Chapter 26.3: Clarity

“I got Baldy,” Penny whispered.”You get the door.” Minkus nodded and bounded across the room.

The pounding came again, and a voice called from outside. “Would you shut up in there!”

Minkus stopped short. That wasn't Gill; he didn't recognize this voice at all. Minkus moved the last step forward and began to unlock the door. “Who's there?” he asked, as politely as he could.

“It's the poor idiot stuck in the room next to you noisy lot!”

Minkus quickly glanced behind him before cracking the door open. A few feet away, Penny hefted Wepp, chair and all, onto the bed that was hidden from view by the door and stood atop the bed herself, to keep him from falling into view.

Wincing, Minkus made an effort to wipe the sharp discomfort from his face as he peeked around the door. There, on the other side, stood a slender human man, average in height and white-haired, his eyes angry behind silver spectacles. Before Minkus could say anything, though, the sound of another voice came up the short staircase from the common room. “Oy, what's going on up there? Mr. Finnigan, is that you?” This one was Master Gill’s voice, and that sent a shiver of shame up Minkus’ spine.

“Master Gill,” the man said, looking down the hall, “I'm glad you're finally attending to the complaints of your guests. I told you this lot was disturbing us, and you assured me it would stop, but here we are again. This time I'm taking it into my own hands!” He spun back to the door and looked down at Minkus. “My wife, Mr. asura, is attempting to rest after a long day of—”

“Now, now, Mr. Finnigan,” Gill said, placing a hand on the man's shoulder as he entered the squabble, “please let me. Mr. Large and I have discussed the matter, and I will handle—”

Sharply, the older fellow pulled himself free of the innkeeper’s hand, losing his balance and stumbling hard into the door. It bowled Minkus over, and the door swung wide, slamming against the wall.

Minkus shook his head, reorienting himself. He’d just been standing at the door, hadn’t he? Now he was sitting...

His short thoughts trailed off as he gawked up at Gill and Finnigan staring wide-eyed at Wepp, the small figure tied to a chair, gagged, and laying sideways beneath a woman frantically trying to bury him in a mound of blankets and sheets. Penny froze, also staring back at the men in the doorway. For a long moment, no one moved.

It was the man in the spectacles who finally spoke. “Dwayna’s light.”

“Mr. Large,” Gill exclaimed, “what in the Six is this? What are you doing to that man?”

With the silence broken, Wepp struggled against his bonds with a grunt.

“See, Gill?” Finnigan said, pointing. “I knew something funny was happening here! I can not believe you allowed this—whatever this is—to happen right beneath your nose.”

“Please go back to your room now, Mr. Finnigan. I'll handle this.” The other man didn't leave, but Gill paid him no mind. His attention settled firmly on Minkus, still sprawled on the floor against the foot of the bed.

“It's not what— well, it's not what it looks like, Master Gill,” Minkus argued weakly, climbing back to his feet. “Well, not entirely.” It wasn’t what Master Gill thought it looked like, was it? Minkus looked back at Penny and Wepp again, and he realized he couldn’t say. Really, he didn’t know what the innkeeper thought this was, but whatever the man's assumption, this wasn’t anything good.

With a sigh, Minkus searched for something to say, but the innkeeper called over his shoulder, “Patty, go find a seraph and bring him here. Now.”

The young woman responded from below. “What’s that, sir? Is something wrong?”

“I said go, Patty,” he called back, and Minkus heard the girl’s feet pad across the common room and out the front door. His heart beat faster, but at the same time, there was something relieving in being discovered. It was all very confusing.

Gill squared himself in the doorway, nearly spanning the width of the jamb, and he gestured the other man away. “Please return to your room, Mr. Finnigan. I have this in hand.”

This time the older man listened, moving back toward his own room while Gill kept his eyes on the scene inside. He gave Minkus a frightened but resolute look. “I don't know what this is, Mr. Large, so we'll let the seraphs sort it out.”

The seraphs. Minkus winced. He knew Penny had some issue with them, though he didn’t understand it and didn’t share it. Minkus appreciated law enforcement; he appreciated people willing to step in on behalf of those who couldn’t defend themselves. He just never expected to be the one they had to step in on, and he certainly never expected his friend Gill would be the one to call them. But he was, and Gill had. He could hardly look at the man.

“Sorry, pal. That isn’t going to happen,” Penny said, stepping away from the bed and assessing Master Gill in the doorway. “Let me guess. You don’t plan on moving?”

He shook his head. “You’re staying right here until the seraphs arrive.”

“Right,” Penny said, nodding. “We’ll see about that.” She continued nodding as she moved about the room, stuffing stray belongings into pouches on her smartpack and strapping the tool bags around her waist. “Biggie,” she said, continuing her preparations, “if you want any chance of doing your heroic deeds, you’d better get your things.”

Heroic deeds? Minkus’ mind stilled, shifting from Gill to Penny to Ventyr to Jinkke. He snapped around to face the woman milling about the room. “Does that mean you’ll help?” he popped.

“That’s not what I said.” Tying the small, orange knapsack to the side of the smartpack, Penny returned to Wepp and began to untie him. “But you probably won’t go far after the silver crows arrest you for kidnapping.”

“Kidnapping?” Gill exclaimed. He threw calculating glances at all parties in the room. “What in Dwayna’s light have you all done?” Worried creases threatened to overrun Gill’s shiny forehead as he stared down at Minkus.

The weight Minkus had felt a second before returned, redoubled. What had he gotten himself into? How had he gotten here? He looked back and forth between the two humans.

Penny, with all her belongings packed up and strapped on, had cut Wepp free of his chair and was tying his hands together again. She worked hard, just as she would on any project, but this wasn’t a project. This was a person.

Gill, on the other hand, still stalwartly blocked the door, and he saw this whole thing for what it was. The man clearly recognized a wrong—this was wrong—and he was willing to do something about it.

Willing to do something about it, Minkus thought.

That phrase pounded at the inside of Minkus’ mind, and he wrapped a hand around Zinn’s tome. For Jinkke, for Ventyr, for Yissa—for them, for their protection, for their safety, Minkus was willing to do something. He nodded to himself, suddenly resolute. Yes, he would eventually face the consequences of what they’d done to Wepp; that would also be right. But for now, he had something else to attend to.

“Well, Biggie?” Penny demanded. She paused to feign a strike at Wepp, leaving him unconscious once again. “You coming or not?”

Gill stepped heavily into the room, making a quick path to Penny. “You put that fellow down,” he commanded.

Minkus admired the man, but he reached for his things just the same.

As Gill worked to throw a hand between Penny and Wepp, the woman spun, rotating the asura out of the innkeeper's grasp and slamming her smartpack into him. Gill toppled into the bed, cracked one of the legs of the chair, and bounced off onto the floor. Penny pushed past toward the open door. With barely a grip around Wepp, Penny rounded the doorway into the hall, stopping only to toss a handful of silver coins onto the floor. “For the trouble,” she called back at the innkeeper.

Minkus slung his pack on, stacked the blank sheets atop Zinn’s tome, and stuffed the pile of things under his arm as he followed, backing uncomfortably out of the room. “I'm sorry, Master Gill. For all this— all this trouble we caused.” He fumbled over his feet as much as his words. “It’s for a good reason, I promise. I— I'll make it right.”

“Minkus,” Penny cried from somewhere down the main stairs, “move your ass now!”

“Goodbye, Master Gill,” he said, turning to run after his friend. “Thank you for everything.” 

He caught up with Penny in the middle of the common room, just past the front desk. “Here,” she said, lowering Wepp. “Take our friend. I can’t carry him much farther with this thing on my back too.”

Minkus nodded, handing Penny his tome and papers in exchange for Wepp. She didn't reach to receive them.

“Biggie, we don’t know that this stuff will even—”

He shoved the stack at her again, more forcefully. “Even if it doesn’t, Penny, I’m taking it. We are taking it. We are helping our friends.”

Begrudgingly she took it, and Minkus hefted Wepp to his shoulder. He looked back up at Penny, nodding, and together they sprinted out into the cool night.