Where blade meets flesh, and blood does flow

With senseless greed, they’ll death bestow

-prophecy of the duskbringer

4993 A.D. First Day of the Second week of Autumn. A Half Bell after the Ninth Evening Bell...

Selena bowed to the seated man, "Milord, pardon me for interrupting, this one claims to have knowledge of your plans and how he can greatly assist you in them, he has served me to date as one of my lieutenants."

Hearing this the man closed the ledger and pushed it to one side, he must have activated some kind of magitech device below the table for Seymour heard a click and all sound from outside the room, faint as it already was, abruptly cut off.

The man then turned to Seymour and in a beautifully cultured voice uttered, "You have my attention, do tell me what causes you to have such...confidence."

To be honest, Seymour didn't know many concrete details of this man's plans, but he had tracked Selena's movements, actions and orders over the past few years, then matched it with what he heard of events in the noble circle.

It had taken a few months to gather the hints and years to confirm but he noticed a startling correlation.

Every time Selena made a move one noble house benefited, not always obviously or even directly, indeed often one of their subordinate households would be the primary beneficiary, but Seymour was well aware that there were many more types of currency than mere coinage.

With each maneuver this noble glutted himself with influence, wealth and power, each success a step that brought the man to further heights.

In many ways he was Seymour's role model, and while he was currently one of the most prominent individuals in the kingdom, he too had started as an unwanted child, a bastard son.

So while Seymour had to be careful, he was sure his plan would be successful, all his previous intelligence gathering and planning was not for naught, his bluff game was strong and based on truth.

Emboldened by this knowledge he bowed deeply and opened his mouth.

"Milord, thank you for taking the time to speak with this lowly one, I have only heard rumours of your power and wealth, yet even they fall far short of your magnificence."

Seymour observed the noble carefully to see the effect of his words.

'Good, his ego is now stoked, nobles always love to be flattered, inflating their sense of self worth never fails, all that practice is paying off.'

Seymour continued his address, pressing his advantage.

"I know from your personal background and mistress Selena's dealings that you seek even greater wealth, and need it urgently to continue expanding your power and prestige.

I have news that can help you with this, a young lady by the name of Gupalagia Bright has discovered the alchemic formula to transform lead into gold.

In her and her sisters foolishness this fact has become widely known barely one bell ago, I have intel that she attended the weekly auction held by Avarice's Descent tonight and should be preparing to make her way back home as we speak.

I propose to you that we abduct her and control this lucrative new source of income, I have already secured the siblings of miss Bright so we may use them for leverage, all I ask for in return is to be given the honor of becoming your direct subordinate and be placed in charge of this operation."

Seymour stopped, his pitch done, now the usual short wait while the noble calculated potential profits, it shouldn't take long.

He cautiously peered up at the noble from the corner of his eye while keeping his head low in deference.

The handsome noble was smiling, a bright greedy smile,

'Success' thought Seymour as he relaxed slightly, 'Now I just need to…'

He caught a flicker of the man's eyes and felt the air move behind him, he twisted his body to the side out of reflex.

“Guuuhh” Seymore groaned as he felt a blade pierce him from behind, it's cold sharpness spreading burning pain throughout him.

He had avoided being stabbed in the heart, but it was still a ruinous injury, and no doubt by a poisoned blade.

"Why?" he asked the noble, his plan should have been reasonable, any greedy noble would have snatched it up.

Seymour looked at the noble directly, the previous greedy look had disappeared and had been replaced by a cold calculating gaze, the depths of the man’s eyes swirled with a mad hunger previously disguised.

Seymour recognised that look, he had seen it in the mirror on some of his worst days.

'Ahhhh' he realized as his vision dimmed 'I never had a chance.'

"Selena, please move this young man before he bleeds all over my carpet" The noble requested, his entire demeanour had changed, no longer seeming like a cliche greedy noble.

No he sought far more than just wealth, and for far different reasons than most, those factors had carved and shaped him, stripping away any mercy or pity for those he saw as obstacles.

The noble waited and watched as the light of this realization arose in the young man's eyes, and he drew pleasure from once again having removed a potential rival.

Selena sheathed her dagger and shoved Seymour to the side, a bit too enthusiastically it seemed, the boy had tried to escape in that direction at the same time and the extra momentum propelled him into one of the nearby display cases, breaking the glass before he slumped over it.

This elicited a sigh from the noble as he held a hand to his face.

"That was a priceless artifact recovered from a ruin of the first age Selena, do try to be more careful won't you."

The noble rose and walked over to the body as Selena knelt and hastily spouted her apologies, he flipped it off the stand with ease, letting it slump to the ground.

Examining the case the noble noted that there was blood smeared all over it, yet the doll of a furry beast with long ears was unblemished, he removed it to prevent any of the dripping blood from potentially marring it and brought it over to his desk where he placed it in the bottom most drawer.

"Milord, why did you have me kill him?" Selena asked curiously

The noble paused, perhaps considering whether he would even answer, before finally opening his mouth.

"Why? It was a simple enough reason, he was motivated not by greed or a desire for prominence, the hunger was strong in him, I could see it.

Yet if that were all it would be simple to control and use him, but no, he was motivated by love, the poor fool. Far too unstable a thing for us to reliably hold over him, so I had you remove him before it became a problem, as it inevitably would my dear."

The noble smiled an icey smile as he spoke.

"Now is what he said true?"

Selena replied hastily "I believe it is milord, we received a payment yesterday from this same lady, pure gold in the form of odd scraps of metal. It drew my attention, but I was more focused on.."

"Enough," The noble cut Selena's excuses off.

"This fool's proposition had some worth, we will use her siblings to encourage this girl..miss Bright, to work for us, I can use the gold she produces in a number of ways for my plans.

See to it we recover her first and store her in the prison under warehouse eleven for now, until we can arrange a more permanent location for her work, now leave me, I have much to arrange."

Selena bowed before hoisting Seymour's lifeless body over a shoulder and retreating out the secret door, closing it softly behind her. The nobleman briefly admired that she could perform all that in a dress and heels before he sat back down and started plotting.

.............

Jacques and Hadoom hurried down the main street, they had stopped briefly to purge their bodies somewhat of the voluminous amounts of liquor they had ingested over the last few hours.

Their footsteps now faster and firmer they made their way through the twisting roads towards the famous golden auction house.

While their passage was uninterrupted on their way there, they knew the same could not be said of their journey back.

"Where’re we going to take her lad?" Hadoom puffed.

Jacques pondered and spoke as they ran.

"I doubt either of our houses will be safe, as much as I hate to say it, I think it might be best to take her to Sladlow. The man's a snake, but he is also very aware of any political repercussions for his actions.

This will quickly become a high profile case, he won't be able to afford to do anything less that what his duty dictates with all eyes on him.

A one-way ticket for miss Bright to the royal guards will be his greatest desire as soon as we deliver her to him."

"Sounds good pointy ears, now let's make it happen!" Hadoom said as they rounded the corner and came into sight of their destination.

At the end of the street lay Avarice's Descent, lit up by hundreds of magitech lights. Its extravagance rivaled even the palaces', and a crowd of merrymakers was slowly leaving, the nightly auction must have barely finished.

"Hadoom, you take the left side of the street, I'll cover the right, lets see if we can pick her out as she leaves!" Jacques cried out as he bolted up some steps, picking an elevated vantage point.

Hadoom grunted his assent and gruffly shoved people aside as he moved, earning many a look of ire in his wake.

Between them they combed the leaving crowd, peering at faces and 'accidentally' pulling off hoods as they bumped into people. And yet they couldn't find their quarry, no sign of Guppy could be seen even as the crowd gradually thinned.

"Hwamu's shadow, where is the lass?" Hadoom cried in frustration, the ninth bell had come and gone a while ago.

Barring themselves the plaza was now desolate.

"Hadoom, do you hear that?" asked Jacques.

"No boy, I don't, the whole street's a blasted graveyard!" Hadoom retorted

"Exactly, it's far too quiet for this time of night in the pleasure district." Jacques observed, even as he pulled out his steel knuckle dusters and looked around.

They stood in the centre of the auction house's front porch, a cobbled plaza made popular by its many branching connections to the neighbouring roads.

The sister moons were still rising as the ninth half bell rung, the light they cast beamed down in the open round, but cast all else in shadow.

And out of those shadows slowly appeared figures and groups. Jacques spotted meat handers from the Grakoan mafia on his right, pulling out a wicked assortment of blades.

In front black-robed figures pulled up their sleeves, tattooed hands aglow with mana of spells half cast, the runed circles springing into existence at their fingertips.

To his left hulking figures clanked and hissed as they moved, the sounds betraying the mechanical augmentations they hid under their massive trench coats.

On the rooftops stealthy figures popped up, wielding an assortment of crossbows, long and short bows and throwing knives, all engraved with magitech circuits.

And yet this was not all, many other small groups were watching from even further away, watching, and waiting in shadowy alcoves

Jacques processed this all in mere seconds, his heart ramped up its pace as he did so, feeling like it would burst from his chest as it beat, he depressed catches on his knuckle-dusters, allowing a narrow five-inch blade to slide out the bottom of each.

He heard Hadoom retrieve two magitech pistols and flick the charge switch, arming them for use with a small hum.

They stood guarding each other's backs, frozen in the tension that enveloped all parties.

In the silence that ensued no one moved.

Each party eyed the others, probing for weaknesses, only the hiss and hum of tools and weapons at the ready populated their ears.

"Good to have known ye lad." Hadoom whispered, "It's been a heck of a ride."

"Don't go killing us off already you old codger, I mean us to see tomorrow." Jacques replied grimly as he tightened his grip on his weapons.