At best, Kasyn was conflicted when it came to Ketty Pordis. On the one hand, he saw her as a member of the Sages of the Mercurial Robe who were, more than anything, only interested in furthering their own power. Yet on the other, Ketty had helped the city out a few times already and wasn’t unreasonable when it came to her requests. That was why he was willing to go to her for help now.

Ketty’s home in Autay Wa was much like all the rest, with the thatched roof, timber and plaster walls, and basic square construction. There were, however, a few notable differences. Chief among them was the brick tower, slowly constructing itself on the north-east corner of the house. Bricks were forming out of the clay soil nearby, passing through a magical kiln, and then floating up to take their place in the structure. Magic, apparently was the mortar and the seams between the bricks glowed faintly when Kasyn studied the tower more closely.

“Everyone sure loves their towers,” Damarys observed wryly.

“I wonder why that is,” Kasyn mused.

“Better view of the surroundings?” Damarys shrugged.

“Easier to look down on others?” Kasyn suggested.

“It’s actually because we can store magic in the building itself and building up is often more economical than building out.”

Kasyn and Damarys jumped as Ketty Pordis strode out of the house to greet them.

“The more power we have at our disposal, the greater magic we can perform. Though I will admit,” Ketty added with a knowing smile, “that many of my colleagues do enjoy having a tower for the reasons you both mentioned. What can I do for you?”

“We need you to help us track down the kidnapper,” Kasyn said, blushing from embarrassment at being overheard and hoping to move the conversation onward as quickly as possible.

“Of course,” she replied at once. “Do you have any leads?”

“We have this,” Damarys held out the sealed parchment. “It will contact them, and we were wondering if you could trace the spell.”

Ketty took the parchment and studied it carefully.

“A blind connection,” she muttered, “and no direct voices, either. Complete anonymity, interesting.”

Kasyn shifted uncomfortably as he couldn’t help but notice Ketty’s interest in the spell, perhaps in learning and using it for her own means.

“I can’t guarantee success,” Ketty said after a while, “but I believe I’m familiar enough with the enclosed spell that I should be able to trace it for you. It’s a good bet that they will know I’ve traced the spell, though, so you’ll need to move fast if you want to catch them before they run for it. Any idea what part of the city they’re in?”

“Autay Wa,” Kasyn hurried to say.

“Yes, I assumed that much,” Ketty sighed.

“The fiends said she was a merchant,” Damarys said. “She might be an actual merchant in the city, hiding in plain sight.”

“The merchants have a good, central location, too, so she wouldn’t be too far from most of the other important hubs here in Autay Wa,” Ketty agreed. “Sounds like our best bet.”

The three of them set off at a brisk pace. It would take them a while to reach the merchants and Kasyn heart began to race as they approached. With all the fighting that he’d been in these last few weeks, he was getting really nervous about violence breaking out. At first he’d thought it would get easier, and maybe it did for some people like Damarys and Zeter, but the opposite was true for him.

“How’s your boy doing?” Kasyn asked to keep his mind occupied with other things.

“Armand is my ward, not my son, and he’s still recovering,” Ketty replied, a bit of irritation showing through. “At the moment he’s asleep, which is an improvement in itself.”

“And the other Sages in the camp outside the city?”

Kasyn hadn’t been out that way in several days now and he was curious to know how they were getting on.

“I expect most of them are dead by now,” Ketty said with little emotion. “Without proper care, the side effects are quite fatal, not to mention the general insanity that accompanies such things. If they didn’t kill themselves off in the first couple days, then the lack of Sages Brew will claim them eventually.”

“Is there anything you could do for them?” Kasyn asked, shocked at how casual Ketty was about the death of so many of her colleagues.

“It was all I could do just to care for Armand,” Ketty snapped suddenly. “As for the rest of them, sealing them inside their own camp was the best I could do. At least that way they couldn’t cause any more damage to the city.”

“Will the Sages of the Mercurial Robe send more people to the city?” Damarys cut into the conversation.

“I imagine so,” Ketty relaxed her shoulders and let out a quiet sigh. “They’ve lost a lot of high ranking people, though, so it might take a while for them to get reorganized. I wouldn’t expect to see more of them for at least another few months.”

“That long?” Kasyn said with relief.

“A power vacuum in any institution can take time to fill,” Ketty eyed him narrowly. “And the Sages have just suffered two major losses in quick succession. Where’s Zeter, by the way?”

“Healing,” Kasyn replied. “He over channeled again.”

That, of course, led to them explaining what had happened in Ichiba Wa, although Kasyn made sure to leave out mention of the black chain.

“But how did you gain control over the fiends?” Ketty asked, not missing the omission.

“I’m sorry, but the fewer people who know, the better,” Kasyn told her.

She frowned at that but to Kasyn’s relief she didn’t press him on it.

“Well at least you have a way, which means the rest of the city should be that much easier to retake.”

“I imagine you’re excited to get into the Sages tower in Chikara Wa,” Damarys said.

“You have no idea,” Ketty agreed. “Inside that tower is a wealth of knowledge and artifacts.”

“Wait, can’t Sages teleport from one tower to another?” Kasyn asked, remembering hearing that once from another Sage of the Mercurial Robe.

“Normally, yes,” Ketty replied, “but something disrupted our connection to the tower.”

“The Tower of Light attacked the Sages tower?” Damarys asked. “Why would they do that?”

“Well, because the Sages likely joined in the defense of the city. Now enough about that, we’re getting close to the merchants.”

They had indeed arrived and Kasyn’s stomach twisted in anticipation. There were only a handful of merchants in this makeshift market square so, as long as their target was actually here, they should know who it is very soon.

“Ready?” Ketty asked.

Damarys pulled out her bow and strung it while Kasyn summoned up his skeletons.

“Ready,” they both said.

Ketty unsealed the parchment, her eyes aglow, and a faint faint voice drifted over to them on the wind.

“Odd Bodies, collections and deliveries, how may I be of service?”

The voice was strange, clearly feminine but indistinct in every other way. It was as if Kasyn heard the voice and then immediately forgot nearly everything about it other than the words it said.

Ketty’s finger’s twisted as she tugged at the spell, following it and searching for its source.

“We’d like to collect a few bodies,” Damarys said to buy Ketty the time she needed.

“Any preferences? Or will general stock do?”

“We need them strong, physically,” Kasyn said, thinking about Jelvaic and Arjana.

A few seconds passed before the voice spoke again.

“I am negotiating with more than one person?”

Was that not normal? Were they breaking some sort of rule they weren’t aware of? They should have asked the fiends for everything they knew. Sweat began to run down his neck and he wanted to run but he stood his ground. Instead, he forced himself to focus on the merchants. Were any of them behaving oddly? There wasn’t a lot for them to do since business was slow at the moment, but was that merchant staring off into space because she was bored or was it because she was preoccupied with this spell. Then again, was the merchant really a woman? Perhaps that was part of the spell to further obfuscate their true identity.

Ketty took a few steps, almost as if she was wandering but Kasyn could see the strands of magic playing on her fingers as she followed it through the air.

“Yes, sorry, it was unavoidable,” Damarys said before the pause on their side became too pronounced. “We need at least two strong bodies. More if you have them.”

Damarys looked to Kasyn for help or confirmation but he was at a loss. They should have planned this out more, used their time to decide what to say rather than waste it talking about the Sages. They both held their breath as they waited, half watching Ketty and wishing she would find their target soon and half hoping the merchant wouldn’t become too suspicious of them.

“Of course,” came the reply at last, “I have four strong bodies.”

Was there hesitation in their voice? It was so hard not to project his own doubts into that toneless speech but there was an odd cadence to it. Something almost familiar in the way they spoke. He’d met the merchants here all before so it was likely he’d spoken to this person before. Did any of them have anything to set them apart from anyone else?

“We’ll take all four,” Damarys said as Ketty wandered closer to the south side of the market.

“Very good. Two thousand gold per body. Meet by Chishiki Toshokan tonight.”

Ketty stopped walking, bumping into a stall and suddenly coming to herself as though she’d been in a trance. She looked down at the merchant. Kasyn saw their eyes meet as Ketty and Jerlinzia looked at one another. Then, in one fluid motion, Jerlinzia drew a crossbow from beneath her stall and shot Ketty through the chest. It was silent in the market for a fraction of a second while people took in the sight of Ketty, pawing wordlessly at the shaft sticking out of her, before falling to the ground. Then the screaming and the running began and Jerlinzia loaded another bolt into her crossbow as her eyes began scanning the crowd. Before either Damarys or Kasyn could think, she found them, staring at her, and her eyes narrowed.

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