Cassius woke up again, stiff as a board. He opened his eyes and saw a crudely painted wooden ceiling lit up by evening twilight. He felt the softness of a stuffed mattress underneath his back and a soft pillow where his head rested.

  He turned his head to look around. To his left he could see a row of similar beds and cabinets following the thick clay wall. He saw the door at the far end of the room and beside it a shelving unit with an assortment of vials with liquids of all colours, clean white rags and a pewter bowl.

  He tried sitting up to have a better look, as he tried he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen and ribs. He yelped out but that hurt as well. He noticed that he couldn’t hear his yelp clearly and raised his hand to his ears and felt a thick dressing of rough cloth enveloping the top of his head. Noticing this he lifted his cover to see that he had been bandaged all over his torso, one of his legs seems to have been splinted too. When he lowered the sheets in disbelief he was greeted by a giant pale grey skinned man dressed in bright blue clothes grinning widely at him, tusks pointing out of his lower jaw and his hair braided in thick dreads. He shot back shrieking, his sides screaming in pain as much as he did.

  The giant man raised his hands gesturing to him to calm down. “Whoa there, didn’t mean to scare ya. I was just going to check in on you to see if you had woken up yet. We were a bit worried about you after the fight in the stink caves.” He gestured with his thumb towards the door. “Your friend woke up a few days ago, not long after we got her to the guild. She has a remarkable constitution– Anyways she has been pacing in and out of the infirmary like a mad woman, I reckon she’s a bit worried about you. ” He smirked and wiggled his eyebrows at Cassius. “The nurses and caretakers had to bar her from the sickrooms of the guild. But you’re up now, I’ll go get the nurse for you, bud.” He turned and walked towards the door.

  Cassius could see the giant's legs were clad in basic leather armour with stiff, embossed faulds on the sides with an elaborate emblem.

  Cassius raised his hand painfully and croaked. “What’s your name?”

  The giant turned around, slightly shocked that Cassius could talk at all. “I am ingep An-Watu.” He smiled and opened the door and disappeared from the room only to be replaced with a significantly smaller human man dressed in pristine white robes carrying a pewter tray with what seemed like a small vial of a thick green glittering liquid and a flagon of water.

  “Good evening, Novitiate Perconta. I am Yulius, a nurse here at the Adventuring Guild. Since You have awoken I have brought you a remedy to help align your broken bones and repair your ears.” He put the tray down on an end table placed next to the bed and made a slight bow before leaving.

  Cassius reached for the tray slowly and grabbed the potion. He popped the cork off the vial and smelled the potion. The foul stench penetrated his senses and he recoiled in disgust from the vial, reluctantly he took the vial and downed the thick liquid. The taste’s worse than the smell. He thought as he was coughing and gagging, trying his hardest to keep it down. He could already feel things setting into place, or at least the bruises disappearing and his hearing returning to normal. His rib still hurts, but it's a pain he could live with. Won't be taking any contracts soon. What am I going to do, I can’t afford not to work. He sat up and looked at the ceiling and sighed. “Lets hope I can turn in the contract still, at least it’ll get me by for a few days.”

  He looked down at the floor, searching for his boots that were tucked in under the bed along with a box with his name on it. He put his boots on and pulled the box out and opened the lid, his clothes was neatly folded in the box and a small black pebble on top of a note. He didn’t recognise the pebble and took out the note.

  “Hey there new guy! Me and Oph reckoned you would’ve liked this at least. It's the old guys eye, we have no real use for it but reckon it could help you at least argue for a higher pay-out with the receptionists.”

  The note was signed in a foreign language that Cassius couldn’t read. He assumed it was An-Watu.

  Cassius threw his clothes on and pocketed the pebble and note.

  As he stepped out into the quiet guild hall he saw Zoe, sleeping on one of the benches in the lounge area, Cassius considered sneaking out before she woke up but quickly decided against that. He walked up to her and sat down next to her. He put his hand on her shoulder and shook her gently.

  “I don’t think the receptionists condone sleeping in the guild hall.” He joked. She opened her eyes slowly, blinking a few times before realising he had woken her. She gave him a tired smile and closed her eyes again and put her head on his shoulder.

  “I’m glad you’re alright.” She whispered, about to fall back asleep.

  “Yeah, me too.”

  He sat there for a moment before jostling her awake again.

  “Come on, we can’t sleep here all night, let's get something to eat, I am absolutely starving.”

  “Huh? What– Now? But it's so nice with… sleep…” She slowly drifted back to sleep.

  “Come on, up up, if you don’t I’ll leave you here with the grumpy receptionists.”

  She sat up sluggishly and grumbled something about liking him better earlier as she started to stretch her back before finally getting up off the hard wooden bench.

  They stepped outside the guild, he took a deep breath of the fresh cold night air and flinched when his rib didn’t agree with his actions. She looked at him, noticing him flinching. “Is there anything we can do about that rib?”

  “Nah, don’t think so, nothing I can afford anyhow. What's the pay-out for the contract?”

  “Not much–”

  “That sucks.” She sighed.

  He showed her the note and pebble. “You know what this is?”

  “Not sure, An-Watu said you’d know.” She said looking closely at the pebble then reading the note quickly.

  “Ah right, yeah I have a hunch.” He said putting his hand in his pocket, feeling the note with the pebble inside it. “Hopefully it’ll work out.”

  “Yeah– Anyways where do you wanna go?”

  He looked at her. “Have you heard of Fabian's Respite?”

  He took a great swig of ale, coughing up most of it when he felt the pains from his injuries protesting.

  The inn was quite small compared to the standard in Red spire, it barely hosted five tables and the bar counter. Yet it was filled with people, mostly labourers and sea men from the port district, the inn smelled of sweat, stale ale and wood rot, though it looked quite pristine if not a little rustic

  “Quaint place you found yourself.” Zoe said, looking around at the inn and the food that was just delivered, she didn’t find it to look appetising but the smell of the food made her mouth water. She had ordered some sort of fish broth, she grabbed the bowl and blew on the broth before she took a small sip. She scrunched her nose up in contempt towards the broth. It tasted like seawater and stale bread. “Not something I would choose but beggars can’t be choosers. You reckon they got something more appetising here?” She lowered her voice to Cassius,

  “Not sure, I am actually not sure if anyone comes here for the food. I don’t even think the owner hired a cook.” He chuckled softly.

  “So why do you come here?” She raised an eyebrow. “For the ale and the company? You don’t seem like the type to go here… No offence.”

  “Its what I can afford, they have the cheapest rooms here. I don’t have a lot of coin left after I got all my gear before going on to the adventurers guild. I was hoping we would get a better reward from the contract but I supposed I will have to make due for now, until we can get that ‘eye’ looked at and appraised.”

  “I suppose that makes sense… Well then I believe I will stay here too. It's not like I got another place.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well since I left the temple after they deemed me old enough to go on pilgrimage. I am not allowed to return until I can communicate with our deity. Only then with their blessing would I be allowed into their temples again.”

  “That’s a bit strict, never heard of any temples in the city to employ the use of pilgrimages of confirmation. Which deity did your temple praise, if I may ask?”

  She avoided his gaze looking into her tankard. “Gys, the deity of light.” She mumbled under her breath, Zoe and Cassius had sat down by a table near the back of the inn.

  “I suppose I should thank you for looking after me when I was out… So thank you.” Cassius said, still hacking a little.

  “What? Oh yeah, that’s what teammates are for… or party mates?” She stopped for a moment. “Teammates! – Anyways, how much do you reckon that eye stone thing might be worth? Should we get an enchanter to have a look at it or should we just sell it as is?”

  Cassius considered the options for a second. “I think it might be best to have a cheap enchanter to have a look at, you never know what something like this could be worth. I mean I reckon Burick used it for something, maybe it's just enchanted with a simple dark sight spell, but unless we check we’ll never know it’s true worth.”

  Zoe leaned forwards in her chair.

  “That being said, I don’t think we should put too much money on this, unless we know it’s worth it.” Cassius continued. “Hopefully we can get a few gold for it.”

  “You think so? Gold?” Zoe said with a hint of awe.

  “Yeah, definitely. Magical items, even the lowest quality will at least fetch a few gold pieces.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Cassius looked down into his mug of ale lost in thought. Zoe looked at Cassius from across the table and noticed behind him a familiar figure. The Giant stood at the bar next to the small elf talking to the keeper. She grew a wry grin on her mouth as she leaned across the table towards Cassius. "You know I think I know where we might get some explanations." She whispered and wiggled her eyebrows at Cassius and darted her eyes between him and the pair at the bar.

  "What?" Cassius raised an eyebrow in confusion and turned in his seat. He raised his other brow. "An-Watu? What's he doing he---" He quickly turned around, his face flushed with anxiety as he briefly made eye contact with the small elf.

  Zoe Saw the elf nudge An-Watu lightly and point over to their table as she said something Zoe couldn't make out over the noise of the tavern. An-Watu looked up and his eyebrows raised and a toothy smile swept across his face, he hurriedly took their drinks and strolled over to the table. "Got room for more?" He asked as he sat the drinks down on the table and walked over to one of the unoccupied chairs. "What's with the face?" He chuckled to Cassius, red as a beet.

  Cassius couldn't muster a response before Zoe already blurted out. "He's thinking about the value of the pebble you gave us from the sewers. He seems to be really thinking about it right now actually. he kinda looks like he's going to pop a vein." Cassius glared at her grinding his teeth together and his face flushed with contained rage.

  "Oh, that thing, it's not worth much in its current state, if I were you I would hold on to it though. It might be of some use some day." An-Watu said and smiled before taking a big swig from his tankard. "And before you ask, no we don't know what it contains and what it can do, but I do reckon it has to do with one or more of the rat masters abilities." he answered before Cassius could ask the question.

  "Right, do you happen to know someone who might be able to identify it?" Cassius asked his second question.

  An-Watu contemplated the question for a moment and replied. "Nope, I don't think--" He was promptly kicked by the small elf as she brought forth a small book, its size wasn't bigger than Cassius hand, although the engravings on it and random loose pages and notes reminded him of a wizards grimoire. "Hm, on second thought we might actually know someone who could at least take a look at the pebble as you call it. Only problem is that we don't know where he is. Last I heard he was studying some old artefact in Sundhall up north. Oph could you bring up the map?" He said after he looked in one of his pouches and brought up a few painted pebbles and Oph did as he said and produced a massive and intricately detailed map of of the continent of Gahladel with all the nations and cities. Cassius even noted that the was a lot of random symbols and dots everywhere.

  "This is where we last head he was." Oph said in a cold monotone way. "It around 30 leagues north of Red Spire. Assuming the weather holds we could reach it within 5-6 days on horseback." she continued and took two pebbles and placed them on a star symbol named in small cursive 'Sundhall'. She pointed to another symbol on the waxed paper map, now a triangle close to the coast. "I would recommend that we travel along the coast here." she continued and drew her finger along a dashed line on the map towards and through other small triangles finally ending on a square with similar cursive written 'Lullhavn'. "From there we travel one day inland to Sundhall."

  Cassius and Zoe studied the map, Cassius more deliberately than Zoe. Zoe took a quick look at the map and got distracted by the small book Oph had brought up earlier.

  "Uh-hu, so... What's the book for then?" she pointed at the book and asked, more intrigued by it than the map, she found it difficult to draw her attention from it.

  Oph pulled it back and swiftly put it back in her hip pouch. "It's nothing you should know." she said with the same cold tone. "Now, we should prepare for our journey. Procure anything you need and meet us at the north gates stables at mid-morning..." She said giving the two novitiates a stern look. "Don't be late!" she finished with the first change of tone in the entire conversation.

  An-Watu gave her a quick glance and said. "I think I will stay here a little while longer, I'll see you in the room if you're not staying."

  She glared at him and gave a curt nod and quickly collected the small pebbles and handed them back to An-Watu, then rolled up the map neatly and put it in another pouch covered by her cloak.

  The novitiates stayed up with An-Watu and chatted until the tavern started to empty and they decided to turn in.

  When the first light of the morning shone into Cassius' and Zoe's room they set off to the market square, leaving the inn they notice no sign of An-Watu or Oph. They stay outside the inn for a short while before losing their patience and walk towards the large market square outside the Spire walls.

  When they arrive Cassius noticed Zoe stop and stare at the size of the Spire placed right in the middle of the city.

  "You look like you've never been up close to the Spire before." Cassius remarked.

  Zoe took a moment to stare in awe, her mouth agape before responding. "What? Oh right, nah. Never really came up close to it I suppose. The temple is almost a league outside of town. I'm only seen it from afar, once I arrived in the city I sort of went straight to the guild." she looked back down the street they came from, one of the large parade streets leading to the eastern gates. "Anyways, what are we getting? Did you make a list?" She abruptly tried to change the subject.

  "Uh, right yeah--- No, I didn't. reckon it cant be that hard to prepare for travelling right?" he said with a coy grin and scratched his head. "What, its like only a weeks worth of rations and water and a sleeping bag... Right?"

  They entered the market square, Zoe glaring at Cassius as he tried to avoid her judging glare, nonchalantly looking at the stalls and through the windows of shops. They passed a blacksmith with a wide array of weapons displayed in the shopfront. Right she needs a weapon he remembered she didn't have a weapon or anything of the sort when they entered the dungeon. He stopped and turned around and waked to the big iron banded door.

  "Hey, where are you going?" Zoe asked as she had to quickly turn after him realizing he wasn't beside her.

  "You didn't have a weapon right? Well we might as well 'gear' you up while we're here." he said without looking at her and opened the door. He was struck with a wall of heat from the forge, the smell of smoke , hot steel, sweat and oils. He could hear the clanging of a hammer hitting metal rhythmically and a bellow blowing causing the forge fire to roar.

  "Welcome!" A large round man bellowed behind a counter. Cassius noticed the mans arms were as large as his chest. "If you need any assistance just call on me." the man continued. Cassius gave a polite wave and began browsing the blades. Zoe in the meantime decided to look at the impeccably made plate armour in one of the corners. Intricate engraving of runes and strange shapes and symbols. She reached a hand out to touch the metal. "Oi, no touching!" The man yelled at her with an authoritative tone, she jerked her hand back and kept looking at random pieces of armour.

  Cassius found an assortment of short swords and falchions. he picked one up, a decent and unimpressive sword and swung it a few times clumsily almost striking an armour stand and got a dirty look from the owner. He slowly returned the sword to its display rack and walked up to Zoe who still inspected the enchanted armours. "What do you think you might like?" He asked her.

  "I'm not sure, I never really trained with weapons at the temple. What do you think?" She said shrugging as she turned around to look at Cassius.

  "Well we could try something easy, how about a mace? It's something easy to use, like a metal club. good against armour and tough targets."

  She thought for a moment and shook her head. "I'm not sure I could carry it without falling over." she chuckled. Cassius sighed and went over to some neatly displayed blades, he picked one up, a thin curved sword which looked sharp in his opinion.

  "How about this then? It's light, agile and sharp. You might need a bit of practice with it but that nothing we couldn't do on the road, right?"

  She took a quick glance at the blade and equally dismissed it. Cassius put the blade carefully back on the shelf.

  "How about this." She picked up a finely polished 7 foot long metal rod with effort. despite its size it was heavy, but she was drawn to it. As if the weapon was made for her. "I think I want to get this."

  "Are you sure? It seems heavier than the mace I showed you." He remarked looking over the metal rod.

  She walked over to the counter where the burly man stood, quizzically looking down at the metal rod. "Miss? That's not a weapon for sale." He looked down at the rod. "But if you really want it I suppose I could sell you it at a discount, considering its not a finished weapon." He said sighing. "I'm not even sure how it got there to begin with, might have to talk to the apprentices... Unless I put it there?" He muttered to himself scratching his scruffy, dishevelled beard.

  "What? Really? How much do I need to pay?" She looked at the smith jumping up and down with excitement.

  The smith stroked his beard, contemplating. "I would say fifteen halfs and seven pops. Even though its not technically a weapon its the cheapest anyone would sell you a rod of metal for... I suppose, I never hear of anyone selling a metal rod before, atleast not in the weapon forges." he heartily chuckled, his wide grin somewhat comforting and goofy.

  She glanced at him, confused about what he just said. "Fifteen whats and whats?"

  Cassius joined the conversation. "Fifteen silver and seven copper." He whispered to her.

  "Oh! Yeah, sure. Let me just have a look in my purseroo here." She exclaimed and took out an old worn coin purse that didn't seem to hold more than a few coins. "Fifteen... and coppers... Oh, oh no." She looked through the purse pulling out a few coins. Three silver and ten coppers to be exact.

  "I see, it would seem you don't have enough to buy this... Uh... Item. Perhaps we could find you something more suitable for your budg--" the smith was quickly interrupted but a hand slamming down on his counter drawing his and Zoes attention.

  "No, we'll take it. This should be enough." Cassius raised his hand and revealed a small pile of silver. The smith picked up the silver and started counting them one by one, eyeing Cassius in the process.

  "five, six... ten... sixteen. I suppose this would cover the costs." The smith reached for his purse and pulled out thirteen coppers. "Here's your change, thirteen pops. If there's nothing else you would like to buy, I would say it's been a pleasure." The smith curtly bowed to the two and smiled an obviously practiced smile. "And remember Lübeck's Arms and Armour whenever you need a weapon or repairs!"

  The two Novices left the shop after collecting their things and continued walking down the plaza. The market was large, it would take them a good ten minutes to walk down the entire thing, they passed so many different stalls and shops, everything from bulk goods trading between merchants and establishment owners to jewellers and enchanters trying to sell their items to adventurers, mercenaries and aristocrats.

  Cassius took a moment to count his coins, or what's left after that purchase. He wasn't rich but he had a little bit of money after doing some odd-jobs and from the quest but he had three silver and fourteen coppers left. He needed to save some money or find work on the road, he quietly hoped the pebble was worth the trip.

  "I'm sorry... I didn't think it would be so expensive. I'll pay you back I promise!" Zoe broke the silence. Cassius looked up from the ground and over at her, she looked guilty and embarrassed. "I swear on the Dawn light!" She put a hand on her collarbone tapping her fingers on it ritually.

  Cassius sighed and covered his face with his hand. "Don't worry about it, I really don't mind it. just put that thing to good use and I'm happy." he waved his hand nonchalantly. He took a deep breath and looked up , meeting her eyes and grinning. "And if you worry about the costs, trust me it'll pay for itself when we get more quests, after our little trip at least. Anyways, what else did we need?" He stopped by a water fountain and looked around for a moment. "Right, travel supplies. I think we need some food at least for six days." He trotted over to a stall with a colourful curtain roof striped in red and yellow. On the stall table was a few items wrapped in parchment with an open package on top of the items marking out what they are. Most were dried and spiced meats and cheeses which made Cassius drool a little. He glanced over at Zoe and begrudgingly looked over at the dried fruits, pemmican and hard tack laid in front of the table, piled on boxes. He pointed out a few items and haggled with the shopkeeper over the prices. He didn't get much of a discount but he got out with a few extras for the road.

  He returned to Zoe with a gleeful smile. "Behold the cornucopia of rations I bring before thee." He held out his small backpack now stuffed with rations.

  "That must have been a fortune, How much is it anyways? at least a half a gold coins worth of food!" She exclaimed surprised by the amount of rations in the bag. "Do we really need that much food?"

  Nah, it wasn't that much, I mainly got the cheap stuff and the shopkeeper offered to sell some older stuff at a discount." He grinned. "It should be plenty for the trip."

  They went about the markets looking at the various stalls and their items before heading to the stables at the north gates.

  As they arrived they saw Oph and An-Watu preparing their horses with two more already strapped and and ready to go. An-Watu saw them coming and waved them over after he strapped his horse properly, it was giant in comparison to the other horses with a dreaded mane and braided tail. The other horses were a lot smaller and seemed plain in comparison.

  "We should get going, we should arrive in a small fishing village along the coast by dusk if we set off now." Oph said curtly to the others as she hopped up the saddle of her white and black spotted horse. The others nodded did the same once they finished preparing their horses and they set off out of the giant gates of Red Spire.