{-Kaylin-}

  “Is this our last stop?” She gave a look at their surroundings—a small cabin that could just barely be considered in the suburbs of the capital. She’d find it a lot more unsettling, but there were plenty of other places nearby that made it just a bit better.

  Seldir glanced back into the wagon, and Lyrei and Noa both nodded. He turned his attention back to Kaylin and said, “Seems like it. About time, too—I can tell these horses are tired and we’ve got to get them and the wagon back before it gets too dark.”

  After tugging the reins and forcing the horses to a stop, he slid off his side of the box seat. He tied the horses to a nearby tree, then walked around to help Kaylin down.

  “Can one of you pass me the box?” he called into the wagon. “I’m not going to make you guys get out for this one. It’s pretty cold and I expect this to be quick.”

  The thin covering of the wagon parted to reveal Lyrei’s hands and the box. “That’s good to hear, because I’m already freezing, and I wasn’t gonna leave anyway.”

  “Not that it’s a whole lot warmer in here…” Noa’s voice mumbled.

  Seldir took the box, then he and Kaylin went up to the front door.

  Since he had his hands full, she was the one to knock on it. “Hello? We’ve got a delivery for you. A merchant asked us to bring it here in his stead.”

  There wasn’t an answer.

  “We’ll leave it out here for you,” Seldir called. He sat the box down and was about to turn away again.

  “I… think we should wait for a little bit.”

  He glanced back at her. “We’ve left a couple of other stuff by the doors of people before. Whoever this belongs to probably just isn’t home right now. We don’t have to wait to deliver it to them in person.”

  But she knew that her hesitation was obvious.

  “Do you think something’s weird about this?” he prompted. “Is that what this is about..?”

  “I don’t know. I want to say that I have a clear idea of what I think is wrong, but I just think that something is. I know it sounds ridiculous, and there’s probably not even a reason behind it, but…”

  “Well, you wanted us to trust you. And now seems like a good time to show you that I’m not going to just say that was an empty promise.”

  She managed a small smile. “Thank you. Could you wait right here, or a little bit closer to the others? I just want to have a quick look around, see if there’s any reason for concern. If there is, I’ll call you over, if there’s not, then we can just head back.”

  “Seems fair to me.”

  Once he’d gone a little bit away—enough that she was almost certain that he wouldn’t be noticed by anyone living there, if not just to keep them from being concerned—she carefully started walking around. She tried to peer through one of the windows, but the curtains were drawn. No matter how normal it was supposed to be, it still felt… strange. So she kept trying different windows, or attempting to find anything that could confirm or deny her suspicions in the yard.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  And after she’d nearly made a full circle around the house, she found a window that didn’t have the curtains completely drawn. There was just a slim view of the home from there, and what she saw…

  Well, it made her pretty certain she’d made the right decision.

  Kaylin went back to the door and, cautiously, tried the doorknob. She both was and was not surprised to find that the door wasn’t locked—in fact, it didn’t even need so much as a light push to get it open.

  Right before she walked in, though, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

  “I was okay with you looking around outside,” Seldir remarked. “I don’t know about going inside, though. I’m pretty sure someone still lives here, and I doubt anyone’s going to be happy if we snoop around in there.”

  “Could you just… give me a minute? I’m almost certain this place isn’t as innocent as it looks. I just need one more quick look to make sure of that.”

  “I’ll let you go if you’ll be able to point something out to me.”

  She gestured towards the window that she had been able to look through, and waited for him to go over and see what was on the other side. “Don’t those sketches seem a little familiar to you? We’ve seen them before, when we were in Kositeia. That cabin we had visited with Xarena. Do you remember them?”

  “The one that ended up having something to do with what Dhymos was doing..? You think this place has some kind of connection like that, too?”

  “That’s what I want to make sure.”

  She hoped that, with her reasoning stated, he would be able to agree to let her go in. But instead, he walked back over and pulled her away from the door.

  “Come on,” he sighed. “We can look at it later, but it’s going to be dark soon and it’s already cold. I’m pretty sure Lyrei and Noa are freezing already, we don’t really need a distraction.”

  “It won’t be a distraction. It’s trying to learn what we can to make sure that we’re not caught off guard.”

  “But it’ll still be here tomorrow. I don’t want to be out here any longer than we have to, especially since we have a job to complete.”

  She hesitated, but she had to acknowledge that he had a point. So she nodded. “I… I should’ve thought about that. Sorry.”

  “You don’t need to apologize. It’s just going to be better if we go now and come back later.”

  “Right.”

  “Let’s get going. I think we deserve something nice and warm to eat. We’ve had a long day.”

  Somehow, she managed a smile. “Yeah…”

  …

  They came up with some semblance of a plan that… honestly, it amounted to “try to see what could be found, but don’t spend any longer there than necessary.” Kaylin wasn’t against the idea, really; it was what they had to do, and she really didn’t want to get them into more danger than they already were. But she couldn’t help but feel like it was going to be a little bit more than just a quick in and out…

  While they were talking about it, she made a suggestion that she thought might’ve made her feel a bit better. “Just Seldir and I can go. Lyrei and Noa can work with something inside of the city while we investigate.” Knowing that splitting up generally wouldn’t be too appealing, though, she went to explain herself. “We don’t know for sure what they might have in there, or how they’re going to react to having us wandering around.”

  She expected opposition; she knew that it was far from an ideal situation, and she thought that they would be clear in expressing that. But instead, they were quiet. And she felt like that was worse.

  “We have too much to do to just keep focusing on one thing,” Seldir remarked. “We’d be more efficient if we split up.”

  Rennyn nodded. “As long as both groups stay careful, it shouldn’t be a problem. Maybe…”

  “We’ll be sure to pay attention!” Lyrei offered. “And we’ll also make sure we can do everything we can to help, even if we’re not out uncovering anything.”

  “Mhm.” Noa was probably just barely able to manage his reassuring smile. “Then we can all meet back up here at the end of the day.”

  Kaylin stood up. “That sounds perfect, thank you all for agreeing. Shall we get going, then?”