Druuna and Janette get their assignment

After getting dressed and giving Allen a tender kiss goodbye, Druuna left the guard station behind and hurried back to the guild hall.

Meeting up with Janette just outside of the entrance to the Finders Guild, Druuna gave a suitably vague answer to Janette’s question on how she had spent her morning while the two made their way to meet Ezra, who was awaiting them at exactly the same spot as where Druuna had last seen him.

“Ah, you’re here!” The wrinkled old Junior Grandmaster stated the obvious before lowering his voice and carrying on: “I’ve got a discrete little job for you two.”

“You do?” Druuna did her best to keep her voice free from sarcasm, and if she had failed then at least Ezra didn’t seem to notice it.

“Yes,” the Junior Grandmaster went on, “it’s a tricky one too, and I wouldn’t normally offer it to two such new members, but since you showed such forte in getting through the Westwood Mall, I can think of no better candidate.”

“Enough with the flattery, Ezra” Druuna crossed her arms, “What’s the job, and what’s the pay?”

Ezra didn’t speak for a few seconds, and was noticeably insulted by Druuna’s brashness, but then began to tell her and Janette about the job: “There’s a complex of big old buildings located about three days northwest of here, up in the hilly areas. I don’t know what it was that they were used for, but rumour has it that there are thousands of books there.”

Druuna, who handled the talking while Janette listened and learned, interrupted Ezra to ask “And what’s the catch?”, again causing Ezra to look irritated.

“I was just getting to that,” the old man claimed, “the problem is that a band of raiders have made one of the buildings their base, which means that any exploration will probably be a bit on the risky side.”

Now, Ezra went quiet, and immediately Druuna provoked him to sigh by asking; “So what are we supposed to do, make an inventory of the books while hoping that the men with guns and cruel intentions don’t notice us?”

“No,” Ezra replied, “but there’s bound to be some sort of indexing system, get hold of that and look around so you get an idea of how many of the books which contain knowledge that we can use.”

“And the pay?” Druuna asked.

“Apart from the warm feeling of helping your community?” Ezra tried, but the silence that Druuna responded to it with was enough to make him blurt out, “three thousand each.”

“I thought you said that we were the only ones who get the job done.” Druuna countered, “seven thousand each.”

“No,” Ezra protested, “I said that you were suited for it. There’s a difference. Five thousand caps, each.”

“Five thousand and five hundred.” Druuna coolly demanded.

“Deal,” Ezra finished the negotiation, faking disappointment at being **** to pay such a princely sum while actually laughing on the inside at getting away with such a relatively low sum of caps.