34 Visiting a friend

The streets in the factory districts where mostly empty. The people living here were poorer than other districts and some would live and work in the factory properties.

Factories would provide lodging and food, they also would have a small shop for workers to buy things at, effectively limiting the need for workers to leave the premises. They also reduced wages to make up for those extra costs.

Finn and Jess were therefore surprised by the size of the house they saw in front of them. The thugs had entered the villa a few minutes prior, so the two stopped and observed the building.

The villa had two floors, and a small wall surrounding it. Inside the wall was a garden with fruit trees, flowers and herbs. The house was made of dark bricks, which were more expensive than the red bricks commonly used for factories. The windows and door were decorated with intricate details, and on top of the wall was a sharp metal barrier formed to look like a thorny vine.

Finn could see lights on in the large house, but they couldn't get any closer due to the wall. Two strong looking men wearing studded leather armor and wielding sabers stood guard by the only entrance.

'It looks like we found the source.' Finn whispered.

'I don't think they were hiding, they seem confident nobody will mess with them.' Jess pointed out. 'They probably have a lot of influence or powerful connections to be allowed to operate so openly.'

'Makes sense. I guess we should find out more before getting more involved.' Finn said disappointed. 'I thought this would be easier to handle.'

'Let's head back,' Jess said and turned around. It's getting late, this was enough adventure for one day.'

They stealthily made their way back over the dividing wall and then onwards to the mercenaries guild.

'Thanks for showing me around today.' Jess said as they parted in the lobby of the guild. 'Tomorrow I have some plans, but I'll be ready to take on a task the day after.'

'Sure, That sounds good. As a team we can take on a more challenging task. Those should pay a little better too.'

After Jess left, Finn was still wide awake. His body's internal clock seemed to prefer being awake at night. Thinking about it, Finn blamed it on his new heart. It was convenient to have something to blame for anything he couldn't explain about his body.

Although Finn could easily end up completely nocturnal, sleeping during the day and awake at night, he thought that wouldn't be smart. He needed to at least appear slightly normal, so he decided to get up before midday, and go to sleep between midnight and sunrise. That should give him enough sleep and at worst people would think he was lazy.

Finn spent the rest of the time before he went to sleep in the training room. He practiced mage hand, throwing knives and even fetched his crossbow to do target practice. Between each repetition he would do a set of pushups, situps, and chinups to build some muscle. He practiced diligently until the muscles in his arms were burning and his mana was used up.

That was a weird thing about his healing ability. Cuts and wounds healed quick, but his ability didn't help much with reducing the pain and fatigue from exercise and muscle building. He didn't mind though, if his healing undid the effort he put into building muscle that would be depressing.

Seeing Jess fight today had inspired Finn to improve himself. It was obvious that she had more combat experience, the perfectly timed parries and use of the shield spell gave him the impression of an expert. Finn felt his sloppy charge and idea of purposely taking a hit in order to finish an opponent seemed barbaric in comparison. The only solution was to improve. Tomorrow he would dedicate even more time to practice.

Unknown to Finn, Pete had sneakily observed some of the night training session. The elf nodded to himself knowingly, this was an important unspoken reason why the guild encouraged working with a partner. The boost in motivation to train caused by competition and seeing one's weaknesses. He left without disturbing Finn.

Finn went to sleep exhausted, and for once had a peaceful sleep. When he woke up it was midday. Going over to the bar, he got himself some food and thought over what he needed to do.

After his meal Finn looked around for someone to ask about bounties. Everyone else seemed to be out working so he went over to the bartender.

'You always hesitate before talking to me. Is it because you don't know how to address me?' The bartender laughed.

Finn smiled awkwardly.

'I'm Anthony, now what did you want to ask?'

'Well, I was wondering if there are any bounties posted for local thugs or gang members.'

'Ah, you run into some recently?' Anthony asked as he cleaned the beer mugs. 'That's a bit tricky to answer, officially, we don't put bounties on the heads of gang members. It's bad for business, either they turn out to be merely a pawn and nothing changes, or they are too influential to target.'

'You see, as much as we would love to get paid for taking down those scum,' Anthony admitted, 'if it leaks out we are putting out bounties, well, they will return the favor. None of us will enjoy a peaceful life if the assassins guild has been paid to deal with us. Sure we can take em in a straight fight, but you can't keep your guard up forever.'

Anthony seems frustrated as he finished his explanation.

'If by any chance you do take care of some big shots, I'll reward you with free food and drinks.' Anthony suddenly whispered. 'That's strictly off the record of course. No need to bring proof, I'll find out through my own channels. Just let me know, it'll probably take a day or two to confirm.'

Finn thanked Anthony and went to do his daily training. First it was knife throwing, target practice with the crossbow and muscle building. Then to give his body a rest he practiced mage hand.

Finn was determined to do better in his next fight. Practicing mage hand reminded him of what happened to Mortimer. It seemed suspicious, the city guard hardly arrested anyone in this district. What could have caused them to act?

Leaving himself a little mana just in case, Finn donned his leather armor and brought his three daggers and his set of throwing knives. He wasn't going to be caught unprepared today.

Before heading out, Finn asked for directions to the closest jail.

Walking through town, Finn kept to the shade as much as possible. Sunburns were unfortunately among things that healed slowly. At least he wasn't a real vampire, Finn thought to himself, they would be burnt to a crisp within minutes in this weather.

The jail in the harbor district wasn't very big, most prisoners only stayed there for a few days before being transferred over to work in a mine or factory. The jail was actually just the basement of one of the guardhouses along the district wall.

Finn approached one of the city guard standing around outside and asked politely if it was possible to visit a prisoner.

The guard looked at him suspiciously, 'that can be arranged, but you'll have a guard accompanying you the whole time so no funny business.'

The guard signaled to a guard currently on break and yelled 'We got another visitor, it's your turn to be the babysitter.'

The other guard came over, obviously not too happy about needing to work during his break. 'So who you visiting? You'll only have a few minutes. I've got important work to do.' The guard said grumpily.

'Thank you, I'd like to visit a merchant called Mortimer.' Finn said. Seeing the confused look on the guard's face he explained, 'the one who ran the meat shop, was arrested just yesterday evening. I didn't quite catch what the crime was but thank you for doing your job.'

Finn tried to avoid getting on the wrong side of this guard. Playing dumb or innocent and staying polite might help with that, he thought.

'Right, that old man,' said the guard remembering. 'Follow me then. If I think you're up to no good, we are coming straight out again.'

Finn nodded enthusiastically to communicate he understood. As they were about to enter, Finn innocently asked, 'So what did you say he was arrested for again? Must have been pretty serious huh?'