Walking into the room, stepping over the two new corpses, Gilliam found himself in a roughly constructed area. The walls weren’t as straight, so they didn’t have any proper corners, but the place had a more rounded corner square shape. The room itself seemed furnished as a mixture of an office, workspace and a common room. Given its location further in, behind both a trap and a company of undead, it strongly suggested that this was a higher rank place. There were several chairs, tables, a desk and what looked like an alchemical workbench. Gilliam had seen something like those back at the academy, though this looked cruder it had the same concepts going for it.

There was another door in the room, which Gilliam didn’t waste time walking up to. He opened the door like he owned the place and entered what looked like a surprisingly nice office.

The walls were covered in wood, making the place appear to be a normal office, there was a bookshelf with a few books in it, a working table that seemed to be used as a sort of storage area with various tools, papers and books. In the rough middle of the room was a simple desk with a covered front so you couldn’t see the legs of the person behind it. The desk was currently in use by a short brown-haired man, wearing a dark grey, almost black, hooded robe but with the hood down. His left hand had a very ornate ring, but besides that, he looked surprisingly normal.

“Did you find out what it was?” He asked Gilliam as he lifted his eyes from the paper he was working on to meet Gilliam’s. As soon as their eyes met his expression changed from a slight annoyance to surprise.

“You... who... Who are you?!” He barked the question as he got up from his desk.

“I’m a man with some questions.” Gilliam smiled back, stretching out his right hand and extending a telekinetic tendril before the man could do anything on his own.

The man lifted his hands and was starting to manifest a spell circle. Gilliam briefly recognised it as a barrier spell, but he didn’t get a chance to activate it before Gilliam’s telekinesis connected. As soon as the connection was made Gilliam sent over a pulse of energy which punched the man in the chest as he was lifted off the ground and slammed against the wall just hard enough to make a point, the chair the man was sitting in on was flung across the floor. The man grunted as he hit the wall, followed by some coughing. Besides some light head and jaw movement, Gilliam held him entirely restricted against the wall.

Rhyan burst into the room looking ready to either defend someone or brain them with his shield, though as he got a brief second to take in what was going on he calmed down.

“We really need to work on our communication...” He commented, somewhat to Gilliam and somewhat to nobody in particular. He might not be that happy about how Gilliam just stormed ahead without sharing his plans.

Gilliam ignored his comments at the moment, they had someone else to talk to.

“So, you mind sharing what’s going on in this little operation of yours?” He walked a few steps closer as he asked.

“Hah, you’re an idiot, thinking I’ll talk:” The man had a smug grin, looking like he had won already.

“Well, I’m sure I can think of some incentive?” Gilliam replied as he mentally planned to break one of his legs, but was stopped before he got to bending the mana needed.

“I’ll stop you right there.” Rhyan stepped in, placing his hand on Gilliam’s shoulder. “I say we tie him up, bring him in properly.

“That’s not gonna change much.” Gilliam sighed. “He’ll get prison time if they even believe our claims. If he’s important enough he’ll either be killed to be silenced or get out early or something.” He felt at a loss, if Rhyan would stop him doing anything then there wasn’t much they could do but ask nicely.

“Th... Though that might be true, it’s still the correct way to do things. Besides, we’re from the Guild, if nothing else it should weigh a bit more than just his word.” Rhyan tried to reason, and to his credit, this did make a lot of sense.

Gilliam was torn between what to do, it would be so simple to just break his leg or to give him some incentive to answer. But Rhyan wouldn’t appreciate it and though Gilliam didn’t honestly care, it was indeed the correct thing to do. They were supposed to be the good guys, after all.

Parts of him regretted waiting or giving Rhyan time to interject and missed having Petal around for things like these. Even Angela was somewhat OK with things... but perhaps that would have been different when humans were involved, there were laws, rules and whatnot, after all.

“You killed everyone else, let’s at least do it right for this one.” Rhyan added.

“You do know that when he gets out, they will probably send people for us, right?” Gilliam didn’t mean it in a threatening way, but he knew that it would be something he could have considered in such a situation, so it only made sense that they would as well.

This put Rhyan on the spot, he was considering and trying to think about it properly.

“Fine.” Gilliam finally gave in. “But you’re taking him in.”

Moving his other hand towards the man he made a grabbing motion before he pulled away, this tore the man’s outer layer of clothing off, with all the pockets, belts, holsters and items. He was left with his underwear but nothing else. In Gilliam’s mind, this was the easiest way to disarm and make sure nobody had anything hidden from them.

“That is fine, just get him over here and I’ll take care of that.” Rhyan seemed relieved. Something that puzzled Gilliam a little. He kind of understood it but at the same time, he felt it was a waste.

Had his time during the invasion or in the Fractured Lands changed him that much?

He did as requested and hovered the man over to Rhyan, who used the few seconds to get something from his bag. As the man was hovering near Rhyan he took the manacles out of his bag and fastened them around his wrists, behind his back, and around his ankles. The manacles around his wrist kept them together, and the ones around his ankles had a chain between them making walking possible, but not running.

Gilliam was about to suggest that they split up, Rhyan could take the man in and Gilliam could go to the next location or go eat in the meantime. However, his thought was derailed by a pulse of mana from the man.

Before either one of them could react, a part of the man’s head burst with a dull popping sound. The life faded from his eyes as most of his brain spread itself across the floor, wall and ceiling.

Luckily for Rhyan, this splattered against the barrier around him and slowly slid off its side.

“The fuck did you do that for?!” Rhyan cried out at Gilliam as the now-dead man fell over, slamming against the floor.

“That wasn’t me.” Gilliam complained back. “I said you could take him in, why would I kill him now?!” Replying defensively before he got a chance to reply might not have helped his case.

“No, I felt some small mana pulse from him before that happened... I have no idea what it was, there was no spell circle, chant or anything.”

Gilliam wondered if it could have been something Unstructured, but it was still something extreme and Unstructured magic required a lot of focus.

Rhyan looked at the dead man and back to Gilliam, his eyes didn’t look entirely convinced.

Cera was looking through the door and looked almost horrified, she was not used to this kind of gore and, it was unique, to say the least, so Gilliam couldn’t blame her.

“Well... We might as well just bring everything we have found and go to the next one, then.” Rhyan sighed, not looking happy in the slightest before he crouched down and started undoing the manacles.

Gilliam used the moment to check the man a bit more, thinking of old spy movies there was often that poison tooth thing, the mouth is extremely hard to inspect on someone, after all.

Opening the dead man’s mouth he got a look from Rhyan, though he didn’t stop Gilliam from inspecting. And to his pleasant surprise, it seemed that he was correct. There was a magic circle branded onto the roof of his mouth. Exactly as he had done to Et’amir in the other room. Though the runes were different. Due to how small it was, it was problematic to see the shapes of the runes against the bruised flesh. He couldn’t make out exactly what it was, but guessing how he would have done it if he were to make one, it was probably something that was activated by a specific thought, word or sentence, or just moving his tongue on it in a special way. A fast and painless way of doing this.

“Well, I found what caused this.” Gilliam commented as he explained the simple details about it.

“Oh, lovely. So now we’re not just dealing with the undead and Darkness mages, but people are killing themselves rather than being questioned...” Rhyan sounded like he was ready to just go home, but at the same time, his expression seemed more determined than that.

“Well, to the next one, I suppose?” Gilliam changed the subject as he used his clearing spell to clean his hands, having had his fingers in the dead guy's mouth didn’t feel sanitary in the least.

They took a minute to collect the papers and information they had in the room and store that in Gilliam’s ring with the stuff they found in the other room, but only after making sure that they had copied over needed markings to their own maps so they could find the new places. They could look through this later, but since they still had time left of the day, it was a good idea to check out as many locations as they could before there was time for the larger organization to find out what was going on.

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Gilliam wondered what the best thing to do was, they could go up and confront the warehouse owner, but they didn’t have any proof so that was a wasted effort. It could also just cause him to inform someone else. He probably had someone tailing them so he could already know that we went in here. Another thing was that Savia saw Ibela entering this place before they did the same. The two most logical options were that he either left before they came over there or teleported out. It would have been much better to just find him down here.

“T...T.. There is... one room left.” Cera chimed in, sharing some information.

She was incredibly hesitant, seeming to have almost waited too long to say this and even when saying it, feeling almost scared to do so.

“That’s a good point.” Gilliam commented. “I had totally forgotten it. Good job.” Gilliam smiled at his furry companion. He had forgotten the hallway they passed on earlier and was now focused on the next step rather than on what was missed.

He could see a small sense of satisfaction on her face, but it immediately faded as she stepped away from the doorframe back into the room she was standing in. He got it, it was an unfamiliar thing and she was probably yelled at or punished for it before. She should take the time she needed and he would do his best to support her. Especially since he legally owned her, and though he wanted her to consider herself free, local V’idan law didn’t make this easy. He made a mental note to check up on how to properly free slaves later.

“Let’s go check the last path.” Gilliam commented to Rhyan, who already looked ready and simply nodded in response.

They left through the rooms and hallways, going back to where they first skipped the hallway. The hallways were dark so besides in the corners they couldn’t see any detail, but Gilliam felt a tug on his sleeve.

He could barely make out Cera in the darkness, not that he didn’t know she was there, but he couldn’t see much at all.

“Th... there... There are coins in the hallway.” She explained with her low voice.

“I...” Gilliam was a bit confused, though that was neat he didn’t get why that mattered. “You can keep them if you want to pick them up, I don’t care.” He smiled, considering perhaps it was some wealth thing.

“N... no... They weren’t here... when we passed before.” She seemed to struggle a bit to explain her point.

“Oh, that changes things.” Gilliam replied as he looked around for the alleged coins in the dark. “I think that might be the treasury Et’amir hinted to.”

Losing all caution, they knew something was going on here, especially since you had to pass a room they already took care of, to get to the assumed treasury. He manifested a spell circle with the rune for Lightorbs, in the runic language this became a single rune. Some orbs of light spawned and he spread them out through the hallway right after. He had to ignore Cera’s little sound of discomfort as her eyes were probably assaulted by this, but he could now see what she meant. There were coins, a ring and even what looked like an earring randomly scattered in the long room. It almost looked like someone had everything in a box and just ran, not considering if anything fell out at all.

Rhyan turned to Gilliam and they seemed to share a knowing look, speeding up towards the last hallway.

Getting there in good time they quickly found that the new hallway just bent to the right a few steps in, which again was only a few steps long before they hit a door. In this case, it was slightly ajar. There was a light inside, having the same look as the other light orbs, at least from what they could see through the crack.

Gilliam stepped forward, staff in hand and ready as he kicked the door open, he didn’t need more than a brief second to see that the room was hurriedly ransacked. The floor was covered in various things, from clothing to more coins, weapons and tools, papers and books. It seemed that whoever did this was after something specific, or at least knew somewhat what to take.

“Well, I suppose this could have been Ibela... He did enter before we got down here, after all.” Gilliam was a bit annoyed, catching him down here would have made the case much better. Capturing him in a room or something, teleporting out and getting Yeta could have fixed so many things.

He was no doubt already out of the underground area, and these being his warehouses and the group not having legal rights anywhere, he could just block them from finding anything of value. So at this exact moment, this felt like a lost cause.

“Any good ideas?” Gilliam asked his party, he wasn’t the smartest person in the world, after all.

Rhyan scratched his chin with his armoured thumb and index finger for a moment. “Well, we can gather up anything of interest here, Ibela is most likely long gone by now, at least in any way that matters to us. We might as well see if he missed anything in here, or bring everything out properly. If it’s just money we’re probably going to be allowed to keep it, but if it’s anything personal it might help identify missing people, or at least give some closure to their families.”

Gilliam couldn't argue that, since he had a head start on them, the loot was probably hidden. And he had most likely informed someone through different means already if he planned to. So they might as well take their time and do it properly.

The next hour was spent checking the room. There were a bunch of golden coins lingering about, but together they barely passed a hundred. All the papers were generic, nothing incriminating or interesting. The books were just expensive and well made, more than seeming too interesting. The weapons were simple, nothing too fancy or that useful. Though there was a small batch of rings, necklaces and such. Only some of it is out of gold. Most of it had some inscription which could help identify people. At least it was worth taking that to some official at some point.

“Well, I suppose we’ll go out, get something to eat and have a go at the next location? That probably know we’re coming?” Gilliam smiled, he felt oddly eager to get back into a proper fight. Something he didn’t expect to feel.

Rhyan sighed and reluctantly agreed. It was better to go sooner rather than later, after all.

They walked back down the hallways, Gilliam casually picked up the coins as they walked past them, a simple telekinesis spell allowed him to do this while walking, gaining a weird eye from Rhyan.

Getting back out through the exit, they found themselves back in the warehouse, and sadly as expected there was no trace of anything of interest, deciding to not go for Ibela at the moment they headed for the next location, there were enough food stalls on the way that they could just eat on the road rather than stopping somewhere. Others might have been informed but there was no need to give them too much more time to react.

Leaving the warehouse they took the first path back to the roads, and according to their maps it would be easier to walk through the market anyway, as they had to go through several other warehouse areas if they wanted to get to the next location, and this just avoided any discussions or talks.

As expected, there were indeed plenty of food stalls, getting some barbecued meat on sticks fixed the food problem, and there was even a fruit merchant who had strawberries. As Savia had been promised some a while ago it was about time to reward her. Removing the seeds was not a problem, a simple unstructured telekinetic spell handled this, though he did so inside his cupped hands to at least not show the magic being used on the streets, though he guessed that any Inquisitors in the neighbourhood would know about it, especially if they were anywhere near as good as Kintas were. Savia was ecstatic for the strawberries and got eating like the child she was comparable to.

Soon enough they found themselves in the southern part of the city, this was a very wealthy district, just the quality of housing and road maintenance showed this, according to the map there was a mark near the public well in the area. They seemed strangely welcome to walk about the open area that had the well, so they took the time to do so.

Savia became unruly and wanted to speak, but needed a moment to swallow her last bite of strawberry. “Master, master!” She jumped onto his head, accidentally dropping the remaining piece of her strawberry onto the ground as she did so. “It’s Boozeman!” She shouted as she let herself fall from his head, to be caught in Gilliam’s hand.

“Where?” Gilliam looked around, only to take her down from his head to have her point him out.

Needing a few seconds he did indeed see Ibela walking into the area, heading into a building looking around a bit too paranoid like.

“Oh, that’s convenient, let’s go ask him some questions” Gilliam smirked as he started walking towards him.

He could hear Rhyan’s armour move as, in the corner of his eye, he noticed that Rhyan barely missed grabbing Gilliam’s shoulder. “No, wait, don’t cause a scene.”

“Oh, I might.” Gilliam replied as he sped up.