Dance of the Gods

After beating up those thugs, Veronica didn't quite feel like exploring anymore so instead she went out to the main street and got up on an unfixed carriage. There weren't too many people aboard, so the journey back only took twenty minutes.

She got off near the inn and walked inside. The main room was empty if you ignored James at the counter, that was understandable though since it was sunday. The inn closed sooner on this day than it usually did. The only real customers were people who were renting rooms.

Veronica was about to go into the kitchen trying to find Suze, but suddenly James caught her hand. It actually took a lot of effort for Veronica to not evade the move.

Standing in front of her, James looked her up and down only once, then led her to the counter and poured a drink for her. She didn't understand what the fuss was about, but as she looked down on her dirty shoes, it became obvious.

"So... Veronica... Is there something you want to talk about?" His voice sounded suspicious and awfully similar to a fatherly tone. She raised an eyebrow, then sighed and looked away.

"Nothing really... I... I might've nearly gotten robbed, but instead beat the four thugs up with ease..." She was looking away a bit embarrassed, but soon a booming laughter shook the glasses below the counter.

"By the gods! You did what?" He quickly pulled over a seat and poured a drink for himself too. His voice sounded excited and joyful. "Tell me everything!"

In the next ten minutes Veronica recounted both her self training in the park and fighting the thugs in the alley. Throughout her whole speech James laughed his ass off, it was so loud that at some point Suze, Sofie and even Alex joined to listen to her little excursion.

"...Then I tied all of their hands together and left them to the police. I figured some other victim would've already reported the crime." Both James and Alex were in tears from the laughter, while Sofie just had a small shy smile on her face.

Suze's reaction wasn't nearly as nice as the others. She just looked a bit sad and dejected, then suddenly she seemed to have had an idea.

"You know what you need?" She reached below her skirt and pulled out a small revolver. She placed it horizontally on the table. Veronica nearly jumped out of her skin from both bewilderment and confusion, but Suze only smile at her as she said, "You need a weapon!"

Veronica turned fully speechless. Slowly she reached out her hand to take the small revolver, but Suze quickly pulled it away and placed it back into its holster on her thigh.

"Not mine! You should get your own firearm!" Suze said it like she should already know how to get one, but only one place came to her mind.

"Should I buy one from the black market?" Asked Veronica with confusion, she didn't feel like that would be a good idea.

"Well, that is an option, but you should try to get one legally first! It would be much better to have a registered firearm, it will save you a lot of future headache." Said Alex and knowing his real identity as a pirate captain, Veronica inclined to believe his opinion.

"And how does that exactly work? Do I just waltz into the Courthouse and ask for a gun?" Everyone including her laughed a bit at the ridiculous statement.

"The thing is, she isn't entirely wrong! You need to head into Courthouse and ask for a firearm license, but before they give you that you need to complete a two week training course..." Sofie was strangely enough the one who spoke, she said a few other useful things before Veronica changed the topic.

"Hey, guys I wanted to ask something about that book you gave me on mysticism." This sudden change of topic surprised the four of them, but soon a small smile appeared on Suze's face.

"So you finally started reading it! About time!" Veronica didn't deign to respond to her, instead she just rolled her eyes and purposefully ignored Suze.

"Anyway, I wanted to ask... Who wrote that book... He or she has a very strange sense of humor!" The others became a bit more solemn for some reason and nodded in agreement with her statement.

Nobody said anything for a while, but eventually James couldn't handle the awkward silence.

"Well, about that..." Before he could continue Alex cut in. "We have no idea... Nobody has!"

Suddenly Suze began speaking... "The book... I mean the original book that was written is very strange..."

They stayed silent again, there was obviously something they weren't telling her. Something huge and very important. Since non of the adults were in the mood to continue this job fell on the quietest of the group, and soon Sofie started explaining.

"The book was found hundreds of years ago in a random cave. It was placed on a rock pedestal and left there for the elements... It was very weird, the people who actually found it there say that the book should've been destroyed from the moisture in the air, but when they opened it... It was in perfect condition, like time itself preserved it!"

Sofie turned silent, but what she said just raised even more questions in Veronica's mind.

"So... There is no author?... Or at least nobody knows who wrote it..." Sofie looked at her a bit strangely, but still none of the others wanted to talk, so she eventually continued.

"Nope... There were no signature in the book and nothing to indicate who the writer could've been... Also, the people who later looked at the book judged it to be far older than anything else from our current time... I don't know if that is true, that would mean the book is thousands of years old..."

'Dammit! I thought this was something new, maybe a decade or two old, but it seems like my ambitions of meeting the mysterious message's owner was only a dream... The individual has to be dead, even the Gods aren't as old as that book!'

She was about to drop the subject, but her heart seemed to be reluctant. It was a weird feeling, but since the book said to follow her heart, she thought to ask another question before changing topic.

"Is there no message or anything that could lead to the author's identity?" As she spoke the four of them looked at one another uncomfortably and with a bit of reluctance Suze spoke.

"There actually was a message... A bit further into the cave there was a large carving on one of the stone walls. It hinted the existence of a second volume of the first book, but the clues the writer left behind made finding it impossible..." Veronica's eyes had a small glint in them.

This was something she could go on, there was even a chance of getting something really precious and finding out more! She reined in her excitement, since that would've made the others suspicious.

"Do you happen to know the exact message, or the clues the anonymous person wrote?" With a move of her head, Suze sent her daughter away silently and soon she came back with a written note. She handed it to Suze first, who after quickly reading it, gave it to Veronica.

"If you wonder where the next volume is, here is a clue at which only one person should know the answer to:

Ever wanted to visit London, or maybe a city similar to it?

The weather is quite awful, but also liberating!

It is especially nice where the Thames meets the North Sea!

Be sure to bring a snorkel!"

Veronica read through the message dozens of times and even transcribed it to a different piece of paper.

It was obvious why nobody could understand its meaning, they had to be from Earth to have even the slightest idea of what the author entailed.

Unlike them, she knew exactly what the writer was talking about, but still the clues were just too hard to make sense of in the moment. Eventually after reading through it nearly the hundredth time, she put the paper away.

They talked a bit more, but soon Veronica excused herself and went straight to her room, where she started pacing again.

Downstairs before her kind of family, she didn't show any signs of the confusion, excitement and just straight up fear that was currently pushing down on her very soul.

If the emoji wasn't an obvious clue about the author's knowledge or origins, this made her believe it hundred percent. Suddenly her steps stopped and she seemed to think a lot about something.

In the next few moments only silence reined in her room, but in a second it was broken by the sound of gleeful laughter.

In the middle of the small room Veronica was dancing happily, since she realized something about these books.

After spending nearly a month in this world, she had finally found a clue to get back!