Through a village so lifeless and plain,

We rode through the drizzle and rain.

No laughter, no cheer,

Just silence and beer,

So we left and won't come again!

Goldie Honorhide.

I kept the knife hidden behind my leg as I opened the door. A young girl in a maid uniform was there. She curtsied, "Excuse me, sir. I am here to collect the dishes."

I nodded and opened the door wide enough for her to enter. Yoboc's room was one of the underground ones, so the door was the only entry. The air vents were too small for a person. I watched as she entered, and her eyes flicked around the room. They paused briefly on the crates. Once she was in, I closed the door. I loomed next to it.

"Are you casing the joint to come back later?" I asked. "Here, this is yours." I handed her the vial of antidote she had given me in the alley.

Her eyes narrowed, and she looked around the room again. A bunch of hard faces stared back. No smiles, no cheer. Just hostile people.

"Not sure what your aim was coming here, lass," Yoboc said, "but you best get talking. By the way, your odour-masking needs work."

I could almost see the options flicking through her brain. She didn't have any.

"Were you planning to poison us or something?" Goldie asked.

"No, I ah… I was just planning to leave this note discreetly."

Yoboc reached out and took it. "A meeting? At midnight? It doesn't say with whom or why we should bother."

"It's… ah, you killed our boss, and he had a ring on him we would like back."

"Well, that's easy, lass. How much were you offering to pay for it?" Yoboc asked.

Her face fell, "I, ah, am not authorised to say."

"You mean they were just going to try and threaten it out of us and maybe try for some payback?" Yoboc asked. "Are you idiots? The note is in the tone of turn up or else, so I guess you are idiots. Why wouldn't any honest person just send the guards to such a meeting? The answer is no unless you can adequately compensate us. No, we will not be coming to your stupid meeting, and you go back and say the 'or else' threat is pretty unthreatening when our youngest member," he pointed at me, "can take a group of you apart on his own." Yoboc handed the note back. "Coins are what will persuade us, and the price just went up. We leave town the day after tomorrow, so make it a good offer."

I opened the door to let her out.

"Don't forget the dishes," Makara said.

I tracked her by shaping my aura until she got out of range, then I nodded.

Yoboc held out his hand, and Goldie passed over the ring. "Good thing we haven't melted it down yet," she said.

Yoboc examined it.

"Can I look?" Makara asked. Yoboc tossed it over. She examined it. "At a guess, I would think it opens something, probably a safe."

Goldie laughed. "That's hilarious," she said. "They need coin to buy it off us, and all their coin is locked in a safe they can't access."

"They obviously don't have a decent safe cracker. Should we find it and empty it?" Makara asked.

"Tempting, but does anyone here have experience in burglary?" Yoboc looked around and said, "Yeah, me neither. I think we should just sell it back to them. If they threaten us, we just smash it, so they can't use it."

"That kid saw the crates," I said. "They might try to get some leverage of their own if they get their hands on them."

"Yeah, I saw that. I thought about getting some decoy crates, but figured we didn't need them in this quiet, lifeless town. Ivan is now on guard duty." I nodded. "Goldie is next door, so she is your backup."

"We should move the crates next door; it might slow them down," I said.

Yoboc and Goldie nodded. "Decoy crates would have been good, never mind." Yoboc looked at Makara, "You and I should go look around. We will leave the ring with Goldie for now."

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

That didn't take long to organise. Felix chose to wait with me in Goldie's room, especially after he found out it had started raining.

They came just before midnight. There were two burly fellows to deal with us and carry the crates. I think Yoboc and I killed the only brains in the outfit. Goldie stirred up the tired innkeeper and had the guards remove the unconscious bodies.

Yoboc came back about 1 am, dripping wet. I assume Makara was back upstairs.

It was still drizzling in the morning. Everyone was going to have a wet market day. Yoboc and I carted the crates to the caravan check-in.

"How much did you ask for?" I asked.

"Only a Platinum."

I raised my eyebrows. From what I understood, a platinum would buy the biggest mansion in a town like this. Not that there is a mansion here. "We won't get that," I said.

"No, but start big. If we melted it and extracted the gems, we might get a couple of gold for it."

We checked our luggage and needed to be aboard an hour after sunrise the next day. Felix and I wandered the market. I didn't buy much, as nothing clothing-wise would fit me. I did find an oiled leather poncho with a hood that would keep my clothes semi-dry. I still don't know why clothes are so important. None of this would be necessary for me in the wilds.

I was now sporting decent claws and teeth, but still in skin… under these stupid clothes. At least I was barefoot.

In the early afternoon, Makara found me. "They want to deal," she said. "Yoboc wants us to act as bodyguards because of our imposing stature."

"Goldie is backup?"

"No, Goldie is who we are guarding, Yoboc and his bow is backup." That made more sense.

Goldie was waiting with her big war axe. I had my axe and knives under my poncho. I am not sure what idiots thought a big size made someone dangerous. The only way we could keep up with Goldie and Yoboc was because we had affinities… which I guess made us dangerous. I doubt anyone at this meeting could stand against Goldie if she decided to use that axe.

At least they didn't meet at their tunnel house. The meeting was in a small open space where a well was dug for the townspeople without dwarven plumbing. Maybe it was an old well, and everybody now had plumbing, as nobody was around.

I narrowed my Aura and swept my Void Senses out as far as possible, picking up likely gang members. Eventually, the same assassin girl walked out to meet us. I almost laughed. Her strength lay in stealth and backstabbing. Somebody sent her out as a disposable piece.

She placed a bag on the side of the well. "5 gold."

I knew there was someone in the well, but I didn't know why he was there. Goldie turned to walk away. "We will get a better price from the jewellers in Becov." I knew we got more than that off the corpse of her boss.

It was still raining on and off. It was wet everywhere.

"5 gold and Kingdom ID papers for those two," she said quickly.

Now, that was interesting. They must have an informant in the Magistrate's office.

Goldie stopped. "The Magistrate has already sent a message to Becov."

"Messengers can go missing, and papers get lost."

"I want to see the quality of the ID," Goldie said.

The girl put papers on the brick edge of the well. I felt the heartbeat of the person in the well speed up. He seemed like he was going to attack. I sensed his legs braced against the side of the well, ready for a lunge.

Goldie stepped forward to pick up the papers, and I turned the side of the well into slippery ice. A falling body clattered and splashed as it hit the bottom. I could sense he had a broken leg. Some yelling is now coming from the well.

Goldie had drawn her axe, and the girl stepped back with her hands up and empty. "It wasn't me. He wouldn't let it go. He was the boss's brother."

"And what happens if the boss's brother never makes it out of the well?" Goldie asked.

The girl shrugged. "I can get everyone in line."

"So you want to be the boss? You are quite young."

"It is not age that matters," she said as she lowered her arms, "it is brains. I suggested the ID's, and I made that happen."

"And you didn't warn him that the ambush would have no chance," Goldie said.

"It wasn't in my interests to stop idiots organising their own deaths."

I was right. This girl excels in backstabbing.

"If these papers are good, we will deal with your leadership problem." She stepped forward and picked up the papers and closely examined them. She even got out her papers and compared them. Then she handed me one and Makara the other.

I looked at mine, but I couldn't tell if it was real or fake.

"You have yourself a deal," Goldie said.

"I'll do it," Makara said. "You have had all the fun."

The yelling turned to choking and coughing as the person in the well drowned.

"Dangerous places, wells," Goldie said. "Make sure that message gets stopped, or we will return for a visit."

The girl reached into her jacket and said, "Here. It is already missing."

Goldie took it and the gold and nodded to her, "I hope you can keep the boss position. You could do well."

We walked away and met Felix and, soon after, Yoboc. When we got back to the Inn, Yoboc examined the ID. "I am pretty sure these are full and official," he said. "Congratulations," he said," you are now officially from this town… what was it called again?"

"I doubt I will need mine," Makara said, "but it is a good backup."

"To activate it, imbue some of your Spiritual Energy into the paper. It is what will get checked when you present it," Yoboc said. Is that why a species on there was not important? The ID was tied to my spiritual signature.

I did that and then looked closer. "I am now from Ocova. I must remember that. Hey, this says I am 22 years old."

Yoboc said, "The kids grow up fast, don't they?"

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