It was only a few hours from sunrise when a paper airplane flew in through the window. Shiina poked her head out the window and looked around for the person who'd sent it, but she couldn't make anything out in the streets. The glittering magelights that littered the streets and reflected off the gilding everywhere created a riot of shadows that thieves and ambush predators could use to skitter almost anywhere.

  "Maybe I could toss rotten fruit from up here," Shiina mused as she turned back to the letter. It'd get some good surprises at least.

  The letter was fairly simple. "Follow the feather after the guild auction." Shiina put it on the dresser for Zanya and went back to her book.

  As the sky started brightening in preparation for sunrise, Zanya and Delilah woke up. As Delilah worked on her hair Zanya checked the note and grunted. "Want to wake up Ife?" the ophidian asked.

  "Sure~!" Shiine grinned. She was always happy to help with things like this. After a moment she grabbed a feather quill out of her bag and got to work. She tried starting with Ife's fluffy ears, but they were good at unconsciously flicking away tickling annoyances. Ife didn't seem any closer to consciousness.

  She shifted her attention to the foxgirl's nose, with much better results. A sneeze and a sudden jerk had Ife sitting up before her brain finished waking up. Shiina waved as Ife's brain slowly caught up to her body. "Good morning."

  Ife blinked a few times before giving a rather unladylike snarl. Still the woman's attention turned to the matter at hand. "We get a message?"

  "We have to go to the guild auction," Zanya said.

  Ife sighed. "Dried fruits for breakfast then."

  Delilah cursed. "Doesn't the guild have someplace to eat if they force us to run there so early?" A good question in Shiina's mind. Humanoids needed food.

  "The local 'guild' is just a branch of the city government. The dungeons are so desirable they can break some of the usual rules. They do things like this to keep adventurers in line," Zanya said.

  "And poor," Ife added. "Many people come here hoping to get rich raiding the local dungeons for gold and gems. But Al Jirtea is very good at making sure the gold goes to the city, and not the pockets of fortune seekers."

  Shiina nodded slowly. "If you want to actually get rich off delving, sell adventuring gear." Mali had said that a lot.

  She waited as the humanoids prepared for the day, then hopped onto Delilah's back as a 'pack.' The streets were pleasant, still covered in the cool from night while still bright with the dawn. Those that had active jobs, mostly slaves, were out and about, taking advantage of the cool to get their jobs done.

  Zanya led them south, through the streets filled with expensive looking eateries and jewelry stores. However as they continued on things started to change. First the signs started to have more silver than gold, and the wares decreased in price. Then stores that advertised they would buy gold and gems began appearing. The buildings started becoming more and more utilitarian as well, with none of the artwork or tiling.

  And then the whole city seemed to stop and a new one began. A city of tents and houses in poor repair. Facing this mess were stores advertising adventuring gear at what were utterly ridiculous prices. At least the guild building was easy to find. A shining edifice in the midst of what could only be called passable lodging. The best thing that could be said about this chunk of the city was that it was small.

  The people here were a mix of races, much like the merchants. But these people were dusty and mean looking. Their little group got a lot of dangerous glares before being dismissed. It was obvious new adventuring groups weren't welcome. But everyone was more interested in getting to the guild hall.

  Shiina had to force herself from popping out and peering over the crowd as they got to the guild hall proper. What she'd assumed was a proper building was just an elaborate facade hiding the real guild hall. The adventurers got to stand in the square out front. At least the walls gave some shade.

  They continued to get glares as they found a place near the back to stand. Shiina didn't want to know what would have happened if they'd tried to push forwards. She saw at least five arguments break out, and only the intervention of others had kept one from turning violent.

  The place was starting to warm up when a gong rang out. To Shiina's great relief there was apparently a platform in front of the guild house, because three women rose above the crowd into view. All of them were wearing rather aggressively cut clothes, but still had enough business aura that they had some respectability. Shiina tried to memorize the ensemble for later.

  The woman in the middle adjusted her glasses and folded her hands. "The auction for this week will begin. To start, I must inform you all that the Shimmering Mines have already been taken. Wessle's Warriors have extended their contract for a week, giving them control of both initial runs and follow up mining."

  A wave of indignation and rage swept the crowd. A man up front seemed to speak for the majority. "What do you mean extended again?! Those bastards have been sitting on that dungeon for two weeks! Are you trying to keep us out of work so we take your damn loans?!"

  The woman seemed unconcerned. "Bidding is the most fair system for the mine's owners, and we have no connection to the moneylenders. Are you willing to pay ninety nine percent of your findings to beat their bid?" The crowd grumbled and yelled some more accusations and a few curses, but Shiina noticed no one left. "Very well. We'll start the bidding for the Shimmering Sandpit. First is the Antlion's Gauntlet path."

  As various groups started yelling out percentages, Delilah looked to Zanya. Shiina wished she could do the same, but she'd have to rely on her companion to show curiosity.

  Fortunately Zanya quietly answered. "They allow one group to attack a dungeon path, and one to do a followup run. Each has to bid how much of their winnings they'll offer to the city for the privilege."

  As the numbers rapidly reached into the seventies Zanya continued. "As you might guess, desperate groups with loans due overbid to try to meet their deadlines. That keeps profits down for everyone and ensures the next group will need to take loans out." The 'winner' claimed the run for eighty seven percent of the profit. "All but the best run groups collapse and leave paupers or are sold into slavery in two years."

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Shiina now wished she could talk so she could ask about burning the city down again, but since the answer probably wouldn't change she forced herself to watch the auction play out. Ife put in a few low bids that didn't go anywhere, but in general they just stood around and watched people who were at the end of their rope make bad choices. The exceptions were a couple of very organized groups that took the level 31 paths.

  Finally the last auction finished, leaving only the winners to plan their dungeon runs, and the losers to leave for another day. No one had the effort to spare glaring at newbies. Ife's play had made them look like clueless rubes who'd pass through soon.

  "That wasn't worth missing breakfast for," Delilah said as they began their walk back north. Shiina softly vibrated in agreement. She didn't even need to eat that often, but this whole thing had just been depressing.

  "That wasn't worth waking up for," Ife stated, her tail drooping behind her. "You could have handled this yourself Zanya."

  Zanya shook her head. "You're not foisting this off on me. We all suffer together."

  Suddenly the feather pin Shiina had gotten from Mali seemed to shiver. Her attention was drawn to the building to their left. It was a kitchen that looked like it had private tables, and there was a woman with a veil staring at them by the entrance. A few moments later Shiina noticed the woman was wearing a feather pin as well.

  Shiina bided her time as their group followed the woman into the restaurant. She led them to a large booth and closed the curtains before pulling a wand from her belt and tapping the barrier. "I call upon you Secrecy, muffle all Sound." The cloth shimmered for a second as the spell took hold. The woman removed her veil. "We should be safe now."

  Figuring that was her cue to relax, Shiina shifted to her preferred form. "So what would you have done if we took a different route back to the inn?"

  "Pretended you'd gotten lost on the way to meeting me." The woman pouted at Shiina. "Look, it's hard doing my job here. The nobles have their hands in everything. I can't just hide in the guild like the others do."

  Ife leaned on the table. "Speaking of jobs, what even is our job?"

  The woman showed a yellow gem. "Your job is to confirm if our suspicions about someone trying to open the dungeon is correct, attempt to convince the people involved not to do anything stupid, and if that fails, possibly an assassintion to slow things down. The Arbiters have prepared support items, and will send additional people if you need to abort the mission."

  Ife groaned as her ears flipped back while Zanya rubbed her forehead. Shiina slumped into her chest as well. That sounded like it'd be super hard, and might not even get finished while they were there. She didn't want to run away in the desert and then figure out what happened from some note three months later.

  Delilah however knew the correct response. "Stew and wine."

  Shiina perked up. "Oh yeah. That's what was on the menu! Lamb right? I wanna try it with the local spices." The place had to be getting all sorts of dried goods in, so there'd probably be a lot of interesting flavors!

  Their contact blinked a few times. "Can't you buy your own?"

  "I refuse to deal with any more vague nonsense on an empty stomach," Delilah stated.

  After a moment Ife's tail started to swish. "That's actually a good idea. Chilled wine and good bread too. Make it a business expense."

  "Ugh, those take forever to get repaid!" Their contact looked annoyed, but after a moment she carefully slipped out the curtain.

  Shiina looked to Zanya. "This isn't common right?"

  "Very unusual," the woman replied. "They're probably short on people in the area. My guess is if we can't do it, one of the Arbiter leaders will have to handle the matter."

  "And they really hate that," Ife added.

  Their contact slipped back in, putting down a heavily laden tray. "Here. I'm only doing this because I know the mission sucks."

  Shiina let the humanoids grab their portions first before ladling a bit for herself. As she'd hoped the spices were excellent. Dry and tangy, adding unique flavors to the stewed meat and vegetables. The broth was thicker than any she'd had before as well, even if it was mostly lentil.

  After tasting her own meal Ife spoke up again. "So what is happening at the Shimmering Mines? It sounds like there is a group of adventurers working the place. How is the dungeon going to end up busted open?"

  The woman rolled her eyes. "For two percent of the profit? No, that's a front for their real plan."

  Zanya nodded. "That did stand out. But why are you certain they're the ones planning to reopen the dungeon? My guess was they were going to steal a bunch of money and run."

  "Their boss, Wassel. He's always been anti slavery, and he's working with the local desert tribes. The tribes that Al Jirtea raids for slaves." The woman pulled out some papers showing the man. A middle aged catfolk warrior with a two handed sword. "Our divinations have confirmed the dungeon will be opened in three weeks. He's level forty at last check, so I doubt anything could get past him, much less all the other adventurers and guards."

  Delilah folded her arms. "Are you sure this isn't a self fulfilling prophecy?"

  The woman sighed. "We did our best. Divination is hard, okay! But that's why you're going in to negotiate first. We don't care about anything else so long as the dungeon stays closed. They want to burn the city, salt the earth, unleash a zombie plague? Not an Arbiter problem. But, uh, if so please tell me so I can leave."

  "So are we getting any tools for this mission?" Ife asked. "Because I'm not going to walk into their camp and announce I'm an Arbiter agent. And if they want us to do an assassination on someone in the forties their guards are going to be able to beat us even if we get an assassination shot."

  "Yes. I was actually curious about the gear they sent, but now that I've met you it makes sense." She pulled out an Arbiter rune, along with three face masks and a shimmering green potion. "These masks will conceal your identity. Avoid giving your names and even level fifty mages won't be able to place you later. The effect won't last past a week, so feel free to destroy them when you're done. We'll do our usual memory filtering service, but obviously that's less effective on high level people in memorable situations.

  "Of course a mask won't work for a mimic, so instead we have a potion of skill." The woman pushed the flask in front of Shiina. "Your mimic skill will be boosted for two days. I've been told you shouldn't try anything special with it though. Just items."

  Shiina felt a little bit of disappointment at that, but that quickly faded as she picked up the potion. "So two days of boost huh? Guess that means I should be able to fool almost any adventurer."

  Zanya nodded. "That'll help if we need to go for the assassination. Still I hope it doesn't come to that." She spread out the papers. "Let's start planning."

  Cuisine in Al Jirtea's actually super varied. They have to import food from outside and their choices are restricted by 'whoever's willing to sell to them.' The super rich can eat whatever they want, but even the just normally rich people have to settle for what's available. One month might have the stores flooded with couscous, the next there's only rice and lentils. Similarly meat and vegetables are almost always preserved in some way. It's cheaper to buy saffron than fresh beef around here.

  That's led to a lot of stews, casseroles, and rice dishes. Heavy on easily transported staples, with a heavy use of herbs and spices. As a mimic the taste is exquisite but the portions are way too big. Fortunately I can hand my extras to Delilah.

  As for what the poor eat, it didn't look great. Ife said that if it weren't for dried fruits being so cheap people would be dying of malnutrition constantly. As it is, gruel and meal are the most common, with flatbreads being a close second.

  Carrying lots of liquids is kinda a pain, so wine is uncommon. It's too much of a status symbol to simply ignore, so apparently a lot of money is spent subsidizing wine merchants. But the stuff is still expensive. More common drinks are teas and other infusions. With some fortified beers to keep the poor too drunk to plot.