The guards at the doors didn’t pay the group much attention as they scurried outside. Belmont immidiately took command of the group, pushing them towards an alleyway and out of sight of the main road.

They walked at a brisk pace but tried to look as natural as possible. People were less likely to remember their passing if they didn’t stand out.

Belmont led them down the twisting side paths and shadowed streets of Riverfall, not pausing for even an instant. As they got deeper into a part of the city that Arek hadn’t seen before, the walls started to show signs of age.

The streets grew dirtier and people’s clothing lowered in quality. Wary eyes tracked their movement and hands clutched their belongings tighter as the Happy Sunflowers passed.

“Is the slums really the best place to go to lose a possible tail?” Malissa whispered.

“Yes,” Belmont replied. “If they show up here, we’ll know for a fact that we were tailed. If they don’t, this will throw people off our trail and make it harder for them to know where we’re staying. Speaking of which, we can’t go back to the adventurer’s guild. We’re too well known there.”

“They’re not going to try something in the city, are they?” Malissa asked. “We saw what happened to the Starpiercers.”

“Probably not,” Belmont admitted. “But we can’t know for sure, and that means we need to plan for it. Besides, nothing stops them from tailing us until we leave the city and then attacking then. We need to be cautious. We’re up against someone with an insane amount of money that is very likely holding a grudge against us for stealing an item out from under their noses.”

“How do we know we’re being trailed? Maybe they don’t care,” Ming said.

“Better safe than sorry,” Belmont said as they turned a corner. A foul smell coming from a pile of trash in the corner of the street assaulted their noses. The four of them covered their noses with a grimace and increased their pace.

“There’s another, possibly more important, problem,” Arek said once they’d passed the trash. “There are several, actually. But they all stem from the same thing. Did anybody else notice that the auctioneer looked angry or unhappy whenever someone other than that rich person won something?”

“Huh?” Ming asked.

“I did,” Belmont said, and Malissa nodded as well.

“I didn’t see it until you pointed it out, but I caught him doing it at the end of the auction,” Malissa said.

A man stepped out from behind a building in front of them, moving as if to walk by the party. He didn’t look in their direction. Belmont moved to stand in between him and the others and pierced him with a cold glare.

The man inclined his head slightly and adjusted his course, keeping a good distance between himself and Belmont.

“He’s just a pickpocket,” Belmont said. “Don’t worry about them. Arek, do you have any thoughts as to why the auctioneer acted the way he did? I’ve got my own suspicions, but I’d like to hear what you were thinking.”

“I do,” Arek said. “But they’re not very confident. To be honest, I can’t think of many reasons for why someone running an auction house would want the price of its items to be higher. Not unless he was somehow working with whoever was bidding those high prices.”

“I agree,” Belmont said. “But, that just poses a new question. Why would he do that? He might have been bribed, I suppose. It would have had to have been quite a large bribe, though. I imagine that auction houses pay well.”

“And that still doesn’t make much sense,” Malissa put in. She raised her hands palm up and gave them a shrug. “What’s the point of bribing someone to win an auction? They still have to pay or the auctioneer’s boss would have him thrown in jail or worse. If they have the money to bribe him, shouldn’t they have the money to win the auction normally?”

The four of them turned down another alley. As they walked under a building’s shadow, Belmont caught Arek’s eye. Almost imperceptibly, the armored man jerked his chin in the direction from where they’d come.

Arek’s eyes narrowed. He gave a miniscule nod, not breaking from his normal stride.

“I don’t think he was bribed, though. They might have been threatening him, but his reactions looked more like an accomplice than a victim. I think he was working with whoever that rich person was. He might not have broken any real rules of the auction house, but I suspect he had an interest in them winning the bids.”

“So why didn’t they throw a few thousand gold to win your box?” Malissa asked. She also gave a miniscule nod as Belmont repeated what he had done with Arek. “If they’ve got the money, it shouldn’t be too difficult.”

They turned another corner. Belmont sped up slightly after catching Ming’s eye as well. The Happy Sunflowers did the same. Ming shifted to a light jog to keep up with them.

“I suspect it might be because they want to make an example of us,” Belmont said.

They reached a larger area that might have once been a courtyard. The passing of time had taken its toll on the square, reducing fine stone walls to rubble that had been picked apart further by scavengers.

Trash was littered across the floor, mostly along the edges of the courtyard. Of the four entrances that led into it, one had been buried in a pile of stone from a collapsed building. They made their way into the middle of the square, where Belmont stopped and turned around, drawing his pink staff.

Everyone other than Arek also drew their weapons. The orc just stood there, his arms crossed, watching the street that they’d come down.

Four men emerged in the alleyway and made their way into the square. Each of them wore a set of well-polished leather armor with a hood that obscured their features. The man at their lead had a small green insignia of a demon’s face on his lapel.

“Can we help you?” Arek asked.

“You can drop the games. Haven’t you heard it’s rude to talk about people behind their back?” The lead man asked. His voice was robust and powerful. It was more akin to a king’s voice than that of someone stalking others around in the slums.