As they neared Eden City, Clarity saw more and more broken down cars left abandoned in the vicinity. The cracked asphalt under the wagon began to show signs of repair, as traffic on the road slowly increased, forcing Rob to slow down his wagon. Traffic being horses, donkeys, wagons, pedestrians, and even a bicycle or two.
Around mid-afternoon they came to a stop at the end of a long line of travelers queuing up to enter the city. Men armed with crossbows had set up a barricade around the entrance and were collecting entrance fees from anyone who wanted to enter.
As they pulled up to the guards loitering around the entrance, who seemed to spend just as much time harassing people for fun as collecting entrance fees, Rob called out “Ho there, guards! I have news!”
“Yeah, yeah, there's always news, what else is new?” a guard lackadaisically replied.
“I'm serious!” Rob said “There was an attempt on my life! A group of men set up an ambush on the way here!”
“So what? What happens outside of the city stays outside of the city” he retorted contemptuously.
“Really? Would you still say the same thing if I told you they had guns!?” Rob replied indignantly.
The guard broke out into open laughter at Rob's claim. “Guns? What world are you living in, pal? Guns stopped working ages ago.”
“That's why it's so serious!” Rob tried to explain. “Five men with fully automatic rifles tried to have me killed! Only a gnome could outfit a group like that! And they're creating weapons for somebody ready and willing to use them on innocent merchants like me!”
“Really? Are ya sure you didn't get them mixed up some rock golem shooting pebbles at you? Hahahahaha” he started laughing even harder, drawing the attention of the other guards.
“Look at my wagon!” Rob waved his hands dramatically towards the shredded front portion of his wagon “Does that look like it was caused by pebbles? We even caught this bastard who was with them. Just ask him!” he pointed at the man tied up in the back.
“Now, now” another guard cut in “Don't be making a fuss. We get gnomes around here from time to time, as long as they don't cause problems they can do what they want.”
“PROBLEMS?” Rob's face turned red as a tomato as he shouted “THEY TRIED TO SHOOT AND KILL ME!”
“And yet you're still alive. Doesn't seem like a problem to me” the earlier guard retorted.
“Only thanks to my escort!” Rob gestured at Clarity. “Without her I would be dead!”
“Yeah, yeah... hey... what the hell is she supposed to be?” the guard quickly adopted a much more serious expression as he noticed Rob's inhuman traveling companion.
“An adventurer” Clarity stated monotonously.
“Eh, whatever, good enough for me” the second guard shrugged, adding “Listen, just hand over the guy you've got tied up back there and we'll interrogate him. If we find anything important we'll investigate. Don't worry about it, okay? Just pay your fees, sell your stuff, and let us do our jobs.”
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After a fair bit of angry haggling, much to the dismay of the travelers stuck in line behind them, Rob finally convinced the guards that he shouldn't need to pay an extra fee for the criminal who had just tried to kill him and was now being turned over to them, and settled on four bronze to get inside.
“One bronze for me, one for you, one for the wagon, and one for the guards to do their fucking jobs!” Rob huffed under his breath as they finally rolled inside with the sun nearing the horizon. “I'm surprised those crooks didn't make me pay for Betsy!”
'You probably shouldn't give them any ideas...' Clarity silently noted.
“It's too late to set up shop now, so I'm going to find a motel” Rob said tiredly. “As the employer I'm obligated to pay for your room and board too, unless you want to spend the night elsewhere and come back in the morning?”
“Hmm... is there a curfew, or can I go check out the city?” Clarity asked.
“Nah, this city is still stuck in the past, most of the people here are trying to ignore magic and pretend the Pathways never happened. You'll find more people on the streets at night than during the day. Just don't break anything, and if you beat somebody up make sure you leave them where the guards won't find them, and everything will be fine.”
Rob drove his wagon into an old, converted parking garage that was filled with rickety wagons and brought Betsy to a makeshift stable nearby, before heading off to a run-down motel. The massive sign out front was completely dark, and all of the old fluorescent lights were replaced with slow burning torches.
After escorting Rob to his apartment room, she was free from escort duty for the night. Rob didn't expect the men from earlier to try to make a mess inside the city, and it was common practice for escorting adventurers to get the nights off while in civilization. Clarity wasn't so sure the guards would even care if they were attacked again, but Rob assured her that the one thing the guards would never tolerate was extra paperwork thrown onto their workload.
Clarity strolled through the torch-lit streets with her cape wrapped tightly around her, numerous eyes following her strange form, but just as many ignoring her as though she didn't exist. One particularly drunk fellow crashed right into her as she was turning a corner, sputtering and cursing at her as though it was her fault, not even noticing anything odd about her form. 'Ah, the joys of big city life. But without any electricity or cars. How do people even live like this?'
She came to a stop in front of a seedy bar, contemplating the wisdom of going inside to eavesdrop on local gossip, despite not having any money on her, when three shuffling thugs appeared out of a nearby alley and surrounded her. 'Really?'
“You don't look like you're from around here, Miss” one thug growled threateningly.
“... Really?”
“Ya yer real outta place” another snickered in a high-pitched, nasally voice, as all three men pulled out small switchblades from their coats.
“... Really?”
The three thugs continued laughing darkly, trying to herd her into the alley they had just exited from, which Clarity readily accepted, walking into the dark alley ahead of them.
“Just out of curiosity, why did you guys pick me?” Clarity turned and asked with genuine confusion on her face, as they followed her into the shadows.
“Ah Miss, it's nothing personal, but you can't go walking around places like this while showing off such amazing items. Guys like us would recognize a storage ring like that from a mile away” he pointed at the large silver ring on her hand “and I'd bet my life that earring is magical too. As for whatever is making your body all blue and glowy? That definitely ain't anything common!”
“Ya so hand over yer stuff before we gut ya like a fish, see!”
Clarity felt rife with indecision as she wondered how to handle these thugs. Teaching them a lesson would be incredibly satisfying, but they didn't seem like the type to learn from their mistakes. Would it then be better to kill them, so that nobody else falls victim to them? Sure, she could easily get rid of them, but that wasn't a path she wanted to start down over a few small time goons like this, and she didn't know what kind of consequences that could bring either.
After a brief but noticeable pause to think over her response, she exclaimed “Oh, I know! I've got a better idea. How about you give me all of your money, and a tour of your little city, and I won't beat you to within an inch of your life?” 'If there's no good choice, then I'll just choose the option that benefits me the most! Heh.'
“Ya crazy bitch!” the annoying one lunged forward immediately, embedding his knife up to the hilt into Clarity's gut. “Not so sassy now, are ya bitch? Gerk-”
His cursing was abruptly cut off as Clarity reached out and yanked him off his feet by the throat with her right hand. His friends only hesitated for a moment in shock, before swerving and approaching from both sides of the thug dangling like a slab of meat from Clarity's grasp. The man on the left was met with her other arm and found himself lifted off the ground in the same manner as the first.
“Got you!” the last one shouted triumphantly, preparing to lodge his own dagger into her chest, before a third arm shot out from under Clarity's cape and lifted him off of his feet as well. The three men could only stare and sputter in horror as Clarity held all three of them above her, a third arm having grown from beneath her right arm to restrain the last thug.
“Well, I guess I don't need three tour guides” Clarity said with a large smile. A fourth arm abruptly shot out of her left side as she formed a first and raised it threateningly. “Let's start with the most annoying one, shall we?”
Screams and thuds echoed into the night from the dark alley, but nobody bothered to come help. This part of the city was a place where people knew not to stick their noses into other people's business. As far as they were concerned, it was your own fault if you got yourself into a fight you couldn't win, and they were more likely to blame the victim for not surrendering before getting a beating.