"Open the god dammed door Mouse." Yelled Jerry from the other side of a wooden door. 

"No one's here. Come back later." Mouse replied in not so Mouse voice. But who was he trying to fool. 

"If you don't come out now, I am going to blast this door open. " Jerry urged again. 

" I will sue you if you do that." Came the reply. 

" If you sue me for it, I will blow your head open. Besides, it does sound like you right now who is in there." Jerry added. 

With sounds of bolts and locks, the wooden door swung in slowly, like it was reluctant to open. 

"See, it wasn't that difficult. " Jerry pushed through the door and was that Mouse and entered the house. 

Mouse, his parents named him Marcus Milton Jr. But Jerry didn't like that. He like most people called him Mouse. The name suited him. He was slight in frame, he stayed hidden and had an ability to put his nose everywhere where it didnt belong. 

"Keep me out of your business Jerry. I almost lost my life last time helping you." Mouse yelled at Jerry's back while locking and bolting his 13 locks on the door. It wasn't like he could stop Jerry. Jerry like most of the people Mouse worked with knocked out of courtesy. Talking about him, Jerry was 6 and a half feet tall guy built like a tank. He had short hair, sort of an average angular face. Mouse was pretty sure Jerry was over 40 but you couldn't say that looking at him. People would probably try and maintain distance with such a specimen, but one would probably have more luck in fighting him physically. At a distance, he would burn you to a crisp. 

He was a Fire mage. Yes, a mage. Not the strongest of them, you didnt hear it from Mouse, but the news was he was getting weaker. May be age(although mages get stronger with age till their body no longer can support their element), may be a disease or an old injury or something more magical. Whatever it was, who was gonna ask about it to a mage. Specially the kind who was prone to threatning him with blowing his head off. 

"You just got threatened a bit. You did make a pretty penny out of the deal. " Jerry said bringing back Mouse from his musings. Yes, Mouse and musings. 

"I like your new decorations though." Jerry added as he was about to touch a old looking vase placed on the centre table. 

So very nice looking, waiting for someone to touch it, admire it. The person who built it was definitely talented. 

"You would need to cut off of your hand immediately if you touch that carelessly. That too only if you dont want the curse to spread. It might be an artifact having a link to that mongol warlord."

"You mean Ghenzis Khan? ” Jerry added hopefully. He was cool guy in a blood thirsty warlord kind of way. 

"No, the other one. The one who killed the Uthers. " Mouse replied. 

Jerry's hand which was about to touch the vase stopped. 

"You should at least put a tag on it saying not to touch. Why would you leave such a thing lying around unnecessarily?" Although there wasn't much which scared him off, hearing the name of the person who this vase might have been related to, he backed off. The said person had nearly wiped half of the Uthers population from Asia and eastern Europe by himself. He was a Uther himself, but he believed he was serving a greater good by doing what he did. Some might argue he was right. Those dead by his hands will never agree to it though.

"To be honest I haven't touched it either."

"The psychotic elf found it somewhere and put it on my table. He wants to make sure that it is what he thinks it is. And I am definitely not touching it if it is what he says it might be. " Mouse replied as a matter of fact. Mouse may be an expert and have a wholesome greed. But he wasn't stupid. Stupid people didnt stay alive for long in his line of work. 

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"You didn't come here to chit chat, did you Jerry?" Mouse asked bringing an end to the said chit chat. He did have other work to do which werent as life endangering as other things. 

"Ofcourse I am here to talk to you my old buddy. Why else I would be here?" Jerry said it with a straight face. It never actually hurt to be on the good side of Mouse. People did come to him for a reason.

"Then help yourself on the couch my friend. I am busy with something and will be free to talk to you in a week." Mouse replied with an equally straight face.

Both of them stared at each other for a few seconds.

Jerry gave up after a while. 

"I need your help with something. "

"I am not helping you. "

"But its important! ” 

"My life is important too." 

"I just need some information. Thats it."

"Don't drag me into your business Jerry. You know I have a big dislike for things like danger, life threatnin and did I mention and life threatning for example. "

"This isn't dangerous. Its a simple job. Just listen to me Mouse. "

"No. I don't need to know about your so called simple jobs. Your simple jobs cost me half the the hair on my head. The lesser I know, the better it is. "

"You have a head full of hair!"

" Yeah, its half of of what I used to have. Now get out. "

" I could always blow up your head." 

"I have cameras installed on a hidden system. If I don't enter a code every hour, the recording will be sent to the birdies. Good luck saving your ass from them when you are charged for killing me. "

"Why do you have to be such a Willy Dilly? "

"Why do you have to be so thick headed? ”

"Okay, 10 percent. "

"I want 25."

"15. That's the highest I can go. Its not that big of a job."

"Okay, what's it that you want to ask? ”

And that was the crux of the whole half an hour of their conversation. They could have done it simply, but where was the fun in that. 

Jerry pulled out an old looking book. 

"Look at this book. Some one sold this fake book of alchemy to a kid of a rich client. He wants to know who it is. Actually, he wants to meet that person. And I have been asked to bring that person to him." 

"So that brings you to me. "

"Of course. You are the smartest person I know."

"Don't think that if you flatter me I would give you a discount. It only worked once."

"Hey, it's worth a try."

Mouse gave him a odd look and motioned him to pass the book. 

"So tell me, who forged this book?" 

Mouse took the book in his hands. He looked at it closely. He sniffed it, rubbed his finger on it and tasted it. He turned the pages and examined it in front of a light.

"Its pretty well made. The paper is actually old. They just cleaned the original writing on it, and wrote some made up alchemy spells on it mixing it with some basics to make it look authentic."

"I smell a but in there. "

"I know you can smell a butt from a mile Jerry. You are no different than a dog. "

"But." Mouse continued.

"The interesting bit is that the second set of writting over it is very old as well."

"Unless the ones who did it have invented a new technique of forging which evades my eyes, I have to say this book in itself is old. Like older than Christ old. The writing is near about that period too. "

"You mean someone forged this book about 2000 years ago to swindle someone? Wouldn't the orginal book be worth more?"

"Do you think the chronicles of life of a mid level administrator is more important than a 2000 year old book."

"Well, when you put it like that."

"You have any ideas who could have sold this book? "

"This book is old enough, so it could cost a pretty penny. Our usual suspects won't invest this much and the buyer who would pay this much isn't a simple one either. This is done by someone with enough sway and who can be crazy enough. And you know that in this city of Newtox, there is only guy who could pull this off."

"Prince Eric! ” both of them said it together.