We didn't go back to Lasital. Instead we took a minor portal to Ursäla where the temperature hardly mattered in the smog cloud we entered. Everything was dark and grim like how I imagined Dickensian London would have looked.

From the gray cobbled streets, pollution stained buildings covered in blacks and grays. You could taste the smoke in the air that mixed with the more familiar stench of too many people living together without adequate sewerage and hygiene.

"This place needs some rain," I said glancing over at Loosh. She ignored me, her expression matching the vibe of the place as she marched through the streets.

Our destination was an old building with a tavern board hanging on rusty chains above the door. At least there'd be beer! I thought cheerfully. That might help with the mood.

Tabaco smoke filled the first room. Spicy with hints of licorice and orange peel, mixed with stale beer soaked into the wooden floorboards. Suspicious eyes that watched us as we entered and moved deeper. Heaven! My shoulders dropped a little as I relaxed in a familiar environment.

Loosh was craning her neck trying to peer through the bodies, I ignored her and pushed my way to the bar.

"What are you doing," Loosh snapped, arriving at my side a few seconds later.

"Getting us a drink. That's what you do in places like this, Malika."

"Were not here for that."

I stopped her with a frown. "Maybe it's time I taught you something about fitting in. Pubs, taverns, whatever you want to call this place, are where people go to take a moment out of their busy lives and have a natter over a few drinks. Now you can march over to whoever we're here to see and start demanding information. Or we can calmly get a drink, saunter over and introduce ourselves all nice and pleasant, fire up a bit chit-chat and then drop in what you want to know?"

She sagged, anger draining from her, slowly replaced by a smile creeping across her face. "For once you're right. Don't get me beer though. I'll have something sweet."

"What would you like?"

"Something sweet. Surprise me."

I ground my teeth in frustration. "No, because whatever I pick you won't like." Much to her surprise, I picked her up, and put her in front of me in the queue. You choose. I'll have the first dark ale you see or they offer."

I wasn't sure what her response would be to my manhandling her, and while I didn't particularly care, it was nice to see her smile again.

A few minutes later we were weaving through the crowded tavern toward the tables at the back. A dark stout in my hand, something bright orange in hers.

Despite my words at taking it easy to start, she made a beeline for a table with a selection of interesting characters. They were chatting comfortably with each other until Loosh arrived. I could see the look of recognition on their faces and a slender, grim faced Salurian woman spoke. "Ah, Malika. I wondered if we'd see you at some point. Very few new enchantment hunters make it past their first Cycle. Especially not those who run in with Peralt's crew so early on?"

"Our second official Enchantment gig," Loosh replied sourly.

"So you ran from Opotan and came to try your look in this part of the network? Cowardly but probably for the best."

I bristled at the accusation while checking her Identifier.

Name: AIeigh Fao

Title: Second Class Merchant.

Level: 22

Class: Tradesman

Loosh didn't twitch at all. "Cowardly would be to run from danger you can deal with. Stupidity is the term for stepping into a Galarn's mouth."

Aleigh smirked. "Perhaps so. But you're a level thirty Mage, Tradesman. Surely you have a few tricks up your sleeve. Or is it really just the two of you?"

"For now," Loosh said calmly, pulling a chair from another table.

Aleigh raised an eyebrow at the move. Loosh ignored it and sat. I remained standing at her shoulder, mug of stout in hand, drinking slowly and enjoying the roasted malty scent while I assessed the others at the table. Only two of the five had identifiers, Aleigh and a fat, angry looking Bhalrin with one of his jutting canines snapped off. I doubted it was from fighting:

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Name:

Title: Second Class merchant.

Level: 19

Class: Tradesman.

The others I ignored. I was used to the fact that most people weren't Ascended and happy again that while my life here started as a slave, I got Ascension early. Seemed like an expensive business otherwise.

I harnessed in my wandering mind as Loosh's voice rose. "They followed?"

Aleigh smirked. "Of course they followed. You think Peralt will just let you walk away after you stole an enchantment from him?"

"Stole! Nonsense," Loosh spat. "We paid the dealer fairly for the Clearflow enchantment."

"That's not the story going around."

"Well here's the actual story," I growled putting a hand on the table and meeting her eyes.

Loosh put a hand on mine. "Don't worry about it, Joren. We know what happened and so do the authorities. We got what we came for."

Aleigh looked offended at first, but the smirk quickly returned. "Good luck out there, Malika. I hope you manage to stay ahead of Peralt, I certainly wouldn't want him as an enemy."

Loosh stood up, walked to the notice board and ripped off one off the fliers pinned there, then marched from the room, drink left unfinished.

I drained my mug, threw the empty on their table and followed after her.

She didn't speak again until we were through the portal and out into the rain of Lasital. "Seems you were right. We might have been better off just dealing with the Peralt problem at the time."

"I usually am. When it comes to dealing with violent dickheads causing trouble, it's always best to act fast and brutally."

"I suppose being a violent dickhead is your area of expertise."

"Exactly! It's why you brought me. Are we going after them, then?"

"No. I'll have Onlan take care of them. Put them off our scent."

I frowned and stopped in the middle of the street. It took her a while to realize I'd stopped. She turned around, face barely visible in her big overcoat. "Come on, Joren. What's wrong?"

"We do it ourselves or I leave."

I couldn't make out her expression, but she threw her arms up in the air. It looked ridiculous in the coat. "Can we at least discuss this back at home please? I didn't realizes you were going to throw a fit in the middle of the street."

"A fucking fit!" I snapped back marching toward her. "I'll show you a fit."

"Show me at home. I could do with some to clear my mind."

That stopped me in my tracks. "We talk first," I growled then strode off toward the house.

Inside was cold, but with a few waves of her glowing hands Loosh had the granite wall heaters firing full blast. We headed upstairs and after taking off my coat, I stewed on the couch while she got changed.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity she came into the living room wearing my favorite nightdress and sat beside me.

I stared at the wall so as not to be distracted or lose my anger as I spoke. "We go to Onlan for everything. It makes us look weak."

"Not so. He controls the network of Echoes. He passes the jobs to those who can do it. We are a family, Earl, and we put ourselves in dangerous positions for the good of that family. It is right we use the full range of powers we have."

Her words made sense but they weren't the answer I was looking for so I tried a different tactic. "If the Siroth go to Peralta to warn him off it'll blow our cover."

She shook her head again. "Not so. We have people in all worlds and most cities. We have people in his gang. We can divert his attention without giving ourselves away."

"Sounds risky. Sounds like your putting other people in danger. And, people like Aleigh are gobshites. They're going to wonder why Peralt backed off. Who knows what stories they'll whisper. Look at what's already happened. If our aim is to get Archon houses to trust us then I think we need to do it ourselves."

"Do what?"

"Take out Peralt. Screw chasing after his men. We need to go to wherever he is and kill the motherfucker."

"His sister and his enforcers will just come after us."

"I shook my head. We kill whoever we need to kill. This fucker sounds like a problem that's gonna keep coming back. What's the Siroth take on him? You say you have echoes in his organization?"

"Just what I told you before. He's powerful and operates in black market slaves. His organization is a long term target, he's just not our most important target."

Thoughts spiraled though my mind and loosely formed into a crazy idea. "Can you get me all the information the Siroth have on him?"

"I could. But why?"

"Because he has access to Archon contracts, right?"

"He does."

"So if I can kill him, we can take his place with them."

She burst out in laughter. "Earl, that's preposterous. He's…"

"Yeah?" I said eagerly wanting to know why.

"He has a lot of men."

"That's not what you were going to say."

"No, it isn't."

"Spit it out then."

She face planted her palms. "For a start, that's not how contacts work. We'd have to build trust."

"Ah, but think of the opening killing him would create. We could make it work. Well Onlan could. It would save us a load of leg work doing it the long route like we're doing now. And that's if Peralt doesn't corner us and kill us when we're not expecting it."

"He's a high level Warrior mage."

My eyes must have sparkled then and she didn't dare look at me as I answered. "Seriously? What level?"

"Last reports I saw put him at about level 34. He's an Archon-Velorian mix."

"Oh shit yeah! I want him, Loosh. This could be great for us."

She finally side eyed me. "Are you seriously telling me you want us to try and take over his criminal empire? I don't think you realize just how extensive it is."

"You've got people on the inside right? Wouldn't turning it into a Siroth criminal empire be a good thing?"

She sat long and stared hard and I had no idea what she was thinking. I was fairly certain she wasn't going to agree.

"We're stick to the plan."

I scowled, opened my mouth to snap back, but she held up a finger to silence me. "I'm not going off track unless Onlan agrees, and I don't think he will, but… the idea has merit. A lot of merit. It removes a target we've long had our eye on. It gets us closer to several Archon houses, and we have the perfect reason for wanting to take revenge on him after how they've come after us."

And I get to pay the bastards who made me jump out of a window back. I kept that thought to myself not wanting to jinx Loosh's positivity for my hairbrained idea.

She nodded to herself with finality. "I'll go back tomorrow and speak to him. Tonight, I need to unwind."

She jumped on my lap. "How about it?"

"You read my mind," I lied. Until that point I was thinking about taking over an interplanetary criminal empire.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.