All The Skills

That took Arthur aback. This can't be a coincidence, can it?

Brixaby's Legendary card insisted the next in his set was in Blood Moon Hive, and then Brixaby's portal card took him to a place Blood Moon Hive riders should not be. They were currently in the central ring of the kingdom while their hive was toward the Eastern edge.

Arthur dismissed that thought in the next moment. No, this had to be chance.

Realizing he was staring at the riders while everyone else was busily, obviously, not looking, he quickly activated his Stealth skills.

Though he didn’t use all of them because he did not want to risk disappearing completely. That would attract anyone who was looking out for trouble. Just enough to blend into the crowd slowly filling the courtyard: Concealment, Silent Movement and the general Stealth skill.

He watched the riders from a distance and observed how fearless they were while approaching the vendors, and how nervous the vendors were in return. Goods passed from the merchant’s hands to the riders. Every time something was passed to the brown rider, the goods would disappear in a flash of light. He was the one with transportation card, then.

That was a little odd because usually people who linked themselves with brown dragons specialized in Earth-type cards... though Arthur knew better than most that no rider was required to keep a heart deck pure.

He was just considering this when Cressida caught up with him. She was a little out of breath and still looked somewhat pale from using so much mana, but otherwise she seemed alright.

"Those are the riders," he said, nodding to them.

She followed his gaze and frowned. "I would have guessed that much even if you hadn't pointed them out. Everyone's staying as well clear of them as if they were high nobles."

"Like they're dangerous," Arthur agreed grimly. "They've received a lot from the stalls selling luxury goods, but I haven't seen any coins pass between them."

Her lips pressed into a thin line. "They could be working off of Hive credit. Should we move closer?"

"Yes, but slowly. I want to be able to memorize their faces... I don't want them to recognize us later."

They meandered to stalls which were closer to the riders, taking a path that would eventually lead them to cross the same paths. But they weren't quite able to get within hearing range before a ruckus broke out between the pink rider and one of the vendors.

Arthur and Cressida exchanged a look and Arthur said, "I need to hear this."

Then, taking the chance that all attention would be on the increasingly loud argument and not on himself, he slipped fully into Stealth.

It didn't make him invisible, but he was supremely unnoticed as he moved closer. He wasn't the only one who had gone to intercept. The blue and brown rider stepped up to stand on either side of the pink rider.

"What is going on here?" the brown rider said.

"Sir," the vendor objected. "I was showing my wares, but this bolt of cloth has already been purchased. It is not for sale."

"I want it," the pink rider sniffed.

Arthur could see why. The bolt was a fine dark fabric that had a rainbow of glittering glass beads sown in. It was a little gaudy for his tastes, but he could imagine a dragon like Joy would love it.

The blue's rider huffed. "I don't see what the problem is, here. Our Hive always pays its bills."

"Sir, it's not a matter of money. It's special ordered--"

The vendor was cut off by screams from mid-courtyard. Arthur caught a flash of pink right above his head.

Well-honed instinct made him drop to the ground, belly first. It was a good thing he did because a massive dragon landed nearly right on top of him with a thud that shook the ground. For a moment, Arthur could only stare at the pale pink belly a couple feet above his head, try to reconcile how that had happened -- how a dragon could be so brazen and foolish as to land right on someone -- and then remember.

... Right. He was using Stealth skills. The dragon hadn’t seen him.

He rolled away and stood. Luckily for him, a dragon landing in the middle of a busy courtyard full of people tended to create a lot of chaos. So, when he dropped his Stealth skills, no one seemed to notice him seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

He staggered back in time to see the pink dragon snake his head around and bare teeth that were easily as long as a man's arm toward the poor vendor. Meanwhile, other tents and booths had been half knocked over by the wind of the dragon's arrival and by people scrambling to get away.

The poor vendor held out the bolt of fabric. "H-here. Take it!"

The pink's rider took it with a smile. "That's what I thought." He looked at the brown's rider. "I'm tired of this district. May we move on, sir?"

The man waited a beat while the vendor quaked. Then, in a drawl the rider said, "Yes. I trust next time we come the purchase, my retinue rider won't be denied anything he can rightfully pay for?"

"N-no, sir!" the vendor stammered.

The brown rider made a gesture and there was again that bright flash of light. The three riders disappeared. The pink's rider moved only a few feet and now sat astride his dragon, while the others appeared up above on their circling dragons.

Stolen story; please report.

Cressida reached Arthur just as the pink took off. They sheltered together, half bowed against the rush of wind from flapping wings. It seemed to Arthur that the pink was deliberately directing wind gusts to hit the courtyard. Dragons had ways to rotate their wings so that not all the force of wind was directed downward on takeoff... but only if they wanted.

He seethed.

Tents were disrupted and damaged by the wind. Goods were dirtied by the dust kicked up, and many people had fled the shopping courtyard in fear. And for what? A gaudy bolt of cloth?

Worse was that almost as soon as the dragon was safely in the sky, people were rushing back and forth to put everything back into place. They were used to this and were already planning to recover and go about the rest of their day.

The poor fabric vendor got some of the worst of it. Once pristine bolts of fabric were now dusty. Most would need to be washed. The look on his face was wretched, and Arthur wondered how "disappointed" the noble who special ordered the fabric would be with him.

On impulse, Arthur used his Stealth and skills to step beside the man. Others had come to help at least put things back into place, so no one took notice of him.

He activated his not-often-used Pickpocketing skill and brought an Uncommon shard from his Personal Space, slipping it into the man's side pocket. He would find it later, perhaps tonight.

Arthur knew this wasn't his problem, this wasn't his crime and those weren't his riders... but he would do all he could to help.

He went back to Cressida. "Let’s get out of here."

As they exited the shopping area, Cressida looked back. "Arthur, what exactly are we getting ourselves into with Blood Moon Hive?"

"I don't know," Arthur replied. "But I'm starting to wonder if there's more than one reason why Brixaby's card led us there."

****

Arthur was distracted as he and Cressida walked down the street away from the market square. He kept glancing up at the sky and squinting suspiciously at every bird that flew by at a distance. Luckily, they were only birds and there was no sign of more dragons – his own or more Blood Moon Hive.

Cressida nudged him with her elbow. "You're using your Stealth skills, aren't you? Drop them." He stared at her for a moment, confused, and then double-checked and realized, yes, in his anxiety and need not to be seen, he was leaning heavily on several of his Stealth skills without fully realizing it. He’d never done that before.

"How did you know?" he asked, immediately relaxing his hold on them.

"Because you're flicking in and out of my attention, and that is drawing people's eyes this way," she said pointedly. "Right towards me." Before he could reply, Cressida pointed straight ahead to a tiny corner shop. "I don't think that we're going to find exactly what we're looking for, but that looks like a good place to start."

He followed her gaze and saw the entrance of a small card shop that sat on the corner of a building. The sign showed prominently the sickle and wheat stalk of a farmer.

A farming card shop? he thought dubiously. But as he and Cressida walked in, he realized that was indeed the case. It was a small boutique shop without much space—only a few shelves with the cards locked away behind clear cases which were etched with runic security.

The card shop owner might deal with humble farmers, but he was no fool. There were additional etchings surrounding the door, and he had no doubt many of those were card anchors triggered directly to trap cards. All was to stop thieves from making out with any goods.

The card shop owner sat behind a counter which was parallel to the door, perfect for viewing who came in and out.

At their entrance, he stood at once. "May I help you, sir? Ma'am? Miss?"

Cressida stepped forward and began asking him about higher-end cards. Meanwhile, Arthur browsed what was available on the shelves. Most were Common and Uncommon, focused on land management and growing things.

There was an Uncommon card that fixed nitrogen in the soil for an entire growing season, though the mana cost per acre was enormous. Another Common allowed the wielder to highlight all ripe produce that was ready for harvesting in the wielder’s vision. One card that caught his attention was a Common that nudged its wielder toward any wild growing healing herbs. That might do well for Marion with his healing-based deck.

Arthur considered it for a moment and figured he would come back later for that card if nothing else caught his attention today.

It was about that time Cressida finished her conversation with the storekeeper and signaled to Arthur that they should move on.

Once outside, she said quietly, "He suggested another shop called Scribbles, which is down a couple of blocks."

He was both surprised and distrustful that it should be so easy. "You think they have what we're looking for?"

She shook her head. "No, but he thinks that they may know somebody who can get us on the right path. It seems the city is full of these small, very specialized card shops. Oh, there are larger, more general shops," she added, anticipating his question, "but those are for the average buyer. Stuffed full of Common cards. He thinks the owner of Scribbles might have a lead on something better."

He nodded and as they came up to the next shop, he made sure to activate his Charming Gentle-Person card. Cressida was going to take the lead here and do most of the talking as she had grown up as a noble and knew how to navigate these circles and how to politely ask for something without quite asking. But it couldn't hurt to have his fair share of charisma as well.

Scribbles was a card shop dedicated to scribes. The cards which caught his attention allowed someone to effortlessly perform calligraphy using mana or even use mana instead of ink to write. The person with that could would never need a refill on ink ever again. There was even a card to flawlessly translate documents from one language to another, though Arthur didn’t need that with his skills.

As he browsed, again, Cressida went to the front and struck up a conversation, insinuating what they needed without coming out and saying it – that they were looking for portal cards and illusions to obscure identities.

The shopkeeper was no fool and focused on the last bit, pretending not to notice that Cressida was seeking the exact type of card that thieves would normally want.

"The rare and unusual..." The shopkeeper, a squat little woman, pretended to think for a moment, though Arthur sensed she already had something in mind. "Yes, I may have somebody in mind. But to let you up front, what you're asking for is not inexpensive."

In answer, Arthur stepped up to the counter and took out a now linked set pair that he had been working on using his Master of Cards.

"We have cards that are quite unusual, too." He kept them out long enough for the shopkeeper to understand that they were a pair—which was not only rare but highly restricted in the kingdom—before he slid them back into his Personal Space. Then, before she could react, he pulled out another set, this time, three of a kind.

She licked her lips. "No shop in this city will have what you're asking for. You should look in private collections."

Which meant the libraries that city nobles would have. It made sense that they'd have the best of the best.

"Is somebody currently selling from their collection?" Cressida asked.

"… Perhaps," the shopkeeper said with quite a lot of hesitation.

Arthur knew how to take care of that. He slid a Rare card shard across the table.

Quick as a snake, she reached out and grabbed it, sliding it up her sleeve. Her hesitation vanished.

"Let me ask around to my contacts. Return on the hour, and I should know one way or another."

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