Chapter 32: A Friend of the Fifth (Patreon)

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Chapter 32: A Friend of the Fifth

Cass rolled out of bed with gusto. His workouts went well, the coin trick finally succeeded, allowing him to pick up much-needed Tempered Tokens, and what’s more, Anna was in a good mood as they sat eating their daily breakfast. Altogether, it was a fantastic start to his day.

Abe still appeared in his mind from time to time, but the images of the wrapped-up boy were a ghost that flitted in and out of his consciousness. He was aware of his potential part in what had happened, but then he remembered all the good he was going to do, and suddenly felt better.

I’ll check in on him soon. Johan said it’ll be a few days before we really know what’s going on, so no point in dropping by early.

When they were done eating, Ana slid a bag across the table, saying it had been dropped off last night. Within, Cass counted out 160 Crests.

He stirred the contents with a finger. “How much do you get paid again?”

“The Guild covers my food and housing, then grants me a weekly salary of ten Crests.”

“A silver, that’s all? I don’t think so.” 

Reaching in, he did some quick math against how much he’d likely need for the week, then plucked out two more silvers. Sliding them across the table, he said, “Here. I know it’s a small percentage of my income, but I’m afraid some of it has to go toward a few of my plans. I’m sorry.”

Her hand fell on top of his own as she presented a beautiful smile his way, “That’s more than enough, Cass. More than enough.”

He put his other hand on hers, nodded, then added the rest of the money to the pouch within his shoulder bag and made his way to the elevator.

The Clerks in front of the Re-Quest Intake room nodded at him, and for once, Cass’s smile outshone Jessica’s in its brilliance. Maggie and Noah came in early, with the raunchy man immediately charging at Cass’s Annex.

“Where’s your stupid little friend?”

“Who? Orla?”

“No!” His face flushed red, “The other one. Pellin.”

Cass shrugged, “How would I know?”

“He stole mah gun.”

Unlikely. “I’m sure he’ll have it back to you in a jiffy, Noah.”

“A what?”

“Soon.”

He continued to try to mollify the older man, but no matter what he said, Noah kept stomping around the room like a bull in heat. On the other side of the room, Maggie looked thoroughly defeated as she sifted through a mountain of paperwork with a limp hand. 

Cass didn’t feel bad about the current state of his kidnappers. Okay, a little bad. But not enough to really push himself to do anything. His empathy had a strong boundary that drew a thin line with people who dragged him unwillingly across the territories.

Also, Cass knew for a fact Pellin wasn’t a thief, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a borrower. Just one who doesn’t warn you when doing the borrowing. 

The morning meeting was more of the same, and he was happy to note he didn’t receive any dockings.

Is happy the right word? No…ambivalent.

Cass’s notebook updated as Quirrel dropped by with his mountainous stacks. A bit of research proved his earlier planning right; there was a pure trend in what he could expect on certain days of the week. The Liberty Loaders collection rotated its Quest assignments, making it easy to slot in pre-made templates with all of their anchors. 

But he also made some changes.

While the Quests were easier to predict and outline, he now had more information about Advanced Quest Formatting. Though Cass wasn’t using the AirScript Quill, drafting unto vellums from an outline still followed the same process. It took a little extra time compared to his old process, but he more than made up for that by using anchored templates.

Enough so that he was done before closing time yet again, receiving his two Vellum bonus before heading out the door.

Exiting the tower, Cass spotted a smiling Adya and a rowdy Bella.

Neigh, stomp, stomp.

“Oh.” He replied, a sweat breaking out on the back of his neck.

Adya patted the draft horse's side, “What’d she say?”

He swiftly mounted up, his hands encircling her waist, “Apparently, I owe her several days' worth of Riding Quests.”

Bella kicked off as Adya called back, “That’s not so bad, right?”

“Mmm.”

It was by the time they exited the gate between the second and third that Cass said, “We’re being followed.”

Adya pushed Bella a little faster as she quickly looked over her shoulder, forcing Cass to adjust his grip. A heartbeat passed before she said, “It’s that rude man, Noah.”

“Ah. He’s tailing us back to the apartment to find Pellin. He told me earlier that Pell stole his gun.”

“Strange to hear that word. Nobody has seen a ranged weapon like that since not long after the Reshaping. You know, I haven’t seen Pell at all today. He’s probably out doing something Engineer’y.”

“He’d hate that you used that word.”

“Lucky for me that he’s not here to complain.”

Rather than head to the apartment, tipping off Noah to where they lived, Cass had Adya take him to a stableyard with a big, open riding yard. Ten minutes later, he laughed as Bella tried and failed to buck him.

“Oh, what a big, mean horse you are,” He called out tauntingly. “Can’t even throw me end over ass, now can you?”

He could feel that she took that personally, but he also felt her body shift as she prepared to rear toward the sky. Clenching his thighs, Cass shifted up and wrapped his hands around her neck. At their maximum height, he saw Noah hiding near a hay bale, ducking upon being spotted.

What an idiot.

The thought quickly faded as he held on for dear life when she plummeted back down to the Earth, then reflexively shifted back in his seat and prepared for the next round.

“Face it Bella, you’ll never defeat me! This is the-” Cass yelped as she reached around and bit his leg, then pulled him off and threw him mercilessly to the ground with a neigh.

Adya was seated on the yard fence as she began to clap, “Nice one, Bella.”

Cass held up a finger, “I call foul.”

After dropping off Bella in the small yard attached to the apartment, they ate a special dinner with Cass’s salary earnings. The outdoor restaurant wasn’t the best in the Fifth Ring, but it had an amazing ambiance, with a woman singing and a small band accompanying as they ate. 

Ignoring a fuming Noah seated at another restaurant across the way, Cass reached over and held Adya’s hand for a moment as the most recent song petered out, then their real mission for the evening began.

In between Alan’s training and Adya’s finding small work scouting the city for Orla, she spent much of her time just meandering around town. That meant she had a clear eye as she used Profile to analyze items and people in need within the ring. So on this particular evening, she took him to a small, dark area on the southern side, where there were not many people by his request.

As soon as they arrived, Cass pulled her aside to a secluded area, then kissed her.

“What was that for?” She asked.

“I just felt like. And also, we need to catch Noah as he comes around the corner here. I can’t have him following us. Don’t need him asking questions about the Quill.”

“Got it.”

Noah came around the bend right as Adya’s foot landed plainly on his stomach. He wheezed as the air was knocked out of him, then collapsed to the ground. The small crowd of people in the area took one glance at what was happening, then made themselves scarce.

“We don’t know where Pellin is,” Cass calmly stated, though inside, he wasn’t so calm.

Holy shit, I didn’t think she’d hit him. I was just going to explain that Pellin is his own person, with his own goals. Good God, that was a hard kick.

Noah inched to his knees, cursing up a storm. Glaring at them both, but mostly at Adya, he spat on the ground, “It’s mah weapon, and a prototype. If the Central Guild learns that it’s out and lost in the world, they’re going to be coming here for it. Comin' for ya friend, Pellin, that is.”

“The moment I see him, I’ll make sure it’s returned. But for now, you need to stop following us.”

“I’ll do any bloody thing I want-” He took a menacing step forward before Adya’s foot found its way to his face. Forced back two steps, the odd man screamed to the night air and stared a charge. Adya spun in place and fired a heavy kick to his chest. The shorter man bounced back, his feet slipping out from under him as he fell to the ground a second time.

“You’ve gotten really good at kicking,” Cass complimented her. 

She smiled, “Alan’s training me in several forms of combat. He said women should work on kicks, not punches. More power there.”

“Very cool. But…Noah’s not that bad of a sort.”

Adya crossed her arms. “He kidnapped you.” 

Cass nodded as Noah groaned in the background, “He did, and there’s no excuse for that, Quest or no Quest. But he’s also the one who pushed the hardest to get me out of the Guildtower. Without which, we wouldn’t have been able to spend time together like this. I think we need to take it a little easy on him.”

Getting her permission, he moved over and crouched beside the seated man, leaky blood dripping from his nose, “I’m sorry it came to this, Noah. I promise you’ll have your gun back soon, and I always keep my promises.”

“Don’t trust ya.”

“That’s your prerogative. But think about this…have you ever known me to lie or act deceitfully?”

“Ya tried to escape!”

“You kidnapped me!”

“Bah!” He wiped his face, a smearing of blood dribbling on his lips. “I’ll give ya a chance. Two days, then I tell the Central Guild what’s goin on.”

“Deal.”

Before he could change his mind, they walked quickly away. After several minutes without spotting the man, Cass and Adya assumed he’d given up the chase as she took him to the real location. He sent off a quick message before they started their evening activity.

>Cassio: You need to return the weapon in the next two days.

There was no response as Adya led him to a small area she’d passed through earlier in the day. Having overheard a glowing competitor, she knew of a kind woman who’d made a terrible mistake. It took them all of ten minutes to locate a stressed out Laundress.

Abigail Finch was in trouble after taking on too many orders at once. She’d miscalculated the expected loads, and several of her customers expected things to be done by the next day. Sadly for her, the Guild required service jobs to have time-based completion contracts. On her own, that would not happen.

That evening, a Friend of the Fifth made sure she had plenty of help as two people who looked like they weren’t doing much received Quests in the night. They stayed around the area for a moment to make sure that the Questor teenagers were honest in their help, then moved along.

Following that, Cass and Adya made their way to the apartment to talk to Pellin when they found a small child who looked lost. Pulling up his map on a nearby wall, they located the boy’s house using the boy’s description and Adya’s overpowered Observation ability. He lived four streets down, in a small apartment complex shared with many other families. 

His parents were so thankful that they left with a small cake on a paper plate, shared between them.

And so it went as they traveled from the South back to the North along the eastern axis. A man with an overturned cart found two compassionate folks willing to help. A Profiled carpenter received a Quest to fix an elderly shopkeeper's sign. And a small group of friendly dogs found a bowl of chopped meat, purchased from a Butcher’s shop around the corner.

Anyone who needed help, received it. But at the end of the night, Pellin still wasn’t in the apartment.

The next day was more of the same. The Quests went by quickly, and Cass even received a compliment from Senior QuestWright Mirelle. Apparently, his efficiency had risen by over 10%. Now softly in the 80s, she gave him a nod of approval before he ran to his small shared room.

Noah had a swollen nose and continuously rubbed his chest whenever their eyes met, but didn’t say a word through the whole day as Cass burst through his Quests. After receiving his bonus, it was out to Bella and Adya. The draft horse had insisted that he perform their shared Riding Quests everyday in the week. He couldn’t deny that she deserved it.

But due to a stray comment from Adya on the ride, laughing about him having a sore bum two days in a row, he did a change-up. Removing one of his extra Vellums, Cass drafted the Quest, then held it out to the smirking Scout.

“Your turn…”

“But-”

“Your…turn.”

She won’t get any Tempered Tokens, but it’s still worth it. Try laughing now.

After a quiet dinner in the apartment with Gary, Pellin was nowhere to be found. He sent a quick message through the Whisprnet as Gary told them about his day. The Baker was off working in a new shop that had popped up, trying to earn enough money to start his own business without Orla sinking her claws into him. Cass donated thirty Crests to the Gary fund before writing up an Exponential Quest for both him and Adya.

“This is gonna level me up so fast!” Gary exalted as the glow lit up his figure.

“Thank you, Cass,” Adya said with a peck on the lips.

“Uh, I could’ve done without seeing that. It’s like watching my sister kiss my brother.”

“You have neither!”

“Still!”

That night, they left for their now-scheduled goodwill walks. Adya rubbed her butt every so often when she thought he wasn’t looking, but he knew. And just like that, the Friend of the Fifth struck for a third day in a row.

The next morning, Noah gave him as solid a glare as he’d ever seen. Cass was now determined to find Pellin, and as luck would have it, just as he finished his final Quests, a message came in.

<Pellin: Sorry for making you worried. I’m fine. Tell Noah I’ll have it back to him tomorrow. Also, Alan wants to see us. He said we’re going into the Dungeon tonight.

Well…shit.