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Northern Sector | Port Blackwood| Hale Kingdom | Aleria

After leaving the inn Lucy was staying in on the South side of Port Blackwood, Mars hurried to the northern sector. 

His running steps were hurried and rapid as his inky black leather boots pounded the cobblestone streets of the sleeping town.

“Fuck! I’m late!” he grumbled to himself angrily, “Ambrose better not start without me.”

Not long after setting off, Mars eventually neared his destination as he glimpsed the familiar golden bell resting above the balcony of the three story opulent building. 

It was a magnificent establishment complete with picturesque decorations. The outside featured lavish high walls that seemed to offer security and discretion. Beautiful ivy wrapped pillars supported an aristocratic balcony that housed a banner reading, “The Golden Lass”.

Mars had been to this place many times before but each time he was awed by the grandiosity of the place.

  Between the constantly revolving doors he could glimpse crystal chandeliers, waiters and waitresses wearing barely anything save their skin, and golden surfaces sparkling and dazzling even in the low light.

 Even the exquisite aromas and harp music managed to pour out onto the streets every time the door was opened. 

Such was the excess and perversion characteristic of any given night at The Golden Lass.

Once he was allowed clearance from the two hulking knights guarding the entrance, Mars was dismayed to discover the place was fully packed.

 Even though it was past midnight, The Golden Lass was as busy as ever. And as time went on more and more people were arriving, each dressed more extravagant and scandalous than the last.

 How was he supposed to spy Ambrose in this sea of people?

‘Guess I’ll have to work the room’ Mars planned with a scowl painted on his face, ‘Oh that girl kind of looks like Lucy. I wonder what she’s doing right now…’

Just as Mars moved to look around the right side of the establishment a familiar voice called his attention.

“Mars! Over here!” said the familiar deep voice from a corner booth in the far back of the place.

Whipping his head in that direction Mars caught eyesight of the beckoning figure sporting a shock of orange spiky hair and a tall skinny frame.

‘Whew looks like I’m not too late’ breathed Mars as he maneuvered his way towards the private booth, ‘Ambrose looks pretty pissed though, but that’s nothing new’

As Mars approached the discrete corner booth, he noticed that Ambrose wasn’t alone. 

Seated opposite was a group of men dressed far more elegantly than Ambrose and many other people present, himself included.

Seated directly opposite Ambrose was a young man with deep dark eyes and thick onyx black hair.

 He appeared no older than 18, a young lad really. But Mars had been in enough life or death situations to know not to judge a book by its cover.

 The young man’s figure was dwarfed by the two muscular fellows sitting to his right and his left. 

Mars guessed they were his guards, yet despite being physically smaller than the two imposing looking men the dark eyed fellow was also just as imposing if not more. He couldn’t put his finger on it but something felt dangerous about him.

Picking up his pace Mars quickly closed the distance to the booth just as the two guards and Ambrose sent a disdainful stare in his direction.

‘I mean you are late after all… what did you expect’ Mars thought to himself while he moved to take his seat next to Ambrose.

“Evening gentlemen, I apologize for my-“ said Mars before he was rudely interrupted by the dark eyed fellow.

“Save the apologies, lets get down to business shall we?” said the monotonous voice of the dark  eyed fellow as he sat up and stared towards Mars, “what is it you wish to discuss with me? Speak quickly and truthfully. Or I might take your tardiness and disrespect as not giving me face”

The voice of the dark eyed fellow was not loud nor angry, yet everyone had heard him clearly.

At the end of his statement the pressure at the booth seemed to thicken as ominous overtones appeared out of nowhere. 

Almost imperceptibly the two guards flanking his left and right moved their hands to the hilt of their respective weapons.

Right now, even Ambrose was shocked by the dark eyed fellow’s brutal honesty. 

He expected he knew of their motives for this meeting so why the cold response? He wondered. Even if Mars was late it shouldn’t warrant this kind of aggression. 

Did this mean he was already against their proposal?

“Please forgive my subordinates’ rudeness Mr. Coldwind, we’re lucky you graced us with your presence” said Ambrose as he sent Mars a quick reprimanding glance, “A-And well as I’m sure you know”, he began again “as of late relations between our two camps have-”

Suddenly a deep chuckle resounded from across the table as the dark eyed Mr. Coldwind released a guffaw at Ambrose’s statement.

“Camps? So that’s what you think I’m running” said Mr. Coldwind as he sent a withering gaze towards Ambrose .

“N-No that’s not what-“ Ambrose tried to protest.

“I don’t know about you, but I am running a mercenary company. And not just any mercenary company but one of the top three in this salt box town. Can you say the same? No, could you even hope to say the same?" asked Mr. Coldwind sarcastically,  "I mean really, are you even a mage? What rank are you? Let me guess opening stage Intermediate? Beginner?” the dark eyed fellow asked question after question.

“Peak I-Intermediate sir.” Ambrose managed out while wiping an imaginary sweat from his brow

“What was that? I can barely hear you ya cunt! Put some bass in your voice like a real man! Fuck!” shouted Mr. Coldwind much to the delight of a few drunk onlookers and his guards, “are you your fathers’ daughter or his son HA HA”

Ambrose’s face -now bright red - was a mask of barely concealed humiliation at the insults repeatedly hurled his way, though a cold sweat had long ago started working its way down his back. 

With a gulp and a shaky inhalation, he prepared to attempt again at quelling Mr. Coldwind’s anger. But just as he opened his mouth to speak, he instead heard Mars’s voice.

“Nour right?” asked Mars out of nowhere surprising everyone at the table.

Silence so absolute one would hear a pin drop suddenly encompassed the small booth as if  they all had been transported to their own world. 

Nour or Mr. Coldwind as he liked to be called raised a thick black eyebrow at Mars’s gall to speak out of turn but seemed shocked silent himself.

 Similarly, Ambrose, and the two guards stared silently at Mars with eyes swirling full of disbelief, schadenfreude, and pity.

Reaching his hand under the table Mars snatched a rolled document from the sweaty hands of Ambrose before placing it before Nour.

“I’m guessing you’re the mighty ice mage prodigy and head of the Coldwind Mercenary Company, Nour Coldwind then. Humph this whole time I thought you were his son or something. I expected you to be older or… taller, maybe with a beard.” Mars said to Nour’s increasingly grimacing face, “No matter, listen up. Either you sign this here treaty nicely or we’ll take that comfy spot as the third top mercenary company in Port Blackwood that you seem to love so much. By force if necessary, or did you also forget we’re head of the fourth top mercenary company here.”

Ambrose along with the faces of the two guards visibly paled at the conclusion of Mars’s statement.

 At first, they expected him to grovel for forgiveness or plead that Nour sign the papers. 

But no, he had done the complete opposite and humiliated the great mage in front of his own subordinates.

A terrible knot had begun to form in Ambrose stomach once he saw Nour show up. He knew he shouldn’t have told him about the meeting, but he had no choice, as much as he hated to admit it Mars was a better diplomat than him.

 Plus, he was co-captain of the company. But had he known Mars would act like this he would definitely not have told him. 

But as Ambrose watched the events unfold like a bad play, he felt full of regrets, sadly there was no pill for regret.

With a metallic ringing sound, the two guards flanking Nour drew their daggers threateningly towards Mars and Ambrose much to the surprise of several onlookers. 

Mars eyes glanced at the two guards before his attention was drawn by Nour starting to clap out of nowhere.

“Congrats, you had more balls than I initially gave you credit for.” Nour said in between his dramatic clapping,“ I thought you’d continue to allow me to humiliate you like a bitch. I guess your mercenary company does have some merit to their name after all ha ha. Nonetheless, no one disrespects me and gets away with it especially enemies I’d planned on dealing with eventually anyway. At least now you can die with the respect of someone truly powerful like m-“

“Are you done?” Mars said cutting the younger mage off midsentence, “Or are you going to keep pretending you have any real power here? Peak stage Intermediate rank or not, you don’t”.

“Insolent-” Fumed Nour as his visibly icy and frosty fist pounded the top of the table angrily, causing a cold glaze to spread a bit.

“Yeah I get that a lot. But like I was saying you and I both know you and your two dogs there can’t touch a hair on me nor my friend’s here pretty little heads as long as we’re in The Golden Lass, let alone the northern sector of Port Blackwood. With that being said I can see you don’t know a good thing when you see it, so I’ll rescind our treaty proposal”

“Mars what are you-” panicked Ambrose at Mars’s audacity only to be once again interrupted.

“And!” emphasized Mars as he sent a quieting glare In Ambrose’s direction and stood up from the booth, “ I’ll leave you with a declaration of war from the Blackthorn Mercenary Company. Expect us.”

At the conclusion of Mars’s speech, he promptly grabbed Ambrose’s arm, turned on his heels and made a beeline for the exit.

As the two quickly weaved their way through the noticeably thicker crowd of half nude bodies, Ambrose grumbled complaint after complaint at Mars’s back.

“Who the heck do you think you are?” He protested angrily but was still dragged by Mars out of The Golden Lass, “You can’t just do things like that! You’re not even the captain yet you’re declaring war? Do you realize what you’ve just done? By the Gods Mars he’s expected to become a Great Mage at any time and now you’ve gone and made him our enemy!” Ambrose huffed angrily as they walked out onto the quiet cobblestone streets.

“ I know! Okay?! But what else was I supposed to do Lucy- I-I mean Ambrose?” Mars threw his hands up in protest, “We don’t have time for this, we have to go! Like now! We can talk about this later. Just lay low for a while”

With a huff Mars quickly stormed off leaving Ambrose in his dust.

“That bastard!” Ambrose exclaimed angrily alone on the street.

With a turn on his expensive Alligator-turtle boots, Ambrose too walked away with haste.

He hated to admit it and would never tell him to his face, but he knew Mars was right. Now that they had insulted the leader of the Coldwind Mercenary Company it would be foolish for them to stay out in the open.

Without the protection at The Golden Lass or another Great Mage they were in very real danger of losing their lives.

‘We might have bitten off more than we can chew this time... ugh, that bastard Mars! I swear if shit goes left, I’m abandoning him… hmm but for now he’s still useful. An idiot intermediate mage is hard to come by’ schemed Ambrose as his figure disappeared into the night, ‘- if we strike first, I’ll be able to survive with the company and all the spoils to myself. Haha Mars nor that bastard Nour will see what hit or killed them’

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