Chapter 2 #3
So I sat at Horpus’ desk in Grubiit and watched him pretend to be my ally again.
Mere weeks ago, he left me out in the cold for fear that my reputation would taint his.
Seeing him flip that charm back on made me lose more respect for him.
His manipulative nature and his showmanship were now obvious, creating the feeling that this wasn’t a real conversation. It was a pointless game of pretend.
“Haven't seen or heard you around the last few weeks,” Horpus mused as he gave me a glass of bourbon.
“I was in the Capital for the marriage of Queen Ashley and Queen Invia and then had a good deal of business to attend to.”
“I heard about a small army of paladins going into the dungeon but never coming back out.”
“Are you going to accuse me of being a killer again?”
Horpus shook his head. “No, and the implication was out of line. I apologize.”
I found few things more suspicious than Horpus apologizing.
“Thanks,” I said.
“I've called you here to ask a delicate favor for me personally. This is not guild business.”
“I'll hear you out.”
He looked down at his glass and swirled the liquid inside. He seemed to steel himself and looked up.
“My niece is an adventurer in the Minsic chapter of the Brawlers. She had an… encounter with one of the city’s top adventurers. He invited her to crawl with him…” Horpus took another sip of his drink. “He hurt her, Byron.”
I could fill in the blanks without Horpus having to come out and speak the words.
He continued, saying, “For all my supposed influence, he’s getting away with it. No consequences for him, all the consequences for her.”
Was he really about to ask me to murder this adventurer? My membership was challenged because a few believed that I zealously broke the Guild's rule about killing marks. He couldn't really be that bold to turn around and ask me to break that rule on his behalf, but yet…
“All come to kneel at the feet of a viceroy eventually. Make this one beg.”
I tried to focus on Horpus instead of Aurketzu.
“The hypocrisy is thick,” Horpus admitted. “I am aware of how this looks from your side of the desk, and you are right to think that. It's true, and I have no excuse.”
“What are you asking of me?”
“End him. Slowly and painfully would be my preference, but I would settle for being rid of him, however you go about it.”
“Or is this a test to see if I'm actually a cold-blooded killer?” I asked. “Maybe even entertaining the idea of breaking a sacred rule would mean I failed to uphold my duties, and there goes my membership.”
“Again, I fully admit this is the pinnacle of hypocrisy.”
“He should prostrate himself. He should throw himself upon your mercy.”
I stared at Horpus for some time, thinking. “Given what I just went through with the Guild, I think the safest thing for me to do is to walk away from this and pretend it never happened.”
“Name your price,” he said.
“I can't put a price on my membership.”
Horpus slammed both hands down, splashing liquor across his desk. “Goddammit, Byron. The fucker needs to die, and assassins won't touch it because of his levels. I don't give a shit about the Guild right now. She’s my niece.”
“Desperate men sing such beautiful songs.”
“I don't know how to put a price on something like this,” I replied.
“I have 1,005,092 gold in my account. You can have it all.”
That was a significant amount of coin, but I had gold. I needed DP and good-aligned levels far more than money. I also had a budding side project where I intended to kill every paladin in the world. That was both business and pleasure, really.
“I don't need money,” I replied. “I can think of an ask, but I don't think you'll like the scope.”
“Speak.”
“I need ongoing intel on the locations, capabilities, and interests of paladins.”
“How ongoing?” Horpus asked.
“Until they're gone.”
His brow furrowed. “The paladins? All of them?”
I nodded. “Down to the man.”
“You believe they all deserve to die?”
“I won't wait for my enemies to attack again,” I said. “22 paladins came after me at the same time. That's a declaration of war.”
“There has got to be another 100, maybe 200 paladins out there, at least.”
“22 against 1,” I reminded him. “They won't let that loss be the end of it.”
He sighed. “No, I suppose they wouldn't.” After a deep pause, where Horpus seemed transfixed by the spill on his desk, he continued, “Counter proposal: I'll commit to 50 paladins if you kill him.
I'll commit to 100 if it's slow. If you break him, if you bring indisputable justice down upon his shit stain of a life, I'll see this through until every paladin is gone.”
“How broken are you asking?”
“Byron, I know what you are,” Horpus said.
“You are a kind of evil I've never seen before.
I don't understand you. I can't read your tells, and I can’t anticipate your next move.
But I trust you and your expertise. If you come up with something that you know fits what I'm asking, do it. I won't dispute it. Not for a second.”
“He does not know what you are. Only I know how pathetic and weak Brenin of Borja truly is.”
I replied, “That’s what I’m trying to get at. You need to tell me more about what you want, so you can’t pull some bullshit about how I didn’t do it the right way.”
“I want him begging to die. I want him to cry about how sorry he is.”
I offered Horpus my hand.
He shook it.