Cass was careful not to dirty her dress on landing, having to find an explanation for the dirt later would be difficult after all. Honestly, she wished she could have worn her pants, but those had been left behind when she was captured and the dress she had been wearing was taken away after the servants saw its awful condition. Still, this would suffice, even if it would stand out where she was going.
During the dinner, Klein and the other mages had expounded on the virtues of Beergmutar as a kingdom in an attempt to make Cass more favorable to them. Unfortunately for them, Cass had heard similar spiels from town criers and pompous officials before in Haj. Cass had been cynical and mocking of those announcements then, and the little that she had seen so far of this kingdom gave her reason to think it was no different.
However, if this society truly worked as they claimed, the dream Maurice had helped Cass find may be closer than she thought. However, Hall had driven curiosity and the desire to learn and grow into her, and when added to her previous skepticism, Cass would just have to see for herself.
Odal had been proud of the lack of crime, Klein had touted the good of their priests, and both firmly believed in this caste system they lived in. Both also were proud of the ability for the kingdom to employee and feed all of those in the Stone, but Cass was not very interested in that.
Her dream was for a world where no person ever suffered like she had, and while the lot of the Stone’s might be good, if poor, they were never the target of that dream. Cass had been the lowest of the low in Tyine, a homeless orphan on the streets, so worthless that it was debatable whether she was even worth the time to beat and chase away. There had been plenty of impoverished people who still managed to have roofs over their heads. Run down huts and shacks, families barely able to buy food, never enough to fill their stomachs but just enough to keep them living in constant hunger… From her perspective in the gutter, those people had lives she could only dream of.
Cass got many strange looks as she walked, but she was not stopped or recognized. Her clothes were in the style of the Strioi, and most of the people hurrying about their business in the fading light were of the Warrior or Stone Castes. By the rules of this society, she was simply above them.
Even the checkpoint at the entrance to the Sand District was the same, Cass was able to talk her way through it with minimal effort.
“If you want to go you can.” The warrior said as he scratched his head in confusion, “But it is not safe in the Sand at night, even for one of the Strioi.”
Cass thanked him for the warning and continued on, it was a kind of danger she was used to after all. Though she did have to admit she was a much more attractive target than she used to be, especially with these expensive clothes, Cass was also not the timid and starving thing she had been before.
People eyed her warily as she walked down the street, often slipping away into dark cracks and crevices as she neared. Cass noticed something else however, something that did make her more cautious.
Their eyes should not be this fearful and angry, they should be emptier. Cass had felt constant fear to be sure, and often anger, but it was different. That was more a low level constant buzz that kept her alive through the empty fog of her life, this was sharper and energised.
Acting on instinct, she turned into one of the numerous alleys that branched off the street. She moved through the shadows between the broken down buildings, taking a few turns until…
“I think you might be a bit lost, my dear little Strioi.” A tan belted man stepped out from behind some rotting wooden crates, “I mean, it was stupid to come here at night in the first place, but to enter the alleyways? You must be a complete idiot.”
He did talk well, Cass thought, the Sand District was mostly filled with the descendants of criminals, but anyone who committed crimes could be sent here. Judging by the man's bulging muscles and scars, Cass guessed this man was a warrior who had been sentenced here and not someone born in this district.
Cass glanced behind her to see that the watchers she had instinctively noticed earlier had moved to surround her. Scrawny and gaunt things holding rusted knives as weapons, a grim and dangerously excited look in their eyes Cass had seen on many thugs right before they got their haul.
“No, this is precisely where I intend to be.” Cass said clearly, “I did not come looking for a fight either, but I would like to warn you that there are mages who can handle three people with ease. You really should pick different prey.”
“Overconfident bitch,” one of the smaller men snarled. “You think it is only us three?”
“After you die screaming the others would probably run,” Cass laughed, she certainly would have if she was in their position. “But as I said, I did not come for a fight, but just to ask some questions.”
“The time is nearly upon us!” The warrior shouted and pulled out a short sword, his eyes filled with rage and hatred. “I think we will just take this opportunity to rid the world of another Strioi!”
With that the three howled and attacked the surprised Cass, she expected them to hear her out before they attempted to kill her. People caught in this kind of situation would reveal all kinds of things in an attempt to have their life spared. Of course, they never were, but they shouldn’t know Cass realized that.
Cass sighed, both in exasperation and because the dry mountain air simply did not have enough water for the magic she intended. She also drew mana from her Absorption Glyph to gather water from a larger area as well, and froze it into two small spikes of ice that she sent flying into the stomachs of the men behind her.
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Cass really did not intend to kill them, just stop them. And a painful gut wound might teach them a lesson about letting people speak before attempting to knife them. Or they might just die without treatment, she supposed it did not really matter to her.
The warrior with the short sword had charged her during this time, his long strides quickly closing the distance between them, but Cass merely hopped back and redirected her power to her glyphs. Unseen under the fabric of her dress, the glyphs glowed and Cass exploded forward overwhelming the warrior completely and sending him crashing into the crates he had been hiding behind.
Dazed and scratched up, but mostly unharmed, he attempted to sit up only for Cass to pin him to the ground with a foot on his chest.
“Now if you would be so kind as to answer my questions,” Cass said sweetly as she increased the pressure on his chest.
“Think again, whore.” The man gasped and surged upward, throwing Cass off balance as he put his fist into Cass’s stomach. Cass simply growled and swung at him but he nimbly avoided the blow, and he backed off with a slightly wary respect in his eyes.
He looked at the two men writhing in pain on the dirt behind Cass, then looked to her and spat on the ground. “You might have magic and you might fucking strong, but you don’t know how to fight.”
“I know enough to kill you right now,” Cass hissed back, annoyed that she had let herself be caught off guard.
“Do you?” The man smiled, “I am curious now though, what were those questions of yours?”
Cass glanced to the sides where shadowy figures were on the roofs of nearby buildings as well as in the alley behind her. More shadows appeared behind the warrior as well, this was many more people than Cass had expected. The two toughs she had struck down had been dragged away, and half a dozen more had replaced them. She even saw a crossbow in the hands of one the people on the roof.
She started to think she had bit off more than she could chew, but she had no choice but to try and bluff her way through it. “I recently came to this kingdom and I found the things told to me by my guides a little… Lacking.”
She was distorting the truth a bit, but honesty was not something she really cared about anyway…
“So I came to inquire on my own, and I must say, I can already see that they didn’t tell me the truth.” Cass laughed even though she was getting more worried by the second. No organized crime? She had came down here on a whim, to get this large of a response so quickly required organisation beyond what Cass had seen from any gang in her life!
“You will find that the upper castes rarely concern themselves with the ‘truth,’ I doubt they even know the word.” The man obviously included Cass in that statement, and Cass agreed. She had no reason to be forthcoming and no obligation to say anything that was not in her best interest.
“So now that your question is answered,” he continued. “You think you can leave? Injure two of our men and just walk away?”
“Well, you did attack me before you even knew what I wanted…” Cass sighed, “and after I repeatedly told you I was not interested in fighting, so you can’t expect me to feel sorry for them. I left them alive anyway, and besides, I do have other questions that I would like an answer to. After which, I will leave.”
“Left alive?” A voice from the shadows shouted, “That spike was long ‘nuff to core em’! And in the bucket it to!”
“I have no idea what you meant by that,” Cass replied honestly.
An older woman came out of the shadows, leaning heavily on a cane with stark white hair and determined brown eyes. “What he means is that the wounds you gave them will kill them slowly and painfully. They may be alive now, but it is only a matter of time.”
“They could receive treatment,” Cass was aware that for people at this level of poverty that was nearly impossible. “But to be honest, they did want to stab me, the least I could do with such a welcome is show them a good time.”
The warrior took an involuntary step back from the smile on Cass’s face, and even the strong looking old woman shuffled uncomfortably.
“Well…” The woman coughed, and changed the subject. “I am The Matron, and the man over there is Odev, we will answer your questions and then you will leave this place and not return.”
“Matron!” Odev exclaimed in surprise, “We cannot let her go with what she has seen!”
“Odev,” The Matron was calm as she spoke her next words. “I have lived a long time and seen many people, and everyone here trusts my judgement and experience regarding them. This young woman,” She gestured at Cass. “Does not particularly care who or what we are. The more we hide, the more curious we will make her, but I doubt she will interfere with our plans.”
“How could you possibly know that?” Odev seemed to be struggling to contain his anger.
“You.” The Matron addressed Cass, who had been quietly listening and piecing together her own idea of what kind of group she was talking to. “You are a Strioi, and you say that you came to this kingdom recently, do you wish to go home?”
A memory of her Master went through her mind and Cass answered instantly, but softly, “Yes, I do. I miss someone there quite a lot…”
“Then you are an ally of our cause, not an enemy to be eliminated.” The Matron smiled broadly, “Ask your questions and we'll let you go, perhaps you can return some other night for us to have a more peaceful discussion.”
“I wanted to know what life was like for those in the Sand District,” Cass asked curiously. “I am familiar with places like this elsewhere, and I wanted to see how they compare, if this society really was better than the one I left.”
Odev laughed darkly, “I can only hope that life here is worse, because if there was a deeper hell than this shithole no human soul could stand it.”
You clearly haven’t missed many meals, Cass thought to herself. She doubted this man had any idea what hell really was and his response infuriated her. Cass wanted to drag the man through some of the things she had gone through and ask how it compared, if there was anything sane left in his broken body to answer.
The Matron shot a glance at Odev that seemed to hold similar feelings to Cass, and gave a far better answer. “What is life like here? Short and painful. If the hunger and cold don’t kill you, disease will, and if that doesn’t kill you the Warriors will for fun at some point. Your own family would knife you over a crust of bread, and you wouldn’t have the energy to blame them.”
That sounded familiar to Cass, disappointingly so. Cass was not going to find the answers she needed here.
“I see.” Cass sighed, “Then I will be going.”
Now was time to see if they would let her go without a fight, and to Cass’s surprise, the thugs parted to let her pass. As she walked away, the Matron called out to her.
“Tomorrow night at the Cave Tavern, if you want to know more about this kingdom be there. And if you ever want to be able to leave this kingdom ever again.”