Approaching the First Target: Wiebe

"I wonder how Luuk dealt with the gathering last night?"

Graham, wearing the appearance of the mayor, was in a clothes store, muttering to himself while looking at the numerous clothes on display. He was looking for a piece of suit that matched that of the one the real mayor often wore, according to Wiebe's memory. There was a single soft sofa provided by the store where he was currently sitting on, waiting for the shopkeeper to return. The woman had just taken his measurement and was looking for a piece that suited him.

The previous day, he had called Luuk using the hotel's landline and told him to carry on with the scheduled gathering without him. He had also asked his young neighbor to try to get the remaining deposit money back from The Hotel while also informing him about the existence of an Unseen in Hoorn.

"He sounded elated when he heard about Lucas, so I hope he chaired the gathering well. That kid too often is just a follower-- a yes man. He needs to take the lead once in a while for him to grow," he determined quietly.

"Mr. Mayor, are you sure you don't want a tailor-made one just for you?" persuaded the female storekeeper loudly as she came out of the storage room carrying a suit, a pair of pants, and a pair of formal shoes.

"No. I need them quickly because it's an emergency, but I still care about the quality, that's why I came here," reassured Graham. His voice wasn't as loud as the storekeeper's, but it was deep and bassy. Graham controlled his voice as best as he could to match that of the real mayor's.

With a proud smile, she replied, "Then these ones will do the job. Do you want to try them first?"

Graham refused with a firm shake of his head. "No, thank you. I trust this place,"

He didn't want to spend too long posing as the mayor in public. The longer he did it, the higher the chance something would go wrong.

The suit, pants, and shoes cost him a staggering amount of more than twelve guilders because they were of the finest quality. Although he was very reluctant to pay, he couldn't skimp on them. It would be suspicious if his targets noticed that he was wearing a cheap rip-off of a suit as the mayor.

"What someone will do just to please a magical being in the sky..." he lamented as his precious money left his wallet.

Once he was done paying, he looked at the woman and opened his mouth, letting words that carried supernatural energy out.

"I order you to fall asleep!"

The female storekeeper blinked repeatedly and each time, it looked like she was trying very hard to hold back. After a while, she finally closed her eyes and her head fell on the counter, resting uncomfortably on her arms. She had fallen asleep!

Standing in front of the sleeping storekeeper, numerous thoughts appeared in his mind.

"What if we just steal from this woman and blame the mayor for it?" he pondered and then shook his head slowly.

"That won't do. She won't blame the mayor for it. She would probably just blame herself for being negligent,"

Graham looked at the security guard outside and sneaked into the changing room once he was sure the man hadn't noticed anything. Inside the changing room, he reverted back to his original self and returned to the sleeping storekeeper.

"I cannot just simply make her forget our visit here. The suit we bought is too expensive and the mysterious transaction will make them investigate it, Val," he muttered.

Concentrating on the woman in front of him, he began chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Cunningness and Transformation, hereby plant this thought inside this woman's head!"

"The one who came to her store wasn't the mayor, but a random rich businessman from another city whose name she forgot. He bought a suit and pants without having them tailor-made because he's leaving the city in the afternoon,"

After he finished, he felt something leaving him and entering the woman's head. He felt drained all of a sudden like he had been running the whole day without any rest. The complicated thought that he had implanted inside the woman's head had taken most of his stamina.

Graham mustered everything he had and tried to walk out of the store. The security guard had seen the mayor, but it didn't matter if he was made to forget it. After all, the woman was the one he did the transaction with. Sneaking behind the man, Graham said weakly.

"I order you to forget about the mayor's visit just now!"

The security guard looked confused for a second while Graham used the opportunity to leave the store stealthily. He had to hold on to the wall as he was walking because of the weakness. Once he was far enough, he rested on the ground with his back against the wall; the shopping bag he was carrying was placed neatly on his lap.

"*Panting* It doesn't matter if the limit is ten times per day, Val, if I get drained after using it just once," he complained.

His stamina gradually returned and after resting for five minutes or so, he had completely recovered. Graham got up from the ground and wiped the dirt off his coat before continuing his way forward.

"Now we need the cane and the book. The mayor's cane looks ordinary, probably to fool his enemies into thinking it's just a normal walking cane. That's the same for the book, so we can just buy something that looks similar," he decided.

Graham was currently on Zilverstraat, the commercial district of Hoorn. It looked very similar to Grotemarktstraat in Sloten in that the street was bustling with activities and the fact that it was surrounded by stores and other establishments. The difference was that in the background, he could see De Vaalserberg, the tallest mountain range in the republic, from up close. The cloud covering the mountain top was like a giant sleeping with a blanket. It made him feel small and insignificant.

It didn't take really long for Graham to find everything he needed because all the stores were not that far apart from each other. He got a cane that looked almost identical, except for the color of the handle, and a book that was the exact copy of the artifact. Along with the cane, he also bought a small vial of black paint to adjust the color of the cane later.

For now, he needed to go back to the hotel to get everything ready.

With a wave of his hand, a public motor carriage pulled over and let him in. Once he told the driver, who was a woman, his destination, she drove away at once.

After arriving at the hotel, he paid the driver without even trying to haggle. Graham carried all his shopping bags and returned quickly to his hotel room, through the lobby that was full of guests but devoid of the receptionist. It was another one of Stefan's disappearance cases, which didn't strike Graham as odd anymore.

Inside his room on the fourth floor, he laid everything on the table and took off his coat.

"Now let's get to work, Val," he said with excitement.

Graham took out the vial of paint and cane that he had just bought. As a Contractbound of the Tongue, he didn't really need to do manual labor. His words alone were enough to get things done.

"I order you to paint the handle of this cane a little darker!"

A small amount of the liquid paint left the opened vial and smeared itself around the handle, making it a shade darker. Now he had the perfect copy of the mayor's walking cane, although his was not an enhanced weapon. However, he felt that he could somehow replicate the ability of both the cane and the book to a believable extent using his own.

Graham then used divination to determine where the real mayor was. It turned out that the man was in a kind of meeting that would take hours, so that meant the driver should be free right now. He also divined Wiebe van Houten's whereabouts and found out that he was at home, taking care of his mother. After that, Graham divined the number of the driver's landline.

"Alright, Val. My preparation is ready, so we can go now. I hope the scary thing from last night doesn't appear again," he hoped.

Wearing only a black shirt and the new pair of pants and shoes he had just bought, Graham went out with a shopping bag filled with everything else he needed. The pants were a little too short for him and the shoes a little too wide, but once he transformed into the mayor, they would fit perfectly. The walking cane was sticking out of the bag, but he wasn't concerned. After all, a lot of people used walking canes, so it wasn't anything suspicious.

In the street, Graham waved to get another public motor carriage to take him to his destination, and then suddenly a tinge of regret filled his heart.

"Do we have to do this all the time, Val? My wallet will be drained empty by the transport cost alone," he sighed.

Graham went to the red light district using the motor carriage and once he arrived, he quickly went to an alley where people couldn't see him. This time, there was no one having sex there. After making sure that it was safe, he began chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Cunningness and Transformation, hereby change my whole being into that of Hank Krammer!"

Graham rapidly became a little shorter and bigger. His head became squarish just like the mayor's and his eyes turned dark brown. His skin tone didn't change much, but there were now more freckles all over his body. He felt heavier and less agile, but at the same time more powerful. He was sure that he could punch a hole in the wall easily, although it might not actually be the case since he only had the mayor's physical body, not his supernatural abilities. Besides, he was the mayor that was in Wiebe's memory, so he might be slightly different from the real person.

Once his transformation was complete, he put on the shoes, held the book in his left hand, and used the walking cane with his right hand. He also put on Purloin, covering it with the suit, and Gloom's Redress. Once empty, he folded the shopping bag almost neatly into something very small and stuffed it inside the pocket of his suit.

Walking out of the alley, people began noticing him and they all smiled politely or greeted him with respect, which made Graham rather uncomfortable. However, his acting skill was put to test here, so he had to react accordingly. He let out an aura of importance and responded only as necessary as he was walking towards a payphone.

Ring!

The sound of the ringing while reaching the other side was heard. Graham had dealt Wiebe van Houten house landline number and not long after, someone picked it up.

"Hello, this is van Houten's residence," said a man from the other side. It was none other than his target himself.

"Wiebe. I need you to come and pick me up right now at the usual street," demanded Graham with authority, but there was enough friendliness in his tone to reflect the way the real mayor spoke. His bassy voice resounded in the payphone booth.

"Okay, Mr. Krammer," he complied without asking anything. It was the way the mayor always did things, so he was used to it, "I'll be there as quickly as I can,"

"Thank you," replied Graham shortly, and then hung up the phone.

Since he was the mayor now, he couldn't stay cooped up in the phone booth. It would be too out of character for the most powerful man. With confidence, Graham walked out of the booth and took a little stroll along the street while waiting for his driver.

The people there gave him all sorts of reactions that gave him a better insight into how the mayor was perceived by his people. A big portion of them were evidently the mayor's die-hard supporters, while some of them only greeted him out of either fear or politeness.

"Mr. Krammer," shouted Wiebe from inside his motor carriage.

Graham approached the driver and got into the back left passenger seat like the mayor always did. Since the driver's seat was on the right, it also gave him a better look at the man who seemed to be in his early thirties.

"Are we going back to the office now, Mr. Krammer?" asked Wiebe politely.

"No, no, let's first get some lunch. It's almost midday now," replied Graham.

He was actually hungry, and he needed to spend time with the man to reinforce Wiebe's belief that he was the real mayor.

"Just take us to your favorite place. I haven't gone there in a long time."

"Sure thing, Mr. Krammer," Wiebe approved of the mayor's decision.

He drove away at once towards the west and after driving up and down hills, they finally arrived at a small restaurant called 'Jasmine's Cantina'. They entered the place and was greeted by the warm smile of the waitress.

Graham and Wiebe ordered their food and chatted while eating. He asked all sorts of questions to find out more about the mayor and the man himself. It turned out that his mother's condition was getting better and better nowadays, but he was still very worried about him. After all, it was only he and his brother who took care of her.

Since he was the mayor, there were some questions that he couldn't ask because the real person should already know the answer. He was curious about why Wiebe didn't take his mother to the hospital, but asking that would only make him look suspicious, so he refrained. They were mostly talking about light topics, which improved the mood significantly.

Once they finished eating, Graham paid for the two people's meals and the pair returned to the parked motor carriage.

"Should we return now?" asked Wiebe. His tone was much warmer than before.

"No. Take me to Laaglandstraat," he replied without hesitation.

Silence suddenly crept into the small metal vehicle. The atmosphere turned heavy as he saw that Wiebe's hands twitched for a second. His expression showed hatred that was quickly suppressed. He seemed to be a completely different man from before.

"Why are we going there, Mr. Krammer?" he asked slowly. His tone was a little higher and his voice louder than usual as he still couldn't fully control his emotion.

"I have some business there. Let's go," Graham insisted.

He had used divination the previous night and found out that the driver was deeply tied with something on Laadlandstraat, which was the Hoorn's equivalent of Oosteindestraat in Sloten. The place was the perfect stage for Graham to use the man's history to ruin his trust for the mayor-- once and for all.