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Chapter 75: Talk

Lillia hefted the greaves, her brow furrowing. “Didn’t it say that the concealed property would be revealed when I put everything on? Why is there another one on top of that?”

“I got an achievement for making a set and the damn thing got changed,” Arwin said through a huff. “It should be stronger than whatever it was before. Unfortunately, I’ve got no idea how we’re meant to trigger the new effect. Just put the dang things on so I can see what the normal property is.”

Lillia didn’t hesitate to comply. set the mug down and put the greaves on, fastening the straps to tighten them around her legs. It only took her a few minutes to get them situated. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, then dropped into a fighting stance.

Arwin watched, waiting to see the Mesh update the equipment and reveal their new abilities – only to find the words vanish, snuffed like the wick of a candle.

“Goddamn it,” Arwin said. “The property makes it so you can’t read the armor’s stats?”

“Not just that,” Lillia said. “It makes it harder to see me when I’m moving. Is it working?”

She stepped to the side and her body seemed to ripple. He could tell where she was, but it was like she was hidden in a wavy haze. He blinked and squinted, trying to push the vision out of his head.

“That’s… really odd,” Arwin said. “It’s definitely working though.”

“These are amazing,” Lillia said, straightening back out and shaking a leg off. “They’re obviously heavier than just pants, but nowhere near as bad as I thought they’d be. How are you getting so good at this so quickly? I’m getting jealous.”

“Are you kidding?” Arwin asked. “Have you tried your own food? And you helped on the chestpiece.”

“That’s hardly comparable. It’s not like my food keeps people alive.”

“If we’re speaking strictly technically, the only person your food doesn’t keep alive is me.”

Lillia let out a mildly amused huff. “Very funny. Sure, technically. It just feels like you’re powering ahead with your class. Most of my Hearthkeeper abilities are still pretty limited. I can’t grind out magical energy like you can.”

“Because you need more people to visit?”

“Partially,” Lillia said, waggling a hand in the air. “It’s more of a long-term thing. I basically need people’s average stay quality to be high, and I get better rewards for longer stays. It’s not something I can do at once, but it’s more like a mental rating that everyone has of the tavern. It moves slowly and steadily, not suddenly.”

“Interesting. That’s really different from my class,” Arwin said. “Living Forge almost forces me to move quickly. I wonder why the Mesh didn’t give you a faster way to advance.”

“Maybe because it would be too difficult for an inn to expand at the rate that you do,” Lillia said after a few seconds of thought. “The stronger we get, the more power we need to sustain ourselves. You can always make more powerful items to eat, but I can’t force people into my inn.”

“That’s a fair point,” Arwin said. “I can see how it would be frustrating, though. Once the Iron Hounds and the Wyrms have been properly dealt with, then maybe we can take some time to really focus on rebuilding our buildings.”

“I think I’d like that, and gods know we need it,” Lillia muttered. “When I say I’d kill for some time to just live happily, I’m not exaggerating.”

“That’s good.” Arwin held a hand toward the hearth and the [Soul Flame] leapt from it, swirling into his palm and sinking into his body. “Because we might be just about to do that. Do you have any last modification requests for your armor, or do you need a weapon? Because, if not, I don’t want to wait any longer.”

“I don’t really need a weapon, I’m more of a caster now than I am a swordswoman. Are you sure you don’t need to rest first?” Lillia asked. “It’s been days since you last properly slept.”

Arwin considered her question for a moment. He was pretty sure that he should have felt tired, but his body and his mind were in disagreement. There was no way he was going to be getting even the slightest amount of rest while Tix was still walking around.

“I don’t think that’s an option. Don’t worry – I’m not too tired to fight. If anything, I think I’m going to get worse the longer I push this off. It’s a festering wound, and the only way to deal with it is to cut it out.”

“In that case, let’s go tell the others.” Lillia said. “Do you have a plan of some sort? Or were you planning on barging in and swinging your hammer until everyone responsible was dead?”

“A mixture of the two. We don’t need to kill the entire guild – in fact, I’d much rather avoid that. Chances are, most of them are innocent,” Arwin admitted as he followed her out into the street and back over to the tavern.

“So you plan to question Tix, then?” Lillia guessed, ducking through the doorway into the darkness of her tavern. All the others were sitting at the counter, and they turned as Arwin and Lillia entered.

“Yeah,” Arwin replied. “Hopefully Rodrick’s information is still up to date.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“It is. I’ve been keeping tabs on her. Discreetly, of course,” Rodrick said, giving Arwin a nod of greeting. His gaze caught on the armor covering Lillia’s form and his eyebrows crept upwards. “Well, damn. That’s a pretty set of gear. You might want to cover it if you don’t want the entire city tracking you down.”

“I’ll have a cloak,” Lillia said, looking down at the gear. “I just didn’t want to cover it yet. It almost feels like a shame to have to hide something so beautiful.”

“It’ll be even more beautiful when it gets put to work doing what it was made for,” Reya said grimly.. “Are you going to kill those bastards now?”

“The ones that deserve it, yes,” Arwin said.

“You don’t need rest?” Reya asked. “It’s been over a week since you started working.”

Arwin stared at Reya in disbelief. He knew a few days had passed, but a whole week was far beyond his estimations. “You’re kidding. That long?”

“That long,” Reya confirmed. “It might be dangerous to fight while you’re exhausted.”

“It’s fine. I’m really not. I should be, but I’m not. I don’t think my body is going to let me rest until this shit is dealt with.”

“You know what? I can’t blame you,” Reya said. “Just… don’t die.”

“Maybe you can show Arwin some of what you made?” Lillia offered.

“Oh, yeah. Hold on.” Reya slipped off her chair and headed into the kitchen.

“Made?” Arwin asked, but Reya had already returned with a small mug in her hands. It was difficult to make much out in the dim light, but it looked like it was full of a ruddy amber liquid. “What is this?”

“Apple juice. Lillia got mad that I was pacing around the tavern and disturbing the vibes, so she made me help her cook,” Reya said. “It wasn’t bad.”

Arwin took a sip from the mug, then downed the rest of it. “Thank you. That’s pretty good. Maybe you could join Lillia as a cook at some point.”

Reya snorted. “I’d really rather not. It was fun spending time with her, but I don’t think cooking is my calling.”

“Fair enough,” Arwin said. He set the mug on the counter, then looked to Rodrick. “You said you were keeping tabs on Tix?”

“Vague ones. I didn’t want to give anything away, and I’m not exactly a master spy,” Rodrick said with a half-shrug. “I do know a bit about her location, though. I drew up some information since I figured you and Lillia would probably be doing this as a duo mission.”

“That may be for the best. If things go poorly, I don’t want anyone else getting caught up in it,” Arwin said. He didn’t miss the dissatisfaction on Reya’s face and added, “this is the last time, though. In the future, so long as we’re in the same guild, we’re doing it together. I just need to make sure we’re all ready for it.”

“Sometimes I wonder what it is that a wanderer did to get himself ready for this,” Anna said, her voice soft. “But I think I’m willing to wait for the answer.”

“And you’ll get it, if you really want to know – and assuming I survive this. If I don’t, you can ask Reya. I’ve already told her most of it,” Arwin said with a sigh. “Just make sure you want to know. Some stones are better off left unturned.”

“We’ll deal with it when the time comes,” Anna said. “For now, I just want to see the Iron Hounds pay.”

“As do I,” Arwin said. “Rodrick, where can we find Tix right now?”

Rodrick pulled a folded-up square of parchment out of his pocket and waved for them to follow him. “Outside. It’s too hard to see detail in here.”

Arwin and Lillia tailed after Rodrick and he opened up the piece of paper, revealing a roughly drawn map of what Arwin assumed to be the city. Several buildings were circled and had numbers beside them. Beneath the map, each number had nearly a paragraph of description.

“This is everything I found out about Tix,” Rodrick said, handing the map to Lillia. “From what I found in the last week or so, she tends to frequent a few different places. The restaurant – Brigsby’s Kitchen – is her favorite. She goes almost every other day. That’s where she’ll be right about now, but that area is pretty crowded.”

Rodrick traced a street beside the restaurant with his finger, ending at a large building that he’d circled. “This is the path she takes back to the Iron Hounds guild house, which is this building over here. She usually takes about three hours at the restaurant, and she should have headed over to it about an hour and a half ago.”

He moved his finger over to one of the buildings along the street that he’d labeled with a small star and tapped on it. “If you wait in the alleyways, you might be able to run out and tackle her into the building. This particular part of the street is dark, and it’s already on the later side. Lillia’s got that shadow magic of hers – that might be enough to snag her before anyone notices. But, just in case you wanted to try something else, I’ve got some other plans lined out over here.”

Arwin stared at Rodrick. He claimed to just know a bit about her location, but it sounded more like he’d stalked her every move for the past week and written every single thing he’d learned down.

Not a master spy my ass.

“This is… extensive,” Lillia said. “How’d you manage to get this much information on Tix?”

“Oh, it was pretty easy. The Iron Hounds are recruiting right now, so I went to the guild building and pretended to apply. It didn’t take me long to figure out they like going to Brigsby’s, so I went there and hung around until Tix showed up. It was pretty easy to time how long she spent there, and I talked to the waiter, who told me that Tix was a regular. Most of what I did was just talking to people and sitting around, really.”

“Right,” Arwin said slowly. He looked back down to the map. “You said we’ve got an hour and a half before she leaves?”

“Roughly. It’s not like I can read her mind. I’d play it safe and make sure you’ve got at least half an hour of leeway in either direction.”

“So – what, the plan is to shove her into the room and then make her tell us who she worked with?” Lillia asked.

“Pretty much. Maybe you guard the door to make sure nobody comes in?” Arwin asked. “How populated is this street, Rodrick?”

“Not particularly, but there are a few other buildings. If you make too much noise, someone might overhear you. Either way, you’ll have to be pretty fast.”

“I can do that,” Arwin said. “Especially if Lillia makes sure we don’t get interrupted. Tix looked like a warrior, but I didn’t get the feeling she was so strong that I couldn’t handle her.”

“Is the street dark?” Lillia asked.

“At the time you’ll be there? Yeah. There are lanterns lining it, though.”

“I can put those out and shroud the entrance of the house so people instinctively avoid it,” Lillia said. “Then I’ll wait outside and make sure nobody comes in. If it sounds like you’re having trouble, I’ll come in and back you up.”

“That works,” Arwin said, folding the map up. “Thank you, Rodrick. You put in a lot of work.”

“It really wasn’t that hard. But… one more thing.”

“Yeah?”

“The guild leader, Jessen.” Rodrick’s eyebrows knit together. “You need to be careful with him. He’s deranged.”

“How so?” Lillia asked. “Just evil to the core or something?”

“I don’t know if those are the words I’d use,” Rodrick replied with a pensive frown. “It wasn’t hard to find info on him. He’s pretty well known around the area for being immensely arrogant and loving games more than anything else. Jessen likes playing with his prey. He’s killed a lot of people, but almost exclusively ones that agreed to play along with him. He doesn’t judge the others as worth his time. He’s apparently traded the lives of his own men just to win bets. So, if you run into him, I don’t think he should directly attack you – but be incredibly careful. He might force you to agree to a really unfavorable deal that ends the same as a knife through your guts.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you,” Arwin said. “You’ve done a lot.”

Rodrick pressed his lips thin and shook his head. “If anything, it feels like it wasn’t enough.”

“It will be,” Arwin said as he put the map into his pocket, his features grim. “Let’s go have a talk with Tix.”