122: Blessing

Looking around, I saw the crowd of people had grown significantly, and not wanting anyone else to try rushing the inn, I went back inside and closed the door. Lily was still present.

But now there was silence as all eyes were on me—well, except for Liane’s and Lily’s, who were both watching Liam. He straightened himself up, realising the eyes were on him.

“Well, I guess I should introduce myself properly then,” Liam began.

“I am Liam, Captain of the Royal Guard. I have learned that you’ve not had the best run-in with leadership to date; however, I wish to extend you an invitation to have a conversation with the King,” he said, bowing slightly.

I looked at the others, who didn’t say anything, before asking, “Why?”

Liam looked around, his eyes landing on Lily. “You have unique and powerful friends. I can’t tell you exactly what the conversation would be, but from my understanding, he wishes to have good relations with you.

“Especially after word reaches him of today’s encounter. Adding the mythical phoenix to the list of friends will only escalate his desire for positive relations, I’m sure.” He looked at the others as well, but they all had very passive looks.

Except for Liane, who clearly was not sold.

“I don’t know if I’d call Alira a friend just yet…” I said with a chuckle.

Liam shook his head. “Trevor, until today we did not even know the name of the mythical phoenix—only that it had once blessed the King’s ancestors.”

I looked at Liane, unsure how to respond. Internally, I wanted to say yes, of course! But I couldn’t trust that this wouldn’t be another attempt at servitude or something—only on a greater scale.

Liane seemed to catch my drift, appearing instantly at my side. “We’re adventurers, and normally we would not ignore an order from the King. However, someone has already tried to force Trevor into servitude, so excuse our hesitation,” she said.

Liam let out a deep sigh. “The Lord of this very town—yes, I discovered that. He has been sent to the capital to face punishment for those crimes, as well as many others, and I can only apologise for the way you were treated. But I don’t believe the King has the same intentions.”

Hari spoke up, stepping forward. “As I understand it, the Royal Guard in particular value their promises and oaths above all. Can you promise today that Trevor would be allowed to visit the King and leave without an attempt to trap or imprison him?”

Liam seemed conflicted for a moment before resolve came over his face. “I can. I promise that I will personally escort you in and out of the castle.”

Hari nodded. I didn’t value their word very much, but apparently Hari was satisfied with this.

“We will make our own way to the capital, as that was our goal anyway. Once we arrive, we’ll make contact to organise the meeting,” Hari said.

Milo spoke up. “We’d also appreciate if you could keep the swarms of people outside from disrupting our sleep tonight. We have some very shaken inn staff and a merchant with her guards right now, and we don’t need people waking them up all night.”

Jen nodded behind him.

Liam looked around, now practically surrounded by people unintentionally. “Yes, I can do that. Very well, I shall take my leave and pass on the message to the King that you are on your way. If you have any trouble at all, send a messenger.”

He again bowed slightly before heading towards the door. He paused as his hand touched it.

“Tha… thank you for allowing me to witness tonight’s events,” Liam said, looking at the floor where several footprints had been burnt into the wood. “I should speak with the proprietor tomorrow about securing that piece of flooring.” He then opened the door and left through the front.

There were some commands shouted, but I couldn’t clearly make them out over the noise of the crowd calling back and the shuffle of armour.

I looked at Lily, who was sitting next to Crisplet with her head tilted.

“Welcome back, Lily,” I said happily. She immediately reappeared next to me again, bumping me with her head. I reached down, attempting to scratch her head, finding like before that the tips of my fingers felt like I had hit solid fur, but the rest was just hazy.

“Was Alira a friend of yours?” I asked curiously.

She turned around to look at Crisplet, who shot off a single ember. No?

I decided now probably wasn’t the time to go into it, as the others were staring in my direction.

“Well, that was an eventful get-together,” I said.

Hari just sighed, and Liane snorted out a laugh.

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Looking around the room, I asked, “Is everyone else okay?”

Jen nodded. “Some of them are a little shaken, like Janette, but she’ll be fine in the morning. The others just couldn’t move, so I moved them out of the room to relax a little. They are likely still there.” She then raised her voice. “Geo! Larry!”

And sure enough, both men came back into the main hall, and despite the brief hesitation when they saw Lily, they carried on to their seats. Larry commented first,

“Now I’m going to have to deal with all the phoenix pilgrims, you know. Especially with that,” he said, pointing to the burnt floor.

Geo laughed. “Don’t pretend like you won’t be putting your prices up from tomorrow and commissioning a sign saying the phoenix visited—or just selling that piece of floor directly.”

Larry waved the comment away, but even I could see that was exactly what he was thinking.

Milo took a seat with them and pulled out a drink.

Hari looked around. “I think it’s best that we leave tomorrow. We’ll let everyone have a sleep-in and leave just before lunchtime.”

***

And that’s exactly what happened. Crisplet and Lily spent the night in discussion, and as such I ended up in a room of my own. The beds upstairs were so much nicer than the floor in the storage closet I had originally slept in here.

The next morning I saw the perimeter the guards had set up around the inn—they were not messing around.

Geo had made us all breakfast, which consisted of scrambled eggs on top of crusty toasted bread. It tasted great, both buttery and salty.