Continue assembling

The boar-beast strains against its bindings, snorting furiously in your direction. You're not quite sure what got it riled up all of a sudden...maybe its handler moving too far away, but whatever the reason it would making having any meaningful conversation difficult. "If you have everything you need." you shout over the squealing, the three of you stepping out of the room and the guard closing the door behind you.

"Pretty much. I have a small personal bag back at the boarding house, but it's pretty close to the main gate anyways. No need to put yourself off schedule if you don't have to, right?" she clutches the tome tightly against her stomach as you walk out of the keep side by side; the guard keeping you at a brisk pace so you could get to the entrance before the morning rush could clog it up: the new lead guard quickly shooing you to the side as the slow tide of now-wakened tourists slowly converge on the gate.

It takes a few detours through the side allies; tight enough that all five of you have to stand uncomfortably close together, but eventually you manage to make it out onto the main roads once again; slowly leading you towards the central, built up portions of the city. Eleanor doesn't seem the slightest bit bothered, whistling quietly as she brushes off the curious and/or lustful stare of the locals. She even smiles at a few of them, laborer or whore alike...getting more than a few confused looks. A few street children even walk up to her, seeing how close they could get before the guards shoo them away, but that only makes her look amused.

"What friendly children." she commented sweetly, waving the gang goodbye as they hustled back into the shadows. A few moments later your escort lowers his spear, the shaft stopping both of you in your path in front of your destination. The place is some kind of tavern, a rusting iron sign in the shape of a horseshoe clattering above the door. It probably looked a lot more homely at one point but the paint and wood were both starting to chip away, giving it an almost tired appearance. There isn't a great deal of sound coming out of it at this hour; the midday meal already complete and still far too early for the night crowd. Only a handful of shadows can be seen through the window; draped drunkenly over the counter or their chairs; an older man standing behind the counter and polishing mugs. And in the far back, you can see something that might be a dancer's stage: back curtain drawn and empty for the time being. "Where is she exactly?" you asked, continuing to look around for anybody who might be this Phoebe your father told you about.

"It's off hours," he said, looking over your shoulder and into the shop with you. "Nobody's going to perform to a crowd that small and wasted." You stop looking soon enough...the only woman in the place old enough to be your grandmother: clearly not the young companion you'd been told about.

"Maybe the bartender knows where she is?" Eleanor asked; the guard and you looking at one another and shrugging. After all, his was probably a better guess than anybody else's.

"Good idea, Eleanor," she brightens up at the acknowledgement, the guard pushing open the heavy door with a loud creak. The small assortment of drunkards grunt angrily at the intrusion, one tossing a mug which misses you by a mile and shatters against the far wall. This causes the barkeep to look up from his work, scowling at the offender before noticing the new arrivals.

"I'm adding that to your tab, Carlos!" he exclaimed, his target only flailing his arm dismissively before you're waved over: sitting side by side at the front counter. He flips through a palm-sized note-book, adding the charge for the glass with a quick flourish without looking up at you. "So, what'll you folks be having? Beer, Mead..."

"Information," you cut him off, mocking the tone of a street investigator. "Does a girl named Phoebe perform around here?" This gets the barkeep's full attention: face turning from uninterested to fully alert as soon as he sees the guard uniform.

"Always happy to help out the law, sir." he said eagerly...perhaps a bit too eagerly. "She does a lunch and dinner show here twice a week...writes the stories and designs the puppets herself, if you can believe it. She's a real clever girl." He takes his quill and points the tip at the stairs. "She rents a room on the third floor, fifth to the right. Didn't think she was into anything shady though..."

You shake your head furiously. "No, no; nothing like that. She's needed for official royal business." you said, pushing yourself out of your seat and placing a silver in front of you...at least, it looks like that. In reality, as you, Eleanor and the guard walk up the steps the barkeep tries to grab it; fingers passing through the illusion three times before he finally got what was going on...all three of you giggling the rest of the way up.

Arriving at the right door, you give it a sturdy knock, a sing-song voice from inside calling out, "Just a minute." The awkward silence dominates everything for a moment, before you finally turn to Eleanor.

"Do you know anything about spirit-binding?" you ask hesitantly.

She stares you down for a moment before answering, wondering if you're serious. "A little...it's a pretty rare kind of magic. Barely anybody at the Academy still studies it. Supposedly, it's supposed to awaken the latent magic inside inanimate objects, so they can move around under your instruction. But...nobody's quite sure where exactly that magic comes from. There are...some rumors." She stops there, the door flying open and Eleanor only barely stepping aside in time to avoid getting it. Standing in the opening was a girl; standing a little taller then Eleanor, already-gaudy dress covered in an apron stained with rainbow of paints. Every part of her was so...shiny or bright; the contrast between what you'd just been talking about and the reality throwing you for a loop.

"Oh! There you are!" She said happily, clapping to herself. "It's finally the day, oh, I'm so excited." She was like a little ball of sunshine, stepping back and beckoning you all into her little room. "Come in. Sorry if things are a little mess...just getting the stars all read for tonight's show." Space was tight: Eleanor having to sit on the bed to leave enough room for the rest of you to stand; the biggest...though the biggest offender was the rotating rack that took up half the room, puppets hanging off individual hooks to be grabbed at will. Though Phoebe is between you and her workstation, you can see one of them placed on a special rack: seemingly having only just started this puppet as only her eyes were painted on.

"So Phoebe," Eleanor spoke, trying to be polite. "You're an entertainer? That's a strange career to jump over into adventuring from." Phoebe takes this in stride, sitting back down in her work chair and adding a black spot to the middle of her creation's eyes.

"An entertainer? I once heard of something even stranger; a prince leaving his royal breeding to go adventuring. Imagine that." she said, voice carrying no hint of sarcasm or irony as she looked over at you. "Doesn't mean you can't go adventuring. It just proves you're a little braver then most. Right?" Gods, it was so hard to say no to that face; just barely nodding up and down and her bouncing causing her heavy breasts to swing the same way, encouraging you to support her.

"I don't like to brag." you finally said: even if it was entirely true managing to placate them (though it did get a skeptical look from the guard). As you're all talking, the puppeteer takes her toy in one hand an a strip of black ribbon in the other; slowly and tightly wrapping it around the unpainted parts of the wooden frame.

"Well, I'm still scheduled for one more show tonight...a grand finale for the set of stories I've been doing. Do you mind if I we wait to leave town for a little while longer, so I can end this career with a bang?" she asked. Eleanor and you share a glance, and not seeing any argument on your part it's clearly your decision.