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Chapter 29: Just Business
“Elven fathered curs.” Nitrox announced, rolling the last of his unconscious young men out into the backstreet. “Thank you for the help Set, I swear that my store is an initiation ritual or something.”
“I would not know anything about that, but I am happy enough to help out.” I replied politely, though, unlike him, I was hardly stressed by the physical exertion.
“Does that mean that you are going to help me out for free more often? I must say that this is unexpected, but I will gladly accept your help-”
“Nitrox.”
“Now if we can get started over here and just move towards-”
“Nitrox!” I gave him a look that said I was not going to take much more and he finally backed off his joke. I could not tell if he liked to prank people, or just had a personality that was naturally good at higher pressure marketing, but either way I knew he would not stop unless I forced him too.
“Oh fine!” He grinned, not sorry in the slightest, before he walked past me back into the shop. “Now, I have the details of the device over here, but I hope that you will not forget the deal that you promised me.”
I walked through a small maze of various magical devices that occupied the store, following Nitrox as best I could. His shop was an interesting mix of magical technology and fake – slight of hand based – magical devices. His most popular items seemed to be a set of bound tablets that copied whatever was written on one over to the other. It was quite the impressive work of magic and I had quickly found myself comparing it to my own Monitor devices when I first saw it.
Of course Nitrox was completely aware that I was capable of using mana because of an intrusive little device that he had subtly hidden next to the door to his store. I only noticed it when I saw it from an angle as a noble walked in. Thankfully it could only sense the weakest of magical abilities from me and only activated because the device was next to impossible not to pass close to as you entered the store.
I got over the personal intrusion though and told Nitrox that I would not mention the little thing to anyone else for the ability to openly study the magical devices and a promise that he would not mention my magical talents to anyone. He actually refused and I had to destroy his wards to get him to fully understand and respect my power.
For some reason people here considered wards infallible, but I had destroyed a dozen wards in my previous life and Nitrox made the mistake of openly showing me his anchor – where all the spells were actually tied to, to make them last longer – while he was trying to extort me for keeping his silence about my magical abilities.
Overall, we got along very well after I rebuilt his wards and made him swear to never make the mistake of showing someone the anchor point again.
He passed me a large poster showing a detailed drawing of a pair of upstanding gentlemen and a man with a large box. The large box was then shown in the next panel, directed towards the gentlemen before the next panel showed the third man removing something from the box. The final panel showed the two gentlemen looking at very detailed miniature portrait of themselves, which the box was clearly meant to have created.
“Interesting, but not what I had in mind when I asked for the details.” I admitted. The poster did give me a good idea of what the device could do, but not how or its limitations.
“Well, I am sure uncle Dioxin will be plenty happy to help you out with that, he should be around any minute and I am sure that you can ask him to help you locate your specialist.”
“Only if he is half as spread out as you claim he is.” I grumbled. As interesting as Nitrox and his shop was, he was usually longer on words than deeds.
Nitrox’s uncle, according to him, was an epic worth legend of a merchant that had traveled from beyond the mega holy city in the center of the world to the adamantium mines of the city-states in the east and even across the vast plains of the southern continent.
I was more than a bit skeptical, but the risk was minimal to nonexistent as best as I could tell. Plus, although Nitrox did not seem to know this, it was customary to make sure that wards could not attack their builders and would in fact obey them before anyone else. With larger wards this was impossible, but it was better for smaller wards to ensure that they were not used against their creator, before payment was rendered.
Therefore meeting anyone here was actually something of a safe move for me, regardless of who they were… Not that I actually expected Nitrox to suddenly turn around and try to kill me, but it was better to think someone was going to betray you and live than trust them an die.
Bella had a slightly different opinion on the subject of course, but she seemed to have her own opinion on everything these days.
We kept chatting while waiting, but it did not take long for Dioxin to arrive and it took me even less time to understand why he chose to meet so near sunset. Dioxin walked in like he owned the shop and I saw magical sensor light up as he did so, although I hardly needed that to feel his that his power was near mind when I died in my previous life – around 6 circles worth.
He was older than Nitrox, around 40 if I had to guess, with a martial build that suggested a fair bit of sword practice, which was supported by a short sword on his hip. He was also currently bald, but it looked more like a shaved head than early hair loss. He was also followed in by a pair of whores and a man who looked closer to Nitrox in age, in his early 30s, who was carrying an exact replica as the box from the poster.
After puzzling over the whores for a moment I realized that if you were going to test an instant portrait maker, then you should at least bring along someone to use it on. Fortunately, these two did not look familiar and they hardly seemed to recognize me, least they might make an unfavorable impression. Still, I found myself like Dioxin’s plan. The two relatively young women, in their working clothes, would certainly be more effective for selling the device to a merchant, even if they would be less affective to sell it to upper class gentlemen like in the poster…
Which actually set off a few alarm bells in my head as I tried to figure out why Dioxin would sell it more to his nephew than to the nobles. Was it just good familial relations or was there something I was missing?
As the family reunion quickly unfolded I was surprised to see Dioxin touching his nephew so freely. Perhaps I was just holding onto a habit from my time as a bandit, but that seemed wrong to me. Of course, there was also the option that he simply did not care because his nephew did not have any magical talent of his own.
Which is much more likely than your opinion Bella. She answered me with silence.
Ignoring the little sapper in my head, I turned my attention to the two family members as they finally finished their hugging and he introduced the porter and the whores, whose names I disregarded, before it was my turn.
“This,” Nitrox announced, gesturing to me while already trained to not to actually touch me, “is a wonderful lad named Set. He is quite talented and has an eye for-” I cast a temporary privacy ward to make sure that the porter and whores did not hear what was said. “-magical devices- Set, did you cast one of those ward things again?”
Dioxin’s hand was already on his sword, but he kept it sheathed. He was eyeing my spellwork. “This is far better work than any 10 cycler I have seen, but as strong as you are, you are no Soul Mage, though some might make that mistake.” He looked me in the eye and removed his hand from his sword, “There are stories of them trying to take the bodies of children to prolong their lives.”
“I will explain everything if you would allow me to do so at a later point in the evening.” He nodded and then blinked a few times when I added “I am nearly 14 by the way,” before breaking the ward.
“So you are a mage?” I asked, putting a little awe into my voice. “Did you make this thing? The instant portrait?”
Dioxin proved to be a sharp man and quickly adapted to my act, unlike Nitrox, who had nearly told the whores that I was a mage. “A friend of mine did and I think that I can help him make some money off of it. Calling it an instant portrait is a good idea too, I actually thought of it more as a time box, but that might help it sell better.” He clapped his hands together, “which reminds me of our lovely ladies here, who will be the subjects of their very own instant portrait!”
The whores smiled politely and seemed to lean back a little by habit, showing off their lovely ladies. The porter also smiled, certainly enjoying his job at the moment.
Dioxin quickly took control and organized a little portrait demonstration inside the shop, using his device 3 times before I felt it run out of stored mana and he had to refill it. The portraits he created during that time were certainly impressive, but I quickly spotted some problems. Starting with the lighting, as Dioxin had to use his own magic to produce a pair of magical lights to compensate.
I also found myself wondering how much of an influence the Nalks had in this device. It was brilliant and would likely change more that I could currently predict, but more importantly it was a symbol that the lives of everyone would be changed immeasurably one the 'game' began in earnest.
After a little while Nitrox asked me my opinion and I had him take some more portraits, specifically, ones that measured the differences in light levels, how the distance between objects affects the portrait, and how many little details were making it into the portrait.
All in all it did not take me long to figure out that this device was going to make waves. “Wow.” I admitted. “It is truly an incredible invention,” I paused as Dioxin beamed for the moment before I continued, “for an incomplete device.”
I expected that to cause some spluttering and grandstanding, but Dioxin just told me to explain. “As far as I can tell this thing will be a top seller if the Histone, particularly their Newsmen, take a liking to it, but for others,” I shook my head. “If it was a bit smaller you could actually sell it as a scouting tool – something to let commanders see exactly what their scouts do – however, this model is not only too bulky to be affective, but it has a fairly specific range that it can capture. If your inventor starting putting things like a-” I realized that I did not know the local name for the spell. “Like a spell that you would use to see far away, or at least a physical addition to the device that would allow you to control how far away you want it to focus.”
“A good thought, but how would that affect how it sold to, say, an Altruman family who lives in the city?”
“Yes and why the Histones? The military I suppose I understand but…” Nitrox spoke slowly, trying to listen to what I was telling him, but failing to fully grasp it just yet.
I took a deep breath, “I do not know anything about how you would sell the product to someone, but I do know what type of things people do with something new– they find imaginative uses for them. I suppose that any traveling young man or apprentice might want an instant portrait of him just outside of a city that he traveled to, or an instant portrait of his family back home. Altruman families would certainly appreciate the expediency of it, since they are usually too poor to avoid active work.
“Oh and the Histones would love this if they could get the lighting correct as it make a fast copy of a book to be transcribed later, although something like a stand to put it on might help. Not to mention that most any celebration, disaster, war, speech, new building, or everyday activity interest the Histones, so they would likely want to take instant portraits of everything with it, especially as they would not have to worry about artist interpretation or intimidation. Anything from the crowning of a king to a dueling match would be fair game for them.”
Then there was the darker parts of course, but they could figure that out for themselves. I could only guess how many teenagers would buy a small booklet of those 2 whores in various states of dress, especially if they were too young or too closely watched to be allowed to actually hire one. Nobles were also quite sensitive to their pride, which would make any instant portraits of them in compromising positions would make them remarkably less credible in mere moments of its appearance in the hands of any other noble.
To be honest though, the darker aspects of this device were not nearly as apparent to me as the militarily dangers of it. If maps of the kingdom were dangerous, how would the monarchy feel about instant – reliable – portraits of any city or fortification that can be studied at a later date? Plus, there was anyways some way to use a new magical device that its inventors and introducers missed, always.
Dioxin looked at me and nodded evenly, refusing to let me know what he was thinking, while Nitrox finally seemed to understand and seemed deep in thought. Dioxin spoke first: “Anything else?”
I looked him in the eyes and wondered how much to say, but I decided to drop back to a more immediately impactful reason. “How much would it average in cost, per portrait?”
I swore that, for the first time, I saw Nitrox turn into something that reminded me of a predator. Had he been a mage, there might have been something akin to bloodlust leaking from him. “Uncle?”
Dioxin tried not to show it, but I could not help seeing him stiffen up a bit as he turned to his nephew. What followed was a quiet, but extremely rapid exchange of words that quickly became a conversation behind a privacy ward.
In the meantime I went ahead and played around a bit, asking the whores if they had seen the new vibrating back rub. They did not get what was so interesting about it until one of them accidentally dropped it in her friend’s lap. It was quite entertaining.
Soon enough, Dioxin and Nitrox emerged from their private talk and Dioxin announced that the whores were free for the evening. The porter, who had almost never taken his eyes off of them looked disappointed and only became more so as Dioxin announced that he and Nitrox would be retrieving the other 2 devices from his storage house in the morning. Though he did recover remarkably quickly when he was tossed a silver and told to take the night off.
Dioxin then took the opportunity to ask Nitrox for privacy and had him to go upstairs, where he lived above the shop.
I took a few seconds, as Nitrox left and concentrated. It was harder to work this spell because, while I was familiar with privacy wards, I felt that the odds of this particular man having one of Xiphos’ recording devices to be much higher than normal.
Casting the spell, I let the ward set into the air in a large, but fairly flat oval, slanted to reach from my height to Dioxin’s. It was designed to encompass both of our heads and our throats, hopefully keeping even the slightest whisper from escaping. Normally, someone would just encapsulate the individuals that they wanted to talk with, but a recording device could be stored in a pocket or pouch and I would not be able to see it.
I even briefly considered using Gorith’s shroud, but that miasma of claimed mana was actually visible to normal eyes too, making it a risk with Nitrox just up the stairs.
Dioxin studied the odd privacy ward for a moment without speaking as I stepped into my half of it. It felt weird to see the ward with my third eye as wrapping around my head, while my normal eyes saw nothing, but it was not unbearable.
Finally Dioxin stepped into his half of the ward. “I do not know any child, teenager or otherwise, who acts as you do.”
“I have a special source of knowledge that helps me with such spells.” I responded, waving my hand at the mana filled space in front of me.
“That I could accept, but your attitude, your thoughts, and the way you could ignore a pair of attractive whore to analyze possible the military applications of a new magical device were beyond your years.” His eyes narrowed “even considering your supposed age.”
I stared at him and tried to measure how much to say. In this ward, in this place, I could easily overestimate myself by accident and become overconfident, like so many that I killed before, but that was why I put up the privacy ward…
Deciding to take the risk and immediately starting to plan possible escape routes from the city came easily enough, but I was still unsure on whether or not he would actually believe me so I started slowly. “Have you ever heard of someone’s soul being put into a new body by the gods?”
He blinked and lost his neutral face for a moment as he hear that question, but the man was nothing if not adaptable. “You are trying to say that you are one of those reincarnated ones? Someone with a destiny chosen by the gods to fulfill?”
I snorted and gave him a small grin. “I remember my previous life, but I was not reborn to fulfill some destiny, I was reborn because I disrupted the machinations of the gods and they were less than happy about it.”
“So you are cursed?”
“That might be one way to look at it, but only if you count my memories.” I felt my smile change a little. “I sometimes wish that they had been taken, but that would not have been as satisfying I guess.”
I shook off the memories of the past before I could go too deep into them and concentrated on the present again. “Your nephew cannot seem to stop bragging about you, about how far you have traveled and what you have seen. I need help to find a mage able to use a specific spell. A spell to change what I was born as.”
“You were a female in your previous life?” He asked, likely fishing for more information, though I could hardly blame him. That said, the sarcasm was uncalled for. “Have you considered a sharp knife instead?”
I rolled my eyes, “a knife would only help if I wanted to cut my hair again.”
It only took him a moment to understand. “Ah, so you want to be a real boy and you want me to godfather you a new body?”
“I have no idea what that means, I just want you to help me find someone who can change my body back to the way it is supposed to be.”
“Supposed to be? The gods put you in this new body girly, are you sure that they will allow you to change it?” His voice was still even, but I felt like he was likely weighing the difficulty of my request in his mind
That was a legitimate question: what if the local gods decided that such a spell was taboo? Leo and his lot would probably list that as “DeMorte’s problem” and let me chose what to do. That said, I had already thought about it because of something Bella had said and decided not to care about the gods or their opinions, unless they took direct action.
If they decided that I was meant to remain female, but would not actually do anything about it, I would not care. However, if they were prepared to act on it, than I would have to smile, accept it, and spend the rest of my life burning every temple I could. After that, I could introduce this world to Gorith and some of the other gods from my previous world. I had no idea what would happen afterwards, but even the Nalks likely did not expect events to go that far…
That or maybe I would just create a few plagues and let them loose on the world right before I killed myself. Either way, lots of people would die.
“They told me that it was a choice for me to make. To try and became a man again simply because I was one in my past or stay a woman and try to move on in a new life.” I gave a weak smile, “They might have a good understanding of humanity, but I tend to think things through differently.”
After I said that there was a silence for a little while before he spoke again. “Who were you then? In your previous life?”
I shook my head “It was farther away than you can look up. I was an outlaw who lived and died in some mountains far away. I only have my spellwork and skills to prove it.” I silently found myself preying to Gorith for the first time in quite a while, but I stopped it, he could not help me here.
A sigh answered me from Dioxin as he stepped back out of the privacy ward and I followed his lead. “I assume that my nephew knows how to find you?” I nodded. “Good, I will send for you sometime in the next 3 days, we will talk then.” He announced, sighing again as he walked towards the stairs. I felt my blood run cold for a moment as I wondered if he was not planning some trap before he gave me a little more hope. “Be sure to be prepared to pay for the information too!”
I smiled a little to myself, if I had to guess, I would say that Dioxin was someone like me, more of a mercenary with only his own set of rules to follow, rather than someone who would take a moral stance on principle. Even if he believed I was insane, as long as we could come to an agreement, there would be no problem…
Of course, I would also need to take appropriate steps to ensure my own safety…
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It was mid-afternoon on the second day after meeting him that Dioxin sent his invitation. To my surprise, it found me at the Histone’s library reviewing some of their lists of prophecies. I took a wild guess that the Nalks would be responsible for at least a few of them and would likely use a few “prophecies” to annoy me during their game.
I left the library after that and traveled to the inn where I had been staying to collect my full gear before slowly walking to the destination, a storage house outside the walls, near the river. It was a decent place for an ambush, but anything short of a full hunter-killer squad was going to have a hard time taking me.
Just to make sure, I checked the surrounding area and found no signs of hidden mages, but it was possible that they were spread out and would converge later.
I silently checked my equipment. Since arriving in the city I had decided to fully prepare and spent every copper and silver I could beg, steal, or earn on getting my weapons up to par. So far I had an under armor of bone that I had reworked into an incredibly dense series of overlapping plates and chainmail like protection that would have been impossible if not for my ability to freely manipulate it.
It weighted around 8 or 9 kilos and if I had not enhanced my muscles, the weight would have been completely impractical. Especially as I had another 8 kilos of iron chainmail covering it, I had to use my Gía to let myself move without too much effort, but I had been practicing over the last few days and I was more or less used to moving in the armor.
I also had some cloth padding with cooling runes, nearly a dozen iron knives, 4 iron javelins, 2 different iron swords, and my now very-filled-out robe covering most of the armor up.
No one had spoken to me when I left, likely wondering if I was some noble child going out to play at war or some nonsense. In any case, the sight of a hooded figure – because I was not going to let them see my face while that well-armed – armed with that much iron weaponry screamed mage or mage hunter, regardless of my height. Besides, guards were there to keep the unwanted out, not in.
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Which meant it was just as well that I took my traveling pack with me. Even if this was a legitimate meeting, I would not need to stay in the city if he had the information I needed and would be able to carry the iron back in as long as it looked like a delivery and no one asked to see how heavy it was. The iron weapons would be more problematic, but I would find a way if it came to that, I would not be unprepared though.
After I finished looking around I noticed that I still had some time before I should be at the meeting so I also took the liberty of removing my mithril disk from my body. It had been an uncomfortable addition over the past week and I had been forced to continuously watch both it and my body to ensure that there were no adverse results.
As it turned out, mithril could poison the body like any other metal, especially in large quantities, but since I did not want to risk removing it within the walls I was in a bit of a fix. It was possible that I was completely overestimating the level of security or the scarcity of mithril, but it was such an important metal that the King made commoners nobility for discovering it.
In the end I was able to keep it fairly isolated by effectively wrapping it in a skin like cover, infused with so much iron that my own mana found it annoying. It was a bit disgusting, but effective as far as I could tell, even if someone directly pushed their mana through my body they would have a hard time identifying the mithril… granted, if that happened, I had bigger problems to worry about.
If the disk could pay for my information though, I would not have to worry about it in the future and I could get on with my goal. The religious institutions here could provide good cover for “Bella” to disappear and a fully male “DeMorte” could find something to do.
Bella was silent about that, but I was starting to wonder if her increasing levels of silence was because of me or whatever the Nalks did to our head, regardless, I put that aside for the moment.
It was almost time for the meeting and since it always better to arrive early, I was right on time.
I knocked on the storage house door and felt the wards respond to a brief flick that I gave them with my mana. They had some power and could likely restrain intruders, but they did not seem as powerful as some other wards I had broken. Still, I asked Bella to keep an eye on them and received a general confirmation from her as the doors opened.
Apparently she was only talking to me when she felt like it.
Inside was not what I expected, the storage house was only around 40 meters long and 30 meters wide, but there were no crates or animals that might have been stored here, instead there was a large table set off to the side that was filled with food, a small rack of weapons off to the side, and two men standing near the center of the storage house. One was Dioxin, but I was unfamiliar with the other man, who appeared to be a mage, though his power was hard to determine as he was hiding it like I was.
Dioxin spoke up as he saw me armed for war. “I hope that you come to all meeting dressed like that, or else I might be offended.”
“Actually I used to do just that.” I called out, while I scanned the area with all of my senses, magical and otherwise, looking for traps and other surprises. “Who is your friend?”
Dioxin looked over at the other man, who was taller than him and rail thin “This is a friend of mine. I will introduce you two later, but first I wanted to confirm your story. My friend here knows that you claim not to be in your correct body and has offered to spar in order to prove your experience. As, while you clearly have a few cycles of spell casting knowledge, sword or weapon techniques would be better proofs.”
That could explain the food too. “I will have a quick bite first if you do not mind?” It was not really a question, but I asked it anyway.
Dioxin shook his head, seeming to understand the implied question. “Go ahead, none of the food is poisoned.”
I walked over and casually picked off a few pieces of fruit and a single rib of some sort, checking them all with magic before eating them. I was very practiced at that sort of thing, which was slightly ironic, given I had been done in by poison somehow.
After my sampling I took my time to set up some of my javelins around the room. Neither man spoke as I did so, except to answer my questions. “Why do you want proof anyway? Why not just make the trade with me?”
“Because how you do determines what we trade.” Dioxin explained.
“You do not just want some coin?” That would be annoying, especially if he wanted an assassin or something.
“I have a small job, a quest that I need someone to do quietly, or at least not let it get back to the people who requested it. My friend here is unable and if I want to make it worth my time I need to hire cheap or accept a favor as payment and that would not be to my liking…”
My mind raced at that as I finished placing the iron javelins around the room. If anyone or anything changed that was not to my liking, I could have a nice long piece of iron in my hands within moments. “So my request is cheap? Does that mean that you only plan to give me general information?”
Dioxin must have had a mind just as suspicious as mine or truly top notch acting skills as he still gave no obvious response that would suggest offense at my words. “I do not feel the need to take a chance that helping you directly will anger the gods, but the person who made the request has access to a truly extensive information network and has agreed to help find your specialist. I will just be the middleman in this deal, assuming that you are strong enough that you can actually complete the task.”
I had a feeling that he had other motivations, but accepted the story. So far I had yet to find any traps and I should be able to pass his test easily enough. Best of all, if he really did need my help to retrieve something, without connections that might be revealed when hiring mercenaries (SR or otherwise,) than he would be less likely to betray me now, instead of when I got back.
It had been a long time since I entered such a deal, where I was unsure if my partner was going to double cross me, it felt both nostalgic and annoying. I disliked negotiating at a disadvantage.
Finally finished setting up my emergence perimeter, I walked over to the weapons rack and compared them to my swords. They were all thicker and blunted, so I picked out a pair of swords of similar length and tossed one to the man who would be my sparring partner.
He caught it easily and we both moved to the center of the storage house. “Exactly what do I have to do to pass this test of your anyways?” I called.
“As long as my friend says you are capable, the job is yours and we can deal.” Dioxin responded, casually taking a seat at the table. “Oh and do not worry about making noise, he is quite skilled using Gía so the clashes of iron might get loud, but the wards will dampen them automatically.
Suddenly I found myself wondering if this was some fighting house of some sort for people to come and watch others be beaten to death. “No other extra charges afterwards, right? I do not think I need to insult you with threats about what I will do if you suddenly change our deal or try to betray me.”
“You appear quite ready for it regardless, but I understand, you may begin whenever you like”
I turned my full focus to the man standing a few meters away and lifted the blunted sword at the man standing around 4 meters away. He raised an eyebrow at my two swords on my hip and looked over my armor, clearly wondering if I would be able to fight with it. Still, he raised his own sword in readiness.
I tapped a little Gía and took a small leap towards him. It was partly to close the distance and partly to make sure that I was compensating for my extra 10+ kilos of iron equipment that I had added recently. The jump was almost perfect as it landed me where I thought it would, about a meter away from him, but I had not compensated correctly for the force of my landing and my momentum.
I took an additional step into his range, deciding to use the force instead of fighting it and our swords met in a deafening clash. His sword did not move so I used a bit more Gía and tried to slide my sword off his, just to watch him move the sword with mine. At that point I took the smallest of floating jumps back, just out of range of him.
To my surprise, my opponent took the initiative and attacked me in that moment. I figured that he would let me continue to attack until he knew my strength, but that was apparently not how it would go. I met the first few swings head on, keeping my third eye on the lookout for any spells that he could try and use.
The sparring was straightforward for a while, I would attack him and he would attack me, with both of us increasing the pace each time we switched. The clash of iron had my ears ringing, but besides that there was nothing surprising, we were just test each other’s limits.
Then I realized that we were both sparing at a level that would put many experienced mages to shame, so I decided to start leveling out. I stopped pushing as hard as I could and started to pretend that the spar was taking its toll. More blows started coming closer to hitting and I spent more time dodging the attacks instead of meeting them.
I did not trust Dioxin enough to show him my full strength and the resulting struggle became more and more one sided as my opponent continued to push me. I almost pulled out one of my hidden daggers at one point as, he increased his speed yet again. The fake struggle had become a real one as I limited my own Gía usage and concentrated on using the sword I had to the best of my ability.
The biggest problem I had at this point though was my lack of experience with drawn out, especially one-weapon-restricted, fights. I wanted to throw sand in the man’s eyes, to cast a barrage of spells and toss my sword in his face before throwing one of my daggers hard enough that it ripped out his heart! Fighting with just one sword, fighting just one enemy by myself, was annoying. I liked uneven fights, where I could massacre the enemy from an ambush or rely on my opponent’s overwhelming force to dictate their actions.
A straightforward duel like this one was not only embarrassing for me, but it was a weakness in my fighting style. Even the challenges for leadership in my previous life had not been true duels, we could use magic, hidden weapons, even the crowd under certain circumstances. In a situation where I had to stick to my restrictions for my own good, it was horrible and I found myself wondering if my opponent might kill me by simple accident – especially as I ducked a slice that would have likely given me a concussion.
Suddenly though, my opponent pulled back and dropped his sword. I had to keep myself from charging him at the show of an opening, but as he dropped his sword I realized that this test was over. “I do not know whether to be insulted or honored to fight someone of your skill despite the fact that you are clearly holding back. I hope that we can spar again in the future without such inhibitions.” He bowed deeply and without thinking I returned it. I might have hated that fight, but his comment proved that I had not fooled him for a second. The man was a master and I realized that, even knowing nothing else about him, that was enough to respect him.
“That means you pass,” Dioxin called. The man nodded and held out a hand as he scooped up the dull blade at his feet. I tossed him back its brother and watched him go to put them away.
“Now then” I almost yelled, before realizing that my ears were still ringing from the match, “I assume that we are going to discuss your little ‘quest’ while we eat?” I walked over to the table as I asked, keeping one eye of the man who still had not been introduced to me yet.
“Of course and on that subject,” Dioxin sat back and casually asked me: “What do you know about dungeons?”
* * *
The city of Palos on the eastern edge of the western continent:
Abukara Yoshitake both loved and hated the life he had built over the last few years.
On one hand, he was incredibly popular and had become the hero of a repressed group that was all too eager to ensure his success in helping them. He had a goal, to help end their oppression, the power of magic wielding companions to help him, and (to his shock) a seemingly endless line of beautiful elf-like, although definitively non-elven, women who were eager to get to know him on every level.
On the other hand, he hated his new life for the incredible hardships that came with training with swords, shield, and spears. There was also the lack of a wash toilet, but they had worked on that. He knew that he was being manipulated too, as despite his initial expectations, it was proven that he had no ‘mana channels’ after all and was therefore just an ordinary human. The first few days of disappointment had been buried under weeks of alcohol, beautiful non-elven women, and a man who tried to systematically draw every idea that could possibly help these not-elves, out of Abukara’s head.
He thought that reality had already sunk in after the first few days, but then the not-elves showed him, in the most brutal fashion, the discriminations that they could face. Their mages were outright killed the second they were detected and the non-mages were subject to discrimination so bitter that it sometimes made America’s infamous KKK look tame. Rape and butchery happened in the streets when the crowds got worked up. The crowds also got worked up whenever there was a shortage of food, a disease going around, or just a general lack of jobs.
He had been more than willing, if somewhat scared, to help them fight back, but the level that they were willing to manipulate him was fairly clear when the pregnancies started to show up. At that point he was in the middle of hard training, both physical and mental, and was happily told about how the women looked forward to telling their children about their people savior, who was also the child’s father.
So he helped them all as much as he could, which turned out to be far more than he originally thought possible. Just the idea of a gun was enough for them to start training their hidden mages on direct acceleration, high speed missiles. A few even added an explosion function that made the small stones that they shot that much more deadly.
Ironically, this show of force had actually both reminded and scared Abukara as he remembered that magnetism and rail guns had somehow managed to slip through the ‘talks’ he had with them. He had sworn to keep at least that much to himself. The non-elves had already been far too interested in trying to create a nuclear or neutron bomb.
Instead, he has accidentally introduced them to the concept of terrorism. A concept that some, if they could learn to hide their ears better, were far to prepared to investigate. Thankfully that particular idea had been shot down by the elders of the community as they had pointed out that any disasters were already blamed on their people and attacking random people in such as way would only make everything worse.
There were barely enough cool heads among the nobility to keep them around as it was.
Peaceful protest of any kind was also an impossibility as the guard frequently joined the orgies of violence and would have no problem methodically killing anyone trying to march or sit in. Although the economic warfare of their series of boycotts had done wonders. Right now there were only a handful of stores in the city that dealt fairly with the so called “elven decedents” and they were doing an incredible trade at the moment.
Right now though, much was about to change. As Abukara stood there a large party of nobles and merchants were busy eating at a series of large tables before him. He was dressed, at his own insistence, as a servant instead of a visiting merchant or a noble.
Those who make peaceful protest impossible make- He quickly broke off the quote and wordlessly received a nobles’ now empty goblet and instantly refilled it with the last from his jug of wine. Abukara took this as the opportunity he had been waiting for and moved back along the wall to avoid walking through the center of the room.
His senses were heightened and he seemed to be able to hear every laugh, or loud noise, every scrape of a knife, and more. Abukara had helped with this plan – to his endless shame – however it would not be the last time such an occurrence would take place. A few servants nodded to him and a young lady even gave him a shy smile as he passed them.
There were hundreds of servants across dozens of noble houses and almost all of them hated their masters for one reason or another. The ones here would have to flee the city tonight, before anyone realized the full magnitude of what was currently occurring.
Just before Abukara reached the kitchen he hear the first rolling cough as a beautiful young noblewoman tried and failed to suppress it. She had been one of the thinner nobles here so that was likely why she was the first to go down. Thankful there were next to no children at the party as the people here were unofficially meeting to organize the next bout of violence.
Abukara quickly slipped into the kitchens and navigated around nearly a dozen servants before tapping Abu on his shoulder. The young chief had normal ears, but he was definitively of elven decent curtesy of his mother. They were fast friends, partly because of their names, and had worked together with several other servants to pull this night together. “Time to go.” Abukara whispered, not entirely used to the local language, but still familiar enough with it to not need his translation bracelet tonight.
Abu, to Abukara’s shock, nodded, but then turned around and told one of the other servants to come with him. The servant in question was a short women with piercing blue eyes. Abukara wanted to yell at the man that there were no time, but instead settled on moving towards one of the servant’s entrances without comment.
The entrance was designed to allow servants to come and go without offending the nobility with their presence and led straight out to the street next to the noble manor. In a world where cities were drastically overbuilt, despite not knowing a thing about sanitation, the nobles seemed rich enough to make sure that no one came near their manors without first crossing a moat, a yard, and a ditch.
Abukara quickly moved along through the servant’s entrance underneath the manor’s yard it was nearly 50 meters long and had some of those strange ‘runes’ to make sure that the smell of the kitchens was blown outward instead of the smells of the street blown inward. The entrance door itself was large, thick, and shut, but the wards recognized the bit of blood that Abukara had smeared on his hand and opened for him.
Checking behind himself for the first time Abukara confirmed that Abu and the woman were following, although they were a bit farther behind than he would have liked. Hurry up.
They made it without problems, although the woman looked thoroughly confused, as Abukara watched them run up to him before stepping out himself. The wards soon shut the door behind them, but not like they should have, it slammed close, signaling that either the nobles had initiated a lockdown, or the noblewoman had died and the wards had locked down everything automatically.
Abukara sighed in relief, but they still needed to get out of range of the manor for when the guard arrived.
This was not the first time he killed, but it was the first time he had done it so cold-bloodedly. Abukara let Abu and his girl argue about what was going on for a moment as he crossed the street ahead of them, winding through a variety of parked carriages and found a friendly face waiting for him.
Karibis was an exotic beauty by almost anyone’s standard, but it was the absence of her usual courtesan outfit that got Abukara’s attention as she was dressed in a coachman’s black uniform. Unlike some other women Karibis had remained without child no matter how many time they slept together, which made her one of his longest female partners since he had been summoned to this world. She was also a powerful mage, some 9th rank or so.
Waving him over quickly, she tapped his head and he felt the connection between him and the noble house’s wards be broken. Normally it would not be so easy, but they had made preparations beforehand. Abu almost dragged his friend over, still arguing with her that they needed to run and run now.
In the meantime, Karibis asked Abukara to grab some food from a coach she gestured to and waved Abu over for the same treatment Abukara received. He had also been prepared ahead of time, but the woman had not and would apparently warrant food.
It always astonished Abukara how much a mage could eat after they cast magic, it was like they had a second dimension in their stomach! Taking out a sandwich, something he helped them come up with, he passed it over to her as Abu and his friend were finally seeming to finish up their argument.
Karibis got to work on the woman and Abukara climbed into the coach while he waited. No commoners were allowed to take coaches, so naturally they would not be stopped until they were- There was a scream.
Jumping out, Abukara found both Karibis and the woman down on the ground. Abu was freaking out, calling something out over and over, maybe the woman’s name. Abukara checked the Karibis’ vitals – something he was all to accomplished at lately – and confirmed that she was alive.
Cursing, Abukara had Abu help load them both into the coach and unceremoniously started stripping Karibis of her uniform. It might get them caught given the woman’s slighter build, but he would have to take that chance unless; Karibis groaned.
Not wanted to chance it, Abukara called her name a few time to see if she was actually coming around or was just groaning in general pain. He had thankfully only removed her coachman’s jacket so far as he had very little talent to anything horse driven and an improperly driven coach would be another major warning sign.
“Soulless little” she grumbled, sitting up, she paused as if her head was spinning and Abukara asked if she was okay.
Karibis shook her head grimly, but grabbed her jacket back and told him to get out of her way. A few minutes later they were riding uncomfortably out of the area past a swarm of guards.
They would all later find out that the noble who owned the house had a kill command in his wards. Specifically, he used it near death to kill any and all servants who were tied to the wards – the people who had most likely poisoned him. The Karibis and the girl had survived by luck and timing, but almost everyone inside the manor that evening, whether they were poisoned or not, died.