Hope

Irwyn rushed inside, Desir staying several steps behind him. His barrier of transparent Flames surrounded him with no less power than he would use in his spars with Elizabeth. Flames rather than Starfire. Starfire still suffered some vulnerability to Void magic inherited from light so even though it was better at defending against everything else, Irwyn still opted not to be extra vulnerable to the element the Duchy of Black was known for. He held down the knob and let solid light knock the door open with force and the element of surprise.

The first two guards were holding firearms, standing right by the entrance. They had no magic so Irwyn simply destroyed the weapons and bound them with what was practically a rope of solid light; all done before the men had so much as reacted to him. He would need to actively maintain it, however, as magic without a single concept the strain was negligible over small distances.

The next door did not stand any more chance, snapping open without issue; though even if there was Irwyn was ready to knock anything locked off its hinges. The room he entered was empty, just a hallway. But he had expected as much and proceeded along the building plan he had read up upon, the mage they were after working as a beacon. He was not the only one, however, the smuggler’s aura was undoubtedly the most condensed.

Irwyn half ran, passing through intersections and hurrying straight towards a stairway, skipping a few turns. He kept tight control over his magic though so he had not been felt and the guards could not do much as he had not neglected to also gag them.

Elizabeth approached from not far away. She also kept her magic under a tight grip, however, she was not dedicating herself to stealth, therefore it was not beyond Irwyn’s capacity to sense. There were two stairwells up so they chose to take one each. They were not planning to meet up though; they would each clear one half of the building on their way.

The density of defenses grew significantly denser above the stairs. Yet it might as well not have for all the difference it made. Irwyn found another duo unsetting a tripwire, probably in preparation to leave. They too were quickly bound as he carried on. As was another pair who were talking in the next room.

Then the explosion sounded.

It came from Elizabeth’s side, just as she also reached the second floor. There was a flare of magic at her location, however, she did not so much as slow down and neither did Irwyn. The next two he found were still recoiling and subdued immediately, then next were ready for him, riffles and wands charged with spells aimed at his barrier. A dozen men, organised and well trained.

He did not even feel the strain as their weapons shattered themselves on an immovable barricade.

The only real annoyance they caused was obstructing sight, but then, Irwyn did have a spell dedicated to sight nowadays. With the remote eye it was a matter of seconds to subdue the whole group.

It was ridiculously easy.

Maybe that should have been self-evident before things even started. Irwyn had simply not internalized it. Never really thought of it. As he walked among these mortal men and women, they could not even slow him down. Their best effort equaled to doing nothing at all. It was… eye-opening. How things have reversed from the days he cowered, afraid to use his magic overmuch lest he might be uncovered and hunted down.

It was liberating, to truly realize he had nothing to fear from even a squad of riflemen. That he had changed and left the worst of his weakness dead somewhere along the way.

Then he curbed his egomania. There were higher heights still. He needed just to remember Dervish or that Shadow which had captured him back in Ebon Respite. He may be inconceivably high above the layman on the metaphorical mountain of power, yet nowhere near the true peak. But it did reinvoke his drive. The lust for more power. Because, damn it, did it feel good to not be afraid whatsoever.

The next room was large. It was also where the arms dealer was awaiting them. Even if Irwyn could not feel the man from afar they were easily spottable with the – indeed - distinct scar. The man stood side by side with what might be his last 3 guards, each a mage as well. Irwyn might have taken out most of their forces in just the room before. Looking around the hall, it was mostly unfurnished again - well, it was not exactly a place of residence - besides the few crates stacked on top of each other in the corner.

A spell and a salvo of projectiles impacted his barrier the moment he entered. None so much as tickling what it could bear. He felt two intention magic lashing towards him, pierce and power contained in a spear of flickering green he interpreted as Life magic; the biggest threat it posed was distracting him with curiosity about how Life mages fought offensively.

“If you would please just surrender,” Irwyn suggested as the visual noise cleared and he approached.

“Well, aren’t you a polite cunt,” one of the guards spat while the mage… rather the arms dealer - considering that all 4 were mages - was frowning. That was not the look of surrender nor despair though. Irwyn encroached closer.

The floor beneath his feet exploded. Not a speck of magic coursed in it though, just sheer force and heat from a mundane volatile explosive. It had been well enough hidden not to be spotted on the ground, which would have been impressive if it had been improvised. Unfortunately for them, Irwyn had not neglected being protected from all sides, including below. That one embarrassingly quick demonstration in training had been all he needed to learn the lesson.

For a split second, he almost fell through the newly created hole, however, a slab of solid flames immediately manifested to hold Irwyn’s weight. They still tried to capitalize on the ambush, firing another salvo of everything they had, perhaps hoping the two combined would be enough. They were nowhere near close. Irwyn almost felt like a bully.

“If you would reconsider,” Irwyn trod closer. And walked right into a second explosion. It did as much as the first but he had to admit that if his force was not so overwhelming these tactics would have closed a large gap in power. All they really did was stall the inevitable. And that applied doubly so, for the next moment Elizabeth stepped into the room. As perhaps a last-ditch effort one of the casters attempted to forcefully teleport something inside of Irwyn’s barrier, which immediately failed. Not because Irwyn was particularly well defended against such acts but because there was too large a difference of sheer magical potency. Irwyn knew that his spatial defenses could be better for opponents at the same level.

“Enough, we have lost,” Elizabeth’s entry was enough to break their spirit anyway. The arms dealer announced as such with just a glance at her, equally untouched. One of his three mage bodyguards protested and motioned to cast again, instead they got an elbow to the face.

“So, what do you want with me?”

“Manacles first,” Irwyn walked closer.

“Escap…” and the space mage tried to cast in the distraction. Irwyn began to counter and realized that he did not really have a good way of stopping space magic aimed at someone else. It was something starting with escape, which would have an obvious purpose, though what Irwyn did not hear the whole spell name. And never would.

A beam of black magic erased anything above the man’s neckline from existence halfway through the chant’s first word and then dispersed before it even hit the back wall.

“Any other surprises?” Elizabeth asked, not sounding distraught or doubtful at all about what had just transpired.

“That was the last,” the arms dealer was too shocked to answer for a moment and then replied with a deep sigh. He did intently look anywhere but at the dead mage. The other two also seemed surprised and out of rhythm, which Irwyn wouldn’t have expected. They had given him the impression of hard-to-shake veterans.

“Bit of a mess, but could have been worse,” Desir walked out from his hiding spot in the previous room. Surprisingly enough, in the end he had opted to wear a veil of magical darkness to hide his features and his voice seemed a bit… off. Not quite like him. Which was probably the point. He approached the defeated mages, gave Irwyn a nod and then put the draining manacles on each. He had apparently prepared even a few more than there were mages, though they ended up unnecessary.

“Everyone should be restrained, yes?” Irwyn glanced at Elizabeth.

“...Yes,” she replied after a short pause. Irwyn wasn’t sure what to that was about but let it be.

“Gather everyone downstairs and bring in your friends Desir,” Irwyn nodded. “I will have a go through the stuff here while I keep an eye on them.”

“Will do. If you would Crepuscule?” and as such the two headed downstairs, picking up the tied-up guards along the way.

Irwyn turned towards the crates. In hindsight, it was a bit strange that Bhaak would deal with people like these. Irwyn rather remembered that the man proudly claimed he only dealt with the incredible. He opened the first crate and immediately found a note.

‘If you would leave these be I can take them back in an hour or so. I will give you credit for their value. - Bhaak’

Well… Irwyn wasn’t sure what to think about that. Bhaak had shown he had some capacity for reading Fate, though Irwyn had no clue how this pertained to future events. Also, he should have been disrupting any such predictions by his very existence from what everyone has been telling him.

He sighed as he inspected the goods. They were all riffles, enchanted and seemed well manufactured, though Irwyn knew jack about such things. The magic in them was, however, incredibly stable. Like some of the best enchantments, he had seen around the city in buildings and such. The only issue was that they didn’t actually hold all that much power, each with exactly one intention imbued. Most likely, whoever enchanted them had held back.

Either way, they would be worth a fortune… But just cash did not have unlimited worth; especially while Irwyn wasn’t hurting for it. If he ever desperately needed money, he happened to know a certain noble lady to ask for a competitive loan. And there was such a thing as scarcity of goods. And everything about Bhaak had screamed the man could deal with the unobtainably rare. Not to mention the logistics of moving and offloading these themselves… With another sigh he closed the crates and glanced at the 3 mages… and the fourth one on the floor.

“Does he have any preferred burial?” Irwyn asked as he approached.

“Just ‘don’t let the rats eat me’,” the dealer shrugged slowly but Irwyn saw that the death bothered him at least somewhat. Not ‘soulmates’ kind of pain but they had probably been friends.

“Very well,” Irwyn nodded and motioned with his hand. A wave of flames engulfed the headless body, reducing it to ash in a moment. Undefended flesh burned easily. “Let’s go.”

Irwyn returned the same way he had come which was completely empty. The stench of sewers was still present though his nose was getting used to it. Or maybe just too dead to smell at that point.

“As we agreed, fellas,” Desir announced to his friends as soon as Irwyn got down. There were only a few of them left on the lower level and the guards were nowhere to be seen. They had probably already been brought outside. “Keep the muscle somewhere comfy for a day or two while we wrap up our business.” as the duo of mage bodyguards separated Desir pointed at them. “These two are mages, remember to not let the manacles slip.”

“Will do Richard,” one of them grunted, however, his eyes lingered on Elizabeth who seemed to be ignoring everyone else. “You coming to cards on the weekend?”

“Hopefully,” the blue-eyed man shrugged with a grin. “Really depends on how things go from here on out.”

Irwyn silently looked around the barren ‘hideout’.

It was a small apartment adjacent to a storefront and had only two rooms. This one and the one in which they kept their unconscious hostage. At least it had really been close, right on the lowest city level. Irwyn was pretty sure the shop actually operated normally but it was late into the night and the owner, or whoever, was clearly not sleeping over.

“Desir had said he will extract what we want to know, correct?” Elizabeth asked.

“All I will need is an hour alone and these,” Desir nodded, pointing at two… potions of some kind placed on top of a nearby shelf. Unlike the rest of the room, they were not dusty, clearly brought recently.

“I have been told that torture is extremely ineffective as a manner of interrogation,” Elizabeth raised an eyebrow though seemed more… intrigued than disturbed by the notion.

“And I would rather not have it on my conscience,” Irwyn nodded. It was perhaps a step too far beyond his already not particularly solid morals. But intentionally inflicting needless physical suffering for gain went over the apathy he had always maintained, especially if there were other ways.

“Oh, don’t be crass,” Desir gasped in mock outrage. “I am no torturer; that only results in being told what you want to hear rather than the truth. Nor am I needlessly cruel. See this one?” he pointed at one of the two. “A potion of forgetfulness. A basic courtesy which I hope to be afforded too if I am ever in such a situation. It will inhibit their brain and soul from creating memories for a few hours after the first dose and the second erases the in-between completely.”

“And the other?” Elizabeth glanced at it.

“A love potion, about… I want to say north of a hundred doses of the commercial stuff has” Desir grinned lightly. “As I said, give me an hour and we will know everything he knows.”

“Oh,” Elizabeth’s eyes widened with realisation. “That would be effective. If you can seduce them under the effect, they would indeed hide little.”

“Crepuscule, I can seduce almost anyone even without the potion,” Desir laughed. “An hour is just a bit of a tough timeline for most targets. Aiming for unquestioning obsession makes it even more so.”

“We will leave you to it, then,” Irwyn interjected before the conversation spun out further. “You said in an hour.”

“Yep, more or less,” Desir grinned. “Have a midnight snack if you are feeling puckish I suppose.”

“I am sure some vendors are still selling,” Elizabeth seemed suddenly enthusiastic about the idea.

“Well, I could probably use something to make up for the dinner I lost,” Irwyn sighed. He supposed that soon enough they might learn how good of a hint this was going to be.