Gaius, Flynn and two of his underlings were sitting around a squarish wooden table. Each of them had a small pile of equally-squarish cards in front of them, and everyone’s eyes were narrowed as Flynn placed his last card face down onto his pile.

A devilish grin appeared on his face as he gestured at the underling to his right to take his turn. Gaius could vaguely remember his name — it went along the lines of ‘Kidd’ or something. Without any more cards in his hand, the underling could only start clicking his tongue at his boss, and then said, ‘Three.”

He looked at Gaius, who also had one card left in the pile and one in his hand. The boy scrutinised the demons to his front, left and right, and then said, “Pass.”

The second underling followed suit, which meant that it was Flynn’s turn to bid. The crime lord leaned back on his chair, his pupils flitting between the three other players the entire tie.

“Let’s see here,” said Flynn. “Now, which of you bastards placed a skull at the top, hmm?”

None of the other players twitched an eyebrow, and the crime lord’s expression darkened by a shade. He glanced at Kidd, who would just need to flip three roses to win, and with a sigh, said, “I’ll pass. Go on, start flipping.”

Kidd flipped over his own card to reveal a rose. “One.”

He reached out to Gaius, and flipped the card in front of him to reveal a second rose.

“And the last one…is you, Boss!”

“Damn it.” Flynn glanced at Gaius and the second underling, who were staring daggers at the crime lord. “Hey, don’t look at me like that — you guys would chicken out too if you saw your own demonic expressions.”

He cleared his throat, and turned to Gaius. “That’s Skulls in a nutshell.”

Gaius nodded, an amused expression on his face. “Indeed, it was rather fun. I didn’t know about…”

Flynn adjusted his tuxedo, which was a shade lighter than the one he was wearing yesterday, and nodded in understanding. “Well, the world is huge. There are many board games that people don’t know about.”

The crime lord looked at the gleeful underling and said, “Want another game?”

“I’d love to, but I am on a schedule.”

“Come to think of it, you did say that you weren’t going to come back for some time yesterday,” said Flynn. “What brings you here then?”

“Another gift for you,” said Gaius. He passed a file over, which Flynn promptly opened.

“This…” Flynn looked at the boy, while making some gestures to shoo his underlings out of the room. “How did you even get this?”

Gaius revealed a small gem. “Just five hundred gold.”

“Just five hundred, you say…” Flynn shook his head. “That’s more than enough for a family in Lower Elinaris to live on for a decade or so, you know. I know that you’re really rich, but to spend that much on intelligence is nothing short of extravagant.”

“But with this, you can buy over a great deal of Elinaris’ security forces.”

“Yes. Probably would have saved a few thousand lives too.” The crime lord glanced at the boy. “So, what help do you need? I’m sure you didn’t come here to hand me a gift of such value for nothing.”

“Two small things,” replied Gaius. “First, if someone called Isabelle Lorenze comes to this city, you are to provide her with any help she might need, as long as it doesn’t pose any problem to you.”

“I’ve heard that last name before. You’re asking me to help the scion of a great House?”

“Former great House, Flynn,” replied Gaius.

“Former?”

“Yes. Can you do that?”

Flynn nodded immediately. “Consider it done. Why would you do something like this, though?”

The boy met the crime lord’s gaze evenly. “I felt like it.”

Flynn looked at Gaius, and then smiled. “That wasn’t an answer that I expected from you, but if you felt like it, then so be it. What’s your second request?”

“Do you know what an Engine is?”

“If you’re referring to the artefact that gives its user abilities, yes I do. What of it?”

“Do any of your, err, fellows have an Engine or two?” asked Gaius. “I’m interested in procuring some of them.”

“Fellows?” Flynn’s forehead wrinkled for a moment. “Oh, you mean those headache-inducing perps. No, none of them can use an Engine, or else Elinaris would already have a new deputy city lord by now. Don’t underestimate the roots we’ve planted in Elinaris — the moment someone in our circle becomes a Knight…”

“But would they have an Engine sequestered somewhere away?” Gaius rubbed his nose. “Surely they have one ready for their promotion.”

“They probably have one or two mass-produced Engines sitting around, but I don’t think you want that,” said Flynn. “Look. I know that your experience is very unusual, but people in general don’t even have Engines lying around. Hell, normal people don’t even know what they are!”

“Fine, fine. I’ll think about my second request and inform you about it if I ever have one.” Gaius pouted, and then got up. “No need to send me out.”

Flynn got back onto his seat. “Thank you again for your help. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you regarding your second request.”

“It’s okay,” said Gaius. “Just make sure to give Isabelle whatever help you can when I send her along.”

“Naturally.”

Gaius nodded at the crime lord, and made his way out of the room. On the way, he saw the two who had played Skulls with him earlier drinking some alcohol, looking down on a stage. Someone was standing on it and giving a speech, but he didn’t really have much of an audience.

Smiling wryly to himself, the boy left the warehouse. Once out, he focused on the layer of purple crystal on his chest, and lines appeared in his vision. In such a mode, for want of a better word, Gaius could feel a faint pull in the direction of Upper Elinaris, but the boy wasn’t so keen on leaving that quickly. He focused on an empty spot, where a thread flowing out from him ran through, and tied a knot there.

“Done.” With a minor effort, the strings vanished, and the boy looked down at his clothes. “Any disturbance in the, err, environment?”

“No, Master Gaius.”

The boy nodded in satisfaction, and then vanished into the night.