I sipped on my cup coffee as I read from the daily rag newspaper as I sat booth waiting for my first client. Drake was tending bar with a fat grin on his face talking with one of the locals that came in from working at one of the factories in town. Most of the clientele that came to the bar were mostly factory workers and trades men while only a handful were rangers or oddly enough ladies of the night trading their bodies for favors for copper and silver coins.
A lot of them were mixture of humanoid folk. Elfs with long ears, aliens with purple and pink skin or tall girl with raven eyes and pinks wings that came out of her back. This was a weird place but oddly reminded me of Chicago or New York City.
The double doors to the Crossroads opened the scent of Angie was in the air. She was grinning and looked like she had come back from sex with her mate. There was spring to her step and smile on her face. She mustard folder in her hands looking around the bar she found me and hurried over.
Angie's happy energy made me smile. I really did like this lady. "Hello, Big sister you have a case for me." I said.
"I do indeed. It is a little case. You have to find someone and terminate her. There is a reason for this but you most do it immediately." She said.
I nodded. "Okay." I said held out my hand for the envelope folder. Angie stared at me. I frowned at her. "What? Why do you keep looking at me like that?" I said.
"I had a talk with my..I mean with Mr. Big. He wishes to meet you right now." She said.
I sniffed around and looked around until my gaze fell on a the biggest and tallest brick shit house of a man I had ever seen standing in black suit. He had a dark red tan. His dominance and strength were around him. He walked toward us.
I stared at his face and dark eyes. He nodded to me and held out his hand. "Hello. I am Mr. Big. You may address me as Big." He said.
I nodded to him. I noticed how Angie leaned against him and remained silent. "Hello. Big. I'm Danny Sage. As I expect Big Sister told you I'm her adopted brother. She's going to help me out and make sure I don't get out of line. I plan to give her five percent of my pay as it comes."
"You will not involve yourself in my business with Angie." He said.
"Yes. Sir." I said.
There was a moment of quietness. I stared up at him. "Anything else you want to talk about?"
Big smiled nodded his head. "I like you. You understand the order of things and fall into the line best for you. Luna sent you to work here?" He asked.
I nodded. "She did. So ah are you her elder brother or something." I asked.
Mr. Big chuckled. "No. Though she would say otherwise. I am an alien from another universe that is similar to Luna. I am much older then her. I approve of Angie helping you." He said.
I nodded my head. "Okay. I got you. I really appreciate you allowing my sister to help me out here. All I want to do is help people that presented to me."
Mr. Big shook his head. "No. You will help people that are deserving of it. This is a dangerous realm. Not everyone is deserving of help because they will see it as a opportunity to destroy your soul. You must be crafty and sense out motives. You will not help anyone that will disturb the king's peace or cause problems for Angie or endanger her life."
I nodded rubbing my chin. This guy was smart. "You must be one of the political leaders in charge here. I get you. So I find anyone that wants to come after Big sister then I have to eliminate them. Correct?"
Mr. Big nodded. "Yes. This is correct."
"Okay." I said.
Mr. Big stared at me smiled. "I like you. I leave you to your work." He said and disappeared.
Angie seemed to relax now and smiled at me. "He likes you. This is a good thing. Mr. Big is an excellent seer of people's character." She said.
I grinned at her. She frowned at me. "What?!" She said.
"The last person to harm you what did he do to them?" I asked.
Angie's eyes went wide she shook her head. "No. I will not speak about that bastard. He deserved what he got. It is not what you think. I am not in love with Mr. Big. He and I are enemies. One day he and I will do battle on the streets and I will finally counter the enchantment he has on my body and mind." She said.
I shook my head. "I don't think you should be doing anything with him on streets. I know your shy about sex. You don't seem like that kind of female that engages in such." I said.
Angie stared at me. "I'm not talking about having sex in public. I would never do that and Mr. Big does not want other males jealous of his hold on me. You understand there is a magical link he has bound to me and him. I will break that chain." She said.
I frowned. "Why?" I asked her.
"Why? Because I can be free of him and his control over me." She said and frowned at me. "Do you not comprehend how dangerous Mr. Big is." She said in a husky voice.
I frowned as I heard something weird in her voice. "Okay so you would be free of him to do what?" I asked.
Angie shook her head. "To live." She said simply and nothing else.
I stared at her. "So you would be free and then you would stop having sex with him right?!"
Angie stared at him frowning. "What? What in the hell are you talking about?" She said looking at me like I had said some type foreign language.
I shook my head. "I'm just talking. Tell me about this case I have to do. Whose the client and what is my objective here?" I asked.
Angie's eyes lite up with excitement as she smiled at me. "This is going to be a good one honey. The purse is seventeen gold coins and a special prize that would be helpful to you in future cases." She said.
I nodded and opened the envelope and looked over a artist portrait of average looking human female with glowing blue cat eyes dressed in a black prime buttoned up dress. Her hair was up in thick bun and she looked like she was smelling shit.
"Damn." I said with a grimace just the sight of her gave me.
Angie nodded. "Yes. Her name is Mabelle Stella Warden. She isn't a pleasant person at all before this mess now she is a most hated reprobate dangerous individual in the magic community at all. She attempted to do a curse against his majesty's young twin children. Your mission is to track her down for elimination. Once she is found she will be destroyed immediately." She said.
I frowned and looked at a profile page of the witch. "So how the hell am I supposed to kill this chick when I find her?" I asked.
Angie looked at me with wide eyes in alarm. She shook her head violently. "No! You can't kill her Danny and you absolutely will not fight her no matter the reason. She is far older and stronger in magics then you are and a highly advanced white witch that has gone rogue and become a warlock. I'm to assist you in the regard of killing her. All you have to do is track her down with your skills for the task at hand. Granted it will not be an easy first job but it will give you enough experience and respect points in your accounts toward the wizard community for cleaning up this mess before what she attempted becomes general knowledge." She said.
I frowned. There was a lot of questions I had going on in my head. One question stuck out that might be important though. I decided to ask it. "Why the hell did she try to curse children?" I asked out loud.
Angie shook her head and then just shrugged her shoulders. "The elders of the community don't know. Danny this event came out of nowhere. Mabelle wasn't known for this kind of thing at all. She's a white witch. But the spell was cast and all we know for sure is she was the only powerful and knowledgeable enough to do it and now she's missing and no wizard or seer can find her. We are blind to her existence. Finding out why she did it is up to you. It doesn't matter to us at present maybe she was working with someone that turned her rogue is something can find out for your own interest. She still has to be eliminated." Angie said.
"What do you think the reason was though." I said. I had feelings she knew and it was important that I know for some reason.
Angie pursed her lips. "She's old. I mean very old. At times when wizards or mages become as old as she is they eventually go nuts up if you follow my meaning." She said.
I nodded and knew that I had gotten the answer I needed. "Okay." I said and then looked at the profile at her likes and bars she likes to go to. The list was short she lived in a mansion and traveled from the library in the city to the mansion back and forth but for one day in the week a Friday afternoon she went to pub called the Blackwater Pub. "Alright. I'll get on it. What is my time table window of completion?" I asked.
"Yes. From now to night fall of the city. She must be found before the window before his majesty will find out and purge the city with fire and the sword. When you find her don't worry about finding me. I'll show up and finish the job. Good hunting little brother." Angie said in a serious tone and then passed me a money purse.
I took it and frowned at her. "What's this I haven't even found her yet." I said.
"Oh no that's some spending money for you. You'll have to take a lot of cab rides around town so you'll need the extra money." She said.
"The wizards gave me a retainer fee for trips on the job? That's nice of them." I asked.
Angie shook her head. "Oh no. That's from me. Your going to need the exchange coin for the trips you'll have to make hunting for her. You have to find her quickly. I'll meet up with you when you find her. In between the time I'll look for your apartment. Hurry now. I'll see you later." She said with a wave and quickly rushed out of the double doors.
I looked toward Drake who was watching me. "Is she always like this?" I asked.
Drake frowned shaking his head. "No. She likes you. Angie is a sweet heart to everybody she loves and demon bitch to everybody she was burn. You best to go now Danny and do your best to finish the job at a timely manner not to disappoint her." He said.
I got up and headed quickly for the double doors. I looked around and waved down a yellow cabbie before it passed by me. The cabbie stopped and waited at the corner for me. The cabbie opened the door. "You got ten silver coins mate?"
I looked in the purse Angie gave me and then stared at the gold coins inside. "Will you take coin coins instead?" I asked.
"Get the hell in Mate. Your renting me out for the entire day." He said.
I smiled and got into the back seat closing the door behind me.