Before me and Lea left the White Tiger, we discussed the finer parts of the agreement with Sebastian. When asked who he was planning to ask about the noblemen in Lucas’ faction, he wasn’t very willing to give up the answer. After a bit of lifting some of his minions up by the neck, he gave in. His guy in the know was his friend called Nasty Noel. The boys didn’t look too happy about him being involved in this, murmuring something about him not being more than a little mischievous about giving out free potion samples, only having them be prototypes with varied side effects. I had sort of figured it out, but Sebastian verified my suspicions when told me Noel was a potion master and an old friend. His information brokering was a side business that stemmed from his frequent contact with nobility looking to adventure or with assassins looking for the latest in poisons.
Sebastian was willing to tell his boys to go outside and raid the farms of targeted noblemen and women, at a reasonable price. Problem for me was that paying this price more than once was enough to almost drain me of my funds entirely. I did not mention this to Sebastian of course, there would be no real point, I only gave him what money I had now and told him I would be back with more once I saw the results.
Having left I would have to come up with a moneymaking scheme. The best schemer around was Lea, but when I asked her if she would plan something she refused, saying she wanted to observe me and my plans. There was also the matter of the tournament, and Eric. I really didn’t want to run into Eric during or before this tournament, and wearing my armor all of the time, though an option, was somewhat taxing and uncomfortable. I’d rather just stick to the rougher districts, no real chance of him just dropping by here. Thinking about the tournament, when it started I’d have even less time to earn money.
“Lea, when the tournament begins, will you be observing me?”
“Don’t worry darling, I’ll be rooting for you”
“Please stop that”
“Stop what darling?”
“That”
“Do you prefer Al, Al?”
“Honestly, yes, though honestly, I’m not sure if my preferences matter at this point. If anything, it’ll probably work against me, right?”
“Correct, darling”
“Anyway, during my matches, you will be amongst the audience?”
“Correct, darling”
“In that case, do you mind handling some bets?”
“Illegal bets? Are you out of your mind, darling?” Her face betrayed her words, on purpose no doubt.
“Yeah, illegal bets, I’m sure you have a strong dislike for breaking the law and such”
“Don’t worry, darling. I was already planning on handling my own bets, though I guess that’s not what you had in mind?”
“No, I’d like for you to handle some for me, while you’re at it”
“I suppose I could take some of your money”
“And bet it on me?”
“We’ll see, won’t we? You’ll just have trust me darling”
If she did run away with my money, though, I’d be glad to be rid of her. Peace of mind was far more valuable to me than money I could possibly get elsewhere. Maybe I could borrow one of Sebastian’s boys as a front. They would be unlikely to run away from both me and Sebastian, and even if Sebastian were In cahoots with him, he’d lose larger parts of his crew in the process. The more that I thought about it, the more I wanted Lea to just run away.
Having sorted the finances for the tournament days, I’d have to figure something for the coming three days. I couldn’t go around taking it from thieves, most of them were working for me now, taking their money would reduce the raid’s impact and make it more difficult for Sebastian to convince them, in turn pushing his prices up.
This train of thought brought me back to the potion master. I might not be able to steal from thieves, and the middle class wasn’t walking around with a lot of coin any day, but nobles were another matter entirely. Taking down those that sided with Lucas would also help me turn the nobles against him, while making the heir, Magnus, seem like a less trustworthy leader. With this in mind I asked passersby if they knew about a Noel or a Nasty Noel, and after a small amount of time I found someone with knowledge of his infamy and location. A shop called the Nasty Brew, presumably named after the taste of most potions, and possibly the taste of poisons, not that I’d ever tasted that.
Potion craft was an interesting profession. Though I was not entirely familiar with it, I knew it somehow involved storing life magic in some sort of fluid. I had my suspicions said fluid was using the properties of blood along with something else. Blood magicians could after infuse their own blood with magic to manipulate it, though could somebody else drink or apply such blood and have it automatically heal them? Life magic wasn’t that simple, but Eric had demonstrated an innate ability to control it, so I suppose it was possible to do something like that. In fact, I knew it was possible to do something like that, potions were no mere tale after all, and they used the healing properties of life magic.
Arriving at the Nasty Brew, I could see a closed door to a smaller shop on the first floor of a two story building on the outskirts of the rough parts of the capital. Though I hadn’t checked more than the front, it looked very gloomy with no windows apparent. Heading inside I found it to be almost entirely dark, with some light streaming in from the open door I just came through. There were some smaller vials of red liquid stored in some sort of science equipment on the shelves, with varying amounts of liquid in each of the similarly sized vials. In the middle towards the back was a countertop with more vials and some interesting herbs, powder and liquids of a different color than red. Behind the disorganized counter was a disheveled man, roughly the same age as Sebastian who was middle aged. Though, in contrast to him, this man had dark hair on his head and face. Frankly, he had too much of it, and especially the nose and ear hairs were a bit too much, as if the man had never heard of scissors.
When we entered, he looked up at us, grimacing at the light and looking at us as if we didn’t look like customers. To be fair, we weren’t his usual kind of customer.
“What do you two want?” He finally came about to ask, after he had returned his attention to some project in from of him. He was mixing liquids and noting the smell of them.
“We’d like some information”
“What kind of information? If you wanted potion recipes, I doubt I can help you, most of my stuff is more or less made on a whim”
“I’d like the kind of information your friend Sebastian said you’d sell”
“I see, well then you’ll give me the request and I’ll give you a price”
“We’d like a list of the nobles supporting Lucas”
“Supporting the emperor’s right hand man, I presume?”
“Yes”
“Supporting him in what?”
“You know the current political strife between him and Magnus”
“The heir, right?”
“Are there others?”
“That will cost you”
“Yes, the heir of the current Emperor”
“Well, I certainly have parts of that information, but there are layers. Some of the information puts me more at risk than others”
“How many won’t put you at risk to tell me?”
“About half a dozen or so”
“That will do”
“I’ll give you that information for, say, ten gold?”
“That will be fine”
“Then there’s the matter of me keeping my mouth shut”
“What do you mean”
“Well, if you don’t want people that come in here asking about people asking about them or others, to get your appearance and request, you’d do well in paying me to not divulge said information, no?”
“Who’d want to look for something so specific from you?”
“That would cost extra”
“You won’t let just anyone know though, right?”
“Of course, I don’t do free samples. I would charge them, on the other hand, I would tell someone that I have such information, if they would look like prospective buyers of said intel”
Looking at what I had left after today, and thinking about what expenses I had before getting hold of more money, I set aside what I could possibly need for food.
“I’ll pay you 15 gold to keep quiet then, but only if you keep quiet about Sebastian and give him the information you gave me for free”
“I take it you and Sebastian are in cahoots then?”
“You could say so”
“Well then, I find those to be acceptable terms” Noel grabbed a note and some ink, then a few seconds later gave me said note.
“These are the names most of the young nobles divulge to me being open about their support to Lucas. They should therefore not be able to link the information back to me, as almost anyone of the nobles would know. I also added a few unconfirmed ones that the nobles speculate could be a part of the faction as well, though bear in mind they do not openly support Lucas, so this is all just speculation based on their characters and past actions. Should you pay extra, however, I would be able to add to and scratch some off that list”
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“No, this will be sufficient” There were only three days until the tournament after all; I would have neither the time nor the purpose to strike more than a handful of targets.
“Very well then, I wish you a good day”
Leaving the shop me and Lea returned to the Inn to prepare for tonight’s activities. Meaning, I tried to sleep because I was at this point dead tired. Lea did what Lea does, annoy me or, well, annoy me, but in different ways.
Night was upon us and we headed towards the first target. The loudest of the supporters and also one of the richer was currently residing in a city villa in the nobler of districts. My armor was clunking slightly as I approached the manor, but I had to wear it in case Eric decided to go for a nighttime stroll. Meeting him now would possibly foil my plans, so I had to disguise and hide.
There were two guards outside the main gate. They were posted outside the gate’s pillars, luckily, meaning no one could see them from the inside of the manor. Confirming that there were no spectators on the street, I used earth magic through the ground and forced it with my will. Then I separated the earth under them and made long earth spears rise up in the underground pitfalls.
Graves prepared, I opened them simultaneously, and with a yelp from each guard they were quickly sealed and impaled beneath ground as I began filling the holes. If anyone heard the yelps of the guards, they might come looking, so I stayed put a distance away, waiting to see.
After a while of waiting, no witnesses showed up, so I walked over to the gate and peeked in. There were several windows on this side, through some of which I could see guards. However, none of them were currently looking at the gate, they seemed to be just standing close to the windows, and not actually looking out. This could change at a moment’s notice, so I grabbed the opportunity and moved over to the doorway with haste.
Once there, I filled the keyhole with spirit, sending it inside to map the first floor with a thin pulse. Having confirmed people only in the rooms to the left and right, meant there were none watching the door from the inside. While keeping my spirit inside, I
“Isn’t this exciting”
“You promised not to interfere”
“Am I?”
“Yes”
“No I’m not”
“Yes you are”
“How am I interfering?”
“By distracting me”
“You’re distracting yourself, darling”
“You know what, you’re right. I should just treat you as a figment of my imagination”
“Lovely, I’ve always wanted to narrate a figment of imagination!”
“Can the figment be quiet?”
“One does not normally have control over such things, does one?”
Continuing with the lock, keeping my spirit on the inside keeping tabs on the people that didn’t seem to notice its presence, I now used earth magic as a pick, pressuring the pins with one and poking them with another. After a while the lock clicked open, and I quietly pushed the door aside.
“Brilliant work, darling”
The inside was lined with items on display, items I could steal and probably sell. However, I could not walk the streets at night with a sack of goods without raising some amount of suspicion, so I ventured on into the house. The door leading to the left room was closed, but the door the right was open, and judging by the position of the people in there, they might have view of the doorway.
“That is quite troublesome, isn’t it, darling”
Lea had not extended her spirit; in fact I was unsure if she even had that amount of control. Had she just guessed the situation, or did she have her own tricks? Either way, I wouldn’t be surprised.
With my spirit, I now made some of it tangible but not visible, and with the liquid form of spirit I willed it to push gently at the door. The second it hid me from their view, I tip-toed past to minimize the noise from my armor. The people in the room didn’t react to the door moving by its own, claiming it must’ve been the wind. At the end of the hallway was a staircase which I promptly ascended. Once on the second floor I had once again used my spirit to look for people. This floor two larger rooms, each filled with presences of people, lying on the ground. What these rooms were ordinarily used for I had no clue, but currently they seemed to occupy the guards that were ordered to remain within this noble’s premises to not cause problems for him. I ascended the stairway once again to the third floor.
“You’ve been quite lucky so far, haven’t you? No guards in the hallways what so ever”
This floor had one big room with a long table in it and two smaller rooms to the right. If I had to guess, I’d say one was a dining room and the other was a kitchen. The kitchen then had a room In the end, in which two presences were laying down on the ground. Before ascending to the fourth floor I checked the hallway, only to find a single person sitting at the end of it. So, after checking the locations of the other people on the fourth, I walked up the hallway on the third floor until I was underneath the sitting guard. Once there I softly leapt up to the sealing and used life magic to attach my hands to the wood there.
“Oh my, how silly of you”
Hanging from the ceiling, I manipulated the wood underneath the guard and up the walls. I willed the wood underneath him to open a hole the size of a finger, before putting one finger through it. Once on the other side I created a short but heavy spear and made the walls sprout branches. These branches then stretched over towards the spear under the chair and pulled it along the floor on the carpet. Once At the wall behind the guard I made the walls attach their vines to the spear and hoist it up. Once on the top, the ceiling took over, positioning the spear over the guard’s head. There was a squishy sound made, but the body remained in the chair, held by vines.
“Did you hear that noise, darling? I think there may be intruders!” Lea did her absolute worst impression of a noblewoman. The guard taken care of, I dropped down from the ceiling and went up to the fourth floor. There was the guard there, a female one, slumped back in a chair with an earth spear sticking out of the top of her head. The other living presences on the floor were in the room to the left. The one to the right was empty, perhaps some storage or bathroom? After retrieving and dispelling the spear, I headed into the left room once I confirmed the presences to be lying down.
In a large bed was a man and a woman. And in a crib at the foot end was a crib with a smaller presence. The child could cause trouble if he woke up, so I made it a priority to end his life. Reaching down into the crib I placed my hand on his head and empowered it with life magic, crushing its fragile and soft skull without much sound. Its body went into a bit of a shock before going limp from suddenly missing its brain.
Next I turned my attention to the parents. Wanting it to look like an assassination, I couldn’t squash them both with slabs or blow their heads off with an explosion. Nor would it be quiet either. I settled on once again using earth spears, after all one could believe the wounds caused to be from some dagger or sword. The man was lying on his back, so I grabbed my earth spear with my spirit and held it high over his heart. The woman was at his side, sleeping on his arm, so I crept up behind her, spear held high. As I released one spear with my spirit over the man I thrust the other into the heart of the woman from behind. Simultaneously they both let out a little sigh as they slowly woke up only to quickly die. Lea let out a little chuckle at the scene, then went over to look at the small corpse at the foot end. Then, she looked up at me with a smile.
“This here gave me an idea”
“No”
“You’ve had kids before, haven’t you?”
“None of your business”
“Would you like to have some again”
“If I did, what would you say”
“Well, I’ve never raised a kid”
“Don’t continue that sentence” She made a pouting face before striking a childish pose of silent anger.
I walked over to the dressers and rifled through them, stuffing jewelry into my pockets. Done with one dresser, I proceeded to the next, only to find it to belong to the man and therefore filled with even more jewelry. Neither of them had any gold though, so I went through their clothes and found some in their inner pockets. Then I checked the room for a hidden safe, finding it embedded in the wall behind the clothes in one of the wardrobes. The safe was opened with a little well placed explosion, without damaging its contents. Inside were some documents pertaining to ownership of various lands, as well as the farms on them. The only things of any value to me were the gemstones and purses of gold.
The next three days, the security around the estates of nobles grew increasingly tighter, allowing the reign of organized crime to operate freer than ever.