Chapter 32: The Motormouth Broker
Marrath’s black market smelled like a mix of cheap incense and rusty iron. Belida was already halfway pulling his black sword from its sheath. The giant knight tightly gripped the collar of a skinny pickpocket who had just tried reaching into their gold sack.
Kanos pulled Belida’s shoulder gently.
"Let him go," Kanos said flatly. "Adding bodies will only make us easier for the Sensors to track."
Belida let out a rough snort. He threw the kid into a pile of empty wooden barrels. The pickpocket immediately ran away terrified through the crowded market without daring to look back.
Papuyu kept walking in front of them without caring about the commotion. The girl led Kanos and Belida through a narrow alley filled with shabby tarp tents. This place was truly the city’s blind spot. No sunlight came in, only lit by dim red oil lamps.
"That is the guy," Papuyu pointed with her chin toward a rickety table at the very end of the alley.
A skinny guy with messy curly hair was there. He wore round glasses with a fine crack on one of the lenses. The guy was running his mouth non stop at a hunched old artifact merchant in front of him.
"No, you cannot do that, boss. You said this is an earth dragon horn fragment?" The glasses guy tapped the dirty stone on the table with his finger. "I swear, this is just fossilized mine worm poop polished with slime spit. Look at the cracks? If this is a dragon horn, why would it have circular patterns like this? Are you trying to scam me or what? Three copper coins. That is the most logical price for this worm kidney stone."
The old merchant looked furious. He threw the stone at the guy. The guy caught the stone easily, tossed three copper coins onto the table, then turned around with a satisfied smile. His smile instantly vanished when he saw Papuyu, Belida, and Kanos already standing there blocking his path.
The guy’s eyes immediately swept over the three of them from top to bottom in one second. A quick assessment.
"Papuyu brought friends? Wow, the world must actually be ending today," the guy adjusted his slipping glasses. He glanced at Kanos whose face was half covered by his cloak hood. "Who are you? You do not look like a noble with a lot of gold."
"Are you the broker Papuyu mentioned?" Kanos took a step forward.
"Sili," the guy answered quickly. "Depends on what you need. Illegal weapons? High dose poison? Or the location of a rare monster nest? If you are asking how to pay off gambling debts, I am not taking the job."
"I need a high tier monster anatomy book," Kanos cut straight to the point. "Secret expedition journals to the bottom floors. Blueprints for flying monster or golem bone structures. What is the price?"
Sili went quiet for a moment. His previously playful eyes suddenly turned serious. He looked around the alley to make sure no other ears were listening.
"High tier anatomy books? Bottom floor info?" Sili spoke with his voice dropped two octaves. "Are you trying to kill yourself or start a new cult? The Sensor Bureau will burn anyone alive who keeps that kind of stuff."
Belida lowered his giant burlap sack to the ground. The sound of gold coins and crystals clashing loudly could be heard clearly from inside the sack.
"We have enough gold to cover that risk," Belida threatened with his heavy voice.
Sili clicked his tongue softly. He shook his head. "Gold is boring, big guy. Everyone has gold. I am an information broker, not a loan shark. If my risk is getting burned alive by the Sensors, a sack of gold will not bring me back to life."
"Then what do you want?" Kanos asked flatly.
Sili leaned his body forward. "I want something that makes my brain itch. Something crazy. Something I have never seen in my entire life in this rotten city."
Kanos smiled very faintly. He reached his left hand out over Sili’s wooden table. His right hand reached into his cargo pocket, grabbing the glass bottle containing the smoking Gargoyle Bat core. Kanos popped the cork open with his thumb from inside his pocket.
Thick purple smoke slowly flowed upward past Kanos’s sleeve, gathering at the tip of his left index finger.
Sili took a step back. His mouth hung half open watching the smoke moving against the wind.
Kanos drew quick lines in the air. One stroke. Two strokes. A skull frame, a spine, and a jaw. The purple smoke solidified in a matter of seconds. On top of Sili’s table, there now stood a Shadow Wolf the size of a sewer rat. The tiny wolf growled soundlessly, its purple eyes glowing brightly in the middle of the dim market.
Sili froze completely. His breath seemed to stop. The guy suddenly leaned his face in until his nose almost touched the shadow wolf’s snout.
"This... this is not summoning magic," Sili spoke super fast, his tone completely filled with uncontainable shock. "The structure is solid but it is one hundred percent made of pure energy? This violates the system’s laws of thermodynamics! Where did it come from? Who made it? How does this not explode when the air particles are fused?"
Sili tried to touch the wolf with his hand. But before his finger could touch the purple smoke, Kanos snapped his fingers. The tiny wolf instantly dissipated, turning back into thin smoke that vanished, swept away by the dirty air of the black market.
"Bring me all the books I asked for," Kanos said coldly. "Or that secret disappears from here right now."
Sili slammed both hands onto the table hard. His eyes were truly sparkling like a kid who just found the rarest toy in the world.
"Deal! Damn, absolute deal!" Sili hurriedly shoved his worm stone into his pocket. "Starting today, just consider me your personal library, boss. Where are we experimenting?"
