The merchant-guild station was a great hub for trading located in the capital of every country. The merchant-guild of Neilwisk, like many of its counter-parts throughout the continent, was in the heart of the city. In this part of the city, the streets were neither posh nor fancy; the smell in the vicinity was not of perfume, rather it was smokey — foul and putrid.

  The building was the largest in the city — not including the estates of the wealthy. It had a great front made up of bricks and common-wood, but there was also an alley-way of sort that was large enough for carriages to pass through with ease — the pathway led to a connected warehouse where all sorts of goods were stored, sold and bought from regulars.

  Harwin's party entered through the main door. They were greeted with a pleasant view. There was a tavern where all sorts of people gathered to eat, drink, but most importantly discuss business. There was simple furniture and decor throughout guild-station, but it was large enough to almost never feel crowded.

  The party went straight towards the reception, which had counters of sort, having enough receptionists to accommodate ten people at once — making the process rather efficient.

  The receptionist that Harwin addressed was a petite girl who looked not a day over fifteen, but as all others were busy so he approached her:

  "I am Gor. I wish to sell a few goods, and perhaps buy some if the price is right."

  "Greetings to you! I am Sara. Can I inquire what sort of items do you intend to sell and buy?"

  "Weapons and armory are the items for sale whilst wheat and wool is what I am interested in."

  "I see, if you have the items with you, I can take you to the appraiser and you can discuss with them further."

  "Please do so."

  They were led to the back of the station where there were various doors. It was a huge hall of sort, with the usual chairs and other furniture.

  “Please wait here for a while. The goods you are carrying are somewhat restricted in these lands, so you will have to have them inspected by the master of the guild,” she left after saying that.

  During that time, Alisa and Landel inquired Harwin about what had taken place in the guard-station. He was reluctant at first due to the grotesque nature, but finally explained them everything. To his surprise, they were not shocked or disgusted by any of it, so Harwin felt as if he was the one who had a problem.

  Soon, Sara returned and guided them to a room. This time as well, Harwin and Farelen, were the only ones who went in.

  The man in the room was an elf. He had blonde hair, and a very pale skin. His stature was obviously not that of a warrior, and even though sitting, he still appeared to be quite short. Still, the man gave the impression of being cunning and clever as he was eye-balling the two from the moment they had stepped in.

  “Welcome to my humble Guild, I am Adlenfel. Do you need any refreshments?” He asked.

  “No, but we are grateful for the offer. I am Gor and this is Farelen. I am thankful to you for giving us time out of your busy schedule.” Harwin replied.

  “Oh, you are a merchant alright, of-course, in our line of work we can not spare time, even if we have to spare everything else. I will go straight to the point then, kindly show me the weapons that you intend to sell for appraisal.”

  Farelen had been carrying a huge sack tied to his back, but due to his huge frame, he was unbothered by the size or the weight.

  He untied it and brought forward various items such as bow, arrows, spears, swords and armor pieces. After appraising them swiftly the guild-master placed them back and said:

  “The bows and arrows are certainly well-made, but all the other equipment is rather old and appeared to have been worn-out. May I ask where have you obtained them from?” he asked — suspicions of it being stolen loot.

  “Everything except the bows and arrows are spoils of war. We annihilated a great bandit-camp located in the great-forest, all of this equipment has been obtained from there.” Farelen answered clearly — he was abit agitated.

  “No need to be so impatient my friend. I am sure this companion of yours knows that such protocols need to be followed due to the nature of the goods involved.”

  Farelen looked at Harwin who nodded in agreement as well.

  “What is your offer then?” Harwin asked calmly.

  “The bow is worth about one silver, the arrows about one bronze each, and all the rest are basically scrapes that will need to be repaired so I can buy in weight rather than quantity.” He answered which only further annoyed Farelen but he remained quiet.

  “That is far too low. I understand that you bear the risk in the worn-out items, but the bows and arrows are worth far more. I say at-least ten silver for the bow and five bronze for each arrow. We also have a few items that we would like to purchase from your guild if the price is right. I want you to cooperate with me, so we can both walk out of this deal satisfied.” Harwin proposed.

  “What kind of goods are you looking for?” the guild-master asked.

  “Wool and wheat are the primary goods that we need for now.” Harwin replied.

  “Instead of wheat, I advise you to buy flour. The market has an ample supply of it — the cost of one sack is about one silver. We do not have wool to sell for now. I can buy all your goods; let me rephrase my offering, I will offer you three silver for each bow and two bronze for each arrow. I believe that is more than enough considering I will have to sell them as well. I can assure you that you will not find a better offer than this. I will buy all other items for five bronze per kilogram (2.2lbs).” The shrewd elf gave the final offer.

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  “Your advice is certainly great. I agree with your rate as well (he had already checked the market and one silver for a sack was the market-rate). We have about one hundred and fifty armor pieces, two hundred swords, one hundred quivers filled with twenty arrows each and a hundred bows.” Harwin accepted the term.

  “Very well, I can buy all your goods, but only after inspection of the whole stock.” The guild-master stated.

  “I am grateful. We will bring around all the carriages to your building at dawn-break, so you can inspect the items, and then we can finalize the deal regarding the flour as well.” Harwin offered.

  “That is fine with me." He shook the hands of both of them.

  After all was said and done, they made their way back to the caravan as swiftly as they could. They had not even bothered to take back some food with them, due to the amount of silver in their possession.

  Efrion was quite satisfied by the results of this venture, that is once he heard the accounts of the day from Harwin.

  It was dusk, but few shops were still open so Efrion along with two younglings went to the city and brought back some meat to celebrate their success. Everyone was overjoyed.

  In the later hours of night when it was the turn of Landel and Harwin to guard, Alisa also followed them and they talked about all kinds of stuff. The most interesting part was:

  “I am sorry to mention this, but I need more information regarding something and have no-one else to turn to. What sort of sickness, or plague did the village get infected with in the past?” Harwin asked the two.

  It was difficult subject for them, as both had lost their loved ones to it.

  “It is a strange sickness. First the infected person gets a strange cough that keeps on getting worse. Soon he is bed-ridden with a fever, from then on there is blood in the cough, eventually leading to death. Healing spells do not work on the infected, it only suppresses the symptoms temporarily. Iquaral had deduced that there might be cure to it, but it was clearly not something that we could get with the limited resources we possessed.” Alisa explained all she knew about the disease.

  "How many times has it infected the villagers?" Harwin asked again.

  "Many times in past but the worst one was two or three decades ago when it wiped out nearly a quarter of the village population." Landel added.

  "I see."

  "Why do you ask this all of a sudden?" Alisa inquired.

  "The city is quite grand, there are all sorts of places in it, so we might be able to figure out the origin of the disease, if pointed in the right direction by someone knowledgeable." Harwin replied.

  Landel and Alisa were surprised at this statement. If something like this were to happen, the lives of so many of their brethren could be saved.

  In the morrow, they met with the guild-master once more and finalized their deal. In the end, they were able to obtain enough flour for the village to last the entire winter whilst obtaining a grand sum of two-hundred silver empyreans as well.

  Harwin inquired from the guild-master regarding someone who could treat diseases or was knowledgeable about them. Instead of being pointed towards a mage, they were sent to a street which was covered in a strange smell of something foreign, or at-least thought to be such by Harwin — the smell of chemicals.

  They were in the streets of alchemists. Apparently humans had not only researched in the fields of magika, but had begun to research in nature itself which led to the practice of alchemy. It was relatively new in this world, but due to the extensive knowledge of spells and magika, they had progressed quite significantly since the last few decades.

  Harwin's party had been given the address of a specific building — it was the most famous practice in the city for treating all sorts of diseases without the use of spells.

  Harwin knocked only to find the door already unlocked:

  "Come in." A voice came from the inside.

  They were greeted with a sharp, pungent smell — much more stronger than in the streets. A man was sitting in the hallway studying something. He, without looking at them, stated:

  “Who are you, and what is the reason for being here?” the man asked.

  “I am sorry to have bothered you. I am Gor, and we were led here in search of the cure of a disease.” Harwin replied.

  “What sort of disease?” he asked in an unbothered manner.

  “The elfin village from time to time succumb to a strange illness: it starts with a cough, and then ultimately results in the death of anyone who incurs it. Anyone who becomes infected always lose their lives, none of the healing spells work on it either. The mage of the village had tried to cure it using magika, alas, nothing worked.” He explained to the best of his ability.

  The man finally stood up and faced them. He appeared to be human, and was a rather tall lanky fellow with an extremely pale skin.

  “Wood-elves, I presume. Of-course, you are a human.” The man finally inspected the intruders.

  "Yes, we are from the great-forest, which lies to the west from here."

  "I see. Give me more details regarding the disease!" He demanded rather than asking.

  After much inquiry from Farelen and Alisa who were proficient in human-tongue — the man called upon someone:

  "Erek! fetch me the book with the red-leather cover. It is in the upper-right corner of the second shelf."

  A person, with a similar figure to the first man, appeared after some-time. In his hand was a large book. Without any explanation, the first person began to go through the contents of the book slowly.

  Farelen grew annoyed, but Harwin tried to calm him down. Soon he finally spoke:

  “It is a rare disease that is only common amongst the wood-elves or anyone who lives in a great-forest. It is caused due to eating a small plant found there, but can also be transmitted through the air, or of-course from anyone infected. It is almost always lethal, but can be avoided by simply not coming in contact with the plant which is known as ‘the green death’ — it is similar to a weed in shape and color, but has a clear white line extending from the middle of it. Any animal, which consumes it, can also be effected by it thus when someone consumes the infected animal they will suffer the same fate. Do you know of it?"

  The elves nodded. They knew it by a different name, and it was considered edible in the village. He continued:

  "As for the treatment, anyone who shows the symptoms in the first few days should consume a special potion. I have the knowledge of how to brew it, but it is certainly expensive due to the material required which are quite rare in this city.”

  “How much will it cost?” Harwin asked.

  “Around one gold empyrean. As it is a rare disease that I will gain experience from working on so I have not added any profit on the cost. Essentially, it is just the cost of materials that will be required to be covered.”

  “I am grateful. If you will be so kind to brew it today for us, as we have to travel back to the village tomorrow. Of-course, I will be forever in your debt.” Harwin asked.

  “Very well, but it will be ready by tomorrow. I have never brewed it before so I would need to be extremely cautious in the whole process .” He proposed

  “You will do us a great favor." Harwin slightly bowed.

  "It is not a problem. I will meet you near the city-gates around noon. My name Reik."

  The two shook hands, Harwin's party exited the building.

  The rest of their day was spent looking around the city. They had one final mission of spreading the word of the newly formed passage through the great-forest so they made announcements at various spots. The captain of the guard-station, who had helped them claim the bounties, was kind enough to back their statements as well. All in all, they had a great success in this journey.

  In the night, Harwin slept in peace only to be disturbed by the same figure that had disrupted his rest many times...