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The first thing that he saw, was the ceiling. Or, a ceiling. Then he noticed, his head was throbbing and his legs burned. He took in a deep breath and then he felt the warmth and softness. "A bad dream..." he said, closing his eyes. His hand moved up and touched his forehead, it felt hot. "Have I been sick?" His voice was soft and his throat hurt. Another deep breath.

Voices started to be heard at the edge of hearing. Or at least, his hearing, everything sounded muffled. Words could be heard, but nothing was being understood. He opened his eyes again and then he could smell deliciousness as his senses seemed to come back to him. He tried to move and then everything hurt, so he gave up on that. So he stared at the ceiling. There must be a doctor out there and he must have been terribly sick. What had happened to make him so sick? Someone would be in soon, he was sure of that. If he truly was this sick, they would check on him often.

As if on queue, the door opened. He cleared his throat. "I could do with a glass of water..." he managed to say hoarsely.

"Ah, Lord Jace. You are awake." The voice was painfully familiar. "We were a tad worried for a few days, but seems you are recovering."

Jace could feel the person walking across the room, he suddenly felt a lot sharper to his current situation. "Where am I?" he said, forcing his head to move, to look at the large brown bear he had seen at the castle.

"Safe," he said and placed a large hand on his shoulder as Jace tried to sit up. "No. Lay still. You still have a high fever and after I sent word to Her Ladyship of your survival, I would not want to give her bad news."

Jace looked hard at the bear. "You work for my mother," he said flatly. He shouldn't be surprised, his family was powerful and well connected.

"Correct. And it is good that I found you before one of Lady Cersa's men did." Jace swallowed, or tried to. "You are safe," he said, giving Jace a weak smile.

Then Jace noticed it. Behind the bear, on the table, a briefcase. Tears swelled in his eyes, he could not help it. He felt weak, helpless and powerless. "Unlike Mr. Tompkin..."

The bear frowned and looked back at the briefcase. "I am sorry, my Lord...he made it quite far for a five minute headstart..." He turned back to Jace. "From chasing you around, I'm sure..."

Jace took a deep breath and forced himself to look back at the ceiling. Despite their arguing and disagreements, he had thought incredibly high of Mr. Tompkin. He was always there for him when he stumbled, quick to correct his mistakes and to offer advice. Trouble was, that got annoying, so they had squabbled. But there was never any personal insults. He had not liked the rat, but he was the closest thing he had had to a father. "Yeah..." Jace said miserably, closing his eyes to keep himself from crying. He needed some sort of sanity to hold onto. "Food..." he said quietly. "I...am very hungry..." He glanced at the bear, who was standing beside the bed. "How long did you say I was out?"

"A week." Jace blinked, staring up at him. "You had a very bad fever. It was that dip in the river, I'm guessing. You got beat up on the rocks in the rapids. Then you went and did what most wouldn't dare." There was a pause, as the bear moved across the room to the table on the other side of the bed. "You attacked a hunter." He looked down at Jace. "No one's attacked a hunter in a very, very long time."

"Only thing I could think of..." he admitted, taking in a deep breath.

The bear nodded, holding up the crossbow Jace had had. "We'll get you something to eat...then we need to get you out of Gruska...you can get good care on the boat."

Jace only nodded. Food sounded good. Amazing in fact. "I'm taking the briefcase," he said and the bear blinked. "No arguing."

The bear looked at him a moment and then laughed. "Alright my Lord. It is, I suppose, yours..."

"And..." He looked at the bear. "What is your name?" He was already adding him to the first category. Though he was still deciding the number and category.

"Irvig," Irvig said, giving Jace a gentle pat. "But don't go spreading that around."

Jace paused a moment. "Earwig?"

Irvig laughed, shaking his head. His laugh was quite booming, fitting someone so large. "Close. But a vee, not a double-u."

"Ah...Irvig..." Six point four, Jace decided. Trustworthy and a decent friend.

~

The ship was moving surprisingly fast along the river and the city could already be seen in the distance. It had taken almost two weeks to reach it, but Irvig had been correct about there being good care on the boat and he felt better than he had in months. And it hadn't even been that hard to get out of Gruska.

No one ever checked the boats, too hard to get a ticket and according to Irvig, they assumed he went South, away from the castle, not North past the castle. Which was good for him. Especially because that was the direction of Auser, though the trip across the sea would be difficult. But Irvig had given him fifty dollars and assured him that would get him there.

He saw a dock, a mile from the city. There was a large wooden object blocking the river off for anything above five inches. But Irvig had warned him about this. This was the boarder to Has-Havin. Jace liked the name, it sounded a nice place. Though Irvig had warned him about this place, too. It was said to be the biggest city in the world and it deserved the title, since it took up practically an entire country; over twelve miles wide and seven deep.

Irvig said it was the most dangerous place on earth, but Jace surmised he was not the best source of information about the world, having never left Gruska his entire life. To be honest, Irvig had said a lot of things and Jace had zoned out.

His grip tightened on the briefcase in his left hand. He looked down at it. The wind was blowing his new cloak about him, Irvig had given him a midnight blue one. At night, it looked black, but out here in the sun it's tint of blue was quite apparent. It's dark color was to make sure he stayed warm till he got farther north. He stared at the briefcase, which was slightly heavier then he'd like, but it was his now and he would have to get used to the weight.

The boat thumped softly against the dock, then another as a wide board was placed up the side, which two men walked up and boarded. The ship would be searched before entering the city, but Jace was getting off at this dock. He stepped off and walked down the ramp.

There was a desk, underneath a large overhang in front of a building, which Jace walked up to. Behind it was what looked to be a dog, some breed of retriever. The dog cleared his throat. "Name, species, where you're coming from and business."

Jace placed the briefcase on the table, it was to be searched. "Jason," he said, a second dog came out of the building, a spaniel of some kind and began going through his briefcase, quite gently to Jace's surprise.

"Last name?" the retriever said, looking up at Jace for the first time.

"Ozymandias," he said calmly. There had been a lot of time on the ship to come up with an identity that would go unnoticed. "Red panda." It was quite believable, as he looked similar to one and hopefully the retriever had not seen one too closely. "Just come from Gruska."

The retriever nodded as he wrote this down. "And your business within Has-Havin?" He looked up again.

"Traveling." Jace looked over at the town.

The guard raised an eyebrow. "Quite the fancy clothes for a traveler...what is it you do for money?"

Jace looked back at the ship and then at the retriever again. "Oh just odd jobs." He waved a hand dismissively. "This and that. Things that...need doing."

The spaniel looked at him, then the dogs exchanged glances. Jace was suddenly unsure if that was a good look, or a bad look. Either way, neither of them were going for their weapons. "And how long are you staying?"

"I plan to spend a few days here," which was a lie, he planned to get a boat away within the hour, "And then head to Auser. I hear it's great this time of year."

Jace gave him a smile, but the retriever shook his head. "Afraid you'll be disappointed then." Jace's brow wrinkled slightly as his smile faded. "No one's going to Auser."

He licked his lips and told himself to stay calm. "Oh? Why's that?"

The retriever looked up at him and arched an eyebrow. "War," he said simply. "Haven't you heard? Apparently Lady Cersa killed Lady Foxern's first born." Jace's expression did not change. "At least that's the rumor. Lady Cersa said there was an accident on the road and he never arrived. And when they sent out a search party, they found him dead. Along with his companion."

Jace swallowed and shook his head. "I'd not heard that..." The retriever looked at him and then at the spaniel, who nodded as he shut the briefcase.

Then the spaniel spoke. "Ships can't get near Auser. Cersa's sinkin any ship that heads for a Foxern port, and no one wants to get near Cersa's ports because of that." It sounded as if he had explained this quite a number of times.

"Damn," Jace said, picking up the briefcase as it was slid back to him. "In...in that case, could you recommend a good bar?"

~

The broken stool was an interesting place. And when the word 'interesting' is used in Has-Haven, it means a place you're likely to see more blood on the floor, than beer in a glass. Or a large mug. Or the tap. Or in the whole bar. And the one five blocks away.

It's not a nice place.

No one really remembers where it really got it's name and there's no sign to really say that that's what it's called, as most of it's patrons couldn't be bothered to read anyways. The only way one knows that it's there, is the broken stool hanging over the door. Well, not so much hanging, as embedded into the the upper part of the door frame.

No one went into the broken stool alone. It wasn't the kind of place one wanted to be alone. Though for someone like the hooded figure sitting at the far end of the bar, with his back to the wall, staring at his third glass, this was not the case as he was in fact, alone. To his credit, it was not out of choice. The bar keeper did not like him, sitting there and hardly drinking. He was a slow drinker. Two beers in two hours, and he hadn't touched his third yet. But at least he had paid for the first two.

Though Jace would consider himself a thoughtful drinker, not a slow one. He knew that if one consumed alcohol slow enough, you would get a constant buzz, rather than a brick to the head of drunk. And in a place like this, he did not want to get drunk. But he felt the urge to drink, some sort of habit he had gotten into when he was stuck in a place, or situation he did not like. Like some parties he had been to, where he would drink enough to buzz through the night, but keep his head enough to not do anything too foolish.

But Jace was feeling very foolish indeed for coming in here. These did not seem like the nicest people and he had gotten some rather rude looks when he came in. Now, he was watching the room, and some of it was watching him. Though most glances in his direction weren't so much at him, as they were at his briefcase.

He glanced down at it, his gaze lingering a little too long and when he looked up, there was a tall, lanky black rat standing in front of him, with a smile on it's face. "Evenin'," it said, in a voice that sounded to Jace, as if trying a tad too hard to be friendly.

"Evening..." Jace said slowly, looking past the rat at the large white tiger standing behind him.

The rat took a seat beside Jace. "Word is...yer an odd job man." The rat looked at the glasses on the table and rocked one back and forth a bit.

"Depends..." Jace said, continuing his slow tone. He decided that this could go quite badly for him quite quickly.

"At leas' tha's the talk on the street," the rat said, waving his hand dismissively. "And you know how people talk."

"Quite..." Jace said and placed his glass down on the table.

The rat leaned forward and gave Jace a smirk. "We don' wan' any muckin' about...look down." Jace glanced down and noted the knife nearly touching his chest. "You don't seem like a man who can ge' things done...I jus' think yer a lo'a talk, a man with no ba-" The sentence was cut short, as he felt a slight prick.

"You may want to look down...further." Jace said, doing his best to keep calm. The rat looked down, past his knife, at the knife in Jace's hand, whose point was against his crotch. "The point of the game, is not to win outright..." he whispered to the rat. "It's to make your enemies realize that winning would come at too high a price." He gave the man a smile. He was quite proud of that little quip, and made a mental note to use it again. "Now...put it away."

The rat quickly withdrew the knife and Jace pulled his back under his cloak, returning it to it's place in the back of his belt, as the rat sat back in his stool, opting to get away from Jace. "How..." He cleared his throat. "Right...I can see I misjudged ya."

"Quite," Jace said once again, picking his glass back up. "Now. Why did you seek me out? Surely there are any number of..." He looked around the room as he sought a proper word. "... gentlemen..." He decided on, "Who'd be quite good at a job."

"Yah, well...ya see...it ain't as simple as that. If I wanted some thug, I'd get Burce ta do it." He pointed his thumb back at the tiger. Jace made a mental note that though this sounded like a nickname, it was probably not.

"I see...so you want someone for a more...delicate matter," Jace said and took a sip from the glass. He saw the rat glance at the briefcase when he thought Jace wasn't looking.

"Ya. Delicate like." Jace reached into his cloak and felt a small pang of joy as the rat flinched. He pulled out a small coin and placed it on the counter as he stood up. One kik. The money system in Has-Haven was quite simple. Ten kin's in a kik, ten kik's in a pence, and ten pence in a dollar. A beer was two kin's a pint.

"Then let us be off." He waved a hand dismissively at the barman before he had a chance to offer change, and picked up his briefcase. He had to act the part now. Someone who was not to be messed with. If the barkeep was anything like those in Auser, he would remember Jace and be a bit nicer to him in the future. If he had one.

"Ya..." the rat said as he stood back up and looked at Burce before gesturing to the door. Obviously the rat was the thinker of the two and Burce was the muscle. Jace looked him up and down quickly. He was a lot of muscle.

The two of them followed Burce out of the bar and into the cool, crisp air. "Name's Skagger," the rat said, offering a hand to Jace.

Jace reached for it instinctively, but hesitated at the last second. He grabbed Skagger's fingers, twisted and bent his hand backwards. There was a small grunt of pain from Skagger, but the skinny knife or thick needle, slide silently out from under his sleeve. Jace looked up at the rat, who looked quite panic stricken. "I do hope that wasn't for me."

"N-no. 'Course not," Skagger said and swallowed hard, looking back at Burce. Jace glanced at him and then let go of Skagger's hand, wiping his hand on his cloak. The rat felt...greasy. "Not for you at all Mr. Ozymandias."

Good. He had the rats respect. It was a guess, but he had come across it before, a few times in Auser. He had met the Artificer who designed it. Or one like it, this looked a more crude device. As far as being called Mr. Ozymandias...word did travel fast indeed. He liked the name though, it had been in one of his books and he had fantasized as a child as using it as an alias. He would've never guessed it would actually come to be a reality. "Where are we going, Mr. Skagger," Jace said, it was only proper to be polite.

Skagger cleared his throat. "No need fer the Mister stuff...just Skagger..." Jace nodded in understanding, he glanced behind him, noting the figure that moved into an alley.

Best part about his cloak, was that it was large and billowed about him. No one could tell if he, say, switched the briefcase into his other hand, or proceeded to draw his knife. It was a good knife and the briefcase was a lot lighter for the lack of it. Jace had been a tad caught off guard by the secret compartment in the briefcase, but it gave him a bit more of an understanding of the late Mr. Tompkin. And from what he knew of Mr. Tompkin, if he had had his knife not all the blood by the body would had been of the victim. He found comfort in this. "Where are we going, Skagger," he repeated.

"Jus' ta see the Mistress. She has a job fer ya. Wa'ed us ta come and fetch ya." Skagger gave Jace a smile as he turned the corner and walked into an alley. Jace followed him in, but stopped after a few steps and moved quickly up to the wall, standing in silence. "Wha-" Jace held a hand up to silence him, staring back.

Seconds past and as they did, Jace felt the lack of a tick against his ribs. He needed to get his watch fixed as soon as possible. It made him feel better. The soft tick of the clockwork was hard to notice, but easy to miss. His heart was racing and he wished it would slow to that tick as it had done in all of his lessons.

Then a figure turned the corner, only to have the tip of Jace's knife swing up to point at it's face. "Evening," he said, stepping forward as the figure backpedaled. "Quite a nice night, eh?" His voice was quite casual, as one's usually gets when discussing the weather. "Bit too cold for my liking and a few too many undesirables wanting my attention." He had backed the figure against the far wall, the knife inches away from their face. Who am I? Jace thought to himself. No...what have I become...that's a bit more accurate of a question.

The figure slumped slowly to the ground and Jace took a step back, the blade once again hid itself beneath the cloak, though he did not sheath it. "Tha's Ginly. Small time thief," Skagger said and gave a swift kick to Ginly's side. "He aint a bad mouse, bu' he's dumber than a brick. Ge' goin' Ginly. This is official guild business and if ya'd been at the mee'in' this af'ernoon, ya'd know this."

The mouse known as Ginly said nothing as he fled down the street, and down an alley. "Interesting..." Skagger was looking at him, his expression a mixture of shock, and admiration. Jace sheathed the blade back into it's sheath on the back of his belt. He looked at Skagger. "Guild business, eh?"