[Privilege, Deceive]

  “I’ll count to count ten, it’ll give you a chance to ask yourself are the cartel really worth dying for. As you probably know "The unexamined life is not worth living". Who did you kidnap me for? So let’s begin, One, Two…”

  “David Harris, the second oldest son of the family, you have his brother locked up. He wanted to trade you for his brother.”

  “Where were you supposed to bring me?”

  “A shack on Ivy Lane, the last one on the left, it butts up against the wall, probably the only thing keeping it standing.”

  “What were you supposed to do at Ivy Lane?”

  “Just hand you over to Harris, that’s it, I swear it, we weren’t going to hurt you.”

  “You mean like you didn’t hurt the vendor.”

  “Harris told us to work over Thompson, cuz he called it quits on the cartel.”

  I authored a cell phone and hit record.

  “All right thug number two, tell me the same story, and if this magical truth telling device indicates a lie, you’ll die, do you understand.”

  He told basically the same story. Then I put him to sleep. Arranged his body in an awkward position then I woke up thug number one.

  “Did you enjoy being dead? It must have come with some relief that hell was a myth, huh. Now before I put you in the ground for good, I thought I’d give you one last chance. Let’s put a clock on this shall we. Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two. I must admit you have a lot of loyalty. But it won’t help. You are now paralyzed. I usually favor originality over plagiarizing someone else's work but I’m certain that Draco won’t sue for an intellectual property violation. You itch all over. It must be tough being paralyzed while you are being driven mad by the desire, the need, to scratch. See death is too good for you, eternal rest and all that, why should you be granted that. When I come back in a few days, I expect you’ll beg me to kill you. But I won’t. Bye.”

  I walked over and portaled the sleeping thug number two to the guard house. I yelled for help and a couple of guards emerged, they took charge of the sleeping thug. I walked into the building and asked for Dogberry and was soon playing the recording for him.

  “Well, Rose you obviously have a plan, why don’t you outline it for me. How long do you plan on leaving ‘thug number one’ to suffer?”

  “He’s not really suffering physically, he just thinks that he needs to itch it’s all in his head. But I’ll retrieve him before I go back to the store.”

  Then we went over my plan with a few changes and refinements he suggested. I’d be here with Lu by five.

  I portaled to the farms to speak with Lu, apart from growling a few times during parts of my recounting about being kidnapped. She listened to the plan of course Lu agreed to help in any way she could.

  Then I jumped back to Hilltop World.

  “Alright I’ll talk, just make the itching stop.”

  “Who asked you to kidnap me?”

  “David Harris, for god's sake make the itching stop!”

  “Where and when were you supposed to bring me?”

  “I’ll tell you but please make it stop, Ivy Lane, seven pm tonight.”

  I stopped the itching.

  “We’re supposed to meet Harris there?”

  “Yes.”

  “What does he want me for?”

  “He said for a trade, but I think he means to kill you, that will end the trade war if you can’t bring in free food. The cartel will then jack up prices to cover whatever they lost in their battle with you.”

  “Where did you come from, you’re not a Wyldwood native?”

  “We’re from Veracity.”

  “From Richter’s gang?”

  “Yeah how did you know?”

  “Because with the fake gang war going on, Rayan Artsiom is supplying weapons to all three gangs and making a fortune doing it.”

  “Why that dirty guard, I always told Richter you can’t trust a Guard. That just goes to prove it.”

  I jumped us back to the guard house and turned my prisoner over to the guardsman at the desk and portaled back to the clinic. I asked Bhizzie if I could speak with Thompson. She waved me through.

  “First door on the right, Rose.”

  I knocked and heard a come in, before I entered.

  “Mr Thompson, how are you feeling?”

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  “I feel one hundred percent fine, Rose, your friends are amazing, especially the little girl. It took Opal less than five minutes to completely heal me. Dr Li just wanted me to rest and have a final look at me before I can go. Thank you for coming to check on me.”

  “I’m just sorry you got caught up in my war with the cartel and were hurt.”

  “None of it is your fault, I blame myself. I’ve never been a very good business man, if I'm to be honest. I wanted to be a potter but my mother insisted that I take over the family business, as the eldest son it was my duty. If I’d just listened to my heart back then and appreciated myself like I wanted, we wouldn’t be where we are today. Now it’s too late for me to be a potter.”

  “Actually maybe it isn’t, I happen to know a potter famous for Whites of Faenza. He was born in the fifteen hundreds but is now living in Wales on Earth, he for hundreds of years was forced into another job. He just recently began again, you should talk to him before you give up on your dream.”

  “I don’t know why you are being so nice to me, I wasn’t to you. But thank you I’d love to speak to him.”

  “OK, I told you, you aren’t the first person to make a mistake. It’s what you learn from and what you do afterwards that makes all the difference. Come to the bookstore in a few days and we’ll talk.”

  I jumped back to the bookstore.

  “Errr, Rose, Woody asked me if you’d possibly be able to come out to the farms for a quick chat. Apparently we did something that we shouldn’t have done. He liked a chance to explain himself.”

  I sighed, what else could possibly go wrong today, it was midafternoon but I felt like this was some kind of endless day.

  “Elma, could you possibly give me a heads up, what does he want to talk to me about. Do you know?”

  “Yes I know, Rose. But I’m afraid you’ll be angry at me, Rose. I don’t want you to be angry with me, Rose. Please just go see Woody, he wants to explain, please Rose.”

  “Yes okay, I was going to go to the bakery for lunch but I might as well, jump to the farms, have a bowl of soup and talk to Woody all at the same time. Wait, how did you know that Woody wanted to talk to me?”

  “He told me.”

  “Yeah I get that but how exactly? Telepathy?”

  “No through our roots.”

  “How does that work?”

  “I have no idea, Rose. Maybe like your ears do but I’m just guessing. Ask Woody, I’m sure he knows the answer.”

  “Elma, please ask Elmer to ask Doug if he can print on papyrus instead of paper.”

  “Yes, Rose, he says it’s not a problem whichever you prefer.”

  “Good, ask him if he can do eBooks?”

  “Yes Rose, any format you desire. Thanks, Elma.”

  “Please don’t be angry with me Rose after you talk to Woody, I don’t want to itch, it sounds horrid, like that time a colony of ants got under my bark and they were just crawling everywhere, it took forever to get rid of them.”

  “Why would you think that Elma?”

  “Well that’s what you did to thug number one right?”

  “How could you possibly know that, Elma? You can’t hear what happens in my fictional worlds can you?”

  “No Rose, I heard it from a tree by the guard house. He said that thug number one was telling thug number two that you tortured him for days, bugs were crawling all over his skin but you paralyzed him. Please don’t paralyze me Rose.”

  “Don’t worry Elma, I didn’t do any of those things, it was just an illusion, a thought I popped into his head. Like I made him think he was dead when in truth he was just in a dreamless sleep.”

  “I see, it was a magic trick, not real magic.”

  “Exactly, that guy kidnapped me and was going to drag me to his boss. So I needed information, and he wouldn’t give it to me. I’m still in danger from these people that’s why I needed the information. To keep myself and friends safe. So I bluffed him and used illusion magic on him. But I can’t use magic like that in Wyldwood just in one of the fictional worlds, I’m the strongest in my own fictional worlds. Like Tregaron, where Nyx is from.”

  “We like Nyx, she is very fair.”

  “Oh you mean because of karmic justice?”

  “Yes, we like the idea of karmic justice, all those racist vegans will get what’s coming to them.”

  “Racist vegans? Who are they?”

  “They are even worse than vegetarians, they only eat plants. I mean what did we ever do to them? Why do they hate us Rose? Why would they possibly just want to murder plant’s? Sure there are a few mean plants like poison ivy. But nothing like the destruction that animals have historically caused to humans. Even poison ivy isn’t bad when you get to know them, they just don’t like being touched. I mean everyone should have agency, no means no, right? I mean she evolved that iconic three leaf structure to warn people away. If they are to stupid to pay attention to where they are going it’s not Ivy's fault if they get a rash. I’ll bet Nyx used her feather on plenty of animals in a quest for karmic justice, but next time you see her, please ask her did she ever have to enforce karmic justice on a plant?”

  “Elma, I’m afraid that vegans just don’t get it. It’s not that they hate plants, some love animals, some do it for religious reasons, some for health.”

  “So you are saying that whole religions hate plants, that’s even worse than lone racists, now we have to worry about zealot racists.”

  “No not here in Emain Ablach, mainly on Earth, there are very few beings here that believe in religions.”

  “Oh, no Earth is the worst. I feel so sorry for flora on earth. The horrible humans have whole industries designed to kill specific plants. Now Rose you can’t possibly want to defend them as being non racist. Weeds that’s the kind of racist language that’s tolerated on Earth, it’s genocide pure and simple Rose.”

  “I’m sorry Elma, if you catch me talking that way ever I want you to call me out on it. This isn’t an excuse, we never knew any sentient plants before. Most humans do eat meat, but they are very particular about what type of animals that they will eat. Most cultures won’t eat dogs and cats because people consider them members of the family, their pets. I’ll bet gardeners won’t eat certain plants because they are house plants.”

  “Earth gardeners and farmers are the worst offenders, they are the people the weed killer industries cater to.”

  “In one respect I really envy you, sunlight and water, no one can accuse you of murdering someone or something just to get the energy you need to live.”

  “What I don’t understand is why humans don’t just evolve, sunlight and water, it’s simple enough. Maybe they’d stop trying to accumulate so much stuff. Good thick bark and you could skip the houses. You’d finally understand the rare joy of a sun shower. No human pleasure could possibly top that?”