The luncheon was entirely uneventful. Even though Lucas had feared that the man he was meeting would pull a fast one and try to strong-arm him for more Blue, or worse, try to use Lucas to find his “cousin” Adin, nothing of the sort happened. Instead, the two of them had sandwiches with some of his friends, drank wine made from the grapes of the Corrin estate, and mostly just bullshitted about faraway places.

There was some talk of playing cards, or a round of mallets, which struck Lucas as a croquette like game, though he didn’t really know the rules for either. In the end, the five of them did neither. They just sat around enjoying the warm weather from the comfort of the shade while they traded witty barbs.

When things were winding down, and Lucas and Wallace were alone, they chatted about other topics. Most predictably was the Blue of course, and whether or not Lucas had managed to procure anymore from friendly ship captains.

Lucas wasn’t sure if the man believed his cover or not, but deep down, he didn’t really care. All that mattered was the deniability.

“Of course,” Lucas answered, “But they’re in my carriage, and I wanted to broach another topic before we walk there.”

Lord Corrin nodded, and Lucas continued. “It’s my cousin, you see, fuck up that he is, he’s family, and I’ve been told that the issue at the heart of his warrant has something to do with crown lands or back taxes?”

“I could look into it,” the lordling volunteered helpfully, eager to curry favor with his dealer. “He’d have to raise substantial sums probably, but the crown often settles, even with fugitives, so long as they get what they owe.”

“Could you?” Lucas asked, feigning gratitude when all he could think about was how much this was going to cost him. “I don’t know where he is exactly. He might even be dead in a ditch, but I’d much rather have this settled so that he’s not a stain on our family.”

“Of course,” Lord Corrin agreed. “I understand completely. It will be hard to find your cousin Danaria a proper match as long as that dark cloud is hanging over the Parin family name.”

That he brought up Danaria getting married struck Lucas as strange, but not so strange that he didn’t offer the man a deal and sell him five vials for a crown and a half apiece. They shook hands and parted on good terms, and Lucas vowed to invite the noble to the Parin estate when the renovations that had recently started were finished.

No, the strangeness didn’t start until they were on their way home, and they found a woman standing in the middle of the road, blocking their way.

“Want me to go around her?” Mort asked, “It could be a trick of highwaymen.”

Lucas frowned. Highwaymen this close to the city were unheard of, but then well-dressed women simply standing in the middle of a well-rutted road seemed more than unlikely as well.

Lucas leaned his head out the window to get a good look at her, and he didn’t like what he saw. It was the veil that covered her eyes and nose. That was the detail that gave her away. Well, that and the damned smile. “The fucking Whisperers,” Lucas swore softly.

He had Mort rein in the horses, and he exited the carriage to approach her on foot. Not too closely, though, because he remembered that damn scroll they’d had last time and the chunk they’d taken out of the wall.

“You know, we just keep meeting like this. I’m sure if you’d wanted to join us for some sandwiches, I’m sure the Corrin’s would have let you hang out,” Lucas said, stopping twenty feet from the mystery woman. “You don’t have to keep meeting me at desolate crossroads. People will talk.”

The mystery woman smiled a little more broadly at that, but it was a cold smile of white teeth against dark skin. After an uncomfortable moment of silence, she said, “People will talk about what we tell them to Mr. Parin,” in a severe tone. “Don’t you worry about that. The chattering classes are easily led, which is why we were so disappointed to see you stepping on our toes.”

“Your toes?” he asked. “I wasn’t aware that this was your turf.”

“While we were disappointed that you decided not to go into business with us, we respected the decision,” the mystery woman continued. Lucas couldn’t tell if she was answering his question or ignoring it. “To spurn us is one thing, but to poach our clients… you should know that you do this at your own peril. Is it war you’re after? Do you see anything good coming from the fight between dregs of the market district?”

Yeah, that they aren’t trying to kick my ass, Lucas thought with a wry grin. He obviously didn’t say that. Instead, he yelled out, “Look, lady, I’m just trying to sell a little bit of product and make a little bit of money. I’m not political, alright? You are welcome to continue to corner the market on all the gossip and the drama you like. Leave me out of it.”

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“Unlikely,” she said flatly. “You mean to tell me that you are slowly chaining the worst parts of the best family in the city to your perverse alchemy, and all you plan to extract from them is petty cash?”

Lucas had to admit that it sounded kind of stupid when he said it like that, way, be he ignored her point. Adin might well be able to play the sort of games she was talking about down the road, but he wasn’t built that way.

“Listen,” Lucas said. “You can keep your little blackmail ring or whatever it is you’re doing here. I don’t really care. I just want to cash in, sell out, and chillax, alright? Nothing more complicated than that.”

She stood there quietly for a moment. He was sure that she was trying to be menacing, but he found it awfully hard to be menaced by a woman in a dress too cowardly to show her face. To him it felt like some kind of comic book showdown, and if he hadn’t seen the way she vanished in the blink of an eye the last time, he would probably be openly laughing at her.

“We know where you get your supply,” she said finally. “We can make things very hard for you if we were to cut that off. You’d have a lot of very unhappy customers.”

“Is that so?” Lucas answered as a cold chill ran down his spine.

“Of course,” she answered. “You might know a captain or two, but do you really think you own more people on the waterfront than we do? ”

“Oh, I see,” Lucas said, hiding his relief. “You want me to cut you in. A partnership of sorts.”

“If that will salve your ego, then yes,” she nodded. “There are still ways for the two of us to be friends.”

“How much do you think this is worth?” Lucas said, suddenly producing a vial of an appropriately blue potion. It wasn’t actually Blue, of course. He’d sold all of those half an hour ago, but a Potion of Clear Thinking was about the right color.

He watched her reaction, such that it was with the veil hiding her eyes, but he saw no desperation or hunger. He was daily certain that she wasn’t actually hooked on the stuff already. She was probably too smart for that. He just waited for an answer.

“The Knights of Brass pay you half a Dragon per dose,” she said finally. “We’d offered to pay you a silver more than that, but now I’m afraid we’d have trouble going even that high. We have you over a barrel, after all.”

“You have me over a barrel?” he laughed as he uncorked that vial and started to pour it out on the ground in front of him. She jerked initially but managed to stay silent as he threw away a perfectly good dose of what she was looking for. “The Parins of your city might be less than useless, and you might have a great deal of knowledge about what goes on in Lordanin, but don’t think you’ll be able to cut me off from my suppliers when you don’t even know how much Im selling my product for.”

“Oh, we know everything about you and your cousins,” she spat back. “Adin can’t stay ahead of the guard forever. When he returns home, he’ll be—”

“You really are a dumb bitch, aren’t you?” he said with a laugh as he realized she had no clue what was going on here.

She might have her sources, but they were obviously very official, and except for where his business touched that of the Knight’s of Brass, she was clueless. It was a comforting thought. At this point he lingering question was less about who she was, or how she could hurt him, but how she’d known he’d be here if she knew so little about anything else.

Was it Corrin that sold me out, he wondered. No, he hadn’t seemed nervous enough. Who could it have been… The messenger. That realization hit him like a bolt from the blue and distracted him so much that he almost missed her next point. What was the easiest way to get secrets? To read someone’s private letters.

“Excuse me?” she demanded in an outraged tone. “You will not speak to me in this fashion.”

“No, not used to it, your highness?” he laughed. “I’m just saying, I think all these plots have your brain a little cross wired. I already told you that I’m in it for the cash. You could just offer me more and I’d sell you more, no questions asked, but you just keep having to play these petty power games, don’t you. Its just who you are.”

This time, Lucas could see the fury radiating off her from here. “We have offered you more, you numbskull. Sadly, that offer is no longer available. You have crossed us twice now. Do so a third time at your peril.”

Before he could respond, she vanished. It wasn’t like last time, where she opened a portal and stepped through it. This time it was more sudden than that. One moment she was there, and the next she was gone. He was fairly certain that it had something to do with invisibility, since he’d made those potions before a time or two, but he wasn’t exactly going to beat the bushes and see if she was hiding there.

The encounter done, Lucas turned and walked back to the carriage. “You didn’t see anything Mort. You hear me?” Lucas asked. “None of this happened. Got it?”

“Y-yes, sir,” he stuttered, clearly shocked by the woman’s departure. “But what she said, war? Do you think that will really happen?”

“That’s a great question,” Lucas answered as he climbed into the carriage. “That’s exactly the sort of thing I’d expect someone to ask if they had seen anything happen here today.”

He slammed the door behind him and sat in the cab to brood as they started moving again. He had no idea what the fuck he was going to tell the crew about this, but it wasn’t exactly something he could sit on.