Chapter 2- Rin

I'm sitting in the main part of the tavern with my twin Remoraf. Rem and I are what you call Synthetics. Humanoids who have been given enough parts from warforge automatons that we're more biomechanical instead of live-tissue. On one hand that's great because we've been cleared to use a decent amount of magic with enhanced abilities, the down-side is that we constantly have to fake things like eating and drinking.

Rem usually wears his cybernetic mask with a black hoodie and dark cargo pants over his light skin and black hair. I myself am wearing a studded leather vest with bullet reinforcements, black cargo shorts and leather fingerless gloves. I also have light skin tones however I have white hair despite us only being 216 human years old. Miles doesn't realize it yet but while I'm technically a Blood Hunter, I'm registered as a Ranger with a Hunter License. Do I plan on telling him? Not a chance.

Now the Leaking Tavern is a nice place don't get me wrong, but it's also the hub for back-door deals and black-market items making it less than enjoyable when someone gets pissed off. It just so happened this afternoon that I picked up someone's conversation at another table saying the Red League was heading north to Frostwind Dale in hopes of fortifying a castle. I didn't dare turn around lest they find out about the eavesdropping.

"Two half-orc males, 34 and 29, both are 6ft tall, armed with a spear, bow, 3 daggers and a full quiver each," whispered Rem.

"Look Nala, Red League is paying us good money to get them through the pass to Frostwind Dale. So shut up before a Blood Hunter hears us!" one of the orcs said.

With a nod to Rem, I got up and went to our room. With a piece of paper I filled out a note and gave it to my familiar, a metal falcon and opened the window. Our room is on the third floor facing an alleyway, so there is no need for me to worry about curious onlookers. Satisfied that my familiar is going clearly to a destination, Miles… hopefully; I go back down to the tavern level.

"That was quick," says Rem, "I thought for sure you'd jump and find him yourself."

"Oh haha," I say, kicking him under the table.

"Oof"

While we wait for Miles to get back soon, we spend time eavesdropping on other patrons of the tavern.

"Captain Riley Beauguard should be…" a person says.

"You know this is the best place around," an elf says.

Eventually the two half-orcs get up from their table and leave quite quickly like they had somewhere else to be. It didn't matter to us much, we knew where they were headed and at this hour the gates would be locked for the night. Just as they open the door to leave a familiar shadow-marked elf walks in.

"Oh, go ahead I'm in no rush," Miles says as he stands aside with a few bags of items.

The two half-orcs look at each other then start running through the door into the streets. Miles looks at us,

"Should we deal with that?" as he plops the bags of items on the table.

"No point," Rem whispers, "Get ready to leave early, it seems we're headed to the land of ice and snow."

"Alright then, makes sense. Anyways we've got more rope, some fresh travel rations, a new whetstone, some more arrows and of course those bullets you wanted."

"Thank-you Miles, I'm glad you could find all that before the shops closed," I say grabbing a couple bags, "lets go get ready for tomorrow"

Rem and I get up and we all head to the room and pack up our gear. All three of us have enchanted bags that hold more than you'd normally expect and it only weighs about 15lbs. Perfect for moving quickly on foot with a lot of gear. Especially since ammunition for our firearms is quite heavy, having that weight disappear is absolutely necessary. It doesn't help that bows and crossbows are still the main range weapons making bullets that much more expensive as well.

"I'll take first watch!" Rem says as he puts his last item away.

"Fair enough don't overdo it though we got a long hike tomorrow."

With that we blow out the candles and sleep till the morrow.