The first thing Dean did after comforting Nadira was to get her to tell him everything she knew about the people they were working with. “You said the group you fell in with were fae. What kind? Is it possible they were part of the summer court?”
Nadira was shaking her head before he even finished. “I know what you are thinking, and I’m not sure. The type of fae they are is known as the wild fae. They’re part of what was called the Wild Hunt, a long time ago. Like other fae they use glamour to hide their appearance. Wild Fae are recognizable by their horns. They come in all different types, dear, elk, moose, any kind of horn really. The ones we were running dungeons with all had ram horns and called their group The Lost Sheep.”
Dean thinks about it for a few minutes. “Do you have an address or a phone number we can try?”
“I do,” Says Nadira. “I’ve already tried it though. When she didn’t get back that night I called. There was no answer though. Multiple times I’ve called, but there is no answer. After the first day, the number no longer worked. Other than that I don’t know where to find them. We always met up at the dungeon we were going to run, and they called us from the number that is no longer in service.”
Not happy about this, Dean doesn’t see any options left at the moment. Only one place to start; the adventurers guild. They may not be there right now, but if they truly are members then someone should remember them. Maybe he could get something that would help him track them down. Shaking his head, Dean sits back on the couch. Nadira watches for a moment before also leaning back, shoulder to shoulder with Dean.
Still early in the day, Dean understands they need to wait until the afternoon in order to talk to people. At this point in the day there would be few people in the establishment to question. The question now was what to do in the meantime. “I need to visit the marketplace.” Lifting his hands to see them better, he looks over the gloves he is wearing. Specifically the clear, round crystals found in them. They were secured in place by a metal ring with wires to hold the spherical foci in place.
“Ah, your time with your master has paid dividends. Must be time for an upgrade then?” This question brings a smile to Nadira’s shapely lips. The first to grace it in some time.
Dean shares a small smile of his own. “Yes. Though these are fine foci, new ones are in order. The power I can put through these is reaching their limit. Much more and I fear they will shatter.”
Nodding, the cat-woman gets up and offers a hand to Dean, who takes it. “Let’s go then. It would be best to have you at full power while we are looking for Sandy. On the way back from the market we can stop so you can pick up your car. After that you must stay here. I find the apartment discomfiting while Sandy is gone.”
Both walk to the parking lot where they find Sandy’s car, which begs the question, “How did she get to the dungeon the other day?” Says Dean.
A frown takes up residence on her countenance. “That was the first time that The Lost Sheep picked her up.”
Both of them got into the car with Nadira behind the wheel. Heading southwest into the more industrial area of the city, the trip takes somewhere around half an hour. During the car ride both of them are immersed in their own thoughts. At the rundown warehouse where the secret entrance to the underground marketplace resides, they both depart the vehicle. The corrugated sheet metal covered building looks exactly as Dean remembers.
Making their way through the building, Dean only shakes his head at the crappy facade. Inside it’s still as dusty and as unappealing as before. Thankfully, after they entered the back room and the door opened there was no issue with the anthropomorphic armadillo on guard. Dean handed over the two tiny gold coins needed for entry. The armadillo person takes the coins and moves aside. As they pass, Dean wonders if this is the same one he met before, Merl. Having only seen one of them before, he couldn’t really discern if it was him or not.
The market was even busier today than last time. There were people of all shapes, fantastical and normal looking. A large cavern stretches before them. Through the middle is a long thoroughfare lined with doors into different shops. Carts dot the street here or there while their owners shout out the quality of their food. In other places tables are set out in front of the buildings with jewelry and other knick knacks displayed for all to see. Hawkers fight for their voices to be heard over the roar of the crowd and their competition.
Stepping forward, Nadira and Dean enter the crowd and start making their way toward the shops nearby. Before they enter the first one, Dean raises a hand to stop Nadira. “We should check out Sodek’s shop first. He sold me the gloves in the first place and he might have some stones to upgrade them with. Plus, maybe he will give me a discount.” With a sardonic smile, returned by Nadira, they move farther into the market.
It takes some time to get to their destination as the streets are packed. They needed to dodge between groups of people also trying to traverse the street. At each of the outdoor shops the crowd got thicker and harder to move through as people stopped to browse, creating traffic jams in their wake. So they wouldn’t get separated, Nadira grabbed onto Dean’t hand as they wove in and out of the people, and firmly held on.
To Dean’s disappointment, the shop was closed when he arrived in front of it. The door Sodek had secured in the shop before they left was still there with the note stating his absence. This gave Dean the impression that his master had yet to return to the shop since getting back in town. “Well, I guess he had other things to do before coming here,” he tells Nadira.
She just shrugs her shoulders and points down the street a little farther. “I think there was a crystal vendor down that way. We didn’t really look there much last time we were here because it only has the crystals, no mountings to go with them. Maybe they have something for you.”
Dean followed her raised hand with his eyes and catches a glint of colors from wind chimes in front of a shop. Crystal shaped bits were hanging from the various metal tubes to catch the wind and make the pleasant tinkling. It was obvious to him at this point that the hanging bits were colored glass, maybe that was just a way of advertising. After all, who would leave their wares worth good money, hanging around unattended. Taking Nadira’s hand once more, he pulls her along until they get to the shop a couple doors down from Sodek’s.
The front was simple, with a couple of the wind chimes he saw before hanging from the slight overhang and on either side of the door. They tinkled as the glass bits at the ends of stings caught the slight breeze from all those passing by and brought the small metal tubes together. In the doorway was a bright yellow cloth covering the entrance instead of a door, like most merchants had when they were open for business.
Stepping inside brought them into a world of color. The shop was small. only about eight feet wide by ten deep, before the counter. Along the walls to the left and right were racks with shelves. The shelves themselves were unimpressive, but carefully placed on them were crystals of all sizes, shapes and colors. The sight was even more enticing due to the skylight in the center of the room which seemed to let light in only to reflect and refract off the many wares around the room. The end result was a shop filled with a kaleidoscope of colorful lights dancing all over.
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After the initial wonder of the shop, Dean looked to the counter and display case in the back of the room. There, beneath the glass were more crystals, apparently the more valuable pieces. And behind the counter was a badger. It was just over five feet tall and stood on its hind legs without an issue. Leaning on the case with its furry elbows, it clicked the long claws on its paws against the glass, producing and impatient clacking.
“Well stop your gaping and tell me what you need.” When it spoke the sound was a little odd, like an accent he hadn’t heard in a long time, but Dean was beyond being surprised by something like a talking badger by now. The voice was female and after a year training and meeting others of the supernatural world with his master, he ignored the vicious looking teeth she revealed.
Stepping forward to get closer while they converse, Dean tells her there goal. “I am looking for focusing crystals to upgrade my equipment.”
Impressively, the badger woman rolls her watery eyes and scoffs. Obviously you are looking for crystals or you wouldn’t have come here. Do you see anything else on my shelves?” Without giving either of them a chance to answer, the animal lady continues. “What I want to know is what type of crystal you are looking for. Also, what will they be set in?”
Ignoring the brisk nature of the woman’s reply, Dean holds up his hands, letting his sleeves slip down, and turns them so she could see the backs. “Clear crystals are what I’m looking for,” he tells her. It was hard for either Nadira or Dean to tell for sure, but the badger got what they thought was an interested look.
After a moment of inspection, the shop owner bobs her head up and down. “I know those gloves. I never thought the old man would give them up. Then I heard he took a new apprentice and runned off to the mountains. You must be the new lad that got the grumpy gus to head out of his shop for so long. Alright, I have a few things for you to look at, but they ain’t cheap. And I expect you aren’t looking for cheap either, are you?”
Dean thought it might be a rhetorical question at first, like before. But when she just stood there, expectantly, he spoke up. “No Ma’am.” That seemed to satisfy her, and she started digging around in the display case to her right.
Dean was fascinated to watch as she pushed a few crystals aside and delicately opened a wooden box with her large claws. They looked like ungainly things, but she used them with precision, plucking a few different sized crystals from the interior of the red velvet lined box. Coming up from her task, she lays them all on the glass counter before the two customers.
“Let me see your hands boy. Let’s see what you already got there and what I have to go with them.” A little nervous about touching her long claws, he reaches both hands out to the outstretched paws anyways. The claws close around his wrists and she pushes his hands down on the glass where she leans over them. When she touched him Dean didn’t feel a pinch or anything from the firm grasp she took on him.
After taking a look at the crystals already installed in his gloves, she immediately took two of the smallest ones she had pulled out off the counter. As she did, she also brought out two more, larger than the rest. What was left were five crystals of sizes bigger than what was already in his foci. They were all round little spheres like the ones he already had and perfectly clear. Dean could tell they would fit into his gloves, with the biggest being at the limit they could hold.
“Alright lad, these are what I can offer you. They are all upgrades to your current set and I have more so you can have a set of the same size once you have chosen.” Then she went through them explaining the price of two for each size.
Dean looked over the crystals on offer and was impressed. They were all smooth, as though expertly prepared, cut and polished. Obviously, he wanted to get the biggest, highest quality on display, but the price for those was just too much. Sodek paid him for half the parts he collected from the creatures they fought during his training, but he still didn’t have that much.
The middle pair is the most expensive one he can afford at the moment. Worried about spending almost all of his gold on this one thing, he takes a moment to think. He could use some other gear, like armor or something if he was going to need to enter a dungeon. But on the other hand, as a caster, his focus was the single most important piece of gear he has. Even his protective spells would be strengthened by having a better focus.
The choice became obvious so Dean points to the middle crystal. “A pair this size.” With a nod, the badger lady scoops up the other four to place them back in the box. When she stands again she sets down the twin to the crystal Dean pointed to. Taking the coin from his new bag, Dean hands it over.
Looking down at the money, the badger woman raises her head. “Half off if I can keep the old ones.”
Dean thinks about it, but doesn’t see any reason not to. It meant he could get the next size crystal up but, already having decided on one, he decided to keep a little money in reserve. “Sure.” With her claws, she scoops half the coins away and he pockets the remainder. Turning the outside ring around the crystals on his gloves, one at a time, the metal wires holding the crystals separate. When the old ones are free, he sets then on the glass counter as well, for the shopkeeper to take. Then he places the new ones in their place and twists the ring back to secure them in place. With the opening in the middle where they sit against his skin, Dean can feel the capacity in them, and it’s far more than what his previous ones could withstand.
A wide smile pulls his lips up, and Dean gives a grateful nod to the woman behind the counter. She returns the gesture and he turns to leave, Nadira following him out. As they cross out of the doorway, Dean hears the badger call out,”Come back again when you are ready for an upgrade again.”
He gives no reply and walks into the street. Finding himself among the crowd, Dean realizes that he has no idea what to do now. There was still some time before they should go to the guild building. Nadira turns to him and answers the question. “We should test your new foci. You still have the cloak Sandy purchased for you?” At his nod she continues. “Good. Let’s go.” Turning, the sultry cat-woman leads him toward the exit, tail swinging back and forth with new vigor.
A short car ride later they have parked and drop into a manhole. The metal rungs set into the concrete are dry and hot from the midday sun. Dean hadn’t really noticed the heat until now. Spending so much time outside over the last year made it easy to ignore. Just below the blacktop streets the heat is stifling, even to him. It relents a little as they get deeper below the surface.
Upon reaching the bottom, Dean takes a look around. He’s surprised because he never realized how large the sewers were. “I didn’t think there was this much room down here.” What he was looking at reminded him of what he had seen from movies. About eight feet tall, the tunnel had a stream of fetid water in the middle and concrete walkways to either side. The smell was bad but, oddly enough, not as bad as he had expected.
“Only certain parts are this spacious.” Nadira tells him. “Only the oldest portions of the city have tunnels like this. The rest are still big enough to get through, but you would have to crouch in the muck. In these bigger ones there is game to be found. The rats you fought before in the alleys find these tunnels their home. A bounty for the tails is still available for us to turn into the Guild. There are stronger ones down here though, so be warned.”
“That will not be an issue.” Dean’s response is delivered with an eager grin. Time to put these things to the test.” Without further conversation he starts moving down the humid passage. As he goes he casts his protections, both Kinetic Vector Shield and Mana Deflection Shield. Blue and white energies flare up around him as they take effect. After a few seconds the light dims and they are only noticeable if looked for carefully.
Next was the Spark spell. A flame the size of that from a candle is what it started off as when he first made the spell. At a much higher level of forty three, the flame is at least three times the size. Much brighter than before, the spell leaves the whole sewer lit up for yards around. As they turned the first corner they come upon, Dean finds a rat waiting there for them. With so much light coming from his spell it’s no wonder that the potent rodent knew they were approaching.
Hissing, the huge rat is crouched as if prepared to pounce. Forged through countless conflicts over the last year, Dean’s response is reflexive. Raising a hand to meat the beast’s leap, a Kinetic Discharge blasts it backward. Even though he didn’t put much power into it, the slight distortion in the air for Dean’s spell connects with the large rodent and launches it back a dozen feet. Before it can regain its feet, he raises the other arm and releases an Arc.
Blazing electricity streams out, connecting Dean and the rat for a brief moment with a light that leaves afterimages on Nadira’s sight. In the blink of an eye, the fight is over and the rat lays still. Glancing at the smoking rat corpse and then to his new foci, Dean’s grin is a little bloodthirsty. Nadira doesn’t mind though, appreciating his excitement. “Oh, I like these,” says Dean. Looking over to Nadira he says, “Let’s get to work.”