9 Wrong move
~~~~Elsewhere~~~~
(For future reference I will be doing this to indicate groups that aren't with Mikax)
The day after Mikax had escaped from the Capital City of Mythden, the Nobles had all gathered in a strategy room. The topic was what to do about Mikax.
There were three different opinions on the man.
The first was to follow his demands and work on a way to free the princes at the same time. This group was led by those most loyal to the King. They wanted nothing more than to see this menace that they had summoned lose his leverage over the royal family. Once he no longer had them dangling on his strings they would switch from working out a way to send him back, to a way to kill him.
The second group had similar ideas, only instead of worrying about how to free the Princes and save the Princess, they were more inclined to use his power to save the Kingdom from the threat of invasion. If they could rope him onto their side then they would no longer have to worry about outside threats. Only once the Kingdom was safe would they send him back. This was the least backed faction in the room, they had already tried to bribe him so most nobles knew it was near impossible.
The last group on the surface wanted to save the Royal family. They also wanted to work on finding a way to punish Mikax at the same time instead of sending him home. Secretly, they wanted to fail sending him home and have the Royal family wiped out. This group was more of the power-hungry individuals. For them, this was the best chance they would probably ever get to take the throne.
King Jearr currently sat at the head of the table listening to the options that had been laid out before him. None of them seemed even close to reasonable after the experience that he had been through.
"Enough!" The King had finally listened to the arguments for longer than he would like. "I appreciate all of your input and concerns. I believe that we should try and combine all of the ideas given today."
As the King spoke silence had filled the room. King Jearr laid out his plan.
1. They would label Mikax as an enemy of the Kingdom but give specific orders to only report his location. No one was to try and detain him only inconvenience him slightly. This would incur a slight risk but he had to try and show a firm resolve in the face of adversity.
2. They would recruit every mage in the Kingdom and spend everything they could to look into not only sending Mikax back but also freeing his sons. If either of these plans worked they could be free of Mikax's demands.
3. Lastly, they would try and find a way to bring Mikax onto their side to defend them from the Demon invasion. This was the longest shot of all, however it could solve all of the kingdom's problems.
After the King had finished giving his decision he let out a huge sigh. "To achieve our goal we will need to make sacrifices. As calculated as he was during our brief time together, he wasn't lying. He is alone here."
~~~~Back to Mikax~~~~
In the morning after his late night, Mikax woke up feeling better than he had either day before. It had finally dawned on him that he didn't need to worry about the things that bothered him. If he didn't like it then he would simply change it. That might not help him get home any faster but he could create his own haven in the meantime.
After getting ready for his day Mikax basically skipped down the stairs to the bar, he was in such a good mood. Lyra who watched him arrive was happy to see his mood had improved, yet she was still worried for what was to come after the conversation that her husband had with Mr. Akkar.
They had reached out to him regarding exchanging the gold coin Mikax had traded in for spendable cash. Mr. Akkar was much more knowledgeable about money so they were hoping that they could get and idea where 'E2' was and possibly who Mikax really was. The discussion had gotten heated when Mr. Akkar wanted to go to Mikax's room to discuss this coin immediately, Orion had adamantly refused and had to threaten to ban Mr. Akkar from the bar to get him to give up on the idea.
"Good morning Lyra!" Mikax jumped into his seat happy to see a drink already sitting there waiting for him.
"Good morning to you Mikax, I'm sorry about last night. I didn't mean to pry, I hope you weren't upset at me." Lyra didn't waste anytime apologizing. She knew better than to dig into peoples business if they didn't want to share it, she had heard from her husband that Mikax was worried about the location of Mythden when he arrived. It would only be natural he was keeping something secret but he seemed harmless to her.
Downing his entire mug while listening he happily replied, "don't be sorry, I was working thru some stuff and I think that everything will be okay now."
Nodding her head Lyra knew that her estimation of Mikax was right, he was a good person she was sure of it. "Well I don't want to upset you again but Mr. Akkar will probably be in to talk to you today. He's our towns treasurer from the capital and we had to work with him to break down the coin you gave us. He was extremely interested in talking to you about it."
Mikax let out a long sigh. "That's fine Lyra it's not your fault. Truthfully, I need to talk to him as well to get some change for some of my other coins."
"That's great news Sir Mikax!"
Mikax and Lyra both stiffened upon hearing the person talking from the doorway. Mikax knew from Lyra's face she was just as surprised as he was. Neither of them had realized Mr. Akkar was watching thru one of the windows for Mikax to wake up and make an appearance. If they did then he might have already been banned from coming into Valedge ever again.
Mr. Akkar quickly walked over to the bar and sat down a reasonable distance from Mikax, he wasn't trying to repeat the night before, he simply had too many questions he wanted to ask.
"Well you don't waste time do you." Mikax shook his head and extended his hand, "I am Mikax. I'm sorry for last night." He didn't need the man in front of him but it would be much easier if he worked with him.
Mr. Akkar lit up with excitement seeing Mikax being cordial with him. Eagerly he shook his hand while accepting his apology as if it all was water under the bridge ages ago.
"So, did I hear correctly you'd like to exchange more of those coins? I am very interested in knowing more of their origin if you don't mind." Mr. Akkar was having the internal battle of a lifetime to control himself.
Mikax was always one for a little showmanship so he dipped his hand into his pouch not revealing anything. He then placed a single gold coin in between the two of them. Then he placed another one on top, and another one, and another one. He repeatedly produced them until there were 15 coins in a stack on the counter. Lyra and Mr. Akkar at some point had started holding their breath. How wealthy was the man in front of them?
After an entire minute of completely awkward silence Mikax cleared his throat. "So I need silver coins for these. How long will it take?"
Neither of them had taken their eyes off of the stack in front of them. "Is this all the gold that you have?" Mr. Akkar whispered out breathlessly. He wasn't sure of the answer to his first question so he skipped over it in his mind.
"Off course not." Mikax repeated the process he had done before. "Honestly I could do this for the next year and still be going, I only need the 15 exchanged though."
By this point the other patrons of the bar had noticed the two stacks of gold glowing brightly. Almost no one in this town had ever seen a gold coin and now there were 30 of them stacked on the counter. Greed was flashing in all of their eyes.
Mikax was feeling their stares. He had anticipated this when he produced the 2nd stack. He had made his mind up that he was going to establish The Misfit Toys name here in Redgate and this was the first step. Establish his wealth.
Trying to think was becoming increasingly hard for Mr. Akkar, all of the questions he thought he had multiplied. "I will probably need to contact the main treasury in Mythden honestly, this amount is unheard of for this area. Not to mention the purity of the gold itself." Mr. Akkar, currently like all of Redgate, were unaware of Mikax's relationship with the crown. After discussing some terms, each stuck out a hand to shake in agreement.
Smiling at the thought of his coins making it all the way to the capital Mikax happily agreed. As the bare minimum of the deal had come to a close both men each started to reach for one of the stacks of coins.
Suddenly, Mikax had felt a killing intent. The next second a blade was swinging towards Mikax from behind.
To Mikax it was moving as slow as a snail, he casually pushed his feet against the bar to slide out of the way. The blade followed shortly after, lodging itself into the bar. The man didn't care if he had hit his target or not. He simply was trying to get at least one of the gold pieces into his possession.
Lyra and Mr. Akkar were horrified at what was happening, they understood that greed had overwhelmed this man's mind but to attack someone in broad daylight was certainly desperate. Everyone watched as the man inched closer and closer to his goal. When he was within grasping distance a resounding *THUD* had occurred.
To everyone's surprise a dagger that seemed to suck the light out of the room had appeared in the middle of of the man's forearm. The thing that surprised everyone was that the man hadn't screamed in pain or even appeared to flinch.
Lyra and Mr. Akkar were very aware why the man hadn't screamed. An identical blade to the one in his arm had appeared going directly thru the bottom of his jaw, thru his mouth, and into his brain. Neither of them had seen anything happen, to them the blades merely appeared.
Mikax stood up from the chair ignoring the man who was as motionless as a statue. He took the gold from the bar and held his hand out to pass one of the stacks of coins to Mr. Akkar. The later accepted the coins completely slack jawed.
Once he had passed off the coins he walked over to the man and removed both blades. What surprised everyone most was that not a single drop of blood could be seen. The man looked like he had been completely dried of fluids. Withering into a frail fragile state almost instantly.
"Wrong move" was all Mikax said as sheathed his blades behind his back.
