Chapter 15
The first person to know Byron of Zaglis had returned to Minsic was my favorite guild girl working the counter. Guild Master Alexi, whom I liked much less than the guild girl, was the second.
I stepped into the small man’s office, and he invited me to sit. Alexi seemed even more anxious and uncomfortable than usual. He sometimes forgot we were speaking and instead stared blankly at me.
Oh, that’s right. My new Abyssal Gaze ability made it so that mortals like Alexi would feel “enraptured awe” when they were in my presence. Adjusting to that would take time for me.
Probably for Alexi too, but fuck him.
“I visited Penny’s to see what all the fuss was about,” Alexi said, attempting to make small talk. “I can see why you built that place in a dungeon, though. Those ice demons?” Alexi whistled. “Quite the staff you assembled.”
“Thank you for the kind words.”
“Don’t suppose you can tell me how you built teleporters in all those dungeons?”
I shook my head.
“I imagine lots of folks are curious about that. Has anyone tried messing with them yet?”
I shook my head again. We had two silk soldiers on the dungeon-side of each teleporter.
They did nothing but stand there to mark the entrance to Penny’s, but if anyone attempted to deface or modify the teleporter, they had orders to kill them.
Someone would be dumb enough eventually, but no such person had stepped forward yet.
“Lord Ulric requested an audience with me,” I said. “I thought you might know what about, and, of course, there was that business you mentioned to me before.”
Alexi had once asked me to acquire a map from Lord Ulric but didn’t have anything worthwhile to offer me in return.
“He is aware you were attacked by assassins on your last night in Minsic,” Alexi replied. “I believe he intends to offer you an apology on behalf of the city as a preamble to proposing to do business with you.”
The choice to call them “assassins” was intriguing. “Has anyone figured out who attacked me or why?”
“I’m afraid not. Most of them weren’t recognizable following the battle, and we haven’t identified the few who were. I don’t believe anyone has.”
I sighed. “I would very much like to know who set that up.”
“I will let you know the moment I hear,” Alexi offered.
“Thank you.”
“Pleased to be of service to a valuable guild member. Now, as for our previous discussion, I can offer you this.”
Alexi unlocked a drawer and set a monstrously thick and incredibly old book on his desk. “You said you wanted books on the hells. This is a collection of accounts from witnesses to Demon Lord invasions. Most of them detail attacks from a demon known as Aba-”
“Stop!” I yelled. “Never, and I mean never, say his name out loud. Not to anyone.”
The guild master looked at me the way one assesses a strange drunk to see how seriously they should take the person slurring before them.
When Alexi recovered, he asked, “Would this be of sufficient interest to you?”
“Yes.”
Visible tension drained from Alexi’s body.
He had expected this conversation to be more difficult, I gathered.
“The Minsic Merchant’s Guild has an underground vault where members can store their most valuable items. Engineers in the employ of Lord Ulric designed it, and we know that he keeps all of his blueprints in his own personal vault. ”
“Blueprints? Not a map?”
“I’m afraid that revealing I was in the pursuit of blueprints would have given too much of the job away. Now that we have an arrangement, I am comfortable sharing these details with you.”
Alexi fished a folder from a desk drawer and set it on his desk for me to take.
“These are the floor plans for Lord Ulric’s estate. His vault is in his first-floor study, and to our knowledge, only Ulric knows the combination.”
I briefly wondered if my strength stat was high enough to simply punch through the vault door, but that wasn’t something I could sneak off and do in the middle of a dinner party.
“I’m not likely to get vault access with one visit,” I said.
“I agree. We are not under a set deadline, so you can take as much time as you need in order to do this properly.”
Signing up for a new project wasn’t what I had in mind, but I needed more intel on Abaddon.
For all the times Abaddon was mentioned in human history, I had yet to find many specifics about him as an individual or as a leader of the abyssal plane.
Solara’s source that described the demons in Abaddon’s harem was the most detailed intel we had found, but it being an oral history collected from demon interviews made it dubious.
It’s what we had, though.
“When I get access to the vault, are other items inside fair game, or am I limited to taking the blueprints?”
“We would prefer not to betray our interest in the Merchant’s Guild,” Alexi answered. “If Lord Ulric knows that we took these blueprints specifically, the rest of the job will be in jeopardy.”
“So the answer is ‘yes’ as long as I don’t give away that we wanted the blueprints.”
Alexi nodded.
I flipped through the files inside the folder. At a glance, Lord Ulric’s fortune looked comparable to what Samson Oliverry’s had been prior to losing his soul to the Frozen Fiend. All sorts of loot could be in that vault, but the only items Alexi’s research detailed were blueprints.
“Have we reached an agreement?” the Thieves’ Guild Master asked.
“Almost. If I get into the vault and the blueprints aren’t there, I still get the book.”
Alexi scoffed. “Ludicrous.”
“Does that mean you don’t trust your intel?”
“Well, no, that’s not it. The intel is solid. Making payment for an incomplete job is not good business, however.”
“I see your point,” I said. “If I have to verify the intel and confirm the location of the blueprints before I hit the vault, then the price is three books, not one. If I can skip right to cracking the vault because your intel is trustworthy, then this single book as payment is acceptable, and I get that payment even if your intel ends up being wrong.”
He struggled to contain his impatience, his jaw flexing, nostrils flaring, and teeth grinding as he glared.
“I do not have three books to offer,” Alexi replied after a time.
“Then accept my terms for the single book payment, or we can hold on this deal until you acquire the other two, assuming the quality and rarity are what I’m looking for.”
“You are a difficult man to work with, Byron.”
“My terms and my price are clear,” I said. “If you believe I’m overcharging, that’s your right. You can find someone more affordable instead. That won’t offend me.”
“Fine,” Alexi spat. “If the blueprints aren’t in the vault, return with proof that you succeeded in confirming that, and I will give you your payment.”
“Deal.”
“I have another appointment, I’m afraid.” Alexi stood to further emphasize that he wanted me to leave.
“When I was here last, Higcliff had gone missing. Did he turn up?”
Alexi shook his head. “Don’t suppose you would know anything about that?” he asked me.
“Wistia and I spent a whole day searching the city for him. We didn’t learn anything new.”
“I see.”
“Well, you have that appointment. I’ll be back with your map soon.”
Deserts are not ideal for the sprawling garden estates I had come to associate with nobility.
Instead of elaborate trimmed hedges and seas of flowers, the nobles in Minsic reduced the garden sprawl to carefully designed lanes of trellises, terraces, and courtyards that could carry a cool breeze for far longer than it ever would have managed alone.
The homes themselves were similarly airy, with high ceilings and domed rooftops. Their tan walls were adorned with rows of embedded stones and elaborate, repeating hand-painted patterns of vibrant colors.
The interior was no less ostentatious than that of nobles living anywhere else in the kingdom. Gleaming silk curtains. Ornate rugs. Sculptures and paintings.
As soon as I arrived at the estate, I knew this dinner with Lord Ulric would be a quiet, private affair because my arrival was the sole source of activity that night. I didn’t see other carriages parked down the lane, and Ulric didn’t have a small army of servants waiting to receive more guests.
I was led to a sitting room where a stocky man in his 50s with close-cropped blonde hair waited for me.
I used Restraint to disable the effects of Abyssal Gaze.
Nobles tended to be sensitive when they were intimidated, so that could wait.
Sense Weakness said that his wealth was his weakness, which I took to mean he was either dangerously obsessed with growing it or terrified to lose it. Or both, perhaps.
“Thank you for making the trip,” Lord Ulric said, shaking my hand.
“I needed to visit my guild chapter here anyway.”
We both sat in red velvet chairs.
“What can I do for you, Lord Ulric?” I asked.
“You were attacked by assassins in my town. That is unacceptable, and on behalf of Minsic, I am truly sorry.”
“I don't blame anyone in Minsic for that. I upset people from time to time.”
Ulric laughed. “I know how that goes. Well, I take that back. I've had a singular assassin make a play for my life. Never more than one, and never with a celestial summon.”
“I don't recommend it.”
“It's a symptom of something larger, I'm afraid. You were attacked. A paladin barracks was bombed. And a celebrated adventurer went missing. All in the span of hours.”
“I don't like to think of myself as a victim,” I said.
“Minsic is becoming a warzone,” Ulric continued. “We've had a couple of quiet weeks, but people are worried.”
“I'm sorry, I don't know more about my attackers. I really wish that wasn't the case, for multiple reasons.”
“You struck me as someone who solved their own problems, and this is my attempt to solve mine. I would like to ask you two favors, Byron of Zaglis.”
I set my silverware down and sat back to listen. I was grateful to have an excuse to stop eating. Everything tasted like paper.