The Broken Horn was quite empty at this time of the day. Usually it was safer to talk, when the noise of the crowd was stealing your every second word, even when you were next to your interlocutor, but this was not the priority of their client. The less Guild members will see him the better.

“Let me do the talking, Gis.”

“So you can take some shitty job for half the pay, like the last time? Sure.”

“You are exaggerating.”

“Am I?”

She couldn’t disagree, but letting Gis negotiate the deal, was equivalent of rejecting the job from the start. If only they could actually cooperate, they could probably squeeze a little extra coin from this deal, but that was unlikely. Gisthan never let her have too much to say. Not because he was doing this longer than she was alive, but because he just didn’t like her being “too agreeable”. He actually did respect her opinion, but not during the negotiations.

Fortunately their new employer has just arrived to silence their fight. Having no plan for negotiations, could actually do them some good. Their usual two halves of two bad plans didn’t usually do them much good.

A man in an old outworn cloak walked to their table giving Gis a welcoming nod.

“Good to see you again Gisthan.”

“I wish I could answer in similar fashion.”

Alta almost hissed at him, but the man seemed to understand Gis better, as he moved his hood a little to the back, but did not remove it completely.

“Here. Is that better?”

“I was talking about how you still didn’t even give me a fake name, but I will not bitch about it. After all you could have shown up in a mask.”

The dagger from her Inventory has now been materialized in her hand. She owned Gis a lot, but there was no way she would let him ruin a contract before

“He meant it as a complement”, she explained. “Right?”

“The rumors about Collectors participation in stealing your guild’s treasure, is the very reason why I have to conceal my identity. I don’t mind the joke, but I would like to have some understanding in return. I understand why suspecting someone of stealing it might be a complement, but it certainly didn’t sound like one.”

“Just give me some name to call you”, Gis didn't seem to care about anything what he just heard.

“Kaihil, will be fine.”

“Alta”, she felt she the need to introduce herself.

“What about you, Gisthan? I already know you, but feel free to get yourself a nickname”, he seemed amused by his own joke.

“Let’s stay with my name, and go back to the business”, Gis answered in his usual plain tone. “First, what you want us to do? And more importantly, how much you gonna pay us for the job.”

“Have you ever heard about Tilius the merciful?”, he asked, and explained knowing that they would not. “During the war between King Benjamin and The Dark Emperor, collateral damage suffered by civilians were more devastating than you probably thought. Over the years the diseases mixing up with curses have made some nasty plagues, and that was before some idiot from Bakard came up with the idea to help them grow. Tilius was a healer who saved from the plague even more people than the Eternal King himself with all his godly powers.”

“Impressive”, Gis did not seemed moved by that story. That time period was full similar ones, and most of them were even true.

“He is currently worshiped by convent of Stormheart monks, that he also was founder of.”

“I think I see where this is going”, Gis stopped him. “No need for more history lessons. You want some relicts left by that guy. Am I wrong?”

“Long story short? No. You are not wrong. That story was just supposed to show you how much any of those relicts mean to those monks. Better don’t underestimate their conviction.”

“Do they live in the Morning Mounties?” Alta remembered some monks who came to the city from time to time, to sell their potions. Not that she could afford any of those, even the cheapest they had, were strong enough to close a deep wound in less than a minute.

“At the Centaurs Peak to be precise. Not very high, but it is still quite a trip to get up there over the normal path.”

Actually, Alta was very good at climbing, but she decided to keep that fact to herself, in case they would have to exaggerate the difficulty of the mission, during the negotiations.

“Anything else we should know, before going there?” She asked instead.

“Not really. I’ll give you the map of the place and description of the artifact… Well, thinking about it now, I did not ask you if any of you can break runic locks. Would it be a problem?”

“Hargot’s balls! Yes!”, Gis exclaimed. “We technically could do it, but a task like this would be had enough time consuming even without the trip, we would need…” He stopped seeing Kaihil materialize a blade in his hand.

Alta was sure that Gis had to put a lot of mental strength into holding himself back from throwing a fire spell at their client. She also had to restrain herself from any sudden movements, despite the fact that Kaihil was clearly holding the dagger by its blade pointing its handle towards them.

Very expensive dagger, she noticed immediately and made herself take it.

The shining curved blade was about as long as her open palm. The handle was covered in thin layer of golden threads, and ended with a black gemstone that she couldn’t recognize. That alone would make it something worth more money, than they hoped to get from this contract, and that was without counting how heavily enchanted it was. And the enchantment was strong. She could even compare it to one of the wards keeping the north underground closed - all of them were made by The King himself.

“It’s a spellbreaker”, he explained. “I am lending you part of The Collection, and I hope I can trust you with it.” He waited a while but it was a rhetorical question. “Give it to whoever in your team is the best with picking locks. It still needs some skill to use it.”

“We will.” Gis answered with a hint of hesitation. “I guess that this precious tool indicates that we don’t have to negotiate the price? I am a greedy man, but I have truly underestimated the wealth of The Collection”, he said.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Let me make something clear. This spellbreaker have to be returned in untouched condition, and any damage, or - may the gods have mercy - losing the dagger, could be forgiven, only if you obtain the artifact”, he clarified in cold tone. “Going back to the topic of money, The Collector have offered budget of twenty thousand kri.”

“With or without operational costs?” Alta had to clarify that detail.

“And what about not negotiating anymore?” He asked in more friendly tone.

“That was his words not mine. And I’m not negotiating. We need to plan the expenses we can make and this job still being worthwhile.”

“Wow. Did I miss some new inflation?”

“I only said it, because you made it clear what you mean about failing this mission”, she answered short. She was afraid, she would stutter.

“Did I really? Well don’t mind if I did. After a failed attempt, the whole place would turn into a fortress for a year or more.” He sighed. “Fine. If you can show me some reasonable expenses not included in costs of transport or buying equipment you should already have in your possession, I’ll throw additional 500 kri from my own pocket.”

After that the conversation felt like it was over, but Kaihil insisted they should discuss any minor detail that they could have missed. They ordered some wine, and tried to support his attempts at making some small talk. After half an hour he seemed to finally understood how bad it was going, and left asking them to contact him in two days to finalize the deal.

“Remind me, not to try making you more assertive”, Gis finally commented.

“Let’s bring Nix with us, the next time. At least he knows how to talk to people normally.”

“We will talk about this later. More importantly, what do you think, about all of this?”

“Depends. Are you sure he represents The Collector?”

“Yes. I have seen him a few times after the flood, when some of lower tunnels were opened for cleaning. He made quite a reputation for himself back then. The guy is not very good with sword or magic, but he knows his stuff when it comes to magic items and artifacts. Just to make sure, I have asked some people, and it turns out that he even used to be an official guild’s specialist before The Empty Face was stolen,” he said.

“Than our decision should be easy. Or you think The Collector cannot be trusted?”

“Hells yeah! His reputation is shady even outside the guild. Why do you think people accuse him of stealing The Face? Even among guys like us he and his employs don’t have opinion of respecting spoken or unspoken rules. Adding one more junk to The Collection is all that matters to them,” he said.

“But we have the dagger. There isn’t much place for cheating us, while I have it in my inventory. I can damage the enchantment in a second - small exaggeration - making him lose more than the money he owns us,” she claimed.

“He cannot rob us,” Gis agreed. “And I don’t think he would even want to. Whatever they say about him, he’s not that cheap. Just wanted to make some things clear to you. What about the job itself?”

It seemed to her, that whatever concerns he had were overshadowed, by the twenty thousand kri they were offered, but she didn’t say anything. First of all, she knew it would allow him to become an official mage, and she knew how much it meant for him. Second of all, she herself also enjoyed the perspective of getting that money. Who knows, maybe she could even go with him, and get some education herself. She was very lucky to have Gis’s tutage, but it could take only that far.

“I can do the danger assessment later, but it seems fine. If Lena does not say anything, it should be easy. Or rather doable,” she corrected herself.

“Fine. Let's go.”

***

The Broken Horn have been right next to the rooms and storages that could be rented from the guild. Including the one that was their base/office. The high quality security wards would normally make them quite pricey, but that was back when their city was still a capital, and the underground was a safer place. But for them this was a place where they could feel perfectly safe. Welcome home.

Nix and Lena wouldn’t seem to listen to Gis’s summary, as both of them did not even look at him, but both of them were good at multitasking. Well, Lena was, Nix was doing his best to live up to his uncle’s expectations, keeping his attention on both Gis and his ward manual. Lena on the other hand just had no problem analyzing their new contract while reading… ‘Spider princess and the Scholar’. Very shallow book for someone who could sometimes be so sharp, but Alta decided not to judge.

“Can I see the knife?” Nix asked once Gis have finished.

“I was afraid you would never ask. Alta?”

She took the dagger from her inventory, with a sigh relief - she had to take out her emergency set of lockpicks and her normal knife, just to fit the thing inside, and it still felt heavy.

“Here you go.”

“Hmm.”

He seemed to be very interested in the unusual gem, but his fingers were also carefully mapping each rune on the blade. Alta didn’t suspect him to find a lot more about it then she has noticed after her brief examination - he wasn’t that good yet. Gisthan, on the other hand, was patiently waiting for his nephew’s judgment.

“Old,” he said finally. “More than two centuries. Or a fancy reproduction, but the enchantment is still very efficient, I don’t have to break any wards to feel its magic flow. There seems to be an internal capacitance module, but the structure is powered, by the magic freed from the broken wards.”

“And where does it take the power to start the process?” Gis started interrogating. Alta knew better than take part in the discussion.

“From capacitance module, of course.” He probably already knew he was wrong, but making Gis answer himself was faster than looking any mistake in his logic.

“That is a solution for those apprentice made tools that I usually buy. Sure the battery charges while it is in usage, but it would, either lose most of its capacitance from overcharging in a few years, or would run out of power after facing its first multi-layer ward. I don’t even think the gem is a capacitance module. It would be very impractical placement in this kind of tool.”

At least he got the age right.

Alta wanted to tell him they should discuss other things right now, but this could actually be quite important. The spellbreaker was the key element of the whole plan. Better understand what they were using.

“Kaihil suggested using it like a normal disruptor just stronger,” she finally made herself say something to make it faster. “So it can’t be using external mana.”

“Yes I also don’t see any drain to absorb users mana, but it could be hidden,” Gis half agreed with her.

“Its chimeric.” Lena finally decided to speak. “It has some connection to its second part build in.”

“So there is a second item?” Gis asked with a dose of doubt. “Your gift?”

“You can look it up in that book you bought last year from Dim. The one in black cover.”

Lena was not their best magic expert. She was just an oracle, and not even a good one, but she had quite a memory.

“Does it change anything about the usage?” Alta asked.

“Nope.”

“So I’m taking it back, so we can finish planning.”

Or rather start planning, she corrected herself mentally.

“You sure you can handle it, Alta?” Nix didn’t try to hide his doubt.

“Yes, but this is the weak spot of every plan we can make, so I’m gonna have to make myself familiar with using this.”

She has opened her Inventory just when he asked that question, and the dagger was still only halfway there. Lock picking was not the only thing she was going to train, she felt uncomfortably inferior, after seeing Kaihil casually summoning it in midair.

“I think, I can help with that,” Gisthan suggested.

“Can you make me some wards to break? That would be great, but will you have enough time for this?”

“Of course not. But I can get you around twelve locks from my friends apprentices. Most of them are not good enough for him to sell in his store, and some can’t be opened even with the right key, but if you want to practice breaking locks it will be perfect for you.”

“Buy me also one functioning lock, just in case.”

“Those are expensive.”

“Twenty thousand kri, Gis. Just take it from my part.”

“Since when did you become so bold?”

“Since twenty thousand kri.”

“Oh, I understand you very well,” he chuckled a little. “I guess you are right. It is better to prepare a bit too much, than lose that kind of money. Let's analyze what your Risk Assessment can tell us.

Alta suspected that they wouldn’t finish this before midnight, and she hoped it was really going to be worth it.

“Risk Assessment,” she said and all the world become a haze of numbers.