After slipping out the house, I turn myself invisible and take to the sky. I want to get a closer look at them before I act, and it's a good thing I did too. As five of them have one of the old style communication runes, while one has six. That's one for each person I've spotted, and one for someone I haven't.

Not acting against them just yet, I instead send a trickle of magic into the rune to try and find it's partner. The cheap air spell heads off back the way the stalkers came from, but fizzles out quickly.

Flying in that direction, I'm shortly able to spot an unfamiliar fire mage. He's sitting in a cafe several kilometers away, sipping a cup of tea while casting fearful glances at my over-sized tree. His mana pool sets him around level ten, more than strong enough to suppress Abby, but not even close to being a match for me.

"Did you really think I would let you kidnap my friend?" I whisper in his ear before knocking him unconscious with a sleep spell. I then cover him with my invisibility and make him float behind me as I go to deal with his comrades.

Once I have them all knocked out, I strip the bastards and bind their hands and feet together behind their backs with ropes that even good sharpened steel would have trouble cutting through. Noticing that the one woman had a weapon hidden in her hair, I decide to give them all a thorough checking over.

By sending mana into their bodies, I am able to find that two of them have weapons hidden up where you normally don't want a weapon hidden. And, one other has a row of false teeth that conceal a length of stiff wire that must be for picking locks.

"You fuckers really are pros, aren't you?" I mutter before calling Oliver back. "They're knocked out inside my parking area, there was a fire mage with them too. Coward was too afraid to even get close to me, but they had communication runes which let me find him."

"A kidnapping, then." He sighs out. "How strong is the mage?"

"Feels like he's around ten, but these guys are professionals." I would even have some respect for them if they hadn't decided to go after one of mine. "I'm talking hidden weapons and lock picks you wouldn't find even if you stripped them, which I did. So, he's probably more skilled than his level suggests."

"I'll keep that in mind, but it's more likely that he was just assigned to, or hired by an elite group." He snorts in disgust. "The guards should be there in a moment, but I'll need you to keep him suppressed until I arrive. And, if he's that afraid of you, we should be able to use it to make him talk. I'll call Stanwood and have him look for anyone carrying those runes, but I think they were just after the girl." He drops the call after that.

I head back to the house, giving Marta a quick call on the way to let her know what happened. Nine minutes after I left, I return to the game room to find Abby's two friends trying, and failing, to play ping pong while she cheers them on. Marcus is playing pool with Apricot, but he's mostly just watching Abby.

"Hey, babe. You get everything taken care of?" Amelia puts her arm around my waist.

"Yeah, but Oliver will be stopping by in a bit, so I might have to step back out again for a few minutes." I say out loud, and then using magic so that only Amelia and Apricot can hear me, I add. "They had a fire mage hiding a few kilometers back, I've got all seven of them out cold in the parking area."

"Oh? Well, I'm glad you were able to take care of it." She responds to my hidden statement with a sentence that isn't out of place as a response for my first words. No need to upset Abigail while she's having fun.

The guards arrive soon after, so I go play a game of pinball while projecting a hologram to greet them.

"Hey, guys." I wave to the dozen troops that roll up in two carriages, followed by a large cage on wheels. "They're trussed up down there, the mage is off to one side."

"Thank you lord." Their leader comes forward and salutes, fist to chest. "We'll get the rest of them bundled up, and Mage Long should be here soon to deal with him."

I just nod and go lean against a tree to wait. Meanwhile, Apricot seeing that I was distracted, yet still racking up the points, has been trying to make it worse so that I don't beat her new high score. I just chuckle and unleash a multi-ball making the points come in even faster.

"Hey, I didn't know it did that. Why didn't you tell me it could do that?" She pounds on my shoulder as I get closer and closer to beating her.

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"Tch, looks like Oliver is here." I make a show out of being disappointed that I can't continue. "Looks like your high-score is safe, for now." I let the balls run out and walk away with a score just a hundred points lower than hers Completely intentional, of course.

"Hah!" She crows. "Suck it lunker. Still number one."

"Oh, almost forgot.  I've still got a ball left." I telekinetically pull back the plunger. The ball only hits a couple bumpers before going out of play, but that was more than enough.

"You used magic, that doesn't count. Amelia tell him it doesn't count." She whines to the blonde that just gives me a peck on the cheek as I walk past her.

"Sorry, Sweetie. All he did was launch the ball; if you want number one again, you gotta work for it." Amelia hugs the pixie from behind, and watches from over her shoulder as she starts a new game. "Of course." She breathes into her lover's ear. "It won't count if you aren't just as distracted as he was."

I keep an 'eye' on the scene, and a smile on my face as I rush over to meet Oliver. He nodded to my hologram when he arrived, but didn't say anything.

"There you are." He finally speaks up as I get close, causing the guards to do a double take. "You shouldn't even have to say anything, just stand there looking displeased." He starts walking down the ramp.

"Been meaning to ask, just how do you deal with criminal mages?" I say after falling into step with the wizened mage. "I get that he's an enemy agent and that changes things, but what about the average mage?"

"Depends on the severity of the crime, and the risk they pose." He sighs out. "It's... difficult to keep them as prisoners, so unless it's a capital crime they're usually just forced to make reparations. Even then, they typically just flee the country and we usually let them go." He looks a little defeated after saying that. "Not only is it just too dangerous to confront them, but we're a small community and most everyone knows each other." He doesn't say what they do when they don't run, and I'm guessing that's when it becomes his job.

"And in this case?" I prompt.

"We have a few holding cells deep underground, depending on his actions, he'll be held there until he can be ransomed off." The Court Wizard looks down at the naked fire mage with disgust in his eyes. "Wake him, please."

He comes to with a start, and immediately locks onto my scowling face. I don't think he even registered Oliver. "Oh gods. I'm sorry, I didn't even want to do this. I'll tell you everything. Lampe sent us to collect the girl..." He spills everything without even having to be asked a single question.

...

"A gambling debt, seriously? You're a mage for fucks sake!" I scoff at the man as he tells us the reason he was chosen to go on this mission. "I would ask if you're stupid, but the fact that you didn't run for the hills after seeing what I did to the army proves that you are. Hope you like rotting in the ground, because there's no way anyone would waste a single copper to ransom a waste of magic like you." I spit at the man.

"Mercy please, anything but that." He grovels.

"Oh? Then are you ready to tell us what you've been holding back?" Oliver asks with derision in his voice, he clearly picked up on the same lie I caught during the would be kidnapper's tale.

"I-I can't." He sobs. "They'll kill me."

"There are many things much worse than death." I growl and shoot a large drop of Healing Sap down his throat, before using it as a conduit to stop the nerve signals from passing his c4 vertebrae.

"What? Why can't I move? I can't feel anything, why can't I feel anything!" His eyes roll around in a wild panic.

"I had to repair someone's spine last night, and I learned a lot of very interesting details." I project a see-thru hologram of the fire mage with his skull and neck highlighted in blue. "See, if you sever the spinal cord right here a person will lose all feeling and control below the neck." I release my block and he cries as the sensation comes back.

"There's a second team." He gasps out while shimmying against the rough ground just to savor the sensation. "They're not after the girl, but other than that, I don't know what their target is."

"Tell us everything you do know about them, and I might just undo what I did here." The hologram slides down to just above his tail bone. "Damage the nerves there, and... well, it really only affects one spot." I look pitifully down between his legs.

...

"Damn, Sorrel." Oliver laughs after I knock the weeping mage out again. "Remind me never to piss you off. And, thank you for getting that info so quickly. We'll be able to round up those assassins now, before they can change locations. Oh, and how is young Marcus doing?"

"Oh, he's good." I smile and project an image of the game room. "He's head over heels for Abby, but he's good. Think she might even be starting to like him back, this is the second game that she's let him win."

"Heh." He snorts out a laugh. "Oh, to be young again." He shakes his head before calling up the ramp. "Alright boys, load this one up too."

"What are you going to do with him?"

"Unfortunately, you're more than likely right about no one ransoming him off. So, he probably will rot underground."

"In that case, why not just send him back?" I offer up a crazy idea. "Spread a little more fear and propaganda, and save yourselves whatever resources it would take to keep him penned up."

"Are you sure? It'll just make them more afraid of you."

"I'm sure I've already got a target on my back after Riverton." I shrug. "And, losing your clothes might be one thing, but losing your manhood? How many people would be willing to risk that, let alone control of their limbs. I may not want to kill, but I am no pushover. And, the sooner they learn that, the better for everyone."

"I'll talk it over with Her Majesty and Patrick, later." He sighs. "Right now, I've got some assassins to round up."

"Good luck, and stay safe." I pat him on the shoulder as we step out into the sun again. "If any guards get injured, please bring them over for healing. I need to work on refining those spells anyways."

"I'll be there with them, so it shouldn't come to that, but I'll remember the offer if we need it. Good bye." He hops in his ride and they all leave.

***