The ride was long and hard down the old oak lined road, the next town more than a few hours away, thankfully for them, Moon, was a very reliable old gelding.

“We can probably walk from here friend,” Harken stated flatly, petting, Moon on the neck and sliding out of his saddle.

“Thank the gods,” Moon whinnied, “I don’t think I’d make it much further. These old bones aren’t what they were when we met twenty years ago Harken.”

“Please, you’re as spry as the day you first kicked me.”

Moon gave a hearty burst of a laugh, “Yeah, well, I feel it more for sure now.”

They walked from there, taking it slow as they prodded into town to find a quiet place to adjust and stable down.

“I’m going to need to shop around, I will leave Apsert with you in case, but try not to use him unless you need to.”

“Of course,” Harken tucked the fine black silk cloth under the bound body of Margareet, and slid his finger along its edge, waking his familiar. “Invoke Nox element. Rise Apsert, guard my friend, and poison my enemies.”

The clothes shimmered, the serpents image playing across the silky surface as Apsert awoke, poised to assert his curse over the unsuspecting. The little familiar was so good at hiding, even detect magic could only say his presence was near.

“There, all set,” Harken patted Moon on the backside and started to leave.

“Hey, killer,” Moon suddenly called out.

Harken hissed through his teeth, “What?” Not liking to announce his profession.

Harken caught Moon’s eye, the old nag had a way of conveying his thoughts in a gaze, and just like that Harken remembered.

“Seriously?”

“You promised.”

“Well I can’t exactly magic an apple out of thin air, can I? I’ll bring you one back.”

Moon huffed.

“What?”

“You said that last time, and we had to leave in a hurry then too. Don’t think I forgot, a unicorn never forgets. You owe me three apples now.”

“Three? I’ll be lucky to find a single apple in this crap water town. These are still the Swamplands need I remind you, we still have to make it through the Jungle, before we even get to the Whitewood, then the Black Forest.”

“And only a unicorn can do that in such a short time,” Moon stated plainly, “Without me, in peak performance, you’d be walking. Tell me, Harken, how many months would that take?”

“Ugh, you’re a fiend, you know that. Well, I’ll see what I can find, but keep a tab. Apples may grow on trees, but nowhere around here I can tell you that.”

Moon whinnied a little chuckle, but said nothing else, and Harken wondered how much he could get in trade for only a second. Moon was still his best mount he had ever found.

Unicorns were special, the stories said that it was the running of unicorns that spun the great ring world of Fluv. That was bullocks of course, the great titans, Levithan and Behemot, were the ones that spun the ringworld. But unicorns seemed oddly blessed to traverse the land. A single hour on unicorn could carry you leagues away. Faster than drakes, or adarkwyn combined. So without Moon, Harken would have to find an airship, or winged mount, and those were even more expensive.

The town they walked into was not too big, but it was walled and had a guard post to bother the east and west. No where near either of the great roads it instead had been built along a trade route that ran from southeast to northwest, so they circled around separately, Moon entered from the south, and Harken from the north.

They had the gist, meet up at the local guild hall by nightfall, there, he would pretend to higher Moon, as if they’d just met.

It wasn’t unheard of for unicorns to take to guild hall work as courier rides. Moon’s bridle marked him as on duty in service, so no one would ever bother to even ask him his business. It was the perfect way to smuggle Margareet’s body.

Harken was not so lucky.

“Oi! Elph, old up ere.”

Harken stepped out of line, walking over to the guard that called him.

“Can I help sir?” He asked cold but ever polite.

With his hood up, it was hard to see the notched ear that marked him as an outcast, but his height set him apart from others in the Swampland’s, most in these parts were shorter, humans, or drewgaz more common. Elphine didn’t leave the north much here in the Swampland, they stuck to Northroad and the bigger cities there. So this far south, Harken stood out.

The guard looked around, nodding to the other gate guard who nodded back.

“Follow me,” he slurred with a sneer, “Inspections see.”

Harken hung his head, secretly just trying to assess what all he had on himself.

A few weapons of course, the nine daggers he had garnered his name of Harken Nine-blades from, a handful of potions, some healing ones and a few poisons. Nothing a card carrying guild member shouldn’t be carrying. But then, there was…

SLAM

The door to the guard house slammed shut.

Harken had forgotten the Contract he had, them wand with its little fire elemental familiar, Sparrow.

It was not his yet, he had not gotten to a guild house to register it as his new contract. Which meant this guard could take it, and learn all it knew of Harken and what he had just done.

“Look, I~”

“Oh, my, gods! This is so CLUTCH! You really an elph? Not just some tall guy?”

“Uh,” Harken felt stunned, “No, I am an elph, but~”

“Ohmygods, this is a-mazing! I am so in love with elph culture.”

Harken couldn’t help but chuckle, “For a second, I thought it may be in trouble.”

“Oh, why? Has someone been bad?”

The complete change from village bumpkin to high city fop was rather jarring and Harken sat down on a table edge near the door.

“Well, kind of,” he lied quickly, “See, a mage bandit attacked me on the road, three days west of here.” That would put him ten days east of where he had left the scene of Margareet’s murder. No suspicions would be hiked. “And I kinds looted him without taking his guild info. I have his wand, and I formed an unsanctioned Contract with it.”

The man didn’t look a bit more serious now, “That is serious, our guild hall here in town doesn’t have a notary, so you formed an illegal bond with a Contract.” He looked around again, as if making sure they weren’t the only two in the one room building. “But I may know a guy.”

Harken could have laughed again, of course this pretender would know someone seedy in town.

“Oh,” Harken feigned, “A guy you say?”

“Yeah, he goes by the name Jim, he’s an elemental. A Non-contract, he likes to drink behind the Leaner, a little bar just around the corner from here. Go in, ask for, Jim, tell the server there the Boris sent you.”

“I take it~”

His hand came at Harken, and effeminate profering of the back of his steel gauntleted mit, “Boris, a pleasure.”

He took Boris’ hand and bowed his head, “Well, Boris, thank you. I could also use a bit of info. Does anyone in town have an unicorn for sale. I have an arranged marriage to get too in seventeen days or I will have two very angry mothers and a jilted bride to contend with in the Dark Forest when I do arrive.”

Boris giggled, “Oh, of course, May’s Mare’s, south side of town, she has a few but they’re not the best, I hear the Swampland’s haven’t really been producing good stock this year.”

“It only needs to get me home to be my father’s bartering chip.”

“Well, that’s where you’ll find one to buy, but I’d say you’d be better off just hiring one from the guild. They have better rates, and~”

“No,” he cut off, “No rented nag for me, I will only be carried under my own coin.”

He produced a gold coin then, palming it in Boris’ hand.

“Oh, why, thank you good sir,” he replied, making the coin disappear fast as the wind on the plains. He then grabbed out a stamper, the magical wax seal glowing. “Your papers?”

“Right,” Harken pulled his fake pass out, “Thanks again.”

Harken spent the rest of his day readying for his journey, taking time to stop at the guild, signing in with his real ID at the Killers guild, as well as his fake one with the Hunters Guild. If he was going to burn that bridge, he may as well start early.

He then made his way to the bar Boris had mentioned, a small two story wooden building with a riverside base, like most of the permanent buildings in town it was raised off the ground on tall stilts for when floods would happen. The stables under the inn were crowded. A few couriers were here for sure, drakes in varying colours and sizes hissing and barking at each other in drakeish, while a pair of unicorns argued about oats.

He hadn’t seen Moon at the guild hall, or here, so he assumed that his partner was just making his own rounds of town.

That and there was no word of a unicorn found with a corpse at the guild hall, so that wasn’t a concern.

He made his way up the steps onto the porch, and through the front doors, into the dining hall. He found a seat in the corner, away from anyone who looked like they were on the job.

It was easy to tell when an adventurer was on the job. Sitting alone in a dark corner, hood up and brooding over a mug or a pipe.

There were a lot of dark corners here it seemed.

So Harken went right to the big fireplace at the back, and sat down in a chair there, throwing his hood back for all to see.

A serving girl came along, her collar jingling with a merry little bell, she smiled and dipped her head to him.

“What can I get you, master?”

Harken smiled, “A hot meal, drinks for two, and Jim. Boris sent me.”

Her eyes narrowed, “What’s a~ gah!” Her collar tightened as she clearly broke pact towards a client of her owner. The collar seemed to slither and constrict till she nodded and hissed, “Right away, master,” and scurried off.

Harken hated the whole slave master contracts thing. He had left home long ago and never looked back. Slaves weren’t as used everywhere, but in any of the Darkland’s they were very common. Slaves were in the Lightland’s too of course, but at least there it was a consensual thing, and people entered into the pact by choice to serve a master. Here, well, the girls and two guys working here at least looked healthy and well fed, but their happy smiles seemed forced. All the while the barmen smiled and washed his mugs, his portly form wobbling as he vigorously cleaned a glass tankard. He was clearly their owner, from the eight earings he wore, no doubt the pact he held over them.

The girl walked up to the counter, speaking quietly to the rotund fellow. His smile never slipping he just snapped his fingers calling over one of the boys cooking at the grill. He then stepped out from behind the counter and crossed the room to Harken.

Harken looked up at the man, “Jim, I presume?”

The man shook with laughter, “No, not me, I’m Lawrence, I’m the mayor of Ivy Hold. Jim’s a friend. He sat down in the chair across from Harken, the boy from before bringing over Harken’s meal and drink.

“I’m sorry, if I’d have known I was meeting the mayor, I’d have addressed you better.”

“Pish, no concern friend. Any friend of Boris is welcome here. Ah, speaking of,” he looked down to the hearth, where a stone suddenly lifted from the mantel and descended to the floor with a light hum. The creature stalked closer, winding between Lawrence’s feet before jumping up onto the arm of the chair.

“Jim, I presume.”

“Yes, a pleasure,” the creature purred.

Harken never got use to seeing familiars, let alone, a high elemental who could talk, and here one was, a Non-contract.

“You seem afraid?” Jim hummed, eyes narrowing.

“I am, rightfully so I imagine.”

Jim raised his little orange paw up, gesturing at himself, from the top of his fluffy orange ears to the tip of his long tail as it whipped about.

“Truly, I am magnificent, the reason alone this hole of a town hasn’t flooded in years. But surely you come before me for a better reason than to marvel at me?”

“I do, but,” Harken eyed Lawrence, the man was the mayor after all.

“Fear not, as I said, I alone protect this town, business with me, is above reproach. That is my contract.”

Elementals couldn’t lie, or so they said, but they didn’t have to tell the truth that hurt their deals, so just saying he was above reproach, didn’t mean above being shivved in the night.

“Well, I have this.”

Harken produced the long wand, it’s four marks near the tip. He noticed too for the first time, that the burnt mark was back to glowing orange again. He handed the wand over, Lawrence taking it from him.

Jim ran his paw over the length, coaxing Sparrow up to the real world.

The two looked at each other for a long time, staring, and making not a sound.

“He says you are a good man, Harken. And he is willing to give over his Contract to you, on one condition.”

“If it is within my power I would be honoured.”

Jim suddenly shot a look at Sparrow, “Seriously?” He shouted, making even Lawrence jump. “Well, not in my town!”

“What are his terms?” Harken asked tentatively.

“He wishes to bring pain and burning retribution, and on occasion cause fires needlessly. And for that, he will allow you six uses of his power.”

“Well, as an adventurer I can’t say I will cause much mischief,  but, if he’d be fine with setting my enemies on fire, well, I have a few of those.”

“Hmm,” Jim hummed again, a knowing look on his feline face. “Well then, take your friend and be about your business. That will be fifteen gold,” Lawrence held out his hand palm up.

“And for the meal?”

“On me,” Jim said.

Harken handed over the coin, enough for a ten days stay in any hold in the south. He would have to be frugal with his coin on his search for a unicorn.

“Do you have a room in town?” Lawrence asked, standing up and letting Jim take his seat.

“Im staying in the guild hall, have to save for a mount. I have to be in the Dark Forest in seventeen days, I’m being married off by my father and have no time to waste.”

“Well, I have rooms if you’d rather.”

“I’m afraid, I have only a small bit of coin to last me the trip. Though at least now I have a Contract to aid me along the way.” He slid his new wand up his sleeve, under the strap with one of his blades.

Lawrence returned to his place at the counter, and Harken finished his meal and drink, a third refill along with a sweetroll brought on Jim’s tab too.

And as he stumbled out the door, feigning a stoop to his gait as he made his way down alleys towards the guild hall, he barely had to alter his pace as he drew Sparrow and set blaze to the two men who tried to Rob him along the way. Sparrow sure seemed happy, delightedly dancing in the eye socket of one man as his face peeled away.

“Welcome to our bizarre managerry Sparrow,” Harken chuckled, slipping the wand back into his sleeve. “Guess you got to have fun sooner than I thought.”