Swamped

It occurs to you that, since this place is multilingual, there might be books you can read. You've got no idea how you'd actively go looking for them, or what they might tell you, but at least it's something to keep an eye out for.

It'd be nice if the damn bear would tell you something, but apparently you can't talk back through it. You reach into the pouch and touch it, in a vain hope that somehow this will alert whoever's on the other end.

Dammit! They've started already.

Seems you've got quite the sense of timing.

Where are you... in the temple. You must have seen the ceremony outside, then. They're using the statue for it. There's no way we can do this quietly any more.

You really don't like the sound of that.

Get outside. I'll give you a diversion, and you grab the statue. If you don't... well, I don't have time to get into detail. Just know that I'll make sure what remains of your life is miserable.

As if you had much to look forward to already.

Wait, hang on. Things will probably go more smoothly if you've got a book. Let's see... the ones from your continent should be about eight rows down from where you are now. Just grab anything you can understand, there's no time to make a better plan than that.

Why do they want you to get a book? Well, you're not getting an answer to that, you suppose, so you may as well take the advice. You run down eight rows and sure enough, most of the titles are in lettering you can recognize, if not necessarily words.

So. Which of these should you take with you?

The one about "Alexandra"

One about history, and one more.

You see the word "Alexandra" in one of the titles. That seems vaguely familiar... didn't the Recordkeeper have a book about that he was very protective of? Or was that Alexandria?

Whatever. You grab it. Not like you've got any reason to care. You're in such a rush that you grab the book next to it, too. Well, they're just books, what's it even matter? You shove them in the pouch and rush out.

Then you carefully make your way down the stairs, trying to wait at the edge. Though as you look down at the crowd, everyone is bowing down in prayer. Maybe you didn't need to bother.

The priests don't seem to be paying attention, either. One of them - probably the leader, judging by her particularly ornate hat and robes - is standing in front of the large statue, holding up the smaller one. The rest are standing in a circle, chanting.

And the statues are glowing. What in the hells is happening here?

The only people who might even notice you are the guards, and they appear preoccupied. They seem to be going through the crowd, glancing downward. Making sure everyone is praying, you suppose? There's three standing near the statue, but their eyes are fixed on the high priest.

Of course, that means if you made a grab for the statue, they'd be on you immediately. You'll have to wait for the distraction, you suppose, whatever it is.

Very soon. Get behind the big statue. Nobody's watching.

Oh. So you don't need to touch the bear directly to get orders. That's probably convenient for whoever's giving them to you. You move behind the statue, as instructed.

Now!

Now? Now what? What exactly is the diversion?

Run up and take the smaller statue from the priest...
Is what this person seems to want you to do. But its starting to look like this person is in fact against the faction who controls this city, and is using your outsider status to perform actions they couldnt without risk to themselves. Considering you were planning to have at least some degree of alliance with this faction, turning on them now, for no reason other than someone told you through a bear, seems kind of reckless. At least, not without further incentive...
Then again it might be possible that the bear-person is part of the city faction and this is all some kind of elaborate test to make sure you really are loyal to them before they let you in on tasty alliance secrets. But that seems increasingly unlikely.
Hold the bear, and dont do anything, unless it looks like your life is actually going to be in danger.

Edit: Ok actually it was basically stated that the bear-guy is not allied with whoever runs this city in the note (also we totally forgot to wait for the Vice-Mayor, oops). So with that in mind:
Youve been willing to follow the instructions so far, but so far theyve been relatively harmless to your life and your chances with allying with this faction, as long as youve acted cautiously. But interrupting a sacred ritual in front of numerous people, guards and priests alike, is different. You cant exactly be stealthy. So unless the voice gives you more detail on what you need to do, and it isnt really bad for you, dont do anything.
...maybe they just want you to throw one of the books at the statue the priest is holding?

You're suddenly seized by doubt.

Do you really want to go on with this? You barely know what's going on here, but you at least have a chance of moving up through the hierarchy. They might not think of you as one of their own, but you did help them out and Azel implied they appreciated that.

On the other hand, whoever left you that note seems to think something's going to go wrong, and fast. That the gods aren't happy with this Master, and there's a very narrow window of time before they do something about it. If that's true, you doubt this city will still be standing. And they implied they could somehow punish you for not cooperating.

Of course, it could all be a ruse, just someone trying to get you to sign on to their agenda. Or even the temple testing your loyalty - though they picked a very strange way to do that.

And you don't even know what you're waiting for them to do... wait, why did the sky get very dark all of a sudden? And why do you hear... crows?

You look up more carefully and see that the sky is filled with crows, enough to block out the sun. They start descending on the crowd, giving you the strange sight of hundreds of people trying to fight off crows without saying a word.

The priests seem taken aback, too. But the crows don't seem to care about you at all.

This must be the diversion. Which means it's time to make your choice. Do you go for the statue, or not?

Welp, that seems like a good enough sign that there are powerful forces at work here. Too bad it looks like you can't get cozy with both sides, but the faction that can call hundreds of crows onto their enemies is probably the best choice, especially since they might start turning on you if you don't follow their instructions right now.
Go for the statue.

Sounds like a diversion! Give those birds a thumbs up and go for the statue

Make bird noises while grabbing the statue.

You know, so you blend in.

You can't imagine any way there could be this many birds, pointedly going after everyone but you, without the gods being involved. Which lends a lot of credibility to the warnings in the note.

So whatever the Master can do to you, the gods can probably do worse. Best not to take chances. You rush forward and grab the statue out of the priest's hands. Just in case you're not spotted, you caw as loudly as you can - it's not really a skill you've developed, but it's not like anyone's able to pay much attention to you.

As soon as you grab it, you hear that voice in your head again.

Good! Now get moving! We're leaving through the travel chamber, so you'd better remember where that is! I can't spare the time to give you directions now.

Travel chamber? What's that... oh, wait, probably the room where the muscular man vanished. You were thinking about it earlier.

Wait. Really? You're supposed to just walk into that war room after all that's been going on? You're not even sure how you're supposed to slip past this crowd quickly. The crows have their attention for now, but you'd rather not count on that lasting.

So how can you get out of here in a hurry?

Steal some kid's bike
(im sorry)

Normally, if you want to move fast, you'd get on a horse, or a wagon pulled by one at the very least.

There's no horses here, though. Everyone seems to get around on foot.

But there are handcarts. They're not really meant for carrying people, but if nothing else, they've got wheels.

You grab one next to a confused child, empty out the contents, give it a good push, and then hop in as best you can. Your momentum carries you forward, and by the time the guards manage to chase the crows off, you're already at the outer edges of the crowd.

Unfortunately, you didn't have a lot of say in the direction you went in. When the cart stops, you don't recognize any of the buildings. You're not sure how to get back to the war room.

On the other hand, you do recognize the bartender holding a money pouch. He looks at you worriedly.

"You're not going to call the guards on me, are you?"

What do you say in response?

SpoilerShow

Minor edit to previous post, I was looking over the voice's words and realized they hadn't mentioned a specific meeting place previously. So I reworded that while keeping the dismissive tone, and added a little bit to Ash's thought process.

Assure him that you arent then ask him which way the travel/war room is, you're on a time limit here!

After all, you've, uh, got book deliveries to make.

You might as well use this to your advantage. You'd rather not give away your precise destination, but luckily, you have a point of reference you can use.

"I won't. How do I get to your bar, or whatever you call it, from here? I lost my way a bit, and I need to head back in that direction."

He looks around warily.

"What for?"

"Somebody asked me to grab some books for them," you shrug. No sense giving the full story, though if he's going into hiding, you wonder why he even cares.

"Books! You can't mean the temple's library, can you?" He pauses, and points at the other end of the alley. "No, ridiculous, and none of my business at this point anyhow. Just turn left and head down that street, it should be empty for the moment. You'll see the guluca soon enough."

You blink.

"The what?"

"The circle of buildings which includes my 'bar', as you called it. Every place of importance to this city, save the temple and the guardhouses, lie in that circle. I do not have time to explain any more than that. I fear they will notice my absence before long."

He starts to turns away. Well, you suppose you know where to go now. On the other hand, you might be able to intimidate an answer or two out of him first.

So what do you do?

Wait a sec, if he's heading "back" before he's missed, then why isn't he going in the direction of the guluca? Either he's going somewhere else (to snitch?) or he's leading you astray... Smells like a rat!

Or he could just have duties besides the "bar"... ask him why he's not headed to the guluca and see how well you can read him.

>Just go.

"If they're going to notice you're gone, why aren't you heading back there?"

He pauses, briefly. He seems worried.

"It will be easier to do what I must if they are not searching for me. I do not have time to say more, and I doubt you have the time to listen."

He might be right about that. You're going to be in a load of trouble yourself if the guards find you. Though now you're curious about just what he's doing - does he have his own escape route?

Well. You can't really go looking into it now. You put the statue in your pouch and run down the street he pointed to. Soon enough, just as he said, you can see the ring of buildings. The guluca, apparently. Fortunately, you recognize the sign above the war room and find it pretty quickly.

Unfortunately, there's two guards standing out front this time. You can't be sure if they know what you did, but you'd rather not take that chance.

So how are you going to get past them?

Just casually walk between them, but be ready to stick a shiv between the ribs of of either of them if they make a move to stop you.

Well. You do have your improvised weapons. And these guards don't seem to have particularly thick armor. You can probably catch them by surprise if it comes down to that, so, might as well just walk right in.

You start walking towards them. At first there's no reaction. They don't even seem to be looking at you.

But the moment you step between them, their pikes block the doorway.

"No one is to enter until the Tala is complete," one of them says.

Hmm. So they're not keeping an eye out for you, specifically, and they aren't resorting to force yet. You might be able to talk your way in. Then again, you might have been spotted earlier, and who knows how soon these two might be alerted.

So. Do you force your way in, or try for something more diplomatic?

>ask when it will be finished.

"How long is that going to take?" you ask.

"About fourteen hours, if all goes well. It's a shame we have to miss it, but we have our orders."

You glance around. None of the other buildings are guarded.

"Why this place specifically?"

"The Vice-Mayor did not tell us. And we had no reason to ask."

Of course. In a place like this, guards accept their orders without question.

Except... You can't help but notice that the guard who isn't talking doesn't seem to have quite as firm a grip on their pike. It even seemed to shake a bit when the other guard mentioned not asking. Maybe they aren't quite as sold on the "without question" bit as their associate.

Interesting. Now if only you could think of a way to take advantage of their hesitation.

>Tell them there's been an attack at the temple

Didn't they see the swarm of crows? Order them to go defend the temple.

"Is everything going well? There were a lot of crows in the sky not too long ago."

"Hadn't noticed. Wasn't looking up."

"I mean, a lot of crows. Practically blocked out the sun."

The silent guard's pike isn't holding steady at all. What do they know?

"Wait. A lot of what, you said?"

"Crows. Little black birds? Where I come from, we use them to send messages." Maybe they're not common on this continent.

Which makes the increasingly nervous reactions of the quiet guard even stranger. You can practically see the fear in their eyes.

"That's definitely strange," the guard says. "Did they just pass on, then?"

"It looked like they were descending... I think somewhere around the temple? Hard to tell."

The guard looks worried.

"I'd best take a quick look, then. Birds can be troublesome, and the Tala is too important to take chances." He turns to his partner. "You stay here. Don't let anybody in. I'll be back as soon as I can."

He rushes off, leaving you alone with the surprisingly nervous guard.

Now what?