THE RELIC GUILD (and other stories) Updated regularly.

FORTY YEARS EARLIER: Hunting Treasure (part 2)

Glad to leave the miserable old apothecary behind, Mr Taffin walked through a door behind the counter and entered a short hallway. The first door on his left opened on a stuffy and dim storage room, where boxes of ingredients and bottles of liquids decorated the shelves. It smelled as sickly-sweet as the shop. There he found the man waiting for him, a man sitting upon packing crates. He wore a long coat and a wide-brimmed hat that concealed his face so completely in shadows that Mr Taffin could not make out a single feature. But what was easy to see was the short rifle lying across the man's lap, power stone primed and glowing.

'A pleasure to meet with you again,' Mr Taffin volunteered, a little nervously. 'I trust you have been well?'

The man remained silent, and Mr Taffin's gaze moved on to where a flat and square package wrapped in brown paper rested upon a crate. Mr Taffin's eyes lingered upon it.

'Is that for me?' he asked, knowing full well that it was. 'It is, perhaps, a new consignment of the merchant's poison of choice?' He rocked back on his heels, chuckling at his witticism.

'Shut up, Taffin,' the man snapped, 'before I smack that smug look off your face.'

There had been many occasions on which Mr Taffin had met this man with the shadowed face. As always, his blunt manner convinced Mr Taffin to grip his cane tightly and look at the floor.

'Now,' said the man. 'You say you have new information, so let's hear it.'

'Ah – yes ...'

Dealing with the agents of the Relic Guild was a dangerous business. They were a tricky bunch, as humourless as they were merciless. No one knew their real identities, but every denizen of LabrysTown understood that you didn't mess with the Relic Guild, and you gave its agents a wide berth – if you could. Mr Taffin's business was not exactly legal, and not all his clients were wealthy merchants. He often dealt with seedier characters from the underworld, and, from time to time, he heard them speaking of interesting things. Of course, they would kill him in a second if they knew he was an informant, but the Relic Guild served the highest authority in LabrysTown, and they ensured Mr Taffin's risks were very well recompensed.

'I have a client,' he told the shrouded agent of the Relic Guild. 'He is an alchemist who has fallen upon hard times since the war began. He often comes to me for ... escape. Yesterday, I overheard him speaking about a job that has come his way. You have, perhaps, heard of an infamous treasure hunter named Carrick?'

'Yes, I know him,' said the agent.

'It would seem this Carrick and his team of treasure hunters recently procured passage to an Aelfirian House, and—'

'Wait!' The Relic Guild agent sat forward, but still his face remained hidden in the shadows cast by the brim of his hat. 'They left the Labyrinth?'

'And returned, or so I'm told.'

'The portals are guarded, Taffin. No one's supposed to get out into the Great Labyrinth. How did they manage it?'

'I thought you might ask that,' Mr Taffin replied, 'but sadly I cannot say. My client did not seem to know.'

The man was quiet for a moment, and then sat back with a grunt of displeasure. 'Go on.'

'From what I can gather, when Carrick returned, it was with an Aelfirian artefact of some value. What it is, I do not know, but I can tell you that a buyer has already been found for it, and this buyer has employed my client, the alchemist, to validate the artefact's magical properties.'

'Details, Taffin,' the agent demanded. 'The transaction. When and where?'

'Ah, that I do know. Tomorrow night, during the first hour of Silver Moon, the sale is due to take place at Chaney's Den, a tavern in the eastern district.'

Another quiet moment passed, and the agent tapped the barrel of his rifle against his thighs. 'I want names,' he said. 'Every denizen involved with Carrick's team.'

'Here again, I cannot be of much help,' Mr Taffin replied. He smiled. 'But it hardly matters – from what I've heard, Carrick was the only member of the treasure hunters to survive the excursion.'

The agent scoffed. 'And I suppose you don't know the name of the buyer, either?'

'I have told you everything I know,' Mr Taffin assured him. His eyes flickered to the brown paper package again.

'I doubt that,' the agent growled. He deactivated the rifle's power stone with his thumb and slid the weapon into a holster upon his back. 'But for your sake, I hope you've told me enough.' He then snatched up the package from the crate beside him and threw it at Taffin, who caught it clumsily. 'Now take your drugs and get out.'

'Much obliged,' Mr Taffin said, giving a quick bow. He turned to the door, relieved that he would soon be out of the Relic Guild agent's company, and he clutched the package to his chest, protectively, triumphantly.

'Oh,' he said from the doorway. 'Please relay my gratitude to the Resident, won't you?'

But the shadowed agent had disappeared.

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