Scarlet's PoV

Scarlet sat on the couch as she smirked at the yelling going on in the other room. She was happy that someone could put Davis in his place. The glares he had been throwing her way after the battle had been getting tiring.

"She's 11 years old! Why didn't you send her home! She could have been killed Davis!"

"Gwen, There was no time. I had already told the girl to go home. She ended up being a blessing Gwen. Over a dozen people owe her their lives. She did the village proud."

"She could have died!"

Davis snapped back "She could have died for the past six months in the caves!"

Then there was sobbing.

"Oh Gwen. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. Please don't cry."

Bleh. This Gwen only lasted like two minutes in an argument. Maybe she could give her some pointers. At least it would give her some entertainment. She was getting so bored. The other night she was in the same room with Forrest when she heard the wolf howl. Then a second later the other wolf darted outside.

Even in the dark she would be a fool to go outside. There were too many people looking for her. But Forrest heard the call for help and grabbed a bow and quiver and headed out.

For the first time she was truly alone with Jim. She opened the door and looked in on him. Still as a rock. But after underestimating him two times in a row she didn't want to bet against him again. Scarlet watched him for hours.

"This better be worth a lot of DKP," she mumbled to herself.

Forrest was the first one back and he told her the tale. She winced as he recounted how things had turned out. From what she heard the Merchant Circle had a lot more guards along this year. Was that a coincidence? Or had some intel leaked somewhere?

In the war in the dark, you could never be too sure who knew what. Even factions loyal to the city-state can turn on its agents. That's why she hated the bureaucrats. Only the other Knives had any loyalty at all.

Scarlet had always been a bit more blunt of an instrument than most. Instead of the intrigue her cohorts had dominated in, she specialized in target neutralization. Every one of the bureaucrats feared her and all of her fellow Knives respected her.

Still the facts were the facts. She was looking back when she first acquired the Merchant Circle seal. It had been too easy.

Had one of those spineless cowards been making a play at her life? It had been awhile since someone tried to give her false orders. So far she had buried every prick that had tried that on her.

And if she ever found out one of her fellow Knives were sent needlessly to their slaughter, she would find the one who penned the action and respond accordingly. It was hard enough ensuring the survival for your city-state when the backstabbing politicians started pointlessly fighting each other.

But her orders had her sent to a city that already had a Jacksburg infection linked to the Merchant Circle. There were dozens of other backwater towns. Why was she sent to this one?

Then there was the fact that the village she had been ordered to had a larger than normal caravan sent to it. The caravan was normally not large enough to threaten the city, but this time it was. The timing and specifics of her orders were just too odd. Her orders almost seemed specifically crafted to point her at the Potion Maker.

She reevaluated her odds of coming out alive if she didn't have any contact with Jim. The odds of survival were low. Very low.

The sobbing finally stopped and she started eavesdropping on the conversation again.

"You need to give up that Merchant Circle girl. They're still looking for her."

And it looks like they were not going to be BFFs. Too bad.

Davis answered "No. I owe Jim my life. If I can not return this much of a favor, my words are worthless."

Gwen asked "What? Why your life? What did he do for you?"

Davis sighed and said "Not only those dogs of his last night, but I was preparing myself to go into the caves to look for Maria. I would have snuck out at night. I owe him twice over. Thrice if you count Maria."

"Davis! Why! No one comes back from there!"

Answering, he said "She is family. Family comes first. I would be a poor excuse for a protector if I could not even protect my own."

"You know that is against the rules…"

With a hint of laughter in his voice he said "What would they have done to me? Kill me?"

Gwen said irritatedly "You and your dark humor. I swear this is why you haven't found a woman yet."

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Scarlet silently chuckled. Zing!

Davis said exasperatedly "I do well enough."

Gwen said "If you have to pay for it, it doesn't count."

This was comedy gold! It's too bad Gwen wanted to turn her in. She was warming up to the woman.

Davis said tiredly "Can we stop fighting? Please. I don't want to say something else I will regret."

Boo! He could have totally brought up her former husband. From what Forrest said he wasn't a prize.

Actually now that she remembered it, she had apparently killed him at the Potion Makers house. Wonder which one he was?

Maybe she could bond with Gwen that way? After all Gwen could start off with stories of how she met her husband and stuff. And then Scarlet could tell her how he died. Would be fun! Just normal girl talk.

***

John's PoV

John was sitting in the waiting room for Mr. Montgomery and he was fidgeting. He looked at the before and after photos from his dentist for like the hundredth time. The evidence was clear as day.

Scanning the before pictures he could see all the fillings that he used to have. Then he looked over to the one he had just got this morning and his teeth were perfect. That was not the only thing too. He just felt better. John had been living with some background pain for awhile now and he just didn't notice it till it wasn't there anymore.

The creaky joints. Neck and lower back pain. Just a lot of little pain was not there anymore. Even headaches. His current headache was nowhere close to what it normally was. It was the first time in a long time that he had forgotten his little bottle of aspirin. As he was waiting a young woman greeted the receptionist and took a seat. She was fairly pretty and she had a small stack of papers in a folder.

Trying not to bother her, he looked at his photos again. The lady looked at them and asked "What are those?"

Clearing his throat he said "Before and after photos for my teeth."

Confused, she asked "For Mr. Montgomery? Those are his teeth?"

"Nope. For me."

Making a perky smile she said "Sorry, my name is Mary! Who are you?"

Mary stuck out her hand to shake and he shook it saying "Name's John."

Then she said excitedly "Are you the John that I send all the pharmaceutical requests to?"

It took him a second but then he realized who he was talking to.

"Oh! You're the one that sends me the emails from Mr. Montgomery! Yea, that's me."

Mary asked her questions saying, "So what's this all about? Some drug looking promising?"

John laughed and he said "You could say that. Remember that email you tagged the lowest priority the other day?"

Mary blanked for a few seconds and then said, "Oh yea! Sorry about that. Company policy, I have to send out anything that meets a certain criteria to you."

John shook his head and said "No. Not sure if I should tell you, but it was the real deal."

Incredulously, she said "The wonder drug? Really?"

John handed her the pictures and said "Look at this. In this picture these are my fillings and that's my fake tooth. This is the picture that I got taken this morning. As you can see they are gone. All natural now."

Using said natural teeth he gave her a smile. Looking at the tooth in question she said "Really? Why is it so white compared to the others? And If they are new, where did the old stuff go?"

"I spit them out after I took a dose of whatever he gave me. And the reason why it is so white is because it is a brand new tooth. You should have seen the dentists hound me this morning. They wanted me to 'volunteer' for a study and said that the regrowth was fascinating. Almost had to beat them off with sticks."

Mary asked, "And that's what you're here to tell Mr. Montgomery?"

John nodded and asked "How is he doing? I haven't seen him in awhile."

Looking at the floor she said sadly "Not too well. I see him everyday. It's so sad."

Someone walked out of Mr. Montgomery's office and the secretary called him. He was glad he got to talk to Mary. It warmed him up a bit. Now that he already told the story once, hopefully it would go smoother when telling the big boss. Then he would have to pray that he didn't think John was crazy.

***

Charlotte's PoV

Charlotte was at her storage locker watching people shoveling silver coins into crates. It was the weirdest thing that she'd ever seen. Scratch that, she saw a pinky get chopped off and regrown. Okay, second weirdest thing.

One of the nice things about formally being high up in a tech company was that she knew a lot of people. With a few calls she found someone who was interested in buying silver in bulk at a discounted price. She had always known tech companies used silver for electronics, but she had never been part of that process.

Charlotte was more into theory and then she went into management. Still her manager skills did her well in this situation. Organizing a moving company, a boxing crew and a security company on short notice was hard work. And now she was monitoring all the moving pieces and making sure there were no issues.

The security chief was great. They sprayed this powder all into the area where the silver was. The security team and moving teams were not allowed to touch the boxes until the crates were sealed. While the moving team moved the boxes they were shadowed by the security team flashing a special light on them that would make the nearly invisible powder look like a bright neon yellow.

They had already caught three movers and one of his security team that tried to steal some pocket change. She loved seeing efficiency. It all meshed and there were no bottlenecks. Hallmark of a good manager. Well, at least she thought so.

They had been at it for 8 hours when the security chief came up to her and asked, "You alright miss? It's still going to take a good bit more time."

Charlotte nodded saying "I have pulled all nighters before. Will probably do it again. In the end I'm responsible for this, so I should be on site."

"Suit yourself, miss. Just be careful. A lot of moving is going on and those crates are heavy."

As soon as he said that she watched someone trip while they were mindlessly walking and using their phone. Gesturing in that direction she said "Yea, I don't do that. I keep my eyes open, so I should be good."

He chuckled and continued to monitor his team. They still needed to get the silver officially weighed, and then there was the paperwork. It was still going to take some time to cash the silver out, but she was doing her best.

Charlotte's phone vibrated and she stepped clear of the work and then stopped as she looked at her phone. It was from the man Jim mentioned the other day. He wanted her to review a contract that had been drawn up. Conflicted, she looked towards the work that was in motion and then back at her phone.

Sighing she found a bench that had a good view and sat down and then read the contract. She would read over it first, but before responding she would need to talk to her lawyer.

As she was reading a bright neon yellow glow was all over a new worker's hands and pockets. Got another! Her security chief was already walking towards the man while keying his radio. It was nice working with professionals.