“The guards don’t care about some petty thieves dying in some back alley place, I doubt they would even care if a few died in front of them,” Grizz laughed it off as he finished searching the pockets of the few beastman they had killed. He was excitedly whistling about a few low-quality blood crystals when, likely, he was richer than most of the population of the city. Unfortunately, the blood serpents turned everything they touched to dust, so while Orou was still wondering about the strange spell they cast, there was no way to find out if they were carrying a copy of the spell in their pockets. After Grizz had done all the hard work of cleaning up the mess in front of him, Orou sent the two serpents to experiment with the black strands and a moment later, every single one of the bodies had turned to dust, the thin black strand weaving through the spirits growing slightly bigger.

The few beastmen that were passing by were doing their best to avoid looking at the bloody scene in front of them and the two serpents flying in the air. As Grizz scanned the area around him, several beastmen jumped in fear and scattered further away, wanting to avoid any confrontation with him. Although Orou wanted to further experiment with the serpents, Grizz had already started walking and silently flickering his tongue to himself, he ceased concentrating on the serpents and started following Grizz.

No other beastmen bothered them as they made their way to a particular building in the distance. It resembled a large inn, slightly enveloped by a red and black glow around it. Looking at it with his spirit vision, Orou saw complicated lines of spirits running around and through the inn, creating a strange sort of formation. Pushing open the door to the inn, they were assaulted by a thick stench of alcohol and smoke. Several gazes turned to them, but Grizz had made no attempt to hide his bloody shortsword and the blood splatters on his clothes. Most of the beastmen turned back to what they were doing once they saw both Grizz and Orou, though several more beastmen continued to rudely stare at them, wondering what they would do.

The two of them made their way past several tables of beastmen playing cards and rolling dice and reached the largest table in the room. A large beastmen that resembled a bear with red and black fur was surrounded by underlings, pouring him several drinks and lighting cigars for him. Several of the underlings had stopped what they were doing and were staring at the two of them approaching so the large beastman cocked his head and turned to look at the approaching duo. With a hearty laugh, the beastman before them stood up to reveal his massive frame and bulging muscles, extending a hand to Grizz. Making sure that his hand still had some of the blood on it, Grizz wickedly grinned, shook the beastman’s hand and sat down on the opposing side of him.

“I thought you said you would be alone, but here you are, together with some sort of snake. What am I to do about that?” Without any fear in his eyes, the beastman cracked his knuckles and stared down at Orou. Orou met his blood-shot eyes as Grizz said to him: “Are you scared of a small snake, Haran? He’s my pet and he’s not afraid to get his fangs bloody in case anyone here decides to do anything funny, isn’t that right?” Although Orou wasn’t particularly fond of being called a pet, he took the social clue that Grizz was giving him and, standing up high above the three-meter beastman, he looked down on him, hissing and showing his two, massive fangs.

Haran unwillingly stopped staring at Orou while the rest of his underlings retreated in fear, almost stumbling over themselves as they stared at Orou. Haran glared at the retreating beastmen before carefully looking over Grizz, smiling at him and saying: “You seem to have gotten in a fight, I hope that none of my people injured you too badly.” Grizz put down a bloody shortsword on the table and, looking over at the rest of the people in the inn, replied to him: “Your men need to be taught better, you simply don’t steal from another thief. I thought that a simple lesson of a broken arm would be enough, but who would’ve thought that he retaliate. Unfortunately, the five beastmen won’t be able to make it back to here anytime soon.”

Haran slammed his fist on the table but Grizz still had a wicked grin on his face, not shrinking away from confrontation. The jolly music that was playing earlier had died down as the rest of the beastmen were staring at the two of them, some with weapons already drawn. Several tense seconds passed before finally, Haran responded. “They broke the thief’s oath, so they deserved what they got. Perhaps the men here need to experience another bout of ‘teaching’ before they understand. Enough about that, let’s talk business.” The music resumed as the beastmen unwillingly returned to what they were doing, a mixture of both anger and disappointment in their eyes.

“Before we get to my part, I want to see what you’re bringing to the table. I was told that besides the crystals, you’ve been working on an ancient spell of sorts. Both me and my partner are very excited to see what spell you have to offer.” Grizz cleared his throat and got down to business, the smile from his face disappearing almost instantly. With a snap of his fingers and a quick yell, Haran held in his hands a large sack and a scroll, aged and yellowed. He set both the sack and the scroll on the table, though as Grizz reached over to grab the sack and the scroll, he said to him: “Not so fast, it’s a two-way bargain and I need to see that everything is in order.”

Grizz’s eyes wandered to the beastmen standing beside Haran and the few beastmen that were sitting next to them, intently listening for any secrets that might be spilled. With a wave of his hand and more than a couple of yells, the people around him dispersed and with an excited look in his eyes, he looked down at Grizz and the backpack he was holding in his hands. Slowly pulling out the stack of papers from his backpack, Grizz leaned in to whisper: “This comes from the king’s shaman’s room. There’s some interesting stuff written down here, let’s see, a trade deal between Solus and Shaemor worth more than a few hundred thousand crystals.”

As Orou looked over at him, he could practically see Haran salivating, though he was doing his best to not show any interest. Just as Grizz as about to put the stack of papers in Haran’s hand, he withdrew his hand and once more, he whispered to Haran: “Now that I think about it, the information here is so incriminating that I’m not sure I want to pass it over.”

Haran’s eyes narrowed as he thought about what Grizz said for a couple of seconds before making a beckoning motion to one of the beastmen. A minute passed after Haran said something to the beastman and he returned back with another sack, similar to the one already on the table. “This is the most I’m willing to offer, you’re not getting a single crystal more out of me.” Grizz opened the sack and peering inside, he clicked his tongue before returning back to the conversation. Sliding over the several pieces of paper he held in his hand, he said to Haran: “Be very careful with what you do with this information, this could greatly influence how the battle plays out in a couple of days.”

As Haran grabbed the papers detailing the several trade deals, Grizz placed the two sacks and the scroll in his backpack and, standing up from his seat, he motioned for Orou to follow him as he started heading out of the inn. While Orou didn’t notice this at first, Haran had recalled his underlings and he was subtly gesturing at both Orou and Grizz, whispering something to the lot of them. Grizz turned his head to look at Haran, shouting out: “I forgot to mention but besides being able to constrict you dead and inject deadly venom, he can also cast various spells. In fact, it wasn’t me who killed the beastmen, it was him.”

Haran assessed both Grizz and Orou before making another gesture with his fingers. Grizz broadly smiled as he approached the door to the inn and once more, he shouted out: “Pleasure doing business with you,” before exiting the inn and starting to walk back towards their little shop.