“Now, my hunters, I have a few items that should help you on your mission.” Lemuria’s tail slid out from under the table and slapped the floor twice, ushering over a cowled figure who stopped a respectful few steps from the table. “Jaeger, would you be a dear and go with Anton here and retrieve the items in question.”

  Jaeger raised an eyebrow and didn’t move. In response, Lemuria simply rolled her eyes.

  “Do not be like this now. Anton cannot carry all the boxes himself, and if I send Kaeleth here, she’s liable to get distracted whipping the first person who asks. So will you please?”

  He hadn’t raised an eyebrow because she’d ask, but because she’d trapped him in the booth and showed no sign of moving. He stared at her for an extra moment before climbing out of the booth. The lamia’s smile didn’t drop as she watched him climb out. The moment he was free of the booth, clapping could be heard.

  “Encore, encore, that was a magnificent show.” Kaeleth crowed, and a snort could be heard from the lamia across from her.

  Jaeger ignored both of them and followed Anton as the man walked away.

  The moment the bounty hunter was away from the table, Lemuria’s smile dropped, replaced by a stony expression.

  “Are you sure about him?”

  Kaeleth stopped watching the bounty hunter and turned to the lamia.

  “Very much so.”

  “He has the look, not to mention the class, of a goody two-shoes justice seeker. Granted, he gave a decent plan to kill Jean, but can he be trusted not to turn a blazing ‘blade’ of justice on the whole of the party? You know this won’t be a clean or official affair; there will be things there that go against what even the FRC approves of. Are you sure he won’t interfere in the mission? This isn’t a legal endeavor.”

  “Your organization gave him a chain of respect, do you not trust your own?”

  The lamia laughed, a cold and forced sound.

  “Of course not. The ones above me are as likely to have given him the chain as a way to weed out ignorant members as to have given it to him out of actual respect.” She tapped the table with a sharp fingernail. “Although the Ship Taker is his sponsor, and she doesn’t have as much time for those petty games.”

  She fell into a contemplative silence, staring forward. The chaos elf moved herself so she could look the older woman dead in her eyes, swirls of chaos meeting unflinching age. A short and almost frantic intake of air sounded before the familiar smoky voice spoke; this time in a tone that reminded Lemuria of a cat watching over her favorite toy.

  “My answer hasn’t changed. He is more than capable, but what he’s done and what I’ve seen him do, the hard line moral code, the amoral attitude towards justice. He is a tempered balance of chaos and order. If you do not trust your own, then trust me. He is the right man for the job.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Giving the woman a crooked, broken smile, Kaeleth fell silent and went back to staring after the bounty hunter, leaving Lemuria to mull over her words.

  ———

  Jaeger followed Anton away from the table and deeper into the club itself. He hadn’t bothered to look at too much of the greater club, and, going down the sidepaths and worker passages, he assumed that would remain the case. He couldn’t have been more wrong. As Anton led him along, he saw more than his fair share of debauchery. The worker-only areas were littered with peepholes, one-way mirrors, and in some cases, magic illusions of walls.

  Walking along, he watched as beings, humanoid and otherwise, engaged in every act he could imagine. In one room, a large reptilian centaur was mounting what seemed to be a flowery woman whose knees seemed to fuse into a stalk; a therorex and a flowering aphro. In another room, a woman with a second set of chitinous arms was wrapping a being in webbing she created. Another room was devoid of people but was covered in slash marks and blood. Moving along, Jaeger wondered if Lemuria sold voyeur services, because he couldn’t fathom the reason for these spy windows.

  Until he came across a room that made him pause. In it, a woman dressed similarly to Anton was holding a small crystal pyramid in her hand that was displaying something to a figure sitting in front of her. Whatever was on it caused the being, a male dwarf, to try and attack her. Having readied herself for it, the suited woman simply dodged the blind attack and tripped the dwarf.

  “Come along, you do not need to watch this.”

  Anton had moved back to Jaeger. The cowled man made no move to stop him and simply stood, presumably staring, at the bounty hunter.

  “What is that thing she’s holding?”

  “A memory pyramid.”

  “And what’s it do?”

  “It records moments in time to be shown later.”

  Jaeger was stunned to hear this. The ability to record and then show moments like this was revolutionary. He imagined all the ways to use it, no more being stiffed on payments because he couldn’t haul in a whole body, no longer having to blindly trust the words of a courier when he could simply be shown.

  “How come I haven’t seen these before?”

  “The materials are expensive.”

  “That’s it, they’re expensive? Not rare or hard to create?”

  “Any competent wizard with the correct components and spells could create one.”

  Jaeger heard that and then considered what he was seeing.

  “And you use them to blackmail people?”

  “I am not permitted to speak on the goings-on of the Black Rose club.”

  Jaeger shook his head and waved Anton on, leaving the extortion scene behind. Of course, a criminal organization like this would use them to blackmail. Hell, they probably made more money off of that than any of the actual activities in the club.

  They passed more rooms, but notably not another scene of extortion, Jaeger wondered if he was shown that purposely, and if so, why? He didn’t have much time to consider why before Anton led him to a room full of crates.

  “Follow me, the boxes for you are in the back.”

  The cowled man weaved through the crates, deeper into the room. As he passed, he looked into any open crate he passed and was mildly surprised to see them full of normal goods he would expect a club like this to have. Alcohol, glassware, chairs, and lots of leather tools. He passed a crate that was half full of leather straps and whips.

  “How much further?” Jaeger called out, only to receive silence in response.

  Looking up and around, the bounty hunter couldn’t see Anton. It wasn’t too surprising considering some of the crates were stacked up as high as walls, so he moved to the end of the nearest stack and called out again.

  “Anton! The hell did you go?”

  Again, no response. He resisted the urge to summon his axe; something was off here, but he couldn’t risk blowing his cover. He fingered the arm chain of bracelets and moved forward, cautiously. A move that was rewarded when an inscribed sabre came slashing down towards him.

  “DIE!”