”Its soldiers.” Cloridan said. He was reporting to the group what he’d told me when we’d got back from breaking and entering.

“In uniform? How many?” Aubert asked.

“No, and not armed either. But they had a… disciplined air about them that you don’t get from adventurers sitting on their heels for a long period. They’re waiting for something. About 50, though I wasn’t in a position to count them all.”

“So where does this leave us?” Janie wondered.

“With needing more information,” I replied. “Did you find anything among the delvers?”

She shrugged. “There are a bunch of new faces. They seem like adventurers but they are a bit stand-offish. Not in one group either, more like five groups, 20 something in all?”

“What could your father do with this information, Aubert?” I asked.

He scowled. “Not much, I’m afraid. Its not illegal to house men, and while being watched over by the Thieves guild is concerning, its actually makes things harder. If he wanted to arrest them, he’d need to gather a lot of men, and that would probably be noticed.”

“They’d be gone by the time he got there,” I speculated.

“Yes, they probably have a sewer entrance - we tend to find those after we’ve failed to raid a Guild establishment. Obviously we can try and block that route…”

“But the Guild will have people watching for that as well.”

“I can at least tell father to expect 70 men if there is an attack.” Aubert said. “Its strange… thats too many for a surgical strike, but not enough for a more widespread attack.”

“There may be other groups we don’t know about,” I countered, “Or, they may be split up into multiple groups, either to attack separate targets or to include distractions for your fathers troops.”

“True… we really do need more information.”

“Cloridan, how do you feel about keeping a watch on the place?” I asked our Rogue. He groaned.

“Gonna be up to me to play footsie with the Thieves guild?” he complained.

“If you think Janie can help…” I suggested, but I wasn’t surprised when he shook his head vigorously.

“Absolutely not.” he said. “She gets… antsy, if she isn’t doing something after a while.”

“I do get bored easily,” Janie agreed. “I thought it would be the way I always attract attention that you’d be objecting to though.”

“I can make you wear a cloak over your damn armour,” Cloridan said, “And this will need to happen indoors anyway. But damned if I’m going to spend days cooped up with you and no alcohol.”

“Indoors?” I asked.

“For this to work, I’ll need to find a place thats either empty or doesn’t mind us camping out,” Cloridan explained. “We’d get noticed if we just sat out on the street, and the rooftops are taken.”

“I see. Well, I’ll be somewhat available for shifts, but I do have other duties. Aubert…” I looked over at the scowling noble. “Should be available to help.”

“Much appreciated, my lord.” Cloridan muttered. “I’ll get on to finding a place then.”

“Alright, and I’ll see if I can find you some more backup,” I said.

It wasn’t as bad as Cloridan had said it was going to be, but it was going to be hard to make it workable.

“Yeah, its true about territories, but I can get most places,” the kid boasted. The others looked nervous, but didn’t contradict him. His name was Cutter, according to him, and the others seemed OK with calling him that so I went with that as well. He was the oldest and biggest of the kids, at age 13. They all looked pretty well fed, for orphans, but they certainly tucked into the pies Elodie had bought like they were starving animals.

“Is that true for the rest of you as well?” I asked the other two. Maslin and Lundy looked at each other and Lundy replied.

“Kinda?” she said. “Cutter’s older and he fights, so there's not many that would mess with him. But Iron-worker kids get on pretty well with most gangs.”

“Why is that?”

“Cause we’ve got armour, and we can get them weapons!” Cutter answered. I got the impression he would have liked to brandish his sword to make the point, but he settled for banging on his pauldron with his armoured gauntlet.

Armour, well…

[Identification]: - Plate Mail (partial) - Quality: Poor - Properties: Squeaky

I’d been under the impression that Poor quality equipment was melted down as a failed piece, or caused by maintenance issues. Looks like sometimes it got handed down to the brats. The other two were also wearing bits of plate.

“Is that how you show you’re… Iron-worker kids?” I asked.

“Yeah!” Cutter exclaimed, and the others nodded less enthusiastically.

“Did you do this as well, when you were younger?” I asked Elodie, who was ‘supervising’ the kids from the corner of the room.

“I wasn’t running on the streets, miss,” she huffed. I looked at her skeptically, and she crumbled. “Well, sometimes when I had errands, I had a helmet that my father made.”

“Fascinating,” I said, and meant it. That an entire social stratum could exist that was just ignored by the adults, even though some - most? - had been a part of it? My major was economics, but I’d taken a few sociology units along the way, and this practically demanded a study.

Sadly, I had other concerns at the moment. “What can you tell me about the other gangs?” I asked and was answered with a babble of half-coherent ideas.

It seemed that the guild kids were the most numerous type of gang, but also the smallest. They weren’t really what I’d call a gang, since most of them were actually fed and housed by their respective guilds - and also policed by them. They mainly focused on protecting each other and their turf. Unless there was a feud going on, guild kids could enter each other’s territories without incident - as long as it was on some kind of errand. Hanging out was not generally tolerated unless the groups were friendly.

Altogether, the guild kids probably numbered about as much as the three larger gangs that Cutter knew about: the Snakes, the Rats and the Crows. I sensed certain self-esteem issues with whoever had named those gangs.

The Snakes had territory near the dungeon, where the adventures tended to live. They mainly survived by running errands for adventurers (who shed money) and by robbing adventurers when they were dead drunk. They were always trying to get a slot in a delving team, or to make enough to get into the dungeon on their own.

The Rats worked the docks, either looking for honest unskilled labour or committing crimes. Pickpocketing or running lookout for grown up thieves for the most part.

Finally, the Crows hid out in the poor quarter. They didn’t work there though, sneaking out at night for burglary. They were the most criminally accomplished of the gangs, and also the most violent. Cutter thought they were the most likely to be connected with the Thieves Guild.

“Everyone claims they are, but those bastards are so cut-throat they just might be,” he claimed. “Plus they got their own line on weapons, so they won’t talk to us.”

Those were all the gangs they knew about, though they were dimly aware of the existence of others. The Nobles quarter, for example, was a place they didn’t go. Nobles wouldn’t be a gang exactly, but noble kids did sometimes go around in groups beating on their lessers.

“You see a noble kid, you need to give ‘em a wide berth,” Cutter said. “Even the young ones are level three, and they’ll cut you just for the XP.”

“You guys are all level two right?” I asked and they nodded in response. “Elodie should have told you what I’m looking for you to do, so why don’t you tell me what you’re looking to gain. Is it just money?”

The youngest two were somewhat reticent, but Cutter responded right away. “I heard you were a big-shot adventurer - can you get me into the Crypt?”

“The dungeon?” I asked, surprised. “Do you want to be an adventurer?”

“Yeah!” he exclaimed, “I like to fight, thats why I’m called Cutter!”

“Uh huh. And what about you two?” I said, looking over at them.

“Um, I was- we were…” Lundy stammered, looking nervous. “Hoping you were looking for apprentices?”

I stared blankly at them. “You want to be mages? Do you even know what kind of mage I am?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Maslin muttered before clamming up again. Lundy continued for him.

“Any kind of mage is a step up or three from what we’re looking at. And we do know you can [Enchant], thats scary big important. Everyone in the Guild is looking up to you!”

“I see. Do you have the requisite [Scribe] skill?” They only looked embarrassed.

I looked over at Elodie. “How did you get [Scribe] and [Calculate]?” I asked. “They’re not in the [Maid] profession.”

“My parents paid for me to study for two years, miss.” I must have looked puzzled, because she continued: “Oh, my tutor didn’t have [Teach] miss, I had to learn it all the hard way before getting awarded them for competence.” The kids seemed impressed by this admission.

“Ah. I didn’t think that way was generally known.”

“Most of the guilds know about it, I think. Its only really important for those two skills.”

“Right.” This had come up when I was researching other magic types. Most skills could be gained by simply attempting the skill until you succeeded, but Academic and Magic skills needed to be taught.

“How rare is the [Teach] skill anyway?” I wondered.

“Pretty rare…” Elodie answered uncertainly, but I was already doing a search of the system. Professions that unlocked [Teach]… wow, there weren’t many. There was [Scrivener] at level four, but otherwise it was all classes like [Phantasmal Illusionist], advanced mage classes at Level 5 or above. [Master Arcanist], [Sage], [Leymaster]… not professions I could see teaching a guild kid to read. Aesrideu had said the calling of a [Bard] was to teach, but they didn’t get the skill. [High Bard] did though.

“Wow, that is rare. Just [Scrivener]? I guess they get monopolised by the nobles.”

“Yes, its hard to get to level four just as a [Scribe], and thats where [Scriveners] generally come from. I think most noble houses hire a [Scribe] and advance him to level four to serve as a personal tutor for the family.”

“So assuming you can get [Scribe] from somewhere, do you really need a master to become an [Apprentice]?” I hadn’t after all.

It was Elodie who answered again. “Without a master, how would you support yourself while you were an apprentice? The profession doesn’t have any skills that make money.”

“I guess thats true,” I said thoughtfully. That hadn’t been a consideration for me, since I’d been an [Apprentice] for all of five minutes.

“And think of all the things you learned from your master about magic that weren’t included in the skills!” Elodie continued. “Why without that instruction, you’d be fumbling in the dark with only the [Status] for guidance!”

“Yes, that would be terrible,” I said dryly. I returned my attention to the kids.

“Did that mean you can’t teach us [Scribe]?” Lundy asked.

“I can do a great many things,” I said evasively. “After all, am I not a great and powerful wizard?”

They nodded, impressed or afraid, I wasn’t certain which. I sighed.

“It seems to me that I’m far too young to take on apprentices, but I suppose if you’re going to be working for me, I should take care of your futures.” They brightened at this, which only made me feel more morose.

“So this is the deal,” I said. “You’ll spy for me, I’ll pay you and see that you get the training you need. Assuming you can meet the requirements, I’ll take you on as apprentices. And yes, Cutter, that training will include Crypt expeditions… for all of you.”

Cutter was pleased by that last, while the other two looked nervous.

“Is that acceptable?” I asked them, “I’m not going to have you running around the city at level 2.” Aubert will no doubt enjoy taking the kids on a field trip.

They still looked nervous, but they nodded.

“Very well then, glad to have you aboard.” I said. “Did you have any other questions before we start?”

Cutter once again leaped into the breach. “Miss, is it true that you’re the Guild-master’s new mistress?”

I scowled. “No. And no more questions from you.”