Waltzing into the headquarters of Ridahr’s most powerful gang was a breeze for Helas Trazigar.

At least it was after she’d found an overdressed tourist stumbling out of a brothel just before daybreak. The choice was easy from Callas’s perspective—ridiculously bright and patterned. Stripping an unconscious body wasn’t her forte, but she made good time dressing into a pair of loose pants that gathered at the ankles and a long beaded tunic with a sash.

The Triam Drana made a casino in the red-light district their headquarters. The outside of the building didn’t give much away to tourists, but the two armed guards Callas had spotted at the entrance would for any local.

The guards barely glanced at Helas’s way as she slipped inside. Callas rested on her shoulder as meek as can be. To them, she probably looked like an old blind bird lady in an inappropriately heavy outfit. Which was always part of the fun.

A carpet of vivid red hydrangea petals covered the floor, passing between two lavish red chaises longues and leading up the grand staircase to the second floor. An arcade of intricately carved stone pillars flanked the entrance. Very decadent.

The place certainly had changed since the last time she’d visited over twenty years ago. Intricate gold chandeliers lit the high ceilings. Gold flecks sparkled in the white marble floor and accented the carvings decorating the walls and archways.

Seemed like the Triam Drana had been doing very well for themselves in recent years. That was good. Very good.

She released Callas to the ceiling for a better view as she followed the crowd to the lounge. The dimmed lights accentuated the dull glow coming from the bar, highlighting its vibrant tilework and gold countertop. Top shelf liquor and spirits were kept behind a gold patterned sliding screen, and the bartenders mixed drinks in gold cocktail shakers.

Tourists drank away the sting of their losing streaks at the long, communal tables near the bar. On the other hand, the back of the lounge hosted backroom deals of every kind. Each booth, partially enclosed by privacy screens, had red upholstered wraparound seating and little side tables to hold drinks. She didn’t have to lean into her perception much to eavesdrop on most of them, but a few had been careful to use silencing runes or spells.

From there, she slipped past some curtains into a hallway lined with doors to several private bathrooms. On the other side and through another set of curtains, she found a long room with a stage in the back corner featuring a sumptuous singer with a sultry voice and a maze of dark wood tables.

People on this side of the casino played poker, blackjack, roulette, baccarat. She even spotted a few tables of foreign games—mostly from kingdoms on the Eshon continent, but also from Lathyr. Red velvet upholstered armchairs beckoned her to take a seat.

So she did.

Since she wanted to make a good first impression, she found a group of young men with obvious tells smoking expensive cigars to join. After all, there were two ways of catching the attention of the boss of a gang like the Triam Drana. Brute strength through the guards straight to the boss’s office. Or cheat such a significant sum of money from them that the boss had no choice but to get involved.

“Good evening,” she greeted the men with an easy smile as Callas settled back on her shoulder. “Mind if I join you?”

One of the dark-haired men met her eyes with dark ones. He was muscular, round-bellied, and had a scar running along his jawline. When he finished looking over Helas’s outfit, paying no mind to Callas as usual, he grinned and gestured to the empty seat.

“Go ahead and take a seat,” Scar said. “We can let her join, right?”

As she sat beside Scar, the other men glanced over her. Their eyes brightened, and the mustached light-haired man with a thin frame rested his shoe against hers under the table.

“Sure, she can,” Mustache said. “You want a cigar, too, honey?” He didn’t wait for her response as he pulled a new one from his humidor and cut a slice from its cap.

The other dark-haired man flashed her a smile. “We don’t mind at all. Let’s get her a drink, too.” He flagged a nearby waiter to bring them another round.

“Deal her in,” Scar said, and Helas knew she’d picked the right idiots to defraud tonight.

“Thank you for letting me join you,” Helas said as she was dealt in.

“Do you know how to light a cigar?” Mustache asked. Then he held up a hand to keep her from responding and started toasting the tobacco. “Let me just get it started for you.”

“How nice of you.” She plucked the cigar from his hand before he could pop it into his mouth. With her lips curled around it, she said, “Good luck to us all.”

The men chuckled as they watched her finish lighting the cigar, exchanging glances. Helas waited to get started until after the drinks came. Brandy—this particular one the type of brandy distilled from figs that Helas liked best.

While she savored the flavor, she cheated ten ways to the moon. None of the men noticed until she’d won too many games for it to be beginner’s luck, dumb luck, or coincidence. When she won again after that point, they exchanged glances rather than groan about yet another loss.

Scar glanced past her shoulder but tried to mask it with small talk. “How’d you learn how to play like that?”

“The first man I ever loved taught me,” she answered truthfully. Helas couldn’t help the smile that danced on her lips, knowing what that glance was for. “Brilliant man. Tragic, untimely death.”

“You’re pretty good.” Mustache asked as another hand was dealt to everyone. “Almost like you’re cheating. Did the first man you ever loved teach you how to cheat?”

If only he knew. “Only if you can prove it.”

“Are you looking for a fight?” The other dark-haired man leaned forward on the table.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Well, a fight would certainly get attention. “No, I’m just trying to win some money. Do you want to stop here? By all means...” Helas blinked a few times, hoping to feign some semblance of innocence.

He swore and slammed a fist on the table. “I’m not done.”

“I’m watching you, though,” Scar said, pointing a bony finger at her. “We all are.”

And as if that was some stamp of approval, the other men nodded and hurried the game to continue. Helas still won—which was ridiculous, but that was the point. One more win after that, a tap on her shoulder came at long last.

Helas turned to face a scrawny girl with brown skin, short black hair, and familiar golden eyes. This was who they’d sent to take care of her? Then again, not like anyone had to be big to be deadly and most Souled Beings looked small to her.

“You’ll need to come with me.” The girl clasped her hands together behind her back. Perhaps girl was unfair—she looked to be in her early twenties, about the same age as Geram. She wore loose patterned pants gathered at her ankles and a belted tunic with embroidered trim.

“Of course.” Helas grinned as she folded her hand and stood, recognizing the girl must be the boss’s daughter. She had those Nololto eyes. “Excuse me, boys. Pleasure playing with you.”

Seeing fury in another person’s eyes when they were helpless to do anything about it was its own type of joy.

“We have a private room upstairs,” the girl said, “and the boss has invited you for a conversation. The dealer will hold your coins for you.”

“That’s very kind of your boss,” Helas said.

“Sometimes he has his moments, and you should hope he has another soon. For your sake.” The girl gestured back toward the entrance. “This way, please.”

Helas happily obliged, navigating through the crowd with the girl following behind.

Up the grand staircase to the second floor, they took a left and walked along the second floor terrace hallway. Light spilled through carved wood privacy screens on one side, casting patterned shadows along the dozens of closed doors hiding decidedly illegal activities.

The end of the hallway hid a second set of stairs, marked only by two guards even more muscular than the ones at the entrance.

“Boss wanted to see this one alone,” the girl told them, and they nodded and let Helas through without even checking her for weapons.

At the top of the stairs, Helas pushed past the black and gold velvet curtains to a dimly lit room that evoked a particular illicit atmosphere. Divided in two parts by panels of patterned screens, the boss’s office spanned the entire expanse of the first floor lounge. The back seemed to be for business while the front was for fun.

She found the boss of Triam Drana sitting among a cluster of guests in the middle of a red couch that wrapped around the reception area of the office. Heavy set with brown skin and short gray-black hair in a classic style, Andreges Nololto possessed a commanding presence. He ate from the hands of one person and took a drink from a glass being held by another.

Helas registered the subtle change in his body language when she entered, but he hid it well enough that she doubted Geram would’ve noticed without purposefully focusing his perception. He was furious with her, and she couldn’t help her grin.

Andreges cracked his knuckles, a ring on each finger, and caught the attention of his entourage. When he gestured for them to leave, they scattered quickly and left Helas alone with him. Quite unwise.

“Sit,” he said, his golden eyes and thick brows wrinkling into a nasty look.

Helas had to hold back her laugh, but she did as he wanted. She picked the middle of another side of the couch and crossed a leg over the other. He didn’t seem to like that because he started massaging his rings. Did he think that was intimidating? How adorable.

“I’m sure you know why you’re here,” he said.

This time Helas had to laugh. He sneered and stood, taller than I’d given him credit for. He wore all black, a testament to his power that said he never had to leave the cool indoors of his headquarters. Velvet shoes, loose pants and tunic, and a long jacket embellished with gold.

“Would you still laugh with a knife to your throat?” Andreges growled. “I don’t make death threats often, but be assured they rarely stay threats. Why did you come and steal from me, you filthy cheat?”

She let Callas’s gaze roam around the room. The arched windows flashed with the bright colors of the red light district. Sweetening the air, smoke from incense sticks curled toward the ceiling. The oversized chandelier of gold cast patterned shadows of dim light over the beautiful Shazian rug beneath their feet.

“From you?” Helas asked. “I like what you’ve done with the place, though I’m sad you don’t recognize me. I won’t hold it against you. This time.” She muttered the spell to transform her appearance into something that’d surely remind him of who she was.

Magic ghosted over her skin as Andreges’s eyes widened. Her wrinkles melted away into the smooth, warm brown complexion of someone closer to forty than seventy. Her white hair shortened on top so that her bangs skirted across her brows but lengthened against the back of her neck just enough to tickle her shoulders.

“How about now?” she asked, pulling the long braid that finished her look over her shoulder and smiling widely.

“Helas,” he said, breathy with surprise as he plopped back into his seat.

She nodded. “You sure got old over the last twenty years. Your eyesight going like mine? Callas should’ve been a dead giveaway.”

“I thought you lost your eyesight in a fight?” he asked, a frown on his face that reminded her of him as a boy. He’d probably been about the age of his daughter when she’d last seen him.

“Is that what I said?” She shrugged.

He sighed, the tension he’d been holding in his body since he laid eyes on her relaxing away as he sat back on the couch. Then he smiled, big and boyish, and burst out into laughter.

“You haven’t changed!” he said, slapping his thigh. “Oh, Helas, I’m so happy to see you. We’re doing well, as you can see, but I’m not sure how much longer. Ridahr has changed over the last year.”

She’d feared that’d be the case. “Say more,” she said.

“About two years ago, this group called Magazzinàre took over all the small potion shops we were getting our stock from for the fifteen years before that. Monopolized the market in just a few months. Then they raised the price. We tried to negotiate many times, but they’re not interested and unless we employ a bunch of potion makers with a hefty investment I don’t want to make, we’re stuck. They also seem protected by the authorities.”

Helas turned over his words in her mind as he spoke. She’d expected him to say something about demons, since the reason Harorin had sought education outside of Ridahr had been because of his encounter with one that’d left him almost too terrified to leave his own home.

She wouldn’t have wanted to bring Harorin back here, but he had been ready to return. His noble status would’ve been helpful now, too, to protect Geram from his own noble father, but also to give her access to the nobles who were surely behind Magazzinàre.

“I can help you,” Helas said. “I’ll look into them for you, and after you have more information, if you decide it’d be better for business if they disappeared, then we’ll take care of that together. But if I help you, then you need to help me.”

Andreges nodded. “Of course. Anything we can do for you, Helas. You’ve done enough for our family. More than enough over the generations.”

An old ache returned in her chest. A long time ago, that ache would leave her breathless and immobile, but now it was nothing more than a phantom. No matter who she lost. That was the pain she kept with her now, a knife constantly digging deeper into her.

“That’s what family is for,” she said.

Even if they weren’t blood related, it didn’t matter. She decided who her family was, and she’d do everything in her power for them. She’d done all she could for Harorin in the short time she’d harbored him, and she’d do all she could for Geram and the Nololto family, too.

No matter what.

【QUEST NOTICE】

You have received a new quest: The Corruption Festering Within [Legendary]

You must find where Magazzinàre is operating and deliver the information to the boss of the Triam Drana, Andreges Nololto. To guarantee a [Legendary] item reward, complete this quest alone.

Do you accept this quest?

Gladly.