Illaria: The Tower

Illaria had returned to the compound earlier than most. She had slipped out while Naya was having Echo evaluated and did a little light shopping around town. She hadn't picked up anything of note, just a few pieces of fruit and foods she enjoyed. When she arrived, the boys were already gone. Instead, she found an old man in simple faded black robes hunched over and leaning on a gnarled wooden walking stick. The insignia of the city embossed on the sleeves of the robes identified him as some official. The scowl on his face and the grumbling under his breath made it clear to her that he was none too pleased to be here.

"Excuse me, but how might I be helping you?" Illaria asked as she entered the compound.

"Are you the owner of this property?" The old man asked as he tried to straighten up and command respect; his best was belied by a small grunt. His head was quickly balding; only cotton ball white hair remained around his ears and neck. He slapped his pencil against the clipboard loudly as he glowered at her.

"Alas, no. Alvec Snaptail is. He was out with a member of the church of Kushang last I knew." Illaria stated.

"Are you able to answer any of these questions?"

"I can try," Illaria said,

"How did you acquire this property?" he asked

"Oh, that's easy; we were gifted it."

The man ticked a few boxes. "How is this building planned to be used?"

"I don't rightly know; we're still appraising it," replied Illarira. "Alvec mentioned he'd like to have a shopfront at some point, but I don't know how realistic that goal might be."

The man checked a few more boxes. "All said and done, twenty years of back taxes, you'll be looking at about 12,000 gold."

"Excuse me? 12,000 gold in back taxes? We didn't even own the property; shouldn't you be seeking out its previous owner for the back taxes?" Illaria asked pointedly.

"When it transferred ownership, you transferred its debts too. That will be due before the end of the month," he stated firmly while pushing a copy of his assessment into her hands. "Now, have yourself a nice day," he said, sneering at her before he limped out of the compound.

Alvec wasn't going to like this development.

Illaria glanced over the copy of the report. Her adoptive parents had ensured she could read as well as swing a sword. So, while the document was still a bit much for her, she could spot one major flaw, which she hoped might give someone more legally minded a chance of lowering the total. He'd marked that Alvec had inherited the property. Unless Cellocht had a secret Tiefling love child, this was simply not accurate. She didn't have to wait too long for Mavec and Alvec to arrive through the gate.

"I'm afraid I've got more bad news for you, Alvec. We just had a tax appraiser stop by; they claim you owe 12,000 gold pieces, due by the end of the month." The Tiefling tensed and clenched his jaw. Illaria knew it likely would be an insurmountable number even if the young man leveraged everything he had to the hilt. Granted, he had enough magic items on him to at least convince someone with deep pockets that his services could be handy.

"Any chance they flubbed the numbers?" Alvec asked.

"The raw numbers, no. Their math checks out, but I did notice that they wrote down that you inherited this rather than were gifted it. Perhaps that might make a difference?" Illaria asked.

"We were already preparing to go to the lawyers down the street anyway; now we've just got more to talk to them about," Mavec said.

"Any luck with the scary door problem?" Illaria asked.

"A bit; we know a wizard named Vato stole an urn twenty years ago, and the ghost refuses to let people in until it's returned. Additionally, Vato disappeared without a trace," Alvec added.

"What else did we have to discuss with them?" Illaria asked.

"Alvec and I figured that if Vato was to go somewhere off the grid, the best place to do that would be inside Throne Land," Mavec suggested. "They aren't checked up on frequently, and if he was this master diviner, he could have seen far enough out to know which one would go uninspected."

"Alrighty then, I do suppose we should be making our way on over there," said Illaria.

"I'll let you guys handle that. I'm going to stay here and prepare a plan. If we can't get the price lowered, we'll need someone like the Church of Kushang to front us the money. It might be hard to convince them to if we don't have a business plan. If we can prove to them that we'll provide value to the neighborhood, we'll have a much better shot of getting them on board with loaning us a lot of money," Alvec said.

"Alright, we'll visit the lawyers then," Mavec said.

"Did anyone see where Bait went?" Illaria asked.

"He was asking me about where to find peacocks and peahens. I told him to go check out the eastern side of the city. Haven't seen him since," Alvec said.

"Well, if he doesn't turn up by morning, I'll have to check the jails. He's smart enough not to shoot at guards but not smart enough not to steal," Illaria said. With that, the pair departed for Abal, Feng, and Krogs.

Mavec and Illaria: The Lawyers

The odd pair arrived during typical business hours. Mavec led the way. Opening the door, he found himself again in the cramped hallway. "Hello," he grumbled loudly. "It's Mavec; we spoke yesterday from 889 Scythefell Street. Here on business this time."

"Come on in, come on in," Feng said from a room just off the hallway. The halfling was seated at his small desk with many papers spread out in front of him. The ceiling was low, and the bookshelves crowded the room further. "What seems to be the problem, Mavec?"

"Yeah, we just had a tax appraisal, and we thought it a good idea to get a second opinion. Here," he said, pressing the paper into Feng's hands.

"They quoted us a rate of about 12,000 gold pieces," Illaria chimed in; she bent her knees and ducked low to squeeze into their abode. "It seemed a mite high, so we thought we'd come over and ask an expert."

"Why on earth would they quote you so high?" Feng asked as he started to look over the paperwork.

"I suspect he may have been a bit miffed; he arrived when we were not home and seemed in a foul mood," Illaria said.

"You said that the owner isn't related to the person who gifted you this, correct?" Feng asked.

"Unless Alvec is part halfling, I don't think so," Illaria stated.

"Do we have any reason to believe he could be?" asked Feng.

"No, he told me his parents are a Tiefling and a human; his grandfather is the one that fucked the devil, so I'm not sure where you could sneak a halfling in that genealogy," scoffed Mavec.

"That would mean that it was a gift and not inherited," said Feng as he squinted at the paper. "That will change this, but I also see other irregularities here. Can't make any promises yet, but I assure you we'd be more than willing for a small fee to do our best to reduce the cost for you."

"How much are we talking?" Mavec asked.

"10 gold should be sufficient for the work required," Feng replied.

"Deal," Mavec said, pulling the coins from his purse.

"Krog, go to city hall and file an injunction on this tax writ. We will do a full workup and officially challenge it once we have poured over the receipt."

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The orc replied from a few rooms over. "Why do you always send me? Do you think I intimidate them or something?" Krog asked.

Feng let out a giddy little laugh. "No, my colleague, the secretary in charge of scheduling, has a crush on you. Have you not noticed how you always get priority over other pending cases?"

"Wait, are you serious?" Krog shouted. "I've been filing paperwork and scheduling appointments with her for years, and you're only mentioning this now?!"

"Gentlemen, there's a second issue I'd like to talk to you about. You deal with property law, right? Meaning you've got some information about Throne Land nearby, right?" Mavec asked.

"I don't know if I like where this is going," Feng stated.

"Hear me out," Mavec said before quickly explaining the issue with the tower, Vato, and his and Alvec's theory of where Vato could have escaped.

"That is an interesting question," said Feng. "Getting Throne Land locations nearby is easy; finding one that hasn't been inspected in the last 20 years is a bit harder. Pulling those records while possible would raise a few eyebrows. I'm saying we would also need a little financial compensation. Another five gold, perhaps for the effort it will take to calm down the feathers we ruffle."

"Deal, again," Mavec said. He slid 5 more golden coins across the table. "Do you think you could put a rush on that?" He asked.

"I'll do you one better and lay out the case for the nearest few right now. Join me in the map room." He stood up from his half-sized desk and ushered the two adventurers further into the house.

They arrived in a room with low tables, and maps sprawled all over them. Feng grabbed one that depicted the region. "Throne Land is well regulated. As such, we are made aware when a parcel of it is given off by Ageneon for development. This here is Sha-Laial." He said, pointing to a green square colored around a river. "As you can see, several small pieces of Throne Land are within a two-week march from here. Much of this is open farmland."

"We can be mostly ruling that out, right?" Illaria asked.

"Mostly, if a person were to try to live off the grid for 20 years, they'd likely need to be a lot better hidden than just living on a farm in the middle of nowhere."

"This means we're looking for a plot with a structure. More than just farmland," Mavec replied.

"Precisely, which leaves us with about five possibilities within a two-week march from Sha-Laial," Feng stated.

"On this map, where is Archer's Market?" Mavec asked. Something was beginning to bother him, something he hadn't entirely pieced together until after he had scrapped the two constructs at the tower. They had been old. Locked away and unused for 20 or so odd years. The ones they had fought outside of Mel's farm, the one just shy of Archer's Market, were old, yes, but not twenty years of no maintenance old. If they had been maintained during that time, maybe it had been by Vato. He was a diviner, but that didn't mean that he couldn't know a thing or two about Artificy. Working constructs would be one more possible deterrent to anyone coming around.

"Right here," Feng said, pointing to the map. Sure enough, there was a red zone upstream from Archer's Market.

"That one. What is it?" He asked.

"That would be the Auraman manor," said Feng. "They were on the wrong side of the war. It is certainly a possible location. As a noble estate, it has plenty of fences, and the landscaping would have been designed to offer maximum privacy... before twenty years of unrestrained growth is factored in. If we pull the records and find that it hasn't been surveyed in the last twenty years, I would say it's a viable candidate for where your missing wizard could have gone to ground."

"Mavec, what's got you thinking it could be there?" Illaria asked.

"Just a hunch, really. The constructs we fought on that farm looked too well maintained for twenty years of disuse. I scraped them like the ones at the tower, and the ones at the tower showed far more signs of degeneration." Illaria nodded along.

"How long will pulling those records take?" Illaria asked.

"A few days usually," Feng replied.

"Just long enough that it makes sense for us to stay in town rather than rush out there," Illaria responded.

"We're not on a strict time limit; we could just go there and find out," Mavec said.

"Ay, we're not, but I'd rather not be wasting our time traveling somewhere that doesn't seem likely," Illaria stated.

"Alright, we'll leave you to your work, Feng; we'll either have someone around at the property, or we'll be off trying to find Vato and the missing funeral urn. So either you'll have good news for us, or we'll be dead, and it won't matter." Mavec said before walking towards the exit. Illaria followed behind him.

"Pardon him; he's a bit morbid at times," Illaria explained as they exited the building.

Naya: The Bakery

It was time to celebrate. Things were going swimmingly. Echo was now certified, and Naya quickly noticed that the looks she and Echo were getting were still alarming. However, seeing that small golden trinket attached to his collar made people at ease so much quicker. She buried her hand into his fur as they walked side by side down the street. Her mind drifted to Lom-Itoti, but she pushed those thoughts away. Things were, by and large, beyond her control. Restoring her village wasn't a thing that would happen overnight. If she denied herself every ounce of possible joy, she'd drown in that despair before ever finding out if saving her family was even possible. So today, today she'd celebrate. They'd made it to Sha-Laial; she'd gotten Echo certified and made introductions to several neighbors. There were a lot of small victories today.

For a girl from a small village like Lom-Itoti, there was one big city thing she'd always been curious to visit. A fancy bakery. The baker in her town was good by all means, but she'd heard tales of decadent pastries, which she couldn't dream of getting back home. Last night, the bakery on Scythefell Street had already closed for the day before Naya could get there. With it only mid-afternoon, she hoped to catch them while they were still open. The storefront was pretty basic: an excellent wooden sign with the bakery's name and a cupcake burned upon its surface. She opened the door and was immediately greeted by the scent of freshly baked bread and honey. There were two glass display cases on either side of a small counter. An orc man stood behind the counter, arms crossed and staring off into the distance. He bore several scars over his face, a white chef's hat, and a clean white shirt with a dirty black apron over it. The spills of the day, mainly flour, still clung to it.

"Welcome to Bandar's Bakery; how may I help?" Naya walked towards the counter, bending down to glance at the names of the various pastries and treats available. They all looked delicious. She wasn't sure how to choose just a few items. What would the others like? Bait would want something with cheese in it. Maybe Alvec would want something spicy? She wasn't actually sure what type of food he enjoyed. Trail rations were meant to keep you alive, not to be good. Left to his own devices, she wasn't sure what her traveling companion would choose.

"I'm, I'm going to need a moment; I've never been in a bakery this fancy before," she confessed.

"Really? Is this fancy to you? I'd say you're mocking me, but I haven't seen anyone with that look of wonder on their face before. Whereabouts are you from?" He asked.

"Lom-Itoti," she said, smiling.

"Ah, that little hamlet, you're far from home," he said, giving her a concerned look.

"Wait, you know where it is?" She asked, a bit shocked. It had taken her the better part of days just to reach another hamlet and days more to get to a village with a proper road. Lom-Itoti was deep woodlands where people hunted, trapped, and grew small gardens to provide much-needed nutrition.

"I do; real backwoods place, sturdy people. Lots of good furs come out of there."

"Pardon me asking, but how do you know that?" Naya asked.

He pointed to his face. "I'm Bandar, owner of this shop and a retired soldier in the Red Banner Army. I was in Ageneon's War. Fought devils and the sort that brought them into our world. Many fled deep into the woods in the late days of the war. Guess they thought we wouldn't keep chasing if they went to obscure enough locations. I don't know if any ever got as far as Lom-Itoti, but we went through to check all the same."

"That was before my time," Naya said.

"Well, of course, it was; you look to be what, 18 at the oldest?" he asked.

"Around there," she answered coyly, not wanting to give her age to the man she'd just met.

"I'm not seeing anyone else here with you? Did your folks wander off to one of the other shops nearby?" he asked.

"No, I'm here on my own. I'm staying with some friends," she answered with a bit more agitation than intended. This was the second man in two days to assume she couldn't take care of herself, and while she appreciated the clear concern, she had made it this far on her own, and she'd never been alone. He nodded his head in understanding.

"Well then, what would you like to purchase today?" he asked, switching gears.

"Do you have any pastries with cheese in them?" Naya asked.

The baker looked down at his stock. "At the moment, probably just one or two. Savory breads are great, but the pastries are less popular."

"I'll take whatever I can with cheese in or on it. We need something to bribe Bait with."

"Bait, isn't that the name of a goblin living over at the tower?" he asked. "I thought my kids were telling me tall tales until I saw the little guy scamper by in a rush, cradling an egg in his hands."

"Yes, he's one of my friends here," Naya nodded. "Though I'm much better friends with the two wizards. The tiefling with the ram's horns is Alvec, and the other boy with the clockwork rabbit is Mavec."

"Will I be seeing them around here, too?" he asked. "I'd love some more customers."

"Don't know, all we've had to eat have been trail rations for the last month. I'm not even sure what they like."

"And what about you?"

"Not sure; our bakery mostly did bread."

"You know what, I'm going to put together a sampler for you on the house," the man smiled. So long as you promise to tell your friends about us." He pulled out two boxes and quickly filled them with a smattering of products. He added a few loaves of bread as well.

"I can pay you, really, I insist."

He smiled at her. "A girl from Lom-Itoti wouldn't be here in Sha-Laial staying with friends... not unless there was more to the story than she felt she could share with a simple shopkeep. Of course, I can't say if I'm right, but I'm willing to bet things aren't all that rosy back home." Naya found herself laughing too much, on the borderline of tears.

"If anything, they're too rosey," she blurted out. He gave her a strange look, trying to parse out the meaning of her words. He thankfully didn't press the matter.

"So you'll be taking these goods for free and enjoying them as much as possible. Maybe someday you'll share the story with me," he said. Naya reluctantly accepted the boxes of products shoved into her arms before being shooed gently out of the shop. She and Echo walked back down towards the tower. Perhaps joy and sorrow were two faces of a coin. She couldn't separate them easily. She sat out of the beaten path and ate one of the pastries. It was so good she found tears welling up in her eyes.