Grizz got a shot of a strange green drink which smelled absolutely horrendous. Orou was excited to try out some of the drinks that Edum offered, but after seeing what Grizz ordered, he was hesitant on even approaching Grizz, not to mention tasting it himself. “Come on, it tastes a lot better than it smells, I promise you,” even though Grizz was edging on Orou, it seemed to have the opposite effect on Orou as he slowly started slithering further and further away from Grizz, hoping to escape the horrendous smell.

The two of them spent around thirty minutes simply playing around with Grizz trying his best to convince Orou to have a taste and Orou refusing despite everything that Grizz said. The rest of the patrons were looking at them weirdly, but neither Orou nor Grizz cared about what others thought of them. They finally stopped once the shadowy figure came back, by his side a rat-like beastman. He was looking around for something with his two beady and shifty eyes and as soon as he spotted Grizz, he started heading straight towards him.

“Why do you keep ordering this disgusting drink every time you’re here, it’s like you’re purposefully trying to scare away the patrons here with its vile smell,” the rat beastman sat down next to the two of them and immediately began talking. His voice was squeaky and he spoke quickly, by the time Orou turned his head around, the rat beastman had fully finished his sentence. Grizz simply grinned and picked up the green drink, downing it in one go. Grizz coughed a few times and his face twisted in agony, though the smile was still on his face.

“It’s nice to see you again Mar. I saw your brother in Lium about a month or two ago, so you’ll be pleased to know that he’s well,” Mar’s smile quickly turned into a frown upon the mention of his brother. Mar coughed a few times before he shifted his gaze to the empty shot glass, and not meeting Grizz’s eyes, he said: “Haven’t you heard? Lium has already fallen to the rebel army and I’m not sure what has become of my brother, I hope he’s safe but I’m not awfully optimistic about his chances.”

Grizz seemed to genuinely surprised upon hearing this, his face still partly stupefied as he asked Mar: “What? How come I haven’t heard of this, shouldn’t it be huge news if it was true?” Mar placed his finger against his lips and quietly whispered to Grizz: “Although the king was absolutely furious, his advisors have done everything they can to suppress the news from travelling. Most likely, they’re building up their army in hopes of destroying the invading force before full-fledged revolts will happen.” Grizz had a conflicted expression on his face, he sighed to himself, before asking Mar to tell him the full story.

“Well, I don’t know too much about what happened in Lium, but I can try to explain. From what I’ve heard, the revolting army simply showed up next to Lium and immediately began wrecking havoc. Beastman with red eyes and black tattoos on their bodies, armed with proper armor and swords, started going through the town, no guard there being a match for them. Still, while the upper city fell, the parliament of bats took action and collapsed every entrance into the under city. I told my brother to not stay with the bats, but no, he wouldn’t listen to me. I hope he hasn’t turned into a sapphire yet.”

Grizz took a moment to ponder what Mar just said before condoling Mar: “I’m sure that your brother is perfectly fine, he knows what to do and what to avoid in order to not provoke attention.” Mar simply shrugged and ordered a shot of a clear liquid, partially resembling water. Grizz motioned to the bartender to get him another shot before he continued: “I’m here on a few different matters. I know that you don’t do this for free, so I’ve gotten a little gift for you,” and as Grizz said that, he pulled a small box out of his backpack. Mar’s eyes started glimmering as he excitedly took off the lid of the box before exclaiming in shock. Inside of it was some colored dust, which frankly didn’t seem like something to be freaking out about, in Orou’s opinion at least.

“This should cover the costs of everything I’m about to ask of you and be enough for a future favor or two, should it not?” Grizz cracked a smug smile as Mar quickly closed the box and pocketed it, carefully looking around for anyone who might’ve witnessed the transaction between the two of them.

“Right, first thing is first, we’re likely going to be staying for multiple days so we need a place to stay for the night. You know the criteria, it must be hidden and safe, preferably as close to your boss as possible,” Mar was excitedly writing down what Grizz was saying, nodding along to every criteria that Grizz demanded. Immediately after Grizz said all that he had to say, his eyes lit up as he said: “I know of a place like that, an abandoned storefront that used to belong to a fortune teller before she was executed for spreading rumors about the fall of the kingdom. Rarely anyone passes by there and those that do are boss’ men.”

“Good, the next thing I need is information on the king’s palace and the goings on within. That means everything on how’s the security looking like and the most detailed info you can find on the king’s shaman, which includes times when he’s strolling in the garden and times he’s off in his study.” Mar was visibly troubled with Grizz’s request and he kept scribbling something on the piece of paper that he was writing on. He thought about it for a while before he finally responded: “It’s going to take quite a lot of digging to find out that information so it might be a few days before I can respond back to you. Also, I’m starting to think that this little box won’t be enough, the prices for these kinds of things have been on the rise ever since the signs of a revolution, everyone is interested in what the king is going to do, simply to be ahead of the market.”

Grizz once more opened his backpack and pulled out a similar looking box. Mar’s face was the epitome of greed as he stared at the box, but Grizz didn’t hand it over to him just yet. He lifted the lid to reveal some sort of strange sand, black and white grains of sand were mixed together in a chaotic matter. It was Mar’s turn to be dumbfounded as he simply stared at the box, his hands reaching over to grab it.

“Since I’m going to have to be paying extra, I might as well go all the way. I want all the current and future information you might have on the revolution and the moves of important players in the city. I want to make sure that you’re the first to inform me on any major events that might be transpiring,” Mar seemed to be absent-minded as Grizz dictated his conditions for surrendering the box in his hands. Without even writing any of the conditions down, he excitedly shook his head up and down. As Grizz handed over the box, Mar gingerly held it up in fear of dropping it and he once more nodded his head to Grizz before excitedly taking off.

“I’m expecting the place for us to live in to be ready in a few hours, you better not let me down Mar.” Grizz left a few parting words as Mar exited the inn, he turned back to Orou and with a thoughtful smile on his face, he said: “It seems that we’ll be staying here for more than a couple of days.”