"Maybe I should have argued to go with one of them." Was the thought at the front of Kage's mind as she walked over the ship's decks, which completely resembled wooden roads this far into the city.
She turned randomly into an alley between two houses and immediately regretted the decision, as it seemed to lead into only narrower streets. She considered turning around, but was already committed at this point. She turned to the right, then back to the left when another right turn didn't appear.
She had agreed to go East through the city, which was probably no better or worse than any other direction, but even with a another map they'd bought from that vendor, anxiety built up with every minute that passed.
Sge was getting turned around since every building was made of the same dark wood, and this was all residential, not a good place to be looking for a mercenary. Eventually, hitting a dead end actually filled her with relief.
She took the chance to rest on a step and calm her mind.
Her hands felt rought wood below her as she allowed herself to close her eyes and focus on her surroundings.
Though the floor seemed completely steady this deep into the city, Kage was sure she could still feel the motion of the sea far below, and in this quiet alley, hear the soft sound of the water sloshing between the bottom of the ships.
Her mind finally slowed down enough for her to think properly, though there was stil that one thing that appeared whenever her thoughts were empty, that thing she had to push to the back of her mind once again.
"If I'm going to be searching in this city, I'm going to have to get a feel for my surroundings first." She thought, and opened her eyes to look at her surroundings in that new light.
The houses were stacked precariously against each other, which was perfect for what she had in mind.
Using the slanted space between two houses, she maneuvered her foot until she felt stable, got a good grip with her hands, and clambered upwards.
Pulling herself onto the roof, she looked around again, but there were too many two or three-storied houses to get a good view.
Kage dashed across the rooftop looking for a better vantage point, trying to keep her footsteps light to not disturb anyone below. Or, possibly, fall through thanks to some wood that got a little too wet.
Her eyes caught something, a dangling rope ladder from what she assumed was this city's equivalent of a tree house, a little tower barely three feet off the ground made of thin wood and curtains as walls.
The rope ladder stopped at a trap door on the roof which Kage stepped gingerly around, though she was sure it was locked from from inside.
She climbed up the rungs and slipped over the wall into the perch.
It was barely big enough for her crouched down, and a few cute trinkets hanging from the ceiling jingled against her head.
She felt a little guilty about using some kid's hideout, but it wasn't like she was messing anything up.
The perch provided a good view of the area around her, and she tried to cement the layout of her city in her head.
She had apparently gone further than she'd realized, since the sea was visible behind the further buildings to the east.
She consulted her map. A little to the north was an area marked "Guilds", which seemed like a much better place to look than where she was now.
She had no hope of finding someone since she couldn't see the roads from up here, but now that she had a better idea of the area she felt a little more confident about climbing down from the miniature watchtower back onto the roof.
However, that was the next question: did she want to continue across the roofs of the city and risk attracting attention, or brave getting lost in the alleys again?
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Kage trudged through the streets once more. The housing district that had seemed so endless before soon bled into bigger and more commercial buildings now that she knew better where she was going.
She passed the Woodworker's guild, Tailor's guild, and then something she was surprised neither she, Artlem, or Shole had thought of as an ideal place to start looking.
"ADVENTURE'S GUILD" was painted rather beautifully in dark blue letters above the double doors of a large building, still made of the same dark wood as the rest of the city, but with an intricate mural of waves, strange sea creatures, and figures with tridents defending boats from their attack.
Though this place was a good idea of where a place to search, her heart immidiately filled with dread.
She still knew so little of the world it would be easy to cause a scene, especially in an area with lots of people.
There were no windows on the first floor, so she couldn't look in. Sure, it was likely a public building, but going in blind was absolutely against her instincts.
Nevertheless, she took a breath and made her way across the street, eyes darting around at any passersby.
She slowly approached the doors, and the jumped to the side as they opened.
"It's crap!" A young man pushed open the door before stopping to put an arm around his beautiful red-robed partner.
"You know, I heard there's some crazy stuff going down in Rhoringdall right now, and you're telling me no one wants to hire me?"
"They just don't get see how strong you are!" The girl said. "Maybe you should get a tattoo. On your forehead! That would be so cool!"
This was her chance. Not allowing herself time to think, Kage slipped up to the door as they passed her by, catching it's carved wooden handle and slipping around through the doorway.
The first thing she noticed as she moved up against the wall on the inside were the lights. All around the walls, strange lanterns stuck out, they didn't seem to contain any fire, but emitted a pure, blueish light.
A calligriphic decorated the bottom of each once, which Kage assumed was the cause of the light. She quickly traced the shape in the air with her finger, committing it to memory.
As for the rest of the building, it wasn't at all crowded, but there were a enough people milling around where she didn't think she would seem out of place.
A couple of counters with workers behind them occupied the edges of the room, the against murals similar to the one on the outside. There were two curved stairways leading up to another floor near one of the desks, but no one else seemed to be near it.
"Probably members or guild masters only." She thought.
And with that thought, she remembered she was supposed to be looking for a specific person and scanned the room. While there were a few tall, strong-looking men, none of them had red hair, and no sign of horns, so she quickly slipped out the same way she entered.
She rushed away from the entrance into an alley and breathed a sigh of relief.
Though she'd known it in the back of her mind, she realized fully that though she was honorable enough to fulfill her bargain and search for Bard, she really didn't want to be the one to find him.
She took one more glance around and started walking, in no particular direction.
She hated the idea that she was so scared of just finding someone. She remembered not many years ago when she had traveled to a world called Emarin to go to a festival. She had put on a hood in case her hair or eyes would stand out, and just went. She had chatted with vendors, eaten all kinds of strange food, and even horribly copied their fast-paced dance with a crowd in a square under multicolored light.
What happened to that person?
Well, she knew, but immidiately pushed that thought to the back of her mind, which made it even harder not to think of, like a virus bleeding into even her good memories.
"Oh shoot." She said aloud, looking up.
The clearly-marked Guilds and craftsmen's buildings were nowhere to be seen, all around her were nothing but those blank, dark wooden buildings.
She was lost again.
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