Chapter 57 Gold Plated Tortoise Shell.

  Lenna was tired. This was not the tiredness of a long day of training nor was it the tiredness of the day after a sleepless night, no, this was the tiredness of someone that really didn’t like dealing with people. It was the worst kind of tiredness. It felt like her soul was being worn down like a stone in a relentless river of social interactions. Usually, Isaac would handle all of it so she could pretend to be an armor stand, but not today. Today she was stuck dealing with the absolute worst kind of person, a salesman, while she maintained a persona that she had left, mostly, behind in Contantis. The imperious presence of a V’Nova princess was a powerful tool but one that she generally disliked and was tiring to maintain.

  “I see my Lady has stopped on the page of bulk spices. We could arrange regular deliveries of premium and fresh spices from any part of the world my Lady so desires. Everything from up and down the coast as well as from the other side of the plains.” And on and on the salesman went.

  “Send a sample of every spice you have to our manor in Safeharbor, if it is truly as high quality as you say, then we will order more.” Lenna replied coolly. “Now, about servants.” Lenna changed the topic before she was forced to commit to anything more than necessary. She had already ordered a full suite of new bedding that she had no intention of actually paying for. She needed Isaac to be done as soon as possible.

  “Yes, my Lady?” The salesman asked. “What kinds of servants would be required?”

  “Servants that I only have to pay for once.” Lenna replied with faux disinterest. “I dislike repetitive tasks like regular pay.”

  The salesman paused. “My Lady, just to be completely transparent, that would mean servants that would be paid up front, correct?” He asked Lenna to clarify that she wasn’t talking about slaves.

  “If that is what you want to call them, fine.” Lenna replied as if she was assuming that they were both referring to slaves.

  “Well, my Lady, what kinds of tasks would they need to fulfill?” The salesman continued to skirt around the topic.

  “Guards, cleaners, a chef… entertainment.” Lenna told the man. “How much for three that can fulfill those roles?”

  The salesman swallowed hard. He wasn’t completely positive that Lenna was talking about slaves but it certainly seemed as such. Despite being the manager on duty, he was anything but at the top of the food chain in the organization and he knew that if he messed up and brought Lenna’s wrath down on them, it would be his head on a pike. “What would the duration of their employment contracts be?” He prodded.

  “Indefinite. Didn’t I just say I disliked repetitive tasks?” Lenna replied while looking down her nose at the man.

  “What species and age range is my Lady looking for?” The salesman asked.

  “Quiet.” Lenna spoke with a scowl in her voice.

  “Pardon?” The salesman questioned.

  “And long lived.” Lenna added. “I do not want to replace them in eighty years.”

  “My Lady, it seems as though my Lady is requesting gnomish, lightfoot, dwarvish, or elvish slaves.” He finally spoke aloud what Lenna was trying to get him to admit to.

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  “Is that something that you can do?” Lenna questioned him.

  “Slavery is illegal in this part of the world.” The salesman replied.

  “That wasn’t what I asked.” Lenna told him coldly.

  “Anything is possible, for the right price. We aim to please after all.” The salesman said with a bow. He was finally certain that Lenna was actually looking for slaves.

  Lenna rose to her feet as she felt Isaac’s presence behind her. “I’ve changed my mind.” Lenna told him. “You have been a bore to deal with.” She explained and walked out of the meeting room. The salesman took nearly five full seconds to process what had just happened.

  He hurried out after her once he had. “My Lady, please, what about your order of bedding?”

  Lenna waved him off. “I can have them teleported to my home whenever I want for a mere ten times the price.” She replied while she continued towards the stairs that would take her towards the ground floor.

  “My Lady, please, what did we do wrong? I am sure that we could make up for it if given the chance.” He pleaded with her.

  “I doubt that.” Lenna told him.

  “Second floor requires more than just a quick look.” Isaac spoke from right next to her. His shadows clung to her ear so she could hear him clearly as he gave his report. “It’ll take me the better part of the night to disarm them all one by one, and I don’t trust that some of them won’t go off anyway. I don’t understand all of the trigger conditions.”

  “This place feels like a gold plated tortoise shell.” Lenna said aloud. “Bright on the outside but still just a corpse underneath.” Half a dozen patrons heard her as she strode out into the lobby. “It may have been a reputable organization in the past, but now?” She asked and shook her head and finished her march out of the building. “Alright, what else did you find?”

  “There are two people we need to drop in on, tonight, preferably.” Isaac told her. “I left shadows on them. They both had magic items that felt odd. Something about them was just… wrong in some way. I’m not sure how though. The more I think about them, the more I try to remember the feel of the items, the more uneasy I get. We need to find them and Identify them with the portable ritual.”

  “Understood.” Lenna replied. “Where is the first target?”

  “He’s still inside.” Isaac explained. “The other one has stopped moving, she is probably home or at whatever inn she is staying at. Let’s wait for the man to leave and then follow him home.”

  “Alright.” Lenna agreed and the pair settled in to wait until their first target left the building. Well, Lenna settled in to wait. Isaac went on a quick shopping trip, only he didn’t stop at a single shop. Isaac had instead used his five finger discount to tactically acquire a cloak and flat cap from a group of ne’er-do-wells. The individuals in question were harassing a working girl in a nearby alleyway. The working girl’s psyche would be scarred for life but her would-be-assailants no longer had lives to look forward to. It would take her days to get the scent of decay out of her hair and decades to get it out of her dreams, but at least it was better than the alternative.

  —

  While Isaac was off being a mostly helpful menace, Shamesh was tasked with something of his own. Shamesh had been forced to use his own magic to fly and remain invisible as Isaac was tired of the strain of so many places and people with his shadows clinging to them. It generally didn’t strain his mental faculties very much but he also rarely kept so many separate tethers active at once. Shamesh flew onto the roof of the Adventurers’ Guild and entered through the roof access. The roof access usually required a key to use but Shamesh just dispelled the alarm and the magic inside the lock before he used a simple spell to unlock the door. The problem with the spell was that it could be a bit rough on the lock and that meant that anyone nearby was sure to hear it slam into the unlocked position. Shamesh didn’t really care either way as the most important part was that he didn’t disturb anyone downstairs. Once inside the building, Shamesh headed to the Guild Master’s office and knocked on the door.

  Shamesh didn’t wait for an answer but simply slid a paper under the door with the words: ‘Scouting finished. We’ll talk later.’ scribbled on it. Once he had delivered his message, Shamesh left the way he had come and returned to Isaac and Lenna. He was forced to change his trajectory as they were already on the move again by the time he had finished.

  —

  Isaac shrouded Lenna in shadows entirely and donned his hat and cloak. The weather was a cool fifty degrees as the sun started to dip below the rooftops. As the cold of night began to set in, thousands of men and women donned their coats and hats to keep warm. Isaac knew that he had a much easier time of blending in than Lenna so she was the one that got banished from everyone’s senses.

  The duo followed their target to a nice inn that sat only a block away from the VMA main office. It was clear that the man in question had connections of some kind, either that or an obscene amount of money, probably both. Shamesh arrived as the duo were waiting for the sun to fully go down and was promptly thanked and sent to rest in the void until they needed him again. As soon as the sun had completely set, the duo climbed the alleyway wall to get to the third floor. Once there, Isaac teleported into one very specific room. Lenna clung to the wall just outside the window Isaac had used to make sure that there was no one else inside the room with their target.

  The room that the pair had arrived outside of was a penthouse suite on the top floor of the inn. The specific scene that played out on the other side of the window was a plump young man licking his lips as he eyed a small box full of brown powder. He was in the bathroom of his suite and had locked the door just to be sure that he wouldn’t be able to escape while high as the stars in the sky. He was not expecting his night plans to be interrupted by a man that was spoken of in infamy and praise, sometimes in the same sentence. He was about to have a very unpleasant evening.