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.”

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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.”