Chapter 797

Lily and Kat walked down the alley, both as humans. It didn’t take Lily long to decide that it was preferable to being a cat. She could always change later to entertain the kids, but first impressions were a big deal and ‘funny cat with horns’ is quite interesting, but it’s still a thing. Not a person. A child doesn’t always think about being careful with their pets. A person with funny ears though. That was someone interesting, perhaps a bit strange, but not someone to play around with too much.

As they rounded the corner though, Kat came face first to a scrappy looking kid with an interesting attire. They had a rather ratty top hat that was more patches than original material. Many of those patches were plain cloth as well and it had collapsed to the left side caving in on itself. The right side was in slightly better condition... but only because they had a painted bit of wood stuck to the side of the hat keeping it standing.

In his hand was a cigar... well... no it was a child’s attempt at one. It looked to be a somewhat well made prop. The wrapping was just a tightly wound rag, causing it to be rather oversized, especially for a child’s mouth. The end was interesting as well. It seemed to be stuffed with a combination of dried grass, a single stick to give it rigidity, a decent amount of ash to grey it up a bit and a slight dusting of red paint. The fact that paint was mostly on the cloth and extended further back than it should if it were really flames seemed to be lost on the child.

The rest of his outfit wasn’t all that interesting. It was a plain brown shirt that looked comparatively new, though it may have just been the colour hiding the stains. His pants were sturdy leather things that had seen better days. They had a leather patch over each knee and the side of the left one had been sewn together in a bit of a patch job. It had clearly been caught on something and torn.

The kid himself wasn’t terribly clean either. The rest of the group, from what Kat had seen, were actually quite well cared for. This one though had dirt in his hair, dirt on his face, dirt on his feet, because apparently shoes weren’t standard for him. There was also a very noticeable scar on his arm. It was a long gash on his forearm that looked like he got it blocking a knife.

Kat almost expected him to start speaking with an old timey gangster accent... but it was exactly the same as Apep’s just perhaps a little less refined. “What do ya want?”

“Why are you assuming we want something?” asked Kat still trying to figure out exactly who this person was and how they fit into things. *Hmm. I don’t think Gramps would ever let a kid seriously dress like that... so we’re already operating outside of my experience. Joy.*

.....

“Eh. Everyone wants something, the fact you is confused is saying a lot more about you than it does about me. Still... I guess that isn’t what you’re asking. The answer to that well... you don’t look familiar, I know all the people around here. That means you don’t live here, and so, I ask, what are ya here for?”

[I bet he’s just repeating things he thinks sounds cool.] “You saw us landing in the street over didn’t you?” offered Lily as an alternative answer.

The boy flinched but admitted to nothing, “Think what ya want. I really do know everyone around these parts and you ain’t from them. So I’ll ask one more time. What do ya want?”

*How do you want to play this Lily? This is a lot more formal than I wanted the meeting with the kids to go. I was imagining getting a couple of eight years old girls talking about their pretty big sis that was going to be married until suddenly she wasn’t. Instead we’re getting grilled by a kid trying to pretend to be a crime boss.*

[It’s not like this is in my wheelhouse either Kat. Still... I say we don’t lead with the papers. We say we’re looking for information on someone and see how he reacts. Then if he goes ‘what’s it to ya’ or something, then we can say we’re here on someone’s orders, and then finally if he asks for proof of that, we show him the papers.]

*Sounds like a good idea as any.* “We’re here for information. We’re looking into somebody who used to stay at the orphanage nearby,” said Kat.

The boy looked Kat up and down before taking his ‘cigar’ out of his mouth and pretending to get rid of the ashes. “Hmm... and you decided to approach kids for that? If this is all official like surely it would be better to go to the matron?”

“As somebody who grew up in an orphanage myself I know that sometimes the best place to get good information is the other kids. It’s why I was looking around for where you all would likely be playing during the day. We’ll still visit the matron of course, but not till after,” said Kat.

The boy nodded as if this made a great deal of sense to him. Despite that, the slight twitching of his lips and the fact he wasn’t able to hold Kat’s eyes made it less clear just how much the kid figured out. Probably just thinks it sounds correct enough. “Well, seems like this is has the chance of becoming a real conversation. You can call me...” the kid paused for a few seconds, “Watcher.”

*Alright kid. I get that you don’t want me to use your real name but you are no older than fourteen. You should have come up with something that sounded more like a name. Even if it was still probably fake.* “You can call me Kat then,” said Kat.

Watcher glanced from Kat to Lily, eyes specifically tracking to Lily’s ears. “Shouldn’t she be cat?”

“No, you can call me Lily,” responded Lily. To which Watcher’s eyes moved to the very obvious flower detailing on Kat’s outfit.

“Right...” said the kid uncertain of what to make of the duo’s names, not able to realise they were both just giving their real names. “Well, as I already said, I know everyone. So who exactly are you looking for. I can think of a payment later...”

*Should we mention we don’t have money while he’s still thinking?*

[No, definitely not. Why would you think that was a good idea?]

*Seemed polite.*

[Just... just no.]

“We’re looking into a girl, or perhaps young woman, called Zuhra,” explained Kat.

Watcher nodded, “Yes, yes I remember her. Wasn’t she meant to be getting married or something?”

Kat nodded, “Indeed, though ‘meant to’ is the key here. Her fiancé died and it’s actually him we’re trying to find out about for the most part. Zuhra is more a secondary concern,” *PRAISE THE SYSTEM I COULD SAY THAT* “the thing is we don’t even know who he was supposed to be. We just have Zuhra’s name, at the moment.”

Watcher tapped his chin a few times carefully. Then he ran a finger down the length of his cigar. Then he fiddled with the brim of his hat. After that he straightened a non-existent tie. Really at this point it was more than clear he was trying to buy time for some reason. Kat gave him a few more moments of fiddling with various things, but put a stop to it when he was checking the bottom of his feet for whatever reason. “You have no idea who he is do you?”

Watcher winced. “Well... no... I mean... Zuhra never mentioned his name exactly... but I do know he’s real... probably. She was always somewhat cagy about who he was... but... she got a few expensive gifts from him over a couple birthdays. Um... um... I don’t remember what the first one was... but she had a very nice handheld mirror. A fancy dress... maybe more than one... I think she grew out of one? Um... a ring... I think that was the engagement present... and two necklaces. One that was SUPER fancy. Not the sort of thing you’d just wear around town freely. And um... the other one was a carved wooden locket... I think it opened? She’d always hold it when she was nervous but I dunno if it had something in it...”

*You know. I wish I had a proper concept of what everything was worth here. I mean, as dirty as the kid looks he’s clearly not starving. With the water here nobody should ever be short on food. I just don’t know how that translates to jewellery or mirrors. I mean. Is it more likely Zuhra’s old love interest was a wealthy merchant boy? Or more like the heir of the 8th. *

[Well. Logic dictates there are more wealthy merchant heirs to go around... so I want to say that... but... I’d give it about an 80% chance that she was set to be married to the heir of the 8th.]

*Welp. I have no idea how to break that one to Apep.*