“Why the change of heart?” Two Gun asked curiously.
Inora’s cheeks must have been hurting at all the smiling she was doing. She turned her wide smile on Two Gun now. Kaleb honestly thought it was starting to look freaky. Judging from the way Carmine wasn’t looking at the smaller women made Kaleb think he felt the same.
“What do you mean? We were busy before and now we-”
“Know I can use magic.” Kaleb interrupted.
Inora's teeth clacked as she quickly shut her mouth and grimaced at Kaleb. Two Gun and Claire both shot him curious looks. Kaleb had guessed that Giorgio had told either Carmine or Inora about his magic. Then again, Derek hadn’t exactly been quiet about it. But given how cagey the two were now acting, he figured he had hit the nail on the head.
“For some reason, Magic Users are rare among Hunters.” Kaleb explained to his two friends.
“Not all Hunters, just the ones that matter.” Carmine explained grimly.
Kaleb gave him a curious stare as Inora sighed heavily.
“Maybe we should head inside?” She asked, waving a hand toward the main road. “There’s a bar where we can discuss things and get out of this heat.”
Kaleb and the others agreed. As they made their way down the street, Kaleb took in the other Hunters gathering up the goblin bodies and piling them into the street. He briefly wondered what the hunters would do with all the bodies. From beside him he heard a snort of suppressed laughter as Two Gun said.
“Don’t even think about it, Professor, you can’t take a dead goblin home with you.”
Kaleb shook his head as Claire laughed behind her hand. “I wasn’t going to. I was just wondering what they are going to do with them.”
“Uh-huh,” Claire said, disbelievingly.
“Normally we pile them up and burn them,” Carmine answered from slightly ahead of them. “Thankfully, Fae creatures go up like Christmas trees and leave a little behind. Not much use for the bones or skins, and their equipment isn’t fit for a child.”
Kaleb fingered the stone goblin sword he had kept and figured the big man was right. But he would at least keep the stone sword at hand for the time being. Before he could ask another question about the goblins, however, he felt a strange feeling in his leg.
Claire and Two Gun gave him strange looks as he stopped to figure out what it was. Kaleb was confused. It felt like a small part of his leg was vibrating. Feeling around, he felt a strange blocky object in his pocket. Reaching in, he pulled out the old retro phone Two Gun had bought them all.
“Must have had it on vibrate.” Two Gun muttered as they started down the street again.
Kaleb just stared at the archaic device before swiping his finger across the phone icon and holding the phone to his ear.
“Uh... Hello?”
“Hi!” Said Farrah, sounding way too chipper. “Did you know ear pieces only work if you take one too?”
Kaleb slapped his forehead. He could almost picture Farrah’s withering look.
“Okay, in my defense, we were in a rush.”
Farrah snorted. She dropped her sickeningly sweet tone and asked. “So, is everything okay, then? I lost you on the camera feeds. Do you need the others?”
Kaleb shook his head as he continued toward the bar with the others. “No. No, everything is fine here. We are about to talk about getting the contract for this area. The local Hunters took down the boar. Are the others back yet?”
“Not yet, but I’ll let them know. Anything else interesting happen?” Farrah asked.
“Just a Goblin Horde, but I gotta go, Farrah. We’re here.” Kaleb said as he looked up to see the entrance to a small dive bar.
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“A gob-” Farrah’s voice cut off as Kaleb switched off his phone and jammed it back into his pocket.
It was a diner-style bar, more long than wide. There was a long bar on the left-hand side and short tables all along the right wall. As Kaleb and his group walked in, a few people glanced up, but quickly went back to whispering among themselves. They were clearly used to people in colorful armour wandering about their town. As for Kaleb’s own reptilian nature or Claire’s Alien one, he figured they just didn’t care.
Inora lead their group to a small booth at the far end of the bar and sat down. Carmine took up a position near the bar, clearly okay with Inora negotiating for the Hunters. Kaleb, Two Gun and Claire all sat together on one side of the booth. After giving a quick drink order to the young woman who came to take their orders, Inora settled in and addressed the group.
“So about the cont-”
“Yeah, how about you tell us what we can do for you first?” Two Gun interrupted.
The old cowboy had settled in between Kaleb and Claire and was eyeing Inora carefully. Claire, for her part, was studying a menu their waitress had dropped off. Kaleb was just waiting for coffee, keeping one ear on the conversation. Two gun was clearly more comfortable with these sorts of negotiations and Kaleb was more than happy to let him handle it. Inora huffed indignantly before sighing loudly.
“We want your Magic users to open our Mana channels.”
Kaleb’s eyes widened as Two Gun and Claire shot him looks. Kaleb returned their looks before addressing the Hunter.
“I wouldn’t even know how to. Plus, as I understand, it only works if the person already has the talent for Magic.”
“Do you think the others would know?” Claire asked.
Two Gun added. “Maybe Jar-lock has something in his library?”
Kaleb nodded as he took his coffee from the returning waitress. “Maybe,” looking back to Inora he asked. “Why?”
Inora nodded. “Back when we bought the contract from the HLO, a few of the Hunters wanted to continue buying contracts until we were back to full strength. Others wanted to rejoin the HLO and even more just wanted to move on and forget.”
“You were shattered into groups.” Two Gun nodded, understanding.
“And broke.” Carmine said from his spot at the bar.
“We were already breaking into factions anyway, thanks to Julius.” Inora said with a scowl. “Once we had the contract, the factions got worse. Me and Carmine just wanted to keep our heads down, so we broke up the contract between the three big factions. An old hunter named Silas took his group and the two suburbs: Imperial Valley and The Woodlands. Carmine took everything from Blue Bluff to the 130 highway, and Julius has everything from the Magical Preserve and everything up north.”
“And those groups?” Two Gun prompted.
“Silas wants to return to being the go-to guys for Magical creature incursions.” Carmine said, not sounding too angry about it.
Kaleb nodded. “And Julius is the HLO lapdog?” When Inora nodded, Kaleb snorted. “Knew I didn’t like that guy.”
Seeing Two Gun and Claire’s curious looks, he explained. “Came by the hangar, promising a dire end to anyone trying to hunt in this area.”
Inora nodded again. “Yeah, he makes it his job to scare away newcomers,”
“And steal away anyone with Magical talent.” Carmine growled.
Kaleb and his friends looked on curiously as Inora sighed. “Yeah, the HLO gives Julius’ group a lot of benefits: better deals on equipment, more money for Magical Creatures, and better wages for enchanters.”
“That explains why you want Magic users.” Claire said, taking a sip from her water.
“Which we don’t know if we can help you with,” Kaleb said, receiving an elbow in his side from Two Gun. “What?!”
“Boy, we gotta work on your negotiating.”
Kaleb shrugged. “We already have the permit to work in the area. Getting the contract would be great, but we don’t absolutely need it, do we?”
Inora frowned as Claire shook her head. “You didn’t pay attention during D34d-I’s meeting, did you? We need the contract because it can increase how much money we get when fulfilling it.”
Kaleb looked chagrined and rubbed the back of his head.
“It WAS a long meeting.” He muttered.
Two Gun snorted as he turned the conversation back to Inora. “What are the details of the contract you hold?”
“When the Hunters split into factions, we had the contract amended with the new areas. Our Hunters get paid extra to take care of every Magical incursion in our territory, same with the others. We also get to keep a larger portion of the materials. We also get to make weekly raids into the Forest.” Inora explained.
“The Forest?” asked Two Gun.
“And the human criminals?” Kaleb asked at the same time.
Inora grinned at them as Carmine answered Kaleb’s question. “The human criminals are not within OUR purview. Julius’ group, however…”
He trailed off as Inora answered Two Gun. “The Forest is the Magical woods surrounding Lake Long.”
“Then wouldn’t that make it Julius' territory?” Kaleb asked.
Inora nodded. “Technically, but the woods are considered a resource by the City of Austin. So they have control over it. They are the ones that let us inside.”
“We’ve gotten off track.” Two Gun said, shaking his head. “How can we gain the contract for at least this area?”
Inora snorted. “You can’t. We worked hard for the contract we have. But we would share it with you. Put your names on it alongside ours. Besides, how many Supers are in your group?”
Kaleb and the others looked at each other.
Kaleb mentally counted his friends. “Eight right now. But we might have another couple here soon.”
Carmine let out a loud laugh. “Eight people would barely cover our little area. Much less Silas’ or Julius’ territories.”
Two Gun sighed. “So what ARE you proposing?”
Inora sat up straight. “We make your group Honorary Hunters. A select few from your group go through our Initiate Trial. That way, it makes your group a part of ours and you can receive all the benefits from our contract. Finally, your group’s Magic users figure out how to unlock the latent potential in some of our people and do it.”
Kaleb held up a hand. “Hold up. Trial?! What’s that about and you still haven’t told us why magic users are so important?”
“Equipment.” Carmine said before Inora could answer. “We can make a lot from the Magical creatures we fight, but without enchantments, we are treading water. Our stuff degrades too fast or we don’t have the enchantments we need to make a difference. So far we have traded with Silas’ group, but from what we hear, they are having the same problem.”
“Julius.” Inora almost spat. “Probably on orders from his HLO overlords.”
Kaleb nodded. “And the Trial?”
Inora smiled. “Just a quick jaunt into an Enchanted Forest.”