A Dark Encounter

[The Dark Knight]

The Knight heard the sound of falling rock and quickly put his hands up. "Icmar te sinon." He muttered and through the power of dark magic the rubble stopped in mid air, suspended just feet from collapsing on him. He growled as he used his energy to change the position of the heavy rubble, and aimed it straight for Chase.

"Atine!" He yelled and the rock and wood became hundreds of projectiles aimed straight for where Chase was levitating. Lets see him dodge this one. The knight thought to himself.

[Chase Caldera]

Chase watched as the Knight muttered some spell and all the falling rubble stopped. Before Chase could think of another attack to throw at the man the rubble suddenly started hurtling towards him. Desperately he called out "trafnidiaeth!" and teleported a split second before being hit by the rubble and reappeared on top of one of the houses.

He couldn't afford to continue this. He didn't have enough stamina to continue fighting much longer. He called out, "Why continue this pointless struggle Knight? You won't be able to kill me. At this rate neither of us will learn anything. I am sure we both have things the other one wants to know." Chase waited for the Knights reply. If he wanted to continue this pointless battle Chase would merely retreat to the guild. He had seen enough of the Knights power for now. Perhaps some other time when Chase wasn't exhausted he would have the chance to fight the Knight again.

[The Dark Knight]

The Knight stood still for a moment looking up at Chase. Then he slowly nodded and teleported himself to stand on the building next to Chase. He looked over the boy for a moment. He was quite powerful for being so young.

"What could you know that I would want?" He asked. He was curious to see the answer. Perhaps he would be lucky and the boy would actually know something of value.

[Chase Caldera]

Chase was glad that the Knight seemed interested in his offer. After all if the battle had continued he would have been forced to flee. He took a second to think of the just what he could offer and the terms of their agreement before saying "I know many things including the powers of almost all the mage level people in the guild. Not only that but I am sure I have knowledge that you do not. Whether it is politics or trading or the guild I have connections in all three. In return however for every piece of knowledge you get from me I am allowed to ask a question as well. Sound good. You can have the first question."

Chase liked the terms that he had thought of and hoped that the Dark Knight accepted them. If not then they would have to go through tedious negotiations which Chase really didn't want to have to do. He waited for the Knights answer.

[The Dark Knight]

The Knight was silent for a moment then nodded. "Sounds fair enough to me." He said and thought up a question for the boy. There were several but he needed to keep it just a couple of questions to avoid having to answer too many himself.

Finally he spoke. "How many mages are in the guild?" He asked. He had a general idea, but the Brotherhood would need more specific numbers. Without that information, they wouldn't know what they were up against.

[Chase Caldera]

Chase wondered at the Knights question. It wasn't the question he had been expecting. After all members of the guild weren't exactly secret. All you needed to do was steal a registrar and count up the names on it. Still Chase had to admit he didn't know the exact number since he had never cared much about the fellow members of the guild.

"About 150-200" Estimated Chase. "However most of them would be useless in a fight. Just people who happen to have magic and entered the guild but don't actively train it. Now time for my question. What are you planning to do if you ever do overthrow the Pendragons?"

[The Dark Knight]

That was good information the Knight had just received. It was useful and most likely accurate. He listened to Chase's question and responded, "Create a system where the lows are equal to everyone else." He thought about his next question for a moment.

"How much do the Pendragons know about the brotherhood?" He asked. He thought to himself that this would be the last question he asked, he didn't like having to answer Chase's questions.

[Chase Caldera]

Chase scoffed at the Knights answer. Make a world where the lows were equal to the rest of society? Such a world was impossible. Even if it was possible to rise the lows then someone else would simply fall down to fill their positions. It was the way the world worked. In order for something to rise in the ranks something else had to fall.

Chase wondered at how to answer the Knights question. Finally he decided to answer by saying, "They definitely know you exist. Uther is no fool after all. They also probably know that you lead them. As to their exact knowledge I would guess that most of it is based on the rumours that have spread around." Chase hoped that his lack of exact knowledge wouldn't get the Knight to mad. He asked his return question, "How many mages of Keleth's strength are their in the brotherhood?" Chase wanted to know just how many strong mages their were in the Brotherhood. After all he had no interest in weak mages.

[The Dark Knight]

"Few." He said simply. Keleth was the best dark mage they had, and a valuable asset to the Brotherhood. "I have no more questions to ask you." He added. He had the information he sought, the rest he could find out on his own without too much difficulty. He knew that he would see Chase again, and he imagined that perhaps a mutual information exchange had just been opened. Either way, he would have to wait and see.

[Chase Caldera]

Chase was slightly annoyed at the Knight's answer. It was obvious that there were only a few mages of Keleth's calibre. Even the guild didn't have many. Still Chase couldn't do anything about it. After all he hadn't given very exact information either. Not to mention both of them had things they wanted to protect.

When the Knight said he had no more questions to ask Chase he took it in stride. Their would be other meetings to learn more. "Whatever you want. However I would ask that you stop setting men to try to follow me. If I think I am being followed again I may just have to kill the men who are doing it. After all we don't want any...misunderstandings."

With his thinly veiled threat spoken Chase turned to leave and exit the alley.

[The Dark Knight]

The Knight smirked. The boy had balls making a threat like that, he liked that. He knew that Chase would become a valuable asset to his operations. He made a note to make the section of sewer that the boy was using for training vacated by all Brotherhood activity as well as to tall his men to give him wide berth. He didn't need to loose forces needlessly. He watched at the boy left and once he was out of sight the Knight turned and left, back to his office in the slums.