Curselock

Chapter 22: Tail

“Thank you for the appraisals,” Leland said, paying Joy for her services. “If we decide to auction any of the items, we will be back.”

Joy nodded and pocketed the coin. She held open the door, allowing the others to leave. As they exited, she gave a final bow and spoke, “It was wonderful to make your acquaintance. Please come again.”

With that, they were back to the streets. It was nearing dinner at this point and a restaurant was quickly chosen. They asked to be seated somewhere private, an accommodation that brought the group to a table on the second floor towards the back. After ordering, a conversation broke out.

“We sell it,” Glenny started with.

“We do not,” Leland countered.

“Agreed,” Jude chimed in.

They both looked at the brute.

“Is that an agreement to sell it or to not sell it?”

Jude raised an eyebrow. “Yes.”

Leland threw his hands up, turning back to Glenny. “We both know that selling it is a mistake. You just don’t want to be the one to get it.”

Glenny hesitated a response. “Maybe.”

“We don’t need money. We are adventurers, we always have quests to take. And, if anything, we need you protected and or with a higher damage output.”

“But we don’t know the cloak’s effect. It could be something detrimental to me being a rogue!”

Leland's head tilted. “So?” he asked. “If it is, then you just stop wearing it. The potential for something great is simply too large.”

“Which only makes the potential for failure all the more worrisome,” Glenny quipped back.

With a flamboyant eye roll, Leland looked to Alkin. “What do you think?”

The young man hesitated. “I think Glenny should take it.”

“Ah what do you know,” Glenny said with a huff.

“So we are all in favor then.”

“Yes!” Jude exclaimed.

“No!” Glenny denied.

“Two on one, we win. Three, actually,” said Leland.

The food came which also brought on a bout of silence. They quickly scarfed down the food, except for Jude who felt sick from eating so many cookies. The meal consisted of braised meat, more braised meat, and even more braised meat. Mana Lion flank was a popular and abundant cut it seemed.

As dessert was served, Leland said, “Let's table the cloak conversation for the moment, despite the clear resolution, and talk about the candle.”

Alkin raised a hand. “I cannot afford the item. But if you would allow it, I would like to give my rite of first bid to my family. I am sure they will pay handsomely for such an item.”

The restaurant was filling up at this point, the tables to either side of them full. Leland whispered his response.

“That would mean we must take you home to have the potential of your family buying the item. It would be better just to sell it here. Less risk that way.”

Alkin tapped his fingers against the table. “True, but if you do decide to fulfill the role of bodyguard and escort me home, then why not sell it to my family. I understand there is added risk, but in the end my family will get the candle one way or another. We are, uh, collectors of spirit fire artifacts.”

“Yeah but aren’t you hurting for money?” Jude asked, his tone not pulling any punches.

“That is true… I still need to find that lawyer.”

“How do you expect to pay us for the candle plus the escort home?”

Alkin straightened his back and pursed his lips. “I have the money to hire you three. My family has the money for the candle… we just may need to sell a few things.”

Leland let out a long sigh. “I don’t know. Do we even want to escort you- Ouch!”

He jumped from his seat, drawing the eyes of nearly the entire restaurant. Slowly, he sat down, covering his left hand. He could feel the blood slipping through his fingers. Gritting his teeth, he wrapped a napkin around his tattoo.

“You okay there, bud?” Jude asked.

Leland sneaked a peak. The crow on his hand was flapping its wings like it was trying to scare off a predator from invading its nest.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Like I was saying, do we evengrhmm…” A sharp pain drilled into his hand again. Slowly, Leland expelled his anger. “I think we should escort Alkin home.”

As the young Master’s eyes widened, Jude and Glenny’s crinkled.

“Are you sure?” Glenny asked.

“Pretty sure,” Leland replied, pressing his still bleeding hand into the napkin.

From there the conversation turned to logistics. How much supplies they needed, how much money they were going to charge. Shoutwell was two weeks on mount, significantly farther than the one week caravan trip to Liontrunk that they just completed. Regardless, plans were ironed out.

Alkin separated for the night and planned to meet back up the day after tomorrow. In the meantime, he was going to look for the lawyer his family desperately needed. He wasn’t hopeful, however.

He had already asked the Inquisitor about a lawyer, receiving many non-answers as to why she couldn’t help. Still, he had an active quest for information at the Guild. Maybe he’d get lucky and his coin wouldn’t go to waste.

The boys started towards the inn district but their nightly stroll was abruptly cut short – they were being followed.

“I spot four,” Glenny said, his eyes mutating into lizard-like slits.

“Are they posturing to rob us?” Leland asked, shifting the pack with the items behind his back.

Sadly, their conversation at the restaurant wasn’t as private as he’d have liked. And, with the knowledge that someone cleared the dungeon, making an informed guess as to who did such a thing was rather simple. In fact, Leland mentally berated himself for visiting Liontrunk’s appraiser. He had unintentionally created a massive target for the town’s Legacy of Thieves.

“Looks like,” Glenny replied. “We should prepare an ambush.”

Jude agreed instantly although Leland was a bit more hesitant. “Just don’t kill anyone. We don’t need more attention than we already have.”

The Huntress watched the dark streets from the rooftops above. She was camouflaged against the cloudless night sky and down wind. She was invisible to any and every one below her rank beside a special few legacies. But the likelihood Leland was one of those was absurdly rare. So, she sat back content with her vantage point.

She had to commend the one called Glenny. He spotted the thieves much faster than she had anticipated. Maybe she should have hired more competent low-lives. It would have been informative to see how they reacted to being robbed but she figured it may be more informative to see how they dealt with street combat.

Would they murder their attackers? They would have every right. However, that would still tell her plenty about the group and how they operated.

The Huntress activated an ability and turned her eyes into that of a hawk. She didn’t want to miss a single detail—

“Huh?” she sputtered as the fight started and abruptly ended. “Did Leland even cast a spell?”

She replayed the fight’s events back in her mind, watching every detail in excruciating slowness. It started when the boys entered a dark alleyway. Not the best choice for a public fight, she figured, but one that would help the rogue thrive.

Acceptable, she mused.

The big one, Jude, stepped forward and yelled something that provoked the dumbest of the four robbers. She remembered him from when she hired them and predicted that he was the one most likely to mess up the operation. She was happy to see she was correct.

Jude took the first strike, lashing out with a sucker punch to the man’s jaw, instantly sending him to sleep on the cold dirt alley.

At the same time, Glenny appeared from the guise of partial invisibility and his friend’s destruction. He landed a hard elbow to the back of the neck of one of the other goons before pivoting and thrusting the hilt of his dagger into another’s gut. Both men fell over, unconscious.

Frankly the Huntress was impressed with the showing but something strange caught her eye just before Jude knocked the last thief unconscious.

The thief had drawn a knife and lunged for Jude’s neck. From the angle, trajectory, and ability the man used, the blow should have landed. It, of course, would have done little to stop the Berserker Lord, but still. The fact that the attack didn’t land put the memory on repeat in the Huntress’s mind.

She watched it over and over again, her heightened eyes picking up every detail no matter how small. She looked over Jude, finding nothing out of the ordinary. She looked over Glenny, finding nothing but the rogue recovering from his own attacks. Then, as a last guess, she looked at Leland.

She watched him stand there, his eyes vigilant and narrow. She watched him speak to the thieves before Jude’s surprise attack. She watched him stand in the back doing nothing… Or maybe not.

He was muttering, the Huntress noticed. It was slight, maybe a single word. But his mouth most definitely moved. A spell, that was obvious. But what kind? What could stop a man’s attack like that?

Legacy of Time? No, too obscure and would be more noticeable.

Legacy of Ice? No, frozen spells leave water as evidence.

Legacy of… Repetition? Ah, who was she kidding. She was just pandering to her need to always be right. She had no idea what Leland’s Lord was, especially since he bore a crow tattoo. One thing was certain, she would find out – even if it ate into her vacation days.

With the fight concluded, she slipped off the roof and packed her bags. She’d be traveling soon.

Shoutwell was it? she thought. It's been a while.