Chapter 34

Catching their prey would be too easy, and easy never sat right with Cat. Cat always felt like they were cheating when they employed such methods. There was no thrill, no chase from angry townsfolk, and even worse, no adrenaline inducing exchange of gunfire. What upset Cat the most, was that they were spending money, and Cat knew that every coin spent would be one less coin that they got to take home at the end of this shit-show of a mission.

They had originally planned to used Cat's preferred method of just simply forcing their target to go with them, but the whole bungle of the ship's crew letting the others escape forced them to be more cautious about the whole thing. For a price, the guard had been more than willing to keep an eye out for their errant metalmancers, but there was a limit of what bribes could accomplish.

So, instead of the "fun" method, which involved simply grabbing their prey in the middle of the night and dashing back to the docks, the brother and sister instead found themselves knocking at the front door of a somewhat rundown house.

As they waited for someone to answer the door, Cat stuck a hand in her pocket, feeling around until she felt her fingertips brush against the container that held the metalmancy blocking crystal. She was about to ask her brother to doublecheck that he still had his, when the door opened.

A somewhat rotund man with a dirty beard and a few missing teeth opened the door. He squinted, and looked the pair up and down.

"Whatta want?"

Ugha went into action, smiling broadly and holding out his non-metallic hand for a shake. Cat was never great at this part, so she put on her best fake smile and let her brother take the lead. He did have his uses.... occasionally.

"Hello sir! My name is Geral! My sister and I understand that there's a metalmancer in the household?"

The man's eyes narrowed at this. "He don't need no more work, he already has his hands full helpin' me out on da boats."

Ugha subtly pulled his hand back, "Sir, this isn't about work. What we want to offer is an education. A chance at a brighter future."

The man rubbed his stubble covered chin. "Education huh? Not sure he's got much use for that."

"Well sir," Ugha said looking at the poor state of the dwelling, "This opportunity would not only benefit him, but you as well."

"How's dat?"

Ugha made a motion towards the door. "Perhaps we could discuss this inside."

The man thought another moment, and then stepped aside and motioned for the two to enter the dwelling.

As they crossed the threshold inside, Cat did her best to keep herself from wrinkling her nose when they entered. Life aboard ship had hardened her on the acrid smells of unwashed bodies, but this brought things to another level. Not only did the interior smell unclean, there was a lingering odor of old, sour alcohol that assaulted the senses.

They entered into a combined kitchen/living room that looked like it hadn't seen a mop in the past decade.... no Cat thought... the last TWO decades. Piles of clothes and other detritus lay scattered here and there. Blankets were strung across two portals on the far wall of the room. It looked like there were doors there once, but at some point they had been removed and never properly replaced. The one large window for the room had been covered by an old piece of plywood.

"Excuse da mess," the man apologized. "Haven't been able to keep up since da wife passed."

"You've probably been too drunk to keep up," Cat thought. Tales from other patrons at the pub said that this man, Sunian, had quite the reputation of getting so sauced that he could be often found unconscious under one of the pub's tables following one of his famous binges.

The man offered the pair a couple of rickety looking kitchen chairs, which both Cat and Ugha politely turned down.

"Boy's not 'ere right now," Sunian said, slumping into an old stuffed chair.

"That's alright sir," Ugha said. "I assume that you are his guardian?"

"I'm his uncle, yep. Started looking after da young fella when his parents were lost at sea."

"Well sir, word around town is that you're doing an amazing job."

"Bullshit on that," Cat thought to herself. "I wonder how my brother can lie so easily and still be so ANNOYINGLY polite.

Sunian reached over to a small table next to the chair and grabbed a pipe. Cat noticed that there was a small pile of ash that had built up next to the chair on one side. "I do me best."

"So," the man said, patting himself down, looking for a light. "What kinda education are ya talking about? How does it help me?"

"You said that the boy.... what was his name again?"

"Theo," Sunian said as he lit his pipe.

"Theo, helps you out with the boats. So he helps you make money correct?"

"He's gotta gift for makin' nails outta scrap. He makes da nails and I use those to patch up some of da smaller wooden fishing boats."

"Now, I imagine that he gets tired after a while from making all these nails."

"It wears him out for sure. I sometimes get only a half-a-day's work outta him."

"Well, if he comes with us for a year... maybe two, we could send him back with the strength to work all day!"

Sunian puffed on his pipe for a moment. "Two years? Gonna be hard to do without for him that long. I'll have'ta go back to making the nails by hand, or buyin' them."

"We're prepare to compensate you for your time."

This was the part that Cat was dreading. Her brother withdrew a sack of coins from a pocket and tossed it on the table. Sunian's eyes went wide with the heavy sound the sack made as it hit the table. Cat saw the man lick his lips, no doubt already imagining spending the money on booze.

"Think of that as a down payment," Ugha continued. "We'll send you a monthly allowance if you allow Theo to come with us for training." That last part was completely false of course.

The man reached a hand out to the sack, before withdrawing it.

"What do you folks get out of 'dis?"

"We're merely an organization that wants to see metalmancers reach their full potential. We believe that the stronger metalmancers get, the faster humanity will rebound. It's for the good of the entire world you see."

Cat started slowly moving her hand towards her concealed pistol, getting ready to act if things went south. This was the tricky part. It was the part where people either bought their particular brand of bullshit - or not. The swaying factor always seemed to be how much people needed the money that they offered.

"Well," said Sunian reaching for the sack once again. "I suppose it's in the boy's best interest."