“No, I—I mean, it doesn’t look like there are any stores. These are all people’s houses. Does this guy sell Brands out of his garage?”
“I don’t know what a garage is, but this is the right direction. Gora isn’t some common merchant. He operates on the edge of the Hill District.”
“Hill District?” I asked.
Ferrith pointed towards the castle, which rose above the rest of the city. “They live up on the hill. Near the castle.” When I didn’t say anything, he added, “They have lots of money.”
“Oh. Right,” I agreed. That made sense. If our destination catered to the wealthy, it only made sense that they want to be positioned as near to those customers as possible.
“No offense to the Church of Marketh,” Ferrith continued, “but aside from the Artificers, most of their followers live hand-to-mouth. It’s easy for them to sneer at those of us that get Brands when they can’t even afford them. I think most Markethians would buy a Brand or two if they had the money. It’s like that saying… Opportunity is why the thief steals.”
“We have a similar expression on Earth,” I said.
We kept walking. The further we got from the Porter’s, the nicer the houses. Soon we passed houses with security gates in front of them to keep out the riffraff. We reached a curve in the road with a massive structure positioned at the corner. It towered above the surrounding buildings, reaching four stories tall. Like most structures I’d seen since arriving in Haemir, it seemed the rissians in this world loved to build with stone, and that building was no exception. It was made of a dark, nearly black stone with rows of slanting purple roofing tiles peeking out from the bits of it I could see, which seemed a strange choice of color. While looking towards the roof, I noticed a hooded man sitting on a perch up there, watching us.
“Is this the Power Brokers?” I asked.
“The Broker’s Guildhouse,” Ferrith corrected. “Power Brokers are what we call the people that run these places. Each Guildhouse only has one.”
“Kind of like the priest at the church?” I asked.
“Sure. Kind of. Now stay close and follow my lead. They’re friendly around here, but quick to violence if they think you’re reaching for a weapon or anything.”
A wide set of steps led up to the front door of the building. As we approached, I noticed there was a tranquil-looking park with what looked like a duck pond out behind the building. It looked out-of-place in the middle of the city, but a few people were walking through it, enjoying the warm weather. The far end of the park sloped upwards, leading into the hill the castle was situated on. The closer to the outer walls of that castle the houses got, the bigger they became, several with their own fenced-in yards. I could see another patrol of city watchmen marching through the streets up there. It seemed to me to be an unnecessarily large amount of space dedicated to such a small number of houses, but I’d seen that kind of thing back on Earth. These rissians were not, it seemed, immune to economic disparities.
On either side of the doors to the Broker’s Guild stood two more hooded men. They watched us from under their hoods and I got a glimpse of what looked like face tattoos peeking out of their shadowy cowls. No. Not tattoos, I realized. Brands covered every available inch of their skin. “Visitor today, Ferrith?” one of the men said. He stepped in our way to block us from entering, which didn’t seem to concern Ferrith at all. I watched him to gauge how I should respond.
Ferrith pulled his sword off his back and handed it to the man in front of him, saying, “The kid’s with me. Here to get his first Brand.”
The other hooded man chuckled, like he found that amusing. This second man made a twirling motion with one finger, and Ferrith immediately complied by holding his arms out and spinning in a slow circle. It reminded me of the song and dance I used to go through at airport security. A purple light glimmered from the eyes of the man watching Ferrith turn around, peeking through the darkness of his hood. “Leave the backpack,” he said, pointing to it. Without argument, Ferrith slipped the backpack off his shoulders, only reaching in to remove a fat sack that clinked with the sound of money.
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“You too, kid,” the first guard said to me.
“Me too, what?” I asked. Then started. “Wait! I can understand you! Why can I understand you?”
“Just realized?” Ferrith asked with a slight chuckle.
“Tongues,” the hooded man answered simply. “Now turn around so I can look you over.”
I did as I was told, turning in a slow circle the way Ferrith had. It made sense when I thought about it that the men covered in Brands would have Tongues. Based on the marks covering their skin, I guessed there was probably a smaller list of Brands they didn’t have.
“You’re good,” one of the two guards said. They did not, I noticed, return Ferrith’s stuff when they finished checking us over. Ferrith continued inside and I followed. We entered an expansive lobby with polished marble floors. The perimeter of the room was lined with glass display cases full of various objects, most of them shiny metal or sparkling gemstones. Incomprehensible symbols next to the displays seemed to me like they likely indicated prices, but I couldn’t read them. A female attendant stood behind one of these display cases on the far side of the room. Ferrith gave her a quick wave of acknowledgement before taking us to look at a display of swords to the left.
“Who were those guys?” I whispered to Ferrith. “It looked like they were covered in Brands.”
“Hunters,” he replied in a low voice. “They work security for the Broker’s Guild. Sometimes they also do… asset retrieval. That’s where they get their name.”
I lowered my voice to match Ferrith’s. It didn’t seem like the attendant would overhear us from so far away, so continuing to whisper felt foolish. “So are they covered in Brands?” I asked.
“Yup. As many as they want,” Ferrith confirmed. “But they have to give them up if they quit or get fired.” I wondered what Father Koril and his paladins must think of these Hunters considering what they thought of Brands. It didn’t seem like a coincidence to me that the Brokers had positioned their shop at the opposite end of the city from the church. Ferrith turned away from the cases of swords. Most of them looked about the size of the one he carried or shorter, each with a diamond embedded into the pommel. Noticeably, none were as large as the unwieldy blades I’d seen the paladins carrying. “Okay, let’s go,” he said. “I just wanted to see if they got anything new in stock.”
Ferrith took us to the attendant. She flashed a dazzling smile at us, which was pretty effective. As far as I was concerned, she had the facial symmetry, complexion, and height of an amazonian goddess. I struggled to keep my eyes on her face, all too keenly aware of the low-cut blouse she was wearing. If her goal was to put male customers off balance, it was working on me. But not Ferrith. “Was there anything in the display you wanted to—” she started to ask.
Ferrith cut her off. “We’re here to see Gora,” he said. “I made an appointment earlier this afternoon. We’re late.”
“Of course. Name?” the attendant asked, pulling out a heavy book from under the counter.
“Ferrith Daze.”
She opened the tome and scanned down a page of hand-written characters. She marked a quick note with a feather quill I thought might have come from a harpy. “I see your name here, Mr. Daze,” she said. “I’ll see if he can take you now.” She reached behind her and gave three quick pulls on a chain that extended through a hole in the wall. A moment later, a bell mounted above that hole gave an answer of one short ring, a pause, then two more.
Ferrith started moving before he got a confirmation, heading for a gap in the display cases that led to a closed door. “Meeting room two?” he asked in a tone that said he already knew the answer.
“Correct,” the attendant said with a smile. “He should finish up with his earlier appointment soon, so you can wait for him there.” She gave me a little wave and a wink. “See you later, cutie,” she said to me, making me blush with embarrassment. There was no way I was going to believe she was actually interested in me.
Ferrith opened the door to the back room with the type of practiced boredom that came from familiarity. He led us into a hallway with four doors evenly spaced along the length, which ended at a stairwell. We passed the first door where I could hear murmurs of conversation and he stopped us at the second one. Inside, the room was unoccupied but spacious. A stuffed leather couch sat against the wall to the right, with a single, similarly comfortable chair across from it, separated by a wooden table. All the furniture seemed slightly too large for me. In the back corner of the room, another table was set up with a pitcher of water, some empty glasses, and a tray of assorted baked goods that looked like they could have been made on Earth. Ferrith slumped down on the couch. I noticed the scales of his armor bit into the leather in a way that seemed likely to cause permanent damage, but he didn’t seem to care.