“I need information on your master and his guards”, I sent.

“What for?”, Sra asked.

“To kill him.”

The small ork flinched. The woman growled. The noise was half directed at her nephew. I was surprised when it actually calmed him down. To me, it sounded more like a threat.

“Why do you want to kill him?”, she asked.

“My reasons are my own, for now. If we, at some point, can call each other friends, I will tell you then.”

“Fair.”

“You won’t kill Master. He’s way too strong.”

I raised one ear-tuft.

“He’s got the golems and his guards as well.”

“The guards are why I’m talking to you. If they’re out of the picture, it’s a free kill.”

Sra snarled.

“So you’re saying if I’m not there Ugark would be dead?”

“No. You couldn’t stop me from killing him. You’re sleeping in a separate room for one. And you’re only one. I can just wait until you have to sleep.”

“Is that a threat?”

“Once more, no. Both of you are cautious of me and know what I could do. That makes a kill no longer worth it. Do you have no [Assassin] where you’re from?”

The ork sunk back onto her stool.

“Not a very orkish Class. More of a goblin thing.”

I lowered my head in acknowledgement.

“Now, will you help me?”

Sra looked at her nephew. The small ork sunk deep into thought, his eyes closed. We waited for almost ten minutes before he spoke up.

“What’s in it for us?”

“Both of you? I don’t know. What do you need?”

“I’m an apprentice. I need a Thaumonomicon to get the real Class. But there aren’t enough books left here to make one. So, a pile of books. Maybe a dozen or so? And anything you loot off my master.”

“Books I can do. The loot is something I don’t want to sell before I’ve seen it.”

The ork nodded.

“Sra, what do you want?”

“I… I want safety for Ugark and myself. You don’t have to be our guard or something like that. But I want something to protect us. Somehow… I don’t know how you could even do that…”

I considered. There was a lot I did not know about these two. And about what would happen if I take out the little one’s master. I could definitely come up with some thaumaturgical artefact to help protect them. Or I could hand over the golem bodies for Ugark to reactivate. I was concerned about the node, though. There was nothing in the house itself. Had the previous tenant’s only used the fire one up on the hill, or what?

“I can’t promise anything. Mostly because I don’t know what you need protection from. Will other orks want to kill you once I take out his master? Are there already some that want to do so? Do you still want to stay in ork lands? If not, do you want something to protect you from beasts? A base of sorts, or an artefact? There’s a lot to consider with such a vague request.”

Sra looked up with wide eyes.

“Is that stuff you can do? How? You’re a bird?”

I nodded.

“Not all of it but I can figure something out. Probably.”

She grunted.

“I think we should try”, Ugark said, “If I have a Thaumonomicon, I’ll be able to set up some defences for us. It should be good enough for most threats.”

“You think so?”

He turned to me.

“So, I get enough books for a Thaumonomicon. And you help us stay safe. Deal?”

I hissed in metal.

“I won’t be able to help you with safety without knowing your circumstances.”

“That’s… Well…”

The two orks shared a look. Then, Sra turned to me and told their tale. Ugark had always been weak for an ork but incredibly gifted with his mental Attributes. He was still treated terribly by his parents and siblings. One day, they just threw him out without further explanation. Sra decided to pick him up and take care of her nephew. As a hunter, she made good coin and could feed both of them without trouble. For some time they had a comparably happy life, as long as Ugark stayed indoors.

Then, one day, they heard of the Circle massacre. Thaumaturges were the backbone of ork politics and with every known name wiped out in a single day, things looked to get crazy. But soon after, many of the orks who had been hired to manage the supplies for the fateful Circle meeting rose up as thaumaturges themselves. The budding bloodlust quickly settled through the valleys and once more a stable society was formed. Only, there was a distinct lack of thaumaturges. Especially skilled ones. And so, the few that had picked up the slack after the Circle’s rebirth started to gather the ‘smart’ orks. Every single one with a Wisdom or Intelligence score of over twenty combined was dragged in to learn. There… were not many.

When Ugark was picked, Sra decided to quit her work as a hunter and become his guard instead. In the last few months, the young ork quickly learned the basics of the craft and when word came that one of the few new thaumaturges had been killed in his home, Ugark’s master decided it was time for him to grow past his apprentice Class. Which ended up in them leading the hunting party to eradicate the threat on orkish thaumaturgy.

“So, in short, there’s Ugark’s family and maybe other thaumaturges? That’s it?”

The apprentice nodded.

“Also, other orks that might be envious of my position.”

“Is that normal for your people? You just kill each other because someone else has more?”

“It’s ork law”, Sra said, “to kill no more than three others per year. That includes goblins, for some reason.”

“You guys are weird. Shouldn’t it be law to not kill at all?”

She cringed.

“Most don’t think like that. It’s what we are.”

“I see. That’s what your progenitor was like, then. And the outliers are likely to evolve, I would assume.”

“What?”

“I’m just rambling. Don’t mind me. Now, I can definitely help you. After things have calmed down a little. You might have to hide in the mountains. I don’t know what taking out your master will do to the hunting party or the town. Though, I can help you with shelter and food, if you need to leave.”

The two orks discussed for a moment before coming to a conclusion.

“We’ll take that deal. You’ll spend a month with us to work out some sort of defence if we stay in town. If not, you help us find a new place to live. In exchange, we’ll answer your questions as long as they concern killing Sergas, Ugark’s master.”

“And a Thaumonomicon”, Ugark added.

“Agreed. Though I’ll be spending a week away once things settle down. I want to take a break and I have some other projects running.”

Sra looked at Ugark who growled in confirmation. Then she reached out a hand.

“Deal.”

I formed a hand of similar size with the shadows still blanketing the floor and reached forward to shake hers.

“Deal.”

She hurried to pull back after separating.

“That stuff feels weird. What is that Skill?”

“It’s literally just darkness. Now. What can you tell me about him and his guards?”

I spent the next hour fleecing the two orks for every last bit of potentially useful information. The thaumaturge, Sergas, was rather new to the whole thing but had taken to it like a fish to water. He knew the basics very well and was a capable teacher to boot. Ugark had one of the highest [Apprentice] levels in ork history. Normally, you would only get to level ten before being fully inaugurated. That was simply impossible since Sergas was unwilling to make a new Thaumonomicon for his apprentice. He specialized in golems, as far as Ugark was aware. The two with him were advanced versions with the improved brains I had read about. I carefully kept quiet to avoid telling the orks how much I knew about the practice.

Even though he was good with golems, Ugark also had a few powerful foci. Most of them were of no concern to me since him getting to use them would mean I had already failed. There was one that seemed a little problematic, though. A focus of beast warding. It did exactly what it said and prevented any ‘beasts’ from passing by what arbitrary borders he set with it. I was concerned my usual trick with my [Mingling] Breakthrough would not work on it.

Other than that, the smarter golems also had better senses. Or rather, better reasoning. They would understand air or earth would not move and look like a living being and investigate. I should still have enough time to break their seals without which, they had no instructions and would hopefully cease to move.

The biggest issue was, as I expected, the guards. The two massive orks were Sergas’ brothers and had been with him at the Circle. They were not smart enough to be properly enlightened to the deeper arts but the system still recognized them as sapient, for some reason. From what Sra had to say about them, my owl family had been smarter. The brutes were extremely skilled at fighting and extremely hard to kill. A void feather through the head would probably do it, but with a thaumaturge as a brother, I expected some basic magical defences. Neither of them had a ranged weapon, though, so I could just keep out of their range and would be safe.

That was everything important I could think of. I asked Ugark if he would be willing to play distraction in some way and maybe lure his master into the house but he found it very unlikely to be successful. Rather than taking the risk to tip my target of my presence, I decided to find another approach. I already had something in mind.

“Thank you for your help, Ugark. Here’s your payment”, I sent and dropped two dozen books out of my storage. They had been in this same house before but he did not have to know that.

“Sra, you will get your payment if my assassination is successful.”

The orks nodded.

“May your blood be enriched by your enemies!”, Sra said with a lot of teeth showing.

“Ah, yes. Same.”

Ugark was already distracted. I saw him pull out a pouch of salis mundus and pour it over the books.

“May you keep your blood in your veins”, I sent. It was most likely not the proper orkish answer but Sra’s smile got wider nonetheless.

I departed to her growling. It sounded somewhat friendly but still rather brutal.

Now, it was time to get my new goblin friends on board. They could create some noise and hopefully make accessing my target much easier.