Elara catches up quickly. Which is good, because she's the only one who seems to know this town very well. Once the same dialog about the cat and the rain repeat for yet another loop, she leads us down the street - three streets, actually - and to the local in of Stilense.
The inn is warm and cozy. Moreso than the other one I was briefly in. I can smell vanilla and baked bread the moment I step inside the building. There's a soft din of people speaking and clacking dishes, and there's some sort of performer in the main room singing something I have no hope of recognizing, but that sounds vaguely bardic. For as much as my experience on the matter matters. It's not crowded. It's just...cozy. It's the best term I can think of for it.
Elara walks with confidence up to the barkeep, a slightly overweight, more-than-slightly balding man, who speaks in an accident I don't recognize, and offers her an easy smile when she greets him.
It's the middle of trade season, apparently, so all they have left is the King's Suite, but the man helpfully sets up five beds for us in the room, so we needn't end up with convention-style bunking arrangements. That's a bonus, at least. I don't have any particular desire to wake up with a drooling Arin draped over me again, and far less that anyone else in this group do the same.
The cat immediately jumps out of her basket and onto the table once we enter our rented room, where she flicks her tail and watches us with wary eyes.
"Aww, Miss Meowkins, you're such a good cat, aren't you~?" Meera coos at her and reaches out to pet her.
The cat sniffs her hand, huffs, and flops down on the table, as if to say she'll accept the pets, but not enjoy them.
The room isn't particularly fancy, despite being called a 'king suite' - little more than the beds themselves, with how many we've stuffed into it - but it's dry, and the beds look comfortable. Not sure I'm the biggest fan of sharing one big room with everyone in it, even with the separate beds, but I can't imagine it'll be worse than just sleeping under the stars next to them all. And again. No drooling wake up call.
As I move to sit at one of the beds, the cat suddenly leaps up, and sprints at top speed. Just to lay on the bed, directly in my way. And then stare up at me with her big eyes, as if defying me to do something about it.
"What the-?"
"Ahh, she likes you, Ryo!" Meera laughs. "She doesn't like a lot of people, so it's a good thing."
"...Interfering with me laying down is her liking me?"
"Yep! She's a picky one."
I look down at the cat, who seems to be watching me with a smug expression, as if she's aware of how inconvenient she's being. I reach out and scoop her up from the bed. It's not unkind or rough, at least not in intent, but the cat makes a dramatic meow as if I've deprived it of some beloved treat anyway. I set her on the floor, and she immediately jumps on the bed again.
It huffs. It digs its claws into the blankets and tugs a little. As if it's determined to claim the bed as its territory against all other claimants.
"Ah-no-...." I catch myself. Never mind. If the cat wants the bed, I'll just take another one. This is not a war that someone like I can win, and so it's better to sidestep it entirely. Losing to a cat by default is a loss I'm willing to accept.
She seems satisfied with her victory, and settles in, curling up and closing her eyes. Which is good. Because I didn't have a plan for if she jumped into the second bed instead once she realized it was where I was going.
That kind of behavior is probably reserved for Meera, though.
"Ohh, that's so cute. Miss Meowkins loves you!"
I look over my shoulder at the woman in confusion. "What-?"
The cat nearly knocks me over, running between my legs. I stumble, and the cat jumps onto the table, flicking her tail as if to say she wasn't the one who almost knocked me down.
"The hell-?!"
Meera chuckles, finally arriving to get her feral beast. "Sorry, she's just so attached when she likes someone! She can't help teasing them! just to get their attention!"
I glare at the cat, who seems content to ignore me and groom her paw. She doesn't seem to want my attention so much as to find a new person to torment when Meera's out of paw's reach.
...I feel like a fool. It's a cat. I'm not starting a rivalry with a cat.
I sigh and flop back on the bed. The one that the cat will apparently allow me to keep with a simple warning.
Meera scoops up the cat, hands under its front legs, brings it up face-to-face with her and begins kissing its paw pads. "Who's got little toes?! Who's got widdle teensy weinsie toesies? Mwah~! Ooouah! Who has Miss Meowkins' little toe pads~?"
I tense a moment, expecting to see the woman slashed in the face. Instead, the cat makes a singular half-hearted attempt to twist out of her grip and then gives up, as if it doesn't seem particularly bothered by Meera's affections.
"You do~! Mwah mwah! You're such a cutie!" Meera kisses the cat's paw pads over and over, and the cat continues to not care.
So. It's not a bad-tempered cat, just a fickle one. Great. At least it explains more how those two are joined at the hip, I guess.
Meera coos over the cat a bit longer, and then settles into a chair with it. "So, what should we do while we wait out the rain?"
"Sleep." I reply. I'm not quite as tired as I was before, now that I had a brisk walk and some time out of that mind-numbing forest, but I can still appreciate the thought of a nice nap.
"That's boring, Ryo~! We can sleep later!"
I'm not sure what to say to that, so I don't.
Meera doesn't seem to mind, though. She settles back in her chair, and pulls a deck of cards from a pocket that I would not have expected to be big enough to hold one of those. "Ohh, I did bring these after all~! I thought I forgot~!"
--That's right, I need to get a better sword. Not just clothes. I wasn't allowed to keep that demon king sword, and apparently it would make me fight like some kind of a wild pervert even if I did. When I think of doing naked runs, I don't mean it to be quite so literal. I'd also like...something not these robes. Maybe more armor? Something plate and heavy could be a good strategy.. It might weigh me down and give me a bit of a handicap. I'd thought of that before, but Elara picked out medium armor, because that's what Meera had.
As if on cue, the cat knocks its little leather helmet off its head. Like it, too, is rejecting Meera's armor offerings.
"Elara, is there a blacksmith in this town?"
She nods. "There is, but..."
"But?"
"It's a bit expensive. We haven't earned anything since that last dungeon, so..."
"I've got a bracelet I can sell..." I dig it out of the pockets of this robe, opening the box to show it. The design is delicate enough that maybe I can sell it just as some kind of fine jewelry, if nobody here can afford magical items.
"That's elven magic!" Meera gasps, "You can't sell that."
That. Is not what I want to hear. "Why not?"
"It's a precious artifact. Elves have been guarding it for generations. You can't just sell it."
"It's mine now. I can do what I want with it. I can just sell it."
Kael clicks his tongue and shakes his head. "You might have it, but no one will accept an elven artifact for sale. Especially not here. You're more likely to be thrown in jail as a spy of the elves, or for trying to peddle cursed goods, than get anyone to pay you for it."
I stare down at the bracelet.
...Dammit.
I close the box.
It's one thing to try looking for a fence, or someone desperate enough to buy an allegedly cursed item. But if it means wrapping back around to the city prison questline...it's just not worth the risk. I have half a mind to chuck it out a window. Instead, I sigh and toss the box at Meera.
She acts as if it's both hot and made of butter. Her hands flail wildly, the box spins in the air above her for a few moments, and she barely manages to catch it the second time it drops into her range, stumbling back into the wall.
The cat meows in annoyance, but does not add violence. Yet, at least.
"Don't throw things at me!"
"It allows you to do something or another with shades and illusions." I shrug. "Wasn't paying much attention, but maybe you can find it useful."
Meera's eyes widen. "You'd - just give me that?! Really?"
"Sure. Don't need it." If I've mastered all the elements of magic in the world, that includes shadow and illusion. I doubt a low level trinket will do anything meaningful for that. Even if it weren't, I don't like magic builds anyway. And there's already three magic users in this group. We don't need a fourth.
While Meera is squealing over her new bracelet, the cat finally decides to deliver the punishment swats.