Chapter 7 – Part 7

Night fell early on the 3rd of Vult, especially so in Varna, as the towering woods to the west blocked the sun before it disappeared from sight. Varna was small by Khorvaire’s standards, but as the largest populated center in the Eldeen, it did have a night life. And as a place through which armies passed, certain services were always to be provided.

“Hey baby, you want a good time?” called a young shifter woman with long hair. She wore a heavy coat to brace against the chill, but she opened the front of it to her customer at the same time as she activated her inborn shifting ability to enhance the physique that she displayed.

She was talking to a tall man with a finely cut coat of his own, polished armor, and two blades that he carried on his hips with an air of proficiency. The man paused in his even, tireless stride, and turned his blue eyes on the shifter woman. He casually turned down his hood, showing blonde hair, and sigils on his clothing with the insignia of House Medani. The look that he gave the shifter prostitute was neither aroused nor friendly.

A human woman, one with a pretty face due to cosmetics, and aged eyes, grabbed the shifter woman’s arms and pulled her back. Like the shifter woman, the human showed more of her flesh than she ought to, given the weather. “Get away from him, Honey Bear,” the human woman said. “He don’t like your kind.”

The shifter woman called Honey Bear thought for a moment, then recognition passed across her animalistic features. She covered herself quickly with her coat, and took a step back. “The one called Parnain,” she hissed. “You stay away from me!”

The blonde half-elf smiled. The smile was not warm in any way. “Honey Bear,” he said, his voice idly amused. “I’ll remember that name.”

The two prostitutes pulled back, staying under a hung lantern so that any passerby would see them. “We ain’t done nothing,” the human woman said. “You got no authority over us!”

“Never said I did,” Parnain d’Medani said, pulling his hood back up. He chuckled and turned away, continuing on his walk.

It was not a long one. He spotted the red reed tied to a wooden porch post, and turned that way down a dark alley. The starlight was sufficient for his eyes to make out a door of simple wood. And next to the door, hiding behind a stack of firewood, a mithril-plated warforged.

Parnain strode confidently to the door, acting as if he didn’t notice the warforged guard. He knocked three times with his right hand, while his left rested on his shortsword, ready to draw if necessary.

The door opened soundlessly as Parnain felt the magical wards within drop away. The interior was warm, and chairs sat around a table next to a fire. “If you’re done scaring the hookers, you can come in and we can talk business,” said a voice in flawless elvish. It came very close to an Aerenal accent.

Parnain stepped through, then whirled around, both blades out, to hold level at the neck and torso of the warforged that assumed that the half-elf hadn’t heard it move.

The warforged held its hands out, showing that it held no weapon, as if its metallic hands were not weapon enough. “This unit does not threaten the elf,” it said softly.

“Half-elf, you idiot piece of tin,” came the same voice that had spoken in elvish before. It now spoke in common. “Stay outside and keep an eye out for anyone following the Medani.”

The warforged nodded and backed up. The door shut, untouched by any hand. On this side it was banded with iron. Parnain sheathed his weapons and turned back to the direction from which the speaker’s voice had come. “You can drop the invisibility field, or this doesn’t go down,” the Medani promised.

The air rippled, and a gnome sat in the chair closest to the fire, a flute across his lap as he cleaned his nails with a dagger. “And who else would you go to, hm?” asked the gnome. “Who else can tell you how the changelings were hired by Phiarlan to kill the Thuranni who were pretending to be Phiarlan, and take their place? Who else can tell you where they are right now?”

“I know where they are,” Parnain stated. “They stay in the inn across from the fish market, on the third floor. Deneith guards provide security, so I am careful.”

“You should be,” chuckled the gnome. “They have descriptions of your face. Five changeling merchants, open changelings, who wear their wax faces, hired them when they heard Parnain d’Medani was in town. Very convenient for the changelings in House Phiarlan’s employ.”

Parnain’s eyes flashed. “I wonder who sold them that bit of information.”

The gnome laughed and laughed, tucking away his dagger so that he could clap his hands. “Oh, Parnain, you are so suspicious!”

“For good reason,” the half-elf said. “Now, since you want payment, and since I want information, and since we both know that there are two invisible thugs of yours - one a shifter, by the smell – holding loaded crossbows, I say we should get this done before someone makes a bad mistake.”

The gnome’s laughter ceased, like fire doused by water. “Well, well, well, you are no fun at all.” He reached into his tunic and threw a tied piece of rolled-up parchment at Parnain. The half-elf caught it and tucked it into a pouch without looking at it. “Don’t you want to look it over and confirm that it’s correct?” asked the gnome.

“It’s a schematic of the docks, and it shows the hidden tunnel that the two changelings have been working on, yes?” Parnain asked. “I need to check it? I can’t trust the Trust?”

The gnome snorted. “It has the name and description of the dock guard being bribed, and the name and description of the shifter agent whose loyalty belongs to Aundair and whose lycanthropic blood includes good diggers. The tunnel isn’t complete yet, but they want to act before you find them.” He smiled. “Now, you have a Kundarak bearer bond for me?”

“No,” Parnain said.

The gnome raised his eyebrows. “No?” His little eyes glanced almost imperceptibly to the left, but Parnain spotted it. The half-elf marked the location of the first invisible crossbow-holder. “We had a deal, Parnain.” The gnome’s eyes became dangerous.

“Did our deal include giving me a schematic that didn’t show the side tunnel where they planned to ambush me from, since you also sold them information about me?” Parnain asked. His voice was far too calm.

“That’s ridiculous,” the gnome said. It was a good lie, one of the best.

“They gave you a leather bag with ten emerald chips in it,” Parnain said. “And you gave them me.”

The gnome eased himself off of the chair. “Parnain, you think about these statements, you hear me? You think about the business relationship that we have.”

“You think about the fact that I have an invisible henchman here of my own,” Parnain said. “And if either of your men move to attack me, he will kill them.”

It happened fast. The gnome reached for a wand, and yelled something out. Parnain was already moving, and the paper packet that had been hidden in his palm spun through the air, bursting in the gnome’s face. The little humanoid gagged and retched, his hand spasming and the wand dropping as his eyes teared up and he fell off of the chair.

The crossbow-holder to the left became visible as he fired. He was an older human male with an eyepatch. It was an older model, with a twine crank, but it was a heavy model that fired a massive bolt. Before the bolt was halfway to Parnain, another invisibility field dropped. This revealed another half-elf, also with House Medani insignia, but with close-cropped red hair. Wearing greased leather, the Medani warrior held a rapier in both hands, and in one swift crossing motion he decapitated the crossbowman.

Parnain ignored the bolt, as the enchantment from the scroll he’d used earlier was still active, and normal missiles could not touch him. Indeed the magical field turned the bolt just so, and it bounced sideways to shatter against a wall. He slapped a plastic mask over his face as he ran forward. A Cannith artificer had made it to allow divers to breathe underwater, and to protect the diver’s eyes from pressure. It would suffice to protect him from what he’d smacked the gnome with.

The gnome was deceptively tough, like all of his people. He was stumbling clear of the small cloud of particulates that had formed around his face, and trying to get a weapon in his hand. Parnain was faster. The half-elf could fight with his fists as well as his blades. A series of punches staggered the gnome.

The other crossbow-holder decided against the gnome, and his crossbow became visible as he dropped it, the sound of his footsteps heading out of the room at high speed.

“We need to worry about the warforged?” the red-haired Medani asked Parnain.

Parnain slammed the gnome’s head into the floor an extra couple of times. “Not for a while,” he answered. “It will follow its orders as long as we don’t make too much noise.” Parnain produced manacles and began binding the gnome’s wrists behind his back. “Help me frisk this one, then we go out the front and get him to the Brelish shifter. The gentlemen with the blue tunics will pay well for him.”

“As much as we paid for the info that this short rat was double-selling us to the Phiarlan changelings?” the red-haired assistant asked, turning out potions and scrolls from the gnome’s pockets.

“I didn’t pay for that,” Parnain said. “I exchanged a favor for a druid.” The blonde half-elf hauled the bloody, filthy gnome up and tossed him over a shoulder. “This guy Aruunis has had birds and mice looking all over for him, for all sorts of stuff. He sent the info to me, told me he’d ask me for something in return down the road.”

The red-haired Medani readied his rapiers again and followed, ready to protect Parnain. “That Aruunis, isn’t he a Gatekeeper?”

“That he is,” Parnain said, kicking a door open into a foyer.

The red-haired Medani with the rapiers moved around Parnain, and tipped the front latch with one of his blades. “What the heck kind of favor would a Gatekeeper want from you?” he asked. “Aren’t they all about sealing up underground bugs or something?”

“Everyone wants something,” Parnain said. His assistant pushed the door open and they stepped out into the night air.