Jaeger called out three more times and received no answer.

  “He’d best be dead.” Muttering to himself, Jaeger cast Bluthund, focusing on Anton. Without much information to go on, the golden trail was shaky and small, less a golden path and more gold dust. Following its guidance, he found himself moving deeper into the storage area; its size no longer felt like a room and more like a warehouse. He passed numerous aisles and goods, moving from the club goods he’d seen to items that practically screamed contraband.

  As he moved past a crate of thick, dark purple bricks labeled Yami, he found Anton—or at least a male figure in similar clothing. The man was decapitated and surrounded by five rotting bodies. Jaeger recoiled at the scene, half expecting the smell of death to overwhelm him, when a voice called out.

  “Good, you’re here. Kindly bring my head back to my body, I’m underneath the fat one.”

  Jaeger was startled by the muffled voice calling out to him. Even more so when Anton’s decapitated body started gesturing vaguely towards a rather obese man. The obese man in question more closely resembled a meatball with arms and legs, rather than a person. As he moved closer and examined the corpse, he felt a fog lift from his mind and recognized the being as a corpulent. They must have brought it along to hide the evidence of anyone else they had to kill. It looks to have been fed well based on its size.

  He moved around the body until he was at its back, between its legs. He was about to summon his chains when a different idea came to him. Stepping back, he raised his arm, focused on one of his bracelets, and pointed at the corpulent’s body. Directly in front of his finger, the world shivered, and a rip appeared. It slowly grew to the size of a barrel opening, and from it stretched tentacles.

  Once, while on a job, Jaeger had the opportunity to see a circus; the trapeze artists were hired killers and had murdered a local tavern owner. He’d watched the show, hoping to study his targets before hunting them, and saw a baby kraken. Its tentacles were dark green and covered in suckers that seemed to have small needles in them. It had been an impressive creature, so when he used Void’s Hunger, he expected to recognize the tentacles or at least be prepared to see them; he wasn’t.

  Void’s Hunger’s tentacles were not like anything he’d seen before. They weren’t flesh and blood. They were darkness, they were the absence of anything, they were from outside this world. As pieces of the night sky stretched forth towards the body, Jaeger moved around, something in him yearned to see what was on the other side of his spell. As he moved and saw into the void, the tentacles latched onto the corpulent, lifting its body and revealing its front. He was saved from a foolish decision, Anton.

  “Jaeger, I am between the corpulent’s teeth. Please retrieve me, I do not relish being lost to the void forever.”

  Jaeger shook his head as he heard Anton’s voice. He’d been doing something, right? He furrowed his brow before realizing he’d moved here so he could grab Anton, clearly. He moved to Anton, keeping the corpulent’s body between him and the tentacles; he didn’t need to see where the tentacles were taking the body.

  As he reached the corpulent’s front, he saw its entire torso was a mouth, with two small eyes at its shoulder joints. Its mouth was full of every kind of tooth he had ever seen. This was a creature that was shaped for one purpose only: eating, and caught within a lower pair of premolars was a skull, with dark blue lights in its eye sockets.

  “Yes, that’s me. Hurry, I can almost hear the Song of the Void.”

  Jaeger reached out and grabbed the skull, wrestling a bit to free it. As he pulled it free, the body folded in on itself and was pulled into the rip in space he’d summoned, closing it as it disappeared with a pop. A weight on Jaeger’s shoulders lifted, one he hadn’t known was there until it was gone.

  “I can’t say I understand why you used such a spell to free me, but I am thankful. Now, if you’d be so kind.”

  Next to them, a headless body held up its gloved hands, beckoning for the head. Jaeger gave the body its head and stepped back. With a dry crack, it set its head and then gave it a full body twist, as thought locking it in place. Anton rolled his shoulders, shook his skull before nodding with satisfaction and raising his cowl back up.

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  “I apologize for the ambush; somehow, these miscreants broke into the Black Rose’s storage realm. And to employ a corpulent like this? No sane person would risk a taotie rising for no reason. I see that you have outfitted yourself with weapons, and not ones that the Black Rose supplies. May I assume you also ran into difficulties?”

  Jaeger considered his next words carefully before he pulled out the bounty notice.

  “I was one of, if not the, target here. No employer name, but the ones who attacked me were Janissaries, or so the notice says.”

  Anton’s head tilted.

  “May I?”

  “Sure.”

  Anton went over the notice and nodded before handing it back.

  “To even send a Blade. The Shadow Sultan wanted you dead. I presume the yatagan you have there is the Blade in question?” Anton pointed at the saber Jaeger had tucked into a sash.

  “He used this saber, yatagan, but I got the feeling the man who wielded it was the Blade.”

  “It is a dual title, given to the person and weapon they wield. The weapon is given a measure of the Sultan’s magic, and the wielder is trained to attune to it. It is impressive that you were able to beat him. I would advise you to get rid of the blade; however, the Sultan can track its location.”

  Jaeger tapped the blade in thought, feeling it tremble as he did. The sudden change in Anton was welcome, if a touch confusing.

  “Before we go any further, why have you changed? You also seem very knowledgeable about the Shadow Sultan. Why?”

  “I haven’t changed, I have simply dropped my charade, and it is my responsibility to be well-informed.”

  “And yet you were sent off with me to grab some crates?”

  Anton laughed, a sound that came across dry and noble.

  “Lemuria asked me to get a reading on you, and this was a good way to cast some passive spells. Nothing invasive, she simply wanted to know if you were coming here in good faith or with an agenda.”

  Jaeger crossed his arms.

  “And?”

  “All clear. Aside from the Adventurers guild and a certain muri-gena, you’re mostly clean. Well, as clean as a warlock tied to an untraceable spirit can be.”

  Jaeger didn’t react to the warlock accusation; the FRC of all groups was unlikely to care about that.

  “I guess I’ll have to take your word on that, lich.”

  “Oh ho. Well done. Most people assume I’m simply a reanimated skeleton mage, or even a revenant.” Anton gave a sincere series of claps as he spoke. “So, is that all of your questions?”

  “No. You said I should get rid of the saber because it can be tracked. What if I bound it?”

  Even though he couldn’t see the skull, he could feel a brow raise in response.

  “That would work if you were able to bind it to yourself. It would no longer be his, nor the power contained inside it. The problem is that you cannot soul or blood bind this weapon to yourself; the Shadow Sultan’s power would cancel any ritual.”

  “What if I weren’t doing the ritual?”

  “You would require someone strong enough to oppose the Sultan, and few beings capable of doing so would deign to. Not for something like this.”

  “What if I used an item?”

  Anton took on a thoughtful pose.

  “That would work. A god’s altar, one opposed to the Sultan’s portfolio, would be best. A spell furnace of sufficient power or an alchemist’s cauldron, paired with a respective master, would also suffice.”

  “What about a cursed item?”

  “That would depend on the item and the curse. Curses are an odd thing; in their respective role, they can outpower even a higher god, let alone the Shadow Sultan. Do you have a cursed item like that?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Well, do not dawdle, send me its information.”

  “I’d rather consult someone I trust.”

  Anton raised a hand and waved it around.

  “The moment you leave the Black Rose, the Sultan will be able to actively track that yatagan, and he will deploy more Janissaries, strong ones. Unless you plan to put that person in danger, you will have to trust me.”

  “Oh yes, this will do nicely. You see the cursebound tag? That’s a rare thing; this will certainly outpower the Sultan. The requirements are rough, but not my problem.” With a visible pep to his step, Anton walked away, calling over his shoulder. “Come along, we will go back to Lemuria. Once she knows about this incursion, she’ll gladly help to thumb her nose at the Sultan.”

  Jaeger moved to catch up.

  “What about the crates?”

  “Hmm? Oh, yes.” The lich’s gloved hand glowed with a red nimbus, and he snapped. “It’s been handled.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Just like that.”