Feather went into the night. The town was sleeping, and there was no one on the streets.
Whoever had sent the assassins might have another plan to deal with her, so she needed to move.
Unfortunately, there was no way to exit the town at night. The town's gates would only be open during the day.
Having nothing to do, Feather wandered the streets aimlessly.
When she reached the center of the town, she noticed that unlike other places, the central plaza was brightly lit.
There was a building which had two big lightpearls hanging at the entrance.
At the left side of the door, it had a drawing of a big magpie holding a coin in its claw and looking curiously at Feather.
'Oh, right! That's the Magpie Guild!'
Feather had seen this building before but had never gone inside.
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The Magpie Guild was a gathering of information brokers and mercenaries.
Whether one needed to get ahold of some rare information, investigate someone's background, or find people to guard or fight on their behalf, all this could be done with magpies help. Rumors were that even if you need to steal something or kill someone, magpies could help if the price was adequate.
The guild was cooperatively managed by two great families Darkblood and Lightblood.
The Darkblood family specialized in information gathering, while Lightblood family managed information transmission. Every guild branch would have at least two managers who were great families descendants, one of Darkblood and the other of Lightblood family. And both of them would be mages, as only mages could perform some duties necessary for the guild. For example, information transmission was done through the light magic. That was also the reason Magpie Guild buildings always had a dominant position in the city and were one of the highest buildings too. Even the castles of landowners and city rulers had to be built the way they won't obstruct clear line between Guild Towers.
These preferences were given to the Guild because the Guild also served as the main communication provider to the kingdom. Whenever army or officials needed to send the message, it was through the means of the Magpies.
The mercenaries mostly didn't belong to the two families. If you needed the main power of Magpies to interfere, you'd need to pay the hefty sum. But if you don't have money, there were always contracted mercenaries under Magpie Guild who could do your bidding.
There were almost no constraint for one to become a Magpie mercenary. Whoever wanted could be one. You could be either a mage or a commoner, didn't matter. All you needed to do was come to the Magpie Guild and register there. Consequently, you'd become a bronze rank mercenary.
Of course, if you wanted to have access to better missions and get paid more, you would need to go through assessments, participate in Guild Tournaments, or complete missions. As a result, you would rise in rank and get better treatment from everyone.
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As Feather was mulling about all this, the door opened letting out the sounds of noisy babble. Two very drunk people came out of the building. They stumbled across the plaza and vanished to one of the streets.
After the door closed the night was once again tranquil and quiet, revealing that there was some sort of a soundproof formation in place.
From the look of it, the place wasn't closed at night, so Feather went in.
As she opened the door, the sound of hubbub struck her. The inside of the building was large and resembled an inn or tavern for the most part. There stood many tables with people around them laughing merrily and discussing something in loud voices.
In the center of the room, there was a space cleared of furniture, and there was fighting going on there. Men were comparing notes, and the mob was commenting with vigor.
There were two of them, one was of a smaller build and wore simple dark clothes. The other was a tall blonde man wearing loose dark-red clothes. One would expect the smaller one to be more nimble, but that was not the case. The blonde man was moving with peculiar grace avoiding any move from his opponent. They were not using any weapons for the match only hand-to-hand combat.
The match concluded in a moment. The little man tried to create an opening for an attack but was flung out of the circle and crashed into a table. The blonde man stood there enjoying the round of applause from the spectators.
When he stopped moving Feather was able to see how bizarre he looked. He was wearing a loose shirt and pants belted with a broad sash which was uncharacteristic of the Stonerule Kingdom. On his feet, he wore khussa, which made her think of some southern tribes she had read of. He was tanned, and Feather would really think he was a southerner if not for his vividly blonde hair.
At that moment the man proclaimed loudly enough to overpower all the hubbub in the room:
"Come on, come on! Who's next! I'm paying!"
Everyone laughed at him; no one was willing to go up and be beaten. Even if the man was paying for the spar, who would want to go and lose face?
His name was Gold Lance, and he was well known here in magpie guild. His official rank was three silver star mercenary, just one star short of being the gold rank, but everyone knew he was stronger than his rank. Lance never paid attention to ranks, as there was no need to. He was perfectly well, being paid by The Gold Association. His rank at Magpie guild was just a little convenience to him.
Today he was here to look for mercenaries. He would leave with the dawn. The men were needed to protect cargo. It was a big delivery, and he needed to take it to The Emerald City in under two weeks. He was short on time, and he was short on good men. A caravan required protection. He had a small team of his own, but the cargo this time was a little delicate, so after some consideration, he decided to get help from the Magpie Guild.
Unfortunately for him, as he was on a tight schedule, he could only take those who were free at the moment. It was somewhat inconvenient, but there was nothing he could do about it.
The little spar was a way for him to assess mercenaries, but after a couple of rounds, no one was willing to go against him.
Feather knew nothing of this.
The counter was on the other side of the room, so she needed to cross it. The most direct way to do this was to go through the center of the room. Seeing how the fighting stopped, she went where she intended.
Lance was contemplating what to do when he noticed a boy making way to him. When he looked at the boy, his eyes lit up as he instantly recognized him. It was the same boy who had won eating competition earlier. Lance had wanted to talk to the boy then, but the boy was very swift and run away before Lance had a chance to strike a conversation.
From the way the boy was looking around he was new here.
Lance moved to intercept.
Feather looked at the man who appeared to bar her way. The man was smiling from ear to ear and emanating a strong fighting intent. 'What a bother,' she thought.
"Little bro here, my name's Lance. Would it be possible to ask you for a little spar?" the man cheerfully invited her.
Feather looked for a way to avoid the man, but he was a seasoned fighter, so she didn't see an opening to dodge him. From the look of it, she couldn't escape the fight. Well, even if she were to lose there was no shame in it: a man before her was a lot older. It also didn't look as if he had bad intentions. A little spar wouldn't be bad, probably.
The people around were cheering loudly at them.
"Ha-ha, big bro Lance is shameless. Even little ones can't escape his clutches."
"It's not shameless it's desperate. No one wants to spar with him, so he can only bully kids."
Everyone laughed.
Feather took down her sword and backpack and courteously bowed to a man:
"If you insist. I'm not good at hand-to-hand though."
"It's alright," a man smiled at her. "It's just for a bit of amusement. You can strike first."
The next moment he saw the boy before him vanish.
Lance was prepared for the boy to be unusual, but it still took him by surprise. The boy was moving extremely fast. The strike came at the back of Lance's legs, and it was so powerful that Lance nearly lost his standing.
The boy didn't try to use any fancy moves, just as he said, he was not proficient in hand-to-hand combat. But every move was precisely aimed at the blind spot of the opponent. And every strike was powerful beyond belief. No observer could see it, but Lance wondered if he would get bruises after this spar.
The spar didn't last long, in the end, Lance easily subdued the boy, but he was nevertheless impressed. 'How brilliant! I've found a gem.' Lance wondered what would the fight be like, if the boy used the weapon he was proficient with.
Feather stood up and bowed to the Lance once again. The easiest way to get rid of these battle maniacs was to lose against them.
She intended to conclude her journey to the counter. Alas, the man had no intention to let go of her.
He caught her by the shoulder and forcefully led to one of the tables and made her sit.
"Sit down; I'll treat you! What's your name, by the way?" he was still smiling from ear to ear.
"Bright..." Feather caught herself, but it was too late.
She intended to use another name, but being asked so unexpectedly she blurted out her real name. Not all of it but…
"Oh, Bright. What an unusual name. Good. What would you like to drink?"
There were many people at this table, and after asking her what she wanted, Lance sent one of them to get the drinks and food from the counter.
Drinking and eating at the Magpie Guild was excessive as they didn't specialize in it, but they still provided for those who were willing to pay ten times the price. Eating here was a luxury. Feather tried to decline, but Lance didn't listen to her.
"Say, Bright," Lance asked her, "do you have anything to do here? If not, why don't you join us? We are going to The Emerald City in a bit, and we can use someone as good as you." He was sincere with his words; he really thought the boy before him was good. It would be great if he could rope this boy.