A sword, a cat and a peeping rat (part - 4)

Sun rays peek through the window, shining light into Zatu's face.

Hugging his sword he sleeps by the foot of the sofa as Maira sleeps peacefully on it.

"What are you doing kid?" An old voice wakes him up from his slumber.

"Grandpa, your back." Zatu answers, blinking away his sleepiness.

"Yeah, now why are you sleeping on the floor? Who is that and what happened?" 

"Uhhhh, remember when I got that guide Schalt recommended to me?"

"Yeah… Is she?" Arbo raises an eyebrow and points at the still as a rock Maira. 

"No, no, this is Maira, I asked her to look for rumors about that guide." Zatu says lowering his voice, trying to not wake up the girl he thinks is still asleep.

"Okay, go on." Arbo says, lifting the corner of his mouth slightly.

" Well, apparently the guide is not just a guide? Or maybe she is? I don't know." Zatu shrugs his shoulders. "But Maira found some really disturbing things about Night Fang, only I'm not quite sure how true they are." From the side he takes the book and hands it to Arbo.

"Do you know anything about this Grandpa?" He asks knowing there is no such the alleged crimes of Night Fang would go unnoticed by the council.

With his calloused fingers Arbo flips the pages at light speeds.

A traveling merchant settles down in the outer city after asking around about Night Fang dies within a week, her name written on his death scene.

Someone from the outer settlement moves quietly to an Inn in outer city, poisoned to death in a matter of days, her name written beside the body.

A long term resident of the outer city starts asking about Night Fang, disappeared in a week, executed by the guards in a month.

Page by page that goes by patterns start to form in his head, fathered by the rumors in the book and mothered by the knowledge in his head.

After a dozen different stories he reached the end.

'All of these happened in the outer city. Only affects people with less influence and money? Maybe, but not quite enough to be sure.'

'Some of these were marked with this guide's name.' 

"Night fang… Night Fang…" Arbo murmured quietly, it sounded so familiar the old man was sure he had heard it before.

'Wait, she leaves her name after assassinations for years and is still free… she is working for the council. I must have heard her name there.'

But that also didn't quite fit the mold, these assassinations were clearly trying to intimidate someone, something the council as a whole simply didn't need to do.

'Changing, focus. The cases without her name were almost all about long term residents disappearing, before being charged and executed… most without them even asking about Night Fang.'

A frown appears on his face, disappearing residents like in these rumors was a line that should not be crossed.

Arbo could recall many prosperous cities that descended into nothing in a matter of decades after crossing this line.

'And for that to happen someone in the tower knows, more than that, it has to be either a High councilor or… Viscount Darkglade?' 

He doubted this conclusion though, none of them should be stupid enough to do such a thing.

And at the same time someone with a lot of power was both creating and hiding such a mess.

'Shit, I need to go back to the tower.'

He thinks, just as he remembers who holds the reins on Night Fang.

"Night Fang works for…" Arbo pauses glancing at Maira. "Boy, do you trust this girl to keep secrets?" He points at the girl.

Zatu closes his eyes in thought.

"I do, my gut tells me she is a good kid and I can trust her." He chuckles. "She's pretty good at finding rumors too, this book was made in less than two days." 

Arbo smiles a little, watching as a drop of sweat slides down the girl's forehead.

"You should try to cultivate her skills then, no one lives alone and information can be as deadly as a sword..." 'especially when some enemies aren't beasts.' Arbo finishes in his mind, his eyes narrowing down on the book at his hand.

"How do I do that Grandpa?" Zatu tilts his head, unsure what he could even do to help the girl.

"If she actually got all this in two days." He raises the book a bit. "You just need to provide her the environment for her to grow. Give her a few missions, a few deadlines and some good rewards and that should do the trick."

Though there was much more Arbo could say in the topic of cultivating allies, he decided to skip it. 

His adopted grandson was the type to ignore words and learn from experience anyway.

"So, the rumors from the poisonings sound like real assassinations, pretty sure Night Fang works for Darkglade's daughter."

"Wait, Viscount has a daughter?" Zatu's eyes go wide in surprise.

"Yeah, smart cookie that one, sadly when it comes to children Viscount only has eyes for the mentally disabled one so only those who interact with her know she even exists." 

At that Zatu tilts his head confused.

Till now though Viscount only had a single child, but now he has a daughter and his son is actually disabled. "Grandpa… are you sure he is disabled?"

Arbo chuckles.

"Oh, he isn't, that's a joke we do in the council, don't mind it too much." The old man answers, shaking his head slightly.

Just thinking about the Darkglade boy leaves a bad taste in his mouth.

Hopefully Viscount would one day see the light, because from his two children one would be a pretty good Viscount, while the other one…

Would light the city on fire to warm his pot belly.

'This kid is missing the point.'

"Shush Zatu, stop derailing me." Arbo scoffs, massaging his temples slowly. "What you need to know is this, some of these rumors are probably Night Fang working for Unbreon on our trade of dark shrooms."

"The ones about disappearing residents are completely different though." The long sword on his old back shakes a little. "If those ones are true, someone if fucking things up and I'll find out who's it is."

Just then another light bulb lit on Arbo's mind.

"By the way, wasn't your meeting with this 'guide' today?"

"Oh no, I should be on Blue Dream right now." Zatu face palms, getting his space pouch and readying himself to rush out before pausing and glancing at Maira. "Can you help her get to her home, old man?"

"Sure thing kid." Arbo answers as he watches Zatu bolt out of the door like his life depends on it.

Seeing the boy is out he turns to Maira and scoffs.

"So, how long will you keep pretending to be asleep?"

Maira blushes and raises herself slowly.

"Sorry I didn't mean to…" She stares at the book in his old hand and gulps down air.

"Relax will ya, if the kid trusts ya you might as well hear things from me directly, heaven knows the boy has some hard case of selective hearing." He chuckles. "Any questions about what I said earlier?"

Hesitation takes over Maira in that moment, her eyes gluing hard on the book about Night Fang.

"T-t-the assassinations…?"

Arbo raises an eyebrow before it hits him, the way he talked about this must sound like craziness for someone who has never seen this part of the city. 

"Aaaah, you're from outer city huh." the old man clocked her instantly. "As you get to higher places you can see farther and farther away, me and Zatu by proximity have been in the highest places for a long time." 

A frown takes over Maira's eyebrows.

"Still… that's… killing people." She shakes her head.

"And that's wrong, I agree. But also not the full picture." Arbo opens the book and hands it to her. "Read the ones where Night Fang leaves her name and tell me what's in common about the people that died." 

Shifting the pages she goes through case by case. 

'A traveler comes to an Inn…'

'Someone moves from outer settlement…'

'Someone from a nearby town moves in to…'

…

"They are all from out of the city… But I don't see how it makes things any better."]

"Fair, let me give ya some context." Arbo leans to the wall. "From the rumors and what I get to know as a high councilor, Night Fang works on the dark shroom trade, a product that is completely banned in the kingdom and the main product that funds Unbreon."

Maira's frown deepens, with narrowed eyes she goes through the rumors again.

"So these people are involved in the shroom trade?" She asks, confused.

"Probably, can't be sure without running them by the Viscount's daughter." He answers as he takes the book out of her hands and into his space pouch.

Looking at the girl he sees the frown as strong as before, a smirk creeps on his lips.

"Still feels wrong and ugly?"

He asks and she nods. 

"Great, try to keep it that way, heaven knows this city needs some more people like ya." He chuckles and nods to the door. "Enough lecturing for today though, we should take you home now." 

"Oh and you don't need to accept it, but in case you decide to take some missions from Zatu hold this." Arbo hands her a small metallic emblem, emerald in color and adorned with a sword in its center.

'An official token!' Maira's jaw drops, holding one of these meant you represented a councilor.

"I can't take this High councilor Greensword." She tries to hand it back.

Arbo side eyes her for a moment, shaking his head.

"After all you heard and the little book you wrote it's just a matter of time till someone like Night Fang comes to ask you questions." He boops her nose. "So you better have that when the time comes, girl."