Chapter 40: Bathroom Confrontation
Sam and the girls sat and watched Sylar and Brion for a while. They both began singing together, and over the following hour, more and more people poured into the tavern, mostly young women coming to gush over the handsome foreign drow princes.
After a break in the music, Sylar stepped away to use the bathroom. Sam saw his opportunity, told the girls to go back to the ship in case things got nasty, and then followed Sylar in. When Sylar stepped back out of the toilet stall, he was startled to see Sam standing there with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall inside the bathroom.
"I’m surprised a prince has such lax security," Sam said with a grin.
Sylar regained his composure immediately, held his pointer finger and middle finger together, and whipped them around a few times, as if writing something in the air. A moment later, icy mist tentacles stretched out of the wall behind Sam and wrapped around his throat, choking him. When he reached his hands up to grab at it, two more tentacles wrapped around Sam’s wrists and pulled them against the wall.
"I’m no ordinary prince," Sylar said with a smirk. "What’s your business with me, stranger?"
Sylar loosened the tentacles enough to let Sam speak. "Maybe I just wanted to meet you after the spectacle you put on out there?"
Sylar looked him over for a minute. "I sense my sister-in-law’s Aura on you..."
He reached into Sam’s jacket and pulled out the letter from Valanta.
"Let’s see what we have here," Sylar said as he unrolled it and began reading it.
After Sylar finished reading, his eyes narrowed as he looked back up at Sam. "You were foolish to bring this letter in here with you. Had you been a wiser man, you would have left it on your ship. But you’re young, so I suppose it can’t be helped."
"Valanta said she had a vision that you were going to kill Brion," Sam revealed. "Is it true? Do you plan to steal the Crown?"
Sylar tilted his head back and laughed. "Even if that were true, why on Azi’alaga would I tell you?"
"Because you’re about to kill me," Sam pointed out. "And dead men tell no tales. I just want to know if Valanta’s vision was right or not."
Sylar just looked at him for a moment, and then turned and kicked open one of the toilet stalls, revealing another Sam hiding inside. He quickly restrained him with icy tentacles as well. "As I suspected. A clone."
"How’d you know?" the stall Sam asked.
"There was no fear in the clone’s eyes when faced with death," Sylar revealed. "You should learn to mimic real people more carefully."
"So, are you gonna answer my question, Sylar?" asked stall Sam.
"Yeah, are you, Sylar?" asked wall Sam.
He looked back and forth between the two Sams, one held against the wall, one held in the stall. "How many of you are there?"
"Just us two," stall Sam promised.
"I don’t believe you," Sylar said, then rolled the letter back up and slipped it into stall Sam’s jacket. "You knew I would sense Valanta’s Aura on this letter and become defensive. The real you is somewhere else, hoping that I’ll incriminate myself. Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I will give you no reason to act on that Royal Order."
With a wave of his hands, the icy tentacles vanished, releasing both Sams. Sylar then just grinned and walked out of the bathroom. A moment later, a third Sam stepped out of a broom closet nearby and entered the bathroom, retrieving the letter from the stall Sam’s jacket and slipping it back into his own. He then snapped his fingers, and both clones vanished in a puff of green flames.
Well, shit, Sam thought to himself. When he walked back out into the main room of the tavern, Sylar was singing with Brion again like nothing had happened. He decided to go back to the ship and explain everything to the girls.
"How do you know he’s not trying to kill Brion right now?" Lazula asked.
"He won’t do it right away now that he knows I’m on to him," Sam insisted. "If they’ve been here for weeks partying, then it’s possible he wasn’t planning on killing him until a later time anyway."
"So, what’s our plan?" Calista inquired.
"I’m going to go back into town and watch to see which Inn he’s staying at, and then try to get a room at an Inn nearby," he revealed.
"I think we should come with you," Gabrielle suggested. Lazula and Calista nodded in agreement.
"I don’t want you girls to get hurt if it turns into a fight," Sam explained.
"We’re not weak little damsels in distress," Lazula professed. "We’re your harem, but we’re also your pirate crew. We do this together."
"I agree," said Gabrielle.
"Me too," added Calista.
Sam looked at them for a moment, then sighed and grinned. "Okay, then. Let’s go."
The girls cheered as they followed him back off the ship. This time, he left the letter onboard. They decided to go sit in another tavern across the street from the one where Sylar and Brion were, picking a table by a window so they could keep an eye out while eating their dinner.
As nightfall encroached over the city, they finally spotted Sylar and Brion exiting the tavern across the street. Sam and the girls waited a moment, and then left their own tavern to follow them.
"Callie, use your light magic to cloak us," Sam instructed. She nodded and cast the spell.
They crept along the road a ways further back, until they saw Sylar and Brion enter an Inn. Fortunately, that part of town had multiple lodging options very close to one another, so they decided to rent a room nearby.
They took two hour watch cycles to keep an eye out the window of their room, which had a clear line of sight to the Inn Sylar and Brion were staying in across the street.
Gabrielle was on watch around midnight, when she rushed over to wake up the others. "Guys! Something’s happening outside!"
They all jumped awake and looked out the window. They stared in shock as they saw an army of soldiers storming through the street below.
"Down with the Nexian Alliance!" one screamed.
"Death to all who oppose the Rebel Vanguard!" cried another.
"I was worried about a civil war in Braska, but now we get smack dab in the middle of one here instead!" Sam groaned and rubbed his temples. "This is just fucking great!"
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A huge thank you to Douglas_Ames for the Golden Ticket! And to Gauge_5950 and Robert_Giltner for the Power Stones! And more thanks to Robert_Giltner, Gauge_5950, Krishn_Kumar_0051, and Cecil_Joseph for the love they showed on our lovely ladies in the character profiles!
And of course, a monumental thank you to everyone enjoying the story and unlocking Chapters! I appreciate you all!