Tala’s eyes widened.
“No, don’t hurt them! It- it was my idea.”
Mufara’s Core was humming within him, kept under control by an iron will. He felt it thrum with potential, restless and ready to burst forth with power.
“What do you mean ‘your idea’?”
Her bottom lip trembled, but she steadied herself.
“I- I saw them selling dreem out of that house. I knew it was wrong so- so I asked Uda’s sister for help. She said Jori and Yalatha would take care of it.”
The enforcer turned to the pair, a slight, pale man and a tall, dark-haired woman, kneeling with their hands up. Jori and Yalatha.
He narrowed his eyes.
They’d take care of it, huh.
He brought his blade around, staring at them down its length, the diamond tip scratching lightly against the woman’s neck. She gulped carefully, a bead of scarlet running down the side of her throat.
From the dull rhythm of their Resonant Cores, they couldn’t be higher than the third Harmonic. Still, they were using the gods’ gifts outside the service of the church. Weak as they were, they were heretics.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t slay you where you kneel, blasphemer.”
The woman stammered out a response.
“W-we were ju-just cleaning up our neighbourhood. No one l-likes these dreem peddlers.”
The enforcer looked up at the supposed drug house. He felt the inhabitants trying frantically to break out on the far side of the dome, on the other side of the house. They were even weaker, barely second Harmonic.
Mufara shrugged.
“Fair enough. But that’s not a reason for me to spare you. You know your real crime.”
Tala came forward now, pushing and tugging at Mufara’s outstretched arm. It didn’t move a hair, remaining static as a stone wall.
“Uncle Fara, please! It’s not their fault!”
“Stay out of this, Tala.”
She had tears brimming in her eyes as she looked around in a panic, seeing Liridan. She pleaded with him next.
Damn, forgot about that kid.
“Tell him to stop! They weren’t hurting anyone.”
Liridan glanced worriedly between Tala, Mufara and the two unsanctioned avatars, clearly conflicted.
“Brother Diamond… do you have to kill them?”
Mufara responded tersely, never taking his eyes off the heretics.
“You know the law. Everyone does. Anyone of second Harmonic and above must be part of a church. No exceptions.”
Groups of unsanctioned avatars existed of course, but they congregated outside of towns with churches in them, usually surviving by banditry and hunting the fauna. Sometimes they became powerful enough for one of the church heads in the capital to organise an excursion to cull them. The day the church of Kiine had donned the black cloaks and gone out to deal with the Halfman bandits still lived on in infamy. That was long ago however, and the church was nowhere near as powerful now.
He looked around. Tala and her little friends had tears brimming in their eyes. Liridan’s hands were shaking. The kneeling heretics had their eyes squeezed shut.
Mufara sighed.
“But fine. It is your first day and it would be inauspicious to welcome you with bloodshed.”
The massive blade dissolved into sparkles, at which the two criminals let out a relieved breath. He found Tala’s friend, Uda, and locked him in his gaze.
“Giruda. I will deal with these dreem peddlers and then you will take me to your sister. Understand?”
The wide-eyed boy frantically nodded.
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“Ow ow ow, you’re hurting me!”
“That’s the point. Now shut up.”
Mufara pulled Tala and her friend by the ear, despite her profuse complaining, forcing them into a half-run to keep up with his furious stride.
The Fenari compound, an ornate manse nearly akin to those in the inner city, rose before them as the group approached the open gates. Mufara pulling the two juveniles by their ears and Liridan nervously towing the heretics with a length of brilliant diamond chain attached to glittering diamond shackles on their hands and legs.
Seeing an angry enforcer walking up with the young master of the household, the three guards posted in front smartly stepped out of their way. Mufara didn’t even acknowledge them, a fact they secretly felt relieved for. Even if pinning anything conclusively on them was impossible, everyone knew the Fenaris were a crime family.
Making their way up the walkway surrounded by manicured lawn of lush black grass, Mufara was once again disgusted today. Were there no ways of acquiring wealth that didn’t require preying on those less fortunate? It wasn’t lost on him that, despite the area, this was one of the most expensive houses in the outer city.
Coming up to a huge doorway, he released Uda’s ear. He nodded forward as the boy rubbed his now red and throbbing ear.
“Open it.”
But as the child timidly reached for the door, it swung open on its own.
Standing there, in a diaphanous nightgown that hinted and suggested at the lithe, voluptuous figure beneath in the most distracting ways, was Uda’s oldest sibling.
She smirked.
Zora a Fenari. The biggest mafia boss in Kampe.
“I always knew you wouldn’t be able to stay away forever.”
And Mufara’s former girlfriend.
Mufara, for his part, was not amused. He pushed Uda into her, sending the boy tumbling into her arms as he strode inside, pulling Tala all the while.
“Don’t try to be cute, Zora. Unsanctioned avatars? Let loose in broad daylight? Around my fucking niece? What the hells were you thinking?”
He tried to keep his emotions in check but was shouting by the end. Servants in the background hastily scurried out of sight at the confrontation.
Zora, however, wasn’t same awkward, bashful girl from his adolescence. She’d grown into a savagely attractive, formidable woman in her own right. She spat back.
“I was doing your job for you, apparently. More and more dreem is finding its way into Kampe and you ringbearers don’t seem to be able to do anything about it. Maybe ask yourself why Tala came to me before you.”
Mufara clenched his jaw. His next words hissed out between his teeth.
“Do you even realise that if any enforcer other than me found them, Tala and Uda would be charged as collaborators and subject to execution? Any other enforcer would have rightfully cut them down where they stood!”
She laughed, a light, airy peal reminiscent of small bells and songbirds.
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“Rightfully? Please, any other enforcer would have brought them here anyway, only they’d want a bribe for it. While you big boy clergymen threaten children with death, I am the only reason dreem hasn’t flooded the streets. Every other city, you can find dreem on every corner, sold by kids no older than Uda, to kids even younger. Every outer city is drowning in the shit except Kampe. I won’t apologise for keeping the streets clean.”
It was Mufara’s turn to laugh now, a rich, sonorous sound.
“Keeping the streets clean, huh? You mean keeping them under your thumb! You think I’m naïve? You don’t keep avatars on your payroll to bully low-level dealers. They’re just another way for you to corrupt this city. Gods, I couldn’t even hand them in to my church because I can’t trust these goons of yours not to implicate Tala.”
She shrugged.
“You are naïve, Fara, pretty as you are. Like it or not, I’m the lesser of two evils. Yes, maybe I sometimes use them as my own little enforcement branch, but I’m probably the only overboss in all of Tarte that doesn’t peddle dreem. Without me, without my avatars, some other enterprising businesswoman would muscle in and I can guarantee they won’t be as scrupulous. You’ve heard the stories from the other cities. As bad as it is, it could get so much worse.”
She wasn’t wrong. As cities went, Kampe was nothing to write home about. It barely even deserved the name, being more a frontier town with one main industry keeping the economy alive. But it hadn’t succumbed to the scourge of dreem yet, unlike most of the other border cities.
Mufara was not convinced.
“Listen to yourself! ‘Let me commit crime so I can stop others from committing crime.’ I wonder how long your supposed morals will last once everyone else in your organisation realises how much money they’re missing out on. The so-called Noble Criminal is a paradox, Zora. The fact is, either you’ll succumb to the temptation or you’ll be forced into it by your underlings, lest your gang splinters or one of your cousins pushes you out. Every criminal group follows the same path, the path of greatest profit for least effort. Lie to yourself as much as you want, but look at this house. The legion of servants. Your people used a child to get those dreem dealers to open that door. You’re just like the Citizens. Only worse because you’re exploiting your own people and convincing yourself you’re a saint in the process.”
SMACK
She slapped him full across the face, anger purpling her skin. His head barely moved and she’d obviously hurt her hand doing it, but she pressed in closer regardless, furiously digging her index finger into his chest.
“How dare you come in here, years after I last saw you, and lecture me about a business I’ve been running since I was fifteen! Compare me to the fucking shitizens? You don’t know anything about me or my plans and you self-righteous church goons don’t know anything about the people you supposedly protect. Have you even asked any denizens in our turf what they think? No. You assume and ruin lives based on those assumptions. You don’t even know how destitute this area was before I came in, how hopeless everyone was. You have no idea how many lives I’ve saved.”
Mufara scoffed.
“Please. Your ‘business’ is a violent mafia. I’m sure if I ask everyone what they think of the criminal organisation racketeering off them, the organisation they will still have to live under when I leave, they will give me true and honest answers. And you call me naïve. But no matter, I didn’t come here to argue about whether gangsters are good for the city. Take your pet heretics. If I see them around Tala again, there will be no discussion, their lives are forfeit. And if you ask me, it’s a shame your brother only has terrible role models in his life. Be better. Liridan, Tala, let’s go.”
He turned to see Uda, Tala and Liridan all cowering in the corner as they looked up at the two fiery adults. He sighed, holding the bridge of his nose. Turning back to Zora, he softened his tone.
“Look, I apologise for shouting. You’re still wrong, and a sinner, but this is your home and I don’t want to disrespect you in front of your brother and your staff.”
She barked a short, sharp laugh.
“A bit late for that, don’t you think?”
He grimaced.
“Okay, I’ll make it up to you. Despite how it seems, it really is nice to see you, Zo. Believe me, this isn’t how I imagined our reunion would go.”
Immediately, a cheshire grin grew from her lips.
“You will make it up to me. Tonight. I have a reservation at the Spire and you’ll join me for dinner. I’ll send a driver with an outfit for you, don’t bother with anything from your… wardrobe.”
The mood had completely shifted on a dime, giving Mufara a dose of emotional whiplash.
What the hells? Did… did I just walk into a trap? And why did she say “wardrobe” like it was a garbage pile?
He was so off-balance, he stammered before answering.
“Uhh, s-sure. Sure thing. Um… We’re going to leave now.”
She was almost purring with how satisfied she looked as Mufara, Liridan and Tala left her compound, Uda waving at them from the door.
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Returning to his church, the enforcer was distracted as he passed Liridan off to Father Sapphire.
The nave was half-filled already, with people filing in for their afternoon prayers.
He sat with Tala in one of the pews, looking up at the pulpit where the Father preached every Violetday, lost in thought. The girl had complained but he’d threatened to send her to a nunnery if she couldn’t commune with one of the gods for even ten minutes. She was sulking beside him now, pretending to pray.
What’s Zora planning?
She’d always been cooking up one scheme or another when they were young, getting them in trouble more often than not but all in good fun. When he’d joined the clergy at fourteen, they’d stayed in touch, keeping their childlike romance burning with clandestine meetings outside the church sleeping quarters. They were too innocent to do much more than kissing and light petting, but even that had felt so scandalous at the time.
Then she’d been chosen as the next heir of the Fenaris and she completely disappeared. The next he heard of her, her name had been carved into two corpses left hanging outside a rival mafia boss’ daughter’s school.
It seemed she’d changed.
Not just personality-wise. Her lanky, stick-thin pubescent physique had bloomed into an aggressively feminine figure, and she obviously knew how to use her raw, primal beauty to her advantage. If the stories were true, she’d seduced the leader of the biggest gang in the city when she was only seventeen, and murdered him in their bed before ordering the murder of all his kin, then folded his organisation into the Fenari mafia.
That was five years ago.
He needed to tread carefully.
“Elder Brother Diamond, sir!”
Liridan, having been sanctified and inducted into the church by Father Sapphire, was beaming down at him.
“Liridan. Your induction went well?”
The boy exploded in glee, breathlessly explaining everything that happened to him.
“Yes! Oh gods I was sooo nervous but Father Sapphire, he’s so nice by the way, yeah Father Sapphire really put me at ease and I tried to connect with Kiine but I couldn’t and I almost gave up but Father Sapphire said faith is always hard so I prayed really really hard and Kiine accepted me! I was so scared I would have to give up my gemsoul and join another church an-”
Mufara instinctively tuned him out as the boy went on and on.
Impressive lung capacity, is this all on one breath? I don’t think I could describe my induction in so many words even if I tried.
“-en it made sparks! Anyway, Father Sapphire said you should go on in to his office, he needs to speak with you.”
The enforcer almost missed the message, completely zoned out.
“Huh? Oh. Oh yes, I’ll go right away. It sounds like it was a great experience for you.”
“It really was sir! I’m glad I joined the church of Kiine. You know, I never really felt much of an affinity for the other gods even though my friends all wanted me to pick Fernum and my parents wanted me to pick Yrg but I always knew deep down that I could on-”
The boy was shushed by a finger on his lips.
“I’d love to hear more but I cannot keep the Father waiting. Here, talk to Tala and she can tell me all about it later.”
Diversion successful, Mufara set off towards Father Sapphire’s office, greeting worshippers as he passed them.
He knocked on the simple, unadorned door, then walked in.
The Father sat deep in contemplation, his fingers steepled as he stared down at a sealed letter on the desk in front of him. Mufara’s heart leapt into his throat as he recognised the ornate golden filigree around the edges, the regnal lettering.
Father Sapphire confirmed his thoughts with a wry smile.
“It seems my words this morning were prophetic. This is a communication from the main church, from Greatfather Gold himself. A month hence, you are to meet with him in the capital. Congratulations.”
----------------------------------------
The carriage seemed determined to hit every pothole in the road, making the stiff collar of Mufara’s shirt dig into his neck. He adjusted it with growing frustration.
I shouldn’t even be going to this meeting. She’s not Zora anymore, she’s the Fenari overboss. If someone discovers us, how could I explain myself?
He supposed this was how corruption started. An innocuous dinner here, a lunchtime chat there, a simple low-stakes favour at first to lower your guard and all of sudden you’re conspiring with a crime lord.
I should have said no.
But he hadn’t said no, and thus here he was, trundling his way into the Inner City.
The velvet gloves Zora had sent clearly weren’t built with enforcers in mind, and his bellring bulged awkwardly from his hand. But one did not go into a den of burrhogs unarmed.
The specially crafted rings were illegal to own for any but Elders of the church, the battlemonks and warnuns of the interior, and the royal family. Without them, activating your Resonant Core, the organ within that allowed beings to access the divine, was a slow, deliberate process and, without a silence shroud, visible to any avatar in the vicinity.
Mufara wouldn’t be caught dead in the Inner City without his.
The idea that this could be a trap weighed heavily in his mind. He couldn’t die now, he was so close to getting to the capital and buying his brother a place in Heaven.
Now that he was an Elder, the payments to the church of Hellit to keep the body in stasis didn’t gouge so much, but now that he was an Elder, now that he was going to Ott itself, he’d graduated out of basic policing work and he would be sent on more dangerous missions with less support. He’d been able to handle himself thus far, and truth be told he didn’t honestly think there was anything Zora could do to hurt or restrain him, but his brother had taught him to divide actions into necessary risks and unnecessary risks. Right now, his responsibilities screamed at him from the back of mind that this was an unnecessary risk.
Regardless, he ran out of time to think as the carriage pulled up to the restaurant. The driver hopped out of his seat and opened the door for him, bowing low as he passed.
The Spire, as this place was called, was aptly named, for it stabbed up into the nighttime undersky with a long, slender pearl-white tower that had a single VIP room at its peak. Of course, the room that Zora had reserved. The rest of it was built like a typical eatery in these parts, all arches and pillars that served no structural purpose but gave the veneer of sophistication, of being more than a gilded trough for fat Citizens to gorge themselves.
Suppressing a small shiver of apprehension, he entered the Spire. And like a fist closing shut, the doors slammed together behind him.