"Damn it! Fucking damn it!" Mae roared, her fist slamming brutally against the heavy wooden door of the shop.
Pinned securely to the wood was a crisp piece of paper bearing a simple, infuriating message: 'Gone on a journey, will not return for a long time.'
"I don't get it. They should have come here to get their gear," Li muttered quietly to himself, staring at the note in genuine disbelief. "I heard those two owed her a giant debt, so it just made sense..."
Mae whipped around, her eyes burning with a lethal, unrestrained glare. "Any other bright ideas of yours?!" she snarled, stepping aggressively into his space. "Anything at all you want to waste my time with?!"
It was entirely irrational—Li had absolutely nothing to do with this dead end—but she was blindly lashing out, and Li knew it. Honestly, that terrified him even more than a calculated threat. He quickly threw both his hands up in a placating, defensive gesture. "Sorry! I'm sorry, I didn't know! I am sorry," he babbled, desperately trying to de-escalate the volatile elf despite knowing he hadn't done anything wrong.
"Sorry? You're sorry?!" she exclaimed, her muscles coiling tightly as if she were a second away from striking him.
But the violent energy suddenly drained from her. Instead of hitting him, she aggressively dragged her hands back through her hair, letting out a ragged, trembling breath. "Ugh, why is everything like this?" she muttered, her voice cracking with uncharacteristic, raw distress. "Why can't I just find him already?"
Li swallowed hard, his mind racing a mile a minute. *Come on, come on, figure something out quick, or a very angry elf might just kill you for absolutely no reason... oh!*
A sudden realization struck him. "What if Lady Chae went with the two of them and Annie? That might make sense, right?" he suggested quickly.
Mae shot him a look of pure, exhausted annoyance. "How would you even know that, and why would that even matter?" she snapped.
Li rushed to explain his logic before she could lose her temper again. "Lady Chae is a very well-known figure in this city. If we ask someone if her shop was open recently, we can figure out exactly when she left and if she went with them. And if she did go with them, we can figure out where they are headed next."
Mae took a deep, shuddering breath, forcibly reeling in her chaotic emotions as she crossed her arms tightly over her chest. "Fine. Just hurry it up," she demanded.
Li nodded rapidly. He scanned their immediate surroundings, quickly deducing that the merchants inside the neighboring enclosed buildings likely wouldn't have seen her leave. He needed someone who had been stationed out in the open. His eyes finally landed on a uniformed city guard currently patrolling the busy street area.
"Just wait a few seconds," he told Mae, before turning and hurrying off to intercept the guard.
The city guard watched him approach, a deep frown of confusion creasing his forehead. "Aren't you a checkpoint guard?" he asked, gesturing vaguely toward Li's armor and the heavy spear he carried. "What are you doing inside the city limits still fully dressed in your patrol gear?"
"It's... complicated," Li replied breathlessly, completely bypassing the question as he pointed a finger back toward the closed shop. "But I have an urgent question. Do you happen to know exactly when Lady Chae left? And did you see if she was leaving with anyone?"
The city guard followed his pointing finger and gave a slow nod. "Yeah, I saw her leave. Around half an hour ago, I want to say? And yes, she left with those two hunters, Tiyun and Zamin." He paused, scratching his chin in thought. "There was also a foreign girl with them. Tall, had bright blue hair."
"Okay, thank you!" Li blurted out, a massive, shuddering sigh of relief escaping his lungs. He immediately spun on his heel and began speed-walking back the way he came.
"Hey! Aren't you going to tell me why you're here, or why you're even asking?" the city guard called out after him.
But Li was far too panicked and terrified of keeping Mae waiting to waste even a single second explaining himself. He didn't stop, nor did he bother looking back, practically sprinting the rest of the way to the volatile elf.
"Well? Did you get anything?" she demanded the second he was within earshot.
"Yes," Li panted, catching his breath. "She left exactly half an hour ago. And she left with Tiyun, Zamin, and Annie."
At the confirmation of the blue-haired girl's presence, the dangerous, violent storm brewing in Mae's eyes finally cleared, lighting up with the tiniest, desperate glimmer of genuine hope.
"Okay, what else?" she pressed eagerly.
Li was already turning his body, ready to bolt again. "Since the note on her door explicitly stated she was going on a 'long journey,' it is highly likely they needed to secure mounts for the trip. If we head to the main stables right now, we might still be able to catch them."
Knowing full well that Mae would violently shove him to get him moving if he lingered for even a second longer, Li immediately took off down the street. Mae matched his brisk pace without hesitation, the two of them rapidly weaving through the dense city crowds toward the stables, blissfully unaware that the four people they were so desperately chasing were already long gone.