Focusing back onto the roofs of the city, there still wasn’t any trail to follow.
Jumping across the tops of buildings, Florian went onto whatever he felt like, not sure where the killer would go.
Eventually he had to stop.
Catherine paused below waiting for him to move once again.
He stood tall on the roof.
His head twizzled on his neck, looking left/right then forwards/backwards.
The results were less than satisfactory.
In the distance to the left of the current building he was standing on—which is a companion store where beasts are sold to customers for a multitude of reasons—was the roof of his house.
“The killer could be a sun cultist and fled to their lab, not knowing it’s been exposed,” Florian muttered to himself, “but I should see him from here, he can’t have dropped down if the coats are still there.”
The faces of Tom and Mabel flashed through his mind.
“Unless the coats aren’t there anymore,” Flo rushed off, moving rapidly across the rooftops, jumping from shop to shop, from house to house.
Catherine walking on the streets of Birnam couldn’t keep up as he traversed across buildings, where the lower floors blocked her from accessing the same path causing her to go around the buildings.
As Cath lost sight of Flo, he started to question himself, “Sun cultist or not, why kill a restaurant owner and in such a brutal way—scare tactics, maybe?”
A few minutes later, he made it to the rooftop of the building with the hole in the wall.
Peering over the edge, all the coats were gone and no patrols seemed to be anywhere near.
Hopping down the building, Florian arrived onto the alleyway and in front of the hole in the wall.
Splash, Splash!
A loud burst of water flew around Flo.
The entire alley was covered in a thin layer of water.
His feet and legs began to soak against his skin as he moved into the crack in the wall.
The pool of water continued inside and down the crumbling wooden stairs.
Splish, Splash.
Flo stepped through the water, causing it to ripple around and wet his clothes even more.
Stepping down the stairs, sparks of wood fell from the support beams, crafting worry onto Florian’s face as he made it to the bottom.
Amazingly, the lanterns were still lit casting a warm gloss over the surface of the water.
To the right of Flo lay the collapsed door.
Glimpse of hope and unease began to war on his face as he trampled over the door.
Now inside the sun cultist’s lair, there was no killer, just an empty room absorbed with dripping wood.
There didn’t appear to be any differences to the room, only the strange water was the maker of the difference.
After a few minutes of walking around the room and pulling the collapsing drawers out to see if there was anything new, he once again trampled over the sleeping door and turned to walk up the stairs.
Making it to the top of the stairs, the whole stairway collapsed in on itself.
The path was no longer traversable.
Ignoring it, Flo left the hole in the wall and stepped into the daylight of Titanmere.
There water still rippled around him as he glanced around, now fully lost on what to do.
“Did you find anything?” She asked curiously.
As she got closer, he gave an answer, “I have found absolutely nothing.
Once I got to the roof, the trail disappeared and my gut led me here.
I guess the only inordinate thing here is the water.
But I don’t think the killer was the cause.”
Peeping behind Flo and into the hole, she got even more curious, “okay, so what’s in there?”
“Nothing, the stairs leading down caved in, the coats were here this morning when I woke up,” Flo then pointed at a circular window, “see that window, I live there and I thought maybe the killer had something to do with this, but I guessed wrong,” Florian glanced around some more before becoming completely aimless, “so what shall we do now?”
Catherine didn’t answer and looked around some more before responding, “Let’s go eat something, I’m hungry.”
“Sure,” Flo said as they left the water-covered alley and into the regular streets of Birnam.
Not long after, they found a nice tavern to dine at called ‘Tibby’s Tavern’.
It was a regular wooden coated building with the orange warmth of lanterns boosting the aesthetics.
Pulling the door open, Florian allowed Catherine to enter first as they found a corner table to rest at.
After some moments of relaxing silence, Florian began the conversation, “So what is your school doing out here anyway, aren’t you lot from the capital.”
“Yep, my academy is from the capital, we’re just here as a trip to find out about the world and fight various types of monsters.
You should come to the capital.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so and also,” she adjusted her glasses as she spoke and gazed into Florian’s eyes, “I think you’d like it there.”
Florian didn’t know how to respond, so Cath continued, “I also found something really cool after we departed from the dungeon last night—”
The words of Catherine began to be drowned out by the surrounding chatter as one other conversation seemed to be much more to the liking of his brain and ears.
The conversation originated from a few drunken men crowded around a table, a rough voice began:
“D’ya wanna know something interesting lads,” he said while slamming his drink onto the table.
“Go on then,” chimed together a few men.
“My ol’ pops used to speak of the moon being created in the sky, saying it came out of nowhere 4000 years ago—crazy old man.”
“How d’ya pops know something from 4000 years ago?” Questioned a man collapsed on the table beside them.
“Don’t know, don’t care.
He also said other crazy stuff like the sun’s alive.”
“Should’ve just become a sun fuck then, crazy bastard!” This announcement caused a chorus of chaotic laughter around the nearby tables.
“He’s dead now ain’t he?” Another half-alive man asked.
“Yep, down in the ditch called Titanmere,” he burst out into a drunken fit of laughter as Flo lost interest in the conversation.
A flick of the head caused him to fully exit that ruckus and into a small head whose breath felt warm against his face, “bit close there Cathy.”
“You’re not listening to me,” she said and then pouted cutely. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
“I apologise, what were you saying?”
“So you admit it?” She pressed him
“I—,” the ‘I’ was held for a lengthy amount of time before a gracious maiden came to his rescue.
The waitress stood beside the table and took their orders before leaving Florian with an unanswered question to answer.
“So you admit it?” She asks again.
“Admit what?” He said, hoping for an escape route.
“You didn’t even know I was speaking did you?”
“No,” he hung his head in shame as he tried to shift the conversation, “Can we get over this hole on the road and go back to what you were saying Cathy, please?”
“Fine, so as I was saying I have discovered a not yet explored blood dungeon.
And as I was saying before, no, I know nothing else about it except its location, so let’s go together in three moon rises.”
“Can we go in two sunrises instead, so it’s bright out?” He asked.
“Fine,” she replied.
Flo opened his plink menu and set the date:
[Job – Adventurer
Currency – 200 Shards 0 Sols 0 Eclipse Shards (Owes 250 shards to All Gunnery to be paid within 86 sunrises)
Life Core Element – Blood
Weapon Body – Gun Body
Innate Body – Marksman Rifle
Current Level – Advanced Beginner Gun Body
Realm – 7th stage of Iron Core Gathering Realm.
Realm Stabilisation – 7th Stage of Iron Core Gathering Realm
Companion – None
Location – Brimnar City
Date – 17th Sunrise of Summer of Year 4032 (in 2 sunrises – Catherine dungeon meet)]
“Should I bring Max along?” He asked as he removed his glasses, placing them on the edge of the table as they steam up.
“Nope, just us two,” Catherine responded with determination worked into her tone.
Florian finding it weird but deciding not to question it waited for the food to arrive.
A steaming plate of potatoes, some veg and a slab of wolf meat arrived not long after.
The food satisfied both Catherine and Florian as they quickly gulfed it down, Flo quicker than Cath.
Wiping his glasses, Flo placed them onto his face and stared at the man who talked about the moon, losing himself in thought.
Catherine didn’t bother him as she was focused on finishing the remaining potatoes and veg.
She grabbed her cup of water as an immensely loud:
Craaaack, Crack, Craack sound exploded into her ears and the ears of everyone in the restaurant, except Flo as he watched the man with the dead dad.
The cracking sound became louder and louder and louder until a floorboard flew from the tavern’s base.