One of the most important lessons you can learn on the street is to not ask questions. You don’t questions the thugs and gangsters about what they are doing, you don’t draw attention from the guards by questioning them, you never question the boss of your area if you value your bones unbroken, and you never, ever, ask where food came from. Cass reflected on this valuable lesson as she took her dinner at the inn. It was a stew- probably, honestly it was a bit hard to pin down. There were meat and vegetables, though what the actual ingredients were was anyone's guess.

Odal and Rowig seemed to be trying to play that guessing game, but all that would do is make the food less palatable. Sometimes it was better not to know.

“Clearly it is rock lizard,” Odal was saying as he held up one chunk of the mysterious substance. Cass refused to refer to it as meat when she had to think about it, which was never if she had her way about it. “What else has that texture and color?”

“Rock lizard in the middle of winter?” Rowig gestured out the window to the blizzard, “where the hell would they get it?”

“I don’t know, and I am not sure I want to know.” The first smart thing Cass had heard Odal say. “The fact that people would eat it to begin with is repulsive.”

“Well that is all this hole has Odal,” Cass sighed in exasperation. “You can either eat it or go hungry, but whichever you choose stop making it hard for Nat and I to eat.”

It had been a month since they had arrived, and winter had come in force. It was much, much, colder than it had been in Tyine, and the snow fell constantly. The only way you could tell the difference between a blizzard and any other day was by the intensity of the snowfall. Right now, outside, it was basically an impenetrable wall of white. Cass, through Odal, had done what she could for the various refugees, but honestly she did not have a whole lot of hope for them considering the weather. However, Cass had to admit that kindness and generosity was more useful than she had thought- they had learned some interesting things from speaking to the town’s miners and the refugees.

“Were you able to learn anything more about those tunnels?” Cass directed the question at Odal, she still needed a way out of this frozen shithole after all. According to the miners, some of the tunnels used by the dwarves led all the way out of the mountains.

“Nothing that would be useful to us,” Odal sighed and finally started to eat his stew with grimace. “There is a map at the garrison by the mine, but I wouldn’t be able to get to it. Even if I did, it is not a safe journey apparently through pitch blackness- and the map is hard to understand due to the way the tunnels are made supposedly.”

“At least it is a possibility,” the more Cass heard about the tunnels, the less of a possibility it seemed though. The Dwarven tunnels ran far and deep, and were nearly a maze. Getting lost down there would be a death sentence, and Cass would rather not risk it. “Though I don’t suppose we could just bribe our way through the border?”

“They would take your money and arrest you anyway.” Rowig laughed, “I would know.”

Rowig had revealed that he had actually worked on the border for a time, but that was not as much an advantage as Cass had hoped it would be. The border was not just one wall, but several with multiple checkpoints and a good chunk of Beergmutar’s military forces garrisoned there. Getting through without a pass would require someone to be invisible, which was when Rowig had brought up her disappearing act back in the Priest district of the capitol.

“That is not something I could do for very long,” Cass admitted. “I don’t even fully understand it to begin with, but the amount of energy it takes is incredible. Maintaining it on myself for those few seconds back then was difficult enough, to attempt it on the four of us, for hours? That just isn’t possible.”

For that matter, Cass had done some experiments with those systems since that day, and had concluded that it would only work if people were not paying a whole lot of attention. She did not actually completely disappear, but appeared blurred. It was good enough when people were distracted, but the systems would need major improvement to be very useful in any other situation.

“So in that case, we need a Merchant’s pass.” Rowig concluded, “it will cost you a great deal, and you will need to be very convincing when asking for it.”

“I hear the Merchant’s passes are rare and hard to get,” Nat piped in from the side. “I don’t think I have ever heard of anyone having them.”

“Still, I do not think I have much choice.” Cass swore under her breath, “I guess I will have to meet with the Voni here.”

It was a testament to the weather that Cass was more unhappy about the blizzard than she was about having to meet the Voni. However, what must be, must be. Cass used Odal as a messenger to set up a meeting- it wouldn’t be proper for a Merchant of the status she is pretending to be to do it herself after all, and then braved the snow a few days later to reach the Voni palace.

Or perhaps manor would be a better word, it really was not impressive enough to be called a palace. Not in an artistic way that is. In terms of defensive construction, even an untrained eye like Cass’s could tell that it was incredibly secure. Any force attacking this ‘manor’ would likely accomplish nothing but thinning their own ranks.

Warriors escorted Cass and Rowig into the structure, the inside was just as militaristic as the outside implied. She supposed that it made sense for a tribe that encompassed both the Voni caste and the Warrior caste, but it did make her worry about dealing with them. Her plan was… Slightly riskier than she would have liked.

Their escorts opened the door into an office, where a muscular, well dressed man rose to greet them.

“Welcome, welcome!” His hair was pure white, but his face could not have been that much older than Odal. It was a rather disconcerting affect, but Cass had been prepared for it. It was a trait that was shared by the entirety of the Vaila tribe, and Rowig had warned her that it was the easiest way to tell these Warrior-Voni from the normal Warriors around them. “I had heard rumors of a Merchant hiding out in the town, but I had not paid it much mind- but I am always happy to welcome more income into our small town!”

Cass bowed, and greeted the man respectfully. “I must apologize, Lord Voni. I should have come to greet you sooner, I must admit my own weakness and fear after the chaos I had to run from.”

“You are neither Vaila nor Warrior,” the man waved her apology away. “It cannot be expected for you to have strength and courage, especially not as a woman. Ah, I almost forgot to introduce myself- I am Lord Radormr Dvergsvarner, a captain here in Vaila.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Lord Dversvarner.” Cass bowed again, “I am the humble Merchant Alfridr Gandruna, and I must apologize again for not greeting you before, and again for taking your time today.”

“Now Alfridr,” Lord Dvergsvarner laughed and leaned forward conspiratorially to whisper. “To let you in on a bit of a secret, nothing much happens here during the winter. I spend most of my days just sitting and waiting for spring to come!”

“Well then allow me to provide you a bit of a distraction Lord,” Cass smiled. That hair reminded her too much of Lord Evans, it was unnerving. “Though I must admit that I am here for business.”

“That is the duty of your caste after all,” he nodded towards a chair to indicate that Cass should sit down across from him as he settled back down behind his desk. “So how can I help you today?”

Cass took a deep breath and steeled herself to push forward. “I would like to request a border pass so that I may travel to Haj.”

Lord Dversvarner blinked, he had clearly not been expecting that. “That is quite the ask, especially when I know nothing about you or what your business is. I would have known if you had brought a great deal of merchandise into town, and you are not from any of the larger Merchant families- so why would I issue a pass to you?”

It was not difficult for Cass to feign being uncomfortable, because she actually was nervous in this conversation, but it would certainly help sell her next words.

“Well… The chaos in the capital was not a complete loss for me.” Cass avoided the man’s eyes. What she was going to claim to have was not technically illegal, but only a fool would not realise the importance it held. She had to take this gamble though, she had to show enough value to be worth issuing the pass to. “I may have stumbled on some of the recipes for glyph ink that the Lord Stioi’s held.”

As Cass expected, the Voni’s face darkened. “Careful Merchant, choose your next words carefully.”

She had done so, she had planned this conversation out days ago. Still, that did not make her less worried.

“I want to go to Haj and trade these for their Strioi’s recepies.” Cass continued, “I will sell them to individual Strioi in Haj, telling them that I am only selling to each individual. Then I will return here with all of their secrets and make a fortune!”

Plausible? Yes. Foolish? Extremely, but Cass could not think what else would be worth such a pass for a Merchant as small she was pretending to be. The question is whether or not they would take the risk…

Lord Dversvarner frowned, no- it was a scowl. “You grabbing a loose rock while climbing cliff, Alfridr Gandruna. What makes you think that I won’t strike you down right here?”

“The potential gains are great…” Cass shrank back, somewhat part of the act and somewhat because this man reminded her too much of Lord Evans, and she had to admit that she was scared of him. “Although I would profit greatly myself, Beergmutar would benefit massively- by the spirits, our country would grow so much stronger!”

“I will have to think about this, I will have Warrior’s you escort back to your inn.”

To keep an eye on them, Cass supposed. This was not the result she wished for, but it was the one she thought most likely for the first meeting. The real question is what will happen next.

“Of course, my Lord.” Cass stood and bowed again, “I hope we can meet again, under more profitable circumstances.”

Just as she thought, the Warriors did not just escort them, but stayed on the first floor of the inn to watch them. Cass sighed, at the very least the snows would prevent them from knowing who she was or from having any real news from the capitol city.

She had to admit, if there was one thing that Beergmutar’s castes excelled in, it was stability in the face of this kind of situation. Jobs were clearly defined, and not dependent on the central government, so things in this small town ran smoothly.

“How did the meeting go Lady Cass?” Nat asked as Cass entered their room.

“About as well as we could expect,” Cass sighed and got ready to jump into bed. It was far too cold today to do otherwise, especially in this drafty inn.

“That badly, huh?” Natalie hit that on the head, and Cass could do nothing but sigh again.

“Yeah, that badly.” Cass admitted, “I just want to sleep until it is warmer and all my problems go away…”

Unfortunately, that second one would never happen. The first one though, well, she could sleep until tomorrow at least. It was slightly warmer around midday after all.

The creaking of the inn’s door woke her up, it was pitch black inside the room. Natalie was beside her, and Odal and Rowig would not enter like this- so whoever it was would soon be getting an unpleasant surprise from Cass. She could tell Natalie had woken up as well as she tensed slightly, the sound of steps entered the room and Cass jumped up to strike.

“Shit, she’s awake!” A gruff voice shouted, “get some lights in here!”

Cass hissed as she was blinded by the light of suddenly uncovered lanterns, and backed up so that they would not be able to take advantage of her blindness. She did not get far enough back, and the Warrior lunged towards her and Cass only barely managed to parry his blows, relying on her superior strength and speed.

“Fuck, they were right- this bitch is tough!”

Who the hell was ‘they?’ These people knew who she was! How the hell was that possible? The mountain roads were impassable! Cass growled and put the thought away for now. As her eyes adjusted, she gained the advantage in the fight and a swift kick to the side of the man’s head ended that fight. But what about the people the Warrior had been talking to?

“Well I had not wanted to use this,” that voice sounded familiar, but she could not make out his features in the shadows thrown by the lanterns. “But you seem even more dangerous than you were the first time.”

Cass could not make out the man’s face, but she did see the orb he had suddenly proffered! Cass poured magic into her bracelet, the tool she had built to counter this orb and when it flashed…

Why was she on the floor? She was standing a second ago, but now she was on her hands and knees and the room was spinning. She could hardly control her magic and she felt sick- what the hell was that thing?

“Well, well. I must admit I am surprised, and more than a little angry right now.” The voice didn’t sound angry, it sounded cheery. Cass knew he was approaching her, but she couldn’t stand up. Hell, she couldn’t even maintain her balance on her hands and knees! She fell on her side, gasping and fighting her nausea. “Do you have any idea how expensive those are to make? It is a ridiculous cost, and it took me hours to do it to.”

The man crouched down in front of her and she saw a young face with white hair.

“Radormr… You… Are a mage?” Cass struggled to stay conscious, and she realised she had made a horrendous mistake. She had not even considered what mages born into this tribe did!

“I was actually quite disappointed you didn’t remember me,” Radormr laughed as he grabbed Cass by the hair and pulled her up to look into his eyes. “Considering that we met back in Haj, this is the second time I have to use a Magesbane Orb on you.”

“It was you…” Cass thought back to that night, she could not remember much about it- she had never tried. That turned out to be the worst mistake she could have made.

“Yes, it was.” Radormr smiled evilly, “and if you had any idea how much it cost to replicate the magesbane herb into a magic tool you would be begging me for forgiveness right now.”

Cass spat in his face and Radormr slammed her face into the floor.

“Well if that is how you want to do this- urk!”

Radormr’s eyes widened in surprise as a little fist struck him in the throat. Natalie had been dismissed by the adults in the room, and as a result of her training even her little strength was enough to collapse a man’s windpipe. Radormr would die slowly and horribly as he suffocated in this shitty inn.

“Oi, you little bitch!” The other Warrior’s did not just stand there though and came after Natalie. Cass struggled to get up, but a swift kick in passing left her gasping on the floor. Natalie was somewhat skilled, but they were more skilled, older and stronger. If Cass couldn’t get up, she wouldn’t stand a chance!

She was able to breathe a sigh of relief when Odal and Rowig stormed into the room, tearing through the Warrior’s from behind. The skill of a Warden that Rowig displayed was truly a sight to behold.

On the other hand, none of these three had any reason to trust or like Cass… She might have traded one death for another.

“Get up Cass!” Rowig did not stomp on her neck like she expected, but hauled her up by the arm. “They might have been cocky and thought they could take us down with this, but they probably were not foolish enough to come without letting people know. We don’t have long!”

“I… I can’t walk…” As soon as Rowig let go of her, Cass collapsed again. “Damn Radormr…”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Odal picked Cass up like an infant and started running. If she had her strength she would have killed him for the humiliation of it!

“That man had some kind of orb!” Natalie explained as they rushed around, throwing together the bare necessities to run with. “It flashed and Cass collapsed on the ground!”

“That must be the tool Cass mentioned before,” Odal frowned. “It certainly is powerful.”

“What is the plan?” Cass asked from where she lay in Odal’s arms, her mind was too cloudy to work out a strategy herself.

“Strike the mining offices, steal the map, go through the tunnels.” Rowig’s answer was succinct and their only real choice. “Your master was some kind of big-shot in Haj right? I had not wanted to leave in the first place, so I had better be compensated for this!”

Cass was fading in and out of consciousness as they raced out of the inn and into the stormy night. She was losing track of time- the next thing she knew Odal was telling Nat to watch over her as he and Rowig went into a building. She blacked out again, and she was being carried by Odal when she woke up, they were running into a tunnel- and she blacked out again.