I Built This City Chapter 53: Chapter 53

Read chapter 53 of I Built This City by ThePudding on NovelPedia.

Pauley The two redheads in front of him looked the same to him. Different clothing, sure, but their expression, their hair, their features… each were identical in a way that still gave Pauley the chills sometimes. He prided himself in being a straightforward yet supportive man. He’d sort of known that the “twins” working at the Treetop Inn hadn’t been normal, even setting aside their bizarre story of trying to be adventurers. It was his job to keep an eye on strange people passing through, him and Tobias, and both had picked up on something odd about the girls from the beginning. Not dangerous—they’d seemed genuine in their need for help—but odd. Pauley was starting to wonder if he’d made a mistake in not booting their butts back to Merriweather. The two girls looked apprehensive as he stared at them, so the large man let out a heavy, tired sigh. “Sorry, you two. Just having thoughts.” It wasn’t their fault that the stranger had attacked. If anything, from what they’d said, it had been their presence which may well have saved Camilla from a far more sinister trouble. He just couldn’t fully dismiss the nagging feeling that this quiet, sleepy village had gotten more strange incidents than usual because of her presence. Superstitious nonsense , he thought. While Fate could have a hand in this sort of thing, it was much more likely that Ellen—and her many selves—had come to be here because of the strangeness, and not brought it with her. He knew she was a Greylan now, if a young one. He wouldn’t put it past them to just show up where needed. Though he could see why Ellen had wanted to keep that a secret. “I’ll talk to Jenson,” he muttered. “He’s one of the first ones I told about your… condition. He’d already started to suspect something was off, but I’m not sure he believed my explanation. Would do him good to see a few of you at once.” “Thank you, sir,” the two spoke in one voice. Nearly jolted Pauley out of his skin. The one on the left spoke alone, next. “How are the other villagers taking the news? Much progress?” “Not that we’re trying to rush you,” the other reassured easily. The way they alternated really made Pauley’s lip twitch. He’d been most familiar with Village Ellen—as they’d called her—and Merchant Ellen, and those two seemed quite different in how they spoke and approached things despite being physically very similar. Hunter Ellen had been even more different, and his brief encounter with her and her… descendants… had shown him her attitude was also very far removed from Village Ellen. “Do you know what was going on with that man?” The question pulled Pauley out of his thoughts, and he grunted softly. “No. I’d say nothing like that has happened here before, but I guess we wouldn’t know. If you… uh… Village…” He trailed off helplessly. “Just say you,” one of the girls offered. “Right after we duplicate it’s hard to tell us apart from our predecessor,” the other agreed. “Though usually they aren’t still around…” Pauley shook his head. “Right. If you hadn’t been there, we’d have never known. It wouldn’t have been the first time someone lured a starstruck young girl off… but it hasn’t happened that often, and not for many a year.” Both of them nodded. In the moment of quiet, Pauley heard shouting outside, and tensed… but the shouting was regular and only mildly angry. He dismissed it as something to do with the workers struggling with a troublesome felled tree or something. They were competent enough to work without him for a little while, and if it were a real emergency there’d be much more screaming. Belatedly, Pauley realized they’d asked him another question… an important one. He folded his hands together on the table, looking at each girl in turn. “As for how the others are taking it… I’ve only told about two dozen so far, but I’m going to have to step it up.” Pauley sighed as he thought of that. “Most at first think I’m not quite right, but I usually point out how redheaded twins out of nowhere is pretty rare, a