Smoke and Mirrors

Chapter 5- Trouble in Terrorist Town

Sage passed a few windows on his way to the top and ended up in Curel's room again. It's owner apparently reached the safety of the Clan building before the others and had tropped the ladder to enable them to quickly and unsuspiciously enter the room. She must've been here for a while even, as she had settled down on one of the pillows around the TV and was reading in a book. Quiet rock music was sounding through the room of an artist that mixed Elfish lyrics with English ones. Curel lifted her head from her lecture as Sage climbed in and her face brightened up visibly.

A smile of relief spread on Sage lips as well as he saw Curel to be safe. He had not liked the idea that his desperate attempts at keeping her from harm might have been in vain.

"You're back!" she called and jumped up to hug Sage, before he could even get firm ground under his feet. Luckily, even a fully glomping Riverelf couldn't really push him back through the windowframe due to the pure difference in size and weight.

"You literally saved my life back at the bridge.", Curel explained with a deep, genuine thankfulness. "I don't think my bones would've survived punches from this thug."

"Uhm..." Sage responded lacking the proper social skills to deal with such utter praise, while Curel hung around his neck like an oversized necklace.

"Yeah, yeah, we're back.", Kyu said as she stepped through the window frame and made Curel drop down from Sage's neck by pulling one of her hands off him. Sage could notice a slight twitch in Kyu's ear as she heard the music in the room.

"Really, Curel? Garel Hurricane again?" she asked.

Curel gave her a hostile glare: "Hey, stop judging me for it. She makes objectively good music."

"She's a Rosh-Clan outcast in 2nd Generation and turned her back on her kin to collaborate with the Humans.", Kyu held against Curel. "She traded her clan and her identity for fame and loads of Human cash. She even appropriates our language for her monetary schemes."

"She never even knew her clan, because they had made her mother an outcast." Curel argued. "And she worked very, very hard to get where she is now..."

This argument went on between the two, but faded into the background for Sage, as this deep, unsettling feeling of having forgotten something crucial returned. It was the same kind of emotion that he had when looking over the skyline of Maranurr city, but this time he had a clear object of association in his mind.

Garel Hurricane.

Somehow this name rung a bell in his mind and a pretty alarming one at that. Something... dangerous surrounded this name. He tried really hard to convey an image of the feelings he felt about this name and for a brief moment he would see the face of a white haired elf with a confident grin. Someone placed her hand on his shoulder

"What's your opinion about this?" Kyu asked him from the side.

Sage twitched slightly, when Kyu tore him from his feelings of familiarity or at least recognition.

"Uhm... ", he said, slightly confused. "I... haven't listened if I'm completely honest."

"See, Kyu?" Curel said, obviously taking this as a supportive statement to her position. "This entire debate is so stupid, that he doesn't even listen to it."

Sage looked to Curel, surprised how skilled she was with twisting his words: "Hey, that's not what I-"

Kyu sighed and interrupted him: "Don't worry; it's not even that important."

Sage was actually a little bit surprised that Kyu would just let an argument rest like that, but when looking at her face he recognized that there was something else she was pondering. She looked towards the window and then to the door saying: "And the others arn't back yet?"