Augusta had a hard time believing that this was a job that was truly being assigned to her, given not only her role within the Rune Knights, but also the fact that her reputation at this point was not one in which was hard to have imagined viewed with a level of doubt and concern amongst those within the power structure of Crocus. Augusta had already been regarded as a radical, one who was more than likely to take aggressive action when it was not needed, to go the extra route to ensure tha thtere was retribution and force applied when it might not have called for it. Rather than be rude though, she met with the client, Lady Merlin, a woman who was highly regarded within the Crocus eite and was one who had been one of the few allies and supporters towards Augusta’s reputation and behavior. Her willingness to be aggressive was one of the things that she liked most, especially given that she ha a job that she had to have taken care of, an item that was going to have been transported that she could not have afforded to allow fall into the hands of others. As such, it demanded that there would have been a greater risk and reward associated with it, and if Augusta was someone who was willing to undergo and engage this job, there would be a reward that was absolutely going to have been worth it for her. Once Augusta had come to agree with the terms of the job, she got the full details as to why it was that she was being hired.

As Lady Merlin explained it to Augusta, there was a valuable item that was being delivered to her that she needed it fully intact. Apparently, the company unit that was being used to deliever this item, much to Lady Merlin’s disappointment, was not known for having been the most delicate and making sure that things were destroyed or not. She did not want to have dealt with them herself, but it was not a decision in which she was allowed to select, and because of that, there was a needed to ensure that there was going tob e a level of authority and control to ensure that the caravan would go through and do everything that was required of them. If they were going to be difficult, that was fine, but it was going to be something in which they were going to have bear and deal with. Lady Merlin explained that Augsuta would have full authority and control over what these people were goingt od o ro not, and therefore it was enough of an incentive for her to take the job, as there could have been huge implications for them to fial. At the same time too, it meant that if she was given all of this control, if the item was damage, she was going to bear the weight of the failed job.

500/3000

She was not sure exactly when it was that this caravan might have arrived within Crocus, but it was very clear that they were set to arrive today. Lady merlin had done everything in her power to ensure that she knew all of the details as to what the caravan was doing, when it was set to arrive, everything of that nature. However though, the question remained that there were some things that were left unclear, which only further added to the negative reputation of this caravan service. Not only had they been known to have destroyed things that they were responsible for delivering, but their laziness was another thing which she had come to find out about, which only further made her think that this would have been a mistake. She did however at least knew where the caravan was going to arrive at, and with that information, Augusta made sure that she was there beforehand. She knew where it was going to have been, and the fact that they made that information available, it certainly was something which pleased Augsuta, to the point where she did not have to think or worry that it might have been one of the numerous other entrances into Corcus that it might have been that they were set to arrive at or towards. Knowing this, she deicded to focus on makings ure that she beat the caravan’s arrival and make sure that they understood exactly what it was that they were going to be getting into.

Immediately with what she had noticed of the people who were working for the caravan, lazy was absolutely a trait that would be used to describe them. They clearly did not care about what was going on, they did not seem to think anything of this job other than the fact that it was apparently a job in which they were getting paid very little, and because of that, there was no sort of investment on their end or that they cared at all towards. It was really a scenario that made it very hard for them to honestly care if things wer egoing to be impeded or not. That was not their worry, just that they were going to have gotten paid or not. Augusta though, was not someone who was going to tolerate that, and she made very clear of that right from the beginning, demanding that they had focus on what they were doing, otherwise it was going to have led to a huge amount of problems, and even, to what she had made reference towards, a possible willingness to end their lives. It would not have worried her if it would have been the case or not, but she did want to make sure that they were going to suffer if it came to that, and while there were some of them who did not believe her, enough of them were worried that it might have been that she truly was serious.

1000/3000

The caravan began moving along with out serious issues, though it was hardly an enjoyable trip, especially for the peope who were working on the caravan. They did not like being told what to do, nor did they like the fact that Augusta was so willing to exercise her authority and threaten the people for failing to take care of what they were being paid to do, as though that were such a terrible task that was being assigned to them. After a short bit of time that they were travelling, the caravan stumbled upon what appeared to be their first challenge, a main street that was heavily populated. It wasn’t as though the caravan could not have made it through as it easily could have, but the biggest challenge was that it was a spot that was notorious for pickpockets. Alhough it was the fastest route into getting the item where they wanted it to go, as the caravan wanted it to go, Augusta had at least enough knowledge nad information to make sure that if they had gone this way, it stood to put them at huge risk of being pickpocketed, and not knowing the item, if it were being held by one of them or not, it was not something that she was going to willing to risk. The men complained about this idea, wanting to just go through the main route, as it was far easier and would have saved them far more time than it would have if they were goingt obe expected o make a bunch of different alternate routes.

Augusta knew that this was going to take a much longer amount of time than that of what they were hoping to have had it take. The only thing that she could have done was to make sure that they followed the job as they were assigned, and Augusta made sure that they were forced to do just that, at one point threatening to hold one of the men over the side of a bridge that would have likely killed them if they were to be dropped on a ship that might have passed beneath them. It frightened the men, but it made sure that the point was put across the rest of them. They were not going to fight Augusta on this one, and rather than worry and risk their own safety for a job that they clearly did not care about, they decided to follow Augusta’s orders and take the outer routes through the city. They were not nearly as fast as the main route was, almost being about twice as long as what it might have been if they went that way, but it was one that did not pose anywhere near the level of risk that might have come with the normal roads. As they continued on, Augusta heard more of the whispers about the people working who were upset. She did not care and only wanted them to continue.
 
1500/3000

The path down this road was long and boring. There was nothing that was very eciting about this route, only that they were going to have been taking longer and longer than if it were on main roads. As had been known though for a while, the issue with the main roads were the poorer people of the city who were likely to have caused problems for the caravan if they were to run into them. On the alternate roads, there was far less of htat, much because there ws not nearly the amount of traffic there to warrant them being populated, but also because the bars and businesses in which they were more likely to go towards, they did not spend nearly enough time or money to build owards those roads. And nor did the city spend much time working to maintain the roads, as as the caravan made their way through the back roads, it became clear that they were goingt o run into an issue with the construction taking place. There was no way that the caravan was going to have been able to make their way through that, not without running into issues that were only going to even more delay the caravan than what it was already looking at because of the alternative routes that they had decided to take. Rather than go ahead ant try their luck with the other routes, they instead oted to take another route, going through some of the alleyways, thugh that was going to have posed a huge risk and challenge for the caravan, even more than what Augusta might have realized at the time.

It took them a long while to maneuver through the alleyways. Theyw ere far more tight than in which Augusta had initially come to believe that they were. She thought it would have been a case of them just using them to get around the construction, perhaps even using them to cut out a huge amount of time that they might have lost due to having gone around in these alternative routes, but it was very clear that as they were going throught them that there were no easy way of them getting around them. Rather than going through this route, she wondered if the other options might have been a better idea than this. Granted, there were huge risks that stood with the main road, none of them seemed to be like this, the constant adjustments and challenges that they were being forced to content with, it was hard to believe that it was worth it. At some point or another, it was clear that this was going to have been not worth the venture, and maybe it already had been at that point, but it was also quite clear they had invested so much to get to this oint, they could not stop now. The best thing that they could have done was just through the alleyways and continue along their route.

2000/3000

The sounds that seemed to echo just in the distance were what they happened to hear sounded like that of someone running away, the other bit of commotion being that there appeared to have been a number of Rune Knights who were yelling in the distance. They sounded far away, but it was hard to say given the fact that the allyeways were often ones in which intersected with one another. It would not have been hard to believe that what might have been a he distance away was one that could have been covered in a very short distance by going through the alleyways. It left them with a bit of a reason to worry, especially given that there might have been people who were part of the caravan that were likely wanted for something or another. If the Rune Knights ran into them, it was likely that they might have had reason to suspect that the person they were purusing might have been someone that would have tried to slip into the caravan. Rather than take this risk, not for the sake of the people, but rather the amount of time that it would have taken, evne in respects to the amount of time that they had lost throughout all of this, she was not going to allow them any more of a chance to be slowed down. It was not going to be worth it, regardless of how much it might have been that this was nothing more than a wasteful venture.

She was not sure just how long it was that they had been spending time trying to coordinate things between one another, trying to ensure that it was that they were working to make sure that they could have gone through while making sure as to avoid the Rune Knights. It took a while, and there were more than a few routes in which they had to take in order ot ensure that they were not caught. It was very clear that there was worry amongst the people who were were part of this caravan at this point, and while she figured it would probably have been a safer option to have given them fair warning of what to expect or that she was not going to allow them to run into the Rune Knights, the way they had acted earlier did not lend themselves to being considered trust worthy, nor deserving of that sort of assurances. They were moving faster on their own while believing that they were being hunted than they were just moving, and to give them some infomraiton like they were not going to have been hunted, it would have caused so much problem to the point where she did not think that they would have been able to move quickly enough. After enough of a time going through the stupid alleyways, it looked like they were in good shape, with only a short distance left before they reached their desitnation.

2500/3000

However, even though they ha seemed to reach the home stretch by this point, it looked like the caravan had no interest in going any further. As to why, it was clear this was an issue about time and pride. They wanted to have been done much earily than this, and they were not happy with how Augusta had treated them, and she was not going to apologize for that. They dserveed all of the punishment and criticism that they were going to have gotten, as that was their reputation, that was what they had become known for. They had up to this oint lived up to their name, with the only time that they were even slightly impressive being when they were worried about the Rune Knights at all. In spite of this, and even in spite of the fact that Augusta had made a real effort in trying to make sure that they did nto get captured by the Rune Knights, they were not going to move any further. Auusta was irate at this, ready to kill them all herself, but she stopped herself. Demanding instead that they give her the item that was to be transported, she was illing to allow them to deal with everything. They may not have realized it or not, but they were in the middle of one of the largest cities in Fiore, with no clear way as to where to go, with a bunch of Rune Knights that may have been looking for them. If they insisted on making sure that they were not going to go further, Augusta was not going to stop them.

They were actually far closer than what she had realized that they might have been, as it only took Augusta a short time to actually reach Lady Merlin with the item. She was actually very impressed by the whole thing, though it was clear that she knew more of the truth as to what had happened, it being that the caravan was not going to work out, which was something that she was worried about right form the beginning, and it unforutnatley validated all the concerns they had. In the future, it was clear tha thtey were not going to have done work with them again, and even though they were angry with how things had turned out, it was at least better to know that this was a job that was done than it was to have worried or otherwise carried on with things. Augusta got paid well and after having told Lady Merlin all of the things in which she had to go through dealing with the caravan, she had come to find out that there were only a small bit of thigns that she was going to have had to deal with. Lady Merlin offered to give a greater reward to Augusta who did accept this, and after having completed their work, Lady Merlin was pleased and hopefully they’d work together. Augusta agreed.

3000/3000