Ill-gotten Gains

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(Narration by PringleWings! Sound effects from Freesound)

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It’s well after 11 pm when you finally trudge back into Slaryn house, and you hardly imagined you’d be so happy to see the place.

Back in your room, you dump your stuff down on the chair, wash up in the bathroom, rinsing away the traces of dried blood on your hands, then soon collapse into the bed.

The next morning, you wake more than an hour later than your usual early time, with sunlight peeking past the edges of the curtains, and the clock on the table reading 8:36 am. With no pressing need to get up, and no immediate plans, you remain lying in bed for a while, letting your body rest a bit longer as you continue to enjoy the warmth trapped in the blankets.

You think back to the events of the night before, and wonder what became of the thief. Did he wake? Did he find someone to take care of his injuries? You suddenly remember the items you took from him and decide to take a closer look.

You throw open the curtains and illuminate the room, looking down at the street below. People are already going about their business, moving back and forth on foot, or occasionally by small carriage.
You retrieve the confiscated stolen items from your bag, spreading them out on the bed. Wallets, money bag, amulet, loose money, dagger. You leave the two knives hidden and wrapped up in a bundle of your old clothes on the chair.

Neither the money bag nor wallets contain any identifying information save one, which has a small white card with the name “L Byrd” handwritten in a box on one side, and a series of cryptic numbers and letters on the other, as well as a date from several months ago. Not much to go by. You make a note of how much money is inside each of the wallets and the moneybag, and add to that the total of the loose money; you end up counting just over 250 cogs.

You move on to the amulet; a pretty, delicate thing likely snatched right from a lady’s neck, judging by the broken chain. However, the main part is still intact; a rough-cut, modest-sized, pale pink translucent gemstone, set in a tear-shaped rose gold frame. You’re not sure what the gemstone is, nor whether the frame is real gold or not, but it is quite heavy, and seems pretty well made.

The 8-inch dagger is light and thin, with a brilliant silver blade etched with rune-like engravings down the centre. It has a decorative guard, a grip inlaid with 4 small, clear gemstones, 2 on either side, and a disk-shaped pommel with another rune shape engraved on it. You slide the dagger back into its sheath; gold-brown leather with silver metal trimmings.

You stare at the loot, wondering what you should do with it. Maybe you should try turning it in to the local law enforcement. Perhaps they could track down the owners, or those that were robbed might report the items missing.

Somewhere outside, you hear the muffled sound of a clock chiming. 9 am. You decide to think about it a bit later, but for now, you want breakfast. The hotel does provide breakfast for the guests, so you’d better get down there before it gets too late.

You get dressed, opting to wear your loose, comfortable outfit this morning. You remember the night before again, and check yesterday’s clothes; fortunately, there is no sign of a hole in the back of your top, and see no signs of blood, though the dark material may be hiding a dark secret.

You saunter downstairs and head into the small canteen, where a cook idly potters about with plates and trays of food, and two other guests sit eating their breakfast. You spy a small buffet-style table and go over to see what’s on offer. Even before you’ve reached it, the scent of fried meat reaches you, but by the time you get there, you’re already starting to have flashbacks. Delicious smell, horrendous food… You stare at the meat strips, wondering if they too are lying in wait, ready to strike you with disappointment or pure horror.

“Is this going to be your final meal, or..?”

You snap out of it and turn to see Ameronis standing beside you. It takes a moment for you to fully recognise her though; after all, you only saw her face for a short time. She’s not wearing her mask or travelling robes at all, but instead is also wearing a casual dull-coloured outfit; in this, you can see that she does have a somewhat stocky build and medium-long brown hair that flows around her face. She laughs at whatever your expression was before you came to.

“Did the bread just tell you it killed your whole family? What’s going on?”

You groan and tell her not to ask; you’d much rather forget the stupid antics from last night. This only makes Ameronis even more intrigued.

“Oh? Well, now I have to hear it! What exactly did you get up to?”

You relent and agree to tell her an abridged version that omits certain parts, but later; you don’t want to talk about your actions in a quiet room with strangers within earshot. Ameronis glances around and suggests that you both grab some breakfast and take it back to one of your rooms; you can eat and talk in peace there.

Ah, fine. You turn back to the food on offer, while Ameronis grabs a tray and plate and begins to help herself. Considering your near-starving state yesterday, you decide to get a decent helping of the ‘safe’ foods; some fruit, a couple of slices of toast and a fried egg. You also take a small bowl of porridge oats, which you pray is just regular porridge rather than some cursed Dernan version, and, for the sake of science, a single strip of the fried meat. Finally, you pour yourself a hot cup of tea. You wait for Ameronis and glance at the cook as you stand with your tray, ready to walk out of the canteen. You wonder if she’ll yell at you for leaving the eating area, but when you follow Ameronis out of the room, the cook doesn’t bat an eyelid; either she didn’t notice, or she doesn’t care.

Upstairs, the two of you sit at the small table in your room and start to eat. Wanting to get it out of the way first, you nibble on the meat and immediately regret it; whether it’s the oil that it was fried in or some light coating of seasoning, the taste is appalling. You drop the meat on the tray in disdain, having considered flinging it across the room instead, and wash the taste away with some tea. When Ameronis asks if it was that bad, the floodgates open, and you rant about your experiences with the cuisine so far. She had asked you to tell her about any good places you found, but instead, you vent about the exact opposite.

Ameronis listens to your complaints, amused but sympathetic, and, after apparently developing a death wish, asks if she can sample your rejected meat strip. You warn her not to if she values happiness in life, but allow her to try. She cuts off a little piece and eats it, remaining composed as she does.

“It’s very… um… unique… ” she says, diplomatically. She does not ask for another piece.
You give the porridge the stink eye as you prepare to take a small spoonful, but are more delighted than you ought to be when you discover that it is, in fact, just regular porridge, and pretty good at that. You laugh to yourself at the absurdity of the situation in general. A quick taste test of the bread and the egg clear them as acceptable too, so at least there’s that.

As you eat your food, Ameronis enquires about the rest of your evening and your exploration, pointing out that having spent the whole night in her room, she’s eager to go about and explore herself today and happy to hear your report and views so far. You go back to the beginning and recount your trip along the high street, the places you saw and leaflets you gathered, and ending with your inadvertent misadventure in the maze of alleys. Ameronis takes note of the places you mentioned, considering whether she might check them out herself later, but shows mild concern when you talk about wandering around alone in the alleys in the dark.

“Wow. You’re lucky you made it back in one piece. I heard that the crime rate is pretty average here but it’s been increasing lately and there’s a few hotspots that are causing some trouble as well. No idea where those are though, but, y’know…”

You casually mention that you might have wandered through such a spot, and when asked, you give her a condensed version of your encounter with the thief; how he snuck up on you and you subsequently beat him up and confiscated a stolen necklace and wallet from him. Now you’re wondering whether you should turn the items in to the police or if that’s a lost cause.

Ameronis is initially surprised when you mention being attacked, but having fought with you twice already, unsurprised that you managed to beat him so easily, remarking that he’s lucky he’s not dead.
He might be…

As for the police, she seems unsure.

“It’d certainly be a noble thing to do. You may not be able to tell who the owners of those items are, but the police force should have detectives; they’d have to figure it out. If they do find the owners, maybe they might give you a reward. Perhaps they might step up their patrols in that area.

But be careful though; sometimes you go to the authorities, trying to do the right thing, and they, looking for an easy victory, find a way to turn you into the culprit. Depends on how crooked they are. Perhaps the thief goes to the police and says that he was attacked and robbed of his money and necklace. Then later, you show up claiming that you “found” said items and boom; you’re the one in jail, while the items are handed back to the thief with no further questions asked. Then they get to parade you around and congratulate themselves on catching “the bad guy”…”

She shrugs.

“Call me cynical for sure, but I’ve seen too many stupid scenarios like that play out, so I tend to consider the worst. It’s your call though. Do what you think is best.”

You eat in silence as you consider her words and your own thoughts, but haven’t quite made up your mind when she asks you if she can see the leaflets you got. You reach into your bag and hand them to her. She reads each one in turn, then asks if you have any plans for today. You look out of the window as you sip the last of your tea, and tell her that you have no concrete plans, but you will check your map again and look for any interesting spots to explore, though you plan to give the alleyways a wide berth this time.

“A wise choice”, she says.

With breakfast finished, Ameronis stacks the plates and trays and offers to take them back downstairs, bidding you good luck on your upcoming exploration. After she leaves, you sit at the table and pour over your map again, trying to burn into your mind the layout of the immediate area and some local landmarks to keep you oriented. You also try to figure out where you got lost yesterday but have to give up when you discover several sections of paths and buildings, which look like tight, messy weaves on the map, are too tightly knit to include any of the street names. Also, this map only shows a certain radius of the town centre; several of the weave areas are cut off by the edge of the map, suggesting that most of them are quite large. It turns out, your fear of getting lost deeper in wasn’t unfounded…

You struggle to decide whether to leave the map or bring it, but decide to bring it; normally, you prefer not to be seen looking at a map in public, so as to not out yourself as a tourist and make yourself any kind of target, but this time, the alternative is worse.

Clearing your day bag of any unnecessary items, and replenishing your bandages from the dwindling larger supply in your main travel bag, you prepare it for today’s adventure. Before you leave, you hide away the stolen loot and knives under a loose floorboard. Then, straightening yourself out in the mirror, you head out to experience Derna in the daytime.