Halls of the Dead

~Chapter 13 - Untold Riches~

~Ch13- Untold riches~

Aingr laid out a list on the table in his home. Deporah and Norton looked it over and saw a list of names of missing people and accompanying addresses within the city.

"I noticed many of the missing individuals lived in the slums," Aingr said, "I'm glad you agreed to help me with this. You might have better luck getting information from them than me. People don't trust the Kingsguard like they used to."

"Why is that?" Deporah asked.

"When King Denile died, things changed. Our new King isn't a fit ruler."

"But Whedon always seemed so kind."

Norton grimaced, "He was. But ever since my grandfather passed, he's been different."

Deporah took the list and looked through the numerous addresses. "I'll ask around these areas. See what I can find out."

Norton said, "I can accompany you."

Aingr firmly placed his hand on the table, "No, you will not. I trust her to wander the city on her own, but not you."

"Aingr..."

"I won't hear more on it." Aingr asserted.

Deporah folded up the list and tucked it into her pockets, "I'll come see you both when I'm done."

Deporah gripped the list of addresses with one hand and the hilt of her rapier with the other as she walked through the city. The place she grew up had changed.

She recalled traveling through this portion of the city with her parents; it was lined with businesses before. There was even a stage where they acted out plays for the public. That same stage was now worn and unused, and many were homeless.

Those who had homes traveled through the city with anxious energy, while the have-nots lined the streets, begging for whatever they could. Some were more violent.

Deporah heard the shuffling of feet behind her. She could tell that whoever it was, failed to be stealthy. She feigned ignorance and allowed them to follow her into an alley. In one motion, she pivoted and drew her blade.

It was a man in ragged clothing, holding a pitiful-looking dagger. She slashed once, cutting his shirt and nothing else. His eyes turned to fear, and he dropped the dagger. With desperation, he yelped, "I-I'm sorry!"

"Get going." Deporah calmly commanded, and the man scurried off. He was probably looking to rob her for whatever change he could get his hands on.

She headed to a house in the outer rim, the old address of one of the missing individuals. As she approached the house, she adjusted her disposition. She learned over the years to feign a more friendly personality. She had to.

After knocking, a couple came to the door, not parting it fully, "Yes?"

Deporah smiled and chipperly asked, "Hi! Does Ellen live here?"

"Oh no. She was the previous owner. Why?"

"I heard she went missing and was wondering what might've happened to her."

"Oh! I heard she was struggling to pay for this home before she went missing. Some people figured she ran when she couldn't afford it," the husband replied.

"If I'm being honest, we're not doing so well either," the wife added.

"Don't go telling her that!"

"It's true!" The wife shrugged.

"Is that all you know?" Deporah asked again.

"That's all we have, sorry."

Deporah made her rounds through the city until she finally came to the slums. Tight alleyways with tents made for those too poor to afford a home. This had existed a decade ago, but the number of people here had multiplied.

She kept one hand on her hilt as she entered the alleyways. When she got to the approximate location where someone had gone missing, she called out.

"Does anyone here know a Mary-Ann around here?"

"Who's asking?" A man with a stilted step stood from a tent. As he spoke, he revealed missing teeth.

Deporah returned a false smile, "I heard she went missing. Would you know anything about that?"

The man cocked his head, "Are you a part of the Kingsguard?"

"No."

The man puckered his lips before speaking, "She's been gone for a while now. After her business went under, she hung around here."

"Notice anything before she went missing?"

The man grumbled to himself, "...Not really?"

The woman in the tent adjacent to him crawled out and said, "What about that letter she got? She said it'd help get her out of the rut she was in."

The man snapped his fingers. "There was that! Where is that letter anywho?"

The man began to trifle through his tent, where there was a thin bedroll and a few of his belongings stuffed underneath. He triumphantly pulled out a wrinkled old letter. "Found it!"

The man turned it over to her... it was a blank page.

The toothless man chuckled, "Now I know it looks like it doesn't have anything on it. But at night, it glowed with a message."

Deporah raised her eyebrows, "Really now?"

She turned the page and set it within his tent. Nothing happened at first, but after a while, a faint green luminescence formed on the paper. She looked it over. The image was that of a map of the inner ring of the city, and a mark on that map. Beneath it was a single sentence.

Meet us here at midnight for untold riches

"Who gave this to her?"

"No clue. She never said."

"Do you mind if I keep this?"

The man recoiled, "You better not be thinking of going to that place. I think Mary was heading there right before she went missing."

Deporah smiled, "I'll be alright."

Deporah continued to circle the city, visiting all the locations where the missing people were from. Most had little to say. But it seemed that each of the missing individuals was enduring hard times before they went missing.

Then she came across another letter.

The message was the same, but the location was different, only appearing in darkness like the previous one. The marking on the map showed somewhere not far within the inner ring.

Deporah began asking for letters. Some recalled that the missing person had received such a letter right before they went missing. In a few lucky instances, they even kept the letter and shared it with her. But no one ever knew where it came from.

The message was always the same, but the locations differed depending on what part of the city they were in. She accumulated more letters and noticed there were repeating meeting locations. There seemed to be four locations that were used across the city, all within the inner ring at a decent distance from the castle.

Deporah doubted that the recipient would receive 'untold riches'. They were simply preying on people's desperation. But what could've happened to them? Who was leaving them for people?

At the very least, there was a pattern to these disappearances. There were only a select few locations where people were told to go before disappearing. Deporah was sure this would be useful to Aingr's investigation.