Things Draw to a Close

Oruvand said, "Honestly, all of the noise we've made today, I wouldn't be surprised if he's slipped out behind our backs. If someone had cooperated earlier, we probably would have caught him by now."

Kalena continued to have her doubts now about whether the Inn Keeper had been intentionally deceiving them. But Oru was certainly right that the delay from Jocelynn had likely given the elf the chance to make his getaway. Unless the elf left some time during the night when Oru had been sleeping outside. If it had been her, she would have broken in during the night to catch the elf in bed, but Oru probably intended to get the drop on the elf when he came out the next morning, which would have been a safer plan.

"I'll go and check the rest of the rooms," Oru said. "But if they're empty I wouldn't be surprised."

"No, if he was still here I would think he would take the offensive and try to make a fight of it," Kalena replied.

She felt her disappointment growing. She had certainly enjoyed storming the Inn, that had been a lot of fun, but conducting a thorough search of a seedy brothel was not her idea of a good time, and that it was turning out to be a fruitless cause made it all the worse.

The Madam fished out another key this one even more odd then the first. "The rooms locks can not be picked and lack windows. Unless he slid under the door he couldn't get in. We can go check those rooms but he would have no way of getting in there."

"The elf is a mage," Kalena said. "Perhaps he used a spell that can open any door? Or perhaps a spell to make you forget him?"

As Jocelynn unlocked the small hall, Kalena spotted the massive scar on the woman's back. She had a few minor ones, but none so unsightly to say the least. No wonder the Madam wanted to keep covered up.

"Girls," the Madam called out. "Please unlock your doors and open them. Some guards need to search your rooms. No possessions will be taken."

As the five women opened the doors, Kalena did not bother to conceal her outright disdain for the pathetic creatures and the line of work they had chosen, or had allowed life to choose for them. She had once had to infiltrate a king's harem in order to assassinate a certain duke, and had not thought much of the royal concubines she blended in among, but these women in comparison were nothing but common backroom whores. Kalena had more respect for the lowly slaves that picked horse dung off the roads.

Heaving a sigh, she performed a perfunctory, but competent search of each room, looking in the closets and under the beds. When she was finished she glanced over at the room she had already ventured into before and dismissed the thought of searching it. It was highly unlikely the elf had been in there whilst all she had seen was going on. Her stomach churned, and she cast the memory from her mind.

"Well then, Madam Jocelynn," Kalena said, a bit dejectedly. "It seems that if the fugitive was here, he has since vacated the premises. I do hope the gold you were given will cover the costs of repairing the window. I for one shall not carry out my threat of informing the Sheriff that you were knowingly sheltering a wanted murderer. You might well have been, but there is no proof of that, and I shan't condemn you on mere suspicion."

OOC: Outrider. Good name, and an intriguing introduction! I might need to come up with a new character as now that this current story has played out I haven't a clue what I'm going to do.

In regard to the Legality of Magic in Dalen and Verden, since Disqus decided my reply was spam, I'll paste what I wrote here.

For normal humans, the king of Verden is regarded as a just ruler, but if you're a mage or magical being he is as bad as Hitler. In Dalen it's much more lawless. The authorities are more concerned with enforcing the Queen's rule and protecting the interests of the elites rather than enforcing tons of laws. Dalen also likely accepted hundreds of magical refugees from Verden in the recent past, as well as magical migrants from other places. This has made Dalen more powerful, but with so many potential internal threats from all these mages, the authorities have become a little overbearing in making sure none step out of line.

Necromancy might be illegal because a single mage could raise an undead army, as perhaps once famously happened somewhere else. So there now is a zero tolerance for it, and even the mage guilds discourage its practice.

As far as slavery, I think with few exceptions like Verden, it's normal everywhere.