Grugg dusted off his hands as he stepped out of the Guard headquarters. “Another job done,” he grinned.

Claudia had her arms crossed but gave him a warm smile. “I’m just glad we got away with the collateral damage. We’re meant to be detectives now, not adventurers.”

Gregor was already looking a different direction to them, his scowl burning a hole in the nearby tree canopy. “I’m glad I found three more bullets.”

The cyclops shrugged and scratched at his bald head. Bart looked tired and didn’t want to be a part of this conversation that had clearly been going on a while as Grugg had been handing in the criminal to be processed. In fairness, the wizard had been undercover for a while, so a break was probably warranted.

“Job is done. Is time to celebrate,” he announced, as the final word on the matter. Mostly, he was just hungry, and this was one of the best reasons they had lately to indulge a little. Coin hadn’t been an issue, thankfully. They had proven themselves effective to an otherwise cautious City Captain here, and the work had started piling in with every success.

It wasn’t all going their way, however. Grugg hummed to himself as the group started walking back to their home. They had no leads on the Nightshade group trying to empower the ancient artifacts, and it was getting to the point where they had all but forgotten the whole reason they came here. If it wasn’t for Bart constantly trying to research them, and Lady Peony pointing a finger between admonishments, then it wouldn’t be a pressing issue at all.

Night had fallen over the town, and it was nice and quiet as they strolled along the cobbled streets between closed shops and houses lit by dim lanterns. Perhaps the worst group of people for any potential thieves or evil-doers to run into. In their first week here, a man had challenged Grugg to an arm wrestling match. They still sent his family flowers every so often.

Grugg knew his strengths, which was mostly his strength. The other three were much better at the logical and intelligent side of things. Although Gregor tended towards the sinister, and Bart trended to the absurd, these days. At least Claudia was grounded, and her experience of running business kept their frayed edges snipped clean.

Bart had his hand to his chin in thought, his absent eyes darting back and forth as if he was reading something.

“What Bart thinking?” The cyclops tried to hunch a bit lower, so he was closer to eye-level with the slim man.

“I could do with a male orc shift. I’m trying to think if there’s anyone on our… list who would fit the bill.”

Being able to shapeshift was almost as cool as some of the magic the wizard used to do, Grugg thought. Only being able to shift into the guise of people he had personally killed was a limiter and something that took Bart a little while to accept. Now it had become part of the process. The ‘list’ was a grouping of known individuals that were dangerous enough that the Crown would be perfectly happy for you to murder in cold blood rather than have them go through normal legal proceedings.

Not that the group hadn’t killed their fair share of people in their time anyway. As detectives, they were meant to be a little more restrained. Not that they could be argued with, they were a stronger force than any guard or law enforcement aside from a handful under the Crown.

“Isn’t there Yelrek?” Claudia asked, leaning in front of Grugg to see the wizard.

“He’s too… unique?” Bart grimaced. “Unless we are doing something around his personal associates, it might be too obvious to start walking around as him.”

The ratman didn’t have much to add, but had a dull glare in his eyes. Although not malicious constantly, if he had the same power as Bart he would be a lot less picky about how qualified someone was to become one of his shifts. He was dependable and loyal, but wasn’t afraid to do the gritty jobs to get things done.

“Only other orc we have on the list…” Claudia looked up to the dark gray sky with her mouth pursed. “Probably Hakga. He has been missing in action for a while, though.”

“Perhaps already dead now,” Grugg offered with a shrug.

“Perhaps,” the wizard agreed.

They fell into a silence as they thought once more. The raid had taken up most of their efforts for a while, and Grugg hadn’t even considered what might come after. There was plenty going on, and no doubt their crime board would have a few leads for them to grab hold of.

Before long, they came up to the agency building which doubled as a house for all of them. A comparatively large wooden building of drab grays, nearer the outskirts of most residential areas. It was nice to have a bit of privacy and separation from the general populace—as much as they were doing wonders for Galeden—they were still oddballs. Peony and the Oculi Gladii organization were keen to have that isolation, given how Grugg and the group liked to solve problems.

They approached the front door, the carved face on the wide entrance curving up into a smile in seeing them.

Evening! Hope the raid went well?

Grugg grinned at the magic door. Rescued from an underground dungeon, as much as they had anticipated Barry would follow them, it still came as a surprise to see him there when they had arrived in the city. Gregor didn’t seem as pleased, but that was nothing new.

“Very good, Barry.” The cyclops nodded. “Arrested all the criminals.”

“The ones we didn’t murder,” Claudia murmured from beside him.

Fantastic!

The door popped open and swung open to reveal the darkened interior. Bart stepped in after Grugg and Claudia and held up his hand.

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“Spark.”

Small motes of light shot out from his extended palm, several lanterns in the wide parlor lighting up and illuminating the furniture.

“Four out of eight, ser Bart,” Gregor said, a dry grin on his face. “Getting better.”

Grugg rolled his eye. “Don’t listen to Gregor, Bart. Magic is getting better.”

“Three spells. And only barely,” the wizard said and deflated. “I’ve never progressed so slow in my life.” With his shoulders slunk low, he went over to sit at the dining table.

“I’ll go ‘make’ you some ‘coffee’,” Gregor said, patting him on the back as he walked past toward the kitchen. “Anyone else?”

They all murmured their acceptance, although the wizard narrowed his eyes at the odd phrasing the ratman had used.

Grugg went and sunk into the wide couch, with Claudia joining him soon after.

“Glad that’s finally over,” she said and closed her eyes. “The bigger jobs always feel like such a grind.”

“Grugg agree.” He scratched the back of his head and knocked his hat from his head onto his lap. “Maybe team have a holiday soon.”

“We both know how likely that is,” Bart piped up from the table. “If anything, having regular work has been a vacation from the constant problems we had in Helpart.”

The cyclops grunted, accepting that as truth. After meeting the wizard, everything had been downhill from there. Well, in terms of barreling between combat and organized crime groups, at least. Not only had they become fast friends, but they had gathered these oddballs, too. He had found a new family and learned to be happy and accept himself for what he was.

All the criminals they had murdered along the way was just the eggs you needed to break an omlete. Grugg remembered he was quite hungry, still.

“I might spend some time with Unhappy tomorrow,” Bart continued. “As much as would like to stick my head in a book…” he trailed off, not finishing that thought out loud.

“I tried to get them to come upstairs,” Claudia huffed, turning her head to the side to look at the basement doorway. “But they seem more content to stay below ground.”

The sentient dummy could be described by many things, but content was not one of them. Constantly insulting and demanding they improve their fighting proficiency, they weren’t quite part of the detective agency but— having been created by Claudia’s mother—Unhappy was still one of them to some degree.

Gregor came back through from the kitchen with four steaming mugs. Placing two on the table, he then walked around and handed over two to those on the couch. He went back to the dining table and sat opposite the wizard.

Bart eyed him up, slowly working his jaw as if ready to say something.

“Problem, ser Wizard?

“I’m concerned that you now have two pistols.”

“Concerned…” The ratman grinned widely. “…or jealous?”

“No? Why would I be jealous?” He leaned back and crossed his arms over his burgundy robes.

“Simple.” Gregor clicked his fingers and pointed a sharp claw toward the shapeshifter. “They are basically a magic attack that is way more powerful than anything you can do.”

Bart wrinkled up his nose before exhaling, trying not to engage with him further.

Claudia rolled her eyes. “Must you two always bicker?”

“Yes,” they both replied at the same time, before trying to avoid each other's smirk.

Grugg chuckled to himself. Some things never changed. His single eye fell over to the crime board, where various notices were pinned. He had been getting better at reading the smaller writing, but each had pictures to guide his thoughts quicker. Most of them were sketches done by Gregor and amounted to no more than stick figures with grumpy faces and stink lines. That was all Grugg needed to know, sometimes.

The side of the board dedicated to Nightshade and their activities had gone mostly untouched for the last couple of weeks, which was partly concerning. While the group in Helpart had been keen to throw themselves into the light in an attempt to remove the Detective group from investigating them, the group in Galeden had all but vanished on hearing of their arrival.

Perhaps the escapee—Harold—had been absorbed and told the bosses here of what Grugg was capable of. Still, even with that heads up, they hadn’t tried to assassinate him or disrupt their normal investigative work. Whether that was due to fear, or them plotting something even more nefarious, Grugg was keen to find out. If only so that he could punch them after.

If anything, settling into taking private investigative work had been necessary to quell the burning fires lit under each of them. Bart had gotten revenge on one of the people responsible for murdering his brother, and they had found the underlining plot of why. Leaving all that behind in Helpart, things had been disconnected here without immediately stumbling into the next step of unraveling the plans of Lord X to bring about some ancient power artefacts.

Grugg sighed and blew on the top of his coffee. With no jobs needing their immediate attention, it was time to push that goat and see what it’d say, tomorrow.

There was a muffled sound outside before Barry swung open.

Lady Peony Valoth here to see you!

The Investigator walked in—a tall and muscular woman, wearing black leather armor that flared out to a dark skirt. Beneath a wide-brimmed hat, her pale skin gave her the appearance of being monochrome, an effect assisted by the gray irises behind circular glasses.

“Greetings, all.” She smiled briefly, giving the cyclops a nod. “I heard about your raid tonight. Very well done.” Her eyes then narrowed toward the ratman. “With some small exceptions.”

“Coffee, Lady Investigator?” Gregor asked as he grinned sheepishly.

“I am this close to breaking you in half.” She held her fingers close together. “I remind you again that your job is to solve crime, not keep the morgue overworked.”

Bart leaned back in his chair. “Next time we’ll instigate them more to get into a fistfight, then kill them.”

Peony bared her teeth and a dim red light appeared in her eyes. Briefly, it seemed as though she was going to snap at the wizard, before the light faded away and she sighed deeply. “More the fool me for being responsible for you reprobates.” She grimaced. “I knew what I signed up for.”

“What brings you here, not just a social call, I assume?” Claudia smiled as warmly as she was able, trying to bring the conversation away from the Investigator threatening them all once again.

“Correct.” She removed her hat to rub at her head. “I have some important meetings with the Oculi Gladii higher ups over the next few days and…” she took a deep breath, looking up at the ceiling. “I need one of you to come along with me.”

Grugg twitched in his seating position, rocking back and forth in excitement.

“No.” Peony narrowed her eyes. “I’ve already made my decision, and it will be Claudia, as she is the least likely to embarrass me.”

Any potential disagreement was brief, as they all considered that point and nodded along with the decision.

“But!” she continued. “I can’t leave the rest of you to rampage over the city without someone of moral conscience to keep you in check.”

Bart raised his hand to object.

“I saw what you did to that dwarf Barthelemy. You get lumped in with the other two now.”

The wizard deflated.

“Grugg under house arrest?” The cyclops pouted. A couple of day's training with Unhappy would probably do them good, but sounded rather boring.

“If only life were that simple.” Peony gave him a sad smile. “Instead, I have a potential lead for you three to follow. Outside the city.”

“Ooh!” Grugg beamed. That sounded a lot more fun.

“You all eaten already? I’m too hungry to give the briefing right now.” Her stoic nature sunk away as she placed her hat down on the short table beside the crime board.

“Oh yeah,” Bart turned to the ratman. “Weren’t you going to make food, Gregor?”

He shook his head and rolled his eyes. “I’ve been dealing with rat poison all day. You probably don’t want me touching food, ser Bart.”

“But…” the wizard furrowed his brow and licked his lips. “You just made us all coffee?”

Gregor tutted and turned away from them all. “Obviously I don’t use my hands for that.”