The person they sent to fetch Ral’s ‘sick horse’ was the same one Ral saw leading the limping horse back outside Alkkes. When asked, he gave his name willingly as Pautal and seemed like he had no desire to keep secrets.

It was the right move to meet with this Pautal instead of trying to gouge information out of that merchant back at the illicit store selling horse parts. Merchants, in Ral’s experience, were incredibly clever. This Pautal here was no merchant.

“You were a stable master,” Kentor said. It wasn’t a question. He was speaking like he already knew. Ral gave him a look and the jovial man shrugged. “I was looking around for someone else who owned horses. Came across that name once or twice as someone trying to get their own stables running in the city. It didn’t work out for you, huh?”

In a heartbeat’s time, several emotions crossed Pautal’s face. First annoyance, then anger, and then his face crumbled down to defeat - no, Ral realized that his face had returned to defeat. “No, it didn’t work out,” Pautal said. “I was sold out of the market.”

“By Ivron, correct?”

“Yes, by Ivron,” Pautal snapped. “He knew all the right people, owned more money and said the right things. Suddenly every horse in Alkkes would pass through his stables at least once. If you wanted to do business, you had to get your horses from his stables. It was some intense form of business warfare, let me tell you.”

“Hmm, yes, cornering the market through social loyalty and ostracizing your opponents until bankruptcy. Surprising since Ivron is most unpleasant,” Kentor said thoughtfully.

“Then what are you doing working for him?” Ral said, crossing his arms and leaning against a wooden pillar. They were at a remote storehouse in a corner of Alkkes - not many people frequented the area this time of night.

“I needed a job,” Pautal shrugged helplessly. “And I knew how to work with horses.”

“And do you also know how to kill horses more efficiently?”

The man looked shaken at the question, but his face returned back to their crumpled, defeated look. “I… I don’t do that stuff. You don’t have to believe me, but I don’t, honest. I try my best to nurse them back to health. But do you have any idea how expensive it is to keep a horse, especially one that can’t work? And some of them… Some of them spend their days in pain and suffering. It’s for the greater good to end it for those who are too sick to even eat.”

“Right, and it’s for the greater good to sell their body parts and blood afterwards for spells and enchantments,” Ral said dryly.

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“Like I said, it’s expensive to keep a horse.” Pautal now looked uncomfortable. “The parts would go to waste if we don’t sell them. What people do with those parts isn’t our responsibility.”

“So Ivron buys up all horses that are old or lame and you bring them just outside the city to butcher them.” Ral ignored the bristling from the other man. “Such that he can turn a profit on the carcass afterwards.”

“Not only that,” Kentor added. “It eliminates the secondary market for horses - you can’t buy a horse of lesser health or fitness at a lower price because of what he’s doing. It forces people to go to Ivron for any horse and have them pay full price for one.”

“It wouldn’t be hard to prove he’s providing materials for blood enchantments,” Ral said, jabbing a thumb to Pautal. “Especially with this guy on our side.”

“Whoa, whoa, wait,” Pautal gave a nervous laugh. “What are you talking about? I’m on nobody’s side. I’m not going to be proving anything.”

“Are you willing to live the rest of your life as Ivron’s horse butcher?” Kentor asked coolly. “Here is a real opportunity to make a change in your life, don’t squander it.”

“Ivron said that to me, once,” Pautal said bitterly. “Said if I gave everything up to him, life would be better. It isn’t. Not all change is for the better.”

His words made Ral look down at the dirt ground. Perhaps there was truth to what this miserable man was saying. Back then, it would have been better to have stayed with Rask instead of running off with the Somas. Ral had thought change would hasten whatever changes he thought the world should make but instead, he simply found how powerless he was at the face of it all. Even if he’s become privy to many strange things, even if he knows how to close a Gate.

All of that change meant nothing and it cost him. All of that useless knowledge.

Pautal was about to leave when Ral called out to him. “Do you know anything about a horse named Affie?”

“Excuse me?”

“I think she was ill and Ivron bought her. A brown horse and er, described to be quite beautiful. Is she in those stables out there?”

“Brown horses are quite common,” Pautal shrugged. “Didn’t see one more beautiful than the rest. Although now that I think of it, they did have to… let a few horses go last week. There was a particularly large order for blood and well… you know. I think one of them was a brown horse that had come down with some degenerative disorder.”

“A large order of blood?” Kentor asked sharply. “For what?”

“To paint their houses with,” Pautal replied sarcastically. “I don’t know. None of us ask, it’s better if we don’t know. Can I go now? You’ve wasted enough of my time.”

“We can convince Ivron to give us what we want, it’s not too late,” Kentor said to the retreating Pautal.

“It is too late. Several years too late,” Pautal called back dismissively. “You’re never going to get what you want out of him.”

But Kentor was already hurrying out of earshot, face white and withdrawn.