We lined up in the row to enter Agalam. Carriages had a separate line to enter, and we were lucky since there were only three carriages in front of us. It still took us fifteen minutes to roll through the gate.

“Papers!”

A guard outside asked the driver for the papers. I heard some sounds from the driver's bench, followed by some words from our driver.

“Here, Sir.”

He spoke very politely with the guard. It became silent for a moment before the guard spoke again,

“Go straight through the gate and stop in front of the second booth on the left side. The team will wave you in to control the carriage of illegal content.”

 After the guard’s words started the carriage to roll again, only to stop a brief moment later. We waited a few minutes until someone talked to the driver again.

“Good day, could our dear guests leave the carriage?”

Sieggald signalled us to follow the guard’s order. He was the first to go out of the carriage¹Lady's first?, followed by Savia, then me, and at last A-vol. We stood in a line and waited for the guard to continue to speak, but he kept staring at A-vol for a moment.

“Ahem! You all can sit down at the benches on the side.”

The guard fake cleared his throat and pointed at some benches at the entrance of the booth. We looked at each other and nodded in agreement without many words. All of us sat down and viewing how our driver drove the carriage into the booth before coming over to us.

“We don’t have much storage space, so it should be over in a few minutes.”

The driver was optimistically, but Sieggald didn’t look so happy. We saw how a group of five guards checked every single bit of the carriage, but the guard who spoke to us wasn’t among them.

“We're done and just await the return of our leader to let you pass.”

One of the guards came over and explained the current situation.

“Th-”

The driver wanted to thank him, when Sieggald interrupted the driver in the middle of his first word.

“Where does a leader go at this kind of hour? Shouldn’t he supervise you?”

The guard got a perplexed expression. He looked over to his comrades and waved to them. When they saw his reaction, they slowly came to us while laughing and joking around.

“What’s wrong?”

One of the guards spoke to the guard who already stood by us. The first guard leaned over to the other one and started to whisper into his ear,

“The young man in the light armor asked where our leader went in the middle of working hours.”

Human could never hear this words, but neither A-vol, Savia nor me were humans. His words sounded so clear as if he spoke to me. The other guard answered the same way.

“Do you think, they belong to an investigation group?”

An investigation group? Something is fishy about them?

The talk of the guards were interrupted when the guard leader returned and already shouted at them from the distance,

“Everything clear?”

The guards paused for a moment, and one of them answered.

“Yes, Sir!”

The leader was satisfied and turned to us.

“You heard it, welcome in Agalam. If you plan to stay overnight, some inns in the west district have booths for carriages and horses.”

Sieggald reminded silent, and the driver took his chance to speak.

“Thank you very much. I’ll remember this valuable information.”

None of us had more to say, so we entered the carriage and left the guard station. We barely left the guard station, when Sieggald opened the carriage’s front window.

“We’re going to my usual inn in the north district!”

The driver nodded but had a questioning face.

“Why don’t we follow the guard leader's advice and take an inn in the west district?”

Savia hold her laughter back while asking jokingly. Sieggald wasn’t fond of it and rolled with his eyes.

“If you want to get robbed or killed in the middle of the night, then maybe, I’ll be going to consider it the next time.”

Sieggald’s words showed that he knew more than I expected, but his words also signalled that he didn’t want to go into the details. His words alone gave a mood off, that said, “I don’t want to talk.”

Savia laughed, but A-vol or me couldn’t because neither of us found it funny. The carriage rolled through the streets, and it took us roughly around ten minutes to arrive at Sieggald's usual Inn, called Milky Mouth.

“What a weird name.”

Savia spoke her thoughts out loud, but neither of us answered her, since the driver opened the front window and started to talk to Sieggald.

“Should I announce your arrival, Sir?”

Sieggald answered in an instance,

“No need, just drive the carriage to the usual place.” 

His mood didn’t improve since we departed from the gate, so his voice sounded somehow pessimistic. We heard how the driver went down from his driver seat and opening the door for us. Sieggald was the first to jump up and leaving the carriage²Again? Ok, joke as side, it is true that "Lady's first" goes with doors, but not with carriages. By carriages, the gentleman will leave first and help the Lady to go out. You ask why I wrote this useless footnote? Because I can. before the rest of us followed him. 

“Armon, you can drive.”

The driver closed the door behind us and went up on his seat. Not even a minute later, the carriage disappeared after driving right  at a near crossroad.

“Come, let’s go in.”

Sieggald waved with his hands to lead us into the Inn. Right before his hand reached the door handle, Savia touched his shoulder and stopped him from opening it.

“You stood silent all the time and keeps secrets from us.”

Her voice was emotionless and monotone. Everything she said was like a spear piercing through his chest. It was a critical hit. He grasped for air and tried to answer, but the only words that came out of his mouth were, “I can’t.”

He turned his face away and opened the door. Savia didn’t stop him this time and stopped to questioning. We followed Sieggald into the Inn, and I heard how he spoke with someone, but I couldn’t hear what he said since A-vol spoke with telepathy to me.

“He fears it.”

I nodded in agreement. Next, we changed our attention to Sieggald and the rogue looking man behind the counter. While they both were still speaking, I used the chance and looked around. On the left was an open double sized door, and I could see a dinning room. On the end of the corridor was the stair way to the upper and lower floors. The counter was on the right side of the hallway and behind it was one door and another door was a little further right before the stairs.

“Welcome everyone. Friends of Sieggald are my friends as well.”

The rogue man talked to us, after the talk between him and Sieggald came to an end.

“Here are the keys. Your rooms are on the third floor.”

He placed the keys on the counter and looked in everyone's face. Even, after looking at A-vol, he didn’t do a weird comment or stare at him.

“Silvia guide our new guests to their rooms.”

The man opened the door behind him and talked to a person inside the room. A brief moment later, entered a woman in the hallway and looked at us.

“Oh, hello, and welcome.”

She froze the moment she saw A-vol, and I could see how her whole body became stiff.

“W-w-why is there a beast?”

Her weak voice leaked and exposed her thoughts.

“Who are you calling a beast?”

Savia had an angry tone in her voice, but even before the woman could answer, spoke A-vol via telepathy to us.

“Your Landlord didn’t say anything while looking at me.”

Silvia went silent, before she started to guide us upstairs. The Man stopped Sieggald, who was in the rear.

“Sieggald, we need to talk.”

He pointed towards the room next to the stairs.

“Ok.”

He went with the man and left us behind to inspect the rooms.

Silvia guided us to two doors on the third floor, with the room numbers 3.04 and 3.05.

“Here are the keys, please take care of your belongings and won’t leave them behind when you check out.”

I took the keys and opened the first door for A-vol before unlocking the door for Savia and me. Both of us looked into the room and listened to Silvia’s explanation.

“If you didn’t see it, the dinning room is on the first floor. It’s the door on the opposite of the reception desk. In every room is a Toilet, but no bath. Unfortunately, our inn don’t have a bath, but the bathhouse a little further the street is free for our guests, just show the keychain at the entrance.”

She made a short break and said her final sentence to finish her speak.

“Does someone have any questions?”

A-vol didn’t have any interest in her words, and Savia was already checking the bed out, so everything depended on me.

“No, currently not, but I’ll ask later if some questions coming up.”

She nodded and turned around, leaving us alone.

 

=== Backroom of the inn, POV third-person ===

 

Sieggald and the man sat down around a table in the backroom and looked in each other's eyes. It was the man who started to talk first.

“It has been months since the last time we saw each other. How have you been? How are the circumstance with the rest of the family?”

Gustaf, the man next to Sieggald and the inn's owner, wasn’t just small talking with Sieggald. They knew each other for years, since their childhood to be precision. But there weren’t just friends…

“Brother, I know. I wish, we could see each other far more often, but father wouldn’t allow any meetings.”

Gustaf was Sieggald’s older half brother, born from a lowborn maid, but he was still older and on the paper the official heir of the noble title. Even so, their father never acknowledge him and let him work as if he was some servant. He left the family some years ago, and their father thought the two brothers will estrange over time, but in contrary happen.

“Our situation is complicated, and I hope you can help us out.”

Sieggald showed is brother a bright smile.

“Oh, man.”

Gustaf made a facepalm while rolling his eyes.

“One of these ladies is your fiancé, right? These sisters look like nobles, but their clothes don’t show their social ranks.”

He joked happily about Sieggald, which left Sieggald speechless. He quickly gained his composure back and answered.

“It! It is not like this! Everything is on Father’s order. I escort this two to the capital city and have an object for a research facility with me. Well, don’t take the word escort not too serious because these two are far stronger than me.”

Gustaf’s mood changed suddenly while Sieggald still spoke. Just when Sieggald finished speaking, started Gustaf to speak.

“You met them at the gate, right?”

They looked in each other's eyes with a firm gaze.

“Yes. It seems as if they didn’t catch everyone last year. How can some of them still work as guards.”

Both nodded in agreement.

“But something is weird. You see, in the last nine months nothing happen, and now they are doing the same fraud? Maybe these guys are really just copycats.”

After they discuss a bit longer with no answer, changed their topic to some lighter stuff.

“How have you been? Is everything fine?”

Sieggald started to ask some random questions to let the last topic behind them.

“Well, these questions are unexpected. Should I answer? You see, I started to work alongside because the city’s atmosphere changed over the past year and fewer tourists and merchants are coming.”

Gustaf made a disappointed face and sighed loudly before continuing.

“I’m exhausted, and a break isn’t even in sight. You don’t know how happy I am to see you in good health.”

He patted Sieggald’s shoulders and grinned faintly.

“Wait! You said you’re on the way to the capital, right?”

Gustaf’s mood changed again, and he seemed to remember something. Not waiting for an answer started Gustaf to search for something.

“Where is it… Where… Ah!”

He found what he looked for inside the closet. In his hands were a wooden wand with an unconventional design.

“This is fro-”

“Psst! Don’t talk about it, just take it and bring it to the capital.”

Gustaf interrupted Sieggald and warned him. His guessing had to be right, what would explain Gustaf’s worries.³Let me guess, this part with Sieggald and Gustaf confused you more than solving some questions? Than let me say, I did a great job. :D

 

=== The next morning, Inn’s third floor, POV Siana ===

 

“What’s up?”

I just left my room and saw Sieggald sitting on one of the stairs. He gave me a faint gaze before turning back to the object in his hands. His body covered the object from my view point, so I sat down next to him and looked over. The object was a rather small wand, just a bit longer than my forearm.

“A gift?”

He didn’t answer my question and started to talk about something else.

“I couldn’t sleep last night. I talked until late at night with Gustaf, this inn’s owner. He wants me to deliver this wand to the capital city…”

First up, I looked into Sieggald’s face, he had thick dark circles around his eyes.

“May I?”

I stretched my hand out and asked for the wand. He looked perplexed, but gave in and lay the rod into my hand.

I raised the wand and looked into the detailed work on it. Some parts were unusual for a magic wand, like the ones I know from the games.

What is so special about it?

I transferred some magic into the wand and felt immediately an unfamiliar and powerful presence within the wand, even though there wasn’t a magic stone installed. I thought, for a while, if there were any similar things in SW⁴When you for got the name of the game, SW = Styx World and not Star Wars, but I couldn't remember one.

“Here you go.”

I gave the wand back to Sieggald and stood up. He looked up at me, and I waved to him that I’ll be leaving now.

“Take care.”

He spoke quietly and lowered his gaze again.

I left the inn and toured through the district of the inn's location. The northern district from Agalam was the commercial district, almost every building had a store in the first floor, or some in the basement.

“Excuse me.”

A weak voice of a kid sounded right from behind me.

How could a child sneak up to me?

I had a bad feeling about it and turned slowly around. The black hair and black eyes of the kidlike person gave me a chill, but its presence made me certain, that this person wasn’t a human child.

“A daemon⁵*AfterwardsN: Demon changed to Daemon* I know, demons, wow, the main stream evil race appeared. Actually, I never intend to bring demons into this story, but I kind of for got the other name from the Greek mythology. So please, don't think of this none generic evil beings from other stories, but more of something like physical spirits.?”

The daemon's face turned dark, and a murderous intent came from it.

“Are you a daemon hunter?”

We both were talking in a low voice that none of the passing people could hear us.

 “Do I look this way?”

I let some of my magic leak from the tip of my fingers. The child's eyes widened before they started to shine.

“I was right!”

It pulled something out of its bag and gave it to me. It was a piece of paper with a message on it, but when I wanted to read its content, stopped the daemon me.

“Not here, not now!”

Without any further words, disappeared the daemon between the crowd. I stared a while after it before turning around and heading back to the inn.

What is a daemon doing here?

I had some questions for the daemon, but I had to wait for the next time we’ll meet.