A/N: So I had a bit of a stressful day yesterday and decided I'd post this. This is the other idea that bit me in the ass and wouldn't let go. It is finished, so publishing speed is dependent on editing speed. I'm going to aim for a chapter a week (I have class and work that take precedence). There are seventeen chapters total, and points to anyone who knows why. I've been told this is what's called a fusion; basically, I wanted to see what the GW characters would do in Steven Brust's Dragaera, and I used the plot of Jhereg as a basis for this story (and then turned it sideways and upside down so it's a vague resemblance at best). I highly recommend Brust's books, by the way. Ask me questions if my attempts at worldbuilding are unclear or other such Bad Things occur, and please review and tell me what you thought.

Warnings: violence, language, my attempts at politics, (eventual) shonen ai, POV changes in later chapters.

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone from GW, and I don't own the world I stuck them in this time either. Or the quotes I'm sticking at chapter beginnings.

Chapter 1

"'Welcome to my world. It's better with company.'"

Steven Brust's Iorich pg. 312

I came into my office that day looking forward to doing very little actual work, since no meetings were scheduled and there was no paperwork due for at least a week, seeing as I'd fixed that Easterner's problem the day before. Well, fixed is relative; he'd basically walked his complaint right back out of the office after I nearly put a dagger-shaped hole in his head when he startled me by knocking at the door instead of clapping. Although that probably was the fastest way to teach the guy that when in a Dragaeran business, he should adhere to Dragaeran etiquette. And at least it meant I was paperwork-free for the moment.

I had just propped my legs up on my desk and was getting comfortable when someone clapped politely at the door. Figures. "Come in," I called.

Wufei opened the door and walked in. "You know Duo, desks are meant to be used for business, not as footstools," he said. Wufei had a ridiculous sense of propriety for a Jhereg. He was probably the only person who actually clapped at my door before coming in because he wanted to be polite and not because he was afraid he'd get a dagger in an unpleasant place if he startled me. I blamed it on his other-house blood; I'm pretty sure the honorable Lyorn side was responsible for the stick jammed up his ass.

Always made me wonder why he'd agreed to work with an assassin. Or work in the Organization at all, in fact, since the entire edifice happens to be based on deceit, double dealing, and dubious legality. But no matter the reason, I was glad he had agreed to work for me. Having someone around who could deal with the paperwork, red tape, and politics was nice. Not to mention he was good with a blade. And that I knew was a result of his Dzur half; that house always likes to fight.

"But it's just the right height!" I grinned quirkily at him and left my feet on the desk. I made a show of glancing at my boarded-up window as if checking the sun's height. Completely pointless, if you're curious, given the fact that I couldn't see out the window and I didn't actually need to anyway since my link to the Orb gave me the time whenever I needed it. I raised an eyebrow. "I know you didn't come in here this early to lecture me on the use of desks, 'Fei. What is it? Spill."

"You've received an…invitation." He grimaced.

I hauled my feet off the desk and sat up straight. "Based on the way you said that, I'm guessing my 'invite' involved some threats to my well-being if I don't show. And since you're in here and not sending a message with similar sentiments back, it's someone we either can't afford to offend or can't take down. Who?"

"Marevin."

"Fuck." Marevin was one of the known members of the Jhereg "council", the closest thing there was to a controlling factor in the Organization, which squarely landed him in both of the previously mentioned categories. Definitely someone I didn't want to piss off. And if I already had…that was really really bad.

"Crude, but accurate. Any idea why one of the Jhereg bosses wants to meet with you?"

I thought about it for a second. I was mid-level in the Organization and that was it; small-time territory boss and occasional assassin for the right price. I shook my head. "No. I haven't done any 'work' that would step on toes that high. Maybe he wants to hire me? I am pretty damned good." I quirked a grin at Wufei.

Wufei elected to ignore my joking and take the question at face value. "Do you actually want 'work' coming from that high up?" He raised an eyebrow.

"…Probably not." I sighed. I was good, but not that good. If a council member wanted to hire me and not someone better, it was likely because I'd be expendable after everything was over. "But I can't not show up, and Marevin's got enough clout that if he wants me on a job badly enough to bump me off if I say no, I'll have to take it."

"If we're lucky, it won't come to that." Wufei gave a half shrug. "The meeting is set for tomorrow at the Rat's Tail at noon, nonnegotiable time and place."

I winced. The Tail was a Teckla-run restaurant halfway across town and not in my territory, and one day would not be enough to set up any sort of decent security measures. Even considering that we could easily intimidate the Teckla proprietor into taking on extra "help" for the day; Teckla propensities were nice like that. "How many people can we get in there with only a day and without being obvious about it?"

Wufei sighed. "Maybe two without offending Roran; the Tail's in his territory. If this talk goes sour, running is likely to be a better option than fighting."

"So two in the restaurant." I fiddled with the end of my braid and gazed speculatively at the wall. "Fair bet Marevin's going to put up a teleport block. Also fair bet that if I need to run I'm going to be too busy trying not to get hit by something sharp and pointy to take the damn thing down myself." I half-grinned at Wufei. "Looks like I'm going to owe Trowa another favor."

Wufei looked annoyed. He never liked calling in outside help. Especially if "outside" meant not just outside my little piece of the Organization but outside the house altogether. He kept his mouth shut about it though; past experience said that I'd win the argument. "I'll go arrange for our people to be worked into the restaurant staff," he said.

I gave him a little wave as he left, already reaching for my link to the Orb and pulling power to make a mental connection. I pictured my odd Hawklord friend in my mind, green eyes, unruly bangs, tall stature, quiet presence. "Trowa! Duo to Trowa! Come in, man! You there?"

"I'm here, Duo. What's going on?"

"Are you in the middle of something? Sorry if I disturbed you, but I've got a favor to ask."

A tinge of humor came through the connection. "I'm free right now. Are you going to end up owing me again? I believe you're already up to twenty-three favors."

"It'd be fewer if you'd actually call in at some point!" I teased back. This was one of the reasons Trowa and I actually got on, even with our different backgrounds; a Hawk who got his head out of the clouds long enough to develop a sense of humor was rare, but Trowa had somehow managed it. He also knew about my 'work' and, for some reason, didn't mind. Go figure.

"I'm saving them up. What do you need?"

"Are you free tomorrow around noon? I need someone with some skill at sorcery to play backup."

Concern came through this time. "Are you in trouble?"

I frowned. "Honestly? I'm not sure. This is mostly preventative measures. There may not be any trouble at all."

Mental snorts sound really weird. Or maybe feel is a better word, since you don't really hear anything. "Or there may be enough trouble to call in the Phoenix Guards. With you around, it's hard to tell. What exactly do you need me to do?"

"I've got a meeting of…dubious nature tomorrow. I can't refuse to go and I'm not sure going is safe. I want you on hand to break a teleport block if everything goes to hell in a handbasket so I can hopefully get out with my skin intact."

"And you can't do it yourself because…?" Fair question since teleportation was a bit of a specialty of mine.

"If it gets to the point where I need to run, I'm likely to be too busy dodging nasty bits to concentrate that hard."

"Duo…"

"I'm serious, I can't back out of this meeting. That would be tantamount to painting a target on myself. I'm not sure if the meeting is safe or not, but it can't be worse than not going."

"All right. I'll help. Where and when?"

"Meeting's at the Rat's Tail at noon tomorrow. Know where that is?"

"No. Think about the location." I concentrated on remembering what the outside of the seedy restaurant looked like, painting it like a picture in my head. It wasn't much, dark colors and similar to the surrounding buildings. Really the only marker was the signboard with the back end of a rat pictured on it. I'd always thought the thing was tacky, but at least it got the message across. "Got it. I can teleport there when I need to. Do you want me in the restaurant or somewhere nearby?"

"Uh…your call. If things get ugly, it may be better if you're not in the building."

"But that will cause a delay if you need to call for help. I'll be in the restaurant. Based on the visual, I probably won't order anything though…"

I laughed out loud. "Good call. And thanks. I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Until tomorrow."

I sighed as I felt his presence fade out of my mind. Psionic communications were always a bit strange−which is kind of a given, since it basically comes down to having outside thoughts stuffed into your head, even if you are cooperating with the effort−but they were especially strange if the person I was talking to was that much stronger a sorcerer than me. Trowa always made me wonder; I'd asked him before exactly how good he was, but he wouldn't give me a straight answer, so I'd dropped it. I guess just the fact that he was a Hawk should clue me in somewhat; anyone from that house is damned focused on whatever field they choose to study, and Trowa'd picked the mental arts. Talking to him always left me with an odd mental echo and the feeling that if he accidentally thought at me too hard he could break something in my brain.

Like I said, disconcerting.

Well, that was the sorcerous side of things taken care of. Wufei was in charge of the physical side. Which left me bugger all to do except think too hard about the situation and consider why the hell this guy wanted to meet with me anyway.

Was this whole meeting a plot to bump me off? Then why bother with the meeting at all when just hiring someone to jump me would be simpler and, probably, easier? And what could I have done that would annoy someone as high up in the Organization as Marevin? If I'd done 'work' on someone with political connections, the research I put into figuring out the target's background and movements guarantees I would've noticed. And there was nothing there. Politics is not my field of choice, so I tend to turn down jobs that are likely to come back and bite me in the ass if the wrong person manages to make it higher in the food chain later on.

Maybe I hadn't done anything yet but was getting close to really pissing someone off? But then, why bother to specifically have a meeting to warn me off, when I was multiple paygrades below the level this guy normally played at? Again, that was a situation where just killing me would probably be easier.

Maybe Marevin really did want to hire me. But for what? Given the aforementioned paygrade difference, he could definitely hire someone much better than me with very little extra damage to his accounts, and I do turn down political jobs. Trying to hire me would make no sense. Hell, I probably shouldn't even have been on the guy's radar as anything other than one more person indirectly sending him taxes every month. And isn't it just fun to realize one is basically insignificant in the scheme of things?

But if hiring was out, then killing me was back to being the most plausible option, and that still didn't make any more sense than hiring me did.

I thumped my head on my desk a few times. All the circular thinking was starting to give me a headache (and remind me why I much prefer tactics to strategy), so I gave up and started pulling out hardware to do a checkover in case something actually went down tomorrow. My daggers were all sharp and well-oiled, coming out of their sheathes quickly and easily. I adjusted the spring-loaded throwing dagger at my right wrist just a tad to make it easier to catch. The garrote wire at my collar was easy to access−not that I'd likely need it since that one's more of a stealth weapon, but it never hurts to be prepared−and my throwing darts were all in place and set so I couldn't accidentally poke myself…which would be bad considering what the points were coated with.

I was pretty much done with my checkover where I got that nagging feeling that I'd forgotten something…and realized someone was trying to mentally contact me. I concentrated on being receptive, and if that sounds easy you've never done it before. It took me a second or two to make contact.

"Duo?"

"I'm here, Wufei. What's up?"

"I've got the setup for tomorrow. There will be two of our men working as busboys; that's all I could arrange."

Damn. About what I'd expected, but still disappointing. "It'll have to work; Trowa's on board, so if everything goes to Deathsgate I should be able to scamper."

"I don't like this." Wufei sounded annoyed.

"Neither do I. Mainly because I have no choice about doing it. You coming back anytime soon?"

"No. I'm going to stay here a bit longer and see if I can't figure out any other ways to make this meeting more secure."

"Good luck." I sighed and glanced around my office space. "I think I'm going to call it a day; I'm not going to get anything else useful done hanging around here."

"Fine. Watch your back. It would be just your luck to get yourself killed today and make all this preparation moot." I knew Wufei was worried since he wasn't ragging on me about ditching work before noon.

"Got it. Be careful nosing around."

"As if I need the warning," he grumbled as he vanished from my mind.

That last rejoinder made me grin a bit as I stood up and stretched in one movement and then headed out of my office and down to the street. Wufei was right; doing stupid stuff was always more my job than his. Probably why I was the one in charge. You never go far in the Jhereg house without grit, guts, and the willingness to take chances. All the truly profitable businesses are part of the Organization, and generally profit is directly proportional to danger level. Running a small area like I did as my official job would net a decent amount of cash, but it wasn't without risks. The biggest earning shops I had charge of were the ones with illegal gambling, smuggling, and other dubious activities taking place in the back rooms; if my area ever got truly looked at by the Phoenix Guards I was in serious trouble. But the empire's peacemakers always have much better things to do than check up on one obscure member of a house of outcasts…plus if the guards in the area investigated me they'd lose the places where they could gamble without worrying about taxes. Hey, soldiers need time off too.

With the right people bribed, Phoenix Guards weren't that big of a worry. The larger risks come from the Jhereg house itself. I'd gotten my little area to run when the former boss of a much larger area took a walk off his roof. The official verdict was suicide. The unofficial verdict was that the guy had had assistance off the roof of an unwelcome kind. That guy had caught too much attention and annoyed the wrong people; to avoid a similar fate, I was making a point of running my little businesses well and under the radar, not trying to expand but also not letting anyone else push me around. Back when I was first new I'd had to smack a few heads together to keep other people from biting little bits off the edges of my territory, but now that I was better established I was mostly letting business run itself while I monitored it and took a decent chunk out of its accumulated earnings. No one had bothered me in a while, although it was honestly fairly likely that my business prowess had less to do with their inaction than other rumors did.

Inevitably, when someone takes on 'work', there are rumors. The word 'work,' complete with emphasis, has a different connotation to a Jhereg than to anyone else; in this house, to the right people, it translates as assassination. I was one of those people. My dinky little businesses were fine and dandy, but most of my earnings came from occasional contracts to bump someone off because they'd annoyed, injured, threatened, etc, someone else. The why of things was never too much my business; I was offered a contract, and I either took it or not. And that is why I was running the show and not Wufei; he might be good with a sword, but to really get a "don't mess with me" reputation around here, that isn't enough. Plus he'd never have made enough cash on his own to stay afloat. Of the seventeen houses in the Empire, the Jhereg house is the most cutthroat, but once you know the rules and how to play, it's survivable.

Unfortunately, this little upcoming meeting was a bit outside the rules. And outside the rules or not, I still had to play.

I sighed and booted my wandering thoughts to the back of my head since they were going nowhere. Right now, I needed something else to do with my time. I could go home, relax some, possibly chuck sharp pointy objects at a target on the wall to work off tension, maybe try to finish that history by Paarfi of Roundwood that I'd been meaning to get around to... Actually, that last wasn't a bad idea; trying to detangle Paarfi's syntax was always a pain (which was why I hadn't finished the damn book yet) so I'd have to concentrate a fair amount to manage any headway.

Mostly I needed to do something besides sit and stew, which was what I'd end up doing if I stayed in the office. There really wasn't anything going on that day anyway; my being in the office was mostly a formality. If anyone really needed me they could contact me psychically.

I'd reached the door on the first floor of the building my office was in without getting waylaid by any of my support staff (hey, someone has to deal with the basic day-to-day stuff, and I'd rather it wasn't me), so I opened it, did a quick scan to make sure it was safe, and walked out the required five feet to get outside the permanent teleport block on the building. Now that I was able to, I concentrated on the street outside my home apartment, pulled power through my connection to the Imperial Orb, and let the teleport take effect.