Arcanum - Chapter 191

The man closed his eyes bracing himself for the impact, “Daisy! How am I meant to interrogate him if you’re still half asleep?” Grace said as Daisy’s maul narrowly missed his legs grazing the side of it leaving a large crater in the floorboards.

“I’m sorry I’m still a little sleepy, I won’t miss this time.” Daisy apologised with a small yawn and began to lift her maul again.

“Wait wait… I’ll talk.” The man shuddered uncontrollably

“Good, let’s start with your name so I know how to address you,” Grace asked calmly like she was in her element.

“My, my, my name is Malcolm.” He whimpered like a scared dog unable to control his quivering voice.

“Good, So Malcolm who was your target?” Grace questioned.

“The Tiefaeni and the brown-skinned girl.” He hastily answered.

“And who sent you?” Grace proceeded to question.

“We don’t know, we were given our targets and a bag of gold.” He whimpered his eyes darting around the room look at each us with a quick glance.

“Who gave you the targets?” Grace asked as calm as ever.

“Our boss did, as usual, we were given our targets and where we can find them, half the payment upfront and half on delivery.” He answered his eyes still darting around.

“Don’t look around, eyes on me, just answer my questions and you’ll all come out of this alive. Well except your unfortunate friend over there.” Grace smiled making him nod obediently. “Now your boss, what his name and how can we find him?” Grace asked.

“I can’t, he’ll kill us.” Malcolm instantly objected extremely panicked.

“Well either you tell us who your boss is and where we can find him, or I’ll give you the option to pick one of my very talented friends here, and they will do something to you that you would find extremely unpleasant. For example that one of there is a blue flame caster he can melt your arm right off and cauterize the wound instantly.” Grace explained to him making him panic as his eyes instantly darted to Jay. “Hey Hey.. Eyes on me.” Grace suggested making him stare back at Grace, as Jay pulled out his wand lighting a small blue flame on the tip of it pointing it at Malcolm forcing him to stare at jay form the corner of his eye.

“Okay!! His name is Nicolas, once we grabbed the girls we’re meant to meet him a mile out the city where he will be waiting for us with a caravan.” He answered in utter fear.

“Good good, now ordered the hit?” Grace asked.

“I don’t know.” He answered still shaking in fear.

“Okay, do it,” Grace ordered leaning back giving Jay a look.

“Wait, wait! I really don’t know, only Nicolas knows who sets the hits.” He answered in a panic.

“And I assume if we ask any of your other friends, they will also give me the same answers?” Grace asked.

“Yes! I swear!” He answered on the verge of tears.

“Okay… so this is what is gonna happen, we are gonna take your clothes now and pay your boss Nicolas a visit.” She informed him calmly. “Now you’re gonna tell us exactly where you was gonna meet your boss. Now if your boss isn’t where you tell us, we will find you and your friends and believe me we can, and we are gonna cause you and your posse a whole world of hurt.” Grace smiled.

“The east exit out the city, the firth dirt road leading east will lead you to an abandoned building where we are meant to meet him.” He answered Grace.

“How many of you would be with him?” Grace asked.

“I dunno four maybe five of us.” He answered.

“And equipment? What might we expect?” Grace calmly asked.

“A few cross-bow men and a few men with swords and clubs.” He answered.

“And the Vancliffs were they involved?” Helen questioned.

“Not that I’m aware of, but the pay was substantially more then what the Vancliff’s usually pay.” He answered Helen.

“Ohh and one more thing, now if we ever get a whiff of you and your boys up to anything from now on, except a visit from us.” Grace smiled giving a nod to Morgana, making her step up and blow some spores into his face making him quickly fall asleep.

“So what’s the plan?” Daisy asked.

“We take their clothes and impersonate them, we’ll have Daisy and Emilia tied up and ambush them.” Grace suggested untying the bandits and stripping them of their clothes.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I questioned slightly worried.

“Of course, we can’t let them mess with one of our own.” Grace smiled tossing a set of clothes to Helen.

Jennifer pulled Jay to the side seemingly having a disagreement with the whole plan, “So Emilia any idea who would want both of you?” Morgana asked.

“No idea, I haven’t seen them before or heard of a Nicolas,” I answered.

“Yup, no one comes to mind.” Daisy also answered.

“How on earth did they manage to track us here,” Jay added arriving back with Jennifer.

“Is the Vancliff girl coming with us?” Morgana asked Jay.

“I have a name.” Jennifer replied to Morgana.

“She thinks we’re in over our heads and should wait for a better time with more planning, but we can’t let whoever set the hit get away.” Jay answered.

“Why would they want you two?” Jennifer asked looking at both of us. “Well, you both do have rare skin colours.” She said pondering on motives.

“And what is that meant to mean!” I asked in response.

“Well in the criminal underworld rare individuals are sort after due to rituals and medicinal purposes.” She grimly informed us.

“What the hell?” I questioned in shock finding her choice of words reminding me of old traditional medicine.

“She’s right.” Morgana nodded agreeing with her.

“This needs to be stopped,” I replied feeling extremely angry.

“Don’t worry… they won’t know what hit them,” Grace answered feeling just as angry as I was.

“Lucky for us, there’s five of them and five of us excluding Emili and Daisy.” Jay smiled putting on the bandit clothes.

“Lucky for us it’s also dark so we might just pull off the hoax,” Grace answered looking like a human bandit.

“So what’s the plan?” Jennifer asked putting on the bandit clothes.

“We go in looking like we completed the job, as always Daisy you’ll be upfront taking the brunt of the aggression. The rest of us aim to take out the crossbowmen as quickly as possible, we don’t want them peppering us.” She informed us sounding extremely confident.

“Are you sure you guys are capable?” Jennifer questioned.

“Are you?” Helen asked her in return sounding offended that she even asked..

“I’m as capable as Jay.” She smiled extremely proudly.

“We’ll be the judge of that,” Helen replied challenging her like a rival.

“Hands please,” Grace asked Daisy and me.

“What you’re gonna tie us up now?” I asked in shock.

“Of course.. if they have lookouts we want them to think the job is done.” Grace smiled.

“Okay.” I agreed holding out my hands.

“Don’t worry, when everything pops off, just pull on this thread it will undo the bindings instantly.” She showed us after tying Daisy and my hands together.

“By the way, Morgana can help us communicate telepathically,” I informed everyone.

“Telepathic?” They asked back.

“It means talking in our heads,” I answered.

“Like this,” Morgana said in all our heads without needing to move her hands.

“Woah..” Everyone took a step back in shock.

“So we communicate with thoughts?” Jay asked in our heads.

“Precisely,” I answered.

“Woah this is very advantageous.” Grace smiled.

“Morgana spore them one last time make sure they regret messing with us,” Grace ordered her.

“Sure,” Morgana answered walking to them and blowing spores into their faces making them heave while still being totally unconscious.

“Let’s go!” Grace orders and tugged at our ropes making Daisy and I begin to walk after her.

“So what exactly can you all do? And how long can this talking in our heads last for?” Jennifer asked as we made our way out the inn.

“I can do up to twelve hours a day,” Morgana answered.

“Helen and Morgana are druids, Grace is a Ranger, Daisy is a Paladin and Emilia and I are sorcerers,” Jay answered Jennifer.

“And what can you do?” Helen asked Jennifer in return.

“Much like Jay I’m a sorcerer. This is gonna be just like old times.” She answered with a smile.