The rest of the day we spent, sneaking in and out of the merchants through out town, we were sure not to hit ones that close together, keeping our targets well spread so they didn’t start talking with one another. So far my notoriety rating had remained at level one and Galahad had told me he was already at that level to start out with. Galahad had told me that this was normal and that it would take something a little more serious than petty theft to get it to increase to level two.

We were back at the Old Hag, it was late and both of us had snook upstairs to the rooms that Geovana had given us. My satchel was filled with items that we had taken through out the day and boy did I not feel good about myself. Raucous laughter vibrated through the floorboards, with the strums of a lute from the entertainer that Geovana had brought in for the night.

His plan had worked and they had managed to whip everyone up into high spirits and judging by the shouting and laughter Geovana would have shifted plenty of ale too.

I took a moment to search through my satchel and pulled out the cream cake, I was just about to take a bite when Raven hopped straight out of the shadow of my bed.

“Shit!” I cursed as I fell backwards in my chair, the cake came with me and bounced off my face. When I looked across at Raven, she raised an eyebrow and signed at me, before mimicking eating the cake and shaking her head in disapproval.

“Don’t judge me,” I said, the cake was splattered on the floor and all I could smell was cream. I wiped at my face, which confirmed I was covered in it. “We had taken it so, if I didn’t eat it what was I meant to do with it.”

Raven waved her hand in front of her and opened her shadow portal, before waving her hand at me. Taking the hint I grabbed hold of the satchel with all the stolen food and passed it to her, she tossed it straight into the portal and snapped her fingers together closing it.

“Well at least we can’t be caught with the stolen items,” I said with a Dry laugh. The moment seemed completely lost on her as she stared blankly at me.

“Ok so I don’t know what your rating is but my notoriety is at level one.” Any movement on yours?”

Raven shook her head and gave me a sign for zero.

“Ok well that means that the two of us are not linked, which I assume is a good thing. Are you ready to do your part for today?”

Raven gave me a sos sign with her hand.

“Come on it will be easy for you,” I said, sneaking around in the shadows is kind of your thing. The paint is down the hall, it’s is in the cupboard where Geovana keeps everything.”

Raven sighed, snapped her fingers to open her shadow portal and reached in up to her shoulder before pulling out a large pot that was filled with paint.

“Ah I see, you have already got it.”

Raven nodded, before disappearing into the shadow of my bed. I found her power nothing short of fascinating and I had no clue how it worked it just did. Her power was perfect for the next part of our plan which was for her to sneak around and put a streak of white paint across the doors of every single merchant that we had targeted today.

Given how fast she could move I had figured that it shouldn’t take her too, long, the key for her job tonight was to make sure that she was not spotted by anyone, given that she was a Reaver, that would bring too much attention from the guards too soon.

There was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” I said.

The door creaked open to reveal Geovana standing there with a tray in his hands. “I brought you some food, figured you would be hungry after today.”

“Thanks,” I grabbed the tray of him and lay it down on my bed it was a sandwich, with some kind of salad leaves poking out of the sides on brown bread. The sight of the bread made me think of Luca and suddenly I lost my appetite.

“Here, I brought you this too. Figured you might want to come down and listen to the music, at least you will blend in a little.”

The cloak was dark green in colour, it had a large hood but the main body was shredded and torn in places. It was made of a thick fabric and coarse to touch.

Vireo’s Cloak

The cloak of the legendary bandit known for taking from the rich to give to the poor.

This cloak grants the wearer the ability to blend into crowds, making them partially invisible in crowded spaces. Warning once spotted, the cloaks ability will enter a cooldown period until the holder once again becomes unseen.

“Thanks,” I said, I flipped the cloak around me so that it rested on my shoulder and brought the fabric together in front of my neck.

“Oh,” Geovana said, reaching into his back pocket. here, I forgot to give you this. He passed me the item, which looked like a large arrow head. “It’s. Clasp, it should help you fasten your cloak in place.

It was heavier than it looked but sure enough there was gap in it for me to clasp the cloak into place. It smelt musty and in need of a good wash but at this moment, beggars could not be choosers.

I raised the hood, which seemingly lessened the noise coming from down stairs, it brought a sense of comfort to me that I could not quite describe, like receiving a warm hug from a friend.

“What about Galahad?”

“Right here old boy?” he appeared around the corner, a thin shirt thrown over the top of his armour.

“Do you ever take that thing off?” I asked. He looked utterly ridiculous, but I supposed he didn’t need to disappear, the town already classed him as the town drunk.

“Only when I am alone, it’s too dangerous otherwise. Now are we going to stand around here all day or are we going to have a drink and enjoy some music.”

“Just make sure you stay out of trouble,” Geovana said, “I don’t want to be cleaning up after a bar fight.

A glass smashed alongside some loud cheering from downstairs.

“Which reminds me,” Geovana said before ducking under the door frame and heading back down stairs. His voice instantly booming as he scolded those that misbehaved and not so politely warned them what would happen if they didn’t modify their behaviour.

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“Come on, if we stay to the back of the room we should be ok. Let’s just hope that Morgrim isn’t drinking here tonight.

We both went down stairs and into the tavern, the temperature was warm with so many people crammed in, I hadn’t seen it this busy before, even at the earlier mentioned bar fight.

The atmosphere was no where near as jovial as the first time that I had come here, people were crowded around tables, on one table they were playing cards, another they seemed to be trying to unwind. The rest of the tables they looked like they were not happy about something, they were not mincing with their words as they spoke about the days that they had had.

“Some one stole at least half a dozen apples today,” One woman said, I recognised her from earlier in the day. She had been the 3rd merchant that we had hit. Galahad once again had proven to be a great distraction as I had gathered up the vibrant green apples.

“Yeah I had a scarf taken today, took my wife two weeks to make,” A scrawny man said, he was short and older than the rest of the merchants, a snootiness in his accent. He had come across as a pompous ass when I had spoken with him. It made me feel a little less guilty when I had stuffed the scarf inside my satchel before making my escape.

One by one the two tables consisting of half a dozen merchants started complaining about the day, I recognised every single one of them and my heart sank.

The cloak that Geovana had given me said it allowed me to hide in crowded places, that didn’t help with my paranoia as I stuck to the far side of the tavern, deciding it was best if I remained by the stairs.

Part of me wanted to escape and stay holed up in my room, that was the logical option. But part of me wanted to hear them complain, I wanted to make sure that our plan had worked, especially given that we were in the early stages.

Then it dawned on me, the group were here together, that is not something we had thought about.

“What if they link either of us to all the thefts?” I spoke under a hushed voice and waited for a reply but when I didn’t get one, I turned to face Galahad. He wasn’t standing beside me.

“Shit!” I cursed as I snapped my head around to see Galahad standing at the bar getting a tankard of ale from Geovana. He was stood just a couple of feet away from the nearest table of merchants. He was either blissfully unaware of the situation, or completely arrogant. After spending a good few days with him I honestly couldn’t say which of it he was.

My thoughts raced, I needed to get Galahad away as quickly as I could, I couldn’t raise my voice for him, that would only draw attention to both of us and if the merchants saw us both together, they would put two and two together.

Stepping forward my path was blocked as two people I didn’t recognise stepped up to the bar to order their drinks from Geovana.

He was busy chatting and serving customers, he even had a woman helping him today who seemed pleasant and happy as she spoke with all of the customers she was serving.

With no other option I stepped behind the bar, to get to Galahad who was just a couple of people away from me.

When I stepped in front of him, his head was tipped backwards as he gulped down his ale until it was gone, he slammed the tankard down in front oof him.

“Again!” He said, he was aloof and rude. A side of him that I really did not like. He did a double take and frowned when he saw me standing in front of him, the hood of my cloak, pulled over my head.

“Sean?” He said. “What are you doing behind there?”

I didn’t have time to correct him for the thousandth time about my name. Instead I leant forward and spoke quietly yet assertively to him.

“Listen to me,” I started, “Do not turn around but behind you are two tables filled with all of the merchants we stole from today. If they see us together, then our cover will be blown and things are going to escalate really fast.”

“That sounds like a you problem old boy as I didn’t take anything today.” He glanced down at his tankard, before looking at me with expectant eyes. His voice was raised louder than I would have liked.

“Shhh,” I said instinctively, my adrenaline spiking. Was he really throwing me under a bus right now.

“Pour me a drink and I might pay more attention.” he said with an air of arrogance. He slid his tankard towards me, giving me a sly grin.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, he was genuinely leveraging the situation to get himself another drink and he did not give two shits about the consequences. It took every ounce of self restraint not to toss the tankard into his face and drag him over the bar, all I would need to do would be to activate my berserker skill and that would be that. That wouldn’t help the situation however, so I bit down and suppressed that burning fire that was rising up within me like a volcano ready to erupt.

“No problem,” I said through gritted teeth and a forced smile.

Luckily I had worked in a bar when I was studying at university so I knew how to pour a drink. The mechanism was similar to what I was used to, so I grabbed hold of Galahad’s tankard and placed it under the nose before pouring him an ale. The head was a little thicker than I would have liked but Galahad wasn’t paying so he couldn’t complain.

I slid him the tankard, he stopped it and examined it as if he was suddenly a fine wine connoisseur. I was finding it increasingly difficult not to react to him.

“Now do me a favour and go stand in the corner over there and keep out of trouble.”

"“Fine,” Galahad exhaled, responding like I was a nagging wife. He turned on the spot and started bumbling his way through the crowd, knocking into one or two people who cursed him but no one else seemed to pay him much attention.

It was as if everyone in this town just accepted him for what he was, a monumental pain in the ass. I started asking myself all kind of questions around whether or not it was a good idea for me to be working with him on this but as things stood, I really didn’t have that much of a choice.

As I moved to distance myself from the bar, the two men stood beside Galahad raised their hands.

“Oi,” a voice said.

My heart sank, had I been recognised

When I spun around I saw one of the men with their arms raised in the air.

“Pour us another two drinks,” he said, his speech was slightly slurred and he had his other arm wrapped around his drinking buddy. Judging by their sunken eyes it wasn’t easy to figure out who was propping who up at this point.

Neither of them had a clue who I was and I intended to keep it that way.

The outer edge of my vision flashed red and a warning notice flashed up in the corner of my sight, a long with a symbol of a partially closed eye.

Warning

Detection level increased

I panicked, my chest thundering, my stomach churning, I felt like I was going to vomit.

“Of course,” I said with a smile, trying to make the hood of my cloak obscure my face. I took both of their tankards and poured them fresh ales, this time taking my time to pour them both the perfect drink. “Here you go,” I said as I passed them their tankards.

“How much do I owe you?” The man said, he put a small coin purse on the bar.

I had no clue about the value of money here, it was something I hadn’t had the time to figure out, after all we had been a little busy.

“If I may,” I picked up the coin bag and took out a single coin.

“Thank you,” he said, before grabbing his coin purse and bundling it into his pocket, it took him more than one attempt.

The flashing red light, started to slow it’s pace and I could feel my own heart beat settling back down.

I looked across at Geovana who had noticed me behind the bar, he mouthed. “What are you doing?”

“I don’t know,” I mouthed back, shaking my head, I placed the coin I had just taken from the two drunk men and placed it behind the counter where he could see, before stepping away slowly before anyone else asked me to pour another drink.

I only stopped when I drew level with Galahad.

He was slumped in the corner, his head resting against the wall, fast asleep. It amazed me just how susceptible to alcohol he was, he looked kind of blissful as his breathing became heavy.

I couldn’t help but laugh to myself and I leant downwards and flicked my hand over his visor, brining it down over his face, his heavy breathing becoming instantly more muted.

"“Everything ok?” Geovana said, she had fetched me a drink which I appreciated.

“It is now,” I said.

Geovana saw Galahad and laughed to himself, he started drinking not long after you got back, I know him well and he is pretty predictable when he is drunk. I can safely say he will be there for the night now, if you want to go back upstairs, I would slip away now if I was you. I didn’t realise all these merchants were going to come in, otherwise I would have told you to stay upstairs.”

“It’s ok, but that definitely sounds like a plan.” I said.

As I went to leave however, the tavern door swung open, revealing a hulking figure that I instantly recognised.

Morgrim.