Lebec gives me a smile that I want to rip off his wrinkled face. He clears his throat before he speaks. “Hexana. Nice to see you. It's been too long.”

I laugh. “Gosh, Lebec. I wonder why that is? Did you forget where I've been exiled to?”

Lebec licks his lips before bumbling forward. “No. No, I didn't forget about you. The Austerium has been... busy. I told you that at the outset.”

“You told me I was exiled. You never put a timeline on it. It's been two years.”

Lebec tries to put the smile on his face again, but it falters.

Isn’t Anara marvelous?

From the counter, Silvy pipes up. “Why don't you let me have a little taste, darling? I hear dwarf blood is delicious.”

I look back at her and shake my head.

That's I need. For an Austerium official to go missing. If that happens, I won't just be exiled, I'll probably be executed.

I snap my fingers as though I've just solved a million-dollar mystery. “I know! You're here because you have news about my father. That's it, right? Because if I'd sent someone into exile promising that I would reunite them with their father, I wouldn't just you know… leave them alone for two years. That would be crazy.”

Lebec crosses his arms. “Hex, it's out of my hands. The Austerium makes decisions. I don't affect those decisions. I enact those decisions.”

“Oh,” I say nodding, the perfect picture of agreement. “I totally understand. Poor you. Having to enact the Austerium's commands. Gosh, I hope you sleep okay at night. I bet it's really hard keeping all those daughters from their fathers for two years?”

“It is hard,” he says flatly. “I don't enjoy it.”

So no news of my exile, and no news of my father.

I can feel the Red Market calling to me. That's what I need to get to, Lebec doesn't have anything for me.

“Right,” I say. “I'm a little busy at the moment, so if you want to just walk right back through the gateway, that would be fantastic.”

“I can't do that.”

“Sure you can, all you have to do is turn around and start moving those legs of yours, right? It's easy.”

“It's not that easy. I came here to ask a favor.”

My mouth falls open.

This has to be a joke. Someone at the Austerium has to have sent him here to do this, to ask me for a favor after all they've done, after all they haven't done.

“Is he serious?” Silvy murmurs from the counter.

“I believe he is,” I say to her and then turn to Lebec. “Why would I ever do you a favor?”

Lebec swallows. “Because it's not me asking.”

“Oh.” I hold up both hands. “I'm sorry. That makes it so much better. If it's not you asking then of course I'll do it. Why wouldn't I?”

Lebec sighs. “Things didn't work out the way they should've here, between you and the Austerium. I know that now.”

“Great. So when will they work out?”

Lebec stares at me, chewing on his lower lip. “I know you've been to the Red Market.”

“This is a weird way to get a favor.” I look back at Silvy. “Do you think it's working?”

Silvy shakes her head no. “In fact, it's kind of embarrassing.”

Lebec jumps when she speaks and stares at the counter where she's sitting. I suppose she's made herself visible to him.

“So,” I say. “What are you going to do?”

“About you breaking exile?”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

I roll my eyes. “You told me I wasn't allowed in Anara. Is the Red Market in Anara?”

“Absolutely,” Lebec says.

I nod understandingly. “And… there's an Austerium presence there?”

He swallows. “Well, no, but—”

“Then what are we talking about here? If there's no presence, you don't really control it, do you?”

“But we could,” he says.

“Yeah.” I nod. “But all those wizards who need their forbidden objects wouldn't be able to get them, would they?”

Color floods into Lebec's cheeks. “I don't know what you're talking about.”

The corners of my lips curl up at the sound of the indignance in his voice.

“Would you like to know the names of the wizards I've sold Arcana and cursed objects to?”

“No.” Lebec shakes his head. “No, I wouldn't.”

“Right, so there went your Red Market bargaining chip. What else do you have?”

I just want him to leave. I want to get to the Red Market so I can make some money and pay the Austerium their blood fee to keep my gateway functional.

Almost as if he can hear my thoughts, Lebec glances over at the gateway.

“We can shut your gateway down,” he says. “In fact, I can do that right now. That's within my powers.”

“Sure,” I say, pouting out my lower lip. “You’re so powerful.”

Lebec sighs. “I don't want to do this, Hex. I came here for a favor, that's all.”

“And I totally appreciate that you came here for a favor, but it's not a favor I'm willing to give. We’re both at a stalemate so why don't we both just walk away and act like this entire conversation never occurred.”

“What if I take away your gateway fee?”

I raise an eyebrow. “Is that actually within your power?”

He nod. “It's at my discretion.”

I lick my lips. “I'm listening.”

“Okay,” he says, shifting back and forth on his feet. “I'll lift the fee for your gateway this month.”

Frowning, I shake my head. “Tell me what the favor is first and then we'll negotiate terms.”

“I need you to look at something.”

“Ew,” Silvy says. “Don't do it.”

Lebec glances over at Silvy before returning his gaze to me. “We need you to look at something for us. A crime scene.”

I raise my eyebrows. “A crime scene? Don't you have specific people in the Austerium that look at that sort of thing? Specialists?”

Lebec nods. “They couldn't find anything.”

“And I'm supposed to be able to find something that the great, all-knowing Austerium couldn't?”

He nods.

“Can you be a little more specific?” I ask.

“There's been a death.”

“You did say that it was a crime scene…”

“There's been a death at Bristlebloom.”

The Bristlebloom School of Hidden Secrets. I remember my time there. My short, abbreviated time there before I was expelled and then kicked out of Anara.

I swallow. “So there's been a death at Bristlebloom. Did one of the students get angry at a teacher?”

“No,” Lebec says in a flat voice. “One of the students died.”

“Died?”

“Was murdered. One of the students was murdered.”

“I don't get it,” I say. “I don't understand why you want me, why I would have any sort of insight on this?”

Silvy purrs acid from the counter. “I think it's fairly obvious, darling.”

Both of us look in her direction. “What's the one thing you have knowledge on that none of these Austerium idiots do? What's the one thing they would ever come to you for?”

I close my eyes and turn back to Lebec. “You think it was a witch. You think a witch did this, don't you?”

Lebec nods. “Like I say, we didn't find anything at the crime scene.”

“So you think a witch ate whatever magick, whatever luma, was floating around the scene?”

“Yes.”

“Couldn't a vanisher-in-training do the same thing?”

“There's another matter.”

I raise my eyebrows. “And that matter is?”

“The dead student.”

I sigh. “This is like pulling teeth. Can you just spit it out for me?”

Silvy giggles from the counter. “I know what it is. Oh my God, oh my God, it's so good. Tell her, Lebec. She's not as clever as me, so she hasn't figured it out yet.”

Lebec nods at Silvy. “It was a witch. “

“The murderer?”

“No,” Lebec says, shaking his head. “Well, yes, the murderer, but also…”

“Also the student,” I finish. “You're saying there was a witch student attending Bristlebloom?”

Lebec nods.

“How do you know?” I ask.

“Those of us with magick can see a dead witch’s horns.” He glances up at my own horns. “And blooded horns, obviously.”

I ignore that last barb and shake my head with a smile. “All those wizards’ and casters’ children, the crème de la crème of magick society going to school with the thing they hate the most and they didn't even know it.”

Lebec nods.

“Because the Austerium missed it.”

Lebec nods again.

“Lebec,” I say in a soft voice. “This is worth so much more than one month's rent on the gateway.”

Lebec nods.

“This is going to cost you.”

Silvy puffs out of existence on the counter and reappears on Lebec's shoulder.

“She'll never pay rent on that gateway again,” I hear her whisper into his ear.

Lebec jumps at the voice coming from his ear and then relaxes. He swallows, looks up as if he wants me to help him, and then shakes his head.

“Right,” he says. “That's fair.” He raises his finger. “But that's contingent on you finding the witch who did this.”

Silvy purrs, “No, darling. The only thing it's contingent on is her keeping her mouth shut about what happened at Bristlebloom. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Austerium does not plan to inform the parents of the witch who was nestled amongst their children. You’re buying her silence. You're going remove the fee on her gateway. Now. Forever.”

Lebec opens his mouth as if to argue, and then swallows.

He nods again. For the last time. “Fine.”

He lifts his hands and his fingers trace shapes through the air. As his fingers continue moving, a flat shape comes into existence, consisting of glowing, green tendrils that make up its geometric shapes.

I've seen this sort of life magick before. Adepts typically create seals like the one Lebec is making. I've only ever seen it used in battle.

Stepping back, my hand already in my pocket, I finger several witchstones. Lebec doesn't fire the seal in my direction though. He directs it towards himself, angling it towards his shoulder where Silvy is sitting. She puffs out of existence before it hits her.

She reappears on my shoulder, licking her paw.

“When do we leave?” I ask him, the Red Market now the farthest thing from my mind.

“Right now,” Lebec says.