Chapter 37: Chapter 36: A Mage begins her investigations.

Holding a pass given to her by Beryl, out in plain view, Alexia was walking to the other side of the city where the shipping district was. The city was still on lockdown, and she passed several patrolling groups who demanded to see her pass. However they quickly let her go, after seeing who wrote the pass. Despite the eeriness of the empty streets, she was glad to be out of Stolen Hearts.

Alexia didn't know what it was about Megan that made her so crazy. The moment when she saw the raven haired beauty she was lost. Never before had she fallen this hard or quick for someone before, though she worried it was just her lust tricking her. Whatever the reason, she enjoyed being around Megan, until however her mother came.

Her mother looked vaguely similar to Megan, unfortunately both of their personalities seemed similar as well. They both started arguing with one another the moment Helen, Megan's mother stepped into the club. For several hours they simply bickered and yelled at one another, only to take time off to catch their breaths.

Alexia had wanted to stay and support her lover, but it was emotionally taxing being near the both of them. So when Beryl had come over this morning with a pass, she saw an opportunity to take a break from this feud. She was going to take a look for more information about the murder she discovered in the sewers.

Yesterday, Alexia discovered that Megan had an old contact with the thieves guild from her adventuring days. With a note from Megan, and some general directions she set off to the shipping district. Most of the building's were little more than warehouses for goods brought from the river docks. However interspersed through them were food stalls and the occasional tavern.

Stopping at one such tavern, Alexia checked her directions making sure this was the one. Run down, the tavern looked as if it was built out of old ship wood. Above the door to the tavern was Beer painted in white, that was flaking off. Finding the door was unlocked she entered into the darkly lit, empty tavern.

Looking around, most of the tables had their chairs on top of them. Alexia then spotted a man currently in the process of mopping the floors near the back.  Hearing her enter the tavern he looked up and said "Miss, we currently are not open"

Alexia said "I'm looking for Louis. Is he here?"

He said "That depends, who are you?"

"Alexia, I'm a friend of Megan Erathean, she said I would be able to find him here.  She wrote a note for him." Alexia said, holding out the note for him.

Nodding, he said "Alright, I'll take the note and give it to him. Wait right here, I'll see if he wants to speak with you." Taking the note he headed down a hall. 

While she was waiting she took a look around the bar. Above the counter, she discovered a huge fish head was hung. It was massive, and had huge razor teeth. Vowing she would never set sail on the ocean, she heard the man coming back.

"He will see you, please follow me." The man said.

Following down the dark hallway, she was led to a small office. A small man greeted her, and closed the door after she entered and made his way back to his chair. He was thin almost skeletal, and after quickly examining him, discovered he was a halfling.  "So you are Alexia?"

Nodding Alexia asked "So you are Louis?"

"Yes, that's my name, so Megan asks me to help you out? Been a while since I last worked with her. Took her to the Isles of the damned, before ol betsy, my ship ran aground. Used her remains to build this tavern." Louis said, patting the wooden walls.

Alexia said "Yeah, she said you could get in contact with the thieves guild."

"Perhaps, depends on what you want with them. Need something stolen girl?"  Louis said looking critically at her.

Shaking her head, "Actually I was on a mission down in the sewers, when I discovered a body. From what he was carrying, and his attire, I believe he was a thief. My god has taken an interest in this and asked me to look into his death."

"Bad news when god's take an interest in anything. Do you think it's related to what's going on with the lockdown?" Louis said.

Alexia said "No, I think it's something else. I discovered this on his body."  Pulling out the strange token, she handed it to Louis.

Taking it, he took a look over it and frowned. "I don't like the look of that marking. Feels magical, almost raw magic must have carved it." He handed it back, seemingly not wanting to hold it any longer then he had to.

Placing it back into her inventory, Alexia said "I found a similar marking carved onto a wall, near where he was dumped down the sewer."

"Great, sounds like more trouble for the city. Anything else you can tell me about this thief?"  Louis asked.

Alexia nodded and said "He was wearing a cloak, it's called a cloak of shadow boosting a person's stealth. Can't imagine many thieves would have the means to purchase something like it."

Louis thought for a moment, and said "Your right. In fact I only know of one thief who uses a cloak like that. His name was Adaka.  Haven't seen him for a while, last time I saw him, he was apparently celebrating a huge take."

"Do you know what job he had taken?" Alexia said.

Louis said "No, Adaka only took on private jobs. Thought he was the hot shit or something, too good for the thieves guild. It must have been a big job however, with the amount of supply's he bought, hell he even bought a warehouse."

"What supplies did he get? Do you know where this warehouse is?" Alexia said.

Pulling a book off the shelf next to him, Louis took a look at some notes he had written and said "He purchased several wagons and the horses to pull them.  He had them reinforced to carry heavy weight. He also bought high quality gear that's able to bust open even the hardest safe. He even purchased several magic nullifier suits."

"What's a Magic Nullifier suit?" Alexia said.

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Louis said "Some places in the world have an immense amount of magic, it's not safe to be in for long. Makes them ideal places to hide treasure. A magic nullifier suit allows you to go in those places for a longer amount of time. Still dangerous though."

"I see, and this warehouse?" Alexia said.

Taking a piece of paper, he drew a simple map and wrote some directions. "He didn't have many choices, so he purchased an old warehouse near the slums." He handed the map to Alexia.

"Thank you Louis." Alexia said.

Louis smiled and said "No problem. While Adaka was a piece of shit, he still was technically a member of our guild. We don't appreciate it when our members are killed. You find out who did this and why, you let me know, and will get this sorted out."

Leaving the tavern, she began to follow the directions given to her by Louis.  As she approached the slums, the warehouses were growing more worn down and rotted. The warehouse the directions indicated looked abandoned, the broken windows were all boarded by rotting boards. On the door to the inside of the warehouse, was a heavy padlock.

Making sure there were no patrolling guards or anyone else nearby, she took aim at the padlock and carefully began to pelt it with Firebolts. After a few shots, and luckily no catching fire, she broke the padlock apart. Pulling the door open she stepped inside and closed it behind her.  From the faint daylight passing through the boarded windows, she could make out several objects in the center of the warehouse covered in tarps.

Besides those objects, alongside one of the walls were some wagons that looked to be in rough condition.  Taking a closer look, she found they had arrows, and burn marks on each. One of the wagons was covered in blood, and flies were buzzing around it.  

The rest of the warehouse was covered in a thick layer of dust.  From the footprints in the dust, it looked as if several people had been through here recently.  Alexia could tell whatever was under the tarps looked as if they came from the wagons.  

Walking up to one of them, she pulled off the tarp and was confronted with the sight of a large metal device.  Not able to identify the metal, it had a strange sheen to it, as if it was covered in oil. Touching it, Alexia found it was strangely warm to the touch, and had a faint magical current through it.

On the back of it, a large metal panel had been pried off, with trouble apparently as several broken tools were scattered around it. Inside held several empty vials, however it looked like three of the vials were missing from the device. With the panel off, she could feel strong magical energy within the device.

Alexia had never seen anything like these things before, and could only assume Adaka must have found them in a lost treasure trove of the Sevaris kingdom. Especially after she saw the runes alongside it. She had only seen similar runes off one old coin her brother had brought home. He said it was an old Sevaris coin, and the markings on it were similar to the ones on this device.

Tracing them with her finger, she could feel them responding to the mana within her. Taking the chance, she poured a bit of mana into them. The device shuddered, making Alexia step back worried.  A large panel slid aside and a strange bed could be seen within. Tilted at thirty degrees, it did not look like something you would sleep on.

Pulling off the tarps of the other machines, she found each one had been worked on, and had the panel removed, except for the last one. On the last one were several broken tools, it looked as if they had run out of tools they could use to pry off the panel.  The ones that had the panel removed had missing vials as well.

Taking a look at the remaining panel, she traced along it's edge and felt she could open it by using her mana.  Doing so she was greeted by a full set of those vials, each having a distinct and strange color. Tracing the connections to each vial, it seemed each led to the compartment to where the person would lay inside.

Using examine on the vials, she found the results were confusing, containing a gibberish of letters and numbers. Perhaps, whoever had hired Adaka were less then pleased with the amount of vials he delivered, and killed him because of it. Or perhaps Adaka found they were more valuable and attempted to find another buyer?

While she was examining the device, she received a message from Jack. A little surprised, she answered "Hello Jack?"

"Hi Alexia, I'm just checking in to see how you are doing as my User."  Jack said.

A little confused she said "I'm doing well, thank you for sending me a contract."

"Good, In a few days I will be going on an expedition, I was wondering if you would be interested in going along with me. It will be to a lost city of Sevaris, since they were magically advanced, I think it would be a good opportunity for a mage such as yourself." Jack said.

"That does sound interesting, I would be honored. Would you also be inviting Megan?" Alexia asked.

"I am, however she seems really busy at the moment, I would appreciate it, if you could let her know. I will get back to you on the exact time of the expedition." Jack said.

Taking a look at the device Alexia said "Thank you Jack. Do you know what this device is?"

"How curious, I'm not sure what it is, it seems to be a very powerful magical artifact.  I can make some deductions based on what I can see, but I'm not sure of the full potential of this device. I would need to find more information about Sevaris to make more judgments." Jack said.

"However, I can make a suggestion, this is just a suggestion, it is up to you whether you take it or not.  If you do take it be aware that it will be unpleasant, but you would get a boost in power. Using that control panel, select the fourth Vial, and lie down inside the pod naked. From there is as far as I can guess, the rest would be up to you. Though make sure not to use the other vials on yourself, I can't tell what will happen, but the fourth vial is good for you."

Alexia said after a moment "Okay thank you Jack."

"Gotta go, talk to you later." Jack said.

Alexia took a look at the fourth vial, inside was a deep red liquid. She was considering whether it would be a smart idea to mess around with an ancient device she knew nothing about.

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