Chương 167: 4.34 Bargains

Irwyn was at a loss for words as Bhaak made his entrance. He had not seen the man since before the attack on Abonisle, though the peddler appeared completely unchanged. Down to every strand of hair and clothes, actually. Irwyn didn't have perfect recall for those details, but he was almost sure the man was like a frozen image of his past, despite many months passing.

"Who are you?" Alice questioned, at least clearly unfamiliar with said peddler.

"Just a friendly traveling merchant with debts to keep," he answered.

"My customers call me Bhaak."

"Who has told me he couldn't find me in the past," Irwyn warily pointed out.

"And that was the sole truth," the man nodded agreeably.

"Because it was not you I came looking for, but rather Alice. Of course, you are welcome to browse as well, Irwyn."

"Me?" the Steelmire heiress paused, startled.

"This might be our first meeting, but that hardly means there are not long overdue things to settle between us," he nodded, then paused, gauging their suddenly wary expressions.

"No need to look at me that way, this is purely positive in nature."

"If your debts are so urgent, why have you only come to speak of them now?" Irwyn asked"Well, when was the last time you lot were out of the earshot of the Blackburg girl?" Bhaak inclined his head.

"Do you have a problem with her?" Irwyn immediately frowned.

"Hardly, and she would make a lovely customer," Bhaak nodded.

"Except I value my life a little too much to try."

"Because she is an extreme threat to someone who can teleport at theoretically impossible distances and at least a stage more powerful than her," Irwyn gave Bhaak his best unconvinced look.

"The good Duke has rather explicitly warned me away from interacting with any of his children," the peddler explained.

"And while that is rather slanderous and downright paranoid, I prefer my body and soul continuing to exist - and thus fully respect his draconian demand."

"Now that is rather worrying," Alice had been slowly easing into the conversation, but her guard redoubled after that.

"Such are the manners of grand houses - rather erring on the side of caution," Bhaak defended himself.

"I hold myself to the utmost standard of customer trust. If the Duke were willing to extend an olive branch and see me for himself, he would have no choice but to admit that I pose not the slightest threat of death nor subversion to his descendants. Alas, those of Wrath's line are not scarce on resources and thus hardly have a need of my wares. You on the other hand…"

"... Are traveling with said heiress as her entourage," Irwyn reminded.

"And I am sure this is a highly profitable endeavor for all of you," Bhaak nodded.

"But all of House Blackburg will not go out of their way for your sake. And even if the girl could make them, it would happen rarely. It is beyond doubt that there are esoteric things worth buying for three young prodigies."

"Should I wake Waylan?" Irwyn questioned, looking over to the tree where the sneak had lain down.

"Your friend has been pretending to be asleep for a while," the peddler informed them.

"While also rather impressively attempting to hide himself from my senses. Curious, I recognize some of those techniques, though it would be uncouth to mention their source before those not in the know. After all, that person had permitted me to mention them only to their scions." Waylan had stood up while Bhaak was talking and walked towards the rest of them with a somewhat defeated sigh. Just in time for him and Irwyn to share a look, since the merchant had definitely meant Old Crow.

Irwyn already knew the two were acquainted - something about bringing tea from the Old fowl's homeland - but the depth of that relationship was uncertain.

"You said you have come for me," Alice spoke up.

"Why?"

"Inheritance," he spoke a single word, making the trio flinch. After all, she was likely the closest living next of kin of almost anyone who had perished in Steelmire when the town was razed. Especially to the more powerful mages from there.

"What do you mean?" Alice still asked, voice unsteady. Her expression was first shifting with emotion, then calming down as a ring became visible on her hand.

"Han Daut was one of my customers," the merchant confirmed a conclusions Irwyn hadn't quite had time to fully come to.

"A frugal man who had supplied me with a great many items to sell and bought not as much in return. Since, as far as I can divine, he is dead, you as the next of kin inherit that balance."

"I… see," Alice spoke hesitantly, then silently stared ahead. The ring stayed visible, though she did not move. At first Irwyn thought she was struck mute and was thinking of something to say, then he realized it was not just her. Waylan too was unmoving, stopped literally in the middle of a step. Any background noise of nature had also notably ceased in between moments. As well as any motion outside Irwyn's immediate surroundings.

"Did you freeze Time?" Irwyn questioned, looking towards the apparent culprit.

"Very much so," Bhaak nodded.

"The rest of your quintet is already coming back, so I have to be a bit more efficient with what we have left."

"Then what is it you have to discuss?" Irwyn asked, but his mind was whirling. Did the merchant imply that he had frozen not just them but also the entire nearby town, which was also really not all that close? That felt impossible when accounting for Finity, so Irwyn felt like he was missing something. Either insight into how much power the peddler actually held or… perhaps Desir and Elizabeth were already quite close.

"I have an offer to make Alice, but it cannot be done without your consent," Bhaak nodded.

"And why is that?" he frowned, unsure where the conversation was going.

"Because it would require a certain little flower in your possession."

"Ambrosia," Irwyn immediately grasped, eyes widening. The talk of it had been recent enough to still be on his mind. Bhaak was offering that he could brew a dose of that miracle.

"The debt I owed to her father would be worth about as much as the supplementary ingredients and the Time burnt on labor," Bhaak nodded.

"Well, I would have to not charge a fee on said work, but that can be justified as a signing bonus."

"An interesting offer to make, without the person whose inheritance it involves," Irwyn probed but also half stalled, unsure what to say. It was obviously a massive opportunity, as they had no idea how long it would take to find someone else capable of it. It was the kind of task that would be difficult even back in the Federation. On the other hand, Irwyn wasn't sure how trustworthy Bhaak really was, nor how much said 'inheritance' was actually worth.

"I cannot exactly in good conscience expose that you even hold something of that value, can I?" the merchant chuckled.

"Nor can I make you play along. With you actively ruining divination, one cannot just learn the whole group dynamic to make the best offer for everyone outright either. You will have enough time to decide whether to give the girl the opportunity or what you want to get from it, my terms are stated plainly."

"Didn't you intend to resolve this today?" Irwyn questioned.

"I have rather carefully not said it like that, have I?" Bhaak just grinned.

"You did something to Time," Alice suddenly spoke up, unfrozen, before Irwyn could continue the conversation.

"Just bargained for a little extra so that we can finish speaking," Bhaak smoothly shifted the conversation as if their private dialogue had not happened.

"Well, the matters of inheritance clearly require more thought. I will return tomorrow, anytime between dawn and an hour after. Get the Blackburg heiress to move at least to the horizon from the rest of you, or I will take it as a sign my presence is unwanted." Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"That sounds agreeable," Irwyn nodded. It would give them plenty of leisure to talk things through.

"In the meantime, I have a different deal to offer each of you," Bhaak raised his hands theatrically, then paused, turning back to his carriage.

"Even the counter is extensively warded, Waylan."

"I haven't touched anything," the sneak said sheepishly.

"A possibly temporary state of affairs, had I not called out," the merchant snorted.

"You are good for your age, but the pond of shadow you use to hide is still shallow."

"Dully noted," Waylan sighed, then moved back.

"What is it you wanted to trade then?" Irwyn distracted from Waylan's indiscretion.

"I will buy the fae's lesser boons from the three of you," Bhaak offered, returning to theatrics with a wave of his hands.

"You don't even know what they are," Irwyn frowned.

"Neither do you," Bhaak grin, making Irwyn frown. He remembered they had bargained for small boons from the fae. He was actually quite certain of it. But when he looked back… he realized that he could, in fact, not recall.

"How?" Alice exclaimed, likely coming to the same conclusion.

"You probably bet your ability to remember what the boons are and lost," the peddler suggested.

"How can you even talk about them?" Waylan questioned instead.

"The only secrets I keep belong to my customers," the man scoffed.

"And the few of them among that austere crowd are not the ones to have bound your words. Nor had they ever put me under such."

"Then we should still not be able to," the sneak added.

"Please, the faen geas placed on you is versatile but not that powerful," the man explained.

"It can only prevent you from spilling the secret if it can actually notice someone listening or recording."

"What would you possibly even do with them?" Irwyn questioned.

"Faen boons are incredibly useful in a wide and niche range of situations," Bhaak said.

"Under some circumstances, they can be transferred from person to person. And I would call myself capable of buying and reselling anything short of a Name. It is a simple matter, really."

"We would be trading unique benefits for who knows what," Waylan pointed out.

"They were called minor for a reason," Bhaak shrugged.

"Small, uninfluential things. Tiny conveniences that you likely don't notice or cannot even utilize without understanding the wording of them. I would offer you something wholly tangible in exchange."

"I would be much more interested in buying information about mine in that case," Irwyn pointed out.

"For what little good that would do you," Bhaak scoffed.

"You did not forget. You lost your ability to remember them. I could quite literally tell you exactly what each minor boon does, and it would slip your mind in the next breath."

"Then I assume that you have something in mind in exchange?" the younger Time mage spoke up again after a while.

"To you, Alice, I offer a small truth about the events of Steelmire's fall," Bhaak grinned, expression almost predatory.

"What?" she flinched again, the ring reappearing. Irwyn and Waylan also couldn't help but have a reaction.

"How? Everything was…"

"The cleanup was rather thorough," Bhaak agreed.

"But some hints always slip, no matter how careful. I am almost certain no one else except the perpetrators themselves is aware of the information I possess, though should you somehow be in the know already, I shall offer an immediate refund."

"How?!" Alice repeated.

"That, I am afraid, would be part of the bargain."

"Damn it," Alice bit her lip.

"Maybe it would be best to think this…" Irwyn started but did not get to finish.

"Fine, take them," Alice interrupted him, perfectly calm again thanks to her ring.

"What do you know."

"Your father, Han Daut, only died three days after the attack," Bhaak calmly said, earning various degrees of shock from his audience.

"Of course, after the night of the catastrophe, he was thoroughly warded. Paranoidly so from what I have gathered. To the point I think there might have been a Truth possessing anti-divination expert present."

"Yet they somehow failed to stop you," Irwyn pointed out.

"I have a unique advantage," Bhaak nodded, waving his hand downward as a bound clipboard appeared in it.

"My Ledger."

"Explain, please?" Alice half requested, half demanded, clinging onto every word.

"An item that I have painstakingly turned into an artifact, all the while perpetually permeating it by my personnel blend of magic," he actually elaborated, apparently considering it part of the deal.

"It has essentially just two abilities empowered to their utmost limit: It lists names of people; and allows me to perform divination or teleportation towards those listed at fraction of how difficult it would otherwise be."

"Your customers," Irwyn guessed as the idea struck him.

"Exactly," the peddler affirmed.

"That and potential new ones, or occasionally those with relations like Alice though she would rightfully belong to both of the non-permanent groups. Minus Irwyn and three others that are particularly objectionable to divination."

"After Daut vanished from my Ledger, there was no choice but to move to investigate his sudden passing. I tried to understand at first, then quickly decided that getting involved was greatly unwise even for me, so I ceased. For that same reason I had not contacted Alice at the time - because whatever had actually happened was frankly terrifying and definitely could kill a mere peddler like me.

But by the time I was confident your trail had grown cold, you were already in the same town as a certain direct descendant of the Duke and under constant watch of said mage."

"Constant watch?" Irwyn caught. Then realized that perhaps that made sense. The Duke couldn't have been paying much attention to Ebon Respite where his daughter had been… but even Irwyn was already capable of monstrous amounts of multitasking at least two full stages below the Duke. How bothersome would it be to leave just a passive bit of magic that would alert him to truly powerful mages like Bhaak or Raveners appearing?

"Oops, please do not mention I said that," Bhaak shrugged.

"I generally don't care about the secrets of those who are not my customers, but there are a few people I am wary of crossing."

"Is there any chance that he lived?" Alice asked with the faintest glimmer of hope in her eyes.

"I have never seen a case of anyone being alive after their name vanished," the peddler immediately shut her down.

"But it would not be a bother to explain the exact mechanics," Irwyn interjected.

"Fine," Bhaak shrugged.

"When there is absolutely no possibility in the eyes of Fate for the customer to ever deal with me again - that is the condition for vanishing. Are there other ways than death to sever possibility so totally? Perhaps, but I cannot think of any that would not be worse.

"And undeath?" Irwyn asked carefully"The Ledger would have notified me of the shift, at which time I would have sold the information and direct transport to the nearest High Inquisitor I could find for a crooked smile and a bit of gallows humor - they all despise jokes but will begrudgingly do it to so explicitly save resources." That left them all silent for a moment. It was Waylan who spoke up first: "Something a bit less depressing for me?"

"How about a tonic that regrows hair?" Bhaak immediately said.

"You seem to be balding at rapid pace for your age."

"Technically a curse," Waylan grinned. It was something he had lost in one of the first bets with the fae, Irwyn recalled - the ability to grow hair.

"Though it is mighty convenient for a thief to never again set off an alarm with a falling strand, eh?"

"Hah! She must have liked that," Bhaak nodded.

"Then perhaps a different kind of beverage?" The merchant walked to his carriage's window and the counter shifted in the blink of an eye. Just a few seconds later, he returned with a flask of shimmering golden flask. It had nothing do to with stars nor light nor flame though, Irwyn was sure of that. It however held a striking similarity to something they had witnessed before.

"Is that… bottled faith?" Waylan stared at the flask hungrily.

"Nothing so meager," the peddler shook his head.

"This is about a half of a dissolving god, captured in those dying moments. The rest was eaten by a victorious rival, but this was not so digestible for them - it's all the bits that contain the tenets and fundamental beliefs. A poison to another deity not perfectly aligned with the original, but perfect for someone like you who is funneling all that power into a system that will not care what it's feasting on."

"And you are sure that will have no side effects?" Irwyn asked while Waylan grew silent.

"Certain," Bhaak nodded.

"Damn it, you really know yer trading," Waylan grunted, then sighed.

"Fine, take them."

"Pleasure doing business," the merchant laughed, handing over the flask.

"I know what I would want," Irwyn interjected.

"A blessing or an item that will make it easier or even painless to carve into my own flesh." The first Concept had gone seemingly smoothly, yes, but Irwyn had not been mentally present for it. Not really, at least. He had to divert all of his will into just magic so that he could not perceive the overwhelming pain. That was not ideal for several reasons he could think of. For one, it would be difficult to account for sudden variables.

That could prove especially problematic when he eventually had to merge several Concepts, a process much less clean-cut than just carving an exact shape he already had perfectly memorized. Perhaps it would not even be needed, but just having that option would make him far more confident in continued success.

"I can guess what you are looking for," Bhaak nodded, subtly tapping his left forearm - right where Irwyn had carved his Concept. An innocuous enough gesture among the peddler's repeated arm waving that if the other two had not known what he was talking about, they wouldn't have realized the meaning.

"Yes, there is something of the sort, though it is worth just a bit more than the little blessings summed up. How about I also add in your remaining credit and we call that even?"

"I have credit with you?" Irwyn paused.

"You have left me that entire shipment of magical weapons in Abonisle, remember?" Bhaak chuckled.

"I certainly do. And I don't leave debts unsettled, even if low imbuement weaponry is not exactly what I would call valuable cargo. Do we have a deal?"

"Assuming it fits my needs?" Irwyn nodded after thinking for a moment longer. He remembered those weapons and doubted they would have been worth much. Certainly not enough to compare to what he was bargaining for.

"We do."

"You will not be able to feel it right away, so trust me on it - or test," Bhaak nodded.

"It is a blessing of a different fae that explicitly makes it painless to alter oneself - fitting for you, yes? You can renegotiate if you are dissatisfied. It should remain fully effective until a mage can claim a domain or a few, at which point I might just buy it back from you."

"That is exactly what I need," Irwyn nodded, quite happy with that trade. He quickly tried to nick his thumb by alternating the outermost layer of skins and indeed felt not sting - just a few droplets of blood before the wound quickly sealed.

"This has been wonderful," Bhaak exclaimed, stepping back to his carriage. The three of them had more to say, but the merchant did not let them, "Remember: Tomorrow after dawn." Then Bhaak vanished, not a trace left of his carriage. Not a mote of magic left behind.