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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 7333699" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 119Xeeta ignored the twitching of her fingers and resisted the urge to lift her cowl as she walked past the guards watching the gate and into the town.  The soldiers paid her barely any attention, and the ordinary folk moving through the streets even less, but she still couldn’t shake the feeling that everyone was watching her.The people here had reason to be curious, she told herself.  This place probably didn’t see many visitors.  After all she’d gone through to get here, she could understand why.  On top of that there was the war.  This place was about as far from the front lines as one could get, but it was still in the mountains, and the mountains were where the enemy lived.Clearly the local authorities were well aware of that fact.  She’d been met by armed sentries well outside of town, near the point where the road crested the rim of the valley.  Fortunately, she’d heard them coming and could prepare.  They had accepted her story about searching for a long-lost relative who’d relocated out here years ago, or at least they’d let her pass after recording the information she’d given them in a ledger book.  They’d had a lot of questions about the road through the mountains, and events in the world outside, but there hadn’t been that much she could tell them.  Since leaving her former companions she’d made an effort to avoid people.  It hadn’t been difficult, since most of the settlements she’d passed north of Adelar had been empty, abandoned by their residents out of fear of Kavel Murgoth’s raiders.There had been vigilant watchers on the road that led into town as well, forcing her to expend a second casting of her alter self sooner than she would have preferred.  That only left her with a single use in reserve, but she was not especially worried.  This visit into town was just a brief foray, a reconnaissance that would allow her to make further plans.  She was not in a hurry.After all, Wildrush was her new home.The mood of the town was tense but busy.  The guards had told her about the recent chimera attack, and she could see the results of its handiwork as groups of men cleared scorched wood from a number of structures and replaced it with fresh timber.  More than one building looked like it had been recently abandoned, too damaged to do anything but tear it down and rebuild.  The main street was unpaved, the surface riven with wagon ruts and frequent patches of mud, but it was much better than the side streets and narrow alleys that darted off between the wooden buildings along its length.  Those structures ranged from brand new to aging and decrepit, but all of them had a certain tired look to them.  The residents were generally the same, clad in a layer of dust and grit over their rugged leathers and heavy woolens.  At first glance the residents appeared to be mostly humans and dwarves, with an occasional half-orc or elf in the mix.  There looked to be about one woman for every five men, though Xeeta assumed that more of the former would likely be found in kitchens and back rooms of the houses she passed.  She knew from past experience that such imbalances created strain in a society.  Everyone seemed to be minding their own business.In other words, it was perfect.A bearded man leaning on one of the porch supports of a general store tipped his hat to her and said, “Haven’t seen you before, missy.  Buy you a drink?”  As if his come-on hadn’t been unsubtle enough, he punctuated it with a leer that took her in from boots to head.Xeeta responded with a rude gesture.  The man laughed, and she couldn’t help but smile as she walked past.  Before she was out of earshot he was already calling out to another passer-by.The town wasn’t that big, but she didn’t want to waste time wandering about.  She walked up to a place that had the look of a tavern.  An old man was sitting on a bench out front, trying to extract the last bits of smoke from a spent pipe.  “Excuse me,” she said.  “Can you tell me where the land office is?”The old man looked at her then tapped out his pipe on the bench beside him.  “You’ll be wanting the governor’s place,” he said.  “You just passed it.”  Gesturing with his pipe, he added, “Go back toward the square, then take that side street there.  It’s the house with the big balcony with them frilly wooden posts.  Can’t miss it.”“Thank you,” she said, turning back into the traffic to retrace her steps.  She wouldn’t have enough time to finish her business in town today, but she would scout out the lay of the land, maybe ask a few questions, then return to the ruined cabin she’d found earlier in the day.Wildrush had been her plan all along, long before she’d heard of the war in the north, or met Bredan and the others.  The grizzled old miner she’d run into in Brevaris had told her all about it.  He’d been so intent on his tale and the mugs of ale she’d bought for him that he hadn’t tried to look under her cowl, or wonder why she’d kept it up in the warmth of the common room.  The town he’d described had sounded perfect even then.  Isolated, distant, with a low population of hard-scrabble folk with an independent bent.  There were plenty of abandoned homesteads scattered across the northern Silverpeak Valley, grave markers of the last silver boom.  But it had been his wistful recounting of the valley’s natural beauty that had caught firm hold of her imagination, and set her on the long road that had led her here.She intended to buy a piece of land, to go through the legal process to ensure that she couldn’t be bullied or pressured by the local interests who no doubt dominated the town’s affairs.  She still had most of her share of the treasure from her adventures with Bredan and his friends.  The recent troubles that the town had felt would hopefully push prices down a bit, but knew that in places like this isolation and the high cost of trade often affected the local economy, making things more expensive.  It didn’t matter; if money was an issue she’d claim an out-of-the-way place and worry about the legalities later.She was so intent on her plans that she didn’t notice the familiar face until he was almost on top of her.  The unexpected sight jolted her so intensely that she almost lost her concentration on her active spell.  Her first thought was to curse herself for not changing her features with her alter self spell; she’d gotten in the habit of just using it to mask her tiefling features, even though it could have easily given her a completely different face.  Her second thought was to hide, but even as she started to turn the dwarf looked up and saw her.  He’d clearly been distracted by his own thoughts, but there was no mistaking the recognition—followed by surprise—in his eyes.She stepped to the side of the street, out of the way of the foot traffic and the occasional passing cart.  He followed her.  She could almost see the wheels turning in his head.“Hello, Kosk,” she said.</blockquote>

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