The adventurer's office was rowdier than usual, and not the kind of noise that went with laughter or clinking tankards. It was a heavy hum of muttering, boots grating on the wooden floorboards, the sound of paper being rustled in anxious fingers. Alenya kept step with me, her jaw set in that obstinate way of hers, her eyes darting around the room as if she expected someone to leap out and stab her.
I didn't joke about her. The atmosphere was heavy with tension.
Standing at the front of the room was the local town office leader, a middle-aged man with shoulders as broad as a fortress wall. His scarred cheek creased whenever he talked, his words cutting as harder than they ought to have. A group of high-level adventurers circled him, their eyes keen, waiting.
When he noticed us, he nodded very slightly. "Good. More ears to rush it along."
Alenya crossed her arms. "If I may inquire, What is going on? Is the kingdom going to collapse?"
The man's jaw tightened. "Might as well. The princess has been missing for two days."
The hushed words filled the hall. Even the rustle of papers stopped. I watched the transition spread among the adventurers. Two days. Time enough for a body to stiffen, time enough for a political storm to rage.
"She vanished from the gardens of the palace," the leader continued. "Saw her at sundown, haven't laid eyes on her since. Waited until now to inform you, but the royal family can no longer hold their tongues. We believe she is being smuggled out via Marivel Port with the help of rebels from within the kingdom."
"Marivel Port," I heard someone whisper behind me. "That rat hole…"
The leader put up a hand for silence. "The task is simple. Find her, return her alive. The person who accomplishes it will not only receive gold but contribution points from the crown themselves. Enough to promote an person to noble status."
At which a subdued murmur coursed through the room. Contribution points. More valuable than gold. I glanced at Alenya and saw the spark already growing in her eyes. She wanted this, no she needed this.
However, something within the story nagged at the back of my mind. Too tidy and convenient. Smugglers from a seashore city, oldest platitude ever. Where did they get this?
The leader brushed us off and the adventurers poured out in groups, voices vibrating with excitement and arithmetic. Alenya caught my sleeve before I could go with the crowd.
"We're not fleeing ghosts at a pier," she said. "Come with me."
I followed behind her out of the building, down the busy streets, and into narrow, darker alleys where the reek of wet stone and fish guts clung to the air. She walked with practiced ease, gliding between shadows until we were before a twisted door half-hidden between two warehouses. I imagine she had gotten to know it for herself.
She knocked three times, paused, and once.
The door creaked open, and a smokily, fustily scented air crept in. Behind a counter, with a man so gaunt he looked as though he'd been carved out of wire, a man with needle-sharp, shining steel eyes looked up at us.
"Alenya," he croaked, settling back in his chair. "It's been a while. Who's the boy?"
"Someone who doesn't need your approval," Alenya shot back. Then, less harsh: "We need information about the princess."
The broker's laughter was a yellow-toothed smirk. "Of course you do. Everyone's chasing her shadow now. But let me tell you this, the port story? Nonsense. Too obvious. Whoever carried out this isn't stupid."
Alenya's brow furrowed. "Then what are you saying?"
The broker spread his fingers. "The Sun Empire. They've wanted this kingdom for years. They couldn't storm the dwarves' gates with armies, so they'll try leverage. What better leverage than the princess herself?"
My stomach turned over the name. The Sun Empire, an empire that incinerated worlds like fire, hiding ambition in the guise of light.
Alenya pounded her fist on the desk. "Do you have proof?"
"Proof?" sneered the broker. "In this transaction, hearsay is worth more than parchment. But I'll admit this, where the Sun Empire is headed, the Temple of Light is right behind. They're as bound as bone and marrow."
The room fell dark at those words. The Temple of Light. Fanatics, in sacred robes, with godly power for shield and sword. And their intolerance was simple: they despised all gods but their own?
My heart was racing. If their hands had anything to do with this, then I was not just walking into another assignment. I was walking into a fire that could consume me the moment my true nature came to light.
Alenya was not shaken. She glared at me, eyes burning with the same stubborn determination I saw in the village. "Then we go find her before them. If we succeed, this will be the payoff we've been waiting for."
Hmph. I remained silent. Not that I disagreed, but because I understood that the game was larger than she could possibly envision. Missing princess, Sun Empire, Temple of Light; threads closing in on us.