Merchant of Death

by Jared Mandani

  Cedric could barely comprehend what he was reading. He waved it away and glared at Gilles. “You cannot do this! You don’t have the power!”

  “Not me, my dad,” Gilles replied. “The cool thing about money and power is you can make problems disappear, the way I’m making you disappear. If you know what’s good for you, you won’t even think about trying to get onto the game again, or the heads of your faculty might just get to know about your drug dealing activities and attempts to blackmail innocent players. Think of the scandal if that got into the news, think how embarrassed your family would be. Do you really want to upset them like that?”

  Cedric said nothing. Gilles had got him, and there was nothing he could do about it. A part of him had always known it would end this way. He looked down at the holographic projection of his hand and saw it slowly fading away. The sneering faces of Gilles and his buddies were now fading away too, along with the laboratory. He gave his surroundings one last loving look before they were gone to him, forever.

  * * *

  “He did what?” John yelled the next day, when he heard the news.

  Xan sipped calmly at his blueberry tea and set the delicate little cup down on the teakwood table between them. They were sitting in one of the underground way stations that dotted the extensive tunnel complex beneath the Eternal Battlefield and a large portion of the three faction territories. John had been on his way to the aftermath of a large battle near the Seven Paths region to oversee the salvage operation when he had unexpectedly run into Xan.

  “This is what my spies report, John,” the Tong member replied. “The Knights of the Holy Griffin hit several Heretic bases in Heaven’s Shield yesterday evening, including Brother Cedric’s chapel. They gutted the place by all accounts and killed all the slaves working there as well as destroyed the potions they were making.”

  “What about Cedric?” John asked.

  “There has been no sign of him since the attack. We are fortunate the Griffins did not discover the secret entrance in the chapel connecting it to the tunnels. My operatives have cast an invisibility ward over the mouth and sealed it with mystic locks. Our greater network has not been compromised.”

  “For now at least,” John said darkly. “I thought we’d hidden our tracks well in the Holy Seal territory.”

  “Heightened aggression from the forces of law and order is always a hazard in our line of work,” Xan remarked philosophically. “In these instances, we withdraw and rebuild, go to ground until the danger has passed.”

  John knew very well that was the best course of action, but he didn’t have the time to just hide away until the Holy Griffins had finished their offensive. The money he made from the Heretic potion trade represented a hefty percentage of his profits, and to lose it would be a tremendous blow to all his plans. He had the uneasy feeling that either the Bureau or the Chinese were fast closing in on him, and he still didn’t have enough funds to set up his new life. He couldn’t abandon his Heretic network altogether. He had to fight back and get the Griffins off his back fast.

  He called up the in-game email system and scanned for messages from Cedric. There were none and the ones they had sent each other previously were also missing. He tried to call up Cedric’s name in his contacts list but couldn’t find it at all.

  Finally he tried to access Cedric’s profile and was greeted with a disconcerting message:

  The account you are looking for no longer exists

  “Shit!” barked John. “Cedric’s quit the game altogether.”

  “Seems to me like he was forced off by this Gilles,” replied Xan.

  “Agreed,” John said. “Gilles must have pulled strings to get Cedric banned from the game. Goddamn it!”

  “What do you intend to do now?”

  John rubbed at the stubble on his chin. “I need to see what the situation is on the ground.”

  Xan nodded. “I expected such a response. Do you plan to go alone? I wouldn’t recommend it.”

  “Agreed. Can you get me ten of your best Tong warriors together quickly?”

  “Consider it done,” Xan said. “I will accompany you.”

  John nodded. “Thanks. I could do with you coming along.”

  While Xan rustled up the required enforcers, John made his way by mechanical horse to the secret entrance to the chapel in Heaven’s Shield. Xan had stationed guards at the staircase leading up to the concealed doorway in case any of the Noble Griffins discovered the door and dispelled the ward and managed to get down into the tunnel complex.

  John waited until Xan joined him with the squad and then headed up the steps. Xan was carrying a serpent-shaped amulet which he held up to the door and muttered an incantation. The air quivered around the door and the ward dissipated.

  “The ward is dispelled from this side,” Xan said. “It is still in place on the other side so nobody can see us while it is in place. We will be safe until I dispel it.”

  “Okay,” said John. “I’ll go first and see if there are any enemies in the lab before we investigate further.”

  Xan nodded and stepped aside so John could go up and open the door. On the other side was Brother Cedric’s laboratory. It was completely trashed and smashed potions covered the floor. All his alchemical equipment had been broken up and scorch marks covered the walls.

  John shook his head as he took in the devastation. He knew it would have broken the old man’s heart to see his beloved workshop reduced to this. Gilles certainly meant business, hitting the place this hard.

  From his vantage point, he couldn’t see anyone in the room so he beckoned Xan forward. “Dispel the barrier,” he said, keeping his voice low. “I want to take a look around.”

  Xan nodded and moved in front of John with his serpent amulet raised in his hand. He muttered the same incantation and the defensive barrier dissipated. With the barrier gone, John stepped through to the other side and beckoned the rest of his team to follow him.

  When they had assembled in the laboratory, John did a quick scout around to see if there was anything of value left. The Noble Griffins had been extremely thorough in their destruction and had erased every inch of the operation here. John’s mouth became a thin line.

  “Draw your weapons and stick close to me,” he instructed. “We’re going to have a look around this place, see what other damage they’ve done.”

  The others nodded and drew their blades. Moving as quietly as possible, John padded over to the broken ruins of the laboratory door and peeped outside. There was no sign of life in the corridor, and there was more debris littering the floor and scorch marks on the walls.

  John stepped through the remains of the door and looked both ways. The left hand side of the passage led toward the cellars and the stores, while the right led into the chapel itself and the living quarters for the Heretics. John decided to go and look at the rest of the building rather than head down below. That was where most of the ingredients for the potions were stored and he suspected it had been cleaned out. Still, it was worth checking, just in case.

  He turned and pointed to two of the enforcers. “You two, go down to the cellars and see if anything can be salvaged. Anything you find of use, take back to the landing. If you don’t find anything we can use, go back anyway and wait for us to return. If we’re not back in an hour, head back to Bastion.”

  The two enforcers nodded and headed off to carry out John’s instructions. He and the others went the opposite way. They found more signs of devastation throughout the chapel but nobody else, either NPC or player, anywhere. When they came to the entrance, John looked through the window and saw a large number of people running around in confusion. Smoke filled the air and he could make out a few large fires in the distance.

  “Something big is going down,” he said to Xan. “It looks like the whole city is in chaos.”

  “What shall we do now?” Xan asked.

  “You go collect those two enforcers and then head ba
ck to Bastion with the rest of the men,” John said. “You can’t go around the open streets; you wouldn’t last five minutes. I’m better off going alone. I need to get intel on the situation out there. You better seal up the secret entrance too.”

  Xan looked concerned. “Are you sure? That will cut off your escape route should anything go wrong.”

  “Don’t worry about me, I’ll find another way out of the city, even if I have to die in the process,” replied John, “now go.”

  The Tong leader bowed his head and hurried away with the rest of the team, leaving John alone in the vestibule. He was wearing his traveling cloak, and with the hood up he would be able to move inconspicuously around the city streets. Pulling it up over his head so that it hid his features, he went over to the front door of the chapel and tried the handle.

  The door was unlocked, and he stepped outside. The smell of smoke and burning hit him full in the face, and as he moved into the street he could see several large conflagrations raging near the center of the city.

  Players and NPCs were rushing here and there, shouting in confusion, and John had to jump into the gutter as a squadron of Knights of the Noble Griffin thundered past on horseback from the opposite direction. A couple of NPCs and players were not so lucky, with one peasant getting trampled to death while a player took heavy damage when he was caught by a hoof to the side of his head. He heard several of the Griffin members laughing as they swept by.

  John glared at them and started to follow. They were heading toward the main market place, and as John moved after them he saw more players and more confusion. The group of Griffins had stopped in front of a well-appointed mansion and one of them was banging on the double doors.

  “Open up, Heretic!” the player said in a shrill voice. “Open up and face justice!”

  John recognized the house as belonging to an NPC called Lord Grayton, a nobleman who had become one of Brother Cedric’s best customers. He suffered from gout and arthritis which were greatly relieved by Cedric’s potions and ointments. In return for his supply, Lord Grayton had helped finance the potion brewing operations dotted across the city that kept John’s customers supplied with new and varied concoctions. Lord Grayton had also oiled the wheels of Holy Seal government with well-placed bribes to ensure many officials and town militia men turned a blind eye to the Heretic smuggling operations. The prospect of losing Grayton was almost as big a blow to John as Brother Cedric getting his account closed down.

  “Open!” the Griffin yelled again.

  When nobody inside responded to the order, the Griffin stepped aside and a group of NPC Griffin squires bustled forward with a makeshift battering ram. “Beat it down!” ordered the Griffin knight.

  The squires rushed to obey and John slipped in amongst the crowd of onlookers to watch the spectacle. The squires got a steady rhythm going and began to make a sizable dent in the doors. John observed as they began to splinter and fall in on themselves.

  “Faster!” screeched the leader of the Griffin knights. “Batter it down!”

  The squires picked up speed and the doors collapsed in with a resounding crack. Like hungry dogs, the Griffin knights surged forward and pushed the squires out of the way. They barged into the house and John heard shouting from inside. A few moments later, several servants were dragged out, followed by a bedraggled-looking Lord Grayton.

  “In the name of the Knights of the Noble Griffin, you are hereby charged with being a Heretic,” the Griffin leader declared, throwing the elderly man to the ground. “The penalty is death!”

  John grimaced as the Griffin leader ran his sword through the NPC, killing him instantly. “In the name of Sir Gilles and the King!” the player yelled raising his bloodied sword into the air. He turned and grinned savagely at the frightened servants. “Kill them!” he yelled to his followers. “Put their heads on spikes and burn down the house! Let this be a warning to all those who defy the forces of justice!”

  The servants screamed in terror as the Griffins set upon them ruthlessly. Soon the cobblestones were wet with blood. John shook his head and retreated into the crowd. He paused by a player who was a Forward Scout and nodded to her.

  “Hey, what’s going on here?” he asked. “Have the Noble Griffins gone crazy or something?”

  The Scout gave him a weird look. “Where you been hiding, man? Under a rock?”

  “I just spawned in here,” John lied. “I have no idea what’s going on.”

  “You are pretty low level to be hanging around a frontier city,” the scout replied, noting John’s level fifteen status. “You’re not going to last very long around here if you’re not careful. The Griffins are carrying out a full scale purge of all the Heretics in Heaven’s Shield, and they are chopping down NPCs and players who get in their way.”

  John nodded. “I’ll be careful. I’m actually here to meet up with a guild about discussing potentially being trained to increase my stats, and I end up in a complete war zone. Why are the Griffins hitting the Heretics so hard?”

  “They want to make sure everyone knows they are top dog in the Holy Seal,” the scout replied. “The King has given the Noble Griffins his full backing in wiping out the Heretic factions once and for all, not just here but all through the Holy Seal territory. They are going after all guilds that also do business with Heretics. I think the Griffins are going to take out all their rivals and absorb the guilds into them. They’ll end up the largest guild in the Holy Seal faction.” She paused and narrowed her eyes at John. “This Guild you’re going to see, it’s not the Frenzied Barbarians, is it?”

  John hesitated for a fraction of a second. “No, why?”

  “Because the Noble Griffins are besieging the Barbarians’ Guild Office in Heaven’s Shield right now. They’re a major ally to the Heretics and the Merchants of Death.”

  John feigned ignorance. “The Merchants of Death? Who are they?”

  “They salvage gear that’s left behind on the battlefield and sell it back to players or put it up for sale or auction on the open market. They’re a faction the AI cooked up to make things interesting and they’ve been backing the Heretics, making them stronger and bolder. The Knights of the Noble Griffin have issued a statement that they are going to totally smash the Merchants along with the Heretics and any Holy Seal guild in league with both. Gilles, the Griffin leader, is going totally nuclear on this.”

  I bet he is, the power crazed prick, John thought to himself. “Wow,” he said pretending to be impressed. “This all sounds pretty heavy.”

  “I think you’d be best heading back to one of the training villages,” the Forward Scout said. “This is no place for low levels. You won’t know what hits you if the Griffins get hold of you.”

  John nodded his head empathically. “Don’t worry, I will,” he said. His mind was whirling and he had decided to get over to the Barbarians’ guild house and see if he could help. He needed to put together some kind of counter attack to strike back at the Griffins before they ruined his whole operation in the Holy Seal territory. He offered the Forward Scout a polite smile. “Well, I’ll be going. Thanks a lot.”

  “Wait a minute,” the Forward Scout said sharply, as if one of her passive skills had just activated and taught her something. “I think you know more than you’re saying.”

  John gave her a confused look and backed away. “What? I don’t know anything. I’m just a noob.”

  A cruel look entered the Forward Scout’s eyes. “Yeah and you would know better than to come around here if you can’t handle yourself. Admit it, you’re linked to the Frenzied Barbarians or one of the Heretic infiltrated guilds! That’s the only reason you’re here!”

  The player had raised her voice and a few members of the crowd nearby started listening to the conversation. John looked at her like she was crazy. “You got me wrong. I’m just a dumb jerk who is in the wrong place. I’m gonna split.”

  The scout grabbed his arm. “You stay there! The Griffins wi
ll want to talk to you. They’re offering a reward to anyone who catches a Heretic associate.”

  “Get off me!” yelled John.

  He shook free of her grip and accessed his game menu meaning to log out and respawn back at his workshop in Steamgrad. When he went to do so, though, a message popped up in front of his face.

  ACTION CANCELLED!

  You are unable to log out at this position. Please go to the city gate to exit.

  John stared at the message, not really taking it in. He dismissed the box and looked at the Forward Scout’s grinning face. “The Griffins have put in place a log out freeze over this whole area. You can’t get away that way. Come on, the Griffins will want to have a little chat with you.”

  She grabbed him again and John pulled away hard. “Get off me!”

  “Over here!” the woman yelled. “There’s a Heretic over here! I’ve caught him!”

  Two of the Griffins looked up at the disturbance and hurried over to see what all the fuss was about. John shoved the Forward Scout as hard as he could. She stumbled and fell into the two knights. The three collapsed in a heap, and John made a run for it.

  Some of the other members of the crowd tried to stop him, spurred on by the chance of obtaining a reward from the Noble Griffins. John moved with lightning speed, knowing that if any of those grasping hands caught him he was done for. He pushed and shoved at the heaving crowd of players and NPCs, and suddenly spotted an alleyway directly to his right. He bolted towards it, upturning a nearby fruit cart in the process, sending its produce everywhere and causing more confusion.

  “He’s over there!” yelled the Forward Scout, spotting him as he ducked down the alley. “Get him!”

  Her voice was drowned out by the babble of voices and the angry shouting of the NPC fruit seller as he desperately tried to collect up all his fruit before it got squashed and spoiled. The two Griffin Knights, however, heard her, and they saw John’s fleeing form and took chase.