"...So they're in that ugly place, huh?"
I nodded. "I don't know why they're still calling it the 'central hall'," I added as I ducked under a low tree branch, just loudly enough for my voice to be audible to Lirelle. We were skirting around the edge of Silent Falls, staying a fair distance into the woods so as to stay out of eyesight and earshot in case anyone was still awake at this hour. "It made sense for the old one; that building actually is in the center of town. The new one, though...?" I let the rhetorical question trail off.
"I wouldn't give a damn about the name if the place at least looked half-decent." Lirelle, walking directly behind me, let out a sigh. "When I got here this morning—my first time being back in my hometown after over a decade—you know what the very first thing I said to my relatives was?"
She'd told me about this before, though of course she wouldn't remember that. I smiled to myself at the memory. "...Something along the lines of 'why is there a giant wooden shack at the edge of town', I think?"
For a few paces, the only sounds were our soft footsteps and the gentle rustling of foliage. In the absence of conversation, I suddenly noticed that I was actually feeling a little too warm now, despite the chill in the air.
"...I really don't get this," she muttered after a long pause.
"That's sort of the point."
There was no reply—only an icy silence drawing a clear line between us. A soundless reminder that my belt was currently devoid of tools or weapons; that I was walking in front not in order to lead the way, but because it meant my back was wide open; that no matter what she may have said about believing me, Lirelle wouldn't dare actually trust me just yet. Her dagger had probably been in her hand a second after I'd turned my back to her—kept at the ready, just in case.
I'd already known this sort of reaction would be inevitable, looking at things from her perspective. Hoping for our relationship to instantly return to the way it'd been when I last saw her would be foolish. I'd accepted that.
...It hurt anyway.
The tension gnawed at my nerves as we continued on wordlessly. We were getting close to our destination, and I felt sick. Desperate to give myself something external to focus on, I took a deep breath in an attempt to combat the dizziness and struggled to set my mind to the task ahead.
Silent Falls' central hall was by far the largest single structure in town, but it was in no way a particularly attractive building. Three stories, covering about as much area as the manor of a minor noble in the capital, it utterly dwarfed everything else in sight... only, it certainly didn't look like a manor, and in fact was about as far from 'central' as it possibly could be.
The unsightly exterior couldn't really be helped—the construction had been rushed. Sudden political fracturing within the neighbouring Ielyan Alliance—formerly a trusted ally of the Royal Kingdom of Archessa, to which this land belonged—had necessitated a massive increase in military presence at the two nations' shared border basically overnight. Given the need for close cooperation between the army and the local government officials, as well as prompt communications with the garrison's barracks, continuing to use the old central hall, which was modestly-sized and actually situated in the town's center, simply hadn't been practical anymore. Thanks to that, this one had been thrown together in a hurry with very little attention paid to aesthetics... a fact no one in Silent Falls was all too happy about, seeing as it was nigh impossible to ignore such a massive eyesore.
For tonight only, the letters Lirelle was looking for would be left unattended inside—this time, I was going to make sure she got a chance to read them.
"...Ah. There it is." Catching a glimpse of the overbearing structure through the branches, I stopped and leaned against a tree, closing my eyes and trying to catch my breath.
"Are you really tired alre—" Lirelle began, irritated, but quickly cut herself off. After an awkward moment, she sighed and stepped around me. When I opened my eyes, she was peering at my face, her expression cautiously neutral even as her actions indicated at least some level of concern. "...Did I actually hurt you seriously, earlier?"
...Well, my wrist was still pretty painful, and there was a dull ache all over my body that ten to fifteen minutes of walking through the woods had done nothing to help, but... no, that wasn't the cause. I shook my head weakly.
"Just... nerves and lack of sleep, probably." I paused. "Can I... just sit down for a minute?"
She hesitated, but eventually gave a reluctant nod. "...Sure."
Relieved, I allowed myself to collapse against the trunk. Just a brief rest... and then I'd be fine. Everything was hazy. The skin on my arms and neck seemed to crawl beneath Kerr's cloak.
Why... is it so hot all of a sudden...?
"I'll raise," Mirea said, and slid a few more coins towards the center of the table with a confident smile.
The tavern was deserted, save for our small group sitting around a circular table on the ground floor. Mirea, sitting to my right, and the other three players—none of whom I recognized—looked at me expectantly.
What? Why were they—
...Oh.
Feeling like an idiot, I peered down at my cards, unable to recall what kind of hand I'd ended up with this time. The ink blurred, seeming to swim hazily away from my gaze—I squinted, trying to get the designs on the cards to come into focus, but that only made it more difficult to make anything out.
"Silt? You good?" I lowered my cards to see Lirelle, sitting two places to my left, watching me with a warm smile.
I glanced again at my cards. They remained indecipherable. "...Yeah, I'm fine. I'll call." I added the requisite coins to the pot.
"...Call," the player to my left rasped without hesitation, and followed suit. As I became aware of the nameless presence, a wave of nausea suddenly roiled in my gut, and that whole side of my body seemed to ache from sheer proximity to the figure. I pointedly refused to look in that direction.
"Hmm..." Lirelle hummed thoughtfully as she looked at her hand. After a moment, she sighed and put the cards face down on the table in front of her. "Fold." With that, she pushed back her chair and stood up, pinning me with a cold, suspicious glare. "Come on. You're supposed to be helping me, right?"
"I—"
Before I could even get a proper word out, she had turned away and was gone. My head spun. That... was right. I needed to go help Lirelle, didn't I? Why had we come to the tavern, again...?
"Forget it, kid." Kerr fiddled absentmindedly with the money in front of him, studying his cards as he spoke. His skin was on the darker side and somewhat worn-looking, his features neither outstanding nor particularly unappealing. His black hair, speckled with a few sparse flecks of gray, was kept short, and his face was clean-shaven as always.
Appearance-wise, he was an average man with average looks, to whom the term 'middle-aged' had only recently become an accurate descriptor. For some reason, the sight of the ever-present black cloak draped over his back made me slightly... uncomfortable.
"We both know you wouldn't be any help, even if you joined her." Apparently coming to a decision, Kerr tossed some coins haphazardly into the center. "Call." He laid his cards down in one smooth motion. I mimicked the gesture, though somewhat less elegantly, and before I could catch even a glimpse of movement, the player to my left's hand was already laying revealed on the table as well. Last, there was—
I froze. The chair immediately to my right was empty. Mirea's cards had vanished along with her, the knowledge of which numbers were drawn on their faces consigned forever to the unknown. In the next seat over, Kerr's unmoving form was slumped face down on the table, a gleaming dagger buried in his neck. A trickle of blood was pooling under his head, and already his cards had been swallowed by the shallow, ever-expanding disc of crimson.
I couldn't breathe. It felt like I was burning alive, and yet the sweat breaking out over my skin was cold as ice. Unable to do anything but sit there shivering, I could only watch out of the corner of my eye as, to my left, a shaky, ragged arm covered in cuts, bruises, scrapes, and animal bites, caked in dried blood that had a faint multicoloured, oily sheen, reached out and silently swept the small pile of bloodstained winnings closer.
As though suddenly released from invisible restraints, I shoved myself violently back from the table and jumped to my feet, but I couldn't seem to put any strength in them—they failed to support me and I fell backwards, following after my chair which had clattered to the floor behind me—
My eyes shot open to the sight of an unfamiliar wooden ceiling, daylight streaming in through a window immediately to my right. Panicked, I jolted upright and had to choke back bile rising in my throat as my stomach protested, my heart thundering in my chest.
The world spun. Slumping sideways against the wall, I worked to get my breathing under control, my eyelids slowly falling closed again as adrenaline gave way to dazed, sickly exhaustion, and unconsciousness claimed me once again.
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