Chapter 13: Three Offers

Let us continue the lesson from before. As you may have guessed already, there are two types of Sovereign Nocturnals. Both gain nourishment from the souls of the mortal races, but they feed upon it differently. One of the races causes the energy of the soul to diffuse through the blood, which they drink and relish. The second can drain the souls of mortals with a touch. Although a simple touch is all that is necessary, even the weakest of humans can resist the touch when they feel something is wrong. So these Nocturnals have found it easier to feed while their prey is either too distracted to notice, or unconsciously surrendering their essence. If a simple touch is not enough, then perhaps a kiss, or perhaps even something more intimate?

The blood drinkers are called Striga but are more commonly referred to as vampires. The soul eaters are called Lilian, more commonly called Succubi or Incubi depending on their gender. Despite the deep shared origins of these two species, they despise each other and attempt to expose and destroy each other at every opportunity. This “Night War” had been going on for millenia.

The vampire that Thane and his friends encountered was in the midst of an experiment. He was trying to create new weapons for the Night War, and needed a high population of mortals to make it work. He attempted to artificially create a Nightgaunt, fear made flesh. Although he failed, the creature he created was close to what he wanted, and was no less dangerous than the real thing. It was far less intelligent than he was trying to achieve and it was also feral and uncontrolled. The creatures that formed it’s flesh and soul were interested only in spreading and feeding on fear, but this monstrosity wanted more. It wanted carnage and death. It would not stop killing as long as it lived.

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-Thane-

He couldn’t stand, he couldn’t look up, every breath was a desperate gasp for air. He had never felt fear like this before, he couldn’t have even imagined this feeling until he experienced it himself. He knew he had to stand, but he couldn’t. He tried to shake off this feeling to fight, to run, to do ANYTHING. Instead all he could do was sit there on his hands and knees looking at his own shadow which seemed to quiver in anticipation.

He heard the beast start to move, taking one massive step and he flinched. He was about to give up when he felt a hand on his shoulder. His mind began to clear and he looked over to see Ruby, sweating and shaking on one knee while resting her hand on him. He felt her magic flowing into him and the effect of the unnatural fear began to diminish.

He remembered hearing that Thaumaturgy could place protective barriers around things that were immaterial, such as the soul or the mind. Although he could now think straight, he could still feel the fear clawing at the edge of his mind. He was still terrified, and was visibly shaking, but at least now he was able to move. “Ruby, can you…?”

She clenched her eyes closed and furiously shook her head ‘no’ before he could finish his question, it appeared this was her limit. He instead looked for the others, all of them were in the same position he was in seconds ago. He looked to the beast, the black, bipedal giant that had eyes and mouths scattered everywhere but on its featureless face.

Thane stood up and fumbled until he held his greatsword in his hand. He knew he had to cast magic to enhance his body if he didn’t want to be crushed by this massive creature, but didn’t know if he could focus. Using his forbidden technique was completely out of the question, the slightest loss of focus during the technique would tear him apart from the inside. The beast was heading towards the woman with the violet eyes, it seemed to think she was a priority.

He channeled mana, trying to enhance his body, and the creature suddenly turned to face him. Over a dozen eyes suddenly snapped to stare at him and the shock from meeting the glares sent the mana sputtering out of control. The creature seemed to laugh as it found a new target to torment, and began to walk slowly towards Thane. He tried a second time, with the imminent threat of death drawing ever closer. This time he succeeded at completing the spell and his muscles were strengthened and hardened. He wanted to layer another enchantment but it seemed like he wouldn’t get the chance until…

“Grrr, tch,'' Stone began to rise from the ground. His eyes were wide open and bloodshot and he looked like he was very, very angry. His muscles and veins were bulging and he was hissing and spitting through clenched teeth. Finally the giant roared like a wild beast and charged the enemy with his massive axe in hand.

When the creature turned, Thane felt a bit more of the unnatural fear recede from his mind and he used the opportunity to layer a second spell to enhance his speed.

The two giants clashed, the black creature grabbed the shaft of the massive axe as it was descending and was holding it up with both hands while Stone pressed down with all of his strength. When the creature was down on one knee, Thane charged aiming for the leg keeping it up. He swung horizontally and the greatsword bit into the leg of the monster and slashed across it’s flesh to little effect. Thane was shocked to see that even with his enhanced strength, he couldn’t cut through the thick skin of this creature. He made a second slash with a similar result and tried something different. Putting as much power behind the blow as he could, he thrust the sword forward, stabbing with all his strength at a single point.

The creature let out a scream and bled for the first time. It was a shallow wound, but it was enough to cause a small spray of black ichor to flow out of the monster. It lashed out with its wings, slamming into both men and sending them tumbling away.

“Not...that...easy.” Thane heard a voice next to where he landed and saw the violet eyed woman trying to force herself up. “Unless your sword is....enhanced by magic...or silver...don’t expect to hurt it much.”

Thane offered her his hand, it seemed like she was the only other person that could even move. He could feel her heart racing when she grabbed his wrist to pull herself up. “Are you all right?”

“Terrified.”

“Me too.”

The beast was busy with Stone, but now it was dodging and deflecting his attacks, and opening up new wounds on the giant. “Time to fight,” the woman said. She held her two swords and calmed her shaking as much as possible while she channeled mana into her blades. Thane did the same to his sword and the two of them swallowed their fear and charged the creature.

He focused as much as he could, watching every move of the massive black Nocturnal. He felt as if he lost focus, he would go back to being helpless on his knees. It was the creature's turn to be pushed back. Not only was it facing a massive, furious man who was almost as large as it was, but there were also two smaller annoyances, dashing in and out of its range while slashing at it.

It grew a tail to try to stop the annoying pests, which worked for a while. The sweeping appendage left them bruised but didn’t deter them from attacking. Soon the woman landed a telling blow to the back of the creature's knee causing it’s body to arc backwards. Once the opening was there, Thane and Stone struck in unison. Stone brought his axe down on the exposed torso of the creature while Thane thrust at it from behind, piercing through it’s back until the sword was sticking out of its stomach.

The creature froze and gurgled as its arms went limp at its sides. The black ichor dripped down to the ground and hissed and sizzled. When Stone raised his axe to give one final blow the creature desperately lashed out one final time. It swept it’s claws and tail madly trying to shake off its attackers. Thane was knocked back by the tail and the other two were chased off as well, with Stone’s chest erupting into a fountain of blood from one of the claws. The creature then leapt into the air, giving a flap of its wings for extra height. It landed on the roof of a nearby building and screeched at the three that had injured it.

The fear that was clawing at the edge of Thane's mind receded even more, he was still uneasy, but it wouldn’t affect his ability to fight anymore, more importantly he felt like he could focus enough to shoot again. He grabbed the bow that was still attached to his back.

Luckily the bow was undamaged by the beating he had taken and he thumbed over his arrows until he found one of the silver ones. He notched it and took aim at the creature that seemed like it was preparing to take off. He was getting weary from the amount of mana he had used, but he felt like he could still fire off a dozen enchanted arrows. Thane didn’t know if the creature had a heart, but he would find out in less than a second.

The shimmering arrow flew straight into the center of the beast's chest, sending it reeling backwards and screaming in pain from all of it’s mouths. The featureless head snapped back directly at Thane and began to distort like it was trying to snarl at him without a mouth. He had made it very angry so this next arrow better do the trick.

Pouring what energy he could into the silver arrow he let it fly at the creature's blank face. When the arrow sank deep into the monster’s skull it gave one last jerking spasm before collapsing, taking a good chunk of the roof with it as it fell to the cobblestones below.

Thane rushed forward, notching another arrow and was ready to fire until the creature began to dissolve into the black ichor that composed it. With the unnatural fear receding, the people who were frozen on the ground began to stand up. Ruby, who was able to watch the fight but couldn’t compose herself enough to participate, rushed over to Stone to try to heal the deep slashes across his chest.

The violet eyed woman put her two swords away and sighed. “Thank you for your help, I had no idea this mage was capable of this.” She looked over to Thane again and they both once again froze as she made eye contact. “You...you should go now before my fathers troops arrive, I can see the lights in hightown heading this way. Since one of his daughters died you won’t be able to avoid being confined for questioning if you are found here.”

“Good idea,” said Mahs, “I’d say I want to get some rest but I’ll probably be having nightmares until next spring.”

“I’ll catch up,” said Thane, “Once Stone is healed we will follow you.” As they left he turned to the violet eyed woman. “I know this is a poor place for introductions, but my name is Thane.”

“Evelyn of house Syphus.”

He walked over to recover his greatsword from the body of the creature. “That symbol on your armor, the tipped chalice, is that your family crest?”

“Yes, why do you ask?”

“I found a silver cube in a ruined caravan, it had that symbol stamped on one of the corners.”

“I don’t know anything about that, I’ll ask my father.”

When he pulled his sword out of the dissolving mass he grit his teeth in frustration, the greatsword that had once belonged to his father was useless now. The ichor seemed to be extremely caustic. The sword was distorted and pitted as if it had rusted for decades. He wiped it clean and sheathed it before continuing. “How were you able to stand up anyway?”

“I brought protection, it was supposed to be for the smaller ones, it was useless against that thing. It gave me enough strength to resist, but it took everything I had just to raise my head until you helped me up.”

“And what about you Stone? You seemed to shake off that fear fairly well.”

“Anger is stronger,” he replied.

“What he’s saying,” Ruby added, “Is that he overpowered the fear with a stronger emotion. Something that spurred him to action rather than forcing him down.”

“I kinda understood that, but wouldn’t these things be able to feed on anger too?”

“No,” said Evelyn, “Fear, despair, sorrow, these emotions they can feed off of but they restrain actions. Anger is a motivator..”

Stone stood up with his healing complete and Thane turned to Evelyn one last time. “I...we have to be leaving now.”

“Good luck.” She gave a nod and turned to the remains of her sister as the trio returned to the Inn.

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When Thane returned to the inn he found his friends in very low spirits. THey were sitting in the attached alehouse and Kisha and Mahs were still shaking. Mahs was attempting to calm himself and was already finishing his second mug of wine. “It wasn’t supposed to go like that,” he said, “We weren't prepared. Nothing we trained for prepared us for anything like that.”

“Did we make a mistake?” asked Kisha, “Is this really the lifestyle we want?”

“Too late to turn back now.” said Sarah, “This was just one time, one freakishly powerful monster. There is no way this kind of thing will be normal. I know how you feel, I could hear them fighting but I couldn’t even bring myself to raise my head.”

Thane wanted to say something, he wanted to reassure them, but he couldn’t. Mahs was right, they weren’t prepared for something like that. Having intense emotions forcefully shoved into your mind, how could anyone prepare for that? He hesitated for a moment before he left and headed for his room, closing the door behind him.

He pulled the cube out of his bag again and looked at the sigil in the corner. It was definitely the same as the sigil on the woman’s armor. He lay down on the bed and idly turned it over in his hands several times until he heard a knock on the door. He tucked the cube out of sight and opened his door to see Kisha on the other side.

“Can we talk?” she asked.

He thought she might try to have this conversation with him and was secretly dreading it. “Sure, come in.”

He watched her step into the room while avoiding looking at him and sat down. “I think… I think we made a mistake. I think we need to quit before we get killed.”

Thane didn’t respond, he simply sat down next to her, resting his elbows on his knees and propping up his chin. She continued, “You were almost killed by that orc, you were forced into a duel to the death with a paladin, and tonight...tonight if Ruby hadn’t snuck out and protected your mind, we would all be dead.”

“That's what we signed up for when we decided to become adventurers. We will always have close calls.”

“But do we even need to be adventurers? We had a good life before this, you and I. I would use my magic to help the crops grow and you would hunt. We lived well and never needed anything. Can’t we go back to that? We don’t need to go back home, we can take the money we’ve earned and settle anywhere.”

“I don’t know, even after all we’ve learned there is still so much more about our parents...and about us that we don't know.”

She reached out and grabbed his hand, “Ever since mom died you have been my only family. Whatever you decide, I will follow you. This has been exciting, but it is dangerous, I don’t need this excitement to be happy. I just need…” she stopped herself without continuing for a moment. Thane could tell she was thinking hard about what to say next, but couldn’t think of anything. She finally let go of his hand, “Just think about it OK?” She stood up and walked out of the room, Thane followed and closed the door behind her.

He had expected something like this from the moment she walked in. She was like a younger sister. They had lived under one roof for the past five years so he felt he knew her better than anyone. She looked forward to this sort of adventuring and travel for years in the past. He hoped that she just needed to shake off the fear to get her desire to travel the world back.

He truly hoped that was the case, she seemed truly happy when she saw the people in the small town that no longer had the threat of the orcs looming over their heads. They never even knew about the threat because the orcs had been stopped early.

If it wasn’t the case, if she could never get her desire to be an adventurer back, what then? Could he really just stop when he had come this far?

He thought about the consequences of going back to a normal life or continuing. It plagued his thoughts until he fell asleep.

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When he woke up the next morning he sensed someone else in his room. He tensed up until he saw Sarah sitting in a chair at the edge of his bed.

“Took you a while to wake up and notice me.”

“Oh, it’s just you,” he replied. “For a moment I thought Mersene had found me and snuck into my room again.”

Her mocking smile immediately vanished and was replaced by another, terrifying smile. “Oh? I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

He decided not to press the joke further and sat up rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “So why did you break into my room? And the door was bolted, how did you get past that?”

“Trade secret. As for the reason, I needed to talk to you in private.”

“Was there a problem with knocking?”

“Someone could hear the knocking and eavesdrop on the conversation, you wouldn’t want that to happen would you? I wanted to talk about the future, our future.”

“Is this because of last night?”

“Yes, mostly the creature. We were in over our heads, and you know it. We need to stop just taking things as they come, be more focused on the types of jobs we take. You and I, for instance, we have skills that the others don’t.”

Thane sighed and scratched his head, “You’re saying we should split off from the others?”

“Kisha can’t stomach the fighting and her nature magic would be in demand for anyone who wants to grow anything from farms to rare herbs. She could even be an herbalist herself. My brother has been pitifully trying to hide the fact that he can cast fourth circle magic, so he has plenty of options. But neither of them can sneak around, hunt and track, or find the signs in the city. Nobody but you and I.”

“Yes we work well together, but do you really want to leave all the others behind?”

“We can bring the little girl if you want, she has a good attitude and you seem to be attached to each other. Which is kind of gross, she’s only 11 years old.”

“Now I know you’re joking.”

“Half. I’m half joking. I do think we would be amazing with just the two or three of us, and we would be successful. Especially if we try to leverage our connection to the lord of Verda. But mostly I want you to think about what would happen to the rest...no, what would happen to YOU if you decided to leave this behind and waste away in a small village with that girl.”

“You should really stop spying on people.” He sighed, “where did you learn all that stuff anyway? The lock picking for instance. It wasn’t all from Maria was it?”

She stood up and started to leave, “My teacher wishes to remain secret. But think about it before you make any rash decisions. Although I was half joking, the offer still stands. Just you me and maybe the girl if you want to bring her along. We could really make something for ourselves if…” she smiled and opened the door.

“If the others stop dragging us down?”

“Your words not mine.”

I know what you meant, he thought. He stood up and stretched out before preparing for the day. When he finally emerged from his room he was greeted by someone he wasn’t expecting.

Evelyn, the woman from the previous night, was waiting at the entrance to the Inn speaking with Ruby. This was the first time he had seen her full face, but there is no way he could mistake those striking violet eyes and shining black hair. She greeted him as he approached, “Thane, it is good to see you well this morning.”

“It is good to see you well Evelyn, I see you have guards with you this time.” He motioned around at the 6 armored men that were accompanying her as she talked with Ruby.

“Yes, and unlike last night's retinue, these men and women haven’t been bribed to abandon me during a crisis. Of course those guards are now dead so I trust these fine people will not make the same poor choices.” The guards began to look around at each other nervously.

“So what brings you here this morning?”

“You mentioned last night that you found a silver cube with my family crest on it. My father is eager to have it returned and will reward you for it. He is actually quite insistent that it be returned as soon as possible and has invited you to breakfast. An offer I would like to extend to Lady Astley as well.”

“Right now?”

“Like I said, he is very insistent and eager to have it back in his possession.”

“I will go retrieve it now then.”

Thane was a bit caught off guard by her appearance. Not that she came to see him, but that she came so quickly. He never told her where they were staying, meaning that her family had tracked him down and prepared to meet him in a matter of hours, and in the middle of the night. Whatever this silver cube was, it had to be extremely valuable.

After he fetched the cube from his room he found Ruby waiting for him in front of the Inn. “What did Gailwyn have to say about you running out on your own last night?”

“She still hasn’t found out yet, I was hoping you would keep it that way.”

“For someone who is supposed to be hidden and under protection you sure do expose yourself a lot.”

“In this case it is warranted. I was hoping to find some information on the person who set up my caravan to be ambushed. I thought Lord Cyphus would help since he almost lost that cube of his in the attack.”

“Are you certain you want to look into that? According to what my friends overheard, it sounds like the entire caravan and guards were taken out by a single mage who was following orders of someone even stronger.”

“I have some suspicions about that but-”

Evelyn approached and interrupted their conversation, “I will be walking with you two, the guards will be a few steps ahead of us. Are you prepared to leave?”

“Yes,” replied Thane, “why are you walking with us instead of your guard?”

“It’s probably safer that way, I don’t know how many more guards have been bought by my sister.”

“Sounds like you and your family don’t get along well.”

“Not in the slightest. Father has been showing me favor recently and one of my sisters took offense to this.”

“How many sisters do you have?”

“Seven, I suppose 6 now. I am the second youngest. Before you ask, my father wanted a son, and continued having children until he got one. I’ll do my best to prepare you for meeting my family, but you should be warned, that my little brother’s words have more weight than me and all of my sister’s combined.”

She continued to explain things to them on the way, to not directly address her sisters or mother and only ask questions to her father. She also told them to ignore her mothers peculiar behavior as much as possible.

When they entered hightown, Thane found himself in shock once again. Every building was immaculate. The temples and towers stretched to the sky in heights he didn’t think were possible. The roads were much cleaner here and so were the people. Even the merchants seemed to be wearing fine and expensive clothing that would stand out almost anywhere else.

When they arrived at the keep and the lord's manor, Evelyn went ahead to speak with a servant to announce their arrival. Ruby whispered into Thane’s ear once she was no longer with them. “One thing I should mention is that free city lords tend to think of themselves very highly. They may not be lords by birth, but they often see themselves as superior for having no king to bow to, making them even more insufferable.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Evelyn returned with a frustrated look on her face, “Follow me, it looks like I will be joining you this morning at my brother's request.”

“You seem upset. Is there a reason you don’t want to join us for breakfast?”

“First rule of etiquette,” she replied, “don’t directly ask someone a question like that.”

Thane closed his mouth and followed her inside. Once they reached the dining area, each one of them was accompanied by a different servant who guided them to their seats. Each maid was dressed identically and even looked similar to each other. Each one was a very attractive young woman with long black hair. I think the lord of this manor might have a type Thane thought to himself.

They were each pulled up a chair and once they were seated, the servants left to go fetch the food. Thane was sitting across from Ruby, next to them were Evelyn sitting across from an older woman that was likely her mother. At the head of the table was Lord Emile Syphus and his son. Emile was on the same side as his wife, his son looked to be around eleven years old and was smiling and staring at his sister.

“Welcome to my home, I hope your short stay here will be comfortable. Before the food arrives I must thank you for your assistance last night. Those creatures had been tormenting the people of lowtown for weeks. The fear in the area was tangible. Unfortunately the mastermind that artificially accelerated their appearance and growth is still at large, but it will take him some time to heal from the wound you gave him. Being able to cripple a vampire with a single arrow is quite an impressive feat.”

Thane had to think for a moment on how to respond in this situation. He learned the basics from Maria some time ago and she told him he should be able to fill in the rest on his own. “I am humbled by your praise. I only regret that I was unable to do more.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that, you did enough. You shot right through the shoulder of that beast severing the arm. We managed to recover the limb and we should be able to track him and banish him for good. There is no place for predatory night creatures in my city.”

Thane was a bit surprised, he wasn’t able to watch the flight of his arrow with the creature taking shape so close, but to take off an arm? He knew the energy around the first arrow felt different than the others but he didn’t think it was that strong.

The servants began to place trays of fruit and bread at the table and Evelyn spoke up, “Father, perhaps we should talk about our main point.” Thane looked and saw her trying to push away her younger brother who was clinging to her arm and shirt.

“Of course, Sar, come back to your chair to eat.” His attention turned back to Thane. Did you bring it?”

Thane reached into the pouch he carried with him and pulled out the silver cube. Emile motioned to the maid next to Thane and she held out her hands to take it. Once she delivered it to the Lord of the house he let out a sigh of relief. “Good, it isn’t damaged or opened. Thank the gods it is intact. I sent this on a caravan headed east, and I hear you actually found it several days west of my city. How exactly did this happen?”

“Lord Syphus,” said Ruby, “that is something I wished to discuss with you later in private. I was traveling with that caravan and I was hoping to exchange information that could help track down the perpetrators.”

They ate the rest of their meal with idle chatter. The lord asked how he was trained and wanted to know more about the Stone Fox Mercenaries. Throughout the meal each person at the table had one of the maids as an attendant. They would fetch whatever was needed from the large table and keep the table and guests clean. The maid was staying uncomfortably close to Thane, even brushing up against him from time to time acting a bit flirtatiously. He noticed that across from him, Ruby was receiving the same treatment and was even more uncomfortable than he was.

He couldn’t help but wonder what was going on with this household, it wasn’t just he overly flirtatious maids. The son was clinging on to Evelyn much to her displeasure, the mother was over halfway through drinking a bottle of wine in the early morning, and the father was completely blind to anyone but his guests and son. The discomfort and behavior of his wife and daughter didn’t even seem to matter to him. Thane managed to keep his composure while they talked and ate, but was extremely grateful when the meal was over.

When they stood up Ruby spoke to Thane, “Please wait for me at the entrance, this may take some time.”

Thane simply nodded as a reply and as she turned around to leave the attendant who had been with him for the meal approached. “Sir, allow me to guide you to the sitting room.”

“Just a moment,” his eyes were focused on a small golden symbol or rune that was resting on a red cushion in a glass case. It looked somewhat familiar and he couldn’t quite place it. He stared at it for some time trying to jog his memory. The golden symbol looked like a crescent moon carved inside an apple.

“Does that catch your eye sir? It was a holy symbol that belonged to the founder of the house.”

“Do you know which god it represents?”

“I’m afraid my knowledge of Theology is lacking and I do not know which god it represents. Shall we leave for the sitting room now sir?”

“Yes, please.”

Rather than simply guiding him, she looped her arm around his like an escort and walked him down the hallways. “It is quite impressive that you managed to kill that creature last night, you must be quite strong.”

“I trained for some time, that is all. It’s nothing that special.”

“No it is, if you managed to impress that barbaric Evelyn, you have to be strong.” She gave his arm a light squeeze before releasing him. “Please make yourself comfortable here, I will go fetch some tea.”

Thane looked around the room and picked a chair near the wall. He sat staring at the table in the center of the room for a few minutes until the maid returned and set up a tray with a tea set next to him, preparing two cups. “If you don’t mind me asking, did you have any plans for this evening? I would be delighted if…”

“That's quite enough sister.” said Evelyn at the entryway. “I can take care of our guest from now on.”

“She’s your sister?”

“Yes, my father is quite keen on every member of the family being useful if they wish to stay here. If you can’t show your worth on your own, you can at least work as a servant so you aren’t completely worthless.”

The maid sneered with hostility as she stood up and stormed out of the room. “That was a bit harsh.” Thane said.

“We sisters never did get along. Don’t tell me you already forgot that one of them paid the guards to abandon me to try and get me killed last night.”

He tried to lighten the mood “You scared her off before she could pour the tea, are you going to pour it instead?”

“I could, but I wouldn’t suggest drinking it. I’m not sure what she put in it, but it is almost certainly drugged.”

“Are you serious? She tried to poison me?”

“It was likely just something to make you more receptive to her requests. I told you my family wasn’t normal. Now would you accompany me? I have a request for you and I don’t want to discuss it in the manor.”

“I’m actually waiting for my companion to finish talking to your father.”

“I promise we will be back in time, my father approved of this request, so he knows we will be out for a short while.”

He took one last look at the teapot at the table. He didn’t know if she was actually telling the truth about it being drugged, but the maid’s behavior certainly supported the accusation. Either way, he definitely didn’t want to spend any more time in this house than he had to.

Once they had stepped out of the manor Thane asked, “You said you have a request for me?”

“Yes, my father and I do. We wish to hire you.” It was some time before she continued the conversation, they had walked some distance and were now in the middle of a busy street. “The cube that you found was supposed to be delivered to a mage in Talhassus. A Tau Viscam that has a focal tower just across the border.”

“That is quite a trip, it would take several weeks to get there. You want us to make the delivery?”

“Actually, I was going to make the delivery and I wanted to hire you as an escort. After the last failed delivery we want someone who can be trusted. Or at least someone neutral.” She reached into her pocket and took out a golden object and tossed it over to him. “Take this as a reward for recovering and bringing back the cube and as a down payment for the delivery to Talhassus. There will be two more once the delivery is complete.”

Thane looked at the object in his hands. It was a stamped, minted strip of gold. It was thin and narrow but heavy. If he was correct, this was a gold strip that was the equivalent of 10 gold coins. He had never held this much money before and she just tossed it to him like it was nothing.

“I haven’t agreed yet.”

“You will,” she replied.

He knew she was right. He had to accept it. Not just because of the massive amount of money that was being offered, but also because of the current morale of his friends. This should be a simple task, and get them out exploring the world. Kisha needed to be reminded of why they dreamed of being adventurers when they were kids, and the twins would be encouraged by the payout. While lost in thought his eyes drifted to the door of a local business and he saw a familiar symbol carved into the doorframe. It was the same symbol he saw in the inn in lowtown, an unfamiliar mark that looked like a hand. He looked around the building looking for other marks before he was interrupted by Evelyn looping her arm through his.

“You know, if you’re going to get distracted by a brothel, I would prefer it if you didn’t do it in my presence.” she started walking him forward. “I am still a girl you know, I can get offended by these things. Unless it isn’t the girls you are interested in?”

“What? No, I didn’t know what the building was, I just saw a symbol I had seen before, a hand carved into the door frame.”

“Ah, you probably shouldn’t pay too much attention to that. It is just an organization that runs most of the black markets and a few points of entertainment in this town. I suppose it would be more apt to call it a grey market, they do still pay taxes, they just don’t do business openly.” She looked back to the building, “Now that I think about it, that vampire may have started doing his experiments here because he took offense to some of that organization's members.”

“Anyway, you still haven’t agreed to my offer yet. You can bring along as many friends as you want, but that won’t increase the payment.”

“I can’t really refuse, but I will have to clear it with Gailwyn first. If she gives us permission to be absent for a couple months then I will accept your offer.”