Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 59 We Are Way Over Qualified

“Now is a good point to stop.” Lenna told Isaac who staggered back a step and put his hands on his knees while breathing deeply. “You need to work on your stamina.” Isaac looked up at her and winked. She rolled her eyes dramatically enough that Isaac could tell even with her helmet on.

Isaac chuckled and coughed. “Yeah.” He took a deep breath filling his lungs as he straightened. “You’re right.” He looked around the arena and the stands but couldn’t see anyone. He activated his darkvision and caught sight of something hidden in the shadows. A man in a dark cloak was peering out around one of the entrances to the arena and watching them.

“We also should have brought water.” Lenna told him.

Isaac nodded and then smiled devilishly. “Be right back.” He told her and vanished. He had taken a moment to try to feel for the hidden man’s shadow. Once he had found it he decided that it was time for him to introduce himself.

Isaac hadn’t really paid attention the last time he teleported but this time he really focused on understanding the process. His mana, following his will, would reach out from him and into the shadow that he wanted to come out of. Once the connection was made it would expand and envelope him. The next thing he knew he was on the other side. The entire process only took a second or two.

‘Why does it pull me through space though?’ Isaac thought. He got the feeling that this was just going to be another one of those questions that the books couldn’t answer. He leaned in close behind the hooded man who had straightened a little when Isaac had disappeared. He cloaked himself in shadows making sure to turn off his darkvision and leave only his eyes visible. “Boo.” He said in as deep and dark of a voice as he could muster.

The hooded man jumped a whole foot in the air and tripped. As he fell to the ground he spun around and Isaac had such a hard time not laughing at the man’s state of shock that his shadow cloak started to fall apart. Eventually Isaac couldn’t hold it in any longer and just started laughing. He let the shadows fade away and Lenna started walking over to him.

The hooded man just stayed there on the ground in a state of fear and shock. He had no idea how the pair would treat him now that he had been effectively caught. “You… you should have seen his face.” Isaac wheezed out when Lenna was within ear shot.

Lenna shook her head and stopped on the other side of the man. She looked down at the plain man. Boring features, brown hair and eyes, medium build, pale skin, human. As generic and normal as one could find in this town.

“Now, what should we do with you?” Isaac asked the man with a twinkle in his eye.

The man gulped hard. “I, uh, was just following orders, it’s my job ya know?” The man stammered out glancing back and forth between Isaac and Lenna.

“Don’t look at me.” Lenna told him. “I am not the one to decide your fate.”

His eyes locked onto Isaac. Isaac just laughed and waved him off. “I’m not going to do anything to you. This was expected and you’re just a lackey. I will give you two options though.” Isaac’s maniacal theatrics faded and he got serious with the man. “The first option is the most likely. You leave and tell your boss that I caught you. Then you tell him that I told you that if I ever see you again I would leave you on Gio’s desk in a mug.”

The man’s eyes kept getting wider the more Isaac talked. Isaac smirked. “The second option is the one that I, personally, like the best. You keep tailing us until we head back to the Inn. Then you return to your boss and tell him everything that happened except for this little interaction. Afterwards you can keep getting assigned to watching us and all I ask is that you stop trying to hide.” Isaac straightened and looked up towards the ceiling. He took a deep breath. “See I don’t mind you tailing us and reporting what we do to your boss. What I do mind is not knowing. Understand?” He looked back down at the man and met his eyes.

The man thought about his options for a few moments. He could tell that Isaac was telling the truth based on his facial expressions and body language. Isaac was hard to read but the man was an experienced spy. “What am I supposed to say when I inevitably lose you when you want to do something without the magistrate knowing?” He asked Isaac.

Isaac raised an eyebrow and his smirk returned with a vengeance. “He’s thinking this through. Good. It’s easy. Tell him we teleported away.”

The man thought for a moment and then nodded with a frown. “Okay. I’m up for option two. I don’t get paid enough to piss people like you off.”

Isaac chuckled and offered the man his hand. “A pleasure doing business with you. I’m Isaac Wexler.”

The man accepted Isaac’s hand and Isaac helped him to his feet. “I wish I could say the same Lord Wexler. You can call me Thomas. Or Tom if you would prefer.”

Isaac chuckled again. “Well Tom, a word to the wise, if we ditch you, don’t come looking for us. I’ll even tell you what we were doing if you ask but some things are not for mortal eyes to see.” Isaac said earnestly.

The man, Thomas, swallowed hard. “Noted.”

“Well then, I think this is settled.” Isaac said and then turned to Lenna. “We have some errands to run.”

Isaac and Lenna left Thomas and returned to their room for their traveling gear. Celeste told them that the water they used for bathing came from a magic item and was perfectly clean to drink. The only problem with the water was that it was bland and completely lacking any minerals. It was good enough for an emergency which is why they filled their waterskins with it.

After that they tracked down some rations of varying types that, once out of sight, Isaac had stuffed into his Inventory to see if they would stay fresh. They then returned to the Celestial Dawn and had dinner on the roof. Lenna sat against the fence and Isaac looked out over the town. “You know? I think I could get used to this.” He told her.

“Dinner on the roof?” She asked.

Isaac smiled. “Yeah. And the Celestial Dawn. This is the first place I’ve stayed in that had a built-in bath. The work is easy and pays well. Our shadow, pun intended, will be somebody that we at least know what they look like and won’t be stalking us anymore.” He looked down at her. “It’s actually kinda relaxing.” He then thought about it for a moment and the smile turned into a frown. “Well, once the magistrate is dealt with.”

Lenna looked up at him. “Yeah. It’s better than I thought it would be.”

Isaac gave her a smile that lacked the usual mirth and mischief. “We just need to keep easing your presence into people. Eventually you’ll become a part of the background and people won’t be mean or freak out anymore.” He told her.

“Is that a bet?” She asked.

This time Isaac’s smile was back to its usual state as he replied: “It can be. What are you betting?”

She shook her head and smirked. “Nothing. If it’s a bet against you, I bet nothing. You will find a way to make me lose.” She replied.

“Damn right I will. I hate losing.” He told her.

—

The following day found them back at the Guild Hall looking at bounties. “I want a good set of armor but we are still basically broke.” Isaac said with a frown while skimming the potential jobs.

Isaac’s eyes found a gold tier bounty and he started to read it. “Not that one.” Lenna told him. “Drider are bad news.”

“Oh?” Isaac asked.

“There isn’t any information about it. If it’s a mage, we would need someone to stop her spell casting.” She shook her head. “We need details.”

“Those are the spider girls right?” Isaac asked. “A giant spider that decided to grow a drow from the waist up instead of a head?”

“Yeah.” She replied.

“We could always go back to hunting regular spiders.” Isaac suggested. Lenna gave him a look that he had to imagine because her face was still hidden. “What’s wrong with clearing out the spiders? Whatever moves in to take their place will get a bounty on its head anyway.”

Lenna sighed, he was right, if they killed all the spiders they could just kill whatever took their place to keep making money. “It just seems like a waste.” She told him.

“Why because we are way over qualified for the job?” Isaac asked.

“Yes.” She replied.

“Okay, how about this? We do the spiders again today and then tomorrow we can do something crazier like the wraiths or whatever.” He offered.

Lenna thought for a moment. “Nevermind.” She replied. Wraiths were spectral beings and thus her sword would slice right through them unless she used the magical one. On top of that Isaac would be completely useless. His death mana would probably just heal them and he didn’t have a magic sword of his own. She would just end up burning through all her mana to fight them all herself.

Isaac smiled triumphantly. “Back to spider killing we go.” He said and the two headed off to collect more coin. Unbeknownst to anybody but the two of them, the real reason they weren’t taking any jobs in town was so Isaac could continue his little bone dragon project. Hopefully soon they would see what would happen when the skeleton was finished. Isaac had a feeling that it would be something that he would never forget.