《Downtown Druid》


 Ch 1: The Maw

    The crowd was packed together closely, writhing in a mass of loud, screaming flesh covered in the scent of sweat and misery. It was the first day of the month, and that meant one thing, fresh meat. The noise began to build as they saw activity at the top of the maw. Men pushed and shoved each other to get a better look as they saw guards and goods start to take their places at the edges of the Maw.


    Dantes watched everything unfold from the outskirts. He knew from experience how dangerous it was to be too close to the monthly drop. He still had the scar between his ribs from where he¡¯d been stabbed trying to reach a sack of potatoes. His right hand drifted to the scar as he watched.


    He¡¯d hoped to have saved enough to avoid this month¡¯s drop, but after losing a few days'' rations on a bad roll of dice he was hoping he was due for some better luck. He had other, less dangerous, options of course. He could do odd jobs for some of the gangs, steal, or even try scavenging in the outer parts of the pit for mushrooms or meat. He''d do all three, but first he wanted to see if he could work things in his favor here.


    ¡°Clear the Maw!¡± came a magically enhanced shout from the guards above.


    Those prisoners gathered under that small patch of sky that represented the only entry and exit to their prison began moving out of the sunlight and into the shadows at the edge, pressing back into the crowd. Some stayed where they were of course, risking it all for a chance at some new shoes, a decent meal, or a new cellmate to help pass the time.


    That shout was the only warning before the guards began throwing down provisions. Even over the yelling of his fellow prisoners Dantes could hear the thuds as forty to fifty pound bags began to hit the ground, putting up puffs of sand. Those still in the center of the Maw scrambled. Tearing the bags open with crude shivs, claws, teeth or tusks.


    A human, in the middle of tearing open what looked to be a sack of turnips, was suddenly flattened by another sack. There were a few sympathetic ¡°oohs¡±, but they were drowned out by the laughter of the guards above and the less sympathetic prisoners below. The guards had long made a game of trying to crush prisoners when they could, it was a tradition that went back more than a hundred years.


    Those who managed to avoid being crushed started to fill crude sacks, pockets, or bare hands with whatever they could. A few of the more desperate ones simply began to devour whatever food they found the moment it was in their hands.


    While some of the guards continued throwing sacks of supplies down, the rest of them began lining up the new prisoners at the Maw¡¯s edge. They stood there with nothing, but the clothes on their backs. Dantes could still remember his own time standing on the edge. The fear, the rage, the determination as he tried to track the most valuable supplies as they made their way down. There was the accidentally enhanced sound of a mage casting featherfall on them, then the sound of a guard¡¯s foot hitting a back.


    The first of them to be thrown into the pit, a half elf of some sort, was weeping as he fell, trying to cling to the edge before a guard chucked a rock at him. Before he¡¯d even landed, an orc in the center of the Maw leapt up and grabbed him by the ankles, then slammed him onto the ground. He beat him for a few moments, before emptying his pockets, and stealing his boots. Leaving him unconscious. Once that was done, he moved to rob another prisoner that was stuffing his pockets with strips of dried meat from one of the sacks.


    Dantes didn¡¯t flinch as he watched the exchange. He¡¯d seen much worse happen to newcomers. Crying on your way down could have far harsher results than simply being beaten and robbed. If the newcomer was lucky he¡¯d be left alone after that.


    The next in line to be thrown down into the prison bolted before the mage could enchant him with featherfall, and aimed himself straight down, head-first. His neck snapped as he landed. There was a brief round of applause with solidarity from the Guards and Prisoners, usually there were two or three of those per month, and Dantes rated that one among the best executed suicides he¡¯d ever seen. They were rarely so cleanly done.


    After that the fresh meat was savvier. They¡¯d land, fight back, try to scavenge what supplies they could, then make a break for it. It was at this point a lot of the other prisoners that had been loading up supplies began running for it too, moving in numbers improved their chances.


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    They needed the numbers, because it was at the end of where the light came down from the Maw that they started to run into the gangs. Dantes watched as a dwarf made the mistake of trying to run through the Elfland Kings. He had a half-dozen elves on him in seconds. Dantes could only see flashes of what happened to him between elven legs, but he was certainly robbed and beaten, likely killed.


    Dantes moved more closely to the edge of the crowd, eyeing those in the center that were making their moves. He saw a second individual, an elf covered in tattoos of trees and vines, walk calmly to Elfland Kings, where he was embraced, a member from above if he had to guess, and someone to avoid. Then he saw the orc who¡¯d beaten the fresh meat get cornered by the dwarves of Clan Stonedust and taken out at the legs.


    Finally, he eyed a human man. The man wasn¡¯t fresh, but a clear veteran. No tattoos marking him as belonging to a gang, and two heavy sacks slung over his shoulder. The human waited for the dumber chaff to make a break for it, then in the moment he saw a gap between the Elfland Kings and the Collared, he ran for it.


    Dantes watched as the man jumped over a halfling that went for his legs, avoided a shiv from another human by bashing him aside with a sack, and finally reached the space between the gangs. Dantes was rooting for him as he ran. The two gangs converged on him, but luckily they got involved in a brawl with one another before they could do anything about him.


    Dantes began to move along the outside of the crowd, which the man made part by tossing a sack up into the air, which they all started to dive for. Dantes had been watching him though, and had seen that he¡¯d had that sack before he¡¯d gone to the center of the Underprison. By the time they¡¯d realized it was full of nothing but rocks, he¡¯d already broken through.


    Dantes slid into a side alcove of the tunnel the man was headed toward. He was impressed by the man¡¯s luck, and ingenuity. He was also quite grateful for it.


    As the man moved past him, Dantes took the rock he¡¯d been holding in his hand, and slammed it into the back of the man¡¯s head. He fell with a thud, and Dantes quickly grabbed his sack, and ran deeper into the tunnel. Saying a silent prayer to the God of Thieves as he weaved his way deeper into the Rendhold Underprison.


    ¡­


    He took a long winding path back to his cell, frequently taking side paths, or changing direction. It was hard to follow people inconspicuously on narrow paths, but it paid to be careful. Plenty of prisoners knew tricks to stay hidden. Luminous mushrooms, and strange purple stones put in place by those that had once chosen to live there lit his way as he moved.


    He took the long way around the Undermarket, passed through the Collared¡¯s territory where he exchanged brief nods with a few of them that he recognized, and then he moved to the far reaches only inhabited by the kobolds in the deepest section of the prisons, rats, and himself.


    In Dantes¡¯ five years in the underprison, he¡¯d quickly learned the value of being hidden, particularly if you were planning on making your way without the protections of the gangs. Staying on the outskirts made that easy.


    He slipped between a large crack in the wall, pulling the sack of goods behind himself, and came into his sanctum. He heard a squeak, and reached into the pack he¡¯d stolen to find a piece of dried meat. He tore it in half and placed it in the corner. Shortly after, a large brown rat moved out of the shadows and began tearing into it.


    ¡°You''re welcome,¡± he said, as he moved further inside. He tossed the sack to the side, and grabbed the small clay pitcher he kept in the center of the room where it collected drops of fresh water that trickled down continuously. He took a deep sip directly from it, then carefully watered the small clumps of green moss growing throughout his cavern, they were the only source of color he usually saw day to day. With those two daily duties done, he emptied his score on the raised stone he used as a table. Three and a half potatoes, two handfuls of dried meat, a few containers of hardtack, some bolts of cotton, and even fruit, maybe even enough to make a bit of booze with. He smiled and nodded to himself. It was a solid haul, and would last the month if he was careful and found the right trade for the cotton.


    His smile turned slowly to a grinding of teeth as he looked over the goods. Just over five years ago he would¡¯ve been emptying a sack of coins and gems. Now he was excited about the scraps the city sent down. He felt the bitterness he kept in check start to bubble up to the surface. Remembered the feeling when the ladder he was on was pushed off the side of the building, when he landed on the hard cobblestone streets. The beating he¡¯d endured from the Rendhold guard afterward.


    He heard another squeak behind him. He let out a breath, and tore off another piece of dried meat, and tossed it into the corner where the rat was waiting expectantly.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got the extra today, but don¡¯t get used to it.¡±


    The rat responded by eating in silence.


    ¡°Good point, no reason to dwell. I have food, I have shelter, I¡¯m alive. There¡¯s nothing else,¡± he said, and it was true. Survival was the only thing that mattered now, was the only thing that could matter.

 Ch 2: Youll owe me a favor

    Dantes cut one of the potatoes in two using a sharp outcropping of rock in the corner, then he took a few pieces of dried meat, a bit of hardtack, and a few grapes and set to eating. He poured some water over the hardtack to soften it as he ate the rest, hearing the rat eating in the corner as they each ate their separate meals. When he was done, he went to the spot where fresh water dripped from the ceiling, and used it to rinse the blood off of his hands before drying them on his jacket. He then put his water pitcher back where it could collect water, and he stored the remaining food in a small alcove he covered with a heavy stone. No one knew where he kept his food, or where he lived for that matter, but it tended to keep better when he had it stored there, and while he¡¯d already fed the rat, that didn¡¯t mean it wouldn¡¯t take more. He would do the same thing in its position.


    Once he was done he found himself with the one thing he¡¯d had in excess since he¡¯d first been thrown down into the maw, time. The options he had to spend it were the same as always. He could check the market, which was probably nice and full now that the resupply had dropped. Those lucky enough to get goods would be trading them for booze, weed, or companionship, flooding the market. He could shoot some dice, but that¡¯s what had forced him to risk the drop. He¡¯d almost certainly gamble again, the boredom would give him no choice, but he¡¯d wait for some other time. The God of Thieves had already blessed him that day, and trying to gamble again may push things a bit far with the God of Fortune. His last option would be to visit the Collared and see if they had any work.


    Of the gangs, they were weakest by a wide margin, but they were also the only ones he had good relations with. A Midtown Mutt like him was always in danger from any of the race-based gangs, which were also the largest in the Pit. The other, smaller gangs were a toss-up. Depended on how much they knew about him from before he¡¯d been thrown to the pit. He¡¯d screwed plenty of people over, too many to know which gangs may have it out for him. Though after five years, he wasn¡¯t certain anyone even remembered who he was. That thought stung as he parsed it, but he pushed that down.


    The market was the best option, but he¡¯d need something to trade. Either that or he¡¯d steal, but he¡¯d found that it was much harder to steal from paranoid hardened criminals in the Pit than it had been to do so in the backstreets of Rendhold, even on the day of the drop when the booze and goods flowed and everyone was a bit more care free. He¡¯d done it before with no consequence of course, but he saw no reason to take the risk when he already had enough to get by.


    He moved to the far corner of his cave. In that corner, was a bucket he¡¯d gratefully scavenged quite a long time ago, and next to that was an experiment. While only the hardiest of plants could grow within the Pit, fungus didn¡¯t have that problem. Dantes had been hoping to be able to grow a variety that he could eat in order to better tide him over, but the fat blue mushrooms he¡¯d managed to cultivate had been poisonous. He¡¯d tested it by slipping a small amount into a communal stew and watching the results. Humans and elves had strongly negative results, Orcs, Kobolds, and Dwarves didn¡¯t seem to be affected by it. His own stomach was tougher than any pure humans or elves, probably thanks to a dwarven ancestor somewhere along his family tree, but he wasn¡¯t willing to take the risk. Still, he was certain there were plenty of other prisoners who needed food, or poison, for whatever reason.


    He plucked the majority of the mushrooms, leaving a handful to continue cultivating, and wrapped them in a loose cloth pouch that he¡¯d made, which he then tucked into one of the myriad pockets in his heavy jacket. He tucked a shiv into his sleeve, had a sip of tepid water, used his bucket, and slipped back out through the crack. He looked around, his vision well attuned to the gloom that surrounded him, his ears scanned for noise, but he heard nothing and saw only a few roaches skittering in the dark. Certain no one was nearby, he began making his way toward the market.


    It was smooth going until he reached Collared territory. He got a few nods from them as he walked. They had an understanding, and his face was not unfamiliar to them. The Collared was a group of former mages that had been thrown into the pit for various crimes. Some had turned their magic to thievery, others had murdered academic rivals. Dantes even had it on good authority that the leader of the Collared, Old Merle, had turned a member of the Rendhold Council into a chicken, cut off his head, and ate him. If they had their powers in the Pit, they would¡¯ve been its undisputed rulers, unfortunately for them, they¡¯d all been cut off from it. They were called Collared because it was the bronze collars that were wrapped around their necks that sealed them from their powers.


    There had been a number of attempts by them to remove the collars, but they were bound not only by metal, but by spellcraft. Dantes didn¡¯t fully understand it, but one of them had explained to him that the physical, and metaphysical aspects of the binding needed to be broken at once, and in order to do that, they needed a mage with active powers, and a locksmith. You needed a mage to break the lock, and needed to break the lock to have a mage.


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    Just as he was moving through the exit he heard a voice behind him.


    ¡°Dantes, wait up!¡± It was a young half-elf man, wearing tattered magus robes and a bronze collar that had been thoroughly scratched at by something metal. The man was tall and wiry, with a kind of gangly walk that reminded Dantes of the rolling gait he¡¯d often see used by the sailors at the docks.


    ¡°What is it, Televor? Need another loan?¡± He kept walking as he spoke.


    ¡°No, no. My ribs are still a bit bruised since I forgot to pay you the last time.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Sorry about that. You know how it is, I can¡¯t let you off for stuff like that or I put a target on my back. Nothing personal.¡±


    ¡°Nah, it¡¯s fine. I didn¡¯t know the rules then. I¡¯m getting a grasp on it now.¡±


    Dantes nodded, though he doubted that statement. ¡°Alright, then what do you want?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re headed to the market right?¡±


    He nodded.


    ¡°I heard from Micah that the changelings there¡­ they uh.¡±


    ¡°You want to get your rocks off, huh?¡±


    ¡°Uh.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care Tel, no judgment from me. You won¡¯t be the first, and you¡¯ll hardly be the last. Not like people have a lot of options down here.¡±


    ¡°Well, you don¡¯t uh, partake, so I assumed you might give me a bit of shit for it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not you. Who knows, maybe in five more years I¡¯ll get to that point. I¡¯ve no shit to give.¡±


    ¡°Well, I also heard that the changelings and you get along, and I¡¯m a little short on scratch to pay them, so I was hoping you could, I dunno, maybe help me out a bit? Talk them into giving me a better rate?¡±


    Dantes walked in silence for a little while, letting Televor simmer with embarrassment as he considered the task. The changelings did like him, and it was probable he could convince them to give Tel a good rate. They were an odd bunch though, flighty and mercurial, so it wouldn¡¯t be guaranteed. The more important factor was why Dantes should do it. Televor didn¡¯t have anything he wanted or needed at the moment. Besides which, he¡¯d just admitted he was low on goods and would almost certainly blow whatever he had left on three minutes of pleasure.


    ¡°I¡¯ll put in a word, but you¡¯ll owe me a favor.¡±


    ¡°Sure, what?¡±


    ¡°A favor.¡±


    Tel stopped, his expression becoming a bit strained as he considered that. Open-ended favors were dangerous in the underprison, and he already knew from experience that Dantes would definitely collect on it. Still, he wasn¡¯t thinking with the right head. ¡°Deal, I¡¯ll owe you one.¡±


    Dantes nodded, and stopped. He held out his hand, and Tel took it, giving it one firm grasp then releasing. Dantes held back a sigh. He liked Tel. In his estimation, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, Tel was actually pretty street savvy for a Collared. So many of them had been so far up their own asses when they¡¯d been mages that they continually struggled to adapt to life in the Pit. Tel had only been down for a year, maybe a bit longer, but he was already doing what it took to stay sane, and alive. Sure, a lot of what he was doing was making mistakes, but that was better than never taking any risks at all.


    They wove through the last few tunnels between the Collared and the Undermarket, both stepping widely around a particular darkened tunnel that seemed to ooze malice. It was marked with an X and an eye. There were some tunnels it just wasn¡¯t worth going through.


    There were a few prisoners selling wares just outside of the market, trying to avoid paying the Consortium fees required to sell in the undermarket itself. Tel almost walked over to one of them, who had a number of clay bowls displayed, but Dantes gave him a firm elbow to the ribs to keep him moving. Undermarket enforcers would be out to drive these sellers away soon, and anyone seen dealing with them would be given a beating.


    As they passed those opportunistic sellers, the cavern began opening up, and the smell of booze and sounds of salesmen began to echo around them. Through the entrance one could see small rickety stalls spread from one wall of the cavern to the other, anchored by a few solid buildings scattered throughout. All of that served to create a network of narrow alleys and small streets littered with vomit, spilled alcohol, and the occasional corpse. They¡¯d arrived.

 Ch 3: It doesnt matter how you look

    On either side of the entrance to the market stood dwarven guards, members of the smallfolk consortium, known by anyone outside it as the smallfuck consortium. They ran the undermarket, and the gang was made up of halflings, gnomes, and the smattering of kobolds and dwarves that had either joined willingly for the perks or been hired on as muscle. Initially he expected the smaller races to be at a distinct disadvantage in the Underprison, but there were a lot of benefits to being small in a series of enclosed spaces. There were entire sections of the prison only they could access. Perfect for storing goods, or even finding what little scavenging could be had in the old tunnels.


    The guards ignored them as they came through. They¡¯d both been there before, and while they may try to extort some kind of entrance fee from Tel had he been alone, they sensed that it wouldn¡¯t be worth the trouble with Dantes. The odd pair walked to the edge of the market proper. The market had been built in the highest and widest part of the Pit aside from the maw itself. The buildings and booths were assembled from scraps of wood, cloth, and whatever else prisoners could scrape together. Those merchants that couldn¡¯t afford to build a storefront would lay down cloth and scatter their goods on it, or even just sell it from their person. Dantes took a deep breath and soaked it all in. The undermarket was the closest thing to his home on the surface that he¡¯d had. A den of vice and sin full of possibility. His home, that is, the undermarket itself¡¯s possibilities were thoroughly limited by the fact that it was inside of an understocked underground prison.


    Dantes ignored a man selling crude shivs, and another that was dealing dust, though he felt the same pang he always did when he received the offer. Too expensive a habit to maintain in the Pit though. Back up top he¡¯d do a line or two to pass the time or to add to his excitement for the next job. He¡¯d spent a hard few weeks quitting when he¡¯d first arrived, the risk that surrounded it was much higher in the Pit.


    Tel paused to gaze longingly at the bar in which a fight had just broken out. The powerful smell of hooch radiating from it with a enough stench to burn the hairs out of his nostrils.


    ¡°Did you want booze, or company?¡± Dantes asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. ¡°I don¡¯t think you¡¯d need my help with the booze, and I¡¯m here for a reason.¡±


    Tel shook his head. ¡°Sorry, I forgot how much I missed a strong drink at the tavern. I never considered it would be something I¡¯d lack easy access to.¡±


    ¡°Booze is easier to come by than a lot of vices down here at least. I know a kobold with a hidden still that has good rates. I¡¯ll introduce you.¡±


    ¡°Thanks Dantes.¡±


    ¡°No problem.¡± he had told Mez he¡¯d send anyone interested in a strong drink his way and in return he¡¯d receive a bit of the brew or what they traded. He neglected to mention his near certainty that what Mez brewed could cause blindness in large doses.


    They walked through a few more ramshackle alleys to one of the largest buildings in the Pit, Which Wench, the changeling brothel. It was basically a long hallway with rooms separated by thin curtains of cloth, with a few having actual rooms toward the back. At the front was a large orc with a crude club and a human with a series of shivs belted at his waist. Their eyes were both completely white, with no pupils showing. They were nameless. Dantes didn¡¯t know if they were men who had simply been too desperate on a lonely night, or had made a bad gamble, but there were many such under the changelings control. The changelings couldn¡¯t defend themselves, the agreement they made at their sentencing meant they had to follow rules in the pit that kept them from hurting others, or using their abilities to escape. Otherwise, they¡¯d be impossible to keep in the pit. Luckily, they were too fey-blooded to break the agreement, though they¡¯d found clever ways around it where they could.


    Between them was a perky young half elf-girl wearing a short skirt and tight shirt. Then she was a well endowed and muscled orcish woman with bedroom eyes. Then she was a human woman wearing the clothing of nobility and a haughty expression. The men who walked by, even on their way to do other business, couldn¡¯t help, but look, and no seller bothered trying to hock their wares there, as no one would¡¯ve bothered turning their gaze in the direction of their goods.


    The now gnome woman who almost certainly wouldn¡¯t be able to see her own feet waved at them.


    ¡°Two-name, no name, welcome!¡±


    ¡°Hello Syn. Calling me Dantes is fine, I¡¯ve told you as much before.¡±


    She became a tall Elven woman in a sheer robe. ¡°How did you know it was me?¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Not sure, just a feeling.¡± That was true, but his feelings were always right when it came to which changeling was which.


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    Syn smiled, playing with her eye-color. ¡°Are you here to gamble, or are you finally lonely enough to pass the time with us some other way?¡±


    ¡°Neither. Just walking a friend over here to meet you.¡±


    Syn turned her attention to Televor. ¡°Can I have your name?¡± she asked, as she sauntered over to him and gently stroked down his arm with a single finger.


    He shivered at her touch. ¡°I¡¯m-.¡±


    Dantes shot him a glare, he¡¯d thought he was smarter than that.


    He saw the expression and caught himself. ¡°You can¡¯t have my name, but you can call me Tel.¡±


    ¡°Ah, a shame, you brought us one who isn¡¯t a fool this time.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say that. He seems to have his moments.¡±


    Syn chuckled. ¡°I¡¯m always in a playful mood when you come to visit Two-name. How about I give your friend a discount.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s up to him,¡± said Dantes, pretending that wasn¡¯t exactly what he was there for.


    ¡°Y-yes please. I¡¯d like that very much.¡±


    Syn looked Tel over, her eyes turning violet, then blue, while her teeth switched between fanged and tusked. ¡°A nervous boy, eh, I¡¯ll prepare something special for you. I¡¯ll be in the last room on the left. Give me just a moment.¡±


    They watched her walk away, Dantes getting a little flicker of what she actually looked like. Pure white skin, too long limbs ending in clawed hands, and black hair down the back. He was grateful he hadn¡¯t seen her pure black eyes at least. Those flickers had happened randomly since the first time he¡¯d seen one of them. They made it quite a bit easier for him to resist their temptations, though after five years without a woman¡¯s touch it still hadn¡¯t been easy.


    ¡°Why do they call you two-name, no-name?¡±


    ¡°My mother named me one thing, and my father another. I have two names, but no ¡®true¡¯ name. Means they can¡¯t own me. Also means I can gamble with them safely, which they appreciate. Apparently it gets tiresome when the stakes are always someone¡¯s first born, their name, or other fey shit like that.¡±


    ¡°Interesting. My studies were always into daemons rather than the fey.¡±


    ¡°That explains your penchant for alcohol and whoring. Also why you almost let yourself become an eternal slave at the touch of a woman.¡±


    Tel blushed a bit. ¡°I just¡­ the other Collared aren¡¯t exactly pretty to look at. I¡¯d never met changelings before, I had expected it to be more obvious that they weren¡¯t what they were pretending to be. It took me off guard.¡±


    ¡°How would you know you¡¯ve never met one before?¡±


    ¡°Ah¡­ fair point.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not like they¡¯re men dressed as women. They¡¯re neither. That¡¯s why the city just sends half here, and half to the convent.¡±


    Tel went to respond, but a high female voice with a slight lilt drifted from the furthest room of the brothel. ¡°TeeeEeel. Come innnn.¡±


    Tel coughed and ran a hand through his mop of hair. ¡°How do I look?¡±


    Dantes sighed. ¡°Syn¡¯s a whore Tel, It doesn¡¯t matter how you look.¡±


    ¡°Oh, right. Wish me luck?¡±


    ¡°Absolutely not.¡±


    ¡°Ah well. Meet here later for the trek back?¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± Though Dantes expected him to be waiting for him for quite some time after he was done.


    Tel nodded and headed for the far room. Dantes saw a slender woman¡¯s hand reach out and drag him inside.


    Dantes shook his head, and started walking through the market. He¡¯d done well on securing food for the month, but food wasn¡¯t everything. Dantes looked through the goods of a gnome selling the clothes of dead men. Another who was selling a nice collection of clubs fashioned with stone at the ends for a bit of additional umph, one selling hand woven lengths of rope, and finally he came to a dwarven booth that smelled of vegetation which he found himself drawn to.


    The dwarf was wearing a dirt brown tunic, though it may have been white once. He had mushrooms growing from parts of his dark black beard, and a thin pipe from which the scent of dwarven weed wafted. He was engaged with a different customer when Dantes approached the booth, but gave him a nod. The gesture was to both acknowledge his presence, and let him know that he was watching him if anything went missing.


    The wares he was selling were primarily plants. He had crude pots filled with dirt on each available surface and from each of them grew stems, vines, shrubs, and all manner of other items. Dantes had thought himself lucky for the few patches of moss he was able to keep alive in his cave, but this dwarf had managed far more, and somehow Dantes had never even noticed him before.


    He took a deep inhale of the leaves of one of the plants, the scent of green and earth filling his nostrils. For a moment he was in the gardens in the center of the city, and walking the overgrown alleys that had been near his childhood home, and climbing the vines he used to scale up to rooftops in the most dilapidated districts looking for food or to escape some moron he¡¯d pickpocketed. He let out a long sigh.


    ¡°Smelling is free, but if you want something to smoke we¡¯ll have to deal.¡±

 Ch 4: Filthy mutt

    Dantes pulled himself away from the fresh green scent and looked down at the dwarf, ignoring his comment in favor of asking a question.


    ¡°How did you grow all this down here?¡±


    The dwarf¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°You trying to steal my secrets?¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯m asking for them directly.¡±


    The merchant chuckled, taking a pull from his pipe and letting some smoke seep slowly out of his mouth. ¡°Mutts like you wouldn¡¯t know, but the Pit is a big place. Us dwarves have managed, over the centuries, to carve new chambers, or excavate old ones. Though it¡¯s been hellish work without proper tools, and with the strange thickness of the walls, and the magic shield that seals us in, otherwise we¡¯d¡¯ve just tunneled out of course. There are some chambers where the walls are like reflective glass, and in a few of those there is light, like sunlight, that bleeds through them.¡±


    ¡°What about the seeds?¡±


    ¡°Ah, those came in with the other supplies that they dropped in. Collect them over time, and cultivate what I can from what I grow.¡±


    ¡°Even the weed?¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°Well, that came in the dwarven way. Just like the Elfland King and Consortium get things in their way. That¡¯s obviously not something I can share.¡±


    Dantes nodded, pretending to respect the secret. He already knew that the Elves brought their goods in with some type of magical mirror shards, the human gangs tended to have people toss goods into the Maw at specific times, the consortium bribed the guards to bring in goods during their Arena recruitments and prisoner withdrawals. He was certain that there were other methods going on, but those were the ones he¡¯d managed to determine since he¡¯d arrived. No one knew that he knew that, and he did his best to keep it that way.


    ¡°Anyway, I assume you¡¯re buying something? If I spent this much time talking to you and if you¡¯re not well¡­ I¡¯ll probably have to stab you or give you a beating.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Understandable. I¡¯m interested in trading.¡± He pulled out his separate sack of mushrooms and pulled a single one of them which he held out to the dwarf, focusing on his bearded face as he did so to gauge any reactions. He saw the dwarf¡¯s nostrils widen for just a moment, but no other facial twitches. Dwarves were either stone faced or as easy to read as a child. Dantes had never known one to be in-between.


    The dwarf reached out for the mushroom slowly, but Dantes pulled back before he could reach it. ¡°Interested?¡±


    The dwarf wiggled his jaw, the mushrooms within his beard shifting side to side as he did so.. ¡°Aye, I suppose I am. How much have you got?¡±


    He held the sack open so that the dwarf could see the dozen or so mushrooms inside.


    The dwarf stroked his beard. ¡°Hmm, I can do ya a bit of weed for that.¡±


    ¡°A bit of weed for each one, I assume?¡±


    The dwarf shook his head. ¡°Yer cheeky, I appreciate that. How about a half pouch, and you owe me one?¡±


    ¡°How about a full pouch, and the next time I harvest them, I remember how generous you were?¡±


    The dwarf¡¯s eyebrow flicked up. ¡°You grew these? Didn''t just find them?¡±


    Dantes hesitated, but nodded.


    ¡°Interesting¡­ You¡¯ve got a deal.¡± The dwarf spat on his hand, and held it out. Dantes matched the gesture and had a firm shake before exchanging the goods.


    ¡°I¡¯m Clay, by the way.¡±


    ¡°Dantes.¡±


    They exchanged a nod and Dantes walked away, tucking the weed into a small compartment he¡¯d made in his coat. He hadn¡¯t been looking specifically for the weed when he¡¯d come to the market, but it was a good choice to trade for. Unlike the mushrooms, which had limited utility for most, the weed could be traded to anyone for anything and would keep for a much longer time. Not to mention that he could put some to the side for his own personal recreation. He could¡¯ve gone with coin of course, but only the consortium dealt with straight coin, bartering tended to be more economical in most cases.


    He considered doing some more trading, but figured that Tel had likely been done for quite some time. Dantes imagined that any man may not have a lot of stamina after a year without any of that kind of attention.


    He made his way through the narrow alleys between buildings, ignoring pleas from desperate sellers who didn¡¯t seem to be earning what they needed to cover the consortium¡¯s fees for the day. The nearest bar to the Which Wench was full of Elves, so he drew his hood close over his head as he passed by. On the surface, and in the Pit, there were a number of advantages to being a mutt. It usually had the benefit of making him easy to ignore and hard to distinguish. He could sometimes pass for human, or orc in the right light, but elf was never going to happen. He was too short, his skin too gray, and while his ears were pointed, they were hardly going to disguise anything else about him, but if one of the Elven Kings with a belly full of drink and a desire to blow off steam saw him, he knew he¡¯d be the first target they would choose. They could stand mixing of the races, but only as long as Elves weren¡¯t part of that mix.


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    Dantes was so distracted by trying to appear inconspicuous he didn¡¯t notice the three men standing between him and the brothel. When he did, he tried to adjust the direction he was walking, and the men fanned out to block him. He looked at them more closely, sensing he¡¯d just walked into trouble. All three were human, wearing ragged clothes, and wielding either clubs or shivs, one of them smelled of dried blood and looked vaguely familiar.


    The bloody one took a step toward him and he took a step back, looking for a way out only to find the path behind him blocked by a fourth man.


    ¡°I figured you¡¯d come here. Thought you could steal my hard work and hock it in the undermarket before we found you, huh?¡±


    Dantes finally recognized the man. He was the one who he¡¯d stolen from earlier that day. He¡¯d thought he¡¯d killed him, or at least remained unseen when he struck, but either he¡¯d gotten a good look, or one of his friends had.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about. I¡¯ve never seen you before.¡±


    The men started to close in. Dantes wasn¡¯t much good in a straight up fight, he¡¯d been the planner, face, and occasionally the quick hands of his gang, but never the muscle.


    Dantes'' face became nervous and he fell as he backed away. ¡°Please, please, I¡¯m just trying to do what I can to survive down here, same as you. You know, it¡¯s dog eat dog down here.¡±


    One of the men got closer and raised his foot. ¡°Shut up you filthy mutt.¡± He kicked at his head.


    Dantes hands shot up. He grabbed the man''s foot and dragged the blade of the shiv he¡¯d taken from his boot when he¡¯d pretended to fall across the man¡¯s heel and tendons.


    The man screamed as he fell back clutching his leg.


    Dantes grabbed a handful of dirt and chucked it into the next nearest man¡¯s eyes, blinding him as he stood. Then he tried to make a break for it.


    Unfortunately, he hadn¡¯t noticed the fifth man, who caught him by the hood and threw him back between the three who were left standing. Dantes threw himself back to his feet, brandishing his shiv, his eyes looking for some way out even as the three men closed in, ignoring their fellow as he rolled on the ground, howling in pain and clutching his leg.


    At this point the elves from the bar had noticed the scrap, and brought their booze over to take a closer look.


    ¡°I think the humans will probably take the mutt,¡± said one of them.


    ¡°I dunno, the points on the mutts'' ears¡­ a fourth an elf can probably take four humans. Or at least get away.¡±


    A third elf, one covered in tattoos of trees and roots, the same one Dantes had seen arrive in the Pit earlier, smashed his fists into the second one¡¯s gut, causing him to double over and spill his drink.


    ¡°The blood that¡¯s muddied only grows exponentially weaker, you fucking moron. The mutt will die. Worth watching it happen, I¡¯d say.¡±


    Dantes wasn¡¯t paying attention to the elves. He lunged toward the nearest of the men, managing to jam his shiv into his gut, but when he tried to pull it away it got caught on a rib and he couldn¡¯t remove it.


    The bloody man grabbed him and threw him to the ground. He and the two uninjured men began savagely kicking him while he was down. Dantes curled into a ball, focusing on protecting his head. His reflexes kicked in from when he was a child picking pockets.


    ¡°Wait! Wait!¡± yelled Dantes. ¡°I still haven¡¯t sold what I took from you! I have it hidden, but I won¡¯t be able to give it to you if I¡¯m dead.¡±


    The men stopped, and hesitated for a moment. At that second, Dantes pulled a second shiv from his sleeve, and threw himself forward at the bloody man, jamming the crude stone blade into his eye. They fell, and crashed into the tattooed elf, knocking him backward, and spilling his drink.


    Dantes stood up, disoriented from the beating he¡¯d just taken, and tore his shiv from the man''s face stumbling into the elf once again. He threw him off of him, and Dantes'' arm jerked up and sliced across the elf¡¯s face.


    Dantes stood there, his eyes widening as he realized what he¡¯d just done, seeing the blood begin to flow from the wound on the elf¡¯s face.


    The elf¡¯s solid green eyes looked at him with hate, and he brought a hand to his face, wiping away the trickle of blood. His mouth was twisted into a sneer as he looked at the men around him. ¡°Grab that fucking mutt. I¡¯m going to gut him.¡±


    Dantes bolted, one of the elves narrowly missing a lunge for him. He made his way toward the furthest exit tunnel from the undermarket, dodging through the people buying and selling, leaping over blankets scattered with goods, and ducking through narrow alleys. He could hear the elves starting to pursue him as he wove through the market.


    One elf jumped in front of him, but he slammed the shiv still in his hand into the man''s shoulder, leaving it there as he kept running. Two more of them moved to cut him off, but he slid through the legs of one of them, tripping him as he threw himself back to his feet and kept running.


    He made it to the exit, and moved into the tunnels. He¡¯d chosen the far exit not only for the increased number of obstacles it would create between him and his pursuers, but also because it linked up to the Clan Stonedust territory. His movement through that territory stirred the dwarves there up just in time for them to meet the elves.


    He heard the mixture of elvish screaming and dwarven curses collide, even as he wove deeper into the tunnels. He didn¡¯t slow down until he was near the Kobold tunnels, and even then he kept changing paths, and doubling back. He even left a few false trails leading into forbidden tunnels in the hopes they might find them and think he¡¯d run to his death in desperation to escape. By the time he made it back to his cave he was drenched in sweat and gasping for air.. He stumbled onto the pile of cloth he called a bed and tried to steady his breathing.


    He was fucked. He was in danger from the Elfland Kings already, just by the nature of his ancestry, and now he¡¯d actually drawn their ire. Cut a man that was clearly one of their leaders, and stabbed another of them in his attempt to escape. He could stay hidden for a long time in his cave, maybe scrape by and survive, but eventually he¡¯d need to go back to the undermarket, or the maw, and they¡¯d find him. He¡¯d made it five years, and now, it seemed, he wouldn¡¯t make it another.


    ¡°Fuck,¡± he muttered. He shouldn¡¯t even be in the pit. Well, he should, in that he¡¯d committed more than enough crimes to earn his time there, but he should never have been captured. If his old crew hadn¡¯t fucked him over, he would still be on the streets. Gold in one hand, a woman in the other, a reputation that put fear into people¡¯s hearts. Now he was going to die in the underprison, unremembered and unremarkable. He let out a frustrated yell and slammed a closed hand down on the stone before putting his face in his hands.


    There was a squeak from the corner of the room. Dantes looked to see the brown rat there, twitching its whiskers. He sighed, letting his desperation and rage go for a moment and went over to where his food was stored. He took out a small piece of potato and tossed it to the rat.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± the rat squeaked.


    Dantes sighed. ¡°No problem.¡±


    He blinked, and looked at the rat again. ¡°Wait¡­¡±

 Ch 5: Your kind can be slow

    Dantes looked at the rat, watching as it nibbled on the piece of potato that he¡¯d just thrown at him.


    ¡°Did you just talk?¡± he asked.


    The rat stopped eating, and swallowed the mouthful of food it had. ¡°Yes?¡±


    Dantes paused. ¡°And you can understand me?¡±


    The rat cocked its head. ¡°Huh, yeah, I can actually. Strange.¡±


    Dantes squinted. The rat looked the same as it had before. It was large, about the size of his foot, and mostly a reddish brown in color. The same rat that he¡¯d grown used to seeing every day. Same one he¡¯d been feeding for the last few years, around the same time he¡¯d started watering the moss, and cultivating mushrooms.


    ¡°Could you always talk?¡±


    ¡°Could you?¡±


    ¡°Apparently not¡­at least not to rats.¡±


    ¡°Your kind can be slow.¡± The rat let out a series of squeaks that reminded Dantes of a mean spirited laugh.


    Dantes sat back down. He couldn¡¯t really think of anything else to say. His eyes drifted to the little moss tufts growing through the stone nearby. As he looked, he could feel that it needed more water. It was a kind of warm parched feeling that tingled in the back of his throat. He stood up, grabbed his pitcher, and poured a small bit of water onto it. He could sense gratitude radiating from it, like a cool cloth on the forehead on a hot day. He scanned the rest of the cave. Two other plants needed watering, the rest were content. The mushrooms wanted more waste, so he obliged them too. Their gratitude felt different, like a group of people were patting him on the back and thanking him all at once.


    ¡°What the fuck.¡± he muttered to himself. He wasn¡¯t a mage. He knew just enough about magic to use magical items, but he didn¡¯t have the gifts needed to cast spells empty handed. Gods knew he¡¯d wanted to when he was a kid, but that wasn¡¯t the path life had chosen for him. He¡¯d heard of a few races that could talk to certain animals. Dragonkin stood out as able to speak with lizards, but he didn¡¯t have any such mingling in his own blood. At least not that he knew of. Even if he did, what would that mean? That he had an ancestor that got plowed by a giant rat? At least that would explain his preference for dark alleys instead of well lit streets.


    ¡°Could I have some more?¡± asked the rat.


    Dantes thought about it, and shook his head. ¡°Not today. I may be stuck at the level of supplies I¡¯m currently at for a while. Need to preserve what I can.¡±


    ¡°You should give me more food, instead.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°It sounds like you¡¯re likely to die anyway. Your food could last me a long time. You should give it to me.¡±


    Dantes laughed. ¡°I¡¯m too selfish for that.¡±


    The rat moved its head in a way that seemed almost like a shrug. ¡°Then I will eat your corpse. Either way, my stomach will be full.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome to it, if it comes to that.¡± Dantes started to walk along the edges of his cave, his fingers tracing the cracks in it as he did so. It was what he usually did when he was feeling anxious, or worried. He hadn¡¯t done it much in the last year, but the day he knew the elves were after him, and he started talking to rats, seemed like a good time to start back up.


    He didn¡¯t think he¡¯d gone crazy. He¡¯d seen crazy, both in the back alleys of Rendhold and in the Pit itself. Broken men weeping openly in the middle of streets, dwarves so terrified of the sky that they cover their heads with dirt, elves so far from their home forest that they broke and covered the walls of their cells in excrement they tried to shape into the image of a tree. His mind still felt clear, sharp, reactive. The world was a large place, who was to say he didn¡¯t gain some ability he hadn¡¯t previously known existed? If he had, that ability might be the key to his survival, maybe even more than that.


    ¡°You know, rat, there¡¯s a third option for keeping your stomach full.¡±


    The rat looked at Dantes questioningly.


    ¡°We could continue the arrangement we¡¯ve always had. I live, and give you a bit of food from my stores every day.¡±


    ¡°Yes, and so I do not nibble the flesh from your feet while you sleep.¡±


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    Dantes paused. He hadn¡¯t considered that the rat had its own understanding of the deal. He¡¯d have to be wary of that, of his assumptions. His feet tingled a bit and he flexed his toes within the thin leather of his cheap boots.


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s say I could get you more food. Would you be able to do me a favor?¡±


    ¡°What kind of food?¡±


    ¡°Do you have a preference?¡±


    ¡°Meat.¡±


    Dantes gritted his teeth, feeling the small tusks from his orcish ancestry cut slightly into his cheek. He hadn''t expected a rat to drive a hard bargain. Meat was hard to come by. He had a bit preserved with the rest of the food, but it wasn¡¯t a lot. At the same time, his life was more valuable to him than meat with the texture of wet wood.


    ¡°I can do that.¡±


    The rat skittered toward him. ¡°Meat first.¡±


    Dantes smiled and shook his head. ¡°Not how I deal. You do the job first, then I¡¯ll give you a fourth of the meat I have.¡±


    ¡°Half.¡±


    ¡°A third.¡±


    ¡°Maybe a third. What do you want me to do?¡±


    ¡°Do you know where the Elfland Kings live?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s an Elf?¡±


    ¡°Tall, usually fair, pointed ears, grating voices, probably don¡¯t look down long enough to see you.¡±


    ¡°I know the place where they gather.¡±


    ¡°Some of them, the important ones, carry shards of a mirror, roughly the size of my hand.¡±


    The rat nodded. ¡°Yes. Where the food and good smells come from.¡±


    ¡°Would you be able to retrieve one of those shards for me?¡±


    ¡°Half. The ones with the pointed ears are hard to avoid, and crush us beneath their boots when they are able.¡±


    Dantes clenched and unclenched his fist. ¡°Deal. Half. To be paid once I receive the shard.¡±


    The rat twitched its whiskers thoughtfully. ¡°It will be done, but I will wait until they sleep to go to them. I will need some of my siblings to help me. I will tell them that you paid me only a quarter of what I am actually to be paid. I will share that among them.¡±


    Dantes nodded. He¡¯d met some savvy people over the years, but he found himself impressed by the rat he¡¯d been sharing his food with.


    ¡°Do you have a name?¡±


    The rat had returned to its small meal of potato. ¡°No. Rats are known by connections, not names. My sister calls me Brother, my mother Son, my cousin Cousin, and on and on.¡±


    ¡°Well, we are not kin, and I¡¯d rather not refer to you as just ¡®rat¡¯, after all if you¡¯re not the only one I can talk to then it may get confusing as I meet more.¡±


    ¡°True. I would not want you to pay Brothers instead of me. They are tricky.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm, how about Jacopo?¡±


    ¡°What is this name? What is its meaning?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. It was the name of my father¡¯s ship. Always liked how it sounded.¡±


    ¡°A ship? My great great great grandmother came from a ship. This is a good name.¡±


    ¡°Alright then Jacopo.¡± Dantes held out his pinky finger to him. ¡°I look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship.¡±


    ¡°I have seen this.¡± Jacopo moved closer and gripped Dantes pinky finger in his claw. Dantes dipped his pinky and nodded at him, Jacopo returned the gesture.


    ¡­


    It had taken some time, but Dantes¡¯ anxiety had eventually turned to exhaustion as he waited for Jacopo to leave on his mission. He forced himself to eat a bit of the food he¡¯d acquired, focusing on what would expire first, and sat on the pile of cloth that served as his bed.


    Unlike him, Jacopo seemed completely at ease in spite of the heist he¡¯d so recently agreed to. Alternating between naps, stretching, and more naps until he said his goodbyes and began to make his way to the Elfland Kings'' territory.


    The day''s events had been tiring. Dantes wasn¡¯t out of shape, exactly, but he certainly wasn¡¯t the same rooftop hopping man he¡¯d been before he was thrown into the pit. Years of malnourishment and a lack of exercise had eaten away at him, and as such he felt deep aches and pains through his body as he laid down and closed his eyes.


    His dreams typically took one of two forms. The shape of his friend¡¯s hands in front of him, pushing his ladder away from the rooftop, the sensation of falling endlessly, the pain of landing on his back. Or running through the overgrown parts of the city, his hands running along the edges of branches and vines as he ducked into alleys and climbed crumbling walls.


    This night was different however. He felt as if he was floating, drifting through blackness. Below him, a scene played out, seemingly on repeat. There sat two people. A man, and a woman. The man wore a cloak of midnight blue, with silver and gold buckles securing it in place, the hint of a dagger at his waist, and his face concealed beneath a hood, only a smirk showing.


    Across from him was a woman. She had skin the color of pale wood, and hair of deep green. She was smiling as well, but hers was predatory, hungry, and she had one slitted eye like that of a cat, and one eye with a bar of black in the center, like that of a goat. Between them was a scale, and each of them would take turns placing something onto it, or removing something from it. The scale was overall tilted in the cloaked man¡¯s favor, but with each addition, it seemed to be sliding slowly toward the green woman. The moment the scale became even, the dream changed.

 Ch 6: Skittered away

    Jacopo moved with practiced ease through the narrow crevices within the walls. This was his home, and he knew its paths and temperament better than even his ancestors had. He peered out of a crack to observe the nearby room. He saw a number of pointy eared creatures, elves Dantes had called them. He sniffed the air twice, counting around ten of them gathered, along with the smell of old bread and alcohol. There would be crumbs and puddles to sip from aplenty when they were done. Jacopo was after a different prize though, and slipped through more narrow cracks. He would tell a cousin of the bounty that awaited there if one was careful. After a few more narrow tunnels, he reached another crack wide enough to exit through.


    He inhaled again, this time he could smell something sweet. Looking through the crack he saw fewer elves, maybe three. Two were sleeping, and one was sitting at a stone desk, making marks on a piece of paper in that strange ritual the creatures with two legs seemed to enjoy. On top of that desk, was a glint, a fist sized chunk of mirror reflecting candlelight. Jacopo had located his target.


    He slid out of the hole, making a soft thud as he landed. It was almost too quiet for an elf to hear¡­ almost.


    The elf at the desk¡¯s ear twitched and he turned to where Jacopo had been only a moment before, but he¡¯d already hidden himself in the shadows of a nearby bed. Elf eyes could see in the dark well enough, but they had difficulty in rooms full of light and shadow in equal proportion. Jacopo looked up at the crack and, with a subtle twitch of his whiskers, called Sister and Brother from it.


    Sister dropped down and swiftly made for a small pile of books near the elf. It was a bold move, but it paid off when the Elf looked at the crack in the wall again rather than the pile of books near his feet.


    Brother hesitated at the hole, waiting for the elf to drop his guard again.


    Jacopo moved slowly, but surely to the stone desk. It wasn¡¯t smoothly carved, thankfully. The hairy short ones in the tunnels at the far end from these elves tended to carve stone too smoothly for him to climb, but this was full of the little imperfections that seemed almost made for his paws as he slowly scaled it. Getting into the room and locating the shard was the easy part, getting out with the shard would be a different story.


    He reached the top of the desk, and peered slowly over it. The Elf still hadn¡¯t taken notice of him or Sister, and had returned to his writing. His face was lined heavily, which seemed strange to Jacopo, who had only ever seen those with pointed ears have smooth, unlined faces.


    Jacopo needed a distraction. He slid back down to the side of the desk and twitched his whiskers at Brother, encouraging him to leap down.


    Brother was foolish, and complied.


    This time, the elf took full notice, seeing Brother before he could hide. The elf stood up from his desk and moved quickly toward him.


    While he was distracted, Jacopo moved quickly, but silently, locking his feet into the stone as he slid the mirror shard off the desk.


    Sister was below him, and caught it as it fell. The edges were wrapped in leather aside from a single half inch of its edge that was uncovered and seemed to have been sharpened into a rough blade. Brother joined sister, and they began moving along the edge of the wall with their prize, sister moving backward with the leather in her teeth, and Jacopo moving forward.


    They reached the doorway just in time to watch as Brother was smashed by the old Elf¡¯s black boots.


    Jacopo didn¡¯t stop moving. He had other brothers, and besides, this meant less meat he¡¯d need to share. He and his sister moved along the edges of the series of rooms the Elfland Kings called home. At this time of night, most of them were sleeping, drunk, or focused on other pursuits. If Jacopo encountered any real trouble, he would simply drop the mirror, and run. Better hungry and alive, than dead, it wasn¡¯t worth dying over some meat, though clearly Brother had had a different opinion. Luckily, he and Sister made it out of the Elfland Kings territory without any more trouble, and skittered through the dark toward their reward.


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    ¡­


    Dantes awoke in the usual dank gloom of his cave. He could see well in the dark, as a benefit of his mixed heritage, but for some reason that day it took his eyes several moments longer to adjust. He looked down at his hands. They were no longer small and pink with long delicate fingers, but were back to normal. Light gray the color of concrete, with slender, but strong fingers perfect for climbing up walls, or carefully removing a coin purse.


    There were no longer whiskers in his field of vision either, and the stream of consciousness that included thoughts that both were, and were not his had ended. That dream had been strange. Both of them had. One had felt ethereal and disconnected as dreams always do, but the other had been vivid and clear. He could still even picture the writing the elf had been doing that Jacopo had ignored. It had been in elvish, which he could not read, but the symbols on the paper were still crystal clear to him. He took a sharp stone and carved them as best he could into the wall before they left his mind.


    Had it been stress that had brought on those strange dreams, or did they mean something else? He¡¯d been able to feel what the plants around him needed, and talk to Jacopo as if he were a man. He turned his attention to the plants again, but felt only mild contentment aside from a desire for sunlight which he could not provide, though he empathized with. If that ability was still there, that further solidified the fact that he had not yet succumbed to madness. He looked at the plants again. He wasn¡¯t certain, but it seemed as if the moss had crept a full inch further along the ground than where it had been when he¡¯d gone to sleep.


    He went to examine it more closely, but before he reached it he heard something moving through the narrow entrance to his cave. He turned to see Jacopo, his dark brown fur glistening slightly with the condensation of the walls, and Jacopo¡¯s sister, just as he¡¯d seen her in his dreams, carrying the mirror between them. Dantes added dreaming through the eyes of rats to his rapidly expanding list of strange powers he had no understanding of.


    ¡°You have it?¡± he asked, crouching down to look more closely at the mirror. He reached for it, but Jacopo and his sister hurriedly moved it out of his reach.


    ¡°Meat first.¡±


    Dantes nodded. He had never seen one of the mirrors in person, but given where it had been when Jacopo had stolen it, and what he¡¯d heard, it matched his expectations. He went over to where he stored his food, removed the heavy rock, and gathered a fraction of the meat he¡¯d promised, placing it on the ground between them.


    ¡°Your payment.¡±


    Jacopo¡¯s whiskers twitched at the meat, but he gave no indication he¡¯d realized that it was less than promised.


    ¡°Your half,¡± he said, sliding some of it over to his sister.


    She made a noise that Dantes recognized as a confirmation, took her half, and skittered away into the darkness.


    Jacopo turned his attention to Dantes. ¡°The rest of my payment.¡±


    Dantes nodded, returned to the store, and laid another small portion of meat in front of him.


    Jacopo didn¡¯t move toward it, instead fixing Dantes with a stare that somehow reminded him of the face his mother would make when a client tried to short her. He felt a pang of guilt for comparing her to a rat, but returned to the food storage and brought out the rest of the meat he owed. It was silly, he realized, to be making a deal with a rat. He could simply smash him with a rock and keep the meat for himself, but that wasn¡¯t how he liked to do business. Sure he¡¯d try to short payment, but offering none at all and betraying the person with whom he¡¯d made the deal? That was a good way to build a bad rep, and now that he could talk to rats, he definitely wanted them on his side.


    This time Jacopo accepted. He¡¯d been keeping track of the amount of food Dantes had in his store for a long time, and so knew exactly how much meat he¡¯d stored. He¡¯d half expected him to attack and betray him, it was what another rat may have done, but this was better. He enjoyed the arrangement he had with Dantes. Easy sources of food were hard to come by.


    Dantes lifted the mirror, looking at his gray skinned reflection. He was a midtown mutt all the way through. Gray skin, small tusks fighting to get past his lips, pointed ears, average looks overall. The only thing that set him apart were his gold eyes, and even those weren¡¯t too uncommon. His mother had told him they came from his father¡¯s orcish side, but he¡¯d met him so few times he couldn¡¯t remember what he¡¯d looked like at all, much less the color of his eyes. He looked into the mirror again. He was gaunt, frail compared to how he¡¯d been the last time he¡¯d seen a clear reflection of himself.


    He felt the weight of the mirror in his hand. The weight of his life in his hands.

 Ch 7: Do you think theyll treat you kindly?

    Dantes turned the mirror over in his hands, looking for some kind of activation rune, but found nothing. He could tell the item was magical, there was a feeling to things that had magic. It presented differently for everyone. Some people heard a low hum, others said the air around magic smelled like the air before a storm, others would feel a chill up their spine. For Dantes it was a tingling in the tips of his fingers. He felt that sensation keenly as he held the mirror.


    His attention turned to the mirror¡¯s exposed edge. The only portion that wasn¡¯t obscured by leather. It had been shaved down to a sharp blade and when he looked at it closely he saw small brown stains he recognized as dried blood. He began to press his thumb into the edge, but hesitated. He was eager, it was the first taste of power he¡¯d had in some time, the first true heist he¡¯d been a part of, he needed to calm himself. He longed to use the mirror, but magic could be dangerous, and he had no idea exactly how the mirror functioned, or exactly what might be waiting for him on the other side. Even if he turned it on, it wasn¡¯t as if gold would start to flow from it, it was just a connection to another mirror outside the prison, not a tool for wish fulfillment. He needed to resist the desire to rush things, and gather more information.


    There were a number of people he could bring the mirror to, but only one he could think of that owed him a favor. Dantes slid the mirror into one of the many folds of his coat, slotted a few shivs into his boots, and slid out of his cave.


    He didn¡¯t head straight toward the Collared¡¯s territory. They were the gang he got along best with, but that didn¡¯t mean he trusted them. He¡¯d trusted his gang, and they¡¯d gotten him thrown into this shithole. He had no desire to be betrayed again. He wove through a few narrow caverns and corridors, skirting around Kobold territory just in case the elves had put any kind of bounty on his head. Kobolds were good neighbors. They rarely bothered him when they encountered one another, he got along with the ones that traded, and they could be relied on to perform any job they¡¯d agreed to, up to their understanding of that agreement. They¡¯d still slit his throat for the right price though, and they knew enough about the general area in which he lived that they could place some of their trademark traps to catch him off-guard if they truly wanted to.


    He stopped in an offshoot cave that stopped in a dead end. He peeled away a piece of stone from the wall. Inside was a small pouch that he knew contained a small portion of food, a shiv, and a bottle of clear hooch. He slid the mirror into the compartment, and then sealed it back up. He had a half dozen such hiding places in the Pit. He was hardly the only prisoner that had the idea, but he was fairly certain he was the only one that had so many scattered in the outermost tunnels of the Pit. Most prisoners preferred company, even bad company, to being alone. Particularly with the many stories about the dark things that lived in the furthest reaches of the underprison. He¡¯d heard stories of everything from undead, to floating skulls wrapped in fire, and even that the original denizens of the underprison, those beings that had their city here before Rendhold was built on top of it, were waiting in the darkest depths to pounce. So far, he¡¯d only encountered rats, giant spiders, and the occasional skitterling.


    With the mirror stored safely in his hidey hole, he began making his way to the Collared¡¯s territory. He took a familiar route there, moving carefully so that his own footsteps wouldn¡¯t be so loud that he couldn¡¯t hear anyone else approaching him. As he moved, he continued to experiment with his newfound senses. He could feel a patch of black fungus on a far wall, and it¡¯s craving to spread, he caught snippets of conversation from rats that skittered away as he approached, and he even thought he could sense that Jacopo was still closeby, though exactly where he wasn¡¯t certain. He wasn¡¯t sure of what ways he could use those abilities to benefit himself, aside from more deals with rats, but any edge was better than none, and he was confident he¡¯d find a way to take advantage of it..


    He reached the edges of the Collared¡¯s territory. It was composed of a large cavern, with dozens of small chambers that served as individual rooms. There were many such chambers in the Pit, which had led many to presume they¡¯d been sleeping chambers for whatever society had initially carved them long before Rendhold was built atop it. The Collared''s territory included a small freshwater fountain at its center, the source of which was unknown, but they¡¯d managed to use it to create a crude plumbing of sorts all throughout their space. A few other gangs had been envious of it, but the value of being closer to the maw was higher than a source of freshwater, and it wasn¡¯t worth dividing their forces to hold more than a single area at a time.


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    There was a single sleeping former mage leaning against the wall with his head tucked downward. That was typical. The Collared had much more to worry about coming from the other direction. Still, Dantes decided to help the young guard pay more attention next time. He noticed a slightly raised outline at the side of the boy¡¯s robe. Quickly and deftly he slid his hand into the robe, found a pocket, and pulled out a small book. He recognized it as a grimoire. He was disappointed for a moment, there were few things more useless to him than that. Then he realized it was lighter than he expected. He opened it, and turned a few pages to reveal a concealed compartment. Inside were three pieces of silver, and a small pouch of dust. He smiled, claimed all of it, then slipped the book back into the boy¡¯s pocket.


    Once that was done he walked into the main room, keeping his hood up. He wasn¡¯t exactly hiding who he was, but he wasn¡¯t making a show of being there either. He exchanged a few nods, and a wave. Near Televor¡¯s chamber was a table at which four men were shooting dice. One was a gnome, two were humans, and one was an orc. All four wore the telltale bronze collars.


    The Orc waved. ¡°Dantes, care to join us for a bit of gambling?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d always care to take your goods from you, Wane, but I¡¯m busy today.¡± Their table was probably Dantes¡¯ third favorite. The stakes were low since they didn¡¯t have much to gamble with to begin with, but on the other hand the stakes were low so why bother gambling? Aside from that Dantes didn¡¯t care for many of the regulars aside from Wane and Tel. Though taking money from people you dislike was certainly its own entertainment.


    The gnome moved one of the dice between his fingers. ¡°Trying to find some way for the Elfland Kings to leave you be?¡±


    Dantes turned his attention to him. ¡°Pillion¡­¡±


    ¡°News travels fast¡­ sometimes it can travel very fast. Where people rest their heads, the tunnels they tend to pass through.¡± He gave him a knowing look. ¡°Of course, for the right price maybe that news doesn¡¯t travel.¡±


    Dantes felt a scowl shaping on his face, his small tusks pushing against his lips. He fought it down and took a deep breath. This was normal, it was a good play, one he may have made himself in Pillion¡¯s position. He knelt down to look him in the eyes.


    ¡°Pillion. We don¡¯t really know each other beyond a few games of dice. All you know about where I live is that it¡¯s somewhere in the tunnels beyond Collared territory. You don¡¯t know how close, or far, or how hidden, or even if I sleep in only one place. When you tell the Elfland Kings where you think you can find me, and they come up empty handed, or worse, I manage to kill one of them, do you think they¡¯ll treat you kindly? Do you think if I survive that you¡¯ll remain secure with a bit of extra weed in your pocket to lose on dice? That collar isn¡¯t so thick that it will keep your throat from being slit. You¡¯d do well to remember that.¡±


    Pillion scoffed, and made a rude gesture, but couldn¡¯t help bringing his hand up to his collar and rubbing his neck gingerly.


    Dantes turned to Wane. ¡°Is Tel in his room?¡±


    Wane nodded. ¡°Yeah, been sleeping since he got back though. Seemed real dehydrated as well, must¡¯ve drank an entire pitcher of water. We thought he may have traded away the last of his goods for one too many stiff drinks.¡±


    Dantes laughed. ¡°It wasn¡¯t drinks. I introduced him to Syn.¡±


    Wane laughed too. ¡°Ah, well, I think I remember my first visit to Which Wench. I managed to hold out for a year and couldn¡¯t walk right for a week afterward.¡±


    ¡°Disgusting,¡± muttered Pillion as he placed his dice into the cup and began shaking them.


    Dantes shook his head, not willing to expend any more time on Pillion, and walked to Tel¡¯s room. If Pillion was trying to extort him, that likely meant that someone else among the Collared had already told the Elfland Kings all that they knew about him and where he was. The longer he took to figure things out, the harder it would be to maneuver, and the more limited his options would become. He needed to speed things up.


    He reached Tel¡¯s room, and slid the small curtain to it aside.

 Ch 8: I really dont want to be stabbed.

    Tel¡¯s room was much as Dantes had expected it to be. A small stack of books in one corner, crudely carved incantations along the surface of the walls, a cushion on the floor, and a pile of them in the corner atop which Tel laid, snoring softly. Dantes knocked on the wall with his knuckles in an attempt to wake him, but he didn¡¯t stir. "Well, I tried", he thought before giving into his natural instincts and beginning a search of the room. Among the books, he found nothing uncommon, which was likely how Tel had afforded them, though he did find some tasteful charcoal etchings of horned women in scintillating poses that piqued his interest hidden between the pages of a few. He left those alone and searched around the rest of the room. Beneath the pillow he found a single cigarette, and in a corner he found a small barrel that had just enough food to last him another week. Tel hadn¡¯t been kidding when he¡¯d spoken of how broke he was. Still, the Collared looked out for each other, it wasn¡¯t as dire as it would¡¯ve been if Dantes¡¯ own supplies had dwindled to that point. Once he¡¯d found everything of value, he left it where it was. He was just staying sharp, besides he wouldn¡¯t steal anything when Tel had so little. It would almost certainly be noticed.


    With nothing left to do, Dantes lightly kicked Tel on his bed.


    ¡°Once I rest a few moments I¡¯ll be able to go again. Let me just catch my breath,¡± he muttered tiredly.


    Dantes kicked him more firmly.


    This time he didn¡¯t even react.


    Dantes moved over to the stack of books, lifted the heaviest of them, some thick tome written in scratchy text, and slammed it next to Tel¡¯s head.


    ¡°Professor, I swear I was awake!¡± he blinked a few times, and looked at Dantes. ¡°Oh that¡¯s right¡­ I¡¯m in prison.¡± He sighed. ¡°I was having the most wonderful dream.¡±


    ¡°Spare me the details.¡±


    He rubbed his eyes. ¡°I have to thank you for introducing me to Syn. That was the best night I¡¯ve had in a looong time. She did this thing with her-¡±


    ¡°Spare me those details as well.¡± Dantes hadn¡¯t enjoyed hearing about people¡¯s sexual escapades outside of the Pit, and he definitely didn¡¯t want to hear anything about the depravities that were happening inside of it.


    ¡°Wait, why are you here? I couldn¡¯t find you after I left the brothel. Didn¡¯t search long though to be honest. The whole Undermarket seemed to be having a fit.¡±


    ¡°Did you hear any specifics?¡±


    ¡°No. Just lots of pissed off elves, or people trying to avoid pissed off elves. The elves wouldn¡¯t talk to me since I¡¯m ¡®half souled¡¯ and everyone else wouldn¡¯t talk to me because they thought I was with the other elves.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, well I¡¯m sure it¡¯s not important.¡± Dantes said smoothly. He wanted Tel focused, if he got him excited about his situation it might make it harder for him to get what he wanted, or make him hesitant to be seen with him. ¡°I need to call on that favor you owe me.¡±


    Tel stood and stretched, his joints popping loudly as his long frame reached up and touched the ceiling of his cell. ¡°Any chance it can wait? I¡¯ll need to figure out whatever busy work I need to do for Merle to earn some extra food this month. Unless you¡¯ve got a lead?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°No leads for you. I introduced you to Syn, that was the cost and I already paid it.¡±


    ¡°And if I refuse I suppose it¡¯s a beating?¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Reputation is important. Though, since it would be the second time¡­ I¡¯d probably need to stab you.¡±


    Tel grimaced. ¡°I really don¡¯t want to be stabbed.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Few people do, though a lot of people act like it¡¯s exactly what they¡¯re looking for.¡± he bent down and grabbed a blue cloak from the floor, tossing it to Tel who managed to catch it by the hood. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±


    Tel began sliding on the cloak. ¡°Alright, alright. What is it you need from me?¡±


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    ¡°Just need you to take a look at something, tell me what you think of it.¡±


    Tel¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Is it something ma-.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Dantes quickly lied, adding a bit of exasperation to his tone in order to sell it. Mentioning magic items among the Collared was a surefire way to get himself unwanted attention. Not to mention if the Elves began searching for their missing shard of mirror, it wouldn¡¯t take long for people to put two and two together with him as the result. ¡°Just some writing on a side passage I need translated. Old prisoner writing, not old enough to be original to the wall.¡±


    Many portions of the Pit were coated in the script of its original inhabitants, and those areas that were blank were often filled with the script of prisoners who wanted to mark an important passage, a place something was hidden, or a place to avoid. Often they led on worthless treasure hunts with no reward, equally as often they led into some unreachable hole where a man would be lost to time, but sometimes you could find a cache of old liquor, or weapons, or any number of other things. There were stories of such notes leading to enormous changes in the power structure of the pit, or even an escape from it. All of that made it a solid enough lie.


    ¡°You know, I could teach you to read a few other languages, it¡¯s not too hard, and it''s not like we don¡¯t have the time.¡±


    ¡°I already speak universal languages.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± asked Tel as they left his cell and began descending toward the tunnel Dantes had arrived from.


    ¡°Love, money, and violence.¡±


    Tel chuckled. ¡°You know, you¡¯d have gotten along well with the daemons I summoned during my studies.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a compliment,¡± He sensed some kind of change in air and turned his focus to the far tunnels. Movement he could feel, but not hear or see. In and around the walls, heading toward them. It took him a moment to realize that it was rats. He could practically feel their small paws dancing across his feet as they ran, their whiskers brushing against his leg. No one else seemed to notice it, so he stayed calm and continued walking out. Whatever was happening, he couldn¡¯t see much value in being there when it went down.


    The sleeping guard was now awake at the back entrance, and furiously scouring the ground, his grimoire held loosely in his hand.


    ¡°You lose something Sal?¡± asked Tel.


    ¡°Uh, yeah¡­ just a bit of weed,¡± he lied.


    ¡°Need help finding it?¡±


    Dantes shook his head at Tel¡¯s naivete, ¡°He¡¯s going to say no because he thinks we¡¯ll steal it if we find it, and he¡¯s right. Let¡¯s get going.¡±


    Sal gave Tel a small apologetic nod in agreement to what Dantes had said, and then they left him behind as Dantes began to sense the rats scatter into the myriad small invisible tunnels around the Collared.


    They walked into the dark passages, Tel ducking where Dantes could walk straight, as he guided him through the side passageways and cracks that he routinely navigated. Areas where the once perfect stone hallways had been destroyed by whatever cataclysm had killed the culture that had carved them.


    Dantes considered bringing up his newfound abilities to Tel. They were clearly magical in some way, even if he himself was still not a mage. As he considered it though, he decided he¡¯d rather keep it to himself. It had more value as a secret, and he didn¡¯t trust anyone to keep a secret like that to themselves.


    ¡°How is it that you know where you¡¯re going? Do you have some kind of marker you use?¡± asked Tel as they walked through a passage, picking cobwebs off his robe with a look of clear discomfort on his face.


    ¡°No, any marker I could see, someone else could use to follow me.¡±


    ¡°So it¡¯s just memory then?¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Partially memory, yeah. There are a few tricks to navigating that can be learned with practice.¡±


    Tel waited for Dantes to elaborate, but he didn¡¯t. He¡¯d earned those skills, and was hesitant to share them when they provided him one of the few edges he had in the Pit. His skill at navigating the tunnels had come from a conversation he¡¯d had with a dwarf when he¡¯d first arrived. He¡¯d been playing dice with him, when the dwarf had begun talking about how his people would dig out their cave cities. That reminded Dantes of a simple fact. The Pit wasn¡¯t random. It had been built and carved for a purpose, one that had existed long before it had been a prison. Once he understood that, the layout he had in his mind began to click. Even the collapses and cracks could be made sense of with a bit of context.


    They reached the small dead-end cave that Dantes had stored the mirror in.


    ¡°Perhaps your vision is better than mine, but I see no writing here.¡± Tel¡¯s eyes narrowed and he began backing toward the exit. ¡°Oh gods, you¡¯re going to try to take me as a woman aren¡¯t you? That¡¯s what this is about?¡±


    Dantes brought his hand to his face and slowly slid it down, sighing the whole time. ¡°You know I¡¯m friends with the changelings. If I wanted to spend time with a man in that way, I would ask one of them.¡±


    ¡°Oh. Right.¡±


    ¡°You probably should be more cautious about following other men into darkened tunnels. Your¡­ virtue aside, you could easily be stabbed, robbed, and left for dead.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve given me a lot to think about these last few days.¡±


    Dantes shook his head and approached the stone on the wall. He removed it, and pulled out the mirror, holding it out to Televor.


    Tel¡¯s eyes widened, and he brought it to his nose inhaling deeply. ¡°Roast meat. Gods I missed that smell.¡±

 Ch 9: Or mad. Or dead.

    ¡°Roast meat?¡± asked Dantes.


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s what magic smells like to me.¡± said Televor, turning the mirror over in his hands. ¡°And this smells to me like a Lady of the Hearth feast to end all feasts.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t get too attached. I¡¯ll be keeping that once you¡¯re done helping me.¡±


    ¡°This is what you needed? For me to decipher its use?¡±


    ¡°I have a general idea of its use. It¡¯s meant to transfer goods from outside the prison. There¡¯s a small gap in the leather frame that I think is meant to be touched by blood to activate it, but I decided against testing it myself.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm, magic mirrors. Elven then, or some other kind of fey creature.¡± he ran a finger gently across the mirror¡¯s surface. ¡°Old magic, but¡­ broken somehow¡­¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow, the answer to this somehow was obvious considering Tel was holding a broken shard of mirror. He stayed silent though, no reason to ruin Tel¡¯s fun, and he wasn¡¯t sure if breaking his flow would slow him down or break his concentration.


    Tel brought the mirror to his nose, gave it a few cursory sniffs, then licked across its surface with his tongue.


    This made Dantes raise his other eyebrow, and his eyes widened when the mirror gave off a brief warm glow.


    ¡°You were right to not use your own blood. It would¡¯ve resulted in a tremendous expulsion of power. You¡¯d likely be dead.¡±


    Dantes swallowed.


    ¡°The only way to activate it is with pure elven blood. Anything less results in the power within the mirror exiting violently, in proportion to how much elven blood you have.¡± He paused to laugh. ¡°I suppose I¡¯d only be half dead if I tried it.¡±


    ¡°What exactly does it do after it¡¯s activated?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a portal. Well, originally it was a portal. Elfland has several mirrors like this, unbroken of course, they¡¯re portals back to the original realm from which the elves hail. Though, they obviously don¡¯t take many trips back, what with the cataclysm and all. A trip back would mean almost instant death for any that tried. They¡¯d be, ¡®devoured by the darkness that had slept in their own hearts¡¯ as my Grandma would say when talking about Elfland.¡± He shook his head wistfully. ¡°She was such a nice woman.¡±


    ¡°What does that mean for the one that shard is a part of?¡±


    ¡°Well, because it¡¯s broken, it can only link with other pieces of itself. I imagine that you put a piece of paper through it and whatever other piece it¡¯s linked to received the message, and they send whatever was requested back.¡±


    Dantes clenched his jaw. It could only be activated by pure elven blood, they likely only communicated through it in elvish script, not to mention that was likely coded on top of that. That limited his options with it severely. He was left with a piece of magic that he could use as either a bomb or a bargaining chip. It wasn¡¯t the full potential he¡¯d been looking for, but considering his only investment into acquiring it had been a small pile of dried meat, he¡¯d come out on top. It could still be all he needed to secure his protection from the kings, but he¡¯d need to play things right, and get incredibly lucky.


    Tel paused mid sniff as he was looking at the mirror, his happy expression at being able to enjoy closeness to magic again slowly turning to a frown. ¡°Wait. Where did you get this?¡±


    ¡°From the Elven Kings.¡±


    ¡°They didn¡¯t¡­give it to you, did they?¡±


    ¡°Afraid not.¡±


    ¡°By the Aether, they¡¯re going to cut you groin to throat! Shit, they¡¯re going to cut me groin to throat!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, they don¡¯t know I stole it. There¡¯s no way for them to trace its loss back to me¡­ unless you say something.¡±


    Tel nodded slowly letting out a sigh. ¡°You¡¯re sure? There¡¯s no way they¡¯re after you for it?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°Not for it, no.¡±


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    Tel nodded and stopped. ¡°Wait, what do you mean by that?"


    Dantes sighed, Tel was learning. It was a thing equally detrimental and beneficial to him all at once. ¡°I got into a fight outside the Which Wench. Wound up being pushed into some new hot shit Elfland Kings Leader, and accidentally slashed his face with a shiv. Ran away, and embarrassed a few of them in the process, stabbed one of them.¡±


    ¡°And your solution is to steal this from them? Won¡¯t they be far more upset about that?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but as I mentioned they don¡¯t know I¡¯m the one who took it.¡±


    ¡°Couldn¡¯t you have just gone to them? Throw yourself at their mercy? Take a quick severe beating and then crawl away to recover?¡±


    ¡°You maybe could do that with the protection of the collared and half-elven blood. Me? It¡¯s not an option. Even buying them off would be almost impossible for a mutt like me. I don¡¯t exactly have bars of gold and virginal elven women on hand to trade.¡±


    Tel stared worriedly at the mirror in his hands. He¡¯d just been salivating over it, but now he looked as if it¡¯s touch was actually painful to him.


    Dantes held out a hand. ¡°Listen, you held out your end of the bargain, and honored the favor I asked of you. Your part ends here. I can handle myself, and the information you¡¯ve given me should help.¡±


    Tel nodded reluctantly, and handed Dantes the mirror. ¡°Okay¡­ but if they ask I won¡¯t tell them where to find you.¡±


    Dantes chuckled. ¡°Very noble, but you don¡¯t know where to find me anyway.¡± He took a breath, and let it out. ¡°I¡¯ll guide you back. I need to think through my next moves.¡±


    Tel nodded, and Dantes put the mirror back in its hiding spot before he began leading him through the tunnels. He took a different route back, he didn¡¯t think Tel would sell him out on purpose, but he couldn¡¯t fully trust him, and wanted to be sure he wouldn¡¯t be able to make his way back to the mirror without him.


    At one point they entered a large antechamber, with rows and rows of benches hewn from the stone of the Pit itself. Ornate carvings in strange geometric patterns lined the walls, and the ceilings were so high they got lost in the dark. Dantes had another strange feeling, it was similar to the rats'', but different at the same time. He¡¯d felt the rats running along his feet, now he could swear he was being lightly slapped in the face by something. He heard a flap of wings above, and realized it was bats, and they were nervous. He didn¡¯t hesitate, instead pulling Tel down behind one of the stone pews.


    ¡°Wha-¡±


    Dantes held up a finger, and gestured for him to stay low, and held his breath, drawing his shiv.


    Just then, two elves began to walk through the same chamber. They moved silently, with one wielding a thin sword, and another holding a wickedly curved dagger. They scanned the room, then nodded at one another, sheathing their weapons.


    ¡°Could¡¯ve sworn I heard footsteps.¡±


    ¡°Might¡¯ve, the echoes down here can linger for a long time. Could¡¯ve been the steps of a man long dead.¡±


    One of them looked up as if beseeching the gods.¡°When I¡¯m stuck down here as long as you, will I also become unbearably fucking creepy about everything?¡±


    ¡°That, or mad, or dead.¡±


    There was an audible sigh. ¡°That one¡¯s on me. I asked and got another creepy answer. I accept responsibility for that.¡±


    The other one nodded sagely. ¡°It¡¯s normal to be nervous when you first arrive in the pit. We¡¯re meant for rich forests, not deep dungeons. This is the realm of bottom feeding lesser races, like the dwarves and kobolds.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah. We¡¯re the best, they¡¯re the worst. I don¡¯t see why we''re doing this in the first place? So some asshole fell into Reivare, knicked him a bit, stabbed a three quarter blooded mouth breather, and ran away when he was chased. I say we let him alone. He¡¯ll come back toward the Maw eventually, and then we jump him there, kill him, and move on.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ agree with you. But a Grand Duke of Spring was cut by a mixed beast. He is fresh to the pit, and impatient. All affronts feel particularly offending to him, deep within his core. This will fade as he settles into the way of things here, and we will be better off for it.¡±


    ¡°And in the meantime we kill this mutt, Dantes?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Even if his temper cooled, he has given an order. He will not back off on it unless absolutely necessary.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve seen this kind of thing a few times, huh?¡±


    ¡°Many, many times. The new Dukes are sent down to run operations here. They learn valuable lessons. They leave. The cycle repeats.¡±


    ¡°Any chance any of us regulars get to leave with him.¡±


    ¡°It has happened.¡±


    There was a sigh. ¡°It would probably help my chances if I killed the mutt right?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s likely.¡±


    ¡°Alright, fuck it then. Let¡¯s check the next chamber.¡±


    The elves walked down the long room, past the pew where Dantes and Tel were hiding and off into the darkness of the deeper caverns that they¡¯d come from. They sat there for several minutes, wary of the sensitivity of elf ears before they let out a loud exhalation of breath almost simultaneously.


    ¡°Let¡¯s move,¡± said Dantes, standing up and dragging Tel to his feet.

 Ch 10: You are strange

    ¡°You¡¯re fucked. Absolutely fucked!¡± said Tel, as Dantes lead him through the remaining passages to Collared territory.


    ¡°Probably, but it¡¯s not your problem so don¡¯t worry about it.¡±


    They ducked beneath a collapsed section of wall and into a tight hallway.


    ¡°They had actual blades. Not just whittled down pieces of old metal, fresh iron, hot from the forge.¡±


    ¡°All the gangs have access to real weapons¡­except the Orcs. Though they¡¯ve likely stolen a fair amount over time.¡± He ignored the, ¡®hot from the forge¡¯ comment. It wasn¡¯t exactly surprising that a half-elf who went to the academy didn¡¯t know anything about forging.


    ¡°They even said that there¡¯s no way that their leader is going to back off. I mean, hunting for you in the outer parts of the Pit? He wants you dead yesterday.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s about how long it¡¯s been, yes.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re just¡­ screwed. Not to mention what might happen if they find out it was you that took the mirror. I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll stop at just killing you.¡±


    The edges of Collared territory started to come into view, and Dantes let out a long sigh and a short prayer thanking the pathfinder for her mercy. He had quickly tired of Tel¡¯s ongoing rambling regarding his fate. He was well aware of the danger he was in without being told every moment.


    ¡°This is where we split,¡± he said, gesturing for Tel to move on.


    ¡°Oh¡­ you¡¯re sure you don¡¯t need help?¡±


    ¡°I almost definitely do, but not from you. You¡¯ve done what I needed, go back to your cell and pretend you don¡¯t know me.¡±


    ¡°But, what¡¯s your plan?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. Really, I¡¯ll either be fine, or I won¡¯t. Don¡¯t count on anything either way.¡±


    Tel nodded, a glum expression on his face. ¡°Okay.¡± He¡¯d been afraid at first, but now he seemed almost willing to go to bat for him. It was always one step forward and two steps back when it came to him figuring out how things worked down there, and even with his growing cynicism Dantes could see the flickers of idealism peek through in him every once in a while.


    Televor walked back toward his cell, stopping once to look back, but Dantes had already left.


    He moved through the caverns, back toward the mirror. He took the passages he knew would be the most difficult to traverse in order to reduce the chances that he¡¯d be found by or accidentally stumble into the elves that were hunting him. He made it back to where he¡¯d hidden the mirror, and took it, along with half of the rations he¡¯d had hidden there, some mixed nuts and dried fruit.


    He snacked as he moved, trying to keep his energy up, it was going to be a long day. He knew he¡¯d be in danger, but hadn¡¯t predicted that the Kings would use their resources to this degree hunting him. He¡¯d thought that at worst he¡¯d need to avoid the areas that they congregated, and be wary when traveling near their territory. Now that he was being actively pursued he needed to move forward quickly. He had, as far as he could tell, two options with the mirror that could save him. One would be to trade the mirror to another gang, explain how it works, and offer it as a trade for protection. The other, would be to bleed on it, chuck it into the Elfland kings leadership, and when it exploded, hope that the problem was taken care of. Option one was definitely the one he felt was more likely to work.


    When it came to which gangs he should go to with his offer, his choices were limited. The Smallfolk Consortium had their own ways to bring things in, and also not much to offer in terms of protection. The Orcs had plenty of protection to offer, but couldn¡¯t be counted on to honor any deals he made with them, they would see him as too elvish for that. The Kobolds were a possibility, but between the cultural divide with how they perceived agreements, and their likely lack of interest in what the mirror could do, it was uncertain they¡¯d care. The collared just didn¡¯t have the strength to back him up, though he was certain they would. That left Clan Stonedust, the Dwarven gang. They had the strength to back him up, and would likely be interested in the mirror, if only as a way to fuck with the Kings.


    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    He had two ways to get to the dwarves. One, would be to make his way toward the Maw, and through the Undermarket. A risky proposition given that the Kings were actively searching for him. The other option was to take side passages that slowly looped around. He¡¯d be crossing primarily through Kobold territory. The kobolds themselves were relatively neutral to him, and would likely leave him be, but the myriad traps they liked to leave in their territory would be another story.


    He needed to regroup, to check on his resources and determine what the best path would be. He continued maneuvering through the tunnels, old halls, and ruined passageways. His senses were still occasionally flashing with insights into the life that surrounded him. Rats, roaches, mold, all of it seemed to have something to say to him. The darkness was full of life, hungry, horny, scared, warm, cold, dying, being born. He couldn¡¯t really control the flow of these impressions, so he decided to focus on the task at hand. To a certain extent, he knew that he was putting off dealing with something that was going to turn out to be incredibly important, but time was a factor. It had gone from something he had too much of, to something he had in short supply.


    He reached his cave some time later, and sat on his bed, taking a few moments to catch his breath. Jacopo crawled out of the darkness in the corner of the cave and approached Dantes expectantly. Dantes took a large nut he still had left and handed it to him.


    ¡°Thanks.¡±


    Dantes nodded. The ritual was no different than it had always been, the only difference was that he understood what Jacopo was saying. He looked around his cave, his home for the last four years. The plants had definitely grown since he¡¯d been in the cave last. The moss that had always looked frail and a bit brown was now a lush green color and starting to creep across the floor, spreading its tendrils. He¡¯d always been impressed at their surviving, but now they seemed to actually be thriving. There was only the smallest sliver of light that came into his home from one of the purple crystals that emitted light high above him, and behind a crack in the wall. The light was probably indetectable to those without the sensitivity to light his eyes had. It wasn¡¯t sunlight though, so only the hardiest plants could survive there. He had no clue how the light worked, even after the centuries since its original inhabitants had vanished, but the Pit was a strange place that didn¡¯t always seem to follow the rules of the world above, particularly when you reached the deeper passages.


    He stood up, and removed the rock that guarded his larder. He took out the fruit he¡¯d stolen only a little over a day before. It still felt firm in his hand, and smelled vaguely of dirt. He took a large bite, chewing it slowly and savoring it. Fruit, like meat, was a delicacy in the Pit. Fresh fruit was even more rare. He finished the peach he was eating, and moved on to the grapes, tossing one to Jacopo, then finally he ate the apple that remained. By the time he was done his hands were sticky, but his stomach was full and his tastebuds alight with the pleasures of a rare treat.


    He went over to the pitcher he kept in the center of his cave where it collected water. He poured some into a small clay bowl, and used that water to clean himself. He then poured what remained in the bowl into those patches of moss he could sense were thirsty. Once that was done he returned to the pitcher and quenched his own thirst. That¡¯s when he sensed something else.


    Jacopo had moved to where the scraps of the fruit had fallen from Dantes¡¯ mouth and hands and was gnawing on the peach pit. Dantes could feel something from the pit. From all the seeds he¡¯d spat or placed into a small pile as he¡¯d eaten. There was a spark. The faintest glimmer of life. He moved closer to them and picked each of them up in his hand. They craved dirt, sunlight, water, fertilizer. The desires radiating from them felt to him like the cries of the other kids he¡¯d watched for his mother¡¯s coworkers at the brothel. Those women who¡¯d forgotten to drink the concoction the madam provided for them, or had children from before they¡¯d begun their new line of work.


    He held them in his hand. He couldn¡¯t give them a lot of light, but he had a feeling, an intuition that they would accept something else. He wasn¡¯t sure where the instinct came from, but he followed it just as he had the other ones that had so recently become a part of him. He walked out of his cave, squeezing through the narrow entrance, and moved through a few smaller halls and passages until he came to a large, high ceilinged room. The cracks in the floor here were wider than any other nearby area, and he could actually see a small amount of dirt through them. He found several spots throughout the chamber, and planted each seed. He then watered each of them. He took a shiv from his hand, and pricked the tip of his thumb. The sun was a source of light and life. He couldn¡¯t provide the light, but life he could do, even if it was only symbolic. He squeezed the wound over each seed, and could feel the gratitude come off of each of the seeds in waves as his blood reached them.


    Once he was done he noticed Jacopo sitting on a nearby stone, watching him.


    ¡°You are strange.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m beginning to think so too.¡±


    Jacopo held out the peach pit he¡¯d been gnawing on. ¡°This one as well.¡±


    Dantes took the seed and buried it with the others.

 Ch 11: Taller than a dwarf. Bit shorter than me.

    Once he was done following through with the odd compulsion he felt, surprisingly, revitalized. As if the planting he¡¯d done had been restorative for him somehow. That didn¡¯t seem right, but whatever his new abilities were, he didn¡¯t know all the rules yet, and that meant all he could do was roll with it until the pieces all came into place. Or ask someone, but he was still of the mind that he needed to play things as close to the chest as possible.


    He¡¯d decided, in the midst of his gardening, that taking the long way through kobold territory was his best option for reaching Clan Stonedust territory. There was a chance he could slink through the center of the Pit without getting noticed. He was as nondescript as they came. Average height, nothing that really made him stand out, but Elves¡­ particularly Elfland Kings had a way of noticing every peculiar thing about anyone that wasn¡¯t an elf. The exact type of pointed his ears were, the gray shade of his skin, the shape of his skull, they were freaks about that kind of thing. He¡¯d bet his life that he could slip through a group of Orcs, Kobolds, or Dwarves, but with the elven obsession with people¡¯s physical characteristics, it was just too great of a risk.


    He checked his gear, he still had his two shivs and the rest of his typical kit. Aside from that, he searched around until he located a long, slender metal rod. He wasn¡¯t sure of what its original purpose was, but he¡¯d found it a useful method for searching for traps, or checking for instability when moving through some of the deeper tunnels in the Pit. He also grabbed a few small slender pieces of scrap metal that he¡¯d managed to shave down over time into serviceable lockpicks.


    It would be easier, of course, to simply trigger any traps he found at a distance, and then move through the space without a care, but that was a surefire way to piss off the kobolds. They didn¡¯t mind someone disarming their traps, that made them see you as an equal. To outright destroy them though? That was an affront that they would find completely unacceptable. Dantes would obviously destroy them if he had no choice, but since they were some of his closest neighbors, and a force in their own right within the Pit, he saw no reason to antagonize them.


    He moved to slip out through the crack that led to his cave, and heard Jacopo moving quietly behind him. Once he was through he turned to look at the large brown rat.


    ¡°Are you coming with me?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    The rat cleaned its whiskers thoughtfully. ¡°I want to.¡±


    ¡°Why do you want to? It¡¯s not that I mind the company, I¡¯m just surprised.¡± He wouldn¡¯t have wanted Tel¡¯s help for this particular journey, but Jacopo? He likely knew the tunnels as well if not better than Dantes did, not to mention he may help him notice traps he might not see otherwise. He wasn¡¯t so naive as to be unaware of the risks he was undertaking and the rat had been nothing, but savvy since he first started speaking to him.The thought made Dantes smirk, he imagined Tel would be a bit offended that he¡¯d prefer a rat¡¯s help to his, but in some ways Dantes was closer to a rat anyway.


    ¡°Not sure. Just want to.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°You¡¯re welcome to. I¡¯m headed through kobold territory.¡±


    ¡°Kobold?¡±


    ¡°Big lizards that walk on two legs. Taller than a dwarf, a bit shorter than me.¡±


    Jacopo nodded exactly as someone new to the gesture might. ¡°Yes. Very dangerous. Lost Father to one of their traps.¡±


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    ¡°Well, hopefully we can avoid that fate for ourselves.¡±


    Jacopo twitched his whiskers in what Dantes assumed was a approximation of a shrug. ¡°We shall see.¡±


    With those encouraging words they began moving through the tunnels, chambers, and rooms that made up the outer edges of the Pit. Dantes had a solid grasp of everything to expect in them, as he¡¯d traveled through many of them before. It would take nearly an hour before they reached the edges of Kobold territory and would need to slow down. Jacopo kept up easily at first, but began to tire the further they went. At one point, when Dantes was forced to reevaluate his path when a tunnel he¡¯d gone through in the past was blocked, Jacopo leapt onto his jacket and settled into a pocket, peeking his head out to continue observing what was happening as they moved.


    Eventually Dantes found himself in less familiar territory. He pulled out the thin metal rod and began tapping the floor in front of him, while also keeping a lookout for any areas where the dust and dirt had been disturbed. It didn¡¯t take long for him to hear a hollow sound when tapping what appeared to be a broken part of the path ahead. He very gingerly slipped around it and to the other side. Pitfalls were a basic trap, but difficult to set up in the Pit. The stone was so hard that digging them out yourself would be nearly impossible, finding an area that already had a hole and covering it up was another story of course.


    He went to keep moving, when Jacopo yelled.


    ¡°Stop!¡±


    Dantes froze. Jacopo crawled out from his jacket and onto his shoulder where he gently tilted his head to show a thin wire suspended directly in front of him. He followed the wire with his eyes and saw that it led to to the wall, and then to a large stone directly above him. Had he triggered the trap, the rock would¡¯ve crushed him. He let out a breath, and ducked under the wire. The pitfall had seemed a bit obvious. It had been the easily avoidable trap meant to cause someone to drop their guard. Very clever.


    He kept moving forward, continuing to test the ground with the metal rod, but moving more slowly and patiently overall. He managed to find and gently disarm a shrapnel trap, a spear launcher, and kept Jacopo from wandering into a stick trap that would¡¯ve rendered him unable to move, taking the piece of moldy bread from the center of it and giving it to him to allow him his prize without a sacrifice.


    They moved further and further in, and began to see signs of the kobolds. Three toed footprints, shed skins, even some old bones that Dantes were almost certain had belonged to a halfling. He¡¯d heard rumors that the Kobolds never wanted for meat. He wondered if they actively hunted other races, or if this had merely been a scavenging opportunity. He felt that he would¡¯ve heard if the former was the case, at least that was what he told himself as they continued moving.


    Eventually they reached a stone door. In the front of it was an opening for a key. Before he even took out his lockpicks, he and Jacopo scanned the entire area for any possible traps it was linked to, but found nothing. Dantes pulled out his tools and squatted in front of the lock. He got to work, but found that the lock was more complex than he¡¯d expected. That coupled with the lack of practice with locks he¡¯d had in the last five years, led to a number of quiet creative curses as he worked. At one point he came incredibly close, but lost it at the last moment. There was a tumbler toward the front of the lock that he kept fumbling. He ran a hand up his face and through his hair.


    ¡°Jacopo?¡±


    ¡°Yes?¡± he answered, removing a small crumb from his whisker quickly.


    ¡°Can you put your hand into this, and push right,¡± he tapped on the tumbler with his pick, ¡°here?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± He crawled out from Dantes¡¯ pocket and into the inside of jacket until he was hanging halfway out of his sleeve. Then he reached out and placed his paw on the tumbler.


    Dantes went to work around him and, with a click that sounded like music to him, the door was unlocked. He slid it slowly open to see three Kobolds standing just beyond it, all looking at him with spears raised.


    He froze, and Jacopo fled back into his jacket. He was certain he could take one of them, maybe even two, but not three of them. They were all armed with stone tipped spears, not to mention teeth and claws. He hadn¡¯t realized he¡¯d made it far enough into their territory to encounter this many of them. They hadn¡¯t stabbed him right away, that was good, meant he may be able to talk his way out of the situation.


    All of these thoughts occurred in an instant, and at the end of that instant, the kobolds clapped.

 Ch 12: The cannibalism didnt bother him much

    The clapping made Dantes jump, but he kept himself from lunging into the nearest of the kobolds in an attempt to take them down before they could take him down.


    ¡°Good job with the lock,¡± said one of them to his left. His scales were green with flecks of gold and he spoke at an odd, deliberate pace.


    ¡°Yes, very impressive for one of the clumsy handed races,¡± said a different one. He was red with a single silver eye and he spoke with a bit more confidence.


    A third, black scaled Kobold wearing a purple robe that had clearly originally been made for an elf or human, inhaled deeply. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I taste a whiff of dwarf on him. Still impressive though.¡±


    ¡°Dwarven blood could be as much of a liability as it is a benefit. It could mean he attempted the entire journey drunk,¡± said the red one.


    Rather than laughing at the comment as Dantes would¡¯ve expected, the other two Kobolds simply nodded as if they¡¯d just heard a unique piece of wisdom.


    Dantes slowly moved his hand off the shiv he had been ready to reach for in his sleeve. He then knelt down and picked up his lockpicks which had fallen from the door, not taking his eyes off the three in front of him.


    ¡°Thank you for the compliments. It wasn¡¯t easy.¡±


    ¡°We were hoping that you¡¯d get caught so that we could eat well tonight, but since you have made it so far without issue, we can no longer claim your flesh,¡± The red one gestured to himself, then the green kobold, and the black one. ¡°I am Tyr, he is Fen, he is Tek.¡±


    Dantes nodded at each of them as they were introduced, and when they were done he pointed to himself. ¡°I¡¯m Tes.¡± Kobolds had a system of names that represented their place in Kobold society. The first syllable was for identifying, and the following ones were based on who they were and what they did. Since they were in the pit, no kobold had more than a single syllable since they no longer had their old place in their society. Whenever Dantes had spoken with Mez, a kobold bootlegger he traded with, he¡¯d always only referred to him as Tes, so he figured he¡¯d stick with that.


    ¡°Tes, welcome. Come, come.¡± Tyr moved further in, and Dantes followed him, slowly, making sure that the kobolds weren¡¯t moving to surround or trick him. He saw a small fire with rats roasting over it on a spit, four piles of loose cloth, and a small table with tools that looked to have been crafted from small pieces of scrap metal or stone.


    Once they reached the fire, Tyr grabbed one of the skewered rats and handed it to him. Dantes¡¯ mouth watered, cooked meat was a rare thing in the pit. It wasn¡¯t the first time he¡¯d eaten rat, though it was the first time he¡¯d done so since he¡¯d begun talking to them. He took a sniff, but couldn¡¯t detect any poison or anything else suspicious. He took a test bite, and after a few minutes, took another.


    ¡°Hmmm, a cousin,¡± whispered Jacopo from his collar. ¡°He had been warned many times of the dangers of this region.¡± He sniffed. ¡°Give me a piece.¡±


    Dantes subtly tore off a piece of rat and handed it to Jacopo. Rats could be found all throughout the prison. The areas closest to the maw had the fewest of them. It was a common thing for people to hunt them, but the rats in the Pit were different, smarter than their kin in the city. They tended to avoid traps, and be long gone before anyone could reach them when they were being hunted. Dantes had only eaten them on those lucky occasions where he¡¯d found one in a kobold trap before the kobolds had.


    After they were all seated and eating, Tek looked at Dantes. ¡°So, what brings you to our territory?¡±


    ¡°Just passing through,¡± he said, wary of revealing his intentions, as welcoming as the kobolds were.


    ¡°Passing through to¡­?¡± asked Tyr, insistent.


    He thought it over. It didn¡¯t really matter if they knew. There wasn¡¯t anything they could do with the information that could hurt him. They already had him outnumbered if their intention was to harm him. ¡°Clan Stonedust territory.¡±


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    ¡°You are going the wrong way,¡± said Fen simply. ¡°Faster to travel through the maw.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t do that.¡±


    Tyr nodded sagely. ¡°Someone means to kill you?¡±


    Dantes nodded, surprised at the insightful question ¡°Yes.¡±


    Tek chuckled. ¡°Very common. Some human kills an orc, or a small gang picks a fight they can''t win. Soon they can only survive on the outskirts, forced to deal with us. Most don¡¯t manage the traps though. Too stupid, or they break them and ruin our hard work. This is also stupid.¡±


    Fen picked a rat leg from his teeth. ¡°Why did you not simply break the traps? That is what your kind usually does.¡±


    ¡°I have a friend, Mez, he gave me some advice about you that I try to follow.¡±


    ¡°Mez? The one who brews?¡± asked Tyr.


    Dantes nodded.


    Tyr¡¯s expression became sour. ¡°The one that refuses to live with his clan.¡±


    ¡°His booze is good though,¡± said Tek.


    Tyr gave him a look and Tek shrugged. ¡°It is! Even a single sip is guaranteed to thicken your scales.¡±


    ¡°The only thing his brew is good for is disinfecting wounds,¡± said Fen. ¡°Though, in his defense, that is a good purpose.¡±


    Seeing Tyr¡¯s expression, Dantes moved to change the subject. ¡°So, why are you three here?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s our shift to check the traps here. Take any captured meat back to the clan, guide any kobolds new to the Pit to their new home.¡±


    ¡°Why not meet them at the maw?¡±


    Tek frowned. ¡°If they cannot get here, they are not welcome in the clan. Many of these traps, and the door, are here to challenge them.¡±


    ¡°If they fail?¡± asked Dantes.


    ¡°They would still join us,¡± said Tyr, ¡°they would be shared among the clan.¡±


    Dantes nodded, understanding the implication. It wasn¡¯t exactly subtle.


    He finished his rat, picking off the last piece to hand to Jacopo who chewed on it greedily. The cannibalism didn¡¯t bother him much. Jacopo was a rat, which meant he had very different standards which Dantes saw no point in judging him for. It did make him think of cannibalism from his perspective. If he ate an elf or an orc, would it be full cannibalism or just one fourth cannibalism? Would eating a human be half cannibalism then? He had a bit of dwarf in him, though the thought of chewing through one''s hairy hide was even less appetizing to him than regular cannibalism was. The kobolds clearly had no issues with the practice.


    Dantes placed his rat-skewer back into the fire and stood, brushing some dust from himself and wiping grease from his face with the sleeve of his jacket.


    ¡°Thank you for your hospitality, particularly not killing me, I appreciate that.¡±


    ¡°You are welcome,¡± said Fen with a nod.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to try and make it the rest of the way to Clan Stonedust territory.¡±


    The kobolds exchanged glances. Tyr seemed to read the other two¡¯s looks and turned his attention to Dantes. ¡°Tek will accompany you out of our space. No reason to risk you destroying or triggering one of our traps and giving us more work to do.¡±


    Dantes narrowed his eyes. ¡°I can travel alone. I¡¯ve had little issue with your traps so far. Or you could just tell me what to expect.¡± They¡¯d been friendly to him, and that made him suspicious.


    ¡°It is our territory. You have entered it respectfully and eaten within it. We insist.¡±


    Dantes mulled that over. If his meeting with the dwarves didn¡¯t go well, there was a good chance he¡¯d need to come back through this section of the Pit. He couldn¡¯t afford to antagonize them. He wouldn¡¯t need to rely on Tek for direction, since he had a general sense of which passages to take anyway, and even if the intention was for Tek to kill him, he was fairly certain he could handle a single Kobold, particularly one he intended to be watching closely for the entire trek.


    ¡°Okay, but I¡¯m going to be searching for additional traps as we move¡­ in case you¡¯ve forgotten one I might run into.¡± He said.


    Tyr made a slightly offended expression, but Tek shook his head. ¡°It would be insulting if you didn¡¯t.¡±

 Ch 13: Too small a meal

    They began walking through the tunnels, Tek leading the way as they moved. Even with him guiding them around traps, Dantes still tested the ground with his metal rod, and stayed on his guard, as did Jacopo. Still, it began to seem as if his fear was unwarranted. Tek was very careful to take him around the traps, even moving him around those that wouldn¡¯t have triggered for him, but would activate for Dantes due to his greater height and weight.


    Eventually they reached a large long hall with high ceilings. Thousands upon thousands of small holes had been carved into the walls, barely the size of a fist. The depth of each hole varied in such a way that it created patterns and images that seemed to shift based on where one was standing. He could sense a few small creatures living within them, unaware of the tapestry they were a part of.


    By Dantes estimation, they were very close to Clan Stonedust territory. Suddenly, he felt Jacopo begin scrambling within his coat and up to his collar. ¡°Danger! We must move.¡±


    Tek stopped in his tracks. ¡°Something¡¯s wrong.¡±


    The moment he finished speaking, a massive dark shape dropped down from the ceiling.


    Tek threw himself away from the shape and rolled as he brought up his spear.


    The creature stood quickly on its eight legs and launched itself at Dantes.


    Dantes dodged narrowly, catching a glimpse of the beast as it launched itself past him. It was the same color as the stone walls, with black spots all across its furry carapace. It was almost the size of Dantes, its fangs the length of daggers and its eight eyes reflecting what little light emanated from the glowing fungus on the hallway walls.


    Before he could fully stand, the spider launched itself at him again, and he rolled out of the way, taking a glancing blow on his arms from one of its gangly legs. He drew the shiv from his boot, and ducked behind the cover of a fallen piece of stone before the monster could leap at him again.


    Tek raised his spear and stabbed out at the spider with its stone tip. He managed a glancing blow on its legs causing it to spew green ichor, but before he could follow up the spider leapt again onto a wall and scuttled away into the thicker darkness toward the ceiling.


    Dantes stayed put, The ceiling must¡¯ve been very high for him to lose sight of the monster even with his ability to see in the dark. He searched the edges of his vision, while trying to see if he could hear the spiders movements, but creatures like it tended to walk far too softly to be heard. He was immediately reminded of the footfalls of the elves that had been hunting him. He tried extending his perceptions that had allowed him to sense rats and other creatures as well, but while he could sense many creatures, the spider itself was undetectable to him.


    Tek was doing much the same, keeping his spear pointed upward in expectation of the spider jumping for him, and searching with all of his senses for any indication of where it might strike from.


    Jacopo crawled out from Dantes'' jacket and into a narrow crevice in the rock he was hidden behind. ¡°I¡¯m too small a meal for him. I may accidentally be crushed or skewered in your jacket though.¡±


    Dantes nodded, he wouldn¡¯t want to take that risk either in Jacopo¡¯s place. He kept searching, each second feeling like an hour as he looked and listened. He could feel that the mold around him was content. It was dark and wet in this portion of the Pit, and it had been able to spread happily, only ever fearing competition from other molds that attempted to grow into it. Except¡­ one patch, up and slightly behind where Tek was, was annoyed, bothered by something.


    ¡°Tek! Behind you!¡±


    The Kobold ducked and spun just as the jumping spider hurled itself at him from that patch of mold. He managed a deep cut into the creature¡¯s abdomen before it landed.


    The monster stumbled, and Dantes took the chance to leap from his cover and drive his shiv deep into its thick carapace, breaking off the tip of it before backing away and drawing another from his sleeve.


    The creature stumbled more, and fell, landing somehow upside down with its legs kicking the air.


    Tek avoided the legs, and drove his spear one last time into the creature. It spasmed once, then its legs slowly curling inward, and it ceased moving.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Dantes¡­ could feel its death somehow. He sensed the life within it leaving the corpse that remained. He wondered for a moment why he hadn¡¯t been able to sense anything about it before its death. He hadn¡¯t encountered a jumping spider before, perhaps that was the reason? He needed some affinity with a creature and its kind in order to sense or understand it? If he¡¯d met more spiders in the past would he have been able to speak to it?


    ¡°It is rare for other races to have eyes better than a kobold¡¯s in the dark.¡±


    ¡°Saw a glint off its eyes, in the corner. Just got lucky I suppose,¡± he lied.


    ¡°Your luck was mine too, thank you.¡±


    Dantes frowned, and looked at the spider¡¯s corpse. He knelt down, and carefully pried each of its fangs out before sawing them off with his shiv. He could see small globules of clear venom dripping from them. He carefully placed them in a thicker, leather pocket he had in his coat for anything sharp or dangerous, which the fangs were well qualified for. Once he was done he looked at the corpse again, and then at a nearby patch of mold in the corner. He grabbed one of the spiders legs, and began dragging it. It wasn¡¯t as heavy as he expected. He placed the body carefully in the corner, and felt the gratitude of the mold for a fresh meal to decompose.


    ¡°One good turn deserves another,¡± he muttered quietly. Once he was done he felt Jacopo crawl back up through his pant leg and into his jacket. The sensation was an unpleasant one, and made him shiver.


    Tek looked at him questioningly.


    ¡°Spiders. Can¡¯t stand them.¡±


    ¡°Other races are often cowards,¡± he said, nodding sagely. ¡°Why did you move it?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t want to see it if I have to come back through here.¡±


    The kobold scrunched his face up as he had an internal debate. ¡°The dwarves'' traps begin after this hall.¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow. ¡°Where after this hall?¡±


    ¡°In the exit archway.¡±


    Dantes looked, seeing nothing, but he believed him. ¡°We were getting pretty close to it. When were you planning on telling me?¡±


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t.¡±


    Dantes nodded slowly, understanding. ¡°You felt obligated to help me through your traps, but not the dwarves.¡±


    Tek didn¡¯t answer.


    ¡°And when I triggered one of them and died, you would be able to take me back and feed your clan some fresh meat.¡±


    ¡°You understand our people well.¡±


    Dantes squeezed his hand into a fist. He understood, but it still pissed him off. That said, he still needed to stay in the kobold¡¯s good graces, and now that he¡¯d seen Tek use his spear he was a bit less confident in his ability to take him out on his own. It didn¡¯t make sense to do anything about it, at least not at that moment.


    ¡°Why warn me now?¡±


    ¡°Owe you. May have died in that fight without you.¡±


    ¡°True¡­ so, will you guide me through the rest of the traps?¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°I will tell you of them, but we recently caught a young dwarf in a pitfall, Iron in the Mine¡¯s nephew. Clan Stonedust has not been pleased with us because of that, since we refuse to pay their blood price.¡±


    Dantes nodded, dwarves could be picky like that. He¡¯d heard many stories of entire gangs or even clans being wiped out because of a refusal to give up on a blood price. The fact that they haven¡¯t engaged in open warfare mean that the nephew likely wasn¡¯t a favorite of Iron¡¯s, and so he was just going through the motions.


    ¡°Okay, what can I expect?¡±


    Tek described a series of falling axes, a hammer meant to hit tall-folk in the knees, a pit filled with Racha, the giant roaches that infested some areas of the Pit, and finally a sling that would fire a series of stones if triggered by a pressure plate near the lead up to the dwarves entrance. Once he was done, they parted ways.


    Dantes continued down the tunnel, using his rod to detect traps, and moving cautiously even after Tek¡¯s warnings. Whether or not he¡¯d told him the truth didn¡¯t matter. He didn¡¯t trust him, nor did he assume that the dwarves wouldn¡¯t have switched up their traps between their territories once a blood price had been called between them and the Kobolds. In the end, he found all the traps exactly as Tek had described, along with two that he hadn¡¯t.


    The entry to dwarven territory was unlike any other area in the Pit. It looked new. With smooth stone, carved floors, and simple braziers powered by fertilizer lighting the path. In spite of how difficult the stone within the pit was to work, they¡¯d somehow managed to match the feel of a true dwarven stronghold. Even the awful smell was the same. Dantes had only ever been in one to smuggle dust, and help a friend in his efforts to seduce a dwarven noble, and he was impressed by how close this prison recreation was to the real thing.


    He put away his rod, and began walking directly down the middle of the path. It felt odd not to be skulking about, but he wanted to be seen. For once he¡¯d have to enter through a front door.

 Ch 14: The possibilities are endless

    Dantes didn¡¯t have to walk much further to reach the first dwarf. He was short and stocky, which was unsurprising, with a shaved head and a long braided beard full of decorations of bone and carved stone. A large stone hammer was leaned against the wall next to him as he observed the hall with a calm sturdiness.


    He noticed Dantes as he approached, and casually lifted the hammer off the wall to hold it in his hands.


    ¡°The hells are you doing here, Mutt,¡± he asked, sounding almost bored in spite of his aggressive words and posture.


    ¡°Looking to make a deal. Want to meet with Iron.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯re you looking to get from him?¡±


    ¡°Protection.¡±


    The dwarf looked Dantes up and down. ¡°Yer not nearly pretty enough for him to take that deal.¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t travel all the way through Kobold territory to be his bitch. Got some information. A way to hurt the Elfland Kings.¡± He wanted to play things close to the chest. If he could get all the way to Iron without revealing exactly what he had to trade, it could only benefit him.


    The dwarf tested the weight of the hammer¡¯s head in his hand. ¡°Why don¡¯t you tell me the information, and I¡¯ll see if it¡¯s worth bringing up.¡±


    ¡°No. My offer is for Iron in the Mine, no one else.¡±


    ¡°What if I just break your arms and legs until you tell me what you know? That way I get it for free.¡±


    Dantes laughed. ¡°I can¡¯t stand pain. I¡¯ll pass out the moment you start and you¡¯ll never get anything out of me anyway.¡±


    He scoffed, and went from testing the weight of his hammer to stroking his beard. ¡°I¡¯m getting bored sitting down here smashing the occasional spider anyway. Fuck it, come with me.¡± He turned around and put a small carving into an impression in the wall and turned it. The stone doors slowly opened and he gestured for Dantes to walk in front of him.


    Dantes complied and they began moving through the dwarven hall. The dwarves were probably the race best suited to life in the Pit, aside perhaps from the kobolds. They were used to living underground, preferred it even. Now they still missed easy access to women, booze, and food. Not to mention the complaints he¡¯d heard from every dwarf he¡¯d ever spoken to about the geography, hardness of the stone, and their lack of easy access to metal to shape it.


    While Dantes had been impressed with how the dwarves had shaped their territory, now that he was actually walking through it the space felt¡­cramped. The walls seemed tighter, and the ceilings even lower than in the other dwarven hall he¡¯d been in in the city. He also noticed that while the hall he¡¯d been through before in the city had almost no seams on the walls. These, on the other hand, seemed to be layered with evenly sized bricks. It clicked with Dantes that rather than carving the walls to make things better suit them, they¡¯d instead taken stone from elsewhere and carved it into bricks to create rooms and halls within a space that had already existed. With their limited resources that was the only way they could¡¯ve done it.


    This realization distracted him as he was escorted through a half dozen halls, and into a room with a large stone table in the center. The table wasn¡¯t full, only around a dozen dwarves were sitting at it, chatting and drinking, two were wrestling shirtless near the table in a circle of sand, and five more were watching the fight, cheering on whichever of them they¡¯d wagered on. Presiding over it all on a wooden throne, a true luxury in the Pit, was Iron from the Mine. He was broad, even for a dwarf, and his dark hair was braided with gold and silver rings, in sharp contrast to the copper and bone of the dwarves around him. On his waist was, somehow, a gun. Some kind of blunderbuss Dantes would guess. He hadn¡¯t seen many of their kind, they¡¯d been relatively new even before he¡¯d been thrown into the Pit, but to see one in the Pit truly surprised him.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    Dantes had only ever seen Iron from a distance in the past, it hadn¡¯t been prudent to be noticed by him then, but up close he could understand the appeal of having a man like him in charge. Iron practically radiated authority.


    The dwarf that had been escorting Dantes stepped forward toward Iron, and slapped his hammer against a bangle on his arm, creating a surprisingly delicate tone that drew the room''s attention to them.


    He nodded to Iron. ¡°Iron, this mutt approached us from Kobold territory. He says he has information for us regarding the Elves, though I believe he may have something different in mind. He asks us for protection.¡±


    Dwarven eyes moved toward Dantes sizing him up. He didn¡¯t shrink under their stares. Dwarves were shrewd negotiators and harsh judges of character. Showing weakness could sometimes be beneficial when you wanted something from them, but in this case he needed to radiate confidence to demonstrate that what he had on offer had value.


    Iron took a long swig from the clay mug that sat in his hand and gestured for Dantes to approach. ¡°Alright. I was getting bored of watching these short-bearded shits try to stay entertained anyway. Go ahead mutt, what¡¯s your offer?¡±


    Dantes reached into one of the hidden pouches in his jacket, and pulled out the mirror. ¡°This is my offer. One of the elves'' magic mirrors, and how to use it. You can have it, and my knowledge, in return for you and your men¡¯s protection.¡±


    Iron whistled. ¡°Now that is an entertaining fucking surprise.¡± He stood up from his throne and walked toward Dantes. Once he was close to the mirror he nodded. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s got the shimmers around it. That¡¯s true magic right there.¡± He laughed. ¡°So you¡¯re the one that managed to steal it from them. How¡¯d you do it? Bribe someone? Wear a disguise? Cut throats until you reached it? Scratch that last one, someone who could do that wouldn''t need my protection.¡±


    He took a step closer, but Dantes stood his ground, standing two heads taller than the dwarf.


    One of the others spoke up. ¡°Hey, is he the same mutt that the Kings have been looking for?¡±


    Iron smirked. ¡°That¡¯s a good question. Are you some kind of genius who decided he¡¯d just double down on pissing them off or what?¡±


    ¡°Something like that.¡±


    Iron laughed, and the rest of the room joined in, then he stopped suddenly, and the rest of the room did its best to stop with him, one of them getting a firm smack to the back of his head when he kept laughing a little too long.


    ¡°So you give me that mirror and tell me how to use it, and then what? I can pretend I¡¯m an elf to get them to smuggle me pithy little materials until they get wise and then the mirror¡¯s useless? Or I can put the tip of this,¡± He pulled his blunderbus from his belt and pointed it at Dantes, ¡°through it and pull the trigger for a laugh?¡±


    Dantes stayed quiet and still with the gun¡¯s barrel in his face. Normally in life or death situations he had a number of ways to survive pop into his head. In this particular case he was drawing a blank, but forced himself to talk anyway. Appearing weak would do him no favors.


    ¡°The possibilities are endless.¡±


    Iron chuckled and lowered his pistol, though he didn¡¯t holster it. ¡°It isn¡¯t a bad offer. We don¡¯t often miss an opportunity to fuck with the Kings. Anything to shut up their comments about height and the ¡®weaknesses¡¯ of having a beard.¡± He sneered. ¡°Unfortunately for you, we made peace with their grand duke just yesterday.¡± He swung his blunderbuss with more speed than Dantes thought he¡¯d have at his disposal, and struck the mirror, shattering it into a dozen small pieces. He followed that up with a fist to his gut, causing him to hunch over and fall to his knees.


    Dantes gritted his teeth, and carefully picked up the pieces of the mirror while he was pretending to recover, slipping them into his pockets. As he picked up the last of the visible shards and slipped it away, Iron drove his foot into his side.


    His vision went white with pain, but it wasn¡¯t just his own. Jacopo had been sitting in his jacket exactly where the dwarf¡¯s foot had struck. Dantes adjusted his position so that Jacopo wouldn¡¯t be in any danger from the next several strikes that hit him.


    ¡°Now,¡± said Iron, ¡°I¡¯m still not the biggest fan of the Kings, and I appreciate the balls it took you to get this far, so I¡¯ll tell you what¡­ I won¡¯t hand you off to them, but I will have my men drop you in the maw.¡± He climbed back up to his throne and sat down. ¡°I¡¯d wish you luck, but honestly? I don¡¯t care if a mutt like you lives or dies.¡±

 Ch 15: Head shape that indicates low cunning

    Two dwarves dragged Dantes through their halls, and out to the entrance of their territory by the maw, then tossed him out. He was battered, bruised, and his plan was in tatters. He made a fist, feeling the sand at the entrance to the pit slide through his fingers. It was familiar, the only difference between being thrown into the maw this time and the last time, was that this time didn¡¯t also come with the sting of betrayal.


    He stood and looked around. A few scrawny looking dwarves, untouchables he¡¯d guess, were already beginning to look at him and size him up. If he stayed there long enough they¡¯d develop enough of a spine to make a move on him. He drew his hood up to hide his face and started stumbling toward the nearest tunnel that he remembered would lead him back to his cave.


    ¡°Jacopo, are you alright?¡± He asked quietly.


    Jacopo didn¡¯t respond.


    Dantes could feel the rat¡¯s pain, and his lifeforce slowly flowing out of him like a slow breeze. He began making his way to the same tunnel in which he¡¯d stolen the supply drop with a quick blow from a sturdy rock. He did his best not to draw attention to himself as he moved. This was the busiest portion of the Pit, and that was both a blessing and a curse for a man trying to keep himself hidden.


    He managed to not attract any trouble until he got closer to the undermarket. It was there that he saw three Elfland Kings moving toward him, heads held high and haughtily looking down their noses at everyone around them. He stumbled to a nearby wall, and stuck a finger down his throat, forcing himself to vomit.


    ¡°Maybe if his whore of a mother had fucked a dwarf instead he could¡¯ve held onto his liquor,¡± joked one of them.


    The others laughed and Dantes managed to continue on his path unimpeded for a bit longer, playing the part of a drunken fool for several more stumbling steps. Unfortunately, not long after the first group of elves had moved on, he realized they were simply the vanguard for a larger group, and leading them was Reivare, their Grand Duke of Spring, still shirtless and covered in tattoos of trees and elvish script.


    Dantes cursed under his breath, and diverted his course sharply, disguising it as a near fall as he moved toward the entry to the undermarket. He made it past the consortium guards without issue. Once in he began weaving through back alleys, dropping his drunken act in favor of speed.


    He encountered a drunken half-orc pissing in an alley between vendor stalls. The orc¡¯s eyes widened as they made eye contact. ¡°Hey, ain¡¯t you the one those elves are-?¡±


    Dantes drove his knee into the orc''s groin, causing him to crumple, and then quickly moved down another alley with a fresh piss stain on his pants. He started to hear some commotion behind him, and even in front of him, as if he was being cut off. He cursed under his breath, and made his way to the Which Wench. The front wasn¡¯t being managed by Syn, but Celeste, in the guise of a busty halfling, who he didn¡¯t know as well and didn¡¯t trust, flanked by a dead eyed orc and dwarf. He went around the building to Syn¡¯s corner of it and knocked on the wall.


    ¡°I told you earlier Tel, the first time was a special rate for a friend. Today''s my day off anyway, and no that doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m free for-¡± a kobold woman unlatched and looked through a small window, her slitted eyes dilated when she realized it was Dantes, it was difficult for him to trust her to help him, but he couldn¡¯t see any other choice.


    She looked around to make sure no one could see them, then became an orcish woman and held out her hands.


    Dantes took them and she hauled him into the room where he landed with a thud.


    ¡°Why are you here Two-names? The Kings have been searching for you, this is the last place you should be right now.¡±


    ¡°Dwarves dumped me here when I tried making a trade for protection. Tried to make it into the outer tunnels, but some asshole spotted me in an alley.¡± Dantes looked around the room as he spoke. He¡¯d never been in Syn¡¯s room. They tended to do their gambling and talking at the nearby bar, or even in Collared territory. There was a real bed stuffed with straw, curtains nailed to the walls to hide the shoddy craftsmanship of the building, a large bowl filled with water next to which were several rags and even some soap. Next to the bed was a shelf on which were several bottles the purpose of which was not difficult to determine. The entire room smelled like roses, likely a strong perfume had been sprayed to hide more unpleasant scents, though Dantes could pick up the smell hiding underneath. It reminded him of his mother, and the room she¡¯d used when she was working.


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    Syn looked him over. ¡°You¡¯re hurt. Sit on the bed for a bit, lie down if you have to, but watch that stain on the left.¡± Syn moved over to a pitcher of water and began pouring a cup.


    Dantes went and sat on the edge of the bed, opening his jacket to check on Jacopo again. Jacopo was unconscious, but breathing. A small amount of blood trickling out of the edge of his mouth. Dantes clenched his jaw, feeling his small tusks prick the inside of his cheeks as they so often did. He could feel the life draining slowly from him. He thought back to the seeds he¡¯d planted before he¡¯d gone into the Kobold¡¯s region of the pit. The offering he¡¯d given, almost instinctively, to help them grow. He brought his finger to one of his tusks, pricked it, and let a single drop of blood drop into Jacopo¡¯s mouth. It was subtle, but he thought he could feel the leaking of lifeforce slow down the moment the droplet hit his mouth.


    Syn handed him a cup. ¡°Here.¡±


    Dantes nodded and took a long drink. He hadn¡¯t had any water at all that day and the taste of vomit from earlier was still strong in his mouth. He swallowed and clenched his jaw again. All that work for nothing. All he had now was a pocket full of broken mirror, fresh bruises, and the bitter taste of failure in his mouth. His new abilities were helpful, but they weren¡¯t enough. He needed more.


    He touched the pocket that held the mirror shards¡­there still may be a use for them. He started to think on it, gently running his thumb across a flat surface. There was a sudden commotion from the, brothel¡¯s entrance.


    He and Syn exchanged a glance, and they both moved to the door to press their ears against the door.


    ¡°Looking for a Mutt. Short, wearing a big jacket. Gold eyes. Head shape that indicates low cunning and a preference for men, slight ear point that shows a weakness for spirits. Ran in this direction.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no one here by that description.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll check ourselves thank you.¡±


    There was a brief scuffle with the no-named guards and from there was the sound of doors being knocked at, or knocked down as the searchers went room by room. They could hear the sounds of men cursing as they were interrupted, followed by short beatings and room searches.


    Just before they reached Syn¡¯s room, she opened her mouth and let out a guttural moan, followed by a series of other noises that would have made any man who hadn¡¯t been raised in a brothel blush. In Dantes¡¯ case it only made him look over at her with curiosity.


    She kept up the performance as the commotion got closer, and began adding male grunts and groans to the chorus, making it seem as if she was two people at once, sometimes even speaking with both voices simultaneously.


    Just before there was a knock on the door. Syn added additional layers to her performance with some dialogue.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t even know a gnome could be that big.¡± followed by additional lewd noises.


    ¡°Big things come in small packages.¡± she replied to herself.


    The search stopped and there was some shuffling of feet. ¡°I don¡¯t want to see what¡¯s going on in there.¡±


    ¡°Sounds like a gnome in there anyway. Dantes must¡¯ve made his way around us, or that half-breed orc lied.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±


    One set of footsteps began walking away, but the other one hesitated, and Dantes heard him place his own head against the door for a few moments.


    ¡°Huh, good for him,¡± the Elf muttered, before following his companion out the door.


    Even after they left, Syn kept up the performance for another ten minutes, adding more dialogue, backstory, and plot as she went along even after Dantes had given her the all clear. When she finally finished the ruse with a spectacular climax, she was breathing heavily and sat heavily on the bed, gesturing for Dantes to pour her some water.


    Dantes, did so, looking at her with his eyebrow raised as she took the cup.


    ¡°I got wrapped up in the story, I wanted to see it through.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough,¡± he said, sitting back down on the edge of the bed. Looking at her he got another flicker of the milk white skin and large black eyes hidden behind the Orcish female form she was still in from lifting him through the window. He ignored his discomfort of the sight. ¡°Thank you Syn. I appreciate it.¡±


    She shrugged. ¡°If it was anyone else, I¡¯d¡¯ve forced a pact from them, but with you that¡¯s pointless. Still, you owe me.¡±


    ¡°I do. Unfortunately, you¡¯ll have to rely on my honor to pay you back.¡±


    ¡°That, or I could have a few of our nameless guards beat you.¡±


    ¡°Fair point.¡±

 Ch 16: He wanted to rule it

    Dantes stayed in Syn¡¯s room for a few more hours, waiting for the coast to clear. He may have failed with his plan, but he was alive and that meant he still had options. Jacopo¡¯s condition remained unchanged. Dantes could no longer feel his lifeforce slipping out, but he also didn¡¯t seem to be improving. Dantes counted the pieces of broken mirror. There were thirteen shards. He could no longer use them to bargain, or to acquire resources for himself, but there was still one option left with them.


    He¡¯d tried working within the systems of the underprison to find a way out of his predicament. Since that didn¡¯t work it really left him only one choice, he¡¯d need to upend them. He could no longer keep his head down, he didn¡¯t want to struggle to survive. If he was trapped in the Pit, he wanted to rule it. If it didn¡¯t work out, he¡¯d be dead, but that was the path he was on anyway.


    Syn gently shook him, his eyes had been closed while he was thinking and he had dozed off without meaning to.


    ¡°Dantes, this is the quietest time in the Undermarket. Now is the time to leave.¡±


    He nodded and sat up. He¡¯d tried to sleep on Syn¡¯s bed, but had wound up sleeping on the floor when the softness of it had proven oddly uncomfortable for him. He wiped the sleep from his eyes and stood.


    Syn was in the shape of an old woman wearing a shawl and leaning on a walking stick.


    ¡°Never seen you in a form like that.¡±


    She shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s nice to change things up every once in a while. It gets tiring spending most of my time not being able to see my toes past my chest, or not being able to take a form over twenty years old. Though I have a few customers who have more unique preferences¡­they come with their own issues though.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm, any chance I could pay for information on those customers? Could always use some blackmail material.¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°Can¡¯t tell you, I¡¯m bound by the client pact.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Shame.¡± He drew his jacket closer and pulled up his hood as he walked over to the window she¡¯d pulled him through several hours earlier. He looked back at her, seeing that she was now a homely woman of around forty years, with small features, and a long nose. ¡°Thanks again Syn. I will remember this.¡±


    She nodded, ¡°If you live, come back and do some gambling with us when you get this solved.¡±


    ¡°If¡±


    She shook her head, her eyes turning the same shade of gold as Dantes¡¯. ¡°You¡¯ll either die, or have more than just two names by the end of this. My bet is on the latter.¡±


    Dantes frowned, unsure of how to respond. He slipped gracefully out of the window, wincing as he landed and the bruises from the previous day¡¯s beating pulsed painfully. He moved up along the wall and looked around the Undermarket. Syn was right, it was dead, he noticed only a few drunks sleeping on the ground, and a single corpse riddled with stab wounds in a dark alley as he wove his way toward the exit. In spite of the fact that the sun wasn¡¯t a constant thing in the Pit, everyone still seemed to be most active during the day, and less active at night. The habits of their old lives shaping patterns in their new ones.


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    Dantes made it to the exit without issue, and walked past the sleepy dwarven guards who didn¡¯t bother to acknowledge him. The Consortium didn¡¯t involve themselves in other gang¡¯s issues, it was bad for business, and neutrality tended to pay much larger dividends.


    Once he was out of the undermarket and into the larger network of tunnels he could breathe more easily. He took side tunnels, small passages he needed to crawl under, and even routes covered in cobwebs and crawling with roaches and other small vermin to avoid running into any other prisoners. He could swear he could hear the voices of the vermin speaking faintly as he moved, but when he stopped and paid attention, the voices faded.


    Eventually he made it back to his cave. He reached gently into his pocket for Jacopo, and held him in his hands. He was still alive, and his breathing seemed to be steadier than it had been. Dantes laid him down on his bed of rags, gently placing one of them over him like a blanket. Once he was done, he watered his plants and fed his mushrooms, all of which seemed to have grown yet another several inches outward while he¡¯d been gone. There were even a number of small tufts of green and red plants beginning to crop up in other areas of the cave, all of which he took a moment to water. When he reached his senses out to them, he could sense a kind of excitement, a freshness that came with new life.


    Once he was done, he ate a small meal and took the pieces of broken mirror out of his jacket and carefully arranged them on a long flat stone. He needed to perform a test. He grabbed the thirteenth shard and stood carefully transferring it between his fingers as if it was a coin. He made his way out of his cavern, grabbing his long metal pole on the way, and went to the cavernous room in which he¡¯d planted the fruit seeds earlier that day.


    Inside the room, he found that every single one of the seeds had sprouted. The peach pit Jacopo had asked him to plant had somehow already grown into a sapling that reached his knees. The berry seeds had sprouted into a number of ankle height bushes, and the grapes had spread across the ground as vines. Instead of being green, all of the plant''s leaves were a dull red color. When he reached out to them, he could feel strength and vitality radiating off of them, as well as gratitude for his blood along with a hunger for more. He obliged them, pricking his thumb again and giving each of the growing plants a single droplet. He could feel energy moving from him to the plants, but also some of the plants energy shifting to him, as if the strength was being shared rather than given. The gears of his mind began turning as he looked across the spreading red leaves, but he filed those ideas and plans away for another time.


    He went deeper into the room, far from his freshly growing garden, and placed the shard of mirror gently on a piece of fallen wall. He stepped away and crouched behind a fallen piece of masonry. He took his still bleeding finger and squeezed several drops of blood onto the tip of his metal rod, then he gently held it over the piece of mirror, trying to minimize his profile as much as possible. He held his breath as a single drop of his blood dripped from the tip of his staff down onto the mirror, and he yanked the rod backward.


    Nothing happened for a few seconds, then the mirror began to glow red, Dantes ducked down just as it exploded, the noise of it deafening him as small chunks of debris flew over his head. When he peeked out, he could see black marks where the explosion had hit the ground and walls, and a small crater where the mirror shard had been.


    Dantes smiled. This was something he could work with. All he needed was a delivery system and some information. The delivery system relied on Jacopo getting better, and the information he was certain he could dig up, for a price.


    He took a bit more time to check on the plants, then returned to his cave. Careful to move as quietly and carefully through even the short distance of tunnels between his new garden and his cave. He¡¯d just made a lot of noise, and while he doubted the elves had sent anyone this far into the Pit, there was no telling what else it might attract.


    Once he was back in his cave he immediately checked on Jacopo. His breathing seemed steadier, and Dantes could feel the core of life within him starting to strengthen. He sighed, he¡¯d need Jacopo¡¯s help from here on, so he was stuck until he recovered.


    He laid down on the floor next to his ¡®bed¡¯ dragging a few of the rags closer to himself so that he could rest his head on them without disturbing his companion, and closed his eyes. Even with the nap he¡¯d taken at Syn¡¯s he was exhausted, and after only a few deep breaths, he fell asleep.

 Ch 17: A god? Of rats?

    It was dark, and cramped. Dantes could feel earth pressing down on him from all sides, but he felt oddly calm. The dark, and confining space felt natural, and comforting. Dantes moved through it, wriggling through the dirt and rock as naturally as he¡¯d walk through a hallway, feeling pulled toward a destination.The tunnel he was in opened up into a larger chamber and he stood up, though doing so felt oddly unnatural. In front of him was a strange gray wheel spinning in mid air, at least that¡¯s what he thought it was until he looked closer. It was rats, a writhing mass of them all moving in circles over and over again, linked by long tails that were all knotted in the center in a tangle which he could not see the beginning or the end of. The mass turned its attention to him as he approached, feeling drawn to it.


    ¡°Dantes.¡± The voice was both one and many all talking at once and it struck him with a kind of force that made him stumble onto his back foot.


    He squared his stance and forced himself to take another step forward. ¡°Who are you? Where am I?¡±


    The mass moved toward him expanding and contracting as the individual rats that made it up scampered and writhed across one another.


    ¡°I am the god of Rats. This is my domain.¡±


    A god? Of rats? He¡¯d never heard of such a thing. He¡¯d offered prayers to the god of thieves, and avoided the god of greed. His mother had made the occasional offering to the goddess of hidden women, and one of her clients had been a priest to the god of temperance, though he only visited once a year. He¡¯d heard of more than a hundred gods, and was certain there were thousands he¡¯d never heard of, but they were all gods of the races that could walk and speak, not of creatures that lived and died based on instinct. Still, he could feel the power radiating from the being in front of him. The primal force of it left him little reason to doubt the creature¡¯s claim.


    ¡°What do you want of me?¡±


    The God¡¯s body began moving more slowly, its individual rats seeming to be pensive, searching for something. ¡°It is not common for one of your kind to bind yourself to one of my children. They usually avoid us, think of us a part of their natural order, but without honoring us, or acknowledging our importance. They choose pacts with the bear, elk, shark, lion, or¡­ wolf. The god of wolves has been witness to more bindings than the god of roaches has children.¡± The god''s tone was spiteful as it spoke, some parts of its form actually hissing as it said the word ¡®wolf¡¯.


    ¡°My¡­¡¯kind¡¯?¡±


    ¡°Druids.¡±


    Dantes frowned, he¡¯d never heard the word before, but was grateful to have some indication of what was happening to him. It would help him to figure out what was happening to him once he solved his more immediate life or death problems.


    ¡°I have brought you here to give you my blessing, and to complete your binding to¡­ Jacopo.¡± The god seemed to chew on the name a bit as he said it.


    ¡°Finish the binding¡­ how did I start it?¡±


    ¡°The offering of your blood to save his life. That is the first step to the binding.¡±


    ¡°Does that mean I¡¯m bound to the plants I gave blood to as well?¡±


    ¡°I do not know, I am not their god. They are the domain of our mother.¡±


    Dantes put a pin in that for the moment, he wasn¡¯t one for dogma so much as immediate results.¡°The blessing, what does it do?¡±


    ¡°You will be able to call on my people as you need, to see through the eyes of those within my brood and compel them to do your will. This compulsion is dependent on me and how I feel you have treated them.¡±


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    ¡°How will I know?¡±


    ¡°The blessing will make it clear.¡±


    ¡°And the binding?¡±


    ¡°Jacopo and you, shall be joined at the soul. Your growth shall be his, and his growth shall be yours.¡¯


    Dantes mind reeled at the possibilities. Rats were everywhere, he could see the unseen, steal almost anything at will, not to mention send a swarm of rats at his foes to tear them apart, though he intuited that the last option would be heavily dependent on their god¡¯s feelings on the matter. Jacopo being bound to him¡­ that he was more wary of, but he had a distinct feeling it was too late, and the blessing was likely also dependent on the binding as well.


    ¡°I accept.¡±


    Every single one of the individual rats began to laugh, a sound that rats did not make normally, and which sent a shiver up Dantes¡¯ spine.


    ¡°You thought you had a choice?¡± The mass of rats surged toward him, and hit him in a wave of flesh and fur. He could feel the raw power of a god wash over him, followed by a burning pain on his wrist.


    ¡­


    Dantes woke screaming, his own voice echoing back to him as his cry hit the walls of the cave and bounced back to him. He clutched his wrist, his hand contorted into a claw as the burning sensation slowly began to fade. Where he clasped he felt raised flesh, and when he regained enough presence of mind to look at it, he saw four marks on his wrist. Two on one side, and two on another. He¡¯d slept in enough alleyways to recognize a rat bite when he saw one, though these particular teeth would¡¯ve had to come from one the size of a dog. Three of the marks were black, and reminded him of the tattoos common among sailors and orcish gangs. One of them was gold, and he understood instinctually that the mark represented the favor of the God of Rats.


    He clenched his fist, and stood. When he turned to check on Jacopo, he saw a pair of golden eyes that matched his own, looking back at him. He could sense that Jacopo had not just healed, but seemed stronger than ever, the core of his life force pulsing with energy.


    ¡°You¡¯re better.¡±


    Jacopo nodded, this time much more naturally, as if he was much more used to the gesture than he had been the last time Dantes had watched him attempt it. ¡°I am. Thanks to you.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Needed your help, couldn¡¯t have you dying.¡±


    Jacopo shrugged. ¡°Either way, you saved my life and your goals are now mine.¡±


    ¡°So since our goals are aligned, do I still need to feed you to keep you from chewing on my feet while I sleep?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Thought so.¡±


    Dantes looked at the tattoo marks on his arm again. ¡°Come with me.¡±


    Jacopo nodded, and leapt onto his leg, crawling up through his jacket and into an interior pocket. They moved out of the cave and through the tunnels into the budding garden. Each of the plants had grown nearly a foot, and a few of them were already starting to bear small amounts of fruit. Dantes went over to the peach tree, the one that he¡¯d planted after Jacopo had asked him to.


    ¡°Jacopo, this tree and anything it produces¡­ it¡¯s yours. Offer it to whoever you want, keep it to yourself, it¡¯s up to you.¡±


    Jacopo crawled out of the jacket.


    Dantes could feel it as Jacopo¡¯s paws left the warmth of his jacket and landed on a piece of cold stone. He focused for just a moment and he could suddenly see through Jacopo¡¯s eyes. Jacopo¡¯s vision and his own existed simultaneously for a jarring moment, and he dismissed it. That would take some practice to do without his eyes closed.


    Jacopo sniffed around the growing sappling, and took a moment to chew on one of it¡¯s leaves. ¡°I will tell them.¡±


    ¡°I also need some of them to help me with a favor. Can you bring¡­let¡¯s say twenty?¡± Dantes thought for a moment. ¡°Actually, wait.¡± He looked at the mark on his arm and reached out with that strange ability he¡¯d developed to sense life. The first thing he noticed was that the plants wanted more blood, but otherwise were strong and thriving. Next he felt the skittering of all the rats nearby.


    Come


    He gave the order wordlessly, and suddenly three dozen rats poured into the cavern from all around him and Jacopo. They all gathered, then sat there silently, some of their heads cocking curiously, and others looking at the unripe fruits that had begun to grow with undisguised hunger. He looked down at the rat mark and noticed a small sliver of black in the gold mark. This was something he could work with.

 Ch 18: Dead Man Walking

    Dantes looked over the rats arranged before him. They ranged from black to white, with a few having the same brown coloration as Jacopo. Some were large and well fed, others slim and starved. All of them primarily focused on him aside from a few glances around the cavern.


    He focused on a corner of the chamber.


    Move


    They obliged, all scrambling there without a second thought, moving over one another like a shifting pool of liquid fur. He checked the mark on his arm again and while the black line had widened, it was still slimmer than a fingernail. He experimented a bit more, dividing the rats into separate groups, having some of them harvest the fruit from the trees that were ready to be eaten, while he had the rest attack a nest of roaches he¡¯d noticed on his way into his budding plant nursery. As he did this, he watched how each action impacted the gold mark on his wrist. The less complicated actions, single word orders to move, had little impact, while complex requests cost more. Even having the rats attack something cost him little, unless he ordered them to do it in a specific way. When he was done experimenting he still had three fourths of his mark filled with gold.


    He pointed to the pile of fruit and roach corpses that the rats had put into a pile for him.


    ¡°That¡¯s for you.¡± The rats, freed from his control when he made the gesture, tore into the pile of food with gusto, and Dantes watched as the gold mark refilled ever so slightly. He looked at Jacopo, who was perched on a rock next to him.


    ¡°Could you go and get one of the mirror shards out of our cave for me?¡±


    ¡°Where are¡­¡± Jacopo cut off for a moment, and Dantes could feel the connection between them quiver for a moment.


    ¡°Nevermind.¡± He hopped off of the rock and scurried away.


    While he was gone, Dantes pricked a finger on one of his tusks and squeezed a drop of blood onto the root bed of each of his plants, noticing as he did so that the roots were starting to break through the stone that surrounded them, causing it to crumble even more than it had already. When he was done he could feel the plants'' satisfaction, as well as the rats who, after eating, had begun scurrying around the room, some of them leaving, some copulating, and a few climbing into the blood red leaves to have a nap with a full stomach.


    Jacopo came back with a single mirror shard.


    He took it from him and frowned. ¡°I¡¯m going to need to cut you with this.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°I need to make sure that rat blood works on it too, or doesn¡¯t work I suppose depending on how you define ¡®work¡¯ in this case.¡±


    ¡°The rest of your meat.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll do it for the rest of your meat.¡±


    ¡°Your GOD told me we were bound at the soul and you¡¯re still going to extort me? I just promised you all the fruit that tree will produce!¡±


    ¡°No fruit yet.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll just make one of the other rats do it.¡±


    ¡°Hrm¡­ one piece of meat.¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡± Dantes nodded and looked for a sparse corner. ¡°The rest of you need to stay clear while I do this!¡± He yelled at the remaining rats, who scurried into further dark corners. He squatted above Jacopo, pricking his flank with the glass shard. He waited for a drop to hit it, and once it did it immediately began to glow red. He stood and threw the shard before ducking down, covering Jacopo beneath him. There was an explosion and some pieces of stone and dirt peppered him. When it was done he stood up and looked at the destruction. It was the same, if not larger, than the explosion that had occurred when he¡¯d used his own blood. With eleven left, he should have plenty of firepower to take care of at least one of his problems. After that, he could start to build.


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    His gears turned as he stood and brushed himself off. He could try to get the rats to deliver the mirror shards directly, simply drop them bloody on top of the elf leadership while they were sleeping. With them gone he¡¯d have some cover and be able to turn his attention to things beyond survival. That didn¡¯t feel like enough though. He wanted them to know it was him. He wanted everyone to know not to fuck with him, and that meant facing them directly. Well, ¡®directly¡¯ was a strong word. Close enough that they knew it was him, and the rest of the Pit would too.


    He went back to his cave, Jacopo in his jacket, and took a moment to care for his plants before he turned right back around and left. He began taking the winding path through the passages, still testing his new abilities as he did so. He noticed that the gold hadn¡¯t faded at all when Jacopo had bled for him, which meant that whatever happened between them didn¡¯t count beyond the bounds of their own relationship. He also reached out to feel the rats in the walls, along with which he detected the various roaches, molds, and fungi that thrived within the pit. The rats burned brighter now, more clearly. He could feel their thoughts and feelings more easily, and also had an innate sense that he could summon them toward himself at will. He wondered if he would be able to develop that ability with other animals as well. Rats were the creatures he most often encountered, but being able to control roaches, or cats, or the wild dogs that roamed the alleys above, or even the slimes that occasionally bubbled out of the sewers. Could he curry their favor as well? Meet their gods and receive their blessing?


    He sent his attention out to five of them, and gave them simple orders. Asking them to go to the Undermarket, and King territory. As they diverted themselves from their previous destinations, he imagined in his mind a line between himself and them. He kept his focus on that line as they got further away from him, and with a small effort he was able to switch his attention between them, get a general impression of them and where they were, and see what they saw. It was disorienting, so he just focused on maintaining the line. He would put his full attention back on them once he was certain they were where he wanted them.


    He reached his destination, the entrance to the Collared¡¯s piece of the Pit. The guard that day was Wane.


    Wane¡¯s eyes widened as he saw him. ¡°Dantes! What are you doing here? You should¡¯ve found the deepest hole you could and buried yourself in it. Reivare already had it in for you and then you steal one of their mirrors and try to sell it to the dwarves?¡± He shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t think now is the time to have a little visit and gamble.¡±


    ¡°I appreciate the warning, but I¡¯m not just here to gamble. I need to meet with Merle.¡±


    ¡°Merle? Listen man, he can¡¯t help you. You know the Collared can¡¯t afford to protect someone against the Kings.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not looking for protection.¡± He sighed. ¡°I¡¯ve given up. I¡¯m out of options. I can¡¯t buy protection, they won¡¯t stop looking for me. I want Merle to contact them for me, let them know I¡¯ll turn myself in if they grant me a quick death.¡±


    Wane¡¯s expression dropped, and one of his eyebrows raised. ¡°Really?¡±


    Dantes nodded, they¡¯d gambled together many times, and he was certain that Wane couldn¡¯t tell that he was lying.


    Wane sighed. ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll take you to him. Come on.¡± He gestured with his head for Dantes to follow.


    Dantes knew where Merle was of course, but there was a process, a ritual to this kind of thing. Merle lived in the largest of the cells in Collared territory, as was his right as their leader. He had held that position for a long time, in fact as Dantes had been told, he¡¯d been the one who banded the Collared together in the first place, more than fifty years ago. Up until that point, they¡¯d been divided by race, old gang affiliation or left to survive on their own.


    Dantes got a number of looks as he followed Wane through the winding passages, and past the pipes carrying fresh water throughout the cells. He was grateful that he didn¡¯t see Tel, he had no desire to see the sad expression on his face that he¡¯d left him with last time they¡¯d spoken.


    Wane led him into Merle¡¯s room and they stepped inside. The walls of it were completely covered in alchemical formulae, cryptic writing in what looked like elvish script, strange diagrams, lists of ingredients, and a number of other things written too small for Dantes to recognize. Merle was laying on a bench of stone. He had a long metal rod across his chest, gripped by both of his hands. On either end of the rod was a massive square block. They stood there in silence watching as he slowly brought the bar to his chest, then lifted it up, then repeated the motion five more times. When he was done he tossed the bar down and it hit the ground with a heavy thud.


    Merle sat up and fixed them with a look. Dantes had always found his appearance disconcerting. He had a long white beard, and a heavily wrinkled face, both showing his advanced age, but after his neck the effects of aging seemed to have ceased. His muscles would make most Orcs jealous, Wane who was by no means small for his race, was roughly half as wide as Merle was. Merle had started to exercise when he¡¯d first arrived in the Pit to compensate for his lack of magic, and had somehow gotten even bigger even in his old age. He kept his mind and body sharp, and it was the threat of violence that he, and those Collared that had adopted his training as their own, posed that gave the Collared what little power they had.


    He grabbed a pair of delicate glasses and placed them onto his face, squinting. He smiled the kind of smile only a wizened old wizard could.


    ¡°Well Wane, I see you¡¯ve learned a bit of necromancy. Been a while since I¡¯ve seen a dead man walking.¡±

 Ch 19: I have squats to do

    Merle chuckled at his own joke, then grabbed a rag and began wiping the sweat from his oddly muscular frame. He stretched his neck left, then right, eliciting audible cracks each time that made Wane flinch. He stood and approached them.


    ¡°Let¡¯s not waste any time. One of my people is almost certainly on their way to sell you out and tell the Kings that you¡¯re here, ripe for the murdering.¡± He lifted the top part of his robe back up and over his torso, leaving the majority of his chest exposed. ¡°So, what do you want? You¡¯re a smart guy so I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s not protection, since you know I can¡¯t offer that. Unless you¡¯ve found some secret cache of magical items or you have some secret method to remove one of our collars? That would be about the only thing worth fighting the Kings.¡±


    ¡°No such luck,¡± said Dantes. ¡°I just wanted a favor. Since I¡¯ve always been friendly to you and yours.¡±


    ¡°Friendly eh? Swindling my people at dice, sending them to that kobold brewer to burn out their stomach lining, and occasionally beating them for taking too long to pay back a loan?¡± He laughed. ¡°I suppose that¡¯s as close to friendship as things get down here. Don¡¯t beat around the bush, just tell me what you want and we¡¯ll go from there.¡±


    ¡°I want to surrender to the Kings. I want you to tell them I¡¯ll turn myself in to them willingly in return for a quick death.¡±


    Merle¡¯s expression turned from affable to disappointed. ¡°Really? From what I¡¯d been told about you, I thought you¡¯d have more fight in you than that.¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°Nope.¡±


    ¡°And this isn¡¯t some elaborate plot or ruse?¡±


    ¡°No. I¡¯m just tired of hiding.¡±


    Merle looked at him for a long time, his face unreadable then he looked down letting out a long exhale of breath. ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll tell them what you¡¯re offering. Come back in a day and we''ll give you their answer.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d like them to do it in the undermarket as well. Let the Consortium drum up a bit of extra business out of a public execution. Maybe line your pockets for the privilege.¡±


    Merlin¡¯s face twinged a bit as he fought down a smile. ¡°Well, at least you¡¯re as dramatic as I¡¯d heard¡­ Fine, I¡¯ll let them know all of your conditions¡­ I¡¯ll talk to the Consortium as well. Come back here in a day and I¡¯ll have their answers.¡±


    Dantes opened his mouth, but Merle held out his hand to stop him.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about us selling you out. We can¡¯t stand against the Kings in a straight up war, but all that you¡¯ve asked is within our abilities and without much risk.¡±


    Dantes just nodded.


    Merle looked at them both, and pointed at the exit to his room. ¡°Alright. Leave. I have squats to do.¡±


    Dantes and Wane left the chamber, the last thing they heard from the room was a grunt and grinding of stone as Merle began hefting his massive weights.


    Wane hesitated outside of Merle¡¯s door. ¡°Did you want to talk to Tel? I mean, if you¡¯re going to die and all. Maybe play some dice?¡±


    Dantes sighed. ¡°I would, but I¡¯d be surprised if Pillion or someone like him didn¡¯t give the elves the heads up that I¡¯m here. If I stay they¡¯ll have the opportunity to kill me before they even hear the proposal, and I¡¯d really prefer to be beheaded or stabbed quickly in the heart compared to whatever else they may do to me.¡±


    Wane nodded and finished escorting him to the edge of the Collared¡¯s cavern. ¡°You uh¡­ have anything you might want to leave to an old gambling buddy. Y¡¯know, since you¡¯re going to die anyway.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll let you know where my old digs are tomorrow if they take me up on my offer. You and Tel can raid it at your leisure. I just want a chance to enjoy it myself on what may be my last night here.¡±


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    Wane nodded. ¡°Fair enough. I¡¯ll uh, see you tomorrow then?¡± He spoke the question as if unsure of what tone to take and landed somewhere between dour and awkward.


    ¡°Yep.¡± Dantes said, as he slipped into the dark of the cave. He felt strongly that the Kings would take him up on his offer. The fact that he¡¯d managed to avoid them so far was likely embarrassing to them. A chance for them to show their ¡®dominance¡¯ over other races would let them reclaim their dignity and remind everyone that they were not to be fucked with.


    Just in case though, he shifted his attention back to the rats he¡¯d sent to their territory and the undermarket. Pausing in a dank dark corner so that he could place his focus thoroughly on them. The rats in their territory he had sent to search for the mirror shards he hadn¡¯t stolen, and one of them had already located one of them. Those in the undermarket watched the elves there and over the course of an hour he used them to confirm which of the elves were leaders, and which were followers. It didn¡¯t take much, as his own knowledge of their gang wasn¡¯t insignificant, he just wanted to have absolute confirmation. Once he was done, he broke his connection with the rats, and let them go back about their business. Checking the ratmark, he noted that one tooth was still half full.


    He made it back to his cave without much fuss, and Jacopo crawled out of his jacket to return to his usual corner. Dantes gave him the piece of meat he owed him, as well as a bit of extra, just because. He then gathered up the mirror fragments and layed all of them out in a straight line. He had eleven left. It should be enough. He was tempted to tuck a few away, to save them for later, but he didn¡¯t want to risk not bringing enough firepower.


    He had a small meal, then left to check again on his garden. The red leaves of the plants all looked lush and healthy, and somehow even more fruit had started to grow even after the recent harvest he¡¯d allowed the rats. The plants were calling out softly for more blood. They didn¡¯t need it, he could tell, but they wanted it. This time, he obliged them. He generously granted each plant not just one, but three drops of blood. Their leaves and branches visibly shuddered as the blood reached their roots.


    Once that was done he went back to his cave. He dug out an old pipe, and smoked a bit of the weed he¡¯d bought from Clay in the Undermarket before everything had gone to shit. He took two long inhales, letting out small clouds of smoke as he did so. He considered doing that small amount of dust he¡¯d stolen as well, but decided that his only intent was to ease his nerves, not remove them entirely. Besides which, he didn¡¯t want to fall back into that habit. Snorting it now would be admitting he didn¡¯t expect to live past the next day.


    He smoked a bit more, ate a bit more, then allowed himself to drift off to sleep.


    ¡­


    He awoke the next day feeling more rested than he had in days. For once he¡¯d had a dreamless sleep rather than a dream of gods, or familiar nightmares of weightlessness as he fell. He stretched, ate, packed his pipe for one more smoke, then watered all of his plants, and fed his fungus.


    After that he went back to his garden. He blinked as he entered the chamber that contained it, rubbing his eyes and wondering for a moment if he¡¯d slept far longer than he¡¯d meant to, or perhaps if the weed he¡¯d smoked had been stronger than he¡¯d anticipated. All of the plants in the garden had grown exponentially. The grape vines covered the ground, the peach tree had a trunk as thick as his torso and rose to twice his height. Fruit, ripe and massive, had grown from every tree, all of it the same shade of blood red as their leaves were.


    Dantes went to one of the smaller trees and plucked an apple from it. He took a bite. It was sweet, and firm. Far different from the crabapples he was used to, and unlike anything he¡¯d tasted before. He continued eating the apple as he walked the length of the garden, handing its core to Jacopo as he finished it, and wiping a bit of excess juice from his chin with the sleeve of his jacket.


    He reached out with his lifesense to all the rats he could possibly detect.


    Come


    The rats swarmed forward, out of every nook and cranny, one, maybe even two hundred of them. Once they¡¯d all arrived they turned their attention to Dantes and waited.


    ¡°I have a request for all of you, but before we get to that.¡± He gestured to the plants all around the garden. ¡°Eat.¡±


    There was no hesitation after he spoke that word. The rats all ran up the trees, into the bushes, and through the vines. They plucked up grapes and tore into them, or bit peaches from trees, falling down with them before fighting other rats to keep from having to share. They even chewed their way through apples still on branches, leaving only the stem behind as they gnawed through everything they could.


    As they ate Dantes watched one tooth on his rat mark fill completely, then the second one began trickling up as well. He smiled as he watched the rats and all the chaos they were creating in front of him. Once they were done, and every piece of fruit on the trees had been completely consumed, he pointed at the peach tree.


    ¡°That one is Jacopo¡¯s.¡± He said, gesturing to Jacopo who¡¯d taken his place on his shoulder. ¡°He decides whether or not to share it. The rest of the fruit here, you are only welcome to after it has ripened beyond edibility for me, but after that it¡¯s fair game.¡±


    The rats listened intently, letting out small squeaks of agreement, or wiggling their whiskers.


    ¡°Now¡­ on to my request.¡±

 Ch 20: A fools game

    Once all Dantes¡¯ preparation was done, he returned to the Collared to find not just Wane, but Tel waiting for him by their entrance. He felt the rats that were trailing him slip through cracks in the walls, or scurry through dark corners as the majority of them made their way to the undermarket. Roughly two dozen stayed near him, including a couple he¡¯d tied mirror shards to. He trusted Merle to do his best to keep things civil, and he already knew that the Kings had accepted the deal thanks to a bit of spying Jacopo had done before he¡¯d arrived, but tensions were high, and it never hurt to have a backup plan.


    Tel looked a bit dejected and hesitated to say anything, so Wane spoke up first.


    ¡°Merle told me to tell you that the elves took you up on your offer. They¡¯re waiting at the undermarket for you to show up. You have until the end of the day today, or else they¡¯ll hunt you. They promised¡­ they promised that if you did that, they¡¯d flay you alive with dull knives.¡±


    ¡°Lovely.¡±


    Tel stepped forward. ¡°You¡¯re sure about giving up? It doesn¡¯t seem like you to just let them cut off your head like this.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure. I want to go out quick and clean. Not hunted down and beaten to death. Not starving in my little cave scared and waiting for them to find me. I want it on my terms. Besides, this way I can do the Collared a solid on my way out.¡±


    ¡°Speaking of doing a solid¡­.¡± said Wane not so subtly.


    ¡°You¡¯re shameless, you know that?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s one of my better qualities. Get it from my mother I think.¡±


    ¡°I left a map to my cave in a hidey hole. Tel knows where it is.¡± He looked to him. ¡°Remember where I hid that mirror shard? That¡¯s where it is. Wanted you to have first dibs on what I¡¯m leaving behind. Smoked most¡¯ve my weed though, so you won¡¯t find much of that.¡±


    Wane chuckled. ¡°We smelled as much before you even rounded the corner.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°There are worse ways to spend a final day.¡±


    Tel grimaced again. ¡°I could smuggle you food, you know? We could work things out that you could lay low for years. The Kings could lose interest eventually.¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°I already live half a life here in the pit, I won¡¯t live an eighth of one.¡±


    Wane nodded sagely. ¡°There¡¯s wisdom in that.¡±


    Tel just threw up his hands . ¡°Alright. I tried. Fuck.¡±


    Dantes considered for a moment telling him his plan when he saw the distress he was causing him. That moment ended quickly though. He liked Tel, that didn¡¯t mean he trusted him.


    ¡°Alright then, guess I¡¯m off to the headman.¡±


    Wane nodded. ¡°Merle told me to bring along a few of our boys. To make sure they give the clean death you were promised. Wouldn¡¯t do what little rep we have any good if we don¡¯t follow through.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°You can be honest and just say they want to see the spectacle of having me killed.¡±


    Wane chuckled. ¡°Well, Pillion did volunteer, but the rest of em don¡¯t really know you. They¡¯re Merle''s more¡­ardent disciples.¡± Wane¡¯s inhaled through his nostrils deeply. ¡°Ah, that¡¯s them now.¡±


    Dantes looked and saw four men nearly as massive as Merle himself. Collars digging into their thick necks, old mage robes barely clinging to them despite their looseness, and arms as big as their heads. Behind those four impressive specimens, was Pillion, with a smirk on his face.


    Dantes frowned. Those five meant there would be more damage to mitigate, but he couldn¡¯t blame Merle for it, nor was it entirely unexpected. He nodded at the men. ¡°Ready to watch me die?¡±


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    Pillion chuckled. ¡°Very.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll try to make sure I bleed on you a bit. May tell one of the elves that the crime that got you here was raping an elven virgin before they off me.¡±


    Pillion¡¯s face went red. ¡°I¡¯m just here for theft!¡±


    ¡°I know. Hopefully they¡¯ll believe you when you tell them that. Though I do wonder if they¡¯d question a dying man¡¯s last words too much¡­¡±


    ¡°Fucking asshole, I¡¯m looking forward to seeing your head tumble across the market.¡± muttered Pillion, slinking behind the four much larger escorts.


    ¡°Alright, we should get going.¡± Dantes ordered the nearby rats to move along with them, and looked briefly through Jacopo¡¯s eyes.


    He was on a shaky roof in the undermarket. The streets were more filled than usual. He could see the usual hucksters and storefronts, and the Which Wench was doing excellent business with the increased foot traffic. Most importantly he could see that a small stage of sorts had been erected, with a delicate steel blade driven into its center. Elves surrounded the crude stage, mostly the ones he recognized to be from the gang¡¯s leadership. Their Duke, Reivare, was sitting on the stage edge, sneering at a nearby halfling and hollering a slur in his direction.


    Along with the elves was a heavier press of other races as well. Several Orcs from their gang which had the sense not to name themselves, a half dozen members of Clan Stonedust including Iron and a few members of consortium taking bets on what the result would be. Not whether or not Dantes would die, but whether he would chicken out, or if the Elves would purposefully make it slow after saying they wouldn¡¯t, little things like that. He could also sense the other rats through Jacopo, taking their places with the mirror shards, preparing. Dantes had a few more moving even further than the undermarket, but he¡¯d found that it spent favor more quickly to look through those rats whose eyes were further away, particularly those other than Jacopo, whose eyes he could peer through at no cost at all.


    ¡°Did you hear me Dantes?¡± asked Tel.


    Dantes shook his head. Looking through Jacopo¡¯s eyes and using his newfound abilities was still distracting. He¡¯d need to work on doing it more naturally, assuming his plan worked and he survived.


    ¡°No. Not at all. Just wondering if they¡¯ll behead me, or what other options they may have chosen.¡±


    ¡°Probably a rapier through the heart,¡± said one of the escorts, a strangely muscular elf. ¡°The traditionalists usually favor that way.¡±


    ¡°Too vain for beheadings?¡¯


    ¡°That and back in the Fey realm it wasn¡¯t as much of a guarantee of death. There¡¯s an old story of a green knight¡­ it was a whole thing.¡±


    ¡°Rapier through the heart isn¡¯t too bad. Appreciate the information,¡± It also impacted a few last minute decisions he needed to make.


    ¡°What I was saying is that I¡¯ll be going too.¡±


    Dantes frowned. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Syn may need a shoulder to cry on after you¡¯re gone. I want to be the first to volunteer,¡± he lied, poorly.


    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure she¡¯ll have her hands full with other business. Feel free to lie and tell her it was my last wish that she¡¯d give you a lay for free.¡±


    Tel put a hand on Dantes¡¯ arm, managing a brief smile. ¡°You¡¯re a true friend.¡±


    He nodded, though he knew a true friend would do everything he could to keep him from walking into the chaos he was about to cause.


    With nothing left to say, the group began the walk to the undermarket. Unlike the roundabout paths, and strange caverns Dantes usually wound his way through, the group went straight to the undermarket. It made him nervous, even more so than his unfolding plot. The group made it to the market in roughly half the time it usually took him to do so, and the dwarven guards waved them through with no issue.


    Just as he¡¯d seen through Jacopo¡¯s eyes, there was a large crowd gathered. Members of all the major gangs were milling about, as were randoms, gamblers, and the usual degenerates that made up the thriving Underprison community.


    He took a moment to disperse the rats that were still with him, and had them take their positions. He checked on the other rats that he¡¯d sent ahead and found that they were already in place, or at least near enough that it didn¡¯t matter. They were good at following orders, especially when Jacopo assisted him in ensuring that they understood them. He quickly checked the ratmark on his arm. It still had a full fang of gold left.


    The crowd parted when they noticed Dantes and the Collared that were with him. At the far edge of the crowd he saw the Elves gathered and waiting, smirks on their faces as they looked down their noses at him.


    Reivare, still shirtless as he had been every time Dantes had seen him, leapt down from the crudely erected stage. His tattoos shifted and moved, as they played across his lean musculature making it look as if the tree on his chest was swaying in the wind. He gestured to the crowd and looked directly at Dantes.


    ¡°Let this be an example to all of you. To cross me, to cross your betters, is a fool''s game. This mutt realized that and chose the only smart move he could, choosing not to play.¡±


    Dantes clenched his jaw, feeling his small tusks poke against the inside of his cheeks. He hadn¡¯t even begun to play.

 Ch 21: I was made for the stage

    ¡°Alright mutt, want to take your place on the stage? Or do we need to drag you up here?¡±


    Dantes smirked. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I was made for the stage.¡± He began walking forward, his escort dispersing now that it seemed like the elves were going to honor their part of the bargain. He saw Tel grinding his teeth as he walked toward it, and saw Pinion wearing an impish grin. Maybe if he was lucky he¡¯d be able to kill him too.


    Dantes climbed up, and Reivare leapt up on to it with grace, seemingly just so that he could look down on Dantes as he crawled up. Reivare was nearly a foot taller than him, and his wiry lean muscle and tattoos showed in sharp contrast to Dantes¡¯ slightly below average height, practical many pocketed jacket, and underweight frame.


    Dantes looked out into the crowd. He made eye contact with the Clan Stonedust leader, Iron in the Mine, who lifted a drink toward him with a cruel smile. He saw a half dozen people exchanging goods with a gnome running a gambling stand for the consortium. He guessed that odds were high on him dying after no less than four racial slurs and stereotypes were shouted at him by the elves. He caught sight of Syn toward the back, wearing the face of an orcish onlooker. He was surprised to see that she wasn¡¯t working, but noticed the brief wink she gave him. He wondered if she knew exactly what he was planning, or just knew him well enough to guess that he was planning something. The rest of the crowd was mostly unknown to him aside from the occasional gambler he¡¯d rolled dice with, or merchant he¡¯d traded with. They were here for entertainment more than anything. He couldn¡¯t blame them, It could be hard to break up the doldrum of the Pit.


    ¡°So, dog, do you want to lay down while I drive,¡± Reivare pulled the rapier smoothly from its place embedded in the stage, ¡°This into your heart, or do you want to stand and take the chance that you may flinch and I¡¯ll need to stab you more than once?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll stand.¡±


    Reivare smirked, and flourished the blade above the crowd. ¡°The Mutt thinks he¡¯s brave. We¡¯ll see if that¡¯s the case when I move to run him through.¡±


    His toadies chuckled at his joke.


    Dantes kept making minute adjustments to where the rats were, looking through Jacopo¡¯s eyes where he was crouched on a nearby roof to keep track of where everyone was standing.


    Dantes moved to stand at the opposite end of the stage and gave a wide smile spreading out his arms. ¡°I¡¯m going to give you one last chance.¡± He said, his voice carrying over the crowd and drawing everyone¡¯s full attention.


    Reivare lifted his rapier and steadied his hand perfectly in line with where Dantes¡¯ heart was. ¡°Lost your mind with fear, eh? One last chance for what?¡±


    ¡°To surrender.¡±


    He laughed. ¡°Here I thought you might have half a brain. I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ll have to decline, mutt.¡±


    Dantes smiled and sent out an order.


    Bleed


    The rats beneath the stage, and the ones winding their way through the elves in the crowd all nicked themselves, and spread their blood across the mirror shards before quickly scurrying away, causing a few members of the crowd to jump and curse.


    ¡°Well, let no one say I didn¡¯t give you a chance.¡±


    ¡°Grey skinned fool,¡± said Reivare, lunging for Dantes, the point of his blade staying perfectly straight until it, very suddenly, was not.


    The stage exploded, engulfing Reivare¡¯s legs and sending him flying into the air. At the same time, eight other explosions went off in the center of the Elven King¡¯s ranks. The limbs and viscera of those nearest to the blasts went flying all across those who had been assembled there. Those not killed immediately were thrown backwards and sliced by the shrapnel of their dead companions'' bones.


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    The Undermarket was immediately thrown into chaos as everyone scattered and ran for their lives. A few people simply stood stock still, in shock as to what happened. Others immediately saw opportunity and began robbing the stores whose owners had fled, or looting the freshly dead without a second thought.


    Dantes had been launched off the stage, but since he¡¯d been prepared for it he¡¯d managed a soft landing in a booth selling sharpened rocks. He drew himself to his feet and took stock of the situation. He was down to half a fang of favor, which meant that his order to bleed had extended to those rats he¡¯d had infiltrate Elfland King territory as well. He¡¯d sent them there to find the other magic mirrors and bleed on them. Hopefully those additional explosions finished off even more of their leadership, on top of the added benefit of removing their connection to the outside world.


    A silver flash launched itself toward Dantes and he threw himself to the side at the last moment, rolling away as a rapier pierced the air where he¡¯d been a moment before.


    Holding the slip of silver was Reivare. Both of his legs were a charred mess, and he had a piece of the stage protruding from his side, but he was still alive, and his eyes were burning with hatred as he looked at Dantes.


    ¡°You degenerate mixed piece of shit.¡± He lunged again, and Dantes barely managed to avoid a flurry of stabs in his direction. ¡°I don¡¯t know how you did this,¡± he narrowly missed a few more times, his injuries slowing him down considerably otherwise Dantes would¡¯ve been killed by the first blow, ¡°but you¡¯re going to die for it.¡±


    Dantes called upon the favor of the rats again, maneuvering toward a nearby alley. ¡°You don¡¯t know how I did this huh? Too stupid to figure it out?¡± He lifted a thick chunk of wood from the stage to block the rapier¡¯s point just before it reached him. ¡°What? No comments about how my skull shape would make me fooling you impossible?¡± He dove down into the alley, and drew his shiv from his boot.


    ¡°Even a rat can possess a low cunning.¡± replied Reivare as he flicked the wood off the edge of his rapier. ¡°That doesn¡¯t make it greater than the cat that hunts it.¡±


    ¡°Attack!¡± said Dantes, and the rats he¡¯d called answered in kind, three dozen of them swarming up Reivare¡¯s legs, biting and clawing at him.


    He screamed, clawing wildly at himself, and flinging his already wounded form against a nearby wall in an attempt to remove the rats that were swarming across him and tearing into his flesh. Several died as he tried to fight free of them, and Dantes could feel the last bits of favor he had rapidly fading with each rat¡¯s death.


    Reivare was flailing wildly with his rapier, but Dantes risked lunging for him anyway, not wanting to attempt the attack after the favor ran out and the rats stopped serving as a distraction. He drove his shiv into Reivare¡¯s chest, pushing it into him with all of his strength.


    Reivare managed to give Dantes one more hate filled look before he collapsed, all light leaving his eyes.


    Dantes fell backwards, panting heavily, the sounds of chaos still carrying across the undermarket. Even half exploded with rats all over him, Reivare had still nearly killed him. Had it been a straight fight, he never would¡¯ve had a chance. Still, it wasn¡¯t as if straight fights were ever his forte to begin with. He looked down at the rats, still tearing at the corpse.


    ¡°You guys can leave if you want, or eat for a minute or so while I catch my breath. Thanks for all your help.¡±


    One of the rats, a mottled gray one with fangs sharp as daggers peered up at him, blood dripping from his fangs. ¡°The eyeballs are the best part.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Uh-huh¡­ thanks for sharing.¡±


    ¡­


    Once he¡¯d caught his breath, Dantes went over to the body, gently brushing the rats away while he searched it. He took the sheath and belt from it, and found that they shared a similar boot size so replaced his own with Reivare¡¯s pair, which must''ve been far nicer considering they were in miraculously good shape in spite of the explosion that had otherwise shredded his lower half. He found a small glass vial filled with dust that he pocketed as well as a handful of gold coins. Once he was done looting the body, he grabbed the corpse by the long gold strands of hair and picked up the rapier. He dragged him through to the center of the Undermarket, sure to let everyone see what he was doing.


    Those who were looting, or fighting all stopped to look at him, and the chaos around him quieted enough that more and more people took notice of him. He didn¡¯t see a single living full blooded elf, which meant either they¡¯d all died, or more likely, they¡¯d ran for it when they started exploding.


    When he was certain that he had an audience he lifted the body and head up by the hair so no one could deny who it was. He raised the rapier, and swept it in a slow circle all around himself, aiming the point at everyone that surrounded him.


    ¡°Let this be a lesson to everyone. Don¡¯t. Fuck. With. Me.¡± With that, he dropped the corpse and walked out of the Undermarket. The path clearing for him silently as he did so.

 Ch 22: Hungry and Cruel

    Dantes walked back to his cave, his mind forming plans on top of plans on top of plans in the midst of the euphoria he was experiencing. The immediate threat was gone, and now he had more tools to work with than he¡¯d ever had before. He felt like he¡¯d just done a fat line of dust. He didn¡¯t just need to survive and wallow, he could build, maybe even find a way out of the Pit.


    It had happened before. There was Tristan two lives, a mage that had managed to remove his collar by killing himself so that it could be removed, then being revived. The Green Blight, an Orc that had earned his freedom by volunteering to fight in the Arena and surviving a gauntlet that no one else has managed to complete before or after him. Gideon Gallant, a gnome who¡¯d managed to find a way out of the Pit by traveling through the Ruins and finding an exit on the outside of Rendhold. Those, of course, were the major examples, the legends. Between those legends he was certain there were dozens more escapes that no one had ever heard of. People who had friends on the surface that could bust them out, who bribed the right guards during their occasional raids, or even exceptional climbers that managed to slip out of the Maw in the dead of night and get past the guards.


    Dantes was more interested in those more mundane methods. He had only just avoided execution, he wasn¡¯t nearly a solid enough fighter to survive the challenge of the arena, and having seen some of the things that lived in the dark further in the ruins, he had no desire to go that route. Besides which, since those escapes, magical barriers had been erected that blocked off the deepest portions of the Underprison that might lead to the surface.


    First things first though, he¡¯d need to gather resources. The blow he just made to the Elfland Kings gave him a reputation to trade on, but also one to repair. The Consortium would be very upset with the chaos he¡¯d created in their market, so his first step would be to mend his relationship with them. There was no path forward without at least their indifference secured. Not to mention they were the group most likely to know of other methods of escape.


    Dantes made it back to his cave, needing to adjust his new rapier to allow himself through the narrow opening.


    Jacopo leapt from Dantes¡¯ jacket and moved toward his usual spot on the ground, curling up for a nap. Dantes spent another hour pacing, moving up and down the length of his cave, tracing a crack that spanned its length with his middle finger as he thought through plans and possibilities. He was physically exhausted, bruised, battered, but his mind and soul were alight in a way they hadn¡¯t been for the previous five years.


    He made his way out of his cave to check on his orchard, and found that everything had grown even more in his absence, and the garden itself was spreading out from the initial areas in which he¡¯d planted the seeds. Those seeds left behind by the rats he¡¯d fed had somehow found purchase in the cracks widened by the growing roots of the trees, vines, and bushes, many of which were already sprouting with delicate red leaves. Dantes reached out his attention to check on them, and was unsurprised to find them thriving, but hungering for more of his blood. He obliged them, simply opening a scab on his arm from a cut he¡¯d earned from Reivare¡¯s rapier mere hours ago. He squeezed out several drops of blood for each plant.


    Once he was done he sat on a raised piece of stone and checked his ratmark. There was only the tiniest sliver of gold left on the fang. He¡¯d expected as much, and was grateful it had lasted as long as it had. If he¡¯d needed to fight for too much longer, he¡¯d have lost the rat¡¯s support and Reivare would¡¯ve almost certainly run him through. He¡¯d need to start building up their favor again. He needed the majority of the fruit his garden would produce for a different plan, but he¡¯d put aside maybe a tenth of the rest for the rats, on top of whatever spoiled beyond his purposes. That would help to build it up in the long term, but he¡¯d need to find more ways to give it a quicker boost. If he was back up in Rendhold he could just go to some of the larger gangs and offer to get rid of any sensitive corpses they had and then feed those bodies to the rats. A good idea, and one he¡¯d save for later, but not one that could help him at the moment.


    He stood up and went back to his cave from the garden. He watered the plants there, which were slowly growing to cover the floor in soft green moss, then fed the fungus in the far corner of the cave as well. Once he was done with that, his mind finally began to calm. Whether it was from the completion of more mundane and soothing tasks, the natural depletion of adrenaline after the events in the undermarket, or the blood loss he wasn¡¯t sure.


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    He yawned, wiping a tear of exhaustion from the corner of his eye. The last thing he did was find some large canvas sacks he¡¯d kept in a corner and set them out for the morning. After that he placed his new rapier at the side of his makeshift bed, and laid down. Sleep came quickly after that.


    ¡­


    He had expected his long day to lead him to an empty, dreamless sleep, but had no such luck. He found himself floating above a large and familiar table, in the center of which was a scale. On one side of the table sat the man in the midnight blue cloak, and on the other side sat the woman in green with a predator¡¯s smile. They were discussing something, but the actual content of their words were muffled and incomprehensible to him, as words in dreams often were.


    Things seemed to have advanced at the table since the last time he¡¯d been there. The woman in green no longer sat alone, but instead had, curled on the table next to her, a large gray rat which she occasionally scratched between the ears. The scale on the center of the table seemed to be balancing far more coins than it had been as well, and on the table between them were three coins that both the green woman and the blue man gestured to as they spoke, as if discussing where they should be placed. The blue man was also no longer alone. Another man was leaned over behind him, this one wearing a rich black cloak, threaded with fine gold lace. The man seemed identical to the man in blue, except for his smile. Unlike the wry bemusement in the smirk of the man in blue, the man in black¡¯s smile was hungry, and cruel.


    Both the man in blue and the woman in green reached for a coin in the center, and placed it on their respective sides of the scale. They then both reached for the third, and grabbed hold of it at the same time.


    ¡­


    Dantes woke to soreness all across his body and a pounding headache. He sat up, and dragged himself over to his water pitcher drinking until it was half empty. The water made him realize how hungry he was, and so he removed the rock from over his food store and had a swift breakfast of what little dried meat remained as well as some hard crackers he mixed with water to make them soft enough to be edible. The food and drink lessened the headache, in all the excitement of the previous day he''d forgotten to eat. He tossed a bit of cracker and meat to Jacopo, who actually caught some of it between his teeth, seemingly ready for it before he even initiated the throw.


    He waited patiently for Jacopo to have his meal. Dantes could sense that Jacopo felt much the same as he did from the activities of the previous day, and considering they seemed to share in what suffering they experienced he saw no reason to rush him and cause himself discomfort in the process.


    Once Jacopo was done Dantes collected the sacks he¡¯d laid out the previous day, buckled his new rapier to his waist, and made his way to the garden. It had grown lush, and rich in the time he¡¯d slept, spreading further and producing new fruit as thanks for the blood he''d shed for it the previous day. He began collecting all of the fruit that he could. Filling one sack, then another, then a third. By the end he had filled all five that he had brought. He knew he could carry only one through the outer tunnels, but that should be all he needed to get things started, and having the rest put away would save him trouble later.


    He looked up at the trees that still had fruit, and down at the vines. He reached out with his senses and felt the rats scurrying in the nearby tunnels.


    Come and eat all you¡¯d like. Just leave the sacks undisturbed.


    It wasn¡¯t even five seconds before several dozen rats scurried into the garden and began eating to their heart¡¯s content. Dantes watched his ratmark as gold began to slowly spread back across the first fang.


    Satisfied, he grabbed one of the sacks of fruit, pulling only a single apple from it to eat as he walked, and began heading into the outskirts of the pit. It had been a while since he¡¯d seen Mez, and he had a wonderful new business opportunity for him.

 Ch 23: Dust, weed, favor, coin if they have it

    Dantes moved quickly and comfortably through the outskirts, shifting through narrow passageways, and avoiding sealed passages and dead ends. This was a more frequently tread path for him, one that he didn¡¯t need much thought to move through. It had the added benefit of being rarely traveled by anyone except for him. The kobolds would approach from a different direction, and while he¡¯d occasionally seen a random orc or drunken dwarf with Mez, none of them would¡¯ve approached from Collared territory and taken his path. This meant he could relax, at least as much as was possible for him.


    The trek loosened his muscles and he started finding some relief from his soreness. He began to extend his perception around himself, sensing rats, mosses, mushrooms, roaches, and all sorts of other critters surviving on the fringes of the Pit. Before he¡¯d often thought of the Pit as devoid of life, and empty of anything of value, but he had no such misconceptions now.


    ¡°What are we doing?¡± asked Jacopo from one of Dantes¡¯ jacket pockets.


    ¡°Heading to see a contact of mine.¡±


    ¡°To feed? The fruit would go much further with me and other rats.¡±


    ¡°No, the fruit is for him to use to make booze.¡±


    ¡°Booze?¡±


    Dantes scratched his chin. ¡°You know in the Undermarket, the buildings with a strong smell that people gather at?¡±


    Jacopo was silent for a moment, and Dantes could feel him searching both of their thoughts. He attempted to send an image of one of the bars to Jacopo¡¯s mind.


    ¡°Yes. I know this place.¡±


    ¡°You ever drink from one of the cups that fell on the ground? Sip from a puddle near it?¡±


    Jacopo nodded, an expression Dantes could feel, but not see as he ducked under a partially collapsed doorway.


    ¡°Yes. It caused my vision to blur and I proceeded to the nearest female for mating.¡±


    Dantes inclined his head. ¡°Yes, booze definitely has that effect on some.¡±


    ¡°You wish to have it made for yourself?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°Some of it, maybe, though I need to stay sharp for now. No, I need it to trade.¡±


    ¡°For what?¡±


    ¡°Dust, weed, favor, coin if they have it.¡±


    ¡°Why not simply take those things?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be doing that too, but it helps to have a semi-legitimate trade going as well. Trading the booze will give me more opportunities to steal, kill, bribe, manipulate, and control.¡±


    Jacopo scratched himself behind the ears. ¡°You and your people are very complicated.¡±


    ¡°Only when we aren¡¯t desperate. The more we have the more complicated we make things to have more until we have layer upon layer of complication. When I was first thrown into the Pit, things were much simpler. Now they¡¯re becoming complicated for me again.¡±


    ¡°And if others come to take what you have the simple way?¡±


    ¡°Then I¡¯d have layers of complications to protect me.¡±


    ¡°And if they don¡¯t?¡±


    He shrugged. ¡°Then things get simple again.¡±


    Jacopo scurried from one pocket to another across Dantes¡¯ back.


    ¡°I¡¯d like some of this booze when you receive it.¡±


    ¡°Keeping things simple?¡±


    ¡°At least until I begin running on two legs. Then I may add complications.¡±


    Dantes chuckled. ¡°Fair enough. I¡¯ll make sure to set some aside for you.¡±


    They made their way through a few more tunnels when Dantes slowed down. He¡¯d reached the edges of where Mez kept his traps. Luckily, Mez was the only Kobold who never updated or moved them. He made them more out of cultural habit, than because he wanted to. His energies had always been focused elsewhere.


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    Dantes made his way around the falling rock trap, the skitterling pit where the skitterlings had long since begun resorting to cannibalism due to lack of food, and ducked under the already triggered, but not reset, spear trap that had pinned a cobweb riddled skeleton stuck to a wall.


    Once through that he came into a fairly large chamber that reeked like the worst bars at the Rendhold docks. The scent brought back memories of his father that made him grimace, but he shifted his expression when Mez came into view so that he could put on a friendly smile instead.


    Mez was leaned over a large metal cauldron which he was stirring intently, the entirety of his focus on the work in front of him. Dantes had no idea where he¡¯d found the cauldron, or most of his other equipment for that matter. It was a hodgepodge of somehow unbroken glass, metal buckets, leaky wooden barrels and clay pots. All of it was filled with some kind of liquid, or soon to be liquid that was fermenting, and if one smelled any of them too closely their nose hairs would burn away. It all reminded Dantes of an Alchemist shop he¡¯d robbed with his gang in their early days. They¡¯d made out with thirty pieces of silver, a bag of unlabeled potions that shattered before they made their escape, and a strange rash from touching ingredients that had been left out. It had been a failure, but the silver kept them pleasantly drunk and high for a few weeks at least.


    Dantes pondered all of this while waiting for Mez to break his concentration. It was never a good idea to disturb a Kobold that was intently focused on what they were doing. Usually it was because they could accidentally trigger whatever deadly trap they were working on, but in this case it just seemed rude.


    Mez finished another half stir motion, and reached a bare claw into the liquid, putting it into his mouth to taste the concoction he was working on. He nodded twice, seemingly satisfied and then his head and tail twisted as his tongue tasted the air. Mez was a deep red in color, with random purple scales in pockets across his hide. He wore alcohol stained rags, and was missing several teeth on the right side of his face from the fight that had landed him in the pit. From what Dantes had gathered, the Orc he¡¯d been fighting had come out of the brawl without the use of his legs, which seemed a more than fair trade.


    ¡°Tes! Welcome! I had thought you would be dead by now.¡±


    ¡°Ah, you heard about the problem with the Elfland Kings?¡±


    ¡°No, I just thought you¡¯d be dead in general. What did you do with the Elfland Kings?¡±


    ¡°Killed their leadership, and a big chunk of their people. Destroyed their magic mirrors that let them smuggle things into the pit.¡±


    ¡°Huh¡­ well¡­ fuck¡¯em. Last time I was in the undermarket one of them called me a short scaled fuckwit with a skull shape that indicates incest earlier in my family tree.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, they can be pretty elaborate with their insults.¡±


    ¡°I mean, sure my parents were cousins so it¡¯s partially true, but the rest of it was uncalled for.¡±


    ¡°Definitely taking things too far,¡± said Dantes, nodding and resisting a chuckle that had begun bubbling up. ¡°How have you been?¡±


    ¡°Good. Got some business last week from some of those mage folk with the pretty necklaces. May have figured out a way to make the black moss brew taste less like you¡¯re going to die.¡±


    ¡°The mage folk, did they mention they were sent by me?¡±


    Mez flicked his tongue and sighed. ¡°They did¡­ the one with the oddly pretty hair was very insistent you told him I gave good rates.¡±


    ¡°Did you?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I only charged them double.¡±


    Dantes nodded, that was still quite a bit cheaper than what they¡¯d be paying in the undermarket where the markup was much higher. He gave a light cough and held out his hand.


    Mez went over to a far corner of his cave and rifled through a few broken pieces of porcelain under which Dantes knew he had hidden a small cache of goods. He came back to Dantes with a small pouch of dust, and a bag of dried food. ¡°Seems light.¡±


    ¡°You could leave a hand lighter if you¡¯re not happy with it,¡± responded Mez baring his teeth.


    Dantes held up his hand. ¡°I trust you, just wondering if the Mages got the better of you in the deal is all.¡± The lie was reflexive and easy.


    Mez shrugged. ¡°Not like I get many customers. I mostly just charge what I need to in order to keep working anyway. So, what are you here for? Just to get your cut, or wanting to get a little something for yourself to make the days pass by quicker? I could use a fresh palate to sample some of the new stuff with me.¡±


    ¡°I actually came here to do a different kind of business with you.¡± Dantes placed the sack on the ground between them, and opened it enough to show Mez what was inside.


    His eyes widened. ¡°Fruit!? Fresh fruit!? Where¡¯d you get this?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the source.¡±


    ¡°This much¡­¡± He squinted. ¡°What do you want for it?¡±


    ¡°I want whatever you produce with it. I can get you even more than this every single week.¡± Dantes had a feeling he could manage a full sack a day, but it was better to underpromise and overdeliver in his experience.


    ¡°What would you even do with it? Drink yourself to death? Trade it?¡±


    ¡°I want to make a deal with the Smallfolk Consortium with most of it. The rest I was thinking I¡¯d sling on the side. Cut you in on the profits of course.¡±


    ¡°Fifty-fifty?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°You can have fifteen or I can throw this sack and the rest of it in the caves for the rats.¡±


    ¡°You start worshiping the God of Greed all of a sudden, you bastard?¡±


    ¡°Fifteen is because I like you. If I didn¡¯t it would be ten.¡±


    Mez looked at the sack of fruit, the gears turning behind his eyes as he considered all of the new equipment he could buy and the amount he could produce.


    ¡°Did I ever tell you that you¡¯re the most handsome Midtown Mutt I¡¯ve ever seen.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Alright, twenty it is.¡± He held out his hand, and Mez clasped it.

 Ch 24: Well see how the next roll goes

    With the deal made, Dantes left Mez to his brewing and headed back to his cave. The trek was easy, particularly without the weight of the sack he¡¯d carried on the way there. Once he was back in his cave he checked his ratmark and saw that one fang mark was full again, lit gold on his skin. The rats had clearly enjoyed the meal he¡¯d offered them, and their god had granted his favor for it. He¡¯d head back into the garden shortly to feed the plants his blood that they so desired, but he had other plans first.


    It was going to take time for Mez to brew the first batch, and he wouldn¡¯t want to approach the Consortium without something in hand; they tended to react poorly to that. He also needed more information on how things were going since he¡¯d destroyed the Kings. If they were truly shattered, if they¡¯d consolidated their power, or if just a small faction was left dedicated to killing him, he needed to know before he started showing back up again. He also wanted to see what he could do about Iron in the Mine. He still had bruises from the beating he¡¯d given him, and he wanted to return the favor. He had other revenge he¡¯d rather be focusing on above in Renhold, but, until he found his way out of the Pit, Iron would be his focus.


    ¡°Jacopo, I need to know what¡¯s going on in the rest of the pit, will you be my eyes?¡±


    Jacopo opened a single eye to look at Dantes. ¡°Can¡¯t you make the other rats do it?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m trying to save favor. Besides, you remember the dwarf that struck us both?¡±


    Jacopo stretched and flexed his claws. ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°I want him dead, or at least diminished, and the information we gain could help with that.¡±


    Jacopo tilted his head, now fully awake. ¡°What do you need?¡±


    ¡°I need you to travel through to the undermarket, then into dwarf territory. Listen to a few conversations, watch some goings-on.¡±


    He stood, and hopped off his small perch. ¡°You carried me on the last trip. I will carry you on this one.¡±


    ¡°You sure I¡¯m not too heavy?¡± asked Dantes with a half-smile.


    Jacopo regarded him with a blank stare.


    Dantes shrugged and laid on his bed, focusing on seeing what Jacopo was seeing. There was a kind of handshake when his attention arrived at the rat¡¯s mind. An acknowledgement that Jacopo knew that he was there.


    Jacopo scurried quickly out of the cave and began making his way toward the Collared. He stayed mostly in cracks in the walls, or traveling through narrow passages too small for anything except other rats and those few roaches brave or stupid enough to travel in rat-tunnels. Dantes could feel the cold stone as Jacopo¡¯s feet touched it, and even felt the strain as he squeezed through some of the narrower holes to reach his destination.


    They reached the opening to the collared territory. There were two guards at the entrance instead of the usual one, and both seemed far more focused and aware than those guarding the entrance usually were.


    Let¡¯s look around here a bit


    Jacopo heard Dantes¡¯ words in his head, and complied, scurrying along the wall past the guards, who had no reason to trouble themselves over a rat. Inside the walls, the Collared all seemed more animated than usual. More of Merle¡¯s closer disciples, those who joined him in his exercises, were out and about their massive forms looming over their narrower brothers. Otherwise things were much the same, aside from a higher tension in the air. A few of them were working on magical formulae, or trading books, some were working to repair the rickety plumbing system that they¡¯d created, and some were gambling.


    Dantes urged Jacopo toward the gamblers, and he moved toward them carefully, taking position between a pipe and the ground nearby where they were rolling dice. It was difficult to tell at the angle Jacopo was looking at them, but Dantes thought he recognized Pillion, Wane, and Tel at the table.


    Pillion rattled dice in a cup, then slammed it onto the ground between the three of them.


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    ¡°I¡¯ll put up a bump of dust,¡± said Tel.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know you were into that stuff,¡± said Wane.


    ¡°I¡¯m not, just happened to¡­find a bit at the undermarket. In all the commotion.¡±


    Pillion chuckled. ¡°Like I found that flask full of booze and Wane found that stack of old books.¡±


    ¡°Exactly like that,¡± said Tel. ¡°That whole thing was crazy.¡±


    ¡°That it was,¡± said Wane. ¡°I¡¯m in for a stick of pre-rolled dwarf weed.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t believe that asshole survived,¡± said Pillion. ¡°I¡¯ll put up Timore¡¯s old grimoire.¡±


    Pillion removed the cup and both he and Wane groaned, while Tel smiled widely.


    ¡°You guys are going to pay for my next visit to Which Wench at this rate.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll see how the next roll goes,¡± muttered Wane. He scratched his beard. ¡°How do you think he did it?¡±


    ¡°Well, I know he made the explosion with the magic mirror fragments. He showed me the mirror before everything went down. I¡¯m the one that told him anything but pure elven blood would make it explode. Can¡¯t say I expected him to do things the way he did though.¡±


    ¡°Even knowing that, how did he get it in all the right places and have them go off at the same time? I didn¡¯t see him bleed on anything.¡±


    ¡°Is listening to this helpful or just masturbatory?¡± asked Jacopo internally.


    ¡°Masturbatory so far, but let¡¯s give it another minute before moving on. If you¡¯ll indulge me.¡±


    Jacopo said nothing, but stayed where he was.


    ¡°Who cares? The Elfland Kings are done here, that¡¯s what¡¯s important. Clan Stonedust and the orcs tore them to shreds the moment they saw them faltering¡­ Hopefully whatever of them survived will hunt that asshole down and gut him.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re lucky we like taking your money, or we wouldn¡¯t let you talk so much shit.¡± said Wane, a touch of menace in his voice.


    ¡°Yeah, Dantes is a friend. Lay off,¡± said Tel with decidedly less menace than Wane had given off. Hard for a half-elf to compete with a half-orc in that department..


    ¡°Whatever,¡± replied Pillion, putting the dice in the cup and starting another roll.


    Jacopo left after that, moving through the rest of the Collared¡¯s territory without any trouble. In the corridors between there and the Collared, he moved through the territory of some of the smaller, non racial, gangs. He didn¡¯t pass by close enough to actually hear anything, those groups tended to be hungry for rat meat, but even at a distance it was clear they were riled up and excited by what had happened the previous day. Voices were being raised, guards were more alert than usual, and goods were moving more freely between all of them.


    At the undermarket Jacopo wove between a dwarven guard¡¯s legs and immediately climbed the nearest rickety structure. He was far from the only vermin there. Other rats were eating chunks of viscera from the exploded elven kings, and smaller vermin, like roaches followed in their wake to pick at whatever was left.


    The cleanup had mostly been left to individual storefronts, who had swept most of the corpses out into the passageways leading to the market, but due to the messy nature of their deaths, they couldn¡¯t easily remove everything. Jacopo and Dantes saw a group of halflings, dwarves, gnomes, and a few kobolds all having a discussion toward the center of the market. Some of them were talking to sellers, others to gang members and leaders, and even more to each other.


    Jacopo moved across rooftops until he was close enough to hear one of the conversations between a halfling and a gnome on the outskirts of the group.


    ¡°Obviously in the short term our profits are going to be down, but it¡¯s hard to say how things will be without the Kings.¡±


    ¡°They definitely spent a lot at our bars, but let¡¯s be honest they started so much trouble that it cost us a lot of business as well.¡±


    ¡°Not to mention that they had those damned magic mirrors so they weren¡¯t as reliant on us as the other gangs. Has the council said anything about what they¡¯re going to do about the shakeup?¡±


    ¡°Well, I heard that they¡¯re considering putting a hit out on the guy that attacked the Kings. Diontes or whatever his name is.¡±


    ¡°For the damage he did to the market?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but they¡¯re torn on it.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, on the one hand violence in the markets at a large scale like this, it¡¯s bad for business.¡±


    ¡°And on the other hand?¡±


    ¡°The Kings were a bunch of knife eared assholes, and for the most part the council hated them.¡±


    The halfing shook his head. ¡°I mean, who knows if the guy even survived. Council could just be wasting their time.¡±


    The gnome shrugged, then gestured for the halfling to move a few steps away from the business in the center of the market. ¡°You uh, got any dust?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, skimmed some off the newest shipment. Need a hit?¡±


    Jacopo moved on from them. Neither he nor Dantes were interested in watching two smallfolk get high. They moved out to the edges of the Undermarket, where it connected to Clan Stonedust territory, catching a few more snippets of conversation along the way, and slunk into the dwarven halls.

 Ch 25: Too many are born with the sun on their faces

    Jacopo moved through the tight dwarven halls quickly and quietly. There were no cracks in the walls for him to slink through, so instead he had to rely on the shadows in order to make his way through. Dwarven darkvision may have made that a problem, but because they lined their halls with braziers that cast harsh light, they may as well have had human eyesight. A price they paid for aesthetics. This was an insight that Jacopo had thanks to his connections with Dantes rather than independently.


    He¡¯d noticed he¡¯d had a lot of those kinds of insights since they¡¯d been bonded. The vast majority meant nothing to him. Even this one wasn¡¯t vital in his mind. Who cared why the dwarves couldn¡¯t see him? Who cared that they were called dwarves? What mattered was that he could move quickly and quietly past them. Though even the reasons he was there were still confusing to him. When Dantes had explained revenge to him, he had felt very strongly that it was something that he wanted. In the past when another rat had stolen from him, or a human had attempted to trap him or threw a rock his way, he¡¯d felt no such feelings, but since being connected to Dantes, he¡¯d felt strongly about every slight, and the memory of his near death at the hands of Iron in the Mine, made his blood boil.


    He wove through a few of the tunnels, hiding against the wall when a dwarf loaded down with goods made his way through to the undermarket. He passed by a few more as he began moving through the maze-like halls of dwarven territory. One was dragging a bound elf around, another was hauling stone, and a third was vomiting in the corner, reeking of alcohol nearly as strongly as Mez had been when he¡¯d seen him earlier.


    Jacopo sniffed the air. He smelled food, and drink nearby. Dantes urged him in that direction. The last time he¡¯d seen Iron it was on a throne in their hall, there was a good chance that¡¯s where they¡¯d find him this time. Jacopo made his way in that direction, his near silent footfalls further muffled by the sounds of drinking and cheer. The room was much better lit than the rest of the hall, but Jacopo had the advantage of everyone being thoroughly focused on their food and drink.


    There were more than two dozen dwarves inside. Most of them with well decorated beards that marked them as high up in their clan. Iron himself was nowhere to be found. Jacopo sniffed the air as he scurried into the protective shade of a stone table. They were eating some mixture of mushrooms, skitterling, and broth. Dwarven cuisine was a cultural experience that Dantes had always done his damnedest to avoid, particularly since elements of it would kill him, but he found himself sharing Jacopo¡¯s hunger for it while he was watching through his eyes, and smelling the rich scents through his snout.


    The room was loud, but it only took a few moments for Jacopo¡¯s ears to filter everything down into individual conversations as he scurried around, and took a moment to nibble at a small spill of their stew.


    ¡°Damn the knife eared bastards, good riddance to them.¡±


    ¡°Aye, bunch of assholes. Remember the time one of ¡®em stabbed me tween the ribs?¡±


    ¡°I remember the ones that stabbed you through the cheek, but not the ribs.¡±


    ¡°That was a halfling, the one I cheated with loaded dice.¡±


    ¡°Ah yeah. Why did the elves stab you?¡±


    ¡°I pissed on their boots while they were walking past.¡±


    ¡°Seems like a bit much to stab someone over. A beating sure, but a stabbing? They took themselves way too seriously.¡±


    ¡°Speaking of taking themselves too seriously, where¡¯s Iron? I expected him to be celebrating the raid with the rest of us.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s celebrating back in his quarters with Rock.¡±


    ¡°Getting drunk as friends?¡±


    ¡°You know that¡¯s not what they¡¯re doing.¡±


    ¡°Why doesn¡¯t he just hit up the brothel like the rest of us. The changelings are perfectly capable of making themselves into a fine dwarven woman. Or even a human, or hells a halfling if you''re feeling a bit less than traditional.¡±


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    ¡°His¡­preferences always ran this way. Even back in Rendhall. I mean, he had a wife, he did his duties, but he always had a boy on the side. Why do you think he¡¯s down here?¡±


    ¡°I thought he got thrown down here because he killed that councilor¡¯s son?¡±


    ¡°No, he wasn¡¯t the one who did it, but they made him take the fall for it. He accepted it too, part of what makes him such a good clan head down here. Too few dwarves have a sense of responsibility these days. Too many are born used to the sun on their faces. Makes them weak.¡±


    ¡°I had no idea that¡¯s why he was here.¡±


    ¡°It was before your time, lad. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡±


    Jacopo was looking for the next area to move to. Dantes had encouraged him to sit still so that he could listen to the gossip, all of which he filed away for use later. Jacopo wanted to keep moving though. They left from under that table, scurrying for the next one, then the next. Jacopo encountered a few cousins beneath that one, eating spilled food, and drinking spilled drink. He flicked his whiskers in greeting, before moving toward the far end of the room. He knew, because Dantes shared the knowledge with him, that all dwarven halls shared a similar design, and so at that far end there would be a hall that led to the clan leader''s inner chambers.


    He found the back rooms unsealed, and so walked through them. The sound from the main hall became muffled in those rooms, and eventually faded completely as Jacopo worked his way deeper into the inner chambers. There were several empty larger rooms with stone beds filled with hay or in a few cases as Jacopo made his way deeper inside, actual feathers covered in cloth. The rooms were all well appointed, but became surprisingly elaborate as they made their way further in, with small trinkets, piles of dust, weed, and tobacco that made Dantes briefly wonder if Jacopo would be able to carry anything back before being reminded both by himself and by Jacopo that was a foolish idea.


    The door to the room at the far end of the hall was slightly cracked, with candlelight flickering from within. Loud snoring was carried out of the room, and halfway down the hall where it reached Jacopo. He moved inside quickly, sharing excitement with Dantes, a thrill that came with skullduggery that he had been unused to before his bonding.


    This room was the best appointed of them all. Intricate dwarven carvings lined the walls. Furniture of stone, carved for the space filled it, and the bed looked the same as one that may have been on the surface in Rendhold. There was even a wooden cabinet in the corner, a true luxury in the Pit.


    Dantes¡¯ priorities sending Jacopo into Clan Stonedust territory were simple. The first priority was information gathering, the second was locating some way to damage Iron and Clan Stonedust. Dantes¡¯ first instinct in that regard was to find some item of Iron¡¯s and have Jacopo steal it and then plant it among another dwarf or perhaps even find a way to put it in the possession of the orcs to sow strife among them. When Jacopo moved to the top of the wooden cabinet to survey the room however, another possibility came into play.


    Iron was laying on his back, with a younger dwarven man with only a few decorations on his beard laying across his chest. They were both asleep, and on a small stone table next to the bed, sat Iron¡¯s blunderbus.


    Dantes hesitated to say anything, thinking of the danger his idea may put Jacopo in.


    ¡°You are not going to suggest it?¡± asked Jacopo internally.


    ¡°I worry about the risk to you. We¡¯re linked, I don¡¯t want to put you in too much unnecessary danger.¡±


    ¡°I want to do it,¡± sent Jacopo. That gnawing feeling he¡¯d gotten from Dantes was stronger than it had been before. The hunger for revenge.


    Dantes felt it too. His hesitation evaporated when he realized that they shared the same feeling on the matter.


    Jacopo moved to the side table, climbing up easily, his movements silent in comparison to the loud dwarven snoring that was occurring. The blunderbus wasn¡¯t angled quite right, so Jacopo had to move it before firing to maximize the damage it would cause. The blunderbuss was massive to Jacopo, but he grabbed the end, and began pulling. It made a loud scraping noise, but the two dwarves kept snoring, undisturbed. Jacopo heaved it just a bit further.


    ¡°Huh- what¡¯s tha-¡±


    Jacopo froze as Iron sat up briefly and looked around. His eyes half lidded and bleary. The man that had been laying against him patted his chest a few times, and Iron gradually settled down.


    Jacopo settled, and shimmied around to the trigger. Neither Jacopo, nor Dantes had a lot of experience with firearms. They were rare, even on the surface, and had only really been adopted by dwarven artisans and a few enterprising humans. It was because of this, that when Jacopo pulled the trigger, he and Dantes didn¡¯t even remotely consider the idea of recoil.

 Ch 26: Brazen and bold

    The blunderbus fired and Jacopo was launched with it to the far side of the room, slamming against the wall. A man screamed, though whether it was Iron or his paramore, Jacopo was in no state to determine. His ears were ringing as he took several stumbling steps away from the wall he¡¯d slammed into. He saw blood beginning to seep from the bed, trickling down the stone frame and onto the ground. He shook his head in an attempt to regain his composure and ran out of the bedroom door and into the hallway.


    He made it halfway there just as several dwarves came barrelling through it. They didn¡¯t notice him even though he was in the center of the room. They just ran right for their leader. That didn¡¯t mean they didn¡¯t pose a danger though. Jacopo was forced to dodge their heavy boots, the tip of his tail being crushed by one of them. The pain of that made Dantes flinch from his bed back in his cave, feeling discomfort in a limb he didn¡¯t have.


    They scurried down the hallway, and into the now empty hall. There was no need to be subtle at this point. The dwarves would all be far too focused on the gunshot they¡¯d just heard, and reacting to the damage it caused rather than a lone rat scurrying around. It wasn¡¯t as if they had reason to suspect a rat was involved either. That would take some leaps of logic he didn¡¯t think the dwarves were capable of.


    Dantes and Jacopo both wished they could¡¯ve actually seen that damage they¡¯d done, to be certain of if they¡¯d killed Iron, or maimed him, or to confirm that they even hit him at all. It was possible that only his bedroom companion had been struck by the brunt of the blast. It was too risky to stick around to be sure though, especially with the injuries Jacopo had sustained from the gun''s recoil.


    Jacopo made it out of the main dwarven hall, and then out to the corridor between Clan Stonedust territory. Once he was there, the rest of the trip was a matter of muscle memory, he could make it back in his sleep.


    ¡­


    Dantes opened his eyes. Jacopo was heading back, and likely didn¡¯t need him focused on his every move just for that trek. He opened and closed his hands, looking at his slender fingers. That was the longest period he¡¯d looked through Jacopo¡¯s eyes, and the effect was disorienting. He had to remind himself not to get on all fours as he moved from his bed and had a drink of water.


    Once that was done he began flexing his new abilities, sensing the life around him and assessing its needs. His plants were still in good shape, not desiring anything since he¡¯d cared for them so recently. He ran his fingers along the ever-growing moss carpet that was overtaking the stone floor. If he strained his senses he could feel the state of his garden as well. It craved more blood, but its calls for it were half-hearted as it had been sated so recently. The rats in the garden were still feasting, or relaxing after a heavy meal, and the embers of life within the fruit sacks indicated to him that the rats hadn¡¯t touched them, just as he¡¯d requested.


    The trip with Jacopo had been a much bigger success than he¡¯d expected. He hadn¡¯t expected such an excellent opportunity for revenge against Iron, but was grateful that Jacopo had the same desire to take it as he had. Even if they hadn''t managed to actually kill him, the wounds they inflicted on him or his companion would at the very least serve as an excellent start. He also knew that the Smallfolk Consortium was conflicted about what to do about him, which gave him the opportunity to take initiative. Finally, he knew that the elves had been scattered by not only his attack, but a series of follow-up raids by the Orcs and Dwarves. The danger to him from their remnants was reduced, though he had no illusions that it didn¡¯t still exist.


    He needed to set some meetings, and make some moves. Unfortunately, he needed to wait until Mez finished the first brew he¡¯d requested. Having something tangible to bring into a negotiation would give him much more to stand on than empty promises of future profits. He¡¯d sold nothing for a profit before, but that was to groups far less savvy. It would take at least a week, but possibly more to have the brew in hand to start some negotiations. In the meantime he would keep bringing Mez fruit so that future batches could be produced in quick succession.


    All of that was to say he at least had a week to kill. He could do more scouting with Jacopo or the other rats, continue to cultivate his garden, but visiting even Collared territory would need to wait since he¡¯d likely need to answer to Merle for how things had happened in the undermarket. Merle was no friend to the Elves, but Dantes had put him at enormous risk with his actions, and had no doubt that he¡¯d need to answer for it.


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    Dantes reached out with his senses until he found a cockroach in the corner of his chamber. He unsealed a few small pieces of cracker and slowly approached him. He tried to broadcast his intentions to the insect, and it seemed to work as it didn¡¯t scurry away as he approached. He slowly moved his hand toward him, and dropped the crumbs directly in front of him. The roach skittered toward the food and began eating.


    He wasn¡¯t certain that what he was doing would lead to the same abilities he¡¯d developed with rats, but he had the time and felt it couldn¡¯t hurt to try. Rats could get almost anywhere in the Pit, but roaches could make it to even those places that rats couldn¡¯t. Besides that he imagined the ability to summon and command roaches would be enormously useful, if only to diversify what he could do.


    He moved over to where he had his pitcher of water, and poured it into the small dish he kept for bathing. He regarded himself for a moment in the reflection. He was gaunt. Five years of a lack of nourishment had made him shrivel away. Before he¡¯d gotten there he¡¯d been a ball of wiry coiled muscle from moving across rooftops, and running through alleys. Now that he had access to more food, he began to consider the possibilities of bringing himself back up to something resembling his old self. He¡¯d need his strength to keep building on his successes in the Pit, and he¡¯d need it even more for what would come after.


    He settled the plan for the next two weeks in his mind. Working with Mez on brewing as much product as possible, tending the garden and harvesting its fruit, exercise, experimenting more with his abilities, and scouting more with Jacopo and the other rats.


    He laid back down. The plans were solid, but the day had been long and for some reason he felt many of Jacopo¡¯s exertions as his own, weighing heavily on his body. He could sense that Jacopo was already through the Undermarket, and would be back soon. He closed his eyes, and let sleep take him.


    ¡­


    The plan had been perfect. Hit the councilman¡¯s shipment of dust and gold while it was being moved from the port. Everyone on the council thought that they were untouchable. They had deals with all of the larger gangs to leave their interests alone, and could call upon the city guard at will if they needed to. That meant that their caravan had only the driver and two guards. It was brazen, and bold, exactly Dantes¡¯ style.


    He waited up on the rooftop while Danglars and Gaspard stood in the road standing over a dead horse and a crashed buggy. They were arguing loudly as the councilman''s transport carriage approached.


    ¡°I don¡¯t give a fuck about your damned horse. I was just pulling my buggy when you hauled ass down here and nearly got everyone killed!¡±


    ¡°Who moves a fucking buggy through this part of town? Besides, didn¡¯t you hear me yelling, you deaf bastard!?¡±


    They were improvising more than Dantes had hoped they would, but it couldn¡¯t be helped. They were born performers in their own way.


    The transport stopped just below Dantes, and the guards moved to approach the scene. Gaspard and Danglars kept the argument going until the guards were nearly on top of them, then they drew daggers, and lunged at them.


    At the same time that they did that Dantes leapt from the rooftop and onto the roof of the carriage, and Mercedez emerged from a nearby alley with her hand crossbow aimed at the driver, and Mondego manifested in front of the horse with his morningstar.


    ¡°Drop the reins and step away. You never saw us,¡± said Dantes to the driver as the man assessed the situation.


    The driver simply raised his hands and stepped off the carriage. The moment he was off of it, Mercedes sent a bolt through his skull and he crumpled.


    Dantes laughed, and moved to the side of the carriage to check on the goods before they moved the carriage somewhere more discrete. The moment he opened the door, he was blasted backward by concussive force and slammed against a warehouse wall.


    Out of the carriage stepped a bald man with a tight black beard and a staff in one hand. A mage. They hadn¡¯t been expecting that.


    The rest was a blur of running, fireballs exploding overhead, Mercedes climbing the ladder they¡¯d placed in case they needed to make a quick escape. Danglars and Gaspard climbed after Mercedes, practically on top of one another, then Dantes encouraged Mondego to climb ahead of him. Dantes went up after. He reached the top, saw hands push the top of the ladder away from the roof, the sensation of falling, piercing pain as he landed.


    He woke up.

 Ch 27: Tempt the gods to ruin your day

    Dantes slid his hand into the next divot in the wall and pulled himself up, resting his feet between a narrow crack. He looked up, seeing another small divot and sliding his hand into it, he pulled himself another half a foot. He was about fifteen feet off of the ground now, but still felt steady. He¡¯d been a second story man long enough that heights didn¡¯t give him any pause. He looked for another hand hold higher up, but didn¡¯t see one. He looked to the left and saw several more that he could shimmy to. He began doing so, moving with confidence as he slid further to the left, then up, then down a bit more, then back up. He was attempting a reverse of the path he¡¯d been taking when he started, and enjoyed the freshness of the differences. Once he was done he began to slowly make his way back down. Moving inch by inch until his feet touched the hard stone below.


    He took several deep breaths, and wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. Dantes had never really trained at anything before. He was familiar with the concept of course. His father, on one of the few attempts he¡¯d made to get to know him, had taken him to the arena to see the various gladiators train. It served as a way to spend time with Dantes and to decide who he¡¯d be gambling on later, a brilliant use of time. Dantes had watched them practice their sword swings, or lift heavy stones, finding himself deliriously bored the entire time, and much more interested in watching the noblewomen watching the gladiators train rather than the gladiators themselves. Even after that he¡¯d seen Merle and his people weightlifting fairly often as well. It held no appeal to him.


    He preferred to focus on practical experience as a way to learn, since that¡¯s the way he¡¯d developed all of his own skills. You couldn¡¯t ¡®practice¡¯ pickpocketing, not in any way that mattered. He¡¯d learned to climb and run quickly because he¡¯d climbed and run quickly to get away from people he¡¯d robbed or wronged. He stole because he needed to do so to survive, and he fought when he had no choice because he¡¯d rather be the one doing the hitting, than the one being hit. Training had been a privilege of those with the extra time and energy to devote to it. Dantes only just now had the rare combination of both.


    He squeezed his fingers together, feeling the increased strength of his grip that he¡¯d developed over the last two weeks. He was satisfied to have seen as much progress as he had in that short amount of time. It was almost as if actually having enough food to eat, and not needing to constantly be concerned that you might be attacked had a positive benefit on one¡¯s health.


    He moved from the wall to the small pile of food he¡¯d placed on a nearby rock. Jacopo slept next to it, having eaten some of the fruit there without asking permission. Other rats sat nearby, eyeing the food scraps near him, but not approaching. Several roaches did the same. Dantes grabbed a peach and several grapes from the stone and threw them into the corner, broadcasting that they were free to take. The vermin didn¡¯t hesitate, immediately swarming over it and fighting one another for it. Even with all of the food Dantes already let them have freely, they were always willing to fight for more, an attitude that he respected.


    He looked at his ratmark. Three full fangs had been filled. He¡¯d not only been training his body, but his new abilities as well. He had gotten to the point that he could communicate with the rats at a greater distance, could tell much more exactly how much a task from them would cost him in favor, and could even quickly shift from looking through one¡¯s eyes, to another, and then another, without losing focus on what was happening in front of him. He practiced doing so for a moment, observing himself from several different angles before reaching Jacopo, who refused to open his eyes.


    He chuckled at that as he tucked into his food himself. He¡¯d managed to trade some fruit with the nearby kobolds for a substantial amount of dried meat. It was mostly rat, and the bit that wasn¡¯t had been taken from one of the recent drops into the maw. He¡¯d been very clear that he wasn¡¯t interested in any two-legged fare, but they¡¯d explained to him that to share that would be impossible anyway, as that food was marked for the clan, not for trade.


    Once he was done eating, he put his shirt and jacket back on, letting Jacopo climb into one of his jacket pockets. He then moved out of the chamber and began walking toward his garden. He could sense a nest of roaches nearby. They weren¡¯t hungry, but he could feel their need to expand into new nests as the current one was getting too full, and competitive. He couldn¡¯t talk to the roaches like he could the rats, but he could communicate with them. It was closer to how he felt the plants, with the only difference being that the roaches'' desires translated more directly to needs he understood. He still couldn¡¯t order them to do anything, but he could broadcast if he didn¡¯t want them to do something. A few of them broke with his requests, and those few were set upon by rats. It was a minor infraction against him in the grand scheme of things, but he couldn¡¯t help, but keep score no matter how petty things got.


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    He entered the garden. It was now taking up nearly half of the chamber. Large chunks of old stone had broken as the roots of trees slowly spread out, and vines covered the floor. All the leaves were still a vibrant red, and fruit grew readily everywhere. Rats nested heavily in the trees, and readily fed on excess fruit, creating a constant flow of the rat god¡¯s favor in his direction.


    He drew his rapier and pricked his wrist with its tip. It was a bit of a dramatic gesture, but the sharpness of the rapier left a much cleaner cut than his shivs had in the past. He fed the garden several drops of his blood, feeling the gratitude of it as he did so. Its many voices giving thanks. When the blood was gone he felt drained even though it was only a few drops, but his energy restored itself relatively quickly.


    He moved to lift two fruit sacks he¡¯d prepared the previous day. They were heavy, but much more manageable than they had been two weeks prior. He considered taking only one, since he knew that he would likely be carrying a small cask back, the first taste of what Mez had been brewing, but decided to push himself.


    He walked along the familiar route, scanning ahead with rats he ordered along the path ahead of himself and switching between their senses and his own to stay aware of potential threats. He¡¯d encountered nothing more dangerous than a few skitterlings in the last couple of weeks, but that didn¡¯t mean an elf hungry for revenge, or another giant spider hungry for him, couldn¡¯t be lying in wait somewhere.


    He smoothly moved through Mez¡¯s worn down traps and into his brewery. It smelled richly of fruit and alcohol. Mez was about to cap a small barrel as Dantes approached.


    ¡°Tes, come.¡± He gestured with a claw for Dantes to approach.


    He complied, and Mez took a small clay cup and scooped some of the barrel''s contents inside before holding it out to him. Dantes put the sacks of fruit down, but hesitated. He¡¯d planned on immediately making his way to the Collared after this and may need his wits about him. At the same time though it helped to know what he was working with, at least that was the justification he convinced himself of as he took the cup and drank deeply from it.


    The taste was¡­ not half bad actually. Especially compared to the swill he had gotten used to in the last five years. Then the burn of it as he swallowed it down hit, and it felt like he¡¯d just had a sip of fire. He coughed and hit himself in the chest.


    Mez nodded. ¡°You see what I can do when I¡¯m not dealing with fungus and rot, eh?¡±


    Dantes nodded, taking a much less justifiable second sip. ¡°This¡­this is going to make a deal much easier to sell¡­ Though it may kill any gnome who attempts to drink a full cup of it.¡±


    Mez chuckled. ¡°I don¡¯t know about that. I¡¯ve known more than a few gnomes that could outdrink orcs.¡±


    Dantes nodded. Mez hated orcs, he¡¯d probably tell you that he¡¯d seen a gnome beat one at arm wrestling if you gave him the context in which to mention it.


    Mez went back to capping the barrel. Carefully sliding in the wooden top. He then handed him two leather flasks. ¡°These are the samples, figure they may help.¡±


    ¡°You not coming?¡± asked Dantes, testing the weight of the small cask and immediately regretting that he¡¯d carried so much fruit there. They¡¯d definitely need to work out some kind of alternative way to transport the goods. Dantes wanted to train, but he had limits.


    ¡°No, I have more to brew, more to test. Besides, don¡¯t like going that close to the Maw. Too many people.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Alright then. I¡¯ll be back with good news.¡±


    ¡°You really can¡¯t help but tempt the gods to ruin your day.¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve got a few on my side.¡±


    Mez looked around. ¡°Not in the pit you don¡¯t, but good luck anyway. Try not to fuck it up.¡±


    Dantes chuckled, and started moving, he tied the cask up with ropes using a sailor¡¯s knot he¡¯d picked up at the docks so that he could carry it on his back. He let out a slight groan as he stood. His legs were already sore, and he had a long trek before he reached the Collared.

 Ch 28: I did it very carefully

    By the time he reached the edges of collared territory Dantes¡¯ legs were screaming at him. He had considered, roughly halfway there, seeing how much favor and how many rats it would take to move the small cask for him. He decided against it of course, it was just the impractical thought of an exhausted body.


    He checked ahead with a few rats and noticed that two guards were posted at the entrance. Both were alert, and focused on the path he¡¯d be traveling down. He took a moment to rest, placing the cask on the ground. He didn¡¯t want to look tired when he approached, no reason to show up appearing weak. He pulled a small flask of water from one of his jacket''s many pockets and took a long sip. He used rats that surrounded him to keep watch as he did so, making sure no one was approaching from either side.


    Once he felt rested, he slipped the cask back onto his back, and walked languidly, doing his best to make it appear as if it weighed nothing to him. When he came into view, the guards looked at one another, and one of them quickly ran back into collared territory to let them know he was coming.


    Dantes nodded at the one that remained, and walked right past him.


    ¡°Wait-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I can get to Merle myself, I know the way.¡± Dantes walked through the large cavern, drawing stares as he went. It reminded him of when he would walk through midtown after a successful heist with pockets full of gold. Everyone¡¯s eyes were on him, whispers passing between those who watched him as he moved directly to their leader¡¯s chamber. He had a rep now, something he¡¯d avoided when he first got to the Pit, but which a part of him had sorely missed. He liked the stares, enjoyed the whispers too, and he was planning on maximizing them as much as possible while he was in the Pit, though when he escaped he planned to go back to a low profile, at least for a little while. It would be easier to target his old gang from the shadows.


    He stepped up into Merle¡¯s chamber just as Merle himself was stepping out of them. Beads of sweat were running down his forehead and a rag sat across his shoulders. He¡¯d been in the middle of a workout.


    ¡°You¡¯ve got balls, kid. No brains at all, but balls for days.¡±


    ¡°Merle,¡± said Dantes with a respectful incline of his head.


    A few of Merle¡¯s massive adherents approached from behind, but Dantes stayed still and didn¡¯t react.


    ¡°So? I¡¯m assuming you have something to say? Some deal to strike to make up for the risk you put on us?¡±


    ¡°You sure you¡¯re cut off from magic? Seems like you have at least some ability at divination to me.¡±


    Merle chuckled, then his face suddenly became serious. ¡°You lied to me about your intentions, took advantage of us, and could¡¯ve plunged us all into a war that we would¡¯ve lost. Whatever you have to say better be really fucking good.¡± he gestured with his neck for Dantes to follow him into his chamber, which he did at the urging of the two massive men behind him.


    Once inside, Merle sat on his stone workout bench and fixed Dantes with a stare, waiting for him to speak first.


    Dantes noticed that he hadn¡¯t asked him to remove the rapier at his waist, that was a good sign.


    ¡°First of all, I¡¯m sorry for the spot I put you in. I offer only one excuse, I felt it was the only possible way I¡¯d survive.¡±


    Merle stayed silent, but began stroking his beard.


    ¡°To make it up to you, I have a business proposal that might interest you.¡± Dantes slipped the cask off of his back and placed it on the ground. ¡°I have developed a steady source of high-quality booze.¡± He took the sample flask off his back and tossed it to Merle, who looked back at him and held it back out.


    Dantes took his meaning, and sipped from the flask, before handing it back to him.


    Merle sipped from the flask once he was certain Dantes wouldn¡¯t start convulsing, he kept his face neutral, but there was a slight twitch to his eyebrow when it hit his throat.


    ¡°I want to set up a deal to sell it regularly to the Smallfolk Consortium. Obviously, I can¡¯t move all the product myself, and seeing as you are between me and the undermarket¡­¡±


    ¡°Fifty percent,¡± said Merle, folding his arms together. ¡°Of whatever you make from the Consortium, and we get some for our own use once a month.¡±


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    Dantes shook his head. ¡°Listen, I already guaranteed the brewer fifty percent, if you take the other fifty, I¡¯ll be left with nothing. At that point I¡¯d be better off just taking the longer route through the outskirts and trying to move it all myself. Or maybe take the offer to the Kobolds.¡±


    ¡°We could also beat you to death.¡± An empty threat, Dantes could already tell he was too interested to pass up the opportunity.


    ¡°How about thirty for you, and I¡¯ll throw in some fruit with the booze you get every month?¡±


    ¡°Forty.¡±


    ¡°Thirty five.¡±


    Merle stroked his beard one more time. ¡°Deal.¡± He stood and held his hand out to Dantes.


    Dante moved forward and took it.


    Merle squeezed, hard, yanked Dantes toward him. ¡°I don¡¯t expect any more surprises, understand?¡¯


    Dantes squeezed back. He didn¡¯t have Merle¡¯s raw strength, but his grip was formidable thanks to the strength of his hands. Merle hid a flash of surprise and a whisper of a smile as their hands separated.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to make any surprises, don¡¯t worry. In fact, I was hoping to meet someone from the Consortium here to define the terms of the deal. That way it can all be up front with you.¡±


    Merle nodded. ¡°Reasonable, I¡¯ll send for one of their representatives. They¡¯ll probably manage to send someone within a couple of hours.¡± He turned around and gripped on of the heavy weights he had on the side of his bench and began curling it. ¡°We should figure out the details between the two of us before they arrive.¡± He gave it three more curls and looked at Dantes more closely. ¡°You been working out?¡±


    ¡­


    After Dantes and Merle had worked everything out, they stepped back out of his sweat scented chambers and into the cavern proper. It would likely take the consortium a bit longer to send a rep, so he walked through to find the dice game. He received a few nods from random Collared, and a few looks of fear, and appreciated them all before he reached the game.


    The usual suspects were there, Wane, Tel, Pillion, as well as a couple others he didn¡¯t recognize, though they seemed to be on their way out, cursing as Pillion pocketed a few pieces of copper and a well crafted pipe.


    Tel noticed him first, and stood as he approached. ¡°Dantes!¡±


    ¡°Televor,¡± he said, nodding at him. ¡°Wane, lil Pilly.¡±


    ¡°Dantes,¡± said Wane, nodding at him.


    Pillion ignored him, too offended at the name.


    Dantes sat down and put a small bag of dust in front of himself. The same one he¡¯d stolen from their guard a few weeks prior. He¡¯d become more tempted to use it himself, and so was hoping to lose it.


    The rest of them put their bets in, and Pillion began shaking the dice.


    ¡°So, you worked things out with Merle?¡± asked Wane.


    ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s a reasonable guy. Didn¡¯t have much trouble.¡±


    They all nodded, as Pillion put the cup down, and showed the first roll before allowing everyone to change their bets if they wanted to. He picked the dice back up and started shaking the cup again.


    ¡°So, how did you do it?¡± asked Tel.


    ¡°Do what?¡±


    ¡°Come on, you know what I¡¯m talking about. How¡¯d you make the explosions happen in the right place at the right time? Did you have some help? Did you rig up some kind of device?¡±


    ¡°Did you just get really lucky?¡± asked Pillion.


    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you exactly how I did it,¡± said Dantes. ¡°I did it very carefully.¡±


    They all waited for him to elaborate, and when he didn¡¯t they just sighed and watched the second roll.


    ¡°Do you want to know what happened with the elves after you left?¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve got my sources. I even heard about what happened to Iron. Lost an eye and a rib from a gun misfiring? That¡¯s why I never trusted those things.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, apparently the Orcs have started sniffing around their territory and trade, they smell blood,¡± said Wane.


    ¡°Sad you can¡¯t join them?¡± asked Pillion.


    Wane shot him a look. ¡°If I wanted blood, I¡¯d break you against the wall. Roll the dice.¡±


    Dantes watched the exchange passively. Wane didn¡¯t enjoy it when anyone engaged in Orcish stereotypes, Dantes personally thought it was a bit funny that he answered them with threats of violence, but that wasn¡¯t really his business.


    They rolled a few more rounds, and Dantes successfully managed to lose and regain his dust before there was a commotion that drew his attention. The Consortium had arrived, and they¡¯d brought two elvish bodyguards with them.

 Ch 29: Youre not here to kill me I presume?

    Had Dantes been focused on something other than the dice game, he may have placed some rats in the tunnels between the Undermarket and the Collared, so that he could keep a closer eye on when the Consortium had arrived, seen the elves and prepared for them, but he had no such foresight, and found himself cursing under his breath. Still, he was in a relatively safe situation overall. The Collared weren''t a powerful group, but they could easily handle two elves if they needed to, and it wasn¡¯t as if the Consortium didn¡¯t hire other races to be bodyguards, it was just usually Kobolds or Dwarves.


    Dantes moved across the chamber toward them, approaching at the same pace that Merle was in order to ensure they¡¯d arrive together by the fountain in the center of the Collared¡¯s cells. He realized as he approached, that the elves were familiar, but he couldn¡¯t quite place them until he got closer and heard them speaking to one another. They were the two elves who¡¯d nearly found him in the outskirts with Tel. One was older, with white streaks through black hair and a solemn expression emphasized by a scar along his right cheek. The other was clearly younger, with chestnut hair braided down his back and an impudent smirk. Both were wearing blades at their waists, but they made no movement toward them as he came into view.


    ¡°Looks like you two finally found me,¡± said Dantes, deciding to lean on bluster in service of his budding reputation.


    The younger of the elves squinted. ¡°How do you know-¡±


    ¡°Because we got close at some point,¡± said the older of them, cutting him off. ¡°He saw us searching for him and he put two and two together.¡± He frowned, bringing a thoughtful hand up to his scar. ¡°As a professional, can I ask where you saw us?¡±


    ¡°In the large chamber with the pews. I ducked behind a row as I heard you approaching.¡±


    ¡°I told you! I knew I¡¯d heard footsteps!¡±


    The older one shrugged. ¡°You should¡¯ve been more insistent on searching the room then.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not here to kill me, I assume?¡±


    They both opened their mouths to speak, but a gnome stepped between them. ¡°Not unless you attempt to harm me.¡± The gnome was wearing a silk tunic and a gold coin made into a medallion on his neck. He had a shock of white hair, but was otherwise bald, and wore small glasses that made his eyes appear twice as large through the lenses.


    Dantes nodded at him and held out his hand, ¡°Dantes, a pleasure.¡±


    The gnome took his hand and gave it a surprisingly firm shake. ¡°Grimald, I¡¯ll reserve judgment until after we¡¯ve spoken.¡±


    Dantes put up his hands. ¡°Fair enough.¡± he turned to Merle. ¡°Should we meet in your chamber? Or would you prefer to have an audience?¡±


    Merle gestured. ¡°My chamber would be best. I¡¯d ask that your bodyguards wait outside, or things will get quite cramped.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t take up much space, one of them will join me inside and the other will wait outside.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough,¡± said Merle with a nod as he turned toward his room.


    Dantes walked ahead of the gnome and behind Merle. Jacapo peeked out of a small hole in the back of his jacket so that he could watch his back. The elves had new employment, sure, but that didn¡¯t mean that the gnome had their loyalty. They could easily be out for revenge. At the same time, Dantes doubted that the gnome would put himself in that much danger for elf revenge, and the consortium agents tended to be savvy enough judges of character that he likely knew whether or not vengeance was what they were after. Whatever the case, Dantes felt off balance, which was likely exactly Gramald¡¯s reason for choosing elven bodyguards.


    They all reached Merle¡¯s office. The older of the elves came in, while the younger one stayed outside. They all sat down, and settled in, except for the Elf that stood behind Grimald in a relaxed stance that reminded Dantes of a stray cat, calm, but ready to react the moment a rat squeaked past him.


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    Grimald cleared his throat. ¡°So, Dantes, before we get to any business, I want to know why the Consortium should deal with someone who made as much trouble in the undermarket as you did? Who cost us valuable profit?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°It wasn¡¯t me that cost you. It was the Kings. I¡¯ve never made trouble in the Undermarket before. I¡¯ve bought, sold, and traded there. Connected friends to the right businesses, and kept my head down. The Kings on the other hand, were constantly disrupting things. They¡¯d take up space, run some sellers out of business to set up elves in their place, start fights, and they were able to avoid buying a good chunk of goods from you thanks to their mirrors, which I¡¯ve destroyed. I wouldn¡¯t have made that spectacle in the market if they hadn¡¯t decided to try and kill me simply because I ran into their leader by accident. Hells, they could¡¯ve refused my deal and killed me long before things spilled into the undermarket, they made the choice to make it your problem.¡± Dantes paused for a moment, and smiled. ¡°Besides all that, I don¡¯t see a reason to let what¡¯s in the past hurt potential profits in the future.¡±


    Grimald smirked. ¡°Everything you just said, except that last part, was bullshit. Luckily, that last part was all that matters to me. What is your proposal?¡±


    Dantes returned the expression and pulled one of the sample flasks from his jacket, handing it to Grimald.


    Grimald unsealed it, and had a sniff, then he passed it back to the elf, who sniffed it as well, then took a sip. The Elf swallowed, then nodded to Grimald and handed it back. Grimald lifted it to his lips and took a sip as well, but kept his face impassive much more successfully than Merle had.


    ¡°Hmm, so you¡¯ve come across some booze? It¡¯s hardly worth calling in the consortium to sell a bit of that.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not just a bit. I can guarantee barrels of it every month.¡±


    Grimald rolled his head side to side. ¡°So, what? The offer is to sell that to us at a wholesale price and then we distribute it as needed?¡±


    ¡°Basically,¡± said Merle.


    ¡°There could be some profit in that, but not much for us. We already have steady supplies of booze.¡±


    Dantes smiled. They had steady supplies of booze, but that was before he¡¯d sent rats to scope out their territory. While there he¡¯d had them spill, shit in, and generally destroy whatever consortium booze they could access. They had a bit left, enough to sell for the short term, but if the destruction kept up, and it would, they¡¯d be out of a steady supply. Grimald was bluffing to give himself a stronger hand.


    ¡°Not like this you don¡¯t. Besides, having an internal supplier rather than needing to smuggle it down here reduces your risks and overhead, doesn¡¯t it?¡±


    Grimald took off his glasses and polished them for a moment. ¡°We may be able to work something out I suppose¡­ and what is the Collared¡¯s place in all of this?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ll handle the logistics side of things. Hauling the booze from the brewer to you in the undermarket.¡±


    Dantes saw a twinkle in the gnome¡¯s oversized eyes.


    ¡°Okay then. Before we get started on exact payments, I have to ask, how would you prefer to be paid? Have family on the surface you need us to get coin to? Want a pile of dust, or weed? Maybe food?¡±


    ¡°I want sixty percent of it in goods, and the rest in coin.¡±


    That got raised eyebrows from both Merle and Grimald.


    ¡°Coin?¡± asked Grimald.


    ¡°That¡¯s what I said.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm, we, which is to say the Consortium, are the only ones down here that deal in coin.¡±


    ¡°Then you should be delighted to know that a good chunk of what you pay me will make its way back to you.¡± That was a lie, of course, he had other plans for the funds. He didn¡¯t want to be starting from scratch when he escaped.


    ¡°Hmmm, I think we can figure something out. Let¡¯s get down to exact amounts here.¡±


    Dantes smiled. The hardest part was just beginning, but it was clear that everyone wanted a deal, and as long as the Consortium thought of him as a source of profit, he¡¯d be safe to move freely in the undermarket. All he had to focus on in the short term would be making a profit, and in the long run he could start looking into avenues to escape.


    ¡°Before we get into details, I¡¯d like to offer the first month¡¯s supply for free, as an apology for the damage done to the undermarket.¡±


    ¡°An honorable gesture, the consortium will remember that.¡±


    Dantes smiled warmly, knowing full well that the gnome thought he was a fool for that offer. That suited him just fine.

 Ch 30: Im no rat

    After they¡¯d finished an hour of nitty gritty discussions, everyone shook hands and felt that solid mix of satisfied and dissatisfied that always came with business agreements. Dantes feigned a frown, letting all parties feel that they got the best of him, even though he¡¯d just turned the ability to grow fruit with a few drops of blood into a profitable enterprise that would take little daily maintenance in which all parties thought his cut was lesser than it actually was.


    When they left the room, Grimald paused for a moment to speak with Merle a bit more about logistics between the Undermarket and Collared territory, leaving Dantes standing near the gnome¡¯s elven guards that had so recently been hunting him.


    The younger of them turned toward him, but kept his distance, looking him up and down, his eyes pausing at the rapier on his waist.


    ¡°Nice blade,¡± he said with a sneer.


    ¡°Thank you. It was a gift from a very dear friend.¡±


    ¡°You think you¡¯re funny, mutt?¡±


    ¡°I know I am, actually. You¡¯re just not the right audience for the joke. Knifed ears sometimes have difficulty hearing the nuances of good humor.¡± It wasn¡¯t smart to taunt them, but the continuous sips from the flask of booze throughout the day was making it more difficult to filter himself than he¡¯d anticipated. He¡¯d become much more of a lightweight in the Pit.


    ¡°You fu-¡±


    The older of the elves put his hand on the younger one''s shoulder, giving him pause, then looked at Dantes.


    ¡°Our mirrors. How did you steal one? We have rangers that have led men to war, that can hear any intruder within one hundred paces, and the mirrors were always deep in our territory. You have some skill at hiding from your betters, as the lesser races always do, but not the skill to infiltrate our territory.¡±


    The question gave Dantes pause. He¡¯d expected more posturing and back and forth that led to nothing. That was typically how these sorts of interactions went, but the older elf clearly didn¡¯t care about short term revenge. He wanted to know what weakness it was that had led to their loss, so that he could amend it in the future.


    Dantes gave a smile. ¡°I didn¡¯t have to steal it. It was given to me.¡±


    The older and younger elf exchanged a quick glance. ¡°Who?¡± asked the older of the two.


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°Come now, even you two must know the rules down here, even isolated with the other Kings like you were. I¡¯m no rat.¡±


    The older elf nodded understanding, he¡¯d clearly been in the pit a long time and knew the rules at least as well as Dantes did.


    The younger elf looked at the older one. ¡°A traitor? Maybe someone hiding a touch of orcish blood?¡±


    Dantes pretended to start saying something, then stopped himself.


    That caused them to exchange another glance with each other.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go,¡± said Grimald, having wrapped up his conversation with Merle.


    The two elves nodded and fell in line behind him as if they hadn¡¯t been making comments about the height and weakness of gnomes just a month prior. Such was the power of security and profit.


    Dantes let himself smile more widely. He doubted the elves would come after him while they were working for the consortium and he was controlling a substantial stake of the drink coming into the undermarket, and now they¡¯d been more focused on figuring out who betrayed them. A mutt that defended himself from them was deeply offensive to them, but betrayal always stung deeper. Dantes knew that from personal experience. There was the chance that they would see through his deception, but based on their limited information he didn¡¯t see how they could. Them having a traitor in their midst was the only explanation that could possibly make sense from their perspective. The lie would hold at least as long as Dantes kept his own abilities secret.


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    ¡°So, when can we pick up the first load?¡± asked Merle, moving to stand next to him.


    ¡°Today if you¡¯d like. Mez already has it ready. Some of your men should already know how to reach him, I know Tel does at least.¡±


    Merle stroked his beard for a moment. ¡°You know, it¡¯s been quite some time since someone mixed things up down here as much as you have.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d¡¯ve kept my head down if I¡¯d had a choice. The Kings forced me here.¡±


    Merle nodded. ¡°True, true¡­but still, your sudden turnaround, all of your mysterious successes, it¡¯s almost like¡­ magic.¡± He turned his eyes toward Dantes with the last word, his gaze piercing.


    Dantes smiled. ¡°You know, back up on the streets of Rendhold, I was able to steal gold coins from a man¡¯s purse without him noticing, leaving the purse intact as I did so. No one else could figure it out, not my mother, not my friends, not my¡­ not my gang. They accused me of using some kind of enchanted item, or magic, but do you want to know what it was?¡±


    Merle stayed silent, waiting.


    ¡°Skill, and a bit of luck. Plain and simple. If I had magic Merle, the first thing I¡¯d do is break all of you out of your collars and have you fly me the fuck out of here.¡±


    Merle shifted his lower jaw as if literally chewing on what Dantes had said.


    ¡°We¡¯ll talk later, Dantes, when we''re divvying up profits.¡±


    Dantes nodded. It was clear Merle didn¡¯t fully believe him, which made sense because Dantes was lying. He had considered speaking with Merle or Tel about his abilities, but kept deciding against it. He was fairly certain that his abilities had a trace of magic to them, but even with his limited knowledge he knew that it wasn¡¯t equivalent to what a mage wielded. As a child, he, like so many other dirt poor whoresons, had hoped that some latent magical ability would manifest within him so that he could escape the streets and join the academy, and he¡¯d done his research on what that would mean. That research came in handy for some later robberies and scams, but he had never manifested any magical power, and he knew enough to tell that what was happening now was distinct. He was certain he wouldn¡¯t be able to remove their collars. Since that was the case, keeping his abilities to himself was the best call, as it was what gave him the largest advantage. Besides, others learning about his powers would immediately put him at risk with the dwarves, not to mention anyone else that would happily make any missing food, or coin his responsibility.


    He lifted a hand in goodbye to Merle. ¡°Keep that first cask. A gesture of goodwill.¡±


    Merle nodded, raising his own hand as they parted.


    Dantes walked through the Collared¡¯s chambers, still enjoying the looks and whispers. When Tel stopped him.


    ¡°Dantes, up for a few more rounds of dice? Maybe a drink since I hear you¡¯ve got quite the supply.¡±


    Dantes grabbed the two sample flasks from his jacket, and tossed them to him.


    Tel caught one, and the other fell flatly at his feet, but he scooped it up quickly.


    ¡°You can have what¡¯s left in those, but I¡¯m heading back for some rest. I¡¯m planning on visiting Syn tomorrow though, if you want to tag along.¡±


    Tel lifted his eyebrows. ¡°I¡¯m not really uh, interested in that kind of arrangement. I didn¡¯t realize you¡¯d changed your mind on the brothel either.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t. I¡¯m just visiting her. I owe her a favor, want to see what she might want from me to pay it off.¡±


    ¡°Oh, in that case I¡¯ll go with you. Won big a bit ago at dice, have a decent amount to trade. Want to do it before the next drop into the Maw, while I can get better trade for it.¡±


    Dantes nodded, still impressed with Tel¡¯s adaptability in the Pit. Taking advantage of the lean times was common practice of course, but few Collared ever got savvy enough to take advantage of it. ¡°Alright, see you then. You can pay me back for the booze at the market once you¡¯re done trading.¡±


    ¡°I thought it was a gi-¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow at him.


    He sighed. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll pay you back then.¡±


    Dantes held up a hand and walked back into the outskirts toward his cave. He scouted ahead and behind himself with a number of rats, the gold of his ratmark barely regressing as other rats in his garden ate and enjoyed safety from the more dangerous creatures in the Pit. He made it back to his cave, had a meal, and set some rats to wake him if anything with two legs got too close. Once that was done, Jacopo leapt out of his jacket, laying on top of a small second bed of rags that Dantes had made for him. Dantes himself followed suit, laying on his own makeshift bed and closing his eyes. He imagined the soreness of his muscles slowly draining from him as he took long deep breaths. It wasn¡¯t long before he fell asleep.

 Ch 31: Antennae tickled his lips

    Dantes was in a darkness so black that his darkvision couldn¡¯t pierce it. He could hear the sounds of skittering in the dark all around him. He could feel the small steps of a million legs all across his body, his arms, his eyelids. Normally the sensation would make him flail in disgust and terror, but in this case it felt like he¡¯d been tucked into a warm blanket. He stayed still, acknowledging, but not struggling against the sensations that surrounded him.


    ¡°You¡­expected¡­ this,¡± the voice was a whisper, seeming to be spoken directly into his ear, the words formed with great difficulty.


    In spite of the roaches that covered his face, he didn¡¯t hesitate to open his mouth and speak. ¡°I¡¯d hoped to meet you, yes.¡±


    The legs moving across him sped up slightly, the roaches began to dig into his hair, their antennae tickling his scalp..


    ¡°You¡­desire¡­blessing?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± he said as antennae tickled his lips.


    ¡°We¡­would¡­be...your¡­second.¡±


    ¡°Yes. Though I mean no disrespect.¡±


    The writhing became more erratic in a way that Dantes recognized as laughter? Amusement? He wasn¡¯t certain.


    ¡°We¡­are¡­used¡­to¡­the¡­rat god¡¯s¡­leftovers.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re a good sport about it.¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­open¡­mouth¡­wide.¡±


    Dantes did so without hesitation. He felt a single massive roach climb up his chin and down his throat. He felt its legs move it down his esophagus as it shifted and tore through his throat, slowly toward his right forearm, right above the ratmark. He began to writhe and scream, his big talk overwhelmed by the sheer agony he was experiencing, but he was held down by the weight of the roaches on top of him, and his voice was muffled as they crawled over his mouth.


    Once the roach reached his arm, he felt a searing pain as if he was being branded from the inside. His own screaming woke him.


    ¡­


    Dantes clutched his throat, still feeling the tearing sensation there, even though his throat itself was fine. He clenched his teeth back together and forced himself to stop screaming, then took several long full breaths and raised his arm up to look at it. The ratmark was still there, all four fangs nearly filled with gold on his wrist. A little lower on the inside of his forearm, were three half circles in the shape of a roach. One for the head, and one for each of their wings. One of the wings glowed gold, and the other two half circles were dark black. He clenched and unclenched his fists several times, getting used to the feeling of the new mark on his skin. If this pattern continued he¡¯d start looking a lot more like his father with all of his sailing tattoos. That was not a prospect he relished.


    He stood up from his bed, and noticed Jacopo was awake and standing on his hindlegs, looking at him.


    ¡°That seemed very unpleasant,¡± said Jacopo.


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s an easy price to pay.¡± He meant it, but he was still rubbing the fresh mark on his inner forearm with a grimace on his face.


    Jacopo shrugged back and moved next to the food store. Dantes removed the cover and left it. There was no more reason to hide the food, he could simply ask the rats and roaches to leave it alone.


    Jacopo grabbed several grapes for himself, and began gnawing into them with vigor. Dantes watered the mossy carpet that now coated his entire cave, then moved to the fungus to feed and water it in the way that it preferred. It was now covering parts of the ceiling, and he felt its gratitude as he had felt the floors. He sat to eat, running his hands along the green strands of moss. As he moved his hand away from it to grab his food the moss shifted slightly. He blinked a few times, and slowly moved his hand back down toward the moss. It was subtle, but the small ends of it seemed to be straining to reach up to his hand. He focused, trying to will the moss to come closer. It seemed to strain for a moment, but stopped and settled back in. Dantes bit into the apple as he gently ran his hand over the moss. Another avenue to look into, there wasn¡¯t a ton of plant life in the Pit, but back on the surface whole parts of the city were completely overgrown, forgotten and abandoned as Rendhold spread ever outward.


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    He refocused on the roachmark, and sent his senses out, detecting an enormous amount of roaches in every possible nook and cranny of the caverns nearby. He summoned thirty, testing the amount of favor it would cost. In moments, thirty roaches swarmed across the moss blanket and settled still in front of him, only their antennae shifting to indicate that they were alive. He began moving them in patterns, five at a time, monitoring the favor on his forearm. It trickled down, but far more slowly than the same actions would have for rats. He attempted to look through one of their eyes.


    He immediately felt intense disorientation. He could see himself, Jacopo, the other roaches, the moss on the ground, the walls, all of it all around himself. At the same time he could sense movement, pressure, temperature and other sensations through the small hairs on his legs. He broke the connection almost immediately and placed a hand on a wall to steady himself. That would take some getting used to.


    He¡¯d noticed some sensory differences with rats, they couldn¡¯t see reds, except Jacopo for some reason, and his sense of smell and taste became stronger, but overall it was relatively close to his baseline. This was much harder however. He gave it a few more tries, but every attempt to orient himself ended in intense discomfort and failure. He decided that it was something he¡¯d need to practice at a later time.


    Once his experiments were done the favor had gone down by less than a quarter of what it had started at. He placed the apple core of his breakfast on the ground, and let the roaches know that it was theirs, asking them to leave the rest of his food alone. They swarmed the core, and began eating greedily, shoving others out of the way in pursuit of a sweet taste of it.


    Dantes threw on his coat, and began going through his usual daily routine as it had been for the last two weeks. He climbed while practicing his new powers with the rats and roaches. He then harvested fruit, and fed his garden the blood he offered it every day. Once he was done, he took two sacks of fruit and took his regular route to Mez.


    ¡°Have the Collared sent for the first collection?¡± he asked when he reached him, letting the sacks he was carrying drop heavily onto the ground.


    ¡°Yes, I had it ready for them. One of the men they sent actually lifted an entire barrel, while the others needed many hands. I was told they enjoyed my brew thoroughly.¡± He made the last statement with clear pride on his face.


    ¡°How many of them tried to offer you a side deal for a bit extra that they could sell on the side?¡±


    Mez smiled. ¡°Just one, Vor.¡±


    ¡°Televor, or Erevor?¡±


    Mez shrugged, ¡°No clue. Your names represent nothing. It makes it difficult to remember them.¡±


    Dantes nodded. They were both blonde half elves, so it wouldn¡¯t do to describe them to Mez for a clearer answer, since he likely hadn¡¯t paid that much attention to their looks in the first place. He also didn¡¯t feel like investigating further because if it was Tel, he¡¯d have to beat him or rob him or something along those lines to keep the tally even. He respected the attempt either way, so decided to leave without pressing things further. If he knew it was him he¡¯d have to do something about it, but as long as he didn¡¯t it meant he wouldn¡¯t have to retaliate. All of this made complete sense to him, but Jacopo who now existed as a part of him, was thoroughly confused as the thoughts moved through both of their heads.


    Dantes opened the sacks of fruit for Mez to inspect while they went over a few additional details. Once he was done, he started moving back through the caverns and crevices of the Pit through to the Collared. The trek was uneventful, though he had to avoid a half dozen skitterlings that had taken up residence in one of his usual pathways. He¡¯d hoped to be able to communicate with them as he could with roaches, as they just appeared to be a larger variant, but like with the jumping spider he¡¯d fought, he had no luck.


    The collared guards greeted him with much friendlier nods this time. It was incredible what a bit of booze and a business deal could do for people¡¯s moods. He climbed his way up to Tel¡¯s room, noticing that the dice game wasn¡¯t active that day, and smacked the wall a few times to let him know he¡¯d arrived.


    Tel peeked out shortly after and smiled.


    ¡°Dantes, Undermarket time?¡±


    He nodded.


    Tel held up a finger, and went back into his cell. There was some shuffling and other noises, and he reappeared dressed in a freshly cleaned robe with a small pouch on his waist along with a shiv that Dantes didn¡¯t recognize.


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°The pouch is a bad idea, too easy to steal.¡±


    Tel smiled more widely. ¡°Pouch is a decoy. Learned from some of the older guys how to do some sewing and made some new pockets in my robe.¡±


    Dantes chuckled. ¡°I know you were a deviant back on the surface, but you''re swiftly becoming a true bastard down here.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve had good examples to follow. Shall we go?¡±


    Dantes nodded, and they headed into the path to the undermarket.

 Ch 32: A Feys sense of honor

    Dantes and Televor moved through the tunnels between the Collared and the undermarket. It was busy, but not unusually so. It was common for the undermarket to be more active immediately before and immediately after a delivery from the Maw. Prisoners were placing bets as to what they thought would happen, trying to scrape together the materials they¡¯d need to make a run for supplies themselves, attempting to make deals with the gangs to ensure they¡¯d be guaranteed some food, or even just drinking because they knew they were as screwed on this drop as they had been with all the previous ones.


    They passed by a couple of drinking halflings singing arm in arm, a group of haggling dwarves at a booth, and gave a wide berth to a group of five orcs that seemed to be going out of their way to start trouble. They reached the brothel, where Sevlyn was acting as the lure. She shifted into a dwarven woman with a beautifully braided beard, then a Kobold with rainbow scales of every color, and finally as they approached she became a young human woman wearing virginal white and an innocent smile.


    Dantes raised up his hand in greeting. ¡°Hey Sevlyn.¡±


    She nodded at him and blushed. ¡°Two name no name, have you come to pluck this innocent flower?¡±


    Dantes chuckled. ¡°No, that¡¯s never really been my thing. I mean, I seduced a noblewoman¡¯s daughter once, but that was business more than anything.¡±


    Tel patted his shoulder. ¡°How do you always know who''s who? She could¡¯ve been Syn and I never would¡¯ve guessed.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°No idea, I just can.¡± He turned to Sevlyn. ¡°Speaking of Syn though, is she in? I wanted to talk to her for a minute.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s always Syn lately, you never seem to have time for the rest of us,¡± said Sev, her playful pouting shifting briefly in his vision to show the pitch black eyes and white face of her true form.


    ¡°Syn doesn¡¯t use weighted dice, or a third arm to hold extra cards behind her back.¡±


    She pointed her head down, but kept her eyes focused on Dantes as if she¡¯d just been scolded. ¡°I would never do that.¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh. So is she busy or not?¡±


    ¡°She just finished up with a client if you want to head back.¡± Sev shifted into a dark skinned tall elvish woman wearing only two palm fronds.


    ¡°Thanks Sev, don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be back to gamble with you soon. I¡¯ll just have to cheat back.¡±


    She winked, and Dantes and Tel walked past her.


    ¡°I really wish my parents had each named me two different things too.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s only useful in this incredibly specific circumstance, and it has its drawbacks as well.¡±


    Tel nodded. ¡°I mean, I¡¯m grateful they agreed on most things I suppose.¡±


    Dantes shrugged, ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem to matter. We both wound up in the Pit anyway.¡± He knocked on Syn¡¯s door.


    ¡°Another client already? I¡¯ve hardly fixed my hair.¡±


    ¡°You can fix your hair in a literal blink of an eye.¡±


    ¡°Ah, Dantes, come in.¡±


    Dantes pushed the door open into Syn¡¯s room. It was much the same as it had been the last time he was there, except a bit more disheveled, and whatever perfume she used to mask the scent of her trade had been more recently sprayed.


    Syn herself was in the shape of a Naga, her bare human torso lounging across a snake tail that was coiled in a pile.


    ¡°Who requested that?¡± asked Dantes with an eyebrow raised.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    ¡°I don¡¯t give names, but let¡¯s say there¡¯s a dwarf that quite enjoys constriction.¡± Her slitted eyes darted to Televor. ¡°Hmmm, I don¡¯t know that we¡¯ve met before, can I get your name?¡±


    Tel looked a bit disappointed, ¡°Oh um, it¡¯s-¡±.


    Dantes smacked him upside the head, hard.


    ¡°What the fu-¡± He stopped and blinked. ¡°Oh.¡±


    ¡°Sorry Syn, that was a fair play, but we¡¯re partially in business together now, and I¡¯d prefer he not become one of your nameless.¡± They weren¡¯t directly in business, but he wanted to soften the spoiling of Syn¡¯s fun as much as possible.


    She uncoiled and stretched languidly. ¡°It¡¯s alright, I didn¡¯t expect it to come so close to working to be honest. Tel seems very smart at times, but also quite dumb at others.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to talk as if I¡¯m not here.¡±


    Dantes looked at him. ¡°I won¡¯t save you again, that would be unfair to Syn and the other changelings.¡±


    ¡°Really? You¡¯d let them take my name?¡±


    ¡°Absolutely. The changelings have all always been good to me, Syn in particular, I won¡¯t disrespect them by denying them that benefit.¡±


    Syn added legs, and molded herself into a short human woman wearing a plain dress, her hair up in a style that had been popular with noble ladies more than a decade ago. ¡°That¡¯s why we like you Dantes. You have a Fey¡¯s sense of honor.¡± She cracked her neck. ¡°I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s why you¡¯re here.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯d guess correctly. I still owe you a favor, I¡¯m in a place to repay you now, just wanted to talk about what would be fair.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm, I have some thoughts, but what do you have to offer?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be coming into a steady supply of coin, I can get you a full barrel of booze if you wish, or I can probably maneuver my way into whatever other goods you might want.¡±


    ¡°No, goods don''t interest me at the moment.¡±


    Dantes cursed internally, but kept his expression neutral. Open favors were always trouble, a fact he¡¯d often taken advantage of. If he could just trade goods, it made it an easy simple exchange, services were another story.


    ¡°Alright then. What do you need?¡±


    Syn smiled. ¡°The Orcs have been coming around and making trouble lately. Roughing up some of the other changelings, trying to get us to pay them for protection on top of what we already pay up to the consortium.¡±


    ¡°Bold, even for the Orcs.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°There used to be a kind of understanding with them. Since our services are provided to all the major gangs, they¡¯ve always kept things neutral with us in an attempt to not rock the boat. Now that the Kings are gone, and Clan Stonedusts leader lost his arm and left eye, the Orcs are no longer held in check.¡±


    Dantes frowned, last he''d heard it was an eye and a rib. ¡°Why me? Why not take care of them yourself with your nameless guards, or have the consortium lean on them?¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°The nameless aren¡¯t the most capable fighters, good enough to kick out an over excited customer, but not take on the orcs in any serious numbers. The consortium is putting off helping us, they seem to be wary of poking the orcs at the moment as well with how much things have shifted.¡±


    Dantes nodded. This was his fault, but it wasn¡¯t necessarily a bad thing. A shake up would mean opportunities, he just had to find them.


    ¡°I¡¯m just one man, Syn. This is a large ask.¡±


    ¡°I did save your life.¡±


    ¡°You did¡­¡± Dantes clenched his jaw. He kept his tally clear, he wanted to push for more from her than just to honor the favor, but he knew that wouldn¡¯t work for either of them.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure they¡¯ll work with me, but I¡¯ll try.¡±


    Syn nodded. ¡°They¡¯ll work with the Elf Slayer. I¡¯ve heard more than enough bedroom gossip about their opinion of you to know that you have their respect.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm, maybe.¡± He scratched his chin. ¡°I have a few things to trade for in the undermarket. Give me some time and I¡¯ll give you an update when I have one.¡±


    Syn nodded and began shifting into a tall thin elven woman with hair long enough to spread completely across the bed behind her, she turned her attention to Televor. ¡°Were you planning on shopping with Dantes, Tel or would you rather spend a bit of time with me?¡±


    Tel looked at her appreciatively, and swallowed. ¡°Well, I had been planning on doing some trading first¡­ I did pretty well with the dice the last few weeks and¡­ and¡­ hey Dantes, I¡¯ll catch up with you later alright.¡±


    Dantes nodded, unsurprised by the turn of events. ¡°Fine, just remember that you still owe me for that booze I gave you yesterday. Try not to spend everything.¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh,¡± said Tel, already moving toward the bed.


    Dantes shook his head and left the room, closing the door behind him. Orcs, he¡¯d certainly dealt with them a lot in the past. His own father was a half-orc of course, so he had a good grasp on them culturally, but his ancestry could be as much a curse as a boon when it came to interacting with them, particularly when his quarter elf blood came into play. He¡¯d figure it out, he¡¯d made a deal that had saved his life, and now he had to pay it back. He wouldn¡¯t leave the debt unpaid.

 Ch 33: What would you say is the largest kind of tree?

    Dantes moved out of the brothel and out onto the narrow ¡®streets¡¯ of the undermarket. Unlike in Collared territory where everyone knew who he was and their behavior toward him had changed, in the undermarket he was nondescript enough that no one seemed to recognize him. There were a few glances and whispers of course, especially when they saw the rapier at his waist, but nowhere near the recognition he received in Collared territory. He kept watch on himself using a few rats he stationed on nearby roofs as he walked anyway. Wouldn¡¯t do him any good to get shivved just because he underestimated how much attention he was being paid.


    He wove past a few sellers aggressively trying to market dried rat, mushrooms, and other foods that would quickly become less valuable after the next supply drop. A few of the shops had shifted around after he¡¯d blown up several storefronts, but most of them seemed to be in roughly the same place. He was able to find Clay¡¯s booth fairly easily as it was in the same place as before and he was able to sense the living plants that he had potted in and around his booth.


    Clay himself stood in the middle of it, watering one of the plants carefully with a clay pitcher. Dantes focused his perceptions, and noted that the plants he was caring for seemed to want for nothing. Impressive, considering Clay didn¡¯t have the same powers of perception as Dantes.


    Clay finished with the plant he was watering, and moved to the next one. He noticed Dantes as he moved, but didn¡¯t stop his work.


    ¡°Dantes.¡±


    ¡°Clay.¡±


    ¡°Sorry I haven¡¯t been able to bring you more of those mushrooms since our first trade.¡±


    Clay shrugged. ¡°Understandable, considering you ran into trouble with the Elves almost immediately after we bargained.¡± He smiled. ¡°Seems like you got the better of those knife eared bastards though.¡±


    ¡°I had good luck, and some decent weed to keep me calm through it.¡±


    Clay chuckled. ¡°That what you¡¯re here for? A re-up?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be against one, but I¡¯m mostly here for a different reason. A very particular thing I need to acquire.¡±


    Clay paused his watering and placed his pitcher on the counter. ¡°Go on.¡±


    ¡°What would you say is the largest kind of tree?¡±


    Clay squinted at the question. ¡°Aside from one of the world trees I presume?¡±


    ¡°Yes, let¡¯s say the largest non-magical tree.¡±


    Clay nodded, and brought his hand to his beard, stroking it thoughtfully. ¡°That would be a Mother¡¯s Reach, I suppose. They rise from the earth to touch the sky. There are whole forests of them in the west supposedly. Always wanted to travel to one of them. Be nice to have my head shaded by leaves rather than stone.¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow. That was a very strange perspective for a dwarf to have.


    ¡°What I want is a Mother¡¯s Reach seed.¡±


    Clay scoffed. ¡°Well let me just check the inventory here.¡± He looked across the counters, lifted the nearest clay pot and looked beneath it, then looked back at Dantes. ¡°Don¡¯t seem to have one on hand.¡±


    ¡°Could you get me one though?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re serious?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°I suppose it¡¯s possible. There are some herbalists in Rendhold that may have some, if I spoke to the right consortium contacts¡­ but why? What do you need them for?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to grow a tree to climb out of the maw.¡±


    He laughed. ¡°Really, what do you need it for?¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°It¡¯s a bit strange. I just want a piece of something, something from the surface, from the Earth. I want to feel that connection again,¡± as he spoke what he thought was a lie, Dantes sensed some unintentional sincerity in his voice. That was something he¡¯d wanted in the past. Now it was a genuine potential means of escape, though a last resort option considering the myriad potential dangers involved.


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    Clay¡¯s expression grew serious.


    ¡°I know that isn¡¯t a reason that makes much sense down here.¡±


    ¡°No¡­no¡­ that''s the best reason. I¡¯ll see what I can do. The cost will depend heavily on how much of a lift this is, but what kind of offer do you have to make for it?¡±


    ¡°I can start by giving you all the mushrooms I¡¯ve cultivated since our last meeting. When I get those to you, and you have a better idea of the costs we can move from there. Deal?¡±


    Clay nodded, spat in his hand, and held it out. ¡°Deal¡±


    Dantes spat on his own, and they shook hands in the dwarven custom, then they parted ways.


    ¡­


    Dantes did a little more shopping while in the undermarket. He exchanged some fruit for something he¡¯d heard of from Merle called whey powder. It looked and smelled vile, but Merle swore to its efficacy in increasing his size and strength, so Dantes thought it was worth a try. Merle and his closest followers maintaining their size despite the nutritional disadvantages in the Pit had always been a mystery he hadn¡¯t been interested in solving, but now that he was working on increasing his own strength, he needed every advantage he could get. Particularly if he would be dealing with the orcs.


    He noticed, through his own senses and the rat eyes he kept monitoring things in front and behind him, that he was being followed. It was three men, one human the other two different proportions of human, orc, elf, halfling, and dwarf. They were armed, but only as much as the average person in the Pit was generally, and they were approaching openly, not sneaking or being careful in their approach. Dantes loosened the rapier at his waist, and placed a hand on its hilt, summoning whatever rats and roaches were nearby to sit on standby in the darkness outside the edges of their vision, then he turned and stood in the middle of a wide corridor carved in strange runes.


    ¡°Can I help you three?¡± he asked, eyeing his shadows closely.


    The fully human one stepped toward him, showing that his hands were empty as he did so. He was young, with a short unkempt brown beard, and broad frame. ¡°The question is, what can we do for you?¡±


    Dantes chuckled. ¡°Oh?¡±


    The other two stepped out next to him, arms folded in an attempt to project strength, but Dantes recognized youngbloods when he saw them.


    ¡°I¡¯m Jayson, that¡¯s Jayk, and that¡¯s Zak. We¡¯re the Shadow Cats. We¡¯re a gang over on the northeast side of the Pit. Run jobs for the consortium mostly. We saw what you did to the Kings and well, we want to work with you.¡±


    Dantes nodded. He¡¯d seen this type of thing play out before, hells he¡¯d been on the side that they were on now. Up and comers looking for work with a bigger fish to increase their own rep. He hadn¡¯t realized his own reputation had reached that level yet. It was flattering, but more importantly it could be useful. Assuming that they weren¡¯t complete idiots, though even if they were that could have a use as well.


    ¡°You got a lead, or is your entire plan to approach me and hope that I¡¯ve got a job that needs doing?¡± asked Dantes.


    Jayson¡¯s mask of confidence flickered for a moment, telling Dantes everything he needed to know, but before he could begin working on a suitable reply, Dantes cut him off.


    ¡°I do have a job that needs doing. Something minor, but it¡¯ll help me figure out what you¡¯re capable of.¡±


    ¡°Yeah?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a gnome, named Pillion, one of the Collared. I want you to rough him up.¡±


    ¡°Why? He owes you money or something?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°You don¡¯t need to know why. I just want him to receive a light beating, and I don¡¯t want it traced back to me.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the pay?¡± asked Jayk, Dantes marked him as the smart one.


    ¡°No pay for this job, but once it¡¯s done, if I¡¯m satisfied with it, I¡¯ll give you something profitable to do. Consistent work, if you want it.¡±


    They all exchanged glances. Jayk looked unhappy with the arrangement, but Zak gave Jayson a curt nod showing that he was game. ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll get it done.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll see.¡±


    They parted ways, and Dantes briefly followed them with one of the rats as he continued walking on his path back.


    ¡°No pay? You should¡¯ve pushed for something. Now he won¡¯t respect us, won¡¯t see us as possible equals,¡± said Jayk when they thought they were out of earshot.


    ¡°You heard him, if we do this job well he¡¯ll give us paid work after. Not like beating up a gnome is going to be tough work anyway.¡±


    ¡°I dunno¡­ a gnome took my uncle¡¯s right nut,¡± said Zak. ¡°S¡¯why he only has sons. Boys come from the left one. Point is, gnomes can be dangerous.¡±


    ¡°Whatever the case, we need to do this,¡± said Jayson. ¡°You saw him at what was supposed to be his execution. You felt it the same as I did. He¡¯s the next big player down here. It¡¯s better to take the loss now and follow him to the top than worry about whatever paltry sum he thinks it¡¯s worth paying us for beating a gnome.¡±


    Jayk let out a long sigh. ¡°Fine, but I ain¡¯t fighting him from the front. I¡¯d prefer to keep myself intact. My girl wants daughters.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s definitely left you up there man. Not like you¡¯re ever getting out anyway,¡± remarked Zak.


    Dantes cut off his connection to the rat and shook his head. That was about what he¡¯d expected from a gang that had already been thrown into the pit that young. They weren¡¯t the brightest, but at least they had intuition and ambition; sometimes that was all you needed.

 Ch 34: Violent doesnt mean stupid

    Dantes made his way into Collared chambers, exchanging nods and hellos with those he recognized as he made his way toward the usual location of the dice game near Tel¡¯s room. The game wasn¡¯t happening, but Wane, who he was looking for anyway, was leaning against the wall thumbing through an old grimoire.


    ¡°No game today?¡±


    Wane carefully took a small bookmark from behind his ear and slid it into the page he was reading before turning his head toward Dantes.


    ¡°Fraid not. Tel went with you to the Undermarket, and I think Pillion went there as well to see if he could get some booze. Apparently he can¡¯t stand the taste of the stuff you turned us onto. Says it¡¯s ¡®too sweet¡¯.¡±


    ¡°That figures,¡± said Dantes, keeping himself from smiling. That put him in prime position for the beating he¡¯d just sent his way. Assuming the Shadow Cats moved quickly.


    ¡°Tel not come back with you?¡±


    ¡°He got distracted by Syn.¡±


    ¡°Which kind of sin? Gambling, drinking, whoring?¡±


    ¡°Whoring, the one named Syn.¡±


    ¡°Oh gods. I¡¯ll have to hear about him bragging about his exploits again then. As if it¡¯s the hardest thing in the world to have a prostitute say your name.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m glad I¡¯ve avoided that particular conversation.¡±


    ¡°You should be. I¡¯ll talk about just about anything to avoid the boredom down here, but even I have limits.¡± He tucked his book under his arm. ¡°Do you want to see if we can round up some boys for a few rolls? I was trying to go through this rust-proofing enchantment, but it¡¯s not like I¡¯ll actually be able to use it.¡±


    ¡°No, no dice for me today. I was hoping to get some info from you though.¡±


    ¡°Got any dust?¡±


    ¡°A little,¡± Dantes patted a pouch in his jacket. ¡°Info first though.¡±


    ¡°Alright, go ahead.¡±


    ¡°Do you still keep in touch with any of the Orcs you used to run with?¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, yes. Keep contacts mostly so Merle can have a contact to hash problems out with. Why?¡±


    ¡°I need a meet. The Orcs are trying to put a tax on the brothel, and the consortium isn¡¯t backing them up. I owe them, so I wanted to try and get them to back off.¡±


    Wane rubbed his chin. ¡°Damn, that¡¯s bold of them. Good way to piss off the whole Pit. Give me some time, one week, maybe two and I¡¯ll set something up with Kester, one of the sergeants. Can¡¯t promise they¡¯ll listen to you though.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ll listen, just bring them to the table for me.¡±


    ¡°If you say so, just make sure you¡¯re wearing that sword when you meet them. I¡¯d also consider bringing some muscle if you can find it. They don¡¯t respect anything, but strength.¡± Wane was baring his tusks as he spoke, frustration clear in his tone.


    Dantes reached into his coat and pulled out a small pouch of dust he¡¯d kept in case he¡¯d wanted to trade anything, at least that¡¯s what he told himself.


    He handed it to Wane and watched with envy as he licked his pinky and stuck it inside the bag before running a bit of it along his gums, letting out a satisfied sigh.


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    ¡°You sure you don¡¯t want to have a few rolls before you go? Slim bets since the supply drop is tomorrow, but there are worse ways to pass the time.¡±


    Dantes thought about it for a moment. ¡°Well¡­maybe just a few rolls.¡±


    ¡­


    The next day, Dantes made his way to the Maw for the supply drop. He didn¡¯t need any supplies, his new sources of food and drink meant he should never have any issues with that ever again, but he did need information. He¡¯d considered using a few rats, or sending Jacopo into Orc territory for more information, what they¡¯d been up to, and their dynamics, but he figured that the best way to see how the hierarchy in the Pit had changed, would be to watch the supply drop.


    Dantes kept his hood up, and stayed at the edges of the activity, his rapier hidden and shiv at the ready. Even at the outskirts, everyone¡¯s blood would be up and one never knew what might happen. It smelled of sweat and misery, and a few dozen men were already in the maw¡¯s opening, some skinny and desperate, and others well fed and menacing. Around the opening, there were no longer Elfland Kings, but several smaller gangs seemed to be trying to make up for the gap. Clan Stonedust had a large, but smaller than usual, force that was noticeably between those smaller gangs and the collared rather than next to the Orcs where they usually stood.


    The Orcs themselves had been given a wide berth, leaving what people might think were gaps to slip through, but Dantes could tell it was a trap, with other orcs behind those gaps ready to take advantage of those that attempted to slip through them. Underestimating Orcs was a global pastime. One would look at them and think, they¡¯re brutish, simple, and violent, and think nothing else. All three of those things were often true, but many of them were also cunning, often brutally so. Violent didn''t mean stupid, it just meant they enjoyed taking the quickest solution to problems others might spend far too much time on.


    ¡°Clear the Maw!¡± came the shout from the guards above. A few of the people gathered below scattered, but most of them stood their ground. The guards began throwing sacks down into the pit, a few of them rolling down barrels. At one point a sack was thrown into the middle, and a man went for it, only for another sack to slam into his head, snapping his neck. That raised a cheer from the guards above, and wincing from a few below.


    The Orcs were moving while this happened. It was subtle, but the group of them began slowly shifting to one side. Dantes noticed that behind the front line of them, several of the orcs had drawn weapons. Rusty axes, knives, and swords along with heavy clubs.


    Dantes moved quickly, pushing through the crowd and making his way over to where the Collared were standing. He didn¡¯t see Merle, so he approached the most muscular of them, the Elf that had so recently told him that the Fey method of execution was a sword through the heart. The Collared jumped at his approach at first, before they realized it was him.


    ¡°Orebus!¡± Dantes yelled over the commotion, barely remembering the man¡¯s name as he reached them.


    The muscular elf turned his way ¡°Dantes! Clear out, any supplies through here are ours!¡± It was a kind warning, if anyone who hadn¡¯t known them had approached they¡¯d¡¯ve been beaten and robbed immediately. Even the Collared didn¡¯t play around on re-supply days.


    ¡°The Orcs! They¡¯re armed, I think they¡¯re planning something!¡±


    Orebus turned to look past the commotion at the center of the pit and see the Orcs. He squinted for a moment, and his ears twitched a bit. His eyes widened, and he turned to the men he had gathered.


    ¡°Bolt in, grab the nearest supplies, and retreat!¡± he yelled.


    The men around him looked confused, but he himself didn¡¯t hesitate, running into the pit, and grabbing a sack of potatoes, shoving a scrawny desperate man to the side as he did so.


    They followed suit shortly after, and roars of protest went out from the smaller gangs and the dwarves. What Orebus had done was a major breach of the delicate etiquette of the pit and its balance. The dwarves'' protests quickly turned to screams however, as the Orcs began their assault.


    They swarmed across the gap between themselves and Clan Stonedust, a green and gray tide roaring with fury as they smashed into them. Those orcs that had readied their weapons charged first, while those that had hidden them from the front swarmed into the opening to the maw and began tearing into the supplies and those that had been looting them.


    The element of surprise meant that the majority of the dwarves were slaughtered before they could mount a serious defense, though several of them made a break for it.


    Dantes didn¡¯t stick around to watch in person, instead watching what happened through the eyes of a rat as he made his own retreat. The Orcs now controlled most of a supply drop, all of the prisoners that would drop in, and had cleared out a significant chunk of their primary rivals all in one fell swoop. Dantes was impressed. It was a brazen move, but it allowed them to further secure their power now with the vacuum he¡¯d created by scattering the Kings.


    Dantes cut off his connection before the guards began feather falling and dropping in the new prisoners. They clearly didn¡¯t care what circumstances they threw these people into, and Dantes had no desire to see what the Orcs were planning to do to them.


    As he made his way into the less traveled tunnels he frequented, he clenched his jaw. It was already going to be difficult to honor his favor for Syn, but it had just got even harder. That was assuming Wane even managed to secure him a meeting with them after what had just happened.

 Ch 35: Mating, yes. Also murder.

    Dantes stayed off the main paths, but from what he could see through the rats he had watching behind him the Orc¡¯s had ceased their assault in the Maw itself and started consolidating all of the goods, beating the new prisoners, and generally asserting their newfound dominance. Still, he stayed cautious, weaving through those lesser known passages until he made it back to Collared territory.


    There were more than a dozen Collared standing guard, most of them broad and muscular adherents of Merle¡¯s fitness philosophy. Dantes was waved through with serious nods. In the center of the space the goods the Collared had managed to gather were being sorted. They seemed to have had a good haul, which was good considering it may need to last a long time. He heard a voice call from one of the upper chambers as he entered the space proper.


    ¡°Dantes, come up!¡± said Merle, gesturing for him to approach.


    Dantes complied, seeing that Merle was standing with Orebus.


    ¡°Orebus here says you warned him about the Orcs.¡±


    Dantes nodded.


    ¡°Thank you. With your warning and his quick thinking we actually managed to salvage something out of this.¡± He sighed and ran a muscular hand from the top of his forehead all the way down his long white beard. ¡°The Orcs have always been aggressive, but I never realized how much the Elves and Dwarves held them in line. Now they¡¯ve got the numbers, the supplies, and very few checks on their power.¡±


    Dantes nodded along as Merle spoke. There were some obvious answers to the problem in his mind. The Collared working with the remnants of the dwarves, the consortium, and the gangs to restore things to the previous status quo being the most obvious, but Merle and his Collared had always taken a more separate approach, their attitudes from the academy bleeding into their time in the Pit. If Dantes made the suggestion, it wouldn¡¯t necessarily amount to much, Merle would likely have to come to the conclusion himself, or the Consortium might approach him if they couldn¡¯t work things out from their own angle.


    ¡°Did you have any indication of what the Orcs were planning that before you went to the supply drop?¡± asked Merle.


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°No. I¡¯d heard they¡¯d been ramping things up, looking to expand in different ways, and raiding the dwarves. I figured something bigger might go down, didn¡¯t know this would be it.¡±


    Merle shook his head. ¡°Well, thanks to the warning and the deal we made with the Consortium, we should be able to weather this. Thank you Dantes.¡±


    Dantes nodded, and walked away from him. In his mind the Collared were actually in a better position than ever before. Even if the Orcs controlled every single supply drop from this point forward, the Collared as they were had become the second largest gang by default. Though technically the Kobolds or Consortium may be larger, their numbers were just much harder to track. All by virtue of proximity and usefulness to Dantes, though they likely didn¡¯t realize that was the reason.


    He considered the moves he could make against the orcs, but hesitated to make any real choices or set firm paths in his mind. He had only just started his new venture with the Consortium, and wanted to pocket a healthy amount of profit before things got more disruptive. The Orc¡¯s power play may even be beneficial to him. With the average person more desperate for supplies, his own access to them gave him a greater control of the market. Aside from that, Orcs liked to drink, and if the Consortium was still doing good business with them, that sounded like business security for Dantes. The only possible problem was the favor he owed Syn, and how to handle it.


    He moved over to where Wane was leaning against his cell, watching the supplies get sorted, seeming to watch certain items closely, minding who was picking up what.


    ¡°Seeing who to prioritize inviting to your next dice game?¡±


    Wane winked. ¡°Something like that. If you¡¯re looking for Tel, he¡¯s passed out. Wore himself to the bone apparently. Spares me having to hear him talk about it though.¡±


    ¡°Not looking for him today. Looking for you. I¡¯m guessing the Orcs didn¡¯t set up a meet yet?¡±


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    Wane¡¯s eyebrows furrowed. ¡°The strange thing, they did.¡±


    Dantes leaned against the wall next to him. ¡°When?¡±


    ¡°In two weeks at the undermarket, the Consortium bar there. The meet¡¯s with Ryker, he¡¯s up there, third or fourth to the boss.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have expected them to set a meeting at all with what they just did.¡±


    ¡°The impression I got was that they like you. They thought a meeting with you was worth it. Makes sense, they and the Elves had always been at each other¡¯s throats before.¡±


    Dantes nodded, and reached into one of the pockets of his jacket to pull out a leather flask, handing it to Wane. ¡°For your trouble.¡±


    Wane nodded, slipping the flask into a pocket, and Dantes started to walk out of their territory, when he heard some exclamations from the other side of it. He turned around and saw a large crowd gathering. Curious, he wandered over and stood at its edge, eventually he was able to see that they were gathered around a thoroughly beaten and bloodied Pillion. He suppressed a smile.


    ¡°What happened? Was it the Orcs?¡± asked one of Merle¡¯s lieutenants.


    Pillion shook his head. ¡°No clue. Three guys with cloth wrapped around their faces. I was just in the market, having a drink since that new stuff is such swill. I walked through an alley and next thing I know I¡¯m getting the shit beaten out of me. They took my weed, some coin I had, my fucking shoes! It¡¯s not like they¡¯d be able to wear them.¡±


    Dantes smirked, he couldn¡¯t help himself. ¡°Maybe they needed to shoe a skitterling and your boots were the perfect fit¡­ Guess they¡¯d need to rob you two more times to have enough though.¡±


    Pillion attempted a rude gesture at Dantes, but winced and grasped his hand.


    Dantes got a few glares for his comment, so he held up his hands and backed away from the group, which had shed by more than half when everyone realized that the attack hadn¡¯t involved the Orcs. Those few that stayed, Dantes was sure, did so out of obligation, more than anything. He supposed it was possible for Pillion to have friends, but only in the same way that it was possible for him to fly a dragon out of the Pit.


    He moved back out into the tunnels and started on his way back to his own piece of the outskirts. He¡¯d have to make sure to give the Shadow Cats some actual work. The beating seemed to have been expertly delivered, and stealing the shoes was a delightful touch. Most importantly, they hadn¡¯t been identified, and didn¡¯t do anything to tie it back to him. He¡¯d had a few options in mind for if they had failed in that instance, most of them ending very unfortunately for them, but their success saved him the trouble, and brightened an otherwise complicated day.


    He made it back to his cave, letting Jacopo out of his jacket where instead of moving to his bed, or the food storage, he began making his way out of the cave.


    ¡°Got a date?¡± asked Dantes sitting down.


    ¡°Mating, yes. Also, murder. Cousin once stole food from me. Feel¡­ compelled to harm him.¡±


    ¡°Makes sense to me. Need a hand? I certainly owe you for Iron.¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°You can¡¯t fit where I would need. Thank you though.¡±


    Dantes nodded, and Jacopo began weaving through the Pit to his cousin. They were rubbing off on one another, in a good way as far as Dantes figured. He considered having Jacopo go to spy on the Orcs ahead of the meet, but he didn¡¯t feel as much of a need for skullduggery with them. The Orcs weren¡¯t stupid, but they were direct. He was fairly certain he could figure out their intentions without relying on his abilities. Besides which, he wanted to see what happened when the ratmark favor filled completely. It slowed down the further it filled up, and he was at three and half full fangs. He wasn¡¯t certain, but he felt instinctively that something would happen once it was completely filled, and he wanted to know what that was.


    Two weeks until his meeting with Ryker. Two weeks to focus on collecting fruit, figuring out what to do with the Shadow Cats, after making them change their name which was an obvious priority. Two weeks to climb, to spy with rats and roaches, to plot with Syn, and to collect his pay from the booze run he¡¯d made nearly self-sufficient. He flexed his fingers, tightening and loosening his grip. It wasn¡¯t enough. He needed to get out. He needed to be back in Rendhold. Playing power politics in a pit that didn¡¯t matter, it was a waste of time. For just a moment the frustration of it boiled over in him. He flexed his hands more, and clenched his jaw, feeling his teeth rip into flesh, and his hands clawing into his cousin''s soft underbelly. Once the deed was done, he kept eating. No sense letting the meat go to waste.


    Dantes shook his head, clearing his connection to Jacopo, still tasting copper in his mouth. He loosened his grip and let out a slow breath. Patience. He¡¯d already made it five years, he could handle waiting a bit longer.

 Ch 36: Doing a bit of flexing

    Dantes walked toward the Consortium¡¯s Undermarket bar. He felt good. He¡¯d put on even more weight thanks to his climbing routine, easy access to food, and the whey tip he¡¯d gotten from Merle. On top of that coin jangled in his pockets from the last two deliveries of what Mez had begun calling his, ¡°Bloody Brew¡±, due to its dull red hue. Only Dantes and Jacopo knew how appropriate the name truly was. Life was horrible overall, but also as good as it had ever been for him since he¡¯d been thrown into the Pit.


    Dantes shifted his focus to Jacopo, who was already tucked in a wall of the bar, watching it. The Shadow Cats were already there as well, pretending to be unrelated patrons in the corner, but Ryker and his retinue hadn¡¯t arrived. That suited him fine, meant that there wasn¡¯t an ambush of any kind waiting.


    He went inside, and walked over to where a gnome was standing on top of a stool behind the bar. He held up a finger, and the gnome nodded, pulled out a cup, poured strong red brew into it, and slid it over to him. Dantes took a long, slow sip, enjoying the sweet flavor and burning aftertaste. When he was done, he took a copper from his pocket, and slid it across the bar. The gnome took the coin with practiced grace, and poured Dantes another round.


    Jayson attempted a subtle wave, but Dantes ignored it. Jacopo had moved into an alley nearby, and he could see through his eyes that three orcs were about to enter.


    Dantes kept his eyes forward, and enjoyed another long slow sip as they entered. Hierarchy was rarely a difficult thing to determine with orcs. If one was bigger than the others, and walking ahead of them, he was in charge. There were a few exceptions here and there, but in this case things adhered closely to stereotypes. Ryker was a head and shoulder taller than the other orcs, which put Dantes at about chest height to him. His tusks were capped in iron points, his skin was the deep green of vines, and his eyes were a rich orange color. He had shaved bald, as had the other orcs, and all of them were bricks of muscle.


    Dantes turned around on his stool and raised his glass to Ryker, who gestured with his neck for his men to take a seat at a nearby table without them, then went to the bar to sit next to Dantes, his large frame seeming almost comical on the small barstool. He gestured for a drink, which the gnome poured without comment and took a long sip before turning his orange eyes to Dantes.


    He sized him up for a moment, his eyes running up and down him, before he nodded. ¡°Before I hear what you have to say, I need to ask you a question.¡±


    Dantes nodded.


    Ryker smiled widely, his entire demeanor shifting from intimidating to warm in an instant. ¡°How good did it feel to blow those fucking elves up?¡±


    Dantes looked left and right and leaned in conspiratorially. ¡°Better than the last time I had a woman.¡±


    Ryker let out a loud laugh and slapped Dantes on the back, nearly knocking him from the chair. ¡°Oh, I had a feeling I¡¯d like you.¡± He took another sip of his drink. ¡°This stuff, I heard that it was partially your doing as well?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°I just connected the right people to each other that¡¯s all.¡±


    ¡°Hey, nothing more valuable than that. No crew, no job, no gang can exist without a guy who puts the pieces of things together.¡±


    Dantes nodded. He hadn¡¯t expected Ryker to be so personable. Wane hadn¡¯t given him much of a heads up about what to expect, and so Dantes had been assuming it would be a large Orc full of balls, bluster, and rage. So far, Ryker only met two of those predicted criteria.


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    ¡°Can I ask why you came to meet me? Wane initially said it would probably be Kester.¡±


    Ryker finished his drink. ¡°I wanted to meet the guy who took care of the Pit¡¯s elf problem in person.¡± He gestured for another drink. ¡°I also wanted to see if you were up to joining us.¡±


    Dantes briefly lost control of his expression, and his eyebrows shot up.


    ¡°Is that such a surprise?¡±


    ¡°Are you going to pretend it¡¯s not?¡± asked Dantes. The Orc gang was probably the most open to recruiting half or quarter blooded orcs into its ranks without any prejudice, but not when they had elven or dwarven blood. Dantes had both, though only the elvish was obvious.


    Ryker. ¡°Quarter orc, half-orc, doesn¡¯t matter. Society sees you as an orc no matter what other blood has mixed with it. Whether we want them to or not. Besides which, we¡¯re a¡­what do you call it¡­a meritocracy! You seem good at killing and setting things up. Even Blud gave me the sign off to see if you were interested.¡±


    Dantes brought his expression back under control, though he found it was easy to give an affable smile. He liked Ryker, he seemed reasonable, and he didn¡¯t detect any insincerity either. He hadn¡¯t expected this, particularly not Blud, their Chief, to be interested in him joining up. This was good, he could use it.


    ¡°No need to make a decision now. Hell, we¡¯d be willing to work with you even if you don¡¯t join up.¡± He took another sip of his freshly refreshed drink. ¡°But anyway, what did you want? Why the meet?¡±


    Dantes took a short sip of his own drink. ¡°The Which Wench, I¡¯ve heard you¡¯ve been trying to get them to start paying up to you?¡±


    Ryker nodded. ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re doing a bit of flexing here and there. The changelings have had it easy for a while. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ve got the goods to pay us.¡± He smirked and lightly hit Dantes¡¯ arm with his elbow. ¡°And if they don¡¯t they¡¯ve got other ways to stay out of debt with us.¡±


    Dantes kept his smile, but immediately felt his opinion of Ryker drop by half. ¡°Well, I get along well with them. Gamble with them, drink, you know. I was hoping to talk to you about going easy on them? Maybe dropping the ask? Or negotiating something different?¡±


    Ryker kept his smile, but shook his head. ¡°Fraid not my friend. Taking the Which Wench, and a few other businesses¡­ That¡¯s on Blud¡¯s orders. No turning that around now.¡± He picked at an iron capped tusk with his index finger.


    ¡°Come on, there¡¯s always a deal to be made. I¡¯m sure if you worked with them it would wind up being beneficial for everyone.¡±


    Ryker laughed. ¡°They''re just whores Elf-killer, they¡¯re only good for one thing. Smart guy like you knows that.¡±


    There went the other half of his opinion of Ryker. Still, he kept up his smile.


    ¡°Yeah, whores are whores, but I lost a bet and owed one of them a favor. You understand, I¡¯m sure.¡±


    Ryker nodded slowly. ¡°Honourable too, even to whores! You really just sell yourself more and more as we talk.¡±


    Dantes rubbed his chin as if deep in thought. ¡°You know, there might be a way I can make things go easier for you with the changelings. Maybe even get some profit out of it for the both of us.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Ryker gave a conspiratorial look.


    ¡°Well, they trust me, and as far as they know I¡¯m on their side. I could talk to them, convince them not to resist¡­ maybe even get them to agree to the deal verbally. Have them bound to listen to you and the other Orcs by fey law.¡±


    ¡°And what would you get out of that?¡±


    ¡°A cut of course, and maybe Blud makes me one of his lieutenants when it¡¯s all over.¡±


    Ryker nodded, pointing a thick finger at him. ¡°You, you¡¯re bold. If I didn¡¯t know any better I¡¯d think you were full blooded, straight from suckling off an orcish tit.¡±


    ¡°Well, what I do in private is my own business, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    Ryker let out a big full laugh. ¡°Alright. A guy with jokes like you needs more than just a brief meet. You, me, and my boys are going to be getting some serious drinking done.¡± He gestured to his men at the table who moved up to the bar. Then he gestured to the Shadow Cats. ¡°Your bodyguards too, they¡¯re welcome to join us too.¡±


    ¡°That obvious, eh?¡± asked Dantes.


    ¡°Let¡¯s just say, those boys are greener than I am. I had them nailed the moment I walked in.¡±


    Dantes laughed, and waved them up. ¡°You heard the man, let¡¯s all drink!¡±


    They all got a fresh cup, and raised them high once before they chugged the first one down. As expected of a bar full of criminals, not one of them even winced as it burned down their throats. Dantes kept making jokes, and sharing drinks until the day was done. He needed them to trust him as much as possible before he slipped a knife between their ribs.

 Ch 37: The dainty wave of a highborn woman

    Dantes awoke the next day with a splitting headache. He laid awake with his eyes closed for what must have been at least an hour, then he attempted to sit up. The moment he was upright, he vomited, narrowly missing his bed. He stayed still for a few moments, then wiped his mouth with his bare hand and crawled over to the water pitcher, his hands and knees cushioned by the bed of moss that now covered everything in the cave. He actually felt a bit better after expelling that bit of poison. He took slow steady sips of water, then moved the rock that covered his food and removed some hard tack. It wasn¡¯t the meal he¡¯d pick first in any other situation, but in this case it was exactly what he needed.


    Jacopo grabbed himself some food from the uncovered hole, and began to chew it much more loudly than Dantes would prefer. He looked up at him.


    ¡°This suffering, you chose it?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Needed someone to trust me as much as possible. Had to pretend to be friendly. Wasn¡¯t too hard, he was a friendly guy, just also happens to be a piece of shit.¡± He took another sip.


    Jacopo shrugged, at this point the gesture looked nearly human. ¡°You chose it, you deserve it.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I probably deserve worse. Luckily what I deserve doesn¡¯t matter.¡± He took several more sips of water, and choked down more hard tack. He still needed to take the fruit sacks to Mez, then he needed to contact Syn, and on top of that he¡¯d been meaning to check in with Clay to see how much luck he¡¯d had acquiring a Mother¡¯s Reach seed. Now he¡¯d need to do all of that with a splitting headache and raw stomach. He did himself the grace of forgetting about his exercise for the day. He sent permission to the roaches to clean up his puke and began dragging himself to his garden, sensing their gratitude as they cleaned his cavern for him.


    His garden had grown massive and unruly. Red bushes, trees, and vines all fought for space in the large chamber. Their roots had turned the hard stone to rubble, and grown deep into dirt that hadn¡¯t been seen for hundreds of years. He heard a chorus of requests for his blood from the plants all around him. Those had been growing louder and louder as the garden had grown. Rats ate freely of the rotted fruit Dantes couldn¡¯t eat or use, and roaches fed on whatever remained that even the rats wouldn¡¯t touch.


    Dantes drew his rapier and opened the same cut on his arm he¡¯d been opening every day, feeding the garden a steady stream of blood until the cries for it at least grew quieter. He had known in the back of his mind that as the garden grew it might require more of him, soon he¡¯d need to find another way to feed it. He couldn¡¯t compensate for the lack of sunlight forever.


    He moved to the already packed fruit sack for the day. Lately he¡¯d been taking two every time, but today he decided one would be enough.


    When Dantes arrived Mez was leaning over a large cauldron, stirring the ingredients inside of it. His equipment seemed to have had a complete overhaul since he and Dantes had begun working together. He¡¯d even managed to acquire some glass containers and beakers, the logistics of getting those things down to the pit without them breaking were staggering. He still looked a bit malnourished, and wore dirty rags, but he just had different priorities than most.


    Mez didn¡¯t even bother looking up. ¡°Hungover?¡±


    Dantes threw the sack to the ground and let out a confirming grunt.


    ¡°A greasy slice of beef and a raw egg washed down with a light beer would fix your right up.¡±


    ¡°Are you offering?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve got a bit of stringy rat, a snake egg, and booze that would kill most gnomes after a sip.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll pass, but thank you.¡±


    Dantes went to leave, but stopped when Mez spoke.


    ¡°Oh, speaking of gnomes, there was one here a few days ago asking about you. I forgot to mention.¡±


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    ¡°What was his name?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t remember,¡± Mez continued to stir, but didn¡¯t look up.


    Dantes moved over to him and waved a hand in front of him to get his full attention.


    Mez looked up and blinked as if just remembering there was an entire spectrum of reality outside of the bubbling contents of his cauldron.


    ¡°What did he look like?¡±


    ¡°Short.¡±


    Dantes clenched his jaw, but kept himself in check. Mez had been in the zone since Dantes had started to bring him fresh supplies so constantly. His focus was part of what Dantes liked about him, he had to take the bad with the good.


    ¡°Was he traveling with elves?¡±


    ¡°Oh, yeah, he was.¡±


    ¡°What did he ask you?¡±


    ¡°He wanted to know where the fruit came from.¡±


    ¡°And what did you tell him?¡±


    ¡°That I didn¡¯t know and didn¡¯t care.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Alright, thanks for the heads up.¡± He turned toward the exit to Mez¡¯s cave. ¡°See you tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Later, Tes.¡±


    He moved through the tunnels, no longer on hungover autopilot. He sent rats ahead and behind him so that he could watch for anyone approaching or following. Grimald was trying to determine where he got the fruit, that meant he was trying to cut him out of the process. It made sense. All he provided was fruit. Mez did the brewing, and the Collared handled the logistics. Even they may be cut out if the consortium got rid of him though. They could definitely handle the logistics themselves. He¡¯d have to be more cautious with his deliveries. Mez couldn¡¯t sell him out since he didn¡¯t know where the fruit came from. That meant that Grimald¡¯s next step would likely be to interview other people that might know, or to try and track him. Given the fact that he had two elvish trackers as bodyguards that had a vendetta against him, he bet on the second option. He¡¯d need to be much more careful.


    He went around his own cave, and headed for the undermarket. He was more alert and focused now that there was a potential threat. He needed to keep pushing forward, even if his head felt like he¡¯d accidentally sheathed his rapier between his ears.


    He reached Collared territory, where the guard waved him through without trouble. They were still on higher alert than before, but as far as he knew they hadn¡¯t had any more incidents with the Orcs. A few of the smaller gangs had gotten some trouble from them, but the Collared were on almost the opposite end of the prison, and their neutrality meant that the Orcs had little reason to bother with them. At least for the moment.


    ¡°Dantes,¡± said Wane, spotting him as he moved past the fountain in the center of the chamber.


    He stopped and waited for Wane to approach. ¡°Hey Wane. Can¡¯t gamble today, I have an incredible hangover.¡±


    Wane chuckled. ¡°I don¡¯t mind if you gamble hungover.¡± He leaned against a cell wall. ¡°Were you drinking because the meet went poorly?¡±


    ¡°No, the meet went well, actually.¡±


    Wane frowned and gestured for Dantes to move off the main path to speak. ¡°Really? They were willing to work with you?¡±


    Dantes cursed internally. He hadn¡¯t considered how much he should share with Wane. The Orcs needed to think he was going to side with them, but Wane and the Collared would almost certainly be wary of him working with the Orcs after what had happened during the last supply drop.


    ¡°No, but they didn¡¯t kill me. Unless you count forcing me to drink with them as an attempted murder.¡±


    Wane nodded. ¡°Well, I¡¯m sorry it didn¡¯t go well.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s why I¡¯m headed to the undermarket. I need to tell Syn what happened.¡±


    Wane nodded.


    ¡°Hey, have Grimald and his elves been by at all?¡±


    Wane shook his head. ¡°No, not since they were here to meet with you and Merle. We pick up our portion of the profits from them in the undermarket.¡±


    ¡°Have they been asking questions about me when people go there?¡±


    ¡°Not from what I¡¯ve heard, but I haven¡¯t been paying much attention to be honest.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. Want to come with me to the undermarket? Wouldn¡¯t mind some company.¡±


    ¡°No, Pillion cleaned me out this morning.¡± He batted his eyelashes a bit. ¡°Unless you¡¯d like to buy a few things for me.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, I¡¯d rather save so I can pay your family the dowry it takes to marry you.¡±


    Wane chuckled and gave him the dainty wave of a highborn woman. ¡°Until then.¡±


    Dantes waved goodbye and went the rest of the way to the undermarket.


    Jacopo crawled around in his jacket until he was perched on his shoulder. ¡°Do you really intend to marry that orc?¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Not unless I¡¯m down here fifty more years. It was just a joke.¡±


    Dantes felt Jacopo comb through his mind for a few moments. ¡°Ah, you use these often.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m surprised this is the first time you¡¯re asking me about it.¡±


    ¡°I often ignore parts of what you say.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t say I blame you. To you a lot of what I talk about must seem meaningless and dull.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Why the sudden curiosity?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve noticed it puts those around you at ease. Makes them more likely to listen to you. It is a tool?¡±


    ¡°Yes and no. I can use it like one, but I also do it for its own sake. Sometimes people make jokes without even thinking about it. Sometimes people tell jokes just for themselves.¡±


    Jacopo broadcast an emotion that reminded Dantes of a sigh.


    ¡°I ask one question, and gain a dozen more.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s alright, you don¡¯t need to understand humor, you¡¯re naturally funny.¡±


    Jacopo squeaked acknowledgement and crawled back into his pouch in the back of Dantes¡¯ coat to watch his back.

 Ch 38: Heres the gist

    The Undermarket was full of the stench of booze and sweat. All of the various small bars scattered throughout it were full of cheerful drunken orcs, still high off their victory at the supply drop even weeks later and, most likely, fistfuls of dust and weed as well. Dantes didn¡¯t attempt to keep a low profile as he typically did. Instead he pulled his hood down, and walked with his rapier clearly visible at his waist. He exchanged nods with several orcs as he walked through, and even had to decline two offers of free drinks. Even if he wasn¡¯t busy, the idea of drinking again so soon after the previous day¡¯s debauchery filled him with dread. Still, he kept it all smiles and friendly gestures. The orcs needed to believe he was on their side.


    Before he headed to the Which Wench, he made a side trip to Clay¡¯s booth. He had just rearranged his plants, and Dantes took the time to admire them as he waited for Clay to complete a transaction with a halfling for a bit of weed. His plants felt content and well cared for, as always, aside from being just a bit parched. Dantes continued to be impressed by his ability to accomplish things as a gardener with limited means that he could only do with the abilities he¡¯d gained.


    Once Clay was done he turned his attention to Dantes. ¡°Dantes, hey, you here for the-?¡± he gestured vaguely as if he couldn¡¯t quite remember the word.


    ¡°The seed, yes, had any luck?¡±


    Clay nodded. ¡°Yes, actually. I spoke with some of my Consortium contacts. They told me it was the oddest request they¡¯d ever received, but they managed to get one for me. Had to call an extra favor that¡¯ll probably cost my sister a couple silver up at her bar in midtown.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re from midtown?¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°No, I¡¯m from an old logging town in the south. Family moved here when the trees ran out. Sister and I opened businesses. Hers was legit, mine¡­not so much. Anyway¡­¡± he reached toward his beard, parting the mushroom and moss ridden strands of hair to put his hand into it and pull out a fist sized orb of dark brown, with a rough texture.


    The moment it came into view, Dantes could feel its presence. He¡¯d felt faint life in seeds before, but the life emanating from this seed wasn¡¯t faint at all, it was thrumming with an intense vitality, the desire to grow, the will to reach the heavens. He began to reach toward it unconsciously, and Clay snatched it back.


    ¡°Come on, you know the rules. We haven¡¯t even started to bargain.¡±


    Dantes shook his head, breaking his concentration on the seed. ¡°You''re right, sorry, too much drink yesterday.¡±


    Clay shook his head. ¡°That¡¯s why I stick to weed. No hangovers from it yet.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°So, you said it cost your sister a couple silver, how about I give you five gold right here.¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°It will cost my sister two silver, but it already cost me a favor, and a bag of weed. Five gold coins down here barely meets the value of two silver coins back up top.¡±


    ¡°Come on, five gold down here is worth way more than that. I was being generous.¡±


    ¡°Maybe five to trade with the smallfucks, but for anyone else in the undermarket it¡¯s nearly useless.¡±


    ¡°Three gold and a full skin of bloody brew.¡±


    Clay scratched his beard. ¡°I think that¡¯s closer, but this seed¡­ I don¡¯t know, maybe I¡¯d be better off holding onto it. It fits so nicely in my beard.¡±


    ¡°Fine, five gold pieces, a full skin of brew, and I¡¯ll hook you up with the Collared for as much fresh water for your plants as you could need.¡± That last part of the offer was a gamble, but considering Clay¡¯s plants felt a bit thirsty, something he¡¯d never felt them complain about before, he thought it would be worth a shot.


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    Clay kept his face impassive for a moment, then nodded. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll take the gold up front, and you can bring me the rest later.¡±


    Dantes smiled, and handed him the gold. He had, in some ways, been had. That much for a seed would seem ridiculous to anyone except Clay, but the potential use he had for it made it worth the price, especially with the resources he had access to being much more abundant than they had been.


    Clay handed him the seed, and he tucked it into his jacket, feeling the life within it pulse like a heartbeat. Dantes looked around the rest of Clay¡¯s booth, his eyes falling on the large pile of weed at the end. ¡°Any chance you¡¯d be willing to part with most of that as well?¡±


    ¡­


    Dantes made his way to the brothel at a slower pace than he usually walked. He felt weighed down, and not by the large seed he¡¯d just purchased. He was feeling drawn to the easy path. He could work to convince the changelings to just do what the orcs wanted, get himself protection and goods in return, and maybe even be able to soften the treatment the changelings received in the process. It wasn¡¯t a bad plan, and it would give him the freedom to focus more on his own escape. The seed was a backup plan, ideally he¡¯d be able to work with the consortium or even some of the guards the next time they took a trek into the pit, but he still needed more resources before he could even broach the subject.


    He didn¡¯t owe Syn anything more than an attempt to negotiate on their behalf, but then he heard the words Ryker had said. ¡°They¡¯re just whores,¡± and his jaw clenched. No, he wouldn¡¯t work with them. He¡¯d take the riskier option. Besides, in the long run, it would likely be more profitable for him. Besides which, he didn¡¯t want to join the orcs, didn¡¯t want to join any gang. He wanted to lead one.


    It was Selvyn at the front again, she smiled at him as he approached, but behind the smile her shape flickered and he saw the pale long creature she actually was scowling at him. She shifted into a large human woman spilling out of a milkmaid outfit.


    ¡°Hello there Dantes, looking for a roll in the hay?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d take a night of sleeping on a hay bed with no rolling, if that¡¯s on offer.¡±


    ¡°Fraid not, time in my bed is money.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Oh well. Is Syn in?¡±


    Selvyn nodded. ¡°Yeah, and she''s between clients now.¡± She smiled, ¡°Not literally, you can head back.¡±


    Dantes nodded, feeling a bit suspicious as he moved past her and into the brothel itself. She hadn¡¯t done nearly the same amount of flirting as she usually did, and he could detect a stiffness to her transformation that felt forced. He hadn¡¯t noticed anyone tailing him through his rats, so he didn¡¯t think she was acting off for his benefit. He wondered if he owed her money or had cost her a client, but he couldn¡¯t recall anything like that. He had it in his mind that he¡¯d ask Syn.


    The moment he walked into the room he found himself surrounded by a half dozen men. The one behind him closed the door. All of them had no pupils, and stared at him dead eyed, they were nameless. He looked across the room where he saw Syn sitting at the edge of her bed, her usual smile wasn¡¯t on either her fake or real face, and instead she just regarded him with a frown, and sad eyes. She was in the shape of a young human woman with wide eyes and long auburn hair that fell past her shoulders in thick curls.


    ¡°Syn¡­¡± said Dantes simply, trying to buy some time to figure out what was going on.


    ¡°Go ahead,¡± she said, tilting her head. ¡°Pitch me changelings being bound to the orcs. Explain how working with you will make it less painful for us, while you join their gang with a new source of profit lining your pockets.¡±


    Dantes nodded slowly. Someone had talked to her, or another changeling about the meeting he¡¯d had with Ryker. It made sense that Syn would be keeping tabs on what he was doing, not to mention anything to do with the Orcs since they began trying to extort them.


    ¡°If that was my plan, this reaction would be more than fair.¡±


    Syn shook her head. ¡°There¡¯s no reason to lie. Loose lipped orcish clients, and the gnome bartender have both confirmed it.¡±


    ¡°Did you consider that I was lying for an even bigger con?¡±


    Syn¡¯s form flickered for a moment, but her actual expression didn¡¯t change.


    ¡°I need the Orc¡¯s trust, so I had to lean into things. Make them think I was completely on their side and willing to help them against you.¡±


    Syn stayed silent.


    Dantes looked around and gestured at the nameless around the room. ¡°Listen, I understand you being incredulous, we¡¯ve known each other for a while. I know changelings value their freedom, which they lose so much of when they get down here. The idea of further restrictions must be beyond bearing for you, but in this case I¡¯m on your side.¡±


    Syn tilted her head, and smiled. ¡°Good! I was hoping that was the case.¡± she gestured to the nameless and they walked out the door. ¡°Still, we don¡¯t enjoy broken promises, and had no way to bind you to them, so the other changelings insisted.¡±


    Dantes took a deep breath, trying to calm his dancing pulse.


    ¡°So,¡± said Syn, standing up and taking the form of a large orcish woman before placing her hand on the wall behind him so she could look down at him. ¡°What¡¯s your plan?¡±


    Dantes smiled, glad to see Syn¡¯s mood switch back to playful so easily. ¡°Well, it¡¯s got a lot of moving parts, but here¡¯s the gist of it¡­¡±

 Ch 39: Free booze, women, and money

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    Jacopo watched as the orcs filtered in one by one. The smell of smoke and drink was heavy in the air. Dantes had given the weed he¡¯d bought from Clay to the orcs so that they could get high as well as drunk while their deal with the changelings was completed. Jacopo watched as Dantes greeted each of the orcs as they entered, handing them a drink, making a quick witted joke, and telling them to enjoy themselves. There were no bouncers, and the nameless had been moved to their usual quarters for the night so that the Orcs could be sure of their safety. A few orcs even stood guard outside in case it was a trap.


    The Which Wench had been temporarily expanded with the curtains and room separations removed and a bar installed. The changelings themselves drifted around the room in various forms that two legs found enticing. He saw a gnome woman with breasts as big as her head sitting on the lap of a massive orc giggling, an orcish woman arm wrestling with an orcish man surrounded by cheers, a haughty elf woman protesting sultrily as she was pursued around the room by a dark gray half orc with a smile plastered on his face. Jacopo didn¡¯t fully understand everything that was happening, but he relied on Dantes¡¯ thoughts to keep general track.


    He began moving across the beams that held up the rickety ceiling, keeping track of everyone¡¯s movements for Dantes. Ryker himself hadn¡¯t yet arrived, but there were around seven orc sergeants, and more than twenty of their men. It was a sizable chunk of the Orc¡¯s forces, maybe a third overall. Hard for anyone to resist a party with drugs, booze, and women all shared freely, especially in a prison where all three things were hard to come by.


    Jacopo moved closer to the orc and gnome that were sitting in the corner, his ears perking up to listen to what they were saying.


    ¡°So since we¡¯re going to be working for you, what¡¯s Ryker like?¡± she asked as she traced a pattern on his chest with her finger.


    ¡°E¡¯s a good Orc. Strong, friendly, makes sure we¡¯re all fed, and drunk. Tells great jokes.¡±


    ¡°So you¡¯d say you¡¯d trust him to make decisions for you?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I suppose.¡± He took another long drink. ¡°You may not be happy with it now, but he¡¯ll take good care of you, just like he does us.¡±


    Jacopo skittered across a few more beams, catching up to where the changeling in the shape of a haughty elf had been cornered by the orc that had been pursuing her, who was now kissing her neck.


    ¡°I could never lay with someone who follows a weak leader,¡± she said, pushing his head away in a manner that was clearly for show.


    ¡°Eh, Ryker ain''t weak. He¡¯s a good leader.¡± He smiled wide showing his tusks. ¡°Only Blud is stronger.¡±


    She pouted. ¡°So you¡¯re saying you¡¯d trust him with your life? With your name.¡±


    He lifted his head back up from her neck. ¡°Eh? Yeah I suppose so, but let¡¯s focus on me, huh?¡±


    Jacopo could sense Dantes¡¯ appreciation at the work that the changelings were doing, as well as his overall disappointment with the lack of savvy the majority of orcs were showing. He supposed anyone¡¯s judgment would be suspect in this situation, but still he was finding himself more sure that his decision to work against the orcs was the superior one. Jacopo agreed, but more because he preferred the changelings to the Orcs overall. They tended to ignore rodents, orcs were more likely to simply stomp or eat them if they could. He¡¯d lost many a cousin, and one sister that way.


    Jacopo began moving across the room, hearing a few dozen more conversations that all seemed to be going roughly the same way, with only a couple of the Orcs not answering the question the way they needed to, though the changeling continued to work on them. Before he could reach the front of the room, Ryker arrived.


    He pushed open the doors with a wide smile on his face, and a massive joint hanging from his mouth half smoked. His men cheered as he entered, and Dantes moved to clasp his massive hand by way of greeting.


    ¡°Ryker! Welcome to the party. I was starting to worry you weren¡¯t interested in free booze, women, and money. It was making me second guess working with you.¡±


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    Ryker laughed, ¡°Sorry, I was trying to get Blud to come, but he insisted on another raid. Booze, women, and money he likes for me to handle, a good fight is his only vice.¡±


    ¡°Shame, I was hoping he might welcome me into the gang himself.¡±


    Ryker nodded. ¡°Oh don¡¯t worry, he will. Part of the initiation is letting him beat you for a full minute. That¡¯s not something he¡¯d miss. Though, considering all you¡¯ve done for us, he may limit it to a single strike.¡±


    Dantes frowned, but gestured for him to follow him to the bar. They shared one, then another drink in comfortable silence.


    ¡°So, how did you manage to get them to go for the deal?¡± asked Ryker.


    Dantes smiled widely. ¡°They¡¯ve always liked me, so it wasn¡¯t too hard to get my foot in the door with them. I explained our meeting, and laid out that things could either go the easy way or the hard way. The easy way meant protection, keeping at least a sliver of the profits, and me being the person they deal with directly. The hard way well¡­ I was going to leave the hard way up to you to figure out.¡±


    Ryker nodded with a smirk on his face. ¡°Leaving it up to the imagination, eh? Smart.¡±


    ¡°Good whores have great imaginations too, so they practically convinced themselves once they started to think of everything that could wind up happening to them.¡± The line was delivered with an eerie coldness that surprised even Dantes himself.


    Ryker took another long slow drink and looked over to him. ¡°So, how does this work, you said we¡¯d have to enter into some kind of Fey deal with them? I¡¯ll be honest, it seems like an easy way for you to fuck me over.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I understand, but it¡¯s the way they work. Without this deal made their way, they¡¯ll be able to fuck you over way worse than I could down the line. I¡¯ll explain it to you first, and then if you think it¡¯s not on the up and up, we can work something else out, but¡­¡± Dantes gestured around. ¡°I think it¡¯s pretty clear they¡¯re willing to work with us this way.¡±


    Ryker, took a puff, and placed his joint onto the bar, putting it out in a small puddle of spilled drink. ¡°Alright, walk me through it.¡±


    ¡°First, we¡¯ll assemble all of the changelings in the center of the room.¡± Dantes smirked, ¡°We¡¯ll probably need to pull a few of your boys off of them first of course.¡±


    Ryker chuckled and nodded.


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll lay out the deal. It¡¯s safest for me since I know more about Fey law. Also, I want to make sure you keep your part of the bargain.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm,¡± said Ryker, clearly incredulous.


    ¡°Basically, you give me the authority to negotiate for you, I lay out the exact deal, and then you agree to what I say, and what the changelings say.¡±


    ¡°Still sounds like you¡¯d be able to fuck me over here¡­¡±


    Jacopo could feel Dantes¡¯ anxiety. He knew Ryker was savvy, but had hoped this would easier once he¡¯d had plenty of smoke and drink.


    ¡°That¡¯s the thing,¡± Dantes gestured for a changeling in the shape of a female dwarf with a luxuriously silky black beard. ¡°Any agreements Dantes makes in Ryker¡¯s name can be voided by Ryker at will.¡±


    She nodded.


    Dantes looked at Ryker. ¡°Get it, now that I¡¯ve spoken that you have the authority to void what you disagree with.¡±


    Ryker nodded. ¡°Alright, that makes sense.¡±


    ¡°So, do I have the authority to represent you?¡±


    Ryker finished his drink and nodded. ¡°Yes.¡±


    Dantes smiled a too wide smile that seemed to stretch and contort his face until it reached from one ear to the other.


    ¡°What the fu-¡± said Ryker, his eye¡¯s widening in fear as he pushed himself away from the bar, his drink falling off of the bar with a crash.


    The bar got quiet as the orcs and changelings all shifted their attention to him.


    In the quiet, a door opened to a back room, and a second Dantes walked out, a less wide smile on his face. He moved over to his duplicate, and patted him on the back.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Ryker, as promised, any agreements I make in your name can be voided by you at will. Unfortunately, you just gave Syn the authority to represent you, not me.¡±


    Ryker¡¯s face contorted into a number of expressions, surprise, comprehension, then rage. He howled, grabbed the ax at his belt, and launched himself at the two of them, the other Orcs began to move as well, only slightly slower than their leader.


    ¡°Your name, and those men who give you their authority¡¯s names, are mine,¡± said Syn, quickly and calmly through the smile on her face.


    Ryker stopped mid leap, a look of sheer terror on his face as the whites of his eyes claimed their sclera. Once that was complete, his expression became vacant. All of the other Orcs in the brothel shared his blank expression, they were now under the control of the changelings, adding a third of the orcs strength to their ranks of nameless. No one would be able to intimidate them again.


    Syn looked at Ryker. ¡°Take your men and slay the two guards you have outside.¡±


    Ryker didn¡¯t answer. He simply began moving toward the exit, a handful of the men that had foolishly said they trusted him with their lives trailing behind him.


    Dantes sent a wordless thanks to Jacopo for being his eyes and ears as he watched Syn impersonate him in the party. Jacopo responded with a request for fresh meat.


    Dantes looked over to Syn, who was still in his shape. ¡°That was well done. You make a good me.¡±


    She curtsied. ¡°I¡¯ve had a lot of practice observing you. The trick is to think I¡¯m just a bit more charming and amusing than I actually am.¡±


    Dantes frowned. ¡°Sorry, did you say something? I was lost in my eyes.¡±

 Ch 40: Shouldnt have been such an unrepentant-

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    Dantes placed a small pouch of weed, and a handful of blood-red grapes onto the raised stone in front of him that acted as a table.


    Wane shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m out.¡±


    Tel reached into his pocket and put a handful of copper coins down.


    ¡°Coin, eh? Where¡¯d you get that?¡± asked Dantes.


    ¡°Did a favor for someone in the Consortium,¡± he said coyly.


    ¡°What kind of favor?¡± asked Wane with an eyebrow raised.


    ¡°The kind that paid me in copper coins,¡± responded Tel.


    Dantes chuckled, Tel was getting more attuned to the Pit every day. At this rate he¡¯d become a well known name, or dead, those were basically the only two ways it could go.


    Pillion placed a small pouch of dust next to the other bets, it had clearly recently had a scoop taken out of it. It probably didn¡¯t amount to the same value as the other bets, but Dantes decided not to say anything, and Tel followed his lead.


    Pillion shook the dice, wincing as he did so. He was still having a bit of trouble from the beating he¡¯d received, that was probably why the dust had so recently been used. Dantes took a moment to reflect on the fact that he may have set into motion a course of events that had turned someone to the same addiction that had tormented him when he himself had arrived in the Pit five years prior, and smiled. Pillion shouldn¡¯t have been such an unrepentant asshole and it wouldn¡¯t have happened.


    Pillion rolled the dice out and cursed the moment that they went still. Dantes muttered one under his own breath too as Tel smiled widely and pulled everything toward himself.


    ¡°Fuck this. I won¡¯t be rolling the dice just to lose my shit all afternoon.¡± said Pillion, collecting the dice and cup, and walking away muttering a colorful mix of elf, orc, and human slurs under his breath.


    Wane sighed. ¡°I may need to tell Merle about the dust he¡¯s been doing. A bit here and there is no big deal, but when it makes someone like Pillion act like more of a dick¡­¡± There was a touch of genuine concern in his voice as he spoke.


    Dantes ignored it. ¡°You guys have any dice?¡±


    They shook their heads.


    ¡°Guess we¡¯re done then.¡± He moved to stand, then paused and looked at Wane. ¡°Unless you¡¯ve got any news from the orcs.¡±


    Wane¡¯s expression hardened. ¡°No.¡±


    Dantes sighed. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that you knew orcs at the party.¡±


    Wane held up a hand. ¡°I know that. I also know that the Changelings were defending themselves. And I know that if they¡¯d continued the way things were going then they probably would¡¯ve come for the Collared next.¡±


    Dantes opened his mouth, but decided against saying anything. Some things needed time.


    Tel didn¡¯t have the same restraint though. ¡°Then why are you so mad?¡±


    Wane¡¯s hands curled into fists. ¡°Because they didn¡¯t even get to fight. Dantes and the changelings took their lives, but didn¡¯t do so in battle, and now they¡¯re dead on their feet and forced to serve their enemy.¡±


    ¡°But you-¡±


    Wane shot Tel a glare. ¡°I know I criticized them before, and I¡¯m aware I¡¯m not being rational. That¡¯s why I¡¯m still gambling at the table with him, and still call him friend. That doesn¡¯t mean it has to be easy.¡±


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    Tel opened his mouth again, but Dantes put his hand up this time. ¡°It¡¯s fine Tel.¡± He nodded at Wane. ¡°Good game, maybe I¡¯ll get some dice from the Undermarket tomorrow so we don¡¯t have to rely on Pillion.¡±


    Wane nodded. ¡°Sure, but you know I¡¯ll be checking to be sure they aren¡¯t weighted.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Of course.¡± He gave Wane and Tel a wave goodbye, and started to make his way back to his cave.


    Wane would¡¯ve told him if he actually had any information on what the Orcs had been up to since he and the changelings had taken a third of their forces. He¡¯d been actively monitoring his tunnels with rats, and spying on them, but from what he¡¯d seen they¡¯d mostly been consolidating. They still had a larger force overall than the dwarves did after their massacre, and certainly more than the elves, so they were still a powerful gang in terms of numbers, but now that they¡¯d made so many enemies so quickly, that arithmetic was starting to add up a bit differently. Two-thirds strength with good relations was fine, but when everyone was now wary or outright hateful toward them, and the third they¡¯d lost had gone to a group they¡¯d just antagonized, that was different.


    Dantes reached out with his senses and detected a clump of moss next to him as he walked. He reached his hand out to it, and it shifted and moved as if trying to reach him. He focused and was able to make it form shapes and symbols as it reached out, or flattened itself, but the more complex he made it, the more drained he began to feel. It wasn¡¯t like the rat or roach mark. It seemed to be based on his own physical stamina rather than any ¡®favor¡¯ he¡¯d earned with plantlife. Unless there was a tattoo of a tree on his ass that he¡¯d had yet to see. Still, it was getting easier with practice, and the garden he created reacted to his will with almost no effort at all, though it had begun causing him headaches of a different kind.


    Its hunger for blood had grown slowly at first, but now he heard it screaming at him when he first woke, until he went to sleep, all sense of politesse gone from its requests. Not that he expected much of that from plants, but it certainly seemed more relaxed about it in the past. Even at that moment, he could feel its hunger at the edge of his awareness.


    He sighed.


    ¡°You¡¯re being followed,¡± said Jacopo as he walked. It took tremendous effort, but he didn¡¯t react to the statement and just kept walking.


    ¡°Who? How do you know?¡±


    ¡°When your awareness fades from the rats you watch your back with, I take over. It¡¯s the elves, the two that work as bodyguards for Grimald.¡±


    Dantes resisted nodding. That made sense, Grimald was making his move, trying to figure out where he was getting the fruit, maybe having him killed in the process. He was certain the elves had no qualms about the arrangement either.


    ¡°How far away are they?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re a few chambers behind. Staying exactly that distance behind you.¡±


    That was good, that meant that they were trying to determine the location of the fruit first, not kill him. That gave him more options, let him control where they went, and when they attacked. He reached out his awareness and began gathering rats and roaches in as large of numbers as he could. Before long, there were hundreds of them moving in concert with him and his followers.


    Once they were in place he switched with Jacopo to observe the elves more closely.


    ¡°I¡¯ve never heard vermin be this active before. Even in the deeper caves,¡± said the older of the two elves. He moved in almost complete silence, gracefully gliding through the maze-like caverns only a short way behind Dantes.


    ¡°Could mean the fruit¡¯s nearby.¡± The younger one was squinting, as if reducing his sight would somehow let him hear Dantes¡¯ footsteps better over the rising cacophony of scratching and chittering in the walls around them.


    ¡°It¡¯s possible, but¡­ that¡¯s not the strangest part. Do you smell that?¡±


    The younger of them sniffed and gagged. ¡°I just smell roaches and rat shit.¡±


    The older elf inhaled deeply. ¡°Greenery¡­ I could swear. It¡¯s been so long¡­ Closest I¡¯ve gotten was smelling that one dwarf¡¯s booth back in the Undermarket.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re smelling dwarves now? I think you may just be losing it.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s possible¡­ I mean, it¡¯s not like he¡¯s growing the fruit here. He almost certainly just found some way to have it transported down here. Some way of passing messages¡­maybe he didn¡¯t destroy all of our mirrors.¡±


    ¡°But what about-¡±


    Dantes brought his attention back to himself. He didn¡¯t need to hear their speculation, he knew exactly how he¡¯d done it, after all. He started moving toward his cave, forming a plan. He could never win a straight up fight, the elves were too skilled, it didn¡¯t take a trained fighter to see that. He could possibly drive them away with rats and roaches, or at least throw them off his trail, but that would just put off the problem rather than deal with, and the sooner the Consortium realized he couldn¡¯t be fucked with, the sooner he could start negotiating with them for his escape. He also didn¡¯t like how close they¡¯d gotten to him, twice now. If it hadn¡¯t been for Jacopo he may have been taken completely unaware.


    He smiled as his plan solidified in his mind. If they wanted to find his source, he¡¯d take them straight to it.

 Ch 41: Gorge yourself

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    Dantes moved through the corridors at his usual pace so that he wouldn¡¯t warn his followers that he knew of them tracking his movements just a few chambers behind him. He started to have individual roaches and rats cross their paths, or make loud noises. At one point he even had a few roaches fall from the ceiling onto them. The older of them managed to stay calm, hiding any impact the actions of the vermin had on him, but the younger let out curses under his breath, barely managing to keep himself from jumping at shadows.


    Dantes made his way straight for his garden. He drew the rapier he¡¯d taken from Reivare¡¯s corpse, and speared a ripe apple off of one of the trees before bringing it to his mouth for a bite. The juices from the apple flowed down his chin like blood, and he began to spread his awareness out across the entire garden. He felt it practically roar its hunger for blood back at him. He let the entirety of the garden¡¯s hunger wash over him, from the largest peach tree near the entrance, to the smallest sprig of grapevine creeping across the ground, and accepted it. The feeling he broadcast back to them was simply, ok.


    The elves entered the garden boldly, with weapons drawn, but their confidence wavered when they saw Dantes staring directly at them, eating an apple skewered through with their former leader¡¯s own blade.


    Dantes swallowed. ¡°Welcome.¡±


    The elves stayed silent, and spread apart slightly, their steps wary as they looked around the chamber. They were doing their best to hide it, but Dantes could see their amazement at the plant life that surrounded them. He could also sense their every step as they touched the roots of trees or the bodies of vines with the soles of their well worn boots. He began to tighten his will.


    ¡°Grimald sent you to discover the source of the fruit I assume?¡±


    They stayed silent but exchanged a quick glance, continuing to separate further in an attempt, he assumed, to set up an attack.


    ¡°Come on, no reason we can¡¯t talk. No reason this has to be violent.¡± Dantes gestured with the rapier across the garden, removing what was left of the apple¡¯s core from the blade with a flick of his wrist. He wasn¡¯t very experienced with blades longer than daggers, but his natural dexterity made the gesture simple enough. ¡°You must be curious about all of this. Even if you do decide to kill me, wouldn¡¯t it be better to have your questions answered?¡± Dantes was moving rats and roaches into position as he spoke. He¡¯d been practicing dividing his attention for months now. He still had trouble doing it while he was walking, but while lying, biding time, or bullshitting? That came so naturally he barely needed to focus on it at all. He could put all of his energy into his abilities.


    The older one was the one who spoke first, surprising both Dantes and his companion.


    ¡°How?¡± He almost involuntarily reached out to touch a tree trunk with his bare hand.


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I developed a new set of skills, very shortly after Reivare decided to have me killed. I¡¯m not sure what all they entail, but from what I understand I¡¯m a druid.¡±


    The older one blinked. ¡°A druid!? Here!?¡±


    The younger one looked at him, surprised at how animated his mentor had become.


    ¡°What¡¯s a druid?¡±


    The old elf shook his head, running a finger down his scarred face. ¡°You only ever lived in the city, it makes sense you wouldn¡¯t know. Druids are blessed by the Mother with the power of the wilds to grow and protect her children and their homes. Forests, jungles, mountains, druids can exist in any of them, but they are very rare. In my home, before I came here, I knew of a druid who maintained the forest next to ours.¡±


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    The younger of them¡¯s face scrunched up. ¡°Why would there be druid here?¡±


    The older one looked at Dantes, also curious as the answer to that question.


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Fuck if I know, but here I am.¡± Dantes filed away what he¡¯d just heard. He chose to reveal what he was on the off chance they¡¯d reveal something more for him, and they¡¯d done exactly that. He wasn¡¯t worried about them knowing, it wouldn¡¯t matter soon.


    ¡°Even knowing that, it doesn¡¯t explain this garden. I¡¯ve still never heard of druids having this type of power.¡±


    ¡°The druid you knew couldn¡¯t do this?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so¡­ but he was a dwarf, so the clan shunned him when we saw him.¡±


    Dantes frowned, that meant he likely wouldn¡¯t be able to get any more information about that from him.


    ¡°So, I answered your question. Let me ask mine again. Did Grimald send you, or is this some fresh attempt at revenge?¡±


    The young one spoke this time. ¡°Yeah, he sent us. The revenge is just a bonus.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Thank you. Any chance you might be willing to work for me instead of him?¡± The offer wasn¡¯t genuine, but keeping them off balance had value.


    ¡°In a vacuum, we would have no issue working with you, but after what you did to the Kings, you must die.¡± said the older of the two.


    Dantes smiled, everything was in place, he¡¯d bought all the time he needed.


    The older Elf¡¯s mouth opened. ¡°Wait, a druid in a garden.¡± he turned around. ¡°We need to lea-¡±. As he completed his turn toward the exit, he saw an army of rats and roaches standing at the exit, calmly watching him. He adjusted quickly, ¡°We need to kill him first!¡±


    As he began to turn around, Dantes unleashed the will he¡¯d been building within himself and the garden responded. Vines moved to coil around the elves¡¯ ankles, branches moved to block their path, and roaches and rats moved to swarm and distract them.


    The younger one managed to jump onto an outcropping of rock before he could be entangled, but the old one wasn¡¯t so lucky and began attempting to hack his way free as he became covered in all the nature Dantes could muster. He fought calmly, even as roaches began crawling across his eyes.


    The younger one leapt toward Dantes, swinging his long dagger in a wide arc as he landed. Dantes was too quick though, and he rolled toward the garden before he even landed, raising the rapier''s point as he landed to keep it focused on his unencumbered opponent.


    The elf charged him, and Dantes was thrown into the defensive by his enemy¡¯s superior skill, backing away and parrying, but unable to respond with attacks of his own. He was in better shape than his last fight, but he was never a straight up fighter. He continued backing away, using wide swings to keep his enemy at a distance, and had a number of roaches crawl up to his hand, which he then threw towards his opponents face. While he was distracted, Dantes had the vines at his feet tangle him causing him to trip. Once he was on the ground, Dantes took the rapier and drove it into his back.


    The older elf cried out, and used all of his strength to briefly break free of the vines, trees, rats, and roaches to try and launch himself at Dantes, but in less than a second he was covered again. Dantes had focused most of his energy on subduing him over the younger one, he could tell that he was the greater threat. Now that he was the only one left, Dantes brought the fullness of his attention to him.


    Dantes took a moment to draw the rapier from the dead elf¡¯s back, and walked casually toward the other one who had dropped his weapon in an attempt to tear a rat from his face. The rats, roaches, and vines cleared from his path as he moved, instinctually understanding that was what he wanted them to do.


    He raised the rapier and readied himself to strike. He wanted it to be clean. ¡°You know, it''s a shame this is how things worked out. You both seemed levelheaded and capable. I¡¯d have traded a few of my current allies for you two in a heartbeat.¡± He shrugged. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much though, I still have a use for you.¡±


    He drove the rapier through the writhing elf¡¯s chest, killing him near instantly, then withdrew the blade and wiped it against the nearest tree. He checked his ratmark and roachmark. Both had taken a heavy dip, as was always the case when he used the powers in a way that risked their lives. The marks were still more than halfway full though, which gave him a good amount of wiggle room, though he¡¯d have to wait even longer to find out what happened when he filled the ratmark.


    He slid the rapier back into its place at his side, and sent his awareness over the garden and all of the vermin within it.


    ¡°Rats, roaches, the meat is all yours, just leave both of their right ears for me. Garden, you crave blood? Gorge yourself.¡±


    The vermin and the garden responded with enthusiasm.

 Ch 42: Those arent to eat, theyre to bargain

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    Dantes watched the corpse disposal with mild fascination. He was no stranger to rot and decay, not in midtown, and certainly not down in the Pit. Still, seeing it sped up by the frenzy of rats and roaches, while the roots of the nearby plants dug into the corpses, their roots finding fresh blood in their veins, that was thankfully a unique and new experience for him.


    When they were done he moved over to each of the bodies and pried off the ears he¡¯d had his fellow vermin leave for him. He placed them in a small pouch and glanced at the corpses up close. They were mostly skeletal, and the roots and vines that had grown through the bodies seemed to criss-cross all throughout it as if they had taken the place of their veins. In the center of it, he noticed that their hearts were still intact. For a moment he swore he saw them beat, but after blinking and rubbing his eyes he didn¡¯t detect any more movement.


    He was tired. Exercising his abilities, fighting, even with his increased strength and stamina it was an unfamiliar and exhausting experience. He reached out his awareness, and felt a wave of satisfaction wash over him. The garden was content, more so than it had been in a month. The vermin were happy too, with stomachs full of warm flesh. His marks showed that he¡¯d made up a bit of the ground he¡¯d lost in the fight as well.


    He moved over to pick up the young elf¡¯s long dagger. He didn¡¯t know much about metal that wasn¡¯t gold or silver, but could tell it was high quality. The older elf¡¯s thin sword was also a beautiful piece, and he found another small dagger in a sheath that he must''ve hidden somewhere in his clothes. He slipped all of the weapons into his belt and stretched. If the Consortium wanted the source of the fruit this much, that only added to the leverage he had with them. It was time to make them an offer.


    He started walking out of the cavern, when he felt Jacopo crawl through his jacket to the pouch he¡¯d stored the elf ears in.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± asked Dantes.


    ¡°Getting a snack.¡±


    ¡°Those aren¡¯t to eat, they¡¯re to bargain.¡±


    Jacopo crawled up his jacket and sat on his shoulder. ¡°I¡¯d assumed they were for me.¡±


    Dantes sighed. ¡°It might undercut a dramatic gesture later, but I¡¯ll give them to you when I¡¯m done.¡±


    Jacopo considered that for a moment. ¡°Okay.¡± he crawled across Dantes¡¯ back to the opposite shoulder, ducking down when Dantes moved to get down through a particularly narrow passageway. ¡°What are you bargaining for?¡±


    ¡°My escape.¡±


    ¡°Is that not what the seed is for?¡±


    ¡°The seed is just a possibility. A backup plan. Using it is high risk. It can maybe get me out, but can¡¯t guarantee I make it out alive.¡±


    ¡°And elf ears can?¡±


    ¡°What they represent might. The consortium has smuggled people out before, at least that¡¯s the rumor. I¡¯m going to make them an offer.¡±


    Jacopo stayed silent for long enough that Dantes thought the conversation was done, then he spoke again. ¡°What¡¯s it like?¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Above. Outside of this place. What¡¯s it like?¡±


    Dantes paused his walking. ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡±


    Jacopo shook his head. ¡°I was born here. Grandmother was from a ship, but father and mother were born here.¡±


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    ¡°And there¡¯s no escape to the surface for rats? No small holes that take you out to the streets?¡±


    He shook his head again. ¡°I¡¯ve heard that there were, but now they are blocked by something. Some kind of invisible force.¡±


    Dantes nodded, the same protection that had been put in place after the escape of Gideon Gallant. He hadn¡¯t considered that it may have affected rats too, but it made sense. ¡°Hmm, let me try something.¡± He opened his mind and started to think of the city, broadcasting thoughts of it to Jacopo through their connection. He thought of darkened alleys in the rain, the spiral towers of the academy visible from miles away, the beautiful white streets of uptown, the dank and cracked cobblestone of midtown, the vast squares of old parts of town that had fallen into disrepair only to become overgrown, filled with wild dogs and maddened tax evaders, and the sounds of men yelling on the docks as they hauled goods from ships. He topped it all off with the view of the city from the rooftops at night, windows lit orange with candlelight, or green with witchfire, the infinite possibilities that view held. By the end of it he was clenching his fist and jaw. He wanted it back. Craved it.


    Jacopo nodded. ¡°Yes, I want to see all of that myself.¡± he paused. ¡°I don¡¯t need an ear if keeping it will help you.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I appreciate that.¡±


    ¡­


    Dantes walked through the tunnels and past Collared territory to where the smaller gangs in the Pit gathered. Those too principled, or more likely, too impure to be part of the larger racial gangs tended to bunch up in smaller groups to stay alive. A few of them were entire gangs that got thrown into the pit at once, and others had formed when they¡¯d arrived. They were as varied as the cobblestone on a midtown street, and engaged in near constant infighting. In general that meant that they were left to their own devices. He¡¯d heard stories of the smaller gangs gathering into a genuine force before, but they always wound up being crushed by the elves, dwarves, orcs, and Consortium who were unwilling to let that threat to their own power exist.


    Dantes passed by a few dice games, a brawl, a younger man with his hair in braids and his eyes covered in makeup, and a group gathered around a large stew pot, each of them throwing in mushrooms, bits of rat, and clippings of greenery in an attempt to make something edible and filling for the group to share. He received a number of looks as he passed by, but none of them made any attempts to stop or bother him. He was better fed, better armed, and a number of them had heard the rumors of a man by his exact description taking out both the Elven Kings, and his recent work with the changelings against the orcs. If he¡¯d been wanting to go incognito he could¡¯ve drawn his cloak and hid his blades, but he wanted Grimald to know he was on his way, and that meant causing a bit of a stir before he went to meet him. All that said, he still had Jacopo watching his back and shifted his focus across the various vermin around him to ensure that he wasn¡¯t being tailed.


    Dantes rounded a corner to a small cul de sac of cells. It was prime real estate, and unlike the rest of this section of the prison it wasn¡¯t a mire of filth and hopelessness. Drawing of nude elves, orcs, and gnomes had been stuck to the walls of the three cells, there was a smell of fresh rather than rotten food, and there even seemed to be attempt to keep the trash and leftover food in a specific corner rather than letting it drop where it may.


    He heard some light laughter and saw a small fire in the center. Around that fire sat Zak, Jayson, and Jayk. Jayson was mixing together surprisingly appetizing ingredients into a small pan, while the other two seemed to be counting and measuring goods. Clearly the small jobs and contacts he¡¯d hooked them up with were helping the ¡°Shadow Cats¡± out quite a bit.


    ¡°You three come up with a new name yet?¡± Dantes asked as he stepped into the light of their fire.


    They all jumped, Jayson only barely keeping himself from spilling his food.


    Jayson rallied the quickest of the three. ¡°Dantes, uh no, we¡¯re still working on that.¡± He looked around, as if looking for something to hand him or lean against. Eventually he settled on gesturing with the small pot toward Dantes. ¡°Would you like something to eat?¡±


    Dantes smiled, and moved over to the stone that Zak was sitting on. He gave him a look and Zak took the meaning quickly and made room for him. Dantes sat on the raised stone and looked at Jayson. ¡°I could eat.¡±


    While Jayson started divvying up the food into clay bowls, Jayk settled in and Dantes could tell he was thinking things through. How had Dantes known where they slept? What did he want? In truth he¡¯d had a few rats find their base for him.


    ¡°Can I ask why you¡¯re here?¡± asked Jayk. ¡°More info on that job the changelings needed done?¡±


    Dantes shook his head and took a bowl as Jayson handed it to him. They only had three, so Jayson ate straight from the Pot. ¡°What I need from you is simple.¡± He drew each of the weapons he¡¯d taken from the elves and placed them in front of himself. ¡°Backup.¡±

 Ch 43: How can I help you?

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    The Shadow Cats eyed the weapons, Jayson with curiosity, Jayk with suspicion, and Zak with obvious desire.


    Dantes ate another spoonful of stew from his bowl, it was surprisingly good, Jayson was a talented cook. He gestured to the weapons, ¡°Take whichever you want. They¡¯re elven make, good quality from what I can tell.¡±


    Zak stood and took the longsword from the group of weapons with little hesitation. He gave it a few test swings, and Dantes could tell almost immediately that he actually knew what he was doing. He went into a stance, and worked his way through a brief form with it, one that looked familiar to Dantes.


    ¡°You were a guard?¡± he asked, surprised.


    Zak nodded. ¡°Well, I joined up for a job that Jayk had come up with. Didn¡¯t work out¡­the training was good though.¡±


    Dantes took another bite. He hadn¡¯t considered how they¡¯d gotten thrown into the prison, and asking was taboo, but a job using a plant in the guard? That was ambitious. It made sense given how they¡¯d approached him and handled the jobs he¡¯d given them though.


    ¡°What did you mean by backup?¡± asked Jayk.


    ¡°I need to have a conversation with the Consortium. I don¡¯t expect any actual trouble, but I feel it will help to have you at my back with fresh weapons. These in particular.¡±


    ¡°Where did you get them?¡± asked Jayk.


    ¡°Their owners tried to kill me. I killed them first.¡±


    ¡°And why did they try to kill you?¡±


    ¡°The Consortium sent them to.¡±


    Jayson let out a whistle. ¡°And you want us to go with you to talk to them holding their weapons? That¡¯s uh, ballsy.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the pay?¡± asked Jayk.


    Dantes raised his eyebrows. ¡°The weapons are the pay. You know the value of steel down here. I think that¡¯s more than fair considering that all I need from you is to stand with me and look intimidating.¡±


    Jayk shot Jayson a look, and Jayson opened his mouth to speak.


    ¡°We¡¯ll do it,¡± said Zak before Jayson could say anything.


    Jayson sighed. ¡°Yeah, we¡¯ll do it.¡± He paused for a moment and gestured to Dantes¡¯ bowl. ¡°How is it?¡±


    ¡°Very fucking good actually.¡±


    ¡­


    They made it to the Undermarket without trouble. Their new weapons, numbers, and reputation kept the scavengers off their backs as they made their way through. The kobold and dwarf guard at the Undermarket''s entrance eyed them warily, but made no moves to stop them as they entered. Dantes made his way directly to the Consortium¡¯s headquarters at the far end of the market. It was the largest actual structure, built against a far wall that Dantes had been told was linked to a small tunnel which the halflings and gnomes went through to reach a number of chambers accessible only to themselves.


    Next to the front door  standing in a booth attached to the building was a dark haired gnome wearing spectacles, a simple black tunic, and a bored expression answering questions from a red faced man regarding how he felt he was swindled and shouldn¡¯t owe the gambling debt he had.


    ¡°Well, if you take a look at this paper, you¡¯ll see the problem,¡± said the gnome.


    ¡°I mean, I can¡¯t read, but I know my name when I see it.¡±


    ¡°And is this your signature?¡± asked the gnome pointing at a line on the paper.


    The man bent closer to look at it and the gnome grabbed the man''s hair, yanked his head closer, and slit his throat with a thin knife before he could react. Then he pushed the man¡¯s head away. He stumbled backward, clutching his throat for a moment before collapsing into a gurgling heap.


    The gnome leaned back in his chair and yelled back into the building. ¡°Hey Zek, got a cleanup here. You can keep whatever you find in his pockets.¡± He wiped the blade of his knife on his sleeve and looked at Dantes. ¡°Ah, Elf-slayer and Orc-betrayer, how can I help you?¡±


    Dantes stepped over the dying man and up to the counter, reaching into his jacket to pull the two right elf-ears from it. He placed them on the counter.


    The gnome nodded. ¡°Ah, yes, we heard you might be visiting about that.¡±  He smirked at his joke and clapped twice, a half dozen guards, four kobold and two dwarven, quickly surrounded him at the counter.


    Dantes smiled. ¡°That¡¯s not why I¡¯m here. You should know by now I wouldn¡¯t attack from the front anyway.¡±


    ¡°Oh no? You seem to be quite unpredictable to us. If an attack from the front was what we least expected, I could see you making the attempt.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough.¡± Dantes grabbed the ears and placed them back in his pocket, sending a thought to Jacopo that they were all his, and drawing stares from both the Shadow Cats and the Consortium goons who couldn¡¯t understand why he¡¯d pick them back up after making the gesture. ¡°I¡¯m not here to fight though. I¡¯m here to negotiate. I have something Grimald and the rest of you want. Since his attempt to get it by killing me and stealing didn¡¯t work, why don¡¯t we try things the hard way instead, and make a deal?¡±


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    The gnome smiled, this time it was genuine. ¡°Sounds reasonable enough. I¡¯ll have Grimald and the Executive meet you inside.¡±


    Dantes nodded. The Executive was whoever the Consortium¡¯s Council had elected to make significant deals with gang heads. He hadn¡¯t expected that. It either meant they wanted access to his source that badly, which was possible considering even at that moment he had a rat defecating in their latest shipment of ale, or his reputation meant they felt he deserved it. Or both, there was no reason it couldn¡¯t be both.


    They were escorted inside to a bare room with a stone slab table in the center, a number of overly small chairs, and a small altar to the god of merchants. The altar held a scale with a gold piece on each side perfectly balanced, and a wrapped scroll below it. Dantes presumed the scroll was their yearly accounting, a typical offering to the god to show that gold has been flowing and goods delivered. He wasn¡¯t surprised to see it, none were so pious as prisoners that had been thrown down into the Pit.


    Dantes sat in one of the gnome sized chairs, and balanced his feet on the table in a practiced pose meant to emanate confidence. The Shadow cats stood behind him, or leaned against the nearest wall, all doing their best to scowl intimidatingly and doing a relatively solid job of it.


    The door opened, and Grimald with his wisp of white hair stepped through, his face was calm, but his eyes were darting around as if his brain was rattling against the back of them with quick thoughts. As he sat opposite Dantes, a halfling walked through the door. Dantes had expected an old man, but instead a young halfling walked through with mop of brown hair, a relaxed expression, and a large black ledger.


    Dantes stood and offered a hand to the Halfling. ¡°Dantes, it¡¯s a pleasure.¡±


    The Executive took his hand. ¡°Rumpert Tothsvagon at your service.¡± The man¡¯s voice was perfectly measured and coldly friendly in a way that Dantes had only ever experienced when he¡¯d been confronted while shoplifting from the nicer stores in uptown.


    Dantes nodded at Grimald as he sat back down. ¡°Grimald, always good to see you.¡± He gestured back to the Shadow Cats. ¡°Thank you so much for the elven weapons. It was a generous gift.¡±


    Grimald¡¯s eye twitched. ¡°Don¡¯t mention it.¡±


    Executive Rumpert gave Grimald a purely mechanical comforting pat on his shoulder, then looked to Dantes. ¡°So, I have heard that you want to bargain with us since Grimald¡¯s attempt to circumvent you in your trade of alcohol has failed.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±


    ¡°Well, we are prepared to allow you to beat him severely as an opener to negotiations. We are willing to provide both a cane and a post for your convenience.¡±


    Grimald¡¯s face paled as the Executive spoke, and he opened his mouth to object, but stopped himself at the last moment.


    Dantes smiled, ¡°I¡¯m interested, but we can table that for now? Maybe circle back to it later.¡±


    ¡°Ah, you¡¯d prefer to do the real business first. I can appreciate that.¡± Rumpert opened the heavy black tome and began making marks on a blank page in some kind of language or code that Dantes didn¡¯t recognize. ¡°So, what is your offer?¡±


    ¡°I can grant you complete control of my supply of fruit, and willingly hand over all control of my portion of the alcohol trade to the smallfolk consortium.¡±


    There was coughing behind him as Jayson was taken aback by his statement.


    The Executive nodded. ¡°Interesting. That¡¯s a high value proposition. We¡¯d be willing to offer a sum of gold, or perhaps some high value goods. For that price we may even be able to acquire you a personal changeling to do with as you please.¡±


    Dantes¡¯ mask of friendly confidence almost shifted to an expression of disgust at that last statement, but he held it together. ¡°A handsome set of offers, but not quite what I¡¯m looking for.¡±


    Rumpert nodded. ¡°Okay then. No reason to waste further time. Tell us what you want.¡±


    ¡°I know that the consortium is able to smuggle people out of the Underprison. I want out.¡±


    Rumpert stopped making notes in his ledger, and gently placed his pen next to the ledger. ¡°Surely you realize if we had a way out, we would simply use it ourselves?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°No, the business you do here, and the business you do with people above for the people here is too profitable. It avoids taxes, gives you access to a place to safely store illegal goods, and lets you keep your imprisoned people safe. Besides, I¡¯m not claiming that you have a tunnel to the surface that you can just walk out of, I¡¯m saying I know you can occasionally smuggle out individuals.¡±


    Rumpert closed the ledger, and looked up at Dantes. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that¡¯s not something we can do for you. Though I¡¯m willing to hear other offers.¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°Come now, we both know that you only have my booze here now. It makes you a nice chunk of copper every day, and in the long term the gold you save without me involved is significant. My request is not unreasonable.¡±


    Rumpert shook his head. ¡°You don¡¯t understand. We can get certain people out of the Underprison. Usually one or two per year due to the high cost of the bribes involved and the logistical effort required. Your offer is a little low, but not unreasonable for the request you¡¯re making and normally we could work to find a way to make up the difference. The issue is that we can not do this for you.¡±


    ¡°Me specifically?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Why not!?¡± Dantes felt heat build in his face and fought the impulse to stand and slam his fists on the table as he asked the question.


    Rumpert sighed. ¡°As you mentioned earlier, we work with people on the surface as well as here in the prison to make things happen. Typically families pay us to make sure their relatives are well supplied here, and to transport messages. Other times, we are asked to kill a prisoner whose enemies can only reach him through us. In very unique cases we are paid specifically to not do things for certain prisoners in order to make their lives harder. These are my favorite kinds of deals due to the high value, and low effort involved.¡±


    ¡°And someone paid you to not work with me? But I¡¯ve been trading with you since I got here.¡±


    Rumpert nodded. ¡°You were never forbidden from trading or working with us, but two years ago we were paid specifically to never aid you in escaping and to not allow any communications to reach you.¡±


    ¡°Who?¡± asked Dantes, clenching his fists with enough force that his nails began to dig into his palms and make them bleed.


    ¡°Hmm, let me check something.¡± The Executive re-opened the Ledger and scanned a few pages. ¡°Looks like he didn¡¯t pay to stay anonymous.¡± He looked up at Dantes. ¡°It was a man named Mondego.¡±


    Dantes could hear ringing in his ears, and his vision went red for a moment, but he let out a long slow breath. ¡°And you can¡¯t be convinced to renege on this deal?¡±


    Rumpert shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m afraid not. It¡¯s Feybound, witnessed by one of the Hidden Folk. If we broke it, we would be cursed.¡±


    Dantes forced himself to open his hands and lay them flat on the table in front of him. ¡°Our deal regarding the sale of booze stays the same.¡± He stood up and held out his hand, his palm dripping blood onto the table.


    Rumpert didn¡¯t hesitate to stand and shake it.


    Dantes started to roll up his sleeves, and when he was done he pointed at Grimald. ¡°Let¡¯s circle back around to me beating him.¡±

 Ch 44: It seems its always the hard way

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    By the time Dantes was done, his hand was sore from the reverberation of the cane. He stopped just short of killing Grimald, he had a feeling that the Executive would find some way to charge him for the death if he went too far. He tossed the cane to the side and stretched. A small crowd had gathered to see what was going on, and Rumpert had witnessed the beating himself, ledger in hand and cold smile still sitting on his face. Dantes held out his hand, and Jayson handed him back his jacket which he slipped back on. He gave Rumpert a curt nod.


    ¡°Good meeting.¡±


    ¡°It was a pleasure.¡±


    Dantes began walking, the small crowd that had gathered clearing a path for him as he moved. He felt a bit better. Getting a bit of satisfaction from beating Grimald had helped to clear the rage he¡¯d felt building. Anger wouldn¡¯t help him, not if he wanted to get out. He had two paths left to him, but knowing his recent luck he accepted with near certainty that the most dangerous path was the one he would need to take. He took his still bleeding palm and rested it on the Mother¡¯s Reach seed in his pocket. Letting the blood seep out of him and into it. As he did so he filled it with a bit of his will, and a simple message.


    ¡®Hold¡¯.


    He felt the seed resist initially, but eventually comply as the life it pulsed began to speed up with the introduction of his blood. It wouldn''t be smart to let it start growing in his jacket. Besides which, when he used it, he¡¯d need it to grow quickly, and he had a feeling it would cost him heavily to make that happen. Better to start now, otherwise he¡¯d be bleeding himself dry when he needed it.


    The Shadow Cats walked behind him, unsure if they should still be following him or not. They were enjoying the looks of fear and respect they received by being part of his posse, even if he was too far in his own mind to notice at the moment. They also had little idea that they shared that prodigious distinction with all of the rats and roaches within one hundred yards. As they walked, they began exchanging glances. There were not specific words said, but a lifetime of friendship meant a thousand things passed between them as they looked at one another. First Jayson looked to Jayk with his eyes squinted. Jayk gritted his teeth and slid his head from side to side as if unsure. Zak looked at them both and made a gesture with both of his hands indicating an affirmative of some kind.


    Dantes stopped moving toward the exit to the Undermarket and placed a hand on his face, taking a deep breath. He¡¯d been watching them, of course, through Jacopo¡¯s eyes as well as a birds eye view from a few rats on nearby stall roofs.


    ¡°Do you three have something you want to mention, or are you just enjoying making stupid faces at one another?¡± He tried to keep his tone affable, they¡¯d not really done anything wrong, but the day had worn on him, so a harsh edge bled into his words. It didn¡¯t help that the three of them had the image of him caning Grimald so fresh in their minds.


    Jayson stepped closer to Dantes at Jayk and Zak¡¯s gesturing. ¡°We uh, know Mondego.¡±


    ¡°You what?¡± The entirety of Dantes¡¯ focus snapped onto Jayson, pulling sharply from every rat, roach, and weed nearby to concentrate like a beam on him.


    Jayson could feel a physical pressure and Dantes¡¯ look, but kept eye contact with him as he spoke, not wanting to appear weak to either him, or his peers as they stood behind him. ¡°Well, not personally, but we know of him. He had become a big name before we got thrown down here.¡±


    He¡¯d been a small-time ganger with Dantes when he¡¯d been on the surface, and while he¡¯d initially asked around the prison the first two years he¡¯d been down, he¡¯d never heard anything about him before. For him to afford the consortium¡¯s fee was no small thing. Though Dantes was unsure of why he would bother. According to Rumpert, Mondego had paid to have him denied their escape services and messaging two years prior, far before Dantes could have been considered anything resembling a threat. The idea that he was just that afraid of him was a comforting one, though it seemed unrealistic if Mondego had amassed real power. It was also strange that he didn''t simply hire someone to kill him. ¡°Tell me what you know.¡±


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    Jayson nodded. ¡°Well, he basically runs midtown now. He and his wife Mercedez. Half the businesses pay protection up to him, the rest he has under his thumb hiding goods or moving product for him. He made peace with the smugglers at the docks, and he¡¯s got more than a hundred working under him.¡±


    ¡°And that was just the last time you heard about it.¡± interrupted Jayk, ¡°He¡¯s probably got more people working for him now. Not to mention I remember there being rumblings about the five fingers making him the sixth. Probably hasn¡¯t happened yet though, feel like we¡¯d¡¯ve heard something about it, even down here.¡±


    Dantes frowned. ¡°Did you say his wife Mercedes?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    Dantes shook his head slightly. That didn¡¯t surprise him. She¡¯d always seemed to get a cheap thrill out of making Mondego jealous of them. He expected a touch more rage at hearing that they were together, but he didn¡¯t. In his mind she¡¯d moved on the moment he didn¡¯t hear from her while waiting in the jail to get thrown into the Maw. This other betrayal was so minor that it barely warranted a response. His hate for her and Mondego was already as deep as it could go.


    ¡°Something wrong?¡± asked Jayson.


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°No, just didn¡¯t think she was the marrying type. Do you know how he started moving up? Or who he might be working with?¡±


    Jayson shook his head. ¡°No, we mostly worked on the east-side. This is just stuff we gleaned in the rumor mill.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d heard he got his start when he took down a councilman¡¯s shipment. Made off with a ton of dust and gold,¡± said Zak.


    Dantes¡¯ eye twitched, and he clenched his jaw. ¡°Where did you hear that?¡±


    ¡°My old sergeant, from when I was in the guard. He was a real go getter, in charge of midtown, and was crazy enough to actually try to arrest people sometimes. He grilled me when he heard I had a few contacts in the area. He told me a bit about it.¡±


    So Mondego had just re-tried the same heist that had gotten Dantes thrown into the pit, but succeeded. He added that theft to the five years that had been stolen for him.


    ¡°What was his name?¡±


    ¡°Pacha, I think. It¡¯s been a while though.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm.¡± Dantes noted the name in his mind. If he was still assigned to midtown he may have information he could use. ¡°Anything else you all know about him?¡±


    They exchanged glances and shrugs.


    ¡°No,¡± said Jayson.


    ¡°What about a man name Danglars? Or Gaspard?¡±


    They exchanged glanced and shrugs for a second time.


    ¡°No, never heard of them.¡±


    Dantes nodded. Either Mondego and Mercedes had done away with them too, or they were still just small-timers. If they were alive, he¡¯d be paying them a visit.


    ¡°Does it matter if you know?¡± asked Jayk, his expression thoughtful.


    ¡°It might.¡±


    Jayk nodded. ¡°It might because you may have another way out?¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°What makes you think that?¡±


    ¡°Why else would any of this matter? Except to make yourself upset, and you don¡¯t seem the type to wallow.¡±


    Dantes almost laughed. He''d already spent several years wallowing in fact, but they didn''t need to know that. ¡°If I do have a way out, it would be a very dangerous thing, and also nowhere near ready yet.¡±


    ¡°And if it became ready?¡± asked Jayk.


    ¡°Then I¡¯d be letting the Shadow Cats know¡­ as long as they change their name.¡±


    ¡°They can work on that,¡± said Jayson.


    ¡°I still think ¡®Nightblades¡¯ works,¡± said Zak without a hint of shame.


    Dantes pursed his lip, holding back the initial response that began to rise from his throat. ¡°Keep working on it.¡±


    Dantes took his leave of them and began walking the winding path back to his cave. It was a quiet walk now, without his garden yelling at him constantly for blood, and he was grateful for that. He needed time and space to think. His only remaining options were the seed, or finding some other way to convince guards to smuggle him out. The logistics of the latter were a nightmare, especially since he had no clue when they would take another visit into the pit.


    He felt Jacopo crawl from a pouch in the back of his jacket up to his shoulder. He sat there for a moment, still nibbling on an elf ear. ¡°It seems we will not see the city after all.¡±


    Dantes¡¯ shook his head. ¡°Oh, we will. We¡¯ll just have to get there the hard way.¡±


    ¡°It seems it is always, ¡®the hard way.¡¯¡±


    ¡°It does, doesn¡¯t it?¡±

 Ch 45: Your surprises are no longer surprising

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    Dantes gently placed a small candle down on the floor of the wide cavern. He took out a small burnstick, lit it, and gently placed it against the wick of the candle. It lit easily, and then he moved a few yards down and lit another one. He repeated this process until there were a half dozen candles lit in a long straight line.


    He reached out his senses feeling all of the life in the wide cavern starting to stir from his activity. He focused his attention on the cave moths nearby, not willing them to do anything, but instead simply broadcasting the image of candlelight to them. He felt them respond shortly after, and soon enough there were dozens of moths fluttering around the candlelight, their soft grey forms getting closer and closer to the burning flames, a few of them coming to close and lighting themselves aflame.


    The moths weren¡¯t his goal. He couldn¡¯t really think of what he would do with a moth¡¯s favor, aside from maybe using them to destroy shipments of cloth coming in from the ports after purchasing a large amount and then selling what he stored at a high premium. He paused for a moment. That was actually a fantastic idea, but not one that would be of much use to him in the Underprison. His current needs were very different from what he hoped his future ones would be. He filed the idea away for later, and focused on his actual target for the day. The bats hanging from the ceiling above.


    Enjoy the buffet


    He couldn¡¯t see in the contrast between the candlelight and the dark, but he could hear the soft wingbeats of the bats as they dropped from their upside-down perches and began to make their way toward the moths that had gathered to enjoy the light. It was mere seconds before he started to feel moths'' lives start to be extinguished as the bats caught them in their talons and jaws. They didn¡¯t seem to mind though, just continuing their mindless drifting toward the light.


    It had taken him some time to decide where to focus his attention in the last few weeks. He¡¯d continued his exercise, transporting the fruit, the occasional round of dice with the changelings or the collared. He¡¯d also continued to work on coordinating the rats and roaches simultaneously, but even that wasn¡¯t really enough to keep boredom from slipping through. So he¡¯d decided to see what he could do to gain another Mark. He¡¯d considered spiders, snakes, and a few other critters, but found that it was too hard to locate large groups of them, and also the easiest ways to feed them and gain their favor would be to sacrifice his rats and roaches, which was counterproductive, so he¡¯d decided on bats. He was already starting to understand them better, catching the odd word here and there, even though he still couldn¡¯t directly speak to them.


    He left the candles burning in the cavern, and made his way back to his own cave. He could feel his garden starting to ramp up its requests for blood again, but so far the droplets of his own had kept the cries from growing too loud. He began to flit through the viewpoint of a number of rats making sure that his path ahead was clear. Then he shifted to that of the roaches. It was harder to process what they were seeing and feeling for Dantes, but he could keep track of them from a much greater distance without issue and at far less of a cost.


    There seemed to be some kind of commotion with the Collared, but he couldn¡¯t tell exactly what. He looked at his marks. The roachmark was full at both wings, with just the head still stubbornly black. The ratmark on the other hand was only a fingernails width from being completely filled. He flexed his hand and clenched it into a fist watching the nearly completely golden mark expand and contract on his skin. He was excited to see what would happen, he wasn¡¯t certain of what it would be, but he knew he wanted it.


    He made it to his small territory in the underprison without trouble and broadcast a message to all the nearby rats that they could eat all of the fruit they wanted to, aside from the peach tree which was Jacopo¡¯s. The amount of favor he¡¯d been receiving got smaller as the mark filled, but he hoped one last push would get him where he wanted to be.


    He arrived at his cave, squeezing into it through the large crack that acted as a door. It had gotten tighter and tighter recently, and he found himself needing to really stretch at the middle portion to get through. The cost of having a full stomach regularly again. He moved over to his pantry, and removed a bit of fruit, some dried meat he¡¯d gotten in the undermarket, and a piece of stale bread. A poor man¡¯s meal on the surface, but a rich man¡¯s meal in the pit.


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    He walked across the thick carpet of green moss that spanned the entire cave, and laid against a particularly thick patch of it in the corner, laying his food on the ground in front of himself after sending out a warning to scavengers to leave it alone until he was done.


    Jacopo leapt off of his shoulder and picked his own favorite things from the pantry. A pawful of dried meat, a peach from his tree, and a bit of hard tack.


    They ate in a comfortable silence for some time, until Dantes started to feel strange. It was minor at first, a bit of a burning and itching sensation on his wrist that he absently scratched at as he ate his food and let his senses wander through the lift that filled his cave. Then the pain increased. He looked at his wrist, the ratmark was full, and glowing with golden light. All around it, his inner wrist was covered in thick gray hair. He stood, swallowing his food as he stared at the patch of hair. Even as he was looking at it, more hairs began to pop up on his arm, spreading out further, and filling in thicker as it began to cover his arm.


    He opened his mouth to scream, but was winded as a heinously loud cracking noise shot from his back followed my terrible pain as he was forced to lurch forward, landing on his hands and knees. He tried to scream again, but as he opened his mouth his jaw made a terrible crunching noise as it began to elongate, his nose stretching out to meet it.


    He fell to his side and began tearing at his own skin in a mad frenzy of agony as whatever process his body was going through sped up. His already long fingers grew longer, his back began to arch further forward and his joints all popped into and out of place as they rearranged him into a new shape. On top of that, those few moments in which he was able to recognize anything that wasn¡¯t pain, he could see the cave was expanding, growing larger and larger every moment.


    He believed, or hoped, that the pain would release him and he would pass out, but it was merciless and he felt every individual change with pure consciousness and focus, the only thing that caused one pain to fade was the introduction of another. After what felt like an eternity, it came to an end and he found himself standing, no, not standing, hunched over.


    He looked at his hands, and saw small delicate paws looking back at him. He moved his attention across his body, taking a few steps, twitching his new whiskers, and swinging his thin tail back and forth. He¡¯d transformed into a rat. The feeling was familiar, thanks to his many experiences looking through the eyes of rats, but that didn¡¯t mean it was welcome.


    ¡°Hmmm, you are ugly as a rat. Are you considered ugly by two-legs when you are one of them?¡±


    Dantes turned around to look at Jacopo. It was very unusual to see him at eye level. They were the same size, give or take a whisker or two.


    ¡°Some do, certainly.¡± His words came out as a series of squeaks, but at the same time were perfectly understandable to him. ¡°This doesn¡¯t surprise you?¡±


    Jacopo shrugged. ¡°You were already an honorary rat to me, and at this point your surprises are no longer surprising.¡±


    He looked down at his wrist, the rat and roach marks were both still there. He reached out with his senses and found that his abilities didn¡¯t seem diminished at all. The only real difference seemed to be that he had become a rat.


    He took a long deep breath into his tiny lungs, and willed himself to change back. It worked, as he instinctively knew it would, and he grew back to his human self without nearly as much pain as the initial transformation had taken. He took another breath and willed himself to change into a rat again. This time it was less painful and much faster, but still incredibly unpleasant. He repeated the process a few more times anyway, switching from rat to human, and back until he could perform the transformation within seconds either way. He couldn¡¯t think of many immediate possibilities for the power, at least none that it wouldn¡¯t make more sense for him to just send a rat to do, but the ability to get out of and into places personally was very useful to him.


    He looked back at his wrist. The ratmark''s fangs were still filled with gold, which meant that the transformation didn¡¯t cost him any favor. He ran his finger along the raised skin of it.


    ¡°Thank you, rat god.¡±


    He felt the mark burn for a moment, as if he¡¯d been acknowledged, then it faded. He started going back through his regular rotation of rats and roaches to see if anything had changed. When he reached the roach he had been monitoring the collared, he froze. He sensed blood.

 Ch 46: And then nothing

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    Through the roach he could feel that a number of people were moving about, and sense that there was a lot of blood, and screaming. He attempted to move closer, but the movement of people was too dangerous, and when the roach''s leg was crushed by a Collared rushing by, he broke the connection. He needed to go there himself.


    He checked his kit and began moving through the tunnels to Collared territory. He sent several rats ahead and tried to determine what was going on, but all he could really tell was that something had happened and several of the Collared had been hurt. There was too much activity to read the situation beyond that.


    He ran through the tunnels, finding himself moving a bit more naturally through them then he had in the past. He¡¯d always had a talent for it, pathfinding and traveling through the Pit¡¯s narrow and dangerous outskirts, but suddenly his movements were on an entirely different level. It was like something had clicked for him, like he could sense the edges of the tunnels and how they twisted and turned before he even reached them, even if he¡¯d not moved through them before. His body also seemed to be switching between crawling, running, sidling, and jumping with near perfect fluidity. It reminded him of when he was riding in Jacopo¡¯s mind. He wondered if he¡¯d not fully completed his transformation back to human, or if by changing the once he¡¯d been permanently changed somehow. He didn¡¯t feel any discomfort about the idea, he already lived in a hole in the ground and ate what some people would consider trash. As Jacopo had said, he was already an honorary rat, even before he¡¯d gained the ability to transform.


    He reached the entrance to Collared territory more quickly than he ever had before, and saw that the entire entrance was blocked off by six of Merle¡¯s lieutenants wielding heavy clubs. A few of them jumped as he rounded the corner, but once they recognized him, they lowered their weapons.


    ¡°Dantes,¡± said Orebus, waving him through. ¡°You alright? Did you run into any of them?¡±


    ¡°Any of who?¡± he responded, walking between the burly guards to stand just within the Collared¡¯s chambers.


    ¡°The Orcs, they just attacked a few of our men that were transporting Mez¡¯s most recent delivery. Killed three, maybe four depending on how Televor¡¯s doing. I didn¡¯t get a good look at him.¡±


    Dantes felt his entire body tense. ¡°Where is he?¡±


    ¡°Merle¡¯s chamber, but-¡±


    Dantes pushed past him, and started weaving through the fully mobilized Collared. He saw a number of them wielding new knives or clubs, three with spears, several cleaning cloths for bandages in the fountain. It seemed like Merle had been taking advantage of the goods he¡¯d received from the consortium and using them to better equip his people. A very smart call given everything that had been happening.


    Dantes didn¡¯t have time to fully process that though, as he moved through the press of people up to Merle¡¯s cell outside of which stood two guards. One of them went to stop Dantes from entering, but the other stopped him and waved for Dantes to go on in, recognizing him.


    Dantes gave him a grateful nod and stepped inside. Merle was leaned against a wall on one side of the room, Pillion was pacing on the other side, and Wane was kneeling by the bench that Tel had been laid on. Tel was pale. His shirt had been removed and a large bandage was wrapped across his stomach where a patch of red was slowly spreading. The smell of blood and feces filled the air. He¡¯d smelled that after a stabbing before. The blade had punctured his guts.


    Before Dantes could walk toward him, Pillion stepped into his way.


    ¡°This is your fucking fault. If it wasn¡¯t for your stupid fucking booze deal, and what you did to the orcs, this wouldn¡¯t have fucking happened!¡± Pillion¡¯s pupils were enormous and black, and his hands were twitching as he spoke. He was high, Dantes knew the look well, he¡¯d seen it in the mirror more than once.


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    Dantes just nodded at him. ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s my fault. Now get out of my way.¡±


    Pillion¡¯s eye twitched, but he didn¡¯t blink. He was unsure of how to handle Dantes¡¯ admission of guilt, and so resumed his pacing.


    Dantes moved over to kneel across from where Wane was. Tel¡¯s eyes were closed, so he looked to Wane.


    Wane¡¯s eyes were wet with tears as their eyes met. ¡°He said there were about ten of them. They didn¡¯t say anything, just started killing. Blud was there, leading the attack. Tel was the first to be stabbed, so they thought he was dead. They left him for the rats and he stumbled here. Said he took some back passages he knew would lead back here because of something you told him before.¡±


    Dantes nodded, barely hearing what Wane was saying as he watched Tel¡¯s chest rise and fall unsteadily. He called on his senses and tried to reach out to Tel in the same way he could reach out to Jacopo, or any other living creature, but in return received only silence. He drew his attention away from every rat and roach he¡¯d been monitoring, even Jacopo, and focused all of his intent on Tel. Tel¡¯s breathing seemed to speed up, but nothing changed, and still Dantes sensed only silence from him.


    Dantes slammed his fist on the ground. ¡°Dammit.¡± He¡¯d tried to see if his abilities could affect people before, but it had never worked. He wasn¡¯t sure of what he expected. His powers had been intuitive to him up to this point, and he¡¯d hoped that maybe if he reached out with them some solution or ability would pop into his mind, but It was a waste of energy and attention.


    ¡°Dantes¡­¡± Tel¡¯s eyes opened and he looked around, his eyes finding Dantes.


    ¡°I¡¯m here Tel.¡±


    ¡°The orcs, they-¡±


    ¡°Wane told me. Guess they decided it wasn¡¯t worth killing you, huh?¡±


    Tel smiled weakly, and winced. ¡°Guess not.¡± He took a breath. ¡°You smell like shit.¡±


    Dantes laughed. ¡°I slipped in some on the way here,¡± he lied.


    ¡°Couldn¡¯t bother to scrape your boot on the way to see a dying man? Shameful.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    Tel nodded. ¡°Sure. We¡¯ll just get a priest lowered down here and they¡¯ll have me up in no time.¡±


    ¡°Wane was just saying he¡¯s always been very tempted to worship the goddess of the healing touch.¡±


    Wane looked away for a moment to wipe his eyes. ¡°No, I said I wouldn¡¯t mind an excuse to receive her disciples touch myself.¡±


    They all had a short laugh at that. Then Tel closed his eyes for a few moments, before opening them again.


    ¡°Dantes. I¡¯ve been skimming some booze off the top to sell myself. I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    Dantes nodded slowly, ¡°I¡¯ll hold off on beating you until you¡¯re feeling better. At this point I doubt you¡¯d even feel it.¡±


    Tel closed his eyes again, his breaths seeming to become more strained for a few moments. Dantes could see small beads of sweat beginning to form across his skin.


    ¡°Merlin, are you there?¡± asked Tel.


    Merle took a few steps closer, his hulking figure looking oddly gentle as he bent over and placed a hand on Tel¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m here, lad.¡±


    ¡°Give everything from my cell to these three, except the etchings, I want Syn to have them. At the Which Wench.¡±


    Merle nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll make sure of it.¡±


    Tel¡¯s face twitched for a moment, and somehow he summoned the strength to bring a hand up to his collar and yank at it with surprising force, his whole body shaking. ¡°Gods, I just wish I could cast one more spell. Just one more time I want to feel it again. Just produce a mote of light, or hear the whisper of a succubus telling me of debauchery around the corner, to light a fucking candle!¡± He let his hand fall back to his side, the sudden vigor he¡¯d had vanishing. ¡°I could get used to everything else down here. The lack of light, the lack of women, all of it. There were ways to make do, to pretend like you had what you needed, but magic¡­ You can¡¯t pretend you still have that.¡±


    Pillion had stopped his pacing and come to Tel¡¯s side, his words breaking him from his tweaking. He, Wane, and Merle all shared the same pained expression as Tel spoke. They knew exactly what he was talking about. Now that Dantes was looking at them, he noticed that just like Tel their collars were scratched and torn at, and both Merle and Pillion even had scratch marks that had turned to scars just beneath the collars, peeking out. Even though they¡¯d known that they wouldn¡¯t be able to remove them, they¡¯d still tried, desperate to have their magic back.


    Tel¡¯s eyes closed longer than the previous time, and his breathing grew more ragged before they opened again. ¡°Tell Syn she was the best lay I¡¯ve ever had.¡±


    Dantes chuckled. ¡°I will.¡±


    He opened his eyes one final time, letting out a wheezing breath. ¡°My parents¡­ I¡¯m sorry.¡± His eyes closed, and didn¡¯t open again. He kept breathing for another hour while everyone in the room sat in silence, Merle leaving only once to make sure there had been no more attacks on his people. They all watched him take his last breath, and then nothing.

 Ch 47: Are there any you would want me to spare?

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    They all sat there in silence for some time, then Dantes stood, and began putting his hands under Tel¡¯s body, attempting to lift him.


    ¡°What¡¯re you doing?¡± asked Merle, though he didn¡¯t move to stop him.


    ¡°I know a place where I can actually bury him. In real dirt. Unless you had other ideas?¡±


    ¡°We usually cut their heads off so that the collar can be removed, then throw them to the rats. We carve their names into the collars, and put them here.¡± Merle moved to a corner of his cell where the wall was covered in a piece of fabric. He gently removed it, and behind were nearly two dozen bronze collars, each of them with different names carved into them.


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll bring back the collar.¡± He looked at Wane. ¡°Come with me.¡±


    Wane was sitting with his head in his hands, but managed to raise it to look at Dantes with red eyes. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll need help with the body, and I don¡¯t trust anyone else. Come with me.¡±


    Wane looked into the middle distance for a moment, and nodded. He moved over to the sheet that Merle had pulled aside and tore it down. Then he laid it over Tel¡¯s corpse.


    He and Dantes wrapped the body and Dantes lifted it by the feet, while Wane lifted it by the head and shoulders. They began to walk out of the cell, but Pillion stopped them, walking deliberately around Dantes to stand in front of Wane.


    He reached into his pockets and pulled out two copper coins, and held them out to Wane. ¡°Wherever you put him, bury him with these¡­ It¡¯s what I owed him from the last time we rolled dice.¡±


    Wane nodded, and pocketed the coins.


    They walked out of Merle¡¯s cell, and the commotion within the Collared¡¯s chambers began to quiet as everyone saw Tel¡¯s corpse. As they moved, they saw furrowed brows, clenched fists, and eyes wide with fear. Tel had been a popular guy. Quick with a joke or a smile and nearly always willing to help out if someone needed it. On top of that he¡¯d been becoming more of an authority, almost on the level of Merle¡¯s lieutenants, due to his savvy use of his proximity to Dantes and his own growing skills at dealmaking and skullduggery.


    Normally Dantes would¡¯ve been considering all of this, trying to think of how he could influence the situation, turn it to his favor, but his mind was occupied elsewhere. Rats and roaches were being gathered and spread throughout the tunnels toward Orc territory and everywhere in between. As he and Wane moved through the tunnels to his garden, he began tracking all of the members of the Orc gang''s movements. He already knew the layout of their territory from previous scouting missions, and he knew who among them were leaders or if not leaders, fulcrums on which the gang rested. As he did that with a focus on rats, he let Jacopo work through him to control the roaches, letting him focus on tracking those Orcs who were in the outskirts hunting or raiding.


    Dantes had anticipated that Blud and his men would want revenge on him. He¡¯d even considered that they may target the Collared, but had dismissed it since the two gangs had no bad blood with each other in the past. There was a way that things usually developed in the Pit in terms of violence between gangs. It started with a deal going wrong, or an insult. Then it escalated into small scale brawls. Then there was a death, and from there two paths emerged. In one they would make peace with a third gang as the mediator, and in another it was all out war. Dantes clenched his teeth. He should¡¯ve predicted what the Orcs were up to after their attack on the dwarves. They¡¯d had bad blood already, but an escalation that quick should¡¯ve already tipped him off that the Orcs were willing to skip directly to cutting throats.


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    He kept up the back and forth with himself the entire way through the tunnels to his garden. All while monitoring the path in front of and behind himself, moving the rats to track the orcs, and coordinating his plans with Jacopo.


    Wane kept pace with him relatively easily. He was smaller than the average orc, but lifting and moving someone as light as Tel was no trouble for him. He didn¡¯t ask where they were going, his own mind was preoccupied in a much different way from Dantes¡¯. It wasn¡¯t until they reached the garden that his attention shifted.


    He nearly dropped Tel as they moved inside. The entire cavern was a sea of red leaves sitting completely still in the windless underground. The smell of fresh vegetation and rotted fruit hit his nostrils at nearly the same moment the sight of the garden did, and he found himself so overwhelmed that he briefly forgot his sorrow.


    ¡°What is this place?¡±


    Dantes didn¡¯t turn around, he couldn¡¯t without putting Tel down. ¡°This is my garden. This is where the fruit comes from.¡±


    They took a few steps further inside.


    ¡°How¡¯d you find this place?¡± asked Wane.


    Dantes hesitated to answer for a moment. He¡¯d played things very close to the chest so far. Only letting those he knew were doomed anyway know what he was able to do. He felt a momentary temptation to tell Wane the truth.


    ¡°I found an old book. Deep in the outskirts near Kobold territory. Most of it was faded, but I found a map and some instructions. It led me here.¡±


    Wane frowned, which Dantes could only see because he was watching him through Jacopo¡¯s eyes, and they reached the center of the garden, where the elven corpses had long since been consumed and overgrown. They placed Tel¡¯s body gently on a patch of bare ground just a bit larger than his body.


    Dantes gestured to the garden. ¡°It feeds on blood. I usually give it some of my own, but it wants more than I can provide now.¡±


    ¡°Is that why we brought Tel here?¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°It¡¯s one of the reasons. I also just thought he really would rather be here than picked at in a dark corner somewhere.¡±


    Wane looked around at the trees around him and knelt to the ground where he ran his hand up the body of a red vine. ¡°I think you¡¯re right.¡± Wane flexed his hand. ¡°I¡¯d expect this place to be magical, but my hands and feet don¡¯t feel chilled.¡±


    Dantes shrugged, he himself had no idea how his druid abilities where different from mages powers, just that they were, but he didn¡¯t mind it.


    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s a holy place? God granted power is different. What did the journal say?¡±


    ¡°Just the map, and images that told me what to do.¡±


    ¡°Do you still have it? Maybe I could learn more.¡±


    Dantes cursed himself. Mentioning a book of forbidden knowledge to a mage, of course he¡¯d want to see it, no matter the circumstance he found himself in.


    ¡°It was falling apart when I found it. It crumbled to nothing a few days after I found it. I think some rats used the bits of it that were left as nesting.¡±


    Wane¡¯s frown remained. He clearly had more questions, but he could also tell that Dantes had no intention of giving him all the information he wanted, and standing over Tel¡¯s corpse he couldn¡¯t bring himself to press it. ¡°Why did you bring me here? You could¡¯ve carried the body yourself if you wanted to.¡±


    Dantes made a sweeping gesture. ¡°I¡¯m giving this to you.¡±


    Wane blinked. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°The garden. I was initially planning on giving it to you and Tel¡­ I suppose in a way I still am.¡±


    Wane folded his arms. ¡°How are you doing it?¡±


    Dantes raised his eyebrow. ¡°Doing what?¡±


    ¡°We can skip the back and forth. I¡¯ve been gambling with you for nearly four years. We¡¯ve smoked together, drank together, worked together. You wouldn¡¯t give up an asset like this for nothing unless it no longer had value to you. That means you''re either planning on dying, or getting out. Considering how well you¡¯ve attempted to ¡®die¡¯ in the past, my guess is on the latter.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I am planning to escape, and I¡¯ll tell you where and when I¡¯m planning on it. If you want to try to follow me, that¡¯s on you.¡±


    Wane nodded.


    ¡°Before that, I¡¯m going after the Orcs.¡±


    ¡°We all are, Merle was already discussing retaliation, and bringing in what was left of the dwarves.¡±


    ¡°No. Alone.¡±


    Wane chuckled incredulously. ¡°What?¡±


    Dantes kept his gaze steady.


    ¡°You''re serious.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to go as soon as we¡¯re done burying Tel. I wanted to give you one chance to let me know if there are any of them you wanted me to spare.¡±


    Wane turned a lighter shade of green as the blood drained from his face. ¡°You¡¯re going to try to kill all of them?¡±


    ¡°At least Blud and any others I can find in their territory.¡±


    Wane stood there silent, unsure of what to say.


    ¡°I¡¯ll ask again. Are there any you would want me to spare?¡±

 Ch 48: Meet me in the Maw

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    Dantes and Jacopo crawled through the tunnels, leading a horde of rats and roaches. Dantes had almost no difficulty adjusting to being a rat, but in spite of that he had a bit of trouble keeping up as Jacopo led them through the quickest and most efficient route to Orc territory. It was what amounted to nighttime in the Pit, and the majority of the Orcs were asleep, though around ten had gone on a hunt for beasts with Blud. He had tracked them until they were too far away to make a difference in what was about to happen.


    They exited not at the entrance to the orcish territory, but rather slightly behind it. Four orcs stood at the entrance, alert and ready for any counterattack that the collared or dwarves might be planning to mount. Dantes ignored them, spreading out his four or six legged allies across the space. It was difficult, controlling this many, and his favor was burning up quickly, but he had plenty for what he was planning.


    He moved through the territory toward the first of his targets. His visits to the Orc gang had been infrequent, but he¡¯d been scouting them since their increase in aggression and so it was familiar to him. In one corner a giant spider and kobold had been butchered for their meat and distributed to the gang, bloodstains and the smell of rot telling the story clearly. Toward the center of it was a pit of coarse sand dyed red and mixed with shards of tooth and bone. Their fighting pit, where those of them waiting for the recruiters to pay a visit, trained for their chance to take up the mantle of the Green Blight, and possibly fight well enough to escape. There were decorations and trophies scattered all throughout the space, as well as discarded weapons and tools littering different corners.


    On the surface, back in Rendhold, Dantes had known Orcs that were bookish scholars, Elves that were thuggish brutes, and gnomes with no head for numbers, but in the pit they all seemed to devolve into whatever the most common idea of themselves was. Then again, they were all criminals, that may have had more to do with it.


    Dantes reached a trio of sleeping Orcs in an offshoot cave. He shifted back into his usual shape, the pain from it making him soundlessly wince. He looked at their sleeping faces, checking for a scarred ear, a flower tattoo, or a neck with a healing spider bite. He found none, these weren¡¯t the orcs Wane had asked him to spare. He drew his dagger, having traded his rapier with Jayson for a more practical weapon shortly after his meeting with Wane. He moved silently, finding doing so to be easier than it ever had been before, and knelt just behind the largest of the three¡¯s head. He covered the Orcs mouth and slit his throat in a single smooth motion.


    When it was done, he frowned for a moment, watching the blood drain from him as the light left his eyes. Dantes had killed before. He¡¯d killed in Rendhold, even before he¡¯d ended up in the Pit. It wasn¡¯t usually his first choice of solution, but he¡¯d never hesitated to resort to it when it was necessary or even just easier. Still, he¡¯d never done it so calmly as he just had. The way he¡¯d drawn the dagger across the man¡¯s throat had felt almost¡­ matter of fact.


    He looked at Jacopo, who was keeping an eye on the other two Orcs. Jacopo had developed a taste for revenge through Dantes, but Dantes had discounted how Jacopo may be influencing him. Their connection wasn¡¯t a one way street, he knew that, but he hadn¡¯t considered how they¡¯d affect one another in the long term. This kind of practical and relaxed killing was new to him, but from the feelings and impressions he received from Jacopo, that was how he performed most of his violence.


    He let out a breath, he didn¡¯t have time to think through it, and even if he did it wouldn¡¯t change what he was there to do. He moved to the next of them, and then the third. Once they were all dead he took the Mother¡¯s Reach seed from his coat pocket, feeling it radiate power from the daily dose of his blood he¡¯d been giving it, and held it up to each of the orc¡¯s necks, letting their blood flow over and be absorbed by it.


    Hold


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    He sent that command to it, and could feel burning frustration shoot back at him. The seed wanted nothing more than to grow, to sink its roots and spread its branches, but Dantes wouldn¡¯t let it and it raged harder and harder as blood continued to fill it with potential and vitality. With the Orc¡¯s blood added to it, it actually began to radiate real heat along with the pulsing and vibrating it had already been doing. It was like the beating heart of a roaring sun.


    Dantes shifted back into ratform, checking each of the other locations he was tracking and moving to the next one. He could move almost silently as a man, but as a rat even if he wasn¡¯t silent no one would find it suspicious that he was walking around. He visited four more groups of sleeping orcs, some in pairs, some trios, and in one case five. Each time he repeated the same process, slashing throats one by one, gathering their blood into the seed, and then returning to ratform to go to the next group, all while using his allies to monitor where they all were and what they were doing. He reached the main sleeping quarters last. There he located the three that Wane had asked him to spare, and he marked them in his mind. He returned to his normal self, and crept to the closest of them. He raised his dagger in preparation, when an orc in the center of the group suddenly sat up, turning to his side and vomiting foul bile that reeked of alcohol onto another of the orcs.


    Suddenly, the orcs were all waking up, and while he himself was distracted, the orc he was holding the dagger over awoke, and screamed.


    Dantes cursed, and quickly plunged the dagger into his throat, killing him. The other orcs all began to stand and move toward him. Many of them instinctually grabbing weapons they slept with. He could see through the other rats that the four guards were heading his way too. He considered turning back into a rat and scurrying away, but then the memories of burying Tel¡¯s corpse, removing his head and collar, the feeling of his finger in his coat pocket, all of it hit his mind like an explosion.


    He held the dagger up defensively as the orcs approached, raised his left hand, and snapped his finger. The sound echoed across the cavern, even above the warcries, for just a moment, and then the thousands of roaches that were hanging from the roof of the cavern, all dropped down at the same time.


    The orc¡¯s warcries turned to screams as the roaches swarmed across their bodies, into their clothes, and even their open mouths. Dantes surged forward in the confusion, his knife finding orc after orc in the struggle, dropping them one by one, while others were suffocated by the concentrated effort of thousands of roaches.


    The four guards arrived, and found themselves confused and horrified by the scene before them. Their discipline kicked in quickly though, and they located and charged toward Dantes.


    That¡¯s when Dantes ordered the rats to join the fray.


    Before the guards had reached him, they were swarmed by rats and roaches as their companions had been, and just as they had, they dropped their weapons, falling to the ground and tearing handfuls of roaches, and whole rats from themselves, but they couldn¡¯t do so faster than the vermin could be replaced.


    Dantes moved quickly, watching as the gold in his roach and ratmarks rapidly dwindled. He moved from Orc to Orc, avoiding their flailing and doing his best to mortally wound them before moving on to the next one. It wasn¡¯t a grand battle, or an even brawl. It was an ugly execution.


    When it was done all, but two of the orcs were dead. They¡¯d either suffocated under the press of fur and chitin, or Dantes had finished them himself with his dagger, which even though it was of fine elven make, had grown dull and chipped to near unusability. He leaned against a wall and panted heavily. With what little favor he had left he checked on Blud¡¯s location. He was on his way back, but Dantes still had time.


    He moved from Orc to Orc, checking them for small valuables and coin, and let the rats and roaches he¡¯d been controlling do as they wanted with the bodies hoping to restore at least some of the favor he¡¯d lost. He directed them away from the two he¡¯d spared for Wane. He¡¯d accidentally killed Dune, the one with the scarred ear, in the fray. He felt a tinge of guilt at that, but there was nothing he could do about it now.


    Once he was done looting the bodies, netting almost thirty copper, a couple silver, and a silver ring, he fed the Mother¡¯s Reach seed one last time. After that, he took the orc closest to the exit, and spilled some of his blood onto his hands. He then walked to the entrance and wrote a short message for Blud, after which he took out a tea light and lit it underneath the message, to shine clear light on it.


    ¡°Meet me in the Maw - Dantes"


    He nodded at his handiwork, and he and Jacopo walked into the tunnels, covered in bloodstains with the seed pulsing with power and heat by their hearts.

 Ch 49: None of that鈥檚 your blood, is it?

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    Jacopo crawled in Dantes¡¯ jacket and settled into a pocket towards his back.


    ¡°This is a much better method of travel,¡± he said, burrowing as far into the pocket as he could.


    ¡°Really? You seemed to move much more quickly when we were running through the tunnels together.¡±


    Jacopo began chewing on a small piece of lint, settling into a position reminiscent of sailors laying in hammocks. ¡°No, this is definitely better.¡±


    Dantes chuckled, still covered in blood and worn out from the fight, but then humor had always been one of the ways he¡¯d alleviate stress. He moved into a small offshoot cave, and uncovered his pack. Inside was all of the gold and valuables he¡¯d been collecting over the last few months, all of the easily preservable food he felt was worth bringing, a handful of fruit seeds he¡¯d felt compelled to pack for some reason, and a rope he¡¯d made himself out of the rags that had served as his bed. He added the coins and valuables he¡¯d taken from the Orcs, adding all of it up in his head. He had about fifty gold in mixed coins, and maybe another twenty in random valuables, though he felt confident he could barter for more. It was a small fortune, both in the underprison, and in the slums on the surface, though here in the prison it couldn¡¯t buy him nearly as much as it could out of it. It was a good start, a helpful amount of resources to get things started if he made it out. He¡¯d hoped to have more, but he¡¯d accelerated his own timeline when he¡¯d chosen the path he was taking with Blud.


    ¡°We will see the city soon?¡± asked Jacopo.


    Dantes rested his right hand over the mother¡¯s reach seed, feeling its power. ¡°Yes, very soon. I just need to make a few stops first, and then we make a flashy exit.¡±


    ¡°Is that wise?¡±


    ¡°No, but making a statement can have value.¡±


    ¡°As you did when you felled the elves?¡±


    ¡°Yes, or like you did when you killed and ate your cousin.¡±


    Jacopo nodded, an expression Dantes could feel, but not see. ¡°Yes. This makes sense.¡± Dantes walked a few more feet. ¡°The finger you took from the golden haired one, the elf. Is that also for a statement? As the ears were?¡±


    Dantes sighed. ¡°No, just hoping I can use it to fulfill his last wish is all.¡±


    ¡°Does his last wish matter? He is dead.¡±


    ¡°To me it does.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm, complications?¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Yes, complications.¡±


    They walked the rest of the way in silence until Dantes reached the Undermarket. The sellers trying to peddle goods outside of the market started towards him, then stopped in their tracks as they noticed he was covered in blood. Those who were just on their way in also stopped in their tracks as they followed the eyes of the sellers. When he reached the guards, both the Kobold and the Dwarf actually broke their stoic gaze into the middle distance which the consortium guards were famous for to glare at him and then look wide eyed at one another to decide whether or not they should stop him. He made that decision for them, walking past them without even acknowledging their stares.


    The rest of the market reacted similarly to him, and he was gratified to have the way to the Which Wench cleared for him, reducing the amount of time it took him to reach it significantly. He was also grateful to see that it was Syn manning the front, in the guise of a female magister with a stern expression and black magisterial robe that was somehow tight enough that you could see the divots in her hips.


    She looked Dantes up and down, her smile never fading, even on the flicker of her true form he glimpsed for a moment. ¡°None of that¡¯s your blood, is it?¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°Nope.¡±


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    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±


    Dantes looked at the small crowd of people gawking at them. ¡°Inside?¡±


    She nodded, and they moved to her room, the nameless moving to block the entry as they did so.


    ¡°I¡¯ll ask again,¡± said Syn, ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°Have any of the Collared been here today? Maybe Wane?¡±


    She frowned. ¡°No, I don¡¯t even think Orebus has been by, and lately he¡¯s been here every tenday since that deal for drink you had put in place.¡±


    Dantes¡¯ frown deepened. That meant she didn¡¯t know what had happened. The Collared had locked down, and the Orcs hadn¡¯t had much time to spread the news either. ¡°The Orcs attacked the Collared while they were moving the last shipment of booze from Mez¡­Tel escaped the attack to warn everyone, but he didn¡¯t survive.¡±


    Syn¡¯s form flickered for a moment, and on the pale white changeling face he could see an expression of pure anger and malice that quickly vanished back behind the stern expression she¡¯d been wearing as a faux magister. After that, she glanced back down at the blood on Dantes¡¯ coat.


    ¡°You and the Collared already paid them a visit? We would¡¯ve supplied some nameless to aid you, had you asked.¡±


    ¡°No, not the Collared. Just me.¡±


    ¡°Took a few guards out? Or found the ones that killed Tel?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°No, I killed all but two that Wane asked me to spare. Though Blud was away with a raiding group at the time.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re saving him for last?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Syn stood there silently for a few moments. She¡¯d always been able to absorb anything Dantes said or did with ease, even often seeming to have predicted his actions before they happened, but it seemed he had reached her limit.


    ¡°Tel wanted me to say, or someone to tell you, that you were the best lay he ever had.¡±


    She chuckled and shook her head, a bitter expression taking over her stolen features. ¡°He was young. He should¡¯ve been able to say that about someone that loved him.¡±


    Dantes let that statement hang in the air, unsure of how to respond to it. He decided to push past it, the eyes he had in the tunnel telling him that Blud was arriving at his message at just that moment. ¡°¡°I¡¯m leaving, or dying, today.``


    Syn nodded slowly, taking the moment to remove the genuine emotion that had invaded her features. ¡°It¡¯s about time.¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow. ¡°For me to die, or leave?¡±


    Syn shrugged, the magisterial robes tightening provocatively at the gesture. ¡°Either, I suppose.¡±


    Dantes frowned. ¡°If you come with me to the Maw, you might be able to escape. It¡¯s a narrow window, but if you act on the opportunity when it arises¡­¡±


    Syn shook her head. ¡°You know that I¡¯m bound here by Fey law more than anything.¡±


    ¡°And if I escape? Is there some way to free you?¡±


    She shifted her eye color to red, then blue, then purple as she thought. ¡°The magister who bound me would have to release me from the binding. After that, I could escape myself.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s her name? What¡¯s she look like?¡±


    Syn laughed, her form shifting, but only to add elf ears, and make her features slightly less symmetrical. ¡°I was actually already in her shape, give or take a few subtle changes,¡­ It gives me a bit of satisfaction to take her form with clients every so often..¡±


    Dantes chuckled, feeling a bit of the tension he was carrying loosen. Then he took a hard look at her, committing the face to his memory. ¡°And her name?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. We aren¡¯t able to know their names¡­as a precaution.¡±


    Dantes nodded, it would take some effort, but assuming he got out a face, and knowing that she was a magister should be enough for him to find her. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best to take care of it. Assuming I survive.¡±


    ¡°Where will this escape of yours take place?¡±


    ¡°The Maw, where I can be certain Blud will find me there.¡±


    ¡°Then I will be there too.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯ll be dangerous, even if you aren¡¯t planning to escape.¡±


    She smiled. ¡°Every fight needs a beautiful woman in the audience.¡±


    Dantes smiled and nodded at her, making his way out of the brothel and back out to the Undermarket. Blud was currently roaring and smashing things, but that wouldn¡¯t buy much time. Dantes had one more stop before he would be ready to meet him.


    He left the undermarket and moved through the tunnels the smaller unaffiliated gangs called home, reached the Shadow Cat¡¯s small cul de sac, where the three of them were shooting the shit, while Jayson cooked. It seemed that was the primary way they passed the time when they weren¡¯t working.


    When they saw him, their smiles faded, then they faded more when they saw the blood on his clothes.


    ¡°Dantes¡­are you alright?¡± asked Jayson, a bit of genuine concern bleeding through. The looks exchanged by Jayk and Zak echoed the sentiment.


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°Honestly? No, it¡¯s been a pretty shit day.¡± He checked the rats outside of the Orc gang entrance and saw that Blud was on the move, he didn¡¯t have much time. ¡°Listen, I¡¯m about to fight Blud in the Maw. If you come with me, and are quick and smart, there¡¯s a chance you¡¯ll be able to escape. There¡¯s also a chance you¡¯ll die. It¡¯s up to you.¡±


    Jayk frowned. ¡°You don¡¯t expect us to fight Blud, do you?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Then why are you telling us? Need us to help keep his men off of you? Or rob some people in the crowd? Maybe rough someone up while everyone¡¯s distracted?¡±


    ¡°Or beat up that gnome again?¡± offered Zak.


    ¡°No, this isn¡¯t a job, just a warning. You¡¯ve done me a few good turns and I just thought I¡¯d do you the same favor. Show up, or don¡¯t, it¡¯s up to you.¡±


    With that, Dantes turned and walked away, toward the Maw.

 Ch 50: Ten copper on the big one!

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    Dantes stood in the center of the Maw, feeling the sun warm his skin. It was a feeling he missed, though that hadn¡¯t made him seek out the Maw in the past. Putting yourself in the center of a beam of light was something one should typically avoid in prison. Still, he hadn¡¯t exactly been smart about that since everything had started with the Elfland Kings. He¡¯d put himself into the center of things more and more, and he¡¯d enjoyed every second of it. It felt like tasting who he was before he¡¯d been thrown down into the Underprison. Before he¡¯d lost everything. There was a way he could¡¯ve done things that could¡¯ve avoided a lot of the trouble, but at the same time some of it was almost certainly inevitable. Whether he rose in the shadows or the light, he¡¯d make enemies, that was simply the cost of rising. May as well choose the method he enjoyed more¡­ No, that wasn¡¯t quite right. If he¡¯d taken more care, Tel may be alive. There had to be a balance, and he needed to work to find it¡­ After his final display in the Underprison.


    He looked at the edge of the light coming down from the Maw. There were a number of people gathering, curious about what the foolish mutt was doing before they recognized him, then their curiosity only grew. None of them approached him once they recognized him, one of the benefits of being known and feared.


    He reached out to the rats he had tracking Blud. He was tearing his way through the Undermarket, he¡¯d nearly arrived. Dantes reached his hand into his jacket and cupped the Mother¡¯s Reach seed in his hand. It was hard to hold, the heat and pulsating making his entire body shake as he held it. When he reached out to it, he was stunned by a kind of roar that reminded him of the last typhoon he¡¯d seen hit the docks. He felt the same desire he¡¯d felt from all seeds, to unleash their potential and grow, but this volume was beyond even the craving for blood he¡¯d felt from his garden before he¡¯d managed to quell it.


    Not much longer


    He sent the thought to it, but wasn¡¯t even sure that the seed could understand over its own roar. He placed it back into his jacket.


    ¡°Will it be much longer?¡±


    ¡°No, it shouldn¡¯t be.¡±


    ¡°Could you not simply use the seed now, and escape? Blud¡¯s forces are scattered. Even the Collared or Changelings alone could take them now.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve been watching my thoughts?¡±


    ¡°Yes. It is a way to pass the time. You often think of the places called ¡®brothels¡¯.¡±


    ¡°Well, I grew up in one, hang out and gamble in one down here, and I haven¡¯t seen a woman in five years, so that checks out.¡±


    ¡°You have the thoughts about leaving now yourself, so let us leave. Isn¡¯t it going to be more dangerous with more people? Not to mention the chance the Blud manages to kill you.¡±


    ¡°More people may provide me more cover too. There¡¯s more than a mile of old ruined buildings and a tall wall between the maw and the rest of the city. Used to have a lot of people living there, but it turns out it ain¡¯t popular to live close to a pit full of criminals. The more people climbing up behind me, the more cover I get.¡±


    Jacopo thought about it. ¡°That¡¯s not why though, is it?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Dantes thought again of Tel¡¯s face wrapped in cloth and laying in the garden.


    ¡°Revenge?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    He could sense Jacopo nodding. ¡°Worth the risk then.¡±


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    ¡°Exactly, and this is just the start. Once we¡¯re in the city, there¡¯ll be even more waiting for us.¡±


    Jacopo nodded, content with Dantes¡¯ answers, and crawled back down into a pocket toward the back of his jacket.


    The crowd that was gathering had grown even larger as word that Blud was on his way had spread, and a few dozen people were scrambling to get spots with a good view, and there were even shouts of bets being taken. Dantes couldn¡¯t see the Shadow Cats in the crowd, or Wane, but he felt a pair of eyes on and turned to see Syn boldly wearing the shape of a tall, regal woman in a high hairstyle and flowing gown, flanked by ten nameless bodyguards. She gave Dantes a wink which he returned just as a commotion began at the edge of the Maw. Blud had arrived.


    Blud was massive to a degree that was baffling to see in person. He stood easily seven and a half feet tall, making him nearly two feet taller than Dantes, and he was about half as wide as he was tall. He was perhaps the only one in the underprison who could make Merle jealous of his musculature. There had been rumors that his mother had lain with a giant to make him, and he was known even on the surface for his skill in a fight when he acted as a mercenary for the Fingers who would hire him when they needed exceptional violence done in a bombastic manner. Between his conversations with Wane, Ryker, the Shadow Cats, and a few others, he¡¯d pieced together that Blud was actually not the most popular Orc, and acted more as a figurehead than an actual leader, but that unlike many in his position, he was aware of his role, which made him smarter and more dangerous than many might give him credit for.


    Dantes turned his attention to him. He really only had one shot at what he was planning, and so he drew the seed from his jacket and held it in his hand, fighting the shaking it was causing in him.


    Blud pushed through the crowd and raised an absolutely massive and chipped axe to point at Dantes, ¡°YOU!¡± he roared.


    Dantes looked left and right dramatically before pointing at himself. ¡°Who, me?¡±


    ¡°How did you kill my men? Who helped you?¡± he was closing in, looking around the ground for any traps that might be hidden in the sand. The dialogue was to gain information, but it was also clear that he wasn¡¯t underestimating his opponent.


    ¡°No one helped me. Well, except for your girlfriend once before I got thrown down here. I don¡¯t think that¡¯s what you were asking about though.¡±


    Blud didn¡¯t take the bait, instead continuing in a slow circle around Dantes, sizing him up and assessing other threats. He knew from what Ryker had told him that Dantes was clever, and deceitful, which made him cautious.


    Dantes watched him circle, his hand gripping the seed tightly. He started to hear some yelling from the surface of the maw. The guards seemed to have taken notice of what was going on.


    ¡°Ten copper on the big one!¡± yelled one of the guards mockingly.


    ¡°No one would take that bet. The other one¡¯s a bug compared to him.¡±


    Dantes ignored them. There wasn¡¯t anything wrong with being a bug as far as he was concerned, and it was all the more impressive when a bug felled a lion.


    Blud¡¯s instincts were screaming at him that there was some kind of trap, but his senses couldn¡¯t detect anything. Nothing hidden in the sand, his remaining boys were in the crowd looking for any backup he might have, but all of the Mutt¡¯s known allies that were there seemed to be keeping their distance. He could back away, but that would make him look weak, besides which the Mutt needed to die twice over for what he¡¯d done to Ryker, and now to the rest of his gang. He¡¯d hoped to take him down slowly, but now it was kill or be killed by the other gangs just as the dwarves were. He needed to make a bloody statement then and there, no matter what his instincts told him.


    Blud was stronger than Dantes, and faster. He could reach him in less than three full steps, and bring down his axe. Even if Dantes dodged the initial strike, once he was in Blud¡¯s range it wouldn¡¯t matter. There¡¯d be no escaping him.


    Unfortunately, while all Blud needed to do was charge a short distance and bring his axe down, something he could do in moments, all that Dantes had to do was lift the seed in his hand and think a command.


    GROW!


    A root shot from the seed with the force of a blunderbuss firing and pierced through Blud¡¯s heart, passing entirely through his body and driving into the sand that covered the maw. He died with a look of confusion on his face, cursing himself for not trusting his instincts.


    The seed didn¡¯t stop there, and shot out a dozen more roots that pierced the ground. They grew and pulsed in a way that reminded Dantes of the God of Rat¡¯s tails that had all been tied together. Once the roots were embedded, they began to spread and thicken, and soon from the center, a trunk began to coalesce.


    Dantes took position and the moment its first branch began to form, he grabbed it, and then the tree started to rise.

 Ch 51: Watch out below, fu-

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    As Dantes rose up, clinging desperately to the first branch the Mother¡¯s Reach had sprouted he realized very quickly that it was starting to widen. He threw himself up so that he could switch to standing on it, but was soon forced to dodge as two more branches began to sprout nearby and nearly hit him, he crouched down and found himself being thrust further and further from the trunk as the branch widened and expanded. He was forced into a completely reactionary posture. Dodging new branches, jumping to different branches, and climbing up and down as needed all to stay near the top of the tree as it rapidly grew toward the exit to the Pit.


    He was vaguely aware of motion both above and below him as he struggled to stay well positioned on the tree. The guards were doing their best to react to the sudden and unforeseen sprouting of a tree in the center of the Maw, and dozens of prisoners were all doing their best to follow Dantes¡¯ lead and find hand and footfalls that would allow them to ride and climb to the top in order to escape. They were having much less luck than Dantes, who was an accomplished climber long before he¡¯d fallen into the pit, and had been practicing it rigorously for months. They fell, or were punctured by swiftly growing branches, or grabbed a branch and held on for dear life, but clearly had no idea what to do or where to go from there.


    Dantes spared a thought for the Shadow Cats, who he could no longer see and didn¡¯t dare splitting his focus among nearby rats and roaches to try and find them. He also wondered after Wane, but he was a cautious sort, and while he may decide to attempt an escape, Dantes doubted he¡¯d be one of the first to make the climb.


    The branch Dantes was on seemed to be stabilizing as the top of the tree neared the lip of the Maw. Dantes began running toward the edge of the branch, hoping to time his jump exactly at the moment it crested the opening. He was off slightly, and when he leapt he was a full ten feet above the edge of the maw. He looked down to see a grizzled guard staring wide eyed, holding a spear that he hadn¡¯t thought to raise.


    Dantes aimed his knees and could feel the man''s collarbone shatter as he hit him and knocked him to the ground before rolling off of him.


    ¡°Watch out below, fucker.¡± Dantes couldn¡¯t resist the comment, remembering how many prisoners he¡¯d seen flattened by the sacks and crates that the guards purposefully aimed at prisoners as they threw them.


    There were two more guards in the way, and rather than engage them, he moved to run between them. They were so overwhelmed by the tree that had begun to grow, and Dantes¡¯ appearance that they weren¡¯t able to react before he had passed them by completely, dashing into the cover of ruined buildings that spread out from the Maw since the Underprison had been formed.


    There were no major defenses at the Maw itself. After all, the several hundred feet sheer and smooth walls all the way down were all that was needed to ensure that prisoners couldn¡¯t escape, particularly after the Academy had expended some of its enormous resources to seal all potential exits and entrances with magic aside from the Maw itself. The guard presence there was primarily to send supplies into the Maw, and maintain the large jail that acted as a holding facility for prisoners until the monthly drops. Outside of the maw was more than a mile of ruins that had once been occupied before the entrance to the Underprison had first been found when the maw had opened as a sinkhole, killing hundreds. After that, and it being turned into a prison, no resident would stand to live there, so the city had a ten foot wall built around it, and ignored it.


    Dantes didn¡¯t stop running once he hit the ruins, instead pushing himself down alleys, up and over buildings, and through broken cobblestone streets. He estimated he was about halfway to the outer wall when he paused for a break. Running a straight mile would¡¯ve been simple, but with the way the ruins were he was having to jump, climb, and crawl all throughout, and it was slowly exhausting him. Considering he¡¯d started the day with his usual workout, then slaughtered dozens of orcs, then fought their leader, then climbed a Mother¡¯s reach as it grew, then began moving through the ruins¡­ the exhaustion made sense.


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    He pulled his waterskin from the small bag he¡¯d packed and drank deeply from it, looking up. It was late afternoon, and the sun was high in the sky. The sky, something he¡¯d see once a month, he smiled.


    Jacopo crawled out from his jacket, sniffing. ¡°The air smells different up here.¡±


    Dantes took a big breath. The air tasted fresh, at least compared to the Underprison. He cupped a hand and poured some water into it, letting Jacopo crawl down his arm to have a drink. He looked back in the direction he¡¯d been running from, and swallowed.


    The tree was still growing. He could see it easily, even above the ruined buildings behind him, rising higher and higher. He may have underestimated the Mother¡¯s Reach¡¯s size. He maybe should¡¯ve asked Clay for the second or third largest tree. He¡¯d only ever seen trees in the small gardens and parks scattered throughout the city, or occasionally in the dilapidated overgrown quarters that had been left behind for some reason or another. At the rate it was growing, the tree may even rival the spires of the academy.


    Jacopo tensed up, and Dantes felt anxiety radiating from him.


    ¡°What is it?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Predators.¡±


    Dantes started to reach out his senses, but before he detected anything that way, he heard a familiar barking.


    ¡°Shit, the guard must¡¯ve managed to muster their people from the outside. Those are scent-hounds.¡±


    Dantes pushed off from the wall he¡¯d been leaning against. His legs and arms were on fire, but he couldn¡¯t afford to be caught at this point.


    Jacopo crawled back into his jacket as he moved, finding a secure inner pocket of his jacket to burrow into.


    Dantes¡¯ hustled over a collapsed roof, through what seemed to have been a noble¡¯s house at some point, and dove through the remains of a window. The barking of the dogs would get louder, then quieter, then loud again as they lost and found his scent, and eventually they were close enough that he could even hear the guards. When the wall came into view, he realized that the dogs and their masters had somehow gotten both in front of, and behind him.


    He clenched his jaw, taking cover between two walls that were barely standing. He¡¯d come so damned far and was too close to be caught again. He checked his rat and roach marks. They had a bit of juice left since his attack on the orcs, but not enough that he could just throw waves of vermin at his pursuers. He felt a pure crimson rage well up within him as he heard a dog approach not more than a block from where he sat crouched.


    Instinctually, as it had been with the awakening of all of his abilities, he reached out to all of the dogs, pouring the rage he felt into them, the rage at the thought of being captured, at Tel¡¯s death, at his old gang, and a bit leftover from his dad.


    The dog¡¯s barking didn¡¯t stop, but instead became louder, angrier, and punctuated by fierce growling.


    Dantes could hear one of the guards curse. ¡°-Hells is wrong with you lot!¡± there was a whip crack, ¡°Get a hold of your, agh! Fuck!¡±


    Through his connection to the dogs he could feel that they¡¯d turned on their masters, and on one another, the rage he¡¯d channeled into them turned them to a berserker rage.


    He focused on slipping between them while they were tearing into each other. He knew that while he¡¯d brought on the state they were in, he had no control over them. He¡¯d be as much of a target as anything else if they saw him.


    He left them behind and reached the wall. It was roughly ten feet high, but not built perfectly smooth. He braced himself for one last climb, his hands and feet finding holds easily as he pulled himself further up and over the wall. At the top of it, he could see a dirty alleyway filled with garbage and detritus, with rats scurrying to and fro. Abandoned buildings stretched for several more blocks, but he could hear the echoes of angry men and women cursing at one another for the slightest offenses. The air smelled just a bit rancid, and in the distance he saw skinny pigeons and crows defecating from the roofs of buildings. He swung his leg over the wall, and landed with his feet on old concrete. He was home.

 Ch 52: Its been a while

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    The first mile or so that Dantes walked was nothing but empty alleyways filled with trash and rats. Even with the mile of space between the Maw and the wall that sealed the space off, people still preferred to live as far from it as possible. Dantes couldn¡¯t blame them, he hadn¡¯t particularly wanted to live as close to it as he had either. He saw only vermin as he walked those first steps in the city, and he exchanged cursory hellos with them as he went, much to their surprise. Eventually, he began to run into the occasional homeless man sleeping off a hangover, or the sounds of someone living in an abandoned building, and in one case the corpse of a man who had taken too much dust and died with a wide grin on his face. After that, he started to hear the city proper, and could see signs of life throughsmall cracks in alleyways.


    Dantes walked calmly toward the sounds of people, rickshaws, carriages, and commerce. He relished the noise of his boots on concrete echoing down the alleys as he moved. Before he entered the main road he looked at his outfit. While it had been coated in blood, now there was a nice thick layer of dirt and grime making it impossible to tell what was staining him, which saved him the trouble of needing to stick to the alleys. The sun was beginning to fade, and he cast a long shadow as he stepped out onto a main road, pulling up his hood, and falling in line with the rest of the crowd as he gradually made his way down the street.


    He took stock of where he was as he calmly walked among the crowd. None of them had any clue he was a convict, and while people seemed animated it seemed mostly to be due to the end of the day causing a rush of people out of businesses and a few last ditch efforts at commerce from those businesses before everyone made their way home. Everyone was dressed in clean, but well worn to nice clothing with a few standouts here and there. The businesses were mostly cobblers, tailors, and the street was long and narrow. He realized he was on the worse end of Needle street, where the average citizen of Rendhold could get their clothing repaired, or in very rare instances, made for a special occasion. The buildings there were low and clustered tightly together with only a few small slum towers scattered here and there behind them.


    He could reach midtown relatively quickly from Needle street, but after hearing that it was under the control of Mondego, he wasn¡¯t sure that would be wise. There was a chance no one would recognize him, it had been five years and he knew well that he no longer looked as he once did. Still, he wasn¡¯t about to start taking such heavy risks so soon after his escape.


    ¡°I¡¯m telling you. I can see it from my apartment! A huge fucking tree just sprouted out of nowhere.¡±


    ¡°Sure, Dan. How about you go back to that apartment and sleep it off, okay buddy?¡±


    The man, Dan Dantes presumed, fumed. ¡°I¡¯m telling you, I know what I saw! Why do you think we saw all those guardsmen rushing that way earlier!?¡±


    ¡°Because some asshole accidentally scuffed a nobles boots. Or a shop didn¡¯t pay protection money. Who gives a shit?¡±


    Dantes kept walking. It would take some time for news of what had happened to travel, but the tree would be a hard thing to hide. Still, it wouldn¡¯t be smart for him to stay out on the streets as he was.


    Outside of Midtown, he had few contacts, and of those he had even fewer that he trusted. He could simply find a room somewhere, pay for it, and settle in for the night and get his information slowly over time using Jacopo and whatever other vermin he could muster. That wouldn¡¯t do though, not for his first night free. He wanted information, contacts, and one other thing that the one person he¡¯d consider trustworthy could provide.


    He made his way further down the length of Needle street until he reached the worst part of it, where a few stalls sold clothes still soiled with gravedirt, and beggars began to outnumber working folk. He stopped at one of the obvious gravedigger¡¯s stalls, and haggled for a fresh pair of pants and shirt for a copper a piece. It wasn¡¯t the first time he¡¯d worn a dead man¡¯s clothes, though if he was lucky it might be the last. He shoved the clothes in his pack for later and from there he twisted down a few alleyways and began following the smell of salt and moisture. After twenty or so minutes of walking, he reached the edges of the docks. The sun had fully set at this point, and Dantes could see the groups of academy students escorted by guards as they went from lamppost to lamppost, lighting each of them with a bit of spellfire.


    Dantes passed them by, keeping his hood drawn and moving down a few more side streets. It was strange, seeing magic being done so casually, he¡¯d grown unused to that in the Underprison. He was too tired to put much thought into it. The elation of his escape had given him the second wind he¡¯d needed to make it to this point, but he was flagging, and his feet screamed at him from within his boots.


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    He exited one more alley and looked to his right. There, as if nothing had happened in the last five years, sat the Vivacious Vixen. The building was old, perhaps as old as the docks, and as far as Dantes knew it had always been a brothel, though it had many names before settling on its current one. The wooden sign was only a little worse for wear, with the sultry buxom fox-headed woman now missing the tip of one of her ears.


    Dantes walked up to the front door, and pushed it open. His nose was struck by the smell of perfume and wine, and before his eyes could fully adjust to the well lit interior, a feminine voice, haughty and with a touch of cruelty spoke to him.


    ¡°You¡¯ll have to leave, I doubt you can afford the services here.¡±


    Dantes pushed his hood back, running a hand through his hair to push it back out of his face. The girl who¡¯d addressed him was leaning against a doorway, wearing a dark pink corset and short frilly black skirt that concealed burgundy leggings beneath. She was human, young maybe seventeen or nineteen, with black hair falling in waves over her shoulders, brown eyes, and a furrowed brow.


    He realized he was staring. It had been some time since he¡¯d spoken to a woman whose form didn¡¯t flicker into a pale skinned black eyed fae, and even though the girl wasn¡¯t his type, five years was a long time.


    ¡°Hey Decker, may need some help with this one.¡±


    A large Orc stepped into the center of the doorway behind her.


    Dantes held up his hands. ¡°Sorry, don¡¯t want any trouble. I¡¯m looking for an old friend. Her name is Vera? She used to work here.¡±


    The girl raised an eyebrow. ¡°The Madam? I can¡¯t see how she would know someone like you.¡±


    She¡¯d gotten a promotion since Dantes had last seen her, good for her. ¡°How about you tell her I¡¯m here and maybe you can ask her.¡±


    The bouncer and her exchanged a glance that indicated to Dantes they were leaning strongly toward just throwing him out. He could probably take Decker, his dagger was dull, but they clearly thought he was just some urchin, which meant that he¡¯d underestimate him. Dantes didn¡¯t want to fight though, Decker and the girl were really just doing their jobs, and quite well.


    ¡°Listen, you have a bar right? I¡¯ll buy a drink, and one for Decker here if he wants it, and he can keep an eye on me while you tell her that Ed is here. How about that?¡±


    Decker looked at the girl with a kind of ocular shrug, he clearly wouldn¡¯t mind a drink.


    The girl sighed. ¡°Fine. Wait at the bar, Vera¡¯s working the books so I doubt she¡¯ll want to talk to you even if she does know you.¡±


    Decker moved to the side, keeping an eye on Dantes as he moved to the bar. The interior of the place hadn¡¯t changed aside from maybe some new upholstery on the couches and the brothel¡¯s inhabitants. The bar was a long piece of dark wood. There were curtains in shades of purple, pink, and light blue hung all over the walls hiding the aging wood walls behind them, and girls laid on heavily padded couches in various states of undress. He recognized none of them, but that was the nature of their business. Five years was more than enough time for a lot of turnaround, he was just glad that Vera was still there.


    Dantes sat at the bar, and gestured toward a wine at the middle shelf. The half-elf woman bartending was wearing a thick cotton shirt, and dark brown trousers in sharp contrast to the other women in the bar. She nodded, and quietly poured him a glass. She had enough professionalism to make no comments on Dantes¡¯ appearance. In appreciation of that, Dantes himself did his best to not stare at how well she filled out her shirt and trousers, which for a man who went from seeing only men to being in a brothel, took more self control than he¡¯d care to admit. He pulled a few copper from a pocket and slid it over to the woman, who nodded.


    ¡°So, Decker, what¡¯ll it be for you?¡±


    He raised a hand to his chin, scratching it thoughtfully. He was a big orc, not Blud big, but certainly the proper size to be a bouncer at a whorehouse. His tusks were capped with decorative silver, and his hair was braided with jewelry that reminded Dantes a bit of Stonedust Clans beards.


    ¡°Hmmm, I¡¯ll have a dry white today. A fresh bottle, pour it in a wide glass so that it can breathe.¡± He pointed a thumb at Dantes. ¡°This one is paying.¡±


    The Elf sighed, reached up a bit above the middle shelf, pulled a corkscrew out and popped it, then she pulled out a wide brimmed glass and poured it in, giving it a delicate twirl as she did so. ¡°Here you are, your highness,¡± she delivered the line without a hint of humor, which made it that much more amusing.


    Decker smiled, ¡°Thank you much.¡±


    Dantes was sliding six copper her way before she even told him the prices.


    She raised an eyebrow, but didn¡¯t question the convenience of it, and slid the coins toward her side of the bar.


    Dantes sipped his wine in silence. The flavor was good, and the wine was strong, but strangely enough he remembered it tasting better than it did. Either the quality of wine had changed since he was in prison, or Mez really was a master brewer.


    Dantes heard footsteps coming from the stairs, and saw first the young woman who¡¯d ¡®greeted¡¯ him, and behind her someone else. She was an elegant five foot ten, wearing a plain emerald green gown, a silver necklace, and bangles shaped like foxes on each wrist. Her hair was auburn, with a few new streaks of white, and her face was still beautiful, even with a few new wrinkles.


    Her eyes were wide with surprise and her mouth widened into a smile as she saw him.


    Dantes smiled back. ¡°Hello Auntie, it¡¯s been a while.¡±

 Ch 53: Any chance that could be a deluxe bath?

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    Dantes smiled and stood, meeting Vera for a big open armed hug. She smelled of roses and vanilla, her taste in perfume hadn¡¯t changed. The scent immediately brought a flood of memories to the surface of him playing as Vera and his mother chatted, cooked, and played cards.


    She released her embrace, still smiling as she looked him up and down, only a slight twitch of her eyebrow indicating some mild discomfort over his state of dress.¡°Ed, I wasn¡¯t sure I¡¯d see you again. Please, come with me to my office, we need to catch up.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d like that.¡±


    ¡°Decker, pick a bottle of wine to set aside, along with some cheese and some of those sweetmeats that Zilly thinks I don¡¯t know are hidden in a corner of the bar.¡±


    The Elf bartender, Zilly¡¯s, ears twitched, but her expression remained passive. ¡°Of course Madame Vera.¡±


    Vera nodded, and gestured for Dantes to follow her up the stairs, which he did. The upper level was mostly single rooms, many of which had the typical sounds and smells of a brothel emanating from them, at the far end of the hall, was the only door with a lock. Vera opened it, and gestured Dantes inside.


    Unlike the gaudy decoration throughout the rest of the brothel, Vera¡¯s room had a simple elegance to it. There was a black carpet with blue fish patterns woven throughout, a wood desk with multiple sheets of paper and an abacus, a circle of lightly padded sitting chairs around a small table and tea set. There was a bed, concealed behind a mesh screen that showed only shadows, and behind the desk toward the center of the room was the bust of a woman, over which there had been placed a gray veil. In front of that were a few gold coins, some dried flowers, and a saucer filled with clear water.


    ¡°An altar to the goddess of hidden women?¡± asked Dantes.


    Vera looked at it, as if just remembering it was there. ¡°After your mother¡­ It felt like something I needed to start doing.¡±


    Dantes nodded. He wouldn¡¯t have felt right, honoring his mother in that particular way, it wasn¡¯t called the ¡®goddess of hidden people¡¯ after all. He was glad to see Vera had done so though.


    Vera looked at him and as her eyes started to water she brought a knuckle to her eyes to wipe away a tear before it could smudge her makeup. ¡°I never thought I¡¯d see you again Dantes.¡±


    He thought tears might well up in his own eyes, but they didn¡¯t. ¡°I never thought I¡¯d see you again either, auntie.¡±


    She gestured for him to sit in one of the padded chairs, while she began heating the teapot with a burnstick. ¡°You¡¯re lucky I remember that bastard''s name for you.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I thought it might be smart not to use my real name. At least not until I knew where things stood.¡±


    Vera nodded slowly. ¡°Prison made you more cautious I see.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Not enough to keep me out of trouble, but I¡¯m a bit better at picking the kind of trouble now.¡±


    She chuckled and took a breath to regain her composure. ¡°How? How did you escape?¡±


    ¡°It''s a bit unbelievable. There was a fight in the Maw, that¡¯s where the supplies and prisoners are dropped, and a tree started growing. It sprouted all the way up and out of the maw. I started climbing, then running, before I knew it I was out. This was the only place I could think to go.¡±


    ¡°Did other people climb the tree as well?¡±


    ¡°Probably. I wasn¡¯t exactly looking back as I climbed.¡±


    ¡°News of that probably wouldn¡¯t have hit the docks until morning. The edge of the city will probably take a full day after that. Are you going to make for the walls? Maybe sign up to crew on a ship?¡±


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    Dantes shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m a fugitive, but it¡¯s not as if they kept track of us down there. I¡¯m not leaving.¡±


    Vera bit her lip. ¡°There may be¡­ other reasons it¡¯s not safe for you.¡±


    ¡°Mondego?¡±


    Vera nodded. ¡°If he knows you¡¯re out¡­ it will be dangerous for you.¡±


    Dantes laughed. ¡°No, no¡­ it¡¯s going to be dangerous for him in fact.¡±


    Vera opened her mouth, but was interrupted by the whistle of the teapot. She poured it into each small porcelain cup, the leaves of the tea rising to the surface as the water slowly turned brown.


    ¡°Is there anything I can say or do to convince you to just get on a boat? The Vixen has come a long way since you were last here. We serve mostly ship¡¯s officers now. I could get you work. You could have a good life outside of Rendhold.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± said Dantes with conviction that could shatter stone.


    Vera sighed. ¡°Okay. I just couldn¡¯t call myself your mother¡¯s friend if I hadn¡¯t tried. Unfortunately for her, you¡¯re her son, and vindictiveness is in your blood.¡±


    Dantes lifted the tea and tasted it. It was the same horrifically bitter cheap blend she¡¯d always drank. Which he found oddly comforting, and so followed it up with a second sip. As the warmth of it spread through him, he felt a profound weariness. Every muscle was sore, his will was exhausted from controlling plants and vermin, and he¡¯d been awake for nearly a full day, maybe more.


    ¡°Auntie, I have questions, and I¡¯m sure you have your own, but I don¡¯t know that I can keep myself awake much longer.¡± He needed to stay sharp, and unfortunately, his powers hadn¡¯t yet given him some way around needing sleep.


    Vera nodded. ¡°Of course. I¡¯ll get you dinner and a room.¡±


    ¡°I can pay.¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°I¡¯m sure you managed to pickpocket plenty to afford a night here, but don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯ll have it covered.¡± She stood and walked to the door, gesturing for Dantes to follow.


    When they arrived at the bottom of the steps, she snapped her fingers, and the young girl that had been watching the door sauntered over. ¡°Sera, show my guest to Deborah¡¯s old room, he¡¯ll be staying there for the night. He¡¯ll need a bath, some fresh sheets, and that bottle of wine and plate of food I asked for earlier.¡±


    Dantes coughed. ¡°Any chance that could be a deluxe bath.¡±


    Vera laughed in a way that could make any man she hadn¡¯t helped raise blush. ¡°What happened to you being too tired?"


    He shrugged. "Some things a man finds the energy for if it''s been long enough."


    "Ah, well you have been at... sea for five years.¡± She looked at Sera. ¡°If you wouldn¡¯t mind dear?"


    Dantes shot her a subtle look.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. I forgot that you¡¯re one of those strange men that prefers women his own age. I¡¯ll have Alessa come to run the bath.¡±


    Sera looked a tad relieved, as if she¡¯d believed he may have been planning to treat her as harshly as she¡¯d treated him at the door, though she had nothing to worry about.


    Dantes coughed again. ¡°Any chance the deluxe bath could be an ultra deluxe bath?¡±


    Vera let out a long sigh. ¡°You are reaching the limits of my hospitality¡­ but fine. I¡¯ll have Alessa and Tieara sent up to help you with your bath.¡±


    Dantes smiled, ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡­


    He found himself floating above a familiar scene. There was a long table with a scale in the center of it, and a number of coins on either side of it. The woman in green was in her same place, but now her chair was twice the height as the smirking man in blue¡¯s, and had morphed from a chair into something more tree-like. She wore an even more predatory smile than before, with fearsome fangs showing and just the smallest trickle of saliva dribbling down her chin. The rat was now in her lap, gnawing on a silver coin while she roughly scratched his back with long claw like fingernails. As Dantes looked at her chair, he saw a number of roaches climbing around and into it.


    The man in blue was leaning back in his chair, and looking up at the woman in green with the same slight smile he¡¯d had since the beginning. Even though his head was now tilted up though, it was still impossible to see higher up on his face. It seemed that his side of the scale was starting to rise at the weight of coins the woman in green had placed on the side, but he showed no indication of concern.


    The man in black and gold was leaning close to the man in blue, whispering in his ear. In his hand, he was holding a heavy pile of gold coins that he seemed to be offering to the man in blue, but he had the cruel smile of a usurer, and anything the man in blue took would clearly come at a price.


    Dantes felt an unusual presence on his shoulder and looked to see Jacopo¡¯s golden eyes staring back at him. They regarded one another silently for a moment, and Dantes tried to communicate with him, but found himself unable to. It didn¡¯t really matter he supposed, and they shared a shrug and returned their attention to the table.


    The green woman took the silver coin from the rat, and flipped it expertly toward the scale. While it was in the air, the man in blue feigned a yawn, and slipped a coin from the man in black¡¯s pile, which he then pretended to pull from his cloak and place on the scale, leaving it tilted just ever so slightly in the green woman¡¯s favor.


    The man in blue turned subtly toward Dantes, and for a moment, the slight smile seemed to be directed at him.

 Ch 54: You shouldnt, its a lie

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    Dantes woke up on the floor. He¡¯d moved there at some point during the night when he¡¯d found the bed too soft to sleep on. He took a deep breath and took in his surroundings. Light coming in through the windows, the sleeping forms of an orc and a dwarf softly snoring in his bed, and Jacopo less than a foot from his face loudly chewing some leftover sweetmeats.


    ¡°Been awake long?¡± he asked, not out loud since he didn¡¯t want to wake Alessa and Tieara, rather through the connection they shared.


    ¡°Several hours. I didn¡¯t need the same rest you did.¡±


    Dantes stood and stretched. He was sore, but his spirits were high, his stomach was full, and he¡¯d enjoyed a satisfaction he¡¯d last experienced with Mercedes more than five years before.


    ¡°Been eating the whole time?¡±


    Jacopo shrugged. ¡°Much of it. The food is much better up here. The sights and smells are different too. The light though¡­¡± Jacopo squinted as he looked out the window. ¡°It will be much harder to hide.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, if we¡¯re doing any sneaking it will still be at night for the most part.¡±


    Dantes walked over to where he¡¯d placed his pack and pulled out the graverobbed clothes he¡¯d purchased the previous day, slipping them on. They were a good fit, one of the benefits of being so average in size was that most of the clothes he stole or bought tended to fit him fairly well.


    He looked over at the soiled clothes from the last day, his eyes lingering on his coat. He had shivs, random coins, spider fangs, stolen baubles, seeds from his garden, and Televor¡¯s finger inside of it. The coat had served him well for the entire time he was in prison, but now it was soiled beyond belief and riddled in holes of all kinds, including several which he could tell were from Jacopo¡¯s bored gnawing. He¡¯d need a new coat at the very least. The dagger he¡¯d taken from the elves was in rough shape as well, but not so bad a blacksmith couldn¡¯t repair it, or Dantes himself with a whetstone and some time.


    On top of new equipment he¡¯d need to figure out a new source of favor from the god of rats and the god of roaches. He looked at his arm. Some additional favor had trickled into to both of them, likely from the garden and the orcish corpses he¡¯d left in his wake, but now that he wasn¡¯t the one granting permission to use the garden, he wasn¡¯t sure if he¡¯d continue receiving favor when they found themselves some rotting fruit on the ground to eat. He also was disappointed his dream had been of the strange figures again rather than a meeting with the god of bats.


    He grabbed one of the sweetmeats on the plate, then a piece of cheese, then two crackers before putting the whole thing in his mouth to chew. He reached out his senses, seeing how far he could send them. He could feel rats sleeping in the dark recesses of alleyways and inside walls; roaches, silverfish, pigeons and crows on the roofs surrounding him, weeds valiantly fighting to grow through concrete and cobblestone, small pots of flowers near death or strong and thriving depending on who was caring for them, and at the very edge of his senses he could feel a small shipment of fish from the dock with several of them clinging to life as they suffocated beneath the corpses of their fellows.


    He almost choked on his food as the information flooded him, and began coughing until he was able to drink some water to finish choking it down. He heard stirring from the bed and looked over to see Tieara and Alessa yawning and stretching languidly.


    Dantes took another sip of water to clear his throat.


    ¡°Sorry about that, didn¡¯t mean to wake you.¡±


    Tieara brushed her long curly hair from her face and scratched her head. ¡°S¡¯alright. We shouldn¡¯t have slept in so much anyway. Madame gets pissy if we miss breakfast.¡± She slid off the bed and began searching for her clothes. She was a dwarf, and so stood more than a foot shorter than Dantes, but was a bit broader. Dantes watched her move around appreciatively.


    Alessa began to sit up too, and began coughing.


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    Dantes poured a second glass of water and brought it to her.


    She took it gratefully, and cleared her throat. She was an orc and had her dark hair loose, but it was cut short, not even reaching her shoulders. Her tusks made a kind of clinking sound as they touched the edges of the glass. She was very slender for an orc, and quite elegant, with bright orange eyes that always seemed half-lidded.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± she said as she put the glass down.


    ¡°No worries,¡± said Dantes, moving over to his makeshift pack, he found his coins and counted them out. Then moved over to Tieara who was taking her time adjusting her blouse. He held out four silver to her.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure what the rate is, but this should cover it.¡±


    She shook her head, her curls bouncing a bit at the gesture. ¡°No need. The madame told us it was on the house since yer a friend of hers and a guest.¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°I know, this is just for you and your time. You don¡¯t have to pay any of it up to her.¡±


    Tieara shrugged, and slipped the coins into her pocket.


    He then walked over to Alessa and handed her some coins as well.


    ¡°Why?¡± she asked simply.


    ¡°My mom was a whore. I always pay whores what they deserve. I know it''s a hard job.¡±


    She coughed again, still clearing her throat. ¡°I¡¯m actually a singer, I¡¯m just working here until I find better work.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Well, we¡¯ll call this payment for being able to hear your vocal exercises last night. Fake or not, they were quite pleasant.¡±


    Tieara and Alessa both chuckled at that, and Alessa took the coins that he¡¯d offered, though she had to put them on the small side table since she hadn¡¯t gotten dressed yet.


    ¡°Now, what was that about breakfast?¡±


    ¡­


    As Dantes walked downstairs making light conversation with Tieara and Alessa he smelled cooking meat and his mouth began to water. Cheese, crackers, sweetmeats and wine were a welcome treat, but a fully cooked meal¡­ The thought of it nearly brought a tear to his eye.


    The bottom floor of the Vivacious Vixen had transformed in the daylight. The pink curtains that had been lining the walls were all drawn to reveal the plain worn wood behind them. There were two tables lined up, each seating nearly ten people. Dantes saw Decker and Sera, and then he saw Zilly walk from the kitchen behind the bar carrying a plate of heavy sausage, and another of roast pigeon. There was already bread and jam on the bar, as well as plates and forks stacked to the side, like a buffet.


    Dantes looked around, but didn¡¯t see Vera, and so went to the bar to get himself a plate. He could feel Jacopo¡¯s hunger in his right pocket as well, a mirror and an amplifier of his own. He noticed some stares in his direction from a few of the ladies, but he didn¡¯t bother introducing himself. In places like the Vixen, everyone would know everything everyone else knew about him by the time he sat down. With his plate stacked high, he moved to sit in an empty space next to Decker and across from Sera, where he began tucking in with abandon, only pausing to either drink, or pass small pieces of sausage to Jacopo in his pocket.


    ¡°I thought for a moment you might be a third mate after seeing you in clean clothes and freshly bathed, but you definitely eat more like a cabin boy,¡± said Sera.


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I¡¯m a captain actually, got a crew of thousands and a ship faster than the breeze. Food on it is shit though, so it¡¯s nice to have a good meal for a change.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe you¡¯re a captain."


    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t, it¡¯s a lie. A very obvious one. It¡¯s okay, I made simple observations when I was a child too.¡±


    Sera blushed slightly, she wasn¡¯t as good at taking insults as she was giving them, but Dantes had been raised by a whore and sometimes a sailor, so he was quite adept at both.


    ¡°You were close though. I¡¯m just a deckhand.¡±


    The lie let her regain a bit of composure and solidified his backstory.


    ¡°Does Vera not typically eat breakfast with you?¡±


    ¡°Normally she does, but she¡¯s off to get a priest for our monthly cleansings.¡±


    Dantes nodded. The best whorehouses were able to hire a priest on a routine basis to cleanse anything the girls may have picked up. The Vixen seemed to be thriving under Vera.


    ¡°She asked me to tell you to wait to head out until she got back,¡± said Decker, his voice a soothing baritone.


    ¡°Thanks for passing that along, and for the wine recommendation. It was great, you must have a very refined sense of taste.¡± Dantes was just buttering him up, and being obvious about doing so, but Decker smiled and nodded anyway.


    ¡°That being said, I won¡¯t be waiting for her. Let her know I¡¯ll be back by noon though, particularly if Zilly is cooking lunch as well.¡± He shot a wink to her which she returned with a nod, but no change in expression.


    She was wearing blue trousers and a red shirt this time, and her muddy blonde hair was in an orderly bun on her head. He made a note to himself to try and make her laugh, something told him it would be worth the effort.


    He stood up and went back up to his room, gathering his things into a bag. He scooted the bed to the side and pried a floorboard up with his knife. In that compartment he hid everything he was planning on leaving there. The Vixen was nice enough, but a whorehouse was still not a good place to leave valuables laying around. He¡¯d get some new clothes and equipment, and see what he and Jacopo could learn about what was happening in the city.

 Ch 55: Thats not what your mother told me

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    Dantes stepped out of the Vixen and took a deep breath, savoring the slight taste of salt in the air and the morning breeze whistling through the alleyways. He hadn¡¯t felt a breeze in a long time, it wasn¡¯t something you realized you¡¯d missed until you felt it again. He pulled up the hood on the graverobbed tunic, to both hide his face and keep his ears warm, and began walking toward Needle Street.


    The first thing he wanted was a new jacket, he felt naked without one, and handicapped without the many hidden pockets he was used to. The long sleeved tunic and simple trousers he¡¯d bought weren¡¯t enough to keep him from feeling exposed. He wasn¡¯t even able to properly hide his dagger, and had to wear it on his hip. Not that that was uncommon, but he¡¯d always preferred a unseen blade to a seen one.


    He began walking, but when he made it a few alleys down, he felt Jacopo squirm, and leap from his pocket.


    Jacopo shook himself and fixed his whiskers. ¡°That pocket is not as comfortable as the ones I¡¯m used to, and there are no holes to look out of.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m on the way to buy a new jacket now, if you can stick it out. You can always just look through my eyes.¡±


    Jacopo shook his head. ¡°No, I need to see the city for myself. Taste the air, feel the warmth of the sun, eat the morsels lining the streets.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Alright, be careful. There are cats up here, and other predators you may not be used to. If you get lost, the map I have in my head shouldn¡¯t be far off.¡±


    ¡°I will not get lost. I will stay in touch.¡±


    With that, Dantes watched him scurry away, his furry brown form sliding into a crack in a wall, and disappearing. Dantes couldn¡¯t blame him, he could feel the excitement radiating from Jacopo as he moved. Dantes began moving in the opposite direction. There were a few tailors he¡¯d known in midtown, as well as smiths, and working mages who could help him out with what he needed, but he didn¡¯t want to risk showing his face there until he had more information. News traveled faster there than anywhere else in Rendhold, and while he could trust Vera, he knew the rumor mill in midtown would start turning if any of his other acquaintances saw him.


    He started by moving through main streets, but as they filled with other people going about their mornings, he could feel his heart speed up, and his eyes beginning to dart too and fro. Eventually he moved to take alleys, and he slowly calmed down. He was no longer used to streets filled with so many people. The busiest day in the Undermarket was nothing compared to the average Rendhold Street on which thousands could walk every day. Once he¡¯d regained his composure, he forced himself back onto the main streets, taking small cuts through the alleys when he felt he needed to. He¡¯d keep doing it until the discomfort didn¡¯t exist for him anymore or shrank into something that could be ignored.


    He passed through one more alley on the way to the tip of Needle Street, and as he passed a man, some kind of mutt like him, stepped out from behind a pile of trash and lifted a sharp kitchen knife toward him.


    ¡°Your money or your life,¡± said the man. His pupils were heavily dilated and his breathing rapid. He was high.


    ¡°O-okay. No problem,¡± said Dantes, shaking as he reached for his coin purse. He held out his hand, holding it, but dropped it just before the mugger could grab it. ¡°Sorry!¡±


    The mugger grunted, and bent over to grab the coin purse from the ground.


    Dantes took that opportunity to drive his boot into the man¡¯s face, throwing him backward into the same trash he¡¯d stepped out from behind. He picked his coin purse back up, and kicked the knife, which the man had dropped, across the alley.


    He smiled widely. ¡°This is almost as good a welcome as I got from Vera.¡± He muttered to himself. He bent down to go through the man¡¯s pockets. He put up some slight resistance, but Dantes simply struck him a few more times, and he gave up. Once he was done he found a few copper rings with cheap stones, a handful of copper, and a single silver.


    ¡°This is actually a pretty solid haul for muggings. You probably should¡¯ve taken it to your dealer sooner, could¡¯ve gotten a hit or two off of half this. ¡± He tucked the coins and rings into his pockets and purse. ¡°For the record, you¡¯d have better luck toward the middle of the Needle. Down on this end you¡¯re more likely to run into a rougher class of people.¡±


    The man groaned in response.


    ¡°One more thing.¡± Dante drove his foot into the man¡¯s ribs one last time, and the man was winded and struggling to breathe on top of everything else.


    Dantes whistled lightly pausing only to say a quick prayer to the god of Thieves, "Full pockets, quick wits, quicker blades, and the Lord''s luck."


    He walked out of the alley, sending a message to nearby rats and roaches that a hurt man with some exposed flesh was ripe for them to take a few nibbles from. Then he started walking up Needle street.


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    The street was busy, but Dantes fought down his discomfort as he began walking down it, catching snippets of conversations as he moved.


    ¡°-giant tree-¡±


    ¡°Two hundred prisoners escaped!¡±


    ¡°-guard managed to keep all the prisoners locked down.¡±


    ¡°-ope Benny got out. That girl lied to get him thrown down there.¡±


    ¡°-need to pay guard for some extra walk bys.¡±


    It seemed that news of what had happened was starting to spread. Though he could tell a lot of it wasn¡¯t accurate. The guard was probably trying to keep things tamped down as much as possible, but with his method of escape it was probably a hard thing to keep a lid on.


    At the thinnest point of the Needle were the resellers, and small time tailors who didn¡¯t finish their apprenticeships or were more self taught. They were more able to patch a pair of pants than to mend them, but their price point was low enough that those without family to rely on had a place to go. Their shops were either unlabeled or had crudely written signs simply saying, ¡®Tailor¡¯, or ¡®Tayler¡¯ or in one unfortunate case ¡®Taylwhore¡¯, though seeing what the elderly seamstress sitting in front of the store was wearing, that may have been on purpose. Dantes ignored all of those on the low end, only really looking once he reached the center of the Needle, where it began widening. It was at that point that he saw a smaller shop, squeezed so tightly between two other buildings that the sign could barely fit the words, ¡°Tailor & Reseller¡± in a straight line.


    Dantes walked inside, the door creaking as he did so. The building was longer than it was wide by a large margin, and its narrowness was further emphasized by clothes hung along the both walls all the way down to the other end of the shop, where a bored looking young man with spectacles sat reading. Dantes ran his fingers along the clothes as he moved. He didn¡¯t exactly have access to nice fabrics in the Pit, and the touch of fine cotton, wool, and even silk was worth savoring. He made note of a few pieces as he walked, until he reached the desk.


    The book the man was reading was, ¡®The Dragon¡¯s Heat,¡¯ and featured a lurid picture of an underdressed woman in the clutches of red talons etched on the front. Despite the obviousness of the book''s content, the young man was holding it up in front of his face without even a hint of shame, clearly engrossed in every word.


    Dantes lightly knocked on the desk to get his attention.


    He sighed and put the book down, looking Dantes up and down. ¡°Huh. You¡¯re almost perfectly average sized.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not what your mother told me.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Nothing, just wondering if you have any long coats, medium weight, lots of pockets, easy to alter, dark color.¡±


    The young man blinked a few times, clearly readjusting to reality after spending so much time engrossed in his book. Dantes had seen the look many times before when walking through Collared territory.


    ¡°Hmm, there¡¯s a few pieces that may work.¡± The man stood and began walking down the long line of clothes, checking an item here and there, and pulling a few pieces before returning to the desk at the far end and laying them out. Once he had them all down, he put his head back into his book.


    Dantes looked at the coats. They were high quality, more so than he¡¯d expect at this part of the Needle. ¡°How did you get all this inventory?¡± he asked, curious.


    The man didn¡¯t look up from his book. ¡°I buy unfinished and unpaid for pieces from the tailors at the wide end at a large discount, and finish them before upselling them.¡±


    Dantes looked back at the coats. He was no tailor, but he knew a bit about sewing and mending. Vera and his mother had taught him when all of his trousers started to get holes at the knees, and when he¡¯d started stealing and they taught him knowing how to sew extra pockets would be helpful. He couldn¡¯t tell that any of the coats were finished by different tailors. The stitching all matched perfectly from what he could see. Dantes wondered what a tailor as talented as the young man was doing as a reseller, but considering how happy he¡¯d looked flipping through his book, perhaps he had other priorities.


    Dantes went through the coats. There was a dark blue one, but he found the material too stiff to move comfortably in. He found a black one, but the sleeves were oddly short, which made them useless for him considering how he liked to hide his knives. He sorted through a few more before coming upon one in green. It was so dark that it was almost black, and the material was firm, but easy to move in, and on the inside it already had a half dozen pockets of various sizes sewn into it. He slipped it on and found it to be a near perfect fit.


    ¡°How much for this one?¡± He asked.


    The man peeked from over the top of his book. ¡°Ah, the old noble gardener¡¯s coat. That one¡¯s been here for a long while. Hmmm, let¡¯s say¡­ one gold, three silver.¡±


    Dantes smiled, that was robbery even for a coat like that. ¡°How about one gold and I put these other coats back for you?¡±


    The man looked at the coats, then Dantes, then his book. ¡°Fine, one gold it is.¡±


    Dantes pulled a single gold coin from his pockets and slid it over to him.


    ¡°It may have been cheaper without the comment about my mother," said the young man, not looking up from his book as he slid the gold coin back across the table.


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Fair enough.¡± He turned around and started to put the coats back, slipping a few shirts and a pair of pants into the folds of his new coat as he did so. The young man never even looked up from his book as he did so. By the time Dantes had walked out, he¡¯d gotten more than his golds worth. He could¡¯ve simply stolen the coat as well, but had decided against it. A robbery in broad daylight was too risky, but some petty shoplifting? That was an easy risk to take.


    Dantes walked out, and rearranged his stolen goods in his makeshift pack in an alley before making his way further up the Needle to an old shortcut he remembered to the docks. He made his way down, still in a good mood, when he saw a woman at the far end of the street. She was tall, and lean, with long dark hair up in what he guessed was a fashionable style. She was wearing a dark red dress with black accents, and even at the distance he was from her he could see the twinkle of expensive jewelry on her neck and ears. She was Mutt like him, with a mix of just about everything you could think of, but she seemed to get only the best features from each bloodline that was mixed in. The fairness of elves, thick lustrous hair of a dwarf, and the lean muscle of an orc. In spite of that, she could still easily pass for human. It had been five years, and she was certainly dressing differently than she had back before he¡¯d been tossed in the Underprison, but he¡¯d recognize Mercedes anywhere.


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 Ch 56: He wanted them to know that theyd lost

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    Dantes pulled up his hood, and started walking down the street, keeping an eye on Mercedes from a distance. Two large men were following behind her, each of them carrying boxes and bags of what Dantes guessed were new clothes and jewelry. Mercedes had always had expensive tastes, but in the past she¡¯d had to steal to satisfy them. Now it didn¡¯t seem like that was necessary.


    She walked with a confident saunter, other pedestrians parting like fish in front of a shark. Until she ran into a woman who didn¡¯t move out of her way. Dantes couldn¡¯t hear them over the din of the crowd and the distance, but he knew Mercedes body language. She was telling the other woman off.


    The woman stood, and listened to Mercedes calmly. She was middle aged, and wearing a fine dress. She had the bearing of born and bred nobility. Once Mercedes was done talking, she spoke a short sentence and fixed her with a demeaning stare.


    Mercedes blushed red enough that Dantes could see it even from a distance, and tilted her head forward slightly.


    The woman she was speaking to nodded at her, and calmly walked away, up the Needle toward uptown, where it was clear she belonged. Dantes noticed two men subtly falling in line behind her. Trained soldiers and killers in sharp contrast to the obvious rough thugs that Mercedes had with her.


    Dantes enjoyed watching Mercedes¡¯ discomfort, until she suddenly turned to look in his direction. He turned his head subtly and engaged with a market stall selling scarves for a few moments, waiting until he felt her eyes move away from him. Her senses had always been sharp, and they were particularly sensitive when people were witnessing her embarrassment. He would need to be more careful if he was going to keep following her. He didn¡¯t have a plan, seeing her was too short notice for that, but he felt compelled to keep tailing her. He could feel the chipped dagger on his waist¡¯s weight hanging heavy. If he was still in the Underprison, he could simply walk up to her, and drive it into her heart before running away. It wasn¡¯t an option here, and even if it was, he felt that would be too easy. He didn¡¯t want her and his former gang members to simply die. He wanted them to suffer. He wanted them to know they¡¯d lost to him before they died, and that it was him that beat them.


    He fell back in the crowd a bit, creating some distance between them. He checked the marks on his arm. He had less than a third of a fang on his rat mark, and a quarter of a wing on the roach mark. He looked up as a small flock of pigeons fluttering overhead, dropping a small payload on a poor woman who seemed to have just purchased a new hat. Being able to track people from the air, or even move products that way would be a real boon, once he figured out his current favor woes, he¡¯d need to turn his attention in that direction. Bats may have their own uses, but only at night.


    He reached out and found a few small colonies of roaches nesting nearby. He reached out to five of them, and had them make their way toward Mercedes. Two died almost immediately, but the other three made it to her. Another got crunched beneath her feet as it tried to scale her boots, and one got flung from her boot and crushed by a nearby wagon, but the last of them made it all the way to the hem of her dress, and hid himself amidst its folds. Dantes couldn¡¯t track humans, dwarves, elves, kobolds, or any combination of them with his abilities. The roach though, he¡¯d be able to sense over a fairly significant distance based on his experiences in the pit. He cursed himself slightly for not coming up with the trick sooner. Tracking people with individual roaches connected to him was far easier and more cost effective with favor than using rats had been. Then again, he couldn¡¯t get as full of a picture from the roaches. He looked at his wrists, and saw the roach mark had trickled ever lower.


    He followed Mercedes slowly from there on. Picking up a whetstone, and a few other odds and ends when she stopped at different tailors and shops of her own. By the time she was done, Dantes could see even from a great distance that the thugs with her were now struggling under the sheer weight of goods that she¡¯d purchased. They began to head Back down the narrower end of the needle, eventually cutting across streets and starting to head toward midtown. Dantes was able to continue tracking them even when they walked down near empty streets thanks to the roach, but once they reached the edge of midtown he had a decision to make. He could continue following them as he was, doing his best to be just another inconspicuous mutt, or he could become a rat and stay more subtle, but be at a higher risk from just about everything. In the end he chose the third option, and went around midtown, making his way back to the docks while focusing on maintaining the connection he had to the roach.


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    There was no reason to rush to get the information he needed. She and Mondego had made themselves very conspicuous in not only midtown, but the entire city. There was no reason to risk himself when their locations and activities could be common knowledge. He¡¯d taken some aggressive risks down in the Pit, where his life had less value, but now that he was out, and after experiencing the consequences of those kinds of risks¡­ he needed to focus on caution. He wasn¡¯t the only one that could come to harm if he wasn¡¯t careful.


    He waited until the roach came to a stop and tried to figure out where exactly Mercedes was, laying his mental map of midtown out and then placing the distance he felt with the roach on top of it. He thought for a moment, the old Manor. A dilapidated house from a better time before midtown had gone to shit. They¡¯d used it as a safehouse on more than one occasion. Laying low after jobs. Dantes clenched his jaw, feeling his small tusks press against the inside of his cheeks again. Another piece of his history taken from him. Did Mondego do anything original? When he finally confronted him, would he become a rat too and they¡¯d have to fight to the death in a soup bowl?


    He looked up above the building to see the sun high in the sky. It was approaching mid-afternoon. Vera had asked that he be back at the Vixen by then, but he had one more stop.


    He began walking through the docks, past the nicer portion that contained the higher end brothels and bars for officers, through the fish market, and into the small collection of general shops maintained just within the docks. For the most part, shopping was located in the central market near uptown, or in the Guild District which Needle Street was a part of. Every part of the city had its own shops though, Rendhold¡¯s sheer size making it a necessity to have at least a general store every few miles or so. The docks had their own full market so that sailors on short leave could quickly get personal goods before leaving back out to sea. They tended to be a bit seedy, but that was Dantes¡¯ preference.


    He¡¯d heard from the shop owner that had sold him a whetstone, needle, thread, and a new pack, that there was an enchanter at the docks who did cheap, and discreet, work. An Academy flunky that had somehow maintained an authorization to use enchantment magic. It wasn¡¯t hard to find the storefront. His fingertips began tingling as he approached it. The building was purple, and instead of clever signage, it simply said ¡°Cheap enchantments done here¡± on a sign outside.


    Dantes pushed his way inside, a bell at the top of the door jingling as he walked inside.


    ¡°Just a moment and I¡¯ll get to you,¡± came a voice from deeper inside. ¡°And if you try to steal anything, I''ll know.¡±


    ¡°No worries there, I hadn¡¯t been planning on it,¡± lied Dantes as he walked deeper into the store. There were large shelves and a central table on which a number of different items were displayed, most of them with a nautical theme. There were compasses that possessed their own dull glow making them visible in the dark, small leather pouches that emanated with heat for sailor¡¯s pockets so they could keep their hands warm, and a large number of scrimshaws that, when touched, shifted from being images of boats, to images of women in compromising positions. Dantes had received one such scrimshaw from his father when he reached his twelfth year. He¡¯d lived with his mother at the ¡®Welcoming Embrace¡±, in midtown at the time, so he was distinctly unimpressed. Nude women weren¡¯t exactly novel to him.


    As he was eyeing a necklace with a bone carving of an eye that blinked every few seconds, he heard movement from the store, and a short squat man with a thick beard and a few sailing tattoos peeking from mage robes appeared, with a scrimshaw in his hand which he placed on a nearby shelf, a few small purple sparks coming off of it as he did so.


    ¡°So mate, you need something particular or just here to browse the scrims? It¡¯s fine since the day¡¯s been slow, just for the love of the gods please keep your pants on while you¡¯re here.¡±


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 Ch 57: Memento of a dear friend

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    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be flattering for a customer to drop his trousers? Means you did a good job on the scrims.¡±


    ¡°No. It would just mean I need to beat a half naked man. Unlike the women at the ¡®Cruel Lady¡¯, I wouldn¡¯t get paid for it.¡± The man¡¯s voice was neutral and deep, and he delivered the jest with a straight face and no hint of irony.


    Dantes laughed. He didn¡¯t even need to fake it to curry favor, it was a genuinely amusing remark. He¡¯d never been to the ¡®Cruel Lady¡¯, as it was expensive and as close to uptown as a brothel could be allowed to be, but he remembered Danglars saving up for it, and then not being able to sit comfortably for a week. A memory which he realized may have some use. He filed it away.


    ¡°I¡¯m Dantes,¡± he held out his hand.


    ¡°Dario,¡± the man took Dantes¡¯ hand and shook it firmly. Dantes wasn¡¯t certain, but he was fairly sure that he was at least a quarter dwarf. That was always a hard one to tell, it wasn¡¯t like full humans that were short, stout and bearded were ever in short supply.


    ¡°I see that you sell some basic enchanted goods. Do you ever make anything other than what I see?¡± Dantes gestured around.


    Dario shrugged. ¡°I have a list of enchantments I¡¯m restricted to by the academy with what I¡¯m allowed to do. Not that I¡¯d be able to do much beyond the list, I wasn¡¯t much for learning when I was there.¡±


    ¡°Must feel limiting,¡± remarked Dantes, fishing.


    ¡°Nope,¡± replied Dario.


    ¡°Do you have a list of what enchantments you have available?¡±


    He nodded, ¡°Reading and writing was almost all they could get through to me.¡± He stepped behind the counter and pulled out a sheet with surprisingly delicate handwriting that listed what he could do. Dantes perused it until he found what he was looking for.


    ¡°How much to enchant an object to, ¡®produce flame¡¯?¡± asked Dantes, pointing at its entry on the list.


    ¡°If yer lookin for more of a torch, that¡¯s the wrong choice. That ones mostly for lighting candles and such. Not requested often, since it¡¯s cheaper to just buy boxes of burnsticks.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the one I want.¡±


    ¡°Tell you what, I don¡¯t get to do that one much¡­eight silver.¡±


    ¡°How about five? I want it on a memento of a dear friend.¡±


    ¡°Eight.¡±


    ¡°Six.¡±


    ¡°Eight.¡±


    Dantes sighed. He¡¯d met intractable people before, but it had been a while. In the prison everyone was always willing to haggle at least a bit. It made sense for a bunch of people prone to disobeying the rules he supposed.


    ¡°Alright Dario. Eight it is.¡±


    Dario nodded. ¡°So, what object is it you¡¯d like enchanted?¡±


    Dantes reached into his new backpack, and pulled out Tel¡¯s finger, placing it on the counter between them. He¡¯d let Jacopo eat the skin off of it, and then he¡¯d tied the bones together in an approximation of their original shape with black string.


    Dario looked at the finger sitting on the counter. ¡°Is that a human finger?¡±


    ¡°Half-elf, actually.¡±


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s no worries then,¡± replied Dario with a hint of irony finally bleeding through his neutral tone.


    ¡°Is that a problem?¡±


    Dario stroked his beard. ¡°It¡¯s not¡­illegal for me to enchant remains. It¡¯s more a general concern about where they came from?¡±


    ¡°As I said, they¡¯re from a friend. His last wish was to be able to light a candle with magic.¡±


    Dario frowned, and placed his hand a few inches from the finger, closing his eyes. ¡°Hmm, sea spray¡­.¡± He opened his eyes again. ¡°A former Academy student?¡± he asked.


    Dantes nodded.


    ¡°Forbidden to cast by the academy?¡±


    Dantes nodded again. Not feeling a need to elaborate beyond that.


    Dario let out a slight, sad breath. ¡°I¡¯ll do it. The price is now a gold and two silvers though.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Throw in that necklace with the blinking eye and you¡¯ve got a deal.¡±


    Dario spat in his hand and held it out to Dantes, confirming his dwarven ancestry in the process. Dantes returned the gesture, and once their wet palms separated Dario went to work.


    He lifted the finger carefully, turning it over in his hands, then he began muttering. At first he was speaking common, then he shifted to what Dantes thought was elvish, then he shifted through a few more. As he spoke, small glowing purple script began to float in the air around the finger. Some of the script would wrap around it, then unwrap and fade away. Other script would wrap around and adhere, small purple sparks coming out when the script connected.


    The process took some time, and Dantes pocketed the agreed to blinking necklace while he waited, then he spent the rest of the time browsing the shop, and wondering if the slight glow on the compasses would be enough to attract moths.


    The muttering stopped, turning into heavy breathing.


    Dantes turned to see Dario, his brow covered in sweat, as small purple sparks slowly faded from Tel¡¯s finger. He placed the finger back on the counter and braced himself against the counter for a moment.


    ¡°You alright?¡± asked Dantes as he approached. He could feel the faint tingling in his fingers build up as he stepped closer.


    Dario shook his head. ¡°No. Your friend¡¯s finger wanted more than I wanted to give it.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    He nodded. ¡°Some objects hate magic, and you have to practically force them to work with you. Others take to it like a fish to water. This finger was closer to a whale though. Tried to suck up all I could give it and then some. I¡¯d¡¯ve charged you even more had I known, but¡­ a deal is a deal.¡±


    Dantes nodded, pulling the coins from his pocket and sliding them over to Dario who took them, locking them in a small metal box attached to the counter.


    Dantes lifted the finger. If he looked closely at it, he could see faint afterimages of text gradually fading from it. ¡°Do you have a candle?¡±


    ¡°One copper.¡±


    Dantes sighed, and slid a copper to him. Dario placed the candle on the counter between them. Dantes lifted the finger to the wick, and sent a small surge of will through it. The tip of it ignited, and produced a brilliant, but small gold flame with flecks of red. Dantes watched it burn for a moment, offering a brief prayer to the god of magic in honor of Tel, then licked his fingers and extinguished the flame. He then pocketed the candle, he¡¯d already paid for it after all.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± said Dantes.


    ¡°Come back anytime, but don¡¯t bring remains if you can help it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll try.¡±


    Dantes walked out of the shop to the light of the late-morning beating down on him. It was almost too hot for his coat, but he knew that Rendhold¡¯s mercurial weather meant there wasn¡¯t much need to take it off. He may need it within the next hour.


    He moved through the outer docks, weaving by sailors, merchants, and thieves as he headed toward the Vixen. He found himself worn out. Walking the streets, seeing so many people, interacting with so many new people, seeing Mercedes, and honoring one of Tel¡¯s last requests. It was quite a lot to have done in a single afternoon.


    He briefly strengthened his connection to Jacopo, checking in on him. He was feeling impatient, pacing in the alleys near the Vixen.


    ¡°You could¡¯ve let me know you were waiting,¡± sent Dantes.


    ¡°Not waiting for you to arrive. Waiting for you to kill.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°The woman, why didn¡¯t you kill her? I could feel your hate from here, The craving for revenge. It set me on edge. I picked a fight with one of the cats you spoke of.¡±


    ¡°Killing is too good for her. For all of them. I want to take from them first.¡±


    ¡°What is the point of that? Why not sneak into their homes, stab them, and move on?¡±


    ¡°Because they didn¡¯t give me that courtesy.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm. You¡¯d prefer to have died? A struggle to live is always better than dying.¡±


    Dantes thought about the question. Jacopo had a point. Dantes would prefer to live in the Pit struggling as he was before they began talking to one another than death. The closest he¡¯d come to suicide was the dust he did, and the risks he took, but to brush against death was a different thing entirely. ¡°A hard struggle to live that ends in death though, that¡¯s the hardest death to die.¡±


    ¡°True.¡±


    Dantes walked in silence, Jacopo feeling as he got closer to the Vixen where he could hop into his pocket.


    ¡°So¡­I assume you beat the cat?¡±


    ¡°He lost more whiskers than I did. So yes.¡±

 Book announcement and a little treat

    Hey everyone,


    I don''t know if all of you are aware, but before Downtown Druid I wrote another series called Deadman and the third and final book of the trilogy released on KU and Audible today!


    Here''s the blurb for book one, which I think captures the series in general:


    <h4></h4>


    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.Even after the bombs fell, even after countries unleashed weapons beyond imagination on one another, even after lawlessness became the norm, people still expect their mail.


    As a deadman, I''m uniquely suited to deliver it.


    Rads don''t bother me, and people who try to hurt me typically wind up dead. Sure, humans may not like dealing with a face like mine, but hey, it''s not like you¡¯ve got many options here in the wastes.


    Now in the middle of my route I¡¯ve come upon a new Job, and maybe the opportunity to start thriving instead of surviving.


    AMAZON</a>


    I felt guilt putting up a promo on Downtown Druid without something for those of you that may not be interested in Deadman so I put together the midjourney character portraits that I use for my notes, so that you can all see some of the characters as I do. They''re not perfect recreations, but they''re as close as I could get.


    You can see them HERE</a>

 Ch 58: Too surprised to be angry

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    Dantes walked into the Vixen with Jacopo tucked comfortably in one of his new jacket¡¯s pockets. In the entryway, Alessa was leaning sultrily against a wall, her half-lidded orange eyes glancing up at him slowly.


    ¡°Oh, Edmond. I thought you were a customer.¡±


    ¡°Well, the day¡¯s not over yet.¡±


    She chuckled, and that turned to a cough.


    Dantes politely waited for her to finish. ¡°You alright?¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Just a stubborn cough. It was a bit better after the Priest left, but it always seems to come back.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll get you some water from the bar. You¡¯ll lose customers if they hear you cough too much.¡±


    She seemed about to argue, but was forced to stifle another cough instead. Dantes walked into the Vixen proper, passing Decker who was tapping on a particularly boisterous patron¡¯s shoulder. The soft pink and purple curtains had been put back up, and the table that they¡¯d eaten breakfast at that morning removed. There were a few customers, drinking and chatting with the girls who were doing a good job of pretending to be interested in what they had to say. He felt a small pang of empathy for Sera who was pretending to laugh at a young sailor¡¯s ¡®bring me my brown pants¡¯ joke, as if she¡¯d never heard it before.


    Another sailor was talking to Tieara, who was sitting in his lap.


    ¡°Yeah, they locked down everything even close to the Underprison. Heard it from the merchant whose cargo we were loading. No one knows what¡¯s going on, but he swears he saw a giant tree in that direction.¡±


    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s so interesting,¡± said Tieara, sounding far more bubbly than she had at breakfast.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry though,¡± said the sailor, ¡°I¡¯ll protect you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure you will, with those strong arms,¡± she said, giving his wiry bicep a squeeze.


    Dantes stifled a chuckle at that. He¡¯d heard whores be subtle, and he¡¯d heard them be as blatant as Tieara was, and in both cases, the men rarely noticed that they were being manipulated. He anticipated she¡¯d be making good money that day. The information he¡¯d mentioned about the underprison was also interesting. It seemed like the guard was trying to maintain calm about what had happened, but how long would that last with a massive tree growing in that direction? He wondered if Mondego knew yet, and found himself torn about it. He wanted the element of surprise, but he also wanted to make him afraid.


    When he reached the bar Zilly was already pouring chilled water into a glass. Dantes nodded at her, and she nodded back. He¡¯d need to be wary of her, her ears seemed keen even for an elf. He walked back and handed the glass to Alessa, who took it gratefully, then he started to walk back toward the bar. Decker stopped him.


    ¡°The Madame wants to see you. She was expecting you some time ago.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Lost track of time. I¡¯ll eat something, then head up.¡±


    ¡°The Madame insisted. I will have Zilly bring you something.¡±


    Dantes sighed. ¡°Alright, alright.¡± He¡¯d been of a mind to meet more of the girls, or trying to get Zilly to share a drink with him. He knew objectively he had more practical things to do, but he¡¯d missed women for a long time, and it would probably take him some time to not make trying to get their attention, by coin or by wit, a priority.


    Decker nodded, and moved back toward the front door. At least he wasn¡¯t made to escort him all the way up the stairs. Dantes knocked twice when he reached Vera¡¯s door.


    ¡°Come in, Ed.¡±


    He smirked. She¡¯d always had that talent. Could recognize anyone from their footsteps. He walked in, and closed the door.


    ¡°I believe I¡¯d left word that I¡¯d return at noon, and wanted you to wait for me?¡±


    ¡°You did, and your people faithfully gave me the message.¡±


    ¡°You do know I was only asking for your own safety?¡±


    ¡°I do, but did you expect me to stay inside? I¡¯ve been cooped up for far too long to just sit around.¡±


    ¡°I foolishly believed that remaining in a building full of beautiful women and a soft bed may be enough enticement for you.¡±


    ¡°Almost.¡±


    She sighed and gripped the bridge of her nose with both fingers.


    Dantes laughed, and pulled the necklace he¡¯d just bought from Dario from his coat pocket. ¡°Here Auntie. This is for you, as an apology. Don¡¯t worry, I only went to the needle and then to a store here on the docks. I kept my face hidden and did my best not to make a fuss.¡±


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    She took the necklace, watching it blink at her a few times, and placed it gently back on the desk. ¡°Your time in the Underprison changed you.¡±


    Danets sat down on the chair across from her. ¡°Really?¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Yes really. Five years ago you would¡¯ve gone straight to midtown and tried to run Mondego through then and there.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯ll get what he deserves, but I don¡¯t want to die in the process.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°I told you I¡¯d tell you what you wanted to hear today.¡±


    He nodded, it was a statement more than a question.


    ¡°Your gang¡­ I didn¡¯t know what they¡¯d done to you at first. I would see Mercedes, Danglars, and Mondego sometimes and we¡¯d chat. They even seemed to be grieving you.¡±


    Dantes grimaced at that. ¡°And Gaspard?¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°I saw him once. He tried to trade your name for some free time with the girls, it was after I¡¯d found out what happened so I had him beaten and thrown in the gutter.¡±


    Dantes nodded.


    ¡°I found out what they¡¯d done when I never received any letters back from you that I sent through the Consortium. I did some digging and found out that Mondego had paid to have it prevented.¡±


    Dantes clenched his teeth, gripping the arms of his chair, his knuckles turning white. Having him thrown down into the Pit, paying to prevent letters being sent, and paying to make sure he could never leave. The Consortium had made quite a lot of money from Mondego¡¯s hate of him.


    ¡°Do you know why? Why they did it? Why they would do what they did?¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°No. I have no idea.¡±


    ¡°Where are they now?¡±


    ¡°Mondego and Mercedes are married. From what I¡¯ve heard they control nearly all the smuggling from the docks into the city. The fingers have taken notice of them.¡±


    Dantes knew that already from his conversations with the Shadow Cats, but having it confirmed didn¡¯t exactly improve his mood. The fingers were the five families that ran the city. Generally they controlled a section of the city, along with having a major controlling interest in some vice, but there was a lot of overlap in what they dealt with. They worked together to control the vast underbelly of the city, allowing smaller gangs to duke it out over the crumbs that remained. To gain their notice was more often a bad thing than a good one.


    ¡°How about Danglars?¡±


    ¡°That is a strange one. Did you know he had noble blood?¡±


    ¡°What!?¡± Dantes nearly rose from his chair.


    ¡°Yes. He is the son of a councilwoman¡¯s cousin. They weren¡¯t rich or anything, but they lived in the lowest part of uptown.¡±


    Dantes thought through his interaction with Danglars. He was a degenerate through and through. Gambling, whoring, drugs, he did it all. He could read and write, and he spoke a bit more formally than was normal, but Dantes had never questioned that he was scum, through and through, just like he was.


    ¡°Once you were in the prison, he seemed to change remarkably quickly. He traded on his family name, and is now a magister of the lower court.¡±


    Dantes was almost too surprised to be angry for a moment, before he realized that if Danglars had those kinds of connections it was very probable he could¡¯ve gotten Dantes sentenced to forced labor rather than the Pit. They didn¡¯t just throw anyone into the Underprison. It was for murderers, rapists, political enemies, repeat offenders, the worst of the worst. He¡¯d attacked a councilman¡¯s wagon, so that was more than enough to justify him being thrown down there, but five years of forced labor in the camps and fields outside the city, or even being sold to a ship in need of crew, all of that would¡¯ve afforded him more options than the Pit. More freedom, more of a life.


    ¡°And, as I mentioned before, last I saw of Gaspard I had him beaten and thrown in the gutter. I think I did hear something about him doing jobs in midtown still, but he hasn¡¯t had the success of the rest of your fellows.¡±


    Dantes sat silently for a few moments. It was a good overview she¡¯d given him. He had the information he needed to get started, but still needed more specifics, and he needed the right tools for the job. Gold would help, as would a new source of favor, and perhaps a new god¡¯s blessing.


    There was a knock on the door.


    Vera shifted her expression from grave to pleasant, and Dantes adjusted his body language to mirror it.


    ¡°Come in Zilly.¡±


    The woman walked in, carrying a plate of hot sliced meat, veggies, and bread. She walked over to them and handed it to Dantes who took it gratefully. The smell of it reminded him immediately of the fact that he hadn¡¯t eaten since breakfast.


    ¡°I was just expecting some cold meat and bread. Thank you.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Welcome,¡± and walked out of the room.


    Dantes resisted looking at her as she walked away, grabbing a piece of meat and placing it on a slice of bread.


    Vera looked at him with an eyebrow raised. ¡°In a whorehouse you pick the one woman with a different profession to have an infatuation with.¡±


    Dantes kept a straight face, swallowing his first bite before speaking. ¡°No idea what you mean auntie.¡±


    ¡°Sure, dear.¡± She moved to start her kettle and ready some tea as he ate. ¡°There was another reason I wanted to talk to you. I know I said you¡¯d be able to stay free as long as you need, but it turns out I may need you to do some work for me.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± asked Dantes.


    ¡°Decker needs to take the afternoons at home to help his father. I want you to act as our bouncer for the first part of the day.¡±


    Dantes laughed. ¡°I¡¯m not exactly as intimidating as Decker.¡±


    Vera nodded. ¡°True, but you¡¯re not exactly welcoming looking either. Decker actually signaled to Sera to tell me that you may be a serious threat when she went to tell me you were here.¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow. He was dangerous, but he was also just under two-thirds Decker¡¯s size. Though he was certainly more muscular than he¡¯d been when he went into the Pit, thanks to Merle¡¯s tips. He spared a moment to think of them. He left them all the tools they needed to control the pit, and he hoped he wasn¡¯t the only one to escape, but he¡¯d done all he could at the time. At least that¡¯s what he told himself.


    "It''s risky for me auntie."


    She nodded. "I know, but the city''s big and I haven''t seen anyone you know around here in quite some time."


    He thought about it for moment. It was risky, but he wanted to help out if he could. Didn''t want to leave the help she''d given her unreciprocated. He could also post a roach or rat outside to make sure that it wasn''t anyone he knew approaching. ¡°I can do the job auntie. As long as I have the nights to myself, and early mornings. Temporarily of course.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. Decker¡¯s mother would normally take care of his father, but she needed to take extra seasonal work in hopes that they could save enough for a healer.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with his dad?¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°Saddest thing, he was crippled by a Kobold of all things. Had four different chairs smashed over his back.¡±


    Dantes swallowed his food, keeping his expression neutral as he remembered Mez telling him about the fight that had gotten him thrown into the Underprison. ¡°Sounds like the kobold was a real bastard.¡±

 Ch 59: I like what I like

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    Dantes woke the next day next to Alessa, and carefully got out of the bed so as not to wake her. She hadn¡¯t wound up with much business, so he decided to help her out. He certainly had no motive of his own in the transaction. It was purely charitable. He poured a glass of water for her, and placed it by her on the side table. It was too early for even breakfast, but his body was still trained on his habit of rising early in the pit and jumping right into his usual activities.


    He¡¯d been too exhausted that first night, for a number of reasons, but today he felt good, strong even. He squinted at that thought. It had only been a day since his escape. He¡¯d run, jumped, fought, and climbed that day to an incredibly exhausting degree. He should still be worn down, and likely too tired to get out of bed, even with the better quality food and drink he had been having since he¡¯d gotten out of the pit. Even in the Pit itself he¡¯d recovered more quickly from injury and exercise than he had before. He¡¯d chalked it up to his improved access to food then too, but something else was going on.


    He reached out his senses, feeling all the life around himself. There were pigeons nesting on the roof and feeding hungry chicks. Jacopo was stirring from a spot under the bed where he¡¯d dragged Dantes¡¯ old rags to use as a bed, there were a number of roaches in the walls, and he could feel that at least one of the girls had a number of flowers growing in her room that seemed well cared for. He brought his attention back to himself. He couldn¡¯t sense other people, but he could sense his own life, burning brightly in his perceptions. He unfocused a bit, and saw a number of small threads. The thickest of them was connected directly to Jacopo. There were several that were simply reaching for nearby living things that he¡¯d just sensed, thin wispy lines seeking connection. Then there were a number of woven threads extending through the walls. He followed them as far as he could, but eventually reached his limit and pulled his attention back. It wasn¡¯t hard to figure out where they led. It was back to the prison, and all the life he¡¯d connected to there. He remembered the feeling when he had first planted the seeds in his garden and watched them grow. The feeling as if the energy within himself that he expended toward them was being returned somehow.


    He let out a quiet sigh and moved to get dressed. He didn¡¯t mind the many advantages he received from his abilities, but he wished there was some kind of guide, or another druid to speak to. He put seeking one out toward the top of the ever expanding list of necessities he maintained in his mind. Once he was dressed, he belted his freshly cleaned and sharpened dagger to his belt, and threw on his new jacket.


    Jacopo crawled out from under the bed, and climbed onto, and into his jacket. ¡°No food is being prepared downstairs yet.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°No, we¡¯ll come back for breakfast. I need to do a bit of scouting first.¡±


    Jacopo squeaked a confirmation, and they crept out of the room and downstairs, hearing only faint snoring as they made their way down. Zilly was there, her sleeves rolled halfway up and a mop in her hands which she moved in simple practiced motion down the floor. She noticed him at the foot of the stairs and gave him a silent nod.


    He smiled, and gave her a wink, peeling off his boots to not immediately dirty the freshly cleaned floor, and making his way to the door.


    ¡°Wait,¡± she whispered.


    He complied, watching her as she moved back behind the bar and into the kitchen where she returned with a small sack made of a napkin which she¡¯d tied together. Dantes took it, nodding appreciatively, and slipped out onto the stoop, slipping his boots back on and making his way down the street. He wore a light smile as he opened the napkin, finding a warm piece of bread, a cold slice of meat, and a few dried pieces of mango. He ate as he walked, handing a bit of the bread to Jacopo as his head peeked out from his shoulder at the smell of the food.


    ¡°You like that woman.¡±


    ¡°So far.¡±


    ¡°Could you not simply purchase the use of a different one?¡±


    ¡°I could, and likely will again.¡±


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    ¡°And yet you prefer to pursue this woman?¡±


    ¡°For now I¡¯m mostly just being polite. Pursuit is something different entirely.¡±


    Jacopo continued munching on bread near his ear, knowing Dantes had dodged the question.


    Dantes sighed. ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with buying a woman for the night, but earning a woman¡¯s affection is more fun.¡±


    ¡°Could you not earn the affections of one of the women you already purchase time with?¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°None of them are my type.¡±


    ¡°And what is your type?¡±


    ¡°So far? The Madam my mother worked for when I was fourteen, a woman who married the man that betrayed me, a dwarven noblewoman with a smile like birdsong, and Zilly.¡±


    Dantes could sense Jacopo searching his mind for more about the women he¡¯d mentioned, and gave the rat equivalent of a frown. ¡°These women all look completely different from one another.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°I take things on a case by case basis. I like what I like.¡±


    ¡°Things worked out with none of these women. You did not even touch two of them.¡±


    ¡°I said they were my type, not that I was theirs. Anyway, it¡¯s not the focus right now.¡±


    ¡°And what is?¡±


    ¡°Finding a new garden.¡±


    Jacopo nodded, taking a piece of mango, and burrowing back into the jacket to make a mess of his preferred pocket.


    Dantes walked for a half an hour before he reached what he was looking for. There was a large wooden barrier erected, blocking off a few hundred feet of the city. It was unguarded, as they always were, and the signs that had been placed in front of it were worn and faded. These were common in Rendhold. The city was expanding ever outward, and in the process whole blocks of the city would fall behind in repair and maintenance. Eventually there was a building collapse, an outbreak of disease, or even a witches curse and a section of the city would be sealed off. They¡¯d be monitored for a while of course, though that was often so that the guard could loot everything not nailed down, and then leave. After that those pieces of the city would be left to rot. Squatters would move in sometimes, or gangs would use them to store illegal goods. In very rare cases the lots were bought cheaply by merchants or nobles that would convert the cheap land into whatever they wanted, but because the recordkeeping was so poor, that almost never happened, and many of the lots were simply lost..


    Dantes sent out his senses, feeling some growth,a few rats here and there, a stray dog, and a number of insects. He¡¯d passed a different sealed block a while before, but it was newer, and he could tell just by looking at it that it was being used as a rent free place to live by a number of people, so he¡¯d skipped over it. He needed something older, and more overgrown. He knew of a few such places in midtown, but those would need to be avoided.


    He looked around the deserted street he was on, and climbed over the rotting wooden barrier, and onto the other side. It was easy to tell why this section had been sealed off. The remnants of a massive building collapse were still evident. Only on the edges had a few smaller buildings survived. He walked the length of it up and down, sensing a colony of bats in the far corner, and smiling. There were no signs of gang stashes, squatters, or anything else. Lowtown south of the docks, was mainly warehouses and factories, so that made sense. Found a spot toward the middle he thought would get good direct sunlight, and pulled the pouch of seeds out of his bag.


    He held each seed in his hand, reaching out to it as he decided where to place them. They each had their own preferences as to where they¡¯d like to be. Some preferred a bit of shade, others wanted to be placed near one another, and still a few wanted to be as isolated as possible. He met each of their preferences as best he could, leading to a field about as far from neat rows of farmland as one could get. When he was done he pulled out his dagger, testing the edge and thinking.


    He remembered how loud the calls for blood had been in his garden. They¡¯d given him sleepless nights eventually, and only bodies full of blood could placate them. He¡¯d needed to give them blood in the damp dark of the Pit, otherwise they wouldn¡¯t have grown. Here was a different story. There was sunlight, water, even surprisingly healthy soil. It was tempting to use blood to speed things along, but he decided against it, simply watering each seed carefully. The plants in his cave where he¡¯d slept had grown without blood, and still done so far faster than they should have. As long as he made time every day in the garden, he should have no issues helping it grow, and eventually he¡¯d have a new source of favor.


    He went to the edge of the block and reached out to the bats there. They were similar to the ones he¡¯d encountered in the pit, but different. He couldn¡¯t quite place why, but he figured he¡¯d find a way to draw moths to them and start building favor with them. He considered trying to speak with one, but decided against waking them.


    He walked back to the center of the space and placed his hand on the ground. He reached for those wispy threads that seemed to emanate from him and saw that they were already nearly anchored to the seeds. He focused on them, pushing them to be strong, and to connect more firmly. They seemed to respond, and he opened his eyes feeling their contentment.


    He stood back up, and hopped back over the fence. He should arrive back at the Vixen just in time to be late for breakfast.

 Ch 60: Ive had far worse habits

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    ¡°You''re late for breakfast,¡± said Vera from the head of the table, cutting into a heavily seasoned egg delicately with a knife and fork.


    ¡°Sorry auntie. Took a walk and got lost. Been a while since I¡¯ve walked around the city.¡±


    She raised an eyebrow, ¡°You got lost?¡±


    ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll be honest with you¡­I was starting a lovely little garden.¡±


    There were some snickers at the table, but Vera just frowned. She could usually tell when he was lying. He¡¯d grown out of most of the tells he¡¯d had as a child, but she could usually feel it out by instinct. This time she felt like he was telling the truth, but knew he was lying.


    Dantes sat at the empty spot where Decker had been the previous day, next to Sera, who was wearing an appropriately shit eating grin for a girl her age at the mild scolding he¡¯d received.


    The bar was empty, and Dantes intended to simply sit and chat with the girls, but was surprised when Zilly emerged from the kitchen with a small plate of still warm food that she placed in front of him. She leaned close as she put it down, she smelled lightly of something floral he couldn¡¯t recognize.


    ¡°Take good care of our girls today,¡± she said firmly, before returning to her place behind the bar.


    Dantes nodded, and tucked into his plate, drawing reprimanding looks from Vera and Sera at his table manners. They¡¯d definitely suffered from his time in the Pit, but at least he was using utensils. Though, he¡¯d had to remind himself to use them before he dug in with his hands. That may have been Jacapo¡¯s appetite bleeding into him. He was still hungry in spite of eating half of the food Zilly had given them.


    When he was done, he excused himself and went up to his room. He hid a shiv in his sleeve, positioned his dagger to make it more visible, and tied back his unruly hair. He looked in the mirror. There was a roughness to him, and he was more muscular than he had been in the past, but he still was less intimidating than the average bouncer. If he was capable of growing a beard that may have made a difference, but unfortunately his elven ancestry meant that didn¡¯t happen much. Though he could at least grow sideburns, likely thanks to that bit of dwarf he got from his mother.


    He let Jacopo out of his pocket, and opened the window so that he could go on a walkabout. He broadcast some information about midtown, specifically asking for him to scout around his old haunts while he was out and about.


    ¡°If that¡¯s where my whims take me,¡± responded Jacopo.


    Dantes smiled, and pulled out a hunk of meat he¡¯d saved from his plate, handing it to him.


    Jacopo nodded. ¡°Looks like my whims take me to midtown.¡± He crawled out of the window, and started back up the alley and into the slowly awakening city.


    He went back downstairs, and helped Zilly move the breakfast table, rearrange the curtains, and adjust the low pink flames on the enchanted lanterns to turn the Vixen vivacious. Once that was done, the girls all sat in various near-compromising positions, even having a small argument over who got to be on a particular lounging couch until Vera forced them into a compromise. Vera made a lot of stops, speaking at least a few moments to each girl. He heard snippets of advice as she walked and talked.


    ¡°Don¡¯t reveal too much dear, the clients still need to feel like they have to pay for something.¡±


    ¡°The pouty lips worked for you a few years ago, but you may want to switch to a sultry smile instead.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t wear the expensive leggings next time. Save those for yourself, a client is sure to rip them.¡±


    ¡°Tieara would it kill you to comb your hair? At this rate we¡¯ll need to shave you bald.¡±


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Dantes watched her as she worked. She¡¯d always been a mother hen, even when she was just another girl on the street. That was one of the reasons she and his actual mother had gotten along so well. It was clear that her care for the girls and attention to detail was what had so upgraded the Vixen. He wondered how she¡¯d managed to take it over¡­and who she was paying up to for protection. This area of the docks was nice, but all of the docks were controlled. It was possible she just tossed a bit of extra coin to the guard, but last time Dantes had been in the area it was under the thumb of the dock sharks. That was five years ago, and it was hard to predict how the lay of the land may have shifted. He needed to gather information on where everything had gone since he¡¯d been under. If he just focused on midtown he could miss something important. At least his job would allow him eavesdrop here and there, and as he rebuilt favor he could begin to use rats and roaches to help him gather info when things were slow.


    ¡°Ed!¡± said Vera, snapping him from his reverie.


    ¡°Yes?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Do you know the drill?¡±


    He nodded, he¡¯d seen quite a bit of this kind of work in his lifetime. ¡°Stand around, look intimidating, watch for a signal from the girls if they need help.¡± He looked around. ¡°I¡¯m guessing you have clientele restrictions?¡±


    Vera nodded. ¡°We serve Officers and their attendants. Regular sailors can come in if they look clean and seem like they have money. Same rule for other men off the street.¡±


    Dantes nodded. He had always had an eye for who did and didn¡¯t have coin on them. Learned it from his mother, and he¡¯d be able to recognize officers from boats thanks to his father.


    ¡°Two extra rules for you.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± asked Dantes.


    ¡°Don¡¯t kill anyone, and don¡¯t spend all your time flirting with the girls. You can be a customer after Decker returns.¡±


    He considered objecting, more because doing so was simply his dynamic with Vera than because he wasn¡¯t prone to doing either of those things, but she seemed focused on work so all he said was, ¡°Yes¡¯m.¡±


    She nodded and pointed at a gnome woman with big brown doe eyes and hips that, had she been human sized, wouldn¡¯t have let her through a door. ¡°Priss, you¡¯re at the door first. Your take last night was abysmal.¡±


    She nodded with a bright smile and little indication she had taken offense at the comment, or that she had much going on in her head at all, then moved for the door.


    Dantes fell in behind her and headed for the door.


    ¡°Ed, go ahead and throw open the doors.¡±


    He nodded, and undid the massive latch before pushing it open. He hadn¡¯t expected a crowd so early, but to his surprise there were four men already there, waiting to enter. He gave them a quick up and down. All of them were third or fourth mates in the Rendhold Merchant Navy, from what he could tell. Clean, two of them older, two of them younger. He motioned them in.


    Priss gave them a bubbly greeting, and almost immediately had a customer in one of the older men who ordered a drink for himself and her.


    Vera greeted all of them herself by name, clearly regulars, and then went up to her office to work on the books.


    Alessa moved to Priss¡¯ place giving Dantes a small smile as she leaned against the doorframe and adjusted her clothing..


    ¡°Hope you have better luck today.¡±


    ¡°Me too, I don¡¯t want you to make a habit of taking pity on me.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I¡¯ve had far worse habits.¡±


    There was a tap on his shoulder, and he looked to see Vera there with a blank expression on her face.


    He sighed. ¡°I know, no flirting.¡±


    She nodded, and went back up the stairs where he¡¯d thought she was when he made the comment.


    ¡°How¡¯s your cough?¡± he asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m having a good day with it so far.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡±


    They stood there in comfortable silence for a while, until a few more customers trickled in and Alessa was lucky enough to get more work and swap places with Tieara.


    Tieara sat with her eyes half open watching the door and twirling her hair with no sign of boredom while they waited for another customer to walk in. Dantes could smell a faint scent of weed under her perfume and noted to himself that he should ask who her dealer was. If he was lucky, the weed that she bought was terrible and would be full of seeds and stems and he could work on a special addition to his garden. Based on her expression and laid back demeanor though, he felt it was likely too good quality for that.


    When the door opened again, a man stepped inside. He was wearing a kind of fur vest and cuffs, long brown pants, and no shoes. His hair and beard were roughly tied back, and he had a distinctly thick and earthy odor to him. Peeking out from his vest was just a flash of a tattoos, and his expression was one of disgust as he looked inside the Vixen.


    Dantes immediately clocked him as someone with no money who was about to track dirt into the brothel, so he placed his hand in front of the man¡¯s chest.


    ¡°I think you¡¯re in the wrong place,¡± he said, projecting confidence in spite of the man being easily a foot taller than him.


    The man smacked his hand away, and Dantes stepped forward, his hands clenched into fists.


    The man looked at him with a face contorted into a scowl. He stepped forward and lifted Dantes by the shirt, raising a hand to strike him.

 Ch 61: Theres always some new vice

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    This wasn¡¯t how Dantes had hoped his first day helping out at the Vixen would go, but he was unconflicted about how to react to someone attempting to slap him. He swung his left arm down where the man¡¯s arm bent then threw a punch, pointing the knuckle of his first finger, toward the man¡¯s eye.


    It struck true and the man dropped him, and Dantes immediately followed up his attack by grabbing the man¡¯s shoulders and driving his knee into his crotch, hard.


    The man crumpled, falling to his knees and stumbling backward before managing to get on all fours and bare his fangs.


    It was meant to be intimidating, and to a certain extent he could see it working if they were in a dark forest, but in the middle of a street outside a whorehouse in broad daylight, not so much. Dantes let out a small laugh at the sight and pulled out his dagger.


    The man eyeballed it and stood, grimacing at what Dantes imagined was a not insignificant pain in his balls, then shifting his expression to something more neutral. ¡°You need to come with me,¡± he said.


    Dantes kept the dagger raised. ¡°I¡¯m not on the menu here buddy. Even if I was, you couldn¡¯t afford me.¡±


    The man¡¯s expression briefly twitched into a scowl. ¡°It is your duty to come with me.¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s not,¡± said Dantes. There was something oddly familiar about the man, but he didn¡¯t feel keen to hear out someone that had grabbed him for no reason.


    The man¡¯s scowl widened further, showing sharp teeth again. He sniffed the air, and looked around. A few passersby had stopped to see what was happening, and Tieara was watching them through the doorway. The man pointed at Dantes.


    ¡°I will return for you when the moon is full.¡±


    Dantes raised his dagger and pointed it at the man, a confused expression on his face¡°And I¡¯ll kick your ass then too,¡± replied Dantes.


    The man turned and started running away on all fours. Dantes tried to track him with nearby rats and roaches, but he was too fast, and before long he¡¯d lost him.


    Dantes frowned as he slipped his knife back into his belt.


    ¡°That guy was weird,¡± said Teiara, leaning heavily into Dantes.


    Dantes nodded, and walked her back inside, taking his place to the side of the entrance. ¡°Yeah.¡± He didn¡¯t think too much of it. It wasn¡¯t exactly uncommon to see a lunatic in the city every once in a while. He remembered a man that liked to run naked in a mask through the Guild District. Turned out to be nobility, so he just had to pay a fine. Then he started streaking through Midtown, and that led to a very different result.


    ¡°I had a customer like that once.¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow.


    ¡°Liked to growl and pretend he was a dog. Some nobles cousin or some such. Never wanted me to sleep with him, just feed him food in a bowl and scratch his stomach.¡±


    Dantes slowly raised another eyebrow as he listened.


    Tieara laughed at his expression. ¡°I figured you¡¯d¡¯ve seen things like that a few times. You seem to know your way around places like the Vixen.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I do, but there¡¯s always some new vice or fetish to learn about I suppose.¡±


    Shortly after that Tieara was sharing a drink with a young blushing sailor at the bar and Dantes was left to watch the door alone. He was clenching his jaw. He was still thinking about that strange man as he stood there, and he wasn¡¯t sure why.


    He shook his head lightly, attempting to clear it, and since things were slow, he sent his attention over to Jacopo. There was the usual mental handshake, and then Dantes found himself looking through the rat¡¯s eyes as if they were his own.


    Jacopo was in a dark alley, sniffing around the edges of a door. The sweet smell of freshly baked bread wafted out of the narrow crack, and Jacopo¡¯s stomach growled. He continued sniffing, finding a small opening in the wall through which the smell was also drifting. He climbed up, and into it, but after he moved a few inches in, he slammed into a wall of invisible force. He squeaked the rat equivalent of saying ¡®fuck¡¯, and backed out of the bakery wall, landing on the cobblestones and skittering away.


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    That was the fifth such time that had happened. He had been able to enter any building except those that had the smell of food.


    ¡°Must be some kind of new enchantment that keeps rats out,¡± sent Dantes frowning. ¡°They didn¡¯t have anything like that when I was thrown in the Pit. It must¡¯ve been developed later." Dantes had distinct memories of seeing rats or roaches scurrying around the edges of many restaurants and bakeries throughout Rendhold in the past. ¡°Have you been to the areas I broadcasted to you yet?¡±


    ¡°No. I was hoping to satisfy my own hunger first.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough,¡± He said, leaning against a wall and eavesdropping on some third mate''s pathetic attempts at flirtation. ¡°Bakeries like that sometimes cart out their stock at the end of the day and sell it for a much lower price. Usually it gets scooped up by the shittier pubs in midtown for the next day. You might want to try then.¡±


    ¡°I want it fresh.¡±


    ¡°Alright, tomorrow morning I¡¯ll get you something.¡±


    ¡°I want it fresh and I want to take it.¡±


    ¡°In that case we¡¯ll need to figure something else out.¡± Dantes scratched his chin. If bakeries had that enchantment, there was a good chance that almost every building in Uptown would too. If Mondego and Mercedes had it put on their house, that would also be a problem. He¡¯d need to find someone who could help him break the enchantment. He could maybe try Dario, but he didn¡¯t seem the type to break the rules, just to bend them. Still, he may know someone Dantes could go to.


    Jacopo moved out from the alley he was in, and started exploring block by block. Dantes followed along with him, updating his own mental map of the burrough with any changes he saw. For the most part, there were a lot more boarded up windows. Run down pubs had become even more run down dust dens, restaurants were openly serving cat and dog meat, and the women outside of brothels were covered in open sores, or scratching their necks like while their bloodshot eyes darted back and forth like dustfiends, many of them far younger than they should be for that line of work.


    That made Dantes¡¯ jaw clench. He¡¯d seen it before, brothels without standards. They¡¯d get the girls addicted to dust to keep them in line, wouldn''t hire priests for a monthly or even yearly cleansing, and would hire girls under fifteen. They would just use the girls up, and when they weren¡¯t making them money any more, they¡¯d be tossed on the street.


    Midtown had always been a rough place. Dantes wasn¡¯t seeing it through a rose tinted nostalgia. Everything bad that had ever happened to him had happened in midtown. His leg had been broken by a pimp, he¡¯d been nearly drowned in a chamberpot, he¡¯d watched his mother waste away from wight¡¯s touch. Still, there had been good with the bad. People looked out for one another, the gangs were easier to deal with than the guard a lot of the time, and Mutts didn¡¯t get a second glance. Now it just seemed like it was all bad.


    Jacopo continued moving until he caught sight of a man wearing a breastplate and walking up the street with a scowl on his face. Windows and doors shut at his approach, whores disappeared down alleys, and one dealer actually scrambled up the side of a building and onto the roof. The man¡¯s breastplate bore the winged sword insignia of the guard, though the standard sword at his hip was the more obvious indication of his profession. The man was tall, and leanly muscled, with dark hair that was thinning at the top, and a salt and pepper beard. His brows were furrowed as he walked with a clear destination in mind.


    ¡°Follow him,¡± requested Dantes to Jacopo.


    Jacopo shrugged, he wasn¡¯t having any luck with food anyway, and he started to walk behind the man while standing on the edges of the street and weaving between the legs of pedestrians who gave the guardsman a wide berth.


    The man eventually turned at an alley, and walked down it. Three men bolted out of the alley before Jacopo could turn, but the one in the back had his collar grabbed before being thrown down back into it.


    Jacopo turned the corner to see the guardsman standing and looking down at the man. He was young, with glassy gray eyes, and dirty clothes.


    ¡°Well hello there, Ket. Heard you were back from your stint doing hard labor outside the walls. You start dealing again already?¡±


    ¡°P-Pacha, no no. I was just talking to some friends.¡±


    Dantes recognized the name. Pacha was the guardsman that Zak had known. The one who was actually trying to do his job in midtown.


    Pacha moved closer, and Ket scurried back until he hit a wall. He looked further back down the alley seeing only Jacopo the rat staring on in curiosity, and turned back to Ket, leaning closer to him to whisper. ¡°Got any more info on Mondego yet?¡±


    Ket whispered back. ¡°No. And if you rough me up too often, they''ll start to ask questions.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s been two weeks. I kept you out of the pit, and got your labor sentence reduced. You will pay the price for what you¡¯ve done, one way or the other,¡± Pacha gripped his sword handle for emphasis.


    ¡°Alright alright. I¡¯m working on some leads. I think they¡¯re going to let me know where the warehouse is to pick up some dust from the docks. When I know, I¡¯ll contact you.¡±


    Pacha stood, and flicked a silver coin onto Ket¡¯s chest. ¡°Make sure you do. Don¡¯t try to hide from me. You know there¡¯s no place I won¡¯t find you.¡± Pacha didn¡¯t say it like a threat, he spoke it like a simple truth, and Dantes and Jacopo both believed him.


    Pacha gave Ket a kick to the ribs. ¡°Has to be convincing.¡± Then he walked out of the alley.


    Ket managed a weak rude gesture at the back of his head.

 Ch 62: Thats his prerogative

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    Dantes watched the exchange between Ket and Pacha through Jacopo¡¯s eyes with great interest. He¡¯d remembered Zak telling him about Pacha back in the pit. A guardsman that was actually trying to clean up Midtown. Dantes expected the man would likely die long before he made any meaningful changes. That didn¡¯t mean that he couldn¡¯t get some use out of him first. Ket may also have his uses. Dantes already had an affinity for rats after all.


    Dantes heard a cough, and looked over to see Zilly gesturing toward one of the couches at the Vixen with her neck. Dantes had lost himself between Jacopo and his own thoughts. He looked where Zilly was gesturing and saw that a large human sailor was forcefully pressing a drink into Sera¡¯s face. He moved toward them.


    ¡°Come on love. Just have a couple of these to loosen up. Don¡¯t be a bitch about it.¡±


    She didn¡¯t respond, her mouth clenched closed to avoid taking a sip.


    The man lifted a large hand to grip her face, and stopped when he felt Dantes¡¯ hand on his shoulder.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to need you to let her go,¡± he said, gripping the man¡¯s shoulder tightly enough to make him wince.


    The man looked Dantes up and down, blowing a scoff out of his nose. ¡°I¡¯m just trying to share a drink with the lady, isn¡¯t it her job to make me comfortable.¡±


    ¡°Not until you¡¯ve paid her and gone up to her room. Even then, she doesn¡¯t need to drink with you. She¡¯ll have clients all day, she can¡¯t drink with all of them. Bad for business.¡±


    The man shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t sleep with sober women.¡±


    Pathetic, thought Dantes, but he kept that to himself for the moment. ¡°Then you shouldn¡¯t go to a whorehouse at noon. Come back later, everyone will be drinking then.¡±


    The man bristled, standing up. He was a head and a half taller than Dantes, and just as broad. ¡°Is there a problem with me spending my hard earned silver here!?¡±


    Dantes sighed. He¡¯d tried to be diplomatic for Sera¡¯s sake. He¡¯d seen too many bouncers cost girls money by being too gung-ho with handsy rude customers. The girls usually didn¡¯t need saving so much as for those men to be reminded that their actions had consequences and the girls were owned by the house, the men were just renting them. After that, they usually just paid and things went as they should with everyone satisfied.


    ¡°Leave.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± said the sailor, his eyes bulging from his head and his breath reeking of cheap wine.


    ¡°Leave.¡± Repeated Dantes pointing to the door. ¡°Exit¡¯s that way.¡± He brushed his coat to the side, and rested his hand on his dagger.


    The man eyed the dagger, and sized Dantes up.


    Dantes watched the man¡¯s eyes, waiting for him to make the choice. He was surprised when the man seemed to deflate again, shaking his head, and making his way for the exit.


    Dantes frowned as he watched him leave. He could¡¯ve sworn the man had made up his mind to attack him, but he¡¯d just spent a lot of time in the Pit. It was possible his read on people used to civilized society had taken a hit in that time. He turned back to Sera.


    ¡°You alright?¡± he asked.


    ¡°No. That dumb bastard wasted an hour of my time. He basically stole silver right out of my pocket,¡± she whined, her voice an octave higher than he¡¯d heard her before.


    Dantes nodded. ¡°You¡¯re a lot of men¡¯s type. I doubt you¡¯ll have much trouble getting another customer. The hostess spot is empty if you want it.¡±


    She nodded, and rose, making her way over there. She stood there with Dantes, her face originally neutral, then annoyed, then she crossed her arms.


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    ¡°You should have beaten him.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I should¡¯ve?¡± asked Dantes with a crooked smile.


    ¡°He wasted our time, and manhandled me.¡±


    ¡°If he¡¯d actually hurt you, there¡¯d have been a beating, but he didn¡¯t. It¡¯s not good business.¡±


    ¡°Decker would¡¯ve done it¡­¡± she muttered.


    ¡°That¡¯s his prerogative,¡± responded Dantes with a shrug. She was clearly picking at him just to vent her own frustrations. It reminded him of when he¡¯d watch the smaller children at the whorehouses his mother worked at for a few coppers when he was young. He didn¡¯t expect a high level of maturity from a girl as young as Sera, and he expected it was likely that some men enjoyed her attitude as it was. Even in his limited time at the Vixen it was clear she was one of the top earners.


    That was proven again, when less than five minutes later she was pouting on the lap of a different sailor who seemed to have been immediately wrapped around her little finger. Dantes checked back in on Jacopo who he found to be in the middle of an intimate affair with a gray haired rat at which point he decided to give him his privacy.


    Dantes clenched his jaw and tightened his fist. He¡¯d gotten some information and started to realize the tools he¡¯d need for his revenge, but it wasn¡¯t enough. He¡¯d already decided that his first target would be Gaspard. He hadn¡¯t developed any new connections, and so Dantes had nothing to systematically take from him. He also may be the most willing to flip on the other former members of the gang considering their place in the world in comparison to his own. The only problem was finding him.


    ¡­


    The sun was high in the sky when Decker arrived with a grim expression on his face. The rest of Dantes¡¯ day of bouncing and watching the girls had been an easygoing affair with him only needing to remove one more patron for trying to deal in glamored coin, an old trick that he shouldn¡¯t have tried on either Dantes or Zilly who also felt the enchantment on them immediately and simply snapped one of them in two revealing them to be wooden coins. The academy student who¡¯d tried to use them was more embarrassed than aggressive when he was kicked out.


    ¡°I can take over Ed,¡± said Decker. ¡°Thanks for watching things.¡±


    Dantes shook his head looking him up and down. ¡°No, you seem to need a minute. Have a drink at the bar first. I can cover for a bit longer.¡± Jacopo was still making his way back and he wanted to travel with him once he arrived back.


    Decker gave a grateful nod, and went over to Zilly where he gave a very detailed wine order and Zilly gave him shit for it. Once he was done he came back to Dantes with a much less miserable expression on his face.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± he said with a polite nod.


    ¡°No worries. I just didn¡¯t want you to scare off any customers. Yer Dad okay?¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°Not particularly, but that¡¯s a problem for tomorrow.¡±


    Dantes nodded, and made his way out of the Vixen and back out onto the street. He had a few goals in mind before night hit. He wanted to hit the actual docks and see what ships were in the harbor. Zak had told him that Mondego had made peace with the smugglers and he wanted a clearer picture of what that meant. He also wanted to pay a visit to the guard office that Pacha worked at to see if he had any records of what he¡¯d determined about Mondego¡¯s operation. He stretched his neck, and arms, then flexed his fingers. It was going to be a long night. He felt a small temptation to simply turn around and return to the Vixen as a patron rather than an employee, but squashed that, and moved to an alley where he met Jacopo and let him crawl into his coat, taking his customary place in a large pocket in the back.


    Dantes followed the smell of saltwater as he made his way to the docks themselves. The buildings gradually turned from luxury goods and bars, to more practical stores, to factories and warehouses, dry docks tethered to the sea by a system of canals, and finally to the docks themselves. Each layer was rougher than the last as the streets grew crowded less by merchants and workers and more by dockhands and sailors. He saw a man having his throat slit in a dark alley, an open brawl between ship crews from opposing nations in the middle of a busy street being broken up by guards and a group of nearly thirty men singing a bawdy sea shanty as they hauled heavy freight up and onto a platform so that it could be lifted by crane.


    When the ships themselves came into view, he didn¡¯t even truly see them. Gazing instead at the vast open ocean beyond the edges of the city. It had been more than five years since he¡¯d seen that sight. He savored it for a few moments before looking at the hodgepodge of ships at the dock. He saw the usual glut of small fishing ships manned by locals, and a few of the Galleons manned by the guard. The rest of the dozens of vessels in view were from Drashus, Tymond, Visalia, and Frasheid. He shook his head, that was a fucking disaster waiting to happen, but that was how it always was at Rendhold. It was one of the only places that stayed neutral and would allow trade from any other nation. Even if those countries were all in active conflict with one another.


    He remembered sharing a meal with a sailor from Visalia once. She had been very impressed by the idea of eating rice, tomatoes, corn, and dodo in the same meal. Impressed enough to spend a bit of her shoreleave with him anyway. He took those things for granted as a Rendhold native. He¡¯d had access to the most varied mixture of goods of anyone possibly on the entire mortal plane.


    He began making his way closer to the docks when he felt Jacopo¡¯s presence in his mind.


    ¡°You¡¯re being followed.¡±

 Ch 63: One bite at a time

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    Dantes didn¡¯t react, simply continuing his walk as if he hadn¡¯t heard anything.


    ¡°How many?¡±


    ¡°Three.¡±


    He looked at the window of a nearby pub and took note of the three men following him in its reflection. One of them he recognized immediately as being the man he¡¯d had tossed out of the Vixen earlier in the day. Had he been following him for long? Or did he just happen to see Dantes when he¡¯d come to the docks?


    He shook his head. He needed to be more alert. He couldn¡¯t rely on Jacopo all of the time to watch his back. Still, it had been easier to keep track of things in the Underprison where following people relied on darkened alcoves rather than crowds of people that he was still getting used to again. Even once he regained enough favor to have groups of rats and roaches acting as his eyes and ears, he¡¯d still need to adjust his strategies to compensate.


    He sighed as he looked out across the ocean, making his way into the seedier areas closer to the water. A man escapes from prison and gets laid a few times and that¡¯s all he needs to start losing his edge. He cracked his neck. He¡¯d take this as an opportunity to sharpen himself.


    He broke into a run down the street.


    The three men tailing him began running after him once they realized what he was doing, drawing knives and clubs as they moved.


    Dantes wove easily through the narrow and busy streets. Feeling where people would and wouldn¡¯t be with the rat senses he¡¯d gained since his first transformation. He ducked down a few alleys, leapt over a cart full of dead fish, and scaled a fishmonger¡¯s thatch roof. Staying just slow enough that his pursuers could keep sight of him.


    Dantes saw, through Jacopo¡¯s eyes, one of them give up. Heaving heavily and leaning against a wall as the other two continued doggedly.


    Eventually Dantes ducked down an alley that was a dead end, at which point he shifted into ratform, and made his way with Jacopo calmly behind a pile of refuse.


    The two men were breathing heavily as they entered the alley.


    ¡°Where the fuck is he?¡± asked one of them.


    ¡°Stay calm. I¡¯m sure the ratfuck is here somewhere. Check the trash piles.¡±


    ¡°He kicked you out of the whorehouse. You check the trash piles.¡±


    The man shook his head. ¡°Fine you craven bastard.¡± He started to go from pile to pile. Giving each of them a quick stab with his dagger.


    Dantes and Jacopo scurried behind the other man who was watching with his arms folded. Dantes returned to his human form behind the man, while it was a loud and painful process for him, it seemed near silent for everyone else. He smashed the hilt of his dagger on the side of the man¡¯s head. There was a sickening crunch and the man crumpled, and Dantes grabbed his club as he went down.


    ¡°You!¡± yelled the other man as he whipped around to charge him with a knife.


    Dantes threw the club hard with his left hand forcing the man to dodge and briefly avert his eyes. In that moment, Dantes got within his guard and drove his elbow into the man''s ribs, then followed up with a slash at the arm that held his dagger


    The man nearly lost his grip on his own knife, but managed to keep a loose grip and slash at Dantes¡¯ face.


    Dantes dodged, receiving only a light slash across his nose. He took another step away to create more distance. He held his dagger up and pointed at the man. ¡°Is getting kicked out of a brothel really worth killing or dying over?¡± he asked.


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    ¡°Fuck you!¡± said the man, pushing forward with a few more slashes that Dantes managed to avoid.


    ¡°Man you really did need to get laid, huh?¡± said Dantes, lowering his dagger and leaving an obvious opening. ¡°I thought you sailors from Tymond just used your cabin boys for that sort of thing?¡±


    The man let out something between a grunt and a yowl as he lunged for the opening Dantes had left.


    Dantes stepped forward, rather than back, under the man¡¯s guard. He drove his dagger up through the man¡¯s chin.


    He stood there for a moment with a surprised expression balanced on the hilt of Dantes¡¯ blade.


    He tore his dagger free, and the man¡¯s body crumpled. Dantes knelt down and wiped his weapon on the man¡¯s jacket. The other one moaned from the heap Dantes had left him in. Dantes weighed his dagger in his hand. He could kill him, but there wasn¡¯t much point to it. He was a sailor, and would leave with his ship, dead friend or no. Still, it was better to be safe than sorry, so he quickly slit the mans throat. He took a moment to rob both of them, finding twelve silver and eight copper that he slipped into his jacket pocket.


    He reached out his senses to the nearby vermin.


    Fresh meat


    Dozens of rats and roaches began making their way for the lead sailor¡¯s corpse, then a few seabirds swooped down as well to fight the rats over the man¡¯s eyes. Dantes didn¡¯t have a lot of favor still, but that didn¡¯t mean he didn¡¯t have any options. He knelt down, looking at the nearest rat as it tore off the dead man¡¯s earlobe.


    ¡°Hey cuz, you and your friends answer some questions while you eat?¡±


    It shrugged. ¡°Questions? Answers? Yes.¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow,


    ¡°They¡¯re dumber up here,¡± said Jacopo within his mind. ¡°Much dumber.¡±


    ¡°The boats and storehouses nearby. What¡¯s in them?¡±


    ¡°Crates and barrels.¡±


    Dantes nodded, keeping his patience. ¡°And what is in those crates and barrels?¡±


    ¡°Most have food.¡±


    ¡°Red water is in some of them,¡± another said as he tore a bit of cheek off with his teeth.


    ¡°Hmm, do any of them have different things in the barrels and crates that are under those?¡±


    ¡°Some have sharp shiny things,¡± chimed another.


    ¡°Some have white powder.¡±


    ¡°One has black powder and long metal long tubes¡±


    ¡°I was on one with green leaves that made me hungrier when I ate them.¡±


    ¡°One just had small sticks and chewy squares.¡±


    ¡°Chewy squares?¡± asked Dantes.


    He felt Jacopo go through his mind for a moment. ¡°He means books.¡±


    Dantes nodded, thinking. So guns, dust, weed, tomes, and weapons. That was an ambitious haul to smuggle in. All of it, but dust could¡¯ve just gone in the normal way, but the fees were incredibly high to do so. Except for the tomes, why those would need to be smuggled in was beyond him. Dust was high risk not only because it was illegal, but because the majority of it was smuggled in over land by the Gatemen, led by the so-called ¡®little finger¡¯ of the five fingers. Moving dust by boat seemed like a sure way to piss him off. Did they know, or was Mondego working to take a piece of his market share?


    The weapons were likely for the adventurer¡¯s guild or the mercenary companies that occupied the lower east side. They were always in the market for cheaper steel. The guns could also be for them, or the dwarven enclave, and the books could only be for the Academy. All of that indicated a very strong ground operation. If Mondego was making a profit off of each item that was smuggled, that more than explained his success. The only question was how he had managed it. The fingers obviously stood to benefit as he likely paid up to each of them and assisted with their own smuggling, but the city itself was losing profit for every speck of dust and ounce of weed he managed to get in, and the city loved its gold.


    Dantes stood up and brushed off his coat. He still needed more information, but this was a good start. He now knew that Mondego had built up connections all throughout the city, and outside of it. Smuggling by boat had never been centralized before, but had rather been something that everyone had a small piece of. Taking full control of it was certainly a path to power, but with so many connections that had to be made to make it, there had to be weak points along the chain. Dantes just needed to find them.


    Dantes momentarily felt the temptation to do as Jacopo had suggested. Simply slip into Mondego¡¯s house and slit his throat while he slept rather than dismantle what was clearly a massive operation that spanned the docks, and flowed like blood to every other part of the city.


    He stood and nodded to the vermin as they ate. ¡°Enjoy your meal.¡±


    They were too busy eating to acknowledge him, and he walked out of the alley and started to head toward Midtown. He paused for a moment to look out at the ships at the dock. A leviathan hunter was coming into port, its quarry tethered to its hull, its skull already cracked open to gather the valuable fluids within. The rest of it would be processed for oil, its blood for alchemical sanguine that would be watered down depending on how pure you were willing to purchase it, its meat for food, and its teeth for scrimshaw.


    He smiled, remembering the one good piece of advice his father had ever given him.


    ¡®How do you eat a leviathan?¡± he¡¯d asked him with a crooked smile, his copper topped tusks gleaming.


    ¡°How?¡± Dantes had asked.


    ¡°Same way you eat everything else, one bite at a time.¡±

 Ch 64: Quick and dirty

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    Dantes skittered through the outskirts of Midtown with Jacopo, their small paws making little sound as they moved across the cracked and broken cobblestone streets. During the trek it had gotten dark, and a near full moon rose up over the high slum towers that lined the streets of midtown looking poised to fall. They didn¡¯t need to go through the center of the district, as the guard station for midtown was the only one located on the border of the district rather than in the center of it. Dantes had heard stories that when the guard did have a building in the center it kept getting burned down, or robbed. That had been very funny to him as a child, and it still brought a smile to his face as an adult.


    They wove through a few alleys, only stopping briefly so that Jacopo could make a meal of some rotten fish that must¡¯ve fallen off a cart coming up from the docks. The guard building was a simple thing, an ugly square of concrete with barred windows and the winged sword insignia emblazoned on the front. There were clumps of excrement clinging to the outside walls, and someone had painted a mockery of the guard¡¯s symbol on a bare wall with a very different kind of sword between two wings.


    Dantes and Jacopo moved in a circle around the building, looking for a means of ingress, and eventually saw that one of the barred windows was cracked open just a bit. They moved across the ground lightly and scrambled up the wall. Guard buildings usually had alarm spells built into them, but those were for humans, not rats. He only hoped that this one didn¡¯t have the anti-rat enchantment that Jacopo had run into.


    Luckily, as they squeezed inside, they didn¡¯t run into any invisible walls of force. The building was dark, and they found that they were in the sleeping quarters of the building. There were more than a hundred beds, but only about twenty were occupied. Small numbers made sense to Dantes. The midtown guard was basically a punishment, and he¡¯d heard of more than a few choosing forced labor over completing their guard contract if they worked there. That being said, twenty seemed even slimmer than usual. Had they been diverted to watch the underprison? Or was there something else going on that had led to their slimmer numbers?


    Dantes moved under the beds, and searched for an exit, eventually finding a door that led to a large hallway. He and Jacopo began searching the building room by room. They ran into a few other rats and roaches in the kitchen munching on a loaf of bread, they found a weapons rooms full of the standard issue swords as well as crossbows and even a few wands, and finally they found a series of small offices near where the front office would be. In one of them, the light was still on. Dantes had a feeling that was the exact one they needed to search.


    He and Jacopo moved toward the lit room, finding the door to be just slightly ajar. They scurried inside, and saw Pacha at a desk, writing. The desk was standard, and the office layout was the exact same as all of the other offices were. With a desk in the center, one chair behind it and two in front of it. There was a series of shelves across one of the walls filled with papers, and a small enchanted shell on the desk meant to communicate or receive communications from others who possessed one. While the other offices were filled with small knick knacks, openly displayed pornography, sketches of loved ones, or other such materials, this one was bare of any ornamentation. The spare surfaces were filled with papers and documents. The shelf on the wall was meticulously organized, and one of the walls contained notes, pictures, and lines connecting them with red yarn. Seemingly a way for the man to organize his thoughts.


    Dantes took a closer look at the board. It was hard to make out the top from where he was in the small office, but the bottom corner he could make out contained gang members and leaders Dantes recognized from before he¡¯d been thrown into the pit. The sketches of the leaders were familiar, with the majority of them having been crossed out, and the few that were left connected with string leading up the board higher. Dantes risked moving toward the center of the room. He expected to see a sketch of Mondego at the top, but was stunned to instead see councilman Argenta at the very top. Mondego and the string that connected to him were all the way on the bottom left corner, taking up only an eighth of the wall.


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    This guard wasn¡¯t just trying to clean up Midtown. He was trying to clean up the entire city of Rendhold. In Dantes¡¯ mind that made him a complete fucking lunatic. He was also a surprisingly good artist, as all of the sketches were incredibly well done.


    ¡°Fucking rats,¡± said Pacha, noticing him and throwing a paperweight in his direction that he narrowly dodged.


    Dantes scurried out of the room, and took cover in a small gap between the floor and the wall in a nearby office. He wanted to go through what Pacha had thoroughly, and he wouldn¡¯t be able to do that as a rat. Particularly not while the man was in there himself. That meant he would need to wait until he left.


    Jacopo grew immediately impatient, and wandered back toward the kitchen.


    Dantes stayed there for an hour, listening to the soft writing of a pen the entire time before he decided that he too was getting bored, and there was no reason to sit idly and wait for the man to leave.


    He began exploring the other offices more thoroughly. Shifting back into being a human long enough to pocket the odd petty coins that the higher ranking guards kept in their offices. He had to stop himself from pocketing a few bottles of rye, and some food they had left over. Those things may have been a hot commodity down in the Underprison, but on the surface they didn¡¯t have the same kind of value. He did find a confiscated wand, one man¡¯s wedding ring that had clearly been tossed at a wall in anger, and a small store of weed in one of the desks. In other cities he¡¯d heard that illegal goods that were found were often stored in large warehouses for long periods of time, but in Rendhold confiscated goods were almost immediately sold to merchants in lots for resale with the city pocketing both the profits of that sale and the taxes that were collected when the merchants themselves sold the goods. Except for in the case of dust, which was either burned or went mysteriously missing. Dantes wished the Rendhold guard stored things that way.


    He shifted back into rat form and slid back out into the office hall, moving toward Pacha¡¯s office. It was nearly midnight, and the man was just leaving the office, sliding a key into the keyhole and locking the door.


    Dantes approached the door, and moved to slide underneath the door as he had the others, but found that he couldn¡¯t. The door was differently sized than the others. He looked back at them, and noticed that none of the others had locks either. That was interesting. He looked around and saw no one, so he shifted back into his human form sliding the makeshift lockpicks from the prison in the door. It wasn¡¯t a complicated lock, and he heard the satisfying click of it opening after only a moment.


    He pushed his way inside slowly, keeping his senses focused, particularly on the tips of his fingers, if they tingled then there was likely a magical alarm or ward of some kind, but there was no such thing. He closed the door, and re-lit the candle that had just started its well earned rest on the desk. The wall that had been covered with information was now obscured by a cloth. Dantes slid it to the side. Names, ranks, places, all of it was there on the wall. Dantes crouched down and began taking everything he wanted from the corner with connections to Mondego. Notes, pictures, all of it. He kept it organized in a neat pile as he worked. Once he was done he went through the desk, and the shelves for anything else that looked relevant, and shoved all of it into his pack. He also helped himself to a fine stiletto with a clean black handle and its sheath. Once he was done collecting what he wanted he tore down everything that was on the wall, scattered all the papers from the shelves, and carved ¡°Stop, or else¡± into the desk.


    It was quick and dirty, but for a highly focused guard he thought it was a solid provocation that could only help his own purposes. He shifted back into a rat, and called for Jacopo to meet him back at the same window. They reached it without trouble, and landed on wet streets, running their small paws through puddles on their way back to the docks.

 Ch 65: Midtowner born and raised

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    It was very late when Dantes made it back to the Vixen, but not so late that it had closed for the night. He shifted back into his normal self in an alley a few blocks away. It took longer than it had the last few times, and was more painful. When it was over he collapsed, breathing heavily with sweat dripping across his body. That was the longest time he¡¯d been in ratform, and apparently it came with consequences. He took a quarter hour to steady himself, but when he stood it was on shaky legs that took another ten minutes to calm. When he felt ready, he exited the alley with Jacopo comfortably in his pocket.


    The street was busy with sailors and drinkers lining it and having a bawdy time. A bard was singing the old ¡°What do you do with a captain¡¯s daughter?¡± song, though he¡¯d added in a few very creative lyrics to the mix which a small crowd seemed to be truly transfixed by.


    Dantes walked into the Vixen to see Decker, and one of the whores he hadn¡¯t yet met. A broad shouldered girl with a plain face that was made striking by bright purple hair that fell in waves down past her shoulders. She had to have some kind of gnome or fey in her somewhere up the line, but aside from the hair, there was no other indication that she wasn¡¯t human.


    ¡°Hello ser.¡± she said with an awkward curtsy.


    Dantes held up a hand. ¡°You can save that, I¡¯m not a customer. I¡¯m Vera¡¯s guest, Ed.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. Sorry.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, you don¡¯t have to apologize.¡±


    ¡°Oh. Sorry.¡±


    Dantes stopped himself from reiterating and just gave her a small smile before sliding past her and making his way to the bar, exchanging a nod with Decker as he moved.


    Zilly was sliding a tray of drinks toward what looked to be a first mate that took the platter and made his way toward where his captain, and the other officers were seated with what looked to be the majority of the Vixen¡¯s employees.


    ¡°They¡¯re pirates. They captured a Viscent steam galleon,¡± said Zilly as he approached her, predicting his question before he even asked it.


    Dantes raised an eyebrow. ¡°They captured one?¡± Steam Galleons were the Viscents'' prized vessels. Massive military vessels that could move without wind and cut through the seas like a knife. He¡¯d seen only one, its black hull lined with cannons had left a distinct impression on him.


    He looked back over at the patrons. They were clean for pirates, clearly organized, but the idea of them capturing a Steam Galleon was hard to process.


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing the city bought it?¡±


    Zilly nodded.


    Dantes frowned. It was the city''s policy that they purchased captured vessels both from legal and illegal privateers in order to maintain the strength of its own navy. A lack of raw materials aside from the lumber outside the city¡¯s borders made that a near necessity. In this case it seemed¡­short sighted. The Viscent weren¡¯t exactly friendly to begin with, and buying their vessel didn¡¯t seem like the best idea¡­ Still, the city had managed to avoid war for more than a millennia, and the pirates'' profits were the Vixen¡¯s gain, so he chose not to concern himself with it.


    ¡°What food¡¯s in the back?¡±


    ¡°Clam soup, bread that¡¯s starting to go, and crab.¡±


    ¡°A bowl of soup, some bread, and some of whatever bottle of wine Decker had you open for him earlier today.¡±


    Zilly nodded, and poured him a glass, then went back into the kitchen, returning with a bowl of steaming soup with a torn off hunk of bread on the side. Dantes started by tearing a piece of the bread and using it to sop up the rich red broth before eating it and washing it down with the wine. Warmth spread through him as he chewed and swallowed it and he took a moment to close his eyes and thank the Lady of the Hearth. He wouldn¡¯t be taking good meals for granted any time soon. He slipped a full clamshell into his coat for Jacopo, before attacking the meal with gusto. His body craved the energy that the food gave him, and it wasn¡¯t until after his second bowl that his mind was able to concentrate on anything other than the food that was in front of him.


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    He reflected on his day. Attacked by a strange growling man at the Vixen, attacked by three men at the docks, and robbing the guard. A very full, but overall successful day. He could¡¯ve done without the attacks on him, but only one of them was really the result of his own actions, so he took that as a wash overall. His mind drifted to the dead leviathan, would it be possible for him to curry favor with something like that? It wasn¡¯t exactly like he could feed it, in fact he was fairly certain that no one even knew what they ate. Could he curry favor with them by destroying a Hunter, one of the boats they tracked and killed before bringing them back to process, or would that be too indirect? Even if he did have the favor of the Leviathan god, what exactly would he do with it? And would the mark it granted him just swallow him whole, leaving all of his skin looking like it was tattooed.


    He ate one more bowl, and had another glass of wine. The purple haired girl sat next to him, and made an awkward attempt at a sultry lean against the bar facing him.


    ¡°It uh, looks like the Vixen is at last call,¡± she said.


    Dantes looked around and saw the sailors finally pairing off, and heading up to the girls'' rooms. ¡°Looks like it,¡± he slid his food toward Zilly, along with a silver as a tip.


    ¡°Um, Alessa said that you helped her out the other day?¡±


    Dantes nodded, taking her meaning immediately and glancing at Alessa who blew him a teasing kiss that ended in a light cough.


    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°Caressa.¡±


    Dantes nodded. That was one of the fakest names he¡¯d ever heard. He sighed. He really needed to go through all of the information he¡¯d stolen, and start coming up with a more firm plan. He needed to stay focused.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve always thought of myself as the charitable sort,¡± he gave her a wolfish grin, his willpower weakened by a long day of effort. It was going to take some time to make up for five years. There was no reason not to enjoy what he¡¯d missed in the midst of getting revenge for missing it.


    ¡­


    Dantes stood over his pack, and began removing everything he¡¯d stolen from Pacha and laying it carefully out on the floor. He¡¯d sent Caressa back to her room with some silver and a bit of advice on leaning into her lack of experience rather than pretending to be something she wasn¡¯t. She¡¯d seemed to be receptive, but he had a feeling Vera had likely given her the same advice so who knew if it would take.


    He¡¯d been careful when he¡¯d taken the documents to make sure that they were sorted in such a way that he knew how to lay them back out. He started with the picture of Mondego, then came the picture of Mercedes, then he got to people he didn¡¯t know as well. They were a motley mix of orcs, dwarves, mutts, and even a few elves all scattered below him, and then mostly more mutts at the very bottom. He recognized a few as old gang heads who Mondego must have subjugated somehow, and below them were some other familiar faces. The majority of them near Mondego himself were brand new though, younger from what he could tell.


    He kept pulling out notes and pictures, and stopped when he reached a face he didn¡¯t recognize, but was familiar. Dark haired mutt with average features, his gray skin shaded in with charcoal. Between broad and skinny, with the eyes kept light. He flipped over the picture to see the name ¡®Dantes¡¯, written on it. He frowned. Had Pacha seen him at some point or was the sketch based on what other people had said of how he looked? He searched for the corresponding notes.


    Dantes


    Orc/Elf/Human/Dwarf (?)


    Former leader of Mondego¡¯s old gang. Currently in Underprison. Minor player, but sources indicate he is mentioned frequently by Mondego.


    Request input to have him located for questioning in the Underprison.


    Minor Player huh? Well, not for long. Though he once again wondered why Mondego was still mentioning him at all. He had paid to have the Consortium not help him to escape, and to keep him from communicating with the outside, and now this? It didn¡¯t make any sense. When you have someone thrown into a hole with no way out, the point is to never have to think about them again.


    He went through the rest of the notes, finding one near the bottom for Danglars, and below even that one he found Gaspard.


    Gaspard


    Orc/Elf/Halfling (Favors halfling)


    Cutthroat. Formerly in Mondego¡¯s gang. No mentions. Has been beaten attempting to speak to Mondego. Currently in hiding for killing a young woman in uptown. Asked the investigation to let me speak with him if he was found.


    Below that was a list of common haunts that Gaspard frequented. That gave Dantes places to monitor. There was a possibility that he had left the city, but that was unlikely. Just like Dantes he was a midtowner born and raised. He didn¡¯t know anything else.

 Ch 66: A silence hungry for words

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    Dantes came down early in the morning as he had the previous day. Creeping completely silently down the stairs and arriving to the sight of Zilly once again cleaning the floors. She was a very orderly sort. He¡¯d noticed how immaculate she kept her bar, and everything in the Vixen seemed to run on a schedule she set.


    Her ear twitched as Dantes arrived, she stopped her mopping, and gestured for him to follow her.


    He raised an eyebrow, but complied. Pausing only to slip off his boots so that he wouldn¡¯t dirty the freshly mopped floors. He met her in the kitchen where she seemed to be preparing another simple and portable breakfast for him. He waited patiently, watching her work. She was graceful, grabbing certain items without even looking at them, and tying up the food in a cloth napkin with a kind of simple grace he found captivating.


    He held out an expectant hand, but she just looked at him for a moment. Her gaze was neutral.


    ¡°You came back yesterday with a much heavier pack than you left with.¡±


    He shrugged. ¡°Had to buy a few things.¡±


    ¡°How does a deckhand afford to hire a whore at full price every night?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d been saving for quite some time. I did my best to avoid the vices of gambling while at sea, unlike my fellow sailors.¡±


    ¡°I haven¡¯t known many men who avoid gambling, but engage freely in whoring.¡±


    He smiled. ¡°I didn¡¯t say I avoided all vices, just gambling¡­and even that, just at sea.¡±


    ¡°Did you hear about the recent prison escapes? I started hearing about it the day after you showed up.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve always had shit timing¡­ Come back to my home city for the first time in five years, and all of a sudden the Underprison has a breakout.¡±


    Zilly¡¯s eyebrow twitched, she clearly wasn¡¯t buying a word he was saying. She handed him the napkin of food anyway. ¡°You¡¯re dangerous, I can tell. Vera wants you here, and I won¡¯t go against her, but if you care about her in the way she does for you then you should leave as soon as you can.¡±


    ¡°And here I thought you were paying attention to me for other reasons.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re too short for me.¡±


    He laughed, ¡°I¡¯ve heard a number of women say that to me over the years. I¡¯ve always been a climber though, most of them come around.¡±


    Her mouth almost twitched into a smile, but she kept her neutral expression up. ¡°I¡¯m not most women.¡±


    ¡°True, that I could tell right away.¡¯ He took her napkin and dropped his wry smile for a more serious expression. ¡°I don¡¯t intend to be here too long. Maybe a month. I¡¯ll do what I can to make sure any trouble I cause doesn¡¯t come to the Vixen or Vera. You have my word¡­for whatever that¡¯s worth.¡± He meant it. He didn¡¯t want a repeat of what had happened with Tel.


    She nodded, surprised at his brief sincerity.


    He smiled again. ¡°Thank you for the food. I¡¯ll be back for breakfast,¡± then he walked out of the building and began heading for his new garden.


    ¡­


    The next several weeks Dantes fell into a familiar pattern. He¡¯d wake up early to go and tend his garden which was growing far quicker than was normal, but also slower than his blood garden had developed. Still, hearing pleas for more water, or shade, or fertilizer were a lot easier to deal with than screams for blood. Since he couldn¡¯t rely on speed he decided to focus on scale. He bought fruits and vegetables from vendors all over the city, feeding himself, rats, roaches, and whatever else was interesting, and then taking the time to plant the seeds. He found three more sealed sections, and began to tend to them as well. It took less time to maintain with each visit, and he eventually began to see and feel new threads between himself and those gardens that grew stronger with each day. They still paled in comparison to the thick strand that connected him to the Underprison, but it was progress, and he started to see the first signs of fruit after only two weeks, which he immediately began offering to whatever nearby animals were interested. He also gifted Vera and the Vixen a number of flower boxes for each of the windows, all of which seemed to flourish and produce sublime fragrance due to his presence. Pleasant smells were a good thing to keep around a whorehouse.


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    His only disappointment had been his inability to grow weed. Every time he acquired a seed or two, he¡¯d take them to his garden and find them much too picky to plant. They seemed to have incredibly specific care needs, which likely explained why most of those he¡¯d known who grew them seemed to need to focus so much on their care. Still, Dantes saved the seeds with the hope that he¡¯d eventually have whatever insight he required to grow them.


    After he tended his gardens, he¡¯d arrive back at the Vixen for breakfast with Vera and the girls, then he¡¯d act as the bouncer until late afternoon when Decker arrived, typically in a sour mood. He would listen to the different sailors talk about how much this country or that pissed them off, or about how Rendhold would need to choose a side eventually in attempts to sound intelligent and impress women who cared far more for the coin jingling in their pockets than anything rattling around in their skulls. He¡¯d sometimes need to rough someone up, or calm someone down, but overall the early shift wasn¡¯t a lot of trouble, and he could follow along as Jacopo enjoyed his time in the city feeding, fighting, and fucking, though the third thing he tuned out.


    In the evenings he would go through the city in ratform with Jacopo, verifying the people, places, and deals that Pacha had put together in his report. He found gambling dens, warehouses for storing illegal goods, corpse disposers, guardsmen Mondego had paid off, hideouts, sub-bosses. Pacha was good at his job, and that made things all that much easier for Dantes. He also attempted to infiltrate Mercedes and Mondego¡¯s home, but found that it had been enchanted to block out vermin. He saw Mercedes leave the home only once, and never saw Mondego leave, though a number of the men in his employ frequented the building, often with chests full of his cut of all the profit that flowed in and out of Midtown.


    The more information he had, and the more favor he had, the easier it would be to start taking bites out of Mondego¡¯s fledgling empire. He¡¯d need other resources, and maybe even some muscle, but nothing beat intelligence on the enemy. With at least a marginal flow of favor in place he sent rats to monitor Gaspard¡¯s haunts as indicated by Pacha¡¯s information. He had no hits so far, but he was sure he¡¯d find him eventually. He wasn¡¯t smart enough to stay hidden forever.


    The last thing he did every night was return to his first garden a second time. He employed the same technique he¡¯d been using in the Pit before he¡¯d escaped. He¡¯d light a number of candles one by one using Tel¡¯s finger, and broadcast images of light to nearby moths and other insects. They would move toward the light, and once enough were gathered he¡¯d let the bats know that an easy meal was available. Once they were well into their meal, he¡¯d depart and head back to the Vixen for dinner, and he¡¯d end the day spending the night with whichever woman, or in some cases, women who hadn¡¯t had as much luck with their clients that they¡¯d have preferred. It was a true chore for him, but he persevered somehow.


    ¡­


    Dantes felt the tight press of warm bodies around him, and for a moment wondered how Tieara could be surrounding him from all sides. He shook his head, it was dark and he could hear a light chittering all around him, eventually he found himself able to understand small snippets of it..


    ¡°-roost too close to the entrance¡±


    ¡°-fruit. Blood takes too much to fill up.¡±


    ¡°-mate again soon.¡±


    He looked around, but couldn¡¯t make out any specific features of what was surrounding him, only that it was warm and, for the most part, comfortable. He tilted his head up, and realized that the ground was above him somehow. He blinked twice, trying to make sense of it. While he was pondering the floor, the chittering suddenly ceased and left behind a silence that was hungry for words. He felt movement, and could feel a parting of all of the warm bodies near him as something else approached. Waves of something beat against him gently like an unsteady breeze as something located and approached him.


    He felt cold and alone for a moment, and then, suddenly, a massive black shape flipped itself right side up, its feet grasping a piece of cave wall in front of him, and its enormous black wings folding around its body like a cloak.


    ¡°Hello, Dantes,¡± said the Bat god. It¡¯s voice was fine and clear, but for some reason it made his ears ring as he heard it.


    ¡°You¡¯ve heard of me?¡±


    ¡°My brother indicated to me that you may pay me a visit soon. I admit, I¡¯d thought it would be sooner than your visit to the roaches, but I suppose it makes sense for you to work your way up the food chain.¡±


    ¡°I simply wanted to show the proper deference,¡± managed Dantes, picking up on the bat¡¯s oddly noble method of speech.


    He gave a low satisfied hum. ¡°As it should be. Blessings from me to your kind are rare, many of them move straight to that which seems the most powerful, rather than the most useful. Now vampires and warlocks, they have the good taste to request my blessing early and often.¡±


    ¡°I apologize for the shortsightedness of my brethren.¡±


    The bat god bent down and leaned in close. His teeth were tiny in his mouth, but razor sharp, and his eyes were a bright and maddening yellow. ¡°Be careful. You don¡¯t want to take responsibility for a group you don¡¯t truly know.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Wise.¡±


    The bat god straightened himself out. ¡°Before I give you this blessing, you should know that it is largely due to my brother that you are receiving it. You will not always be able to receive a blessing simply by feeding a god¡¯s children. Many of us are pickier than that.¡±


    Dantes hadn¡¯t considered that, but it made sense. He¡¯d even noticed that the gains he received from the rats and roaches had increased when his garden was completed, even when they didn¡¯t seem to be actively eating.


    ¡°I appreciate your generosity.¡±


    ¡°You say that now,¡± he lifted his wings, and encircled Dantes with them, plunging him into total darkness. He felt a sense of complete nothingness for just a moment, and then a searing pain in his arm. He tried to pull it away, but the darkness around him seemed tangible, and held him in place. He felt the blood flowing from his arm and into whatever was causing the pain. He struggled, and fought, but his resistance grew weaker and weaker until he thought he had nothing left. Then he woke up.

 Ch 67: Fell into my knife

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    Dantes shot up, breathing heavily and covered in sweat. He looked around the room, sensed the flowers on his windowsill, Jacopo stirring beneath the bed, and a solitary roach nibbling on some small crumbs he must¡¯ve spilled as he¡¯d snacked.


    Tieara gave him a light kick with a short but shapely leg before turning back over and swiftly returning to heavy snoring.


    He silently left the bed and navigated to the bowl and mirror at the far end of the room. He took a small cloth, soaked it in cold water and pressed it against his face for nearly a full minute. He removed it, letting out a deep breath, and looked at his wrist. A few inches above his roach mark were two bat wings which were segmented into three pieces each. One of those segments was filled in completely with gold. Below that his rat and roach marks were roughly half full. He ran his fingers along the raised skin of each mark. Words, gold, violence, those used to be the only tools at his disposal. They were enough more often than not, but his druid abilities¡­real tangible power¡­that was something to be grateful for. He found himself muttering a short prayer to the mother, something he¡¯d heard some woman mutter while he passed her watering some flowers years and years ago.


    ¡°The dirt, the seed, the Mother. The life, the growth, the Mother. The withering, the rebirth, the Mother.¡±


    ''`You talking to yourself over there?¡± asked Tieara as she stretched and yawned. ¡°I know the weed we shared was strong, but if it makes you talk to yourself I¡¯ll keep it ta myself next time, Eddy¡±


    Dantes chuckled. ¡°I think the real trick would be to let me smoke more so that I get used to it.¡±


    She smiled and pulled a pipe from somewhere within the curls of her hair, and some weed from the pile of clothes she¡¯d left by the bed. ¡°I mean, I don¡¯t mind having an excuse to start the day right.¡±


    He grabbed Tel¡¯s finger from the nightstand and lit her pipe while she took a long inhale. He smiled, Tel would¡¯ve definitely appreciated being used in this situation.


    Dantes went about his usual business after that. Tending his gardens before returning to man the door at the Vixen until Decker arrived. He ate a particularly robust breakfast which between the smell that radiated off of him and the slight red tinge to his eyes, drew him some judgemental glares from Vera. He gave her a wide smile back in return. He certainly remembered her smoking more than her fair share of what was then referred to as Delirium''s Delight, but he decided not to bring that up in her house.


    Once he was done, he fell back into his usual routine as a bouncer. Shifting his focus between Jacopo and the rats he had watching Gaspard¡¯s old haunts. In the middle of a particularly slow hour, his hunt bore fruit.


    He was older, and far rougher than Dantes remembered. His dark brown hair had spots of gray, and his boyish halfling features seemed to have given way to a fresh batch of wrinkles. His clothing was dirty and full of holes, but that was nothing new. Even when they¡¯d made money from a job he¡¯d always preferred to spend it on booze, dust, women, and weed rather than anything more permanent. His eyes darted back and forth as he approached the ¡°Drowned Rat¡±, an aptly named bar in a low part of midtown near the docks that flooded every typhoon season. Gaspard looked like shit, reeked of fear and desperation, and didn¡¯t even know that at that moment, his death was sealed.


    Dantes broke contact with the other rats he was using to monitor Gaspard¡¯s other possible locations, and focused his attention on that one, willing the rat to follow Gaspard inside.


    Gaspard pushed open the front door slowly, and assessed the bar. There were a few people passed out in pools of their own filth, and the bartender himself sipped straight from a bottle as he plucked on a small, out of tune, lute. He saw a rat run in behind him, and attempted to kick it, but missed and could swear the damned thing made a rude gesture as it ran under a table.


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    Gaspard sat in front of the bartender, still glancing right and left, as if a guard would suddenly appear to throw him directly into the Pit.


    ¡°Want some booze?¡¯ asked the bartender, not looking up from his lute as he spoke.


    ¡°Uh, yeah. Whatever you have that¡¯s strong and cheap.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s everything here man.¡± The bartender looked up from his lute and raised his eyebrows. ¡°Oh shit! Gaspard! It¡¯s been awhile you piece of shit. Where¡¯ve you been?¡± He took a dirty glass from under the bar and filled it with something brown and strong.


    ¡°Just uh, laying low.¡±


    The bartender placed the drink in front of himself, but didn¡¯t slide it forward.


    Gaspard gave him a look.


    ¡°Come on. We both know I can¡¯t have a tab for you. You¡¯re a fucking dead man.¡±


    Gaspard ran a shaking hand through his hair and pulled two copper from one of his pockets. The bartender took the coin and slid the booze over to him.


    Gaspard drank the entire glass in a single motion, then slid another two coins toward the bartender for another.


    The bartender shook his head as he poured. ¡°Killing a highborn woman. Bad fucking idea man.¡±


    Gaspard swiped the full glass from the bartender, spilling a good third of it, and threw it back. When he was done he wiped his face with the dirty sleeve of his jacket.


    ¡°I fucking know that. I had a scam. A really fucking good one. It wasn¡¯t supposed to go that way. I was finally going to be fucking rich!¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I got a few different young noblemen to hire me. I¡¯d scare the woman they wanted to court, maybe steal a bit of jewelry, and they¡¯d swoop in and save them. I¡¯d earn a few gold, not to mention what I stole, and they¡¯d get a better chance at getting some highborn skirt.¡±


    ¡°Guess it didn¡¯t go right that last time?¡±


    Gaspard slid more copper his way. ¡°No. She fucking struggled, the dumb bitch. Basically fell into my knife.¡±


    ¡°All twenty times?¡±


    ¡°Well, the first one was her fault. Who gives a shit about the next sixteen.¡±


    ¡°Nineteen.¡±


    ¡°Whatever.¡± He slid more coin across the bar and slammed another drink, his nerves seeming to calm as he stopped looking left and right fearfully.


    The bartender served him a few more drinks, and gave him some gruel so vile looking that Dantes was sure that feeding it to the rats would cost him favor rather than gain it for him. Once he was done eating, the bartender spoke one more time.


    ¡°You probably want to clear out before the main crowd gets here. There¡¯s a bounty out for you. Those knuckledraggers will sell you out the moment they see you.¡±


    Gaspard nodded. ¡°Yeah¡­ good idea. Thanks Bierten.¡±


    ¡°No problem, you¡¯ve always been a good customer. Come back tomorrow at this same time. I¡¯ll feed you again.¡±


    Gaspard pushed himself away from the bar, and nearly fell off his stool. He steadied himself and walked slowly out and back onto the streets.


    The rat Dantes had been controlling wasn¡¯t quick enough to follow Gaspard out, so he switched his focus to a different one that he¡¯d moved to monitor the outside of the ¡°Drowned Rat¡±, and had it follow Gaspard. In the midst of that the bartender moved to one of the passed out regulars and gave him a firm kick to the ribs.


    ¡°You want free booze for the night?¡±


    The man, bleary eyed and unfocused as he was, still managed a desperate nodding to the question.


    ¡°Go down to the Midtown guard station and tell the guard there, Pacha, to meet me here.¡±


    Dantes broke his connection to that rat. Bierten was going to sell out Gaspard for the bounty. He seemed like a clever sort, Dantes made a mental note to remember that as he watched Gaspard slowly slink through the emptiest streets and alleys possible until he reached a seemingly abandoned building. He moved some board in front of it upward and crawled through a window.


    Dantes had the rat follow him. Inside Gaspard drunkenly stumbled through a few dusty rooms filled with broken furniture before collapsing on a dirty old mattress in the corner next to which was a half used candle and a small bag. He quickly passed out.


    Dantes smiled, his heart pounding. He had him. One of those that had betrayed him was within his grasp. As long as he struck that night, he¡¯d have him long before Pacha had any idea that he¡¯d missed him.


    ¡°Why are you smiling?¡± asked Sera, with a raised eyebrow. She was manning the door with Dantes as she waited on a client.


    ¡°Oh, I just thought of a funny joke.¡±


    Sera looked like she wouldn¡¯t bite for moment, then she let out a sigh when after another minute no one had walked through the door. ¡°What¡¯s the joke?¡±


    He chuckled. ¡°Well, a dwarven priest, an orcish carpenter, and a gnome sailor walk into a whorehouse early in the morning¡­¡±

 Ch 68: Just a chat

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    ¡°... And so the gnome sailor says to the orc, ¡®I¡¯ve never seen a man firmer in his beliefs¡¯.¡± finished Dantes with a smile.


    Sera¡¯s face contorted as she tried to resist laughing, but holding it back just meant that it came out with a loud snort that drew the stares of people nearby. ¡°That¡¯s a terrible joke.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what makes it funny,¡± replied Dantes with his mind''s eye still watching Gaspard drunkenly sleep. ¡°I learned that joke from Vera actually, heard her telling it when she thought I wasn¡¯t listening.¡±


    ¡°Really? I can¡¯t picture her telling a joke. A wry observation maybe, but not a joke.¡±


    ¡°You just haven¡¯t seen her drunk enough then.¡±


    Sera raised her eyebrows, and prepared to ask more questions when a large man in a dark red Tymond naval officer¡¯s uniform, along with the requisite mustache, walked into the Vixen. She swiftly amended her expression to something a little haughty, and he immediately asked to share a drink with her.


    The rest of the afternoon went by with little issue for the Vixen, which let Dantes obsessively watch Gaspard as he stood at the door, nearly vibrating with anticipation. The girls left him mostly alone as they swapped who manned the door with him. Usually they¡¯d make smalltalk, or even flirt a bit, but they could tell his focus was elsewhere and saw fit to give him his space.


    Decker didn¡¯t arrive at the Vixen until the sun was setting. He had a tired and miserable expression on his face, but this time Dantes ignored it, not letting him get his customary drink and instead quickly collecting supplies from his room, before collecting Jacopo in a nearby alley. Gaspard had started to stir in his sleep, and the building he was in would take more than an hour to reach by foot, or paw.


    He walked toward his destination until he was as close to Midtown as he was willing to risk as a human. He no longer felt any agitation at the large milling crowds in Rendhold¡¯s streets, and that day he didn¡¯t even see them. He simply moved, and the crowd parted from him almost instinctively, knowing danger when they saw it.


    ¡°This one will bleed today?¡± asked Jacopo, peering through the same rat¡¯s mind that Dantes was looking through.


    ¡°Oh yes.¡±


    ¡°No taking away from him? No complications?¡±


    ¡°He doesn¡¯t have anything to take. Except his life. The only thing he might offer to delay losing that is information on the others.¡±


    ¡°Good. Some sense. Finally,¡± muttered Jacopo mentally. Whether he meant good sense to the world at large or from Dantes himself, he didn¡¯t take the time to consider.


    At the edge of Midtown, Dantes shifted into the form of a rat and continued on his way. The pace was much slower than he wanted, but being recognized could cost him far more time.


    Gaspard finally woke up once Dantes was just under a mile away. He rubbed his bloodshot eyes and dragged himself to a bucket in the corner to vomit before swishing some water from a clear bottle and spitting it on the ground. He dragged himself to his bag then did a bump of dust, smacking himself in the face a few times to perk up. After that he laid on his dirty mattress and stared at the ceiling for a while, sipping occasionally from his water bottle and muttering curses, promises, and prayers under his breath.


    Dantes recognized that state. It reminded him of how he¡¯d been when he¡¯d first arrived in the Pit. Staying in a fugue state of alcohol and dust for as long as he possibly could, scraping by on favors and violence, falling asleep in pools of his own filth. He felt immense satisfaction seeing Gaspard that way. He looked forward to making him feel even worse.


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    He and Jacopo reached Gaspard¡¯s den shortly after nightfall. The moon was shining full and beautiful in the sky. Not hidden by the streetlights lit by Academy students, as bringing them to this part of the city would be far too dangerous.


    It was an old three story slumhouse. The brick it had been built of had long before started to wear down, with thick cracks lining each wall. Between those cracks Dantes could sense rats and roaches, who he began to rally and organize. The smell of rot and decay emanated from within the building, and Dantes slipped in as a rat next to Jacopo. Once he was inside, he shifted back to human form, and began placing his vermin strategically around the room.


    He pulled down his hood, and stepped into the room where Gaspard was lamenting his fate.


    He was so in the throes of his despair, that it took him nearly a full minute to see Dantes looming at the end of the room, his golden eyes glinting in the light of the nearly melted candle by Gaspard¡¯s bed.


    He started breathing quickly, sitting up quickly, and rubbing his eyes before blinking and looking at the water bottle next to him, as if wondering if he¡¯d accidentally spiked himself.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I¡¯m very real.¡±


    ¡°What the fuck!¡± said Gaspard, pushing himself up the wall and bringing himself to his feet, his eyes wide with fear.


    Dantes raised his hands. ¡°Oh no, don¡¯t be afraid, old friend. I¡¯m just here for a chat,¡± he lied, a smile on his face.


    ¡°Re-Really?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Just a chat. After that I¡¯ll leave you be.¡±


    Gaspard almost believed him, the tension beginning to leave his body, before it snapped back into him. ¡°I¡¯m not nearly drunk or high enough to believe that.¡±


    Dantes lunged for him. He kept his dagger at his waist. Gaspard was the only one of the gang that had been smaller than him, and he was confident he could overpower him, particularly now.


    Unfortunately, Gaspard had a trick up his sleeve. Out of it, he pulled a wand which he quickly sent his will through as he aimed it at Dantes.


    Dantes threw himself to the side at the last moment, and a ball of white energy blasted past him before hitting the brick wall behind him and launching both of them with concussive force.


    ¡°Fuck.¡± muttered Dantes as he stood up, and looked for Gaspard in the haze of dust and debris the wand had kicked up. He heard him bolt up the stairs, and then stillness. He cast his focus to a rat he¡¯d already placed there, and saw Gaspard sitting at the top of the creaky steps with the wand pointed downward.


    ¡°Where¡¯d you find a thing like that?¡±  yelled Dantes from below before he shifted into rat form and moved into a hole in the wall where he began climbing upward.


    ¡°Did a job for an academy graduate. Pushed a rival of his off a high balcony. I¡¯ve got plenty of charges on it to burn through too.¡±


    Dantes reached the second floor and shifted back into human form, creeping up behind him. He had rats make some additional noise near the bottom of the stairs to help mask his movements.


    Gaspard couldn¡¯t hear him. He could only hear his heart beating in his ears, and small bits of debris in his eyes were making it hard to see for him as well.


    Dantes lunged at him from behind, grabbing the arm that held the wand as he did so.


    Gaspard loosed another blast on the ceiling, but Dantes kept his grip strong, and when they landed on the ground he slammed Gaspards hand on the floor again and again until he released the wand which Dantes brushed away.


    ¡°Wait, wait!¡± yelled Gaspard as Dantes threw him into the wall. ¡°Please, I¡¯ll tell you anyth-¡±


    Dantes¡¯ fist hit his gut with enough force that he was thrown into the old brick wall behind him, and a cloud of dust came off of it. Everything went red. For a few moments, all of Dantes¡¯ plans, questions, and focus on the vermin around him dropped completely. He was all muscle, rage, and brutality and he rained down blows on Gaspard like a typhoon.


    Dantes barely managed to hold himself back from killing him, but when he¡¯d stopped Gaspard had spat up blood, and teeth. His face was a swollen and red mess, and his body had kept him mercilessly conscious.


    Dantes breathed heavily. His fists were covered in small cuts, and the bones in his knuckles felt as if they¡¯d cracked. The building groaned, as if the fight had been too much for its old frame to handle. Dantes grabbed Gaspard by leg and started to drag him down the stairs.


    Gaspard groaned as he bounced on them one by one. Dantes grabbed his bag, and then dragged him out into the alley. A light rain was falling, and Dantes pulled up his hood before he started to move down the alley, deeper into the dilapidated square of Midtown in which he¡¯d found himself. The building they were in had been falling apart, and they¡¯d made a lot of noise that might attract people, so he needed to move Gaspard to a second location.


    He looked at Gaspard¡¯s battered form and noted that he was finally unconscious. Jacopo rode on his chest, watching him for signs of struggle.


    ¡°You go ahead and nap for now Gaspard. We¡¯ll get you to your second location soon.¡±

 Ch 69: It would make us feel better

    Gaspard woke in the dark and for a moment, he wondered if he was dead. He didn¡¯t feel any pain, which was a stark contrast to how he felt when he¡¯d finally passed out. How he felt while Dantes was striking him. He tried to move, and found that he couldn¡¯t. The feeling of ropes on his arms and legs straining against him helped him to realize that no, he wasn¡¯t dead.


    A single flame appeared at the end of a finger of bone, and descended in front of him onto the tip of a candle that took to the flame easily, illuminating Dantes¡¯ dark form in the middle of a room almost danker than the one that Gaspard had just been sleeping in.


    ¡°I was worried you wouldn¡¯t wake up for a moment there. Good thing you had that potion I could pour down your throat.


    Gaspard cursed under his breath. That¡¯s why he wasn¡¯t in pain anymore. ¡°What do you want? Going to beat me near to death again?¡±


    ¡°Possibly. I have some questions I need answered first.¡±


    ¡°Why would I do that? You¡¯re just going to kill me anyway.¡±


    Dantes let out a cruel laugh. ¡°You think you¡¯re worth that effort? No, I have a contact on a Frasheid ship. Deals in slaves. I told him I could haul you in and sell you as an unmarked slave, no questions asked. Even offered me some coin since they¡¯re below quota.¡± Dantes was lying, but he savored the fear on Gaspard¡¯s face as he spoke. ¡°Or, I could turn you into the guard. The Pit is better than being a Frasheid slave. Hell, at least you can still get dust down there. It all depends on how you cooperate.¡±


    Gaspard tested his ropes again, trying to be subtle, but they didn¡¯t budge. Dantes had always been an expert with knots so he wasn¡¯t surprised. ¡°Fine¡­ask your fucking questions you piece of shit.¡±


    Dantes stepped toward him and gave him a light slap on the face. ¡°There¡¯s a good little halfling.¡± He leaned back and sat on a chair across from Gaspard, leaning just far enough that his face was lit by candlelight. ¡°My first question is why?¡±


    Gaspard swallowed. ¡°Why wha-¡±


    Dantes¡¯ glare stopped him from asking the obviously stupid question.


    ¡°Listen man, it wasn¡¯t my idea. It wasn¡¯t anyone¡¯s idea. After the job with the Dock Sharks safehouse, when you went to hide some of the haul for later and the rest of us went out to celebrate¡­ You remember that?¡±


    Dantes grimaced. He remembered sneaking away to be alone with a brick of dust he didn¡¯t want to share. ¡°Yes, I do.¡±


    ¡°We were hanging out, just smoking, drinking, at the Middle Child, the tavern.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Get the fuck on with it.¡±


    ¡°We got a weird fucking invitation. It had real gold on the edges and everything. A man in black gave it to us. On it was directions.¡±


    Dantes stayed quiet. Gaspard was a good liar, if he wanted to make something up he¡¯d have been able to come up with something much more believable than what he was saying.


    ¡°We followed them. Not sure why, but I personally couldn¡¯t even bear to take my hand off the invitation. It was like it had a hold of my soul.¡± Gaspard paused to lick his lips. He was staring at the flickering candle as he spoke, almost as if he was watching the memory play out in the flame. ¡°We arrived at a building near the Temple of the Many Gods. It was unmarked. When we went inside, there was a man there alone. His face¡­ It was made of gold.¡±


    ¡°Like a mask?¡±


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ¡°No, it moved like skin¡­ I could see a gold tongue in his mouth moving when he spoke to us. He offered us a deal. We¡¯d need to make a sacrifice, the larger the better, and in return we could have everything we desired¡­as long as gold flowed to him.¡±


    Dantes leaned further forward in his chair, realization hitting him. ¡°I was the sacrifice.¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­ and he was the one to suggest it. His words¡­ they had a rhythm to them. Like you could listen to them forever.¡±


    ¡°How did he know me?¡±


    Gaspard shook his head. ¡°It wasn¡¯t about you. Hells, it wasn¡¯t about me. It was about Mondego, Mercedes, and Danglars. He saw something in them, and the minute that he made the offer, any resistance they might¡¯ve had to it crumbled with only faint protests.¡±


    ¡°None of them spoke up? Not one of you questioned it?¡±


    Gaspard laughed, cruelty dripping from the tone of it despite his situation. ¡°What? You think we all loved you? Do you really not know what you¡¯re like? How bad you were after your mom died?¡±


    Dantes stayed silent.


    ¡°You had us take insane risks. Jobs we never would¡¯ve tried if you hadn¡¯t been there driving us forward. You were high on dust all of the time that you paid for by skimming from our profits. It was not a high price to pay, to get rid of you for the promise he offered.¡±


    Dantes clenched his jaw, his small tusks drawing a bit of blood on the inside of his cheeks. ¡°My mother had only been dead for a year. None of you ever said anything. None of you argued or disagreed with any of my plans. We were a crew, not a group of slaves, any of you could¡¯ve left whenever you wanted to.¡± Dantes spoke calmly. ¡°You cost me five years of life, doomed me to a hole without light, because it was easier to listen to the honeyed words of a strange man than it was to confront me.¡± He stood up from the chair.


    ¡°Wasn¡¯t my business to confront you. Mondego and your bitch should¡¯ve done that.¡±


    Dantes laughed. ¡°I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s why your life is shit and theirs are great? Because getting rid of me wasn¡¯t a big sacrifice for you?¡±


    Gaspard sneered. ¡°Probably. I¡¯d¡¯ve thrown you in the pit for a handful of copper and a warm beer.¡±


    Dantes backhanded him, but held back his full strength. ¡°Why didn¡¯t they kill me? There were chances both before and after I was in the Pit.¡±


    ¡°The man said it had to cut deeper than just death. They had to bring you to ruination. To take everything from you. Even hope had to be cleaved from your heart. He also said, it had to be gamble a risk. His god enjoys a a dangerous bet.¡±


    ¡°His words I assume?¡±


    Gaspard spat out a bit of blood, and nodded.


    ¡°What happened after that?¡±


    "Well, no one really committed to anything. We all thought we''d just think about it. Then the job with the carriage happened, and Mondego took the choice out of our hands. After that we had another meeting with the guy. We all shook his hand, and the three of them were marked. Their left hands, a ring of gold around their middle finger. They have to offer to the God of Greed to fill it, and they will continue to find their ambitions met and their desires fulfilled. Least that was what he told em."


    Dantes thought of the godmarks on his own body, and how they functioned. The blessings that they were. The only difference was that when his ran out, his luck wouldn¡¯t necessarily run out with them. For Mondego, Danglars, and Mercedes he bet the consequences would be much more dire. His mother had warned him of the God of Greed when he was younger. It was one of the few things she and his father had agreed on. The God of Greed could grant tremendous blessings, but each time you made an offering to him, it needed to be greater than the last one, and when you were no longer able to make your commitments to him and you found yourself skewered at the end of someone¡¯s blade, your soul would be his forever. To be counted like a coin, smelted into gold bars, or traded with the Hells.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t receive a mark?¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°No. The man simply gave me a pouch of gold and told me to help them along. I counted myself as the lucky one. Money in hand is always more valuable than vague promises.¡±


    ¡°Apparently not in this case, eh?¡±


    Gaspard gave a frustrated groan in response.


    ¡°When was the last time you heard from any of them?¡±


    ¡°I haven¡¯t seen Mondego or Mercedes for years. Last time we crossed paths I asked for a loan and they had me beaten. Greedy bastards.¡±


    ¡°And Danglars?¡±


    ¡°He got me out of some trouble when the guard caught me with some dust. He was always the only one of you all worth a damn.¡±


    ¡°What about the man with the golden face?¡±


    He shivered. ¡°No. And thank all the gods for that.¡±


    Dantes stood there, looking at Gaspard for a few moments. He¡¯d reached the end of his questions. There was nothing else he could learn from him, no other information he could get. In front of him sat a Mutt covered in his own dried blood and filth. There was no value in killing him. Even if he let him go, the guard would catch him shortly after. To go any further than he had, would be meaningless.


    ¡°It would make us feel better,¡± noted Jacopo, sensing his thoughts.


    Dantes smiled. ¡°That it would.¡±

 Ch 70: Sleep

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    Dantes poured what was left of Gaspard¡¯s healing potion over his knuckles, wincing as the bones in them resealed and the scrapes stitched together. He pocketed the other two potions that were left over, and patted the pocket he¡¯d stored the wand Gaspard had used in. He couldn¡¯t tell exactly, but it felt as if it had maybe two charges left in it. He¡¯d also found a small handful of gold. Between all those goods, the satisfaction of killing Gaspard with his bare hands, and the information he¡¯d gained, he¡¯d say it had been a great evening overall.


    He returned to Gaspard¡¯s corpse, which was being devoured by rats and roaches. Only his face being left alone per Dantes'' request.


    Excuse me


    The creatures parted at his warning as he grabbed ahold of the corpse and began dragging it through the house. He reached the front door and pushed it open to find that the slight drizzle had turned into a heavy downpour, thick dark clouds now obscuring the full moon he¡¯d been able to see earlier in the night.


    He appreciated the cover as he moved through the dark alleys until he reached the edge of a main street. It was clear, and the heavy rain was obscuring everyone¡¯s vision who might have been nearby. He tossed the body into the sidewalk, and started walking back toward the Vixen, the gears of his mind cranking. He wanted the body to be found, he hoped that between Gaspard¡¯s connection to Mondego, and the damage he¡¯d caused to Pacha¡¯s office, he¡¯d stir up some general trouble that he¡¯d be able to find some use for.


    Not one of the few people out in the rain so much as glanced in his direction as he walked away from the corpse. Just another Mutt with his hood up in midtown. It was comforting, but he also missed the attention he¡¯d received in the Pit. The glances, whispers, and parting of crowds as he moved through them. He¡¯d savored that¡­and he¡¯d taste it again.


    He walked through the streets until his jacket was nearly soaked through, Jacopo muttering light complaints of incoming water. He was nearly halfway back to the Vixen when he felt a chill climb up his spine. Every single hair on his body began to stand on end, and his heart began to beat more quickly as his breath quickened.


    ¡°There¡¯s a predator of some kind nearby,¡± sent Jacopo, crawling to sit on his shoulder, his head poking out next to Dantes¡¯ own in the hood of his jacket.


    ¡°A mugger maybe? Some kind of street thug.¡±


    ¡°No. Something not human.¡±


    Dantes was about to ask for clarification when a howl pierced the roar of the rain and shook him down to his soul. He looked around, with both his eyes and his senses. No one was on the side street he was walking through except for him, though he thought he saw a shifting shadow on a nearby rooftop, but it was gone before he could make sense of it. His other senses spread out gradually, and he quickly found that while there were still roaches aplenty, all of the smaller animals and birds were gone. He sent his senses out further, and felt a sudden intense pang in his chest, as if an icicle had been driven momentarily into his heart. He had to stop himself from breaking into a sprint and running.


    He took a deep breath, and began to summon his will, sending roaches out in a search pattern from where he was as he walked. He started to gather rats and bats to rally to his aid as well, but he could feel a tangible resistance from them, as if their fear was overriding his will as he sent it to them. Still, he pushed and started to feel them approach.


    Before his roaches could find anything, the beast that was following him made itself known. Dantes heard rapid wet footsteps approaching him from behind, and whirled around to the sight of a massive black shape in mid-air about to strike him.


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    He was hit, and flew backwards skipping across the cobblestone street like a stone. He pulled his dagger from his belt and tried to stand, when a second creature, this time a dark gray, knocked him back down. Dantes had never seen wolves before. Dogs, certainly, strays lined the streets of Rendhold, but never wolves. Still, he had no doubt in his mind that¡¯s what he was facing.


    Dantes stayed down this time, reaching into one of his internal pockets as he pretended to be unable to stand. One of the wolves approached him cautiously, and once it was less than a yard away from him, he pointed just the tip of the wand he¡¯d just looted from out from under himself, and sent his will through it.


    A blast of white energy blasted the gray wolf. It barely managed to keep it from striking it in the snout, taking the blow to the shoulder instead.


    Dantes rolled and stood up, aiming the wand at the other wolf and firing the last blast from it.


    Forewarned by what had happened to its companion, the black wolf dodged the blast nimbly before lunging for Dantes.


    With the wand drained, Dantes struck out with it wildly, managing to jam it in the wolf¡¯s mouth, stopping it before it could clamp its jaws down on him.


    Momentarily free of both wolves, he sent a surge of will through all of his marks, and sent everything he could at both of them. The rats, roaches, and bats that he¡¯d been gathering all began swarming the wolves.


    Dantes¡¯ instincts were screaming at him to run while they were distracted. A kind of prey-like instinct in his gut telling him that fighting was a bad idea. He fought that down. The best way to address this problem would be to take care of it at that moment. He drew his dagger, and ran to the nearest wolf. He found himself letting out a kind of roar as he charged.


    He buried the blade deep in the black wolf¡¯s haunches and it let out a loud howl as dark blood began flowing from the wound.


    Dantes felt the moment that the favor in each of his marks all emptied at nearly the same time. Making the vermin attack something that they feared like the wolves clearly cost far more favor than even having them attack humans.


    Dantes left the dagger where it was, and started running away with the rest of the vermin. He became a rat to quickly scale a nearby building and began leaping from rooftop to rooftop, Jacopo clinging to his shoulder as he moved. It was hard work, sopping wet, but since he was out of offensive options, escape had become the focus.


    He spared a few thoughts for why in the fuck he was being attacked by wolves in Midtown. They hadn¡¯t even given him a chance to communicate with them. He couldn¡¯t sense them, and now he was running from them for dear life. Was this something he¡¯d missed in the last five years? Were street wolves a new menace no one had bothered to warn him about?


    He heard howling, and the heavy thumping of paws behind him. He risked a look back to see both wolves leaping from rooftop to rooftop behind him. The black one, whose leg he¡¯d stabbed just moments ago seemed completely unharmed.


    He could feel himself getting exhausted. His limbs began to feel as if they were filled with lead, and he nearly slipped off of a particularly high rooftop. He pulled old shivs from each of his sleeves as he turned around on a particularly narrow rooftop. He¡¯d make a stand on the edge. Only one wolf would be able to follow him one at a time, and if he could make it lose its footing it would fall down and die in the alley below.


    He looked at the wolves, and realized they¡¯d stopped moving. Black and grey, obscured by the rain, the wolves simply stood there. They weren¡¯t looking at him, but rather the sky above him.


    He looked up, to see the shape of a massive bird with a wickedly curved beak briefly silhouetted by a lightning strike. It dove toward him.


    He ducked just before it hit him, and pulled up. When he looked behind himself where he expected to see it, in its place was a bear. Much like wolves he¡¯d never seen one in person, but he had seen one''s head mounted at an inn. This one seemed much bigger. It was completely white, with black eyes that matched the sky behind it and claws bigger than his head.


    Dantes held up the shivs defiantly. ¡°You¡­ you¡¯re druids right?¡±


    The bear regarded him with pitch black unblinking eyes.


    ¡°Why are you doing this?¡±


    The bear¡¯s eyes seemed to glow, and Dantes felt in his mind a single command from it.


    Sleep


    He began to collapse, but held on slowly stepping toward the bear with the shiv¡¯s raised.


    SLEEP


    It repeated. His eyes closed and he angled his fall with the shivs pointed, hoping they¡¯d find a target before he lost consciousness.

 Ch 71: Dantes the Druid

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    Wane brought down the axe with a grunt, taking a piece of the root that was attempting to sneak into the space closer to the maw. The root bled red, and began to shrink back. On either side of Wane were other collared with axes. They¡¯d been pruning the garden back in shifts for days, but it was still spreading, and every few days someone else wouldn¡¯t return with the rest of the group.


    Wane took a few steps away from the hungry, twisting roots, and pulled a flask from his belt. He took a long sip of water. He knew that was all he was going to be able to have for the afternoon, but gods did it feel good to feel its chill spread through him.


    ¡°Wane! Good to see you alive,¡± said Orebus, approaching from the tunnel behind along with three other men carrying crude axes.


    ¡°Time for a shift change?¡±


    ¡°That, and Merle was looking for you. Lose anyone?¡±


    Wane shook his head. ¡°No, it wasn¡¯t too bad this time. Maybe the Kobolds are getting the worst of it on their side.¡±


    ¡°Hope not. They¡¯ve been the only ones really helping.¡±


    Wane looked at a root trying to be subtle by wriggling across the ceiling. ¡°Care for a gamble?¡± he asked Orebus.


    Orebus laughed. ¡°You really miss that dice set you lost, eh?¡±


    ¡°You have no fucking idea.¡±


    He chuckled again, his muscles rippling as he did so. ¡°What¡¯s the bet?¡±


    ¡°You and your boys will be pushed¡­¡± Wane took Blud¡¯s old axe and carved a line near the center of the cavern they were in. ¡°Here, by the time we relieve you again.¡±


    Orebus scratched his chin. ¡°What¡¯s the bet?¡±


    ¡°I still have a bit of the weed that Clay gave us for protection. How about you cover my shift tomorrow if I¡¯m wrong.¡±


    Orebus nodded and held out his hand. ¡°Deal.¡±


    Wane shook the offered hand, then he and the men he¡¯d been with began their walk back toward the Undermarket, all three of them covered in sweat and exhausted. Wane hoped he won that bet, he wanted a damn break, and unlike Merle and his closest followers, he didn¡¯t get some sick thrill out of sore muscles and an exhausted body.


    The Undermarket was packed and miserable. It had the same stench that the Maw used to have on supply drop days. As the garden had spread it had forced more and more people toward the Maw, but not quite into the Maw itself. The tree hadn¡¯t shown any signs of eating anyone yet, but the red leaves on it matched the garden and people weren¡¯t eager to test their luck. Not to mention the dozens of guards sitting up at the top of it with crossbows.


    He walked through the tent and shack city to the old Consortium building that the Collared had taken when the majority of the small fucks hid in the deeper, smaller tunnels where they would be safe. Taking most of their supplies with them. He spared a hateful thought for Pillion who¡¯d disappeared with them. If he hadn¡¯t led them to the garden, if they hadn¡¯t started that fight and spilled all that blood at once¡­ well it was impossible to say that that¡¯s what had started the garden¡¯s violent spread, but the timing was certainly suspect.


    The Collared guard pointed at him as he approached. ¡°Merle is looking for you.¡±


    Wane sighed. ¡°Alright, alright.¡± He just wanted to lay down a bit, maybe thumb through the old grimoire Tel had left to him. He found himself regretting his hesitation at climbing the tree for the hundredth time since Dantes had left.


    He walked through to the conference room and stepped inside. He found himself walking into the middle of a conversation between Merle, Syn, Fel-Tak, and Iron. He stood awkwardly at the door until Merle silently signaled for him to take a seat behind him.


    ¡°We will share our food supplies with those you leave behind. We can enter the garden unimpeded and gather fruit as we need. Or forage deeper in the Underprison. The garden has no interest in us¡­our blood offends it.¡± said Syn in the form of a dwarven woman in a leather vest and businesslike boots, her hair color shifting between black, gray, and purple as she spoke.


    ¡°That should help those unable to climb. The cripples, the old, the weak,¡± said Merle, gripping a piece of metal that he bent and unbent with each squeeze.


    Iron snorted, adjusting his eyepatch with a three fingered hand. ¡°We should just distribute that food to everyone making the climb. We¡¯ll need the fuel more than they will here.¡±


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    Fel-Tak smiled a sharp tooth grin. ¡°This one wonders if you would feel the same had you lost just one more finger?¡±


    Iron glared at him.


    ¡°The tools. The hooks, and cloaks. How are they coming?¡± said Merle, defusing.


    Fel-Tak looked at Merle. ¡°The color of the cloaks nearly matches the color of the tree and we have all of them we¡¯ll be able to make. Many will need to go without.¡±


    ¡°And the hooks?¡±


    ¡°We had plenty of metal thanks to Iron in the chamberpot,¡± said Fel, his smile not dropping even as Iron gripped the blunderbuss at his hip.


    Merle sighed. ¡°We only have to get along until we''re topside. Let¡¯s hold off on it until then.¡±


    Iron took his hand off the gun. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Once I¡¯m topside the first thing I¡¯m going to do is find that Mutt that did all of this, stick my gun in his mouth and pull the trigger.¡±


    Merle and Syn exchanged a glance.


    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s everything I think we need to discuss. We make the climb in two days. Keep trying to get more people in on it. The more people, the harder it will be to stop us all.¡±


    Fel-Tak nodded, and left the room, his white scales reflecting the candlelight inside as he moved. Iron followed him with a respectful nod to Merle, and a scowl to Syn.


    Syn moved to close the door, changing into a long legged elf to make it take just three strides instead of five. When the door latched, she shifted into a halfling to more comfortably fit into a smaller chair next to Merle and Wane.


    ¡°You wanted to see me?¡± asked Wane, willing to bet that this was about Dantes.


    ¡°We had some questions for you¡­ about Dantes.¡±


    Well, hopefully he didn¡¯t waste any of his luck on that internal bet. ¡°I¡¯ve already said everything, haven¡¯t I? I told you what he told me about the garden, about his warning. All of it.¡±


    ¡°But how did you feel about what he told you?¡± asked Syn, leaning forward intently, her eyes shifting between red and orange in such a way that they reminded Wane of a crackling fire.


    ¡°Sad, I guess. We were about to bury Tel. I definitely got the impression he was trying to help me¡­ help us. Like he was trying to pay off a debt to us before he left.¡± Wane paused. He hadn¡¯t had time to really examine his feelings, with everything that had been happening, but he realized he didn¡¯t hate Dantes. He had the feeling that Dantes didn¡¯t know what would happen when he left.


    Merle brought his hand to his beard and began stroking it. ¡°What were you thinking just there?¡±


    Wane raised his eyebrows, but told them.


    ¡°That¡¯s what I wanted to know. Of those of us left, you knew him the best, but you still weren''t aware of his abilities until his escape. If he knew the fate he was leaving us to, we would need to know, but you don¡¯t feel he did?¡±


    ¡°No. Why give us those other warnings like he did? Why help us before he left the way he did, if he had it out for us? Or didn¡¯t care?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ I trust your word.¡±


    ¡°I told you. Dantes didn¡¯t know. His powers are completely new to him,¡± said Syn.


    ¡°Syn, no offense, but you¡¯re not the most trustworthy person, and you¡¯re clearly biased toward Dantes.¡±


    Syn didn¡¯t respond, but her eyes shifted to a stormy gray.


    ¡°I¡¯ll heed your view on this in mind, but I¡¯d like to speak to my man alone.¡±


    Syn smiled and nodded, shifting into a Kobold as she left the room.


    Merle sat there silently for a few moments, then he stood. ¡°Do you know why I¡¯m in this prison?¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ I¡¯ve heard some rumors.¡±


    ¡°That I changed someone into a chicken and ate them?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Well, that is what happened.¡±


    Wane chuckled, before seeing Merle¡¯s face and realizing he was completely serious. ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yes. We¡¯d had an argument, we were both professors on the Academy board and I¡¯d proposed softening the ranking exam. Changing it from a full week to just four days.¡±


    Wane nodded. The ranking exam was the final test all students at the academy took. A full week in a room taking a series of magical exams. It was enchanted to make it so you needed no sleep, no sustenance, no physical relief, and the professors rotated constantly with different requirements. Your score determines your place in the academy or what you¡¯d be licensed to do outside of it. Wane had performed thoroughly middling, but he¡¯d just been glad he¡¯d gotten through it at all. There were windows in that room, and magical nets for catching the students that jumped¡­ the nets didn¡¯t always work though. Four days would still be brutal, but by the fifth day it was really only a test of endurance, not actual skill or talent.


    ¡°Why are you telling me this?¡±


    ¡°I want you to know that I don¡¯t regret it and I thought that he tasted delicious and had served a far better purpose in my stomach than he ever had in life.¡±


    Wane simply sat there quietly. He doubted Merle was done talking.


    ¡°What I¡¯m trying to say is it was perfectly justified to throw me down here. Hells, most of us deserved this punishment, but we¡¯re all going to try and make the climb in two days because it¡¯s not about what we deserve, it¡¯s about what we want.¡± Merle stood, the small chair he¡¯d been on creaking in relief as his weight was removed from it. ¡°Do you know what I want?¡±


    ¡°Another chicken?¡±


    Merle smiled. ¡°I want to get my people out of here, get these collars off of our necks, and cast spells again. More than that though, I want to make some changes in the city. Big changes. I think Dantes could be helpful there. A druid¡­ their powers are unique, largely unknown even in the academy. I know we have some people that would rather see him dead¡­¡±


    ¡°You want me to persuade them.¡±


    ¡°That or tell me who they are so I can. Just among our own people. I don¡¯t expect us to soften anyone elses¡¯ hearts on the matter.¡±


    ¡°I can do that.¡±


    ¡°Good. Now, if you¡¯ll excuse me, I¡¯m going to see if there¡¯s anything heavy enough outside to give me a decent workout.¡±


    Wane nodded, and then left the building. His stomach growling from the talk of chicken. He looked out over the huddled remnants and survivors in the Pit. He¡¯d heard how they¡¯d talked of Dantes since he left. He was spoken of alongside names like Gideon Gallant, Tristan Two-lives and The Green Blight. He¡¯d become a legend. Most called him Dantes the Deceiver, some called him the Climber or even the Destroyer. Only those who knew a thing or two about the world outside of Rendhold, a world where green was the dominant color instead of gray, and you were more likely to see tigers than stray cats, knew what his name should truly be. Dantes, the Druid.


    END OF BOOK 1

 Book 2 Ch 1: Mondego, sir

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    Zak, Jayson, and Jayk sat on a too soft couch in an opulent parlor listening to the sounds of a man being beaten to death in the other room. They looked at the gaudy gold and purple curtains, the richly brocaded furniture, and the thick and heavily patterned carpet. Independent of one another the different pieces could be considered beautiful, but together they created a maddening mix of patterns that created a cacophony of visual noise. Jayk noted it immediately as the kind of thing that happened when someone with no taste very suddenly had lots of money.


    Jayson scratched his leg absently. The wound he¡¯d received from the crossbow bolt had been healed, but paying for discount healing had left him paranoid that something was still wrong with it. He sipped the cup of tea that the maid had prepared. It was flavorful, but had been sweetened too much for him to tell what specific notes he was picking up. He shot the maid a smile.


    ¡°It¡¯s quite good.¡±


    She nodded, keeping a neutral expression.


    Zak leaned on the edge of the couch at the far end. His eyes set on the door from which heavy thuds, whimpers, and the occasional scream were ringing out. He clenched and unclenched his fist as he sat there, finding himself reaching for the sword that had been at his waist only a half hour before when he¡¯d surrendered it at the front door to the manor.


    The sounds of the beating ceased, and heavy footsteps came to the door before it swung open. The man who pushed it open moved over to the maid, who had picked up a silver tray, and he removed the brass knuckles from his hands, letting them fall onto the tray with a clang. They were covered in blood and hair.


    The man then moved to a nearby desk, opening it and pulling a cigar which he lit, and enjoyed a long inhale of before putting up a cloud of silver smoke. He slicked back long blonde hair as he walked toward the couch. He was wearing a black silk shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and dark gray pants held up with brown leather suspenders. He was large, with clearly orcish ancestry, but his face was oddly boyish and youthful, only showing his age when he furrowed his brow. He sat on the couch across from them, and took another inhale, holding it with his eyes closed for just a moment before letting out another large cloud of smoke.


    ¡°Sorry about the wait. I had to deal with a FUCKING idiot and it was too pressing to wait.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s no problem, Mondego, sir,¡± said Jayson.


    ¡°Idiots are an enormous problem actually, but of course you meant your waiting.¡± He took another inhale. ¡°Cigar?¡±


    ¡°Yes, please.¡± said Jayson, Zak also nodded, but Jayk held up a hand to indicate he wasn¡¯t interested.


    Mondego snapped his fingers. ¡°Give them a couple of the cheap ones. The ones from Frasheid.¡±


    She nodded, and left, returning with two cigars which she lit for both Jayson, and Zak. As Jayson inhaled, he realized it was the nicest smoke he¡¯d ever had.


    ¡°So, Bane told me that you boys are escapees from the pit. That true?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    He nodded slowly, then he leaned forward, any sign of affability completely fading from his face as he fixed them with a glare that could bore a hole in concrete.


    ¡°How did you escape?¡±


    ¡°A tree grew in the middle of the Maw. When we saw it, we started climbing. The guards had no idea how to rea-¡±


    Mondego held up a hand for him to stop. ¡°That¡¯s enough.¡± He looked at what appeared to be a half black, and half gold ring on his middle finger. ¡°Before you escaped, did you ever encounter someone named ¡®Dantes¡¯?¡±


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    The three of them exchanged glances.


    ¡°Yes,¡± said Jayson. ¡°We met him a few times.¡±


    ¡°Describe him to me.¡±


    ¡°Uh, he was a Mutt. Dark gray skin, black hair, gold eyes, not quite average height, too big nose.¡±


    Mondego nodded, clenching and unclenching his fist. ¡°He was alive when you left?¡±


    ¡°Far as we know¡­¡±


    ¡°And did you ever work with him? Would you call him a friend?¡±


    Jayk shook his head this time. ¡°We did do a job for him. Beat up a gnome. Wouldn¡¯t call him a friend. He acted like he was too good for us. Refused to work with us because of what we called ourselves.¡±


    Mondego continued to glare at them in silence for a few moments. ¡°Do you know if he escaped too?¡±


    Jayson shook his head. ¡°No idea. We were mostly just focusing on ourselves.¡±


    Mondego leaned back. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t be lying to me, would you?¡±


    Jayson eyed the door that Mondego had just come through. He wasn¡¯t lying, but he was certainly being careful about how he told the truth. ¡°No, sir.¡±


    Mondego nodded. ¡°Alright. I¡¯m putting you under Yrilet for now, at the docks. She needs extra muscle down there for some big shipments we¡¯ve got coming in.¡± He stood and started unrolling his sleeves. ¡°Ask my man Trinner that brought you here, and he¡¯ll take you to her.¡±


    ¡°Um, should we tell Bane, sir?¡± asked Jayson.


    Mondego gestured for his maid to bring him his coat, which she needed to stand on a stool to hold up for him to slip on. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t be a reason to. I just finished beating him to death.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ We¡¯ll report to Yrilet right away.¡±


    ¡°Please do, and if you hear anything about Dantes getting out, or anyone else, you come to me immediately. Unless you¡¯d prefer to wind up like Bane.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir.¡±


    ¡°Good. Now get the fuck out of here. I have more important people to see.¡±


    The three of them quickly left, and headed back out for the street.


    Mondego stood there, chewing on the end of his cigar more than smoking it. He looked at the maid. ¡°Send a message to the Temple. I want that bastard here now.¡±


    She nodded quietly, and left the room.


    Mondego stood there alone in silence for a moment before sending his will through the steel ring in his right hand and summoning his morningstar. He let out a primal yell and smashed it into a dresser. In one strike it was in splinters, all of which bounced harmlessly off of him. He dismissed the mace, returning it to where it was stored.


    ¡°Someone get the fuck in here and clean this up!¡±


    ¡­


    Trinner had turned out to be more interested in visiting his favorite whore, and so had left Jayk, Jayson, and Zak with some slapdash directions to where Yrilet was. They walked through Midtown together as they made their way to the docks.


    ¡°We¡¯re sure this is the right call? I mean, telling half truths and playing things close to the chest¡­ this could fuck us in the long run,¡± said Jayson, stepping around a dust addict scratching himself in the middle of the alley.


    ¡°So could committing fully one way or the other. We know that Mondego hates Dantes, we know that Dantes hates Mondego, we think Dantes escaped, and now both of them have reason to trust us in regards to the other.¡±


    Zak drummed the hilt of his sword as they walked. ¡°I don¡¯t see why we couldn¡¯t just join up with the adventurer¡¯s guild¡­ or one of the merc companies¡­ or even just sign up to serve in the Navy. Shit''s going to get bad here.¡± He looked around at the dingy wet streets. ¡°Things are already bad here. We can just leave.¡±


    Jayk shook his head. ¡°Everywhere is bad, but this is the place to be. All we have to do is keep working for Mondego. Eventually Dantes will come for him, and that pretty wife of his.¡±


    Jayson let out a high pitched whistle. ¡°Shit, I¡¯d be bitter about losing a piece like that too.¡±


    Jayk nodded, ¡°Right? Anyway, as I was saying, he¡¯ll come for Mondego, and when he does we¡¯ll be perfectly positioned to pick a side. We betray whichever one of them we think is going to lose, and wind up in a way better position than where we started.¡±


    ¡°Unless we fuck it up and make the wrong choice,¡± countered Jayson.


    ¡°Well, no plan is perfect. I just think it¡¯s our best chance.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d rather stick with Dantes,¡± said Zak simply. ¡°Mondego seems like an asshole.¡±


    Jayk shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Mondego is what he is, but Dantes is harder to read. I think I¡¯d prefer to go with someone whose intentions are obvious.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll just have to vote on it when we get to that point¡­ though I do worry about betting against Dantes. He seemed to be on the losing team every time in the Pit until he wasn¡¯t. Hard to gauge that,¡± said Jayson.


    ¡°Not to mention he¡¯s a fucking mage,¡± added Zak.


    ¡°We don¡¯t know that he¡¯s a mage¡­ but he¡¯s definitely got something fucking going on. Even just having a contact that¡¯s a magic seed guy is a boon of a sort¡­ if highly specific.¡±


    They walked in silence for a bit longer, the smell of sea air starting to hit them as they reached the edge of the docks. They started passing sailors, fish carts, and rough bars as they got closer to the warehouse that Yrilet was supposedly in.


    ¡°You know, I think we¡¯ll like working in the docks better than Midtown,¡± said Jayson as they passed a cart full of rotting and fly-covered fish.


    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡± asked Jayk.


    ¡°Smells better.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 2: The weak and the tainted

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    Dantes drifted in and out of consciousness for some amount of time between thirty seconds and five hours. He had flashes of consciousness in which he saw streets, abandoned buildings, and an old haggard tree that he could swear he watched two wolves walk into and after that there was just an overwhelming sense of green. When he fully regained consciousness he found himself tied to a tree. He looked around to see nothing but dirt, wood, bushes, and branches. He panicked for a moment before realizing that Jacopo was in a small net next to him, also attached to the tree, but still fast asleep. He started to test the strength of the vines he was tied down with. As he pushed against them he realized they weren¡¯t tied down¡­ they were simply wrapped around him, and as he struggled, they tightened to limit the amount he could move.


    He considered changing into a rat, but before he could, he heard a noise, and turned his head to see two wolves emerging from the woods to his right. One of them was dragging the bloody and battered corpse of a dead deer. As it walked toward him it slowly shifted from being a shaggy black haired wolf, into a tall naked man. He had tattoos across his chest that looked like wolf paws, as well as one that looked like a crescent moon. His hair was down, but Dantes recognized him as the man that had grabbed him at the Vixen only a few weeks before. He clenched his jaw, he should¡¯ve realized that there was something else going on with the man. He¡¯d even forgotten that the man had warned that he¡¯d be coming for him on the next full moon.


    The man dropped the dead deer on the ground, his mouth covered in blood and a bit of viscera. He looked at Dantes expectantly, as if expecting some sort of reaction.


    Dantes had a number of questions. Why had the man kidnapped him? Why was he tied to a tree in the woods? How did they get there? But in the lingering haze of whatever had put him to sleep and his disorientation there was only one question he could actually get out.


    ¡°Why are you naked?¡±


    The man blinked, he had not expected that question. ¡°I was in wolfshape.¡± he said as if that explained it.


    ¡°So? When I¡¯m in ratshape I keep my clothes.¡±


    The man opened his mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by the landing of a massive white eagle holding three rabbits in its beak. It dropped its prey, and shifted slowly into a second man. This one an elf with broad shoulders and long white hair that barely contrasted almost translucent skin that was absolutely covered in golden tattoos, too many to actually identify which animals they were meant to represent. He was also naked.


    He turned to Dantes. ¡°You really don¡¯t take to my sleep ability well, do you? The amount of times I¡¯ve had to will you to sleep would make an elephant comatose for a week.¡±


    Dantes had no idea what an elephant was.


    ¡°The deviant says he keeps his things with him when he changes shape.¡±


    The elf frowned. ¡°Hmmm, that is very odd.¡±


    Dantes looked at the two naked men that had just changed from animals to people and still had fresh blood coating the edges of their mouths. ¡°Yes¡­ I¡¯m the odd one. Excuse me for implying otherwise.¡± Dantes could feel his wits returning as he sat there. ¡°You¡¯re druids, right?¡±


    The white elf nodded.


    ¡°Why did you kidnap me?¡±


    ¡°Because you need to be initiated,¡± answered the elf.


    ¡°And an invitation wouldn¡¯t have sufficed?¡±


    ¡°You refused your first invite. It¡¯s too dangerous to let an uninitiated druid wander without guidance. You¡¯re a risk to yourself and your locus. You could do irreparable harm. Blood rituals, accidental spread of disease, preservation of one species over another. We had to bring you in.¡± as he spoke, the man began cleaning and gutting the hares he¡¯d just brought down. The other man leaned over the deer carcass, eating it raw.


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    Dantes noted the inclusion of blood rituals on the list, but decided to err on the side of caution and find an indirect way to ask for more information later. ¡°I didn¡¯t realize I was being invited. It seemed more like an attack at the time.¡±


    The elf looked at the man shoving raw deer meat into his mouth next to the gray furred wolf that Dantes guessed was bound to him in the same way he was Jacopo.


    ¡°How exactly did you approach him?¡±


    ¡°Grabbed him. Told him to come with me. City was too noisy, too smelly, too different. Made me feel bad. Couldn¡¯t even detect life there. Wanted to leave as soon as possible.¡± he spoke between mouthfuls.


    The Elf put his hand on his face. ¡°Mother, grant me patience.¡± he muttered under his breath. He looked at Dantes. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. He was raised by wolves and doesn¡¯t have a lot of experience with cities and manners.¡±


    ¡°That was clear. Why send him at all?¡±


    ¡°He was the closest. No one else could forest walk there until the full moon. The trees in Rendhold are too weak to transport to otherwise. If he¡¯d convinced you to leave the city it would¡¯ve saved a lot of time and lessened the risk you posed.¡±


    The wolf druid spat. ¡°Don¡¯t need to explain things like this to prey.¡±


    ¡°How¡¯s your leg?¡± asked Dantes, recalling that he¡¯d buried a dagger in him the previous night.


    He growled.


    Dantes ignored him. ¡°So, you wanted to initiate me and give me a heads up on a few things. He fucked up the normal invitation, so you came to Rendhold to drag me to it forcibly?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Where are we now?¡±


    ¡°The Veridian Expanse, or Abbe Forest if you''re elvish.¡±


    Dantes blinked. ¡°I have no idea where that is.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s in the center of the continent. Roughly¡­. Five months travel from Rendhold.¡±


    ¡°Five¡­months.¡± Dantes felt his mind prune a number of options for escape and combat from his mind in an instant.


    ¡°Well, five months by flight anyway. We got here in moments of course. It¡¯s only been half a day.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I¡¯d figured.¡± He sat there for a few moments. ¡°Will we be able to transport back the same way?¡±


    ¡°Yes. In fact, we¡¯ll show you how to do it yourself.¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow at that. Teleporting great distances in an instant¡­ now there was a useful power.


    ¡°No we won¡¯t,¡± said the wolfman with confidence. ¡°He is not worthy of that and the conclave will agree with me.¡±


    ¡°We are too few to be so picky when a new brother arrives, Murk.¡±


    ¡°Better to be dead than to accept the weak and tainted, Traizen.¡±


    Dantes listened quietly, doing his best to absorb what he was hearing. It wasn¡¯t exactly the subtle innuendo of practiced politicians trading barbs, but he stayed focused on it anyway. He had a strong feeling that he needed every advantage and scrap of information he could hold onto.


    ¡°Any chance you can release these vines?¡± asked Dantes. ¡°I don¡¯t have a reason to run, especially since I¡¯m so far from Rendhold. Besides, I want to know more about what it means to be a Druid.¡± He was being sincere as he spoke. He¡¯d been wanting more guidance on being a druid for quite some time. This wasn¡¯t his preferred way of learning, but he¡¯d take what he could get.


    ¡°Oh, certainly.¡± Traizen made a gently sweeping gesture toward Dantes and Jacopo, and the vines constricting both of them loosened.


    Dantes stood, and brushed himself off, then picked up a still sleeping Jacopo, and placed him in his jacket. ¡°Will he be alright?¡±


    Traizen nodded. ¡°Of course. I just had to put him to sleep when we were halfway here. He attempted to free you, and attacked Murk as well.¡±


    Dantes smiled, and gave his pocket the same friendly pat he¡¯d give it when it was full of a particularly good haul of pickpocketed jewelry. ¡°Thank you,¡± he sent the thought to Jacopo. It was likely selfishly motivated, after all they were connected at the soul, but he still appreciated the gesture. He felt some slight movement in the pocket, but Jacopo didn¡¯t wake up.


    ¡°So, what does this initiation entail?¡±


    ¡°A pool, a tree, a full moon and the stars.¡±


    ¡°Vague. No schooling beforehand? I have questions.¡±


    ¡°Well-¡±


    ¡°No.¡± interrupted Murk. ¡°He won¡¯t be initiated. He will not be given the sacred mysteries.¡±


    ¡°If he¡¯s not going to be initiated then it won¡¯t really matter if I answer a few questions, will it?¡±


    Murk frowned and cocked his head. ¡°No¡­¡±


    Dantes stayed silent during the exchange. It was immediately clear to him that if he wasn¡¯t initiated he would be killed or at least reduced in some way. He got the distinct impression that the Druids didn¡¯t talk to people very often. The elf may have been attempting to be subtle, but to Dantes they were two of the most open books he¡¯d ever seen. It was like seeing a whore saying, ¡°Pay me for a fuck¡± at a brothel instead of, ¡°Join me for a drink¡±. Their feelings were written openly across their faces and body language. Not to mention another obvious indication that they really seemed unsocialized.


    ¡°I have a few questions, but before we do anything, can I ask a small favor?¡±


    Murk said no and Traizen said yes at the same time.


    ¡°Would you both mind putting on some pants?¡±


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 Book 2 Ch 3: This is all that remains

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    Dantes followed behind Murk and Traizen as they walked through the Veridian Expanse. Dantes had never been in a forest before, and found himself overwhelmed by it. The trees ranged wildly in size from small bushlike things, to some that seemed almost as mighty as the Mother¡¯s Reach he¡¯d planted. It was somehow both quieter and louder than Rendhold ever was. He found himself twitching and jumping at the sounds of frogs croaking and crickets rubbing their legs together. In Rendhold he¡¯d slept through murders going on three feet from his door, and the sounds of pub brawls just a hallway away. He attempted at one point to extend his senses out, but was immediately overwhelmed and had to pull back. It reminded him of when he¡¯d first gotten out of the pit, and was overwhelmed by all the new life around him, only multiplied a hundredfold.


    He heard a snort from Murk.


    Dantes said nothing. Instead he tried again, but this time he expanded his senses more gradually. Moving them further and further outward. When he got overwhelmed he¡¯d pull back, but then he¡¯d try again and make it just a bit further.


    The elf gave him a strange look, but continued leading the way. He¡¯d been kind enough to put on some blue pants and a matching shirt. They looked finely woven, but old and well worn. Dantes would guess they were a nobleman¡¯s clothes if they weren¡¯t so dirty.


    Murk, on the other hand, had shifted into the form of a wolf rather than put on clothes. He wove through the roots and bushes with the gray wolf next to him, where they occasionally brushed up against one another.


    Dantes felt overheated and uncomfortable. Trying to train his senses took his mind off of it, but it was too much novelty too quickly. He considered removing his jacket, but the constant brushing of branches and brambles against him made that an equally unpleasant option.


    ¡°We teleported through trees right?¡±


    ¡°Right.¡± answered Traizen.


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you take us straight there?¡±


    ¡°Are you familiar with the saying about the needle and the haystack?¡±


    ¡°No. Is that like finding the gnome at the halfling bar?¡±


    ¡°Possibly. This forest is large, and moving to it from a distance makes it hard for one to choose exactly the right place at which to arrive. We¡¯re only about another two hours away though¡­ Unless you can shift into something flying?¡±


    Dantes looked at his woefully underfilled batmark. ¡°Afraid not.¡±


    Traizen nodded. ¡°Walking it is then.¡±


    They continued in silence for a while longer while Dantes continued processing and organizing his thoughts. ¡°So, Traizen, are you not bound to another animal?¡±


    He looked back, smiling. ¡°Oh, I am, but we share a body and soul completely now.¡±


    Dantes looked at him questioningly, but he didn¡¯t seem to pick up on it. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Her physical form passed on, so I took her into myself. We are one now,¡± He patted a gold filled tattoo on his chest with an open palm as he spoke. The tattoo was the largest of them on him. Dantes had no clue what animal it represented, but whatever it was was big.


    ¡°That sounds unpleasant,¡± sent Jacopo to him. ¡°The idea of being one like that.¡± Jacopo shuddered a bit in his pocket. ¡°Vile.¡±


    ¡°Glad you¡¯re awake. This isn¡¯t exactly the kind of situation I want to be in alone.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s selfish of you.¡±


    ¡°Yes, but it¡¯s also true.¡±


    ¡°These three are strong. Separate we could¡¯ve beaten them, but together¡­ we will need to break them from each other.¡±


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    Dantes sent a mental summary of everything he¡¯d picked up on from the two druids so far.


    ¡°Hmm. Useful. We stick it out then?¡±


    ¡°For now, but we should be ready for anything.¡±


    Jacopo gave a grunt in confirmation and climbed up Dantes¡¯ arm and onto his shoulder.


    ¡°Good morning rat. Sorry I put you to sleep for so long,¡± said Traizen toward Jacopo.


    Jacopo cocked his head. ¡°I understand you,¡± he said this out loud, rather than through a mental connection.


    ¡°Yes. I can speak with all animals, not just those that I¡¯ve received a blessing from.¡±


    ¡°Useful,¡± said Jacopo, mirroring Dantes¡¯ own thoughts.


    ¡°You mentioned before things I¡¯d need to be warned about. Spreading disease, favoring one kind of animal, blood magic. Care to elaborate?¡±


    Murk growled, but Traizen ignored him. ¡°Well, you may not know this, but there are many diseases that can be spread between animals, plants, and people.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Yeah, yeah, they quarantine blocks in Rendhold when that happens. Wait for things to burn themselves out.¡±


    ¡°You have the power to encourage things to go places they might not normally go. Make certain populations mingle that shouldn¡¯t. I¡¯ve seen entire forests wiped out. Whole colonies of penguins, and mammoths killed because disease that wouldn¡¯t have spread if not for an ignorant Druid flexing her new power¡­ or even spreading disease intentionally.¡± Traizen¡¯s expression grew grim at the last line.


    ¡°So, I¡¯m guessing favoring one kind of animal over another can have an impact like that too. You start making lions leave deer alone, and soon the lions are starving, but the deer are everywhere causing problems?¡±


    ¡°Exactly.¡±


    ¡°And blood rituals?¡± asked Dantes. He¡¯d danced around it to avoid placing suspicion on himself, though he wondered if they would¡¯ve been savvy enough to pick up on that. He also wondered if Murk had noticed the Mother¡¯s Reach he¡¯d grown in the center of Rendhold. He hadn¡¯t mentioned it.


    ¡°Perhaps the most dangerous thing a druid can do, but one that is instinctually granted to us by the Mother. The use of your own blood to grow, control, or bind animals and plants. It is acceptable to use on the one you¡¯re bound to, but otherwise it is incredibly unstable and dangerous. The hunger for blood and life just grows, and they eventually begin to seek it outside of the druid¡¯s control. It is also risky for the druid, you are bound to everything in your locus that you contribute to. Your strength, energy, will, all come from what and how you cultivate it. Eventually, your life becomes bound to your locus. When you use blood magic, you are binding yourself far more tightly, putting your own life at risk if what you have cultivated comes to harm.¡±


    ¡°Interesting,¡± he responded, as the blood drained from him and his mind began to rapid fire ways to mitigate and respond to the damage he may have unwittingly done. He had told Wane how to monitor the garden. It was possible that they¡¯d been providing it enough blood to keep it content. After all, it had only been a month, there was a good chance he¡¯d be able to get them a warning or some other information if he could locate a Consortium contact. There was another part of his mind that began turning to ways he could use blood rituals intentionally to his own benefit. Sure there was a risk, but there were definitely use cases where it would be worth it. He couldn¡¯t even say he regretted his use of it so far, it hadn¡¯t been as if he¡¯d had much choice.


    Dantes continued following, much better able to ignore the heat with new information to focus his mind on. Eventually, they reached a large clearing at the center of which was a small lake, and in the middle of that lake stood a mighty tree. He could feel the tree''s presence radiating through everything around him, and he realized that much like himself and the chords of energy he felt weaving their way to the living things he grew, the tree was connected to everything in the expanse in the same way. He noticed something else as they got closer to it. It almost looked as if it had a face.


    He saw movement, and turned his head to see a woman with dark skin and flowing black hair swimming through the lake alongside a massive scaled beast that reminded Dantes strongly of a leviathan, except it was much too small and seemed to have legs rather than flippers, and green scales rather than blue ones. He also saw a young male gnome with azure hair sleeping on the branch of the tree with a large cat of some kind curled around him. Finally, he noticed two women, one of them braiding the hair of the other, while two large falcons sat perched nearby. Both of the women were at least partially elven, and tall with auburn hair, and purple eyes. They, and their falcons, were twins from what he could tell.


    ¡°Looks like we aren¡¯t the last to arrive. I don¡¯t see Coal, or Morgan,¡± said Traizen, primarily to himself, as they walked into the valley.


    Dantes looked around at the motley crew that was assembled. ¡°Not as many as I expected.¡±


    Traizen shook his head sadly. ¡°There used to be more. That said, we¡¯ve never been a very large brotherhood.¡±


    ¡°Is this just all the Druids that are nearby?¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°No. This is all that remains on the continent.¡±


    Dantes looked over the seven that were assembled. He didn¡¯t know much about geography, his studies mostly consisted of his mother and Vera insisting he knew his numbers and letters, but he did know that Cargus, on which Rendhold sat at the northwest end, spanned an enormous part of the mortal plane. He¡¯d once heard a sailor say that a man could be born on one end of it, and if he started walking at that moment he¡¯d be an old man by the time he made it to the other side. This was far fewer than he¡¯d expected.

 Book 2 Ch 4: Plans to initiate. Old friends to kill.

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    As Dantes walked into the glade, he could feel the attention of the other druids slowly shift to him. The woman in the lake was the first to approach, pulling herself out of the water, with her strange creature in tow. She was nude at first, but then some kind of green plant spread across her flesh until it covered her like a dress, even weaving its way through her hair until it was pulled back from her face. He found himself a bit disappointed by that. She was much nicer to look at than Traizen and Murk. If she¡¯d been the one to retrieve him, he¡¯d¡¯ve been slower to mention her lack of clothes.


    She circled him for a few moments, and he could feel the attention from her eyes going up and down him.


    ¡°This one reeks of cities and smoke.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°I haven¡¯t exactly had a chance to bathe since I got here.¡±


    The twins approached next, their birds taking off from the ground and drifting in a lazy circle around the glade.


    ¡°I sense that he favors the little ones-¡±


    ¡°-The things that live in the cracks-¡±


    ¡°And slip through the dark places.¡±


    The twins'' voices were the same, and as they spoke they continued one another¡¯s sentences seamlessly. It was mildly disconcerting, but he¡¯d seen stranger.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s good for someone to be more interested in the little guy for a change,¡± said the gnome with a smirk. He was standing behind Dantes, though he hadn¡¯t sensed him moving or arriving there. The massive cat that was with him was gone, but now there was a snake twisted around his body, its head peeking out from the gnome¡¯s blue hair.


    ¡°Everyone, this is¡­ You know I never did get your name.¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter,¡± said a once again human Murk as he walked toward the lake and dove in head first.


    Dantes ignored him. ¡°I¡¯m Dantes,¡± he said with a smile and an inclination of the head.


    ¡°He smiles without meaning it. A deceiver,¡± said the dark skinned woman astutely.


    ¡°It¡¯s the way of things where I¡¯m from to smile even if you don¡¯t mean it. Helps to put people at ease.¡± He followed her with his eyes as she continued to circle him. ¡°We also have a habit of exchanging names.¡±


    ¡°Lorna,¡± she said. ¡°And this is Beast.¡±


    He looked at Beast. Up close he reminded him more of a Kobold, but larger, fatter, flatter, and scarier. ¡°He¡¯s a handsome guy.¡±


    Lorna squinted. ¡°True.¡±


    Dantes turned his attention to the twins.


    ¡°She is Fern.¡±


    ¡°She is Ivy.¡±


    ¡°They are Cloud, and Wind,¡± they spoke the third part in unison, and the falcons gave out cries from above them that made Jacopo flinch slightly.


    Dantes looked at the gnome. The snake had transformed again and was now some kind of ferret, rolling around in the grass.


    ¡°I¡¯m Fizz, and that¡¯s Thing.¡±


    Dantes watched as Thing changed form again, this time into some kind of amalgamation of a duck, and a beaver. ¡°An apt name.¡±


    ¡°We thought so,¡± said Fizz.


    Dantes turned his attention back to Traizen. ¡°So, you said we¡¯re waiting on two more, but when do we do the initiation? Or decide on it?¡±


    ¡°We will decide once they arrive, and the initiation will occur when the moon is high.¡±


    ¡°And, how is it decided? A majority? A vote.¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°No. You must convince us all.¡±


    Dantes looked at just those who were there so far. Murk hated him on sight, Lorna seemed immediately cautious of him, the twins were inscrutable, and Fizz seemed to be the only one who may be friendly toward him aside from Traizen. He¡¯d either need to convince them that he deserved what was being offered, escape and make his way across the continent, or kill them and then have to do the same thing. Seemed like the first choice was the one he¡¯d have to go with for now.


    ¡­


    After a bit more conversation, some discussions involving hunting for food, and a couple additional back and forths between himself and Lorna, or himself and Murk, Dantes found himself left to his own devices. The task ahead was clear, and while his own life appeared to be at risk, the rest of the druids seemed unbothered by the fate that awaited him. Fizz went to hunt for everyone, while the rest of them either napped, or swam, or climbed trees.


    Dantes approached Traizen who was napping bare chested in the sunlight, his white skin practically glowing under the sun¡¯s rays, forcing Dantes to squint.


    ¡°Traizen, you mentioned that there were fewer druids than there used to be, why is that?¡±


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    Traizen kept his eyes closed as Dantes spoke to him, but his gentle expression became harsh. ¡°Many reasons.¡±


    Dantes leaned against a tree. ¡°Listen, I get the feeling you¡¯re on my side, that you¡¯re in favor of my initiation, but there are several that clearly aren¡¯t. Any information you give me could help.¡±


    Traizen stayed silent for a moment, and Dantes thought that maybe he wasn¡¯t as on his side as he¡¯d thought, but then he spoke.


    ¡°Serry, Wren, and Drantol were killed when a nearby city moved into their loci and they fought back. Braddock lost too much of his locus while attempting to negotiate keeping his forest under the laws of the land, but they changed their laws and cut down trees until there was nothing left. Serpica left the brotherhood willingly, made many strange claims about carrying her Locus within herself, and has not appeared since. There are many stories like these, for many brothers and sisters.¡±


    Dantes nodded as he listened. It wasn¡¯t difficult to draw the lines between what Traizen was telling him, and the distaste several of the druids had for him. Between the Pit and Rendhold itself, Dantes knew hatred. It wasn¡¯t a complicated thing to determine.


    ¡°Those who you say fought back, how did they do it?¡±


    Traizen¡¯s frown deepened, it was clear that recalling was painful for him. ¡°Serry attacked logging camps cloaked in darkness, tearing the throats from the loggers with a pack of wolves until they hunted her down and killed her, though she took many with her. Wren attacked the encroaching city directly with a swarm of ravens. She tore her way through the people at the outer wall, but there were mages there talented in fire magic, and she was burnt down along with the rest of her Unkindness. Drantol dug with his great mole and would pop out of the ground to drag people down, hoping to use fear to keep them away. They collapsed his tunnels and he suffocated in the earth.¡±


    Dantes listened intently. The druids weren¡¯t stupid. Their plans made sense and were well thought out. They didn¡¯t just attack randomly and hope for the best. Still, they were missing an important piece of understanding in how a city worked, and how a society pushed forward. Dantes could use that.


    ¡°Has there ever been a druid with a locus in a city before?¡±


    ¡°Not in my last few hundred years. Berkilak may have known one though. He¡¯s lived far longer than I.¡±


    ¡°Berkilak? I have not met him.¡±


    Traizen¡¯s grim expression softened a bit and his lips curled into a wry smile. ¡°Oh, you have. He¡¯s been here the entire time. He just prefers not to speak much.¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow and looked across the glade again. He saw the Druids still occupied in their various leisure activities, though Fizz still hadn¡¯t yet returned from his hunt. As he looked around his eyes gradually moved toward the center of the glade, where the tree grew in the center of it. He felt the same kind of handshake acknowledgement that he¡¯d felt when he and Jacopo met within his mind, but in this case it was like he was shaking hands with a giant.


    ¡°Hello,¡± came a voice in his mind, and though it spoke with a kind of gentleness, Dantes nearly collapsed under the weight of it, and felt the connection break.


    Dantes took a few deep breaths to steady himself and looked at Traizen again. ¡°He¡¯s a tree?¡±


    Traizen shook his head. ¡°He¡¯s the forest. He became one with his locus, his companion, everything.¡±


    ¡°How does that happen?¡±


    Traizen shrugged. ¡°He¡¯s the only one who''s ever managed it, but when I asked him he spoke as if it was a very simple thing. It requires a binding, a vow, and a sacrifice. Nothing more.¡±


    Dantes looked at the tree. He could sense the tremendous power of Berkilak, and of the forest that surrounded, but it didn¡¯t appeal to him in the slightest. Power without the ability to enjoy it physically, to count gold while feeling the weight of it in your hands, see the fear in an enemies eyes up close, to fuck. No, being a tree didn¡¯t appeal to him in the least.


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing he gets a vote too?¡±


    ¡°Yes, though he¡¯s going to vote in your favor. His trust in the Mother is absolute. In his eyes, if she chose you, then that¡¯s good enough for him.¡±


    ¡­


    Dantes made his way over to Murk, who he identified as his harshest critic. If he could convince him to vote in his favor, then that would be a good step in paving his way. Murk was in human form, laying against his gray wolf companion by the lake. Near him floated Lorna, laying on the back of her creature and sunbathing as it floated lazily in the water.


    ¡°Murk.¡±


    He bared his teeth.


    ¡°I just want to talk to you.¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Come on, the Mother must¡¯ve made me a druid for a reason, eh?¡±


    Murk ignored him, instead sitting silently.


    ¡°Well, I can always give you my theory while you stare angrily at me.¡±


    Murk stared at him angrily.


    ¡°I think she wanted me for two reasons. The first is to tell you how to properly fight against a city encroaching on your territory. Traizen told me about your fallen brothers.¡±


    ¡°Weak¡± grunted Murk.


    ¡°It didn¡¯t sound to me like they were. Their approaches made sense. Hit and run attacks, using fear, trying to take hold of the offensive. The only problem is, that they didn¡¯t know what a city craves.¡± Dantes thought of Rendhold, the largest city on the continent, the only one that was both a country and a city in one. Other countries boasted grander capitals, freer ones, but not matched Rendhold in scale and reach. He¡¯d seen more than his fair share of sailor gawk, or get lost within its massive maze like confines. Its borders were ever expanding, consuming everything inside and outside of it. ¡°Cities don¡¯t care how many are sacrificed. They just want more. The dead druids attacked people, and thought that was the key, but cities can always produce more desperate men and women who¡¯ll take a dangerous job no matter what. The key is to make it costly. Attack the equipment they are using, kill the men that ordered the incursion into your territory to put fear into the city¡¯s leadership. Blood is cheap unless it¡¯s blue, and equipment paid for in gold has more value than labor bought with copper.¡±


    Murk stayed silent, but he could swear that the gray wolf he sat on had her ears perked up. ¡°I could also get you tools that could help. Explosives, acid, magic items, not for free of course, but I¡¯m sure we could find a way to help one another out.¡±


    Murk continued to say nothing, just sat there indifferently with an angry expression on his face.


    Dantes shrugged. It looked like he may need to find a way to slit his throat before a decision was made, or simply remove him from the immediate area. He was fairly certain he¡¯d be easy to bait to a different location, but actually beating him would be hard. He wasn¡¯t exactly in his element in the forest, and he didn¡¯t have a lot of resources to work with since he hadn¡¯t exactly been prepared to travel across the continent into unknown territory with a conclave of druids about to decide his fate. There was also the fact that Berkilak could likely sense what was happening everywhere in the Veridian Expanse. That meant there was little chance he¡¯d be able to get away with it.


    He clenched his jaw as he moved over to the water to splash some onto his face, Jacopo leaping from his shoulder to drink as he did so. He may wind up benefitting from what was happening, so he¡¯d managed to tamp down his frustration, but it was starting to get to him. He wanted to be in Rendhold. He had plans to initiate. Old friends to kill.


    Lorna and her Gator seemed to appear suddenly next to him, nearly making him flinch as they emerged from the water.


    ¡°What was the second reason you think the mother chose you?¡± she asked as she pulled her wet hair away from her face in a practiced motion.


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 Book 2 Ch 5: Why would I want to be anything other than a rat?

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    Dantes looked at Lorna and the strange green creature she¡¯d called Beast as they moved to sit next to him. Her eyes were dark, almost black, and he found his own drawn to them. Like looking down a dark passage in the pit, and sensing something there that he couldn¡¯t quite make out.


    ¡°You said you think the Mother chose you for two reasons. You explained the first one to Murk, what was the second?¡±


    ¡°You have good hearing.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Dantes glanced at Jacopo who was still boldly drinking water as Beast sat less than a foot away from him.


    ¡°The second reason I think she chose me is¡­ hedging.¡±


    ¡°Hedging?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s clear that druids are dwindling because of their conflict with cities and it sounds like a few other issues. By making me a druid in a city, she¡¯s hedging her bets. Making sure that at least one member of the brotherhood will survive by being on the side of the largest city.¡±


    She scoffed. ¡°A weakling¡¯s mindset. The Mother doesn¡¯t ¡®hedge bets¡¯ she is one of the greater gods. If we die it is because we are weak and she has no use for us.¡±


    ¡°Ah, I¡¯m guessing you don¡¯t think I should be initiated then?¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°Oh no. I do. The first point you made to Murk has convinced me. Bombs, magic, tactics. The Floating City of Chitlan does not encroach on my swamp in the way a city that rests on solid ground might on the nature which surrounds it, but they already take more than their fill. It will worsen with time and I must be ready.¡±


    Dante nodded, taking note of her conviction. He wondered what she¡¯d be willing to trade with him. He wasn¡¯t sure what a swamp would have to offer him, but he¡¯d keep an open mind.


    He glanced again at Beast. ¡°Can I ask what manner of creature he is? Some kind of swamp dragon?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve never seen a gator before?¡±


    He cocked his head. ¡°Never even heard of them.¡±


    She knelt down and gave Beast a rough scratch on the scales of his neck. He opened his mouth and closed his eyes in a clear display of contentment.


    ¡°That is sad for you. They are the greatest of the Mother¡¯s creatures.¡±


    He looked at the row of razor sharp teeth on display and nodded. ¡°Yes, I feel very deprived about it."


    With their conversation done he approached the twins next. He found that while Fern was on his side, Ivy wasn¡¯t and she needed some convincing. Luckily, unlike Lorna she was convinced by the idea of him being the Mother¡¯s insurance in case the brotherhood came close to falling. They were also both tentatively interested in gunpowder. The suggestion of what havoc they could cause with their birds carrying bundles of bombs seemed to clinch the deal for them.


    He spoke to Fizz last, who returned to the glade with two dead deer being pulled by an ox, which shifted into something too small for Dantes to make out then disappearing in the grass.


    ¡°Don¡¯t bother. I¡¯ve been listening in this whole time. Well, we all have been. Hard to keep secrets in a grove full of druids.¡±


    Dantes knew that, but he¡¯d already felt that not visiting them individually could be seen as disrespectful or he may come up with some new argument in his favor on the fly.


    ¡°Well, where do you stand so far?¡±


    ¡°I was with you from the start, as was Thing.¡±


    A small field mouse popped out of Fizz¡¯s blue hair, morphing into a small bird to do a short lap around Dantes¡¯ head.


    ¡°How does he do that?¡± asked Dantes as he watched Thing change.


    ¡°The same way you or I do. We can change, why can¡¯t the animals we share souls with?¡±


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    ¡°I haven¡¯t seen any of the others do it.¡±


    Fizz shrugged. ¡°We all learn things at a different pace. Or sometimes one of us can just do things another can¡¯t. Druid abilities are instinctual, and we tend to learn what powers we¡¯re best suited for first, as do our companions.¡± He held out a finger for Thing to land on, which it did as a bird, before becoming a lizard and scurrying up his arm.


    ¡°Why would I want to be anything other than a rat?¡± asked Jacopo simply.


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Makes it easier to eat or kill something bigger? Or easier to get small enough to slip somewhere you couldn¡¯t fit before? Or fly? I¡¯d bet flying is very fun.¡±


    Jacopo nibbled on the edge of Dantes¡¯ collar in consideration. ¡°Hmmm. I¡¯d still prefer to be a rat.¡±


    Thing let out a kind of choking sound that Dantes somehow recognized as a laugh. ¡°A strong identity. What a waste of time that is.¡±


    Dantes found himself remembering Syn and the other Changelings. He still needed to find the Magister that had sentenced her to the Pit. Now that he was building favor back up and no longer needed to search for Gaspard, maybe he could turn his attention in that direction. He needed to start monitoring Danglars anyway.


    ¡°Well, I appreciate having you on my side.¡±


    ¡°Let me give you another piece of advice.¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about Murk. Focus your attention on everyone else. Convince them and he¡¯ll go along with it. He¡¯s a pack animal at heart.¡±


    Dantes nodded. He didn¡¯t have much of a choice at this point anyway.


    The next hour was spent gutting and cleaning the deer that Fizz had brought before putting most of it over the fire to cook, leaving a good chunk of it raw for everyone¡¯s beastly companions. The Twins spent some time foraging and returned with a number of roots, berries, and nuts that supplemented the meal. Overall it was a bit bland to Dantes, compared to what he¡¯d been eating at the Vixen, but still well above what he¡¯d been eating in the Pit just a little over a month before.


    As they dozed after eating, there was a commotion in the brush at the edge of the glade. Dantes turned his attention in that direction to see two shapes approaching. The taller of the two, Dantes realized, was in fact a dwarf riding a large Boar. He had a wild gray beard and wore a tattered cloak over a well worn traveling outfit. His eyes were a pale green that caught the light of the setting sun and his Boar¡¯s eyes matched. The boar¡¯s hair was also the same color as the Dwarf¡¯s beard which was so long that for a moment he couldn¡¯t tell where the dwarf ended and the boar began.


    The second figure was a slight kobold with bright yellow coloring spotted with black. She had a black raccoon on her shoulder, and both she and the raccoon were wearing backpacks that made light clinking sounds as they moved. As she got closer, Dantes could sense a sickeningly sweet smell emanating from her that was somehow not canceled out by the cacophony of smells the rest of the druids gave off.


    ¡°Coal! Mor-gan-may! Welcome. I was beginning to grow concerned,¡± said Traizen as he approached them.


    Coal got off his boar and lifted Traizen by the legs in a powerful bear hug.


    Mor simply gave everyone a curt nod, before zeroing in on Dantes.


    ¡°You. You are the new one.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Yes. I¡¯m Dantes, nice to meet you.¡±


    She looked him over, approached, and smelled the air around him by flicking her tongue in his direction. ¡°Hmmmm, there¡¯s an interesting mix of environments within your locus. I¡¯m also picking up¡­ a deep low light environment near strange energies.¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow. He hadn¡¯t been in the Pit for quite some time, and he¡¯d bathed frequently since he¡¯d gained the ability to do so regularly. Quite frequently with the help of additional hands that cost him a few silver. ¡°You have impressive senses.¡±


    ¡°Do you know of any native poisons in your locus? Or any curatives?¡±


    Dantes thought about it. Come to think of it, it seemed very foolish of him to overlook the potential of poisons and medicines with his new abilities. It also didn¡¯t surprise him that a Kobold druid would¡¯ve put the incredible focus of her species into investigating that.


    ¡°I know that greenleaf helps with wounds, and I think arrowroot can mess up a stomach, but aside from that I don¡¯t know much. Don¡¯t mind a bit of weed for a headache, though some prefer dust.¡±


    Her face turned disappointed as he spoke. ¡°Greenleaf could refer to many many things, as could arrowroot.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, assuming I¡¯m initiated I¡¯ll talk to an herbalist and bring samples the next time all of the druids are called here and give them to you.¡±


    Her expression brightened a bit.


    ¡°Maybe you could teach me a few things about poisons in exchange.¡±


    Her expression brightened even more. ¡°Yes, that would be excellent.¡± The raccoon on her shoulder nodded in agreement.


    Coal approached shortly after, with his hog snorting and snarling behind him. ¡°And you¡¯d be the filthy city dweller trying to join us?¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯ll have me.¡±


    ¡°You good in a fight?¡±


    ¡°Only when I fight dirty.¡±


    ¡°You good to your friends?¡±


    ¡°As long as they stay friendly.¡±


    ¡°Do you love plants, animals, and life of all kind.¡±


    Dantes paused. He hadn¡¯t really thought about it before. As a kid he¡¯d thrown small bits of bread into the water at the docks to see the small fish slurp at it from down below. As a young man he¡¯d fed and cared for the mascot for the Purring Princess, a long haired white cat that he¡¯d nearly beaten a man to death over stepping on. Even when he was in the pit he still took the time to water the plants he found and shared some food with Jacopo.


    ¡°I do,¡± he responded after standing silently for a few moments. Speaking with a sincerity that was rare to him.


    Coal spat in his hand and held it out. ¡°Then it would be an honor to call you brother.¡±


    Dantes spat in his own hand and gave Coal¡¯s hand a firm grasp.


    Coal released his grip, leaving Dantes with a hand that had gone from gray to black where he had touched, and then looked across the glade, his stomach audibly rumbling.


    ¡°By the Mother, tell me someone already hunted.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 6: Welcome a brother

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    The group ate the meal together, some in silence, others with some light chatting. There was a comfortable familiarity to the group that Dantes sensed had been developed over many years. He himself felt like an interloper, but considering he¡¯d been kidnapped and brought there he didn¡¯t feel much awkwardness about it. He ate his own food quietly, listening to the others'' conversations and trying to absorb what he could about them.


    Jacopo sat next to him, nibbling some meat off of a small piece of bone. He seemed unconcerned by the possibility that they might be killed, but Dantes took that as a vote of confidence from him. He felt he had everyone¡¯s support except for Murk, and if what Fizz had told him was true, then he should be covered there as well.


    He popped a handful of berries into his mouth and looked up at the sky. The full moon was high and the light of it that shone down on seemed to fill him. He felt as if he was vibrating with a kind of energetic anticipation.


    The others had gone silent, as if they were feeling the same way, and they all stood, almost as one.


    Dantes found that he was on his feet as well, Jacopo taking his customary place on his shoulder. He walked toward the lake reaching the edge of it and found that he was facing Berkilak, the reflection of the moon above sitting between them in the water. He could feel, implicitly, in the same way that his druid abilities had been implicit, that he needed to step into the lake. The other druids were around him as he moved, and he stepped into it.


    The water was cool, and he found himself slowly submerging until he was about waist deep, nearing a third of the way to the center. He took a few more steps and pushed himself forward, floating on his back.


    The other druids all took their places surrounding him, each one of them placing a hand on him.


    They were going to submerge him. He felt at peace with the idea, overwhelmed by the energy that surrounded him, and seemed to suffuse the lake itself.


    Before they pushed, he felt his full attention snap back, and his mind trying to overrun the instincts he was acting on..


    No


    He started to struggle, but before he could all of the other druid¡¯s hands pushed him down at once. He didn¡¯t just sink down, he was falling through the water. Moving far more quickly toward the bottom than seemed logically possible. He sank for far longer than his mind told him he should have given the shallowness of the pool, and it became more and more of a struggle to hold his breath. He tried to move his limbs and fight, but they were leaden. His chest began to feel as if it would burst. He tried to will Jacopo to leave him, to send him a message to swim out if he could, but he heard no response and had no idea if he¡¯d been heard or not. He could hold his breath for nearly four minutes, but he hadn¡¯t exactly been keeping time before he began to sink. He held on for a bit longer, and then let the final bit of air from his lungs. He felt a moment of relief that came with letting that last breath out, then his lungs began to fill with water.


    Oddly, the panic he¡¯d been feeling began to subside as the water filled him. He felt the same sensation he¡¯d been feeling when he¡¯d been looking up at the moon. Energy began to fill him, then something else. A flood of sights, sounds, and sensations began to assault him. He could feel warm mud oozing across his skin, taste crimson blood dripping down his throat as he bit into a fresh kill, see across a massive and desolate desert made of ice, hear the loud chirps of a baby bird begging for food, and smell the dank dampness of a cave filled with fungus. These sensations shifted rapidly across his perceptions as he felt a part of himself begin to expand to start to encompass it. Growing just fast enough to keep him from filling up and bursting.


    All of the sensations he was feeling ended abruptly, and he found himself surrounded completely by darkness and an absence of all sensation. In front of him appeared a great white bear, then next to that was a mighty gator, then a boar, a pair of falcons, a raccoon, a strange multicolored lizard, and finally a wolf. One by one they were each bathed in golden light, starting with the bear. The light spread until it touched all of the great beasts except for the wolf that sat there wreathed in black. The other animals looked at it, fixing it with their full attention. The wolf grimaced and bared its teeth, leaning forward with its tail raised, then it shook its snout and sat back on its hind legs, curling its tail. It let out a howl, and it too was bathed in golden light.


    Dantes felt strong roots reach out from below him, and begin pushing him back toward the surface. His ascent was as rapid as his fall, and when he broke the surface he was launched forward, landing on the grass next to the lake. He coughed up water for what felt like an eternity, only just conscious enough to notice Jacopo next to him doing the same thing. He could hear a chorus of voices, and sense a cavalcade of emotions from all around him and he moved his hands to cover his ears, but the sounds didn¡¯t stop.


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    He felt a powerful hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Traizen looking down at him, smiling. ¡°Sleep, brother. Sleep.¡±


    This time, he didn¡¯t fight it.


    ¡­


    Dantes awoke facing the sky, the moon and stars shining down brightly upon him. He hadn¡¯t noticed before, but there seemed to be far more stars in the sky than he¡¯d ever seen over Rendhold. He could even make out some that seemed to be different colors and depths that he¡¯d never noticed before. He could hear what sounded like a party going on near him, and sat up slowly, his head pounding, and the taste of copper in his mouth.


    He saw that the other druids had resumed their meal, adding something that gave off the smell of alcohol to the mix. He sensed that Jacopo was there as well, and as he struggled to his feet he could hear Jacopo talking.


    ¡°The streets are filled with food that two-legs think themselves too good for, and there are thousands of good places to hide and burrow.¡±


    As Dantes got closer he noticed that Jacopo was standing on a raised stone, talking to an enraptured audience of Druids and their companions.


    ¡°Sounds better than I expected,¡± said Beast in a low droning voice.


    ¡°Good places to hide for him, but not one so big as you,¡± chided Lorna.


    ¡°I think it sounds perfect,¡± responded Mor-gan-may¡¯s raccoon.


    He could understand animals he hadn¡¯t received a blessing for. This visit was turning the profit he¡¯d hoped already. ¡°That¡¯s not surprising,¡± interrupted Dantes. ¡°There are quite a few of your kind living in the outer regions of Rendhold.¡±


    ¡°Welcome back brother!¡± said Traizen. ¡°Jacopo was just telling us of your exploits.¡±


    Dantes quickly sent for an explanation from Jacopo who sent back a brief collection of recent memories that indicated to Dantes exactly what he feared. Jacopo had told them everything.


    He smiled, trying to play off the pit that now rested in his stomach. ¡°Well, I hope it wasn¡¯t too boring.¡±


    ¡°It was very-¡±


    ¡°-interesting. We had not expected-¡±


    ¡°- so much violence-¡±


    ¡°-but it seemed necessary-¡±


    ¡°-at least, mostly necessary.¡± said the twins.


    ¡°Aye, blowing up a bunch of elves,¡¯ Coal shook his head wistfully, ¡°reminds me of my childhood.¡±


    ¡°Not all elves are-¡±


    ¡°-like that. Besides-¡±


    ¡°-Jacopo shot a dwarf as well-¡±


    Coal snorted. ¡°He shot a royal. They¡¯re not real dwarves. They''re prissy babes that trim their beards and wear silk.¡±


    Dantes nodded politely. He¡¯d heard the ¡®no true dwarves¡¯ argument more than once. It was a favorite of every dwarf to indulge in why he was a real dwarf, but another dwarf wasn¡¯t.


    ¡°You¡¯re a criminal,¡± noted Murk with a note of distaste. ¡°A thief and a murderer.¡±


    Dantes looked at the man. He¡¯d finally put on pants at some point, but he was covered in mud, and reeked of wet fur.


    ¡°Yes, I am.¡±


    ¡°Since when do you care about laws?¡± asked Fizz, beating Dantes to the question. ¡°All the beasts in the woods steal, kill, ambush, trap, and betray. That¡¯s what nature is. Seems to me he¡¯s just following the laws of the Mother more closely than the laws of men.¡±


    Murk clearly didn¡¯t have a response to that, and compensated by snorting and looking away.


    ¡°He¡¯s just moody because he didn¡¯t even realize that a Mother¡¯s Reach growing in the center of a city wasn¡¯t normal,¡± said Traizen.


    Dantes felt a temptation to underestimate Murk, but resisted it. A lack of experience with other people, and an unfamiliarity with life outside of his own hadn¡¯t kept him from nearly killing Dantes the previous day, even after he¡¯d thrown everything he¡¯d had at him. No, he¡¯d need to stay wary.


    ¡°So, there¡¯s no punishment for doing a blood ritual?¡±


    Traizen shook his head. ¡°It was not as if you could¡¯ve known what would happen. I only wish we could¡¯ve sensed you before you¡¯d left your prison, but we were blocked somehow. Had we known before we initiated you, it may have been a problem, and if it is not something you¡¯ve resolved before we next meet there will be consequences, but for now I am simply happy to welcome a brother.¡±


    Dantes looked back up at the moon, and felt a kind of energy from it leading to a nearby tree. The other druids and their companions all went silent as well, as if drawn to the same energy. Dantes got the impression that it was time for everyone to return to their own loci.


    ¡°We will meet on the next full moon,¡± said Traizen, looking over at the others.


    Dantes nodded looking over at everyone. ¡°Bring something to trade, and I¡¯ll bring samples of what I expect some of you might want from me.¡± He winked at Mor-gan-may. ¡°And don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll make sure to visit an herbalist as well.¡±


    She returned the wink, her tail curling a bit, and the racoon on her shoulder gave Jacopo a bow which he ignored.


    They started to drift apart, when Traizen stopped Dantes. ¡°Brother, look at your arm.¡±


    Dantes blinked, looking at his right arm that was covered in marks before switching to his left where he noticed that he now had a number of gold leaves on his arm, one for each person in the glade including Berkilak, and another one that was wilted and gray.


    ¡°When one of us is nearby, those leaves will fill. When one of us is in danger, you will be able to sense it, though you may not be able to respond to it.¡±


    ¡°What about this one?¡± asked Dantes pointing at the gray and wilted leaf.


    Traizen¡¯s expression darkened. ¡°That one won¡¯t tell anything anymore. Don¡¯t concern yourself with it.¡±


    Dantes was curious, but he felt the pull from the tree and was more than ready for his time with the druids to come to an end. He moved to the tree and placed a hand on it. He could feel what he needed to do, Jacopo moved up his arm to place his hand on the tree as well, and then they both pushed forward, sinking into it.

 Book 2 Ch 7: Why did these things all seem to happen in waves?

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    Traveling through a tree was probably Dantes¡¯ least favorite method of travel. He felt his sense of self momentarily disappear and become one with a kind of primal and natural force, before being flung back into oneness and reality through another tree across the continent. The first time he¡¯d done it, he¡¯d been unconscious, but losing that sense of self while aware was distinctly horrible and uncomfortable to him. So much so that when he landed in an abandoned square in Rendhold and fell onto hard concrete it was a relief to him.


    He sat up, and looked at his hands, counting and flexing his fingers as he regained his composure. He could feel that his senses had been heightened by his initiation. He had a general impression of the state of life with his locus, within Rendhold, that painted a distinctly negative picture of rot and misery. He chuckled, he¡¯d known about that without any Druid abilities.


    He felt a pull from the tree behind him, and turned to face it. It was an old, ugly and marled thing. The ends of its branches looked like clenched fists and the wood of it was a dark gray-brown, but in spite of the state it was in he felt an enormous presence from it. He sensed the life within it pulsating, but also that it was much faded from what it used to be. As he was focusing on it, a particular pulse of life traveled from its roots and up to a branch near him. It was as thick as his forearm, and just a bit longer. He reached out and touched it, feeling it as the tree cut off the life that was flowing into it, leaving a pocket of itself within the branch. Dantes bent the branch, and it broke off with almost no effort.


    He held the branch in his hand. It had a good weight to it. He wasn¡¯t sure what had compelled him to take it, but going with his instincts had been the name of the game that day, so he hadn¡¯t questioned it. He adjusted it in his hand, if it was just a bit thinner on one end, it would make a solid club at the very least.


    At that thought, the club shifted, lengthening on the thinner end until it fit perfectly into his palm. He was reminded of how Lorna was able to grow and move the leaves she¡¯d been using as clothing. He focused his will on the branch, this time picturing it becoming thin and malleable, wrapping around his arm.


    Slowly, it obeyed his will, wrapped around his right forearm until it looked like a particularly ugly bracer. He realized it was covering his marks, and willed it to make space to show them, which it did.


    This¡­this has nice possibilities he thought. He moved it to his other arm where it would be less in the way. He looked up at the tree he¡¯d retrieved the branch from. He¡¯d sensed it was a gift of sorts. He placed his right palm on the tree.


    Thank you


    He felt a gentle acknowledgement of the thank you and looked around. It was still night, but the moon was slowly starting to fall. He needed to find a street he recognized and begin making his way back to the Vixen. It was time to start moving things in earnest.


    Dantes moved until he reached an area he recognized. He wasn¡¯t in Midtown, but rather had been taken all the way to the southwestern part of the city. It would be more than an hour by foot to get back to the docks. Hard to complain about an hour walk though, when you¡¯d just traveled thousands of miles in an instant. He moved across the still slick streets, seeing the occasional lurker in an alley, but otherwise finding that section of the city deserted. The southwest end was under control of the gatemen, and was where one of the side gates into the city was located. Of course, the city had grown a long way out from the old wall, but it was still one of the major areas through which goods passed on the way to or from the docks.


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    Even at that time of day the streets were typically much busier, which set him on edge as he walked. He sped up, cutting through alleys and letting his innate sense of direction guide him until he started to get closer to the edge of the docks. There, he started to notice a number of guard patrols gathered at the intersection of a few major streets. He shifted into ratform and got closer along with Jacopo to hear what was happening.


    ¡°- section by section until you¡¯ve cleared your area! The city wants arrests, and we need to give them to it or it¡¯ll be our asses!¡±


    ¡°Not our fault the fucking jail losers couldn¡¯t keep a lid on our prisoners,¡± muttered one of the guards.


    ¡°You''re damn right it¡¯s not our fault,¡± yelled the sergeant who Dantes noticed was at least half-elven which the muttering guard should¡¯ve noticed and muttered more quietly. ¡°But that doesn¡¯t matter. Everyone with a uniform is going to be blamed, and we¡¯ve got orders all the way at the top from Councilman General Krant to round up everyone we can.¡±


    ¡°How will we know if we¡¯ve found a prisoner?¡±


    ¡°Well, a number of them were mages, so they¡¯d have collars around their necks. That being said, it doesn¡¯t matter if you know that the person¡¯s a prisoner or not. The city wants arrests, just assume anyone you find out here looking suspicious needs to get rounded up.¡±


    ¡°Where will we even put them? The Underprison doesn¡¯t exactly seem like an option since they just broke out.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re packing them into the holding jails for now. Any more fucking questions, or are all of you done with excuses and ready to bust some skulls?¡±


    ¡°Bust some skulls, sir!¡± yelled the majority of the guards in unison, before they started tearing through the streets.


    Dantes stayed in rat form until he was a good distance away from them, then shifted back to his usual self. There¡¯d been another prison break, and a good number of those that had escaped were Collared. That explained the empty streets. Had Wane escaped? Had Merle? His own escape hadn¡¯t prompted nearly this level of response which seemed to indicate to him that more people had gotten out this time, and it was no longer possible for the guard to keep a lid on things. He needed more information, and to start looking for any of his fellow prisoners. He wanted to help those that he knew, but more than that there were opportunities here. He could use his abilities to help smuggle people out of the city for a price. There was also the chance that some of the enemies he¡¯d made had escaped the pit as well. Those he¡¯d want to be able to keep track of as well.


    He rubbed his temples for just a moment and allowed himself a single ¡®poor me¡¯. Why did these things all seem to happen in waves? If it was one problem at a time it would be significantly easier to manage. He let that self pity go, and started moving again. Whatever was happening, he needed to get back to the Vixen.


    He made it there as the sun was rising, frequently changing into ratform to avoid patrols of guards, but truthfully it wouldn¡¯t have been difficult to avoid them even on foot. The city was too big for the guard to control, always had been. The guard were more about projecting the illusion of control and enforcing the will of uptown on everyone else. Sure there were the guard that worked outside the walls and actually did some work to defend the city, but they were practically their own entity.


    The Vixen was closed, with only the gentle glow of a candle in one of the windows, but Dantes hesitated. Something felt off, and he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He shifted into rat form, and began circling the building. He found one man across the street on the roof looking at the entrance. A woman with a crossbow sat in the alley behind the building keeping watch, and a third man he sensed through a roach watching the front door with a wand gripped in his hand. Dantes felt a rage build in him, but held back. He smelled no blood, and could tell that all the women of the Vixen were fine, with Zilly even beginning her cleaning of the main room, ignoring the man with the wand.


    Dantes had been found, and likely by Mondego. If it had been the guard they wouldn¡¯t have been nearly so subtle. Still, he couldn¡¯t exactly leave all of the things he had hidden under the floorboards there, and he also needed to make sure Vera and the girls would be alright. Worst case scenario he¡¯d need to kill the thugs and get them to safety. He had a feeling Vera would have other plans.

 Book 2 Ch 8: Take Care of the Girls

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    Dantes slipped past the watchers on the Vixen easily as a rat, and climbed up to the windowsill of his room where the window had been left cracked to allow Jacopo an easy entrance and exit as he wanted. Once inside Dantes did a quick search of the room as a rat before shifting back into his usual self. He quietly walked the room, collecting his things into his pack and lifting the floorboards to find the goods he¡¯d hidden and packed them as well. Once he was done he gently opened his door and slowly pushed it open, letting Jacopo do a quick survey of the hallway before he himself stepped out.


    He creeped to Vera¡¯s door quietly, watching for the floorboards he already knew from experience had a tendency to creak. The mage at the bottom floor was a full-blooded elf, so he needed to move as quietly as possible, even though he felt a sense of urgency that pressured him  to move quickly. He tested Vera¡¯s door and found it locked. He began to reach for his makeshift lock picks from the prison that he¡¯d had yet to replace, but hesitated. He reached his left hand toward the doorknob and willed the branch that surrounded his arm to grow toward it. He sent out two small protrusions and focused on the sensation the branch felt so that he could get a feel for the tumblers. After only a moment, he had it unlocked and gently pushed the door open. He withdrew the branch back to his arm as he walked inside.


    Waiting for him was Vera, holding a delicate pistol in her hand and aiming it at his chest. His eyes widened in surprise.


    ¡°Dantes!¡± she whispered, quickly removing her hand from the pistol¡¯s trigger. ¡°I thought you were one of those thugs.¡±


    Dantes slowly and gently closed the door before turning to her. ¡°You scared me for a second Auntie,¡± he said quietly.


    ¡°Sorry. I¡¯ve been up all night listening in case one of them tried to force themselves on the girls.¡±


    Dantes nodded. That was always a concern. ¡°They¡¯re here looking for me?¡± he asked.


    Vera nodded. ¡°They are. Mondego sent them after the news about the second breakout. They told us that Mondego sent them to burn the place down, but Mercedes begged him to stay their hand. They were almost too keen to emphasize that point. Where were you?¡±


    ¡°Paying a visit to Gaspard.¡±


    Vera nodded. ¡°That¡¯s one I certainly won¡¯t argue against. It was good that you were gone. Much easier to control the situation.¡±


    ¡°What was your strategy?¡±


    ¡°I told them that you had been here then I sold you out in return for them leaving my girls alone.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re heartless Auntie.¡±


    She shrugged. ¡°I need to be. Besides, I figured that you would be able to tell if something was wrong.¡±


    ¡°I already got my things, and I have a way out, but I feel hesitant to leave while you¡¯ve got three killers here putting you and the girls at risk. Want me to take care of them? You all go into hiding.¡±


    ¡°Mondego would burn this place down if you did that, and a lot of these girls have no place to go. No, it¡¯s better for you to slip out.¡± She moved to her desk, and quickly scribbled something onto a piece of paper. She held it out to Dantes. ¡°Take this note, and go to the Guild district. There¡¯s an underground fight there near the ¡®Hells Forgotten¡¯, mercenary headquarters. Give this to a man named Vampa. He¡¯s tall and broad, an elf with the tips of both of his ears clipped.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯ll he do for you?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s the Vixen¡¯s protector. Give him the note and he¡¯ll watch the building to make sure that Mondego¡¯s goons don¡¯t do anything to harm us.¡±


    ¡°Will he need payment?¡±


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    ¡°No. He does it out of honor.¡±


    Dantes tucked the note into his pocket, noting the hint of pride in Vera¡¯s voice when she said the word ¡®honor¡¯. He had wondered how the Vixen protected itself, but he hadn¡¯t expected it to be a single man, much less one that Vera would trust so thoroughly. Still, if he could make contact with him that would allow him to turn his attention to Mondego and attack the root of the problem.


    ¡°I''ll go to him right away. I don¡¯t like leaving you all like this.¡± He gritted his teeth a bit, remembering the conversation he¡¯d had with Zilly nearly a month prior. He could¡¯ve moved into one of his gardens sooner, and maybe mitigated the problem. Or avoided going to Vera at all. He just wanted a small taste of his old life. A little bit of familiarity and friendship with a woman that helped raised him. Not to mention the opportunity to satisfy some more bodily desires.


    ¡°It''s not a crime to ask for someone to help you, Dantes. You¡¯re not so important that everything bad that happens is entirely your own fault¡­ The moment you showed up on my door I knew what I was doing by letting you stay here. I knew you were the one that lead the breakout, and that you¡¯d gained some kind of advantage you didn¡¯t have before. It was as much my decision to let you stay here as it was yours to come here.¡±


    Dantes grimaced, ashamed that he had been read so easily. He opened his mouth to say something, but changed the topic as he began to speak.


    ¡°I¡¯ll find Vampa Auntie. Be careful in the meantime.¡±


    She nodded, then surprised him by wrapping him in a hug. ¡°Be careful¡­at least as much as you can be.¡±


    He returned the hug. ¡°I will Auntie. Take care of the girls.¡±


    She nodded, and Dantes slipped out the door. He¡¯d been watching it with Jacopo so he knew it was clear. He went back to his room, shifted into a rat and climbed out the window and onto the street. He¡¯d been careful to leave no trace of his visit, and from what he could tell the people watching the Vixen they had no clue about it either.


    The sun was officially out, bathing the wet streets in light and creating soft reflective pools of standing water. It was pretty to look at, unless one paid attention to how filthy the water was. He skittered down a few alleys with Jacopo, leaving a couple rats and roaches to keep an eye on the Vixen. Whether or not Vampa could help, he still needed to keep watch himself. Once he was far enough away he switched back to being himself, and helped Jacopo into his pocket. The streets were starting to fill with people again, and while they looked wary and concerned, and the guard presence was heavier, it was still busy enough that no one would be looking his way. He was reasonably clean, had no obvious collar, and had a lot of experience keeping his head down.


    He made it to the Guild District just before early afternoon. There the guard presence declined significantly, as the mercs and adventurers were too unruly to handle on their own, and the tradesmen guilds were protected and respected by those groups as so much of their equipment and resources were purchased from them. He¡¯d heard more than a few stories of a rookie adventurer taking advantage of a cooper¡¯s daughter or some such only to be found dead the next day. He did see a few posters put up by the guard indicating that any adventurer or merc that captured a prisoner would be compensated for their efforts.


    Dantes didn¡¯t have a lot of experience in the Guild District. Mondego¡¯s father had worked there as a relatively accomplished carpenter, but he never visited, and Dantes didn¡¯t have any interest in apprenticeships or grueling work. Gaspard had once pitched stealing from a few of the jewelry craftsmen at the source for raw gold and gems, but both Dantes and Danglars knew that they were much more valuable and easy to sell once the crafting was done. Besides which it was much easier to deal with the heat from the guard from robbing a jewelry store than it was to deal with whatever fallout a Guild member may be able to muster against them.


    Dantes took things slow as he walked through, taking things in. He noticed that a number of storefronts were closed, likely driven out of business by the factories closer to the docks, but there were still a number of specialists about. He passed coopers, enchanters, jewelers, carpenters, blacksmiths, woodsingers, and even a number of feybinders. As he reached the center of district, the average person went from wearing smocks and heavy aprons and holding tools, to wearing chainmail, and leather, with swords and bows at their backs, and daggers strapped to their legs.


    As he walked, he started to be swept up in a current of people that was slowly pushing in the direction of a nearby arena, the one maintained by the adventurer¡¯s guild. Curious, and heading in that direction anyway, he allowed himself to be swept up into the thick crowd. As he moved, he slipped his fingers into nearby pockets and jackets, slipping anything coin shaped and cold into his many pockets without ever actually looking down. There was no reason to waste being surrounded by a distracted crowd with full pockets.


    He eventually found himself in the stands of the arena himself, needing to peer between a pair of tall elf men to see the sand-bottomed pit below. There were five men in the pit, and for a moment he thought it was a free for all, until he caught a better glimpse and realized that four of the men were all facing one in the corner.

 Book 2 Ch 9: Grinning Down at Them

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    Dantes watched incredulously, checking with the rats at the Vixen for just a moment. Things seemed to be going as they usually did, with a few early morning sailors pairing off with the girls. The goons seemed to have switched to watching things in shifts, with the one on the rooftop taking a nap, and the girl in the alley now inside for a drink.


    He looked around. He was basically boxed in, and pushing his way out would draw a lot of attention to himself, so he resigned himself to watch the fight and turned his full attention to the pit. The four mercenaries on one side were a diverse group. There was a woman in the back with a bow, a man in front wielding a two handed warhammer, another man with a spear, and a woman with a long thin blade. They were all armored, and while he didn¡¯t recognize the markings he was fairly certain they were highly ranked members of different mercenary organizations, and they were also in the adventurer¡¯s guild ranked wolf which he remembered being relatively high up as well. It was common for the mercs to work as adventurers between wars, kept the gold flowing.


    The solitary man was shirtless and covered with sinewy muscle. His hair was long and light brown. He was human, as far as he could tell, but as pretty as an elf with a smile that seemed to reflect the sun directly into Dantes¡¯ eyes. If Dantes had looked like him he would¡¯ve started working at the, ¡®Magnificent Stallion¡¯ in uptown and lived a good full life following his mother¡¯s career path. He found himself rooting for the other four combatants.


    Before the fighting started, the handsome man with the staff raised it high. ¡°I offer the effort of this fight in the name of the God of Justice.¡±


    Dantes stifled a laugh, his inner cynicism not allowing him to take the statement seriously. He was surprised however when the statement was met by a cheer from the rest of the crowd. He turned his attention to listening to what people were saying around him.


    ¡°-can¡¯t believe he¡¯s here. Last I heard he was dragonslaying in Viscent¡±


    ¡°-He¡¯s wanted in Frasheid for freeing that slave caravan-¡±


    ¡°- no way he killed a demon. I¡¯d believe the minotaur, but a demon? That¡¯s crazy-¡±


    ¡°His sunspear is supposed to be able to harm even spirits-¡±


    ¡°Why¡¯s he here?¡±


    ¡°-can¡¯t be the prison break. It just happened. He¡¯d have had to cross the continent in almost no time at all.¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow and appraised the man again. There were those in the city that gossipped about this adventurer or that, but it had never had much appeal to him. Mondego had liked to play at adventurer as a kid, since he saw so many of them when he went to his father¡¯s shop in the guild district, but Dantes had been busy picking pockets.


    A horn blew, and the fight began. Dantes expected the man with the staff to be on the defensive at first, but was surprised when instead he launched himself forward at the man with the warhammer, thrusting the tip of his staff at his face. The man with the warhammer managed to just barely move his head out of the way of the strike, but the staff quickly slammed into the side of his head, the speed of the strike causing the staff to actually bend before it snapped into place against the mans face causing his head to spin toward the ground and his body along with it.


    The man with the spear moved to strike in unison with the woman wielding the rapier, and just as their strikes were about to hit the man with the staff he seemed to vanish, before they realized he¡¯d thrust his staff into the ground and was standing on the tip of it, grinning down at them.


    The bow-woman let an arrow fly at him and he caught it with one hand before purposely falling from the tip of the staff toward the spearmen, getting under his guard, and shoving the feathered end of the arrow up his nose, before tossing him to the ground with an open-handed push.


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    The man went to retrieve his staff, and the woman with the rapier began to strike wildly at him with a dozen thrusts, while the bow-woman began to loose arrows more liberally at him.


    He stayed calm, a smile on his face, as he dodged strike after strike. He somehow did so without giving any ground, moving only as much as he needed to to avoid their attacks.


    As the spearmen began to stand, he somehow batted away the rapier by hitting it with the flat of his hand. The force of that nearly spun the woman around, and when she regained her footing he had his staff which he brought down on her wrist, disarming her.


    The spearmen launched himself at him, and they did some brief exchange of blows which the staff wielder fought off with only one hand on his weapon. Finally, as if growing a bit bored of the display, he drove the tip of the staff into the spearman¡¯s gut, caught the spear as the man began to lose consciousness, and flung it with such force that when it caught the bow-woman¡¯s hood it threw her back into the far wall and embedded itself there, the force of it seeming to knock her unconscious.


    Dantes let out a breath. He hadn¡¯t realized he had been holding it as he watched the fight. It couldn¡¯t have lasted more than two minutes. Dantes had seen and been in a number of fights in his life. He knew he wasn¡¯t a good up-front fighter. In his group that had always been more Mondego¡¯s role, as the biggest of them, but he didn¡¯t think of himself as bad at fighting. He¡¯d certainly won more than he¡¯d lost. That man was on a different level though. Even the men and women he¡¯d just defeated alone would have slaughtered Dantes in seconds and Dantes got the impression that the man could¡¯ve fought them ten more times without breaking a sweat. He must¡¯ve had something divine or magical to him, but that was also beyond Dantes¡¯ ability to gauge.


    The man, now the last one standing in the pit, raised up his staff and the crowd erupted into applause and cheers.


    ¡°Gavain! Gavain! Gavain! Gavain!¡±


    His curiosity satisfied, and the crowd breaking up, Dantes began to make his way out of the arena and back out onto the street to search for the headquarters of the ¡°Hells¡¯ Forgotten¡±. He hadn¡¯t understood the appeal of Adventurers as a kid, but if he¡¯d seen someone like Gavain, there was a good chance he would¡¯ve followed a different path. He could¡¯ve been disarming traps, and picking locks for treasure in a dungeon rather than to steal from someone else. Though, he supposed, you were stealing either way. Once just seemed more acceptable to the average person for some reason. Maybe because liches and dragons weren¡¯t considered ¡®owners¡¯ of what they had.


    Whatever the case he wondered what it would cost to hire muscle like Gavain for a job. He had praised the God of Justice, but at the same time he was a member of the Adventurer¡¯s guild, which meant money had to mean something to him. Having that kind of power to throw at Mondego¡¯s operation was immensely appealing to him, but he doubted the practicality of it. Besides, it¡¯s a difficult thing to control something that strong. He could be deprived of the personal revenge he wanted if he sent someone like Gavain after him.


    Dantes eventually made it to the edge of the Guild district, and it was there he finally found what he was looking for. The Hells¡¯ Forgotten, building was an old warehouse that had clearly been converted. In front of it were a number of rough looking men and women covered in scars and wearing weapons on their backs or at their sides. Dantes considered asking them about the underground arena he was looking for, but reconsidered, instead pushing out his senses until he found a number of roaches crawling around in a large open space underground. He moved toward where he sensed them and saw a seemingly abandoned building with a man leaning against a wall outside half asleep.


    Dantes didn¡¯t bother talking to him, instead slipping past him and finding a stairway leading down almost immediately inside the building. The wooden steps quickly changed to stone and Dantes realized he was in some closed off portion of the ruins beneath the city. It opened up and he saw a large pit in which a large elven man was striking a wooden post covered in rope. The force of his blows caused it to shudder, and the speed with which he attacked made him appear almost as a blur. He was a flurry of elbows and knees, but he stopped after a particularly strong blow that caused the post to make a loud cracking sound.


    With the man still, Dantes got a better look at him. He was broad and muscular, with a number of scars and burns across his body. His head was shaved, a rare thing for an elf, and his ears ended in horizontal lines where they¡¯d seemingly been cut. One of those ears twitched as Dantes decided to make his footsteps loud enough to be heard.


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 Book 2 Ch 10: I Think We May Need to Split Up

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    Vampa looked up as Dantes approached, his eyes darting up and down as if assessing a threat and quickly determining there wasn¡¯t one.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± he asked, as he began to unwrap the cloth he had around his hands.


    ¡°My name is Ed. I¡¯m a friend of Vera¡¯s. She asked me to bring you this.¡±


    Dantes reached into his jacket and pulled out the folded piece of paper he¡¯d been given. He held it out as Vampa met him at the bottom of the stairs. Vampa¡¯s gait reminded him of watching a cat walk across the top of a fencepost. He was large, larger than even any of the fighters he¡¯d just watched brawl, but his footsteps were completely silent and every movement he made, even just taking the paper and unfolding it, had a kind of disciplined deliberateness to it. He smelled the paper of the letter for just a moment. It would¡¯ve been too subtle to for most people to notice, but Dantes caught it.


    His eyes quickly went over the letter, and he nodded to himself. ¡°I will watch over the Vixen and Vera and keep them safe.¡± He looked at Dantes again. ¡°Leave.¡± He walked back into the pit, and began collecting clothing and weapons.


    ¡°Can I ask how you know Vera?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± he said as he slid on a thick wool shirt.


    Dantes sighed. He knew when he was talking to a brick wall, so he decided not to push. ¡°Thank you. For looking after her and the girls.¡± He turned around and walked back out of the building, passing the guard who was by then fully asleep. He glanced around, and lifted a small jingling purse from the man¡¯s pocket before making his way back toward the main streets.


    His eyes on the Vixen confirmed that things were still okay, so he began making the long walk toward the nearest one of his gardens. Even as he walked through the guild district he heard retellings of Gavain¡¯s triumph in the arena, slowly hearing his feats exaggerated as he moved. By the time he reached lowtown, where all three of his gardens were located, Gavain had gone from defeating four well trained combatants in combat alone to vanquishing nearly one hundred with only one hand, while a seagull pecked at his testicles.


    He could feel the pull of the thread that connected his garden to him vibrate slightly as he got closer, as if anticipating his return. The closest one was also the smallest of them. He¡¯d planted some fruits, some vegetables, and a tree seed. All of them had begun sprouting, and he reached his energy out to them and made them shift a bit to test his will. He sensed that he needed to do more than he had been. The innate knowledge he¡¯d received from his initiation coming to him, as did the memory of his conversation with the god of bats. He couldn¡¯t gain favor and power just by feeding things that were hungry, there was a balance to things that he needed to help create and maintain.


    He looked across the block he¡¯d started gardening in. There was a collection of spiked and rusted metal, its purpose long forgotten, on a nearby roof. He climbed onto it, and pushed the spikes off. Then he began collecting scattered wood-scraps and placed them into a corner. He noticed that one of the empty houses that bordered the garden was actually well sealed, so he formed his new tree branch into a pry and busted boards off of it until any animals that wanted to could come and go as they pleased. Finally, he took an old basin that had been buried in rubble, and positioned it where he sensed it would catch rainwater. Once that was done he took some extra time to water and check on each of his budding plants. Sensing their needs and doing his best to force compromise where they had conflicts with one another, even re-homing the small sapling by reforming his branch into a trowel.


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    When he was done he looked over the garden again, and extended out his senses. He could feel that some nearby birds were already looking at the roof he¡¯d cleared, and a rat was already in the process of making the pile of wood scraps homey. The line of power that connected him to the garden seemed more firm, and flowing more freely, even though there wasn¡¯t yet that large of an increase in life. He took one final moment to bury some gold and gems in a small unmarked portion of ground, to act as a fallback space, and then he moved on.


    He hit the other two gardens as well, taking the same time to try and improve them, to make them have some kind of balance. When he was done he felt as if all three were in a much better place, though the line that connected him to his old garden in the Underprison was still much stronger than all three of the others.


    He settled into his main garden, sending hellos to the bats that roosted within it, and greeting the plants as well. He checked the Vixen, and sent the critters he was connected to there to search the area. It took some time, but he eventually found Vampa already in the brothel. He was wearing a comically small apron and working in the kitchen, pouring a dark red wine over a beautiful cut of meat, and causing it to sizzle. He hadn¡¯t expected him to be able to cook, and he also hadn¡¯t expected him to be watching the Vixen from the inside. He¡¯d had it in his mind that the man would¡¯ve been observing things from the shadows. Still, it wasn¡¯t like those Mondego had assigned to watch the Vixen would know that he wasn¡¯t a regular cook, bouncer, or even client. It was clever, and had Vera¡¯s fingerprints all over it.


    He let out a sigh of relief, but left all of his animals there to keep watch. He could see his favor trickly slightly upward across the board as he gazed at his growing sleeve of tattoos. Not his favorite type of gold, but he certainly enjoyed having it.


    He had at least partially solved his immediate concerns with the Vixen, but he still had other problems. He needed to try and locate some of the other prisoners who had escaped. If Wane or Merle were among them, and he could somehow release them from their collars, then he would have some powerful friends on his side. He also needed to determine the status of his old garden. Now that he knew what a risk it posed, he had to find some way to manage or mitigate the danger it represented. If the escapees could give him the information on where things stood then he would be able to assess his options.


    He opened his pack and began sorting through Pacha¡¯s notes one by one. Over the last few weeks he¡¯d been studying them while adding information of his own. He knew where Mondego¡¯s shipments came in, how they were stored, where they were sold, and what they funded. He knew who was who and what was what. The only thing keeping him from having all of the information he needed, was the enchantments on a number of buildings that prevented rats, roaches, or other vermin from entering them. He needed to find a mage with loose morals, or that he could control by some means. He¡¯d prefer to find the escaped collared and work with them, but he couldn¡¯t wait until one turned up, besides if he had an uncollared mage under his thumb he could use him to help the collared once he came across them.


    He also needed to start looking into Danglars more. He was involved in Mondego¡¯s operation and besides that he wanted his revenge on him just as much. Pacha theorized that he was using his legal authority to somehow ensure that certain boats that came into port weren¡¯t searched, or ensure that any that were smuggling without Mondego¡¯s blessing received additional scrutiny. Luckily Dantes didn¡¯t really need to figure out the exact workings of Mondego¡¯s operations. He only needed to know enough to break them, and that was a much easier task than building them up. There was a reason he¡¯d stuck to thievery with his gang rather than any deeper machinations. Harder to fuck up. Though once he was through with his former companions he would need to fill his time with something and regular thievery didn¡¯t have quite the same appeal to him as it once did.


    He worked his way through everything again in his head. Spinning ideas of what to do, and what to target. He could cover a lot of ground alone, particularly with his abilities, but if he wanted to move quickly, he¡¯d need the support of an equal.


    He turned his attention to Jacopo, who was gorging himself on a piece of rotten fruit.


    ¡°I think we may need to split up for a while.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 11: Whip em out

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    The Bitter Wife was not the finest establishment in Rendhold, far from it, but it certainly did its best to live up to its name. Gambling, whoring, drinking, even fighting if you were into that sort of thing, all of it was available to the Bitter Wife¡¯s patrons. It was located southeast of the Academy towers, in one of the only ¡®bad areas¡¯ you could reach close to Uptown. Dantes hadn¡¯t been familiar with this particular den of sin when he was thrown into the Pit, but he¡¯d taken a bit of time the previous day to scope it out with his four and six legged allies.


    He wore a dark gray coat he¡¯d stolen, a black hat, rings on each his fingers, and a gold chain on his neck. The bouncer didn¡¯t even glance at him as he walked in. He clearly had money to spend, and was clean enough that none of the girls would complain.


    He went to the bar first, where a dwarven woman was busy pouring beer into mugs and swiftly handing them out to a group of ten patrons that seemed to have arrived before him. He moved onto a bar stool, mentally checking each of the gambling tables, and finding his mark.


    The man was long and lean, with brown hair that had touches of gray, and purple eyes. His face was gaunt, as if he frequently forgot to eat, but there was a clear vigor to him. He wore casual clothes, but the stink of the Academy was all over him. Dantes had learned about him from Dario, when he was on the hunt for a less than scrupulous mages. Felix was a good target for a number of reasons. He was a tenured professor, he had little to no talent for combat magic, and he excelled at enchantments, binding, and breaking. Most importantly, he loved to gamble, which was always a beautiful thing to see in someone you want to have control of.


    Felix was at a White Drake table, holding his five cards and smiling. No one else at the table shared his expression. He put his cards down to the groans of the rest of them. He pulled the small pile of coins, and one silver ring in front of himself, and began carefully organizing his winnings as another player began re-shuffling the deck and getting ready to deal out another hand. The table was full, but based on the piles in front of each of them, a seat would be opening soon.


    ¡°What¡¯ll you ¡®ave?¡± asked the dwarven bartender, a bit out of breath, but keeping impatience out of her voice somehow. She was a stocky woman, with a square jaw, but her eyes were a pretty shade of brown.


    ¡°Something strong and brown, preferably the same shade as your eyes.¡±


    She blinked a few times. ¡°We don¡¯t have anything quite that shade.¡±


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t surprise me. Too unique. Just whatever¡¯s closest to it then.¡±


    She reddened slightly as she grabbed a bottle and poured him a glass from it.


    He slid her a silver and threw the drink back, enjoying the burn as it went down. The Vixen had been great, but their focus on wine had left a bit to be desired. He¡¯d been drinking prison hooch for years and preferred something stronger.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    She nodded and went to serve another customer, before refilling his glass.


    He nursed this one, keeping an eye on the table. The Bitter Wife was in good shape, but there were still rats here and there. He moved one to the spot in the wall behind Felix and had it take a loose nail and start to push it quietly through the wall, then removed it to peer through. Through its eyes he was able to see Felix¡¯s hand, though only barely as rat eyesight wasn¡¯t near as good as his own. Felix was one card short of a full flight, having a minotaur in his hand rather than a Blue Wyvern. The rat blinked, and the minotaur was suddenly a Blue Wyvern.


    Dantes smiled to himself as he took another sip of his drink. A fellow degenerate.


    He looked at the bartender.


    ¡°Nother drink?¡±


    He nodded, and she poured again.


    ¡°The tables. Do they have any enchantments to keep mages from cheating? I know the academy isn¡¯t far.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Yes ser, they can¡¯t prevent any magic, but there¡¯s some type a enchantment that makes it more obvious when someone uses magic. Outside the bar when someone uses magic I hear a gentle tone if there¡¯s magic about, but in here when a cocky student tries something it¡¯s like an eagle screamin in my ear.¡±


    He nodded. He hadn¡¯t felt any tingling in his fingertips, so that meant however Felix was cheating it was getting around their detection. In Midtown a mage could probably cheat with impunity, but not too many students would walk the streets there too boldly. Even winning too much honestly can get you killed in Midtown.


    He slid her another silver. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    She eyed the silver. ¡°Ser, you haven¡¯t even drank through the first silver yet.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s to keep serving me when I go to that table,¡± he pointed to the table Felix sat at, where a man was shaking with sobs as Felix and another man split the pile in the center of the table.


    She nodded to him.


    He slid her a third silver. ¡°And this is just a tip.¡± He stood and walked over to the table, passing the crying man as he made his way to the door. He smiled at the men and women at the table and gestured to the empty seat.


    ¡°Seems you have an opening. Mind if I join?¡±


    The table sized him up, eyeing his rings, the gold necklace, and the fine coat.


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    ¡°I¡¯d say yer welcome,¡± said a heavyset woman to his right. ¡°Long as you don¡¯t cry when you lose. Can¡¯t stand to see a man cry.¡±


    Dantes sat down. ¡°Oh, I do cry when I lose. But I don¡¯t think that¡¯ll be a problem.¡±


    The woman laughed, as did a few of the others at the table.


    Felix lifted the deck of cards and slid it across the table to him. ¡°New guy deals first round.¡±


    Dantes smiled and took the deck. He thumbed the edge of it, listening to the sound as the cards smacked into one another, then he cut it, merged them, cut it again, then brought them together again into a satisfyingly perfect pile, and started dealing out five cards to each person at the table. It had been a while since he¡¯d played cards. Dice were much easier in the Pit. You could make them yourself, they were harder to break, and easier to steal. Still, as he deftly dealt out cards to each player, ensuring based on only a brief glance that he¡¯d have a decent, but not perfect hand, that he hadn¡¯t lost his touch.


    After he was done he picked up his cards. He had a three dragon run, a solid first hand, but beatable. He watched everyone else pick up their own, paying particularly close attention to Felix¡¯s hand through the hole in the wall. He had a mated pair, and a three color changeup, which would beat Dantes.


    Dantes tossed in two silver, subtly reaching back and accepting a drink from the bartender with a thank you. The other players called, and put in their bets. He kept his same hand, smiling, as everyone else changed theirs by one or two cards. Dantes raised by another silver, and the heavyset woman raised by an additional after that. The other two at the table folded, and everyone revealed their cards with Felix taking the pot.


    ¡°Are the tears coming?¡± asked the heavyset woman.


    Dantes smiled at her and winked. ¡°I haven¡¯t lost until I¡¯m out of money.¡±


    The rest of the game was a lot of back and forth, and not just between Felix and Dantes. Dantes kept his wins minimal and his losses obvious, but was never down by much. Between his ability to see everyone¡¯s hands, and his own delicate fingers he had a lot of advantages. He paid particularly close attention to Felix¡¯s hand of course. Felix, like Dantes, didn¡¯t cheat every time. He would hold on to good or decent hands, and only ever switch one card at a time. And it was switching the cards. He wasn¡¯t creating duplicates, which would be easier to suss out. He also didn¡¯t seem to be able to tell what cards everyone else had, just what was available in the deck. That meant that as the deck got towards its end, he had fewer options. That gave Dantes an in.


    Slowly, but surely, everyone at the table was beaten except for Dantes and Felix, though the heavyset woman stayed to watch their bout, and deal. Dantes won with a Full Flight, then Felix had the next hand with a White Drake ascending. Finally, they were near the bottom of the deck. Dantes had stopped being measured with his wins, and now had a pile five times the size of Felix¡¯s, but Felix kept betting more anyway. He was sweating, clearly wondering how in the hells Dantes was beating him, but he found no sympathy with those left at the table.


    Dantes looked past his hand at the paltry pile in front of Felix.


    ¡°Looks like we¡¯re almost at the end, eh? Maybe take what you have left and go? I¡¯m starting to feel a bit guilty.¡±


    Felix scowled. ¡°No. I¡¯m due for a win.¡± He had a Wyvern¡¯s Wing, a near unbeatable hand unless someone else had the White Drake in their hand. The deck was nearly full, and the drake was still in it so the chance of his opponent pulling it was very low.


    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you what¡­¡± Dantes held out his glass for the barmaid to fill once again, his delightful inebriation causing him to shoot her a wink as he thanked her. ¡°How about I give you the chance to win it back, and everything I have as well.¡±


    Felix squinted his eyes suspiciously. He sensed no magic from the man, and he¡¯d been carefully watching him for signs of deception. At this point, with Britt dealing it should be nearly impossible for him to be cheating. He swallowed.


    ¡°I¡¯ll agree to my half now, and see if we raise to your half after the discard and draw.¡±


    Britt scoffed. ¡°Coward.¡±


    Dantes raised his hands. ¡°Deal, and if you lose we¡¯ll head straight to the nearest feybinder and work out a loan.¡±


    He nodded, and they each chose their discards. Felix got rid of one card, and drew another that did nothing for or against him.


    Dantes got rid of two and smiled as he looked at his hand.


    Felix smiled back. He could sense the White Drake was still in the deck. The best his opponent could have was a Black Flight, a good hand, and one that warranted the man¡¯s confidence, but could beaten by his own.


    ¡°So, do you accept the full terms now?¡± asked Dantes.


    Felix nodded. ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s enough being modest ladies,¡± said Britt, ¡°whip ¡®em out.¡±


    Felix laid down his hand, eliciting widened eyes from Britt.


    Dantes let out a high whistle and shook his head with a dour expression. ¡°Wow, a nearly impossible hand to beat.¡± He laid down his cards one at a time, revealing the hand that Felix had expected, then he hesitated at the last card and smiled. ¡°Unless, I have this of course.¡± he placed down the White Drake card.


    Felix¡¯s eye bulged in their sockets and he looked again at the deck. ¡°That¡¯s impossible the white drake is still in the deck!?¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow. ¡°And how would you know that?¡± he was right of course. Dantes had bought a deck that matched the one they were playing with and hid a number of cards on his person. He hadn¡¯t used any of them since he knew of Felix¡¯s method, but for the win it made sense to put it all on the table.


    ¡°Yeah Felix,¡± said Britt leaning forward. ¡°How would you know that?¡±


    Felix looked at the two of them. ¡°I¡­ I guess I wouldn¡¯t.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°That¡¯s good. I wouldn¡¯t have wanted to have to talk to management about you.¡± He slid the equivalent to double what Britt had lost over to her. ¡°Thank you for dealing and helping to keep things fair. I¡¯m sure you won¡¯t mention our friends slip of the tongue.¡±


    She smiled and nodded. ¡°Happy to help.¡± She pocketed the money and walked toward the bar.


    Dantes looked at Felix. ¡°You are quite the player, but the game is over now. It¡¯s time to talk payment.¡±


    He went pale. ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t have enough to pay you right away. Even with a loan it¡¯ll take a long time¡­¡±


    ¡°Listen, you seem like an alright sort. I¡¯ll tell you what. I won¡¯t make you worry about the money. I don¡¯t even need money. You could just owe me a few favors.¡± Dantes made a gold coin dance between his fingers. ¡°You¡¯re a mage, right?¡±


    Felix nodded.


    ¡°I have an enchantment I¡¯d like to be able to break at will.¡±


    Felix shook his head. ¡°The academy would-¡±


    Dantes raised a hand ¡°Not a major one. I have a friend that runs a bakery. Only problem is that a different bakery just opened up the street and is selling everything cheaper than him. I figure, I¡¯ll have some guys throw some rats in there to scare out customers.¡±


    ¡°Oh, the anti-vermin enchantment?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s it. I don¡¯t need you to remove an enchantment protecting a nobleman from poisoning, or a whore from pregnancy. I just want to help out a friend. You make me something that can break it, something small and easy to carry, and we¡¯ll hold off on you owing me anything. Does that sound so bad? Surely the Academy wouldn¡¯t even be that harsh on you if you were caught.¡±


    Felix thought about it. It wasn¡¯t nearly as bad as he was expecting. Besides, it would take years to pay off what he owed depending on what kind of interest the thug in front of him made him agree to.


    ¡°I can do that.¡±


    Dantes gave him a warm false smile. ¡°Good! How about I buy you a drink? A whore? You seem to be low on funds.¡±


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 Book 2 Ch 12: He Was a Rat and Had more Practical Concerns

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    Jacopo moved quickly through the city, using the mental map Dantes had given him to move toward Uptown. Dantes hadn¡¯t frequented that part of the city, as most were turned away at the gates unless they could prove they had business there, but there were ways through for those who really wanted to be there, and Dantes had the distinct memories of being escorted through for his sentencing to the Pit. Jacopo wasn¡¯t bound by the same restrictions though, and simply squeezed through the front gate.


    The first impression of Uptown Jacopo had was that of how different it was from the rest of the city. The streets were smooth instead of filled with potholes, the building free of cracks and grime, and the people all smelled of flowers and fresh water. He immediately hated it.


    He moved away from the gates and further into Uptown, sticking to what little shadows there were as he did so. The two-legs there were also different from what Jacopo had grown used to. They were more¡­distinct. Less mixed up as Dantes was. The tall pointed eared ones lacked any evidence of tusks, the wide short ones had no purple or green in their beards, and the human ones were distinctly uninteresting to look at, though they seemed to cover themselves in much finer cloths to compensate.


    If Jacopo had been a two-leg, or cared more to learn about them, he may have known that having a nobility made up of so many different races was a very rare thing. Most nations'' ruling class were made up of only one or two separate races, but Rendhold was different. When Rendhold had been founded, it had no nobles. It was ruled by the people, and existed as a border city between two small kingdoms. Because of the murkiness of the authority and ownership surrounding the city, it became a popular place for exiled nobles and politicians to make their home, bringing with themselves vast resources. Those nobles were from many different lines, but eventually they all agreed that Rendhold had tremendous potential. Over time they slowly took over the city and made themselves the new ruling class, establishing a new nobility. Exiled nobles or second sons could still be granted noble status and protection when moving to Rendhold, for a price. The council still only allowed those of noble blood to serve. Jacopo didn¡¯t know or care about any of this of course. He was a rat, and had more practical concerns that just so happened to be occasionally superseded by his soulbinding to a two-leg.


    The buildings were also very different from what he¡¯d grown used to. They were larger, and each of them had a distinct look to it. The green and tusked two legs seemed to mostly congregate around the buildings made of stone with narrow windows, some barely big enough for Jacopo to fit through, the squat ones favored low stone buildings that seemed to continue underground, and the tall and pointer eared ones favored spindly homes of wood that seemed higher than should be possible, and were surrounded by fresh gardens.


    From what he¡¯d gotten from Dantes, this area was where the newest and poorest nobles lived, and where the great market connected to the rest of the city. He needed to go deeper in, closer to the Mage Towers to find the administrative district.


    He wove through alleys nicer than the main roads in midtown, and avoided a fat cat by jumping through some narrow fencing that it couldn¡¯t get through, before making it to his goal. The buildings there were very different to the others he¡¯d seen in midtown. Built of black stone, high and imperious, with white accent columns and gold icons. In the center of the square were a series of statues of all of the gods involved in governance. The Father, Justice, and a smattering of others that Jacopo had no clue about as he didn¡¯t much care about what gods the two-legged races worshiped.


    He made his way to the statues in the center, climbing the largest of them, the Father, and hunching down on his shoulders to watch the square. It was midday, and busy, and he extended his senses out, reaching out to other rats, bats, and roaches in the area to watch everything from multiple angles. He could not hold as many eyes in his mind as Dantes could, but his ability to inhabit them and read their senses was much keener, so more than made up for it. There were far fewer vermin in this part of the city, another reason to dislike it, and he found that much like the bakeries he¡¯d attempted to burgle in midtown, every building was sealed from the rats he sent to test their entrances.


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    He brought up in his mind the images of the people he was looking for. The female magister who had bound Syn to the Pit, and Danglars. He sat and scanned for a long time. He wished Dantes had the sense to provide him with a scent for either of them. He supposed the strange shapeshifting woman probably couldn¡¯t have helped with that, but Danglars he was certain Dantes had known well enough to be aware of his smell. He sent his senses out to check on Dantes who allowed him with a mental handshake. The connection took more effort at this distance, but it was possible with some focus from both of them.


    Dantes was looking at the cards in his hand. Jacopo had no idea what he was looking at, but got the impression that Dantes was satisfied with what he had.


    ¡°Any luck so far?¡± asked Dantes as he tossed a couple silver into a pile in some type of odd ritual that Jacopo didn¡¯t bother asking for clarification on.


    ¡°No. I am here, but neither of the two-legs have appeared.¡±


    Dantes took a sip of his drink. ¡°Well, even if you don¡¯t locate either of them, I should have a way to break the enchantment that keeps you from entering certain buildings soon. It would help to know either of their locations first though.¡±


    Jacopo gave a mental nod. That was the reason he agreed to do this instead of what he¡¯d originally had planned for the day, feeding, fighting, and fucking. He wanted no place to be barred from him.


    Dantes lifted a new hand up in front of his face, and expertly kept a neutral expression despite the terrible hand he¡¯d drawn. ¡°I need my focus back here. Give it a bit more time, a couple hours. If they don¡¯t show up, I¡¯ll meet you back at the garden.¡±


    Jacopo broke the connection without the courtesy of a goodbye. Such things didn¡¯t really matter to him, and returned his focus to the square in front of him. After another hour of watching, he found Danglars.


    Jacopo didn¡¯t recognize him at first, Dantes¡¯ memories were dated. While Danglars had been on the tall side, just a bit shorter than Mondego, and skinny, his posture had deteriorated and his waistline had nearly doubled from what it had been. His dark blue hair, the only real indication of his distant gnomish ancestry, had begun to recede as well, making an already steep widows peak particularly precarious.


    Jacopo leapt down from the statue of the Father and weaved his way through the legs of the crowd. Unlike in Midtown, the people of Uptown didn¡¯t look down. They were unconcerned with what was below them, and unlike Midtowners didn¡¯t need to worry so much about what they might step in.


    He made it to Danglar¡¯s vicinity and began following him, listening in on his conversation. He was speaking to three young female attendants that all had red hair, though they were each of a different race.


    ¡°-make sure to push back my meeting with Cerpin tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°For what reason sir?¡±


    ¡°Whoring, but make up a better excuse than that.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir.¡±


    ¡°I also need you to prepare a brief regarding the land deal, but make it a bad one. The opposing party gave me a tasty bribe.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir. Would you like us to handle the meeting with the dock authorities as well?¡±


    Danglars stopped. ¡°No¡­I¡¯ll handle that as always.¡±


    Jacopo tailed them until they reached one of the lower black buildings, there were words written outside, but Jacopo couldn¡¯t read unless Dantes was there to interpret it with him.


    ¡°Have a meal brought to me in my office. Something fatty and decadent.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir.¡±


    ¡°And¡­¡± he looked over each of the women, his eyes settling on the human one. ¡°Desha, join me in my office would you?¡±


    The woman swallowed. ¡°Are you sure sir? You have your appointment with Dosia at the ¡®Cruel lady¡¯? Should you not save your energy?¡±


    ¡°I will decide what I have energy for.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir.¡± The woman looked thoroughly depressed and the other two relieved as they walked inside. Jacopo took note of the building, and attempted to enter it, finding it blocked just as the others had been. Still, he¡¯d gotten what he¡¯d come for, and Dantes owed him some fine food and drink for his effort. He quickly made his way out of Uptown, and got back onto the dirtier unkempt streets that he¡¯d begun to consider home.

 Book 2 Ch 13: Such Tasty Crumbs She Gave

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    Dantes watered his fourth garden, drawing his black hilted stiletto to trim a few browning leaves from a bush as he listened to the gossipping of pigeons on the freshly cleared roof behind him.


    ¡°How was the park?¡±


    ¡°Bad. Old woman wasn¡¯t there again. Miss her dearly.¡±


    ¡°Strange. She¡¯d show up even in the rain.¡±


    ¡°Such tasty crumbs she gave.¡±


    ¡°She saved me from a cat once. Attacked him with her cane. Such a brave woman.¡±


    Dantes had been listening in on a lot of animals since his initiation. It was interesting to hear the differences between them. They all had similar priorities, food, water, and shelter, but they approached all of it from a very different framework. Bats were very social, almost like a single large family. Rats were like a family too, but one of criminals, they¡¯d share, but only after making sure they got theirs first. Roaches didn¡¯t really talk, though he felt general impressions from them. Cats typically ignored him unless he had something they wanted. Birds, of which pigeons were what he encountered the most, reminded him most of the women at a whorehouse after the day was done. Gossipping, bragging, and somehow keeping track of more than one hundred different people through their little conversations.


    He finished pruning a branch, thinking that he should invest in actual tools sometime soon, and poured some water from a flask over his hands to rinse them. He missed the Vixen and his regular access to baths¡­.and whores. He turned his attention to the pigeons.


    ¡°This woman, do you know where she lives?¡±


    The pigeons looked down at him.


    ¡°Oh, he¡¯s the one that can speak? I expected it to be one of those short bearded ones.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I can speak, the woman you¡¯re speaking of, where can I find her?¡±


    Another pigeon, this one gray with flecks of emerald green at his neck, stepped forward. ¡°Why do you want to know?¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Want to see if I can help her out.¡± He had been looking for more ways to earn favor with birds, and this seemed like something that could help. Bats had been very useful. They were great flyers, and their senses were very acute, but they had their limitations. They couldn¡¯t fly very high, and using them during the day cost him a heavy amount of favor which was slow to build with them. Even if pigeons fulfilled the same role as them, it would still be worth it to court them. Nothing wrong with having a diverse range of options.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I think red-feather does.¡±


    Dantes moved to a post over which his coat was slung, and threw it on. He had his meeting with Felix later in the evening to get whatever item he¡¯d prepared to help him break the anti-vermin enchantment, so he¡¯d been focused on garden maintenance and building favor that day. This seemed like a worthy endeavor.


    ¡°Take me to her.¡±


    What followed was a series of back and forths with various pigeons. One wouldn¡¯t know exactly, but would know someone who did, and all of that worked to slowly get him closer and closer until Dantes wound up in a small slum on the border of the docks and midtown in front of an old square brick house with well kept flowers sitting in the window.


    He hesitated at the door, realizing that he hadn¡¯t exactly thought through how he would approach the situation. He couldn¡¯t exactly tell her that he was there because of pigeons. He shrugged, and knocked on the door. He¡¯d improvise, he was confident he could come up with something on the fly.


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    He heard a series of surprisingly heavy footsteps, and held out his arm so that Jacopo could leap off of it and peer through the window.


    Through Jacopo¡¯s eyes he saw what was indeed an old woman, but he hadn¡¯t been expecting her to be a full-blooded orc who, in spite of the small spectacles and gray hair, was holding a heavy spiked club as she stood behind the door.


    ¡°I told you all, I don¡¯t have the money! Leave me alone!¡±


    Dantes quickly referenced what she said with what information he¡¯d gathered about the area. Mondego controlled it, but it was on the border of what he fully controlled. His goons frequently bullied protection money out of businesses and residents. He assumed they¡¯d threatened this woman and she was now afraid to leave her home, though based on her stature he was surprised by that. They must¡¯ve been some intimidating goons.


    ¡°Um, I¡¯m not here for money ma¡¯am, but are you by any chance related to a¡­ ¡° he reached through his mind searching for a common orc name, ¡°Crushken?¡±


    He saw the woman lower her club slightly through Jacopo¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°... I have a cousin by that name, yes.¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m uh, sorry to tell you this, but he¡¯s unfortunately passed away.¡±


    She put her club down, and opened the door. ¡°Crushy is dead?¡± she asked sadly. ¡°I feel like I lose someone else every year. What happened? Was it during a leviathan hunt?¡±


    Dantes smiled internally, finding exactly the way in he needed. ¡°That¡¯s right. A particularly profitable one, actually. I¡¯m here on behalf of his ship. You¡¯re the only relative we¡¯ve been able to find¡­ did he have a wife? Children?¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°No¡­ he was always bad with women, Crushy. Got too handsy too quickly.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Ah, well, the final profits for the hunt, his cut as well as his cuts from a couple previous outings, the company normally pockets those to pay for replacing employees that have passed, but due to his death being pivotal in the last hunt, an exception has been made and his family is to receive the money.¡± Normally this is the part of the scam where he¡¯d mention something along the lines of her needing to give him some money to pay for the legal fees required for the transfer of funds. It was an age old scam, and one he himself had done a few times when he was younger, though it hadn¡¯t worked as well when his voice was cracking. In this case though, he wanted to give the woman money, which made things easier.


    ¡°How much?¡± she asked. Her eyes were narrowed suspiciously. Hard to take good news seriously in midtown, or she was familiar with the scam.


    Dantes did some quick mental math. ¡°Thirty gold, actually.¡±


    Her eyes widened a bit. ¡°Thirty!?¡±


    He nodded. ¡°Well, with leviathan hunts things are always feast or famine. He happened to die at a time of feast. If he¡¯d lived he¡¯d¡¯ve been set for years.¡±


    She nodded, collecting herself, and reaching casually back toward her club. ¡°And what exactly do I need to do to retrieve this money?¡±


    He smiled, she was familiar with the scam. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small sack of gold. ¡°I suppose all you¡¯d need to do is take this from my hand.¡±


    She looked both ways and snatched the sack from his hand with a speed that heavily contrasted her age. He nodded at her and looked around at her house. ¡°With this much you could afford to move to a nicer neighborhood. Maybe something closer to that public garden a few blocks down.¡± He smiled. ¡°Anyway ma¡¯am, you have a nice day.¡±


    He felt Jacopo crawl up his leg as he walked away from her.


    ¡°Giving up money for nothing?¡± asked Jacopo. ¡°Wasteful.¡±


    ¡°If it leads to me gaining a blessing from the pigeon god it will have been worth it." He cracked his fingers. "There are a few ways to spend gold. You can use it to further your goals, you can use it to have fun, you can use it to have nice things, and of course you need it to survive in general. Sitting on it has no value though. The richest, most miserly old men and women in Uptown often die on piles of unspent wealth that their children bicker over. I¡¯d rather spend it.¡±


    ¡°The rat that hoards food is the first to die when it becomes scarce.¡±


    Dantes nodded, ¡°There¡¯s that too. If you spend it on making friends it can certainly help in the long run. It¡¯s a tool, not a goal in and of itself.¡±


    Dantes walked through alleys making his way to the Guild district. ¡°Are you ready to break into those bakeries that were closed to you?¡± he asked Jacopo.


    He sensed Jacopo¡¯s excitement, ¡°To start with, yes.¡±


    Dantes and Jacopo were nearly at their appointed meeting place when he decided to send some rats and roaches ahead of them. He found Felix waiting for him, clearly sweating profusely and pacing back and forth. A bad sign. Dantes stopped walking and watched him a bit longer, letting him sweat.


    Felix peered down the alley and very carefully lifted up some loose cloth that was at the alley¡¯s entrance. Dantes could see, through a bat hanging upside down, that there was some kind of arcane mark beneath it. Felix meant to trap him it seemed.


    ¡°He thinks to be the bread crumb in a spring-trap,¡± said Jacopo.


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Let¡¯s see how he reacts when he¡¯s the one that falls into it instead.¡±


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 Book 2 Ch 14: So, Were Even?

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    Dantes climbed quickly and easily onto the roof of the building behind which was the alley that Felix was still pacing in. He made his way to the edge of the building, and shifted into ratform before shifting back when Felix¡¯s back was turned. He crept quietly behind him and gave him a gentle shove directly onto the top of the sigil he¡¯d written on the ground.


    Felix let out a yelp as he landed on it, and then seemed to freeze, his eyes wide open and his body hanging suspended a foot in the air.


    Dantes peered at him, seeing that his eyes were mobile even though his body was frozen in place.


    ¡°Hello Felix.¡± He took a step closer to make sure that Felix could see him, and was gratified when his pupils landed on him. ¡°You alright? You seem to be having some trouble.¡± Dantes chuckled to himself as Felix didn¡¯t respond. ¡°Honestly, not a bad idea. Render me immobile at our meeting, maybe kill me? I¡¯m honestly a bit impressed, you didn¡¯t seem like the type.¡± He stepped closer and started rifling in Felix¡¯s pockets.


    ¡°Unfortunately for you, I am and whether or not I kill you will depend heavily on what I find in your pockets.¡± He continued his rifling, finding a coin pouch, a tin of rolled tobacco, some burnsticks, and finally a small key that made his fingertips tingle.


    ¡°Hmmm, it looks like you prepared what I asked for. No knife either? Unless¡­¡± He moved to Felix¡¯s boots where he found a simple dagger tucked into it. He slid that into the sheath he had in his sleeve letting out a tsk, tsk, tsk as he did so.


    ¡°Now, I don¡¯t know much about magical theory, but I¡¯d bet¡­¡± he moved the cloth off the sigil and scuffed the edge of it with his boot.


    Felix fell the rest of the way to the ground.


    Dantes watched him carefully. He didn¡¯t have any weapons on him anymore, but he was a mage, and that meant he could be dangerous. Just because Dario had told him he wasn¡¯t talented with offensive magic, didn¡¯t mean that was the whole truth. He tensed his will, ready to send all the nearby vermin at him in force if he needed to.


    Felix looked up at him with tears welling in his eyes. ¡°Please, don¡¯t kill me.¡±


    Dantes stayed tense, expecting a feint of some kind, but none came. He sighed. ¡°Why would I do that? You gave me what I asked for.¡± He held up the key. ¡°I assume this is what I asked for?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Just send some will through it and you can create a small pocket that vermin can move through.¡±


    ¡°Why a key?¡±


    ¡°Symbolism is important with enchantments and seals. If you wanted to break a anti-vermin enchantment for instance, I¡¯d maybe tie it to a hammer. How we perceive things affects how they work.¡±


    Dantes thought about it. A hammer to fully break the enchantment? Now there was an idea.


    ¡°How much juice does this need? Will it run out?¡±


    ¡°Maybe eventually. It¡¯s not breaking anything, just creating a window. It¡¯ll last a long time.¡±


    ¡°If another mage was to look at this, would they be able to tell you¡¯d made it?¡±


    He looked confused. ¡°I suppose so. Not many can subtly alter an enchantment using another object.¡±


    Dantes smiled as another method of control fell into place.


    ¡°So, we¡¯re even?¡±


    Dantes closed the gap between them in almost no time at all. ¡°No, we¡¯re not even. I beat you in a card game by a mile and asked you for a favor and in return you planned to kill me.¡± Dantes shoved him into the wall. ¡°I¡¯m going to want more of these. I¡¯m going to want at least one of those hammers you alluded to, and after that we¡¯ll see where we stand.¡± He loosened his grip and dusted off Felix¡¯s jacket with his hand a bit, then looked up at him and met him eye to eye. ¡°There¡¯s no reason this needs to be hard for you. After we¡¯re through what I feel you owe me, I¡¯ll pay you for your services. How would you like more gold to gamble on cards?¡±


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    There was a slight twinkle in his eye, just beyond the fear on his face.


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ll see you again next week. The hammer isn¡¯t as high a priority as the keys.¡± He paused at the edge of the alley as he was walking away and took the dagger he¡¯d taken, driving it into the coinpurse he¡¯d taken from Felix and sticking it to the wall. ¡°Try something stupid like that again, and I will kill you.¡±


    He walked a few blocks, dexterously creating a small leather loop connected to the key with his left hand, then he gave the key to Jacopo who was able to wear the key as a kind of small necklace. They followed the smell of food to a nearby restaurant, and Dantes leaned against a wall while Jacopo skittered out of his jacket and down a nearby alley.


    Jacopo circled the building, finding a small crack in a far corner. He moved slowly until he hit the shield that blocked his entry. Dantes sent him brief instructions on how to use magical items and Jacopo sent his will through the key. He strained against the shield, but felt it give. Instead of a wall, it was like pushing on cloth or flesh. He sent a bit more will through the key and made it through. He moved through the restaurant and toward the kitchen where one cook was yelling at another. He clambered onto a counter and tore a hunk of steak from a plate. He dragged it off the counter, and carried it back to where he¡¯d broken through. There was no resistance on the way out, and he crawled up Dantes leg and back into a pocket where he tore into the steak with gusto.


    Dantes smiled, releasing his focus on a rat he had watching Felix drink. He wanted to be able to find him in case the key didn¡¯t work as he¡¯d promised.


    ¡°Well, we¡¯ve got it tested. Now to try it out on something a bit more challenging."


    ¡­


    It took them some time, but they reached the docks without much issue. The salt air was particularly strong and blustery, with dark clouds gathering on the horizon. Dantes stood on a rooftop, watching the warehouse below as men entered and left with fair regularity. Carrying goods of all kinds. After Dantes had watched Pacha intimidate his rat, Ket, Dantes had been tailing the man which had led him to the warehouse below. According to Ket, the warehouse was where the majority of Mondego¡¯s smuggling operation passed through. Pacha had been attempting to get the authority and the men to organize a raid, but the docking authority had been blocking him. With the brief conversation Dantes had heard between Danglars and his people, he had an idea of who was pulling the strings there.


    Dantes had found that the warehouse was beyond his ability to infiltrate alone due to the large number of guards, and it also had the anti-vermin protection that many warehouses that stored food on the docks had. He watched through Jacopo¡¯s eyes as he pushed his way through the enchantment.


    Jacopo squeezed under the gap at the bottom of a closed door and made his way inside. He scurried into the darkness between two crates to avoid being seen, and slowly made his way into the rafters of the storehouse to observe what was happening. He was unimpressed by what he saw, but Dantes¡¯ excitement was building as he looked through his eyes.


    He saw barrels of gunpowder, vials of dust being sorted by women who¡¯d been stripped nude to guarantee that they weren¡¯t stealing any of it, weed by the bushel full, guns, swords, even books and a smattering of what he assumed were offensive magic wands. It was the largest collection of valuable and smuggled goods he¡¯d ever seen. He encouraged Jacopo to keep looking across the whole warehouse so that he could get a clearer picture.


    Jacopo complied, and moved toward the far wall of the building. Which was walled off from the rest. On that side were cages. He saw men, women, and children within them. A few of them looked as if they¡¯d been lightly beaten, but for the most part they looked well fed and not sick.


    Slaves thought Dantes as he looked. Or, future slaves at the very least. Slavery was legal in Rendhold, but there wasn¡¯t much use for it. Frasheid had use for them, as they relied on their slaves to grow crops, but Rendhold didn¡¯t produce much of its own food and could always turn to its criminals for a source of easy and free labor. Even paying people a few coppers for work seemed more economical than providing room and board and food to the labor force. Certainly there were a few Uptown nobles that kept domestic slaves, but usually those were descended from the ones brought there by Frasheid royalty. It was all beyond him, as he¡¯d never really considered owning one, or given much thought to it in general. He did know that buying and selling slaves was limited to those with special permission and authority, which he highly doubted Mondego had.


    Jacopo did another loop, and this time Dantes counted the guards and people working. There were nearly fifty people there. The guards were armed with blades, guns, and even wands in some cases. It was possible he could overwhelm them all if he had full vermin marks, but even that would be difficult. He considered sending Jacopo in with a burnstick to light the gunpowder, but that was too risky to Jacopo, not to mention that any fire it caused could spread across the entirety of the docks. He¡¯d have to consider other options¡­ get creative.


    Jacopo made his way out of the building and they met in a nearby alley. There was still more work to do.

 Book 2 Ch 15: Sincerely, Madame Cornelia of the House of Forteville

    The next night, Dantes and Jacopo wove through Uptown as rats, moving from block to block until they reached the Administrative Square. They skittered past the statues of the gods in the center, avoiding a few overworked clerks, and one romantic tryst occurring under the shade of one of the columns on the Council Hall. They reached the building they¡¯d determined was where Danglars held his office and, staying closely together, they pushed their way through the barrier protecting it from vermin and made their way inside.


    There were no candles, but there were a number of small glass spheres giving off light from different rooms indicating late nights for at least a few of the magisters and their staff that worked within the building. They searched it slowly, doing their best to avoid those few remaining workers, and attempted to find Danglar¡¯s office.


    It took some time, but they eventually found it. A door with the name Danglars Forteville written in gold paint. Dantes attempted to squeeze beneath the door, but found that he couldn¡¯t quite fit. He and Jacopo checked the nearby halls and saw no one, so he shifted back to himself and, using his branch, picked the lock quickly. He pushed the door open gently, and seeing no one inside, he let himself in. He slid the door silently closed and looked around.


    The office was opulent, both in design and decoration. The walls were black with patterns of golden roses painted across them and ivory white columns in each corner. A shelf of fine imported wood along one wall was filled with books and collected correspondence. The furniture was all of the same matching contemporary style, and the desk in the upper middle was a piece of solid marble on which sat stacks of documents, opened and unopened mail, and a bowl filled with fine bread and cheese that filled the room with its scent.


    Dantes focused on the tips of fingertips, but detected no indication of magic. He moved toward the desk in the center, Jacopo leaping onto it and scurrying into the bowl of food while Dantes began rifling through the papers. He found a number of documents from the Docking Authorities, several messages to the guard involving removing Pacha from his job, and miscellaneous messages resolving other work and disputes he was a part of. It generally proved what he had already suspected of how Mondego and Danglars had worked together, but it wasn¡¯t anything particularly useful. Still, he slid a few of the letters he found particularly incriminating into his jacket.


    He moved over to the shelf and began sorting through it, finding mostly meetings notes from councils and committees regarding different policies and decisions. There was one about the increasing hostilities from Viscent, the inquiry as to whether they should accept fleeing political refugees from Frasheid, and other things of that nature. There were even some involving increasing domestic food production or drafting new guards to prepare for hostilities. None of it was important to Dantes, or Danglars. From what he could tell the notes were specifically prepared for Danglars by his secretaries for meetings he hadn¡¯t bothered to attend. He shook his head. He hadn¡¯t found a single personal correspondence. Danglars could be surprisingly meticulous, but that didn¡¯t make sense to Dantes. He turned his attention back to the marble desk, and walked over to it.


    He bent down and began running his hands along the smooth stone of the desk. He sensed something off about it. Eventually, his delicate fingers felt a slight seam on it. He worked around the seam, sending in a thin shard of wood from his branch into it, and eventually found a simple mechanism. He pushed on it, and a drawer popped open. From it, wafted the scent of perfume and Dantes saw a stack of letters held down by a heavy stone seal.


    Dantes lifted the seal, seeing that it was emblazoned with the name Forteville as well as the image of an open palm and a clenched fist, the emblem of the magisters. It was Danglar¡¯s symbol of office. Dantes smiled as he pocketed it, and then he turned his attention to the letters.


    He lifted the first one.


    Hello my Little Piggy,


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    I bet you are opening this and reading it in your office while your poor little secretaries are in the room with you, aren¡¯t you? You filthy disgusting little man. Have you no shame? A magister, a member of Rendholds nobility infected with such degeneracy. You should be punished for what you are, you should have your-


    Dantes skipped over two full pages of lurid and detailed descriptions before reaching the end of the letter.


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    See you soon Little Piggy, Mistress Dosia


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    Dantes smelled the letter, finding that it was where the smell had been coming from. The perfume smelled of roses and leather with just a hint of blood. Dantes had to admit it was a rather nice smell, though he was far less interested in the promise that came with it then it seemed Danglars was.


    He had known Danglars was bent in that particular direction for some time. When they were deep in their cups they¡¯d had more than one talk about it, and Dantes himself was the one who suggested he act on it and book a specialist every once in a while. Still, he hadn¡¯t realized his inclinations had run quite that deep. Or perhaps, they¡¯d only started moving in that direction in the five years Dantes had been in the Pit.


    Dantes started to go through the rest of the letters, finding that most of them were from Mistress Dosia. They were all some mix of demeaning, degrading, and disgusting, but Dantes didn¡¯t judge that so much as the occasional reminders that Danglars owed her money. It was important to pay a whore what they were owed. Knowing how much time Danglars spent with her was also useful, so he filed that information away in his mind for later.


    Toward the bottom of the secret drawer was a letter that had clearly been crumpled and uncrumpled more than once. He took it and ran the flat of his palm across it to remove enough of the creases to make the paper legible.


    Danglars Forteville, Son of Cornelia of the House of Forteville, A Founding House of Rendhold


    This is my fifth letter to you. While the first receiving no response I can blame on the incompetence of the airheaded staff you keep, the other three I cannot. You will not ignore me. Everything you have in this life is thanks to me. The home in which you were raised, the name on the back of which you became a Magister, and even your very life itself. I ensured that you were raised in the manner of a lord. You received the finest training in etiquette, you were taught elvish, orcish, and even the old tongue of the Fatherland. I had the servant discipline you only when you were truly deserving, and attended you myself thrice a day at mealtimes, far more than most mothers of my station. I even nursed you at my own breast when your father¡¯s incompetence cost us the money we needed to afford a nursemaid, though it did cause me great pain and discomfort. Even when you decided to risk what little we have to play thief in Midtown with those disgusting Mutts I held back the majority of my criticisms and used what connections I could to keep you from trouble. Now, when my lessons and parenting have finally sunk in and you have become a true man in high-society, I am ignored. Our house is in ruins, and you will not send money for me to have the servants, and lifestyle to which I am accustomed? You will not allow me to move into your new home, though it holds more than enough rooms in which to place me and whatever servants I deserve? You are killing me son. You are killing your mother. Just as your father did when he invested in that shipment of ginseng. I cough blood into a handkerchief, and each day I grow weaker in this drafty manor filled with regrets, the largest of which is you. I am done expecting you to act as a son should. When I die, I will haunt you. You are a pig, and a scoundrel, and you will someday die as one.


    From the honorable Madame Cornelia of the house of Forteville, A founding house of Rendhold


    Dantes finished reading, finding his eyebrows were raised even higher than they had been when reading the letters from Dosia. Danglars had mentioned an overbearing mother many times, and an idiot father, but there was a large difference between hearing a friend speak between cups and reading a letter from the man¡¯s mother. Dantes couldn¡¯t really relate. To the idiot father certainly, but for his mother he had nothing but affection. He frowned, there could be something useful there too, but he wasn¡¯t sure what. Still, just to disconcert Danglars, he slipped the letter into his jacket.


    He looked through the drawer one more time and found a final letter. This one had a metallic scent to it, and was written in a kind of golden ink. There was no content to it aside from a list of, what Dantes guessed, were meetings or laws. Next to each of them was either a Y an N, or an A. At the very bottom of the letter was beautifully written G, likely to indicate who had sent it. Dantes pocketed that one as well.


    He patted the pocket where he¡¯d placed Danglar¡¯s symbol of office, an idea forming in his mind. It was late at night, but morning would come soon. It would certainly be interesting for him to call on some of the boats smuggling goods into the city as their crews began to wake, wouldn¡¯t it?

 Book 2 Ch 16: Bureaucrats Are Worse Than Elves

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    Dantes made it to the docks with time to spare and began sending out rats and roaches to search all of the nearby vessels that had just come into port. As he did that, he slipped into the dock manager¡¯s office with Jacopo. It was early, and so there was only a skeleton crew napping on some cots. Inside he found the long gray jacket that docking officials that worked for the city wore. He found one that fit him without much issue, and slipped it on.


    He adjusted his posture, straightening his back a bit, and shaped the branch around his left forearm into the shape of one of the clubs often worn at the dockworkers side. He strolled out of the front door and began walking down the docks to his first target, a medium sized Frasheid ship lazily bouncing with the waves. Inside, beneath the shipment of cotton and silk that the city was expecting, was a large amount of weed and dust that Dantes presumed was meant for Mondego¡¯s storehouse.


    He brought two fingers to his lips and whistled loudly, scattering a number of gulls that were gathered nearby who he muttered a quick apology to.


    A man wearing a white cotton shirt peeked over the side of the boat at Dantes, his eyes bleary and a small beer stain on the front of his shirt.


    Dantes pointed his club at the man taking initiative. ¡°You. Get me your captain. Now.¡±


    The man shook his head, and stumbled over to a slave, smacking him on the face and pointing at the entrance to their belowdecks. The slave scurried away and the man stumbled back to Dantes, rubbing his eyes and trying to wake himself more fully.


    ¡°I believe we already paid the docking fee, Ser,¡± he said.


    ¡°Not about that fee.¡±


    Another man appeared, this one more awake and wearing a tricord hat on his head and a saber at his waist. ¡°I am the captain of this vessel. What is it the docking authority needs?¡±


    Dantes smiled and pulled Danglar¡¯s symbol of office from his jacket. ¡°The local magister who maintains the legal organization of this portion of the docks requires an¡­ additional fee before you may bring your goods onto land.¡±


    The captain frowned deeply, and walked quickly off the boat eyeing the symbol of office. ¡°We don¡¯t pay a fee, we are the ones who are paid.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°All I know is that my boss told me to come down here and get ten gold from you¡­ unless you want me to round up some of the dock guards and have them take a closer look at your inventory than they did the first time.¡±


    The man¡¯s face reddened. ¡°That¡¯s outrageous.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Alright, the guards it is. If I were you I wouldn¡¯t be so keen to be arrested in a foreign city. I mean, we¡¯re a bit better to our prisoners here than you are to your slaves, but, not by much.¡±


    The captain gritted his teeth before looking back up to where a sailor was standing. ¡°Don¡¯t just gawk, go get him the damned gold.¡±


    Dantes waited until the pouch was in his hand and he nodded at the captain. ¡°Expect the same price next time. Mondego¡¯s people will be here to collect the goods later.¡±


    The captain seemed too angry to respond and simply walked back onto his boat, cursing under his breath.


    Dantes moved down the docks to the next boat, this one from Viscent where one of their smaller steam cargo ships was docked. Unlike the Frasheid boat, this one had a halfling standing on the prow keeping watch, and a scattering of gnomes and even a dwarf beginning work on cleaning the deck, and doing various tasks. The halfling looked at him and immediately signaled silently to a younger halfling on deck who disappeared only to swiftly return with a gnome wearing a black uniform with two silver pips on the collar.


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    ¡°What is it that the docking authority needs from us?¡± he asked, offering his hand to shake.


    Dantes took his hand and returned it firmly. This time Dantes didn¡¯t beat around the bush. ¡°A bribe.¡±


    The man nodded. ¡°Why and how much?¡±


    ¡°The magister who is a part of the smuggling operation here wants a larger cut of the profits.¡± Dantes flashed Danglar¡¯s symbol, ¡°He is requesting ten gold, otherwise I summon the guard who will discover the gunpowder that you have hidden onboard.¡±


    The man nodded. ¡°Not a good idea. This will cause Danglars a lot of trouble going forward.¡±


    Dantes nodded, doing his best to appear pained about it.


    ¡°Good man, following orders you disagree with.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s my duty, ser.¡±


    The gnome gestured to one of his men who vanished briefly and returned with a small pouch. The gnome handed it to Dantes, who took it.


    ¡°We will be lodging a complaint with Mondego.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°As is your duty, ser.¡±


    The gnome gave a small smile, and walked back onto his boat.


    The next ship was a Drashus vessel, manned entirely by orcs and half-orcs wearing the heavy patterned wool sweaters that marked their clans. Dantes had been on Drashus vessels often since he was a child. His father served on one of their ships after all. He didn¡¯t see anyone he recognized, so raised up a hand at the third mate that was peering over the railing.


    ¡°Ey halfblood, what do you want?¡±


    Dantes twirled his club in his hand. ¡°Your captain now, then maybe your sister later.¡±


    ¡°My sister would break you in half.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Your mother then.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯d break you to quarters.¡±


    ¡°Bring me your captain, or I¡¯ll bring the guard.¡±


    The mate threw up his hands. ¡°Fine, fine.¡± He disappeared and came back with a larger green skinned orc wearing the customary sweater along with a thick bandana and sporting heavy tattoos on his face.


    ¡°What do you want?¡±


    ¡°Ten gold¡±


    ¡°What for?¡±


    ¡°To keep me from calling the guard and having them find all that dust you¡¯ve got onboard.¡±


    The captain leapt off the boat and landed heavily on the dock in front of Dantes, stepping toward him.


    Dantes didn¡¯t step back or give any ground, but he did subtly change his club to make it spiked with curved thorns.


    ¡°You threatening me, boy?¡± asked the orc, baring his tusks.


    ¡°I¡¯m not.¡± He held up Danglar¡¯s symbol. ¡°The magister I serve is. Kill me, and I¡¯ll just be replaced. Not to mention the guard coming for you.¡±


    The Orc shook his head with a disgusted look on his face. ¡°I hate doing shipments here. It¡¯s always some new kind of horseshit. Bunch of clanless halfblood with no honor, or elves. This whole city is a cesspit.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Well at least I rank higher than elves.¡±


    The captain spat at Dantes¡¯ feet. ¡°No. Bureaucrats are worse than elves. Corrupt bureaucrats in particular.¡±


    Dantes was tempted to point out the hypocrisy considering the man was smuggling in drugs to a city by a means that was only available to him because of corruption, and likely doing so to line his own pockets, but he decided that wasn¡¯t prudent.


    The Orc Captain looked up to his third mate. ¡°Get him his damned gold. I don¡¯t want to talk to this slime any more.¡± He moved back onto his boat, and shortly after the third mate tossed down ten gold¡­in coppers, nearly knocking Dantes off his feet as he caught it. Dantes directed the rats on the ship to shit in their grog, and continued on his way down the dock.


    He hit a half-dozen more ships, always sure to show Danglar¡¯s symbol of office and doing his best to be a perfect mix of convincing enough to get the gold, and a pain in the ass enough that Mondego would hear about it. By the end of it, he¡¯d made a tidy sum on top of sowing a fair amount of discord. He began to move toward a final target, a Visalian ship moving arcane books of some kind, when a guard on patrol squinted at him.


    He attempted to keep walking, trying to let a confident stride do the talking for him, but the guard continued looking at him, even starting to move toward him.


    ¡°Hey!¡± yelled the guard, just loud enough to carry over the noise of the docks.


    Dantes kept walking.


    ¡°Stop!¡±


    Dantes started running, his backpack jingling from the coins he had. He quickly ducked into a nearby alley and shifted into ratform, sitting next to a pile of refuse when the guard entered it. He did a sweep of it, rubbed his eyes, and then exited the alley, still looking both ways as if searching for him.


    Dantes stayed in ratform and made his way further away before returning to his usual self. He found himself panting heavily when he was done transforming. He leaned against a wall sweat dripping from his forehead. Something was wrong, he hadn¡¯t been in ratform long enough to feel so poorly. He stumbled into an alley and retched.


    ¡°Jacopo,¡± he sent, but Jacopo didn¡¯t respond. When he focused he could sense that he was also suffering. Curled somewhere cramped with a recently empty stomach and shivering. Dantes began to move toward where he sensed him, each step growing more painful as his vision began to blur.

 Book 2 Ch 17: The Relief of Absolute Oblivion

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    He wasn¡¯t sure how he made it back to his garden with Jacopo, but he did. He shivered, but felt hot. He retched, but had nothing left to come up. He curled himself into a ball on the dirt a half-dozen feet from his bedroll, and lost consciousness.


    He stood in darkness, still in tremendous pain even though he was dreaming. He heard movement and turned just in time to see a flash of someone and feel the sting of cut flesh deep into his side. He heard movement again, and again saw only a flash of movement followed by pain. It happened a third time, and he attempted to reach for whoever was striking him, but they avoided his grasp.


    He reached out his branches and vines, thick with blood red leaves toward the source of the pain, but felt his connection to them quickly sever as they were diced by a long spear-tip. The intruder was getting closer and closer to his heart, the center from which he spread.


    When the intruder had first attacked, he¡¯d thought it was a dozen men at once. He¡¯d been able to spread so quickly, so beautifully, since they had stopped attempting to halt him. He¡¯d nearly reached the center, where his brother was able to spread high into the sky and reach toward the sunlight. He felt that his brother was under attack as well though, his mighty trunk being cut deeply as he bled ichor down to the ground.


    He redoubled his efforts, sending branch after branch at the man, but the man moved too quickly. Dodging with a speed far beyond anything he had encountered before. He struck with his spear, jumped off of the wall of the cavern, leaving craters behind he pushed off with so much force. Worst of all was the man¡¯s laughter. He was enjoying the fight. That disgusted the garden. He wanted the man to tremble in fear, to run in terror, so that he could pierce his back and drink deeply of his blood.


    Dantes regained consciousness, and found himself divided between his own perceptions and those of his old garden in the underprison. He tried to focus, to determine more clearly what was happening. The garden fought for its life against a single man. He was familiar, though he could only sense the man and not see him due to the garden''s different senses. He clutched his heart, it was beating so quickly he thought it might burst from his chest. He looked to Jacopo who was curled next to him, struggling to stay alive and conscious as well.


    The garden had grown, had become something different and uncontrollable, just as the other druids had warned him it would. He thought he¡¯d have more time, but he¡¯d struggled to find consortium contacts since the most recent prison break. They¡¯d gone underground and so he¡¯d had no way to know what was happening. Even when he¡¯d attempted to follow the thick thread that connected him to the garden so that he could get a better picture of what was happening, it had been as if he was blocked from it somehow. His connection at that moment seemed to be only possible due to the distress the garden was experiencing which was amplifying his connection to it. As he struggled to connect all these threads in his mind, the edges of his vision darkened, and he lost consciousness again.


    The man had made it through to the heart of the garden. He had sliced through a wall of vines, thorns, and wood to get there, barely being slowed down by any of it. The garden felt exposed, its beating heart blood red and beating against the far wall of the chamber in which it was born. It kept sending more and more at the warrior in an attempt to slow him down, and as it did so, three chambers on the heart slid open.


    From within it, three tall lean figures emerged. They were covered in bark, and their eye sockets sat empty, but they looked at the man nonetheless. One of them raised it¡¯s arm and formed a long daggerlike thorn. The other did the same to create a sword, and the third stood there behind them, weaponless, but began to move its arms in a wide sweeping motion, and thorns began to rise everywhere around it, and fire at the spearmen.


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    The spearman dodged and parried every thorn, launching himself at the two armed creatures that attacked him. He drove his speartip into the heart of the one with the dagger, but it simply grabbed the haft of the spear and attempted to pull him closer as the other one took a swing at his legs.


    The spearman stomped on the edge of the blade coming for his feet, ceasing its movement and leaned into the one that pulled him in, and twisted his spear, muttering words under his breath. The tip of his spear began to glow white hot, and the creature let out a terrible scream as the bark that was its skin caught fire and began to blacken.


    The other creature released its blade and formed two new ones, but the spearman simply cut through both of them, and the creature''s chest, in one smooth motion.


    The last one raised a four fingered hand and launched a never ending salvo of small thorns at the man, who began running in a weaving pattern to avoid it. Before the spearman reached it, it looked away, and somehow Dantes felt the void where its eyes stared at him.


    He regained consciousness, and brought his full attention to the blood red thread that connected him to his own garden. He grasped it, in his mind, and tried to pull it out of himself, but found that it wouldn¡¯t break. He hacked at it with his will, but made only nicks in the thick root of the thing. Finally, he began to cut it more gradually, as if sawing through it inch by inch. It was agonizing, as if he was sawing off his own arm, but in his split focus he could see the spearman reach the garden¡¯s heart, and he knew instinctively what would happen if he pierced it. He doubled his efforts, hearing a roar that he didn¡¯t even realize was his own as he sawed.


    The spearman lunged for the heart, his white hot spear in front of him.


    Dantes finished cutting the connection, feeling the last fiber of it sever as if it was a nerve, and he collapsed not sure if it was death or sleep that was coming for him as his eyes closed.


    ¡­


    There was blackness for some time, the relief of absolute oblivion, then Dantes found himself floating above a familiar table, with a scale sitting in the center of it. He looked to his shoulder and was relieved to see Jacopo there with him. They both turned their attention to the table.


    The green woman and the man in blue were each taking coins off the scale and placing them to the side of it. They removed each coin simultaneously, and the scale itself never shifted even a hair, until it was completely emptied. At that moment, it disappeared.


    The coins they placed down were then picked up by someone new, a woman wearing a black veil that hid her face, and an elegant black and white dress. Her hands were gloved, but clearly delicate. She would take each coin and slowly work it into thread which she then then extended further and further. Once she was done creating a long golden thread, the man in blue and the woman in green each took an end of it, and threaded a needle through it.


    The green woman¡¯s needle was more like a thorn, and the blue man¡¯s needle was steel. They approached the table again. The Woman picked up the rat that she¡¯d been petting, and drove the needle through him, though he didn¡¯t even flinch as she did so, then she moved on to the roaches, then a large bat that was clinging to a branch extending from her shoulder.


    The man in blue began to produce objects from his blue cloak, even Dantes¡¯s trained eye unable to determine where they came from. Dice, a deck of cards, a fine piece of silk, he wove the thread through all of it, calmly and expertly.


    The woman in the veil let the thread slowly unspool, there was a warmth to the woman that made Dantes feel oddly comforted. He looked around more and saw that the man with the cruel smile was still sitting in a corner, watching the proceedings. His eyes on the large pile of gold thread. He tried to look closer at the scene, to make sense of everything that was happening, but his vision blurred and the dream vanished to nothingness.


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 Book 2 Ch 18: I Shall Hope for His Death

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    Dantes woke up to the feeling of the sun beating down on him in the high heat of midafternoon. He squinted, slowly pulling himself up. His mouth was dry and tasted of bile. He dragged himself to his bedroll and grabbed his waterskin. He swished a mouthful of water around in his mouth and spat it out at a nearby vine complaining of thirst. He then took several small sips.


    Jacopo dragged himself over to him, and Dantes poured some of the water into the palm of his hand and held it to him so that he could drink as well. They both sat there in silence for some time. Listening to the sleeptalking of the bats nearby and the gossip of some pigeons that sat perched above them. They were both exhausted, and heavily weakened by their experience. Dantes could tell¡­ could feel that he¡¯d lost something of himself when he¡¯d severed his connection to his old garden.


    He looked at the threads that spread out from him, finding that the rest of the connections he¡¯d forged were still in place. The gardens he¡¯d planted, the vermin he¡¯d fed, the flowers he¡¯d helped bloom, all of them still had rivers that flowed to and from him in almost equal measure. He clenched and unclenched his fist, checking his strength as he wondered what would¡¯ve happened had he had only the one garden when it was destroyed.


    He began to reach out his senses, sending rats to check on the Vixen. It was still being monitored, but Vampa was there and the girls and Vera seemed safe and busy. He let out a sigh of relief. That relief quickly turned to concern as his mind began to consider everything that had happened. His garden had gone mad and been eating and attacking people. He could sense the blood of dozens flowing through it when he had been connected to it fully. Had that been what had caused the second breakout? If so, had they connected it all to Dantes? Those he¡¯d been looking for as friends to help could well be enemies now, and he couldn¡¯t blame them. He¡¯d been searching for any collared or anyone else he¡¯d recognize, but Rendhold was a big city, and even with his abilities if he didn¡¯t have a good idea of where to start a search then he might never find anyone. The majority of prisoners probably fled for the walls, or tried to sign up onto a ship. It wasn¡¯t like the guards could watch every exit.


    He forced himself to stand. Keeping all of these plates spinning wasn¡¯t going to get any easier if he took the time to rest. He moved over to the small bowl and mirror he used for cleaning. He stared into the mirror for a long time. He was astonished at how different he looked. He¡¯d felt weaker, he¡¯d expected to, but in the mirror he almost didn¡¯t recognize himself. His eyes were more deeply sunken, his cheeks hollow, his muscles had deteriorated, and his clothes seemed to hang off of him. It was as if the vitality had been sucked from his body. He looked worse than he had in the Underprison before he¡¯d gained his powers.


    He poured water into his bowl and cupped it in his hands, about to clean his face, when he hesitated. He looked different. He looked pathetic and weak and in dire need of help. He thought of the man who had torn through his garden with his spear. The same man he¡¯d seen fight in the Adventurer¡¯s Guild arena. He seemed like the kind of guy who¡¯d want to help a man like the one Dantes seemed to be at that moment.


    Jacopo slowly made his way over to him, sensing his thoughts. ¡°He was strong, it¡¯s quite possible he could do it and not die.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Even if he lives, we¡¯d still benefit. Seems like a win, win.¡±


    Jacopo cleaned his whiskers. ¡°I shall hope for his death.¡±


    ¡­


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    Dantes walked through the guild district with a limp, still reeking of vomit and bile. He¡¯d exchanged his nice green coat for a well worn brown one with some suspicious red stains. Getting there had taken some time as he found himself winded far more easily than he had been before. Still, he persevered, already sensing a bit of his strength starting to return as his gardens began to nourish and restore him.


    It wasn¡¯t hard to locate Gavain, he was eating at a pub near the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, and a small crowd was gathered outside and gossiping about him. The streets were positively buzzing from his successful slaying of the ¡°Crimson Garden¡±, as the bards were already calling it. Dantes was also sad to see that the mother¡¯s reach he¡¯d planted was nearly gone, being cut meter by meter by specialist mages sent from the Academy. Apparently there had been a long delay to their involvement as they did their best to extort additional payment and privilege from the city in order to do it.


    Dantes reached the edge of the small crowd and took note of all of the watchers outside of the building. There were two at each door, keeping anyone from getting in to speak to Gavain. From what Dantes could tell, Gavain himself seemed ignorant of that arrangement, a slick handler wearing a silver adventurer¡¯s pin and a black coat chainmail stood near him, managing him and his escort expertly.


    Dantes waited outside. It wouldn¡¯t be that difficult for him to sneak in and approach the man when he was eating, but it would be easier to do so once he was out on the street. He leaned against a wall in a nearby alley and did his best imitation of a beggar. That made him nearly invisible.


    Gavain finished his meal, and his handlers cleared the nearby area of gawkers before he exited the pub and began moving down the street. Dantes followed behind them for a time, eavesdropping.


    ¡°I think it would be good to see more of the city,¡± said Gavain to his primary handler wearing the silver wolf pin.


    ¡°You were only called here to help the city deal with the crimson garden. Otherwise you would¡¯ve been sent on another dragon hunt right away. There are few others who can hunt them as you do, and the longer you¡¯re away the more likely some poor family is going to be burnt to a crisp.¡±


    Gavain sighed. ¡°I suppose you¡¯re right. Seeing more will have to wait.¡±


    Dantes moved a half dozen roaches onto the feet of some handlers, distracting them as he slipped by, and began approaching Gavain.


    The man in the black coat appeared in front of him, quick as lightning, and struck him hard in the gut before he could react, his gloved fist hitting Dantes with the weight of a brick.


    ¡°What are you doing!?¡± asked Gavain.


    ¡°The man was approaching you quickly, and he has a dagger at his waist.¡±


    ¡°Everyone has a weapon here.¡± Gavain pushed past the man and helped Dantes to his feet.


    ¡°Ser, are you okay?¡±


    Dantes suppressed a smile. The punch to the gut had been a surprise, but it looked like it was going to help him in the long run. He looked up with his most miserable expression, something between a kicked puppy, and a dying orphan.


    ¡°No, milord. I came here to ask for yer help.¡±


    ¡°My help?¡±


    The man in black moved toward him. ¡°If he needs something, he¡¯ll need to petition the guild. He isn¡¯t your problem.¡±


    Gavain ignored him. ¡°What is it you need?¡±


    The man in black let out an exasperated sigh.


    ¡°My wife and children ser¡­ They¡¯ve been taken. I think they¡¯re going to be sold to Frasheid as slaves.¡±


    Gavain¡¯s eyes hardened at the mention of slavery. ¡°Have you contacted the guard?¡±


    ¡°Aye sir¡­ and they beat me for my efforts. I¡¯d expected that, but I had nowhere else to turn.¡±


    ¡°Where are they?¡±


    ¡°Gavain, you can¡¯t really be considering helping him? You''re an adventurer! This isn¡¯t your business. Now that the Underprison is cleared you need to be back to questing. This city doesn¡¯t need help like those smaller towns and villages do. They can handle themselves.¡±


    That made good sense to Dantes. Most of the business the Guild got was because so many frontier towns and settlements couldn¡¯t get support from their rulers. He just hoped that Gavain didn¡¯t care.


    ¡°The God of Justice put this man in my path for a reason. I must help him.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t get involved in things like this! It¡¯s too messy! Use your he¡ª¡±


    Gavain surprised Dantes by grabbing him and throwing him over his shoulder before leaping over one of the handlers and running down the street.


    ¡°Tell me where to go.¡±


    Dantes shook his head, his eyes seeming to bounce at the sudden and rapid movement. ¡°Toward the docks, Milord. They have them caged in a warehouse.¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­ I¡¯m going to need step by step directions. Cities confuse me.¡±


    ¡°Take a left up ahead, Milord.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 19: Youre Under Arrest

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    Gavain ran at a very impressive clip to the docks. Even with Dantes taking him along mainly back roads and alleys, they still reached the warehouse within the hour. Dantes¡¯s dignity was a bit bruised by being carried the whole way, but in his withered state it definitely made things easier. Besides, Jacopo didn¡¯t mind getting carried around all day, Dantes just needed to borrow his attitude a bit.


    Dantes returned his focus to the rat he¡¯d placed in the rafters of the warehouse earlier in the day. Things were active inside, and it looked like a massive new shipment had just been dropped off for processing.


    Gavain placed Dantes back onto the ground, and raised his spear, taking a deep inhale and looking over the rough guards walking into and out of the building.


    ¡°This is the place?¡± He asked.


    Dantes nodded emphatically. ¡°Yes, ser. This is where they¡¯re holding my wife and child. Many others as well.¡±


    Gavain nodded, and looked at the warehouse. ¡°Hmm, I suppose if I¡¯m wrong I can always pay for the broken glass.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± asked Dantes.


    Gavain didn¡¯t answer, instead launching himself upward and toward the windows near the top of the building. There was the sound of shattering glass and a heavy thud.


    Dantes shifted his focus to the rat he had inside, and moved where he believed he¡¯d be able to avoid any stray bullets or spells, and crouched down. He¡¯d sent the rat other than Jacopo inside for the same reason he¡¯d just hidden. No reason to put himself or his companion at risk.


    Gavain stood on a table, alone, his spear in his hand looking around at the flabbergasted gangsters, illicit goods covering the tables, and finally, he caught a glimpse of the edge of a cage at the far end of the warehouse. He raised his spear and pointed at the nearest confused man who was still holding a crate.


    ¡°Surrender, and none of you will come to harm.¡±


    The man in front of him threw the crate at his head, and then chaos erupted.


    Gavain smashed the crate with his spear, scattering the bags of dust inside and creating a cloud of white powder. He leapt down, smashing the man¡¯s collarbone with the shaft of his spear as he landed.


    He threw himself back as another man moved to tackle him, and smashed the butt of his spear into a third man that was approaching. He kicked a crate on the ground into one of them, smashing it into his head and knocking him to the ground. Gavain dove forward into more approaching guards, smashing his spear left and right.


    Even from where Dantes sat outside he could hear the loud thwacks of Gavain¡¯s spear ringing out like thunder, breaking bones and knocking guards left and right.


    A gunshot rang out, sending splinters from a barrel next to Gavain into the air. Gavain began running toward the gunmen, who stood next to two other men wielding pistols. Gavain moved fluidly in a snake like formation as the other two men fired, avoiding both of their shots. He leapt ten feet into the air to where they stood and drove his speartip through the hand of the first shooter who was moving to reload, then kicked the other two from their position with a powerful sweep of his leg before smashing his head into that of the other man.


    As Gavain was tearing his way through the guards and braver workers, the rest of the warehouse began to flee. The men that had been sorting goods bolted for the door, and the naked women that had been packaging dust fled, all of them being peppered by debris and splinters from the battle Gavain was having.


    Dantes watched through the rat¡¯s eyes with keen interest. It was all going very well. He¡¯d prefer that the lower level people all got out, but he hoped that those more deeply entrenched within Mondego¡¯s operation would be more defensive of their holdings. He had sent word to Pacha, through a note he and Jacopoc left on his desk, that there would be trouble at the warehouse and to bring men. He checked the rat he had tracking him and saw that Pacha had managed to get nearly twenty men together, and they¡¯d be reaching the warehouse soon.


    Dantes would have to get some distance to make sure he didn¡¯t get caught up in anything. He¡¯d have to enjoy the successful dismantling of part of Mondego¡¯s operation from a distance. A shame, but a necessary one.


    He started to move, when something that the rat in the ramparts saw caught his eye. By the slave cells, he saw the silver glint of a familiar long elvish blade. He moved the rat closer, and saw, crouched by one of the cells, Jayson, Jayk, and Zak.


    ¡°Fuuuuuck,¡± said Dantes out loud.


    ¡°The Shadow Cats,¡± said Jacopo.


    Dantes quickly considered several things. They were working for Mondego, or at least for one of his captains. They might know more about what had happened in the prison. If he revealed himself to them, he¡¯d be putting himself in danger.


    ¡°Fuck it,¡± he said as he began to move toward the warehouse rather than away from it.


    Gavain was still fighting, smashing a man with the butt of his spear with enough force to crack his sternum and then leaping toward a man shooting off blasts of force from his hands.


    Dantes reached the back side of the warehouse where the shadowcats were huddled and quickly climbed up to where the window was, his weakened body screaming at him as he did so.


    Jacopo climbed up his arm and unlatched the window, then Dantes pushed it open barely managing to pull himself up high enough up to see inside. Jayson was the closest to him, having a quiet argument with the others that seemed to be a debate between fleeing, fighting, and hiding.


    ¡°Jayson!¡± Dantes yelled.


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    Jayson looked around as if unable to tell where the voice was coming from.


    ¡°Jayson!¡± he yelled again.


    Jayson saw him and his eyes widened. ¡°Dantes!¡±


    ¡°Grab this!¡± he said willing the branch on his arm to extend down the window and hang loose like rope as he let himself slide back down to the ground. The branch was thin, but when he felt the weight of one of the Shadow Cats on the other side of it, he started to worry less about it breaking and more about himself breaking. He gritted his teeth and held on as Jayk dropped from the other side, landing next to him and grabbing part of the branch. Zak followed behind, with Jayson being last.


    ¡°Dantes! What are you doing here!?¡± asked Jayson.


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing the attack was his doing,¡± responded Jayk.


    Dantes flicked his focus across everything he was tracking. Gavain was on his last guard, and Pacha would be there in moments.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have time for this, just as you three don¡¯t have time to tell me why you¡¯re working for Mondego. We need to move.¡±


    Dantes listened to his own command and started running, not bothering to look back to see if they were following. In his deteriorated state they quickly caught up to him, and he started to hear heavy guardsmen boots getting closer to them as Pacha ordered his men to sweep the area.


    He started to slow down, and Zak looked back moving to help him.


    ¡°No, go ahead. I¡¯ll distract them. You all keep running.¡±


    Zak hesitated.


    ¡°Go dammit! And for the love of everything I better hear a better name than Shadow Cats when I see you next!¡±


    Zak nodded, and started running again.


    The moment he was out of sight, Dantes became a rat and scurried behind some refuse to hide and rest. Feeling just as tired in rat form as he had as himself. Jacopo breathed heavily next to him as they hid.


    Dantes returned his focus to the warehouse, sending rats and roaches to follow Zak as he did so.


    Gavain stood, not even panting, in the center of an absolutely destroyed warehouse. Guards groaning or bleeding were all around him, but Dantes saw only two or three that seemed to be dead. Crates and barrels had been smashed and there was still a fine mist of dust scattered through the air. Gavain did an unnecessary flip off of the table he¡¯d been standing on and landed closer to the cages. He looked over them, seeing frightened, but otherwise unharmed men, women, and children. He raised the spear and smashed the lock to a cage in which a solitary woman had been kept.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay. You¡¯re free now. I¡¯ve come to rescue you.¡±


    ¡°Rescue me?¡± asked the woman.


    He held out a hand and puffed out his chest. ¡°Yes, I am Gavain, of the adventurer¡¯s guild, and I¡¯ve come to free you and put an end to this dastardly enterprise.¡±


    ¡°Please leave,¡± said the woman, moving to close the gate.


    Gavain¡¯s expression went from smiling and heroic to confused. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°I sold myself into slavery. Need to keep my parents fed. They can¡¯t work anymore, and told me they¡¯d care for my son. If I disappear now, it won¡¯t be long before someone¡¯s knocking on our door for their money back.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s horrible!¡± said Gavain.


    Dantes, still panting as a rat, was amazed at the man¡¯s naivete, but he supposed it had worked to his benefit, so he wasn¡¯t going to complain.


    ¡°Um, I was sold because I owe gambling debt,¡± said a man raising his hand from another cage. ¡°If you could let me out, I¡¯d appreciate it.¡±


    ¡°O-okay,¡± said Gavain, moving to that cage and breaking the lock, then moving onto the others. Though several refused to move as the first woman did, most of them were clearly grateful to have been saved.


    He looked at an ugly woman with a gray mutt of a child as he let them out.


    ¡°Your husband is waiting outside. He¡¯s who sent me to save you.¡±


    The woman¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°My husband¡¯s been dead for three years.¡±


    Gavain raised his eyebrows. ¡°Wait, what?¡±


    Dantes stifled the little bit of indignation he¡¯d felt at the assumption that woman was his wife. Even sickly as he was at the moment, he could certainly do better than that.


    Just as the first man that was freed was making his way to the main entry, the guard busted in, trampling him under foot as they made their way inside and swept the area, armored and wielding metal clubs.


    Pacha moved in after the rest of them, his own faceplate open as he surveyed everything, a mixed look of surprise and satisfaction on his face as he observed the various obvious contraband and recognized a number of criminals he¡¯d encountered in the past scattered throughout the floor moaning in pain.


    Gavain approached him, and gave a bow. ¡°Welcome guards. I took care of this den of evil and sin for you. No need for a thank you. Justice is its own reward.¡±


    Pacha took a step toward him. ¡°You¡¯re the adventurer, Gavain right?¡±


    ¡°That I am.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re under arrest for vigilantism and overstepping the authority of the adventurer¡¯s guild.¡±


    Gavain¡¯s expression dropped for a third time, this time not recovering. ¡°What?¡±


    Dantes watched as Gavain allowed himself to be arrested and Pacha and his men tore through the warehouse. Part of him was sad to see so many valuable goods that were bound to be pocketed, destroyed, or in the case of Dust, inhaled, but it wasn¡¯t his loss, it was Mondegos and that put a smile on his face.


    He checked where the Shadow Cats had gone, finding that they were on their way deep into Midtown, where he wouldn¡¯t be able to follow. Still, he was gratified that they didn¡¯t seem to be headed straight to Mondego.


    Once Dantes and Jacopo were feeling strong enough, they began making their way out of the docks and back toward their garden. They needed to take frequent breaks, but things sped up once Dantes was able to become human again, and walk the rest of the way.


    When he reached it, he was exhausted. His strength had been returning through his connections, but he had expended more energy that he was regaining, and the deficit had grown too large. He collapsed onto his bedroll, forcing himself to stay awake just long enough to force down a small meal with Jacopo, and willed several rats and roaches to keep watch, before he passed out entirely.


    ¡­


    Dantes found himself floating above the table he¡¯d now grown extremely familiar with. The table that held the scale, now seemed to hold a massive tapestry full of patterns, and images, many of which he couldn¡¯t fully see in the dreamlike haze that seemed to obscure everything.


    The woman in green was deftly weaving golden thread through a corner of it, and Dantes saw that the rat, roach, and bat were now represented by massive and intricate patterns of thread within the tapestry, all over a background of lush green. He could see feathers in what the woman was sewing, but couldn¡¯t distinguish anything beyond that. He also noticed a red corner on her section that, unlike the rest of it, seemed well worn, the red of it fading near to a rusty brown.


    The man in blue was sewing as well, his side of the tapestry was of a distinctly dark blue that matched his cloak. The images he sewed seemed to pop far more for the contrast, with piles of gold, sultry looking women, and men of dubious character all starting to take shape on his side. Dantes thought he recognized a few of the faces, but he couldn¡¯t quite connect them to reality. Dantes also noticed that the spool of thread wasn¡¯t shrinking as the blue cloaked man sewed. He followed the thread he was holding and realized that it was connected to the cloak of the man in black, who was deep in conversation with the veiled woman a few meters from the table, seemingly unaware of the slowly unwinding gold thread being taken from his cloak.


    As Dantes was looking over everything, he suddenly felt a chill on his neck, and a tightness in his chest. Those physical sensations contrasted sharply with the dreamlike nature of everything else, and he found himself scanning the horizon and searching for its source. In the far distance, he saw a black figure that he couldn''t distinguish. There was a glint of metal in sunlight coming from him, and Dantes felt almost blinded by that reflection, even with the great distance between them. In spite of that he pushed himself to try and make out any more detail. One thing he could make out though, was the glint of a headsman¡¯s axe.

 Book 2 Ch 20: Ill Need a Coat to Carry You In

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    Dantes spent the next two days recovering. He focused on improving and expanding his gardens, talking to the local flora and fauna, and monitoring the reactions to the sacking of Mondego¡¯s storehouse.


    The guard was furious, with both Gavain and Pacha. The adventurer¡¯s guild struck some kind of deal to have Gavain released, and he was promptly sent on a quest in Viscent to explore some kind of magical maze that had sprouted up in that region. Pacha was privately reprimanded by his superiors for every single choice he made. They were furious that he¡¯d done the raid, though they were impressed that he¡¯d arrested Gavain. Publicly, most people were furious that Gavain was arrested for doing what the Guard should have been doing. In general, Dantes felt that everything had gone very well considering what limited resources he¡¯d been working with.


    In spite of his overall positive feelings, one day while he slept he found himself stricken with strange and inhuman dreams in which he lived an entire short and miserable life. He was hatched from an egg, and from that moment on he never stopped moving. He had to be quicker than his brothers and sisters to reach food before they did, but not so quick that something larger than himself found him first and ate him. He scuttled between small cracks in doors and walls, climbed up drainpipes, shook himself free of spider¡¯s webs and avoided the massive feet of those creatures which seemed to extend into the sky above him. He never questioned his lot, he never felt fear in the same way he had before, he simply moved and lived and struggled, siring thousands of children of his own, crunching vile refuse between his mandibles, all that existed was the moment he was in and in times of great success, the next few seconds afterward.


    Dantes awoke from his uneasy dreams to find himself halfway transformed into a hideous insect. His limbs were splitting along the middle to form additional appendages, his teeth merging and protruding from his mouth, and his eyebrow ridges flattening back as his eyes widened and darkened into pitch black pools. He let out a noise somewhere between a scream and a screech as his body slowly compressed down into the size of a copper piece.


    He had an awareness of what was happening, his roach mark had filled while he was sleeping, and just as had happened when he¡¯d filled the ratmark, he was gaining a new form. Being aware of what was happening however, did not make the experience any less painful or horrifying. After several agonizing minutes, he had fully become a roach, his antennae twitching and the hairs on his legs picking up movements nearby.


    Jacopo stood over him, regarding him with a twitch of his whiskers.


    Dantes felt distinctly uncomfortable seeing and sensing him from this perspective. He much preferred being the larger of them.


    ¡°Hmmm, I¡¯ll need a coat to carry you in¡­¡±


    Dantes laughed, which manifested as a clicking of mandibles, and then forced himself to become human again. The process was just as horrifying in the opposite direction. His antennae shrank back into his skull, his non-functional wings slowly slid back into his body as his spine reformed, and he could feel the reorganizing of his internal organs back into their original places. He found himself panting on all fours, and brought his arm up to look at his roachmark. It was filled in completely with gold now, and in spite of the pain he¡¯d just experienced Dantes made a brief thank you to the Roach God for his blessing.


    ¡°That was a fantastic first joke.¡±


    Jacopo nodded with the assurance of someone with absolute confidence and no hint that they were surprised at the compliment.


    Dantes gritted his teeth, and began the transformation again. This time it was quicker, and the pain diminished. He repeated the process several more times, each time better understanding a portion of the changes he was experiencing and going through them with greater ease. Eventually, he was making the change almost as quickly as he became a rat.


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    Jacopo watched all this unfold while nibbling on the core of an apple.


    ¡°That seems painful.¡±


    ¡°It is.¡±


    ¡°Will becoming a roach truly be useful? You can already become the greatest of creatures. What can a roach do that a rat can¡¯t?¡±


    ¡°Fit in smaller places, survive great falls, sense vibrations in the air, walk up completely flat and vertical surfaces¨C¡±


    ¡°No fur though. An unfortunate type of creature. Even two-legs are blessed with some fur.¡±


    Dantes had the image of a roach covered in fur briefly enter his mind and shuddered a bit. ¡°I think it¡¯s better that they are as they are.¡±


    Jacopo shrugged, and returned his attention to his apple.


    Dantes flexed his hands, and swept his hand through his overgrown hair to subtly make sure that there were no longer antennae sticking out of his forehead. He cleaned himself with some fresh water, soap, and a damp cloth before getting dressed and sliding on his green jacket. As he moved, he realized he could feel changes around him. Subtle movements of the bats nearby, the pigeons shuffling along a nearby rooftop, and the footsteps of a cat moving just outside the garden, likely sensing the potential prey within it. Just as becoming a rat had granted him a greater understanding of where paths were underground, becoming a roach seemed to have imbued him with some additional abilities even outside of roachform.


    Dantes let Jacopo leap up and onto his jacket, then climbed out of his garden, landing in an alley across from an old gray tabby cat that was busily licking his crotch.


    ¡°Morning,¡± said Dantes as he pulled up his hood.


    The cat looked up at him, but left his leg in the air. He regarded him for a moment, then returned to what he was doing. Dantes¡¯ experiences with cats had been¡­ mixed so far. Many simply ignored him, others made immediate demands, and one of them called him a nutless invalid. It would likely take a fair amount of time before he was able to meet the Cat God.


    Dantes moved south, away from midtown and the docks and toward the southern gate. The streets were active, and it took him some time to tune out all of the extra sensory information he was receiving. He didn¡¯t need to worry too much about hiding his identity. Most of those who were out and about were working, or moving goods into the city, too busy to pay him any attention, and largely not locals. Still, he kept his hood up and stayed wary.


    He walked through the gate with no trouble, the few guards there not paying attention to anything leaving the inner part of the city so much as what was moving into it. He saw a few horse drawn carts and sent the beasts of burden a hello. The area outside the inner city was largely the same as the one within it, only changing gradually as one got further away. The tall buildings and warehouses started to give way to smaller buildings made less of cement and brick and more of wood, or in some particularly unfortunate cases wattle and daub. There were fewer mutts, and more Kobolds, Dwarves, and Halflings in this part of the city. The old blood of Rendhold was largely Elves, Humans, Orcs, and Gnomes with a few exceptions here and there, but in the outer city things were more varied. He saw a number of Gatemen, those gangsters that controlled the smuggling flowing into the city from the southwestern gate.


    Dantes had never really spent much time in the outer city. He preferred the heavy impact of cobblestone and concrete against his boots to the muddy paths further out. There was also less opportunity out there for the most part. Most of the people there had moved to work as loggers, miners, construction workers, and other hard labor. They lacked connections, and while you could screw them out of a few copper here and there, the people they worked for were already squeezing them for everything they were worth. The people in Midtown often had just as little, but they were better at using it, more able to turn things to their own advantage, and more corrupt. Dantes felt much more at home with them.


    Dantes found a small set of shops and started looking through them. He found a number of herbalists, but none were the particular one he was looking for. They were run by men, or kobolds, but eventually he found one named ¡®Hema¡¯s Herbs¡¯ and he walked inside.


    The shop smelled richly of herbs, and Dantes took a moment to enjoy their scent before looking around the rest of the shop. There were dried plants hanging in the windows tied by short strings, jars full of strange powdered goods, and even a few potions scattered around. A dwarven woman with thick dark curls throughout which he saw small mushrooms sprouting appeared from the back of the shop.


    ¡°Smelling is free, but if you want to do anything else you¡¯ll need to buy it.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 21: Do You Mind if I Go into Your Greenhouse and Say Hi?

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    Dantes smiled at the woman and patted one of his pockets filled with coin.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m here to buy. He spread his awareness through all of the plants nearby, finding that all of them were well cared for. He also detected at least one other person watering some plants in the back.


    ¡°I¡¯m looking for¡­ I suppose you could call it a sampler? A mixture of seeds, specimens, maybe some of these potions and powders. Anything local.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s an interesting request. You going to try to compete with me?¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°No, I have a¡­ colleague who''s visiting from far away and wanted to know a bit more about what was local.¡±


    She shrugged. ¡°Well, as long as you¡¯re paying.¡±


    He found himself drifting to a small patch of bright mushrooms as they spoke. He reached out to touch one of them. ¡°What¡¯re these?¡±


    Hema glanced over, she was preparing a small canvas bag, and carefully assembling what he¡¯d requested. ¡°Those? They¡¯re violette prosa. They grow in caves and mines around here. You dry them, and powder them, then mix a small amount into your food or drink to strengthen the heart and help soothe sore muscles. I don¡¯t usually recommend it though, too much of it can make your heartrate increase and cause paranoia.¡±


    Dantes smiled widely. ¡°Oh really?¡± He looked at the five or six mushrooms that were there. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t happen to have some already prepared?¡±


    She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but seemed to stop short of questioning him aloud.


    ¡°I work on the docks. Sore muscles, you know?¡±


    She gave an unconvinced nod. ¡°Sure. I¡¯ll throw some in with everything else.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll take a fresh one too.¡±


    She shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s your gold.¡±


    She grabbed a labeled jar, and packed it into a quickly filling canvas bag.


    Dantes leaned on the counter while she continued her collecting and picked at his teeth a bit.


    ¡°So, do you mind if I go into your greenhouse and say hi to Clay?¡±


    Her attention snapped to him, and he noticed her gripping one of the glass jars hard as if she planned to throw it.


    It seemed his intuition had been right. He¡¯d been looking for Clay¡¯s sister¡¯s shop specifically, more out of a sense that he should do a friend a good turn than anything, but the fact that Clay himself was there, that was just providence.


    He held up a hand. ¡°It¡¯s okay. I¡¯m an escapee too. I¡¯m not here to get anyone in any trouble.¡±


    She loosened her grip on the jar, but only slightly. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about.¡±


    Dantes sighed. ¡°It¡¯s a little late to lie about it. I truly mean him no harm. He sold me weed a few times, I wouldn¡¯t call us friends exactly, but I just want to talk to him. May have a job if he¡¯s interested.¡±


    She gripped the jar harder again, and actually raised it a bit. ¡°I won¡¯t let him get mixed up in that kind of thing again.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s okay Hema,¡± said Clay, pushing open the door at the back of the shop.


    He nodded. ¡°Hello, Dantes.¡±


    ¡°This is Dantes!?¡± she asked incredulously. ¡°The Deceiver?¡±


    ¡°Fitting,¡± sent Jacopo.


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    ¡°True, but not exactly good for my reputation.¡± responded Dantes.


    ¡°I told you that¡¯s what other prisoners had begun calling him, not that it¡¯s what I call him,¡± said Clay.


    Dantes nodded back at Clay. ¡°Hello, Clay.¡±


    Clay beckoned him with dirt covered hands. ¡°Come on back.¡±


    Dantes did so, giving a polite nod to Hema as he did. He hesitated and pointed at the bag. ¡°I¡¯ll still be paying for all that.¡±


    She sighed. ¡°I¡¯ll hold it.¡±


    The room in the back of the store was a greenhouse with glass that was somehow warped in such a way that it let in light, but one couldn¡¯t see through it. There were plants he recognized, having just seen them hanging dried in the window, as well as a healthy row of weed that he sensed hidden behind some of the taller plants in the front.


    Clay sat in the center of it on a stone bench, and Dantes sat next to him.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad to see that you made it out.¡±


    He smiled. ¡°Have you to thank for that I suppose¡­ though I may not have needed to leave in such a way if not for you.¡±


    Dantes grimaced. ¡°I heard.¡± He removed some of the hair from his face. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that was going to happen, but that doesn¡¯t matter. What''s done is done. I am glad that you made it out though.¡±


    He nodded. ¡°I was lucky. When we made the breakout as a group I was square in the middle of things. I just kind of¡­crawled once I was off the tree.¡± He scratched his beard, knocking loose a mushroom, which he popped into his mouth. ¡°Before I knew it, I¡¯d made it out.¡±


    ¡°Do you think you¡¯ll leave the city?¡±


    ¡°No. Hema¡¯s the only family I¡¯ve got. I miss the woods, but our old town got hit by some kind of plague a while back. There¡¯s nothing left there. I¡¯ll just have to hide out here¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not collared, the only people who may know that you were a prisoner are the guard that arrested you and the judge that sentenced you. There¡¯s a good chance they wouldn¡¯t even recognize you if they saw you.¡±


    He stroked his beard. ¡°I suppose that¡¯s true. I still worry though.¡±


    Dantes looked around the greenhouse and made a sweeping gesture across it. ¡°You and your sister did all this?¡±


    Clay nodded. ¡°Yes, though she expanded quite a bit on what I started with her. I mostly just wanted to grow weed to sell in town. Something about the dirt here makes it especially hard to grow. Oddly enough, the soil in the Underprison grew it without any problem though. Also unfortunately, the Gatemen don¡¯t like local producers since they import everything. Got into a scrap and accidentally broke a man¡¯s neck¡­ it¡¯s easy to forget how frail halflings can be sometimes.¡±


    Dantes looked at Clay¡¯s powerful hands. ¡°It can be, yes.¡±


    ¡°So, I heard you tell Hema you have a job for me?¡±


    ¡°I do, but it¡¯s nothing illegal actually.¡±


    Clay laughed, then looked to see that Dantes wasn¡¯t smiling. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re serious?¡±


    ¡°I mean, I¡¯ll be paying you with money I got illegally, but what you¡¯ll be doing isn¡¯t something the Guard will fuss about.¡±


    Clay chuckled. ¡°Good, I wouldn¡¯t have believed you if there wasn¡¯t at least a little grime on the offer.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°All that I would want from you is to help me garden.¡±


    Clay stroked his beard. ¡°And you won¡¯t make me grow weed?¡±


    He shrugged. ¡°Not unless you want me to.¡±


    ¡°And these aren¡¯t like the blood garden that was in the Pit?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°No. That was a mistake. Had I known¡­ well, I still may have done it, but it¡¯s not necessary here. I¡¯ve just been expanding beyond what I think I can maintain myself, and I know that you¡¯re a rare talent when it comes to growing things.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing these gardens have something to do with you being a druid?¡±


    Dantes considered misdirection, but decided against it. How could he lie when Clay had seen so much overwhelming evidence. ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± He raised his hand and sent his will out through the garden making the plants shift back and forth as if they were being blown by the wind.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see what a druid would need me for. Can¡¯t you just -¡± he made a series of strange hand motions.


    ¡°I can, to an extent, do things like that, but it takes energy and I have the impression that some of what I do needs to be done the hard way.¡±


    ¡°But you don¡¯t want to do them the hard way.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ll do some of it, but I need help. Simple as that.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the pay?¡±


    ¡°A gold a week.¡±


    His eyes widened.


    ¡°Which will likely increase as the garden¡¯s grow.¡±


    Clay rubbed his beard a bit more. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Where are the gardens?¡±


    ¡°Scattered around the southwestern part of the inner city, in old areas that had been sealed by the guard and forgotten.¡±


    ¡°One gold, five silver.¡±


    ¡°One gold, two.¡±


    ¡°Deal.¡± Clay stood and spat in his hand, offering it to Dantes.


    Dantes mimicked the gesture and clasped Clay¡¯s hand, giving it a firm shake. ¡°Deal¡±


    ¡°Do you need me to start today er?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°No, I¡¯ll come get you tomorrow morning, and show you what you¡¯re working with. We can discuss what materials you need to buy after that. They¡¯ll be on me, obviously.¡±


    Clay nodded, and Dantes and him walked back out into the main area of the shop where Hema was crushing something with a mortar and pestle.


    ¡°Two gold,¡± she said, offhandedly pointing at the sack she¡¯d prepared for him.


    ¡°Gold?¡± asked Dantes incredulously.


    ¡°Don¡¯t think I¡¯m so foolish to think that you¡¯re buying those mushrooms just for sore muscles.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I¡¯ll pay you the gold, if you take the time to teach me what everything in this bag you¡¯ve prepared for me does. Deal?¡±


    She looked at Dantes then Clay, who gave her a subtle thumbs up.


    She spat in her palm and held out her hand. ¡°Deal.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 22: Let Me Come Up with Something Better

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    Dantes wound his way back up through the outer city and back to where his boots clacked comfortably against concrete. The sun was high and he¡¯d spent several hours getting information on the different local plants that Hema had sold him. Though Clay had frequently interrupted her so they could bicker on the fine points of what certain things did, the overall lesson had been clear.


    He took no breaks and was grateful that he¡¯d recovered as much as he had in such a short time since his blood garden had been destroyed. Now the key would be to make it so that he could never be weakened like that again. He walked down the center of a wide and empty street as he considered next steps.


    There was a loud crack, and suddenly he found himself spinning and falling onto the ground. He felt a white hot pain in his back left shoulder, and he clutched at it with the opposite hand, feeling blood pouring from a wound. He regained his footing and started running, just as another cracking noise rang out and a piece of concrete next to him burst.


    He wove, trying to mimic the pattern he¡¯d seen Gavain run in to avoid gunfire, and narrowly avoided two more shots as he dove into a nearby alley. Gritting his teeth, he sent his will out and summoned a cloud of bats to begin a search in the vicinity the bullets seemed to be coming from. The shooter had to be a large distance away, as the vermin he had watching things in front of and behind him hadn¡¯t detected anything. As he did so, he moved further down the alley, but stopped before it opened up into a wider square between four buildings.


    He detected a lot of movement in that direction. He began to turn back, when another shot rang out and he found his legs pushing him into the square. At the same time he adjusted the swarm of bats he¡¯d sent out and found the shooter.


    He was a dwarf sitting on the rooftop of a building behind him, which meant either he was a very fast dwarf or he had an accomplice. The dwarf had a short well trimmed beard, and wore an immaculate black outfit with a number of heavy ammo pouches. He was crouched over a long gun of some kind with a barrel as tall as he was, and a second one right next to it, presumably to alternate shots.


    Dantes had the bats descend on the man, but was immediately forced to turn his attention away as he entered the cleared block. A group of ten dwarves, all with guns pointed in his direction, and all wearing full plate armor with their faceplates closed. He raised up his hands, letting Jacopo slide out of his pants leg and run toward cover.


    One of them stepped forward, and slid open his faceplate, it was Iron in the Mine. He looked much the same as he had the last time Dantes had seen him in person. Broad, dark hair and beard braided through gold and silver beads and rings, and a blunderbuss. This time however, he was missing a couple fingers, and wore an eyepatch.


    Dantes began bringing all the nearby vermin he could closer, and reached out to sense if there was any plantlife nearby that could help him. Unfortunately, he sensed only concrete.


    ¡°Lead in the Chamber does good work for an untouchable. Brought you right to us, just as promised.¡±


    Dantes¡¯ attention flickered to the bats nearby who were chasing the dwarf that had been shooting at him, presumably Lead, across rooftops. He was incredibly agile.


    ¡°Iron,¡± he said, nodding at him.


    ¡°Deceiver. Bet you weren¡¯t expecting to see me.¡±


    Dantes suppressed a quip about Iron¡¯s now missing eye. ¡°Can¡¯t say I was, no. What¡¯s this about?¡±


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    ¡°No. You aren¡¯t going to be able to pretend you don¡¯t know what you did. I lost dozens of good men to your bloody garden. And I know that it was you that shot me.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m good at hiding and sneaking, but I¡¯m not that good.¡±


    ¡°No, but the animals you control are.¡±


    ¡°Animals? What do you mean,¡± said Dantes even as he gathered more rats and roaches, bringing the swarm of bats back toward himself.


    ¡°You¡¯re a Druid. I remember learning about you all as a child. My grandfather used to speak of one that lived in the endless mountain. One who cultivated forests of mushrooms and summoned creatures from the dankest corners of it to protect what he grew. They hunted him of course. His gardens were in the way of a gold deposit.¡±


    Dantes kept his face passive. ¡°Sounds like a good reason to kill someone.¡± He began gathering his will into the branch, moving it up to wrap itself around, and brace his wound. ¡°This though,¡± he gestured to the dwarves with all of their guns trained on him. ¡°Seems unnecessary. Why stay in Rendhold? Aren¡¯t you nobility? Is revenge on me really worth staying here and in danger?¡±


    Iron nodded. ¡°It absolutely is.¡± He raised his gun to aim at Dantes.


    Dantes sighed, then let his hands drop to his side. ¡°Disagreeing with that would only make me a hypocrite."


    He released his will, and the branch wrapped around his left arm shot forward through his jacket and pushed the barrel of Iron¡¯s blunderbuss away from him just as he pulled the trigger.


    Dantes dove to the side as the shot went off, and unleashed the vermin he¡¯d been gathering at the same time. Bats, rats, and roaches all swarmed the dwarves. The square became a sea of movement as roaches crawled into the seams in the dwarves'' armor, rats tried to pry open their faceplates, and bats blinded them. Some of the dwarves managed to pull the triggers on their weapons causing an explosion of viscera as the vermin that surrounded them were turned to paste, but they were unable to reload afterward, as roaches stuffed themselves into the barrels of their guns.


    Once they all seemed to have fired a shot, Dantes moved into action. He pulled his stiletto out and worked his way from the outside in. He sent his branch forward to pry open the dwarves'' faceplates, then jammed his knife into their eyes. It brought back memories of his assault on the orcs back in the Pit. By the end of it his favor was drained, but not gone, and he was breathing heavily covered in his blood, that of the creatures he¡¯d summoned, and that of the dwarves. Only Iron was left, writhing on the ground as the vermin scratched and tore at what flesh they could reach.


    Dantes reached down to pick up one of the guns that the dwarves had dropped, this one still cocked and loaded. He winced at the burning pain in his shoulder, and walked over to Iron, calling the vermin off of him.


    Iron writhed a bit longer before realizing he was no longer being bitten into, then he forced himself up.


    Dantes smiled down at him, pointing the barrel of the gun at his faceplate. He didn¡¯t know much about guns, but he felt that from this range the bullet would likely tear through the armor without much issue.


    ¡°From what I hear this won''t be the first time a man has put his gun to your face,¡± said Dantes smirking.


    Iron said nothing, but Dantes guessed he was gritting his teeth behind the visor.


    ¡°Sorry, that was low. Let me come up with something better.¡± He pulled the trigger, and red sprayed from the back of Iron¡¯s head onto the vermin behind him.


    He rubbed his arm which seemed to be buzzing a bit from the force of the shot. He looked over as Jacopo returned from his cover.


    ¡°They are more powerful than expected,¡± said Jacopo, indicating the gun.


    ¡°Yes, but at least I had the heads up from being with you when you used one.¡±


    Dantes sent the vermin permission to feed and leaned against a wall, removing his jacket to view his bullet wound. It looked like the bullet had passed through cleanly, but his muscle there would likely be damaged forever unless he could find a healer or get his hands on a healing potion. He had a bit of one left from when he killed Gaspard, but he wasn¡¯t sure that there was enough to fully heal him. He willed his branch to wrap back around and compress the wound, then began to pull his coat back on.


    He heard a commotion and sensed movement coming nearer.


    ¡°Fuck,¡± he said as he shifted into ratform, and leaned against the wall. His wound followed him, and he needed to walk on three legs to find cover.


    Just as he took cover, Orebus, Wane, and Merle entered the square. Orebus had a spear, Wane a large club, and Merle his bricklike fists. They were all still wearing collars, and they came to a dead stop as they saw the sea of vermin feasting on the dead dwarves.


    Merle sighed heavily, dropping his hands to his side. ¡°Seems he didn¡¯t need our help after all.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 23: One of the Most Ignoble Rakes

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    Dantes didn¡¯t make his former collared friends wait in a pit of dwarven corpses and vermin for long. He shifted back to himself and leaned against the wall behind him, coughing lightly into his fist to get their attention.


    They turned and looked at him, and Dantes waved. It was a risk, but they were still collared, and that meant any contest of strength was dramatically in his favor, especially while they were all still surrounded by the vermin he¡¯d summoned.


    ¡°Dantes!¡± said Wane stepping toward him with an empty palm raised.


    ¡°Wane!¡± responded Dantes and the clapped hands together before drawing one another into a brief half-hug. ¡°It¡¯s good to see you alive.¡± Dantes looked at Orebus and Merle. ¡°All three of you.¡±


    ¡°You as well,¡± said Merle gesturing at the corpses being eaten. ¡°Though our concerns seem to be unwarranted.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°We shouldn¡¯t stay here long.¡± He moved over and began looting the corpses, grabbing guns, bullets, gunpowder, a few coin purses, and a dwarven signet ring off of Iron¡¯s hand. Toward the end of it, his bag was getting heavy.


    ¡°You want some guns?¡± he asked.


    Orebus and Wane both nodded, and began looking through the bodies for one.


    Merle abstained.


    ¡°I suppose you already have two, huh?¡± said Dantes, eliciting a chuckle from the three of them.


    From there, Dantes led them through a number of back alleys and isolated streets until they reached his main garden. What had been a patch of dirt covered in the debris of a collapsed building, had changed significantly since he¡¯d begun improving it. The majority of the ground was covered in clover, strawberries, and moss. Two fruit trees stood tall on either end of it, and a small pool of water with low plants sat near the edge, pigeons and rats sipping from it as other vermin wove their way around. The partially collapsed building in the corner was filled with bats starting to stir as the sun set.


    Dantes set down his pack that was now full of an odd combination of guns and herbs, and pulled the plants that were still living, as well as the seeds, and began finding places for them. Listening to the plants input as he gently placed each of them in their own separate places, working to force his mind to remember what each of the plants did as he placed them there.


    Merle, Wane, and Orebus stood at the edge of the garden, anxiety clear on their faces.


    Dantes took several candles and lit them using Tel¡¯s finger, then gestured for them to come further into the garden. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, no blood in this garden.¡±


    They still hesitated, but then Dantes saw a twinkle in Merle¡¯s eye.


    ¡°That finger. Where did you get it?¡±


    Dantes held it in the palm of his hand for a moment. ¡°It was Tel¡¯s. I wanted to make sure his last request was granted.¡±


    Merle stepped into the garden. ¡°I didn¡¯t think you were the sentimental type.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Only when it comes to death and revenge.¡±


    Wane and Orebus followed Merle and they all sat in a small square near Dantes¡¯s bedroll. He hadn¡¯t exactly expected guests, and wasn¡¯t about to haul furniture into his garden on the off chance he had them.


    ¡°So, how did you find me?¡± asked Dantes after a few moments of silence.


    ¡°We didn¡¯t", said Wane, smiling through his tusks. ¡°Iron did. We just followed him.¡±


    ¡°You knew he¡¯d come after me?¡± asked Dantes.


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    Merle nodded this time. ¡°Yes, he¡¯d made that very clear before we broke out.¡±


    ¡°But you three didn¡¯t share his goal?¡±


    They exchanged glances. ¡°Many of the Collared did, but we saw more nuance in the situation,¡± said Merle, flexing his powerful hands as he spoke. ¡°We didn¡¯t believe that you knew what would happen to your garden when you left it to us.¡±


    Dantes nodded solemnly. ¡°I didn¡¯t, no.¡±


    ¡°One policy of the Academy¡¯s, and of Rendhold itself, that I¡¯ve always disagreed with is that anyone who awakens into their mage abilities should be punished for what he does before he is aware of them. I¡¯ve seen young men and women hung for making a person''s heart stop, or starting a fire when they had no true awareness of what they were doing. I¡¯d be a hypocrite to come after you for that.¡±


    ¡°Whether I knew or not, I am sorry. I¡¯ll do what I can to repay what I did.¡±


    Merle nodded, and pointed at his collar. ¡°This is what we need the most right now. We need to get these removed.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have any contacts that can take care of that for you?¡±


    ¡°No. The Academy has threatened the Pit or death for any that encounter a Collared and do not immediately go to the authorities. Aside from that, unlike the other prisoners that escaped, we are easily marked for what we are. That makes it harder for us to move freely.¡±


    ¡°I assume it¡¯s not just you three that need it?¡±


    ¡°We have a dozen men hiding in a warehouse,¡± said Orebus.


    ¡°Only a dozen¡­¡±


    ¡°Some died in the Pit, some were killed or captured trying to escape it, more made a run for the docks or the gates. From what we can tell, almost no gang stayed intact after escaping. We were bound by the need for survival in the Pit. There was nothing else keeping them together.¡±


    Dantes nodded along as Merle spoke. He could hardly blame anyone for leaving the city after escaping the Pit. That was almost certainly the smart thing to do.


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing not just any mage would do?¡±


    Merle shook his head. ¡°No, it would need to be an incredible healer, or someone very well equipped to deal with breaking enchantments. I¡¯ve been studying our collars for a long time, and it would take a specialist to get us out. There was no back door purposefully created to allow their removal. We were expected to die wearing them.¡±


    ¡°Also means we can¡¯t just kidnap a random mage off the street,¡± Dantes muttered, removing the easiest option from his train of thought. ¡°I have a man, who owes me quite a lot. I think I can get him to help us. I already have a meeting later in the week where he¡¯s meant to give me a few items made for breaking enchantments.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s his name?¡± asked Merle, stroking his beard.


    ¡°Felix.¡±


    All three of them raised eyebrows, as if surprised at the name.


    ¡°Do you know him?¡±


    Orebus nodded, ¡°I taught him for a number of years. Incredibly adept at binding, breaking, and enchantments, and terrible at everything else.¡± He tapped his collar. ¡°He could be the perfect person for it.¡±


    Merle shook his head. ¡°No, he was far too straight laced and by the book. He wouldn¡¯t even share a drink with the other young professors, too busy working toward tenure.¡±


    Wane let out a hearty belly laugh. ¡°When I was in the academy, he was one of my professors and he was one of the most ignoble rakes I¡¯ve ever had the privilege of studying under. He would show up to teach hungover frequently, encourage students to gamble, and frequently accepted female student¡¯s trades of favors for better marks. I guess he was saving all of his degeneracy for after he received tenure, eh?¡±


    Dantes listened as they spoke, only just realizing that Orebus may in fact be older than Merle. Sometimes that was an easy thing to forget when talking with the elf-blooded. He noticed Merle¡¯s expression darkening as he listened to Wane speak.


    ¡°The Academy System is broken beyond repair,¡± he muttered darkly, flexing muscles that Dantes didn¡¯t even know existed. Merle let out a long breath. ¡°He seems like our best option. Dantes, you¡¯re certain you can bring him to us?¡±


    ¡°He owes me quite a lot of money, and more than a few favors. He also already left his fingerprints all over a key that can break the vermin-resistance enchantments. I¡¯m assuming that¡¯s something that could get him in serious trouble with the Academy.¡±


    Merle nodded. ¡°He could lose his tenure for that. The enchantments on buildings provided by the academy are a large part of its revenue. The Academy doesn¡¯t want their money fucked with. It¡¯s their highest priority.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I figured as much. My plan was to get his fingerprints onto more and more until he was fully under my control, but if we get him to remove your collars I¡¯d say that just speeds things up.¡±


    Merle chuckled. ¡°I¡¯m grateful we¡¯re on your side.¡±


    ¡°Well, I may need a favor or two after you get those collars off.¡±


    ¡°Of course, though our priorities may be a bit different from yours.¡± Merle looked around. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t happen to have any excess food? My men are having difficulty maintaining their mass.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I have another garden that produces a bit more food than this one. They¡¯re welcome to their fill.¡± He moved over to an extra pack he had by his bedroll and pulled out a small sack that he tossed to Merle. ¡°You¡¯re also welcome to that.¡±


    Merle opened the sack, and brought it to his nose, inhaling deeply and smiling. He scooped some of the fine powder out and put the dry powder straight into his mouth. ¡°Whey. Gods I¡¯ve missed it.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 24: Mages...They Just Couldnt Help Themselves

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    Dantes adjusted the black cloak he¡¯d wrapped around himself, clasping it with a bronze pin in the shape of a triangle in the center of a circle, a symbol thought to represent stability in magic, and one worn by the members of the Academy when they were on official business or on the grounds of the Academy itself. Dantes kept walking across the massive bridge that led into the first of the three towers, under which a massive river rushed. There was a part of him that wanted to stand still and admire the view. Take in the way the towers rose so high he couldn¡¯t see their tops, all three of them connected by bridges at several points up their length, strange purple mists, green lightning, and swirling blue fire randomly appearing and disappearing up and down the length of them. Unfortunately, it was important to look like he had somewhere to be, and that meant he couldn¡¯t take his time as he might want to.


    When Felix hadn¡¯t shown up at their expected meet, Dantes had immediately sent out his rats, bats, and roaches to search for him at all the places he¡¯d tracked him in since they¡¯d begun doing business. He found no sign of him. That left a few possibilities. Felix had left the city, which would be a strange decision for someone who seemed so focused on his personal comfort, and had worked so hard to achieve tenure, or he had decided to stay locked up in the Academy towers to hide away from Dantes. Normally, Dantes would simply wait him out, but with the Collared in his Garden, time was a factor.


    Looking busy was the key to infiltrating just about anywhere. If you walk into a halflings house carrying a box, there¡¯s a good chance they won¡¯t even react to you. The area around the entrance to the academy was free to enter by anyone, and there were a number of small shops, mages testing people for magical aptitude, and a few kids throwing rocks off the bridge into the rushing water below.


    Dantes walked past all of that toward the entrance to the central tower. It was manned by two mages, and two guards, all of them armed in their own ways. The guard did not interfere with the interior of the towers, but did monitor the area directly outside of it. Dantes fell in behind a number of other mages entering the tower, and mimicked them as they flashed their pins at the guard before moving on.


    Merle, Wane, and Orebus had given him the general rundown of the towers and what he would need to do. The main entrance had no magical barriers, aside from the anti-vermin enchantment. From there the passages were all defended by different magical codes and passwords that were given to students, professors, and licensed mages regularly, but all of them could also be answered like exam questions or riddles.


    Dantes approached the least busy door to the staircase. At this time of day more people were leaving than entering the tower. Dantes looked at the series of runes around the door, noting that where they were shifted each time someone pressed one of them. Above the door was a series of symbols in elvish that he didn¡¯t recognize.


    He shifted his attention to Jacopo, who was sitting by a fire with Wane, Orebus, and Merle. Dantes had the hundred roaches he¡¯d connected to swarm onto the patch of open space in front of them.


    ¡°Hells!¡± yelled Orebus, jumping backward when one of the roaches got a bit too close to his feet.


    ¡°Calm down. Dantes must have reached the first door,¡± said Wane looking at Jacopo who confirmed with a nod.


    They¡¯d figured out this method of long range communication as a group, though from the beginning Orebus hadn¡¯t been keen on it, instead hoping to have Jacopo attempt to write things down, which the rat had no patience for. Dantes moved the roaches into the exact configuration of the letters he was looking at.


    Merle stroked his beard. ¡°Hmmm, a simple question about the remaining regent in a simple elemental binding. The answer is spidersilk.¡±


    Dantes looked at the series of everchanging symbols above the doorframe and sent his confusion to Jacopo, who shrugged at them.


    ¡°Here,¡± said Wane, writing a symbol in the dirt with his pointer finger.


    Jacopo moved to view it from Wane¡¯s perspective and Dantes looked at the symbols again, placing his hand on it and feeling his fingers tingle as the door opened. Luckily, he hadn¡¯t seemed to raise any suspicions by taking his time there, but that may have been due to the long practice he¡¯d had in what he liked to call active loitering. He walked in such a way that his boot came loose, then ¡®accidentally¡¯ stepped on his own cloak and sent the clasp flying. All of this made him look like a fool of course, but his ego could handle that if it meant he reached his goal.


    Dantes started climbing stairs. Slipping by students, professors, and other staff as he climbed several flights. The tenured professors slept near the top of the furthest tower. There were several ways to get there, but the majority of them were passing through large crowds of people or a dozen coded entrances. He¡¯d worked with the collared to pick a path that, while very winding and indirect, would reduce the chances that he was discovered.


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    He made it nearly halfway up the tower before he needed to enter another door. This time went more smoothly, with him far more quickly sending the message and receiving an answer from Wane through Jacopo almost immediately. He pressed an orcish rune three times, and the door opened. From there things continued smoothly as he made his way through. There were several doors that scanned specifically for magical acuity, but Dantes managed to make his way around those using alternate directions as he needed them. The key to all of it was to always be moving with purpose, which kept anyone from questioning him.


    He finally reached the door that was meant to take him to the bridge straight to the professor¡¯s quarters, and standing in front of it was a woman with a sword on one hip and a wand on the other, leaning in front of the door. There was a riddle above the door, but that didn¡¯t concern him as much. The only issue was, based on the directions he¡¯d been given and what he¡¯d seen so far, this was the only door that would let him avoid any doors scanning for magical acuity.


    He approached the door confidently, and the woman held up her hand.


    ¡°Sorry, Scholar, this bridge is closed.¡±


    ¡°Can I ask why?¡±


    ¡°Spell went wrong, whole bridge is underwater.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    She sighed. ¡°Easier just to show you.¡± She touched a rune that he quickly memorized above the door, and opened it.


    Dantes resisted jumping as water sloshed slightly out of the doorway, then moved back behind it as if commanded to do so by an invisible force. Dantes glimpsed through it and saw a tunnel of water extending further than he could see. Furniture, curtains, and somehow a few fish, all floated within the water.


    ¡°Huh,¡± he managed to say to fill the void in the conversation.


    The guard nodded. ¡°Yeah, so go take one of the other bridges.¡±


    Dantes quickly had the roaches spell out a simple question to the collared as he talked. If he could just become a roach or rat to get through it wouldn¡¯t be problem, but they had all advised against that. The enchantments in the academy were a completely different beast than those outside of it. If he shifted, he could explode, be teleported outside the towers to fall to the ground below, or have his insides and outside switch places. None of which was appealing.


    ¡°Listen, I have maybe fifteen minutes to talk to my professor or I¡¯m screwed, possibly literally if that''s what I need to do to keep from failing.¡±


    She looked him up and down. ¡°I don¡¯t know that you¡¯d have much luck with that offer.¡±


    He sighed heavily. ¡°Do you need to kick me while I¡¯m down?¡±


    ¡°You think you can swim the length of the bridge, without drowning or falling off the side, and that¡¯ll be faster than if you just go down the stairs and take one of the other paths?¡±


    ¡°My father was a sailor. I swim faster than I can climb steps.¡±


    She looked as if she was about to deny him entry anyway, then hesitated.


    ¡°Which professor?¡±


    Dantes looked at the message the collared had written.


    ¡°Salieri.¡±


    The guards eyes widened. ¡°Ah, shit. Just go. Do me a favor though and if you die try your best to fall off the side.¡±


    Dantes nodded at her. ¡°I¡¯ll do my very best.¡± He moved to the far end away from the door, then ran forward and dove headfirst into the water. That initial dive got him a solid seven feet forward. From there he began pushing with powerful strokes, dodging a floating shelf and crate that must¡¯ve been on the bridge when the spell was cast. He asked all of the fish to steer clear, and they were kind enough to do so as he pushed himself further and further. He estimated that the bridge was roughly 100 feet from one end to the other, but after swimming for two minutes and not seeing the end he began to panic. He was already worn out from the stairs and still drained from losing his blood garden. Still, he swam forward.


    He raised his arm, focusing his will on his branch and extending it into a long hook to allow him to grip loose railings and pull himself forward. He saw a window open on one side and moved toward it, until he reached the window, and stuck just his head out of it.


    He gasped for breath, his eyes widening as he saw the precipitous drop below him. Vertigo assailed him, and for a moment he could swear that he was starting to slide forward and out of the water. He turned his head to the side to see he had only twenty or so feet left. Dantes steeled himself, and pulled back into the water, swiftly moving toward the door, where he realized there was another puzzle.


    He focused his will to move the roaches into the correct configuration of, Kobish he thought, lettering.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s an interesting one,¡± said Orebus, overcoming his discomfort at the roaches long enough to look.


    ¡°A very oldschool riddle. Makes sense for this part of the furthest tower,¡± agreed Merle.


    ¡°Is the answer Sanguine Vitae? Or perhaps Magicka Fuentes?¡± asked Wane.


    ¡°It really depends on if we¡¯re meant to give the answer that would commonly be expected. Or the one we actually think it is,¡± said Merle.


    Dantes clenched his jaw, his lungs feeling heavier and his focus waning from his exertion.


    Jacopo moved over to Wane and bit him on the ankle.


    ¡°Shit!¡± He howled.


    Jacopo mimed drowning, and the collared looked at one another and each of them produced a symbol.


    Dantes pressed on each one, the third being the correct one, perfectly representing his luck, and the door swung open. He pushed himself out of the water with a final powerful stroke and landed panting and soaked, on the ground in front of the door. No one was nearby, likely because they knew on this end that it was sealed, and so he took some time to recover.


    ¡°Can I ask what the answer was?¡± requested Wane.


    Dantes moved the roaches into the shape of a massive member flanked by two asses. Mages¡­ they just couldn¡¯t help themselves.

 Book 2 Ch 25: Its Really All Very Simple

    Dantes walked along the hall, dripping wet in his disguise with his boots squelching with every step. The corridor he stood in was long with doors on either side, seemingly too close together to house actual rooms. He moved to the far end, and climbed the staircase up to the second highest level where tenured professors had rooms. Luckily the rooms were labeled with different names and titles which saved Dantes the trouble of knocking on one door after another until he reached the right one.


    He reached the door labeled ¡®Felix Fineman, 3rd Professor of Enchantment¡¯. He rolled his neck, hearing a series of loud cracks from it as he did so, and shaped the branch in his hand into a fine point. Then he knocked on the door.


    There was no sound on the other end of the door, almost as if it was empty, but just when Dantes thought he might not be there, the door swung open suddenly and Felix stood there in a thick comfortable robe with a pipe hanging from the corner of his mouth and a book tucked under his arm.


    Before he could even realize what was happening, Dantes pushed into the room, grabbed his mouth, shoved him down to the ground, and pressed the point of his branch into his throat, kicking the door closed as he did so. The motion was smooth, practiced, and over in less than a second.


    Felix¡¯s eyes widened, and he started to scream until Dantes drove the point of his branch just deep enough to draw a small pinprick of blood.


    ¡°Hello Felix. You missed our last meeting.¡± He rested his knee on Felix¡¯s stomach, putting his full weight on it. ¡°I was beginning to get a little worried about you.¡± He removed his hand.


    Felix grimaced in pain, but tried to speak. ¡°How did yo-¡±


    Dantes backhanded him firmly. ¡°How did I get here? Easily and with minimal effort. Which you would do well to remember.¡±


    Dantes stood, and hauled Felix to his feet before chucking him against a wall. Then he scooped up the pipe that he¡¯d dropped and took a long inhale of it himself.


    ¡°Huh, that¡¯s good tobacco.¡± He grabbed Felix¡¯s arm and emptied the hot contents of it onto his forearm.


    Felix yelped in pain, and Dantes slipped the pipe into his cloak.


    ¡°Are you going to kill me?¡± asked Felix, cowering.


    ¡°I should. You welched on a debt. Your death would be more than fair in return for that.¡±


    Felix trembled slightly, and started to eye the door.


    ¡°Did you complete what I asked from you?¡±


    ¡°I¡­I did.¡±


    ¡°Show me.¡±


    Felix slowly pushed himself off the wall and began moving further into his apartment.


    Dantes followed closely, just at that moment starting to take things in. They were in a spacious sitting room, with a fireplace roaring in the middle, and a series of large and comfortable looking chairs scattered around, sitting atop a rich blue carpet with patterns traced throughout it in silver. The apartment was definitely larger on the inside than the outside, and the opulent nature of it made Dantes even angrier, but he stayed focused. Felix was useful, and a coward. He could be controlled, and if motivated properly, brought to heel.


    Felix approached a desk, and opened a small drawer. He then reached his entire arm into it and began drawing out a number of items which he placed on the top of the desk. There were a half-dozen more keys, as well as a small craftsman''s hammer. Dantes moved closer to the desk, and inspected each item. His fingers had been tingling the entire time he¡¯d been in the towers, but he felt a slight spike in the sensation when he touched each object. He moved each item into his cloak, while Felix stood in the corner, his eyes pointed at the ground.


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    ¡°I¡­I suppose you¡¯ll be leaving then,¡± he said, trying to find a bit of iron in his spine.


    Dantes pushed his wet hair back. ¡°No, no. I think I¡¯ll spend some time in front of your fire, then you¡¯ll come with me into the city to make sure that these work. I doubt they¡¯d affect the enchantments here at the tower¡­ unless you¡¯d like me to make the attempt.


    Felix¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°No! I mean, no, I can do that.¡±


    ¡­


    After Dantes was sufficiently dried in front of the fire, he and Felix made their way out of the tower without any issue. It was much easier to leave from it, particularly with a professor leading the way. Dantes kept his branch at the base of Felix¡¯s neck the whole time, making it look as if they were deep in discussion so as to not raise suspicions. After they were out of the tower Dantes simply made him move ahead of him as he summoned a perimeter of vermin to keep watch on the comings and goings from all sides.


    ¡°Couldn¡¯t you test the items closer to the tower?¡±


    ¡°I could,¡± responded Dantes, and they kept walking.


    Felix was growing tired, and increasingly nervous as they moved, which Dantes was well aware of. By the time they reached the edge of Dantes¡¯s garden, he was trembling with both fear and weariness, having only rarely walked so far.


    Dantes pushed open a loose plank he¡¯d been using as a door to enter his garden. Gesturing Felix to move through, which he did after a brief hesitation. It wasn¡¯t quite nightfall, but a small fire was burning at the center of the garden. Clay was pruning a small tree branch, while chatting with Wane and Orebus. Merle was at a different tree, his robes pulled off his chest as he lifted himself up and down, pulling his bearded chin over a branch as the tree shook, and Dantes could feel its clear displeasure.


    ¡°Oh gods¡­¡± muttered Felix as he saw them.


    Merle dropped down from his pullups, clapping his hands together loudly. ¡°Felix! Good to see you after all this time.¡±


    Somehow, Felix managed to turn another shade paler.


    Dantes patted him on the back. ¡°Now, I bet you¡¯re realizing now that I didn¡¯t just bring you here so I could test those enchantments.¡±


    Wane and Orebus approached as well, and Felix began muttering a number of creative curses under his breath.


    ¡°The good news is, I didn¡¯t bring you here to kill you as I bet you suspected.¡± Dantes gave a wave to Clay who returned it with a smile as he continued working the garden. ¡°The bad news is, I¡¯m going to need you to remove our friend¡¯s collars.¡±


    ¡°I-I can¡¯t do that! I¡¯ll lose my tenure, be thrown into the pit.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not so bad,¡± said Wane. ¡°You can still do some gambling down there, and the changeling whores feel just as good as the real thing.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry child,¡± said Orebus, his tone sounding very different to what Dantes was used to hearing from him. ¡°You won¡¯t get caught anyway. You were a clever student, I bet you still are.¡±


    ¡°I¡­¡± Felix was breathing quickly, the rapidfire stress of his day catching up with him quickly.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t,¡± said Merle, ¡°We¡¯ll just be killing you anyways.¡± He stretched, and pulled his robe back over his shoulders. ¡°Won¡¯t be able to turn you into a chicken like I did the last one though.¡± He looked Felix over. ¡°Probably for the best. You look a bit stringy.¡±


    Felix collapsed onto the ground, his eyes wide as he continued to pant.


    Dantes moved over to him, and crouched down, putting his hand on his shoulder. ¡°Listen, Felix. You don¡¯t need to think too hard about this. It¡¯s really all very simple. You owe me money, and I have enough enchanted items with your signature all over them that I can easily get your tenure revoked anyway. On top of that, you¡¯re outnumbered and will die if you don¡¯t cooperate. All that is scary, I know, but let¡¯s talk about what happens if you do cooperate. First of all, you live, which is a great deal in and of itself. Secondly, I¡¯ll start paying you for anything I need from you, just as I already told you I would. Thirdly, my plans don¡¯t stop at being a two-bit criminal, they''re far larger than that, and I¡¯d be a good man to have as a friend.¡± Dantes gestured to the collared. ¡°So would they, no matter what they¡¯re planning, I¡¯d certainly rather be with them than against them, eh?¡±


    Felix nodded. ¡°I¡­ I suppose so.¡±


    Dantes moved to his bag that he¡¯d left in the camp and pulled out a small handle of rye. ¡°Here, have a sip and take a breath. This is all easy. It was decided the moment you played cards against me. Fighting it won¡¯t help anything. Just do your part, and we¡¯ll all be better off for it.¡±


    Felix took a long, deep swig of the whiskey and sighed. ¡°And you¡¯ll start paying me after this?¡±


    Dantes smiled, ¡°Yes.¡±


    Orebus looked at Wane. ¡°Are we sure he doesn¡¯t have some kind of magic?¡±

 Book 2 Ch 26: We Cant Afford Mistakes Now

    Once Felix had completely resigned himself to his fate, he actually began to seem as if he was enjoying the prospect of breaking the collars. He and the other mages began to theorize and work toward the safest way to break them. They spoke quickly and enthusiastically to one another, but to Dantes they may as well have all been speaking some dead tongue he¡¯d never heard before. Still, he recognized the look in all of their eyes as they spoke. It reminded him of how he felt when he was planning a big heist.


    Dantes left them to it, only staying nearby so that he could pick the lock on the collars once they reached that point. He went to his bedroll and laid down. He was sore and tired. His body continued to replenish itself through its connection to his gardens throughout the city, but he estimated it would still be a few weeks before he was back to full strength. Luckily, his powers and mental acuity hadn¡¯t suffered.


    Jacopo moved over the bedroll as well, munching on a sliver of salted beef.


    ¡°Good job acting as a translator,¡± said Dantes.


    ¡°It was difficult. Mages are stupid.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Very.¡± Dantes pulled the enchanted keys and hammers from his cloak, and looked at them. He could now bring multiple rats or bats into a building at once, or spy on several. Roaches would be out of the question, unfortunately, due to their size in comparison with the keys.


    Dantes spread his awareness across each of his gardens. They were all growing strong, filled with life. Clay seemed to be doing an excellent job maintaining things for him, though he¡¯d have to pay his own visits as well to make sure everything flowed as it should. He frowned, there was one thing he¡¯d been meaning to do, but hadn¡¯t had a chance to.


    ¡°Jacopo.¡±


    The rat twitched a gold eye in his direction. ¡°Dantes.¡±


    ¡°You up for an infiltration of your own?¡±


    ¡°No. I was very busy.¡±


    ¡°You flailed your hands and nodded your head a few times.¡±


    ¡°Yes. Very tiring.¡±


    ¡°I want you to look around Mondego¡¯s manor.¡±


    Jacopo stopped mid-bite, and Dantes could feel him pulling briefly on Dantes¡¯s resounding hatred.


    ¡°This, I can do.¡±


    ¡­


    Jacopo made the trek easily, having little trouble scurrying undetected through to midtown until he found the manor Dantes had triangulated with roaches more than a month before. The Manor had changed drastically from Dantes¡¯s memories of it. In the past it had been a worn down and dilapidated building with a sagging roof and boarded up windows, but in spite of that it had a kind of character to it. A subtle nobility with a number of more delicate and hard to notice features such as hand carved patterns on the side of the entryway stairs, and latticework done in intricate patterns on the window shutters. While the dilapidation had been remedied, that subtle character was now completely impossible to see. Large marble columns had been added to the front, and the subtle stone and woodwork of it were now covered in gaudy coats of expensive paint and gold filigree. There was a garden surrounding the building, but it was all drake-tear flowers, Mercedes¡¯s favorite, which wouldn''t have choked the life out of anything else that may have grown nearby had it simply been trimmed back or planted in a more subtle way. There were also small spikes placed around the roof to prevent birds from roosting, and large scarred dogs chained in the yard to deter intruders and intimidate visitors.


    Dantes¡¯s scowl was sensed by Jacopo even through the great distance between them, but Jacopo himself was more interested in finding a means of egress. He scurried in a circle around the manor, avoiding the overheated and underfed dogs, and eventually found a window cracked in the rear of it. The smells of cooking meat made his mouth water as he crawled through it, pushed through the anti-vermin enchantment with his key, and fell eight feet to the floor. He was in a kitchen full of servants, and the signs of a meal being prepared.


    Jacopo didn¡¯t dally there, though he was tempted by the smells and sights around him to stay. Instead he began searching the house, moving from the outside in. It was risky to search through a house from within rather than crawling within it''s walls, but almost every surface and wall had either a table, a tapestry, or a piece of furniture on or about it, giving him a lot of cover. Add to that the myriad clashing patterns and designs which covered those items, and the visual confusion made it difficult to see him for long, even in the open, though he didn''t test that. From the kitchen he found a dining room where some of the food was slowly being moved, but the masters of the house had not yet arrived. Jacopo kept moving, ignoring Dantes¡¯s many critiques of the gaudy style of the home as he moved. He found a library covered in a thin layer of dust, separate bedrooms for Mondego and Mercedes, and a closet that would have sufficed as a the home of a minor lord. Finally, he came to a large door toward the rear of the home. He could sense that behind the door was a chamber leading down, but he couldn¡¯t squeeze under it, nor could he find a way inside.


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    As he was sniffing around it, trying to catch a hint as to its purpose, it suddenly swung open and Jacopo narrowly avoided it hitting him.


    Mondego stepped through the door and slammed it heavily behind himself. He was wearing a dark blue silk shirt and black trousers held up with suspenders. His blonde hair was tousled slightly, and he took a moment to slide a hand through it as he started to make his way toward the dining room. He looked much as Dantes¡¯s memories recalled him, except his bearing had changed. In the past he¡¯d always slouched forward, as if hiding his size, but now he stood tall and walked with a swagger. He pulled a gold cigarette case from his pocket and placed a pre-rolled bit of tobacco into his mouth. A servant appeared, seemingly from thin air, and lit his cigarette as he walked. He blew out a thick cloud of bright pink smoke as he entered the room.


    Mercedes was already seated at one end of the table, wearing a dark red dress and long black gloves, sipping on a glass of crimson wine and smiling at him as he entered.


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure if you¡¯d be leaving your basement today.¡±


    Mondego took another inhale of his cigarette as he sat, and blew it into the air as a servant pushed in his chair.


    ¡°Needed to eat. Haven¡¯t had anything since the warehouse was destroyed. Had to spend another afternoon with Yrilet and my knuckles, making sure she hadn¡¯t sold me out, then all the back and forths with Danglars over him trying to fuck me over, then explaining to the fingers¡¯ lieautenants that everything will be fine, then all of the bribes to the guard.¡±


    He flicked an only half finished cigarette at the wall causing it to explode in a shower of sparks.


    ¡°Do you think it was Yrilet? That she sold you out?¡±


    He made a fist. ¡°No.¡±


    Mercedes took another sip of her drink, then used a gloved hand to move her long dark hair out of her face. ¡°Do you think it was him?¡±


    Mondego smashed a fist on the table, shaking it and causing all of the plates and silverware on it to shift. ¡°You¡¯d like that wouldn¡¯t you? If he was back.¡±


    Mercedes took another long sip of her drink. ¡°Do you really think that? I made the same deal you did, my love.¡± She held up her hand, a circle of gold glowing on one finger. ¡°I wear the same ring.¡± She stood up and walked across the side of the table to him, there she began to rub his back with her hands, and the tension he was carrying began to fade. ¡°I don¡¯t think it was him because I don¡¯t think he¡¯s that capable. You have him built up in your mind as this great destroyer. I mean, he certainly seemed to do some impressive things in the Underprison, but look at what you¡¯ve done. He doesn¡¯t hold a candle to you, love. He never could.¡± She leaned down and they shared a long kiss.


    ¡°Disgusting,¡± sent Dantes.


    ¡°It¡¯s a normal sign of affection among two-legs, no?¡±


    ¡°Not that, them.¡±


    ¡°Jealousy?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Ok.¡±


    Jacopo sensed Dantes¡¯s frustration that he wasn¡¯t taking his denial of envy seriously, but he said nothing else as they watched them continue their meal and eavesdropped.


    Mercedes moved back to her seat at the table and took another small sip of wine. ¡°You know, you would probably benefit from checking in on your operations in person. You haven¡¯t left the manor in months. Your lieutenants are talking.¡±


    Mondego shrugged. ¡°If they try anything, they die. Who gives a fuck if they¡¯re talking.¡±


    ¡°You should at least do something to Danglars. We may suspect others were involved, but your people and the smugglers don¡¯t know that.¡±


    ¡°What do you suggest? I can¡¯t exactly have him killed or beaten over it. He¡¯s too useful.¡±


    ¡°No, but if something happened to those pretty secretaries of his that may be more than a little distressing, and let the men know you''re no coward.¡±


    Mondego cut into his steak, a cruel smile on his face. ¡°You¡¯re a real bitch.¡±


    ¡°True.¡±


    They exchanged a few more comments on the food, and on business, which Dantes did his best to absorb as he listened in through Jacopo. Before they could actually enjoy their meal though, a maid approached Mondego with an envelope sealed with gold wax.


    ¡°Open it. We can¡¯t afford mistakes now.¡±


    Mondego eyed the fresh plate of fileted fish that had just been placed in front of him and scowled. He grabbed the envelope and tore it open, reading it quickly. He pushed away from the table with a loud groan, and roughly pushed a servant carting in more platters as he moved back toward the back of the building that he¡¯d emerged from.


    Jacopo quickly scurried behind him, not wanting to lose sight of him.


    Mondego went back to the sealed door toward the back and pulled it open. Then he began to descend down a long flight of stairs that seemed to extend for more than one hundred feet down into the earth. At the very bottom of it, Mondego clapped his hands and a series of torches lit the room.


    The chamber was enormous, and in the center of it was a pile of gold, silver, jewelry, and gems taller than Mondego and appearing to perfectly fill an eight foot square.


    Jacopo was momentarily overwhelmed by Dantes¡¯s emotions as he thought through all he could do with such a horde, and he stood staring at the shining gold with his whiskers twitching and his eyes wide. The feeling of want was quickly overwhelmed by a different feeling though. There was something¡­wrong about the pile of treasure. A sense of rot and decay seemed to surround it, and Jacopo¡¯s instincts, and those of Dantes, began to scream to run from it.


    Mondego hesitated as he reached the pile of gold, and he reached a hand toward it for just a moment before pulling it back and clenching his fist with a scowl on his face. Then he approached a wall to the right where a large oval mirror stood.


    Nothing reflected in the mirror, and Mondego didn¡¯t pause his stride as he walked straight through it.


    Jacopo didn¡¯t hesitate either.


    ¡°Wait!¡± sent Dantes projecting concern, but Jacopo walked into the mirror before he could react to the thought.

 Book 2 Ch 27: Wasnt Worth a Boot Filled with Piss

    Moving through a mirror was very different from moving through trees. With the trees there was a sense of oneness with everything and a loss of ego, but with the mirror there was only an intense discomfort and awareness of something other watching, followed by a sudden return to reality as one steps through the other side where it connects.


    Jacopo shook his head and scurried into a dark corner behind a plant to regain his senses. His connection to Dantes had faded and he spent a moment focusing on reconnecting to him.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡± sent Dantes.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Dantes tried to measure where they were in relation to one another, eventually managing to triangulate it.


    ¡°You¡¯re in uptown somewhere.¡±


    Jacopo sent an affirmative and took a moment to peek out from behind the plant and look around. He was in a building with a thick carpet interwoven with images of nude demon women in salacious poses that reminded Dantes of Tel¡¯s etchings he¡¯d left to Syn. The walls were covered in purple curtains and a woman wearing no top approached Mondego as he lit another cigarette, this time blowing out a smoke of bright cyan.


    ¡°Mister Mondego, we weren¡¯t expecting to see you back so soon.¡±


    ¡°I have a meeting with Godfrey.¡±


    ¡°Yes sir, he just reserved a room next to where the Fingers met you earlier.¡±


    Mondego, took another inhale and blew more smoke into the air. ¡°You. I want a room with you after my meeting. And a steak. Make it happen.¡±


    The woman nodded. ¡°Yes, sir.¡±


    Mondego walked through the opulently and sinfully appointed halls with Jacopo close behind him, taking his time to follow him. They passed by one large meeting room that Mondego hesitated outside, gritting his teeth and flaring his tusks for just a moment before moving past it. The room beyond that had one woman and one man standing outside of it. They wore gold half masks and soft smiles that gave Dantes a chill even through Jacopo.


    They both bowed lightly and pushed each of the doors open, revealing a large open room at the back of which, behind a mask, sat a man whose face seemed to be glowing.


    Jacopo carefully slipped into the room behind Mondego and climbed into a small gap between two cushions from which he could see everything. From where he was sitting, he got a better glimpse at Godfrey. He was of average height and build, wearing a burgundy shirt buttoned all the way up to the collar, and black leather gloves on each hand. What really stood out about him, was that his face seemed to be made entirely of liquid gold. Gold eyelids blinked over pupiless gold eyes, gold lips peeled back into a smile revealing golden teeth, and as he spoke a golden tongue could be seen shifting in his mouth.


    ¡°Mondego,¡± Godfrey purred, his voice low and deep. ¡°I¡¯m glad you were able to come on such short notice.¡±


    Mondego sat, his face an impassive mask, though Dantes knew him well enough to sense he was distressed.


    ¡°What did you need?¡±


    ¡°Are you in a rush? Need to get back to the missus?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    Godfrey smiled, ¡°You¡¯re worried, I can tell.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± lied Mondego.


    ¡°You think your recent troubles are Dantes¡¯s doing. That your old sacrifice has come back to haunt you?¡±


    Godfrey looked for a moment, directly into where Jacopo was hiding, then looked away. It was just long enough to give Dantes and Jacopo pause, but not long enough to confirm that he¡¯d seen him.


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    ¡°Well, I can tell you that¡¯s exactly what¡¯s happening.¡±


    Mondego''s eye twitched and his hands clenched tight. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s back. He¡¯s coming for you and the others.¡±


    ¡°How do you know?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s immaterial. I know it the same way I knew your name before I came to this city. The same way I know that right now there are nine hundred thousand five hundred and sixty seven gold, one million and six silver, and ten million copper currently changing hands at this moment throughout the city. The same way I know that you¡¯re not going to tip the whore you have arranged for after this meeting.¡±


    Mondego stayed silent, his eyes focused on the desk in front of him rather than the unnerving golden eyes of the man smiling across from him.


    ¡°Your old acquaintance Gaspard has already been killed by him. Beaten to death before being devoured by vermin.¡±


    Mondego began to pull another cigarette from his case, placing it to his lips.


    ¡°Danglars took the news poorly, but you seem to be handling it better.¡±


    ¡°Gaspard wasn¡¯t worth a boot full of piss.¡±


    Godfrey smiled. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say that. Everyone has their value.¡±


    ¡°How¡¯s he doing it? Not killing Gaspard, any kid with a knife could manage that, but my warehouse? Getting out of the Pit?¡±


    Godfrey smiled and leaned back in his chair.


    ¡°It¡¯s safe to assume he has a new set of skills and some help.¡±


    Mondego blew a smoke ring into the air. ¡°You know more than you¡¯re telling me.¡±


    ¡°Always. That¡¯s the nature of our arrangement.¡±


    ¡°Is that what this meeting¡¯s about? You telling me bad fucking news to feel like you''re better than me? I¡¯m the one on the streets. It¡¯s my fists that are covered in blood while you hang out here with whores acting like some fucking noble.¡±


    Godfrey¡¯s smile vanished and his hand whipped out from the desk and grabbed Mondego¡¯s by the ring finger. Gold smoke suddenly seemed to rise from it, and the ring tattoo began turning from gold to black.


    ¡°Wait!¡± cried Mondego.


    Godfrey released him, and the gold smoke swiftly wrapped itself back around Mondego¡¯s finger.


    Godfrey¡¯s smile reappeared on his face. ¡°I called you here to give you some advice. A way to give you an edge against your former friend. This meeting is a favor, don¡¯t forget what you owe.¡±


    Mondego rubbed his ringfinger and nodded. ¡°Okay. What¡¯s this edge?¡±


    Godfrey¡¯s smile widened and he looked directly at Jacopo, this time, his stare unwavering. ¡°First, let me remove any prying eyes.¡±


    Jacopo and Dantes shared an absolute harmony of thought in that moment.


    ¡°Fuck.¡±


    Jacopo moved from the couch and started sprinting for the door.


    Godfrey held two gold coins between his fingers which he tossed into the air. Before they landed, they had become golden cats, and they began sprinting after Jacopo.


    Jacopo squeezed through the slight gap on the bottom of the door, and began sprinting toward the nearest window.


    The two masked guards opened the doors for the cats, who didn¡¯t slow down at all as they sprinted toward Jacopo.


    Jacopo couldn¡¯t beat them in speed, so he shifted tactics, ducking behind a red fern just as they were about to catch up with him, one of them slammed into the wall, and he took that moment to leap onto its face and claw at its eyes. While it looked to be made of gold, its flesh was soft, and Jacopo tore a hunk of its right eye from it, eliciting a loud screech from it as he leapt away trailing gold blood behind him as he searched for a window.


    The other cat stayed hot on his trail as he ducked into a room in which a dozen or so men and women were all tangled together wearing masks as they enjoyed one another¡¯s naked forms. Jacopo leapt onto the nearest one, eliciting a screech which swiftly spread through the rest of them as he started climbing through their pile.


    The cats reached the room too and began scratching and tearing their way through the orgy in an attempt to reach him, further raising the volume of screams that were spreading throughout the chamber.


    One woman with a high and elaborate hairdo that she had somehow maintained through the undulation of dozens of bodies, screamed and backed away toward a window that was cracked open. Jacopo leapt onto her, climbing up through her hair and leaping onto the windowsill, narrowly avoiding the grasp of golden claws as he leapt out the window and began running full speed into the night while Dantes watched, their hearts beating swiftly in unison.


    Dantes took note of the fact that they were in the Lower East part of uptown, near where the Church of Many gods was located. Not a bad place to put a secret meeting place and den of sin. He sent Jacopo what directions he could before limiting his contact so that Jacopo didn¡¯t have him hounding his every step as he moved to return to him.


    Dantes was sweating profusely, and took a long sip of water before collapsing back onto the floor. Godfrey. He was the one who had tempted his old gang into betraying him, and it looked as if he had some way to monitor his current whereabouts as well. That was trouble. Though he did seem unwilling to give Mondego exactly what he wanted. Dantes wasn¡¯t sure, but he had the distinct sense that Godfrey was playing a very different game with very different stakes than the rest of them were.


    Dantes clenched his jaw, feeling his small tusks bite into the inside of his cheeks.


    ¡°Dantes,¡± said Wane as he approached.


    ¡°Yeah?¡± he asked, not fully giving Wane his attention.


    ¡°We¡¯re ready for a lockpick.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 28: No. Hell Just Die

    Dantes stood from his bedroll and flexed his fingers as he moved toward Orebus, Merle, and Felix. It had started to rain, and a light drizzle was falling over the garden, which he sensed that many of the plants enjoyed, though a nearby cat was grumpily licking its fur nearby as it was forced to hide under an old piece of wall. Felix reeked of alcohol, and his eyes were wide as he carved small runes into Merle¡¯s collar with a small jagged piece of metal.


    ¡°You¡¯re going first?¡± Dantes asked.


    ¡°Can¡¯t ask them to risk what I¡¯m not willing to risk myself.¡±


    Orebus sighed. ¡°Yes you could, but arguing about it would be pointless.¡±


    ¡°What do I need to do?¡±


    Felix gestured him closer and pointed at a small indent in the back of it. ¡°This is the locking mechanism. I need to channel energy into the collar, and when I say go you¡¯ll need to unlock it. If you do it too soon, or too late, he¡¯ll die.¡±


    ¡°How? His head will explode? Or it jams a knife into his throat?¡±


    ¡°No, he¡¯ll just die.¡±


    ¡°...Effective.¡±


    ¡°Get on with it,¡± said Merle, kneeling down a bit further and bowing forward.


    Dantes turned his focus to his branch and had it extend some small thin pieces into the locking mechanism. It was a very simple lock, which made sense considering the lock itself wasn¡¯t the deterrent so much as the enchantment around it.


    ¡°Okay¡­let¡¯s see.¡± Felix placed his finger on one of the runes on Merle¡¯s collar. The rune very slowly began to glow until it was lit in a bright green. He then moved onto the next rune, and then the next. Each of them seemed to be from a completely different alphabet, and each of them was lit a different color after he channeled energy into them. The entire time, Felix muttered different chants, and words under his breath. At some points he seemed to be speaking multiple chants and phrases at once, or leaving strange echoes in the air after certain words, defying natural logic.


    Dantes felt the tips of his fingers begin to tingle more and more strongly as Felix worked, until they began to feel as if they were burning, but he saw no visible burns on his skin.


    ¡°Now!¡± yelled Felix suddenly.


    Dantes quickly undid the mechanism holding the collar and, with a click, it fell from Merle¡¯s thick neck and landed on the ground.


    Felix fell backwards, panting.


    Merle sat completely still for a moment, then straightened his back and stood up. His eyes were closed. He took a deep breath through his nose, then exhaled through his mouth. For a moment, all of the rain that was falling seemed to pause where it was in midair. Merle moved his right hand in a gentle motion in front of himself and the air seemed to distort around it, with the water hitting it turning to steam, as if he was simply adjusting the temperature around his hand. He moved his left hand in a semicircle and golden runes appeared in the air for just a moment, dancing around it.


    Dantes had no clue what he was doing, but he knew power when he saw it. He was grateful Merle was a friend and not a foe at that moment.


    Merle opened his eyes, and they were glowing bright purple, then he blinked them, and they were back to normal. He turned to look at Felix and held his hand out to him.


    Felix flinched for a moment, then took the hand and was pulled back onto his feet and into a powerful hug.


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    ¡°You are a truly brilliant mage, Felix. I¡¯d had theories about the collars, worked everything from every angle, but I never would¡¯ve considered overloading the enchantment and redirecting it like that.¡±


    Felix nodded, a bit of steel returning to his spine. ¡°I¡¯d be the head of my department if numbers one and two weren¡¯t elves who won¡¯t ever age out of their postings.¡±


    Orebus frowned. ¡°They don¡¯t rotate anymore?¡±


    ¡°Not for decades.¡±


    ¡°Another reason the current academy needs to be rebuilt from the ground up,¡± said Merle, rolling his neck while running a hand along where his collar used to be.


    He looked at Wane and Orebus. ¡°I should be able to mimic what Felix was doing, but there¡¯s no way my hands could pick a lock.¡±


    ¡°Wane should be able to do it,¡± responded Dantes. ¡°The lock itself is very simple.¡± Dantes reached into his sleeves to pull out his old crude lockpicking set from the underprison, holding it out to Wane. ¡°Take these. I have better tools now anyway.¡±


    Merle nodded. ¡°Thank you Dantes. None of this would¡¯ve been possible without you.¡±


    ¡°True, but I bet you lost some good men to my garden. We¡¯ll call this evening the score.¡±


    Merle nodded.


    ¡°That being said, I¡¯m certain we can come to some mutually beneficial arrangements, no?¡±


    He smiled. ¡°Of that I am certain.¡± he wiggled his fingers a bit and multi-colored sparks drifted off of them. ¡°We may be out of contact for some time. Even with the collars removed it¡¯s dangerous for fugitives out here. We have plans of our own to work towards as well.¡±


    Dantes hid his disappointment. He knew they would be helpful with his plans, but he also couldn¡¯t fault them for having their own priorities beyond helping him with his own revenge. He held out a hand and Merle clasped it firmly.


    ¡°Until next time.¡±


    Merle nodded.


    ¡°I¡¯ll bring some dice, you, me and Felix can figure out who has the best luck.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I¡¯m happy to take your money.¡±


    Felix nodded as well, ¡°I¡¯d prefer if we played cards.¡±


    The collared gathered their things, and said their final goodbyes before disappearing back into the city where they could help their members still in hiding.


    Dantes and Felix were left alone.


    ¡°I can¡­ I can leave right?¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°That¡¯s right, but I¡¯ll see you in one week at the Bitter Wife. Bring more of those hammers, and I¡¯ll bring you gold for them. Understood?¡±


    Felix nodded.


    ¡°I¡¯ll see you then.¡±


    Felix moved to leave, but hesitated at the exit. ¡°I uh, don¡¯t know how to get back to the tower from here.¡±


    ¡­


    After escorting Felix until he reached a road that he recognized, Dantes returned to his garden and waited for Jacopo. Once he arrived, he made sure he had a good meal, then left him there to rest while he began to travel to his other gardens. Clay was doing good work, but Dantes had to make sure that the gardens benefited the animals around them as much as the plants themselves, which seemed to be Clay¡¯s biggest blind spot. Still, he did great work, and Dantes left his payment in the dead drop they¡¯d last agreed to.


    Once he was done, Dantes returned to his main garden, and laid out parchment on a flat piece of concrete. He weighed down the corners of it with stones, and then unrolled the letter that Danglar¡¯s had received from his mother next to it. At a glance he¡¯d been able to tell that Cornelia was using an old feather pen and inkwell rather than the newer fountain pens that had been common for more than a decade. He¡¯d sourced one of his own, and on the clean parchment he began to write, doing his best to mimic Cornelia¡¯s handwriting as he did so. He had always been an excellent forger, he had good hands, but Cornelia¡¯s handwriting had a number of quirks related to her upbringing, and what he guessed was arthritis. Still, after filling a few different sheets with his attempts at mimicry he thought he¡¯d gotten close enough for a real attempt.


    For the first one, he simply copied the letter he¡¯d stolen word for word, with no changes, but now on an uncrumpled and clean piece of paper. Once that was done he folded it neatly, and slipped it into his jacket for later. With that written, he moved on to notes that needed no forgery. He sent his thoughts to rats, roaches, and bats he had watching various enterprises of Mondego¡¯s in midtown. Eventually he settled on a lightly manned gambling den filled with dust. He wrote specific information on it, and rolled it into a tight note, then summoned a rat. He tied the note to the rat, along with one of the enchanted keys, and sent him on his way to Pacha. He¡¯d been feeding small, easily verifiable pieces of information to Pacha since the raid on Mondego¡¯s warehouse, and Pacha had been taking the bait. He¡¯d even earned himself a promotion, which filled Dantes with a little touch of pride he imagined a parent would feel at a child¡¯s success.


    When he was done writing he stood and settled next to Jacopo on his bedroll. He needed his rest, the next day he had plans with Mistress Dorsia at the Cruel Lady. Of course, he didn¡¯t intend to participate in the more eccentric options at that particular brothel. At least, probably not.

 Book 2 Ch 29: What Is Your Displeasure?

    In Uptown, the Cruel Lady stood out. A black building with barred windows and a massive sign with the establishment''s name framed by a large black whip. It was flanked by a bookstore with flowers in the window, and a bakery filled with frilly cakes. Dantes stepped to the front door of the whorehouse confidently, and pushed it open. He wore a fine black coat he¡¯d stolen, as well as a black hat to partially hide his face.


    In the entryway stood a muscular dwarven woman in a black leather corset wearing heavy eyeshadow and black lipstick. She pointed a riding crop at him as he entered, but he could tell that there was also a pistol hiding in her left boot.


    ¡°Welcome, worm.¡±


    Dantes slipped off his hat and pushed back his hair, smiling at her. ¡°Hello.¡±


    ¡°What is your displeasure?¡± she asked dramatically.


    He shrugged, deciding to play along a bit. ¡°I¡¯m not sure yet. This is my first time at a place like this.¡±


    ¡°A virgin, eh?¡±


    ¡°In a sense.¡±


    She stepped forward and started walking in a circle around him looking him up and down. ¡°In the only sense that matters.¡± She stopped in front of him and brought the riding crop to his cheek using gentle force to push it right and left as she took a good look at him. ¡°Do you have an appointment?¡±


    ¡°No, but I was told by a friend to ask for Dosia.¡±


    She laughed. ¡°Dosia! We don¡¯t send new meat to Dosia.¡±


    ¡°Well now, that¡¯s exciting.¡±


    She smiled and looked him up and down again. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t think your heart would give out at least¡­¡± She walked back toward the small podium she¡¯d been standing at when he¡¯d arrived. She looked at it for a few moments and then looked back up at him. ¡°Dosia has about an hour between scheduled clients. More than enough for you.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll see about that.¡±


    She chuckled. ¡°If you have any spirit left in you after seeing her, I¡¯d happily be the one to break you.¡±


    Dantes leaned forward on the podium. ¡°Well now I¡¯m very incentivized to make it.¡±


    She smirked. ¡°Head straight back. Dosia¡¯s chamber is the one at the end of the hall on the left.¡±


    Dantes took a silver and placed it on the podium. ¡°Thank you.¡± He then walked out of the entryway and into the long hall behind it. He could hear the sound of whip cracks, screams, and moans drifting from each of the rooms as he walked through them. Coming the opposite way was a man wearing nothing but a goblin mask crawling on all fours. Dantes gave him a smile and a nod, and the man nodded back as if the meeting was the most casual thing in the mortal plane.


    Dantes reached Dosia¡¯s room, and let himself in without knocking. In spite of that he found her ready for him, likely warned by the dwarven woman at the entrance of him. Dantes could tell immediately that she was a half-orc, half-elf without a drop of human in her. Her skin was a dark green that contrasted pleasantly with the deep red leather outfit she wore. She was muscular, tall, and beautiful with her tusks capped with gold points each of which had a ruby embedded within them. Her eyes were bright orange, and she held a whip in her hand.


    She lifted the whip and wrapped it slowly around her arm as she approached him, causing it to groan as it tightened. As she did so, Dantes peered around the room. The walls were painted dark red, and the ceiling was high with a large canopied bed covered in black bedding against the far wall. Along the wall to his right were manacles, a rack, and some kind of wooden X with straps for what he assumed were arms and legs. On the other wall were whips and paddles, but also hooks, knives, and lovingly recreated representations of parts that would¡¯ve made a less worldly man blush.


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    Dosia took the whip handle and drove it into Dantes¡¯s shoulder.


    ¡°Kneel.¡±


    He complied.


    ¡°Fresh meat¡­¡± she muttered as she circled him before swiftly taking the handle of the whip and bringing him back to his feet, her breath hot in his ear. ¡°It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve been able to break someone new in.¡± She loosened the handle just enough so that he could breathe. ¡°Do you have any particular requests before we get started? Or are you just here to test your limits?¡±


    Dantes hesitated, which he had not expected to do, and briefly considered just seeing where things would go. Then his eyes drifted to some of the more exotic things on the far wall, and he decided that in spite of his upbringing, he had his limits.


    ¡°Poison.¡±


    ¡°Hmmmm, that¡¯s interesting. It¡¯s been some time since I had a request like that. I can find something that¡¯ll make you feel as if your eyes are melting, or make you into putty in my hands. I could even put you in a cage and turn you feral with lust while I-¡±


    ¡°Oh, not for me.¡±


    She loosened her grip slightly. ¡°Glass didn¡¯t tell me you had a partner with you.¡±


    Dantes pushed the whip off his throat, almost reluctantly, and turned around to face her. ¡°Oh, it''s no one with me. It¡¯s a client of yours, named Danglars.¡±


    She shifted her footing and pulled a dagger from a secret sheathe on her corset, pointing it at Dantes. ¡°Who the hells are you?¡±


    Dantes held up his hands. ¡°I work for another magister. One who has recently been insulted by Danglars.¡±


    ¡°I hurt people for a living, I don''t kill them.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°You won¡¯t need to kill him. The poison I want you to use on him will only make him paranoid and anxious. My client intends to destroy him in the courtroom or the grand meeting chambers, not kill him.¡±


    The tip of Dosia¡¯s dagger dipped slightly. ¡°Violette prosa?¡± she asked.


    Dantes nodded, reaching into his jacket to pull out a large jar of the powdered mushroom. ¡°You¡¯re familiar.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve used it myself. Wailing on clients for hours can leave my arms near useless.¡± She paused for a few moments. ¡°What are you offering?¡±


    ¡°Gold.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. He¡¯s a regular client.¡±


    ¡°A regular client that¡¯s often behind on what he owes you. When he does pay you the house takes more than half anyway. When¡¯s the last time you received an actual gold from him?¡±


    She frowned. ¡°How do you know that?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s my job to know. You don¡¯t work in Uptown without the ability to gather information.¡±


    Her brow furrowed, marring her beautifully intimidating features for a moment. He didn¡¯t need to go this route. He¡¯d considered a number of other options to poison Danglars. He could send in rats with enchanted keys to his home to poison any of his alcohol, or work with his clearly dissatisfied secretaries to do it, but he¡¯d settled on going through Dosia for a number of reasons.


    For one, the doses needed to be given regularly, and while he might be able to manage that using rats, he didn¡¯t know when his attention might need to be focused elsewhere, or he¡¯d be forced to use up his favor. Danglars seemed to have absolute power of his secretaries, which made the betrayal too obvious for Dantes¡¯s tastes, besides which he wasn¡¯t certain of their ability to be discreet. Dosia was a whore, discretion was her business, and would have complete control of Danglars during their sessions. That and the sweetness of having him betrayed by someone whose job was to comfort him, made Dosia his first choice.


    Dosia sheathed her dagger. ¡°How much gold are we talking about?¡± she asked.


    Dantes smiled, and they jumped into negotiations. She was shrewd, which he had expected, and by the end of it he wound up paying outside of his expectations, but it was a price he could live with.


    Once they were done he handed her the powdered mushroom and the gold. ¡°I¡¯ll be watching to make sure you¡¯re keeping up your end of the bargain. I¡¯ll be setting a regular appointment with you under the name Cornelius.¡±


    She nodded, and moved to the wall, grabbing a thick bamboo cane. ¡°If you¡¯re going to pretend to be a regular, we¡¯re going to need to make this look good.¡±


    Dantes frowned, eyeing the cane. ¡°Any chance you offer some more vanilla services?¡±


    She smiled and shook her head. ¡°No, only Glass and a few others do that.¡±


    Dantes frowned and started slipping off his coat. ¡°Well¡­ maybe a visit with her after this will make me feel better.¡±


    ¡­


    Dantes left the Cruel Lady with a sore back and a much lighter pocket, but felt overall happy with what he¡¯d arranged. He shifted into a rat in an alley nearby and made his way to the administrative district of the city. Danglars wasn¡¯t in his office, and his secretaries were at their respective desks in the office next to his. Dantes climbed the wall as a roach, and squeezed through a small hole in the roof near his office before skittering into Danglars''s locked office. He hadn¡¯t been able to fit under the door as a rat, but as a roach with the anti-vermin enchantment breaking key on his person, it was much easier.


    He shifted back to himself and made his way to the desk and placed the forged copy of the letter from Danglars''s mother neatly on the desk, smoothing it out so that it was visible immediately. He smiled, between the poison and the letters Danglars was about to start receiving from his mother, Dantes had a feeling he was going to be having a very rough time as a magister.

 Book 2 Ch 30: Go In Sword Drawn and Start Swinging

    While Dantes was occupying himself at the Cruel Lady, Jacopo was sitting behind some documents on a shelf in Pacha¡¯s office. He¡¯d just left another note on his desk, but before he could slip out, he heard someone approaching, and so had found a place to hide.


    Pacha pushed open the door, in mid-conversation with another officer of the guard that was following closely behind him.


    ¡°- more funding, and more men and we could actually do something for the city,¡± said Pacha as he moved toward his desk. He had become much more energetic since the seizing of Mondego¡¯s warehouse. His breastplate had been polished, his beard had less gray in it, and he¡¯d taken to shaving the thinning hair from his head. His eyes now had a kind of light behind them, while before they¡¯d simply been dead set with a kind of grim and hopeless determination.


    ¡°I know you need more, and I¡¯m on your side, Pacha, but you know that the council doesn¡¯t care. They see all of this as a lost cause. All recruiting is going to the military arm of the guard right now. Honestly, you¡¯re lucky your promotion let you get the new men and funding that we got.¡± The other man looked a bit younger than Pacha until Jacopo noticed his pointed ears. He was at least a quarter elf, with a strong jaw and short curly hair.


    Pacha¡¯s jaw set. ¡°If we do more, and make it visible enough, we can keep pushing them for more. Hells, even those people that hated me for arresting Gavain forgave me once he said I was a ¡®true servant of justice¡¯.¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­ he was a bit more dramatic than I expected him to be.¡±


    Pacha paused as he noticed the note on his desk. ¡°How the hells¡­¡± he moved to unwrap it.


    ¡°Your anonymous source?¡±


    Pacha nodded as he read through it. ¡°Gambling den. One with a large amount of dust on the premises.¡±


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s round up some men and bust some skulls.¡±


    Pacha frowned. ¡°No, we need to verify things first. I can probably get a source in there and make sure everything checks out.¡±.


    ¡°We¡¯ve verified all of the notes we¡¯ve received so far. I¡¯m as suspicious of it as you are, but I didn¡¯t see much caution when you listened to the note about the warehouse.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t have anything to lose at the time. Besides which I¡¯d already been working an angle on that warehouse long before Gavain moved things along for us.¡±


    ¡°Come on boss. Even if we¡¯re wrong on this one, what¡¯s the consequence? We break down the door on some shit-shack and scare a few people? That kind of mistake won¡¯t hurt anything we¡¯ve built up so far.¡±


    ¡°If anything, it¡¯s success that¡¯ll bother the council and the house of lords,¡± he muttered.


    ¡°What sir?¡±


    ¡°Nothing, I think you¡¯re right. We need to move on this sooner rather than later. Get the men, tell them helmets on and swords drawn¡­ and Dulles.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir?¡±


    ¡°You can take that pistol of yours too.¡±


    The quarter-elf nodded, smiling. ¡°Thank you, sir.¡±


    ¡­


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    Once Pacha and his men left, Jacopo began making his way to Uptown, cutting through whatever nooks and crannies he could, and often pushing through the anti-vermin enchantments throughout the city in order to save time. It was starting to come easily to him. The ways that the city twisted and turned wasn¡¯t so different from the tunnels he¡¯d grown in. His cousins on the surface thrived in both places, though the surface certainly had a larger share of threats.


    As he moved he kept a different rat monitoring Pacha. Jacopo¡¯s focus had been improving and he was starting to be able to track what a few other vermin were doing even when he had other things he himself was focusing on.


    Pacha and seven others marched quickly through midtown. A number of people scattered at their approach. Drug dealers vanished down dark alleys, thieves took their trade elsewhere, and the fences followed them. Whores threw taunts in their direction or flashed them before disappearing, briefly breaking the concentration of a few of them. The majority of them were young, and hadn¡¯t yet been broken by their job, or corrupted by the city. They were given to him because the city thought they were the easiest thing to part with due to their lack of experience, but to Pacha that was a boon. If he was working with the experienced rabble, he¡¯d never be able to move them into action.


    They reached their destination, and Pacha had them split up with a number of hand gestures. Two stayed with him at the front door, and four went around back. The last one stayed on the street and started gesturing away civilians.


    Pacha held up his finger to the two men nearest to him, one of whom was the quarter-elf he¡¯d been speaking with previously. Three fingers, then two, then one.


    Just a few yards from the door, a group of rough looking men sat playing cards. There was a pot in the center that consisted of coin, weed, dust, and a necklace. They had no reason to think they were in danger.


    Pacha kicked the door with enough force that it broke at the handle and swung it open.


    One of the younger guards yelled as they entered. ¡°Rendhold guard, stay where you a-¡± Before he could continue, there was a gunshot and he spun, falling back out of the building.


    Pacha zeroed in on the shooter, and before he could reload he drove his sword into his gut.


    Another man scrambled across a table toward Pacha, but he sent out a foot and kicked out one of the table-legs, causing the man to tumble onto the ground and drop his dagger. After that it was chaos.


    Half of the men that were there tried to run and were quickly apprehended by the men at the back door, and the other half tried to fight. Those that fought were dealt with quickly and brutally. The guard had always made an example out of those who resisted, and those who didn¡¯t, and those who were just standing nearby, and Pacha¡¯s men were no exception to that.


    By the end of it, all but three of the men at the game were dead. The guard that had been shot was fine, his breastplate catching the majority of force from the bullet.


    Pacha stood in front of the men at the table. ¡°Dulles, you check the upstairs for any more dust. Trent, gather all the contraband on the table, the rest of you tie these fools up and drag the bodies outside. Pallus, how¡¯s the wound?¡±


    The man who¡¯d been shot was leaning against the door, he put a hand on the dent on his breastplate and winced. ¡°No wound sir, but..¡± he paused to try and inhale, barely getting air in. ¡°I¡¯m pretty winded.¡±


    ¡°Sit down then. You did good work. Just, never announce yourself like that again. This isn¡¯t the guild district, uptown, or even the docks. Around here you just go in sword drawn and start swinging.¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± he wheezed a bit, ¡°sir.¡±


    Dulles moved upstairs, and Jacopo decided to send the rat he had been tracking Pacha with to follow him instead. Upstairs in an unlocked chest, Dulles found a half dozen bricks of dust. He took a small knife and drove it into one of the bricks before pulling it out and licking the blade. He shivered for a moment, then took one of the bricks and slipped it into a pouch at his waist.


    ¡°Found five bricks, sir!¡± he yelled.


    ¡°Good work! Maybe this will help wake the council up a bit.¡±


    Jacopo made a note of Dulles''s behavior as something Dantes would be interested in, then broke his connection to focus on the task at hand. He was back in the administrative district, crouched in one of the folds of the statue of the Father at the center of it. He scanned the plaza with his own eyes, as well as the eyes of all of the other vermin nearby.


    A rat munching on an old piece of bread in an alley was the first one to notice her. A woman wearing black magisterial robes, and a stern expression on her face. She was a full-blooded elf, with bright green eyes, and she walked with purpose through the square.


    Jacopo double checked Dantes¡¯s memories, she was a bit less well endowed than Dantes¡¯s recollections of her were, but he was able to confirm that she was the woman that Syn had asked them to find so they could break the feybind that kept her in the pit. Jacopo leapt from the statues, and started to follow her as closely as he could without being noticed, which for a rat, was very close.

 Book 2 Ch 31: Please, Just Let Me Go

    Jacopo followed the woman into one of the administrative buildings, using his key to push through the anti-vermin enchantment and slip through the front door behind her. This building was different from the others. There were fewer regular Magisters and secretaries, but there were a number of guards patrolling, as well as men and women wearing the cloaks and pins that showed them to be members of the Academy. Jacopo felt odd shifts in the air as he moved through the building, almost as if he was stepping through more enchantments, ones that weren¡¯t meant to push him out specifically, but which still applied pressure on those within them.


    The Magister continued to move to a set of stairs at the far end of the building. She descended down them carefully, and eventually arrived at an underground hall with doors lining the walls. She moved to the third door on the right and opened it. She closed it quickly behind herself, but Jacopo was able to slide underneath the gap between the door and the floor.


    Inside the room was a guard, who was wearing both the breastplate of his office and an academy cloak over that, held in place by an iron triangle within a circle symbol that represented that institution. He was human, and had long white hair held back by a ponytail, perfectly rectangular sideburns, and pale blue eyes. He noticed Jacopo, but made no move toward him.


    Also in the room was a chair in which a man was chained with iron and wearing both a blindfold and some kind of cloth covering over his ears with silver runes on it that gave off a faint light.


    The man nodded at the Magister as she entered.


    ¡°Hello Mariska.¡±


    She nodded back at him, looking at the bound man. ¡°Hello Johann. Sniffed out another changeling I see?¡±


    He nodded. ¡°Yes, this one was pretending to be a member of the hidden folk while working as a Feybinder.¡±


    Mariska chuckled. ¡°That¡¯s almost clever. Hiding in plain sight like that.¡±


    ¡°Not so clever that he didn¡¯t make someone nameless for reneging on a bargain.¡±


    Mariska let out a tsk. ¡°He must not have figured out yet that that¡¯s illegal. That¡¯s good, means he wasn¡¯t here long enough to cause much damage.¡±


    Johann nodded. ¡°Yes, but we¡¯re going through all of the acquaintances and deals he¡¯s made since he arrived. Just to be sure that there weren¡¯t others with him, and limit the damage he may have caused.¡±


    Mariska dragged a chair in front of the one the man was bound in and pulled a book from somewhere in the folds of her robes, and a pen. She gestured with the pen to the bound man and Johann removed the blindfold and enchanted cloth from the man¡¯s face.


    The man looked to Johann, then his eyes quickly settled on Mariska. ¡°Thank the gods, someone different. Ma¡¯am, please I don¡¯t know why this man brought me here. I¡¯m just a Feybinder, got a bit of hidden folk in me on my father¡¯s side. I didn¡¯t know that making a man nameless wasn¡¯t allowed. I only just moved here from Tymond. I gave him his name back. Please, just let me go.¡±


    Mariska made a few notes in her book, and looked up at the man.


    ¡°Why did you come here?¡±


    ¡°What- well for work. I just told you, didn''t I?¡±


    ¡°Were you working with any other changelings here?¡±


    ¡°Changelings? No, no, I¡¯ve never even seen a changeling before.¡±


    ¡°How you cooperate will affect whether or not you¡¯re sent to the Underprison, or the Convent. You can either choose to be able to see the sun as you live out your exceptionally long life, or have your face pressed into a mattress made of stone by the worst criminals the city has to offer as you take whatever shapes please them.¡±


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    The man¡¯s eyes shifted from brown to gray, then to blue as Mariska spoke. His head swung low for a moment, as if he¡¯d given up.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t fair,¡± he muttered.


    Mariska ignored him, writing another note in her small book.


    ¡°We helped to build this city, and you make it illegal for us to even exist here.¡±


    Mariska continued writing.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you just exile us? Why must you keep us confined?¡±


    She made another note, paused, then started writing again.


    The man shifted into a hulking orc and threw his body toward Mariska, the chains stopping him less than a foot away from her.


    ¡°Why!? Answer me you bitch!¡±


    She snapped, and the iron chains dragged him back.


    ¡°Because your existence is too disruptive. It only took a dozen of you to help the founding nobles to bring this city into being, to make the deals and manipulate things behind the scenes. Whether you''re here or in some other country, you are too dangerous to be free.¡± She gestured with her pen, and Johann approached the changeling, putting the blindfold and ear bindings back on him.


    ¡°I¡¯d say he¡¯s not ready yet,¡± said Johann with just a hint of mirth.


    ¡°No. He¡¯ll likely need to stew for a few months before we can get what we need out of him, and have him agree to my binding.¡±


    ¡°You really think he¡¯ll only take a few months? I bet he holds out a year.¡±


    Mariska chuckled. ¡°When you started here working with me, you still had red hair, and I¡¯ve been doing this much longer than just since you¡¯ve started.¡±


    Johann shrugged, ¡°Doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t be wrong.¡±


    She fixed him with an amused, but withering look and stood up from her chair. ¡°We may as well check to see if any of the others have broken.


    Johann nodded, and moved to open the door for her.


    ¡°What¡¯s the longest one of them has held out?¡± He asked.


    Mariska paused at the door. ¡°Fifty years.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, I think I¡¯ve asked that before. How many of the Inquisitor Squad worked with you on that one?¡±


    ¡°Just one, he was an Elf so didn¡¯t have the same weaknesses as you.¡±


    Johann chuckled. ¡°Aging is a good thing. I look much better with the white hair than I did the red.¡±


    ¡°Debatable.¡±


    Jacopo followed them as they made their way to two more cells, each also containing a changeling prisoner. One of them pretended to be a child and asked to see her mother, and the other was in the form of a plain and bald woman and said nothing, just staring in silence at the wall until Johann and Mariska left the room.


    Once they were through with all of their prisoners, Mariska left the building and was met out on the street by a tall elven man wearing a long coat. It had started to rain, and he held out an umbrella as Mariska approached to shield her from it.


    ¡°I thought you would be in meetings all day today,¡± she said as he took his free arm and pulled her in close for a kiss.


    ¡°I was supposed to be, but a number of people in the committee for defense were pulled away for meetings regarding the sicknesses that have been hitting towns nearby. Another one was completely wiped out apparently.¡±


    She sighed, ¡°It¡¯s always something new and horrible, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    He shrugged, causing a few drops of water to bounce off his umbrella and onto Jacopo.


    ¡°It¡¯s not all bad. Their loss is my gain. Now I get to take my beloved out to dinner.¡±


    ¡°You have the cruelest sense of humor.¡±


    ¡°You think that was bad, wait until I start saying awful things about the other people in the restaurant.¡±


    They walked arm in arm off to eat, and Jacopo sent a different rat to trail them from there. All he needed to do now was figure out where they lived, and frankly, he had more important things to do himself, like eat, and sleep. Better to send his duller cousins to deal with the less complicated and more tedious parts of the job.


    Dantes was wrapping up at the Cruel Lady and moved to meet Jacopo so they could travel back to the garden together. With his attention now freed up, Jacopo sent him all of the things he had observed and he started to mentally process all of it. He hadn¡¯t known that changelings were arrested simply for what they were. He assumed they¡¯d just been arrested for commiting crimes like everyone else. Then again, even those he¡¯d seen before he was in the Pit he¡¯d only encountered once and then never again. They must¡¯ve been being rounded up. All of that was inconsequential though. He had made a promise and he intended to honor it. Mariska seemed savvy, and smart. She also worked closely with the guard, which made her an even more dangerous target.


    He took over from Jacopo, looking through the rat¡¯s eyes that Jacopo had put on the happy couple. Mariska may be tough, but they¡¯d already located a weakness of hers to exploit. Dantes bent down with an arm outstretched and Jacopo leapt up his arm and crawled into his pocket. Time to add a kidnapping to his list of to-dos. Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t do anything too immediate. It was going to be a full moon that night.

 Book 2 Ch 32: This Would Certainly Rot Your Teeth

    Dantes stood in front of the ancient tree deep in the heart of Rendhold with Jacopo sitting on his shoulder. He went through a quick mental checklist to make sure he was ready. His bag was filled with the herbs he¡¯d gotten from Hema, some of the guns and gunpowder he¡¯d looted from Iron and his men¡¯s corpses including a pistol he kept for himself that now sat loaded within his jacket, and even a few wands enchanted with offensive spells he¡¯d managed to snag from a shipment Mondego had set up. It was more of a sampler than anything, but the important thing was to demonstrate value and see what the other druids had to offer him in exchange.


    He checked on the rats watching the Vixen and found it to be in the middle of some kind of celebration. There were dozens of sailors dancing with the girls, drinks and food were plentiful. The goons that Mondego had watching the place were watching the festivities with bored expressions, clearly not enjoying their assigned tasks. Vampa and Zilly were busy in the kitchen and at the bar, seemingly in perfect sync as they slung drinks and plates to anyone who wanted them.


    Mondego wasn¡¯t in his house, which meant he was at the club he could teleport to using the magic mirror, and Mercedes was lazing in a large bath. Danglars was sitting in his office, there much later than usual, biting his nails as he stared at the far wall.


    Everything seemed to be as it should be, so Dantes looked up at the full moon one last time absorbing the energy and strength that seemed to be emanating from it and spreading within him and all the living things around him. He stepped into the tree. He felt his sense of self slowly come apart and spread through invisible roots deep within the mortal plane. He spread further and further until he had almost nothing left of himself. When a piece of him touched the Veridian Expanse he snapped all of those pieces of himself back together, and stepped out of a tree thousands of miles away in the center of the continent.


    He took a deep breath as his ego returned to him. The feeling of oneness with everything faded, and he immediately felt overheated, sweaty, and uncomfortable. It was a state he much preferred to the vague sense of oneness with everything he felt when he tree-walked. The loss of his sense of self was very disturbing to him. He reached out his senses, and detected a pull from within the forest. He guessed that it was from Berkilak to guide him. He didn¡¯t seem to be more than a few miles away, but he felt no desire to attempt another tree-walk until he left. He started walking, feeling a touch of envy toward Jacopo who was able to rest on his shoulder as he moved.


    It took a bit over an hour over rough terrain, but he made it to the clearing without too much trouble. In a stark reversal to the last time, the first person he saw was Mor-Gan-May, and her raccoon companion. They seemed to be the first to arrive. They had built a small fire and the raccoon was mixing some herbs with a small mortar and pestle while Mor stirred something in a small pot. It filled the clearing with a sickly sweet scent.


    ¡°Whatever that is, it smells like it would make my teeth rot.¡±


    Mor turned to face him. ¡°Brother! Welcome.¡± she gestured to what she was making. ¡°This would certainly rot your teeth, but you¡¯d be dead long before that was a problem.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°The fumes of it kill the mites that like to inhabit the space between my scales.¡±


    ¡°Ah, you can¡¯t just.¡± Dantes made a vague sweeping away gesture with his hand.


    She shook her head. ¡°No, actually. This particular kind of mite was made by magical means. Not sure of the full story, but a mage wanted some kobolds to clear out of a cave and instead of killing them, or asking them to leave, he developed a new species just to make them uncomfortable to the point that they left.¡±


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    Dantes sighed. ¡°That certainly sounds like the kind of roundabout thing a mage would do.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°They spread from there, and now kobolds almost everywhere need to deal with them. Our powers don¡¯t really work on anything that¡¯s been tampered with too much by magic.¡±


    Dantes thought back to his attempts in the underprison to talk to giant spiders and skitterlings with no success. ¡°That makes a kind of sense I suppose. At that point they aren¡¯t really fully of the Mother, are they? Got a bit of the god of magic to them at that point.¡±


    She nodded, and started waving her hands above the pot and toward herself. Dantes could see as several almost imperceptibly small critters crawled out from her scales. As they did so, her companion picked them from her, and ate them. Jacopo Joined in on the feast unasked.


    Dantes sat next to her and pulled the sack of herbs and seeds from his pack that he¡¯d bought from Hema. He held it out to Mor.


    ¡°Are those that the samples you promised me?¡±


    Dantes nodded.


    She grabbed it from his hands with her claws quicker than he was expecting and began laying out each sack and dried plant out in front of herself. She smelled and tasted almost each individual item. Sometimes she would nod, sometimes she would frown, and the entire time her tail moved quickly back and forth, forcing Jacopo and her raccoon to take evasive actions to avoid it as they continued to eat the mites that fled her scales.


    ¡°This is very interesting¡­¡± she muttered to herself, seemingly unaware of anything, but what was in front of her at that moment.


    ¡°Oh?¡± asked Dantes, trying to pull her back to some semblance of reality.


    She nodded lightly, but didn¡¯t look up. ¡°Many of the plants exist in some version or another from other parts of the continent. They must¡¯ve been carried to your city and the surrounding area by trade. There are a few unique species, but they¡­ they have an odd feeling to them. Something I can¡¯t completely recognize.¡±


    ¡°Are they useful?


    ¡°All plants are useful.¡±


    Dantes smiled, he really couldn¡¯t expect any of the druids to answer that question any other way. ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad you¡¯re happy with them.¡±


    She smiled, showing bright sharp teeth. ¡°I am.¡±


    ¡°I believe we said you might teach me a thing or two about poisons?¡±


    She nodded. ¡°I can manage that. I may even be able to teach you three or four before the others have all arrived.¡±


    ¡­


    Mor-Gan-May was not the best teacher Dantes had ever learned from. She frequently got lost on tangents of her own, and had a tendency to speak very quickly, but Dantes did his best to make up for her deficiencies as a teacher by being a good student. She gave him the run down on some of the most popular poisons, what plants they were made from, and how they could affect the body. Then she went into some of the more subtle ones. The ones that affected every race differently, or caused specific weaknesses in the heart or lungs, or even one that could remove a person¡¯s sense of pressure from unique organs in the nose and by doing so could actually drive them mad. Finally she taught him broadly about how people can develop resistance to some poisons, or even how priests could deal with them through healing, though there were some poisons which couldn¡¯t be stopped by even the most powerful priests. Just as he was asking if she could acquire some sample of specific poisons she¡¯d mentioned for him, the others began to arrive.


    Murk got there first, and quickly found a corner in which he could curl up with his wolf companion. Dantes pointedly ignored him, but when Traizen arrived later he stood to welcome him.


    ¡°Traizen,¡± he said, holding out his arm.


    The albino elf clasped his arm and forced him into a short embrace. ¡°Dantes! I was worried about you, brother. My mark for you was a burning red for a time.


    ¡°My blood garden¡­ the city took things into its own hands. I was forced to break my connection to it.¡±


    Traizen expression darkened. ¡°They take so much from us. It would¡¯ve been better for you to take that into your own hands.¡±


    Dantes raised a hand. ¡°I¡¯m okay. It took me some time to recover, but in some ways I¡¯m grateful it¡¯s not a problem anymore.¡±


    Traizen nodded. ¡°Did Murk come to help you?¡±


    Dantes looked over at the sleeping wolves in the corner. ¡°No.¡±


    Traizen¡¯s frown deepened. ¡°He is the only one that can reach you quickly when such issues occur. It is our responsibility to look after one another.¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t want his help.¡±


    Traizen smiled slightly, but his eyes stayed sad. ¡°Many of those brothers and sisters that are no longer with us said similar things.¡±


    Dantes stayed silent. Unsure of what to say. Luckily, more druids were approaching from the forest.

 Book 2 Ch 33: I Was Aiming For Her Head

    Coal rode his warthog into the clearing in the middle of a hearty laugh.


    ¡°And the man chased you right into the swamp?¡± he asked Lorna, who was walking next to him, her gator, Beast, bolting ahead of them with surprising speed so that he could leap into the water.


    ¡°Yes. He thought I was some kind of nymph.¡±


    ¡°Flattering.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Yes, particularly when he was focused on me he didn¡¯t notice the quicksand.¡±


    Coal shrugged. ¡°Oh well, there¡¯s worse things to die over. He¡¯ll be good for the soil too.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°It was a pure death.¡±


    Fern and Ivey were behind them, flying through the branches as falcons that matched their own pair. They landed and shifted back into their elven forms. As they did so, their falcons dropped small bags from which they pulled clothes and got dressed.


    Traizen moved to greet them. ¡°Brother, sisters, welcome.¡±


    They all gave a respectful nod to him.


    ¡°Ah, I see our newest brother has decided to return. I expected him to avoid these meetings if possible,¡± said Lorna.


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°I may not be here every time, but I said I¡¯d bring some samples of what I could provide everyone¡­¡± He reached into his pack and began pulling out each of the small samples that he had. Guns, wands, and gunpowder were all arrayed in a small square in front of him. Coal, Lorna, and the twins looked over it closely.


    Coal smiled as he opened one of the pouches of gunpowder, he took some between his fingers and rubbed them together. ¡°Gunpowder and I are already very familiar with one another. While I appreciate what you¡¯re trying to do here lad, I don¡¯t think anything you have could be much use to me.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I don¡¯t just want to make a trade of goods, information can be just as valuable. Where is your locus?¡±


    ¡°A valley near the endless mountain. A beautiful and muddy place hidden from the sun by the mighty peaks rising above it.¡±


    ¡°And has anyone been encroaching on it? Making your locus a more difficult place to maintain?¡±


    ¡°Well, some kobolds have been edging close to it. And my own people seem to think there¡¯s some gold nearby in the caves that are part of my domain.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Is there gold in those caves?¡±


    ¡°Aye, tons of it.¡±


    ¡°But the nearby dwarves aren¡¯t aware of it?¡±


    ¡°No. They only suspect it¡¯s there. I sometimes crawl around the nearest underground town as a cave lizard and watch them. They seem to be preparing a larger expedition.¡± He stroked his beard. ¡°You think I should kill them?¡±


    ¡°No¡­ I don¡¯t think that would discourage them. Danger with the possibility of reward isn¡¯t enough I think. You need to make the expedition miserable, and a failure.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°Have their pack animals refuse to cooperate, have their camps torn through by wild hogs, sneak in and destroy their equipment whenever possible, have bats screech through the night so that they can¡¯t sleep, and do whatever you can to make sure they don¡¯t find any actual gold. Maybe make it so they find something else valuable, but not nearly worth the effort and suffering that they endured.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps moron¡¯s gold?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what that is.¡±


    ¡°Pyrite. It looks like gold to a layman, but is worthless. It¡¯s also the name of my uncle¡¯s least favorite daughter.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯d be perfect.¡±


    ¡°And the kobolds?¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I actually just learned about something that would be discouraging for them. Did you know there¡¯s a particular kind of mite that likes to live between their scales?¡±


    ¡­


    Dantes went into more detail with Coal, working with him to help protect his Locus from outsiders. Luckily, his problems were relatively easy to solve. As long as the gold wasn¡¯t ever actually discovered, it didn¡¯t seem like any more dwarves would have a reason to come there. As for the kobolds, they were looking for more living space, but if Coal filled his valley with the mites that tormented them. Mor-gan-may agreed to collect any she found, and she also mentioned that they really just ate blood and dead skin of any kind, but simply favored kobolds. If there were none nearby they¡¯d just eat whatever was available. Cultivating them would be difficult, without their druidic influence having an effect on them, but was definitely possible. In exchange for Dantes¡¯s help, Coal agreed to give Dantes any of the gold that could be removed or gathered without damaging any cave structures or harming the land nearby.


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    Lorna was next. Dantes knew her locus was a swamp, but only had a vague idea of what life was like on her side of the continent. There were a number of superstitions about the swamp that surrounded the floating city of Chitlan, Dantes and she worked on a plan to simply encourage those superstitions. He gave her one of the wands, one that killed by creating a cone of frost, and would leave very suspicious corpses of anyone who she decided encroached too far into her swamp.


    The twins were easier in a number of ways. They lived in a massive plain that expanded between vast mountains. The nomadic locals were no trouble as they had close ties to the land, but there¡¯d been new groups of people starting to farm the land. They knew that the soil would grow loose and become dust if the land was farmed for too many seasons without renewing the soil or replanting the native grasses. Dantes taught them how to make small explosives with the gunpowder he had, and to focus on the equipment and livestock of the farmers rather than the farmers themselves. If they died, but there was still a homestead with everything needed to farm there, then the land would just be sold to another farmer after all.


    In the end Dantes let everyone have the first bits of advice and goods for free. He wasn¡¯t yet sure of how they¡¯d be able to pay him anyway, and giving a first hit free was a common practice back in Midtown.


    Traizen refused any help, the area his locus was in was a vast tundra with little to no civilization aside from a few sparsely populated towns. Murk also refused help, because he was an asshole. Fizz and Thing arrived in the shape of Tigers carrying meat in their mouth, and that signaled that it was time for dinner to be prepared. Luckily they didn¡¯t impose on Dantes to help, he wasn¡¯t sure of what his capacity to hunt would be, but he doubted anyone wanted food with a dozen shank-wounds or a thousand rat bites on the meat.


    Once dinner was done, everyone sat peacefully and contented with full stomachs. Dantes sipped from a small flask he¡¯d brought and considered making a pass at Lorna or the twins, but before he could decide the energy in the clearing suddenly shifted. Dantes felt a kind of scratching in the back of his throat, and a heat in his left arm. He took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeve to see that the withered leaf on it was red and raised. He looked at the others and saw an odd mix of concerned and even fearful expressions.


    There was a sound from the far end of the valley and everyone¡¯s heads turned in unison to see a tall woman covered in a black cloak and wearing a plain white mask over her face approaching. The air around her seemed dense and sour, but Dantes didn¡¯t see anything that could be causing it.


    Jacopo radiated discomfort so strong that Dantes turned his full attention to him for a moment. He had buried himself in the jacket Dantes had discarded a moment ago. The other animals were reacting the same, only Thing seemed unfazed, though he had shifted into a possum for some reason.


    The woman stopped roughly fifteen feet away from them.


    ¡°Hello brothers and sisters,¡± she said, her voice was like a whisper, but sounded almost like it was right in his ear.


    Traizen stood, and stepped in front of everyone else. ¡°Serpica. You still call us brothers? You left us. You killed a herd of mammoths within my locus, you stole herbs and potions from Mor-gan-may. Why are you here?¡±


    ¡°That was all necessary,¡± she said, as if that was more than enough explanation. ¡°I¡¯m here because of that,¡± she held out a gloved hand and pointed a finger at Dantes.


    ¡°Women seek me out from all corners of the continent it seems,¡± said Dantes, but no one else appreciated the humor.


    ¡°You should never have accepted a druid such as him into your ranks. He represents everything that we are against. Everything that has been taken from us is because of people like him.¡±


    Traizen crossed his arms. ¡°We did not choose him. The Mother did.¡±


    ¡°The mother¡¯s judgment is faulty.¡±


    Beast and Lorna let out a kind of hissing roar from their throats. ¡°Do not speak of a greater god this way.¡±


    ¡°You do not know her as I do. Only when you are yourself a source of life can you truly understand her will.¡±


    ¡°Odd thing for-¡±


    ¡°-someone who abandoned her-¡±


    ¡°To say.¡± said the twins in their odd alternating speech.


    ¡°I did not abandon her. I simply had to gain distance from her to see things from a wider perspective.¡±


    ¡°All of this is moot,¡± said Traizen, his voice projecting across the clearing. ¡°We have already accepted Dantes as a brother, and while we will always hold you with us,¡± he showed his forearm where her leaf shone red, ¡°he has council of his own that many of us have accepted. Perhaps if you could speak with us outside of riddles and grand claims we could welcome you back to us, but not at the expense of a new brother.¡±


    ¡°Speak for yourself,¡± said Murk.


    Dantes expected him to begin taking the strange woman¡¯s side, but was surprised when he continued.


    ¡°I hated her from the start. Always makes any life near her shudder.¡±


    Serpica shook her head. ¡°Whether you welcome me back or not is immaterial. I am going to solve the problem. I simply wanted to see this thing you¡¯ve brought into your midst for myself.¡±


    Dantes stepped forward, he¡¯d been keeping quiet to observe things before making any moves, but had heard enough. He pulled a pistol from the back of his belt and aimed it at her. ¡°I don¡¯t appreciate threats.¡± he pulled back the hammer, ¡°Especially from someone that makes Jacopo uncomfortable.¡± Serpica radiated discomfort and danger and Dantes wanted her to know he could do the same.


    Before anyone could speak anymore, the full attention of the forest itself seemed to focus on all of them. The pressure of that focus almost made Dantes¡¯s knees buckle, but he stayed on his feet.


    ¡°LEAVE,¡± said Berkilak, his words meant for Serpica who, despite clearly trying not to, shuddered under the force of his ire.


    She turned and moved toward the nearest tree, placing her foot inside of it, and looked back at Dantes. ¡°I¡¯ll see you soon. When the rest of you see me, you¡¯ll be thanking me for what I¡¯ve-¡±


    Dantes pulled the trigger on the pistol and the bullet skirted Serpica¡¯s waist. She fell into the tree, and was gone.


    The rest of the druids looked at him.


    He shrugged. ¡°Murks threats we¡¯re annoying enough to stomach. Hers were a step too far.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m impressed you could aim well enough to clip her like that,¡± said Coal.


    ¡°I was aiming for her head.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 34: Maybe Dantes Changed More Than I Thought

    The rest of the conclave was much more relaxed, with them mostly deciding more on what kind of trade with Dantes they¡¯d want to do, and sharing another meal and some booze. Dantes decided to pass on staying through the night, his concern for what might be happening at Rendhold in his absence amplified by the threats Serpica had made, though based on what she¡¯d said he doubted her threats would become material too quickly. Particularly with a fresh wound to tend to. Dantes and Jacopo moved toward the nearest tree, waved goodbye and stepped into it.


    After the discomfort of the tree-walk was through, he felt comforted by the sound of his boots hitting concrete. He took a deep breath, feeling his garden''s connection to him strengthen again and expanding his senses out as he started walking to the largest of them to get some sleep.


    He re-established his connections to those rats nearest what he was tracking to make sure that everything was still as he¡¯d left it and stopped dead in his tracks.


    The Vixen was surrounded by more than twenty men. There was a fire spreading on a portion of the roof. He moved his focus to a roach on the inside. On the bottom floor Alessa, Zilly, and Caressa were all tied to chairs in the main hall. The mercenaries that had been watching the building were there with their weapons drawn.


    Standing across from them was Mondego, taking a long draw from a thin cigar. He exhaled, letting a cloud of sparkling purple smoke fill the room.


    ¡°So you managed to get just three of them?¡±


    The goons all exchanged glances. They were all covered in bruises and cuts, and Dantes took a moment to take a closer look around with a rat. There were signs of struggle all throughout the building. A table had been shattered, two chairs were bisected, and the bar itself had a dent in the wood. There were four bodies scattered up the stairs, with broken necks or shattered spines.


    ¡°The chef, the elven one, just started attacking us. It was like he knew the exact moment we shifted from watching, to actively attacking. He had three of us down before we could even react. I think the whores were ready for it too. The one that smoked weed stabbed Istik in his kidney when he tried to ambush them as they fled through a door in the rear.¡±


    Mondego took the cigar from his mouth, through it on the ground and stomped it. ¡°So we lost them?¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°No sir. We have some men following them. The elf was skimmed by the fireball Laz shot at him before he had his neck snapped. He won¡¯t be able to hide for long.¡±


    Dantes was running toward the Vixen as he moved, and he sent his senses out, grabbing all of the rats and roaches he could, while he sent bats out to scan everything near the Vixen from the sky.


    Mondego walked over to Alessa. She looked away from him, but he grabbed her face and forced her to look at him.


    ¡°So, how well did you know, Dantes?¡±


    She clenched her teeth. ¡°I didn¡¯t. He kept to himself.¡±


    He laughed. ¡°Dantes? No, that¡¯s almost definitely a lie. Particularly after five years in the pit. I¡¯m guessing he ran through each of you at least once. Probably paid even if Vera told him he didn¡¯t have to.¡±


    Alessa and Caressa exchanged a darting glance.


    Mondego chuckled again. ¡°Thought so. He always had a soft spot for whores. I was hoping to snap up Vera to guarantee he¡¯d show up, but you¡¯ll all probably be enough to get him here.¡±


    Dantes grimaced, Mondego was right, his feet where already moving toward that certainty. How had he known to strike when he was away? If he knew to strike then, did he also know what else Dantes had up his sleeve?


    Mondego made a gesture and one of the men dragged a chair toward the center of the room so that he could sit down. He lit another cigar, and gestured to the woman with the crossbow.


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    ¡°Keep that pointed at the elf.¡± he pointed at the other men. ¡°You and you, keep your knives on the other¡¯s throats. I want him to know that there¡¯ s no chance of them getting out of this.¡±


    Dantes gritted his teeth, still bolting down streets, cutting through alleys, and leaping onto roofs to make it there as quickly as possible.


    One of his bats located Vampa. He was standing in an alleyway with Vera and the other girls behind him. Seven men were in front of him, and his chest and left arm appeared badly burned.


    One of the attackers charged down the alley at him with a shortsword.


    Vampa batted away the blade with his hand, and in a smooth motion brought up his elbow to the man¡¯s chin. The bats could hear the man¡¯s teeth shatter as he collapsed to the ground.


    Dantes sent all of the bats he¡¯d had out searching for them into the alleyway, having them swoop onto the men attacking Vampa and the rest of the Vixen¡¯s employees.


    Vampa didn¡¯t question his fortune for even a moment. He took the initiative and leapt forward. Even though he had only one hand, it seemed almost as if a dozen limbs were lashing out at once as he moved through the group. An open palm broke the next man¡¯s nose, the one after that crumpled as his knee was shattered by a powerful front kick, the next two had their heads firmly slammed into the brick walls on either side of the alley, and the remaining two simply fled, deciding they didn¡¯t want to taste any of the violence that Vampa was bringing their way.


    Vampa let out a long exhale, seeming to center himself.


    Dantes cleared the bats out of their way, and he and the girls got back to running. Dantes noticed Vera letting out a constant stream of reassurance and motivation to keep them moving. Dantes saw no more men in pursuit of them, and returned his attention to the Vixen.


    Mondego was still sitting there and smoking. The fire on the roof was slowly spreading, but he didn¡¯t seem to care. It was lucky the building was primarily stone. The men and women he¡¯d brought exchanged glances with one another, sweat clear on a number of their brows, but they didn¡¯t say anything or move. Their fear of Mondego was clear.


    The girls weren¡¯t faring well either. Alessa had a brave face on, but the fresh bruise on her cheek was making her right eye water. Caressa was doing her best to sob as quietly as possible, the knife against her throat nicking her even as she did her best to stay still. Only Zilly seemed to be maintaining her calm. Dantes had marked her as a cool customer from the start, but she simply sat there, staring at the woman aiming a crossbow at her head.


    Dantes watched the scene throughout his entire run. There were a lot of men, but he could take them with the right combination of vermin. The issue was the hostages, not to mention whatever else Mondego might have in store for them.


    Dantes reached an alley near the Vixen and leaned against a wall as he caught his breath.


    ¡°Hmmm, maybe Dantes changed more than I thought. It almost seems like he might not be here to help you,¡± said Mondego as he blew more smoke. ¡°Or Godfrey gave me the wrong time to fuck with me,¡± he muttered under his breath. He shrugged, ¡°Oh well. If he doesn¡¯t show in the next hour or so, I¡¯ll just give the three of you to the men for the night and have your throats slit in the morning.¡±


    The woman holding the crossbow coughed.


    ¡°What? You fault the men having a bit of fun as a reward for wasting their time?¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°I don¡¯t give a fuck about whores sir, but shouldn¡¯t we do something about the fire? Won¡¯t it attract the guard?¡±


    Mondego shook his head. ¡°The guard¡¯s taken care of. Won¡¯t be here until the cleanup in the morning.¡± He paused. ¡°Still, it won''t be the worst idea to take care of that.¡± He pointed at two of the men watching the door. ¡°You and you, get some buckets and stop the fire.¡± He glanced at one of the corpses by the stairs. ¡°Shame the mage got his neck snapped like that. He would have fixed that with a flick of the wrist.¡±


    As he listened to Mondego talk, Dantes gathered all of the rats and roaches that he could and placed them nearby, coiling them around Mondego¡¯s men and readying them to strike. He needed a way to remove the weapons from the girls before he attacked. He shifted into a roach, ignoring the pain of the process, and skittered across the street until he was by the nearest window. He climbed the wall, and found himself sitting in the window box of flowers that he¡¯d placed there. The flowers were thriving, and would need to be moved to a bigger container soon, but he had another use for them. He suffused them with his will, strengthening them through the strand that connected them to one another. At the same time, he pulled energy from the other gardens, causing the thin stems of the flowers to grow thick and ropelike. He slipped them under a gap in the window, and rode one of the stems inside, having them creep slowly toward the feet of the men holding daggers to Aless and Caressa¡¯s throats as he moved as a roach to crawl up and onto the chair Zilly was bound to. Jacopo waited in the flowers, readying himself to run toward the bindings on the girls wrists so that he could chew through them along with the other rats Dantes had waiting. This was all a risk, but it was his only shot. He took a breath, and focused his will on all of the moving parts he had put into place.


    NOW

 Book 2 Ch 35: How are my seconds?

    To Mondego and his men, it seemed as if all hells had broken loose. Vines whipped up and grabbed the wrists of the men holding knives to Alessa and Caressa¡¯s necks, and dragged them to the ground. Dantes himself appeared behind Zilly, and shot out his living branch redirecting the crossbow aimed at her so that it would fire and strike one of the other men instead. The rats and roaches he had massedaround the building and began to pour into it. The men on the outside began screaming as rats and bats tore into their flesh while roaches suffocated them by climbing into their mouths or disabled them with pain by burrowing into their ears.


    Those inside tried to turn their attention to Dantes before they were swarmed with vermin, but he fired a shot from a pistol, killing one of them, then seemed to vanish before reappearing behind another of them and driving some kind of stake through his heart. Then the rest of the vermin made their way inside.


    The girls were equally confused by what was going on, but found their bindings quickly severed, and Zilly managed to fight her way with Caressa and Alessa out to the back entrance to escape. It was much easier with their captors being swarmed with vermin.


    Dantes was going to make his own escape when the woman with the crossbow loosed a bolt at Alessa¡¯s back and he shifted back to himself for just a moment to block it with his branch which he shifted into the shape of a small buckler.


    Mondego had regarded everything that happened with a kind of detachment. The roaches and rats that attacked him, weren¡¯t able to touch him, or several of his men, though only he¡¯d had the presence of mind to remember that while the swarm began to crawl over him. He watched patiently, tensing himself as Dantes appeared and disappeared, the moment that he blocked the bolt heading for Alessa, the vermin on Mondego  evaporated into dust. Mondego arched his arm back, and a spear appeared in it as if from thin air, he threw it and it pierced Dantes¡¯s left arm, pinning him to the wall.


    Dantes let out a cry of surprise and pain as he hit the wall.


    Mondego smiled and laughed. At first it was boastful, but as he moved toward Dantes a touch of madness began to bleed into it.


    He raised a hand, and a wand appeared in it. He made a sweeping gesture and a sheet of ice enveloped everything on the ground. With another flick of his wrist, the wand vanished. All of the roaches and rats inside died almost instantly, as did several of his men that had fallen to the ground in the skirmish. Dantes cried out in concern for Jacopo, wrapping the flowers he¡¯d grown into around him to keep him safe from the sudden cold.


    A few of Mondego¡¯s men managed to pick themselves up, shivering, or screaming as they pulled rats and roaches that had been frozen against their bare skin off of themselves. A few seemed unharmed aside from the cold, they must¡¯ve had the same protection Mondego did.


    Dantes yanked on the spear, trying to pull it free, but it seemed more than just stuck into the wall. It was like the tip of it had completely fused with it. The spear was so wide that his forearm was nearly bisected.


    He tried to ignore the pain, and tried to focus on the situation at hand. He needed to do something else. Summon more with his vermin marks, use his branch to gain leverage on the spear, shift into a roach or rat to escape.


    Before any of those ideas could solidify, Mondego raised a hand and a small vial appeared. He threw the vial at the ground in front of Dantes and green smoke rose from it. It didn¡¯t act as smoke though, and flew quickly into Dantes¡¯s nostrils, forcing its way inside as if it were some malevolent spirit.


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    Dantes¡¯s thoughts became scattered and his will diffused instantly. His thoughts slipped away like sand through fingers, and he lost connection to all of the animals he was connected to. The only persistent thing he seemed able to hold in his head was the pain in his arm.


    ¡°Wha-¡±


    Mondego smiled widely, showing his tusks as he walked toward him. He grasped Dantes¡¯s hair and raised his head.


    ¡°Dantes. You¡¯re looking well.¡± He paused for a moment. ¡°We can¡¯t have that.¡± He struck him in the face with a clenched fist.


    Dantes didn¡¯t have the mental acuity to do anything about it, but he felt a tooth dislodge and fall from his mouth onto the ground.


    ¡°I gotta say, I wasn¡¯t expecting you to be able to free the girls. I mean, I¡¯d been told a bit about what to expect from you, but you never could¡¯ve pulled this shit off back in the day.¡±


    Dantes groaned, still trying to bring his focus together enough to do something.


    ¡°Unfortunately for you, power can be bought, and I¡¯ve been doing very well for myself since you¡¯ve been gone.¡± He raised his right hand to show that it had a steel ring on each finger. Dantes could tell they were magical, but his attempts to think beyond that were unsuccessful. ¡°I could¡¯ve bought a ship with what these cost to be made, but it¡¯s hard to enjoy a ship when you die because you weren¡¯t prepared for a fight.¡±


    Dantes started to get angry. This wasn¡¯t how this was supposed to go. Instead of trying to avoid thinking about the pain, he started to focus on it. He tried to feel each torn vein and ligament and muscle in his arm. He leaned into the screaming agony where his tooth used to be. He centered himself on it, let it overwhelm his senses, and he started to find a small amount of clarity within it.


    ¡°H-how?¡±


    Mondego scowled. ¡°You can talk? I¡¯ll have to have that alchemist¡¯s legs broken.¡± He shook his head. ¡°How what? How¡¯d I know what you could do? How¡¯d I know when to strike? I¡¯ve got friends in high places. As high as they go in fact.¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°No? Then what?¡±


    ¡°H-how are my sloppy seconds?¡±


    Mondego roared and began to strike Dantes with his bare fists. Dantes, even through the haze of whatever he¡¯d been drugged with, and the pain, and even the fear of death, started to laugh at his own joke, blood splattering from his mouth and onto Mondego as he was struck.


    While Mondego was distracted by his rage, and his men watched him beat a man they¡¯d never seen before to death, Jacopo released his will.


    The flowers Dantes had wrapped around him exploded outward, their ends points, and speared four of the men that were in the room. Bats exploded through the windows and swarmed into the room, covering the men¡¯s faces. They couldn¡¯t actually touch them, due to the portable anti-vermin enchantment that they seemed to have, but that didn¡¯t mean blinding them didn¡¯t have value.


    The field around Mondego was much stronger though, and didn¡¯t seem to be vermin-specific as the vines that Jacopo was sending toward him were unable to pierce it. Still, Jacopo launched himself at Mondego. He sent his will through to the key around his neck, unsure of if the enchantment on it would allow him through, but it did.


    Mondego began to claw at himself, trying to remove Jacopo from him as he clawed and bit, but every time he almost gained ahold of him, Jacopo shifted into a cockroach to slip away and bite him somewhere else.


    ¡°Break free!¡± sent Jacopo.


    Dantes grimaced and tried to tear the spear out, pushing through the pain and blood loss, but he¡¯d been right. The tip of the spear had somehow become one with the wall behind it. Another magical trick Mondego had purchased. It was at that moment his forebrain seemed to give up, and something beneath it took hold.


    Escape became the only thought in his mind. He¡¯d been captured, he was going to be killed. Escape the thought filled his mind completely, and he instinctively knew that there was only one thing to do. Instead of pulling on the spear to remove it, he grabbed his hand on the other side and yanked downward. Half of his forearm arm came away, and red flooded his vision as the bits of tissue that were still holding his arm together gave way and his left hand fell to the ground.


    ¡°No!¡± screamed Mondego as Dantes began to run toward the back exit.


    Jacopo broke free from him, just as the key at his chest began to turn from metal to dust, unable to resist the more powerful enchantment that was protecting Mondego. He sent all of the bats in the room, and the roots to block Mondego as he followed Dantes out the door.


    Mondego summoned a mace from his ring and started to swing it wildly at the bats and roots that stood in his way, braining the woman with the crossbow on accident as he swung, but it was too late. Dantes and Jacopo had escaped.

 Book 2 Ch 36: He Loved That Hand

    Dantes could feel the blood loss sapping his strength as he ran, but he was moving on pure instinct and could think of nothing but his desire to escape. Eventually he collapsed in a dirty alley. He started to push himself up, but collapsed back down. Jacopo reached him shortly after.


    ¡°Focus,¡±  he sent.


    Dantes gained a moment of clarity, and moved the branch to stem the bleeding on the stub that remained of his arm. He then used the last of his energy to shift himself into a roach. As a roach he was missing half of three limbs rather than just one, but it was much less painful. Still, he had almost no energy left and couldn¡¯t move more than a few inches.


    Jacopo moved forward and grabbed him, placing him on his back as he began to run. Dantes¡¯s memory of what happened after that was a haze. He didn¡¯t come to again until he was in his garden. He changed shape to become himself again, and collapsed on the soft layer of clover that covered the ground. His mind was still a horrible blur of half-thoughts and pain.


    He could feel the poison assaulting his mind without any signs of weakening, and he tried to focus on it, but lacked the clarity to truly sense it. Still, he pushed, trying to bind his attention to the extraordinary pain he was in, and for a moment it was as if he could see exactly what the poison was doing to him. He could feel each individual component of himself, down to a degree far deeper than anything he¡¯d sensed before, but while he was in such an intense state of focus, another wave of pain hit, and this time his consciousness surrendered to it, and he passed out.


    ¡­


    Dantes floated above the table on which a tapestry was being woven. The man in the black and gold cloak was now standing only a few feet from it, holding the thread of his own cloak which had partially been sewn into it. He lifted a burnstick, struck it against his knuckles and lit, then brought the fire to the thread. Before the line of fire could hit, a quick black shape would swoop down and put it out. The first time the shape was in the form of a rat, then a bat, and finally a roach. Then, very suddenly, the box of matches seemed to disappear from the man¡¯s hand, and he shrugged, stepping away from the tapestry and cutting the thread that connected him to it with a pair of golden scissors. The man in the blue cloak and the woman in green, straightened out their respective ends of the tapestry, and got back to work with the woman wearing the veil allowing more thread from her spool to unwind. Dantes felt a certain expectation emanating from her toward him, though from what he could tell she wasn¡¯t facing him.


    Before he regained consciousness he looked out over the horizon. The silhouette of the headsman was still there. It seemed¡­closer, but only by one or two steps. Before he could look at anything else, his dream faded, and he was left in blackness.


    ¡­


    Dantes awoke to the feeling of someone yanking on his stump of an arm. He let out a scream and his garden responded, with the trees, weeds, rat¡¯s, roaches, bats, and flowers all immediately moving toward the threat. Before he could fully send his will through the garden to kill whoever it was he heard a voice.


    ¡°Dantes! It¡¯s me!¡±


    He focused his eyes for just a moment and saw a beard full of mushrooms.


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    ¡°Clay?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s me and my sister.¡±


    Dantes released his violent intent and everything in the garden receded back to where it was.


    ¡°Sorry.¡± he coughed, keeping his eyes closed to avoid the glare of the sun. ¡°I¡¯m a little high strung at the moment.¡±


    He felt hands on his face, they were as rough as Clay¡¯s, but smaller. They brushed against his face, then very suddenly he felt a finger jam up his nose painfully. He coughed painfully, and felt some kind of strange viscous liquid begin leaking from the top of his throat, where it met his nasal cavity. He tilted his head as it flowed out of it, as slow as molasses. If it hadn¡¯t been for the incredible pain where half of his left arm used to be, it would¡¯ve been the most unpleasant thing he was experiencing.


    ¡°I thought so. A magically amplified version of Fool¡¯s Foul. He¡¯ll probably be an idiot for the rest of his life.¡±


    ¡°So, no changes then?¡± He managed, a self-satisfied smile reminding him of the constellation of bruises and cuts on his face from Mondego¡¯s beating.


    He felt Hema¡¯s hand against his forehead. ¡°He¡¯s got a fever, he has multiple broken ribs, and his right eye isn¡¯t able to focus. He should be dead.¡±


    ¡°His color¡¯s actually better than it was when I first found him. I think he¡¯s getting better, not worse.¡±


    ¡°We need to get that strange wood off his arm so that we can clean and dress the wound. A fever means it¡¯s probably infected. We may even need to cut away some of the flesh. Did you grab the liquid dust?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but I¡¯m surprised you had it. You complain about my weed all the time.¡±


    ¡°I made it from dust in your stash I found when I left. What was I going to do? Turn it into the guard? Get sent to the convent? Or a labor camp if I was lucky?¡±


    ¡°Aye¡­that¡¯s fair.¡±


    Dantes listened to the description of his current state with a kind of detachment, finding the majority of his focus was on his lost hand as the haze that had been caused by the poison that Mondego had used on him started to leave his system. He loved that hand. He¡¯d taught that hand how to feel the tumblers in a lock. His father had taught him how to use that hand to tie knots. He''d learned to please a woman with that hand. He¡¯d felt blood running down that hand when he¡¯d driven a shank into a man that had stolen his last potato. He¡¯d felt the knuckles in that hand crack when he¡¯d struck Gaspard far past the point that he¡¯d been dead. He could still feel the warm earth on that hand as he¡¯d dug it into the ground to plant a seed.


    He forced his head to turn and raised the stump.


    ¡°Stay still!¡± yelled Hema.


    He ignored her, picturing the hand as it was in his mind, picturing every experience that he¡¯d had with it. Remembered wiping the sweat from his mother¡¯s forehead on the last night she¡¯d been alive. The last time he¡¯d cupped Mercedes''s face in it. The last roll of loaded dice he¡¯d thrown with it. He channeled all of those thoughts, those feelings, and everything that went along with them into the branch that was currently keeping him from bleeding out. Every subtle sensation, both emotional and physical, he pushed into it.


    The branch started to shift, he gritted his teeth as it grew roots and connected them to his severed veins and arteries, as it tried to mimic the feel of flesh by weaving into the edges of his fresh stump. The branch began extending outward even as it began sealing itself into his capillaries. He watched as it formed a forearm, even sprouting thin hair-like branches, then the base of hand, and finally delicate fingers, a perfect match for those on his right hand. He flexed the hand, making and unmaking a fist, then he flexed each individual finger, then he made the entire hand rotate in a full three hundred and sixty degrees, then he had the fingers grow and shrink by several inches. He could feel the kiss of the wind on it, and warmth of the sun suffusing it. The pain in the hand seemed to cease, and his consciousness began to rapidly fade. The agony had been the only thing tethering him to being awake.


    ¡°I don¡¯t like your friends Clay. I thought the Kobolds were weird enough,¡± said Hema as Dantes drifted off.


    The rest of the day he was in and out of consciousness as Hema and Clay treated his wounds. He¡¯d wake to having cloth wrapped around his ribs, alcohol applied to cuts on his face, some foul liquids being poured down his throat, or poultices being applied. Throughout all of it, he could feel his strength returning as the gardens and other life he¡¯d fostered throughout the city fed him as he¡¯d done for them. He could feel the life it granted him suffuse every inch of his body. He could sense the different parts of himself as he healed, not just the skin and bones, but deeper than that. He could feel down to the smallest components of his body, those pieces of him that were too small even for the naked eye to sense. He put what little focus and attention he had to strengthening those smallest parts nearest to where he was in the most pain, where he guessed it was the most needed.


    His bouts of consciousness became longer and longer, days passing on the edges of his consciousness, until he found himself fully awake again.

 Book 2 Ch 37: I Want to Talk

    He awoke without either Clay or his sister in his garden, though he could sense that they¡¯d been there recently. He found Jacopo sleeping peacefully next to him on a bedding of old leaves, and a number of feathers from his own pillow. He raised his left hand, turning it forward and backward. It looked nearly identical to the hand he had before, but on close inspection a fine wood grain could be seen.


    He clenched and unclenched it a few times, then turned his attention to his marks. He and Jacopo had nearly emptied them during their clash with Mondego, but now they seemed to be nearly refilled. He sent out his senses to each of his gardens, finding them in relatively good condition except for an unsteady roof that had finally collapsed causing a group of pigeons to lose their nesting spot, and a small group of feral cats and dogs starting to hunt smaller vermin near his third garden. He¡¯d have to be careful with that, it was only natural for them to feed on his allies, and he didn¡¯t want to risk earning favor from their gods.


    He extended his senses further, taking control of a few rats and roaches and sending them to different areas he needed to check on. The Vixen was ashes, as were a number of other pubs, storefronts and even a flophouse near it. He could smell the remnants of smoke through the rat¡¯s nose and clenched his fist, accidentally making the rat copy his dramatic gesture. There were a number of guards near the scene, but they didn¡¯t seem concerned with doing anything aside from motioning people to move around any structural damage. That didn¡¯t surprise him.


    He shifted perspective to a different rat he had moving toward Mondego¡¯s Manor. He usually allowed the rats to navigate on their own, letting them have free reign beyond needing them to get to the target, but this time he took the personal interest to control its every movement. He dashed through alleyways, climbed the edge of Mondego¡¯s fence, then nothing. His connection was suddenly and violently cut off.


    Dantes blinked. He was still laying on his bedroll, the sun was high in the sky. He extended his senses again, this time finding two rats and sending them one after the other. They wove their way through alleys, some different and others the same as he¡¯d just been through. He had one rat hang back while the other one climbed under the fence this time. He made it a bit further, then it combusted, dying instantly.


    Dantes released the other rat, letting it scurry away in fear, and woke a nearby bat from its slumber. They really didn¡¯t like that, but he needed to know more about what was happening. He sent the bat over Mondego¡¯s manor, using its unique senses to detect what was happening around the Manor. He found no fewer than ten thugs all around the outer and inner garden. Most had crossbows, and two were clearly mages, wielding a long staff and a long thin wand respectively.


    Dantes released the bat and let it return to its sleep. It made sense. Mondego now knew that he had control of rats, roaches, and bats. He moved to send some roaches toward the manor. They made it into the exterior, but instead of a sudden cessation of life he felt them slowly weaken and die before the connection broke. He seemed to be using some kind of poison for the roaches.


    He took a deep breath, and exhaled. It would slow him down, but he would be able to find another way in. He was glad he didn¡¯t send any rats with the enchanted keys, that would¡¯ve been a serious waste. Dantes had a different rat approach him and gave him one of the enchanted keys as he sat up from his bedroll. He was careful not to awaken Jacopo. He wasn¡¯t certain, but he had a feeling that he had been staying awake longer to watch over him.


    As the rat made its way toward uptown, Dantes worked on cleaning himself up. He found a clean rag and water and wiped himself down, then looked at himself in the mirror. There were no signs of the injuries Mondego had inflicted on him aside from some very small scars. He opened his mouth to see a new tooth beginning to sprout from where Mondego had knocked it out. One benefit of elvish ancestry was regrowing teeth. Humans only got the two sets, and he¡¯d once met a half elf that had inherited his human mothers teeth and was forced to rely on dentures once his last tooth rotted out in his early hundreds. He was lucky to have elvish teeth, though the regrowth took some time and teething was not the most pleasant thing to deal with, even as an adult.


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    Dantes picked a pear from one of the trees and started eating it as he began a small fire to make more. By the time he was wiping the remains of some pork from his face, the rat he¡¯d sent from uptown had made it to Danglar¡¯s place of work. It was late afternoon by then, and just after lunch, so no one was paying too close attention when the rat made its way inside. Danglar¡¯s office door was open, and his secretaries were at their respective desks doing their best to appear busy. One of them had a series of fresh bruises on her face and a handmark on her neck. Dantes moved the rat into Danglar¡¯s office, where he was muttering to himself as he drummed his fingers against his desk. The letter Dantes had forged copying Danglar''s mother¡¯s writing was in front of him. Rat hearing was good, but Dantes only caught snatches of what Danglars was saying.


    ¡°-dead. Had the grave checked-¡±


    ¡°-Priest said-¡±


    ¡°-fucking Mondego-¡±


    ¡°-girl shouldn¡¯t have fucking been out anyway-¡±


    ¡°-Dantes back. Maybe good-¡±


    ¡°- kill them both-¡±


    Dantes listened to several parts repeat themselves as Danglars spoke. It seemed that the Prosa was working, which meant that Dosia had been upholding her part of the bargain at the Cruel Lady. He¡¯d have to pay her another visit, both she and Felix were likely expecting him to call on them soon. If he didn¡¯t remind them why they were working with him, it could force him to remind them in a more violent way.


    Dantes set some vermin in the usual holding patterns around the things he monitored, and began doing some light work around the garden. Once that was done, he sat at the makeshift desk he¡¯d constructed and began to write a number of letters in the hand of Cornelia of the house of Forteville.


    Dearest Danglars,


    Since you have yet to visit me, I feel obligated to tell you what to expect when you join me in my current estate. In the morning I am awoken by the pained screams of the burning dead, it is not unlike the caw of a rooster, which makes me feel no better than those filthy brutes that till fields. After that I am impaled by thorned pikes which weave their way through every part of my being, but the pain always ceases to allow me enough of a respite that I do not lose my mind. In the afternoon, I am eaten alive by a swarm of small imp-like creatures with teeth made of jagged metal, and spit that burns wounds like salt. Once I¡¯m fully consumed, I am removed from them as waste and feel the disparate parts of me as they burn as fuel to raise the fires of the hells ever higher. These things happen in no actual order, mind you, and I am unsure of whether it is days that pass, or years, or seconds. Sometimes I feel as if I exist in absence and nothingness for decades, and other times my eyes burn from light that seems to shine on me for millenia. The only comfort I have is the knowledge that I will see you soon.


    -From the honorable Madame Cornelia of the house of Forteville, A founding house of Rendhold


    After that particularly colorful letter he wrote one expressing her disapproval for Danglar¡¯s activities at the Cruel Lady, and a third one which just said, ¡°I¡¯m watching you¡± over and over again in her hand, covering an entire page. They weren¡¯t exactly subtle, but it wasn¡¯t really about subtlety.


    Dantes stood up and stretched, shifting his focus between the vermin he had watching Mondego¡¯s place. He smiled, as he flexed his wooden hand. Mondego was going to fucking burn for what he¡¯d done. He¡¯d planned a quick death for him after taking all that he held dear, but now he would be granted no such luxury. Dantes was going to have rats eat him from the toes up while roaches crawled in his ears, and bats shat in his mouth. He wouldn''t even be able to beg for death, as his tongue would be fed to his own starving dogs.


    The door to the manor opened, and Dantes put his full focus on it. Mercedes stepped out of the front door, and began to walk toward the gate. Two bodyguards followed her, clearly arguing with her and demanding she stay.


    She whipped around and smacked one of them in the face. Despite the man being twice her size, he nearly fell over from the force of the slap. She said something else, this time in a calmer tone, and walked out from the front gate and into the main street. She made her way down one alley, then another, then another, in a kind of winding and senseless pattern. She always checked behind herself and on the ground. Dantes shifted his attention to whatever vermin were near her, while tracking her throughout the city. Alone and vulnerable? Dantes felt the temptation to take action rise in him.


    She stopped, suddenly, looking at a large rat biting a small chicken bone in half to get at the sweet marrow within. She met the rat¡¯s eyes, and Dantes¡¯s.


    ¡°Dantes. I know you¡¯re back. I want to talk.¡±


    Dantes didn¡¯t take control of the rat as it observed Mercedes. Letting it scurry away into the alley, leaving Mercedes wondering if he received her message, and Dantes wondering what he should do with it.

 Book 2 Ch 38: I Owed a Debt

    Dantes stood in a darkened alley surrounded by filth and broken glass, feeling as much at home there as was possible. He wore his dark green jacket with the hood up, protecting from the light drizzle that fell that day, and had a scarf inside the jacket just below the hood. He flexed the fingers on his new left hand, making them dance a bit as he waited. There was still a bit of a delay in his movements with it, but it was getting smaller and smaller as he practiced. He pulled his stiletto from its sheath and tested the edge on his other hand, drawing just a drop of blood. As he stood there and prepared, Jacopo followed their target, making sure he didn¡¯t deviate too much from his usual route.


    Venson Decarte was a man of roughly two hundred and ten years by Dantes¡¯s estimation. He was tall, even for an elf, and lean with blonde hair he wore in a ponytail and soft yellow eyes that almost matched it. He was only a second generation noble, but was on a number of political committees and seemed to have a talent for politics. He was also a man of routine, which Dantes had noticed was common for those of Elven descent. He woke before the sun, had tea and read something for pleasure, usually a mystery book of some kind. Then he had breakfast with his wife. They¡¯d share a kiss, then part, and from then on he was in committee meetings until the late afternoon. After that he¡¯d go to buy a new book, then head home to meet his wife for dinner.


    Jacopo watched as Venson left the bookstore with two thick tomes under his arm and began taking his usual shortcut through less populated streets, right next to where Dantes stood with his dagger in his hand.


    Dantes watched the street as he pulled the scarf up over his face. The moment Venson passed he stepped out of the alley and grabbed him, spinning him around and shoving him against the wall. While he was disoriented, Dantes threw him into the alley and moved to push him against the wall.


    ¡°Gua-!¡± he started to yell, but Dantes pressed the point of his stiletto against his throat.


    ¡°That¡¯s not a good idea,¡± he said, pressing the point of the knife just enough to produce a single drop of blood.


    ¡°Listen, just take my money. I didn¡¯t see your face and won¡¯t go to the guard.¡±


    ¡°You just tried to call for them a moment ago? Seems a little disingenuous.¡±


    Venson said nothing, unsure of how to respond to that.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, if everything goes as it should, you won¡¯t get hurt.¡± He pulled the man from the wall, and held on to the back of his coat, pushing him forward. There were no abandoned buildings in Uptown like there were nearly everywhere else, but he¡¯d found a temporarily empty storefront. He made Venson open the back door that he¡¯d already picked open earlier, and pushed him inside. He walked him downstairs to the basement storage, where he had placed a single chair in the middle of the room along with some rope.


    ¡°Sit.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯re you going to do to me?¡± He asked as he sat.


    ¡°Ransom you.¡±


    ¡°I am not rich.¡±


    Dantes laughed, and took the coin purse from his waist. He opened it and counted.


    ¡°Eleven gold pieces, seven silver, and four copper, just as walking around money. Do you really not consider yourself rich?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s nothing compared to my colleagues.¡±


    Dantes smiled wide enough that Venson could see the amusement in his eyes. ¡°You are comparing yourself to the wrong people.¡± He slid the coin purse into his own pocket and moved behind him and began tying his hands and feet to the chair. He was lucky he hadn¡¯t tried to struggle, someone his size could¡¯ve been troublesome to deal with.


    Once he was done he inspected the knots and brought the stiletto to his face.


    ¡°Wait!¡± he said, jerking his face away.


    Dantes cut a lock of his hair.


    Venson opened his eyes slowly and turned back toward him. ¡°Oh, I thought you were going to take my eye.¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°What kind of monster starts with eyes?¡± he shook his head. ¡°I¡¯d do fingers way before I do eyes. At that point you may as well just kill someone.¡±


    Venson paled a bit.


    Dantes took the hair and bound it to a small scroll with a message he¡¯d written earlier that day, then he stepped outside of the room, leaving Jacopo to watch their victim, and tied the message to a different rat that he sent scurrying away toward the home that Venson, and his wife, Magistress Mariska, shared. He stepped back inside and leaned against a wall.


    ¡°The message is sent and now all we have to do is wait for your wife to arrive with the agreed upon payment.¡±


    Venson looked scared, but not hysterically so, and sat silently in his chair. Dantes took the books that he¡¯d dropped. One was in elvish, so he tossed it to the side, but the other was in the common tongue. The title was, ¡°Murders on Mirror Street,¡± Dantes raised an eyebrow and opened it to the first page, tracking the rat with his message as it made its way to Mariska¡¯s front door.


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    ¡­


    Mariska arrived at her home just under an hour later. She was reaching for the handle of her front door when she stopped in her tracks, her eyes widening as what little light there was reflected off of the blond lock of hair hanging off the ransom note. She opened it, reading the demands, her hands clenching the note tighter and tighter. She took a long deep breath, took a small notebook out of her coat that she scribbled something in, then placed it back into her pocket. She flattened the creases in her robes, and opened the door to walk inside. She moved toward her study, and slid several books off of a shelf to reveal a small magical safe. She opened it with a muttered phrase and quickly counted one-hundred gold coins and slid them into a file case she regularly carried documents in. Once that was collected, she dismissed her servant and began pacing through her house, nervously picking at different things as she waited for the time that Dantes had set for her. Once it was near that time, she left her house and started moving toward him.


    Dantes closed his book and watched her movements through the eyes of a bat. He¡¯d initially considered moving Venson to a more isolated location, but that was logistically too difficult. If he¡¯d had a gang of people rather than vermin, it may have been easier, but that wasn¡¯t a possibility. At least not yet.


    Dantes moved to leave the room, closing the book and tossing it toward Venson who jumped when it landed near him.


    ¡°That¡¯s pretty good so far. My guess is that the groundskeeper did it.¡±


    ¡°Where are you going?¡±


    ¡°To meet your wife. If everything goes as it should then you¡¯ll never see me again and your wife will be here to untie you next.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t think of escaping though. I¡¯m not the only one Dangl- my employer hired. There¡¯s another man watching the building. How do you think I sent the message to your wife?¡± He left the room, leaving some roaches to keep an eye on Venson as he locked the door to the basement and began moving toward the empty alley where he was planning to meet Mariska.


    She was still on her way, and he¡¯d arrive sooner, but something was wrong. She had the gold, she was going to the correct location, and Dantes didn¡¯t see anyone else, but he had the bat tracking her from the air move in closer, and send out a screech, listening to the bounce back and into its ears. He didn¡¯t see anyone, but there was definitely someone else with her. He had a nearby rat watch her from the ground level, and he was able to see that the puddles left by the earlier raid were being disturbed by a second pair of boots other than her own.


    Dantes frowned, thinking about everything he¡¯d watched her do. The only thing that had stood out to him was her taking the time to write in a small notebook. A paired journal, that was the only explanation he could think of.


    He checked the pistol he had hidden at his back, it was loaded, he slipped it into a pocket further toward the front and began gathering more vermin to help him if he needed it at the meeting site. He waited there, leaning against the wall, and letting his senses do their work.


    Mariska appeared in the alleyway, and hesitated for just a moment before walking toward him.


    Dantes could sense the other person with her. He was Dantes¡¯s size, and began moving toward him quickly and quietly ahead of Mariska, likely in an attempt to surprise him. Before he reached him, Dantes raised his left hand and extended the fingers of his new hand out like vines toward him.


    The invisible figure tried to dodge out of the way, but Dantes knew exactly where he was and soon had him completely immobilized and on the ground. He drew his pistol with his other hand and aimed it at Mariska, who was approaching him while he seemed to be distracted, and pulling something from her coat.


    ¡°Don¡¯t, or I¡¯ll kill you both.¡±


    She stopped, and slowly removed empty hands from her coat.


    Dantes tightened the grip he had on the invisible figure. ¡°Reveal yourself.¡±


    The enchantment dropped, and on the ground was Johann, the member of the guard she worked with to root out changelings.


    Dantes clenched his jaw out of annoyance for just a moment, then released the tension and relaxed. Things never went exactly according to plan, and in this case, he now had more leverage than he¡¯d had just seconds ago.


    He sighed. ¡°That was clever. If it had worked you would have been able to get one over on me.¡±


    Mariska carefully pulled out the heavy pouch of coins he¡¯d watched her fill earlier and held it out.


    ¡°Here. Please take the gold and release my husband and we¡¯ll leave from here.¡±


    ¡°Throw it,¡± said Dantes, indicating the ground in front of him with his pistol.


    She complied, and had a surprisingly good arm, landing the coins right in front of his feet. Dantes lifted the pouch and listened to the jingling, feeling the weight of it as if he didn¡¯t already know it had exactly what he¡¯d asked for.


    He slid the pouch into his jacket and pointed the gun at her again.


    ¡°Now. I want you to release a changeling named Syn from whatever bindings you have on her.¡±


    Mariska paled. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°A changeling named Syn. She needs to be released from the bindings that hold her in the pit and any others attached to it.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t do that.¡±


    Dantes tightened the grip he had on Johann, forcing him to let out a grunt of pain.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t do it, Johann and your husband will both die tonight.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t know what you¡¯re asking. Syn is dangerous, even more than most other changelings.¡±


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter. Release her feybind, now.¡±


    She hesitated, looking at Johann.


    Dantes kept his grip on him too tight for him to respond. There was a chance he would ask her to do what Dantes was asking to save himself, but he didn¡¯t seem the type. It was much more likely that he¡¯d tell her to uphold her duty.


    ¡°O-okay. I, Mariska Decarte, release Syn from her binding.¡±


    Dantes squinted. He wasn¡¯t sure how, but he was certain that she hadn¡¯t actually done anything. Maybe it was something to do with his druidic nature, his exposure to previous feybinding, his promise to Syn, or even something to do with him being a two-name no-name. He just knew.


    He pointed the pistol at Johann¡¯s leg and fired, tearing a chunk from it in a flash of viscera.


    Johann wailed with what little breath he had left and Mariska jumped.


    ¡°Try. Again.¡±


    She gritted her teeth, and looked at Dantes with pure hatred. ¡°I, Mariska Decarte, Magister of Rendhold, Binder of Changeling Fate, do release the changeling Syn, from her bindings.¡± This time as she spoke there was a stir in the air that blew wind throughout the alley, and her words seemed to vibrate with power. When she finished speaking, Dantes could swear he heard the sound of a lock clicking open.


    He holstered his still smoking pistol.


    ¡°You¡¯ll find your husband in the empty storefront four blocks south and ten blocks East. He¡¯s locked in the basement, but unharmed aside from a bad haircut.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a fool. You don¡¯t know what you¡¯ve done.¡±


    ¡°I believe that, but I owed a debt.¡± He released his hold on Johann, and summoned a swarm of bats to fill the alley to cover his escape while he calmly walked out of it, making his way out of uptown and heading back toward his garden.

 Book 2 Ch 39: I Always Appreciate a Good Performance

    Dantes arrived at the Cruel Lady in the early morning, finding it surprisingly busy for that time of day with a few men and a woman leaving quickly with their faces covered by large hats, and a shameless man walking ahead of him and even holding the door and telling him good morning as he moved toward Glass who welcomed him with a smack to the face, and a spit to his eye before sending him to the room across from her. He complied with a smile.


    Dantes watched with an amused expression.


    ¡°You want me to wipe that look off your face, Cornelius?¡± asked the powerful dwarven woman.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know that I would enjoy your methods all that much.¡±


    ¡°Oh? You certainly enjoyed it when I raked your back with my nails.¡±


    ¡°Yes, it was a good performance. I always appreciate a good performance.¡±


    She smiled and nodded her head back toward the hall behind her. ¡°Dosia is waiting for you.¡±


    Dantes nodded and walked back into the hall and into Dosia¡¯s room. She didn¡¯t greet him with a whip crack and threats this time, but instead walked toward him wearing a thin black robe and holding a glass of wine out to him. He found himself a little disappointed, but took the glass.


    He smelled the wine, but detected nothing wrong, and sensed nothing organic within it, aside from the obvious. It was early for a drink, but Dosia was likely at the end of her day rather than the start of it, and he didn¡¯t want to be rude so he took a long sip, and sat on a long lounging couch, putting his feet on a nearby table as he did so.


    ¡°So, how are things going?¡±


    She sat at the other end of the couch and took a long sip of her own drink. He watched her hands as she did so. Unlike most whores he¡¯d known, her hands were powerful and thickly callused from her work with whips and ropes, but she held the wine glass delicately by the stem with perfect grace.


    ¡°Danglars doesn¡¯t suspect anything. I¡¯ve been dosing him at the end of the sessions when we share a glass of wine. He has been saying¡­ strange things about his mother during sessions, even more than usual.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°Yes, he¡¯s been insisting on more¡­ elaborate punishments, and during them he often calls her name and asks forgiveness. He apparently hired a priest from the church of the many gods to cleanse his house and office because he believes he¡¯s being haunted.¡±


    Dantes nodded along as she spoke. ¡°It sounds like everything is having its desired effect. My client is very happy." He took a pouch of gold and a fresh jar of ground and dried Prosa and placed it on the table in front of him. ¡°He¡¯s been able to take great advantage of Danglars in court and on committee meetings. There¡¯s a bonus in there for you.¡±


    She lifted the coin pouch and weighed it in her hands. ¡°Any chance your client wants to book a session? He clearly has the funds.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Who''s to say he¡¯s not already one of your clients?¡±


    She raised her eyebrow and Dantes stood, finishing the wine.


    ¡°I have other business in the city¡­ though I could be convinced to put it off if you¡¯ve changed your mind about more vanilla services?¡±


    She smiled. ¡°I¡¯m afraid not.¡±


    He shrugged. ¡°You don¡¯t get what you don¡¯t ask for. I¡¯ll see you at our next appointment.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Glass is going to give you shit for taking so little time.¡±


    ¡°I think my pride can take that.¡± He flattened the creases in his jacket and walked out of the room.


    ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t take you for a minute man, Corny,¡± said Glass as he walked out.


    Dantes smiled at her. ¡°Sometimes you just need a quick beating before you have a meeting, you understand.¡±


    ¡°No, but I have clients with similar needs. See you next week¡­ maybe you¡¯ll pay me a visit too?¡±


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    ¡°It¡¯ll be hard not to.¡± He stepped out and onto the street. Glass was a natural manipulator, she could probably work any brothel with that kind of talent, but her build would turn off clients at most establishments. Dantes didn¡¯t mind women who looked as if they could break him in half, but many did. He drew his coat tightly around himself to brace against the morning chill and began to walk toward the Guild District.


    It was much easier to navigate to the Hell¡¯s Forgotten Mercenary Company and the small underground arena they had now that he¡¯d traveled there before.


    ¡°This is dangerous,¡± sent Jacopo as Dantes danced around some men carrying lumber to a nearby carpenter.


    ¡°Everything we do is dangerous.¡±


    ¡°You are marked prey now. Mondego¡¯s people are looking for you, which means they¡¯re looking for your associates again too. When a snake eats the freshly born, it waits in the nest for the mother to return so that it can eat again.¡±


    ¡°Vera deserves an explanation from me, and I want to make sure that she¡¯s okay. Mondego¡¯s men still stick primarily to midtown and the docks. A few may make their way over to the guild district, but this is a different finger¡¯s territory, he¡¯d need permission to do any real damage. It is a risk, but one I think we can manage.¡±


    Jacopo scurried into a different pocket where he found the remains of the bread Dantes had been eating for breakfast, and took it for himself.


    ¡°You are like my cousin. He would always take the meat from the traps the kobolds would leave, thinking he understood how to avoid them when they clasped down. Until once he took a piece from a trap that simply exploded. I still remember nibbling on a piece of his ear after it was over.¡±


    ¡°Does losing my arm not reset things a bit? I feel like that was my version of having the trap spring.¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what I figured too.¡±


    Dantes reached the entrance to the underground arena and saw two rough looking guards out front. He approached it directly, and was stopped by the larger of the two of them who held out his hand in front of him shaking his head without a word.


    Dantes thought through a number of options to get by them. Changing the wood on his arm to make it appear as if he had a brand that matched the mercs so he could feign comradery, bribery, and even quick and simple violence. In the end he just moved on, became a roach with Jacopo. As a roach he realized that his wooden arm had shrank too, though now it was two arms rather than just one. He willed it to shift, and it did, but there were limited application at roach size for it. He and Jacopo slipped around the guards and into the building before shifting back to themselves on the staircase and making their way down.


    Even at the top of the steps he could hear a commotion as well as the sound of impacts breaking against each other. As he descended he got a better look. There were roughly thirty rough looking customers all leaning in and screaming down at the pit. A man was taking bets in the corner, and another serving foul smelling booze that wouldn¡¯t have been out of place in the Underprison.


    In the pit itself were a dozen men and women, wielding blunted swords, clubs, or just their fists, engaged in a melee. There were at least three people down already, only one of them conscious and clutching his leg which appeared to be facing the wrong direction. Dantes recognized only one of the brawlers, Vampa, who stood with no weapons but the hand-wraps around his knuckles.


    A man with a blunted greatsword approached him, swinging his blade quickly downward. Vampa dodged, scooping up sand and bone from the ground and throwing it into the man''s face. The man resisted moving his hands to his eyes and made several more blind swings in Vampa¡¯s direction, but Vampa got under his guard and punched him in the kidneys with such force that even from where Dantes stood he could hear the impact like a wet towel hitting the deck of a ship. The man crumpled and Vampa stepped forward to the next one.


    A woman with a thin club in each hand began raining down quick blows on Vampa, hitting him with such speed that it almost seemed as if she was wielding six clubs rather than two. Vampa stoically endured the barrage, keeping his arms up as he waited for an opening. His left arm seemed to dip for a moment, and the woman sent a stick forward with a powerful swing. Vampa cooly moved his body forward to take the strike on the center of his forehead, robbing the blow of its momentum, then he quickly sent a jab at her face followed by a combo of light blows that almost mimicked her own strikes, but while hers hadn¡¯t moved Vampa an inch, his caused her whole body to shift with each blow until the last one swept her completely off of her feet and she fell to the ground.


    The last three standing quickly decided that Vampa was the real threat and closed in on him at once. He stayed on the defensive. One tried to sweep at his legs with a staff and he lifted one leg over it, letting it hit his other leg, he then pivoted, throwing the staff from the man¡¯s hand. The second man threw a wide right hook and he ducked under it before bringing his own fist up and under the man¡¯s chin.


    While one man retrieved his staff, the last of them lunged at Vampa with a blunted sword and shield. Vampa made no noise, but his nostrils flared as he slammed a fist into the center of the man¡¯s shield causing it to splinter and knocking the man to the ground. He stood up quickly and swung his sword at Vampa¡¯s head, but he grabbed the man¡¯s wrist mid-motion, disarmed him, and threw him in one smooth motion that saw him tumbling across the arena.


    The last man swung with his staff, and quicker than Dantes could blink, Vampa''s sword struck out, somehow even faster than his fists, and deflected it before smashing it into the side of his head with the flat of the blade, causing him to crumple to his knees. Vampa¡¯s face had been almost expressionless throughout the battle, but at the end he looked at the sword in his hand and scowled a bit, letting it fall onto the ground, kicking up a puff of sand as it landed.

 Book 2 Ch 40: Midtowners Are Nothing if not Adaptable

    There were screams of disappointment from the crowd, but they were drowned out quickly by cheers as several of the watchers moved to collect their winnings, and others began to enter the pit to drag the injured contestants out. Dantes slipped through all of them, and leapt into the pit to approach Vampa.


    Vampa leaned against the wall of the pit and drank from a waterskin that had been thrown down to him. He was covered in light scrapes and bruises, but seemed otherwise unharmed. Dantes had seen a lot of fights, but Vampa fought very differently from what he¡¯d seen recently, particularly compared to Gavain. Gavain was all flash and power, he led the attack and was rarely on the defensive. He had complete confidence in his abilities and skill and reveled in it. Vampa initiated almost no attacks, but focused on counters and waiting for openings that he could take advantage of for maximum effect. In Dantes¡¯s mind that didn¡¯t make sense as he clearly had the raw power to have waded into the center of the fight and take all of his opponents on at once, but he couldn¡¯t deny the discipline fighting as he did must take.


    Vampa regarded Dantes carefully as he approached. His expression didn¡¯t change at all, but when he reached him, he spoke.


    ¡°Follow me.¡±


    Dantes hesitated, but followed him when Vampa leapt up and pulled himself over the side of the pit. He led him through the crowd, that swiftly parted as he approached, and down a hallway, then up some stairs, and finally through a trapdoor that led to the interior of a house. Dantes could smell cooking, and appeared to be in some kind of basement. They went up another set of stairs and found themselves in a small and sparsely appointed sitting room. There were a number of rugs on the ground to hide the splintering floors, piles of mismatched pillows that seemed to be for sitting, and a table that appeared to have once been a massive spool for rope.


    As they stepped into the room, the sounds of cooking ceased and Vera appeared in the doorway. She was smiling, gently, but when she saw Dantes her expression changed to one of shock.


    ¡°Hello, Auntie.¡±


    She took several steps forward and wrapped him into a hug which he returned warmly. She then pulled away and smacked him.


    ¡°You couldn¡¯t have found me sooner? I thought you were dead. I thought you were dead again.¡±


    As she spoke, Zilly appeared as well, passively watching the scene as they spoke.


    ¡°It took me a while to recover. Then I needed to take care of a few other things that came up.¡±


    ¡°Recover? You look fine.¡±


    ¡°His hand,¡± said both Zilly and Vampa in unison.


    Vera looked at his right hand, then dropped it and lifted his other, this time feeling the slight wood grain to it as her hand touched his.


    Dantes resisted pulling it back.


    ¡°Mondego?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Yes,¡± he said as he flexed each finger. ¡°It''s been more helpful than anything.¡±


    ¡°The bats. Those were you,¡± said Vampa.


    Dantes nodded.


    ¡°Unnecessary, but thank you.¡±


    Dantes nodded again.


    ¡°Zilly told us what you did to save her, Alessa, and Caressa.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m a sap for women I¡¯ve slept with.¡± He saw a stern stare from Zilly. ¡°Or who have cooked for me,¡± he said with a nod.


    That seemed to pacify her.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    ¡°Have you heard from the girls? Are they all alright?¡±


    She nodded. ¡°A few of them simply left the city, which they¡¯d been planning to do for some time, but the money was good for them. Caressa went back to her family, the work was never something she was too skilled at, but all young girls want to give the city a try. Alessa is staying with Decker, they¡¯re second cousins, and Tieara is selling weed to kids in uptown. Sera is now the fiance of a 1st mate, though from what she tells me that may not last.¡±


    Dantes listened as she spoke. He was glad that the girls were all relatively unharmed, but full of anger at what happened to the Vixen that Vera had done so much to build up while he was in the Pit. Most of it was directed at Mondego, but there was more than enough turned inward toward himself as well.


    Dantes took Vera¡¯s hands. ¡°I will have it rebuilt when this is over. When Mondego is dead and everything is done, I¡¯ll remake it brick by brick, if that¡¯s what you want.¡±


    Vera nodded. ¡°That¡¯s the least you owe me, but for the love of the gods, don¡¯t rebuild it just as it was. The walls were starting to rot, the holes in the roof needed patching constantly, and I think the entire building was tilting slightly. You¡¯ll be building me something better than the Vixen.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Of course Auntie. I¡¯ll get whatever suggestions I can from you before I get anything started.¡±


    ¡°Good. I¡¯ll start picking out furnishings.¡± She smiled as she spoke, but Dantes could see the worry behind her eyes. He¡¯d already lost five years and his hand to Mondego. She was projecting confidence for him, but she was wondering what else he might lose at the same time.


    ¡°Have some tea before you leave.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to put anyone at risk. Besides, I don¡¯t want to impose on Vampa.¡±


    Vampa looked at Vera. ¡°No risk. Have your tea. I¡¯m going to clean off some of this blood.¡±


    Vera looked at him. ¡°I¡¯ll help while we wait for the kettle,¡± and they both vanished into another room. Dantes began to make some guesses as to the nature of their relationship as he sat on one of the floor pillows beside the spool.


    He looked up at Zilly. ¡°Glad to see you¡¯re alright.¡±


    She nodded.


    He didn¡¯t expect a thank you from her or anything. She knew that it was as much his fault that she was in that position to begin with and he wasn¡¯t about to think her so stupid that she hadn¡¯t figured that out herself. Still, he felt the need to fill the silence in the room with something.


    ¡°I¡¯m surprised to see you here. Are you related to Vampa? A sister? Or Cousin perhaps?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s my father.¡±


    Dantes silently absorbed that information for a moment. Elven familial relationships were always a pain to figure out. He¡¯d known more than a few young looking elven men dating forty year old human women less than half their age. It could get more than a little complicated to figure out. He¡¯d even once heard of an Elven man that realized he was dating his own great, great, great grandaughter. By then they were basically cousins at that far of a removal, but the man had the good sense to leave town and not come back after that.


    ¡°Did Vera know you, or Vampa first?¡±


    ¡°Vampa, I¡¯m not sure how they met though.¡±


    He gave a wry smile, ¡°There¡¯s really only one way that Vera would¡¯ve met him, eh?¡±


    She reddened slightly. ¡°He would not have done that.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard that line before. You probably didn¡¯t hear it as much at the Vixen since it mostly catered to sailors. Plenty of wives, daughters, and sons will deny their Dad¡¯s been paying a visit to the local brothel. There¡¯s nothing wrong with it, except in the case of the wives I suppose.¡±


    ¡°My father is an honorable kni-¡± the kettle began to whistle and Zilly took a deep breath and regarded him with a glare.


    That was the biggest rise he¡¯d seen from her since they¡¯d met. He always felt a need to prod at women he was attracted to, which in this case he regretted a bit. He held up his hands and stood up as Zilly moved into the kitchen to move the kettle.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. There are many ways they could¡¯ve met.¡±


    She ignored him, and poured tea into three mismatched mugs before placing three equally mismatched tea cloths over them to keep them warm while they steeped.


    A few minutes later, Vampa and Vera reappeared. Vampa¡¯s cuts and bruises were cleaned and dressed, and the fine dusting of sand from the pit had been washed off of him. That was cleanest Dantes had ever seen him. Now that he and Zilly were in the same room, he was able to trace more similarities. Their ears were set in just the same way, aside from where Vampa¡¯s had been clipped, and their eyes were the same shade of hazel. It was possible that Vampa was also blonde, but with his head clean shaven he had no way to tell.


    ¡°Shall we all sit?¡± asked Vera as she removed the cloth and grabbed a mug.


    ¡°I¡¯ll take mine outside,¡± said Vampa.


    ¡°As will I,¡± agreed Zilly as they walked out the front door onto a small porch that Dantes glimpsed through the door as it opened.


    Vera sighed. ¡°They¡¯re likely to hold that grudge until they die.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Of all the grudges held against me, that one I can handle.¡±


    They moved to sit on separate cushions and sipped their tea. ¡°So, you told me about where the girls had gone, but what about Decker? I don¡¯t recall him even being there when Mondego attacked.¡±


    ¡°He actually drew off three of Mondego¡¯s men. He was targeted first since they thought he was the greatest threat. He found work at a wine shop on the border of uptown actually. Pays quite handsomely too.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Well¡­ midtowners are nothing if not adaptable.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 41: Your Second Favorite F

    Dantes walked down a wide street, possibly the widest he¡¯d ever been down in his life. The buildings to either side of him seemed to rise up and touch the sky and the water running into the gutter seemed so broad and deep that he could mistake it for a river. There were shadows walking around him that seemed completely oblivious to his presence as they moved. Some of them jostled him unknowingly, and others nearly stepped on him as they moved through streets that were like valleys between buildings that seemed as large as mountains.


    Dantes couldn¡¯t recall how he got there, or remember what it was he was doing. He didn¡¯t sense Jacopo, nor could he call on any of the other connections he had monitoring things in the city for him. With nothing else to go off of, he just continued walking forward until the impossibly wide street widened even further into a plaza. Within the plaza was a statue of the mother, beautiful and impossibly large. It was overgrown with vines, flowers, and weeds, and on its shoulders were the silhouettes of thousands of birds.


    The birds all dove down at once toward Dantes, and the wind from their thousands of wingbeats knocked him to the ground and forced him to shelter his face with his arms. When the gust cleared, he removed his arm and in front of him stood a massive pigeon, equal or greater to the shadows that had been knocking him over only moments ago.


    The pigeon was a beautiful shade of purple and iridescent green. Its beak and eyes were pure black, and on its head was a crown that seemed to be made of iron. It spread its wings and placed one under its chest as it tipped its head in an approximation of a formal bow.


    Dantes pushed himself back to his feet. Remembering that the last thing that had happened was him falling asleep, and realizing that this was a dream. A meeting with the pigeon god.


    ¡°Dantes.¡± It said with a high and bubbling voice. ¡°Welcome.¡±


    Dantes returned the bow, making his own even lower, which wasn¡¯t hard given the size discrepancy between them. ¡°Pigeon god. It¡¯s an honor.¡±


    The god puffed up and cooed with pleasure. ¡°Polite, that¡¯s always a pleasant surprise. Do you know why I¡¯ve called you here?¡±


    ¡°I hope it¡¯s to honor me with a blessing and a mark.¡±


    ¡°That is correct. It is rare for one of your kind to ask for such a thing from me. There was a time when I was far more beloved. By both Druids and by the races of the mortal plane in general.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯d be much of a druid if I didn¡¯t ask for the blessing of one with so many children within my locus.¡±


    ¡°This is true, but many don¡¯t see our value anymore. Less than a few centuries ago my children were among the most honored of animals. We were used to send messages, kept for our meat, or even bred for our beauty. We were brought to every city and town as prizes, always considered partners to those who cared for us. Even today, my kind flourish where all parts of your bloodline thrive. My children are much less beloved, but we still cherish your people for bringing us with you.¡±


    Dantes listened to the speech in silence. Pigeons had been a part of his day to day for most of his life. Some of his earliest memories consisted of seeing them with their wobbly gait moving up and down the sidewalk in pursuit of scraps of food. He¡¯d eaten more than one pigeon pie, and had even made a habit of helping fledglings back to their nests when they fell.


    The pigeon god cocked his head, as if reading his thoughts, and wrapped his wings around him. Dantes braced himself for the same pain he was used to experiencing when he received a mark, but instead he felt only a gentle warmth spreading throughout him, then slowly consolidating on a spot halfway up his right arm. It wasn¡¯t even enough to wake him up, and he enjoyed a dreamless black sleep for the rest of the night.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡­


    Dantes awoke in the late morning, several hours later than was typical for him. He felt refreshed and rested, which was also atypical of what he was used to, and he pushed himself to sit up in his bedroll. He looked at his arm, and saw a mark of a pigeon''s foot, divided into four sections, one for the main body of it, and three for each of the toes. The largest one was half filled with gold.


    He looked over to the small chunk of roof on top of which a number of pigeons roosted, and sent his will toward it. A small pigeon of mottled brown and white fluttered down and started pacing left and right. Dantes stroked its head a bit, and released it to let it return to its nest.


    ¡°Two-legs call both bats and pigeons rats with wings. Why is that?¡± asked Jacopo as he crawled along the mossy layer that covered the garden toward Dantes.


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Probably a compliment¡­ for pigeons and bats that is. Some people assign rat-like qualities to them since rats, obviously, set the standard.¡±


    Jacopo nodded. That made perfect sense to him.


    Dantes stood and went through his morning routine. He washed as best he could with a water basin and some soap, shared some breakfast with Jacopo, then he started to tend to his garden. They¡¯d all begun to grow to the point that they would be noticeable and endangered, so Clay had suggested the planting of thick thorn and berry bushes at the outskirts. Dantes took the seeds he¡¯d been given, and started planting them that morning, taking the time to water them when he was done. Clay had not considered it, but the bushes would also provide excellent natural cover for a number of the vermin that he¡¯d managed to earn the trust and blessings of. From his main garden, he went on to all of the others, occasionally burying a seed in a random patch of dirt when his instincts and the seeds agreed that they¡¯d like to be planted there.


    As he walked and worked, Dantes began moving through his daily tally of damage he¡¯d done to Mondego. The warehouse and all of its goods had been destroyed, and he¡¯d been forced to try and diversify where his goods were held, slowing his shipments and angering his clients and men. A number of those under his protections, from gamblers to dealers, to whores, had been arrested or had their goods seized by Pacha and the guard. He¡¯d done a lot of damage, and was doing more everyday between Pacha and his own ventures, but he needed to put more pressure on. Mondego knew who he was and what powers he had. There was no more reason for him to hold back and stay secretive as he had been. It was time to take more direct approaches. To show off what he could really do. He flexed his wooden hand, smiling as he did so.


    If he was going to go after things himself, he may as well make it so that Mondego¡¯s attentions were divided in as many other directions as possible. Dantes made it back to his main garden and pulled out the high stack of parchment that he¡¯d purchased. He wrote down the descriptions for five separate enterprises of Mondego¡¯s, and when they were at their busiest. Two stash-houses, a whorehouse full of dust, another gambling den, and the location of an unlicensed enchanter. He saved the juiciest targets for himself at the docks, but made sure that they were far from the border with midtown to make sure that they wouldn¡¯t cross paths, nor would Mondego be able to react easily to his actions. Once he was done with the note he tied it to a rat¡¯s foot, and sent it to place the note on Pacha¡¯s desk.


    He then wrote another letter in the style of Danglar¡¯s mother, this time promising him that she¡¯d found him the most enchanting match in hell. He then added a description that made it very clear that the match was in fact, a very large stake upon which he would be skewered.


    Finally, he wrote a number of letters in Danglar¡¯s hand, to various people he had worked with, calling them the foulest and most horrible names he could imagine, then adding Danglar¡¯s seal to them. He then wrote several genuine proposals for actual legal and committee work, and sent those to different associates of Danglars, also with his seal.


    Once he was done, Dantes had a number of rats and pigeons deliver the message while he stood and gathered his things. He loaded a pistol, filled his bag with hammers that break the vermin enchantment, and slipped on his jacket before holding a hand out to Jacopo so that he could crawl up onto his shoulder.


    ¡°Ready to do a bit of your second favorite F?¡±


    ¡°Feeding? Yes.¡±


    ¡°Make that third favorite.¡±


    ¡°Fighting? Also, yes.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 42: Im Supposed to Count Things Now?

    Dantes approached the young boy who stood guard outside of one of Mondego¡¯s new warehouses. He was a mutt, with some clear dwarven and orcish ancestry given the near full beard and tusks despite his youthful features. When he saw him, he lifted a hand to his mouth as if to yell, but Dantes held a gold coin to his lips while shushing him. The boy¡¯s eyes widened at the gold piece that glinted in the sunlight, and he nodded to him. Dantes flipped the coin to the boy who deftly caught it and went running, only barely having the sense to put the coin away before he did so to keep from being mugged on the way home.


    Dantes stood at the entrance to the warehouse. ¡®Warehouse¡¯ was a generous distinction. The building looked to be what remained of an old fishery, but now it acted as one of the handful of new stash houses that Mondego had moved to since Dantes had sent Gavain at his largest one like a bullet from a gun. Inside he noted ten men, and four women working to unload a shipment of dust that they¡¯d just offloaded from a Frasheid boat. They were armed with the standard array of thugish weaponry. They had clubs, knives, a few pistols, and one was concealing a wand in their boot.


    Dantes cracked his neck and summoned his will, gathering a mixture of vermin with his mark. He lifted one of the hammers that Felix had given him, one that could break the anti-vermin enchantments completely, and gently tapped it against the invisible force which surrounded the building. He could feel a change in the air around the structure as he did so, and the hammer itself collapsed to dust. Felix had only been able to make around one of those per week, making them far more valuable than the keys, and on top of that they were single use. Still, Dantes wanted to show strength. There was no purpose in hoarding goods and never actually using what advantages he had. He knocked on the door and stepped to the side of it, drawing his pistol and aiming it as he did so.


    He watched through the eyes of Jacopo who sat peering in through the far window, one of them approached the door cautiously with a heavy club wrapped in iron at his side. The man pushed the door open and leaned forward out of it when he realized that no one was standing there.


    Dantes put the gun to the man¡¯s temple, and pulled the trigger.


    The man¡¯s body crumbled, and in that same moment Dantes sent in his vermin through all the nooks and crannies in the building to assault those that remained. Pigeons flew in through a hole in the roof and pecked at eyes, rats clawed and bit at whoever they could reach, and roaches swarmed over all of them causing them to scream in fear.


    One woman, wielding a pistol, managed to bring it up and aim it vaguely in Dantes¡¯s direction as he approached, but he extended his wooden hand and knocked it away as she pulled the trigger, causing the shot to go wide. He then pulled his hand back, shaped it into a point, and extended it through her chest.


    A half-Orc screamed out in rage and threw himself onto a pile of dust causing the air to be filled with a thick cloud of it. He then charged Dantes with a dagger in his hand.


    Dantes was blinded, but his improved senses meant that he knew exactly where the man was. He drew his stiletto and crouched to the left, slicing at the man¡¯s ankles and causing him to fall where the rats and roaches could better attack at his face.


    The majority of the remaining men and women ran, and Dantes let them go. Killing them was a waste of favor, will, and energy. The last of them that tried to kill him, lunged at him with a dagger, but was stopped when Jacopo had a weed growing through the floorboards wrap around his leg and trip him. He then sent his cousins to feed on the man as he screamed.


    Dantes began to reload his pistol as he watched the chaos unfolding around him. He felt almost euphoric as he stood there, and part of him wanted to simply sit and enjoy the excellent work he¡¯d already done. It took him a few moments to realize that the feeling was likely because of the overwhelming amount of dust in the air. It had been years since he had a hit and his sensitivity seemed to be almost what it was before he¡¯d started using it. He couldn¡¯t bring himself to scowl over the unexpected break in his sobriety, but he did manage to pull a piece of cloth from his coat to cover his smile and his nose to keep from breathing more in. He moved to where the dust was being processed. It was dozens of separated sacks with a set amount in each. He considered taking it to sell for a moment, but the time and manpower required made the prospect unappealing. Instead he found a massive tub that had been used to collect rainwater from the leaking roof, and tossed each sack into it. Just as he was finishing, a guard busted through the door with his sword held high. Dantes shifted into a rat, and left him to look over the scene with wide eyes and a look of confusion on his face. Then he slipped out, shifted back to himself in a nearby alley and moved on to the next target.


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    As he walked through the docks, passing sailors, traders, and the occasional whore, he shifted his attention to the targets he¡¯d given Pacha. He¡¯d been busy, he¡¯d already cleared both stash houses, and left his newer deputies to finish sorting them out. He was on the way to the whorehouse. Pacha had the look of a man on fire. His eyes were narrowed, searching for any movement, or reaction, his motions were taught and efficient, and he was taking long and invigorating breaths even as he moved forward. Dantes hadn¡¯t expected him to hit so many targets so quickly, but found himself impressed. He would need to catch up. After all, Pacha had only two dozen men working with him at this point, Dantes had thousands.


    He reached the second of the storehouses, finding that this one was filled with not dust, but gunpowder, guns, and even what looked like wands and potions. In this case, it really was a house, an old worn down piece of slum that they¡¯d moved into to move goods, likely because it backed right up to a small piece of beach onto which a small-rowboat could land to deposit small amounts of cargo. This operation was smaller than the last one, but the commodities it processed were also very valuable and dangerous. There were only seven men inside, and most of them were divided into different rooms. Two sat in the main room, smoking weed and shooting the shit. Two were sorting the gunpowder upstairs, another two were cataloging the magical goods in a small room off the main hall, and one was watching the front door.


    Of the two cataloging the magical items, one was wearing a tarnished triangle and circle pin marking him as a student or at least a former student of the academy. That made Dantes a bit more cautious. He could see an easy, short, but dangerous way to take the place out, and a gradual, long, but safe way to take care of it. He looked around, noting that while most of the docks tended to be crowded, this small house had a good five or so yards between it and everything else. It may have been the aftereffects of the dust he¡¯d inhaled less than an hour previous, but he was feeling a bit giddy and leaning strongly toward the more dangerous and fast option. He shifted into a cockroach, and crawled up the wall until he reached the second story where the gunpowder was being sorted. The two men were working on a large pile of gunpowder in front of them, but had their backs turned to the opened barrel of it behind them. Dantes crawled until he was behind the barrel, and pulled a piece of rope from his pocket. He began to unravel it, pulling a long thread from one end of it. Listening for any signs that the two men were going to turn around.


    ¡°You think Terras would join me at the pub?¡±


    ¡°No Dun, I don¡¯t think she would.¡±


    ¡°Why not? I¡¯ve got a lot to offer a woman. I got good money coming in from this job, a place, connections.¡±


    ¡°Two reasons, Dun. One, she¡¯s a half elf, they never go for guys with as much in the mix as you do. Secondly, you have the dick of a gnome and the personality of an Orc with worms.¡±


    ¡°...that was three things.¡±


    ¡°What? I¡¯m supposed to count things now?¡±


    ¡°Have you¡­ have you not been measuring the gunpowder as we pour it?¡±


    ¡°Fuck no. Who gives a shit if the dwarves get shorted.¡±


    ¡°The dwarves. Our boss Finn. His boss Mondego.¡±


    Dantes finished what he was doing and stood up just enough to stick one end of his makeshift fuse into the gunpowder. He took out Tel¡¯s finger and lit the other end of it, then quickly scurried back up the wall as a roach before shifting to ratform and standing a couple alleyways further back down. He and Jacopo stood there for nearly a full minute.


    Dantes looked at him. ¡°Maybe they found-¡±


    The explosion went off and the ground seemed to shake even as wooden debris, bones, and meat began to rain down all around them. When things settled Dantes stretched his mouth wide open in an attempt to clear the ringing from his ear and shook his head. Jacopo had instinctively dove into a deeper pocket.


    Dantes stepped far enough out to see the building now in ruins. He smiled. Only a few more warehouses to go.

 Book 2 Ch 43: Dont Shake Them

    Jayk, Jayson, and Zak all sat together around a small table in the corner of the Drowned Rat. The bartender Biertan was lazily playing a Melancholy tune on a small lute while rain fell on the roof and trickled down to collect on the floor. It was about a centimeter high at this point, but if the rain lasted for too long it could easily rise to a foot or more. Water ran along the walls, dripped directly onto the floor next to them, and even into their drinks.


    Jayk frowned as a particularly large droplet splashed into his beer.


    Jayson smiled. ¡°The water could only improve the taste.¡±


    Jayk sighed and drank a bit of it. It had the taste of piss and the aroma of a dying skunk. It didn¡¯t even seem to cause a buzz. Either the beer had already been watered down, or the casks holding it had enough holes that the rain watered it down all on its own.


    ¡°This is the worst tavern I¡¯ve ever been in,¡± said Zak, not bothering to stay quiet enough to Bierten, the bartender, not to hear him


    Bierten didn¡¯t care, he knew that was a true statement, but there are benefits to running the worst bar. People went there for their illicit meetings, they sold and bought drugs, and many men of disrepute gathered there to be found for work. It was because of those benefits that he was the one of the richest tavern owners in midtown, despite having its worst bar.


    They all nursed their awful drinks a bit more, nibbling on the slightly damp peanuts they shared in a bowl between them as they waited.


    ¡°Are we sure he¡¯s going to show?¡± asked Jayson.


    ¡°He always managed to make our meetings when we were in the prison. There¡¯s no reason to think he wouldn¡¯t be able to make them here,¡± responded Jayk.


    The candles across the tavern all flickered as the door opened and a man stepped inside. He was average height, wearing tall boots, and a long green jacket. His hood was up, but even with his face hidden he gave off a tremendous amount of presence. All those inside suddenly felt as if there were one thousand eyes watching from every direction. The bartender''s lute-playing hit the wrong note for a moment, and he stopped to look back at his hands and reposition them along the strings.


    ¡°Told you,¡± said Jayk as the man walked directly toward their table. He hadn¡¯t even looked for where they were sitting. It was as if he knew where they were before even entering.


    He sat in the chair across from Jayk, and between Zak and Jayson. He was a bit taller than Zak, and a bit shorter than Jayson, but he seemed bigger than both of them somehow. He pulled back his green hood and looked at them with eyes as gold as coins.


    ¡°So, did you settle on a new name?¡± he asked with a smile as he leaned back in his chair.


    The three of them exchanged glances, and Jayson spoke. ¡°We decided on¡­ no name, actually.¡±


    ¡°Oh really?¡±


    Jayk nodded. ¡°Yeah, we realized that all the big guys in the city, the ones you don¡¯t fuck with, they don¡¯t have names. They just¡­are.¡±


    ¡°Except for the Gatemen,¡± interjected Zak.


    ¡°They work for the littlest of the fingers for a reason,¡± replied Jayson.


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Now that¡¯s a good answer. I mean, something more like ¡®Pit Rats¡¯ may have worked too, but no name at all? That¡¯s probably the best answer you could¡¯ve given.¡± He pushed his hair from his face as he spoke. His hand looked strange to Zak, but he couldn¡¯t quite figure out why.


    Jayk noted a difference in his face and expression since they¡¯d seen him last. His features seemed a bit more narrow, his eyes more probing, his movements were easygoing, but had a kind of quickness to him that spoke of intense alertness to everything around him.


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    ¡°So, why did you call us out here? It can¡¯t have just been about our name.¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± smiled Dantes, ¡°it was mostly about the name, but yes I do have something else for you.¡± He reached into his jacket and everyone at the table tensed, but resisted going for any of their weapons. He pulled out three small boxes, and three hammers, and slid them gently to the middle of the table. ¡°If you¡¯re going to be working with me, it will put you in danger. These should help.¡±


    Zak picked up one of the boxes and shook it gently by his ear, hearing something move quickly around the inside of the box when he did so.


    ¡°Don¡¯t shake them.¡±


    Zak stopped, and placed the box back on the table a little sheepishly.


    ¡°If you find yourself in danger, you need to crush the box. That will let me know that I need to help you.¡±


    Jayk held one of the hammers. ¡°This¡­ this one has magic to it. I can smell roses. He sniffed the box as well. This one smells too, but more faintly, like what''s magic is inside the box rather than the box itself. What do they do?¡±


    Zak snickered, but held back from his usual critique of how Jayk sensed magic.


    ¡°The hammers can break an anti-vermin enchantment, and the key inside them will let the box enter places with that enchantment. If you¡¯re in danger somewhere vermin can¡¯t reach, use the hammer and I¡¯ll be better able to help you.¡±


    Each of the three men took their own box and hammer, and tucked them into their jackets and pockets. Jayk hesitated, it was only for a moment, but he was certain Dantes had noticed. They were giving something up, losing options, by taking these objects. The price of security, that cost of doing business with someone like Dantes.


    Zak didn¡¯t think about it too much. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡±


    ¡°What was the other thing you wanted?¡± asked Jayson.


    ¡°Information. I want to know what the state of things in Mondego¡¯s operation is. Particularly how his lieutenants and other men are feeling about him.¡±


    Jayson spoke first. ¡°No one is happy with him right now. The men are dying or being arrested left and right, less and less gold is flowing down and more of it up. A lot of men and women already bailed.¡±


    ¡°I talked to an old member of the Dock Sharks that mentioned he was upset at what they did to the Vixen. Called it an ¡®institution¡¯. Apparently he lost his virginity there a long time ago when he was still a sailor.¡±


    Dantes absorbed that information carefully, his full focus was on the table, and the three of them were having difficulty under the pressure of it. It was like having the weight of a leviathan on your shoulders.


    ¡°What about those not working for Mondego, but with him. The neighboring gangs, those who are on the other side of the smuggling. Anything from them?¡±


    Zak and Jayson turned to Jayk, who sighed. ¡°They are even less happy than those under Mondego, but there aren¡¯t any other options for smuggling at the docks. The number of shipments they¡¯ve lost is a large negative for them, but there¡¯s no other game in town. The gangs outside of midtown are looking at the territory hungrily, but no ones making any moves. Not sure why, but my guess is that the fingers are having them hold off.¡±


    Dantes nodded along as he spoke. ¡°They¡¯re making them hold off, but they¡¯re not making them help. That¡¯s good, means they haven¡¯t accepted him as one of them.¡± Dantes took a nut and placed it into his jacket.


    Zak watched as his coat shifted slightly and then Dantes¡¯s hand reappeared with nothing in it.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to need more specifics, but I don¡¯t expect you to have them now. I want a list of former gang leaders that got absorbed into Mondego¡¯s organization. I want to know what their current attitudes are, and if you think they¡¯re pliable or not. I also want to know how many of them have rivalries with other groups, or have had them. In a week there will be a pigeon on the window of wherever you¡¯re staying. It will tap three times. I want you to write the information I¡¯ve asked for down, and tie it to the bird''s leg. We won¡¯t speak again in person unless I feel it¡¯s necessary. Do you understand?¡±


    The three of them nodded.


    ¡°Good. Keep working with me and when I own midtown, I¡¯ll make sure each of you has a piece. You¡¯re too talented for grunt work¡­ dealing dust? Mondego and his people have no eye for talent.¡± Dantes stood and drew his hood back up. ¡°We¡¯ll be in touch.¡± He walked out of the building, and some of the feeling of presence left with him, but not all of it. It was as if a piece of him lingered behind wherever he went.


    ¡°How did he know about the dealing?¡± asked Zak.


    ¡°Same way as everything else. He can control vermin. He¡¯s been watching us. That¡¯s probably why he mentioned that, to remind us that he has eyes on us at all times,¡± said Jayk, a touch of bitterness in his voice.


    ¡°I thought it was just plants,¡± said Jayson.


    Jayk shook his head. ¡°No, I heard from one of the guys that attacked him with Mondego. Rats, roaches, bats, he can summon them at will. They also said he can teleport.¡±


    ¡°Gods¡­at least it seems like we backed the right one.¡±


    Jayk nodded, though reluctantly. ¡°It certainly feels like we did.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 44: Where was he? Hiding under a half-pint mug?

    Dantes was finishing a letter when Wane entered his garden. He didn¡¯t look up, but instead finished it, and began to fold it, placing it alongside the other letters he¡¯d prepared. He had some for Danglars from his mother, a few for Pacha, one to simply be dropped into Mondego¡¯s front lawn with a cryptic note about one of his lieutenants that meant nothing, but was meant to make him anxious, and the last one which he folded with additional care and held in his hand staring into the middle distance for almost a full minute before Wane coughed to get his attention.


    Dantes calmly crumpled up the last message, then began to tie a different one to the leg of a pigeon that hopped off of his shoulder and onto his hand. Then he looked at Wane with a smile as he stood up from his makeshift desk.


    ¡°Wane! I wasn¡¯t sure when I¡¯d see you again.¡±


    They clasped hands and drew into a quick embrace, then separated.


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure myself. I hadn¡¯t actually planned to see you for some time yet. Merle has us all¡­ very busy with some things I can¡¯t talk about.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m familiar with secrets, though I¡¯m surprised I haven''t even noticed any of you with my vermin.¡±


    Wane smiled. ¡°Now that the collars are off, it would take an archmage to find us.¡±


    Dantes plucked two peaches from his tree and tossed one to Wane before biting into the other one. ¡°So, what brings you here then? The first bit of help was free, but anything else and I¡¯ll need to charge.¡±


    Wane took a bite through the peach along with a bit of its pit, his half orc teeth carving through it like it wasn¡¯t there. ¡°No, this isn¡¯t anything to do with them. This is about you and me. Something more personal.¡±


    Dantes nodded, pulling a small piece of his fruit away to hand to Jacopo who stood on his shoulder.


    Wane took a moment to give a warm nod to Jacopo, who returned it in kind.


    ¡°It¡¯s Pillion. I found him.¡±


    Dantes swallowed. ¡°Where was he? Hiding under a half-pint mug?¡±


    Wane chuckled. ¡°No. He¡¯s in the lower west side. He¡¯s still with the Consortium, but now he¡¯s a contact for the Kobolds there that want things to make their way down into the pit.¡±


    ¡°Last I¡¯d heard, he¡¯d betrayed the Collared to the Consortium and because of that my blood garden went out of control¡­ Still, I can¡¯t say that wouldn¡¯t have happened anyway.¡±


    Wane shook his head. ¡°This isn¡¯t about the results, this is about the betrayal itself. Pillion wasn¡¯t well liked, but he knew a lot of Merle¡¯s plans and was willing to sell us out once before. Merle is too focused to give it his attention, so I¡¯m going to take care of it for him. I thought you might be interested in taking a piece of him yourself.¡±


    Dantes tossed the remains of his fruit onto the ground and carefully wiped the juice of it from the corner of his mouth with his wooden hand. ¡°Do you think he¡¯s gotten his collar off?¡±


    Wane looked confused at Dantes¡¯s hand as he spoke. ¡°I¡¯m not sure. None of what I was told indicates that he did. Kobolds don¡¯t always consider the same details pertinent that we do.¡± He paused. ¡°Is your hand fucking wood now?¡±


    Dantes laughed and held up his new hand, making his fingers bend backward and forward a few times in such a way that made Wane grimace.


    ¡°Yeah, I was forced to make a change.¡±


    ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°Mondego, an old enemy of mine. He attacked some friends to draw me out. It worked.¡±


    Wane nodded. ¡°He¡¯s dead I¡¯d guess.¡±


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    Dantes¡¯s eyes seemed to reflect the sunlight so strongly they almost appeared to be glowing. ¡°Oh no. Not until he has nothing left.¡±


    Wane suppressed a mild shudder.


    ¡°But, there¡¯s nothing I can actively do about it today. So, let¡¯s find Pillion. What¡¯s the usual punishment for someone betraying the Collared? I don¡¯t think it happened even once in all the time I was there.¡±


    ¡°There was really no reason to betray us. We didn¡¯t care if you left to join another gang, or wanted to do some hustling on the side. The only way to ¡®betray¡¯ us was to steal from us, kill one of us, or give our secrets to others. We have the same punishment for betrayal as every other gang in the underprison. Death.¡±


    Dantes nodded along as Wane spoke and took his jacket off of a branch from which he¡¯d had it hanging. He slipped it on, then made sure his gun was loaded, his stiletto was in the right spot, and slipped a bit of dried meat into his pocket for Jacopo.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go kill a gnome. How should we do it? Drown him in a thimble?¡±


    ¡°I was thinking we¡¯d stab him to death with a toothpick.¡±


    ¡°Feed him to Jacopo?¡±


    ¡°No, he definitely tastes like shit. How about we just toss him into the air and brain him on a cloud?¡±


    ¡°Too much work. Maybe we can bury him alive in a burnstick box?¡±


    ¡°Waste of a perfectly good box. Maybe get him stuck in a glue trap?¡±


    ¡°No, no. I¡¯ve heard too much from rats how cruel those are. You know what, let¡¯s just see what mood strikes us when we find him?¡±


    Wane nodded. ¡°Excellent idea. No reason to settle on anything before we¡¯re certain how we feel. Besides, we may come up with even better ideas on the way there.¡±


    Dantes nodded, smiling, as they made their way out of his garden and started heading for the gate.


    ¡­


    The trip to the outskirts of Rendhold was uneventful, but Dantes never liked feeling the change of cobblestone roads under his boots to dirt and mud paths. He kept a few pigeons watching things above them, and a few rats keeping eyes on the corners, but didn¡¯t expect trouble this far from Midtown where his main enemies resided. They made their way past the small square where Hema had her herbalist shop, and then deeper into Kobold territory.


    Dantes liked Kobold territory a bit more than the other sections of the city¡¯s outskirts. The territory was divided into multiple smaller squares that each could function mostly independently of the other. Each square would have a single large sleeping building in which a few dozen of a specific clan would reside. They¡¯d also have their own workshops, public mud-baths, and even a designated stone square on which they could take turns sunbathing.


    The Kobolds largely ignored both Dantes and Wane as they walked through their spaces, but it wasn¡¯t out of rudeness or dislike, but rather they were all so absorbed in whatever it was they were doing they couldn¡¯t bother with anything else. The workshops were full of Kobolds that were staring at their work with enough attention that Dantes felt almost as if they could bore holes through things with their eyes. Even the younger Kobolds, those whose scales hadn¡¯t fully taken on the richness of color found in their older peers, were often hunched over solving complicated puzzle toys, or were so focused on whatever games they played that they dove through Wane¡¯s legs, or in one case climbed over Dantes rather than divert course.


    Dantes had frequently heard people compare Kobolds to dwarves. They both tended to live in caves and had a tremendous capacity for creation, but in his mind that¡¯s where the similarities ended. A dwarf would create something that can be standardized, applied to dozens of other things, and profited from. A dwarf may take joy in the invention, but that was never its only purpose, they tended toward practicality. A kobold would spend a year perfecting the perfect pair of glasses that could clasp to a snout rather than a nose, and adjust the magnification as needed, and it would be perfect and completely useless to anyone who wasn¡¯t that particular kobold. They did it for the love of the game, which was something Dantes could very much appreciate.


    They passed through two or three of the square enclaves before Wane started looking around more closely.


    ¡°The info I got was that he was working mostly in Buried Claw territory. They tend toward dark gray and brown scales.¡± He shook his head. ¡°I¡¯d attempt a divining spell to find him, but if he has his collar off it would almost certainly warn him that we¡¯re coming¡­ I wish a Kobold would gain a passion for mapmaking and signposting. Gods that would make things more convenient. ¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll use a kind of divining spell of my own.¡± He reached out his will and began gathering a small flock of pigeons. He sent them off in all directions around them. When one of them came upon Kobolds that tended toward more gray and brown he sent more pigeons in that direction, and started walking toward that block with Wane. It was interesting watching the colors of the kobolds slowly change from the reds and greens they were around into the grays and browns they were searching for. From what Dantes understood, crossbreeding was frowned upon, but common. A bit like whoring.


    ¡°You think this is it?¡± said Wane looking around.


    ¡°Hmmm, let me try using another power to make sure.¡± Dantes began to make a fancy gesture, then simply waved a hand in front of a Kobold tinkering with an elaborate locking mechanism to get his attention.


    ¡°This Buried Claw territory?¡±


    ¡°Yep.¡±


    ¡°Thanks.¡±


    He looked at Wane. ¡°Yeah, this is it.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 45: Just a Student Trying to Learn

    Dantes and Wane began walking through Buried Claw territory toward the back corner of it where, just like every other kobold enclave, there would be tiny shops set up by outsiders. It was possible that Pillion was doing his dealings underground, or through intermediaries, but unlikely. The Consortium¡¯s actions weren¡¯t technically legal, but the city turned a blind eye to them. Because of the extra goods the consortium brought in, the city could skimp on the amount of goods they sent into the Pit, and besides that, the Consortium greased their palms on the regular. That said, Dantes hadn¡¯t been able to locate a Consortium contact since he¡¯d escaped. He¡¯d looked regularly, but hadn¡¯t been able to turn anything up. He wasn¡¯t sure if it was him they were avoiding, or they¡¯d gotten more cautious overall since what had happened down in the Underprison.


    Dantes held out a hand in front of Wane and had him follow him into a narrow alley between two smaller buildings. He sent out a number of rats and roaches to search each of the buildings. He found a gnome selling some colorful ceramics, a dwarf selling small kits for everything from whittling to engraving, and even a kobold from another clan making custom tools that Dantes couldn¡¯t even begin to recognize. Toward the far corner, in a building guarded by two Kobolds, Dantes found Pillion. He was dressed differently than down in the Pit. No more robes. He instead wore a crimson doublet and navy trousers. Where he would¡¯ve worn a collar, a small scarf covered, making it impossible to tell if he was wearing one, though Dantes sensed no magic through the rat as it crawled into a small pile of hay in the corner.


    Dantes opened his eyes.


    ¡°He¡¯s in the building in the far corner with the guards. He¡¯s wearing a scarf, so I can¡¯t tell if he still has his collar or not.¡±


    Wane stroked his chin. ¡°It¡¯s possible they couldn¡¯t find a mage skilled enough to have it removed. We were extraordinarily lucky to have Felix¡¯s help. That¡¯s assuming the Consortium would even see value in it.¡±


    ¡°What was his specialty? I know Felix is enchantments and bindings, and Tel was adept at summoning answers from the Hells. Was he good at anything dangerous?¡±


    ¡°Hmmm, he was adept at illusion. It can be dangerous, but it¡¯s really all in how a person uses it. I never saw him work it myself, we were a few years separated at the Academy and didn¡¯t interact.¡±


    ¡°What about you?¡±


    ¡°Me?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Are you particularly good at blowing things up, or shooting lightning from your hands? Can you control blood?¡±


    ¡°Not every mage has something they excel at or only they can do. Most of us are just students trying to learn.¡±


    ¡°Comforting.¡±


    ¡°Well, not everyone is granted enormous power with no study randomly after spending a decade in a dark hole.¡±


    ¡°It was only five years.¡±


    ¡°Really? You look old then.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s aim this aggression back to our actual target, shall we?¡±


    Wane nodded.


    ¡°So, how should we go in? Through the front? Rush him?¡±


    Wane picked at a tusk. ¡°No¡­ Do you think you can keep him talking for a while?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, stupid question. Keep him busy and I¡¯ll come in through the back to jump him. I¡¯d rather take him back to Merle alive so we can interrogate him, but if it comes down to it, don¡¯t hesitate to put him down.¡±


    Dantes nodded, and cracked his neck left and right before walking up the path toward the Kobold guards. They eyed him warily as they approached.


    He waved, a little awkwardly, trying to seem uncomfortable. ¡°Hi, I uh, have a letter and some uh,¡± he looked both ways cautiously, ¡°weed that I want to send to a friend down in the Underprison. Mex-Tal told me to try here?¡±


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    The guards looked him up and down. Something about their instincts was making them wary, but he was barely larger than they were and clearly no real threat, so they gestured for him to go inside.


    Dantes had his hood drawn, and his wooden hand flexed as he pushed his way inside through the thin wooden door.


    Pillion had his head buried in a ledger of some kind, one that was nearly half his size. ¡°I¡¯ll be with you in just a moment,¡± he shook his head and muttered, ¡°fucking overgrown lizards let anyone in.¡±


    Dantes pulled his hood back and sat in the chair across the desk from him.


    ¡°That¡¯s no problem, I can wait.¡±


    Pillion stopped his writing and looked up with a kind of immediate hate in his eyes. Up close, and through his own eyes, Dantes could tell that much like himself, surface life much agreed with Pillion. His hollowed cheeks had filled out quite a bit, and there was a kind of light in his eyes that hadn¡¯t been there before.


    ¡°You.¡±


    ¡°Me.¡±


    Pillion leaned back in his chair and looked him over.


    Dantes felt the tips of his fingers tingle, but could see or sense nothing changing in front of or around him. He shifted his attention to Jacopo¡¯s senses and detected no changes through him either.


    ¡°I had so sincerely hoped you¡¯d¡¯ve gotten yourself killed by now.¡±


    ¡°Same to you.¡±


    ¡°How¡¯d you find me?¡±


    ¡°Wasn¡¯t looking for you. I just wanted to find a Consortium contact and happened to hear your name. I¡¯m actually pretty impressed with you.¡±


    ¡°Unlikely.¡±


    ¡°No really, when I left the Pit you were a dust addict with no power. I¡¯m guessing it was that nasty habit that led you to betray the Collared. Still, managing to leverage that betrayal into an escape with the Consortium and a job on the outside? Not bad.¡± He looked around the office. ¡°They sold you a little short though, eh? Working with Kobolds¡­ I¡¯d pick a job like that because I like the scaly folk, but I¡¯d bet they consider this shitty work.¡±


    He scowled. ¡°What did you need a Consortium contact for?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m trying to contact a few people still in the Underprison¡­ and I want my letters.¡±


    ¡°Your letters?¡±


    ¡°I know that Mondego paid to make sure they never made it to me, Rumpert, the executive in the Underprison, told me. I want them.¡±


    ¡°Well I don¡¯t have the ones you would¡¯ve received while you were in the prison, but you are in luck.¡±


    Dantes could feel movement to his right, but neither he nor Jacopo could actually see anything, and Pillion was still sitting at his desk.


    ¡°I actually happen to have a letter for you. It¡¯s not from the surface though, it¡¯s from the Underprison. I lied and told my higher ups I¡¯d be able to get it to you.


    ¡°Any chance you¡¯re just going to give it to me?¡±


    The sense of someone approaching from the right got even closer. Dantes was almost certain someone was about to attack him from that side.


    ¡°No. In fact, after we¡¯re done here I¡¯m going to burn it. Just for shits and giggles.¡±


    Dantes kicked out his foot where he sensed an attacker and felt it connect. The image of Pillion in front of him disappeared as what he kicked revealed itself to be the actual Pillion. He stood up and planted the same foot he¡¯d kicked out on Pillion¡¯s chest.


    ¡°Nice try.¡±


    The image of Pillion smiled, and faded.


    Above Dantes Pillion dropped from the air with a dagger in hand, but at that moment the back wall of the building turned to dust and silently blew both of them against the far wall.


    Dantes Grunted, but no sound came from his mouth. He rubbed the dust from his eyes and looked around to see Wane walking in from the back wall. Pillion was also standing and pushing dust from his eyes, his dagger fallen to the ground. He seemed to be screaming, but Dantes could hear nothing. Wane drove a fist into Pillion¡¯s face and he went limp.


    Wane held out a hand to Dantes, who took it and stood.


    Wane raised a finger to his lips to make sure Dantes stayed quiet.


    Dantes nodded.


    Wane raised a hand up then slowly brought it down. As he did so, the ambient sound of the room returned.


    Dantes looked at him with his eyebrow raised.


    ¡°I turned the wall to dust and made it push outward while also making everything within the structure absolutely silent. It takes a long time to set up and I can¡¯t maintain it for long, but it seemed the best way to take care of things without raising alarms.¡±


    ¡°Just a student trying to learn, eh?¡±


    Wane shrugged, ¡°I had a lot of time in the Pit to theorize.¡± He smiled. ¡°It¡¯s nice to turn theory into practice though.¡±


    Dantes looked at the unconscious Pillion and frowned. ¡°Damn, I wanted to know if he was telling the truth about that letter or just fucking with me.¡±


    Wane shrugged. ¡°You should have some time to search. This building backs up to nothing, and the guards clearly aren¡¯t suspicious.¡±


    Dantes nodded and started looking through all of the documents. He reached first for the ledger, but when it set his fingers tingling, he decided against it. Who knew what enchantments the Consortium flooded their ledger¡¯s with. He found some weed, dust, and a fair amount of coin, but no letter. He dug deeper into the drawers and shelves and eventually found a letter sealed with wax that said, ¡°Dantes¡±, across the front. He pocketed it and nodded at Wane who had finished binding up Pillion and was throwing him in his own bag.


    Dantes sighed. ¡°I can¡¯t believe he almost got the drop on me.¡±


    ¡°What do you think? If he¡¯d managed to land on you would it have felt more like a raindrop, or an acorn?¡±


    Dantes picked up Pillion¡¯s dagger and tapped it against his chin, thinking. ¡°Maybe a mosquito?¡±

 Book 2 Ch 46: Try not to die before we can meet again

    They walked back toward the gate into Rendhold at a leisurely pace, the Kobold guards they left behind still none the wiser to the fact that they were carrying away their employer. Wane didn¡¯t even seem encumbered by the weight of the bound and gagged gnome in his pack.


    ¡°It was good working with you,¡± said Dantes as he opened the wax seal on his letter with Pillion¡¯s dagger. He saw who it was from, and carefully tucked it back into his jacket, wanting to give it his full attention later.


    ¡°You as well.¡±


    ¡°You ever think about working with me on the regular?¡±


    ¡°Merle needs me. We¡¯re¡­ getting close to what we want to accomplish.¡±


    ¡°And he gives you no free time? He¡¯s opposed to you working the odd job here and there? That doesn¡¯t sound like him.¡±


    Wane sighed. ¡°Of course if I asked he¡¯d have no problem, but it¡¯s all hands on deck at the moment, he just doesn¡¯t want to order us around like a dictator. He leads by example.¡±


    ¡°How much does it make you?¡±


    ¡°Nothing. It¡¯s not about gold.¡±


    ¡°Well, it doesn¡¯t have to be about gold. It can be about winning it. I seem to remember the twinkle in your eye when we sat down and rolled dice together. Are you still doing that with what¡¯s left of the Collared?¡±


    ¡°...no, but there are more important things.¡±


    ¡°There are, yes, but those important things don¡¯t take up every moment. Eventually I¡¯m going to need people I can trust at my side. You¡¯d be my first choice.¡±


    Wane was quiet as they walked together through the gate. The gatemen eyed Dantes a bit longer than he liked, but no one stopped their crossing.


    ¡°Maybe once things at the Academy are done¡­ For now though, I¡¯ve gotta see what we¡¯re doing through.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough. I¡¯ll always have an opening for you.¡±


    ¡°Would I be third after you and Jacopo?¡±


    ¡°Closer to Six thousandth. I¡¯ve had a lot of loyal rats, roaches, and bats at my side for some time. I don¡¯t think it would be very fair for you to skip over them in rank.¡±


    Wane nodded solemnly. ¡°True, that¡¯s an easy way to start a mutiny.¡±


    They shared a few more jokes and soon found themselves back at Dantes¡¯s garden.


    ¡°Really though,¡± said Dantes, ¡°If you and Merle need anything else from me, let me know.¡±


    Wane nodded, and drew a silver coin from his pocket. On the coin was the mark of the Academy, a simple circle with a triangle inside of it. ¡°Hold onto this. If you want to get in touch with us then smear a drop of blood across the symbol and one of us will come to you.¡±


    Dantes pocketed the coin and nodded. ¡°Oh, would you mind if I did one more thing?¡±


    ¡°Depends, what do you want?¡±


    ¡°Let me say one more thing to Pillion.¡±


    Wane shrugged and put his back down roughly before pulling Pillion from it. Pillion¡¯s eyes were open and he stared, as much as he could with his limited mobility, at both of them with hatred.


    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    Dantes leaned close to him. ¡°You know, when Tel died I thought I saw a glimmer of a person that I could be comrades with, I at least thought maybe we could stop being actively antagonistic to one another. Part of me is relieved to know that my initial instinct to hate you was absolutely justified.¡±


    Pillion regarded him silently.


    ¡°On that topic, I was the one who had those men beat you.¡±


    Pillion squirmed and tried to scream curses at him from behind the gag he was wearing. Dantes gave him a hard backhand to daze him and stood back up with a smug smile on his face.


    ¡°You¡¯re a piece of work,¡± said Wane.


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Your mother told me the same. Though she meant a work of art.¡±


    Wane snorted and tossed Pillion back into his bag. ¡°Try not to die before we can meet again.¡±


    ¡°Same to you.¡±


    Dantes kept track of Wane with some rats until he suddenly vanished from sight, or at least from the kind of sight he could command. He then slipped into his garden and pulled the letter from his jacket. He leaned against a tree and started reading.


    Dantes,


    As always, you honored the word you gave me. I am sending this letter from within the Underprison, but by the time you read it, I will no longer be here. I cannot tell you where I will go, as I have options for the first time in a few hundred years and find myself overwhelmed by them. When I have narrowed them down, I will eventually find you again. We¡¯ll roll dice, or perhaps I¡¯ll finally find a form that gets you to bed me. I hope that in all your grand battles and schemes you¡¯ve been able to have a beautiful woman watching you.


    <ul>


    <li>


    Syn


    </li>


    </ul>


    There was the faint scent of lavender perfume on the letter, as well as a kiss mark made of black lipstick next to Syn¡¯s name. For some reason Dantes had expected her handwriting to be as varied as her physical form, with the lettering changing from neat script to chunky blocks of letters, but it was simple and neat all the way through. He read the letter again and smiled, even as he remembered the warning of Mariska the Magistrate when he¡¯d had her remove Syn¡¯s binding. Syn was dangerous, that wasn¡¯t exactly something Dantes was ignorant of, but she was also his friend, one of the few bright spots of his time in the pit. He wondered idly if the comment about bedding him hinted at anything more than the constant flirtation they¡¯d engaged in, but brushed the thoughts away as his mind playing tricks due to the lack of brothel visits he¡¯d engaged in recently. Still, he was careful when he folded the letter and placed it back into his jacket.


    Dantes sent his senses out throughout his garden and began doing the regular upkeep he¡¯d grown accustomed to doing while the gears of his mind turned. In the Pit he¡¯d simply paced with his hand on the wall, gradually wearing a small groove in the stone where his hands would trace the wall. This was much more productive. He moved a pigeon nest off the ground and onto one of the trees, then he watered a parched patch of ground, and adjusted the tarp he¡¯d placed to shield the bat building from the daytime sun. As he did all of that he began to check in on the various places he was monitoring.


    Dantes landed a pigeon on the Window to Danglars office, and peered in. Danglars was sitting at his desk with all of the letters that had been written by his ¡®mother¡¯ arranged in front of him. He seemed to be shaking, and was drinking directly from a bottle of dark brown liquid as he sat, though it seemed to be doing nothing to calm him down. Dantes couldn¡¯t quite tell, but he was almost certain that he was talking to something, but he saw no one in the room.


    He sent another pigeon to fly over Mondego¡¯s manor. The number of guards seemed to have doubled, with even more men and women patrolling the perimeter. Dantes guided the pigeon to shit on one of their heads, then broke his connection to it.


    Finally, he checked on his allies. Vampa, Zilly, and Vera were all in Vampa¡¯s home, enjoying a simple meal that the rat he was watching them through hungered for. He couldn¡¯t see anyone watching the house, nor did he detect anything of concern within it.


    The group formerly known as the Shadow Cats was also keeping busy. They¡¯d been relegated to being street level dealers, but they seemed adept at the work, easily evading the guard that was much more busy with the work Dantes was slipping them through notes.


    Pacha and his men were still investigating that damage that he¡¯d done on the docks while they had been occupied on the other end of Midtown. It was becoming clear that Pacha was beginning to have his suspicions about the motives of whoever was giving him information, but Dantes trusted that his focus on the practical would override any major concerns he had.


    He returned his focus to himself. Everything was progressing as he wanted it to, but there was always more that he could be doing. He flexed his non-wooden hand, testing his own grip for a moment. He¡¯d grown a bit lazier about maintaining his exercise since he¡¯d left the Pit, and it had become clear that his kit was more than a little outclassed by what Mondego had on hand. While his powers could potentially bridge the gap between them, there was still too much ambiguity for his liking. He highly doubted he¡¯d seen everything Mondego was capable of. He needed more than just daggers.

 Book 2 Ch 47: What a Lovely Eye You Have

    Dantes choked down whey infused milk as he walked along the border of midtown and the docks. It tasted vile, even after mixing in all of the things Orebus had suggested to improve the taste, but he needed it. He¡¯d started climbing again, now adding running across rooftops and shifting forms in the midst of all of it. He wasn¡¯t sure why he hadn¡¯t realized, but any exercise he did in his animal forms had a physical cost on him as well. In some ways that made exercise easier, but as always, Dantes preferred for things to be easy, no matter how much his choices seemed to indicate otherwise.


    He kept watch on himself from overhead using a few pigeons, and kept an eye on all of the nearby alleys at the same time with rats and roaches to make sure no one was lurking there to attack him. It was risky to travel this way through Mondego¡¯s territory, but his goons were occupied elsewhere. Nearly a third were busy defending him in his home, and the rest were trying to make good on all of the smuggling deals he¡¯d put in place that were turned upside down by Dantes himself as well as the efforts of Pacha. Somehow though, Mondego persevered. His smuggling operations were still profitable, his men hadn¡¯t yet deserted him, and the fingers still entertained the idea of letting him join them. The only explanation Dantes could think of was that it was the benefit from his deal with Godfrey, and the god of Greed. As long as he managed to keep that favor flowing, luck seemed to be on his side.


    Dantes flexed his hands. That was fine. It wouldn¡¯t last forever, and the fact that he was so intent on defending himself likely meant that the gold on his finger was slipping. Dantes had always had a bit of luck himself, but tried not to rely on it too much, hence his trip into one of the worst parts of midtown.


    He pivoted to walk down a dark alley, scratching between the ears of a feral cat absentmindedly as he stopped in front of an unmarked door. Jacopo sent a bit of displeasure for that, but he ignored it. He knocked on the door once, paused for three seconds, knocked twice, paused five seconds, then knocked one last time at the bottom of the door.


    A hole appeared in the center of the door, through which a single bloodshot blue eye peered.


    ¡°Who referred you?¡± asked a scratchy voiced woman on the other side.


    ¡°Dario, and Felix.¡±


    The eye-hole vanished and the door creaked slowly open. Dantes walked through, feeling his fingers begin to tingle violently as he entered, as if all of the magic in the building had been sealed until he passed through the threshold of the doorway. The door slammed behind him, and he found himself standing in a pitch black hallway. Torches blazed to life on either side of him, lighting the way down into what looked like a more open room.


    As he entered it, more torches lit, showing a room lined with shelves on every single wall, each filled with glittering objects that gave off powerful waves of magic. At the far end of the room was a counter, behind which sat a woman wrapped in linen cloth and wearing a robe. She had only a single eye visible, the same blue and bloodshot one he¡¯d seen a moment ago, and the skin around that was red and irritated from what little he could see.


    ¡°Welcome to Lovely Lydia¡¯s Illegal Black Market Magic Item Emporium,¡± she said, holding out her hand like a lady greeting a suitor.


    He took the linen wrapped hand and kissed it gingerly, smelling burnt flesh as he did so, but not flinching from the smell or the hand. He¡¯d had vivid dreams of cockroaches crawling down his throat, this wasn¡¯t nearly so bad.


    ¡°Oh, a gentleman.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t go that far.¡±


    ¡°And can I have this gentleman¡¯s name?¡±


    ¡°Dantes,¡± he replied, smirking a bit.


    He could sense a smile from the woman, but it disappeared quickly. ¡°A two-name no-name, how unusual.¡±


    ¡°Almost as unusual as a human woman trying to take someone¡¯s name like a fey.¡±


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    ¡°Anyone can learn the ways of the fey. They just have to be willing to pay a price. They¡¯re very fair like that.¡± She slipped her linen wrapped hand into her robe. ¡°Now that we¡¯re through with the obvious backstab, what can I do for you? You know, I¡¯m surprised Felilx remembered me, but I¡¯m even more surprised that Dario told you of me. He seemed very ashamed of our time together.¡±


    Dantes shrugged, ¡°Neither of them were eager to tell me where I could find an illegal magical arms dealer, but Dario seemed to think you were the only one that could be discreet, and Felix said you were the only one that would have anything I¡¯d consider worthwhile.¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°All of my boys are so regretful. I have them spin me up a few baubles, I take care of their money troubles in return, and they never see any trouble for it. There¡¯s no one else who could be so kind to them,¡± she wiped a small tear from her eye.


    From the way they¡¯d both spoken of her they were terrified of her. Illegal magic sales were dangerous, but illegal magical weapons sales were an instant trip to the Pit or the Convent. Magical weapons were heavily regulated, and only ever purchased by the Adventurer¡¯s Guild or certain nobles. Wands were traded a bit more freely, but even they were supposed to be highly monitored. This woman, whose name he doubted was actually Lydia, had apparently been in business for decades. He¡¯d heard of her before he¡¯d gone down into the pit, but he¡¯d never known enough mages to learn that she was real until he¡¯d asked about it over the last several weeks. He¡¯d tried asking Felix and Dario to just make a few items for him, but Dario said it was outside his capabilities, and wouldn¡¯t do it due to personal honor reasons, and Felix had difficulty enchanting things with offensive magic of any kind.


    ¡°Looking for anything in particular?¡± she asked, flickering her eyelash.


    ¡°Heat. Powerful weapons that can help me tear down a foe with quite a few of his own.¡±


    ¡°Ooooh, that¡¯s exciting.¡± She raised a hand and a dozen different items began to fly toward her desk. Dantes ducked under a jewelry box filled with rings, then turned back around to see the counter in front of her filled.


    The first thing he noticed was a massive longsword in the center of everything.


    She reached out a linen hand and the sword began floating between them, spinning. ¡°I see you noticed the Beheading Blade. One knick from this, and a man¡¯s head will instantly be removed from its shoulders,¡± a little more quietly she said. ¡°One in one hundred times.¡±


    ¡°So, one percent of the time it killed someone instantly?¡±


    She shrugged. ¡°It seems low, but you have the vibe of a gambler. It only needs to work once after all.¡±


    He smiled. ¡°I¡¯d like something a bit easier to conceal.¡±


    She nodded, and the sword flew back to a shelf on the far wall. Two daggers, one sleek black, and the other bright red floated in front him. ¡°These are prime, and ignition. You strike with one and it makes the target flammable, the second one will make them explode.¡±


    Dantes flicked the handle of one where it floated, making it spin rapidly in the air. ¡°Seems like you¡¯d want something longer ranged if you''re going to make your foe explode.¡±


    She rubbed the bandages on her chin. ¡°You know, I¡¯d never really thought of that before.¡± The daggers flew back to the shelf.


    Dantes¡¯s eyes drifted to a pair of small marbles on the counter. One was gold, and the other a dull gray.


    She noticed him looking, and raised them into the air in front of him. ¡°These are Sunrise and Twilight. You raise them up and send your will through them. Sunrise shoots out a bright light to blind anyone nearby, and Twilight blows a concentrated smoke that weakens people. They are only one use a day and can only recharge by feeding on someone¡¯s life force though, and need to be connected physically to that person to do so¡­ A bit of a difficult prospect for most.¡±


    Dantes flexed his wooden arm, feeling the lifeforce flowing into him from his gardens. ¡°Set those to the side for me if you wouldn¡¯t mind.¡±


    She shrugged and then hung them in the air a few feet further to the left.


    Dantes saw a small wooden box filled with what looked like discarded wands. ¡°What¡¯re those?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Ah, those are wands with only a single charge left. I buy them for a heavy discount and sell them to any kid that wants to pretend he¡¯s got real heat when he needs to. It¡¯s a tidy little venture.¡±


    Dantes looked at his wooden arm, and began thinking. He¡¯d only been considering its usefulness as a way of becoming a weapon, tangling his enemies, or as a tool. He¡¯d been forgetting an obvious option though, to use it as storage.


    ¡°I think I¡¯ll take ten of those, and the marbles as well.¡±


    ¡°Oh? I wasn¡¯t expecting such a spendthrift.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not being cheap if what you need happens to be cheap.¡±


    ¡°Well, I wouldn¡¯t call them cheap sweetie.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Did I mention what a lovely eye you have?¡±


    ¡­


    Dantes walked out of Lydia¡¯s and found himself in a different alley deep in the docks. He lifted his left arm and had it open at the palm and forearm. He slipped each of the marbles into it, feeling them feed on the lifeforce he was gathering even as he did so, then he slipped each of the wands into the arm as well, memorizing which was which as he did so. When he was done he looked at his arm. He could feel each of the items inside of it, but they weren''t visible at all. He wasn¡¯t sure it would be enough to face Mondego, but it certainly couldn¡¯t hurt.

 Book 2 Ch 48: Ive Seen Worse at Family Reunions

    Dantes stood over a bowl of heated water, trimming his hair with a sharpened dagger as he shifted through the perspective of rats, roaches, pigeons, and bats across the city. Everything seemed to be much as it had been over the last few days, until he started searching Uptown for Danglars. He was usually on his way into his office, but Dantes saw no sign of him. There were a half-dozen guards outside of his small mansion, but when he peered into the windows he saw no sign of the man himself, nor did the guards mention anything beyond that they were trying to find him.


    He sent a rat to his office, with one of the vermin-enchantment bending keys. People were talking in hushed whispers and Danglars¡¯s name made the rat¡¯s ears perk up, as did the words murder, and flight.


    Dantes dipped his dagger into the water to clear the shaving cream from it before raising it back to his cheek. Something had happened, something major, and Danglars was on the run. Dantes resisted cracking a smile to avoid cutting himself, but he couldn¡¯t help it, his small smirk costing him a few droplets of blood from his chin. He sent out rats through Uptown to start searching for him or his trail even as he had the rat in Danglars¡¯s office building move deeper toward his actual office. It was empty of people, but the files, decorations, and desk had all been torn apart. Papers littered the floor as did food and glass from a shattered bottle of brown liquor.


    The rat moved out of the office and into the small alcove in which his secretaries worked. All three of them were there, a bottle of wine in one of their hands, blood covering another of them, her eyes red and splotchy as if she¡¯d only just finished crying.


    The one with the wine bottle, Desha Dantes remembered, leaned toward the one covered in blood. ¡°Viv, you need to tell us what happened. We need to make sure we don¡¯t say anything to the guard that can fuck us, understand.¡±


    She nodded, still staring blankly ahead.


    ¡°Okay. Before you start crying this time, let¡¯s go over what you said before. It was you, Danglars, Cerpin, and his secretary. Cerpin made an innocuous comment about Danglars slowing down on his drinking, and then the bastard lost his mind?¡±


    She nodded, still staring blankly ahead. The other girl, a half-orc, stood at the edge of the alcove watching for anyone to approach.


    ¡°He lifted a small statue of the Father, and started beating Cerpin to death with it-¡±


    ¡°It took fifteen times. It sounded like someone mixing noodles by the end of it,¡± said Viv.


    ¡°Right. After Cerpin was dead, then what happened?¡±


    ¡°He¡­ he stood there confused for a few seconds, looking at his hand. Then he said something about G. He said G and the gods would save him. That they had to.¡±


    The woman standing watch spoke up. ¡°G? The letters from the Temple of Many Gods?¡±


    ¡°Probably,¡± said Desha. ¡°Did you tell the guard about that?¡±


    Viv shook her head. ¡°No. I didn¡¯t say anything to the guard except that Danglars had beaten Cerpin to death and run.¡±


    Desha nodded. ¡°Okay¡­ that¡¯s good. You did good Viv.¡± She handed her the open bottle of wine. ¡°Drink this and try to calm down.¡± She stood up and moved over to the other girl. ¡°Yenn, what do you think?¡± she asked in a hushed tone.


    Yenn picked at one of her tusks. ¡°I think I¡¯ll be glad I don¡¯t have to dye my hair orange anymore.¡±


    Desha chuckled. ¡°No, I mean how much risk do you think we¡¯re in?¡±


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    ¡°None. We¡¯ve already been making sure that all the paperwork we do only implicates him and not us. I don¡¯t think what happened to Cerpin was related to anything we were involved in anyway. With how erratic he¡¯s been¡­ this is either something from within him, or another enemy we don¡¯t know.¡±


    ¡°I think you¡¯re right, not like he had a shortage of those.¡± she breathed out. ¡°I thought it would be another year before we were rid of him.¡±


    ¡°Me too.¡± She looked at Viv. ¡°Poor girl. She never really had the stomach for this stuff.¡±


    ¡°Would you have handled it better?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m half-orc. I¡¯ve seen worse at family reunions.¡±


    ¡°Sure¡­ a noble¡¯s bastard has had such a bad time.¡±


    ¡°Fuuuck you.¡±


    ¡°Better me than Danglars.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to miss that. I wonder if I¡¯ll be able to find more secretary work.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just hoping this doesn¡¯t get in the way of becoming a magister myself.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. It definitely will. You have barely enough noble blood to be allowed to begin with.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a way. I¡¯m sure I can make it.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that way is gold and you don¡¯t have that either.¡±


    Dantes cut his connection after all the applicable information seemed to have been gleaned. Danglars had lost it and murdered another magistrate before going on the run. G was likely Godfrey, though he hadn¡¯t realized that Godfrey worked out of the temple. That made sense, the brothel that Mondego¡¯s mirror connected to was near the temple of the many gods, and that was the area where Gaspard had said their initial meeting took place.


    Dantes finished shaving, splashed some water into his face, and wiped it clean with a towel. He¡¯d need to move quickly. The guard wasn¡¯t always competent, but even they would probably eventually track down Danglars to the Temple of Many Gods. The temple itself had agreements with the city about harboring fugitives. They didn¡¯t have to confirm that they had anyone harbored for a full day, and then they were allowed to hold them themselves for another full day after giving notice. Supposedly it was to help people avoid religious persecution, but in practice it was a way to give nobles and merchants more time to sort their affairs or make a run for it in exchange for a generous donation to the temple. A good racket, one that Dantes respected.


    He slipped on his coat, letting Jacopo leap onto him and slide into a pocket, and checked his newly created arsenal as he flexed his arm. He would have to avoid using most of it if possible. He had enough enemies without making one of the temple. It served as a meeting place for all priests and worshippers of all gods, a typically very divided bunch, but if he made too much trouble he wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the full force of it came down on him.


    He traced a mental path for himself to the temple, using vermin to scan the path for any threats as he moved. The temple was nearly on the border between uptown, the guild district and a small sliver of midtown that lay between them. It was one of the only areas of Uptown that was freely accessible by almost anyone, and because of that was heavily protected by both the guard, as well as the temple¡¯s private security.


    He wove through alleyways and down narrow streets, keeping his hood up as he moved and morphing into a rat or a roach whenever he sensed trouble. Before long he was looking up at the high steeples of the temple. Aside from the Towers of the Academy, and the Founders Chambers in uptown, it was the largest and most impressive structure in the city. The front of it was stone carved into depictions of every god that they could think of. Each of them was painted with a myriad of colors, and that paint had never faded due to the ministrations and blessings of those priests that worked within the temple. The Father and Mother were at the top of the front door, looking down on every single man and woman as they entered, and Dantes spotted the god of Thieves further down on the father¡¯s side of the building, painted deep black and standing next to his twin Greed who was wrought in bright yellow meant to depict gold. The temple rose higher than any nearby buildings, and all of the windows were stained glass depicting the myths and legends that surrounded the gods.


    Dantes was not one who frequented the Temple of the Many Gods or even the area surrounding it. Sure, he¡¯d begged priests to try and heal his mother when she¡¯d been afflicted with the Wight¡¯s Touch, but since they¡¯d failed to do anything against that affliction, claiming it to be an affliction outside the will of the gods, but kept his money anyway, the last thing he¡¯d done there was drunkenly piss on the front steps before running from some guards that spotted him.


    From his memory though there were actually a number of ways to infiltrate the temple. He could climb the walls as a roach, slide through the catacombs below it as a rat, or even attempt to talk his way through one of the service entrances that surrounded the building. The easiest option, of course, was to simply move through the front door. It was still morning, and the daily service was just about to begin.

 Book 2 Ch 49: We Recite this Prayer

    Dantes walked in with the rest of the crowd as they all shuffled in, blending into it naturally. There were a few temple guards at the door, but they were busier greeting people than they were looking out for any actual threats. The majority of people moved straight ahead into the main hall where worship took place, but Dantes saw a few people drift off to where the healers were to either beg for charity or pay them for some divine healing. There were few gods and goddesses that granted their followers that ability, so their services were always in high demand. It was almost always more sensible to try and work with an herbalist or alchemist to see if they could help you first, many men and women had died waiting for a priestess of the Goddess of the Healing touch to minister to them.


    Dantes moved into the main chamber of the temple, looking up to admire the high ceilings and ornate carvings that surrounded him as he did so. Light drifted inside from the stained glass windows, covering everyone in a kind of rainbow light. Dantes moved down a long pew, making sure he was seated at the far end of it, closest to the wall to allow him easy movement. It wasn¡¯t as if he was legally obligated to sit in the temple, but drawing a large amount of attention to himself by exiting from the middle of a pew before committing a murder wasn¡¯t a great idea.


    As he settled and watched everyone else find a seat, he turned his attention to the altar at which a Priest of the Many gods was standing with his hands folded behind his back. He was tall, and bald, but even from a distance Dantes could make out thick dark eyebrows that made his face very expressive. His height was difficult to determine, but he wore a simple black robe with a cloth wrap of white around his waist. The priests of the many were a rare breed, most preferred to worship a single god or a few of them, but they worshiped them all, the good and the bad. Rendhold was one of few places where they had a temple, its eclectic population needing something beyond small local temples for each deity.


    Just before the priest began speaking Jacopo began crawling toward Dantes¡¯s legs from within his jacket.


    ¡°I¡¯ll search for Danglars myself.¡±


    Dantes smiled.


    ¡°Want to find him on my behalf?¡±


    ¡°No, I just feel someone as fleshy as him likely tastes delicious.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m touched.¡±


    Jacopo slipped to the bottom of the pew and started to slowly make his way to one of the side doors that led away from the main hall. He took extra care as he moved, frequently shifting into a roach to further reduce any suspicion or slide under doorways.


    Dantes maintained his connection to him, doing his best to look pious as he searched for an enemy to murder.


    The priest at the pulpit began to speak, his voice carrying by magic and acoustics throughout the entire hall. It sounded somehow as if he was speaking to everyone, but also Dantes alone, all at the same time.


    ¡°In the beginning there existed only the Father and the Mother.¡±


    Ah, this old gem, thought Dantes.


    ¡°Two beings without beginning and without end. They floated through the aether that was the godplane, and enjoyed the infinite possibilities of nothingness and of one another. They built palaces of flame, light, darkness. They spun up skies of love and beauty and other things which to them are as malleable as clay is to us. Though the Mother was satisfied with what they had built, the Father¡¯s appetite for creation was greater. He took a piece of the godplane, and on it he established something that had not existed before, rules. These rules keep us tethered to the ground, keep our thoughts within our heads, and make the walls around us solid. Once he established those rules, he began to build within them. He spilled the ocean within its confines, and then molded land within it creating the continents and islands on which we live. He watched, as hurricanes blew across it, volcanoes blasted fire along it, and enjoyed the marvels created in unexpected ways by the rules which he¡¯d put in place.¡±


    The man took a deep breath. Dantes found himself surprisingly engrossed by the sermon, he was a good speaker. He checked on Jacopo and found that he was searching through the priest quarters.


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    ¡°Eventually the Mother sought out the Father, having grown bored and lonely without him, and found the source of his absence. The Father did not hide it, and proudly showed off the beauty of his creation. The Mother was impressed, but found the land her lover had created felt empty. She looked at the rules that he had set and reached within the land to mold small pieces of it, pieces infinitesimally small even to us. Once those pieces existed, she breathed her love into them, and so created the first life beyond herself and her lover.¡±


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t long before The Father noticed what she had done. Creatures began to swim in his oceans, and some even began to sprout on the land. He was fascinated by this creation, and showered his love in praise for what she had done. So taken was he, that he decided to attempt what she had done himself. He molded mountains into the shape of the creatures she had created, but they would not move. He tried to tether the winds together into beautiful living forms, but they wouldn¡¯t take shape. He attempted to cool lava as it poured with sweat filled with his own power, but it only moved when he willed it to do so. He then tried to do exactly what she had done, but when he breathed into what he created, nothing happened. The Mother tried to explain what she had done to him, but no matter what he tried, it was beyond him.¡±


    ¡°The Father began to grow resentful of what the Mother had done, and he took to solitude in the godplane where his power was infinite and unrestricted. The Mother, in an attempt to comfort him, convinced him to try and create life together with her. They both returned to the mortal plane and laid with one another, and The Mother bore a son. He was a bright and warm creature, and he swiftly took a liking to the sky above the mortal plane, shining down on all of us as the sun.¡±


    ¡°Their son¡¯s birth calmed the Father¡¯s bitterness for a time, but eventually he found himself just as frustrated that he needed The Mother¡¯s help to forge life, as he had been at his inability to create it. He tortured himself trying to find some way to create life from nothing as she could, but no matter what he tried he could not do it. Eventually, he came to a solution. If he could not create life from nothing, then he would use pieces of himself to do it. Forging a knife of aether, he carved from himself a piece of his flesh. He took that flesh and molded it, turning it into a life that would be more impressive than anything his love had ever made. When it was done, he placed it into the ocean and he swelled with pride as the first leviathan swam into the oceans, the mere act of his swimming creating tsunamis and storms that drowned the land.¡±


    ¡°The Mother was horrified to see what the Father had done to himself, and what his creation was doing to the rest of the mortal plane. Resolving herself to try and make the Father forget about trying to match her in this one place that she was clearly superior, she resolved to show that she could even make life in the same way he had. Carving a piece from herself she took a piece of the earth he had forged and mixed it together, creating a perfect and beautiful white sphere. She breathed life into it as well, and placed it in the sky with its brother, the Sun who quickly took to her and they began chasing each other and playing. The moon¡¯s pale light calmed the leviathan the Father had created, and the seas too calmed allowing the life that the Mother had created to exist in peace.¡±


    ¡°The Father¡¯s heart hardened at what she had done, and instead of ceasing to create life in his reckless and dangerous way, he only began to create more, carving godlings and monsters from himself. The Mother reacted in kind, forging new kinds of life in the world he had created, most of it small, but among them were beasts of great power and gods as well. Their bitterness turned to a contest, and that contest filled the mortal place with all of the life around us, creating the beautiful symmetry of chaos and order in which we all live today.¡±


    ¡°As the Mother created, she became more and more entwined with the life she¡¯d grown, until all of it was connected to and through her, even those things that the Father created became connected to her. As the Father created, he lost more and more of himself until there was no piece of him left. With no more life himself, he became something that had never existed before. He became Death.¡±


    The Priest let that hang in the air for a few moments before continuing, the crowd stayed silent, with many of their heads bowed.


    ¡°The Father and Mother realized how much their feud had cost each other, but they became so connected to the new world they created that they could no longer see one another. Now, it is up to their children to carry the messages that they want to send, through life, and into death. Those most powerful of the Mother and Father¡¯s children often mimic them, trying to carve life from themselves and mold it into new gods, men, and beasts. When they do so too recklessly, and give too much of themselves, their bodies rot beneath the mortal plane as the hells, where beings whose souls no god would claim go to suffer torment at the hands of demons who spring up from the deaths of gods, for no god can truly die. Only the father was able to avoid this fate.¡±


    The priest raised his hands up into the air. ¡°We recite this prayer to honor the Father, the Mother and all of their children-¡±


    ¡°Dantes, interrupted Jacopo as the rest of the temple began to recite the prayer after the priest. ¡°I think I¡¯ve found him.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 50: Im the One Standing With the Knife

    Dantes mumbled along with the rest of the temple in prayer while he shifted his full focus to looking through Jacopo¡¯s eyes. At this point there was no mental handshake between them, he blinked through his own eyes, and opened Jacopo¡¯s. Jacopo was sitting at the end of a long hall looking around the corner at a door with what looked like a perfect single cold plate at the top of it. A woman wearing a gold half mask stood at the door. She wore no weapons, but the smile on her face was somehow unsettling.


    ¡°Wait there. I¡¯ll meet you,¡± sent Dantes as he stood up from the pew. He drew a few annoyed looks, but mumbled the usual half-hearted apologies leaving a temple pew warranted as he made his way out. He opened a side door and quickly slid inside. A temple guard, still praying in unison with the rest of the temple, shook his head and went to follow him inside. He opened the door, but found no one there, save the tail of a rat as it went around the far corner. He shrugged, and returned to the main room of the temple, not wanting to miss the offering.


    Dantes reviewed the memories Jacopo had of maneuvering through the building and followed his path, eliminating a few dead ends that he¡¯d run into during his search. He met Jacopo there and looked at the scene. The woman was smaller than him, but radiated a kind of menace that made him wary of a direct approach. He could likely slip past her and under the door as a roach, but he would likely be making enough noise with Danglars that she would wind up coming in and being a problem anyway. No, he¡¯d need to take care of her.


    Dantes shifted into roach form and started to crawl along the bottom of the far wall from her, trying to get a good angle at which he could shift and strike her. He made it halfway when she very suddenly launched forward with her foot outstretched in order to kick him.


    Dantes shifted back to himself before the kick could land, turning a fatal blow into a just painful one as he hit the door. He raised his wooden hand and sent out his fingers like branches to wrap around her. She swiftly dodged out of the way and drew a long golden needle from somewhere on her person that she brandished at him menacingly, still holding the same smile she¡¯d had before attacking him.


    Dantes covered his eyes with his right hand and raised his left one, letting the yellow marble sunrise peek through his palm. He sent his will through it just as the woman charged him and searingly bright light filled the hallway. There was no sound to accompany it, which gave it an uncanny and eerie quality. The woman stumbled before reaching him and he quickly drew his stiletto and slid it between her ribs. She coughed a bit of blood on him, and he stabbed her swiftly several more times to speed her demise. She collapsed on the ground, dead.


    Dantes caught his breath for a moment and looked down the hall. There was no one there to hear his struggle, they must¡¯ve all been attending the service. He lifted her golden needle and pocketed it. He then went to remove her mask and found himself lifting the entire top of her body along with it. It wasn¡¯t just a mask, it was fused to her face. He looked closer and found that there wasn¡¯t even a seam where the mask started and her face began. He stood back up, and looked at the needle again. Now that he was putting more attention on it, he realized it had a kind of¡­sickness emanating from it. Something he couldn¡¯t quite define.


    ¡°It¡¯s like the gold in Mondego¡¯s basement,¡± offered Jacopo.


    Dantes didn¡¯t know what that feeling meant, but he did trust his instincts on it. He dropped the needle. He then dragged the woman¡¯s body into the far corner. This room was at the end of the hall after a corner, so no one should walk that far unless they were headed for the room anyway, and at that point he would be discovered either way. He approached the door with the golden plate, and picked the lock with his wooden hand, pushing it open.


    The door creaked as it opened, and Dantes found the room to be darker than he expected. The curtains were drawn, and not a single candle was lit. He didn¡¯t see Danglars, but could sense someone his size hidden behind the bed against the far wall. Dantes slid the door closed and locked it. He slowly approached the hidden figure, hearing mutterings as he got closer.


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    ¡°I¡¯m sorry mother.¡±


    ¡°Should¡¯ve kept my temper as you taught.¡±


    ¡°Yes mother. I should be disciplined¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just a foolish little piggy.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t be trusted with more than rooting around in the muck¡±


    Dantes came around the corner of the bed. Danglars was curled up in a ball. His clothing was disheveled and covered in blood. He didn¡¯t even see Dantes as he stood there in full view. His eyes were full of madness, sadness, and desire all at once. He was pathetic.


    Dantes smiled, feeling immense satisfaction spread through him.


    Jacopo radiated that same satisfaction from Dantes¡¯s shoulder, reflecting it like a mirror.


    ¡°You know. This is exactly how I¡¯d hoped to see you when I arrived here.¡±


    Danglar finally took notice of him, he sat up a bit and gave Dantes a crooked smile. ¡°Oh, Dantes, welcome,¡± he slid a hand through his hair, pushing it out of his face. ¡°It¡¯s good to see you. Have you met my mother?¡± he pointed to the empty air to his right.


    ¡°No, I hadn¡¯t,¡± he gave an exaggerated bow to the pocket of air Danglars had indicated. ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure Madam Forteville.¡±


    Danglars chuckled a bit. ¡°Oh Mother, that¡¯s not a nice thing to say. Even if it¡¯s true.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s okay. I don¡¯t expect her to show me any kindness. Not after I took everything from her son.¡±


    Danglars stared at him blankly.


    ¡°Although, maybe that would make her like me more actually. She didn¡¯t seem to really be rooting for you to succeed. Not beyond what would benefit herself anyway.¡±


    He laughed again, a bit of the dried blood on his face cracking as he did so. ¡°That¡¯s true. She¡¯s always been a bit selfish.¡±


    Dantes pondered his stiletto. ¡°Well Danglars, are you going to fight me, or would you prefer that I make this quick?¡±


    ¡°Why would I fight you? We¡¯re friends.¡±


    ¡°Do friends let friends rot in the Pit?¡±


    ¡°What? I-¡± a bit of sanity seemed to slip back into his expression, but it was brief.


    ¡°I spent five years in that shithole just so you could have the money and power gained through half promises by a man you¡¯d only just met. That¡¯s all it took for you to take everything from me.¡±


    A bit more clarity came to his eyes and he started looking fully at Dantes.


    ¡°I stole your symbol of office to cause you trouble with the docking authorities and Mondego. I stole your mother¡¯s letter from your desk. I had Mistress Dosia poison every drink she gave you. I forged letters in your mothers hand to torment you.¡±


    Danglars was starting to breathe more quickly as Dantes spoke, but the madness that had overtaken him wasn¡¯t fading. A harsh speech wasn¡¯t exactly the cure to months of poisoning.


    ¡°There was not a single person in your life that was unwilling to betray you. All of them were filled with contempt for you at best and hatred at worst. You will not be missed.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re no better. You weren¡¯t then and you aren¡¯t now.¡±


    Dantes shrugged,surprised at the coherence of his statement. ¡°That might be true. The difference is, I¡¯m the one standing with the knife, and you¡¯re the one curled on the floor with his life in shambles.¡±


    Danglars looked at his hand, raising his ring finger to his eyes. There was a sliver of gold still on it. He looked at Dantes, and then at the window.


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯d really rather you allowed me the personal satisfaction Danglars. Come now, that sliver of cursed luck is far more likely to get you past me than to let you survive that fall.¡±


    He stood, eyed Dantes and the window again. He ran for it.


    Dantes ran after him, leaping onto his back before he could get close enough to a leap of his own. He drove the stiletto into his back again, and again, and again. Danglars cried at every blow, screaming for his mother and begging for mercy the entire time. Dantes felt no sympathy for him, he just kept stabbing.


    Eventually Danglars was completely still. Dantes drove the stiletto into him one more time, and felt the blade stick into his spine. He left the dagger where it was and stood, panting. He closed his eyes and felt the joy of revenge wash over him. Only two left.


    Jacopo leapt off and began to eat Danglars''s eyes.


    ¡°Eat quickly. We¡¯re going to need to get out of here as soon as we can.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t know,¡± said a voice behind them. ¡°You could stay for a glass of wine if you¡¯d like. I¡¯m sure we could find something to discuss.¡±


    Dantes turned around to see Godfrey, leaning in the door frame with a smile across his golden face.

 Book 2 Ch 51: Dont be an Idiot

    They stood there in silence for a moment, sizing one another up. Dantes was covered in blood, and Godfrey was immaculate in a dark waistcoat with gold buttons that matched his face.


    Godfrey moved for something in his coat, and Dantes drew his pistol and fired at him just as he threw a handful of coins into the air.


    Dantes¡¯s bullet hit the air, and Godfrey was suddenly standing across the room.


    Dantes raised his wooden hand and extended one of the wands within it through his palm, sending his will through it. A bolt of lightning shot from it, but once again Godfrey wasn¡¯t there when it struck. Now instead he stood in another part of the room. Dantes hesitated to fire anything else at him, not wanting to waste more resources unnecessarily until he figured out what Godfrey was doing. He began to back up toward the already broken window. He looked at the ground, and realized that Godfrey had transported himself to wherever one of the coins he¡¯d thrown had landed.


    Godfrey casually smoothed out his clothes, picking a small piece of lint from his vest and flicking it away from himself.


    ¡°Are you done?¡±


    Dantes began to gather what vermin were nearby, though he was having some difficulty. The temple didn¡¯t have an anti-vermin enchantment, but it did have a thoroughly clean staff that gave vermin few reasons to be nearby.


    ¡°For now,¡± he said, as he began loading his pistol.


    Godfrey took a few steps toward Danglar¡¯s and raised his hand. ¡°Tsk, tsk, I warned him that his offerings weren¡¯t cutting it anymore.¡±


    ¡°My condolences,¡± said Dantes as he slid a bullet into the chamber.


    Godfrey shrugged as he stood, and leaned against the tall post in the corner of his bed. ¡°It¡¯s alright. I don¡¯t like to lose more people than I have to, but at this point his madness made him near useless anyway. Speeding up his way to my patron¡¯s pockets serves things just as well.¡±


    ¡°The God of Greed.¡±


    Godfrey smiled. ¡°He¡¯s one of them, yes. You aren¡¯t the only one with the blessings of more than one god.¡±


    That gave Dantes pause. He hadn¡¯t exactly discussed it with a priest, but he knew there was something odd about the way in which he was a druid. His dreams indicated that the God of Thieves was watching him just as much as the Mother was. He suspected that his ability to keep his clothes and possessions when he shifted was related to their dual attentions. Not to mention the small audience of other gods they¡¯d gathered. He had been too busy with his revenge to really ponder what all of that meant.


    ¡°Do you know how unique you are?¡± Godfrey continued. ¡°I mean, having the gods watch over you isn¡¯t all that unique. Many people have dreams of the gods, as the gods can be many places at once, and they like to enjoy their little amusements with even the most minor of players. Those actually blessed though, they¡¯re special. Those blessed by more than one god? Now there¡¯s probably few enough of those that you could count them on your hands, and maybe a toe or two.¡±


    Dantes cycled to a fresh wand in his palm as well as the marble twilight. ¡°I thought the sermons were only held downstairs?¡±


    Godfrey chuckled. ¡°Well, how would you like to be one of the only mortals blessed by three gods?¡±


    Dantes and Jacopo traded notes on where each of the coins were and divided them mentally so one could focus on some, and one the others. Even as he was focusing though, and gathering his will, he felt it waver a little.


    ¡°You¡¯re a capable man. That¡¯s been made very clear. Escaped the Pit after clearing it of all your enemies, quietly gathering resources, killing Gaspard and now Danglars, dismantling Mondego¡¯s operation piece by piece. It makes me regret choosing them for my God¡¯s blessing.¡±


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    ¡°Then why did you?¡± he asked, feeling almost as if he was reading off a script when Godfrey asked it. As if he was being led into the question.


    ¡°Because I underestimated you and overestimated them. I thought you were all just little street rats. Vermin I could elevate or damn for my own purposes. You were one of many games I was playing in the city, perhaps if I¡¯d had more focus on this piece¡­ It doesn¡¯t matter. I was wrong. Let me make it up to you. You¡¯re already familiar with how god¡¯s grant blessings. I could give you what you want. I could have Mondego and Mercedes heads brought to you on a golden platter. Only one of them was ever worth a damn anyway. You could take over all of their operations and then some. You¡¯ll find all coincidence and luck to be in your favor, and if your smart enough perhaps a few other gifts as well.¡±


    ¡°As long as my offerings are regular and increase each time.¡±


    Godfrey smiled a bit wider, and shrugged. ¡°Yes, there is that tidbit, but unlike your former friends, all I¡¯ll ask of you for this initial offering, is a single copper piece. How simple would it be to just offer two the next time? And three the time after that? With how much gold you¡¯ve accumulated that would be almost nothing. You¡¯ll be old and gray, fattened on fine foods, and wearing the finest silks. You¡¯ll likely die sandwiched between two young beautiful whores long before your favor runs dry. The God of Greed and the God of Thieves are close brothers, so I¡¯m certain there¡¯d be no issue with them sharing a blessed, and the Mother well, how much greener could this city get with the right support?¡±


    Dantes was listening carefully, caught in the rhythm of Godfrey¡¯s words. Life hadn¡¯t been easy. It was a struggle for everything he¡¯d ever had. Much of that struggle was his own fault. Having everything just handed to him. His arms started to relax and fall to his side.


    Godfrey¡¯s smile widened, and he took a couple steps forward. ¡°We can make it a handshake deal right now. First thing I¡¯ll do is call off the guards that are coming up the steps.¡±


    Dantes took a step toward him.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be an idiot,¡± said Jacopo in his mind, finding that their connection was being weakened somehow. He couldn¡¯t fully see the contents of Dantes¡¯s mind as he usually could. It was like the connection between them was through honey rather than air.


    Dantes kept walking toward Godfrey and reached out his hand.


    ¡°No!¡± screamed Jacopo in his mind, driving his teeth into his shoulder.


    Dantes reached out for Godfrey¡¯s hand, Godfrey¡¯s eyes were glowing with golden light, his hair rising slightly from his face as if lifted by a slight wind.


    Dantes grabbed Godfrey¡¯s sleeve and pulled him close, jamming the point of the wand he¡¯d had extending from his wooden hand into his stomach.


    ¡°Dodge this.¡±


    He released his will and white hot fire blasted from his hand, completely engulfing Godfrey, and blasting him back until he hit the wall. Dantes kept his hand pointed at him until the wand was completely empty.


    Jacopo, realizing only at the last moment what Dantes was doing, watched the coins to see if Godfrey had managed to teleport away, but there was no sign he¡¯d moved.


    Once the wand had burnt out Dantes let it fall from his hand and squinted into the flames at the end of the room.


    ¡°Well, I can¡¯t say I¡¯m not disappointed by your choice,¡± came a voice from beyond the flames. A silhouette walked through them until Godfrey stood in front of the fire which reflected against his now bare gold skin lighting the room. ¡°You¡¯re only going to be making things harder for yourself. In the end, you¡¯re going to be doing my bidding whether you want to or not.¡±


    Dantes stared at him, he initially thought that he was completely unharmed, but his enhanced senses picked up the slightest twinge in Godfrey¡¯s voice, the barest discomfort in the way he was holding himself. It was minor, but the blast of flame had hurt him.


    Heavy footsteps approached the door to the room.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s the guard. As you can expect, I¡¯ll no longer be helping you with them.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°I thought I made it clear I didn¡¯t need your help. Were you too stupid to pick up on that?¡±


    For just a moment Godfrey¡¯s smile dipped, and that made Dantes flash one of his own.


    Dantes ran for the same window that Danglars had been running toward, and threw himself out of it with his arms folded across his face and his legs tucked beneath him to protect both himself and Jacopo. In mid-air they shifted themselves into roaches and landed on two of the twenty pigeons that Dantes had summoned to fly beneath the window. Gripping those pigeon¡¯s backs, they flew back toward the garden, one more foe of Dantes¡¯s enemies killed, and a new one joining the board against him.


    ¡°I was really hoping that would kill him,¡± he sent to Jacopo.


    ¡°I was really hoping to have more time to eat Danglars. Bodies filled with rich food like that¡­ there are few things that taste so sweet.¡±


    ¡°I guess we¡¯ll both have to live with a bit of regret today.¡±


    ¡°I guess we will.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 52: Eat! Spread!

    Dantes and Jacopo climbed off the backs of their pigeon mounts and skittered onto the soft moss bedding that covered Dantes¡¯s garden. They morphed into their usual forms and Dantes walked over to where he kept his food. He took a loaf of bread and broke off two generous hunks, giving one to each of the pigeons. They eagerly took them, and flew off before even saying thank you, not wanting to risk their prizes being stolen by other pigeons that might be watching. Dantes didn¡¯t blame them, he¡¯d certainly fled with goods and no thanks exchanged more than once. Of course, he¡¯d been stealing the goods at the time, so the thank you likely would¡¯ve seemed more than a little bit mocking.


    He moved to the small basin he kept, and filled it with water. He then took a cloth and began cleaning Danglar¡¯s blood off himself, smiling as he remembered the satisfaction he¡¯d felt when he¡¯d snuffed his life out. The only thing that could¡¯ve made the day better, would¡¯ve been if he¡¯d been able to kill Godfrey as well, but it seemed that was beyond him, at least for the moment. With the right plan, weapon, or ally he was certain he could be beaten. Maybe with those formerly known as the collared. Magical assistance would certainly be beneficial, though he was hesitant to call on their aid unless he absolutely needed it. Wane had indicated that whatever they were working on was time sensitive, and Dantes wanted to avoid calling on them unless it was absolutely necessary.


    Until then though he¡¯d have to find some way to mitigate the damage Godfrey could do, or to at least find a way to remove him from his part of the board. He seemed to be able to sense the transactions that were made throughout Rendhold, but how specifically could he detect them? Was he able to track every purchase or trade of coin that Dantes made? What of goods and services? Greed wasn¡¯t limited just to coin, so would his powers be? Even beyond that what about what Godfrey had said about have the blessings of more than one god? Greed was obviously one of Godfrey¡¯s patrons, but who might the other one be? All of the abilities he¡¯d demonstrated so far indicated only Greed, but perhaps the god of Merchants? There were too many unanswered questions, and that made Dantes nervous. It was going to take time to have everything he needed to take Godfrey out. Until that was possible he had to work to mitigate his own weaknesses.


    Dantes spread his awareness across his gardens, his attention going through every tree, branch, root, flower, stem, and bud of all of the life that was connected to him. He blinked, absorbing just how much all of it had grown. The gardens that he¡¯d started were rapidly growing beyond the bounds of the sealed off zones of the city in which he¡¯d started them. Trees were peeking above the barriers that blocked them off, flowers sent luxurious scents well beyond their bounds, carried by the winds from the sea. He even detected several small patches of plants that had become connected to him because the gardens had sent seed pods and other means of procreation far beyond their bounds. Dantes had heeded Clay''s advice and attempted to make the gardens less inviting using thornbushes, and planting flowers that would attract some bees and wasps from outside the city, but there was only so much he could do.


    His gardens were, in his mind, his greatest vulnerability. He wasn¡¯t sure of how much knowledge Mondego and Godfrey had about druids, but even with none it wouldn¡¯t be difficult for a layman to figure out that they¡¯re connected to nature. If they found his gardens and targeted them, he would be severely weakened. He didn¡¯t think their destruction would hurt him as much as when his blood garden was purged by Gavain, but there would definitely be a heavy price to pay. He needed to diversify. He had plans for exactly how he¡¯d do that after Mondego was taken care of, but he needed to consider ways to keep himself functional in an emergency.


    In the Pit he¡¯d had the idea to hide small caches of supplies all throughout the cave systems that spread throughout it. He¡¯d remove stones, leave his own personal marks, and memorize where they were. That gave him security. Even if his well hidden home there had been found, he wouldn¡¯t have been starting from square one. That was a model he could use above ground in Rendhold as well.


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    He moved to his smallest garden, where Clay liked to store a large number of his gardening tools as well as a large cache of seeds he¡¯d stored for planting. Dantes picked the lock, wondering why Clay would go through the trouble for that, and found the cache of seeds. He took a small canvas sack and filled it with seeds. Then he filled two more. Once he was done he returned to his main garden and placed all three sacks on the ground. He sat between all of them, and drew all of his focus into himself before spreading it through each of the bags. He went through each individual seed, of the thousands that there were, and he forged a threadlike connection between himself and them. He knew there were downsides to what he was doing, but the volume would more than make up for any other problem.


    When he was done, he kicked over the seed bags and sent out a message to all of the rats and pigeons not just nearby, but all across the city.


    Eat!


    In seconds rats and pigeons were swarming across the seed, eating it whole, getting stuck in their feathers and fur, and generally enjoying themselves. When they were done, he sent out a second message.


    Spread!


    They didn¡¯t need to be told twice, and they immediately began to make their way all across Rendhold. They spilled seed in sewers filled with wastes, on harsh patches of ground, in gutters filled with water, and even in those private gardens maintained by the elites in uptown. With each seed dropped, he would push a little bit of extra life from himself into them, encouraging them to take root wherever they landed. Those seeds not spilled directly, would be dropped with a bit of their own fertilizer later, and that would have its own benefits for them. It was a messy, possibly impermanent solution, but for the limited time and ability he had at the moment, it seemed like the best option he could work toward. He¡¯d just need to apologize to Clay the next time he saw him.


    When the seed was completely cleared, he sat with his back against the largest of the trees and closed his eyes. Danglars was gone. Half of those who had wronged him had been paid back in kind. Mondego and Mercedes were all that remained. They were going to be the most difficult to take care of. Both of them were better supplied, had more support, and were more cunning than Danglars and Gaspard. Danglars may have been smarter than them in his way, but he wasn¡¯t as clever. Both of them were also far better equipped at protecting themselves. His own encounter with Mondego had shown that he¡¯d only become more lethal since Dantes had been in the Pit, and while Mercedes now seemed more concerned with shopping, he¡¯d definitely noticed no decline in her musculature since he¡¯d been gone either. In the past he¡¯d seen them both handle multiple opponents at once without issue. Their danger was further increased by whatever additional power their marks granted them, and whatever support they may receive from Godfrey.


    Dantes had his own advantages, but it was still a difficult thing. That part of him that had so relished driving his stiletto into Danglars back until he was dead wanted to risk it all and just head right for them, with an army of vermin at his back and a dozen wands hidden in his false arm. He took a breath and cooled that part of himself. He stood up and moved to the makeshift desk he¡¯d used to write the letters from Madame Forteville to Danglars. He wrote two words, ¡°You¡¯re next,¡± and sealed it with the mark of office he¡¯d stolen from Danglars all those weeks ago. When he was done he gave it to a pigeon with the instructions to drop it from high directly onto Mondego¡¯s front steps.


    When he was done, he found himself still sitting at the desk, looking at a blank piece of paper. This time, he put the ink and quill to the side, deciding to write in his own hand with one of the newer fountain pens. He looked at the blank piece of parchment for several minutes, clenching his jaw, before he finally brought himself to put pen to paper. The message was short, but it seemed to take him forever to finish it. When it was done, he tied it to a pigeon''s leg with a heavy sigh, and sent it after the other one. Except that one wouldn¡¯t be just dropping the message in the middle of Mondego¡¯s manor, it would be seeking a specific window.

 Book 2 Ch 53: Yours, Dantes

    Dantes pondered the way the sun shined through the tree branches while he waited for a response to his letter. His mind felt sluggish, likely due to how much he¡¯d packed into his day. It may have been smarter to rest for a while before moving forward on so many different plans at once, but it wasn¡¯t as if time was on his side.


    The pigeon he¡¯d sent with a message returned and hopped along the ground toward him with a note tied gently to its leg. Dantes scratched the pigeon¡¯s head a bit, and then untied the note from it. The letter was scented like Drake-Tear flower perfume, an old favorite of hers. Dantes unfolded the letter and read it.


    Dantes,


    There is much I want to tell you. I want to explain to you the reasons why I did what I did, why I went along with everything without trying to help you, or at least sending you a letter while you were in the Pit. I know you though. I know you don¡¯t want excuses, or half-truths. I¡¯ll tell you the full truth. I didn¡¯t love you anymore. You were high on dust all the time, you took risks that put us all in danger, and I could tell you were on a path of self destruction that I couldn¡¯t follow you on. In my mind, you being sent to the Pit was the only way to save you and, more importantly, myself. Now I know there were other options. Choices I couldn¡¯t see in my youth that are clear to me now. Another thing that is clear to me, is that I still love you. Mondego offered the salve of gold and power for the open wound created by your loss, but that is not love. Love is what I had with you. Tell me what I have to do to prove that to you, what you need to hear so that when I next see you we can meet one another and embrace as we used to.


    Yours, Mercedes


    Dantes finished the letter and sat with it for a full minute before he let out a kind of barking laugh that made all of the nearby wildlife jump. The laugh continued for almost a full minute before slowly dying down. Dantes wiped the beginnings of a tear from the corner of his eyes and tossed the letter to the side. She certainly remembered how to play the game. He remembered how well she played him when he was young and enjoyed playing with her.


    They¡¯d met when they were both picking pockets in the Guild District. She¡¯d taken the coinpurse off of an adventurer and threw it at him when the adventurer was about to catch her. The adventurer was more interested in the coin and so had chased him instead of her. What had started as an easygoing and productive day that he¡¯d hoped would end with a pocketful of weed had ended up being a chase through the city that he¡¯d only survived because he knew the alleys, streets, and buildings better than an adventurer from another continent. Dantes had spent the next month keeping an eye out for the girl that had so thoroughly screwed him over. When he ran into her in a small party the first thing she¡¯d said to him was that she wanted the gold she¡¯d stolen returned. Dantes had liked that, and from then on they¡¯d been courting off and on for nearly a decade. He enjoyed her games, and she liked that he played them so well.


    Clearly, she was hoping he¡¯d take the bait to play games with her some more. The only question he had in his mind was whether she was playing the game for herself or for Mondego. It could be for herself. She was a clever woman, she could sense the tides turning his way and wanted to secure a place for herself when Mondego fell. She could also be doing all of this for Mondego and setting him up for a betrayal.


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    Dantes smiled as he picked up a pen and paper. He would play her game, he¡¯d take the bait, but just like Jacopo he¡¯d run away with the cheese long before the trap could clamp down on him.


    Mercedes,


    Drake-Tear perfume, that brings back memories. Your reasons don¡¯t matter to me. What you and my former friends did to me is unforgivable. You say that you are not going to come at me with excuses, then immediately provide one. You hurt me. You betrayed me along with those I considered friends less than a year after my mother¡¯s death. I want to tell you to go straight to the hells where you belong. To tell you that soon I will be there to send you to them myself. I can¡¯t though. I don¡¯t hate you fully as I should, even though you deserve it. That said, I can¡¯t bring myself to love you. How could I love someone I don¡¯t trust? I will be coming for your husband, do your best to stay out of my way.


    Yours, Dantes


    Dantes carefully crossed out a few words as he wrote, to make it appear as if he had agonized over what he was writing. The ¡®yours¡¯ he made particularly obvious with only a single line through it. Once he was done he wrapped it around a new pigeon''s leg, deciding to give the last one a break, and sent it off toward Mercedes. He¡¯d left that little bait of his own for her. By making his ¡®trust¡¯ the key part of the letter, he¡¯d indicated she would need to prove that she could be trusted which meant she¡¯d need to leak something of Mondego¡¯s or do something herself to harm him. Even if it was all a bluff, she¡¯d need to give him something that he¡¯d recognize as valuable. She knew he was too smart to be fooled by anything too obvious.


    Dantes stood and rubbed his eyes. His energy level was always high since he started his garden, but he was approaching the limits of what he could accomplish in a single day. His time was all spent working toward revenge or trying to protect those that could be harmed by his pursuit of it. He awoke every morning thinking of spilling blood, and fell asleep imagining the sensation of it dripping down the hilt of a dagger and onto his hand. It was starting to become¡­ exhausting. He had sustained himself with a focus on only survival when he was in the Pit. Once he had a way out of it, he started to use revenge to fuel himself, but he wanted more. He¡¯d found himself thinking more and more of what would come after. He¡¯d certainly still have enemies he¡¯d need to go after, such as Godfrey, but it wouldn¡¯t be with the same hate that had been put into him by being betrayed. He was ready to move past revenge, maybe back to those ambitions he¡¯d had when he was just a mutt on the street picking pockets.


    He¡¯d wanted power, respect, comfort, and even with vengeance on the forefront of his mind he hadn¡¯t fully lost sight of that. When Mondego and Mercedes were dead there would be a power vacuum in midtown. He¡¯d already started to make a few moves to put himself where he wanted to be in that vacuum, but every time he started to put real thought into his future his mind turned to twisting daggers and exploding warehouses. He needed to fight to keep himself from being totally a creature of revenge. He couldn¡¯t forget the allure of power, money, and a good lay just because some people had harmed him in the past.


    Dantes stretched, hearing a few of his joints crack as he did so. He moved to the small bedroll he kept and laid down. Once everything was over he¡¯d put a roof over his head, and Vera¡¯s and all those who had helped him. He¡¯d eat a meal that would make the gods jealous, smoke enough to put new clouds in the sky, drink enough to full a lake, and fuck enough that he¡¯d need his bed replaced by the next morning.


    He closed his eyes and dreamt of Mercedes that night¡­ then of Tilly, Tiera, Alessa, Caressa, and a half dozen others. Unfortunately, by morning he was dreaming of his fists raining down on Gaspard, his dagger stabbing into Danglars¡¯s back, and pulling the trigger of his pistol as Mondego opened the door to his manor with a look of surprise.

 Book 2 Ch 54: We Were All Young Once

    Normally Uptown would be the dumbest possible place to hold a meet. You had to bribe guards to even get into it if you didn¡¯t look like you belonged. Even once passed those guards you¡¯d need to not draw the attention of other guards or of the nobles who might take offense to seeing you in their part of the city. The only reason to meet in Uptown if you were a midtown ganger was to avoid other midtown gangers, or the ones who led them.


    Each of the sub bosses sat at a long table in a private room at the Gilded Gosling. The majority of them had a look of intense discomfort on their faces.The seats were too soft, the walls decorated so much that they confused the eye, and the table in front of them was even without any blemishes. No hearts crudely carved into it, or names of those who¡¯d sat at it fifty years ago, or even random jagged scratches where knives missed plates.


    There were five of them there. Two were former Dock Shark smugglers that had fallen in line with Mondego when their former partners had all suddenly met unfortunate ends. One was a younger boss who only recently rose to the top for his management of the dust dealer. One was an old timer dwarf that was in charge of recruiting young muscle. The last of them was an older halfling woman missing her left hand that managed the movement of illicit product from midtown deeper into the city. She was the only one that seemed comfortable with her surroundings, she picked idly at the iron hook fixed to the end of her stump.


    Dantes watched them all through Jacopo¡¯s eyes as he sat only a few doors down in a separate room. He was pretending to be late to see if they would start talking without him. So far, they¡¯d been too cautious to do more than nod at one another in acknowledgement. Dantes already knew that four of them were unhappy with Mondego, and he hoped to convince the fifth of them to be as well. The group formerly known as the Shadow Cats had been feeding Dantes information about them for some time, and he¡¯d received a bit of additional information on one of them from Mercedes. He¡¯d arranged the meeting through the former shadowcats, as well as notes he sent to them by pigeon. It was risky, but he¡¯d watched them all every step of the way, and knew that they hadn¡¯t been followed, nor had they told anyone of their intention to be at the meeting.


    He watched them for a few more minutes before deciding he¡¯d made them sweat long enough. The youngest of them, the newest promotion, was sweating bullets and Dantes was concerned he might pass out. He stood up and walked out of the side room, through the hall, and pushed open the door to the private room.


    All their eyes turned to him as he stepped through the threshold and let the heavy wood doors close behind him. He wore the dark gray coat, and hat he favored when going around Uptown incognito, but he¡¯d placed the pistol he usually kept concealed in a prominent place at his hip.


    ¡°Good evening,¡±  he said as he began walking toward the table, ¡°I apologize for the wait. I was blowing up another stash house and I got sidetracked.¡±


    None of them laughed, except for Mira, the one handed halfling, who let out a small chuckle.


    ¡°Sorry, was that in poor taste?¡± he said, standing with his hand sitting on the back of the chair at the head of the table. He looked around the room. ¡°I recognize the majority of you from when I was just a street rat picking pockets, though I doubt you know me.¡± His eyes moved to the youngest one at the table. ¡°You though, you¡¯re new to me,¡± he walked over to him, and noticed the young man almost jump up as he did so. Dantes held out a hand, and the young man held out his own. Dantes clasped it, pulled him in for a brief half embrace, then released him. A greeting as old as the Mutts in midtown. That seemed to calm him down a bit.


    ¡°I¡¯m Randon.¡±


    ¡°I know. Have a seat. You want a drink? Does anyone?¡±


    ¡°I think what we want is for you to quit flexing and dancing in front of us and tell us why we¡¯re here,¡± said Sand, the older dwarf.


    Dantes moved over to his seat and sat down. ¡°I think that¡¯s obvious. I know you¡¯re all upset with Mondego, and I want you to agree to work with me once I¡¯ve taken care of him.¡±


    The man scoffed. ¡°You¡¯ve been killing my boys left and right, burning our operations to the ground, and costing us gold all the while. We may be upset with Mondego, but it¡¯s not as if we can¡¯t recognize how much of our troubles are your fault.¡±


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    Dantes nodded sympathetically. ¡°You¡¯re right, I have been costing you a lot of money, men, and time, but how has Mondego been handling that? Has he reduced his taxes on you knowing that you won¡¯t be able to meet your quotas due to my interference? Has he allocated more men to support and protect you? Has he looked for alternative strategies? No, he¡¯s raised his taxes on you and pulled your men away from you to protect himself. Let¡¯s be honest, it¡¯s not as if he was great to all of you before I got here either. You followed him because you were afraid, and he kept the gold flowing. Now, you¡¯re just afraid.¡±


    ¡°Watch it,¡± said Grima, one of the dock sharks, a half-orc woman missing the ring finger on her right hand.


    The other dock shark Fandal, a human man with a touch of elf somewhere up the line, spoke up next. ¡°You¡¯re an upstart kid. An impressive upstart, but nothing more. You can break some things down with whatever unsanctioned magic bullshit you¡¯ve got up your sleeves, but you have no experience running an organization. Now, if you want to talk about being partners, being an equal boss with the rest of us, if you manage to take out Mondego, then we can talk.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I have experience organizing hundreds, but I take your point. If you just rolled over, I don¡¯t think I¡¯d really respect you.¡± He paused and rubbed his chin gently. ¡°Your wife Emma is doing well by the way.¡±


    ¡°Wha-¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s finishing off that whiskey in the top cupboard now that she got your youngest to sleep. Little Don, he took a helluva lot of effort to go down.¡±


    Fandal stared at him, but Dantes turned to face his fellow dock shark.


    ¡°Grima, that young stud you keep around, Khanshal, he seems to be having a great time with your cousin in your bed at the moment. After you were nice enough to give her a job too. Sand, your son is doing well at his carpenter¡¯s apprenticeship, he¡¯s up late finishing up a very fine table. Good of you to try and get him a less violent job than your own,¡± the three of them looked at one another, paling a bit. He didn¡¯t mention the other two¡¯s connections as they hadn¡¯t given him a reason to yet, besides he felt the implication was clear enough anyway.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, unlike Mondego I won¡¯t slaughter them just to prove that I can and keep you in line. I won¡¯t pulverize my lieutenants'' faces with brass knuckles simply because I suspect a possible betrayal with no evidence to back it up and happen to be in a foul mood.¡±


    Dantes paused for a moment to let everything he said sink in. ¡°Intimidation aside, I¡¯m better for Midtown than Mondego. Your taxes will be lower, I won¡¯t need as many men for my own protection, and I¡¯ll actually meet with you face to face rather than hiding away for months at a time.¡±


    ¡°A wonderful offer,¡± said the halfling woman Daisy, gesturing with her hook. ¡°Unfortunately, before any of us can really consider what you¡¯re offering Mondego will actually need to be taken care of. Do you intend for us to help you with that? After you¡¯ve fucked with our money?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°No, I don¡¯t need any of you to take him down. I just want you all to stay out of my way until it¡¯s over. I mean, think about it. Even if I lose there¡¯ll be casualties and losses. If you stay out of my way, I¡¯ll leave your operations intact. The other bosses, those whose loyalty seems sure, or are, let''s be honest, useless, are who I¡¯ll focus on.¡±


    ¡°Neutrality,¡± said Daisy, exchanging a glance with the others at the table. ¡°That¡¯s something I think we can manage. We can talk about working with you, once the dust has settled.¡±


    Dantes noted her phrasing. He hadn¡¯t expected things to go perfectly, but he admittedly expected them to be a bit more rattled at what he¡¯d said about their close ones. Still, he could flex more thoroughly to bring them under his thumb later. He just wanted to make sure that at least some infrastructure was in place for him to move into once he¡¯d cleared midtown, and to make sure that Mondego had fewer allies to call on.


    ¡°I think we¡¯re all in agreement then. You all wait and see, and in return I won¡¯t fuck with your money anymore. Sound go-¡±


    The youngest of them stood, still sweating so heavily he looked damp from a distance. ¡°I won¡¯t hear any more of this. You¡¯ve fucked with Mondego long enough!¡± He reached into his jacket pocket, and a look of confusion overtook his face. He checked another pocket.


    Dantes reached into his own pocket and pulled out the pistol he¡¯d taken from the man¡¯s jacket when he¡¯d first greeted him as he¡¯d entered the room. ¡°Looking for this?¡± he asked. Randon had been the one Mercedes had warned him about. It looked like her info had been good.


    The young man paled.


    Daisy sighed, leapt up from her chair and jumped onto his back, driving the point of her hook into his neck before dragging it to the side. He fell, and by the time he landed he was dead and Daisy was standing on his back wiping her hook on the back of his jacket.


    ¡°Stupid fucking kid,¡± she muttered. ¡°He was great on the streets, but clearly didn¡¯t have a head for anything beyond that.


    The other gangers all nodded their heads sympathetically.


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°We were all young once. Good meeting overall. Let me take care of the cleanup. I have a few thousand friends that would love to help.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 55: Theres No Reason to be Subtle

    Dantes left uptown feeling relatively good about his meeting overall. It made the problem of taking care of Mondego that much smaller, but he knew it wouldn¡¯t be quite enough. If they¡¯d fully sided with him, he¡¯d have all the edge he needed, but that¡¯s not what he¡¯d managed to get from the meeting.


    He shifted into a rat and made his way into Midtown with Jacopo. If that was all the work he could do with members within Mondego¡¯s operation, he¡¯d need to get some assistance from the members outside of it as well. He knew that a number of smaller unaffiliated gangs that would normally have free reign to go after Mondego¡¯s territory were being held back by the Fingers, but he also knew even their authority had its limits. If Mondego attacked their territory, then they¡¯d have the freedom to respond as much as they¡¯d like.


    Dantes and Jacopo made their way to the northern tip of Midtown, where it met Uptown, a bit of the guild district, and the docks all at once. He scrambled up the wall of a small inn as a roach, and peered through the window.


    Jayson, Zak, and Jayk were sitting around a small table, eating some food that even from outside Dantes could tell was quite appetizing, likely something Jayson had cooked up for them. Dantes slid under the poorly framed window and into the room, then he shifted back to himself just behind Jayson, who was in the middle of describing his last visit to a nearby brothel.


    ¡°So this whore is actually married to some guy named Clive, which is crazy to me. Could you imagine being married to a whore?¡±


    ¡°Was she a whore before they were wed or did she have to take the job after they married?¡± Dantes asked casually from behind him. The other two stared up at him holding forks halfway to their faces.


    ¡°You know, I didn¡¯t think to as-¡±. Jayson nearly jumped out of his chair, but Dantes gripped his shoulders firmly to keep him in place.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay. Just me. Sorry for the scare, it¡¯s dangerous for me to go through the front door anywhere in midtown right.¡±


    ¡°Hey boss,¡± managed Zak. He was able to recover a bit more quickly than the others, even managing to shovel a bit of food into his mouth.


    ¡°Do, uh, do you want something to eat?¡± said Jayson.


    Dantes released his shoulders. ¡°If you have the extra I wouldn¡¯t mind a plate. It smells great.¡±


    Jayson nodded and stood up to get him a bowl.


    ¡°How was the meeting?¡± asked Jayk, straight to business as always.


    ¡°It went well. Four of them agreed to be neutral until everything settled, and one of them is now scattered across the stomachs of a thousand vermin.¡±


    Jayk frowned. ¡°Are you sure that¡¯s going to be enough?¡±


    ¡°No. That¡¯s why I¡¯m here.¡±


    ¡°What do you need?¡± asked Zak through a mouthful of food.


    ¡°Well, I was hoping you three might be up for doing a bit of work tonight. Nothing major, just attacking a few of the smaller gangs on the border of midtown and making it very, very clear we work for Mondego.¡±


    ¡°Trying to get them to start moving in? The Fingers won¡¯t speak up if he starts it. It¡¯s not a bad idea,¡± said Jayk.


    ¡°I¡¯m thrilled it meets your approval,¡± said Dantes dryly.


    ¡°I mean. Do we have to be obvious about it or should we be subtle and lead them to draw conclusions on their own?¡± asked Jayson.


    Jayk shook his head. ¡°No, there¡¯s no reason to be subtle. They want an excuse to move in on some territory. If anything we¡¯re going to be doing them a favor.¡±


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    Dantes stroked his chin. ¡°It may be good to make it really obvious for them. Is there anyone you work with that¡¯s well known who you wouldn¡¯t miss?¡±


    The three of them exchanged glances. ¡°Zed?¡± asked Jayson.


    ¡°Zed,¡± said the other two in unison, nodding.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get Zed sorted and then start paying a few visits,¡± said Dantes as Jayson handed him a bowl of food. He smelled it, and noted the nice kick of pepper wafting into his nostrils. ¡°After we all eat, of course.¡±


    ¡­


    The five of them moved carefully through darkened alleyways as they made their way to the stash house for the Jagged Tooth, an orcish gang that controlled  a good ten blocks of profitable territory on the edge of midtown. It was one of the only purely racial gangs on the surface, and most of what they did was run protection for non-guild businesses that couldn¡¯t afford to set up anywhere else. Aside from that they dabbled in everything else, from drugs, to killing, to whores.


    Dantes led the way, while Jayk, Jayson, and Zak followed behind. In the far back of them was Zed, a half-orc half-halfing with pink eyes, a bald head, and a shitty attitude.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know guys. I know you say this is an easy score, but I don¡¯t trust this fucker,¡± he said, pointed to Dantes. He was whispering, but in that way where anyone with ears could hear every word that he was saying.


    ¡°It''s cool man,¡± whispered Jayson back. ¡°We know him from back in the Pit. He¡¯s solid as rock and if he says it''s an easy score, than I believe him.¡±


    ¡°How does he know they¡¯ve only got two guards on the place?¡±


    ¡°He knows a whore that gave him the tip for a bit of dust.¡±


    ¡°Why doesn¡¯t he just hit the place himself then?¡±


    ¡°You think it¡¯s easy to take on two full-blooded orcs alone? The guys a mutt like the rest of us, he can¡¯t handle that shit alone. How about you stop asking so many fucking questions. We get in there, we fuck em up, we take their shit, and then we leave without anyone any the fucking wiser, head down to the Knight¡¯s Sheath and get some whores for the night, eh?¡± said Jayk.


    ¡°Fine man, fuck. I just got a bad feeling is all.¡±


    ¡°You always have bad feelings. That¡¯s why we always have to take care of shit for you,¡± said Zak.


    Dantes was quickly realizing why they decided this particular man was expendable. He stopped at the edge of an alley and peered at the storehouse. There were in fact four orcs there, but that wouldn¡¯t actually be a problem. Dantes gestured for everyone to move closer to the building with him as he pulled out his pistol.


    Zak drew a shortsword, Jayson a wicked dagger that seemed to be dripping with something, and Jayk a small crossbow. Zed held a club wrapped in razor wire, a bad choice for fighting orcs, but then he didn¡¯t need to do well in the fight.


    Dantes crouched and made his way to the front door. He could tell it was unlocked, after all, who would fuck with them? He started to count down with his hands when Zed interrupted him.


    ¡°Wait!¡± he whispered so loudly it made Dantes cringe.


    Zed pulled out a small tin and opened it. It was full of dust. He put a bit on the back of his hand and inhaled it quickly with his nose. He shivered for a moment and then looked at Dantes and nodded.


    Dantes counted down to one and pushed open the door.


    Zed ran in screaming at the top of his lungs with his club raised high.


    An orc near the entrance drew a knife from his belt quickly, grabbed Zed¡¯s club before he could swing it, and casually stabbed into him before raising the blade up his groin through his stomach.


    ¡°Well that saves us some trouble,¡± muttered Dantes under his breath as he moved through the door and casually shot the orc that had gutted Zed in the head.


    Zak slipped through the door shortly behind him and met an orc moving toward Dantes with an axe. He slid under the Orc¡¯s overhead swing and drove the sword into his heart.


    The other two orcs charged, grabbing a table and chucking it at Zak who dodged under it.


    One of the orcs suddenly fell as a bolt from Jayk¡¯s crossbow struck him in the side of his head, and the last one swung a club at Dantes who caught the force of it with his wooden hand. It would¡¯ve shattered the bones in his other one.


    Jayson slipped behind that orc, and slid his dagger in between his ribs. The orc stumbled backward, then tried to take another swing at Dantes before suddenly collapsing.


    Dantes slipped his pistol back into his coat and looked at the damage.


    ¡°Been a while since I did something like this without rats, and roaches.¡±


    Jacopo squeaked a bit in his ear.


    ¡°Aside from you of course.¡±


    He looked at the three others. ¡°Well, I won¡¯t be able to carry the loot back, but take what you want. Are you still up for the other targets?¡±


    They all moved to start looting, smiles on their faces as they shoved bags of dust and gold into their pockets.


    ¡°Are they all stash-houses?¡± asked Jayson.


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Yep, I¡¯m hoping that¡¯ll provide a bit more of a finger pointed at Mondego. Who else would be short on funds and nearby with all the trouble he¡¯s had recently?¡±


    Zak shrugged. ¡°It means more gold for us now, I don¡¯t really care that much for the reasoning.¡±


    Dantes had always liked Zak the best.

 Book 2 Ch 56: It Was a Nice View

    The next several days were spent shoring up all of the work Dantes had been doing to manipulate things within Mondego¡¯s operations as well as outside of them. He stayed in touch with Jayson, Jayk, and Zak, monitored the sub bosses, and made sure that the gangs they¡¯d antagonized were starting to move in the right direction. While doing all of that he also monitored the hundreds of mini-gardens he¡¯d seeded throughout the city. Cutting his losses in those places where they¡¯d never really thrive, and doubling his support of those that had taken root quickly. All the while he continued his own garden tending, messages to Mercedes, and the more traditional maintenance of his main gardens.


    It was almost nightfall, when he was finishing watering a growing thornbush in the corner of his smallest garden. There was a sudden jolt up his arm and the watering can fell onto the dirt. Dantes looked at his right hand for a moment and felt another jolt of pain up it. He looked up to his forearm where the batmark, a tattoo in the shape of a wing, was full and shining golden.


    ¡°Fuck,¡± muttered Dantes as the pain went from a jolt to an agony suffusing his entire body. He clenched teeth together even as he felt them sharpening and elongating in his mouth. His fingers on his right hand began to lengthen as the rest of his body began to shrink down. The membrane between his fingers spread as his fingers extended, thinning and stretching until his arms and hands had become wings. His ears, already pointed, grew larger and more complex until he could hear the fluttering of a moth¡¯s wings nearby. By the end of it, he was a medium sized bat curled on the muddy ground he¡¯d just been watering.


    Jacopo pulled him from the mud and helped him to remove it from his wings.


    He looked over himself, noting that his wooden limb had also shrunk and approximated a wing as best he could. It seemed to have no issues adapting to any of the forms he¡¯d taken so far, for which he was grateful. He let out a chattering sound that he presumed was the bat equivalent of a heavy sigh, and shifted himself back into his usual shape. Feeling the process in reverse was exactly as painful and grueling as the other direction. When he was done he looked up at the night sky, took another deep breath, and made the transformation again. He did this until the switch was almost as fast and painless as becoming a rat or roach had become for him. When he¡¯d finally reached that point, he hesitated to transform back into himself from Batform.


    He crawled up a nearby grate, and let out a tiny shriek, finding that he could tell exactly where everything was, not with his eyes, but with his ears. He tested it a few more times, his voice hitting that of a few other bats, a couple flying insects in the air, and even a pigeon out for a night flight. He launched himself into the air and began flapping his wings, rising higher and higher into the air.


    Being a rat or a roach could be surprisingly fun. Crawling through hiding holes, climbing walls, they had a certain joy to them. None of that compared to flight though. He pushed himself against the powerful wind coming from the ocean, rising higher and higher, but knowing that there was a limit to how high he could climb instinctually. The bat''s power wasn¡¯t in its ability to fly high, but its ability to maneuver, so he decided to test that out for himself. He sped his wingbeats, moving not higher, but more and more quickly through the air. He dove into the open window of a warehouse, twisting himself between rows of equipment before rising back up, and diving through the barely open bottom stilt of another window. He let out a screech, and sensing a moth nearby, he moved to grasp it in his claws by another bat, this one was larger with brown fur, and it quickly fluttered away from him.


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    ¡°Jacopo?¡± he asked as he hastened his wingbeats to catch up.


    ¡°You are a slow hunter.¡±


    Dantes caught up with him. ¡°Well, I¡¯ve always had more experience getting my meat from a butcher than snatching it from the air. Not that you¡¯re much better. You steal food far more than you eat it.¡±


    Jacopo let out the bat version of a shrug as he did a little spin in the air. ¡°Stealing and hunting are very similar.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know, but I¡¯ll take your word for it.¡± Dantes landed against the overhang of a roof and stretched his wings a bit, resting.


    Jacopo landed next to him, hanging several inches longer than he was. Dantes knew he was big for a rat, but was surprised to see him so big as a bat. Was he a particularly large roach when he transformed as well? If he was human how large would he be? He filed away those less meaningful questions for later.


    ¡°I thought there was nothing better than being a rat?¡±


    Jacopo scratched the side of his head with one of his feet. ¡°There isn¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve seen you shift into a roach a few times, but that was only when you needed to. Did you need to this time?¡±


    Jacopo was silent for a few moments. ¡°I wanted to fly.¡±


    Dantes hid his surprise. Jacopo was a harsh creature, all edges and focus. It was part of what Dantes admired about him, and was the thing about him he felt was most strongly leaking into his own soul from Jacopo¡¯s. Still, Dantes didn¡¯t want to call him out on the sudden showing of vulnerability, especially since any vulnerability at all was likely as a result of Dantes¡¯s own personality leaking into him.


    ¡°Let¡¯s fly then,¡± said Dantes, releasing his hold and free falling for nearly a second before spreading his wings and letting them catch the wind.


    Jacopo followed and they began weaving and flying through the city. They dove through alleyways, slipped between tavern signs, and even swooped low enough to startle a few people out for late night walks, one of whom was almost certainly on his way to dispose of a poorly concealed corpse in a canvas bag he was dragging behind himself. They hunted moths attracted to the lanterns lit by the students of the mage academy. Dantes hadn¡¯t often eaten in a non-human form, but found he didn¡¯t mind it as much as he expected. Any aversion he was expecting to feel was overridden by the instincts of the form he was in.


    As the sun was beginning to rise, which he could sense in his bones more than see, they made their way to Uptown. They reached the temple of the many gods, and Dantes began to push his new form. He flew higher and higher, feeling himself start to overheat from the effort, but nevertheless he pushed himself. Finally, he reached the head of a large gargoyle that jutted out from the Temple¡¯s roof. He shifted back into his human form, panting and scattering a few sleeping pigeons. He let the pain of being in a non-human form too long wash over him, then forced himself to sit up.


    Jacopo shifted back to himself as well, though he didn¡¯t seem to have near the difficulty Dantes had at being outside of his own form for so long. Perhaps because he was closer to a bat naturally than Dantes was. He crawled onto Dantes¡¯s shoulder as he slung his legs over the head of the gargoyle and gazed out over the city.


    The sun was rising and Dantes sat watching as the light crept slowly across the city until it reached him. The warmth of it was pleasant on his skin. The city looked beautiful from where he was. The disorderly rows of buildings, the people moving across the streets like roaches, all of it seemed to make sense from where he was standing. He felt as if he could lift and hand and move everyone in any direction he wanted them to. It was an illusion though. The power he felt looking down on them, and the beauty he was seeing from where he sat. The truth of a city like Rendhold couldn¡¯t be viewed from an idealized distance like the one at which he sat. You needed to be on the streets. To see all of the filth and degeneracy from up close. To smell the shit running down the streets, and see people¡¯s eyes shift from contempt to fear as they saw you pass them by.


    Still, thought Dantes as he stretched standing on the gargoyles back and looking down, it was a nice view.

 Book 2 Ch 57: Steels Steel and Steal

    Dantes flew across the docks and shifted into himself midair to land on his feet. He brushed some dust off of his dark green jacket, and stretched a bit. Flying so much was leaving his arms much more sore than he¡¯d been expecting. Jacopo landed as a bat on his shoulder a few moments later before shifting back into a rat and climbing into the comfort of his jacket. Once he felt loose enough, Dantes stepped out of the alley and onto the street. He was in the guild district, and so saw the usual groups of tradesmen and adventurers passing by on their day to day business.


    He wove his way through them, blending in easily with the crowd. He could¡¯ve landed directly on the roof of his target, but didn¡¯t want to rely on that too much. If he spent too much time flying, he¡¯d miss out on the snippets of conversation and general impression the crowds of people could give him. Even just walking through the streets he was able to get the impression that weapons orders from the city were way up, and adventurers were getting a bit nervous about being sent away on jobs in countries like Viscent and Frasheid that seemed to be less friendly with Rendhold than they¡¯d been in the past.  He assimilated that information as he walked, eventually stopping outside of a blacksmith¡¯s shop in the far corner of a plaza.


    The sign for the shop said, ¡°Steel¡¯s Steel,¡± which Dantes thought was actually kind of a fun bit of wordplay, for a dwarf. He could hear the ting, ting, ting of hammer against metal even from outside and the heat of the forge radiated even from where he was standing. It was open of course, having that much heat in a fully walled off building would make little sense, but the flames, smoke, and steam made it hard to actually see within it until one got close.


    Dantes walked in with his eyes squinted, and followed the noise of the hammer until he reached a dwarf hammering a scalding steel rod with a hammer. His hair, skin, and beard color couldn¡¯t be discerned due to the sheer volume of soot and smoke that had clung to his skin. He was a few shades of gray darker than Dantes himself with all of that clinging to him. He wore goggles as he worked, and did so with tremendous focus and precision. All dwarves were squat and muscular, but the work of the forge had made Steel even more so than the average member of his people. Each of his fingers was as thick as a sword hilt, and his arms were so thick Dantes wondered why the hammer was even necessary, when he could just use his fists to flatten any metal out that he needed to.


    Steel stopped his work for a moment, and inspected the piece of metal he was working with. He grunted, and put it to the side looking up at Dantes. He peeled his goggles off, and rested them on his forehead, revealing surprisingly pale skin and light blue eyes.


    ¡°If you¡¯ve come with a big order, I can¡¯t help you. I just took a job from the city that¡¯s going to be keeping me very busy.¡± He spoke with a particularly thick accent, thicker than even Iron in the Mine and his people that had been close to the dwarven conclave in the city.


    ¡°Just a small order, and something a little different for  Steel¡¯s Steel and Steal.¡±


    Steel squinted at him, ¡°Ah, I should¡¯ve been able to tell you were that type. Come one, step into my office.¡± He gestured with his hands toward a small enclosed part of the shop behind the forge, and walked through the door.


    Dantes followed him, and found himself in a small workshop filled with tools that he guessed were for the measurement and inspection of goods rather than their creation.


    Steel reached for a well cushioned chair, but hesitated when he saw the soot on his hands, grabbing a ratty and worn one instead which he sat on. He didn¡¯t offer anything similar to Dantes.


    ¡°So, you need a fence? What¡¯ve you got?¡±


    Dantes pulled a small pouch from his coat and handed it to him. Even before he¡¯d left the Pit he¡¯d started a rather wide collection of jewelry from the various people he¡¯d stolen it from. He could pry the gems out and pound the metals flat to sell them without a fence, but it was a lot of work and time he didn¡¯t feel was worth it. Besides, it was always good to meet a new fence in the city, he couldn¡¯t rely on his old contacts for it. At least not yet.


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    The dwarf took the pouch and started pulling out the pieces one by one, handling them with surprising gentleness. He pulled a rolling table toward himself and started placing each piece on it one by one.


    ¡°Interesting,¡± he muttered as he placed a silver bracelet on the table. ¡°How did you hear of me?¡±


    The guard had a small file on him that Dantes had found while rifling through the desk of one of Pacha¡¯s superiors. The guard wasn¡¯t willing to make a move on him because the city needed good blacksmiths and he was a small fry. He also apparently had some high up dwarven friends.


    ¡°From Stone on the Mountain.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know that I know him.¡±


    ¡°Tall for a dwarf, black beard, white eyebrows. He certainly claims to know you.¡±


    ¡°Hrmph,¡± He returned his focus to the bag, pulling out the last few pieces and placing them gently on the table. ¡°These are some good pieces actually. Some elven make, dwarven, even some old orcish style pieces I haven¡¯t seen in some time. Almost makes me want to ask how you got it, but that would be breaking the first rule of being a good fence.¡±


    Dantes nodded. As with most criminal work, the fewer questions the better.


    ¡°I can do fifteen gold for this lot.¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow. ¡°You said fifteen, but I¡¯m fairly sure you meant fifty.¡±


    Steel laughed. ¡°Come on, fifteen¡¯s plenty for you to stay high and in whores for weeks.¡±


    Dantes sighed. Steel thought he was just a regular Mutt that got lucky. To an extent he was right, but even before he¡¯d gotten his abilities he¡¯d have recognized a deal this raw. ¡°You¡¯re going to clear nearly one hundred gold on all that, easily. The raw materials alone are worth more than fifteen.¡±


    Steel reassessed him a bit. ¡°Alright, I didn¡¯t realize you had some dwarf in you. I can do twenty-five, but moving some of these pieces is going to be difficult with how unique they are. No higher.¡±


    Dantes shrugged, ¡°Suit yourself,¡± he moved  to the table and started picking pieces off of it. Steel was no fool, he had an incredibly steady expression, even for a dwarf, but Dantes¡¯s enhanced senses let him pick up on small twitches and changes in his face that he never would¡¯ve seen before. He knew exactly which pieces he wanted the most, and so picked those up first.


    Steel sighed. ¡°Alright, this is on me for not taking you seriously. Put the pieces down. I can do forty and a handful of silver.¡±


    Dantes smirked, ¡°One of your hands, not one of mine, and we¡¯ll call it a deal.¡±


    Steel chucked a bit. ¡°Aye, I can do that,¡± he stood and walked over to a heavy metal box in the corner, inputting a series of dwarven runes on the top until it popped open and he could collect the coin.


    ¡°You said you wanted something forged as well?¡± he asked as he collected the coin.¡±


    Dantes nodded, pulling another small bag from his coat. ¡°I want a dagger forged from these.¡±


    Steel raised an eyebrow and picked up the bag, he didn¡¯t open it so much as let it jingle and take a whiff of it.


    ¡°Copper coins?¡± he asked.


    Dantes nodded.


    ¡°That¡¯ll be a shite dagger. Copper¡¯s too soft. I don¡¯t think even beastmen use it for tools anymore. I have about a dozen steel daggers ready to sell if you want something actually useful.¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°It needs to be copper. It¡¯s important.¡±


    Steel grimaced as he weighed the bag in his hand. ¡°At least let me mix in some tin with it? Make it bronze? I hate to let bad work into the world.¡±


    Dantes sighed. ¡°Fine, if it goes against your professional ethics I guess we can make that work. I¡¯m a bit surprised you care though, considering your side business.¡±


    ¡°I have no respect for the laws of men, but the laws of dwarves are another story.¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow. He was fairly certain plenty of dwarves had been involved with the creation of laws in Rendhold, but it didn¡¯t seem a point worth arguing.


    ¡°Guess we have a deal then,¡± said Dantes, spitting in his palm.


    Steel scowled. ¡°I¡¯m not one of those exiles that needs to seal a deal with spit. My word is my bond. I¡¯d be welcomed if I went back home to the stone.¡±


    He saw the confusion on Dantes¡¯s face.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. You clearly didn¡¯t know the difference. Poor bastard.¡± He held out the sack of gold. ¡°That¡¯s for the goods. I¡¯ll have your dagger in a few days if I can work it in between my larger orders.¡±


    Dantes took the gold. ¡°See you then.¡± He turned and walked out of the room, through the forge and back onto the street. Clearly he knew a bit less about dwarves than he thought he did.

 Book 2 Ch 58: Ah, That Old Yarn

    Dantes arrived back in his garden with a pocket full of gold jingling satisfyingly in his pocket. He moved to a small patch of clover in the back corner, and waved his hands so the clover would clear, revealing a patch of dirt. He morphed his left hand into a shovel and dug up the dirt, revealing a small chest. He opened the chest, which was filled with gold, silver, and copper pieces all neatly separated by wooden slats. He carefully placed his new gold into it, keeping a handful of pieces to just have on hand, then he sealed the chest, covered it with dirt, and willed the clover to slide over the patch again.


    The money he got from the fence was a good start, but he had another entire chest full of jewelry he¡¯d have to move eventually. If he brought too much to Steel too quickly he wouldn¡¯t be able to move it, and he¡¯d probably start asking questions Dantes didn¡¯t want to answer. He sighed, taking a gold coin from his pocket and making it dance between his fingers. This was also a test. One he¡¯d been experimenting with often as of late. He needed to determine how sensitive Godfrey¡¯s ability to detect purchases was. He kept a rat watching Steel¡¯s shop, as well as any others he¡¯d visited, and if they were interfered with then he¡¯d be able to narrow things down. So far though, either Godfrey hadn¡¯t taken the bait, or his powers were limited.


    Dantes considered how much coin he currently had. He had three separate stashes in his main garden, two in each of the others, some small stashes in abandoned buildings he hid in rafters and under floorboards. Each of those had a good mix of gold, silver, and copper, then he included the jewels and based how much of a value they would have based on what he just spoke with the fence about, then he added all the weed, gunpowder, and other assorted goods he¡¯d assembled through various robberies, raids, and other skullduggery.


    ¡°Shit,¡± he muttered under his breath as a general estimate solidified in his mind. He was rich. Richer than he¡¯d ever been before. Richer than any theft or blackmail had ever made him. He was richer than most minor nobility. He could buy a mansion in Midtown, or a shitshack in Uptown, not that he¡¯d be able to as they were exclusive about purchasing property there. He had been so occupied with everything else he hadn¡¯t taken the full stock of everything he¡¯d acquired.


    He took a breath. His first considerations for the money were, of course, whores, booze, clothes, and jewelry. He could be simple like that on occasion. Of course, after that initial craving was suppressed, he thought more deeply. He owed Vera and the girls, so the first order of business would be to use the money to build whatever it was she¡¯d been thinking of when they¡¯d last spoken. Then he¡¯d need to use a large portion of the rest of it to rebuild things in midtown in his own image.


    His mind moved through each step before he managed to reel it back in and focus. None of that mattered while Mondego was still alive. Dantes let out a breath and flicked the coin he¡¯d been playing with into the air. He caught it, and pocketed it. He needed to start making his next moves.


    There was a knock at the wooden barrier to his garden. Dantes¡¯s head snapped to it, and he checked the other side of it through a rat¡¯s eyes and saw a long tall figure wearing a black coat, black hat, and holding a black walking stick with an ivory handle.


    Dantes drew his pistol, shifted into a bat, flew over the wooden barrier, shifted back to himself in the air, and landed with his pistol pointed at the man in black¡¯s head.


    ¡°Turn around. Slowly.¡±


    The man raised up his arms, he was holding a letter in one of the raised hands, and his walking stick in the other. His skin was as black as outfit, and there were no clear features on his face aside from glowing white triangles where eyes might be on the void of his face.


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    ¡°Good evening,¡± said the man in black.


    ¡°Good evening¡­¡± responded Dantes.


    ¡°I apologize for the intrusion, but I was sent to provide you with this invitation.¡±


    ¡°How did you find me?¡±


    ¡°Finding people is what I do.¡±


    ¡°What are you?¡±


    ¡°A demon, bound to a book, bound to a person, forced to do menial tasks beneath me because I made a mistake a few thousand years ago.¡±


    ¡°Ah, that old yarn.¡±


    The white triangles in the demon¡¯s face flickered a bit. Amusement? He couldn¡¯t be sure.


    Dantes holstered his pistol, sensing it was a futile gesture. He held out his hand, and the demon put the letter into his hand. It was sealed in wax with an ¡®A¡¯ at the center of it.


    He nodded at the demon. ¡°Thank you, Mr¡­.?¡±


    The demon bowed low, then straightened himself out. ¡°Gren, and you are quite welcome.¡± He flickered like a flame for a moment, then he was gone, leaving only the smell of smoke and blood in the air where he¡¯d been.


    Dantes rubbed the bridge of his nose between his eyes and clenched his jaw. Demons? Were gods, mages, druids, and blessed not enough? He took a deep breath and climbed back into his garden. Once there he took a dagger, and carefully opened the letter he¡¯d received.


    Dantes,


    The Fingers have taken notice of you. Join us at the Silken Sin in the Temple District tonight when the moon is high. We have much to discuss.


    <ul>


    <li>


    Argenta


    </li>


    </ul>


    Dantes read the letter twice, then slipped it into his pocket. The Silken Sin was the club Jacopo had followed Mondego to through that elvish mirror. An invite from the Fingers. It could mean a number of things. It could be a trap, to remove him from Mondego¡¯s way, or it was possible the Fingers were working for Godfrey or with him, especially given their choice of venue. The other possibility was that they knew Mondego was on the decline and he was the cause of it. Better to meet the up and comer before the dust settles to plan for the future. If they wanted him dead, they could¡¯ve just attacked him in his garden. For gods¡¯ sake they had a pet demon at their beck and call apparently. Tel had studied his whole life just to speak and learn from them, and they had one called up from the hells that they could have do their bidding.


    He looked up. It would be a few hours before the meeting time they requested. It was a risk, and a heavy one, but ignoring them was just as dangerous. He walked into his garden and grabbed his green jacket, slipping it over his shoulders. Then he tied an extra anti-vermin enchantment key to Jacopo in case the meeting went long. He checked the wands stored in his wooden arm, as well as Sunrise and Twilight, which were at their full capacity. When he was done with his inventory, he shifted into a bat, and took to the sky.


    Flying made a walk of several hours through winding streets much faster. Rendhold wasn¡¯t only large, it was also unplanned, so even the major roads that cut through the city had frequent detours making a walk anywhere an exhausting prospect. He landed on a rooftop across from the Silken Sin, and watched people go in and out for a few moments. It was a futile gesture, he knew, since there were other magical means of transport into the club. Still, he took note of a few priests that filtered in and out. Not that priests weren¡¯t allowed to do a bit of whoring, it really depended on who they worshiped, so he mostly paid attention to those that looked anxious and afraid as the left.


    Once he was closer to the appointed time he climbed down from the roof, and walked toward the front door.


    ¡°Nervous? Things were dangerous for you here last time,¡± he sent Jacopo.


    ¡°No. If there are any gold cats this time, they will be the ones to flee from me.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Damn right.¡± He walked toward the main entrance and when he received scrutinizing stares from the two large orcish doormen at the door, he held up the invitation he received, and their attitude changed completely. They bowed slightly as they pushed the door open for him.


    Inside, a young woman with long black hair, and a very short skirt, nodded a greeting at him. ¡°Please follow me Master Dantes, they¡¯re ready to receive you.¡±


    Dantes nodded and fell in line behind her. His nerves fired a bit as they passed by the room Mondego had met Godfrey in when he¡¯d been spying on them, but this time there were no masked guards and the open door showed no one within.


    His escort stopped in front of the door Mondego had hesitated in front of, smiled, and pushed it open for him.

 Book 2 Ch 59: So, Whatre Your Terms?

    The room was well lit by torches burning with heatless white flame placed to maximize the spread of their light around the room. The carpet was rich and patterned with a moving mural that showed wars, trade, and myths all throughout it. The walls were covered in a black and gold diamond shaped pattern. The gold parts of it actually seemed to flow, like water, and he found himself watching that flow as he walked into the room.


    At the far end was a semicircular table made of pure white elfwood. There were no seams on it, which indicated to him that it was carved from a single piece, or even sung into existence by one of those few elves still alive that had made the initial trip from Elfland. On the table was a brass object that seemed to be radiating heat, and from that extended five tubes which wove their way to be in front of each of the fingers. There were also the usual piles of dust and bottles of booze he always expected to be around when his class of people was meeting.


    He didn¡¯t recognize any of them, they were too far up the criminal ladder for that, but he knew enough from reputation to identify each of them at the table. Niklas, the littlest finger, sat on the far left. He was a tall skinny human with tan skin and pale gray eyes. His clothes were the rich brown of tobacco, and paired nicely with the bright gold jewelry which covered him. His hair was brown with patches of gray pulled back into a ponytail, and he had a large and surprisingly genuine smile as he regarded Dantes. He and his Gatemen controlled all the overland smuggling into the city, so he intuited that he may have a soft spot for Dantes¡¯s disruption of Mondego¡¯s sea smuggling operation.


    On the other end of the table, wearing an elegant blue dress with glass beading so well made it shined like stars, was Diamond. She was a dwarven woman who appeared young, but Dantes knew she¡¯d been a player in the city for too long for even dwarven aging to make that her true appearance. She had bright blue eyes and thick dark hair that fell perfectly across her back in ringlets. She was, to Dantes¡¯s limited knowledge, the only mage fully endorsed by the academy that didn¡¯t also work for it directly. She could cast any spells without fearing repercussions from other mages. She could still be arrested by the guard, but that was far less dangerous of a prospect for someone of her skills. She, unlike the other Fingers, had very little organization below her, but in spite of that she controlled most of the illegal magic that was spread throughout the city. Love spells, demon bindings, unlicensed necromancy, she could make all of it happen for a price.


    Next to her sat Drake, a mutt like Dantes, who was mostly made up of dwarven and orcish ancestry. His chest was massively broad, as were his shoulders, and his hands looked strong enough to bend metal. His beard was wild, but clean, and his tusks were capped in steel. His orange eyes immediately locked onto Dantes¡¯s wooden arm, but he said nothing, just sized him up. Drake worked primarily for the guilds. He and his men were strikebreakers, or Guild protectors depending on who paid him the most. He was also frequently called upon to flex his muscles when merchants and even nobles didn¡¯t pay up for the services a guild rendered. His men were former adventurers, mercs, and even a handful of guardsmen that had pissed off one too many superiors.


    Next to Niklas was Fritz. He was as short and stubbly as Niklas was long and lanky. A gnome, wearing fine green silks with details embroidered in gold, he seemed barely interested in Dantes at all as he entered. He was instead focused on taking a long inhale from the tube in front of him, and blowing out a cloud of purple and golden smoke that seemed to sparkle as it hung in the air. His eyes were half lidded and purple, and Dantes was certain that he was high beyond belief, but also that there was something beneath that. Something Dantes couldn¡¯t pick up on. He ran the majority of the gambling in the city. Gambling was legal, for the most part, but drake fights, death matches, and games with high enough stakes weren¡¯t. On top of all that he was a top executive in the Consortium. He had a hand in all of those pots, as well as the ability to make dirty money disappear and reappear cleaner than ever before.


    Finally, in the center of all of them, was Argenta. The only member of the fingers that was also on the Rendhold council. Her story was legendary at this point. She¡¯d started as a midtown mutt, became a master thief and assassin, rising through the criminal underworld of Rendhold before making enough money to legitimize her status as the bastard of a noble. Whether she actually was or not, was unknown, but the city was forced to recognize her either way. After that she turned her fortune from illegal to legal, slowly building legitimate enterprises in uptown until it was impossible to truly untangle her from the fabric of uptown society. Once she was rich enough she, through blackmail, bribery, and cunning, took the place of the councilor that represents the nobility of the city. She was around forty, human with maybe just a touch of elf somewhere along her family history. Her hair was black with a streak of white extending through it. Her eyes were a brown so dark that they were almost black, and she wore a simple black blouse and pants with silver accents and jewelry. She stared Dantes in the eye from the start, not sizing him up, nor questioning his being there. She saw things as they were. The other four reminded him of predators or cunning prey, but she was nothing of the sort. She was beyond baser instinct, she saw things with the clarity of an evolved mind.


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    Dantes walked toward the table, scanning for any threats. There were guards hidden in shadow all around him. His fingers had been tingling in Diamond¡¯s direction since he¡¯d entered, and something about Argenta raised his alarm bells, but he sensed that these were their usual security precautions. If they were truly planning on killing him, they wouldn¡¯t have actually met with him at all. The second he¡¯d entered, he would¡¯ve been riddled with bullets and spells that would¡¯ve killed him on the spot.


    Dantes smiled, deciding to seize the initiative. He held up the invitation. ¡°You called for me?¡±


    Argenta didn¡¯t return his smile. ¡°Welcome, Dantes. Thank you for coming on such short notice.¡±


    ¡°The invitation left little room for refusal.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. You could¡¯ve scurried off and hid somewhere as a rat if you¡¯d really wanted to,¡± said Niklas, revealing a bit of his hand.


    Dantes smiled as if he wasn¡¯t surprised by Niklas¡¯s knowledge. ¡°Oh, I always have options, but meeting all of you seemed like the most appealing one.¡±


    ¡°Oh, he¡¯s pretty smooth for someone who looks so much like a thug,¡± said Diamond, smiling and leaning toward him in such a way that her cleavage became more visible.


    ¡°Calling someone as small as him a thug is an insult to the title,¡± said Drake shaking his head. ¡°He¡¯d need at least another foot of height, and fifty pounds of muscle.¡±


    ¡°I assume you''re wondering why we called you here?¡± asked Argenta, ignoring her companions'' barbs.


    ¡°I¡¯m fucking with Mondego, who rumor has it you¡¯ve been considering for a place among you. You want to size me up, and also make sure that whatever I do, I don¡¯t disrupt whatever deals you had with him.¡±


    Argenta nodded. ¡°Good. Some of us worried you might be a fool, but it looks as if you¡¯re far from it. Can you intuit why we¡¯d want to meet with you rather than just take care of you for our erstwhile ally?¡±


    Dantes thought about that for a moment. ¡°There are a few reasons I can think of. You don¡¯t want to deal with someone who can¡¯t manage a problem like me on his own. You think that there¡¯s a better option than him to honor the deals you¡¯ve already made. Or, my favorite, you don¡¯t like him. You dealt with him because he was a top earner and could make you even more, but with those earnings shrinking he¡¯s no longer someone you want to tolerate.¡±


    Argenta nodded. ¡°Yes, all three of those things are true to varying degrees. There¡¯s other factors of course, ones that you couldn¡¯t guess with the information you have, and which we don¡¯t benefit from revealing to you at this time. There¡¯s still a good chance you could die after all. Mondego¡¯s not the brightest, but that woman of his is clever, and he¡¯s certainly a capable murderer.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°So, what¡¯re your terms?¡±


    ¡°Four months. We will give you four months to remove Mondego and take control of his assets. We will not intervene, we will not assist him, and we will consider our deals with him on hold until that time limit has passed or you have perished. If you succeed, then at the end of those months you will need to honor whatever deals we¡¯ve made with him, along with twenty-percent interest on each of them. You do this, and we will recognize you as the one in charge of midtown and consider you for the position which Mondego is coveting.¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow. Four months wasn¡¯t a long time. For killing Mondego? It was more than enough. For taking control of all of his assets and gaining control of midtown? That was a tight turnaround. Once it was done he was fairly certain he could take on all the deals he made with little issue. He''d already watched all of his enterprises for months, stolen ledgers, and listened in all his meetings. At this point he likely knew Mondego''s operations better than he did. He knew the deals they were talking about. He also had a fairly good idea of what would happen if he refused this offer. There were some situations where negotiation wasn''t an option. Besides, he knew he could do it.


    ¡°You assume my goal is to take over. What if it¡¯s just to kill him?¡±


    The dazed Fritz spoke up. ¡°You¡¯ve left the skeleton of his organization largely intact. You hit assets and eroded confidence in him and his own faith in himself, but the network he works within is only broken in ways that someone else can pick up.¡± he took another long inhale before releasing it into the air. ¡°You definitely want him dead, but you also have greater ambitions than that. It¡¯s written clear as day in how the money has moved.¡±


    Dantes squinted a bit at him. He had no indication that the Fingers worked with Godfrey, but he would be a fool not to recognize that their offices were next to one another in this building. He saw no hints of gold on any of the Fingers, but he was able to hide his own with long sleeves, so it wasn¡¯t as if that was a difficult proposition. Only Diamond showed enough skin to dissuade that notion and she definitely had the magical ability to hide that anyway.


    Argenta nodded at Fritz¡¯s words. ¡°Exactly. We¡¯re not blind. The picture is clear to us. Do you accept our proposal?¡±


    Dantes kept his smile up. There was no point in refusing. The deal could only benefit him with time and space to do what he was planning to do anyway. It just tightened up the timeline. In the end, even if he fell short, or decided he didn¡¯t want to pay back whatever deals they had made with Mondego, he could always just renege and find another option. The fingers were powerful, but so were a number of people who¡¯d believed they¡¯d had him under their thumb, and his own power was only growing. In four months, who knew how powerful he¡¯d be?


    ¡°I accept. It¡¯s a reasonable proposition after all.¡±


    Argenta stood up from her seat and walked around the table. She raised her right hand on which sat a large silver ring emblazoned with the letter A. Dantes approached her and kneeled. He didn''t feel any of that strange energy he had when Godfrey had tried to make a deal with him, not were any other alarm bells going off in his mind. He kissed the ring.


    ¡°I look forward to seeing more of what you can do.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 60: This is an Ugly Look for You

    Mondego sat across from a roaring fire in the parlor of his mansion. It was midday, and the heat of the sun combined with that of the fire was sweltering, but he didn¡¯t feel it.


    ¡°Another glass!¡± he said, causing his sweat drenched servants to jump.


    One of them quickly moved to the table next to him and placed two ice cubes in the glass to his side.


    Mondego smacked the glass with the side of his hand, sending it flying across the room and shattering against a nearby wall.


    ¡°Did I fucking ask for ice?¡±


    ¡°N-no sir. I just thought.¡±


    ¡°Just leave the fucking bottle and go.¡±


    The man stood confused for a moment.


    ¡°I said GO! All of you! Get the fuck out!¡±


    The man jumped again, and ran out of the room, followed closely by the other servants.


    Mondego took a pull from the bottle, then casually tossed it into the fire, causing it to flare out for a moment before settling. He stood up, and walked toward the large chest he¡¯d had placed on one side of the room. He opened the lid of it, and looked inside. It was filled with rats that had been frozen by magic that could only be dispelled by extreme heat. He took one out, tossed it into the fire. It screeched and attempted to scramble out of the flames, then died before it could do anything. Mondego sat next to the chest on the luxurious rug, grabbed another of the rats, and tossed it into the fire, watching a near exact re-enactment of the first rat¡¯s suffering.


    It wasn¡¯t supposed to go this way. He¡¯d already won. He was meant to be in money, women, drugs, and power for the rest of his life. He looked at the small bit of gold still left on his ring finger, and clenched his hand into a fist. He grabbed another rat and tossed it into the fire.


    The deal was good, he didn¡¯t regret it at all. He¡¯d gained the affections of the woman he¡¯d always wanted, the money he¡¯d always coveted, and most importantly, the respect he¡¯d always felt he¡¯d deserved. He knew he was meant to be more than a carpenter like his father had been. He could feel it in his bones. As a child he¡¯d fantasized that his father wasn¡¯t really his father, but that his mother had spent an evening with a noble, maybe even someone on the council, but the resemblance wasn¡¯t exactly something he could deny as he grew. As a young man he¡¯d had dreams of being an adventurer. He was strong, and he knew he could be one of the greats, but instead he¡¯d always found himself wrapped up in one of Dantes¡¯s ideas.


    There was always a fresh robbery, an easy mark, or a quick gold piece to be made, and those ideas paid out well more often than not. Who could blame him for focusing on that kind of work over being an adventurer? Dantes had taken advantage of his friendship, and everyone else¡¯s in the gang. All the while he flaunted his relationship with Mercedes in front of him. He got to be the leader, to have the best woman, and even with her he still found time for whores. Not that he felt bad about that, Mercedes always looked to him for solace when they were having troubles.


    Who knew how long things would¡¯ve kept going that way if Dantes¡¯s mother hadn¡¯t died? He¡¯d actually felt sad about that, she was a nice woman. Dantes¡¯s behavior after she was gone changed things. He became reckless, and dangerous, even more than before. His eyes were always bloodshot, and his nose always had traces of fine white powder along its edges. He¡¯d never done anything in moderation, but during that time he took everything to the extreme.


    Mondego tossed another rat into the fire, listening to it scream. He¡¯d saved them. Taking Godfrey¡¯s deal had been the best decision he ever made for all of them. Best deal Godfrey had ever made too. Mondego had been an earner, sent him everything he asked for, made his offerings regularly and without issue. Still the bastard refused to intervene directly. Couldn¡¯t even save Danglars and he¡¯d been doing work for him constantly.


    He grabbed a handful this time and tossed them all in at once. He let his mind clear to the sound of their screams for a few moments before his thoughts started turning again. The Fingers too, didn¡¯t know what they were missing. They delayed and denied him his right. He was better than them. All of them. Argenta definitely had some kind of deal, just as he did, otherwise how could she have risen as she had.


    Dantes had help too. That much was clear. He certainly hadn¡¯t been able to command rats and roaches before, or grow plants, or survive having an arm removed. He was capable, Mondego had to admit that, but this was completely different. He was supposed to be gone. That was part of the deal. Dantes was a sacrifice that needed to be made so that he could rise. Godfrey had insisted that he live, that the risk of him being alive would make his rewards all the greater. What did that matter if he¡¯d come back to take everything away? Mondego pictured the moment he¡¯d pushed that ladder off the roof while Dantes was on it. He¡¯d expected to feel some sense of regret. They¡¯d been friends since they were children after all. All he¡¯d felt was elation. He still woke up smiling when he had that dream about pushing him from it. Sometimes he could swear he could still feel the weight of push in the palms of his hands.


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    He heard footsteps approaching.


    ¡°Go. The fuck. Away.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t avoid what¡¯s going on forever,¡± said Mercedes.


    Mondego rubbed his forehead and grabbed another rat to toss into the fire, ignoring her.


    ¡°Your lieutenants are refusing to listen to your orders. Many of them are making excuses to not send what they owe or have responded to your commands with silence.


    Another toss, another rat¡¯s scream as it died.


    ¡°A number of your men have deserted or are looking to join new gangs or form their own, taking small pieces of everything you¡¯ve done with you as they do. The men that you wanted followed, the Shadow Cats, have completely disappeared.¡±


    Two rats this time, another burst of screams, then silence.


    ¡°Many of the smaller gangs on the fringes have begun attacking you as well. They claim they have the right as we struck first. My guess is that Dantes and some associates made the attacks and framed us.¡±


    Another rat went into the fire.


    ¡°We also need to find a new magister to make deals with the docking authority. Without Danglars we don¡¯t have the in with them that we used to. There are a few we¡¯ve had dealings with in the past that I think would make good replacements, but I¡¯d prefer to find someone we can truly own, not just someone we bribe.¡±


    No rats were tossed this time, Mondego just sat on the floor in silence, staring at his hand.


    ¡°A number of midtowners have refused to pay up their protection or let our men use their businesses for storage. We tried to make an example of a few of them, but that seems to have only solidified the resistance.¡±


    He stayed silent, then made another halfhearted toss of a rat into the fire.


    Mercedes approached and began gently running her fingers through his hair.


    ¡°We can come back from this my love. We¡¯ve risen so high thanks to you. Thanks to your strength, your wit, and recovering from this will be so much easier than the climb was. You just need to show strength. We can send the extra men protecting the manor to go and whip the midtowners back into line. We can visit each of your lieutenants personally, and show them just who they¡¯re fucking with. Once they¡¯re in line we can crush those smaller gangs that are attacking us.¡±


    Mondego reached into the chest, but found it empty.


    ¡°That won¡¯t solve the main problem.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯ll make a false move eventually love. He¡¯s already made several that we¡¯ve been able to take advantage of. He has advantages now, it''s true, but even those can be handled. How effective can he be now that you¡¯ve taken his hand?¡±


    ¡°Effective enough that my lieutenants desert me, my men flee, those that owe me refuse to pay, and the neighboring gangs are closing in on every side.¡±


    ¡°Well, I suppose we¡¯ll just have to take his other hand and both of his feet next time.¡± she chuckled at her joke and rested a hand on his shoulder. ¡°Come, let¡¯s have a meal. We¡¯ll get you some coffee and water, then we can start fixing everything up as it should be again.¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you prefer to go out and spend our gold? I¡¯ve never known you to want such an active part in things before.¡±


    ¡°Of course I¡¯d prefer to be shopping, but you need help, and I¡¯m here to give it to you. We can win darling, we just need to take active steps now before it¡¯s too late.¡±


    ¡°Take active steps, eh?  Have my guards reduced to lessen my defenses here. Have me leave the safety of my manor to make me more vulnerable to attack. I¡¯m not sure you have my best interests in mind.¡±


    Mercedes removed her hand from his shoulder. ¡°The drink and the heat are starting to affect you my love. Come, let¡¯s at least get you some water.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps with a dose of poison?¡±


    Mercedes paused for a moment and sneered at him. ¡°This is an ugly look for you Mondego.¡±


    Mondego laughed. ¡°You¡¯re used to thinking me ugly, this should be nothing new. If you didn¡¯t think I was ugly then why were you with Dantes for so long? Why did you wait until he was completely out of the picture to be openly with me?¡±


    ¡°You have no reason to be insecure about my affections. I was young and foolish, I didn¡¯t realize your quality until it was truly able to shine. If I could only switch the thoughts I had then with those I have now then I would¡¯ve been with you always.¡±


    ¡°So you say,¡± he went to stand up, and shook a bit on his feet as he did so.


    Mercedes moved forward to steady him.


    He whipped around, quick as a snake, and smacked her with his full strength across the face.


    To her, the blow sounded like a thunderclap, and her vision blurred and darkened for several seconds before she realized she was laying across the ground, clutching her cheek.


    ¡°I don¡¯t need your help. I am not a child. I know what¡¯s best for us, and for midtown. I¡¯ll take care of everything myself.¡± He looked down into her eyes with a look of contempt on his face. ¡°Now, get the fuck out of my sight.¡± He turned his back to her, and went back to staring into the fire. The scent of burnt fur and flesh now filled the parlor completely.


    Mercedes picked herself up, and said nothing. She silently left the room, and climbed the stairs up to her chambers. The servants avoided her gaze, but she knew they knew. Knew that he¡¯d struck her and that filled her with rage. The contempt she¡¯d seen in his eyes, the thought of it made her flush red. She¡¯d seen that look. Had known it since she was a child. It was the look you wore when you looked at trash, at filth. She moved to her closet and retrieved her makeup, then began to calmly cover the harsh red mark on her skin. Once that was done, she took out a pen and paper, and wrote a letter.

 Book 2 Ch 61: Are you here to say goodbye? To join me? Or to kill me?

    It was almost time. He could feel it in his bones, and his branches. All of his moves had paid off, all of his plans had been carried out, and his contingencies were mapped. He¡¯d stripped Mondego piece by piece, and now with him at his lowest, he¡¯d finally end him. Admittedly, it wasn¡¯t as low as Mondego had brought him, and that did bother him. There were some plans he¡¯d had that involved getting him sent to the Pit, but whatever luck, whatever armor he seemed to gain from his greedmark seemed to make a complete and utter loss like that an impossibility. The only way to overcome it was some kind of push, and if he was going to make that kind of push, he needed to take his life too. He was just waiting for an opening, some small window with his men distracted or him leaving his manor to go to the club. If nothing appeared naturally by the end of the week, he was going to make an opening.


    He sat tying another small bag of gunpowder with an ignition stone inside of it and placing it to the side. He had about fifty, which would probably be all he needed, but it wasn¡¯t like he wouldn¡¯t find a use for any extras. A pigeon landed on his shoulder with a letter smelling of drake-tears, Mercedes. He¡¯d left a few birds with standing orders to bring him any letters she wrote him so he could focus elsewhere. He had her tailed when she left the manor, but when she wasn¡¯t active inside he couldn¡¯t spare the attention. He fed the bird and scratched the top of its head as he removed the note from his leg.


    Dantes,


    I am leaving. I don¡¯t know where I stand with you and I presume you feel the same about me, but I want you to come with me. Leave Mondego with the rope you¡¯ve given him and I promise you he will hang himself. We can build a new life. Everything bad that has ever happened to us has happened in this city. We can leave all of that behind. Between the two of us, we can rule anywhere we land. Meet me at the docks or let me go, that¡¯s all I ask.


    <ul>


    <li style="font-weight: 400">Mercedes</li>


    </ul>


    Dantes tossed the letter aside, he hated the smell of drake-tears. She didn¡¯t provide a location because she knew he¡¯d be watching where she went anyway. He flitted through the eyes of the rats and roaches he had watching the Manor and saw a woman wearing a simple black cloak. She slipped out of a second story window, and slid down the shingles in total silence. She then leapt down, and disappeared. Dantes shifted through the perspective of dozens of vermin until he found her again in an alley a block away making her way to the docks. He set some pigeons and rats to track her. He wasn¡¯t sure how she¡¯d gotten out of the manor. An enchantment of some kind? Some ability she¡¯d picked up? He¡¯d need to be careful. She had a deal of her own and with what Godfrey had been capable of it was possible that it manifested differently than just the cursed luck he¡¯d seen so far.


    Dantes moved quickly, cycling through the wands in his hand as he threw on his coat and slid his gun into his belt. He then put his new bronze dagger forged from copper coins into its sheath at his waist as well as a far more practical steel dagger in his sleeve.


    Jacopo leapt off a nearby tree and landed on his shoulder.


    ¡°We hunt the female?¡±


    Dantes nodded, with just a second of hesitation.


    ¡°Could we not wait until Mondego realizes she¡¯s gone and take advantage of his confusion to attack him?¡±


    ¡°If we¡¯re lucky we can take care of her and take advantage of the situation.¡±


    ¡°Are we ready for this?¡± he asked.


    Dantes paused his checks of everything he had.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect caution from you.¡±


    Jacopo wiggled his whiskers in an approximation of a shrug.


    ¡°One of the bad habits I learned from you.¡±


    Dantes laughed. ¡°Are you certain? I doubt many would call me cautious.¡±


    ¡°More than a rat, less than the average two-legs.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if we¡¯re ready, but the time is right, and I can¡¯t let her escape. Besides, with you at my side? I¡¯m sure I¡¯m ready for anything.¡±


    Jacopo nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s go kill this former mate of yours then.¡±


    Once he was certain he had everything he needed, Dantes shifted into batform and flew up into the sky. It wasn¡¯t quite evening, but the sun was beginning to set. Jacopo flew just behind him as they made their way to the docks. Mercedes was making surprisingly excellent progress. She¡¯d always been fast, and it seemed like her wealth and excess hadn¡¯t made her lose a step yet. She eventually stopped at a medium-sized boat, the kind a noble might use to sail, that was unmanned. Once she was there she climbed onboard and went below the deck. Dantes was able to get both rats and roaches onto the boat without issue to follow her, and watched as she lit several glass lanterns and poured herself a glass of wine. The cabin she was in was larger on the inside than the outside, reminding him of Felix¡¯s room at the Academy. It was full of expensive furnishings, enough to fill a small home. After taking a long sip of her wine she sat down on a couch and sighed heavily.


    It wasn¡¯t too long before Dantes and Jacopo reached her yacht. Dantes did a thorough sweep of the boat with rats and roaches. There was no crew, but there was a large amount of supplies on board. He detected some ambient magic through the animals, but couldn¡¯t identify exactly where it was, which meant it was likely the boat itself that was magical in nature. That made sense given the spatially inconsistent cabin below decks. With no obvious traps Dantes and Jacopo shifted into their usual forms and landed on the deck. Jacopo climbed into his jacket and they both walked below deck.


    Mercedes smiled at him. ¡°You came.¡± She stood and put her glass down.


    He hadn¡¯t seen her in person since that chance encounter on needle street. It had been easier to ignore his attraction to her when viewing her through rats and roaches, but in person he had to admit that she was beautiful. With her dark hair pulled back and wearing a simple outfit she looked very much as she had before he¡¯d been thrown into the Pit. That made his hate boil closer to the surface.


    ¡°I came,¡± he said simply, trying not to let his feelings bleed into his tone.


    ¡°Are you here to say goodbye, to join me, or to kill me?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure yet,¡± he lied.


    ¡°That¡¯s not surprising. Any chance I can move you in a particular direction?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve been good at that in the past.¡±


    ¡°I shouldn¡¯t have betrayed you. It wasn¡¯t me that pushed the ladder, but¡­ I could¡¯ve stopped it. I could¡¯ve made it so things went differently. Godfrey¡¯s words are hard to ignore, there¡¯s a power to them that¡¯s hard to resist, but I could¡¯ve tried harder.¡±


    Dantes felt a kind of fuzziness on the edge of his perceptions, and pushed it away.


    ¡°What happened is done, but I want to spend the rest of my life making it up to you. We can sail to any city, eat the finest foods, wear the finest clothes, make love on the softest sheets. Rendhold is a shithole. It always has been. We¡¯ve been looked down on our whole lives here, even with all that I¡¯ve built no real nobility gives me the time of day here, but we can write a new story somewhere else, be different people.This boat is magical, it''ll sail itself wherever we choose.¡±


    Dantes listened carefully, realizing a lot about Mercedes as she spoke. He also noticed some heavy redness on her cheek that had been hidden by makeup. Mondego had struck her. He also realized he was in her rhythm, in the same way that he¡¯d been in Godfrey¡¯s. Unlike his, this one was much easier to push to the side.


    She moved to a small table and poured two glasses of wine before approaching him holding out one of the glasses.


    He took it, but didn¡¯t take a sip, instead looking at the full circle of gold on her ring finger. It hadn¡¯t been full the last time he¡¯d seen it, but now it practically glowed in the lantern light. She¡¯d sacrificed to fill it again. Mondego, and her life in Rendhold, that was what it took to fill it this time.


    She watched him quietly, sipping her wine.


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    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter where you or I go, people will always look down on us. I can eat good food, wear nice clothes, and enjoy good sex with women here. You¡¯re absolutely right that Rendhold¡¯s a shithole, but it¡¯s mine. I¡¯ve never wanted to be someone else like you, never wanted to pretend I¡¯m anything other than a mutt and a whoreson. When I succeed, I want everyone I crawled over to victory to know they lost to scum. There¡¯s nothing more satisfying than being a rat that slayed a dragon.¡±


    Her face started to contort a bit as he spoke, as if she was in pain.¡°I love you Dantes. Don¡¯t you believe that? It doesn¡¯t have to be this way.¡±


    ¡°I do believe you actually. I believe that you loved me before I was thrown into the underprison. I believe you loved Mondego while I was there. I believe you love me now. You love whoever can give you what you want, and you do so shamelessly to serve the person you actually love the most, yourself.¡±


    She gritted her teeth, her eyes wet with tears of rage.


    ¡°Is this goodbye? Or the other option?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°I feel sorry for you. For your desire to be something you aren¡¯t. To love so selfishly. Unfortunately, how sorry I feel for you doesn¡¯t even come close to how much I fucking hate you.¡±


    Dantes dropped the wine and willed his wooden hand to extend as a spike, but Mercedes was faster than him.


    She smashed her wine glass into the side of his head, and then quickly jammed the stem of it into his side, pushing him back as she did so.


    Dantes was blinded by wine, but didn¡¯t panic, instead relying on all of his other enhanced senses to detect where she was.


    Mercedes lifted two hand crossbows and fired them at him.


    Dantes quickly shifted his wooden arm into a shield, but when the bolts struck it, they exploded, and threw Dantes back once again. He slammed against the far wall, his head nearly denting it, leaving him disoriented and his ears ringing.


    Mercedes''s crossbows seemed to reload themselves and she took aim at him again before he could recover.


    Jacopo shifted into batform and flew quickly toward her, landing on her hair which caused her to flinch and shoot two more explosive bolts at the ceiling of the cabin.


    Dantes dove behind an ornate couch and took a moment to recuperate, quickly wiping the wine from his eyes and reshaping his shattered wooden hand. He drew his Bronze dagger, shifted into a roach, and began moving to flank her.


    Mercedes tore Jacopo from her hair and threw him against a wall before aiming another bolt in his direction.


    Jacopo shifted quickly into his usual shape and skittered horizontally across the wall, which surprised her enough to throw off her aim, the resulting explosion blinding her long enough for Jacopo to vanish from her sight.


    Her crossbow reloaded again, and she slowly backed herself against the wall while her eyes looked left and right.


    Dantes tried to summon the vermin he¡¯d been massing on the deck of the boat to swarm her, but found that the cabin had sealed somehow, and those small gaps he¡¯d been able to send vermin through were now too tight for even a roach to slip between.


    ¡°You thought you¡¯d get the drop on me, huh Dantes?¡± she continued scanning the room, her crossbows ready. ¡°You didn¡¯t consider that I might plan for some contingencies? Don¡¯t you think I picked a few things up from you when we were together? I didn¡¯t just invite you because I wanted you to come with me, I invited you because I knew that if you wanted me dead, you¡¯d hunt me to the ends of the mortal plane. I¡¯d rather solve the problem of you before I start my new life.¡±


    Dantes and Jacopo both moved to opposite sides of her. They tried to will the wood of the boat to work with them, but the magic woven through it made it too hard to push any lifeforce into it and give it shape.


    Dantes crawled along the ceiling, moving slowly until he was just above her.


    As he did that, Jacopo moved behind a nearby dresser. He shifted back into ratform, and smashed the side of his body into the dresser.


    Mercedes launched two bolts directly into it, which exploded, sending splinters throughout the room.


    At that same moment, Dantes shifted into himself, his dagger still in his hand, and landed on her. He tried to bring his dagger down onto her, but before he could the boat rocked and she managed to move out from under him and scramble to the other side of the cabin while her crossbows reloaded.


    Being faster than him on that first strike, taking him by surprise, and then this? Dantes could feel the scales being tipped in her favor. This was the work of the greedmark.


    She fired two more bolts at him.


    He dove to the side before they could explode, and brought a wand up through his palm. He pointed it at her and a bolt of lightning arced out of it in her direction, before diverting sharply at the last minute and hitting the ceiling of the boat, dispersing against it.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t think the weather resistance enchantment on the boat was still active,¡± she said, firing two more bolts.


    Dantes was forced to shift into batform to dodge the time, and then flew to close the distance, changing midair and using his momentum to launch himself dagger in hand, at her throat.


    She vanished, but Dantes could feel someone grab him low at the waist, under his dagger, and use his momentum to slam him into the cabin wall. He slashed wildly with his dagger as he stood, but hit nothing. He always forgot about her orcish strength at the worst times. Though in his defense, he hadn¡¯t expected invisibility. Teleportation, yes, but invisibility wasn¡¯t something he¡¯d predicted.


    He kept his dagger in front of himself as he and Jacopo spread out their senses to find her. She was only about five feet away in front of him. She was also at the back of the cabin, and four feet to his right. That wasn¡¯t good.


    He pulled his pistol from his waist and aimed at the one in front of him, firing. The bullet struck true, and a golden figure in the shape of Mercedes collapsed in the middle of the cabin, then faded until there was only a gold coin where she¡¯d been standing.


    A fist struck the side of Dantes¡¯s face and he was thrown to the ground a few feet away. Jacopo noticed another of the Mercedes materialize invisibly near the one in the back.


    ¡°I¡¯m not like Mondego and Danglars,¡± said one of them.


    ¡°I never took my gifts for granted and saw it only as luck and favors,¡± said another from a different direction.¡±


    ¡°Godfrey said I was a natural disciple of greed. Even priesthood was possible,¡± said the one in the back.


    ¡°You¡¯ve never been much for religion though,¡± choked out Dantes raggedly.


    ¡°Exactly,¡± said the closest one as it stepped closer.


    Dantes raised his wooden hand, a wand extended out of it, but didn¡¯t aim for any of the Mercedes, instead he aimed it over his head. Darkness overtook the cabin, a blackness so thick it seemed almost as if it could be cut with a knife.


    Everyone in the cabin was blinded, but that didn¡¯t bother Dantes or Jacopo one bit.


    The three Mercedes began sweeping the cabin, they didn¡¯t panic, but instead moved in a pattern, trying to narrow down where he was. One of them reached a corner, then suddenly died. Mercedes kept her calm and summoned another and continued her search focusing on where the last one was. She could make a break for the cabin exit, but that was suicide, she knew Dantes would have every advantage in the open like that. The darkness spell couldn¡¯t last forever.


    Another of her copies died. Then two died at the same time.


    ¡°I know where you are you now,¡± came a voice from the corner. She quickly loosed two bolts in his direction, which were followed by the noise of small explosions.


    ¡°Missed.¡± said Dantes across from where he¡¯d just been.


    She loosed two more, and sent her copies that way.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t want to go after you until that ring on your finger is empty.¡±


    One of her copies leapt toward the voice, but hit nothing but air. Then she was destroyed as well.


    ¡°How much do you think you have left? How many times can it save you before the god of greed needs another sacrifice? If only you could check it in the dark.¡±


    She and her copies all let loose a flurry of bolts all across the cabin, and didn¡¯t stop firing even as the explosions started to break down the enchantments on the boat and tear chunks of it away. When she stopped she could hear the sound of water starting to fill the cabin.


    The darkness spell faded, and she felt relief. She must¡¯ve hit him. She looked for a corpse, but saw only her golden copies staring at her in fear. Her eyes widened.


    Dantes grabbed her from behind, wrapping a hand around her throat as he raised his bronze dagger.


    ¡°Goodbye Mercedes. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll send your husband to join you in greed¡¯s coinpurse soon enough.¡±


    He plunged the dagger into her heart. She tensed, then went limp. Her two copies disappeared. He lowered her gently onto the ground, leaving the dagger in her heart.


    ¡°A dagger made of copper coins for you. I always pay whores what they deserve.¡±


    Jacopo climbed over her corpse and leapt onto him. Dantes took a deep breath and exhaled. Then he knelt down with his other dagger, and cut off her ring finger, circled in black now rather than gold. He then slipped her coin purse into his own pocket, and slung her two crossbows into his belt.


    ¡°She was tougher than I expected,¡± said Jacopo.


    ¡°She was always at her best when she was pissed off.¡±


    ¡°Would¡¯ve made a strong brood.¡±


    ¡°Almost definitely,¡± Dantes looked at the water slowly filling the cabin. ¡°We should get out of here.¡±


    Jacopo silently agreed and they walked toward the cabin door. Dantes moved to push it open, but it wouldn¡¯t give. He put more strength into it, but it continued not to move. He slammed his shoulder into it, then tried to extend his wooden hand through it, but it couldn¡¯t get beneath the door, nor could he move it.


    ¡°I guess she planned on taking me with her one way or another.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 62: He Needed Help This Time

    Dantes could feel the boat beginning to slowly sink as he looked around the cabin. He wouldn¡¯t be strong enough to swim through the holes through which the water was pouring as a rat or a roach, at least not until the cabin was completely filled. That forced him to wait. He sloshed through the water toward where Mercedes had left her bottle of wine. Somehow, it had stayed on the table in spite of everything. He lifted it up and took a swig from it, letting the warmth of it spread through him and take a bit of the edge off the pain of the various bruises, bone fractures, and cuts across his body. If not for the improved energy and healing he received from his gardens he estimated that by now he should probably have the body of a sixty year old dockhand that had done hard labor all his life.


    He pulled the stem of the wine glass that Mercedes had stabbed him with out of his chest with a grimace and tossed it into the water with a splash. The boat had sunk another several feet. From what he could tell, the water was coming in through dozens of small holes rather than a single big one. He searched the cabin and found one of them. He then pulled one of Mercedes¡¯s crossbows from his belt and fired at it, widening it a bit with an explosion. He tried several more times, but it was still a tight fit for his rat form, which meant that once the cabin was filled he¡¯d have to try and find his way out as a roach. He didn¡¯t relish the idea of being that small in a dangerous situation, but the risk certainly beat drowning.


    He took another swig from the bottle. Jacopo crawled just a bit higher on his shoulder as the water began to reach his waist. He closed his eyes and focused on all of those threads of life that were connected to him. He began to pull at them, drawing that life into himself, then he focused more deeply, on himself. It had been a lot harder to do since he¡¯d been in his state of odd delirium after his fight with Mercedes, but he managed to bring his focus down to those almost invisible parts of his body near where he¡¯d been hurt. He pushed that life force into those tiny pieces nearest to where he was injured, and watched as all of them seemed to speed up and work faster to address whatever damage he¡¯d sustained. He didn¡¯t fully understand what they were doing, but he could tell after only a few moments that it was helping.


    He kept that flow of lifeforce going in the back of his mind, and turned the rest of his attention elsewhere. He released all of the vermin who he¡¯d had standing at the ready to swarm into the boat so that they didn¡¯t hurt themselves or drown, then he shifted his attention to Mondego¡¯s manor. Guards and servants were milling about wildly searching the grounds, and even through the senses of a pigeon in a tree he could hear Mondego screaming from inside the manor, his every word causing those inside to jump and scramble at whatever order he made. Nearly a third of his guards were leaving the manor and moving toward different parts of the city. Some headed toward Needle Street, others toward the docks, and a few actually made their way toward some of the nicer bars bordering Uptown. It wasn¡¯t difficult to come to the conclusion that they were searching for Mercedes.


    Dantes took a third sip. The water was nearly to his chest so he needed to hold the bottle a bit higher than he¡¯d like, but it wasn¡¯t exactly his biggest concern. This was the chance he¡¯d been waiting for, and Mondego and Mercedes had created it for him. It was lucky, but he was also hesitant. He¡¯d been fucked over by rushing in so many times before. With Gaspard and Danglars he¡¯d taken things slow and steady and his victory over them was absolute. Mondego had taken one of his hands, and Mercedes came far too close to killing him. He was worn down after his fight with Mercedes, even with the targeted recovery he was giving himself. At the same time, he¡¯d been preparing for his assault on Mondego¡¯s Manor for months, and his vermin marks were all nearly full. If Mondego managed to recover from everything that had just happened it could also make him all the more dangerous, particularly since Dantes had only so much leeway with those Lieutenants he¡¯d met with as well as the Fingers. How would they react to him not taking this opportunity to finish things?


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    Dantes treaded some water and moved to stand on a side table that would let him keep his head above water without exhausting himself, Jacopo moved to the top of his head. The ship hit the seafloor and rocked a bit, the force of the impact made the holes expand, causing the water to fill the boat more quickly.


    He looked at his left arm, eyeing the leaf tattoos on his arm. He wondered if the other druids could sense his distress. He¡¯d felt Murk experiencing some, and ignored it in response to being ignored when he was suffering from the destruction of his blood garden. Still, he wouldn¡¯t mind some assistance now, but he didn¡¯t expect it by any means. He pulled out the silver coin Wane had given him and held it up above his face where he could look at it for a moment. With some mage help¡­ things would be very different.


    He put his arm back in the water and carefully placed the coin back into the pocket it had been in and buttoning it. He was holding his head horizontally to keep breathing while Jacopo clung to his hair and breathed through his nose sticking out of the surface of the water. The cabin was nearly full. He kept his breathing calm, and took one final breath as the water reached the top of the cabin, and pushed himself down. It was pitch black, but he could feel through the water that Mercedes¡¯s body was floating near him. He pushed his way toward the hole he¡¯d widened, with Jacopo clinging to him, and once he reached it and confirmed that water wasn¡¯t pushing its way in anymore, he shifted into roach form.


    He immediately felt a kind of relief as a roach. The pressure that had been building from holding his breath now seemed negligible. He crawled, having to fight not to float, until he made it out of the boat and into the ocean. He could sense dozens of fish, crabs, and other creatures approaching the boat now that it was settled. Jacopo shifted back into ratform and started to swim quickly toward the surface


    Before Dantes could do the same, a large fish swam quickly toward him. He sent out a general no to the fish, but couldn¡¯t properly speak to him in roach form. The fish moved toward him and swallowed him whole.


    Dantes shifted into ratform, breaking the fish''s jaw as he did so, and began pushing his way to the surface, finding it much more pressing in ratform than he had as a roach. He was almost to the surface when he felt himself flagging, and he shifted back to himself to give himself the extra height to break the surface with only one more stroke and take a deep breath. He waded for a few seconds recovering, then pushed himself toward the nearest dock.


    Jacopo moved to cling to his back, and when he reached the dock he held up his wooden hand and sent his wooden fingers out like vines to cling to it, then had them retract to pull him up. Even with that helping him, he stayed as a collapsed heap on the dock for several minutes as he caught his breath.


    Luckily it was dusk and no one saw him, but even if they had he wasn¡¯t exactly in a position to tidy himself up out of pride. He pulled himself to his feet and started walking, dripping wet as he did so, toward Mondego¡¯s manor. He took the silver coin Wane had given him, pricked his finger on the dagger he¡¯d had up his sleeve and smeared a drop of blood across it. At the same time he did that, he began sending orders for the pigeons he¡¯d had staying in his garden with the packages he¡¯d been preparing to start picking them up. He had a separate few pigeons pick up a pen, a piece of parchment, and a piece of string to bring it to him. Doing things alone had nearly gotten him killed too often. He needed help this time. He wanted to live past his revenge.

 Book 2 Ch 63: Jacopo is Right There for Gods Sake

    Dantes waited in an abandoned house less than ten blocks from Mondego¡¯s Manor. His coat sat on a rusty nail protruding from the wall where it dripped water onto the ground. It was cold, but Dantes didn¡¯t notice. He didn¡¯t even shiver. His eyes were closed as he moved vermin of all kinds into place and started to push his plans into motion.


    Jayk, Jayson, and Zak were on their way, but had to be careful weaving their way through back alleys and over rooftops to avoid any of Mondego¡¯s people who knew of their betrayal. He had a white rat ready to guide them the last few blocks when they got close. He wasn¡¯t sure of where whatever former collared that was summoned by his silver coin was, but he did feel the coin in his pocket slowly growing warmer and warmer so he assumed that he¡¯d see whoever it was soon.


    Unlike Dantes who was able to channel his anticipation into preparation, Jacopo had to content himself with gnawing a rope in the corner. It was particularly unfair, because Jacopo wouldn¡¯t be experiencing the emotion at all if not for his connection to Dantes. Not that Dantes would¡¯ve passed up a rope to chew on himself at this point. His jaw was clenched, his small tusks drawing a bit of blood from inside his cheeks, and he felt as if he could leap out of his own skin as he sat there and waited.


    A bat catching a moth nearby sensed movement in an alleyway that was growing closer, a nearby rat moved toward the movement and Dantes was able to see both Orebus and Wane approaching.


    Orebus pushed the creaking door and stepped inside.


    ¡°Dantes? Are you here?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± he replied, standing to meet them. He clasped each of their arms drawing in for a short embrace before releasing them. ¡°I¡¯m grateful it''s you two.¡±


    ¡°Who else would bother?¡± said Wane looking him up and down. ¡°You look like more of a drowned rat than usual. Are you alright?¡±


    ¡°I was on a sinking ship earlier today. I''ve mostly recovered from it.¡±


    Orebus muttered a few words in elvish under his breath and extended a hand. A small orb of light appeared and moved toward Dantes. It was warm.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    Orebus nodded.


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing you didn¡¯t just call us to dry you and your clothes,¡± said Wane. It was a jest, but there was a bit of tension in his voice as well. He could tell something was off.


    ¡°I need your help. Both of you. Mondego, the one who got me thrown into the Underprison, the one who did this,¡± he held up his wooden hand. ¡°He¡¯s at his weakest. This is my only chance to strike. There¡¯s a chance I could do it alone, but¡­ My experience hasn¡¯t exactly shown that to be the best idea lately. I know you¡¯re both busy with whatever Merle is working on, but this isn¡¯t a request to work with me permanently. I just need help for tonight and then I will be in both of your debts. Gold, women, golden women, whatever you want I¡¯ll get it for you.¡±


    Orebus and Wane exchanged glances.


    ¡°You really think this man is such a threat that you can¡¯t beat him? Even with your abilities?¡± asked Orebus.


    Dantes clenched his jaw even tighter. ¡°It¡¯s not that I think I can¡¯t beat him. It¡¯s that I don¡¯t want to die trying.¡±


    Wane shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t think you''re being reasonable.¡±


    ¡°I know Merle needs you, but-¡±


    Wane raised a hand shaking his head. ¡°Not about that. You said you would be doing it alone. Jacopo is right there for gods¡¯ sake.¡±


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    Jacopo nodded, appreciating the acknowledgement and the joke.


    Dantes laughed. ¡°You¡¯re right. I shouldn¡¯t be taking him for granted.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll help you Dantes. I assume you have a plan beyond us knocking on the front door and fighting our way through?¡±


    Dantes nodded.


    ¡°Orebus?¡± asked Dantes, ¡°I don¡¯t think either of us would hold it against you if you didn¡¯t want to get involved in this.¡±


    Orebus chuckled. ¡°I worked out my mind and body for decades in the Pit. An excuse to flex a bit in support of a friend who has promised me golden women? I¡¯m an old elf, but I can¡¯t say that¡¯s not a tempting offer.¡±


    Dantes nodded gratefully. ¡°I will owe you both an eternal debt for this.¡±


    ¡°And we both know you¡¯ll honor it.¡±


    There was a sound at the entrance. Jayk, Zak, and Jayson had arrived.


    Orebus and Wane tensed, with Orebus dismissing the warming orb he¡¯d summoned, but Dantes held up a hand to calm them. ¡°They¡¯re here to help.¡±


    He walked back to the entryway where the three of them were coming through, following the white rat Dantes had sent to guide them on the last part of their journey.


    ¡°Dantes,¡± said Jayson with a nod. ¡°You need help with Mondego?¡±


    He had been surprised when all three of them had answered his call, but grateful. He wasn¡¯t sure if it was out of fear, respect, or camaraderie, but he imagined it was a little bit of each.


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Yes, but you can still back out if you want to. I won¡¯t hold it against you and the positions and rewards I¡¯ve promised you will still be in place if I manage this without your help.¡±


    ¡°I assume helping you here would mean an even greater reward?¡± asked Jayk.


    ¡°That¡¯s the implication, yes.¡±


    Zak stretched his neck a bit, making it crack. ¡°Are we going through the front?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m more of a second story man, so no,¡± said Dantes with a smile.


    Jayson nodded his head toward Wane and Orebus. ¡°I feel like I¡¯ve seen you two before. Back in the Underprison? Fellow escapees?¡±


    They both nodded.


    ¡°What gang?¡±


    They exchanged glances, clearly unsure of how much they were comfortable revealing.


    ¡°They¡¯re collared,¡± said Jayk, looking them up and down. ¡°Or they were. You ever seen an elf built like a concrete slab that wasn¡¯t in the collared?¡±


    Jayson nodded. ¡°Mages? That makes me feel a lot better.¡± He looked at Dantes. ¡°No offense.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s fine. They make me feel better by being here too.¡± He went back to his coat and pulled out the two explosive hand crossbows he¡¯d retrieved from Mercedes, noticing Jayk¡¯s eyes widen as he brought them out. ¡°These should make you feel better as well.¡±


    Jayson and Jayk each took one, and turned them over in their hands, feeling the magic coming off of them in their own particular ways.


    ¡°These fire explosive bolts. Not sure of how much juice is left, or even the exact method of use, but I figure these two could help us out with that,¡± he said, gesturing to Orebus and Wane. ¡°With these you can avoid any close up conflict and just pick people off who aren¡¯t overwhelmed by my vermin.¡±


    ¡°How many guards does he have there now?¡± asked Zak.


    ¡°More than thirty, even with the two dozen he sent away. I think at least four are mages of some kind. The rest are brutes, archers, and the usual scum. There¡¯s a good chance Mondego has gifted them with some enchanted items. When I last encountered him a number of them had some kind of shielding that kept my vermin from striking them.¡±


    They all exchanged glances, but no one said anything.


    ¡°Mondego himself is also a threat, obviously. He is strong, and is using a number of enchanted items. He can at least summon a spear, shield himself from severe damage, cover that shield in flame, summon a wand that creates cold, and even summon possessed poison that makes it impossible to focus.¡±


    Everyone exchanged glances again, this time with a bit more unease in their eyes.


    ¡°He¡¯s off balance though, as are his men. We¡¯ve been tearing into his organization piece by piece, and he has no help coming from anyone else. The reason he sent so many of his men away is because Mercedes has run off.¡±


    Jayson whistled. ¡°Damn, what happened to her?¡±


    ¡°I happened. She¡¯s dead at the bottom of the docks.¡±


    Jayk subtly nudged Jayson and indicated the still dripping wet jacket hanging on the nail nearby.


    ¡°So more than thirty men and a dangerous murderer with an unknown number of enchanted items who is expecting some kind of attack from you against two mages, a druid, and three thugs.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not just us, it¡¯ll also be the guard. They ignore midtown, and likely Mondego¡¯s manor in particular, but if we cause enough of a disruption they¡¯ll have no choice, but to get involved, and it¡¯ll be a lot easier for us to avoid them than Mondego¡¯s crew.¡±


    Wane nodded to that, as did Jayk.


    ¡°Okay, it sounds more reasonable, but I still need to hear the full plan.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Alright, but I don¡¯t have time to cover this more than once. It¡¯s now or never. The plan starts with pigeons, gunpowder, and ignition runes.¡±

 Book 2 Ch 64: Carapace, Fur, and Feathers

    Dantes walked through the main streets of midtown toward Mondego¡¯s manor. He was lit by street lights casting their rays through a thick fog. The streets were busy as they always were at night in midtown. Some of those going about their shadowy business noticed Dantes, and cleared a path. Some watched without shame, excited to see what drama was stirring outside their homes and businesses. Most had no actual idea who he was, thinking he was another mutt with an inflated sense of self walking through town dusted out of his mind.


    As he came within sight of the Manor, the guards began to cry out and prepare for him. There were men raising crossbows, mages brandishing wands, and even a few dwarven mercs pulling out rifles to aim at him. It was at that moment he gave the signal for the pigeons he had flying far above the manor to drop their load.


    He¡¯d only been able to prepare two dozen explosives due to a lack of easy access to gunpowder, but even that had a profound effect. Before the first of the guards could fire off their weapons, the bombs began to strike the grounds of the manor. The pigeons had surprisingly good aim, with three of the bombs landing solidly on those guards in front of him, and exploding in flashes of light and fire, sending out shards of scrap metal he¡¯d mixed into them and knocking them off the wall.


    Those same explosions rang out all across the manor, killing guards and setting fires all throughout its grounds. At that moment, Dantes began to bolt directly for the front gate, drawing one of the anti-vermin enchantment breaking hammers from his coat as he ran. One of the shooters managed to recover and Dantes extended a wand from his wooden arm and aimed it at him, firing out a flurry of razor sharp icicles that impaled him and knocked him from the wall.


    A second guard, a dwarf with a rifle, stood up and aimed his weapon at him, but he too fell backward as a crossbow bolt hit him in the chest and exploded. An excellent shot by Jayk who was laying down on a nearby rooftop.


    Dantes reached the outer barrier where the enchantment lay and sent his will through his hammer, slamming it against the invisible wall created by the enchantment which caused the hammer to crumble into dust from being expended.


    With the enchantment down and all of the focus on the front gate, Dantes moved on to phase two. He shifted into a bat and began to fly up into the sky, once there he dove down into the rear of the manor and landed on the roof, sitting quietly and slowly shifting into himself as he crouched down, watching the courtyard.


    Dozens of guards were scrambling, looking for him, trying to escape the explosions, or trying to put out the fires before they spread. Occasionally one of them would be dropped by a crossbow bolt.


    To increase the confusion further, Dantes released his coiled will, and gave a single order to all of the vermin he¡¯d gathered nearby.


    ¡°Attack.¡±


    A sea of rats and roaches swarmed over the walls, across the courtyard, and toward all of the guards. At the same time, bats and pigeons began swooping downward, pecking and scratching at their eyes even as rats and roaches started to crawl up their ankles. A half-dozen went down almost instantly, but the rest held on.


    A mage summoned a wall of flame to protect their flanks, and another one sent out a blast of lightning that tore through the bats and pigeons dropping their smoldering corpses and making the courtyard smell like a midtown restaurant that promised only the freshest meat. Several of those being attacked by vermin were able to ignore their strikes, and began stomping, slashing, or clubbing them to death. They were protected by enchantments of some kind.


    With the surviving mages revealed, Wane and Orebus made their entrance. Wane repeated his trick he¡¯d used against Pillion and one of the walls where a number of guards were trying to take shelter from vermin shattered into dust, they fell into the dust, and reappeared battered and bruised behind the dust as it moved toward the mage that had summoned the wall of fire.


    That mage panicked, and began throwing small bolts of fire toward the dust, blowing off pieces of it with every blast until the cloud of dust was completely gone.


    Wane had left the cloud of dust and walked, completely silent thanks to his spell, around to the mages side where he brought down a club.


    The club bounced off some invisible protection that the mage had managed to summon. Wane laughed, and released his silent enchantment as the other mage tumbled backward in surprise at the sudden influx of noise.


    ¡°Good! I was hoping I¡¯d be able to test a few more things out.¡±


    At the same time, Orebus approached the mage that had been shooting bolts of lightning into the sky at bats and pigeons. The mage saw him, and directed one of his spells at Orebus.


    Orebus reached out a hand and seemed to actually catch the bolt which vanished. He whirled his body around doing a series of motions with his arms and pointed the arm opposite the one that had caught the bolt. An identical bolt fired from that hand and seared toward the mage who just barely managed to stop it from striking him by telekinetically moving one of the pigeons that was swarming in front of it¡¯s path.


    Orebus ignored his lack of an easy win and just calmly walked toward the man.


    It was then that Mondego made his appearance, along with another half dozen guards, one of whom was dropped by an exploding crossbow bolt almost immediately.


    Dantes fired his pistol at Mondego from above and the bullet bounced off of him and strafed a different guard''s shoulder.


    Mondego whipped around to see Dantes above and his face contorted into a scowl. He summoned a spear into his hand and threw it.


    Dantes was ready this time, throwing himself backward on the roof to avoid it and shifting into batform before his back hit the roof and twisted to fly into the courtyard. As he did so he sent the vermin to swarm Mondego and his fresh goons, covering them completely in carapace, fur, and feathers.


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    Dantes landed back on the ground just as Mondego engulfed his shield in flames to clear the vermin off of himself and began looking for him. Dantes revealed twilight from his hand and sent out the thick fog of weakness toward him. Mondego moved arrogantly toward it, but was surprised when he started coughing.


    Dantes and Jacopo then combined their will and sent it all throughout the garden. This was why they wanted to draw Mondego outside where the drake-tear flowers grew. They had the advantage there.


    They had the grass at Mondego¡¯s feet rise and try to tangle him up, and at the same time they sent will and lifeforce into the plants all around him and began having them all wind toward him, reaching for his limbs.


    The shield that surrounded Mondego flashed, and caught fire again, this time staying alight rather than fading, burning away all of the plant matter that was wrapping around him as well as the vermin that were attempting to swarm him. At the same time, he summoned a mace into his hand and charged toward Dantes.


    Dantes raised his wooden hand and extended a wand through his palm, sending his will through it. A powerful blast of water flew from his palms and hit Mondego throwing him back and soaking him. Once the wand was empty, Dantes blasted it from his palm at high speed causing it to break against Mondego¡¯s fire shield. He then extended another wand, and fired a cone of frost from it. Mondego¡¯s fiery shield faltered a bit, but he was unharmed. When he went to stand though, he slipped on the flash frozen and melting water in front of him and fell forward as he tried to bring himself to his feet so that he could charge Dantes again. A third wand appeared in Dantes¡¯s palm and from it shot heavy rocks that slammed him back down to the ground and caused the shield to flicker even more.


    Mondego roared as he stood this time, and raised his right hand. One of the rings on it started to glow, and from that hand fired what looked like dozens of heavy iron nails.


    Dantes dodged away from them, and turned around to fire off another wand at Mondego, but before he could, Jacopo saw the nails turning in midair and coming back toward him . Dantes swiveled and lowered himself to the ground while morphing his wooden hand into a shield. Half of the nails struck it, and the other half flew past him, but began to turn around quickly.


    Dantes could feel through his hand that the nails were slick with something, and the sweet smell emanating from them told him it was some kind of poison. As the rest of the nails swiveled back around, he had the bushes of drake-tears near him swarm in front of him to catch them.


    Mondego managed to bring himself to his feet while Dantes was struggling with the nails, and closed the gap. Another of the rings on his hand glowed and he threw out four round vials that exploded on the ground next to him in clouds of gas. That gas flew toward him and into his nose, mouth, eyes, and ears.


    He immediately threw himself backward contorting in pain.


    Jacopo took control of the plants, and started throwing vines, thorns, flowers, and even his fellow vermin at Mondego¡¯s fiery figure to slow him down.


    Dantes embraced the pain, and used it to tether his focus as he had the last time Mondego had done this to him. He brought that focus down to the unseen layer of himself that he¡¯d been able to find, and from there he located where the poisons were attacking him. He strengthened the life force within himself in those areas, and tried to will the poison out of his body. He¡¯d been mentally practicing doing so since their last encounter.


    Mondego fought past Jacopo¡¯s resistance, and summoned another spear that he threw at him.


    Jacopo dodged and shifted into a bat, joining the cloud of them in the sky as he continued his arboreal assault.


    ¡°Where is Mercedes!?¡± cried Mondego as he fought his way to the prone Dantes. ¡°Where is my wife!?¡±


    Dantes managed to push the poison out, and rolled over, still feigning pain as he reached deep into the root system below Mondego¡¯s feet. He pushed his wand into the ground as he feigned a pained groan.


    Mondego slammed aside another series of ropelike root and took another step closer. ¡°I will carve your skin away from your bones if you don¡¯t tell me where she is.¡±


    A crossbow bolt exploded against his chest, and he stopped. ¡°Wait. I know that crossbow.¡±


    Dantes sent his will through the wand and activated it, causing all of the hard ground below Mondego to suddenly become mud.


    At that same moment, Dantes and Jacopo channeled all the strength they could into the roots and branches of everything nearby, channeling life-force into them to make them rise and coil around Mondego. They burned, but the life-force they were sending through caused new growth just as quickly. They then started to pull Mondego down, dragging him into the mud.


    Mondego cried out, and smashed, and clawed. He summoned more spears and tried to use them to hold himself up, but the ground was too loose. His fiery shield kept sputtering, hitting the limits of what it was capable of as everything that could continued to slam against it. Slowly, his head sank beneath the mud, but Dantes and Jacopo kept pulling until he was several feet below the ground. Until they felt him stop moving.


    Dantes heard footsteps coming toward him, and dodged just in time as a large orcish man took a swing at him.


    He dodged ungracefully, and threw a handful of mud in his face.


    The orc stumbled backwards, but before he could do anything, Zak appeared behind him and ran him through with his sword. He then placed his foot on the man¡¯s back and kicked him off of it. He held out a hand to Dantes.


    Dantes took it, and stood up. Zak was covered in blood, and his sword had signs of very heavy use.


    ¡°I destroyed that mirror like you asked. Mondego won¡¯t have an easy escape anymore.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s going to be a problem anymore. We need to check on the oth-,¡± Dantes stopped talking, he could feel his fingers tingling heavily.


    Zak¡¯s eyes were wide as he felt it too.


    The ground where Mondego had been sunk, exploded suddenly outward, throwing them backward in a blast of mud, and dirt.


    Zak¡¯s head slammed against a nearby tree, and Wane, who had been approaching after helping Orebus defeat the other mage, was impaled by a sharp piece of shattered stone.


    Dantes managed to pick himself up just in time to see Mondego flee back into his manor. He started to follow him, but hesitated. Zak was breathing, but unconscious. He seemed like he¡¯d be okay. Wane on the other hand, was losing a lot of blood.


    Dantes pushed himself to his feet, and dragged himself over to Wane. He roughly removed the jagged piece of stone from his gut, and smelled that same sewer scent that had filled the air around Tel when he¡¯d died.


    He gritted his teeth, and placed his hand on Wane¡¯s chest. He extended his will, but unlike last time he¡¯d tried, this time he could feel something. The faintest touch of it. He turned all of his focus to it, releasing all of the nearby vermin in order to bring his attention to Wane at that unseen level. Once there he found all the areas in which he was struggling, and sent his lifeforce into him. He channeled from the gardens, into himself, and from there into Wane. As he did so he could feel that faint touch of life strengthen, his eyes glowed gold as he did so, and when he thought Wane had enough to survive, he broke contact and collapsed backward for a moment, panting heavily.


    Orebus approached, clutching his arm as he did so.


    ¡°Is he okay?¡±


    Dantes nodded. His hearing was starting to recover from the explosion and he could hear the stomping of boots on cobblestone moving toward the manor.


    ¡°Get him and Zak out of here. The guard is about to arrive. They¡¯ll take care of whatever goons Mondego has left.¡±


    Orebus nodded, grunting as he adjusted Wane to fit on his back, and then doing the same when he lifted Zak. He looked at Dantes, seemingly about to ask him to come on, but stopped. He knew. They both knew what had to happen next. He began to move toward the back wall to find an exit around the guard.


    Dantes pushed himself to his feet, and held out his arm. Jacopo climbed up it, and they walked together to the entrance of the Manor.

 Book 2 Ch 65: I Win

    Dantes walked through the threshold. There were a few dead men in his path as he walked into the building. He could hear what few men Mondego had left struggling against the guard outside as he moved deeper into the manor, but inside was quiet.


    They made their way toward the basement where Jacopo had found Mondego¡¯s offering and the magic mirror. Dantes remembered the layout from Jacopo¡¯s exploration of the Manor what seemed like ages ago, but had been less than a month ago in reality. He rolled up his sleeve to check his vermin marks. They were all nearly empty, but he had a few slivers left. He then cycled through the wands he had left in his arm. There were only two. One was a simple push spell, and the other was a rust spell. Next time he¡¯d have to invest in more offensive options. Mondego¡¯s resources had to be similarly depleted by this point, otherwise he wouldn''t have run back into his Manor after blasting all of them back.


    Dantes saw a number of empty vials as he reached the steps into the basement. Potions of some kind, meaning that Mondego was likely refreshed, healed, and possibly even enhanced down those stairs. Dantes stood at the top of them, starting to gather all the nearby vermin to him, at least all of those he could afford to gather. Once he was as ready as he could be, he walked down the steps with his pistol in his hand. The eyes of his accompaniment glistened in the faint light of the hallway.


    About halfway down he could hear Mondego talking.


    ¡°-everything I have. Every scrap of gold, every carpet fiber, every servant, every piece of silverware. I¡¯ll give it all to you. I¡¯ll give every single scrap of everything I have. Just let me kill that bastard. Let me put my hands around his neck and watch his eyes go dark.¡±


    There was a pause, and Dantes heard only the sound of his own and his vermin¡¯s footsteps as they went downstairs.


    ¡°Greed! You fucking OWE ME! I¡¯ve done all that was asked of me! Just let me kill him.¡±


    Dantes reached the bottom of the stairs and entered the wide basement. He could see the shattered mirror against the wall, the massive pile of gold and goods, and Mondego kneeling in front of it.


    ¡°Greed doesn¡¯t give a fuck about you,¡± said Dantes aiming his pistol. ¡°You¡¯ve already served his purpose for you, and now the only value he has left to extract from you is your soul after you¡¯re dead. He wants me to win. He wants to collect.¡±


    Mondego slowly stood up, but didn¡¯t turn around.


    ¡°Where is she?¡±


    ¡°Who?¡± asked Dantes in a voice that pretended innocence.


    ¡°Don¡¯t fucking play with me.¡±


    Dantes laughed. ¡°That¡¯s all that there¡¯s left to do with you is play. That¡¯s all we¡¯ve been doing this whole time. Just like when we¡¯d chase each other through the streets as kids. The only problem is that you raised the stakes. So come on. Face me and let¡¯s finish the game.¡±


    ¡°Not until you tell me where Mercedes is. I know that you know or you would¡¯ve lied to me and said something about her waiting for you in your bed.¡±


    ¡°She did offer, but you¡¯re right, I do know where she is. She¡¯s in a boat at the bottom of the harbor. If you don¡¯t believe me,¡± Dantes pulled Mercedes¡¯s finger from his coat and tossed it, making it land perfectly just in front of Mondego and to the right. ¡°There¡¯s her finger with the ring that matches your own.¡±


    Mondego turned around. He was covered in mud, his eyes were bulging, his tusks were pushed forward, and a scowl deep as a ravine was carved across his face.


    ¡°She was mine.¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°She owned herself and now she belongs only to Greed. Just like you will when I send you to him.¡± He fired his pistol, but the shot went wide and hit the pile of gold behind Mondego causing it to scatter.


    Mondego summoned a metal shield and a mace into his hands and rushed toward him.


    Dantes threw his pistol at him and drew his dagger as he sent the small army of vermin he¡¯d summoned to attack.


    Roaches and rats began to swarm up Mondego¡¯s leg, several of them being crushed under his boots as he ran, and pigeons and bats flew toward his face, but a half dozen were killed instantly as he smashed them aside with his shield.


    Dantes raised his wooden hand, sharpened the tips of his fingers into points, and extended them toward Mondego¡¯s face.


    Mondego smashed them aside with his Mace and closed the distance with Dantes. He raised his mace and tried to bring it down on Dantes¡¯s head.


    Dantes sidestepped the blow and managed to slash against Mondego¡¯s stomach with his dagger, leaving a shallow cut.


    Mondego followed it up with a dozen more strikes that gave Dantes almost no time to react, forcing him to dodge backward until his back was against the wall. He was faster than he had been, likely as a result of all of the potions he¡¯d just drank.


    Dantes leaped up, and shifted into a bat, spinning to narrowly dodge another strike, and then reformed behind Mondego. He raised his wooden hand and sent his will through one of his two remaining wands, hitting mondego with a push spell that caused him to smash face first into the wall.


    Dantes swapped wands and was about to follow up the push spell with a rust enchantment, but Mondego very suddenly jumped, spun in the air, and landed on the ceiling before bringing his mace down toward Dantes.


    Dantes¡¯s wooden arm was smacked aside, as he just barely managed to save the wand within it, but he himself whipped around from the force of the blow, and then scrambled to get away on all fours as Mondego chased after him swinging rapid blows at his head from the ceiling.


    Dantes used the last of his vermin marks to rally those creatures with him and have them attack Mondego.


    They complied, clinging to him, biting, scratching, pecking, and doing whatever damage to him that they could.


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    Mondego turned his focus to them, and started to strike them down with his mace and shield, each creature''s death causing a steep decline in the favor left in Dantes¡¯s vermin marks.


    Dantes didn¡¯t take the time they bought him for granted and reformed his wooden arm as he charged forward with his dagger. He leapt up and stabbed into Mondego¡¯s shoulder, dragging him off the ceiling and slamming him onto the ground. He attempted to rip the dagger free, but it was stuck in bone.


    Mondego dismissed his mace to slam his fist into the side of Dantes¡¯s head.


    Dantes rolled with the blow to reduce the damage and create some distance between them. He was out of favor and those few vermin that were left, all began to flee back up the stairs. Dantes aimed his last wand at Mondego and sent his will through it. A concentrated gust of green mist flew out of it.


    Mondego blocked it with his shield, which immediately began to pit and crack as the spell took hold.


    Dantes ran forward and kicked out both of his legs.


    Mondego raised his shield again, but it shattered from the impact and he flew backward with rusted shrapnel cutting deeply into his arm.


    Dantes started to form his wooden hand into a spike again, when Mondego raised his now empty hand.


    Dantes could see that most of the magic rings on each of his hands had vanished, likely losing their potency as Mondego burnt out their enchantments. There was only one left on each hand. One of them had to be his mace, but the other, Dantes had no clue.


    The ring began to glow, and Dantes began forming his wooden arm into a shield.


    Jacopo could sense instinctually that what Dantes was doing wouldn¡¯t be enough. Some fear response inside him told him that whatever was going to happen would be fatal. He shifted into batform and flew directly at Mondego¡¯s face.


    Mondego jerked at the last moment, and a cannonball fired from his hand.


    The projective went wide, but It still shattered Dantes¡¯s wooden arm and threw him back several yards into the back wall, dazing him.


    Mondego roared as he grabbed Jacopo and ripped him from his hair before throwing him against a wall.


    There was a crunch, and Jacopo went still.


    Mondego, panting, began dragging his mace toward Dantes.


    Dantes tried to stand by bracing himself against the wall, but fell. Then he tried again. He started to reform his arm, but the damage it was taken was severe and it wasn¡¯t regenerating as quickly.


    Mondego ran the last few steps toward Dantes and slammed the mace into his side.


    Dantes felt ribs break as he was thrown to the ground.


    Mondego tossed the mace to the side, and straddled Dantes, wrapping his hands around his throat.


    Dantes attempted to fight him, but he was never as strong as Mondego, especially not one handed. Still, he flailed the shattered wooden arm at him, cutting his arm and leg with the splinters of it as he tried to tear Mondego¡¯s hands from his throat with his good hand.


    ¡­


    Jacopo could see himself leaning against the wall. He could see Dantes struggling with Mondego, and he could see the thread that connected him and Dantes. It was thick, and strong, like the trunk of a tree. He was¡­floating somehow, in the basement, and he wasn¡¯t alone.


    A man wearing a dark blue cloak with his face concealed aside from his mouth stood at the halfway point between Jacopo¡¯s body and Dantes¡¯s.


    He looked at Jacopo and gave him a little wave and a smile.


    Jacopo cocked his head in response.


    The man produced a key from his hand. He looked at it from all angles then shook his head and tossed it behind himself. Then he took out what Jacopo recognized as lockpicks. He took them, and started to tinker with that trunk like thread between Jacopo and Dantes. He sunk his hands deep into it, smiling as he worked until there was a loud and audible click. He drew his hands back from it, and slid the lockpicks back into his sleeve. He looked at Jacopo with a widened smile, and pulled back his hood for just a moment, so that he could wink at him with an eye the color of night, and wave goodbye.


    ¡­


    Dantes kept struggling. He clawed, spat, and wriggled trying to escape, but Mondego¡¯s grip wouldn¡¯t break.


    ¡°You¡¯re nothing Dantes,¡± said Mondego through gritted teeth. ¡°You¡¯re just the son of a whore. You could never have done what I¡¯ve done, but I can do everything you¡¯ve ever done and more. When the guard finds me down here standing over your corpse and sends me to the Pit, I¡¯ll be running it in a fucking week!¡±


    Dantes¡¯s eyes widened as he saw a figure appear behind Mondego.


    Mondego caught the reflection in Dantes¡¯s eyes and turned his head just in time for a massive fist to strike him across the chin and knock him off of Dantes.


    A man, a mutt like Dantes, stood above Mondego. He was naked, with long brown hair, thick muscles, and gold eyes. He stood even taller than Mondego, and his face was contorted in unrestrained hatred.


    ¡°Jacopo?¡± asked Dantes.


    Mondego tried to stand, but Jacopo kicked the dagger still embedded in his shoulder and forced him back to the ground. Then, he just started hitting him. His strikes were unrefined and wild. Kicks, punches, slaps, scratches, he rained them down on him one after the other.


    Dantes dragged himself to his feet and joined him. In spite of his exhaustion, and the damage he¡¯d taken, he gained a second wind and put all of it toward inflicting as much damage on Mondego as he possibly could. He kicked him, twisted the knife in his shoulder, stomped on his hands to break the fingers and when they were both done he spat on him.


    Jacopo crouched down and yanked the dagger from Mondego¡¯s shoulder, handing it to Dantes.


    Dantes took it and smiled.


    ¡°Thanks my friend.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome,¡± Jacopo responded, in a voice that was tasting words for the first time.


    Mondego groaned, unable to even open his eyes because his face was so swollen from the beating.


    Dantes leaned in close next to his ear and whispered.


    ¡°I win,¡± before driving the dagger into his heart.


    ¡­


    Dantes sat there for a few moments, looking at Mondego¡¯s lifeless corpse. He¡¯d done it. All of those that had betrayed him were dead by his hand. He¡¯d taken their minds, their successes, their security, and their loved ones from them. He¡¯d heard many stories about revenge as a child. His father had told him of a sea-captain¡¯s son that had killed his father¡¯s old crew after they¡¯d killed him with a mutiny. He¡¯d heard dozens of stories of wives killing or poisoning cheating husbands from his mother while she was gossipping with the other whores. He¡¯d heard so many descriptions of how people felt after the revenge was completed. They were regretful in some cases, vindicated in others, and sometimes they simply felt hollow. Dantes felt¡­ relieved. The obsession he¡¯d carried with himself for almost six years was done. His mind could finally look to other things, he could see past his hatred and look into what future lay beyond it. The gnawing hunger that he¡¯d been feeding was finally satisfied.


    He pushed himself to his feet, Jacopo helping him up as he did so. Dantes took another look at the tall, muscular mutt that Jacopo had shifted himself into. His skin was tan rather than gray, and his features handsome, marred only by a face that wouldn¡¯t cease twitching as he scented the air with his weaker nose.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe you¡¯re better looking as a man than I am,¡± said Dantes walking a few steps toward the pile of gold in the center of the room.


    ¡°This makes sense. I was better looking as a rat as well.¡±


    ¡°How did you do this? Become a man?¡±


    Jacopo shrugged. ¡°The man in the blue cloak, the one from our dreams. He unlocked something between us. Becoming a two-leg was¡­ painful. The other forms didn¡¯t hurt nearly as much.¡±


    ¡°Well, now you know how I¡¯ve been feeling,¡± he took a few more steps toward the gold. He could feel that strange taint that seemed to infuse all of it. Still, he had to admit he was tempted to pocket what he could.


    ¡°I wonder if we could destroy this somehow. I feel like letting the guard expose itself to it would be dangerous.¡±


    Jacopo didn¡¯t respond, just cocked his head a bit and looked at it.


    Very suddenly, the gold began to change. It became shimmery, then cloudy. Soon black clouds of smoke were where the pile had just been, threaded with gold. It smelled of blood and metal, then it disappeared with the sound of coins being poured onto a table.


    ¡°Well¡­ that solves as many problems as it raises questions.¡±


    Jacopo looked toward the stairs where footsteps were starting to draw closer.


    Dantes nodded at him, and they shifted into rats to slip past the guards and into the night.

 Book 2 Ch 66: Spreading to Fill it Like Roots

    Dantes walked around the workers, watching as the ground was cleared and they started to mark where the new building would go. With all of the fires, explosions, and deaths in midtown and the docks, he¡¯d been able to buy up the site of the now destroyed Vivacious Vixen, as well as several of the other buildings next to it. Vera walked with him, holding onto his arm as they surveyed the site.


    ¡°I just think a glass ceiling and dirt floors in part of the building doesn¡¯t send the right kind of message to clients,¡± she said as they walked.


    ¡°I¡¯m fairly certain voyeurism and getting dirty are two things your clients are very explicitly looking for, Auntie.¡±


    ¡°Yes, but they want the illusion of class and decorum. That¡¯s what helped the Vixen move from being just another whorehouse serving any man that could rub two coppers together into the kind of place that can serve captains, merchants, and officers.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯ll only be in the back part of the building, less than a quarter of the whole structure. I need a place to sleep and do business, Auntie. I¡¯m fine with building my own place separate from yours if that¡¯s what you¡¯d prefer.¡±


    She sighed. ¡°No. The kind of people you bring in will be good for business too. Besides, I want to be able to keep an eye on you.¡±


    ¡°And I want to be able to keep an eye on you as well. So this works out well for both of us.¡± He paused to pick up a small wildflower by the root that was in the path of a worker with a shovel and tuck it carefully into his pocket. ¡°Did you pass my messages to the girls?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Not all of them are willing to come back, but most will. They appreciate the gold though. Alessa was particularly happy about the offer you made her.¡±


    ¡°Good. I thought she¡¯d like that.¡±


    They walked around the rest of the structure, with Vera making additional comments about what she did and didn¡¯t want for it, and Dantes countering with his own needs. They really didn¡¯t have much to argue about, his own tastes had been half formed by Vera so they tended to get along on most aesthetic decisions.


    He stopped at the corner, where Vampa was standing with his arms behind him, watching them.


    Dantes gave Vera a hug, and she went to go with Vampa back to his apartment. Dantes had offered to pay for them to have a nice suite nearby, but Vera insisted on waiting to move until the new club was built. Dantes didn¡¯t need to make any guesses as to why. He gave them a wave, and began walking toward midtown.


    The men and women on the streets cleared the way as he walked. He could hear hushed words of fear, admiration, and concern whispered in breathless voices. Men averted their eyes, women batted their eyelashes, and street rat kids looked up at him in wonder. Dantes soaked it in. It was even better than it had been when he was in the Pit and had slain and scattered the Elven Kings.


    It wasn¡¯t long before he reached the Vile Vagabond, a tavern and Inn near the center of midtown. He pushed open the door, and a hush fell over the bar. The bartender poured him a glass of something strong and brown, and left it at the corner of the bar, where Dantes picked it up wordlessly as he made his way to the closed off common room in the back. He pushed his way inside.


    ¡°Good evening boss,¡± said Jayson as he walked in and began heading toward the chair at the head of the table.


    ¡°Evening Jayson, Jayk, Zak,¡± he eyed the unexpected person in the room. ¡°And Daisy! What a welcome surprise.¡± He sat in his seat and took a long sip of his drink.


    Daisy, who¡¯d been talking to Jayk, walked toward him and sat down, her head and shoulder just barely over the edge of the table as she settled her hook hand against it.


    ¡°I wanted to be the first to come and pay my respects. Congratulations on ending Mondego.¡±


    Dantes raised a glass. ¡°Thank you. I appreciate you honoring your part of it.¡±


    She smirked. ¡°Easy to honor a request to do nothing.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve already begun absorbing some of Mondego¡¯s lesser holdings, but I¡¯m grateful to have you come to join us willingly.¡±


    She shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t have ambitions beyond my own piece of things. I don¡¯t mind paying up to someone else for security.¡±


    Dantes smiled, ¡°But?¡±


    ¡°But I wouldn¡¯t mind if your cut was a bit smaller than Mondego¡¯s was. He was¡­greedy toward the end.¡±


    ¡°The cut will be reduced back to what it was before he started raising them, plus an additional five percent off.¡±


    She smiled and nodded. ¡°More than fair.¡±


    ¡°How would you like it to be ten percent?¡±


    She leaned forward a bit, pulling herself into a half standing position with her hook. ¡°I¡¯m listening.¡±


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    ¡°The dock sharks. They¡¯re already making moves against me.¡±


    ¡°You want me to take care of them?¡±


    ¡°Just one of them. Which do you think is the more productive of the two?¡±


    She scratched her chin. ¡°Fandal.¡±


    ¡°Then kill Grima. Make an example of her. When that¡¯s done we¡¯ll go talk to Fandal.¡±


    ¡°Want me to do her whole family or keep it clean?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll leave it up to your judgment.¡±


    She smiled. ¡°Me and my boys will get on it.¡± She stood up in the chair and held out her real hand.


    Dantes held his own out and shook it. ¡°We¡¯re lucky we both lost the same hands or this would be much more difficult to do.¡±


    She chuckled a bit.


    ¡°I look forward to working with you Daisy. Let me know if you need some extra bodies to take care of things.¡±


    She smiled back. ¡°Will do.¡± She walked out of the building with a roach in her coat letting Dantes track her as she walked away.


    He took another sip of his drink.


    ¡°Jayk, tell me what I need to know.¡±


    Jayk nodded, sitting at the table and unfurling a map of midtown and the docks. ¡°As you said to Daisy, a number of Mondego¡¯s smaller operations have already folded to us. Counterfeiters, some dealers, a few smaller smuggling operations, and a drake-fight pit. With Daisy visibly falling in line we can start to push a few more in our direction with the legitimacy that brings. Especially if she takes care of Grima and we can move Fandal back in our direction.¡±


    ¡°What about Sand? The dwarf that wrangled Mondego¡¯s goons. He was talented, he always managed to find more people willing to die for a bit of gold.¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t find him. Not sure if he¡¯s gone to ground, got killed, or simply fled the city.¡±


    ¡°Leave him to me,¡± said Dantes, already sending vermin out to his known haunts as they were speaking.


    Jayk nodded. ¡°I think with them we¡¯ll have a good core of what we need.¡±


    ¡°Thanks Jayk.¡± He paused for a moment. ¡°Get a drink or something. You look tired.¡±


    Jayk opened his mouth to argue, but shut it and nodded, heading for the door.


    ¡°Jayson, did you take care of those things I asked for?¡±


    He nodded. ¡°Yeah, I passed the message on to Felix to work on those special room enchantments you wanted and the tailor should be starting on the clothes you ordered. Are you uh, sure that the sizes are right? A lot of what you requested would probably be a little¡­ big on you. Sir.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Those are for a tall friend of mine that¡¯s short on clothes. Thanks for taking care of that.¡±


    Jacopo stirred in his coat, waking from a long rest that had started earlier in the day. ¡°You are expecting me to wear clothes now?¡±


    ¡°Not all the time, but I felt it may help in the long run.¡±


    Jacopo grumbled and went back to sleep. He¡¯d been up all day engaging in his favorite F with some other rats while Dantes had been going about on other business.


    ¡°Any other news?¡± Dantes asked Jayson.


    ¡°Not much that isn¡¯t about you.¡±


    ¡°Well, tell me the news that¡¯s about me then I¡¯ll endure whatever news isn¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°A lot of people are talking about how you killed Mondego. There¡¯s rumors you can teleport, fly, shoot fire from your hands, summon bats, and turn invisible.¡±


    ¡°Well that¡¯s all mostly right.¡±


    Jayson chuckled. ¡°Everyone is also starting to blame any mysterious death or disappearance on you.¡±


    ¡°I can use that. What¡¯s this news that¡¯s not about me?¡±


    ¡°In Uptown there¡¯s been a murder. A magister and her husband. The nobility are really up in arms about it, calling for increased guard patrols.¡±


    Dantes leaned forward in his chair. ¡°What was the Magister¡¯s name?¡±


    Jayson scratched his chin. ¡°I don¡¯t recall, started with an ¡®M¡¯ I think. I¡¯ll find out.¡±


    ¡°Do that. Now get out of here and have a drink with Jayk so he doesn¡¯t think we¡¯re in here talking about him.¡±


    Zak was the only one left in the room with him, and he was sitting with his own drink, seemingly content with sitting in the room with his drink in silence.


    ¡°Zak?¡±


    Zak looked over to him.


    ¡°There¡¯s a pit fighter I know named Vampa. He agreed to train you a bit if you¡¯re interested.¡±


    Zak leaned forward. ¡°The one that does pit fights?¡±


    ¡°Is Vampa a common name?¡±


    Zak stared at him blankly.


    ¡°Yes, that one.¡±


    Zak eyed the hilt of his sword. ¡°I¡¯d like that.¡±


    ¡°Good. Meet him in the pit at night in two days. He told me he¡¯d be ready for you then.¡±


    Zak nodded.


    ¡°Now go drink with the others. I want a moment alone.¡±


    Zak raised his own glass to him, and walked out of the room.


    Dantes finished his drink and leaned back in his chair letting the warmth fill his chest as he placed his feet on the table in front of him. He glanced at the map of midtown and the docks in front of him, imagining his influence spreading to fill it like roots. Midtown would be his, as would the docks. After that? Well he doubted he¡¯d be satisfied when he reached that point.


    He closed his eyes and found his mind drifting to Godfrey. It was nagging at him that he hadn¡¯t interfered in his fight with Mondego. He¡¯d told Mondego about his powers, and when to attack Vera, but he clearly hadn¡¯t told him about his gardens or anything else that might give him an edge. Had he been planning for Dantes to win? Or was he simply planning for Mondego to lose?


    The door opened. Dantes sighed thinking that one of the former Shadowcats had something for him, but instead he saw a tall and elegant half-orc woman with short dark hair wearing a red gown under a dark black coat.


    ¡°Alessa, I wasn¡¯t expecting to see you here. This isn¡¯t exactly the safest place.¡± He stood to meet her, and took her coat.


    ¡°I wanted to find you to talk about your offer.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°You want me to sing? In your club?¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Yes. I thought I¡¯d try having some entertainment like some of the clubs in Uptown.¡±


    ¡°And you''re not¡­ expecting anything for it? Will I still have to whore there?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to, but if that¡¯s what you want to do that¡¯s fine as long as Vera gets her cut. I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll really need to with the pay I offered though.¡±


    She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him deeply. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll be working for me. Just do your best to make music.¡±


    She turned around and locked the door.


    ¡°I think I¡¯d like it if you would help me practice my vocals a bit here.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if the acoustics are quite right in this room, but let¡¯s give it a try.¡±


    ¡­


    Gavain,


    I know that we didn¡¯t meet on the best of terms, but I felt that we parted on friendly ones. That¡¯s a rare thing with people I¡¯ve arrested. In fact, it¡¯s never happened before. I¡¯ll be blunt. You are a servant of justice, like me. In the process of serving our common master, I followed a series of notes that were delivered to me. They gave me details of crimes, great, small, and easy to shut down. I followed them, arrested many, and felt as if I was doing my job properly for the first time in a long time. Unfortunately, I believe I was misled. The arrests I made were necessary, but I fear I¡¯ve now paved the way for something worse than what I apprehended. In short, I need your help. I know I have no right to ask for it, but I have few others I can turn to. Please let me know if I can count on you.


    Respectfully,


    Pacha, Guard Sergeant of Rendhold

 Book 3 Ch 1: A Drink on the House? Maybe a Whore?

    Dantes leaned on the railing of the private upper floor booth of his club, Viridian Vixen, and listened to the singing coming from below. It was a slow, sultry number, Alessa¡¯s vocals were smooth, and he found his heart rising and falling along with the notes she hit. He sipped slowly from his wine glass as he watched her. She¡¯d put on a bit of weight, but it suited her. Honestly it was strange that she was so thin for an orc to begin with.


    The club was busy. The area directly in front of Alessa¡¯s stage was full of admirers, a few even from Uptown. The other tables were busy as well, with people eating, drinking, or gambling at the card tables in the back. Zak and his bouncers were keeping an eye on things from the bottom and top floors. Zilly and her staff were handling the busy crowd gracefully, with wine and food making their way quickly and efficiently to anyone who requested it.


    Vera¡¯s girls walked the floors or manned the bars. He saw Sera sitting in the lap of a large well dressed man giggling, Tieara smoking at the bar in a low cut dress, and Priss slow dancing with a halfling man that looked so nervous he might faint. He didn¡¯t recognize the other girls, most of them weren¡¯t veterans of the old Vivacious Vixen, but they were good too, Dantes knew that from personal experience. Vera had a good eye for talent.


    He allowed his focus to flip through the various vermin he had watching the club, and noticed a group of five guards led by Dulles, Pacha¡¯s right hand man, heading toward it from across the street. He sighed and finished his wine as he began to head downstairs to meet them. He didn¡¯t need to signal anyone, those safeguards were already in place for those times when he was otherwise occupied. He shook a few hands on the way down, flashed a few smiles, and even shot a wink to a young noblewoman out ¡®slumming it up¡¯ even though the club was nicer than most of those that existed in Uptown.


    He placed his glass on the edge of the bar for Zilly who took it wordlessly, and then moved over to the front door.


    The bouncer at the front door pushed it open and held it for the guards who all looked at Dantes with surprise on their faces as he smiled at them.


    The guards all wore the breastplate and shortsword that acted as their symbols of office, though Dulles also had a pistol on his waist and one of the men had a spear handy instead of a sword.


    ¡°Good evening. You gentlemen here for a drink? Hard day of cracking skulls?¡±


    That drew a few snickers from those nearby.


    Dulles ignored that and took a few steps toward him. He had a strong jaw and short curly hair, he looked younger than Dantes, but that was probably because quarter elves tended to look a bit younger than more mixed mutts like Dantes.


    ¡°We are here investigating Dust Dealing and Illegal gambling. Stand aside so we can search.¡±


    Dantes slid casually to the side to let them through. They began moving through the club quickly, searching the legal gambling tables, behind the bar, and the kitchen. One of the younger guards was tripped by a patron which drew a hearty laugh from everyone.


    Dantes went up to the stage where Alessa was about to start another song.


    ¡°How about we let the lovely Alessa take a short rest? Since the guard¡¯s so generously provided the entertainment for the evening?¡± The magically enhanced stage carried his voice around the room.


    There was a bit of laughter, and some applause.


    ¡°Are you sure you wouldn¡¯t prefer to take my place some nights?¡± asked Alessa with a smirk.


    ¡°I have always had a lot of fun on stages, but I¡¯d much rather hear you sing.¡±


    She blew a kiss to the audience and went backstage to sit and have a drink.


    The guards didn¡¯t find anything until they finally reached a door in the corner and opened it. Dantes slipped in quietly behind them. It was a short hallway that ended in a second door with a single bouncer in front of it, a large orc.


    ¡°And what¡¯s in here?¡± asked Dulles.


    ¡°Nothing,¡± said Dantes nervously.


    ¡°Nothing needs someone protecting it?¡±


    ¡°Sometimes,¡± said Dantes, tugging on his collar a bit.


    Dulles looked at the orcish bouncer. ¡°Stand aside.¡±


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    The bouncer looked at Dantes.


    ¡°Go ahead, not like we have much of a choice,¡± he said tensely.


    The orc nodded and stood aside.


    Dulles went to the door and tried to pull it open, but found it locked.


    ¡°Oh yeah, Fend, go ahead and unlock it for them.¡±


    Fend pulled a key from his jacket and turned it, unlocking the room.


    Dulles smiled as he walked inside, and dropping that smile when he found nothing but a storeroom with some casks. He went to one of them, and popped it, finding only wine. He checked all of them along with his men, then he searched for hidden switches or doors. He found nothing.


    Dantes watched everything with an easygoing smile.


    ¡°Is that all for you, or would you like to search the upstairs rooms as well? I know for a fact some of Vera¡¯s clients like to be watched.¡±


    Dulles frowned at him, his eye twitching just a bit. Dantes could see the faintest signs of redness around his nose, as well as a twitch in his left hand. He was a dust addict, which Dantes already knew, but he was hiding it well. Still, he was about to hit that point where the desire for his next hit would become more important than any of his other obligations.


    ¡°No. I think we¡¯re done here.¡±


    ¡°You sure? You¡¯re welcome to have a drink on the house, maybe a whore?¡±


    Two of the younger guards exchanged a glance, but Dulles spoke before they could make themselves look foolish in front of him.


    ¡°No. We¡¯ll be seeing you though.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I¡¯ll be looking forward to it.¡±


    The guards shuffled out to a few hoots and hollers from the customers. Dantes walked through the crowd, which parted for him, to a young man sitting at a table with some friends. He was from the guild district, still had some sawdust under his fingernails.


    He grabbed the boy''s shoulder and leaned in close.


    The boy looked as if he was going to protest before he realized who was touching him.


    ¡°Tripping a guard is a good way for you to get beaten half to death and cause a scene in my bar. I can provoke them, but if someone like you starts something it¡¯ll cost me money and you your life. Get the fuck out, now.¡±


    The boy swallowed, stood up, and quickly walked out.


    Dantes would¡¯ve done the same thing at his age, but his empathy ended when it came to fucking with his business. Besides, if that kid had messed with any other part of the guard, he would¡¯ve found himself in a cell getting beaten to death for it. Only Pacha and his men showed any restraint, and that was largely because a large part of them were younger and not yet used to the power that came with their authority.


    He watched the squad of guardsmen until they were a good distance aways then he walked back into the side hall. Fend nodded to him and stepped to the side as he approached. Dantes took his personal key from his pocket, and slid it into the lock. He turned up instead of down, waited three seconds, then turned it the rest of the way.


    He pushed his way inside, but instead of the storeroom it had been only moments ago, now it was a stairway. He walked carefully down, hearing shouts of encouragement and smelling tobacco and weed smoke thick in the air. At the bottom of the steps was a large chamber with a pit in the center of it and a number of tables scattered throughout. There was a bookie at the far end taking bets and declaring odds. Jayson sat behind the small smoke bar watching everything as it unfolded and selling cigars and drinks to anyone who needed something to wave excitedly as they watched the games unfold.


    Dantes gave him a nod, and Jayson returned it with a wave and a smile. He walked down toward the pit, where small bits of flame and lightning were occasionally peeking over the top. Dantes pushed his way gently through the crowd at first, but when they recognized him, they gave him a few feet of space.


    There were two drakes in the pit, one silver and blue, and the other green and red. Both were covered in cuts and burns, but he figured that the green one had the edge. The drake fights had been Felix and Jayson¡¯s idea. Initially they¡¯d wanted to host cockfights and dogfights as well, but Dantes hadn¡¯t allowed it, not wanting to hurt his relationship with the Mother. Drakes were magical creations not connected to her. They¡¯d been created by mages trying to approximate dragons using spells, but a number of them had escaped and slowly spread across the mortal plane. Now it was mostly non-mages that selectively bred them to fight one another. There were apparently some fights in other countries where the drakes were as large as horses, but in his experience they tended to be the size of dogs at their largest.


    Dantes watched as the green drake lunged onto the silver one. The silver one attempted to shoot some lightning from its maw, but it went wide and the green drake wrapped its powerful jaws around its throat. There was some struggle after that, and some cries of encouragement from the crowd, but it was basically over. Once it was dead, the handlers fed the green one to help it calm down, while the dead drake was dragged off to the side to be butchered for parts. The fights didn¡¯t always end in deaths, but the possibility of it was half the reason people liked to watch. The other half was the gambling.


    Dantes didn¡¯t care for it, but he did like being able to spend the money from it on other projects. He saw Felix leaning over the side of the pit looking despondent.


    ¡°Bad luck today?¡± asked Dantes.


    Felix jumped a bit at his voice, but recovered quickly, his lanky limbs finding a less defensive stance. ¡°Yeah, I was sure the Silver one had the edge. I watched him demolish a smaller yellow variant only a week ago.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Bad luck happens. Tell you what, I need some help with another project. This room was great work, so I¡¯d be willing to give you an advance if you¡¯d like.¡±


    Felix perked up a bit at the word ¡®advance¡¯, but he hesitated. ¡°Depends on the work.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you what, Jayk is probably looking for me, but I¡¯ll meet with you after I talk with him. I¡¯ll let Jayson know to cover your losses on this last fight,¡± he pointed to the drake pit.


    ¡°Well¡­ thanks.¡± Felix smiled and, instead of walking out with a bit of money still in his pocket, immediately walked over to the bookie to place another bet.


    Dantes smiled, he¡¯d definitely be seeing him later. He¡¯d see almost everyone down there later. No one ever seemed to be able to stay away for long.

 Book 3 Ch 2: Is Something Amusing?

    Dantes was smoking a cigar made of blended tobacco and weed as he watched men throw their lives away for his profit on the drake fights when Jayk found him.


    ¡°The Elven Kings are waiting.¡±


    Dantes knew that. He knew that Jayk knew he knew that.


    ¡°Alright,¡± He blew out a final puff of smoke before putting out the cigar. ¡°I suppose I should meet them.¡±


    Jayk nodded and they started to make their way upstairs.


    ¡°Any updates?¡± Dantes asked as they moved.


    ¡°We¡¯ve managed to re-establish another smuggling route. The trouble on the roads on the way to Rendhold have made our services at the docks more necessary.¡±


    ¡°Good. Any news on Godfrey?¡±


    ¡°Nothing new. He¡¯s still impossible to track. Meets with nobles at the Silken Sin or at the Temple. No one without at least a few drops of blue in his blood speaks with him now that Mondego is gone. Aside from¡­¡± he looked around at the full club.


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I know, but thank you for staying on top of it. Don¡¯t let the elves into the room for another ten minutes. Make them sweat a bit.¡±


    ¡°You want me to have some of the men ready to help depending on how things go?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°No, it won¡¯t matter.¡±


    Jayk nodded, and they separated at the entrance to his part of the new Vixen. The entire back half was his meeting room and personal chambers. He walked into that audience room, the moon was shining down into it through the glass ceiling, there¡¯d be another druid conclave soon. The floor was soft moss, vines covered in leaves reached for the sky, wildflowers sprouted randomly across all of it spreading a pleasant scent throughout the room, and a large tree sprouted from its center. In front of that tree was another tree that Dantes had grown into the shape of a throne.


    There were insects, a few mice, and two large black hounds in the garden as well. The insects and mice had found their way there on their own, but the hounds had been Mondego¡¯s. They¡¯d been mistreated and underfed, but had filled out nicely since he¡¯d taken them in. They didn¡¯t awake as he entered, he projected an aura of calm to them to keep them from being disturbed.


    He sat on the throne, and sent his thoughts through his garden, not only this one, but all of them that were connected to it through him. At this point all of his small gardens across Rendhold seemed to be becoming connected more and more closely. Those first ones he¡¯d made had been discovered, and he¡¯d had to do more to protect them. He¡¯d worked with wild dogs to patrol parts of them, had sent men to monitor others, and was trying to find a way to actually purchase the property they were on, but that had proven difficult without noble blood even with his growing resources. All of them teemed with life. Not only the vermin that had adopted him, rats, roaches, bats, pigeons, but cats, dogs, bees, crows, raccoons, all of them seemed to enjoy the greenery and at this point he was sure that even passively he may be able to gain the blessing of their gods.


    There was a knock on the door, and Jayk swung it open. He walked in, and a half dozen elves followed him. They were all beautiful, with four men, and two women. They wore revealing outfits that showed off lean, but powerful builds as well as tattoos of elvish script, trees, and eyes, all of which he recognized as gang tattoos from his time in the Underprison. They were pure elves, with sharply pointed ears, fine features, and eyes ranging from red to purple. They were Elfland Kings, from the branch that had sent Reivare down into the prison all that time ago. Dantes smiled a bit as he remembered that first victory.


    ¡°Is something amusing?¡± asked the elf in the lead. He looked young, but with elves that was always deceiving. His hair was white, and his eyes solid purple. He had two long thin swords at his back.


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    Dantes tilted his head a bit. ¡°Many things are amusing, I was just remembering an old joke. An elvish one, in fact.¡±


    The elf frowned at him. ¡°I am Ranfall, I assume you are aware of why we¡¯re here?¡±


    ¡°Because quite some time ago I killed Reivare.¡±


    The elf leader¡¯s mouth twitched at the corner. ¡°Yes¡­ you somehow managed to fool him with your low cunning and kill him¡­ Mutt.¡±


    ¡°I did kill him, yes. Though I¡¯m surprised it took this long for you to find me. You¡¯d think with those ears of yours you¡¯d have heard his cries for mercy and come running for me.¡±


    Some of Ranfall¡¯s group tensed, but he held an open hand behind himself to calm them down.


    ¡°The reasons it took so long are immaterial. We know you are under the protection of the Fingers, so while we can¡¯t take our reparations from you in blood, we want them in gold.¡±


    Dantes leaned on his hand. He knew why they took so long to find him. It wasn¡¯t just because he¡¯d been in hiding while he was attacking Mondego, the Elfland Kings had an organizational issue. They were a philosophy more than a group, and that always meant that they were more loosely collected cabals scattered around rather than anything firm and mobile. Ironically, they were probably at their most united in the Underprison and the jails of other nations where they were forced to rely on one another for protection. Still, they did have outside help, and Dantes knew that even in Rendhold a number of wealthy elven merchants and nobles gave to their cause.


    ¡°How much?¡±


    ¡°Ten-thousand gold.¡±


    Dantes laughed. It wasn¡¯t ironic, or mocking, it was a genuine full bellied laugh that echoed around his sunroom. His dogs awoke, looking at him curiously.


    The scowls of the Elfland kings spread and a few of them stepped forward, hands on their weapons.


    One of the women leaned toward Ranfall and whispered into his ear. Dantes¡¯s enhanced senses made it easy to hear, but unfortunately it was in Elvish. Still, the tone was easy enough to understand. They wanted to kill him.


    Ranfall reached for the swords on his back, but stopped when Dantes held up his hand.


    ¡°Think about what you¡¯re doing. I¡¯m a druid. A druid who you¡¯re about to threaten in his garden. I don¡¯t know if there were druids in Elfland, but I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve all heard of or met some of them in your combined long lives.¡±


    The Kings all hesitated.


    ¡°You¡¯d kill those who came to deal with you?¡± asked Ranfall.


    ¡°Only if you finish drawing those swords.¡±


    There were a few more quick whispers in Elvish.


    ¡°Will you pay what we ask?¡±


    ¡°No, but I will let you leave.¡±


    More angry mutters in Elvish, but Ranfall took his hands off his sword. ¡°We will collect what you owe.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve been spending too much time with cats, playing with your food so much,¡± said Jacopo through their connection.


    Dantes sighed. ¡°You¡¯re right. But shouldn¡¯t you be focused on what Vera¡¯s teaching you?¡±


    Jacopo sent a bit of mental grumbling his way and nothing else.


    Dantes sent a warning to all the animals in the garden, and held up his wooden hand and revealed sunrise, the yellow enchanted marble in his palm. He sent his will through it, and a brilliant flash of light came from it soundlessly, blinding everyone in the room.


    The elves all reached for their eyes, and in that moment Dantes had the thickly coiled vines that grew around the room wrap themselves around them and start to tighten, lifting them up by their necks. It was over before it could even begin. Dantes walked over to them, and extended his wooden hand into the shape of a stake. He killed them each one by one, finishing the last one before her sight could even return.


    When they were dead he had the vines release the bodies making them fall to the ground with dull thuds against the moss.


    He nudged his head to the hounds. ¡°All yours, eat your fill.¡±


    The dogs leapt up excitedly, sending a dozen rapidfire thank yous his way as they bounded toward the bodies and began to tear into them.


    Dantes reshaped his hand and pulled a cloth from his coat wiping the blood from it. He then pushed open the doors to the meeting room.


    ¡°Killed em, huh?¡± asked Jayk.


    Dantes nodded.


    ¡°I¡¯d like to tell you that it will probably cause us trouble in the long run, but fuck them. The Elven Kings are shit.¡± Jayk was a Mutt like Dantes, though one with a lot more mixed in more recently. He¡¯d been thrown into the Underprison just like Dantes had, and had experienced a kick to the ribs or a spit to the face from an Elven King high on his own supply of perceived superiority.


    ¡°Yeah, that was always the plan. They always seemed to think that because the Fingers extend protection to me that means it extends to them when they meet me. I was also curious how much they valued Reivare.¡±


    ¡°And?¡±


    ¡°Ten-thousand gold.¡±


    Jayk chuckled. ¡°I would¡¯ve guessed two copper and a boot with a hole in the sole.¡± He looked over to the dogs who were muzzle deep in corpse. ¡°Once they''re done I¡¯ll have the boys take what¡¯s left to the usual spot.¡±


    Dantes nodded. It would be foolish to waste the potential favor that could be gained from fresh meat.

 Book 3 Ch 3: Jacopo is Uniquely Motivating

    While Jayk took care of the cleanup, Dantes walked behind the meeting chamber and into his private chambers. The halls were simple, with a thick crimson rug in the center, and art along the walls that he¡¯d favored, lots of windows for light, and plants growing both in those windows and inside them. He kept it elegant and simple, with a little help from his aunt and her girls. He moved past his bedroom, he didn¡¯t like to sleep until the club closed for the night, and moved toward the study where he could hear Vera talking.


    He pushed open the door. The study was sparse, he didn¡¯t do a lot of reading so it was mostly supplies to write letters with, a small balcony that had a pigeon coop within it, and a fine desk and chair.


    Vera was standing in the middle of it, talking to the large brown bat that hung from the corner.


    ¡°Jacopo, I swear I¡¯ll get the broom and knock you down.¡±


    ¡°You haven¡¯t held a broom in years, Auntie,¡± said Dantes as he approached them.


    ¡°Well, Jacopo is uniquely motivating.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the problem?¡±


    Jacopo shifted into a broad tall man wearing a simple shirt and pants. He was more than a head taller than Dantes, and handsome. That bothered Dantes, but just a little. Like Dantes, whatever blessing he¡¯d received from the god of thieves that let him keep what he was wearing and holding as a man when he shifted forms affected Jacopo as well.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see why I need to learn how to eat with these utensils. Hands, and teeth are all that¡¯s needed.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a basic thing you¡¯ll need to know. You don¡¯t have to do it perfectly, it¡¯s not too difficult to come up with excuses for that kind of thing, but if you want to pass as a ¡®two-leg¡¯, as you call us then this is necessary,¡± said Vera. She looked at Dantes, ¡°He¡¯s really been doing very well, but this particular lesson has been a struggle for him.¡±


    ¡°Jacopo, there may be a time when you need to operate independently as a human for some time without me. There are ways people can cut us off from each other. Both Godfrey and Mercedes were able to do that, and I know that whatever stone the Underprison is made of seems to have a strong impact on my ability to connect to things as well.¡±


    ¡°I understand this,¡± said Jacopo with a grimace. ¡°I can see the reasoning in your head as if it is my own, but this form is uncomfortable for me. It is not as seamless as it is when you change forms. It feels as if I¡¯m¡­driving a stolen boat?¡±


    Dantes nodded, he¡¯d felt Jacopo pull that metaphor from his mind. He had no idea how Jacopo had gained his ability, aside from what he¡¯d described to him after they killed Mondego, but given the vision he¡¯d had of a man in a blue cloak unlocking it, the ability probably was stolen in some way. He wanted to talk to the other druids about it, but he¡¯d missed the last conclave, unwilling to leave his fledgling operation without him for too long.¡°Let¡¯s call it a day then,¡± said Dantes, holding out his hand.


    Jacopo changed into his usual self, and scurried up Dantes¡¯s arm, taking his place on his shoulder.


    He hugged Vera. ¡°Thank you for your patience, Auntie.


    She hugged him back. ¡°It¡¯s no problem. I have to teach more than a handful of the girls the exact same things. He¡¯s actually picking things up much more quickly than they usually do.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s smart. He was probably smarter before we started working together though.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s likely.¡±


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    Dantes fixed his coat a bit, and straightened his collar. ¡°I¡¯m going to have one last discussion with Jayk before the club shuts down for the night. Have whatever girls had slow nights sent to me.¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°I wish things had worked out between you and Zilly.¡±


    ¡°It did. We¡¯re excellent acquaintances and co-workers. ¡°


    ¡°You could¡¯ve just not slept with other women.¡±


    ¡°She knew who I was when we started things. Besides, I think you mostly liked the match because you liked the idea of me being with her while you¡¯re with Vampa. We¡¯d be like family.¡±


    ¡°Exactly.¡±


    ¡°Well, you¡¯re just going to have to deal with me making you fabulously wealthy, taking care of any enemies you have, and treating Zilly with respect and nothing else.¡±


    ¡°And teaching a rat to behave like a man.¡±


    ¡°Yes, not too bad of a deal.¡±


    She sighed. ¡°I forgot to mention, Alessa asked me to tell you that next week she¡¯ll need to take a leave of absence.¡±


    ¡°How long?¡±


    ¡°Two months, possibly more. She has some personal things to take care of.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm, okay. She¡¯s welcome back when she¡¯s done, but she¡¯s not getting paid while she¡¯s gone. I¡¯m not that friendly. I¡¯ll trust you to find a good substitute.¡±


    She smirked as if disagreeing with part of his statement, but nodded. ¡°I have some people in mind already. I¡¯ll have any girls who need some extra coin sent up.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Auntie.¡±


    He held the door open for her, and walked her back to the club, parting from her to go to his private booth in the upstairs portion, and watch as the last few customers decided to leave as the sun rose. He sipped a bit more wine.


    Jayk eventually came back just as the last customer stumbled out and the staff began to clean everything.


    ¡°The Kings have been laid to rest,¡± he said, a cup of wine in his own hand which he took a generous sip of.


    ¡°Couldn¡¯t have happened to a better group of people.¡±


    ¡°I can think of one.¡±


    Dantes nodded, encouraging him to continue. These final meetings had become a regular fixture of their days, and it was often when a few of the larger problems they were facing were discussed, since the day to day issues had all ended along with the day itself.


    ¡°We¡¯re in the black with all of the Fingers. We managed to honor all of the deals Mondego had with them, along with interest. I had Vera confirm the numbers, Jayson double checked that the list of people was correct, and then corroborated all of that with you and your,¡± he eyed Jacopo, ¡°sources.¡±


    ¡°And?¡±


    ¡°And the messages we¡¯ve sent all indicate that four of the five of them agree that things have been paid satisfactorily, except for Niklas.


    Dantes nodded. Niklas was the littlest of the Fingers, he ran the Gatemen who handled the majority of the overland smuggling into the city. Dantes anticipated that his own operations would likely eclipse Niklas¡¯s in time, just as Mondego¡¯s had been on the path to do.


    ¡°He¡¯s demanding more?¡±


    Jayk nodded. ¡°I think it¡¯s because his own shipments are having trouble. That sickness that¡¯s been hitting the nearby towns and villages, it has thrown a lot of overland trade into chaos.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s trying to use the additional money from us to cover his own losses.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s my guess.¡±


    Dantes took another long sip. He had other reasons to have a problem with Niklas, but fucking with his money meant he had to make moves or the rest of Rendhold would think that they could do the same He was firming up his strength in Midtown, but it was still a fragile time. He didn¡¯t want to make the same mistakes Mondego had, though so far he had managed not to piss off any druids enough to be attacked, so that was one easy mark in his favor.


    ¡°Set a meeting with him for tomorrow evening. I¡¯ll speak to him myself.¡±


    Jayk nodded.


    ¡°After that, get yourself a whore on me and get some sleep.¡±


    Jayk nodded. He knew at this point that arguing against it would be pointless. Besides, Dantes was right that he needed some rest. He downed his wine and walked away.


    Dantes watched the club for a bit longer, savoring his wine as well as his satisfaction. He felt good. With the weight of his revenge no longer pressing down on him he¡¯d felt light as air for the last several months. His advantages made his takeover much easier than he¡¯d expected. He had eyes on every corner, in the walls, and in the sky. He could detect betrayals long before they happened, and sense weaknesses in his foes before they themselves even knew what was happening. Sure, there were still enemies to defeat, but now his ambitions felt like wings at his back rather than shackles pulling him forward. The lifeforce in Rendhold that he¡¯d been cultivating, was growing larger and more active. It was still vulnerable, just as he was, but he could feel it growing. Feel himself strengthening alongside it. His marks stayed full with almost no effort, and the energy that seemed to flow into him, never stopped.


    He set down his wine glass, and started walking back toward his chambers. He¡¯d need to work off some of that energy before he went to sleep.

 Book 3 Ch 4: Two-Legs and Their Problems

    Dantes was floating above the table at which sat the man in dark blue and the woman in green. They had ceased their sewing of the tapestry and had since then began to play a number of different games with one another. He''d seen them throw dice, shuffle cards, and even stack sheep vertebrae. They didn''t play for stakes, but instead seemed to be practicing something. There were always two empty seats at the table, but so far he''d not seen any other gods in them. Away from the table, closer to him, stood the man with the axe. He was no longer just a silhouette as he had been when he first appeared. He was wearing dark Iron armor, clear of any embellishment, his face was hidden completely behind a featureless helmet, and his axe was that of a headsman, and the sharpness of it contrasted with the hazy nature of the rest of the dream. He could swear, the man was getting even closer as he looked at him, though he never took a single step.


    ...


    He woke late the next morning next to Tieara who was snoring peacefully, her thick dwarven hair spread across half of the bed. He silently untangled himself from her and stretched. Then he moved to the nearby drawer and took a single gold coin which he placed on the nightstand. He left the room and headed for his inner garden. He started by climbing his tree, pulling himself up easily with his powerful grip. Once up, he changed into a rat to climb the rest of the way through the foliage, then he leapt off and changed himself into a pigeon to fly toward the ceiling, gaining just enough momentum that when he began to turn into a roach it carried him to the ceiling which he clung to for a few moments before running across the glass at full speed. He continued shifting between forms quickly, while winding around the garden.


    He¡¯d started his regular exercise when he was back in the pit, and aside from a few justifiable breaks, he¡¯d done his best to keep it up since then. It had changed and adapted into something new though. The exercise had an impact no matter what form he took, and by shifting into each of the shapes he could take he was able to make the time between shifts almost instant. At this point the gains in shifting speed were minimal except in the case of his newest pigeon shape, but the increase in strength, speed, and endurance were still worth the effort.


    By the time he was done, he was sweating heavily, and so made his way to the bath. Hot water was already inside, prepared for him. His routine had become established enough at this point that his needs were anticipated. Jacopo was luxuriating in his own, smaller bath nearby. His schedule was a bit less set than Dantes¡¯s, but he¡¯d already eaten.


    After he lowered himself into his own tub, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes, extending his senses throughout Midtown and parts of the rest of the city. A fresh shipment was being unloaded at the docks. There was a guard nearby, but he was pointedly avoiding patrolling that area, as was promised when he accepted his bribe. In Uptown there was still an increased guard presence. Since Magister Mariska and her husband had been killed all those months ago, there had been a half-dozen similar murders. Dantes had been unable to determine who was the cause of it, though he of course suspected that it was changelings, perhaps even Syn herself, though her note had seemed to indicate to him that she intended to make her way far from the city. In the Guild District Steel was selling another portion of the jewelry Dantes himself had sold to him. In Midtown he could see a number of his dealers making late morning sales of dust to men and women scratching scabs on themselves. No real surprises, at least not so far.


    Dantes dried himself off and dressed in a dark green silk shirt, black trousers, and a long black coat, pushing his dark hair back. Now that he wasn¡¯t on the run he¡¯d had time to actually have it cut short.


    ¡°Want to join me today?¡± he asked Jacopo.


    ¡°No. Tired of two-legs and their problems. Going to eat from alleys and hunt for a mate.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Dantes couldn¡¯t blame him, though he¡¯d miss him watching his back.


    Dantes walked downstairs, following the smells of Zilly¡¯s cooking. He exchanged good morning with the girls, the goons, and Zilly herself who had a plate waiting for him.


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    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    She nodded, not really looking up at him.


    He took the plate and took it up to his VIP booth where Jayk, Jayson, Zak, and Vera were waiting for him.


    ¡°Morning¡±, he said as he set his plate at the head of the table and sat down. He looked at Vera, she always went first since she preferred to eat most of her breakfast with the girls.


    ¡°Profits were good last night. The girls all kept busy, though Andressa was short. I think she let a young man from your crew have a taste for free.¡±


    ¡°If it¡¯s because she wanted to then take it out of her cut, if it was because he implied he worked for me and she had to, let me know who it was and I¡¯ll take it from his pay and have him roughed up.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Food and drink are getting more expensive because of the slowing overland trade.¡±


    Dantes sighed. ¡°Jayson, talk to Clay about what fruits and veg are in my gardens. Take that list to Zilly and see what she needs. We can cut some costs there. Maybe see if we can find someone who can brew something with the fruit.¡± He thought briefly of Mez the Kobold¡¯s crooked smile. From what he¡¯d heard Mez had not been one of the people that had escaped the Underprison and was likely dead. Probably his fault. He pushed that thought to the side.


    ¡°Good idea. I was also going to talk with some of the fishing ships to see if we could get some of their stock fresh straight from them. Fishmongers always upsell things too much.¡±


    ¡°Good plan.¡± He smiled. ¡°Thank you, Auntie. You can stick around if you want to hear me talk a lot about murder and mayhem.¡±


    She chuckled. ¡°No, I¡¯ll leave the simpler stuff to you boys.¡± She stood and walked downstairs to talk to her girls.


    Dantes turned his attention to Jayson.


    ¡°Bets were good last night, though Felix is in the hole again.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Good, when he shows up tonight to gamble with no money, send him to me. What else?¡±


    ¡°Dust demand is up, for the same reasons that food prices are. Whatever that plague is is fucking everyone. Sand wants to talk to you about fixing some Arena fights. Daisy says there¡¯s an increased demand for guns and wands from her people in Uptown. Easy to guess why on that as well.¡±


    ¡°As long as we have the stock, let her sell it and take the profit. Just make sure to keep some of it to the side for us, as always. Set a meeting with Sand for tomorrow, that¡¯s mostly Guild District territory, but I¡¯d like to hear what he has in mind.¡±


    Jayson nodded, and took a sip of milk from his cup.


    Jayk spoke next. ¡°Your meeting with Niklas is set for tonight. As I said yesterday the rest of the Fingers have been cooperative. They know Argenta is on your side. Godfrey hasn¡¯t moved, and we still have no indication that he can specifically track our purchases, at least he still hasn¡¯t acted on anything if he does have that power. Nothing else from me, we went over most everything last night.¡±


    Dantes looked to Zak.


    Zak finished swallowing a large helping of egg in his mouth. ¡°No trouble right now that we can¡¯t handle. Vampa is going to be your escort today during rounds.¡±


    ¡°Huh, why?¡±


    Zak shrugged. ¡°Says he needs some extra scratch. Figure you wouldn¡¯t really care. It¡¯s not like you actually need to be guarded.¡±


    ¡°True.¡±


    With that, the usual informal briefing he got from everyone was done, so he tucked into his, as usual, tepid food. It was a mix of sausage, eggs, bread, and some small red grapes. He usually didn¡¯t notice much about how the food actually tasted, his mind was already starting to work on the problems of the day.


    When he was done, he stood up and walked out the front door onto the streets. The cool air from the docks was twisting through the alleyways and bringing the smell of salt to his nose. He inhaled deeply, enjoying the smell of it as well as the bracing air that brought it to him.


    ¡°Fancy a walk with me?¡± he sent to his hounds who had been taken by Sera on a walk of her own.


    ¡°Yes!¡± they said in unison with the tone of sailors responding to a captain¡¯s order.


    She nearly fell over as they tugged on their leashes in an effort to reach him.


    She rallied quickly. ¡°Ed.¡±


    He smiled at her. ¡°Mrs. Dunning.¡±


    This greeting had also become part of their day. She would greet him with the name his father had given him that he¡¯d used while attempting to be incognito as a kind of dig, and he would return the favor by referencing her recently failed engagement. He bent down to remove the leashes from the dogs, he didn¡¯t need them, and handed them to her.


    She took them with her nose upturned at him and walked into the club.


    He¡¯d been surprised when Sera had volunteered for the job, but he supposed she¡¯d want an excuse for some fresh air in her position, and she had a soft spot for dogs in particular. He¡¯d grown a bit more fond of them himself. They had very simple needs for their loyalty, which meant that he had almost total control of those he took in even without a blessing from their god.


    He scratched one behind the ears as Vampa approached quietly. He smiled at the muscular bald elf. ¡°Ready to help me break some legs?¡±

 Book 3 Ch 5: Good Work Today

    Vampa, who stood more than a foot taller than Dantes, nodded silently at his question. He was wearing an undershirt and trousers held up by suspenders , his thick black boots were well worn, and had a few drops of red along the heel that didn¡¯t take a scholar to identify. It was the most dressed he¡¯d ever seen him.


    They started walking up the road, the two black hounds in tow. The crowd parted before them, with a number of men and women offering them respectful nods as they moved.


    ¡°I was surprised when Zak said you¡¯d be the muscle for today. He said you need money?¡± asked Dantes.


    Vampa nodded. ¡°Have to buy something,¡± he said simply.


    ¡°Listen, you¡¯ve done me more than a few good turns and Vera favors you. If you need some gold I¡¯ll give it to you.¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t like loans. Don''t trust them if they come from you.¡±


    Dantes chuckled. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t, but I didn¡¯t mean a loan. I¡¯ll just give you the gold.¡±


    He shook his head again. ¡°Need to earn the money. It¡¯s important.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough.¡± Dantes left it at that. The man was set, and there didn¡¯t seem to be a lot of value in pushing him to take some gold for free. Even if he succeeded it would just make Vampa annoyed and Dantes¡¯s pockets lighter. Not much of an upside for him.


    Their first stop was a butcher on the border of the docks and Midtown. Dantes walked in with Vampa and his hounds in tow.


    A half dwarf was standing behind the counter chopping meat with a heavy cleaver. He had pink stains all up and down his apron, and both his thick hair and beard were neatly tied to keep them out of the way and keep any stray locks from falling into the meat. He had a small dog nibbling a bone in the corner, and a windowbox filled with sweet smelling flowers in his window.


    The small dog stood from its place in the corner to bark at Vampa and the hounds.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. We mean your person no harm and we¡¯ll leave your territory shortly,¡± said Dantes to him, projecting relaxed calm in his direction.


    The dog didn¡¯t respond, but did stop yapping and sat back down to chew his bone, though he did so with one eye on Dantes and his retinue. Dantes asked the other hounds to go introduce themselves.


    ¡°Mister Dantes! Welcome.¡±


    ¡°Dom, how are you doing?¡± Dantes asked, learning carefully on the counter to avoid a fresh patch of blood.


    ¡°Good Sir, good. You¡¯re here for the payment?¡±


    Dantes nodded.


    Dom hopped off the small crate he¡¯d been standing on and went to the back of the building.


    Vampa and the hounds scanned the room for threats, the hounds sniffing the air, and Vampa¡¯s clipped ears twitching slightly as he tracked movement by sound.


    It was appreciated, but unnecessary. Dantes was watching the storefront from a pigeon floating in the air, the back of it with a rat munching on a rotten apple core, and his own sense of hearing was as strong as an elf''s since he¡¯d gained the ability to change into a bat. Still, he¡¯d realized that bringing a guard with him actually made people more comfortable with him. The stories about him had traveled far and fast, growing larger with each retelling. Seeing that he needed protection too made him seem more normal, and put people at ease. That was important to him. Fear was useful, but having everyone on edge in Midtown wasn¡¯t a good idea when he wanted the coin to flow.


    Dom reappeared with a small pouch as well as a package wrapped in butcher¡¯s paper.


    ¡°Here¡¯s this month¡¯s sir. As well as something extra for you.¡±


    Dantes smiled and took both of them. ¡°Thanks Dom.¡± he felt the weight of the coin in his hands and opened the pouch, seeing the gleam of silver.


    ¡°Any trouble recently?¡±


    Dom shook his head. ¡°No sir.¡±


    Dantes nodded at him. ¡°See you next month, Dom. Unless you decide to drop by the Vixen to see Milta again, then I¡¯ll see you sooner.¡±


    Dom chuckled at that and waved as they left.


    They walked into the next shop, a small bakery. Just like the butcher there was a flower box in the window, as well as some vegetables in a small patch being grown just by the door. There weren¡¯t any dogs, but there were two orange cats sitting in the windowsill. Dantes scratched one behind the ears as he entered.


    A half-orc woman was behind the counter this time, white flour staining her hands.


    ¡°Dantes, uh, what can I do for you? Need something sweet for your girls again?¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°Not today Hrin. We¡¯re just here to collect¡±


    She looked confused. ¡°Collect? We already paid one of your men this month.¡±


    Dantes¡¯s friendly demeanor shifted and he went from casually leaning on the glass display of pastries to standing at the counter leaning toward her.


    ¡°Which one of my men?¡±


    Her green skin paled a bit. ¡°Uh, he said his name was Grantum? Big guy, blonde hair, mostly human I think. Said he worked for you?¡±


    Dantes pulled away from her and moved to the closest of the orange cats who was bathing herself in a particularly nice ray of sunlight.


    ¡°Your servant over there says she paid a man yesterday who was pretending to work for me. Is this true?¡±


    She briefly stopped what she was doing to look at him. ¡°What¡¯s it worth to you?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll have a whole fish brought here to you later today.¡±


    The cat purred a bit and stretched. ¡°Yes, she¡¯s telling the truth. He looked and smelled like this,¡± she sent an imprint of his look and smell to Dantes. That was something he¡¯d only learned he could with creatures he had no blessing for if they consented to it.


    He nodded and began sending vermin out to find the man.


    He stood up and looked at Hrin who seemed a bit scared, but was kneading dough anyway.


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    ¡°I believe you. You don¡¯t owe me anything this month. I¡¯ll take it out in blood from this Grantum.¡±


    She let out a breath. ¡°Good. Take a bit extra out on him for me.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°There won¡¯t be any more to take when I¡¯m through, but I¡¯ll give the knife an extra twist for you.¡±


    The next few shops had a similar story, all with the same perpetrator. He reached a general store next. There was a windowbox filled with dead and wilting flowers sitting by the door. Even a connection to Dantes couldn¡¯t keep something alive with no sunlight, water, or nutrients at all. The store itself was empty and the shelves were sparsely populated. There was a bit of rope, some cloth, and a scattering of simple tools, but little else. A half-elf dozed a bit as he stared at the ceiling. He was dirty, as were his clothes, and there was just a bit of dust still around the rim of his nose.


    Dantes walked up to the counter and knocked twice on the wood of it.


    The half-elf shook his head as he remembered he was awake, and looked at Dantes.


    ¡°Uh, Dantes, sir, hi, er welcome.¡±


    ¡°Where¡¯s my money, Tem?¡± he asked. There were no pleasantries this time.


    ¡°I uh, I gave it to your guy a few days ago. Grantum.¡±


    Tem had no pets to interview, but Dantes wouldn¡¯t have needed their help this time anyway.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s great. Did you give him the full three months you owe, or just this month.¡±


    ¡°The uh, the full three. Had a lucky month.¡±


    Dantes raised his eyebrows and smiled, putting his hands up a bit. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s great. I guess we¡¯re all good then.¡±


    Tem nodded emphatically. ¡°Yeah, yeah. Of course. I always pay my debts.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Oh, I did have a question.¡± he reached out, grabbed Tem¡¯s hair with his wooden hand, and slammed his face against the counter. There was a crunch as his nose broke.


    Tem fell backward in his chair, clutching his bleeding nose and screaming.


    ¡°Do you think I¡¯m an idiot?¡±


    Tem pushed himself back to his feet by bracing himself against the wall.


    ¡°No,¡± he managed.


    ¡°Grantum hit five shops in a row, then didn¡¯t hit the next three, then hit yours? That makes no sense. You know him, or of him, and you figured you could get out of what you owe by pretending he hit your shop too. Isn¡¯t that right?¡±


    Tem was crying, his tears mixing with the blood dripping from his nose. ¡°I¡¯ll get the money. I promise you I¡¯ll get the money.¡±


    ¡°You have two weeks. After that the only way I¡¯m getting what I owe is by selling you to Frasheid slavers.¡±


    ¡°I¡­I bought all my dust from your guys. I mean, you got my money either way. I can¡¯t work if I have the shakes when I¡¯m off of them.¡±


    Dantes walked slowly around the counter and leaned in close.


    ¡°That¡¯s not my problem. Try to run, and I¡¯ll feed you to the rats.¡±


    Tem whimpered as Dantes stood and walked out of the shop with Vampa and the hounds in tow. He frowned at the pack of meat still under his arm, and waved down a young girl who was walking down the street.


    ¡°Hey, take this down to Viridian Vixen for me and tell them to give it to Zilly.¡± He held out the meat as well as a few copper.


    She nodded and took the coins and meat.


    He gestured to one of the hounds. ¡°Follow her and make sure she gets there and back safe.There¡¯s some of the meat in it for you.¡±


    The hound gave a bark in the affirmative, and after the girl gave him some surprisingly fearless pats on the haunch they were on their way.


    They hit a few more shops, then Dantes paused.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t visited these next few shops yet. They don¡¯t owe, but the last person they paid was Mondego. Things may be a bit rougher from here on.¡±


    Vampa nodded silently.


    Dantes walked forward. The first shop was a small tavern and inn called, ¡°Second Worst,¡±. In spite of the name, it didn¡¯t seem too rough. The floorboards were creaky, and there was clearly a leak in the corner, but there were a few customers at the bar even in the early afternoon, and a few low rank adventurers who were likely using the beds upstairs were having quiet conversations in front of the fire.


    Dantes went to the bar, where a Mutt with a thick beard, pointed ears, and a lanky build was pouring a drink.


    Dantes leaned against the bar.


    ¡°You the owner?¡±


    The man glanced at him and Vampa, his eyes narrowing. ¡°Yup.¡±


    ¡°Come talk to me at the end of the bar.¡±


    The man nodded, and when he finished serving the drink he¡¯d been pouring he met Dantes at the end of the bar.


    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± asked Dantes.


    ¡°Limsten.¡±


    ¡°Do you know who I am?¡±


    The man nodded, his jaw set, and his eyes staying mostly on Vampa.


    ¡°So you know why I¡¯m here?¡±


    ¡°To steal from me and call it protection?¡±


    Dantes smiled a bit, surprised at his boldness.


    ¡°That¡¯s how it was under Mondego, and I can¡¯t tell you that the negatives are much different. If you say no, then you, or your tavern, or someone you care about, will start having issues. You¡¯ll pay me to stop these issues. The difference is that when you have issues from anyone else, I will actually help you. Unlike Mondego.¡±


    ¡°Could barely afford him. Don¡¯t know how long I¡¯d be able to afford you.¡±


    ¡°I make things easier than he did. You have an anti-vermin enchantment on this place, right?¡±


    He nodded.


    ¡°You pay the Academy one silver and three copper for it a month?¡±


    He nodded again.


    ¡°You let that lapse and I¡¯ll give you a discount.¡±


    ¡°Then how¡¯ll I keep the rats from drowning in my ale?¡±


    ¡°Same way you used to. Rat traps, a dog, a couple cats. I just don¡¯t want any magic intervention. You could easily afford all that with what you¡¯d save.¡±


    The man scratched his beard thoughtfully.


    ¡°If you start a garden, I¡¯ll give you another discount. I¡¯ll even give you some seeds.¡±


    He laughed a little. ¡°Are you joking?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°No. If you do as I ask, you¡¯ll only owe me half of what you would pay Mondego every month.¡±


    The man nodded a bit, Dantes could tell he already had him, but decided to sweeten things a little more.


    ¡°If you let one of my dealers hang around, I¡¯ll give you a cut of what he makes too.¡±


    ¡°I dunno¡­ I¡¯ve got little ones.¡±


    ¡°My dealers don¡¯t sell to kids or they lose a digit.¡± Mondego had been too free in who he let his men deal to. Selling to kids was bad business in the long run, and Dantes himself couldn¡¯t shake the idea of his mother crying if she knew he let his men do that.


    The man looked thoughtful for a few moments and nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t really have a choice anyway,¡± he said, reaching out a hand.


    Dantes took his hand. ¡°You do, and you made the right one. We¡¯ll be back next month. I¡¯ll have someone drop off the seeds.¡±


    The man nodded, and went back to serving his customers. Dantes, Vampa, and the remaining hound left the tavern. It was almost midafternoon, and Dantes was starting to regret picking one of his heavier coats as they continued walking.


    ¡°You have honor, of a kind.¡±


    Dantes almost jumped. It had been some time since he¡¯d heard Vampa talk, and he wasn¡¯t sure he¡¯d ever heard him speak without being spoken to first.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have any honor.¡±


    ¡°You take care of those who keep their word to you, you punish those who don¡¯t severely. You limit the spread of your own evil at a cost to yourself. You treat those of all backgrounds with the same rules, though you do treat those you know personally better than others. It reminds me a bit of the founders back when they were still alive.¡±


    Dantes wasn¡¯t really sure of how to respond to that. He was under the impression that Vampa had a low opinion of him, particularly after things had ended between him and his daughter. Aside from that he found himself flabbergasted that Vampa was old enough to have known Rendhold¡¯s founders.


    ¡°I¡¯m surprised you feel that way,¡± he said, opting for honesty.


    He shrugged, intuiting Dantes¡¯s reasoning. ¡°Zilly should¡¯ve known better. It wasn¡¯t as if she hadn¡¯t just watched you spend each night with a different whore for months.¡±


    They walked in silence for some time, when Dantes found the man he¡¯d been looking for in the background of his day through the eyes of a rat a few blocks away.


    Dantes turned sharply down an alley and Vampa followed him, eventually stopping in front of an abandoned building.


    ¡°Grantum, the man who took what was owed to me, is in that building. Go and bring him out for me, leave his face intact.¡±


    Vampa nodded and opened the door, walking briskly inside. There was a brief scuffle, one that Dantes didn¡¯t bother watching, and he dragged the man out into the alley, tossing him to the ground.


    Dantes kicked Grantum in the ribs, flipping him over, then placed his boot on the man¡¯s neck.


    ¡°Pretty good con, but you really should¡¯ve thought about who you were fucking with.¡±


    His eyes bulged from his face as he clawed at Dantes¡¯s boots desperately.


    ¡°Did you spend the money?¡± he asked, picking his boot up.


    Grantum sucked down several quick breaths. ¡°I, I hid most of it in the old fireplace. It¡¯s behind a loose brick in there.¡±


    Dantes gestured with his head for Vampa to go get it, and he went back inside. He came out shortly afterward holding several small pouches of coins.


    ¡°You told me right away. I appreciate you saving us all the trouble of lying.¡±


    The man nodded emphatically. ¡°So that means you¡¯re not going to-¡±


    Dantes extended a single wooden finger through the man''s eye and out the back of his head. He then pulled it back.


    ¡°Vampa, pick up that garbage and throw him into the middle of the street. We¡¯ll let everyone marinate on that for a day and finish the rounds tomorrow.¡±


    Vampa nodded, lifting Grantum¡¯s corpse like it weighed nothing.


    ¡°Good work today, you definitely earned that pay you¡¯re looking for.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 6: Dont Make an Enemy of Me

    Dantes landed as a pigeon deep in Gatemen territory at the southwest gate and walked along the cobblestone and concrete paths caked in mud from the day''s travelers, and their mounts, entering the city. There was still a bit of sun in the sky, but it would be evening soon. He rolled his neck a bit and heard a few cracks as he did so. The pigeon form was still new, and sometimes the transition out of it left him feeling a bit achy. He walked openly through the middle of the street. This wasn¡¯t his territory, but he still received a few respectful nods and heard some hushed whispers as he passed through.


    It didn¡¯t take him too long to reach Niklas¡¯s base of operations, a massive warehouse. It didn¡¯t have a name, it wasn¡¯t a tavern or a brothel like most of their kind liked to work out of, though you could get booze or a whore if you were so inclined. You could find almost anything there in fact. The Gatemen¡¯s base was more of a large open market than anything else. A chunk of the goods they¡¯d smuggled in, or extorted, or just plain stole could be purchased there. Legal, but hard to obtain goods from inside the city. Illegal goods from outside the city. People more enmeshed in the darker side of Rendhold, which counted for most of it, had their own sources for these things, but this market was for the common man.


    The market was busy, with long lines at the different Gatemen all hocking their own goods. This was where a lot of them made the majority of their money. Dantes noted that the prices on everything were higher than usual, likely due to the lower supply coming in. That would keep Niklas and his men in a tidy profit for now, but if the supply problem continued then people would likely find other black market sellers or, gods forbid, find what they needed legally.


    Dantes reached the back of the warehouse where there was a small construction of wood built against the far wall. There were a half dozen guards there who stood as he approached.


    ¡°I¡¯m Dantes,¡± he said to the first one. ¡°My man Jayk set up a meeting.¡±


    The guards exchanged glances. One of them, a dwarf, stepped toward Dantes with a smirk. ¡°No guards of your own? No insisting on meeting at a neutral location? You¡¯re new at this aren¡¯t you.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Not new, just not concerned.¡±


    The dwarf opened his mouth to say something else smarmy, but was cut off by a sharp nod of a different guard positioned behind Dantes. He saw the nod because he was watching his back through the eyes of a sleepy pigeon with a nest in the rafters above.


    The dwarf frowned, but went to the small building and knocked twice. The door opened and he gestured for Dantes to go inside.


    The room was simple, with a small table, a few chairs, a bed at one end, some bottles of wine scattered around, and a few ledgers. Niklas, the littlest of the Fingers, balanced in a chair as he pushed off the table in front of himself with both legs. He had his hands folded across his chest, the many gold rings on them glinting in the candlelight. His hair was loose, and fell in brown and gray strands down his shoulders, and his pale gray eyes met Dantes¡¯s gold ones as he entered the room.


    ¡°Dantes, welcome. Have a seat, have a drink.¡± He brought his legs down from the table and his chair landed back on its front legs with a thud. He popped the cork on a wine bottle with a small knife and poured some of it into a glass. Dantes didn¡¯t smell anything foul about it with his enhanced senses, and Niklas took a sip straight from the bottle, so he had a sip of it and sat in the chair across from him.


    ¡°Niklas. You seem to be doing well out there tonight.¡±


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    He smiled. ¡°Oh, you know, we try,¡± he said with a falsely humble air. ¡°So, what can I do for you?¡±


    ¡°I wanted to talk to you about what you say I owe you. I have finished paying up and completing the deals Mondego had with all of the other fingers, but somehow every time we catch up with what was owed to you, it seems like it''s revealed that we owe more than was originally agreed to.¡±


    ¡°Huh, that¡¯s so strange. Well, Mondego and I had a closer relationship than any of the other Fingers did. My smuggling and his own often meant we had to collaborate to move certain goods, just as you have been since you removed him. It makes sense that what you inherited from him would be more than what was owed to the others.¡±


    Dantes recognized when someone was talking in circles, he did it himself all the time, but he was a hypocrite and didn¡¯t much enjoy being on the other side of it.


    ¡°I don¡¯t owe you anything,¡± he said, his tone shifting.


    Niklas smirked and he put his legs back on the ground so he could lean forward. ¡°You¡¯ll owe whatever I want you to owe. The moment you pay up, I¡¯ll come up with some other deal Mondego made. It¡¯s not like men like us have a paper trail. No, I think you¡¯ll be paying up to me until all this ¡®plague¡¯ business is over, and for a long time after that.¡±


    ¡°Niklas. I¡¯m going to do you a service that I don¡¯t often offer. Say that everything is settled, and I owe you nothing and you won¡¯t make an enemy of me.¡±


    Niklas put a finger to his chin as if he was thinking, then he made a face as if he had an idea. ¡°Fuck you. You¡¯re just another upstart. I¡¯m not Mondego, or some random magister. I¡¯m one of the fingers. You summon your rats, or stab me with that wooden hand of yours, or make a fucking flower wrap itself around my throat and you¡¯ll make an enemy of all of the other Fingers. Rendhold itself will come down upon you with its full might. Don¡¯t make an enemy of you?¡± he laughed. ¡°Don¡¯t make an enemy of me.¡±


    Dantes sighed. He¡¯d always known that Niklas was going to be a problem. At first he¡¯d been friendly enough, but that seemed to be more related to how much he¡¯d hated Mondego more than how much he¡¯d liked Dantes. Even beyond the extortion, Dantes had other reasons to be wary of him. Like his men meeting with people wearing gold masks, to deliver or receive mysterious packages. He hadn¡¯t fully untangled that yet, but since Niklas had gone this far, that no longer really mattered. Dantes stood up from the table. ¡°I suppose we don¡¯t have anything else to talk about then.¡±


    Niklas nodded. ¡°No we don¡¯t. I¡¯ll be sending my boys to your club next week to collect the next payment. Maybe I¡¯ll come too and take some time with the girls you have there. On credit of course.¡±


    Dantes stood up and walked out of the building without another word. He said nothing to the guards, or to anyone else he passed as he left the Gatemen¡¯s market. Once outside he found an alley and shifted into a pigeon. He flew back to the warehouse, and helped the pigeon whose eyes he¡¯d been looking through warm her eggs in her nest while he waited. Once night had fully fallen, Niklas left his little building and walked toward the market with his guards in tow.


    Dantes left the nest and flew toward the building. He crawled inside as a roach and then shifted back to himself, keeping watch on the building with the various vermin around the warehouse to make sure he¡¯d have a heads up if he was going to be interrupted. He began to move carefully to each bottle of wine. He would lift them, turn the tip of his wooden index finger into a fine and hollow point, push it through the cork, and push a few drops of black liquid he had stored in his arm into it. Once he was done he flexed his finger, reshaping it, and being sure that the poison wouldn¡¯t touch any of his flesh. He¡¯d started the poison garden with Clay and Hema a while ago, but this was the first time he¡¯d used any of what they¡¯d made. Hema had a great aptitude for the work, but Clay had been uncomfortable with it.


    With every bottle poisoned, Dantes slipped out of the building and flew back up to wait. After a few hours Niklas returned from his rounds. About an hour after that one of his men entered his office to check on it. After that, the panic started.


    Dantes slipped easily out of the warehouse through a patchy roof, and stopped.


    There was a figure wearing a fine suit whose head seemed to be made of black smoke with only two sharp scars of white that one could consider eyes giving any indication of expression. Those white scars were looking directly at Dantes, even though he was in pigeon form.


    He changed back into himself, and looked at Argenta¡¯s pet demon Gren.


    ¡°It was me. You can let her know.¡±


    Those white eyes seemed to smile, and the demon disappeared.

 Book 3 Ch 7: Aside From the Obvious?

    Dantes arrived back at his club as business was hitting its peak for the evening. He cut past the crowd waiting to enter, and the bouncer gave him a respectful nod as he walked inside. He made his way to the bar, where Zilly was slinging drinks quickly, but she stopped what she was doing to go to him. The other patrons didn¡¯t complain, they knew who was meant to be served first.


    She looked at him questioningly.


    ¡°Some of that crab soup if there¡¯s any left, and that bottle of wine Decker sent, the white, have that brought up to me.¡±


    She started to move, but Dantes gently tapped her arm before she could move too far.


    ¡°Your father was my muscle this morning. He said he wouldn¡¯t want me to just give him money, and that he¡¯d prefer to earn it. Do you have any idea what for?¡±


    Her eyebrows went up, then she quickly brought them back down to hide the expression. ¡°That¡¯s odd. My father has strange standards though.¡±


    Dantes smiled. Vampa fought in deathmatches in underground pits. He certainly had a kind of honor, but Dantes doubted he wouldn¡¯t accept money freely given unless there was a very specific reason.


    ¡°You know, but you don¡¯t want to tell me.¡±


    ¡°Oh, is there some kind of problem about secrets now? I don¡¯t really think you have any room on that front.¡±


    Dantes sighed. ¡°I deserve that. I won¡¯t push. Thank you for your work today. Oh, and please send Vera and Jayk to me when you get the chance.¡±


    She nodded, and got back to work, though her expression didn¡¯t soften at all. It would take a bit of time to fix that, but what¡¯s done was done.


    Dantes moved to the stairs and made his way up to his small secluded section from which he could watch the bar.


    Vera arrived shortly after, wearing a long flowing blue dress that Dantes wondered how she kept from tripping over when she walked around the busy club.


    ¡°Hello Auntie, had a chance for dinner yet?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Yes, I had it with Sera. She¡¯s been asking more about how we run this place.¡±


    ¡°Trying to sell our secrets, or genuine interest of her own?¡±


    ¡°The latter.¡±


    ¡°Well, if you think she¡¯s got what it takes I¡¯ll invest in her. Don¡¯t know how girls would react to a Madame so young though.¡±


    Vera shrugged, ¡°We¡¯ll put some points on her ears and pretend she''s three hundred.¡±


    Dantes chuckled. ¡°Where¡¯s Alessa? I thought she didn¡¯t leave until the end of the week.¡±


    ¡°The sickness she has has caused her feet to hurt, I told her to just go ahead and leave. I¡¯ll find a temporary replacement as soon as I can, but tonight there¡¯s no music.¡±


    Dantes sighed and took a sip of his wine. ¡°Oh well, thanks Auntie.¡±


    She gave him a peck on the cheek and went back to monitor her girls. Dantes ate his dinner until Jayk appeared. He smelled of weed, so had likely been with Jayson in the hidden gambling room.


    He sat across from Dantes.


    Dantes had a spoonful of soup and savored it. ¡°The littlest finger has been cut off.¡±


    Jayk nodded. ¡°He pushed things, eh?¡±


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    Dantes nodded and had another sip of wine. ¡°We always planned for it, but I would¡¯ve preferred to see what the full extent of his connections to Godfrey were before we made a move. Still, can¡¯t have him fucking with our money.¡±


    Jayk nodded. ¡°What¡¯s the plan?¡±


    ¡°For now? Let them be in disarray. If we move too quickly then the finger will be pointed at us right away.¡± he chuckled at his word play, but Jayk wasn¡¯t amused. ¡°Just keep everyone ready and make sure that their chaos doesn¡¯t leak into our territory. Once the Fingers call a meeting, we¡¯ll make our move. It makes more sense for all the smuggling to be run by us, don¡¯t you think?¡±


    Jayk smiled and nodded before walking back out of the booth.


    After he was done with his food, Dantes found himself feeling restless. He checked in with Jacopo, but he was in the middle of a fight with another rat that had stolen some food from him, and seemed to be having such a good time that Dantes didn¡¯t want to interrupt. So instead he found himself watching his club and lazily drinking as he went through his usual mental checks through the eyes of bats, rats, roaches, and pigeons to make sure that all of his operations were running smoothly.


    He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up for a moment, and brought his attention back to himself. He looked around the club, following the sensation, until he saw a woman sitting at the bar, staring at him.


    Her eyes were lavender, set in an olive toned face with sharp features. Her hair fell in thick dark curls down half of her back. She was wearing a dark green dress that she must¡¯ve been poured into, showing just a bit more leg than was fashionable or appropriate, with only a few tasteful pieces of jewelry on her including a silver necklace with a large green stone set in its center that his pickpocket¡¯s instinct immediately clocked even though he hadn¡¯t been able to pull his eyes from her own. She was smiling coyly, with the upturn of her lip nearly meeting a small mole above the corner of her mouth.


    Dantes motioned to the guard he kept outside of his booth.


    ¡°The woman down there, in the green dress, bring her to me.¡±


    He nodded, and left. Dantes poured a second glass of wine, and leaned back in his seat holding his own glass.


    His guard reappeared with the woman in tow, and Dantes gave him a nod, and indicated for him to guard him from just a bit further away.


    The woman sized him up a bit, her eyes traveling luxuriously up and down him as she walked toward the table. She took the wine he had placed opposite of himself, and took a sip as she slid onto the seat next to him instead, sliding close enough to him that he could feel the warmth coming off of her.


    Dantes smiled. ¡°You''re bold. I like that.¡±


    She shrugged a bit, her lavender eyes smiling. ¡°I just know what I want. What¡¯s the point in dancing around it?¡±


    ¡°And what is this bold woman full of self knowledge¡¯s name?¡±


    ¡°Sevryn,¡± she said as she took a second, deeper sip of her wine. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s excellent.¡±


    ¡°Nice to meet you. I¡¯m Dantes.¡±


    ¡°I know who you are. I¡¯d be a fool not to know you.¡±


    Dantes shrugged, ¡°True, but I¡¯ve never had a problem with beautiful fools.¡±


    ¡°Maybe not for a night, but I have a feeling you get tired of them shortly after that.¡±


    ¡°And you want to keep my attention longer than that?¡±


    She smiled, saying nothing, but looking into his eyes as she had another sip of her wine.


    Dantes had gotten used to this since he¡¯d started his club and taken things over. Women who were attracted to power, who wanted something, even a few ladies from Uptown would make their way to his booth. He refused a number of them, they tended to be young and he preferred women his own age, but he hadn¡¯t been averse to it aside from that one rule. Sevryn seemed a bit different though. She wasn¡¯t nervous, or afraid of him, nor did she seem unaware of what he was. This was definitely the most directly he¡¯d been approached though, so he sensed that she wanted something aside from a night with him. What he didn¡¯t sense was anything amiss with the woman, no flickers that indicated she was a changeling, no tingling fingers from magic, even that part of his brain that had become more like Jacopo as he¡¯d grown in power sensed no menace from her, only attraction.


    ¡°So, since you¡¯re so certain, why don¡¯t you tell me what it is that you want?¡±


    ¡°Aside from the obvious?¡±


    ¡°Aside from that, yes.¡±


    ¡°I want to sing.¡±


    Dantes kept his expression neutral, which at this moment meant maintaining a half lidded stare and wolflike grin. He¡¯d only found out about Alessa being out only an hour ago.


    ¡°How do you know we need a singer?¡±


    She laughed, gesturing to the empty stage. ¡°It doesn¡¯t take a Mage to figure that out. Even if she had waited to leave until the end of the week though, a woman has her ways. Especially a woman who wants to perform.¡±


    ¡°How well do you sing?¡±


    She leaned closer, whispering in his ear. ¡°You¡¯d be amazed at what sounds I can make.¡±


    Dantes felt an electric jolt work its way up his spine as he felt her breath in his ear, but he didn¡¯t show it outwardly. He was a professional, he didn¡¯t let a seductive woman just waltz up to him and hold him like putty in her hands. He¡¯d been raised in a whorehouse, he knew women better than his peers, knew they could be just as manipulative and menacing as any man. That¡¯s part of what he loved about them.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go over the details in the morning, shall we?¡±

 Book 3 Ch 8: I Have Spawned Thousands

    Dantes awoke the same time he always did. Sevryn was sleeping peacefully next to him, her jewelry glinting in the morning sunlight that poured in through the window. She¡¯d kept it on all night. He¡¯d liked that, it had made the room sound like it was raining coins.


    He silently left the bed and began going through his morning routine. He exercised in his garden, joined this time by Jacopo. They chased one another and sparred. Jacopo always had the advantage of strength, but Dantes was more wily, particularly when they were both in human form. Jacopo was getting more dextrous, but Dantes had been scrapping with people larger than himself his entire life, and was shameless about using any tricks he had to his advantage.


    ¡°That woman you spent the night with. She is your new mate?¡± he asked as he swung a punch in human form at Dantes.


    Dantes dodged under it and shifted to ratform, slipping between Jacopo¡¯s legs as he did so.


    ¡°As much as any woman I spend a single night with is a mate.¡±


    Jacopo shifted into a pigeon and started striking at him with his beak.


    ¡°So many mates, but no young? I have spawned thousands.¡±


    Dantes shifted into batform and wrapped his leathery wings around him, causing them to roll along the mossy floor.


    ¡°The Vixen, both Vivacious and Viridian, as well as most other clubs, are enchanted to prevent pregnancy.¡±


    Jacopo changed back into human form to break free and Dantes became a roach and began crawling to the center of his back where he couldn¡¯t reach.


    ¡°You should want as many young as possible.¡±


    ¡°No, I really shouldn¡¯t.¡±


    Jacopo fell backward to try and crush him, and Dantes became himself again to place him in a headlock as they landed on the ground.


    ¡°The strong should have many young. You are strong. You should have many young.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want children unless I can take care of them.¡± he tightened his hold as Jacopo struggled a bit. ¡°Two-legs have a bit more active role in that than rats do.¡±


    Jacopo shifted into a pigeon, and quickly flapped his wings in Dantes¡¯s face, blinding him and creating distance at the same time.


    Dantes raised his wooden hand and had the fingers grow into vines that captured Jacopo in the air and then drew him back to him, changing his hand into a small cage.


    ¡°I should gnaw my arm off to have one of those.¡±


    Dantes laughed. ¡°You¡¯d probably be able to handle the pain of that better than I did.¡±


    They walked to the bathroom where a warm bath had already been drawn for both of them. After that they got dressed and ready, Dantes walked down to the bar for breakfast, with Jacopo sitting openly on his shoulder. Everyone was used to him by now, though only Vera and a select few others knew that he could become a man.


    Jayk and Vera were already at the table waiting for him as he brought his plate up from the bar.


    Good mornings were skipped as Jayk jumped straight to business. ¡°Argenta has called a meeting of the fingers and wants you there straight away.¡±


    Dantes stood right back up and grabbed a small piece of toast from Jayk¡¯s plate. ¡°Okay, you keep an eye on things here.¡± he looked at Vera. ¡°Auntie, I gave the woman sleeping in my bed the singing job.¡±


    She sighed heavily and held the bridge of her nose with two fingers. ¡°The one with the light purple eyes?¡±


    Dantes nodded shamelessly.


    ¡°Of course you did. I¡¯ll take care of it. I suppose even with all of your gifts you¡¯re still a man.¡±


    ¡°I surround myself with competent people like you two to help mitigate my weaknesses.¡±


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    They exchanged a weary glance with one another.


    Dantes dropped his smile, letting his tone get serious. ¡°If I don¡¯t signal or return within a few hours, you know what to do.¡±


    They nodded in confirmation, and Dantes climbed back upstairs to the roof where he and Jacopo shifted into pigeons and started to make their way to the Silken Sin.


    ¡­


    Dantes landed on a nearby rooftop and stretched his wings a bit before shifting back to himself. Jacopo landed on his shoulder as a pigeon before shifting back into a rat and climbing into one of the many hidden pockets Dantes had sewn into all of his coats. He leapt down, landing without a sound and walked toward the Silken Sin.


    There were more than double the usual guards not including those who were pretending to be customers. Dantes ignored them, and was waved right through the front door where two topless hostesses were waiting to take him the rest of the way. He didn¡¯t spare them more than one appreciative glance as they guided him to the Fingers meeting room. As it was throughout the rest of the building, there was increased security there as well, but they waved him through as well.


    In the middle of the room, a man had been bound and tied to the rafters, a dirty rag shoved into his mouth to gag him. He was covered in cuts and bruises, his body limp, though Dantes could tell he was still breathing.


    Past him, sat the fingers. Diamond was wearing a low-cut black dress with makeup on her face that made it look as if she¡¯d been shedding black tears, her lustrous dwarven hair wrapped in a kind of black mourning weave. Drake¡¯s massive form loomed darkly next to her, the knuckles of his massive hands bruised, indicating he¡¯d had a hand in the state of the man tied up in the center of the room. Argenta wore black, though Dantes didn¡¯t think it was due to her mourning Niklas or even pretending to. He¡¯d never seen her in any other color. Fritz was wearing a gaudy outfit of silk that made him look like a foreign prince, and his eyes were half lidded as always, though Dantes knew that even high he was sharper than most people would be cold sober.


    Dantes nodded at them as he entered, then gestured to the strung up man.


    ¡°I thought those rumors about you all doing human sacrifice were a joke?¡±


    No one laughed.


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing this has something to do with Niklas¡¯s death?:


    Argenta nodded. ¡°That¡¯s right. This was one of his lieutenants. Apparently, Niklas had his way with the man¡¯s wife and he began plotting to kill him and take over the operation.¡±


    Dantes feigned a surprised look. He was the one who¡¯d told her about that. It was easy to see what was happening in an organization when you had control over the rats in the walls. Of course, the lieutenant had been far too busy continuously searching for the bottom of any bottle of booze he could find to have any actual ambitions on Niklas¡¯s position.


    Dantes frowned. ¡°Really? This guy managed to take him out?¡±


    ¡°He used poison. A coward''s weapon,¡± said Drake, flexing his hands as he spoke.


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°A man like Niklas deserved to go out better than that.¡±


    ¡°He shouldn¡¯t have gone out at all,¡± said Diamond. ¡°We¡¯re meant to be invincible. I offered so many times to sell him enchantments or items that could protect him. Now thanks to his thrift we all look vulnerable.¡±


    Fritz took a small tablet off the table in front of him, and swallowed it, washing it down with a gulp of wine that may have made an orc stumble, but didn¡¯t cause any reaction at all in the gnome. ¡°We need to figure out how to shore up the supply he brought in as well. It was already a problem with that plague or whatever that¡¯s eating up the routes.¡±


    Argenta nodded and glanced sideways at Dantes, the single white streak in her hair catching the light in such a way that it almost seemed to be glowing. ¡°Those are the reasons I called Dantes here.¡± She stood up, and the others went silent to put all of their attention on her. ¡°We look vulnerable with one of our own dead. Niklas was the youngest of us, but we¡¯d been working together for more than a decade. If we leave a vacuum for too long, it may make the guard think we are weak and push for higher payment, or it could make the smaller gangs cause unrest for us. We had already discussed making him one of us. I think that now is the time.¡±


    Drake laughed and shook his head. ¡°This whelp? He commands almost no muscle.¡±


    Diamond nodded. ¡°Filling the void left by Niklas too quickly shows almost as much weakness as his death does.¡±


    ¡°I like the idea,¡± countered Fritz, causing Diamond and Drake to raise their eyebrows. ¡°He consolidated Mondego¡¯s operation, re-established connections with all of the smugglers, and paid us all back with no issues. We need someone who can take hold of Niklas¡¯s operations quickly. I could do it, but that would require sobriety, and I don¡¯t want that.¡±


    ¡°I would obviously accept it if it was offered. Seems almost as strange for the Fingers to have only four members as it would for there to be six of them. Unless they were always meant to be Kobold¡¯s fingers.¡±


    That time he got a mild chuckle from Drake and Fritz.


    ¡°Dantes has paid all of his debts to us, and met all of the criteria we¡¯ve laid out for him, unlike Mondego. I need a consensus.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m for it,¡± said Fritz.


    Diamond took one of the ringlets of her hair that was protruding from her veil and twisted it a bit looking Dantes over. ¡°Well, at least he¡¯s more to look at than Niklas was. He was far too skinny.¡±


    Drake looked argumentative for a moment, but glanced at Argenta, who didn¡¯t even look at him, and shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m for it.¡±


    Argenta nodded. ¡°It¡¯s settled then.¡± She gestured to Diamond who twisted her hand causing a small blue crystal to appear in it. She handed it to Argenta.


    The crystal glowed, and Dantes could feel his fingertips start to tingle.


    ¡°There¡¯s only one thing that must be done for you to be initiated into the Fingers.¡±


    ¡°If it¡¯s one of those where you take turns beating me, I¡¯d very much like to skip Drake¡¯s round.¡±


    She smiled a bit. ¡°No. This crystal will capture with perfect clarity your next several actions. I want you to kill that man while it is active.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 9: Shes a Legend

    Dantes looked at the crystal sitting in Argenta¡¯s palm, pulsing with energy as it recorded everything he did. It was a clever initiation. The guard could be bribed, manipulated, or avoided relatively easily once you reached a certain level of criminal success within Rendhold. There were only a few things that could bring them knocking on your doors once you reached that level. Fucking with the guard itself, pissing off the wrong members of the nobility, and verifiable murder. That last one was difficult, as verifying anything in Rendhold was no easy thing, much less a knifing in a dark alley. A recording of the murder though, meant that Argenta and the other Fingers could sick the guard on him at any time.


    "By doing this you agree not to harm any of the rest of us directly or indirectly, and you will work with us and our operations in good faith."


    He walked over to the bound man, who was still unconscious, which was a relief. It was much easier to slit a throat cleanly when the person wasn¡¯t struggling. Dantes pulled a long thin dagger from his sleeves, jammed it into the side of the hanged man¡¯s throat, and quickly jerked it to the side. Warm blood spilled across the floor, but Dantes managed to avoid spilling a single drop on himself. He pulled the gag from the man¡¯s mouth and used it to clean his knife as he walked back to stand in front of his new peers. He could feel some kind of energy hit him, reminding him a bit of what he''d felt when he''d freed Syn from Mariska''s pact, and he looked again at the crystal. It was a ruse, at least partially, that crystal could seal a pact somehow. Unfortunately, such magics didn''t work on him thanks to his status as a two-name no-name, and even then the pact wording would be easy enough to get around. He didn''t change his expression, they didn''t need to know he knew, and he wasn''t sure if all of them knew either. Argenta was the one actually holding the crystal after all.


    ¡°Satisfied?¡± he asked with a smile as he slid the knife back into his sleeve.


    Argenta gave him a rare smile. ¡°Very.¡±


    Drake nodded. ¡°A clean kill. A bit boring, but well done.¡±


    ¡°Can we wrap this up?¡± slurred Fritz.


    Argenta sat back down, placing the crystal she¡¯d held into her pocket. ¡°The rest of you may go. I¡¯d like to have a chat with our newest member about what is expected of him.¡±


    The other Fingers made their way out, ignoring the corpse that now hung from the center of the room. Diamond winked at Dantes as she passed, Fritz ignored him, and Drake gave him a nod hinting at the barest amount of respect.


    Once the rest of the room had cleared out, Dantes moved toward the table, taking the seat two from Argenta¡¯s right, where Niklas had been sitting just one meeting ago. He gestured to the dead man in the center of the room.


    ¡°Good choice. I think even other Gatemen might wonder if he actually did it.¡±


    She leaned forward. ¡°Had you considered killing him before your meeting? Doing so after made all of this more difficult than it needed to be,¡± she spoke calmly, but Dantes could hear the slight changes in her voice and see the microexpressions she was making well enough to know she was irritated.


    ¡°I wanted to see if he¡¯d say anything about Godfrey. I thought confronting him directly might cause him to slip.¡±


    ¡°And?¡±


    ¡°No luck. I¡¯m certain that he was involved with Godfrey somehow, as were several of his men, but they somehow managed to avoid the majority of my eyes.¡±


    She leaned forward in her chair, folding her hands into a pyramid under her chin.


    ¡°Things are getting more precarious. Godfrey¡¯s manipulations have made everything more vulnerable. The Lords and their councils vote to seize Frasheid and Viscent ships. They already didn¡¯t like us, but now they¡¯re sending fewer and fewer merchants every day. He works to implement taxes against the mercenary companies and the adventurer¡¯s guild. What measures could help prevent the spread of the disease in the country from spreading to us, he¡¯s fighting through his proxies. I have worked to strengthen the Guard, at least that portion of it focused on external threats, and mitigate the damage he¡¯s doing, but the more he touches the more vulnerable we become. If we have to seal the city because of the sickness that¡¯s spreading nearby, or if the Academy were to fail us.¡± She shook her head. ¡°The jackals will come for us, their tongues dancing across sharp teeth.¡±


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    Dantes listened carefully as she spoke. The full extent of what Godfrey was doing had been invisible to him. He was focused only on his connection to his former gang, but the Priest of Greed¡¯s roots were much deeper than he thought. Argenta had known though. She¡¯d been watching him for a long time.


    ¡°I wanted you among the Fingers because you were competent, powerful, and violent. I also did it with the expectation that you would be able to help me deal with him.¡±


    ¡°We need to kill him. Trying to stop him on the fringes like this will only slow him down. Loan me that demon of yours and let¡¯s rip his head off and toss it down the steps of the temple of many gods.¡±


    ¡°I have already made attempts on his life. Some I was even certain had succeeded. If we could tie him down to one location, or had a heads up on any of his movements I think we could manage it together. Until then we have to do what we can.¡±


    Dantes sighed. His own efforts to track Godfrey, even with all of his capability in that regard, had come up short as well. He¡¯d had to turn almost the entirety of his focus to just tracking his men. Those that he¡¯d captured and interrogated had either known nothing, or refused to talk, even after he¡¯d employed very creative methods to learn what they might know.


    ¡°He still pretends that I¡¯m his ally, and I know he has interactions with the other Fingers, though the depth of them I am still unable to determine. If all of us Fingers openly went to war it would tear the city apart at its foundations. Godfrey knows that, relies on it. Everything he does is a careful balancing act. We just need to jostle him enough to catch him off guard and move things out of his hands.¡±


    ¡°Now that I¡¯m openly in the Fingers I¡¯ll move more openly. I can draw him into making a move. Particularly once I consolidate the Gatemen¡¯s operation.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re confident you can manage that quickly?¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve been planning for it since I realized Niklas was attempting to overcharge me.¡±


    ¡°He was always our weakest link. I kept him that way. The enemy will always come for the weakest member first, and Niklas was never going to be much of a loss. Are you familiar with how dwarves keep small beetles with them when they explore new excavations? So they can detect noxious gasses that may kill them otherwise?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ve avoided ever having to care about mining of any kind.¡±


    ¡°Well, that concept is the reason I had him join the Fingers.¡±


    Dantes nodded. Niklas had always been the odd man out of the group. He was certainly capable, but while there was an ocean between the average street thug and him, there was a long river to go before you¡¯d reach the heights of the rest of the Fingers. Dantes had no intention of letting there be such a large gap between them and himself.


    Argenta held the crystal in her hand that she¡¯d recorded his recent murder with. She tossed it into the air and it was caught by a black smoky hand before disappearing.


    ¡°Keep following Godfrey. We need to put him down. This is my city, not his.¡±


    Dantes nodded, pushing himself off from the table. ¡°I¡¯ll keep sending whatever information I dig up your way.¡±


    With that, he walked out of the club, ignoring the solicitations of the Sin¡¯s staff as he walked out into the Rendhold streets. He took a deep breath, sensing the tendrils of life that were connected to him from all across the city. Rendhold was Argenta¡¯s, that was true, but only for now.


    Jacopo wiggled his way out from Dantes¡¯s jacket as he started walking back toward Midtown.


    ¡°Do you trust this woman? This Argenta?¡± asked Jacopo.


    ¡°As much as she trusts me, which is to say I trust that we both want Godfrey gone, but after that¡¯s taken care of it¡¯s up in the air. Not that it matters much. She has a pet demon on a leash, until I have a way to beat it, or keep her from using it, I can¡¯t make a move anyway.¡± he paused. ¡°Also, I like the woman. I respect her, she¡¯s a legend. No one has risen as far as she has. I¡¯d like to find a way around the obvious answers to what could happen after Godfrey and what he represents is taken care of.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm. Is this one of those two-leg situations where seduction is possible.¡±


    Dantes laughed. ¡°Most women are only attracted to me because I represent money and power. She has more than me of both. I don¡¯t think that would be a great tactic. I can see Vera¡¯s lessons are sinking in though.¡±


    ¡°Those lessons are interesting, it¡¯s the ones involving eating with something other than your hands that I dislike.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough.¡±


    Dantes and Jacopo changed into pigeons, and flew into the sky, heading back to the club.

 Book 3 Ch 10: Quarter Dead

    Dantes landed back at the club by early afternoon. Jacopo chose to keep flying for a while, diving toward a man walking by with a bit of bread and ripping a chunk off of it before he continued to fly away. Dantes walked down from the roof and into his mossy audience chamber. He took a few moments to check on the status of his gardens, to feel the life flowing from him and make minor adjustments he felt he needed. He¡¯d need to make a personal trip to his largest garden soon.


    He was sitting on his living throne when Jayk appeared at the door.


    ¡°How did you know I was back?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t, I¡¯ve just been checking every hour or so.¡±


    Dantes opened his eyes. ¡°The meeting went well. You¡¯re looking at the newest member of the Fingers.¡±


    Jayk smiled. ¡°Congratulations.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll start making the moves to take over the Gatemen¡¯s territory.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Recruit as few of the Gatemen themselves as you can. I want you to focus on recruiting kobolds, try to find a standout that would work well for us there.¡±


    ¡°Kobolds?¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°The Gatemen have always been run by the people mostly within the gates. Humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes. Focus on bringing in halflings and Kobolds as the main muscle for it. We already know how to work things within Rendhold¡¯s gates, but they¡¯d have good insights for what happens outside of them. Also, I like Kobolds. They¡¯re good people to work with.¡±


    Jayk nodded. ¡°I might have some contacts that escaped the Pit who could work.¡±


    ¡°What have I missed since I¡¯ve been gone?¡±


    ¡°More murders in Uptown. This time they seem to have been targeting the guards.


    ¡°The guards themselves?¡± Dantes asked.


    ¡°Guards that were mages as well.¡±


    Dantes stroked his chin, some of the murders would shift his theories away from Syn, then before he knew it there''d be more that indicated her again. He wished she''d come to him, he found himself missing her a bit. ¡°Well, let¡¯s just push those weapon sales to Uptown even harder then. No reason not to make some gold off of it.¡±


    Jayk nodded, then frowned. ¡°There was one more thing.¡±


    ¡°Go ahead.¡±


    ¡°A man claiming to be your father is at the bar.¡±


    Up until this point Dantes had been wearing an expression of amusement and contentment, but the moment his father was mentioned all of that drained from his face as he clenched his jaw.


    ¡°What¡¯s he look like?¡±


    ¡°Bit short for a half orc, broad, tattoos everywhere¡­gold eyes.¡±


    Dantes put his face in his hands.


    ¡°Has he asked to see me?¡±


    ¡°He has.¡±


    ¡°Did he convince the bar to let him drink for free?¡±


    ¡°He has.¡±


    ¡°Guessing Zilly isn¡¯t working right now?¡±


    Jayk nodded and Dantes sighed. If she¡¯d been there she would have made him pay every copper he owed after every drink.


    ¡°Auntie must not be here either or he¡¯d be dead¡­¡± he muttered to himself.


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    ¡°She¡¯s meeting some fish suppliers on the docks.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Bring him up here. Bring Zak as well.¡±


    ¡°You sure?¡±


    Dantes nodded, realizing that how much he didn¡¯t want him to actually bring his father up had leaked out in his voice.


    Jayk walked out and returned a few minutes later with Zak and a half-orc man in tow.


    The man was, as Jayk had said, short for a half orc. His skin was a darker gray than Dantes¡¯s own making the black tattoos across his skin barely visible even in daylight. His tusks weren¡¯t capped, and his hair was dirty and thick, filled with dreads made by neglect rather than intention. Much of that hair was gray now, though he was barely twenty years older than Dantes. He looked much like any other orcish sailor that Dantes would¡¯ve encountered on the docks, and in a crowd he may not have recognized him, but for his eyes the color of golden coins, matching Dantes¡¯s own.


    ¡°Eddie!¡± he said as he took a few steps toward him.


    ¡°Louis,¡± he responded, holding out a hand to stop him from approaching.


    Louis quickly put his heavily calloused hands away. ¡°It¡¯s good to see you Ed,¡± he said with a wide smile.


    ¡°How long¡¯s it been?¡± asked Dantes. ¡°Seven? Eight years?¡±


    ¡°Not sure. Time moves a bit differently on the seas.¡±


    A familiar excuse. One he remembered hearing often when he¡¯d asked why he hadn¡¯t seen him for so long as a child. As an adult he¡¯d often thought that the damage his father had done to him would¡¯ve been much reduced if he¡¯d never shown up at all rather than appearing infrequently, pretending to care, and then leaving for another half a year or more.


    ¡°I was sorry to hear about your mother. She was a lovely woman.¡±


    Dantes gripped the wood of his chair so tightly he could hear it complaining to him. He loosened his grip.


    ¡°Yes. She was.¡±


    His father gave a solemn nod, as if he actually cared, then looked around. ¡°I uh, can¡¯t help but see how well you¡¯ve done for yourself.¡±


    Dantes raised an eyebrow. Their surroundings were primarily moss, vines, flowers and a few bushes, but he took his meaning, and knew where it was leading.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been lucky,¡± he said, with honesty.


    ¡°Well, maybe all the family¡¯s luck went to you.¡±


    ¡°Been going through some hard times, Louis?¡±


    He shook his head sadly. ¡°Well, you know, it gets harder and harder to work on ships these days. I¡¯m not as young as I used to be. Though don¡¯t tell that to any of those pretty young things downstairs,¡± he winked. ¡°My last commission just finished, and I thought, maybe, you could help me out a bit. I have a little bit saved, but not much. I just thought we could make up a bit for lost time, eh?¡±


    Dantes bit back fifteen different cutting remarks that leapt to the tip of his tongue and nodded.


    ¡°Jayk, take him back down to the bar for another drink. Let me talk to Zak about his arrangements from here on.¡±


    Louis smiled. ¡°Thank you son.¡±


    Jayk led him out of the room and Zak approached his throne.


    ¡°Take him a few blocks away and have him beaten and thrown in a gutter somewhere.¡± He pulled a silver coin from his coat. ¡°Let him have this.¡±


    ¡°How close to death should I leave him? Half?¡±


    ¡°Quarter dead, don¡¯t break anything. I just don¡¯t want him coming here again.¡±


    Zak nodded, not questioning the request any more as Jayson would¡¯ve done aloud or Jayk might have silently, and walked out the door.


    Dantes sat there simmering for a few minutes. Eight years. He¡¯d not seen his father in eight years and the first thing the man does is ask for a free ride. Dantes was certain that if he hadn¡¯t been doing so well for himself then he would¡¯ve never seen him again. He didn¡¯t show up when his mother had died, even though he knew that the Jacopo had been docked in Rendhold at the time. As a child he¡¯d idolized his absentee father, as a teenager he¡¯d accepted his imperfections, but now he no longer had any sympathy or patience for the man.


    He gathered himself, focusing on all of the operations he was monitoring for some time, working the mundane mental tasks he set for himself everyday until he¡¯d calmed down. He stood up and walked down to the bar. His father was gone, and it had been cleared out.


    He looked at Zilly, who was in the middle of removing her coat.¡°Something thick, dark, and strong once you¡¯ve settled in.¡±


    She reached down below the bar in front of him and pulled out an already poured glass which she placed in front of him.


    Dantes nodded at her gratefully. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    He took a long sip, letting the warmth of it spread throughout him. Once the heat of it had settled in his stomach he looked around the bar. It was moderately busy. Not as busy as it would be later in the evening, but most of the tables were full, the bar was busy, and the card tables rung with the sounds of coins being thrown onto them. There were a few bored looking whores, but he knew they¡¯d be busy by the time the sun went down. If they weren¡¯t then by the end of the day he¡¯d do his best to help them out¡­ unless Sevryn wasn¡¯t feeling too tired after performing.


    He coughed a bit and took another sip of his drink, ruminating on the possibilities of the evening a bit before turning his mind back toward the practical. He was checking the status of the Gatemen through the eyes of a rat in their market when he started to feel a tingling in his fingertips. He looked around, trying to find the source of whatever magic was setting him off, but he realized he didn¡¯t see anything. Though he did notice that everyone else was looking around as well. The club had an enchantment that helped people notice magical cheating at the gambling tables, but he wasn¡¯t detecting anything in that particular direction. In fact, it almost seemed like the magic was all around him.


    The tingling kept building in his fingertips, until they started to feel like they were burning.

 Book 3 Ch 11: Magic, I Assume

    Dantes gritted his teeth as his fingers curled and tightened involuntarily from the growing pain. He stumbled off the bar stool and fell backwards onto a table. Looking at his hands he could see no actual damage, but the sensation made it feel as if his skin was sloughing off. The rest of the bar wasn¡¯t faring much better. Jayk was vomiting as he clutched his nose, Zilly was clutching her eyes as she writhed on the bar, and Dantes saw a patron ripping at his own ears with clawed hands.


    Dantes tried to focus his mind outside the sensation, he somehow pushed it down long enough to bring himself back to his feet. He stumbled to the front door, stepping over the bouncer clutching his genitals, and pushed his way outside with his shoulder, unable to bring himself to push his way out with his hands.


    He¡¯d initially thought it had been some kind of attack on the Viridian Vixen itself, but the view from the street immediately dissuaded him of that notion. He saw a guard yelling for help as he slammed his head into a nearby wall, a woman running full speed down the street screaming, and even a young orc boy doing his damnedest to yank out one of his tusks.


    Then, just as suddenly as the burning sensation in his fingers had started, it began to fade. He stared at his fingers, his hands shaking from the memory of the pain, and slowly forced them to open and close until they relaxed enough to be usable again. He walked over to the young orc boy, whose eyes widened as he saw him.


    Dantes grabbed him by the chin and checked on his tusk. He focused until he could see that level of life that was smaller than the eye could perceive, and willed some energy into him to heal it a bit.


    ¡°Can you make it home?¡±


    ¡°Y...yeah.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯re you waiting for then?¡± Dantes stood and walked over to the guard. There was a lot of blood on his face, but he recognized him as someone his men bribed regularly. He hauled the man to his feet.


    ¡°Go into the club. We¡¯ll clean this and bandage you up.¡±


    The man nodded, too wounded to refuse the aid.


    Dantes repeated this for anyone directly in front of the club, then headed back inside of it. His people, without his prompting, had already worked to make sure that everyone inside was taken care of, starting with their own people and the highest paying customers of course. Dantes moved over to Jayk who was holding a pint of beer directly under his nose inhaling the smell deeply.


    ¡°Did you know that roses can smell so strongly that they make you vomit?¡± asked Jayk.


    ¡°Can¡¯t say that I did.¡±


    ¡°Now you do.¡±


    Dantes chuckled a bit. ¡°Listen, I¡¯m going to figure out what just happened, but while I do, you should signal to any of our men that were waiting on the right time to do a job, that now is the right time. I also need Zak to take our boys to go and check on all of the business under us. Got it?¡±


    Jayk nodded his head, and pushed himself to his feet.


    Dantes walked up the stairs and to his audience chamber garden. He sat on his his tree throne and closed his eyes, extending his will.


    The first thing he noticed was that Jacopo was using the chaos to steal from a bakery. Dantes shot him some kudos before moving on.


    He sent out pigeons, rats, and roaches across the city. It was chaos. Carts and wagons had crashed as their riders had fits. Dozens of men and women lay on the ground bleeding or screaming. The guard was trying to restore order, but their own men weren¡¯t in a much better state than anyone else. Even in Uptown, it was chaos, with ripped silk tunics, bleeding nobles, and magisters so tangled in their robes they¡¯d broken ribs.


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    No one knew yet what had happened, they were too focused on reacting to the immediacy of it. It was only when a young dove reached the Academy towers that he realized the source of it.


    A solid wall of blackness completely covered the towers. It wasn¡¯t like shadow, or mist, it was just pure and absolute blackness. Dantes had the bird fly up and see if it could reach the top of it, but it could not. He then had the bird circle it, along with a few others, but found no gap in the blackness. Finally, he flew the dove into it, but it immediately emerged on the opposite side of the blackness, as if it had flown across all of the towers in an instant. Even through the dove Dantes could feel his fingers tingling, their connection causing him to feel that sensation of magic.


    He freed the dove from his control and stood up. The Academy had been sealed somehow. He ran through a quick mental check and found that Felix wasn¡¯t in the gambling hall, or anywhere in the city. That meant that his reliable pet mage had been sealed within the Academy as well. It didn¡¯t take a lot of mental effort to determine who would be behind it. Merle, Orebus, Wane, and all the other Un-Collared. This had to be their work, the event they¡¯d been planning since they¡¯d escaped the Pit and he¡¯d returned their magic to them.


    He wasn¡¯t sure what the end result would be, so he focused on the immediate issues. He¡¯d need to round up any loose mages he could for his own purposes. He could start with Dario, he wasn¡¯t a full mage, but the Academy wouldn¡¯t be around to enforce its rules anyway. Diamond and her small crew just became some of the most important people in the city by nature of being some of the only mages remaining. He¡¯d need to limit the use of his keys and hammers since the supply would no longer be coming from Felix. Luckily, thanks to Felix¡¯s constant debt, Dantes had built up a very healthy supply of both objects. It would also be smart to pay a visit to Lydia¡¯s Emporium before it got cleared out.


    He paced his garden while he came up with this plan, his hands reaching out and touching the various plants around him as he did so. They reached to meet his touch.


    His fingers began to tingle again, and he prepared himself for another round of pain, when very suddenly, the air in the room all seemed to be sucked into the center of it, then there was a massive popping sound and air pushed Dantes and all of the plants backward for a moment.


    Wane and Felix were standing in the center of the garden. Wane was holding the older man up by the shoulders when he appeared, but very swiftly they both collapsed into a heap. Dantes jumped to them, and rolled them both onto their back as he focused himself on their smallest components and began channeling the energy from around the city to strengthen them. Felix had burns all over his left leg and his left arm was broken. Wane had a sharp cut up his face and across his left eye, several broken ribs, and a burnmark in the shape of a hand on his chest. Whatever made it had actually burned through his shirt before hitting his skin.


    He still wasn¡¯t as good at treating major injuries for others as he was for himself. He could help with minor issues like the Orc child''s bleeding gums around his tusk, but for this much he had to push a lot of energy to make anything happen. The purity of the life that he channeled to them seemed to lessen the more he pushed outward. He worked on them until their breathing seemed to steady and then he stood up, a little unsteady from the effort of healing them.


    He left his audience chamber and found Jayk giving orders to a few men who were quickly scampering away to handle whatever tasks he¡¯d given them. Dantes was grateful he could delegate so much of the work to him, not that he didn¡¯t also check on it constantly.


    ¡°Jayk, I need you to send for Hema and Clay. Wane and Felix are injured and in my garden.¡±


    Jayk stood still for a moment as he adjusted to that information. He called over one of the bouncers and gave him the order before returning to Dantes.


    ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°Magic, I assume."


    Jayk¡¯s expression flattened. ¡°Ah. They¡¯re hurt?¡±


    Dantes nodded, gesturing for him to follow him. Once they were in the audience chamber Jayk leaned down to look at them, grimacing at their wounds.


    ¡°So, whatever that was. It had something to do with the Academy?¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°The whole place is wrapped in some kind of dark field. I can¡¯t access it, and I would guess that no one in it can leave.¡±


    Jayk rubbed his chin. ¡°That means that magic is about to be at an even higher premium than before.¡±


    ¡°That was the same conclusion I came to. We¡¯re probably already spread thin, but I want you to do everything you can to take advantage of that.¡±


    ¡°Got it, I already have a few ideas. I¡¯ll talk to Vera about clearing a room for those two, and get some of the boys to get something to carry them.¡±


    Dantes nodded, and Jayk left the audience chamber.


    Dantes clenched his jaw. They could take advantage of this, but now there was one less deterrent keeping Rendhold safe.

 Book 3 Ch 12: Where the **** am I?

    Dantes sipped water rather than wine as he sat in his living throne monitoring what was happening across the city since the Academy had been sealed. The chaos had largely ended, and now that the news had spread every faction represented in the city was doing its best to consolidate what they had, or take advantage of the situation. The city was dark that night. Mage students who had only just started heading out to light the streets had become a hot commodity and were whisked away to Uptown, where they couldn''t do their usual job. Dantes had sent his men to make sure that those that paid up to him were protected even in the dark. He¡¯d ignored the requests for protection from those that hadn¡¯t paid up in the past. Maybe after a night in the blackness, they¡¯d see that there was only one choice to make.


    Clay and his sister Hema had finished ministering to Wane and Felix. They¡¯d recover, though they¡¯d likely need to see a temple priest to avoid some bad scarring. Dantes was grateful for that. They would be very valuable now that the Academy was sealed, and they were also likely the only two people who actually knew what had happened.


    Dantes looked through the glass ceiling at the full moon above him, letting the light of it suffuse him. The Moon was the Mother¡¯s first daughter, so it made a certain sense that druids would receive a boon when she shone so brightly. He could feel a kind of pull in his arm that still held the leaf tattoos. It had been there the last full moon, and he¡¯d been able to ignore it. This time it was much stronger.


    He¡¯d need to attend the druid conclave this time. There was no avoiding it. There wasn¡¯t much he could do at this point anyway. He¡¯d given his orders, his men were moving, Jayk was managing things well. Booze was flowing in the club, whores finding marks with ease, deals were happening in dust filled rooms. Everything was as it should be. Besides which, he had questions that he needed answered. Could he do anything about the disease that was starting to spread? Is there some other way to heal people that he hadn''t discovered yet? They may not have direct answers for him, that wasn''t their way, but hints or ideas could guide him on the right path.


    One positive was that the leaf representing Murk had been irritated and burning for more than a week, so there was a good chance he¡¯d be able to avoid seeing him, or at least see him at his worst. They had a common enemy in Serpica, but aside from that there weren¡¯t any good feelings between them.


    Dantes stood with a sigh, Jacopo leapt onto his back and they made their way to the roof. Once there they shifted into bats and made their way toward the mangled tree in the abandoned square. In spite of its withered appearance, Dantes could still feel a powerful lifeforce pulsing at the center of it. He placed his wooden hand against it. A hand forged from the branch that the tree had gifted him. He could feel a kind of connection from his hand to it, but when he tried to solidify it or draw the tree into the network of life in the rest of the city, his connection grew hazy and unfocused as his sense of self began to blur. It was the same feeling as when he tree-walked to the conclaves. He¡¯d been trying to connect all of the different life in the city to the gardens and small hideaways of life that he¡¯d already created and connected himself, but this sensation kept him from being able to do it each time. He¡¯d only been able to connect to and draw from the plant life that he¡¯d had a hand in creating. If he could just connect to those patches of life that already existed, then his connection to the city would grow exponentially.


    He took a deep breath. It was another problem that he¡¯d need to ask his fellow druids about. Their own interpretations of their abilities were very different from his own, but sometimes they provided insight that he was able to put toward his own abilities.


    He and Jacopo braced themselves, and then they pushed themselves into the tree. Dantes could feel his consciousness fade as it was spread across the wide network of life that spanned the continent. His sense of self became more and more diffuse until he located a tree in the Viridian Expanse and began moving what was left of his self toward it. At the last moment, he felt a powerful pull, and found himself diverted away from the tree he¡¯d targeted and instead he found his sense of self rapidly pulled back together and launched towards a much closer tree.


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    He and Jacopo found themselves thrown out of a tall tree in a rocky wood and rolling downhill all while readjusting to their sudden return to full consciousness.


    Dantes struggled to pull himself to his feet and looked around.


    ¡°Where the fuck am I?¡±


    ¡­


    Dantes moved back to the tree and placed his hands on it. He and Jacopo both extended their will into it and tried to push themselves into it as they had done in the past, but there was no give. He cursed under his breath and took a deep breath, looking around and extending his perception as he did so.


    He was in a field filled with large rocks, tall grass, and trees all scattered around. It was cool, but not much cooler than Rendhold had been when he¡¯d left. He could sense wildlife. Deer, insects, hawks, hares, but not many rats or roaches. They were there, but they resisted his calls a bit. He could force it, but he decided to save what resources he had until he needed them. As he extended his will, he felt a pull on his arm. He looked at it to see that the leaf that represented Murk was glowing slightly. Had he somehow called for help strongly enough that he¡¯d pulled Dantes toward him? Or had it been something else?


    ¡°I don¡¯t like this,¡± said Jacopo sniffing at the air. He seemed uncomfortable at their new surroundings. Dantes wasn¡¯t feeling much better.


    ¡°Me neither, but it seems like our choices are to follow the pull to see if Murk needs help, or to try and get back to Rendhold,¡± Dantes focused himself for a moment, letting that keen sense of direction that he¡¯d gained when he¡¯d first changed into a pigeon tell him how far he was from home. He frowned. ¡°It would take more than a week. Even if we flew the entire time.¡±


    Jacopo twitched his whiskers in annoyance and shifted into a pigeon.


    Dantes did the same, and they both took to the sky, following the pull they were both feeling. It felt strange, looking down at a dark and craggy forest as they flew rather than rows of buildings, seeing only the signs of animals and maybe a few small hunting trails rather than the people milling about the streets. Flying was different as well. Usually they were able to catch the wind that whistled between buildings, but in the sky above the winds they found themselves battered by a more consistent wind that seemed to be coming from between some mountains in the distance. There was also the wealth of life that surrounded them. It wasn¡¯t as well cultivated and deeply rooted as the Viridian Expanse, but it was much more than there was in Rendhold. He and Jacopo had to send away swooping hawks and other predators more than a dozen times as they flew, sending out the impression of fear to discourage their attempts.


    He could also feel the impressions of Murk everywhere. A small patch of tree that was thicker than others to shelter a series of burrows. A small trail cut by wolfprints that let small animals make their way quickly from one area to another, with only the cost of possibly running into what made the path. Murk¡¯s touches were subtle, which surprised Dantes given his gruff demeanor. It made a kind of sense though. Their goals were very different. Dantes needed to try to create and cultivate a large amount of life that could live in a city. That meant he could simply focus on creating more. Murk on the other hand, had to work with a large swath of forest that already had life within it. He needed to improve it, without leaving too much of a mark.


    Jacopo cooed, and gestured his neck a small plume of smoke rising in the direction that they were being pulled. They closed in on it, landing in a nearby tree. What they saw was a camp. There were maybe two dozen men and women in it, with rough tents, a few small fires, and a small wooden fence surrounding it. There was maybe twenty feet of open ground between the camp and the treeline. Dantes and Jacopo left the tree to fly closer. The men and women were wearing rough clothing, and had bows, spears, or simple clubs. Toward the center, in front of the largest fire, sat resting on a large stump was a broad man with patchy hair. Next to him was a wolf in a wooden cage that had two men holding spears next to it. In the hand of the man sitting on the stump was a leash, and at the end of that leash on the opposite side of the cage, sat Murk.

 Book 3 Ch 13: Blood Covered Muzzle

    It wasn¡¯t difficult to see what had happened. A group in the woods that looked so rough, he didn¡¯t have any personal experience with their like, but he could tell that they were of a kind with him. Bandits though, rather than thieves. A distinction that was only to indicate that one group struck from shadows in the woods, and another from shadows in an alley. Same god as far as he knew, though he had a feeling the god of thieves favored those of Dantes¡¯s ilk more, it was in the name after all. From what he could tell from above, the bandits had somehow captured Murk¡¯s partner, the she-wolf they¡¯d always seen him with, and were using threats to her life to control him.


    The bandit camp was well kept, and the men and women in it seemed to be full and content. That meant that they¡¯d been at least moderately successful in leveraging Murk for their uses. Dantes imagined that having any travelers surrounded by packs of wolves as they robbed them made things much easier.


    Dantes sent out his senses across the woods, and very quickly located nearly twenty large cousins of Murk''s prowling the forest nearby. He could feel frustration and annoyance emanating from them, but they didn¡¯t take kindly to his attention so he withdrew it. As he did so, he could feel Murk¡¯s attention briefly cross his own.


    Murk sat up a bit more alertly and looked directly at the sky where Dantes and Jacopo were circling. He didn¡¯t make any moves, but Dantes could feel a kind of pleading from him. He assumed that hurt his pride a bit.


    Dantes clenched his beak. Murk was an asshole, and he didn¡¯t give much of a shit about what might happen to him. He even knew that Murk had been aware of when he¡¯d lost his hand and chosen not to come and help. He did not appreciate that his choices in the matter had been so limited. Still, he couldn¡¯t always have complete agency over everything he did. The mortal plane wasn¡¯t so fair as that, and with the game the gods seemed to playing with his life and everyone else''s in the background, maybe there was no such thing.


    He did a headcount of the bandits and noted at least twenty seven of them that were outside, and maybe ten more scattered throughout the tents and other ramshackle structures. He could probably take them on directly, but it would be risky so far from the terrain he was used to and without the same resources to call on. It would make more sense to play things cautiously.


    He sent Jacopo the details of his plan, and they separated, with Jacopo landing within the camp and assuming his usual form to start sneaking his way toward Murk¡¯s she-wolf companion.


    Dantes landed in the darkest corner of the makeshift fence that they¡¯d created, and shifted into himself as well. He pulled Tel¡¯s finger from his jacket, smiling a bit as he thought of how amused Tel might have been about starting a fire in a bandit camp. He sent his will through the finger and a small flame appeared at its tip. Dantes ran the finger around the fence until it started to catch. Once that was done he shifted into rat form and started a fire at the edge of a small tent, and then a third one near a pile of wood that was under a tarp. All three fires were in the same corner of the camp, and they quickly started to spread. Dantes shifted back into a pigeon and landed on top of a tent to watch what happened next.


    It took a good amount of time for the bandits to realize what was happening. They may have thought the smoke came from their other fires, or they were simply not very attentive. By the time the first of them had realized what was happening, that entire edge of their camp was ablaze.


    A number of them began to move toward the flames, shoveling dirt onto it, or getting what water they could to try and douse it. Their leader yanked Murk''s collar, making the wildman grimace.


    ¡°Do something!?¡± he yelled at him.


    ¡°What? You want me to wolf the fire to death?¡±


    The man cursed and handed the leash to one of the two spearmen that was monitoring the caged she-wolf. He then went toward the fire to yell such useful orders as, ¡°Put it out!¡± and ¡°Stop this fire you damned fools!¡± He was a true paragon of leadership.


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    Dantes calmly fluttered and landed behind the spearmen that held Murk¡¯s leash. Jacopo was already behind the other one that stood at the ready behind the cage.


    He shifted into himself and drove a dagger through the man¡¯s ribs and into his lungs. He made a kind of wheezing sound, and Dantes followed up with two more rapid stabs.


    Jacopo became a man, wrapped his arm around the other spearman''s neck, and squeezed until he heard a loud crack and the body went limp. He then started to work on opening the cage.


    ¡°Murk, let¡¯s get out of here and-¡±


    Murk roared and launched himself toward his soul bonded¡¯s cage, ripping it apart with his bare hands along with Jacopo.


    Dantes cursed as the roar he let out caused a number of those that had been putting out the fire to notice what was happening behind them.


    Dantes raised his wooden hand, pushing a wand through its palm, and sent his will through it.


    A blast of force shot from his hand and knocked a half dozen of the bandits into the fire that they were putting out.


    One bandit reacted quickly, firing an arrow at him that he blocked with his wooden hand as he started to back away.


    Murk, once his companion was free, shifted himself into the form of a wolf and launched at the rallying bandits.


    Dantes gritted his teeth and pulled the pistol from his waist, firing into the group of brigands before Murk reached the nearest of them, leapt up, and tore his throat from his neck in a single motion.


    Jacopo, as a man, lifted one of the dead spearman¡¯s weapons and flung it as hard as he could at the group. It slammed into a woman who was drawing back her bowstring and as she fell she loosed an arrow directly into another bandits leg.


    Dantes grimaced as he started to push another of the wands through his palm. They had momentum, but Murk was in the center of them now and once they rallied Dantes would need to waste more resources to keep him alive.


    A howl went out into the air, and Dantes felt the hairs on his neck stand up, and had to fight an urge to run as fast as he could.


    It was the she-wolf behind him that had let out the howl, and as she¡¯d done so, the already panicking bandits fully lost it. Some of them ran into the fire, others threw themselves towards Dantes and Jacopo with panic in their eyes, and others made more sensible runs to the parts of the fenceline that weren¡¯t aflame.


    It was there that they met the wolves that Murk had been keeping near the camp. As the bandits made their way over the fence, massive forms launched themself at them, tearing into their bodies with powerful sharp teeth and sending out spurts of blood that glistened in the moonlight.


    Dantes put the wand in his palm away and turned his fingers into long vines that he used to simply trip those bandits that came near him. Jacopo would follow their falls up with a swift spear strike using the second of the spears that had been dropped.


    Between them, Murk, and the wolves soon only the bandit leader was left.


    The leader had kept his calm, holding his own spear up, pointed in front of himself ready to catch any wolf that leapt at him. The pack circled him, and only Murk stepped forward to meet him.


    "You''d let me put that leash back on you and your bitch if you knew what was good for you."


    Murk just growled, low and rumbling as he loped forward toward him.


    Dantes could see the sweat on the side of the man''s face, reflected in the firelight. His breathing was heavy and sped up the closer Murk got to him. He leapt forwards, stabbing toward Murk with his spear, but the strike was easily dodged. He followed it up with a half dozen more. They were powerful blows, but it didn''t matter if they couldn''t hit anything. He wound up and sent another one forward, and this time, Murk caught the spear between his jaws and clamped downward, breaking it in half.


    It was at that moment, the man broke. He turned and ran, trying to leap into the fire as some of the others had done, but Murk caught him by his ankle and dragged him back. He didn¡¯t go for the neck as he had with the others he''d slain, instead he took his time. He opened him up at the stomach, and tore through him even as he screamed. The she-wolf joined him, and they didn¡¯t stop eating until the man¡¯s screams ceased and their muzzles were wet with blood.


    Dantes watched dispassionately as they gorged themselves, along with Jacopo and the wolves. He found himself feeling a bit jealous of the ability to become a wolf. It wasn¡¯t a practical jealousy, he knew that his other forms were much more useful for his own purposes, but the power that came with those larger beastforms. He imagined the satisfaction that he¡¯d feel if he could wrap his teeth around an enemy''s neck before clamping down on it would be incredible.


    Murk finished his grisly meal, and then directed the wolves to start kicking dirt and mud onto the flames in the camp. The fire likely wouldn¡¯t reach the tree line, but there was no reason to risk that. He approached Dantes with his blood covered muzzle, and looked at him for a few moments.


    Dantes kept himself from tensing, even as all of his instincts told him that he was in danger, and looked Murk directly in the eyes.


    Murk lowered his ears and bowed his head toward the ground.


    ¡°You saved my sister. I owe you both of our lives.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 14: Learn or die

    Dantes and Murk arrived at the Conclave in the center of the Veridian Expanse together. It was already late evening by the time they arrived, and everyone else was already sitting around a fire and eating a meal that smelled like a hearty mix of game and freshly foraged vegetables.


    Traizen put down his bowl and approached them with his arms wide, wrapping both of them into an embrace. Jacopo had to quickly adjust where he was sitting in order to avoid the elf¡¯s pale muscular arms.


    ¡°Murk, Dantes, it is good to see you. We were beginning to worry, particularly with how our connections were feeling. We were just discussing coming to help you.¡±


    Dantes wiggled his way out of the embrace. ¡°Murk was just having a bit of trouble. It happened to be something I could help him with on my way here, so I intervened.¡± Traizen didn¡¯t need to know that Dantes was given little choice in the matter, but Traizen''s knowing gaze seemed to indicate that he was already aware.


    ¡°He saved the life of my sister, as well as my own. I consider him a blood brother, and hope he would consider taking a mate from my pack,¡± said Murk.


    Dantes blinked a bit at that. He¡¯d seen many times how often enemies could become allies, but this seemed a bit extreme.


    Traizen smiled more widely than Dantes had ever seen before, his eyes glistening slightly with tears. ¡°I am so grateful that you have moved past your enmity to see one another as brothers.¡±


    Dantes stood there awkwardly for a few moments, unsure of how to react to so much sincerity when he himself dealt in it so infrequently.


    ¡°So, is there any food left?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Yes, there should be plenty of the Mother¡¯s bounty left for you.¡±


    Traizen moved for them to join everyone else around the fire and they were quickly given plates of fresh veggies and recently slain rabbit. It was good, though Dantes missed the spices he¡¯d grown used to having access to in Rendhold. Jacopo didn¡¯t mind much, tearing into a rabbit foot with relish, and having Dantes break it''s bones so that he could reach the marrow within.


    Everyone gave him and Jacopo a bit of space to eat as Murk gave a quick and curt description of what had happened to him, taking only a few moments here and there to lick some of the small cuts his sister had suffered from during the escape. The bandit group had apparently learned of him and set a trap for his sister using some kind of sleep potion that could suffuse the air. It had been mostly luck that they¡¯d been able to capture her and take advantage of him. From there they¡¯d had an entire forest and all of its life at their disposal. Frankly Dantes was surprised that all they¡¯d managed with that much power was a shitty bandit camp in the woods where they wore rags. He supposed that they had different standards out in the country.


    As he half listened to the story and the questions about it, he started to hear and feel something else. A kind of conversation below the one he was having. It was whispers at first, but once he turned his attention to it the voices grew louder. Even when they were loud enough to hear though, it took him a bit more time to actually understand them. They were commands, thousands and thousands of them, all emanating from the massive tree in the center of the grove where he sat. It was Berkilak, managing every small thing in the forest which he¡¯d made himself a part of.


    ¡°You¡¯re learning well,¡± said Berkilak, his voice, even as a whisper, causing him to shudder just a bit under its power.


    ¡°It¡¯s learn or die.¡±


    ¡°As it should be in any locus, concrete or forest. Your own abilities are growing very differently than the others.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve always been a little unique.¡±


    The leaves around him seemed to rustle just a bit. Laughter?


    ¡°Your attention. You can divide it among far more creatures than any of the others. Any aside from our lost sister.¡±


    ¡°Serpica?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Her.¡± There was a note of sadness in Berkilak¡¯s voice that made a tear involuntarily form in the corner of Dantes¡¯s eye.


    ¡°I thought she¡¯d be the next of us to bind herself to a locus as I have.¡±


    ¡°A sacrifice, a vow, a binding right?¡±


    ¡°Right. Perhaps it will be you that joins with your locus next.¡±


    Dantes didn¡¯t hide his bemusement. ¡°The pleasures that would be denied to me are far more important than the powers that doing that ritual might grant me.¡±


    ¡°We shall see how you feel in a few hundred years.¡±


    Dantes was about to ask what he meant by that, but decided on a different question instead.


    ¡°I¡¯m having difficulty connecting to the life in my locus that was there before I became a druid. Is there some advice you can give me?¡±


    The tree was silent for a moment. ¡°I never had such a problem. The others did not either. All I can suggest, is being open to oneness with whatever is around you.¡±


    That was easy to say when what was around you was beautiful forest He was interrupted before he could ask more though.


    ¡°It¡¯s rude to have side conversations at the dinner table,¡± said Traizen with a smile.


    Dantes smiled back. ¡°I don¡¯t see a table? And if there was one then I¡¯d say more than half of us aren¡¯t allowed at it.¡±


    Jacopo changed into his two-legged form. ¡°I¡¯d be allowed like this though, yes?¡±


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    All of the other druids and their companions stared at him in disbelief for a few moments.


    He ignored them, digging onto Dantes¡¯s plate with his bare hands to eat more in a few seconds than Dantes had since they''d sat at the fire.


    Dantes pinched the bridge of his nose and clenched his jaw. There were a lot of better ways to reveal his new ability to their fellows. Unfortunately, Jacopo¡¯s growing sense of humor had outweighed any more rational thoughts he may have had on the subject. Not that Dantes hadn¡¯t done the same to his own detriment in the past and in Jacopo¡¯s defense it was Dantes¡¯s fault that he had a sense of humor at all.


    ¡°What-¡±


    ¡°-The-¡±


    ¡°-Hells,¡± said the twins in their singsong alternating way of speech.


    Thing, Fizz''s companion, shifted into a lizard to quickly run up to Jacopo and inspect him.


    ¡°How?¡± it asked.


    ¡°We¡¯re not sure exactly." answered Dantes as Jacopo continued to focus on chewing his now very full mouth. "I was in grave danger from an enemy of ours. He saw a vision of the god of thieves unlocking something between us, and then he was able to become a man and save me.¡±


    Traizen frowned. ¡°The god of thieves¡­ You followed him before the Mother brought you into our flock.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I think he¡¯s the reason I can keep my clothes and items when I shift. I¡¯m guessing this was his doing as well.¡±


    Traizen shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m not a temple priest, but my guess is that Jacopo was granted something the Mother usually keeps locked away.¡±


    ¡°So, you don¡¯t know of anyone else whose partner could do this?¡±


    ¡°No, but we are all capable of different things. We excel in different ways.¡±


    ¡°I would¡¯ve expected him to look more like you,¡± said Mor-Gan-May as she looked him over.


    ¡°He¡¯s much larger and more handsome,¡± said Lorna, her eyes moving up and down slowly across Jacopo.


    Dantes sighed and nodded. ¡°The gods had to give him some advantage to make up for his personality.¡±


    Fizz chuckled at that as he gently patted Thing¡¯s head with a forefinger to comfort him. Thing shifted from a lizard to a feline somewhere between a lion and a housecat to better enjoy it.


    Dantes reached for his pack. ¡°I have the items that each of you requested,¡± he pulled out several small wooden chests. ¡°These are enchanted with single use storage spells. Once opened, all of the items within will begin to fall out, after that the chest will disintegrate. I have the ones with the items you requested, and empty ones for you to put what you owe me into.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know much about magic lad, but couldn¡¯t you have made a chest that can be used more than once?¡± asked Coal.


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°I asked my mage. Items that are meant to store things need to stay still to work that way. Because these move the enchantment is much more complicated. It can be done, but not as cheaply as I¡¯d like.¡±


    He shrugged, taking the chests and slipping them into the pack he kept on the side of his hog as he began removing some of the raw gold he owed Dantes and handing it to him.


    ¡°How are things working for you? Have my plans been helpful?¡±


    ¡°Aye, we¡¯ve been making those greedy dwarves miserable every time they try to make it deeper into our caves. The kobolds hate the mites, though they¡¯ve been more persistent.¡±


    Dantes thought for a moment. ¡°Kobolds are strange. They like friction and problems to solve. Things to work at. Maybe instead of just creating deterrents near you we need to also create a puzzle that they need to solve somewhere else. Maybe Mor-Gan-May can help?¡±


    Coal nodded as he gave his hog a strong pat on the back. Mor-Gan-May hadn¡¯t needed any help with deterring others from entering her territory. Her mastery of poisons had made that much simpler for her than it had been for everyone else.


    "How about you two?" asked Dantes facing the twins.


    "It-"


    "-has been-"


    "-satisfying-"


    "-watching the farmer''s plows-"


    "-explode-"


    Dantes smiled at hearing of their success. They¡¯d even taken some of their own initiative and managed to make the farmer¡¯s livestock uncooperative.


    "and you Lorna? How have things progressed for you?"


    She smiled, showing almost as many teeth as Beast. "The wands you''ve given, and the terror I''ve spread thanks to you have made the people of Chitlan very afraid. Those in the smaller towns around it, and those that live on its edges leave offerrings in the swamp in the hopes of avoiding the wrath of the Witch of the Swamp. It has been nice having a title."


    "The Witch of the swamp, eh? I like that. Do tales of her beauty travel far and wide as well?"


    "Of course they do," she said, "if they did not, then even more would likely die to her."


    Dantes smiled, feeling the weight of his backpack as they spoke. In return for his advice and the goods he''d provided, Dantes was receiving chunks of raw gold from Coal, strange plants that caused all sorts of sensations from Lorna, and ivory from the twins. All goods that had tremendous potential for him, or were simply nice to have.


    Along with that all of them had started making trades of their own with one another. Dantes had even given them fine clothes from the city, soap, and other conveniences that they had little access to in their more provincial regions. Having a bit of bartering at their gathering had done a lot to make Dantes more comfortable. There was only so much talk about seeds, winds, soil, and beasts that he could occupy himself with.


    After making an unsuccessful pass at Lorna, he sought out Traizen for advice.


    ¡°What did you speak of with Berkilak?¡±


    ¡°My progress, binding, Serpica.¡±


    He nodded, his face darkening at Serpica¡¯s name.


    ¡°Can you tell me more about her? If she¡¯s made an enemy of me I¡¯d like to know what I can.¡±


    He grimaced, but nodded. ¡°She was one of us for a long time. Very smart. Had a great understanding of those things which are the smallest. She was an incredible healer, and seemed to be able to see the most miniscule parts of things and fix them.¡±


    ¡°How do you heal? Is it differently than how she does it?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Hers was targeted at the smallest level. The rest of us simply push life force toward whatever¡¯s hurt until it¡¯s healed. You need a very strong and flourishing locus to do so. It would be¡­ difficult for someone with a locus like yours.


    Dantes nodded, recognizing one of his own abilities among those Traizen had listed as hers. ¡°What was her Locus?¡±


    ¡°A battlefield.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a thin strip of land between two nations that argued over who owned it." He shook his head, "as if they don''t know that it all belongs to the Mother and the Father. I don¡¯t know the details, but it was a place always full of death. Her first blessings were from flies and vultures. Not many have seen so much death and destruction as her.¡±


    Dantes nodded, feeling as if he had learned a lot, but almost nothing helpful.


    ¡°How does she fight?¡±


    Traizen shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know. She killed a herd of my mammoths at one point, but she left not a single mark on them.¡±


    ¡°How did you know it was her?¡±


    ¡°The last of them told me before it died.¡±


    Dantes wasn¡¯t sure how to respond to that.


    ¡°If you encounter her, do what you can to tell us. We will all come to help you face her.¡±


    He nodded. "I would be grateful for that. I had another question."


    "I will always provide you with whatever answers I can, brother."


    "There is disease in my locus. It spreads quickly, and I am beginning to worry about it."


    "Disease is natural, I''m afraid. It is usually the work of the Mother, a necessary act of balancing. You can mitigate of course, cull those who are too ill to save, separate those fighting it, even attempt to heal those you can if you feel the illness is balancing things too far in one direction."


    "What if it feels... odd? Targeted?"


    Traizen shook his head. "I have never felt such a thing brother, but if it is unnatural, then you should seek it''s source. Perhaps it is the work of some foul mage or alchemist."


    Dantes thought about what they''d discussed. "Do you think it could be Serpica?"


    Traizen frowned, his brow furrowing. "I don''t believe so. Disease is... not something we can control directly. I believe it is beyond us, but..." He was silent. "I will commune with Berkilak, and think on my own experiences. Whether or not it is her, perhaps we can determine a way to help you by the next commune."


    Dantes shook his head. "You''re too kind... it feels unnatural to me sometimes."


    "That''s very sad."

 Book 3 Ch 15: Get out of there

    Dantes arrived back at his club at the deepest part of the night. There were still a few people gambling, trying their best to avoid going home to explain their losses to their husbands and wives. A few men near passing out from drink were still soldiering on as they poured glass after glass down their gullets. Almost all of Vera¡¯s girls had cleared out, having found their last clients for the evening.


    He noticed all of this and collated it in that same part of his hindbrain that he used to track things throughout the city. His forebrain was focused almost entirely on Sevryn, who was singing a song in what he believed to be elvish. She was wearing a dark purple dress covered in glass beading that made her sparkle as she moved, and her emerald necklace and other jewelry all made it seem as if she was covered in stars. Her voice was deep for a woman, with a kind of throaty quality that made it seem sultry. He couldn¡¯t tell by tone whether the song she was singing was meant to be seductive or sad, but either way he was enamored by it.


    He held up a hand to the bartender, a Kobold named Ber-Ban, who often did the job when Zilly was busy. He slid him a glass of wine and Dantes enjoyed it slowly while he watched Sevryn¡¯s performance. She¡¯d noticed him shortly after he¡¯d entered, and had shamelessly looked only at him from then on as she sang, as if her performance was only for him. There was something familiar about the way she moved. He couldn¡¯t quite place it, but he found it comforting.


    When she finished her song, she shot him a wink and disappeared backstage. He finished his wine and started heading that way himself when he stopped. One of the drunks at the bar, an orc, looked familiar.


    Jacopo took a look as well and sniffed the air in his direction, sharing the sensation of it with him.


    Dantes walked over to the orc and patted his wide back gently.


    ¡°Decker? Is that you?¡±


    The man groaned, but didn¡¯t stir. Next to him wasn¡¯t a bottle of brown or anything strong, but rather a very sophisticated and dry red. That was definitely Decker.


    Dantes motioned over to Ber-Ban. ¡°How long has he been here?¡±


    The kobold looked over. ¡°Only about an hour. He was looking for Vera or Zilly. I told him they were busy. Even if they weren¡¯t I probably would have told them they were. He was drunk long before he got here.¡±


    Dantes nodded and shook Decker a bit more strongly.


    This time, the Orc sat up a bit, blinking bleary eyes as he looked around.


    ¡°Ed? Is that you?¡±


    ¡°I go by Dantes now, but yeah, it¡¯s me. You alright?¡±


    Decker rubbed his face roughly as if trying to scrape some of the drunkenness off of himself. ¡°No. Lost my job. Got told they like me fine, but can¡¯t have a Midtowner around when there¡¯s someone killing people in Uptown.¡± He sneered. ¡°Especially an Orc. As if there haven¡¯t been Uptown Orcs from the start. Fucking smarmy elvish bastards.¡±


    Dantes nodded sympathetically. He imagined with the killings, tighter security, and fear, Decker was far from the first person to lose his job, and he definitely wouldn¡¯t be the last.


    ¡°Well, if you¡¯re looking for work I can always find something for you.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want a new job. I want the job I lost.¡±


    Dantes nodded, from what Vera had told him Decker had very much enjoyed being a wine specialist in Uptown. It was hard to let go of something like that. He motioned to the kobold bartender.


    ¡°Ber-Ban. Whatever drink he wants, let him have it for free for the night. If he passes out, have one of the boys go lay him down in an empty room. Let Vera and Zilly know that he¡¯s here in the morning.¡± He patted Decker on the back one last time. ¡°Get absolutely sloshed until you feel better. On me.¡±


    Stolen novel; please report.


    Decker managed a small smile and lifted the wine glass next to him delicately in spite of his inebriation, toasting Dantes as he walked away to meet Sevryn backstage.


    ¡­


    Dantes sat down at the breakfast table at his usual time. He¡¯d left Sevryn snoring in his bed, and was happy to see that Decker wasn¡¯t at the bar, which meant that at some point he¡¯d been taken to a room to rest. He tucked into his breakfast. He¡¯d specifically requested that his food be heavily sauced and seasoned to make up for the blandness of his previous night''s meal. Jacopo had left almost as soon as they¡¯d awoken, he¡¯d wanted to avoid a lesson from Vera, and Dantes didn¡¯t have the energy to convince him to endure it that particular day.


    ¡°Somehow you managed to be seduced by an actually talented singer,¡± said Vera as he bit into a sausage he¡¯d dipped into some kind of rich honey and pepper sauce.


    ¡°Well, sometimes you just have to go with your gut.¡±


    ¡°Your gut, eh?¡± she asked, smiling, but didn¡¯t push it.


    ¡°How¡¯s Decker?¡±


    ¡°Still sleeping. Sera has been checking on him regularly.¡±


    He nodded, taking another bite of food. ¡°Any other news or anything I need to know about the club? Have you heard from Alessa at all?¡±


    ¡°Nothing new. Profits are good, the girls are happy, no stupid mistakes last night. Alessa is going to be fine. Don¡¯t fuss over it, I¡¯ll let you know when she¡¯s coming back.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I was just a little worried about her with all this talk of disease lately. Glad to know she''s okay. Thank you, Auntie.¡±


    She got up and started doing her rounds with the girls, making sure that they looked presentable and were properly ready for the day. It took a lot more work than people realized for a whore to look appealing, or at least appealing to who she wanted to appeal to.


    ¡°Jayk?¡± he asked.


    Jayk looked up from his plate, his cheeks red. He was eating the same heavily spiced meal, though it didn¡¯t seem to be sitting with him as well. He took a long sip of water.


    ¡°There were no more murders last night, but all of Uptown is basically in lockdown between those and the academy being sealed. We managed to secure Dario, load up on enchanted objects, and put ourselves in a good place. The shops that pay us were grateful that we have been able to keep them safe at night. Clay and his sister have done all they could for Felix and Wane, but they still haven¡¯t woken up. Dario thinks it¡¯s because of how much magical energy they used more than their injuries, but it¡¯s all outside of my understanding.¡±


    He paused to have a sip of water that he swished around his mouth.


    ¡°We¡¯ve already taken control of deep swathes of Gatemen territory with our own boys, and are working on bringing some of the smaller gangs from outside the gates under us. It¡¯s going well, but I really think we should consider putting one of our own men over it rather than bringing in someone from the outside. The kobold gangs are suspicious of us, they¡¯re mostly clanless and wild. I know you¡¯d like to find one to work with closely, but I just don¡¯t see that going smoothly.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s only been a few days. We can afford to look a bit longer. I know that having a perspective from someone used to being on the outskirts of Rendhold would have value.¡±


    Jayk shrugged, accepting it even though he clearly disagreed. ¡°Speaking of the outskirts there have been some signs of the sickness from the country starting to hit some of the encampments at the edge of Rendhold. It¡¯s possible that it¡¯ll hit the city.¡±


    ¡°Is the temple doing anything about it?¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°People from that far out can barely make it all the way into the city by nightfall. They won¡¯t even know about it for a few weeks.¡±


    ¡°I want Clay and Hema moved somewhere closer to us. I know their shop is on the outskirts, but I don¡¯t want them getting sick.¡±


    ¡°If they refuse?¡±


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll talk to them myself. I also want them to start planting any of the herbs that they think may help to fight whatever sickness is starting to grow. We can clear space in the gardens, or make new ones if we need to.¡±


    Jayk nodded as he scratched his chin. ¡°Okay. That¡¯s all I had today, not like we can continue with the no rules card game until Felix is back up and about.¡±


    ¡°True. You can stay and eat though. I don¡¯t mind the company.¡±


    Jayk grimaced at the spicy meal. ¡°No. I think I¡¯d prefer to get an early start on the day.¡± He got up and took his plate to the bar for them to take care of.


    Dantes continued eating his meal, rotating his attention through the eyes of the various vermin he had throughout the city. There was nothing major happening, but the city itself was tense. People spoke in fearful tones and hushed whispers about the Academy, disease, the murders in uptown. People looked at one another with fear and paranoia. He was glad he¡¯d invested in arms to sell to them.


    Jacopo snapped sharply into his mind¡¯s focus.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± he asked.


    Jacopo didn¡¯t reply. He was facing four rats that had surrounded him.


    Dantes reached out his mind to them, but immediately pulled his focus back. He felt rot, darkness, decay, as if he¡¯d just reached his hand into a month old corpse.


    ¡°Get out of there.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 16: Im Better Qualified

    Jacopo refused to listen to Dantes. He lunged at the nearest of the disobedient rats and tore into him with tooth and claw. The others attempted to tear him off of him, but Jacopo didn¡¯t relent until he swallowed his victim¡¯s throat along with a draught of blood. He then kicked off of that one and leapt onto the second, turning himself into a man as he did so, the weight of him causing that rat¡¯s spine to snap as he grew in size. He grabbed at the last two, killing one of them by slamming it onto the ground by the tail, and biting the head off of the last one, crunching into its skull as its paws scratched at his chin.


    It was a bit odd, watching what happened through Jacopo¡¯s eyes as he shifted and killed them so brutally, but Dantes had no criticisms. He certainly couldn¡¯t deny Jacapo¡¯s efficiency. Dantes focused on the rats through Jacopo, looking at them down to the unseeable level. He could see some sicknesses in them, but nothing he wasn''t used to seeing among rats when he looked at them that closely. They were just rats. Rats that didn¡¯t listen to him in spite of his mark being full.


    ¡°We need to figure out what just happened,¡± sent Dantes.


    ¡°I will search,¡± responded Jacopo, shifting back into is usual form, blood dripping from the fur on his chin as he started to search the nearby area, communing with other rats nearby and testing to make sure that they would obey him through Dantes''s mark.


    Dantes frowned as he finished his meal. He pushed his plate to the side, and stood up. He went to his audience chamber and sat on his living throne. He closed his eyes and sunk himself into the pool of interconnected life that he¡¯d been cultivating. From the pool, he followed all of the rivers that flowed into it and out of it. Most flowed clear, but at the very edges of it, where his perception was at its weakest, he could feel something. It was like seeing a speck of dust in the air, or smelling the taint of something rotten streets away. He tried to pull his full focus on it, but either slipped away, or it wasn¡¯t great enough for him to detect. Was it the sickness that was spreading? Or something else? Was that the source of the rats'' disobedience? He hadn''t sensed anything like that taint in them. Still the coincidence of it couldn¡¯t be ignored.


    He stood from his chair, pulling himself mentally from that pool of life and back into the more tangible world he preferred to live in. He slipped into his series of apartments and checked briefly on Felix and Wane. They were still unconscious, but they looked much better. Their wounds were clean and dressed, and their breathing was getting stronger by the day. He left them and went down to the club. Normally, he¡¯d make some rounds, but he could sense that his gardens were all in good shape and his various operations were running smoothly, largely because of the work he and Jayk had done to insulate them from any damage caused by the sealing of the Academy.


    He stood in the small balcony of his exclusive seat at the club and considered taking some of his restlessness and putting it toward a healthy bit of morning whoring, but before he could act on that thought one of his bouncers approached him, a young quarter orc who seemed to have some trouble with eye contact.


    ¡°Boss, there¡¯s a kobold here. Says he wants to talk to you.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s his name?¡±


    ¡°Tak. He¡¯s got a smelly bag with him. I told him you were busy, but he¡¯s insistent and I heard from one of Jayk¡¯s guys that you were talking to kobolds so I wanted to make sure that he wasn¡¯t one of the ones you needed.¡±


    Dantes listened to him ramble. He could tell he was new, not just to the club, but to being intimidating in general. Still, Dantes had nothing better to do, and he liked to take a random audience here and there. It was important to hear things directly from the streets sometimes rather than through an intermediary.


    ¡°Let him in. Bring him up to me in the audience chamber, and have another one of the boys come with you.¡±


    ¡°Yes, boss,¡± said the young man as he moved quickly down the stairs.


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    Dantes moved back to his audience chamber, sitting on his throne resting his chin against his fist.


    The bouncer opened the door, and a young kobold strode confidently into the chamber. His scales were black with flecks of green and orange scattered throughout them. His eyes were a particularly bright yellow and seemed unable to stay still as they bounced around the room. He wore a simple gray outfit, with a dagger on his waist and held a large sack that was balanced over his shoulder.


    ¡°You¡¯re Dantes,¡± said the kobold.


    ¡°I am. You¡¯re Tak?¡±


    ¡°I am.¡±


    ¡°Why do you want to see me, Tak?¡±


    ¡°I want control of all of the operations that were fully under the Gatemen.¡±


    Dantes¡¯s eyes twinkled and he leaned forward a bit. ¡°What makes you think I¡¯m the one who could grant that?¡±


    He held up a four fingered hand and started counting down. ¡°You¡¯re the newest finger. The last finger who was in control of it is dead. Your men have been sniffing around and absorbing what you can, purging what¡¯s not necessary. You¡¯re the one who''s in charge of it.¡±


    ¡°You put that together quickly. What makes you qualified to do anything for me? I¡¯ve never heard of you, and you only have a single syllable in your name which means you¡¯re unproven to your own people.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve watched the Gatemen for a long time. They move their goods using a network of legitimate merchants that they have to hide those goods among their legitimate trade items. I know their entire network.¡±


    ¡°I know this.¡±


    ¡°Did you also know that they¡¯ve been doing a shit job of it?¡±


    Dantes smiled. He did know that. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°They were lazy about it. They relied more on bribes to the guard to let things through than they did subtlety to make sure they didn¡¯t need to pay bribes. They didn¡¯t properly manage their merchant network, and a lot of them would skim off the top and never be found out because the Gatemen rarely weighed and checked their goods. This also caused problems when the people they were smuggling for got less goods. They made good money, but they got complacent and were foolish about how they spent it.¡±


    ¡°Assuming that¡¯s all true.¡± Dantes knew it was. ¡°That still doesn¡¯t tell me why you¡¯re qualified to be a part of my new operations there. Much less be in charge of them.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m clanless, but I have a gang of thirty kobolds that work for me. We get things for people on the outskirts. Cheaper, more quickly, and better than the gatemen did with their little market.¡±


    ¡°Really? I¡¯ve never heard of you.¡±


    ¡°Exactly. We don¡¯t need a catchy name to brag on and give the guard something to go on. I can take the gatemen¡¯s jobs, with what you¡¯ve taken over, and I can turn it into a perfect operation. I¡¯ve got ways to put hidden compartments on carts, or fake haunches on steers, horses, and mules. I know which merchants were skimming and can force them back into line, or kill them. I can do with fifteen men what the Gatemen needed fifty for.¡±


    Dantes recognized the look in Tak¡¯s eyes as he spoke. It was the same look Mez had when he was talking about a new brew. The look any kobold got when they were talking about whatever obsession their minds had latched onto. Tak was a kobold whose mind was obsessed with smuggling. The thought of that made Dantes smile.


    ¡°Well, my man is already looking into people to bring into the fold. I can¡¯t give you lead of anything, because I don¡¯t know you and haven¡¯t heard his input.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s been working with the Half-Dead halfing crew, the Needle Teeth clan, the Beardless, and a small human gang just called Spit.¡±


    ¡°And is there a reason that you¡¯d be better to pull in than their leaders?¡±


    Tak nodded and opened the sack that was on his shoulder to dump out four heads. A beardless dwarf, a kobold, a halfing, and human. The heads rolled across the grass. They were still fresh, and he could feel the moss drink a bit of the blood they were dripping as they landed. It wasn¡¯t enough to start a blood garden, at least not without him willing it so.


    ¡°I¡¯m better qualified, because their leaders are dead.¡±


    The bouncers each drew knives at Tak¡¯s reveal, but Dantes held up his hand to keep them from taking action. He walked over and lifted the human head by the hair, tossing it behind himself after his inspection. The dogs moved to fight over it.


    ¡°I like you Tak. I think you¡¯ll be a big help to us. Go have a drink downstairs on me, and I¡¯ll tell Jayk to talk to you.¡±


    Tak tilted his head low. ¡°Thank you boss.¡±


    Dantes smiled at him as he was walked out by the bouncers. Dantes stopped one of them, and had him go bring him Jayk.


    Jayk arrived in the chamber moments later. He looked over the heads that were scattered across the ground and sighed.


    "That was a lot of unnecessary meetings."


    Dantes smiled. "I don''t know that they were unnecessary, I think they still led to us finding the right candidate. The kobold at the bar. Work with him to take over the Gatemen, let him think he has control, but watch him like a hawk. He¡¯s ambitious and young, and there¡¯s no way his ambition stops here. If he doesn¡¯t make any moves, then leave him be.¡±


    Jayk listened intently. "Can I still have final say."


    "Absolutely."


    He nodded, and left the room.

 Book 3 Ch 17: You Dont Need to Flex

    Dantes spent the next two weeks consolidating his power while working with Jacopo to determine the problem with the rats he''d encountered. He took personal visits to his gardens to tend them. He went to each of the shopkeepers that paid up to him and paid them personal visits with no expectation of payments. He personally intervened in a number of jobs his men were undertaking, began to work on his pigeon dust delivery plan with a few of his smarter dealers, and closely monitored his steady acquisition of the Gatemen¡¯s territory. While he did all of this, he maintained his regular contacts with the Fingers, monitored Godfrey¡¯s every move as well as any changes at the Academy, and the slow, but frighteningly steady spread of whatever corruption was starting to touch the edges of his domain.


    Jacopo found no more rats outside of their control, nor did he find any reason why they¡¯d been able to resist them in the first place. With nothing else to do, he began to train with Vampa and Zak in a fighting pit, honing his fighting skills in human form.


    While Dantes filled his days and most of his evenings with work, he made time to spend with Sevryn, even going so far as to have dinner with her nearly every night between her sets on stage.


    Sevryn deftly speared a piece of shrimp off of Dantes¡¯s plate and quickly ate it while he was distracted watching a small scuffle by one of the card tables in the corner.


    ¡°You know, I own this whole place. If you want more shrimp I could get you a table full.¡±


    She smiled, her eyes and jewelry twinkling in the lantern light. ¡°You own this whole place, you can request more shrimp for your own plate if you feel I¡¯ve taken too much.¡±


    Dantes took a sip of his wine to hide his own smile. ¡°You still haven¡¯t worn the dress I bought you.¡±


    ¡°I needed to take it to the tailor, the measurements were just a little off.¡±


    ¡°I have a tailor that I call in here once a week. I could¡¯ve had him make the adjustments.¡±


    She laughed a little. ¡°I already know you own Midtown, you don¡¯t need to flex with every other sentence you know.¡±


    ¡°To keep a woman like you on my arm? I¡¯m fairly certain that¡¯s exactly what I need to do.¡±


    Dantes paused his flirtation for a moment. He could tell through the eyes of a pigeon on a nearby roof that something was happening at the Silken Sin. He turned his focus more fully there and saw that there was some kind of fire. A number of men and women were running out of it in various states of undress.


    He spread his awareness further to see a number of men and women in gold masks moving away from the Sin at a quick pace and heading west toward the docks.


    ¡°Excuse me," he said standing up from the table, and as he did so he felt a hand touch his shoulder.


    Sevryn¡¯s eyes widened a bit as she looked behind him.


    It was Gren, Argenta¡¯s pet demon, still wearing his immaculate suit with his head of smoke.


    ¡°Godfrey is on the way to the docks. He¡¯s leaving the city on a frigate with goods stolen from the Silken Sin, the Temple of the Many Gods, and the city itself.¡±


    Dantes wiped his face with a napkin, relaying a message to Jacopo as he spoke. ¡°The guard? Will they be able to seal off the docks in time?¡±


    Gren¡¯s smokey face flickered. ¡°We are the only ones fast enough to stop him.¡±


    ¡°Zak!¡± Hollered Dantes across the club, causing everyone¡¯s attention to snap to him.


    Zak himself ran dramatically from the bar, threw himself up the stairs, and waited silently for whatever it was Dantes was going to ask.


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    ¡°Rally the men and get them to the docks. I¡¯ll send a white dove to guide you once you have them together. Got it?¡±


    Zak nodded, and immediately moved to action, hollering at a few of the bouncers to gain their attention.


    Dantes left the main hall of the club and went to his own chambers, climbing his staircase to the flat portion of the roof he kept. Jacopo leapt up his arm as he walked. The whole time he was moving he began to gather all of the vermin under his control, sending out his will across Rendhold and aiming all of it toward the docks like an arrow.


    He ran and launched himself off the roof of the building, taking the form of a pigeon and launching himself quickly forward with rapid wingbeats. Jacopo flew just a few feet behind him and they were quickly enveloped by a cloud of bats and pigeons that he¡¯d summoned.


    There was only a sliver of moon in the sky as they flew to light them, but through their connection to Dantes every single creature moved in perfect formation toward the docks. Before he even made it to them, he sent all the rats and roaches to scan for which ship was Godfreys. It wasn¡¯t difficult to find, with more than two dozen gold masked servants of greed on ship preparing it to leave. The ship itself was large, a warship re-fitted for someone¡¯s personal use. He could see sails, but he was also a small chimney that meant that there was a steam engine on board as well. Dantes sent all of those vermin he had swarming across the ropes that still tied the ship to the dock and they attacked.


    Two of them died to the swarm before the rest could even react, buried beneath a tide of fur and chitin. When those that had time to do so reacted, they did so calmly, keeping their cool and killing the vermin that attacked them in stark contrast to how others had reacted to such assaults in the past. Several of them cut through the ropes connecting the ship to the dock, removing those vermin''s access to the ship and speeding up their ability to cast off, unfortunately for them, that was when Dantes and Jacopo arrived.


    They crashed onto the deck of the ship, Dantes shifting into his own form and Jacopo shifting into the shape of a man. The cloud of flying vermin they¡¯d brought with them joined the rest of the swarm and began tearing into the masked guards on the deck.


    Dantes lifted his wooden hand, extended a wand through it, and pushed two of the goldmasks off the deck with a wall of force.


    Jacopo threw himself at a goldmasked woman that was drawing a wand, broke the hand that was holding it, threw her to the ground with that arm, then snapped her neck with his foot using the broken hand as leverage.


    More goldmasks began to come up from belowdecks and the ship began to move, causing Jacopo to lose his footing for a moment.


    A goldmask struck at Jacopo with a shortsword at that moment, but it was caught in a cloud of black mist that quickly solidified into Gren. With his free hand that hadn¡¯t blocked the sword, he chopped and cut the goldmasks throat, nearly beheading him before pushing the body to the side casually.


    Dantes found himself cornered by three goldmasks wearing heavy armor that made them less vulnerable to the swarm he¡¯d summoned. He shifted things around in his wooden arm and extended it in front of himself firing out a cloud of purple mist. It was risky, but the night¡¯s air was still and he was able to create enough pressure in his wooden arm to shoot the mist so that it hit his targets with ease.


    They all started coughing, but kept pushing toward him. Unfortunately for them, the coughing didn¡¯t stop and the steps toward him grew shorter and shorter until they¡¯d fallen onto their hands and knees clutching their chests and helmets as if they could somehow rip the poison from themselves that way. Dantes aimed carefully and extended his wooden fingers like stakes through slits in their armor to grant them mercy. He''d need to thank Mor-Gan-May again for her advice.


    Jacopo drew a wand from his belt and called the vermin off of two of the goldmasks before immolating them with a powerful and concentrated blast of heat that left nothing behind of their faces other than their sparkling masks.


    In less than a few minutes, the three of them had cleared the deck completely. They walked toward the entrance to the lower deck.


    ¡°Is there any way to stop the boat''s movement?¡± Dantes asked as they moved.


    Gren shrugged his shadowy shoulders. ¡°There aren''t boats in the hells. We¡¯re here to kill or capture Godfrey. The rest is secondary.¡±


    They climbed below decks, and Dantes was relieved to see that unlike the last ship he¡¯d stormed, this one appeared to be the same size on the inside that it appeared to be on the outside. Gren led the way as they moved through some tight corridors toward where the captains cabin would¡¯ve been on a ship this size, cutting through any of the goldmasks he encountered like a knife through butter. Dantes found himself wondering why he was even there, or why Argenta seemed to need his help at all if she had a tool like Gren on her side.


    When they reached the last cabin, Gren pushed open the door and stepped inside. It was large, and there was no furniture inside, just a wide space with a small ceiling. Embedded in the wood, were gold coins. There was one every foot or so, and the entire cabin glittered from them. Godfrey Stood in the center of all of it, a wide smile on his golden face.

 Book 3 Ch 18: No Such Thing as Doom, No Such Thing as Fate

    Godfrey stood there for a moment with his calm smile. He was wearing a stunning red vest with golden flowers woven across it and held a thin rapier in one hand as he looked at Dantes, Gren, and Jacopo. His eyes lingered the longest on Jacopo, but when he spoke it was to Gren.


    ¡°So little mist, your master has chosen to make another move? I can tell you now that it doesn¡¯t matter. With or without me pulling the strings Rendhold is doomed to fall. I just moved to make that fall as spectacular as possible.¡±


    Gren flickered a bit. ¡°No such thing as doom, no such thing as fate. They¡¯ve been rotting as hells since long before your master split himself from his brother.¡±


    Dantes loosed the pistol from his holster as they spoke, and Jacopo slipped his fingers through a pair of thick brass knuckles. They both knew what those coins across the floor meant. Their encounter last time had shown that Godfrey was able to teleport between golden coins. Dantes had only managed to hit him by tricking him into getting very close, and even then he''d had to run.


    He forced himself to relax, being too tense would make him slower.


    Jacopo took the opposite tactic, amping himself and readying himself to launch toward him the second he appeared somewhere else.


    Godfrey shook his head. ¡°Well, I¡¯d say that¡¯s enough talking. Time for you to ineffectually flail at me while I end your lives and less than lives one at a time.¡±


    Gren faded into mist and rushed toward him.


    Dantes began to summon in all of the rats and roaches he had managed to get on board, and began to have them swarm across the room and cover each coin with their bodies.


    Just before Gren could reach Godfrey, he blinked back to Dantes¡¯s left.


    Dantes quickly raised his pistol and fired, but Godfrey was already behind Jacopo.


    Jacopo whirled around and caught a flick of Godfrey¡¯s rapier on his brass knuckles, parrying him.


    Godfrey blinked again and managed to strike Gren with his bare hand.


    Whatever essence Gren was made off seemed to burn where Godfrey struck, causing the scent of sulfur and blood to spread through the cabin.


    Dantes pretended to stumble a bit from the rocking of the boat falling backwards and Godfrey quickly capitalized, teleporting in front of him and driving his rapier toward him.


    Dantes blasted him with the concentrated mist from the purple marble Sunset.


    Godfrey began coughing as he teleported away.


    Dantes was watching his movements carefully. So far, he hadn¡¯t teleported onto any of the spaces Dantes had managed to cover with vermin, that meant that either he couldn¡¯t, or it was a feint.


    The fight continued, with Gren, Jacopo, and Dantes taking Glancing blows as they slowly pushed Godfrey into a corner. He was uninjured and seemed nowhere near slowing down, but if they could pin him down to a single spot then the fight would be at its end.


    Jacopo lunged toward Godfrey and his rapier, letting it pierce him so that he could slam a brass knuckle into his chin. There was enough force behind the blow that Godfrey stumbled back, losing his weapon, and Jacopo laughed as he followed up with a powerful uppercut that would¡¯ve shattered a regular man¡¯s jaw.


    Godfrey teleported again, but found himself directly in front of Dantes who sent his will through a wand in his hand and sent an explosion of stone toward him.


    He teleported a third time, but there was only one coin left to teleport to, in front of Gren.


    Gren¡¯s hand shot forward and pierced into his golden chest. Gren flickered a bit and pulled his hand away, looking at a pure black hand covered in liquid gold, his hand burning away a bit as if the golden blood was acidic to him.


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    ¡°That was too easy.¡±


    Godfrey smiled as gold poured out from his mouth. ¡°Wasn¡¯t it?¡± He vanished, and a single gold coin clattered to the ground.


    Whatever it was that Gren was made of exploded outward for a moment like an intense flame as he let out something between a howl and a roar that made Dantes¡¯s blood run cold.


    Dantes moved and picked up the coin that had fallen, making it dance between his fingers before letting it fall back to the ground.


    ¡°It was a copy. Like the ones Mercedes made when we fought her,¡± he said to no one in particular. ¡°He used it to throw us off. He¡¯s probably long gone by now.¡±


    Gren began to expand again, before pulling himself back, fixing the lapels on his suit and flattening out the wrinkles on his trousers.


    ¡°He¡¯ll be back.¡±


    Dantes moved over to Jacopo who was removing the brass knuckles from his hands, and feeling a bit annoyed at their lack of efficacy compared to claws and teeth. Though the feeling of impact when they¡¯d hit had been satisfying.


    ¡°Stay still,¡± said Dantes, grasping the hilt of the rapier that was still embedded in Jacopo. He put one hand against Jacopo to brace himself, then yanked it out with a smooth motion. The rapier was very sharp, but he could feel no magic to it, nor did he sense poison of any kind along the blade. He tossed it to the side and turned his focus to Jacopo.


    He began to channel energy toward the wound, and very quickly Jacopo¡¯s smallest parts began to work quickly to mend the damage. It was far easier to heal Jacopo than it had been to heal anyone else. That made sense he supposed, that was the first thing he¡¯d ever done for him.


    Gren managed to calm himself and began brushing debris from the front of himself. ¡°I will return to Argenta and inform her about what has happened. She will expect to speak with you soon as well, I¡¯d imagine.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll talk at the usual time. I doubt I¡¯d have much insight that you don¡¯t¡­ Are you okay?¡±


    Gren looked at him, a bit of his essence still seemed to be leaking from where Godfrey had hit him. ¡°Aside from several thousand years of servitude? Yes.¡±


    "Seems like a raw deal."


    "Yes."


    "I''ve gotten out of those a few times."


    Gren''s eyes seemed to twist as he laughed a bit. "I must go. I cannot pass the edges of the bay." He faded into mist and drifted through the ceiling.


    Jacopo and Dantes went back onto the deck, stepping around pools of blood, and grinning corpses wearing golden masks. Dantes felt wasteful leaving all of the gold on board, but it had that same rotted feeling that everything touched by Greed seemed to share.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think we could kill him,¡± said Jacopo.


    ¡°Godfrey, or Gren?¡±


    Jacopo scratched his cheek. ¡°Either.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I agree. They¡¯re out of our grasp for now, but now we know a bit more about both of them. Did you see how Godfrey¡¯s touch seemed to damage him? Not to mention his apparent inability to leave the bay. There must be a reason for that. Maybe it¡¯s the way godstuff interacts with demons like him. I seem to remember priests at the temples making claims that even the dirt the gods had walked upon could hurt demons. I¡¯d assumed they were just trying to sell poor people dirt, but maybe they were on to something." He shook his head. "Killing him... overthrowing Argenta directly. I''d rather find a more subtle way to make it happen. Another method of control."


    Jacopo shrugged, licking some of the blood from his coat.


    Dantes and Jacopo looked over the edge of the boat. A number of ships were moving to intercept it, and some smaller guard boats were moving up the shore toward them.


    ¡°Well, no reason to wait around to deal with all of that.¡±


    Jacopo nodded, and they both shifted into pigeons to fly back to shore.


    ¡­


    Dantes and Jacopo floated above a now very familiar scene. The man in blue with the smirking face sat next to the green woman with a feral smile and all of her pets. As with last time, they had switched which game they were playing, but this time there were two new figures at the table sitting across from them.


    Across from the man in blue sat a man in a black cloak threaded with gold wearing a cruel smile that mirrored his brother¡¯s smirk. Next to him sat a woman wearing a cloak so black that even just looking at it made Dantes feel as if he would fall into it. The man in black and gold he recognized from before, but the woman in the cloak of black was new to him. He looked at her closely and noticed small drops of moisture were falling from the blackness that was her face, like tears.


    He recognized the game that they were playing immediately. The man in blue showed everyone two dice that he held between the fingers on one of his hands. One dice was gold with black marks, and the other was green with blue ones. He threw them all into the air, and caught them deftly in the cup. He then shook them in the cup, causing a rattling noise so loud that Dantes''s eyes briefly opened in the middle of the dream before closing again.


    The woman in green threw in a shining green coin that seemed to glow. The woman in black tossed in a black coin that seemed to eat the light around it. The man in blue threw a platinum coin, which Dantes found himself reaching involuntarily for. The man in black threw a gold one.


    Before the man in blue revealed what was under the cup, Dantes felt eyes on him and looked across the table. Floating above it on the other side, behind the man and woman in black, was a man with a smiling golden face.


    Dantes began to focus on that smiling face when a sense of dread began to fill him and a shadow fell across his back. He turned around to see a man holding an axe in the air behind him. Closer than he¡¯d ever been before.

 Book 3 Ch 19: You Can Keep the Extra Blankets

    Dantes sat in his tree-throne staring through the glass ceiling to look at the clear night sky. The stars were clear and bright, as was the moon. Without the Academy to light the streetlights, the view of the sky was much more striking than usual. He checked on his operations that ran in the middle of the night. He saw one of his dealers getting roughed up by a few drunks at the docks. He sent a few bats to leap at their faces and give his man time to escape. A guard patrol holding torches was about to turn down a street in which he had a robbery ongoing, so he put one hundred rats in their path and had them simply stare at the patrol, their eyes glinting in torchlight. The patrol decided to take a different route.


    He stretched and yawned. Sleep hadn¡¯t been coming easily to him as of late. Whatever god held the axe to his throat in his dreams had seen to that. He still occasionally had nights where no dreams touched him, but even from those he often found himself waking in a cold sweat, clutching his own neck. Sevryn had been nice enough to offer him a multitude of ways to help put him back to sleep, and he¡¯d taken her up on them, but this night when he awoke she was no longer in his bed. That was fine, she had her own life and business, he was just happy to enjoy her company at night when he could, both at the dinner table and in his bed.


    The sickness that had been gnawing at the edges of the city had started to spread more. It was still only at the outskirts, outside the gates, but the Council and the House of Lords had quickly made the decision to seal the main gates from outsiders not bringing in goods. Luckily, Tak had been able to adjust his operations to compensate for that, but if things continued it was quite possible that the city would be closed down altogether. Eventually there wouldn¡¯t be any traders willing to risk travel for fear of the sickness anyway. Dantes¡¯s larger concern was the docks. If things got bad enough to seal the gates, then the docks might be next, with no traders willing to risk docking in a plagueridden city and that meant the majority of his income and operations would be done for. He¡¯d been mitigating that weakness since he took over operations. Stockpiling goods, creating other methods of revenue, strengthening his hold on Midtown, but it would be a very painful thing to have to endure.


    Dantes stood and walked over to one of the large black dogs lounging in the moss, coughing a bit. He scratched him behind the ears. Shortly after, the second one lumbered over and laid down closer, so he scratched that one behind the ears as well.


    He sensed some movement, and heard sounds in his apartments.


    ¡°Come on, boys,¡± he said to the dogs as he brought himself to his feet and started to walk toward the sound, quickly finding its source as the extra rooms toward the back of the apartment. He heard some people stumbling in the dark for a few moments before light started to shine under the door he was approaching.


    He opened the door to see Wane and Felix sitting up in their beds squinting and rubbing their faces. There was a small orb of light floating in the middle of the room casting light around it.


    ¡°Felix! Wane! Good to see that you¡¯re both awake.¡±


    ¡°I feel like kobold shit that¡¯s been drying in the sun,¡± said Wane, rolling around his jaw as he inspected his surroundings.


    ¡°Trust me, you look worse than you feel,¡± responded Dantes. They did look rough. A week in bed recovering from wounds while unconscious didn¡¯t exactly give one a healthy glow. Clay and Hema had managed to feed them some kind of gruel, and keep them hydrated while treating them, but that wasn¡¯t a great long term solution. Felix, who was already long and lanky, was now looking skeletal.


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    Dantes moved to pour each of them a cup of water from a nearby pitcher. Felix could barely hold the cup, but he managed a small sip and a nod of thanks before laying back down in the bed. He wasn¡¯t asleep, but seemed to not have the energy to talk.


    ¡°The kitchen will be open in a couple hours. I¡¯ll have them make you both something easy to get down, then I¡¯ll send the girls to get you some books, or anything else you need to stay entertained¡­ maybe some dice and a deck of cards.¡±


    Wane chuckled a bit at that. He was stretching his fingers and bending his legs in the bed. He grimaced as he did so, but he clearly wanted to make sure everything still worked as he remembered it. One of the dogs leapt up into his bed and he patted its side. The other leapt into Felix¡¯s causing him to grunt, but he also managed to rest a hand on the dog in spite of his exhaustion.


    ¡°The Academy is still sealed?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± responded Dantes, waiting for an explanation he felt he was owed after they teleported into his garden.


    Wane scowled. ¡°I should still be there. Gods dammit.¡±


    Dantes waited silently.


    Wane glanced sideways at him, quickly catching what he was waiting for. ¡°The sealing, it was what Merle and the rest of us had been planning since we got out.¡± He leaned against the headboard. ¡°We met with old contacts, prepared the spell, gathered our strength, and found a battery for it. You helped with that last part actually.¡±


    ¡°Why? Why did you seal it?¡±


    ¡°To take control. To force the change the Academy needs. By the time the seal comes down, either Merle will control the academy, or he¡¯ll be dead.¡±


    ¡°What makes you think he¡¯ll be able to maintain control after that? The city won¡¯t just let him run the Academy. One of the members of the council is the head of the Academy. I highly doubt he¡¯ll just roll over.¡±


    Wane laughed. ¡°Oh, he definitely won¡¯t just roll over. He¡¯s the one that did this to Felix and me.¡±


    Dantes pushed off from the wall he¡¯d been leaning on. ¡°Kline is within the seal?¡±


    Wane nodded a look of confusion on his face. ¡°Yes. We made certain that he would be.¡±


    Dantes made his expression neutral again. He hadn¡¯t heard that. It wasn¡¯t even a rumor. That meant that it was being hidden, and hidden well if he hadn¡¯t heard of it. He didn¡¯t monitor the council¡¯s comings and goings, but they were common knowledge. Was Argenta the one hiding it? She had to know. Was it hidden so that she could continue to project Rendhold''s strength?


    ¡°You didn¡¯t answer my question though. How do you expect things to go once the seal has dropped? How could you possibly take things over with no pushback?¡±


    Wane gave a wry smile. ¡°With magic.¡±


    Dantes shook his head, and looked to Felix. ¡°And you were working with them as well?¡±


    Felix groaned in such a way to indicate the negative.


    ¡°He didn¡¯t want anything to do with it. I asked Merle to let me talk to you to see if we could pressure him into it, but he asked me to hold off. He sent both of us here after Kline managed to hit us with that spell. He did it just before the seal was completely up. I¡¯m guessing¡­he¡¯d been planning it. Maybe not for us specifically, but for any of the Collared that were hurt before things were closed off. He must¡¯ve wanted them sent to you.¡±


    That made sense, he had a good relationship with Merle and the Collared. Merle would also understand that he¡¯d see the value in having control of some of the few free mages and would make whatever investment was needed to help them.


    ¡°Do you have any idea when the seal will be lifted?¡±


    ¡°Merle and Orebus can drop it if they feel that they¡¯ve accomplished the mission. Otherwise it¡¯ll last until the battery burns out.¡±


    ¡°How long will that take?¡±


    Wane shrugged. ¡°Could be months. Could be weeks. Hard to say. The spell was crafted very efficiently and the initial drawing of the veil was powered by all of us, but with how much magic is being thrown around in there it¡¯s hard to say how everything will interact.¡±


    ¡°What is the battery? You said I had a hand in getting it.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s our old friend, Pillion.¡±


    Dantes frowned, mentally adjusting what he¡¯d thought of as the Collared¡¯s capacity for cruelty. He shrugged.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m happy to take care of both of you here. We need to keep it quiet though. Most of the loose mages have been scooped up by Uptown or the guard. They¡¯re not even lighting the streets anymore.¡± He started to walk toward the door. ¡°Get some more rest. I¡¯ll have the kitchen send up that food I promised and I¡¯ll make sure that you¡¯re taken care of.¡± He looked at the pair of comfortable dogs on the beds. ¡°You can keep the extra blankets.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 20: But Youll Own Me

    Dantes walked the streets of Uptown carefully, which actually meant boldly strutting like a peacock. He wanted it to appear as if he belonged to avoid the suspicion of the increased guard presence there. The murders had slowed down considerably, but when the usually untouchable nobility started to fall to blades in the night, they tended to take it very hard for a long time. He didn¡¯t relish traveling to Uptown himself, but felt he was the best person for this particular job. Jayk was solid, but his ability with people was limited. Jayson on the other hand had that ability in spades, but not the intelligence to leverage it well. Zak¡­ well if he needed someone beaten, Zak was always a fine choice.


    While he was there, there was going to be a raid on a number of his operations throughout midtown and the docks by Pacha and his men. Dantes had known of their plans for weeks through the monitoring he¡¯d been doing and so had already had all the valuables moved and the men warned. It wasn¡¯t something that required a lot of attention for him.


    Jacopo sat in his jacket, watching the street with him through a small hole


    ¡°These people walk very oddly.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, they aren¡¯t weighed down by quite as much as the people in Midtown.¡±


    ¡°Not just that. They are fearful, and cast glances at one another as if they¡¯re dangerous, but they don¡¯t maintain those glances. They don¡¯t watch darkened alleys or look down either.¡±


    Dantes chuckled a bit. ¡°Even a murderer on the loose won¡¯t make them stop certain courtesies. It¡¯s impolite for them to stare, especially if that stare implies fear of one another. Not looking down or checking alleys though? That¡¯s just because they¡¯re not used to having to. They simply haven¡¯t really considered it.¡±


    ¡°Stupid.¡±


    ¡°In some ways? Absolutely, but their knowledge of how they are supposed to act with one another is a very powerful tool. Something that¡¯s taught to them without which they can¡¯t thrive here in Uptown. For them knowing not to stare might be as valuable as knowing to keep your hands in your pockets on Flea street is for us.¡±


    ¡°Like city rats and pit rats.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Different places. Different priorities. Different threats. We¡¯re all just adapting to them.¡±


    They walked together a bit longer before reaching their destination, a small building out of which wafted the scent of coffee and tea. It had a small garden in front of it, and a hairless cat sleeping in the window. There was a sign above the front door with the words, ¡°Morning Dew,¡± written across it in a spidery script.


    He walked inside and saw his target. She was sitting at a small table in the furthest corner from the counter. She was a human with blonde hair that still had some orange at its tips, and she wore a stylish blouse and trousers, though he could tell the materials were sub-par. She was pretty, but a little plain, with only a mean turn to her eyes which Dantes actually found the most attractive thing about her.


    He sat across from her, and held up a finger to the gnomish woman at the counter, pointing at the woman¡¯s coffee. The gnome nodded at him, and he turned his attention to the girl across the table.


    ¡°So, Desha, I hear that you want to be a magister?¡±


    Desha fixed him with a hard stare. She wasn¡¯t stupid. She had to know that he¡¯d manipulated her into requesting this meeting. He¡¯d started moving things in this direction shortly after she lost her job working for Danglars. It wasn¡¯t hard. She wanted to be a magister. She had the skills, the background, the blood, but not the money. Dantes just had to put the right people in the right place to put the idea of going a less than legal route to get it into her mind.


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    ¡°Dantes. You know my boss said your name quite often. He always sounded either afraid, or contemptuous.¡±


    The small hairless cat leapt into Dantes¡¯s lap and he gave it a thorough rub behind its ears.


    ¡°Well, that makes sense. We had a bit of a complicated relationship. That¡¯s why I killed him.¡±


    Desha swallowed, but kept her expression neutral. She¡¯d clearly practiced that.


    ¡°No thank you? I am very aware of what you and your fellow secretaries went through working for him.¡±


    The gnomish woman gently placed a small cup in front of Dantes.


    ¡°Brain almost never warms up to people like that,¡± she said, looking at the cat in his lap.


    Dantes smiled at her. ¡°I spilled some fish soup on my trousers earlier. She probably just smells that.¡± He slid the woman two copper.


    She smiled and went back behind the counter.


    Desha watched the exchange silently. ¡°Is it true you can control animals?¡±


    ¡°It''s best if you assume that every story you¡¯ve ever heard about me is true. It¡¯ll save both of us some time.¡± He scratched Brain under the chin a bit, at his request. ¡°So, I¡¯ll ask again. You want to be a magister?¡±


    This time she nodded. ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°And in order to do that, you need to be able to pay the fees, the bribes, and,¡± he looked her up and down, ¡°A new wardrobe to better fit in.¡±


    ¡°Just the first two, thank you.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, I should know better than to judge a stylish young Uptown woman¡¯s clothes.¡± He took a sip of his coffee. It was strong and bitter. ¡°I can get you the gold you need.¡±


    ¡°And what will I need to do for you in return?¡±


    ¡°Nothing right away. There will come a time though when I need favors from you. I may need you to help a particular man purchase land available only to nobility. Or need you to vote a certain way in a committee for me. Small things for the most part. It¡¯s likely you¡¯ll go months or even years without hearing from me.¡±


    She grimaced a bit. ¡°But you¡¯ll own me.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I will, but I can promise you there are far worse masters out there than myself. Think about the magisters you know. Are any of them without owners? Are any of them completely free from outside influence? I¡¯m a more generous owner than them, and I¡¯m a jealous one too. As long as we work together, I will do what I can to make sure I¡¯m the only one you work for aside from yourself.¡±


    Desha took a long sip of her own coffee and looked out the window, thinking.


    Dantes wasn¡¯t concerned about it. Her decision had already been made when she¡¯d requested the meet. Of course, she hadn¡¯t expected him to meet her there himself, but he imagined that probably strengthened his hand even further. He started to check on his operations while she sat in her silent deliberation. Things at the club were going smoothly, Sevryn was singing a high energy song about the one that got away to the accompaniment of a lute. Wane and Felix were both recovering, and were well enough that they¡¯d requested separate rooms. Jayk was¡­ yelling.


    Dantes quickly moved his attention from the club to his operations. He saw one of his stash houses being torn into by the guard. Two of his dealers were being busted in a tavern on the south end of the docks. A Frasheid ship that had come in with a shipment of dust and guns was being thoroughly searched. Even a kobold at the gate was being arrested with a hollow saddle filled with untaxed weed.


    Dantes gritted his teeth as he looked across all of it. His men were being arrested, his goods seized, and his gold taken. Pacha and his men hadn¡¯t hit any of the targets Dantes had thought they would. Instead they¡¯d hit some of his most profitable ventures, and done so in a well coordinated strike that no one had anticipated.


    How had they gotten around him? Dantes considered all that he¡¯d seen as he¡¯d watched them through the eyes of vermin. They spoke openly about their operations. He¡¯d been able to read documents and track conversations between them easily. Had they passed notes in some way he couldn¡¯t have seen? There were very few places that were outside of what he could see, but if he was focused on the obvious, if he¡¯d underestimated them and overestimated himself...


    He inhaled deeply, and steadied himself. This was the first time he¡¯d taken any real losses since he¡¯d gained control of Midtown. The perception of invulnerability he¡¯d cultivated was now threatened. He¡¯d need to act quickly to make sure it didn¡¯t stand.


    He took a long sip of his coffee.


    Desha looked at him. ¡°I accept your proposition. You get me the money, and I¡¯m yours.¡±


    Dantes nodded at her, and gently removed Brain from his lap. He took a single gold coin and placed it on the table as he stood.


    ¡°Several parcels will make their way to you shortly, as will a contact through which we will talk. Keep your eyes open.¡±


    He looked her in the eyes. ¡°I look forward to seeing how well you do, Lady Magister.¡±


    He left the building and made his way quickly and calmly to the nearest alleyway.

 Book 3 Ch 21: He Couldnt Show Weakness

    Dantes landed on the rooftop of the Vixen shortly after. He and Jacopo had flown hard to get there as quickly as possible, but didn¡¯t stop to catch their breath. Dantes left his audience chamber and headed for his VIP booth where Jayk was meeting with Zak, Fandal, Daisy, and Sand. He realized he couldn¡¯t hear what they were saying as he approached and saw that Wane was sitting nearby as well. He raised a mug of ale, a little unsteadily, and gave a solemn nod of greeting that Dantes returned.


    He walked closer and the ambient sounds from outside the booth ceased, while everyone within the booth¡¯s voices became audible.


    ¡°- move his operations onto the southern side of the docks.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, it may be better to consolidate them closer to Daisy¡¯s operations. Half of what he acquired just gets moved through her routes anyway.¡±


    The voices quieted as Dantes walked toward them.


    Jayk turned around, seeing him and nodded in greeting.


    Fandal, a member of the old Dock Sharks that Dantes had absorbed after having his old compatriot Grima removed in a spectacular and violent fashion, stood and approached him.


    ¡°They hit today''s shipment from Frasheid. I had three of my boys arrested, and now I won¡¯t be able to make deliveries to-¡±


    Dantes fixed him with a stare that made him stop talking. ¡°I know what was hit. I know who was arrested. I know what was confiscated.¡±


    ¡°But you didn¡¯t know the raids were happening,¡± muttered Sand over the edge of a mug of ale. His fat dwarven fingers wrapped completely around the mug like a snake from Lorna¡¯s swamps.


    Dantes nodded. ¡°You¡¯re right. Of the many raids I have been able to anticipate and keep us safe from, I didn¡¯t see this one coming. Of the dozens of times I¡¯ve managed to keep our men and women from trouble, this time I wasn¡¯t able to do so. Of the thousands of tips I¡¯ve been able to gather and spin into gold, this one time I received no notice.¡±


    Dantes took a few more steps toward the table and Jayk stood and gave him his chair. He nodded to him as he sat.


    ¡°You¡¯ve all grown too reliant on my abilities. I am not a god, and even the thousands of eyes and ears I command have limits. On these places that got hit, did you have watchers? Did you have back doors ready? Or were you assuming it was all handled?¡±


    Daisy smiled, she¡¯d had everything he mentioned and her operations had taken only a small hit. Fandal and Sand on the other hand, grimaced and looked away.


    Dantes shook his head. He was pushing some of the blame on them, but it wasn¡¯t as if he hadn¡¯t known they weren¡¯t taking all the usual precautions they¡¯d used before they began working with him. He¡¯d been just as reliant on his abilities as they had. Still, he couldn¡¯t show weakness, and for many in his line of work, being reasonable about blame was showing weakness.


    ¡°The men, have any of them flipped?¡±


    Jayk shook his head. ¡°Not one. They all know the deal. As long as they keep their mouths shut then we¡¯ll make sure they¡¯re well taken care of whether they get thrown into the pit or pressed into labor. We¡¯ll make sure that their families are looked after too, within reason.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°And you told them what would happen if they did talk?¡±


    Jayk smiled and nodded. ¡°That¡¯s been emphasized many times.¡±


    Dantes scratched his chin idly. He¡¯d already worked out a deal with Fritz to make sure that any of his men would have access to Smallfolk Consortium goods if they were sent to the pit. The funds he¡¯d put toward that hadn¡¯t ever been touched, so any of his men that wound up there would be in good shape.


    ¡°We¡¯re going to get hit sometimes. It¡¯ll be the guard, or some new upstarts. All we can do is prepare and mitigate. So far our preparations have worked. Jayk and I will work on how to better predict what the Guard will do. In the meantime you all continue what you¡¯ve been doing. I want us to recover and press forward quickly. Got it?¡±


    They all nodded.


    Dantes stood and jerked his head to have Jayk follow him. They walked out of the bubble of captured noise and moved up to Dantes¡¯s audience chamber. Dantes moved to his throne and took a seat.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    ¡°What¡¯s the perception?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Some of our people are shaken. Up until this point we¡¯ve seemed untouchable. The guard raiding us so soon after you gain the status of Finger is particularly damaging.¡±


    Dantes nodded. Argenta could shield them all to a certain extent, but Pacha¡¯s visibility and growing popularity among the guard as well as the regular people in the city made him difficult to deal with. Dantes hadn¡¯t minded that, as he¡¯d been able to stay one step ahead of him. Now though, he¡¯d need to handle him in a different way.


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Pacha has really done well for himself hasn¡¯t he?¡±


    Jayk raised an eyebrow. ¡°For a guard? Yeah. I almost think he actually gives a shit.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d think he¡¯s ready for some more high profile work, eh? Maybe I¡¯ll talk to Argenta to see if she can whisper a bit in her fellow councilor and Guard Captain Krant¡¯s ears. I think someone as effective as him should get a promotion? Maybe something in Uptown where he can look into all those killings?¡±


    Jayk nodded, following. ¡°And the obvious choice to replace him would be his second, Dulles? Who you told me has a bit of a dust problem?¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Easier to control, already less principled than Pacha by default.¡±


    ¡°Do you think Argenta will help like that?¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°She has no reason not to. This benefits all of us. Even Pacha will likely jump at the chance to hunt an enemy like that.¡± Dantes leaned back on his throne. ¡°I¡¯ll set a meeting with her to discuss that, among other things. You watch the others and make sure they don¡¯t do anything stupid. Particularly Fandal and Sand, they were shaky in that meeting. I¡¯m going to make sure our men in holding stay true and monitor things from here.¡±


    Jayk nodded, but hesitated. ¡°Speaking of Argenta, her daughter is here. She¡¯s been gambling on drake fights for a few hours.¡±


    Dantes frowned, blinking a bit. He knew Argenta had a daughter, but knew little about her.


    ¡°You¡¯re sure?¡±


    He nodded. ¡°Jayson is certain of it. He says he¡¯d seen her once during a scam he¡¯d run in Uptown. Her name is Alby.¡±


    Dantes stood up in his throne, the gears of his mind turning. Not many people in his line of work had children, particularly the women. He¡¯d known Argenta had a daughter, but hadn¡¯t factored her into his thinking. Perhaps he should¡¯ve.


    ¡°How¡¯s she doing?¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s down right now, and will probably stay down if she keeps betting as recklessly as she has been. We figured we should just eat the cost.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°You¡¯ve never dealt with a spoiled rich girl before have you?¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t say I¡¯ve had the pleasure.¡±


    ¡°Is she alone? No bodyguards?¡±


    Jayk shook his head. ¡°None we noticed.¡±


    Argenta was a cautious woman. He highly doubted that she¡¯d send her daughter out in the world without a bodyguard. That meant the she''d either slipped away from them, or the bodyguard was subtle enough to not be noticed. ¡°I¡¯ll handle her. You go talk to the rest of the lieutenants.¡±


    He nodded, and they separated at the stairs down to the main floor of the Vixen. Dantes heard Sevryn singing and cast a glance at her as moved. She was wearing the dress he¡¯d bought her, though it seemed as if she¡¯d had some additional beading added to it, and it had been done seamlessly. He¡¯d have to remember to ask her who her tailor was, though he enjoyed how she looked in the dress so much that the talking may wait until later. They made brief eye contact and exchanged winks before he made it into the back of the ground floor. He nodded at the bouncer who turned his key and held the door open to the den for him.


    The smell of weed, sweat, and brimstone hit him as he entered. There was screaming as everyone hollered at the fight in the pit. It was a drake fight, as always, except now the drakes opponent was an adventurer. Jayson had the idea when that adventurer had claimed a lack of funds after losing his bet. Dantes went behind the smoke bar and checked Jayson¡¯s notes to see how much Argenta¡¯s daughter lost. She was down nearly twenty gold.


    He moved over to the ring just in time to hear a cry of anguish go up from the crown as the adventurer managed to slay both of his drake opponents, very much against the odds that had been given.


    Alby wasn¡¯t difficult to identify. She had her mother¡¯s hair, including the white streak, and a similar build. The only difference was a slightly rounder face and her hair was cut much shorter. She couldn¡¯t have been much older than twenty, and appeared fully human.


    Dantes watched as she went to the bookie to place another bet, but he made a cut off gesture to him from where he was standing at the edge of the pit.


    The bookie grimaced a bit, but shook his head at the girl, causing her to scream and point at him until he indicated Dantes by the edge of the pit.


    Alby turned to him and walked in his direction with a scowl on her face.


    ¡°Do you know who the fuck I am?¡± she asked.


    ¡°You¡¯re the girl that owes me nearly twenty gold.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m-¡±


    Dantes held up a hand. ¡°I know who you are. You¡¯re Argenta¡¯s daughter. Do you have the gold to pay, or do I need to send a bill to your mother?¡±


    ¡°If my mother knows you tried to bill me for this, she¡¯ll have you killed.¡±


    Dantes laughed. ¡°I had lunch with your mother last week. I don¡¯t think she¡¯s the one to find me at fault in this situation. She¡¯s a very reasonable woman. Though I do appreciate your bluff.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re the new Finger?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know that. I thought you were just some goon.¡±


    He shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ve been an normal street thug in the past. Some things you never fully grow out of. So, do you have my gold or not?¡±


    She grimaced, and pulled a coin purse from her hip, handing it to him.


    Dantes checked the weight. ¡°This is fourteen gold and seven silver.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m good for the rest.¡±


    He shook his head, and pulled one of the silver from the pouch handing it to her. ¡°Get some drinks on me, then my man Zak will escort you back home.¡±


    ¡°You going to send him with a bill for the rest of what I owe?¡±


    ¡°No, you can bring that by yourself tomorrow. No reason to bother your mother with all this, eh?¡±


    She nodded, a look of relief on her face.


    Dantes leaned in close. ¡°Now get the fuck out of here.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 22: Bad

    Dantes awoke for the tenth night in a row holding his hand to his throat, sweat covering his sheets. Sevryn didn¡¯t even wake up this time, she¡¯d grown used to his difficulty sleeping, and he¡¯d told her many times just to get rest herself at this point. He ran a finger gently across her outline and crawled out of bed. Luckily, this time he¡¯d awoken only a little bit before dawn, his exhaustion had made it difficult to awaken from even nightmares.


    He coughed, and poured himself a glass of water from the pitcher by his bed. It was getting worse. At first he¡¯d thought his infrequent coughs were just a tickle in his throat, or perhaps a side effect of his new pigeon transformation, but he could tell he was getting sick. He hadn¡¯t been ill a single time since he¡¯d become a druid, and he found the experience incredibly unpleasant. Jacopo was sleeping on his nest of silk and satin that he¡¯d torn from various places in the Vixen. He hadn¡¯t been coughing, but Dantes had noticed he was a bit slower than usual over the last few days. It wouldn¡¯t have been perceptible to anyone other than Dantes. He wasn¡¯t sure if sickness was just something they shared due to their bond, or if perhaps whatever was making one of them sick happened to be affecting both of them.


    He walked into his greenhouse audience chamber and extended his senses out across everything. The sickness that had been at the edges of Rendhold, had finally reached its interior. Outside the main gates everyone knew someone who was sick. On the inside, Dantes was starting to see more and more people coughing on the streets. Even Uptown had a number of cases. The Temple of Many Gods had sent out those priests with the gift of healing, and while they were able to lessen people¡¯s suffering, they were unable to cure it. Disease had always been a complicated thing for healers, as they were better with physical injuries, but usually with enough effort, and gold, they could make most ailments disappear.


    Dantes had himself attempted to use his abilities to help those within his gang that were ill. He could sense the taint in them and he would reach out to those parts of them that were fighting the taint and bolster them as much as he could. It lessened their suffering, and most importantly, kept them working, but he couldn¡¯t rid them of it. It also affected each race differently. Humans tended to become feverish and gain a cough, orcs and dwarves got horrendous chills that made them shake like leaves, gnomes developed horrible rashes, halfings began leaking in unpleasant ways, Elves could not go far from their toilets, and kobolds scales started to shed improperly, often pulling up healthy scales. Mutts were lucky enough to have awful combinations of all the possibilities of their bloodlines. There hadn¡¯t been many deaths, but some of those that were already ill and infirm or elderly had been taken. He¡¯d been worried at first that his own sickness was the result of the same disease, but he didn¡¯t sense illness within himself or Jacopo in the same way he¡¯d sensed it in others, so believed it was something else.


    Dantes sat in his tree throne, trying to feel the taint that was spreading throughout the city. The exterior of the city was still hit the hardest, but he was beginning to feel larger pockets of it developing within. They felt tangible in an odd way, as if he could reach out and physically touch them. The largest of the pockets was, oddly enough, in the docks. He would¡¯ve expected it closer to the gates, especially since there were so few ships in the dock lately, for fear of the disease as well as over the growing diplomatic problems the city was suffering. He¡¯d need to investigate those thicker pockets of taint. They weren¡¯t natural, Traizen had explained to him that diseases came and went through all locus¡¯s as a natural part of the cycle of life, but this one felt like an an act of imbalance rather than balance. Sickness happened, but the way this one was developing didn¡¯t feel right to him and he still suspected Serpica or another''s interference.


    The door to the audience chamber opened and Zak stepped through, he looked surprised when he saw Dantes there so early.


    ¡°Good morning, Zak.¡±


    ¡°Morning, boss.¡±


    ¡°Were you looking for me?¡±


    He nodded, ¡°Tak is looking for you, he doesn¡¯t look well.¡±


    Dantes nodded and sat up. He wasn¡¯t wearing much in the way of clothes, but at this point there weren¡¯t many at the Vixen who hadn¡¯t seen him fully naked. He walked down the steps into the main floor where Zilly and her staff were just starting to set up for the day.


    Tak was sitting in a chair, his black scales partially peeling from his face over his eye. He was eating some fish that Dantes guessed Zilly had heated for him from the previous night''s food.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    ¡°Tak, how are you?¡±


    ¡°Bad.¡±


    Dantes sat across from him. ¡°Yeah, I probably didn¡¯t need to even ask.¡± He reached out and placed his hand on Tak¡¯s shoulder. He concentrated, finding where the taint in him was starting to grow, and energized all within him that was fighting against it. It was tiring for him, but he was getting better at it, more focused.


    ¡°Is that any better?¡±


    Tak nodded.


    ¡°See me sooner next time. Did you get the herbs from Clay and Hema? They help a lot as well.¡±


    ¡°Gave them to my uncle. He¡¯s sicker.¡±


    ¡°Bring him here to me, and get more herbs for yourself. You¡¯ve been a good earner. I need you healthy.¡±


    Tak nodded, eating another forkfull of fish.


    ¡°Were you just here for that, or was there something else?¡±


    ¡°Hearing rumblings. Guard isn¡¯t letting anyone who even seems sick in. Think they may seal off all gates entirely soon. Have some ways around that, but if there¡¯s no trade coming in the bottom line will be even more hurt.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°This has been incoming for a while. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the docks are sealed off as well soon.¡± He leaned back in his chair. ¡°Eat your fish, stick around. I have my breakfast meeting with Jayk and Vera soon. We need to adjust some things.¡±


    He patted Tak¡¯s shoulder one more time and began to walk back up the stairs with Zak.


    ¡°Have him moved to the back of my booth before the Vixen opens, and when he leaves, escort him out the back. I don¡¯t want anyone associating this place with sickness.¡±


    Zak nodded.


    Dantes went upstairs and began going through his usual routine, though he let Jacopo get some extra rest rather than exercise with him. By the time he¡¯d bathed and dressed, he¡¯d formulated a number of plans and sat with Vera, Jayk, and Tak at his table.


    ¡°Tak told me that he expects all visitors to be barred from entering the city soon. Between that and the slowing of ships coming into port, we need to make some changes.¡±


    ¡°Even with changes, we are going to take a hit. Smuggling is our main business,¡± said Jayk.


    ¡°That¡¯s true, but with the city halted, everyone will take a hit. I don¡¯t think the illegal gambling Fritz is in charge of is going to be as profitable without sailors coming into the city. No strikes to break or enforcement for Drake when there aren¡¯t any raw materials coming into the city anyway. We just need to make sure we are hit the least, then when things spin back up to normal, we¡¯ll be at the top, because everyone else will have sunk to the bottom.¡±


    ¡°What do you suggest?¡±


    ¡°First off, start cutting the dust more. We may need to make it stretch out longer to keep that profit coming in. Secondly, I want you and Tak to start working on ways to smuggle people in and out of the city once it seals up. Those on the edges who want to avoid the disease, or those who want to leave sealed sections of the city will be very motivated to pay for that service, and I want to be ready to facilitate it. Third, food and medicine. I¡¯m going to get some seeds together that I want you to take to not only the storefronts, but also anyone in midtown who wants them. Encourage them to take up a bit of gardening.¡±


    ¡°Where?¡± asked Vera. ¡°It¡¯s not as if most of them can plant in concrete?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll bring them dirt too if we have to. They can grow stuff on their roofs. Eventually food might be scarce, and medicine already is, I want control of that.¡±


    ¡°And to make sure we don¡¯t go hungry of course,¡± said Vera.


    ¡°Of course Auntie.¡±


    Dantes took a bite of sausage from his plate and took his time chewing it. ¡°That¡¯s all I have so far, was there anything new from the rest of you?¡±


    ¡°Decker is looking a lot better, but I don¡¯t want to push him to work again yet. At least not with wine,¡± said Vera, her voice concerned.


    ¡°He can take a bit more time. See if he wants to help out in the gardens with Clay and Hema. Working in the dirt like that¡­ it can help.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll see if he¡¯s interested.¡±


    ¡°Anything else?¡±


    ¡°Some of the girls are starting to show signs of being sick, but I¡¯ve already asked Hema to get us the herbs we need to help treat them.¡±


    ¡°Send them to me as well, I¡¯ll see what I can do.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m sure you won¡¯t mind giving them a healing touch.¡±


    ¡°I definitely won¡¯t. If their families are ill as well though, and that goes for any of our men and the people that pay up to us. I want them to come to me and see what we can do for them.¡±


    Vera nodded and excused herself to start clucking at her girls.


    ¡°Jayk?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve found our guardsmen friend¡¯s dealer. He¡¯s an independent out of the Guild District. A smart choice for a guard trying to keep his habit hidden. I¡¯ll work him first before moving in on the guard.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Argenta¡¯s already on our side about moving Pacha, but she¡¯s still working on councilman Krant. Take your time with it, I don¡¯t want any mistakes.¡±


    He nodded. ¡°You also wanted any news about Gavain, right?¡±


    ¡°Something new? Did he kill another dragon? Save a princess? Smile at a peasant?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s been killing slavers in Frasheid.¡±


    Dantes raised his eyebrows. ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yes. The Adventurer¡¯s guild is in deep shit about it. He¡¯s been freeing them pretty indiscriminately. Frasheid¡¯s threatening to cut off all Guild access to them if they don¡¯t rein him in.¡±


    ¡°Wonderful. Another reason for them to hate Rendhold.¡± He shook his head. ¡°Still, I¡¯m surprised he¡¯s gone that far. I¡¯d heard of him freeing some slaves here and there, but killing slavers is another thing.¡± He unconsciously rubbed his neck.


    ¡°Thanks, Jayk.¡± He stood up. ¡°I need to check some things out at the docks. Keep an eye on things for me.¡± He looked at Tak. ¡°Take your time, have some wine and whatever food you like before you leave. Keep your strength up.¡±


    Dantes walked out of the booth and went to collect Jacopo.

 Book 3 Ch 23: I dont have to kill you here

    Jacopo was hanging upside down from Dantes¡¯s tree throne as a bat when he found him. Hanging from his mouth was a fat moth that was still wriggling a bit. He leapt from the throne, launched himself a few feet, and shifted into a rat in mid air, maintaining his control of the moth as he landed and continuing his meal as he got comfortable on Dantes¡¯s shoulder. There wasn¡¯t always much of a need for conversation between them. They could sense one another¡¯s thoughts without effort, and feel one another¡¯s intentions. The only time conversations were really needed were when the senses or understandings of one didn¡¯t fully translate to the other, or one of them really needed to tell the other a joke.


    Dantes climbed onto the roof through the access he had in his chambers and shifted into a pigeon, taking flight toward the docks. He didn¡¯t have a perfect idea of where he was heading, but the feeling of rot was the strongest there, and he hoped to be able to pinpoint it better as he got closer. He did some circles over the docks, with Jacopo in tow. The streets were sparse, with only local sailors at the taverns and whorehouses that dotted them. Those few foreign ships in the docks hadn¡¯t let their sailors take shore leave for fear of bringing the sickness onboard. The busiest part of the dock was where one leviathan hunter had docked with a recent kill, and Dantes found that the smell of its fat being rendered made him feel much hungrier as a pigeon than it had as a man.


    As he did his circles, he started to get a better and better idea of where the rot he was looking for was. A series of fish processing buildings that seemed abandoned towards the south end of the docks were where he felt the strongest impression of it, the worst feeling of rot. He landed on the roof of one of them, and shifted into a rat along with Jacopo, crawling into the building where the sense of decay was enough to make their eyes water.


    They moved through some narrow corridors, the smell of fish still permeated everything despite the years of disuse. They eventually saw several other rats scurrying in the same direction that they were moving. Dantes reached out to them, but his mind bounced off of theirs. He exchanged a look with Jacopo, and followed where they were going, continuing to try and contact any rats in the area. All of those in the immediate vicinity ignored him, but a few nearby heard his call and started to gather. Eventually Dantes and Jacopo reached what all of the other rats were heading toward.


    Even with the stomach of a rat, Dantes felt ill. The sense of rot and sickness was thick in the air, and in the center of a large open room, was a mass of rats writhing and coiling together. Their fur was patchy, with exposed skin showing oozing lesions and pustules near bursting. Their bodies seemed to be blending together in a way that, at first, Dantes thought it was a trick of the light, but he realized that all of the rats in the writhing pile were connected to one another, joined into a horrifying mass of flesh where their pustules and scabs had melted into one another.


    There was a kind of familiarity to it, and Dantes realized it looked almost like a sick mockery of the rat god he¡¯d met so long ago. There was such an inherent sense of falsehood and evil to it that was so strong that Dantes forgot himself for a moment and found himself shifting a wand protruding from his wooden palm and a scowl on his face.


    Jacopo considered suggesting caution, but he felt the same revulsion to what he was seeing as Dantes did, except even more so, as in his mind he could feel just a trace of whatever sick call had led his cousins there.


    Dantes began to send his will through the wand when he was very suddenly hit by something massive and thrown into an old pile of rotted barrels that shattered from his impact. He quickly adjusted the aim of his arm toward where the blow had come from and fired off the wand he¡¯d been readying sending out a blanket of flames.


    A large spiderlike figure leapt away from the blast, but a dozen of the plague rats that had been coming toward him were instantly immolated.


    Dantes pulled the pistol from his waist and held it out in front of himself, starting to bring in the rats he¡¯d rallied outside while also starting to pull in additional vermin with his marks. He could see through Jacopo¡¯s eyes that the figure was hanging suspended in the air in the corner. He aimed his pistol and fired.


    The figure launched itself toward him, landing in the midst of the writhing flesh mass, and striking out with one of its limbs.


    Dantes dodged backwards deftly, but clutched his arm as pain shot up it. At first he thought he¡¯d been injured, then he realized the source of the pain was a leaf tattoo on his arm. He sheathed his pistol and drew a long dagger.


    ¡°Serpica. I guess hitting you half the time that I shoot isn¡¯t the worst record.¡±


    She raised a robed hand and all of the rats beneath her began to swarm toward him.


    The rats he¡¯d summoned arrived just in time to meet the diseased swarm, but as they fought Dantes noticed that any of the rats he¡¯d summoned that were bitten or scratched immediately started to slow or even go completely still, their bodies weakening quickly to whatever illness had spread to the others. He scowled and sent them away, along with all of the other vermin he¡¯d been starting to mass.


    ¡°You¡¯re a quick learner,¡± said Serpica, moving closer to him.


    He took a good look at her. She was still wearing a heavy black robe that covered her completely, her face hidden behind a featureless mask. From her back protruded four strange limbs that Dantes realized were made of the same kind of living wood as his hand. He hadn¡¯t considered jamming four more branches into his back, it seemed painful.


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing you¡¯ve been blessed by the rat god too. That¡¯s why I can¡¯t control them?¡±Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    She shrugged with her regular arms. ¡°It¡¯s no surprise. I¡¯ve carried his blessing far longer than you.¡±


    ¡°The taint I¡¯m feeling, the rot in this city, the disease. It¡¯s you?¡± He¡¯d suspected it might be, since his talk with Traizen those weeks ago, but hadn¡¯t been certain. There were so many enemies in his life, it could be unwise to presume any action was a specific one of them.


    ¡°Of course one as impure as you would see purity as corruption. I¡¯m bringing life to this city. Filling it with more than has ever been here before. When that life has burned through every soul here that is unworthy of the Mother¡¯s gifts, it will return to nature as it should.¡±


    Jacopo subtly moved to Dantes¡¯s right arm, gripping his dagger with his paws.


    ¡°Well, all of that crazy shit you said at the conclave is starting to make sense now. Unfortunately, it¡¯s still as meaningless as it was then.¡±


    ¡°Meaning is often lost on those without fai-¡±


    Dantes threw Jacopo and his dagger as hard as he could toward Serpica. As he was in the air, Jacopo shifted into a man, and gripped the dagger. His body slammed into hers with enough force to make her stumble back on all four of her legs as he drove the knife into her shoulder, and then used his weight to drag the blade down across her body. He then jumped back, scowling at the smell coming off the dagger.


    She screamed as blood, pus, and bile exploded from within her robe which started to fall away from where it was torn. Her body was covered in so many sores, boils, and rashes, the color of her skin was no longer possible to ascertain, nor was her race, as it seemed that all of the worst results of every disease were marked across her flesh. It was hard to believe she was even a person under all that sickness.


    Dantes remembered what Traizen had told him when they¡¯d first met. When she left, said she carried her Locus within herself. She¡¯d made herself into a home for disease, all of those horrible ailments that spread across the battlefield that was once her locus now lived within her.


    Dantes readied another wand and Jacopo moved to strike at her with the dagger, but she very suddenly became a cloud of flies, and spread throughout the room.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have to kill you here, apostate. When my purity fills your locus, your life will end along with it.¡± The flies dispersed, leaving along before they could strike at them.


    Those rats that had held still while Serpica spoke started to rush at Dantes and Jacopo. Dantes grimaced, and raised his wand again, sending out a blast of freezing air that sealed all of them to the ground and killed them instantly. He moved over to the writhing flesh effigy of rats and activated the spell again, freezing and killing it, if it could even have been considered alive. The taint in the air faded as it died, but didn¡¯t leave completely. He guessed he wouldn¡¯t be able to remove it completely unless he ended Serpica herself.


    He coughed a bit, and spat some phlegm onto the ground.


    He did a mental inventory of his wands as he flexed his wooden fingers. He¡¯d upgraded from single use cheap ones to a rotation of five that he could use regularly, but if the Academy stayed sealed he¡¯d need to do his best to preserve the charges he had left. He pinched the bridge of his nose. Merle would be a tremendous help dealing with Serpica. At this rate, he might finish his takeover of the Academy towers only to find a dead city waiting for him.


    Jacopo handed Dantes his dagger back and he sheathed it. He¡¯d need the other druids'' help. If he was very lucky then Traizen had discovered some way to combat unnatural disease in his conversations with Berkilak. Fortunately, the next conclave meeting wasn¡¯t far off.


    ¡­


    Dantes landed back at the Vixen less than an hour later. He was bruised and cut from where Serpica had managed to strike him, and had a number of rat bites on his lower legs as well. His fine clothes had also been torn, he went to his bedroom to change before he entered the club and found Sevryn laying on his bed drinking some tea with honey.


    She frowned as he walked in and looked him over.


    ¡°You¡¯re hurt. Come here, sit down.¡±


    He complied, stripping off his jacket as she poured him some water and handed it to him.


    He went to take the cup, but hesitated for a moment as their fingers touched. He looked at her face, her lavender eyes for a moment, then he took the cup and had a long sip.


    ¡°Thanks, beautiful.¡±


    ¡°Take off your clothes.¡±


    Dantes smiled, unbuttoning his shirt. ¡°You¡¯ll have to take the lead this time I¡¯m afraid.¡±


    She laughed, grabbing a bottle of strong liquor near the table and a handkerchief. ¡°I take the lead every time.¡± she said, kneeling as she dipped the handkerchief into the bottle, then started to clean his wounds.


    ¡°Only until I take it back,¡± responded Dantes, ignoring the stinging of the alcohol against his cuts and bruises. He probably didn¡¯t need his cuts cleaned, his healing was very quick, but he didn¡¯t mind the attention.


    When she was done, he put on a clean outfit and went back downstairs with her on his arm. He gave her hand a gentle kiss and let her go back to the stage to sing, then sat in his VIP booth, gesturing to the bar to have a meal brought up to him. He pulled one of his men to the side and asked him to burn the clothes he¡¯d left on the floor in his room while he waited.


    Jayk and the meal he¡¯d been awaiting arrived at the same time.


    Dantes cut into the steak that had been placed in front of him. It was blue, as he¡¯d preferred it since he left the pit. He put the piece in his mouth and chewed it slowly.


    ¡°Anything major since earlier?¡±


    Jayk shook his head. ¡°We¡¯ve started to move things the ways you¡¯ve indicated. No major problems, but no easy wins either. The city is starting to be more proactive about the sickness. They¡¯re paying herbalists, priests, and even adventurers to try and stop the spread. The only other thing that might be of interest to you, is that Argenta¡¯s daughter is back.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± asked Dantes, taking a sip of red wine.


    ¡°Yes, she¡¯s tried to disguise herself with a dirty jacket and her hair hidden in a hat.¡±


    Dantes laughed. ¡°Have her brought to me.¡±


    Jayk nodded and left. A few bites of steak and sips of wine Later, Alby was dropped in the chair across from him by two bouncers.


    ¡°Welcome back,¡± said Dantes, holding up his glass in greeting.


    ¡°How did you know?¡±


    ¡°Your jacket¡¯s made of silk and brand new. Smearing some dirt on it isn¡¯t quite enough. Also, your white streak is sticking out of your hat.¡±


    He sniffed the air.


    ¡°You¡¯re also wearing the same perfume as last time you were here.¡±


    She blushed a little, embarrassed she¡¯d been seen through so easily.


    ¡°So, did you bring what you owe me?¡±


    She gritted her teeth, but pulled out a small coinpurse and tossed it at his face. Dantes caught it and gave it a shake, confirming it was the right amount.


    ¡°Can I go now?¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Yeah, but you¡¯re welcome to have some dinner with me if you¡¯d like. I can explain more about where you went wrong with your disguise. And tell you where you¡¯ve been going wrong with your gambling as well.¡±


    She looked at him carefully. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Your mother, likely for good reasons, doesn¡¯t want you to know these things, but you¡¯re clearly going to be doing them anyway. I like working with her. I¡¯d prefer her not be distracted because you¡¯ve been caught by someone less kind than me.¡±


    She thought for a moment, and nodded. ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll stick around.¡±


    Dantes held a hand up to the bar to order her a plate.

 Book 3 Ch 24: Jacque should meet his uncle

    Dantes and Jacopo flew to the old tree that they always used to tree-walk themselves to the Viridian Expanse. He coughed a bit as they landed and shifted, but he managed to force it down. The moon was high and full in the sky, and Dantes could feel its light filling him with strength as they moved. The old tree and the area around it had started to sprout new life in the last few months. Tough weeds grew through the concrete, mushrooms spread in moist places where the rain collected, and even the previously bare limbs of the tree itself were sporting leaves.


    Dantes started to do his usual mental check of where everything stood. His gardens were being protected, his interests watched over by Jayk and the other lieutenants, he¡¯d already replied to Argenta''s most recent message tracking Godfrey''s old connections, and Wane was working with Felix to examine the old Fishery that he had cleared Serpica out of, to see if they could figure anything out on a magical level. Unfortunately, they weren¡¯t exactly druid experts, and didn¡¯t even know of any within the Academy. Still, he hoped fresh eyes might provide more insights. He''d healed everyone he could for the day with the expectation of more incoming the next day. Vera had asked him to have a private dinner with her when he and Jacopo got back. He was looking forward to that. He hadn¡¯t had a lot of time to talk with her one on one in the last several months.


    Dantes and Jacopo braced themselves for that awful feeling of oneness that they had to endure when they tree-walked, and began to press into the tree¡¯s trunk.


    It didn¡¯t give.


    Dantes looked at his hand, and the tree, then tried again. He focused all the energy bleeding into him from the moonlight into the action.


    Once again, it didn¡¯t give.


    He tried a third time, trying to force that feeling of wholeness with nature that he would experience when he was within that network of life within the ground. This time, when he put his hand against the tree and pushed, he actually felt it start to give way, so he pushed even harder.


    Pain shot up his arm suddenly and he was thrown back, barely avoiding landing on Jacopo by twisting his body at the last moment. He felt the feeling of rot flow through his arm and shoot through him. He retched violently as he fought to force down the feeling. It took several minutes, but he eventually regained control of himself. He stood and went back to the tree, putting his hand on it not in an attempt to tree-walk, but rather to steady himself.


    Serpica had done something. Maybe it was just a side effect of the corruption she¡¯d been spreading, or she had some way to block tree-walking more generally. It didn¡¯t matter the method, what mattered was that he was cut off from the other druids.


    He placed his hand on the tree trunk again, this time not trying to push his hand through it, but rather focus on it. He connected that focus to the leaf tattoos on his arm, pushing through a singular thought and broadcasting it as strongly as he could. Jacopo crawled up his arm and placed his hand on the trunk as well. They pushed out a single word with all their focus, hoping to break through the blockage with a message in a way their bodies had been unable to do.


    ¡°Help. Serpica¡¯s here¡±.


    They did that for nearly an hour, focusing as much as they could. Trying to push their message through. They felt no response.


    Dantes stepped away, feeling oddly exhausted by his effort and took a few deep breaths. He couldn¡¯t rely on them coming, so he¡¯d have to do what he could to beat Serpica himself¡­ Well, himself along with all the resources and allies he could muster.


    ¡­


    Dantes arrived back at the Vixen after a short flight. He landed on the ceiling and made his way down, letting Jacopo off his shoulder so he could go and get some sleep in his nest. He was getting even more worn down than he had been. Dantes¡¯s own cough and aches had worsened as well. Neither of them acknowledged the other¡¯s weakness.


    Dantes walked out onto his small VIP balcony to see Jayk sitting in his booth with a thick cigar in his mouth, a whore on each arm, and a bottle of top shelf booze on the table in front of him.


    Dantes smiled and walked toward the stairs, shooting him a wink as they briefly made eye contact.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Jayk nearly let the cigar fall from his mouth, but managed a slight nod in return. Dantes was just happy to see that he was actually enjoying some of the fruits of his labor. No point in working and making money if you weren¡¯t playing and spending it just as hard.


    Dantes went to the bar, the crowd parting for him, raising glasses to him in greeting, or batting eyelashes in his direction.


    He waved for Zilly¡¯s attention and she came over to him.


    ¡°Is Vera busy? I know she wanted to have dinner, and I¡¯m back earlier than I expected.¡±


    Zilly had an amused smile on her face, the look of a woman that knew something funny was about to happen to your detriment. ¡°She¡¯s busy, but I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll be wanting to see you soon. I¡¯ll have some food sent up to your chambers, and let her know you¡¯re waiting for her.¡±


    Dantes nodded to her with his eyes narrowed, and went back up to his chambers. A quiet dinner while he let his mind work on all of his current problems seemed like the best way he could spend the night. He sat, thanked the young kobold that delivered covered food trays and wine, and leaned back in his chair.


    A few minutes later, his aunt arrived. She smiled at him, but it didn¡¯t reach her eyes.


    ¡°Dantes. I was wondering if it would be alright if Alessa joined us for dinner tonight?¡±


    He shrugged, surprised she was even asking. She was one of the few people that could ask him to do just about anything. An extra dinner guest was hardly an imposition.


    ¡°Of course. She¡¯s feeling better then? It¡¯s good to hear about someone getting over being sick rather than being sick for a change.¡±


    Vera nodded.


    ¡°Oh, she''s definitely feeling better.¡± She gestured just outside the door.


    Alessa came in. She seemed to have lost the weight she¡¯d put on before, and was wearing a plain red dress without adornment, which was very unlike her. She was holding something, a cloth bundle of some kind, that was wriggling a bit.


    ¡°Oh gods,¡± he said rubbing his hand across his mouth as his eyes widened.


    ¡°Hi Dantes,¡± said Alessa, wearing an awkward smile that was very unlike her. She pulled some of the cloth away to reveal a baby. He had dark green skin, tusks protruding from his mouth, a tuft of black hair on his head, and when he looked around the room, his eyes shone like gold coins.


    Dantes grimaced a bit, removing his hand from his face. ¡°That time in the tavern, after I told you about the singing job here?¡±


    Alessa nodded. ¡°They didn¡¯t have the anti-conception enchantment there. It wasn¡¯t a brothel, and I didn¡¯t think about it.¡±


    ¡°I suppose I didn¡¯t either.¡±


    ¡°His name is-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me his name.¡±


    Alessa widened her eyes in shock, and Vera glared daggers at him.


    He held up his hands. ¡°Not because I don¡¯t want to know, but I need to name him separately.¡±


    They both looked at him curiously.


    ¡°There¡¯s some odd specific benefits to it. Trust me.¡± He stood up from the table and approached the baby carefully. He ran a hand over his head, and gently touched the bridge of his nose, while the baby regarded him with a serious look.


    ¡°Telapo, or Jacatel?¡± he mused aloud. ¡°I think Jacatel, that way you can go by Jacque if you want.¡±


    The baby had no opinion one way or another, just staring at the strange man whose eyes matched his own.


    He smiled at him. ¡°Now, you can tell me your name for him.¡±


    ¡°Daken, it was my father¡¯s name.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I like it, it¡¯s strong.¡± he held out his hands. ¡°Can I hold him?¡±


    She held the baby out and Dantes took him gently, supporting his head and rocking him gently.


    Alessa looked at him with a raised eyebrow.


    ¡°Dantes would look after the other whores¡¯ children at the brothels his mother worked at for a few copper a piece. You know, the ones born from lapsed enchantments, or doing side work in an alley, or even from their actual husbands. He¡¯s actually quite good with them,¡± said Vera.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t tell you sooner,¡± said Alessa with some regret in her voice.


    ¡°Weren¡¯t sure how I¡¯d react?¡± he asked, still gently rocking Jacque.


    She nodded.


    ¡°Well, from what you know about me I¡¯m a cutthroat thief and gangster that enjoys whores so I can¡¯t really blame you.¡± He made a few faces at the baby. ¡°What made you choose to keep him?¡±


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t work as a whore anymore, even without your backing there are clubs in Uptown that would hire me. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll ever marry, and I just decided I wanted to have one.¡±


    He nodded looking down at Jacque. ¡°It¡¯s a good thing your mother¡¯s smart and beautiful, hopefully you¡¯ll take more after her than me.¡±


    He cooed a bit in response, blowing a spit bubble.


    ¡°That extra bit of orc should help quite a bit with your height too I¡¯d imagine.¡±


    He looked back at Alessa.


    ¡°You¡¯ll be moving into one of my guest rooms here. I¡¯ll get you a girl to help with everything and have Zak assign two men to protect you both. I''ll start providing you with a monthly stipend. If you need anything beyond what I provide, just ask and I¡¯ll take care of it.¡± He handed Jacque back to her gently. ¡°I¡¯d like to spend at least an hour a day with him, hopefully more if possible. You can take other lovers or marry, I don¡¯t own you, but if he ever calls another man father I¡¯ll slit the man¡¯s throat.¡± he looked at her and smiled. ¡°Fair?¡±


    Vera shook her head. ¡°With terms that generous the other girls are going to try to have your children.¡±


    He shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ve only really had eyes for Sevryn lately, and I don¡¯t get the impression that she¡¯s the motherly type.¡±


    He looked at Alessa again. ¡°So, does that sound fair to you?¡±


    She smiled. ¡°It does.¡± She looked bewildered for a moment. ¡°I can never quite pin you down Dantes.¡±


    He shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m fairly certain you pinning me down is how this happened.¡± He gestured to the table. ¡°Let¡¯s sit and have some dinner. I¡¯ll have them send up some more food.¡± he stepped toward the table and pulled out chairs for each of them. ¡°Oh, and let me wake up Jacopo. Jacques should meet his uncle.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 25: Keep a lady on her toes

    Dantes found himself standing in a wide open field filled with high, green grass. The sun was at its highest point in the sky, but a cool breeze kept him from feeling too warm. A single tree stood a few yards to his right, but it cast no shadow.


    He took a few deep breaths when he heard something rushing toward him. He turned just in time to see an enormous furry form slam into him. He was knocked to the ground and saw a massive maw above him, lined with sharp teeth. It opened, and dragged a tongue the width of a wine barrel across his face.


    The weight on him was suddenly lifted and the beast stepped backward, wagging its tail.


    Dantes stood as well, and took in the sight of a massive black dog with sharply pointed ears and a long regal snout. It was panting, its tongue hanging from the side of its mouth, and it was easily the size of a small house.


    Dantes gently scraped his hand across his face to remove the saliva from it and bowed.


    ¡°The god of hounds? It¡¯s nice to meet you.¡±


    ¡°Your courtesy is wasted on him,¡± said a voice behind him.


    Dantes whipped around to see, sitting in the tree, a normal-sized orange cat peering down at him.


    ¡°The god of cats as well?¡± He bowed to her this time. ¡°I¡¯m surprised to see you both at once.¡±


    The cat stretched on the branch and leapt down, landing perfectly gracefully on a patch of grass.


    ¡°It is unusual, but that¡¯s just how the timing worked out. Besides, he and I aren¡¯t so different really. We both love humans, we just have different ideas about how transactional love should be.¡±


    The god of hounds blew some air through his nose. ¡°I see you as partners, she as servants.¡±


    The god of cats licked her paws. ¡°I see you as partners, he sees you as masters.¡±


    Dantes smiled a bit, their people had given him a pretty strong impression of what they¡¯d be like. He was grateful that impression wasn¡¯t far off. ¡°I¡¯m grateful to speak to both of you, your opinions on me and mine don¡¯t offend me at all.¡±


    The hound god began to pace playfully around him. ¡°Not many of your kind seek my blessing. There are some hunters who I¡¯ve granted it to, but normally your kind favors my father, the god of wolves.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m more domesticated than the other druids are. I like people more than they do. Hounds are more to my liking than wolves.¡±


    He laughed a bit and did a few quick rolls in the grass. ¡°I will grant you my blessing, Druid. You should know though that it differs from those blessings you¡¯ve already received. You can call my children to you, but only those already loyal to you will heed your commands implicitly.¡±


    Dantes nodded, that was disappointing, but he didn¡¯t let that feeling reach his face. Apparently hiding his true emotions was something he could do even in dreams he was pulled into by minor gods.


    ¡°Those that are already loyal to you though, will be strengthened when you call upon them. They will bite harder, seek more thoroughly, and run with greater speed than they should be able to in order to honor you.¡±


    The cat god weaved through his legs to gain his attention, and he instinctively scratched her between the ears.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°My blessing is different as well. You can look through the eyes of any of my children as you will, and they will listen when you speak, but they will choose whether to follow any of your requests. I have given them too much of myself for them to heed orders from anyone but themselves.¡±


    Dantes nodded.


    ¡°You will receive another gift from me though, one that normally takes far more effort to earn.¡±


    ¡°You won¡¯t tell me what that gift is?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s correct.¡±


    He smiled, that seemed about right.


    ¡°Can I ask you both for one additional favor?¡±


    ¡°Of course,¡± said the god of hounds.


    ¡°It would be bold of you,¡± said the god of cats.


    ¡°After you grant me your blessing, can the rest of my sleep be dreamless?¡±


    The gods exchanged a glance and nodded. Dantes held out his arm and each of them placed a paw on him. There was no pain this time, and the rest of his night he was free of the headsman¡¯s axe that had so long deprived him of restful sleep.


    ¡­


    He awoke purring as nailed fingers ran their way through his coarse gray fur. He instinctively rolled over onto his back to expose his stomach and the fingers moved to scratch him there, causing him to purr even more loudly.


    He blinked a few times, and looked up to see Sevryn, half covered by blankets and wearing only her jewelry, looking down at him with lavender eyes.


    ¡°First I find you have a bastard, then you turn into a cat. You know how to keep a lady on her toes.¡±


    Dantes shifted back into himself, surprised to find the process painless. The gift the god of cats had granted him, she¡¯d given him the ability to shift right away and do so with ease. He looked at his arm, there was a fully gold cat¡¯s paw, and a dog''s paw with the center pad filled in with gold.


    He looked at Sevryn. ¡°You handle surprises very well.¡±


    She shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m very changeable.¡±


    He stretched a bit, and moved the hair from her face. When he¡¯d told her of his son he wasn¡¯t sure of how she¡¯d react, but all she¡¯d done was laugh and say she was surprised he only had the one bastard. She even wanted to meet him, though she was clear that she was going to be acting as his aunt rather than his mother, which was more than fair to him, and made Alessa much friendlier to her almost immediately once that was made clear.


    He stretched and coughed, seeing Jacopo sitting up in his nest looking at him.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t like that,¡± he said, his whiskers twitching.


    Dantes laughed a bit. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t have many uses for catform that aren¡¯t covered by ratform already. I¡¯ll likely only be changing in very specific situations.¡± He took a few steps, finding that the unconscious silencing of his footsteps that he did was even easier than usual. ¡°Huh,¡± he said as he poured himself some water and drank it. He looked over to Sevryn to tell her to get some rest, but she¡¯d already rolled over and gone back to sleep.


    He went to his garden to see his hounds sleeping, but their ears perked up as he entered. He had them wake up, spin around, run in circles, then stand on their hind legs.


    He sighed, kneeling and scratching the sides of their necks. ¡°You would¡¯ve done all of that even if I didn¡¯t have the mark.¡±


    They didn¡¯t disagree.


    He moved toward the large tree in the center of the room. He leapt up, grabbed a branch and pulled himself up. The branch barely moved as he did it. He¡¯d always been a strong climber, but he found himself adjusting his weight and balance far more delicately. He jumped from the top of the tree, and landed perfectly on his feet, not even feeling a strong impact on his knees as his body automatically distributed the force of it across the rest of him.


    He smiled, looking at Jacopo who had followed him inside.


    ¡°You know, I enjoyed the enhanced senses that the rest of my marks eventually gave me. Sensing danger better, improved hearing, the ability to feel my way in the dark perfectly, but I have to say, this may be my favorite so far.¡±


    Jacopo sighed, and focused, trying to shift into a cat as well. For him, it seemed that the god of cats hadn¡¯t made the effort to keep the change from being painful, but when he was done he was a massive brown tabby. He flexed his claws and ran one of them across a long front tooth.


    ¡°I guess there are some benefits.¡±


    The hounds eyed Jacopo curiously, but he hissed at them and they laid back down, cowering just a bit as they did so.


    They spent the rest of the morning testing their new abilities and sparring, even letting the dogs join in some chases to see how quickly they could really move and climb. By the time the sun was up, they were exhausted, but felt they had a much fuller understanding of the blessings they¡¯d been given. The extra rest had done him and Jacopo both some good. Dantes had barely any coughing fits and Jacopo seemed to have much more energy. The boost was temporary of course. They both knew that the headsman would visit again the next night. Still, no reason to spoil a boon simply because it wouldn¡¯t last forever.

 Book 3 Ch 26: Youre Shameless

    Dantes sat on a couch next to Diamond, inhaling deeply from one of the smoke-filled tubes that extended from the device in the center of the table that he¡¯d been told was a gnomish invention called a hookah. The smoke was rich and flavorful, leaving his mouth feeling a bit like he¡¯d eaten something that made sparks in his mouth. He blew out the smoke into the air, and looked across at the other Fingers.


    Fritz was blitzed out of his mind on something or another, and seemed very interested in the texture of the couch he was sitting on. Drake was drumming his fingers against the table in front of him, his thick fingers causing a thumping that sounded almost like footsteps as he looked at the door. Argenta hadn¡¯t arrived yet, but Dantes could see her entering the club through the eyes of a bat hanging on a nearby sign.


    She arrived at the lounge shortly after. She didn¡¯t apologize for being late, but sat on the only uncomfortable looking, high-backed chair in the circle and looked at the rest of them.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s clear why I called all of you here?¡± she asked.


    ¡°The sickness,¡± mumbled Fritz exhaling a cloud of smoke from his nose.


    She nodded. ¡°It¡¯s weakening the city more and more, we need to be able to fight it.¡±


    Drake shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ve been going out with my men, breaking down doors and forcing those with a cough back to work to keep profits up.¡±


    ¡°Seems like a good way to spread the disease,¡± said Dantes with an eyebrow raised. He''d had a part in smuggling a few people into and out of the city, but putting the known sick into a confined space with the healthy seemed worse. Or maybe he was just a hypocrite.


    Drake shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m sending the boys that are already sick, and they¡¯re putting them in the factories and workshops where everyone¡¯s already sick. They need to get paid, it would be cruel to their families if they didn¡¯t work. If it kills them, then their families will have the benefit of them earning a bit more coin before they went.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been selling minor shielding rings for a killing. They do seem to have some effect. Not that I¡¯ve been hurting anyway with the academy sealed up,¡± said Diamond.


    ¡°You¡¯ve still been producing the items I¡¯ve been asking for?¡± asked Argenta.


    ¡°Yes, the next shipment is on its way to the guard now.¡±


    Fritz shrugged. ¡°People still want to gamble, and money still needs to be moved, but I¡¯d be lying if I said there wasn¡¯t trouble. People are going out less and hiding more.¡± He took a purple mushroom from his jacket and ate it. ¡°Been working with some of the Temple priests to have them do some extra under the radar healings to help mitigate my losses.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Smuggling is nearly dead, but I¡¯ve been stockpiling for a while and have started cutting the dust to make it last longer. Not too many deaths in midtown and the docks yet. My people are fine, even those outside the gates.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard that you can heal those people with the disease,¡± said Argenta.


    Everyone¡¯s eyes snapped to him, and he kept himself from frowning. He¡¯d hoped to keep that mostly to himself and midtown.


    ¡°I can make them marginally better, return some of their strength, but I can¡¯t cure it.¡± Dantes didn¡¯t mention the fact that he¡¯d also been hunting down any of the major dens of the disease and burning them to slow things down, but he didn¡¯t see a reason to tie the disease too closely to himself and his actions.


    ¡°Do you think, if you worked with a priest, you could eradicate it entirely?¡± asked Argenta.


    Dantes thought about the feeling of corruption and how it spread. He didn¡¯t have much experience with Temple healing. His mother had once taken him to a temple and spent an entire silver on having a broken arm fixed, but that was very different from treating a sickness.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± he answered honestly. ¡°But I doubt it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll arrange for you to try.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d also be willing to try and heal any of your men and women you feel are necessities. For a modest fee, of course.¡±


    ¡°You''re shameless,¡± said Diamond lightly punching his arm.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ¡°We all are, that¡¯s why we¡¯re so successful.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll send a few fixers your way,¡± said Fritz, blowing out some smoke, ¡°I should be fine though, my body is a Temple.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll have some men sent as well,¡± said Drake.


    ¡°Arrange it with me beforehand so that I can meet them. I don¡¯t suddenly want a flood of the ill in Midtown. Bad for business.¡±


    They all nodded in agreement.


    Argenta watched the discussion silently while maintaining her perfect posture. ¡°Let¡¯s get into some more specifics.¡±


    ¡­


    Dantes made it back to his club shortly after the meeting. He¡¯d resisted an offer from Fritz to do a pile of drugs and an offer from Diamond of a different, but equally hedonistic kind. He¡¯d had a brief word with Argenta, but there hadn¡¯t been much to discuss. Godfrey was gone, as were all of his masked associates. They were still trying to track down everyone¡¯s involvement with him, but there was nothing new, only traces of what he¡¯d done in the past. He¡¯d collected all that he could and started going over it with Jayk, focusing on any dealings with the Fingers in particular, specifically Fritz. With his financial dealings he seemed like the one Godfrey would target based on his vices and financial dealings. Until that work turned up anything the only thing that was certain was that Godfrey would be back.


    Dantes landed on the roof of the Vixen and descended down the rooftop stairs into his apartments. He peeked into Alessa¡¯s chambers and saw that she was sleeping, as was Jacque in a small bassinet next to her. He saw both of his hounds curled up by him, and Jacopo sleeping in the bassinet himself, leaning against the baby¡¯s back. He gently closed the door and went to his garden. He¡¯d taken an hour with the boy when he¡¯d first woken up, rocking him as he gave orders to have a dealer¡¯s throat slit for running away with product. The boy was warming up to him, though he¡¯d had yet to see him smile.


    Dantes took a few moments to check on the status of all of his gardens. He could feel some new bastions of disease and corruption in his locus that he¡¯d need to try and cull to continue slowing things the next day. Things were going to keep getting worse, he didn¡¯t like having to be reactive, but since he¡¯d taken things over in Midtown that had seemed to become a burden he needed to bear.


    He stood and walked out into the main hall of the Vixen. It was half as full as it usually was, and there wasn¡¯t nearly as much of a festive nature to it. People were drowning sorrows, not celebrating victories. Dantes watched Sevryn belt out a pleasant tune, accompanied by two lutes. Then scanned the crowd again, noticing for half a second that someone had been looking at him. He looked more closely.


    She was wearing baggy clothing that wasn¡¯t as well kept, and she¡¯d dyed her white streak, but he could tell that Alby was sitting at the bar nursing a glass of wine, and trying to remain undetected. She¡¯d done a much better job this time, but his own senses had become so enhanced through his blessings that he was certain no one could disguise themselves from him, at least not for long.


    He motioned to one of his bouncers. ¡°Get me Jayk.¡±


    The man nodded and left. Shortly after, Jayk appeared.


    ¡°Did you need another update? No real changes since you¡¯ve left.¡±


    Dantes shook his head, and gestured subtly to Alby.


    Jayk looked for a few moments. ¡°Doesn¡¯t really seem to be your type.


    Dantes laughed. ¡°That¡¯s Alby, Argenta¡¯s daughter.¡±


    Jayk looked again, and nodded. ¡°You¡¯re right. She¡¯s a lot better at that than she was.¡± He looked at him. ¡°It¡¯s time then?¡±


    Dantes nodded.


    ¡°I¡¯ll put things in motion.¡±


    ¡­


    Albion walked back toward Uptown with a bit of pep in her step. She¡¯d evaded her bodyguards, and bested Dantes by going to his club without being recognized, even though she was certain he¡¯d seen her. She discounted the fact that she¡¯d only beaten him by taking his advice, in her mind her victory over him was absolute.


    She turned a corner and started moving down a dark alley.


    There was a man in front of her, facing her on the other end of the alley.


    Behind her she heard footsteps and turned around to see another man. They were both large, probably had a bit of orc in them.


    The one in front of her drew a dagger from his belt.


    ¡°Your purse. Now.¡±


    She raised a hand, and started to send her will through one of her rings, but very suddenly she felt a blow to the back of her head and stumbled, her will fizzling.


    ¡°She just tried to magic you!¡±


    The other man lifted her and shoved her against the wall of the alley. ¡°I thought we were just dealing with a common bitch, but it looks like we found an Uptowner slumming it,¡± he peeled the rings off her hands as she struggled and tore a silver chain from her neck.


    ¡°What should we do?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d say we hold onto her. Maybe try to get a ransom.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯d be easier just to sell the jewelry and move on.¡±


    ¡°Come on, Tusk, we ransom her, we make much more. Besides,¡± he ran a hand up her leg. ¡°It¡¯ll be easy to pass the time.¡±


    Albion¡¯s eyes widened, her terror rising past her disorientation.


    As the man¡¯s hand started to move higher, he stopped suddenly, his own eyes widening. She looked up to see the point of a dagger sticking through his throat.


    Dantes yanked his dagger out of the man¡¯s throat and tossed him away by the hair.


    The other man¡¯s eyes widened.


    ¡°He sa-¡±


    Dantes aimed his gun and pulled the trigger, sending the man¡¯s personality through the back of his skull. He belted the dagger and pistol.


    ¡°You alright?¡± he asked, turning to her and holding out his hand.


    She nodded and took his hand letting him help her to her feet. She had a flash of anger and started kicking the corpse in front of her. She did that for almost a full minute before she stopped.


    Dantes took off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders. ¡°Come on. I¡¯ll take you back to the club and send a message to your mother.¡±


    She looked up at him as if to argue.


    He shook his head. ¡°No arguments on this, she needs to know.¡±


    ¡°Fuuuck.¡±


    Dantes laughed lightly. ¡°How about I teach you how to cheat at cards while we wait?¡±

 Book 3 Ch 27: Youre My Favorite Date

    Dantes stood in the antechamber of Argenta¡¯s manor, looking down at the shivering dwarf that had been laid there. It was a massive, well lit space, filled with marble and black stone. He¡¯d spent most of the previous evening playing cards with Alby and trying to get what information about Argenta and Gren out her that he could. All he¡¯d managed to glean is that she didn¡¯t think there was anything unusual about regularly seeing a demon, he was surly, and her mother controlled him with a grimoire of some kind. That last part was interesting, but he wasn¡¯t able to get any more information from her. He knew grimoires contained spells, but Argenta wasn¡¯t a mage, at least he didn¡¯t think she was. He¡¯d tried to search around her home, but she didn¡¯t have an anti-vermin enchantment, she had a vermin alarm system. He¡¯d found out the first time he¡¯d tried to spy on her, and it was much more difficult to get around. He¡¯d brought Alby straight back to Argenta himself that morning, and had found Argenta waiting with a priestess and a sick dwarf.


    He and the priestess of the healing touch exchanged a nod with him, and both got to work at the same time.


    Dantes focused on the smallest, most miniscule parts of the dwarf, the ones that were working to fight against the disease within him, and started to pour energy into them.


    The Priestess mumbled a quick prayer and laid hands glowing silver onto the dwarf¡¯s chest.


    Through his perspective at the smallest level, he could see the way her power was affecting him. The damage wrought by the disease was there one second, then gone the next, but the taint itself remained, just as it did with Dantes¡¯s healing.


    They both finished, and the dwarf¡¯s shivering ceased, his breathing calmed, and he laid still and calm with his eyes closed.


    Dantes looked at the priestess, and she nodded her head at him.


    He looked to Argenta. ¡°He¡¯s far better off than he was, better than if either of us had worked on him alone, but he¡¯s still sick, and each time we¡¯ll be able to heal him less and less.¡±


    Argenta nodded. ¡°It was worth trying,¡± she looked to the priestess. ¡°You can expect the donation to have arrived before you even return. Please see yourself out.¡±


    The woman nodded, and left the room.


    Argenta stood staring across the room until she heard the woman leave.


    "The guard you wanted transferred, Pacha, is hard at work on these Uptown murders. He''s got interesting theories. Seems to think the perpetrator may be a changeling."


    "That''s interesting."


    "You had many dealing with them back in the Pit?"


    "Everyone did. There were some things only they could provide a man down there."


    "A clever people to survive any way they can like that."


    "They are."


    Argenta was silent for a few moments, and Dantes was considering taking his leave, but could sense she wanted to discuss something else.


    ¡°Thank you, for returning my daughter to me.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I¡¯d expect you to do the same for my son.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Yes. Congratulations by the way.¡±


    ¡°I received your gift. Thank you for that.¡± It had been a set of glass bottles that kept milk from spoiling. A princely gift that Alessa had greatly appreciated, as had her nursemaid.


    ¡°What was she doing at your club?¡±


    ¡°The first time, she¡¯d shown up to gamble. The second time, to pay back what she owed. The third time, to prove she could enter and leave the club without me knowing.¡±


    ¡°And why didn¡¯t you inform me of the first time?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been a kid out doing what his mother didn¡¯t want him to. A lot of people covered for me. I thought I¡¯d return the favor this time. Besides, she did pay me back in the end.¡±


    Argenta shook her head. ¡°She is not to leave Uptown. If she ever appears at your club I want to be informed immediately. I will retrieve her myself.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°After what happened, I can¡¯t blame you for that precaution. I¡¯ll make sure you know.¡±


    She nodded, keeping her expression controlled, but Dantes could sense her anger, as well as the worry brewing under it.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    He nodded, and made his way out of her parlor.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡­


    Dantes, Wane, and Felix arrived at the abandoned factory during the late morning. It had been a long walk, and Dantes had found his patience for walking had been dulled by how quickly flying could get him where he wanted to go. He still made sure to walk busy streets so that he could pick up gossip or enjoy the respect and fear people had for him, but walking through empty alleys at the docks was a different story.


    There were no merchant ships in the docks anymore. Only Rendhold''s own Navy had vessels there, and they weren¡¯t exactly the ones keeping things lively. Fear of the disease as well as ongoing tensions between Rendhold and its many neighbors had killed all of the trade in the city. Priests of the father walked the streets with wagons half filled with the dead, calling for people to drag out corpses so that they could give them their proper rights and burials. Sometimes they simply walked inside homes where death was apparent and walked out carrying a corpse wrapped in black cloth.


    ¡°I don¡¯t uh, I don¡¯t need to go inside, do I?¡± asked Felix, a yard behind Dantes and Wane.


    ¡°No, you¡¯re here for what comes after,¡± replied Dantes as he shifted between wands in his wooden hand and readied his pistol in the other.


    ¡°Any idea what to expect?¡± asked Wane as he readied what looked like a stave covered in what Dantes believed to be orcish writing.


    ¡°All of the other areas of acute corruption have been guarded by animals afflicted by the sickness. Their skin is usually melting, but they fight like mad. The corruption itself will be a bunch of animals melted together and connected in a disgusting central mass.¡±


    Wane sighed heavily. ¡°You always invite me to the nicest parties.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°What can I say, you¡¯re my favorite date to bring.¡±


    Felix was slowly orienting himself to hide behind a nearby barrel. A smart move, and one Dantes didn¡¯t not fault him for at all.


    Dantes didn¡¯t send in any rats or roaches, both times he¡¯d done so he¡¯d wound up losing them to sickness or losing control of them, but he did fly onto the roof with Jacopo, then slipped in with him as a rat to take stock of what was happening inside.


    The old factory floor was empty. None of the old machinery was still there, it had all been broken down to be reused or sold for scrap. Rendhold tended to prefer gutting things with value to losing them completely, as was only right.


    Dantes and Jacopo saw their target almost immediately. A pile of stray dogs and cats that had started to be connected by melting flesh and pools of pus. There were a few dozen of the afflicted animals surrounding it, slowly decomposing to join the pile.


    Dantes and Jacopo both descended at once, shifting into human form at the same time as they landed.


    Just as the diseased dogs and cats started to react, they both sent their will through their respective wands and sent out a wave of frost.


    Unlike the rats and roaches they¡¯d encountered in the past that had frozen instantly, the dogs and cats were too large to be immediately affected, and started charging.


    Dantes backed away a bit, firing a shot from his pistol to kill one of them, and having the fingers on his wooden hand extend and sharpen to pierce two more as they leapt into the air toward him.


    Jacopo caught a cat by the scruff in midair and bashed it against a nearby pillar before kicking a dog in the snout with enough force that the crunch of it could be heard above all of the yowls and barks in the room.


    Wane entered with his stave and charged the dog nearest to him. He only tapped it with the stave, but it flew backwards with so much force it killed another dog when they collided. Their limbs shattered and their bodies in a tangled mess not unlike the congealing pile of disease they were protecting.


    They fought for a few more intense moments, but before long there was nothing left to kill. Dantes mercifully moved to any of the diseased animals that were still trying to get to him, but too weak to do so, and quickly ended their lives. Then he turned to the mass in the center.


    It writhed and screamed at him as he approached it. He and Jacopo took the flasks of oil they¡¯d prepared and started to douse it. They¡¯d used wands the first few times, but it was a waste of the charges, especially as access to magical tools dwindled with the Academy¡¯s sealing.


    Once the mass was covered, Dantes knelt next to it, and drew Tel¡¯s finger from his coat. He placed it against the creature and sent a small amount of will through it. The fire spread quickly, and the creature screamed in agony as it burned to death. Dantes could feel the corruption in his locus fade a bit with its death, but it wasn¡¯t enough. Just bailing a boat as it slowly sank.


    ¡­


    Felix and Wane both looked over everything. Felix held a small spyglass with which he examined everything, and Wane, wearing thick gloves and a mask over his face, examined everything more directly. Dantes kept watch and checked on everything else in the city as they worked. He¡¯d taken them to other sites to see if they could come up with any new information, or solutions, but never one this fresh. He hoped it would make a difference.


    ¡°It reminds me a bit of necromancy,¡± said Felix as he examined the charred remains in the center of it all.


    Wane nodded as he poked through the innards of one of the diseased dogs. ¡°It¡¯s similar. Reminds me of the flesh golem concept, but these creatures were all alive when they were mixed together. That¡¯s much stranger. As is how it¡¯s connected to the spread of disease in the city.¡±


    ¡°Do either of you know much about necromancy?¡± asked Dantes.


    ¡°No,¡± said Felix. ¡°I¡¯ve always stuck with enchantment.¡±


    ¡°I only know some basics,¡± said Wane. ¡°There are no necromancy specialists in all of Rendhold. It¡¯s legal, but there''s so much bureaucracy to go through for it. You need permission from the academy, permission from the next of kin to use the corpse, permission from the city, a controlled environment, sign off from a priest of the Father.¡± He shook his head. ¡°Even those with a knack for it pick something easier and more profitable.¡± He sighed wistfully. ¡°Merle always hated that. Another example of bullshit getting in the way of the pursuit of knowledge.¡±


    Dantes nodded, he didn¡¯t particularly like the idea of having any of his loved ones experimented on and raised as skeletons, but no reason to bring that up at the moment. ¡°Any other insights?¡±


    Felix and Wane exchanged glances.


    ¡°No. This magic, this energy, and the way you work with it. It¡¯s unique to you and her and other druids from what we can tell. It¡¯s somewhere between our abilities and those of priests and clerics. ¡°


    Wane nodded. ¡°We can make guesses. Clearly there¡¯s a metaphysical relationship between these constructs and the disease in the city. You already knew that though.¡±


    Dantes clenched his jaw. He was hoping they could provide him with some new insights, some way to counter what was happening. He slammed his wooden hand into a nearby wall, denting it, then began to have a coughing fit. Wane reached out to pat his shoulder, but he held up a hand.


    ¡°I¡¯m okay.¡± He wiped his mouth on his sleeve. ¡°Let''s get back to the Vixen.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 28: We Are Very Dangerous

    Dantes sat and ate with one hand while he rocked a sleeping Jacque in the other. He speared a piece of fish and carefully brought it to his mouth. It was just them in the booth. There were plenty of people who could¡¯ve sat with them of course. The kitchen and bar had only Dantes, his men, and Vera and her girls to serve. The girls themselves had no clients. The Vixen was basically empty. The only reason most people even showed up was out of a sense of loyalty, or because they knew Dantes could help them to manage the sickness for either themselves or their loved ones. It amounted to the same result.


    The entirety of Rendhold was isolating themselves. Trying to stop the spread of a disease that resisted all efforts to eradicate it. All the walls and gates had been sealed in the hopes that it would slow the sickness. Those outside the outer gate were still suffering the worst effects it, with the Father¡¯s priests no longer even bringing their carts as they would fill before they¡¯d gone a quarter mile, and then they¡¯d just have to turn around.


    Dantes had managed to find places for the majority of his own new kobold gangsters from outside the walls to stay, but most had elected to stay with their families and those they knew. Their ties to one another were strong.


    Midtown was holding strong. Even though he himself had not been able to directly keep everyone healed, the planting of food and herbs meant that most people were still fed and able to get at least some relief for themselves. He made sure that they knew where that came from.


    Uptown was doing about as well as midtown, which is to say that it was limping along, but still surviving thanks to their patronage to the temple whose attention had become focused entirely on Uptown and a few parts of the Guild District that they needed to keep running.


    He had to start considering drastic measures. Burning down the buildings in the docks one by one until he found Serpica. He¡¯d lose so much of his work, but there was no point in ruling over a dead city.


    Jacque cooed on his shoulder and Dantes started to rock him again, giving him a small kiss on the top of his head as he did so to soothe him.


    Just as Jacque was falling back asleep, the cry of an eagle came from nowhere, as loud as thunder in a typhoon.


    Jacque started to fuss, and Dantes stood up. He recognized that cry.


    Dantes walked to the front door of the club, pushing it open with one hand as he rocked Jacque with the other. Just outside, standing in the middle of the street, stood a menagerie of animals. Two wolves, four falcons, an eagle, a boar being ridden by a large ape and loaded down with bags, a distinctly uncomfortable looking swamp dragon with a small bird cleaning its scales, two raccoons, and a gnome with a strange creature that seemed to be looking in two directions at once that blended into the same color as his shoulder.


    The Eagle, a beautiful and massive all-white creature, shifted into a massive albino elf stark naked. He took to steps toward Dantes and wrapped both him and Jacque into a massive bear hug.


    ¡°I am grateful that you still live, brother.¡±


    Dantes patted his sinewy back with his free hand.


    ¡°It¡¯s good to see you too Traizen. It is a very welcome surprise.¡±


    The other druids shifted into themselves as well, and soon there were far more naked people on the outside of the brothel than there were on the inside at that moment.


    ¡°We received your message, and have all been making our way to you since then.¡±


    ¡°I thought most of you were across the continent? How did you make it so quickly?¡±


    ¡°We tree jumped. We were able to make it to Murk¡¯s forest during the last full moon and have been traveling since then.¡± He sniffed the air. ¡°You have done well brother, the life you have been growing here is so much stronger than when I first came here to gather you.¡±


    ¡°The rot here is thick though, I can smell it like death in the air,¡± said Lorna with a scowl on her face.


    Coal placed a dirty hand on the cobblestone. ¡°I can feel it deep in the earth too. And something else, a large amount of life beneath the surface as well.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°The city was built on top of another. There are a number of underground chambers and places just below the surface.¡±


    ¡°It is Serpica,¡± said Traizen with a darkening expression. ¡°She has attacked our brother as she swore to do."This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    He looked around. The streets were empty so he hadn¡¯t ushered them straight inside, but at a certain point it started to feel ridiculous to talk to a group of nude people outside like that.


    ¡°Everyone, come inside my club. I¡¯ll have you all fed, bathed if you¡¯d like, and we¡¯ll talk further.¡±


    Dantes held the door open as they all made their way inside. Zilly looked at them with a raised eyebrow, as did all of the other employees, and Vera moved toward Dantes.


    ¡°I hope these aren¡¯t prospective employees for me,¡± she said, using humor to mask her surprise at the situation. ¡°The tall white one could easily find work at the Stallion, and the dark woman is an easy choice, as are the twins gods know they could attract clients, but uh¡­¡± she looked Coal up and down. ¡°He¡¯d probably have an easier time near the small dwarves'' enclave deeper in the city.¡±


    Dantes smiled at her joke. ¡°These are my fellow druids, auntie.¡± He began to point at them one at a time. ¡°That¡¯s Traizen, Murk, Coal, Lorna, Fizz, Fern, Ivy, and Mor-Gan-May. They¡¯re who I meet with every full moon and they¡¯re here to help me with the disease in the city.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°In that case, Zilly get them some food started, Sera find them all clothes and start running baths for those that want them¡­¡± she paused for a moment and leaned close to Dantes. ¡°Do they have gold?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Maybe. If they do, it would be in a different currency than what we¡¯re used to.¡±


    ¡°If any of you would like a whore, talk to me and I¡¯ll see what we can do.¡±


    Fizz looked up from the pint of ale he¡¯d somehow procured, with Thing curled up around his arm in the shape of a snake.. ¡°I would definitely like a whore.¡±


    Vera moved toward him and started moving him toward some of the girls. ¡°That¡¯s excellent, you''re even already dressed for one.¡±


    The Vixen came alive a bit as everyone started to move to feed, dress, bathe, and otherwise entice their sudden and unexpected influx of guests.


    Lorna stood protectively over Beast, her massive crocodile companion, not that it was needed, as everyone was giving him a wide berth.


    ¡°Is he uncomfortable?¡± asked Dantes.


    She nodded. ¡°This place is very unlike what he is used to. Very unlike what I am used to as well. ¡°


    Dantes looked at Beast. ¡°Can he climb stairs?¡±


    After some cooperative work, Beast, Lorna, the twins, Murk, and his Sister were all in Dantes¡¯s inner garden audience chamber and were finally able to settle.


    Dantes calmed the hounds as he walked in. ¡°It¡¯s okay. They¡¯re not dangerous.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not true. We are very dangerous,¡± said Lorna.


    Dantes nodded. ¡°That¡¯s true. They are dangerous but they will not harm you.¡±


    The dogs let their tongues hang out of their mouths in agreement and he gave them scratches behind the ears. They then went to bother Murk and his sister, who pointedly tried to ignore them.


    Murk stood and approached him, sniffing at Jacques.


    ¡°You have a baby. Congratulations,¡± he said with a series of low barks and growls.


    Dantes held him out so that he and his sister could sniff him more thoroughly. Their snouts made him giggle a bit which made Dantes smile.


    Alessa entered the audience chamber at that moment to see Dantes holding their infant son out to two massive wolves. Her eyes widened as she saw the twins, their falcons, Lorna, Beast, Murk and his sister.


    Dantes pulled Jacque back to himself and walked over to her.


    ¡°Everything¡¯s okay. These are friends of mine that are here to help with the disease in the city. They can become animals and talk to them as I can.¡±


    She nodded and took a deep breath, adjusting ably to the situation and held out her hands for Jacque.


    Dantes gave him a final small kiss and handed him to her. ¡°He laughed for the first time. Or giggled, I should say when the wolves were sniffing at him.¡±


    She smiled a bit. ¡°Well, I suppose it would be strange for him not to have a bit of his father in him. That said, I hope you won¡¯t think it rude if I stay in my chambers for a bit. This is¡­¡± she gestured to the small zoo the audience chamber had become, ¡°not the kind of audience I¡¯m used to.¡±


    ¡°I understand. Have a good evening.¡±


    She nodded and cooed a bit at the baby as she walked away with him.


    ¡°Skinny orc, don¡¯t see that often,¡± said Lorna as she leaned against Beast¡¯s back to look through the glass ceiling. ¡°I would¡¯ve expected you to pick a mate with more meat on her.¡±


    ¡°My tastes are varied, what can I say?¡± said Dantes. He thought that moment of Sevryn and what she might be up to. She¡¯d said she had to take care of something in the city. He¡¯d tried to give her a bodyguard, but she was gone before he¡¯d gathered him. She¡¯d be fine though. She always had been before.


    When all of the druids had eaten, drank, and in some cases fucked, they all gathered with their companions in the garden.


    He gave all of them a rundown of what had happened since he¡¯d sent his message. The taint that Serpica had been spreading. Her control over whatever she infected with her diseases. His encounter with her. All of them listened solemnly as he talked, absorbing the information. Jacopo relayed what he could to everyone as well, though his conversation was more focused on her ability to control his cousins.


    Traizen shook his head. ¡°She has fallen so far. I warned her of what the consequences would be if she chose this path. She truly thinks her own judgment is greater than that of the mother.¡± He held his hand to his chest, where a bear print filled with gold sat and closed his eyes breathing deeply. ¡°We¡¯ll need to kill her. Rid this place of the corruption that has infested it.¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°I would appreciate all the help you can offer, but I haven¡¯t even been able to find her. For every site of corruption I destroy, she creates two more. I also don¡¯t want any of you to get sick. This illness has already killed a lot of people.¡±


    ¡°Druids-¡±


    ¡°-cannot-¡±


    ¡°-get sick.¡± said the twins in their odd alternating speech.


    Fizz nodded. ¡°The only reason that you show signs of illness is because your locus itself is sickened by Serpica¡¯s machinations.


    Dantes suppressed a cough. ¡°That¡¯s¡­comforting. Still, I¡¯m not certain how we¡¯ll find her.¡±


    Traizen smiled a bit. ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about that. With all of us together, she can¡¯t hide for long.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 29: Welcome to the Fall

    The druids all sat in a circle in the audience chamber with their eyes closed. The other druids and their companions wove their senses together and tethered themselves to Dantes, entangling with his own perceptions like vines wrapping around a tree as they reached toward the sun. The sensation was deeply uncomfortable for Dantes. His mind and his senses were his own, and he didn¡¯t much enjoy sharing either of them. Still, he forced himself to be open, slowly peeling back the fingers he had clutched around his mind one by one so that they could all access it.


    Each of the druids had a different kind of touch to them when they reached his mind. Traizen¡¯s mind was sharp and cold, very different from his warm personality. Murk¡¯s mind felt legion, as if it was always considering the needs of a pack rather than just himself. Mor-Gan-May¡¯s was the most delicate, but tipped with danger, like a talon being gently drawn across bare skin. Lorna¡¯s was wet, hot, and harsh, like a rough kiss in a drunken night of passion. Fizz¡¯s was many things at once, a tentacle, a tooth, a hand, a snout, it was everything it could be. The twins'' felt like a warm breeze blowing through an alley. Coal was like touching a rough stone that had been warming in the sun. Altogether the feeling was overwhelming and reminded him of the loss of ego he experienced when he tree walked, but still he forced his mind to remain open as they all gathered within him.


    It took some time, but once they were linked, their focus was one. While he¡¯d always been able to extend his mind, his reach, across the city, suddenly he was able to pierce through almost the entire city at once. He could feel every rat, roach, ant, pigeon, dog, cat, moth, lizard, and every other creature as it skittered along as well as every plant from the smallest weed growing up through concrete to the largest trees in Uptown that were as old as the city if not older.


    They took their massive sphere of attention, and Dantes narrowed it. He shrank it down smaller and smaller, focusing on where the sense of taint was the strongest. That brought them to the docks. There were a half dozen new pockets of taint that were scattered around, but thanks to the increased perception through the other druids, Dantes was able to realize that they were all linked to something greater. A larger concentration of taint. It was so big and diffuse that the sharper smaller ones had hidden it from his view. They focused on that large portion, centered on it, and Dantes matched it to his mental map of the city. It was a Leviathan processing center. Half in the water and half out of it. Likely empty due to the plague that had spread throughout the city.


    As their focus narrowed, there was a sudden whiplash as the taint they were focusing on, started to focus on them.


    Dantes broke their connection and the druids all opened their eyes, snapping to their feet.


    ¡®She knows we¡¯re coming,¡± said Dantes, rolling his head to stretch his shoulders as he began to take a quick inventory of the weapons and armor he had.


    ¡°We will move quickly,¡± said Traizen. ¡°You and I will attack her directly. Lorna, Mor-Gan-May, Fizz, Coal, Murk, and the twins will attack and cleanse those other sites of taint at the same time as we attack her. We need to burn her out all at once.¡±


    Everyone nodded, including Dantes, though he was unused to being the one following orders rather than giving them.


    ¡°Does anyone need weapons? I have wands, guns, swords, daggers, spears, anything you think you may need.¡±


    ¡°Do you-


    ¡°-have more-


    ¡°-of the-¡±


    ¡°-bombs?¡± asked the twins.


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I can absolutely get you some.¡±


    The others made their own requests for armament, though Traizen declined anything.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    Dantes took the list down to Jayk, whose face was starting to show the signs of rash again and he seemed to be sweating.


    He stood as Dantes approached, though was a bit unsteady on his feet.


    Dantes placed a hand on his shoulder and spent a few moments easing his symptoms before speaking. When he opened his eyes, Jayk was already looking a bit stronger. ¡°I need you to gather some things for the druids. Can you do that for me?¡±


    He nodded. ¡°Of course boss.¡±


    ¡°And you remember the merc we were trying to bring on retainer? I want you to send him this message,¡± Dantes pulled a slip of paper from his coat with his hasty scrawl written across it.


    Jayk nodded. ¡°Consider it done.¡±


    ¡­


    Dantes, Jacopo, and Traizen flew across the docks. Despite Dantes and Jacopo flapping their wings as fast as they could, it was very difficult for them to keep up with Traizen¡¯s eagle form as pigeons, but that wasn¡¯t a big surprise. It was likely harder for Traizen to maintain their slower pace than it was for them to try to keep up with him.


    Just before they reached their target, a black cloud began to move toward them quickly, accompanied by a resounding buzz that filled the air. Dantes and Jacopo dove, attempting to avoid the quickly approaching cloud of flies, but Traizen sped his wingbeats and moved toward them. The flies didn¡¯t part, instead they surrounded him as a mass and began to cover him, crawling onto his feathers, his talons, his face, trying to blind and weigh him down.


    Dantes landed and shifted into himself, and Jacopo took his place on his shoulder, and Dantes raised his wooden hand, aiming it at another part of the cloud of flies that was approaching him and releasing a blast of flame into it, killing a massive swath of them before falling back further before the rest could fully reach him.


    Traizen let out a cry, not one of pain or fear, but one of challenge. He beat his wings and suddenly the air grew cold. Dantes turned to see that with each beat of his wings, a massive blast of wind seemed to emanate from him, almost like a push spell, except with each wingbeat thousands of flies were frozen in midair and fell to their deaths. Before long the massive cloud had dissipated into only a lingering mist of flies. Traizen landed next to Dantes, shifting back into himself, cold radiating off of him.


    ¡°That was impressive.¡±


    He nodded. ¡°When you¡¯re as old as me, you never truly leave your locus. A piece of it always comes with you, and you always leave a piece of yourself behind with it.¡±


    They walked the rest of the way to the Leviathan processing center. Processing centers were massive, half submerged buildings that acted as docks for Hunter ships. Rendhold had four of them, and gauging by the smell this one had been the last one used before the docks had become completely inactive.


    The front was completely open, and was unfortunately lit with perfect clarity by the large glass panes in the ceiling that allowed the workers to work during the day without needing to rely on more expensive or dangerous methods of lighting. Dantes and Jacopo could see writhing flesh, pulsating clouds of flies, and bloody pus running across the floor like a river. Dantes took a cloth from his jacket and tied it around his face. He¡¯d perfumed it with some of Sevryn¡¯s favorite perfume, but even that wasn¡¯t enough to mask the smell.


    He offered a second cloth to Traizen, but he refused.


    ¡°I¡¯d suggest we attempt to sneak in and find her, but at this point it¡¯s unlikely our former sister isn¡¯t ready for that anyway.¡±


    Dantes nodded. He wanted to suggest burning her out, but the building was on and in the water, and was made of more brick and steel than wood. They¡¯d need to go inside.


    Traizen walked in first, moving confidently into the sickening miasma of corruption without hesitation.


    Dantes followed behind him, his and Jacopo¡¯s eyes darting around, their senses on high alert for anywhere Serpica might strike. She wasn¡¯t difficult to find.


    The processing center had still been in use when the docks had been abandoned. Hanging up in the center of the building, was the rotting corpse of a leviathan. Its features had all rotted away, but there was no mistaking the size of the thing. Its scales were covered in pustules the size of geysers, insects and rats crawled through rotted holes in its flesh, masses of other creatures had become attached to the areas where the rot was the thickest, just as Dantes had seen when he¡¯d cleansed other areas of the city. Sitting on what was once the leviathan¡¯s head, was Serpica, her body cloaked in heavy black rags, and her face covered by the same featureless mask as it had been before. Her four extra wooden limbs still extended from her back, but now he could see what looked like a thin layer of diseased flesh had spread over them.


    She stood using her spider-like limbs, and as she did every fly landed, every rat stopped moving, every roach went still, the cats ceased their wailing, and the dogs closed their mouths. All of them turned their attention to Traizen and Dantes.


    Serpica moved toward them a few steps in the now silent and still space.


    ¡°Welcome, to the fall of Rendhold, and the start of the Mortal Plane¡¯s rebirth.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 30: I Have Seen Suffering

    ¡°Looks to me more like a dead rotting leviathan with a madwoman standing in front of it,¡± responded Dantes as he took inventory of everything around them to prepare the best wand and strategy for that moment.


    ¡°Dantes is right Serpica. You must see how mad all of this is,¡± said Traizen, his voice anguished. He looked around with a look of anger and disgust on his face. ¡°You are using the gifts that she gave you to corrupt the Mother¡¯s children. To act against her will. The suffering you are causing¡­¡±


    ¡°The suffering I am causing!?¡± she asked, her voice trembling a bit. ¡°I have seen suffering. My locus was a battlefield. I watched as the ¡®civilized¡¯ races tore one another to shreds. I watched villages pillaged, their elders beheaded and their women raped. I¡¯ve watched forests cut down to build machines of war, and the land salted to keep the enemy from ever growing new crops.¡± She shook her head. "I once tried to force peace. I made my locus a den of horror and death to stop them from fighting over it. Poisonous plants blossomed across all of it, and brambles with thorns the size of daggers covered it all. For some time the fighting ceased, and things were¡­peaceful. Then one of them found a single nugget of gold in a river just outside of my locus. That was all it took for the fighting to begin again, for my locus to suffer. I still remember when the last river was torn to shreds after that war ended. I remember seeing a man smiling as he watched, a golden smile. The despair I felt.¡±


    Traizen stepped forward. ¡°You never told us, Serpica. You never came to us for help. We could¡¯ve done so much for you. There was no reason to bear all of that suffering alone.¡±


    She laughed. ¡°I wasn¡¯t alone, and I¡¯ll never be alone again.¡± She peeled the mask from her face, it came away along with a thick coating of pus and pieces of her skin. Her face was rotted, her flesh coated with pustules and sores, her eyes half eaten away, and exposed bone peeking through her jaw. ¡°I carry life within myself now. The largest source of life that was left in my locus. Disease, plague, that is the gift the Mother gave me. She trusted me with the life of her most numerous children within myself. With it, I will end the civilizations that destroy the world for shiny rocks and foolish notions of honor. Starting here.¡±


    Traizen began to cry, tears streaming down his cheeks. ¡°That is not the Mother that granted you that. I cannot imagine how painful it is to be without her love. Its absence has damaged you beyond all reason.¡±


    ¡°I am closer to the Mother than the rest of you ever were.¡±


    Traizen shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m afraid the only god there is left for you is the Father. I hope he welcomes you with love when I send you to meet him.¡±


    Serpica screeched and launched herself at Traizen.


    Traizen touched the bearmark across his heart and charged her as he wept, becoming a massive white bear as he ran toward her on all fours before they slammed into one another.


    Every other creature in the room began to move the second Serpica screeched. Dantes and Jacopo tensed, expecting them to charge them, but instead they all swarmed toward the corpse of the leviathan. Dantes changed his target to Serpica and began moving toward her struggle with Traizen, but as he aimed his pistol at her, one of the writhing masses of flesh on the Leviathan sent out a fleshy appendage toward him like a whip. Dantes¡¯s new cat-like reflexes saved him as he leapt backwards before he even realized what was happening.


    The lump actually began to move toward him, crawling forward on a mix of cat, rat, and dog legs as it dragged itself forward with tendrils covered in motley combinations of fur and teeth, and tipped with points of bone.


    Dantes aimed his pistol and fired at it, causing it to spray a thick vile ichor.


    It ignored the wound and sent more tendrils at him. Dantes dropped his pistol and dodged backward, throwing Jacopo into the air where he shifted into his two-leg form before landing on top of the lump.


    Before the mass of flesh could react, Jacopo began to raise his gauntleted hand, each finger pointed in a sharpened blade, and began to tear at the flesh of the thing, rending it and sending chunks of it flying in every direction. They¡¯d commissioned his new weapon after their encounter with Godfrey on the boat, and its use had come quite naturally to him.


    It screamed, sounding like the horrendous combination of a dog whining and a group of rats being burned alive.


    Jacopo leapt back up into the air, shifting into a bat, and Dantes jumped and shifted to join him. The other masses that dotted the leviathan had all begun to move as well, some towards Dantes, but the rest moving straight toward where Serpica and Traizen were fighting.


    Traizen was covered in slashes already, red blood dyeing his white fur, but two of Serpica¡¯s spiderlegs were shattered and regrowing, and a chunk of her chest had been ripped away by sharp claws. The flesh mass closest to him sent out a tendril, but he quickly snapped it with his jaws where it froze before shattering beneath the force of his jaws.


    Dantes and Jacopo flew around the pulsating masses that were heading for them, dodging their horrible tendrils, and instead each targeted the ones moving closer to Serpica and Traizen.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Dantes shifted into himself and landed, perfectly balanced, right between Traizen and one of the masses as it was beginning to extend its tendrils toward him. Dantes matched those tendrils with his own wooden fingers, tangling them before they could hit him, then he sent his will through the wand in his palm and sent out a blast of flame on the now perfectly centered flesh golem.


    Jacopo landed on top of a spearlike tendril just as it was about to hit Traizen, he grabbed it and yanked the lump toward himself before once again leaping forward and clawing at it in a flurry of claw strikes until it stopped moving.


    They looked up from their respective kills to see that all of the remaining lumps were heading toward them, and more were emerging from the flesh of the leviathan, tearing their way through its skin in a sickening caricature of birth.


    Dantes and Jacopo readied themselves for the incoming assault, when Lorna and Beast emerged from the underwater section of the facility. Beast bit into the nearest fleshy monstrosity and then began spinning, throwing blood and viscera everywhere as it did so.


    Lorna sent out the long vines she always had wrapped around herself and her hair and grasped another of the flesh golems. She dragged it toward herself, and once it was close she changed into a swamp dragon to match Beast, bit into it, and began spinning and tearing it apart in the same way he had.


    Dantes drew his dagger and jumped toward Jacopo, shifting into a rat as he did so. He caught him and threw him at another flesh lump. Just as Jacopo had, Dantes shifted into himself and used the increased weight and momentum to drive the dagger deep into it, hearing the crunch of bones as his feet slammed into it.


    Jacopo followed that up by catching a tendril that whipped out toward him and severing it, before running on all fours to the next one. In the course of the fight, he and Dantes found themselves in the center of a massive group of the creatures, near the body of the leviathan itself. Everything became a blur. Dantes and Jacopo shifted to dodge tendrils, as Dantes used his wooden hand to spear them, or send out bouts of flame or frost from the wands he extended from his palm. They caught blows for one another, pulled each other out of the way of strikes at the last minute, and dealt finishing blows in perfect unison. They could see through one another¡¯s eyes, feel what the other was thinking. Dantes started to make wilder and more risky strikes as Jacopo bled into him, and Jacopo began to chain his strikes together in a more violent and efficient way as they carved their way through.


    Murk and his sister were the next to arrive. With a howl that made even the diseased piles of flesh tremble in fear, they ran into the building through the front door and immediately began tearing into everything they could. Ripping off chunks of meat with tooth and claw. They seemed able to locate exactly where the blobs were vulnerable even though to Dantes it all looked like the same sickening flesh.


    The Twins and their falcons flew in next, but they didn¡¯t stay falcons. Instead they shifted into massive horned creatures, looking like a cow with a hunched back and a lot more fur. They stampeded through the creatures, crushing them beneath massive hooved feet. When they turned around to do it again, one of the flesh mounds sent out a tendril sharpened with fangs and bones, and pierced one of the twins through the gut as she ran over it.


    The falcons and her sister cried out. Dantes wasn¡¯t able to see what happened after that, as more of the monsters closed on him and Jacopo.


    Coal and his warthog charged in next, with both Mor-Gan-May and her raccoon on their backs. As they charged, Mor-Gan-May and her companion began throwing vials expertly at each of the nearest masses. Flasks of black, green, red, and blue liquid shattered. Some of them resulted in explosions, others released a potent acid that began to melt them away, and a few even seemed to just harden, locking the fleshy slimes into place.


    All together they finally started to push the horde of plagued flesh back. It was a brutal slog of a battle. No one was uninjured, Jacopo was covered in small wounds, and Dantes had a small piece of his ear taken by a near miss by a toothed tentacle, but eventually he reached the corpse of the leviathan from where the enemies were all spawning from.


    Dantes shoved his wooden hand into one of the openings and sent a blast of flame through it. The smell nearly made him vomit, but he held on.


    As he did that Mor-Gan-May and her raccoon began throwing more vials into it, burning away at its flesh and sealing it.


    Traizen was still struggling with Serpica. He was covered in wounds, blood dripping off of his snow white fur. Serpica had lost both of her actual legs, and one of her arms, but continued to strike out with her remaining diseased skin and wooden bone appendages, a look of pure madness on her face.


    Traizen roared, and a kind of pulse of frost emanated from him, pushing Serpica back and causing her skin to become covered in small icicles.


    She seemed to fall back, her remaining limbs bending, then she dissipated into a cloud of flies and moved toward the leviathan corpse, what parts hadn¡¯t yet been destroyed.


    Thing and Fizz chose that moment to reveal themselves. Their skin shifted from the same gray shade as the walls, into a rich green, revealing two massive versions of the strange lizard-like creature that Thing had been in the form of earlier. They sent out massive tongues like whips and devoured hundreds of the flies that made up Serpica in an instant.


    She changed back into herself, and what was left of her landed on top of the back half of the leviathan¡¯s corpse. She raised up her remaining hand and a half dozen diseased pieces of flesh exploded out of the body and began to wrap themselves around her.


    The druids all turned their attention to her, and began to move to stop her from whatever new horror she had planned for them.


    The pile of sickened skin and viscera started to rise, with only Serpica¡¯s head protruding from the top of it, the only part of her that still seemed whole.


    ¡°I would have granted you all, this city, the slow death that it was giving to the Mother, but it seems I will need to take all of the life of it into myself in order to finish this!¡±


    As everyone approached her, readying different attacks, she rose at the top of the fleshy pyramid, cackling wildly as she rose into the air.


    There was a gunshot, and Serpica¡¯s head jerked backwards. The rising mountain of flesh ceased growing, and started to slowly tilt backwards.


    Everyone looked at Dantes, expecting to see his pistol in his hands, but his attention was turned toward the glass ceiling. A dwarf wielding a massively long rifle that had been slipped through the glass gave him a small wave, and then began to retrieve his gun.


    Dantes smiled at him, wiping some of his blood from the back of his neck with the back of his hand.


    ¡°That¡¯s Lead in the Chamber. I thought since I¡¯d missed last time, I¡¯d have someone else try to take the shot.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 31: He was Rendhold, and Rendhold was Him

    Even with Serpica dead, the fight didn¡¯t end immediately. The druids still had to kill a dozen of the horribly flesh-beasts that she¡¯d created, ending whatever cruel suffering had bound them together in such a sickening way.


    When Dantes was done killing the last of him with a stake-like finger from his wooden hand, he turned his attention to everyone else. Fern was clutching her twin, Ivy, to her chest weeping openly as she rocked the body back and forth. Her and her sister¡¯s falcons were on top of the body as well, screeching like mothers that had just lost their babe.


    Dantes moved over to them, and placed his hand on her shoulder. He focused on those smallest parts of her, and willed lifeforce into her, trying to stop the flow of her own life out of her, but it was no use. He stumbled back from the effort. He tried a second time, then a third. By the end of the third time his vision was darkening. He went to her again, and Fern held up her hand, stopping him.


    She leaned close to her sister''s body, placing her forehead against hers. Ivy breathed out for the last time, and Fern breathed in, forever changed. Dantes could feel that bit of life, that bit of self that was left moved from within Ivy¡¯s body, into Ferns. She gently lowered Ivy¡¯s empty vessel, and stood, reaching her hands out for the twin falcons. They fluttered up, and one landed on each of their shoulders, rubbing the tops of their heads against her. She looked at Dantes, and held out her hand to help him back up.


    ¡°We¡¯re both here. We¡¯re both okay. Thank you for trying to heal me.¡±


    Dantes took her hand and let her help him up.


    Traizen stumbled over to them, openly sobbing. ¡°You took her into yourself?¡±


    Fern and Ivy smiled, and wrapped Traizen in a hug. ¡°We¡¯ve always been with one another, this is no different.¡±


    Dantes let out a breath and leaned against a large beam until a taloned hand pulled him down.


    ¡°Stay still,¡± said Mor-Gan-May as she began tearing open his clothes, taking foul smelling cloth and cleaning his wounds.


    He didn¡¯t object, and simply stayed still while she worked.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t think that was possible,¡± said Dantes when enough of his senses had recovered. ¡°I know that Traizen took his companion into himself, but I didn¡¯t think it was possible for another person.¡±


    Mor-Gan-May laughed. ¡°She¡¯s probably the only one it¡¯s possible for. We¡¯re all different, you know that.¡±


    Dantes nodded, catching his breath as everyone else did the same. While Mor-Gan-May cleansed his wounds he closed his eyes and began extending his senses. He could feel the corruption around the city starting to dissipate, but through the eyes of roaches and rats, he could see that many people were still sick and dying. He could also tell that the rot that Serpica had begun wasn¡¯t going to go away completely with her death.


    He clenched his jaw and opened his eyes. More. There was always more.


    Traizen placed a hand on his shoulder.


    ¡°The corruption is deep.¡±


    Dantes nodded, his mind already working through what to do.


    ¡°Without Serpica and her influence it¡¯s likely that many will be able to recover, but many will also still die, and the taint will cling to your locus for years.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Traizen, thank you,¡± said Dantes, punctuating it with a cough.


    ¡°I can tell that you¡¯ve been able to cultivate a lot of life in this city, and bind it to you and your locus, but why have you not opened yourself to the life that was here before? Even in this forest of concrete, surely flowers bloomed? Trees were planted in gardens? Flowers lined some streets?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°I can¡¯t connect to it. I¡¯ve tried many times.¡±


    ¡°You pull from the loss of self that occurs when you try to connect to it? As you did when we sought to help you to locate our former sister?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the sum of it, yes.¡±


    ¡°You own your locus, you don¡¯t wish to admit it owns you as well.¡±


    ¡°It is mine, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    Traizen shook his head. ¡°It is you, even those parts that existed in the city before you came into your powers. The Mother¡¯s blessing includes this city and everything within it.¡±Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    ¡°So?¡±


    ¡°So that feeling isn¡¯t you losing your sense of self, it¡¯s accepting that you''re bigger than you¡¯ve ever been.¡±


    Dantes exchanged a look with Jacopo, who was sitting on his knee licking his wounds. They closed their eyes in unison, and extended their senses. They touched on everything they were already connected to. The massive gardens they¡¯d planted in abandoned parts of the city, the gardens they¡¯d helped to plant all throughout Midtown, the hundreds of small pockets of life he¡¯d spread throughout the city as insurance, and every animal he¡¯d fostered a connection with. Once he¡¯d connected with every single bit of life, from the trees to the small weeds creeping up through the concrete, he started to extend his senses beyond that. He touched a large estate garden in Uptown first, reaching out to connect to it. The moment he did, he could feel that loss of self he¡¯d always felt before, and felt himself instinctively try to snap back, but he resisted. He opened himself up, even more widely than he did to tree walk, until he reached a horrifying moment in which he felt himself and Jacopo start to fade. He let it happen, and suddenly, he became it. All of the life in the city that had existed before him. All of the gardens of the old royalty in uptown, the small farms outside the gates, the ugly tenacious weeds fighting their way up through concrete, the mold blooming between walls in buildings on the docks. It was him, and he was it, and with that simple understanding, he connected the life he¡¯d cultivated to the life that had been there all along, and he swelled with the power of it.


    When he opened his eyes and breathed in, it felt as if the city itself was expanding and contracting with his lungs. He and Jacopo focused on the corruption in the city again, bringing their attention down to the smallest parts of it. They channeled all of the strengthened and newly connected life that they¡¯d brought under their control, and pushed that rot out. Forcing it to submit to the sheer power of the Mother and her gifts to the Mortal plane.


    He let out his breath. Many who were already sick would still die. Parts of the city would rot away, but he¡¯d purged the corruption that had caused it. Rendhold was him, and he was Rendhold. He would not be eaten away at, he would not be beaten.


    ¡­


    Dantes sat at the bar, a hand over Tak¡¯s head as he focused on healing him. With the source of lifeforce to pull on increased and increased focus he was almost able to completely eliminate every trace of the sickness that was affecting him. There was still a bit left, but he was young and strong, he could finish it off himself.


    The Viridian Vixen was full of his men, those that worked beneath them, and the people that paid him protection and their families. It was a very different atmosphere from usual. Men and women watched kids chase each other under card tables, Fizz and Thing were reveling in attention as they performed tricks for people, and most everyone was enjoying a free meal in the house. It was all very wholesome, and made Dantes uncomfortable. He preferred things to be at least a little sleazy at all times. Still, it had been his own idea to bring all of those loyal to him there so that he could heal them again, giving midtown a stronger hand to play as the rest of the city recovered. It would also help him to ensure that the Vixen would be a proper den of sin and vice more quickly.


    Tak was the last person to heal, he¡¯d insisted on his men and their families receiving it first. He¡¯d also spent the entire healing process talking about how to improve efficiency of their smuggling once the gates were back open.


    Dantes left him, still talking, and climbed up the stairs to his private booth. He leaned back and took several deep breaths. He¡¯d found a new source of power, but healing so many was still difficult. He¡¯d started with the druids, who mostly seemed happiest resting in the inner garden, then moved on to everyone else.


    Jayk reached the booth and sat across from him.


    Dantes didn¡¯t open his eyes. ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°Dulles, Pacha¡¯s man, is ours now.¡±


    Dantes smiled and opened his eyes. ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°He gave us a heads up on several planned raids, a rat who they¡¯d been keeping in a safehouse, and a list of names on others who they¡¯re trying to flip.¡±


    ¡°All confirmed?¡±


    Jayk nodded.


    ¡°You do good work Jayk. I¡¯m glad I made you my second.¡±


    The faintest hint of a smile touched the corners of his mouth, but he just nodded and walked away.


    Dantes leaned his head back again, and this time was nearly dozing when Alessa approached him.


    He opened his eyes and smiled at her. ¡°Everything okay? Is Jacque with someone?¡±


    ¡°Vera asked to watch him for a bit.¡±


    Dantes nodded, seeing the concerned expression on her face. ¡°Need something?¡±


    She sat across from him. ¡°I want my job back. I want to sing again.¡±


    ¡°Done.¡±


    ¡°I mean, as the main attraction. I know the woman you¡¯re with, Sevryn, has been doing the job, but I¡¯m better.¡±


    ¡°Done, I¡¯ll talk to her.¡±


    She blinked a few times. ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think the singing was ever the real goal of her coming here. Don¡¯t worry about it. You can have your old times back next week if you¡¯d like.¡±


    She stood. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°No problem. I may come to peek in on Jacque later.¡±


    She nodded and walked away.


    Dantes, for the third time, laid his head back to rest, listening to the sounds of a full Vixen. This time, he did drift off.


    He felt fingers working their way through his hair and he opened his eyes. He hadn¡¯t sensed her approaching at all, but Sevryn was sitting next to him, weaving her fingers through thick dark locks.


    He smiled at her. ¡°Where have you been?¡±


    ¡°Here for the last hour, making sure no one stole your coin while you slept.¡±


    He placed a hand on her thigh, squeezing it affectionately.


    ¡°How would you like a better job than singing?¡±


    She twisted some of his hair in her pointed finger. ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°Be my woman. Stay by my side and live with me.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s it pay?¡±


    ¡°More than any job you¡¯ve ever had, and the other benefits are substantial.¡±


    ¡°You think I¡¯m the type of woman who doesn¡¯t want to work? Who just wants to be the pretty thing on a powerful man¡¯s arm?¡±


    ¡°Oh, I intend to work you plenty.¡±


    She laughed at that, gently drawing a finger along his jaw. ¡°And if I¡¯m your woman you¡¯ll support me and my myriad whims?¡±


    ¡°As long as you support mine.¡±


    ¡°And I can still sing some of time if I¡¯d like?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d call that a whim, so yes.¡±


    She kissed him, deeply, then moved her lips next to his ear, her heavy necklace with the green stone bouncing against his shoulder as she did so. ¡°It¡¯s a deal then.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 32: At Least Ill See the Sun

    Dantes sat at his table eating breakfast as he always did. Vera and Jake sat across from him. It had only been a month since he¡¯d defeated Serpica and the city was finally on its way to recovery. A few ships had started docking again, and the overland trade had slowly begun to trickle back in, though everything was slow to recover. Bodies were still being removed from houses as the smell of the dead began to inform those around them of their passing, but it was primarily the old, and infirm, and those who were already too far gone to recover. Midtown itself had recovered the most quickly, thanks to Dantes¡¯s interference, and the money that flowed from his territory into those domains of the other fingers had made them all very happy with him.


    ¡°The girls are starting to get business again,¡± said Vera. ¡°And food as well as drink is starting to trickle back in, allowing us to buoy our reduced supplies.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s keep encouraging those under us to grow their own food as we did when supplies stopped flowing before. We need to maintain our strength and be prepared in case anything else comes.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Aside from that, it¡¯ll likely be slow until more Uptown people and Guilders are feeling well enough to come down here again. Decker has been enjoying his work with Clay and Hema by the way, particularly Hema,¡± she said with a sly grin.


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear that the work agrees with him. Anything else?¡±


    ¡°Just gossip that I¡¯ll save for when we have dinner.¡±


    He smiled. ¡°Thank you, Auntie.¡±


    She nodded, and went downstairs to have breakfast with her girls.


    Jayk finished chewing on a piece of bread before speaking. ¡°It¡¯s similar on our end. Goods are moving again, but slowly. The issue is that a lot of people are still holed up and not yet ready to spend. Still, we expect things to get better as the last of the sick die off. Dulles gave us a heads up on a raid on one of our dock storehouses, so we¡¯ve cleared it out. Overall, on the business side, things are looking better.¡±


    Dantes nodded.


    ¡°Wane and Felix have been doing good work for us too, though Wane¡¯s not as quick or good at enchantment as Felix is. Seems to be a bit of a weakness for him, and he is not making things cheap for us.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°That doesn¡¯t surprise me, just be sure he knows there¡¯s a secret dice game that he can be a part of that¡¯s high stakes and we¡¯ll be able to get a bit of that gold back.¡±


    ¡°There is?¡±


    ¡°Not yet, but we¡¯ll make it look like there has been for a while.¡±


    Jayk smirked a bit.¡°Another piece of interesting news. Gavain, the adventurer, is due to arrive in the city.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°The adventurer¡¯s guild has called a tribunal. They¡¯re considering removing him as a member.¡±


    ¡°Really? Because of all that business with the slavers in Frasheid?¡±


    ¡°That business has bloomed into a full blown slave revolt. Frasheid planters are being gutted on their farms, and they¡¯ve had to mobilize their armies to try and put it down.¡±


    Dantes nodded, frowning. There hadn¡¯t been any Frasheid ships in the last month. Rendhold¡¯s reputation with them had already been shaky, but with a man who works for the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, which was based in Rendhold causing a slave rebellion, Dantes didn¡¯t imagine that things would get any better.


    ¡°Thank you, Jayk.¡±


    He nodded, and they ate the rest of their breakfast in comfortable silence. Dantes cast his focus across the city as he ate. Midtown was busy, with whores back on the corners, dealers in the alleys, and regular folk weaving around them to go about their business. Uptown was quiet, and mostly empty, though a few cafes and shops seemed to be opening back up again. The Guild district was busy, with a number of onlookers waiting to see Gavain and gossipping about what was going to happen during his visit to the guild. He spread his focus further, to the docks where a few ships were being unloaded, and a small leviathan was being brought in to be butchered. Finally, he extended his attention to the outskirts, where before he wasn¡¯t able to see much past the city gates, now he could see the muddy paths and straw roofed houses that spread outside the city, doubling its size. He could see his Kobold men starting to make moves with the slow trickle of incoming traders finally coming to sell their goods. The stream of information he could call upon was great, but he was finding it more difficult to focus on more specific things as he had before. Monitoring his operations, his smaller gardens, and things of that nature required more discipline.


    He sighed. He¡¯d just have to give things a more personal touch until his command of his focus had improved. He stood up from the table, and made his way to his garden to collect Jacopo. Once he had him, they started toward the roof, when Dantes hesitated and walked over to the tree instead. The lifeforce he¡¯d collected¡­cultivated. It was more than the city had, had for a long time. In the past it wasn¡¯t possible to tree-walk from any tree except the oldest in Rendhold, and even then only when there was a full moon¡­ but he¡¯d never tried it anywhere else.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    He put a hand on the tree in front of him, feeling his connection to his locus, and reaching out to the largest tree in his biggest garden. He gave himself up to his locus for a moment, and pushed through, stepping into his garden across the city. He smiled, and walked to Clay¡¯s small shed to find a shovel.


    ¡­


    Dantes was lounging in his audience chamber garden, drinking some wine. His hands still had a bit of dirt on them from his days work in his gardens, and his muscles were sore, but he was anticipating a bath with Sevryn later, so that wasn¡¯t an issue for him. He¡¯d enjoyed getting his hands dirty and handling things in the gardens directly again. Now that he could tree-walk between them, he could make a habit of it. Overall, it had been a relaxed day, which Dantes had no problem with after the events of the last months. He closed his eyes, letting his mind wander for a few moments, when he felt a change in the air.


    The room seemed to dim a bit, and he could smell brimstone and flame. The door to his audience chamber opened, and Argenta stepped inside, with Gren walking silently behind her.


    Dantes sat up in his chair, wondering if he needed to reach for his dagger. He had heard no warning from Jayk or anyone else that she was coming, no message, nothing. Jacopo slipped behind the throne and started to make his way to where he could flank them if need be.


    ¡°Argenta? Am I the one hosting our meetings now? I¡¯m flattered.¡±


    She pointed a finger directly at Jacopo, who was hidden beneath thick moss. ¡°Call off your rat. I¡¯m not here to harm you.¡±


    ¡°I think I¡¯ll leave him where he is.¡±


    ¡°Your caution. One of the reasons I¡¯ve come to respect you,¡± she said sadly.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong Argenta. It¡¯s frightening to see you sentimental.¡±


    ¡°The guard is going to come for you tomorrow morning.¡±


    Dantes leaned forward in his wooden throne, clenching his jaw. ¡°What?¡±


    She sighed. ¡°There are a number of factors at play, all of them complex and interlinked. The city is in trouble, the former councilman, leader of the guard, Krant has passed. The Job has passed to his second, Belman, who was in charge of the exterior guard, Rendhold¡¯s army.¡±


    Dantes nodded along. ¡°The ones that run the work camps.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Pacha got information about your operations to him, which he found out using a man named Dulles.¡±


    ¡°I thought Pacha was reassigned to the murders in Uptown?¡±


    ¡°He was, but his men never stopped working in Midtown. Belman put him back in Midtown. In charge of it in fact.


    ¡°The addict sold me out? A triple cross?¡±


    She nodded. ¡°He fed your man false information. He is accepting a forced labor sentence and the loss of his position to bring you down.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no number of guards that could find me and take me down.¡±


    ¡°Gavain is going to help them.¡±


    Dantes clenched fists, then opened them. He¡¯d had warnings that this was coming. The axeman from his dreams, he was Justice, that was clear now. Justice wanted it¡¯s due, and had played the game to get it, waiting until he was distracted, vulnerable. He looked up at her. ¡°You¡¯re not going to protect me, are you? You''re not going to manipulate the council? The new guard? Throw some weight around? Some bribes?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Even though I¡¯m one of the Fingers? You and the others should come to my aid as I pledged to come to yours. Otherwise, what¡¯s the point?¡± He leaned back in his chair, pieces clicking into place in his mind. ¡°Gavain agreed to be given up to Frasheid authorities if I was brought in. This will help you to de-escalate with them. That¡¯ll placate the adventurer¡¯s guild as well, bringing them back  in line to act as a deterrent to invasion. You and the others agreed that it was worth it.¡±


    Her eyes widened a bit. ¡°That is the reason they think, I''m impressed you put that together.¡±


    ¡°Pacha met Gavain once, I led Gavain to one of Mondego¡¯s storehouses, and had Pacha coming in right behind him. Pacha wants to clean up the city, including you, and Gavain doesn¡¯t act rationally, just does what he thinks is right. He contacted him, and Gavain adopted his cause as his own in the usual wide eyed way he seems to act. You believe in fairness, in honor of a kind, but the city is your primary concern, it¡¯s your city after all. Arresting someone like me will also help to restore faith in the city itself as the plague fades, and put things back on track. You also don¡¯t appreciate your daughter¡¯s visits here I¡¯m guessing, but that¡¯s a secondary concern... So if that''s the reason they think, then what''s the real reason?¡±


    ¡°I still believe one of the Fingers is working with Godfrey, and this proves it. The guard shouldn''t be investigating things like this. You should''ve been left alone. I worked to make sure you would be. Even the initial arrests of your people months ago shouldn''t have happened. If you are forced into the Pit, I hope that they become complacent, and then I can remove them.¡±


    He rubbed a bit of the dirt on his hands between his fingers. ¡°That''s why you''re giving me the warning? You want me to go quietly.¡±


    ¡°Your assistance with Godfrey, your competence. You deserve the warning, and your smart enough to see things from my perspective. I also know that you spent an unenjoyable time in the Pit already so I thought you could easily leave, live a comfortable life elsewhere. If that was your choice.¡±


    Dantes unclenched his jaw and relaxed. ¡°Is it execution for me? Or the Pit?¡±


    ¡°On the spot execution if you resist. The Pit if you comply, at my insistence. There is to be no trial, special circumstances.¡±


    ¡°Do they have enough mages to weave a way to keep me from simply flying out?¡±


    ¡°Belman found enough to finish weaving the barrier meant to hold you in after Gideon Gallant¡¯s escape, so that they can close and open the Pit¡¯s mouth at will. Anything that attempts to fly out during supply drops will be shot. I heard the entire plan from Pacha, it was quite thorough.¡±


    The Pit. He¡¯d spent five years there in misery, but now, he was starting to see some possibilities within it. His freedom, his power, had given him a unique perspective on it that he hadn¡¯t had before, besides, now they truly couldn¡¯t hold him, even there.


    He looked at Argenta, smiling. ¡°I won¡¯t resist, I¡¯ll go to the Pit and cause no deaths. Don¡¯t give up my position in the Fingers to anyone though, I¡¯ll see you for our usual meeting in three days.¡±


    She nodded solemly. ¡°I''d never give someone else your position. I¡¯ll see you then.¡±


    She walked out, and Gren bowed to Dantes before walking out behind her.


    Jacopo crawled over to Dantes and looked at him. ¡°We¡¯re going to be spending some time apart, aren¡¯t we?¡±


    Dantes nodded and smiled at him. ¡°I apologize my friend, I¡¯m afraid that my time in the Pit will probably be much harder than your time away from me here on the surface.¡±


    Jacopo twitched his whiskers in a shrug. ¡°At least I¡¯ll see the sun.¡±


    Dantes stood, and stretched. ¡°I will too, just maybe not as often. I¡¯ll need to tell Jayk and Vera quite a few things, then I need to take a nice long bath with Sevryn. Time to start making the big moves we¡¯ve been waiting for.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 33: I AM Your superior

    Dantes sat at his exclusive table in the Viridian Vixen, sipping hot tea and looking out over it from his elevated position. He¡¯d only rarely seen it empty, and he found himself enjoying the quiet of it, and noting with satisfaction that he still liked the aesthetics of it. The work he and Vera had put into it had been substantial, so it was nice that he could still appreciate it.


    There were no knocks when Gavain and Pacha arrived. The door simply went from being on its hinges to being off of them and across the room, shattering against the wall. Dantes had predicted something like that may happen, and so the floor was already cleared of tables and chairs.


    Dantes sipped his tea, enjoying the warmth of it as it traveled down his throat. He felt rested. His sleep the previous night, he¡¯d dreamed of gods as he often did, but this time the god of justice had moved back several steps, and his axe no longer rested so near Dantes¡¯s throat, but rather resting against the ground. He thought he¡¯d won, but of course, Dantes was going to be the victor.


    Young guards poured through the open door, looking for skulls to crush, but instead finding an empty club and milling about confused. There weren¡¯t even any bottles of booze on the wall that they could break, or tables to cleave in two with their swords. Not that many of them would¡¯ve managed it, Dantes had them made of high quality thick wood. It took four orcs and a halfling to move the largest of them.


    Behind the young guards strode Pacha and Gavain. Pacha¡¯s eyes were alight with something, his breastplate had been polished to a mirror like sheen, and his beard trimmed to perfection. He looked around and quickly sized up the situation.


    ¡°They must¡¯ve had a heads up. Fan out, find Dantes. If he resists, cut him down.¡±


    A few of the guards exchanged looks, and started searching a bit slower than they had been before.


    Dantes suppressed a chuckle at that. He¡¯d considered the possibilities of resisting, or even hiding, but discounted them both. He had no clear idea of Gavain¡¯s true strength, every fight he¡¯d seen him in he had not suffered a single blow, or even seemed winded. Dantes thought he could beat him, especially if he had enough time to prepare, but the risk was great. Hiding would¡¯ve been easy. Hard to find one rat or roach among millions, but he didn¡¯t want to hide anymore. Besides, he had plans for the Pit.


    He looked at Gavain. He was much the same, long brown hair, a massive magical spear in his hands, wearing strange segmented armor that covered his body. His expression was different though, harsher. He had a small scar over his right eye, one that hadn¡¯t been there before. It looked out of place on an otherwise unblemished face. Seeing a mark of vulnerability on someone who seemed untouchable, was disconcerting, even to Dantes.


    Dantes stood up from his table and leaned over the edge of his little balcony, taking a sip of his tea as they started to notice him.


    ¡°Welcome to the Vixen, gentlemen. I¡¯m afraid we¡¯re short on booze and women at the moment, but maybe pleasant conversation is more what you¡¯re in the mood for this morning?¡±


    Gavain looked at him, he squinted for just a moment, then his eyes widened. ¡°YOU.¡±


    Dantes smiled down at him. ¡°Yes, me. Dantes, Druid, lord of midtown, purveyor of hedonistic debauchery, and man who lies to naive adventurers to get them to clear out an enemy¡¯s warehouse.¡±


    Gavain¡¯s teeth clenched as he gripped his spear.


    Dantes gently placed his teacup down.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    ¡°I helped you do good, Gavain. A very bad man¡¯s operations were crippled thanks to you. The city, I¡¯m sure, benefitted from it.¡±


    Pacha put a hand on Gavain¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Step back, son.¡±


    Gavain untensed a bit and smiled. ¡°I own my mistakes, but Justice is here for you now.¡±


    ¡°You going to come quietly?¡± asked Pacha, simply.


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Absolutely. I will not resist at all.¡±


    Pacha nodded, and unlooped some manacles from his hip as he began to climb the stairs toward Dantes.


    Dantes held out his hands for Pacha to lock up.


    ¡°Arresting me is not going to help the city the way you¡¯d like it to. Not really.¡±


    Pacha ignored him, sealing the first manacle around his wooden left wrist.


    ¡°The streets are cleaner, Midtown is healthier with me here rather than Mondego. Removing me¡­ it just creates chaos. Rendhold isn¡¯t the kind of place that can be tamed. You have to mitigate problems to maximize results here. That¡¯s just the way it is.¡±


    Pacha sealed the other manacle, and pulled hard on the chain of it.


    Dantes followed him willingly so that the pull didn¡¯t harm his wrists at all.


    ¡°Straight to the Pit, eh?¡±


    ¡°Yes. You¡¯ll be the first of many,¡± said Pacha.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure¡­ I have to say, I¡¯m very impressed with your man Dulles.¡±


    Pacha almost responded, but stayed quiet as he dragged him through the main door.


    Outside, in the street, were dozens of men and women. Shopkeepers, bartenders, bards, whores, sailors, dealers, mercs, and a dozen more of every type of midtowner waved and hollered at Dantes as he was taken away. Some of them even threw flowers in their direction.


    Dantes smiled, nodded, and even unshackled his wooden left arm to wave at them as he was dragged away.


    The guards were tense and uncomfortable at the display, and Dantes could see a few beads of sweat dripping down Pacha¡¯s neck. Gavain looked utterly lost, his mouth agape at such a display for a liar and cheat, a gangster that was exploiting all of those people that were cheering him.


    Dantes smiled at him. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it Gavain, it¡¯s just Midtown. It¡¯s just the way things are here.¡±


    ¡­


    Jacopo pulled a bit at his collar as he stood at the prow of a large merchant ship. It was silk, Dantes had made sure that all of the clothes that had been made for him would be as comfortable as possible, but any clothes at all was a sharp downgrade from no clothes and a thick coat of soft fur.


    The ship lurched a bit as the city came into view. It was morning, and a thick mist was making it difficult to see much of anything, especially with Rendhold not being regularly lit by mage academy students. From where Jacopo stood it was all dark silhouettes and high towers, only broken up by the docks which were lit by old oil lanterns to guide ships. The dark didn¡¯t bother Jacopo of course, he was more focused on the task at hand.


    One of the sailors, the second mate, an awful title in Jacopo¡¯s opinion, approached.


    ¡°Sir, we¡¯ll be docking shortly. The men will load your goods onto the docks as requested.


    Jacopo nodded, putting on his best sneer. ¡°If anything is missing, or the crates are underweight, I will personally emasculate you.¡±


    The sailor paled at the words of the large foreigner, and nodded as he quickly moved back to the cargo deck.


    Dantes had told him he¡¯d need to act imperious and unkind in order to sell himself in the role they needed, but he wondered if he¡¯d gone too far. Human¡¯s and their intricacies were confusing to him. Vampa, who stood a few feet behind him, wearing an intricate suit of armor with a sword at his belt, didn¡¯t correct him though, which meant he probably hadn¡¯t gone too far.


    Less than an hour later, the boat was docked and the unloading of cargo had begun. Jacopo was about to leap off the side of the boat to land on the dock, but Vampa put a hand on his shoulder, gesturing subtly to the gangway. He kept his head high and walked off the boat, finding a small man wearing the uniform of a port official waiting for him. The man looked him up and down, with an eyebrow raised, sensing a potential bribe coming his way.


    ¡°Welcome to Rendhold. I see that you¡¯re carrying a large amount of goods with you. Are you-¡±


    ¡°I am Count Jacopo de Fosse, fourth son of the now deposed King Sigismund of the land of the eternal sun. I request the asylum granted to exiled royalty, including being welcomed into the nobility of Rendhold and all the privileges that come with it.¡±


    The official stared at him blankly with his mouth hung open. ¡°I¡¯ll, uh, need to get my superior.¡±


    ¡°I am your superior.¡±


    ¡°I mean, my superior here at the dock, sir. It will be only a moment. I won¡¯t keep your count-ship waiting for long.¡±


    ¡°See that you don¡¯t.¡±


    The man bowed, and scurried away.


    Jacopo glanced at Vampa who gave him a curt nod of approval. He pulled at his silk collar again. It was going to be a long day before he would be able to change into himself again.

 Book 3 Ch 34: Ive Missed You Dantes

    Dantes looked out over the no-man¡¯s land that surrounded the Pit as he rode in a caged wagon protected by more than two dozen guards. It was a wild, overgrown area filled with all manner of vermin and strays. He wondered idly why he¡¯d never considered focusing on building a garden within it. It seemed like a stupid waste. Was it because he had been avoiding thinking about the Pit? That seemed the likeliest answer, but it was foolish of him to waste all that prime green space. It was something he¡¯d have to start amending.


    The wagon reached the edge of the Maw and came to a lurching stop. It wasn¡¯t the usual time to drop new prisoners and supplies into the Pit, but they¡¯d made an exception for him. It made him feel so very special.


    The guards moved warily to get him out of the cage, but Dantes simply took off his manacles and leg locks, and pushed it open himself. He¡¯d idly picked all of the locks during the trip, it was a pleasant way to keep his hands busy.


    The guards all jumped as he stepped out, and several raised crossbows to aim at him, but he held up his hands, and Pacha gestured for them to lower them, approaching Dantes with his sword and gesturing for him to start moving, which he did with no complaint.


    ¡°Do you feel bad for Gavain?¡± Dantes asked as they moved. Gavain and Pacha had separated after Dantes had been locked in the wagon. Taken by different guards to be held until he was given up to Frasheid.


    Pacha shook his head. ¡°That man lives with no regrets. Exists only for Justice. I don¡¯t feel bad for him, I feel envious.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°I feel bad for him. Considering what Frasheid does to its slaves,I can¡¯t imagine what they¡¯re planning to do to Gavain.¡±


    Pacha¡¯s expression hardened and he kept pushing Dantes forward until they were near the edge of the Pit.


    Security at the Maw had changed a lot since Dantes had escaped, or rather because of Dantes¡¯s escape. There was a wooden fence surrounding the maw, ten feet from the lip of it where men with crossbows stood watch. The guard presence in general had doubled. Dantes guessed that most of them were happy for the job, the jail itself may be difficult to manage, but watching the Maw? That was easy work for a lazy guardsman.


    Dantes reached the platform from which men were thrown into the Pit, and a young mage approached him, muttering under his breath for a few moments.


    Dantes felt his fingers start to tingle as the feather fall spell began to affect him, then the mage leaned close and slipped a knife into his pocket.


    ¡°My sister works at the Vixen. Thank you for healing her and my mother,¡± said the mage, working the sentence into his arcane mutterings.


    Dantes slipped it back into the mage¡¯s pocket. ¡°I won¡¯t need it, but I¡¯ll remember you gave it to me.¡±


    The mage nodded and stepped back.


    Dantes stepped forward, and looked down into the pit. Where there had once been only sand, now a massive stump sat in the center of it where Dantes had grown his Mother¡¯s Reach and escaped the prison. Around it, nearly a hundred men were gathered, looking up at Dantes and the guards.


    With his enhanced hearing, Dantes could hear two of the guards talking behind him.


    ¡°It¡¯s odd how quiet they are.¡±


    ¡°Aye. They should be hooting and hollering about what they¡¯re going to be doing to him when he lands.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s damned unsettling.¡±


    Pacha approached again with his sword drawn. ¡°Are you going to step in yourself, or are we going to throw you?¡±


    Dantes looked back at him and smiled for a moment before stepping off the edge. He fixed the cuff of his jacket as he descended, and looked down as a half dozen men climbed up onto the stump and stood near where he was about to land, all of the others gathered there kept their distance.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Dantes landed and the men closest to him bowed their heads a bit. Dantes clasped the nearest one, a half-orc half-elf, on the shoulder.


    ¡°Aurelio. It¡¯s good to see you. Your wife asked me to give you her love.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, sir. I appreciate you making sure she¡¯s taken care of.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°You didn¡¯t give anyone else up, stayed true to your word. Loyalty means you and yours will be set for life.¡±


    He nodded again.


    ¡°Let¡¯s head to the Undermarket, shall we? I¡¯d like to see how things have changed.¡±


    Aurelio nodded, and he and the other men fell in on either side of Dantes as he walked.


    The rest of the crowd stared at him as he walked off the stump, muttering. Some of them sounded afraid, other¡¯s angry, but none of them tried anything. None even dared to take a step toward him. The few that met his gaze nodded at him respectfully, and Dantes noted who they were as he walked.


    The Underprison was dark, the halls narrow, and the atmosphere oppressive, but things were very different for him from the last time he¡¯d been there. His senses were stronger, for one. He could hear and sense everything around him, even with his eyes closed. The sounds bouncing off the narrow walls let him detect everything with ease. He also began to gather rats, just as he had before, having them watch his back as he weaved his way through all of the murderers, rapists and thieves that surrounded him.


    The Undermarket was busy, as it always was, and Dantes made his way for the Which Wench, where he found Celeste standing at the entrance, in the skin of a beautiful human woman wearing nothing at all, whose hair was long enough to conceal all of the most enticing places.


    ¡°Two-name No-name! I¡¯d heard you¡¯d be joining us again soon.¡±


    Dantes blinked, seeing her briefly shift into a white creature with too long limbs and pitch black eyes, but he ignored that.


    ¡°For just a little while.¡±


    ¡°Confidence. Syn always liked that about you.¡±


    He jerked his neck to make his men fan out and watch his back as he leaned closer to Celeste. He didn¡¯t need them to watch his back, but he didn¡¯t want them listening in.


    ¡°Why are you still here? I thought with Syn''s release she was going to free all of you?¡±


    Celeste nodded. ¡°Many of us did leave, but some are bound in different ways, more complex ones that can¡¯t be figured out easily. Some that were freed have stayed.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    She shrugged. ¡°We have nowhere else to go. The world above us hates us. No nation welcomes us as they do other Fey. Here we¡¯re safe, we have one another, we can live as we want and shift as we will.¡±


    Dantes nodded, absorbing that information, feeling a little saddened by it. The one thing he counted on Rendhold for, was for it to be home. Parts of it may have hated him, or spat on him, but other parts absorbed him without a second thought, as if he¡¯d always belonged. He couldn¡¯t imagine not feeling that bare minimum of acceptance anywhere he went, or feeling so desperate for a place to exist that the Pit would be his choice. ¡°I¡¯ll be back later to roll some dice like old times if you¡¯re up for it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m up for that and so much more,¡± she said, batting her eyelashes at him.


    He chuckled and started to walk away, heading toward the exit, the men followed him warily.


    ¡°Dantes, sir. The Consortium has gotten all the items you requested from them, including the room with a real bed. Do you want to see them?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°No, that¡¯s all for show, and to have a place to rest and store things during the day. You all can use the room to sleep if you¡¯d like.¡±


    ¡°Where will you be?¡±


    Dantes looked at him. ¡°Back at the Vixen, sleeping in the arms of my woman with a bellyful of freshly cooked food.¡±


    Aurelio blinked at him, not understanding.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be bringing you and the other men back food as well. On top of whatever else you might want.¡±


    Aurelio looked at the others, but none seemed comfortable asking the obvious question.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯ll become clear shortly.¡±


    They walked through winding and narrow paths until the sounds of the more active part of the Underprison faded and only their own footsteps and breathing could be heard. They eventually reached a wide open chamber with high ceilings and a dirt floor. It was smaller than the last chamber he¡¯d started a garden in, but this one only needed to grow one thing.


    He took a seed from his pocket, and tossed it into the air once before catching it. He extended one of the fingers on his wooden hand into a sharp thorn, and pricked his thumb on his right hand. He then let several drops of blood drip onto the seed. He motioned for all of the other men to back away as he moved to the center of the room, and buried the seed.


    He sent his will into it, and connected it to all of the other lifeforce in the city through himself.


    ¡°Grow.¡±


    The little seed listened. First its roots began to spread through the ground, then a sprout sprung through the dirt, then a sapling, and soon after that a tree taller and wider than Dantes sat in the chamber, blood red leaves springing from it in a thick canopy above their heads.


    Dantes placed his hand on the trunk of it, feeling the life flowing through it and how it connected to the rest of the city. He followed those connections until he found what he was looking for, then he released that tight hold he held on himself.


    He pushed through the tree in the Pit, and walked out into his audience chamber, where a half naked Sevryn sat in his throne holding a bottle of wine with two glasses dangling from her other hand and looking over her shoulder.


    ¡°I¡¯ve missed you, Dantes.¡±


    ¡°I know. It¡¯s truly tragic when the law tears people apart for so long.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 35: The Greatest Joke Ever Told

    Jacopo sat across from Magister Desha, the woman Dantes had given money to so that she could become a magister. She wore a black dress with silver thread in an intricate pattern around the neck and sleeves. Her hair, which had still had a bit of orange in it when Dantes had last spoken to her, was now completely blonde, freeing her of any connection she once had to Danglars. She sat up a bit straighter, there was more steel in her spine than she¡¯d had in Dantes¡¯s memories.


    ¡°The last hearing for accepting an exiled noble was thirty years ago, but the magister making the judgment in your case is the same one who handled that case, as well as the previous one thirty two years before that,¡± she said, reading from a piece of parchment.


    Jacopo drummed his fingers on her desk impatiently, wishing two-legs had thought it more appropriate to chew on bones casually. The crunch of some bone and the taste of marrow would be good at that moment.


    ¡°There are records of some people from your nation coming to Rendhold and being accepted before, but they¡¯re old. Nearly the age of the city itself.¡±


    Jacopo nodded, Vampa had given them the nation''s name and Dantes had forged the documents about it himself. Dantes had thought they were perfect, but to Jacopo it was all a bunch of useless scrawls. He could read, it was a skill he was able to pull from Dantes, but he hated it. Even talking was too slow. He simply wanted to take what he wanted and move on from there.


    Desha noted his fingers drumming on her brand new desk and frowned. She¡¯d expected some kind of money laundering or backroom deal for Dantes, helping an exiled noble get recognized was not what she¡¯d planned on, especially one she was fairly certain was fake, but that wasn¡¯t her business. He was nice to look at, but that didn¡¯t make up for the gruffness of both him and his bodyguard.


    ¡°The main problem, I think, will be the fact that you¡¯re a mutt.¡±


    Jacopo stopped his drumming. ¡°A mutt?¡±


    She nodded. ¡°You¡¯re mixed, you¡¯ve got,¡± she squinted at him, ¡° orc, elf, human¡­a bit of dwarf I¡¯d guess too. Most nobles that come here were pure-blooded, or at worst half-blooded. Sure there are a few mutt nobles here now from interbreeding, but the magister we¡¯re seeing today is old. He¡¯ll be concerned about it. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it¡¯s the only thing he asks about.¡±


    ¡°It will be fine,¡± said Vampa. ¡°Is everything else in order?¡±


    She sighed. ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Once he accepts me, you¡¯ll push through my purchases immediately.¡±


    ¡°Of the useless plots of land that used to be sealed off by the guard and everyone forgot about? Yes, though I have far better investments I can steer you toward.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll talk about those too. After I get what I want.¡±


    She shrugged. ¡°Suit yourself.¡±


    ¡­


    Dantes crawled through a narrow gap between stones, using his six legs to pull himself up and over the narrow opening and into a wide chamber. It was as he¡¯d hoped, there was a wide shaft of light peeking into the chamber somehow. He shifted into himself, dusting off his shirt as he started to look around. The chamber was only about ten feet by eleven, though it had definitely been larger before the wall he¡¯d just climbed through had collapsed. There was writing on the walls that he recognized as belonging to whatever the former inhabitants of the pit had been. He ran his hand along a few of them, before pulling away.


    The area where the light was coming from, the ceiling seemed almost crystalline, and though he couldn¡¯t look directly at it without blinding himself, it appeared that the light was actually coming through it. He¡¯d heard Clay mention, a long time ago when they¡¯d both been trapped in the Pit, that there were areas the dwarves had accessed that had sunlight and that was how he could grow his weed and other plants. Dantes had assumed they¡¯d found an area that surface light bled through, but this was different. He could tell that he was hundreds of feet below the surface, and yet there was sunlight on his dark gray skin.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Dantes opened the pouch on his side, and started to pull out seeds. He listened to them, hearing where they wanted to be, then he compared that with his own knowledge of where they¡¯d thrive, and he planted them. When he was done, he pulled a small flask of water out and gave each of them a hardy drink. All of the other sealed off chambers he¡¯d focused on growing mushrooms, molds, and mosses that didn¡¯t require light or much life to survive, but in a well lit chamber he had more options.


    When he was done he sat in the chamber and closed his eyes, feeling the life in the seeds begin to grow and open itself. One of the main reasons he¡¯d wanted to come to the Pit was to fully secure his grasp on life in the city. There were so many small nooks and crannies that he could plant gardens in, places no one else would be able to reach, that it seemed like the perfect way to grow and preserve the life within his locus. Jacopo was working on securing his gardens on the surface, among other things, but there was always more to do, more ways to grow.


    Dantes shifted into a cat and strode into the sunbeam he¡¯d created. He¡¯d been awake most of the night working with Jayk, meeting with Argenta, spending time with Jacque, and making sure to give Sevryn a healthy dose of his attention. As he slept, his dreams were free of Justice¡¯s axe, but his mind drifted to Jacopo.


    ¡­


    Jacopo sat in the medium sized chamber with Vampa armored and standing behind him, and Desha next to him. Across from all of them, in a higher seat flanked by an old human woman with a quill and paper, sat Magister Lodalan.


    He looked about middle aged, which meant that as an elf he had a few hundred years under his belt. He wore circular glasses and his long gray and black hair was braided and hung over his left shoulder. He¡¯d been peering at the stack of papers in front of them, poring over them one by one, as the rest of them waited.


    Jacopo felt as if he was going to jump out of his skin. He¡¯d been in two-leg form for most of the day, far longer than he had before. He¡¯d practiced maintaining it, and shifting between it, as Dantes did, but it felt far more uncomfortable for him to maintain two-leg form, than it was for Dantes to maintain rat form. He briefly considered simply leaping forward and shaking the old man until he gave him what he wanted, but decided that would be counterproductive, if satisfying.


    ¡°The handwriting on these records is immaculate,¡± said the old elf in a raspy voice. ¡°The clerks in Telumandi are most skilled.¡±


    Jacopo¡¯s eye twitched since he didn¡¯t have whiskers he could flick in annoyance.


    ¡°I have only one question, and that is regarding your ancestry. I was of the understanding that Telumandi is an Elvish kingdom, and yet I see before me a man of Orc and Human descent.¡± He adjusted his glasses a bit. ¡°In my time we expect nobility to be of a certain¡­ pedigree.¡±


    Jacopo stood up, he could feel Dantes watching things through his eyes, his own frustration boiling over for Jacopo. ¡°My Grandfather married a human princess of a young neighboring kingdom in order to ensure peace and tranquility between them.¡± he took several steps toward Lodalan, ¡°My grandmother married an orcish merchant prince to secure economic prosperity for Telumandi,¡± he took one last step to stand looking the elven magister in the eye despite the fact that he was on a raised dais and drew a dagger. ¡°My parents married each other to strengthen the bloodline and strengthen ties within the kingdom.¡± He began to roll up the silk sleeves over his left arm. ¡°How about I cut my wrists, and you cut yours, and we¡¯ll see whose blood runs a deeper blue.¡±


    The old elf was shrunk back in his chair, his eyes wide and frightened. ¡°I uh, don¡¯t think that will be necessary, Jacopo de Fosse. I, uh, approve your application to be recognized as nobility of Rendhold. Let me be the first to welcome you to our beautiful city as an honored member of its highest class.¡±


    Jacopo sheathed his jewel encrusted dagger, and rolled down his sleeve. He started to walk back toward the exit to the room. He pointed at Desha.


    ¡°You, stay here and wrap up,¡±


    He then gestured to Vampa. ¡°Let¡¯s get the fuck out of here.¡±


    Vampa nodded and they walked out together, toward the massive apartment they¡¯d purchased.


    ¡°That was very well delivered,¡± sent Dantes.


    ¡°You gave me the words.¡±


    ¡°True, but you sold them. Well done.¡±


    ¡°There was no one else you could have do this? No random man we could make up to be a lord?¡±


    ¡°I already told you, there¡¯s not anyone else I could trust as much, or that I could speak to directly like this. Besides, don¡¯t you think it¡¯s funny?¡±


    ¡°Funny?¡±


    ¡°We just convinced Rendhold that a rat is royalty. This may be the greatest joke that¡¯s ever been told.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 36: Im Just the Muscle

    Dantes walked through the dark corridors of the Pit as he moved toward his blood tree. Moving in the Pit still came very naturally to him, though now he could do it with his eyes closed, and frequently did while he monitored things both above and below him. He¡¯d been sparing in the feeding of his blood tree, giving it only drops when he fed it and doing his best to nourish it in other ways. He understood the risk and reward provided by blood ritual now far better than he had before, and he didn¡¯t intend to waste such a valuable tool.


    He was being followed. Had been for quite some time. It was four men with various levels of orcish blood. They wielded crude clubs and dull daggers as they moved quickly through the tunnels to reach him.


    Dantes stretched his neck and arms a bit before shifting into a rat and moving into a darkened corner of the tunnel he was in. He waited patiently until the orcs entered the hall, each of them looking around it warily with their weapons raised.


    ¡°I swear I can still smell him here.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I thought I heard him in this direction, then it stopped outta nowhere.¡±


    ¡°Could he have heard us?¡±


    ¡°Nah, he¡¯s got some elvish in him, but we were too far back in the tunnels.¡±


    One of them shook his head. ¡°We should just turn back and wait for him to head back toward the Undermarket to grab him.¡±


    ¡°Fuck that, he killed my brother. I want him dead.¡±


    Dantes wondered idly which of the orcs he¡¯d killed had been the man¡¯s brother. He assumed it was one of them that was part of the old orcish gang he¡¯d killed when Tel had died, but he didn¡¯t really remember any of their faces. He watched as they searched a bit more around the tunnel, sniffing and listening for any signs of him. He considered sparing them. They certainly wouldn¡¯t be able to find him at this point, but they¡¯d just be a problem again later. Or they¡¯d hurt Aurelio and his men who were much more vulnerable than he was.


    Dantes stayed crouched in the shadows as he shifted back into himself, reaching for his pistol for a moment, before changing his mind and grabbing his dagger. The sound of a gunshot in there would deafen him, and be echoing around for months.


    He walked perfectly silently until he was behind one of them, grabbed his mouth with his wooden hand, and drove his dagger between the man¡¯s ribs, puncturing his lungs. The orc tried to cut his wooden hand with his tusks to free himself, but received only splinters as Dantes drove the dagger into his back two more times.


    Another of the orcs turned to look in his direction just as Dantes dropped his companion to the floor. He started to yell, and raise his club, but as he went to strike him, Dantes slipped neatly beneath his attack, and drove his dagger into his stomach, wrenching it upward to disembowel him.


    The other two orcs moved toward him, but Dantes pushed the dying orc away from himself and into the other two, though he needed to let go of his dagger as he did so.


    They pushed the body off of themselves and started to attack him, one with a swift dagger, and the other with a heavy club tipped in stone from the walls.


    They seemed slow. Dantes hadn¡¯t really bothered with fighting anyone close quarters in some time, preferring to use his pistol, wands, wooden hand, or vermin. He had been training with Jacopo every day though, and Jacopo had been training with both Vampa and Zak regularly as well which may have leaked into Dantes a bit through their connection. On top of that he now had the enhanced senses, reflexes, and instincts of cats, dogs, rats, roaches, pigeons, and bats. All that together had seemed to turn him from a mediocre brawler into something a little bit beyond skilled.


    He slid between the orcs just before he was going to back into a tunnel wall, and they collided into one another. The one wielding a dagger whipped around, and as he did so, sliced his companion across the nose, causing him to drop his club and clutch his nose.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    As the one with a dagger turned around to see what he¡¯d done, Dantes closed in and punched him as hard as he could with his wooden fist. He felt something shatter in the orc¡¯s jaw as he hit him, and felt a broken piece of tusk lodge itself in a wooden knuckle. He followed that up with a swift kick to his jewels, then broke the nose of the orc that had just been cut as well. He let them throw a few more half-hearted attacks in his direction that he dodged again. He was smiling as he did it.


    ¡°You''re playing with your food again,¡± sent Jacopo


    Dantes chuckled a bit, and took a few steps back from the orcs, extending his wooden fingers like sharp stakes, skewering them both and killing them instantly.


    ¡°I think you¡¯ve spent a bit too much time as a two-leg today.¡±


    ¡°Yes. But why?¡±


    ¡°Repeating the same joke you¡¯ve told before, is one of the most two-leg things you can do.¡±


    Jacopo sent back an anguished groan.


    ¡­


    Dantes stepped into his audience chamber to find Jayk waiting for him, sipping from a mug of tea with a small tray filled with dinner sitting and waiting for Dantes to eat it. Dantes had one of the branches of his throne pick up the tray and hold it to the side so that he could sit, then had the branch move it again to hold the food in front of him. Before he started eating, he welcomed the affections of his hounds who were barely holding themselves back from leaping onto him and knocking him over. He gave them a healthy bit of pats before shooing them so he could eat.


    ¡°No offense Jayk, but I much prefer welcomes from Sevryn, or Jacque and Alessa, or Vera.¡±


    ¡°I feel odd talking business around the baby, and if Sevryn gets to you first that¡¯s a guaranteed hour before we can get to business.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°It¡¯s a beautiful thing for a friend to know me so well.¡±


    Jayk averted his eyes and coughed a bit. ¡°Let¡¯s just get started.¡±


    Dantes nodded to him as he speared a piece of fish.


    ¡°Shipments are still down, but steadily trickling up. Still no ships from Frasheid or Viscent though. Tensions seem to be very high with them.¡±


    ¡°Giving over Gavain didn¡¯t help?¡±


    Jayk shook his head. ¡°He gave himself up, but he refuses to apologize for what he did, or ask the slave revolt to step down. Rumor is the torture has been exceptionally cruel too.¡±


    Dantes frowned at that. He didn¡¯t blame himself at all for Gavain¡¯s fate, it seemed like it would happen whether or not he was around. Still, it wasn¡¯t as if Gavain had done anything wrong.


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°Poor bastard, but there¡¯s nothing we can do about it.¡±


    Jayk nodded. ¡°Felix has gotten everything set up for the first no-rules gambling table. Several of Diamond¡¯s people are very interested, as are many of Fritz¡¯s.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll have to make sure I can be there too. I¡¯ve been wanting to see the fruits of that work for a long time. Make sure to only let those who seem like they¡¯d be the biggest draw play.¡±


    Jayk nodded.


    ¡°Jacopo has successfully purchased the land your gardens are on, as well as several other plots throughout the city¡­ Though I¡¯d guess you knew that already.¡±


    Dantes smiled and nodded as he sipped some wine.


    Jayk frowned a little bit. ¡°Some of the men, as well as some of the people in midtown, are starting to believe that I have taken things over since you went down to the Pit. They¡¯re claiming that they no longer need to pay up to us because it¡¯s not really you in charge anymore.¡±


    Dantes frowned. ¡°Give me names, and places. I¡¯ll visit them personally to show them exactly how wrong they are.¡±


    Jayk nodded. ¡°Yes boss.¡±


    ¡°Obviously, you¡¯ve been in charge the whole time! I¡¯m just the muscle.¡±


    Jayk¡¯s serious expression broke for a moment as he chuckled.


    ¡°Last two things. Argenta¡¯s daughter was here again. She left another letter in response to your last one. She seems fairly eager to see you again.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll answer that later. What¡¯s the last thing?¡±


    ¡°The new drugs that we¡¯ve begun to sell. The ones you got from your contact?¡±


    Dantes nodded, his mind briefly picturing Lorna wearing nothing, but leaves.


    ¡°The sweet red leaves are selling very well. The powdered black roots as well. Some of the others have very strong effects, making people see and hear things, but people usually don¡¯t want to try them more than once. There was one, the pink flower petals, that has killed four people already¡­ but they died with smiles on their faces though so I¡¯d call it a wash.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve got a meeting with the fingers in two hours. I¡¯m going to spend that time with Jacque, but while I do I want you to prepare two sets of samples for each of the new drugs. I know a certain gnome that may be very interested in giving them a try.¡±


    Jayk nodded. ¡°No problem boss.¡±


    ¡°And what about the disruptions? How has the guard been reacting?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve been giving a number of smaller gangs access to guns and wands across the city, as well as large amounts of the new drugs that are the most clearly successful. The moratorium we¡¯d previously placed on harming guards directly has been lifted, leading to mostly injuries, but also a number of deaths. Overall, the guard is looking bad, and Belman is pushing the blame onto those in charge of Midtown.¡±


    Dantes nodded, smiling. He¡¯d warned Pacha that he was a stabilizing force, now he¡¯d see what things were like without him. He wasn¡¯t really gone of course, so it would take a bit of manufacturing.


    ¡°And Dulles?¡±


    ¡°Crushed by falling logs during his forced labor. A tragedy.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Well done.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 37: I Could Win

    Dantes gave Jacque a small kiss on the forehead as he handed him off to Alessa. He¡¯d slept the entire time Dantes had him, but that was okay, babies needed their sleep. Dantes walked up to the roof, and shifted into a pigeon. He could¡¯ve chosen to tree-walk to the nearest large garden to the Silken Sin for his meeting, but wanted to see the city and stretch his wings. His flying forms didn¡¯t get as much use in the confines of the Pit.


    He started by flying in a wide circle around Midtown, dipping into the docks and taking some brief glances at his gardens. Life in Midtown was flourishing. Roofs were covered in gardens, flowers sprang up in front of shops, and every single patch of dirt where the streets had broken was now filled with green. Dantes could sense cats and dogs hunting rats, and rats claiming their due in the restaurants and shops that had once been barred from them through enchantment. Dantes¡¯s gardens were no longer walled off, but now sat openly flourishing, with only a few private guards hired by ¡®Jacopo de Fosse¡¯ watching them openly. Midtown and the docks had always been lively, but before they¡¯d looked decrepit, and miserable. Now they were filled with life, Dantes even saw people walking through the streets without hands clutched to daggers.


    He broke off from his small tour and began beating his wings towards Uptown, and the Temple district where the Silken Sin resided. He shifted into himself a few feet above the entrance and landed lightly on his feet in front of two guards who jumped and reached for weapons before realizing who he was and letting him inside. He walked the now familiar path toward the Finger¡¯s meeting place and pushed open the doors to walk inside.


    He was the last to arrive, Argenta looked up at him without batting an eye, but the others didn¡¯t react so calmly to his arrival.


    ¡°How the fuck are you here?¡± asked Drake.


    ¡°I walked through the door,¡± said Dantes with a smile, taking a seat on the couch next to Diamond before leaning forward to take a deep inhale of the hookah in the center of the room, and blowing out a thick ring of smoke.


    ¡°Did you break the enchantment somehow? Did Fel-,¡± she caught herself, but she¡¯d already revealed she knew Felix worked for him. ¡°Did a mage in your employ find a weakness in it?¡±


    Dantes hadn¡¯t heard her talk about magic much, despite her place in the fingers, she mostly focused on business and flirting. It was interesting to see her so interested all of a sudden.


    ¡°I broke no enchantments and had no help.¡±


    Fritz blinked his bleary eyes at him a few times. ¡°Well, I know it wasn¡¯t the Consortium. Did you develop something on the side with the guards without them noticing?¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter how I did it, I¡¯m here.¡±


    ¡°I was wondering why Argenta was against us carving everything up,¡± said Drake cockily.


    Dantes smiled at him. ¡°Even without me there, none of you could take Midtown. Not anymore.¡±


    Drake chuckled. ¡°What, you think you men can take mine? Come on, I¡¯ve got blooded mercs and adventurers under me. All you¡¯ve got in some street rats. Competent street rats, I¡¯ll grant, but still just rats.¡±


    ¡°It wouldn¡¯t even take them a day to kill you and scatter all of your, ¡®blooded¡¯ men to the winds.¡±


    ¡°The fuck did you say?¡± asked Drake standing and stepping toward him.


    Dantes blew a large cloud of smoke into his face.


    Diamond leaned forward, putting herself between the two of them. ¡°As much as I love seeing two men give one another hells, I¡¯d rather not need to get blood out of my new dress.¡±Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    ¡°The meeting is concluded anyway,¡± said Argenta. ¡°Things are continuing to improve, deals are going through again. Small dip in trade from overland and by boat, but nothing unusual for the season. Everyone go, except Dantes, I need to catch him up on a few things.¡±


    Drake shook his head angrily as he walked out, and Diamond followed closely behind him.


    Dantes stopped Fritz before he was out the door.


    ¡°I have a gift for you,¡± he said, pulling two small pouches from his coat. ¡°New herbs from far away. I¡¯ve started selling a few on the street and thought you might want a sample. Once you¡¯ve tried them I¡¯d like to talk about wider distribution.¡±


    Fritz took both pouches. ¡°Two sets? One for me to give to someone else first, and if it¡¯s safe one for myself?¡±


    ¡°Exactly, just be wary of the pink flower petals. Only death from that so far.¡±


    ¡°Well, we both know there¡¯s uses for that too.¡± He slipped the pouches into the folds of his silk robes. ¡°I¡¯ll be in touch.¡±


    Dantes nodded at him, and then returned to his spot where Argenta was waiting for him.


    ¡°I¡¯m impressed. Part of me thought your claim I¡¯d see you today was just bluster.¡±


    ¡°You know I¡¯ve escaped every night since I was first thrown in. I¡¯ve been exchanging letters with your daughter. There¡¯s no reason to flatter me.¡±


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t suppose there is. I¡¯m glad you¡¯ve kept your escapes subtle though. For the good of the city.¡±


    Dantes shrugged, ¡°There are things I need to do in the Pit, and I see no reason to antagonize the guard.¡±


    Argenta stayed silent for a moment, pushing a single knuckle into the armrest of her chair. ¡°There''s going to be war, Dantes.¡±


    Dantes kept himself from coughing on the smoke he¡¯d inhaled, and managed to let it smoothly out of his nose.


    ¡°With who?¡± he managed to say.


    ¡°Viscent and Frasheid, though our neighboring kingdoms may ally themselves with them as well to enjoy a part of the spoils.¡±


    ¡°Even after they got Gavain?¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°The ships we took, the slaves he freed, all of it is just excuses. They¡¯re attacking us because they want to control us. This is about greed, it always was.¡±


    ¡°Godfrey?¡±


    ¡°Yes. All of his manipulations here were to weaken us, to soften our position. While he was doing that, he or his agents were also working in Frasheid and Viscent.¡±


    ¡°Frasheid can spare the men even with their revolt?¡±


    ¡°The revolt is already on its last legs. Besides, they don¡¯t want to give up a claim on it to Viscent.¡±


    ¡°How long?¡± Dantes asked.


    ¡°Two, maybe three weeks. Our navy is moving to engage Viscent¡¯s ships now to try and sink as many troop transports before they can land. We¡¯re hoping we can mitigate the damage.¡±


    Dantes leaned back. Rendhold hadn¡¯t gone to war in a thousand years, and a gold faced bastard had undone that in less than a decade. He thought about it. The idea of men marching in armor, with spears in hand, cannons on ships approaching to demolish the docks. Thousands engaged in battle.


    I could win.


    The thought came almost unbidden to his mind. He checked himself momentarily. He¡¯d accomplished some long odds, beaten some powerful opponents, and grown in strength dramatically since he¡¯d first spoken to Jacopo, but defeating armies? That was madness.


    I could win.


    The thought came again. Clearer and more forceful this time, and gods help him, he accepted it as the truth this time. In Rendhold? In his locus the center of his power? He could beat an army. In some ways, beating an army would be easier than much of what he¡¯d already done. Still, he didn¡¯t want to win for nothing. He didn¡¯t want victory from the shadows. He wanted the city to know it was him. He wanted them to beg him for it. Not that he¡¯d leave his own people in danger, he¡¯d protect Midtown whether or not the rest of the city chose to burn.


    ¡°What are your plans?¡± he asked, keeping his thoughts to himself for that moment.


    ¡°We¡¯ve already been preparing for this. The guard recruitment is higher than it¡¯s ever been, weapons have been manufactured and distributed, the criminals pressed into work have been shoring up the walls, and our navy has been being expanded for years. We¡¯re going to make more efforts to break through the seal on the Academy, though Diamond has been hesitant to help given how valuable she¡¯s become.¡±


    ¡°You should send your daughter away somewhere,¡± suggested Dantes watching her reaction.


    Her face didn¡¯t show any reactions at all. ¡°She refused to leave during the plague. I doubt she¡¯ll leave now. You should send your son away.¡±


    ¡°His mother has an attitude similar to your daughter.¡±


    They sat in silence for a bit. ¡°Your pet demon, could he help?¡±


    ¡°He can, and will. I¡¯m already gathering intel on who the leaders of the enemy will be. I¡¯m going to have them kill them.¡±


    ¡°Do you think Godfrey himself will be among them?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s the kind that likes to watch his enemies lose. I am certain he¡¯ll be here.¡±


    ¡°He is a dramatic sort, isn¡¯t he?¡±


    She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. ¡°I don¡¯t know that you are able to criticize anyone for that particular flaw.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I can if I¡¯m a hypocrite.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 38: We came. I ate. People saw me. May we leave?

    Jacopo grimaced as he lifted his lion mask up from his mouth to eat. He¡¯d wanted a rat mask, as rats are of course the best thing to be, but Vampa had said it didn¡¯t fit with the image that he needed to be projecting. The food he was eating appeared to be a baby bird covered in sauce. He enjoyed the crunch of its bones as he bit down and began to chew, then took another of them. It was the best of the dishes that had been prepared for the masquerade, maybe any of them he¡¯d been to recently. The food had been the only good thing about them.


    He noticed a number of men and women in one corner snorting healthy amounts of dust off of a silver platter. In another room he¡¯d passed earlier, he¡¯d hear the sounds of vigorous lovemaking involving no less than seven participants. Overall, the nobility of Uptown seemed to be just as debauched and lusty as everyone else, which is what Dantes had told him they¡¯d be, as had Vampa. The only difference was that they did their drugs and laid their mates on far nicer materials before they did their best to use them for all they were worth.


    ¡°Bold to eat so much of the priciest dish at the expense of the others around you,¡± said a man smirking behind a fox mask.


    He drew a few laughs for his comment which he seemed to bask in.


    Jacopo had fallen into one of the thousands of social traps that existed for the nobility of Rendhold. He decided to handle it in the same way he¡¯d handled the other incidents.


    ¡°Shut up tiny man,¡± he said, grabbing another of the small birds and chewing it slowly.


    That drew laughs as well, along with a few sharp intakes of breath.


    ¡°How dare you, you¡­ mutt.¡±


    ¡°How dare I eat food?¡± he asked, drawing more laughs as he shoved yet another tasty bird into his mouth, flicking the remains of its feet at the man¡¯s coat.


    The man in the fox mask huffed a bit then walked away, leaving Jacopo to finish all of the birds before deciding to try a few of the other foods. Initially, Dantes had helped him to navigate a number of conversations and confrontations with tact and grace, but Vampa had suggested a different takt, letting him act like himself. Nobles loved novelty, and Jacopo was the most novel person to join their ranks in a long time.


    When he was finally full, he walked through the center of the dance floor, forcing a number of people dancing to dodge around him as he crossed. He reached the wall where Vampa was standing next to a number of other bodyguards, many of whom had been hired only recently due to all of the Uptown killings.


    ¡°We came. I ate. People saw me. May we leave?¡±


    Vampa shook his head. ¡°Not until you meet with the hostess. She¡¯s on the Justice Committee. Ask her to dance, she apparently has a fondness for tall men.¡±


    ¡°Fine. If it will allow us to leave sooner. Which is she?¡± he asked, looking from right to left.


    ¡°The plump half-elf woman sitting at the table over there. The one everyone is talking to. Her name is Lysandia, but her friends call her Lys.¡±


    ¡°Fine,¡± said Jacopo as he began to move toward her, but Vampa grabbed his shoulder.


    ¡°Don¡¯t put your hands too low. Her consort is a jealous man and it¡¯s not worth the trouble.¡±


    Dantes, in the back of Jacopo¡¯s mind, wanted him to question how Vampa could possibly have figured all of that out, but Jacopo didn¡¯t have the patience to wait for an answer to that question. He walked out of Vampa¡¯s grip and toward the woman.


    Vampa had him and Vera practice dancing often over the last several weeks, and Jacopo was quite good at it. Vampa still insisted on giving frequent examples of certain moves using Vera in spite of Jacopo¡¯s competence though, which Dantes found quite funny when watching the practice through his eyes.


    When Jacopo reached Lysandia, he gave a half bow, and extended his hand toward her.


    ¡°Dance with me,¡± he said, more as an order than a question.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    ¡°Me?¡± she asked in a slightly confused tone.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    The ladies and gentlemen that had been flocking around her like birds all giggled at his boldness, but to their surprise she stood up and took Jacopo¡¯s hand.


    Jacopo dragged her to the dancefloor forcefully, causing her to gasp, and swiftly wrapped her up in a dancing stance as the music started up again. The music was to a fast beat, and while initially Jacopo found himself leading the woman ably, as she regained her balance and composure she began to lead him. The steps weren¡¯t too complicated, but the music sped up as they moved, forcing them to increase their tempo constantly to keep up.


    After a few minutes of increasing pace Jacopo noticed the woman was actually gesturing to the band as they danced, controlling the tempo with subtle moves of her fingers. The other dancers on the floor had cleared a large space for them to move, and while the surrounding attendees had been busy engaging in conversation only a moment ago, they all began to watch Jacopo and Lys¡¯s dance instead.


    While Jacopo was doing his best to keep his hands in the proper place despite the increasingly fast movements and closeness between them, Lys had no such compunctions. Her hands caressed his side, squeezed his arms, and even navigated lower than his tail would be, had he been in his usual shape.


    By the time the dance had ended he somehow found himself dipping her, his right hand high up on her outer thigh, and his left hand supporting her by the small of her back. She was glistening with sweat and panting heavily. Jacopo heaved her up with ease, he wasn¡¯t very tired, just relieved he no longer had to keep track of the woman¡¯s feet as they moved.


    There was applause for them from the crowd, and Lysandia pressed herself into him.


    ¡°That was quite a dance Mr. De Fosse. Would you care to join me for a private drink.¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± responded Jacopo, unconcerned with how she knew his name. Everyone seemed to know everyone at these events, which made the masks seem all the more foolish. He was thirsty from all of the effort, and being away from the other nobles would be a welcome relief. As he followed closely behind her toward the back of the chamber he could see a number of men and women whispering and pointing at them, but didn¡¯t know what they were talking about, nor did he notice Vampa attempting to get his attention in the distance.


    Lys walked him through a few hallways, and into a large and lavish bedroom. The bed was larger than any he had ever seen, Dantes on it would feel the same as he felt on Dantes¡¯s bed when in rat form. It had an elaborate series of canopies that he imagined would be fun to climb or roost in, and the rest of the room was filled with heavily upholstered and cushioned chairs and couches.


    Lys moved over to a small table out of which she pulled a decanter and two glasses, the top of her dress seemed to have come unbuttoned, likely during their dancing. She handed Jacopo a filled glass, and gently tapped her own against it, smiling at him with a twinkle in her eyes.


    ¡°To a fantastic dance.¡±


    Jacopo didn¡¯t respond, simply taking a long sip of the drink. It helped remove the dryness from his mouth, but with that came a powerful burning sensation. It wasn¡¯t quite the refreshment he¡¯d expected.


    ¡°It¡¯s been a while since there¡¯s been a man around here as forceful as you,¡± she said, circling him in a way that reminded him of a cat.


    ¡°The men here are weak,¡± he said simply, giving what he believed was an accurate assessment.


    ¡°Not you though, you¡¯re very strong. Very direct too.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    She lunged at him. The movement was so quick an unexpected that he found himself with his back on the bed and her body on top of him. She moved her face toward his in an attempt to bite him, but he grabbed her by the wrists and flipped her, ending up on top her.


    ¡°Oh!¡± she said in a tone that was very different from what he¡¯d expected. He suddenly realized he had misread the situation and quickly sifted through Dantes¡¯s mind to try and understand what was happening.


    Dantes felt his desperation and did a quick pass on the situation. ¡°She¡¯s trying to mate with you,¡± he sent, only keeping his amusement in check by because he knew how important she could be to their plans.


    ¡°But she¡¯s pink, like a baby, and not nearly hairy enough.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry she¡¯s not a gray skinned dwarf, but she¡¯s not bad looking for a two-leg woman by any means. I can drive if that would make this more painless for you.¡±


    Jacopo considered that for a moment.


    ¡°Don¡¯t keep me waiting in anticipation any longer. I want you to ravish me,¡± said the woman, writhing under him.


    Luckily, whatever gods were in charge of situations like this, saw fit to give him an out.


    A young man burst into the room, and ran toward them.


    ¡°Milady! What are you doing?¡± he asked as he went to tear Jacopo off of her. The man was surprisingly strong, and nearly as large as Jacopo himself, though appeared a bit younger. Jacopo let himself be removed without fuss.


    ¡°I¡¯m trying to bed that handsome man, and he seems just as interested in the prospect as I am.¡±


    ¡°I am your consort, Lysandia! That is my duty.¡±


    ¡°Your duty seems to be bedding the maids lately.¡±


    ¡°I¡­I..¡±


    Jacopo began to slowly head for the door.


    ¡°YOU!¡± said the man, pointing at him and going closer. ¡°You have insulted my honor as well as my lady¡¯s. I demand satisfaction!¡±


    Jacopo stared at him blankly.


    ¡°You wish to have what she was trying to get from me?¡±


    ¡°How dare you!?¡±


    ¡°He wants to duel you.¡± suggested Dantes, not even trying to keep the mirth from his tone.


    ¡°Fight him to the death?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Jacopo sighed in relief. ¡°Oh, a duel? I can do that. Want to die here or somewhere else?¡±

 Book 3 Ch 39: I Heard You Have Food

    Dantes sat in the center of the Undermarket, in a small shack made of living wood that he¡¯d willed to grow into the proper shape, with Celeste sitting next to him idly shifting her form to pass the time. There was a line of men waiting to reach him, most wearing rags, and a number of them even less than that. He was guarded by his six men from the surface, all of whom were well fed, dressed, and armed in sharp contrast to the line moving toward them.


    Another man, a gnome with a scraggly beard, stepped onto the small wooden box provided for those his size and looked up at Dantes.


    ¡°Uh, I heard you have food.¡±


    Dantes reached down and pulled a small bag from behind himself. It was filled with edible mushrooms, fruits and veggies.


    The gnome reached for it, and Dantes pulled it away. ¡°Promise on your name that you¡¯ll owe me a favor.¡±


    ¡°I swear it, on my name as Tiltz.¡±


    Dantes shook his hand and celeste placed hers on top of the handshake. Dantes felt something pass between the three of them, and then took the gnome¡¯s hand and pricked his finger, letting a single drop of blood drop into a sack of seeds behind the counter.


    ¡°What the hells!?¡±


    ¡°Just needed a drop,¡± he handed the gnome the sack of food and he took it and ran quickly away to hide and eat it. He was probably safest eating it right in front of Dantes, but so far their paranoia had kept any of them from coming to that conclusion. Dantes called up the next person, a young half-orc with a bit of halfling in him, and started the process over again.


    He¡¯d been growing sustainable food down in the Pit since he arrived, making sure that his gardens were full of food. He¡¯d done the same on the surface when he was there, he¡¯d even been having rats and pigeons begin to seed the area around the Pit, slowly turning a mess of concrete and dirt into a thriving garden. He¡¯d realized during the Plague that Serpica had spread that the largest weakness Rendhold had was its inability to grow its own food in a crisis. Sure there were some farms near the city that it owned, but what they could produce was dwarfed by the city¡¯s size. As such a large amount of the food was imported. His investment had proven wise, as now that there was a threat of invasion, the drops of food into the Pit had been cut off completely. It was a dreadful time, and a perfect one for him to take advantage of.


    It had been easy to recruit Celeste to his effort, she would¡¯ve likely helped just for the love of the game, but had held out for promises of food for her and the other changelings. He didn¡¯t mind that, he likely would¡¯ve helped them out anyway. As he bled the young orcs finger into his bag of seeds he sent a silent command to them.


    ¡°Hold.¡±


    He had multiple bags that he¡¯d been rotating. One with the seeds of trees, one with seeds small enough that one could barely notice them, and one for thorned plants. He had big ideas for all of them. Of course, he may only be using them to defend Midtown at this rate. He cast his mind to pigeons he¡¯d been holding at the edge of the city. They launched themselves and began flying in wide circles. The outskirts had already been cleared out, with the majority of men and women that lived outside the main walls flooding into them. The streets were filled with tent cities and squatters, but luckily for them there were a lot of new places to stay since the plague had wiped so many people out. Those that he and his people knew, he found places for. His talents made it very easy to find places for people when he needed to.


    The pigeons fanned out further, and he had them move to the very edges of his locus. He could see, through its eyes, clouds of dust on the horizon. He¡¯d already known they were close based on the whispering of incoming merchants trying to make a final gold or two before the city fell under attack, but it was different seeing that cloud on the horizon. There was a finality to it.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    Dantes sent a different pigeon toward Argenta in a pre-arranged signal. Rendhold¡¯s navy had already begun to engage the Viscent Navy in battle, harassing them in the hopes of reducing their numbers as much as possible before they arrived. The tactics were all above Dantes¡¯s understanding. His largest fights had involved dozens, not hundreds. In spite of that there was one rule he knew that solidified his idea that he could win the war himself. If the enemy had no one left that could fight, then you win.


    ¡­


    By late evening, the cloud of dust that Dantes had been watching had become an army that spread across the horizon. Thousands of men had begun to mass less than a mile from the city, lighting fires that seemed almost like stars against the dark plain upon which they were spread. Dantes had sent his vermin to take a closer look.


    Most of the men were wearing gray cotton uniforms that reminded Dantes of their sailors. Many men wielded simple spears, but several also had bows and he noticed quite a few wielding firearms as well. There were mages marked with sleeves of dark blue on their uniforms. It seemed silly to him to make it so clear who the largest threats were, but perhaps the status it afforded them made it worth it. The officers were obvious as well, with most of them wearing a kind of curved sword at their belt. Nearly all of them were human, with just a few half-elves and half-orcs mixed in here and there. Frasheid was a mainly human kingdom, so that made sense, but the lack of mutts bothered him at some gut level. They didn¡¯t bring their slaves to war, as had been rumored, but that made sense to him. Why waste a valuable resource when you can use those too poor to own the slaves to fight instead?


    There were a number of horses, but they were mostly hauling wagons rather than being ridden by anyone expecting to fight. He took note of what each of them was carrying, finding mostly cannons and provisions.


    After taking his preliminary look at the Frasheid soldiers, Dantes shifted to looking at Rendhold¡¯s defenses. All of the homes that were outside the city walls had been abandoned aside from a few stubborn men and women that would soon find themselves dead, or worse. The guards were on the walls, most of them wearing their signature chestplates with their swords at their sides. Dantes noticed a large number of them were holding guns with sharp blades fixed to their tips making them appear like oddly shaped spears. The mages of Rendhold were also obvious, as they were mostly young men and women who looked absolutely terrified to be where they were. They worked on arcane sigils and runes that they drew or carved into the stone of the walls as guardsmen stood around, ready to defend them from any threats. In spite of the recruitment drives the guard had been engaged in, there were easily three times as many men gathering outside of Rendholds walls than were inside.


    The walls themselves were still being shored up by men and women in chains, those natives that had broken the law and been pressed into forced labor for their crimes. In the past Dantes had been envious of them as he¡¯d served his seemingly unending sentence in the Pit, but watching them lift heavy stones, carry munitions, and toil away drenched in sweat he felt only pity.


    Dantes shook his head, and shifted his attention back to the Frasheid camp. While his eyes were closed he started to sketch out a map of their camp while having some rats and roaches search for any of them that might be discussing what their exact plan was. He wouldn¡¯t help directly until he had some guarantees, but indirectly it made sense to at least give whatever information he could to Argenta to pass on to the guard.


    He eventually found a large tent with several white and gray haired men smoking tobacco.


    ¡°Easy campaign boys. We set up the artillery and bombard them until the walls fall. The city is a cesspool of the sick with hardly any forces of their own. Once we breach the walls, we¡¯ll loot the damn place like the filthy old pirates we are.¡±


    That drew a chuckle from the rest of them.


    ¡°As long as we can get in before Viscent arrives¡­ I don¡¯t want to share with those short fucks.¡±


    ¡°They volunteered for the hard job. Rendhold¡¯s Navy isn¡¯t something to trifle with. As long as we get in first we can do whatever we want and blame the men¡¯s enthusiasm on hurting any of the things we already agreed they could have. We¡¯ll just have the diplomats sort it out. Then we can take all this loot back home, support the men putting down the revolt, and take our usual turns with Franklin¡¯s wife.¡±


    Another round of laughter.


    ¡°Ah, fuck you ya old bastard. You couldn¡¯t even find it under that gut, much less put it in my wife.¡±


    Dantes opened his eyes, sensing someone approaching from outside the audience chamber. One of the bouncers walked in holding a letter that he handed to Dantes. It was sealed in wax with an intricate letter ¡®A¡¯ in black ink. He broke the seal and opened it.


    The Finger aligned with Godfrey has played his hand.

 Book 3 Ch 40: Uptown Was Exhausting

    Jacopo stood on one side of a small hill in Uptown, holding the saber that had been provided to him for the duel. He tested the edge against the flat of his thumb, and found it to be quite dull. Someone trying to tip the duel in the consort¡¯s favor? It didn¡¯t matter. Just another of a long line of annoyances. All of the underhanded nonsense in Uptown was exhausting.


    Vampa was in the center of the hill negotiating with the consort''s second, another young man who seemed to want to throw his life away as much as his friend did based on how he was yelling in Vampa¡¯s face. Jacopo had wanted to kill the man, but Vampa had insisted that negotiating was the proper thing to do before blood was drawn. He didn¡¯t particularly care if Jacopo did kill the man, but he wanted to make sure it wouldn¡¯t hurt his standing. The fact that the killing wouldn¡¯t hurt his standing as much as ignoring the rules and traditions of a duel was just another thing to add to the long list of absurdities among the Two-Legs.


    Eventually Vampa and the other man broke away. Vampa shrugged lazily as he reached him. ¡°Just make it quick. The fool is determined.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m assuming his lady explained to him that we didn¡¯t sleep together?¡±


    ¡°She did, but you were going to be the latest in a long line.¡± Vampa shook his head. ¡°Peacocks always think the lady picks them out of love and their own feathers will never lose their luster.¡±


    ¡°Peacock?¡±


    ¡°Big bright bird.¡±


    ¡°Tasty?¡±


    ¡°Depends on how they''re cooked.¡±


    The witness went to the center of the hill, he looked at both sides, and at the crowd that had gathered. ¡°The seconds have not been able to come to an agreement that would satisfy all parties. The duel will proceed.¡±


    He stepped back and Jacopo and the consort strode toward the center. The consort was a large man, young, and seemed very comfortable with the blade he was holding. He sneered at Jacopo as he approached, but Jacopo¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change. It wasn¡¯t that he was keeping his expression neutral, he just didn¡¯t particularly care about what his face was doing at any given moment. No real point without whiskers.


    The witness counted down from ten, and before he¡¯d quite finished saying one, the consort lunged at Jacopo.


    Jacopo dropped his dull saber, stepped into the slash, grabbed the arm holding the saber, and flipped the man onto his back.


    The consort¡¯s sword rolled down the hill a few feet from him, and he started to scramble toward it.


    Jacopo took one step and jumped high in the air. He extended out his elbow and brought it down, along with all of his bodyweight, on the back of the man¡¯s neck. There was a loud crunching sound, and he went still.


    Jacopo stood up, and started walking back toward Vampa.


    ¡°The.. the duel was meant to be by saber,¡± said the Witness.


    Jacopo looked at him blankly, then went to pick up the dead consort¡¯s much sharper blade. He rolled him over with a kick, and drove the blade into his heart, then started back toward Vampa a second time.


    ¡°Good fight,¡± said Vampa simply.


    ¡°Better than the party that led to it.¡±


    Vampa looked at the sun, gauging the time. ¡°We should be able to make the committee meeting without trouble.¡± He pulled a kerchief from his pocket.


    ¡°You¡¯ve got some blood on your right hand.¡±


    ¡­


    The civic center buildings in Rendhold were some of the only ones that were uniform and planned. The whole district had been rebuilt after a devastating fire several centuries prior, and the council chambers had been a particular focus of the construction. It was a large circular room with the council seated in the center, whatever committee was needed to speak with the council seated on the outside, and secondary committees outside of that. Surrounding all of that were seats in which other magisters could sit, and any noble that wished to raise an issue. Every seat and section had a spell that would allow a person''s voice to carry crisply throughout the entire area, and it was managed by an ancient mage sitting in the back observing everything. The room itself was surprisingly spartan for being in Uptown, but all of the tables and chairs were elfwood of the finest make, and if one looked closely you could see beautiful carvings everywhere, showing the gods, scenes from the city¡¯s history, or even important figures of its past. There were a half dozen of the council chamber meetings, and all were regularly used, though the council itself could be in any one of them, or none of them. Oftentimes reports and transcripts would be sent to them after the fact.


    Committee meetings were typically dry affairs. Those nobles who had been elevated to magisters were placed on committees ranging from beautification, to sewage, to war. The more important the committee you were on, the more important you were. Still, most nobility never attempted to become magisters, but they were still able to attend any committee meetings they desired, and make comments in them. Most didn¡¯t bother exercising this privilege, but with the enemy at the gates and everyone¡¯s lives in danger, they all suddenly became very interested.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    Jacopo and Vampa arrived in the midst of a heated debate, and took their seats next to Dantes¡¯s pet magister Desha. She had been diligently taking notes, and continued to do so even as they sat down.


    ¡°Surrender is absolutely out of the question! You¡¯ve seen what Frasheid does to its own people? You think they¡¯ll treat us any better?¡±


    ¡°Their terms were fair. They want thirty percent of the population as slaves. We¡¯ll simply give them the refuse that has holed up in our walls like rats! They¡¯d be doing us a favor!¡±


    Jacopo¡¯s fingers twitched for a moment, and he could feel Dantes¡¯s ire rising a bit as well.


    ¡°Not much progress,¡± noted Vampa to no one in particular.


    Desha shook her head. ¡°There was some agreement on additional attempts to reach those within the academy and attempt to break their seal. They also freed up more funds to pay the mercs and adventurer¡¯s guild for additional muscle. I¡¯m of the opinion that we could¡¯ve gotten them for cheaper, but some think they¡¯d accept money from the outside for betrayal. As if the head of the adventurer¡¯s guild isn¡¯t on the council.¡±


    ¡°Have you made the suggestion yet?¡± asked Jacopo, nibbling on his nail.


    ¡°I¡¯m not so eager to commit political suicide yet. You can do it, and I¡¯ll support you if it has any agreement. If you¡¯re alone, then I don¡¯t care what Dantes has done for me, I won¡¯t give up what I¡¯ve gained so far.¡±


    Jacopo leaned close to her. ¡°If you want to die, that¡¯s fine.¡±


    Before she could respond, Jacopo stood.


    ¡°I have a suggestion!¡± he shouted, his voice carrying easily over the crowd.


    Everyone turned to face him, and a series of whispers began.


    One of the men on the committee, an orc with graying hair wearing a rich red brocade and spectacles fixed his sleeve as he addressed him. ¡°De Fosse, I know you¡¯re new to our city, but spectators are usually called on to speak at the end of the meeting, not the beginning.¡±


    A younger dwarven woman to his right spoke up. ¡°I say let him talk. Poor bastard has the worst luck of anyone here to come to Rendhold when he did. Let¡¯s hear it.¡±


    There was a general murmur of agreement among the committee members


    The older orc shrugged. ¡°De Fosse, at this point your idea is as good as any.¡±


    ¡°You have a bunch of men, fighting aged men, down in the Pit right? Why not offer them freedom if they fight for the city?¡±


    The young dwarven woman nodded along a bit as he spoke. ¡°That¡¯s not a bad suggestion. There¡¯s even some mages down there right? Seems like a waste of resources to just leave them down there.¡±


    A few of the other committee members started murmuring in agreement.


    ¡°Are you serious?¡± said an older human man, ¡°Those men are rapists, murderers, and thieves? I will not have them back up in the city proper.¡±


    ¡°Finn, there may not be a city if we can¡¯t drive these invaders away. We¡¯re only dealing with Frasheid now, what do you think is going to happen when Viscent arrives?¡±


    ¡°Nothing so bad as letting that scum back on the streets. If anything, we should be putting those refugees from outside the walls down there with them. Keep ourselves safe for when they decide to come to Uptown¡¯s walls.¡±


    A few of the other older men on the council nodded in agreement.


    Desha stood up. ¡°I¡¯ll back De Fosse¡¯s proposal as a magister, so that it can come to a vote.¡±


    The older orc nodded, taking a heavy stone and wrapping it on his desk. ¡°Those on the committee in favor of the proposal?¡±


    He himself raised his hand, as did four others.


    ¡°Against?¡±


    Finn and four others raised their hands as well.


    ¡°As Finn has seniority on the committee, the proposal fails.¡±


    Jacopo remained standing, even as they began to move onto other business, and Desha grabbed his arm and had him sit down.


    ¡°Damn, that was much closer than I expected it to be.¡±


    ¡°So it¡¯s done?¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°We may be able to put forward another vote. I can actually draft the proposal and put in more specifics that may sway one more person to our side¡­ It¡¯ll be a tricky thing though. Finn¡¯s got a lot of power on the committee, and he¡¯s riding high on it. The war committee was a joke until recently, that¡¯s why there aren¡¯t any elves on it. I¡¯ll also need to get the buy-in of someone high on the Justice committee to co-sponsor it.¡±


    ¡°Contact Lysandia for that,¡± whispered Vampa to her.


    Jacopo sat there, listening to more prattling as he sent Dantes a mental summation of what had happened. As he did, he saw a young noblewoman walk by. There was something familiar about her that he couldn¡¯t place, and she was wearing a gold necklace with a large green stone.


    ¡­


    Jacopo was sleeping on a comfortable nest he¡¯d made himself from a pile of lint, a piece of the curtain, some feathers from the pillows, and a silk handkerchief when Vampa walked into his room and pulled open his curtains. Jacopo insisted on holding his eyes firmly closed, keeping himself completely still.


    Vampa opened several more, causing more piercing beams of light to come into the room, and even more infuriatingly, bounce off of Vampa¡¯s armor causing the beams to shine even brighter throughout the room.


    ¡°The next committee meeting is in two hours.¡±


    Vampa¡¯s tone and expressions never changed no matter what form Jacopo took. He¡¯d also assumed from the start that Jacopo could understand him no matter what form he was in. He even had an incredible ability to find wherever he was hiding in the room. It was maddening.


    ¡°Desha managed to get the proposal finalized. She made it so any Pit recruits are sent straight to the front where they¡¯re most likely to die. Smart move. Lysandia also provided strong support, and got the rest of the Justice committee to agree¡­though she¡¯s expecting a reward from you for that. I can¡¯t keep writing enticing letters pretending to be you without us eventually giving her what she wants.¡±


    Jacopo continued to remain still, stubbornly holding his eyes closed even though Vampa was now standing directly over him looking down at him.


    ¡°Finn, who¡¯d been against the idea, was killed by the Uptown murderer last night. The new senior member on the committee is Yon, the orc, who is in support of it. It should go through, which means our time here is coming to a merciful end soon.¡±


    That made Jacopo¡¯s eyes open. He started to squeak at him as a rat, and the blank expression on Vampa¡¯s face was no different from the one he usually wore so it took Jacopo a moment to remember he couldn¡¯t understand him. He shifted into his two-leg form.


    ¡°Too lucky,¡± he said as he stretched out.


    ¡°Was it a hit?¡±


    Jacopo shook his head. ¡°Dantes didn¡¯t order it.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm. Doesn¡¯t matter. Get dressed. I need to pick up something from a Jeweler here in Uptown before we leave for good, or the city burns down.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 41: Put Some Hair on Your Chest

    A soldier in gray sat in the mud as he watched the cannons get loaded. He¡¯d seen plenty of guns on the farm, but cannons were new to him. Massive hunks of metal that needed to be dragged by several draft horses or made weightless by magic just to move them into position. He felt his teeth buzz a bit as one of the mages cast some kind of spell on the cannonball before it was dropped in, his hands glowed with intense blue light for a moment, then faded, and he moved to the next cannon where they loaded it again.


    ¡°Get the fuck up mudboot,¡± yelled the sergeant making him jump to his feet, barely managing to bring his spear with him to avoid a flogging.


    ¡°Yes boss, er yes sir!¡±


    The sergeant spat on the ground.


    ¡°You¡¯re in luck. We¡¯ve been ordered to start burning down all the structures between us and the wall. Any valuables you find are yours to keep, any man or woman you can bring back you get a bonus for. They¡¯re dousing torches up on the front, go get one and get ready. They¡¯ll probably take potshots from the walls, but there¡¯s plenty of cover¡­ at least until we¡¯re done.¡±


    He nodded his head and quickly began moving for the front, putting his helmet on and strapping it under his chin as he moved. The armor was cheap, but he was grateful for it. Some of the other men had decided not to spend any of their commission on it, but he wanted to make it back. If he was lucky, he¡¯d earn enough to buy a slave.


    He met up with the rest of his squad, a ten man gang of primarily degens and city dwellers that hadn¡¯t worked a field a day in their lives. Only two others had opted for armor, the rest only wore their gray uniforms and carried their spears and torches.


    Dym handed him his torch.


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard there¡¯s still a few people in the houses and stuff in there,¡± he licked his lips, ¡°you reckon there¡¯s any women?¡±


    ¡°If there are, we''re meant to bring them back as prisoners.¡±


    He scoffed. ¡°I get that, I get that, but come on, no reason we can¡¯t have a roll or two with them first. Besides, they¡¯ve got dwarven women, halflings, orcs. Could you imagine how good it feels to take down an orcish woman? That¡¯ll put some hair on your chest.¡±


    ¡°Scouts reported mostly kobolds,¡± said a younger man behind them.


    Dym shook his head. ¡°Kobolds? Disgusting little vermin. I hear they eat each other. Nothing worse than that.¡±


    The soldier broke away subtly from Dym. He didn¡¯t want to hear anything more that he had to say.


    The Sergeant appeared shortly after, and he noticed that there were a few dozen other groups of men ready with torches.


    ¡°Alright boys, when they blow the horn, burn all that shit down,¡± he said, pointing vaguely in the direction of the small farms at the edges. ¡°Once it¡¯s cleared we¡¯ll be able to start the cannon volleys on their walls.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t they just fire the cannons now? Arch them over the structures toward the walls? Or use them to clear these buildings?¡±


    ¡°First of all, we don¡¯t want our men having to charge through all these buildings to reach the gates when they¡¯re breached, second cannonballs are more valuable than your time, third don¡¯t ask me any more stupid fucking questions. Got it?¡±


    ¡°Yes Sergeant,¡± replied the man meekly.


    There was an awkward pause while they waited for the horn to sound. Some of the men discussed strategies for what places they wanted to target first to loot. Dym and a few others continued to fantasize about what they¡¯d do to any women they¡¯d find. The rest stayed silent.


    The soldier in gray didn¡¯t care about any of that. Rendhold just needed to fall, and he would be part of it. All he had to do was survive.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    The horn sounded, and the men all charged. He didn¡¯t stop at the initial buildings like the rest, instead looking for any shops he could find, he figured any of the best stuff that was left would be hidden in those. He burned down a small home as he moved, making sure the sergeant saw, then moved deeper into the cluster. As he moved he could hear screams, just a few, but enough that he started to question his decision to move ahead. He saw a sign above a building, a tailor. He kicked the door to it once, then twice, and finally broke it on the third try.


    He cursed as he walked inside, it looked like it had already been cleared out. He took a moment to start a blaze inside and moved on.


    He found another shop, a blacksmith¡¯s shop. The lock on it was too thick to deal with, so he broke a window and crawled inside, damning the owner to the hells as he pulled a small piece of glass from his leg. He swept through the shop quickly, then took a breath to calm himself down, and looked around more carefully. There was a loose floorboard near one of the walls. He stuck his spear into it and pried it up. There was pouch inside. He lifted it, a wide smile going across his face as he felt coins shift inside of it. He opened it, his heartbeat speeding up as he saw the glittering of gold. He tucked it into his pocket, and held his torch against a far wall to set the shop ablaze before climbing back out the window.


    He considered heading back to join with the sounds of the rest of the group. He¡¯d already had some good luck, and there was no reason to push it, but the thought of finding more gold consumed him. He moved in deeper, finding a large cleared out area with a strange layout. There was a massive stone block that was still warm from the sun, several small shops, and a single large structure in the center of it all. He peeked in the window of the large building, but it was too dark for him to see much of anything.


    He moved to the front door and pushed it open. He chuckled a little as he realized it wasn¡¯t locked. He stepped inside, and the wooden floorboard his foot touched creaked loudly as he put his weight on it.


    That sound was the last thing he heard, as an axe hanging over the front door swung downward. It hit with such force that his body was held in the doorframe, the axe that had swung toward him holding it up from how deeply it had embedded itself in him. His body was the only warning for others that the kobolds had left all of their enclaves heavily trapped.


    ¡­


    Dantes watched the burning of the area outside the walls from a dozen different angles, a deep frown on his face. He sat up in his room on the edge of his bed, Sevryn sleeping soundly behind him. He¡¯d never really considered himself a patriot, but watching the homes of fellow Rendholders, even those who lived outside the walls, looted and burned filled him with rage. He considered taking action, but things weren¡¯t ready yet. Besides which the walls themselves hadn¡¯t even been hit yet, for now almost everyone was safe aside from those too foolish to seek refuge in the city.


    He stood up and silently made his way to the garden, scratching his hounds gently enough to keep them from waking. The enemy was at the gates, and Viscent ships were on the horizon heading toward the docks. The guard had actually destroyed the docks themselves to deny the enemy easy landing on the shores, and used the dock wood to erect barriers between alleyways to reduce their mobility. That was all they had done though, with more and more defenses being focused on Uptown and the inner wall. They seemed to believe that everything outside that was already done for.


    Dantes reached into the sack of tiny seeds he¡¯d been feeding regularly with blood for the last several days. Since they were making a move, it seemed like it was the time for him to make one as well.


    He walked into his tree, and stepped out into the outskirts of the city, just outside the enemy lines. He shifted into catform, making his way silently into the Frasheid camp as a dark gray tabby. At this point he was very familiar with its layout, having scouted it through the eyes of dozens of animals. He dodged between men¡¯s legs, leapt over carts, and slipped between tents as he moved toward his target.


    The kitchen tent was hot and busy when he entered. More than three dozen men were working on the meals required to keep an army fed, screaming at one another as they mixed, stirred, chopped, and poured. The tent was well lit, with several lanterns lit throughout.


    The next part was tricky. Unlike Rendhold, he wouldn¡¯t fit in amongst the mostly human cooks, so disguising himself and slipping through wasn¡¯t possible. Instead he needed to rely on misdirection.


    He sent a few rats across the feet of one cook across the tent. When he yelled and kicked at them distracting the other cooks, he shifted into himself and dropped a heavy handful of seeds into a massive pot of soup. He shifted back into a rat and climbed into the top of the tent where a lantern was hanging. He used his teeth and wooden arm to saw the rope holding it up until it fell and shattered, causing a small fire. While the cooks were distracted with that, he dropped another handful of seeds into the dough they were working. This cycle repeated about a dozen times as he put more and more blood powered seeds into the food. For the cooks, it seemed like a bad omen for the upcoming campaign, which was in no way an incorrect assessment.


    Dantes encouraged those seeds to harden themselves to survive where they were placed. Many of them were already hardy, but he wanted as many of them to survive as possible. He couldn¡¯t wait for them to bloom.

 Book 3 Ch 42: Its in my nature

    Dantes arrived back at the club a bit later, and found Jayk waiting for him by the tree.


    ¡°Where were you?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Setting some things up for later.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve finished looking into the other Finger¡¯s dealings.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°I had Tak help me, he has a real knack for this kind of work. We figured out that one of them is definitely linked to Godfrey.¡±


    ¡°Fritz?¡± Dantes asked. Both he and Argenta suspected Fritz the most given his myriad financial dealings and focus on gambling and loan sharking. He seemed like a perfect target for greed.


    ¡°No, we went through everything we could, and while his work occasionally touched what Godfrey and his people were doing, there was no direct connection, and in fact he seemed to avoid him when he could.¡±


    ¡°Who then?¡±


    ¡°Drake. He and Godfrey had worked together to put down that factory strike on the docks. He burned everyone inside alive, and collected a handsome reward. From there we found four more direct links between them. We also believe he¡¯s receiving messages even now, though how he¡¯s receiving them, we¡¯re not sure.¡±


    Dantes nodded at him, tying off the bag of seeds and letting it fall to the ground next to his throne.


    ¡°Do you have proof?¡±


    Jayk sighed. ¡°No, but I wrote everything out with Tak¡¯s help. I had to actually write it, he doesn¡¯t know his letters.¡±


    ¡°Give it to me. I¡¯m taking it to Argenta now. With the letter she intercepted and the information we have, we should be able to confirm it. Cannonfire is going to start hitting the walls at any moment. If Drake is working with Godfrey, who knows what they could be planning.¡±


    Jayk pulled a bundle of papers from his coat, as if he¡¯d been expecting Dantes to ask for it. Dantes nodded as he took it, and tucked it into his own coat. He made his way onto the roof and shifted into batform to fly towards Argenta. He¡¯d been keeping tabs on all of the Fingers, and knew she wasn¡¯t at the Sin, so he instead made his way towards her home in Uptown.


    Her house was carved of the same black stone as the wizard towers. He wasn¡¯t sure if it had some particular properties that she sought, or she just liked to be aesthetically consistent. He passed over her very well kept and mannerly garden, and landed on her balcony, shifting into himself as he did so.


    Gren was already waiting for him as he landed.


    ¡°You are unexpected,¡± he said in his usual calm polite tone.


    ¡°I can never tell if you enjoy working for Argenta or not,¡± said Dantes as he fixed his coat.


    ¡°She is one of the better masters I¡¯ve had since arriving here. She¡¯s had me take far more blood, and isn¡¯t nearly so interested in having me perform parlor tricks.¡±


    ¡°But you¡¯d still kill her if you had the chance?¡±


    His eyes seemed to smile. ¡°Of course. It¡¯s in my nature. Why are you here?¡±


    ¡°I have information showing a connection between Godfrey and Drake. I think he¡¯s working for him.¡±


    He nodded. ¡°Right this way.¡±


    The door inside opened, and Dantes was walked through orderly and almost impossibly clean and sterile home. It was all ebony, marble, and ivory with only some splashes of red all throughout. It was probably more expensive than any other home he¡¯d seen in Rendhold, but at the same time it had a much simpler look than many other Manors in Uptown. He was led through a few halls until Gren pushed open the door to the study.


    Books lined all four walls, most of their spines giving no indication as to what was inside of them. Argenta sat in a thick robe writing at her desk , her white streak loose, but the rest of her hair pulled back in an orderly fashion. There was something a little tantalizing about her in a robe, probably because he¡¯d only ever seen her in very efficient and plain clothes in the past.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°Argenta.¡±


    ¡°Dantes,¡± she said, as if seeing him was within the realm of her expectations and in no way a surprise.


    ¡°I believe Drake has firmer connections to Godfrey than we thought, and I believe he may make a move soon as well.¡±


    She placed her pen down and took a long breath. ¡°Do you have proof?¡±


    Dantes took the journal Jayk had given him and handed it to her.


    She read through it, slowly, seemingly unconcerned with Dantes waiting as she went through all of the information piece by piece. Dantes didn¡¯t mind, he had a number of ways to stay busy. He began going through all of the gardens to ensure their health, checked on the ongoing burning happening outside the walls, made sure his men in the Pit were still in good health, and checked to be sure that none of the other fingers were making strange moves while he and Argenta were meeting. Drake was watching a Pit fight in the guild district, Fritz was idly fiddling with an abacus and writing down numbers while snorting lines of dust, and Diamond was enjoying a bath with the help of a young man and woman.


    The door behind Dantes opened, and he reached for the knife in his sleeve before realizing that it was Alby. She stopped in her tracks.


    ¡°Dantes! It¡¯s good to see you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s good to see you too. Haven¡¯t noticed you in the club lately, though maybe that¡¯s just because you¡¯ve gotten better at staying disguised.¡±


    She laughed a bit. ¡°I would¡¯ve assumed it was because you got thrown into the Pit.¡±


    He shrugged. ¡°That¡¯s likely part of it.¡±


    She looked at Argenta. ¡°You said you wanted to see me, mother?¡±


    ¡°Yes. I¡¯ll come get you after I¡¯m done here.¡±


    ¡°Oh, okay.¡± She looked at Dantes. ¡°Bye.¡±


    ¡°Have a good night,¡± he responded as she walked out the door.


    Argenta read a few more pages of what he¡¯d given her, occasionally having Gren look at them, after which he would disappear and return to whisper things in her ear.


    She looked up at him after turning over the last page. She looked as if she was about to start in on a discussion about what she¡¯d read, before changing her mind at the last minute.


    ¡°I don¡¯t like whatever is going on between you and my daughter,¡± she said.


    ¡°You want me to stop talking with her?¡±


    ¡°If you didn¡¯t have a reputation for avoiding relationships with younger women I¡¯d have had you killed, but I don¡¯t like you talking with her about the business either.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m trying to do you a favor. Either I can teach her what she wants to know, or she¡¯ll seek it from someone less trustworthy. I have no ill intention toward her, or you.¡±


    Argenta processed that information for a moment, before pushing it away. ¡°I think you¡¯re right. What you¡¯ve found goes with what I¡¯ve found as well.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been following all of the other fingers for some time as well. Checking on business dealings both new and old, and keeping track of all of it to see connections. While Godfrey was here, he could cover things up himself with a deft hand, but without him things have gotten sloppier, especially since you were thrown into the Underprison. With what you¡¯ve just given me, I think it¡¯s confirmed.¡±


    ¡°So, what do we do about it?¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t attack him directly.¡±


    ¡°Why not? The little crystal that recorded a lowlife getting his throat slit? I¡¯m already in the Pit anyway, and besides, they won¡¯t know it was me,¡± He knew that wasn¡¯t the only effect the crystal had, but he wanted Argenta to continue underestimating him.


    She laughed. ¡°You thought it was only a recording? As if we couldn¡¯t get away with murder. The crystal is a piece of Elfland. It¡¯s a fey artifact of great power that lets one make Feybindings even without magical talent.¡±


    ¡°How is he getting around the pact?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a good question, but with Godfrey¡¯s abilities maybe he has a way to break feybindings? Fey magic is different from godly magic which is different from demonic magic, and different from true magic.¡±


    ¡°I think I can get around it too, in my way. Let me take care of Drake.¡±


    ¡°Your druid abilities give you some method to work around it?¡±


    ¡°I think so, but it¡¯s going to be complicated.¡± It wasn¡¯t, but there was no reason she had to know that.


    She sighed and leaned back in her chair. ¡°Do it then. Though at this point all that will do is maybe buy us time. When the cannonfire starts, when we see Viscent ships on the horizon¡­ I don¡¯t know if we¡¯ll be able to do anything about it.¡±


    Dantes smiled looking her in the eyes. ¡°I can win this war.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°I can end it myself. I can stop the Frasheid army, and the Viscent army when it lands.¡±


    She frowned. ¡°Then do it. Why wait?¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°I know there are pardons on the table. I want one, and I can get you several hundred raw recruits from the Pit willing to take the deal as well.¡±


    ¡°A random cutthroat is one thing, but you are known. Gavain himself ensured you went down, and the guard has ridden high on putting you away this whole time. Besides, do you even need a pardon? You come and go as you please already? Does it really matter?¡±


    ¡°It does.¡±


    ¡°For what? Pride?¡±


    ¡°That too, and I want them to know it was me. I want the city to know that I saved it, and I want the city''s enemies to know that I can save it again, and again, and again if I have to.¡±


    She looked at him. She¡¯d taken all of his other statements seriously, taken him seriously, since the moment they¡¯d begun working together, but now he was stretching the limits of what she could believe.


    ¡°Let¡¯s say I¡¯m wrong, and I couldn¡¯t end it alone. What if I can at least tip the scales? I can get you a bunch of bloodthirsty men on the front lines at the very least, have them obey the guard¡¯s order explicitly, not to mention what I can do with a few thousand rats. Isn¡¯t that worth whatever political capital you need to spend to make it happen? Or is your pride too great for that?¡±


    She met his gaze and stood. ¡°I can do it. I can make it happen, but someone else needs to suggest you specifically. My ties to crime are known, and the rest of the council won¡¯t agree if I suggest it. Can you make that happen?¡±


    Dantes felt Jacopo watching through his eyes as he stood there. ¡°Yes, I can.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 43: Justice Doesnt Matter Now

    It was early morning when the cannonfire began. It could be heard all across the city like a distant thunderclap. Those closer to the walls in Midtown could see flashes of blue light where the cannonballs and their enchantments struck against the invisible walls maintained by those few mages that the city had left. Several of the cannonballs broke through, crashing into homes, and businesses and obliterating any flesh they came across. When one cannonball made it through, the mages would make changes to their shield to adjust for whatever new enchantments the enemy had placed on their artillery, and once their cannonfire stopped working, the enemy¡¯s mages would make their own adjustments to compensate. The early part of the battle was tense, but aside from those few cannonballs nothing else had made it through. The main problem now was that Viscent¡¯s ships had almost reached Rendhold. Rendhold¡¯s own navy had limped back to the docks, and now their cannons and equipment were being turned to defense.


    All of this meant a lot to the people of Rendhold, but not the other things that lived there. To the vermin, the ruins of a city weren¡¯t so different from a bustling one. Jacopo yawned as he listened to the war committee continue prattling on. The ruling they¡¯d made to allow the recruitment of criminals had gone through, but they¡¯d only just started the process of actually bringing them to the surface, focusing on mages and former guards as their primary recruitment targets, though in the case of former guards, not many had survived their time in the Pit or were well enough to actually fight and so were denied release.


    Unlike previous meetings, Argenta was attending this one in her council seat. None of the others were there as they were too directly involved in the city¡¯s defense, aside from Kline who may or may not have even been alive at that point.


    Jacopo stood up, interrupting the ongoing conversation with a complete lack of shame. ¡°I have heard of a man with particular talents in the Pit who should be recruited as a priority.¡±


    The older orc man, whose name Jacopo never bothered to learn, gave him a withering look. ¡°I let you make a suggestion without waiting your turn in the past because I knew you were new to the city and felt sympathy for your inopportune timing. At this point though, I think you know well that you¡¯re breaking decorum.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care. The city¡¯s about to get destroyed. This man, Dantes, I¡¯ve heard possesses magelike abilities that could help in the city¡¯s defense and already commands the loyalty of hundreds within the Pit.¡±


    The younger dwarven woman next to him spoke up. ¡°The gangster? I thought his powers were a myth? What man can see everything in the city at once, teleport, fly¡­¡± She shook her head. ¡°It makes no sense.¡±


    Vampa sighed and nudged Desha.


    She sighed and stood up.


    ¡°Even if he¡¯s not capable of those things, the fact that such powerful myths about him have sprung up means he is effective. I think we should consider making his release a priority.¡±


    ¡°He is a criminal!¡± cried one of the older men at the committee table. ¡°Worse than any of the others in the Pit. He¡¯s brought Dust into our city, weapons, and countless deaths are attributed to him.¡±


    Desha smiled. ¡°Capable, as I said.¡±


    ¡°Too capable,¡± came a voice from the back of the room.


    Jacopo turned to see Pacha. His beard was filled with debris and his breastplate was dinged in several places. Jacopo shifted his focus to check to see if the wall was breached. It wasn¡¯t, but an entire volley of cannonballs had made it through the barrier at once and tore through part of the city. Pacha must¡¯ve been involved in checking those areas for injured.


    ¡°Gavain himself had to be involved in his takedown, and he gave up his own freedom to ensure that he was brought in and received his punishment.¡±


    The young dwarven magister shook her head. ¡°Lot of good that did. He got taken by Drasheid and they invaded us anyway.¡±


    ¡°He acted with honor, in the name of Justice.¡±


    Dantes¡¯s full focus arrived to look through Jacopo¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°Do you mind if I take over for a minute?¡± he asked.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Jacopo didn¡¯t mind at all, he found all of this incredibly exhausting.


    Dantes flexed Jacopo¡¯s fingers a few times, adjusting to being in both his body and in control of Jacopo¡¯s. It wasn¡¯t something they did often, but this time it made sense.


    ¡°Justice doesn¡¯t matter now,¡± said Dantes through Jacopo, drawing the eyes of the room. ¡°This is about Rendhold, about survival. Even with all of this yelling at one another about this or that addendum, I know you can hear the firing of cannons. Do you think the inner walls will keep them out? Do you think the generals don¡¯t want all of the wealth of Uptown in their coffers? Do you think their men don¡¯t want to know what it feels like to take a noblewoman?¡±


    ¡°They wouldn¡¯t just kill all of us. They want to own the city, not destroy it,¡± argued the old orc.


    ¡°Yes, they won¡¯t kill all of us, but how certain are you that you and your families will be the ones that are spared?¡±


    ¡°No man should be freed from the Pit, but Dantes least of all. His control of Midtown was only the beginning, with him back things could grow much worse,¡± he looked at Argenta. ¡°The whole city could be run by criminals if we are not careful.¡±


    ¡°And things are better without him?¡± asked Dantes through Jacopo. ¡°From what I understand guards are getting murdered there everyday, Nobles are assaulted, merchants robbed. Is that better than when Dantes was there?¡±


    Pacha glared at him.


    ¡°There¡¯s always going to be crime in Midtown, but when he was in charge it was controlled. He had rules, and his people abided by them. How many of you have gone to his club? Did you feel in danger there? Or even on the way home after? He has standards, which the chaos in Midtown shows are no longer reflected there.¡±


    ¡°A man gave his freedom to have him put away.¡±


    ¡°That man¡¯s actions were his own. If he hadn¡¯t antagonized Frasheid over some slaves in the first place, then we may only be facing one invading army instead of two.¡±


    Pacha started to take some steps toward him, his hand on his sword, but Vampa put himself between them, holding the hilt of his own sword, and he stopped.


    ¡°Besides, if he takes the deal as it¡¯s offered, he¡¯ll have to be on the front lines. If he¡¯s there, there¡¯s a good chance he¡¯ll die anyway. If he turns to crime again, the city can deal with it after the current crisis. Without using every tool at our disposal, we won¡¯t even make it that far.¡±


    The committee exchanged some glances with one another, and the old orc received a subtle nod from Argenta.


    ¡°All in favor of prioritizing the release of Dantes from the Underprison?¡±


    ¡­


    Dantes returned to his own body and took a moment to regain his composure. Jacopo had been doing incredibly on his own, but he could tell things had needed an extra push. He stood up and stretched as he looked over from the roof of the tavern he was standing on to the warehouse next door. It had once been a building used to store the machines used for processing wool, but Drake had purchased it to use as his own personal abode. His tastes were simple, he liked stone fixtures everywhere he could, a large space for training, and a bed massive enough to fit himself and the woman or man of his choice, which made it quite massive as his tastes tended to be for women and men his own size.


    Dantes leapt off the roof, shifting into batform in midair as he made his way to a small chimney at the top of the building. He dove down, and flew out into the open space, before flying up to a rafter and shifting into a rat. He could hear a dull thud coming from across the warehouse, and so skittered in that direction. He could see the source of the sound long before he reached it thanks to the wide open space of the building. Drake was training, smashing his massive fists into a post covered in rope. It reminded him of the training he¡¯d seen Vampa doing, which he¡¯d extended into the training regimen for Zak and Jacopo.


    Drake was shirtless as he exercised, wearing only a silver medallion and covered in massive, ugly muscle. Not the kind you¡¯d see on one of the studs at the Magnificent Stallion in Uptown, more like what you¡¯d see on orcish dockworkers that lifted heavy rope and crates all day, but doubled.


    While he was focused on abusing the wooden post, Dantes climbed down from the rafters to get closer. There was a pitcher of water there and a small glass. Dantes moved toward, watching carefully to make sure that Drake was focused on what he was doing. He shifted into himself, accessing the poison he had stored in his wooden arm, and extending a needle like wooden finger to slowly deposit it in the pitcher. When he was done, he shifted back into a bat and moved back to the rafters, where he waited. He was using a much more potent brew made with a mix of what Lorna gave him, and Mor-Gan-May¡¯s advice on how to mix it.


    It was nearly a half-hour of Drake pounding his fists on the post before he finally stepped away to take a break. Dantes kept himself busy with monitoring things around Rendhold, making sure the walls hadn¡¯t yet been breached, and communicating with Jacopo.


    Drake went over to the water, ignored the small glass, and lifted the pitcher to take several long drinks of it, much to Dantes¡¯s satisfaction. He coughed for a moment and shook his head, then he coughed some more. He clutched his throat and stumbled forward, knocking over the pitcher and breaking it as he fell. He landed on his back, his eyes screaming and face reddening as he struggled to breath. Then he went suddenly still.


    Dantes watched him, something wasn¡¯t right.


    Drake began to laugh, a thorough belly-laugh. ¡°You think a bit of poison can kill a man like me? A coward¡¯s weapon like that?¡± He put the flats of his hands behind his back, rolled back a little, then launched himself onto his feet with his hands. ¡°You must think I¡¯m as dumb as Niklas was, eh Dantes?¡± He turned his head to look directly at where Dantes sat on the rafters.

 Book 3 Ch 44: Fair Fight

    Dantes leapt down, shifting into himself, and landing perfectly on his feet as he did so. He drew his pistol and aimed it at Drake.


    ¡°Ooooh, a pistol? Another weapon of the cowardly and meek, but at least one that draws blood. Go ahead and sh-¡±


    Dantes pulled the trigger and the bullet bounced off of Drake¡¯s chest with a spark.


    Drake let out a low rumbling laugh. ¡°Well, I do have to say I appreciate your bloodlust.¡± He took a few steps toward him.


    ¡°This a hostile takeover? You going after Diamond, Argenta, and Fritz next? I knew you were ambitious, but we¡¯re all a cut above Niklas and Mondego.¡±


    Dantes extended a wand through his hand and sent his will through it. An arc of lightning shot out and slammed directly into Drake¡¯s face, but it had no effect and he kept walking toward him.


    Dantes held his ground, shifting wands and drawing his dagger as he began to call on the vermin of the city. Drake¡¯s building didn¡¯t have any anti-vermin enchantments, it may have before the academy was sealed, but it had long since faded.


    ¡°I¡¯m not here for a takeover. I don¡¯t think I¡¯d excel in your particular line of work,¡± said Dantes, aiming the new wand at Drake. ¡°I¡¯m here because of your connections to Godfrey. I know that you¡¯ve been talking to him, that the second he asks you to, you''ll betray Rendhold.¡±


    Drake chuckled a bit. ¡°Oh that? Come on, guys got to eat. Rendhold¡¯s going down either way, I may as well make some good money on the way out. Make sure my boys get out okay. It¡¯s just a city, not like I can¡¯t just move.¡±


    Dantes sent his will through the new wand, activating a push spell and shooting out a wall of invisible force toward him. Some of the furniture around him was pushed back, but Drake was stopped for less than a second, pushing through like it was nothing.


    With him closing in, Dantes raised his wooden hand and sent his fingers out like stakes.


    For the first time, Drake didn¡¯t simply walk through them, instead he sidestepped, grabbed the extended fingers, and threw them and Dantes across the room.


    Dantes swiftly drew the fingers back, and automatically reoriented himself in the air to land on his feet.


    Drake clapped a little bit. ¡°Oh, very nice. Good reflexes. I¡¯d bet that after me you¡¯re probably the second best of the Fingers in a straight up fight,¡± he grabbed a massive stone that was being used as a table and hefted it over his head. ¡°The distance between number one and number two is pretty extreme though.¡±


    He threw the stone with surprising speed and Dantes barely dodged it, feeling the air from it blow back his hair as it flew past. As he recovered, Drake closed the distance, and threw a punch that seemed to have more force behind it then the rock did. Dantes dodged that blow, as well as the flurry that followed it.


    Drake was massive, but he wasn¡¯t slow, and his strikes all used the perfect amount of force, no motion was wasted. His footwork, the one area where Dantes was still better than Jacopo and Zak, was immaculate keeping Dantes on the back foot the entire time.


    Dantes brought sunrise out of his arm and sent his will through it, shooting blinding light all through the building, but rather than falling back or wincing in pain, Drake continued to throw punches and move forward based on where Dantes had just been. Still, with him blinded, Dantes was able to put some distance between them and pulled another wand out through his wooden hand.


    Drake¡¯s vision eventually recovered and he turned to look at him, laughing at the wand in Dantes¡¯s hand. ¡°Don¡¯t bother with that, you¡¯re just wasting our time.¡±If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Dantes ignored him, and shot a blast of small rocks at him, that skipped off of him as he was made of steel.


    ¡°This enchantment,¡± he said pointing to his amulet. ¡°It protects me from all forms of indirect damage. Magical attacks, poison, bullets, arrows, rocks from a sling, all of that. Diamond made it for me while we were having a fling. It turns out that the enchantment lasts a lot longer if you still allow normal direct physical damage.¡± He brushed a bit of stone dust off of his bare chest. ¡°The only way to beat me is in a straight up fight.¡±


    Dantes smiled widely. ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever had one of those before.¡±


    Drake smiled back. ¡°It shows, but hells, there¡¯s a first time for everything.¡±


    ¡°Maybe, but not today.¡±


    Dantes fixed his attention on all of the vermin he¡¯d been holding outside of the building until he figured out Drake¡¯s enchantment.


    ¡°Attack.¡±


    Rats and roaches flooded into the building like a tidal wave and smashed into Drake. He roared and began punching, and stomping as he fought against the tide. His massive fists and feet killed dozens as he fought against them, but it was in vain. His skin was rapidly covered in the lacerations from rat bites, and roaches swarmed his mouth and ears, one of them managing to tear into his left eye and blind it.


    He made one final push to climb onto a nearby counter and get away, but they followed him as they went.


    Dantes leaned casually against one of the support beams holding up the ceiling. ¡°Seems to me that an enchantment like that would only lead to a particularly painful death. You probably should¡¯ve thought that through.¡±


    Suddenly, there was a burst of flame from where Drake had fallen. Dantes could feel the deaths of a thousand rats and roaches as they burned, and stumbled backward from the heat, clenching his teeth.


    Drake pushed himself to his feet, he had a red shortsword in his hand with a blade that was burning with flame.


    ¡°You know, I just bought this from Lydia because I thought it looked cool, but it¡¯s nice to know it has a good use too.¡± He swung the sword in a wide arc, and flame burst from it, scorching a few of the remaining rats and roaches that hadn¡¯t yet pulled away.


    Dantes looked at Drake. His left eye was destroyed and he was bleeding freely from hundreds of rat bites, but he was still a formidable foe, and with his fiery shortsword he would be able to drive any vermin away, on top of being more dangerous at close quarters for Dantes himself. He raised his dagger in an aggressive stance and pointed it at Drake.


    ¡°Oh? Are you going to fight me like a man after all?¡±


    ¡°Come closer and find out.¡±


    Drake smiled in a way that didn¡¯t reach his eyes. He was acting like the fight wasn¡¯t trouble for him, but the truth was Dantes was winning. He¡¯d lost nothing so far, and had already nearly killed him. He needed to re-take the initiative and finish the fight soon.


    ¡°Do you need my help?¡± asked Jacopo from within the council meeting he¡¯d endured. They were finalizing the vote to release Dantes.


    ¡°Maybe, I have one more idea. If it doesn¡¯t work, I¡¯ll need you here.¡±


    Jacopo sent a mental confirmation to him, and started to plot out the best way to reach him quickly.


    Drake and Dantes began to circle one another, fire still burning away at smoldering rat corpses and furniture.


    Dantes faked a step forward, and Drake lifted his sword forward to catch a blow, but instead of Dantes¡¯s dagger, he threw his gunpowder horn at him instead. The gunpowder ignited, and Drake¡¯s sword flew back from the force, though he managed to hold onto it, and his remaining eye was momentarily blinded.


    Dantes took that moment to leap forward, and drive his dagger deep into Drake¡¯s gut lifting and twisting it as it struck true, warm blood dripping down his hands.


    Drake howled in pain and stumbled backwards. Dantes reached for the grip of his sword in an attempt to disarm him, but Drake slammed his left fist into Dantes¡¯s side and sent him flying across the room.


    He slammed into the wall and wheezed as he struggled to breathe and pushed himself to his feet.


    Drake kept coming toward him, dragging the fiery shortsword behind himself even as his blood dripped down the dagger protruding from his stomach.


    Dantes laughed, a garbled choked sound, and held up his other hand, the one that had released his dagger. In it, was Drake¡¯s medallion, shining in the light of his fiery blade.


    Drake¡¯s remaining eye widened.


    Dantes sent his will through the wand protruding from his palm and fired another bolt of lightning from it. It slammed into Drake and his body flew backward where it hit a stone counter. His back snapped like a thick branch leaving the top of his body sprawled on the top of the counter, while his legs hung limply from its side.


    Dantes pushed himself up, focusing on healing his injuries as he brought himself to his feet. He fixed the clasp on the necklace and placed it around his own neck, feeling his fingertips tingle as he did so.


    He stepped toward Drake¡¯s lifeless body.


    ¡°I told you. No fair fights today.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 45: Patriotism, mostly

    Dantes took a small seed from his pocket and sent some of his will through it. It grew rapidly, and Dantes had it wrap itself around his midsection to stabilize his fractured ribs while he focused on mending them. He leaned down, and took the fiery sword from Drake¡¯s hand, sliding it through his own belt as he did so. He was certain there were more magical goods he could find in the house, so he sent a number of rats to search for them as he recovered. He spread out his focus across Rendhold. The bombardment of the walls continued, and a number of buildings had again been destroyed by the salvos being launched by the Frasheid soldiers, but overall it seemed to be holding. He turned his attention to the docks, and there he saw that things had changed for the worse.


    Viscent steam ships had made it into the harbor, and were beginning to line up to bombard the docks with their cannons. Those sailors that had returned were already firing on the ships with their own salvaged cannons, and even sending forth ships that were lit aflame toward the enemy vessels, but they were having a minimal effect on their impressive ships. As Dantes sent his focus toward them, he could feel something else among them. That same impression of blood and metal that he¡¯d felt before. Godfrey was there, he could feel it.


    ¡°They¡¯ve agreed to it. Pacha is insisting on being the one that retrieves you and any others you bring,¡± sent Jacopo


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Thank you Jacopo. It couldn¡¯t have been done without you. I know enduring everything you¡¯ve done there has been awful.¡±


    ¡°The food could be good.¡±


    ¡°Yeah? We¡¯ll talk to Zilly about making your favorites from here on. You can leave Uptown, once I¡¯m out with Pacha we¡¯ll need to meet. It¡¯s time to draw blood and end this.¡±


    Jacopo, sitting in the busy council chambers, watching people yell and whisper about things he no longer cared about, smiled and stood up.


    Vampa looked at him. ¡°Are we done?¡±


    Jacopo nodded at him, as he reached into his coat and slipped his fingers through his clawed gloves and flexed his hands.


    Desha looked at him confused.


    He stood and began to walk out of the chambers with Vampa close behind him. The room shifted its attention to him.


    ¡°There is still important work to be done here, nobleman,¡± said the old Orc from the War Committee table.


    ¡°I¡¯ve done all the work I need to here,¡± said Jacopo, not stopping. ¡°The rest of the work that needs to be done is where the fighting is happening.¡±


    With that, Jacopo de Fosse walked out of the door with his mysterious elven bodyguard, never to be seen in Uptown again.


    ¡­


    Dantes stood in the Maw on the stump with several hundred lowlives surrounding him, but keeping a respectable distance, his six loyal gang members closest to him. Gathering them hadn¡¯t been hard, the majority of them had heard of the chance at a pardon and jumped at the opportunity to do so. For the rest, Dantes promised a reward for joining him in the maw, and those he¡¯d already dealt with, knew he was good for it.


    He could see the stirring on the lip of the maw above him, as a mage worked to cast a spell that would allow Pacha to send his voice across the Pit. Once it was complete, Pacha stood at the edge and looked down directly at Dantes.


    ¡°By decree of Rendhold, Dantes and those assembled with him are to be freed and sent to the docks to defend the city from invaders. If you survive the assault, and comport yourselves honorably, you will be¡­ pardoned,¡± Pacha almost seemed to be choking on that last word, but he managed to get it out.¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    ¡°The second I¡¯m out of here, I¡¯m just gonna go back to my old hideaway. I think I still have some dust in there.¡±


    ¡°Gods, my first stop is going to be at the pub. The docks? Fuck that. They won¡¯t be able to keep us all. There¡¯ll be plenty of chances to slip out.¡±


    Dantes smiled and looked around. He recognized almost every face as the men he¡¯d fed for their blood and received a feybound agreement from through Celeste. He took a deep breath, and sent his voice throughout the pit.


    ¡°I¡¯m calling on my favor with all of you. From now on, you will obey my every command, unconditionally.¡±


    The voices ceased their talking, and all turned their attention to Dantes, blank looks on their faces.


    ¡°You will obey the guard in all things to do with the defense of Rendhold, and you will fight those they direct you to fight without fear until I tell you otherwise.¡±


    They answered by turning their attention to the guards above them.


    Dantes felt a pang of pity for the men he¡¯d just turned into his unwilling slaves, but one of the first rules of the Pit was to never agree to a favor before knowing what it was. Besides which, they all would¡¯ve died of starvation if he hadn¡¯t intervened anyway. He¡¯d continued feeding them from the first favor of course, a starving army wouldn¡¯t be terribly helpful. He would release any of them that survived, but he didn¡¯t have any expectation that number would be very high.


    ¡°We¡¯re going to have to bring you up one by one as we did with mages and others we¡¯ve already brought up, so-.¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°Too long.¡± He kneeled and placed his hand on the trunk, feeling what sparks of life were left in it. He fanned those sparks, bolstering them with life from the rest of the city, and made it grow.


    It started with several thin branches that he extended toward the lip of the maw, and as they grew and thickened they began to intertwine with one another, sprouting leaves as they did so. As the tips of the branches started to reach the edge, the rest of it began to thicken and grow solid, until there was a perfect staircase leading all the way up to the edge.


    Dantes began to climb the steps, making his way calmly up them, with the men who¡¯d chosen their loyalty directly behind him, and those that he¡¯d forced to be loyal coming up after. Dantes pressed against the barrier blocking the opening, and coughed, gesturing at the nearest mage that stood open-mouthed, at him.


    The mage looked at another of his sort, who looked at Pacha.


    Pacha nodded at them with a grim set to his jaw, and they brought the field down, letting Dantes ascend those last dozen steps to stand in front of Pacha.


    ¡°Good to see you again,¡± said Dantes with a smile, taking a deep breath. ¡°I love when the air tastes like freedom.¡±


    Pacha looked at the men behind him. ¡°Take a spear, and move forward. We have wagons ready to move you all to the docks to reinforce us there.¡±


    ¡°No spear for me?¡± asked Dantes.


    ¡°You don¡¯t need one.¡±


    Pacha gave more orders, but seemed confused when the prisoners that reached the top listened without question, and did as he asked.


    ¡°They¡¯ll do exactly what you want them to as long as that¡¯s what I want,¡± said Dantes.


    ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°Patriotism, mostly.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re on the first wagon,¡± he said to Dantes and started moving away.


    ¡°You know, I like you Pacha.¡±


    Pacha stopped and looked at him, with anger on his face.


    ¡°If every man in Rendhold were like you, I think the city would be a great place.¡±


    His expression became confused.


    ¡°You¡¯re honorable, you believe in rules, and you think trust should be earned. If the mortal plane operated on your ideals, it would be at peace,¡± Dantes stretched a bit, his ribs had mended, but he was still feeling a bit stiff. ¡°It¡¯s unfortunate that there are more men like me than there are like you.¡±


    Dantes looked out around the large area around the Maw. He could see trees growing, flowers covering everything, birds nesting, and even a stray dog lounging in the sun. His efforts to cultivate life there had gone very well, and further buoyed the power he commanded in his locus.


    ¡°Maybe, once I drive these invaders back, we can do some things to balance things out a bit more. I can make a few compromises, you can make a few.¡±


    Pacha stared at him, but said nothing.


    ¡°For starters, you can let me head to the front myself. The walls broke an hour ago, and I¡¯ll be able to get there much faster if you don''t escort me yourself. I think the one thing you must¡¯ve seen from all that time trying to bring me down, was that I want to keep my people safe. Defending the city will let me do that.¡±


    Dantes looked at Pacha. The stern set of his face looked the same as it always did, but there was something in his eyes, something either broken or softened. He gave a small nod to Dantes.


    Dantes nodded back, not wearing a boastful smile, or a rueful grin, or even a prideful smirk at making him compromise. He gave him a genuine thank you, turned into a dove, and flew away, toward the broken wall.

 Book 3 Ch 46: Time to Save the City

    Darien had gotten used to the cannon fire. The sound of the blast followed by the shattering of the cannonball against the wall making blue sparks splash across it. It had become almost routine over the week¡¯s assault. A few volleys had gotten through of course, but Darien¡¯s portion of the wall hadn¡¯t had any pierce the magical forcefield. Their mage was older, a retiree from the Academy rather than one of the young novices that were posted at the other sections of the wall. He¡¯d been chosen because their area of the wall was one of the few that had a gate to defend, making it much more vulnerable if the mages¡¯ field were to collapse. Darien had been grateful for that, until the old timer had fallen suddenly, clutching his chest as his heart gave out.


    The enemy had seen the weakness his death had created, and immediately capitalized on it. With the magical barrier sealed, the cannon¡¯s all fired at the gate. It didn¡¯t fail immediately, it was a thick chunk of wood wider than he was, but he could feel the ground shake with every impact.


    One of the shots fired went high and obliterated a dwarf that was firing his rifle from the top of the wall, his blood and viscera scattered everywhere and Darien howled as a piece of bone lodged itself in his cheek. He fought back tears as he pulled the long shard out and dropped it to the ground. He didn¡¯t want to be there. He thought he¡¯d be walking streets protecting poor defenseless mage girls going to light lamps in Uptown. He should be in bed with one of them, not waiting to be blown apart by a cannonball, or melted down by magefire, or run through with a spear.


    He clutched his own spear tightly. He hadn¡¯t even completed his sword training yet. He looked around at the other guards. There were only four or five of the twenty or so he could see that were wielding swords. He wasn¡¯t sure if he felt comforted that he wasn¡¯t the only one without one, or disheartened that most of them were greenbloods like him.


    He jumped a bit as another cannonball hit the gate, this time it seemed to hit much more powerfully.


    ¡°They¡¯re focusing the main cannons they¡¯d been holding back on the gate,¡± yelled down another dwarf from the wall.


    Darien¡¯s sergeant nodded grimly at that information.


    There were a dozen more volleys. Pieces of wood splintered, masonry from the walls began to tumble down, dust and smoke filled the air. Waiting was agony, but he was grateful the walls seemed to be holding.


    ¡°Go get me the merc and adventurer auxiliaries!¡± yelled the sergeant. ¡°The first breach is going to be here.¡±


    Darien¡¯s heart dropped and his knuckles whitened from the tightness of this grip on his spear. Anywhere else. Why couldn¡¯t it have been anywhere else?


    The cannon fire stopped, and for a moment he felt relieved. The quiet after the constant hammering blasts lasted long enough that he started to hear the sounds of his own breathing.


    ¡°They¡¯re starting to move toward us! Large column, several hundred men!¡± yelled the dwarf from above. He was reloading his rifle as he spoke, blood running down across his left eye from a wide cut that was muddied with dust.


    ¡°Alright, take position around the barricades!¡± yelled the sergeant.


    Darien looked around. He could make a run for the interior of the city. This was his chance to get away from it. He had time to ditch his uniform, if he moved quickly he could make it to Needle Street and steal an outfit from one of the tailor¡¯s shops. Once he had the outfit, he could hide in some abandoned house or something. They wouldn¡¯t find him, the city was huge, there was no way they¡¯d be able to figure out where he was.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    By the time he¡¯d broken out of his train of thought, Darien was already standing at his point in the barricade. His fear had been overridden by the yelling of the sergeant and the instincts to listen to them that had been drilled into him in his last few months of training. He cursed under his breath, but raised his spear.


    The area around the gate had a wide road with buildings on either side. It had been anticipated that the gate would be the first part to fall, and so the areas between the buildings had been sealed, and the road blocked off with a barricade of wood and metal. Men were climbing onto the roofs where guns, bows, arrows, and rocks had already been assembled to throw down on the invaders as they came through the gate. Darien envied them. His place was on the barricade in the middle of the road. He was on the front line, meant to stop anyone trying to climb it with his spear. Gods what he would give to be holding a rock on a roof instead of a spear on the street.


    He couldn¡¯t see the enemy¡¯s approach, there was too much dust and debris to see much aside from the ruined gate, but he could hear the shouts down by the men at the gate, and eventually he could hear other voices breaking through the other noise. The voices spoke his language with an odd accent and affection. Even the screams of their dying sounded as if they were dying in a different place than Rendhold.


    A few men on the wall were blasted back by an explosion of flame, and then the first shape cloaked in gray charged through the blown gate. He screamed with the righteous fury of a man who believed he would be a hero. That scream was cut off abruptly as a bullet blew out the back of his skull.


    More gray clad men pushed through, and those fell as well. It would¡¯ve been funny, watching them fall, if Darien didn¡¯t know how many more were coming after them.


    The first man to make it all the way to the barricade was on the far side, a great distance from Darien. He watched as the sergeant took his sword, and drove it through the man¡¯s chest quickly, before pulling it back and readying for the next one. He¡¯d served in midtown, so Darien wasn¡¯t surprised at his ruthlessness. Hells, he must¡¯ve been used to a war every day.


    A few more Frasheid Grays made it to the barricade, and were quickly dispatched. Then one made his way to Darien. The man in gray was lean, and quick. He held a spear of his own, and wore an ill fitting chestplate that shook violently as he ran.


    Darien waited until the man started to climb the barricade, lowering his spear to do so. He popped up from behind it, and jammed his spear down toward the man. It slipped awkwardly between the man¡¯s chestplate and slid through him longways downward. The man looked up at him. He was fully human and young. Even younger than Darien. Darien yanked back his spear, hard, and the man fell back, clutching his chest and gurgling in front of the barricade. Even after he stopped moving Darien could swear he could still hear him gurgling.


    After that everything became a blur of smoke and blood. The number of the Frasheid grayclads never seemed to diminish, even as their bodies littered the ground. They climbed over their fellows, pushing for the barricade as bullets, rocks, and arrows rained down on them.


    ¡°Where are the auxiliaries!?¡± yelled the sergeant at one point as he yanked a spear back from where it had embedded in a man¡¯s skull.


    ¡°They aren¡¯t coming. There were two other breaches.¡±


    Darien didn¡¯t have time to agonize over hearing that. His arms were growing heavy, and his spear had dulled. He threw it into the incoming force, and took up another one that was handed to him by a young boy. He could hear a kind of roaring in his ears as everything seemed to fade away. How long had it been? An hour? A day? All he could focus on was driving his spear into the never ending gray tide that was seeking to overtake him.


    A grayclad managed to get over the barricade and Darien had to spin around to drive his spear into his back. When he turned around another was coming up over the barricade to follow his comrade. An arrow sunk into that one¡¯s back and he fell forward.


    Darien tried to take his spot back, but now there were two men. The guard next to him drew his sword and cut them both out at the ankles.


    ¡°You¡¯re not getting into the city. You¡¯re not getting to my kids,¡± the man muttered as he cut them down where they fell.


    Darien fell in next to the man as they were pushed back from the barricade. The man repeated his mantra over and over again as he swung his blade, and Darien supported him with spear strikes. He risked a look up, and saw grayclads starting to scale the sides of the buildings with the archers and stone throwers, they¡¯d be overtaken soon.


    Two men in extravagant coats landed in front of him, each of them crushing a man beneath their feet as they did so. One of them slit another man¡¯s throat with what looked like claws and the other raised his hand, and a wall of force pushed a half dozen men back into the barricade.


    ¡°Time to save the city,¡± said the shorter of the two.

 Book 3 Ch 47: I Wanted People to See Me

    The Frasheid soldiers hesitated for just a moment as they attempted to size up Dantes and Jacopo. When more grayclad men made their way over the barricade though, the hesitant ones were pushed forward and attacked. They were young, Dantes noted, and not very well trained or prepared. Frasheid had perhaps saved their best men for putting down the slave rebellion back home. Between all the work he¡¯d managed to do in the Pit and now this, he¡¯d have to thank Gavain for everything if he ever saw him again.


    Jacopo caught a spear, yanked the man holding it toward him, and carved a bloody slash through his face. He then leapt at another man approaching Dantes, and speared him in the throat before he could even raise his weapon.


    Dantes held out his wooden hand, anchored his feet using some weeds that had pushed through the concrete and skewered five different men through the heart instantly before pulling it back, jerking their bodies toward him in such a way that he was able to throw them into other men that were attacking him. He pulled his pistol free from his hip and shot another man in the head that had been about to throw a piece of masonry at Jacopo.


    While they fought, Dantes and Jacopo combined their focus and started to reach out, turning their attention from within the city to all of the men in front of them. They could feel the seeds sitting in the stomachs of hundreds of the men in front of them. They were still holding strong, in spite of the blood he¡¯d fed them, fighting against the order he¡¯d given them with their strong desire to grow and spread. He connected to each and every one of them, weaving together the small threads of life that were connected to him, and pushing even more life into them from the city itself, forging all of it into a rope with the thickness of a Mother¡¯s Reach tree.


    He took a breath, feeling the weight of the connection as he drove his dagger into a man¡¯s eye that had gotten a little too close.


    ¡°GROW¡±.


    Nearly all of the men knew something was wrong immediately as they felt a rumbling in their stomachs, but they pushed on for a few moments, more concerned with what was in front of them. Then the screaming began. Men collapsed to the ground, clutching their stomachs and screaming as the plants spread throughout their bodies. Dantes could feel the roots, vines, branches, and leaves piercing their stomachs and running through their veins in search of more blood to sustain themselves. Those who were not affected, who¡¯d been lucky enough to avoid ingesting any seeds, looked around with a mixture of horror and confusion. The bravest of them grabbed their fellow soldiers, trying to help them in any way they could, or at least figure out what was wrong. Their courage was rewarded with branches and roots shooting through the men they were clutching and into them, searching hungrily for more life to sustain their impossible growth.


    The guard looked on in terror as Dantes and Jacopo walked steadily over the barricade and into the killing field they¡¯d been defending. A grayclad soldier managed to cut a root that was attempting to tangle his ankle from himself, and leapt at Dantes with his spearpoint aimed high. Dantes sent a flicker of his will out, and a different plant caught the man in midair and slammed him back to the ground before muffling his screams with vines that crawled down his throat.


    Dantes made his way outside of the walls where he was rewarded with the sight of even greater chaos.  Men screamed as they tore at the plants that wrapped themselves around them, a few men had managed to stay on their feet, and were stumbling around with thorn bushes slowly pushing their way through their skin, tearing them apart slowly. Dantes willed a bit more life into them, to speed the growth and end their suffering.


    ¡°Leave them,¡± yelled a man in a gray coat with several red marks on his arm indicating he was of a higher rank. ¡°Grab your spears, you can¡¯t help them now. Come now, we can still push through!¡±Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    A few of their men began to rally, and as they did they noticed Dantes and Jacopo casually strolling through a field of their dead. They charged him, screaming with a mixture of fear and rage to push themselves to attack.


    Dantes and Jacopo stood still and waited for the gray tide to reach them.


    ¡°You can shift back. I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll need the muscle anymore.¡±


    Jacopo shifted into himself and climbed on Dantes¡¯s shoulder, making himself comfortable as they watched the enemy approach him through matching pairs of golden eyes.


    The gray tide in front of them was torn apart at its edges by the hungry, thirsty roots that had already killed their fellows, and those few men that nearly managed to reach him, slowed and started to try and turn themselves around before they reached their target.


    From the smoke and destruction behind Dantes emerged a wave of rats, roaches, dogs, bats, and pigeons. The Frasheid soldiers that turned around to flee, couldn¡¯t move fast enough through the tangling roots that surrounded them and screamed as they were buried beneath the tide of vermin. Dogs tore out throats, roaches swarmed into any available orifice, rats ate at any exposed flesh they could find, bats slammed into men with high speed tearing at their faces, and pigeons pecked out eyes.


    Dantes walked through all of it, occasionally blocking a strike with his wooden hand, or shooting out flame from a wand in his hand. A mage sent a blast of lightning toward him that bounced harmlessly off of him thanks to his new amulet, and Dantes willed the swarm to target the mage in response, hearing his screams swiftly muddled by the press of vermin on him.


    ¡°We could¡¯ve done this from the sky, or even from a distance. We didn¡¯t need to be here for it,¡± said Jacopo.


    ¡°I wanted people to see me. It¡¯s important that they know who saved them.¡±


    ¡°So they can be afraid, or grateful?¡±


    ¡°A mix of both.¡±


    ¡°As long as it''s you that deals with it from now on.¡±


    Dantes walked all the way to the Frasheid camp, where his newly grown bloodgarden had completely routed them. Those that hadn¡¯t been killed had run without even taking any of their belongings with them. Dantes didn¡¯t send anything to hound those that ran, the survivors would tell a very important story to those back in their homeland. Cannons, gunpowder, food, weapons, armor all lay where it had been abandoned. It would be good for the city to claim it. Dantes put a hand on the snout of a draft horse to calm it as he walked past, making sure that the vermin he commanded left any of the other animals in the camp alone.


    Dantes checked on the other breaches in the walls, finding that the guard had pushed the enemy out once so many of them had been torn apart from within by his plants. The city¡¯s defenders were very careful to avoid stepping on anything he¡¯d grown though.


    He then checked on the status of the docks. The Viscent cannons were bombarding them with a constant volley that had forced the guard and sailors back behind the cover of buildings, but the prisoners that Dantes had put under the control of the guard were there and had started to reinforce their numbers. Even with the Frasheid assault stopped, and all those reinforcements sent to reinforce the docks, Viscent could still conquer the city on its own. Dantes counted more than fifteen warships, though not all of them had yet reached the bay.  He could see the well armed and armored halflings and gnomes as well as mercenary orcs and even dragonkin, their scales shining brightly under the sunlight. Their army¡¯s armor was black, and they wielded mostly rifles fixed with knives at the ends of them. While Frasheid¡¯s army had been a large undisciplined force, Viscent was organized and ready for war. Sending a few doves closer, he also saw dozens of goldmasks scattered throughout every ship. He didn¡¯t see Godfrey, but he knew he was there.


    Before he started to make his way toward the docks, he looked out over the field of bodies that he¡¯d created and wondered idly if it was anything like the locus Serpica had grown into, full of death and decay. He sent his will through all of it, and made a simple request.


    ¡°Bloom.¡±


    From the corpses, thousands of flowers began to grow. Poking out like thorns before separating into separate petals and opening, letting out a sweet scent that mingled with the smell of blood and gunpowder. The flowers were every color, blue, yellow, red, white, purple, all of them were spread madly throughout the field.


    Dantes flexed his hands. He¡¯d been able to do in an instant what he would¡¯ve struggled with when he¡¯d first gained his abilities. He shifted into a dove and flew toward the docks.

 Book 3 Ch 48: Every fight needs a beautiful woman in the audience

    Dantes landed on the roof of the vixen, and made his way to Jacque¡¯s and Alessa¡¯s rooms first, Jacopo deciding to head to the garden to eat something while he checked on them. Everything in the rooms had been packed and moved, which Dantes found relieving. The plan was to hide them and a number of the other more vulnerable people from both the Vixen and Midtown in his gambling den. It could be entered from both the basement door with a magic key, or in the Guild district, but that entrance was heavily concealed and barricaded.


    Relieved, Dantes walked to his own chambers, where he found Sevryn waiting for him with a smile. She was wearing chainmail with a sword on her hip and several javelins secured at her back as well as a dagger on her belt. Her arms were unarmored, which he found strange, but stranger still was the fact that she was still wearing the gold necklace with the green stone.


    ¡°I asked that you be taken to the gambling den, so that I would know that you¡¯re safe,¡± said Dantes as he forced himself not to return her smile.


    She shook her head and stood, placing one hand gently against his face. It felt warm, and he resisted pushing his face into it.


    ¡°Every fight needs a beautiful woman in the audience, don¡¯t you think?¡±


    Dantes wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, kissing her deeply as he did so. They stayed together like that for a long time, feeling the warmth of one another and hearing the jingle of the chainmail between them.


    ¡°Syn,¡± said Dantes, gently rubbing her face with his hand.


    She smiled, her eyes shifting color from purple to blue, to gold, and back. ¡°I¡¯m surprised it took you this long to figure it out.¡±


    ¡°I suspected for some time, but I was having fun playing the game with you.¡±


    ¡°And you wanted a suitably dramatic time to reveal what you knew?¡±


    ¡°As if you weren¡¯t doing the same?¡± replied Dantes with a smirk.


    She shrugged, ¡°If we didn¡¯t have similar ideas of fun we wouldn¡¯t be together would we?¡±


    ¡°Very true. How did you keep me from knowing it was you? Usually I¡¯d see flickers of any changeling no matter what form they took.¡±


    She pointed to her necklace. ¡°It¡¯s a very powerful illusory amulet. I took it from a noble I killed in Uptown. It basically gives people the ability to change how they appear to other people, but doesn¡¯t make physical changes like I do.¡±


    ¡°So you just have it match the physical changes you make?¡±


    ¡°Exactly.¡±


    ¡°And your first thought was using it to seduce me?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it was.¡±


    ¡°I think I may love you.¡±


    She looked surprised, not blushing, but rather her skin paled significantly, as if she was having trouble maintaining her shape for a moment.


    He kissed her again, and this time she seemed to almost melt at his touch as he¡¯d nearly done when she¡¯d touched his face. He¡¯d thought that once he admitted out loud that she was Syn, he may feel less attracted to her. The true form of changelings was frightening, long white limbs, huge black eyes, but he felt no such thing. Instead all the affection he¡¯d felt for her from his time in the Pit blended with how he¡¯d felt for her as Sevryn, colliding into one another and becoming something new and unique. She was a friend, a lover, and a partner. He¡¯d never had a woman who was all three. The fact that she could take any form he might desire, was also a welcome bonus that he wouldn¡¯t complain about.


    They pulled apart for a second time. ¡°I have a lot of questions, but I think we can wait on them until later given the circumstances.¡±


    Syn smiled. ¡°I think that¡¯s fair.¡±


    They walked out of Dantes¡¯s chambers and through the garden where they collected Jacopo. The bar was packed, but not with the usual crowd of drinkers, gamblers, and degenerates. Everyone left was heavily armed. Dantes saw Vampa in his full suit of armor they¡¯d had restored so he could act as Jacopo¡¯s bodyguard, Jayk looking over a large crossbow that faintly hummed with magic, Jayson still had the exploding hand crossbow Dantes had given him, but was also wearing thickly padded armor with a steel helm, Daisy¡¯s hook hand had been replaced with a wicked curved blade and there were four separate pistols strapped to her chest, Sand was wearing a full suit of dwarven armor sharpening a hefty ax, and Wane was focused on a small staff he was holding, his eyes faintly glowing as he muttered under is breath. Aside from them, he saw dozens of men and women that were readying to fight. He knew them all, most were members of his organization, but plenty were just men and women he knew from Midtown, there to protect their homes and businesses. There was only one notable person missing.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Eyes all went to him and Syn as they descended the steps, and a bit of the grimness that was hanging over them cleared a bit. Dantes smiled, and gave a few hellos, and strong pats on shoulders as he moved toward his inner circle, starting with Vampa.


    ¡°Where¡¯s Zak?¡± he asked.


    ¡°I sent him with the women and children to protect them. He took a few other men with him as well¡­ Felix insisted on joining them.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Vera and Zilly are already with them?¡±


    He nodded, his reasoning for sending Zak with them transparent. Dantes didn¡¯t blame him, he¡¯d seen Zak¡¯s growth from training with Vampa and Jacopo. He¡¯d improved far more quickly than both of them.


    ¡°A smart choice.¡±


    Vampa nodded.


    ¡°Thank you for watching over this one, by the way,¡± said Dantes pointing to Jacopo on his shoulder.


    Vampa actually smiled, something he¡¯d only seen briefly when he sometimes looked at Vera. ¡°I could watch him embarrass, bully, and kill the nobles in Uptown for the rest of my life and die a happy elf.¡±


    Dantes laughed, and as he did so he noticed Decker at the bar. For a moment, he assumed the large orc was having a drink, but as he looked closely he realized he was sharing a long kiss with Hema, Clay¡¯s sister. She was standing on the bar to facilitate their embrace. Decker had a long hatchet at his belt, and brass knuckles. He¡¯d grown a thick full beard, and his skin was a darker shade than it had been before, likely from all the time he¡¯d been spending gardening in the sun.


    Dantes walked over them smiling. ¡°I see that gardening agrees with you my friend.¡±


    Decker smiled a bit, scratching his beard. ¡°It¡¯s been a welcome change. Though, I do miss my old job sometimes.¡±


    ¡°There are sweeter things than wine though, eh?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s very true,¡± responded Decker, looking at Hema without even a hint of shame in his eyes.


    Hema shook her head, pulling his beard a bit. ¡°I¡¯m going to join Clay with the others in hiding. We need to make sure we¡¯re ready to treat anyone that gets hurt.¡±


    Dantes took his new shortsword from his belt and held it out to her. ¡°This sword, please give it to Zak.¡±


    She shrugged and took it.


    ¡°It can manifest and shoot flames. Definitely let him know that before he starts using it.¡±


    She nodded, ¡°I¡¯ll do that.¡±


    Dantes clapped Decker on the back. ¡°Good for you.¡±


    ¡°It is, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    Dantes saw his hounds being spoiled by Lead in the Chamber, who he¡¯d kept contracted since the incident with Serpica. It seemed like the best way to keep him from blowing his head off at a distance at someone else¡¯s behest. He whistled to one of them, and the hound ran toward him, bowling over several men as he did so.


    Dantes leaned down and gave him a healthy amount of scratches and pats before getting serious.


    ¡°I want you to go with Hema to where Jacque and Alessa are and watch over them. Can you do that?¡±


    He replied with a lick across Dantes¡¯s face. He smiled and embraced the hound for just a moment before letting him trot over to where Hema was. Dantes pointed at him and she nodded, understanding that she needed to take him with her.


    Dantes moved to where Jayk and his other lieutenants were talking.


    ¡°We should go to support those on the walls,¡± said Tak, his scales flaring. ¡°If the gates fall then the city will swarm with Frasheid rapers. Viscent is still bombarding the docks, they are not yet a threat.¡±


    ¡°When they stop bombarding, they¡¯ll be able to head straight to Midtown, burning the city down as they move and taking as they want. I know a lot of kobolds have taken refuge closer to the gates, but-¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not an issue anymore,¡± said Dantes, interrupting them. ¡°I¡¯ve already driven away the Frasheid army.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± asked Jayson.


    ¡°I snuck seeds that housed powerful lifeforce within them into their food several days ago. When they ate them, I had the seeds cling to the sides of their stomach. After the city pardoned me, I commanded those seeds to grow. A third of them were dead in moments.¡±


    Jayson swallowed, Jayk nodded grimly, but Daisy laughed, much to everyone else¡¯s surprise.


    She saw their gaze and settled herself down, though she kept wearing a smile. ¡°I¡¯d heard that an army lives and dies on its stomach. I never knew it was so literal.¡±


    Sand let out a snorting laugh.


    Tak nodded his head. ¡°Then me and mine will help to defend Midtown. Since those others have been slain.¡±


    ¡°When do you think Viscent will start sending in men?¡± asked Jayk.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure¡±, replied Dantes. ¡°They¡¯ve been bombarding the dock for quite some time now, but my guess is they¡¯ll make a move once all of their ships are in the harbor.


    ¡°Will the guard shift here to help us?¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ve been listening to their discussions. The guard is going to send most of its men to the inner wall, to defend Uptown in the hopes that the remaining sailors, some of the inner guardsmen, and the prisoners I recruited will soften up the enemy forces enough that they¡¯re forced to negotiate. Argenta is working to change the council¡¯s mind on it, but it¡¯s martial law right now, and Belman is in charge during the fighting.¡±


    ¡°So they¡¯re leaving us all to rot,¡± supplied Jayson. He shook his head and shrugged. ¡°I suppose that¡¯s no different from usual.¡±


    ¡°And just like usual, I have a plan.¡±


    Jayk sighed heavily. ¡°Good. For a moment I thought you were going to delegate everything to me.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 49: See You Soon

    The Viscent ships ceased their bombardment, leaving only a pregnant calm that hung over the docks. The sailors that had survived expected them to start loading men onto rowboats to bring them ashore, but instead, the ships simply began to to turn until their prows faced the docks, and moved forward.


    The sailors had no cannons left with which to counterattack as the Viscent ships own cannons were more accurate and had a longer range, allowing them to devastate the defenses while not suffering any losses themselves. Most of the sailors retreated to the defensive points further back where the guard and their recruited prisoners had begun to reinforce the barricades they¡¯d already put in place. Only a few remained to watch the landing and report back.


    Dantes watched as well, standing on one of the piles of rubble left by the bombardment and holding two massive seeds in his hands. Two had been all that Clay and Hema had been able to get for him with all the supply issues that had been hitting the city non-stop since the plague. He could feel them pulse, almost like the beating of a heart in his hand as he held them. He should be grateful, he supposed. Clay had gotten him twice as many as he¡¯d managed to when he was in prison, and that one he''d had before had a tremendous impact on his fortunes. The two he held at that moment had to do the same thing.


    He tossed one to Jacopo.


    ¡°The two in the lead?¡± he asked.


    ¡°No, we should target the row behind them. I hit the second from the middle, and you hit the one further down. That should do the most damage.


    ¡°Some of them will land though,¡± noted Jacopo tossing the seed between his hands back and forth.


    ¡°That¡¯s inevitable. We need to maximize damage while they¡¯re over the deepest part of the water.


    Jacopo shrugged. ¡°Wish we had eagle forms or something. Having to shift into a two-leg just to drop these is painful.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Yeah, it''s a risk, but it¡¯s what we need to do,¡± he looked at Jacopo. ¡°Ready?¡±


    Jacopo nodded.


    They both shifted into pigeons and took off, heading toward the incoming ships. As the flew, the first two Viscent Steam Galleons reached the docks, actually hitting them with their prows causing the concrete to shatter as the ship settled. Once it was still, the front of the ship opened and a massive metal bridge slid down and slammed onto the ground. Viscent soldiers wearing black and gold marched out, guns lifted, bayonets gleaming as they started to form a beachhead. Mages stood in the center of the formations, muttering incantations under their breath that caused the air to shimmer in front of the soldiers, some kind of forcefield.


    Dantes broke away from Jacopo and moved toward the ship he was targeting. He wished he could sense exactly which of them contained Godfrey, but he only had the vague sense that he was in the area. He stayed subtle, moving to fly toward the back of the ship.


    A Goldmask saw him, and raised a pistol to fire at him.


    Dantes shifted into himself a full twenty feet above the ship, cursing as he fell, but the bullet that the goldmask fired bounced off his new amulet¡¯s protection, he wasn¡¯t sure if it would¡¯ve protected him as a pigeon and this wasn¡¯t the time to test it. He aimed his wooden hand at the ground and extended it as a pole at an angle to strike the boat and slow his momentum a bit. He rolled across the deck, and held the Mother¡¯s Reach seed against the deck of the ship as he came to a stop.


    Another Goldmask was leaping toward him with a sword drawn as he gave his command to the seed.


    ¡°Grow.¡±


    The Goldmask landed against a branch that extended from the seed as it began to grow rapidly. Dantes stood at the top of it, rising with it as it grew, and began to slam into all of the people on the deck of the ship even as its roots began to wrap around the vessel, and impale it, the metal not strong enough to resist its power.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    Soon Dantes was standing more than forty feet above the deck of the ship, and he began directing the grow more toward the starboard side. The weight of the tree was starting to make the ship capsize, and he wanted to make sure it fell in the right direction.


    The ships on that side realized what was happening, but it was too late for them to change direction. Dantes noticed the Dragonkin soldiers who were on the deck quickly rally and leap into the water, swimming for the shore, but the others were too heavily armored to make the swim, though they did make a few futile efforts to shoot at Dantes as he rose higher and higher above them.


    The ship started to tilt in full, and Dantes leaned back in the opposite direction of its tilt, enjoying the sensation of the fall that was starting for a moment before leaping off it with a backflip and shifting back into a pigeon. He watched as the massive trunk of the Mother¡¯s Reach fell, and slammed into the ships below. Even their metal frames weren¡¯t enough to withstand the sudden impact and shift in balance as the weight of the Mother crashed down onto them.


    Across from him, Jacopo had equal success, his own tree slamming into two more ships as it struck the water. Together, they¡¯d sunk half the enemy''s fleet before it could reach Rendhold.


    Dantes and Jacopo met back up on the shore a distance from the enemy. They watched as men drowned, or struggled. The ships that hadn¡¯t sunk didn¡¯t spare any time trying to save those that sank beyond dropping a few rowboats to recover what they could without even slowing their approach. They were professionals, if Dantes had destroyed that many Frasheid ships, then the war would¡¯ve been won, but with half of a well disciplined force still heading for the city, it was a different story.


    He started to think about how he could further damage them before they started to push toward the barricade, when he realized something.


    ¡°Jacopo, do you sense Godfrey with the fleet anymore?¡±


    Jacopo was quiet for a moment, cleaning his whiskers a bit. ¡°No, he¡¯s still nearby, but his presence feels diffuse. He¡¯s definitely not among the fleet anymore. Could he have died?¡±


    Dantes shook his head, ¡°There¡¯s no way it was that easy.¡± He closed his eyes, rapidly shifting through the different rat¡¯s and roaches he had watching things. Jacque was fine, along with everyone else hiding away, Syn was testing the blade of a Javelin as she stood on a roof with Jayk, Vampa was standing calmly alone in alleyway with his sword drawn and resting gently against the ground, Jayson and a dozen men were hidden in a building with the windows broken out, aiming bows and pistols out of and awaiting the arrival of the enemy, Argenta was still arguing with Belman loudly in uptown, Pacha was barking orders to the criminals and guards at the main chokepoint leading to Midtown, and Wane was inscribing a number of things on a building wall near where the Viscent ships were unloading.. He could feel the seeds he gave to all of his men pulsing, waiting for the moment when they hit the ground so that they could grow and consume as they desired.


    Everyone seemed to be safe, so he turned his attention to the Vixen, which was also empty, and then he turned his attention to his gardens. Every single garden on the surface had a goldmask standing in the midst of it. He hadn¡¯t sensed them entering them, but they all stood with their grinning masks shining in the light. They all began to glow with golden light.


    Dantes sent his will to the gardens, having all the life within them surge at the goldmasks.


    All of them spoke in unison.


    ¡°See you soon, Dantes.¡±


    They exploded, all at the same moment, filling his gardens with heat and golden light that burned away everything living within ten yards, and set fire to everything ten feet further than that.


    Dantes and Jacopo howled as they felt all of that life extinguished. Dantes fell to his knees and slammed his wooden fist against the ground hard enough to make it splinter.


    ¡°That fucking bastard!¡± he yelled. He must¡¯ve been able to teleport his people in the same way he himself could teleport. Dantes had been prepared for that, thinking that he¡¯d target important people in the city, but didn¡¯t expect him to target his gardens.


    Dantes pushed himself to his feet. The emptiness where that life had been in the city hurt, and made it difficult to focus and see everything he was tracking just a few moments ago. He pulled his attention back to himself, breathing deeply. This was why he¡¯d spent all that time in the Pit. So that he could develop gardens and create life in Rendhold that was safe from all threats. He focused on that life, using it to salve that part of him that now felt empty. He tried to check on all of his people that he¡¯d checked on before, and was able to do so, but the pain made it much harder and checking as far as Argenta or his people in hiding made the corners of his vision blur and darken. He''d have to keep things more focused on the front. Once he was done he pulled back. He turned his attention to repairing and shoring up what he could as he and Jacopo made their way toward their people.


    He may not be able to find Godfrey or his Goldmasks that had infiltrated the city until he recovered, but there was no reason not to fight off the Viscent soldiers and mercs while he did so. Multitasking had always been a talent of his.

 Book 3 Ch 50: Simple As That

    Zak stood at the only entrance to the gambling den, a wide stairway that had been blocked off with debris light enough that they could push it out of the way from the inside, but heavy enough to block the entrance from view just in case. He checked the balance of the new sword Hema had given him. It felt good in the hand, right, and he could feel the heat from it when he sent his will through it as Jayk had taught him years ago when they¡¯d started making real money before getting thrown into the Pit.


    He grunted to no one in particular, sheathing the sword at his waist and starting a long walk around the perimeter. He didn¡¯t want to be there. He wanted to be on the surface, fighting with everyone else. He knew himself, knew what he was good at, and that was brawling. When Jayk or Dantes used him as muscle, he never minded it, knew his place, and was just grateful to have it. He knew that they¡¯d given him the job to watch over everyone because they were certain that he was up to it, they knew he could handle any threat that came his way. That made him feel proud, but also uncomfortable. He wanted to fight, he wanted Vampa and Dantes to see what he could really do.


    He completed a lap around the gambling den, and paused again at the stairs, scratching Dantes¡¯s hound behind the ears for a moment. He listened for a few moments, but heard nothing, and started walking another lap. He could see Vera and the girls chatting, cutting bandages for Hema to keep busy. Alessa was nursing Jacque, and smiled at him as he passed. Felix was writing in a book, scribbling down sigils and other symbols almost frantically. Zak didn¡¯t blame him for not wanting to be on the front, just like him, Felix knew what he was, knew his place. Zak looked at the other guards, smacking one on the side of the head that had been dozing as he passed. He¡¯d picked men that hadn¡¯t asked for the job, because he knew those that volunteered were cowards, but that left him with men who were bored easily.


    He moved to the edge of the pit, looking at the sand still stained with blood from the last Drake fight. He and Vampa had trained in that Pit, or the one near Vampa¡¯s home, for nearly a full year. He¡¯d thought he was a good fighter before, but Vampa was on a level beyond anything he¡¯d ever seen. After a few months of training with bare hands, he¡¯d started giving him lessons in swordsmanship. While the hand to hand fighting had been brutal, and violent, the sword training had been formal, very different from the guard training he¡¯d received before. Vampa¡¯s entire stance had changed when he lifted a sword, though he¡¯d seemed very reluctant to do so at first, as if the grip of it actually burned his hand. Zak had liked learning it, he¡¯d had some background with the guard, but Vampa made him feel like a knight rather than a soldier. Like someone with something to protect. It was just a feeling, but he enjoyed it.


    Zak placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and looked around. Something felt off. He exchanged a glance with the other men, and Vera, who all seemed to realize something was wrong.


    ¡°Ladies, let¡¯s move back over to the cigar bar and grab some food to eat,¡± said Vera, trying to move them deeper into the den without frightening them.


    Zak and his men moved back toward the sealed entrance. While he hadn¡¯t heard anything before, now he could hear movement at the door, and the sounds of the debris being moved. He gestured for the men to stand back, and drew his new sword, sending some of his will through it to have it light with a dim flame.


    One man with a rifle, and another with a bow stepped back and took a knee to aim their weapons, while the others prepared what they had. There were about ten of them altogether. There was a burst of noise, and then silence as a bit of daylight peeked through the cellar doors they were looking up at. A single god coin was slipped through the small gap between the doors, and it bounced down several steps.


    Zak was swinging his sword even as the coin neared him.


    A man with a golden mask appeared, carrying the same momentum that the coin had and striking forward with a spear.


    Zak¡¯s new shortsword batted the spear away and sent forth a wave of flame that blasted the man back, incinerating him.


    A half dozen more coins all started rolling down the stairway, one of them bouncing off the charred corpse of the man with the golden mask. Six more men and women appeared suddenly and attacked.


    Zak didn¡¯t hesitate, the months of training he¡¯d been doing taking over. He smacked the barrel of a pistol away with his sword just as it was fired, and moved in close. The goldmask attempted to punch him with her free hand, but he ducked his head, forcing her to break her knuckes against his forehead. He ran his sword through her stomach, and kicked her off of it.


    He risked a look back to see if the women had fled back to the Vixen, but saw only Vera and Felix struggling with the door. He could hear Jacque crying.


    To his left, one of his men was having his skull cracked open by a massive goldmask wielding a metal club. He jumped at the man, slicing off his hand with a downward stroke, before bringing it back up with a burst of flames, lighting the man on fire and forcing him to stumble back. He didn¡¯t scream, but he fell down dead shortly after.


    Another goldmask leapt at him, but was knocked off course when a bullet smashed into his face and twisted his head around. He stood back up, his goldmask cracked, showing raw red flesh beneath, but before he could stand back up, Zak smashed his boot into his skull, killing him.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    He watched another of his men go down, but before he could avenge him, his killer took an arrow to gut, shoulder, then ankle in quick succession. Zak had lost count, but it seemed that they¡¯d killed far more than the six goldmasks that had initially appeared. He looked as another of them fell, and noticed several coins falling from his pockets as he did so. Looking across the floor, there were more than a hundred coins scattered around.


    He didn¡¯t slow down, or wail in despair, or even curse under his breath. The amount of enemies didn¡¯t matter, the only thing that did matter was keeping them from getting past him.


    He squared his stance, and launched himself toward another goldmask, sending out a flurry of fiery strikes. He killed that one, then another one, but even as he struck them down, his own men started to fall.


    The woman with the bow fell as a goldmask stabbed her in the gut, but she took him with her, driving an arrow through his eyes as she fell. The rifleman¡¯s back was sliced open while swinging the butt of his gun like a club at a goldmasks knees. Another of them was run through by two separate goldmasks wearing rapiers. One tried to run, thinking the fight was hopeless, but was stabbed through the back by a spear before he could get close to the door.


    Before long, Zak stood alone, and was being pushed back by them. He sent all of his will through his hands and into his sword, feeling his hands and arms start to burn just from their proximity to the blade.  He roared as he made a wide swing sending out an arc of flame that channeled all of the magic left in the sword. The goldmasks that had been moving toward him were incinerated by white hot flame, and even the coins that had been scattered by them melted, leaving pools of molten gold across the floor in front of the stairs.


    Zak fell to his knees, breathing heavily, keeping from falling down by holding himself up with the sword. His rest didn¡¯t last long.


    From the pool of molten gold in front of, rose a figure of a tall handsome man wearing a full suit of black armor edged in gold. His face and hair were golden, but he wore no mask. The flesh of his face itself was gold. He looked around a bit, appraising the situation.


    Zak pulled himself to his feet, raising his sword and sending his will through it. There were a few sparks, but nothing else, it was completely depleted.


    Dantes¡¯s hound loped forward to stand at his side, its muzzle covered in blood from the earlier fight, though it was limping on its hind leg. Zak could still hear Jacque crying behind him.


    Godfrey smiled at him. ¡°You know, I really wasn¡¯t expecting to have to come here myself. The job should¡¯ve been as easy as sending a few men to cut you down, kill you, bring me the baby so I can put a beautiful bow on everything. You are an impressive man.¡±


    Zak nodded, still holding his sword. ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°Listen. I¡¯m short on time to make sure everything goes just right. So, how about a deal? You walk away. Go up those stairs, and leave. I¡¯m only here for the baby, and I won¡¯t be killing it here, so you won¡¯t even have to hear any pained cries that might haunt your dreams.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± replied Zak simply, not moving.


    Godfrey chuckled. ¡°You¡¯re not going to be able to beat me. The men I sent you were just fodder. Fools that gave themselves to Greed for too little. I¡¯m sure your master told you about me. About what I can do. I will beat you. It¡¯s inevitable.¡±


    Zak felt a tremendous wave of despair hit him like a wall, knocking him to his knees. He felt utter and complete misery and hopelessness suffuse him. The dog next to him fell down as well, whimpering, and Jacques'' cries were joined by everyone else''s behind them, as if the world was ending.


    Godfrey began walking forward, drawing a massive longsword from his hip as he approached. ¡°Mercy always wastes time. Not that I really planned on letting you go, I was going to run you through just before you thought you¡¯d escaped, so you¡¯d have that last flicker of hope taken from you.¡±


    He raised the sword. ¡°Oh well, I shouldn¡¯t be distracted by little tastes right now when a full meal is on the horizon.¡±


    Zak stood up quickly, slamming his sword into the small gap between Godfrey¡¯s right pauldron, feeling it sink in two inches before it stopped. It felt as if he was driving it into stone.


    Godfrey didn¡¯t make a sound, but his face contorted into one of rage as he slammed a gauntleted fist into the side of Zak¡¯s head, launching him back toward the rest of the wailing group. He stood up and raised his sword again, spitting out a tooth.


    ¡°Has he really done so much to earn your loyalty? Or are you just a dog that listens to orders without thinking?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not letting you take that baby. I¡¯ve done some bad shit, sure, but that¡¯s not happening. Simple as that.¡±


    ¡°Gods,¡± said Godfrey as he closed in. ¡°Simple disgusts me.¡±


    A bolt of purple light slammed into Godfrey¡¯s chest, knocking him back a bit. He turned to see Felix, ripping another page out of the book he¡¯d been scribbling in. He threw the page, and it turned into another purple missile, slamming into Godfrey. He threw another, and another, and another, pushing Godfrey back just inches with each strike.


    Dantes¡¯s hound started to growl, its body seeming to grow larger and its eyes glowing gold. It launched itself at Godfrey with the force of a cannonball, its teeth sinking deeply into his gorget and tearing the metal of it.


    He was only pushed back by a foot. He grabbed the hound by the scruff of the neck, held him aloft, and beheaded him with a clean stroke of his golden blade. He held up a hand and a cone of gold light shot forward from it and slammed into Felix, throwing him into the fighting pit where he landed in a puff of sand.


    Zak charged him, roaring as he held his sword aloft, bringing it down with all the strength he had left in an overhead strike.


    Godfrey caught the blade in his empty hand, and drove his sword through Zak¡¯s stomach, twisting it casually as he did so, and lifting him.


    Zak spat blood onto Godfrey¡¯s face, smiling through white teeth stained red as he did so.


    Godfrey threw him off his sword, and started moving toward Jacque again.


    Zak laughed, even as he was bleeding out, a bloody smile on his face.


    Godfrey stopped, and turned toward him, his eyes shifting from gold to black as he did so.


    ¡°Are you amused by something?¡±


    Zak kept laughing. ¡°You¡¯re already fucking dead.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Godfrey looked over himself. ¡°I feel quite alive.¡±


    ¡°No. You were dead the second that you made an enemy of Dantes, and when he sends you to the hells to be melted into a golden coin by your god,¡± he cackled a bit, ¡°I¡¯ll be there waiting for you, to show you how bad of a beating I would¡¯ve given you if you hadn¡¯t had his help.¡±


    Godfrey¡¯s eternal smirk fell, and he walked toward Zak, raising his blade as he did so.

 Book 3 Ch 51: A Damned Shame

    Dantes and Jacopo, weakened, flew toward the closest of their allies to help prepare for the Viscent forces that were approaching. The nearest of them was Wane, who was waiting at the end of an alley with his inscribed stave and muttering under his breath. Dantes could feel the tips of his wings tingle as he landed behind him. He shifted into himself, and felt his fingers tingle in the same way, but stayed still so as not to interrupt whatever spellwork Wane was working on. Instead he and Jacopo kept working on cutting off and repairing the weaves of life that they were connected to. He still wasn¡¯t able to cast his focus across the city, his range had taken a serious hit. He couldn¡¯t check on Jacque, Vera, and Alessa across the city, nor could he check on Argenta in Uptown. He was confident that Zak could keep everyone safe, though he found himself wishing he had his help on the front too. That was the problem with good people, they could only be one place at a time.


    ¡°Surprised to see you here, you okay?¡± said Wane, before moving back into his muttering.


    ¡°Godfrey hit my gardens. It¡¯s very painful, but I¡¯m working on fixing what I can now.¡±


    Wane nodded and closed his eyes again to return to his spellcraft.


    Dantes was in the middle of weaving more of the frayed threads back together when he sensed a column of Viscent soldiers approaching.


    ¡°Thirty,¡± he said, closing his eyes and struggling to see them through the eyes of a hiding rat. ¡°One of them is a mage.¡±


    Wane nodded, finally opening his eyes as he finished his spell.


    ¡°Can you take out the mage?¡± he asked, raising his club high. ¡°They may be able to interrupt what I¡¯ve set up if they¡¯re good enough.¡±


    ¡°Could they really compete with an Academy mage?¡±


    Wane smiled. ¡°Not in anything, but combat. Their mages aren¡¯t allowed to study anything else. Aside from a few enchanters that are basically factory workers.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll take care of him. Can you give me one of those seeds I gave you earlier?¡±


    Wane nodded, and pulled out a single seed from his pocket and handed it to him.


    Dantes took the seed and popped it into his mouth before he shifted into a rat and ran along the edges of the buildings toward the column of men. All thirty of them wore simple black armor and wielded rifles with bayonets. They scanned the horizon carefully, and watched the rooftops as they moved. Unlike Frasheid, who¡¯d marked their mages with colorful armbands, making them easy targets, the Viscent mages were unmarked. The only thing that made him obvious was that he was muttering under his breath, powering a defensive spell of some kind.


    Dantes could feel the edges of the forcefield he¡¯d created, but it didn¡¯t seem to have an effect on rats, in fact the feel of it reminded him of the necklace he¡¯d taken from Drake. He scurried into the middle of the road, spitting the seed he¡¯d grabbed onto the ground, and ran the rest of the way across the alley. The soldiers ignored him and kept marching.


    When the mage stepped over the seed, Dantes pushed his will into it. The seed sprouted, and attached itself to the mages leg without him or any of the soldiers noticing. He then had it slowly weave its way up through the mages armor until a small part of it had grown up through the man¡¯s helmet, next to his ear.


    Dantes got back to Wane.


    ¡°You should be fine now. Just give me the signal, and I¡¯ll take out the mage.¡±


    Wane nodded, and they stood there for several seconds while waiting for the column to reach the road they stood on.


    ¡°Now,¡± said Wane, placing his hands on the side of the building they were standing behind.


    Dantes sent a bit more will and life into the plant that had wrapped around the mage. It formed a jagged thorn, and jammed itself through the mage¡¯s ear and into his brain, killing him instantly.


    As he fell, the rest of the column tried to react, searching around for what had killed him, but they had problems of their own.


    Wane¡¯s muscles tensed as he pressed against the wall, and the runes he¡¯d written in chalk began to glow across the walls. They seemed to melt for a moment, as they shifted from being solid, into sand. The building flowed over the column of soldiers who screamed as it slammed into them like a tidal wave.


    Several were crushed instantly, and more drowned slowly in sand. Only eight remained.


    Dantes climbed up onto the sand quickly, and leapt onto the nearest of them, jamming his dagger into the man¡¯s neck through a slit in his armor.


    Jacopo leapt off his shoulder, and shifted as well, using his change in weight to slam into another soldier and drive him into the ground. He ripped the rifle from the man¡¯s grasp and jammed the bayonet into his throat.


    Wane approached another of them with his stave held high. He brought it down for an underhanded strike, and hit a man waist deep in the sand with the full force of it. The runes on it glowed and the man¡¯s body shot from the sand and he slammed into a wall a street over.


    Another of them managed to aim his rifle at Jacopo and pull the trigger, but the rifle was so jammed with sand it misfired, and exploded in his hands.


    The rest of them died easily, unable to react to the combination of magic, druidic power, and martial might that the three brought to bear on them.


    ¡­


    Syn watched fascinated as a half dozen dragonkin moved down the street. She¡¯d never seen a dragonkin, they lived on an island off the coast of another part of the continent. She absorbed everything about them that she could as they moved. Their scales seemed to vary along the same gradient of shades as that of a kobold, but they were nearly five times as large, and had horns that would make an ox jealous. Gods, they were even bigger than full-blooded orcs.


    Jayk tracked them with his crossbow, starting to send his will into it as they came closer and closer. He glanced at Sevryn, and nearly jumped. She was now covered in metallic silver scales and horns were beginning to sprout from her head. Her eyes darted to him for a moment, and she quickly changed back into herself.


    ¡°Sorry about that. I¡¯ve never seen a dragonkin before and I was getting excited.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a changeling?¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Yes, we¡¯ve met several times actually. I¡¯m Syn.¡±


    Jayk wracked his brain for a moment, but had never assigned any names to the changelings he¡¯d met in the Pit. When he had visited them, he mostly just made his request, paid them, and left.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. There¡¯s only one person I care about recognizing me anyway,¡± she gestured to a dragonkin that was almost in range. ¡°You have the one in the lead?¡±You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    He nodded. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve got him, and the explosion should take some of the others too.¡± He gestured at her javelin. ¡°You going to be able to reach them with that?¡±


    She smiled a suddenly sharp toothed smile and her right arm grew five times larger than it had been. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll be a problem.¡±


    He nodded, and lifted his crossbow, pushing more of his will through it as he did so. The moment he pulled the trigger, Syn launched her Javelin with incredible force.


    The dragonkin in the lead ducked down very suddenly to dodge the bolt, but it embedded in his horn, and exploded, blowing his head off and sending horn shrapnel through the two behind him.


    The one in the rear was knocked back as the javelin hit his armor, and pushed all the way through, its tip embedding in the concrete below him.


    The rest of them scattered, and quickly found cover. Jayk notched another bolt, and Syn pulled another javelin out.


    They both whipped around as they heard a noise behind them, and let off their separate attacks. A dragonkin that had been climbing up the edge of the building fell backward as both projectiles hit him at once.


    Syn drew her sword, and watched the edges of the roof as Jayk reloaded his crossbow. There was a series of loud roars and growls from the other side.


    ¡°Are they saying something?¡± asked Jayk.


    ¡°Their leader, I assume, is saying ¡®we didn¡¯t flee the overclan just to die in this shithole¡¯, to try and rally those that are left.¡±


    Jayk finished notching his crossbow and readied it to fire. ¡°It¡¯s a shame they¡¯re going to die in this shithole anyway.¡±


    Syn pulled a handful of the seeds Dantes had given her from her pocket, looking behind herself as a dozen more dragonkin were moving up the road.


    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s a damned shame.¡±


    ¡­


    Jayson and his men waited with their weapons ready in the old ¡®Silverfish Tavern¡¯. It hadn¡¯t survived the plague, but it was the perfect place for them to set an ambush. The men were tense, and Jayson could see beads of sweat accumulating on their faces and fast breathing.


    ¡°Do you all remember Tinsel? The gnome girl that used to work here?¡± Jasyon asked no one in particular as he looked outside, watching the street and waiting for the viscent soldiers to arrive.


    ¡°Aye, I remember her. What a piece,¡± said Tren, a massive orc gripping a rock somewhere between a stone and a boulder in one hand.


    ¡°She was at that, wasn¡¯t she? I mean, she had tits bigger than her head, a waist skinny as her neck, and her ass¡­ phew. I prayed to the Father, Mother and all the gods above that I¡¯d have a shot with her.¡±


    Another man, a halfling with purple eyes nodded. ¡°I¡¯d always hoped she¡¯d take up whoring. I swear a girl like her could charge for a gold a lay, and damn me, I¡¯d pay it.¡±


    The men all laughed a bit at that.


    Jayson shook his head a bit. ¡°I think tomorrow, I¡¯ll look her up. See where she went when this place closed down.¡±


    ¡°Good luck, but I¡¯ll find her first,¡± said Tren.


    ¡°Finding her first doesn¡¯t matter for you. You don¡¯t have the words to get a woman like that.¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you just say you didn¡¯t have a shot with her?¡±


    Jayson smiled and shook his head. ¡°That was before I became a war hero.¡±


    That provoked another laugh from the men, and Jayson held up a hand, silencing them. He could hear something. He raised his hand crossbow and took cover below the windowsill. The other man all hid as well.


    The column that was approaching had more than twenty men , but they were all marching five by five where the road narrowed before it reached the tavern. This was one of the roads to midtown that hadn¡¯t been barricaded, so Jayson had figured it would be a good place to wait.


    The soldiers got closer and closer, and Jayk could feel some kind of field go over him. A shield of some kind? He wasn¡¯t sure, but he was sure that if he was inside it, he¡¯d be able to hit the enemy. He held up a hand, and counted down. Five, four, three, two, one.


    He popped out from behind the window and started firing his crossbow, the exploding bolts tearing off chunks of armor and flesh from the soldiers as they struck. The other men all fired their own weapons, not really choosing any particular target, but just firing wildly into the group of men that had chosen the wrong road to walk down.


    A few of them managed to rally, and started shooting back. Tren, hefting another stone to throw, collapsed forward as a round pierced his skull. Two other men fell shortly after as the well disciplined Viscent troops reacted to the ambush.


    Jayson reached into his pocket and pulled out the pouch of seeds he¡¯d been given. He opened it, tossed it out into the street, a bullet grazing his forearm as he did so.


    The moment the seeds hit the ground, they exploded outward. Dantes had given them one order. When they hit the ground, they were to grow and feed.


    Jayson and the men watched as the Viscent soldiers were torn apart by the blood fed plants that Dantes had prepared. They screamed as vines strangled them and roots pierced their flesh searching for blood to drink.


    ¡°We have to move!¡± yelled Jayson, starting toward the side entrance with the men he had left. He only had one more pouch left. He needed to make it count.


    ¡­


    Vampa held his sword in front of himself, swinging it in a quick arc and killing two men in an instant that had decided to charge him rather than firing their guns. Perhaps they were trying to be disciplined with their ammo? He was still surprised at how comfortable it felt in his hand. How long had he refused to pick it up? Four hundred years? Longer? It was all a blur as time went on for him. Other elves would drink memory tonics, or keep journals to keep their minds sharp and their memories clear, but he¡¯d never had the patience for any of that. Memories were meant to fade, too much clogging the mind could paralyze you.


    He grabbed the corpse of one of the men he slayed and held it in front of himself as he charged toward the fifteen men that remained, using him to block and deflect the bullets the dead man¡¯s allies were shooting toward him.


    He could remember why he put down the sword. He¡¯d forgotten the faces of countless lovers, friends, but that memory remained oh so perfectly clear in his mind in spite of the years. He¡¯d served one of the eldest houses to flee Elfland during its fall as its knight. He served them in the kingdom of Telumandi until politicking meant that they had to flee. He remembered arriving with them in Rendhold, serving them as they gained the power to become a founding family there. He remembered the deals they made with the changelings, and he remembered betraying them too. He¡¯d outlived most of them. The generations further from Elfland lived shorter, more brutal lives. Eventually one of them released him from service. He¡¯d given a thousand years to them, even to the point that they¡¯d become something unrecognizable to what he once served. He cut that house down that day. Not a drop of their blood was left in Rendhold.


    He threw the corpse from his sword, and it knocked two of the men down. He batted away a bayonet and smashed his gauntleted fist into a man¡¯s face with such force that his helmet collapsed inward and stabbed into his face. He carved out a different man¡¯s chest with his blade, leaving a trail of blood in the air that hadn¡¯t even landed before he killed a third.


    He had good memories that hadn¡¯t faded as well, though that was because he clung so tightly to them. He could remember Zilly squeezing his hand with a serious face after she was born, he could feel Zilly¡¯s mother hand give his one last squeeze before she passed, he could remember Vera sitting next to him at the Vixen, smiling at him as her hand walked across his shoulders.


    He kicked the mage in the chest before he could finish his incantation and felt the man¡¯s ribs give way as he did so. The last man tried to run, and he picked up one of the dead men¡¯s rifles, aimed it, and pulled the trigger, dropping him just before he could turn the corner. With all of them dead he pulled a piece of cloth from a pouch at his side and wiped the blood and viscera from his blade. He went back to the place he¡¯d been standing before, and settled his sword against the ground again, closing his eyes and letting his elf ears listen for the arrival of more soldiers.


    ¡­


    Pacha ducked behind the barricade as another salvo of bullets struck it, sending splinters flying everywhere. He pointed at the prisoners with spears taking cover next to him.


    ¡°You five! Go through the alley connecting to main street, and cut across to flank them before the next volley!¡±


    The men nodded wordlessly and started running full speed toward the nearest alley, not even stopping when a bullet struck the one in the lead down.


    Pacha grimaced. Whatever Dantes had done to ensure those men¡¯s loyalty terrified him, but he didn¡¯t have time to worry about that. He had a battle to fight, and the prisoners and their absolute obedience was the only reason that they hadn¡¯t yet fallen.


    A Viscent soldier leapt down from the barricade next to Pacha, and he pushed himself up, driving his shortsword into the man¡¯s back. He wasn¡¯t the greatest warrior, his swordsmanship had been called ¡®middling¡¯ when he was in training, but he recognized early that there was one trait that could improve or damn a man in a life or death situation. Certainty. A man needed to be certain about his strike. Needed to take advantage of any hesitancy their enemy showed. He was feeling uncertain about a lot. Uncertain that the city would survive. Uncertain that he should¡¯ve gone along with the Council¡¯s plans to release Dantes and the prisoners. Uncertain that he shouldn¡¯t have just tried to kill Argenta and all the other leeches that fed on Rendhold rather than trying to do things the right way. Uncertain that the city would survive if he did do that. Uncertain that he could even if he tried. There was only one thing he was certain of, as he barked more orders, and ducked beneath another salvo of bullets. Rendhold was his city, and Midtown had been his responsibility within it. He would not let these invaders take it.

 Book 3 Ch 52: Taste Despair

    Argenta dodged the goldmask¡¯s swing as she summoned a blade of black smoke into her hand. She swung the blade and the goldmask attempted to block it with his shield, but part of the sword she held turned to smoke, and it flew right through his shield, cutting a deep gorge across his chest. She dismissed that sword, and summoned a gauntlet into her hand that she slammed into the door in front of her, smashing it inward.


    She hadn¡¯t expected the Goldmasks, and that was foolish of her. She¡¯d thought that the interior of the Rendhold would be safe once they eliminated Drake.


    A bullet flew toward her, but hit only smoke as she moved toward the one who¡¯d shot it, driving a misty blade through his throat once he reached him. She climbed the steps to her library. She should¡¯ve stayed with the council to keep them safe, but she had other priorities she needed to attend to. She pushed open the door, and the smell of smoke and blood hit her like a carriage.


    There were more than twenty corpses all around the library. That was an estimation of course, as most of them were in pieces. In the corner was a small billowing pile of black smoke, with only white scars across it that served as its eyes. She leaned down, and held out her hand, letting the smoke crawl into her palm.


    ¡°If you¡¯re still here, I suppose they didn¡¯t find the grimoire.¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately for me, they did not.¡±


    ¡°How did they beat you?¡±


    ¡°Godfrey himself came. The divinity that infuses him¡­ I¡¯m vulnerable to it, as you know.¡±


    ¡°Did they take her?¡±


    Gren flickered a bit. ¡°Yes. She was his target.¡±


    Argenta began shimmering with tendrils of black smoke pouring from her. ¡°Is she..?¡±


    ¡°No. He wanted her alive. He spared me to tell you to meet him at the front.¡±


    The smokey aura that surrounded her ceased as she came into perfect clarity. ¡°Let¡¯s show him how foolish he was to leave you alive. ¡°


    Gren slid across her, his smoke slowly covering her body until her eyes were looking through the white scars of his face.


    ¡­


    Dantes smashed his wooden fist into an armored halfling''s face, smashing in his skull. He wove another thread of life back together in his locus as he watched the man fall, and Jacopo repaired another at the same time. His strength had almost recovered, and he could finally see what everyone on the front was doing, though he still couldn¡¯t extend his senses across the entire city as he could just little before. Still, he was grateful to see that everyone fighting had lived, though he¡¯d lost many of his men.


    His full strength would return soon though, he knew. He had the added benefit of the various bloodgardens that he and his allies had spread across the city during the fighting that were helping to buoy him. If he hadn¡¯t taken the time to strengthen his locus and connect so much new life in the Pit, he would¡¯ve been done for.


    He extended a wand from his palm and blasted another three men with fire as they surged toward him, bullets bouncing off of his new enchantment.


    Jacopo shifted from a bat into a man, and used the momentum to crush a gnome before leaping back into the air as a pigeon and doing it again. They moved in perfect unison toward the main barrier that Pacha was defending. It was where the fighting had been the hardest, and they needed the most support. Everyone was heading that way it seemed.


    Dantes threw Jacopo at a column of men and he shifted in midair with his claws extended to slay them. Jacopo dodged backward just as a volley of gunshots was fired at him, and Dantes sent rats to swarm them. A dragonkin leapt at him from above, and he shifted into a roach leaving the dragonkin swiping his claws at air before Jacopo leapt onto his back and severed his spine with his claws, before leaping onto Dantes¡¯s shoulder as he shifted back and aimed his pistol at a rifleman that had climbed onto a roof, dropping him with a clean shot. He could feel Jacopo¡¯s love of the fight bleeding into him, and he couldn¡¯t say he disliked it. It felt like as long as they were fighting together, they were unstoppable.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    They were only a few streets away from the main road that led toward Midtown when Dantes heard crying. He stopped in his tracks, his focus snapping toward the cry with such intensity that everything else, the smell of gunpowder, the screams of the dying, the feel of blood against his skin, it all faded away completely.


    He started running, shifting into a dove even as he ran and using his momentum to launch himself into the air. Jacopo was right behind him, flying just as desperately as the cry that filled the air seemed to vibrate down to their core. They flew to the source, eventually finding it. Standing on the edge of the roof of an old slum building stood Godfrey and two dozen goldmasks. One of them held the bundled and squirming form of Jacque, and the other held Argenta¡¯s daughter Alby with a knife to her throat.


    Godfrey stood, leaning against his sword relaxedly as Dantes and Jacopo landed on the roof across from him. Argenta appeared in a cloud of black smoke shortly after, exchanging a brief glance and nod with him.


    Godfrey stretched in his golden armor, looking over them. His eyes had changed, they were no longer gold and matching his face, but had instead become jet black. Dantes noticed that his golden armor was damaged in multiple places. There was a chunk of metal missing from his gorget, dozens of scratch marks across the breastplate, and a tear in the metal near his right armpit.


    ¡°Well hello! So nice of you both to show up, though I suppose the invitations were very hard to decline.¡±


    Dantes was starting to gather rats and roaches, and working small vines up toward the goldmask at the edge holding Jacque.


    Godfrey disappeared, and reappeared next to that goldmask, taking the baby and holding it roughly in his golden gauntlets making him whimper.


    ¡°Let¡¯s not try anything foolish.¡±


    Dantes clenched his jaw, feeling his small tusks dig into the inside of his cheek hard enough to draw blood. He stayed still though, turning the full weight of his focus onto Godfrey. At that moment he wasn¡¯t looking through any other rats, roaches, or any other vermin¡¯s eyes. He wasn¡¯t feeling the plants across the locus or detecting movement using his enhanced senses. The full weight of his attention was placed completely on Godfrey and his goldmasks, one of whom actually buckled for a moment, though his golden smile remained in place.


    ¡°Good. Your dogs weren¡¯t able to keep their cool when I came for your bastard, and it didn¡¯t go well for them.¡± He reached behind himself and tossed Zak and Dantes¡¯s black hound¡¯s head into the space between them.


    Everything went red for Dantes for a moment, but he stayed completely still.


    ¡°Vera? Alessa?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I let the whores live knowing they could do nothing to stop me.¡±


    Jacopo kept his cool, and continued mending their Locus.


    ¡°What is the point of all of this?¡± asked Argenta. ¡°How does this serve Greed? How does this help you? Rendhold is going to win the fight at this rate. Why are you even still here? To hurt us one last time? Are you so impractical?¡±


    ¡°It serves Greed many ways. I have deals with dozens on both sides. As they burn each other out, their souls get sent to greed much faster than they would¡¯ve otherwise, and the aftermath of a conflict is also oh so full of opportunity. That¡¯s not the only reason I do it, of course.¡±


    ¡°Your other patron,¡± said Dantes.


    Godfrey smiled patronizingly. ¡°Very good little rat! I see you remember our last conversation. Greed was the first to grant me his blessing, but I have another to whom I am beloved. Despair.¡± He took a deep breath, a black and gold aura seeming to emanate from him as he did so. ¡°She gains no matter who wins and loses. The conqueror¡¯s whose hopes are dashed would feed her, as would the defenders as their resistance is crushed. You fed me very well when you slew the Frasheid soldiers. So many had hoped to change their lives in this campaign.¡±


    ¡°Which one gets your soul in the end?¡± asked Dantes, his face stone and his golden stare unblinking. ¡°I don¡¯t know much about Despair, but I¡¯d bet she¡¯d save you from being forged into a coin by Greed only to let you fall to him at the last moment anyway and savor the look on your face as you fell.¡±


    Godfrey¡¯s smirk held, but his black eyes flickered gold for a moment. ¡°The quality of my service means I won¡¯t see death for a very long time. Especially after today.¡±


    ¡°You think they¡¯ll give a damn about killing two children in front of their parents? They feed off that kind of loss every day,¡± said Argenta.


    Godfrey laughed. ¡°This is just for me. A nice little personal touch for my own amusement. The true despair will come after Rendhold thinks that it¡¯s driven off the invasion, thinks it¡¯s safe, only for me to end it. I¡¯ll feed on the loss of Viscent, Frasheid, and Rendhold all at once. I¡¯ll become more than I am now, the blessing I receive for this will be greater than anything anyone else has ever come close to.¡±


    He smiled wide and golden.


    ¡°Now. Taste despair.¡± He threw Jacque from the side of the building.

 Book 3 Ch 53: You Dont Leave Unless I Let You

    Dantes let out a cry of anguish as he ran for the side of the building. His raw emotion reverberated across the city as he screamed. Dogs and cats howled, bats shrieked, rats began going wild across the city, the flowers that had been blossoming began to close, even the roaches went still, unable to process the emotion that Dantes had unconsciously sent out throughout Rendhold.


    Godfrey didn¡¯t stop him from running for the side of the roof, black energy emanating from him, sapping the will and hope from everything it touched. He just smiled and soaked in the despair that had just traveled through the city through its connection to Dantes.


    Dantes reached the edge of the roof, and looked desperately across the ground, trying to see where Jacque had landed, hoping that he was somehow okay, but he didn¡¯t see him. He started to look up, and saw him floating in the air, gently falling down to the ground below. He could see two muscular men waiting below. One an incongruous massive elf, and the other an old man wearing purple robes that did nothing to hide his massive frame. Orebus and Merle saw him and waved as they moved to catch Jacque. They looked rough, bruised, burnt, but alive at the same time, as if they were filled with the kind of vitality that can only come from a grand victory.


    Dantes felt relief for a moment, then he turned to look at Godfrey.


    At that moment, Jacopo finished reorienting the threads of their locus, cutting them off from the damage done to their destroyed gardens.


    Dantes spread his will throughout the city, feeling the whiskers on the face of every rat, the wind rustling every leaf. He could see where all of his allies and enemies were, sense everything near them as the barrier between him and Rendhold blurred.


    Godfrey raised a fist, and the air around him seemed to blur and shake.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to grant you the mercy of death now Dantes, you and this city.¡± He opened his hand and gold and black light shot from it and began arcing all around the city. In that moment Godfrey became many, but not just a handful of clones, in that instant he became legion. Those at the barrier who¡¯d just driven away the Viscent army suddenly saw more than a hundred gold and black figures led by a man in resplendent golden armor. In Uptown where they¡¯d thought they were safe, an army of gold and black suddenly appeared in their midst and began laying waste to everything. All those who¡¯d thought themselves safe were suddenly being put to the sword, and leading each of those groups of black and gold constructs, was a duplicate of Godfrey, wearing a cruel smile.


    Dantes drew his pistol, pushing all of the wands he had out of his wooden arm at the same time. Jacopo shifted into his man-form and stood next to him with his metal claws flexing.


    ¡°You think you¡¯re the only one who can be in many places at once?¡± asked Dantes. ¡°We¡¯re going to kill you here. We¡¯re going to kill you in Uptown, Midtown, Needle Street, the Docks, the Underprison, The Academy, the Guild district. However many of you there are, it doesn¡¯t matter.¡±


    Godfrey shook his head. ¡°You have to kill me a hundred times. I have to kill a man that can¡¯t even protect his child just once. The odds are in my favor.¡±


    Dantes laughed. ¡°Odds don¡¯t matter. I cheat.¡±


    Dantes aimed his hand and released the will he¡¯d been pushing through all of his wands at once. A blast of stone, fire, lightning, pure force, and ice fired from his palm. Godfrey teleported to dodge it, but it slew three of his goldmasks instantly.


    Argenta took that moment to act on a plan of her own. A shadow that had been slowly making its way to the Goldmask holding her daughter suddenly shot up with a sharpened point and stabbed through the back of his neck. Argenta was briefly in two places at once, standing across the roof, and holding the blade that killed the Goldmask, then she was only there behind her daughter, holding her blade as the other Goldmasks launched themselves at her, trying to kill both her and Alby.


    Godfrey teleported next to Dantes with his sword raised, but Jacopo parried the blade with his claws and sent out a powerful kick to push him back.


    The deflected sword strike hit the roof, and shattered it, blowing a hole in the building,


    Godfrey teleported again, and threw a coin into the air above Dantes.


    Dantes dodged as he teleported to the coin in the air and aimed his swordpoint downward. Dantes aimed his pistol at him and fired while he was in the air, but he teleported again, behind Dantes where he swung his blade at his throat. Dantes released his will in his wand pushing him with invisible force, but he barely moved, only shifting his back foot slightly toward the edge of the roof.


    Jacopo leapt toward Dantes, changing into a rat, Dantes feigned a throw toward him, but when Godfrey teleported behind him to dodge it, he spun around as quickly as his cat-like reflexes could make him and threw Jacopo behind himself instead. Jacopo shifted into a man with both of his legs extended hitting him with the force of a cannonball.


    Godfrey fell from the roof, and Jacopo and Dantes followed him. Dantes threw a handful of seeds from his coat over the edge and jumped shifting into a bat to kill his momentum at the last minute before he hit the ground, then changing back into himself and running toward Godfrey.


    Godfrey, lying on his back, extended his hand and sent out a blast of golden light toward Dantes, but it broke against the enchantment of his new necklace. Before Dantes could reach him he teleported again to Dantes¡¯s right.


    Dantes sent his will through the seeds he¡¯d thrown down, and thorny vines shot out from across the ground toward Godfrey. He teleported again and this time Jacopo¡¯s clawed hands carved a deep rend in the back of his leg armor where it was weakest, and scraped a clawmark across the back of his leg.


    Godfrey ignored it, and sent out a backward kick at Jacopo that threw him into a nearby building. He then charged Dantes.


    Suddenly, Orebus charged from a nearby alley and slammed into Godfrey with full force, his veins glowing blue from some kind of magical force that was infusing his body. Before Godfrey could hit the wall, he teleported again, keeping his momentum this time and aiming himself like a missile toward Orebus, but before he could reach him a massive ball of fire intercepted him and exploded with the heat of a small sun, throwing him back again.


    Merle stepped out from a nearby alley, his robe singed. He gripped the robe at his shoulder, and tore it from himself, revealing his powerful musculature as he dropped into a low stance, and began gathering more magical energy.


    Dantes looked at him concerned.


    ¡°I gave the babe to the young girl on the roof and Argenta. She¡¯s moving them somewhere secure.¡±


    Dantes nodded, and sent more will through the thorny vines he¡¯d summoned, and readying them to strike wherever Godfrey appeared next. He felt separate from himself as he fought. In the same way he felt when he moved through the body of another rat in the city. As he controlled and moved and fought in his body, he did the same thing in a hundred other places at once.


    ¡­


    Godfrey raised his sword and pointed at the barricade behind which Pacha and his remaining men had taken cover. The black and gold constructs surged past him, silent aside from their heavy footsteps.


    Pacha cursed as he watched them approach. His muscles were screaming at him, his hands caked in blood, and corpses surrounded him. Still, he raised his sword and took a deep breath in.


    ¡°Alright men, brace!¡±


    The prisoners reacted without complaint, still bound by whatever foul pact Dantes had forced them into, but the guard was more reluctant. Still, they brought themselves to their feet. Those left, who hadn¡¯t deserted, they were men of steel, more than a match for the golden army that now approached them. At least that was what he told himself.


    Before the golden army could hit the barricade, the sky seemed to darken, and as he looked up to the sky, Pacha could see thousands of bats blotting out the sun. They dove for Godfrey¡¯s army, screeching and tearing at them with their teeth even as they blinded them with their bodies.


    Pacha saw the golden flesh of their enemies bleed, and smiled grimly. ¡°They can bleed men. Let¡¯s help the bats chew their meal!¡±


    He leapt over the barricade and slammed his blade into the nearest construct. As his blade entered it, the construct fell, becoming just a coin that landed on the ground. The men began to fight too, causing more of the constructs that were distracted by the feral bats to fall as coins to the ground.


    Godfrey leapt to the fore of his men, killing two guards when he suddenly felt something at his feet. He looked down to see vines tangling them. He looked up to see Jayk aiming a crossbow at him from a nearby roof.


    ¡­


    Godfrey faltered for a moment as he felt one of himself die. There was a flash of flame behind his eyes as he felt that death, but he pushed that away as he slammed his foot down, causing the concrete in front of him to split and black spikes to shoot from beneath the cracks, firing at Dantes and Merle.


    Merle raised a hand and they broke against an invisible shield.


    Dantes charged through them, as they broke on whatever enchantment was protecting him as well. Orebus and Jacopo joined the charge.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    Godfrey summoned a handful of gold coins and threw them in front of himself, forming seven golden lions that ran to meet their charge.


    He teleported before more thorny vines could reach him and aimed a slash at Merle¡¯s back, but the ground shifted at the last minute as a tree grew below him, and tried to tangle him in its branches, causing him to miss the old wizard as he was thrown backward.


    He rolled his neck and held his palm in front of the blade of his sword, he ran his hand across it, drawing some of his blood, and summoned more coins into his hand. He threw those into the air, and three duplicates of his sword hung in the air around him, summoned just in time as Orebus crushed the spine of one of his construct lions.


    ¡­


    The Uptown guard had difficulty reacting when the copy of Godfrey and his constructs had appeared in the center. Desha had been one of the first ones to notice when they entered the Council building, but she hadn¡¯t raised an alarm or anything like that, instead she very quickly and quietly hid beneath her table as everyone else was slaughtered. A few of them put up a fight, taking several of the constructs with them, but most simply cowered as they were cut down.


    The largest of the constructs, a handsome man wearing golden armor, was laughing as it happened. His laugh seemed to drain her as she listened to it. It rattled inside her skull and emptied her of any belief that she would survive. Her only hope became that she may be granted a quick death if she revealed herself, but before she could move, she saw a rat sitting in front of her. It held up its hands as if asking for her to wait, and she was so confused by the sight that she obeyed the request.


    That rat was followed by ten more, then twenty, then a hundred, then a thousand, then a wave that reminded her of the ones she sometimes watched crash against the shore. They swarmed across the chamber, tearing into any golden flesh they could find. The gold and black constructs fought back, killing them as quickly as they could arrive at first, but it was a losing battle. Soon only the duplicate of Godfrey was all that was left. It fought for some time, but even he found himself overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the rats that were attacking him. He attempted to teleport.


    ¡­


    Dantes dodged one of the floating blades, shifting into a pigeon to fly quickly above it before shifting and blasting out a stone from one of the wands in his wooden hand at it. The sword was dented, but quickly recovered and attacked him with a flurry of blows.


    He dodged without thinking, his mind was pure at that moment. It wasn¡¯t that he was juggling a hundred different perspectives, fights, and ideas at once, he simply was those perspectives. He was wholly himself in each battle across the city, reacting and connecting as naturally as those smallest parts of people attacked disease.


    He could feel something else too, something that wasn¡¯t of the mother. Godfrey, his connections to the coins that he could teleport to, that he could turn into constructs or even copies, he could feel that connection where it touched his city. He reached out to it, where it was weakest near his constructs, and stole that thread from him, severing his connection to it.


    As he did so, he overwhelmed that copy of Godfrey that had been about to teleport with rats, drowning it in fur and teeth.


    Dantes saw Godfrey stagger for a moment as that copy died. It was only for a moment, and he quickly recovered, but that meant there was a cost. When one of them died, it took a piece of him with them.


    ¡­


    Syn dodged one of the constructs, landing on another as a heavyset orc, crushing his spine, then she shifted into a gnome to dodge under another¡¯s strike, before shifting into a dragonkin to shoot up and drive an uppercut into that construct¡¯s jaw. As that one fell back, she grabbed his golden sword, and drove it into another¡¯s back before she became a human woman to duck under another attempt at decapitation and rolled toward a rifle that had been left behind by a Viscent soldier. She made her eyes those of an elf as she gave herself an orcs body to steady herself. She fired the rifle perfectly, the bullet going through two separate constructs¡¯ heads. She shifted back into a dragonkin with massive horns and charged into another construct, goring him, before throwing his body away with a jerk of her neck as she ran the bayonet on the rifle through another of them.


    She¡¯d gotten separated from Jayk when the constructs had first appeared, but she wasn¡¯t alone. Even in the flurry of fighting, she noticed plants reaching up to grab ankles or even impale constructs on thorns. Dantes was there with her, she could feel his presence. They were both fighting conservatively, conserving momentum and helping one another as best as they could in the middle of the fray. She smiled as she jammed a long fingernail into another construct¡¯s golden eye. They¡¯d had a lot of experience ¡®collaborating¡¯ in the last several months. It made sense they fought well together.


    A gunshot rang out, and Syn fell backward onto the ground. A black hole on her forehead began to slowly spill out blood.


    A copy of Godfrey walked toward her, a golden rifle in his hand and a smile on his face. The constructs cleared a path for him.


    ¡°Can you feel her blood feeding your plants, Dantes?¡± he asked as the rifle shifted into a sword in his hands. ¡°Now I¡¯ve slain two of your dogs, and your bitch too.¡±


    Syn smiled, launching herself up from the ground and driving an enchanted stiletto deep into Godfrey¡¯s chin and through his brain.


    She looked at him, her eyes changing to the same shade of gold as Dantes¡¯s.


    ¡°He moved me a foot to the left at the last minute with a vine. You missed.¡± She laughed as she yanked the stiletto back and plunged back into the fray with the constructs.


    ¡­


    Godfrey actually stumbled this time, in the middle of a swing at Orebus. The fire behind his eyes flashed behind his eyes again and this time the shape he was seeing was starting to become more clear. It was two figures, surrounded by flame, one large, and the other smaller.


    Orebus dodged the swing and smashed his fist into the side of Godfrey¡¯s head, leaving a fist sized dent in his helmet and knocking him to his knees. Godfrey cursed, and teleported away again, this time to the roof. He held up both of his hands and started shooting out beams of golden light that scorched the ground as he projected a sense of doom onto his enemies all around him.


    Dantes shouldn''t be able to counter him the way he was. He¡¯d destroyed all of his major gardens. The research he¡¯d done into druids had shown him that they lose power when their locus takes major damage. He¡¯d hit all of the major gardens he¡¯d located. They were easy to trace with the purchases Dantes had made through his surrogate in Uptown.


    Another fireball flew toward him, forcing him to teleport again, but not before the flames of it began to lick against him. His teleportation was getting slower. How? He¡¯d never had any difficulty with that before. His blessings were as strong as ever. It was almost as if his command of the coins was being¡­ stolen from him.


    ¡­


    Vampa slammed the edge of his blade through another of the constructs, watching as it fell as a coin to the ground. Golden warriors, that was something new to him. He rather appreciated that Dantes had provided him with so many new experiences. The edge of his blade was nearly done for, but he was making up for it with raw strength. His arms were heavy of course, he¡¯d actually had to wrap his right hand to the handle of his sword to keep it properly gripped, but that was what all the training was for.


    A man with a golden face was standing behind twenty constructs in front of him. It seemed clear that he was their leader, and that he was enjoying watching as Vampa¡¯s energy was slowly sapped by his men, likely intending to finish him off himself. Very typical behavior of his type.


    Vampa dropped two more of the constructs, slamming his gauntleted fist into the face of one, as he used the hilt of his blade to cave in the helm of another.


    ¡°Do you perhaps know a woman named Vera?¡± asked the man in gold.


    Vampa stopped, giving the man his full attention.


    ¡°I nearly killed her earlier, but decided to wait until later to finish her and those other women off. Her protector gave me a little trouble though. Persistent little dog.¡±


    Vampa began to move toward him more quickly, cutting down more of the golden constructs as he did so. One of them managed to stab through a gap in the armor for his left shoulder and another slipped a dagger into his side. He stumbled, before slaying both of them with a wide swipe.


    ¡°I think I¡¯ll take a turn with her and all of the other women there before I cut them down. One turn with each version of me that is. It¡¯ll probably take hours. I won¡¯t tell her I¡¯ve killed you of course. Not until I reach the last version of me. That one can tell her before defiling her virtue one last time.¡±


    Vampa went still, his shaking from blood loss ceasing. He drew himself straight and pointed his blade at Godfrey.


    ¡°I swear on what little honor I have left. You will die today.¡±


    Godfrey began to laugh, but ceased when an orc landed in the midst of his constructs, just behind a white dove.


    Wane swung out a flurry of strikes, sending his will through his enchanted stave as he did so. All of the constructs he touched flew backward as if struck with incredible invisible force, smashing into walls, one another, or just skipping across the concrete like stones on a lake.


    With the way cleared, Vampa charged forward, killing those few constructs left between himself and Godfrey.


    The copy tried to teleport away, but found it couldn¡¯t, no matter how much will it mustered. He raised his sword to catch Vampa¡¯s, but it shattered as Vampa¡¯s blade met his own and its dulled edge cleaved halfway through his body. He coughed up some golden blood, before he fell to the ground.


    Vampa fell to his knees for a moment, then started to push himself back to his feet, unsteadily.


    Wane grabbed his arm, and slung it over his shoulder, helping him to stand.


    ¡°Looks like Dantes led me to you just in time.¡±


    Vampa nodded.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get you to Clay and Hema.¡±


    He almost argued, almost reached for his sword so he could return to the fight, but didn¡¯t. He wanted to live. He wanted to see Vera.


    He lifted the faceplate of his helmet and spat on the split coin that was all that was left of that copy of Godfrey.


    ¡°That¡¯s for Zak you bastard.¡±


    ¡­


    Godfrey staggered again, and Jacopo struck him in the side tearing off another chunk of his armor.


    Dantes used the momentum from Jacopo¡¯s strike to hit Godfrey across the face with his wooden fist.


    Orebus drove an empowered fist into his liver where Jacopo had just torn off the armor.


    When he teleported again, Merle grabbed him from behind suddenly, and lifted him up, arching his back before slamming his head into the ground.


    He teleported again, sending out a desperate blast of gold toward them as he staggered backwards. He felt another copy die as Argenta tore it to shreds with claws made of shadow. Another died as the flowers in front of a butchers shop in Midtown, shot out, and dug their way through his insides through his mouth, a third one¡¯s head exploded as a dwarf fired a rifle from five rooftops away. A fourth as a blonde woman with a massive bow fired an arrow through his skull.


    With each death he seemed to lose a bit of focus, and the image he was seeing had now grown crystal clear with every blink. It was the man he¡¯d killed before, the one guarding the women. He was holding a sword of fire and smiling, with a massive black hound standing next to him, with teeth of iron ready to tear him to shreds. Behind both of them was a forge, one he recognized, one that he¡¯d sent many others to. It was Greed¡¯s forge, where souls were minted into gold coins.


    He threw out more coins, changing them to daggers that shot out at his enemies. Orebus caught one in the shoulder wincing, but the others dodged them and kept coming. He threw more, summoning three more lions, but very suddenly three massive black shapes appeared, each one ramming into a different lion.


    The two wolves tore madly at the lions with tooth and claw, but the hound must¡¯ve been the twin of the one he killed. He disemboweled the golden lion with razor sharp teeth before turning to face him with a muzzle covered in golden blood.


    Merle raised a hand, and for a moment Godfrey felt weightless, but instead of panicking he pushed himself off of a nearby wall and slammed into him, knocking him backward. He raised his sword, but found his arm bound by Dantes¡¯s wooden fingers which he used to whip Godfrey over his head and slam him into the ground, cracking the concrete.


    Godfrey coughed up golden blood as he sat up and saw all four of them approaching him again, the black canines not far behind them. He clenched his teeth as another of his copies died. There were none left. He smiled one last time.


    ¡°Well. Sometimes the best way to win the game, is to quit.¡± He closed his eyes and sent his will to the coin he¡¯d placed on a boat in a hidden cove far from there. He opened his eyes expecting to see a wooden deck, but instead saw only Dantes and Jacopo looking at him and smiling.


    ¡°This is my locus. You don¡¯t leave unless I let you.¡±


    Godfrey tried to stand up, but found that he was held fast by thick thorned vines, and they were getting tighter, leaving only the gaps in his armor uncovered. Rats were starting to slowly approach him from every side.


    Dantes posed mockingly in the same way Godfrey had when he¡¯d summoned his copies and constructs all around the city.


    ¡°Now. Taste despair.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 54: The Best of the Worst

    Dantes arrived back at Vixen with Jacque cradled carefully in his arms and Jacopo sleeping in the hood of his coat. Argenta and Alby had kept his son safe and protected him through until the end of the siege, a kindness that he would remember.


    He pushed the door open to find the Vixen buzzing with activity. Those whores who¡¯d been left behind were acting as nurses. Tearing bandages from cloth and wrapping them around those men and women who¡¯d been injured. The tables had been converted to beds on which the wounded could rest. ZIlly was organizing her staff to have them help, a massive white wooden bow sitting behind her at the bar, and Hema and Clay were doing what they could to provide herbs and poultices that could help with everyone¡¯s wounds. Dantes had a store of healing potions, but from what he could tell they had already been used up where they could.


    ¡°Daken!¡± yelled Alessa as she ran across the room and scooped up the baby in her arms.


    Dantes let him go easily and smiled as Alessa wrapped him up in her arms, showering him in dozens of kisses as she made sure that he was okay. He¡¯d been sleeping when Dantes had arrived, but started to cry a bit from all the fuss.


    ¡°He¡¯s okay. I¡¯m glad to see that you are too.¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°My face was broken, but Vera insisted I take one of the healing potions. That bastard.¡± She clenched her sharp teeth and looked at him. ¡°Tell me he suffered. Tell me he screamed as he died.¡±


    Dantes thought back to Godfrey¡¯s weeping as the rats tore into his guts and began eating him from within.


    ¡°He did.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Dantes.¡± She rocked Jacque a little more. ¡°He¡¯s lucky to have you as a father.¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°He wouldn¡¯t have been in danger if he wasn¡¯t my son. It was my problem to solve.¡±


    She laughed. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have had him if his father was a normal man. That¡¯s as much my responsibility as yours.¡±


    ¡°Well, how about I be the one who broods about it anyway? Like some sullen adventurer down at the tavern who failed to save a maiden in trouble.¡±


    ¡°If you insist on bearing all the responsibility, I can live with that. Maybe I¡¯ll write a song about it.¡±


    Dantes smiled and gave Jacque a kiss on the top of his head as Alessa went back to her chambers to put Jacque back down for sleep.


    Dantes started going to each of the injured people one by one. He focused on their wounds, and channeled energy to the minute parts of them to aid their healing. He was exhausted, but these men had all proved their loyalty. They¡¯d fought for him, and in some cases had been willing to die for him. He remembered seeing Zak¡¯s head tossed onto the ground in front of him by Godfrey and clenched his fist for a moment. He was a good man. Loyal, knew himself, had a kind of clarity that Dantes was envious of.


    He looked around as he healed another of his men to see Jayson and Jayk in the corner with a bottle of brown each, sipping as they sat. Jayson¡¯s eyes were wet, but Jayk¡¯s just looked hollow and tired.


    Dantes walked over to them and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. He healed each of them, though they were both in okay shape, at least physically. They all exchanged a glance and Dantes went behind the bar to grab his own bottle and three small glasses. He filled all three of them, and put one in front of each of them. He lifted his.


    ¡°To Zak. The best of the worst. May we meet again.¡±


    Jayson smiled a bit and raised his glass.


    Jayk choked up for a moment, but raised his own glass too.


    The three glasses clinked together and were swiftly emptied. Dantes patted them both on the back one last time, and then returned to his healing. When he was finished at the bottom floor, he climbed up to the second floor, where he saw Vera tending to Vampa in the VIP booth. Vampa¡¯s armor had been carefully removed and placed on the table, and Vera was carefully wrapping a bandage around his midsection.


    Dantes notices a massive new bangle on her arm. It appeared to be solid gold with silver flowers dancing across it, their petals made of fine gems. When she moved, the flowers did too, as if being blown by the wind.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad to see that you¡¯re both okay.¡± He¡¯d known they were alive of course, since he¡¯d been watching them since Jacopo repaired their locus connections, but he wasn¡¯t lying. Seeing them okay in person did make him glad.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    Vera stood up and wrapped Dantes in a hug. ¡°It¡¯s good to see you too.


    Dantes squeezed back, and exchanged a nod of acknowledgement with Vampa.


    ¡°I see you managed to get some new jewelry in the midst of all of this,¡± he said as they separated, pointing to her new bangle.


    She looked at it, with a soft smile on her face. ¡°It¡¯s an engagement band. This is what¡¯s traditional back in Vampa¡¯s homeland.¡±


    Dantes smiled widely. ¡°You¡¯re getting married? That¡¯s wonderful.¡± He looked at Vampa. ¡°Is this what you were saving for?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°I see why you wanted to earn it.¡± Dantes wouldn¡¯t have done the same, but he could still understand the intention.


    Jacopo perked up as well, having woken from all of the stopping and starting Dantes had done while he was healing.


    ¡°Vampa and Vera are binding themselves to one another?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Yes. I¡¯ve explained marriage to you before, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes. I am glad for them.¡±


    ¡°Really? That doesn¡¯t seem like you.¡±


    ¡°For them. This is the right thing. When he was with me in Uptown, I could sense the deep ache he felt for her and she¡­ I wouldn¡¯t have been able to pull off what we did in Uptown without her guidance. I want her to be happy.¡±


    Dantes turned his attention back to them. ¡°Jacopo wishes you the best as well.¡±


    Vera smiled and stroked Jacopo¡¯s fur a few times, and he exchanged a nod with Vampa.


    Dantes did what he could to heal Vampa before moving on to his audience chamber. Murk, his sister, and Dantes¡¯s remaining hound were sleeping in a pile. The hound whimpered occasionally, and Murk and his sister would wrap themselves closer around him or lick his fur to comfort him.


    Dantes leaned down to pat the hounds side, offering what comfort he could as he exchanged a nod with Murk.


    ¡°I¡¯m grateful for your help.¡±


    Murk nodded his muzzle. ¡°We are of the same pack. My aid should be expected when I sense that you¡¯re in trouble.¡±


    Dantes nodded back to him, and made his way back into his chambers in the back of the building. He wanted to head straight back to his bed so that he could collapse into it, but there was at least one more stop he needed to make. He went to the spare bedrooms toward the back where Felix and Wane had been staying since the Academy was sealed. He opened the door to Felix¡¯s room where he saw Merle, Orebus, and Wane sitting around a sleeping Felix, talking in hushed tones.


    ¡°How is he?¡± asked Dantes as he stepped inside.


    ¡°He needed one of the health potions, and even with that he¡¯s hurt,¡± said Wane.


    Dantes went over to him and began to heal him. He stumbled a bit and Merle steadied him by grabbing his shoulder.


    ¡°You alright?¡±


    ¡°Better than Felix is.¡± He shook his head and finished doing what he could, noting some more color in the enchanter¡¯s cheeks. ¡°I can¡¯t believe he tried to help take on Godfrey.¡±


    ¡°It may have been self preservation,¡± noted Wane, ¡°But I think he fancies a few of the girls that were down there with him.¡±


    ¡°No better motivator,¡± said Dantes with a smile. He leaned heavily against a desk in the corner. ¡°I take it, you succeeded in your coup?¡± he asked.


    Merle smiled. ¡°The Academy is in control of those who prioritize magic over money, possibly for the first time.¡±


    ¡°So did you kill councilor Kline?¡±


    Merle shook his head. ¡°No. We simply made him see our point of view.¡±


    ¡°So he¡¯s under your control?¡±


    Merle nodded.


    ¡°And what excuse will he be giving the council for his absence and the sealing?¡±


    ¡°The truth,¡± said Orebus. ¡°A number of rogue mages attempted to take over the Academy, and there was a purge.¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I¡¯m just grateful you both showed up when you did.¡±


    He nodded. ¡°We could see what was going on outside of the seal, but there was a delay of several weeks. By the time we saw an army approaching the city, well we knew we needed to bring it down a bit sooner than we wanted to.¡±


    ¡°So, you control a member of the council, eh? I may be asking some favors of you then.¡±


    Merle smiled. ¡°As long as you don¡¯t mind us doing the same.¡±


    Dantes smiled and held out his hand, Merle clasped it tightly. Dantes left the room, and headed, finally, to his own bedroom.


    Syn was waiting there for him. She stood as he entered and they embraced, sharing a deep kiss and squeezing one another so tightly that it became hard to breathe.


    ¡°I know you have a lot of questions for me.¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°Not tonight I don¡¯t. Just promise me that some version of you will be here when I wake up so that I can go to sleep.¡±


    She ran a hand through his hair. ¡°I promise.¡±


    Dantes smiled and took Jacopo, who¡¯d fallen back asleep in his hood, and placed him gently in his nest. He tossed off his boots, stripped of his blood and dust covered clothes, and laid down on his soft bed. He fell asleep before his head hit his pillow.


    ¡­


    Dantes wasn¡¯t floating above the table this time, he was sitting at it with Jacopo on his shoulder. In front of him was a pile of coins of all colors. To his right sat the woman in green smiling fiercely, and to his left was the man in blue with a smug smirk. Each of them had a hand on his shoulder as they dragged the pot toward him.


    In the distance, he could see the woman in black, a river of tears flowing behind her. She¡¯d been such a late player to the game, or perhaps she¡¯d always been there, but hidden away. A little closer, smiling at all of them, was the man in black. His cruel smile was wider than ever and he held a thick gold coin in his hand where Dantes could see Godfrey¡¯s screaming face on it. The man tossed the coin into the air and caught it, laughing as he walked away.


    Dantes felt something else behind him. A familiar presence. He turned around to see a man wearing a full suit of armor, holding an axe. He felt relieved when he realized the man was far away, but that relief left him quickly.


    The man raised his axe high in his right hand, and brought it down at his left wrist. His left hand fell for a moment, then stopped in the air as the blood flowing behind it began to shift and take shape. The armored man in silver was gone, and now there was a man wearing armor the color of blood there, holding, not an axe, but a massive serrated sword with hooks dangling from chains on the pommel. He pointed the blade at Dantes, and started walking toward him. Luckily, he awoke before it reached him.

 Book 3 Ch 55: He Could Make Them Suffer

    Gavain sat in his cell, meditating with his arms shackled above him. The whippings had ceased for nearly a week as nearly every able bodied man in Frasheid became otherwise occupied. He¡¯d heard whispers in the halls. The slave revolt that was supposed to be quashed had won an upset battle. The soldiers they¡¯d sent to Rendhold¡­


    He gritted his teeth. He¡¯d sacrificed so much to prevent that from happening. He knew he¡¯d needed to take responsibility for the animosity he¡¯d created. He¡¯d even done a good thing in the midst of it, making sure that the criminal Dantes, who Pacha had told him of, was arrested. But even that¡­


    He tried to bring his attention back to his breathing, and failed. Dantes had apparently been the one who¡¯d scattered the Frasheid forces, which meant he¡¯d been released, which meant that his sacrifice had been doubly for nothing.


    Gavain was suffering. Suffering for doing the right thing. He¡¯d always done the right thing, it had been easy for him. He was strong, born strong, and attained greater strength. As a child he¡¯d strangled a wild coyote that had attacked him while he was outside with his mother. There had been mumblings that he was blessed, but the priests found no signs of that in him. He was just different. He¡¯d taken that difference as a responsibility, that he needed to be a hero. He¡¯d loved that, reveling in his strength, the smiles he saw on people¡¯s faces when he saved them.


    He¡¯d devoted his victories to the god of Justice, but he¡¯d never heard his voice. Where was Justice now? He hadn¡¯t been fed a full meal in months. He was beaten daily. He hadn¡¯t resisted, thinking he was doing the right thing. Thinking his suffering was nothing compared to the good he was doing. Certain of it. He strained against the manacles, hearing them groan a bit from his effort. He could still get out, but at this point he couldn¡¯t manage to take out more than ten, fifteen guards before he was killed.


    What would the point be anyway? The Adventurer¡¯s Guild had disavowed him, no one had come to save him as he had saved so many others.


    There was one reason he could think of. One that put a bit of fire back into his belly. He could make them suffer too. Those who should¡¯ve been the ones to be tormented as he had. He could make them pay.


    He strained against the chains again, and the manacles bent, and broke from the stone wall. He looked up, and saw a large form clad in blood-red armor, holding out a gauntleted hand to him. He could feel that taking that hand would be a choice. One that would mark him forever. He reached out and took it.


    ¡­


    Dantes held the bag of seeds carefully in his hand, placing each one in a long row across the dirt. The explosion that had destroyed his largest garden had been a painful blow to him, but now the dirt seemed much more lively, as if the ashes of what had been there before were now acting as nourishment. As he planted the seeds throughout the garden, other men were creating a wooden platform on which the words of love would be exchanged and the sealing between Vera and Vampa would be completed. Vera didn¡¯t have any favorite flowers, she¡¯d received flowers of all kinds and never really cared much for them, but Vampa had a preference for elf-lilies which were a sweet smelling flower shaped very similar to elven ears. Dantes had worked with Clay to find some seeds for them. Decorations in general had wound up being up to Dantes, as he didn¡¯t really trust anyone else to make things look the way he felt Vera deserved. Zilly had been similarly insistent on being in charge of all the food and drink for everything. It had been surprisingly easy to work with her with the common goal of making Vera and Vampa as happy with their nuptials as possible.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Syn sat against the remains of a charred tree, chewing on an apple.


    ¡°You¡¯re certain that you and Jacopo don¡¯t need a hand?¡±


    Jacopo looked up from the small hole he¡¯d dug as he was placing and shook his head at her.


    ¡°We can influence the soil and the seeds as we place them.¡±


    ¡°And you can¡¯t do that if I place them? Or perhaps you don¡¯t want me to mess anything up for your auntie?¡± she said with a smirk.


    ¡°Ha,¡± said Dantes sarcastically as he stood up. He gathered lifeforce from elsewhere in the city and began to channel into the seeds he¡¯s placed. They all began to sprout, but he cut off the flow just before they were ready to bloom. He was planning to save that for the day of.


    ¡°We still need to discuss what you¡¯ve been doing,¡± he said as he pulled a cloth from his pocket to wipe the dirt from his hands.


    Syn nodded, her eyes shifting from purple to green to pink, and shifting pupils from catlike, to goatlike, to human. ¡°I was just waiting for you to ask.¡±


    Dantes sat, sipping from a water skin, and pouring some out for Jacopo as he sat on a bed of moss he created just for him to relax on.


    ¡°You know that changelings are arrested upon detection here, yes?¡±


    Dantes nodded.


    ¡°That same law is followed in every other kingdom I¡¯ve ever encountered. Changelings are to be confined or exiled wherever we go. It has been that way since we first came to the mortal plane, and unlike Elves, we arrived in separate clusters all across it. Many of us even arrived alone.¡±


    ¡°Where did you come from?¡±


    ¡°We do not know, but we do know we share ancestors with the other fey, even elves though their blood is much thinner than ours.¡±


    Dantes nodded, staying silent so she could continue.


    ¡°I cannot blame most kingdoms for their actions. We are more dangerous than other Fey. We can take the shape of anyone, and feybind, giving us extraordinary ability to cause chaos. I can blame Rendhold though, because without changelings, it wouldn¡¯t have been founded.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not exactly a student of history, but I¡¯ve never heard anything about that.¡±


    ¡°Few have. Though everyone can agree that Rendhold is unique. It in many ways, doesn¡¯t make sense,¡± her outfit changed to that of an academy professor, except much tighter and more flattering. ¡°It is a city that acts as a nation, that managed to secure its territory from the two neighboring kingdoms with no issue, that was founded by nobility from many different nations and had avoided conflict for a millennia. The reason for that is because of the feybinding pacts that the changelings involved in the city¡¯s founding enacted. We made sure that the city would thrive and in return we were meant to have a place in it.¡±


    ¡°It is odd that our neighbors didn¡¯t take part in the invasion at all. On either side.¡±


    ¡°They couldn¡¯t. Their royal families and all the nobility within them are bound not to interfere with Rendhold. The only action they could take was allowing troops to pass through their territories unimpeded.¡±


    ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°Paranoia, fear, and greed. We were imprisoned, forced into bindings that limited us. Many ran, but a few of us stayed in the hopes that we could change things back to the way they should be.¡±


    ¡°And that¡¯s what you¡¯re doing now?¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°No. The killings in Uptown were to release old pacts, or get revenge on those who had been involved before¡­ and a few were to help you.¡±


    ¡°Like the murder of that man on the war committee.¡±


    Syn nodded. ¡°Making Rendhold accept changelings is something I cannot do. I just wanted those of us that were trapped to be able to leave safely. Now, I just want to spend my days with you. If you¡¯ll have me.¡±


    ¡°I hope to have you many times and in many ways, but have the other changelings already left?¡±


    Syn smiled with a raised eyebrow. ¡°If you want to be with more than one woman at a time, I¡¯m sure there are less complicated options available to us.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°No. I want to help you. I¡¯ve already got one member of the council I know will be on my side, and I have a plan for Argenta. The others¡­I can figure out a way to move them onto the board for us.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t ask you to do that.¡±


    Dantes shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not doing it just for you. Rendhold is my Locus. If we can restore whatever balance had existed between changelings and the city before, then we¡¯ll have a group of shapeshifters that can forge pacts and are loyal to the city. I can see only benefits to that arrangement.¡±


    ¡°You wish to use them?¡±


    Dantes nodded. ¡°I wish to use every tool possible to ensure that my city isn¡¯t invaded again. If they don¡¯t wish to be used, it¡¯s not as if I¡¯ll hold them here against their will.¡±


    Syn ran her fingers through his hair as she sat next to him. ¡°If I had asked you to do it for me, selfishly, would you have?¡±


    Dantes smiled at her. ¡°Almost definitely.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 56: I Want Everything

    Dantes walked through Uptown boldly with Jacopo on his shoulder and a bouquet of flowers under his arm. Men and women weren¡¯t sure how to react to him as he walked through the wide and clean alleys of that part of the city. In the past he¡¯d only come into Uptown in a disguise of some sort, and even then he wasn¡¯t as well known there as he had been in Midtown, but now, everyone knew him. His actions in the war had been too widely seen by too many people for him to remain in the shadows, not that he¡¯d been trying to be subtle, there wasn¡¯t much of a point to that anymore. Some people crossed the street to avoid him, others gave respectful curtsies or bows, and a few were even bold enough to exchange nods with him. He was particularly impressed by those that were so arrogant that they ignored him.


    ¡°Did you hear they''re building a statue of you?¡± sent Dantes to Jacopo as he stopped to scratch a stray behind the ears.


    ¡°Not of me. Of Jacopo De Fosse.¡±


    ¡°Apparently his statement to the council as he left, and the subsequent sightings of him on the front lines have made him a hero to the nobility. A representation of everything that the nobles of Rendhold should aspire to be.¡±


    Jacopo laughed. ¡°They should build a statue of me as I actually am. If there¡¯s anything these people should want to be, it¡¯s a rat.¡±


    ¡°I think that¡¯s too far beyond their ambitions.¡±


    ¡°True. It may be better that they know their place.¡±


    Dantes laughed a bit at that, drawing a few confused stares that he ignored. They reached Argenta¡¯s manor shortly after, and Dantes opened the gate and walked boldly up to the front door, knocking twice, though he was certain she already knew he was there.


    Gren opened the door and bowed to him, gesturing to allow Dantes to come inside. He looked a little wispier than he had in the past. His smoke was diffuse enough that he could actually be seen through a bit. He must still be recovering from his fight with Godfrey.


    ¡°Thank you. Are the ladies of the house available?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ll meet you in the parlor shortly.¡±


    Dantes nodded and headed that way.


    Alby was the first to arrive.


    ¡°Dantes! It¡¯s good to see you.¡± She approached almost as if she was going in for a hug, but held back at the last moment.


    ¡°Alby, I¡¯m glad to see you looking safe and well.¡±


    She eyed the bouquet. It was made up of a mixture of Midnight lovers, and Dawn¡¯s Grace, a white and black combination that he¡¯d felt Argenta would enjoy given her aesthetic inclinations.


    ¡°This is for your mother, but this,¡± he reached out a handful of seeds, channeling his will into them to cause a bouquet of wildflowers to bloom before his arm was extended. ¡°Is for you.¡±


    Alby took the flowers with a smile. ¡°It¡¯s nice to see some color for a change.¡±


    Dantes pulled a letter out of his jacket. ¡°I also have this for you. It¡¯s an invitation to my Aunt Vera¡¯s wedding.¡±


    She raised her eyebrows in surprise. ¡°Really? I don¡¯t even know her.¡±


    ¡°She knows that you and your mother helped to keep Jacque safe, and we lost¡­ Let¡¯s just say we have some more seats to fill than expected.¡±


    She nodded solemnly. ¡°What am I meant to wear?¡±


    ¡°Well it¡¯s an old elvish style ceremony, so technically even nudity is allowed, but I know my Aunt would want everyone dressed as lavishly as they can while still being able to dance.¡±Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    ¡°I think I can manage something like that.¡±


    Argenta stepped into the parlor wearing a simple black dress with a white belt and not a single hair out of place.


    ¡°Dantes, welcome.¡±


    Dantes gave a slight bow to the lady of the house and held out the bouquet of flowers to her.


    ¡°A gift for you, and an invitation.¡± He reached into his pocket to hand her an envelope.


    ¡°Your aunt¡¯s wedding?¡±


    Dantes nodded, not questioning how she knew. It was her job to know what was happening in the city, particularly when it involved the man who now rivaled or perhaps eclipsed her in power.


    She peeled open the seal expertly with a sharp nail, and looked over the writing inside. ¡°Who was her calligrapher? This handwriting is perfect.¡±


    ¡°Me, actually,¡± said Dantes. He hadn¡¯t done all of them, but for the most important people he¡¯d taken the time to handwrite them himself.


    ¡°I¡¯m always discovering new talents of yours.¡±


    ¡°We need steady hands in our line of work.¡±


    She nodded, and eyed his shoulder. ¡°Hello, Jacopo.¡±


    Jacopo nodded at her and squeeked a hello. She must¡¯ve figured out who he was in the aftermath of the battle. That also didn¡¯t surprise Dantes.


    She finished reading. ¡°I¡¯ll be there.¡±


    ¡°I was hoping to discuss some business with you as well, if you don¡¯t mind.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Come with me to the study.¡±


    Dantes nodded to Alby. ¡°I¡¯ll see you later, try to get those in water.¡±


    She nodded, shaking off a sullen look.


    Dantes and Argenta entered her study and sat down. Gren appeared and poured each of them a glass of water with a squirt of lime. Dantes took a sip, clearing his throat, and Argenta watched him patiently, waiting for him to speak.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about the future,¡± said Dantes, placing the glass back down. ¡°About Rendhold.¡±


    Argenta nodded. ¡°As have I.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°I¡¯m fairly certain that¡¯s always what you¡¯re thinking about.¡±


    ¡°True.¡±


    ¡°I came to an unfortunate conclusion. We are going to come into conflict with one another.¡±


    Argenta tilted her head a little to the side, like a hawk sizing up its prey. ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m ambitious. I want everything. I want this city. You have met your ambition, you have this city. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve already been considering what risk I pose to you, what danger I might bring. Even though I ended an invasion, who''s to say I don¡¯t become a threat from within.¡±


    Argenta stayed silent, taking a long slow sip of her water before carefully placing the glass back down.


    ¡°Why bring this up? Why invite me to Vera¡¯s wedding?¡±


    ¡°Because I like you.¡±


    She coughed a bit. ¡°Excuse me?¡±


    ¡°I had plans to beat you. I¡¯d discovered that Gren is controlled with a Grimoire and that he¡¯s weak to objects touched by the gods. I befriended Alby because I sensed that she was a weakness of yours that could be exploited. I had plans to gather holy items from the church, and to trick Alby into a fey pact through a changeling friend of mine.¡±


    Her eyes narrowed, and Dantes could sense Gren¡¯s presence return to the room, though he didn¡¯t see him. He assumed he was hiding in one of their shadows.


    ¡°Then, you saved Jacque. You kept him safe while I fought Godfrey, even slaying one of his copies to keep him protected.¡± Dantes shook his head. ¡°I found I no longer have the stomach to take those actions against you. I don¡¯t want to fight you, to take what¡¯s yours, I don¡¯t want to rule over you and the city, I want to rule with you.¡±


    ¡°And why would I want that?¡±


    ¡°Aside from the fact that we would destroy one another otherwise?¡±


    She nodded.


    ¡°You have a demon at your beck and call, the respect of both sides of the city, and the skill to manage it all, but together our control would be complete. I offer muscle beyond anything else you could muster, I can protect the city from almost any threat as I¡¯ve just shown, and I have eyes everywhere. What I lack is your skill. I delegate, I take advantage of things in the short term, but I lack foresight, or a deep understanding of politics, I¡¯m starting to see that now. That¡¯s something you offer in spades.¡± He shook his head. ¡°Each of us alone can rule this city, but together we can rule it perfectly.¡±


    Argenta leaned back in her chair, letting out a sigh. ¡°I don¡¯t have the stomach for conflict with you either. I watched you slay three armies. One of gray, one of black, and one of gold. You terrify me Dantes. You have from the moment I called you into a meeting with the Fingers. I could tell then that the only thing that''s keeping you from taking everything for yourself was that you were limited to rage and revenge. Your worldview was set in the confines of Midtown and nowhere else.¡± She shook her head. ¡°If you wish to rule with me, I¡¯ll accept that. I¡¯d be a fool to challenge a druid in his own locus anyway.¡±


    She stood and held a hand out to him.


    Dantes resisted spitting in his palm first, and took hers. They shared a firm shake, and a large amount of tension that had been floating over the room seemed to dissipate.


    They both sat back down, their postures a little less stiff.


    ¡°With that resolved, there is one particular thing I¡¯d like your help with first.¡±


    Argenta actually cracked a small smile. ¡°Of course there is.¡±


    ¡°I want the council to revisit its treatment of changelings.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 57: Whatever you say, Cuz

    Dantes walked down Midtown¡¯s main street with Jacque tucked under his arm, Jacopo on his shoulder, and his remaining hound walking patiently at his side. It was a warm, wet day, but he still wore his jacket, if only to keep Jacopo from needing to sink his claws into him to maintain his perch. Jacque was awake and looking around as they moved. Dantes was walking without purpose, simply to stretch his legs and spend some time with his son. It was¡­ difficult for him, in some ways, to move without a destination in mind, but he was learning to enjoy it


    The people in Midtown gave him a respectful distance, some even bowing as he passed. Those he knew personally waved to him, or even shared brief hellos. There wasn¡¯t as much fear as there had been in the past, now it was mostly respect, or even reverence. He was a gangster, a criminal, but he was theirs and they knew that. He¡¯d gotten rid of Mondego who¡¯d squeezed the life out of them, he¡¯d helped heal many of the sick and hurt during the plague, and now he¡¯d driven away an invading army. Midtown had suffered the least of any other part of the city and it was thanks to him. Even when the strange golden army had appeared, their shops and people had been protected by the plants and animals he¡¯d encouraged them to grow and adopt. Sure, that encouragement had been forceful, but they were safe and that¡¯s what mattered to them.


    At certain corners Dantes would stop and hold Jacque in front of himself, letting stray dogs, cats, rats, and pigeons sniff at him, remembering what he looked and smelled like. As he did so, he would push a bit of his will through them, asking them to keep Jacque safe even when he wasn¡¯t around. He wasn¡¯t entirely sure what the result would be, but all of the vermin did respond to him in the affirmative, and it was quickly draining the gold in his vermin-marks, so it had to be doing something. Aside from that the sniffs and licks of the animals made Jacque laugh, which made it a win either way. He would save doing so with roaches for when they were alone, everyone had gotten used to him summoning all manner of critters at this point, or even moving plants at will, but roaches were still a bridge too far for many.


    By the time he¡¯d finished his walk, Jacque was sleeping with his head buried in Dantes¡¯s shoulder. He walked into the Vixen, giving his hound a scratch before sending him upstairs to his garden.


    The Vixen was busy again, at least for a morning, with some drinkers that may as well have never left, a few men gambling at the corner table, and some of Tak¡¯s kobolds stopping in for breakfast. A number of them had chosen to move into the city rather than return to the outskirts. They were clanless anyway, so there was no reason to stay where the other kobolds were. Dantes had seen them as a good way to fill out some properties he¡¯d brought up in the wake of the war through Desha.


    Zilly, Sera, and Decker were sitting at the bar examining a series of carefully arranged dishes and glasses. Dantes approached quietly to keep from waking Jacque, but Zilly noticed him anyway.


    ¡°Dantes, we need to cut one of these dishes from the feast after Vera and Da-,¡± she coughed a bit, ¡°Vampa¡¯s wedding.¡±


    ¡°Why? I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s not a matter of cost?¡±


    Zilly shook her head. ¡°No, the feast is meant to be of four dishes as part of the ceremony. Not including dessert.¡±


    ¡°And the wine?¡±


    Decker smiled. ¡°The wine choices are perfect already, they need no notes.¡± He''d grown a thick beard and had a more relaxed bearing since he¡¯d been with Hema. Last he¡¯d heard, they¡¯d moved in together.


    ¡°I believe that,¡± said Dantes, leaning carefully to see the food on the bar without disturbing Jacque. ¡°I see Vera¡¯s favorite, bladefish steak, so that has to stay. Is one of these Vampa¡¯s favorite?¡±


    ¡°The apple and honey pork,¡± said Zilly pointing to one of the dishes.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    ¡°Gods that man has great taste,¡± said Dantes shaking his head. ¡°My aunt, this food, the man makes no poor decisions.¡±


    ¡°Aside from fighting other people for sport in a pit,¡± noted Zilly.


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°And working for me. I guess he¡¯s about even actually. Still better than most though.¡± He looked at the remaining dishes, but Jacque began to fuss.


    ¡°Shh, ¡° muttered Dantes gently.


    ¡°Here, I¡¯ll take him up to Alessa,¡± offered Sera. ¡°These two don¡¯t accept the explanation of, ¡®because it tastes better¡¯ and it¡¯s beginning to drive me mad.¡±


    Dantes kissed Jacque on the top of the head, and handed him to Sera who began cooing to him as she walked him up the stairs toward Alessa¡¯s chambers.


    ¡°There¡¯s three dishes left, so even if you completely disagree on two of them, there has to be one that¡¯s settled between the two of you,¡± said Dantes.


    Zilly nodded, ¡°The shrimp.¡±


    Dantes nodded looking at the remaining options. ¡°Do the steak.¡±


    Zilly frowned. ¡°Why?¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Because it tastes better.¡±


    Zilly frowned at him. ¡°Not helpful.¡±


    ¡°Sorry cousin, that¡¯s the best I¡¯ve got.¡±


    Decker laughed. ¡°This wedding will make you cousins won¡¯t it?¡±


    Zilly shook her head. ¡°No. Vera isn¡¯t really his aunt.¡±


    Dantes nodded and started walking away. ¡°Whatever you say, cuz.¡±


    He made his way up to his audience chamber where he saw Jayk petting his hound, a bandage still wrapped around the back of his hand.


    He stood and nodded at him.


    ¡°Looking for me, or just taking a break with the dog?¡±


    ¡°Both.¡±


    Dantes nodded and made his way to his throne, falling into it. ¡°Go ahead.¡±


    Jayk nodded. ¡°The King of Frasheid has been killed and the kingdom toppled by the slave rebellion.¡±


    Dantes¡¯s eyes widened, then narrowed. ¡°That¡¯s a larger piece of news than I was expecting, but not the kind we usually deal in between the two of us. Why mention it?¡±


    ¡°The one who actually killed the King was Gavain.¡±


    Dantes leaned forward. ¡°He slew a king?¡±


    Jayk nodded. ¡°Some refugees from Frasheid arrived this morning. Former nobility, they say that he slew him and slaughtered his way through the palace before leaving.¡±


    ¡°Gods. I¡¯m surprised he still had the strength.¡±


    ¡°One of the refugees said it was like watching a god slaughter ants.¡±


    Dantes reached involuntarily for his throat, rubbing it for a moment. He¡¯d seen some commotion at the docks and around the temple that morning, but hadn¡¯t been able to glean anything specific.


    ¡°There was some commotion around the temple today as well, any idea what¡¯s going on?¡±


    Jayk nodded. ¡°I was actually there for Zak¡¯s¡­¡± He paused and fussed with the bandage on his hand for a moment. ¡°His burial arrangements, earlier today. They were saying there¡¯s a new god. One that didn¡¯t exist before.¡±


    Dantes nodded, that made sense with the commotion. ¡°Did they say what of? I think the last new god was when I was a kid was the Goddess of Artisans.¡±


    Jayk shook his head. ¡°It hasn¡¯t been determined yet. The priests of Justice believe that he was carved from him.¡±


    Dantes frowned. Gavain had just slain a king and escaped, and now there was a new god that had been carved from Justice, who Gavain worshiped. Between that and what he¡¯d witnessed in his own dream, it wasn¡¯t hard to guess that whatever deity had been born was supporting Gavain, and he had his eyes on him.


    Dantes looked at Jayk. ¡°I want you to do whatever you can to track Gavain¡¯s movements, I¡¯ll set a meeting with the head of the adventurer¡¯s guild. I already needed to talk to him as a councilman anyway.¡±


    ¡°Do you think he¡¯s a danger to us?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been thrown into a hole before, and there wasn¡¯t a single person involved that I didn¡¯t think about killing. He¡¯s a danger, of that I have no doubt. If we¡¯re lucky though, he¡¯ll have a long list and maybe lose a hand before he gets here,¡± Dantes wiggled his wooden fingers a bit.


    Jayk didn¡¯t laugh, just regarding him with a serious look.


    ¡°We¡¯ll prepare. We¡¯ve never lost when we¡¯ve been prepared. Gavain was powerful before, but we¡¯ve all grown past him now. We can manage him. If we¡¯re lucky we can divert him away from us entirely.¡±


    Jayk nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll keep track of it.¡±


    ¡°Good. Thank you.¡±


    Jayk nodded, and walked away heading back toward the bar.


    Dantes leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes for a moment as he cast his attention across the city. He was starting to check on his gardens that were regrowing, when he felt fingers in his hair.


    He opened his eyes to see the face of a dragonkin staring at him with a mouth full of sharp teeth. He laughed.


    ¡°Hello, darling.¡±


    She gave him a fanged kiss. ¡°No response at all?¡±


    ¡°Jacopo saw you from the tree.¡±


    She turned around, shifting back into the purple eyed form of Sevryn that he¡¯d grown used to. She blew a kiss to Jacopo.


    ¡°I heard what you were talking about with Jayk.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll keep you safe.¡± She spoke with certainty, none of the mirth that he was used to hearing from her in her voice.


    Dantes took her hand and kissed it. ¡°I believe you.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 58: Gold Forgives All Mistakes

    Dantes sat across from Stone on the Mountaintop in his VIP booth at the Vixen. He¡¯d never met Stone, but knew him by reputation. He was the head of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, a noble, and a member of the council. In the council he represented all of the guilds within the city. He was short and squat, even for a dwarf, with dark gray hair, and a face covered in scars including one that tore clear across his scalp. He wore a simple leather outfit with a warpick belted at his waist and chewed a fat cigar that he somehow managed to smoke even in the middle of sips of ale. He wore a necklace with an engraving of a dragon, to show that before he¡¯d become its leader he¡¯d achieved the highest possible rank an adventurer can reach.


    ¡°Alright. You invited me here, gave me ale, and offered me a whore. I¡¯d say the pleasantries are over. Go ahead and start spewing whatever it is you want to get to. I¡¯m getting no younger.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure? I think your hair has darkened a bit since you sat down. I¡¯d bet you¡¯ve gotten back a year or two since you got here.¡±


    Stone snorted. ¡°Get on with it.¡±


    ¡°I have two reasons I wanted to meet with you. The first is that I wanted to ask you to tell me about Gavain, and the second is that I want your support for a shift in how changelings are treated.¡±


    Stone shook his head. ¡°Gavain? Gods that boy¡­ he used to be such a perfect little tool. Now he¡¯s just a black mark on us all.¡±


    Dantes sipped his own wine, letting Stone choose to keep talking.


    ¡°He was the greatest adventurer we¡¯d ever had. Came from a family of shepherds. He was everything people wanted from the Guild. He¡¯s strong beyond strength, fast beyond speed, and had a smile that told people everything would be okay. When he first started taking jobs, he¡¯d take three or four in a region at a time. He worked all of them alone, not because he wasn¡¯t able to get along with other adventurers, but rather because other people slowed him down and he wanted to end whatever trouble he could as soon as possible. He slayed his first dragon at seventeen, and he did it alone.¡± He ran a thick finger along the scar on the top of his head. ¡°I got this fighting a dragon with ten other men, and he¡¯d killed one himself without getting a scratch on him.¡±


    ¡°What makes him so different? Is it some kind of magic? A blessing from a god? Some item?¡±


    Stone shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know. We looked mind you, spoke to him at length, but he himself had no idea. We had him looked at by the best mages in the academy, and the greatest physicians as well. As far as they could tell, his muscles were denser than anyone else¡¯s they¡¯d ever seen, and his reactions to things were faster than anything they¡¯d ever seen as well, but they couldn¡¯t say why. He was simply born strong. Add on his impulsive need to help people, and adventuring constantly for a decade, and he¡¯s only become stronger and sharper.¡±


    ¡°So, he only has one weakness then.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s naive. Ideological.¡±


    ¡°Oh yes, that¡¯s his greatest problem. It was good for the guild though. He never questioned what he was paid or asked to do. Children and fools adored him for that lack of sense behind his eyes.¡± He shook his head. ¡°And now he¡¯s one of the worst stains on the Guild¡¯s history. Slaying a king, starting a war, possibly two.¡± Stone took a long inhale of his cigar, and turned his eyes to Dantes. ¡°Why do you care?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s always a chance he might come back to Rendhold. I wanted to know what to expect.¡±


    ¡°Gods. I hope he stays away. Nothing good would come of him being back here.¡±


    ¡°We can agree on that.¡±


    He sipped his ale. ¡°So, what¡¯s this about changelings?¡±


    ¡°I want all the laws against them removed, and for them to be welcomed here.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s laws against them?¡±The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    Dantes nodded. ¡°Yes. They¡¯re arrested and thrown into the Pit or the Convent immediately when they¡¯re discovered.¡±


    ¡°Huh, I didn¡¯t know that. Makes sense though. They¡¯re nothing, but trouble.¡±


    ¡°They are trouble, but what if they were trouble for everyone but us?¡±


    ¡°Couldn¡¯t trust that. They¡¯d double cross anyone the first chance they got. Besides, we¡¯ve just kept them here imprisoned for this long? If we let them out now there¡¯s now way they¡¯ll work for us.¡±


    ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be complete freedom. This is Rendhold, no one has that.¡±


    Stone sipped his ale, it was his turn to listen.


    ¡°We remove their previous bindings, and make new ones. They can live here freely without being arrested, but they are bound to not harm Rendhold or its people, or take revenge on us. The language will be more complicated than that of course, Argenta is working on that.¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°That still doesn¡¯t cover the ones who may come here.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s already the remnants of the guard that specializes in finding them. We boost their funding, and have some changelings, that are willing, bound to help them. We may have trouble recognizing them, but their own kind doesn¡¯t.¡±


    Stone scratched his gray beard.


    ¡°On top of that, we encourage two-name no-names.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°People who have two equally valid names, they can see through changeling¡¯s forms. Tell which is which. We give an incentive to those that do it and eventually we¡¯ll have hundreds of people in the city that can see through it. That¡¯s not to mention the benefits of changelings working for us, for Rendhold. No other place welcomes them, think of what we could manage with all of them on our side.¡±


    Stone scratched his beard. ¡°You make some compelling points, but I¡¯m still not sure. Argenta supports this, and I¡¯m guessing you have at least one other with you. You must need me to make it a majority in the council. There¡¯s no way that Belman would be for this, so you either have Kline or Seras on your side, and I doubt it¡¯s Seras since losing the changelings in the Convent would directly contradict the Church.¡±


    Dantes sighed. ¡°Fine. I can bribe you as well.¡±


    Stone winked. ¡°Looks like you are as smart as Argenta told me you were. I needed all those other explanations too, but this is Rendhold. Even good ideas need some gold to move things through.¡±


    Dantes shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ve been a bit starry eyed about things here lately, you¡¯ll have to forgive me.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s alright. Gold forgives all mistakes.¡±


    Dantes nodded and they copper and silvered one another for a few minutes. Dantes didn¡¯t have to think too hard about it, he¡¯d already settled on his maximum number before they¡¯d even started talking, so instead he listened to Alessa sing. Her voice was beautiful, he actually preferred how she sang to how Syn did, but that was a good thing. He wanted the mother of his child to be talented, it made him wonder idly what things his son would find skill in. Would he have nimble fingers? A fine voice? A gift with animals? He at least hoped he¡¯d take after his mother in height and looks, though given how much more orcish ancestry he had, that was likely anyway.


    He and Stone wrapped up their negotiation. ¡°Well, if that¡¯s all settled, feel free to enjoy your ale and I¡¯ll let Sera know that if you do decide to bed a whore today it¡¯s on me.¡±


    Stone raised his mug with a nod and a smile. ¡°You¡¯d have been a good member of the guild you know. We never seem to have enough of you roguish types.¡±


    Dantes smiled back. ¡°They have you leading them, I¡¯d presume that¡¯s enough.¡±


    He chuckled and put back his ale while Dantes made his way downstairs to give Sera a heads up. She¡¯d been acting as the Madam while Vera was consumed with preparing for her wedding, and had more than proven that she was ready to run her own establishment.


    As he walked he saw a man heading toward him and squared his stance to meet him, wondering who would be so foolish.


    His father stood there. ¡°Hello, Eddie.¡±


    Dantes clenched his jaw. ¡°Louis.¡±


    ¡°I heard you had a boy.¡±


    Dantes stood there silently for a moment. ¡°I did.¡±


    ¡°I uh, carved this for him,¡± he removed his hand from his dirty coat to show a small wooden carving of a ship with wooden wheels at the bottom so it could be pushed around.


    Dantes took the ship and stared at it.


    ¡°That¡¯s all. I hope he likes it.¡±


    Louis turned to walk away. Dantes sighed. He was trying to manipulate him, that was obvious. He shook his head.


    ¡°One gold.¡±


    Louis turned. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°A week. One gold a week. More than enough to live comfortably in Midtown, more than you made as a sailor.¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t need that. I just wanted to give the boy a gift. My Da made me one of those, and I made you one, though I don¡¯t think you remember it.¡±


    Dantes didn¡¯t, but his father had given him random gifts over the years to win his affections.


    ¡°You¡¯ll take the money, and if Alessa agrees, I¡¯ll let you meet the boy.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Dantes shook his head. He¡¯d won so much, bullying an old man for what he did as a father¡­it would give him some satisfaction, he hadn¡¯t outgrown his pettiness, but it was such a waste of energy. He¡¯d seen many men and women be far better grandparents than they were parents. A grandparent only showing up sometimes with a gift to spend some time with a child was a good thing, noble even. It just wasn¡¯t enough for a parent.


    Dantes reached into a pocket and flicked a gold coin toward Louis.


    ¡°Just don¡¯t expect to get any discounts here. Vera¡¯s in charge of all that.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 59: I Belong to You

    Dantes stood to the side, a little bit behind the platform. He¡¯d combed back his hair, and was wearing a new long green coat with silver buttons over a matching green vest covered in patterns of wildflowers, a crisp black shirt, and matching black pants held up by a black belt with a buckle in the shape of a silver leaf. On his arm was Syn, still wearing the form she¡¯d grown used to as Sevryn, and making small adjustments to her own outfit even as they stood there. The only thing that stayed the same was that her dress was a rich green with silver flowers sewn on it so that she could match Dantes.


    Next to them was Zilly, wearing a dress of deep purple with green vines creeping up it. Her hair was down, and Dantes had never realized just how long it actually was, with it falling all the way down her back. On the other side of them were Alessa and Jacque. Alessa was wearing a low cut dress of deep burgundy that hugged her tightly, and Jacque was in a little black suit and gazing curiously at all of the familiar people wearing unfamiliar things around him.


    The rest of the wedding party was there as well, with Tieara lying against a tree with a pipe full of weed in her hand before passing it to Clay who sat next her, Decker holding Hema¡¯s hand in his own as she explained the unique qualities of elf-lilies to him, Sera was wearing a very trendy white gown with golden doe¡¯s sewn along the hem to look as if they were dancing in a glade. Jayk and Jayson were wearing similar long coats, Jayk¡¯s was a forest green so dark it was almost black and Jayson¡¯s was a rich navy blue that he paired with a jaunty tricorn hat. In the corner Argenta wore a black dress that emphasized a slim figure and a string of pearls long enough to hang a man with. Her daughter, Alby, wore not a dress, but a longcoat of black and a vest of silver along with high black boots. Merle, Orebus, Felix, and Wane wore traditional Academy robes with sashes of rich purple, marking their return to their old school. He¡¯d invited the druids to attend, but they¡¯d all only just recently managed to get back to their own loci after they¡¯d traveled so far to help him with Serpica and had a lot of things to attend in their own territory.


    Aside from them were a number of Vera¡¯s old friends from other whorehouses across the city, as well as those with whom she had a professionally friendly relationship like Dosia, who was wearing nearly as much tight leather as she did for work. Aside from them were a number of mercs that considered Vampa a friend even if it was impossible to tell if he felt the same.


    Jacopo walked out from a dark corner to stand next to Dantes. He was wearing a dark gray coat and a black vest with gold buttons. His long wild hair had been tamed and placed into a ponytail and he¡¯d even worn a few rings on his hand that Dantes had let him borrow.


    Dantes fixed one of the buttons on his vest. ¡°You look sharp, friend.¡±


    He nodded. ¡°I like Vera and Vampa. I wanted to show up in the way I interacted with them the most.¡±


    Dantes patted his shoulder. ¡°I think they¡¯ll really appreciate it.¡±


    Jacque pointed at Jacopo. ¡°Unc. Ra.¡±


    ¡°What was that?¡± asked Alessa. ¡°Uncra,¡± he repeated seriously, pointing more.


    ¡°What¡¯s he doing?¡± asked Jacopo.


    ¡°Pointing and calling you names. The same as most people do when they see you,¡± said Dantes with a smile as he walked over to rub the dark hair on the top of Jacque¡¯s head.


    Jacopo nodded. ¡°Well, I like it when he does it.¡±


    There was a sound of knocking on wood and Dantes looked to Alessa and Syn. ¡°That¡¯s the signal.¡±


    They nodded, and Alessa handed Jacque to him gently, and moved over to one side of the wooden platform that had been assembled, while Syn took the other side. Alessa started first, taking a deep breath before she started to produce a singular and beautiful tone. After a few seconds Syn matched that same tone perfectly, though she didn¡¯t breathe in to make it. Alessa began to vary the tone, slowly bringing it higher and lower. Syn matched it perfectly, but very slowly she started to vary hers as well. Soon they were both making different tones, and that¡¯s when the harp began to play. Syn began to make both tones as they shifted and changed and alternated, and Alessa started to sing. The words were in elvish, and that meant that no one in attendance could understand them except for Zilly, but its beauty was undeniable.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    When it ended, there was complete silence aside from the rustle of leaves and the shifting of feet on grass and moss. Everyone had been so enraptured by the performance that speaking almost felt like it would be breaking a spell.


    It was at that moment that Vampa and Vera stepped into the glade, arm in arm. They were a beautiful couple. Vampa wore a coat the same silver as steel and a deep vest. There was a ceremonial blade at his hip that Dantes had commissioned for him as a wedding gift, its hilt was molded in the shape of a beautiful woman, at least the one Vampa found the most beautiful. Vera was wearing a long trailing purple dress threaded with silver and golden flowers and cut low in the same fashion as the outfits she wore to run the Vixen. Her golden bangle shone beautifully in the light, and over her shoulders was a stole made of bright orange fox fur. Her hair wasn¡¯t up in it¡¯s usual ornate hairstyle, instead it flowed freely down her back. The finest accessory they both wore, was a smile. Dantes was familiar with Vera¡¯s smile, she was always free with them, though this one was a particular favorite of his. Vampa¡¯s smile on the other hand, was new to him. He¡¯d seen smirks of satisfaction through Jacopo¡¯s eyes when they were training together, but this was different. It was soft, warm, and he couldn¡¯t take his eyes off of Vera as they walked to the platform.


    Everyone watched in silence as they walked, stepping up onto the platform. Vera smiled and nodded at everyone, her eyes tearing up just a bit as she saw Dantes, Jacque, and Jacopo. Vampa only broke his gaze from Vera to look at Zilly, whose eyes were wet with tears as they exchanged a warm nod with one another.


    When they reached the center of the platform, they faced one another and stared for some time into each other¡¯s eyes. They then clasped their left hands together and drew one another close.


    Dantes handed Jacque back to Alessa, and took a rough hewn rope from within his coat. He wove it gently, but quickly around their arms, tying an old sailors knot at the top before grasping both of their hands with his own for just a moment and stepping backward.


    Vampa spoke first. ¡°With this, I bind myself to you. My life is yours. I belong to you.¡±


    Vera spoke next. ¡°With this, I bind myself to you. My life is yours. I belong to you.¡±


    Vampa grasped her by the hips and pulled her in close, squeezing her hard as they shared a long deep kiss.


    At that moment, Dantes released his will and all of the elf-lilies in the garden bloomed at once, their sweet smell hitting everyone like a warm breeze on a summer day. When the newlyweds finally broke apart, the silence could no longer hold. Everyone began to clap and cheer, filling the dead silence with joyful sound.


    Dantes watched all of it with a smile. He didn¡¯t put much stock in people ¡®deserving¡¯ things, he¡¯d always been more focused on what they wanted. Vera deserved to be happy though, and it was good to see her get what she deserved.


    ¡­


    While the first part of the ceremony had been in many ways, formal and traditional, the second part was very different. The middle floor of the Vixen had been cleared of all tables and chairs to make way for a dance floor, food flowed freely to the tables of anyone who was hungry with all of the dishes Zilly had chosen being enormous hits. After Vera danced first with Vampa, they¡¯d all started switching partners, with Dantes having the second dance with Vera, the Jacopo, then Decker. Vampa on the other hand had his second dance with Zilly, his third with a woman with an eyepatch, and even Syn who extended her legs just a bit to keep up with his longer stride.


    Dantes watched as the ladies all shared a dance with Vera, except for Tieara who was having quite the dance with Felix. He¡¯d been much more popular since he¡¯d risked himself to save them, and Dantes had even forgiven some of his debt, not enough to get rid of it of course, but enough that a non-gambler could dig his way out. As he sipped some wine, Argenta approached him.


    ¡°We have the council vote locked up.¡±


    ¡°I was hoping to convince them, not have them thrown in jail.¡±


    She raised an eyebrow at him.


    ¡°Sorry. I¡¯m a bit in my cups this evening.¡±


    ¡°Understandable. Once we have the vote tomorrow, we¡¯re going to start bringing up changelings one by one to change the binding and give them their¡­freedom.¡±


    ¡°We can finally start thinking about next steps.¡±


    Argenta nodded. ¡°Rebuilding is the first step, though the damages aren¡¯t as bad as they could¡¯ve been. Next will be getting trade to return to the city.¡±


    Dantes smiled and raised his wine glass to her. ¡°Let¡¯s save that for tomorrow.¡±


    Argenta smiled and raised her own glass, clinking it against his. ¡°Agreed.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 60: Today

    Dantes was floating for a moment, over the table he¡¯d seen so many times before in his dreams, but this time it was empty. He saw no sign of the woman in green or the man in blue. Suddenly, he was falling, his body twisting at the last moment so that his back slammed against the table. He could feel the impact even though it was a dream. He tried to sit up, but before he could, two large daggers impaled each of his hands, locking them in place. He screamed as the table slowly tilted up and he was held up only by the wounds in his hands. He looked around to see who or what was attacking him.


    A figure was in the distance, clad in crimson red armor as he approached. Dantes struggled, trying to pull his hands from the daggers, or even let them cut through his palm completely so that he could get off of them, but nothing worked. Soon the man in red was directly in front of him, his wickedly serrated blade held high in his right hand. He lifted it, and placed it gently against Dantes¡¯s chest, slowly moving it forward. Dantes screamed as he felt each serrated inch of the blade slide through his chest. Just as the hilt impacted against his chest, the figure in red¡¯s form flickered, showing for just a moment a man with long brown hair holding a spear as it was driven into him. Gavain.


    ¡­


    Dantes¡¯s eyes snapped open and his hand clutched at his chest where he could still feel the phantom pain of being stabbed.


    Syn sat up in bed next to him.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°Today. Gavain¡¯s going to come for me today.¡±


    Syn¡¯s features became fierce for a moment, before rapidly shifting back. ¡°You¡¯re sure?¡±


    Dantes nodded as he slid his legs to the side of the bed to stand. ¡°Yes.¡±


    He stood and started to walk toward his clothes, Jacopo leaving his nest and climbing up the dresser as well.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to stop him.¡±


    ¡°Yes. Everything I¡¯ve been preparing with Jayk and everyone else for this. No one beats a druid in his locus.¡± He felt confident, but he also still felt the pain of that blade in his chest.


    Syn helped him get on his shirt, kissing his neck as she did so. ¡°You¡¯re sure he¡¯ll meet you where you want him to?¡±


    He nodded. ¡°The one thing I¡¯m certain both of us have in common, is that we¡¯re performers. He¡¯ll show up there, it¡¯s in his nature.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be there if it doesn¡¯t work.¡±


    ¡°I have backups for that.¡±


    ¡°What if those don¡¯t work?¡±


    ¡°I have a lot of backups.¡±


    ¡°Then if those fail, I¡¯ll be there to help.¡±


    ¡°You haven¡¯t told me what you plan on doing?¡±


    ¡°Protecting you.¡±


    Dantes let it rest, finishing the buttons on his shirt and slipping his dagger into the sheath on his waist. He then turned around and grabbed Syn, squeezing her tightly as he kissed her.


    ¡°I¡¯ll see you when it¡¯s done.¡±


    She pulled him in for a second kiss. ¡°I¡¯ll be there before then. You know you need a beautiful woman in the audience.¡±Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Dantes smiled, and held out an arm so that Jacopo could climb onto his shoulder. He crept quietly into Alessa''s room, and walked silently to the bassinet in which Jacque was sleeping. He leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. He slipped back out without waking either of them.


    He climbed up to the room using the ladder a short way outside of his room and summoned several pigeons to himself. He tied slips of paper to each of their legs then sent them on their way. Once he was done he went back to his audience chamber, placing his hand against the tree in the center of it. He focused on the tattoos on his arm, trying to send his fellow druids a request for help. He was fairly certain they would come to help, even though it wasn¡¯t a rogue one of their own this time, but he wasn¡¯t sure they¡¯d get there in time. Or that they would be able to reach him before it was evening. There was no way they could tree-walk all the way to him without the moon to support them. Murk would arrive sooner, Dantes knew at this point that he would do whatever he could to help after he saved him and his sister.


    With that last message sent he walked out the front door and into the street. It was still early morning and the streets were filled with a fine mist that gave the recently re-lit magical streetlights a soft halo. He had initially considered flying, but there wasn¡¯t much of a point for that. He had his eyes spread all throughout the city to look out for Gavain¡¯s arrival, and while he¡¯d had a number of foes that were capable of avoiding him by guile or skill, he didn¡¯t think Gavain had the skill, nor did he think he would bother sneaking around in the first place.


    Dantes walked up main street first, taking a scenic route. He could sense the stirring of people in their homes, and noted the lights on bakeries had already been lit as they prepared their goods for the day. The street was lit better than it had been in the past. In Midtown it had been the tradition of the academy students to only light every other lantern, or skip it entirely to avoid being in danger, but now that had changed with the Academy¡¯s new leadership. Dantes had watched Kline several times through the eyes of rats and pigeons. There was no longer any light behind that man¡¯s eyes and his every response and movement seemed slow, almost strained. Merle was a terrifying man, Dantes was grateful to have him on his side.


    Dantes extended his will to have all of the flowers on the street bloom a little early, and took a deep breath of the mixed sweet scents of flowers and warm smells of baking bread. Midtown was so overgrown with plants at this point that whole walls were covered in greenery and the flowers bloomed not only from the window boxes he¡¯d provided them to offset what they owed him, but also all throughout cracks in the pavement, in the gutters, and even in the piles of trash that had always accumulated in the alleys. The rest of the city had been growing greener too, and his ability to increase growth passively had grown as well. Even his destroyed gardens were now almost fully restored after only a few months. At this rate the sea of gray that the city had always been in the past would give way to completely to green...as long as he was around.


    Dantes sighed as he started to leave the Midtown streets and move toward Uptown. He¡¯d sensed not a single mugger hiding in an alley, nor any of his dealers shilling their powder to the desperate. Midtown had changed in more ways than just becoming greener. At least he sensed a few illicit trysts in darkened alleys, that brought back his smile.


    Dantes eventually reached his target, one of the arenas near the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, the largest of them where hundreds of people could be packed into the stands to bet on fights and watch mercs, adventurers and even a few professional gladiators spill blood for their amusement. As he walked in, he pulled a small pouch from his coat and began spreading seeds from it all along the ground, sending his will through them as he did so.


    ¡°You think we will lose,¡± said Jacopo from his shoulder as he aided him with directing the lifeforce of their locus through each seed.


    ¡°No. I think we¡¯ll win. I just hope we don¡¯t have to reach our last resort to do so.¡±


    ¡°We have seen him fight before. Manipulated him. Beaten him.¡±


    ¡°It feels different. I don¡¯t feel like I have the same forces on my side this time.¡±


    ¡°The ones from our dreams?¡±


    ¡°Yes. I¡¯ve always felt like there was a bit of luck on my side. A bit of coincidence in my favor, even when I was a boy. Once I began talking to you, I felt something else on my side. A force for survival, something pushing me to grow and thrive and bring everything else with me. I¡¯d felt that before, but it was emphasized. Now¡­ I don¡¯t feel them as strongly. I only feel dread.¡±


    ¡°You still have the most important thing you need on your side.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°Me.¡±


    Dantes laughed and reached up to his shoulder to pat Jacopo on the back.


    ¡°That¡¯s true. I don¡¯t know what I was thinking.¡± Dantes walked to the far end of the fighting pit and threw a final large seed onto it. He inhaled, feeling the entire city draw its breath with him, and exhaled. At that moment, all of the seeds he spread out sprouted and grew across the pit. A field of poisonous flowers, bushed barbed with thorns, and tangling vines spread all across it, and the largest seed grew into a tree in the shape of a throne. He walked toward it, and sat on it, sitting in the field of death he¡¯d prepared for Gavain.

 Book 3 Ch 61: I Am This City

    It was late morning when Gavain reached the edge of the city. Dantes first saw him through the eyes of a pigeon circling just outside the main gate. He looked different from the last time he¡¯d had seen him. He still had a spear at his back and wore the segmented armor he¡¯d seen before, but now his face that had been blemished by a single scar was now covered in them. His hair that had been thick and lustrous was now thin and graying. His cheeks were hollower and his brown eyes were no longer lit with warmth, but instead glowed with rage. Dantes watched him, realizing very quickly that he knew exactly where he was waiting for him.


    How that was possible, Dantes wasn¡¯t sure, but he¡¯d guess it had something to do with the newborn god that seemed to have granted him his blessing. He sent a few rats to look at him more closely, and could see some kind of symbol burned into the back of his neck, whether it was a godmark or some kind of brand from his time in a Frasheid prison, Dantes couldn¡¯t tell. He sent a few more rats to watch him more closely, but when one got within five feet of him, he grabbed it. Dantes barely even saw him move, but he felt it as Gavain snapped the poor things neck with his thumb before he continued his walk toward Dantes.


    When Gavain made it through the outer gate and a few streets further, a number of guards cut him off in a narrow street, with Pacha in the lead. That surprised Dantes, he had no idea that Pacha knew Gavain. Had they communicated? Or had he been trying to track Gavain¡¯s movements since news of his regicide had spread as Dantes had?


    ¡°Gavain,¡± said Pacha, giving him a deep nod of respect. ¡°I¡¯m glad to see you well.¡±


    ¡°I am not well.¡±


    ¡°Alive is well.¡±


    ¡°Not always.¡± He jerked his head to the side. ¡°Move out of my way. There¡¯s someone I need to see.¡±


    ¡°Come now. You and I serve the same god. Let¡¯s talk for a bit. I know you likely feel bitter for what treatment you received, but we can talk. We can see what reparations the city, the guild can give you. There¡¯s no reason to cause chaos in the streets.¡±


    ¡°The treatment I received did not leave me bitter. It was its lack of reason that upset me. I gave myself up to stop a war and confine an evil man. That war happened anyway, and that man now roams these streets freely. My sacrifice was meaningless.¡±


    ¡°Not to me,¡± said Pacha, stepping toward him. ¡°I know what you meant by it. I know what it represents. You may not be rewarded here, but surely Justice will give you your due in time.¡±


    ¡°I intend to take my due today, in blood.¡±


    Pacha shook his head. ¡°You seek Dantes?¡±


    He nodded. ¡°First him, then the Guild that sold me to save itself.¡±


    ¡°What comes after that? The Council? The Committee members that agreed to the decision? The guards that did their duty to transport you to the docks? The captain of the boat that transported you to Frasheid? Their children? Their grandchildren?¡±


    ¡°No. The captain would be the place I stop.¡±


    Pacha shook his head. ¡°I can¡¯t let you do that.¡±


    ¡°You would protect the crime lord?¡±


    He frowned. ¡°He¡­ he saved the city. People think he¡¯s a hero. Under his and Argenta¡¯s control the city is safer. People are fed, and the worst keep to themselves, not spilling out into places they don¡¯t belong¡­ Even with that though, I¡¯m not doing this to protect him, but those that may fall after. You¡¯ve left Justice behind.¡±


    Gavain shook his head. ¡°No. Justice left me behind. He was just kind enough to leave me in the care of his son. Revenge.¡± He laughed bitterly. ¡°Dantes keeps the worst to themselves? So he makes the problems small enough to ignore, so everyone else can get on with their lives. Men still snort dust until their eyes bleed, shops still pay just to not be shut down by force, but it¡¯s okay, because we can simply not look where it¡¯s happening. Excuses and weakness, that¡¯s all I see.¡±


    Pacha drew his sword, as did his men, though reluctantly. ¡°Please son, we can talk about this.¡±


    ¡°Talking has always led to trouble for me. Now, I trust in my might.¡± Gavain launched forward, striking three times with his right fist in less than a second, sending Pacha and the two guards next to him flying backwards with fist shaped dents in their breastplates. Other guards went to draw their swords, but they too were launched back in only a single strike. When they were all moaning on the ground, Gavain walked through a now clear street, with men and women running in fear from him.


    Dantes watched everything with a grimace. He hadn¡¯t expected Pacha to interfere, and was surprised that he¡¯d defended him, though that seemed to have been more about saving Gavain than him in many ways. Now he knew what god Gavain had received a blessing from, Revenge. Dantes felt a little offended by that. If there was ever a god he should¡¯ve received a blessing from, it would¡¯ve been revenge. He¡¯d dedicated his life to the slaying of those who¡¯d wronged him, but now he¡¯d been born and supported the man coming to kill him, even after he¡¯d accomplished so much in his name. He shook his head, he didn¡¯t expect fairness from the gods. That was how weak people thought. He wouldn¡¯t have minded some unfairness in his favor though.


    Dantes had no traps between himself and Gavain, and it wasn¡¯t long before the adventurer arrived. He looked at him, across the field of thorns and vines, then he looked out into the stands, where Dantes had fifty men standing with firearms, crossbows, and bows pointed at him the moment that he¡¯d arrived, Jayson and Jayk among them.


    Gavain reached back, and grabbed his spear as he stepped boldly into the arena.


    ¡°I¡¯m here for your head, Dantes.¡±


    Dantes stood up from his throne, Jacopo rearing up on his hind legs. If Pacha couldn¡¯t convince him not to fight him, then there was no reason for him to even try.


    ¡°Come and take it then,¡± he said, sending his will throughout every plant in the arena even as all of his men pulled triggers or loosed bowstrings.


    Gavain leapt into the air just before the vines at his feet could tangle him, then he slammed the butt of his spear into the ground. The spear shaft extended, launching him into the air toward the men Dantes had in the stands. One crossbow bolt nearly hit him as he launched himself, but he batted it away with his bare hand and it exploded in the air behind him.


    Dantes sent a tangle of thorns, vines and branches after him as he landed in the stands, but he was too fast to be caught.


    The men swung rifles, bows, and knives at him as he closed in, but the others backed away, climbing the stands to get enough distance to fire on him.


    Gavain left his spear behind as he tore through them. He caught strikes, and broke weapons in his gauntleted hands. He grabbed men to use them as shields from the others and when he closed on one of them his every strike hit like a cannonball, sending men flying into seats, shattering them.


    Dantes and Jacopo combined their focus and sent even more vines out, having some of them move their men out of Gavain¡¯s reach, while the rest moved to halt his progress.


    The hero leapt backward, spinning himself in the air as he landed next to where he¡¯d left his spear, he raised it, and aimed the point at Dantes.


    Dantes sensed his intention, and had the tree throne shoot out thick branches in front to defend him.


    Gavain extended his spear and it slammed into the branches Dantes had placed in the way. He retracted it a bit and slammed its lengthened shaft into Dantes¡¯s men that were rallying.


    Dantes sent more thorned vines toward him, and gave the signal to his vermin.


    Suddenly, thousands of rats, roaches, bats, pigeons, and even a dozen feral dogs tore through the arena toward Gavain, climbing the plantlife Dantes had summoned to try and entrap him.


    He muttered some words under his breath and ran his hand along the blade on his spear, causing it to ignite with flame. He then slammed the spear down, sending out a blast of flame from beneath his feet.


    The blast killed several hundred vermin instantly, but it was nothing before the oncoming tide. The first of them to score a blow was a small rat that managed to tear into a bit of Gavain¡¯s exposed skin on his leg. A bat managed to tear off a piece of his hair, a dog slammed its body into his leg nearly dropping him to his knees, and several roaches managed to slide into his armor and tear at him from within it.


    Dantes watched Gavain be slowly devoured, and started to supplement the attacks by his vermin with thorny vines he sent whipping toward him, and signaling to his remaining men to reload and start firing again.


    Gavain didn¡¯t stop moving, even as he was bit at, and torn into. A rat would bite him and he would immediately smash it with an open palm, a thorned vine would wrap around him for a moment and he would tear it off, an arrow would fire at him, but he¡¯d already moved before it could hit him.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    As he reacted and struck back, Dantes realized something. Normally, when Dantes had sent a swarm of Vermin after someone there had been a few moments of fierce fighting followed by a weakening, then death. Gavain wasn¡¯t slowing down though, he was getting faster. After every bite, scratch, bruise, he was reacting more quickly and forcefully. It was as if they were making him more powerful the more they hurt him.


    Revenge. His blessing was from the God of Revenge. He¡¯d been able to locate Dantes through that blessing as the object of his hatred, but there would be other powers too. Gaining strength the more damaged one was for instance, and for a man like Gavain who was already strong and had been being tortured for months, that was a serious threat.


    Dantes redoubled his efforts, but Gavain just kept getting faster, and stronger. His spear tore through the tide of animals that was surging onto him, and soon he was no longer being swarmed, but was pursuing the swarm, tearing through it to get closer to Dantes.


    Dantes watched the golden marks on his skin begin to fade, unable to refill even with the massive amounts of favor he generated passively. He began to coil more branches and vines around himself and Jacopo as a shield even as Gavain started to make his way toward them.


    Gavain tore through the branches with his spear, making it shoot out bursts of flames as he tore through it to kill the vermin around him and burn the vines away at the same time. As he reached the center of it, he tore the last part away with his bare hands to find that Dantes and Jacopo were no longer there. He tuned into his senses even as he caught an arrow midair and used it to impale a bat that was diving toward him. He could feel Dantes in the air above him moving away quickly. He slammed the butt of his spear into the ground and sent his will into it, making it extend rapidly as he held on to the other end.


    Dantes was above his target when Gavain appeared suddenly behind him, falling down at the tip of his spear, aiming himself toward them like a missile. Dantes dove toward the warehouse building, he and Jacopo shifting as they broke a window and were forced to roll across glass toward the center of the wide open building. Dantes pushed himself up, holding out a hand for Jacopo to crawl up as he leaned against the tree with blood red leaves that stood in the center of the warehouse floor.


    There was a crash as Gavain smashed through the concrete roof with a gauntleted fists and drew his spear back, crashing into a number of barrels as he too rolled to reduce the momentum of his landing and wound up near the center of the warehouse, twenty feet away from Dantes with dozens of barrels between them.


    He looked at the black powder that covered him, inhaling deeply. Then he looked at Dantes.


    ¡°Gunpowder.¡±


    Dantes smiled and activated the ignition rune carved into the floor below him as he pushed himself into the tree.


    Gavain didn¡¯t launch himself toward the exit, but instead charged Dantes, gripping the edge of his coat and tearing at it even as he disappeared and the warehouse exploded.


    Dantes fell forward out of another tree he¡¯d grown on the roof of a nearby building. He felt the backdraft hit his face as the warehouse a hundred feet in front of him exploded. He was briefly blinded, and focused on healing himself for a moment before he could see again. He looked at the smoldering pile of rubble that had been the warehouse.


    A spearhead smashed through the rubble sending chunks of concrete flying as Gavain pushed a piece of stone the size of a roof off of himself. Smoke was coming off of him, and his skin and armor were charred black. He turned toward where Dantes was standing and pointed his spear.


    ¡°Fuck,¡± said Dantes pushing himself up and falling back into the tree just before the spearhead hit him and split the tree in two.


    Dantes fell backward into one of his gardens and quickly pushed himself to his feet, panting as he drew his dagger and began pushing wands through his wooden hand. Jacopo Shifted into a man next to him, slipping on his clawed gloves as he took a low stance.


    Gavain landed in front of him, seeming to have actually leapt from multiple buildings away to land in front of them.


    Dantes sent all the plant life around them to entangle and attack Gavain as he raised his hand and sent his will through all of his wands at once.


    Gavain dodged the blast of frost, flame, stone, and force and in an instant he was next to Dantes with his spear raised.


    Jacopo slashed at his chest, but Gavain diverted his strike to slam the side of his spearhead into Jacopo and send him tumbling through the garden into the nearest wall.


    Before he could turn his attention back to Dantes, a massive curled fist smashed into the side of his face with the force of a carriage falling from a mountain. Orebus, who¡¯d been concealed by magic, had appeared to strike him with a magically reinforced blow.


    Gavain stumbled back, grimacing as he raised his own fist.


    Orebus met the challenge sending his own punch toward him.


    Their fists met and Orebus¡¯s arm was shattered as he was thrown backwards.


    Gavain¡¯s footing suddenly became sand as Wane activated his own spell, revealing himself. As he began to fight against the sinking tide, Merle, standing on a rooftop above, released his will, sending a ball of flame that seemed brighter than the sun toward him.


    Dantes dove away as that fireball hit, the force of it causing him to be thrown far further than he¡¯d intended to go with his dive.


    When he recovered to look back, the sand had all been turned to glass and Gavain was nowhere to be seen.


    Merle¡¯s and Wane¡¯s bodies suddenly slammed into the ground next to him as Gavain leapt down from where Merle had thrown his fireball.


    Dantes stood up, and started running.


    Gavain roared with rage and followed him.


    Dantes ran into a narrow alley, ducking under a clothesline and firing his pistol behind himself as he moved. He was forced to shift into a rat to crawl into an abandoned house just before Gavain could hit him with his spear. Dantes climbed up onto the roof as a roach, and shifted into a bat, narrowly avoiding another strike before shifting back into himself to land on another rooftop using the momentum he¡¯d carried. He had his wooden hand aim behind himself, and fired off blasts of flame, ice, lightning, rock, anything he could to slow Gavain down, using Jacopo¡¯s eyes to aim as he flew above him as a dove.


    Dantes knew the streets of Rendhold better than anyone else in the city, and his improved senses, speed, and balance made him nearly impossible to pursue.


    Unfortunately, Gavain was used to accomplishing the impossible. He made up for his lack of knowledge and grace with sheer power, speed, and focus. Smashing through walls and leaping over rooftops to catch up to him.


    Dantes barely reached another of his gardens, shooting more plant life toward him as he summoned another wave of vermin to attack him.


    Gavain was barely slowed this time, even though his body was a wreck, his strength was far greater than it had been at the start of the fight. A single wave of his spear destroyed all of the life Dantes sent at him.


    There was a howl that sent shivers down Dantes¡¯s spine and made Gavain whip around, barely managing to catch the mouthful of teeth as Murk attacked him. Murk¡¯s sister followed shortly after, and Dantes and Jacopo both joined them. They linked up their minds, seeing through one another''s attacks and coordinating. Gavain was stronger than them, but by alternating their attacks and keeping him on the defensive, they were able to chip away at him more than they had before, but it wasn¡¯t enough.


    Gavain slammed the butt of his spear onto the ground and the impact threw everyone back from him. Dantes stood up and ran from him again, even as the others renewed their attack.


    ¡°Abandoning your friends!?¡± yelled Gavain with a raspy voice, smashing Murk and his sister to the side and running after him into a nearby alley. Suddenly, he froze midstep, suspended in the air, unable to move anything, but his eyes.


    Dantes stood at the other end of the alley, his hand against a rune on the wall, causing it to glow with light. All across the alley, along the ground, on the walls, everywhere around where Gavain stood suspended, were arcane runes glowing with power.


    ¡°A friend of mine made this. He said it could hold a dragon, but since you¡¯ve slain them before I asked him to make sure it could hold at least two.¡±


    Gavain¡¯s eyes darted around the alley, where he noticed that both of the buildings on either side of him were filled with more barrels.


    Dantes put his wooden hand on the ignition rune that was above the holding rune he was holding, and sent his will through it.


    Again there was an explosion, and this time Dantes was close enough to be thrown back, smashing into a wall behind him. Jacopo landed on his shoulder and focused on healing him. As Dantes began to mend together, he pushed himself to his feet.


    Gavain was already standing on top of the rubble. Dantes had no idea how he was moving, his armor was scorched and his body shredded, but he still stood.


    Dantes frowned, he was out of options. He¡¯d gone through all of his plans, he had nothing left. There were other possibilities that he¡¯d ignored. People he didn¡¯t want to endanger, friends that couldn¡¯t reach him in time. Vampa may have been a big help, but he just couldn¡¯t bring himself to ask him to take that risk after just wedding his Aunt. He couldn¡¯t do that to him. Night hadn¡¯t yet fallen, so the other druids weren¡¯t able to make it to him in time.


    He shook his head, and pulled a fresh dagger from his belt, holding it in front of himself. Jacopo did the same, shifting into a man and raising his clawed hands.


    Gavain began to step toward them. His spear gripped tightly in his hand as he stepped forward. He stopped, and looked up.


    Dantes heard crying behind himself and turned around.


    Syn stood on the rooftop above him, holding a small child, pressing a dagger into his throat. She was in the shape she¡¯d taken as Sevryn. The child was an orc, maybe five years old, his tusks just starting to grow.


    Dantes stared at the orc, willing him to briefly appear as a being with too white skin and too long of limbs, but he didn¡¯t change. It was a real child. It wasn¡¯t a trick.


    ¡°Gavain. Give me your name, or I¡¯ll kill this child,¡± she pressed the tip of the knife into the boys chin, drawing some blood and causing the boy to cry.


    ¡°Not like this,¡± yelled Dantes, forcing himself to his feet. ¡°I won¡¯t win this way.¡±


    Syn shook her head. ¡°I know you won¡¯t. But I will.¡±


    Gavain stood still for just a moment, staring at her with what remained of his eyes.


    ¡°You heard me. Give me your name. NOW!¡±


    Syn blinked and Gavain disappeared. She felt a hand on the hand that held her dagger, and could smell charred skin and sulfur behind her.


    The child changed, becoming a dragonkin and driving a different dagger toward Gavain. It struck true, digging deep into his stomach.


    Gavain didn¡¯t shift an inch. He twisted Syn¡¯s arm, breaking it, and kicked the other changeling off the roof.


    Dantes saw a glint of green stone as a necklace that had been tucked into her shirt popped out. It had been a ruse, they¡¯d had to make Dantes believe it, to make Gavain believe, but it hadn¡¯t mattered.


    Gavain vanished again, and appeared in front of Jacopo, a gust of violent wind following him.


    ¡°I¡¯ll end your pet first.¡± He raised his spear.


    Dantes moved, slamming his shoulder into Jacopo and launching him away as Gavain drove the spear through his chest with enough force that the point of it was buried in the concrete beneath him.


    Jacopo lunged forward, but Dantes held up his hand to him. He didn¡¯t say anything, just projected a series of images to him. Jacque, Vera, Wane, Alessa, Zilly, all of their friends and confidants flashed in front of his mind''s eye in an instant, and Jacopo understood, forcing himself to turn and run away.


    Gavain watched him run, and leaned forward, putting his weight on the haft of the spear as he leaned in close to Dantes.


    ¡°This City is free of you.¡±


    Dantes smiled, and spat a mouthful of blood out onto Gavain¡¯s face. ¡°I am this city.¡±


    Gavain sent his will through his spear, and sent a blast of fire across Dantes¡¯s body. Gavain held that flame there until Dantes turned to ash.

 Book 3 Ch 62: A Binding, A Sacrifice, A Vow

    There were no witnesses dreaming this time, just an empty street, two figures, a pile of ashes, and the sound of wailing. A man wearing a dark blue cloak dug his hands into the pile of ashes in front of him, raising them high and letting them gently slip through his fingers, a gentle wind carrying them through the narrow alleyways and darkened streets, he was frowning for the first time in a long time. Next to him, a green woman with blood red tears dripping down her face. She too dug her hands into the pile of dust, but rather than letting it slip through her fingers onto the ground, she inhaled, and blew, causing it to scatter from her hands into the air, where it slowly fell down like snow, each fleck and particle of it landing on a piece of green in the city, and infusing it. Both the woman in Green and the man in Blue walked together toward the wailing, finding it hidden in an alley.


    The rat knew that everything died. Death was a fact of his life from the moment he was born onward. It had become distant for him recently, but it was still always there, the primary driver of his existence, only masked by other concerns as that distance had grown. He¡¯d never cried over death. He¡¯d never cried at all. He did at that moment though, as he felt his own death. A piece of his own soul extinguished.


    The man in blue and the green woman both reached toward the rat and placed their hand on his back, comforting him as best they could.


    A man armored in red stood behind them, at the edge of the alley. He took a step toward them, but suddenly a gust picked up and those ashes that had just been scattered started to push against him. He pressed forward another step, and another, but the dust kept picking up, blowing stronger and stronger until it blew with the power of a typhoon.


    The armored man was pushed back.


    ¡­


    Gavain stepped back from the spear, breathing heavily. He felt true satisfaction in that moment as he watched the ashes of Dantes¡¯s corpse blow away and scatter. He could feel the damage that the fight had done to him. Hundreds of cuts and bruises, his entire body scorched and shattered by explosions. In spite of all of that, he felt that he could recover. If he could reach the temple quickly enough, or an alchemist, he¡¯d make it. With his increased speed and strength, he was sure he would make it in time.


    He looked around, wary of any of Dantes¡¯s allies that may still be nearby, but he didn¡¯t see anyone. He would find and take care of them once he had recovered. He reached forward and pulled his spear from the concrete, looking around. He didn¡¯t know where he was. He walked down an alley and onto a main street, hoping to recognize where he was, but he didn¡¯t recognize the street either. He also didn¡¯t see anyone on it, nor did he hear anyone. No guards rushing to see what the explosion was, no people talking or yelling or running. Maybe he was in a less populated area, that would make sense as a place to set a trap for him.


    He bent his legs and launched himself into the air, landing on the roof of a nearby house. He jumped again to reach the top of a much higher abandoned apartment building. He could see¡­ nothing from where he was. Nothing he recognized anyway. Just buildings, streets, and alleys as far as he could see. He bent his legs and launched himself again, landing on a street and running. If he ran in the same direction long enough, he¡¯d eventually hit the wall or the water, and he could figure things out from there, he still had plenty of time.


    ¡­


    Jacopo stood still, watching the Viridian Vixen from the outside. He¡¯d seen Orebus being carried in by Wane and Merle missing an arm, Syn dragging herself through the front door, her form flickering wildly as she did so, Jayk and Jayson holding one another up as they arrived back, Murk and his mate had leapt to the roof to enter through that entrance. He knew that they had healing potions, Clay, and Hema waiting for them to treat them, just as Dantes had planned it. He should go inside. He should let them know what had happened, but he just kept sitting there, watching the Vixen from the alley as a rat. He didn¡¯t want to tell them he was gone, that Gavain had beaten them. He had to warn them though. Even as damaged as Gavain was, he was still a threat, maybe even more so thanks to his blessing.


    ¡°He didn¡¯t beat me.¡±Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Jacopo whipped around, his eyes darting back and forth, searching for the source of the voice.


    ¡°Technically, it doesn¡¯t matter where you look, I¡¯m all around you.¡±


    Jacopo went still. He¡¯d closed himself off when Dantes had died. Unwilling to feel the city without him, fearful of what was happening, but he forced himself to open back up.


    Dantes was all around him. Jacopo had felt the same connection that Dantes had to the city, had felt it when he¡¯d finally been able to open himself up to the rest of the city and gain control of its life, but this was beyond that.


    ¡°You¡¯ve become one with Rendhold.¡±


    ¡°Our final option. A binding, a sacrifice, a vow.¡±


    ¡°Gavain?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯ll be dead, but not soon.¡±


    ¡°Why can¡¯t I feel you like I could before?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. We¡¯ve always been independent, more so than the other druids. We spend time apart and together. We hate the feeling of losing ourselves¡­¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t like it, do you?¡± asked Jacopo.


    There was a pause. ¡°I hate it. Feeling everything means I can feel nothing. I can smell, hear, taste, and see, but not as myself, not the way I want to. I won¡¯t be able to kiss Syn, to smell Zilly¡¯s cooking, to hold Jacque, or hear Alessa sing, not as myself. I can keep them safe though. Make sure that the legacy I left behind holds. I¡¯ll rule the city as I wanted, I just won¡¯t be able to enjoy it.¡±


    Jacopo stood still for a moment. He closed his eyes, and started to push his awareness outward, as he¡¯d done a thousand times before. Rooting through every thread of it, pulling them back toward himself, forcing them where he had to.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    Jacopo ignored him, continuing to pull on the threads, drawing them into himself, feeling where Dantes¡¯s essence was spread across the city.


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to do that, I know you don¡¯t want us to become the same person like the twins, or Traizen and his partner.¡±


    Jacopo kept pulling. ¡°We won¡¯t be like them. We¡¯ll be better.¡±


    Dantes pulled back, pushing Jacopo¡¯s consciousness away even as Jacopo pulled him toward him.


    ¡°Jacopo. Stop.¡±


    ¡°No. Either we¡¯re both here, or neither of us are. You''re strong, I¡¯m strong, let¡¯s be even stronger together.¡±


    Dantes kept fighting, and he had all the advantages from where he was, everywhere. ¡°No. There¡¯s no reason to do this.¡±


    ¡°I have sired thousands of children. You, only one. I must make sure you¡¯re here for him.¡±


    Dantes lost focus for a moment, and felt himself move rapidly toward Jacopo.


    ¡°Dammit.¡± Dantes let go, and his consciousness slammed into Jacopo¡¯s.


    All of the life and everything in their shared locus slammed together within Jacopo¡¯s body. Dantes was seeing everything in the city one moment, then only what Jacopo saw the next. They oscillated back and forth, seeing as each other, as themselves, then as nothing at all, until finally, it settled.


    Dantes looked at his hands, seeing the slim fingers on either hand that he was used to, and flexing a fleshy left hand for the first time in a long time. He didn¡¯t feel any different. He looked around, not seeing Jacopo.


    ¡°I¡¯m here,¡± he said, moving Dantes¡¯s right hand to point at his chest.


    ¡°So we didn¡¯t become the same person. We are just both in the same body and¡­¡± they both extended their will across the locus, finding Dantes¡¯s connection from the binding to be no lesser than it was before he¡¯d joined Jacopo¡¯s body.


    The both shared a relieved sigh. Dantes let Jacopo take over fully, and the body they shared shifted rapidly into his two-leg form, then Dantes took over and it shifted back.


    ¡°I guess we were too independent for it to work how we expected.¡±


    ¡°We have stronger personalities.¡±


    ¡°We can work with this though. I take half the day, you take the other?¡±


    ¡°The other one will focus on managing the locus during that time, yes.¡±


    Dantes smiled, and they walked toward the door to the Vixen together. They¡¯d cheated the ritual, but of course they had, they never fought fair.


    ¡­


    Gavain stumbled, pushing himself back up with his spear to stumble forward a few more steps. How long had he been moving? A day? A year? He had no idea. His wounds ached, his tongue was dry from thirst, his stomach beyond empty. He wondered idly, for the thousandth time, if he¡¯d died in his fight and been sent to the hells. He looked up. The street just kept going. There was no one on it, no animals, no plants. He was alone, and the sun still hadn¡¯t gone down. Has it even gone up? He looked at the sky again, but it was just a haze of featureless light.


    He stumbled a bit further and fell onto his knees. This wasn¡¯t fair. He¡¯d been a hero. Even those he¡¯d killed had deserved it. A king of slavers and a leech that survived by sucking the life from a city. He¡¯d done the right thing by ending them. Were the hells truly what he¡¯d earned for that? To be abandoned by even his new god? Where was the justice in that?


    He felt warmth start to spread through his back. He turned his head, and behind him stood a man in gleaming silver armor, an axe strapped to his back. He bent down and scooped Gavain up as if he was a child. Gavain closed his eyes as the man walked him into the sky.


    ¡­


    Dantes and Jacopo approached their garden, seeing Gavain¡¯s body wrapped in flowering vines that grew from him as well as around him. They bent down and took the spear from his dead hand, spinning it idly for a moment.


    ¡°You deserved a fair death. If anyone did, it was you.¡± They stopped spinning the spear. ¡°Unfortunately, Rendhold isn¡¯t about being fair. It¡¯s about winning using any underhanded method you have to do it. I hope you have some kind of peace now, but the important thing is.¡± They took a deep breath. ¡°I win.¡±

 Book 3 Ch 63: Theres a Whole Mortal Plane out there

    Jacque was shaken awake by the naked woman next to him. He opened his golden eyes halfway, yawning through his tusks.


    ¡°Darling, a man only has so much stamina.¡±


    ¡°My husband is back. You need to leave!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re married? That¡¯s wonderful. I bet he¡¯s a very happy man.¡±


    There were footsteps up the stairs heading toward the bedroom. Jacque quickly rolled off the bed, grabbing his shoes and clothes that had thrown off of it, and then slid cooly under the bed where he began slowly wiggling on different articles of clothing.


    The door slammed open, and more heavy footsteps made their way in, along with the smell of fish and salt. That explained why her husband had been away.


    ¡°Gods I hate regular fishing. If only that mutt consul and his bitch would lift the moratorium on leviathan hunting then I wouldn¡¯t have to handle these slippery little fuckers any more.¡±


    Jacque bristled a bit as he carefully slipped on his trousers. He didn¡¯t particularly like hearing his father and aunt referred to like that, but he wasn¡¯t in the best position to defend anyone¡¯s honor that particular morning.


    ¡°Why the hells are you naked? It¡¯s freezing in here.¡±


    ¡°I was hot when I went to bed.¡±


    Jacque very carefully slipped on his second boot. He was tall enough that if he wasn¡¯t careful, his foot would peek out from under the bed, but he¡¯d been in tighter spots before. They had mostly been his own fault. He did a quick check of his pockets, and his clothes. He was missing something.


    The husband''s heavy footsteps moved to the far wall, and Jacque risked a peak out from under the bed. He scowled as he remembered what he was missing.


    ¡°Why is there a lute here?¡±


    ¡°Uhhhh,¡± said the woman, unsure of how to answer the question and not quick enough to make something up.


    Jacque rolled out from under the bed, leapt forward toward the man, yanked the lute from his hand and moved toward the window, hoping that the element of surprise would give him time to unlatch it. He realized, at that moment, that while he was a tall young man in his prime with mostly orcish heritage, the woman he¡¯d spent the night bedding¡¯s husband was a full orc whose arms indicated that he was a reeler on a leviathan hunter, and his arms were the size of Jacque¡¯s head.


    The man roared and leapt toward him just as he unlatched the window. He leapt out, and the man caught him by the ankle. He slapped his lute into the man¡¯s hand, it was a gift from his father, who¡¯d grown it as a single piece of wood, and was very strong.


    The husband hollered and let go. Jacque twisted his body around as he¡¯d learned from a friendly housecat as a child so that he could land on all fours and began running down the moss street. He dodged a carriage as he moved, spun around a changeling in the shape of a dragonkin, and dove down an alley. He stopped halfway down it and leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. He wasn¡¯t out of shape, but something about drinking and singing all night, followed by an evening of fornication, then an abrupt awakening could really tire a person out.


    He looked up at a rat sitting on a vine in front of him as he finished lacing the crotch of his trousers.


    ¡°I know you could¡¯ve given me heads up dad. Or Jacopo. Whoever¡¯s watching things now.¡±


    The rat laughed at him, and scurried away.


    He shook his head. His father and Jacopo had been clear that they wouldn¡¯t intervene when he made his own messes, and had held to that, Except for the few times he¡¯d gotten into something lethal, though he¡¯d managed to avoid that fairly well. Beatings though, he¡¯d had a few. It wasn¡¯t really his fault that so many people were jealous of a man with a fine voice and fingers that could dance on strings like the finest elven ballerina.


    He sighed, and peeked out of the alley. He didn¡¯t see the husband, which meant he hadn¡¯t searched for him. That was good, but he hoped he wasn¡¯t taking his anger out on his wife. Then again, his father would know and have the man rounded up by the guard and pressed into a work gang by afternoon.


    He pulled his coat a little tighter and started walking down the street. It was still early morning, so the streetlights that the academy lit were still glowing bright and giving off the heat of the sun. Uncle Wane had once told him that the streetlight used to only give off light, but not heat before. Dantes and Merle had worked together to make them give off sunlight instead. He¡¯d had quite a rant about the heavy magic price of that, but that let Jacque cheat a bit when they were playing dice, so he¡¯d let him ramble. He¡¯d still gotten caught of course, but it was best to make the attempt in the best possible circumstances.


    He stopped at a berry bush that was fruiting, and started to pick a few handfuls. There were a couple small children doing the same and he shot them a smile and wink as he tossed a few of the berries into the air and caught them in his mouth. They giggled, and he waved as he walked away, continuing to munch on the berries he¡¯d picked. All of the streets were lined with trees, bushes, vines. Some of the buildings themselves were made up of living trees, or built into complex root systems. There were still a number of the old style buildings, but even those were covered in flowers and greenery. No one ever had to go hungry, though fruits and veggies got old after a while.


    Eventually he reached Midtown, the Vixen where he still lived, though in his own expansion in the back. He considered sneaking around and climbing down through the roof, but it was futile. He never had the benefit of being able to sneak out and in without being noticed. He walked through the front door with a smile and nod to the guard.


    Inside was busy, as it alway was at the second consul¡¯s personal club. Jacque slipped smoothly between a number of people and onto one of the stools at the bar. He was comfortable in the Vixen, it had been his home since he was born after all. Though, it had certainly been through a number of changes.


    ¡°Good morning Auntie Z, what¡¯s for breakfast?¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°Some judgemental looks from me and likely your mother, not to mention Vera. Sly winks from Felix and Jayson who think they¡¯re too slick to be noticed, and a hearty embrace and praise from your father and step-mom.¡±


    Jacque frowned. ¡°Hmmm, not very filling. Do you have anything else? Something with a bit of protein. None of the whey shit though, I have no idea how the Academy mages can stomach that shit.¡±


    She reached across the bar and ruffled his hair roughly. ¡°Eggs and bacon, with,¡± she sniffed the air around him, "water.¡±


    He sighed, doing his best to push his hair back out of his eyes. ¡°That would be lovely Auntie, thank you.¡±


    She slid him a water and he glanced around the bar as he sipped it. Felix was in the corner, making a deck of cards dance across his palms for a few of the younger whores. He was nearly sixty at this point, but Jacque had never known him to be anything other than a lecherous old man. He respected it, few were so certain of themselves as he was.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    A cat leapt onto the stool next to him and he reached out to pet it absently until his food was plopped in front of him. He thanked Zilly, and tucked into it.


    Halfway through his meal he felt a familiar grip on his shoulder as Vera sat next to him on the stool not currently occupied by a sleeping cat.


    ¡°Couldn¡¯t make it home for the evening?¡±


    He held up a finger and washed down some half-chewed bacon. ¡°You know, it¡¯s great living with so many people who care for me. It means I can get lectured twenty times before midday.¡±


    Vera chuckled. ¡°Lot of good it does us, not as if you change your behavior much. Opal was looking for you last night you know.¡±


    He raised an eyebrow at that. ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°She says you owe her five silver for not managing to go drink for drink with her.¡±


    He sighed, he¡¯d forgotten about that. ¡°How exactly is one meant to beat Decker¡¯s daughter at a drinking contest?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a question you should¡¯ve asked yourself before agreeing to the challenge.¡±


    He sighed.


    ¡°And no, I will not loan you five silver.¡±


    ¡°Come now auntie. My father is a Consul, I was fostered by Argenta for five years, and my step father runs the gambling for this establishment. I won¡¯t have any trouble paying her five silver.¡±


    She smiled. ¡°Alessa and Jayson¡¯s wedding. Such a grand affair. Jayson was so terrified of what your father would do, though I suppose that¡¯s where a lot of the spice came from between the two of them. Of course he¡¯d known all along and was proud to be his second man after Jayk at the wedding. The dress Alessa wore¡­ the gods got a fantastic deal the day her seamstress died.¡±


    Jacque used Vera¡¯s rambling to finish his meal. She¡¯d always gone off on tangents like that. Not unusual at her age, and it wasn¡¯t as if she didn¡¯t still have a sharp mind, just a nostalgic temperament.


    ¡°Your brother Zak was looking for you by the way. Wanted to practice sword fighting again.¡±


    ¡°Half-brother. And can¡¯t great uncle Vampa do that with him?¡±


    ¡°No, I wore him out far too much last night for that.¡±


    Zilly and Jacque shared a frown as she refilled his water and took his plate.


    ¡°If you want to earn the five silver I know you don¡¯t have, you can sing here for the night.¡±


    ¡°You know I don¡¯t like to play here.¡±


    Vera sighed. ¡°Come now, is it so hard to share a stage that your mother and step-mother both frequent?¡±


    ¡°None of us are good at sharing the spotlight, you know that.¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°Between Alessa, Dantes, and Syn, I don¡¯t suppose you ever had a chance with that.¡± She waved him away. ¡°Go, go, I¡¯m sure you want to head to the bathroom and clean up, you stink of woman, the gutter, and booze.¡±


    He wrapped her in a hug. ¡°I¡¯ll talk to you later, Great Auntie.¡± He slipped through more of the morning crowd, a mix of regulars there to eat, uncomfortable politicians there to petition his father, and degenerates. That was pretty much the standard crowd.


    In the VIP booth he saw Jayk, sporting his handsome gray mustache and meeting with petitioners one by one. He had all the authority that Dantes gave him, which was most of it, so he was able to end most problems before they reached his father. He gave the man a respectful nod, he was just about the only man he would regularly give one. Something about him seemed to command it.


    He moved to take the servant hallway to the inner chambers where his, his mothers, and his fathers separate chambers all were to finally cleanse him of the stink of the previous day, but there were a half dozen women already there trying to move a large couch out that appeared to need some reupholstering after, what he¡¯d guess, was a savage attack by one of the many wolfhounds that roamed.


    He opened the door to the audience chamber instead, where he saw his father sitting on his throne with an older elven woman with long dark hair lounging across his lap, he was playing with her hair as they chatted, and didn¡¯t seem to have spotted him through the thick canopy of vines and leaves between them.


    ¡°So, with binding we have with Chitlan¡¯s royalty on behalf of Lorna, we can force them into an agreement to stop the trade of their messenger birds to keep them from going extinct.¡±


    ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be hard. Their Emperor¡¯s practically a nameless with how easily Celeste worked him.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m thinking we ignore the revolution in Tymond. We may lose a bound monarch, but the point is only to keep them from disturbing us anyway. If they become a problem again, we¡¯ll send more changelings in their direction. Or have an assassination or three if things get too difficult.¡±


    Dantes blinked a few times. ¡°Son! Good morning.¡±


    Jacque pushed through the foliage. ¡°Good morning Dad, Syn. Do you two always talk about such pleasant things in the first part of the day?¡±


    Dantes smiled widely. ¡°When I was a petty criminal, killing, stealing, bribery, extortion, it was all an evil I had to do to get by. Once it gets to a certain level though, it¡¯s just politics. Turns out people don¡¯t really bat an eye about it when things get to this point. Your Aunt Argenta taught me that, and I¡¯ve found that it¡¯s much easier to talk about with that perspective.¡±


    ¡°That sounds like her.¡±


    Syn sat up and transformed into a massive dragonkin to wrap Jacque into a big bear hug and twirl him before setting him down.


    He shook his head, and fixed his clothes. ¡°You don¡¯t have to do that every day.¡±


    She laughed. ¡°Yes I do. You made me promise I would when you were little.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t have pacts with me, I know that.¡±


    She winked at him. ¡°Are you so certain?¡±


    ¡°So, your uncle tells me you had quite a night,¡± said Dantes pointing at his head where Jacopo resided. Jacque¡¯s father was wearing black trousers threaded with golden leaves all throughout, tucked into high and fine brown boots the color of rich earth. He wore only a vest and sleeveless shirt under it, showing arms that were covered in golden tattoos. When Jacque was a child, he¡¯d run his fingers over them with fascination. There was a rat bite, a batwing, a cockroach, a pigeon foot, a dog paw, a cat paw, crab pincers, fish fins, raccoon markings, squirrel teeth, horse hooves, goat horns, spider legs, moth wings, and maybe a dozen more. His arms, chest, back, and even part of his neck were absolutely gilded. His face was still youthful, looking no older than thirty, and his muscles were strong and wiry. Uncle Jacopo was the stronger fighter, but he¡¯d seen his dad spar opponents far more powerful than himself and win without issue. When Argenta died, which he hoped would not be for a long time as he loved that cold woman like family, he was certain his father would change from being one of two consuls, to the sole ruler of Rendhold. He didn¡¯t seem in much of a rush though. Why would he? He¡¯d live forever as far as Jacque could tell. What would it be like when his father looked younger than he did?


    ¡°Well, tell him he¡¯s an ass for not giving me a heads up this morning.¡±


    Dantes laughed, and responded in a slightly different voice than he¡¯d been speaking with. ¡°There¡¯s no shame in being an ass. They¡¯re powerful, sturdy creatures.¡±


    Jacque shook his head. ¡°You¡¯re purposefully obtuse, uncle.¡±


    Dantes shrugged, his voice shifting back, ¡°It¡¯s part of his charm.¡±


    ¡°Ah, well I need to bathe. According to auntie V, I smell like all the worst parts of a night out.¡±


    Dantes held out a hand. ¡°Wait. I have something I want to talk with you about first, and I¡¯ll be in meetings with Orebus and Merle for the rest of the day after this morning.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Will you be spotting them?¡±


    ¡°No, discussing the practical applications of undead workers in the farms outside the city, but don¡¯t worry about that. It¡¯s a full moon tonight.¡±


    ¡°The druids are visiting?¡± he asked excitedly. He¡¯d always loved spending time with them. He had fond memories of riding Beast, getting fed treats by Mor-Gan-May, and hearing stories from Traizen. His uncle Murk visited all the time, he¡¯d taught him how to howl, not that he got much use out of that.


    ¡°Yes. We¡¯re initiating a new member, a young orc from a very distant land.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°Her locus is a city, much like Rendhold, though more advanced in a lot of ways. We¡¯re going to be discussing what we can do to help her, but I want you to help.¡±


    ¡°Help? I¡¯m certainly happy to entertain.¡± He strummed his loot.


    ¡°No son. Once I¡¯m clear on exactly where her locus is, I¡¯m sending a ship with a diplomatic entourage to her city. Changelings, diplomats, mages, traders, priests, the works. I want to make sure that she succeeds as I have.¡±


    ¡°What would I have to do with that? I¡¯m a bard.¡±


    Dantes smiled. ¡°Yes, a fantastic one. You¡¯ve also been fostered, trained, and taught by the most capable and powerful people in Rendhold. I want you to represent me, the city.¡±


    Jacque stood still, his eyes wide. ¡°I uh, don¡¯t want to do that.¡±


    Dantes raised a hand. ¡°I won¡¯t make you. You can spend the rest of your days here in Rendhold if that¡¯s what you want. You can play songs, bed beautiful women, enjoy the company of people who love you. I certainly wouldn¡¯t mind, the idea of sending you away¡­ is hard for me. I don¡¯t think that¡¯s what you want though. I think you¡¯re hungrier than that.¡±


    Jacque stood there for a moment. He had been feeling bored. Was that why? Was he hungry? Did he want more?


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to make a decision right now, son,¡± Dantes stood up and walked toward him, wrapping him in a powerful hug, even though he was a head shorter than Jacque. ¡°Go get cleaned up. Just think about it, there¡¯s a whole mortal plane out there to spread our roots to. I¡¯d rather not have to do it all by myself.¡±


    THE END

 New Story

    Hey everybody,


    I just wanted to take a moment to announce my new story Penitent</a>


    Here''s the blurb:


    Michael didn''t want to die. He didn''t deserve to die. After a lost battle with cancer that started only a year after he retired, he''d lived what many people would call a full life, but it wasn''t enough. He wanted more time. Time with his wife. Time with his kids. Time with his grandkids. When he found himself drawn toward the light, he fought his way away from it. Unfortunately, that didn''t take him back to the life he wanted to live.


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Reincarnated in another world, Michael is forced to be a Penitent, a soldier in the country he was reborn into in order to pay a debt to society he owes for taking the life of the child whose body he inhabits. It''s not the life he wants, but it''s the only one he has.


    An Isekai with light litrpg elements


    MC will gain powers similar to those of a paladin


    Book 1 spends a lot of time in a military academy. MC does not stay a child for very long.


    Daily updates for now.


    I''d love if you could give it a shot, but if it doesn''t sound like your kind of thing I completely understand.


    You can find it on the link above or HERE</a> if you don''t feel like scrolling up.


    In terms of Druid news, book 1 will be out on the 29th of April, so I''ll put out an announcement that day. I''ll be stubbing the entire story on April 15th, and will alter the title of the story to show that date on the first of the month.


    Thank you all,


    - Seer