Advent of Dragonfire [A LitRPG Adventure]

We find a woman snooping around the broken door to the penthouse when we return. I can tell even before she introduces herself that she is the building owner by the badgering tone she speaks with. As calmly as I am able, I relate that it wasn't us who broke the door. For that matter, I add that since it is my damn house, I will break whatever fucking door I want, and she can keep her mouth shut about it. We don't part as friends. Dovik bullies me into the apartment while Jasper mumbles apologies to the woman and helps he to the lift. He doesn't even live here. Who is he to apologize for me?

"Private enough for you?" I ask when he comes back from sweet-talking the old lady.

Jasper looks around the floor, rubbing one hand with another. Behind, Dovik swears as he works to prop the door closed. "Not exactly the most secure place," Jasper complains.

"Then, I will just have to see you tomorrow. I'm not in the best mood tonight, Jasper."

The man chews his lip a moment before nodding. "Right. I understand that. You have to understand, I am a bit anxious to spread this around. That man you threw out of the window."

"The one Dovik threw out of the window," I correct.

"Right. Him. Well, he is the younger brother of someone I know."

"A friend of yours?"

"Gods, no," Jasper says, shaking his head. "No, you met him, actually, on the night you came to see the golem fights?"

"Are they actually called golem fights?" Dovik asks, walking over.

"What else would they be called?"

"The brother of who?" I try to keep the conversation on topic. Jasper keeps rubbing his hands, his head snapping between me and Dovik when we speak. I've always known him to be skittish, but this is beyond that.

"The dwarven man you insulted," Jasper answers.

"You are going to have to be more specific than that," Dovik says.

"Mallis Case?" I ask. There is only one person who stands out in my memory about the night he is talking about. That had been the man who tripped Jasper and called me a bitch. It has become a habit to have Galea identify and catalog every single person I see. With the upgrades Lady Talagast gave to the device, this has proven simple for the spirit.

"Make a note to make another appointment with her," I tell Galea mentally.

"Yes, Mistress," she replies.

Jasper looks at me, hardly a second having passed since I brought up the name. "Yes, that is him," he confirms.

"It would seem being unpleasant runs in the family."

"Yes, well, Mallis owns a golem fighting team," Jasper continues. "I don't know what the man does, but he brings so dangerous-looking people to some of the fights, and I've seen his brother there a time or two. The man has money. A lot of it. His golem is always outfitted with incredible gear and can even fight upper tier-two monsters. He has won seven of the last ten tournaments under the dome."

"There are tournaments for that?" Dovik asks.

"Faethians love to gamble and they love fighting," Jasper answers, smiling for a moment before he remembers just how wound up he is. "There is money in winning the tournaments. Some people simply buy teams, sponsor enchanters, to win tournaments, or to earn the prestige of winning. Faethians love to purchase prestige, too."

"So, one of the people involved with breaking into our house and stealing our stuff is the brother of a wealthy asshole." I summarize.

"Not just wealthy," Jasper says. "Well connected. I don't think you have noticed just how much you stand out here."

"Believe me, I have noticed," I say.

"Hard not to," Dovik adds.

"What I mean to say is that if the authorities have to choose between you and a native, you will lose every time. This city isn't kind of foreigners committing crimes," Jasper says.

A childish part of me wants to point out that we merely attacked men who robbed us, but what would be the point? Even as a young girl, I understood that the person the lord sides with is the one in the right. Why should it be any different here?

"And you think this well-connected man might get angry about us throwing his brother out of a window," Dovik says for me.

"If you threw my sister out of a window, I would."

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"I don't think so," I say. "Those people were doing something criminal. I doubt they would want to bring the authority's attention to it. Unless the people in charge here are as corrupt as they are in the empire. Are they?"

"I don't…I don't think so," Jasper answers. "I have no idea. It might cause trouble for his brother to go through legal channels. You might be right. I just wanted to warn you."

"I appreciate the warning. Truly. I do." I squeeze his shoulder as I move past him toward the kitchen counter. Angling my hand just right, the safe falls out of my vault without damaging the countertop. I have had a good deal of practice making heavy things appear without damaging tables or counters recently.

A metal bar still sticks from the top of the safe, wedged between the door and the case. Scratch marks ring the dial in the door. I try turning the knob, only to hear clunky grinding from the mechanics inside the door of the safe. "They broke this," I say. "Your ring wasn't there?" I ask Dovik for the third time.

From the deep breath he takes before answering, I can tell his patience is wearing thin. "No," he says, struggling to keep a steady voice. "I would have felt it. That ring was expensive. Likely, they put all of our equipment inside it along with the safe before they left."

"Can you think of a way to track it down?" I ask.

"That spell of yours can only locate certain kinds of mana?"

I nod.

"No. If I were close to it, I would know, but no."

"That's…bad." I sigh. That equipment was expensive. I settled for more dated equipment, not seeing the need to buy the top end of everything when I am still a novice. Dovik had the brilliant idea to lease his equipment, planning to save a fortune. Maybe the bank would be kind about this, have some clause to protect against theft, but I am not holding my breath.

With an exhale, my presence rushes from my hand and envelopes the safe, a flow of black dust following immediately after and sinking into the metal of the safe. With a spin of my fingers, the door and the walls of the safe start trying to tear away from one another as the iron wedge levitates away from the two straining pieces of metal. As the safe tries to rip itself apart, I bear the strain on my magic better than ever, only needing to dedicate a small portion of my focus to the task.

General telekinesis, the ability to move objects around with only your soul presence, is an ability that most magicians develop as they reach the third rank. Like flying, I seem to have a way around that, even at my lower rank. I should use this ability more.

The door screams as it is wrenched away. With a gesture, it floats gently to the side, landing on a pillow and indenting it. I know as soon as the door is open and my presence seeps inside it, but still I look, staring down blankly at the interior of the safe.

"What is it?" Dovik asks.

"The money Corinth left for us," I say. "It's almost all gone."

"What!" Dovik hurries around the counter, looking down at the safe along with me.

The inside is mostly empty. When I last closed the safe and locked it, there had been two heavy boxes bolted to the interior and locked tightly with a velvet bag of high-color coins sitting on top. Only one of the boxes remains, still locked up. The spot where the other had been is nothing but a row of holes and bent metal from where it had been pried out. Those boxes are where I have been keeping my infused affixes, the ones that I don't know what they are.

"You kept the money in here?" Dovik asks. "All of it?"

"I traded most of it for higher coins. We would need to pay the academy for our enrollment, and they prefer it that way, I've heard."

Why hadn't I just kept it on me? I know the answer, but it seems so stupid now. I wanted Dovik to have a way of getting the money in case something happened to me again, in case I was trapped in some underground prison for another month. Stupid.

"Fuck!" Dovik screams. He kicks the counter before turning and racing from the room, nearly pulling the front door off its hinges as he runs out into the hall. The pounding retreat of his footfalls echoes through the penthouse.

I lean forward, splaying my hands out on the table, staring down at the emptiness. I have a vault, a literal vault. How could I be so stupid? I made this vulnerability. I wasn't careful, again, and someone exploited that. When in three hells am I going to learn?

"I can come back another time," Jasper says from somewhere behind me.

"I think that would be a good idea," I say, struggling to keep my voice smooth.

The man doesn't say another word as he retreats from the room, leaving me utterly alone in the penthouse. There is an impulse to act out, to break something just because I can, to let the world know just how angry I am. There isn't any satisfaction in the impulse, however, and so I continue to stare.

I move my hand forward, snapping open the remaining iron box with a key. Four mediums rest on springy material inside the box, shining faintly to my magical senses. Warfire is among them, sitting right in the middle.

"They took five unknown magical affixes," I say, looking down at the remaining mediums. "Galea, make a log of which ones those were."

"They are all unidentified, Mistress," she reminds me.

"I know. I think that it is important for us to finally have someone figure out what all these are. Maybe I can even get someone to purchase them. We will need the money."

I continue standing there, staring down at what is left inside the safe until Dovik returns more than an hour later. He went back to the building, only to find it empty. I don't tell him about the other affixes, that I can track them down with my spell, that maybe I can still find the money. No, if what Jasper says is true, we don't want to get more involved with whoever these people are. They stole from us. I want to hurt them for that, but the smarter part of my mind, the colder part, warns me to let it go. We can get more money. We can't afford to be kicked out of the city.

I just hope that whoever did this can leave it here.

Across the city, a man takes off his hat as he enters the sick room in the bottom of the Marian Casino. Mallis looks down at his brother, running his hand over his exposed leg. Bandages wrap Tepsin Case, especially around his head. All that can be seen of his face are his eyes, still shut; he hasn't woken up since he was brought here.

On the other side of the bed from Mallis, one of Tepsin's friends sits in a steel chair, his leg pumping up and down with nerves.

"Tell me again," Tepsin says, forcing the boy to meet his gaze. Tepsin lifts his hand off his brother's leg, returning it to the box, tapping each of the vials containing unknown magic in turn. "Tell me exactly what happened."