Summer 23, 504 AV – The Shooting Star Inn
Zandelia had been directed towards The Shooting Star Inn when she had first crossed the craggy landscape and meandered her way into the multi-peaked city of Lhavit at the end of her journey. She had hired herself out as a guard and general hand of a caravan headed towards the ‘city of glass’ as she had colloquially heard it referenced as. Nothing had prepared her for the truth, however, her own perspectives being unraveled and lain bare before being remade into a stranger shape than before. It was a smaller and less beleaguered population that she had been faced with too, the people not seeming to know of their own narrow grip upon mortality. In many ways she had found herself envying them and their easy ways, as she saw it. Sunberth was her home, a city where death lay around every corner and it had taken much adjustment to refocus her mentality to even come close to integrating with the locals.
Still, she had managed to ingratiate herself easily enough with those of the delicately decorated tavern, her easy smiles and her coin purse proving to pave the way towards acceptance relatively easily. She had rented out one of the ‘ordinary’ rooms of the tavern for a number of weeks in advance, her collected wages upon her travels more than enough to pay for it. She had been stunned by its interior, used to grimy cots and cramped conditions as she was. Now, a week forwards in time, she sat within the main room, upon a cushioned chair, and debated whether her mind had become unhinged or whether she truly was surrounded by beauty and relaxation at most turnings. Her distrusting nature had done her no favors in terms of acceptance, sure that there was something sinister waiting to happen to her – that somehow she had been noticed and a plan had been out into action to rob, violate and kill her in any number of ways.
There has to be a downside, there has to be! Or else… she found herself thinking aggressively, knowing that if there was not then the suffering in her own city was made all the more pointless. She was not one to ruminate much upon the worse parts of life but in her current environment it seemed like Sunberth had been created by a torturer’s hands.
“Come on Zandelia, pull it together now! Keep your wits about you, you’ve enough money to cause more than one head to turn” she whispered to herself as she sipped upon the tea she had ordered, pungant and soothing to her frayed senses.
As she sat she watched the other patrons with disguised suspicion, keeping a mental note of faces and actions, of words and exchanges. She was no fool, she knew where importance lay and it was in people. If she could but understand them, comprehend their motives and desires, then she could unravel the ball of tightly knit yarn that was Lhavit. It was as she watched the newest entry into the establishment that her paranoid nature was given yet another cause to inflate and spread though out her consciousness. The man her single-eyed gazed pinned upon was of no note beyond any other. His clothes were finer than some, his mannerisms more charming and erudite. She had heard him speak at length upon the philosophies of love and lust, her own considerable attention span waning after the first few visits as he tried, all too often in vain, to engage her in such conversations.
Foolish little fly, talking of love in a world motivated by desire rather than romantic gobbledegook she scolded him internally as her countenance came into a dark frown at is approach, his steps faltering slightly as a semi-dismayed look crossed his face and he took a seat a few table away – on this occasion.
It was then that the mechanical nature of her thoughts relayed to her what her sub-conscious had been trying to do for days now. She had seen him one too many times in her wandering throughout the Zintia part of the many platforms of the city. As she turned her consideration upon her memories she noticed now how he seemed to appear throughout her day at regular intervals. When she wandered the markets and shops she ran into him and his detestable smile. As she turned to take in her surroundings he seemed to be behind her all too often. She considered this information, looking at it from every possible angle she could conceive of. She was not overly interesting to the people of Lhavit, merely another face in the crowd – though a scarred one to be sure. He had met her enough times in the tavern alone to have satiated his curiosity.
Unless…it is something more that he wants. I have money, he perhaps seeks to rob me of that though he seems fairly well funded enough to make it seem like a pointless endeavor. He could merely be psychotic, perhaps, though he looks more a dandy than a sociopath. Perhaps he wants my body? she continued to think through the logical possibilities as she noted his gaze kept flicking to her, obviously thinking she was too deep in thought to notice.
She finished her tea as she ruminated and, offered another one, declined politely. She had concluded that if he was indeed following her then he would know her routines. She had enough raw data upon his appearances to presume he had taken some time in observation of her daily meanderings. She favored the markets and the gardens, sometimes spent time crossing the many bridges just to take in the view in recurring awe. She could have called herself foolish as she hatched her scheme, however she had nothing better to do and wished to know, once and for all, why the man was so insufferably present in her existence.
She headed to the door without a backwards glance, sure that she could net herself a tricky fish if she but tried hard enough.
