The carriage continued into the town eventually coming to a stop outside a Lage inn with a stable to one side, the owner got off the carriage front unstably almost tripping over himself, he walked around opening the side door and speaking.
"This is birch town, sorry we arrived so late, I must have miscalculated the distance, well" he started coughing lightly, struggling to continue "tomorrow we'll depart from the eastmost gate, you can look around the town, for the time being, I've rented some rooms in this inn, the price was included in your payment, just meet up at eight AM tomorrow." after coughing one more time he hobbled away, this job really wasn't suited for the elderly.
After the owner left a young man came out from the inn asking us politely, to leave the carriage so he could take the horses around to the stable.
After leaving the six of us went our separate ways with keys to our rooms in hand, I set off aimlessly wandering through the streets vividly aware of the man tailing me, honestly, he was at best an armature, even Paulson had almost noticed him.
Walking around I found something interesting being sold by the side of the street, it was a small amber with a plant inside it, the amber was a clear yellow colour masking the white petals of the flower that opened into a star shape, I recognised it, it was from the same sequence in compendium as the plant I'm searching for, it was of a species said to be extinct, the starry-eyed lily, it gained this moniker from the seeds that hang from the end of its petals, and their deep abysmal black colour, during the day, but at night it lights up coating its seeds with a speckling of white dots.
The seller was a child around my age with brown eyes and black hair she was caked in dirt and other filth, the flower wasn't the only thing she was selling, around it on a dusty red blanket were various other stones and minerals.
Noticing me staring at the amber she sighed reluctantly, "that's an amber me thinks, I'll sell it Ya for a silver or two, ma says it's worth more than, but no one ever wants it if it's higher than half a silver." the exchange was easy, I found bartering to be useful as I managed to buy it for a silver and a half, thousands of times lower than the value of the flower, even before its extinction. With the right equipment, It might even be possible to rejuvenate the seeds, making this specimen invaluable.
Upon receiving the amber, I stowed it away in the same holster holding the artifact, the sky darkened as the sun started to set in the distance, The suns setting dyed the clouds of the horizon a vivid dusty golden.
As night encroached people could be seen less frequently as stands, vendors and markets started closing for the day, and the only traffic was people having dinner in the few dining arias, essentially restaurants but more exclusive.
I reached the inn in relative darkness, the man stalking me left after I entered properly to report to his boss, or whatever that man's standing was. Inside the inn I went to the dining room requesting some dinner, I was served quiche and potatoes on a carved wooden plate, with a mug of water and bread on the side. After eating, paying, and thanking the chef I was escorted to my room where I sat at the old wooden desk, waiting patiently.
Hours passed before the window to my second-story room was lifted from the outside, the room was pitch black as the second the chip reported the intended intrusion, I put out the oil lamp, its scent could still be caught drifting in the room, but I doubt the intruder would notice or care.
The intruder crept up on me, cloth in hand ready to administer the narcotic soaked into it, but before he could I jumped up startling him into involuntarily taking a step backwards, he stumbled tripping over himself and crashing onto the rugged floor.
"WA- what" he muttered, disbelief evident in his voice however, before I could get to him, he regained his baring scuttled across the floor to escape, running after him I thew a punch at his appendix, he rolled dogging, we exchanged a few more blows before he got off the floor unsheathing a blade from his side, it was a large cross blade.
The sword was too long for the narrow confinements of the room, catching on the ceiling after he raised it, intending to use the blunt side to bludgeon me, in this moment of weakness I grabbed at the dagger stored on my back swinging it at his thigh.
Blood fountained as he fell to his knee howling, he was too loud, someone was going to notice, with no other choice I ended it, my dagger berried in his heart. It was unfortunate that I couldn't get any info from him, like where he learnt about me from or who else here knows, but my mind is more preoccupied with the shock. Why was it so easy to take a life, shouldn't It be harder, shouldn't I be walking away with at least a little bruising.
Outside I could hear clamouring as someone shouted "ai it sounds like a fight broke out." someone else followed "that scream sounded miserable, I hope their okay" before long a member of the inn's crew, the security officer went from door to door looking for the cause of the commotion.
Strangely when he reached my door and started knocking, I felt myself calm down, and the erratic thoughts faded causing my panic to subside, I remembered, I rented this room and this man is the intruder, the law can't touch me, depending on the position of this man, thinking about it I scurried over to the corpse scaring its face, I felt myself on the precipitous of throwing up, but I held it in.
the knocking at the door escalated as I started hearing the guard shout, "I don't know who you are, but if you don't come out now, I'll beat you half to death, this is a serious matter, and I smell blood from your room."