They had originally started the exploration of the twelfth floor in farmland, and apart from a few unsuspecting farmers, they did not encounter anyone for the first two days of their journey. It was a relaxing stint, and a nice sojourn from the solid stone walls that made up their tower and the mountain citadel that they had been living in.
Thanks to Winoa’s meeting with the bard they had some idea of what to expect when travelling towards the gateway up the tower, but without the bard himself there to guide them properly they were very much adrift with only rumour to guide them. One thing that was useful was that Winoa had gained a rough map from the man, and while the directions were not the most precise it had the names of the major areas of all the dutchies. Knowing the names of the dutchies did not seem that important, but it allowed them to handwave away the questions of most people. It sped the journey up enormously when talking to the farmers they passed by.
On the third day they reached a small town. It was the only one for miles around, but it was the first sign of the inner territories within Agramah, the duchy they were currently walking through. Agramah was well known for being a bastion of trade, and the duke was known for being averse to war. This did not mean the duke was weak. Many people had entered trade with the man assuming as such and were run rough-shod because of it. He was shrewd, and bound the regions next door to him from attacking through debt and making Agramah simply too useful to interrupt. The first step of this was the massive fields of farmland that stretched through the outer territories. Apart from garrisons of the duke’s men, that was all there was.
As Laurence and his friends entered the town that morning they were greeted with the smell of burning tar lamps and wood fire. The place was rustic to them, extremely so, and did not even have proper tiled cobble up the streets, just a thin strip of it that travelled through the main road. Every which way they looked there were people going about their daily business, some clearing away junk, some setting up stalls, and some simply travelling from one place to another. It was lively, even though the day had just begun for a lot of these people.
The group were quickly pointed in the direction of an inn that they would be able to get some hot food at, and as such they were able to get the first meal in weeks that was not cooked by one of them. The group entered the inn and sat down at the first table they saw that would fit them all. As they looked around the room Laurence felt a sense of unease from a few of the customers, but he thought nothing of it. He stood up and walked over to the innkeeper, who was sorting out some mugs, putting them in order of size. He turned around and gave a wan smile at Laurence, before nodding his head and putting the glass down.
“Hello young sir,” the man said, waving his hand lightly towards a man sat near the door. “How can I help you?”
“Are there some kitchens in this place?” Laurence said. He glanced around and could only see three exits to the room. The first was the entrance, the second was a door to the back, and the third was a set of stairs that lead upwards.
“Of course,” the innkeep replied. “We have three kinds of mutton on spit, and a lamb bone broth currently cooking in the pot. I see you’re with a group of friends? Well for all six of you, it will be three bronze shards per portion, the standard rate. Do you want any drinks with that? That’s another six shards flat. We have the best alkwine in the town”.
Laurence reached into his shirt and accessed the pocket dimension in his pointer ring, pulling out a small pouch that contained his reward shards from climbing. It was a heavier bag than it looked, but with the hundreds of platinum shards he had on himself, there was no trouble paying for the meal. He dropped thirty copper shards on the counter and smiled. “Keep the rest, I don’t need it”.
In return the innkeeper gave him that same wan smile before scooping up the shards and dumping them into a lockbox behind him. “I’ll send the food over to your table. It should be ready in about ten minutes. Enjoy yourself, the alkwine will be over shortly”.
Turning round, the man walked into the door behind him and Laurence traipsed back to his table. Not too soon after a middle aged woman walked over to their table and handed them small cups and a bottle two fists tall. She smiled and nodded, but as she put the cups on the table her hands shook slightly. She became a little wild eyed before calming down, and quickly made her way behind the bar, busying herself with idle work like wiping the bar down and cleaning cups and mugs. The slight action that she had done was not much, but it set Laurence on edge. Something was wrong in this room, they were all scared by him, or perhaps his group, and the one place no one was looking was a large board in the back of the room. It was littered with pieces of paper, pictures and writing. At the top there was a sign that simply said ‘requests’. He poured himself a cup of the alkwine and moved over to the request board, looking through the pieces of paper when his face dropped.
Immediately he pulled the paper off the wall and strode back to his friends, putting the paper on the table in front of them. “We have trouble guys,” he said, before glancing around and frowning. The infirm and weak had slowly filtered out of the inn and now there were only the strongest people left inside the building. They had long since been surrounded and they had no idea why.
“What is it?” said Jim, sliding the paper towards himself as he poured out a glass of wine.
“You guys might not want to drink anything. I think we have a real problem here”.
On the sheet of paper was a picture of the six of them, artistically rendered and one they recognised well. It was a flattering rendition of them that had been up in various places in Spirit for the last year before they left the city. They had become too high profile and had become the true faces of theft in the Executioner’s Pen, so their look had been passed around often. Now someone was offering a hefty sum, eight platinum shards, for their arrest, alive, and a gold shard simply for information on their whereabouts. They were being hunted.
Cleo frowned. “Is it my family?” she said, her teeth gritting slightly as she used the word family.
“Likely not,” said Jim. “They are looking for all of us by the poster, and I am concerned what for. We pissed off a lot of people in Spirit, but none of them were too powerful”.
“Leave?” Yun said to Laurence. Laurence smirked, he was abrupt in front of others as usual.
“We could do it, I mean Yun is strong enough to stop almost anything here,” Louisa said, giving her lover a besotted smile. “And it’s not like we can’t go back to Yun’s realm if things get too hairy”.
Winoa smirked. “Wasn’t this what we were looking for? Adventure? I thought you guys were tired of being driven along in comfort by me”.
“I agree with Winoa,” Cleo said. “We came for fun, to break up the boredom. Who’s to say that escaping this manhunt isn’t fun?” She sat back and weaved her fingers together before clicking them. “Let’s race out of here. Who do you think will get in the most trouble on the way?”
“You’re on,” said Jim. “I bet Law. He has a nose for it. I wager two rubies I found back in Spirit. Nothing magical about them, but they are pretty”.
“I wager that pendant with the pretty lady on it, the one made of gold and silver, on you Jim,” Cleo replied. “I think you’re going to have the hardest time”.
“I wager one of my new trinkets, a ring that allows you to swap locations with an object or person of your choice, on Louisa,” Laurence said, not missing the chance to get in on some bets.
“Rude,” Louisa replied. “My summer wine on Winoa being caught out”.
“You’re calling Law rude and you bet on me? I guess I take Cleo... And as for offers... I will make a cake of any kind for anyone who wins when we go back in the tower, okay?”
They all nodded when they heard a chair scrape against the floor. As they looked up, they saw the people in the building had all stood up and were staring at them, weapons drawn. As they stared, Laurence and his friends smirked before standing up to join them.
“North gate?” Laurence said.
“Agreed,” his friends said, before running at the enemy.
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