章 125: Puffed up merchant
Michael just sheepishly retrieves his hand and rubs the back of his head, "Alright... What is it?" he asks, looking at the rather flat, innocuous-looking fish presented to him.
The man grins, "This here is the Albion Puffer Fish, most poisonous thing in the world barring Basilisk venom, screwin' a succubus, and whatever shit those accursed elves like to conjure up." he says, wriggling his fingers as if mimicking casting elf magic.
This was good, but not perfect for Michael's needs. "That's great, but the poison needs to have a delayed effect. Wouldn't do too much if an orc drops dead before the others even eat it."
The man nods, "That's the best part, this poison takes a couple hours to work! Use enough of 'em and even an entire village of orcs is gone!"
...
Michael lets out a sigh, "Alright... How much, and how many do you think I'd need for a large village of orcs?"
The man grins, "Well, usually I wouldn't have enough, but today you're in luck! I'll prepare fifteen of these for ya', for twenty gold! Cheap as can be!"
"Twenty gold!?" Michael mentally screams, somehow managing to keep his reaction off of his face. If he bought this he'd only have around five gold left! Enough to live on for a while to be sure, but it'd leave him desperately strapped for cash!
...
"Say, I doubt these things are all that popular to actually buy... I mean, you can't eat them, they probably don't make get pets, and the poison is probably restricted from being sold out of this market, right? So how about you give me a small discount for buying in bulk? Say, half-price?"
The man scoffs, "Haha! That's a good one! Half price! Boy, what a laugh!" he over-dramatically laughs, being stopping on a dime as his expression goes frosty, "Twenty gold, kid. I know other folks willing to buy this stuff for more than what I'm letting you have it."
Michael shakes his head, "Twelve gold. I doubt fifteen inedible fish are as popular as you're making out."
The man crosses his arms, "Seventeen, you'd be surprised. And some do actually eat these things, a delicacy among risk-takers I hear."
Michael's eyes squint, "Fifteen, one gold per fish, that's as high as I'm willing to go." he states, hand twitching towards his sword as he decides to rob the guy if he goes any higher... The only problem with that is actually preparing the fish without help... He doubted that the whole fish was required to poison things, and dumping all fifteen into the barrack's reservoir would be more than a little conspicuous.
The man notices Michael's twitching hand and just nods, "Alright, you gotta deal. Now, just gimme a moment to prepare the fish." he says, pulling a cleaver from who knows where and expertly butchering it. Taking it to pieces until he finally pulls out an organ, what the man says is its liver.
"Just hide the livers inside some other food and that'll deal with your 'orc' problem." the man chuckles, "Boy, do I feel bad for whoever's annoyed you enough to use fifteen of these things."
Michael crooks a brow, "What do you mean?" he asks, acting nonchalant.
The man waves him off, "Don't think it ain't obvious what you're doin', orcs ain't bothered any village near the capital for years, even with this war going, I doubt those pigs'll try their luck. Naw, you're going to use this stuff on some sorry bastard... Tell me, what did he do to deserve all this." he asks, leaning forwards as if he were a gossiping school girl.
Michael shrugs and quietly answers, "Let's just say that some things can't be forgiven, even if they do heal."
With that, Michael leaves the black market with a wet, bloody sack of livers in hand.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elsewhere, Julien walks towards the corner of the room where he was supposed to be meeting any remaining loyalists. Ralf Kaliker had apparently been busy even before he met Julien, directing any loyalists he finds to the black market so they could regroup and plan out their rescue of the prince.
He was dismayed to find however that only around fifteen loyalists remained, only two of which actually belonged to his original group. He lets out a solemn sigh and prays to Brimir that they were still alive and well, either they were too well hidden from Ralf to find them, or they'd been captured... His only hope was that their execution would wait til after Prince Wales'.
He greets the men as he approaches, "Julien, at your service my friends." he pauses and points at a man with a pencil-thin moustache and small physique, "I know you, Viscount William Wallington?" he questions.
The man nods and gives a slight bow, "Indeed, but I am afraid I expected more than just us. Cromwell has planned well for our interference it seems." he mutters while twirling his moustache in thought, "I still can not believe that Prince Wales protectors had betrayed him as such, their oaths meant more than just petty words." he remarks venomously.
Julien shakes his head, "It is Cromwell's magic ring that coerced them, it allows him to control the minds of any who he uses it on. Maybe we can rescue the controlled and release them from his thrall?"
"Mind control, you say?" Willian rubs his face, "That is a problem. Even simple love potions require incredibly rare materials to dispel, let alone complete domination. No, we must ignore their plight for now and attempt to free our brothers from their imprisonment, at least they would be able to fight with us, instead of against us."
Julien nods, "The prison, it must be where they are held. They are too numerous to be put anywhere else."
William harrumphs in accent, "True enough, but Cromwell will know of this. We will likely fail should we try."
Julien frowns, "But we will attempt it even so."
Willian smiles at him and the others listening, "Do we have any other choice? A suicidal plan still trumps no plan at all. Now, have any of you scouted the prison's perimeter, perhaps using the sewers to gain access-"
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章 126: Innvasion
Elsewhere :
Tiffania sits on the bed in her and Michael's shared inn room while skimming through the magical theory book yet again. She'd read through it completely at least three times by now, yet she still wasn't comprehending the various magical subjects spoken about.
She'd continued to meditate in the meantime as her mother had taught her, and while this had helped her control her magical energies, she didn't have any effective spells to direct her power, making essentially making her a horse without a carriage.
Something she did find useful to practise though was direct manipulation of the elements, Wind specifically. Nowadays, with but a flick of her wand she could knock a grown man down, though, this would take the majority of her magical energies due to how inefficient she still was with it.
She hoped that Michael would bring back another book, but she understood just how difficult such a request would be, so she didn't mention it to avoid distracting him from the tasks he had set before him.
Tiffania sighs and falls back onto the bed wondering just where this was all heading. They didn't really have anywhere to go, so unless they tracked through the entire world to reach Elven lands, or hid in the wilderness for the rest of their lives, they'd never find peace.
She couldn't ask Michael to accompany her to elven territory either, as they might just kill him on sight. Plus the fact that the elves might not even accept her for her half-heritage, or whether wanted to leave humanity behind.
She knew he had a 'plan' that he hadn't told her yet, whatever that was, but she had a niggling feeling that things wouldn't turn out well for either of them if they continued like this. She was worried about Michael's fixation on getting revenge as it seemed to come up whenever they spoke, even about things that weren't related to it at all.
Even now he was out in Londinium risking his life to get back at those who'd hurt him. Not that she could blame him but, she felt he was being too hasty... Why enter the capital during Prince Wales assassination when defences would be most alert? She knew he liked to rationalize his decisions after the fact, but to her it just showed how single-minded he was when his grudges were concerned.
Tiffania's thoughts are interrupted when she hears a knock on the door... She scrambles to get up and throw her cloak over her head, realising that the knock wasn't the one she and Michael had agreed upon, meaning it was someone else.
"Is anyone in there?" a gruff voice asks, and Tiffania contemplates whether or not to answer. She decides she has to though, as it may just be the inn owner checking to see the state of the room... Or something like that. "Y-yes! Do you need something?"
...
Upon not getting an immediate response, Tiffania readies her wand, not wanting to be caught off guard again. She'd meant those words she said in Cendri, she didn't want to be a victim anymore, and she certainly didn't want to cause Michael any more trouble, which getting hurt or kidnapped undoubtedly would.
*Click!*
*Creeaaaa-*
The lock clicks open and the door opens, revealing a man wearing expensive-looking armour and holding a wand-sword. "You, would you mind putting down your hood for me, little lady?" he politely asks, though, there was a clear threat in his tone.
Tiffania slowly nods, reaching up for her hood, but changes tactics and flicking her wand at the man, "Erase!" she chants, causing white light to strike the man who'd already put up his defences.
A magic shield appears before him, but the light seems to pierce it, causing his eyes to widen as they go glassy as his memory of Tiffania is stripped from his mind.
When he stills, Tiffania lets out a long breath, relieved that he hadn't managed to block her spell, she looks at the knight blankly standing there, "Sir, weren't you just about to chase a pickpocket who'd escaped into the slums with your coin pouch?" she asks, walking over and taking said pouch from his belt.
This wasn't a mind control despite might how it might sound, it's just that the after-effects of the mind erase spell to allow her to make suggestions that wouldn't conflict with the person's personality or intentions.
There was also the question of how she'd been discovered, the man might check back at the inn after not finding the pickpocket she'd sent him chasing after, so she and Michael would need to find somewhere else to stay...
The man leaves, and Michael arrives in the room not long after, he tosses the wet bag he was holding to the side, causing it to give a loud *squelch!* in response. "Tiffania! Are you alright? I saw the knight leave this place and figured the worst." he quickly says.
She smiles and nods, "I am, but we need to leave. He might be back soon, maybe with more men than before..."
"How did they find us?" he asks, his eye squinting his thought.
"I don't know... Maybe the innkeeper? I think all inns and taverns would be watched as Prince Wales execution is coming soon." she says, and he nods.
"Yeah... That sounds about right... Come on, let's go, if we can't find a good spot in the slums then we'll have to stay in the sewers for a bit." he states, causing her to frown at the thought of the stench. The slums alone were hell on her senses, so the sewers sounded like torture...
"Ah, did you get what you needed?" she asks and he nods, showing her the rather grisly-looking pufferfish livers all squished together in his sack. "... I see..."
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