A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Nila considered it a moment before shaking her head. "No… I haven't seen them in the last couple of days."

"Could they really be any more suspicious?" Beam complained. "Have you tried getting David to talk more?"

"He still isn't saying anything… Mother said to try to see if he'd talk to you."

"Me?" Beam said in surprise, not at all understanding why David would be more likely to speak to him – who probably seemed like a relative stranger in the boy's eyes, since Beam had spent comparatively little time around him compared to Nila.

"Mhm, I know it's weird, but she said she just has a feeling. But it's dark. I guess you've probably got to be getting back, huh? Rodrey and Rodrick have gone home to their families too… Judas said he would go out looking, but I haven't heard back from him…" Nila said, the anxiousness obvious on her face.

"I haven't seen master all day either," Beam noted. "So many strange things happening all together. So many things… Well, if you think it'll help, I don't mind coming with you to speak to him."

"Really!?" Nila said, her eyes lighting up. "Thanks!"

Beam had to hide his wince at her reaction. I was clear that she was desperate for even the smallest shred of hope. Seeing her in such obvious pain made his heart ache.

The two walked in the dark together, taking the short path off the village road and heading towards Nila's house. The only light outside came from the stars and from the warm glow of light that crept out through the gaps in people's walls and windows.

They heard the conversation of two women as they went. Nila shot Beam a quizzical glance. "That's coming from our house... Is it a neighbour, I wonder?"

Mrs Felder had gone knocking on the doors of all their neighbours as soon as she had noted her daughter's disappearance. Though not a single one of them had claimed to have seen what had taken her, they all swore to help with looking and that they'd keep an eye out.

But as they neared, Beam recognized one of the silhouettes. It certainly wasn't a neighbour. There was only one person – well, actually two people – that dressed in that fashion. With a long wide black dress that reached all the way down to her ankles, long black flowing hair, and a long dark cloak over the top of it all, he recognized what was unmistakably one of the village Elder's servants.

"My daughter's missing!" Beam heard Mrs Felder say, as she desperately tried to keep from shouting, even as she grew ever closer to it. "I have nothing to give you – it's already been taken from me."

"Your daughter? We have not received a daughter," the woman said, tilting her head to the side.

"Like I said, she's missing – I didn't send her to you."

The woman tilted her head again in reply. "But payment is due. Days are going down. We need payment."

Her broken way of speaking did nothing to further that which she was trying to convey. Her repeated lack of emotion likely did nothing to ease the tremendous pain in Mrs Felder's heart. Beam spoke to her as they neared.

"They've already made an agreement with your master – payment will be made within a week, the sum of fifty golds," Beam told her, unable to hide the harsh look in his eye. He trusted the woman as little as he trusted the master, if not even less. The soulless look in her eyes did nothing to convince him that he was speaking with a human.

"I know," the woman said, and her lips rose into a smile. It was a thoroughly insulting expression, as though she was mocking him. Beam felt his fingers curl into a fist. The only thing holding his anger back was his knowledge that the woman hadn't done it with the intent of offending him – she was merely imitating an expression she had seen other people use and thoroughly ruining it.

She looked at him, unblinkingly, for what was an uncomfortably long time. She tilted her head to the side again, as though expressing her curiosity through her movement would make her feel any less soulless. "Mm… Do you eat them too?" She asked.

Beam frowned. "What?"

She pointed a finger at his eyes. "I see you," she said, and then she gave a childish giggle, a thoroughly disturbing thing. Apparently having satisfied her curiosity, she began to walk away, in no hurry whatsoever, as though there was nothing in the world that could fill her with enough want to move faster.

Nila watched her go with Beam. "What the hell is with that woman?" She murmured. "She couldn't be any creepier. But she didn't seem to know anything about Stephanie."

"Hmm…" Beam fell into thought at that as well. It was the only inconsistency in his strong hunch that the village Elder was somehow involved with Stephanie's disappearance. "But then I suppose we wouldn't know even if she did. I can't sense anything from her."

"True…" Nila nodded in agreement, before looking to her mother. Mrs Felder's eyes were puffy and red from the crying. It was obvious to see just what state losing her child had put her in. Seeing someone who had always been so strong for her, even after their father had died, it made Nila want to cry too.

She felt something weaken in her again and if Beam had not been there to see, she was sure she would have broken down once more. "Are you okay, mother?" She managed to ask.

Mrs Felder shook her head. "Beam… thank you for coming," she said in a croaky voice. "I just thought, maybe David might open up to you… maybe."

"I'll do the best I can," Beam said. He saw Mrs Felder looking at the blood stains on his clothes and the sword at his hip. She paused her tears for a moment, as she looked between him and Nila with a soft smile.