An Owl's Rise

"Feel free to look around. I can assure you that you will not find any better alchemy equipment and ingredients anywhere else in the city." Bazan said, having brought Evelyn to his storeroom.

With interest in her eyes, Evelyn looked around at what was on offer. Bazan had not been exaggerating the quality and rarity of his wares.

The magical herbs and fruits were all high quality, and the parts from beasts were mostly from those that were at the awakened rank, though there were plenty of tyrant beast parts as well.

'I could honestly use some of this stuff. I just hate the idea of doing business with this guy. Originally, I only came to look around.' Evelyn thought, having an internal struggle.

She honestly did not want to help a single human in any way, but getting some of these ingredients would allow her to make more potent alchemical items than her current stock would allow.

However, as she was looking around, she spotted a certain item that was sealed in a small translucent container and inside of a sealed shelf.

Her eyes going wide she walked up an moved her face as close as she could to examine the item.

In only a few seconds she was certain of what it was and a unrestrained rage began to well up inside her.

Bazan noticed her sudden change in demeanor and went pale with fear. He could sense the waves of furious magical energy radiating from Evelyn.

"This feather. Where did you get it?" Evelyn said, her voice deadly still.

For a few moments Bazan was overwhelmed by Evelyn's dark aura and did not move or say anything.

Nevertheless, he had dealt with plenty of terrifying people in the past and knew that the best way to deal with them was to stay professional and not lose his cool.

"Your keen eye strikes again, miss. That deep blue feather is from a powerful sovereign rank owl. I purchased it about a year ago from a friend of mine from the Tyrannis Union. They recently came into a large stock of owl beast parts, and this is one of them. I have many other feathers, beaks, talons, and vials of blood if you are looking for such things."

Upon hearing this, Evelyn nearly exploded. This man had one of Melisandre's feathers and the parts of many other owls from the Roost. Every fiber of her beings was telling her to turn this shop into a fiery hellscape, but she held back.

To prevent herself from going out of control, she bit into her tongue hard and allowed the pain to wash over her fury.

Tasting her own blood in her mouth, she took a deep beath and closed her eyes to calm down. Doing something rash here would blow her cover and bring a swift end to the intricate plan Lucia had laid for them.

When she turned back around to look at Bazan, she could see that his fake merchant smile was moments away from cracking and that a cold sweat was running down his face.

"Sorry about that. I was just reminded of some owl materials I wanted to purchase a while back that got swiped out from under me. It was a rather unpleasant experience, but I should not have allowed it to influence me here." Evelyn said, lying to cover up her mistake.

"I-I completely understand. As a merchant there have been many deals in the past that fell through and still haunt me to this day."

Bazan breathed a sigh of relief now that Evelyn was no longer emitting such a threatening presence.

He then tried to get her to make some purchases and leave. He was afraid that she might actually give into her rage at some point if she stayed for too long.

Unfortunately for him, Evelyn wanted to know more about the owl materials he had and would not accept any evasive answers.

"So, it's not just materials, you've heard that they have also been selling live owls." Evelyn said, her outward appearance completely neutral, but her thoughts filled with anger.

"Yes, that is what I've heard. The Tyrannis Union apparently captured a large number of owls a couple years ago. Many were sold as pets or are being kept for supplies. Their blood and feathers are quite valuable after all." Bazan said, answering Evelyn's questions in hopes of appeasing her.

Once she had learned everything that she could from the alchemy shop owner she asked to buy every single owl material he had. She could not bear the thought of anyone using them.

"Of course! It will take me a bit to calculate the total. Please just wait a little while." Bazan said, his fear vanishing in an instant at the prospect of making such a major sale.

Quickly he disappeared further into eh shop and returned with a catalog listing the prices of all of his goods.

It took him a couple of minutes, but he soon wrote down the total and showed it to Evelyn.

Except when she saw it, she could only grimace. The price was greater than what she could afford.

'I don't have even half the necessary magic crystals. Should I ask Lucia for some? No, I can't rely on her for everything.'

Evelyn racked her brain for what to do. There was no way she could leave the parts of owls from the Roost here. Especially not Melisandre's feather.

Her first thought was to simply rob the store, but that would pretty much be just as bad as blowing it up. No, she needed to do this without causing a disturbance.

'Wait. If I don't have enough money, I just need to offer things of equal value.' Evelyn thought, coming up with an idea.

"I'm afraid I do not have the exact number of magic crystals you are asking for, but I do have some valuable items that I could offer as trade."

From out of her storage cuff, Evelyn took out a half dozen beast cores from tyrant beast as well as around forty from awakened beasts.

Seeing these, Bazan's eyes lit up. Beast cores were always in demand from a multitude of professions, and there was no doubt he could easily make a profit off of them.

"These are all quite exceptional. So many beast cores and all of them are from awakened or tyrant beasts. I knew I was right about you when I first saw you. Only a truly accomplished alchemist would have this many cores in their possession." Bazan said, greed in his eyes.

After carefully examining each of the cores, Bazan told Evelyn how much he would be willing to drop the price for the materials she wanted in exchange for them.

Thankfully this brought everything to a level that she could afford, and Evelyn purchased all of the owl materials Bazan had as well as a few other things that she wanted.

"It was a true pleasure doing business with you. Please come back again should you ever need anything." Bazan said, an avaricious grin on his face as he saw Evelyn off.

She waved at him and friendly smile so as not to arouse any more suspicion, but deep inside she was thinking about what she was going to do in the Tyrannis Union. This trip to this alchemy shop had given her new information and now she knew that there were several owls being held captive.

Evelyn vividly remembered what sort of horrible things those people would do to their captives and a desire to save her comrades from the Roost welled up within her. She would not let them continue to be brutalized like she once was.

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