I am in shock.

Gone? The pleasant Owl? My brain has a hard time processing what Craig just said.

“Wait, hang on.” I say confused. “What are you saying?”

“It appears that while we were on our journey to Merton, Fabe found out about Emma and Oliver working at the pleasant Owl.” Leonora explains. “Mia mentioned something about there being bad blood between them. The first time he went to the Pleasant Owl to challenge them, there were some adventurers from the Singing Bluejay guild present. They made sure to let Fabe know he wasn’t welcome there and he was **** to leave.”

Amelia, who I’m sure is quite nervous from hearing this news, comes close and hugs my arm for comfort. “Thank the goddess the Singing Bluejay people were there. Fabe may only be an E rank, but he already had a habit of beating Oliver up before he got his adventurer rank. I don’t want to imagine what could have happened if there was nobody there to help them.”

“Not only that, but knowing Fabe has found them, they then asked the adventurers to walk them home. Can’t be too careful in a city with people like Fabe around.” Leonora continues. That was smart of Oliver to do. From what I heard from Cal, Fabe is in a criminal gang now. Even if his guild mates are E and D ranks, all they really need is a rogue to sneak up on them and Oliver could be a goner.

“Wait.” I say as I realize something. “What if Fabe has a friend following them as they go home. Then Fabe would know where they and his uncle live.”

“Not quite.” Craig speaks up. “It turns out that Emma worried about that as well and asked the guild leader of the Gryphon Knights if they could spend time in Mia’s room until she got back. That is not a thing that we usually do, so I can’t image our guild leader agreeing to it right away. I am guessing he approved because Mia had already introduced her sister to him and her room was empty anyways.”

“I see. So, every day adventurers walked Emma and Oliver from the Gryphon Knights guild to the Pleasant Owl and back. Alright, that sounds pretty good.”

“Our guess is that Fabe got so frustrated at not being able to get close to them, that he decided to put the Pleasant Owl on fire after closing hours.” Leonora continues. “The old couple was able to get out on time, but the inn couldn’t be saved.”

Damn that Fabe. What kind of monster has he turned into? I get that his feud with Emma and Oliver makes him go after them. But now he went after the poor old couple owning the inn simply because they gave a job to people he doesn’t like.

“Fabe has gone too far.” I say. “He is like a wild animal now. Lashing out at everything around him. He needs to be stopped before he hurts anyone else.”

“I agree." Leonora answers. "And so does Mia. She has been organizing a hunt for him. She asked rogues from our guild if they would be willing to figure out which guild Fabe is now with and where their guildhall is.”

“The Blue Legion and the Singing Bluejay guilds frequented the Pleasant Owl as well, so she requested them to help out too.” Craig continued from his girlfriend. “Their guild leaders said something about needing to go through the proper channels and offering the job as a request, but a good couple of their guild members offered to take the job up for free.”

I have a hard time believing how many people Mia found that were willing to go after Fabe. I guess it’s mostly Fabe’s fault to go after a beloved inn. But still, it’s amazing how Mia was able to set all of this up in such a short time.

“Wait, hang on.” Amelia interrupts. “How come Mia asked so many people to help her, but left us out? We are friends of Oliver too, you know.”

“Actually, the two of you were the first ones Mia told us to go after.” Craig says. “She knew you would agree to go after him.” Then Leonora takes over and says, “But you guys were not in your guildhall and we didn’t know where you guys were, so we figured it would be best for us to wait until you showed up. Not our fault you guys made us wait so long.”

That’s right, we’ve spent most of our day at the church and the castle. And I’m pretty sure it is probably for the best if I don’t tell them the queen had me wake up a devil. I just tell them that we were busy with several things.

I ask Leonora and Craig to take us to Mia so we can let her know she can count on us. They walk with us to an inn not too far from where the Pleasant Owl used to be. We actually have to walk past the burned out remains. It is difficult to see only ashes and charred and broken wooden beams where our favorite inn used to be.

When we get to the inn Mia is planning her **** on Fabe, I notice she is at a table with a map of the city in front of her. Surrounding her are other adventurers, telling her things they discovered, causing Mia to place small rocks on the map. The rocks seem to concentrate around a spot in the northern area of the city.

“Hey, Mia.” I say, announcing my presence. “Sorry for being late. I only heard about the Pleasant Owl a short time ago.”

“About time you got here.” Mia replies frustrated. “I had to organize practically everything by myself here.”

“If we had known earlier we would have also been here earlier. You know that.” Amelia answers.

Mia shakes her head and sighs. “You're right, I'm sorry. I've just been organizing this raid all day long. It has taken a toll on me. But we're making progress.” She then points with her finger at all the rocks on the map. “Adventurers have been going into the city asking people if they have seen Fabe. Each rock represents a spot where Fabe has been sighted.”

“And this spot with a most of the rocks is where his guildhall is?” I ask.

“That is the presumption.” Mia answers. “We don’t have confirmation of any guildhall because that region of the city doesn’t quite do guildhalls like the other guilds do.”

“Why not?” I ask.

“That’s because it’s the northern part of Riledo.” Kiara interjects. “Didn’t I tell you how the city is divided during the month you spent in the castle?”

“Uuuhh, it’s been a while. You’re going to have to remind me.” I say.

“Alright then. Listen closely.” Kiara says and starts pointing at the part of the map closest to Mia. “Down here is the southern part of the city. It is the commercial district. The place where the alchemist guild and crafters guild are both located. Whenever a market is organized, this is where it will be. This is where Midnight Dawn and their allied guilds are in charge.”

Then Kiara’s hand goes to the eastern part. “This part of the city is where many nobles and the wealthiest merchants. This is where Oblivion rules, together with the minor guilds that allied with them.”

Next she points with her hand to the western part. “And here is the residential area. That’s not to say there aren’t shops, smiths or inns here. The ones in the commercial district are just bigger. It is just that this part where the majority of the middle class lives. Thanks to Aelbrecht’s projects, it is also the part of the city that has the most and best equipped schools. As you can guess, this is Dark Dragon territory.”

Finally, Kiara moves her hand to the top part of the map. “The northern part is where the harbor is. Unfortunately, since it doesn’t have one strong guild to keep the smaller guilds in line, there is a constant fight among the smaller guilds for territory. All this infighting has kept the region from developing, so it is the poorest part of the city.”

“Doesn’t that work in our favor?” Mia asks. “All we have to do is figure out which guild Fabe is with and the others will let us take it out.”

“It’s not that simple.” Kiara says. “Due to all the infighting in this part, the royal guard has pretty much pulled out of it. It is a lawless region where people who want to do illegal things flock to. Often times, these are low level adventurers who believe they got cheated out of a higher rank and hold a grudge. When well quipped higher level adventurers like us go there, and we get identified, there is a good chance that adventurers who are unrelated to Fabe’s guild will set up an ambush for us. To kill us, steal our weapons and artifacts, and just like that, they’ve got some expensive gear that would normally take them years to get.”

“I see.” Mia replies. “So, if we go in, we will have to try to be inconspicuous. Like wearing robes or something so we don’t stand out?”

“We better also go in small groups.” One of the other adventurers says. “If we go in a big group, we’ll be noticed and they will flee into the sewers.”

“We should not go alone either.” Kiara adds. “And above all, we need to go tonight.”

Mia cocks her head and asks, “Why tonight?”

“You’ve just sent a large group of people into the northern part, all asking about 1 guy. If just 1 of the people asked about Fabe’s whereabouts is one of his guild members, he should have been informed about it already. If his guild knows you are looking for him, tonight will be the night they clear out their guildhall and then we lose them.”

“Shit.” Mia curses. “Yeah, we will have to do it tonight. So, how do you suggest we do this?”