“Ah, we are getting somewhere.” I said. “Hello there, Nira. Is it fine if I shorten your name?”

“Yes, my lady.” She said,

“Perfect! Now, what can you tell us about the Empire? I do care less about local corruption.”

“As far as I know, Gronir was only interested in money. But the Empire was willing to pay a lot. I… I was sent to influence an official. I made them grant a licence to a merchant who supplies the Empire.” Nira admitted.

“I see. I guess we need to visit that merchant.” I said.

“We could confiscate their wares.” Lucy suggested.

“I don’t think we have that kind of authority in the Dwarven Kingdom.” I pointed out.

“Nobody would dare stop you, my lady.” Lily said.

“Just because we can get away with it, does not mean we should do it.” I responded.

Lucy shrugged. “We exposed some major corruption. A reward for us seems justified.”

“Let’s locate that merchant first.” I said.

“I can lead you to her headquarters.” Nira offered.

“Perfect! You should disguise yourself as a dwarf again. We don’t want to draw too much attention.”

Lily transformed into her well known dragonkin shape. Nira became Brita once more. That should help us. We left the guild and made our way towards the merchant.

“What will happen to me, once this is over?” Nira asked.

“My ladies, I would like to make use of her.” Lily said.

“Make use? You want her as a maid knight?” I asked.

“Indeed. She is young and untrained. I think I can mould her into a useful tool.”

“If she agrees. Otherwise we should just banish her.” Lucy said. “We don’t want to force anyone into working for us.”

I nodded. “Lucy is right. Nira needs to agree.”

“What is a maid knight?” Nira asked, hesitantly.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Lady Amaya is an archfey. She has granted me the powers of an elemental knight. I have become her Storm Maid Knight. I am the leader of this knightly order. It is our duty to serve our ladies as maids and knights. We care for them, we fight for them, we die for them.” Lily explained.

The dying part sounded a bit dramatic but I guess it was expected of a soldier to risk their lives.

“You will be paid for your services. Your loyalty will be expected and rewarded. If you betray us, you will be fed to the court elemental.” Lily continued.

“She will probably bathe in your blood, literally.” Lucy added.

“Court elemental?” Nira asked.

“Shani. She is an elemental lord from the plane of wind.” I explained.

“May I think about it?” Nira asked.

“Sure.” I responded. “You can talk to our other recruits and maid knights before you make a decision.”

We arrived at the merchant's home, which also served as an office. The building had two stories. It looked nice, business must be good.

“What is the name of this merchant?” I asked before entering.

“Her name is Sandra.” Nira said.

We were greeted by a receptionist who recognized Brita. She told us to go straight to the office, Sandra would be happy to see us.

The office was lavishly decorated. Sandra was a middle aged woman with blond hair and brown eyes. Her body was in good shape, it looked like she exercised regularly. She greeted us with a warm smile.

“Ah, Brita! And you brought friends! Is this a new business opportunity? Maybe with the Dominion? I would love to expand my trade.”

“Hello Sandra. These are my… friends. Countess Amaya and Lucy Delphinium.” Nira introduced us.

“Friends? I see. I would like to be their friend as well. Perhaps we can all get to know each other more closely?” Sandra’s tone was clearly suggesting a more intimate way of getting to know each other.

“Is she also a succubus?” Lucy asked.

“Succubus? Brita, what are they talking about? ” Sandra asked, sounding confused but also intrigued.

“No, she is just… I might have brought some people in the past for entertainment.” She confessed.

“Maybe I should teach the lady some manners.” Lily suggested.

“Uhhh, I see. Yes, I have been naughty.” Sandra said.

I sighed. “We know you are supplying the Empire. We are here to ask some questions and then hand you over to the authorities.”

“She is a human, we should check her for mind control runes.” Lucy pointed out.

Sandra’s eyes widened. Was she controlled? Would she have orders to resist arrest? Better not to take any risks, I decided. I started casting devour magic.

The spell completed and black fog appeared around Sandra. She screamed as the spell did its job. It seemed to eat away at something.

“What is happening?” Nira asked.

“It looks like she was mind controlled. I am breaking the spell.” I answered. Then I moved closer to Sandra and used my healing spell. The woman was now on the floor, she had fallen off her chair. She was sweating and breathing hard.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

She stared at me. “You… you freed me. You actually broke the spell.” Then she started crying. I gave her a hug. After a while she calmed down.

“Can you answer a few questions?” I asked.

“Yes. Yes I can.” She said.

“Are there more people being controlled here?”

“I don’t know. I had strict orders to never talk about them.”

“Why control a merchant?” Lucy asked.

“Because everyone outside the country is a lot harder to control.” Sandra answered. “In the old days they kept families hostage, but this is safer. We can’t become double agents like this. Securing more metal for the army was considered a high priority.”

“The Empire is large. Surely they have a lot of mines themselves.” I said.

“Mithril and adamantium are hard to mine. They are often found in dangerous locations. The Empire does not have that much. But more importantly, the Inquisition needed supplies that the Emperor did not know about.”

“So the Inquisition was gathering high quality materials. I wonder if they have a secret strike force somewhere to deal with high level threats.” I said.

“Surely they would have sent them after us by now.” Lucy argued.

“I don’t know. The demon incident in Unitera was not planned by them. Elias might have acted on his own when he engaged us. Maybe their force was not in position yet. Or they wanted to keep their main strength hidden to surprise the Emperor.”

“I will secure the receptionist and ensure she is not controlled.” Lily said.

“Good. I think we need to report this to the king.” I said.