Year 1, Spring, First Month, First Week.

 

“Fortuna.”

The compass in Arthur’s hand shined bright, the energy opened a path to the karma lines that connect all and everything looking for any connection with the event that bound them, the theft.

Others only saw shine and sweat, but the Mage struggled to maintain visualization while the energy searched through millions of connections. Finally, a line with that connection was found, Arthur opened his eyes, the pointer started to turn fast until it stopped towards the northeastern direction.

 

Lana looked at Arthur suspiciously, wondering if he had done it right, the compass pointed to the slums’ opposite direction.

“Hey, I did what I promised. Don’t look at me like that!... I told you, it’s a Luck Charm, not a locating spell, it can only point us towards a lucky location…”

“Shouldn’t the lucky location be where the rat is? Are you sure he’s in that way?”

“No, I told you. It doesn’t point to him… It’s pointing to the nearest location where we’ll be lucky…”

Lana continued to complain but directed the relieved paddler towards the compass’s directions. Soon, the group arrived at a small store on the outskirts of another market. Seeing Lana’s confused expression, the guide quickly explained:

“This is the Calm Lake Market, people come here to buy personal things, garments and even homewares, it’s smaller than Fast Water Market and the goods are … more affordable…”

Before he could finish the introduction, Lana was already jumping off the boat and moving towards the store. Arthur took a moment to understand what happened but also left the boat after his employer.

“How can I help you, Miss?”

Lana ignored the clerk and move towards the back store. She had a hunch and decided to bet on it.

“Miss… You can’t go there!”

The store owner was checking some goods when the intrusive girl barged in, earning a deep frown from him. He was about to call the clerk, but the girl moved decisively towards him and handed him a paper. 

“Give me back the crystals or I will report you to the City Guards.”

The words died before they could leave the man’s mouth. He gave a step back and looked around the room.

“That… Who… Cough, cough… What is this? What crystals? Who are you?”

“I knew it! You’re selling stolen goods!”

Earlier, when they arrived at the store, Lana didn’t think about it until she saw a poor kid leaving the store happily counting some copper coins. Unfortunately, she knew this story too well, even in the Democracy starving kids had to steal to survive.

“Don’t even bother denying it… I have a report from the City Guards. My employer is expecting the goods tonight… You wouldn’t keep a noble waiting, would you?”

The mention of a report and a noble made the store owner swallow dry. He looked at the door and started to consider running.

“You don’t need to run… I don’t care about your shady business, I just want my crystals back… But that might change if you don’t get them quickly…”

If the man could sweat any more he would be able to swim on it. He stumbled on some goods and even dropped some things before retrieving the cloth bag with the crystals.

“That’s everything, I swear! I wouldn’t take it if I knew it was something from a noble… I didn’t even want it in the first place…”

Lana didn’t mind him, but Arthur who had just arrived started indulging the man’s nonsense. When she was certain that all the crystals were there, she demanded:

“Where can I find the thief? Don’t even try to pretend you don’t know him… You’re an awful liar… How can you survive in this line of business, with such bad skills? Anyway, I want a name and a location…”

.........

“Miss, can’t we go back now? You already got the crystals back…”

“No... I already said that I need to make an example of that rat… I got what was mine, now I’m going for retribution and compensation…”

The paddler looked at her in disbelief, she seemed to be taken this much more happily than she should.

Arthur stuffed the last piece of bread into his mouth but didn’t finish eating before complaining:

“Why do we have to look for the thief? Nothing good would come out of it… I don’t understand why you didn’t take more from the store owner, I’m sure he was willing to pay a little extra to avoid trouble… You could have got your compensation from him…”

“Arthur, the man was only doing business… A shady business, but a business nonetheless, I have to respect other Merchant’s work… Of course, I wouldn’t allow anyone to take what’s mine!”

“Anyway, I’m a little interested in that rat’s skills… Don’t roll your eyes on me! Lesson three: There’s no such thing as evil abilities, just good and bad people. He’s a rat, but he's also good enough to pull an act on me…”

“We’re here, Miss.”

Lana and Arthur exited the boat before asking the paddler to wait or come back in half an hour. The paddler didn’t want to stay here, so he left promising to return soon. The pair moved towards a crude-looking hut in silence. Arthur wanted to say something but Lana told him to be quiet.

The Mage wanted to rehearse their approach, but Lana just barged in after asking him to be ready to cast a distraction if needed. The hut was shabby and only had less than 20 square meters. The smell of food being cooked made Arthur gulp while the man cooking it turned around to see who was invading his home.

“Who are you? Why… You!”

The man remembered the pair from early and started to plan his escape. Without sparing them any more attention, he dashed towards the back exit door at his left, still holding the cooking knife.

Lana didn’t waste time and also sprinted towards the fleeing man. The thief was surprised by her speed, he was forced to give up running and could only face her. Without thinking, he trusted the knife towards her while closing his eyes.

Again, Arthur was too slow to process the unexpected movements, but when he saw the knife going for Lana, he screamed involuntarily.

“Lana, the knife!”

Surprisingly, Lana didn’t slow down. She bent forward and increase her speed missing the knife that passed above her head before punching the man on his guts. But she didn’t stop there and continued forward circling the man. Using a dagger that she got out of nowhere, Lana pulled the pained crouching man back and held him hostage with the blade pressing against his neck.

The shocked Arthur could only drop the spell he was constructing and stare at her speechless.

“Lesson four, Arthur: You have to know how to protect yourself…”

“Dad! Dad… Please Miss, please, don’t kill my dad!”

Now, both Arthur and Lana looked dumbfounded at the poor-looking ten years-ish girl screaming at the door. The shock made her loosened the hold on the man’s neck, who saw a chance and tried to escape her. But, he only ended up pressing against the knife and hurting himself more.

“Please don’t kill him!”

“Hazel, run!”

“Don’t kill him please!”

“Stop moving, your idiot! If I wanted to hurt your daughter I could kill you and get to her easily…”

Arthur looked at her with a complicated expression before saying:

“Let’s not talk about killing kids, Lana…”

“Not the point, Arthur… And it’s Boss for you! Anyway, I promise to don’t hurt the girl or do anything to her…”

“Okay… Hazel, stay calm, dad’s fine…”

Arthur saw the tension in the room lower and felt relieved. Then, he looked at the almost cooked food and asked in a concerned tone:

“Can we eat the food before talking? I’m afraid it’s gonna go cold if we wait…”

.........

“You already got the crystals back… What do you still want from me? I can give you some silver coins that I received in advance from the store owner, but… He’ll demand from me later…”

“Oh, the thing is… You stole from the wrong person, I’m almost sad for your bad luck…”

If it wasn’t for Merek’s current situation and if Arthur wasn’t busy eating they would probably roll their eyes at Lana’s proud statement.

“You see… I’m a Merchant and have to keep a good reputation, which means that I can’t get fooled by a lowly thief… I need to make an example out of you and send a message to all rats that I’m not to be messed with… Now, your daughter complicates things… Does she have someone else to take care of her?”

Merek swallowed dry and avoided thinking about how she would take care of him. He tried to give her some suggestions and even offered his services. When he saw that Lana was considering it, he even breathed a sigh of relief.

“Hmm… Your acting and cheating skills are very good… Even in this situation, you can turn the table and entice me into contracting your services… Haha… Very good…”

He looked at her and gave a bitter forced smile, was she complimenting him or burying him even deeper?

“I do have a use for your skills… But, I’m more interested in your servitude other than your services… How about signing a contract?”

“That’s the same as slavery! It’s too much, you already got your crystals back…”

“Hey! I signed a contract with her and I’m not a slave. I’m an employee…”

Arthur got offended by the man’s statement, but not enough to make him give up on the food, so he didn’t wait for an answer and returned to eating it.

“It’s your choice… Either you sign a contract with me or I turn you to the City Guards, I’m sure they have a better plan for you…”

Lana smiled wickedly and gave the man time to consider it. She didn’t need to press him as she did with Arthur, he had already fallen on her trap.

“Hmm… I don’t have a choice, do I? What about Hazel?... I can’t leave her, she doesn’t have anyone else…”

Merek had identified Lana’s soft spot earlier, he was unwilling to use it at first, but now he didn’t have an option. However, he didn’t count on Lana’s ability to think about unusual solutions.

“That’s fine, she can also sign a contract and work for me… We can make a 20 years contract, so she would be old enough to take care of herself when it ends…”

Everyone in the room couldn’t help but stare at Lana. Doesn’t her shamelessness have limits?