NOVEL WEB 19: Foreboding
"These clothes are so restrictive." Talitha pulled at the sides of her new white robe. "How do people move around in these things?" Since she had gotten changed Talitha's movements had become awkward. Jonathan felt a bit bad for asking her to wear the conservative and somewhat restrictive attire but they needed to disguise their appearance if they were going to blend in. The robes slipped over the top of their current clothes and Jonathan thought they were quite comfortable. Talitha probably hadn't worn anything that consisted of more than a few strands of fabric in her life.
Jonathan had started to lay the groundwork for his 'plan'. First, he checked into a local inn using his name, which he would be sure to check out of the following morning. Second, he sold some of the goods from his cren, Saikhi had proven to be a surprisingly good sales woman and netted more money then he had expected from some of the sales. Third, he got Talitha and Saikhi to ask random townsfolk for directions to Arvon Port, a town in the opposite direction to their destination of Rainfell. Really Jonathan's 'plan' was a loosely joined set of red herrings. The one advantage that he had over the Inquisition was that they didn't know Jonathan was on to them. Hopefully they would be fooled into travelling towards Arvon Port and by the time they realized they had been duped, Jonathan and his group would be long gone.
In the short term, Jonathan needed somewhere to hide and unlike Cliffside, Sidim didn't have an abundance of dilapidated houses and dark alleyways. Everything here was clean and inhabited.
'Well I guess I should ask... her.' Jonathan sent Saikhi and Talitha off to gather more information about the town and retrieved the guidebook from his cloak; it was much harder to retrieve with the extra layer of his new white robe getting in the way. He leaned against Stew. The cren provided cover from passers by, he didn't want some random villager to see Lily and start asking questions.
With a sigh Jonathan opened the tome. Lily's blue translucent form sprung forth from it's pages.
"You don't call, you don't write, whatever is a girl to do?" Lily said indignantly.
"Sorry, been too busy being screwed over by the whole damn world you brought me to." Jonathan griped. "Plus, you're not usually super helpful."
"Fine Mr. 'My life is so terrible now that I get to fuck a bunch of beautiful women'. How can I be of service?" Lily bowed mockingly. She did have a bit of a point.
"I need a place to hide from the Inquisition. Stabby spear-lady and some Faen tracker are right on my heels. Any ideas?"
"Grand Inquisitor Zigarete and the Tracker? Oh, well then, you might actually be screwed." Lily pondered. This added to the long list of things that did not fill Jonathan with confidence. "Well there are the Sidim catacombs. Nothing down there but a bunch of dusty statues." Lily seemed to know where they were without Jonathan explicitly telling her. "You are very likely to get lost down there though. Plus getting in is restricted to members of the Sisterhood. You could always try sneaking in through the chapel though."
"Oh that reminds me, are undead a thing in this world?" Jonathan interjected. "It would make me feel a hell of a lot better going into forbidden catacombs if I knew I wasn't going to be eaten by a horde of awaiting zombies."
"Don't be ridiculous." Lily laughed. Jonathan let out a sigh of relief. "Zombies don't just hang about in catacombs without a purpose, this isn't a roleplaying game. You should be much more afraid of the beasts you might find down there. The Cult of Sisters are quite a freaky bunch. Honestly, whose idea was it for you to hide here?" Lily's words left Jonathan quite a lot to unpack.
"So zombies are real? No wait-" That wasn't important right now. "What monsters are down there? What do you mean by freaky? Like, 'I want to try rough stuff' freaky or 'I want to cut you with a knife' freaky? There was this one Sister that my powers-" Jonathan rushed to get as many questions in as possible.
"Woah, slow down there Speedy Gonzalez, I can barely understand you." Lily patted the air with her hands. "The Cult of Sisters keeps several beasts in warded-off edges of the catacombs to experiment on, they shouldn't be a problem as long as you-" And she vanished.
Jonathan opened and closed the guidebook in rapid succession. "Oh come on!" Jonathan threw the guidebook against the ground. "Just perfect." He sighed. He reluctantly picked up the tome and dusted off it's cover. Once he was safe he was going to find a way to extend the battery life of his book to last longer than an off-brand Kindle.
"Are you alright Master?" Saikhi peered out from behind Stew. "Who were you talking to?"
"Oh Saikhi, you're back fast. It was just a long distance call." Jonathan stuttered. He used many strange words and phrases that Saikhi had never heard before, Gotham must be a strange and wondrous place.
"Sorcery-stuff." Jonathan added after seeing Saikhi's obvious puzzlement. He wasn't ready to let the others in on the whole Lily business just yet. Saikhi nodded.
"Everyone is heading toward the chapel. A weekly service I think." Saikhi explained, "Tali said she would scout it out and meet us there." Jonathan now noticed the crowds of people converging on the chapel down the road. It was more Gothic in architecture than the surrounding buildings and much more grandiose. The afternoon sun poured through it's massive stained glass windows.
"Alright, let's put old Stew here in the stables and go find her." Jonathan made sure to give the stable master a hefty tip to keep his mouth shut before leaving the cren there.
Jonathan and Saikhi tried to blend in as they entered through the archway doors of the chapel. Inside, people filled the rows of wooden pews and colours from the stained glass windows swirled and mixed into fantastic patterns on the chapel's floor. Jonathan and Saikhi quietly took a seat near the entrance. Their eyes scanned around, trying to spot Talitha in the crowd. At the far side of the chapel stood a large marble platform on which three attractive Sisters, dressed in pure onyx gowns stood. The middle Sister stepped forward and began to speak.
"Sisters and brothers we are here today to give thanks to the Goddess for her many years of protection. Her beauty has rained down upon Sidim since its founding and will continue to do so for years to come." The Sister projected her voice without it losing any of its splendour. "Let us take a moment to give our quiet thanks." The whole congregation closed and lowered their eyes.
Jonathan spotted Talitha as she waved to him from the doorway on the side of the main hall. Jonathan and Saikhi quietly made their way over to her. They entered the side room and gently shut the door behind themselves, being careful not to make a sound that would interrupt the congregation's quiet thanks. Talitha raised her finger to her mouth as she led the pair down a narrow flight of stairs. The stairs ended in a rounded tiled chamber with a metal gate which was left ajar on the other end. A collapsed figure in a white gown laid unconscious on it's threshold. Saikhi muffled a squeal with her hand.
"Tali, what have you done?" Jonathan asked in a steady tone, he should have thought more about Talitha's wild tendencies before letting her off on her own.
"I saw the witch from before and followed her down here. Don't worry daddy, she will be fine, I think." Talitha grabbed Sala's limp form and began to drag her into the tunnel beyond the gate. "We need to move, and we can't leave her here." Talitha added.
Jonathan's plan was falling apart, he still needed to check out of the inn and sow a few more red herrings around the town but now he had an unconscious body to deal with. At least Talitha showed initiative, he shrugged, as he followed Talitha into the dark and foreboding tunnel.