To his credit, Bellod got over his shock at the body of a lesser demon appearing before him out of thin air rather quickly. The man clearly hadn’t earned the title of auction master by being bad at his job, as he quickly snapped into action, jerking to his feet and going over the demon’s body like an archeologist over the find of the century.

  “This is remarkable,” Bellod whispered, his hands hovering just over the corpse as they trailed up and down the demon’s body. “Other than two precise puncture wounds to the spine and throat, the corpse is nearly untouched. Lesser demons are rarely seen these days, and when their bodies are brought to us, they are often in far rougher shape than this. Or I suppose I should say they used to be rarely seen. I do have to inform you that we did actually have a surprising handful of lesser demon bodies come through the Grand Auction just the other day as a result of a surprise demon attack on Abingdon, so now isn't exactly the best time for this item. That said, a body in this condition will still be a massive hit to collectors and alchemists alike, even if it's not quite as rare a find as usual! How long ago was it killed?”

  “Uh… Maybe around three or four hours ago?” Asher said, scratching the back of his head as he went over the day’s events. “Yeah, somewhere around there.”

  “Hours?!” Bellod repeated, clutching at his chest in shock. “I… You… How?!”

  “Let’s just say we seem to run into demons on a surprisingly frequent basis,” Asher said, deciding bringing up the fact that The Council of Death was after them probably wasn’t the best idea, regardless of whatever promise Bellod had sworn to them. “How much do you think it would go for?”

  “It’s hard to say precisely, but in this condition, I would expect at least a few hundred thousand shards,” Bellod said confidently, nodding as he stared down at the demon’s corpse. “I will say, I won’t pry into your vague explanation, but I will give you a word of warning. If through some miracle you’ve managed to find a way to reliably farm lesser demons without killing yourselves, just be aware that the amount of shards you’ll collect from each attempt at selling them will almost assuredly be less than the one before it. Doubly so with the recent influx of lesser demon corpses we just experienced. The laws of supply and demand run the auction, after all. A single lesser demon in this condition is one thing. But if you put five up for sale, one after another? Or ten? The bidders will quickly realize more will be coming, and the fervor will die down almost instantly.”

  “That’s fine, we’re not going to go out of our way to bring you more anytime soon,” Asher said, pulling the lesser demon corpse back into his rift. “How about this? Something a bit more straightforward for you.”

  Handing Bellod the Knowledge element, the auction master almost sagged in relief at being given something more within his wheelhouse than a surprise demon corpse.

  “Ah, a Knowledge element. Definitely one of the more common elements, but almost always a big hit nonetheless. Scribes, scholars, merchants, diplomats, there is no end to the types of people eager to get their hands on one. Enough of these hit the auction that I can all but guarantee you it will sell for somewhere between seventy five thousand and a hundred twenty thousand shards.”

  “Well that’s nice to hear,” Asher said, shooting Samantha a big grin. “You hear that? Sounds like you’ve got an impressive payday coming your way?”

  “What? We’re sharing that, aren’t we?” Samantha asked, giving him a confused look. “I thought we were sharing all of this?”

  “We’re sharing everything else, but it’s only fair that you get the shards from the Knowledge element,” Asher said. “It was hidden up on top of the bookshelf. God knows I never would have found it on my own. If you hadn’t noticed it, it would still be sitting up there.”

  Asher expected Samantha to argue or at least frown at him before begrudgingly accepting, but to his surprise, she merely paused for a moment before nodding. “Alright, that sounds fair. You didn’t have any part in finding it, like you said, so I can’t very well argue about that.”

  “Yeah… glad you agree,” he muttered, narrowing his eyes as he realized she was up to something. Putting the matter aside for the moment, he turned his attention back toward Bellod. “Alright, how about these?”

  Placing the scattered griffin bones atop the table, he waited to see what sort of reaction he’d get from Bellod this time.

  What he wasn’t expecting, was for the auction master to flinch back from the table in fear, panic spreading across his face.

  “By the realms, put those away!” Bellod demanded, looking around the room as if searching for an assassin come to kill them all. “Quickly!”

  Confused, Asher did just that, pulling the bones back into his rift. Coughing, he raised an eyebrow. “Is everything okay?”

  “We do not partake in the selling of any griffins or griffin-related items,” Bellod said automatically, as if he were reading from a teleprompter. “We have had… incidents in the past with Ron, the griffin handler who supplies the truthseekers with their steeds. Suffice to say we will not be selling those bones here at the Grand Auction.”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Okay, good to know,” Asher said slowly, sharing a concerned look with Samantha. The fact that Bellod reacted so strongly to just the sight of a few griffin bones made him think that he was underselling precisely what these incidents must have been, but he wasn’t going to push the man.

  “Maybe you should go and give the bones to Ron in that case,” Brian ventured, looking curiously at where the bones had been mere moments ago. “If he loves his griffins that much, I bet he’d be happy to have the bones to bury!”

  The idea seemed to drain even more color from Bellod’s face, but Asher had to admit Brian had a point. He remembered Crush and Thunder talking about Ron back in Whikoga, mentioning how the man was the only person in the entire kingdom with a Griffin element. The fact that he had such an element meant that he most likely cared about griffins more than anyone else, and if they couldn’t sell the bones, Asher saw no reason why he shouldn’t return them to the man.

  “That’s a great idea, Brian, thank you,” Samantha said, smiling at her little brother. “Asher, maybe show him the books instead?”

  “Right, let’s do that,” Asher nodded, focusing carefully on his Personal Rift. Once objects were stored within his rift, he was able to be a bit more particular about how he retrieved them. While people were within his rift, the space acted like a giant room, solid and unchanging. But so long as it was devoid of anyone, he could shift things around at his leisure. All that to say, rather than pulling out a few hundred books one at a time, with a little focus, Asher instead pulled out a dozen large crates, each filled to the brim with ancient tomes. The crates had been left over from his old raid of the Assassin’s Guild’s safehouse back in Whikoga, and he realized at this point he should probably go ahead and simply purchase a handful more to keep in his rift for similar purposes.

  “Here you go,” Asher said, nodding toward the crates of books. “What do you think?”

  “Books?” Bellod asked, peering curiously at the closest crate. “I’ll admit, they aren’t something we have hit the auction all too frequently. At least not in such vast quantities. Let me see…”

  Gently picking up the first book, the auction master frowned as his eyes glossed over, indicating he was using some sort of skill on it. After a moment, he put it down, picking up a different one instead and using the same skill. Pausing, his eyes focused once more, and he raised his brow as he looked at them. “Where did you get these?”

  “An old abandoned tower,” Asher admitted. “Think they’re worth anything?”

  “Oh, they’re certainly worth something,” Bellod admitted, picking up another book and peering at it. “‘The Life and Trials of Bethony Balefont: A Realm Wanderer.’ I can’t vouch for the contents, but the age of these books alone will make them popular items for collectors. These three books in particular all range from one hundred and twenty to three hundred and sixty years old, meaning they are in remarkable condition. I’ll have to go through them all one by one in order to appraise them, but I should have a better idea of how they’ll sell once I’m done. The real question is how you want to go about selling them.”

  “What do you mean?” Samantha asked.

  “Unlike the Knowledge element, or the lesser demon corpse, the books are different,” Bellod explained, placing the books back in the crate. “What I mean is that you have options. You could lump them all together and sell them as one massive haul in the hopes of creating a frantic bidding war. You could divide them into different clusters, such as by age or by genre, and sell them in a few different auctions to hedge your bets of at least a few of them being big. Or, you could even go the long route and sell each individual book at auction, although that would drastically extend the time it would take to get you your winnings and might very well backfire if no bidder is interested in that particular book. Have you given any thought as to what you’d prefer?”

  “No, we haven’t,” Asher admitted, glancing at Samantha and seeing her shake her head. “What would you recommend?”

  “I need to finish my appraisal before making any sort of official recommendation, but most likely, I would recommend breaking it into a few different clusters,” Bellod said, peering at the many crates. “With the sheer quantity you brought in, doing so shouldn’t be a problem, and it will allow us to ‘spread the shards,’ as we merchants call it. While selling them all together might drive up a massive bidding war, you run the risk of no interested buyers being present that day. And a dozen smaller bidding wars might very well end up earning you more, as if one rich collector wished to purchase all of them, they would need to be the winner of each bidding war instead of just one.”

  “Works for us,” Samantha said, after the two of them exchanged nods. “Thank you for taking the time to explain. You’ve probably realized by now that the three of us are rather new to the world of auctions, and you’ve been a huge help.”

  “Of course, I’m more than happy to assist in any way I can,” Bellod said, smiling at the three of them. “Rest assured, I’ll keep the books and lesser demon corpse in a room enchanted to keep them in the best condition possible. There won’t be any sort of degradation while you’re waiting for your items to be sold!”

  “That’s good to hear,” Asher said, deciding it was finally time for the big reveal. He'd swing back some other time to actually go through and use Incorporate on the entire collection before it actually went up for auction. “In that case, we only have one other item we’re interested in putting up for auction.”

  “You have more?” Bellod asked, before catching himself and clearing his throat. “Of course! Please, whenever you’re ready. I apologize for my outburst, I’m not used to this ‘subsequent reveal’ you’re going for.”

  Asher briefly wondered if he should request a larger table, before deciding this one was probably good enough. With a wave of his hand, he retrieved the greater demon corpse from his rift. The dense, nine-foot-tall body crashed down onto the table, its legs and head flopping off the two ends and causing Bellod to actually leap out of his seat in shock. The demon’s purple hue, jet-black teeth, and crimson eyes were far more intimidating than the lesser demon’s appearance, and Asher cleared his throat as Bellod stared frozen at the demon.

  “I know you mentioned the lesser demon would probably fetch us a few hundred thousand shards,” Asher said, unable to keep himself from grinning. “How much would you say a greater demon is worth?”

  Discord