“I see.” Griswold growled. “I’ll give you twenty-four hours. I expect my tribute with interest. What happen to the Scarlet Lady?”

Scrag crawled further back “an accident I think. Somebody knocked over a lamp.”

Griswold snarled and stomped out of the room. Once he was gone Scrag scrambled to his feet. He listened as doors crashed and footsteps stopped out of the building.

When he was finally sure the giant was gone, he smiled “that went very well. He didn’t even threaten me. You can come out now. So far, everything’s going according to plan, sort of.”

Trixie stepped back into the room and crossed her arms “you want to explain what’s going on.”

Scrag nodded “there is only one way out of the Shadow Council. They have to believe you’re dead. For the last four years I’ve been planning how I will convince them that I am dead and I’m hoping you’ll help me.” He strolled over to the desk. Opening a drawer he lifted out a fairly heavy bag. “This is what I’m willing to pay you. I’ve arranged with the Herb witch for a poison that will make it look like I’m completely dead. There will be another one to use on Ant. I have a crypt in the graveyard. I’ll show it to you later. I still believe that I can trust you to do this. I will leave everything I know about the Shadow Council in the crypt. You’ll be able to find it after I wake up.”

“So what’s in this?” She said, as she picked up the bag.

“A pile of coin, some gems and some jewellery. I figure it’s worth a lot. I could probably pay Grizzly’s tribute to the next five years with what I put in there. But it won’t last forever. Sooner or later he will drain every penny I own.” He sagged. “I’m getting old and I just want to retire. I actually did rather well over the years and the rest of my fortune I’m taking with me, so don’t bother to look for it.”

“I’ve already got this.” She looked at him her eyes narrowing. “What’s to prevent me from simply killing you.”

He nodded “you could, but I think my notes on the Shadow Council will be worth more than what’s in that bag. Either way I’m free of the Shadow Council.” He stared at the floor. “What I did do you, and your sister was wrong. You have every right to want me dead.”

She flipped her knife a couple of times. “Okay. You’ve got a deal. How do I get this poison.”

“Hopefully, it will be delivered to you.” He breathed a sigh of relief. “If not, it should be here before tomorrow at noon. That should be shortly before Grizzly gets back here.”

“In that case I’ll be going.” She smiled, flipping her hand at him. “I’ll be seeing you.” She finished softly, and then left.

Thanks to the captured ship the earth soon had developed a usable faster than light ship. They now really started to expand out to the stars. They then found out that a lot of space was already occupied, but they also encounter another race that was just heading out into space, the Shadrun Wissria. Like the humans they were a new space faring race and for the first time humans met another race willing to trade. The shadrun wissria were begining to terraform a planet that was thirty light years from earth and it was proving rather expensive, so they opened it as trade planet. The human were one the first races to come, but the other races also came. They even allowed the Hagara Contballa (which the humans had taken to calling goblins) to come. This resulted in disaster. They cause an explosion that tore a hole in the universe. The planet Requada fell into that hole and there seemed to be no way to recover the people living on the planet. Several ships were lost attempting to save the population and as result the system was closed and forgoten.

I would also like to remind any reader that I have two publish books, Trapped in a Curse and Good Doctor Poor Mage. Trapped in a Curse is a fantasy adventure where the main character proceeds on a quest to get free of the curse. You can also listen to me reading two chapters on my YouTube channel. The prologue is found here https://youtu.be/geBXkrGDjyU and the first chapter here https://youtu.be/aDceMVGsBW8. Good Doctor Poor Mage tells the story of D0k. How he grew up and became a doctor. Since he grew up poor, he turned to crime to pay for his education. When that catches up to him he flees to a world where magic seem to work. I think its an exciting story

Griswold DuShammon stocked through the small town of Somerton. Everybody, even the guards got out of his way. That was the about only thing he liked about this town. The people knew to fear him. Of course it helped that he stood over eight feet tall and wore chain mail over a heavy leather jerkin. By his side he carried a fairly large mace, and he wouldn’t hesitate to use it. There was another thing he liked about Somerton and when he saw the pile of ashes where the Scarlet Lady had been, he snarled and stomped even harder, fingering the mace.

Arriving at the Townhall, he growled at the guards and stalked past them. They cringed and looked away as he pushed through the doors. Scrag maintained his office on the second floor. He stomped through the main hall and entered the stairwell that led to the second floor. It was small, steep and narrow, so he had to practically crawl up the stairs. He had no doubt that was why Scrag was so happy to use the mayor’s office. Although the fact that Scrag was the mayor might’ve also had something to do with it.

Finally reaching the door to the mayor’s office, he slammed it open, and ducking as he entered the office. Scrag turned to face him, letting the tapestry fall acrossed the alcove where Ant was no doubt hiding.

Scrag smiled “Grizzly! It’s good to see you.”

“Is it?” Griswold said crossing his arms across his chest. “Where’s my tribute?”

Scrag swallowed and fidgeted with his hands “ah. I don’t have it.”

“You don’t have it.” He snarled stepping forward and glaring down at Scrag. “You had better find it. Now.”

Scrag backed up stuttering “w w well___”

Griswold backhanded him. Scrag crashed to the floor and crawled backwards. Trixie who had been able to see everything through the tapestry nervously clutched her throwing knife. She had seen the armoured giant before, but had never interacted with him. Her sister seemed to like him. She on the other hand had always considered where she put a knife if he came after her. Being behind a tapestry with his back partially to her, she shifted further back and held her breath.

He whirled, looking at the tapestry and snarled “you’d better not try anything.” Then he turned his attention back to Scrag “I don’t want any excuses. I want my tribute.”

“I. I. I. Don’t. Have it.” Scrag stuttered. Then he managed to say rapidly “the town treasury was stolen and I tried to raise the funds with an auction, but it was a disaster. I can’t produce money I don’t have. Everything’s a mess. I don’t have it!” He seemed to gain confidence as he continued. “An orc drove the wagon through town and someone used it as a distraction to break into the safe.” He pointed at a fairly heavy chest with a broken lock lying nearby. “Knowing you were coming, I prepared a slave auction, only it was broken up by some orcs. I think they may be responsible, but no one saw them breaking into the safe.”

By the time the other two civilizations arrived, earth had learned two things. One they had nothing more advanced spacefaring civilizations were interested in trading and that the two more aliens races were sending delegations to earth. The nulire were the first to arrive. They were welcomed as they enter the system and escorted to earth. They insisted on doing their negotiations in orbit and then reopened an old facility in Ireland. The locals were shocked when massive fairy castle appeared. Even so they had to hire some locals to come in and clean it. The telac receive a similar welcome, and like wise had an old facility on earth. This time it was an underground complex located near Hessdalen, Norway.

I would also like to remind any reader that I have two publish books, Trapped in a Curse and Good Doctor Poor Mage. Trapped in a Curse is a fantasy adventure where the main character proceeds on a quest to get free of the curse. You can also listen to me reading two chapters on my YouTube channel. The prologue is found here https://youtu.be/geBXkrGDjyU and the first chapter here https://youtu.be/aDceMVGsBW8. Good Doctor Poor Mage tells the story of D0k. How he grew up and became a doctor. Since he grew up poor, he turned to crime to pay for his education. When that catches up to him he flees to a world where magic seem to work. I think its an exciting story.