Balthazar walked to the side of the baroness and looked towards the staircase to the sed floor.

  “Is your office upstairs?” he asked.

  “Yes,” the mayor responded.

  “’t go there, then.”

  The woman’s left brow rose slightly at the mert.

  “And why is that?”

  “Stairs,” the crab replied, waving a pi the steps. “We don’t agree much.”

  Baroness Marquessa pced a hand in front of her mouth as she let out a quiet chuckle of ear amusement.

  “Fret not, Mr. Balthazar. There is no need for us to use the stairs. e with me.”

  Puzzled, but obliging, the crusta followed her past the front desk and behind the wall with the rge clock.

  “You got ramp accesses too?” he asked.

  “No,” the amused dy said. “Something much better.”

  Turning a er, they arrived in front of a regur gate of iron and brass mesh. With a flick of her arm, the baroness snapped her fingers and the colpsible doors opened.

  Balthazar stretched his eyestalks to peek i was ay cubicle with barely enough room for the two of them.

  “Is this your office?” he said, turning his eyes back to the woman. “Kinda expected more, for a mayor.”

  She smirked. “No, Mr. Balthazar. This will take us there. Please, go in.”

  Shuffling awkwardly, the crab sidestepped his way into the strange square room, his shell barely fitting through the entrance. Lady Marquessa entered behind him, and oh were ihe metal gate closed itself again.

  The mert looked around the bronze-colored interior, with its single light spot above. “So, what do we—”

  With a sudden gulp, the words went bato Balthazar’s mouth as he felt his stomach shoot up inside his shell. But just as fast as it happened, it was over, and he felt it drop back to the bottom of his scrambled innards.

  “What the hell just happened?!”

  With a ding, the colpsible mesh gates opened again, and the baroness calmly stepped out of the cubicle.

  “We have arrived on the sed floor,” she stated.

  Stumbling and slightly dizzy, the traveler exited the strange chamber of stomach turnialks rolling around to s his surroundings.

  “Wait, this is a different pce from where we were a moment ago!” he said. “What just happened? Was that a portal you just took me through?!”

  Lady Marquessa eyed the crab with a smile.

  “Hardly,” she said. “It’s called aor. Amazing the things mages and artificers make these days with the right metals and a few levitation spells.”

  “Levitation spells?!” Balthazar said, leaning with one cw against the wall while trying to make the room stop spinning around him. “You should have told me. I have a bad history with that stuff!”

  “Perhaps you will feel better if you sit down,” the woman said. “Let us step into my office.”

  Opening a double wooden door, the baroness led the crab inte room with a huge window opposite to the entrance.

  Fetting his stomach woes, Balthazar stared i the impressive interior of the mayor’s office.

  Furniture of the fi wood money could buy decorated a room full of imposing portraits of figures the mert did not know. The floor, varnished and polished to perfe, had several wide rugs with impressive patterns and so soft-looking that the crab felt tempted to nap on them. At least until he looked at the chairs ad the lounge area of the office. Solid, carved wood with soft cushions for the bad seat that looked even more fortable as his bedding bae.

  In front of the window stood a dark wooden desk, covered with papers, books, dossiers, and half-used inkwells. Lady Marquessa had already made her way across the room and behind the desk, where she sat down on a chair that would be better called a throne, in Balthazar’s opinion.

  “Please,” she told him, while extending a hand towards a stool vely pced across the desk, opposite of her. Given the chairs the mert saw moved aside, and how out of pce the bench looked, something told him she had already pnned for his presence.

  As soon as Balthazar sat his ample underside on the bench, Octavia’s hands came together in front of her face as she leaned forward, pg both elbows on the desk.

  “Let’s get down to business, Mr. Balthazar,” she said, with a peing iy taze. “I won’t insult your intelligence by dang around the subject, I know just ho you are.”

  The crab stared at the mayor for a sed, utterly fused. “You do?”

  “Most people living this far east may not hear much about what happens oher side of the ti, but I am not most people. I’ve heard about your feats.”

  Balthazar’s bewilderment tio grow. “You have?”

  “I must end your ag skills,” the mayor said, blue-eyed gaze peeking over her entwined fingers. “To behave below your real intellect, ag like a distracted and fused animal, takes a lot of wisdom, but is an incredibly clever tactic to keep any possible foes off their guard. I am impressed by how well you py the part.”

  “You are?” the pletely befuddled crusta said.

  I ’t figure out if what she’s thinking of me is a good thing, or if I should feel insulted…

  “There is o keep hiding, Mr. Balthazar,” she tinued. “You are among like-minded friends in my office. I know all about your feud with Antoine ba Ardville, and I assure you, as the guildmaster of Marquessa’s merts, I was happy to hear about his arrest. He was a shameful stain to us all.”

  “Wait,” said the crab, “You’re telling me you’re also the leader of the merts guild in this city?”

  “Indeed, I am.”

  “Wow, dy, leave some job positions for others, will you?”

  The baroness-mayuildmaster chuckled in amusement.

  “I must say, I very mujoy your did attitude. Most merts and ures I meet daily act with sup and false ies, it bees exhausting. I am gd to see you were perceptive enough to do away with all that around me, despite appearances.”

  Don’t know what she means by doing away with it around her, but I’ll just roll with it. Hopefully that cafeteria downstairs has some cookies, and she’ll let me swipe a couple of them for free.

  “So…” Balthazar started, “When are you going to tell me why yht me here when all I wanted were dires.”

  After regaining her posed smirk, Marquessa said, “You need someone capable enough to guide you to the coastal cliffs in one piece. I happen to know the one person who could do that.”

  “Great! So if you could just tell me—”

  “But as I’m sure your sharp iation senses already told you, we are iy of trades, and I happen to have a problem of my own that needs solving.”

  The crab’s eyestalks sagged in frustration.

  Figures…

  “And what would that be?” he asked.

  “You have no doubt already bee aware of the plight currently affeg our businesses.”

  Balthazar looked at her with a cocked eyestalk.

  “You meaantly corrupt guards, or the robbing of mangoes?”

  “Both,” the gold-an said. “Mangoes are Marquessa’s biggest product. The fields outside the city are mostly dedicated to growing that fruit, thanks to our climate that makes their produ so much easier. People from all over the ti e here after the summer harvest to enjoy all the many delicacies we produce with mangoes.”

  The traveling mert nodded. “I know, I tried a mango pie before ing here. Delicious!”

  “Ah, yes, from Margo’s Boutique,” the baroness said, reag into her sleeve arieving the letter Balthazar had delivered.

  “That one, yes. She and her husband were pining about how another shipment had just been stolen.”

  “Indeed,” the mayor said, quickly gng through the tents of the letter. “As… dramatic as Madame Margo sometimes be, it doesn’t ge the fact that this problem is threatening to grow into a full-scale crisis, if not handled soon.”

  She stood up and stepped closer to the window, gazing outside with her hands behind her back.

  “The truth is, Mr. Balthazar,” the baroness started, “whoever is behind these ret thefts has mao infiltrate the previous rather i and manageable criminal rabble of Marquessa and turn them into a much more anized and effit threat. What’s worse, they have also gotten a hold on some of uards, and as much as it shames me to admit, I have so far failed to e up with solutions to this problem.”

  “Right…” Balthazar said, eyeing a ceramic jar on a nearby dresser and w if it tained any cookies. “And why exactly are you telling me all this?”

  “Ah, I see you are testing my iions,” the smirking woman said, turning from the window to face him again. “I get it. You’re not fully vinced about my goals yet. A smart precaution.”

  The crab stared at her with unblinking eyes.

  What is she on about?!

  “I will y my cards oable, then, Mr. Balthazar,” the mayor said, sitting back down. “I am running out of options and time. This crime spree ot tinue, but when my own guards have been promised, it bees much more plicated to put a stop to it.”

  “Have you tried getting some adveo look into it and solve the problem for you?” the mert said with a shrug. “They love doing quests, if there’s a reward.”

  The city keeper shook a finger in front of her face. “Great minds think alike, my friend. I khat would be your first thought, as was mine. Especially given your famed history with adventurers ba your homend. But no, unfortunately, that proved to not be the best option.”

  Balthazar frowned. “Why not?”

  Lady Marquessa sighed.

  “Let’s just say that this task seems to require a lot more fihan what be expected from the on adventurer. I have made some attempts to employ the services of a feiring heroes from the guild, but tasks that require anything beyond what be solved through sword, bow, or spell, are far beyond the reach of their kind.”

  “Ahh,” the crab said with a nod and a knowing expression. “I think I kly what you mean. What you are saying is that most adventurers are as dumb as a door nail. I totally uand your pain.”

  The woman threw an exasperated shrug over her desk. “I mean, foodness’s sake, the st attempt I made to hire an adveo iigate this ended with several horses running loose oreets, a lost shipment of mead barrels, and a barn being buro the ground. When asked about it, the idiot kept bbbing about how nobody had told him stealth wasn’t optional, whatever that eve.”

  “Tsk, tsk. Typical adventurers,” the crab said, while crossing his arms and slowly shaking his shell.

  “So,” the guildmaster tinued, “you imagine how hopeful I became when I found out that the one who took down the corrupt slimeball of Ardville’s merts guild had just walked into my city, and what’s more, had just e to my niece’s aid while she was being harassed by those lowlifes. Someone of your renown ing and bravery is exactly who I o solve my mango thieves problem.”

  Balthazar kept nodding along. “Right, of course. Not t, but I really am…” His eyestalks suddenly shot up. “Wait, you wao do what?!”

  “I wish to hire your vast skills to dismahis corrupt operation pguing my city, and uncover who is behind this dark scheme,” Baroness Marquessa decred.

  The mert stared at her for a couple of very quiet seds.

  “I’m… not sure that’s for me. Besides, I’m no adveo be taking o—”

  “Naturally, you’d be very well pensated for any aid you could provide. The Marquessa family always shows great gratitude to its allies.”

  The mert’s antennae suddenly perked up. “What kind of pensation are we talking about here?”

  Lady Octavia iwined her fingers again. “The moary kind, for starters. But I know a simple payment in would not suffice for someone like you…”

  No, it totally would, but go on…

  “I knorodigal mert like yourself would surely have an i in opening trade routes with us. After all, Marquessa is the trade capital of Mantell. Help me solve my problem, and you will find the gates of uildhall open to you and your business. And as a cherry on top of the cake, I would personally lend you the serviy most trusted right-hand man to guide you to your destination on the coast.”

  Balthazar rubbed his with the back of his cw.

  I do like cakes…

  “What say you to my offer, Mr. Balthazar?” the baroness asked, her intense gaze fixed on the crab from across the desk.

  He let out a quiet sigh.

  It’s just one quick side task. How long could it take?

  “I’ll do it,” the crab decred.

  [Quest accepted: Marquessa’s Mangoes]