A Price Paid Ch. 00 - Prologue

He gave a quick nod, continuing to be just honest enough. "If he was so circumspect with me, I doubt any of our shared associates know him any better, but I shall certainly ask and tell them to get in touch with you if they have anything to offer." There was no point in asking because most of the people that men like Dex associated with didn't want to know him and usually weren't that interested in even knowing one another.

With handshakes and brief goodbyes Colm saw them off at the dock, the ferryman seemingly not surprised by the brevity of the visit. The trip back was again silent, with Mala slipping back into a meditative state. The trip back however was actually a calmer affair for Strannix. He didn't know all he wanted to know, but he knew enough to want to act. The look in Mala's eyes was more than enough. All that was missing was which of the mage guilds was responsible. They would know where Dina was of course, but would not break a client confidence to tell him or anyone else.

They would have to be persuaded.

When they again reached the harbor, the sun was low, with the first hints of blue changing to red and orange. The breeze had picked up as well, pushing the boat into the dock as the men stepped out."

"Walk with me," Strannix said in a tone that he might use on an employee.

Mala noticed, but let it go as the two made their way from the weathered wooden docks, away from the city, and down the beach until they were certain no one was within earshot. "Magic then?"

"Magic. The tells are all there. The spell is all kinds of muddled, as if the caster was unfocused; either a novice or she was bringing their own thoughts and feelings into it."

He was intrigued. "She?"

Mala nodded. "That is indeed the sense I'd gotten." He couldn't keep the admiration out of his voice. "Not that the muddling really matters, it was surprisingly effective."

"Is there anything you can do?" Not that he truly cared, but Dex would have had more answers to give and he would be of help in what was to come.

He shook his head firmly, watching for a moment as his shoes sank into the dark sand. "No. As I said, it was effective. Whatever specifically is going on in his mind, he's the only one that can undo what's been done to him. He has to have the will, and it doesn't look like he does. If I tried to drag him out of it, he'd probably die."

"He might prefer that." In that moment, he was speaking for himself more than a man he barely knew.

"He might, but it's not for me to choose."

There was silence for a time as one man weighed his next step and another that was weighing what that step might be and his response to it.

"My eyes on the street that day tell me a member of the Vestrix Guild was with Hanah, the jewelry maker when Dex arrived."

It moved Mala very little. "It makes as much sense as anything else. It was always a matter of which guild."

"Could they disappear someone so thoroughly that even I couldn't find them?"

"Any guild could, to be blunt, Etan. Guilds have a wide variety of abilities, some unique to them and some not, but they have all been connected to the world long before you and, whether you like the idea or not, they will be connected to it long after we're both dust."

"Who do I contact there that might tell me where she's gone?"

"No one at all," he said with surety. "None of them will tell you anything. To do so would lead to expulsion from the guild. While there might be weak links in a guild, if you guess wrong as to who they may be, you invite conflict."

He needed to examine his options. "Is there a weak link in Vestrix?"

Mala didn't have to think much about that either. "Not that I'm aware of. Hers is one of the more stable guilds in the world. The Mistress is highly respected."

"Hers?"

"It's Bryana Lia's guild."

Mala didn't need to elaborate. The name was already known in Etan's circles because she was a known element to Court. She was a healer who was claimed by House Jaye and whispers said that she was General Jaye and her once-pauper husband as their third. Even for someone like Strannix who was practiced in hiding his feelings failed when it came to the news. "Bryana Lia, healer used by Court and who has stood next to the queen at official functions, is not only a forbidden mage, but she leads a guild?"

"It is so."

He smiled. "That makes things easier."

"No."

He looked annoyed at the notion that he was so easily read that Mala already knew what was on his mind. "What do you mean, no?

"She would not succumb to blackmail. No Guild Master would. They would lose their guild and probably their lives for betraying it." Mala was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the conversation because he could feel where Strannix was headed. The man was brilliant in some ways and a bumbling fool in others and one of his weaknesses came with the fact that he believed all his money, power, and underworld connections, coupled with ruthlessness, made him untouchable. He didn't understand magic or mages, even after years of calling upon their skills. His comprehension seemed to begin and end with, 'I pay, they do.'

"And, from what I know of her, even if she didn't risk a traitor's death by telling you what you want to know, she wouldn't place herself over two other lives by handing them to you."

Strannix was almost convincingly aghast. "What makes you think...?

Mala's eyes pierced him. "Remember who you're talking to."

He decided to change tacks to get out of the unproductive moment. "What other guild do you believe best suited to get me the information I need?"

"One guild undermine another directly? No, Etan. They may pilfer a client or a resource from one another, but that's the extent of it. The guilds will outlive us because they are disciplined. More than they are apart, they are one."

Strannix laughed, "Don't give me that nonsense. For all of their abilities they're still human. They eat, drink, smoke, gamble, and fuck. They're still greedy and self-serving. They have human weaknesses to exploit. I exploit them." He saw that the snipe in retaliation for Mala daring to know his mind had hit the mark.

Mala was beginning to grow tired of the man's inability to see beyond his own wants in the matter. "Must I game this out for you? Mages were nearly driven to extinction once by the fear that the rest of civilization had for them. That left a mark that has never faded and I doubt ever will."

"Petty backbiting leads to more. Tensions rise. That leads to open hatred of one another and, much like the birth of the Great Houses, that leads to a mad rush for power as some try to swallow others. Tensions rise. Then, in the midst of that minefield, someone makes one mistake too many and that war spills out into the world."

"Then the people rage and fear and demand that something be done. Then the mages die as soldiers go house to house to burn them out and anyone that would harbor them. The mage kind barely survived the first purge and only did at all because the handful that were left abandoned most of what they knew and swore loyalty to their murderers."

In the face of that, Etan; in the face of the prospect of putting all mages on that path, none of them have a fuck to give about the fact that some rich mundane is upset that he couldn't keep his woman. None of them would help you and a number of them would kill you for asking. They are more together than apart."

They walked silently for a time, Strannix spending it gaining control of his anger at hearing his feelings dismissed so utterly. "Fine." But that wasn't the end of it. It wouldn't be the end of it. The world spun because he and his kind made it spin. Others wouldn't get away with taking from him what was his. They would return it, or they would pay for not doing so. Though he accepted now that he may well have to take steps to keep the guilds out of it, there would be no way he would just walk away from this. Anyone could be reached, it was simply a matter of how.

He attended court functions, even if he attended them in the room to the left of the cavernous ballroom High Court held. He had been in the queen's presence as a familiar even though he could not lay claim to calling her friend. Where he and his fellow merchants of wealth and influence dined during those festivals was only visited briefly by the queen who began and ended such festivities in High Court. She gave a prepared speech to his kind, ate a few bites of food out of custom, and devoted a strictly enforced period of time to listening to their concerns before bidding them a good night. The borders between his level and theirs were clearly marked.

Even so, he and his kind had mingled in that great hall, making connections and just being part of it in a way that most others would never be. He had seen Bryana Lia there, allowed to step to the queen, and even allowed to touch her without so much as a second glance from her White Guard. He watched them speak and laugh. He'd even exchanged pleasantries with her on occasion, finding her friendly, if a bit cool.

But he had watched because observation lead to opportunity. He believed he knew how apply enough pressure to get what he wanted even if it cost her everything and still keep it just between them.

Mostly.

"What about a Freelancer?"

Mala sighed. "Unaffiliated mages are fewer still and rely on good relations with the guilds insofar as they keep the ability to make a living and not be forced out of the land or made dead. No reputable mage will help you."

"There are more disreputable mages than you?" It was said only half in jest.

"Outlaws," he began, nearing rapidly the point at which he wanted no part of things, "are fewer still and have no allegiance to the guilds. Most of them are so because they violated guild rules to one extent or other and were banished, with some of them wanted for judgment. And some of them are so because they have no rules they live by to begin with."

"Put me in touch with them," he ordered. "Surely you know how."

He stopped there and turned to face the man. "I will do nothing of the kind. My hand will not be found in whatever it is you're planning to do now." He looked to the Goddess and laughed. "Is your wife that important to you? You surely have enough whores working for you that you could move one up to the house. I recommend Myla from your place in the meadows. She's articulate, cleans up exquisitely, and, oh my, can she fuck. Give her a week and you won't even remember Dina's name."

Etan's tone was measured, but icy. "I did not get where I am by allowing people to take what belongs to me."

"She's gone, fool. No one took her. She left. She's gone, and she's not coming back." He laughed again at the absurdity of it all.

"If you're not going to help me, what good are you, Mala? I'm sure there are any number of Freelancer's willing to have your place. I'm sure there are any number of others who will drink my wine, eat my food, gamble with my money, and fuck the women I own."

To Mala, the absurdity only escalated, so he didn't entirely lose his good humor. "I earn every bit of that. I have done much for you, Etan. But you are asking me to join you while you light a fire that you don't understand and cannot contain."

"You think Lia is just a hand-to-mouth merchant with a cart that you can drive off your street. There are stories, Etan. Not so long ago she wasn't the dignified soul that can enter Evaline's presence as she pleases. She was powerful then and she was feared with good reason. Now she is absolutely more so with House Jaye at her back. Awaken the woman that she once was at your peril. Magic isn't simply healing injuries and fire bolts."

"I know that, which is why I need your help. If you're afraid, fine. Instead, earn what I pay you and direct me to those that would not be afraid."

Strannix fumed, clenching his fist as Etan shook his head in resignation, turned and walked through many of his footsteps on the way back to the harbor. He would find another and Mala could find another to live within the benevolence of. "I will find someone in spite of you."

Mala walked on, the deepening darkness beginning to swallow him. When he was nothing more than a mass of color slightly contrasting against the dusk Etan heard a voice sharp and clear. "Go to Mavik's tavern in the village of Bhatt. Stay there from open to close for as long as it takes. Ask for no one. What you seek will find you. I'm telling you no more than you could find on your own, as determined to engage in this folly as you are."

Strannix smiled into the nothing and wanted to make sure the other knew there were no hard feelings now that he got something of what he wanted from the man. Was that so hard? Thank you for the help."

There was no longer mirth in his voice, "I tried to help you by telling you to leave well enough alone, Etan. "Good luck."

To Be Continued...