" "You didn't ask. I'm sorry to say that I didn't earn all of it. My father passed away several years ago, leaving me his company holdings and enough...liquid assets to build this place." "I'm sorry, I didn't know. If there's..." "Oh, it's alright. It was sudden and painless. In any case, I made quite a bit on my own in the market, but the inheritance allowed me to retire earlier, and with quite a bit more income. I really don't have an interest in business anymore, so I have accountants and. After all, I reasoned, with the Magus surely looking to kill us before we could rescue Lucas, it would only benefit us if we all kept our eyes and ears open.When I mentioned that to Val, the dark elf gave me a shrug."It is funny," she said, her voice thoughtful, "that we have yet to encounter any further attacks from Dred." What do you mean?" I asked her."Since the dragon killed Benthor and flew away with Lucas, we have yet to see any further sign of Dred's minions. And yet, we are closing in. He returned, scolding me for pulling at the tape wrapped around my ankles and knees. He strapped more tape around my wrists and tied them behind my back again. This time he used a nasty rubber ball gag to quiet my complaining mouth. I’d never seen one before; it filled my mouth and immediately made my jaw sore.I tried to squeeze it, move it around, adjusting it in my mouth to be more comfortable, but it was no use. I couldn't make a sound, but another muffled 'Mummph!' He took some pictures of. I was sat on the wall in the cool of the garden when Georgia found me. She too was the worse for wear. "Come on k**do, let’s go get a cab, Nat is upstairs with some bloke, so we've lost our lift home. If I know her, she'll be shagging him for hours; she’s got this thing for fit young black guys."Half an hour later we staggered back into Georgia's flat. She retrieved the white wine from the fridge and handed me a glass. She then struggled to roll herself one of her roll-ups. I reached into my.