The meeting adjourned, Bossman vaminoosed into one of his preferred dimensions once again, the Cartel members slowly shuffled out of the large chamber, nodded at silently by Barry the minotaur and a pouting Nyte, who squeezed Rufio's behind as he passed.<br/><br/>Nothing had been resolved, of course.<br/><br/>Oh, there had been some hits put out on known low-level Oligarchy members, but all the most important ones operated behind a veil of mystery, and were still managing to pull the strings.<br/><br/>Rufio had shared a cigarette with Jimmy the Raven, and compared coin tricks. Jimmy smoothed back his feathers and gloated about his own gathering of personal henchmen, bragging that he operated his own mini-crime syndicate on the south side of town. Ordinarily Rufio would have approved and inquired jealously as to how he was funding his own mob, but this time he had just shrugged.<br/><br/><em>And how long before your manpower is sniffed out by the Oligarchy and you have bits of your henchmen posted through your letterbox, Jimmy?</em><br/><br/>Rufio sighed as the two went their seperate ways.<em>It's not that we don't run this town anymore...it's that we don't even recognise it. </em><br/>Back at his modest but comfortable basement apartment, Rufio washed, shaved, removed his eyepatch. Going through some breathing excersises he had picked up from a travelling elf nomad, he stared over at his door from where he lay on his double bed, wondering he would be doing something as relaxing as this when the Oligarchy came a-knocking. He wondered if he would be doing yoga, or masturbating, or eating ramen take-out when his door would be blown in by hired warlocks.<br/><br/>Wrenching his eyes away from his city map plasted to one of his walls, covered with arcane markings and glyphs representing Brimstone-operated rackets that only one of the Cartel would recognise, he lounged on his bed again and turned to one of the things that always cheered him up.<br/><br/>Pulling a large, weighty silver compass from underneath the bed, Rufio slowly licked the cool face and whispered a few words in ancient elvish. The silver face shimmered slightly, and slowly an image began to form, hovering an inch above the metal.<br/><br/>The image of a scantily-clad, bright blue haired girl, with petite horns on her pretty head. The image was, at most, six inches tall. It purred up at him.<br/><br/>"'Samatter, Rufy? I was kind of in the middle of poker with the Lilypatch fairies, but I can quit takin their acorns for a minute to talk to you. Sup?"<br/><br/>Rufio smiled wanly.<br/><br/>"Hello Sasha. Tell me something good about a half-breed still at large, and I'll summon you to my plane for a week."