Calaistas

Day Twenty

Leandrios woke up to a stream of dull, bleary light falling on the floor. He winced, pushing himself up from where he lay with his face smushed against the hard wood, probably imprinting the grain into his skin.

He squinted at the bed, looking for C, but she wasn't there. A sinking feeling seeped into his stomach. He got to his feet, heading out the door and shambling down the stairs.

As if he hadn't moved since the night before, Steve stood behind the counter with a rag in hand.

"Hullo," he said, his eyes bright and his beard bushy. He dropped a mug down on the bar. "Breakfast?"

Leandrios slowly made his way to a bar stool. It didn't look like anything he hadn't seen last night. He slowly wound his hands around the mug.

"Your friend left a message," Steve added, keeping an eye on him and an eye on the glass he was cleaning. "She said not to worry and just stay put. She'll be back before too late."

Leandrios stared into the fluffy, flavorless contents of the mug, wondering what this reaction was he felt. At first, there was a burst of anger exploding in his gut, immediately taken over by uncertainty. Again? Again, he was just supposed to stay out of it? Where was she going? What was she doing? What was "too late?" Late morning? Afternoon? Night?

"Don't worry," Steve reassured him. "I'll keep care of you. She set a store by you. Anything you want, you have."

Leandrios raised an eyebrow. "Where did she go?"

Steve averted his gaze, leaning harder into his work cleaning the counter. "She didn't say. Looks tight-lipped, 'f you ask me."

Something about him made Leandrios squirm with suspicion. "Last night you said you knew her," he said carefully.

"No." Steve shook his head vigorously, frowning and squeezing all his features into the center of his face. "Don't know her. Why you asking me? Don't you know her? Looks like you're together to me."

Leandrios didn't know how to answer as he felt his skin start to crawl. He didn't trust anything at all about this place.

"Are you bothering the fellow?" a deep voice asked, clapping a hand on Leandrios's back. He almost flew out of his seat. "Don't mind Chatty Kathy." The chess player from last night grinned into his face. "Maybe my pace is more your style. Come over to my table."

Wolfwit slunk away to a rickety wooden table, and Leandrios felt obliged to follow, fearfully sinking onto the bench.

"You look like you have a sharp mind," Wolfwit stated, straightening all the pieces on the board. "Have all your limbs."

Leandrios watched him uncertainly. What was that supposed to mean?

Wolfwit started chuckling to himself. "Anywho, let's start these shenanigans. Prepare yourself." He lowered his eyebrows at the board, falling into silence as he stared.

There were a few other people in the inn. Leandrios looked around discretely. There was the woman from the night before, watching out a spattered window-pane, and the boy playing beside her. A coal-dusted man sat at his own table, immersed in devouring some kind of sloppy stew.

"Ears around today," Wolfwit muttered.

Leandrios didn't like how nothing anyone said around here made any sense to him. Were they all insane? Sylvansbrook would be the place for it. What could possibly be here that C needed? Where had she gone?

"First time, isn't it?" Wolfwit asked.

"First time?" Leandrios repeated, frowning.

"Around here."