“Calm down, young Hugo,” the nox mayor said, “Your loss is not permanent. I don’t know what strange magics made you lose your hand, but our life mage will have it restored, no worries.”

Hugo looked around. They were in a large room, with an expansive view to the city below them. The room was ostentatiously decorated in golds and reds. Comfortable furniture throughout, but Hugo and Mayor Jolidee were the only ones sitting. There were a quartet of guards near the door, and one in every corner.

Hugo said, “Will the life mage be here soon? The pain is distracting.” It wasn’t actually that painful, but he found it hard to focus on anything else. Someone had put lead cuffs on him and it made him lose his hand. It was clear that he was still mostly mana.

Another distressing fact was that both his bracers were missing. They must have found the spring loaded bolts hidden inside. The fact that they had disarmed him wasn't a good sign.

“Momentarily,” the mayor said, “While we are waiting, I would love to talk about your multiple domains. I summoned you here to talk about your three domains, imagine my surprise when you revealed a fourth. That shouldn’t be possible, but here you are. Tell me everything about how you got multiple domains.”

Hugo felt something at the end there. That was shadow magic. No wonder Mayor Jolidee felt safe in the room with Hugo. Despite the fact the man had just cost him his hand, the nox thought that he could convince Hugo to do anything he wanted.

It wasn’t going to work. His high wisdom and necklace combined to save him from any mental influence. Hugo decided to play along, but in a way that would get the life mage here first.

“Of course, I would love to tell you all about it. You see it all started when ...” Hugo stared off into space and then looked down at his hand. “I lost my hand. Where did it go? I have my right one, but not my left.”

“Like I said, the life mage will be here shortly. Tell me about your domains,” the mayor said.

Hugo nodded, “Of course I would love to tell you all about it. You see ...” He stared off into space again.

Mayor Jolidee snapped his fingers and said, “Hey, pay attention. Is there something wrong with you?”

Hugo looked down at his fleshy stump on his left arm and said, “You know. I think you might be right. There is something wrong with me. My hand ...”

“How hard did you buffoons hit him? Get me the life mage now, he obviously has a concussion,” the mayor said.

A guard left and quickly returned with a life mage.

Hugo had to fight to keep a scowl off his face. If the life mage was right there, the mayor had been lying to him from the beginning. Maybe healing a hand was expensive or something. Hugo didn’t have the specialties to regrow lost limbs, so he wouldn’t know how difficult it would be.

“Heal this man’s head. He can’t stay focused,” Mayor Jolidee said.

The nox life mage walked up to Hugo and touched his head with all four hands. A few moments after he felt the magic enter his head, Hugo perked up.

“Thank you, I feel much better,” Hugo said, “While you are here, Mayor Jolidee said you were going to heal my hand. Can you please do that now?”

The life mage got a strange look on his face. He stepped back and said, “I can’t. No one can. Life mages can’t regrow lost limbs. Sometimes we can reattach limbs if we are quick enough, but they said your hand fell into a pile of blood and goop. They saved your life by applying a healing potion to stop the bleeding, but that was the best anyone could have done.”

The nox mage had been slowly stepping back as he talked, afraid of how Hugo would take the news. He was right to be afraid. Hugo was furious. He had lost his hand permanently due to their incompetence. He looked around the room and started putting a plan together on how he could kill them all.

“You lied to me,” Hugo said to the mayor as he slowly stood up. He activated mana sight and continued, “You sent your goons to come kidnap me, and it cost me my hand and almost my life. And you had the gall to lie to my face about it!”

Mayor Jolidee ‘s eyes grew bigger and he gripped the chair tight as Hugo spoke, but he didn’t move. Instead he said, “Please calm down, Hugo. It will be fine.”

“Why should I ...” Hugo said, distracted by the guards moving around the room. Each of them was soulmarked and held a runed weapon. Abruptly, Hugo sat down and looked at the mayor with a smile, “You are right. It will be fine.”

Hugo sat there with a smile while Mayor Jolidee sent the guards back to their posts. The guards seemed wary, but the mayor was confident he had Hugo under control. Which was his plan from the beginning. He needed a sudden change of demeanor to sell the ruse that he was mind controlled.

“That’s right Hugo. Just keep thinking positive thoughts and things will turn out fine. In the meantime, tell me how you got four domains,” Mayor Jolidee said.

“You got it, Mr. Mayor. My dad is like super rich and he bought me a few new domains. I started with formation, right? Then he bought me barrier, and then runic, and life. He said it was so expensive. Like, a sack of platinums, you wouldn’t believe.”

“Be specific boy, where did you go and how did you gain more domains?” the mayor said, frustrated.

“Right, right. We went to Rasheed, we took a portal there, and there is this stone tower there, a big round one. My dad took me there and they gave me three potions and did a ritual. Wait, no. A ritual on the potions, then I drank them. I didn’t really pay much attention to how that all worked. But I can tell you the potions tasted really bad!” Hugo said, seemingly excited to remember that detail.

“Was this tower in the city center or near the walls?” the mayor said.

“City center,” Hugo confidently lied.

The nox swore and started drumming his fingers. He mumbled to himself, “Gyasi must have done it. Either that or Chisisi. I need to get in on this before it spreads too much.” He swore again and hopped up from his seat. He turned to Hugo and said, “Don’t tell anyone about this. Take a vacation in the city.”

“You know what? That’s a great idea, I should take a vacation here,” Hugo said.

The mayor walked up to one of the guards and softly said, “Keep him holed up for as long as possible. Don’t hurt him or kill him, it sounds like his dad is rich. Just keep him drunk or something.”

The mayor didn’t wait for a reply, he just rushed out of the room. That guard walked up to Hugo and said, “Hello sir. I know of a perfect vacation spot. Follow me, please.”

“Sure thing, buddy,” Hugo said and affably followed him out of the room.

As they strolled out of the city hall, Hugo started to relax. He was glad he hadn’t attempted to fight his way out. Instead of having the whole city after him, he only had one guy trying to get him drunk. After the day he just had, Hugo could use a drink. The guard led him to a bar halfway down the city. They had very comfortable seats and beautiful hostesses. There was a Fey singing on a small stage to the side, but no one was listening to her.

Hugo plopped down and drank whatever the guard gave him. It turned out his name was Idi and he was great company. Soon enough, Hugo was singing and laughing with him, having a fantastic time. The only thing that would have made it better is if Hugo allowed himself to actually get drunk. He knew he had to escape the city before the mayor realized Hugo had lied to him.

The two of them were drinking the same amount, but Hugo had two advantages. He had a high constitution, and he could cycle his health points around to get rid of the alcohol. It was a poison, so he was able to magically heal himself.

By the time the sun set, Idi was fully drunk and Hugo was only buzzed. Idi was still doing his job, not letting him out of sight even to go to the bathroom. The next time he had to take a leak, Hugo knocked him over the head and stuffed him into a stall. He had hit him harder than intended, so he mended the bleeding head wound before he left the bar.

Hugo headed straight up to the portal. He was sad to be leaving the golem and avians he had spent so long fabricating, but he knew he could make more. The risk of being caught was just too high. At least his captors hadn’t realized the significance of his belt and he still had the money and diamond crystals he had placed inside. He also had a change of clothing in there. He ducked into an alley to pull out his other tunic. He quickly swapped out the clothing. Or at least he tried to. It was surprisingly difficult with only one hand; it took him twice as long as normal.

The rest of the trip to the portal station was stressful, but manageable. His heart leapt into his throat when he got to the counter though.

A ticket cost two platinum!

He hadn’t realized how much Mia had paid to get him here. He thought about how risky it would be to head to the bottom of the city and take the train. He shook his head and forced his old self down. He didn’t need to pinch every copper. He had eight platinum now, he could afford the trip. He bit his lip and paid the full price for a portal to Midrand.

Once there, he immediately hopped on a train towards the wheel. Time passed, and no one find him. He started to relax. That had been stressful. He thought through his fight and if he could have done anything differently. Probably. He had been focused on getting away without hurting anyone, but it might have been better to attack instead of focusing solely on escape. It wasn’t his lack of strength or intelligence that held him back, it was his aversion to hurting other people. He would have to get over that, and fast.

He wondered if it might have been worth it to convince the nox that only ersatzes could get multiple domains. It was kind of the truth, and if successful, he wouldn’t have to worry about the mayor tracking him down.

Hugo shook his head. It would have been too risky. The nox had been too focused on personal power, willing to injure, kidnap, and lie. It was better just to avoid Einang altogether. He made a mental note to send Mia a letter. She would probably be worried about him when he suddenly disappeared.

While the train sped towards his home, Hugo settled into his chair and started fabricating. He needed to get back the tools he had lost. He was going to absolutely fill his belt and not get caught flat footed like that again. He made himself a mental list of what he planned on fabricating over the next few days: a full suit of armor, his trusty crossbow, hundreds of bolts, one each of all of the avians, a golem with crystal eyes, his replication ritual, his optimization ritual, his body enhancement ritual. He tapped his fingers to his chin and tried to think of what else would be useful to have tucked away in his dimensional belt.

A hand!

He already had experience making a golem hand, he could probably make himself a replacement hand. Well he knew for sure that he could fabricate and inscribe himself a hand, the only question was if he could control it like his own. Would the mend skill create a hand he would have verbally instruct? Or was there a way to integrate it with the nerves already in his body?

He got to work immediately.