In a dingy little tavern and brewery, a man is cleaning a few mugs. Seated are a few men and women who have taken to day drinking. In 2 days, a festival begins and some people have the day off or have taken a day off to start the festival early. Tucked in a corner beside the bar, a tall muscular man sits on a chair in front of a door. Through the tavern door’s morning light, Ren, Alliot and Xue walk into the tavern. They immediately march up to the backdoor with a man seated in front of it. The man watches them approach. He stands up, stretches briefly and holds up a hand to stop the three adventurers.

  “Employees only. The bathroom is that way.”

  Alliot chuckles to himself before he speaks.

  “Oh, we’re not looking for the bathroom. We’re here because you got a man inside we need to talk to.”

  “No we don’t. Now, no entry unless you take the month to get a warrant for this place.” the tall man says.

  “Well, the guys begging for scraps and change outside say otherwise. So why don’t you step aside before things get messy.” Alliot cracks his knuckles.

  “You think you can just do whatever you want, little man?” the tall man follows Alliot’s knuckle cracking suit.

  “Any man or woman can do whatever they want as long as they are prepared for the consequences.”

  Alliot prepares to take a fighting stance. Before any fight begins, Xue grabs his shoulder and brushes him aside.

  “My good sir, I apologize for my friend here.” Xue says while bowing her head slightly. “If it is possible, can you give Alon Pordolette a message?”

  “Well, hey there beautiful. Fine. What should I tell him?” the man scoffs at her.

  At those words, Xue thrusts the pommel of her straight sword into the man’s chest without drawing it from it’s scabbard. The man goes wide eyed briefly and falls to his knees and goes limp. Before he falls and crashes to the floor, Xue grabs him by the shoulder and casually tosses him over to Alliot.

  “This is an establishment that serves liquor. Prop him up by one of those tables.” Xue says.

  “Woah! Hey!” Alliot scrambles to catch the man easily 2 heads taller than him. “What was the point of asking him that question. Even then, you just did what I was going to do!”

  “No. I incapacitated him with a single quiet strike. You were about to brawl with him.” Xue sighed. “In addition, I asked a question about Alon Pordolette. His response implied that he is able to at least deliver a message to him. That could mean that he is here.”

  Alliot rolls his eyes, but still quietly propped an unconscious man up as directed. Xue opens the door that was once barred by the man. As Xue and Ren step inside, they find a staircase. Xue and Ren take the steps down followed by Alliot after he clumsily dumps the man onto a table. The three of them descend the stairs until it grows too dark to see.

  “I can’t see the steps anymore. Stop here while I light a torch.” Xue says.

  “It’s fine. I have it.” Ren says.

  Ren learned Light Level 1.

  “Light.”

  From Ren’s working hand a spell of light shines.

  “Ah. I can see the stairs again.” Xue says.

  “Yeah, how far down did we go already?” Alliot asks. “The sunlight doesn’t even go down this far.”

  “I’m sorry to say, but I was not counting the steps we took on our descent.” Xue says.

  “I should've seen a city planner about getting a map to the city sewers.” Alliot says.

  “You and your fighting style should be the last to find access to city plans.” Xue says.

  The party descends further and further into the depths of this tavern backroom. Guided by the light that Ren has casted, they find the foot of the stairs. It is packed by dirt with wooden beams holding the ceiling and walls up. Moving through this tunnel, the party comes to an opening or clearing in the cavern. In the light’s reflection, metal glimmers back. Steel cages line either side of this clearing. Each of these cages have a chimera inside. As the light shines on them they snarl and growl, but do not begin banging on the cages that hold them. At the center of this clearing is some sort of ritual circle drawn in chalk atop a stone slab of some kind. There was also a lab of some kind with shelves of glass jars, a desk and a cutting board. The jars held what appeared to be some sort of wriggling masses of flesh.

  “Wow.” Ren says.

  “This Alon Pordolette guy is into some kinky stuff.” Alliot says.

  “He seems to have friends in the neighborhood, yes.” Xue says. “He only just arrived. Something like this couldn’t have been built overnight.”

  “This should be good.” Alliot says. “How do we want to play this?”

  “There is nothing to do but look around.” Xue says. “Try to find information on this conspiracy, whatever it may entail.”

  “Right. I’ll get on that.” Alliot says.

  “Wait!” Xue says. “Did you hear that?”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “No.” Alliot says.

  “Ren, dispel your Light!” Xue says. “Hide!”

  At her command, Ren’s Light spell vanishes. Darkness fills this clearing once again. In the next moment, light peers into the room again, this time from a door. A dozen humanoid figures step inside. One of them claps their hands together and magic light fills the room. Men in robes step inside and look around at the chimera. Ren, Alliot and Xue are nowhere to be seen.

  “They were screaming about something.” one of the figures speaks in a man’s voice.

  “You said, they’d be calm in the dark.” another says in a woman’s voice.

  “They are. Someone must have agitated them.” another man says.

  “With dumb animals like these, you gotta show them who’s boss.” another man’s voice boasts.

  “Hey! What are you doing? No! Don’t touch the cages!”

  There is a metallic clang, a buzzing sound and a man screams.

  “Waaahhhh!”

  All the sounds suddenly stop as the man is thrown back.

  “Alon! You idiot! I told you before, I have lightning magic running through the bars of these cages!” a man’s voice scolds another.

  Upon hearing the name, Ren steps closer to get a better look. Sizzling on the ground is a muscular man with brown hair styled in a flattop. This is presumably Alon Pordolette.

  “Heh! Sorry. You just said so much, I forgot the little details.” Alon says. “Come on! Help me up, Kanady.”

  “I will not.” a woman’s voice responds. “You can pick yourself up.”

  Ren draws closer once again to see who this woman is. The woman called Kanady is a thick woman with a fancy fur coat. From what Ren can see, the woman’s makeup is thick and hides a lot of her face.

  “Alright. Both of you, get along.” a man’s voice chimes in. “I was just thinking about getting back to work on the chimera. Alon, you said you wanted to see how it was done, right?”

  “See, that’s how you treat a guest.” Alon points to another man. “Hannigan doesn’t have your prim and proper bullshit, but he knows how to treat a man right.”

  Ren draws even closer to see who this Hannigan man is. He is a rabbitfolk man with black hair and wearing a cloak that covers his chest. Beyond that cloak, he doesn’t wear a shirt of any kind beneath it. His abdominal muscles are presented nicely for all to see.

  “Someone hand me a ritual dagger from that table.” Hannigan says.

  Hannigan points out a table. Ren walks to fetch it and lightly jogs over to Hannigan to hand it over.

  “Thank you.” Hannigan says. “Now, all of the chimeras were made outside of the city. We have to thank you, Alon, for smuggling so many into the city for us. Now, what we do here is keep and maintain them. Notably feeding them, making sure they don’t get sick and other things that living beings need. Despite their two mouths and two brains, neither of them lead to the stomach. There is no hidden third mouth or anything like that. Instead, we use siphon magic into them.”

  Hannigan goes to a box and takes out what looks like a cut of meat you can buy from the butcher upstairs on the city streets.

  “Can someone toss me an arcane crystal from the box over there. Be careful, I keep a set of arcane and natural crystals in there.” Hannigan says.

  Ren goes over and selects an appropriate arcane crystal from the box. She then jogs her way to Hannigan who has a ritual dagger in one hand and a cut of meat in the other.

  “I said toss it over.” Hannigan jokingly says to Ren.

  “You should be more careful with magic crystals.” Ren says in her dull tone of voice.

  “Alright. Alright. Safety and all that.” Hannigan jokingly nods. “Anyway, they need to be fed and they still create waste in their bodies. They also don’t have an orifice to excrete such waste. So we handle that with magic too.”

  “Ew.” Alon scoffs.

  “Hey, I’m the one handling this, not you.” Hannigan says in the same joking tone. “But if you want to volunteer, you’re welcome to take a shift.”

  “No thank you.” Alon shakes his head as he speaks.

  “Now, with your smuggled supplies and the tavern serving as a front upstairs, we can keep and maintain the chimera until the day we execute on the plan.”

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Kanady says.

  “Yes, and with Kanady’s finances, connections and facilities.” Hannigan says. “Now, here’s the fun part. I do a bit of magic to connect this to that. I won’t bore you with the details.”

  The magic circle in chalk on the stone slab begins to light up and a line forms between the circle and one of the caged chimera.

  “Now, I just do a bit of magic and then whoosh! Watch it go!” Hannigan says.

  Hannigan places the cut of meat down and the arcane crystal on top of it at the center of the ritual circle. He then stabs both of them with the ritual dagger in a single motion. There is a flash of magic. The meat and crystal suddenly disappear. Where it once was, there is now some sort of wriggling mass of flesh.

  “Easy as that.” Hannigan says. “Well, easy if you have my skills and expertise. Although I think our little helper here might give me a run for my money.”

  “Yes, yes.” Kanady rolls her eyes. “If your little presentation is done, I would prefer I return to my own home. This dirt is awful for my complexion.”

  “If you say so.” Hannigan shrugs his shoulders.

  Hannigan takes the writhing mass of flesh from off the floor and starts to head over to the shelf with jars holding similar masses of flesh. Ren rushes over and grabs an empty jar for him.

  “Now this is the quality help I was missing all this time.” Hannigan chuckles. “Thank you little miss.”

  “You’re welcome.” Ren says.

  “Anyway, I’m going to wrap up the maintenance and catch up with you guys later.” Hannigan says.

  “If you say so.” Alon says. “Just keep an eye out alright. You both told me that we’re actually behind schedule now.”

  “I know, but there is little I can do until Kanady’s contact gets in touch.” Hannigan says.

  “I’m just saying.” Alon rolls his eyes.

  “I can help.” Ren says.

  “With the feeding ritual?” Hannigan asks.

  “Yep.” Ren says. “You just used two formalinial equations in parallel. Minor adjustments were used. I’m assuming the difference is the elephant and crocodile aspects requiring different values.”

  Hannigan claps his hands and gestures to Ren like a showman presenting an act to an audience.

  “The hero I need, but not the hero I deserve.” Hannigan says. “With an arm in a sling, this girl can still swoop in for the rescue.”

  “Fine then.” Kanady scoffs. “I will send someone to fetch you when my contact arrives.”

  Many of the people who initially rushed in here begin to file back through the door they came in through. As they do, Alliot and Xue poke their heads out from behind a desk. Their faces have the look of bewilderment and confusion on them while their jaws hang open. Ren quickly finds a piece of scrap paper on a desk and quickly scribbles on it. Ren walks over to Alliot and Xue. Ren hands a piece of paper. It’s the location of a spot to pick up dead drops. Alliot wordlessly takes it and Ren rushes back to help Hannigan with his rituals. As Ren approaches, Hannigan prepares for another ritual.

  “Man, Alon came in with some talent.” Hannigan nods at Ren’s work ethic.

  Meanwhile Alon files out with the others.

  “Has that man been sitting on such talent while I was away?” Alon gives a shrug as he leaves the two to their work.

  “You looking for more magic work after we create an anima node in this city?” Hannigan asks Ren.

  The door closes before Ren answers.

  “I don’t know what that is.” Ren says. “You never told anyone about the details of the plan.”

  “Well, look. I didn’t know anyone would get it if I explained.” Hannigan chuckles. “Anyway, the ritual is going to create an anima node. We use that to build an anima network. We gain the benefits of all that magic and the Razneck empire hooks us up with tons of stuff. I don’t know what Alon promised you, but I’m getting an artifact that… well, it’s a rarity that I hesitate to talk about before I can get my hands on it. I’m sure it’s been rough sneaking into the city with Alon and his crew, but if you want you can join up with my crew I’d be happy to have you aboard.”

  “Cool.” Ren says.

  “Stick with me and I’ll make sure you get far in the Heart of Destiny.”

  “What are you doing?” Warumasa asks.

  “I am embedding the girl in the enemy ranks.” Agnoir says.

  “Why?” Warumasa asks.

  “To spy on them. Maybe stab them in the back later.” Agnoir says.

  “What? Hey wizard, you getting any of this?” Warumasa scoffs. “Surely, you have a problem with this too!”

  “I don’t really care.” Apherward says. “This magic bores me. This man is nothing but a child grasping at straws. Although, I suppose this is just a day job for him.”

  “And you think putting up with this strange spy mission does not pose a danger to the girl?” Warumasa scoffs.

  “I’m sure the girl will be fine.” Apherward says. “You’re just pissy because you can’t do anything but normal attacks with her arm broken.”

  “And it wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t get in close with a brute of a chimera.” Agnoir sneers at the demon.

  “Ugh! This is the worst idea.” Warumasa groans.

  “And what would you suggest?” Apherward demands. “She just starts stabbing them all?”

  “Yes! The troublesome chimera are in cages!” Warumasa says. “The girl can stab them all right now!”

  “Oh, this demon.” Agnoir groans. “He’s a hammer and every problem looks like a nail.”

  “Damn it, woman! I am a sword!”