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"Gah! Stop doing that, you'll give me a heart attack." Jace nearly tipped over as Melissa lowered herself before him.

"But watching you jump is just sooooo fun." She said, mocking Jace as sge straightened herself on her thread.

"Come now, Melissa, stop pestering the boy, he's stressed enough as it is. Don't worry Embers, you're safe. You're in the basement because the guards are trashing the top rooms with the brawl that broke out, and you're in chains so we can have a chance to talk to you before you do something rash. Now, I just want to say, I you try and run for it, either Melissa or I could peg you to the ground inside of three steps. I'm going to unlock your manacles now as a show of good faith, but please don't try to run."

The road runner spoke with a clipped, educated accent, the kind of voice Jace always associated with snotty rich lords, and his prim and porper manner enforced the image.

The first thing Jace did was rub his eyes so he could see clearly. The poisons effects lessened every second as he slowly woke up.

"So what do you guys want from me? I was asked to stop something illegal and now I'm in a dungeon. What's the deal?" Jace asked in a cocky tone.

He never liked lords and for many reasons. The main being they were rude to almost every person they came across.

"The 'deal' is that we just saved your ass out there"

"Cut him som slack hun, we did just drag him down here and chain him up" Melissa said as she held her arm against the road runner.

He rubbed his eyes tiredly before grabbing a ring of keys from a hook on the wall. With a brisk pace, he walked over and unlocked the manacles keeping Jace on the floor.

"Congratulations, you've done your country a great service; you can never be fully repaid; these clandestine dealings must never come to light, all that fun jazz. Your pay is on the table, and you can go back to whatever scrapings of a life you had before you walked into the wrong pub."

"Simon! That's not nice at all."

"And you scaring him half out of his wits is?"

"Was just poking a bit of fun, I was, but you're just being rude!"

"Would you look at that! I -am- being rude. This is -such- a surprise, I think I'll have to mark this day on my journal; I was rude!"

He spoke this sentence in such a venomously sarcastic spike that it entrenched Jace's poor opinion of the bird.

"Why you... Ugh, you Saprophagous TWIT!"

"Oh, my, Mellissa, you know I LOVE it when you talk dirty to me." He said as his sarcastic manner seemed to be growing by the second.

"Just get out of here, and take your bitterness with you."

With a sleazy smirk, he sauntered through a doorway into an adjacent room. Mellissa dropped from the ceiling neatly, and helped Jace limp over to a chair.

"Don't mind him at all, love, he just likes to argue. Poor thing doesn't know what kindness is."

"He seems like a blast at parties. He seems so social" an obvious amount of sarcasm played through Jace's words.

Jace seemed to notice they fought like a couple who has been together for many years.

"So what's with him? High class or just snobby?" Jace asked.

"He comes from a richer area o' town. Yah know th' type, snoby and selfish most o' the time but kind at heart"

"I'll believe it when I see it. What'd he hit me with anyways?"

"Why, me own personal venom! Its cheaper and easier than visiting an apothecary, and I can ensure we get a good quality."

"You... brew poisons?"

"Venoms, not poisons love, and I only brew one."

Her face looked more or less humanoid, a bit oddly shaped, a bit green, and her eyes were an odd, speckled color without whites, but he didn't quite understand what she meant until she opened her mouth. It opened wider than he'd have thought possible, and decently sized mandibles unfolded from her lower jaw. They were a chitinous black, and dripping with saliva as they were, they looked right horrifying. Jace shrank away from her, and she quickly folded them back into her mouth.

"Sorry love, I forget sometimes that it can be a tad frightening. Say, we haven't been properly introduced! You heard him say it, and I think Slick might have mentioned it to you, but that's no meeting. M' name's Mellissa, but out merry band calls me the Spinster. What's your name?"

My name? Oh! My name is J-" as Jace was about to speak a large figure slammed open the heavy door.

"Pardon me, I sometimes forget my own strength"

"Oy! Trevor! What do ya think you're doing?'" Melissa yelled.

"Coming to check out the help"

The man spoke in a higher class villager tone, proper yet still lax. He was a large gopher, something uncommon for most people. His head was humanoid so it wasn't smaller than his body and most of him matched with his figure. He had a lot of muscle and wore blue edged leather clothing.

"What are you looking at twinkle toes? I'm the head guard and that's all you need to know"

"Lay off the lad. He did stall off your catch 'idn't he?"

"Yeah, I suppose."

"Then lay off him."

"Alright. Oh, I have some info on the kid. Wasn't easy to get but with time comes results."

"'Ight love. I will take the info if yah don't mind" She says as she holds out her humanoid hands

"Here. This kid has got an interesting past; beware." He said the last word in a joking manner and laughed as he left the room. Melissa sighed as she took the folder from him.

"I'm surrounded by these people..... Anyways love, lets have that name."

"My name is Jace."

"Jace? That's an odd one."

"Yea, yea, whatever. What's the Captain of the Guard doing hanging out in the basement with a bunch of, no offense, shifty criminal types?"

She laughed at his suspicious tone, and pocketed the gemstone Trevor had handed her.

"It's a bit of a long story, love. The City Watch... they uphold the Law, but they are also bound by it. They have to be in uniform, they can't just break into random houses, things like that. Sometimes though, in order to keep somethin' clean, you have to get your hands dirty. We are... middle men of sorts. People with unusual skills, trying to keep the city safe. We go after criminals without restrictions like legality, or public approval. We do Highly illegal things to get info on real criminals, we pass it along to the guards, they swoop in to clean up the mess. Sorry to use you as bait, but that was the first night in months where their entire ring was together, and we needed to create enough havoc to surround the place without them escaping."

"Makes enough sense but why me?"

"Love, didn't the hooded man tell you? We needed someone nobody around here knew"

"Oh, that's right. Damn, I forgot. So what's with that gem? It seems different"

Melissa walked over to the door and shut it completely. She then blocked out all the windows and placed the gem in front of Jace.

"Check this out hun. Go ahead and tap the largest point on the gem.'

Jace walked over to the gem and tapped the point. The room covered with a light.

"Ah! Gets me every time i see it!" Melissa shoutes with exitement in her voice.

"What is this? What happened?"

"This be the information we gathered on you. Everything we know about yah is stored right here in this gem."

"Why do you have information on me?"

"That's a secret for another time love."

The lights vanished as a familiar cloaked figure entered the room.

"Melissa. You debriefing Ember?"

"Yessir. Trevor just dropped by with his background check, but I was want to ask him me self. 's a tad less invasive that way."

"Alright. Pup! Melissa went over this, but I'll just make sure she didn't miss anything. Our job is to do what the normal city guard can't. We break and enter, lie, cheat, steal, and do whatever we need to do to keep this city safe. Seeing as you did well under pressure and you already know about us, we're considering adding you to the roster. Now, you don't have to give us your life story, we have that on stone here, but sum it up for us, it's always better to hear it firsthand. Tell us about yourself."

The Lizard remained swaddled from head to toe in heavy garments, but he didn't seem to be conscious of that fact.

"No life story yet you want to know about me. Contradictive but here goes nothing. Grew up surrounded by foxes for 'bout 2 years of my life. Village was attacked, most died. A guard took me traveling with him for a year, but raiders attacked and we lost. I wandered on my own once I escaped their fire, and I almost died while wandering. I eventually collapsed and woke up surrounded by coyotes. Found out my new mother was the one who spared my life, but only because I was too thin to eat. I grew up and left them without a word. I eventually settled here and after a few months, here we are."

"Sad story 'is one in'it?" Melissa said jokingly

"Seems to check out for now. Minus a few details and its about what we have on embers here. I'm going to check out the overall damage. Melissa, you want to give embers a tour or should I take him for a while?"

"I think its best he come with me. Seems more fun thay way" she said as she winked at Jace, still messing with him

"A-actually, I want to go with the man who got me into this."

"Alright boy, come with me then. Ask questions when needed but don't go too far, I like some things to stay quiet"

"Yes sir! Will do." Jace gave a salute jokingly and followed the man as he left the room

His back was turned during the salute, but he spoke again in the same gruff, matter of fact attitude he had for the entire meeting.

"I ever catch you saluting me again, I'll have your hide as a doormat. You want someone to look up to, go stare at Trevor. I've done too much wrong to be saluted, and besides that, I'm in the field just as often as the others. You have a name, Ember?"

"Jace. How did you-"

"I've got eyes in the back of my head." he said in a slightly angry yet completly sarcastic manner.

"But- I- you" Jace sighed "alright. I will just follow."

He chortled to himself dryly, as he led Jace deeper underground.

"You never gave me a straight answer, but by the fact that you're following me, I'll assume that you want in, that you want to do some real good. You got guts, and with a life like you've led it sounds like you're tough enough to cut it too. I'll give you a warning though, and this is the only chance you get. You want to be happy? You want to sleep at night? Turn around, and walk back to the door. Melissa will knock you out again, but this time she'll use a high enough dosage to effect your memory. You can wake up thinking this whole thing was a dream, and you'll wonder why your purse is weighed down with jewels, but you'll be rich and you can live a happy life."

He stopped before a door, but did not turn around or open the door to continue forwards.

"If you follow me one more step, you'll never be free of this. You'll make enemies, powerful ones, and you'll have to live the rest of your life wondering if the person who just bumped into your shoulder is about to plant a knife in your back. You'll have to kill, and your hands will be washed with blood. It'll be the blood of criminals, blood of the wicked, but it's blood all the same. Some men can't handle death, can't handle the thought of killing another. If you follow me for one more step, then you'll get to find out if you can. If you wouldn't be able to sleep at night after taking the life of another, I don't blame you, but you need to turn around right now, because if you don't, then the rest of your life will be cloak and dagger, kill or be killed. Or, if you're the kind of man who'd gladly drown in a river of spilt blood to save the lives of the innocent, then right here, right now, is your only chance to do real good in the world. Make your choice."

He stood like that, back straight, not even looking at Jace, not even facing him. His hand rested on the door's handle, and he clicked the claws of his right hand absentmindedly while he waited.

Jace stood there for a moment wondering if he could handle it. He always liked to help people and he liked challenges so he wondered if this would be any different. Putting him on the spot seemed rather harsh for such a young lad. Jace took one step forward and spoke.

"I will join you. I'm not sure how hard it is but I will try. My life was hard so why not make it harder? It only makes it more fun in the end. Killing doesn't sound too interesting to me, rather avoid it if possible, but nonetheless, I will try."

"Don't say I didn't warn you kid. This gets tough, a lot tougher than your mind could possibly imagine." The man opened the door.