Chapter 21: Chapter 21

Jim's PoV

Damned karma. Jim thought he was in the clear from the police, but life always seemed to find a new way to give you the middle finger. He had beaten four armed robbers with his bare hands, and then one little extra punch landed him in the same jail cell as previously mentioned robbers.

Looking over to the other side of the cell, Jim could see four angry faces glaring at him. They had already tried to start round two, but he won that bout as well. It was kind of weird being the 'big dog' of the prison cell.

The only bright side was that it was just a small county jail cell that was located inside of the police station, not some huge maximum security prison. Another thing that he considered was that if he did go to real jail, he would totally have the market on shivs. He had tons of different kinds of daggers to offer.

Jim rubbed his shoulder. When reinforcements arrived they were not very gentle. He did everything that was asked of him and they were still rough while getting the cuffs on. He later saw the police officer that he had socked in the face, and boy the man didn't look too happy with him. He was rocking a nice shiner on his left eye. It was his time to make his phone call and Jim was a little nervous when the man with the shiner came.

And the guy was a total dick. He wouldn't let Jim have his phone back, and the phone book he gave him happened to have all the pages with lawyers pulled out. Jim had asked the man if he could get a different phone book, and the guy told him with an evil smirk "You have another 5 minutes to make your phone call. I have done all that I am obligated to. Do you want to go back to your home yet?"

The 'home' in question was him pointing back to the jail cell. Man the guy was a dick. Glancing at his badge it said Officer Brady. Jim was going to remember that.

He moved out here three years ago and bought a house because the area was booming in tech development. California was a long way away from the east coast. Unfortunately that meant his friends and family were too far away, and there was only one phone number he knew off the top of his head.

The call with Charlotte went about as he expected. Still she said she would come, even if it was much later that day. But Charlotte was as good as her word, she would be here. That meant he had a lot of time to kill.

As he was looking over at the four men in his cell and then out to the officers that were working at their desks, he realized he hated prison. Jim was bored. He would have laid down and entered his gaming world, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what would happen if he did that.

Even his new compulsory habit of scanning his inventory with one eye was taken from him. He had no doubt they would try to lock him up in a mental hospital if he started doing random hand gestures in the air.

Bored out of his mind he watched the police work. Then one older officer yelled with a smile "Hey Brady! Guess what's running on the news!"

Looking at the man he could only smirk as the guy went red with embarrassment.

The volume on the TV was turned up and a news anchor was making a report.

"Earlier today a local pawn shop was about to be robbed when something amazing happened. Our reporter on location has more on this story."

The camera shifted to a man outside the pawn shop who was holding up a microphone to the clerk that helped him that morning. "Can you walk us through this video you gave us, Jerry?"

The pawnshop clerk said "With pleasure. I was about to be robbed by four hooligans when I was helping out a customer."

His story continued and Jim tuned out the words. He watched the video footage with awe. Everything felt so slow when he was in the moment. He still felt clumsy and awkward fighting but his opponents felt like they were standing still. Watching the video at real-time speed, he looked like a badass. As he saw in the video that the police car was pulling up, he winced. The little bell on the door jingled and he was still in fight or flight mode.

Fight mode won. He almost felt sorry for Officer Brady. Almost. The clip faded and two talking heads joined the host.

One started off saying "The man can not be blamed for attacking the officer because he had just subdued four criminals that would have taken his life. You can clearly see the look of surprise on the man's face when he saw it was an officer, and he complied with all following orders. If the officer had held his position in the doorway and yelled "Police, Freeze!", this sorry incident could have been avoided. Instead he ran headlong into the room and this incident occurred."

The middle spokesman said to the third, "But you don't think that's a fair statement. What is your take on this situation?"

"The man should have just given over his belongings and complied with the criminals. As you can see in the video, the police arrived not even two minutes after this incident was phoned in. This man could have caused the deaths of not only the store clerk but the officer as well. If you are confronted by these kinds of people, you should let the properly trained personnel handle the problem."

The first man irritatedly broke in and started yelling "Everyone has a right to defend himself and his property!"

The other man shot back "Yes he does. And he is responsible for the fallout as well."

The first man exclaimed "That's not fair! How can you say that!"

The middle talking head stopped them and said "Well what do you think viewers? Please call in and tell us what you think in our survey! In other news..."

One of the police shut the TV off and said "You screwed up rookie. Never let the purp in arms length when you have your weapon out. Yea, shit happens but."

The man pointed at Jim and said "He could have easily taken your gun and shot you and your partner with it. Don't screw up again! Everyone else, stop standing around gawking. Get back to work!"

Officer Brady gave Jim another really unfriendly look. Jim sighed. Was Charlotte really going to wait till 10PM to bail him out?

***

Assassin's PoV

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Something was really fishy about this Potion Maker. The more Scarlet found out the more she didn't like. He arrived in this town five years ago and no one knows where he's originally from. During that time a new disease started popping up, and he was the only one that knew how to cure it.

Fast forward a few years and he's one of the wealthiest people in town that has the ear of every council member. Still from her gentle probing he had done no business with the Merchant Circle in Jacksburg. After that she sent a letter signed with a wax seal from her signet ring. It was the real deal too, she killed the former owner.

It should still be a few more weeks till Jacksburg figures out that the merchant wasn't coming back. But for her that meant her request for a meet was about as legitimate as it could be.

Sending a runner, she had the letter delivered. To her surprise she got an almost immediate reply. The man said he was available for lunch if she had the time, and if not an evening meal. The eagerness of the words made her a little suspicious.

But she was short on time. Her disguise as a Merchant Circle member would be undone as soon as the real deal arrived. The annoying thing about small towns was that it made changing personas much harder. In a city a new pair of clothes and a different color hair wig would be enough to pass scrutiny. In small King's End that wouldn't pass muster.

If she wanted to stick around Jim and get her rewards she would have to lay low for a bit. No matter if she left a few extra bodies around or just disappeared, a bee hive was going to be kicked over as soon as her ruse was uncovered.

If there was something funny going on with the Potion Maker, it was better to go earlier than later. It would give him less time to prepare. She sent the request back for a mid day meal.

A few hours later she showed up dressed to the part of a merchant princess along with the two muscle that she hired from out of town. One of her body guards knocked on the door and they were ushered in.

From the moment she entered the room she knew she made a mistake. The so-called servant's posture was all wrong. They were not acting subservient or snobbish. They were tense. Also all of them were large stocky men.

As the door closed a thunk sounded behind her and she saw that the door was barred by a large piece of wood on a hinge. It would probably take two people to move the thing.

Her body guards were eyeing the now half a dozen men that surrounded them nervously. Damn. They would break at the drop of a hat. The men she hired were all but thugs, just polished up a bit. And they could tell what way the wind was blowing.

The man of the hour then made an appearance saying, "Well, well, look what we have here. Got all dressed up just for me?"

Tense, she eyed the man. Just like her intel said, a fat greasy man that seemed to be constantly sweating. Before she died she wanted an answer. "What gave me away?"

The Potion Maker laughed and said "Because you're not one of us."

She blinked. Not one of us? This man was a part of the Merchant Circle?

With a smarmy smile he said "What? You think Jacksburg didn't know eventually one of the other city-states would try to stab us in the back here? Please, you have to give us more credit than that. Sloppy. Very sloppy. The only real question is, which one are you from? Xalross or Shila?"

Grabbing her new dagger she said with defiance, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

The man shrugged, "In all honesty it makes little difference. I think I know who you are. I will be heavily rewarded for your death."

His gaze shifted to her guards as he said, "Sorry chaps, can't let our little secret out. You're not going to leave here alive. I hope you understand."

Then she felt something. Oh damn the Potion Maker was a mage! Damn her luck. She started charging the man but it was too late. He gestured toward her. Then something weird happened.

The ruby red gem on her dagger flashed a bright red, and then her would-be killer turned into a human torch. Everyone stood in amazement for a few seconds taking in what happened.

Scarlet on the other hand didn't. It was still three vs six, and she wanted better odds. She cast Sharpen Blade Lv3 on her new dagger and got to two throats before they could guard against her. The cuts were beautiful. When the blade is so sharp that the instant after the cut everything looks fine, but then the gush of red. It was art.

After that the fight was truly on. Ten minutes later she was the only one standing. Scarlet looked down at the blade that had saved her life.

"Enchanted," she muttered.

The man named Jim had given her an enchanted blade like throwing away a loose rock from his shoe. She finally knew what the enchantment to her dagger was. When she was a young girl being trained in the art of assassination there were many lessons that seemed useless.

One class was on enchantments. Her dagger held the 'Reflect' enchant. It was the bane of any mage. The strength of the enchant can vary, but usually the Reflect enchant will return a spell back to the attacker once per day. The last known item with this enchant was a shield that was broken over 50 years ago.

Why would a mage give her a blade that could reflect his spells back on to him? Was he a fool? Or was he that powerful?

Scarlet didn't know the answer to that, but for now she was finished with fighting in the shadows for her city-state. Her original goal had been accomplished. There would be chaos when the real Merchant Circle members arrived. She wished she could be a fly on the wall when they heard the news. A hidden Merchant Circle member who was highly regarded in the community was killed by another Merchant Circle member? The lie was so bold they will be apoplectic.

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