The three of us made our way to the northern gate. I walked in the back, still invisible as the orc lead us.
Arriving at the town, our group was greeted by a few guards all dressed in black armour.
“Torg, who is this girl?” One of the guards asked, his voice muffled by his helm.
“Just a human girl who’s merchant caravan was attacked. I’m escorting her back to the city.”
The guard turned towards Elaina. “Miss, are you a resident here?”
Elaina shook her head. “No, I’m not.”
“Then it will be one silver to enter, unless you have a pass.”
Elaina fumbled with her belt and handed over a single silver coin. Fortunately, she had the pouch from the previous owner of her body. The elf was actually quite rich, a silver coin was nothing to her.
“Well, I’ll be heading back now. Still got work to do,” Torg grumbled as he waved as farewell.
“Do you know a place to stay the night?” Elaina asked the guard at the gate after thanking Torg.
“I assume you’ve never been to Red Peak if you’re asking that.” After not getting a response he continued, “This town does not have many permanent residents, but instead acts as a way point for people heading to the southern continent or those hunting in the mountains. There are plenty of inns here. While a little on the expensive side, the Golden Swan is probably one of the safest inns in town for humans, especially young human woman. It’s just down the main road.”
Elaina handed him an extra silver for the advice and passed through the gates. I myself slipped in after her, still invisible. No one suspected a thing and I got in for free.
After entering the town, Elaina continued down the main street to the inn. I went up and snaked my arm around hers so I wouldn’t lose her.
“Where are we going?” I whispered. She jumped a little at my voice.
“To the inn he talked about. Now keep quite. People are looking for you.”
After being reprimanded, I no longer spoke again. Her words made sense though. Since those three guards were searching for me, Lilith had probably already sent out orders to capture me. Or maybe it was Invidia as this was her territory. Instead of chatting with Elaina, I instead started studying our surroundings.
The town itself was quite lively. Many people walked to and fro across the street and into the shops that littered the sides. Some of them were dressed up in leather or steel armour, and many people were wearing a weapon of some kind on their back or waist. The few that stood out were the guards dressed in their imposing black armour.
Most of the people here were either orcs or some type of demon. However, there were other races such as humans, some lizardmen and even a few elves with grey skin colour. Drow? I even saw a minotaur walking about with a massive warhammer strapped to his back.
In fact, there were more races here than at the auction or the banquet that I had been to previously. Even Lilith’s harem wasn’t as diverse as this town. Was it because it acted as a border to the southern continent?
Many of the men were giving Elaina disturbing looks and some didn’t even bother to hide their intentions. I was personally quite creeped out but Elaina didn’t show anything as she walked past them. At the very least, none of them tried anything in broad daylight, probably because of the presence of the guards.
After a minute or two of walking down the crowded street, we eventually arrived at our destination. A three-storied wooden building that looked recently built, at least compared to some of the other more worn down shops. A large sign with the words ‘Golden Swan’ painted in gold hung above the doorway.
The inside of the inn was also quite cozy. I noticed many of the staff and guests were human. Perhaps this was an inn for humans?
After Elaina paid for a room, I followed her to our room on the second floor.
The room was small with only a single, small bed. There was also a desk and wardrobe present, as well as a window to bring the sunlight in. Had Elaina only paid for a one person room?
I removed the invisibility bracelet after Elaina closed the drapes of the window, shutting off the outside world.
“What should we do now?” I asked, still not quite sure how to proceed.
Our main objective should be to cross the mountains. But that was easier said than done. I wasn;t the best at coming up with a plan so I could only depend on Elaina.
“You stay here while I go explore the town.”
“But I want to walk around too. I can wear the invisibility bracelet.”
“Too dangerous. Remember, they’re hunting for you specifically. While they’re also looking for me, it seems I’m more of an extra right now. Besides, I can take the invisibility bracelet for myself if you don’t come along.”
“Fine,” I grumbled as I passed her the bracelet. Her words made sense, but I still wanted to have a look around. Staying in this room reminded me too much of my time being a slave.
“Here, you take this.” She tossed me the book about magic on her way out. “You can try to figure a little bit of it when I’m out. Now that you have [Light Magic], maybe it can help.”
I smiled. “Okay, I’ll do my best.”
There was paper and a pen on the desk at the side of the room. As I sat down and began to read, I realized that this was going to be a lot more work than I thought. While I knew the letters, I didn’t know most of the words. Only one word in five was understandable, the rest complete gibberish.
I sighed. Hopefully Elaina was making out better than me.
A PoV of Lilith or Invidia would be interresting in my opinion :D
For Lilith on how her plan failed while losing Kitty and Invidia on how she deals with a provoked Lilith by losing one if her toys.
Did the plan actually fail though?
Tbh I'm struggling to think of a reason for Lilith to have given Kitty to Invidia except to have the two (probable) aspects meet up - and then what? Take Kitty back? Then why disguise it as a kidnapping?
The one thing I can think of is maybe Lilith was going to fake save Kitty to gain her loyalty without reliance on fear/the obedience trait?
Hm, so yeah a Lilith PoV would be very interesting to get!
Who said her plan failed? Wrath could be allied with her, or merely paid off to act her part. The plan could have been hatched after she started to suspect that Kitty was an apostle, and the invisibility bracelet could have been intentionally left to begin with. The whole point may be for the Kitty to grow and come into their aspect and actual power, It could have a more benevolent, calculating intent on Lust's part, to try to cultivate an apostle that isn't hostile to demons. After all, Lust doesn't seem truly evil, lascivious yes, but not evil, and what a better way of turning an apostle than making them live amongst demons in their natural habitat? There could be other motivations as well, who knows?
I actually took it in a way that Lilith planned this kidnapping to have a justified reason to get access to Elaina, she realy wanted but couldnt get her due to Invidia outbidding Lilith.
She lusts after all sorts of slaves and its etablished that you antagonize the Demon lord of lust by messing with her toys.
So i doubt the escape is planned due to her not knowing Elaina had already a way to do so, aswell as Wrath working for/with her as that little bugger knew that both are Heroic aspects while Lilith herself was only guessing that Kitty was one. I also believe right now that Wrath does help in the escape to get back at Pride... who survived that long due to having heroes die early on. What her game and motivations are, i dont know and only guess but her nicknaming Pride might be a jab at him. Maybe he killed her Village or something and she became Wrath out of hate for him?
@KaiKai
I doubt it, if only because Lilith seems to somewhat treasure Kitty, and putting her directly in uncontrollable harms way seems a bit out of character. However, she may intentionally be acting against her feelings because she noticed Kitty's latent love aura.
@Cookiesndip
Got to agree with that, Lilith noted how uncharacteristic it is for her Sister to have a semblance of care for someone while recognizing she herself is also affected. Wasnt it at that point she theorized that Kitty might be a Hero/abnormal? And thus trying to counter that by using Kitty as a tool?
We are speaking about „Demons" so i assume normal emotions like care or love are uncharted territory for them.
Edit: is it truly uncontrollable though? Lust assumed Envy would do something to gather cards to play against or atleast fck with her, like she already did at the auction due to the envy of Liliths beauty. Taking advantage of that and planting a reason for a false flag attack to finally get what she herself wants but couldnt? Makes some sense to me and i guess Lust assumed and banked on the fact that the weaker Envy doesnt want to escalate it with her thus atleast taking care of the kidnapped kitty.
@KaiKai for all we know Wrath could have once been one of the heroes