Chapter 41

“Take last night was pretty good. Both of your bags had a shitload of Belle inside and we sold those to another outfit we’re familiar with for a pretty good amount. We sold each brick for 30 silver and sold the already packaged doses for 15 copper each. The total’s around 11 gold after offloading all the Belle you brought back. We managed to break open the locked wooden box in Isaac’s bag too and found 2 gold coins, 242 silver coins, and 1839 copper coins. That means our running total’s 15 gold, 60 silver, and 39 copper. Not a bad night’s work if I do say so myself. Don’t think you’ll be complaining about running out of money anytime soon.” Holy shit. That’s a massive amount of money. We were panicking a month ago over whether our single gold coin would look suspicious and now we’ve earned more than a dozen gold coins in one night. Insanity. “Quinn and I will be taking half since we scouted out the place and ran interference last night. Normally I’d be taking more but you lads didn’t have it easy last night either from what it sounds like.” Bertrand hands us 7 gold, 80 silver, and 20 copper which, added with the rest of our savings, brings it up to 8 gold, 35 silver, and 6 copper when we exchange 100 silver coins for 1 gold coin. This is the heaviest our coin pouch has ever felt and I couldn’t feel happier lightly tossing it in the air and then catching it, listening to the sweet sounds of coins clinking against each other inside it. The two men who I had to put down last night and their faces pop into my head but even that’s not enough to dampen my mood.

After we finished up practice for the day, Bertrand brought me to Derriv’s compound where Quinn and Wraine were already waiting. Wraine looks better today and I think a good night of sleep did him well. Bertrand told us about how much we earned last night and gave us the coins. Seeing me tossing and catching our coin pouch, Bertrand says, “Don’t get too attached to those coins. You’ll need to spend quite a few of them when you’re at the smithy.” Looking at him in confusion, he continues, “Last night’s incident with Midriver’s Finest won’t go unanswered. Likely nothing will happen tonight since they need time to get ready but tomorrow there’ll be hell to pay. The one we caught following the two of you last night wasn’t the only one following you but just the one dumb enough to get himself caught by us. The swords you lads are using right now are fine for practice and maybe a little skirmish but they’re not enough for what’s in store for us over these next couple of days until Derriv gets back. You boys will also be staying at the compound until then. Alright, let’s get over to Nestor’s and get you boys set up.”

Bertrand was right when he told us we’d be spending a lot of our coins at Nestor’s smithy. I didn’t even realize Nestor had these weapons in his smithy the last time we came here. It’s not that Nestor was hiding his better swords or equipment or anything like that but rather my eyes naturally avoided looking at the expensive looking swords and equipment thus they were automatically excluded from my mind. But it feels as though with more coins in my pockets, my vision itself has expanded greatly. Dear gods, it feels good to have money. Regardless, even with more coins in my pockets and a wider field of vision, these prices still make it seem like the last time we came here when we only had 30 silver coins in our pockets. The shortsword Bertrand’s checking out by balancing on his finger costs 40 silver. 40 silver! That’s not all, the longsword Quinn’s checking out for Wraine costs 55 silver. It’s a good looking longsword and I think it looks well made but dear gods! 55 silver for a sword? Thankfully, Quinn puts it back down after taking a look at it but the next one he picks up costs 60 silver instead. 60!

I try to look around for another crossbow since the last one was crucial in helping us deal with Alister’s crew but Nestor doesn’t have any more crossbows. He wasn’t even supposed to have the one he sold us but someone else sold it to him in desperation and since it was such an old model, he mainly put it up for decoration and didn’t think we’d be dumb enough to actually buy it. Hey, I take resentment to that. Besides, no matter how old that crossbow was or how outdated it was, it still worked completely fine.

We also take a look at the leather armor Nestor’s smithy has on consignment from a leather hand and it turns out the soldier quality leather armor Kapri taught me about is only a very basic standard. Soldier quality just means it has a tiny bit of resistance against blades and anything below that is what ordinary people wear and don’t have any resistance to any sort of weaponry. The best ordinary leather armor Nestor’s selling costs 28 silver and 50 copper for the top and Bertrand’s not even looking at that. No, he’s looking at a shadowhound leather top which costs 60 silver. Admittedly, the gray leather looks really nice and apparently as long as it’s not a direct stab, it’ll protect me pretty well but 60 silver for a top! Unfortunately, neither Wraine nor I are able to voice our opinions and Bertrand and Quinn quickly pick out what we’ll be buying. For Wraine, he’ll be paying for an iron longsword which costs 60 silver, a shadowhound leather top which costs another 60 fucking silver, a pair of shadowhound leather pants which cost 45 silver, a pair of shadowhound leather boots costing 30 silver, a shadowhound leather hood and cloak costing 40 silver, and a new sword belt with a sheath attached for 20 silver. If you told me we’d be paying 2 gold and 55 silver for equipment just this morning, I’d have called you crazy. But here we are. And we’re not even done yet. Bertrand picked out the same shadowhound leather set for me, including the hood and cloak. Instead of paying 60 silver for a longsword, my shortsword costs 45 silver. I guess to make up for it, Bertrand picked out a new shield for me that costs 40 silver. Seeing the apprehension on my face, he promised me the new shield was made from a good species of tree and would last a long while. Finally, he picked out a sword belt for me that cost 30 silver because it had some hooks and straps on the right side hip that would let me carry a shield on my hip and I could defend myself at a moment’s notice. I guess I should appreciate all the thought and effort Bertrand and Quinn are putting in to make sure we’ll be safe during this gang war that’s approaching us. I just wish it didn’t cost 2 gold and 90 silver. We might’ve stepped into this store with a heavy coin pouch but we’ll be leaving with a much lighter one. At the end of it all, we only have 2 gold, 90 silver, and 6 copper remaining. Which is, admittedly, still a large amount of wealth but seeing all those coins pass from our hands and into Nestor’s and then seeing the huge smile on Nestor’s face dampens my renewed optimism. Fuck, we need another job.

After leaving Nestor’s smithy, we don’t immediately head back to Derriv’s compound but we stop by a general store to pick up some new linens and other necessities. The clothes Jenne made for us still fit great but there’s a stink to them now even after washing them with water. We buy a bar of soap at the general store for 1 silver and 50 copper but having a whole other set of linens isn’t a bad idea especially since we have leather packs that can store our things now and we can keep the rest of our things at the compound. A linen shirt and pants cost 1 silver and 40 copper together and both Wraine and I buy two sets. We could have gone to a clothing shop nearby but they’re a bit more expensive compared to the general store’s cheap linens. After leaving the general store, we stop again at The Sleeping Hornet and Bertrand buys a whole wooden crate’s worth of dried meat for 20 silver. He’s really expecting Midriver’s Finest to hit back hard. It looks like Quinn’s on the same page because he buys an entire hogshead barrel of ale for 8 silver. At least we didn’t need to pay for those.

As we’re walking down the street back to Derriv’s compound, Bertrand grabs my attention and says under his breath, “Things should be getting into motion tomorrow after Midriver’s Finest’s higher ups meet up today and decide how they’re going to respond for last night and start their preparations which means tonight’s still good for a mission. You up for it? It’ll just be me and you though.”

“Sure, what are we doing?”

“I’ll tell you later after we drop these off.”

When we get back to the compound, Bertrand drops off the wooden crate filled with dried meat and tells the rest of the people there he’s taking me to gather information tonight. When we step back outside, it’s night already and the shadowhound leather looks like it’s already showing its worth. The dark color of the leather mixed with the darkness of the night makes it hard to see and when I throw out a punch or a kick, I doubt anyone will be able to react perfectly. Bertrand leads in front of me and it looks like we’re heading towards the slums tonight. “You remember me mentioning a church yesterday and how an addict almost attacked Ilya?”

“Yeah, you said Angelene was there and nothing happened, right?”

“Mhm, reason Ilya goes to that church is because she made a friend there and visits her pretty often. But a few days ago Ilya told me her friend’s missing. She’s been going to that church every day hoping she’ll see her friend but no luck. Thing is, it’s not only a church but an orphanage as well and I just thought the kid got adopted or something right? But I took a look into it and there’s something fishy going on in there. Tonight, we’re breaking into that church and we’re gonna check if everything’s alright. Kids should be happy and laughing and if that church is fucking that up somehow, they’ll pay for it. Reason we’re not bringing anyone else in is because when I looked into it, Alira’s name came up and if Quinn or Angelene found out about this, they’d stop me and tell me to wait and talk with Derriv first but this can’t wait. Those kids can’t wait. You still up for this?”

“Yeah, I am. Why’d you bring me along though? I could easily snitch you out to Quinn, Angelene, or even Derriv himself. Why me?”

“I saw something in you last night. When you stepped forward, ready to put your blade into that guy so that Wraine wouldn’t have to, it gave me a peek inside your mind and how it works. You won’t tell anyone about this because there’s no reason to. I can already tell there’s a darkness inside you that you’re desperately trying to hide from everyone else. I’ve seen countless people like that in the past and I’ve seen how they end up too. I thought I’d try helping out this one time.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?”

Bertrand looks at me with a smile and says, “Wouldn’t you like to know? Where’s the fun in telling you?”

It turns out we’re staying in the entertainment district tonight. The church, the orphanage, the church orphanage sits on the border separating the entertainment district from the slums but it leans more towards the entertainment district. Why’s there a church orphanage in the entertainment district in the first place? Bertrand and I are discreetly surveying the place from across the street and I can see the huge plaque hanging above the two sets of front doors which reads: The Midriver Church and Orphanage of the Inextinguishable Light. Hmm, a church of Itia the Goddess of the Inextinguishable Light, huh? Wait, Itia? Ilya? “Is there a relation between Ilya’s name and the goddess Itia?”

Bertrand looks at me with a huge grin and says with a laugh, “Ask Derriv when you meet him. It’ll be hilarious.”

I give Bertrand a questioning look before giving up. When it looks like Bertrand’s seen enough, he leads me down a dark alley adjacent to the church and we walk a certain distance before he cuts through another alley heading directly toward the church. When we’re out of the alley and on a main road, the church is right in front of us. But there’s a tall stone wall separating us. Bertrand takes a running start without saying anything to me and runs right at the wall before jumping up and grabbing the top of the wall. He doesn’t even hang there for a second before he gets his leg over the wall and smoothly slides down to the other side. What the fuck did I just see? Bertrand has to weigh over 300 lbs at the minimum and that giant of a man just nimbly climbed over a wall taller than him in seconds. I’ll ask him to teach me that later. When I’m wondering how I’m supposed to get over the wall myself, a rope flies over from behind the wall and lands against the wall at a height I can reach. Alright, I’ll admit it, he’s really good. Looking around to make sure nobody’s watching me, I grab a hold of the rope and before long, I pull myself over the wall. Landing lightly on my feet, I crouch slightly to make myself shorter and check if there’s anyone around. Seeing that it’s clear, Bertrand crouch walks along the church’s wall with me behind him. When we reach the back, Bertrand stops next to a window and pulls out something from his pocket. I can’t really see what it is because of how dark this area is but he jimmies it on the window a few times and it opens with a click. Bertrand opens the window wide and pulls himself inside with me right behind him. Both of us pull out our brightstones in a box and slide it open just enough to see inside this room. It looks like we’re inside some sort of office because there’s a large wooden desk with a chair behind it and there’s a few bookshelves all around the room.

We quickly get to work and start searching the papers scattered messily on the desk. It looks like most of them are budget reports, invoices, and work order forms. Nothing suspicious yet. Looking at the desk’s drawers and inside them, I still can’t find anything out of the ordinary. Perhaps the information Bertrand received was wrong? When I close the drawer, something in my mind clicks. Now what was that? There’s something odd about the rightmost bottom drawer but I can’t seem to figure it out. I spend a few minutes opening it and then closing it, trying to find what made me pause in the first place. I still can’t figure it out and to get a different perspective, I crawl under the wooden desk and open the drawer from there. Bertrand’s giving me a weird look but doesn’t say anything as he continues looking through the church’s reports. After opening and closing the drawer a third time, something in my head clicks again. That’s it! The sizes don’t match up. Crawling back out, I open the drawer and feel around the bottom wooden panel. When I push in one of the corners, the whole panel lifts up and there’s a thin wooden chest inside with a lock on it. Bringing it out, I put it on the desk and Bertrand whispers, “A false bottom, huh? Now why would this church’s director need a desk with a false bottom drawer?”

It doesn’t look like Bertrand has any intentions on picking the box’s lock and instead pulls out a knife and jams it into the lock. He turns and twists the box in an awkward way and before I know it, the lock opens with a pop. It looks like there’s a ledger inside along with a few letters. But when we read through the ledger and the letters, I wish I never found that false bottom drawer. I’d forgotten just how dark the hearts of men could be and tonight was a grim reminder.