15th of Adun, year 991
Blackstone Town, northernmost town of Ragha
The town was named after the rocks that provided the town's most important source of commerce. Blackstone was mostly used as marble flooring for the mansions of the rich and powerful. Other than that, blackstone was also an essential item for military fortifications—a three-centimeter thick blackstone marble could withstand more damage than a ten-centimeter brick. Blackstone marble was a major export of Ragha, next only in importance to the kingdom's agricultural products.
Blackstone town's plaza was built by the town pioneers about five kilometers east of the quarry site. The town hall was at the center of everything. Next to the town hall was the public market while across to the other side of the town hall were the many inns, restaurants and pubs that lined the southern part of the plaza. Behind the town hall was their martial arts training center.
Even from afar the imposing gilded marble exterior of the town hall put visitors in awe of the opulence displayed before their eyes. While it was uncommonly large for a town hall, it was much more expensively built than a mansion five times its size.
As a major trading hub among Ragha and its northern neighbors, the Blackstone public market could very well be said to have almost everything a shopper would need. All sorts of traders from Ragha and other countries could be found here, all bringing products that could only be bought at the Blackstone public market or at the country of the product's origin.
Since Blink came to town to pay a visit to their forge, he stopped by to satisfy his curiosity at the many different kinds of products being sold. He was hoping to find something of interest and maybe strike a bargain with the trader. He found one who sold gemstones but almost immediately regretted asking after finding the prices too prohibitive.
Gemstones such as sapphire, emerald and amethyst could be used to channel magic, which made them valuable ingredients for magic enchantment.
At the forge, Blink asked the blacksmith to re-forge the weapons he had ruined by his enchantment practice. The blacksmith gave him a good price that allowed him to only need to spend his silver and copper coins while saving the gold coins he looted from the bandits and the Taraskan soldiers.
Sadly, for Blink, there were no more bandits nor Taraskan soldiers as he neared Blackstone. As a major trading hub among different kingdoms, bandits knew to keep their criminal activities away from the town. It would be stupid for a bandit to strike at Blackstone as he would surely be hunted down by all the kingdoms who had a stake at keeping Blackstone open for trade and commerce. Even robbery, which was pretty common among the different kingdoms, was dealt with swiftly and harshly.
Although the blacksmith promised to work immediately on Blink's order, he would only be able to finish the work mid-morning of the next day.
Since he had to spend the day in town, Blink asked the blacksmith for the location of the weapon shops. It so happened that the blacksmith's daughter owned a weapons shop, so he directed one of his helpers to accompany Blink to the said shop.
The blacksmith's daughter was a shrewd businesswoman. This was clear with the way she had dealt with customers who came earlier than Blink to buy or sell weapons or armor. However, Blink happened to look at the display and could only look with longing at the exorbitant price tags.
The show owner must have been struck by Blink's show of vulnerability. She agreed to buy all of Blink's enchanted items at a rate close to market selling price. With the earlier customers, she would not back down at buying only at half the market selling price. But even with that, she was still bound to make a good profit as enchanted weapon, armor and shield were hard to come by.
As for Blink, he had earned more than he spent for the re-forging of the weapons. With the gold coins he took from the Taraskan soldiers and this latest transaction, Blink now had over a hundred gold coins, and a few silver and copper coins.
He skipped happily towards the martial arts training center. He reminded himself that he must remember to look lost and vulnerable whenever he had to deal with women proprietors.
At the martial arts training center, Blink discovered that Blackstone didn't have a senior disciple as their instructor. Instead, they were trained under the guidance of someone who used to be in Blink's class but was cut off just a year after they became junior disciples.
Naturally, Blink was recognized by the former junior disciple and his presence caused a big commotion among the trainees and the townspeople gathered there.
Blink learned from Karj, who was the one teaching the trainees, that the town council decided to hold the martial arts training of Blackstone children at the town plaza instead of sending them to the town of Gellud, which was a full day's travel away. They managed to secure an agreement with the young master at Gellud that the trainees of Blackstone would still be eligible for the recruitment evaluation.
Not twenty minutes had passed and the mayor's clerk came over to inform Blink of the mayor's request for an audience with him at the town hall. Blink agreed to come over after he was done checking the form of the trainees, which took him close to an hour.
Before heading to the nearby town hall, Blink promised Karj he would join him for the afternoon sparring session.
The town mayor was very effusive in his praise towards Blink for acquiescing to his request for a meeting. Blink merely replied that Master Tszarek would have expected nothing less than for them to pay their respects to local authorities.
Another man was present during their meeting. The town mayor introduced him as Zelk.
Zelk had a sister who married a foreigner who came to their town five years ago to work at the quarry. The foreigner was an expert stonecutter and was thus hired right away. With his skills, Zelk's brother-in-law easily rose to the position of chief stonecutter in one of the three biggest stonecutting firms in town.
The name of this foreigner stonecutter who married Zelk's sister was Jormil. The name suggested that he was most likely from Tarask although he never confirmed nor denied the matter.
Everything was going well for Jormil. Then two days ago, his wife was found dead inside their residence by their servants, and Jormil went missing. The most logical conclusion was that he killed his wife and fled. Nobody mourned his wife. She was a mean, contemptuous woman who liked to humiliate people in public, her husband included. However, murder was something that shouldn't be condoned no matter how despicable the victim might have acted in her life.
Despite all evidence pointing to his brother-in-law as the culprit, Zelk felt that Jormil was innocent.
"My brother-in-law loves to listen to and tell stories and sharing a good laugh over a few glasses of liquor," Zelk said. "These aren't qualities of a murderer. Besides he could have done it long ago after Zarla turned out to be such an overbearing brute."
"Are you saying the crime doesn't fit the person?" Blink asked.
"That's precisely what I think."
"What do you want from me then?"
Zelk had a pleading look in the eyes. "I want you to bring him back," he said.
"It was two days ago. Haven't you already sent others to go after him?"
Zelk took a moment before answering Blink's question. "Some adventurous youths chased after him after the crime was revealed. So far, no news has returned to us yet."
"They should be able to get him after a day or two," Blink assessed.
"But that's what I wanted to avoid. You see, if those youths catch him, chances are they would hurt him pretty bad. Maybe even kill him."
"So you want me to catch him ahead of them or to rescue him just in case they got him?"
"Yes, that's precisely it."
Blink suddenly became very pensive. It was an uncomfortably long silence.
"Will you do it, Master Blink?" the mayor asked to break the silence.
"Two hundred fifty gold coins," Blink said after another minute of silence. Blink was trying to recall the prices of the gemstones sold at the public market and roughly computed that two hundred and fifty gold coins should be enough for him to buy five different pieces.
The mayor and Zelk were both dumbfounded.
"You want us to pay you two hundred fifty gold coins?" Zelk said.
"That's right. I'll do it for two hundred fifty gold coins. And no, I'm asking only you to pay for it, not anybody else."
"But I don't have that kind of money," Zelk protested. "Unlike my brother-in-law, I'm only a stonecutter's apprentice."
"And who is also now legally the executor of your sister's and brother-in-law's estates," Blink pointed out to Zelk.
Zelk looked at Blink then at the mayor.
"He's actually right," the mayor said. "And if your brother-in-law turns up dead, that makes you the sole heir to the couple's estates."
The mayor added, "What Master Blink is trying to say is that you could easily afford to pay a fee of even twice that with your current status.
"Anybody would be willing to lend you the money."
Zelk nodded in understanding. Still, he felt that two hundred fifty gold coins was too much and tried to bargain with Blink.
Blink explained that he was putting himself at risk by travelling through the desert. Aside from having to deal with his brother-in-law's pursuers, he was also bound to encounter thieves or evil people who might want to kill him for the thrill of it.
When Zelk didn't say anything in response, Blink tried the bigger picture approach.
"Look, I'd really like to help you without the necessity of asking for money, though I know you could actually afford to pay. But I've had to stop a lot of bandits and foreign soldiers from Calandra to here from invading us. Now, I'm on my way to Tarask to find a way to ultimately stop our northern neighbor from trying to invade us. A little donation from one or two patriotic citizens could really mean a lot to what should be our common cause as citizens of Ragha."
Zelk was not very quiet as if he was trying to ponder something so monumental.
To expedite the matter, the mayor offered his insights: "Blink is the top disciple of the Ragha Martial Arts Academy. That's some serious skills you must never try to hire for cheap.
"As for your brother-in-law, you know very well you're the only one who truly cares for his innocence.
"Now, since you will be paying with your brother-in-law's money anyway, trying to save him for free is rather pathetic."
Blink knew the mayor just took the words right out of his mouth. He didn't say anything for fear of ruining the alderman's elegant persuasion.
The mayor looked at Zelk and then at Blink, who nodded slightly in appreciation.
"Now, here's what needs to be done," the mayor continued. "I'll hand over two hundred fifty gold coins to Master Blink here…"
"Eherm!" Blink suddenly interjected. "It's the third time you've called me Master Blink that I feel I would be too shameless if I don't try to correct address. Master Tszarek is the only one who deserves to be called Master. As for me, the proper address is Junior Disciple Blink."
The mayor nodded before returning his attention to Zelk. "As I was saying, I'll hand over two hundred fifty gold coins to Junior Disciple Blink here, and you could just pay me back when you've settled matters regarding your brother-in-law's accounts."
"In that case I will have to bother you, sir," Zelk told the mayor.
The mayor snapped a finger in the air and his clerk approached immediately. The mayor whispered a few words to the clerk's ear and the latter left but quickly came back after less than ten minutes.
"Forgive me, I took a little more time to make sure I got the right amount," he apologized to the group. "Here's two hundred fifty gold coins to Mr. Blink."
After receiving the money, Blink promised to follow the trail of Jormil the next day as soon as he concluded his transaction with the forge's proprietor.
The conversation shifted into small talks, to which Blink had to suppress the urge to just get up and leave. He was very excited to purchase the gems as soon as he received the gold coins that any more waiting was quite a bother for him.
When he could finally bid the other two goodbye, Blink rushed out to the gemstone merchant and tried to haggle with the prices. However, the old trader was adamant with his prices despite Blink's many attempts at cajoling the former for a discount.
Blink even tried to knock into the man's patriotic sense: "I would be going to Tarask to try to stop something terrible from happening to our kingdom, and it would be more convenient to be carrying a few gems than to a bag full of gold coins."
But even that didn't move the greedy merchant. In the end Blink was forced to settle for five gemstones because he just had to buy the ruby, which was priced at one hundred gold coins.
Blink didn't see that the mayor's clerk was nearby and was signalling for the trader to come over while Blink was picking which gems to buy. The clerk and the gem merchant had a short conversation which turned the latter's complexion red.
When the merchant returned and Blink was about to pay for his purchase, the merchant told Blink that the gems would be sold at a fifty-percent discount. Blink was shocked because, earlier, he had tried every means to get a discount to no avail yet this time the trader just cut his own price by half.
Since he did ask for a discount earlier, Blink didn't make anything of it and just pick two of each of the five gems he intended to buy. He bought rubies, sapphires, amethysts, emeralds and opals.
After his purchase, he went to a restaurant to eat lunch and got a second surprise when his payment was refused. The owner simply said it was on the house before adding, "For Ragha!"
He went to help Karj during the sparring session of the trainees and discovered only one, a girl of around Zugr's age, who had the potential to qualify for the academy. Because Blink spent a long time with her, she instantly became the star of the training center
That evening Blink checked into an inn. When he was about to pay his bill the next day, the manager told him it was already taken care of. "For Ragha!" the manager added.
It was the same at another restaurant where he had breakfast.
–"What's the deal with this 'For Ragha' thing?" –
But even at the forge, it was the same thing as well with the blacksmith who owned it giving back Blink's money and saying, "For Ragha!"