"Can you remind me why you're bringing me along with you? Shouldn't I be hidden in your home?" James asked Agata as the two of them walked through the streets of the popular district of Summut. Even though Agata had told him that this was the poorest district in the polis, for James, it seemed far from it. Its streets were paved, not muddy, and the imposing stone buildings made this place seems mightier than many large cities on the continent in the eyes of the young man. Moreover, from what his host younger sister, each of the buildings was connected to a complex sewage system, in addition to having that 'electricity' thing that allowed them to have a lit house at any hour of the day.
"I've already told you, James. Today is Sunday, and all the pawnshops are closed. So, we'll go to someone I know. He is know to buys this kind of stuff without asking too many questions and pays in cash. But I don't trust going there alone, knowing the kind of people who frequent it. However, with someone big and muscular as you by my side, I'm sure I won't have to worry too much," Agata replied, winking at him.
"I understand... but why did I have to put on these clothes?" Unlike a few hours earlier, James was now dressed in more appropriate attire for Thoule: a pair of jeans, a blue T-shirt, black sneakers, and a black hoodie.
"I cantn let go out in those rags, they would attire too much attention. We're lucky I still had some of my father's clothes, they surprisingly fit you. Plus, this way, no one will recognize you," the woman said, indicating the baseball cap he had been instructed to wear to complete is 'disguise.'
When the two arrived at their destination, they found themselves in front of an old, abandoned building. The walls were weathered and covered in graffiti, while all the windows and the entrance door were barricaded with wooden planks.
"Are you sure this is the right place? The building looks abandoned" James said.
"It's just a front. Come, the entrance should be this way," Agata replied before entering one of the alleys next to the building.
James began to follow the girl before stopping abruptly and looking around.
'This feeling... it's like someone is watching us. But from where?' The boy thought before resuming walking and getting much closer to the girl.
"Is something wrong?" the girl asked, surprised by the sudden closeness. But James didn't answer and continued walking glued to her side.
'What's gotten into him?' the girl thought. Although they had known each other for only a few hours, Agata had come to the conclusion that maybe Margaret was right and James wasn't a theat. Except for the previous night, James had never shown signs of hostility or malice towards the two sisters. In fact, he had been polite and reasonable so far. But unfortunately, Agata still couldn't fully trust the boy. Neither of them knew anything about him or why he had risked so much to get to Thoule.
Furthermore, there was something about him that unsettled her, that filled her. A subtle feeling of uneaseness that crawled on her skin when he looked directly in her eyes, making her feeling small and vulnerable animal in front of an apex predator.
It frightened her.
Surprisingly Margaret didn't seems to have the same feeling as her, rather she seemed somewhat at ease with the boy.
When the two arrived they were in front of a metal door that, unlike the others, was not blocked by any wooden board. Agata went to knock on the door, but before she could do so, both of them felt an electric buzz sound, and the door opened by itself, revealing a staircase leading down to an underground floor.
"I'll ask again, are you sure this is the right place?" James asked once more. This new, alien environment was already challenging for him to navigate, and a door opening by itself upon their arrival was not something he would normally trust. He had seen houses burned down by the church for much less.
*Gulp* "Yes, I'm fairly sure this is the right place. Come on, let's go..." Agata said tring to look brave and took a step forward but was immediately stopped by James, who placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I'll go ahead; you stay behind me. You mentioned that this place is frequented by some shady characters, right? It's better if you stay behind me." James said, walking ahead of her. Without a chance to argue, Agata followed right behind.
When they reached the bottom, they found themselves in front of another door that opened again, but this time, a tall, muscular black man, much larger and tall than James, stood behind the door. He eyed both of them before gesturing for them to enter.
The two found themselves in a run-down office. The wallpaper on the walls was almost completely ruined by dampness, the furniture was dusty and worn, with various knick-knacks and books that probably served only as filler for the otherwise empty shelves. The room was illuminated by several neon lights on the ceiling, giving it a faint greenish tint and emitting a constant buzzing. In the center of the room was a large wooden desk with several scales and calculators on top of it. On the wall behind the desk were various screens displaying the street in front of the building and the surrounding alleys, as well as different angles of the metal door they had entered. Others showed the room they were in at that moment in real-time.
Sitting at the desk was a man in his thirties, with black hair combed back, showing signs of balding, and dark eyes. He was dressed in jeans and an unbuttoned white shirt that revealed his hairy chest adorned with various gold necklaces. Seeing them enter, the man's face broke into a smile, showing a mouthful of gold teeth.
Agata felt quite uncomfortable with the man. Even if she said to James that she knew the man, in reality she only hear of him from some people at the pub.
"Look who we have here. It's rare for a young lady to pay me a visit. I'm Rob Birdie, at your service. But please, what can I do for you, sweetheart?" the man said, gesturing for both of them to approach.
Agata took a slight step near James upon hearing the man's words. James's terrifying presense felt oddly reassuring compared to man in front of them. Agata took a deep breath to calm herself and approached the desk with James right behind her.
James, in the meantime, remained silent, unsure of how these situations were handled in Thoule. He decided thet it would be better to intervene only if the situation took a turn for the worse.
"I heard you buy stuff without asking questions, so I have some merchandise that might interest you," Agata said firmly before placing the gold coins on the table.
"Oh, damn!" Rob exclaimed, taking a magnifying glass from a drawer and using it to examine one of the coins. "Yes, these are gold coins from the Dark Lands. Incredible rare items... where the hell did you get these?" he asked.
"They belonged to my father. They are a sort of family heirloom. But now I need money, and I need it immediately, so how much can you give me?" Agata tried to steer the conversation away from the coins origin, wanting to complete the transaction and get out of there as soon as possible.
"Okay... okay, no need to get so worked up, beautiful," the man then took one of his scales and weighed all the coins before doing some calculations with his calculator. "I can offer you 3500 xenon for the eight coins. How does that sound, darling?"
"3500?! Don't play games with me; I weighed the coins at home, and they should be worth at least 6000 xenon in total!" Agata countered, irritated by the price that had just been proposed to her. She hadn't come all this way to be scammed.
"Well, if it doesn't suit you, you can always go to a gold buyer tomorrow. After all, I'm sure your father had all the necessary documents to own items from the Dark Lands," Rob replied with a smirk adorning his face.
At this response, Agata took a step back. This was the reason they had come here in the first place. James's arrival might have brought chaos into their lives, but those coins were a godsend. With that money, she could pay off some of her debts. Of course, a part of her felt guilty for exploiting James in this way. But she and Margaret desperately needed that money.
"Tsk... Fine, 3500 xenon it is," Agata said.
Rob smiled satisfied and pulled out some stacks of cash, placing them one by one on the table until he reached the agreed-upon sum.
"You know, if you really need money, I could find you some odd jobs to do. Why don't we discuss it over dinner tonight?" the man said with a leer. Hearing the man's proposition, Agata shuddered with disgust.
"Come on, don't be like that, darling. I make more money in a week than most of the dealers in this dam district make in a month."
"No, thank you, but I'm not that desperate," she replied without hiding her disgust, before reacing out to snach the pile of cash from the table. But when she grabbed the money, Rob tried to grab Agata's wrist.
"Hey, listen here! Urgh!" Before he could do anything, his wrist was grabbed by James. The move caught both Rob and Agata by surprise since James had been so fast that neither of them had seen him move.
"She said she's not interested," James said firmly.
"Ugh! So, you finally speak... Who are you, her man? You were so quiet and composed that I mistook you for her lapdog for a moment" the man taunted James while trying to break free from his grip, but he couldn't move his arm a millimeter.
"I bet she convinced you to come with her in exchange for some pussy... You think you're tough, brother? I advise you not to make an enemy out of me, or I'll make sure you and that whore disappear from the face of the earth," he continued, escalating to threats.
James didn't show any reaction by the man's words. He had heard worse from better and more powerful men than him.
Rob suddenly felt the pressure on his arm, exerted by James's grip, rise to an unbearable level, feeling the bones in his forearm about to break. Rob was about to scream in pain but found himself gasping for air instead. Meanwhile, the guard who had been watching the situation from the distance, watching his boss in trouble he reached for the gun in his pants but felt himself losing his breath as well, as if they were thousands of meters in altitude. His body felt heavy and slow. The neon lights began to flicker frantically, as if there were a malfunction in the electrical grid, and the guard had the impression that the shadows in his peripheral vision were moving, writhing, and flailing like predators in the depths of the sea.
"James, that's enough," Agata said, having taken the money from the table, apparently unaware of what the other two men were experiencing. James, then, released his grip, and the air gradually became more breathable for the two, even the lights seemed to work properly again as nothig as ever happened.
As soon as his arm was free, Rob moved away from the desk, banging into the wall and the screens behind him, while the guard had positioned himself in the corner of the room as if trying to defend himself from something that was not there.
Agata looked around, confused by the behavior of the two men before James placed a hand on her shoulder to get her attention.
"Let's go; we're done here," the boy said firmly.
Agata wasn't entirely sure what had just happened, but she agreed with James. They had the money, and she wanted to get out of that place as soon as possible.
When the two left the building, the two men were still motionless, unable to understand what had happened. It was only later in the afternoon that Rob discovered that all the cameras in the room had died.