The breeze stilled, and a cold shiver wiggled its way down Sapphire's spine. The deep black eyes of the thief reeled towards Sapphire, anchoring themselves towards her direction. The thief murmured an incantation and a dim teal light swaddled him in their loom, making his muscles under the tight black clothing bulge even tighter. He brandished his swords in the air, causing the sigils marking the sword and keeping its enchantment trapped into the weapon to shine slightly like the gleam of the moon. The interloper reared his head back and laughed in an egregious show of pure malice.
“Now what?” the intruder spoke—bellowed even—in a magically distorted voice. “Ya got no one to protect ya now, shrimp.”
Sapphire winced. The thief may have been powerful, but he was a child when it came to insults.
“You stole it didn't you?” she asked, loud and confident. Though she was screaming inside. Dying now would mean all her work in rewinding time would all be a waste. She secretly reached to the enchantment on a badge hidden under her dress—the alarm. She just needed to buy time before the royal guards came to her rescue. She felt the badge vibrate and immediately swayed her body left as the thief's sword passed by her. The alarm has been sounded, now the only thing left to do is drag the battle a little bit longer.
“I did,” the thief distinctly uttered, stopping at where he stood. “You're using the Sautur Aspifone like a toy. It's meant for great things. It's meant for unlocking newer avenues of power!”
Sapphire squinted her eyes.
“I'm assuming it's connected to the corrosive quality of your spells?”
Another strike soared towards her, which she adeptly blocked with an ice slab.
“I'm not outing our whole secret operation, but—” the thief dodged as three ice spikes flew towards his direction. “Tsk. As I was saying. I'm not outing….”
Sapphire took the initiative and ran towards the enemy with her upper body bent forward and ice shards trailing her from behind, held by both her hands. Then she struck by slicing at the thief's face, which he defended against by raising the back of his sword in front of the ice shard's trajectory. The ice broke, but Sapphire was on him again. She drew her other ice shard and sent its tip careening towards the man's gut. The thief simply struck his swords together at the same time, and like scissors, cut the ice shard in half.
Sapphire backpedaled. She was saving this as a last resort, and she didn't want to spend more mana than she desired, but the situation was becoming less and less favorable by the minute. She spoke a long incantation, dodging from the man's attacks. Then out of the blue, a powerful and gigantic ice hand materialized in the air. Sapphire slammed the ice hand at the enemy, seemingly flattening him to a pulp.
Heartbeats passed. She waited. It couldn't have been that easy to defeat him right? But there was no movement. Then….
Scheeew.
The sizzling sound of melting ice resounded in the air. Then the ice hand abruptly burst into flames and evaporated. The thief looked at Sapphire, no doubt smirking behind his mask.
“As I was saying, little girl,” the thief stood upright, straighter than before. “Yes, you are quite right, except I'm not telling you any more than that.”
It figured. Such information would probably have to be wrung off the mind of his dead corpse before he told anyone their secret. A secret that apparently gave boosts of power to a person's spells.
“Now for the fun part,” the interloper's cloth mask stretched as the mouth it covered pressed into a thin smile. “Killing you!”
Power surged from the thief, he stretched both his arms forward, each palms facing one another. Then a glimmering spark popped at least three times in between his palms. A wave of mana rippled into the sparks, which materialized into a small, solid, fiery, purple orb. The orb grew in size, growing, pooching and billowing into a massive fireball. Sapphire readied her force shield, though with the mana—only a small fraction of her previous strength—that rippled within her powering the shield, it would not be enough. She would have to—
The intruder was about to throw his massive fireball when a glint appeared behind him. A teleportation spell? She guessed. An instant later, the thief's right arm was sliced off his trunk, while the fireball veered to the thief's right, hurtling towards the ground feet away from Sapphire. Sapphire heaved a sigh, and in that moment between breaths, the thief teleported away from the battlefield.
“Dagnabbit,” a voice coughed out hoarse sounding words. “I missed! I was aiming for his torso.”
“S-Sonak?” Sapphire eked out between labored breaths. “You're alive?”
“Damn right I am! As if such petty tricks could slay a mighty alchemist such as myself!”
“True,” Sapphire giggled. “You've proven yourself too stubborn for your own good again and again.”
“Have I, now?” Sonak snapped his attention towards Sapphire, eyes half-squinting. “I don't remember being stubborn around you.”
“Ugh,” Sapphire thought of an excuse. She'd said that with the foreknowledge about how Sonak pursued greater heights after Sapphire had stolen the High Mage title from his pawing hands before the rewind.
He'd been stubborn back then, forcing himself to face greater dangers, and stronger magical beasts, just so he could acquire stronger and more powerful ingredients for a potion that would later endow him with immense power, catapulting him to become, arguably, the second strongest elf in existence. With a mana reserve of 823,600 jiggs, a mana control second only to Sapphire, and a varied arsenal of spells, he helped Sapphire cement Ethera among the world's global powers. If not for the fact that she hardly knew the man in the past, then she would have considered including Sonak into the rewind. But thanks to the fact that the rewind spell could only do two things—fling a single sentient creature's mature soul back to the rewinded past (together with their memories), and keep a thing or person from being rewinded along with everything else—even if she had known him, she couldn't fling his soul back to the past like she did hers, and she couldn’t keep him out of the loop like Aeroline and her library since that would raise obvious red flags.
“It's a secret,” she finally let out, smiling. “Maybe I'll tell you someday.”
“Bah! keep your secrets then…. Anyway, I'm a bit sad I didn't get to mince the man. He teleported too quickly. Damn, all that glamor and still I couldn't catch him.”
“So it was a galmor.” Sapphire figured as much. But that was a very powerful glamor, since it fooled her. The King wore a glamor while in public, but it was a thousand times weaker than Sonak's, that was why she could see through them. Maybe the King had more powerful glamor, but if he had, Sapphire wouldn't know since she’d never seen him use a powerful one.
“We'd have to pursue him,” Sonak's words cut her off her reverie.
“Agreed,” She said, dusting dust off her dress. “I think I might just know where the thief's bringing that relic.”
***
“Sashaiuin has grown desperate,” Partikule's voice resonated inside the death-trap of a room. “I'm well aware of your boss's… shall we say predilection for opposing the other two Prime's penchant for supremacy. And it seems she has grown desperate, she has sent assassins to kill the other two, which, needless to say, failed spectacularly. The Head Prime has now sent his own assassins to kill your owner. Considering you're a good pet and all, I'm sure you want more information about this?”
Winston snapped and gnarled at the mention of him being a pet. He was his own man in the past and in the present. He observed Partikule. The man was grinning from ear to ear, not heeding the visible anger that rose up from Winston's face. He was no doubt utterly confident that should Winston make a move, he could instantly dispatch him, and even give him a reason to capture Winston, which might have included a note of… gruesome elements. Like dissection, maybe? Winston swallowed his bile, and heaved a breath.
Seeing Winston calm down, Partikule's smile disappeared, now replaced by a heavy frown.
“You're no fun,” he said, leaning on his tabletop and reaching an outstretched hand, palms up. He curled and uncurled his four fingers as if he were asking for something. “I might give you valuable information about these ‘assassins’, but I'm thinking, I don't want to give that for free. I'd need you to part with some coins in your coffers for that information.”
Winston gnashed his teeth.
“Fine,” he replied curtly. “You sly old businessman. How much?”
Now, the big grin on Partikule's face returned.
“500,000 tushackalie.”
Winston's jaws dropped, and his eyebrows furrowed too deeply for a human his age.
“That's all my winnings!”
“And that's my price!” Partikule's smile broadened even more.
“Fine,” he spat, hissing. If not for the fact that Sashaiuin ensured him vast amounts of wealth to help his advancement, he'd be haggling tooth and nail for the information. “I'll pay it all. I haven't yet claimed my price. You can keep it.”
“Good, good. Alright, I'll tell you all I know. At the third district of Thokos, somewhere in all its sinuous alleys, sometimes, a masked man appears. No one knows where he's from, no one knows his goals. All we really know is that he seems to know everything—for a price. And his currency is rather odd. If you find him, and pay him, you'll know everything there is about the planned assassination attempt for the Third Prime.”
“Liar!” Winston screamed. “You told me you'll be giving me valuable information! This is a hoax!”
“I said it was valuable, and it is. Now leave my office.”
“Trickster!”
“Say what you want, but I've made good on my word. This is truly very valuable information. Now get out! Before I change my mind and just kidnap you!”
Winston reluctantly stood up and clenched his fist. His face wore an undying frown, and his heartbeat twanged faster by the second. Should he punch the man? No, no—that's exactly what Partikule wanted. If he punched the man in the face, he'd probably get knocked out of his wits and then wake up in a lab, strapped to a table. Winston slowly pivoted on his heels, his footsteps purposely heavy, while his teeth gnashed angrily. He strode off through the office's door.
“Damn!” He screamed, decrying Partikule's trickery. “Now I'll be stuck looking for a man who might not even exist! Damn it all.”
Winston snaked his way out of the underground tunnels, eventually reaching a staircase that spiraled around a central pole. He stomped on the steps with as heavy footfalls as he could manage, exemplifying his frustration. No use crying over spilled milk now; at least he had a lead, the next thing for him to do is to find this mysterious and anonymous man.
Winston calmed himself as he exited through a secret door in one of the bathrooms of one out-of-the-way restaurant. Alright first thing's first, he needed to evaluate what information he had on his hand. He knew where the third district was, but not the alley where this masked man would appear. Does he know of any others who might be able to lead him to where this masked man could be? If this man kept himself anonymous and unpredictable, then he surely must be dealing with the felonious underbelly. That means whoever had made dealings with this man must be connected to anything criminal. Which meant Winston shouldn't really be going to the third district first. Instead, he should first go to the Seventh District—the place where the most notorious criminal lords preened themselves and dug their den.
Once the decision was made, Winston exited the barely filled restaurant and stood by the sidewalk.
Numerous selmoves passed by from the right side of the road, going north, and the left side towards the opposite direction. Winston waved his hand and a selmove, floating above the paved road, stopped in front of him. He briefly took stock of the selmove's design. It was shaped like a car, but instead of metal, it used those so called arcane wood, which were polished to a sheen, save for an aesthetically pleasing twisted protrusion here and there. However, instead of wheels, these ‘cars’ sported large orbs beneath the front and the back, each orb glowing in what Winston determined as force and spatial mana.
These elegantly structured coaches were called metrifix here, which, translated to english, meant: a cab for hire.
“Good mornin’” The coachman said, tipping his hat towards Winston. “Where to?”
Winston opened the selmove's door, went in and slammed it shut; he noticed the elven coachman twinge at the sound. Winston couldn't care less—he was grumpy, very grumpy. He had just been swindled out of his pocket money, so he was naturally steaming with hatred.
“Seventh District,” Winston gruffed, swiveling his head to the side, peering through the window. “And don't cheat me now, someone has just cheated me out of my rightfully earned cash. So I'm seething.”
“Of course, Sir!” The coachman screamed. “I'd never dream of it!”
“Good, I'll pay good money—extra money, if you drive me there fast enough. I'm on a tight schedule. Lives are hanging in the balance, and all that.”
The coachman shivered.
“R-right away, Sir. Right away.”
The selmove's engine roared to life and the vehicle shot forward to north, then through another series of turns, they were now traveling south on the main road. Winston felt worried that he might have been too late, but instead of belaboring himself with all the what-ifs and why-nots, he calmed his breathing and focused. Think. Assess the situation. Sashaiuin was a C-ranker, because despite the massive bulk of her mana, she was no fighter. This meant whoever the assassins were, they probably were around C-rank at least, and B-rank at maximum. And that was considering if the enemy was thrifty with their resources or were arrogant and complacent.
If they were overly cautious, then they'd at least send an A-rank to dispatch her. Those ranks were a tad too powerful for Winston to take on alone. This meant that he had no choice but to use his spell-bombs—or at least what limited stock he had left. A single spell-bomb could only be used once, and at his current level, he had no way of replenishing his stores. But… he really should be grateful that he still had his little spherical trinkets—and plenty of the other resources he had cached in his pocket dimension. He now knew that the tether between a human’s soul and his pocket dimension was so strong that it could survive the process of “transmigration” as plenty of the popular fiction on Earth called it.
Alright. He had a plan. When push came to shove he would be using his spell-bombs. But if the heavens would offer him some respite, maybe just this once, he hoped he wouldn't have to deplete his valuable, spell-imprinted glass spheres. Would you mind, if there's any God out there, could you send some help?
Winston chuckled. Look at lil’ ol’ me, now praying to stuff, I don't believe in.
***
The sloshing of the waves on the boat didn't break her attention. She felt the mana surging from her core, then passing through her spiritual veins and circulating within her body—surging, excited to be turned into ‘something’. She reached out with her spiritual touch and kneaded and formed her mana. The process of aspecting mana was simple, you kneaded the mana like a baker would a flour; although that wasn't enough to aspect it, just like kneading flour wasn't enough to give it flavor. You needed to add the flavour yourself. This flavour came in the form of an “idea”, an idea of the aspect you want the mana to take on. But unlike intent, which injected not only an “idea” but also “shape”, this idea was purely a list of properties that the mana would take on, which meant that this was simpler than intent. But make no mistake, it was still hard.
Sapphire was closing in on a new breakthrough, namely, the ability to aspect mana into the spatial aspect. This was her first step in what would be an arduous journey towards relearning teleportation, one of the hardest spell known to any spellcaster. She strained as she imagined the properties of space. She imagined a sea of darkness stretching out from herself. This expansive darkness was empty, but it wasn't nothing. This emptiness was an existence in which matter could persist. It was, so to speak, a vessel for anything that had mass and volume. Then she ordered this vast expanse to accumulate within her core, slamming itself into the mana she wished to aspect.
The mana resisted and pushed back, causing beads of sweat to form on her face under the strain, which slid down her perfectly soft skin. The mana eventually won and expelled her attempts to ascribe the attributes of space to this arcane substance. She heaved a massive sigh and breathed in and out very fast, as though she had just ran a marathon.
“Almost,” she said between labored breaths. “Once I succeed, I can finally cast telekinetic spells.”
She continued to slog through the process of aspecting mana into the spatial aspect for a couple more tries until she finally succeeded. A long and satisfied smile broke away on her face.
“Perfect!” she exclaimed, reaching beneath her cot for her staff. “Now, to learn the most basic telekinetic spell: levitation displacement.”
She focused on her staff, then she called onto her mana and slowly guided it through her spiritual veins. She placed her staff on the floor and let the mana trickle out of her through her fingers. The mana gathered in between her hands. Then she began travailing in aspecting her mana into the force and space aspect. The force aspect came in naturally for her, what with the fact that she'd been using the force aspect constantly after she had unlocked it, but she had to strain by a lot for her newly learned aspect.
She mingled the two aspects together and chanted an incantation underneath her breath. She pressed her intent onto the mana, imagining the space around her staff to warp. She could feel the slope of space which drew the staff towards the surface of the planet, just as a ball rolled downwards on a hill. Then she imagined that slope reversing, so that instead of going down, the staff would go up. Slowly, her staff started floating up in the air then stopped at her eye-level.
Stabilizing the slope so that it would warp back down and then back up again and again so that the staff stayed afloat was proving to be rather difficult, but she succeeded anyway. Despite that, the stabilization wasn't perfect as she could see the staff bouncing up and down in the air. The minute changes needed to warp space to stabilize an object in midair as though it was perfectly still was still beyond her competence. But that was enough—for now at least.
Then, with the force component of her spell, she moved the staff forward and backwards, left and right. The staff obediently obliged her bidding, moving accordingly. Alas, levitation displacement didn’t include very sophisticated movements in the air, allowing her to only move an object in a straight line horizontally in midair. But as she relearned more telekinetic spells, she'd patch up that little gap in ability in no time. She proceeded to immerse herself in training levitation displacement, only stopping when a knock on the door of her cabin woke her up from her hyperfixation.
“Sapphire, you there?” Sonak's voice rang in a deep baritone behind the door. “Can I come in?”
“I'm here,” Sapphire hollered, placing her staff back under her cot. “You may come in.”
The door knob clicked and turned, and the hinges creaked as the door levered itself open by the force of Sonak's push. Sonak paused for a moment and Sapphire could see his eyes coruscate under what little light of the morning sun passed through the slats of her cabin's windows. In that instant, Sapphire could swear she had seen Sonak somewhat perturbed, as though he had just realized for the first time that Sapphire was in fact a competition.
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Sonak coughed.
“We've arrived in the richest nation of the south. The great Triumvirate of Kirisal,” Sonak voiced with outstretched arms.
Sapphire giggled a little.
“You dullard!” she howled. “You don't have to embellish all that, you sound like a merchant selling his wares.”
“Tut, tut, tut, you underestimate my oh so great self, Sapphire. Everything, and I mean eve-ry-thing, every little achievement must be celebrated. Quote source by me. And speaking of achievements, I see you've made a breakthrough, or does this mean I should expect to see you getting all sweaty just from breathing from now on?”
“NO! You silly old goat,” Sapphire shouted. “I have indeed made a breakthrough. I have finally learned the spatial aspect, and have performed what rudimentary levitation displacement I can do.”
Another glint flashed through Sonak's eyes—and a slight twitch from his mouth?
“Damn it,” he swore, slumping his butt down on the bed. “I have to up my game now that you're catching up fast. I just thought you were lucky at first but time and time again you're proving yourself to be quite the talented mage the King ballyhood you to be.”
“Well, it's not like I didn't get help to get to where I am now. If I didn’t have your tutelage, I might have never grown as fast as I am growing now.”
“True, true.” Sonak puffed up his chest then slammed a fist on his sternum. “I guess I am a pretty good teacher.” He brought his hands to rest on the cot. “But seriously, I still have to elevate my efforts if I'm seriously gunning for the High Mage Title.”
“Well, don't count me out just yet oh great and magnanimous pedagogue. I'm also gunning for the title.”
“Dream hard, loser!” Sonak gesticulated widely. “I'm closer to it than you could ever wish yourself to be.”
Sapphire chortled.
“Anyway, you were saying?”
“Oh, right. We're approaching the dock. A little over 20 minutes from now and the boat’d be docked and ready to disgorge passengers, so best to get your items propped and ready.”
“I see, I don't have much to ready, all my items are in the bag, except for my staff that is.”
“I see,” Sonak said. “I still can't believe you were able to make a staff this early in your development, what godly talent do you have in mana control for you to perform such a feat? Your spiritual senses must be top notch. Tchk, this reminds me again of the bottleneck I'm currently laboring under.”
“And I'm sure you'll overcome that in no time.” Sapphire meant all her words down to the last period—she knew the future after all, and what would become of Sonak. If she just handed him the solution based on her foreknowledge, then that would defeat the purpose of growth, where a man learnt to solve problems on his own without constantly being handed food to the mouth.
Sonak shook his head. “I hope so,” he muttered. “Anyway, are you sure about this? Going to Kirisal to investigate the stolen relic? How do you know it's there? There are millions or even billions of other places where that national treasure could have gone.”
“I've told you, something strange is happening in Kirisal….” Sapphire exasperatedly breathed.
“And I've told you, I don't know how you could have come to that conclusion.”
“And…” Sapphire paused. “You know what, yeah, you couldn't possibly comprehend why I've come to that decision. But if I have anything to put to the table that would convince you, I'd say I have nothing except for what may or may not be unconnected cases of slavers kidnapping rightful human citizens of Ethera. My investigation has borne a bit of fruit in that area. I've found out that the slavers had been sending their captured slaves everywhere around the world…!”
“‘Had’ being the operative word?” Sonak cut in, placing his chin on his knuckles while his elbows rested on his lap. “Are you implying they've changed their—err, shall we say 'mercantile patterns'?”
“Precisely,” Sapphire slid backwards on the floor until her back hit the wall just below her window, then she hugged her knees. “I know slavery is a very terrible fate even if I haven't experienced it, so this investigation really shook me.”
“Shook you, how?”
“It turns out that Ethera's ‘slaver's guild’ as they call themselves have recently been sending their slaves to the west, and precisely to Kirisal at exorbitant prices!”
Sonak cocked an eyebrow, “Oh?” He said, lifting his head from his knuckles. “I mean, I'm not saying slavery's a good fate to end up in but that just sounds like business as usual, no?”
“You'd think that, but whoever this entity is has been buying slaves after slaves as though….”
Sonak's eyes widened in realization.
“As though they're expendable,” Sonak finished for Sapphire. “Which maybe because they're treating them like they are… which means they're killing slaves as though they're grinding meat for some yet unknown nefarious gain!”
“Precisely,” Sapphire replied. “It's an even more horrible fate to end up in than slavery, being just a utility meat bag people could use to feed their greedy stomachs.”
“Aye,” Sonak gulped. “You've got that one right. So you're betting it all on the possibility that this thief might be working in conjunction with this anonymous entity whose coffers are as deep as the deep blue ocean?”
“That's my wager, yes.”
“Damn,” Sonak intoned. “Then we better get this over quick.”
***
Winston traversed the empty road with bristling hairs all over his body. He didn't let down his guard even for a minute, his eyes clearly alight in the eerie fluorescence of spiritual sight. Every step he made echoed in the unpopulated streets, while houses made of arcane wood stood tall on either side of him. These houses, whatever they were, surely didn't belong to any sane family as they had no windows. This scene left a stark impression on Winston. These tall buildings were probably bases for hundreds if not thousands of criminal syndicates. The fact that they could openly subsist inside this well known trading hub of a city meant that Kirisal was deep in the mire of corruption.
This now begged the question: where should he go next? He knew nothing of the syndicates in this area, nor did he have an inkling where the criminal group that had regular dealings with this anonymous informant dug their den. He guessed it would just be better to look around until he stumbled onto another person. It turned out it didn't take long for that to happen. About fifteen minutes after his entrance into this place, as he barely made the turn around a bend on his path, he felt the presence of five persons tailing him. They didn't even bother hiding their mana from him; they were expulsing copious amounts of the stuff, doubtless trying to scare him. Winston didn't know the full extent of these thugs’ powers so he didn't want a fight if he could help it.
“I came to negotiate!” Winston shouted, raising both of his hands in the air. “I came to talk, I'm willing to buy information from you.”
If Winston could help it, he'd want the answer to his questions about the assassins being sent Sashaiuin's way to come from these thugs themselves or whoever their boss was. That way, he didn't have to go looking for that anonymous informant Partikule had informed him of in his sly trickery.
But instead of answering, the five thugs attacked. A ball of raging flame shot through, heading for Winston’s face. Winston twisted on his spot, spinning to the side, just in time before the fireball could hit him. The fireball passed by him and hit the ground a few feet away, sizzling the ground and leaving a black, burnt mark. Several ice, metal, rock and wooden spikes careened towards his direction. And with the deftness of a practiced warrior mage, he was able to dodge the attacks by turning his body to be parallel to the attacks, allowing the spikes to barely pass him by a hair's breadth on either side of him. He then leapt in the air and used the rock-projectile coming his way, as it passed below him, as a stepping stone to jump higher in the air, causing all of the other projectiles that were targeted at him to harmlessly hit the pavement where he had been a heartbeat earlier.
Winston then dropped to the ground in front of one of the thugs who had a bandana wrapped around his mouth. Winston struck him with a fist lance, but the conical lance of force, covering his fist, merely slid on the thug’s force shield, being redirected at an angle away from the ruffian’s face. Winston’s fist continued to sail through in the air for a few moments before he could find the leverage to pull his fist back and parry steel claws that were aimed at his chest. The steel claws ended up breaking from the thug’s knuckles, where they had been attached, once they collided with Winston’s fist lance. Shoddy work, Winston thought to himself. As the hoodlum shouted in pain, Winston positioned himself to strike another fist lance through the thug’s chest, but wooden hands blocked his attack, splintering into strips as Winston’s fist slammed halfway through the wood. The hoodlum who was the real target of Winston’s attack did not waste time and quickly jumped back before Winston could turn his attention back on him.
Now, Winston was dancing with the other thug who conjured the wooden hand. Quite a complex spell if Winston had to comment about his opponent’s ability. Winston dodged several wooden constructs and even had to fight animated wooden dolls. But he was able to tear through all of them with his fire and force spells. Eventually he cornered the thug and was about to end his life when a force spell blasted him feet away from the hoodlum. He groaned as he stood up and saw four other mages casting projectile spells and ready to punch holes through his torso. Winston gnashed his teeth and prepared to tank it all with a force-ward. However, moments passed and the attack never came. The four hoodlums, now joined by the other thug, faced him, bandanas covering their faces.
“What are you doing here?” the thug in the middle spoke in a raspy and harsh tone. “You don’t belong here.”
Winston stood up from the ground.
“I’m here for information, I’ve got money, I can pay,” he regurgitated in bated breaths. “I just need information about the assassination attempt on Sashaiuin’s life.”
The four mages shared a glance with each other, their eyes widening as if in realization.
“We can’t give you that information,” the leftmost thug said, primly. “You’re tackling giants here boy, and we’re just expendable pawns for the bigwigs. We can't also bring you to our bosses, or they’d have our heads.”
“I see….” Winston mulled over it for a few heartbeats. “Do you at least know anything about that presumably all-knowing informant who appears seemingly randomly within the third district’s alleys?”
The five thugs shared a glance once again, then shrugged.
“If we tell you, will you leave this place in peace?”
Winston nodded. “I promise,” he said, curtly.
“Alright then, here’s what we know. The man you’re talking about calls himself Kazinski, and no matter how much you look for him, you’ll never find him unless you make this very strict purchasing pattern.”
“And that is?”
The second thug from the left sighed. “Firstly, you need to buy a head….”
Winston frowned. “Is there a less illegal way than directly buying a head?”
The other four thugs stifled a chuckle.
“NO,” the thug burst out, then he looked left and right and hushed his tone. “I mean, no, you idiot! I don't mean a person's head, I mean a Dako-bear's head. That's your first offering to the man.” The thug steered his head towards the guy in the middle, who then looked into his eyes and sighed.
“Aight, the next thing you need to buy,” the middle thug spoke, glumly, after a pause, “is milk from a cow.”
Winston scowled. “You aren't scamming me are you?”
The five thugs sniggered.
“We're serious,” the second thug from the right assured Winston. “I know it's unbelievable but this guy's probably nuts… but I digress. Milk really is your second offering. Mind you, we call them offering but the guy calls them ‘gifts’ or whatever….”
“Anyway,” the rightmost thug butt in. “We're getting sidetracked here, the point is you need these things if you want an audience. The third on the list is an apple….”
“Right,” Winston sarcastically intoned, rolling his eyes. “‘Cause he wants that sort of stuff.”
“Yes, he does,” the leftmost thug responded, crossing his arms on his chest. “And the last thing you need is an offering that Kazinski hasn’t yet ever encountered… ever, in his lifetime.”
“I see,” Winston said, dusting himself. “Is that all? And how much do I owe you?”
“You owe us nothing, the information we gave you is pretty much common knowledge amongst anyone belonging to the underground network. What we simply ask you is to leave this place, we don't want any trouble.”
“I understand.”
Winston quickly filed away from the Seventh District.
***
A deranged woman stood in the middle of the street, and everyone was giving her a wide berth. She flailed up and about the paved street, yelling and screaming, “They took my son away! Oh please help me, anyone, please help me!” A couple of elves purposely bumped her with their shoulders and moved on while snickering. Then a couple more elves imitated them, and then more—it continued until a silver-haired elf—her hair all plaited on her back—and with yellow eyes that seemed to pierce through gently at one's soul, blocked the oncoming traffic, folding her arms before her.
Then a male hand grasped her shoulder.
“We shouldn’t be conspicuous, Sapphire,” said Sonak, softly but clearly.
Sapphire turned to him and scowled.
“You don't expect me to abandon her do you?”
“Well, I don't….”
Sonak tugged both Sapphire and the deranged woman away from the crowd and into an alley.
“Alright now what?” Sonak asked, wiping sweat from his brows.
“Now, we ask her,” Sapphire turned towards the demented woman and sighed. “Tell us what happened, and maybe we can help you.”
The elven woman's eyes widened, and tears welled from her tear ducts. She dropped down on both her knees, grasping Sapphire's robe. “Please, I beg of you, find my son,” she wailed. “He's been abducted, I'm sure of it. The authorities are turning a blind eye on the case, even though they keep saying they’re looking into it. But there's been no action ever since I filed a missing person report four months ago,” the woman continued between hiccups.
“I see,” Sapphire acknowledged, handing the woman a handkerchief. “When was your son abducted and where did this happen?”
“We live in Duke Albert's dukedom. This happened just before the monster incursions that had overtaken many of the petroliseom wells in Duke Albert's territory….”
“M-monster incursions?” Sonak raised, “First time I’ve heard….”
Sapphire stared down Sonak, raising her eyebrows. “She isn't finished yet.”
Sonak cleared his throat. “Right, right, sorry for the interruption. Please, do go on.”
The woman’s eyes turned glassy as new beads of tears welled up from them.
“He just went out one night with some friends and that was the last we have heard of them. I've become delirious these past few months. I came to Thokos in hopes of finding a foreigner who can help. Since my fellow countrymen won't help me, I’m willing to pay you five million tushackalie to look for my son. I'm begging you, I know it isn't much considering what you must make to be able to afford Thokos, but it's all our life savings. If that isn't enough, I'm willing to offer myself for an indentured service to you dear miss. I beg you!” The woman clawed on Sapphire’s robes.
“Please, don't stoop down so low. A mother shouldn't be made helpless by their own government like this. This is an injustice! I will help you for free….”
Sonak pulled Sapphire a little farther from the woman.
“What are you talking about? Where here to find the relic. We shouldn't get sidetracked by other people's business like this.”
Sapphire frowned at Sonak.
“We're also here to investigate how we can prevent war from breaking out. Didn't you hear? Her son disappeared just before the monster incursions. Doesn't that sound odd to you? Maybe this monster incursion business is relevant to stopping the possibility of war!”
Sonak bit his lip.
“I hate to admit it but you're right,” he whispered. “But not about helping this woman, but the relevance of this monster incursion going on. I'm surprised we didn't get this intel early on.”
“Kirisal's capacity to control what information comes out is extraordinary. Well, sure, any more time passes and they'll eventually slip, but perhaps by that time, it'd already be too late.”
Sonak ruffled his hair with violent scratching from his hands.
“Ahhhh! Alright, I accept. We'll help that woman, but only if it's significant to our mission. If it isn't, we abandon this side quest.”
“Perfect!” Sapphire smiled, I'll go and tell her.
Sapphire went to the woman and told her their conditions. The woman, seemingly desperate, tearfully accepted their help along with their stipulations. After that, the woman left them and moved on to where she was staying. Sonak and Sapphire, meanwhile, proceeded to make strange purchases—one of which was a very illegal alchemical ingredient, which would be worth millions of tushackalie if bought from a state-sanctioned establishment.
“I told you, we need this stuff if we're ever going to find this informant I told you about.”
“Yeah, yeah, it's just silly to me, that's all. This better be worth the hassle, you hear me?”
“It will be worth more than you think.”
Sapphire winked at Sonak, to which Sonak merely rolled his eyes.
***
Winston wrestled his way through the customers of the tent markets found in the Fifth District of Thokos. They were a vagary of individuals, taking their pick among the merchants selling their wares all around them. He sighed, resigning his fate to this anarchy of people. He'd been looking for the stall that sold those Dako-Bear heads he'd been told to buy but so far no luck. He’d probably covered at least 25% of the tent markets by now, and it'll take him a couple more hours to scour the whole area. If only there was an easier way to obtain his need.
After scrounging for any sign of Dako-bears’ heads for an hour, he stopped at a stall selling alternative medicines in the form of roots and plants and dried up parts of animals. If there'd be anywhere selling what he was looking for, this place probably knew where they were, if they did not sell the very stuff.
“Welcome, welcome,” the shopkeeper told him with a nasty, toothy grin, proudly displaying the few golden teeth on his mouth. “How can I help you, dear customer?”
“I'm looking for a Dako-bear head,” Winston said, cutting to the chase. “Do you happen to know anyone selling that stuff, or better yet, do you sell them?”
The peddler’s face turned sour a moment later, in an act of mock surprise.
“Why, how horrible! We would never sell something so illegal! Do you not know that Dako-bears are endemic to Kirisal? They're under protection by the nature preservation group. Why would you ever suggest such a thing?”
Winston's face wrinkled in agitation, bile rising from deep within himself, threatening to burst out in a massive fit of destruction. He grabbed the man's collar and pulled him near his face.
“Listen to me, whatever you call your damnable face, I’m working on a time limit, and I need the stuff quickly. Name your price, stop trying to be discreet and indirect about it.”
The vendor feigned shaking, and crinkled his face in a fake expression of fear.
“Why I would never!” he exclaimed. The vendor stretched out a hand and opened and closed it.
Winston clacked his tongue and placed the sum of 100 shackalie on the merchant's hand.
The merchant's toothy smile reappeared. Winston pushed him back, but the merchant merely dusted himself and spoke.
“All right, follow me please.”
The merchant called another elf to man the stall and he winded through the maze of tents as Winston followed him to who knows where. After what seemed to be forever, they entered a used bookstore, then into a hidden entrance behind one of the bookstore’s many shelves. They descended down too deeply to Winston’s liking. As a result, flashbacks of his interaction with Partikule rang through his brain, immediately causing his irritable blood to boil over the rim of his veins. That bastard’s gotta pay!
The merchant finally stopped on a door, knocked on it once, then opened it, ushering Winston inside. What greeted him was the eerily wide smirk of the man he probably hated the most in Thokos. Partikule sat in an overly ornate chair, behind a giant of a table, both hands clasped below his chin.
“I heard you’re looking for a Dako-bear head,” he said, taking a pen and scribbling down on a piece of paper. “And I presume you’d want to add milk and apple on that list. To make sure the buying pattern is consistent, I’m assuming as well that you’d want to buy and receive the stuff in the order specifically required by your… shall we say pursuit?”
Blood rushed to Winston’s face, reddening his face in fury. “Fuck you! You miser! You tricked me once, I’d rather not waste my time losing all I have to your schemes. I’m leaving.”
“Oh but you can’t….”
Winston snapped his attention back at Partikule.
“Give me one good reason why I should still deal with you?”
With an easy and cheeky chortle, Partikule reared his head back then seesawed it forward, facing Winston. Partikule glared at Winston with sharp and amused eyes.
“‘Cause I alone sell Dako-bear heads in these parts you oaf! In fact I control all illegal trades regarding rare alchemical materials. I’m sorry but you’ve got no choice but to deal with me.”
Winston bit his lip, drawing blood.
“How much?” It took all of Winston’s strength not to lash out at the dwarf.
“Sixty shackals.”
Winston’s eyes went wide. He didn’t expect it to be so—cheap, at least relative to Partikule’s previous prices.
“I’m angry with you, you know that? You could have at least told me about these strange products and purchasing patterns I’d need to buy and do just to get an audience with this freak! But you swindled me out of my winnings instead, you fucker! And for what? For something that is common knowledge among criminals in the underworld!?”
Partikule merely gave a low chuckle.
“A businessman gotta do what he gotta do. That’s how he gets rich.” Partikule winked at Winston.
“Fucker!” Winston heaved, gritting his teeth, all the while mulling over his choices.
“Alright! I give up,” he said. “I’m buying all the stuff from you if you have them on sale.”
“We have, certainly we have them.”
The next forty minutes was spent waiting for all the stuff he purchased to be delivered to him, in the correct order people were supposed to buy them. Why the order of purchase mattered, Winston had no guesses. How powerful was this mysterious informant and whatever spirit under his control for him to be able to divine the exact order of purchase of the three ‘offerings’ he craved for? But enough of that, there are more important things to focus on, like how the heck would he be able to find this guy?
After that less than unappealing transaction, or rather, ‘confrontation’ was the better word, Winston got out of the underground maze and came up to the bookstore and left for the third district. After two hours of scouring the many alleys that formed from the variety of buildings that were erected inside the third district, he stumbled upon two suspicious elves. One was a tall lanky elf, with short cropped hair and slanted brows as well as green eyes. And the other was an elven girl of average woman height, silver hair that was braided beautifully behind her; pale and reddish skin as well as yellow eyes that shone in power. This girl… she was perfectly familiar. Winston knew who she was.
Before he could even blink, ice spikes formed around her and soared towards his direction. He prepared himself to sublimate all of them with the heat of his fire.
Bring it on.