Chapter 36 A Hundred Gold

Much to Isaac’s chagrin he was still confined to light duty courtesy of Lenna’s field medicine training. “Two weeks for a concussion seems a bit much don’t you think? I feel fine.” Isaac complained.

“Four of the fourteen days have already passed. Stop complaining.” Lenna retorted and continued polishing her sword.

“What am I supposed to do for the next ten days?” Isaac whined.

“Read, clean your gear.” Lenna offered.

Isaac got an idea. “I have something better in mind.” He told her with a sudden burst of energy.

Lenna stopped mid rotation and looked up slowly. “I have a bad feeling about this.” She replied.

Isaac waved her off. “Let’s get our gear painted. Your armor could use some love and I’d prefer black over brown leathers.” He explained.

Lenna sighed. “And what am I supposed to wear while the armor is at the painter’s?” She questioned.

“We bought street clothes. Come on, it’ll be fine. Probably.” He assured her.

“I’m still carrying my sword.” Lenna acquiesce.

“Good. I don’t feel like carrying both.” He replied and tossed his armor into his Inventory. It always felt just a little lighter in his Inventory than when he was wearing it but that was to be expected as in his Inventory the weight was always completely and properly distributed.

—

“What are you doing here?” Fen grumbled when Isaac and Lenna arrived to crash Jala and Fen’s nonexistent party.

“It’s ‘Master’, not ‘you’.” Isaac corrected. He pulled a square wooden board out of his Inventory and set it on the table in front of Fen.

“A kingsman board?” Fen asked.

“Yes.” Isaac replied. “I was bored and figured that you had nothing better to do.” He told Fen.

“What makes y… why… what if I don’t want to play?” Fen asked. He had to retry his sentence multiple times to prevent himself from referring to Isaac directly.

Isaac smirked at Fen’s obvious grammatical troubles. He pulled a cloth bag, with the pieces to the game in it, out of his Inventory and then started setting up the pieces according to a diagram. “Because I am willing to make a bet with you.” Isaac grinned at him.

“I’ll pass.” Fen replied evenly.

“You won’t once you hear the bounty I’m putting up.” Isaac began. “We will do five practice games to make sure I know how to play and then the actual games will begin. If I win six out of ten then you have to answer any of Alexander’s questions about anything not pertaining to me. If you win then you don’t have to call me ‘Master’ anymore.”

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Fen searched Isaac’s face for a trap. “No.” He said tentatively.

Isaac knew that he could change Fen’s mind if he sweetened the deal just a little more. “And, while playing you won’t have to refer to me as ‘Master’.”

Fen sighed. “Fine.” He grumbled and started helping Isaac set up the game. Little did Isaac know that fifteen games meant two days of playing as their shortest game was half an hour long. By dinner on their second day the victor had been decided. Isaac lost the first three games and then won the next four. Fen won the following game and then lost twice in a row.

“How much experience do you have at this game?” Isaac asked while packing up at the game for the final time.

“I doubt I’ve played a hundred games in just as many years.” Fen admitted. He was annoyed that he had lost but at least answering some young wizard’s questions on magic would help fight his boredom.

“Let’s make a deal.” Isaac told him. “In exchange for relieving you of your inability to refer to me,” Isaac smirked. He had picked up on the grammatical gymnastics that Fen had been pulling to avoid having to speak the dreaded word. “You have to promise me that you won’t divulge anything related to me, my divinity, or my magics to anyone.”

Fen didn’t even have to think about it. “Deal.” He said instantly.

Isaac smirked. “Game seven.” Isaac replied.

Fen looked at him with a question on his face until he realized what Isaac meant. In their seventh game Isaac pressured Fen relentlessly and then gave him a way out. Right when Fen took the opening Isaac sprung the trap that he had been weaving and won the match in short order. “Bastard.” Fen called him and shook his head. He realized that Isaac had done exactly the same thing with the whole ‘Master’ thing and used it to force a promise of silence and use of Fen as Alexander’s encyclopedia of magic.

Isaac chuckled. “Well, that was fun.” He turned to Lenna who was sitting in another of the cushioned chairs with her eyes closed and in street clothes. Their armor would still be at the painter’s for another three days. “We have an informant to meet.” He told her.

She opened her eyes and took a deep breath. “Yes. I’m sure he has been expecting us.” She replied.

Isaac shrugged. “That’s fine.” He hadn’t required James’ service since he had acquired it so making the man wait wasn’t that big of a deal to Isaac.

“Informant?” Fen asked.

Isaac grinned. “There are four sides to this city. I’m just trying to keep all of them in mind.” He replied cryptically. He and Lenna shared a nod and headed out to get a list of all of the important people in the underground city’s underground.

—

“Hells!” James yelled as Isaac and Lenna appeared in front of him. He was pacing as Isaac had kept him waiting for the better part of the day and he had gotten restless.

“You brothers are so jumpy.” Isaac commented.

“Maybe if ya’ didn’t just appear out of nowhere you wouldn’t startle everyone.” James commented, irritation clear in his voice. He finally looked at Lenna and his mind stopped working momentarily. His eyes took her in. He had never seen her in street clothes. The short sleeve shirt and pants were snug enough that her muscles and curves were obvious but still left most up to the imagination.

“Are you trying to die?” Isaac asked coldly and narrowed his eyes at James.

“Huh? What?” James stammered. “No, uh, sorry.” He apologized.

“The list, James.” Isaac pushed. He was only there for one reason and completing that goal could take as short as thirty seconds or as long as Isaac wanted it to take.

“Oh! Yeah.” James replied and walked over to his pack that was sitting in the corner of the room. He pulled out a small stack of papers and started walking back over to Isaac and Lenna. “This has everyone I could get information about without getting shanked.” He told the pair and handed Isaac the list. “I mostly just have names, organizations, and where their organizations are based out of. Some people are known to be pretty nasty characters. Those are underlined. Some of ‘em have the reasons. Those that don’t, just assume torture, those are mostly enforcers.”

Isaac had begun flipping through the pages. Short descriptions and approximate ages also accompanied the rest of the information. “This is good work.” Isaac complimented absently. “Keep it up and you will be well worth the coin.” He looked up from the papers. “Make a second copy if you haven't already.”

James looked at him like he had three heads. “Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to even have something like that?” He shook his head. “The sooner that is out of my possession the better.”

Isaac shrugged. “Do you know all the names by heart?” He asked.

James shook his head. “Most of ‘em sure but not all.” He replied.

“Whenever something changes I’ll need an update. Also when you add more names to the encyclopedia of the underground.” Isaac explained.

James sighed defeatedly. “If someone finds out about this I’ll be a dead man by morning.” He argued. “I won’t have any way to justify it.”

“Do one organization at a time and keep each of them in a different place. Keep the ones hostile to the organization that you are with in easier to find locations.” Isaac recommended. “If any of those get found then you can just say that you were doing research on your gang’s enemies.” He flipped through the pages again. “It looks like most of the information about the guys in your gang is finished anyway.”

James rubbed his face roughly with his hands like he was trying to wash it without any water. “Fine.” He huffed and locked eyes with Isaac. “You are the one who is going to be out eight hundred gold if I get myself killed.”

Isaac smirked. “Seven hundred.” He corrected. “This,” He waved the list of troublemakers. “is worth a hundred gold on its own.” Little did either of them know, it was worth far, far, more than eight hundred gold let alone one.