Matthew of the Silver Star

Te beauty of this place was a little different than that of Magnolia. Magnolia seemed to glow with an air of happiness. Its people, buildings, and surroundings just screamed happy. Clover, on the other hand, was beauty by its dictionary definition. The buildings and people seemed extravagant and very busy. It seemed as though they all wore suits or fancy dresses and they were in a cycle of always being late. While citizens of Magnolia would stop and wave at every passerby; Clover citizens just walked past you or nudged you out of the way. Another difference was in their judgment. In magnolia nobody batted an eye at her cloaked appearance, but here she had drawn so much attention that it compelled her to change clothes. It was actual rather distressing that the only time these people took a look at you was to judge your appearance. If possible, Aila wanted to move on to Era as soon as possible.

Unfortunately for the young mage, night was fast approaching and all of the time spent beneath the scrutinizing eyes of rich people had left her rather tired. With a sigh she began checking the prices of the inns she passed. As expected they were much more expensive than those in Magnolia or Hargeon. In fact, she didn’t have a single night’s rate. She collapsed outside of one of them. She looked over the area, before adding ‘being lost’ to her list of problems. This town wasn’t too fun. Her eyes casually drifted up and caught sight of a request board.

“Perfect” she whispered to herself as she stood up. Her sore muscles complained, and she took those complaints into consideration. However, she wasn’t too fond of sleeping outside, especially in this town. She tugged what appeared to be a wanted ad from the board. At the same time a guard appeared from nowhere and called out to her.

“Ah are you taking that request?” Aila jumped at the random voice and turned around ready to call a weapon. Behind her she saw a small mouse standing on its hind legs.

“Y-yes” she replied with a small quiver in her voice.

“I’m a familiar from the justice department” The mouse stated, as though it was reading her mind “I was triggered by you pulling the request off of the board”

Lowering her guard Aila crouched down to inspect the creature. It was actually kinda cute. Her hand reached out and attempted to poke it in the stomach. Sadly, it went right through.

“Sorry” the mouse replied looking at her hand “But I’m just an image”

The mouse went on to describe the appearance of the man along with his regular hang outs. It then lead her back to the main street before fizzling out of existence. Aila stood for a moment, still dazed at the intricacies of Clover requests. Did all of them summon animals like that? The shock slowly died down and Aila began her search for this ‘Matthew’ guy.

500/1000

This guy was good. No matter where she searched the man was never around. She went to almost all of his usual hang outs, his home, his mother’s home and even to his supposed girlfriend’s house. The last one was rather awkward and she had been kind of short in speaking, but Aila wasn’t exactly a guard so she couldn’t force her to answer. She looked at her scribbles once more and up at a nearby bar. It was rather ritzy looking for a supposed drunk criminal, but if they sold alcohol then it was a good place to look.

“Sorry little miss” A rather large man said while glaring at her, “but you appear to be a little too young for this establishment”

Ah, so they actually paid attention here? Hargeon had usually been ok as long as the person could walk and there were no guards in sight. “Actually” she held up the sketch she had drawn of the man “Have you seen this man?”

The man looked rather angry, “Yeah I threw him out of here just a while ago” he said “Real scumbag that guy, should’ve known he would be wanted by the guard” He then proceeded to point her in the right direction.

It wasn’t too hard to find him. He was lying face down in the gutter like some cliché character that had lost it all. Her magic circle appeared and out popped her weapon, a rather long scythe given to her by her brother. He had named it Midnight. She placed the blade side on the ground and reached down to shake the man awake. The man stirred slightly before grabbing her arm and tossing her into a nearby wall. She hit with a loud thud and felt the pain blossom throughout her back.

“Damned mercenaries” He muttered as he stood up “Always underestimating some-“ Aila kicked off of the wall and brought the blunt end of the scythe down on his head. He attempted to stop it with his hand, underestimating the small girl’s strength. This proved to be a bad choice and before he knew it he was lying on his back on the concrete with the glinting metal of her scythe blade pressed to his chest.

He burst into laughter “Whheew, everyone is a mage nowadays I guess” He called Aila’s bluff and stood up quickly, pushing the scythe away with a metal bar from his hand. This caught Aila off guard and she almost stumbled over. However, she used the moment to spin and bring the staff end of the scythe back into his side with all of her strength. The man had attempted a spell, but in his drunken state the spell had gone off course and veered past her head.

This was the feared Matthew of the Silver Star? No matter how she looked at him, the man seemed like an ordinary drunk. Sure he had tossed a spell or two but they had been shoddy at best. The man even managed to sleep the whole way back to the guard station, leaving poor Aila to carry his full weight. Once there the guard paid her and offered a room for the night at a nearby hotel, so she could rest from her injuries.

Aila happily accepted both.

1051/1000