The walk to the black market felt long, even though it must not have been so, but being extremely conscious of every little sound and shadow while moving through a barely lit tunnel did that to you.

  As Jared said, there was indeed a tunnel hidden in the inn, it was actually in the room where they had their first talk with him. He opened it by touching one of the decorative swords hanging from the wall. It looked so blunt, but as soon as his thumb touched it, he was cut and his blood was absorbed by the unassuming sword, a passageway opening behind it.

  Marcus just hoped that by the time they made it there, the tenders from the Voyager would also be at their location. By his estimations, it should take them around the same time, but he wasn't sure.

  After walking for who knows how long, a door appeared at the end of the tunnel. Marcus thought that the old man would do some kind of secret code or something, but he just pushed it open.

  Something must have appeared on his or one of the others' faces, because Jared smiled as he said,

  "If we weren't expected or it was some unknown party, the ceiling would have dropped on us ages ago. The preparations were completed before we even started our journey."

  Marcus just nodded as he walked through the door after the old man, his hand right on his gun, it didn't seem like Jared had any enmity towards them, but he wasn't going to take any chances.

  What awaited them on the other side was another room quite similar to the one in the inn.

  "Do you care about your privacy?" Jared suddenly asked as he stood next to the door leading outside, "If you do, I can see about getting you some masks to hide your faces."

  "There's no need," Marcus just shook his head. It honestly wasn't a bad idea, but it would most likely involve the old man going to who knows where and leaving them alone. He did note it for next time, they would prepare them for sure.

  "Okay." He shrugged and pushed open the door after unlocking it.

  Again the door opened up to what seemed to be some kind of establishment. Even though it was almost midnight, the place was quite active, people were moving around, some of them holding papers and others talking to each other in hushed tones. The old man signalled for them to follow him as he led them to the establishment's entrance. As they closed in, Marcus could hear people walking and talking outside.

  He didn't know what he had expected from a place called a black market, whatever it was, what awaited them on the other side wasn't it. As his eyes got used to the bright light, he looked around, trying to get an understanding of their current environment.

  The place was open, the ceiling was tens of meters away, and hanging from it were huge upside-down luminous mushrooms, they were all glowing in a gentle blue light. The glow from those faraway mushrooms wasn't enough to light the whole place, but they didn't need to, because on the streets every 5 or 6 meters there was one of those huge mushrooms, and up close their glow was more than enough to light the place.

  And yes, it was streets, the place wasn't just a black market, it felt more like a bustling city. There were buildings, roads and people walking all around. Most of the buildings seemed to be storefronts, each of them advertising different services.

  "How did you manage to keep all of this from the nobles in Rosereef?" Old Raily asked. It was probably the first time he spoke to Jared directly.

  "Oh, they know." Jared chuckled. "They get a cut of all the sales happening here, all that without being too connected to us. If anything were to happen, they would have some measure of deniability, they would be under major scrutiny after it, might even suffer some serious trouble for that. They know that many other nobles would gladly accept that risk in their place, though, and would welcome us if we went to them, so they keep silent about everything."

  "We are here." Marcus looked at his watch. "How are our people getting in though? You said that after we get here you would give them a sign."

  "I didn't forget it, young one," Jared grumbled, "I'm not that old yet. Follow me."

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  He then led them through the winding streets of the black market. The more they walked, the more Marcus understood how big the place was, just getting from where they were to the docks - yes the place had docks - took ages.

  The dock they found themselves in was weird, there were ships and boats in front of them, but far ahead wasn't the open waters, but a closed-off space, just a solid wall of stone.

  Jared left them and went to talk to a group of men standing together. Marcus again prepared for the worst.

  "Open up, we have guests!" one of the men shouted after Jared talked to them for a bit.

  Marcus followed where he was shouting to, just to see a man who appeared to be in his forties walk to the edge of the docks. His hands then started glowing in a brownish colour as he waved them around. Marcus watched with an expressionless face as the huge stone wall parted easily, his heart beating fast at the casual show of power.

  As the stone wall parted, Marcus saw one of the men who Jared was talking to lift his hand as a glowing line appeared atop the water, it then shot into the open ocean, twisting and turning randomly from time to time. Finally, it stopped at some point in the open water, the path it made as it headed there remaining on the surface.

  Seeing that, Marcus understood what it was, it was a safe pathway to the black market's docks. He didn't know what would happen if someone strayed from that path, but he hoped that they wouldn't find out from their own boats doing just that.

  "That's it," Jared said as he returned to them again, the men he had been talking to a few steps behind him, "If your people are out there, they should know what to do."

  Marcus didn't answer, he just kept looking to the open ocean, trying to see if he could spot anything. He didn't for quite a few moments, just as he wondered if something wrong had happened, things changed.

  "What the fuck is that..." Marcus heard one of the men who was with Jared murmur. He also noticed the old man himself turned a bit stiff, throwing him a glance before looking out again.

  Marcus acted as if everything was alright, but he actually couldn't see anything yet, only after a few moments did he think he saw a few shapes getting closer, the more time passed the clearer the shapes got.

  Something else reached them first though, the unmistakable sound of diesel engines, made even stronger by the fact that there were three of them.

  The tenders weren't moving fast, just cruising as they followed the line as precisely as they could, it seemed that they got the point that they should keep to the line.

  The more time passed, the more people gathered on the docks, the sound of the diesel engines growling pulling them from whatever they were doing. Marcus would be lying if he said he was happy about the attention, but they didn't have another option, he could only act as if everything was okay from their side.

  Crackle!

  The unmistakable sound of the walkie-talkie connecting sounded through the silent docks, making some of the people jump as they fixed their attention on them.

  "Robert here," it sounded as Marcus brought it up, "Is everything good on your side? Over."

  "Everything is alright," Marcus answered blankly, "Expect an audience, I doubt the situation is going to turn hostile, but keep that in mind. Over."

  "Understood. Over." The line was cut with that.

  Marcus put the walkie-talkie away as he ignored the looks from all around. He knew that the people there wouldn't understand what he had said to Robert, after all, they were speaking in English, and the chance of anyone there having the Translation skill that they had was tiny.

  At that point, the tenders were close enough for even Marcus to see them without any trouble. Their bright orange shells were as eye-catching as ever, they were designed for that after all.

  It wasn't lost on Marcus when the man who opened the stone wall looked back at Jared, as if asking if he should close it. The old man didn't react, as if he didn't even notice him, he just kept on looking at the closing tenders.

  After they docked, the doors were finally pushed open. One after another, black armoured people left the tenders, all of them either holding an AKM or a handgun, he felt the air in the docks become even heavier.

  He couldn't blame them really, the full body bulletproof vests paired with the full head tactical helmets were a sight to behold, even he felt his heart move when he laid eyes on the 12 armoured and armed men and women standing at the dock, and they were there as reinforcement for them. There was probably more in the tenders, keeping them manned.

  "Let's head to the jeweller." Marcus turned to Jared after everyone was down. "We would like to start our exchange."

  He watched as the old man forcefully moved his gaze from the men and the tenders, a heavy intensity to his eyes. He eventually opened his mouth slightly, but no words came out, as if he didn't know what to say.

  "Alright," he finally said.