“We were bringing in the latest shipment from Lilan’s camp when we found him,” he was saying as we climbed down the stairs to the central basement room.
We reached the bottom of the stairs and the space expanded around us. Crates lined each side of the basement and there were two doors situated in the walls. One led into a much smaller storeroom, while the other led to the tunnels that we used to smuggle goods and people in and out of the city.
There were three people in the room. A man I hadn’t met stood beside two of the crates, his wrists bound with rope. Truan and Lano—two of the rebels that worked under Lilan—stood to the side of him, both watching the man warily.
I nodded my head to the two rebels. They responded in kind, Truan’s black hair falling into his eyes as he inclined his chin. Lano smiled, her teeth showing between her lips. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a tight braid and her blue eyes were as piercing as the head of a steel arrow.
They both wore cold weather traveling clothes, though the bulkiness of leather armor could be seen poking out of the neckline of Truan’s jacket.
I turned my attention back to the newcomer. Sweat covered his forehead despite the chill in the basement, and he was dressed in what appeared to be worn clothing more suited to spring or even summer.
His eyes, a dark brown, met mine and he cowered back slightly, tremors working their way through his body.
“We haven’t managed to get a proper answer yet,” Lano said. “Just keeps repeating his name.”
“Nothing else to say,” the man chattered. “Nothing else to do.” His head shook as he moved it, repeating the phrases again.
“What was he doing when you found him?” I caught Sil’s gaze.
He shrugged. “We were bringing the shipment in past the cabin.” He motioned to two crates that sat beside the door out. “Lano spotted him relieving himself in the forest. He tried to run, but she’s fast on her feet.”
Lano bared her teeth in a smile. “Too fast for him,” she congratulated herself.
I took a moment to breathe. He’d been found outside the city walls, which meant he was unlikely to be a spy sent to figure out what we were doing. And based on the way he was shaking, he was likely terrified of what he’d found himself in.
A shiver ran up my spine as a breeze of cool air pushed into the room, the door to the tunnel opening as one of Lano and Truan’s men brought in another crate. He set the crate down, noticed us all and muttered an apology before leaving the same way he’d come in.
“What’s your name?” I asked, turning back to the murmuring man.
“Sebastian,” he said. “Sebastian Wahl.” He continued to repeat the last part of the name, his voice becoming a muttering pattern once more.
I eyed him and then motioned for the others to follow me. We took a few steps off to the side, leaving Sebastian standing beside the crates.
“So what do you think?” Sil was the first to ask.
I shrugged. “Seems unlikely he’s a spy, but hard to rule it out, too.”
Truan laughed. “If he’s a spy, then your enemies are not very bright.”
I chewed on my lip. A bad habit I’d picked up recently.
“Truan has a point. But it also feels like a smart move to get us to discount his possible danger to our operations. You found him peeing in the trees?”
Lano shook her head and I grimaced. “Not peeing.”
“Okay, well that paints a different picture. Either he’s a spy and someone is trying really hard to throw us off the scent, or he’s just an innocent idiot caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Likely the second,” Truan noted.
I didn’t argue. I agreed with him. But there was also a nagging feeling in the back of my mind. Something felt off about this entire situation. Maybe it was just my paranoia about the tunnels being found out—especially after Brin’s body had vanished the way it had.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I glanced up at the man and used [Insight], but it didn’t give me anything useful. Just the name he’d already provided and his current status.
Name: Sebastian Wahl.
Race: Human.
User Information: Unknown history.
Current Status: Terrified.
Even with the unknown history—something the System hadn’t returned before—I knew the lack of any System specific information should be enough to satiate the paranoia picking at my brain. But I couldn’t help it.
Something felt off about the entire situation. I kept my voice low enough so that he wouldn’t hear it. I don’t think he even realized we were all still in the room. His head was cocked low, his eyes on the floor, his lips moving as if he was still mumbling to himself.
“Let’s keep him close for a few days. Isn’t like he can go anywhere right now with the lockdown. Put him in the storage room up on the third floor. If his behavior doesn’t change, then we’ll take him somewhere on the other side of the city and let him go.”
The others nodded and we broke apart, Sil and Lano taking Sebastian up the stairs to the kitchen while Truan headed back out the door to the tunnel. I ran a hand through my hair—which reached all the way to my shoulders now—and let out a long sigh before returning to my desk upstairs.
*** *** ***
I awoke to the smell of coffee and eggs. Groaning in pain, I stretched out my arms, trying to press the sleep from my body. I’d fallen asleep at my desk the night before and it seemed Irinda hadn’t bothered me when she’d come in to sleep.
The bed was already made, and the plate of eggs and seared meat beside me was still steaming. I stifled a yawn and took a slow sip of the coffee. It was bitter but refreshing, the warmth spreading from my mouth and throat out to the rest off my body as I swallowed it.
I must have been out cold not to hear her come in at any point. I shook my head and looked down at the papers I’d been looking at before passing out.
They were pages form Brin’s ledgers. Notes on the deals he’d been making with some of the groups that operated outside of the capital. It had already been pretty clear why the inn was suffering when Brin was running the show. But looking through the ledgers, it became even more apparent. He hadn’t cared about the inn for any reason other than using it as a front for this other business.
Business that I hoped to inherit.
I picked at the food on my plate as I continued to dig through the pages. The eggs were delicious—just fried enough to give them a nice texture without getting the entire yolk cooked all the way through—and they paired well with the tender meat that Irinda had also put on the plate.
I’d scarfed it all down before I realized it, washing the bites down with sips of the coffee as I went. Full, I settled back into the chair, pulling the last ledger I’d opened into my lap.
Each page was full of numbers and lists of names and items. Some were names I didn’t recognize, but they each had initials next to them, or symbols. I hadn’t figured out exactly what those symbols meant, though. If I could, perhaps I could unlock more of Brin’s secrets.
I thumbed through the rest of the pages, coming to stop on one randomly. It was another list of names. These were all people in the city, though. Names I half-recognized as I read through the list.
Brin had done business with men like Raylain Seytrough, one of the captains of the city guard, and even Ovali, the man that I’d purchased my lock picks and satchel from before the infiltration into the palace. I made a mental note to revisit the strange merchant. Will had recommended him. Perhaps with a little prodding I could figure out what he’d been doing with Brin. If I could, I might be able to figure out what the other symbols next to people’s names meant.
After I finished my coffee, I set the ledger aside and took my plate back into the kitchen. It was quiet, Irinda and all of the girls must have been out working in the main room. I set my plate and cup in the sink and then stepped through the door of the main room, letting the quiet sound of the evening’s stew bubbling in the pot by the hearth, as well as the crackling flames be drowned out by the rumble of the morning crowd.
I passed through the room with relative ease, weaving through the crowd as I made my way up to the stairs and all the way to the third floor. First I checked in on Sebastian. He was asleep on the pile of bed rolls that Sil and Lano had set up for him. I closed the door to the storage room where he was and turned to the door that led into my old room.
Where Ophelia now stayed.
I unlocked the door and moved inside. As usual, Ophelia was already awake, sitting on the edge of the bed and staring out the window.
I approached her, speaking in a soft voice. “You feeling any better?”
She didn’t answer, but her eyes flicked to me and her lips moved for a moment. Then she turned back to the window.
“I’ve been thinking,” I told her as I settled down next to her. “I might move you back to Henrietta’s. She seems to think it might be a good idea, too, especially as things continue to get busier here. We have a lot of business coming in just from Lilan and his group alone. I don’t know how dangerous things might get when we start reaching out to the others from Brin’s ledgers.”
I watched her for a moment, waiting to see if she would respond. She didn’t even look at me again.
Slowly, I placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m worried about you, kid.” The words carried an anvil’s worth of sadness behind them. Sadness that caught me by surprise. I chewed at my lip for another moment, watching Ophelia gaze out the window.
I couldn’t tell if the sadness I felt was because of how useful Ophelia had the potential to be, or because of how I felt toward her.
I knew I wanted to protect her. That she was important to me, not just to my plans. But exactly why I felt that way was still a mystery.
I shook my head and released her shoulder, pushing myself up from the bed. There wasn’t anything else I could do here, not today at least. I kept hoping that each morning I visited her would bring something new. Some sign of progress.
I cursed the System and its lack of quests under my breath and then turned to the door. I had just opened the door, the floor creaking under my footsteps.
“They’re coming.” The sound was barely a whisper.
My heart skipped a beat. Then two. Chills erupted across my skin as I twisted to face the younger woman, confusion and fear battling for control within me.
The silence that followed was deafening. “Ophelia?”