The atmosphere in the inn was tense, the guards that always looked menacing were now acting menacing as well. Uden and Fawl were roughly shoved out into the cavern, far enough not to hear anything but close enough to see the anxious thieves passing between the woods and the inn. They didn’t know what was happening but going on the tension in the air the locals expected much more yelling and shouting, maybe some bodies being dragged out into the woods never to be seen again. They didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad that their captors seemed to be coming together more than falling apart over whatever the issue was.

Gina knew she had to do something about the situation. The missing bandit was noticed, and it was right after she had concluded an investigation on items going missing. The leadership of the group was interrogating all the members, and it wasn’t looking good for the inhabitants of the Dungeon. The problem was that the leaders trusted their team completely, apparently the initiation was so brutal that there was no way to pass it unless you were completely committed to the group.

It was only a matter of time before the bandits searched the place again and when they found the lower levels and even though she had no idea why the last bandit had decided to try and get through the maze instead of notifying the others, she didn’t think they were so unprofessional that they would ALL walk to their deaths one at a time.

Gina shifted her focus to a spot inside the cavern wall, just behind Uden, she had to find a way to get some control of the situation. “Uden” She tried to be as subtle as possible.

Uden was on edge and couldn’t help but shudder at the unexpected, disembodied voice coming right behind her.

Faul was more on edge than Uden and seeing the well-toned pagnos jerk suddenly didn’t help. “Are you going to be ok? You need to get a hold of yourself, if you attack them, they will kill us all!” He drifted off into scared silence, the “All” was more of a wheeze than a word.

Uden chose to ignore him, and instead leaned back so her head was resting on the wall. She nodded slightly, her one long horn clacking against the stone.

Gina continued “One of the thieves wandered into the basement and got themselves killed. The bosses are asking about the disappearance of one of the team, but everyone seems to be telling the same story and no one is suspecting that she died. It is only a matter of time until they start tearing this place apart looking for her and eventually, they will find the basement, get past everything and find out what I really am.” She paused for a moment, trying to figure out how she really felt about the situation. What happens when they do find her room? Will they figure everything out, steal the crystal, will she die?

“I don’t want to find out what will happen, I am sick of just sitting by and letting things happen beyond my control. I am done being chained down. I am DONE being commanded to work for other people. It is MY turn to control my LIFE!” The cavern rumbled a little as her temper got away, the thieves looked around a little then ignored the sound after nothing else happened.

Uden smiled a little “I know the feeling.” She whispered. Even though she didn’t Gina’s whole story, in a way she knew exactly what she had gone through. The sound of suffering was the same in every language.

Faul lifted his head from between his knees, his balding hair plastered to his wide, greasy forehead in a layer of sweat. “Well, if you don’t want to die, then don’t do anything.”

“If they don’t figure out whatever is going on, we will be the first to die anyway. The only reason we are still here is so they can keep up the appearance of a bar and get info from the drunk caravanners.”

Faul’s mouth hung open, his brain using up all his words as it tried to sort out the implications.

“That’s right, you are worth just as much as me right now, and that’s only as much as it would cost to draw up fake papers of sale, come up with a story about you moving to be with family and to run the bar themselves.”

His mouth snapped shut at her words. “What can we do?”

“Let’s make a deal, Farmer Ginagin. You give up rights to the bar, sign it over to my friend Gina, you don’t know her, but anonymity is our friend right now.”

He gave her a sly smile, on his weathered and alcohol pitted face it looked more like he had just ate a live beetle. “If they can’t find the owner, there is no one for them to kill”

“Yes, you are a quick one” She said much like she would to a child who knew nothing. It wasn’t far from the truth. “You sign over ownership of the bar, the caves and the ground it sits in”

“You’re not getting my land” he hissed “ I may not have much, but this is good farmland and the forest is just as valuable, if I lose that I may as well die quick now.”

“I don’t want the farmland or the forest. Just whatever parts of the mountain you own, and not even the surface, just the ground underneath. It’s pretty cheap considering you may be able to walk out of here alive, and I am not asking for you to give it up for nothing. You sign over the land rights, everything under the mountain, and free pass permit to use the trail and we will pay your debt and give you 50% of profits up to one gold a month.” Uden didn’t know how business usually worked but Gina was telling her this would a good deal for everyone. Uden did know about getting ripped off and was hoping Gina knew as much about business as she made it sound because it sounded like they were asking Faul to rip them off.

“What about drinks? I keep the bar and I keep getting free drinks”

“Those drinks are not free. They were never free. We paid good money for that alcohol and you drinking it down is drinking down the gold we spent and any gold we would have made.”

“But you will be charging more than what it cost to buy, if I own it I won’t have to pay for your profits”

Uden could have argued about how he would be getting paid on those profits, but there was no way to know if Faul would ever get his mind around to understanding how it worked. He should know how it worked, he was a farmer, although apparently not a good one. “Fine, you get 50% of profits after cost, up to one gold a month AND the friends and neighbor discount so you pay what it has been costing us to buy the barrels from the sales board. We get the land rights under the mountain from the waterfall back and free passage rights.”

“So I get paid, I don’t need to work, and I get a discount on all drinks? And I can keep my farm and woods?”

“And we pay off the taxes and fines”

Faul forgot the situation for a minute, it was a once in a lifetime offer and he knew it. A life of ease was being offered and if there was any chance of it he would take it and let everyone else do the work. “I guess that makes me a titan of industry, an investor!”

“Yes” Uden fueled his blind self-gratification “Yes, you would be using your money to make money, you would finally be collecting the tribute you deserve for being smart enough to have something worth something. And I would work to pay that tribute to you” The last bit was hard to get out, but Gina’s whispers from behind the wall assured her it wouldn’t be like that.

“Fine, if we get out of this I will draw up the contract”

“But the idea is if it doesn’t belong to you, they can let you go”

“They won’t believe us without a contract”

“So…. You wish we had a contract right now with all the details and Gina’s signature?”

“Yeah”

“Say it. The whole sentence. Trust me”

Faul looked at her like she was crazy, in any other circumstance she would be, but he didn’t know the true circumstances. He said the sentence anyway, heavy with sarcasm. “I wish I had a written contract with Gina’s signature”

“And a pen” Gina added

“And a pen” Faul’s tone was even more sarcastic, it didn’t seem possible, but he made it work.

There was a dull glow and a Uden pulled out a contract and a pen from behind her back. Faul looked behind her back, seeing what else she had back there.

“And just sign here,” Uden pointed to the empty line on the bottom “and date it.”

Faul looked it over quick “I thought we were just talkin, didn’t expect this to be so official… but it’s all here, guess there is no harm” He signed the contract which disappeared in his hands. “What happened to it!” The last part he said loudly enough to catch the attention of the guards towards the front of the cave who decided it was about time they checked on the prisoners.

Gina Checked her status to see

Owner

Gina

The line disappeared as she looked at it. She was finally in control again! Now she could do what she needed to protect her new family. How she was going to protect them was an brand new challenge that she had no answer to. She watched helplessly as two thugs walked towards Uden and Faul.

While in the caverns the thugs wore regular cloths, maybe a little better tailored than many travelers or farmers might wear. Simple slacks with button shirts, usually suspenders or leather belts. Many of them had leather vests that were thicker and covered more of the body than was fashionable, even having

What happened to what? The first thug demanded while . “If you two are planning something I suggest you stop, we make the plans and we ALWAYS follow through. Right now you two, are a here because it makes things easy for us, we don’t, and never will need you. Think of yourselves as a chair pillow, you’re not what people grab if there is a fire.” He stalked off back to the front of the cavern.

After the guard had returned to his post and Faul, even though he felt death was not too far away it no longer felt like he was going to drop dead, finally found the courage to speak again, this time in much more tempered tones. “I thought you were going to use the contract to get them to let me leave. Didn’t lose your nerve, did you?”

“No, but you don’t work, you don’t add anything here except that they think you own the bar” Faul tried to interrupt Uden but she kept talking and he was too on edge to be loud enough to talk over her. “We get them to turn on each other, then we let them know that you have nothing in the fight and they will kick you out so they can focus on fighting each other. As long as they are still all friends you are still the suspect.”

“Ok” Fauls gears didn’t totally catch the cog of the argument but he ground it around for a little bit. “So how do we get them to start fighting?”

“We don’t” was Uden’s unhelpful response. “We just sit here and let everyone else take care of the rest.” She didn’t tell Faul who everyone else was.

Faul sat back alongside Uden, he thought he knew who everyone else was, it gave him a feeling of control, fortunately for him he was too ignorant to know how ignorant he really was.