rlin slipped into the crowd once more, making his way towards the entrance that lead back to Orchonus. When he arrived, he saw his two friends standing around nearby, so he walked towards them.
"Hey guys. Follow ." He ran up and greeted his friends, before leading them away from the busy streets.
"Man, this place is packed." Typhoeus said as he followed along. He was busy making sure his scythe didn’t bump into anybody.
rlin lead the two through a couple streets, and the amount of people in the area dropped considerably, giving them space to move around comfortably. The amount of people reduced even further the more they walked, until there was only a handful of people scattered around the street.
Snowbunny and Typhoeus began noticing that the atmosphere had beco different. The loud noises from the city had beco muffled background noise in the distance, and the surrounding buildings fell into disrepair, only getting worse as they continued on their way.
"What is that sll?" Snowbunny complained as she tried covering her mouth.
"Welco to the slums. That stench would be filth, try not to touch anything." rlin explained as he continued walking. He started feeling bad that he brought a princess into such a disgusting area, but it would ultimately benefit her, so a little uncomfortable stench wouldn’t hurt her. "Follow along and rember the path."
The group walked through the slums, and the only person that was out on the street was a creepy looking old man who started ogling Snowbunny as she walked by, causing her to shudder in revulsion. Typhoeus started walking directly behind Snowbunny the second they passed the old man, protecting the princess from the eyes of a lecherous man.
Now knowing that he was at risk of being scried upon, rlin took extra caution taking note of his surroundings. He couldn’t see any evidence of scrying, which ant that his awareness stat was either too low to tell, or he wasn’t currently being watched. They continued for a little while longer, ending up near a dark alleyway sowhere in the furthest depths of the slums.
"And now it’s a scary alley, wonderful." Snowbunny said under her breath while following rlin, there she saw an extrely shady looking tavern at the end of the dark alley. "Oh no, we’re not going in there are we?"
While ignoring Snowbunny’s reasonable complaints, rlin opened the door and walked inside, signalling the other two to follow.
The inside of the building was just as run down and shady as the exterior, but Snowbunny’s eyes locked onto a rather attractive woman who was working at the counter, and she couldn’t help but think that the woman looked out of place in such a shady area.
All the nervousness that Snowbunny had felt while entering such a sketchy looking place suddenly vanished as her eyes locked onto the woman’s gentle features and fair blonde hair that gently swayed as she cleaned a glass. Snowbunny walked passed the two guys and quickly approached the counter.
"Hey, you’re a new face around here." The woman at the counter spoke up, repeating the dialogue she did with rlin when they first t. The few people sitting around in the room started getting up from their chairs. "What can I get you?"
Snowbunny hadn’t noticed anything going on in her surroundings, she was enamoured by the thief lord’s daughter, or at least her appearance. She nervously asked for the woman’s na.
The woman stared at her with a surprised expression for a few monts, and then her eyes panned to the person standing a little bit away from her and she realised where this person had co from. She turned back to face Snowbunny while signalling to everyone in the room to stand down with a hand gesture. "You can call Fae. What’s yours?"
"Oh, right, sorry." Snowbunny was flustered for a mont, but she regained her composure. "Hi, I’m Snowbunny, but you can just call Snow. Nice to et you!"
Fae’s eyes locked onto the two floppy bunny ears stuck atop Snowbunny’s head. She watched as they swayed back and forth as Snow awkwardly shuffled around. Fae turned to rlin with a smile plastered on her face, which was vastly different to the cold treatnt he had gotten when he first joined.
"Ghost, where’d you find this one? She’s cute." Fae winked at Snow before walking out from behind the counter. "I’m assuming these two are both with you, so follow ."
"Ghost?" Typhoeus asked rlin with a curious gaze.
"Don’t ask." rlin shook his head and followed Fae to the cellar as usual. He only just realised now that he didn’t know her na before now, and that he still doesn’t know her father’s na.
Unlike many people in the thieves guild whose na he could see above their heads, the thief lord and his daughter’s nas were hidden for whatever reason. And only after she introduced herself as Fae did a na appear above her head, although there was no chance of him knowing if Fae was her real na.
Snowbunny’s face had turned bright pink, but she also followed along with the rest of the group. A secret door within the cellar opened up, revealing a large underground gambling ring.
Several mbers sitting around at the gambling tables noticed the new faces, and their eyes shifted with caution. An elf who was sitting at the furthest end of the room stood up from his chair and made his way over to the group, weaving through the sea of tables and chairs that parted for him when he grew near.
"Friends of rlin, welco to our humble abode." The eccentric elf welcod them, "Would you care to join us for a drink, or would you prefer to skip the alcohol and get straight to business like our mutual friend here?"
"A drink sounds nice." Typhoeus answered before slowly walking towards the elf. Snowbunny declined the drink, opting for getting straight to business.
"And you, my friend?" The elf turned to rlin with a grin on his face. "A drink with friends?"
"Still a no unfortunately, but I’ve got more information for you so I’ll tag along." rlin explained as followed the elf back towards the bar at the back of the room. As he left Snowbunny behind, he overheard Fae ask her what apple bottom jeans were.
The three sat at the bar in a straight line, and the bartender poured two of them a drink, with rlin signalling that he didn’t want any. The thieves guild leader clinked his glass with Typhoeus and took a sip of his liquor before turning to face rlin.
"Now, what was this information you were talking about?" He asked, it hadn’t been long since he left after dropping off the diary. He didn’t expect another bomb but he considered rlin to be extrely competent, so he was still hopeful that it would be useful.
"Well, before I say anything, do you have any counters for scrying? I’ve got a stalker of sorts." rlin asked, hopeful that there was sothing he could do.
"Who do you think we are?" The elf let out a little chuckle before explaining the rest. "This entire base is lined with lead, there are very few places in this complex that observation or tracking magic can reach. It’s how we’ve retained our status as a secret organisation for such a long ti."
"But if that doesn’t calm you, then there are very few people in this town whose scrying orbs I cannot detect." He continued tooting his own horn.
"Does that include the snake lady?" rlin was a little hesitant to ask this, but he had to be sure. Fortunately he received a nod in return, but it didn’t seem as though he appreciated rlin bringing her up again.
"Well, I guess I need to give a little bit of backstory." rlin began explaining the situation that occurred with the voices he heard around the city, and that he entered the oracle’s compound to talk with her.
He began bringing up the general idea of the back and forth they had, where the murder charge was just an attempt to blackmail him, but she seed to have given up and chose to just give him the quest normally. With the context out of the way, he leaned in and began whispering the rest, the elf leaned in sowhat too.
"I don’t believe we’re dealing with a demon that has infested your wife, that’s why you couldn’t find any ntion of it in the scriptures." rlin began explaining in hushed whispers. "Rather I believe the snake that is always around her neck is so kind of parasitic creature. The snake is the cause of all of this."
rlin explained his reasoning why he believed the parasite hypothesis to be correct, and this included how the snake was stationary while everything else was happening. He specifically ntioned that the snake was mostly still while all the slaves were moving, and that it seed to require a lot of concentration to micromanage all of the victims. His biggest point supporting this was that when the snake received a minor disturbance, sothing that would make it flinch, it lost concentration over its puppets, causing them to imdiately lose all bodily functions, like they were actually puppets that just had their strings cut.
"It didn’t rebind them right away while they were unconscious in the other room, so there’s probably a requirent that it must make physical contact to reconnect with its victims." rlin thought out loud, "The connection being interrupted with Cecelia’s body caused her to pause montarily, but the parasite quickly regained control. Since it probably considers her the main host, it’s likely to not to leave her neck, just in case it needs to reconnect with her imdiately."
"Those are my thoughts and observations anyway. I believe that rather than a powerful demon’s soul manipulation curse, it seems to just be so kind of puppeteers curse used by an intelligent parasitic creature." rlin finished talking, leaving the elf with a strange sense of optimism.
rlin watched as the thieves guild leader’s expression slowly shifted into a smile as he finished listening to rlin’s story, and by the end of it he seed hopeful.
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