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.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

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?”