Clay, Jenevieve and Maryanne returned to their respective shops and gave news of a lucrative partnership they had been graced with receiving. They made the necessary arrangements for the shops to function without them present, and rested well for the early morning trip to the outer ring.

Kinsey gave word to her attendants that at least twenty extra servants must be added to the roster for the two weeks of work, and two carriages must be purchased. She gave the head servant, Mildred, the necessary amount of coins for the expenditure. Once she had confirmed that everything was falling into place in regards to the apprentices and guards, she made her way to the palace in order to purchase the land around the Atlee household for cultivation.

She once again entered the carriage and gave the driver the directions he needed to reach the public entrance of the palace. Though the royal palace was where the One True King stayed and was off limits, the palace itself encompassed a larger area and was a bustling place, filled with noblemen and women, merchants and the like.

It took ten minutes on carriage to reach the public entrance to the palace due to the amount of people present, and Kinsey dismounted the carriage with an entourage of three servants after waiting a few moments. Many merchants stopped their haggling and many more nobles stopped their gossip long enough to see who had just arrived.

Kinsey paid them no attention, where she would normally go and greet the nobles she recognized. This time however was different, as she was not at her leisure. This was an official order from her Master, and to commit to this effort in a half assed manner was unthinkable. Kinsey quickly made her way through the murmuring crowds and entered the foyer of the palace, where the noble in charge of buying and selling land resided.

"Greetings, nobleman Qan." Kinsey curtsied to an older gentleman sporting a large beard and overly curled mustache, donned in purple robes inlaid with gold beads.

"Little one, I have not heard from you in quite a long time. I heard what happened to your family and I can only offer my condolences." Qan stood from his seat and gave a nobles salute before gesturing for Kinsey to be seated. "What brings you here this day? Surely it is not to see this old man."

"I am purchasing land for my Master, in accordance with his wishes..." Kinsey gave a beautiful but empty smile.

"I cannot say I have had the pleasure to meet this Master of yours. Why does he not make the trip himself?" Qan could not help but speak with contempt. Even a man with his influence could not help but only dream of having such a lovely assistant at his disposal.

"Master is often busy in his pursuit of higher learning. However he has tasked me with overseeing the purchase of land in the outer ring, around the Atlee family household. Is this land for sale immediately?" Kinsey was straight and to the point, a way of speaking that Qan was unaccustomed to.

A normal talk between upper class nobles often had off topic remarks and transparent lies in order to conceal what should not be said and heard. Even when there is nothing to say of consequence, it was now thought of as proper manner to speak in such a way from noble to noble.

For Kinsey to disregard this manner of speaking meant that she went and indebted herself to a lower class citizen, or she belonged to a noble who cared not for the social ebb and flow of the society in which they lived. Since she already admitted that her Master pursued higher learning, this meant that he was a high class noble that cared not for social pleasantries, which made him someone not to be trifled with.

Qan analyzed everything that Kinsey had said, and read the situation as such.

"I will look for available deeds without delay, please stay and have some tea with me while I have my workers do some digging for you." Qan rubbed his hands together before calling for a few nearby workers.

"I will do so, thank you for your consideration." Kinsey snapped her fingers and an attendant brought forth a tea set for both Kinsey and the nobleman.

Though it was inelegant, Kinsey poured the tea both for herself and for Qan. No words were exchanged while they both sipped on the steeped herbal tea in front of them.

Qan did his best in the short time that Kinsey presented herself to piece together what had happened to her and her family. In his particular line of work, information was a golden ticket to easy money. Of course there were many rumors about the Golden Dragon family, about drug smuggling and forced slavery, but all of the stories had a single truth. They all stated that the Golden Dragon family had caught the attention of a mage in a bad way and it ultimately led to their downfall.

Qan eyed the blue and green dress closely, noticing the hem was expertly done and the dress hugged Kinsey's curves closely. It could only be a custom creation, possibly from the high end retail section of the inner city. He could tell that her Master treated her very well just from the fabric.

Then he noticed the callouses on her hands, and for a time he could think only of her working in the field to have gotten them. The contradictions of her flesh and her wardrobe caused quite the confusion in Qan.

Kinsey had been doing some deductions of her own. She saw the bits of dirt on the cuff of his sleeves, and the bloodshot eyes he failed to hide behind thick glasses. His fingernails were long and had traces of blood under them, as well he attempted to hide bruises on his sternum that would have gone unnoticed were it not for her magical perception. What complimented her theory was his racing heartbeat, as if someone was shocking him with electricity.

Without a doubt, he was a user of some very potent drugs.

Drugs were a common find within the inner city. After etching out their own existence in the Northern Continent, many humans suffered casualties from skirmishes with the local magical beings. The preferred method of pain nullification from lost limbs and horrid nightmares was a multitude of drugs. The properties of some raw herbs caused hallucination and pain relief, but the after effects were devastating. Prolonged use of some types of drugs caused bone degradation, destruction of cells, and ultimately a very painful death from every part of your body failing.

Just as well, you will never feel the same high you felt when you tried it for the first time. Your choices stripped away from you, the only thing you could do was chase that feeling even when you knew it was impossible.

Qan himself indulged in the festering whomp root found in the swamps deep in the mountains of The Bastion Of Hope. A peculiar herb, by drying the stalk and crushing into a stew or broth, one could release the toxin inside and hallucinate for one to three days depending on its potency. It also acted as a mild sedative for those unintelligent enough to use it as such.

Prolonged use of the festering whomp root causes certain effects in stages. The first stage causes cotton mouth, followed by blood draining from fingers and toes and problems with the libido. The second stage causes bruises, welts and sores to appear in random places on the body and bloodshot eyes, worsening the more you partake. Third stage was the most vicious, causing heart and liver failure. If one was lucky to survive to the fourth stage, the body is flooded with adrenaline until the heart could no longer keep up. All muscles were prone to seize and tense up, and the user would slip into a coma by nightfall. The worst part about the festering whomp root is that it effected everyone, mages included.

Though the effects on mages were generally less destructive due to the magic circulating, constantly protecting and filtering useless things in the body. That just meant that the high did not last as long, and more drugs were required to feel just as good as a non magic user.

In this regards normal humans had it a lot easier than the mages did.

Minutes continued to pass before word had finally come about purchasable lands around the Atlee house. There was a total of eight plots, an acre each, for sale by the Kingdom.

Due to the fact that the land was in the outer ring and was close to barren, the purchasing price was only a gold a piece for each plot of land.

Kinsey haggled down to eight silver coins per plot, and nobleman Qan obliged on the pretext of a discount for nobility. Kinsey withdrew from her coin purse six gold coins and four silver coins, and handed them over to Qan. She used magical perception to ensure that he did not attempt to pocket any of the money.

The coins were slipped into an envelope sized cloth and placed into a locked safe.

Now that the deeds had been purchased, all that was left was to have the Atlee family sign their names to it and they would officially own that land. What they decide to do with it was entirely up to them.

Kinsey excused herself from the foyer of the palace and headed straight to the outer ring by carriage. Roughly half an hour had passed when she finally arrived outside the entrance to the Atlee household.

Again villagers nearby made their way down to the Atlee house to look at the commotion, as they had first done when Willem arrived. Kinsey paid them little mind, as she left the carriage with her three attendants and knocked on the door of the little household.

This time, Anna's mother was ready for her awaited guests. She had heard news of a noble's carriage heading toward the outer ring, and had prepared accordingly.

"Greetings, young noble woman." Anna's mother bowed.

"Greetings, erm... Forgive me but I do not believe I have actually heard your name." Kinsey bowed in reply.

"Oh dear me, it is Meriam. Meriam Atlee. My husband's name is Clive. My goodness I cannot believe I forgot to introduce myself..." Meriam motioned for Kinsey to come inside.

"Pleasure to see you again, Meriam. I have the deeds my Master wished for you to receive. They have been paid and are ready for your signature." Kinsey made her way inside with her servants and they all sat down together.

The three children quietly looked on as Kinsey made her way into the house.

Kinsey looked their way and asked them a question. "What are your names?" Her tone was very even, not overly fond and not rude.

"Atticus." Spouted the eldest boy.

"June." Spoke the middle child.

"..." The youngest one, remained quiet.

"The last little sprout is Merlin." Meriam spoke from the other room while preparing tea.

Kinsey took from her satchel three pieces of candy and handed them out to the children.

The children quietly sat and chewed on the stringy candy. The servants, having nothing to do, asked for orders from Kinsey.

"You may begin cleaning the house." Kinsey did not need them just to speak with the mother.

"I cannot thank you or your Master enough for everything you have done for us." Meriam yelled from the other room. By the time the tea had been finished and Meriam was returning to the living room, it had already been thoroughly cleaned by Kinsey's servants.

As Kinsey paid no mind to the servants, Meriam decided it best not to draw attention to them as well. They both sat down and enjoyed their warm tea while speaking few sentences about the new state of affairs.

Once the tea had been done, Kinsey ordered the servants to play with the children while herself and Meriam went to check on the state of the purchased lands. They left the house and the crowd had yet to disperse until Meriam called out to them, telling them to leave. Since the driver was not going to be necessary for a few hours, he asked for a bucket of water and brush to clean his horse.

Meriam provided the bucket and brush, and they both made their way to the first plot of land.

The first plot had a burned down house, a burned down barn, and a lot of scorched crops that covered at least half the land. The rest of the field had been picked clean of all vegetation. Meriam explained that the family that used to own this plot ended up borrowing money from some 'bad people', to pay for the Magic Academy for their children. When they could no longer keep up on the ever increasing payments, the 'bad people' decided to make them an example.

The second plot was no better. The house was poorly build and rotting, the fields were barren and there were many wild dogs roaming around.

The third through seventh plots of land were normal, except for a lack of housing or even a shed for tools. There was, at least, no signs of degradation or mishaps.

The final plot of land had a well kept house sitting in the middle of the property. From Kinsey's magical perception, there was at least twelve humans living in the small building. By stretching her magical energy thin, she found a tunnel in the house leading toward the inner city.

Two humans near the windows of the building had elevated heart rates, while the other ten had a normal heart rate. This was the limit of what Kinsey herself could feel from the current distance.

With Meriam present, she would not dare to challenge them. She did not know if they were bandits or just homeless people. Even if she was sure she could win against them, she did not have the confidence that Meriam would not get hurt in the crossfire if something was to happen.

"Meriam, there may be bandits in that house. Pretend you are surveying the land, then we will leave." Kinsey whispered.

Meriam stiffened up for a moment, but seeing Kinsey act nonchalant made it easier for her to pretend to survey the fields. When she was done, they made their way back to the Atlee house while Kinsey confirmed they were not being followed.

"What should we do?" Before they went inside, Meriam asked Kinsey the question that had been weighing on her mind.

"Leave this matter to me, and do not go there until you have heard from myself, Anna or our Master." Kinsey nodded to her concerned question. "One more thing, the apprentices and guards will be coming here starting tomorrow at dawn. Can I leave you this information to give to your husband?"

"Of course, I will tell him when he arrives." Meriam nodded.

"Lovely, keep those deeds locked away as well so they are not stolen." Kinsey opened the door to the Atlee household.

The servants had made a game of cleaning the house, pretending to have so much fun that even the children wished to join them. The upstairs bedroom and kitchen had been cleaned thoroughly, and everything looked as if it had just recently been bought.

Meriam gave a smirk before urging the children to clean themselves up for supper. She offered Kinsey and the servants to stay for supper but Kinsey declined.

A few minutes later, the talk had finished and Kinsey said her goodbye to Meriam. It was a still five or six hours until dusk and there was a couple more things for her to do.