-Tradition-
[An established pattern of thought, belief, or actions, often inherited from predecessors.]
Ari and Xeron had a tradition. Anytime the pair went somewhere new together for work, they spent at least one day exploring the city, and going shopping. Mostly window shopping, of course, as neither had the money to buy everything they wanted. Even if they did, carrying it all would have been incredibly difficult, if not impossible. And so it was, they were to spend their second day in Quarry shopping.
Xeron hated it, and Ari knew it. It was one of the reasons she was so adamant about it. She loved her brother, but it was just so fun to tease him and make him do things he doesn’t want to do. Besides, this tradition would end sooner or later, either she’d become a Black Cloak, or they’d visit every major city in the two realms.
They’d flipped a coin to decide if they started at the top of the city, or the bottom, and the bottom won. They’d wandered around for almost an hour before realizing the only shops present on Layer Six were restaurants and grocery stores. They were littered around the city, and any location in the city was no more than a fifteen minute walk from at least two restaurants and a reasonably sized grocer. The food variety present here was nothing to write home about, though they did have more options than you’d have in Tsumi’din. Compared to places like Market City - of course a place with that name would have a seemingly infinite number of options - and the Port of Pyr’ra, Quarry seemed quite reserved with their food choices. Ari had expected there to be more variety on other layers, and while this was true, there still wasn’t that many options. She felt like she had in the Royal City: there were options, sure, but nowhere near the amount she’d expect from a city with such an impressive reputation.
Eventually they made their way up and out of the bottom layer. The rest of the layers still featured large amounts of food and general grocers, but they began to see other types of shops as well. Layer Five featured some very low key clothing shops, with some rather unique fashions available. One caught her attention in particular, which had a variety of casual clothing, made with a lot of loose fitting, straight cut cloth. Ari brought out her notebook and sketched the styles she liked, something she frequently did. She wanted to find a style she really liked to use for her Cloak. She wished she could simply go without the uniform, like the Red Cloaks often did. She’d much rather wear whatever she wanted, especially without the strict color restrictions. Best she could do, she figured, was to adapt new styles into her uniform.
Most of the other layers were more of the same, and they followed the same routine. Layer Two was the first break they had, since Xeron found a weapons store that caught his eye. They spent a long while in there, with him picking up and “testing” a large variety of weapons. Eventually he left without buying anything, explaining to Ari that none of them “met his standards.” She thought that was silly, since many of them seemed to be better than the weapons she usually saw him use.
Finally after several hours of wandering around, they arrived at the First Layer. Surprisingly, this layer was much like the Sixth: mostly restaurants. Instead of grocery stores, however, there were a very large number of hotels. Most of them were on either the outer edge of the city, or near the center, though there were quite a few smaller scale, cheaper looking ones spread throughout the layer.
Aside from those, there were a large number of storefronts and showrooms for various mining and stone cutting companies, and a number of checkpoint warehouses for shipping companies.
After wandering around for a bit they decided to find something to eat. A task that was much harder than initially expected, as the vast majority of restaurants on this layer required reservations, many of which needed to be made a day, if not more, in advance. They did find one that didn’t - and still looked to have an acceptable quality - after an hour or so of searching. Enough time that they could have easily gone to another Layer and been done eating by the time they sat down to order.
It was a smaller place, with a rather nondescript exterior. The interior was interesting, when considering the trends within Quarry. Anywhere else, the wooden floorboards, covered by colorful rugs with intricately woven patterns, and walls tastefully decorated with paintings and photos would have been ordinary. Here, it was a novelty. Almost every store and restaurant they’d been to would have rugs, but placed over stone rather than wood, and wall decorations were sparse, more commonly painted directly onto the surface rather than framed and hung.
The food was good, but certainly not worth its price. Especially since this was a store that did not give freebies to Hunters, not even a discount. There were more and more businesses every day that didn’t give any perks to the Hunters, nor any other Half-Demon Clan. Xeron cursed them for it, but it made sense to Ari. The reputation of Half-Demons, the Tsumi especially, had been falling quickly lately. This business with the Demon Lords has indirectly been causing problems. The Clans’ investigations have been putting them in an antagonistic light lately, especially for business owners, whose operations have been interrupted time and time again. Not to mention the fact that after months of these investigations, they’d gotten extremely little information.
Xeron paid after they finished their food, and the two began meandering back down to Layer Six. They spent the rest of the night down there, studying the city’s layout, and looking for points of interest they may want to investigate. By the time they came back from a late dinner, they had a comprehensive plan for their investigations.
Stolen novel; please report.
This plan began the next day, which they spent interviewing many different shipping companies. They’d been able to get a pretty comprehensive debrief of what companies and individuals had been inspected and interviewed when they’d contacted HQ for their nightly report. This narrowed down their search a fair amount, the vast majority of the large companies had been investigated already, with a variety of positions in each company having been interviewed. That said, there were so many small companies that in terms of sheer numbers, the Tsumi hadn’t inspected even half of the registered companies.
They’d decided the night before that they’d focus on these smaller companies, and more specifically on the ground level workers. They made a list of groups with warehouses outside the city and on Layer One. From this culled list, they chose a handful at random, planning to break for lunch before picking another batch.
A plan in place, the two Hunters began their trek up to the ground level and out of the city. They’d taken the Southernmost elevator, since that would be closest to the shipping district. A long lift ride later, they were greeted by a sight littered with storehouses of all sizes. It was popular to store items that would be out for delivery soon on the surface, so companies of all sizes built storage up here.
The first of the operations they picked was at the far South end of the district. It wasn’t far, but the journey was made unnecessarily long by roads being interrupted and diverted by warehouses being placed in a chaotic manner. Once they arrived, they were greeted by a storage unit that would be better described as a shed, or even a shack, rather than a warehouse. It had a small storage area barely large enough to fit two Aeth’mobiles, and a very small office space with a single desk and three chairs. The notes provided by Recen’s secretary - a kind man who was getting up there in age, and lived in the Muwals’ home - said this was owned and operated by a single man. He had no long-standing contracts, and specialized more in small-scale urgent deliveries. Ari and Xeron agreed they weren’t likely to find anything regarding the Demon Lords here, but it was on the list.
Through the window they could see the man, focused on some papers haphazardly spread out on his desk. Xeron knocked, and his head snapped up, looking at them through the window. Ari gave a friendly smile and waved. He made eye contact with her before gesturing with one hand, indicating he needed a minute and he’d be right with them.
Before long, he gathered up his papers, stored them in a drawer that he locked, and he answered the door. “What can I do for you two kind Hunters?” He wasn’t elderly, but he was definitely not young either. He was mostly bald, hair only grew on the sides of his head, the top shone in the sunlight. He clearly hadn’t cut it in a while, and it was in knots as it fell half-way down his neck. Despite his hair and face appearing quite rough, he wore a nice, light blue button up, tucked into black pants.
“We are in town investigating a group calling themselves the Demon Lords,” Xeron began explaining, the old man raising an eyebrow at the name, “As well as their potential Human counterparts. I’m not sure if you’d have heard about a bit of a fiasco involving them and some shipping companies from here in Quarry a few months ago. Would you be willing to answer some questions?”
The man rubbed his neck under his hair, “I need to be leaving for a job within the hour, but I suppose I could chat for a little while.” He turned around and gestured for them to follow. He sat down at his desk, and the Hunters followed.
“I’ll ask first, what were those papers you were looking at earlier?” Xeron said as he lowered into the seat, not wanting to waste any time.
“Maps, mostly,” He said, “That and the list of things I’m bringing for this job.”
Xeron cocked an eyebrow at that, “A map? What for?”
“Well, one is for routing me from here to the Royal City, and others are more detailed maps of the city. I like having my route in mind as I’m traveling, and my employer has me take their shipments to different places all the time so I need to know where I’m going.”
“Do you mind me asking who your employer is?” Ari asked.
“Not at all, they’re a minor noble family in Lord Reil’anum’s employ. They see to many miscellaneous projects around the Realm, mostly maintaining buildings and other important structures.”
“And what is it you supply to them?” Xeron took the next question.
“They usually get their actual construction materials from other, more prominent delivery companies,” the man explained, “So I’m usually delivering smaller odds and ends. Brick mortar, paint brushes, the occasional rug or glass panes, stuff that’s not so heavy you need special vehicles.”
“I see, and they’re your regular employer.”
“Yes, and they’re quite reputable. They always pay generously and up front. They often send me notices when projects I’ve delivered for are completed, and I enjoy going and seeing the completed projects.”
Xeron nodded, thinking to himself. After a moment, he continued the questioning, “Have any of your other delivery contracts seemed odd? Maybe they had you go somewhere weird, or the people receiving the delivery were off in some way?”
The man shook his head, “I’ll be honest, I haven’t had anyone else contract me other than this noble family in well over a year. The only even kind of strange delivery I’ve had for them had me stop and drop off a custom made weapon to an outpost south of Market City. And that was for their son who was there for military training.”
The interview continued for a little bit longer, but ultimately it ended with no leads. They made a few more stops, and none of them offered any leads either. And neither did the groups they were able to interview after lunch. They eventually returned home, just over a dozen interviews conducted over the course of fifteen hours, and no leads or solid information.
Ari sighed, falling backwards onto her bed, her report to Danfis complete. Xeron sat down, any hint of annoyance masked by his stern calmness. “Hopefully tomorrow will have more solid results,” She said, stretching her arms out over her head.
Xeron nodded, before letting out a yawn. They’d done a lot of walking today, and were both very tired. Ari, tired, not wanting to move around much, struggled out of her cloak without getting up. Finally free of the coat, she wormed her way under the blankets, and quickly fell asleep.