Ever The Contrarian

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

As they entered the seedy tavern, conversation erupted around them. It was noisy. Mercury smiled. Oh, how she had missed this. Just like a pub back home. and, also, she loved chaos, and this was pretty much the epitome of it. Sure enough, Nox walked immediately up to the font, where an old, worn-and-torn dude was standing. Mercury beamed at his peg hand. "Nice hand!" she said, and the shopkeeper raised an eyebrow at her. I think that was a new one for him. lol, but she is pretty amusing. "Thank you, Miss. Now, Nox, it's good to see you again. What do you need?" 

OOH! a friend of Nox's! Mercury beamed even brighter. "A source. If we could buy a deluxe package to have information delivered to us once every day, about whats going on and anything we want to know about." Nox said, and the shopkeeper grabbed a large bottle of whiskey off the shelf and poured himself a glass (Mercury couldn't even fathom how he managed to do so with just one hand). what does that alcohol have to do with what Nox asked for, though?? "You'll have to pay." the shopkeeper said, and Nox took a heavy sack of coins out of his cloak. ah, yes, just flex on him. Lol. "We can pay. Just give us the information." 

~~~ 

Mercury looked at the packet in her hand. a vanilla envelope with multiple pieces of paper in it. "Good?" Nox asked, and Mercury nodded. what good friends she had. that had been fast. Suddenly, Nox whipped his head around to stare behind them, at a table of drunkards. He had heard something. "huh?" Iodine, who was walking a little ahead of them while going through her packet. Mercury could hear what they were talking about. "uh-huh, and a few of the elves, 700 maybe, survived and hid underground. The Guild of Ulteron found them." Mercury's mind momentary stopped working. "Elves? Aren't they dead?" asked another, swishing his drink in its glass before popping a chip into his mouth. see, dude, thats what I what to know. I thought the elves were dead too! I cant do any more of this "are the elves dead, are the elves alive" or I'm going to explode. Mercury walked up to them and brazenly sat down at the table. Yeah! show em, gal!!! "You remember me, right?" she said. Nice. Going storng, Mercury. Then this would be easier. "Heyyy, you're Alice's niece, right?" one of them said, and Mercury nodded. no idea who Alice was, but oh well. Thanks, Alice! I hope you have a good day, wherever you are. "The last time I saw you, you were about this tall." the drunkard said, lowering his hand to gesture about Flourine's age. aww, cute. Shes not your niece tho, dude. "It's good to see you again, uncle. But can you tell me more about the elves? Aunt Alice never said anything about them." Mercury said, pretending to look sad. lol, what a actress. Mercury! you were born in the wrong year! if you were born in the 2000's, you would have gotten a few grammy's at least!! (Tsk tsk, such a waste of talent.) Her conscience was picking at her a little bit, but overall it was fine. I mean, its fine "Oh, Alice. Don't worry, my lovely niece. Alice can be like that sometimes." the drunkard sighed, and another one burst out laughing. "Oh, yes, Alice! the monster! Pity whoever ends up with her!" Another one interjected, "What do you mean, sometimes? Alice is always a piece of work, and she always has been!"

"About the elves?" Mercury asked, steering the conversation back on track. "Oh, yes. apparently, a few survived. I can't tell you anymore, honey." the drunkard said, and Mercury pulled out her badge, holding up the crest of Ulteron. "Please, uncle, tell me more," she said, and the drunkard chuckled. He was unboudtedly part of the guid too. It was risky to flash her badge like that, but Mercury prayed for the best. "Ohoho! Dear niece, welcome to the club! did you recently join?" the drunkard said, and Mercury steeled her inner patience.She didnt have much of it in the first place. She was getting closer, but boy oh boy was it hard to constantly steer the conversation. "Yes, but-" Suddenly, she was cut off. "The guild recently found the ones that survived, and they were sold to slavers. Around this time, they should be on the Meso Ocean. About halfway there." the drunkard said, taking another big chug of alcohol. a pebble hit the back of her head, and she turned around to see Nox, who was desperately gesturing for them to go. Ah, Mercury internally sighed. "Oops, Uncle, Aunt Alice is calling me. It was nice seeing you again!" Mercury fibbed, getting up. "Bye, my dear niece~!" the drunkard called from behind her, and Mercury dashed up to Nox. Yes! free of those weird dudes! Run away from them, dude! "I heard. Do you think…?" Nox said, lost in thought, and Mercury snapped a finger in front of his eyes. Dont zone off, dude! Eyes on the road! "It doesn't matter whether they are or not. We're going to go to Meso port to see if it's true." Mercury said, and Nox started at her. "No, I can't do that to you all. You have enough on your plate as it is." Nox said, running a hand through his hair. "Shush. Nonsense. I want to meet the elves too, and also, you are more important to me than the war." Mercury said, and Iodine joined. After filling her in, Iodine and Mercury both clapped Nox on the back at the same time. "We're going to Meso Port!" They both said, and Nox sighed loudly. "Thanks, guys…" 

One hour later, there they stood : Meso Port. "Ugh! The air is so salty!" Mercury said retching. "Tell me about it. Anyway, here we are - Meso port. It's good we got those scrolls from Mags, or it would have taken a week for us to get here." Iodine said, hefting three more scrolls into her backpack (for the journey back). Nox had been silent the entire journey there. "Uh, Nox? Nervous?" Mercury asked, and Nox nodded. "Welp, whatever. I like you, so I'm sure everyone else will too." Mercury dismissed, and Nox heaved an even bigger sigh. ????? did that not help???? "anyway, we'd better get going. We'll probably have to look through most of the town to find this "slave auction". Also, we're so lucky that we still have funds left over from those monster hides. Currently, we have about 10 million left, so that should at least be enough to crash the slave auction if nothing works out." Mercury said, and Iodine sighed. "Uh-huh. what's the plan?" Iodine asked, and Mercury grinned. "Obviously, we're going to pretend to be slaves." 

Obvious? Mercury, it's not very obvious. Oh well. Eat your own medicine, Iodine. 

"So! here we are. I don't remember these being so itchy the last time I was here." Mercury muttered to herself, now standing in a peasant's tattered clothes. It was dry and scratchy, and Mercury could almost feel the rashes on her skin. Ewww, how do people wear this? 

Suddenly, a hand grabbed Mercury's wrist. She whirled around. OH NO. A man, slightly older than her (by like 3 years maybe??) was standing in front of her in a suit. "Mercury. I knew I'd see you again eventually. Did you escape the orphanage?" he snarled, and Mercury's blood chilled. Misunderstandings? "Oh, no. I got out of the orphanage by getting a job and buying my cottage. Let go." Mercury hissed, trying to jerk her arm away. No luck. "Bought? an orphan like you? From where? did you steal money?" she snarled, hand still tight on her wrist. "No! I swear, I didnt. I got a job at the peach plantation back home, remember?" Mercury screamed, and he dragged her closer until their faces almost met. "Worked? Yeah. Right. You worked. my parents were always comparing me to you. Look at that Orphan, they said. You should be like that, they said." He hissed, and Mercury blinked. "Oh, Hey, You're that gangster kid who used to bully me." Uh-huh, it was clicking in now. And, of course, if you had a kid like that, then it was only right that you'd be disappointed in them. "Let me guess. Your parents left their fortune to you?" Mercury scoffed, finally grabbing her sword out of her belt and brandishing it. The gangster kid instantly let go. "They did." 

"So you become a slave trader? you son of a-" Mercury roused, poking him with the tip of her blade. "Hey! No! I didn't have a choice! And it's not like I wanted to, anyway!" The gangster kid said, rubbing his shoulder, and Mercury sighed into her hand. what a holy mess. "What's your name, anyway?" she asked, and he replied, "Sulfur." 

"WELL WHADDYA MEAN, YOU DIDN'T WANT TO!!!" Mercury screeched, and Sulfur reached forward to cover his ears. "Chill. Anyway, why are you here? did you come crawling back after they threw you out?" he asked, and Mercury shook her head. "Nope. But before I tell you, you have to answer me honestly. Do you not want to be a slave trader?" 

"Of course not! I've been sneaking slaves out into our town for a few years now. I can't help them all, however." Sulfur scoffed, adjusting the sleeves of his suit. "Huh. Okay, then, I need you to help me with something. About 700 slaves, and no one was willing to tell you who they were or where they came from. Also, this crest. Recognize it?" Mercury asked, and Sulfur squinted at her Guild Crest. "Of course I do. They smuggled 700 people in here yesterday, like you said. Told us to keep our mouths shut, which only made a few people more curious. It's not my business, though. What do you have to do with them?" Sulfur asked, and Mercury smiled. "10 million gold. Half of it now, half when we finish. We need to break them out."