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Chapter 54- Something Fishy Afoot
Part 1-An Entrance in Every Town
A cold sharp breeze came flying through the empty city streets, sending shivers down Liz, Bip and Alex spines. They stood outside a small rundown looking shack. Liz looked over her shoulder making sure that no one was sneaking up on them in the darkness.
“why would they build this place in such a bad part of town, this place gives me the creeps,”
“That’s just because its night time, don’t be such a wuss. Come on let's get a move on,” Alex said as he walked off towards the rundown building
Liz and Bip followed Alex up the rickety staircase, the floorboards letting out loud squeaks under there feet. They reached the front door. Alex raised his fist to the door and lightly tapped it against it sending it creaking quietly open. Alex pushed the door the rest of the way open and walked inside the building followed behind by Liz and Bip. The room inside was dimly lit and just as run down the outside of the building. It was quite and seemed completely devoid of any life.
“Ahh… Hello?” Liz said loudly.
“Guess no one’s home,” replied Bip.
Without warning a young lady popped up from behind the counter running along the back wall.
“Huh… what, who’s there,” the lady said in a groggy voice as she rubbed her eyes.
“Ummm… hi, We’re Mage’s with the guild and are looking for some information?” Alex said as he approached the counter.
The Lady looked up to the group seeming to fill back up with energy as their eyes made contact.
“Oh, You’re Alex, Liz, and Bip, right? It’s great to see you again,” she said in a cheery voice.
Alex and Liz turned to look at each other in confusion for a second before turning back to look at the women, scanning her face to try and remember where they could have met her before. Liz walked forward to join Alex in front of the counter.
“Sorry miss but have we met before?”
“Hehe… not surprised you don’t remember me… I’m not particularly memorable after all. I'm Mia, I met you at the Guild building when you first started your Guild test.”
“Oh yeah I remember you now,” Liz replied as it clicked.
“Why are you all the way out here?” asked Alex.
“What do you mean? All the guild building locations are linked to this building. Now you said you needed some information?”
Liz, Alex, and Bip all approached the counter.
“Yeah, we were looking to see if any jobs have been posted from steel lake city? It’ll be something about dealing with a curse or something,” Alex said as he leaned onto the counter.
Mia raised her hand to her chin and began to scratch as she looked down to the ground in thought.
“Hmm, I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that come through recently, though I don’t have access to the files so I couldn’t say for sure,” Mia replied, looking back up to the group.
“And who does have access to the files then?” Asked Liz.
“Only the guild leaders can, I think some of them are in at the moment, here follow me.”
Mia turned and walked to the edge of the counter and pulled up a small hatch and walked out into the main area. She walked over to a door in the back corner followed behind by the rest # of the group. She grabbed the handle and pushed the door open filling the room with a blinding light.
Part 2- Familiar Faces
Liz, Alex, and Bip covered their eyes as the light filled the room, as the sound of hundreds of people chatting boisterously and having a good time entered their ears. They looked up into the room to see the guildhall with mages sitting around at every table drinking and partying.
“They should be in here somewhere, come on follow me,” Mia said as she walked into the hall.
The group followed Mia into the hall, looking around at all the sights around them.
“It didn’t seem this busy last time,” said Bip.
“You where here on a weekday, the weekends are a whole different story,”
The group turned to walk up the staircase leading to the second level. It was a lot less populated then the lower levels and the groups sitting around seemed much more reserved.
“Oi shorty, over here,” Came a familiar voice from the corner of the room.
Alex, Liz, and Bip looked to where the voice had come from to see a table surrounded by four people. Three female figures sat facing away from them with a large tan man staring back at them holding an enormous half-full pint of beer in his hand. Alex scanned the man's face before realizing who it was.
“4? That was your name right?” Alex said as he walked over to the table.
“That’s the name kid.”
The three women turned around revealing the familiar faces of 8, 2 and 5 all grinning back at them.
“You should have told us you where all coming, we would have saved a seat for you,” said 2 as she turned around.
The rest of the group made their way towards the table.
“How have you guys been… it’s been ages, heard you got into some trouble in Sol Dantol?” asked 5.
“Ha… as if we would ever get into trouble,” Bip replied sarcastically.
“So what are you guys here for?” 8 asked as she leaned in to take a sip from the cup in front of her.
“We wanted some information on a job that’s supposedly been posted from the Steal lake city, something about a curse?” Liz chimed in.
8, 5 and 2 all looked at each other for a moment, uncertain of what to make of the group's question.
“Doesn’t ring any bells, let me check the archives fo…” 2 said before being cut off.
“I'll tell you… but first,” 4 said as he slammed his arm down on the table, holding his hand up towards Alex and smiling a cheeky smile. “How bout you go me in an arm wrestle, you did pretty well last time and I wanna see just how much strength you’ve gained on your little adventure.”
Alex and 4 glared each other off, a serious ora overtaking the both of them. 5 swiftly raised her hand up before sending it flying forwards into 4 head, launching his head slamming down violently into the table.
“You idiot… since when do we make someone win an arm wrestle for information?” 5 scolded.
“Ow… what the hell, that hurt.”
“It doesn’t look like any jobs like that have been posted,” said 2,
drawing the group's attention back to her.
She looked down at her phone intently and scrolled down the screen. She looked back up to the group.
“Are you sure that a job like that’s been posted?” she continued.
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” said Liz.
“Is it possible someone’s already taken the job?” Alex asked.
2 shook her head as she looked back down to her phone and continued to search.
“Even if a job's been completed it would still appear in the archives, if it’s not here then it’s never come through the guild.”
Liz and Alex turned to look at each other, giving each other a look of an acknowledgment as their suspicions where confirmed. 2 looked back up to the group.
“What’s all this about anyway? Whys this job so important?” asked 8.
Alex and Liz continued to look at each other for a moment before uncomfortably shifting their gaze to 8.
“Ahhh… well…” Alex muttered as he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.
“Let me guess… it’s best for us if we don’t know right? I swear you’re exactly like you’re father,” 2 said.
Alex tried to hold back, letting out the slightest of grins.
“Anyway… we should get going, now, we’ve got stuff to do,” Alex said, returning to his serious disposition.
Alex turned and walked off back the way they had come. Liz glanced back as Alex walked off before turning back to the guild leaders in front of her. She raised her hand up and waved slightly.
“Guess that my cue to leave, it’s been great catching up with you all,” Liz said before lowering her hand and following off in Alex steps.
Part 3- Long Walk Home
Liz, Bip, and Alex walked down the now completely dark and devoid of life streets. Alex's mouth began to peel open widely as his eyes closed. He raised his hand up covering his mouth as he continued to yawn.
“Damn… I don’t think I’ve ever seen you tired late at night,” Teased Liz.
“Shut up, it’s been a long day ok,” Alex mumbled through his yawn.
“It was nice to catch up with all those guys from the guild, it’s easy to forget how out of the loop we’ve been doing our own stuff the past through months,” Bip added.
The group continued to walk down the street in silence. Liz turned to look at Alex.
“So what do you think… you know, about this whole curse thing?”
Alex looked away in thought for a second.
“I don’t know, something’s going on here but I don’t think it’s a curse. All I know for sure is that someone wants to cover something up by pretending to be hiring mages to sort it out.”
“So what do you wanna do? We could always just ignore it and go back to searching through the rubble of the building.”
They walked a few steps in silence before Alex cracked a slight smile.
“Ha… as if, I’m invested now,” Alex replied.
Liz returned a similar smile back at him.
“That’s what I thought. so what now, where do we go from here.”
“Well first we should get back to the dojo and get some sleep,” Alex replied stifling another yawn. “Then in the morning, we should go find that man that guy at the cleanup site mentioned who’s kid was taken. I got a feeling he’ll be able to help us out.”
Liz lifted her arms up above her head as she followed in Alex lead and let out a yawn.
“Sleep huh… sound like a plan to me.”
The grouped walked off through the darkness, ready for a long night's rest.
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TO BE CONTINUED
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Thanks you for reading Chapter 54 of Mage. If you like what you see please consider dropping a Kudos and maybe checking out the rest of my work. Also for any updates or if you just wanna see my cosplay adventure please consider follwing my tumblr here https://www.tumblr.com/blog/50funny and until next time have a good one.