Chapter 2 - Pre-Job Setup

  5 months Earlier

  “Are you Okay?” the man asked, waving a hand in front of Cal’s face.

  Cal blinked a couple of times, stepping away from the intrusive hand and looked from where he had been staring, to the newly arrived man next to him. “Oh, sorry, I was just listening to that story teller.” He pointed his thumb back over his shoulder towards the old man talking to the group of kids.

  Cal was a young man, in his early twenties with an athletic build and handsome features despite a small scar through his right eyebrow. He had thick shaggy brown hair that he kept cut to ear length. It lightly obscured his grey eyes, but not enough to be a hassle. He wore light nondescript clothing with a leather vest for their meeting but had a sword on his left hip indicating that he was right handed. His lightly sun kissed skin, height and rounded ears marked Cal as a human, the continent of Ursa’s dominant species.

  “Oh yeah? What story was he telling? Holly Hasbin and the Sorethat? Jasper and the Mimics?” the man asked. “Oh Was it Gabby Galler and the goblin gobbler?”

  “Nope, the story of the Starlings and Vengeance.” Cal replied, stretching and turning away from the story teller completely. “One of my favourites,”

  “Ah,” the man replied. “You know it’s not real, right? Its a metaphor. It just means, like… don’t try to take vengeance.”

  Cal frowned in confusion and cocked his head to the side. “That makes less sense than it being real. Our money has their faces on the coins so…” He said, then shook his head and crossed his arms over his leather armour.

  To be totally fair, Cal mostly thought that the story was an exaggerated myth with little to no truth in it but the nation was named after those heroes, and their money had had the faces of five members of the Starlings on it since it’s founding, so who was he to say? It was clear that they were, at least, very important. Whether they did all that people said they did was immaterial.

  “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. I didn’t ask you here to critique my story preferences, Jask. Did you get everything?”

  The man, Jask, nodded and pulled his backpack off his back, setting it down on the floor. He was a guard that Cal had met in a tavern a few nights earlier - met in and then beat severely at cards and dice. Today he was as off duty as it was possible for a guard to be. Not only was he not keeping the peace but he was selling illicit goods to an adventurer in return for cancelling out his debt and paying a little extra on the side. “Everything you’ll need to-”

  “Don’t say it out loud, idiot.” Cal sighed, shaking his head. “You want us both arrested?”

  “I wasn’t going to mention the tavern.” Jask said, annoyance and hurt in his voice.

  “The tavern? What tavern? Where we met? That part’s not illegal!” Cal hissed, exasperated. “You’re a guard! You should know-“ He stopped himself. “You know what, It’s fine, never mind, no harm. Just… be more careful.”

  Jask nodded, an embarrassed glow to his cheeks. “So did you want to check the merchandise before paying or…”

  Cal hadn’t been planning to, he’d assumed that Jask would be competent, but after the last few moments… “Yeah, lets slip into an alley or something where nobody will see.” He said. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just… you know, standard operating procedure. It’s not my money after all.”

  “Oh right, yeah, of course.” Jask said, picking the bag back up. It looked heavy, which hopefully meant that he’d gotten everything they’d need.

  They stood in the City of Vanderheim, capital of, not just the state of Vanderheim but of the nation of the Silver Starling Alliance. The crown jewel of the alliance, Vanderheim city was a metropolis with people from every race and culture you could imagine. It was one of the oldest cities in the nation, known far and wide for artistry, craftsmanship and diversity. There were seemingly people everywhere, and yet even in a city such as this an adventurer or a crook could find a quiet place to talk in private.

  Cal lead Jask down an alley and through into a small square between the buildings. Someone had left out a table so Cal walked over to it and motioned for the other man to put down the bag. He did as he was told and Cal leaned over.

  With a quick tug on the bags drawstrings he pulled it open, then reached inside and started pulling items out.

  Two guards helmets and armoured uniforms, which he placed to one side of the table. A pair of regulation short swords went next to them. A letter - though it had been crumpled a little - with the governors seal on it, unbroken, went down next. It was followed by two black sacks, a set of guards keys and finally a guard issue void bag.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Cal held up the void bag, about the size of a simple purse, and emblazoned with the Vanderheim Guards insignia. He pulled the top open and the opening split wider than you’d expect, large enough to put a breast plate into, which caused Cal to frown and look back over all of the other pieces.

  For the Dawn’s sake, Why on Stj?rna didn’t he use the void bag to carry it all? Cal wondered to himself.

  He shook his head and looked back over the items. This was almost everything.

  “Well?” Jask asked.

  “Well…” Cal said. Looking back up at the man. “It’s missing the map. I need to know how to get to cell nine.”

  Jask looked confused for a moment, then replied. “But… it’s just one room, shouldn’t you be able to find your man when you enter?”

  Cal eyed the guard with a brow raised. “You think I’m breaking someone out?”

  “Well… yeah, why else would you need all this?”

  Cal didn’t answer immediately, he looked back at the gear and shook his head. “Never mind.” He replied. “Just tell me which one is cell nine, I don’t want to have to search for it. And how do you get to the jail cells from the front desk. I gotta look like I know where I’m going”

  “Its the last one on the left.” Jask said. “There’s only eleven cells. Should be easy to find. And the cells are just through the door behind the front desk and then through the door on the left.”

  Cal shook his head. “How do people not get broken out constantly? That’s barely secure.”

  Jask shrugged. “Most people in those cells are petty thieves, or drunks, they get out next day anyway. The ones that stay longer don’t have friends, let alone friends like you lot to break them out- s’why I was so surprised when you said you’d pay me more than I owed you.”

  Cal nodded and started packing the equipment into the void bag. “Fair enough.” He said. He didn’t want to say much more in case the man realised that they weren’t breaking someone out. “I can take care of this, you can head off.” Cal said, reaching into his satchel and pulling out a small purse. He handed it over and Jask opened it up. There was a mixture of the nation’s third and fourth highest denomination of coin inside. About thirty small silver coins and a half dozen small gold ones. Princes and Queens. He probably could have paid much less, but on the off chance that Jask could be useful in the future it made sense to pay him well. It would also encourage him from telling anyone.

  Or at least that had been his thought before he’d tried to shoot his mouth off in the square earlier.

  He was regretting the decision now, but he couldn’t go back on the deal, it would have cost him more in future trust than he was willing to pay.

  Cal guessed from the guards wide eyed shock that he was much more used to seeing the bronze coins known as Peasants - more commonly ‘sants’ - and the Princes than the Queens. Cal almost laughed thinking about how Jask would have reacted if he’d thrown him a gold and platinum coin known as a king. He couldn’t even imagine what the man’s reaction would have been had he seen the wholly platinum coin sat in cal’s emergency hiding spot. It was a perfectly legitimate denomination called an Emperor - an emp - but they came up so rarely in normal life that some didn’t even believe they really existed. They were worth so much that they were mostly used as mercantile, military or national resources and were so rarely talked about that most people didn’t bother shortening the name and continued to call them Emperors.

  Jask pulled out a Queen and eyed it, at first critically and then with wonder. Guards got paid in Princes and Sants, so a queen was probably the highest denomination that he’d ever seen and this one was probably the first he’d ever held. It was a valuable little coin, but nothing much to look at, unlike a King which was made by pressing a piece of heated platinum into the centre of a larger gold piece, with a coin mould that had a face on one side and the alliance crest on the other.

  Each denomination had a different face on, each supposedly a hero of the starlings. The Platinum Emp had Grotgur Stonefire’s face, the gold and platinum King had Dian Cecht, the gold queen had Kessala’s face, the silver Prince had Eonar Beeldhouwn’s and the bronze sant had Baur Lothdgar’s face on it.

  Or so the coins said. As far as Cal was aware all of them were long since dead and it was impossible to know for sure whether or not the engravings looked anything like the heroes of old.

  Of course, if it was true that the events of the story had been five hundred years ago, then it was technically possible that the elf, Kessala was out there somewhere, so what did Cal know?

  The interesting part about Kings though wasn’t the face or the crest, but the platinum spot in it’s centre. Each King coin’s spot was different, they weren’t made with any sort of precision which made every one a unique coin that could be collected, if you were so inclined. And rich.

  The real collectors pieces though were Kings from ten or so years back. Back then the coins were pressed without heating so people would pick the platinum out and sell it, without lowering the value of the coin. Those coins were no longer legal currency, but they were worth almost as much as an emp to the right lord.

  Jask dropped the coin back into the bag, satisfied and put it into his backpack, which he retrieved from the table as Cal finished dropping what he’d bought into the void bag, which he deposited in his satchel.

  “Well it was a pleasure doing business with you.” The guard said. “Look me up if you need anything else, happy to work with you again.”

  Gods I hope that never happens. Cal thought, however istead of revealing those thoughts, as he stood he instead patted Jask on the shoulder and said, “It’s been fun, see you when I see you.” He turned and began to march away at double speed.

  Cal rounded the corner and continued out onto the street, disappearing into the crowd before Jask could try to partake in any more small talk. When he’d found him a few nights earlier he’d been so stoic and grumpy, likely after a hard days work patrolling the city, Cal wouldn’t have dreamed that he’d have been so talkative and sloppy once they got into business together. The quicker he got back to the other members of his group the better.

  It didn’t take long for Cal to return to the tavern that the group was staying at. He was fairly sure that Jask hadn’t been tailing him, so he only doubled back and went round the block twice before returning to the Playful Lox.