The farmer still stands outside resting on his broom. "You got all those rats?" he inquires.
"Enough to get paid. For the rest, get a new dog who is not afraid. As a free service I'll take your last pest controller with me." Persephone lifts one of the two bags.
"Yes, sure." the farmer replies and hands over a bag of coins that sums up to five gold.
"Without the long walk it would be a faster way to earn the money than performing in The Pig's Whistle." Norm tells on the way back weighing the coins in his hand.
"But the audience usually doesn't try to kill and eat me."
"Actually that was a close call. We need better preparation for the rat hunt tomorrow." Persephone states.
Back at The Pig's Whistle she asks Isabella for a place to store her two sacks until she leaves for the night. Having them stored in the broom closet she sits down at the table in the corner and orders a sandwich and an ale.
"Here's your ale, sandwich takes longer. Something for you Norm?" Isabella asks.
The tavern isn't full yet, but it is the usual busy place already. A young lad is tap dancing on a table to a lively song played on a fiddle in front of a cheering crowd.
"I'll take an ale too." Norm replies.
As Isabella leaves to get the ale a woman comes to the table, grabs a chair, turns it and sits astride in one fluid move. "Hi. What are you talking about."
"About private stuff. What do you want? If you search for entertainment, I suggest going over there." Persephone points to the tap dance performance.
"That's boring. What you do is my idea of fun. You talked about plans and rats. That is fun. And I'm bored. So?"
"No." Persephone replies.
Turning to her partner she tells "Norm, you'll have to drink your ale in a hurry, we're going somewhere more private." She empties her mug in one go and gets up to leave.
Norm changes his order to a bottle to-go and follows Persephone.
"Ok then, keep your secrets." Faerveren waits a few moments, before she follows the two outside.
From the distance she follows them.
Persephone brings Norm to her home. Inside the nice town house she offers him a seat at the kitchen table. There is a dinner room in the house, but with all the paintings, the silverware and other valuables that made it a nice place gone, she feels more comfortable in the kitchen.
She fetches a mug from the cupboard and puts it on the table for Norm. "So about that plan..." She sits down and takes a deep breath.
"I have some ideas, but I'd like to hear what you think first."
"How about we ambush them, knock them out and take the money they will have extorted from Isabella." Norm talks at large, while filling his mug from the bottle of ale.
"Not too bad. How do you want to make sure, they don't recognize us?" Persephone inquires.
"I can disguise myself." Norm tells and uses his magic to do so. Instead of his usual unshaven shock headed appearance he looks like a stiff butler with a mustache.
"Can you do that on me too?"
"Nope, sorry." the butler version of Norm replies. "I'm pretty good at non-magical disguises too. With some guy's clothes, a mustache and a hat to hide your hair I could make you almost unrecognizable."
"As long as I don't have to move, because my limp would give me away." Persephone sighs. She has a clear idea how to solve that whole issue, but she isn't sure if Norm is willing to go that far.
"You know, if we get caught mugging them, we are in trouble with the guard. I don't know their exact policy on robbing to get your money back, but there is the risk of ending in jail. But if those guys get away and then they come after us with more of their kind, we're screwed big time."
"Those 100 gold are a lot of money, but being fed to the fish by their gang is an outcome, I'd like to avoid at any cost."
Nice house. Faerveren thinks, while pondering how to get in. As the road is too long, to climb the wall unseen and she wants to get in fast and not walk around to check the back from another street, she goes for the front door.
Taking out her 'keys' she unlocks the door and enters.
Closing the door behind her she silently follows the voices and sneaks up to the door of the kitchen, but staying outside where she isn't seen. Ah, yes, jack pot. I knew they were planning something fun.
"You mean..." Norm starts, but doesn't finish the sentence.
"I'm open to other suggestions, but I think we're about to start a war here. And we don't have the capacity to take prisoners." Persephone outlines the idea without using the specific word.
"So you're going there with the intention to kill them and make the bodies disappear?"
"That is one option. Another option is to not go at all. Maybe I'm not creative enough, but the only other idea I have is stealing the money back, without them noticing. But I definitely lack the skill to steal the money unnoticed."
"Also this approach would have the drawback, that they'd come back soon to sell Isabella another cask of their overpriced wine."
"It would free the town of two obviously criminal elements..." Norm tries to justify the plan to himself.
Faerveren steps into the open, leaning at the door frame. "I think I've heard enough, that you have no choice but to include me in your plans."
Persephone's expression darkens. Stemming her hands on the table she stands up. "We could start hiding bodies right away." she fumes.
"You'd have to get me first, and that signature limp of yours is not going to help with that." Faerveren further teases Persephone.
"Besides, you need any help you can get. What are you planning to do? Flutter your eyes at them and have Norm hit them over the head from behind with his lute?"
Persephone needs all her strength not to laugh at the mental picture.
At least she doesn't back off from going all the way through with it. "As you know it better, let's hear what your plan is." Persephone demands.
Faerveren shrugs. "I could steal the money from them and backstab them in one go. Add a little backup and some cover to that so we're not seen and we're good for the first half of the plan."
"And I assume you already have the hiding of bodies covered?"
"Let me see..." Persephone starts, gets out her notebook and opens it. Sliding with the back of the pencil down the page she stops half way. "Trained monkey with a dagger, check." and puts a check mark there.
"I can steal the money too. Just after I'm done with the stabbing."
"I have a cart and a tarpaulin and I can do my own cover, although it makes the stabbing part harder and if they start running we're screwed. We'd need an alley, where we can block both ends without too many potential witnesses."
"I could create a distraction for potential onlookers." Norm suggests, as he is uncomfortable with the stabbing part.
Faerveren is amused. "So we have half a plan, all the ingredients and can just check how it goes tomorrow."
"Why not. Worst case we call it off and they get away with it. I guess there will be plenty chances to follow." Persephone muses.
"On a totally unrelated topic: How the f~@+ did you get into my house?"
"You mean which of the half dozen invitations into your house I accepted? Sorry, that's a trade secret."
After some more banter all but Persephone leave for the night. The meeting next day is at opening time at The Pig's Whistle.
The night passes and in the morning the bell from the temple reminds everyone that the day starts. As Isabella doesn't get up before that reminder opening time, well start of cleaning time, is not happening, before the sun made its way up into the sky for all to see.
Persephone skips breakfast. She puts on her peasants clothes and the chain mail she won. The mace and shield she puts into the two wheeled cart together with her 'walking-staff'. Covering that with the tarpaulin she deems everything ready. She grabs the handles and pushes the cart out of the courtyard and down to The Pig's Whistle.
Parking it outside she shortly goes in to greet Isabella and fetch the two sacks she left there the day before. She puts those on her cart and then waits.
Faerveren is up early. While the shadows are still long and dark she climbs on the roof of the pig's whistle and enjoys the view. Hiding next to a chimney she watches out for the guys doing the delivery.
As Persephone arrives and finally sits down on the cart, she trows pebbles down on her, until she notices her.
Norm arrives last. He has dark rings under his eyes. He walks straight into the tavern to drown his conscience in beer before everything starts. "Hello. One quick ale for me please."
Meanwhile the two dock workers come along, one of them pushing a two wheeled cart with some crates on it. They walk unhurried, joking about something.
They stop in front of The Pig's Whistle. The one doing the talking grabs a crate and carries it inside. "Good morning. Here is your delivery." he tells and puts the crate on the counter.
Isabella frowns at the sight. She fetches a crowbar and opens the crate. Inside are ten bottles of red wine. No label, so hard to tell what quality before opening a bottle. Seeing that the man gets impatient she hands over the 'agreed upon' sum of coins.
S!$~! They brought their own cart! Persephone waits and persistently stares into the other direction.
"See you next month then!" the guy tells with a smirk and leaves.
Outside the puts the coins into one of the caskets, that has a slit in the lid. "Come on. The next customer is already waiting for us." Together they move on further up the street.
Damn it. I can't leave that stuff here. Persephone waits until the men are some 50 yards away. She grabs the sacks and brings them back inside the tavern. "Sorry, change of plans."
Then she puts the shield on her back and folds the tarpaulin to take it along. Then she looks around where the two men are.
Faerveren watches with interest what is happening down there. As the men move on she follows across the roofs of the houses. Luckily the houses are built wall to wall and the worst obstacles are slightly different heights of the roofs.
As the men turn into a side alley she got a problem though. Following alone wouldn't help much. But luckily Persephone emerges from the tavern in time. Faerveren waves to her and points her in the right direction before moving on.
The men and their cart move on through the old part of town until they stop in front of a nice restaurant. An unhappy looking man comes out and another crate changes hands for a substantial amount of money.
And further on it goes. Through the narrow alleys meandering through the old part of town the next stop is a back alley where the chief of the two enters a small general store through the back entrance.
Persephone runs after Faerveren. That looks not very elegant, but she is in a hurry and can't make allowances for looking gracefully. But at the next stop she has the time to catch up. After that the main challenge is, to keep the right distance to not be noticed.
At the next stop she sees their time come. She puts the shield on her arm and turns around the last corner. She act like she is in a hurry to get somewhere past the man waiting with the cart.
The man looks kinda amused at the determined, but limping woman coming up the road. He wonders what she is about. Foreign insignia and disabled? Makes no sense.
Faerveren takes the hint and climbs down the building halfway. Then she jumps at the man, but instead of landing gracefully behind him, she falls prone.