The dog-kin usher, lead Ophelia to her seat. Ophelia absentmindedly, tipped her several gold dollars for the service and the young woman walked away, her tail wagging.

Left alone that the booth, Ophelia sank into her seat with a sigh. Her nerves frayed because the last few weeks had been, quite the ordeal.

She’d just barely managed to help Albrecht wrap up the coordination of duchy Sitara’s recovery, when yet another crisis occurred, this time in the south-east.

A great distortion in the flow of the world’s aether that resulted in a grand explosion of light and sound that could be heard and seen all over the entirety of Monde and had possibly even been witnesed from a few neighboring planets and dimensions.

No one died this time, at least as far as she could tell, but it was enough to frighten several major groups and the Great Kingdoms of Meallan and Lloyd into action.

Requiring a series of exploratory excursions to the site that was now being called the grand crystal basin, before things would calm down.

*****

Another usher came bringing another guest to the little vip booth, in walked the Primus of the Church of the Unified Pantheon. He dropped into his seat, beating the arm rest before settling down.

The two sat  and watched other empty seats slowly fill up. Whilst telepathically conversing with an operative who was still at the basin, Ophelia made note of who else sat in the vip booths, that lay across from hers.

“I’m mad at you, y’know.” said Alphonse.

The sudden intrusion by his voice almost making her fall out of the psychic conversation she’d been having. She turned towards him, her look a mixture of bemusement and confusion.

“Ugh, What did I do now?” said Ophelia. Her tone slightly sarcastic.

“Do you know what’s scarier than a few church precogs suddenly losing sight of the future?...’All’ the church Precogs suddenly losing sight of the future. Every single one of them suddenly drawing blanks cause suddenly there’s nothing to see...So you can imagine my surprise, the future’s disappeared and the one woman who supposed be on top of the present is AWOL.”

“Tch...Who the hell, was AWOL?! Are you talking about, me, you old asshole? I hope you’re not, because ‘this’ elegant, Old Miss was working her ass off.” said Ophelia. Biting back with some harsh words of her own.

Alphonse goggled at her, his jaw a little ajar.

“Shame on you Ophelia Delphi. To think you’d cuss out the head of the church…”

“And so? Want to fight about it?” she said, still stern, in both tone and expression.

The Primus stared at his old friend, his juvenile face, hard lined and slightly sinister. Then like the sun appearing behind the parting clouds, came a smile. The smile became a laugh, and the laugh, and the laugh became a cackle.

“Pft...what, Elegant Old Miss? I’m sorry was that nonsense that just came out of your mouth even Imperial-Common? I couldn’t quite make heads or tails of it. And last time we fought, we sank part of the Nereida island chain, let's not get reckless. ”

“Tch...Eat a thousand needles and die old man.”said Ophelia. Exasperated to the point that she could no longer be angry.

“You first, Sneaking-Fox.” said Primus Alphonse.  Having a surprisingly good time making sport of his childhood friend.

“Hmph…” said Ophelia. Pointedly not bothering to meet the man’s eye.

“Anyway..so you say you were working huh…” said Alphonse.

“I’m not ‘saying’ I was working I was actually…”

Whatever Ophelia was about to say was swallowed up the sounds of audience applause. She looked down and saw that the stage at the center of the great amphitheatre was a man who stood under a spotlight.

A dark haired dandy by the name of Enzo Maynard, the host of this little show.

“Welcome, welcome. I’d just like to thank everyone who came to this Year's first Annual Auction of the Maynard Auction House.”

After he said his bit the announcer came on stage, surrounded by the usual gaggle of lightly clothed beautiful assistants from both genders.

“Alright ladies and gents, our first item of the day is a statue by famed sculptor Lafayette of the Devil’s County. Price starts at Ten thousand Gold dollars.”

The statue was a spiral structure and just looking at it a little let one know that it would have some kind of beneficial effect one ones cultivation.

Next was a rare demonbeast, then there was a set of special medicines. There was a even a girl, a young woman who was pushed onto the stage wearing a flouncy dress of see-through spidersilk.  

Still that wasn’t the show, that wasn’t something really worth watching,  at least not for a individual like Ophelia. That wasn’t why nearly  everyone was here today.

No, the real show started once the bidding began.

It was drama, it was comedy,  it was tragedy, all of it musical. The bids would climb and the bidders would vie against each other.

The most valuable items would be a way of seeing who had funds to spend. And those items that were slightly more  off angle would either not be bid for at all, or they’d bid for and a bidding war would start.

Reminding everyone of all the old grudges that lay between the continent’s heavy hitters. Sometimes these items would be of such importance to the bidders that threats would be made. There’d be shouting and arguments and promises of recompense, that Ophelia knew would almost certainly become wars if her ministry left it alone.

The announcer would stand on his stage while new items came and went and little by little she could feel the whole continent turning based on his word alone. It was bloodsport of a different sort. A battleground for the elite.

She watched with rapt attention, aware that she had no less than a hundred agents, mixed in amongst the audience and staff, taking notes and analyzing each happening.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, you’ve been a great crowd, and some very generous spenders. I hate to say it but its getting to be that time, and there’s only one more thing for the auction block, before we close things down.” said the announcer.

*****

Finally it was time for the last item of the night. As always it’d be the most valuable, rare and more likely than not, powerful, item that the Auction house got its hands on.

And it was for this items sake, as well as the melodrama, before, that lords and ladies and many of the continent's elite would come.

A nubile, young, goblin girl walked onto the stage with something on a platter. The crowd watched with rapt attention as announcer lifted the lid. On the silver tray beneath was a set of five syringes.

The liquid within the syringes glowed, seeming to draw aether from air, sluggishly churning like a lava flow. Pulsing like it was alive.

“Now ‘what’ we have right here, are a set of five, booster shots. There’s a special serum in each shot, guaranteed to do two things, one) bring  forth the utmost potential of any bloodline and two) raise a practitioner's cultivation to the third layer of the next realm. Again I’m just gonna say it we have five, I’m saying it again ‘five’ shots, guarantee to pump up your stuff and push you to the next realm. We call it Kingmaker serum, now can I get an opening bid?” said the announcer.

The silence that came, was the silence before a storm and the bidding war that followed was worse than anything Ophelia had ever witnessed. Threats were made, blood feuds created, alliances broken. Sheer chaos and pandemonium.

For a full five minutes no bids could be heard because there was too much screaming. At some point the duch of greater territory had to stopped from strangling the king of a lesser kingdom.

Ophelia sat stunned wondering why she and her people had never heard of something, so troublesomely miraculous. Besides not even hearing about the existence of the substance they hadn’t even known that it was being sold.

The original last item for tonight was supposed to be a magic sword found from an old world ruin. If there was such a substance out in the world then the ministry would normally be keeping a close eye on it.

Controlling and monitoring things were literally part of why the Ministry of Public Order existed.  Even if they couldn’t control its distribution they’d still keep track of it.

For a moment she doubted the veracity of the Announcers claims...if this wasn’t a Maynard Auction... If the Maynard were one of the eight heads of the core EITC…

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Then perhaps she’d be able to rest easier. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case, unfortunately she knew that if a Maynard Announcer claimed an item had ‘x’ properties then it had ‘x’ properties. No more. No less. It was what their reputation was based on.

“My, my…” said the Primus of the Church. Chuckling as he watched the fiasco taking place below.

Alphonse sat, drumming his fingers along the line of his cane and then he stood and called out at the top of his voice. Decisively.

“Two hundred Million, five hundred thousand, Gold Dollars.”

The audience turned to him, Ophelia turned to him. A thousand faces scrunched in frustration. If one looked one could see at least half of the people below were tempted to throw up a higher bid, but the church was everywhere thus for the sake of peace, they’d have to give the Primus face and respect his bid.

“Two hundred million five hundred thousand? Okay that’s highest bid yet, two hundred million five hundred thousand going once, going twice...and that’s one serum sold to Primus Alphonse of the Church of the Pantheon. We still have one left…” said the Announcer.

His words almost immediately being drown out by a cacophony of voices that were all earnestly threatening to drown the man with their money.

“Why the hell did ‘you’ have to buy one two?” hissed Ophelia.

Alphonse shrugged.

“I’m head of the church and I have proselytes and followers who rely on me and are relied on. Regardless of who I end up giving it to, or whether I use this myself, I’d be remiss to ‘not’ buy one.”

Ophelia glared at her old friend, well aware that his words were true. She sucked her teeth at him whilst thinking of her next move then stood and called out as well.

“One billion gold dollars.”

“My, my. That's a bid of one billion, do we have any other takers?” said the Announcer.

“One billion five hundred million.” howled one of the lesser-kings of Albrecht.

“Two Billion.” Ophelia, sighing and giving the lesser-king from before a warning glare.

“Two billion, five hundred.” said the lesser-king.

“Three billion.” said Ophelia.

The lesser-king sneered at her and  was about make another bid when one of the ushers randomly leaned in and whispered something that was absolutely, positively,  neither blackmail or threats into his ear.

The man blanched and fell back into his seat. A full five seconds passed while everyone dithered and then finally the announcer spoke again.

“Three Billion going once...Three billion going twice...And there goes the last booster shot, sold to the beautiful lady in booth six!” bellowed the announcer.

After that things, wrapped up, the winners were given storage items that held their loot, the losers prepared to slink away into the darkness. Before that though, all the lights were turned on and the host, young Enzo of the Maynard family retook the stage.

*****

“Thanks again to everyone who came. ‘Keep the Customer Happy’ has always been the motto of the Maynard clan. And so long as you folks are leaving here happy that you came its win for us. Before you go, since its first annual auction are ushers are going around handing out gift bags, but you can also pick one up at the door. They are filled with all sorts of little goods, that were provided by a new partner of ours, who also provided the last item for the day.”

“Come on, pal. Stand up and take a bow.”said Enzo.

Gesturing towards someone who sat in the front row. The headlights moving to the spot he was gesturing to do. A man stood. Both tall and slender, his hair dark and glossy.

Beside him sat, two beautiful women, who’d pushed him forwards, more or less seeming to force him to stand, since it looked like he’d been napping through this whole show.

Ophelia blinked as it clicked together, the whole room shuddered as he awoke and for the span of a single half second a little of the man’s aura leaked out. Impossibly thick, impossibly deep.

“Motherfucker...it’s him!” she muttered leaning forwards. Eyes bright and gleaming.

“....Him?” said Alphonse. Still a little slow to understand,  though full comprehension soon reached him as well.

“There you go buddy. Here he is folks, the man behind the magic. The Alchemist, Enchanter, Spellscribe of the Company. The Genius behind all your favorite new magic products. I call him William...but you know him as Asphodel.”

There was a round of applause, mostly of the polite sort at first, but then it grew more intense as the people in the room, all understood what  was happening and who they were looking at it.

“Shit…” said Ophelia. Laughing at herself.

“What? What happened?” said Alphonse. Looking between her and the man at the floor of the amphitrite who stood under the headlights.

The Primus stared down at the young face that stood waving at the audience and then his eyes grew bright. A small cackle escaping him as he realized his friend's plight.

“My, my...Fifth realm too... Quite the coup, if I must say so.” said Alphonse.

Ophelia didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. In the arcades of Argus there were old world gaming computers and those who played on them knew a certain phrase.

“Stunlocking”, the second phrase that usually went with that was, “Spamming”.

If you stunlocked an opponent well enough, you could keep them from acting, you could keep them helpless. Chipping down at their health, till the fight was over. Spamming was the use, or exploitation of an attack that either hit too hard or too fast to be easily defended against..

Ophelia now realized that that was exactly what just happened. The game was over, the fight ending before it could even begin.

She hardly believe it, the indolent youth that stood below, hardly looked like the kind of crafty bastard that could something like that off. Yet the facts were what they were.

He’d slowly escalated the scale of his operation and strength continually forcing the overly cautious powers of Monde to rethink and regroup, how his little Bone Tree Company should be handled.

Doing it over and over again to finally this happened. Finishing things with a final coup de gras, in the form of this auction and his little introduction to the world.

It had  been one thing when they reached a sixty percent market share for the magic tool market of Argus and forty percent share for all of Monde.  But now they had a fifth realm Practitioner.

It was almost cheating. No, not almost, it ‘was’ cheating. The fifth realm was entirely different world compared to all the practitioner levels below. The number of such individuals currently active in Argus could be counted on one hand. As for a comparison of what his strength signified.

If the strength  of every other practitioner  in the world was equivalent to that house or a small village, a fifth realm existence would be, equivalent to a space-aged nuclear super power.

One capable of terraforming neighboring planets and mining moons. Such practitioners had been the bedrock on which the old Argus empire’s power had been founded.

In short just by sheer his existence the man on the floor below had turned his little company into an institution similar to that of the Guilds and the Great Kingdoms, and the Church.  A major power with wide influence.

Or to put it even simpler, unless every faction on the continent got together to try and oppose them the Bone Tree Company wouldn’t be going anyway. Considering what he’d just auctioned and what that revealed about his abilities and the possibilities for their ‘friends’, a unified assault from the factions of Argus wasn’t going to be happening very soon. If ever.

The Bone Tree Company was here and they were here to stay. A new tyrannical faction had joined the powers of Monde.

“Heh~, fuck! Okay you, win, you clever bastard.….Fine, Time for round two. There may be a new piece on the board but I’ll be damned if that means if that means the whole game falls into chaos..” she muttered.

Calming herself. Licking her lips as she watched the man, awkwardly sit.  Aided by two ladies at his side.  The world had changed without her say so, or ability to control it, or even to adjust for it.

As loath as she was to admit it, she’d been a step behind, this whole time. That didn’t mean that all was lost though. If she played her cards right she could possibly even use this.