John looked over the next few people in line, then turned back to Wolfe. "The third and fifth are good. The others I wouldn't trust."
Wolfe looked down at the crowd, using [Detect Hidden] to see through the balcony, and noticed the farr who had bid against him last ti looking their way as another Witch ca up to the block.
Justine glared at her with a hatred that nearly matched what she had shown for the auctioneers, so Wolfe chose to remain silent and just pet her head while flowing mana through her body.
He was slowly clearing out her mana veins and blockages. She would awaken early once he was done, but for now, she had an anti-magic bracelet on that would prevent an aura from forming.
John was giving Wolfe a strange look as he petted the forrly violent witch like a cat, and she purred under his hand, but he didn't say anything while the farr got into a bidding war with a rchant that drove the final price of the Farr's new bride up to just over a thousand Crowns.
The next was a debtor who had skills in woodworking, and Wolfe considered bidding on him until he saw the grim look on John's face. If the man held that much of a grudge against a local human, there had to be a good reason, so Wolfe let the auction pass.
Wolfe inspected the next one in line, a slender young woman who could have passed as a young man if it wasn't for the auction listing. No na was on the listing, arrested for stealing from the farr's market. Repeat offender starting as a young child, so basically a street urchin.
She should be fairly resourceful, and Wolfe could find a job for her back at the Den as long as her personality was as good as John thought.
"Do I hear one hundred credits for the naless thief?" The auctioneer asked.
"My master will pay one hundred," John called.
Wolfe ignored the back-and-forth bidding as he settled the now sleeping Justine with her head on his lap and then smiled at the auction worker, who poked her head in again to see if Wolfe wanted her here.
"Send her to the others I purchased. Keep the whole lot together if it's possible. I would prefer not to have to hunt for them when the auction is over." Wolfe instructed the girl.
"I understand. Will there be more purchases?" She asked.
"Yes, I need quite a few more, but I won't try to monopolize the auction."
The girl bowed and raced out of the room while the auctioneer brought the fourth mber of this group up to the block.
Wolfe smiled as he realized that it wasn't a Witch at all but a Demon. It wasn't even a female Demon; it was a male plague demon in a disguise spell, and he had already disabled his bracelet.
In this form, she looked like a porn star, with exaggerated features, an impossibly perky bust and a well-practiced sway to her hips.
"I would have thought that you would like that one," Wolfe comnted to John.
"I admit, she's sexy, but there's evil in those eyes," John replied with a shudder.
"Good judgnt. I agree. Let's let soone else take that one ho. Maybe they'll get all they hoped for and more." Wolfe chuckled.
The bidders ignored the warning that the house had determined that this one had Demon blood, and the bidding was furious, with a couple of well-dressed noblen and the General in the booth next to Wolfe's all bidding furiously against each other.
She finally went to a sleazy-looking man with a curled moustache, who got up to take her straight off the stage and out of the auction house. He had gotten what he ca for, and there were others happy to take his front-row seat.
The next one was one that John recomnded, a seemingly plain young man with one blind eye and a missing finger.
"He's studied botany in school. That one might actually be the traitor they called him. He was caught in bed with one of the local Witches during the invasion." John explained his choice.
So, he was a soldier. Well, that was sothing that Wolfe could deal with if the man were to cause trouble.
"Three thousand Crowns." A man in the VIP booth across from Wolfe called out before the bidding officially started.
He was wearing a General's uniform, which made Wolfe wonder what his angle was. Did he hold a grudge? Or perhaps he was buying out the man's sentence to bring him back into the fold.
Another officer turned to glare up at him.
"Five Thousand Crowns for the Traitor." He snarled.
Oh, so it was a power play between officers. One who held a grudge and the one who had made the first bid.
"Looks like we will sit this one out as well." Wolfe sighed and leaned back on the couch while he waited for another of the marked targets to co up.
The next one that was marked on the list was John's daughter, along with two other young won.
"Now, gentlen, I know how you hate waiting until the end of the night, so we have brought one of the final lots forward. It's a three lot, all peak quality young won, skilled in housework, farm skills and wifely duties." The auctioneer inford them.
Wolfe examined them closely and realized that two of the three were pregnant, but the auction listing said that they were all Witches who hadn't awakened yet.
"It looks like your staff took liberties to verify that. That's not a three-lot. It's a five-lot. Two of them are newly pregnant." Wolfe called down.
The Auction Master stepped out on stage with an indignant look.
"My staff would never do sothing so despicable." He insisted.
"Call out your Witch. She will verify that two of them are under a week pregnant. How long have they been in your care?" Wolfe asked.
The Auctioneer called the witch who had checked the n in line up to the stage, accompanied by the man holding her leash.
She looked over them, cast a spell that involved placing a leaf on the girls' foreheads and then stepped back silently as two of them turned bright pink.
"Daughters, according to the spell." She told her handler.
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