Chapter 15- Lardis

Ivan waltzed up to the platoon of guards who re positioned themselves and stood up properly as they heard someone coming.

"Who goes there? State your name and affiliation!" One of the guards shouted, taking his spear in hand.

"Ivan Perwick, professional mercenary. Returning from a mission with my comrades." Ivan calmly answered.

The guard waltzed up and down the party, glaring at Ivan. Dubs held his breath as he waited for the security to check them.

"May I see your ID before I allow you in?" The guard demanded.

"Uh oh," Dubs thought. This could get ugly. If the guard demanded to see the ID's of Lilith and him, they would be unable to produce them.

Dubs heard a whisper in the back of his head.

"If things get ugly out there we can switch out. Leave this to me...", Dubs other self insisted.

Dubs was taken aback by this voice, and began to frantically look around. When he realized that the focus of the guards had shifted over to him, Dubs calmed himself and spoke clearly.

"Sorry, I thought I heard something nearby. Please continue.", Dubs told the guard.

The guard has a suspicious look on his face, but continued his inspection. Ivan shot Dubs a glare but took out his ID and handed it over to the guard who thoroughly investigated it.

"Alright, there are no problems with this one. However, Ivan, who are these children with you?", The guard inquired.

"These are newly recruited mercenaries. We haven't had time to obtain their identification yet as there was an urgent request for assistance outside the gates, and it wasn't something I could have handled on my own. Can you overlook this one time?" Ivan pleaded.

The guard sighed and rolled his eyes. "I'll be watching you. If something like this happens again don't expect me to overlook it."

Ivan put his hands together and bowed. "Thank you, officer! I won't forget this kindness. If you're in need of a job feel free to contact the mercenary guild in Lardis and request for me. I'll do it for free!" Ivan gratefully exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah, get moving mercenaries.". The guard retorted. The guards began to open the gate and made way for their entrance into the city.

After climbing down the spiral staircase, they entered the dimly lit city of Lardis. Walking along the brick roads, Ivan turned towards Dubs to address him.

"What was that all about back there? You almost blew our cover!", Ivan scolded.

"To be honest, I'm not so sure myself. I heard a voice talking to me and I was a little shaken. I think my other self is trying to contact me directly.", Dubs admitted.

The three others eyes turned wide when they heard this and all three of them began bombarding Dubs with questions.

"Has this ever happened before?", Lilith inquired

"What did he say?", Clark asked.

"Did you feel anything when you heard the voice?", Ivan questioned.

Dubs pushed the three back and took a deep breath. "One at a time, one at a time! No, this hasn't ever happened before... to an extent. There have been times where I have an intuition or an inclination to do something, but it has never been as explicit as the voice that I heard today. I felt a dark presence when the voice spoke, and he asked if I wanted to switch out to let him 'take care of this', when the guards were investigating out identification.", Dubs explained.

The three of them began to think all at once. Clark began to speak.

"This would mean that he doesn't only come out at night. Perhaps he can only come out if you allow him to during the day, but at night he is free to control you?", he suggested.

"That could be the case.", Ivan agreed.

Dubs turned their focus forward. "Perhaps that is so, however we should focus on getting back to our objective. We shouldn't waste any more time around here."

The three nodded and the party began to march forward through the crowds of people.

Entering a circular plaza, there were stalls and shops bustling with life. People were bargaining back and forth about prices of goods, and platoons of soldiers marched through the area. On the right side, a shop with a wooden sign that had two crossed swords appeared, and Ivan pointed towards it.

"That's our objective. The Lardis mercenary guild is the location where mercenaries obtain jobs to clear up the surrounding surface, and where customers come to post jobs. Of course, mercenaries aren't limited only to surface jobs. The customers can bring in a variety of requests so long as the payment is reasonable enough to be accepted by the mercenaries.", Ivan stated.

Entering the building, they viewed the scene of a tavern. Groups of armed men chugged beer and sang drunken songs, while others gambled and celebrated at the expense of another.

Others still were alone, particularly the men who seemed to be dangerous. A young lady with braided brown hair and freckles ran back and forth managing the bar and pouring drinks for the customers.

Ivan walked up to the bar and waved to her. The woman quickly finished pouring a mans drink and rushed up to Ivan.

The woman spoke sweetly in a high pitched Irish accent

"Ivan! You're finally back from your journey! Its been all too hectic around here without you to manage things. There have been 2 drunken fights in the last night! Will you be staying around for long?" The woman desperately plead.

Ivan gave her a reassuring expression. "Don't worry, I have been assigned a new task here for a while. Fianna, these are the new recruits i'm going to be training up. The one with the green hat is Dubs, and the girl is Lilith."

Dubs and Lilith both waved and Fianna greeted them. "Welcome to the mercenary guild. Are these ones going to be back room mercenaries or front room mercenaries?", Fianna asked Ivan.

A sinister grin appeared on Ivan's face. "Back room mercenaries.", he replied. Fianna smiled and turned towards them. "Truly, I welcome y'all to the mercenary guild. Ivan, I will catch up with you later, good luck with their training."

Ivan led Dubs and the party behind the tavern where a trapdoor was located. "This is the backroom."Ivan glanced around him to ensure nobody was listening.

"The backroom is where the resistance members of the mercenary guild reside. The mercenary guild is a resistance controlled faction, but we accept non resistance members to avoid suspicion, under the impression that the backroom is merely an upper echelon among the mercenaries." Ivan softly explained.

Dubs and Lilith nodded, and Ivan unlocked the trap door. The party headed down another set of stairs to be greeted by a colder atmosphere in the basement.

The room they first entered was dark, and there were a few tables and chairs laid out. Two men were quietly sitting at opposing sides of the room, concentrated on some documents in front of them. One of the men was middle aged. The man was a dwarf, and he stroked his dark brown beard as the large man considered his options.

The other seemed to be a bit younger, but he was sleek and looked similar to Ivan, with a darker shade of grey hair. He was an Elven man, with long pointed ears. His eyes seemed to pierce the documents he was focused on.

The two looked over at Ivan when he came down into the room and stood up, bowing. "Captain Ivan! Welcome back! We hope you have successfully completed your mission." The two men said in unison.

The bearded mans voice was deep and manly, and the second one's voice was slick and sinister.

"At ease, Lieutenants. I've brought two recruits back from the HQ, and obtained permission from Commander Isabelle to train them under my sector. George! I will be entrusting Lilith's training to you for the time being, and her specialization will be in Light and Earth magic.", Ivan ordered towards the bearded man.

"Peter, I entrust Dubs to you. I have already provided you the data on his condition beforehand, but I have learned some new things over this mission that I must explain to you before you begin any training for him. For now, both of you show them to their quarters and then give them a tour around the base, and explain their schedules to them. When you have completed this, both of you return to me for further instruction. Dubs, Lilith. Go with your relative instructor and they will explain everything to you. Your training will begin tomorrow!"