Business was getting slow. I'd expected more runaways, once the weather started improving, but I hadn't had a case in weeks. That's why I was sitting back in my chair at my office, feet propped up on my desk, and reading a comic book while considering turning the abandoned restaurant I had free reign over into offices. I'd have a lot more space that way, and I wouldn't need to keep paying rent on the glorified closet I'd been using. I cut off that line of thought when I heard footsteps in the hall. They were moving slowly enough that it wasn't someone who knew the building; whoever it was must have been checking each door they walked past. I pulled my feet away from my desk, planting them on the floor as I reached for a manila folder to hide the comic in. No point in looking unprofessional if it was a potential client.

The woman who looked into my office practically reeked of money. I'm sure her jeans and blouse were designer, and her purse, shades and shoes combined would probably have paid my rent for six months. The air shifted as someone opened the front door of the building, and I caught a hint of French perfume. I'd thought she looked familiar, and that cinched it. I repressed a groan as I closed my folder and slid it into my desk drawer. "Mrs. Montez. Come in."

One of the last cases I'd had was when her husband had come in to ask me to find their runaway twelve-year old daughter. It wasn't a difficult case - the girl didn't have anything in the way of street smarts. It was luck that I'd found her before some of the less shady people in the city had, though. She'd have been a cute kid, if she wasn't a spoiled little monster, but I supposed that was to be expected. After all, her folks had folded after her little stunt and bought her a pony when I told them I'd found her. That kind of indulgence is bound to leave a mark, even if they hadn't decided to name the kid "Princess."

I assumed Susana Montez was there because the kid had run off again, probably because they'd refused to spring for a pegasus, but I kept my mouth shut. Good thing, too, because I was wrong. She nodded, then stepped in and turned to shut the door behind her. When she turned back, she pulled off her sunglasses and I could see that her eyes were rimmed with red. She'd been crying. "Someone took Princess."

I blinked at that and pushed to my feet, gesturing to the chair across my desk. I waited until she sat down before sinking back down into my chair and reaching for a notebook. "Tell me what happened."

She wasn't looking at me, instead concentrating on the clasp on her purse. "We're not sure. She was out with Franz. Someone... Someone knocked him out. He told us he was talking to Princess, then the next thing he knew he was lying on the ground and she was gone." She finally got the clasp open, and the smell of the perfume got stronger.

I nodded along as she spoke, pencil poised over my notebook. "Franz?"

She blinked up at me, nodded, then went back to her purse, drawing out a large envelope, the kind some businesses use for inter-office mail, which was bulging with something other than paper. "Her riding instructor. When he came back to the house to tell us what had happened, he found this by the door." She laid the envelope on my desk and I eyed it warily. "They want money."

After some of the special deliveries I've heard about people receiving in Rhy'Din, I wasn't sure I wanted to see what was in the envelope. I gingerly reached for it, though, and after glancing over it for any markings unwrapped the little piece of string that was holding it closed. The smell of perfume was coming from within, strong enough to mask any other smells that might be in there. I took a breath before tugging it open and looking at what was inside.

I let the breath out in a sigh of relief before reaching in and pulling out a mass of curly blond hair, tied with a pale blue ribbon. If Princess' kidnappers thought they had to cut something off to prove they'd had the girl, I was glad it was just her pony tail. I ran my fingers through the hair on the off chance the kidnappers had let something get mixed up in it, but aside from the perfume it seemed clean. I set it aside and drew out the sheet of paper that had shared the envelope, then slid the hair back into the envelope and closed it, trying to shut out as much of the perfume's scent I could. I then slid the envelope into my drawer and closed it, glancing over to Susana. "I'll take a closer look at that later on." She nodded, and I turned my gaze to the ransom note.

It was ordinary paper, and unfortunately it had absorbed enough of the perfume's scent that I couldn't pick out anything else from it. At least, not without being more blatant about sniffing at it than I wanted to be. I decided that could wait, and read over the short typed missive. It said they had the princess, named a day and an intersection. And a more absurd number of coins than I've ever seen. "Straight to the point." I tapped the paper as I looked back to her. "That's a lot of money."

She nodded, and I could see her eyes start to get wet. "More than we have. That much? It's crazy." She pulled a tissue from her purse and dabbed at her eyes. "Maybe, if we sold everything, we might be able to come close, but... but not in only a few days. It would take months."

I scratched at my jaw as I watched her. "Think they got the wrong impression from that name you gave her." I took a deep breath, and let it out while I shook my head. "If you can't raise it, you'll have to tell them that. Maybe with some cash... Few thousand or so, if you can manage it. They'll be more likely to deal if you show them they'll get somethin' from you, even if it's not what they were hopin' for."

She stared at me for a bit, then gave me a little nod. "Mr. Jameson, I was hoping you would be able to..."

When she trailed off, I nodded and spoke up. "I'm going to try, but there's not much to go on here. If I can't find her before they want their money, givin' them something to take home will let me tail them." She blinked at that. "Consider it insurance, yeah? I'll see if I can find anything out before then, of course. In the meantime, keep an eye out for anyone hangin' around your place that doesn't belong, and let me know if you see anyone." She nodded and pulled a small sheet of paper from her purse, laid it on my desk before she rose to her feet. I glanced down at it as I stood myself. A promissory note for my retainer, and then some. "Take care, Mrs. Montez. I'll be in touch. You'll get her back."

After she left, I lifted the ransom note to my nose and took a deep breath. There was a hint of salt under the perfume, but that wasn't all that much of a help. I folded up the note and slid it into my pocket before edging around my desk and stepping out of my office, locking up behind me. I was going to have to get to work if I planned on making good on those last words.

I waited until the next day to take a look around the docks. It's possible whoever'd taken Princess had just spilled salt on their ransom note, but I couldn't do much with that, so I hoped it was from the salt in the air. I was going to check a few taverns later on, but first I wanted to walk the docks myself. I wouldn't spook anyone that way, like I might by asking the wrong question of the wrong bartender, and there was an off chance I'd pick up a whiff of the girl's perfume - she wore enough of it that even a scrap torn from her dress might have enough for me to smell it. The crowds might get in the way, but the kind of women who wander the docks wearing perfume usually wait until dark. That, and I'd attract less attention sniffing around when there'd be plenty of other people out.

I walked from one end of the docks to the other and back, making sure I got a chance to pause by the doors of every building I passed, but that didn't get me anything. It was a long shot, anyway, but it would have made my job a whole lot easier. Not finding her scent meant I'd have to talk to people. Before I did that, though, I headed across town to pick up a prop, and changed into some rattier clothes.

When I got back to the docks, I took a moment to decide who to talk to. Sailors would probably be a waste of time, since a lot of them would have been out to see when Princess was taken. I started with a guard at one of the larger piers. I walked up to him and stood there looking around for a second, making it obvious I was scanning the crowd, before speaking. "'scuse me. I'm lookin' for someone."

He pursed his lips as he regarded me, then gestured down the road. "Stevadores hang out at the tavern up that way. If you're looking for a woman, you're too early."

I blinked at him, then smiled and shook my head. "No, not lookin' for any of them." Though I made a mental note to talk to some longshoremen if he wasn't any help. "Saw a kid arguin' with her father the other day, and she dropped this." I dug the little music player out of my pocket and showed it to him. "Stopped to pick it up, then I couldn't find them. Was wonderin' if you might have seen them, know where they might be."

He looked down at the gadget for a moment, then back to me. "Returning it out of the good of your heart, huh?" He put just a little sarcasm in the question.

I chuckled. "Well, don't have anything else to do right now, and the kid looked like money. Figured there might be some sort of reward, yeah? People get all worked up over these high tech gizmos."

"Maybe. What'd they look like?"

I told him I didn't get a good look at the girl's father, since she was the one making a fuss, and gave him a vague description of Princess. I left out how long her hair was, since I wasn't sure how short they'd cut it, but I left in the perfume. Short of half-drowning her in the river, they wouldn't have gotten rid of the smell all that fast.

He pursed his lips again before shaking his head. "Don't see many girls that age with perfume around here."

I nodded. "Figured it was an off-chance, but, hey, like I said, nothing better to do. Maybe I'll ask around that tavern. Those guys might have seen her."

"Could be."

I thanked him for his time and headed down the docks, asking a couple more pier guards without any luck before trying the tavern. There were a few longshoremen sitting at the bar, but the place was pretty empty otherwise. I guessed there'd be more around later on. None of them had seen Princess, either, so I went back to wandering the docks until it got dark, taking a look inside once in a while. A new bartender came in around dark, so I waited a little while before I went in to talk to him.

"Hey." I went for a different line of questioning with him. Instead of the music player, I pulled out a gold coin and thunked it down on the bar. It got his attention. "Lookin' for someone."

He snapped open a little iron knife and scratched the coin. Satisfied, he closed his knife and slid them both into his pocket. "Yeah?"

I nodded, putting a cigarette in my mouth. "Yeah. Guy tryin' to get by on credit. Got a friend who was dumb enough to let him get away with it, and now he wants me to find the guy. Said he kept talkin' about how he was going to be comin' into a lot of coin real soon. Sound familiar?"

He eyed me for a few moments, scowling. "What's the guy look like?"

Which was a damn good question, of course, but not one I had an answer for. "Don't know. My friend said he was wearin' a cloak." I made a mental note to come up with a better story next time I needed to look for someone like this.

"Your friend really is dumb, he let someone get by on credit without even seeing his face." He looked past me, catching the eye of an older man sitting at a table, then waved him over toward the bar. The older man sighed, gulped down the last of his drink, then pushed to his feet like he was hefting Atlas' load. The bartender looked back to me, and nodded to a door at the end of the bar. "Let's go talk in private."

It smelled fishy, which was a real accomplishment in a place that stank as much as the common room in the dockside tavern, but I figured I could handle him if I had to, so I nodded and headed for the door. I stepped into the little office, and he followed me in, shutting the door behind him. Then he switched off the light.

The room plunged into darkness, almost pitch. I turned around and could barely make out where his feet blocked what little light was coming in under the door. I looked at the patch of shadow where his head would be at about the time I heard him draw back the hammer on a handgun. "You're either full of crap, or you and your friend are both dumber together than a box of rocks. Should take it as a compliment that I don't think you're that dumb. Spill." I hesitated for a moment, and he made a clicking sound with his tongue. "Don't get any bright ideas. I got some elf blood on my dear old mum's side, and I can see you clear as day. I'm lined up to give you a big hole where your nose should be." I knew I would have been able to rush him before he pulled the trigger, no matter how good his eyesight was, but I was curious. I moved my head a little. "Like your nose better than your right eye, chump?"

He wasn't bluffing. I decided to give him a little of the truth. "I'm lookin' for someone who's trying to pull a ransom job." Odds were that Princess wasn't the only person being held for ransom in Rhy'Din, so even if he was in on the operation he'd have no way to be sure exactly who I was looking for. The muzzle flash would give me time to dodge if he decided to shoot, so I crouched a bit and got ready to move.

Instead, I heard him disengage the hammer. A moment later the light came back on, and I blinked until my eyes adjusted. "Can't help you." He'd already hidden the piece by the time I could see clearly. "Don't know anything about anyone who'd be doing something like that." He turned away from me and reached for the door. "Not saying I'd tell you if I did, but I don't." He pulled the door open and stepped aside. "Thanks for the coin. Get out of my bar."

Once my body started to respond to my commands again, I took stock of my injuries. My nose was broken, as were a few fingers on my left hand. I wasn't sure about my ribs; they were definitely badly bruised, and might have had a crack or two. The skin over my right eyebrow was split, blood seeping out, and I probably had a minor concussion. Aside from that, it seemed to just be a whole lot of bruises. I laid there, trying to heal by sheer force of will. When that didn't work, I dragged myself upright and headed to my apartment to tend to what of my injuries I could, then went out to the Montez residence. Mrs. Montez answered the door when I knocked.

"Did you find... good lord, what happened?" She stared at me, dark eyes going very wide. I'm sure I'd earned a look like that, with how more than half of my skin was swollen, bruised, bandaged, or some combination of the three. "Oh...oh, I was hoping..." She trailed off, gaze moving over my shoulder as her mouth dropped open.

I turned back and saw another of those vortexes, though this one was far to small for a person to move through. Another envelope appeared, apparently tossed through the portal, and I moved to snatch it before it fell to the ground. The vortex was gone by the time my fingers closed. I traded a look with Mrs. Montez, then opened the envelope to slide out the paper inside. I glanced over the new set of demands before I handed it over to her. "They're going to keep bleeding you until you run dry. Because of me, they say, but I doubt they'd have just sent Princess home if I hadn't gone after them."

She was blinking back tears when she lifted her gaze from the note. "They'll hurt her if we don't pay them."

I shook my head. "I know where they are." I explained what little I'd seen. "That thing they're using to make their portals won't be moved easily. Princess'll be back here before you know it." I told her I'd be in touch, then turned and headed for the warehouse district, stopping by a vendor to pick up a red baseball cap on the way.

I found Jimmy on his way to a club. "Jimmy?! Man, it's been ages since I seen you!" He spun around and stared at me. My mask hurt too much for me to talk to him through it, and I figured with the hat and my nose all swollen, along with the bruises, there wasn't much chance he'd recognize me later after talking to me in the dark. "Jimmy, come 'ere and talk to me."

Jimmy took a look around before walking over warily. "I don't think I know you, man..."

Once he got close, I smiled at him and tapped my hat before speaking softly. "We got a mutual friend. Wants to know if you got anythin' to tell 'im." He blinked at me as understanding started to dawn. "Figured he'd go easy on you, this once. Anyone sees us, you can just tell 'em we went to high school together. Or boardin' school, whatever."

He sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Great, sure. Tell him the boss wouldn't get chatty. I tried, but if I asked him direct, then the guys got pinched, it could come back to me and I'd be dead. Boss just told me they're a bunch of idiots. That's all I got." I nodded to him. I didn't expect him to get much information, but it was worth checking to see if he'd gotten a name.

I ditched the ball cap on my way to West End. There's a restaurant I pass sometimes on my way to the Dragon that serves dwarven specialties. I've heard people say that it's mostly rocks with sauce made from dirt, but I was pretty sure that was just a bad joke. Either way, their sign is a plate with a beard hanging off of it, with an axe painted on the building to one side. That's what I saw as a giant, when I could barely see inside their hideout. I made my way up to the roofs well before I got there, ignoring the ache in my side, and spotted one of the kidnappers hanging out on the roof across from Khalerk's Cuisine. I moved back down to the street and stepped out of sight from his rooftop to decide how I was going to go about this.

I circled around his building before climbing back to the rooftops.

I picked one of dusty doors at random and pulled it open, then took a big step around the doorway, getting inside without leaving any prints that would be visible from the hall. I set Princess down in the corner, and she pushed herself to her feet, using the wall for support. The drug was wearing off fast. After telling her to stay put, I told her I'd be back and left the same way I'd stepped in. I opened and closed two more doors, then opened one and stepped in, shuffling my feet to disturb the dust as much as possible in the process, and pushed the window open. I backed out of the room and didn't close the door all the way. With any luck, if one of them got past me, they'd think someone took off with Princess that way. I briefly considered actually trying to get her out that way, but with my ribs and fingers I'd probably fall if I tried to carry her and climb down at the same time.

There were three left. One of them was probably guarding the front door, another one was probably in the room with the device that created that portal. The third one could be anywhere. I ran a hand over my hair, then went back to the room they'd been using as a jail cell. I snatched up the cracked helmet and moved to the door, then tossed it down the hall before quickly slipping back inside and quietly closing the door. While I heard someone shouting from one of the rooms ahead, I pulled off my helmet and put an eye to the peephole.

It wasn't long before the patter of running feet sounded in the hall, and I saw a robed figure run past. I put my ear to the door and listened as he pulled the gag off of the one by the ladder. There was a muffled exhange followed by the sound of a door opening then slamming, then more running feet. I put on the helmet and opened the door as the footsteps got close, and threw a punch just as the robed figure came into view. He spun and hit the door across the hall before stumbling to the floor. He was trying to get back to his feet when I grabbed him, a growl making its way up my throat at the strain on my ribs, and pulled him into the room, kicking the door closed behind us. He was too confused to offer up much of a fight. I dropped him onto the floor and yanked off his helmet while he moved to get his feet back under him. Wide eyes stared at me from a dark complexion until I gave him the same treatment I'd given the one on the roof. After he slumped to the floor, I tied him up and checked on the one I'd hit in the throat. He'd passed out, but he was breathing.

Hoping that the latest man was the other one that Jas hadn't known the location for, I re-gagged the glaring man at the ladder, followed the trail free of dust in the hallway to another door, and pulled off my helmet to duck down for a sniff. Salt. I slipped the helmet back on before stepping forward and pushing the door open. There were crates, full of salt by the smell, stacked up along one wall. Surrounded by a thick circle of spilled salt that took up most of the room was a large device, shaped like a distorted ring standing upright, that hurt my eyes when I looked at it. Sitting in a chair, watching me, was another man in a robe. His helmet sat in his lap, and his thin brows were slowly rising. He was holding his helmet in his lap, which I had a hunch they weren't supposed to be doing, since everyone else was wearing theirs. I tapped the one on my own head.

"Yeah, yeah. We'll be able to hear the boss when he comes up, and I'll put it on then. I can't stand wearing the thing." He gestured past me. "What's going on out there?"

I stepped back and beckoned him, then pointed down the hall toward the ladder. He stepped over and leaned out the door, and gasped when he saw his friend. My fist met his jaw as he spun back toward me, and I yelped in pain while he staggered back. I'd forgotten about my broken fingers. He didn't go down, instead reaching into his robes for a weapon. I gave him another hit, this time with my uninjured hand, and he fell back onto the floor. I was stepping toward him when the dimness of the hallway saved my life.

There was a flash of light from behind me, and I spun around while moving toward the open door, falling through as the retort from the gun reached my ears. If I hadn't seen the muzzle flash, the bullet would have hit me in the back - instead, I caught it in my left shoulder. It hurt like blazes, and my ribs screaming from the impact of the fall didn't help matters, but I was still alive. I dragged myself out of the doorway, clenching my teeth so I wouldn't cry out, as the one with the gun raced up the hall.

I managed to get onto my back, and lifted up my feet to kick at the side of his knee as he stepped in, snarling as the Wolf raged against my pain. I didn't get a solid hit, though, and after stumbling a few steps back he raised the gun again. I scrabbled into a sitting position, thinking that I might be able to dodge one or two shots in the condition that I was in... but one of them might hit home before he ran out of rounds. Before he fired, though, there were gunshots from out in the hall. He let one shot loose as he ran out of the room, and I managed to twist enough to let it pass by me without doing any more harm than giving me an unneeded reminder of my cracked ribs.

I dragged myself to my feet, praying that I hadn't just heard Princess get killed, and stumbled out into the hall. His back was to me. Maybe with the helmet on he didn't hear me very well, I don't know. He was slowly walking toward the door across the hall from the one I'd left Princess in, which had two smoldering holes in it, about three feet high. The man by the ladder was grunting and staring at me, but his cohort didn't seem to notice. I crept up behind him, thankful for his helmet since I couldn't quite manage soundless at the moment, and reached out to tap his shoulder. As he turned, I grabbed his gun arm and wrenched it past me, while driving one knee up into his ribs. It took two or three hits before he dropped the gun, my own ribs complaining all the while, then I ripped off his helmet and head butted him. The helmets weren't very sturdy, seeing as hitting him in the face cracked the one I was wearing, but it was enough for him to drop, blood pouring from his nose.

I pulled off my helmet and turned toward the room Princess was in. "Princess? You alright, kiddo?" The door opened slowly, and I saw a wide blue eyes peer out of the crack before she swung the door open the rest of the way and went back to clutching at her right arm. A gun was on the floor behind her, and from the way she was holding her wrist I guessed the kick was too much for her. But she'd given me the distraction I'd needed. I dropped the helmet on the floor and clumsily pulled off my robe, then cut a strip from it to wrap hastily around my shoulder. She was still just standing there staring at me, so I waved her over, and she came without a word. She didn't seem like the same girl who'd run away because she didn't have a pony. Her ordeal had changed her, at least for the time being. I put my good hand on her shoulder and we turned toward the exit, just as stomping feet started making their way up. I pushed her behind me and turned to face the stairs, and the half-dozen or so men that were charging up them.