Empire of Solaris

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"An hour, maybe two," Therion replied, hoisting himself up onto his horse. "If you're taking your...dolls, we will need to be especially careful. They could attract the wrong kind of attention."
 
The witch sighed. It was a long time to be riding a horse, not to mention annoying that she wouldn't be able to leave her Dolls as they were. The two dropped to the ground, and shrank, until they were truly the size of a child's playthings. The limp bodies floated up, and to Xalia, and she held them. "Better?"
 
"Yes, thank you," Therion said, and offered her a hand up. "It won't have to be a straight ride; I'd rather stop and walk my horse at least part of the way regardless."
 
Gingerly holding the now shrunken dolls, Xalia took Therion's hand and also mounted the horse. "I suppose that's only fair to your beast here," she remarked. She couldn't decide if she wanted to be there faster, and have the ride over with, or put off being in the city for as long as possible- but either way, it would be what it was.
 
Therion helped her up again, and they set off. It was a quiet trip. Therion wasn't much of a talker and it didn't seem that Xalia was either. The sun rose high in the sky as they neared the city itself, entering through a quiet side gate.
 
They set off, and the ride was quiet. Thankfully, Therion didn't press her to talk much more; Xalia's jaw was tired after all that had already been said. By midday, they had reached the city, and the witch did her best to stifle a grimace at its walls, gates, and many buildings.
 
Therion dismounted and led his tired horse to a large, rather haphazard building on the outskirts of town. The sign outside read The Shooting Star, and a golden-blue comet had been painted above it for the benefit of those who couldn't read. Therion helped Xalia dismount, and a stable boy came out to take the horse.

"You're back?" He asked, eyeing Xalia warily.

"Yes."
 
Once they had arrived and dismounted the horse, Xalia watched the stable boy give her a look. She looked no less suspiciously at him than he had at her, but broke eye contact to look at the sign on the building. The Shooting Star. An inn, perhaps? Wasn't such a base a dangerous operation? The sign gave no further information away.

Uncertain, Xalia looked at Therion for some direction, either through his words or his actions.
 
"Come inside, I'll show you around," Therion said, taking a step towards the inn. From the entrance, the front room was visible, and inside it a couple clusters of people. They seemed to be mostly travelers, by their variety of skin tones and garments, and the murmur of foreign tongues. The stable itself was full of different animals, from horses like Therion's to donkeys to creatures that looked like very large goats. This inn seemed to be a popular stop for strangers in the city, the kind of place where someone unusual wouldn't stand out.
 
Silently, Xalia followed Therion, her eyes taking in as much as they could. Looking inside proved it more likely to be an inn, and there was a stable outside with a variety of mounts. Inside was a variety of people, dressed in all sorts of manners. Seeing the heterogeneity made Xalia relax some, but she still couldn't help but be nervous. What if her black dress was just too plain, for instance? What if her rough hair gave her away as someone who hadn't seen civilization in years, and a Solarian soldier was lying in wait for someone who looked like her sort of suspicious? With the thoughts brewing in her head, Xalia slipped her miniature dolls into the pocket of her dress.
 
The blonde, busty woman working the tables smiled at the two as they came in. "Therion, it's been so long!" Therion gave her a single nod, and she giggled. "Talkative as always, I see. You want to talk to my uncle?"

A grunt this time. Off the girl went, with one questioning glance at Xalia.
 
Though Therion was greeted, the girl that came up to them said nothing to Xalia. It sat well enough with her. She watched the interaction, and waited for presumably the girl's uncle. Uncertain of how to act in the modern world, the witch was content to follow Therion's lead, and for now, he stood there, and so so did she.
 
Therion turned to Xalia, seeing she wasn't sure what to do next.

"Follow me, I won't leave you alone until you feel safe," he said, and started through the tavern, around the edge of the room and toward the counter in the back. An older man was there, speaking with the blonde. He made eye contact with Therion, then turned a curious look on Xalia.
 
The witch curled her lip. "I won't feel safe until I'm no longer in this city," she muttered, but followed her companion through the tavern until they made eye contact with someone speaking with the girl who'd just greeted the pair. The man's eyes turned to her, and Xalia stared back, doing her best to get as much of a reading off of him as she could without giving much away about herself.
 
"Then as safe as you can be reasonably," Therion amended, a hint of irritation in his voice. The man behind the counter was of average height, on the large side as men who spent their lives making and consuming beer often were. Thinning hair, the beginnings of wrinkles, the ones around the mouth and eyes that came with decades of smiling. He wasn't smiling now. The look he gave to Xalia was one of apprehension.

"Garis, can we speak privately?" Therion asked in a low voice.

"You actually did it. You bloody fool, you went and did it,' Garis murmured.

"Not out here."
 
Xalia watched the scene unfold before her. The man- Garis, apparently- looked at her as though she might explode any moment. And given his comment, the witch had to wonder- how many people knew? Did Therion run his recruitment idea by a plethora of people before going through with it? Had she become more and more known in recent time without realizing it? The idea was unsettling.
 
Garis led Therion and Xalia into a back room, where the noise of conversations outside was muffled. He closed the door and turned back to the pair.

"Garis, this is Xalia. Xalia, an old friend of mine," Therion said.

"So that story was real? There was actually a witch who escaped?" Garis asked, not taking his eyes off Xalia.

"Yes."
 
"There was a story about me?" Xalia asked, eyes widening in disbelief. She thought that she had been non-extant, that rumors hadn't been flying around about her- evidently that wasn't the case. True, such a thing had lead Therion to her; but she had thought he'd done research and the like, and not followed some ghost of a legend.
 
"There are always stories about people getting away from the Solarians," Garis said with a shrug. "Most exaggerated or outright lies. Therion here is thorough, he went through just about all of them looking for some grain of truth."

"Which I found," Therion said.
 
Saited by that answer, Xalia nodded, and contended herself to simply glare at the men and wait for them to begin talking. She shut her mouth listened.
 
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