Symphonic Odyssey
: Vol. Three: Dark Sarcophagus: Verse One-Hundred and Thirty-Nine

“Right, right, where are my manners? Delvin Manogate is my name, and living to see tomorrow is my game! A pleasure to meet you two, by the way! Your names are?” Cypher and Alex only stood silently waiting for him to continue.

“Right, well a man like me can see that you two don’t care about such small talk. Straight to business, I like that! Yes, I like that a lot! It’s smart! Very smart! But you know, being rude isn’t going to-“

“Shut the fuck up and talk already, before I cut off one of your hands and slap you with it!” Alex said, cutting Delvin off again. The man blanched and nodded furiously. He cleared his throat and wiped the sweat from his forehead before starting again.

“Right, well umm… yes, you see, there’s a problem with that, as a matter of fact. You see, you uh, you haven’t actually asked me anything just yet. A curious thing that, isn’t it? I can’t really tell you anything if you uh… don’t ask first you see? Yeah, you get it! Smart guys!”

Alex was growing more and more annoyed with Delvin, and a vein was throbbing on the side of his temple as he closed his eyes and tried to keep his composure. Cypher, on the other hand, was getting a kick out of Delvin’s stuttering and quick way of speaking. However, the novelty of it was wearing off.

“Alright, fair enough,” began Cypher, “First things first. Where is your base located?”

“Ahh, my base! Right! That’s actually quite a good question! Unless you’re talking about my old base! A pitiful story that one is. The rainy season came early in Galle’noray, you know, the Elves’ forest. Was a messy bit of business you see. A colleague of mine was supposed to have an accurate prediction of when the seasons shifted. Sufficed to say, he didn’t. I lost several hundred gold worth of merchandise when the floods came.” stuttered Delvin.

“Thing is though, you never know what kind of a break something like that will give you! I didn’t realize how badly I needed a vacation! It was nice until it wasn’t. Those elves you know, they hold quite a grudge when you owe em’ money.”

Alex slapped the shit out of Delvin and the man fell out of his seat and onto the ground groaning in pain. “ZEALOT’S RING! NOW!” Roared Alex again. Cypher patted him on the shoulder and pulled him back a bit.

“Right, yep! I deserved that! I Shoulda known you meant my current base! How foolish of me! Heh. Right, Zealot’s Ring you say? Hmm, well, you know a group like that… well, they’d kill me if I mentioned that place you know? I mean, a guy in my line of work can’t just go around giving out secrets like candies. It’s unprofessional and-” Delvin flinched again as Alex raised a hand to slap him again.

“Okay! Okay! Fine! Look, you’ll replace them buried underground about 2 kilometers to the east of here! It’s a place called Finn’s Deep! You can’t miss it! Funny story about that place actually, did you know it used to be the base for a group of-“

“Nope, I’ve had it with this guy Cyph’, I’m done with his bullshit!” Alex pulled out his Scal’tar and prepared to slash at Delvin, but Cypher stopped him. He pulled Alex to the side and tried his best to hide his smile.

“Look, let me talk to him okay? You go free the Villagers while I handle this. Make sure they’re alright and stuff,” Cypher said.

“Are you sure? This guy just seems so full of shit, how do you know you can trust what he has to say?” replied Alex.

“Because if he’s lying, I’ll send you after him!” Alex smiled a bit and nodded.

“Alright, but I swear to god Cyph, if I have to come back over here,” Cypher patted Alex’s shoulder again.

“Don’t worry about it buddy, I got this!” Cypher walked back over to a hastily drinking Delvin. “Alright, next question. Why has Zealot’s Ring moved into this village?”

Delvin swished his mouthful of alcohol around for a moment before speaking, “Look, Cyph’, can I call you Cyph’? Look, I’m just a guy. A normal guy looking to do business. I might seem rough and tough but really, I’m not the one you should be asking. Those two,” Delvin pointed to the two dead bandits on the ground.

“They’d have known more than me but you just had to kill em’. Which, by the way, was a super rude thing to do! I kinda liked those idiots. Actually, if you’ll just step aside,” Delvin dropped and started going through their pockets and pulling out any coins or valuables he could replace.

“Sorry about that mate. Fuckers owed me some money from a game of bones. Anyway, yeah, I don’t know shit about why we were put here. I just took the money and didn’t ask any questions,” Delvin finished.

“So, wait, were these bandits your men? Or what? I can’t imagine Zealot’s Ring would put someone unaffiliated with their organization in charge of this many bandits,” Cypher asked.

“Oh, wow. I’m really dealing with a smart one this time. Shit. Alright, look, you caught me. Yes, I know why they sent us out like this. We need miners. Zealot’s Ring found some kind of ancient bullshit at Finn’s Deep and they need people to help dig it out.”

“The thing is though, ah, one sec,” Delvin took another swig of his cup and tossed it to the ground, before grabbing the whole bottle and downing another drink. “Haaa, refreshing in times of crisis am I right?”

Cypher only scowled at him, but inside he was chuckling, “Details Delvin, I don’t want to have to get Alex back over here.”

Delvin choked a little on his drink and spit the rest out, “Right, well, the thing is, Zealot’s Ring is being real ‘hush, hush’ about this discovery. Something about not wanting the other organizations in the area replacein’ out about it. I’d like to get my hand in on some of that profit, but I also like to keep living, you know? Yeah, you get me! Life is pretty grand and all, at least, when I’m not being questioned by some nosy Conductors. Err, no offense Cyph’, heh.”

“Don’t call me that,” Cypher said flatly, “My name is Cypher.” Delvin nodded again and shrugged his shoulders.

“Look, I’ve told you about all I know okay? They wouldn’t tell me any more than that. I’m just a guy, remember? Ah, of course, if you’re willing to fork over a few extra bits of gold, I wouldn’t mind spying on them for you! That is sorta also part of my business model after all! Wouldn’t be the first time I played both sides of the aisle, you feel me?”

Cypher sighed and frowned, he could sort of tell that Delvin wasn’t lying. He had been using his mental energy to monitor for signs of deceit and so far, Delvin hadn’t lied yet. Suddenly a horn blared in the distance and Cypher turned to see where it had come from.

In the distance, a small group of thirty bandits was rushing toward the village, and Alex had already begun moving to intercept them. “Delvin you,-” Cypher had turned around to chastise Delvin for stalling for time, but noticed that he was already hopping a wall in the distance. The man was quick to get away and had even retrieved his sword from the ground.

“Sorry about that Cyph’! I reaaally want to keep living! But good luck! If you survive look me up! I could really be of use to a guy like you!” Yelled Delvin, before he vanished over the side of the shabby wall.