Downtown Druid

Dantes slipped past the watchers on the Vixen easily as a rat, and climbed up to the windowsill of his room where the window had been left cracked to allow Jacopo an easy entrance and exit as he wanted. Once inside Dantes did a quick search of the room as a rat before shifting back into his usual self. He quietly walked the room, collecting his things into his pack and lifting the floorboards to find the goods he’d hidden and packed them as well. Once he was done he gently opened his door and slowly pushed it open, letting Jacopo do a quick survey of the hallway before he himself stepped out.

He creeped to Vera’s door quietly, watching for the floorboards he already knew from experience had a tendency to creak. The mage at the bottom floor was a full-blooded elf, so he needed to move as quietly as possible, even though he felt a sense of urgency that pressured him to move quickly. He tested Vera’s door and found it locked. He began to reach for his makeshift lock picks from the prison that he’d had yet to replace, but hesitated. He reached his left hand toward the doorknob and willed the branch that surrounded his arm to grow toward it. He sent out two small protrusions and focused on the sensation the branch felt so that he could get a feel for the tumblers. After only a moment, he had it unlocked and gently pushed the door open. He withdrew the branch back to his arm as he walked inside.

Waiting for him was Vera, holding a delicate pistol in her hand and aiming it at his chest. His eyes widened in surprise.

“Dantes!” she whispered, quickly removing her hand from the pistol’s trigger. “I thought you were one of those thugs.”

Dantes slowly and gently closed the door before turning to her. “You scared me for a second Auntie,” he said quietly.

“Sorry. I’ve been up all night listening in case one of them tried to force themselves on the girls.”

Dantes nodded. That was always a concern. “They’re here looking for me?” he asked.

Vera nodded. “They are. Mondego sent them after the news about the second breakout. They told us that Mondego sent them to burn the place down, but Mercedes begged him to stay their hand. They were almost too keen to emphasize that point. Where were you?”

“Paying a visit to Gaspard.”

Vera nodded. “That’s one I certainly won’t argue against. It was good that you were gone. Much easier to control the situation.”

“What was your strategy?”

“I told them that you had been here then I sold you out in return for them leaving my girls alone.”

“You’re heartless Auntie.”

She shrugged. “I need to be. Besides, I figured that you would be able to tell if something was wrong.”

“I already got my things, and I have a way out, but I feel hesitant to leave while you’ve got three killers here putting you and the girls at risk. Want me to take care of them? You all go into hiding.”

“Mondego would burn this place down if you did that, and a lot of these girls have no place to go. No, it’s better for you to slip out.” She moved to her desk, and quickly scribbled something onto a piece of paper. She held it out to Dantes. “Take this note, and go to the Guild district. There’s an underground fight there near the ‘Hells Forgotten’, mercenary headquarters. Give this to a man named Vampa. He’s tall and broad, an elf with the tips of both of his ears clipped.”

“What’ll he do for you?”

“He’s the Vixen’s protector. Give him the note and he’ll watch the building to make sure that Mondego’s goons don’t do anything to harm us.”

“Will he need payment?”

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“No. He does it out of honor.”

Dantes tucked the note into his pocket, noting the hint of pride in Vera’s voice when she said the word ‘honor’. He had wondered how the Vixen protected itself, but he hadn’t expected it to be a single man, much less one that Vera would trust so thoroughly. Still, if he could make contact with him that would allow him to turn his attention to Mondego and attack the root of the problem.

“I'll go to him right away. I don’t like leaving you all like this.” He gritted his teeth a bit, remembering the conversation he’d had with Zilly nearly a month prior. He could’ve moved into one of his gardens sooner, and maybe mitigated the problem. Or avoided going to Vera at all. He just wanted a small taste of his old life. A little bit of familiarity and friendship with a woman that helped raised him. Not to mention the opportunity to satisfy some more bodily desires.

“It's not a crime to ask for someone to help you, Dantes. You’re not so important that everything bad that happens is entirely your own fault… The moment you showed up on my door I knew what I was doing by letting you stay here. I knew you were the one that lead the breakout, and that you’d gained some kind of advantage you didn’t have before. It was as much my decision to let you stay here as it was yours to come here.”

Dantes grimaced, ashamed that he had been read so easily. He opened his mouth to say something, but changed the topic as he began to speak.

“I’ll find Vampa Auntie. Be careful in the meantime.”

She nodded, then surprised him by wrapping him in a hug. “Be careful…at least as much as you can be.”

He returned the hug. “I will Auntie. Take care of the girls.”

She nodded, and Dantes slipped out the door. He’d been watching it with Jacopo so he knew it was clear. He went back to his room, shifted into a rat and climbed out the window and onto the street. He’d been careful to leave no trace of his visit, and from what he could tell the people watching the Vixen they had no clue about it either.

The sun was officially out, bathing the wet streets in light and creating soft reflective pools of standing water. It was pretty to look at, unless one paid attention to how filthy the water was. He skittered down a few alleys with Jacopo, leaving a couple rats and roaches to keep an eye on the Vixen. Whether or not Vampa could help, he still needed to keep watch himself. Once he was far enough away he switched back to being himself, and helped Jacopo into his pocket. The streets were starting to fill with people again, and while they looked wary and concerned, and the guard presence was heavier, it was still busy enough that no one would be looking his way. He was reasonably clean, had no obvious collar, and had a lot of experience keeping his head down.

He made it to the Guild District just before early afternoon. There the guard presence declined significantly, as the mercs and adventurers were too unruly to handle on their own, and the tradesmen guilds were protected and respected by those groups as so much of their equipment and resources were purchased from them. He’d heard more than a few stories of a rookie adventurer taking advantage of a cooper’s daughter or some such only to be found dead the next day. He did see a few posters put up by the guard indicating that any adventurer or merc that captured a prisoner would be compensated for their efforts.

Dantes didn’t have a lot of experience in the Guild District. Mondego’s father had worked there as a relatively accomplished carpenter, but he never visited, and Dantes didn’t have any interest in apprenticeships or grueling work. Gaspard had once pitched stealing from a few of the jewelry craftsmen at the source for raw gold and gems, but both Dantes and Danglars knew that they were much more valuable and easy to sell once the crafting was done. Besides which it was much easier to deal with the heat from the guard from robbing a jewelry store than it was to deal with whatever fallout a Guild member may be able to muster against them.

Dantes took things slow as he walked through, taking things in. He noticed that a number of storefronts were closed, likely driven out of business by the factories closer to the docks, but there were still a number of specialists about. He passed coopers, enchanters, jewelers, carpenters, blacksmiths, woodsingers, and even a number of feybinders. As he reached the center of district, the average person went from wearing smocks and heavy aprons and holding tools, to wearing chainmail, and leather, with swords and bows at their backs, and daggers strapped to their legs.

As he walked, he started to be swept up in a current of people that was slowly pushing in the direction of a nearby arena, the one maintained by the adventurer’s guild. Curious, and heading in that direction anyway, he allowed himself to be swept up into the thick crowd. As he moved, he slipped his fingers into nearby pockets and jackets, slipping anything coin shaped and cold into his many pockets without ever actually looking down. There was no reason to waste being surrounded by a distracted crowd with full pockets.

He eventually found himself in the stands of the arena himself, needing to peer between a pair of tall elf men to see the sand-bottomed pit below. There were five men in the pit, and for a moment he thought it was a free for all, until he caught a better glimpse and realized that four of the men were all facing one in the corner.

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