The rest of the wizard tower didn’t hold anything worth noting, and Asher and Samantha wrapped up their investigation before long. In the end, their haul included ridding the universe of another chunk of demon forces, a solid portion of the lich’s personal library, a Knowledge element, some griffin bones, the corpse of a lesser demon, a handful of enchanted weapons, and some of the lich’s own personal staffs. Not to mention the skill levels that the two of them had gained from all the fighting. While they hadn’t ended up running into the lich or finding any clues as to the wizard’s current whereabouts, Asher still felt good about what they’d managed to accomplish.

  While his Personal Rift was now filled more than ever before, he’d made sure there was still enough room for Samantha to comfortably move around within. After pulling her into the rift, Asher focused on Brian’s mark and triggered Recall, embracing the shifting of the world as everything twisted, before dropping them directly next to a startled twelve-year-old.

  “Asher!” Brian said, grinning up at him from his spot at the table. From the looks of things, Brian had been in the middle of fletching some new arrows in the private room Donvath had lent them. Brian had mentioned how he had a batch of arrows he wanted to finish up before heading off to join the truthseeker program, and to Asher’s untrained eye, it looked as though they were just about done.

  “Hey, Brian,” Asher said, ruffling his hair before holding out a hand and pulling Samantha free from his rift.

  “Ugh… That doesn’t get any better no matter how many times we do it,” Samantha said, groaning as she shook her head. “It’s just so unnerving in there, being cut off from the rest of the world.”

  “Did you guys find the wizard?” Brian asked, his eyes bouncing back and forth between them, no doubt taking in the imp blood all over their clothes. “Did you… you know…”

  “Unfortunately, we didn’t,” Asher sighed, gesturing down at their bodies. “This is all from a few dozen imps we took care of while we were over there. We did loot the hell out of the tower, however, which certainly doesn’t feel too bad.”

  “Stealing all the lich’s stuff does make me feel a little better,” Samantha admitted with a grin. “How do we go about selling it at the Grand Auction, anyway? Is there a process for that?”

  “I don’t know… I suppose I can swing by and ask that Bellod guy,” Asher said. “I was planning to do so sooner than later anyway, seeing as I’m still holding onto the greater demon corpse.”

  “Yeah, I noticed,” Samantha said, shivering at the thought. “I can’t say seeing that thing’s body on the other side of your rift made being in there any more pleasant.”

  “If you’re going back to the auction, can I come?” Brian asked, bouncing in his seat. “It is the Brian party, after all. I feel like I should come with!”

  “Fine with me,” Asher said, shrugging as he glanced at Samantha. The two of them knew that preparations for Brian being accepted into the auxiliary program for truthseekers would be finished any day now, which meant they’d be seeing a lot less of Brian soon enough. They’d agreed to Donvath’s demand that they limit their visits with Brian to certain set times, which was far more than anyone else in the program was awarded.

  “Of course you can come,” Samantha said, pulling him out of his chair and into a big hug, much to his usual grumbling. “How about we all grab a quick lunch and then head on over?”

  Asher still hadn’t been forgiven by Donvath for supposedly picking a fight with one of the visiting nobles who had tried flirting with Samantha, an act that he didn’t think was all that fair seeing as he’d never actually done such a thing and it was a future version of him Donvath was annoyed with. That said, their ‘punishment’ of not being allowed to eat within the large royal hall with all the stuffy nobles wasn’t really worth fighting over, as instead, Donvath had instructed them to send one of the servants off to gather food for them to enjoy within the confines of their private room whenever they got hungry. Once the three of them filled up on some particularly delicious roasted bird, they walked out of the palace and made their way to the nearby Grand Auction. While they walked, Asher tried to come up with an idea of how to find Bellod, as he figured the auction master probably had plenty of things on his plate.

  Which made it all the more surprising when he found the man waiting for them near the auction entrance, arguing with two others who were also dressed like merchants.

  “What’s going on?” Samantha asked, peering at the arguing trio who were doing a rather poor job of keeping their voices lowered.

  “No idea,” Asher admitted, wondering if they should wait for the fighting to stop before coming any closer. Thankfully, they seemed to be catching the tail end of whatever was going on, as Bellod made what looked like one final threat, and the two other merchants finally backed off, throwing scowls at him as they headed back into the grand auction. Once they were gone, Bellod fixed his clothes and took a deep breath, blinking as he finally spotted the three of them walking closer.

  “Ah, the Brian party!” Bellod exclaimed, quickly collecting himself and beaming at them. “My, it is good to see you three again. How have you been?”

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  “Good!” Brian said, waving happily at the auction master. “What was that fight about?”

  “Ah, you saw that?” Bellod asked, wincing slightly even if his smile didn’t falter. “Just a minor disagreement between merchants. Nothing you need to worry about. More importantly, what brings you to the Grand Auction today? Is there anything I can assist with?”

  “As a matter of fact, there is,” Asher said slowly, a theory quickly forming around what must have happened. The fact that Bellod just happened to be waiting at the exact entrance they were coming through, along with a few other merchants, meant that some sort of skill had to be in play. He’d read about skills associated with the Trade element such as Deal Detection or Opportunist, and he wouldn’t put it past Bellod to have such a skill for himself to alert him to people bringing rare finds to the Grand Auction. Which meant their haul had to be even more impressive than he first thought.

  “Wonderful!” Bellod said, his smile only growing wider as he motioned for them to follow him. “Here, let us retire to one of the appraisal rooms. I’d be happy to help go over whatever goods you brought with you today.”

  Asher could only chuckle at Samantha’s confused glance, and he could practically read the unspoken question in her gaze as they followed Bellod into one of the many side buildings.

  ‘We didn’t tell him we were bringing things to sell this time, did we...?’

  That all but solidified his theory about skills being in play, and Asher had to physically prevent himself from rubbing his hands together in glee. While he didn’t regret it in the slightest, dropping one and a half million shards on the Wing element for Samantha had been a bit painful.

  If they were lucky, maybe they could earn back a chunk of that fortune right here and now.

  Bringing them into a small, private room with a wide variety of tools lining the walls, Bellod sat them at a round table in the center before taking a seat himself. Clearing his throat, he began.

  “As an auction master, naturally, I have been trained in the art of appraisal, and would be more than happy to help uncover the true worth of anything the three of you have brought into the Grand Auction today. As always, an appraiser receives three percent of whatever your final winnings are, but I assure you, that percentage doesn’t change regardless of who performs the appraisal, so please don’t feel like you’re losing out on any of your profit simply because I offered you my services.”

  Well, I suppose that answers the question of why the different merchants were fighting over us, Asher thought, nodding along with what Bellod was saying. He’d hadn’t noticed before now, but a quick scan through one of the Grand Auction booklets he’d Incorporated the last time they were here confirmed what Bellod was saying. Nothing went to auction without an appraisal, and the split of three percent going toward whoever conducted the appraisal was in fact universal across the board. In fact, having Bellod conduct the appraisal would only benefit them, as the better the appraiser was, the more information that could be gleaned about any one item, which would increase how much it went for at auction.

  “Thank you for offering your services,” Asher said, giving Samantha a slight nod to let her know the three percent split was standard. “How does this work, exactly? We have a couple of different things we want to sell.”

  “We can set up an appointment for you to return with the items whenever it works for you, and we can go over them one at a time at your leisure,” Bellod explained, his award-winning smile never changing in the slightest. “Would that be acceptable?”

  “Oh, you misunderstand,” Asher chuckled. “I have all the items with me right here and now. I meant, should I bring them out all at once, or do you have a procedure you prefer to follow?”

  “You have everything on your person right now?” Bellod repeated, licking his lips lightly as his eyes traveled over Asher’s torso. “Of course, we can handle the appraisal now if that is what you would prefer. My apologies, for some reason, I assumed whatever it was you were planning to sell would be a lot… bigger.”

  “Bellod, can we assume that any skills we show you would be held in complete confidence?” Samantha asked, already seeing where this was going. Asher had no doubt she didn’t want to go out and rent a few wagons only to load them up and drag them over here anymore than he did.

  “Of course,” Bellod hurried to reassure them. “I’m willing to offer my services as the Brian party’s personal appraiser, if that pleases you. It is a common practice for members of the Grand Auction who have earned the right to the luxury booths such as yourselves to take on a personal appraiser to assist them whenever they stop by. Any skills you show me or details regarding the goods you bring in will be kept completely between us. I would lose my entire reputation and position as an auction master if I were to reveal anything you deemed worthy of sharing.”

  “That sounds perfect,” Asher said, smiling at the look of relief and excitement on Bellod’s face. He completely understood that Bellod was benefitting from this agreement far more than they were, but he didn’t mind. They had to pay three percent of their winnings toward someone, it might as well be toward someone they knew.

  “Well then, now that all that official business is out of the way, where are the items you would like me to appraise?” Bellod asked, glancing around the room. “Do you have staff who will be teleporting in with them? Guards watching over them from just outside? Trust me, in all my years, I’ve seen just about everything.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Asher said, unable to hide his grin as Bellod raised an eyebrow in challenge. “We’ve got a good number of things for you to look over, but I suppose if we were to just start with one…”

  Holding his hand out over the table, Asher accessed his Personal Rift, letting the body of the lesser demon he and Samantha had just killed over in the wizard’s tower flop down onto the round table. Bellod’s eyes went wide as saucers as the eight-foot-tall corpse manifested out of nowhere directly before him, and his jaw fell open as he struggled to comprehend what had just happened.

  “Trust me, that’s nothing!” Brian said, laughing at the sight of the auction master’s shock. “Wait until you see what else Asher’s got in there!”

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