Meeting the Spider (2)

Leon sat in his inn room, the silence of the city night pressing in.

Kira paced back and forth, her spiritual form flickering with anxiety.

"A hundred gold coins, Leon! A hundred!" she repeated, her voice frantic in his mind. "Every bounty hunter in the kingdom will be looking for Yuna! We have to do something!"

"And we will," Leon said calmly, not looking up from the city map he was studying.

"But what can we do?" she cried. "We can't fight the entire King's Guard!"

Leon finally folded the map and looked at her.

"A public bounty means Yuna is not in a public place."

"She is hidden. And the people who know how to find hidden things don't post their services on the Adventurer's Guild board."

He stood up. "We need an information broker."

♢♢♢♢

The next morning, Leon returned to the "Tipsy Griffon", which was just as rowdy as the day before.

Leon bypassed the crowded tables and went straight to the bar.

The large, bearded bartender saw him coming and smiled. "Back again, lad? Another spiced cider?"

"No, thank you," Leon said, his voice low. "I'm looking for information."

He slid a single, gleaming gold coin across the polished wood of the bar.

The bartender's friendly expression vanished. He glanced around nervously, then quickly covered the coin with his hand, sliding it off the bar and into his apron.

"That's a loud coin for a quiet question," he muttered, his eyes darting around the room.

"Who's the best information broker in Iridis?" Leon asked simply. "No questions, no haggling. Just a name."

The bartender leaned in close, his voice barely a whisper.

"The best? You're looking for 'The Spider'."

Leon raised an eyebrow. "The Spider? You mean the arachnid?"

The bartender let out a short, humorless chuckle. "No, lad. Not a bug. A woman. An old one. They call her that because her web of informants covers every dark corner of this city. If a coin drops in the Tangle, she hears it."

"The Tangle?"

"The slums," the bartender clarified. "Built into the canyon walls beneath the main city. A chaotic maze of rickety walkways, leaning shanties, and dripping pipes. It's a city stacked on top of itself.."

"Okay, but an old woman?" Leon asked, a hint of doubt in his tone. "The best information broker is an old woman?"

"She's blind, too," the bartender added, a strange look of respect and fear in his eyes.

"And how does a blind old woman gather information so effectively?"

"Don't let the eyes fool you," the bartender warned. "She hears everything. Last month, Lord Blackwood's youngest son lost a priceless family heirloom. The city guard searched for a week and found nothing. He went to The Spider. An hour later, he knew which thief had it, which sewer grate he used as an escape route, and where he was currently sleeping it off. She's the best because she sees more without her eyes than we do with ours."

"She operates out of the heart of Tangle," he continued, his voice dropping even lower. "But be warned, lad. The Spider's web is easy to get into, but not so easy to get out of."

"And she doesn't work for coin."

♢♢♢♢

The Tangle was a district that lived up to its name.

A chaotic maze of narrow, shadowy alleys and rickety overhead walkways, it was the city's forgotten underbelly.

Leon moved through it with an unnatural confidence, his senses guiding him through the twisting paths.

He followed the bartender's directions to a quiet, dead-end street.

At the very end was a small, unassuming tea shop, its windows dark and grimy. This was The Spider's den.

He pushed the door open.

Inside, the shop was quiet. A few street urchins and beggars sat at tables, sipping tea in silence.

In the darkest corner, a small, old woman sat in a rocking chair, knitting with gnarled, bony fingers. Her eyes were clouded over with cataracts, making her appear completely blind.

"Is this, the Spider?" Kira asked inside Leon's mind in a whisper.

"Only one way to find out…"

As Leon approached, one of the beggars stood up to block his path. Before the man could speak, the old woman's voice, thin and reedy, cut through the silence.

"Let the boy approach."

Leon stood before her chair. She didn't stop knitting.

"The Spider, I presume?" Leon asked.

"You seek the fox-kin girl," she stated, not as a question, but as a fact. "The one with the royal bounty on her head."

"You know of her," Leon said.

"I know of everything that happens in the shadows of this city. And I also know that you showed interest when you spoke about her with Bran before," she replied, her knitting needles clicking rhythmically.

"However, I refuse." She said flatly.

"Why? We can pay you." Leon tried to negotiate.

"Oh? And do you think that the other bounty hunters could not?" The spider said with a chuckle.

"Just know that helping you would mean crossing both the King and the Queen. It is a dangerous business. Too dangerous."

"So you are just afraid?"

"My web is strong, boy, but it is not strong enough to stand against the throne."

Leon had expected this. Gold wouldn't work here. He needed a different kind of currency.

He reached into his pouch and took out one of the small wooden boxes. He opened it and placed it on the small table beside her.

Inside, the single Stardew Bead pulsed with its soft, internal light.

The old woman's knitting needles stopped clicking.

The room fell completely silent.

Her head turned slowly, her milky, blind eyes seeming to focus directly on the bead. She reached out a trembling, wrinkled hand.

"May I?" she whispered.

Leon nodded.

Her gnarled fingers gently lifted the bead from the box. She traced its flawless, smooth surface, and a jolt seemed to run through her as she felt the faint, unique energy held within.

She held it for a long, silent minute.

"This is.."