Timestamp: 64th of Summer, 518 A.V.
Going to the dust bed with a corpse had been ambitious to say the least. Carrying the woman had taken the remainder of the night and the first half of the day. After the twelfth bell Kynier had finally gotten back to the edge of the Sun’s Birth refuge. He was so tired, he was afraid to blink. Lest his eyes fail to open. For every muscle did not necessarily ache, but they were so tired that they felt like lead. Everything in him, even his mind, told him that he needed to stop. To rest. Had his heart still been present in his chest it too may have told him to stop. But it was still out there. And she had been taken by a monster.
So he didn’t stop. Kynier took long walks up and down the streets just outside the Sun’s Refuge. Approaching each patrolman, he displayed the portrait of the Kelvic and asked his investigative inquiry another hundred times. He wouldn’t try to enter the district again. Not yet. So he skirted the perimeter and caught each member of the Sun’s Birth he saw on either their way in or out of the district. And for bells he suffered no progression. Even asking about Darvin bore no fruit. They’d wave him off and tell him to get his fix somewhere else.
Kynier looked at himself. He was filthy and haggard. If he were to judge himself from an outside perspective then he too would thing he looked the part of a man seeking a narcotic release. In any other situation it would have bothered him. He simply shrugged it off and carried on. Discouragement was is main adversary now. Kynier sought to persevere through it, though at the next piece of useful information, he many actually stop to rest.
As he walked down the street, head swiveling for the next person to ask, a hand fell on his shoulder. “Hey,” said a man’s voice. Kynier spun on his heal and a hand went for his short sword. The man, a Dragoon Guardain, stepped in and grased Kynier’s wrist. A tight grip kept the mage’s hand from drawing the sword. “Hold on there,” he said warningly. The Dragoon was armored and had a longsword attached to his belt. “I’ve heard you’ve been asking some questions around here.” Kynier’s baggy eyes continued to glare down at the man only a few inches short than himself. “Questions that I could answer for you.”
At that Kynier released his grip and the expression in his eyes changed to hope. He was about to raise the portrait up for the man to see. Before he could the Guardian set a hand on Kynier’s shoulder and began to lead him into the Sun’s Refuge. “Let’s sit down somewhere and talk. You look ready to just fall over and die.” The Dragoon had a gentleness to his voice. One Kynier was too tired to accept at anything but face value. Dragoons always wanted something and never “protected” out of charity. The underlying tone to the man’s words went unnoticed.
The Dragoon led him into the Sun’s Birth territory. Kynier’s eyes darted around to take in the landmarks and where they were going. Apart from the Jolly Good Stables and the Golden Lodge, he did not know what or where anything was here. There wasn’t much to see as the Guardian kept their path to the alleyways. “I’m looking for a woman that has… disappeared,” the last word had gotten caught in his throat. It pained him to say that word with that context. For it dug at scars from his youth. “She was a slave for one of the Sun’s Birth. I’ve just been trying to see if anyone here knows anything.”
The Dragoon nodded. The man scratched at the side burn of his well-kept beard. “Mm-hmm. I see. Don’t take your treatment personally lad. It’s all just a precaution. With the Daggerhand acting up we’ve just been trying to keep things civil. But also need to guard ourselves from their brutality.” Though the senses beyond the traditional five were dulled, Kynier began to question what the Dragoon was doing. For they kept entering and exiting small alleys while going deeper into the heart of the Sun’s Refuge. As they reached the halfway point of another, Kynier stopped.
“Where are you taking us?” he asked skeptically. The Dragoon took another step before turning to face the mage. This more comfortable setting was certainly less than desirable for Kynier.
The Dragoon shrugged his shoulders. “There’s a tavern that serves the best pies. But I supposed we don’t have to go there.” Kynier did not feel completely convinced and wanted to walk away. But first he had to learn what this man knew. So he held up the portrait and the Dragoon examined it. “Yes, I remember her. The jeweler.” Djed must have converted itself into fuel for his body to function. That was the only explanation for the surge of energy Kynier felt welling up inside of him.
“I’m trying to find Darvin.” The Dragoon started to laugh.
“It would be better for you if you didn’t go looking for him. He has a bit of a savage tendency. Fellow used to be a Captain but got knocked down.” Kynier didn’t care about that. Didn’t care about Darvin’s prowess or his fall from glory. He ignored the words of the tale as the dragoon spoke them.
“I know Darvin was her guard,” he interrupted the Dragoon. “So if anyone in the Sun’s Birth knows anything about her location it’s him. Do you know where I can find him?”
The Dragoon sucked on the inside of his cheek. “Well, sounds like this is valuable information,” he alluded. Kynier dug into his pocket and just gave the man his whole coin purse. It wasn’t all that he carried on him, but it would look that way.
The Dragoon chuckled as he felt the coins through the fabric. “Darvin’s been rather secretive recently. Been seen with many unfamiliar faces. Hasn’t stuck to his normal routine. Though I remember how much of a liking he took to this Kelvic.” Kynier had not mentioned that she was Kelvic, so the man was not lying at the very least.
“Would you take me to Darvin’s quarters?”
The man’s eyes widened slightly and he gave a nervous laugh. “If you got that sort of desire to meet Dira, fine. But I won’t without sufficient pay. One hundred gold mizas.”
One of the first lessons Kynier learned in his efforts to becoming a spy, is that no amount of information was worth that much. Right? This held no guarantees because this Dragoon Guardian only served as a middle man. One that didn’t actually provide any information that was new. No. Kynier was bound to find Darvin if he kept looking. But he would not let men like this fellow before him try to squeeze all the blood from a stone because they could smell desperation. “No.” Kynier began to turn around. “No information is worth that much.”
As Kynier was starting to make his exit, the Dragoon spoke up. “Not even for a fine set of lips like that?” Kynier stopped and turned back to face the man. The Guardain was smiling despite the gaze of anger Kynier held for him. “I remember a demonstration Darvin gave of a drug that he used on her. And what she did.” The man’s smile was carnal and he shook his head slowly with an exhale. “Darvin wouldn’t let her go around despite what she did to him with those lips.”
Bile and wrath alike rose within Kynier. He took a step towards the man. “Makes me wish I had been selected for escort duty like that. That Kelvic just could not get enough…” Kynier could hear no more and drew his short blade out, cutting for the man’s throat. The Dragoon backed against the wall and reached for his sword. But the mage wouldn’t let him by hacking at the man’s waist where his hand needed to be to draw the longsword.
Word Count: 1.358
Boxcode credit goes to Gossamer!
