Graul

"Listen to Dwarf," Graul said aloud, flat and non-negotiable.

Talov and Krithannia were both experienced enough to simply wait as mage and familiar did a private battle of wills. It was three against one in the end, and after a long moment, Mourn exhaled and nodded consent to stand down. At least for tonight.

"The Man on the juggling stage," the young half-blood murmured.

The three of them followed his gaze to a grinning, tall, and handsome young Man with tanned skin and hair the color of glossy chestnuts. He was trimly and simply dressed in finely-made clothing and was juggling naked daggers for the entertainment of the crowd as two scandalously-clad Women moved sensuously about the stage, both distracting and collecting coin from the hypnotized onlookers.

Talov looked farther around them, nodding. "He's got Men on 'im, they aren't bein' subtle. Kinda high security fer a juggling act. Le's find out who he is an' go from there."

********

Patience.

Graul would reinforce this thought every chance he had with his Maekrix in the coming months. Mourn and Krithannia had fairly quickly determined that the other Dragonchild was young enough not to have yet passed a whole century with his hoard based in Augran. Nonetheless, this was still the most complex hunt the two Dragon-kin had ever been on, with the largest possible fall-out landing among the Humans and the surrounding construction if the new challenger was discovered too early and it became a pitched battle within the city.

The travelers had spent most of the winter in Augran evading the direct attention of their rival while gathering as much intelligence as they could on the resident To'vah-krav and the city as a whole. Maekrix rested much less often now—his thoughts and awareness always in a heightened state—but whenever Graul did rest with his Dragon-kin mage, curled in physical contact when possible, he received further insight into the many assassinations Maekrix had been given while under his Matron Dar'Prohn in the Underdark.

This was similar, but not the same.

"We c'n do this, but if we do, we go all out," Talov stated in one of their hidden holes where they could plot, though they tended to move around every few days. "Ain't no room fer doubts 'r holdin' back if this is gonna work. No hesitatin' from any o' us."

Krithannia hadn't been pleased to hear this—none of them were delighted with this unanticipated challenge, except the darkest side of Maekrix's instincts which he acknowledged to no one but Graul.

The four of them had entered Augran with the intent to set up new trade agreements with Yung-An and Taiding and build a base of operations with the best resources available. The purpose was to accumulate and reinvest wealth—both because Mourn "needed" it and because Talov would be aiding his Fathers' tradition, making them proud and helping to secure that infrastructure among the Humans they worked tirelessly to maintain.

They had discovered there was a single half-Dragon standing in their way, and in the end they were going to have to kill him. Preferably with as little backlash as possible.

Frowning at all her notes written in her unique script, at all the knowns and the unknowns, the problems and the proposed solutions they had discussed, the Noldor nodded in cautious agreement. "We have determined there is no chance he will allow us to operate here as we wish. It is direct competition to his own affairs. The only non-violent option is we agree to serve him and be constrained in how much we can grow, pay him a portion of what we earn, and our operations will always be under his scrutiny."

"Nope." Talov shook his head.

"He will not allow me to grow at all," Mourn growled. "And I will not tolerate him, he is not worthy of my respect."

"What we've seen, he been pissin' most o' what he c'n do away," the Dwarf rumbled his agreement. "We can do better. We got th' experience over 'im."

Krithannia nodded. "Agreed. We can. His direct attention is on the entertainment industry, with Human allies running those other splintered Guilds whose leadership changes as soon as one gets too greedy."

"Entertainment?" Talov repeated on a dark snicker. "Nice way o' puttin' it, Elf. Ye can jus' say he runs th' brothels an' gamblin' sectors, with those 'ccasional carnivals on the side to fleece more gold from th' gullible. We've noted most o' his close 'servants' are Human female an' subservient tah 'im. They can't build their own wealth even though they work fer trade an' money on 'is behalf. He won't let 'em."

Krithannia frowned, but only nodded and remained silent.

"I will kill him and take his Guild and his hoard," Mourn said quietly, "but I do not want his slaves. I do not want slaves ever."

His Surface allies blinked in surprise at the unrelenting statement.

"Hrm, a'right. Tell me why not, kid. I need tah know."

His eyes—much like the gold coins passing through many hands in Augran—focused on Talov. "I have been one. A slave among many. I have watched what is needed to retain them. I have felt every violation on one body owned by another. I have also seen what is possible when free wills choose each other, as we have done. I no longer acknowledge the power to own slaves is intrinsic to one's birth, and any slave owner can be killed by those whom they enslave."

Talov's eyes were almost as wide as Krithannia's; each of them realized this was the most he had ever told them about his past. Graul could see on their faces it wove a darker tapestry than they'd been imagining up until then.

"Aye, I see," the Dwarf said quietly. "Glad ye got out, Mourn, an' ye don't have tah go back. I'm in agreement wit' ye, no slaves or any who'd own 'em in any Guild we make. They hafta want tah work fer us, or we can't use 'em."

Mourn's shoulders relaxed some and he nodded, and Krithannia remained in silent observance until Talov looked at her.

"What about you, hon?" he asked. "Whatche want out o' this yerself?"

She admitted she had no outright desire for the wealth itself but seemed hesitant to say, as if it might not be the as impressive an answer following Mourn's. With enough coaxing, however, they understood that she did have conditional rewards to helping them destroy and replace a large part of the city's function before seeing the To'vah-krav at the center killed so they could rebuild it.

"I wish to form a private library," she said quietly, "and I wish to start learning all that I can of the present and the past."

"Hrm. Plannin' tah take it all back to 'em? Yer people?" Talov asked with a raised brow, glancing at Mourn, who was frowning and not liking the idea initially.

"No," she answered calmly. "While I may need to return for a time every decade or so to reassure them I still live, the existence and contents of my library will remain a secret from the Noldor. No piece of it shall leave Augran to go to my people, if it should ever need to leave at all."

"Ye need tah return? Why?"

"What if they do not let you out again?" Maekrix asked right after, and Graul growled softly at the possibility.

Krithannia looked slowly between the three of them, meeting eyes with the Dwarf, the half-blood, and the shadow drake. The familiar liked her for this reason especially; Graul appreciated being considered by the Noldor in some way apart from his Maekrix. It demonstrated that she had not forgotten it was Graul who talked Mourn down when he had first discovered her on the coast and thought her an enemy.

The drake had seen in her an Elf with as ill-defined and overall innocent intentions as his own Maekrix, and the drake had stalwartly protested the idea of harming her before the full risk was understood. The Pale Elf had remembered that, and she proven her self-control and discretion ever since, being watched closely for years and somehow satisfying the deeply-ingrained paranoia of anyone with the blood of the Dark Elves running in his veins.

Krithannia smiled slowly at Mourn, blinking as she realized something. "What if they do not let me out? You trust I will want to return to you, that I will not choose to stay."

Mourn nodded once. "You belong outside, as I do. You are worthy of forming your own destiny. We are kindred, Krithannia."

Her smile grew, and the affection remained. "We are, Mourn. Yes."

"Then how come ye need to go back at all?" Talov asked again, and she looked at him.

"More mystical than practical. I was sent out in the first place on a royal quest based on a collective decision from our speakers to the divine."

The Dwarf snorted softly. "No 'ffense, Elf, but that is as vague as ye could possibly get in tellin' us anything 'bout yer homeland."

She shrugged. "The less I tell you, the more likely they will 'let me out' again when the time comes I must return."

"So we're trustin' ye that ye aren't really jus' reportin' ev'rything to 'em, 'specially a potential founder o' what we're plannin'."

Krithannia looked directly at Mourn, then Graul, as if asking them with her large, grey eyes if this was a concern. "Yes. We are planning to challenge a To'vah-krav, dismantle his organization and supplant it with our own. Please, if you have any doubts of my loyalty to our goals, let me hear them now so we may address it."

Talov grunted in approval; he wanted exactly this. He wanted to understand. Graul exchanged eye contact with his Maekrix.

Tell? the drake asked.

Should not, Maekrix thought.

She is willing to face danger with Dragon-kin. Ease hers and Dwarf doubts at once.

Even if she still will not share what she will do when she 'must' return?

Make it a condition?

His Maekrix paused. No... she never made this a condition for me. Not for over twenty years. I told them I was once a slave just now because I chose to.

Give balance back. Let her choose when. She not returning to Noldor yet, trust now against To'vah rival.

His mage nodded subtly and watched her steadily. While there were times Krithannia did not want to make eye contact with Graul's Maekrix, more often when discussing the roles of females among males, she met his eyes full on now and waited patiently.

"I trust your loyalty to our goals, Krithannia," Mourn said. "This is because I...was aware of your aura nearby while I Slept in the wilderness. I Know."

She frowned a little. "Know?"

"Your aura is pure yet complex," he said, watching her. "Too complex for a single Elf so young. The...To'vah Dream Knows, and it told me...of the others."

The Noldor's mouth sagged in shock, and Talov rubbed his face, shaking his head in confusion.

"Hoo-boy. Can't say I'm followin' any o' that, Krithy, though I see ye are. What scares ye 'bout him sayin' this?"

She quivered, remembering to breathe after a moment. "Ah...I-I...oh, God..."

For a second she looked terrified, as if she had just uttered something she shouldn't, and Mourn reached across the table to cover her hand, possibly to make sure she didn't leave the table.

"You serve your purpose and have more to offer," the young hybrid tried to explain. "You have chosen to give that purpose to us, and I welcome that purpose, and you, as you are. You have accepted me as I am, even when I frighten you and I cannot explain. Because...I have not lived enough yet. I Know, but do not Understand."

Graul could hear her heart beating quickly, glimpsed the pulse in her throat, and it took some time for it to slow as she considered the other males in the room. Her eyes were shining with unshed tears.

"So," Talov asked them, "this helps us? Whatever yer talkin' so obliquely 'bout. It's an Elf thing."

Krithannia swallowed, then nodded. "Yes. Y-yes, Master Talov, it is an 'Elf thing.' I... Well. I am..." She exhaled, tapping her fingers. "How to explain it? I am myself, I am Krithannia. But I am also a vessel. I...harbor th-th..."

Again, she was scared. She had never said this aloud before.

"I harbor the essence and memory of some of the best of my People." She blinked and a few tears escaped as she made that confession in a rush. "They cannot control me but they are always with me, they are a permanent part of me. They teach me as well, when I need it. M-Mourn is saying...he can see them, but only in the mystical Sleep of Dragons. Otherwise he cannot, and no others know they are there."

Talov's brows were raised high and still as he contemplated that. "Shit. Never heard o' anythin' like that in me life."

Krithannia laughed, very soft and breathy. "Perhaps among the Ma'ab you will hear more. Since we have been in Augran, I have been cautioned by my elders within. I must remain beneath Ma'ab awareness at all costs, until I understand them better. With the type of coin in which their leaders trade, I could be as irresistible as this other Dragonblood's Hoard is to Mourn. I...we must not speak of this openly to any other. It endangers me, and therefore you."

"'Course," the redbeard agreed immediately with a shared nod with his fellows. "Never heard anythin'."

********

They made their first moves beginning the following autumn, as that moist, summer heat at last relented and cooler winds from the North skirted along the massive shores of the Great Lake. Larger and larger loads of surplus and harvest were coming into the tri-city area for the winter, including new ships from Yung-An boarding various known merchants from Taiding, ready to test a curious market. With a successful reception, they may even stay the winter, word said.

Mourn's rival did not appear to notice these first shifts of change, and concerns among the Guild leaders were very slow to rise—if at all—as things followed their usual pattern: Certain replaceable figures were found dead and soon enough another had taken his place. They could move forward with the next phase.

New to their positions, these new Guild leaders received advice from familiar faces who brought up innovating ideas no one had ever thought to try before. Why they thought to bring them up now with these subtle changes of the guard, they did not know but none saw reason not to implement them. Even better, these familiar faces weren't asking for the credit outright in hard payment or public acknowledgement, although a few favors may be asked on occasion.

This pattern continued for almost a year, and various public councilmen were more openly discussing possibilities of arranging for space for semi-permanent Yungian trading markets to better regulate items brought across the Lake. This was to appease the growing protests as stories of bargains made with spirits and ill-bred potions meant to trick would not read, but few could point to anything not in some way known by the mages they themselves hired from the universities. Still, a new market would help raise visibility of the more viable merchants among them, and keep most of the trade aboveboard for the masses.

"It's working," Krithannia mused quietly one cold winter night, bundled up in a thick blanket and sitting as a semi-permanent resident in one of the larger inns of Niss.

"That 'tis," Talov rumbled with a brief raise of his tiny cup of dwarven spirits. "Always best when th' Humans think o' it as their own idea. Hafta move kinda quick, though, since they do change their minds pretty fast."

"Then who shall die next?" Mourn asked.

This was far more a sober and serious question than one asking to sate a need. He and Graul had performed all assassinations needed thus far and would continue to do so for the foreseeable future. It was agreed he would not kill without Talov and Krithannia's prior knowledge and approval while they established themselves.

"Only way t'avoid the big mistakes, kid," the Dwarf had said. "No one dies in a hot flash. Ye want this hoard and this territory from this solo guy, each kill is planned and played cool. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

They experienced setbacks that slowed the Yungian growth for a time in the third year, nearly seeing it falter though they just managed to save negotiations. There were also near-misses and close calls with the Guildmaster of the Entertainment sector, though the young Dragonblood's paranoia did not seem to change much. Their methods constantly needed refining, and their spells and skills all had to get better to remain beneath the common indicators of threat to those jealously guarding their power.

Mourn and Graul with Krithannia and Talov spent five years of working as a team, never wanting for food or shelter even if not all their resources were gained honestly, and Augran would become more home to them than any of the hide-outs from over the years which led them to this place. Two To'vah-krav dwelled within the same city, yet one remained resolute in avoiding the other.

But only until the right time.

Five years grew into a decade, and all the original Guild leaders had been replaced with someone else bearing more of the qualities Talov sought in his Human contacts, though at the rate the incumbent Tov'ah-krav expected.

In the meantime the Yungian market would gain a name as well, known here and across the Great Lake as Yong-wen. The first merchant families both flourishing and agreeing to stay year-round were urged to become representative councilors as well, learning more of the government and history of Augran to better serve their tenants and their Lords back home.

As Yong-wen grew, so did a larger cache of riches hidden right beneath the nose of their rival, and Graul finally claimed a little cubby in Krithannia's budding library in which to hide his own stash. The Yungian operators of the inn above them, called Lungai Xiq or "Dragon's Rest" by the locals, claimed that the very foundation had been blessed by the Dragon Spirit as they had broken soil and began to build.

It was only as the changes brought by Yong-wen surged through the rest of Augran, as Humans began seeing their works and their food in many more places about the large city, that Pliso the Dealer finally grew curious enough to pay a visit to the enclave community.

The Human-blood Dragonchild came at night, strolling confident and alone along the rough, temporary streets lit by paper lamps. By his body language, he wasn't impressed with the newborn community, but he did find what he was looking for soon enough.

"Hm! Well! Look at you. I don't have one who looks like you yet, slant-eye."

The Yungian girl was clearly dressed to attract males. The colors were bright and ornate, the material thin and clinging, her shoulders were bare and one leg was revealed by the slit up the side of her dress. She swiftly became terrified of the tall, Noiri Man as she tried desperately to get him to release her wrist; he had stopped her from bowing to him and leaving his presence.

"Fang kai woh, " she pleaded, pulling with futility at his large fingers. "Qing, gao-shu! "

"I see you don't know how to speak properly. My girls will be able to teach you. No matter the breed or babble, the pussy is always the same." Pliso paused. "Although I will be sure to test that theory first."

She was shaking her head in confusion and continued to try to reason with him without a common language. He ignored all signals and silenced the girl by placing his palm on her forehead and whispering a word to her. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed into his waiting arms. Tossing her over one shoulder, he checked around to make sure he wasn't being watched and soon made his way back out.

Pliso's visit to Yong-wen was much shorter than expected.

Talov signed in disbelief. *Did he grab first whore and leave?*

"Too easy," Graul commented in a low whisper.

Mourn shook his head in disgust, signing back. *Not even a perimeter search to confirm sex-selling operations.*

Talov and Graul both smirked.