Searing 23 121
Thanh proved more useful than initially thought.
As Mino had suspected, Bui was a man who was privy to a fair amount of gossip. His need to find himself in the inner circles made him especially aware of what others were saying. This desire also made him easier to manipulate. Getting him to talk was as simple as looking him in the eye and treating him passingly like an equal. Not that it was hard; he was interesting enough to be around. Perhaps Mino could find use of him beyond this arrangement. He was certainly helping Mino’s bets.
Bui leaned in once more, sipping at his sake. His cheeks had reddened considerably and the more put-together air he had before (however little there had been) had dissolved after the fifth or sixth drink. Mino had lost count just as the other had. His cup, however, had not been tainted with drink in the same way. The cool glide of water down his throat saved it from the harshness of his scream each time they had won a match. The man had been correct in placing their bets in Lady Hioshi’s bull. It had not lost yet.
Now, though, seemed to be a moment of more careful consideration. Bui sighed. “Lady Krish doesn’t breed her beetles the same, but there’s been word going around that she uses some kind of magical berry.” He pursed his lips, took another sip. The man glanced toward Mino. “Is your drink not satisfactory?”
“No, no; just savoring.” He lifted his cup, as if to drink, as Bui grinned and nodded. “You were saying, about the beetles?”
“Yes, right.” The words were only minimally slurred. Maybe the rathari ought to take his cup from him soon. “Lady Khrish has connections to someone in Zaichaer that grows them. Supposedly that work like enhancements on beasts. Not sure about people.” His brows furrowed at this. “But she’s been feeding it to her beetles. Makes them a nasty sort, but strong.”
The servant taking bets passed by them once more, brows raised with expectancy. A quick glance at the pad in their hand, and all odds seemed to be in Lady Khrish’s favor. Perhaps there were others who had heard the rumors. Mino waved them off, a faint “Still thinking.”
“On the subject of magical things, Bui, do you happen to have any?”
Bui blinked, pursed his lips once more. “Aside from what my family has taught me? No, I am afraid not. It is all...somewhat frightening.”
“There are plenty of frightening things in the world.” Mino tipped his head to the side, took a sip of his water. “I’m not sure if magic is at the top of the list for me. And you work with world magic.”
“Yes, I suppose that is rather pathetic.” Lord Thanh seemed a lot more sober in the following moments, words slow and carefully chosen. Was this something he worried about, Mino wondered? “But world magic is different from the more...personal magics. They come with a change to your very being. Your essence is forever different once you’ve been initiated, and that’s if things go right.”
Mino nodded, let the words sink in. The other had paled a bit after his answer. He tipped his head back and down the rest of his cup before reaching for another offered by a passing servant. Once more, the one with the notepad walked by, pad raised to take a bet until Mino shook his head. This was much more interesting.
“And if things go wrong?”
Lord Thanh licked his lips, glanced around. There was the edge of fear, a trickle of paranoia as he spoke as if the words that left his mouth were taboo. “There was a lady, once, who ventured into the realm of magic. My father knew her. Knew her teacher, rather. He told me that she had already dabbled in the arcane arts from a young age, but had not progressed much. No one had really thought it to be wrong or that she was a bad mage — it was just a passing interest.” He smoothed his hands over his robe.
The crowd around them had grown antsy as more bets were placed and some were changed. The buzz of chatter filled Mino’s ears in the silence that Bui had fallen into to compose himself. He wondered if there was a point to the paranoia.
“People don’t like to talk about it much. The family claims they aren’t sore about it, but everyone knows they took quite a hit when it happened. The lady tried to initiate a friend and it went wrong. Very wrong. Before she could even think of getting it to happen, she faced the consequences of stepping far past her limits. Turned herself into an abomination. Feline, I think they said.” Bui shook his head, shuddered. He almost seemed to forget the very same feline qualities in the lord seated beside him. But Mino did not point this out; he was much too engrossed in the story, and already beginning to pick apart what must have been the lie versus the truth.
Maybe he should have had a bit more faith in the man. After all, his information had not been wrong yet in terms of the fights. He knew more than people gave him credit for. After the first win, people seemed to fall in line with what Mino had decided. Lady Hioshi had flung the competition out of the way, both figuratively and literally. Who knew how much fun could be had watching a beetle through another from a table?
The servant came once more. “Your bets, my lords?”
A moment of contemplation, a glance at the other. “We’ll stick with Lady Hioshi.”
“But—” Mino silenced the other with a pointed look. The lord deflated, slouching into the chaise as they watched the servant rush off to the bookkeeper once more. The spoils of this would be quite something, considering how deep in their cups everyone was. It was not a small measure of money that they had wasted on a few beetles. But, of course, a bank note could be earned back through Mino’s line of work.
The young and rich of Kalsazi clamored closer to the stage meant for the battle. They could be regarded for exactly what they were: children. The rathari pushed himself up from his chair, peering between the bodies hovering by the stage. The beetles had begun to do battle, pushing at one another. Their little — relative; they were the size of rats, really — worked as they pushed against one another.
“What was her name, Bui?” He didn’t take his eyes off the fight. He’d put his own money on it, after all.
Lord Thanh swallowed, stood. “Ong Yun. But — don’t tell anyone you heard it from me.”
“You have my word.”
The faint yellow sheen on the Khrish beetle winked in the light. It had made some progress in working its small horns under the Hioshi beetle’s body. But it had done only that. It had stopped moving forward while the other beetle still managed to nudge it back toward the edge of the stage. Voices raised, both in praise and reprimand of both beetles.
“They say—” Bui stopped himself, snatched up another cup for courage. “They say she had a pet she loved. A cat. She used it to make herself an animus form. When her...accident happened, she slipped into that form.”
There was no use for him to turn into a cat; he could do that without the aide of magic. He tipped his head to the side. The Hioshi beetle had been backed up once more. Khrish’s beetle threatened to lift it from the stage, legs just barely touching the table now. Lady Hioshi’s face morphed into one of horror, anticipation, and a mad dash of determination. That breeding would be better than magical enhancement. Mino crossed his arms over his chest, took in a breath.
“How did she disappear, then? I’m sure her family would have kept careful watch of her once she turned into —” He waved his hand dismissively. “Whatever she turned into.”
“Oh, but that’s the thing.” Bui’s voice sounded lighter than it had before. Floaty. Around the stage, the intensity of the match carried on. Voice raised further, servants glancing worriedly between each other. They weren’t exactly a permitted establishment for these games and the enhanced beetles would be subject to citation by the gaming commission.
But to them, it didn’t matter. They would pay the price of the entertainment of watching the match play out. On the stage, the Hioshi beetle had found its footing. In the blink of an eye, it had shoved the other beetle back and hooked its horn under the fat belly of the yellow beetle. The blue-black sheen of its exoskeleton caught the light as it lifted its head.
“She had traversion, as well as animus; she disappeared into a portal.”
Mino’s brow lifted in time with the Hioshi beetle tossing its opponent off the stage and into the watching audience.
