Hunted|Haunted - Chapter 24 - We’d rather not ask

The road to Woodmur was smooth and uneventful to the point that the mistress took up retelling the events of her most recent raid night just to keep herself alert. That’s probably the most nonsensical pseudowords Nokk heard in a single conversation in his life.

Were “86-ed” and “42-ed” foreign police codes? What was “shlantered”? “Vasiquense”? Why did “confail” have such great significance that the mistress repeated it even more than “and then-”? What did earthquakes and mechanoism have to do with the rest of the story? And most importantly, what was the order here? What was he to do with all this information?

Nokk was torn between these questions and holding a clipboard with a map as still as he could manage. At first, it wasn’t really a problem, but after they crossed the city edge and the streets began to get narrower, it started meaning using a levitation spell on it, so that it hovered in front of him in the air. The map, which he enchanted using mana and a crayon, was tracking their position and the position of Toma… adequately. The number of wetlands in Woodmurshire still affected the precision of the spell, but not as much as before.

When they arrived in the city, the tracker moved to some sort of building – judging by markings on the map, it was one of many local pubs. But, as soon as they arrived at the place, the tracker that symbolised the mistress’s son spun wildly in one place, and then disappeared with a flicker of light.

Nokk stared at the map, feeling his right eye starting to twitch slightly. He couldn’t tell if it was annoyance that the target disappeared, or fear of possible wrath from the mistress. He decided to file that question for later and moved to turn the page to a blank space on the paper clipped beneath the map, to draw runes for the smaller version of the tracking circle. As he was doing it, he muttered:

— …It was not supposed to do that.
— What? Did he get sent to Quine again?
— That is a possibility... — Nokk nodded, continuing at his task and, after the circle came to life and showed him the updated location, felt a slight relief. — Yes, but he is in a different location than before. Some sort of… village in the mountains.
— Be a little more descriptive, all mountains have villages somewhere.
— There is no actual name to it. At least not one I am aware of. — Nokk obediently answered, still looking at the map. — The mountains are located in the far West of Quine.
— Just give me the map. Oh. Okay, I get what you mean. Your previous master didn’t watch the news often, did he? — Imeje parked on the side of the street, since there wasn’t a finish line any more. She turned around to face Nokk and started pointing to things on the map. — This one big country-thing collapsed a couple of years back, and now it’s a lot of small country-things, but I haven’t updated my maps in a while. One of them is named Uzoqda, I think? There are like 30 new countries there.
— Hm. — Nokk thought about it for a moment, processing the new information. Then stated. — … Your son is extremely competent at evading pursuit, for a teenager.
— He is neither of those. He is 12, which is equivalent to 8 in human years, and he’s only evading pursuit due to Harvey-Aisek Tragač’s help. He’s the kind of man to dodge a bullet point-blank.

She grumpily huffed, getting a sip from a thermos.

— With what just happened to the track, I'm fairly certain there’s a tied door in the pub. Show me that map again… Okay, what we’re going to do is get my friend, she’s a great healer, and then we continue with the track. With what I’m about to do to them, son excluded, they’re soooo gonna need an ambulance. Oh, and if your previous master neglected some maintenance issue of yours, I’m pretty sure she can solve it in ten minutes in between. I don’t recommend asking her to fix teeth, though. She’ll replace them, sure, but to do so, she first grows you a new tooth next to the bad one. Not a good feeling. Leaves you dizzy for hours after.
— …
— That's unrelated to what I did at the swamps, by the way. I sacrificed flesh to a crocodilian god, so I get free teeth until my children are adults. I can get you a similar deal if you have spare organs. Oh, and since I just remembered, you are allowed to ask and inquire. Just nothing too personal.
— … Affirmative.

Nokk didn’t know how personal “too” personal was. So he decided to ask as few questions as possible, in general, while holding to the seat, so that he didn't get slammed into a side window.

— Clarify: What is considered “personal”?
— Lovelife, health, religion, whatever under the clothes and circumstances of having children. Most people have their concept of personal, but that’s the one I consider correct. Asking me whether I got hurt is not personal, you are free to ask that. Though Lara’s probably going to take care of it before I get to answer.

Nokk nodded, although mostly to himself. Well, this information he could work with.

— Understood.

Shortly after that, Imeje stopped the hearse near a five-story building – old, decrepit, almost crumbling, but still holding some of its charm from when it was built, likely some whopping eighty years ago. The one local they have seen seemed to match the building in age – it was a human woman, likely in her seventies-nineties, if the amount of wrinkles and the silvery hair was to be believed. She was watering a potted plant on her windowsill on the ground floor when she noticed two of them get out of the hearse. Her face became a few shades greener, then greyer, then she muttered some kind of curse under her breath and promptly closed the window and the blinds, after taking a potted plant inside with her.
Though she was pretty obviously still spying on them. Nokk noticed the woman peeking from behind the blinds quite easily.

— That’s the funniest part of owning a hearse, I tell you.
— That woman is watching us… Should I dispose of her?
— Nah, she’ll see Lara and assume I’m just with the hospital or something. This happened before.

Nokk hummed thoughtfully, and not without a bit of annoyance – he didn’t exactly enjoy being seen as it was often counterproductive to his missions, – but obediently followed mistress to the door of the entrance, and then throughout the old worn creaky staircase, and past many more doors, until they stopped before the door into one of the flats on the top floor. The door was pretty worn, covered with various protective seals and flower stickers.
— Lara, guests! I've got questions, I know you can help! — Imeje knocked. Well, more like punched the door repeatedly.

A tall, slender, river witch dressed in a pink bathrobe, with her long brown hair still wet, slowly opened the door. She seemed cheerful, especially for someone opening the door to sudden guests this early in the morning, but as soon as she saw Nokk, the witch became fearful and, with a shriek, jumped to hide. Lara wasn’t very good at hiding.

— Don’t take it personally, she’s like that towards most new people. — The mistress whispered to Nokk. — So anyway, good morning!
— Hello. — Lara mumbled from behind the coat rack.
— Do you have the slightest idea where your fiancé is? — Despite the friendly tone of voice, sparks were flying off the mistress’s teeth. — Because boy, do I have bones to pick.
— Is this about the tape? — Lara said, still hiding behind the coat rack.
— The what? — The mistress lost what emotion she tried to portray she was feeling, staring blankly at the coats.
— Nothing!
— No, please do tell me, what is it about some tape that would make me this angry at Harvey? — She said flatly.
— I can’t tell you.
— Well, then I’ll have to get it out of him, I guess.
— Please, don’t! I… I can’t tell, because I don’t know myself. He guards that thing like Bubba guards its dinner. Harvey was just… very insistent that… I don’t ever tell anyone about the tape. Especially you.
— Where’s the tape?
— I don’t know.
— No, you do.
— It’s- It’s in the… the drawer. With the other ones. It’s unmarked. I’ll get it.

Lara brought a Walkman.

— He kept repeating the last two minutes or so.

Skipping took a while. For the first minute, the recording was nearly silent, only a quiet noise in the background she couldn't quite recognise. Until a familiar voice uttered:

“... Never mind.”

— How old is this tape?
— I don’t know, but Harvey listened to it for about three days before he left two weeks ago.
— If not for Toma running away, for how long were you two going to hide this from me…?
— They still haven’t found him?
— No, they didn't, because Harvey-Aisek Tragač keeps taking him further away.
— Well, maybe he has a good reason for it…
— Lara, I can name at least 7 thousand better things to do in whatever situation he’s currently in, than to keep taking my child further away from me, with 10 seconds of preparation time. At this current moment, there’s literally not a single thing you can say that can convince me not to rip his rat ass in half the moment I see him. Now, for what I actually came here for, can I buy some healing spells off you? Toma’s amulet-doll curled up, I think he hurt his leg.
— No need, I’ll go with you. I’m afraid you’ll actually rip Harvey in half… May I ask… who is your… “friend”?
— Oh, some guy with a slave mark I got in exchange for Wilhelm Tragač from some dude on a forest road in Leytra. His name’s Nokk. Now, to think about it, that was incredibly shady. What’d your former boss even need him for? — At this point, she seemed to remember that people usually have a tone when they speak.
— The former master didn't share with me his reason for exchanging me for that witch. — Nokk obediently answered, shrugging slightly, showing that he doesn’t know the answer and breaking the before-rigid stillness of his posture with this movement. — Judging by his behaviour, perhaps he thought Wilhelm Tragač might be useful to him, more so than me. He had given me few actual tasks while I served him. I have no other logical conclusions.
— I um… I don’t think I want to know the answer to any questions related to this story. Just uhh… just have some tea while I get dressed. — Lara sneaked into the hallway, and ran into the room furthest away.

Nokk didn’t react, not even showing that he acknowledged Lara’s words, but he moved to stand closer to the door, leaning against the wall and seemingly waiting for an order to move out… not even like a dog, more like a forgotten umbrella someone left to dry.

— Would your existence benefit from having more water in your body, buddy? — Nokk didn't get to answer. — Of course it would, go put the kettle on.

Nokk nodded at that and immediately went further into the flat. He quickly inspected the room behind an open door on the left of the corridor, came to a conclusion of some sort and moved inside, quiet as if weightless. Less than a minute later, there was a quiet sound of water being poured into something, a clang of metal on metal, and the sound of a stove hissing with gas, then igniting. There was some rummaging through the kitchen while the water boiled.

— Are you hunting squirrels there?
— I am looking for cups.
— That's practically the same. Lara, where are your cups? — She shouted down the hallway.
— I haven't looked for them today yet. Yesterday they were in the cupboard by the window.
— Okay, rummage further, then. — The mistress leaned into the kitchen to whisper — The place is horribly haunted. They got it for like a pack of cigs. Also, I'm fairly sure there's a stray shadow somewhere, and it bites, so watch your hands.
— Acknowledged. — Nokk answered calmly, not stopping his search through the kitchen drawers. Then added a bit more thoughtfully. — It does explain the sensation in the air.
— Oh, you feel ghosts?
— Affirmative. — The rummaging stopped, and Nokk put three cups on the table. — Mostly ghosts and other spirits, alive things as well.
— I sure hope you can perceive alive things, otherwise my monologues would be even more pointless.
— … Clarification: not only in the way simple humans perceive alive things.
— Figured, but couldn't help myself. My grandma will try hard to adopt you as soon as we get home, that I guarantee you.
— … Query: reason?
— Well, she sort of adopts any stranger who can't immediately prove he belongs to a family, but the important part in your case is that you can sense ghosts in some way. A noticeable number of people in our family can do that. Therefore, you’d count as a cousin.

Nokk let out a hum, but other than that, didn’t answer, either too perplexed by the fact that someone would want to adopt him, or too busy with pouring tea, or both. Eventually, he leaned out from the kitchen door, looking at Imeje.

— Query: Would you like your tea strong or light? Also, how much sugar, if any?
— Whatever way you consider it a reasonable cup of tea. The way I like it is too specific to get into it now.

Only one person ever did get it right, anyway.

Nokk tilted his head slightly to the left, processing her words, then nodded and stepped back into the kitchen again. He emerged a minute later, looking at Imeje.

— The tea is ready, mistress.
— Thank you. I just realised I never gave you my name. It's Imeje. Whenever I'm called mistress, I feel like I'm not wearing enough leather. Or too much of anything.

Lara came to join, all dressed up, heard Imeje, and with a very scrunched face, decided to go back.

— What is that even supposed to mean, Jeje?! — She shouted over her shoulder.
— You would've known if you hadn't chickened out of that party.
— This is precisely why I chickened out of that party! Stop making weird noise in my house!
— Whatever you say, rosy cheeks.
— … The house makes more weird noises than mis- — Nokk finally noted in slight confusion. But stopped himself on the word “mistress”, and proceeded after a pause. — … Imeje ever would.
— Don't bother, that's just a saying. It makes more sense in Old Vex.

Lara eventually joined them for tea, wearing a suspiciously blank dark green uniform of some kind. A minute of relative silence, broken only by the fridge starting a cycle and the rising morning rush outside, later, Lara turned completely red and buried her face into her hands.

— The only other clothes I have are scrubs and dresses, and neither of those fits the situation!
— Chill, I couldn’t care less about what you’re wearing. But now that you’ve mentioned it, isn’t this the same uniform you deserted in?
— Y.yes..

Imeje tried her best to stay quiet, but as it often was, the preceding silence just made the question worse.

— How the heck are you the same size like fifty years later?
— I don’t know! I don’t know!

With the tea finished, the group was on the road again. Sitting next to Lara in the car had proven to be an educational experience. Nokk didn’t know a witch could turn this many shades of red in the span of a five-minute drive. Nokk have stayed silent and did his best to avoid direct eye contact with Lara, to not cause her too much distress by his appearance and behaviour. He wasn’t aware whether this tactic was working, however. Was she even in distress? Was there a moment when she wasn’t?

Anyhow, a few more minutes of Imeje’s driving, after which Nokk had become confident that both his former and current masters had about the same level of skill in driving various vehicles, they were back at the pub, where Toma’s track had disappeared.

Inside, the pub was… not the fanciest establishment Nokk had ever been to. Dimly lit, smelled of cigarette smoke, rather cheap alcohol, and with a sparser number of people inside than your average pub would have. There still were clients who were drinking their cares away, and some of them watched sports reruns. Nokk assessed the surroundings quickly and moved to walk between Imeje and Lara. While he knew now that the mistress could protect herself from a variety of threats successfully, Lara was an unknown variable, and an asset – a healer. Meaning that she needed overwatch at what could very likely soon become a hostile territory.

Imeje trotting right past the empty tables, the bar and the washroom attracted the attention of two men.

— Hey, you! — He tried to block the hallway, but couldn’t squeeze in front of everyone fast enough. — Are you blind, little lady? This is staff-only! Scram!

Imeje didn’t answer. Just squared the man in the jaw. Then, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and held him at an angle no creature with a spine could possibly comfortably hold balance in. She seemed greatly unbothered by the whole situation. Lara, thinking fast, ducked behind Nokk. Who subdued the second man by punching him in the gut, then elbowing him to the neck, so that he fell quicker and took way longer to recover his breath.

To be honest, Nokk could say he was a bit disappointed by how quickly the fight had ended. But also not surprised. He was a weapon, the mistress knew her way in a fight, and there were only two thugs, and poorly trained at that.

— I know you’re no staff, their shirts are properly cleaned. I know there is a tied door in this pub. Someone I need has recently passed through it. I also know that your shirt smells not only of copious amounts of sweat, but also emirati roses, which won’t bloom around these parts for at least three more weeks. They are, however, in full bloom where the tied door leads. Now, would you be so kind as to show me the way, or at the very least not get in it?
— Little lady, if whoever you’re looking for has passed through that door, they will not be coming back.
— I’ll be the judge of that.
— Cut your losses, the master has probably already marked them. There’s nothing waiting for you behind that door.
— Again, I’ll be the judge of that.
— You don’t understand!

Imeje sighed and pushed the man towards the other one, continuing down the corridor. Nokk followed, grabbing Lara by her hand, so that she wouldn’t stay behind.

The tied door could be easily distinguished by the complete absence of dust on it. Nokk has noticed a faint shimmer of magic around it. Before they entered, however, Imeje turned to her friend.

— Lara, would you kindly give us some altitude protection? Better safe than sorry.
— Sure thing.

And only then did they open the door to the windy, rocky terrain of the mountains.