“People really buy this stuff?” Cassia asked as she peered at the contents of a market stall. There was a dull roar from the crowd of customers and merchants hawking their wares. She needed to speak up louder than she was used to just to be heard.

  The wizened old woman sitting behind the counter of the stall gave Cassia a sour look. “If ye don’t want to buy, piss off!” she croaked and flicked her wrinkled fingers dismissively at the young woman. Spread across the counter was a selection of odds and ends that all looked like they had been pulled from a trash pile. Everything from an old shoe buckle to a playing card set missing all the cards in one suit was heaped in small piles.

  “Even if we had the coin, you’d be better off buying from somewhere else.” Visk reached over and grabbed Cassia’s shoulder to drag her back over to Lucien’s stall. “A place like that will be more than happy to let you ‘inspect’ the goods. If you decide that you aren’t interested in it. They’ll then claim you broke it and demand payment. A typical scam artist.”

  The young woman pouted at Visk, but allowed them to pull her over to their new acquaintance. “If anyone’s the scam artist, it's those guards at the gate. A silver coin just to enter is highway robbery! One of them even stole some of the boar jerky I made.”

  “That so?” Lucien asked as he lined up the bottles on his own stall. Part of his wagon could be removed and set up as a quick and easy to assemble stall. Kenneth had just finished putting it together. “You got off pretty easy then lassy. Some fine looking ladies like yourself get pulled aside for a ‘private’ search.”

  “They what?!” Cassia looked genuinely aghast at the thought. “Why does the Lord Mayor allow such a thing? Do the men around here not have any honor?”

  “Sir Raban mentioned once that things on the Inner Continent are… complicated,” Sir Kenneth said as he stood up from where he’d been kneeling next to the stall. He pulled off his arming cap and wiped some beads of sweat from his brow. “He used to serve under another Lord out this way, before signing on under the Baron. I didn’t quite believe everything he told me, but I’m starting to think I ought to have listened better.”

  “Well that’s how pilgrimages go,” Lucien said with a sage nod. “Young lad like yourself is full of piss and vinegar, ready to take on all the world’s evils with your knight’s honor and sword in hand. Having you wander ‘round to all the holy spots is a fine way to knock some of the rough edges off.”

  “Have you been on a pilgrimage before?” Sir Kenneth sat down on the rear step of the wagon and drank some water from the skin hanging at his waist. “You seem like a well travelled man, Mister Lucien.”

  “Hmmm. No, not exactly, but I did a stint in the regiments like many young lads who wanted to see the world. It sounded a lot more fun than pushing around barren piles of dirt back at the family farm. I’m just lucky that I ended my service with all my bits intact.”

  “So what’s this show we’re supposed to put on?” Visk asked, interrupting the conversation before it devolved into Lucien telling war stories. The elf had their arms crossed and tapped one finger impatiently on their svelte bicep. “It better not be a scam like the others around here.”

  Despite Lucien’s ‘best efforts’, his stall was located at the back end of the market, away from the primary entrances. Most potential customers would need to walk a circuitous route past many other stalls to reach this point. Visk doubted that anyone who reached this point would have spare coins left over to purchase Lucien’s dubiously cleaned bottles of brandy. They were highly suspicious of how the merchant’s bags had been ‘mysteriously’ overlooked by even the more diligent guards on the way through the city gates.

  “To put on a proper show, you’ve got to know your audience,” Lucien replied with a wide grin. “And our audience today isn’t your normal passerby, fetching a wheel of cheese from the market. It’s people who have… finer tastes.” To Visk’s surprise, Lucien walked over to the wagon and pulled out what had looked like a spare wheel from a compartment beneath the main sitting area.

  A small tripod came with the wooden wheel. Lucien unfolded it with a crisp ‘click’ and set it down on the cobbled stones of the market. The wheel attached to the tripod by a well crafted join. The last piece to go on was a small metallic device that attached to the tripod, but slid between the spokes of the wheel. When Lucien gave the wheel a small ‘test’ spin, the device made a loud ‘Clack-Clack-Clack-Clack’ sound.

  Visk squinted at the wheel. They’d thought the coloring on the side was merely decorative, but they could now make out distinct markings on it. Their ears twitched upwards. “Oh, I recognize this! It’s a… spinning wheel? You place bets on which spot the wheel will stop on, correct?”

  “Well, aren't you well travelled?” Lucien threw up his hands and scoffed. “But yes. I call it my ‘Rolled-Lots’ wheel, though. The grand prize is…?”

  Visk rolled their eyes. “A bottle of brandy.”

  “Quick on the uptake as always Visk,” Lucien said with a mischievous grin. “And your lovely lassy will be the one to help us catch our audience’s attention. People love it when a game of chance is presented by a fair maiden.”

  All eyes turned to look at Cassia, who froze like a deer caught in lantern light. “Me?!”

  “... I should have just paid the extra two silver,” Visk grumbled as they watched the last few ‘customers’ walk away from Lucien’s stall. “Edith is going to shank me with a rusty knife if she finds out about this.”

  “Cassia might join her when she sobers up.” Sir Kenneth grimaced, tapping his fingers on the hilt of his sword. “And I’m likely to share the consequences as well. At least nothing… too untoward happened.”

  The afternoon sun crawled towards the rooftops surrounding the marketplace. Deep shadows sprang up between the now empty stalls. Most other merchants had packed up and left an hour ago. Silence settled onto the market like a heavy blanket. Only the dull roar of the city beyond kept the closed market rows from feeling like a ghost town.

  “S’fiiine guysh!” Cassia slurred as she wobbled over to the elf and knight. Her rugged travel attire stank of brandy and her brunette hair was a mess. She clumsily thumped her chest. “We made a… a kill…? A bunch’a money!”

  “LUCIEN made a bunch of money, Cassia,” Visk groaned as the hunter slumped against them. Their ears flicked up and down in agitation even as they firmly wrapped an arm around Cassia’s waist. “In fact, he made far more than TWO SILVER.”

  Lucien held up his hands defensively. “Don’t blame me for the lassy having too much fun. Offering a sample to customers is good business. I didn’t tell any of those old codgers to ask her to drink with them.”

  “Yet you still profited greatly from our companion’s inexperience, Mister Lucien. As a man of honor, surely you must agree that a debt has been incurred? We can’t go about our ‘other’ agreed upon business with our companion like this.” Sir Kenneth had an uncommon edge to his normally respectful tone.

  “... Alright, alright,” Lucien grumbled. “I suppose I did sell out my full stock. How’s about this: I’ll refund your two silver and direct you folks to a reputable inn so that you can stay the night. I planned to take my wagon back home in the morning anyway.”

  “Fine, but you’re still acting as our guide in the morning,” Visk replied curtly as they struggled to hold Cassia upright. “And no more detours. We’re going right to the Dusk Quarter, first thing.”

  “As your majesty commands.” Lucien doffed an invisible cap and gave a sweeping bow.

  ○ ○ ○

  “Why- HYEURGH! Why does everything hurrrt?” Cassia groaned as they knelt over the latrine. Visk dutifully held the young woman’s hair back as her innards tried to claw their way up Cassia’s throat.

  The ‘Weary Wizard Inn’ was upscale for a ‘reputable’ lodging house in Visks’s estimation. Even in a city, most places a traveler could lay their weary head opted for an outbuilding over a pit for people to ‘handle business’. A private indoor room for such activities was a luxury.

  Visk noted that there was a large bucket with a handle beneath the hole Cassia knelt over. Nightsoil was good money in some places, if a man had no sense of smell or dignity.

  “I’m sorry Cassia,” Visk muttered. “I should never have let things get so out of hand.” The elf’s ears drooped so low that they almost touched Visk’s shoulders. “You’ll feel better once we get some water and bread in your belly.”

  “Don’t- don’t mention f-food! I can bearrr-ugh-ly hold it in!” Cassia whimpered from her stooped position. “I want to go Home Visk! I hate this stupid city! There- Mmm! There’s too many people and it’s too loud. My head is full of knives.”

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  Visk patted awkwardly on Cassia’s back. “I promise it will get better. You’ll feel right as rain in the morning.”

  “Sanguine won’t respond to meee,” Cassia whined. “I keep poking at him, but he shut me off! Me! His… his… I don’t know what, but me!”

  “What do you mean he shut you off?” Visk’s ears shot up in alarm. They grabbed Cassia’s shoulders and turned the woman to look her in the eye. “For how long?!”

  “I dunno!” The young woman reached up and placed her hands over her ears. “You’re too loud… I remember… some time around when I started handing out samples.”

  That was nearly half a day. Visk cursed under their breath. What could have happened? Visk knew damn well that the Boss would never willingly dampen his connection with Cassia. Something important must have occurred.

  A loud knock came from the door to the lavatory. “Uhhh, Visk, you two need to come out.” Sir Kenneth’s voice was muffled from the sturdy wood of the door. “It’s urgent.”

  “If someone needs to take a shite it can wait!” Visk snapped back, causing Cassia to whimper in pain. “We’re busy!”

  “... I really must insist that your presence is needed out here… uh… right now, ‘your majesty’.”

  Visk squinted, their ears tilting towards the door. Why did Sir Kenneth sound so nervous? Though they had no hair on their arms to stand straight, the elf suddenly felt a distinct sensation of danger.

  A quick glance around the lavatory confirmed what Visk already knew. The only ‘exit’ other than the door was a thin shutter on the wall above the waste hole. Visk would never be able to squeeze through, let alone Cassia.

  “Visk?” Sir Kenneth called again when the elf didn’t respond.

  “Just a minute! A proper lady needs a moment to be presentable!” Visk turned to Cassia and spoke in a harsh whisper. “Do you have any weapons on you right now?”

  “Wuh? No my-” Visk’s hand clamped over Cassia’s mouth.

  “Nod, yes or no.” After several seconds, Cassia patted her thigh to indicate a sheathed hunting knife. “Good, get it handy.”

  Visk carefully got the young woman to her feet. They then produced a pair of wicked looking blades that Cassia had never seen before from hidden sheaths under their clothing. When she tried to ask the elf what was going on, they silenced her again.

  A swift kick to the door opened it with a loud Bang. Visk ducked and rolled through the entrance only to run straight into Sir Kenneth’s legs. The man snapped his hands to his face where the door had bludgeoned his nose and chin.

  Cassia poked her head out of the lavatory as Visk tried to untangle themself from Sir Kenneth, who had fallen on top of them. The inn’s common room was empty of patrons. Instead, a ring of armed men blocked off the exits. Heavy cloaks and cloth masks obscured their appearances.

  A set of gleaming crossbow bolts were aimed at Cassia and company.

  “... I hate this stupid city,” Cassia groaned again.

  When I woke, I was bound in chains. The cold metal links kept my limbs and wings pressed tight against my body. Heavy leather bindings were wrapped around my mouth to keep it shut. Even my tail was restrained by heavy weights to keep it from moving.

  “I can’t tell if you’re stupid, or just arrogant.”

  A leather wrap had been placed over my eyes, so I could not immediately identify where the voice was coming from. With some effort I managed to open my outer eyelids, only leaving the lids attuned to Vitae closed. What I could ‘see’ by examining the threads of magic in my environment suggested that I was in a large pit with high walls and an open top.

  “To be fair, I thought that you were just another of First’s schemes. A ‘ghost’ sibling to antagonize the rest of us into action. Well congratulations, ‘Seventh’. You’ve changed my mind.”

  The voice was coming from up above me at the edge of the pit. I couldn’t sense anyone up there. Instead, I looked for a gap in the flow of magic like what Sixth had described. She was asleep again. Horrible timing, but whatever had knocked me out must have affected her as well. There was a spot which the ambient magic in the air avoided.

  “Killing Third was necessary, I’ll grant you. He was a rabid animal that needed to be put down for the rest of us to operate without notice. But now… now you’re a genuine threat. That much Vitae in the claws of someone with an actual brain is far too dangerous to be left unchecked.”

  “So you might be asking yourself: ‘If I’m too dangerous, why did I wake up at all?’ The answer to that is quite simple. I hate wasted potential. There’s a lot more that I can get out of you by letting you live… with certain checks and balances in place.”

  My blindfold was removed and dropped to the ground. When I opened my eyes fully and looked around, I couldn’t see who or what had taken it off. I was lying on my belly in a large pit, as I’d guessed. The ancient stonework that the pit was constructed from was vaguely similar to the ruins I’d been exploring before I was captured.

  At the top of the pit sat another dragon, a female most likely. Her scent was disguised just like her vitae, depriving me of valuable information. What I could see was that she had a slender build like my own, at first glance. As I examined her more thoroughly, the word that came to mind was ‘sedate’.

  If her metabolism was like my own, I doubted that my sibling would ever be considered ‘overweight’. Instead, her body displayed a distinct lack of hard edges and armored segments. Her scales reminded me of a rippling golden cloth. My own were closer to the brigandine worn by the knights Kenneth and Raban.

  “Sizing me up for a fight already? That hurts, little brother.” The golden female asked as she looked down at me. Just by her tone I could tell that this was certainly ‘Second’. Sixth had warned me about her manipulative tendencies. “Don’t you know that there’s other ways to solve conflicts other than brute force and magic? Well… I suppose you do know something, if those little mortals you brought along are any indication.”

  The chains binding me made strained creaking sounds as I forced my body against them. One chain fully snapped, with the weak link flying off to hit the side of the pit. Golden scales rippled as Second pulled back from the edge of the pit. Her wings fluttered in a moment of agitation.

  “Now now, little brother. I’ve not hurt a head on your pet’s heads. I know the value of servants. Good ones are hard to find.” Second raised one of her feet and ‘combed’ the tendrils which trailed from the side of her head. “My own servants happened to… pick them up when they went to wander somewhere they shouldn’t. I’ll return them to you… if you agree to a few conditions.”

  I seethed down in the pit. Whatever Second’s intentions, she had stolen My People. Now she wanted to extort me to return them. The only reason we were even in Osteriath was to recover someone else who had been stolen. Despite her compliments to indicate how I was not as much of a lunatic as my brother Third, she was pushing all the right buttons to drive me into a blinding fury.

  Only the possibility that this was her goal, to make me act irrationally, kept me from boiling over.

  “To begin with, you will swear an Oath not to harm or steal me or my pets until the Contest between our Siblings is decided. Next, you will perform a task of my design, which I will explain after you swear the Oath. Last, you will leave Osteriath and not return until after the Contest.”

  “If you nod your head, I will remove the bindings over your mouth. If you speak any words other than the Oath, I will trigger a trap I’ve prepared for you and kill you. It will be a waste, but that’s the price of business.”

  I glared at Second for a long moment before reluctantly nodding my head. With a soft ‘pop’, the bindings around my mouth disappeared. My tongue traced over my fangs and I carefully stretched the joint of my jaw. It was sore from being held shut and I didn’t want any mistakes when I spoke.

  “I swear,” I growled out slowly. “To not harm or steal from you or your pets until the Contest between our Siblings is decided.” My Intent was laced through my words to form the Oath. I was a little surprised at how light it felt on my consciousness. The other promises I’d made before, to Cassia, Edith, and Visk, held far more weight in my mind.

  Second likewise seemed perturbed, but did not explain what was wrong.

  “Your task, what is it?” I hissed up at her.

  “There is something I need you to steal… or perhaps your companions. It’s up to you how you accomplish it,” Second said with a huff. “They were headed in that direction to begin with, so adding an extra task shouldn’t be too much of a burden.”

  “The Alchemist? What do you want from him?”

  “Good, you’re quick on the uptake. Yes, the Alchemist. He’s not been seen around his laboratory lately. There aren’t any signs that he died in an explosion or an experiment gone wrong. That would have been obvious. It’s more likely that he’s died of old age, or perhaps by inhaling too many toxic fumes.”

  “Your pets told mine that you were looking for a powerful healing elixir, for one of your other injured people? Well, as it happens, I want the same thing. You can have one vial for your pet. The rest… belong to me. I’ll give you one of your pets to help investigate. The other two, I’ll hold onto until the task is complete.”

  ‘Potion? What the hells is she talking about?’ I wondered to myself. ‘Did one of them say something weird?’ I hesitated. ‘No, it’s better that she doesn’t know about Magnus. She’d just try to use him as leverage to get another favor from me.’

  “I need that potion,” I growled, acting as if I were immensely frustrated with her ‘stealing’ some of it from me. “One vial may not be enough.”

  “One is better than none,” Second tutted down at me. “Be grateful that I’m feeling generous today. You’ve already caused enough trouble for me by setting off that light show between the two Towers nearby. They’ll be watching this area extra carefully for a while. Now then, which pet do you want to help you?”

  Cassia’s name leapt to my tongue, but I stopped. I didn’t know anything about this city, or human civilization in general. My Cassia, despite her many strengths, wasn’t any better. All of this was new to her.

  Sir Kenneth didn’t even come to mind. I still considered him mildly useless.

  “The dark elf,” I rumbled. “Bring me to them.”