During my talk with Seta and her parents, Armela had come over to where I stood and patiently observed the exchange. She was staring me down with an odd expression on her face, perhaps a combination of desire, worry, and respect.

  I stepped into her, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her against my hip.

  “Is something the matter?”

  “We’ve made an enemy of the church, butchered several dozen people, and given a poor impression to the village we now intend to aid. Our little performance here really set the people rattling.”

  She kicked at the road, sending small stones skittering across the dirt.

  “I’m worried about what might happen now. Are we going to be able to fend off the church? How are we going to protect these people from their wrath?”

  I thought about it briefly and then gave her a squeeze before spinning her to face me.

  “The church is not the true threat now. At most, they may field a score of men and horses to ride against the village. And even if they could muster the standing forces of Eprie to ride in their aid, between both you and me their ‘army’ wouldn’t be any significant threat.”

  I brushed a hand across her cheek before turning to regard the villagers slowly making their way down the road.

  “No… the true danger lies deeper in the black recesses of this world… I can’t quite put my finger on it yet, but there’s something terribly, terribly wrong with the crystals people harbour.”

  I turned back to look at her.

  “There was actually an incident with yours that I was going to wait until I knew more about before sharing with you, but now might be a good time to tell you.”

  I explained the brief event after she had been given control of her body, and she was as perplexed as I was.

  “Do you think it had something to do with the berserk curse?”

  I shook my head.

  “I think it had more to do with the origin of the crystals. They seem to be… conduits of some kind. Seeds, maybe. I haven’t worked out their secrets, but I think once I do, the darkness I feel encroaching on this world will be explained.”

  She didn’t know what to say about that. Instead, she looked to the sky, tracking the path of the setting sun. She looked back down at the road and pointed to a building along the side of it.

  “There’s an inn down the street a bit, did you want to see if we might… get a room…? I-I mean, our bedroll is fine, and I don’t hate the tent… it’s just… it’s been so long since I felt a bed that wasn’t…. Well… you know.”

  I took her hand and kissed the back of it lightly.

  “I know, Armela. I know. Take this coin and see if you can reserve us a room. Inform the innkeeper that they’ll be expecting another convoy of freed slaves tomorrow morning or the day after.”

  I turned to look at the building the priest had kept Corlun and Peela confined in.

  “I have to settle my debt to the owners of this building before I join you. I doubt the windows were cheap or easy to replace.”

  She chuckled and took the proffered bag of coins, giving me another kiss and a quick ‘thanks’ before turning and heading down the street towards the inn. Her mood seemed to have improved a little over the course of our small exchange, and it helped to ease my mind.

  Stepping toward the building, I reentered through the front door to find some workers from earlier tidying up around the tables and desks.

  Papers had flown everywhere, candles had been extinguished and knocked over, pens and other utensils were strewn across the floor alongside jars of uncapped ink and large shards of glass. As I observed, I noticed a small woman in a worn apron drilling me with a withering and spiteful stare.

  I assumed she was the proprietor or the head of maintenance for the building. Walking towards her, I started to introduce myself when she cut me off rather abruptly.

  “I know who you are, you scoundrel. Barging your way in here without a care at all, throwing chaos against my walls and causing more commotion that a horse in a pottery shop!”

  The way she wagged her finger made it feel more like a cudgel than a digit.

  “You ought to be ashamed of yourself, causing all this mischief, shuffling back in here like a kicked dog. For shame, you hooligan. Well? What sorry excuse are you going to give me for this? Eh? Going to tell me the wind did it? Eh? Going to say you didn’t mean for it to happen? Eh?”

  Each question was accompanied by a jab from the same finger. I stared down at the diminutive woman in bewildered surprise. But the longer I listened, the more I observed, the more the hairs on the back of my neck prickled.

  I scanned her mid-sentence, looking for anything that might explain the source of this unease, but there was nothing. Normal organs, normal brain waves, ‘normal’ crystal. Was this discomfort simply a result of her dressing me down?

  “I don’t think so, not today, Mister ‘bucking horse’. I’ll tell you what you can do; you can walk that sorry arse of yours right back out that door and let it hit you on the way through. All the stars, why in Rel’s name couldn’t you have just let it be?”

  Being an outsider sucked. I could tell already I was going to be blamed for every minor inconvenience this village suffered for the next hundred years.

  “Why my business? Gracious God’s you’re a curse to all, aren’t you? Eh? Why are you still here? Get going, you big lout. I’m liable to kick you out myself if you don’t shuffle on! Go on! Get! Out!”

  She swept her hand through the air, attempting to banish me from the building with her words.

  I’d opened and closed my mouth 5 times during the tirade, trying to find a suitable moment to interject, but none presented itself to me. When she’d finally got through, I simply produced a bag with 4 gold coins and tossed it at her feet.

  I turned and walked out the door without saying a single thing I’d come to say. By the time I hit the bottom step, she came flying out the door, breathless and shouting.

  “YOUNG MASTER! YOUNG MASTER! WAIT FOR A MOMENT! I THINK WE MAY HAVE MISCOMMUNICATED!”

  She puffed her way down the steps until she finally got within grabbing distance and proceeded to latch onto my arm. With a look of extreme apology, she begged my forgiveness.

  “Truly, I beg your pardon, young master! I know now that I’ve mistaken you for someone else! Ha-ha! Surely the one who caused all the ruckus in my building was another man.”

  To call the grin on her face ‘shit-eating’ would be a severe understatement.

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  “I’m surprised I couldn’t tell the difference at first! You two look so very different, clearly—must be my old age, you see? My poor mind is going out the window with the wash water these days! Ha-ha!”

  Her beneficent affect was bordering on sickening. Money motivated every ounce of her personality, so being confronted with this kind of greed was painful to witness.

  “Come, come, please, make yourself comfortable inside if you would be so kind! I know—as a tradeswoman myself—there’s a great deal we can discuss! I’d be more than pleased if you’d lend me but a moment! Please, sir, right this way now, I promise you, it won’t be something you regret!”

  She had been tugging on my arm as she attempted to nearly drag me up the stairs. I didn’t know if she was some kind of saleswoman, or banker, or what her deal was, but she’d just struck literal gold with me and wasn’t about to let the opportunity pass her by.

  I thought about Armela waiting for me at the inn and almost pulled away, but something about this situation told me it was important that I see what this woman had to offer. The tickling running up the back of my neck hadn’t yet faded, and I was rapidly coming to trust my gut in situations like this.

  They hadn’t steered me wrong yet… somehow.

  Reluctantly, I allowed her to lead me through the door, past the tables, past the counter, and into one of the back offices. After stepping through the door, she gestured to a rather luxurious-looking armchair with a high back.

  It was upholstered with green velvet that had been tacked across the arms and back with small brass tacks. She shut the large mahogany door and then bustled over to her also-large, hand-crafted, live-edge, red oak desk. The thick lacquer gave the surface a smooth and sturdy surface from which to work.

  It was all incredibly ornate.

  Her office wasn’t vacuous, though. There were several filing cabinets, cubby stands, and slotted card holders hung on her walls. A coat rack occupied the corner closest to the door, while two smaller, less interesting chairs occupied the other.

  She had paintings up across most of the walls, along with a smattering of cloth wall-hangings, all of which either depicted fields, forests, or beaches. With the severe and unfortunate lack of windows, I could see why she would wish to have as much nature in here as possible.

  If anything, the room looked… too lived-in. I couldn’t quite explain why, but everything looked… placed? staged? It was as if the room had been dressed to look cozy. But… wasn’t that the point?

  I set the feeling aside. Nothing was presenting itself as untoward, but I would not discard the feeling outright.

  Not yet.

  Simple wall sconces sat in the centre of each wall with another chandelier hanging from the centre of the ceiling. I scanned for some form of exhaust vent through which the smoke could travel, but failed to locate one.

  Then I realized that there were no candles in the sconces, or the chandelier for that matter; instead there were small, yellow crystals slotted into a brass claw where the candle normally would have been.

  Focusing and zooming in on one crystal, I could see it was the same as the others I’d pulled from the orcs. Blazing across the side facing out and into the room was a golden sigil. It looked like the top half of a circle with hazy lines radiating away from it.

  I supposed this made sense. If a crystal could power an explosion sigil, it could be made to power a light sigil too. I turned my attention back to the woman and really took in her appearance. She looked like what you’d imagine a grandmother to look like.

  Short, stout, with a generous bust and round, rosy cheeks. She had curly white hair and a small pair of spectacles on her nose. Her smile was warm and endearing, and I suspected many a fool had been taken by her charm.

  She finished organizing the papers on her desk and then set her hands on the table with her fingers interlaced.

  “Before we get started, I believe some proper introductions need to be made! I’ve neglected to tell you my name, and for that I apologize! My name is Tula Attera, and I am the proud owner of The Hilst Trading Company! Very honoured to make your acquaintance…”

  She hung on the end of her words, prompting me to provide my name.

  “I am Vita. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Tula.”

  She raised her hands to her chest, fingers still interlocked.

  “Vita! What a wonderful name you have! I don’t suppose you have a family name? Or perhaps a title? Ah! Perhaps you’d much prefer to keep that confidential for personal reasons. I understand! Politics is such a bothersome thing.”

  She was likely used to dealing with wealthy Nobles, or merchants with sizeable dynasties. The lack of credentials probably wasn’t too uncommon with some of her dealings.

  “Ah, I don’t mean to mislead, Tula. I have no family name, nor do I hold a title. I guess you could say I’m something of an adventurer.”

  Her eye twitched, but her smile never faltered. I wondered if her estimation of me had just fallen significantly.

  “An adventurer, you say? Surely you must be at least a platinum rank in order to throw around coin like that. Odd that I’ve never heard of you before… where do you usually operate out of?”

  A thoughtful look had come over her face. Clearly she thought highly of her connections; to have never heard of me—with the amount of money I had—seemed to confuse her.

  “Certainly, it couldn’t be Eprie; such a big fish in such a small pond would be a waste of your skill! Perhaps you’ve come from the south? Across the mountains? I have many ears in many places, you see!”

  My frustration bubbled at the back of my skull.

  She had dragged me in here to discuss business dealings, but attempted to vet me after taking a few of my gold. She was trying to gauge just how many golden eggs this goose could lay, and I had more important things to be doing.

  “Was there a specific business venture you wished to discuss, Tula? Or is my background more interesting to you than the gold in my pockets?”

  This cracked her cheery demeanor somewhat. The corner of her lips dipped ever so slightly, and a chill came up in her eyes. This seemed more like the negotiation I was prepared for now.

  “When the rumours of you ran through this little backwater ‘dump’ they call a village, I couldn’t help but take a particular, personal interest in you, Vita. Dropping out of the sky like a falling star, saving children, vanquishing goblins.”

  She pantomimed a star-struck admirer.

  “It was all anyone could talk about until those little ‘gifts’ of yours were locked away. I thought, ‘ahh now here’s a story worth investment’ and then just like that! Poof! You drop off the face of the planet for days! I thought I’d missed my opportunity.”

  She deflated as she separated her hands and tapped one of her well-manicured nails on the desktop.

  “Thought you’d pranced off to some bigger, better city to make a name for yourself. Until today, that is. When who comes waltzing into town not a day after the priests show up! And ruins my building.”

  She had a predatory glint in her eyes now. Gone was the endearing old grandmother. I could see the shark-like nature of her avarice surfacing as she leaned back in her chair.

  “I do appreciate the gold, truly; it’ll go a long way towards making this little shithole halfway profitable this year.”

  She didn’t seem terribly grateful. Not only that, but it seemed I had been right about the office being staged. She’d tailored everything to reflect a stern ‘little-old-lady’ aesthetic. But that wasn’t who she was. Not at all.

  “But, my dear Vita, do you know why this is called the Hilst Trading Company? Oh, certainly, it’s because we trade with people! How observant of you. Now, you wouldn’t happen to know what we trade, would you?”

  She was inappropriately smug. The condescending tone she spoke with nearly caused me to stand and walk out. But it wasn’t time, not yet. I needed to stay.

  “Sure, sure, there’s the trash and trifle like grain and pigs and clothes and ‘precious’ family ‘heirlooms’. But you know where the real coin is? Information, Vita. People pay lots and lots of shiny little coins for fucking information.”

  She re-centred herself on the desk, once again leveling her hands on its surface and interlocking her fingers.

  “I’ll tell you—there isn’t one person in all of Hilst that has more information to trade than ol’ Tula. Naturally now that our poor, unfortunate ‘leader’ is about to resemble a rack of roast pork, I might as well throw you a little piece of information, in return for the… generous donation to our restoration fund.”

  Information about the leader? Or perhaps information that the leader had? I wasn’t terribly surprised to see Tula’s facade fall so drastically. Information brokers usually held quite a high opinion of themselves simply because they insinuated themselves into everything they possibly could.

  The ‘centre of the web,’ per se.

  “Of course you’ve learned that our hapless leader was in bed with the Church of Rel. Mostly because pretty much every living soul in this pathetic kingdom suckles on Rel’s holy tits. Not difficult to see.”

  This sounded promising. If she had more information about the slave ring, then my decision to stay would pay immediate dividends.

  “But what you might not have deduced was that our fair leader was paying a little stipend to them as well. Yeeesssss, there was a regular ‘donation’ to the Rel Church on the first day after every new moon. Hush money? Funding for their… ‘activities’?”

  She leaned in conspiratorially.

  “If you ask me, I think it was insurance money—in case any tall, dark and handsome adventurer came along and started asking questions. Rocking the boat. Stirring the pot. So the big ol’ church could come thundering into town and do a little purging on claims of heresy.”

  She spread her hands across the table towards me.

  “But you know what’s strange about that? Our village accountants never made a peep about it. No inquiries, no alarm bells, nothing. Why do you think that is, Vita? Were they being paid to keep quiet? Or was it under threat of force? They obviously knew about it, so why?”

  This conversation wasn’t really divulging the information I needed or wanted. The ongoing corruption in Hilst had become apparent when the leader neglected to give up the priests who’d kidnapped the families of the children I’d saved.

  And if the leader had been involved, then several other members of the city leadership were also directly or indirectly complicit as well. I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if the leader had funneled poor and unsuspecting people into the clutches of the slave ring as well.

  Deciding to head this off at the pass, I interjected.

  “Tula, I appreciate your flair for theatrics, but really what I want is a list of names of the people who handled the accounting for the Village. There are likely links to other clusters of operations in other towns or cities that your leader had accumulated through his dealings with the Church.”

  Derailing her sales pitch had soured Tula’s mood heavily, but I continued.

  “Even gaps in the record-keeping may be evidence to help lead us to more sources of corruption. My guess would be that after the events of today, many of those who’d be implicated have begun their preparations to flee. I’ve got the perimeter of the village monitored, but if I can head them off, it would be easier for everyone involved.”

  I’d anticipated that with the capture of the leader, the rats would flee the sinking ship. But if Tula could assist me in rounding up any of the conspirators, this would make things easier, and may afford them the opportunity to come clean on their own.

  “It’s becoming abundantly clear to me that, at the very least, the church in Eprie will need to be gutted. I do not yet know the extent to which their leadership structure has been compromised, but if there’s any hint of rot amongst their ranks, they will not escape my persecution.”

  Tula stilled. Apprehension spread across her face as she calculated whether what I was saying was even possible. She seemed to doubt my ability to cause the level of upheaval I’d outlined.

  “You don’t need to believe my words, but understand that I will leave a very wide wake of reckoning behind me as I pass. Attend the talks tonight, and you will know if what I say is true or not.”

  I produced another bag of gold coins in my hand as I spoke, obscuring it from her view behind the table.

  “For now, consider your services retained. I will make use of your information network in the future; of course, it goes without saying that it will prove quite profitable for you.”

  With that, I tossed another bag of gold onto the table and stood to leave.

  “I’ll be sending Armela to collect the list of names from you soon. Expect her arrival either after the talks tonight or mid-morning tomorrow.”