Chapter 273: Chapter Two Hundred Seventy Four

Since we weren't the ones spinning the rainbow wheel, I wasn't too  worried about missing out. I doubted Mordaunt would allow them to screw  her over anyway, but this was clearly much more interesting. Macgregor  was clearly here to start trouble. To her credit, the Darkling Institute elite didn't seem too pressured by the big monk. She just shot him a  charming smile. "Macgregor, always good to see you. Were you looking for  me for some reason?"

The big monk (seriously, he was  wearing roughspun brown robes tied with a rope and everything) sneered  down at her. "You know why I'm here witch. The Moonsong Glade entry  slots will belong to the Twilight Order. Your abominable freakshow has  one chance to withdraw."

Mordaunt's charming smile turned  sharp. "Or...what? Are you going to fight me Macgregor? Going to kill  the monster maker?" She casually tilted her head, calling over her  shoulder. "Rahm darling, be a dear and protect your mistress." The  massive bandaged form of her attendant blurred forward so fast I had  trouble tracking it, appearing in front of her without hesitation.

His  speed wasn't the all time fastest thing I'd ever seen, but he was also  HUGE. He was at least as fast as Sloane with her wings out. When he  appeared in front of Mordaunt, he let both arms hang loosely at his  sides, ready to engage as he straightened his back, glaring down at the  blonde monk. Rahm was at least seven and a half feet, and made even the  monk, who was taller than I was, seem small.

Macgregor  sneered harder. He was pretty good at that. Lots of practice probably,  but he made the sneer really obvious even through the thick beard. "You  think I fear your creature, witch?" I watched his hands start to glow  with an uncomfortably white light, but before he could act, a smaller  man with plain features and dark hair who I hadn't even noticed in his  shadow stepped up and put a hand on his arm.

To my  surprise, rather than just dismiss the other monk, Macgregor actually  backed down. I found that odd based on what I'd seen from him so far,  but it HAD only been a minute or two. Mordaunt smirked. "As your minder  no doubt reminded you, this is a D-ranked planet. If we start trouble  we'll be forced to deal with the Unity or gods forbid the Wish Curse  Palace themselves. Even you rabid animals can't possibly be that stupid.  Present company excepted." She said the last part with a sickly sweet  smile and Macgregor's hands started to glow brighter before flickering  out a moment later.

"Fine." He hissed between clenched  teeth. "Then accompany me outside so we might solve this once and for all. It should be no problem if you have as much confidence in your  creature as you claim." It was easy to hear the goading in his tone, and  apparently I wasn't the only one who thought so.

Mordaunt  just snorted. "Do you think everyone is as predictable and stupid as  the lot of you. I'm not going to fight you, I have no reason to risk  that. I won't follow you outside because you said mean things about me  either. I'm going to stay here and gamble. You're free to stay and enjoy  a few games, assuming you know what that word even means," She turned  her back on him, facing the rainbow wheel again and pretty much  dismissing him wordlessly from her notice. I snickered at the expression  on his face, but kept it internal so he didn't notice.

"Coward."  Macgregor bit out. "Fine. I suppose it isn't necessary anyway. A  sniveling wretch like you won't be an obstacle in the tournament. I can  take care of your monstrosity another time. You'd best watch yourself in  the future. If we catch you outside we'll destroy you as surely as you  deserve." He turned, his fucking robe actually snapping dramatically as  he strode purposefully from the casino.

"Well." I said in  confusion. "That was...pointless. Did he really track you down just to  snipe at you and then leave?" I could have sworn he wanted to actually  fight, but he'd retreated way too easily. This whole thing seemed like a  waste of time in every conceivable way.

Mordaunt rolled  her eyes. "He'd have fought me here if he could have, but since I  wouldn't accept the challenge he decided to try to recursion lock me.  Enough people hear about the fight and start talking about it like it's  definitely going to happen and both of us will start making decisions  that skew us toward eventual combat. It's not foolproof or anything, you  can still avoid it, but the more the story grows the harder it is to  stay away from it. Fucking monks." She waved at the woman behind the  table. "Go ahead and spin it."

She did, and the ball  landed on forty six blue, with a shrug Mordaunt turned away from the  table. "Shame. But oh well. I'm done playing anyway. I'd much rather  focus on making some local friends. I take it you're all going to be  entering the tournament as well?" Her eyes skimmed over us all  clinically, seeming to memorize as much about us as she possibly could.

Abel  glanced longingly at the wheel, then sighed and nodded, gesturing for  us to follow as he led us off to a side room where we could sit and  talk. The room was much calmer, with no crazy lights or furniture. Just  leather chairs and a nice fireplace with a flame already crackling. We  slumped down into the chairs. I was kind of glad to be away from the  dizzying background.

"So." Callie said, getting to the  real reason we'd followed Mordaunt in here. "What's the deal with you  and Macgregor?" Given we'd be fighting these people, there was no way we  were leaving information on the table. The more we knew about the  outsider forces the better.

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"Oh, that." Mordaunt sniffed  derisively. "The Twilight Order are holier than thou busybodies. Just  because we use human parts in our experiments they get all bent out of  shape. Our corpses are all ethically sourced from donations and  criminals. It's not like we just snatch people off the street." She  paused. "Well, except for that one guy, but we kicked him out as soon as  we noticed he was doing it."

That was...kind of  unsettling. I hadn't considered where they might be getting the parts.  If people were donating though that was their business. The criminal  thing was...murky, but it wasn't like I could do much about what their  local government decided to allow. Still it made me a bit wary of  Mordaunt. The Darkling Institute already seemed a bit shady to me, and  hearing this made them seem even more suspect.

They were  Conglomerate citizens though, so at least I knew they were under a Unity  branch. I could call Stella and have her kick it up the chain. She  might get a bit of extra prestige for reporting it, and I was sure she  had connections in the Unity aside from Midknight. Callie's dad didn't  strike me as someone who would care much about ethics or worry how the  Institute was doing things.

Callie looked a bit unsettled  too, but we could still get some information. "So why are you down here  if you aren't looking to fight. Doomtown isn't exactly safe. You could  find some nicer places to relax if you were looking for entertainment."  Thinking about it she wasn't wrong. We were down here to start fights  mostly, and get information. If Macgregor had challenged us we'd  probably have accepted.

Mordaunt's smile was mysterious  this time. "Well, I guess I can let you know. We're here for the Walking  Silence Auction. The Institute is using the influx of forces from all  over the star system to put on a bit of an exhibition. They've been  stockpiling stuff for months in preparation. Even we haven't been able  to get access to some of the premium goods. It's going to be held in  Doomtown since the red zones are open for violence but this one is  limited to prevent any overpowered participants."

I perked  up at that. Auctions could be fun from what I'd heard. I'd never been  to a proper Ascendant auction. "Really? What kind of stuff will they  have." I paused for a second in distaste. "It's not all going to be body  parts is it?" I was definitely interested, but there was no reason to  go if we couldn't get anything useful.

Luckily Mordaunt  just waved off my concerns. "Of course not. No point in waiting to hold a  large scale auction when we're the only customers. There will be some  experimental materials, but also plenty of artifacts and medicines for  people to pick up. I'm sure you could find something you like. Do you  want to come along? I have some guest spots and I'd be happy to bring  you four with me?"

That seemed weird  to me. "Ok, but..why? You don't know us, and inviting random strangers  to your Institute's super high profile event seems...weird." I looked at  the others. "This isn't just me right? Like this whole thing is super  suspicious." I tried not to get in the way when we were planning things  out, Callie had a good head on her shoulders, but this girl gave me the  creeps. She'd been nice enough so far, but the casual talk of body parts  just rubbed me the wrong way.

To  my surprise though, the question seemed to amuse her. "Oh it's totally  suspicious. But I'm mostly doing it for the same reason you're having  this conversation right now. I need more information on the local  landscape and you all are obviously locals. Silver mask over there is  clearly comfortable here, and if he has info that I can use it's worth  burning some invitation slots I wasn't going to use anyway."

Callie  shot me a questioning look. I was guessing since I'd had the objection  she wanted to make sure I was satisfied with the explanation. I wasn't  really, but it was the same kind of political nonsense I heard from  everyone else, so it was probably legit. I gave her a subtle nod and she  turned a beaming smile on Mordaunt. "We'd love to come along. I take it  the event isn't going to be for a few days at least?"

Mordaunt  seemed amused by our dynamic, but I got the feeling she was amused by  most things. Another check on the list of reasons she bothered me.  Ultimately though, I was probably biased. Having an undead with her kind of bugged me given our time in the necropolis, and that wasn't really  fair. I wasn't in a hurry to trust her, but if Callie wanted to go to  the auction I was down with that. Some gear for our friends would really  help them out.

We'd  need to boost them up during the tournament to be ready for the trip to  Moonsong Glade if we managed to win, and better gear meant they could  show off a bunch in public for compounding gains. We talked for another  fifteen minutes about local nonsense, us trying to avoid giving away too  much and her trying to pry, but eventually we ran dry. Seeing that all  of the business stuff was out of the way Mordaunt popped to her feet.  "Well, I'm bored now. How about we go out and do some more gambling. We  can talk about boring stuff later."

She  hurried out of the room with all the focus of a toddler on a sugar  high, and we all just shrugged and followed along. We could try to get  more information from her later, but for now, we HAD come here to have  fun. I wanted to check out that betting table, I was hoping we could  pick up a prop bet for our rematch with Wren. I was looking forward to  seeing what he could do with his ability in use, and if I could make  some money while I did, all the better.

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