An easy job ( Eilidh Canmore POV)

"It was supposed to be an easy job", you mumble to yourself.

Get in, stuff the prepared memory stick in the stand-alone computer, let it do its job, retrieve it and get out again. And get a nice fat credstick in return. It was even certified so you wouldn’t have to blow a part of the shards you earned to get it certified. Your fixer made sound so easy...

"Everybody loves certified credsticks" flashed through your mind unwanted " because they are untraceable. At least the trace stops at the certifying agent. Everybody knows they are corporate DAs but everybody also knows they are vital to the DA ecology so everybody conveniently ignores their existence".

"Laitelena!" The stars be praised that you took that extra curriculum about shield spells at the Elf Waking Ground before heading out to the megacities. Without it, you doubt you would have made out in one piece.

It was a small research firm, even small for mini-corps standards, so you didn’t expect much in terms of security. Your fixer even got an advance so he got you some eyes-in-the-sky and thanks to that the entrance went smoothly. All you had to do was watch the bracelet your fixer gave you … green means all clear so you could walk right in …but while you waited for the stick to do its thing the color of the bracelet started to change color and eventually turned red. You didn’t know what was happening outside but one thing was sure it wasn’t good. You might have a welcoming party waiting outside. Suddenly the stick stopped flickering, signaling it did what it was meant to do. After you retrieved the stick you prepared some shield spells. Better safe than sorry, right?

But when you went for the exit of the small compound you ran into some heat. Literally. Someone was waiting for you to exit and threw a fireball at you as soon as you cleared the building. Luckily your shields took most of the hit but you still felt the heat. But your shields held and following fireballs even bounced off your shields back in the direction of the caster, giving you the break you needed to make your escape to the street of the fourth ring. But you didn’t stop until you cleared the accommodation ring and entered what some call the service ring. where you find amongst others craftsmen and artisans. At the border with the agricultural ring, you had a hideout where you could lay low for the night.

As you enter your hideout you find a message in your dropbox using your fixer's code. It contained two words “Vale”, “Emma” and some coordinates. Making quick calculations it should be somewhere in the mountains at the edge of the Mega-City 1 region. Probably an autark settlement. Also in your dropbox is a small credstick. Although you always keep a stash of certified credsticks as a contingency plan you do appreciate the gesture.
Now you are in a safe place you can start breathing easy again. You start reviewing what happens in your mind. Fireball is a tier two spell so he, you assume it is a he, must be at least a level two magick-user. Besides a fireball spell is advanced fire magick. So why would such a small research firm have that kind of muscle in the house? You better take the hint and make your way to Vale because something isn’t right about this. But for now you need some rest. And tomorrow ... move out to Vale.

And so a few days later you find yourself walking up the mountain to the homestead, pretending to be a hiker who is looking for a place to get away from the hectic of the megacities.
Emma seemed to be the owner of the local pub in Vale that doubled as Grid shop, a place where people from the neighborhood can order things using shards usually from a company in the megacities.
And she also acts as a kind of tourist office for the neighborhood so she gave you directions to the homestead with guest chambers when you explained you want to take it easy for a while.