Hope

Irwyn did not leave his room the following two days. There were improvements to be made after all. First to his new invisibility spell. The chant could perhaps be made a bit better, the shape of it a bit more optimized, the ideal intentions for different situations chosen and practiced.

For one, he had found that the intentions to suppress and contain helped reduce the sound he made while affected by the spell, which was certainly a major weakness. Irwyn could move reasonably quietly but he knew what actually quiet was from Waylan and he was not there.

On the other hand, conceal or hide did… very little. How do you hide even more while invisible? Irwyn hoped it might make the spell at least somewhat effective towards beings with magical sight that might see through it otherwise, however, he had no way of even attempting to properly test that.

He did, however, make another invention. He called the spell Remote eye and frankly, he was surprised the idea had not struck him earlier to at least attempt something like it. Instead of trying to perceive everything it was much easier to just watch from an artificial point. Namely, it worked on a similar principle as his invisibility: Creating a small mirror-like light construct and then projecting any light that would reflect off of it to another small creation that just happened to be placed right in front of one of his eyes.

It provided him with the incredible ability to just look from anywhere he wanted. Though it was far from ideal. For one, the spell had a very limited range. It was not even about the cost, Irwyn simply struggled to maintain it once it reached far enough away from his body. This could be somewhat bypassed by maintaining a direct link through a thin string of light, though that conflicted with the versatility of using the spell through walls and made it twice as detectable.

Which was a problem because the spell was already less than subtle. Not to mention physically visible, it bled mana like a beacon for anyone to easily detect. He could mitigate it when close to his person, however, more than a few dozen meters away and any half-decent mage visible would be able to feel the magic staring at them. But perhaps being noticed was no longer such a problem.

In fact, Irwyn was starting to realise that his repertoire of magic had shifted away from subtlety during his stay in Abonisle. It was not that long ago he had been struggling to make an invisible barrier that would be able to somewhat block things while being hard to detect; because it had been important to not be identified as a mage. Or caster as he had used the apparently archaic term at the time. But in Abonisle? There was no urgent need to be unnoticed even in his day to day life. Perhaps he was still internalizing that though, that subtlety no longer needed to be his first, second and third option. That he could afford to show off a bit, perhaps even in somewhat public spaces.

At some point, Irwyn had been dragged from his thoughts by a loud knocking on his door. He had lost the exact track of time but he was pretty sure it was before noon… maybe. Irwyn realized he might be a bit of a mess at the moment though the knocking at the door sounded almost urgent so he stood up as he was.

As he approached the door, Irwyn remembered he could have a look at who it was without guessing. With a quick cast, his vision split, one eye’s sight remaining the same while the other revealed his guest. There, Desir kept knocking, with a neutral expression. Then Irwny quickly dismissed the spell. Walking with his vision divided had the tendency to result in stubbed toes at his current level of practice. Another thing to improve on.

“Yes, I am coming,” Irwyn announced as he was near the door, opening it a moment later. “Oh, Desir, what brings you here?”

“Well, you are a mess,” Desir grinned, looking Irwyn over.

“Is it that bad?” Irwyn shrugged.

“I would not necessarily blame someone for mistaking you for an undead,” Desir maintained a slight smile. “Pale, outworn clothes and a fair bit of unwashed stench. What have you been doing?”

“Studying,” Irwyn shrugged, glancing at the room behind himself. “I may have… overdone it a bit.”

“You know, now it makes much more sense why you are rarely ever seen leaving your room,” Desir sighed. “May I come in?”

“Be my guest,” Irwyn shrugged. “Though beware that it probably looks no more cleaned up than me.”

“It cannot be that bad,” Desir said as he stepped in, immediately acted out an exaggerated flinch and backed away. “Nevermind, it is.”

“Just a bit messy,” Irwyn defended. He couldn’t take notes but there were… books scattered almost innovatively not to mention some uncleaned crumples from snacks and whatnot “I haven’t cleaned since we last met as I was occupied.”

“Irwyn, if this is what you managed to create in just over two days, I am grudgingly impressed,” Desire spread his hands, pointing at the room.

“It might not have been the cleanest beforehand either,” Irwyn admitted. He had been too busy to just… clean. “It’s just a bit here and there, nothing too horrendous.”

“I suppose it beats the sewers, if barely,” Desir shook his head. The halfway was mostly empty, however, there was a table and two chairs in Irwyn’s bedroom once Desir stepped further in and the blue-eyed man took one, Irwyn reaching for the other both of them sitting down.

“Do you at least have something to drink?” Desir sighed.

“I don’t have a kitchen,” Irwyn shrugged.

“You can literally boil the water in thin air,” Desir placed a palm over his eyes. “You just need a mug and can make tea or coffee in seconds. You what, just drink tap?”

“Yes?” Irwyn shrugged. “Nothing wrong with that.”

“Irwyn…” Desir looked him in the eyes, deathly serious, “Mages as good as you are expected to have a damn wine cellar. At least a cabinet with something decent and expensive. But you don’t have a tea bag to your name.”

“I avoid alcohol,” Irwyn shrugged again, not really seeing the issue.

“And you don’t have to drink it Irwyn. But you need to have something. This is not about you, Irwyn, this is about decorum, prestige,” Desir shook his head, almost heated now. “You are the mysterious new Young Fowl. You have a standard to uphold. Even in private, I would expect a certain amount of… grace for a lack of better word. But instead, you live like a divorced alcoholic after a night of rage-fueled dish breaking.”

“I… see your point…” kind off. Although he had some qualms about needing to maintain a standard in private, he was not really in private at the moment. Though he had become friends with Desir they had not known each other that long. It was indeed unbefitting to accept any guests like this. “Frankly, I had planned to move out of here not long after my arrival. Even though circumstances had changed that intention, perhaps my train of thought about it being temporary remained,” Elizabeth, or someone around her, had installed that Time/Space device that he had found after all. The one which he suspected allowed her to freely teleport right to his doorstep through her heavily enchanted dress and did who knows what else. And well, that made it rather awkward to move, even if he was not supposed to know about it. That could not have been cheap after all.

“Good, I am hoping you will take it as advice and not me being just picky,” Desir nodded. “Now, let’s get down to business.”

“You already have some news?” Irwyn’s eyes sharpened. There was probably only one business Desir would personally come over to discuss even if it had not been that long. Whatever people the city itself employed had been searching in futility for literal weeks, at least as far as he knew yet Desir had seemingly arrived at something in just two days.

“Well, I tried to go for a far different angle than the official investigation would have,” Desir grinned. “You see, since they apparently stole weapons of some kind, I went looking for people looking to buy recently.”

“Because the perpetrators would have to offload it somehow,” Irwyn nodded.

“Either that, but more likely, because they would be looking for even more,” Desir shook his head. “No one is mad enough to mess with House Blackburg just to sell some Black-market goods. Whoever had been behind the attack has the means, the mad determination and an agenda behind that resolution. If they need military-grade stuff enough to openly go after state property, well, they have probably been stalking the Black market for a while. And there I found my clue: I have an old pal who deals with arms mundane and magical around those parts and he told me with confidence that one of his competitors had been outbidding everyone when it comes to the cream of the crop of any illegal war grade equipment that makes it to the market. In fact, often at prices that would usually be mutually exclusive with profit.”

“So there are good odds he has a wealthy patron who is possibly connected to someone behind the attack,” Irwyn nodded.

“It’s mostly conjecture to be honest,” Desir shrugged. “But hey, beggars, choosers and whatnot. If there are no better clues it’s worth checking out.”

“Alright, then where do we find this arms dealer?”

“The pal of mine I mentioned before may have been keeping tabs on his fellow traders,” Desir grinned deeply. “And happens to know about where and when they will be making an evening deal in two days’ time. Shouldn’t be too hard to nib them on their way from it, or crash the party if it comes down to it. They will be guarded but nothing that could deal with a metaphorical heavyweight like you.”

“How will we get what we need from them then?” Irwyn was nodding along but obviously asked about the perceived hole in the plan.

“Leave that to me Irwyn,” Desir kept smiling. “Half an hour alone in a room with them and I will know everything they do. It might not have come up but even Ibis calls for me by name when he needs an interrogation done right.”

“Fine, I will leave that to you then,” Irwyn nodded. “Do you intend to bring someone else?”

“I will have a small crew that’s reasonably trustworthy, just for the first part though. Basically, ambush specialists to help cover anyone retreating. Once we have captured the arms dealer they will leave with their pay. You?”

“I might bring one,” Irwyn said after a moment of thought. Elizabeth had said she would be away for a week at most. The odds were she would make it and would want to be involved. “It will depend on their schedulle, however, my contact in high society might want to personally take part.”

“They any good?” Desir’s gaze sharpened slightly.

“I am reasonably confident they would wipe the floor with you in combat,” Irwyn explained though he omitted that Elizabeth could also wipe the floor with him. “Frankly, if they ask I would not dare refuse, however, they will not drag us down and might be inclined to pay us extra if they get a bit of skin in the game.”

“Well, this is your client to begin with,” Desir shrugged. “If you think they won’t be a burden I won’t complain. I will cover the crew for the moment and then we take the cost as an extra cut from the final payout. They charge me a fixed rate so anything we might recover from the dealer is also ours. My pal will fence it off us.”

"Sounds good,” Irwyn agreed. “Do you have a more concrete idea of where this will happen?"

"Better," Desir reached into a pocket, taking out a folded piece of paper. "I have a plan of the building where the deal will take place," he said as he unfolded it.

It looked a bit strange in all honesty. Two exits, no windows, and after a few moments of staring Irwyn realized that the upper of the two floors was actually slightly larger than the lower one. And the position of it seemed to be adjusted for something built next to it, a bit like an uneven curved street. But Abonisle had few of those, due to its almost obsessive urban planning at least as far as Irwyn had seen.

"Is this… underground?" Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

"Connected to the sewers," Desir nodded. “In the middle of two tunnels with a back exit.”

"You know, there seem to be a lot of these underground bases," Irwyn shook his head.

"Obviously. They are mostly old storage and ritual rooms from when Abonisle was more of a fortress than a town," Desir shrugged. "The inner-city sewers used to be tunnels meant for use during a siege. Now that the military has one of the three Spires dedicated to them these were mostly abandoned. There is an… agreement of sorts with the City that there is limited scrutiny down there as long as some conditions are met. Though don’t ask me for details since only the four birds actually know the exact terms agreed upon.”

“Fair enough, what’s your plan?” Irwyn returned to their operation

“I say we wait for the deal to conclude and wait by the door,” Desir nodded.

“There are three,” Irwyn raised an eyebrow. “I suppose we set up at one side and your friends on the other.

“Yes, though they are there more a backup in case the dealer slips through our fingers,” Desir nodded. “You see, the seller is almost certainly going to leave first when the deal is done, it’s basically etiquette. And the buyer is going to leave through the opposite side. We just have to wait by one of the doors. If the dealer comes out we get them, if the seller does, we go inside right after our target before they have the chance to leave.”

“How do we tell them apart?” Irwyn was nodding along though he pointed out what he saw as possible flaws.

“Easy. People who are not carrying crates are most likely going to be the sellers. I also have a description on the person in charge we will be looking for. They will also have a whole crew of bodyguards while their seller could be just an individual or a few people.”

“Couldn’t they just stuff them into spacial bags?”

“You don’t just stuff highly magical war equipment into compressed space Irwyn, unless you are sure those bags are top-notch and the enchantments on the weaponry are stable,” Desir shook his head. “Especially because the top-end stuff does not reach the black market. What they are trading are mostly things either so low power or so near Finity expiration that they managed to slip them through the books or steal them without getting hunted down for it. Because anyone who steals something actually state of the art tends to die by the end of the day and stays low for much longer if they live. Case in point, the recent attackers in hiding somewhere.”

“Fair enough,” Irwyn could very well understand that people essentially stealing from House Blackburg would not make it far if they were noticed and it only made sense that the higher quality something was, the closer it was guarded. And the military was officially maintained and owned exclusively by that very same house, at least in the Duchy of Black. No, anything that reached the black market of that kind would be either bottom of the barrel, homemade replicas, or smuggled from other duchies. Either way, the quality would most likely be on the lower end.

“Where will we meet up?”

“Here,” Desir, apparently well prepared, just took out a handwritten card with an address and time. It was in the early evening, not long after dusk. “It’s a small, out-of-the-way storehouse. Ideal for clandestine meetings. We should meet a bit early just in case before my friends do. Better we have a small talk with the people in the loop. I will keep my ear to the ground in case something changes or for extra details.”

“I will see you there then,” Irwyn nodded, standing up and offering his hand.

“In two days then,” Desir took the handshake, saying his goodbye before departing; of course, leaving the note behind. Irwyn would need to figure out where the address actually was but that should not be too much trouble.

He sighed and sat back down on his bed. He had to admit that the room was really a bit of a mess so he stood back up and started cleaning a bit. Maybe he should figure out where a duster was.

“Reasonably sure I would wipe the floor with that one, huh,” a familiar voice suddenly sounded right behind Irwyn’s ear after he dropped his guard. He flinched, tripped and jumped at the same time, barely managing to only tumble onto the wall instead of folding on the ground; though he still ended up in an awkward crouch. “Maybe I have been a bit too restrained in how we have sparred lately.”

“Elizabeth?” Irwyn turned, eyes wide and there she stood, confidently. In that same conservative dress, looking down at him with an amused mischievous smile. Except, just slightly different. It was like… she was not quite there? No, rather, it was a bit like nothingness was burning in her place. It was no spell or anything enforced by mana though. It was a state of being; an impression generated by her very presence. A bit similar to how some of the great mages Irwyn had met had given him a distinct impression of what they stood for, however, what Elizabeth presented was a few degrees of magnitude weaker. Still, it was undeniably there.

And another thing had startled Irwyn slightly. Since Elizabeth had been around long enough to hear at least part of the conversation he just had with Desir she must have been hidden by a spell, presumably her own, and in the room in order to ambush him like that.

And Irwyn had not felt the slightest trace of it.