A small booth in the corner of the room offered a place to cower behind his mug. Nobody had approached him, or even really looked his way. Still, he remained cautious. The place was a lot more lively than the Giddy Griever. Armour covered men and women sat around the tables talking merrily. The occasional song would be bellowed out by a stout man at one of the tables, and nearly the whole Tavern would clap along or stomp their feet to encourage the luteless bard.

People continued to pour in after dark, finished for the day with whatever had brought them to the city. Each patron pressed their medallion against a black brick set into the wooden wall at the entrance. Their medal would flash with the colour of the crystal set within. For the most part he saw blue or green flashing, but the occasional red made sure to grab his attention.

"What do you suppose that is?" He asked Uundah, feeling safely drowned out by the noise in the room. He was pointing at the black brick in the most subtle way he could manage.

"I don't know, but it seems important" Uundah replied, confirming his thoughts.

"I guess I'll have to go introduce myself". He made his way through the growing crowd for a closer look. Upon inspection, he could see a rune set into it. There was no aspect coming from it, which made him even more curious. Placing his medallion against it only deepened the mystery. His crystal pulsed red, and the rune filled with the unique aspect that his medal glowed with. There seemed to be a slightly different variation of the same colour of magic on every medallion, watching the patrons all night was enough to confirm that. Once the rune had finished filling, the aspect appeared to sink inside the brick, leaving the rune as an empty carving again.

"What happened?" Uundah asked impatiently.

Murphy studied the brick a moment longer. "I don't think it did anything" he admitted.

He waited by the brick for enough time to see another party of adventurers enter the building. They continued their conversation as if he wasn't hovering around them to see what they did. Each patron placed their medal against the cold stone, each receiving the same result as him, except with green and blue flashes. Most of the party went straight to a table, while the smallest of them, a man with a green crystal, visited the bar on their behalf.

"I think they're checking in" Uundah theorised. "The old man told us that the Tavern keeps track of you. Maybe this is how."

Murphy nodded along. He wasn’t sure of it, but he thought his O'jin might have been right. A hurried question to the innkeeper between mugs confirmed the theory, and earned him another confused look from the man.

They spent the next several hours in their booth, and just watched the patrons to try and gleam a hint of how the place operated. Callus wasn't one to just tell them something, he preferred lessons that involved doing instead. The downside to their masters' methods meant that in situations like this, they are left to figure it out for themselves. The shared lodging was intimidating to say the least. At the back of the Tavern was a long room filled with bunk beds. It was poorly lit, and smelled of sweat and farts. They chose a bunk near the door, not willing to wade too deeply into the room of sleeping giants. After having his own room for his entire life, his sleep was restless thanks to the sounds that kept him paranoid. Eventually his heavy eyelids took the choice from him, and he fell asleep snoring as loud as his bunks neighbour.

~~

When he woke, the bunk room was nearly empty. Only a few scattered sleepers stayed glued to their beds. One man snored loudly with a wine bottle still firmly in his grasp. He didn’t drink very much himself, but the feeling of grime and sweat on his skin and a gentle headache had him missing his master's cure to a hangover. A small window showed the light from outside was already bright, meaning he'd slept through a lot of the morning.

The Tavern was empty of patrons. The innkeeper was alone in the room dusting the windows. Something about the scene seemed off to him, but he couldn’t place it. While shoving a slice of bread from the counter into his mouth, he heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. He looked, and standing right next to him was a young woman holding a stack of paper.

"Oh, it's you" he said with a mouthful of bread.

"In the flesh" Margo sighed.

"What are you doing here?" He asked suspiciously, dryly swallowing his food.

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"Looking for you actually" she scolded. "You were supposed to check in at the Giddy Griever. You've had me thinking you were lost."

"It's sweet to know you were worried" he replied with a smirk.

"I was worried I'd be demoted. If I lost my only ever charge I'd be a laughing stock."

"Does that make me your first then?" He said with a wink.

She made a subtle gagging noise. "Do you talk to every woman like this?"

"I don't talk to many women."

"It shows". She adjusted her glasses, and fixed him with a serious expression. "We need to talk about your responsibilities."

Murphy groaned. "What responsibilities? Nobody told me about those."

"I've gathered" she ushered him to a booth, and handed him a piece of paper. "You need to make the Tavern some money."

"I need to make me some money" he laughed.

"It's the same thing, you…" she started to insult him, but stopped herself and took a deep breath to calm herself. "When you take a job from the Tavern, we take a small share as a commission."

"Seems reasonable."

"It is. As a Tavern Wizard you have an obligation to take jobs. It sets an example for those who are climbing the ladder" she lectured.

"Nobody told me about that" he complained.

"I'm not surprised. Your joining with us has been somewhat unconventional, and I doubt you'd listen anyway."

"So what kind of jobs are there?" He asked, not paying attention to her comment. Looking the paper over, he saw three things listed. There was a request for an alchemist travel companion, and a job to ward a new home in a town called Jilly with protective runes. The request that caught his eye however, was one to defend a village from a returning wyvern.

"One of these things is not like the others" he said, tapping his finger on the request.

She sighed again. "I had a feeling you'd pick that one."

"I haven't picked anything yet."

"Yes you have."

"Okay I have, but I don't appreciate you assuming." He said with indignation.

She snatched the paper from him and returned it to the stack. "I'll assign you to it. This is a party job, so I hope for their sake you can play nice with others."

Murphy frowned. "That wasn't very nice."

"I'm not very nice" she said dismissively. "Now is there anything you need before I leave?" She paused, and held up a finger. "Anything reasonable" she punctuated.

"Well there goes half of my requests" he joked. "What can I ask for then?"

"Information" she said smiling, knocking on the papers in a gesture of mockery.

He considered what information he might need, and smiled sardonically when he had an idea. "I'm looking for someone. Can you help me with that?"

She tore a corner from one of the pages, and pulled a pen from her sleeve. "Write their name down, I'll see what I can do."

"You come prepared, that's for true". He scribbled down Taymon's name and handed it back to her. "It's not a problem if he's a patron is it?"

She looked at him suspiciously. "Why?... Actually don't tell me, I don't want to know. So long as you didn't swear on the medallion, the Tavern will remain neutral."

Murphy nodded, pleased with her answer. "Good to know."

"There is one more thing" she said, changing the topic quickly. She made a gesture with her fingers. With a flash of white light, she was holding an opaque crystal, carved into a perfect sphere. "Someone paid a lot for you to have this" she said, handing him the crystal ball.

He rolled it in his hand and admired the aspect within. "That's an interesting one" he said, thinking out loud.

"It's pretty standard really" she replied, not gaining a hint of what he was actually talking about.

"What's it used for?" He continued, never looking away from the strange and captivating colour.

"It's a crystal ball" She answered.

That broke him out of his trance, and he gave her a sarcastic smile. "Thank you for that. But what does a crystal ball do?"

"It's honestly hard to tell what you do or don't know" she defended. "It's used for communication. It only goes to one place without the right rune table though."

"So where does this one go?"

She shrugged. "I don't know that, they were anonymous when they made the request."

He pondered that, wondering who he knew that would be so mysterious. Then it dawned on him, and his shoulders slumped. "I know where it goes" he sighed.

"Good. If that's all". She stood to leave. "I'll be in contact. Meet with your party here tomorrow, an hour before morning light. Talk to the innkeeper to find out particulars". She was about to walk off, but stopped for one final comment. "And don't forget to check in to Taverns, I can't do my job otherwise."

Uundah made sure to send a strong sensation of self righteousness, pleased with his theory panning out. "I'll remember" Murphy assured her. "Can't have you missing me."

She sniffed, dismissing him again, and walked out of the Tavern.

"Where do you suppose she goes when she walks out that door?" He asked his O'jin.

"I don't know, but I doubt you'll ever find out" Uundah responded.

"Nonsense" Murphy scoffed. "She wants me, she just doesn't know it yet."

Uundah chuckled. "Maybe don't tell that to her."

He turned his attention back to the crystal ball and sighed a tired sigh. A spattering of people had started to wake or come in through the front door while he was chatting to his liaison. Moving back into the corner booth from the night before, he felt confident that he could empower the ball without drawing too many ears. His efforts for secrecy were thwarted the moment he empowered it, when he heard the familiar and pitchy voice of his master.

"Where in the whole wide range of sheltering fucks have you been?" Callus screamed in rage. "And who the fuck is Taymon of Lardishear."