Free Web NovelChapter 33: The Plague, And The Sanctum
Pip had the look of a kid who’d learned early that information was currency, and he wasn’t about to spend it all at once.
"The city’s called Valdris," he said, keeping his voice low enough that Nacho had to lean in slightly to hear. "Capital of the Tuscanny Empire. Population’s somewhere around two hundred thousand, give or take whatever the plague took last winter."
"Plague?"
"Red Cough. Nasty stuff. Mostly hit the outer districts." Pip jerked his thumb toward the window. "The kind of places where people live in houses made of spit and prayers. Rich folks stayed nice and cozy behind their stone walls."
Sounds about right. Same story everywhere.
"What about the power structure? Who’s actually in charge?"
Pip scratched the side of his nose, a nervous habit that Nacho filed away for later. "Emperor Aldric sits on the throne, but everyone knows his advisors run the show. There’s the High Chancellor, Lady Vex. She handles the money. Then there’s General Thorne, who commands the Imperial Army. And the Inquisitors."
The way he said that last word made Nacho’s ears perk up. There was fear underneath the casual delivery, the kind that came from personal experience rather than secondhand stories.
"Inquisitors?"
"They hunt heretics. Monsters. Anyone who uses magic without proper licensing." Pip’s eyes flicked to Nacho’s face, assessing. "If you’ve got any Talents you haven’t registered with the Guild, I’d keep them real quiet. Inquisitors have this thing they do where they can sense when someone’s hiding power. And if they catch you..."
He drew a finger across his throat.
Great. So there’s a whole organization dedicated to hunting people like me. This place just keeps getting better.
"How do they sense it?"
"No idea. Some kind of Talent, probably. Or maybe they’ve got artifacts that do it for them. All I know is, one day my buddy Marcus was making a few extra coppers doing light shows for kids in the market. Next day, they dragged him into the Spire and nobody ever saw him again."
The Spire. Nacho glanced out the window toward the massive fortress in the city center. Up close, he could see it wasn’t just one building but a complex of interconnected structures, with a single tower rising from the middle that seemed to pierce the clouds themselves.
"That’s where the Inquisitors operate?"
"That’s where everything operates. Imperial Court, Merchant’s Council, Inquisition headquarters, the works." Pip took a sip of his water, which Nacho now realized was probably all the kid could afford. "You don’t want to end up there, trust me. People who go in don’t come out the same. If they come out at all."
Nacho absorbed this information and tucked it away alongside everything else he’d learned. The Empire was more organized than Lumen, more dangerous in different ways. No corrupt Elders playing political games, but instead a whole apparatus designed to crush anyone who didn’t fit the approved mold.
I’m an unregistered shapeshifter with a tentacle that steals Talents through lewd acts. Pretty sure that falls outside the approved mold.
"What about the Sirens?" he asked. "I heard some interesting opinions in the market earlier."
Pip’s expression soured. "Yeah, well. The Empire and Lumen have history. There was a war, like, fifty years ago. Empire wanted access to the Ocean’s resources, Sirens told them to get bent. A lot of people died on both sides before they signed some kind of peace treaty."
"And now?"
"Now there’s trade agreements and diplomatic envoys and all that fancy talk. But underneath?" He shook his head. "Most folks up here think Sirens are barely a step above animals. You hear the word ’fish-fucker’ thrown around a lot in the taverns. If you’re doing business with them, you might want to keep that quiet too." ƒгeewёbnovel.com
Good thing I’m not actually a Siren. Just someone who looks like one and stole a bunch of their Talents.
"What about work? Legal work, I mean. If someone wanted to set up shop in this city, what would they need?"
Pip’s eyebrows rose. "Depends on what kind of shop. Merchant? You’d need a license from the Trade Commission. Craftsman? Guild membership. Anything involving magic or Talents, you’re looking at registration with the Sanctum."
"The Sanctum?"
"It’s where all the licensed magic users work out of. Healers, enchanters, that sort of thing. They’ve got a whole system of tiers and permits. Takes years to climb the ladder, and you’ve got to tithe a percentage of everything you earn back to the Sanctum."
Nacho considered this. Setting up another massage parlor would be tricky if he needed official approval. But there were always ways around official channels. He’d learned that much from his time with the cartel.
"What about unofficial work?"
Pip’s eyes sharpened. Now they were speaking his language.
"Depends on how unofficial you want to get. There’s the Undertow, which handles most of the smuggling in and out of the city. They’ve got connections to the docks and the Ascent Pillars. If you want to move goods without paying tariffs, that’s who you talk to."
"And if I wanted to move myself? Go somewhere the Empire doesn’t have eyes?"
"Then you’d want the Rat King." Pip said the name with a mixture of respect and fear. "He runs the underground network. Literally underground. There’s tunnels beneath the city that go back to before the Empire even existed. Old catacombs, sewer systems, that kind of thing. The Rat King knows them all."
A criminal network with its own infrastructure. Now that’s useful.
"How do I get in touch with him?"
Pip laughed. It was a short, sharp sound that held no real humor. "You don’t. The Rat King gets in touch with you, if he decides you’re worth his time. But if you want to get on his radar..." He paused, clearly weighing whether to share this particular piece of information. freeweɓnovel.cøm
"There’s a place called the Sunken Crown. Tavern in the Low District. You go there, you order a specific drink, and you wait. Someone will find you."
"What drink?"
"Mermaid’s Tears. Three drops of salt in a glass of clear water."
Symbolic. I like it.
