{Perona POV}
The sun had begun to set. The party had spent the remaining time of the day helping Celran unload, and had even gotten a filling lunch out of it. Celran had informed them that they were to stay together as a group until the Brass Hand reached out—that was a bit embarrassing for Perona after being so bold as to ask Aralynn what she had earlier.
After paying them for their escort, Celran had informed the party that the Blue Locust 2 would be staying in Port Escus for a little while, and to drop by to say hi if they were ever around. Then, he bid them farewell.
Now, among the orange rays of fading sunlight the party scoured the streets for a place to stay for the night—an inn, perhaps, or a tavern, though those two were almost synonymous in this day and age.
Hadarai and Amon confidently took the lead. Derrick their newfound servant strutted alongside Grango, who looked starry-eyed at the marvels of the city.
Lastly bringing up the party was Perona, with Aralynn by her side. Aralynn carried her… what was it… her "rifle?" and had changed back into her old clothes—the turtleneck, cloak, skirt, and tights, along with her breastplate and armour as usual. Personally, Perona liked the clothes that she had picked for Aralynn more, but then again, of course she would be biased.
Ever so often, Aralynn's rapier would bump against her thigh and her skirt would lift slightly as she walked to reveal the revolver at her thigh.
After seeing Aralynn fight, Perona certainly didn't want to get on the birdfolk girl's bad side. Speaking of sides, when Perona was walking to her quarters a day or two ago after explaining the situation to Celran and Cozith, she thought she'd heard a different side of Aralynn completely… but she'd keep that a secret to herself.
While having Aralynn beside her was certainly reassuring, Perona wondered how Aralynn would react if she learned of what was in Perona's pocket.
What was in Perona's pocket? Great question.
A card box.
One for a deck of poker cards, specifically.
Coincidentaly, one with each of its sides marked by a joker making different expressions.
Even though Cyren had warned them about it and Jack had taken it for safekeeping, while they were unloading cargo, Perona noticed that it had appeared inside one of the boxes. Or, more accurately, one of the boxes was left open with a bunch of hay, miscellaneous magical artifacts, and… this deck inside.
She truly never had intended on stealing it. No, not steal it—that's such an ugly word. She was going to simply borrow it for a while. Either way, the deck seemed so alluring for some reason that she just had to.
Besides, it's not like Celran noticed.
Unbeknownst to Perona, in her pocket, all the separate faces of the card deck had changed to one face: the happy red joker.
- - -
{Aralynn POV}
"Perona? Are you alright?" Aralynn asked. "Amon and Hadarai decided on this inn for the night."
In front of the party was a well-kept tavern with the words 'THE GREY MARIGOLD' carved into a treated wood sign with some gold detailing.
"Yes, I'm alright. Thank you, Aralynn." Perona responded.
She looks a bit off, Aralynn thought. Perhaps she's just tired. A good bed and rest would do her some good. Aralynn smiled reassuringly.
"Come on," she said. Perona followed them into the tavern. Similar to Irene's tavern back in Calyr, the Grey Marigold used Liechter Ball lights to illuminate the tavern. Albeit, the lights at the Grey Marigold were bigger to accommodate for the larger rooms.
The bar hall downstairs was still busy, but quieted a tiny bit as the party stepped up to the tavernkeeper by the bar. Aralynn could understand; after all, the group must've seemed really strange.
As Hadarai and Amon placed orders for their rooms, Aralynn took in the room they were currently in. It truly was a huge bar hall compared to that of Irene's tavern. The bar stretched for a good portion of the hall as bartenders, waiters, and even chefs scurried back and forth to provide the lively patrons with refreshments and meals after a long day's work at their respective shops or at the airship docks.
Amon and Hadarai had returned with their keys. Hadarai handed them out. "Same drill as usual- number on the key is your room. Room numbers 1-30 are on the second floor, 31-60 are on the second floor."
He handed out the keys. Aralynn received room number 56, and Perona received room number 57.
"How much do I owe you?" Aralynn asked, pocketing the key.
Hadarai and Amon exchanged looks. "Don't worry about it. Celran's extra pay more than covered it. Hey—nuh-uh. We're paying." Aralynn was just about to protest but was cut off.
"Very well," Aralynn said, defeated. "Do you all think that you'll grab dinner, or…"
Hadarai nodded. "I might go for a pint or two. Besides, I took a look at what the others are eating and their onion soup and steak looks mighty nice."
Amon shrugged. "I might grab something quick. Grango? Derrick?"
"We'll prolly grab something as well. Even though our lunch was really filling, it feels like forever since we've had proper tavern grub."
"Fair enough. Perona?"
Perona looked around thoughtfully. She pushed her hands into her pockets and fidgeted with something, then caught herself and pulled her hands back out of her pockets.
"Sorry, habit. I might go to bed early—I think all this traveling has caught up to me. I know, I know. Traveling minstrel and all that. In my defense, I haven't traveled this far, and most certainly not by airship, horsecart, or teleportation."
"I'll come with, then. I'm tired as well."
After bidding the rest of the party goodnight, the duo headed up two flights of stairs. Their rooms were next to each other, and they both wished each other good night as well before heading to bed.
Aralynn's room was much larger than she'd anticipated, and it was a nice change after basically sleeping in a closet for three days. Honestly, it felt like quite a luxury to have.
There was a large window with solid wood shutters and curtains. Through it, the scarce remaining rays of sunlight filtered through, mixed with small pinpricks of starlight.
Besides the table there was even an ornate telescope for starwatching.
Aralynn picked it up and peered out at the marvels of the night sky above—even though she wasn't that into stargazing, her parents used to tell her stories about heroes that crowned the world and had ascended to the skies as stars.
She marveled the pure, silvery, bronze, gold, and stellar lights before placing the telescope back down and crashing onto the bed. Her muscles sore from moving all those cargo crates of the Blue Locust 2, she dropped Objection beside her.
The iron tang of blood reminded her that it'd been a while since she's had a proper shower—while birdfolk had special oil and sweat whose properties reduced smell and bacteria, it'd still be nice to just take a shower and refresh herself—get a deep clean.
I remember there being an entrance to be a big bathhouse downstairs… maybe I'll give that a go tomorrow. For now, though… It's time to sleep.
Aralynn was so tired, in fact, that she hadn't taken off her rapier from her waist and her revolver from her thigh. She was 100% going to regret that with sore muscles the next day, but for now, she didn't care.
However, those were small matters. Aralynn was, in fact, so tired that she had missed a couple of familiar translucent green messages.
[You have touched a celestial artifact: ???'s Telescope.]
[You have claimed ownership of ???'s Telescope.]
[???'s Telescope summary: This telescope was used by ???, a ??? of old. This telescope was made as part of an experiment, to see to what lengths an individual's sight could be enhanced, and is said to contain fragments of ???'s blessings.]
[Artifact reaction: When exposed toObjection, The Grand Equalizer, ???'s Telescope will gain an additional effect.]