Gilliam had spent a few minutes explaining things, mainly the same he said to Rhyan about the undead and the whys and hows.

“So that’s the gist of it. I can’t sense them properly so we’d have to ask around normally. Unless the Darkness mage has put in some extra effort or is exceptionally skilled, the undead should be easy to notice, so we can probably ask around for people looking, moving or smelling certain ways.” Gilliam condensed the main problems but also possible solutions in the end.

Yeta’s brow had furrowed through the explanation, she had rubbed her eyes with one hand as she had leaned back entirely in her chair, seeming deep in thought.

“That complicates things, yes... Since this is a job I can help with certain things, but I can’t force anyone to help you, nor can I help with anything that would cost, so no manpower. If you rent someone’s services and get proper receipts, you can fill out some reimbursement forms but... You are mostly on your own on this one...” She seemed honestly annoyed at this, though her personality appeared somewhat free-spirited she seemed to at least not be all random.

“I suppose we’ll just have to walk about and see what we can find. We’ll take it from there.” Gilliam commented. He felt like large problems were easier to handle if you just started somewhere. Even if that ended up being the wrong start, you at least knew it was wrong rather than using too much time to ponder it.

“Well, we guy downstairs was found in this area.” She lifted herself from draping backwards over her chair to point at a map she had in front of her, specifically pointing in the south of the city. “In the southmost area of the Southern Warehouse district there is an open area along the wall, he was found there. Perhaps that’s a good place to start.” She ended her statement with an almost questioning-sounding sentence, but it was toned more as a recommendation or order.

“We might as well.” Gilliam agreed. “If he looked like he did, I doubt he made it far before he was found. So hopefully he’s from somewhere around there.”

“Good luck.” Yeta commented as she waved at them to leave.

Leaving as requested, they found themselves back in the hallway outside of Yeta’s office. It didn’t take them long to leave through the door, lobby, and go outside.

They had a map of the city, with interesting spots marked. Gilliam made a simple mark on it, circling in the area that Yeta referred to when mentioning the area between the warehouses to the south, just in case.

“I suppose we’ll go there, then?” It wasn’t as much a question as just a way to get them all on the same track before they started walking.

It took a surprising amount of time to get there, mainly due to the amount of people already heading back and forth. This seemed to be a main road to the warehouse district, meaning that there were a lot of carts as well. Since the carts went both ways it was kind of annoying to weave between them, just following them was the easier way to go. And since a horse-drawn cart full of wares in the city didn’t move too fast, this had them walk somewhat slowly.

However, this did let them take in the sights, not that there was too much to see on the way. The different districts lived up to their names, and it wasn’t a problem realizing where the warehouse district was as suddenly the buildings in a certain area were massive, and the ones they could see into didn’t have too many inner walls.

Continuing down the road even more, they followed what looked like the good roads on the map, which eventually brought them to the wall just east of where they wanted to go. There was a large opening between the buildings leading into the space they were after, but they were stopped as soon as they tried to enter.

The area itself was filled with people moving things around, most people wore loose-fitting but acceptably looking clothing, with pants, a shirt and perhaps a vest. Many had a simple hat of sorts, perhaps to keep the sun off their head. The buildings were very well maintained and large as they had seen before. The men that stopped them wore similar clothes but had a small bag as well as some clipboards with papers on them.

“Where are you going? You don’t look like you belong here.” One of the two men commented in a polite questioning tone.

“We’re here on guild business.” Gilliam tried, lifting his metal stick away from his body to show it better.

“Well, that’s not enough, we need some permission papers from the owners if you’re to roam about in here.” The same man commented.

“Ah... well... Who do we need to speak to, then?” Gilliam was a bit annoyed, but it somewhat made sense... However, it felt like this permission should come with the job when you accepted it.

He was kind of missing the social power from being a mage in V’ida already.

“Then you need to book a meeting with Ibela Lygar, he’s the owner of these warehouses.” the man made a ‘follow me’ motion as he started walking towards the warehouse closest to the road. “I think he’s busy right now, but we can go have a look.”

Gilliam followed and was a bit surprised, he expected this to be a multi-day ordeal, or that the workers would refuse to help or some dumb thing like that. But, it made sense. They were here on official guild business, perhaps to even help the very same man they are speaking of, and a worker would bring people to their boss unless instructed not to.

The man led them into the large warehouse but kept to the right along the wall. There was a set of stairs leading up to an overseer nest-like room that was high up, letting people in there to see everything going on in the warehouse. All in all, it was a good place for someone wanting to have an overview, but it was too high up to be in the way of any normal operation.

Coming up there they came to a deck on that side of the building. The man leading them motioned for them to wait as he knocked on the door, popping his head in before he heard a reply.

“Sir, I’m sorry to bother you, but there are some people here from the Guild, who want permission to enter the place for a job?”

He nods and seems to react for a few seconds before he pulls his head out and turns back to Gilliam. “He has time for you now, just go in there.”

Stepping back he let the group go to the door.

Gilliam walked to the door and knocked before entering, coming into a very nice and lavish office. The outside looked simple and practical, but the inside was covered in fancy stained wood panels, there were windows on all sides although the one on the stair sides was much smaller than the others. They came into the room along the wall, so the window to their left and straight ahead were large and allowed for a good overview, the one to their right looked outside into the streets. There was a special stand in a corner of the room for some fancy glasses and some clear alcohol, lots of books of the in-out registration kind and a safe seemingly bolted to the wall. His desk was nicer than the Guildmasters with a desk name plaque reading Ibela Lygar. All in all, the best description was; Lavish.

The middle-aged man himself was surprisingly simple. He wore some nice black pants held up by a black high gloss belt with a simple buckle, a white shirt with rolled-up sleeves and a black vest which had a pocket-watch chain hanging out. Clean-shaven, oiled back greying brown hair and a clean, unscarred face.

“Please, come in-” he started as he remained seated in his padded chair, he proceeded to motion for a chair in front of his desk and a few more stacked around a smaller table in the corner. “-Sit.” It was toned as an option, rather than an order.

Gilliam stepped in, Cera followed close and Rhyan stepped in after. Rhyan almost looked a bit uncertain being this high up on wooden supports with that much metal on him.

“I don’t imagine we’ll be long.” Gilliam replied as he referred to his ID. “We’re here on a job for the Guild and would like access to the area.”

Ibela sat up in his chair a little. “Oh, this is about that undead thing that was found in the area?”

“Yes, it is.” Gilliam didn’t know who had requested the job with the Guild, but this man knew about it anyway.

“Well, I don’t think there is anything more to find, probably just someone trying to mess with my reputation.” Ibela took a glass from his desk with some clear but brownish tinted before sitting back in his chair and taking a sip. “You’re welcome to walk about and check out things but I ask you that you don’t get in the way of anyone's work. It might be better if you come back as the sun is setting, most people are done for the day then, should make it easier for you.”

Sitting back up he put the glass back on the desk and started writing a note.

“I would prefer to look around right away.” Gilliam countered. “We’ll do our best to keep out of the way of any workers.”

“Well, that’s fine, then. But I do want you to keep out of their way, besides that, I can give you permission to walk about and see what you can find. You can’t open any crates or enter the restricted areas. I understand how this might sound but I am contract-bound as well.” He continued writing something on the piece of paper before he signed and stamped it, handing it to Gilliam.

“You go along now, I have lots of work piling up today.” He smiled a well-practiced businessman smile. It was better than most fake smiles but you could tell if you looked at it prosperity.

“Thank you, we’ll make sure to not get in anyone’s way.” Gilliam confirmed as he turned for the door.

They weren’t stopped, or rather it seemed like he was just waiting for them to leave, giving them the smallest bit of time he could before he returned to his work.

The guard who led them up here was still waiting for them, and reached out his hand.” Could I just see the note before you go on?”

Gilliam nodded and handed him the piece of paper he was given. The man skimmed over it and gave it back. “That’s good, just wanted to make sure what permissions you were given before I take you down, in case I were to kick you out or something.” He smiled a bit at his joke, seeming to try to lighten the mood ever so slightly.

He nodded for them to follow as he went back down the stairs, Gilliam used this brief moment to read through the note. It was simple and practical. Ibela presented himself and gave the Guild members part of this job permission to walk around any non-restricted area. If they need to enter anywhere else they would need special permission and be guided, it was signed by Ibela as well making it a real permission slip.

Gilliam didn't like the non-restricted part, he understood the logic but... if there was anything shady going on it would most likely be in some restricted zone.

But for now, they would just have to make do with what they have.

On the way down Cera stepped closer to Gilliam and tugged on his sleeve. Gilliam noticed and bent down to her as she seemed like she wanted to say something.

She leaned in closer to his ear and whispered. “The man up there, when you said you wanted to check the place right away, he reacted like he was hiding something. And...” She seemed almost hesitant to continue. “As soon as we went, he moved fast in his office, almost as if he was looking for something.”

A small smirk grew on Gilliam’s lips, this was good info. It could be just misinterpreting something, naturally, but at the same time, it didn’t feel like that made sense. The rummaging could be him frantically looking for something, if he didn’t have a sudden haste that shouldn’t be necessary... Or, naturally, it could, but it didn’t feel likely.

Gilliam raised himself back up and gave Cera a pat on the head. “Good girl, that’s good information.” He smiled as he stroked her head back and forth for a second.

She seemed almost a bit embarrassed at this, but there was also a hint of a smile again, it seemed she liked this kind of contact.

They soon found themselves on the ground floor, the guard that led them brought them back outside and started pointing out. “You’re allowed to check out all the buildings you see here, except that one.” He pointed out a building that looked more office-like, rather than a warehouse. And I’ll help with anything I can.” He added.

Gilliam decided to take advantage of this right away. “That’s great to know. What can you tell me about the undead man that was found in the area?”

He looked up at the sky and scratched his chin for a few seconds. “Hmm... I don't know much, only what I heard from others. People working the night shift thought he was just some drunk. He attacked one of them but the others called the guards who managed to get control over the situation.”

Stolen story; please report.

“Does anyone know where he came from?”

“Not really, he just sort of showed up. Mr. Lygar said that someone probably dumped him in here to fuck with his reputation, but I don’t think so.” The guard leaned in closer to Gilliam. “If he was dumped here then someone would probably have seen something, but he just... showed up.”

“Interesting, that’s a good thing to start with, thank you.” Gilliam was surprised at the help he had gotten so far. If Ibela was hiding something, and Cera caught it, then this was a good start and now this man was surprisingly helpful as well.

Perhaps he was just pessimistic when it came to things like this?

“Well, I should head back. Good luck.” The guard gave them a little wave as he left them to their own.

Rhyan stepped in after the guard was out of earshot. “Though good info, it doesn’t give us much to go on.”

“No, not specifically, but at least it means that there is probably something here...” Gilliam turned towards the area with six large warehouses and one large office building. “Well, I suppose we’ll just walk about, ask people who look like they have a moment and see what we can find.”

They spent a few minutes planning out how to do this and split up from there. Cera didn’t feel comfortable going alone and opted to go with Gilliam, but Savia was super interested in being a part of this and set off on her own. They had decided on where to meet up later once they felt done, or when the sun was setting.

The next hour was surprisingly boring. Gilliam and Cera didn’t find any information, and the link to Savia hinted that she might be harassing the local wildlife again. Which wasn’t a problem but she seemed too giddy and interesting to be searching for something she might not understand what is. Gilliam decided to ignore it as he didn’t expect much anyway.

The information they got from the people on a short break was not much more than the guard told them before; the undead just showed up in the area, attacked some poor person and were taken care of by the guards. Nobody knew where it came from and the people working that day were part of the night-shift workers, so they wouldn’t be in until the sun was setting.

They weren’t given access to the office building, even though he tried and faked ignorance when told that the permissions he had didn’t cover the offices. Thanking them with a smile, if only for appearances’ sake, they continued to look around.

Gilliam was about to call it and meet up until the bond with Savia spiked with intense glee and intrigue. She wasn’t in any danger but she had found something of incredible interest... That or someone was feeding her something. Pulsing a commanding feeling over their bond had it replied in kind, signalling that she knew to meet up.

“Savia found something,” Gilliam commented to Cera, who didn’t seem to react much but at least she knew.

“If you see her flying around, let me know.” Gilliam requested as he looked to the sky and started moving towards the meeting point.

Well before they got to the meeting point it appeared that Savia had seen him before he had been notified. He heard Cera inhale and vaguely saw her look up towards him, but when a familiar feeling slapped against the side of his face, he realised what was going on.

Peeling Savia off his face he looked into the widest and happiest smile as she sat down in his palm.

“Savia did good! Savia found thing!” She exclaimed with one wing pumping into the air like a victorious fist.

“Oh? What did you find?” Gilliam asked, not expecting much more than her finding some good fruit in a vendor or something.

“Boozeman walked into corner and disappeared!” She said this like it would explain everything.

Gilliam only looked at her with a confused expression. He had no idea who boozeman was, for starters.

Savia seemed to catch up on this. “Man in room, give Master paper. Boozeman!”

“Oh, you mean the man we spoke to in the fancy room, who gave me this?” Showing the note he got from Ibela she nodded in response.

“And he walked into a corner and disappeared?”

Again Savia nodded. “Gone! Disappeared!”

“Well, that’s not a bad start. Good job!” Gilliam petted Savia on her head using a finger. “Then we just need to find Rhyan, can you see if you-” Gilliam planned to send Savia in the air to find him, but Cera pulled on his coat for attention.

Turning to her she just pointed in a seemingly random direction, and though it took a few seconds Gilliam saw Ryan walking where she pointed. He chuckled a bit, he probably made a lot of noise for someone with Cera’s hearing.

“Well, that makes things easier, thanks.” Gilliam gave her a simple pat on the head as well before he walked over to Rhya, Savia still in hand.

“Oh, Gilliam.” Rhyan commented as he noticed them. “I don’t have much more information than before. But apparently, the night shift should be in a few hours.”

“Savia found a possible clue, I thought we could start there.” He smiled, motioning Rhyan to follow as he told Savia to guide the way.

He explained the gist of it on the way as Savia pointed them out to the last warehouse before the office building. It looked like any of the other six, nothing special or weird about it. But Savia kept pulling on Gilliam’s finger almost as if she expected to manage to move him faster.

Taking care to not get in the way of anyone working there, they soon found themselves walking sideways between some boxes, they seemed easily moveable if they wanted to, Cera could probably push some aside as they were on wheeled carts, but since they were to touch as little as possible they resulted in sideways walking.

Ending up in a corner of the warehouse, looking as normal as any other area between boxes, Gilliam couldn’t see anything out of place. They were in a stone wall corner with boxes behind and to the side. Not much hinted to any traffic there or anything of interest.

“I don’t see anything.” Gilliam commented to Savia, looking at her in his hand.

“Boozeman walked here. Then disappear!” She was adamant, sounding like she was getting a little defensive and trying to persuade him to believe her.

“I think she’s right.” Rhyan commented after looking around. “Look at the dust on the crates around us, and see that there is nothing on the floor. That doesn’t make sense.” He hinted.

Taking another look around with that info in mind, he had a very good point, everything should be roughly equally as dusty, and the boxes, if moved at some point, shouldn’t be that much more dusty than the floor... right?

“I have seen this before.” Rhyan continued. “You use boxes to hide an entrance, a few boxes on top of each other and some well-hidden hinges, and you have a secret entrance to something.” Walking around he looked closely at the different crates and boxes before he stopped and looked at Gilliam with a satisfied smile.

“Like this, there is almost no dust on it, and the dust and debris it has is all shoved in the back, almost like this is a hinged lid.” He was clearly satisfied with his deduction. Gilliam couldn’t help considering if this was because he could feel useful. Which, to be honest, is a good feeling.

“Then we just need to find out how to open it?” Gilliam commented, but Rhyan seemed to have plans for that.

His armoured friend proceeded to push, pull and press different parts of the boxes until he got his hand on a latch, grabbing that and lifting seemed to do the trick as it lifted the lid and front wall of two crates next to each other, revealing a set of stairs going down. The stairs as well as walls and ceiling were made of just smooth rock, almost looking like an earth mage having created a hallway on demand. Which felt logical as it would probably be the best way to make this.

“Good job.” Gilliam commented in a slightly hushed voice as he pointed down there. This was somewhere they absolutely weren’t supposed to be, so going silent was probably the best idea.

Gilliam put Savia back in his hair and tried to walk silently down the stairs. Cera made no sounds as she followed, Rhyan took a few steps in and closed the hidden door behind them. Gilliam was glad to notice that Rhyan didn’t have steel under his feet, at least, if it was it was padded with something else as though there was the odd metallic sound from him moving, it was not from normal walking.

Rhyan was a smart man, so this wasn’t super surprising but it was a welcomed thing he had thought of!

It was incredibly dark once the door was closed, but they had light before walking in there so it wasn’t a problem following what they saw at that point. The little ambient light sneaking in through the gaps of the box door was enough that they could navigate down and around the bend to the right, which took them further down. A good thing was that, as soon as they rounded the bend, there was light after another bend further down so they weren’t blind anymore.

Doing their best to sneak down and look around the corner. The stairs ended up in a room with some glowing orbs, almost looking like the LED orbs you could get in the modern world, but since he sensed the weakest of magic from them it made it apparent that they were magical lanterns.

Silently walking down they found that the room was empty, it had some wooden boxes in the corners and along the walls, but besides the door on the opposing wall, and the glowing orbs, there wasn’t anything of interest in there.

Gilliam pointed to the door as he looked at Cera and whispered. “Can you hear anything on the other side?”

She walked over and stood before the door for a few seconds, facing it, with her ears pointing straight forwards. Turning back to Gilliam she shook her head before walking back to him.

“I suppose we push on, then?” He asked his metal-clad companion.

Rhyan nodded and walked to the door, inspecting it for a few seconds before he grabbed the handle and opened it slowly.

Gilliam was glad that there was no loud creak or screaming noises from it as it revealed more of the same smooth stone in the shape of a long hallway.

Taking a moment to listen, they felt safe enough to continue, sneaking down the hallway that grew darker and darker before it broke to the left, looking around the corner there appeared to just be a dark hallway until a split further down which had more of the glowing balls.

Continuing to the next split they took care, Rhyan insisted on going first, whispering the word ‘traps’ before he took an extendable stick, not unlike the telescopic selfie sticks from Earth, and gently scraped the hooked end at seemingly random spots as they continued.

Coming down to the split it continued in two ways. A new hallway to the left, or straight ahead to another left-hand bend. They looked at each other until Gilliam noticed something.

Focusing on his not-too-trained magical senses, he recognized something. Pointing down the hallway to the left, he whispered. “I think there’s a magical trap there.” At what might seem like a random point on the floor.

He had trained his magical sense, but it wasn’t trained by professionals like the academy might have done. But if nothing else he could tell there was a collected ‘pool’ of mana in a specific point, which was similar to an active but hidden spell circle. They decided to go straight ahead instead of gambling with this for now.

Continuing down the hallway, through the left-hand bend, it didn’t take long before they came to a solid wooden door. On the other side, they could hear voices, Cera pulled on Gilliam’s coat to try and warn him but he signalled that he was aware.

They spent a few seconds listening, it sounded like two men walking back and forth talking, something about gold and ‘the package’. Exact details were hard to hear through the solid door.

“I say we open the door silently, hope for the best and spring on them if they notice,” Gilliam whispered, he felt confident in his magic, after all.

Rhyan nodded and grabbed the door handle, looking to Gilliam and Cera, waiting for their approval.

Gilliam nodded. Rhyan turned back to the door and turned the knob.