"Name and identifications, please." The guard at the city gates asked as the group got to the beginning of the line for inspections. Without going through this line, nobody was allowed to enter the city, but that didn't necessarily mean that every single person in the city needed to go through inspections...
"Armari. Sirius, Leston, and Patricia Armari. As for identification... here." Reese announced their fake name before discreetly handing the guard a bribe. They were entering the city in two groups. They would meet up with the other gryphons once they got to their inn.
Doma had already broken off from the group, citing that he wasn't very good with large groups of people, and honestly it was the right thing to do. While gryphons and vampires looked indistinguishable from humans, drakes stood out quite a bit in normal cities. There was a fairly high chance that he'd have gotten recognized if he'd entered, and it wasn't worth the risk.
Luckily, in far-off cities like this one, 'corruption' was a fairly widespread thing. Nobody actually liked paying stupidly huge taxes and putting up with dumb, selfish rules and regulations, after all. The guard understood their intent immediately, letting them by without a fuss. It didn't matter to someone like that whether they were part of the resistance or part of the king's Fraeguard... money was money.
"Welcome to Griffinkiller city!" Reese opened his arms theatrically before welcoming the two of them into the city. The irony behind the name was not lost on Adrian, since it was pretty common for Gryphons to stop here on their way to Gryvus.
A city built for the express purpose of mounting an invasion into the Griffin Mountain Range, used as a sort of way-station for gryphons.
They passed by a flier of Rosy's face on their way to the inn. The picture on it was, as usual, one of Rosy's princess pictures, but this time there was red paint splayed below it. "WANTED TRAITOR"
"Looks like you're officially a criminal now, huh?" Adrian noted, discreetly pointing Rosy's attention towards the picture. Lowering her hood a bit, she shrugged.
"I've been attacked in almost every single city I've ever been to. It's not like anything's changed." She muttered. Though her voice wasn't actually loud enough to carry all the way to his ears, Adrian could understand what she was saying. It was a new development of their bond.
They still couldn't use telepathy, but they could direct the other's attention without words, and hear each other from further distances than normal, as well as read deeper into the other's sentences than they should have. If their bond kept evolving, telepathy wasn't an impossibility, though.
"Do you think anyone's going to recognize you here?" He asked. Though her vampire instincts still affected her personality to some extent, even without the bloodlust, the rage that came from the constant need had still permanently stayed on her face to some extent while she was in the field.
Her bloodlust when she was prepared for a fight was far higher than it was back in her castle in Noctus. As a result, her expression was closer to the portrait right now than it had been in the past. Her disguise wasn't as effective, in other words.
"Even if they do, this place is made for people who think they're strong enough to find glory by climbing Griffin Mountain to attack Gryvus. Nobody here is going to bother contacting my father and potentially losing part of their reward when they can simply attack me themselves." Rosy thought aloud.
The implication was so simple that even Reese, who was half-heartedly listening in, understood it. 'When they attack me, they'll just fail anyway.' She was implying. It was probably correct, even if it was a little arrogant.
"Look, Patricia. Due to your... unique physique... I think that you and Leston should simply stay inside for our entire stay at Griffinkiller city. Here's the inn. Once we get to your room, you really shouldn't leave it." Reese advised, using Rosy and Adrian's fake names, Patricia and Leston as cover. Honestly, his advice was probably right. The more time they stayed in their room, the less likely that Rosy would be recognized.
"Are we sharing a room again?" Adrian asked. He and Rosy had shared a tent back in the resistance's main camp, but that had only been for four, torturous days. Since they've been travelling for almost the whole last week, they'd all simply slept out in the open. With the less contact between the two of them, it'd been easier for Adrian to deal with his growing feelings for Rosy without her finding out about them. He wasn't totally ready to share a room with her again.
"It's become pretty common knowledge that I left Noctus with a boy around my own age. The moment that I get recognized, so will you. You're an easier target, after all. Are you sure that you don't want to share a room with me?" Rosy reminded him.
Rosy had been trained extensively as an assassin. She was so used to being attacked at night that she could literally take care of the average assassin in her sleep. She'd done so twice during the four nights that they'd stayed together, and one of those two assassins had been targeting Adrian. If he were to be attacked at night while not sharing a room with Rosy, he didn't like his chances... but he still hesitated.
"You're right. I'm sure that it'll be fine." He finally decided after a moment. Rosy's eyes narrowed, not able to see between his lines. That meant that he was hiding something from her, she realized. Now, she was curious.
"Not like you have a choice." Reese told him, "You're a set. Even here, we need to show that you're totally inseparable, otherwise the other five will start to doubt Patricia's intentions." He reminded. Neither Adrian nor Rosy saw this coming. They'd figured that it was only when they were actually in the resistance's main camp, Gryvus, and the Drakelands that they'd be forced to act like lovers.
Nope.