He was led through a back entrance into the main room. A lobby where customers were served drinks, listened to music, and played games. All the servers, musicians, and game dealers, all also worked as prostitutes in addition to fulfilling their other duties. There were booths to each side, where you could sit as if eating a meal, but the establishment didn’t serve food. Instead, the patrons would take their chosen whore there for a conversation before moving to the upper floors.

There were a couple of dozen men visible from where he stood. He recognized some of the men, people from the fighter’s guild, but he couldn’t see Bantam. He could have been in one of the booths, they were obscured enough that he couldn’t be sure if Bantam was in one of them. He moved along the edge of the room to talk to one of the servers. She was young and beautiful, with dark black hair and the tanned skin characteristic of the city Heratio came from. She was separated from the crowd enough that Heratio thought he could easily talk to her without others overhearing or attracting too much attention.

“How do you do?” Asked Heratio.

“Splendid. Would you like a drink?”

“Yes. I would like an ale, and maybe an answer to a question too.”

“Is the question my name, perchance? My name is Hynellia, what would yours be?”

“My name is Cronus.”

“Cronus, I wouldn’t have guessed that. That’s a Venocian name. I would have guessed you had a Brenish name.”

“Your name aswell is Venocian though, is it not? But you have the look of someone from Bren.”

“When I was born, Bren had already fallen. I was born here, in Venocia, and so was given a Venocian name.”

“That question though, was not my question. I wanted to ask you something else, but first I’ll have that ale. I’ll take it in one of those booths, and perhaps you could join me for a conversation too.”

“I’d gladly join you if you treat me to a glass of milk,” she said. Heratio nodded, then she led Heratio to an empty booth. Once Heratio sat down, she lit the lantern on the table and shut the curtain to the booth. “Sit here. I’ll be back shortly with your drink.”

She made good on her word, returned with the two glasses. She put the tankard of ale in front of Heratio and sipped on her glass of milk. “The two drink and the company comes to thirty conti.” She pressed her side up against Heratio’s arm and stared up into his eyes. She played her role as a seductress well enough, he thought. Maybe he would enjoy the evening with her but first, Heratio knew, he had to contact Bantam.

He pulled a lone venti he had prepared from the breast pocket under his armor and placed it on the table.

“I plan on spending more than thirty conti. So I’ll just leave this on the table for now and we’ll settle up later. How about that?”

“That’s fine. So it sounds like you have big plans for tonight.”

“You could say that. Now, for the question I had. I’m looking for someone, a man named Bantam.”

“You know, we at The Blue Rose pride ourselves on being discreet,” she said, keeping her sultry tone. She ran her fingers along Heratio’s arm. “I can’t answer questions about patrons. But if you were just looking for a man. That is, if you were of a more select taste, there are some quite handsome men working here that I could have join us.”

“I need to see Bantam about some business. If you can’t answer about him as he would be a patron, maybe there is an alternative. If he is here, could you do me a favour and inform him that I am here? Tell him that H–… Hm. Tell him that a man he worked with is here. Keppe and Figaro’s friend. He’ll know me only as a friend of Figaro. If you tell him that, I'm sure he’ll happily come down to speak with me.”

“And what if he gave a false name when he entered?”

“He is a tall man with a Venocian look about him. Brown hair, green eyes. He comes here regularly and I hear he frequents someone in particular.”

“What will I receive for doing this favour for you?”

“Fifty conti.”

“I’ll ask around about this Bantam fellow.” Hynellia grabbed the venti from off the table and separated from Heratio, then left the booth.

Heratio slowly sipped on his ale as he waited and by the time Hynellia returned his tankard was more than half empty.

“He may or may not appear. But for now, what shall we do?” She snuggled back up next to Heratio, her breasts pressed against his arm. She ran her fingers over his leather chest armor, something that Heratio couldn’t through the material. “You know, I think you must be awfully uncomfortable in that armor. This place is safe. We check everyone for knives before they enter so that our customers can feel truly relaxed while they are here.”

Heratio thought it over. The armor did make him stand out. It would also make him seem less threatening to Bantam should he arrive. But, Augustus had ordered him to be careful and he still prioritized his orders.

Heratio reached over and grabbed Hynellia’s chest. “I’m comfortable enough as it is, for now.”

“I can provide you some more company for another twenty conti.”

“Alright, you already have my coin.”

The two waited together in the booth with Heratio enjoying himself by indulging slightly. He drank another tankard of ale and just as he downed the last sip of that cup the curtain opened.

It was Bantam. He was dressed in light linen, the type of clothes he probably slept in, and his movement immediately showed he had plenty to drink already. He crashed into the opposite side of the booth. Placing his head against the wall and his legs taking up the rest of his side of the booth.

“Heratio!” Bantam said with a laugh. “They told me some guy named Cronus was here to see me. And I was left thinking, who’s this Cronus? Then they told me he was Figaro’s friend and so I figured I’d come down and see what it was all about.”

Heratio pushed the lady off of him, and she complied readily. “Hynellia, if you’ll excuse us, I just need to discuss a few things in private with him.”

Without a word she stood up and left the booth, closing the curtains as she left.

“Bantam, you need to leave the city. If you are willing to come with me, we can go to the docks tonight and I’ll pay for your voyage.”

“Why do I need to leave?” Bantam said with a grin as if Heratio’s statement were just a joke.

“Keppe has been caught. He was tortured and is sentenced to be hanged in a couple of days. They’ll come for you soon enough unless you’re out of the city. If they found Keppe, it won’t be long before they have you too. They probably already have your name from Keppe’s very lips. You need to run and hide.”

“Keppe?” The grin disappeared. “Keppe hasn’t been around lately. He’s going to be hanged?”

“Yes, and if you don’t want to be hanged you’ll come with me tonight!”

There was a look of contemplation on Bantam’s face as he stared off into nowhere. “But…”

“But what?”

“Nothing. I trust you Heratio. You are a friend, have I ever told you how much of a friend you’ve been to me.”

We hardly know each other, was what Heratio wanted to say. Instead, he said, “Yes we are great friends. Then, you’ll come with me to the docks, right? I’ll arrange your voyage. Hopefully, you’ll have enough time before you leave to gather whatever things you need. You won’t need to be gone for long, just long enough for people’s memories to fade.”

It would have been Heratio’s preference to go to Bantam’s home first, get him to collect whatever coin he had then go with him to the docks. But that could have been pushing Bantam’s trust too far. What man wouldn’t get suspicious when asked to go to their home and collect all their coins so that they could walk with you through the dark alleys of the city.

“I did say I trust you, Heratio. We will go to the docks in a little while. When the drink has worn off enough. I must confess, I’m a bit too drunk right now to go stumbling through the city streets.”

The curtain opened up, and to Heratio’s surprise instead of a pretty lady as one might expect, it was two men. They weren’t particularly tall men, but they had the body type of a fighter.

“Greetings, mind if we join you?” Asked one of them.

“Yes we mind,” said Bantam. “This is a brothel, not a place to make friends! If you want to share a drink with someone, go to a tavern.”

The two men ignored Bantam. One pushed his feet to the side, removing them from the chair then sat down, blocking his exit. The other man sat down next to Heratio. They were now trapped.

“We know who you two are. Heratio and Bantam right? We were told to find ya. Don’t worry, just talk. We just want to talk with you about something.”