The saleswoman smiled, “I expected you to be interested, I’m glad my sale’s instinct hasn’t let me down.” Her face turned serious as she grabbed a few dossiers, “First of all we have a group of old stooges who want to set up another laboratory to play around in, I would advise you to not join in on their group as the bunch of them are arrogant and will most certainly cause you a headache”
The saleswoman tossed the dossier containing these old stooges without even asking for their opinion. Weira and Qyra agreed though, older people rarely took younger ones seriously when it came to science or knowledge. They nodded along and waited for the woman to grab the next dossier.
“Next up we have a group of nobles, like the former group they are arrogant because of their heritage but if someone is sufficiently skilled you will gain their approval. If you have any noble family members or connections you should have no trouble getting along with them, do you have any such connections.” The woman looked up and raised an eyebrow at the two of them.
Qyra spoke up, she pointed a thumb to Weira. “Her brother is currently training in a knight academy, he is sworn into the Vin to Shurka family.”
The saleswoman blinked, “That should be more than sufficient to blend in, these youths are relatively low ranked nobility. So having a knight of the Vin to Shurka’s as a direct family member should be more than enough to overshadow them. Funds are also no issue for this nobility as they are rather wealthy. They mostly make these groups to find people with like-minded interests and progress faster. It could be considered a good opportunity.”
Qyra glanced at Weira and once more was the one that talked. “Let’s first hear about the other opportunities you have for us. The nobles sound interesting but honestly, even the best of them look down at their nose at people sometimes.” Qyra blushed and quickly added, “Of course this doesn’t mean they’re bad people but living in the circumstances they do it probably can’t be helped…” She trailed off as she averted her gaze. Weira smiled and patted her leg.
The saleswoman shrugged, “You don’t have to justify yourself to me, I completely agree. As for the next dossier, this is a somewhat peculiar one. It’s an older gentleman who is looking for people to help him with his experiments, he is even willing to offer a small sum as salary. You could use the laboratory for free after your work hours. The gentleman has a good reputation and honestly is a calm and focused individual, you could learn a lot from him.”
Qyra this time shook her head, “As tempting as the offer might be we do not have the time to help others with their experiments while doing our own and still working in the dungeon. It’s going to be a pass on the gentleman I’m afraid.”
The woman nodded, it made sense after all. “The fourth and last of the available labs is also a rather peculiar one, the circumstances aren’t strange. It’s a simple combined lab contract as I have explained before. No deviances in that area, the people themselves however are… odd.”
Weira suddenly grinned and leaned forward with interest. “Odd how?”
The woman tapped the dossier for a few moments, thinking of the proper words. “It’s a pair of siblings, the elder brother seems rather emotionless, and keeps referring to numbers which make absolutely no sense to me. The younger sister, however, is famous, she is unhinged. That is what some say about her at least. It is certain that she is a genius, however. Few are willing to sponsor her however as she can be rather… reckless in her use of equipment. The lab these two want to have built will also be outside of the city in a somewhat remote area for this very reason.”
Weira grinned and looked at Qyra and nodded. Qyra groaned, “Really? Do we have to?”
Weira smiled and patted Qyra, the girl sagged and looked at the saleswoman. “It seems we will be taking the insane sibling offer.” The saleswoman blinked but still heard Qyra softly mutter something beneath her breath, “Damn Jace is a bad influence. People start thinking that everyone and everything odd must have a great amount of potential. He’s not always right you know! Things go badly more often than not!”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The saleswoman paused a moment to check if they truly wanted to go with this option. Once even the younger of the two girls nodded and voiced her agreement she told them she would notify the siblings that there was someone who was willing to take them up on their offer. The woman told them where to find the lab and that they could visit tomorrow, she would have notified the siblings by then. The girls nodded, thanked the woman for her time and left. They headed back to the inn while arguing about the decision. Qyra obviously thought this plan was going to blow up in their face, while Weira simply shrugged and said good things could come from winging it.
Once back at the inn they noticed the two Xor were sitting at a table and were waiting for their dinner. The rest of the team was nowhere to be seen, they might be out in the city or have gone shopping for new equipment. Who even knew with those boys, Weira decided to take a seat at the table with the Xor. Some of the other regulars stared slack-jawed for a few moments. But once they realized that the girls were familiar with the Xor they went back to business. The people of the inn had gotten used to Jace and his semi-regular power of summoning strange people.
Weira sat down opposite of the two and Qyra appeared soon after with two plates of steaming and delicious food. She put one down in front of Weira and then sat down as close to her as she could. She looked at the younger Xor in front of her and waved, the girl waved back but both were too focused on the food to start a conversation. Weira, on the other hand, was addressed by the older Xor. The woman had looked her up and down and seemed to be pondering something.
She tapped her plate with her fork once before looking back up at Weira. “You are blood-related to Jace the Accepted are you not?”
Weira shook her head, “Both of us were adopted by the same person. We grew close fast, and it feels like a sibling relationship to us so we simply started referring to each other as such.”
The woman nodded put a bite of food in her mouth, chewed a few times then swallowed before looking at Weira again. A hint of bloodthirst seeped from the woman. “Are you as strong as he is?”
Weira frowned and pondered the question for a while. “We used to be evenly matched, I was even ahead for a while. Then he broke into the master tier and he gained that weird blood ability of his. I’m unsure how we stack up as of now. I plan to develop some new magic that would help me reach his level again, he never did have a talent for the magical arts.”
The woman grinned this time more eager, “You seem competent, a fight would be enjoyable.”
Weira grinned and a bit of her own bloodthirst was released, “Why I thought you would never ask.”
Qyra groaned and looked at the two, “Can we do this after dinner please?”
The two frowned and looked at the girl, she pouted. “I can’t have battle maniacs continuously interrupting meal time. I happen to enjoy dinner time okay!?”
Weira scratched her head guiltily, “I guess I could wait till after dinner.” The Xor woman simply nodded and continued eating her food. The younger Xor girl secretly gave Qyra a thumbs-up which she returned with a wink.
The rest of the dinner passed quickly and surprisingly without any sort of tension. Neither party was nervous about the upcoming match and it could be seen from their posture. The people who surrounded the table and had heard the challenge, however, were interested. Weira was well known in the inn and well-liked, despite her former muteness she had always treated everyone kindly and had even helped a few of them when they had been drunk. Of course, it also helped that she was beautiful. Quite a few of the younger ones had tried to court her, only to be turned down by an angry purple haired girl who would glare at them angrily.
They had laughed it off back then. Yet nearly all of them were curious as to the strength of the well-liked adventurer team that had stayed in the inn for over half a year. They oozed a sense of competence and people couldn’t help but be attracted to it, now that they had the opportunity to see that competence in action how could they resist?
People had started leaving the inn to let the other people in the district know, soon enough before the group had even finished their dinner they already had quite a gallery waiting to follow them to wherever they would hold the match.
Weira glanced at the group as she finished her plate, she smiled at the Xor and cracked her neck. “Shall we? There is a training center not far from here that we can use.”
The woman smiled and showed her sharp teeth, “We shall.”