The burly man led Alex and Nicolas down a long stone hallway, etched into the side of the city wall, a twisting, Labyrinthine network of dimly lit, cobbled and claustrophobic halls greeted the group as they dived deeper into the heart of the complex.
After a solid ten minutes of walking, they arrived at a small, but heavy looking wooden door, simplistic iron hinges and clamps being all the decoration the door was permitted.
The burly man swung the door open forcefully, not so much as flinching at the loud bang that reverberated through the corridor in a wave of sound.
"Thank you mister...?" Alex began politely.
"Haggar," the burly man replied, "Henry Haggar"
"Well then mister Haggar," Alex continued, "what exactly is this? A torture chamber? An interrogation room? Because if it is one of those, my answer isn't changing"
"It's a truth room" Henry rebutted angrily, "who needs to use torture if the subject is willing to talk, and you can stop the fake limp, your not fooling anyone"
Alex looked down to see that he was in fact, walking with a slight limp, weird how no one pointed it out before.
Alex just walked past Henry, ignoring his order, and made his way inside the 'truth room'.
Every inch of the room was covered in complex runes, the floor, the walls even the ceiling, every available inch was caked in the indecipherable language.
"So do I just repeat what I told you?" Alex asked casually, "and then this room will tell whether I'm lying or not?"
"That's the idea" Henry responded, "We just got to turn it on first"
At those words, a small string of light flickered into being from the centre of the ceiling, slowly extending downwards.
When the string reached the floor, it spread rapidly, forming a spider web of glowing string under Alex's feet, lighting up any rune it touched.
Before long, the entire room was awash with an eerie blue glow, not a single shadow escaped the illuminating array of strange symbols.
"Repeat what you said to me" Henry suddenly ordered in a demanding tone, "the room will tell whether your lying or not"
"Ok" Alex said confidently, before clearing his voice, "*ahem*, I killed a blood red bark wolf"
Immediately, the room was bathed in a sickly green glow as all the runes turned a similar colour.
Henry gave a whistle of surprise, "guess you weren't lying, sorry about the rough treatment"
"No problem," Alex replied unperturbed, "any particular reason why you were especially concerned about the core?"
"Well," Henry began, "while the beastie you killed isn't that impressive of a kill, it's still a wanted monster, so killing it earns you a bit of coin, but more importantly, prestige, for a rookie to kill one alone, they would become a hot topic, especially at your level, so then, when we task them with a high level job, they can't handle it and end up wasting not only our valuable resources, but also their lives"
"So this was only a problem with my level?"
"Yep, if you were even at level fifteen, I would have just handed you the money and just waved you on through, speaking of which"
Henry rustled through a small pouch on his belt and pulled out a couple of small silver coins.
"Your payment" he said, chucking the coins at Alex, "fifty silver, that's the reward, should be enough to support you for a couple of weeks if your frugal"
Henry ushered the two away as soon as he saw that Alex had received the money, shooing them away as quickly as he could.
"Tenth exit on the left, or twelfth, maybe it was on the right, I never can tell" Henry called after them.
As Alex left, he heard the guard say one last thing, "sir, weren't we meant to ask them about..."
And he heard no more than that, ah well, couldn't be anything important.
When Alex and Nicolas finally navigated their way out of the labyrinthine passageways, blinking in the sunlight, they came onto a bustling market square, people of all shape and sizes mingling about, street performers using magic to entertain children, shop sellers haggling with customers, drunkards laughing and signing despite the sun still being high in the sky.
The market square gave off a noisy and hurried atmosphere that was slightly infectious.
Nicolas danced through the crowd in an expert display of footwork, ducking and weaving between passers by and expertly dogging burly men and women carrying crates of produce.
Alex on the other hand, simply walked at a casual pace, he didn't know if it was to do with his looks, though it was the most likely option, but everyone on the street gave him a wide birth, as if he carried some contagious disease.
Alex simply followed Nicolas wherever he went, as he had no idea where he was going, though he was most certainly enjoying the walk though, taking in all the sights he could.
Architecturally, most of the houses where of a Tudor design, thatched roofs, low doors, black beams on the outside coupled with dirtied and blemished white walls, and large chimneys poking out of the roof.
Though most of the buildings seemed to be fortified with some kind of steel, as if they where expecting an attack to happen soon, as it was obvious how recently the fortifications had been put on due to the lack of rust and blatant unfinished work on a few of the houses.
What would they be preparing for exactly?
Alex barely had time to ponder the question when he bumped into Nicolas.
As Alex reoriented himself, he found that they had arrived at a medium sized building that looked like a mix between a bank and a temple, pillars holding up the large and simplistic triangular roof that hung over a set of a few small steps carved out of a dull, grey rock, leading to a dark wooden door as simplistic as the building it was part of.
"So why we stopping here?" Alex asked inquisitively.
"We have to sell the cores somewhere" Nicolas responded, "and this is usually the best place to sell goods"
"So what is this place exactly?"
"The trade centre, creative name I know, all towns have one, they set the market price for all goods, as such, there the best place to sell if you want a decent price"
Nicolas made his way up the stone steps and gently pushed open heavy wooden doors, holding them open just long enough for Alex to slip through, before slipping through himself.
The inside of the building really did remind Alex of a bank, neatly polished marble floors, neat rows of glass booths with employees chatting animatedly to the patrons Infront of them, carpeted areas lay behind panes of glass where Alex could only assume special interest patrons would be led.
Nicolas led Alex to a small, machine that consisted of a miniature, glowing screen that was projected by a small crystal ball, and a chute that led god knows where.
"Shouldn't we head to one of those desks?" Alex asked inquisitively.
"Nah," Nicolas responded casually, "we only go there if we are selling something of interest, we are selling plain old soul cores, and pretty common ones at that, and only two, so there would be no point"
Alex nodded in understanding while tagging close behind Nicolas, while the trade centre certainly looked appealing, it felt to sterile, to washed of all interesting aspects, if it wasn't for the vibrant array of species that formed the buildings patronage, Alex could have sworn that he had stepped back into the real world, and he didn't like it.
When they reached the small machine, Nicolas placed his hand on the orb and motioned for Alex to do the same.
A small logo of a pair of golden scales flickered into life a few seconds after they had both placed their hands on the orb, and then a small prompt appeared after the logo.
[Is this your first time
Y/N]
Nicolas promptly pressed the yes button, causing another prompt to appear.
[Do you have an account
Y/N]
Nicolas hit no.
[How many accounts would you like to make]
Nicolas input two.
[Please put a drop of blood on the orb
Please note that each patron may only have one account]
Nicolas bit his finger, causing a small drop of blood to ooze out of his finger and land on the crystal ball, making a wet slapping noise.
[Biological data matched to the new account
Please put a drop of blood on the orb for the next account]
Nicolas grabbed Alex's hand roughly and held it over the orb, he fumbled slightly with the glove on his hand, and let out a satisfied sigh when a small claw poked through the fabric, before Alex had any time to protest, Nicolas had slashed across his finger causing blood to ooze from the tip.
Alex gave Nicolas a reproachful look, to which Nicolas simply shrugged.
[Biological data matched
do you have any product you wish to sell?]
Nicolas placed two of the five cores in the chute, which sucked them down ravenously.
[calculating profit
please wait
...
...
...
profit calculated
30 silver
please have a nice day]
A small tray shot out from just bellow the chute, holding three small silver coins.
Nicolas pocketed them quickly and motioned to Alex to leave, which Alex was all to happy to oblige.
When they got outside, Nicolas immediately headed toward a large crowd of shoppers with a friendly air around him, Alex for the most part hung back, only giving a small wave when Nicolas pointed him out.
After half an hour, Nicolas broke away from the group, waving farewell as he went.
"What was that all about?" Alex asked.
"Just making some friends" Nicolas replied, "more importantly, I found us a good place to stay"
Alex raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, how Nicolas did things was his business.
After a little walk, they arrived at a medium sized tavern, a sign showing a setting sun hanging proudly on an outstretched beam, the words 'The days end' displayed in a classical font below the sun.
They pushed the door open confidently, and strode into the bar in unison, causing a few merry tavern goers to turn their heads in curiosity, A wendigo was most certainly a curious sight after all.
Though the curiosity died down quickly, all manner of oddities visited the town, this weird gangly fellow was just another to add to the growing pile.
A short and stubby man sat at the bar cleaning a mug and chatting heartly with an elf, it was curious just how his body worked as his waist reached all the way up to the counter, just barely holding his rotund belly above the bar for all to see beneath his well kept shirt.
"Ah," the bartender gasped in amusement upon seeing the two approach the bar, his accent was thick and Scottish and his voice always boomed throughout the tavern like a hearty laugh, "we don't get many of your type 'round 'ere, never actually seen a wendigo leave its forest before, guess I still haven't seen it all eh, hah hah hah, and you my fine lad, don't tell me, I like guessing games, I'm thinking, hmmmmm, changeling perhaps, after all, only vampires and changelings cover every inch of their skin, and I don't think tha' guard would let a blood sucker into these 'ere walls, unless of course, your neither, and just a weirdo, hah hah hah"
Alex and Nicolas exchanged a glance of confusion, he was certainly, talkative.
"Forgive me lads" the bartender continued apologetically, "I do tend to get a bit carried away, ain't tha' right Gliff"
The elf Nodded in reply and let out curtly, "it is one of the things I could do without, Coal"
"Oh," Coal let out in joy, "always a joker our Gliff, anyway lads, what'll it be"
"Two rooms please" Nicolas responded politely.
"Sure thing lad's, one silver each per night, you want any meals with that?"
"Not right now" Alex interjected, "maybe later"
"Well lads, if you need anything, the bar is always open, just give the bell a slight ring, and I'll be there in jiffy, anyway, your keys, yes, you will be needing those"
Coal did a little jump, and then dipped bellow the counter, emerging from behind the bar a little while later with two keys, revealing his true height of only around three foot five.
"What," Coal asked in a jolly tone, "Never seen a dwarf before? You really are a wendigo, hah, you lot are always surprised when they see me for the first time, always a good laugh, your keys lads"
Alex took one of the keys and dipped his head in thanks.
He made his way upstairs quickly and found his room, and flopped down on the bed.
While he was there, he may as well check what those two in the forest wanted.
He opened the small note pad and began to flick through it, for the most part, it was pretty much what he expected.
For Dovahkiin, she wanted full plate male, as sturdy as possible, though she wanted to have a flexible tail armour, that would prove a bit more difficult though not impossible, as for her measurements, lets just say she would put most NBA players to shame.
As for the weapon, she wanted a scale shaped shield, wide enough to cover her forearm and have some room to block some attacks that passed the range of her forearm, but not so big that it would obscure most of her body, and light as well, this worked in Alex's favour, a small shield meant more leftover materials.
As for Felicity, he wanted simplistic leather armour of a similar design to the one he was wearing currently, simple.
As for weapons, he wanted a bow, as to be expected, but he asked if Alex could make it a compact bow, that would be a challenge, though like with the tail armour, not impossible.
After he had finished flicking through the notes, he found something that caught his attention.
A small note reading 'The pixie pub, you want an ice cold brew wizz with extra ice, three strawberry shots, with a mix of the house blend on the side, and a healthy order of boar strips, lightly grilled, smothered in garlic paste, no salt, and the bill immediately"