"I was under the impression." I said to the E-ranker who had casually plopped down on a bench. "That we'd paid for your services with that little...deposit earlier. So what do you mean you're CHARGING us for the information we want?" I'd expected once he accepted payment he'd just show up and tell us what we wanted, but the yellow clad sneak seemed completely unmotivated to reveal anything. In fact I think he was basking in our frustrations.

The grin the crept onto his face was even more annoying than the idea of paying twice. "Oh, no no. You paid for me to come and LISTEN to you. One and a half F-rank chits isn't enough to pay for my SERVICES. It just got you this audience to impress me." He put a hand to one side of his mouth, stage whispering. "It isn't going well." He closed his eyes and put the brass flute to his mouth, fingers flying as he played a particularly catchy sting, seemingly ignoring us completely.

That was a problem. Because while I personally was safe from Duncan, and I doubted he'd be stupid enough to attack the others since as a person who specialized in Perception and gathering intel there was no way he didn't know who I was, we couldn't do shit to him either. Maybe down the line, but I doubted "I'll beat you up someday" was a decent motivator. So I only had one real option.

"You want a wish." I said flatly. He probably wanted more than one, but if I kept making long term contracts I'd never get off this fucking planet. Plus I couldn't afford the delay in stat gains for my friends. So I'd offer one, and if he pushed I'd deal with it.

To my surprise, Duncan the Liar just came out and admitted it. "Wouldn't say no. But it wouldn't be for now. I know enough about the Wish power to know that your ability to affect an E-ranker would be laughable. I'll wait until after the tournament, but I want it in writing before we move forward."

I cocked my head at him. "I'm pretty shocked you just came out and said that. Shouldn't you have slowly maneuvered me into your web with deception?" I was half joking, but still it seemed off to me.

He just shook his head. "People make that assumption quite a bit. But no, not really. See, I'm not a compulsive liar. I lie often and with ease, but I tell the truth just as frequently. Lying loses its effectiveness if you never say anything true. If every word out of my mouth was false, everyone would just know I meant the opposite of what I said. No, I do tell the truth, and sometimes I lie, and sometimes I do both at once, because the truth from a liar can be even less believable than fiction."

That...had been a really long convoluted way of telling me absolutely fucking nothing about him. Which I suspected was his entire point. I really disliked cryptic bullshit. I got enough of that from Zeke courtesy of my dad's bullshit geas. "You understand." I said archly. "That I can't just give you blanket promise to grant you a wish after I rank up without knowing what it is."

My issue was less with the wish and more with the open ended nature of 'after you rank up'. It would be easy enough for him to wait and cash that in later. And I had no interest in being dragged back here when I was higher ranked because of some old marker.

I could have and would have covered all that in the contract, but since he was being so up front I figured I'd do the same. He grinned at me. "Oh no, that's fine. I can include provisions for when exactly I'll make the wish." He didnt mention limitations on content, but he didn't need to. His limitations would be the same as everyone elses. What my stats were capable of accomplishing.

Slipping out a blank piece of paper I started writing. With over a hundred Focus and Perception my handwriting was excellent and I could write pretty damn fast, so it didn't take long to dot my I's and cross my T's. Duncan looked it over and nodded, filling in the last bit of info, an exact date for the wish.

I let Callie look over it before I signed. We were partners and while she wasn't quite as well trained in contracts she was smart and careful. I valued her opinion. She smiled softly at me as she took the paper, scanning through it for a minute or two in a way that told me she was taking her time and doing multiple read throughs before handing it back.

"Alright." I said as I signed. "Now, we were told you're the guy to see about information. We need you to help us locate someone who has been selling it. We suspect they used a middle man from the WCP but the person themselves is Unity. If you don't know them I'm sure you can find out."

I'd been careful not to mention specifics in the information request, lest it be intercepted or Duncan decide to warn whoever it was before coming to see us. Still, he didn't seem too surprised by the request. Granted, it was possible he was just hiding signs of that surprise with his excellent lying skills, but who could say?

He nodded thoughtfully. "I can help with that information. Honestly you're lucky we did it this way. I'd probably have turned you down if we hadn't already signed the contract. I don't owe them anything, but burning primary sources isn't beneficial to a broker. Do you just want the source or do you need the middle man too? Because one of those will be much more annoying for me."

He was hinting that he might need to dissolve the contract (we had provisions for that on both sides in case of extenuating circumstances) if I went after the middle man. Luckily I didn't need to. "Just the source is fine." I said firmly. Honestly depending on who it was, we might not even be able to do anything to them in the short term. Rime and Frostbite both seemed unhappy (if resigned) about the leak, so if it wasn't someone related to Fimbulwinter we might be able to use them to take care of it, but they hadn't been able to make any promises.

Duncan nodded approvingly. I expected him to just give us a name, but the unusual E-ranker turned his amber gaze away from use, and, staring off into the distance, started speaking. "I've always been enamored with information you know. Not just its acquisition, but it's application. Whether by virtue of its absence or presence, truth changes many things about the world. Learning the truth of others lets me know my own, and you can't lie to other people properly if you're lying to yourself."

Despite the apparent non sequitur, I didn't interrupt and Callie followed my lead. Duncan kept talking. "I started learning other people's truths, and met other people on the same grand quest. I've met many people like that over the years. Some of them hungry for knowledge, some of them desperate to learn more about the reality of this storybook world, to see past the lies that even the universe tells us."

"The person you are looking for." He said firmly. "Is not one of those people. He doesn't want to learn more truths, or see past the facade. He wants power. This insults me. Lies are art, they are a delicate and subtle manipulation of minds of others for the purpose of shaping your world. They are not commodities."

I had to admit, this was not what I had expected of the guy everyone hated, who someone had recently turned into a fish. "I didn't expect you to be so...philosophical." I said carefully.

Duncan's stoic and distant expression cracked, becoming a manic grin. "Maybe I'm not? Maybe I just like playing with baby cultivators. I can smell confusion on you like cheap cologne." He waved his hand dismissively. "No matter. Believe or don't. No business of mine. I've decided that I dislike this person, and so I will hand them over to you. Take that as you will. You're looking for an F-ranker who works at the Unity building. He goes by the name Kalway."

Callie and I both looked at Rime, who shrugged. "No clue. Name doesn't ring a bell. If he works at the main building he's probably not entirely unconnected though. I'll look into him and get back to you."

Nodding, I turned back to Duncan and...blinked. Nothing. There was no one on the bench. The locker he'd come out of was still open, but there was nothing in there that might explain his disappearance. When I looked back down, I noticed a note where he'd been sitting and picked it up. Opening the page, I unfolded it, to find a picture of me unfolding a picture of me unfolding a picture. Which then exploded. Into confetti. Sharp confetti.

Luckily my armor and mask took all the cutting edges, though the locker next to us wasn't so lucky. Calli and Rime were behind me and therefore untouched. I sighed. "Now I get why people don't like him."

Callie leaned over next to the locker, giving a deep sniff. "Especially since I'm pretty sure these are poisoned. Nothing super dangerous, I think just a mild paralytic. Though I wonder why he would bother-" There was a puff and about two hundred pounds of glitter dropped from above us, scatting across all three of our bodies. "Ah. Keep us in place. Well...that worked I guess."

I didn't see any particular reason for that little prank, other than amusement. Callie was right though, that was pretty decent motivation for turning him into a fish. I turned to Rime. "So, you said you can look into Kalway? If Frostbite can plug the leak before we get too much further in we can possibly avoid a lot of trouble."

Callie nodded. "Especially if she makes a production of it. If other locals see her crack down hard on someone leaking tournament info they'll be much less likely to try it."

The F-ranker sighed. "Which I'm sure would be her intent, but it depends on who the guy is. There are certain factions in the Unity that make dealing with things like this...tricky. Some of the executives claim priority on their own subordinates and will give them a slap on the wrist instead of actually punishing them. They consider it a blow to their own reputation for their subordinates to be held accountable."

"Isn't Frostbite like...INFAMOUS for that?" I asked carefully. I'd heard Frostbite was incredibly biased toward her own people, which, granted, was nice since that was US now.

Rime grinned at me. "Yeah, like that. So we might not be able to pin it on him in an obvious way. Of course, some of the executives are more...objective. Really depends who he works under. Or if he's just rank and file his ass is grass. I'll get into it."

"Sounds good." Callie said dryly. "Meanwhile lets get out of here. I want to go home and wash all this damn glitter off. We can use Stealth to leave." I nodded, and we each put a hand on Rime's shoulder, getting ready to help her out as we left, before stopping.

I closed my eyes and sighed. "Ah. That would be why he used glitter. All that excess light shifting around makes Stealth MUCH harder. Ok. " I triggered one of my stored up Stealth charges, synergizing it with my own Stealth skill, and Callie added hers in, and we were barely able to make it to the parking lot without being noticed. Yeah. Definitely understood the impulse to turn him into a fish.