33 Making the impossible possible

Julian waited for when the chaos stilled.

The clanging of metal and outraged shouts slowly grew distant, and the thundering of footsteps trailed farther rather than closer. He stood with his back against the grainy stone wall and counted the brick lain within the opposite building.

And when all the noise was suitably far, he smiled and began to walk.

The layout of the city was one unfamiliar to him. However, Julian could remember the instructions P-man drunkenly spewed out to him with perfect accuracy. It was just his lucky chance that Leonel had chosen to run the right way when he was being carried.

Past the fountain with the "Broken Nose Statue", head northward toward the billowing flags that hung atop Fauster's very own, unjustifiably proud smithy. Since it was down on a decline, the flag was easy to spot from the fountain, and one just had to stroll toward it to find the Hall of Knights.

Despite its glorious name, the Hall of Knights was just the barracks used by the city guards. It was hardly as impressive as the name implied and sat not too far from the Viscount's manor. That was where the criminal Anderina was held.

Or so P-man claimed.

Julian hummed to the thought, his steps brisk, but his expression was unconcerned. He wondered if he was being tricked, but the dumb man seemed too stupid to contrive plans for the sake of trickery and succeed. At best, he might have remembered details wrong and conveyed those faulty memories and rumors to Julian.

Alas, there was no guarantee he was even walking in the right direction. But in the end, Julian did not care so much about this Anderina character either.

That level of sympathy was still beyond him.

But he walked anyway.

A shadow chased after him, which made him raise his chin, spotting a little wyvern circling over him. He chuckled, not really remembering when Dog had left their sights, but he was not a very strict (or caring) owner and allowed the creature to do as it pleased for the most part. If it wished to fly off one day, Julian supposed he didn't care that much either.

The Doctor held out his arm, offering it as a perch for Dog to land. The animal took the offer readily and fluttered down, its sharp claws gently circling around the Doctor's thin forearms before crawling up and around his shoulders.

"Are you curious about the woman Anderina as well?"

The creature did not understand or care about his words and settled down around his neck like a scarf.

"I don't blame you. After all, there has to be something interesting that she used to bribe our handsome Inquisitor with. I would love to see what that thing might be."

To that, the wyvern mewled before burrowing its head under the thin membrane of its wing.

The Doctor laughed, perhaps not totally sane, but this was the most fun he'd had in a while, and he wasn't going to miss out.

…

It took him over an hour and a bit to reach this damned Hall of Knights. The building was easy to pick out with a gaudy statue outside its gated front and the various guards that were patrolling around it. Though the security appeared rather light at first glance, with only one guy that was making his rounds about the streets that surrounded the building and then one that stood by the gate entrance. This poor man seemed like he was about to fall asleep at a moment's notice.

Julian guessed that the majority of the Viscount's men were out and about, searching for Illysa. They were more concerned with the innate mager than guarding the woman that was already sentenced to her death come morning.

But did they not consider that the girl would return for her mother?

Well, then again, Julian had abandoned his own mother without looking back. He had little to no understanding of the meaning of maternal love. No matter how much he tried to decode its depths, in the end, Julian could only accept that his perspective on parent-children relationships was terribly skewed.

That was not of concern in his current situation, so he pushed it to the back of his mind. First, he shooed Dog off him and told the creature to 'stand by'.

Whether Dog understood those words was a serious toss-up. The reptile flew around the rooftops but remained in the perimeter of the barracks.

Then, he left the comforts of dark, narrow alleys and approached the front gates with a hurried gait. Contorting his expression into one of innocent alarm he ran (or awkwardly hobbled) to the guard stationed at the front gate.

"Sir…!" He added a bit of hesitance in his voice for the magic to take full effect.

The guard startled, straightening from his slightly slumped position and snapped toward Julian, "What is it?" He blinked at the flustered old man. "What do you want?"

Alas, the trick of being slightly dazed and confused worked better when he was younger. And by younger, he meant in his early teenage years.

Julian cleared his throat a little and said, "I saw her…!"

The guard was confused at first, "Her? What do you mean, her?" He seemed a little annoyed at dealing with this strangle old man.

"The Viscount's daughter!" Julian exclaimed, "People are chasing after her and a male escort she had with her!"

The guard, however, was not so easily convinced and narrowed his eyes at the wild claims. He was not all stupid and asked pointedly, "A male escort? What did this escort look like?"

What did he look like? Well, he had long black hair and dazzling blue eyes and was angsty and broody, Julian inwardly snickered. But alas he couldn't say that. Instead, he conjured as much detail about the dead mage Leonel, and he found in the forest and described him. His features were marred by death but Julian went with describing the telling bump on his nose and then the detail of his clothes.

And the fact that he was a mage, and the kinds of spells he could cast.

He was pleased to see the way the guard's expression transformed from scepticism to alarm.

In truth, the whole story had been a gamble. Even if technically the mage was dead, Julian wasn't certain if everyone had heard news of the fact. But there were several reasons why the Doctor thought it was a safe story to tell.

For one, Inquisitors were not known to have good communication outside of their own circle and often didn't coordinate their movements and knowledge with others.

If the guard were to catch onto his bluff, then he'd simply have to switch his act to that of a rambling madman. Easy.

But his plan had worked, and the guard was alert, "Where did this happen?"

Julian decided to situation the whole event much closer to the Hall of Knights than reality, "Just a few blocks past the smithy, to the east!" He'd litter the lie with some truths as well, "I think they were running out of the city…!"

"Shit," the guard cursed. It was at that moment, the guard patrolling had circled back to the main gate. He looked at his colleague first and then at the strange man speaking to him.

"What's going on here?"

The gate guard turned to his friend, "Illysa was spotted. Being chased by…"

"They looked like mercenaries," Julian readily supplied to the new guard, "but I think a few of them might have been drunk, I don't know."

This newly arrived guard's eyes widened. He was a lot more gullible than his friend and made Julian's life a lot easier. "Why didn't you say so sooner!" He yelled, "Let's hurry!"

"But the gates--"

"Forget the gates! More people are working inside anyway. It's not like the Hall of Knights is going to suddenly get attacked, you know!"

And just like that, they raced off down the dark streets. Julian held back a snicker. But the night wasn't going to last forever, and he preferably wanted to get this woman out of her cell before the darkness was chased away by dawn.

With the guards gone, he was able to slip past the gates and venture forward.

Now was just a matter of avoiding detection and finding the prison cell in which Anderina was held.

That was a lot easier said than done, especially now that he was a cripple. Luckily, Julian always had a knack for making the impossible possible.