The palace was on the exact opposite side of the city from where Garrett was now, the furthest from his power base that it possibly could be, while still remaining in the city. Even worse, Garrett knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there were great rulers in between him and the palace, which meant that if he wanted to expand his powers in that direction, he would be forced into multiple rulers' wars, something he desperately wanted to avoid.
Thankfully, sending his people into the areas around another great ruler's territory wouldn't trigger the war automatically. It was only when they entered the specific territory itself that the war would begin. So long as Garrett could identify those territories ahead of time, there was a chance that he could navigate between them without starting a fight.
Considering, however, what Agma-Yoth had said about the other rulers and their madness, Garrett wasn't holding out hope. In fact, he fully expected that as soon as he came to another great ruler's notice, he would be attacked. Add to that the fact that the Klein family barely qualified as a player in the vicious game of politics that plagued the city, and Garrett fully expected that he'd be spending the next six months fighting off not only the illusory threats of great rulers in the dream, but very real and physical threats from the factions that controlled the waking world.
He felt as if he had stepped into a nest of vipers, many of whom were starting to lift their heads to stare at him. Taking a deep breath, he pushed the worry out of his mind. None of this would matter, of course, if he didn't pass the next hurdle that stood directly in front of him. That afternoon, they would leave for the underground arena, and that night, the challenges to the Klein family would take place.
Carefully, he reviewed what he already knew. The two challengers, the Ebony Association, led by Gero Twin Blade, and the Marble Griffins, led by the former general, Vent Delland, would be bringing teams to challenge. According to what Delland had said at the meeting, his only interest in challenging was making sure that the Klein family was up to snuff. Meanwhile, Gero Twin Blade wanted to claim the seat for her own sub-guild, the Dark Blade Collective.
Garrett had spent a considerable amount of time considering whether or not it would be wiser to just barely lose the challenge. At the same time, holding a seat with the Klein family itself would be extremely beneficial, as Cynen already held one. Though it wouldn't be possible to completely control the ten seats with just his and Cynen's, it was a start. A vague plan had begun to form in Garrett's mind as he thought about how to approach the city's underworld.
The main thing was coming to an understanding with the five seat holders on this side of the river. Garrett was wary about the other side of the river, as it was largely controlled by the nobility. But north of the river, that influence waned, and the biggest player in the room was undoubtedly the Adventurer's Guild. Arthur Tellson of the Adventurer's Guild had been one of the first to endorse Garrett. On the surface at least, the relationship between the Klein family and the Hunter's group was amiable.
Henry Janus, the leader of Janus Manor, which lay just south of Dreamer's Inn on an island in the middle of the river, had also expressed his interest in forming at least a rough alliance with the Klein family. This left only the Ebony Association to the east as a challenger to the Klein family's rise.
As he thought through his plan, Garrett's gaze turned cold. He had nothing against Gero or the Ebony Association, and he fully supported everyone's rights to fight for their own place in the world. He did, however, have a hard line. If she or any of her subordinate gangs were to cross that line, the consequences would be swift, severe, and final. Shortly after lunch, Ryn came to fetch Garrett, helping him push his wheelchair out into the inn's great room. There, they found Abbius, Obe, and Maximus waiting for them. Leff, Helger, and Gavin were all at a table nearby, and they stood up as well when they saw Garrett enter the room.
"Is everything ready?" Garrett asked.
Abbius nodded, twitching aside the edge of his cloak to show the weapons stowed underneath. After careful consideration, Garrett had decided on a team that would reveal some of the Klein family's strengths without revealing everything. Cynen would participate, forming the main core of the team's strength, while Abbius would support her. Maximus was joining the team as a frontline fighter, while Obe was going to represent them as a striker. That left one remaining slot, and after careful consideration, Garrett called one of the three remaining Red Masked Assassins to join them.
His hope was that this team would adequately demonstrate the family's strength without revealing too many of their hidden cards. Most of the gangs in the city had one or maybe two members at the Shaper level, while Garrett, in theory, could have fielded an almost complete team of Shapers. Between him, Cynen, Delrisa the Bone Witch, and Isabelle, they had four Shapers, and had Viper still been alive, they would have had five. Revealing such a force, however, was a recipe for disaster, as it would have made them the enemy of every single organization in the city.
Still, just knowing that he could call upon such forces if necessary, caused Garrett a great deal of relief. With the addition of the Necromancers that Delrisa had forcefully recruited, along with the mercenaries from the Cleaver's Edge group, the Klein family had a veritable army of lighting level awakened. Garrett was slowly gaining the confidence that he could go toe to toe with any force in the city. He didn't let it get to his head, however, as he knew there were undoubtedly threats still hidden from him.
The more powerful he had grown personally, the more firm had become his belief that there was a manifesting stage awakened in the city, maybe more than one. While the Shaper level was powerful, it still lacked the ability to completely dominate everyone below it, and didn't quite carry the same suppressive aura that Garrett had felt around the Old King. If his suspicions were right, and the now dead monarch had been in the manifesting stage, then it meant that whoever killed him was likely in the same stage.
Just because he had hidden himself well, Garrett didn't grow conceited. What he could do, others could do also, and each of his successes made him slightly more paranoid about what his enemies might be cooking up. With everyone gathered, the group set out, heading down into the building's basement, before entering the tunnel system that lay underneath. As they carefully maneuvered through the sewers, moving toward the underground, where the challenge match would be held, Garrett felt a faint flicker of mental energy behind them. Lifting his hand, he had the group pause, at the same time using his own mental energy to shield them, ensuring that whoever was behind them would lose track of where they were.
He heard a faint exclamation, and then the sound of hurrying. A moment later, two figures stepped around the corner, freezing in shock when they saw the Klein family team staring at them. Both figures wore robes that Garrett, as well as everyone else, recognized immediately. For a moment, the two sides stared at each other, and then, taking a deep breath to calm his emotions, Garrett gestured with his left hand to Princess Eloise.
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"Your Highness, may I ask you what you are doing?"
A faint blush rose on the princess's cheeks, but she responded in as calm a tone as she could muster.
"I was hurrying to catch up with you, of course."
Hesitating for only a moment, she walked over to where Garrett sat, Morris trailing her closely. When she arrived next to Garrett, she found the young lady behind him staring at her coldly. The princess wasn't used to such looks, and for a moment, considered having Morris slap the young woman, but quickly changed her mind when she saw the look Garrett was giving her.
"You're headed to the underground arena, right?" The princess said. “For the ten-seat challenge?”
Garrett had never mentioned anything of the sort to her, but it made sense to him that Princess Eloise would have her own ways of gathering information, and while he was curious who had sold him out, that would have to wait for another time.
"We are," Garrett said evenly, "so I'm afraid we are not going to be able to entertain you this evening."
"Oh, that's okay. You can just take me with you," Princess Eloise said, beaming at Garrett.
"That will be difficult."
"Oh, I'm not expecting you to treat me like a princess while we're there." The princess said, covering her mouth as she giggled. "We'll treat it as an adventure. I'll go incognito as one of your—" she glanced at Ryn. "Maids. Nobody will even know who I am."
To her surprise, Ryn didn't bristle at all when she was called a maid, though a couple of the others who were with Garrett did. Rubbing his forehead with his fingers, as if he had a headache coming, Garrett turned the princess down.
"My apologies, your majesty. I don't think it's safe. I'm afraid that our meager strength won't be able to protect you if something goes wrong. And in an event like this, it's always possible for something to go wrong."
"You don't have to worry about her majesty's safety," Morris said, his tone disdainful. "I'll be more than enough."
Garrett didn't respond, pretending he hadn't even heard the man speak as he continued to stare calmly at the princess. That angered Morris, but before he could step forward, Princess Eloise held up her hand.
"I'm not relying on you for protection," she said, "and if something does happen, you won't be responsible for me."
This had been exactly what Garrett was waiting for, and with a gracious smile, he dipped his head.
"In that case, your highness, it would be our pleasure to have you come along."
Princess Eloise and Garrett exchanged insincere smiles before the group began to move again, bringing Princess Eloise and her guard along with them. Cynen was waiting for them at the entrance to the underground arena. After meeting up with her and a few of her men, they entered and began to make their way toward the center platform.
Along the way, Garrett detected more than a few gazes sent their direction. He ignored them, and it wasn't long before they arrived at the last ramp that led up to the ten seats. The two trolls were conspicuously absent, as Garrett and Cynen had both proven themselves unaffected by such petty tricks the last time they were here.
Princess Eloise, who had been looking around with considerable interest, spotted a few of the other gang leaders who were gathered together waiting for them. She began to pester Garrett with whispered questions about who everyone was. He did his best to explain until he saw Vent Delland heading their direction.
As a former general, Vent had been in and out of the palace many times and had been on a practically first-name basis with most of the royal family. Fearing she would be recognized, Princess Eloise pulled her hood down and stepped behind Garrett, pretending to be one of his attendants. This made her guard, Morris, quite uncomfortable, but he didn't say anything as Delland stopped in front of Garrett. The old soldier was wearing armor, as were all of his men. He looked down at Garrett for a moment, and then his gaze rose to Cynen, who still wore the thick strip of black cloth across her eyes.
"Are the two of you ready?" he asked.
"We are," Cynen responded. "You look like you're getting ready for a fight yourself. Are you planning on participating in this challenge?"
With a grim smile, Delland nodded. "As soon as you decided to, I didn’t have a choice," he said, "as only a Shaper can face another Shaper. So long as you're part of the challenge, I will be too."
Garrett hadn't anticipated anything of the sort, and for a moment he thought about having Cynen step down. Just then, there was a commotion, and many of the people who had gathered around began to back up, as Gero Twin Blade and the members of her gang stalked towards Garrett and the others. They had come dressed for war, and the murderous aura that surrounded them was palpable. Garrett clearly wasn't the only one who felt it, as Delland frowned and turned to look at Gero. She held up her hand, forestalling whatever he was about to say, as she spoke to Garrett.
"The Brass Tigers were an ally of ours," she said, "and I have strong reason to believe that you and the Grave Walkers conspired to kill them."
"Don't spout unfounded accusations," Cynen said, stepping forward.
"The only person here strong enough to kill Paskal is you and Rackham," Gero spat.
With an amused smile, Cynen shook her head.
"I'm not in the habit of snapping my opponent's necks," she replied.
As she spoke, she lifted her hand, and a small tongue of green flame danced across her fingertips.
"If I had done it, I would have burned the entire place to the ground, and you wouldn't have found anything but ash."
Not backing down one bit, Gero just sneered.
"You can deny it all you want," she said, "but I know the truth."
Without another word, she spun on her heel and led her men away, heading towards the arena that gave the underground arena its name. Delland looked after her, still frowning. In his view, Gero's behavior was unsightly, leaving a bad taste in his mouth, and making him wonder if he should withdraw from this whole matter. Seeing that Gero had left, Henry Janis strolled over, a laconic smile on his thin face.
"Don't let her get to you," he said to Garrett and Cynen. "She's just terrified that she's going to be cut off from the rest of the city."
It took a moment for Garrett to understand what Janis was saying, but then his brain caught up, and he nodded.
"That's right. If I win this seat, the Ebony Association is going to be completely isolated in the eastern corner of the city. She'll have the Grave Walkers to the northwest, the Klein family to the west, and Janis Manor to the southwest."
"Exactly," Henry said, "and she doesn't get along with any of us. That's why she had signed an agreement with the Brass Tigers, after all, to put pressure on the Grave Walkers from both sides so that they couldn't squeeze her out."