I didn't think I needed help either. But apparently I did. *sigh* Always digging...
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When you wake up again, your legs and back hurt. You look for Zeke, but don’t see him anywhere. It’s light enough to see clearly and there’s already a lot of people on the street. But not Zeke. You sigh and wonder where he could have gone and why he went there without you. You come to the conclusion that he probably just wants to point out that you’re not his master or something like that. So you wait by the wall. Then you get up and start walking around. When the street gets more crowded, you become more and more worried. You tap on a mans shoulder.
“Excuse me...” you say. He looks at you.
“What?”
“Have you seen a goblin man around here? Short, looks like any of them and with just one eye?”
“No, I haven’t seen one of those for years. You ought to look for one of ‘em where they live or something.” He replies and starts walking again. You ask a lot of people if they’ve seen Zeke, but no one have. Tired, you sit down by the same wall you slept. You lean your head in your hand and wonder what you should do to find Michael without Zeke’s help.
“There you are!” someone suddenly says loudly. You suspect the person is talking to someone else, but you look who it is anyway. A middle-aged woman smiles and tries to make her way towards you. You have no clue who she is. She breaks out from the crowd and come towards you.
“Vidash! I thought I’d never find you!” she says happily and claps her hands. “You certainly knows how to hide, that’s for sure! Very clever to create a duplicate of yourself, you fox!”
You still don’t know who she is.
“Sorry, but I don’t recognize you... I know it’s not exactly nice to say, but I don’t have good experiences with strangers who know me.”
Her smile doesn’t fade.
“Oh, it’s ok. I didn’t expect you to recognize me. My name is Claire, and I helped you with your bussiness a couple of weeks ago. You never really met me though.”
“And you are here because...?”
Either she’s very happy, ignores what you say or doesn’t understand, because she lifts her hands to shoulderheight and sighs dramatically.
“I so wish we would’ve met before these little troubles, because then I could have helped you. Now I think it’s a tiny bit late.”
“Look, why...”
“I’m SO sorry for your customer, how awful that it had to happen right when you were there. Did you get any trouble with the guards? I mean...” she starts and is interrupted by you who loudly asks:
“What customer?! What did he look like?! What did he buy or sell!? Was it the ‘asi’ or something, a cat man?! What happened to him?! Does it have anything to do with me at all?!”
You try to catch your breath again while she stares at you, apparently surprised.
“Cat man? Vidash, I don’t know what you are talking about. Your customer’s name was Dasri tar-Ien, and he was very human. And I don’t know what you bought or sold, I just took care of the economical part. Dasri was assassinated shortly before you disappeared. Don’t you remember?”
You shake your head. Nothing sounds familiar.
“No. I can’t remember... much. Do they think I assassinated Dasri?”
She shrugs.
“I don’t know about that, I was supposed to find you so we could finish the deal. It isn’t good for anyone of trades are left unfinished.”
Your mind runs through that sentence again. Something is wrong.
“’They’ sent a financial manager to find me? Why didn’t they send a messenger or a soldier or something?”
The question seems to make her speechless for about two seconds.
“They, I suppose you mean Dasri’s department, didn’t send me, I volunteered. There are other people to mind finances while I’m gone.”
You get tired of talking so much to her.
“You want me to come back with you?”
“Yes, so we can...”
“Great, that’s all I need to know. I just need to find a man.... well, two men here and then we can go.”
“I hope it won’t take time.”
You look on the crowd on the street in an attempt to spot Zeke but sigh when you don’t.
“I don’t know about that.”
The sun runs over the sky. Neither you nor Claire can find anything or anyone, so you have no choice but to wait for Zeke to come back. When it darkens, Claire groans loudly and get up on her feet.
“I should drag you off there right now! Do you call this finding someone?!”
You give her a tired look.
“What do you suggest that I do then? I don’t know where to go here, that’s why I can’t run up and down the streets looking for him.”
She lifts her hands towards the sky and groans again. Then she turns her back on you.
“I’m off to find a bathroom. Don’t go anywhere.” She says and quickly disappears. About two seconds after she’s gone, you hear someone or something next to you. You quickly stand up and your hands draws the knife almost instinctively. Zeke looks at you.
“Ok, so you’re quite fast.”
You sheathe the knife again.
“Where the hell have you been? We’ve wasted a whole day!”
“Don’t talk so loud! She can hear you!”
“You mean Claire?”
“Yes! She’s not who she says she is, Vidash. She’s creepy. I’ve kept my distance all day to see what she’d do to you. What is it she wants?”
You rub your temples and sigh. It just never seems to be simple.
“She just want to finish a deal. Why do you find her so creepy?”
He gives you a look that anyone would give a child or an idiot.
“Zeke, you know what I am? We are spawned by magic, so we can recognize it. Remember the map dragon?”
You touch the scars (some wounds hasn’t healed yet) and grimase.
“If I do.”
“She stinks of the same kind of magic. I think she sent it on you.”
“What? The map said ‘die and give me what you know’ or something. How could I do that if I’m dead? What could she want? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Look, trust me on this, ok? I was told to keep you alive, not necessarly well, and I intend to do that. Just dump her and follow me as far away from her as you can.”
You sigh and continue to rub your temples.
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