3

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3.

Neither of the two new faces looked particularly dangerous and as Noho was an office worker, I wasn't too worried about their intentions. I just had no idea what their intentions were, the Iron Bank couldn't be robbed everyday and I doubted they were seeking me out for my incredibly vague awareness of 21st century accounting. Deciding the simplest way to find out what they were up was to ask I did.

Noho introduced his friends, Johannes Bille and Willas Morin, fellow employees of the Iron Bank. Johannes, a corpulent fellow who was about my age started their explanation. "The vault that was stolen from, that you found the remainder of, belonged to a prominent man."

"Belonged?" I asked "Did he lose it or is he dead?"

"The second I'm afraid, just three days ago. His death was what allowed the thieves, his former servants, to succeed. They had a draft he signed and were able to withdraw almost all of his money, leaving only a little to avert suspicion. It was only when the man, Ser Willem Darry, didn't arrive at the bank for a pre-arranged meeting that we were concerned." Johannes had a soft voice incongruous with his bulk. "Normally retrieving the money would be the end of the matter, Ser Darry had no heirs of the body and after dealing with any debts or bequests the account would be closed and the Iron Bank would hold onto the remainder."

"So what's different in this case? I never met the man and other than my involvement in locating the thieves, which you probably could have done given their location, his banking details aren't relevant to me."

"We would like to hire you again" Noho said. "Ser Darry had made an agreement with the bank that we are unable to fulfill ourselves."

"You want me to find something for a dead man?" It seemed a little ridiculous, who's will included quests for lost items?

"Not at all Dresden" the third man, Willas, spoke for the first time, "We want you to find someone for a dead man. Two someones in particular."

"I can't do people, look for a bounty hunter if you're trying to claw back debts owed him." I could of course find a person given something of theirs but it was a dangerous skill. Some people really don't want to be found and I'd prefer not to make enemies based on what I could do.

"You can find what they're carrying though?" Johannes continued "If you had part of something that one of the persons was carrying as long as they held it you could find them?" It was always annoying to realize that just because we were in the dark ages people weren't necessarily stupid. Even wizards got tripped up by that link and a random banker had deduced it.

"I might be able to find them if they're still in the city" I admitted. "But just because I can doesn't mean I will. Who are the people you're looking for and why did Ser Darry want them found?"

The three bankers exchanged looks. Noho looked aggrieved as he explained. "Ser Darry was from Westeros, he fought on the losing side of their little war and fled to Braavos to escape persecution. However he did not come alone, he had the son and daughter of one of his closest friends with him and he set aside his remaining wealth and property for their benefit. The Iron Bank agreed to look after them until the son was old enough to fend for himself and his sister." Noho sat for a moment looking for some reaction from me. The story of the rich exile was interesting but hardly unusual but Noho had looked for recognition of something. I had never heard of Ser Darry but perhaps I should look him up.

"So the thieving servants evicted the children from the house and now they've been wandering Braavos for three days?"

"Just so."

"Alright I'll look for the children, I'm trusting the reputation of your Bank to keep you honest but if I find you've lied the acts of the Bank's keyholders will be the least of your worries." The bankers looked unruffled by my threat, given the stories about the Bank's reprisals that was a good sign for their honesty. "What else should I know about the children, ages, hair colors, oh and their names?"

"The two children both have Lyseni coloring, silver blonde hair, Viserys is eleven and Daenerys is three. They both had sheltered upbringings and I doubt either is prepared to survive on the streets"

I sat back and acted like I was thinking but really I would have found the children for free if they'd asked. Seeing Maggie bound and threatened by monsters had left me with little tolerance for frightened kids. Children grew up faster here but an eleven year old shouldn't be on the streets looking out for his sister. "Alright I'll try. What do you have for me to use?"

Willas pulled a ruby the size of my thumbnail from his pocket. "This was set in a necklace Viserys will never take off. Is it sufficient?" I took the ruby, and hefted it. Selling the rock back home would have brought more money than I earned in five years. It paid to be nobility I guess. "I'll find the necklace and if he's still wearing it I'll find him"

Noho shared another look with his colleagues and then spoke up "Excellent, we will pay five times what we did for the coins, once you have the children bring them to the main office of the bank."

"If you've all told the truth and I find them, I'll bring them in." I was hoping the job would go smoothly, for lost items I charged a percentage of the value, Ser Darry had been rich and the previous day had been more than enough for half a year, the bank must be worried about their aura of infallibility if they were paying this much. The three men left and I saw them board a gondola back towards the city's financial center.

It was a few hours till the tides changed and while the ruby necklace link was stronger than the coins I didn't trust it enough over water. Maggie had finally woken up, she was usually up earlier but her exercises in magic last night had worn her out more than she'd admitted. She humored me by staying in to eat breakfast then ran off to join her friends in their plot to take over the island and the city. Or something.

I went up to my lab and began to consider what I'd need for the job. Braavos was a fairly safe city as they went but all cities have bad spots. Two children out alone for the first time and probably panicked couldn't be trusted to even know where the safe spots were. Slavery was illegal here but I had encountered some in my desperate first year who wouldn't hesitate to take an unattended child. I put on my shield bracelet and grabbed a chain I'd worked on to function something like Elaine's lighting whip. Without a convenient wall socket it was a bit less useful but I was able to dial down the power through it so that it merely hit like a taser. A lot of my more deadly tools I'd relied on in Chicago weren't that useful when all I could fight here were vanilla mortals. After fighting vampires, faeries, ghouls and ancient monsters, humans tended to seem a little squishy. That wasn't to say they couldn't be dangerous, Murphy alone was proof of what a motivated person could do, but I was much more limited in high end power against humans. Unless I wanted to go mad but a little difficulty seemed like a decent tradeoff.

I set the chain in a pile along with my duster and a few of my kinetic rings. I looked at my blasting rod but decided against it, I did take my staff though. It was of the first things I'd made coming here, the one I'd borrowed from Ebenezer didn't make the transition and I'd needed the versatile tool immediately. It was six feet of oak, it lacked the resonance of my old lightening struck staff but after two years I was used to it. I'd recently bought two pieces of a bone white wood that felt much more attuned to me but they weren't ready, I was teaching Maggie step by step how to make her own staff so I was limited to the speed of a ten year old. My current staff was good enough for today's work though so I laid it down with the rest of my gear.

I had time until the tidal shift came so I did what I usually did in my downtime, writing notes about magic and the world we came from. It was strange to think that almost all of the important magic I'd learned came from my grandfather and now to my daughter. I would have liked to talk with Ebenezer about why he never told me except that I understood. Keeping secrets kept me safe and I would probably have done the same thing in his place. I would have liked to learn more about my mother though, it seemed everyone knew her and I'd like to have more than Thomas's memories about Maggie's namesake.

As time passed I began to think more about the case. I'd have one shot to locate the island the necklace, and hopefully Viserys, were on. People were a little different from coins or crates of silk in that they could move themselves. It could take an hour to get to where they were if I was unlucky, in that time they could have traveled just as far. I'd just have to hope I'd close in on them so that I could find them even with their head start.

Most of the morning passed, Maggie had come in and banged around in her room for a little then went out again as it was about time for her lessons. There was a tutor who came around from island to island for the children of the middle class and they attended as a group, learning the four Rs of Braavos; reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic and rhetoric. The joke lost something here as neither the common tongue of Westeros or any of the Valyrian dialects even had a letter R but as I taught Maggie in English she had politely laughed at the joke.

I left a note for her, so when she got home she'd know what I was up to and having killed enough time performed my tracking spell. Little Braavos had benefitted from my experience with Little Chicago and took the power in smoothly. The ruby moved towards the edge of the city, near the wharves where the ships were berthed. I swore, it wasn't the worst part but it was close by. Sailors on land always craved certain things and just like back home the red light district was conveniently adjacent along with its accompanying criminal ecosystem.

I put on my gear, grabbed a gondola, for once the tide was in my favor and I tipped the man as we reached my destination after half an hour of travel. Holding the ruby, concealed in a drawstring bag, up I pushed a little power into and felt for the link. Improbably it worked, the necklace was on the island. The ruby led me into a maze of yards and warehouses, goods were transhipped here and temporarily stored. I emerged back onto the shore on the bay side of the island and the necklace felt close. Regrettably the pull was headed towards what looked like a bunch of pawn shops. For a necklace he never took off it hadn't last very long.

I went into the shop with the strongest tug, the door opening rang a bell and it seemed so normal that I almost forgot I wasn't in Chicago. The proprietor, a average looking man except for some scars on his arms that made it seem like his life hadn't always been too ordinary stirred. "Can I help you?" he asked as I walked towards him. I was wearing a black leather coat and carrying a six foot staff after having to duck to get through the door but his voice was calm. "I hope so, I'm looking for a necklace."

He gestured towards a table off to the side, it was covered in jewelry but most looked fake and certainly none was missing the ruby I held. "The necklace I'm looking for has a bit more character" I drawled, "Isn't there a place where you keep the better stuff?"

The pawnbroker smiled "I'm not entirely sure what you mean, my entire stock is visible there." The smile didn't reach his eyes and one of his hands was below the counter.

I shook my left hand to free up my shield bracelet, I didn't think the situation wasn't salvageable but a nervous gesture that would protect me from whatever he had over there was a move born from painful experience. "I'm looking for a golden necklace that you acquired in the last three days. It's missing a gem in its setting and I'd like to know how you got it."

The man who I was relabeling from a pawn to a fence didn't change his expression. "I've told you, I don't know what you're talking about." This was where I missed my reputation back home. In Chicago I was thought to be a hitman for Marcone on the mundane side and two steps from declaring myself the Dark Lord Dresden on the other. Needless to say most people answered my questions, hoping to get me out of their lives and flammable buildings as quickly as possible. Here I was known mostly to businesses who wanted to recover lost items, it wasn't quite the same vibe and I was sure the fence had never heard of me. Oh well, a few threats and perhaps some violence would serve to start the stories again. I took a step towards the fence, I still hadn't gotten his name mainly because I didn't want to introduce myself either, lifted my staff and with a minor effort caused the runes carved on it to burn with an actinic glare.

He nearly wet himself. "Please don't" he cried, I heard whatever he had been holding fall to the floor as he pressed himself against the back wall. It wasn't quite the most satisfying reaction I'd ever gotten but it was up there. "The necklace is in the back, I got it yesterday from two boys!" Well maybe Viserys hadn't sold it, unfortunately that meant he'd been robbed at the very least, finding the two children was even more urgent now.

"Where can I find the thieves?" I growled, as long as the man was terrified I might as well try to get all I could.

"They'll be here in the afternoon with whatever they got today, please have mercy they're just pickpockets, they've never killed anyone!" There was a difference between feeling like Batman and tormenting a guy so I stepped back and extinguished my staff. He was still staring at it in fascination even without the light show.

"We're going to wait here for them and then they're going to tell me everything they know."