Mordred stared at the air that his dating deck had once taken up for a second. Then he pursed his lips.

“You know, that deck never did work. I might need to make a new one.”

“I think you might be better off without one entirely,” Noah suggested. “But is that really what we should be focused on right now? It feels like there might be slightly more pressing matters.”

“Ah. Yes.” Mordred grinned. Then he grabbed his coat and slung it back over his shoulders. “Our partnership. And a fruitful one it will be. I am looking forward to learning more about you, Lee. I have so many questions.”

“We know,” Brayden said flatly.

“Questions which must be answered in fair trade,” Mordred continued cheerfully. He reached into his coat again, rifling around in his buttoned pockets before pulling out a small paper-wrapped package. Faint scrawled runes ran across the wrinkled paper’s surface. He unfolded it easily, revealing a small square block of what seemed to be firm gelatin.

Lee’s eyes snapped to it instantly.

“What’s that?”

“Food,” Mordred replied with a sly smile. “Glutinous rice with sugar. Absolutely no nutritional value. It’s basically just a squishy block. But it does taste good. I believe one would call this a peace offering.”

“An offering? Why didn’t you start with that?” Lee asked. She slipped out from behind Brayden. She snagged the small candy from its spot in the paper and popped it into her mouth. She chewed once. Then her brow furrowed slightly. She chewed again.

A flicker of surprise passed through Noah.

Two bites? For something that small? Since when does Lee chew anything that much?

It took Lee another few seconds to actually manage to swallow whatever the candy was. She seemed almost as perplexed as Noah felt.

Then her eyes narrowed.

“Well?” Mordred asked, his eyes glinting. “What do you think?”

“Why is this so chewy?” Lee asked. “Rice isn’t chewy.”

“I recalled our previous interaction,” Mordred replied, carefully folding the paper back into a square and returning it to his pocket. “You have an incredibly keen sense of smell… and what seems to be the ability to consume nearly anything. But you barely even chewed the poisoned meat I gave you—”

“Poisoned?” Brayden asked sharply.

“I didn’t know she was intelligent at the time,” Mordred said with a wave of his hand. “And she asked for it before I even had the chance to offer. She even knew it was poisoned. It’s not my fault. If someone asks to eat something they already know is poisoned, it is my god-ordained right to give it to them and see what happens.”

Brayden paused for a moment. Then he glanced at Lee and cleared his throat.

“I might be able to buy that.”

“You never said why this is chewy,” Lee said. “Do you have more?”

“It’s imbued,” Mordred replied. “And yes, I do have more. But you will not be getting more. Not until I get answers to my questions.”

Oh, shit. He came prepared.

“You really should have opened with this,” Lee said. “Give me another. I want more.”

“Hold on,” Noah said. “You imbued a candy? Why? And with what?”

“A power imbuement,” Modred said. “Like the ones in Crystals.”

Noah squinted at him. The tone of Mordred’s response seemed to imply that he should have known what a power imbuement was. Unfortunately, Noah didn’t have the faintest damn idea.

“What’s that?” Lee asked, saving Noah from having to figure out how to word his question without looking like a complete alien.

“The same imbuements that are on crystals,” Mordred replied. His head tilted slightly to the side. “Runes get shredded up and transformed into raw power, which is stored within them. That’s what gives the crystals their value. They wouldn’t be worth much if you couldn’t draw the magic out of them, would they?”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

What? But a shredded up rune should dissipate within a few seconds. Obsidia figured out a way to somehow contain a destroyed rune within crystals? Is it the crystal itself, or the imbuements on them?

Shit. I probably can’t ask Mordred. It would be way too obvious how out of our element we are. I’ll just have to investigate the crystals at some point when he isn’t watching.

“And you did the same thing to the candy you just fed Lee?” Brayden asked.

“Not me,” Mordred said with a shake of his head. “What a waste of magic that would be. No. I hired someone else to do it for me, of course. The magic should reinforce the food and make it last longer. Possibly tastier as well, though I didn’t try myself. I don’t think my teeth would survive the experience.”

“I see,” Lee said sagely. “Gimme another.”

“Not yet,” Mordred replied. “That was just a taste. I don’t have enough to give them away randomly. I need to determine what answers I need the most. Until then — I don’t see any reason to hold you up here. Shall we go to your tournament?”

Noah paused for a moment. Then he nodded. “That does seem like it would be best. But it does strike me, will you even be allowed in?”

In response, Mordred reached back into his seemingly endless pockets. He pulled out a small, circular cloth bundle. One that was shaped suspiciously like a badge. “Of course. I’m participating. I suspected things might end up going this way, so I took the liberty of getting my hands on a few badges before I arrived.”

“You bought badges preemptively, thinking you would end up traveling with us to the tournament?” Brayden asked suspiciously.

“Hmm?” Mordred tilted his head to the side. “Bought? Why would I do something like that? The badges are free. You can just take them.”

“Really?” Brayden asked. “Mine wasn’t.”

“Did you kill the person you took it from before or after you got the badge?” Mordred asked. “Though I suppose the end result is the same. So long as you didn’t actually leave the money on the body, of course.”

It didn’t seem like any part of Mordred had even considered the possibility of buying a badge normally.

There were a few moments of silence. Then Noah cleared his throat.

“Quick question before we head out. It strikes me that I am not from Aqua Terra,” Noah said slowly. “So in the spirit of our partnership… could you fill me in on exactly how things work around here? Is the Prophet not going to be displeased that you’re going around murdering people? Or is that part of the privileges of working for her?”

Mordred’s brow furrowed. “I didn’t murder anyone. The way you say that implies that I was the aggressor. If they hadn’t wanted to die, they shouldn’t have attacked me. What kind of city do you think Aqua Terra is? Self defense is always permitted.”

“It definitely sounded like you killed people to take their badges,” Lee said.

“Oh, I did,” Mordred said.

They all stared at him.

“You baited them into attacking you so it would count as self defense?” Noah guessed.

“Quite right,” Mordred said with a sharp nod. “Wasn’t too hard. Rules are hard to enforce with a city this large. The big ones, sure. But small fights? Impossible. Even for the Prophet. And so long as everyone generally conducts themselves properly in public, a blind eye is turned to what happens in the darkness. Just don’t cause too much trouble and you should be fine.”

Honestly, Obsidia isn’t too dissimilar from the Damned Plains at all. It just has more of a veneer of courtesy. You have to keep the dirty shit under the covers and keep a civil mask on.

The corners of Noah’s lips pulled upward. Though it definitely hadn’t been intentional, the Prophet had basically created the best possible scenario for his goals.

Her city blocked out most people’s ability to determine exactly how powerful someone was. While that was a great way to make sure people didn’t go around attacking each other willy-nilly, it also meant that it was going to be a hell of a lot easier to bullshit his way through interactions.

On top of that… if everyone was going around trying to be generally cordial and trying to keep the veneer of polite society, it meant he was going to be able to be a hell of a lot more annoying than he’d have been able to get away with, even in the Damned Plains.

It’s too bad Jalen isn’t here. I get the feeling he might have gotten quite the kick out of watching this. But even still, I couldn’t have asked for a better environment

to work in. This might actually be a bit fun. What was it that people used to say on Earth?

Ah, yes. Love your job and you’ll never work a day in your life.

Noah let out a small huff of amusement.

Crock of shit, that. But I’m certainly not going to complain about a chance to equalize the playing field between myself and all the powerful mages wandering around Obsidia. Even with Sunder… I still have to be careful. I don’t know what magic is truly capable of out here.

The plan hadn’t changed. Noah needed to draw attention to himself, but there were different kinds of attention. He was going to have to keep at things the way he had been since arriving at Obsidia. Namely — he was going to have to make a name for himself in the tournament without ever letting himself die. Not, at least, when anyone could be watching. He definitely didn’t need some powerful Rank 8 to decide he was worth studying and try to kidnap him.

Actually…

“Before we leave,” Noah said, resting his hand on the doorknob and glancing back at Mordred. “I do have a question for you. Do you know much about the political situation of Aqua Terra?”

“I know some,” Mordred replied. “I’m far from an expert. I don’t have much interest in the coming and goings of man. Politics are about as far from art and science as you can possibly get. Why?”

“There was someone I was wondering about,” Noah replied casually. “It’s probably a bit of a shot in the dark, but since you work for the Prophet and all that… what do you know of a creepy shadow lady called Mistress?”

Mordred’s back went stiff. His head snapped around to stare straight at Noah as his features turned deathly serious.

“Where did you hear that name?”