Chapter 75 Your Duty.
“You three are riding back with us?” Aria asked when Wo Lu, Isaac, and Lenna piled into an empty wagon near the back of the caravan.
Wo Lu nodded. “It’s a long run.” He told her.
“Yeah. I already did it once. I don’t feel like doing it again.” Isaac agreed.
“It’s good exercise.” Lenna countered. A flat look from Isaac and a soft chuckle from Wo Lu shot her down.
“Well, I guess it’ll be easier for you to bring back the Tunnel-Horror rings.” Aria added. “Actually, the whole reason Claus and I took this job was to go see you, Isaac.”
“Oh? Miss me already?” He teased. A chill ran up his spine and he turned to see Lenna glaring at him. He swallowed. ‘Damn she is so much scarier now that she’s not just my guard.’ He thought to himself.
Aria rolled her eyes. “No.” She replied. “We have something that your particular set of skills are needed for. I’ll fill you in when we stop for the night. I need to move to the middle wagon in case of an emergency and empty half of my mana again to try to get the wounded back in fighting shape.”
Isaac raised an eyebrow. “Now you have my curiosity.” He told her. “If you were willing to go the whole way from Outpost Charles to Safeharbor it must be important.”
Aria nodded. “Yeah.” She replied but did not elaborate. Instead she just waved and hopped down so she could jog up to the wagon with all the wounded inside.
—
Wo Lu left to join the younger adventurers a little while after they had stopped for the night. This left Claus, Aria, Isaac, and Lenna alone again. Wo Lu liked to take on the experienced mentor role whenever rookie adventurers were involved. He was strong in his own right and an excellent scout and tracker but mostly he just wandered from place to place. He never liked to stay in one place for long but within the last two decades he hadn’t left the Kingdom of Altia. If his pattern remained then he would soon be leaving for another country to explore for a few decades before moving on again. If a human were to go on the same type of adventure they would only ever end up staying in any given city for around a month but Wo Lu had plenty of lifespan to enable him to take his time exploring the world.
Aria had just finished polishing off her bowl of dried steak and vegetable stew when she decided to get down to business. “Do you remember Lisa?” Aria asked Isaac.
Isaac raised an eyebrow in question and then furrowed his brows in thought. The name was familiar but it took him a while to place it. “She’s the girl that tried to rob me right?” He eventually replied. “The lightfoot girl.”
Aria nodded. “That’s the one.” She confirmed.
“What about her?” Isaac asked.
“I need someone to follow her, figure out who is taking all her money, and help me fix it.” Aria explained.
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“Fix it? Taking her money? She tried to rob me remember? She stabbed me in the hand too.” Isaac barraged.
Aria nodded. “She’s been stealing, a lot. Basically anything worth more than two gold that isn’t nailed down. The money has to be going somewhere. Claus and I tracked one of the stolen objects the whole way back to this caravan. She sold it to the blacksmith in Ben’s End who then added it to a shipment of broken weapons going to a smith in Safeharbor.” She explained. “We’re trying to figure out where it’ll end up so we can try to get back some of what was stolen.”
“What smith?” Isaac asked.
“Safeharbor General Smithy.” Aria answered. “Do you know anyone who works there? I have no idea how big of an operation they have.”
Isaac shook his head. “No, I don’t.” He replied. “You are sure she isn’t just hoarding the money?”
Aria nodded. “There isn’t anywhere to hide it. That’s the problem. She takes regular scouting trips alone out of Outpost Charles. There are still a lot of unexplored tunnels around there. Claus and I have been going through them because, well, that’s the whole reason we are down here in the first place, but we haven’t run into a secret gold stash anywhere. She has to be meeting with someone out there. Either that or there is someone else inside Outpost Charles extorting her.” Aria frowned and shook her head. “But that wouldn’t make any sense. There isn’t anyone who could do that to her. There are only one, maybe two, people in the entire outpost who could handle her in a head to head fight.”
Isaac hummed in thought. “Who could it be inside of Outpost Charles?” He asked.
“Her father or Claus.” Aria explained deadpanned.
“Oh.” Isaac replied simply. “Then what are our options outside of town?”
“Drow or doppelgangers.” Aria answered. “There are legends around here of a secret vampire civilization which is actually what I’m looking for but no one is sure they ever even existed. I guess technically a vampire could be on the list if the legends hold true.” She shook her head to clear it. “A devil? I doubt one could even get here though. That is probably even less likely than the vampires being real.”
“So realistically it is either drow or doppelgangers.” Isaac summarized to which Aria nodded. “Well, with my Polarity Sense it should be pretty easy to tell as long as I can actually tail her.”
“How long can you stay invisible now?” Aria asked.
“Indefinitely.” Isaac replied. “That’s not the problem. If she thinks that she is being tailed then she might teleport with a magic item or lead me through a bunch of traps or just in circles for hours.”
Aria nodded. “Yeah but she doesn’t have any divination ability as far as I’m aware so as long as you are careful she shouldn’t ever even know you are following her.” She explained.
Isaac nodded and then turned to Lenna. “Let’s see who all is connected to this mess in Safeharbor and then work backwards. We’ll get a list of names and have Tim and Michael crack down on all of them in Safeharbor while we deal with the ones in Outpost Charles. The ones in Ben’s End won’t have anywhere to go so I’m not worried about them.” He explained his plan to her.
“Are we doing this for free?” Lenna asked incredulously. Isaac never did anything for free so if he was actually planning on it then she had to wonder why.
Isaac grinned impishly. “Of course not.” He assured her. “We are going to solve a problem and then send Izen a bill for the service he never even hired us for.”
Lenna chuckled and shook her head. “Just making sure you hadn’t gone crazy.” She assured him.
“Izen?” Aria asked before her eyes went wide. “Arbencroft?!”
Isaac nodded. “Yeah, who else?” He replied questioningly.
“You can get in serious trouble referring to a duke by first name like that.” Aria warned. “How do you know him anyway?”
“Well have I got a story to tell you.” Isaac began. An hour into Isaac’s story time Claus and Aria had to get some sleep. The next morning Isaac picked back up where he had left off while they had breakfast and the story continued again when they stopped for lunch. Finally once they were about to start moving again Isaac had caught Claus and Aria up on his adventurers with Lenna and all the trouble they had gotten into and out of.
“I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea to leave you alone.” Aria grumbled. She turned from having her head in her hands to glaring at Lenna. “You were supposed to keep him out of trouble.” She accused. “As his guard it’s your duty.”
“I trust him.” Lenna answered emotionlessly. Her head snapped straight and her eyes took on a far away look. Her aura flared and then clamped back down.
“Scrying again?” Isaac asked.
Lenna nodded in confirmation. “Whoever it is is asking for trouble.” She replied.
Isaac nodded in agreement. “Same person as last time?”
“Yes.” She replied simply. “I might need one of those rings.” She told Isaac and nodded towards his hand with the ring of protection from divination. The ring shrouded Isaac’s soul from magic, preventing anything from tracking him magically. It had the unfortunate effect of also preventing him from receiving telepathic communications but it was worth the trade off.
Isaac nodded in agreement. “I think so too. I don’t like someone spying on us. Especially when I don’t know who it is.”