The battle is my dance, the mayhem my music, and you folks would tempt me with a ball...

Stuck in the cramped quarters of The Foul Stench, I marveled at having finally found a place worse than Haide. I'd spent the better part of the evening pretending to drink what they called whisky and watching my mark. The portly miner was cheating at cards, and getting less careful about it with each drink he consumed. I closed my eyes for a short moment. That wouldn't end well.

The Foul Stench wasn't the pub's real name -- probably. I hadn't bothered to glance at the dingy sign over the door. My mark - the miner - seemed like a typical patron for the place. The little woman trying in vain to beat him at a rigged game did not. She didn't seem to like it when she finally found evidence of his cheating, either.

"Trisgen's trident," I swore under my breath as the angered cardplayer pitched her glass into my mark's face and moved to follow through with her kukri.

I didn't want to care about the cheater's wellbeing, but he was going to play a crucial role in Stonevale's development as an Althanas landmark. Am'aleh had foretold it, and my goddess' eyes could see farther than the world was long. She had sent me a message two days earlier, and I had already confirmed her story. I'd visited the miner's rooming house the previous night while he slept deep with drink. An inspection of his pickaxe showed golden dust, and I'd found a few fragments of gold ore in his overcoat pocket.

The cheater was an independent prospector. Clearly he had located a rich vein of gold, and clearly he meant to mine it himself and keep the profits. But the town of Stonevale would need the rights to the precious metal in order to grow into a proper city. Am'aleh had foretold it, and I agreed after spending more than a day there.

I clambered to my feet and stumbled swiftly across the pub, still doing my best to blend with the intoxicated crowd. No one needed to know a demigod had visited The Foul Stench that night.

The lithe cardplayer leapt onto the table, reaching for her blade to carve blood money from her opponent's flesh.

Sorry, little shark, I thought as I stole up behind the miner, you'll have to take your vengeance on someone else. This man's staying alive until I locate the gold mine he started.

I grabbed the broad man's greasy ponytail, pulling him to his feet as he wiped blood and crystal shards from his face.

"What the--" he sputtered, attention wavering between me and his assailant.

"Shut up and move," I shoved him toward the exit, which was blocked by the seething crowd. "I'm not letting you die tonight."