Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 17 Goodwill,

“I didn’t push it too far did I?” Lenna asked once the pair was out of earshot of Lenny.

Isaac eyed her for a moment. “You mean the banter?” He asked.

Lenna nodded. “Yeah.”

Isaac hummed in thought. “If we were alone, definitely not.” He replied noncommittedly.

“Oh.” Lenna said quietly. “I-”

Isaac cut her off. “But it’s fine because it was just Lenny. If we are going to be working with him more in the future then I don’t want to feel like I have to be careful around him. Teammates shouldn’t stress you out. That was the worst part about teaming up with Fable and the Ravens.” He explained.

“Oh. I see.” Lenna replied. “That’s good.”

Isaac smirked and bumped shoulders with her. “Relax, would you?” He told her.

Lenna took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. The breath took with it most of her tension and stress. “Okay.” She said with a nod. “Let’s get to work.”

“I’ll find you when I’m done.” Isaac told her. “If I haven’t met back up with you by the time you are done then meet up where we just left Lenny.”

Lenna nodded. “Understood.”

“Love you.” Isaac said with a wink before he vanished into thin air.

“I love you too.” Lenna said after him. Because of the lack of a fading silhouette she knew that he had only gone invisible, and thus could probably still hear her, so she said it with a smile.

—

Isaac appeared inside of Izen’s office with a pair of steaming cups of tea. He had heard Sera in the garden and decided to stop by to say hello. When she asked where he was going, and he had enlightened her, she had given him tea for both him and Izen before sending him off with a smile.

Isaac let his shadows fade once he was sure Izen was in his office, he didn’t want to accidentally trigger any alarms, and sat down on the edge of Izen’s desk. “Hey partner.” Isaac greeted the duke.

Izen took in a sharp inhale from Isaac’s sudden presence startling him. “Hello, Isaac.” Izen said with a nod. Isaac handed him his tea and the duke took it with an appreciative smile and nod. “Is she still in the garden?” He asked.

Isaac nodded. “Yeah. She was playing Kingsman with Marie and thoroughly destroying her.” He explained.

“Is Lenna here?” Izen asked to which Isaac shook his head. “Then it’s all business, isn’t it?”

Isaac nodded. “I’m afraid so.” He told the older man. “My guys in the poor side of town found something a bit too complex for me to handle by myself without causing more harm than good.” Isaac explained. “I have a plan but it requires moving the guard around to give some smugglers an opportunity to, well, smuggle.”

Izen nodded along. “Good news for you then, in two weeks we are going to throw a festival in celebration of Jallen V’Nova’s defeat.” He explained. “All of the guards will be moved around for that as we will need more guards on patrol in high traffic areas. That would allow us to have less guards at the gate and lessen search procedures for a few days.”

“That’d be perfect.” Isaac replied and took a sip of his tea. “When are you announcing it?”

“Two days from now. That will be a ten day heads up.” Izen explained. “Will that be enough?”

“It’ll be perfect.” Isaac said with a nod. “They are getting antsy because whoever already paid for their merchandise is not happy with it being held up in Safeharbor. One other thing about this though, can we get dwarven support?”

Izen raised an eyebrow. “Why?” He asked. “They do not like getting involved with us unless it is for the common good.”

“We have no idea who the clients are right now. If we can capture all of them alive then we might be able to get some good information out of them and maybe the buyers can get hit on their end.” Isaac explained his reasoning. “It’ll be hard for a small group of us to ensure that it doesn’t turn into a bloodbath.”

Izen nodded. “How many men do you have in town?” He asked. “I could spare four or five of my personal guards and have them wear adventurer gear to join you.”

“Exactly one who I would trust in a fight to hold their own, not including Lenna of course. One more that is a good lookout and can probably use a crossbow.” Isaac explained. “No one else that would actually do it without being under duress.”

Izen nodded with a frown. “I see. How many do you think there will be?” He asked.

Isaac shrugged. “I have no idea how much they are planning on moving but if I had to guess at least two wagons.” He replied. “That’s only like four to six men but if they plan on emptying the warehouse while they can then who knows, ten, thirty?”

Izen nodded in understanding. “I can see why you wanted the fortress to help.” He said with a sigh. “I will have Alexander contact them but it might be better if you go yourself.”

Isaac raised an eyebrow in question. “Really?” He asked. “Why me?”

Izen stared at him for a long moment. “You are serious.” He said after some time. “Because they felt you from there. You are a celebrity. What you did gained a lot of goodwill, not just for Safeharbor, but for you specifically from them.”

“Oh.” Isaac said and leaned back. “I didn’t even think about that.” His face then was set in a frown. “How are they going to handle Lenna?”

Izen frowned deeply and leaned back in his own chair. “I am not sure, honestly. Usually I would say poorly, very poorly, but they are aware that she volunteered to be bait to draw in the drow forces. I am afraid that you will have to find that one out on your own.” He replied thoughtfully.

Isaac nodded. “I’ll get back to you once we are sure that they are going to take the opening. If they are then I will need Alexander to set up a meeting for me with the dwarves.” Isaac said.

Izen nodded. “We can do that.” He replied and then changed the subject. “I will contact you once I am ready to start dealing with the construction and distribution we agreed on.”

“Thanks. I figured you would be a bit too busy for a little while. I don’t have a distribution network set up or anything so it is more or less on Alice right now. The Silverstrands have all of the material and means of production so we’ll all have to get together at some point to discuss how everything is going to change but that can wait until things settle down a bit.” Isaac said and stood up. He drained his teacup and stretched. “I think that was everything.”

Izen nodded. “We will have to find a way for you to stop by without taking years off of my life.” He told the mage.

Isaac chuckled. “We are going to be so rich that you will be able to buy those years back.” He said and then vanished.

—

An hour after the duo had left Lenny to his work they met back up right after Lenna had left Tanner’s Leatherworking. “How’s the armor?” Isaac asked Lenna by way of greeting.

“Not finished.” Lenna replied. “Stan said tomorrow morning. He has to be really careful with it.”

Isaac nodded in understanding. “The sooner we can get you in a set of invulnerable armor the better.” Isaac commented.

“Speaking of armor.” Lenna said and pulled a black leather vest out of her Bottomless Bag. The front and back of the vest were both hardened leather but the bit in the center, where the buttons were, and on the sides were just treated. The vest was more for fashion than for defense but it did have a simple cut resistance enchantment. Lenna hoped that it would survive Isaac long enough for her mate to get his dragonscale armor back from the enchanter.

“How much did you pay for it?” Isaac asked with a frown but he took the vest anyway.

“Twenty seven.” Lenna replied.

Isaac narrowed his eyes on her. “That trick only works on things that are overpriced but still cheap.” He told her. “Two hundred and seventy gold?”

Lenna nodded. “It was worth it. It looks nice.”

“Uh huh.” Isaac fakely agreed. “It looks like… I don’t remember what it looks like, but I feel like it looks like something annoying people who like to get into bar fights would wear.”

Lenna gave him a very incredulous look. “What does that even mean?”

“I have no idea.” Isaac replied honestly. “This is definitely one of those times that if my brain had come at it from a different angle I would have gotten a headache.”