Private Tales Blink and You'll Miss It

[Yuric]

"It's been nearly two hours now, hasn't it?"

The two Initiates had been posted up in the Yawning Ogre for at least that long. The cups and plates in front of him and his fellow student had long been cleared of food and drink, and the meal placed in the empty third seat across from them now sat stone cold. Yuric cast a somewhat worried glance over to the girl beside him, swallowing down the last of his drink before continuing. "Vel Ospra isn't a big town. Should have been there and back by now, don't you think?"

He didn't expect an answer. He'd never worked with Marcia before, but the diminutive stature of the redheaded girl didn't speak to her intensity. She'd made no attempt to befriend him yet, beyond a few glares to let him know he was talking too much. Was every woman in his class made of stone, he wondered? It didn't matter, Yuric didn't expect friendship from anybody, so long as they pulled their weight and performed admirably.

It was beginning to look like their superior might be struggling in that department.

Dreadlord Billek had seemed confident in their mission; A smattering of assaults and murders on prominent Anirian figures--Guards and Nobles, mainly-- had been plaguing Ospra for a handful of weeks now. It was a problem, especially as Vel Ospra was relatively deep into their home territory. If word caught on of possible rebel activity so close to home, then the Dreadlords would come under even more scrutiny than they already did. So, Billek was dispatched along with a couple of Initiates to nip the issue in the bud before it grew any larger.

"He was just supposed to scout the place out. You don't think he'd...?" Yuric closed his eyes, humming impatiently as he drummed his fingers on the table. Finally, he slammed his palms down and stood up. Enough was enough. Billek could be in trouble, and if he was, he'd need their help. "Forget this, I'm going over there myself. You coming, Marcia?" Either way, the boy left a few coins on the table, wrapped his lavish blue coat around himself and headed for the door.

It wasn't a long trip to the building in question: A sizable barracks that had gone out of service after the revolution, and had sat dormant and unused ever since. The attacks seemed too coincidentally centered around the block where the old barracks remained, and Billek had suspected their mark was likely hiding inside. It was a difficult building to miss, too. A large banner bearing the pre-revolution insignia of Vel Anir still hung from a tall post atop the roof, and Ospra was quietly winding down for the night, as midday slowly yielded to dusk.

So... where was it?

Yuric stood dumbfounded before the spot the Dreadlord had shown them just after arriving. He knew the building had been here, had seen it with his own two eyes.

Now, nothing. A vacant lot between two homes.

Marcia

 

[Marcia]

At a certain point, approximately twenty minutes after the food had been served, Marcia had begun to wonder if this was all a test. After all, there was a high level of expectation reserved for Dreadlords, and it was them who were supposed to be chasing after fuckhead Initiates whose every action screamed a mistake. It wasn't supposed to be the other way around.

Especially when all the man was supposed to have been doing was scouting.

It had to be a test, if only for the sake of Dreadlord Billek's pride.

In the meantime, the mostly silent meal with Initiate Yuric had been a painful affair. The girl's challenging disposition made for poor dinner company. The most she'd given him were nods and shakes of the head or minute verbalisations hummed dismissively from the back of her throat. Socialisation had never been her strong suit, and at this point, she was so resigned to the mockery of her peers that Marcia had just internally categorised everybody as an arsehole into proven otherwise.

She didn't need the grief or the laughter, for that matter. Fuck, she hated the laughter.

So, when Yuric slammed his hands down and declared his intention to find their lost handler, she couldn't have joined him any faster, shooting to her feet and slinging her large steel buckler over her back by the strapping. Better to be focused on a task at hand rather than stagnating in the Yawning Ogre in stilted silence.

Only the task at hand was...

...complex.

When they arrived at where the old barracks had been, Marcia stood there for a few seconds, mouth agape as her brain tried to process what exactly she was looking at or wasn't looking at.

No Billek, no barracks.

"What the actual fuck," Marcia commented slowly, staring at the vacant space where a building absolutely once stood, her regular profanity escaping her now that they weren't in the presence of seniority. "There was definitely an entire fucking building here before, right?"

 

[Yuric]

By the time the words had left Marcia's mouth, Yuric had already begun crossing the street to inspect the lot, the dumbfoundedness he'd been stricken with overriding any wariness as to who or what might still be lurking around in wait for them.

It wasn't as though there had been some explosion, or some natural disaster had swept through town in the short time they'd been away. No, everything was neat. Nothing was out of place. It was as if the building had never been there at all.

"I don't... understand." He reached out with one boot, pressing his heel against the soft soil, devoid of grass, where the barracks had once stood. The dirt was fresh, malleable against his foot; There was no illusion, no trick of the eyes involved. Finally he turned back to Marcia. "We need everybody to get back. Let's close off this road."

There was already a few curious eyes gathering around them, either noting the lack of what had once been, or questioning the presence of two particularly nosy teenagers. Either way, it wasn't a particularly crowded street.

Though he was still learning about the girl, he had to admire her talent in persuasion. A few particularly strong words, and no more idle pedestrians dare come within a certain distance of them. Once they were alone, the sun dipping below the horizon and bathing them in an orange glow, Yuric slid his belongings off his back and laid the pack upon the ground.

"Now's as good a time as ever, I suppose. Tell me about yourself, Marcia. What is it you're good at?" Yuric opened his pack, pulling out a few books and a canteen of water. "I have a feeling we're going to be here a bit longer than we'd planned."

Marcia