Chapter 13 Lucky To Be Alive.
The V’Nova Wexler duo arrived at Westly’s Westside Bar almost two hours after Lenna had left it. The front door was wedged back into the doorway and eight corpses were lined up in a row right outside the building. They stank, not like death but of feces, it was no wonder they were moved outside. Lenna grabbed the door and yanked it free of the doorway. Behind it was a small tower of chairs. “Thomas?” Lenna called only a little louder than she usually talked. Isaac wasn’t sure if Lenna was even capable of properly yelling. The most he had ever heard from her was more akin to talking loudly.
There was a commotion somewhere in the bar and then the chairs started moving. “Took you two long enough.” Thomas said as he started moving the chairs out of the way. “I went and got my tools, there’s some interesting things here I think you’d like to see.”
“Your tools?” Isaac asked as he and Lenna entered the bar. There was blood on the ground and broken tables and chairs tossed to the side. Isaac noticed a few crossbow bolts stuck in the wall.
“Yeah.” Thomas replied but did not elaborate. “Come with me.” He told them and led them towards the back. “Apparently Mr. Nobody was quite the trap enthusiast.”
“I know.” Isaac said flatly. “I’m surprised you’re alive if you found that out.”
“That’s what my tools are for.” Thomas replied. “I didn’t go very far down the secret passage but it looks like it’s going in the general direction of Tic’s Trinkets.”
“They meet in the middle.” Isaac explained. “There’s a warehouse roughly centered between the three locations. We already raided it.”
Thomas nodded. “How bad were the traps?” He asked.
“Bad.” Isaac replied simply before deciding to elaborate. “Fireball runes, complete poison bubble traps, spikes, lots of spikes, crossbow bolt traps, iron cage, the floor fell out at one point.” He took a deep breath. “It was obnoxious.”
Thomas’s eyes had gotten wider at the mention of magical traps. “I’m glad I didn’t try to explore down the tunnel.” He grinned at Isaac. “There’s more interesting things here anyway.” He said and opened the door they had just arrived at. Inside was a massive ritual circle ten feet across with seven quartz crystals the size of a tankard placed at equidistant points from the center.
“What is this?” Isaac asked while trying to get a read on the ritual but failing.
“Teleportation circle.” Lenna and Thomas said at the same time. “We should find out where this leads.” Lenna continued.
“Agreed.” Thomas replied. “But we need a wizard for that.” He walked over to one of the walls. The wall had a cabinet built into it. He pulled open one of the large doors and revealed a pair of safes each three feet cubed. One of them was slightly ajar. “I was in the middle of unlocking the second one when you arrived.”
“Anything good in the first one?” Isaac asked.
“Deeds to all of their properties.” Thomas replied. “It’s kind of weird that they are all here and not one in each of their respective buildings but I guess it makes sense.”
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“How so?” Lenna asked with furrowed brows. “The money was in the warehouse.”
“Yes.” Thomas agreed. “But if they needed to make a quick escape then the deeds to their properties would be worth more than however much gold they could stuff in their pockets. This way they could quickly empty the safes and teleport out.”
“They were engaging with Alexander when we arrived at the smithy. I wonder why they didn’t all rush here when I spooked her earlier?” Isaac questioned.
“They were probably trying to get everyone together to leave first.” Thomas surmised. “The ritual is only set up to be cast once. They would’ve only had one shot to leave with as many people and as much capital as possible.”
“That makes sense.” Isaac replied and started looking through the deeds to the properties. “Want one?” Isaac asked Thomas and handed him the deed to the bar.
Thomas took it with a frown. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” He replied honestly. “Knowing where to find a spy defeats half the point of being a spy. At that point I’d just be an information broker. The job is safer, sure, but I doubt my boss would be very happy about it.”
“Who is your boss anyway?” Isaac questioned.
Thomas shook his head. “No thanks.” Thomas replied. “I’m staying out of that one. If you find out on your own then good on you but I like my life how it is thanks.”
Isaac shrugged. “Worth a shot.” He gestured towards the second safe. “Are you going to open the second one?”
Thomas nodded and walked over to the safe before pulling out what looked like a funnel. He placed the larger end against the safe and the smaller end at his ear. He started turning the dial this way and that. “Something doesn’t feel right.” Lenna said quietly more to herself than to Isaac who was next to her.
Isaac was quiet for a minute before nodding. “Agreed.” He replied. “Like this has all been too easy.”
“What are we missing?” Lenna questioned. Just on time she felt a tingle in the back of her mind. She was quiet for a long moment with furrowed brows.
“What is it?” Isaac asked.
“Alexander just told me that the smithy is on fire.” She replied.
“On fire?” Isaac questioned. “Like they were removing evidence of something. Something I missed.”
Lenna nodded. “We should check on the brothers.” She advised just as Thomas opened the second safe. The door swung open and his eyes went wide before he slammed it shut again. A loud boom could be heard from down the street. Thomas was tossed across the room into the wall by the door abruptly being blasted off its hinges. Fire blanketed the room for a quick moment. The pressure wave almost knocked Isaac off his feet. His ruptured eardrums brought him to his knees. Lenna staggered back as her head swam. Everything was spinning as nothing but ringing could be heard.
Luckily the fire hadn’t had enough time to ignite anything but that was only a small blessing. Isaac poured death flames into himself and Lenna until they could both see straight and hear things again. “Thomas!” Isaac exclaimed as his mind finally caught up to what had just happened. He and Lenna hurried over to the rogue who was crumpled in the corner with the door to the blown up safe in his lap.
Lenna placed her hand on his shoulder and ran some healing mana through him to get an idea of his situation. “Not great, could be worse.” Lenna told Isaac. “I don’t have enough mana yet to heal him properly.”
“How bad is it?” Isaac asked.
“Five broken ribs, two fractured ones, concussion, minor skull fracture, ruptured eardrums, broken wrist.” She explained.
“Hells.” Isaac swore. “He’s lucky to be alive.”
Lenna nodded in agreement. “He needs a healer. He could still die without proper healing.” She explained and picked up the safe door and tossed in across the room. “Help me lay him down.”
Isaac did as he was told and the pair gently placed him flat on his back. “I’ll get a healer.” Isaac told Lenna. “Wait here with him.”
Lenna glared at Isaac. She was silent for a long moment. “Stay out of trouble.” She ordered.
Isaac knew better than to joke with her this time. He gave her a curt nod. “I will. I promise.” He replied and hurried off to find a guard who could get them a healer.
Lenna used some of the mana she had regenerated to lower the swelling in Thomas’s brain. That was what worried her the most about his condition. The broken bones could be healed anytime within the next few hours and he would be fine but brain damage was finicky at best to deal with. There was a reason she made Isaac wait out his concussion. His healing was special as it more removed the injury than healed it. Brain damage fell into one of two categories. Either it needed immediate magical healing or it needed to heal by itself. The problem was that Lenna’s field training when it came to brain injuries was rudimentary at best. It all boiled down to; leave it to a cleric, if no cleric was available then magically heal it regardless of the consequences. This was because there were always healers in any military engagement. Her healing was only supposed to be used when the alternative was death so if she needed to be the one healing someone’s brain injury then that meant that they needed to be up and moving immediately regardless of any future consequences. ‘Is it healing if it’s in front or let it heal?’ Lenna questioned herself. ‘Isaac, hurry, and be safe.’ Her brows furrowed harder. ‘I don’t want someone to die in my hands, again.’