The crowd at Milly's isn't that impressive at this time of day, and Yel's food - a roll of sweet bread stuffed with fried meat and melted cheese - arrives fairly quickly, along with the remaining portion of the wine bottle. The waitress winks at Zith before she sways her way back across the room.
"Oh, I don't know. I'd like to think that my disappearance would be mourned by certain demographics."
Zith's eyes track the waitress as she walks back across the room.
Yel just shakes her head. "Mourned, sure. But will anybody be out for blood if you end up in the Old Bear's stomach?" She takes a bite out of her sandwich and chews reflectively. "I wonder where the money for our stipend comes from." Her tone suggests that most of her attention has wandered off someplace.
"You could make more. Maybe one of your friends?" Jacinthe calls at the retreating form of the boy.
She examines the scroll with a sigh. "Is this for me or for the squad? Maybe I should wait until everyone is assembled to open it. I can't imagine what he'd have to say already." She sets the scroll on the table and fusses with the beverages and cups again before finally pouring herself a small drink and taking a seat, sipping as she eyes the scroll for a while.
Finally, her curiosity gets the better of her and she breaks open the seal to read the mayor's missive. "Maybe it's something just for me. No point sitting here and wondering, is there."
Zith clears his throat to bring Yel back to the present.
"Well, we best head over to Jacinthe's new home. I did promise her the opportunity to entertain her new comrades."
Zith signals for the bill, as well as an extra bottle of wine to take with him.
Also wrapped up in the scroll are four smaller scrips, each one granting ownership of a property to a member of the squad.
The whole thing smells vaguely of petrichor.
The bill arrives for Zith, along with another bottle of wine. In addition to a 'lunchtime decoration discount' that brings the bill down to two shins, someone has crudely drawn a lewd picture on the bottom of the bill.
Zith shows the drawing proudly to Yel before leaving three shins on the table and departing the restaurant en route to Jacinthe's house.
Yel gives an appreciative smirk at the drawing, and is entirely happy to let Zith foot the bill. She drains her glass so's not to let perfectly good drink go to waste, but takes the remaining half-sandwich with her to eat on the way.
It takes some trial and error, but Zith and Yel manage to navigate their way to Jacinthe's house, which looks fairly nice but not wildly upscale compared to their own new homes. There's an elderly man wearing all green trimming the rosewall, which is lush and green despite the frigid winter weather, and a half-frozen crossel bush growing in the yard next to the house.
By this point, Jacinthe has finished her first drink (and up to her third, if she kept drinking).
Jacinthe peers out the door for the umpteenth time. Finally rewarded, she waves her glass at the approaching pair. "Welcome!" she cries happily, having neglected to eat anything, "Where's Aneon and his crechur? They're late! Come in!"
She flings the door wide and waves Yel and Zith inside. "Drinky?"
Yel enters when invited, and grins only a little uncomfortably at the offer of - whatever it is that Jacinthe has been having. "Thanks." Maybe it would help her to not mind the static so much. She accepts the cup and downs half of it at once.
"Haven't seen any suspicious creatures with baubles; dunno where they went."
Jacinthe doesn't seem to notice anything odd about Zith and Yel showing up together. Moreover, she doesn't seem to care, toasting them both with one of the mismatched cups.
"Well. The Mayor has sent over to me the list of missings. Missing peoples. Persons. It's here." She waves the parchment. "Oh. And the gangers. They look bad. And here. Here is your houses." She hands both of them a small scroll. Zith's is labeled 'Aneon'. Yel's is labeled 'Jacinthe'. She fumbles the other two scrolls onto the table.
Zith smiles as he adroitly hands his cup to Jacinthe
"Allow me to sort these out, dear."
Zith scoops the remaining scrolls from the table and looks at them.
Jacinthe looks in some bafflement at the cup in each hand and, shrugging, takes a sip from each. "Handy, that."
Yel blinks at the name on "her" scroll, unclear what to do about it or about Jacinthe herself. She surrenders it to Zith and pockets the correct one.
When she happens to be facing half-away from Jacinthe for a moment, Yel raises an eyebrow at Zith.
Jacinthe looks suspiciously at her two cups and sets them both down on the empty table, puzzling at its emptiness. "I should eat something." She starts banging through the pantry, which is bare.
"Think we should look for the missing people first?"
"Eat first. If they were easy to find, they wouldn't be missing." Yel rubs the bridge of her nose, where the first twinge of a headache is starting. She drains her cup and leaves it on the table with the others. "Buy something on the way there?"
As Jacinthe turns towards the pantry, Zith winks at Yel and whispers, "Always good to have a fall back place to run to when things turn sour."
Zith speaks in a normal tone of voice.
"Perhaps we should start by reviewing the list of the missing and see if there are any obvious connections?
Jacinthe lays the role of the missing on the table. "Recognize anybody?"
The suggestion is met with a shrug. "Works." Yel spreads the skrip out flat and hooks her foot around a chair leg to pull it up to her.
Zith puts his feet up on the table, leans back, closes his eyes.
"Read them out, if you would, Yel."
Yel skims the list, frowning at one of the entries. She sits with her right leg curled underneath her, absently tapping the heel of her left shoe against the chair. "Azuron Kanel - has a habit of staying out for days at a time, but he's been gone for two and a half weeks now. Maril Gond - usually goes with Azuron, but this time left a day later, so his parents are worried. Helt Haskin - been following Maril around for a while now, or so I hear. This says she's been going for walks in That Place lately, and was last seen on the same day as Maril. Maybe a group there, maybe not."
She continues, "Paiark - you might remember him. Mutant with the skin that looks halfway to being synth. Spends a lot of time off by himself. Marissa - she's got a wine birthmark on the left side of her face; goes foraging in That Place every other day or so. And the most recent is Jendo Calia - salvager by trade. She's got a really cool numenera eye that I've always wanted a better look at. Hasn't been seen in a week." Yel sounds troubled at that last one.
"Let's see. Azuron goes out without Maril. There's trouble. A lover's spat? Then Azuron's rival, Helt, follows Maril. Then the loner Paiark, forager Marissa, and salvager Jendo." Jacinthe ponders blearily. "Azuron left after a quarrel with Maril. Maril followed, only to be killed by Azuron. Helt finds Azuron with Maril's body and kills him. Then, while covering up her crime, is discovered by the other three and kills them, then flees." Jacinthe frowns and nods. "Yes, sounds right. At least we can recover the bodies. Maybe we can even catch the murdering Maril."
Yel gives Jacinthe the hairy eyeball. "You think half the list here was killed by a dead man?"
Jacinthe's eyes go wide. "You think so? I guess it could be. I've heard of things like that. Like the dead walk and things. We'll have to be prepared." She pats the bejeweled rapier hilt and nods decisively, then looks to the silent party.
"Zith, what do you think?"
"I think that, as much as it pains me, we probably have to leave the comforting embrace of taverns and venture into That Place. Should we maybe try to find Aneon before venturing out?"
Jacinthe nods. "Definitely. If we can find Aneon, we can find anyone."
Yel takes some time to figure out what Jacinthe might be thinking compared to what she's saying, glaring abstractedly into the tabletop. "Don't count anybody dead until we've got a body. That Place is full of hidey-holes. It's where people go when they don't want to be bothered for a while. Last time somebody didn't ever come back was, uh... three years ago. Summertime." She strains to remember, then snaps her fingers. "Trakel Dowel - that was his name."
She slides out of her chair and onto her feet. "Sure. His house, first? I bet he's filling it with baubles and forgot about us."
Jacinthe nods to Yel. "Lead on. I'll lock up as we leave.
She ushers her guests outside and carefully secures her domicile, then joins the rest of the crew on the way to Aneon's. "I bet that place will really be filled with baubles sooner rather than later. Say, Yel. Do the baubles bother your "hearing" like I do?" Her path is rather straight, all things considered.
Yel is taking care to walk on the other side of Zith, as if that would shield her from Jacinthe's static. Or maybe just prevent the glaive from blundering into her. "Uh. It's different. You just have noise, kinda, but it's not really noise for the ears. Baubles are quiet that way, but holding them gives the feeling like the start of a cold, or maybe the one that tells you you're going to have a hangover but it hasn't got started yet." She tilts her head at Jacinthe, "They don't bother you?"
Jacinthe leans forward to peer at Yel around Zith. "Huh? Why would they?" She seems genuinely befuddled, but this is Jacinthe.
The trek to Aneon's new abode is fairly simple - a quick trek through Midmarket to avoid the Hatchet for now, then across Errol's Bridge. The house is the first one on the other side, set apart from other homes by about half again the distance that Jacinthe's yard occupies. A pair of winter-stunted trees flank the building on the east and west sides, and thick traceries of frost coat the outside.
There's no sign of anyone being around the place.
"Hmm, I would have thought we'd have heard his pets by now."
Zith walks up to the house and quietly tries the door.
The door is unlocked, and opens when Zith tries the knob.
The inside of the building is lit by the baubles worked into the material of the walls and roof, and it's been cleaned recently, but there's no evidence that anyone's been inside in the last day or so. There's a small leather-wrapped bundle on the table in the main room, though.
"Hmm. It doesn't look as if Aneon's been here yet."
Zith points out the frost on the doorknob.
"I wonder what's in that that satchel though ..."
Zith's fingers twitch subconsciously as he steps into the main room.
Yel follows Zith in uninvited, since she isn't keen on waiting outside in this season.
Jacinthe barges right in as well. "Aneon! Thuman! Anyone home?"
Jacinthe's calls are met by silence from the rest of the house.
Up close, Zith can see that the package has been rolled, folded, and secured with a length of twine. It's fairly bulky.
Jacinthe wanders from room to room, looking for any trace of Aneon.
Yel looks around, "No, nobody since the cleaners. Otherwise we'd smell the thuman, even if he didn't want to leave any loose baubles behind." She checks the package for any sort of 'from' or 'welcome' note.
No notes on the package.
Yel shrugs. "Must've had something more important to do, first. Think he went to That Place before us, to try and have his creature track the missing people?"
"Not unless he thought there might be baubles he'd have to share, and I think he knows better than that," Jacinthe opines, seeming to sober somewhat with Aeon's absence.