I did a double take as we walked out of the portal in Kabola. It was identical to where we'd just been. Loosh seemed content and joined the flow of people arriving as they made their way to the exit, so I followed along.

As we got lower in the tower and I could see the wide doors to the city beyond, we were herded into lines. "What the hell is this?"

"You have to declare your presence at official portal towers. Do you remember everything?" She asked quietly.

"I never forget an enemy."

She shook her head. "Very funny, Joren Vayne. You'd forget you were born on Elanor or that you'd just traveled from Opotan, if you didn't have me to keep you right."

I grinned. "Oh Yee of little faith." Of course, she was absolutely right on both counts. Though I had remembered my name.

Before long we reached the front of the queue, the information required was pretty much what Loosh had already covered, apart from business. I stalled and she noticed. "Bodyguard."

I nodded and scribbled that down. It made sense I supposed. Loosh was here to do deals, I was here to make sure she was safe whilst doing so.

We finally made it out of the tower and I was relieved as it was a little cooler outside. Which meant stifling, fetid and oppressive with a very slight hot breeze.

"What the hell, Malika. Are all the planets we visit gonna be hot as hell?"

"I like the heat. And after my last job, I think I deserve a little comfort don't you? Besides. You're not even sweating."

"I'm still English though," I muttered under my breath. "Complaining about the weather is in the blood."

Despite the smell, the streets were broad and clean, which was an improvement to Opotan. Merchant stalls stood in organized rows selling pungent spices, shimmering cloths, and random trinkets. It was busy, yet not overbearing, which made it easier to scan for potential threats.

Loosh seemed at ease, navigating the city with the confidence of someone who belonged, keen eyes taking everything in without lingering on anything for any time.

When she turned down a quieter street, leading us toward a more residential district I kept my steps measured, listening, watching. It may have grown far less busy, easy to watch those around us, but there were a lot of dark alleys and concealed spaces. In short it was a good place to roll someone, if you were of a mind to do a little robbery.

Loosh stopped in front of a narrow doorway. Green flaky paint exposed bare wood. She knocked twice, then twice more after a pause.

A moment later, a small panel in the door slid open. Reflective amber eyes peered through. "You're early."

"We're efficient," Loosh replied. "Let us in."

The eyes disappeared. A series of heavy locks clunked and the door creaked open just enough for us to slip in.

I stepped through first, hit by the scent of burning incense mixed with something metallic in the air. Scanning the dimly lit interior and the four grim faced warriors inside. I frowned as they all stood, weapons out and ready for action.

Two of them had crossbows trained on us, one held a big axe and the door opener drew a long knife. All of them were in the late teens for level apart from the axe wielder who was level 20.

"What's all this then?" I asked scanning the rest of the room as Loosh came to stand alongside me.

"Are you expecting trouble?" she added to my words.

"We're always expecting trouble," the axe man said, then turned to the dagger wielder. "Check them for weapons."

I turned to the man with the knife as he stepped toward me. "Your hands touch anywhere on me or Malika, and I'll redecorate this room with you."

The dagger wielder paused and Loosh spoke. "We have weapons and we will retain them. We've traveled far to make this meeting, so show us the item or stop wasting our time."

"Rules is rules." The Axe man said. "Hand the weapons over, nice and easy, and then we'll take whatever money you have."

She frowned and I was genuinely curious to see what her response would be. "I was given this address and meeting time by a trustworthy source."

"Not that trustworthy then, eh?"

"Perhaps. Perhaps not." Without warning she pushed out a blast of ferocious green energy in all directions. Our attackers fell screaming and writhing in pain while I was essentially unaffected beyond a gentle tingle, like showering with mint shower gel.

I wasn't sure if she wanted them dead or just incapacitated but the attack hadn't killed them and I wasn't taking any chances. I jumped on the axe man first and rammed my dagger in his throat, before dashing to the closest of the crossbowman. I slashed their throat as the third was struggling to rise. I kicked her in the face, knee dropped onto her chest and put the dagger in her eye, before turning to my last target. Loosh had already dealt with the door opener. Not dead, but bound and hovering a foot from the floor by an invisible force. If you didn't count her glowing hand, she looked like Darth Vader or some shit.

"Why have you attacked us? Where is the one called Nirrin?"

"I… I…" he stammered, eyes wild as they flickered from her to the carnage of the room. I picked up an open beer bottle and mourned the lack of beer in it.

"That's not an answer," she snarled. "Where is Nirrin?"

"I… I…"

I threw the empty bottle of his head. It shattered in an explosion which caused Loosh to turn and scowl at me. I ignored her and spoke to the suspended man.

"If I hear another 'I…I…' from your fucking mouth, I'm going to start carving pieces of you off, starting at your balls if you've got any."

He opened his mouth and I just knew he was going to say I again. He snapped it shut and pointed to a door at the back of the room.

Loosh nodded for me to go check and after picking up the loaded crossbow I did just that.

Once at the door I studied the crossbow and found it didn't look overly complicated to fire. There was safety catch which basically held the trigger in position. Flicking the catch off, I kicked the door open the to reveal two men.

One tied to a chair, the other, a green-skinned warrior, level 23 warrior and as wide as a bus, with a topknot of black hair, and a massive jaw.

Two jutting canines poked out from his lip giving him an extra dangerous animalistic look. I shot at him.

Either the crossbow was shit or I overestimated how easy it would be. The bolt thunked into the back wall about three foot to the left of my considerable target.

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He came forward snarling, and swinging his short-handled double headed axe. Jumping back, I threw the crossbow at him, and as it clonked off his head I dove to the right.

As expected the crossbow throw didn't slow him down, but it did piss him off and his axe bit deep into the wooden wall behind me. He tried to pull it out and in that moment I took my opportunity.

"Oi, big chin," I shouted, darting back at him, launching a big right hand that he had no hope of escaping.

He turned just at the right time to really get that sweet connection, a meaty thunk reverberated around the room and he staggered back, weaponless.

I followed in, throwing a combination after combination I backed him up against the wall. He was too slow, and ate most of my shots, unable to recover but with enough Toughness to keep him conscious and on his feet. In the end he had no choice but to do something wild to break the flow of my onslaught and with a roar more lion than man he kicked off the wall behind him, and used his weight to push me back.

For the first time, the extra weight Onlan and Loosh had made me put on before coming here made its presence known. Sure, I still went backward, but in my preferred physical condition I would have went down. Now we were head to head, growling and snarling in the middle of the room trading blows, with a tied up man as our only audience. To be fair, he was too busy panicking and wriggling around trying to get free to cheer us on.

We were at a bit of a stalemate now, but I felt he had a definite edge on me in an outright slugfest. "Tough fucker ain't ya?" I said, dropping my shoulder, pivoting on the balls of my leading foot to duck a big right and circle around him to make some space.

He made the most of the break as much as I did and pulled a long knife. I had some in my coat, but I if I reached for one now I'd be done. I thought fast, and snatched a lamp from the captive man's desk, while my opponent's head exploded in a cloud of gore

As he fell, Loosh came into clarity. She was standing directly behind him hands still glowing, a red color this time, but not flames.

"The fuck was that?" I gasped, wiping brains from my face.

"My favorite attack when dealing with obstinate assholes."

"I won't get the points for him now," I said trying not to sulk and failing.

She wasn't listening. Her eyes were on the tied up man. "Nirrin?" She asked, crossing the bloodstained carpet and slipping a knife from her cloak.

He nodded, which is all he could do, gagged and bound as he was. His eyes never left the knife.

As she cut him free I checked his Identifier:

Name: Nirrin Aspi Closs

Title: Merchant of Ulmar

Level: 21 Class: Tradesman

The moment his gag was cut, he gasped as if he'd been starved of oxygen. "Care to explain what that was about?" She asked.

He began spluttering and coughing. Loosh slapped him hard across the face. "Pull yourself together man. You're safe now, if your answers make sense, at least."

"They came to pp…purchase the Clearflow enchantment. First appointment of the day they were. They started by tying to haggle me down to a ridiculously low sum which triggered my distrust. While a certain amount of haggling is expected, this is a valuable item and highly sort after. Acquiring it came at great personal cost."

"I'm sure it did," she said, walking around him like it was an interrogation. So you said no. What happened then?"

"They said I had no choice. I warned them that I had four meetings today with other buyers and that I couldn't make a decision until I had met you all.

The Bhalrin demanded I tell him where the item was or they'd kill me, then he checked my ledger for my next appointment. I think they hoped to get away before you arrived. Though, with you being an unknown, I think they were just as happy to deal with you, should you arrive before they were finished."

"I like to be early, just in case," Loosh said, eyeing the headless green asshole I mentally filed his race away as Bhalrim, seeing as he was the leader of the group.

"Did you tell him where it was?"

"No. Do you think I'd still be alive if I did?"

She frowned, but after a second nodded, no. "He'd have slit your throat immediately."

"Exactly. I just held on and hoped you would cause enough trouble for me to slip free. I didn't expect you to wipe them all out. If you didn't have a name, you will have to this."

"I'm not bothered about a name," she snapped. "I like catching people off guard and a name comes with expectation."

"Certainly, certainly," he said getting stiffly to his feet. "May I call for help to clear the room before we engage in our business? Discussing such maters requires a certain mindset that I will struggle to attain in such tragic surroundings.

"No. We deal now. What price did you offer these men the artifact?"

He winced. "Straight to business. Very well. The asking price is four-hundred thousand Unitols."

She pursed her lips. "That's steep. More than my employer is willing to pay outright, though he anticipated a small bidding war."

"Exactly." Nirrin said, seeming to find his mojo after all.

"And what is the lowest you'd be willing to take?"

He frowned. "You said yourself there will be a bidding war. After this debacle," he gestured at the dead Bhalrim, I will accept the asking price and be done with the whole ordeal. If not, I will take the top bids from each purchaser, and revisit the sale once they are all in."

She pursed her dark lips in thought. "That seems to be a little risky, after this debacle," she said gesturing around just as he had. It was a subtle threat but I enjoyed it immensely.

"I will offer two-hundred and fifty thousand, which I feel is a gracious enough offer to purchase the piece."

He shook his head. "Preposterous! Are you seeking to ruin me? It's barely a better offer than the Bhalrin's."

"That bad?," she said leaning over the desk. "That's funny, because, I have a little skill with truth telling on account of me being a high level mage. It's why I'm well suited to this job and I questioned one of the men in the front, and do you know what he told me?"

Nirren's paled. "I dread to think what vile lies such a man would spew."

"He told me, your starting price was three-hundred-thousand. And that the they offered you one-hundred."

"I only offered that after they threatened my life!" he squawked, looking close to tears by estimation.

"No. It was your starting bid. I commend your mercenary spirit after all you've been through, but I tire now. An honest and viable offer of two-hundred and fifty thousand is adequate to purchase the artefact without threatening your life. But I'm still open to that option."

He managed to pluck some courage from somewhere. "If you kill me they will know! You will never work again! You will be hunted."

Her eyes darted to the clock and then to his ledger, then she smiled. "Not if I go now and let law enforcement know of this horrendous crime."

"I turned up to my meeting, on time as always," she said pointing to the clock. I couldn't read it, but I guessed her meaning. "Just as your ledger will confirm. And when I arrived I discovered a vicious battle had taken place and there was no sign of anyone living."

He stammered and struggled to come up with a counter argument, but he found none. She was absolutely right and she knew it. "In fact, I would argue at this stage it would be better for myself and my client if I were to just kill you and take everything."

"I agree." I said approaching the merchant and drawing my knife. Didn't intend to kill him outright, but I thought it was a good time to loom.

"Two-hundred and fifty thousand?" He squawked. "It's a deal and I will make no derogatory claims against your character. I owe you both my life, so we will make the deal and I'll consider it a good one! Of that you can be assured."

"Two-hundred-thousand after your little display," Loosh warned.

He fish mouthed. "Her hands started to glow with the eerie red light again. "Say anything other than yes Mistress Malika and we're going to get very rich and all it'll cost is a little paper work with the authorities.

"Yes Mistress Malika. It's a deal."

"Good, now let's go and fetch the artifact. She gestured for him to lead the way and he remained still."

"I'm afraid I don't enter my safe room with people present. I must ask you to leave the office until I have retrieved the item."

Her hands flared red, which explained to the silly sod what was going to happen next better than words could have. He scurried over to a liquor cabinet, removed an empty bottle from the top shelf and the cabinet slid along the wall to reveal a riveted metal door.

With great reluctance and a visible slump to his shoulders, he pulled a thin silver chain from around his neck revealing an small, enchanted rod hidden under his shirt. Sliding one of the rivets at his own eye height aside to reveal a hole, he inserted the rod into it and the door opened silently inward.

As Loosh and I approached he turned back to us. "If you wouldn't mind waiting outside please this is a very personal room to me.

She looked over. "Guard the door, Joren." Then she pushed the Tradesman into the opening and followed behind. I opened the liquor cabinet again and methodically went through the bottles, pulling their stoppers and sniffing the contents. The first one smelled repulsive, like gin mixed with absinth. The second smelled like port, so I had a hearty guzzle out of that one. Finally I came to one that smelled like whisky. After port it would probably taste like shit, so I stuffed that one inside my coat and took another swig of the port flavored one. Sweet, rich and strong. Delicious.

I heard them coming back so I drained the last of the port, replaced the bottle then looked like I'd been guarding.

"We've got it," Loosh said, striding through the room. Nirrin came out looking dejected. I patted him on the back. "Cheer up mate. I can't even tell you the amount of ways you nearly died today, and yet here you are, still drawing breath. I'd call that a good day at the office."

He mumbled something, but I was already following after Loosh, slightly fuzzy headed from the liquor but in a good way.

Once outside, Loosh gestured for me to walk faster.

"What's up? You worried he'll cause trouble?"

"Not him. Peralt."

"Peralt? Not heard the name."

"He's a gangster. A powerful one. If he knew our true nature he'd stay well away but undercover like this, I expect trouble."

"Is he from this planet?"

"No. But it's part of his network. We'll need to go further afield for a while until things cool down and I can hire more guards."

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