2nd adventure: sightseeing and debrief

Steve affects to look supremely bored. He's slouched in the chair and leaning on the table, his head held aloft by his left hand."Steve Oldturn."

"What about Truth or Dare?" suggests Zelk with a deadpan tone.

"I think I changed my mind," says Fedler.

"Well, I'm out of ideas. We could strike up a conversation with the receptionist."

She gestures at the man sitting at his desk a few meters away, who is writing something under the light of a candle. A few lanterns have been set up against the walls, but the room is fairly dark.

___________________

The mage starts writing down Steve's name.

"Now, I'm going to ask you questions about what happened exactly on that plaza. You answer me truthfully, and in details, and you might get out of here in the hour. How does that sound?"

He hasn't looked up from his sheets of paper, and simply keeps writing.

"I talked to a statue, insulted it, and then it pretended to attack me because it has an awesome sense of humor. The end. Can I go now?"

"Got nothing to say to them." - returns Mihai, though he's finally being able to take his focus off the matter at hand - "And i'm not sure we'd all be as sunny after having to spill secrets to each other."

The man looks up from his folder, puts his quill down, takes his glasses off, and stares at Steve. He appears tired.

"Answer my questions, in details, and you will be allowed to leave within the hour. If you refuse because of a misguided and childish desire to act defiant against the authorities of Zest's Gate, you will be transferred into a cell for the next 24 hours; this is how long I am allowed to imprison any citizen of traveler I deem 'dangerous'. Whether it's true or not doesn't matter."

He looks at the door, and then back at Steve.

"Do I have your cooperation?"

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"I'm not spilling any secret," continues Fedler. She examines the waiting area, which is empty except for their group and the receptionist. "...That's not how I imagined this evening would go."

"Me neither," says Zelk, irritated. "Not at all."

"What details? I just told you everything I know."

"I'll be a little happier if i never see Mage-r Asshole again." - Mihai mutters - "By the way, i'm not sure what we're supposed to be anymore, seeing as Konrad outed us back there."

Irritation appears on the mage's facial features, but he remains calm.

"No, you haven't."

For a short moment, he does nothing but stare at Steve. Until he reaches with his hand into his bag and pulls out woven shackles, which he puts on the table. These kind of shackles are used to block a Cursed's outburst, but they are also used to prevent a mage from casting a spell.

"Will you answer my questions?"

OOC:

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Zelk glares at Mihai, and motions at the receptionist with her head. Then, she lets him lip-read this, "Shut. Up. No. Details."

"Hey, there's no need for that. If I wasn't willing to cooperate I wouldn't be here. But you guys need to understand too that you are being pretty ridiculous right now. I'm not the bad guy here. I didn't create your statue problem. I was arrested because your officer on scene lost control of his area and is now trying to cover his own ass by hauling me in for no reason. I would have come here on my own and answered any questions you had but it didn't go that way up to now. I hope you can see why I'm so salty about all this. So how about you put those away, introduce yourself, and we'll try to talk to each other like civilized human beings trying to help each other out? You know, how it always should have been."

Mihai blinks back at her like she's one to talk. Then leans back in his chair and mouths - "Sure."

The mage stares at Steve for another few seconds before he puts the shackles back into his bag.

"My name is Robert Victivius. I am the Commissioner of Zest's police forces, and I'm already planning to deal with the officer who 'arrested' you. You also do not seem to understand the situation you are in, so let me explain; my subordinate has woken me up twenty minutes ago to tell me a mercenary has managed to anger the statue of my ancestor, which promptly pretended to attack you after you insulted it, just like my great-great-grandfather did centuries ago to one young man such as yourself. It's for that reason alone that I am willing to believe you are not a threat to this city or its citizens, but you need to walk me through everything that happened if you wish to spend your night in your own bed."

He waits for Steve to respond.

"No kidding? He really did that? Well, let's start from the beginning then. My friends and I heard about the statues walking around at night and thought it would be interesting to go and see..." He'll walk the Commissioner through the night, going beyond the call of duty to answer in as much detail as possible. So long as it doesn't threaten the mission of course. He'll use cover names whenever he can, only using the name Konrad since that was a name he himself said out loud within earshot of civilians. He mentally kicks himself for lowering his guard before the mission was officially over.

All in all, this interview takes forty-five minutes. At some points of the story, the commissioner interrupts Steve to ask him specific questions before he notes the answer on paper. Once it is done, the mage swiftly closes the folder, and stands up from his seat.

"Let me escort you back to the waiting area."

One minute later, they're back with the rest of the adjunct.

"Steve," says Zelk with relief, and immediately stands up.

"Now," interjects the commissioner, "if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to sleep." He turns around and leave the building.

"I didn't think it would be that fast," adds the lieutenant.

The black mage smiles at everyone, but especially Zelk. "It almost wasn't. I think you guys must be rubbing off on me as I was pretty salty about the whole thing but I managed to keep it under control and Commissioner Victivius and I managed to have a pleasant chat about that statue of his ancestor. I hope I was able to help them."

"Why are we still here, then?" - he mutters

Konrad enters the building, and finds himself in front of the rest of the party.

Seeing Steve out and about, unshackled relieves Konrad. "They let you go then? Wonderful! Sorry I couldn't be here, I had to go and have a conversation with another statue. Far away from the uppity, stressed and emotionally taxed officer of the law."

Mihai notices something missing - "Where's Breeze?"

Konrad looks around. "She's not with you?"

Zelk's eyes grow wide.

"What!?" says Fedler, starting to panic.

"Wait, who saw her last and where?"

"Before we left with you." - he replies to Steve

"Are you kidding me." He reaches for his sword, but perishes the thought. No, can't afford to be stopped in the streets. "Come on, follow me!"

He storms out of the building and starts retracing his steps to find Breeze.

Gather Info
While I retrace my steps, I ask around for people who might have seen a blue-haired fairy in the city.

Mihai scoffs at the notion - "Hold on." - he countermands, then goes to the reception, and asks the guy at the counter for directions to the Fairy Village.

The receptionist looks up at Mihai, and answers with a flat tone. "324, Velvet street. Walk west, ten minutes from here."

"I'm going back to the plaza and look around that place," says Fedler, unnerved. "Meet me back there in one hour if you haven't found her."

She bolts out the door. Zelk faces the rest of the party and tells them, "I'll help her. You go search someplace else." She follows the hunter in the street.

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Konrad, who didn't stick around in the police station, suddenly see Fedler and Zelk run past him.

"We'll meet at the plaza in one hour!" shouts Zelk. They disappear at the corner of a street. As for the red mage, he retraces his steps back to the last place he saw her; the fountain. On the way, he asks the drunkards and other party-goers if they saw a fairy fitting Breeze's description, but they all say no. Beside, shouldn't the fairy be at that village they built for them? He finally reaches the fountain, but she's nowhere to be found.

It is now 1:42 AM.