Having spent some time wandering the town I've noticed a few things. Most importantly, it seems that guards only patrol the largest streets within the town, and the patrols are few and far between. As long as I don't make noise while one is passing I should have plenty of time to search a building and take what I need, then move on to the next one. I've also found that the best stores are on the largest streets, and they're the only places that have everything I need. Perhaps if I spent a few nights carefully exploring I could find stores in quieter areas of the town, but I want to get everything done in one night. It's a risk, but I'll go for the stores on larger streets.

After a bit of searching one store in particular catches my attention. The store has a large range of items for sale, and from what I can see from the outside I should be able to find most of what I need. Most importantly, one of the windows on the second floor has been left open, so I won't need to risk breaking one to get inside. Less likely to alert the guards. Climbing in through the window I find that the room beyond is cramped, barely large enough to fit a bed with two sleeping humans and a small set of drawers. I doubt anything in here would be particularly useful for me, so I make my way out through the door and down into the shop on the ground floor.

The store proves to have more useful items than I expected. There's many types of food that I'm unfamiliar with, as well as all sorts of new cooking supplies, wax coated cloth for setting up tents, flasks and canteens, even a few bedrolls. I choose a few of the sharpest knives, some preserved food, a bedroll for the elf, some bandages and basic medical supplies, and roll it all up into one of the waxed cloths. While I'm here I take the chance to devour what food I can't carry, idly eating a chunk of dried meat while looking over the spices spread across a shelf. I have the vague notion that they're put on food to make it more flavourful, but none of the ones I taste seem to be anything interesting. Fairly bland, all in all. Perhaps Elvira can show me how to use them properly, I add them to my bundle of goods.

Once I have everything I want and I've eaten the remaining food, I wrap my body around the bundle of supplies and hoist it up on top of myself. On a whim I check the counter, finding a few bags of mostly bronze coins in a drawer. They're useless to me, but maybe the elf can use them if she covers her ears before going into a town. Sure, I could just steal what we need, but perhaps we'll come across stores with enough security that I can't break in. More importantly, they have a ledger and bottle of ink, which I grab for future use. It'll be good to have a reliable way to communicate again, I'll have to take better care of this one.

I decide against going back out through the window, it would probably be fine but if something shifts in the bundle and makes noise I risk waking the humans and being discovered. I'm tempted to just kill and eat them, but killing humans will draw more attention than a robbery. More than likely nothing will come from a few extra guards investigating some disappearances in a city I'm leaving anyways, but they might have some sort of magic to track me... Better not to chance it. Elvira seemed to think that the humans would be interested in the light magic I used on the island, so they may draw a connection between that and the dead townsfolk and put more effort into tracking the killer than usual. The back door of the shop is locked in place with an iron deadbolt, easy to open from the inside. I slip out into the empty alleyway, already casting Black Hand to dig claws into the cracks between the stones that make up the building and pull myself onto the roof. I glance up at the pitch black sky, wondering how long I have before sunrise. It shouldn't even be midnight yet, not that I have any way to tell for sure. I probably have time to search a few more stores.

I move to the second store that has taken my interest, a butcher's shop, and leave my bundle on the roof to return to once I'm done within. Single story this time, no room for humans to be living inside, but it also doesn't have any open windows. There aren't any windows at all besides the ones facing the street, and I can't break those without the guards noticing fairly soon. Luckily, there's a small gap at the bottom of the back door, not enough for me to squeeze through but enough that I can slip one of my tendrils in and open the deadbolt. Past a small storage room there's a large iron door that feels cold to the touch, luckily it's unlocked and easy enough to open. Beyond it I find a room filled with animal carcasses hanging from the ceiling, a wall of shelves to one side bearing small paper packages. The inside of the metal door is covered with frost, as are the floor and walls. A large blue crystal in the center of the room leaks a thin mist, seemingly the source of the unnatural cold. It looks like none of the meat has been preserved in any way, so it won't be worth carrying back to the elf. However, that doesn't mean I'll let it go to waste, I have enough spare time to devour everything in the room.

The animals have already been skinned, their heads and organs removed. Most of the corpses are a large quadruped that I'm unfamiliar with, but I notice a wolf hanging to one side, and an assortment of birds and rabbits hanging closer to the ceiling. The unknown animals are tasty, fattier than anything else I've eaten so far. The wolf is disappointing, the last one I ate was much better. I wonder if this one is a different subspecies? Maybe it was just a bit scrawny and weak, that would explain why it's hanging in a butcher's freezer. The birds and rabbits aren't noteworthy, neither good nor bad. I quickly find that the paper packages on the shelf are filled with more cuts of meat, portioned out and set aside to be sold. I eat all of them as well. It takes a few hours of precious time, but by the time I'm done I've grown considerably. If I wrap my tendrils into a ball I'm easily as tall as Elvira and just as wide. It'll be harder to hide like this, but I'm probably going to need to fight sometime soon so it's worth the tradeoff. Even having eaten all the meat I'm not leaving empty handed, I find some high quality butcher's knives. They look like they should be sharp enough to cut through bone with a bit of force.

Having found everything I want I leave through the back door, leaving it open behind me. I grab my pack from the roof, quickly shove my new set of knives into it, and make my way to the third store that I want to visit, sparing a glance for slightest bit of light beginning to appear in the east. I'll have to be quick about this one. The last store for me to visit is a small weapons shop in a back alley. It isn't anything special, it sells swords, spears, shields, everything you'd expect from a weapon shop. The weapons don't even look particularly good. However, something about it feels special. It almost feels similar to the church of Yehma that I visited earlier, though the effect is much weaker. Whatever it is, it's worth checking out.

The building is unusually secure. There are no gaps around the back door, the windows have bars on them, and anything that can be locked is at least twice over. However, it's a mild annoyance to me at best. After a quick look around I can't see any humans in the nearby stores nor the one I want to get into, so I simply break one of the back windows and slip between the bars. While my mass has increased quite a bit the vast majority of it is in thin tendrils, so bars don't pose much of an obstacle for me.

Inside I find... Nothing. Swords, shields, spears, bows, nothing particularly catches my eye. While I'm here I grab a bow, quiver of arrows, and a short sword for the elf, but it's more of an afterthought than anything. The storefront has nothing interesting, the back has nothing, the second floor has nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing. But I can still feel that there's something here. When I'm on the verge of deciding to leave I notice a small bump under a carpet in the back store room of the weapons shop. Pulling aside the carpet I find a trapdoor with an iron rung, little bits of black mist flowing through the cracks. Yanking it open I find a short ladder leading into a crawlspace filled with pitch black mist, thick enough that I can barely see through it.

The basement, it turns out, has a small altar in it. Unlike the one in the church this one is pitch black, a slab of bloody meat sitting upon it. I note that the meat has tiny, needle like teeth marks on it, small chunks missing in random areas. As I watch another bite appears on it, tearing away a tiny portion of meat that sinks into the altar, quickly disappearing from view. Something tells me that I should leave the meat where it belongs, nothing good will come from stealing it off the altar. The tiny room has no light sources within it, the black mist that I noticed earlier emanates from the altar and blocks out what little light would come from the open trapdoor.

Receiving Divine Oracle, Please Remain Within Place Of Power

...

#y ch!ld. Y0u h@v3 sp0k3n w!*h #y s!s*3r. !f y0u d0 @s sh3 s@ys f0r n0w, ! w!ll #33t y0u !n Luc3t @s w3-¹My child. You have spoken with my sister. If you do as she says for now, I will meet you in Lucet as we-

The voice is strangely distorted, distant, almost incomprehensible. As it speaks the meat is shredded, ripped apart in moments. As the last morsel disappears into the altar the voice suddenly cuts off, as if a door has been slammed closed between me and it. It was difficult to make out, and it's the first time I've heard that voice, but I know exactly who it is. Thrane, goddess of darkness, seems to have at least one follower in this city willing to leave her offerings.

I grab a chunk of dried meat from my pack I left outside, taking a glance at the brightening horizon. I'll have to leave after this, or else it'll be bright enough that I'll have trouble sneaking out of the city. Hopefully the bit of medicine I picked up from the general store is enough, no chance to get more. Back in the basement of the store I place the dried meat on the altar. A small bite is ripped from the meat, but it seems Thrane has nothing more to say to me. Yehma at the very least gave me a gift, but I have to admit that I like the fact that the goddess of darkness isn't trying to give orders. All the more reason to go to Lucet and see what the two goddesses have to offer. I have lots to think about as I make my way out of the town, slipping past the guards while I still have the cover of darkness.