shook his head. When he opened his eyes he noticed that Opalneria was looking at him with her eyes slightly narrowed. "Why did you ask that last question?" she asked, deceptively mildly.
"I'd seen him before," Hiram said, his mind working as fast as it ever had. "It wasn't important, which is why I let go of him before asking. I was curious."
Opalneria continued to study him for a few seconds before she sighed. "I'm sorry; I need to remind myself that I've not always been with you, and that there are experiences you have that I haven't had with you."
Hiram beamed at her, and not just because she was letting him off the hook on his misdirection. "Thank you. You're doing well with that, and I really appreciate it."
Opalneria gave him a subdued smile before the two of them continued on their walk. Hiram hoped that the rest of it, at least, would not be as eventful as the first part of it had.
Of all of the advantages to being stuck in Sallah, by far Hiram's favorite was the opportunity to take a nice warm bath when he wanted to. And he did want to. Hopefully it was the last night before they would be underway once again, and Hiram would rather be clean of all grime when they hit the road. There was nothing worse than starting a travel day already dirty.
After their walk, Hiram and Opalneria had spent the rest of the day in their room experimenting on one of the more peculiar artifacts that they had unearthed. Since they had made some progress on identifying an approximate date for the piece, Hiram felt pretty good about how the two of them had used the time effectively.
As Hiram left the bath, sighing in contentment, he saw Opalneria head upstairs after her own. He smiled at her, received a smile in return, and then she had ascended the stairs out of sight. When he started his own walk from the door to the bath to the stairs, he noticed that there was a young woman sitting at a table. After a moment, he recognized her as the one who had bumped into Opalneria... was it really two days ago? It simultaneously felt longer and shorter than that. Ignoring such topics, he noticed the the young woman was staring at him. It occurred to him that he was also staring, and that might have been why she was staring.
He shook his head as if to clear it. There was nothing wrong with that young woman; she had a ghost of a smile on her face, but it was a pleasant look on her face. He inclined his head in apology, greeting and farewell before ascending the stairs himself.
After all, quite the woman was waiting for him in his room.