“Oho, look at that!”

“The crown finds a new king.”

“What kind of play was that?”

“Settle down. Settle down,” Bernard said calmly. “Well done Draxl. I was trying to be clever. Seems it didn’t work.”

“Would’ve been cool if it worked,” Ace said.

“Eh, but it didn’t. Congratulations on your win. Do you know what you’ve won?”

“100 gold if I remember correctly.”

A deep, guttural cackle echoed out from Bernard. “Oi, Jarred!”

A short scrawny boy with salt water stained hair and ragged clothes stepped out from the crowd. “Yes captain?”

“Tell the boy what he won.”

“The right to take your gold,” Jared answered meekly.

“That’s right.” Bernard placed one arm on the table, and leaned forward, gesturing to the pile of gold in front of him with the other. “So come on then, try to take it.”

From behind, Bernard felt a cold hand placed on his shoulder. “I’m very sorry sir if my friend did something to upset you.”

Bernard froze. His head slowly swiveled to the right. A massive jagged stone arm slowly lifted off of Bernard’s shoulder and remained hovering just above it.

“Do you think it’s possible to just talk things out?” Halvor asked kindly with a warm smile.

Bernard brushed Halvor’s arm away. “He didn’t do anything wrong. We were just wrapping up.” The gold scraped along the table toward Ace as Bernard pushed it forward.

“Alright we’re leaving!” Bernard shouted, shooting up out of his chair aggressively. “Fuckin golem,” he whispered under his breath.

Once everyone had cleared out from the table, Ace started sweeping the gold into a small bag. “Oh gods, that was almost really bad. Nice save Halvor!” Ace patted Halvor on the back as he rose from his seat.

“I can take the gold to Kai.” Halvor reached for the bag, but Ace pulled it back and put his hand up.

“Hold on a second.” Ace plunged his hand into the bag. “Gotta take my cut first.”

“Hey!” Halvor exclaimed.

“What? Do you want a cut? I mean I guess it's fair you did save me. How about 20?”

“No!”

“25?”

Halvor snatched the bag from Ace’s hand. “Kai said he needed it, so you don’t get to take any for yourself.”

“Fine, take it to him,” Ace said. “I stand by the fact that he wouldn’t have noticed if some of it was missing.”

“Well, I’m sure if there’s any leftover he’ll let you keep it.”.

Halvor walked over to the far end of the bar where Kai sat, and placed down the sack of gold in front of him. Kai pulled open the sack slightly to inspect its contents.

“So what now?” Halvor asked.

“Now I ask some questions.” Kai pulled out a handful of gold coins from the sack and handed it to Halvor. “You and Ace go buy yourself something nice, and just wait at a table.”

“Thank you very much, Kai.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Halvor walked his way over to Ace, waving the gold overhead. “What did I tell you?”

“He’ll learn not to wave gold over his head in a pirate bar eventually,” Kai said to himself. “Hey, barkeep!”

“Aren’t you a little young to be drinking, sir?”

“You don’t look a day over 20 either alright,” Kai said. “Besides, I’m not asking for a drink. I just wanted to ask you about your tattoo. Where’d you get it?”

“The Inkshot over at Leviathan’s Caress,” the barkeep answered.

“Oh, did Desmond hook you up?” Kai asked.

The barkeep’s eyes narrowed slightly. He gently placed the wet glass he had been polishing down.

A smirk crawled across Kai’s face. “Good to see tradition never changes.”

“I’m assuming this is the payment.” The barkeep gestured to the sack.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Kai opened the top of the sack slightly to reveal the coins inside. “All taken from other pirates, so need to worry about breaking your code. Side note, are you ever going to change that password? I mean like what if, hypothetically, someone named Desmond did actually open a tattoo shop in Leviathan’s Caress called the Inkshot?”

“Are you paying for the answer?” the barkeep asked.

“Crows are always asking for crumbs, figures,” Kai said. “Do I have to pay for your name?”

The barkeep took a single gold coin from the sack and placed it into his pocket. “Diego.”

“Oh is that last name extra?”

The barkeep slowly reached toward the sack again.

“That was a joke!”

“A barkeep laughs at jokes. A crow answers questions. Which would you rather I be right now?”

“Well it’s pretty lucky to find a crow in a place like this, so let’s go with crow.”

“Excellent choice sir. Now ask away.”

Kai heard stories about crows. The negative stereotypes certainly seemed to be rooted in some degree of truth; he only hoped the positive ones were as well.

“For starters, we’re looking for somebody named Elric Feu,” Kai said. “He’s an elven hybrid, and an avatar. I don’t really know how, but he can create these magic gemstones that can heal people.”

Kai was hesitant to reveal information regarding the Philosopher’s Stone, so kept his wording vague on purpose. If the crows did live up to their reputation, then there was nothing to worry about, though due to his lack of experience, he felt it better to play things safe.

“Our source got a diviner to figure out his location. They confirmed Elric was here, but that was about a week ago. According to that same diviner, the group that got him was a band of thieves called The Free Few. Any idea where he could be?”

“Travel up the River of Stars further inland,” Diego said. “Keep going till you're out of town. Eventually, you’ll find a barn in the grassland. Big and red, like the ones you see in children’s books. It’s pretty hard to miss.

“The owner is an amicable older man. All he does is tend to his crops and provide food for the town. That was until a monster ravaged a good chunk of his land, and killed a majority of his livestock.

“He needed another source of income, so he started to rent out his barn for all sorts of events. Gatherings, weddings, funerals. The next event taking place is an auction. In the man’s defense, he probably doesn’t realize it, but that auction is exclusively for illegal goods. It’s not big enough to attract criminal organizations from all across Fable, but some notable ones will be in attendance. That’s where you’ll find Elric.”

“When is this happening?” Kai asked.

“Tomorrow night.”

“Brilliant, because who needs prep time? Well, I think that’s all on that topic. You’re the one who picks the price, so tell me, do I have any gold leftover?” Kai asked.

“You should have some.”

“Cool. I wanted to ask you about these.” Kai placed his notebook on the bar counter. It was opened to the page filled with the strange number pairs he’d gotten from Halvor. “Does this mean anything to you?”

“Sorry, but they just look like numbers to me,” Diego said.

“Eh, worth a shot.” Kai shrugged his shoulders and put his notebook back in his bag.

“Do you mind if I ask you a question?” Diego asked.

“Go for it.”

“What crew are you a part of? Rare to see someone your age who knows about the existence of crows.”

“I’m not totally sure. I’m with a group right now, but that’s not really a crew, more a party. I guess, in a way, I’m the temporary captain of Atlas.”

Diego audibly choked back his laughter. “Funny. I’ll say you do look a bit like the two captains, though everyone knows it was the woman who has red hair. Besides, you're far too young.”

“And they said crows were supposed to be smart.”

“Excuse me?”

“Okay let’s do an exercise in critical thinking. I look like both the captains. I am much younger than both of them. Put two and two together …”

The realization struck Diego like a bolt of lightning. “Holy shit. You’re their kid.”

“There you go!” Kai exclaimed.

“I didn’t think any of Atlas survived,” Diego said.

“Well we all did.” Kai’s face was lit up with pride, and a juvenile smile. “Now I just gotta find everyone else.”

Diego’s face sank like a lead box in the ocean. His sense of surprise remained, but it was now overlaid by a dominant sense of concern and compassion. “Listen, dude, it’s been over a year. Nobody’s ever survived an encounter with—”

Kai slammed his fist into the bar table, rattling the coins inside the sack. “Well, I didn’t ask you, if you thought they were alive! I know they’re alive!”

“I didn’t mean to offend you, but—”

“Keep the gold!” Kai exclaimed. “We’re done here. Thanks for the info.”

Diego felt no need to push the topic any further. He took the entire sack off the counter and placed it underneath the bar.

“Hey!” Ace called out once he saw Kai approaching. “How’d it go?”

“Yeah it looked like it got heated towards the end there,” Halvor said. “It’s pretty rowdy in here, so we couldn’t hear what you were saying.”

“Halvor kept wanting to go over there, but I told him to just wait.”

“Well I appreciate the thought, but I’m fine,” Kai said. “He just charged a lot more for the information than I was expecting, so I got a little angry that’s all.

“There’s going to be an auction at a barn a little out of town. It’s for illegal items, and a couple of criminal organizations will be there. He said that’s where Elric will be, but it's a bit confusing to me.”

“Makes sense to me,” Ace remarked. “If The Free Few is based in Journey, the only good reason they'd have for dragging someone as valuable as Elric out here is to sell him off.”

“Oh! Elric’s going to get sold off. That makes so much more sense,” Kai said.

“What did you think was going to happen?” Ace asked.

“I thought he was going to be in attendance as like a buyer.”

“Why the fuck would the Free Few capture Elric, and then let him go buy shit at an auction?” Ace asked.

“That’s why I was so confused!” Kai exclaimed.

“Oh my fucking god,” Ace groaned.

“In his defense, I also thought Elric was going to be a buyer,” Halvor said.

“Well now we know,” Ace said. “Anyway, we got a bit of sunlight left, so how about we go check out this barn? Couldn’t hurt to scope the place out ahead of time.”

“I’m okay with that,” Halvor said.

“Sure why not,” Kai said. “I think best on my feet, and I, or should I say we, have a lot to think about.”