He led me to a card table.

There was an Elf seated with a Dwarf, a Goblin, and a Djinn.

While the first three weren’t surprising, seeing a free Djinn was. Most of the blue magicians served Griffons or other powerful mages like Dragons as magical batteries. Djinn could store a lot more raw magic in their bodies, making them a great power boon to any mage, especially ones that wanted a way to rapidly increase their power.

My eyes went to her wrists, then her neck. Bound Djinn had manacles on their wrists or necks so that their actions could be controlled and to ensure that they wouldn’t attack their masters. She didn’t have any of that jewelry, which meant that she was a free Djinn.

Free Djinn on the other hand, usually avoided the public. The fear of being bound by a powerful mage and being forced into servitude was a strong motivator for them to stay hidden. Even if there wasn’t a mage here that was willing to try to subjugate the Djinn, I could imagine that there were plenty of bounty hunters that would love the opportunity to capture her and sell her to a mage somewhere.

She was barely wearing any clothes. The thin metal top and short red skirt covered less of her than her hip-length black hair that was flowing over her shoulders. She had plenty of runes on her skin, written in various colors, which I assumed was one of the reasons that she dared to walk around so freely. As magic rich as her body was, she could power plenty of runes for hours before she started to get drained.

“Your graces.” The Goblin that led me to them bowed, then hurried away. I was curious why he was so eager to leave until the Elf stood up and turned to me. He’d been sitting with his back to me, so I’d assumed that he was one of the less important people, since he had his back to the room, but his red eyes let me know that he had probably been doing that to show everyone how little he was concerned about his safety.

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“Sectum..?” The black-haired man raised an eyebrow. “What do you go by now? Irongut? Malus?”

“Just Sectum is fine.” I eyed the other three at the table. None of them rose in their seats to greet me, although the Djinn did look me over with her yellow eyes. There was something almost feral about her. Like she was thinking about eating me. “And you are?”

“Where are my manners?” The Vampire smiled, showing his fangs. “This is Gurin Lodestorm.” He motioned at the brown-haired Dwarf. “Mondo Bansi.” He pointed at the green Goblin. “And this…” He took the Djinn’s hand as she rose from her chair. “Is my bondmate, Hera Glynot.”

I was distracted by her seductive smile for a moment before the name registered.

“Glynot?” I looked back at the vampire. “So you’re..?”

“Ford Glynot.” He gave me a small bow. “I believe you met my mother.”

The red coin in my pocket burned just a little. It had been made out of Pera Glynot’s blood and served as a declaration that I was in her good favor. As the matriarch of her coven, anyone under her was bound to aid me with any reasonable request.

Knowing that this group couldn’t hurt me allowed me to relax a little, though my curiosity was strengthened. Some of the mental exhaustion from the brain freeze was subsiding, though that meant that my pain was increasing. I really wanted to sit down.

Ford must have picked up on this because he began waving his hands at the other two at the table.

“As fun as this has been, I think this is where we will end the night.” The vampire smiled at them. “I’m happy to take your gold anytime.”

The Dwarf and Goblin were both grumbling as they got up and each sulked off in a different direction.

“The locals can get so moody when they lose their money.” Ford grinned, letting me see all of his teeth. “Sit, sit.” He motioned towards the empty seats. “I’ve heard great things about you.”

Considering that I was a nobody until a few weeks ago, I had my doubts about how much he’d heard about me, though there were information brokers, so I supposed it was possible.

That didn’t help me shake the feeling that I was about to make a deal with a devil.