=== Blackhole, POV Eris ===

 

"Is that really ok for you?"

Ishina pulled me on a cart towards the blackhole. I had suggested that we faked a trade of a captured rarity.

"It's ok. I suggested it myself after all."

Ishina was worried about this plan and asked me for the umpteenth time.

The houses got bigger, and some guards stood at the entrance to the city. The entrance was monitored by humans, presumably because their area was behind it.

"Stop."

One of the guards reached out to stop us. But the guards here were not what one would expect. Unlike knights or soldiers, these people here who I would call mercenaries at best. In worse cases, I would call them bandits.

"What's the problem?"

Ishina asked the approaching guard.

"We want to classify your goods."

The guard looked down on me.

"What do you want with this rarity?"

Another guard spoke to Ishina with fascination in his eyes. His eyes literally shone, and I could see the greed in his eyes.

"Ah, I'm looking for a necromancer, someone capable of making this rabbit docile."

Ishina's smile was more that of a pervert who had found his next victim. Her sentence itself was also somewhat ambiguous.

"Sadly."

The guard was visibly disappointed. They cleared the way, and Ishina entered the blackhole.

"That was the easiest part."

"I know."

I immediately agreed with her remark because we had to find necromancers now. Any necromancers should be easy to find, but we needed one who specializes in domination magic.

Unfortunately, the variety of necromancers were extensive... in addition to the necromancy, they were used for ghost summoning, binding the slaves to their glyphs, as well as cursing and breaking curses.

“I go to the human's quarters. After all, a necromancer helping the poisoners is more likely to be a human."

She turned off the main street into one of the many side streets. The mood of this street was entirely different because the main street was open, the residents looked like I had imagined it, and everything from children to old people was on the street. But it was different in this side street, screens had been hung between the buildings on the street. The entire street was shrouded in shadow, and there were guards at individual shops.

"Our first informer's shop is over there."

Ishina pointed to a weapon shop called Schwerterei. And as the name suggests, there were only swords to be seen in the shop window.

"I'll leave you in front of the door. The cart won't fit in."

She parked my cart in front of the door and went into the store.

I got a queasy feeling. After all, we were in the Blackhole, and I was a real curiosity. My suspicions were confirmed when two men came up from a side street and approached me.

"What do we have here?"

"A present for us!"

One of the men circled the cart while the other slowly began to pull on it.

"Not locked! Perfect."

Wait a moment!? You can lock this cart!?

They pulled me into the alley they came from. There stood a third person, a woman.

"We have the creature. The guard's information was on point. Its owner must be a beginner."

...I should have guessed... The guard hired these people quickly, but I wouldn't have expected anything less from citizens of the Blackhole.

 

=== A little later

 

They pushed me from one alley to the next, and I lost the overview of where we actually are. I was led into a building through a back entrance. Immediately a greasy old man, I couldn't describe the man otherwise, came towards me.

"What do you have here?"

He looked at me with his eyes. A shiver ran down my spine because I could see up close how he licked his lip with his tongue.

Disgusting!

The man got up and looked at the two men and the woman.

"What do you want for it?"

"Seventy."

"Seventy? No, no, fifty! This creature is not branded. It is still untamed, and the slave glyph costs!”

"HA! Then we'll look for someone else."

It was a heated negotiation, but they didn't come through at first.

“Ok, ok! I'll give you sixty. How does that sound?"

"Sixty, and we want the summoning stone!"

"Deal!"

The man immediately accepted. He turned and got a stone with various symbols from a cupboard.

"Here. I'll go and get the money."

He disappeared into another room and came back with a case. The suitcase resembled a poker case, perhaps not in terms of its exterior or size, but the inside was exactly the same. There were three rows of coins, and in each of those rows were twenty of them.

"The money."

He handed the three of them the money and turned back to me.

“You will be a pretty trophy to be bought for. But first, you need a slave glyph, you stupid creature. Hiii!"

He squealed strangely.

"Thank you, Marol."

The three said goodbye and left the house.

The man immediately put his plan into action. He took out a glass ball and tapped it three times with his free hand. The sphere immediately began to glow, and a moment later, a voice could be heard.

"What is it, Marol?"

An annoyed woman's voice could be heard from the sphere.

“Ah, my dear Micca. I need your services because I just got something extraordinary."

"Again? Have you bought another Blueritter?"

Her voice was visibly disinterested as if she no longer wanted to work with him.

"I'll pay you the double if you come over immediately!"

"Three times that."

"...OK. Then hurry up!"

There was a moment of silence, but the sphere was still glowing.

"Woe to you, the creature you bought is not worth the rush!"

The ball stopped glowing, and the man put it away.

"You will be mine soon."

He smiled at me with his crooked yellow teeth. He got up slowly and moved towards me.

"I don't know who left you to me, but I'm looking forward to the money you will bring me."

He turned away from me and locked the back door before disappearing through another door.

It took a while until I heard him again. His voice was a bit dull from the room next door. It seemed to me as if he was talking to someone, and this suspicion was confirmed when his voice got louder because he was coming closer and closer. Besides his voice, I could also hear the voice of the woman who had spoken to him before. They seemed to be having a heated discussion.

“I hope for you that the-. What the!"

The woman, Micca, was about to open the door when she saw me. She let go of the door and immediately ran to me.

“What kind of creature are you? Hey idiot! Do you know what kind of creature that is?"

She insulted the man and immediately asked him if he knew what I was.

"I don't know. That's why I want the slave glyph to be cast on this creature as quickly as possible."

"Then we shouldn't wait."

She wanted to turn to me when I spoke up.

"Neither do I!"

I conjured three arrows of fire and pierced the man's shoulder, chest, and head.

"What!"

The woman turned around, and when she saw that the man was already dead, she stumbled backward to the ground.

"Please! No!"

She begged me. I, on the other hand, ignored her and left the cage. Ishina had not locked it beforehand. I hopped out and landed on the wooden floor in front of the woman.

"Don't worry, your life means nothing to me. On the other hand, your knowledge does."

I put one paw on the woman's leg.

“Micca, right? You must be a necromancer? What kind of jobs do you do most often."

She clenched her teeth so she wouldn't have to scream. She answered me painfully.

“Yes, I am a necromancer. I specialize in summoning ghosts, but due to lack of demand, I work for different traders to place the slave glyph on different creatures or people."

I relaxed my pressure on her leg.

"Then you know a necromancer who happens to work for a group of elves?"

Her eyes showed no reaction before she got a questioning look.

“Elves working with necromancers… That sounds contradicting itself. I've only had one commission from elves so far, and that was the summoning of a murdered elf who was murdered in a very... strange way."

She shook her head in pain.

"What I'm saying is that elves want nothing to do with necromancy."

“A group does! Summoned skeletons have been running through the forest for some time now, targeting rival elven clans."

Her gaze froze for a moment.

"I know it! Believe me, these skeletons weren't summoned by a necromancer, but I know this guy. A few weeks ago, he came to my shop and wanted to learn how the slave glyph enchantment worked. I turned him down, but that's not the point. He spoke of a place of limitless power to control as many creatures as he wants."

A place of limitless power... to control creatures... That sounds pretty similar to what we're looking for.