Making our way back to the city without the carriage was hard, particularly after all the energy we’d spent avoiding guards and adventurers in Dominus’ estate. Luckily, we didn’t need to worry too much about being followed, since they likely believed we were still in the main building. I would’ve been hopelessly lost if I’d been on my own, but just as she’d mentally mapped the estate while she was robbing it, Patience had also gotten a good idea of the lay of the land between the estate and Heracleum.

I followed her closely as we weaved our way off the main path, and slowly made our way back toward the city. When we reached the gate we simply fell in with the main crowd and made our way back to the apartments where we’d left the rest of our party. It was late evening by the time we arrived, but in spite of that the majority of the windows were still lit by either candle or magical light.

We avoided the front door, and instead climbed in through a window in the back. Patience opened a door into the main part of the apartments and we found ourselves looking down the shaft of an arrow. We both froze.

Nica’s expression shifted from calm and focused to surprised, and she lowered her bow. “Sorry, thought you were robbers.” She paused for a moment. “Why the back window?”

“It’ll probably be easier to explain to everyone at once.”

She nodded, and gestured for us to follow her. We made our way to the common room where it looked like everyone, but Zevrack, was gathered. I assumed Zev was off tinkering with his gear some more.

Everyone gave us a confused look as we entered. I was probably quite a sight, with my favorite black outfit now covered in twigs, dirt, and thorns from the roundabout journey we’d taken to get back to the city. Not to mention the obvious signs of fighting I’d gone through.

Tristus took a sip of wine from a cup he was holding. “Honestly, that’s not nearly as dirty as some people have wound up after dinner with Dominus. Not even close from what I’d heard.”

I laughed at that, and moved to pour myself a glass of wine.

“What happened?” asked Millicent.

“Well.” I paused to sip my wine. “I was offered a job.”

“And what was Patience doing?” asked Tib.

“She was robbing Dominus while I was being offered said Job.”

Tib sighed and took a long drink. “Start from the beginning please.”

“Well, as you know I was invited to Dominus’ estate. He invited me, because all three of his pet adventuring parties were…subdued by the dragon that appeared nearby.”

“All three?” asked Tib incredulously. “They were all over level ten.”

I nodded. “He brought me, as well as a few others, there to join a new party he was forming. He uh, said some things I didn’t agree with, and I…well I punched him.”

“You punched a patrician!” yelled Tib.

I flinched a bit. “Well… I had asked him why he’d sent me an invite instead of you or Zev.”

“A very good question,” agreed Tristus.

“And he said some very unkind things. Before I knew it, I’d struck him.”

Tib’s expression went through a number of phases in quick succession before settling on something between mild disappointment and appreciation. “You didn’t kill anyone, did you?”

I shook my head. “No. Just maimed a little bit. Caused a broken bone perhaps. Dominus himself likely only has a bruise or a red mark.”

Tristus stood up and made his way to a desk in the corner that was covered in papers.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Saving you, most likely. Striking a patrician, particularly outside the bedroom, is not good and will likely get you killed. Luckily, Dominus is not a very popular patrician. Particularly among the others of his class. He’s showy, likes to throw money and weight around, isn’t particularly subtle about his interest in other’s sons or daughters, and he’s particularly disliked by those with their own pet adventurers. If I can play this right, we should be able to keep you out of any significant trouble.”

I nodded along as he spoke. I didn’t fully understand what his plan was, but he was the diplomat, and at this point trusting him seemed to be my best option.

“Now, I will write these letters and then we’ll need to go ahead and start heading back toward Itlan. It’ll definitely be best to lie low for a while while things are moving into place.”

Millicent sighed. “I was really hoping to do a bit more sightseeing.”

“Sorry about that,” I said with a grimace.

She shook her head. “I might’ve killed him in your shoes. Can’t blame you.”

With that we all broke and started packing our things back up. I went to speak with Zevrack first, who I found tinkering with his gear just as I’d expected him to be.

“Zev, sorry to interrupt you. We’re leaving for Itlan now.”

He nodded, and pointed to his already half-full pack.

“How did you know?”

He blinked. “I am companion. I received small amounts of XP for your actions. I got multiple combat notifications while you were gone.”

That made sense. “Why didn’t you tell the others?”

He scratched at the scales on his head. “While packing my wings I realized an adjustment I needed to make. Got distracted.”

“No worries bud. They know now.”

I decided to change into the Crofton style garb that Zevrac had gotten me. I put my hair into a neat queue and borrowed a hat from Patience to tuck most of it into. When I was done I felt a bit like a reenactor on pioneer day, but a complete disguise was a nice thing to have. Though the wool wasn’t nearly as comfortable as the specialty fabrics my other clothes were made of.

Just as I was heading back down into the main portion of the apartments I heard forceful knocking. I crouched and crept down, hiding behind a couch as I did so. I peeked around and saw Tristus standing in the doorway, a number of guards on the other side.

“We’re looking for a man named Cor. We believe he was staying here.”

Tristus nodded. “He was, but I haven’t seen him since earlier in the evening. What’s this about?”

“He has attacked the Patrician Dominus.”

“Cor? Really? The only thing I’ve ever seen him attack is a chocolate bar."

The guard raised an eyebrow. “Really? That’s odd considering his recent bout in the arena.”

Tristus let out a light chuckle. “Oh, and that of course.”

“Hmmm, and he hasn’t been here since this evening?”

Tristus shook his head.

“Well, we’re going to post some guards around. Don’t go anywhere without letting them know.”

“If you'd like you can take a long look around inside. We could start with my bedroom perhaps?”

The guard let out a surprised cough. "That uh, won't be necessary. I um. I doubt they've even made it back to the city yet. Just being thorough."

"Of course. Do let me know if you change your mind."

There was an exchange of nods, and Tristus closed the door and muttered, “Shit.”

I popped out from behind the couch. "That was well played."

He startled, clutching his chest. “You should wear a bell.”

I lifted my wrist to show where I’d placed the cat’s bell. “I am.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose, reminding me strongly of his cousin as he did so. “We’re going to have to figure out a way of leaving without drawing attention now.”

“Are you sure we should? I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble with the guard.”

He shook his head. “I’m not concerned about the guard. It’s not illegal for me to leave without their permission. Besides, if my letters work then the guard will move on without any fuss.”

“Do these apartments have rooftop access?” I asked.

He nodded.

“In that case, I know how we can leave undetected, but you’re going to have to pack a lot lighter than you did last time.”

Tristus frowned. “How much lighter?”

…

Just over an hour later we were all standing on the rooftop of Tib and Tristus’ apartments, we had our gear, and we were peeking over to the roof of the next building, which was luckily a little lower than ours. Before everyone could start moving over to it, Zev simply opened his wings and glided gently over to the neighboring rooftop. I followed suit with a quick leap to the other side, relying on my acrobatics skill.

At that point everyone threw their packs over to us to lighten their loads. Once everything was over, the rest of them jumped with wildly varying levels of grace. Nica’s jump was perfect, Patience’s was nearly so, Tib’s was mechanically sound, but heavy, Millicent relied on some kind of wind spell to carry herself over, and Tristus nearly fell, but I caught him and he managed to climb the rest of the way up with little trouble.

We repeated this process across two more roofs to get some distance from the guards, and from there we used the extendable rope we’d retrieved from the wizards cave to climb back down to the floor level. After that, all it took was a little creeping around, a bit of smooth talking, and we were back out of Heracleum, and headed toward Itlan.