The sun was just barely rising when Nanomi was knocking on the back door of a building just outside the Exalted quarter. The trash collectors had already been by, so the bins in the alleyway were less fragrant than they otherwise could have been. But given the business on whose door she was knocking, the contents wouldn’t have been that offending anyways. “Maybe he’s not up yet.” Myca suggested.
“He’s awake.” Nanomi said. “There’s smoke coming from his chimney. He’s having breakfast.” She looked up and pointed to the trail leading from the rooftop, She pounded on the door again. “Leve, I know you’re in there.” She said, leaning into the frame. The door swung open with a seven foot Th’tula Vos’arane rearing up in a threatening manner, hissing and snapping his fangs together. “You never met my mother, so forgive me if I don’t take your word on that.” Nanomi quipped, responding to the Aranean insult. She brushed aside the large hairy arachnoid and entered the building.
Leve dropped back down so that his six walking legs were on the ground, his upper body now at a height slightly shorter than most other races. “Is this interruption of my morning routine for business or pleasure, Lead Watchwoman?” Leve asked, making a show of looking her up and down.
Nanomi had made sure her cloak was tight this morning, no tunic showing. “Business, but the unofficial kind.” She wandered around the room with apparent purpose. It was part storage room, part living quarters. Most of the inventory was in crates, their contents not apparent. “What’s selling these days?” She asked casually. “You still specializing in textiles?”
“Oh no. You don’t get to barge in here at the crack of dawn and be coy with me.” Leve complained. He walked over to where his breakfast lay on a table half eaten. “What are you fishing for? I’m not saying another word until you give me a reason to.” He lowered himself into a chair and continued eating, staring at Nanomi with his eight black eyes.
She found a sturdy looking crate and sat down on it, staring right back at him. “Been an increase in activity down at the docks the last couple of weeks. The illegal kind.” Nanomi emphasized. “I’m trying to track down some potential leads based on new information. So, what’s hot these days? Anything new come out of nowhere?”
Leve remained stubbornly silent for a moment as he continued to eat his breakfast, not breaking eye contact with Nanomi. “I run a clean shop, Lead Watchwoman. I don’t deal with resold merchandise. I procure pieces from the artists themselves. If there’s something nefarious going on, I’m not a part of it.”
“That’s not what I asked, or implied.” Nanomi said. “I’m not here for you, Leve. I’m here to pick your brain. Do you have, or are you aware of, anything new and exciting? Maybe within the last month or so.”
Leve harrumphed. “It’ll be faster if I just show you. Let’s go to the showroom.” He stood up and beckoned to her to follow him. Leve lead Nanomi down a hallway and through a door. Thick curtains were drawn across the windows of the showroom, and Leve lifted a black cloth from a lamp on the back wall, allowing the light to brighten up the space. Several paintings hung on the walls. A sculpture of a male Wartle Suswhog sat off to one side. Its depiction of Lontoh rising from his stormcloud would be at home in many a temple. A rack held fancy rugs that would never see a dirty foot. “This may be what you’re looking for.” Leve said, as he went to a section of wall nearly empty save for a white sheet covering something. He removed the sheet and stepped back with a flourish, clearly enjoying the reveal.
“The bastards did it.” Myca said quietly.
Nanomi wasn’t sure what she was seeing at first, her brain just couldn’t process it for a moment. She was looking at a painting, a savannah scene, but it was moving. The grasses were swaying in the breeze. Big white fluffy clouds were slowly rolling across the blue sky. A small rodent peaked out for a brief moment before diving back into hiding. “How do they do this?” Nanomi asked, moving around to see it from different angles.
“They stole my damn research, that’s how they did it.” Myca said angrily.
“I didn’t ask for the details.” Leve answered, not privy to Myca’s exclamations. “One of my new clients brought this in just the other day, but I’d been hearing hints about this new style since the ninth when I had dinner with Councillor Nesterson”
“So there are more of these, your client isn’t the only one making them?” Nanomi asked, still unable to tear her gaze away from the painting.
“No, Vika isn’t a trend setter. She’s young, she wouldn’t have come up with this on her own.” Leve concede. “I don’t want you harassing my clients, but a few coins might allow me to convince her to speak with you.”
“Are the coins for her, or for you?” Nanomi said, turning back towards the art broker with a raised eyebrow.
His mandibles clacked together. “A standard finder’s fee applies for all my clients.” He said with amusement in his voice.
Nanomi frowned, but handed six gold pieces to Leve, who quickly dropped them into a pocket on his vest. “If she can meet me today, tell her I’ll be at the main desk of the city watch headquarters. You can also tell her she is under no suspicion of illegal activity at this time, I just want to ask her some questions about this style of painting.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“She’ll be in later this morning. She’s bringing another piece. I can tell her then.”
“Thank you Leve. I need to be going. I hope she will show up later.” Nanomi left out the same back door she had come in from and began making her way to headquarters. “Start talking Myca.” Nanomi commanded. “No more evasions.”
“I had developed a treatment for Urongceros bone marrow that could be made into a gesso for painting canvases. An investiture of will during the painting would cause the animation.” Myca confessed. “Garren and I were working on it, but he was more of an investor than a partner. He didn’t have the magical chops to help beyond the initial stages of research. It started as a hunch of mine that moving paintings were possible, and another hunch that it was Urongceros that held the key. It took two years of work, but I finally did it. It was a cave scene.” Myca’s voice had taken on a touch of melancholy. “Stalagmites and stalactites, glowing lichen, bats flying around. It finally worked. Garren came to the lab he hadn’t visited in months, and we celebrated. We were going to be rich” She paused before continuing. “They came for me two days later.”
Nanomi’s stride had been eating the distance as Myca had been speaking, and they were nearly to their destination. “And there is nothing else pertinent you haven’t told me yet?” Nanomi said with the only barest trace of heat.
“He tried to keep it hidden, but I’m pretty sure Garren was a Hand in Santerfinks.” Myca blurted out.
Nanomi halted in her tracks. That had gotten her attention. “You were working for an underboss in the thieves' guild? What were you thinking!” Nanomi had let her voice rise, and a Human in coveralls gave her a strange look as he jostled his way around her abrupt stop. She made a placating gesture in apology.
“Well I didn’t know that when I started the work, obviously.” Myca sneered. “And by the time I figured it out, I was already in too deep. This research wasn’t cheap. Do you know how many trial series I went through? How much Urongceros I needed? I couldn’t even dump the extra materials after I figured out it was the bone marrow that I needed or else I would have tanked several markets and someone might have gotten wise.”
“This morning’s endeavor was supposed to answer questions, not give us more.” Nanomi lamented. She had reached headquarters, the stone building being an outlier among its neighbors in this section of the city. Originally built to house forty, only Renda and a handful of the younger guards lived on site currently. With Lores’s induction, the city guard now numbered just nineteen. Most of the bedchambers had been converted to other purposes over the years, and only a few of the holding cells in the basement still functioned.
Entering the front door of the headquarters, a small brown furry man was sitting at the desk behind a set of iron bars. “Morning Nanomi.” He said. His large eyes and ears were drooping, clearly both tired and bored. A quill lay on a half filled out report sheet in front of him.
“Morning Wiley.” Nanomi replied. “Anything exciting happen with gamma team last night?”
Wiley stood up from the desk and unbolted the heavy iron door, the webbing under his arms stretching as his arm extended. “Nah. Couple of drunks making a scene. It was quiet down by the docks for once, but that’s because no new ships came in yesterday.” He sat back down and let out a mighty yawn. “You doing ok? I heard about what happened yesterday.” He asked with genuine concern.
“Yea I’m fine. Supervisor WindyRiver is just being cautious.” Nanomi assured him. “She’s got me on the desk today as part of that caution, so I’ll be back to relieve you after the briefing.” Wiley gave a thumbs up as Nanomi went down a hallway towards the briefing room.
Sayta, Weej, Alonzo, Mitri, and Lores were already in the briefing room when Nanomi entered. Whatever conversations they were having stopped, then she was deluged with questions from all sides.
“Are you ok?”
“What happened yesterday?”
“Should you even be on duty today?”
“Calm down ya grunts.” Nanomi raised her voice to command attention. “I’m fine. No lingering issues, but Supervisor WindyRiver wants me to take it easy. I am ninety-five years old, after all.” A few chuckles went around the room. Nanomi took a seat just as Supervisor WindyRiver appeared through the doorway.
“Good morning.” She started. “After what happened yesterday, we’re going to have a bit of nonstandard duty assignments. Nanomi is on light duty today, maybe longer. Alonzo and Mitri, you two are with me. We’re going to the Lyceum and we’re not leaving without some damn answers. I know you all spent most of yesterday crawling around that building, but we’re going to be interviewing some of those highbrows in charge. With prejudice.” Supervisor WindyRiver smirked. “No bruises, no broken skin, but I want to hear someone squeal. I’ve got enough political cover saved up, I’m fine spending a bit of it right now.” She said. “Weej, take Lores and patrol the tenements on the east side. Sayta, you’re going to be walking the south end. We’ve been leaning on the docks pretty hard, someone is going to snap and take a swing at us. So we’re going to leave them alone today. Any questions?” With none evident, Supervisor WindyRiver went to the locked cabinet to retrieve the Sending Stones. She gave one half of each pair to Weej, Sayta, and herself then the other halves to Nanomi. “Dismissed.” She said. After receiving the customary salutes, she pointed at Alonzo and Mitri and made a sharp beckoning gesture, then left the briefing room with them in tow.
“Let’s get moving, Lores.” Weej said. “There’s a couple of matriarchs I know that try to keep the peace in the tenements. We’ll check in with them, introduce you, then we’ll know where to focus our patrol.” The two of them stood up and left.
Nanomi shot Sayta a questioning look, jerking her head to the departing two. “Is Weej ok?” Nanomi asked. “He’s not usually that friendly to new people.”
“Weej and Mitri beat Alonzo and I to the library yesterday. Apparently Lores had found five casualties and built a barricade at the bottom of the stairs. Weej was very impressed.” Sayta explained.
Nanomi smiled. “I think she’s going to make a great addition to the team. Stay safe out there. Send if you need backup.” Nanomi told Sayta, as she rose and left the briefing room to relieve Wiley. She went back up front and found him nodding off, obviously fighting to stay awake. She shook his shoulder and he nearly jumped, but Nanomi’s strong grip kept him in the chair. “Go home Wiley. Get some sleep. Finish this report when you come back in tonight.” She grabbed the parchment and tossed it into an open cubby along the wall above the desk.
“Thanks Nanomi.” He said, stifling another yawn. He threw the bolt and let himself out, and Nanomi secured the door behind him before taking her seat. She pulled out the reports from the last several weeks, prepared herself for the slog, and began scanning through them.