Herera - Stories of The Purple Pearl

2. Street fight

Brine City was very different in the morning, and my encounters were much less pleasurable than last night's. The morning market was already halfway over, the classic bakeries were almost sold out and people were hanging out their laundry on lines which hung from opposing windows in the smaller alleys.

Every two houses I passed, someone tried to pull me into their tavern or café to have breakfast or a drink. I smiled at a little child that was jump scared by a clothing vendor shouting the whole plaza together that his were the best quality dresses and pants you would find. Samir, The Pearl's private tailor, would beg to differ

Those were the morning routines of the light side of the city, the side I wasn't looking for. I needed the smaller alleys in the suburbs, where people lived too close to each other to be peaceful all the time. Where smugglers, swindlers and thieves found their way around the law. Where crying overwhelmed all sounds and feces all smells.

The stone roads changed into earth and the straight houses became crooked. The glass windows were no more than wooden planks and the public spaces were rapidly declining.

I entered a slightly less declined bar and ignored the muffled whispering and mumbling of the broad men glaring at me as I walked to the counter.

"I'm looking for someone," I said to the halfling who was filling a plate of glasses. "I know you're the one to talk to."

The man ignored me and delivered his plate to his customers.

"Ay, Missie," one of them howled, "come sit with us and you'll soon forget whoever you're looking for."

He received exuberant laughter from his companions.

I ignored them and turned my gaze to the halfling at the counter. "Maybe you didn't quite understand me," I said as I showed him the silver coin with the profiled skull. "I want some information from you."

The halfling studied the coin, bent over the counter and said. "Strong words for a little Missie with a little sword."

I put my foot on the bar stool and pulled the man closer to me. Then I pulled out one of my daggers from my boot and pinned the man with his collar to the counter.

"Maybe you have seen some young women dressed up as if they're fearsome warriors just to scare off filthy men like you, but this Missie knows how to use her weapons. So tell me where I can find him."

As if on cue, the door burst open and three men fell onto an empty table.

I withdrew my dagger and unsheathed my rapier getting ready to fight whatever would be thrown at me, but I quickly lowered them as I realized the small threat that the men before me were posing.

Two dwarves were severely beating another man, the three of them drunker than any cultured person would ever deem possible at this hour of day. The halfling that was being beaten got to his feet, wrestled off one of the dwarves and threw a pocket knife to the other. They both ran off at the sound of agents approaching.

The halfling, getting ready to run away as well, froze when his eyes fell upon me.

I rolled my eyes and sighed as I stood straight before the man I was looking for. I put my sword and dagger away, and by approaching the table of men that were previously intimidating me, I cleared a path to get away through the back door.

"You're coming, or what?" I said to the halfling, who was actually so tall for a halfling, he could pass on for full human.

The man shook his surprise off and followed me through the small passage.

***

It took us almost an hour to run off every single one of the agents that were pursuing him – us. Completely out of breath and in desperate need of some water, we stood in front of each other on the outskirts of the city.