Chapter 145: Searching for Traces, Finding the Cause (Part 1)
The tavern smelled the way all cheap taverns smelled: malt and sweat and the particular sourness of a floor that was mopped too infrequently. Theo spent a moment in the doorway letting his eyes adjust to the dim.
A table of men at the center, bare-chested in the warmth, pouring beer into each other and laughing in the loose way of people who had already passed the point of meaning anything they said. A barmaid in clothes cut low and practical, moving through them efficiently. Around the edges, the usual scatter of people not at the center table — travelers, regulars, people waiting for something.
He found the man he was looking for in the furthest corner. Young, slight, and placed so that the room’s shadows gave him a natural screen. On the table in front of him: a single dried wild rose.
Theo went to the bar first.
He took a cup of beer and drank a slow quarter of it while scanning the room. Most of the eyes that moved toward the corner were idle and random. One man at the center table glanced there with something more deliberate, too carefully, too often.
One contractor. One lookout. Standard.
“Another cup,” he said to the bartender. “With ice.”
“Double price for ice, sir.”
He flipped a silver royal across the bar. “More ice than beer.”
He carried the cup across the room and set it down on the table in a way that swept the surface — cold water ran along the petals of the dried rose, along the grain of the wood, and the young man looked up with the irritation of someone who takes their props seriously.
“Perfectly good beer going to waste,” he said, in a voice roughened by years of saying things he didn’t mean in places that required discretion. “What kind of madness is that?”
“An offering to the rose,” Theo said, and sat down. “I’ve been looking for you.”
“Then you’ve been looking in the wrong places.” The man leaned back with the controlled ease of someone performing comfortable. “Client or seller? State your purpose.”
“I want to spread a rumor.”
The young man shook his head. “Not our service.”
“Hear the rest first.” Theo tapped the table once. “Gold royals, plural. The kind of job that leaves no evidence and can’t be traced back. The rumor is the work — properly done, it draws out the target without any of the legal exposure. You’ll find it cleaner than half the jobs you’ve taken this year.”
A pause. “Which other organizations have you approached?”
“None. I trust the Wild Rose’s reach in this city.” He let that sit, then added: “The others’ names are not as elegant.”
The young man’s expression shifted by a fraction — professional pleasure, well-contained. “What rumor?”
“The Witch Cooperation Association has found the Holy Mountain,” Theo said, and watched the man’s face. “They’ve discovered that the Demon’s Bite stops. That witches who stay with the Association live — live well, and free.”
A long silence.
“Brother.” The young man set down his cup. “That’s stale. Even if I wasn’t opposed to scamming a client, your story should at least be plausible. If you’re hunting a witch, they’re too dangerous for the money — every witch-hunter I know who tried it is dead, God’s Stones or not. If you’re trying to trap the Church—” he spread his hands “—you’re asking for the gallows.”
“Why wouldn’t it be plausible?” Theo asked, with genuine curiosity.
“Because any organization of witches advertising itself would be visible from a mile away. The Church would smell it immediately, and any witch worth her Demon’s Bite would know the same. So no actual witch would respond to the bait — it reads as a trap. And the claim that the Bite stops?” He smacked his lips. “Witches are the Devil’s messengers. Even witches believe it. It’s not a lie anyone would accept.”
“Perhaps the lie has become true,” Theo said.
Another pause.
“Customer’s always right,” the young man said, with a shrug that dispensed with any further investment in the question. “Twenty gold royals. All at once, no deposit.”
Theo reached into his coat and counted out nineteen gold royals, then untied a separate money bag from his belt and added a hundred silver. He turned both bags inside out after emptying them and let the man see the interiors. The young man checked one coin for weight and color, swept everything into his jacket, and stood.
“The Wild Rose keeps its word,” he said, by way of farewell. “If you’re still in the city in a few days, you’ll hear people repeating it. As for what you do with the responses—” he picked up the dried rose and tucked it into his pocket “—sell them to a noble rather than the Church. Better money, less risk of the gallows.”
He left. The lookout at the center table left three minutes later.
Theo drank the rest of his beer, belched quietly, and walked out.
Three cities in sequence — Fallen Dragon Ridge, Redwater City, Silver City — each with its own version of the underground channels: the Wild Rose here, different names and different arrangements elsewhere, but the same function. Street networks that moved information into places where legal methods couldn’t reach. Every city had them. Finding them as an outsider was the hard part, and Theo had done it here only because he’d spent years in King’s City first, learning the vocabulary.
He was two streets from the inn when he became aware of someone behind him.
Not someone loud. Someone careful. But careful in the direction of movement rather than of sound — their footfalls were muffled, their timing irregular to disguise the pattern, which was exactly the technique a professional would use and exactly the mistake that made professional training identifiable if you knew what to listen for.
He turned at the next corner without changing his pace, entered an alley, pressed his back against the wall, and drew his dagger.
He counted the footsteps coming closer. At the precise moment the figure would be passing the alley entrance he moved — out, fast, one arm across the throat, dagger to the neck.
His arm went through fog.
Not person. Fog. Cold and damp and dispersing through his fingers.
Witch.
He turned to shout — a warning, or a call, or just the reflexive noise of a person suddenly very aware of what they had walked into — and the blow caught him at the back of the neck. Precise, practiced, with exactly enough force.
The alley came up to meet him.
The last thing he thought, before the dark, was that at least they hadn’t taken the dagger immediately. That meant they wanted something from him. That meant he was probably still useful.
He held onto that and let himself go under.
Chapter 145 Searching for traces, finding the cause (Part 1)
When Theo entered the tavern, his nose was immediately assaulted by a
sultry and moist odor mixed together with the smell of the alcohol.
Under the dim light, he could see a group of men with their sweaty and bare
upper bodies left exposed. They sat around the table at the center, pouring
one cup after another of the cheap beer into their mouths, all the while loudly
laughing and talking with one another. Then there was maid dressed in
revealing clothes brought them all a new round of beer.
After looking around the place for a while, he finally found the goal of his
coming to this place. A young man was sitting in the corner, which also
happened to be the most hidden place in the whole tavern. The only
noticeable part of him was the withered wild rose which he had put on the
table in front of him.
After discovering the man, Theo went to bar, first getting a cup of beer for
himself. While slowly tasting the bitter flavor of the beer, he discreetly
screened the room to see whether there were any other eyes that showed any
interest to the little man. The result was very satisfactory, although there
would occasionally be some people that would look at the corner, most of
them were unintentional movements. Only one man, sitting at the central
table, was constantly keeping watch over the corner trying to mask it by
drinking his beer.
One person as a contractor, one person as a lookout, the typical method used
by shady street rats, this was also identical of Theo’s knowledge.
“Once more cup,” he shouted to the bartender, “with ice.”
“Sir, for a beer on the rocks you have to pay double,” the bartender reminded
him.
Hearing this, Theo threw a silver royal in his direction, “The more ice, the
better.”
Holding his cup with the white mist coming out of it, he went across to the
little man, placed his beer on the table so that it swept over the wild rose.
The cold beer flowed along the petals, seeing this happen the little man
raised his head and looked impatiently at Theo. “Good beer is meant for
drinking, not for the table, what madness has befallen you?”
“An offer to the wild rose,” Theo teasingly spoke as he took a seat across
from the little men. “I’ve been looking for you for a long time now.”
“That only proves that you haven’t been looking in the right places,” he
replied in a raspy voice. “That being the case, as a client… tell me now,
what do you want from me? Are you asking for clues, scrounging, redeem
lost goods, or do you want to get rid of some stolen good?”
“No, I hope you can help me with spreading a rumor.”
“That doesn’t fall into the business area of the Wild Rose’s.” He shook his
head.
“No, don’t be so fast to jump to conclusions. As long you get paid with gold
royals, you will be surely interested in this,” Theo shook his finger, “I am not
one of those laymen youngsters. Occasionally, so to ensure that the prey takes
the bait, you first have to lay out the bait, and rumors are the best way to
achieve this. There won’t be any evidence left and with this there will be no
way to catch you. This is much safer than stealing.”
“That sounds reasonable,” acknowledged the little man, showing a smile,
“Have you commissioned anyone else besides the Wild Rose?”
“I completely trust that you can achieve it alone, after all, this is only a small
place. Their name also doesn’t sound as elegant, and they also don’t seem to
be as capable.”
“The business area here is just too small, so it’s hard to find the right
business, the competition within Silver City is vicious.” He picked up the
rose, shook it, and when it was dry he put it into his pocket, “Tell me, what
rumor do you want us to spread for you?’
“Some news about the witches,” Theo laughed, “An organization with the
name of Witch Cooperation Association has found the Holy Mountain, they
were also able to get rid of the pain during the demon’s bite, gaining eternal
peace.”
“Bro, this news is…” the little man smacked his lips, “Really outdated.
Although I will rarely step away from trying to scam someone, your gossip
should at least be a little believable. Let me guess, in case you aren’t trying
to abduct a witch, then it sounds like you want to ensnare the church, which is
the same as just waiting to be sent to the gallows by a group of judges, so I
think it should be the first option… “showing a vulgar smile, “Unfortunately,
as far as I know, most of the witch-hunters who’ve wanted to catch a witch
by now are all already dead. Even though they were all carrying a God’s
Stone of Retaliation on them, those women, after all, aren’t just some idiots.”
“Why shouldn’t it be believable?” Theo asked curiously.
“An organization formed by witches would be as flashy as the moon during
the night. If it were true, the church would undoubtedly flock to it. So, if I
were a witch, I would naturally never go to such a place, in case the news
was a fake, then there would be no reason for me to go. As for getting rid of
the demon’s bite, my man, are you serious? The witches are the Devil’s
messenger, even the witches themselves would snort disdainfully at hearing
such a pack of lies.”
“Then come forth according to this statement,” Theo disagreed.
“In the end, the customer always has the final say,” the young man just
shrugged his shoulders, “It doesn’t matter to me, just don’t come to me
afterward and say that I didn’t warn you. This job will cost you twenty gold
royals.”
“One-time payment?”
“Yes, the Wild Rose does not take deposits, nor anything other than money.”
He spread his arms, “this business relies entirely on sincerity.”
Theo sighed, but then he took out a small money bag from his pocket. Turning
it around and letting nineteen gold royals fall onto the table, he then took
another moneybag from his belt and put another one hundred silver royals on
the table and pushed everything to in front of the young man. The latter just
checked the authenticity of one of the gold royals and afterward swept
everything into his own bag.
“Will the news reach the witches’ ear?”
The moment he had received his money, the little man’s face became a lot
friendlier, “The Wild Rose has accepted your commission, it’s nearly
impossible that we cannot get the accepted jobs done. Just like I had
previously said, the competition within Silver City is cruel. In case we
would ever try to deceive our customers, or if anything was to happen to
them, our reputation would definitely fall. If you don’t want to rush back
towards the West and wait for someone else to take the bait, you can always
stay here for the next few days, it won’t be long before you will hear the
news spread all over the place.
“Of course, only for as long as they are willing to speak about it. I’ll keep it
short and wish you success on your hunt, and if you ever manage have catch
one, don’t bring them to the Church. You can make more money by selling
them to the aristocrats. And if you cannot find the right person or you’re too
afraid of being found by the Church, you can always come back to us, we
will only take a small introduction fee.”
With this offer, the young man stood up, took the bag and left the tavern. It
didn’t take long before the person responsible for keeping the young man safe
also stood up and left. In the next fifteen minutes, Theo just waited and drank
his cup of beer, then belched and also left the pub.
With this, the task given by His Highness has finally come to an end, he
thought. Fallen Dragon Ridge, Redwater City, Silver City, he had visited
them all. Always searching for the local street rats, letting them spread the
news up to the last corner of the city. There were always such hidden
organizations, even the King’s City was no exception to this. Such
organizations were able to reach places and spread news, he could never
contact using the legal ways. How successful they were only depended on
how much money the customer had already offered.
The only difficulty in this job was to find the contractor, he had to say, as an
outsider it was quite difficult to get their trust. Only if he used the right
phrase would they try to talk him, but to receive the sentence, he had already
had to pay at least five gold royals. Theo lamented within his heart, if I
hadn’t already had similar experiences in King’s City, I am afraid I would
never have been able to leave the Fallen Dragon Ridge.
On the way back to his inn, he noticed that there was something not quite
right.
Someone is tracking me.
Although the other party was very subtle, as a professional bodyguard, Theo
immediately became aware of the other’s existence. He pulled out the dagger
at his waist, and turned at the next corner, entering an unknown alley.
Are they from the Wild Rose? He had purposely turned his money bag inside
out when he had paid the nineteen gold royals, this way he wanted to avoid
the other side becoming greedy. In general, hundreds of silver royals weren’t
enough for them to go after an already accepted customer.
He pressed his back against the wall, counting the ever-approaching
footsteps. The moment the other person was about to pass by the ally he
fiercely rushed out from his hideout, instantly pressing his dagger against the
unknown person’s neck.
“Don’t move!” Theo lowly hissed.
But he would have never expected that the other one would just turn into fog,
disappearing.
It’s a witch! The moment he realized it and wanted to shout out, was the
moment he received a severe blow to the back of the neck. Immediately
becoming dizzy then losing all of his strength and unable to keep himself from
falling to the ground.