Cutter moved down the street swiftly and confidently. I was surprised how much his demeanour had changed. He had been the most confident of the three kids in my dining room, but now he was in his element, the street. He knew where he was going, what he was doing.

I drifted along behind him, invisible. He moved quickly, but he couldn’t hope to get away from the speed and endurance that went with being a level four. Not that he was trying to get away - he didn’t know I was there.

A few cuts through alleys - I was learning a few things about getting around in the city - he found what, or rather who he was looking for.

“Toss, mate!” he called quietly. One of the kids in the group across the street looked over at him, and came over.

“What’ya want?” Toss asked once he got closer.

“Got something for ya,” Cutter said. He held his hand so that Toss could see the coin inside. “Someplace more private, yeah?”

Interestingly, what the two were speaking was quite different from how Cutter had been talking before. Still quite intelligible to me, but I wondered if Elodie would be able to understand it.

The two found a back-alley to talk in. Invisible, I couldn’t prompt Cutter, but I’d briefed him thoroughly before he started.

“Here, this is for you,” Cutter said, handing a few copper coins over.

Give them something just for talking with you, I’d said. It shows that you value their time, that you value them. Food is good - he’d started, recognising as I spoke that I’d done the same to them. I’d grinned at him. But money’s better.

“Whats this for?” Toss asked, making the money disappear.

“Show that I’m serious. And so you know that this is between us, yeah?”

“I guess so,” Toss said doubtfully.

Once you give them the money, get a small commitment out of them, it’ll be easier then. And it helps establish the pattern - you give them money, and they do things for you.

“Now, there's more where that came from, you interested?”

“Course,” Toss tried to keep it cool, but I could tell he wanted the money.

“Got me a gent, lots of money, wants eyes in the Rats. Someone to tell us what they’re doing, whats going on in their territory.”

“You want me to rat on the Rats?”

“Yeah. There's good money in it, maybe even good steel if you get me the good stuff.” I’d loaned him my old dagger, and he flashed it at the kid.

“Shit, that's-“

“[Good] quality, yeah. You in?”

“Shit man, I can’t be seeing some geezer all the time.”

“Nah, mate, not how it works. You’ll be working for me. ‘Aint nothing wrong if you have a chat with your old pal Cutter, am I right?”

“I spose…”

“Start by telling me about Trent street - you guys are staying clear of that right?”

Make sure you get something compromising out of him before you go. Maybe the warehouse - they’ve probably been warned off if the Guild has a long term presence there. If you can seem like you know more than they do, it’ll make you look like you have an in with the Guild, so they’ll be scared of you.

“How’d you know bout that?”

“Never you mind, who was it that told you guys to keep clear?”

The kid hesitated, but he soon caved. “Mask.” he admitted.

“Nice work,” Cutter said smiling. He poured five or six copper into the guys hand. “We’ll meet again tomorrow, 8th bell, right here alright? I’ll have more questions, you’ll get more money.” He turned and jogged off, leaving the kid looking at the money in his hand.

Once you’ve got something, cut it short, don’t give him time to ask more questions or have second thoughts. Just get out of there.

Cutter had done his part well, and now it was my turn. I patiently watched the kid as he shook himself and then started hiding his fresh wealth in various places. Then he headed back into Rat territory.

The group he was in had moved down the street a bit, but he didn’t go after them, instead heading further in. This didn’t bode well, but at least it’d be over quickly. I didn’t think kids would have a lot of impulse control, but if he’d sat on this overnight before making a decision, I would have been… majorly inconvenienced.

Sure enough, he made his way to a ruined looking building. A dozen nasty looking kids were hanging out inside. Toss looked around and then went over to one of them.

“Mask!” he said, “You’ll never guess what I heard-“ Then he stopped, frozen.

Mask came over. He was an older kid, maybe as old as 16. “What, brat?” he asked roughly. “What did you hear?”

Toss didn’t say anything. He’d frozen in fear the moment he’d felt the invisible edge of my knife across his throat. [Weapon Mastery] matched my intent exactly - there was no blood, just a cold sensation of sharpness.

Mask, of course, couldn’t see a thing. “What, brat?” he asked again, but Toss couldn’t move. Mask looked down and got a disgusted look on his face. “Damn kid,” he said. I got out of the way before the blow fell, allowing Toss to fall unimpeded. “Get cleaned up, and get out of my sight.”

Toss didn’t need to be told twice. He ran from the room, crying, and as I followed him out, I could smell that he’d pissed himself. Good job me, you made a kid so scared he pissed himself. Mission accomplished. If only.

I followed the kid down to the river. Without any sort of ceremony, he jumped in, soaking his lower half, which I suppose was the best way he had of washing himself. He was still crying, but he’d found a spot away from anyone else, so this was probably my best chance.

[Unseen Sound]

“I toldja this was just between us, didn’t I?” Cutters voice whispered in his ear. Toss jerked violently, away from the voice, falling over in his panic. Now he was all the way soaked. Cutter continued on, “We’re always watching, see? Next time, it won’t be a warning.”

You have defeated Jérôme Plante in a Tier 3 Social Contest! You have earned 5 XP

[Intimidate] Level 2 acquired through use

For gaining a skill level you have been awarded 1 XP

“I got it, Cutter,” the kid stammered. He started crawling out of the river. “I swear, I won’t, I promise…” he kept babbling, but I was already leaving. I’d put the fear in Cutter in this informant, and this was about all the suffering I could stand to watch.

I really hoped I didn’t have to do this with every kid Cutter recruited.

“So I meant to ask before,” I said, freshly out of my evening bath. “Did you have hopes of becoming my [Apprentice]?”

“What, me?” Elodie asked, “What- what made you ask that?” She put down our food - I’d started eating in the kitchen so she didn’t have an excuse not to join me - and sat down.

“I’ve been wondering about it since I learned you had [Scribe],” I said. I started eating my meal, pieces of chicken and vegetables wrapped in pastry. “Don’t get me wrong, it's been very helpful to have you around for the guild accounting, but I couldn’t help wondering if Gustave wanted you to be around as a possible replacement for me.”

“I don’t know anything about that!” Elodie exclaimed, “Why would the Guild-master want to replace you?”

I shrugged. “I’ve been very co-operative with the guild because I want to fit in here and keep them on side… but to Gustave, I’m an unknown quantity. It makes sense that he’d want the option available.”

“So you realised this, and you didn’t say anything about it at the time… because you wanted to be co-operative?” Elodie asked, somewhat incredulously.

“Well, succession planning is an important part of any well-run business. I can’t fault Gustave for a little due diligence.” The business-speak tripped off my tongue with familiar ease, but I reminded myself to keep it simple. Who knew how something like ‘actionable deliverables’ might translated?

“The other reason I didn’t say anything,” I continued, “is that I didn’t want to have to confirm or deny that I had the [Teaching] skill.”

“You have? But that means…”

“I won’t be able to hide that fact if I start teaching [Scribe] to the kids. But I’d prefer it if Gustave didn’t find out right away.” I gave her a significant look.

She blushed. “I won’t tell, miss.”

“Miss?”

“…Kandis.”

I smiled. “Good. So that brings us back to the start of this conversation. You were shortly going to realise that I could teach you [Enchanting], so I thought I’d ask you first: what do you want?”

“I don’t know,” she said, getting flustered. “I never thought about this!”

“That's fine,” I said. “Take all the time you need. You don’t need to give me an answer tonight, or this week. And if you do give me an answer, it doesn’t have to be a final one.”

There was a long pause, which lasted long enough for us both to finish up our dinner. Finally, Elodie looked up from her plate.

“I mean no offence, m-Kandis, but I’m not sure I’m ready for the excitement that comes from being an [Enchanter].”

I grinned. “I think that's more me, than the profession. I’m sure the guild would love to keep you well away from any excitement.” I went to clear up the plates, my impropriety shocking her in to action. Snatching the plates away from me, she went over to the sink to clean them.

“There are other possibilities as well.” I said. “Once you complete Apprentice, you qualify for just about any mage-type profession. I’m actually poorly qualified to educate someone about magic, but you can keep doing this job while you get your skills.”

“Really? Poorly qualified to educate, when you have [Teach]?”

“Yeah… my master didn’t teach me much of that non-skill stuff you mentioned before. I’ve been pretty much feeling my own way.”

“I can’t believe that,” she scoffed. “You’ve been so confident, ever since I met you.”

“Well, bullshit baffles brains.” Elodie gave me funny look at the expression. “Sorry, that's a saying back home.”

“If you say so… anyway, I’d have to get another level before I could complete [Apprentice].”

“Not impossible, remember we’re already committed to escorting those kids through some dungeon levels.”

She shuddered. “I went on a few Guild trips to get my third level. It's horrible in there.”

“No argument there,” I said. “Another possibility is that I can [Teach] you [Teach]. From what you said, you could make some good money with that.”

“You can do that? Can anyone with [Teach] do that?”

“I actually haven’t used [Teach] properly yet, but I think so.”

She frowned. “Shouldn’t the skill be more common then?”

“I don’t know… maybe the [Scriveners] don’t want competition - Teacher might be a more dangerous profession than [Enchanter].”

She thought about that for a moment. “Why are you willing to make competition, Kandis? Why would you do all this for me? I’m your maid, but I get paid for that. Why offer me all this?”

“Hey, I’m not saying I’ll give you everything you want.” Her face fell at my words. “Don’t look at me like that - I’m saying I’ll have conditions - maybe a price.”

I got up and came round to her side of the table. “But honestly, it's not a huge cost for me. There’s time to make a book, and time to use the skill, but that's easily met.” I took hold of her shoulders and looked her in the eye. “It's much more important to me that you decide what you want and don’t choose a path that's wrong for you.”

Is there something wrong with this society? I wondered. I know schools are a mostly modern institution, but this place seems so lacking in any sort of education. Do the Skills have something to do with that?

Answering that question would have to wait, much like Elodie’s decision. I had a lot of more immediate problems to deal with.