Someone was knocking hard on the door. I opened my eyes and immediately realised that wasn't a dream. I was angry about being interrupted from my sleep.
"I think I had a dream of some sort, but I can't remember what it was about. I still feel so tired."
The door couldn't handle too much of those blows.
"What is it?" I yelled with a harsh voice, forgetting about precaution.
"It's me, the landlady. I want to ask if you want dinner. If so, please come and see the menu."
"Dinner? I slept all day? And wait, why ruin the door just for that? Does she want to check if I am still alive or something?"
Nevertheless, I dragged my feet to the door and opened it. Beside the landlady, there were the guards from the castle gates. Their eyes almost popped out when they saw me and stepped back, even the landlady. I gave them a look full of hatred and remained silent. They didn't seem to recognize me.
"We... we..." one of the guards stuttered, gulping. "We would like to ask you something, Great One."
"These bastards, they mock me!"
They all made a deep bow and then I saw that my clothes were full of brown stains from my own blood.
"I am in trouble now!"
"Forgive us, if we offended you. We would never dare. Please understand that we are only doing our job."
They were still bowing, but I saw them appraising my clothes.
"Beside the blood, did they recognize the kings' tunic?"
"What do you want?"
"We are looking for some fugitives. They are wanted for treason, regarding the incidents from two days ago at the castle. We caught most of them, but there was a woman and a few others who escaped. This is her picture. Did you see her?"
They showed me a handmade portrait of a woman, which I feared that resembled me, but from that image there was nothing out of the ordinary, in fact, the portret could've been that of any other woman. Were they looking for the wizard girl and her acolytes?
"I'm not sure. More than half of the women in this town resemble that from your drawing."
"Can I see an identification card?"
"I don't have one."
"How can you ask for an identification card from an elf?!" replied the landlady with an exasperated voice. "Of course she hasn't one, after all, they keep their names secret."
"Elf? What the heck is she talking about?"
"I know that, but if they travel around they still get a card with a regular name to register. I request to see that."
"I don't have that," I repeated.
"Let me guess, it was stolen from you?"
"This guy could play the role of a bad cop brilliantly."
"No, I think I've lost it after that atack."
"What do you mean? What atack?"
"Yesterday... Wait, landlady, since when I am here?
"Two days."
"Two days!" I repeated shocked. "Well, then, two days ago I wanted to leave the kingdom and return home, after the festivities, but I saw a girl being followed by someone. She kept looking behind and that drew my attention."
"Was this girl wearing a blue dress, perhaps?"
I pretended to think hard, assuming he was trying to set me up a trap, so I needed to be very careful with my answers to connect all the dots that I could with the information that I had. And the best solution was to get things as simple as possible, with bits of truth weaved among the lies, and stick with my story without adding too many details.
"No. I think it was a dark red one. I've seen it before worren by the maids at the castle. It seemed odd to me that she crossed the bridge and went in the forest. I could see she was scared and wasn't thinking straight at the moment, because she knew she was followed but left the security of crowded streets to become even more vulnerable in a secluded space. It wasn't my job to interfere, but soon after she entered the forest, a group of shadowy figures followed her, and that worried me enough to alert a guard, but at that moment I didn't find anyone near, so I decided to go help the woman."
"And did you succeed to catch her tracks?" asked the bad cop guard.
I leaned my back on the wall, feeling dizzy again.
"As a matter of fact, yes. I've seen her surrounded by those shadowy figures, but just as I was about to get closer to them, without being seen, someone attacked me from behind, cutting my throat."
"How?! Aren't elves supposed to have amazing senses?" intervened the other guard and I gave him a killer gaze that shut him up.
"I was just as surprised as you. I didn't sense anyone around me back then. As soon as I fell to the ground, the assassin left, and that suspicious group too."
"It must've been so because we gave the alarm at the castle. How deep was your wound?"
"Deadly! I had to use all my powers just to survive and I lost so much blood... Luckily, the cold helped me a lot," I added, remembering that once I read a case about a woman whose throat was sliced, but she was saved because the cold weather made her metabolism slower.
"Oh!" exclaimed the friendly guard. "We've seen lots of blood in the forest near the entrance. Did you fight the assassin?"
"No. It was just a one-sided atack. The one that attacked me wasn't a normal person for sure. It was very skilled. I honestly thought I was a goner. I barely survived..."
I wanted to add a phrase like 'in my whole life of one hundred fifty two years' just to play the elf part, but in the last second I've changed my mind. I didn't want to push it.
"That's weird, because all that blood we found was way too much for a single person. Did you kill some monsters?"
"No. Or yes? I'm not sure. I lost too much blood, and the cold made me sleepy... It's a mystery to me how I had enough force to return and get to this inn. But I remember that when I got to the inn I couldn't find my dagger, or my bag with my card, my 15 golds, and, most importantly, my traveling notes."
"Did you notice their weapons?" asked the bad cop guard.
"Their weapons..."
I took a break, pressing my fingers on my forehead, letting them in suspense, while trying in fact to remember what those thieves from the dungeon said about the weapons I gave them, and trying to read from their expressions if they believed my lies or not. Also, I had to think carefully how much to say to keep my safety, because I was sure this story would reach the ears of Bezmal and the king too, and they surely wouldn't have been thrilled if others knew about those extremely expensive elven forged weapons and staff.
"I'm not sure," I answered finally. "They were pretty far from where I was standing and the attack came way too soon to pay attention to anything else than my survival. But the one who attacked me had a short sword or a dagger. That's a very dangerous group out there."
"Indeed, we will do everything in our powers to catch them. One more thing, what was the purpose of your coming to our kingdom? We don't get such esteemed guests too often... in secret."
"There was no secret that I came here, but I didn't want to draw attention to myself. I travel a lot for learning purposes. Now I work on a compendium about flowers, trees, and plants based on their regions, and I tried to include some lore and local legends, also their medicinal purposes..."
"Plants and trees?" interrupted the friendly guard. "I doubt you will find something interesting in our northern region. And why waste time with their poor medicinal purpose when you can get to a local healing temple and they fix you in an instant?"
The bad cop guard and the landlady gave him resentful looks.
"We will leave now," intervened the bad cop guard, making a bow. "I apologize again for bothering you. We will investigate the forest more and if we find your bag I will come personally to return it to you. Although, considering the disaster we found there, I doubt there is anything to retrieve anymore."
"Then what am I supposed to do? Should I ask the king for compensation or something?"
"I don't see how that is possible, afterall, it's not anyone's' fault that you went on an adventure alone, and even if you are affiliated to the Adventurers Guild, they can't be held accountable for your bad luck. Besides, the king is already busy with... other things, and sending him a complaint is most probably to never reach his attention... too soon. My advice, and I apologize for my bluntness, is to forget about any sort of compensation from the king and request another identification card at the guilds you were registered with. As for the gold coins lost and the traveling notes... there is nothing we can do. The beasts may have taken them away and we don't have enough numbers to form a searching party for some papers. It's too risky. Also, there is a blizzard coming soon so I advise you not to go to search on your own. No matter how prepared you are, it would mean clear suicide to go in the forest with a blizzard closing in, especially when you suffered a deadly wound. It looks like you need more time to recover."
"That was a massive blunder on my part! And do I look so bad or my acting skills are exceptional?"
"So, you're telling me to just accept that I've lost all my years of research!"
They kept their eyes on the ground, as if feeling sorry, and I pretended to be very upset.
"It's like my whole work had no meaning at all. All those years spent..."
I started to cry and wanted to close the door, as if wanting to hide my tears, when the landlady cleared her voice.
"How about dinner?"
"I'm not hungry anymore."
I entered my room and closed the door, then listened carefully for any sounds from the corridor, occasionally letting out some muffled sobs, just to sound convincing, just in case. But all I've heard from the other side was their steps getting further and further. I was relieved that the guards didn't ask the name registered on my supposed identification card, as I had no idea what guilds they referred to, or if it was a rule for everyone to get registered there. It seemed too complicated and I really had no energy to think about what to do.
I looked out the window and saw the angry flurry of snowflakes. That made me even more sleepier, so I fell asleep again.