An urgent knocking woke me from what was a rather lovely dream.

"Who is it?"

"It's me ma'am, urgent report for you." I could hear the stress in the familiar tones.

That was interesting. It was seldom that Sean, my hired hand, woke me. It was far more odd for him to actually have any note of urgency to his voice. With a wave and a bit of power I released the lock on the door, allowing him entry.

"Now now, what's gotten you so worked up?" I held out my hand for the report. It wasn't long, a single sheet that took me less than a minute to read.

Then I reread it, three times. I couldn't believe what I was seeing here. I blinked and rose, heading to the closet. If this was true, then I needed to move now.

"When did this come in Sean?" I asked as I opened the closet doors. The dozens of outfits lining the walls shook as I hastily flipped through them.

"When the gate opened. Looks like the messenger was waiting for it so he could get to you first thing." The man had followed behind. He was one of the few who might be allowed into one of my most private domains.

"Good on him. Do we have confirmation on the source?"

"No doubt ma'am, the Shield is certainly who's spreading it."

"I can hardly believe it. Does anyone else know?"

"I doubt it; what shall we do?"

"Send out a request for a meeting with all the major businesses. Lunch, and mark it as urgent. Also, pull our asset out of Hazelwood's manor, have her sent out of the region if need be."

My aide bowed and left as I put on a rather more conservative dress. It was a lovely black with red embellishments. While almost no skin was showing it still hugged me tightly from the high collar to the waist.

I let my hand linger on a personal favorite outfit that hung nearby. That tiny red silk number had never failed to get the desired result. Sadly this day was not a day for pleasure, but a day to prepare for war.

Leaving my quarters I headed towards my office. There was an immense amount of paperwork in the various drawers that had to be pulled out and prepared for my upcoming meeting, as well as a few files which I'd be bringing along for additional purposes.

In one of the back rooms of The Scarlet Harlot was a place set aside for large gatherings. Business, weddings, the odd orgy, all had occurred in this room. It was well appointed, lush red carpets around a sizable table.

The last to arrive was the representative of the magical item shops. There were only a few in town and their leader was an aged man with a beard. He looked almost stereotypical for a wizard, but it fit his profession.

"Now that we're all here Veska, can you tell us what was so urgent?" The first to barge in was the leader of the merchants, Joy, a thin, severe woman.

"Certainly. The Order of the Shield has begun spreading rumors that the Hazelwood family is so desperate for healers that they're kidnapping those they find, including children."

The silence was absolute, stretching on for several moments. Everyone looked stunned, a few had to take a moment to rub their temples.

"Is it true?" A portly man, Sal, one responsible for food distribution, was the first to recover.

"It does not matter if it is true." That came from the nominal representative of the artisans. The man was a smith and looked as if he could bend metal with his bear hands.

"Of course it matters!" responded the merchant.

"No, it really doesn't. If you care though, I believe they've done the checks on this. They don't act without a solid foundation, not for this." I knew for a fact that they'd been asking about Hazelwood's movements. The requests on when his daughter had left to flee back from the advancing front, and the composition of her personal retinue probably related to this incident.

"Do forgive me, but what effects will this have? The Shield hasn't sent anyone to the city in a couple of years now, and we've made it through that." The one who piped up this time was a reserved looking middle aged woman. You would never know from the look of her that she ran the city's gambling halls.

I could answer this one in a way she would understand best. "They have not, but this will keep all priests out. It will also drive bards to avoid the region like a plague. There are few healers here now, and those anywhere on Hazelwood's lands will likely disappear when they hear of this. It will mean that getting magical healing will be impossible or very nearly so."

"So they're ordering our city abandoned of healers? Isn't that an act of war or something?"

"No, because it's not an order. Even more so, while we can 'know' it's them spreading the information, you'll have a hard time proving it. Even if you could prove it, nobody would care."

"Perhaps we could hire freelancers? There must be some who would go against them." Sal asked.

"Normally there would be, but with the current circumstances they were already at a premium. I can get perhaps two. In a city this size..." I had nothing to help that, not at this point at least.

"Can we get them to rescind this? To stop declaring the city as an enemy?" It was the artisan's turn.

"Not so long as the current baron or any of his immediate family rules." Joy answered for me.

"So this will be long term then?" the smith asked, looking around at the rest of us. There were nods everywhere. "Should we worry about the men in the army? Will this fall on them too?"

"It might." I answered, "Save for the fact that the war will be over before fall hits fully. It's proven too costly as it is. One more harvest that can't be brought in would push both sides too far economically. Negotiations have likely already begun on that front."

"That's the best news I've heard this year. So if there's no undoing this until he and his are gone do you think he'll just kidnap healers now? If he's already being punished there's no reason he shouldn't." The man really should just stick to working metal.

"I would wager that if more reports like this reached the priests our esteemed baron would die of some fast acting illness within a month."

The big man looked stunned. "Now I know those lads don't take much in the way of violations of their sanctuaries, but are you telling me they'd just kill the man?"

Joy looked at him with pity. "There have been a number of times where leaders have openly flaunted their rules. The fact that leaders tend to die of illnesses easily cured by magic not long after violating a major order's mandates is why the different orders hold so much power. The second part, if true, is also important. There might be some push-back if he were using a criminal, or some drafted soldier, but a child? Nobody would lift a finger to save him."

There was a little bit of back and forth on options. Truthfully there was little that could be done, other than abandon the city or move assets out of it. The only reason I'd told them was to minimize the damage when it all got out to the general public. I'd worked too hard to build up my home in this place to just throw it all away, so I at least would be staying. Several of those at this meeting though, and a number of the lesser nobles in town, would definitely not.

Back in my office that night I went over the last of my work. There were still a few reports that were bothering me a bit.

I was guessing that the kidnapped healer was Mystien's apprentice. She'd been reported missing right after that group of guards had passed through her doomed little town. I also felt that even where she was when I met her, she might have been able to give some meathead knights the slip.

Far more bothersome were the other reports of missing people. From here and there people had been vanishing into thin air. This was from both our country and the Ermathi side. A few whole units had turned into mist as far as I could tell. The number of magic users among the missing was also far too high, and almost all of them were from villages. These people were almost certainly targeted. I was at a complete loss as to why or how this was all being done, but the numbers looked to be in the low thousands. Something unusual was on the horizon, that much was sure.

By the time I found my bed that night I was thoroughly exhausted. Hopefully the days when the worst thing going on was a small argument between rich families would return soon.