The Randid sisters were the last remaining worthy competition in town. Their business was smuggling, prostitution, and crushed weir bone. Often those three things would intersect, with women and young men being smuggled in and weir bone being sold as a cure for impotence, though it’s narcotic effects were also highly sought after. It was nothing Dorsia had a problem with on its own. The only issue she really had was that the majority of the men and women they smuggled in, weren’t there by choice.

Dorsia sat, her rapier at her hip and a small cup of spiced tea in her hand. The Randid Sisters sat across from her. Despite their cruel reputation they were pretty girls, relatively young, and all smiles. They wore their hair in tight buns with golden hair pins holding them in place and were dressed in gaudy black leather armor with gold etching, picking their teeth with stilettos. It was a cute act, unfortunately for them, Dorsia saw right through it.

They were as new to Buryn as she was and their rise had been almost as meteoric. They were ambitious, but in Dorsia’s opinion, they lacked style. They favored quick violent solutions over guile and had no real code or rules which made them bad to deal with. Even if she didn’t shut them down, eventually their own lack of tact and strategy would lead to their downfall. In a way, Dorsia was offering them a controlled fall, though she doubted that was how they’d see it.

“You want us out? I thought this was a negotiation,” said Cyn Randid. They were twins, but Cyn seemed younger.

“It is. You can leave and give your operation over to me, or I can kill you and take it.”

“We’re also comfortable with meeting you in the middle. We’ll beat you bloody, and then you leave,” said Jade calmly. She’d taken to the role of enforcer quite well. Dorsia herself was no slouch when it came to combat, but Jade had the kind of ‘can beat’ attitude that really helped things to move smoothly. She also had a sense of honor that meant that she was able to keep both subordinates' and clients' respect.

“You come into our territory, our bar.” Wynne Randid pointed at the sign above the bar, it read ‘A Randy Place’, Dorsia found it tacky. “And threaten us? Everyone here is ours. All you’ve got is your enforcer. Now can we stop the dick measuring and get down to actually figuring things out? Let’s just draw out each other’s territories and leave one another alone. There's money to be made while we sit here jawing.”

“I’m afraid that wasn’t an option I offered. Though I appreciate that you’re clearly the smart one.” Dorsia had known that Wynne was the greater threat right away, her gift let her immediately gauge a person's threat level, and she’d been honing it even further since arriving in Buryn. Her initial method of money making since she arrived was betting on the coliseum fights, an area in which she had a particularly unfair advantage.

“Alright, that’s enough. Let’s just kill them,” said Cyn and at that moment the rest of the bar rose from their chairs drawing daggers, clubs, or putting their hands through brass knuckles.

“Agreed,” said Wynne, pulling a shortsword from its sheath.

Dorsia found their confidence interesting. They believed that she would show up alone with only Jade as protection and make no other backup plans. It was insulting that they assumed she had nothing up her sleeve.

She kicked the table that was between her and the Randids, threw her scalding tea into the face of the nearest brute, and flipped backward out of her chair kicking a man with a dagger in the face as she did so. She landed with her rapier drawn and slipped her buckler over her arm.

Jade vanished from where she’d been standing and appeared behind Dorsia, with her claws slashing across the face of a man preparing to strike her with a club.

Dorsia lifted her fingers to her mouth, gracefully avoiding the hilt of her rapier, and whistled. On that signal a massive woman with blonde braids slammed through the front door and into the melee. She was wielding an axe and made a wide swing as she entered, slaying a half-dozen of the Randid’s crew before they even knew what was happening.

Dorsia and Jade took that cue to focus on the sisters who were still picking themselves up from under the table. Dorsia smashed her buckler into the face of a woman approaching her from the left and used her forward momentum to disarm two more opponents with swift strikes to their hands which left them with too few fingers to hold their weapons any longer.

Jade used her height and speed to her advantage, laying into the tendons and arterial clusters on legs that she could easily reach. She left a trail of thugs behind her doing their best to stem the bleeding, or in one enterprising case swiftly using their belt as a tourniquet.

Dorsia watched the Randid Sisters grow more panicked as the bodies between them and her fell. By the time she reached Wynne there was only desperation left in her eyes.

Wynne swung her shortswords in a wild combination of lower and upper strikes, trying to trip her or catch her throat, but Dorsia read her moves before they even began. When the combination stopped she simply extended her sword, stabbing straight through the leather armor and into Wynne’s heart. They held their pose there for a moment before Dorsia let the body slide off her blade and onto the floor. She pulled a red handkerchief from her pocket and cleaned the blade, casually noting the destruction her and her companions had wrought.

Jade had killed Cyn, her body, pale from blood loss, lay cold on the floor. The runes on Jade’s skin that had been lit bright were slowly losing their glow. Hrig was standing among a pile of bodies with a wild look in her eye, viscera hanging from the edge of her axe.

Hrig had joined them just a week prior and had been keen on helping with this particular operation. She seemed in desperate need to blow off steam, and Dorsia was glad to provide it for her. Things moved fast with a woman like Hrig’s help.

There were a few men groaning on the floor, either dying or so injured they wished they were, but Dorsia ignored them. She returned the handkerchief to her pocket, put away her sword and buckler, and went behind the bar. She found a surprisingly good bottle of gin and poured three glasses. She sniffed her glass, enjoying the delicate juniper scent before taking a long sip. Hrig and Jade joined her at the bar and took their glasses, mirroring Dorsia’s long calm sips, and letting themselves relax.

“Well, we now own Buryn. The underworld at least, which is my favorite part anyway,” said Dorsia with a wry smile on her lips.

“I hope you understand that at this point I feel my obligation to you is fulfilled,” said Jade.

“Your obligation for me saving your life? Certainly, your obligation as my friend? I don’t think so.”

Jade sighed, “Well from here on I at least expect to be paid. I like the work, but I expect my cut.”

“Maybe I’ll arrange another opportunity to save you, could be worth it in the long run.”

Jade rolled her eyes.

They sat in silence for a while after that, well silence aside from the groaning and dying men and women that surrounded them.

“So… you still haven’t told us what happened at the palace. Would you like to speak about it?” asked Dorsia.

Hrig finished her gin, and wiped her face with the back of her hand. “Sevald saved us,” she said with a touch of bitterness in her voice.

“The rumors I’ve heard were that he attacked you,” said Dorsia.

“He wouldn’t do that,” responded Jade.

“I’m not saying he would, I’m just saying what the rumor is. Those two things rarely coincide.” Dorsia poured another glass. “He is a monster though? That part rang true though ‘monster’ doesn’t feel like the right word. A non-human? Though I guess that applies to Jade as well…”

“He’s not human, no, and not dwarf, elf, or orc either. He’s a hollow suit of armor, but alive.”

“Interesting, that explains why he appeared so strong to me.” She looked at Jade and noted her complete lack of surprise. “You knew, didn’t you?”

“I did.”

“You knew?” asked Hrig.

“I did. He wasn’t exactly subtle.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” asked Dorsia.

“I promised him I wouldn’t tell as a way to fulfill my obligation to him. No point in hiding it now though.”

“I’m hurt you didn’t share that with me.” Dorsia put her hand over her heart in mockingly for a moment, then turned her attention back to Hrig. “I still want to know what actually happened at the palace though.”

Hrig poured herself another glass.“Things started fine. We mingled, ate good food, and watched some performers. Sevald had a run in with the real Sevald’s parents, but aside from that it was looking to be a pleasant evening. Unfortunately we soon noticed at least four children of Aurum were at the party.”

“Four of them? Like Donyin?” asked Jade.

“Five, I heard Talen was there as well,” said Dorsia.

“Six actually, the king was one of them.”

Dorsia’s eyes widened. “The king?”

“Yes, he insisted on speaking with Sevald alone and Sevald didn’t think he had much of a choice. He walked with him a short way and then there was a flash of light and Sevald seemed to be coming apart, or maybe ‘leaking’ is the right word. Pure blackness was showing at his joints and his helmet was open showing nothing inside. Talen lunged at him, feigning at protecting the king and we went to help Sevald. Unfortunately the other children of Aurum held us back. Sevald eventually fought Talen off and made his way to us, that’s when he took Kyren hostage-”

“What?”

“He didn’t really, just kind of. Kyren explained that he told her it was the only way he could think to keep us safe. If he pretended to be a real monster and we pretended we didn’t know then the king would have a harder time justifying getting rid of us. Kyren is the scion of a noble family that the king had just expressed warm feelings toward, I’m well known here in Buryn and Ellis would likely take umbrage at the King having me killed, and Stone has a lot of favors that would be called in if he died. Whether or not the king believed us, he let us go and even shut down several attempts from Talen to have us arrested. Though I have had a few run-ins with some of his cutthroats since then.”

“How unfortunate for them,” said Jade.

Hrig smiled. “That it was.”

“It makes sense that the king would try to keep things stable. With all the posturing at the elven border, his growing the military, it seems like war is coming. He wants to keep as much cohesion as possible.”

“That’s what Kyren said. At least, it’s what she figured out before I left.”

“Where is everyone now?” asked Jade.

“Sevald went to Usulaum to find out what he could at the university. Obviously we don’t have contact with him, but he was heading east and last we heard he’d escaped to the ocean. Kyren stayed in the capital. She’s undergoing training and dealing with priestly bureaucratic nonsense, trying to discover what she can that way. Stone is calling up contacts across the country to put together a clearer picture of the king and Talen’s plans. We’re just trying to do whatever we can, however we can.”

“Well, I don’t know about the King, but I was planning on giving Talen a hard time either way,” said Dorsia. “Now that he’s running things from the light and the darkness in Cirros, things are getting desperate for people. He’s been forcing debtors into the king's army, then selling the right to not be drafted to the nobility and merchants, all while having deserters killed. He’s got absolute control there.”

“What are your plans Hrig?” asked Jade.

“Well, aside from helping you with Talen, I was also interested in maybe calling in the favor you owe me.”

“What do you need?”

“Your tattoos, would you be able to put those on someone else?”

Jade hesitated. “Possibly, but why do you want them?”

“I need to be stronger. I’ve been training since the fight with Donyin, trying to bridge that gap between me and him, but no matter how hard I work I can still see it. I need more than what I can do so far. Also…” She took a deep drink of gin. “If I’d just been stronger maybe Sevald would’ve fought. Maybe we could’ve made it out of there together.”

Dorsia looked at Hrig closely, relying on that special sense Krish had given her that let her size people up. She was stronger. Much stronger than she’d been at the tournament, but she was also right. Donyin was a monster, and if the other Children of Aurum were as strong as him, she’d need to go even further.

Jade stared into her cup for a moment. “I can do it, but you have to understand that there's a cost.”

“What cost?”

“Pain mostly, and once the runes are in place they cannot be removed. They also likely wont be as powerful for you as they are for me.”

“Why won’t they be as powerful?”

“For one the runes will be in ancient dwarvish, which isn’t your language.”

“Could you do them in common?”

“No, the human language is too diffuse. The more people know a language the less powerful the runes of that language become. Ancient dwarvish is rare, it holds mystery and power and so it’s runes are more powerful. Aside from that your body won't be able to handle as many runes as mine can.”

“Because I’m not a dwarf?”

“Partially, but also because you don't have the knowledge of them that I do. My family has passed down the magic of the runes for generations. We are born to use them, and our abilities with them are in our blood.”

“But you can give me some.”

“I can do two on you, possibly three, but anything beyond that may kill you. We’ll have to choose words that you embody, ones that are the core of who you are. You’ll also need a place to rest and recover, it’s likely you’ll be out of commission for a while after each rune.”

“Don’t worry about that part, I’ll take care of it,” said Dorsia.

Hrig nodded and poured herself another glass of gin. “When can we start?”