The door shut behind Lidia, with a skin-crawling sound of metal on wood as it was bolted.
As she looked out towards the street, she had no idea where she was. She guessed that she was along a main road, for the street in front of her was wide enough to let ten people walk abreast. The people on the street were coming and going in equal measure. Many of them were human, though she spotted an occasional halfling here and there, adeptly weaving their way underfoot. Every so often, the crowd parted to let a mule or a donkey through - most of the time, the animals and their masters were heading to the south, bearing carefully wrapped burdens. Towards the Promenade, maybe? They were all passing a tightly packed line of salt-weathered terracotta, grooved and pitted and exposing the brick underneath. Those marks, and a series of worn signs, were the only identifying marks from one building to the next.
A small boy, no more than seven years old, lingered nearby as he traced the outlines of the stones with a stick. He spotted her, dropped his stick and straightened up. His dark eyes seemed to closely examine her face.
"You lost, ma'am?" he asked.
"I might be," she said. "Where does this street go?"
"If you give me two red inks, I'll tell ye."
"Red inks?"
"They're coppers," he said. "Have ye got them?"
Lidia was both taken aback and amused by the boy's boldness, but she countered, "I'll give you three if you answer two questions for me." She counted out three copper coins in her hand, examined them to make sure they had the right symbol, and showed them to him.
They stared at each other a moment, until the boy said, "You have to say if that be your final offer."
"All right," Lidia said. "That's my final offer. Do we have a deal?"
"Deal," he said, his small hand clamping over the coins as soon as he'd spoken. "What's yer questions?"
"Which way to the Bridge?"
The boy pointed to her right, seemingly around a bend that joined a larger street. "Up that way, and it goes towards the Coronet. The other way's nothing."
"What's the Coronet?"
"It's an inn. Go over the bridge and down the road, and you'll see it on your left."
As soon as he finished talking, he ran off, even before Lidia could thank him.
Lidia turned to her right. From there the street opened up to the river. The air smelled faintly like salt as she came closer, until she found herself at the foot of a great grey bridge. It spanned over a hundred feet across the Alandor River, and stood tall enough to let most small craft underneath. She wondered how far down the giant, flawlessly smooth concrete piers went. The murky brown water gently lapped at their bases; the first spring thaw was already setting in, if the river ever froze to begin with.
Two guards stood on each side of the bridge, stopping everyone who approached and collecting copper coins into a hidden sack. With the number of people crossing back and forth, she guessed, they'd need an extradimensional treasury of some kind to store it all.
She stood on the edge of the pier and got her bearings. Along the sparse and jagged teeth of the wooden docks at the river's edge, boats were lazily floating down the river and occasionally mooring. The buildings at the other bank were wooden and weathered, though the concrete underneath them was nearly as pristine as the bridge itself. These buildings were all backed by a wall of the same terracotta that was used here, with only a few gates to allow further entrance into the city. The closest gate was on the other side of the bridge.
Near that gate was a gigantic sphere, beaten gray metal except where it shimmered gold in the afternoon sun. It was the same height as the wall and seemed to be built right into it. She wondered what the sphere was used for. Though the wall fit around it perfectly, it still looked out of place, as though some capricious god had set it there on a whim. The location seemed extremely inconvenient; it actually blocked part of the street leading to the bridge, though the curve rose over the street high enough to let the usual amounts of traffic through. It glinted and sparkled, and she thought she could detect an air of unreality and unearthliness about it. It didn't look like it belonged in this particular corner of reality, in any case.
She shivered. The breeze off the river was cold, and though the weather was milder here than in the north, winter was only beginning to relinquish its grip. This called her attention to the most pressing thing: she was free for now, but she wouldn't be safe until she found some shelter. She hoped the others hadn't gone far. She didn't want to form any plans yet without them, especially since some of them seemed to know this place much better than she did.
Still, from what she could see so far, Athkatla wasn't as alien as she thought it might have been. The people spoke Common with something of an accent, she'd noticed, but not so much that she had to strain to understand it. For all their constant headbutting over trade contracts and levies, Athkatla and Baldur's Gate seemed more alike than anyone cared to admit. And as she didn't know this place, it also didn't know her, and she took some comfort in being anonymous.
Her instincts caught it first. She kept her stance relaxed, but turned towards where she thought she'd seen someone move closer. Her hand went to a hidden dagger in her belt.
A man with a keen, appraising eye was approaching her. There was nothing extraordinary otherwise about him: tawny hooded coat, brown trousers, dark hair and eyes. He gave a brief, sweeping bow, showing off the white shock of hair that crowned his head.
"Coo! You be the one I be looking for, if I not be mistaken. Let's have a look at ye. Lidia be your name, aye?"
She said nothing.
"That wizard worked ye over, didn't he? Need to jog your memory?"
Still nothing.
"So you're not Gorion's Ward? The Hero of Baldur's Gate? The one that infallible sources of information told me I was to find?"
She sized him up. He had a small dagger at his side, but it seemed to only function as an extra bit of insurance. He held himself casually, not in a way that told her of any mischief.
"I am she," Lidia finally said. "But surely your sources have better things to do than keep tabs on me."
"See, they-" He slapped his palm to his forehead. "I ought to begin at the beginnin', aye?"
He extended a gloved hand, and she shook it. In spite of herself, his easygoing manner was disarming.
The man said, "My name be Gaelan Bayle. Ye needn't stretch your brain thinkin', I be sure it's a name ye haven't heard."
"Well met, Gaelan. What do you need from me?"
He said, "Well, I don't rightly know. You might be wantin' information about a young lass arrested by the wizards on your arrival here, aye?"
"Do you know where they took her?"
Gaelan looked from side to side. With one hand, he guided her to the side of an old wooden shack nearby, and lowered his voice.
"I knows very little, meself. That has to be bought from someone who knows, or can be findin' out. And not just anyone knows - only those with enough power to cross the Cowled Wizards have a chance. Your coin would be as good as any other, but…we've heard of ye here, enough to know your kind isn't for associatin' with mine."
"My 'kind'?" Her brow furrowed.
"You be some knightly type, aren't ye? Though ye seem an escaped jailbird, to tell ye the truth."
Lidia rubbed the stubble on the back of her head. "I left my shining armor and noble steed at home today."
"Smart money's on the watchful eye for you," Gaelan said, tapping the side of his nose. "You be of too high renown to ignore ye, but it'll be mighty work to convince me friends you can deal. But, for findin' lost friends and enemies-would a deal be something ye might like?" he said.
Concerned for Imoen's safety, Lidia's first thought was to accept his offer right away. She rejected the idea as soon as she had it. For better or worse she was part of a group, whether they were present or not. Saying yes for on their behalf would be unwise, especially since she had no idea whether he was pulling some kind of scam. But she thought not. Even without trying to discover Gaelan's intent, he seemed to really think she was important enough for this kind of offer.
"I'd need to know more, first," she said.
He considered that for a long moment. "Tell you what. How's about you remember Gaelan Bayle givin' you a friendly welcome to the City of Coin, and in exchange leave me friends well alone. If you be findin' that to your taste, then maybe I can sell them on ye."
"Who are your friends?"
"Not the kind to be speaking the name here," he said. "Remember what I says and all shall be well."
"Thank you." She wasn't sure what there was to be thankful for, but she still wanted to be polite if she could help it.
He bowed low one more time. "Just being neighborly. You want some more proof that me word is good? There's a Kara-Turan, a Rashemi, and a half-elf who passed by this way a few hours ago. Your other friends, aye? Last I saw, they were heading into the Copper Coronet. I believe Brus gave ye good directions already. Fare ye well, then. Give me greetings to Lehtinan if ye happens by 'im."
He turned to go, but suddenly flipped her a coin. It glinted as it hurtled through the air, and she easily caught it. Before she could thank him, he slipped around a corner and seemed to disappear as quickly as he'd come.
She paid the coin to the guard at the bridge, who gave her a sharp nod. "Haven't seen your face here," he said. "Don't stop if you can, don't stop anyone else, and don't draw your weapon. On your way, then."
She agreed and walked down the massive bridge, finding a place among the flow of animals and people, her mind turning to where she ought to go next. She decided on the Coronet without giving it much thought. Her friends were there. If Gaelan had told her they were in the Hells, she would have gone without hesitation.