Kelly flexed his fingers, adjusting his grip on his staff, and watched Okor go. When he was certain the armored titan was out of earshot, the psychic turned casually to Hiro and asked, "How concerned should I be about the way his stench makes the inside of my chest itch?"
The self-proclaimed Greatest Hacker in the Omniverse shrugged. "As far as I know it doesn't actually do anything besides smell balls-nasty. You get used to it." He paused, frowning and reached for a flask he no longer had. After fumbling in his jacket for a moment, he continued: "Well, actually, you don't. Okor's some kind of stink-genius. His smells have smells. But I think the important thing for us is that he commits violence in the same way he commits odors - and honestly? After this shit goes down I'd bet you Kong-bucks to dollars that its the violence you'll remember when you think of him."
The traveler nodded, reassured. He panned his gaze across buildings and alleys as they continued their trip through the rain-slick streets of the post-twilight town, past shuttered storefronts in sturdy brick walls and wooden homes with the lights on, windows barred, and doors shut tight against the dark. As near as he could tell, they were the only ones on the street besides the occasional group of soldiers. The militiamen went about the tasks of preparing to defend their town by the soft orange glow of lantern-light, moving in twos and threes.
Kelly was tempted to ask about Okor's lack of interest in coordinating with the locals, but provided he'd read the rotting warrior correctly, the psychic suspected he knew the answer. The way the man - if he was a man - had been introduced, his reaction to Hiro's crack about adventuring parties, the glowing runes and stoic demeanor, all combined with his parting words, seemed to indicate that Okor was some kind of votive warrior, though for who or what Kelly had no idea. The decayed fighter likely had his own rules and codes to follow, and would do his job as he saw it regardless of what the leaders of Darkshire thought.
Hiro's confidence that the putrid paladin would arrive when he was needed, evidently based on previous experience, lent strength to Kelly's hypothesis, making him more comfortable with letting the topic lie - and besides, Okor was hardly the most urgent topic at hand. Kelly brushed a stray, damp strand of hair out of his face and said, "Good to know. I'm sure it will be quite the spectacle, but I think I'll be too distracted to fully appreciate it. Speaking of which, seeing as how we're going to be heading into battle together, we should probably talk tactics."
Kelly turned right at a shuttered market square, rain-drops pattering on sack-cloth awnings and pooling between cobblestones. Somewhere, a wooden stall rattled. He stopped when Hiro didn't follow him, and looked questioningly back over his shoulder.
"Where are you going?" asked the swordsman.
"The town hall is this way," explained the psychic. "It's one of the two places that the garrison commander is most likely to be, and it will be faster to stop off on the way to the main garrison than to circle back after walking across town. I thought I'd potentially save us some time by optimizing our route."
Hiro hurried over. "Wait a sec. Have you been here before?"
Kelly shook his head. "This is my first time. I memorized a map of Darkshire before I came. It seemed like the thing to do."
The traveler neglected to mention that he'd seen the map weeks ago, in the Frozen Fields, and that he hadn't been planning on coming here at the time.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. I'm a psychic. I have a powerful brain. Surely its not that surprising."
The no-longer-quite-so-freelance hacker scoffed, and stuck his gloved hands in his jacket pockets. "Well shit, I'm impressed. I mean, you could just check the dataverse and save the head-space, but your way works too."
"Yes it does," said Kelly, smiling shrewdly as they resumed their hike. The ringing of his iron-shod staff against the wet cobbles echoed off bricks and stonework, sounding hollow in the dark. "And it saves time in an emergency. I like to be prepared. Speaking of which..."
"Right. Tactics. Isn't that a conversation we're supposed to have after we link up with the locals?"
The traveler's eyes seemed to sharpen in their sunken caves, sparking blue against the dull lamp-light of the Darkshire night. "Of course. It's just it occurred to me that as both Primes and outsiders we're probably going to be asked to do a lot of the heavy lifting, so we might want to kick some ideas around."
Hiro took a hand out of his pocket and rubbed his bleary face. "Man, you may not have noticed, but I am not in an ideas kinda mood right now," the digital duelist said. He returned his hand to its leathery lair and sighed. "But if you've got any thoughts on how to make what we're walking into suck less, I'm all ears."
Kelly answered the jibe with a good-natured chuckle. "I'm afraid not. I was thinking more along the lines of 'try and keep track of each other', 'provide each-other fire-support when feasible', that sort of thing. Ways in which we could back each other up."
Hiro nodded tentatively. "Yeah, well. I'll see what I can do. No promises though - with how my luck's been going lately, this is gonna be chaos."
"It's a battle," the psychic said, grim amusement flickering across his face. "No matter what we do it's going to be chaos. The only question is whether it devours us, or our enemies. In my experience, planning and preparation go a long way towards making the difference."
The hacker grunted. He was getting a headache. "You're not wrong, man. For both our sake, I hope that keeps working out for you."
They walked in silence after that. The rain slacked off, but the wind kicked up, tearing at the rooftops of Darkshire and howling in the eaves. As the two men walked, Kelly wondered about Hiro, and what exactly his role as an 'agent' of the Empire entailed. Was he a spy? A mercenary? Some kind of heavily-armed diplomat?
If he's law enforcement, there's an excellent chance we're going to end up on opposite sides of a conflict at some point. Should I ask? He's clearly not in the best psychological shape at the moment...
Leave it alone. Prying might make him start thinking about where I'm from, and the last thing I want is an Imperial officer trying to look Kelly MacAryn up back in Coruscant and finding Alan Mayhew. Of course, I could claim the reverse of the actual situation, that I'm the alias, but I'd prefer there be as little connection as possible.
They wound through the wet, dirty streets until the buildings around them grew tall and sturdy. This was the richer part of town, such as it was, the administrative and financial center of the city, though several of the more elaborate residences had their lights out, and chains on the front gates. Kelly pointed with his staff, indicating a well-lit pile of hewn and sculpted stones which seemed to squat among the surrounding architecture. It was doubtless a proud building during the day, but looked in the dark as though it were trying, poorly, to hide.
"That should be it," he said. "Darkshire City Hall."
"Awesome," responded Hiro. "Let's go inside where it's not so goddamn cold."
The self-proclaimed Greatest Hacker in the Omniverse shrugged. "As far as I know it doesn't actually do anything besides smell balls-nasty. You get used to it." He paused, frowning and reached for a flask he no longer had. After fumbling in his jacket for a moment, he continued: "Well, actually, you don't. Okor's some kind of stink-genius. His smells have smells. But I think the important thing for us is that he commits violence in the same way he commits odors - and honestly? After this shit goes down I'd bet you Kong-bucks to dollars that its the violence you'll remember when you think of him."
The traveler nodded, reassured. He panned his gaze across buildings and alleys as they continued their trip through the rain-slick streets of the post-twilight town, past shuttered storefronts in sturdy brick walls and wooden homes with the lights on, windows barred, and doors shut tight against the dark. As near as he could tell, they were the only ones on the street besides the occasional group of soldiers. The militiamen went about the tasks of preparing to defend their town by the soft orange glow of lantern-light, moving in twos and threes.
Kelly was tempted to ask about Okor's lack of interest in coordinating with the locals, but provided he'd read the rotting warrior correctly, the psychic suspected he knew the answer. The way the man - if he was a man - had been introduced, his reaction to Hiro's crack about adventuring parties, the glowing runes and stoic demeanor, all combined with his parting words, seemed to indicate that Okor was some kind of votive warrior, though for who or what Kelly had no idea. The decayed fighter likely had his own rules and codes to follow, and would do his job as he saw it regardless of what the leaders of Darkshire thought.
Hiro's confidence that the putrid paladin would arrive when he was needed, evidently based on previous experience, lent strength to Kelly's hypothesis, making him more comfortable with letting the topic lie - and besides, Okor was hardly the most urgent topic at hand. Kelly brushed a stray, damp strand of hair out of his face and said, "Good to know. I'm sure it will be quite the spectacle, but I think I'll be too distracted to fully appreciate it. Speaking of which, seeing as how we're going to be heading into battle together, we should probably talk tactics."
Kelly turned right at a shuttered market square, rain-drops pattering on sack-cloth awnings and pooling between cobblestones. Somewhere, a wooden stall rattled. He stopped when Hiro didn't follow him, and looked questioningly back over his shoulder.
"Where are you going?" asked the swordsman.
"The town hall is this way," explained the psychic. "It's one of the two places that the garrison commander is most likely to be, and it will be faster to stop off on the way to the main garrison than to circle back after walking across town. I thought I'd potentially save us some time by optimizing our route."
Hiro hurried over. "Wait a sec. Have you been here before?"
Kelly shook his head. "This is my first time. I memorized a map of Darkshire before I came. It seemed like the thing to do."
The traveler neglected to mention that he'd seen the map weeks ago, in the Frozen Fields, and that he hadn't been planning on coming here at the time.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. I'm a psychic. I have a powerful brain. Surely its not that surprising."
The no-longer-quite-so-freelance hacker scoffed, and stuck his gloved hands in his jacket pockets. "Well shit, I'm impressed. I mean, you could just check the dataverse and save the head-space, but your way works too."
"Yes it does," said Kelly, smiling shrewdly as they resumed their hike. The ringing of his iron-shod staff against the wet cobbles echoed off bricks and stonework, sounding hollow in the dark. "And it saves time in an emergency. I like to be prepared. Speaking of which..."
"Right. Tactics. Isn't that a conversation we're supposed to have after we link up with the locals?"
The traveler's eyes seemed to sharpen in their sunken caves, sparking blue against the dull lamp-light of the Darkshire night. "Of course. It's just it occurred to me that as both Primes and outsiders we're probably going to be asked to do a lot of the heavy lifting, so we might want to kick some ideas around."
Hiro took a hand out of his pocket and rubbed his bleary face. "Man, you may not have noticed, but I am not in an ideas kinda mood right now," the digital duelist said. He returned his hand to its leathery lair and sighed. "But if you've got any thoughts on how to make what we're walking into suck less, I'm all ears."
Kelly answered the jibe with a good-natured chuckle. "I'm afraid not. I was thinking more along the lines of 'try and keep track of each other', 'provide each-other fire-support when feasible', that sort of thing. Ways in which we could back each other up."
Hiro nodded tentatively. "Yeah, well. I'll see what I can do. No promises though - with how my luck's been going lately, this is gonna be chaos."
"It's a battle," the psychic said, grim amusement flickering across his face. "No matter what we do it's going to be chaos. The only question is whether it devours us, or our enemies. In my experience, planning and preparation go a long way towards making the difference."
The hacker grunted. He was getting a headache. "You're not wrong, man. For both our sake, I hope that keeps working out for you."
They walked in silence after that. The rain slacked off, but the wind kicked up, tearing at the rooftops of Darkshire and howling in the eaves. As the two men walked, Kelly wondered about Hiro, and what exactly his role as an 'agent' of the Empire entailed. Was he a spy? A mercenary? Some kind of heavily-armed diplomat?
If he's law enforcement, there's an excellent chance we're going to end up on opposite sides of a conflict at some point. Should I ask? He's clearly not in the best psychological shape at the moment...
Leave it alone. Prying might make him start thinking about where I'm from, and the last thing I want is an Imperial officer trying to look Kelly MacAryn up back in Coruscant and finding Alan Mayhew. Of course, I could claim the reverse of the actual situation, that I'm the alias, but I'd prefer there be as little connection as possible.
They wound through the wet, dirty streets until the buildings around them grew tall and sturdy. This was the richer part of town, such as it was, the administrative and financial center of the city, though several of the more elaborate residences had their lights out, and chains on the front gates. Kelly pointed with his staff, indicating a well-lit pile of hewn and sculpted stones which seemed to squat among the surrounding architecture. It was doubtless a proud building during the day, but looked in the dark as though it were trying, poorly, to hide.
"That should be it," he said. "Darkshire City Hall."
"Awesome," responded Hiro. "Let's go inside where it's not so goddamn cold."