“I already told you, I don't have the money!” Yehpweyl snapped. Her voice had gradually raised over the course of the conversation from a whisper to a shout. I was sure that humans on the first floor could hear some of her words despite the both of us being in my room. She must be doing this on purpose, I thought in the back of my mind, she’s hoping one of the patrons will try to stop me or remove me from the inn.

“You have no idea of the cost,” I retorted, “you admitted as much. You will provide me with all of your currently available funds so that I can find this Tkaol you spoke of and deal with her for the equipment I need.”

“I'm telling you it isn't enough!” Yehpweyl yelled.

“Keep your voice down,” I warned her, and her aggressive posture instantly collapsed. A hint of shame played about her face, followed by annoyance. “I am in command here,” I continued after a small pause. “You have provided the information I require, and now you will provide the resources necessary.”

“I am not a soldier,” Yehpweyl hissed.

“I could just kill you and take it,” I offered. “It would be massively inconvenient, but I am more than capable of doing such a thing.” Yehpweyl stared into my eyes defiantly as if she was looking for an indication that I was bluffing. After several seconds she broke eye contact.

“Do it then,” she challenged, “you'll never find the money if you do.” My jaw tightened, and I had impulses from both my mind and my body to attack her, but I did not. Instead, I did a time-loss estimation and concluded that continued diplomacy would be more effective.

A few hours later I was walking down the street with my hood up and a new bag of coins to give to the chemist who Yehpweyl had recommended. Now she said to turn here... I thought as I ducked into an alley, then followed the vague directions I had received. I vaguely recalled something in my virtual training about humans naming roads, and briefly wondered why the humans of Vehrehr didn't do the same. Maybe they do, I thought, maybe I just can't read the signs. Stepping over a hungry-looking man who was sleeping in the alley, I twisted and turned between buildings until I emerged in a familiar-looking location.

“Of course it's the same back-alley market that Koyl brought me to,” I muttered to myself, seeing the bouncer I had knocked out standing outside the albino's house and a familiar set of rickety stalls. Pulling my hood back I made my way into the market, looking for the herbalist woman I had angered on my last visit. Even if she isn't Tkaol, she probably knows her, I reasoned, besides I might be able to sell some of this blue leaf to make money if I need more.

“Oy, you!” a female voice called out. Since there was a fair amount of crosstalk going on between the humans in the market I decided to ignore the statement, but then the same voice called out again. “Giant guy!” it said. “Did you really go out and pick a bunch of blue leaf?” I turned my head towards the voice and saw the short woman I was looking for waving for me from behind a stall a few meters away. I crossed the “street” and approached, then stared down at the scowling female.

“Are you Tkaol?” I asked. The woman snorted, then scratched at her head.

“Never bothered to ask last time or the time before that,” she muttered. “Yeah, that's me. What's in the leaf bag you've got there?”

“I need to purchase a number of pieces of equipment for extracting chem- essences from plants,” I said, correcting myself mid-sentence. “I was informed that you were a person who could provide such equipment for me, but I don't see anything at this stall.” Tkaol frowned.

“You won't be buying anything if you don't tell me what's in that bag,” she said, “I don't have any obligation to sell shit to you.” It's strange how these people do this so commonly, I thought, they make a strange demand and expect it to be followed before dealing reasonably.

“Approximately ten kilograms of raw blue leaf,” I said quietly. While I was in a black market, I was also aware from Yehpweyl's reaction to the contents of my bag that I should be subtle. Tkaol's eyes widened, then narrowed.

“I don't know what a kihlahgraem is, but are you meaning to say that whole thing is full?” she asked quietly. “You didn't harvest the vines too did you? They don't have any-”

“Leaves only,” I said, interrupting her, “multiple trees' worth.” Tkaol whistled, which set me on edge. It was only after looking back at her confused expression that I realized it wasn't some kind of attack signal.

“Sorry,” she apologized, “look, if you wanna bring that stuff to my place it's nearby. It's also where I keep the product that I don't bring to sell each day.”

“Do you have equipment?” I asked. Tkaol laughed, then held up her index finger and waggled it.

“Good joke,” she replied with a grin.

“By all the gods and spirits, you weren't exaggerating at all,” Tkaol gasped as I pulled open the leaf bag. We were standing inside her home, a rickety and run-down building just a block from the black market that looked abandoned from the outside. All the windows were boarded up, so there was no need to hide anything, and it was obvious that Tkaol lived alone. The room she had led me to was clearly a chemistry lab, albeit a very primitive one. Just five meters by four meters, the walls were lined with tables upon which were innumerable flasks, metal instruments, and jars of extracts.

“No,” I replied, “do you have a suitable container for-” before I could even finish Tkaol had pulled up a metal bucket from under one of the tables near her and put it on the tabletop nearest me. I carefully poured out the contents of the leaf bag, filling the bucket to the rim, then placed the empty leaves beside it. “Obviously I don't know the exact weight, but it's certainly around ten kilos,” I said, internally noting that Uwrish didn't have a concept of mass that was separate from weight.

“What happened to your pants?” Tkaol asked. “Don't tell me you got attacked by a bear.”

“Is that really relevant?” I asked back. “I need the poison from these extracted and solidified for use.” Tkaol raised her eyebrows, looked at the bucket, lowered her eyebrows back to a normal height, then did a double take at me. That was an interesting series of expressions, I thought.

“All of it?” she asked in disbelief.

“All of it,” I confirmed. Tkaol looked at the bucket again, then around the room, and sighed slowly through pursed lips. That sigh was followed by another, then another which ended in a growling groan.

“How much do you have?” she asked without looking at me. I correctly inferred her meaning and pulled out the bag of coins, placing them beside the bucket.

“Something like thirty ngoywngeyt,” I replied, “I haven't counted it.” Tkaol was laughing before I even finished my sentence.

“You expect me to extract this much poison for that little?” she scoffed. “If I didn't know you were a foreigner I'd shove some of that shit down your throat and toss you out into the street right now.” Such a bold threat coming from such a physically non-imposing human made me chuckle, then stop abruptly when I realized my body was turning my amusement into a physical reaction. “Half,” Tkaol added, “I'll take half, you take half, and you keep the money.”

“No,” I replied, “sell me some equipment, I'll do it myself.” That was the wrong answer apparently, because Tkaol instantly flew into a rage.

“Do you even know how to use any of this!?” she snapped. “Of course you don't, because if you did you wouldn't think thirty seytoydh ngoywngeyt would be enough money to buy any of it from me! What could you possibly need this much blue leaf extract for anyway? Are you planning to murder a whole town? Or are you planning to burn it like you said before you left? What are you playing at!?”

“Some of it might be burned,” I replied calmly. “I know how to extract and process the sap, I did it with a bit of magic and some rocks out in the woods to test it. That's also how I know that the smoke from burning the sap is also just as poisonous as the extract itself.”

“...with some seytoydh rocks,” Tkaol muttered, rubbing her eyes with one hand so forcefully that it must have been painful. She took a moment to calm down, then replied properly. “Blue leaf sap can be dissolved into vaeykehmay, which will yield nearly twice as much as simply crushing up the leaves between rocks like a gods-forsaken savage. The process is complex and performing it improperly can lead to the mixture bubbling out of control or letting off toxic vapors. So I highly advise that you just let me do it for you.”

“A simple solvent extraction, it sounds like,” I replied, “I've seen it done before. How much would I need to give you to make up the difference between my current funds and the price of the equipment and materials to perform the extraction myself?”

“Get out and take your contraband with you,” Tkaol growled.

“We can make a deal that-” I began.

“No, the only deal I'm going to be making with you right now is that I'll keep my mouth shut about what you're carting around if you'll get out of my damned lab,” Tkaol said flatly. “Find a different apothecary to scam if you're looking to scam someone, and make sure you do your little 'saalvahnt' extraction far away from here so I don't end up dead when you screw it up.”

The lab was silent for a moment as Tkaol crossed her arms and refused to look in either my direction or the blue leaf's. I glanced around, scanning for equipment that I might be able to steal later once she was out, but the only tools present in the room were a small burner and a pair of tongs. Both largely useless to me, I thought, there's probably solvent in one of those jars as well, but I can't read them, so I'd have to go by smell and appearance. Considering the sap's other properties, it might need something more specific than a simple non-polar solvent. Slowly, my mind put together another plan.

“Half,” I said, “but I also need you to make me a piece of safety equipment.”

“No deal,” Tkaol retorted.

“You can keep the money as well, what I need is a...” I paused, trying to figure out the best way to describe a gas mask. “A mask that fits around the mouth and nose to filter out dangerous vapors and smoke.” Though she was trying not to show it, I could see in Tkaol's body language that she was interested. I certainly hope it’s because she knows what I was trying to explain, I thought.

“Who are you going to kill with this?” she asked, finally looking at me again. “Don't you even bother pretending this isn't part of some murder plot. Nobody needs this much poison of any type unless they're involved in human trafficking or planning a murder. More likely a series of murders.” It was more than a fair inference, but not a fair question.

“I'm not going to tell you,” I said, a flat refusal. I have no idea how connected she is to Yaavtey, I thought, probably not deeply, but she might be associated with one of his informants.

“Tawpverz eyr Awsriyah?” she prompted. Seeing my confusion, she added. “The magistrate?”

“Nobody involved in government or the guard,” I said truthfully, “unless they are incidentally involved with the target and are on-site during my attack. At least, I’m fairly sure none of them are involved in government.”

“And if they are?” she asked, her voice lilting with a hint of some emotion I couldn't quite place.

“Collateral damage is inevitable in conflict,” I recited from my training, “excess damage should be avoided if it risks negatively impacting the outcome of the mission, but is otherwise not a concern.” Tkaol frowned and curled her lips in.

“I knew you were a seytoydh soldier,” she muttered, “gods be damned, do they at least deserve it? Tell me I won't be attracting Roydlow's wrath today, please.” What a strange question, I thought, why would something like that matter to her? Who is Roydlow? Instead of complicating the negotiation with questions, I opted for simplicity.

“Yes, the target deserves it,” I replied coldly. He deserves to die, I added silently, because he’s in the way, because when he dies I will get what I need to proceed in my mission, and because he was too stupid to stop me when he had the chance.