“Don’t they check how much money you have before you can bid?” Arek asked. “Why do they need to check again?”

“Don’t ask me,” Malissa said. “Either they’re getting special treatment or there’s something we don’t know. Either way, they must bid quite a bit of money for that auctioneer to look like that.”

“It’s got to be a large guild making a move to push their way into the city,” Belmont said. “I don’t like this.”

“You don’t like much of anything,” Malissa said. Belmont gave an apologetic shrug, but they could barely see the motion in the darkness.

Arek kept his gaze trained on Alfons. He still had a sneaking suspicion the man was hiding something. The auctioneer’s reaction when Arek had won the bid was completely abnormal.

Now that Alfons was bending the rules to help the mysterious person or group of people that had bought out nearly the entire auction, Arek’s suspicions had raised even higher. He was starting to feel like Belmont.

A few minutes later, Alfons raised a hand and cleared his throat to gather the crowd’s attention once again.

“It has been investigated! This bidder does indeed have the gold required to make this bid. The new highest bid is now three million gold!”

Chatters rippled across the auction house. Arek heard several people yell as the magical silence spell faltered under the sudden onslaught of noise. Alfons made a placating motion, desperately trying to calm the crowd down.

“Simmer down, everyone! Some talking is fine, but if you refuse to speak at a reasonable tone, we have the right to remove you by force! Act like adults.”

The muted yelling shifted to grumbling, which was eventually swallowed back up by the spell. Despite that, Arek’s hair was standing on end. He’d been in enough dangerous situations to recognize the signs his body was showing him.

“The crowd is really riled up,” Arek said, keeping his voice low. “This isn’t good. If they could see eachother, I feel like it might have turned into a mob.”

“We need to get out of here,” Belmont agreed, starting to rise from his seat. “We’ve got our money. It’s time to go.”

“We can’t,” Malissa said. “They don’t pay us until after the auction is finished. We have to stay until the orb gets sold.”

Belmont swore and sat back down, drumming his fingers impatiently on his armrest.

“We’re leaving at the first sign of a fight,” Belmont said. “We can come back and get our money later. If they try to scam us, we get a mage with a truth spell involved.”

“That works,” Malissa said. Her voice was tense as well. Arek grunted in agreement. Of the four of them, Ming seemed to be the only one actually enjoying the show.

Alfons started the countdown. This time, there were no dings. Three million gold was clearly more than most people were willing to pay, even for something as rare as this.

Before the auctioneer could finish, a single deep tone rang through the house. Everyone other than Arek glanced upwards involuntarily. It had definitely come from one of the highest floors.

While everyone else was distracted, Arek kept his eyes firmly on Alfons’s expression. It was fast, but the orc was expecting it. A flicker of fear mixed with anger passed over the auctioneer’s expression before he got it back under control.

“Now, why would an auctioneer be angry if someone raises a bid?” Arek mused silently to himself.

“What?” Malissa asked.

“The auctioneer is acting strange. I’m trying to figure out why that might be,” Arek responded, not looking away from the still flaming Alfons.

“The bid has been raised to four million gold,” Alfons called out, enunciating each word like they left a bitter taste in his mouth. Before he’d even finished speaking, a ding rang out from the first floor once again.

“And the bid is up once again! It is now at five million five hundred thousand gold!”

There it was. A note of relief in his voice that Arek would have missed had he not been watching for it. The orc’s eyes narrowed. Malissa also noted the man’s tone. A small frown appeared on her face.

Murmurs echoed through the crowd again, but the shock was wearing off. Everyone had the same thought at once – two rich tycoons were battling in a show of dominance and wealth. Whoever was in the top floor seemed to have been cowed by the massive bid.

Alfons started the countdown again, this time reaching zero without issue. He bowed as the Grave Eye disappeared from the pedestal. The braziers started to dim around him.

“Sold! I thank you all for coming to the Dancing Dragon Auction House, and I hope you’ve enjoyed the show. We will be resuming our normal auctions in several days, so keep your eyes peeled. You may now press the button at your armrest to retrieve any won goods, money, or unsold items!”

Arek clicked the button. The small portal opened before him once again. He reached inside and pulled out a sack of coins. It was hard to tell for sure, but the weight seemed to be about right. He also found the wooden box with Uri’s recipe inside it. He placed the box within his travel pack.

Malissa pulled out her own spoils and put them into her extradimensional bag. Arek handed hers his bag so she could store it as well.

“Time to go,” Belmont said. “Now.”

They rose, moving quickly towards the exit. The huge doors had already started to swing open. Arek spotted several other dark forms moving in the exit’s direction as well. The thought suddenly struck him that people didn’t know who the bids had come from, but they did know where they’d originated.

“Shit,” Arek muttered. “If they see us, they’re going to know who we are. I can see the other people moving, so they can see me.”

“Too late to worry about that now,” Belmont replied as the four made a beeline for the doors. “Something tells me that the magical darkness was less effective the higher up you are in the auction house. The anonymity was just there to protect the big fish.”