Role

Chapter 3

The din of the public house faded into the background as the old man subtly
motion for Serzajes to sit at a table far from him. Focusing their attention,
and whispering the words, the two men cast what seemed to be the same spell.
Only someone watching both of them the entire time would have noticed
anything odd, as the two never maintained eye contact. The old man muttered
quietly to himself, not uncommon for as impoverished and senile as he
appeared. As expected, Serzajes began to hear his voice, without even looking
at him directly. The sound was quiet and garbled at first, but grew more and
more clear as the minutes went on. As he tested this connection, his face lit
up for a moment upon realizing that the old man could hear him as well.

"This will not last long, so I must be brief," the voice drifted cleanly
through the chaotic pub, "your uncle was a student of mine. You probably knew
a much different side of him, but he was researching something with me, and
we were not careful."

"What does this have to do with how he died?" Serzajes barely knew better
than to share his suspicions, and felt wiser for keeping a few cards in his
proverbial hand. Quickly glancing towards his informant, he watched as he let
out a deliberated sigh.

"It would be a disservice to your uncle to fill your head with dangerous
ideas, or feed your ego some half-truths to quest for. If you're anything
like him, it will be your downfall."

At this point the act of innocence was backfiring. "I know more than you
think," the petulant words blurted out before Serzajes even realized what he
was doing. The boy would earn his demeaning monicker afterall. The old man
looked directly at him, apparently startled by the outburst. Serzajes
regained his calm. "I know he didn't kill himself. So someone did. What was
he getting into with you?"

"Is that what they told you?", the man groaned and rubbed his drooping eyes.
"It was an artifact of great evil. We heard rumors that the Cult of the
Scarab was looking for it, and we were trying to find it before they did. I
don't know who killed him, but that would be my guess."

"What did you want with such a thing?"

"It is complicated to explain, but it was important to our research. We had a
similar artifact of a holy power, and it was important to have --", a shrill
ringing sound deafened both of the men as a plate of empty glasses shattered
on the ground. It began to echo between the two channels, causing the two to
cringe in pain for a few moments. A hooded man stood up, startled by the
commotion, and darted out of the building.

Everyone in the house stopped talking, staring at the two strangers. Serzajes
ran after the hood to get a better look, but lost track of him. When he went
back inside, people still staring, the old man was gone.