We arrived at a big building, and when we went inside I noticed a big stage. This must be the theater. I had heard mention of Alfira being a performer when I first came around, she seemed to be the biggest star this town had, but then again, I didn't spend much time at the theater. We walked through a giant auditorium, making our way through the rows of seats, all of them empty. Like a ghost town. As we got closer to the stage, I picked up faint voices, muffled arguing, and for a second I played with the idea there were actual ghosts in here. I flicked my head around, eyes searching for a dark ball of feathers, but I couldn't find one.
In my distraction, Elizar had already reached the stage, concentrated. As I walked up behind her, I saw that, past a deserted set, there was a door cracked open on the back wall. That's where the voices were coming from. I tried to focus on the words.
“We have to postpone the play, without Alfira, we’re gonna be hurting if we go on in a couple of days!” One of the voices claimed.
"She has an understudy for a reason!" The other voice emphatically said, on the verge of a yell.
Before I could hear any more, Elizar jumped onto the stage and moved to the door. With a loud knock, the voices halted. After a moment of silence, a voice hesitantly called,
“Yes?”
“Hi, yeah, we are investigating Alfira and the unfortunate things that happened to her, we heard she worked here?” Elizar said.
The door creaked open. “Oh yes, she did.” emerging from the door, I saw that the first voice belonged to a light-skinned...elf? Half-elf? I still can’t tell the difference. She walked out of the room to face us followed by a… mountain dwarf? Man, the neutral territories really have a mix of everyone. I assumed they were the source of the second voice.
“We were just wondering if you had any information that could potentially help us? Where she often went, who she hung out with?” Elizar questioned.
“Oh, she and that boy Brooke were always attached at the hip, along with her friend Quinn. But recently she got engaged to this guy, Elrin, oh they all must be devastated.” The dwarf placed a hand over his heart.
“Is that all?” Pressed Elizar. She seemed to be taking this like you would a school project, unfazed and purely business. What had she been through to treat death like this?
The elf shook her head. “I’m sorry, we weren’t very close to her, besides the theater of course. Quinn would know more, you can find her at the tailor shop down the road.”
“Who is Quinn?” I asked, and all heads turned to me.
“Her close friend,” The dwarf told me, narrowing his eyes, which confused me. Her friend, oh no. Sybil nudged me in the shoulder.
“He told us that already,” She whispered, and my eyes widened. I flashed an apologetic smile at the dwarf, and he sighed.
“Also, her understudy.”
We all froze at that. I saw the chestnut-haired girl’s eyes narrow. It wasn’t much, but it was something.
“Do you know where we could find a man named Koram? We were told he would be here.” Elizar asked. I furrowed my eyebrows. Who on earth is Koram? How does she know about him?
The elf spoke before I could ask. “Oh, Koram, he hangs around here a lot. Watches the rehearsals. Most of us think he had a thing for her. I think he’s down at the Black Cello, that tavern down the road. It got robbed this morning, he’s helping clean up.”
I shrunk back, averting my eyes, I didn’t know who Koram was, but I knew I didn’t want to go back to the tavern. Elizar gave her thanks, and we turned to leave, Sybil turning and shouting, “Thank you for your help!” behind us before we walked out of the building.
Abruptly, Elizar stopped us not far from the entrance, moving back to peer around the side. “I just, something’s…” She didn’t finish before making her way to the back of the building. The other two girls followed, me trailing behind them. I had just rounded the corner to the back of the theater when gasps rang out and a hand slammed over my eyes, blocking out my view.
“Oh gods, that’s terrible…” Sybil gasped, voice flooded with horror.
“It’s her head,” the other girl muttered in my ear, and my breath caught. I didn’t even know it was missing.
“What does this say?” Elizar grumbled. No one answered, and I gulped. Fuck.
“I can read it,” I told them weakly. Rolling my shoulders back, the girl removed her hand from my eyes, and I braced myself for the sight.
I winced, but I wasn’t going to let myself fall. I made sure to breathe as I took in the sight. It was worse than I imagined. In the middle of the back wall, a golden lion was frozen in roar. In its open mouth lay the severed head of who I assumed was Alfira. Blood ran down its mouth. Around the sculpture, an unusual script was plastered on the walls, written in blood.
A mangled cry escaped me before I smothered it all back down. Pulling out my book, I turned to the first page, where scrawled in a cursive-esque font were the words, “Eyes of the Rune Keeper.” I touched the words, and I felt a pulse run through my body. Looking back up at the message, I recognized it as Under-Common.
“It says ‘the shadow has been fed,’” I relayed to the girls, which earned confused looks.
“What does that mean?” Sybil asked us, but she found no answers here. We all made our way back to the front of the building.
“We should split up,” Elizar said after an extended silence. “Cover more ground. I’ll go back to the tavern, talk to Koram. See what he knows.”
“I’ll go to Quinn,” the chestnut girl said. “And Brooke.”
“I’ll go with her,” I added. Her friends…
“I’m going with Elizar!” Sybil proclaimed, and my head swiveled in her direction, eyes wide. Protests erupted from all of us.
“We just robbed the place!” I exclaimed.
“We didn’t get caught last time.”
“No, I won’t let you.” Elizar insisted, eyes burning through Sybil’s head.
“You can’t really stop me,” Sybil told us, then continued off towards the tavern.
Elizar gripped her red braids and tugged, just for a moment before regaining her sanity. “You know, to each their own,” She sighed, then followed Sybil towards the tavern.
I stared off in their direction, completely in awe of the poor decision that girl just made. The other girl pulled on my arm, yanking me out of my head.
“Shall we?” She asked. I gave her a nudge with my shoulder in response. After taking one last glance over at the fading figures moving towards the tavern, we made our way in the opposite direction, though I wasn’t sure where.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
We arrived at a quaint shop, small yet busy and decorated with as many pastel colors as you could imagine, and just as many fabrics. My new friend looked around with wonder as I made my way to the counter, where a light-skinned elf was working. I walked up and cleared my throat, her attention flying up at the noise.
"Hi, we're here to talk about-” I started.
“Oh! Hello girls!” The woman greeted me as the girl came up next to me, my cue to mentally tap out. “How old are you girls? I have a daughter, she’s lovely! I’m sure you’d like her!”
I side-eyed my partner, a slight smile making its way to my lips. She looked just as amused.
“As tempting an offer as that is, we are here to talk to Quinn about what happened with Alfira. Is she here?” She asked.
The woman’s face fell. “Oh, yes, that poor girl. Quinn is here, she’s with Brooke, the poor boy took the news really hard.” The women turned to yell up the stairs. “Quinn, some nice people would like to talk to you!”
We heard the creaking of stairs as who I assumed was Quinn made her way into view. When she emerged from the bottom of the stairs, I heard the chestnut-haired girl inhale sharply. In her defense though, the girl was very pretty.
She had softly browned skin, paired with long, lavish blonde hair, although it was clear she hadn’t had time to prepare herself today. She was wearing a flowing white nightgown, and no shoes. Despite her stunning appearance, her hazel eyes were drenched in sorrow, and her smile didn’t dare to reach her heart.
“Is it too late to take her mom up on that deal?” I heard my friend mutter, quiet enough so no one else would hear, and I had to stifle a laugh.
Quinn came to the counter, dismissing her mom. “Hello, what did you guys need?”
I felt my heart shatter again, knowing what we were here to talk about. This definitely isn’t what she needed. No one should have to go through that, the murder being that brutal and gruesome and her friend is gone and she’s not coming back, he’s not-
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. She gave me a concerned look. Stepping back, I glanced at the chestnut girl, hoping she knew to take the lead on this one.
After I regained my composure, I came up behind her, almost hiding behind my partner. She didn’t flinch as I rested my head on her arm. Making eye contact with Quinn, she narrowed her eyes a bit at me but went back to her conversation.
I didn’t tune back in before Quinn turned around and shouted, “Brooke!”
Slow patters made their way down, but I didn’t even get to look the dark-haired boy in the eyes before he started sobbing. Quinn shot us an apologetic look before ushering Brooke into the back room, where her mother was.
“I’m sorry he couldn’t be any help,” Quinn said, shooting a concerned look at the door Brooke just walked through.
“It’s alright, thank you for all the help you could offer,” the chestnut girl responded. I saw them exchange shy smiles before she waved and walked out of the store. I followed close behind. The midday sun scorched my eyes as we left. My eyes are literally the worst.
After we were a far enough distance away, I turned my attention up to her face. “So what was that I just witnessed in there?” I asked, tying my fingers behind my back.
She shifted on her feet, and I saw some slight color flood to her cheeks. “I’m gonna go on a date with her.”
Shocked by her boldness, I smirked up at her. “Good for you.”
Not touching the subject anymore, we looked for Sybil and Elizar, but they weren’t at the tavern anymore, according to the chestnut girl. We wandered around the town for a bit, familiarizing ourselves with our temporary containment.
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