The man across from him shivered and pulled his thick woolen cloak a bit tighter. Despite spring already on the distant horizon, it was still fairly chilly outside as the last vestiges of winter kept their firm grasp on the world. He was just thankful there wasn't any snow. Not that it snowed often around Saltbrook, there was almost never any cloud cover, but it could happen. Contrary to the man's pitiful display, Jeremy was completely comfortable in the brisk morning air, despite wearing far fewer layers.

  "You're asking some dangerous questions, kid." The man scratched his chin as if deep in thought. "But I might know something. I'm having a bit of trouble remembering, you see. Hit my noggin pretty good the other day. Mayhaps a bit of coin might jog my memory. I'm sure you understand." The air of the man was someone trying to sound tough and unflappable. The slight chattering of his teeth broke the immersion a bit.

  Jeremy laughed internally at the man's audacity. But he guessed it was fair. Jeremy was hiding his aura right now, so it made sense he had no idea who he was trying to shake down. He decided to play along.

  "I see. And does 20 delwin sound like enough to fix that cloudy head of yours?" Jeremy tried to sound less than amused with the posturing.

  The man bobbed his head from side to side a few times. "Hmm, maybe. The injury was pretty bad, you see. I think 40 might be just what I need to get things moving again."

  Jeremy briefly debated punching the man who was easily a quarter of his level, but pushed the childish thought away.

  "For 40, you better have something useful locked in that head of yours. But if I'm not satisfied, I'm taking it back. With interest." Jeremy gave a foreboding smile. "I'm sure you understand."

  The man chuckled without any humor, the breaths coming out in clouds of mist. "My information is good, I assure you."

  This was not the first man Jeremy had been not-so-subtly interrogating, nor would it be the last. Jeremy had a job. One that he had once believed that he was an expert at. A sort of specialized hunter, one could say. If someone needed someone or something found, he found it. End of story.

  Until recently, that was.

  Around six months prior, an extermination expedition was carried out. A Vex hive was discovered terrorizing the region and was promptly razed and burned to the last. Unfortunately, there was a major issue.

  This had been kept from the public eye to prevent panic, but the queen of that hive was never found. Firsthand reports confirmed a visual sighting of the queen and stated she received wounds that should have been lethal. However, during the clash with the queen and her personal guardians, another group of Vex ambushed the vanguard from a hidden side tunnel and distracted them long enough for her to escape. Given the severity of her wounds, the group had assumed she would bleed out and had opted not to push forward into the meat grinder.

  Days later, long after they confirmed every last Vex was dead, and a team of pyromancers had thoroughly cleaned up for extra insurance, it was noted that the body of the hive queen was never found. It wasn't simply an issue of the bodies not being recognizable or burned too badly. Extensive scans were performed to ensure all traces of the infestation were eliminated.

  But the queen's body was not among the dead.

  Fearing she might have been hiding in a secret chamber of the hive, one that was too well hidden for their scouts to find, a team of mages was brought in to scan the hive thoroughly for any signs of life, but they also came up empty.

  Then the unease crept in. What if the queen escaped, somehow?

  A full investigation was started, and almost instantly something came up. One of the adventurer teams hired to ensure there were no escape tunnels had failed in their duties. A small trio of middling adventurers, the Platinum Fists, was attacked while trying to seal one of the tunnels. The vex were defeated at cost, but the sole surviving member of the party was forced to retreat back to base, heavily wounded. It was noted that the survivor failed to close the tunnel after confirming the tunnel led directly to the hive.

  The evidence pointed to an obvious conclusion.

  By this point in the investigation, the city had already loudly claimed the Vex hive was gone and there was nothing to fear, despite the knowledge of the missing queen.

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  If it were literally any other subspecies of Vex, it wouldn't have mattered. They would wander around and might even manage to kill a few travelers before they were eliminated by another monster, or passing adventurers or caravan guards. But a missing hive queen meant it was only a matter of time before another hive appeared to devastate the area.

  That queen needed to be hunted down at all costs.

  Saltbrook made a few discreet calls, and Jeremy answered. Now, here he was all this time later, with nothing to show for it. There was no trail, no sightings of any insectoid monsters nearby, not even a whiff of their passing. That meant that the hive queen was either a tactical genius, to which, all evidence of the previous extermination suggested otherwise, or someone knew something and was covering for the bug. It wouldn't be the first time one of them was captured and used as a live bio-weapon.

  Regardless, he needed to find something to show for his efforts. If it was captured and spirited away to another continent, great. It was no longer their problem. But unless he could actually prove it was no longer around, there was still a chance it could rebuild and learn from its mistakes. The only thing worse than a loose hive queen was a loose hive queen with experience.

  And that led him to the less reputable side of Saltbrook. Saltbrook was a massive city-state with a population in excess of three million residents. The city was pressed against a great saline river that connected to dozens of other major settlements across the edge of the Pilfira continent. Saltbrook was an economic powerhouse and a central trade hub for the region. Between the extensive fleet of trade ships and the endless stream of caravans passing through from the neighboring kingdoms, Saltbrook was the place to go if someone wanted something to move fast. Despite this financial success, the city was also well known for the massive wealth discrepancy between its social classes.

  This made Saltbrook fertile soil for the growth of crime syndicates. It was the ideal spot for them to set up shop. The black market of Saltbrook was infamous across the continent, no matter how hard the city had tried to stomp it out. There were hundreds of darkened hideouts and hidden dens that the city's guard found impossible to even track, let alone shut down.

  Not that the seven noble houses tried too hard. That would be bad for business, after all.

  The black market of Saltbrook was known for its wide-reaching connections. It was said they had their hands in every pocket. If a Vex hive queen passed through here, there was no way it went unnoticed. His current target had been a low-level dealer who ran a small drug trade in the city's underworld near the docks.

  He doubted the man was of high enough standing to have anything relevant, but honestly, Jeremy was getting a bit desperate by this point. The trail had long since grown cold, and he was running out of places to look. By this point, he was just asking anyone who he could get his hands on to find even a hint of a direction to move in.

  "Of course, my info is good, my friend. And it'll be worth every coin." The man's smile was a tad too predatory. But he said nothing more, pointedly eyeing Jeremy's coin pouch.

  Jeremy wanted to roll his eyes. He hated dealing with amateurs. The investigator considered for a few moments, before handing over the bribe. He wasn't the type to haggle with low-lifes. Forty delwin was nothing to him, a drop in the bucket, and he wasn't worried about being led on a false trail. He could find the man and take the money back with little difficulty if he wanted. He had already slipped a tracking ward onto the man's tunic nearly five minutes prior.

  "Fine, you've got your money. Now, talk."

  The dealer chuckled and pocketed the bribe without so much as a glance. "Ah, yes, my memory is coming back. You wanted to know about a bug, right?"

  "Vex," Jeremy corrected. "And don't bother playing games. I'm not in the mood. Tell me what you know."

  "Vex, right, that's the word. Anyway, I haven't heard anything about any live Vex coming through this part."

  Jeremy had already grabbed the man's collar and lifted him off the ground before the dealer even saw him move. "I believe I said no games."

  The thug swallowed hard, his demeanor shifting completely. "I'm not playing any games! Look, the whole damn city was on high alert after the whole hive incident. No one's seen or heard anything about any Vex being smuggled in. That shit would get anyone kicking at the end of a rope, fast!"

  The hunter tightened his grip.

  "BUT!" He patted Jeremy's hands frantically. "But, I do know that around that time, there was word of an egg passing through the usual channels. A Vex queen egg."

  The man let out a sigh of relief and took a few steps back as Jeremy let go. Jeremy gave him a hard stare. "How certain are you?"

  The man gave a nervous smile. "Very. Word made the rounds and there are others who can back up the claim. I don't know anyone directly involved, but it was whispered over mugs of ale for weeks. Far too many rumors for it to be a fake."

  When Jeremy didn't respond, he continued. "I know you said you were looking for a fully grown one, yeah? It sounds related. You look for who sold the egg, and you have a lead. I have an acquaintance by the name of Timothy Redricfield. He claimed he saw the egg briefly when it traded hands. I don't know where he is, but it's a start."

  That was troubling news. If these events were related, and he had no reason to suspect they weren't, then it was almost confirmed that someone captured the queen. Were they attempting to breed it and sell the eggs? That was... He didn't have the words to describe how bad that situation would be. If he had been hoping for a lead before to get this job over with, this newest revelation changed everything. He had to find this Timothy Redricfield, immediately.

  And then, track down the treasonous bastard harboring a live Vex queen.