Prisolyna took the offer to join them surprisingly well and quickly. Gild couldn't help but be a bit suspicious at how she jumped at the chance to join the two men who had just held her captive and were deciding what her fate should be.

Gild had quickly summarized that he was looking for a specific soulstone of a powerful demon. When she had asked why he had hedged his answers, instead letting Turwyn fill in those gaps with speeches of justice and righteousness. Before Gild had the chance to actually ask if she wanted to join them, she had said yes.

“Absolutely,” she nodded. “I would love a job like that, working against evil and darkness for the greater good. It's the exact sort of thing I have been trying to do all my life.”

“We might have to be in this town a little bit, but more likely than not, we will have to leave fairly quickly as soon as we get a lead,” Gild said, eyeing her.

“Even better! I have everything I need in a small pack on the other side of the river. I can be gone within an hour if need be.”

“It's a deal then!” Turwyn stated with a broad smile.

The next morning found them sitting at a small table in a corner of the tavern below their rooms, eating breakfast. The paladin was tearing into a large ham steak with eggs over the top, while the rogue picked at some scrambled eggs that sat atop freshly toasted sourdough. Gild had ordered sausage and sliced potatoes with a side of bacon. As nondescriptly as he could, he snuck the bacon under the table and let Tik munch on it. He wasn't entirely convinced demons needed to eat, and thought it was more likely he just enjoyed the flavor.

“So what are we after exactly?” Prisolyna asked in between small bites.

“I’ll be honest, I'm actually a bit fuzzy on the details. I know it involves hunting a demon or similar and that's really all I needed to hear.” Turwyn took a large bite of ham after running it through the golden yolk on his plate.

“I am after the soulstone of a powerful demon named Marsov. He was killed, or as killed as a powerful demon can be, and imprisoned in this stone.”

“Why are you after it?” the elf asked.

“To destroy it, of course,” Gild lied. He wasn't about to let it be known he wanted to use the stone to get enough power to make his way to the Other Realm and rescue his wife. The paladin might be able to overlook the consorting with demonic powers if he portrayed it in a noble enough light, but that was too much of a risk right now.

“Ok,” she nodded, taking another delicate bite. “Where is it?”

“No idea at all.”

“Any leads on what to do next?”

“Well, we learned it was last in the hands of someone named Linith.”

“Who’s that?”

Gild almost said a demon, but realized he wasn't exactly sure who Linith was. He had learned from that pathetic cave demon the name and assumed it was another demon, but couldn't be entirely sure.

“Probably a demon, or a worshipper of demons. These sorts of things tend to attract one another,” said Gild.

“So what, a warlock?” Turwyn asked.

Gild suppressed a small twitch. “That's a possibility. A person who worships demons could be a warlock. But not all warlocks are bad or worship demons”

“Ha!” the paladin spit a bit of his breakfast across the table in a loud guffaw. “Demon worshippers, all of them! No good scoundrels selling their souls for a quick bit of power.”

Gild suddenly found he wasn't very hungry anymore and gave his plate a small nudge away from him. He caught Prisolyna giving him a long look before she turned away, focusing back on her plate. A small punch of fear hit his gut. How much of the items in his bag had she seen? Tik was fairly conspicuous as well, he shouldn't have assumed everyone would fall for the familiar line. They sat in silence for a few moments before she finally spoke up again.

“So what is the plan for today? What should we all do?”

“We need to find out where Linith is and get on their trail,” Gild said.

“I have some contacts I can get in touch with,” Prisolyna volunteered.

“Excellent,” Turwyn said. “Who would you get in contact with?”

“They would be,” she coughed into her hand, “Uh, fellow procurers of items that are not necessarily theirs.”

Gild and the elf glanced at the paladin and found him digging into the last bit of his breakfast. He looked up at both of them as he took the final bite and gave a thumbs up. Prisolyna seemed to relax slightly and Gild just shook his head.

“Don’t worry about him judging you too much,” Gild said in a low voice to her. She raised an eyebrow at him and he chastised himself for giving her an impression he had stuff hidden from the paladin as well.

“Any tips for us to go after?” he asked a bit more loudly, hoping to derail her train of thought before she asked anything.

She thought for a moment before answering. “You could go visit Tiki, the man who runs Tiki Taki’s Item Emporium. He’s a well known fence for items and information agent. Anything you ask will always come at a price, of course.”

Turwyn’s face darkened slightly at the mention of the man.

“That will be our stop today,” Gild said. He turned to the glowing paladin, “I will just ask that you don’t act so… paladiny around him. I need to get this information, we can ignore how the man got it for now.”

The paladin mumbled something under his breath.

“Do you have a strong or important connection to the man?” Gild asked Prisolyna. She shook her head.

“Once we get the information and the soulstone, we can come back and apply the full force of the law to him as you see fit, deal?” Gild asked Turwyn. The man scratched his beard before nodding.

“That will be acceptable. I will put off applying the law to him until we get what we need, even if it makes me feel so unclean.” He shuddered slightly.

Gild rolled his eyes and turned back to the Star Elf. “Anything else we should know about Tiki?”

“Don’t let him think you have anything to do with the law,” she said, making a point to look at Turwyn. “If he thinks you have anything to do with the guards or are here to arrest him, he will make life exceptionally difficult for you, as will all the organized crime in the area. He has it in with all the different gangs and groups around here.”

“How many are there?” Gild asked.

“Probably three or four big ones, lots of little groups. I can never keep count, the big ones fight and envelop all the smaller ones, then new ones spring up.”

Turwyn balked at her comment.

“Well, if we are all finished,” Gild looked at the two others and they both nodded, “We all know what to do now. Let’s agree to meet back here tonight and discuss what we’ve learned and what we will do next.”

The elf and man both nodded to him, pushed their plates back, and stood up from the table.