There was only one other airship docked at the Mthatha tower. It meant that Hugo’s arrival would be noteworthy. The fact that his tunic was bloodstained wouldn’t help things either. Luckily, he had a solution to that and imbued the disregard runes again. It took a lot of mana, but he still had fifty points when he was done. The advantages of having a huge mana pool.

Just as he got off the airship, he activated the runes and walked down the stairs. Sadly, no elevator in this tower. Once he was down to the ground level, he ducked into a clothing shop and threw on a tunic. He had to drop the payment on the counter because the shopkeeper ignored him.

Shortly after that, the runes ran out. Hugo looked around the city. He would have to be quick if he was going to get this to work. Where would a relatively easy to steal mana core be? He had no idea.

He didn’t have the time to slowly develop contacts and stake out places to rob. He needed to be in and out of town within twenty four hours. After that, the news of a suspicious airship was guaranteed to cause him problems. He would have to find somewhere realistic, or it was time for him to blow up a shimmer processing plant.

Wandering around town was frustrating. The city was geared towards the farming industry. Mana cores were a luxury, and half of the city seemed to be grain silos and warehouses. He was slowly realizing that this was an unrealistic goal. He wasn’t going to find a mana core he could steal in the time frame he gave himself.

At one point he thought he saw the runic mountain guide brothers carrying their strange explosives. As he got closer, he realized it was just a pair of similar looking men. They were carrying bollards used to close down a road to cart traffic. He wondered where they were going.

Hugo decided to follow them because he literally didn’t have a better idea. Three blocks later he saw their destination. A huge crowd of chanting people standing in front of a factory. The burly men set the bollards down and blocked off the street. The crowd shouted in joy and welcomed them to the cause.

“People United, will never be defeated!” the crowd chanted, “People dying, can’t you see, it’s time to fix this industry!” The crowd repeated those two chants over and over again.

Hugo walked up to the edge of the crowd and asked a bystander, “What are they yelling about?”

“Threshing safety. The factory processes grain for shipment, and they just had another guy die in the machine. They are trying to strike. Bad business, that,” the guy said. He shook his head and hurried away.

Hugo nodded absentmindedly. He had heard about a few other strikes across the wheel. The strikes never ended well for the workers. Sometimes they got replaced, sometimes they got killed then replaced.

It was always going to be that way when workers didn’t have powerful people within their ranks. Mages and Shimmer Corps might keep each other in check, but manual laborers were always beneath them both.

It didn’t take long for Hugo to grow bored. Before he walked away, a stout worker saw him standing there and yelled out, “Who are you working for? Are you a spy or a scab?”

Hugo looked behind himself, no one was there. He turned back and calmly said, “I’m not working for anyone. I’m not even from here. I am not involved with whatever this is.”

The stout man nodded and said, “Sorry about that. You just looked a little strange with your armor under your tunic.”

Remembering how strange he looked to anyone that took a close look at him, Hugo nodded and walked away. He needed to get out of this outfit. He walked back towards the clothing stores and bought himself new pants and shoes. The old ones, along with his bloodstained tunic and armor got thrown in the trash. He felt like an all new man.

A poor man.

He had spent most of his money and only had a few silver left. That was enough for poor quality clothing. He had gotten used to the high end stuff and hated how much this stuff itched. Still, it was an effective disguise, he looked like everyone else now.

Wandering the city hadn’t given him any ideas, so he walked into a bar. The two copper novels he used to read said that detectives got their best information from the bartender. If that works, great, if not, at least he would have a drink.

The dim bar was a sad place in the early afternoon. Hugo asked for a house beer and took a look at the alcoholics and day drinkers in the bar with him. None of them looked like they cared about their appearance at all. He took a sip of his beer and his eyebrows rose.

“This is really good,” Hugo said to himself, shocked.

“Yeah, we make it here in town, one of our best exports,” the bartender said.

“I have heard your little town has a lot of exports. Must be a lot of rich nobles and merchants about,” Hugo said.

The bartender shrugged, “I guess. I suspect it’s the average amount for most cities. Is that different where you come from?”

Hugo sighed. This was going to take a while to get the conversation going in the direction he wanted.

...

Three hours later Hugo found himself back at the factory. The striking workers weren’t chanting anymore, but they did continue to walk around and make sure no one was entering the facility. Hugo looked around for the same stout guy as before, but he found him first.

“You are back,” the short worker said.

“Yes, I recently found out that you and I might be able to help each other out,” Hugo said with a smile, “Who is in charge here? I want to make a proposal.”

“We are all in charge,” the man said, “If one of us dies, the rest of us will pick up the charge.”

Hugo took a deep breath, “Yes, I get that. You have to be careful about letting strangers into your organization. You can’t let the strike breakers kill one man and the whole movement is lost.”

The man gave him a flinty stare.

Hugo continued, “But I just need to talk to someone that can make decisions for the group. I don’t care if it's one person or three. I just have a quick proposal that I think you all will appreciate. I would love to talk about it somewhere more private.” After a pause, Hugo continued, “I promise this will be worth your time.”

The man grunted and said, “Give me a minute. A few of us might be bored enough to listen to you a little longer.”

Hugo nodded. The man disappeared into the crowd. Hugo took the time to practice his story. The conversation with the bartender had gone terribly, but after dancing around it for a while, he just asked which buildings had mana cores. The bartender and patrons worked together to give him their best guesses. To his surprise, the factory in front of him was one of their guesses. There were four large threshing and canning factories in town, and they guessed that each one had their own mana core. The work needed to continue even in the case of a power outage or shimmer heartbeat. Hugo had thought of a story that might convince these workers to help him. Maybe.

After five minutes passed, the stout man returned with three people, a human man, a woman, and a riese woman. They agreed to talk to him in exchange for an early dinner at a local tavern.

Hugo made sure to get a seat in the corner. He spent the last of his money to buy the five of them a meal. As they started eating, Hugo said, “You don’t have any leverage.”

“Huh?” the human woman said.

“For the strike. You don’t have any leverage. Cartwright owns the factory, has loyal guards, and is lining up scabs as we speak. He can afford mage strikebreakers. He has leverage. You don’t,” Hugo said, referencing the owner of the factory they all worked in.

The stout man swore at him and said, “We have leverage. It takes training and skill to operate those machines. You can’t take anyone off the street and expect them to be able to operate big bertha or the rattler.”

“He can and does. You know what people will do if someone pays them enough. They don’t have to do a good job, they just have to get grain moving through the conveyer belts. So what if scabs are slow? They don’t have to do a better job than you, they just have to outlast you,” Hugo said, “Now I am not saying this to get you mad. I just want to make sure you are aware of the situation. And offer you a chance to get your own leverage.”

The four of them continued to eat. Hugo let the silence linger.

Eventually the riese said, “Well, out with it. What kind of leverage do you want to sell us?”

Hugo shook his head, “I don’t want to sell you anything. I just want to help you take hold of your own destiny. Cartwright has all the cards. It’s time you took one of them so he will come to the bargaining table. I want to help you borrow one of his mana cores.”

The riese scoffed, “At least you bought us lunch before you started spouting nonsense.”

Hugo smiled. He held out his hand and created a small marble of titanium in his hands, and then covered it in a blue barrier. He handed it over to the only person that hadn’t talked yet, the nondescript human man. “I have a few skills that will make the job easier.”

“Mage,” the riese said, spitting it out like a curse word.

“Yes. You have the knowledge of the factory and where the mana core is housed, and I have the skills necessary to help you borrow the mana core,” Hugo said pleasantly.

“That’s ridiculous. No one takes a mana core and lives to tell the tale,” the woman said.

The older man ignored her and said, “You keep saying borrow, why is that?”

This guy must be the true leader of the union. Hugo addressed him and said, “Stealing a mana core is dangerous. Mages and shimmer corps are very motivated to get them back. However, if you borrow a mana core and leave instructions on how Cartwright can easily get it back... That’s a different story. He might not even hire hunters to get the core back. He might actually come to the negotiating table with you.”

The riese scoffed. Hugo ignored her. He focused on the older man, who seemed to be considering it.

“What do you get out of this?” the older man said.

Hugo shrugged, “You mean besides the joy of knowing that no one is getting killed in the factory anymore?” When no one answered, Hugo continued, “Alright, fine. I am trying to sell security runes to the nobles in town. I have been through here twice in the last year. No one wants to beef up their security. If Cartwright has a mana core stolen, he is much more likely to buy them for all of his factories. Then I have my in.”

The four of them sat back, thinking for a bit.

The riese said, “Where are we supposed to hide it? They can see mana, you know that right? Something like a mana core is a bright light. They can see it anywhere in town.”

“That’s not quite how that works, but you have the right idea. Mana cores have enough mana that they can be seen through walls. They are usually protected by tracking wards as well. Luckily, I have a solution for all of that. A lead lined box. It will stop all magic, regardless of what countermeasures they have in place,” Hugo said.

The older man sat back and softly said, “It might work.”

“It’s a ridiculous risk,” the riese said.

“You are already risking your lives by striking in front of Cartwright’s factory. Why not take a risk that actually has a chance of getting you what you want?” Hugo said, “Come on. Even if he doesn't negotiate with you afterwards, you have a mana core you can sell.”

The older man nodded his head and said, “You have given us a lot to think about. Give us a few days. If Cartwright still hasn’t negotiated with us by then, we might be open to more drastic measures.”

Hugo shook his head, “The strike breakers are coming tomorrow afternoon. I heard about it this morning. If we are going to do this, it has to be tonight.”

“Tomorrow? They got scabs coming tomorrow? Are you sure about that?” the woman said.

“No, not scabs. Strike breakers. As in thugs with magic that will kill maim and kill people until the rest of you go back to work. They are taking a train over from Tallinn tomorrow. There is a reason no one strikes in Tallinn. Those guys are brutal,” Hugo said.

There was general swearing in response to that. The old man stood up and said, “We need to let people know this is coming. Come back to this tavern at nightfall and we will see if there is anything we want to do with you then.”

Hugo nodded, but the four of them were already walking away. He calmly finished his meal. And the meal of the others. He had missed lunch and they hadn’t touched their pastry wrapped sausages.

Hopeful that they would agree, Hugo went back to the airship to get one of the lead lined boxes. He took the time to greet the night shift attendant and make sure he knew that Hugo was allowed on the ship. The young woman didn’t object since he had the key.

He returned to the tavern and enjoyed the Mthatha beer. His soulmarked regeneration kept him from getting drunk, and he could just relax and wait for them to make up his mind. He didn’t have to be stressed about getting that final mana core, they would either help him out or he would end up in a random body in the past. It was out of his hands. He spent the time slowly drinking and fabricating things during his bathroom breaks.

Three hours later, the stout man appeared at the tavern door. He motioned for Hugo to leave with him and walked back out. Hugo drained his cup and followed after him.