Jacksberg Gate Guard's PoV

Ralph liked being a gate guard. Sat around and did nothing all day, and then when people wanted to get in they paid you money. And if a little was taken off the top? No one cared as long as you didn't get too greedy. It was the perfect job in his opinion.

Although the last few days sucked. Instead of coming in people were leaving. He couldn't charge people for leaving. Hopefully they would come back. Was probably because of the damn political factions fighting again. Best decision he ever made was to keep his lowly position and not get entangled in that garbage. Every one of his mates that had joined up with one of those factions always seemed to wind up dead or disappeared. He liked living.

Which meant that when he saw mercenaries coming in to town he gave them a wide berth. A few of the bastards had long memories and if they felt they had been slighted they don't really care about the right and proper way of doing things. Piss off a mercenary group and you wind up with a dagger in your throat while you slept.

And because of that sentiment he was looking sadly at the group that was approaching his gate. They all had dusky cloaks covering them but that didn't hide the weapons they carried. One was obviously a mage with a wicked black staff. Another guy would have given some trees a good run for their money in the hight and girth department. Sheesh. The man's biceps were probably bigger than his torso. Freak.

The big man was in the lead and Ralph said "Mercenaries right?"

After a short pause the man said "Yea. Yup totally mercenaries."

Meh. The big ones were normally dull in the head. Nothing unusual. He started waving them through and said "Just remember if your faction wins whatever the hell is going on good ol' Ralph did you a favor, move along."

The party went in and were flanked by some massive looking dogs. They looked like pups but were bigger than any normal dog he had ever seen. Jeez, someone must have spent some good coin on these people.

As they past Ralph went back to where he was sitting and wondered how things were going to play out. The ones in the army were probably lucky. Word is they should have reached Xalross two days ago.

There was a quiet rumor going around that Jacksberg had entered into an alliance with Shila to split the land between the two. If it was an easy attack they would probably be rolling in loot. Still risky business. He would rather rob people a little at a time with low risk than try to sack a city for one big score. Not to mention an ally one day can just as easily be an enemy the next.

Shaking his head he thought "Fools, the lot of them."

Jim's PoV

The group had all made it safely into Milly's shop. Seems there was a disagreement about something. Davis had been grumpy the past couple days. Something about Forrest and Scarlet looking around for something first?

Jim kind of missed some of the conversation when he was fiddling with his inventory. He found a roach in his hotel and successfully used his inventory to transfer it over into the other world and it didn't die! People and roaches were the same thing right? So there shouldn't be any problem transferring Milly over. Well, if she ever got done packing.

Currently she was handing Jim everything that wasn't nailed down in her shop. Actually she tried to take the front counter which was nailed down. Luckily she couldn't get it up and Jim refused to uproot the thing.

"You finished yet?"

"Just a few more things! And then I still need to get my book from my cousin."

Jim took a deep breath. Once he got her off this world then it would be Charlotte's problem to deal with her. She had manager powers, she would be fine. One eternity later they were ready to go to her cousin's house.

Before they left Davis asked Milly for the third time "Are you sure it's safe here?"

Milly said "Yes, yes it's fine! I still have three more days till the tax collector is due. Already double paid for protection, but that doesn't matter too much now. After that though the tax collector is going to take the shop."

Jim glanced over to his wolf pups. Milly was a VIP and according to the gate guard there were mercenaries all over. He wanted some extra eyes. Damned escort quests. Saying to the group "I am taking the wolf pups. Just be careful til we get back. Still a little fuzzy on what yall are up to but take some of these."

Jim handed everyone 3 full healing and 3 full mana potions each. He was feeling a little protective of his dwindling stockpile of elixirs. Millions of dollars a pop was a lot of money. As he left he wondered how long this was actually going to take. Milly's sense of time seemed to be different from everyone elses.

Gwen's PoV

Gwen watched as Forrest said "You ready Scarlet?"

The woman nodded. Then her brother said "Be careful man. Going on a manhunt inside hostile ground sounds like a suicide mission."

Forrest responded "Sure thing. Hopefully we can just end the threat to King's End before we have to..."

Forrest trailed off as he saw her brothers stormy look. Davis said "Your just going to piss them off more."

Forrest angrily said "Oh you mean like how they are going to be super happy with us when we tell them their little caravan got wiped out?"

Her brother sighed and said "We don't see eye to eye on this. Just be careful, watch your back."

When he said that he gave Scarlet a meaningful look. Forrest rolled his eyes and the pair left.

Gwen tried to calm her brother down and said "He should be fine, that armor of his makes it really hard to see him. If anything they will get Scarlet first with that red armor of hers."

Davis laughed and said "Good way to look at it."

Feeling something hug her leg she looked down to Maria. Sighing she picked the girl up, she was getting almost too big for this.

Gwen said to her "Don't worry, they will be back."

Maria muttered "That woman lies. She said it would only take a little time to pack her stuff. It took all day."

Gwen didn't know what to say, she wasn't wrong. She swayed with the girl like when she was little and patted her back. Half an hour passed with no one talking. Then she heard the little bell on the door go off and she looked up hoping to see Jim or Forrest.

Confused she saw neither. They looked like ruff men, three of them. Maria saw them too and quickly dropped down and picked up her staff. Gwen did the same a second after.

The man gave a snake oil smile and said "Well well, looks like we have new customers! Fantastic! If you could just pay your protection fee we will be right out of your hair!"

Gwen was tired of feeling weak. Her brother was about to say something but she cut him off and said coldly "We both know this place is beyond covered for your so called protection. Get. OUT!"

The last phrase she screamed and then she called her magic. Tapping into the lightning she manifested a ball of it and started pointing at the thugs.

After that the men couldn't get out of there fast enough. Davis turned to her and said "That wasn't a good idea Gwen."

Gwen sighed and said "I am tired of feeling powerless."

Her brother said with some rebuke "You were not powerless at the temple battle."

She shook her head and said "I needed both you and Scarlet to support me or I would have been dead. And if Maria hadn't been keeping them in good shape it would have gone even worse for me."

Davis said forcefully "We are part of a team. Everyone has their role. While that may be true, you caused more deaths than all of us combined."

Gwen had never looked at it like that. She started mulling the idea around in her head and he had a point.

Davis then sighed and said "We need to be ready. Scum like that always has a way of reappearing on your boot."

"What should we do?"

Davis looked at the counter that was still nailed down and then crouched and put his shoulder into it. With a heave he pushed the counter bracing his foot against the back wall. With a screech the desk slowly started tearing the nails out. After a couple more attempts he uprooted the thing.

Davis' PoV

Davis used the hilt of his sword to nail the desk in front of the door. The door opened inward so it would cause a good bit of problems for anyone trying to enter that way. He examined the rest of the area and there was not much.

There was a small staircase to the left that lead to a loft that sat above the doorway. There was a window on each floor. Davis turned to Maria and asked "Your stamina healing spell, you have to touch. But I have seen you touch clothing and not skin. Can it be used on a sword?"

Maria asked "What do you mean?"

Carefully he pointed his blade towards Maria slowly and said "If you touch my sword can you do that stamina healing thing? Like you did back at the battle when you touched my back."

Maria said "I don't know, I can try."

Maria touched the sword and it was enveloped in white light. Davis could feel his stamina recharge. Nodding he said "This is what is going to happen if we get attacked. Gwen you stay at the bottom of the staircase and use it for cover. I will stay out of your line of sight to the right. Maria you will be upstairs in the loft. If I reach my sword up like this."

Davis demonstrated raising his arm up and tapping the loft with his sword "Then you heal my stamina. Otherwise you need to hide and just use your healing spells at range. If they don't see a healer they won't try to attack you, so keep your head down. If someone comes through the top window call down. Everyone got it?"

Gwen asked "Why all the trouble?"

Davis sighed and said "Gwen these people run this entire street. People like that can't be seen to look weak. So if someone causes trouble they make an example out of them."

"Oh."

Davis sighed and said "Surrounded by hot heads. Anyway my stamina just got recharged so get some sleep if you can, I got first watch."

Forrest's PoV

Forrest was looking down on the bloody corpse of Aaron. The night went by in a blur. Scarlet was death in the night. Once she found one person who was in Aaron's gang it quickly became evident that he was a major player in the so called merchant circle.

Scarlet snatched body after body working her way closer to where the man was. She started with a regular foot soldier, who gave information about his sergeant, who gave information about a lieutenant, and finally they found the man.

He still felt rage at the man's words. How could he call wiping out his town "Just doing business?"

Scarlet went into a daze after she got all of the information out of him. Putting his hand on her shoulder he asked "You okay?"

She shook her head and said "All of my friends are probably dead. All of them sent into traps. With Shila and Jacksberg both marching on Xelross, there is little doubt what the outcome would be. Especially after all of her daggers in the night had been taken out by betrayal. But who?

Forrest made a grim face and said "That will probably be easy to answer in time. He will be the only one that isn't dead."

Scarlet nodded. She finally said "I don't know what to do."

Wrapping his arm around her he said "We can always go on an adventure. Jim has two more temples to go to. See the world, and then get to stab things. Then after things cool down we come back and see who isn't dead. How about it?"

Scarlet nodded and said "Yea. That sounds good. Let's go."

When they were about to reach Milly's shop Scarlet held a hand up. Peeking around the corner she said "Trouble."

Taking a look for himself Forrest saw around thirty men preparing to attack the shop. He grinned evilly. He was totally going to win the argument with Davis! He got in way more trouble just by staying in a shop! Haha! Forrest was never going to let Davis live this down!

Grabbing an arrow from his quiver he nodded to Scarlet who already had her daggers in hand. Looks like that adventure was starting a bit sooner than they thought.