Chapter 91 - The Party Enters The Thieves Guild

Merlin slipped into the crowd once more, making his way towards the entrance that lead back to Orchomenus. When he arrived, he saw his two friends standing around nearby, so he walked towards them.

"Hey guys. Follow me." He ran up and greeted his friends, before leading them away from the busy streets.

"Man, this place is packed." Typhoeus said as he followed along. He was busy making sure his scythe didn't bump into anybody.

Merlin lead the two through a couple streets, and the amount of people in the area dropped considerably, giving them space to move around comfortably. The amount of people reduced even further the more they walked, until there was only a handful of people scattered around the street.

Snowbunny and Typhoeus began noticing that the atmosphere had become different. The loud noises from the city had become muffled background noise in the distance, and the surrounding buildings fell into disrepair, only getting worse as they continued on their way.

"What is that smell?" Snowbunny complained as she tried covering her mouth. 

"Welcome to the slums. That stench would be filth, try not to touch anything." Merlin explained as he continued walking. He started feeling bad that he brought a princess into such a disgusting area, but it would ultimately benefit her, so a little uncomfortable stench wouldn't hurt her. "Follow along and remember the path."

The group walked through the slums, and the only person that was out on the street was a creepy looking old man who started ogling Snowbunny as she walked by, causing her to shudder in revulsion. Typhoeus started walking directly behind Snowbunny the second they passed the old man, protecting the princess from the eyes of a lecherous man.

Now knowing that he was at risk of being scried upon, Merlin took extra caution taking note of his surroundings. He couldn't see any evidence of scrying, which meant that his awareness stat was either too low to tell, or he wasn't currently being watched. They continued for a little while longer, ending up near a dark alleyway somewhere in the furthest depths of the slums.

"And now it's a scary alley, wonderful." Snowbunny said under her breath while following Merlin, there she saw an extremely shady looking tavern at the end of the dark alley. "Oh no, we're not going in there are we?"

While ignoring Snowbunny's reasonable complaints, Merlin opened the door and walked inside, signalling the other two to follow.

The inside of the building was just as run down and shady as the exterior, but Snowbunny's eyes locked onto a rather attractive woman who was working at the counter, and she couldn't help but think that the woman looked out of place in such a shady area.

All the nervousness that Snowbunny had felt while entering such a sketchy looking place suddenly vanished as her eyes locked onto the woman's gentle features and fair blonde hair that gently swayed as she cleaned a glass. Snowbunny walked passed the two guys and quickly approached the counter.

"Hey, you're a new face around here." The woman at the counter spoke up, repeating the dialogue she did with Merlin when they first met. The few people sitting around in the room started getting up from their chairs. "What can I get you?"

Snowbunny hadn't noticed anything going on in her surroundings, she was enamoured by the thief lord's daughter, or at least her appearance. She nervously asked for the woman's name.

The woman stared at her with a surprised expression for a few moments, and then her eyes panned to the person standing a little bit away from her and she realised where this person had come from. She turned back to face Snowbunny while signalling to everyone in the room to stand down with a hand gesture. "You can call me Fae. What's yours?"

"Oh, right, sorry." Snowbunny was flustered for a moment, but she regained her composure. "Hi, I'm Snowbunny, but you can just call me Snow. Nice to meet you!"

Fae's eyes locked onto the two floppy bunny ears stuck atop Snowbunny's head. She watched as they swayed back and forth as Snow awkwardly shuffled around. Fae turned to Merlin with a smile plastered on her face, which was vastly different to the cold treatment he had gotten when he first joined.

"Ghost, where'd you find this one? She's cute." Fae winked at Snow before walking out from behind the counter. "I'm assuming these two are both with you, so follow me."

"Ghost?" Typhoeus asked Merlin with a curious gaze.

"Don't ask." Merlin shook his head and followed Fae to the cellar as usual. He only just realised now that he didn't know her name before now, and that he still doesn't know her father's name.

Snowbunny's face had turned bright pink, but she also followed along with the rest of the group. A secret door within the cellar opened up, revealing a large underground gambling ring.

Several members sitting around at the gambling tables noticed the new faces, and their eyes shifted with caution. An elf who was sitting at the furthest end of the room stood up from his chair and made his way over to the group, weaving through the sea of tables and chairs that parted for him when he grew near.

"Friends of Merlin, welcome to our humble abode." The eccentric elf welcomed them, "Would you care to join us for a drink, or would you prefer to skip the alcohol and get straight to business like our mutual friend here?"

"A drink sounds nice." Typhoeus answered before slowly walking towards the elf. Snowbunny declined the drink, opting for getting straight to business.

"And you, my friend?" The elf turned to Merlin with a grin on his face. "A drink with friends?"

"Still a no unfortunately, but I've got more information for you so I'll tag along." Merlin explained as followed the elf back towards the bar at the back of the room. As he left Snowbunny behind, he overheard Fae ask her what apple bottom jeans were.

The three sat at the bar in a straight line, and the bartender poured two of them a drink, with Merlin signalling that he didn't want any. The thieves guild leader clinked his glass with Typhoeus and took a sip of his liquor before turning to face Merlin.

"Now, what was this information you were talking about?" He asked, it hadn't been long since he left after dropping off the diary. He didn't expect another bomb but he considered Merlin to be extremely competent, so he was still hopeful that it would be useful.

"Well, before I say anything, do you have any counters for scrying? I've got a stalker of sorts." Merlin asked, hopeful that there was something he could do.

"Who do you think we are?" The elf let out a little chuckle before explaining the rest. "This entire base is lined with lead, there are very few places in this complex that observation or tracking magic can reach. It's how we've retained our status as a secret organisation for such a long time."

"But if that doesn't calm you, then there are very few people in this town whose scrying orbs I cannot detect." He continued tooting his own horn.

"Does that include the snake lady?" Merlin was a little hesitant to ask this, but he had to be sure. Fortunately he received a nod in return, but it didn't seem as though he appreciated Merlin bringing her up again.

"Well, I guess I need to give a little bit of backstory." Merlin began explaining the situation that occurred with the voices he heard around the city, and that he entered the oracle's compound to talk with her.

He began bringing up the general idea of the back and forth they had, where the murder charge was just an attempt to blackmail him, but she seemed to have given up and chose to just give him the quest normally. With the context out of the way, he leaned in and began whispering the rest, the elf leaned in somewhat too.

"I don't believe we're dealing with a demon that has infested your wife, that's why you couldn't find any mention of it in the scriptures." Merlin began explaining in hushed whispers. "Rather I believe the snake that is always around her neck is some kind of parasitic creature. The snake is the cause of all of this."

Merlin explained his reasoning why he believed the parasite hypothesis to be correct, and this included how the snake was stationary while everything else was happening. He specifically mentioned that the snake was mostly still while all the slaves were moving, and that it seemed to require a lot of concentration to micromanage all of the victims. His biggest point supporting this was that when the snake received a minor disturbance, something that would make it flinch, it lost concentration over its puppets, causing them to immediately lose all bodily functions, like they were actually puppets that just had their strings cut.

"It didn't rebind them right away while they were unconscious in the other room, so there's probably a requirement that it must make physical contact to reconnect with its victims." Merlin thought out loud, "The connection being interrupted with Cecelia's body caused her to pause momentarily, but the parasite quickly regained control. Since it probably considers her the main host, it's likely to not to leave her neck, just in case it needs to reconnect with her immediately."

"Those are my thoughts and observations anyway. I believe that rather than a powerful demon's soul manipulation curse, it seems to just be some kind of puppeteers curse used by an intelligent parasitic creature." Merlin finished talking, leaving the elf with a strange sense of optimism.

Merlin watched as the thieves guild leader's expression slowly shifted into a smile as he finished listening to Merlin's story, and by the end of it he seemed hopeful.