Hunted|Haunted - Chapter 11 - The Tragač, the Lowac, and other weird words

The travel was unremarkable. From outside, “The Blind Rat” wasn’t anything interesting either. As soon as the door closed behind them, they were met with judgmental glares from 9 Tragač members.

— Why are they looking at us like that? — Toma whispered to the toy.
— Poor eyesight.

Toma tried to hide his giggle in the back of the Coyote's neck.

— Or wondering what we are doing here.

Nexialist stood nearby, looking more like a street artist than an info-broker, and hiding his face behind the mask. CCTV had shitty quality here, but it was present nonetheless.

— Only mention me in the past tense, they needn't know I never found peace. Mess this up, and we'll be executed. Toma, you stay quiet and two steps back, unless I tell you to do something, got it? — Toma answered in some discrete way, which Nex didn't catch.
— Just another day in the office… — Nex shrugged slightly, muttering it in a quiet tone. Then, after looking around a bit more, he was the first person to come closer to the meeting delegation. And finally spoke. — Hello, gentlemen. I thought I was invited to speak in private.
— On such short notice, we shall bargain in a place we find preferable. Don't you find our nest lovely?

The leader was an old witch, whose spots almost finished migrating from his hair onto his wrinkled face, dressed in a fine suit. To Neven, who wore multiple fine suits through his life, it was blatantly obvious the suit was cheap and didn’t fit quite right.

— The servers have marks on them, every single one of them. Probably couldn't pay their debts. — Neven added.
— I must say, what you did to the place is very impressive. — Conditional slavery. The thought alone made Nex’s blood boil. But he needed to stay calm and composed for his own sake at least, so he didn't act on it. — But I don't want to take much of your time. It's money, after all.
— Who do you want on your plate?
— I want to place an order on Harvey Tragač.
The leader's face shrivelled in disgust.
— Again in debt, is he… How rare do you want it?
— He's asking dead or alive. I don't know which is which.
— As rare as it goes.
— Still, it's a strange time of year for him to be on the run… Why do you really need him?

— Truth seal! They have a truth seal under the table! — Neven hissed.
— I need him for business. — Nex couldn't help but grin, not unlike the mask he wore. Luckily, it was hidden.
— Oh, that is not a wise answer, my dear client. The kitchen needs to know if you have any allergies.
— They will severely beat him, and need to know if you need info out of him. They might cut his tongue or pull teeth. Probably worse.

Nex thought for a bit to better formulate an answer. He didn’t exactly want the biggest info-trading family on the market to know what he was up to, and knew about telling technically true things, just about everything. But he had never dealt with Tragač before, only knowing about them from rumours. So, he needed to step carefully. He answered.

— I am looking after a particular witch. Harvey Tragač might know where the witch is at the moment, so I need him to be able to tell me everything he knows.
— Well, that changes everything! Why don't we cut out the middleman and go with a better tracker?
— Mention his name. Fess up.

Fine, it seemed here went nothing. Nex rolled his eyes slightly under the mask, but answered.

— Because that witch is Krsto Pathfinder.

Colour immediately left the room. Even the wallpaper seemed paler. You could hear a pin drop in the next block over.

— He is… he is not after you, is he…?
— Not at the present moment. I doubt he knows that I exist.
— Oh praisen be salt… Yes, indeed, only Harvey would be insane enough to seek him. Allow us to find him for you.

After a whistle, all Tragač threw various sharp objects at the map spanning across the wall, most of them striking the same spot. Each then added a detail:

— He should be arriving in Avonborough soon. If you depart today, you should be able to meet him.
— Near the train station.
— At 9:46.
— He shall be seen in blue.
— You will know him by the sight of his familiar, it is similar to a rat in its appearance, but is close to a cat in size.
— May salt guard you from whatever woe you want to bring upon yourself by looking for him, and… Never. Ever. Come to us for help in this matter. Please, take your departure.
— Sure thing. — All this was very weird by Nex’s standards, but he had a very bad feeling about this place and the Tragač anyway, so he decided to bail out as soon as possible, waiting only to not be considered frightened or rude. He stood from his place, nodded shortly and turned around to walk to the door. — Pleasure doing business with you.

After they got out of the building and went for around half a block, Nexialist finally noticed in a very fake-cheerful tone.

— So. Anyone mind telling me, why the biggest black market family business almost lost their shite collectively after I mentioned our guy?

Neven thought for a second. To hell with it, Imeje is going to put him through unimaginable suffering just for allowing Toma to get this far.

— The Lowac massacre.
— What's that?
— Well, you remember how all the gravestones around Yannie's have the same date on them? That.
— Oh, so are we looking for a miraculous survivor or a murderer? Or both? — Nex sounded mildly interested now. — And here I thought we were after a simple conman…
— I'd say we're looking for a vigilante. The Lowac had it coming for at least a hundred years, and it's not like diplomacy wasn't his first choice.

Toma stopped, looking at the ground. His face frozen on the brink of crying.

— Did dad… leave… because he killed… a lot of people..?
— We can't know for sure, but that is a thing that happened, Toma.
— Does mum not like him because he did that?
— Definitely not. You can trust me on that.
— If Lowac had it coming, then I doubt that was the problem. — Nex waved his hand dismissively, turning the situation over in his mind, both too preoccupied with analysing the business talks he’d just been through, and not caring about any moral questions whatsoever. — Sure hope I won't end up indebted to Tragač for this.
— Well, they hate dealing with Harvey and are afraid of dealing with Krsto, I'd say you're in the clear.
— Let's hope it stays that way. — Nexialist nodded, then asked, side-eyeing Neven. — What's about the massacre, though? I didn't notice anything like that anywhere I looked. And I know, cult thing to keep things hidden, but still. Something like that must have had witnesses.
— You also haven't found anything about the hundreds of thousands of demons and creatures we killed, and that was the main point of the cult. The Order is great at cover-ups.
— Wait, did they seriously name themselves “the Order”?
— The Order of the Scarlet Shard. Organised around the same time as the Order of the Grey Scythe. They didn't just name themselves that, they were appointed that title by the crown. At least, that is what I was told.
— So, basically, feds. No wonder everything is so hidden. — Nex summed up, definitely later adding the information to the profile of the investigation. Then asked another question. — And how long ago was this massacre?
— 8 years ago. The fact that it happened isn't as important to the Tragač. The Lowac often died en masse. What is important is that the order's leader also died. Let me tell you that is a feat, because the entirety of Hell has been trying to do that for 400 years.
— Woah. — That detail seemed to actually impress Nex. — So our guy is actually pretty dope…
— Can we stop talking about my dad murdering people for a minute!? — Kid broke down crying, wiping his tears against Coyote's fur.
— Kid- — Neven failed to interviene.
— If that is a good thing that those people died, why does no one want to do anything with dad?! And if it is a bad thing, why didn't mum tell me?! Why just… not tell me anything… ever.
— … Probably wanted you to have a childhood. — Nex thoughtfully answered after a pause. Then nodded. — Smart woman. Scary, but smart. Wish I had a mother like her, actually.
— Well, maybe I wouldn't have wasted so much time hoping he'd come back if she told me!
— Kid. Pause. You're hungry?
— What's this has-
— Yes or no?
— Yes…
— We'll talk about it when you're not, okay? Because your mum has nothing to do with your dad doing a bad thing.
— Let’s go get something sweet in the meantime. Cause it might not look like that, but all I want to do after visiting Tragač’s place is puke my guts out, then burn it to the ground.
— I could really use a ride in a washing machine myself.
— Nooo, you're going to smell like soap again!
— Then don’t use me as a napkin. So I don't forget I had a question, where's this Avonborough located?
— Hoo boy… — Nex scratched his temple, then shrugged. — All I can say is it's one hell of a trip away.