Baoba let his eyes naturally wander off the object and return to an idle position, seemingly emotionless.
Inwardly, though, it was quite a different story.
'Well, shit. This is real. It really couldn't be simple, could it ?'
Actually, even before this new piece of evidence, the theory had been perfectly sound and pretty reasonable. The ring had spontaneously crumbled, after all. It was obviously not normal.
But somewhere, past the part of him that always prepared for the worst case, some thoughts had been hopeful. Maybe he was just being too careful. Maybe the ring was a one-off, and actually had no connection to any organisation.
But now it was real.
'Well, at least.... now I know for sure ! Yeah, that's right. This is still better than searching for something that doesn't exist. Now I know what to do ! Aw, man, could this day get any better ?'
He ignored the glaringly obvious fact that it very well could and analysed the situation once more.
They still didn't know for sure what the entity was. It could very well be completely harmless, or have goals of their own that did not compete with the elves.
But those were really unlikely scenarios. And regardless, even if they weren't, he still had to investigate.
'Good thing I'm already here then.'
He committed the woman's face to memory and waited some more for other people to come out. He didn't know how many there were left, but Pando was on standby close. If there were no one left, she would come and tell him.
To pass the time, Baoba mentally bet on six people left.
One short guy came out several minutes later.
Then, a tall man wearing a green cape, instead of the standard grey. This could mean a lot of different things, including this man's favourite color simply being green.
Next, a man and a woman left together, one of them wearing a blue cape. They were both silent and did not seem to indicate intimacy with their body language. But then again, they could simply be acting.
'That's four..'
He didn't recognize any of them. Whether or not that was a good thing was still still being decided when a woman left the room.
'Don't know her. Five.'
Then another. This one was so short Baoba was certain he had never even seen her.
'Good.' He decided. 'Six.'
He waited some more, hoping his inconsequential personal bet was correct.
But then a man came out.
'Shit. Don't know him either. Seven.'
Not only did he lose, but he was also starting to have trouble memorising so many faces.
'I'll have to try harder. Sigh... Let's go through all of them, while they're fresh.'
He added nicknames to all of the mental images in order to remember them better. That's a trick he learned from his scout. She was definitely more experienced with remembering and tracking people than he was. He still had as lot to learn on-
A pair of two men went through the door. They both had colors, green and purple cloaks.
'Shit. Nine.' Now Baoba was getting worried about this meeting, which was only growing bigger and bigger.
The two turned right towards him, without sparing even a glance. This was beneficial. He didn't mind. He was glad, really. Being ignored was the goal. The perfect spy is a pebble no one notices, and Boaba was feeling pretty close to that right now. So it was cool.
In fact, he was so unnoticeable that the purple cloak tripped over him.
He only looked at the part of Baoba's leg he had hit and, still not acknowledging his existence, talked to his partner in a completely unconcealed voice.
"Wow, I didn't know these people word clothes."
And proceeded to laugh. Like he had just said a joke. Like it was a clever one.
But, you know... At least he didn't look too hard. That would have been bad. This was not actually a problem. No harm was done. The mission could still continue. So, really.... there was nothing-
'No. Fuck that. It's no longer a good day. All thanks to this shitbag over here.'
Baoba had to hold himself back to stay in character. However, he didn't even have to try remembering the man's face. It was already burned in his memory.
He glared at his back with his eyes alone, keeping his body perfectly natural.
'Mark my words. I'm not leaving this town without paying this guy a visit.'
He waited, now in a decidedly foul mood, but no others came. A minute later, for safety, Pando came and confirmed no one was around.
"I don't know any of these people." He reported. "However, they definitely wore that same ring. Next, find one among them in a suitable position for the following plan."
They had of course discussed everything beforehand, including four different plans in case he was found out, but it never hurt to be clear.
"Of course. I'll follow them closely and tell you once I found one."
With that, Pando turned around, preparing to leave, but she was stopped right before her first step.
"Wait." Baoba put a hand on her shoulder. The grip was not as controlled as he wanted it to be, prompting an inquisitive look from the scout.
He clearly did not seem to care. He kept talking with a joyless smile and intense eyes. "One more thing. I want to know where the one that kicked me lives."
***
Three days later, at the church. Very, very early.
The sun had just risen, and Baoba was lighting all the hanging lamps inside. And since they worshipped Helio, there were a lot of lamps. A truly redundant amount.
Usually, Baoba would complain through the whole thing, but today, he had something else to do.
With him, two of his colleagues.
"Bob, would you please pass me the key ?" Eric was a simple man, he joined this church to find peace and fullfillment in everyday, menial tasks. He was on the shorter side, so slender he almost looked unhealthy, and wore a warm smile like he always did.
Almost always. In such a long time, Baoba had come to know him better than that.
He responded with a grin. "Sure. If you tell me why you really enrolled."
Eric's smile instantly craked. He obviously still had much to learn from the bishop. "Whatever do you mean ? The only reason anyone can have to enroll is always the same, what else could there be beside serving our Lord ?"
"And you're completely sure it has nothing to do with how you had a crazy fight with your mo-"
"YOU SAID YOU'D STOP BRINGING IT UP !!"
'Clearly a lot more to learn. His iron mask is made of paper at the moment.'
"Can you guys keep it down ? It'd be cool if the dead didn't wake up for once." Alex was on the other side of the main alley, but apparently, the unnecessarily huge distance between them had failed to hide their discussion from the woman. "Also, how come you've got less lit lamps than I do when you're two ? At this rate, it's me who'll end up helping you."
"My bad, my bad. I accidentally talked about Eric's mommy issues again." Baoba replied, right before dogding an attack from his partner.
The partner in question brought down his temper using stellar self control, and managed to smile again as he completed : "It is my fault. I should not have disturbed this house's sacred peace."
"Yeah, you would know about bringing trouble to houses, wouldn't you ?" She teased, right before dodging a sudden projectile. "But more seriously, it would be nice if we finished before noon. Don't know about you guys, but I have plans for the rest of the day."
"Oh ?" Baoba raised an eyebrow "You do ? Miss shut in finally does something ?"
"Well yes, my dear Bob, you see, there is this really nice place I like to call my couch, and this really nice guy called nobody. I have a date with both."
"You're so damn single." Eric had not yet put his paper mask back on.
"What's that ? Are you finally quitting your fake reformed personality ?"
"Maybe if you didn't push me so much, it wouldn't be fake."
"Maybe if you actually had faith you'd be harder to break."
"Maybe if you fixed your face you'd finally get a guy." And now it was his turn to dodge the sudden projectile.
They both shot scathing glares at each other, but the elf intervened before anything more happened.
"So what I'm hearing is none of you have anything planned. How about we go hit the bar after our shifts ? There's this new place that does meals and pastries too."
"I actually didn't say anything about my plans." Eric protested.
"Do you have any plans ?"
"I could go for a drink."
"Great ! I heard they got a great cook !" Baoba was actually relieved.
Not exactly because his proposition got accepted, but because this was a crucial part of the whole operation. That bar had a great cook...
...But that cook had a pretty interesting ring.
"I'm fine with it, but why would you choose a bar when you never drink ? What's up with that, anyway ? Are you secretly a child ?" Said Alex.
At the mention of the word 'secretly', Baoba jumped a little, and his adrenaline spiked again when he realised he had to give an explanation.
"Well... Helio forbids it, after all... Isn't that enough ?" He defended himself, trying his best to do something resembling puppy eyes.
"No."
"For you ? Not even a little."
....
"... That's kinda racist."
Alex rolled her eyes. "Why don't you tell me one day you haven't cursed inside this church."
"Point taken. I guess I just don't like it."
"Right, but then why would you choose a bar of all places ?" She pressed.
Forced to think even more, Baoba found himself forced to do something previously unthinkable... Tell the truth.
"I mean, it's just... I saw the cook the other day, and, uhhh... Just.. wanted to see her again, ok ? That's all."
He then endured the onslaught of his two colleagues for the sake of his nation.
Eric and Alex were actually just two colleagues he happened to have a lot of common shifts with. They had been really useful to blend in better, as well as making the work hours considerably less boring.
He did feel a little bad bringing those two in his shady business. But really, Baoba would never initiate any plan that had any reasonable risks.
For every reasonable risk, there were a hundred unreasonable ones, after all.
He didn't feel like dealing with all that.
Once his two friends had delivered the quota of mockery, they all moved on to general cleaning.
Baoba was dusting an artwork that always brought out some memories.
It depicted a sun above a forest, with a myriad of smaller embers illuminating the trees from within. Above the image, inside the space that would be taken by the sun if it wasn't cut off, an inscription read : "Nihil Supra".
It was the same blason than the one from the very first house they saw, all that time ago. That house that had confused and worried him to no end.
He still didn't have all the pieces to that puzzle. He still didn't know how the residents had know the team was coming, and why they fled. Why it was so far removed from any other forest town was also still a mystery.
But at least now, the blason was clear. It represented Helio, the sun god, and the embers were apparently man, as created by the deity.
According to the scriptures, one day, the sun took pity of a cold, barren ball of ice, and thawed it in his embrace. He discovered that under all the ice was a beautiful place, full of life and landmarks, a marvel of green and blue. He found this earth so magnificent he couldn't bear to admire it alone, and so he created humanity, giving them this new world.
The artwork depicted that moment, the first humans being created from the mighty sun's fire.
Baoba was not convinced. Not only because the whole thing stinked of romanticised history, twisted beyond recognition, but also because of one question : Where did elves come from then ?
According to the myth, after humans spread and started a civilization, the moon, jealous of earth's life, strived to freeze it over again. She started orbiting around it, fighting Helio for control, and brought night with her. She created a new race, using the model of humans, in charge of destroying and killing any human or progress they came by.
That was supposed to be the elves.
Needless to say, it clashed more than a little bit with Baoba's reality.
This was the main reason he and his team had to hide their ears when out. Elves were completely seen as demons by the overzealous populace in this city.
Ironically, specifically in his case, it wasn't entirely sufficient.
There was a large sea west of this cursed forest. And, apparently, humans lived there too. Multiple archipelagoes often traded with the mainland. With the products came islanders. And islanders, because of all the sun in their country, had darker skin.
At the same time, because their civilisations were not on the same scale as that of the mainland -islands oblige- they were often seen as 'less developed'. And development being Helio's holy mission, that branded them as 'basically half elves', and therefore half demons.
In other words, even though the disguise worked perfectly, Baoba's dark skin still framed him as related to elves anyway !
Granted, those ideas were only still carried by the most pious people, and the more dense ones at that. Islanders did not only bring fish, the value of their advancements could be seen at first glance.
It had already been a long time since first contact had been made, most citizens nowadays simply thought of them as tourists.
Still, the image loomed over society like a gloomy veil, and there were always those that just liked to hate...
'Like my new purple friend. 12 front Street, 12 front Street... One day, I'll pay a visit.'
He realised he was clutching his rag a little too hard, and relaxed after exhaling once.
Today, he had something else to do.