The Associates
27th Day of Ojo Didi in the Fourth Month of Snow’s Fall
4380 A.G.G. (253 Years Ago)
Highland Towers, The City of Sky, Sovereign Malani State of The Three Cities
The Continent of Kazakoto
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The following chapter was written based on compiled information from official records, inscribed statements, historical documents, personal journals and audio recordings.
It should also be understood that some of the following passages may not be entirely accurate as they weren’t transcribed as they were spoken. They’ve been translated here for ease of reading. Because of this, unfortunately, some things may be lost in the translation from the original handspeak to common.
Translated passages will be indicated by the use of bold print.
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Adesh
Ascendant Adesh Shrivastava sat solemnly at his mahogany desk. His onyx coloured eyes glaring down across the multitude of papers that covered its surface. The loose texture of his black hair making it look like silk under the open fire lamps about his office; his dark skin gleaming in the light like polished redwood.
Running a business can be challenging. Directing a large-scale company can be a headache. But spearheading a multi-national organization the likes of the Conglomerate, with clandestine arms in at least one major city in every civilized continent in the world, was a completely different entity. Dockets, contracts, reports, requests and every other manner of correspondence seemed to compete for his attention on a daily basis.
But the business of dealing in slaves seemed to be first and foremost on his mind today.
It was shaping up to be a bad quarter for the organization in regard to the skin trade. More and more balani were escaping slavery by running to the north from Assami through the unnamed woods and to the land-bridge to the Link every year looking for safety. And given his disposition over the last few weeks, it had long since become exasperating.
The Magi there were steadfastly anti-slavery. Both politically and socially. This was not just lip service to placate the masses while collecting blood money through a shadow trade. They unfalteringly rejected any proposal by any pro-slavery nation to allow head hunters safe passage on the Closed Sea Bridge. Worst still, they near unquestionably offered asylum to almost any escaped slave who asked for it if they could prove their status. It was a problematic thing at best.
And with the ever-increasing sociopolitical tensions between the chain of islands and the rest of the world at large, it was becoming more and more common for any inadvertently tense situation at the border to quickly become aggravated to the point of violence.
In point-of-fact, it was such that at current, suspected slavers were being summarily executed for moving along the bridge without so much as a by-your-leave by Magi enforcers. And the waters about the Link’s landmasses were becoming precarious at best for any slaving vessel that dared to navigate between them. The Magi were not above using their gifts against these ships; freeing their captives and burning their crews before using their heka to turn the very sea against the massive vessels. Swallowing them whole.
It was no wonder that all of the major slave trade routes ran the long way around the continents as opposed to braving the direct path between the Closed and Open Seas by traversing the waters between The Link’s islands; underneath its world-renowned way-overs.
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On the Subject of the Way-Overs
The gargantuan land-ways which dot the surface of Mundus, known colloquially as way-overs, have always been known to spark much intellectual debate and have long been the focus of study and popular conversation; structures made of earth, not stone or steel, that connect land masses across hundreds or even thousands of miles.
Because they’re bridges of such an unfathomably grand scope which span entire oceans and even support many small townships of their own, they’re often referred to by many as either the great land-bridges, or simply, the inhabited bridges.
Standing between some seven hundred feet above the waters of the oceans and bays they cross at their lowest points, and some eight hundred feet above at their highest, regardless of the waters’ depths, and ranging from some two hundred and thirty feet wide at their slimmest, to some three hundred and sixty feet wide at their thickest, it’s little wonder they’re collectively considered some of Mundus’ greatest wonders.
They were magickally raised from the sea floor during the 2490’s over one hundred years, early in the Golden Age of the Craft, by some of the most powerful Magi of that age out of a desire to connect the world. A side of the practice of heka and the people who wield it that’s been long forgotten by the masses who, in today’s world, fear and distrust Magick’s potential for destruction.
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The blockade against the skin trade by The Link has never sat well with the big business of the market. As it leaves shipborne transport of the goods only two real options if their captains didn’t want to risk ghosting through The Link’s waters. Both of them being logistically challenging and very dangerous propositions; sailing far west around the pirate infested waters of The Beautiful Lands which the cut throats control wholesale, or eastward through the treacherous and dangerously shallow waters between the Zacharian Coast and the upper Broken Chain islands.
Which meant that regardless of how you sliced it, it was expensive in ways that cut deeply into everyone’s bottom lines.
This in turn, of course, led the slavers’ guilds to bombard Adesh’s desk with requests to the Conglomerate to aid them in strategically demolishing docks within The Link and sundering the land-bridges with the intent of crippling the Magi nation and bringing about an end to their meddling in the guilds’ affairs.
Proposals much like the one he was staring at right now.
“Foolish.” Adesh said curtly to himself as he took the request and tossed it dismissively into the refuse bin next to his desk before moving onto the next piece of business before him.
Scuttling shipping vessels and burning docks are one thing. But-
“If I’ve told them once, I’ve told them a thousand times,” he spoke to himself; his malanian accent filling the otherwise empty air, “the land-bridges, are creations made solely of earth and heka. Made by Magi in a time before any of these fools were born. Their foundations reach all the way to the sea floor, and into it. They’re structures that have the strength and mass to hold aloft entire towns and thin strips of woodland. Multi-level buildings, homes, terraces and trees hang over their sides and form canopies that cover their streets. What in the name of Åmbrosįå do they expect me to do with that? Firebomb it?”
There was absolutely nothing to be done for them in the way of physical sabotage unless it was done by another Magi. Or, insofar as Adesh believed, a group of very powerful Magi. The very heka that created them would have to be undone.
“Besides, even if I could,” he continued to speak into the air, “who’d be foolish enough to risk an all-out war with the Magisterium if they didn’t have an entire country’s Army at their back? Or two?”
On several occasions had people also proposed to Adesh that instead of doing something as rash as reducing a Link port of call to cinders, he have a group of his Associates bribe and worm their way into the organizations that operate the conveyance nexuses; as only they understood how they worked. More than one Magi were counted among the Associates’ number, after all. But while the Ascendant much preferred the restraint of such an idea over brute force, that was nearly a pipe dream as well if ever there was one. And he knew it.
While instantaneous transport of cargo from one continent to the next could fundamentally change the entire trade, the Magisters have always had ways of rooting out moles. Likely through some sort of scrying. And the uncovering of such a deception would be a death sentence for the plants. And that would be a waste of some of the very precious few Magi the Conglomerate had under its sway.
As things were, the best any entrepreneur could do was to hire sell-swords to patrol the northern woods nearest the way-over which provided escape from the slavers in Assami to the southernmost isle of The Link, which Adesh’s people were routinely hired to do. But even that was nearly futile. Both the dog ears and the gumps were adept at hiding among the ancient growth there, which they all knew very well. And attacking the trees to cut down on places to hide proved to be folly. More than one group have tried to take axes to them only to have their tools dulled by the trees’ apparent thickness and solidity. The woods were ages old; toughened by time, and some say by heka.
They were far too tall, much too wide and their roots ran far too deep. And fire in the quantity and intensity needed to burn them would have likely been far too unpredictable for them to reliably control.
And Goddess save anyone who did manage to ash a single tree on the bridge itself. The Magi were just as prone to turn the flames on them and kill them for the transgression as the fire was to kill the fire-starters without their help in the first place.
Besides all of that, further intelligences sprawled before him were relaying that only one of the three ships he had returning from their most recent months long voyage to the old docks in Assami’s deep south did so with an adequate amount of cargo. Of the remaining two, one returned underweight, having lost more to sickness or starvation than was normally acceptable, and the other never arrived at all. Reports were that it was believed to have floundered in a storm off of the Zacharian coast; all hands aboard lost.
That single ship alone equaled a loss of coin that was almost headache inducing. There were twenty and seven children inventoried on that galleon and another seven that had yet to be taken from their mother’s bellies. And there are few that make for better agents and assassins than slave children.
“What a waste.”
Adesh Shrivastava was a shrewd businessman in every sense of the word. While those closest to him might have known him to be kind, or even maudlin from time to time, from the outside he was frigid and calculating. All cold hard math. After all, it’s nearly impossible to run such a volatile enterprise without being that way.
Outside of the financial institutions, hospices, warehouses and shipping companies they had under their legal umbrella, in the shadows, the Conglomerate made its real tinder through sex, drugs, racketeering, the laundering of coin, extortion, embezzlement, and the occasional kidnapping and ransoming; whatever stimulated the flow of currency.
Then of course, there was murder, when it was called for. And murder was almost always called for; doled out in spades. And it was always lucrative.
Then there was the skin trade. While a profitable venture, Adesh didn’t often deal in the flesh-for-cash business of slavery; as it was an enterprise that was heavily driven by the sale of his own fairer skinned countrymen. A conflict of interest that didn’t sit well with him. Even when he did allow for it, even though he still strictly forbad the capture of malani, the profit margins less and less seemed to excuse the departure in his eyes. Especially when taking into account losses such as the ones he was facing now.
And it didn’t help ease his distaste for market involvement that ma’jong profits from other guilds more prominent in the trade were showing a steady yearly decrease. Their population had been statistically waning over the last decade. And it took longer to breed the ones in captivity than it took to breed humans due to their longer reproductive cycles.
The vulpine people were becoming a tragedy of their own success. So many were in the market for fox-people that it was putting a strain on the race as a whole. This all led to ma’jongs commanding a higher asking market price of course, but Adesh oft questioned whether it balanced the time and cost of capturing, declawing and transporting them intact.
“How does anyone work in this business and consistently earn coin with numbers like these?” he asked to no one as he looked through the earnings projections for what was received from the botched voyage; the accent of his homeland washing over his words.
The Ascendant looked as if he were attempting to rub the tiredness out of his eyes. And the deeper he read into the papers before him, the more it seemed like he wanted to hurl himself out of the windows.
“I think I’m done for the day.”
He was full of sighs as he stood from his desk and removed his dark-coloured double breasted coat and red tie. Placing them on the back of his chair, he walked about his embarrassingly vast utilitarian office, stretching and staring about at every wood-grained accentuation, single panel shaker door and understated piece of furniture around him.
Thin wafts of smoke streamed from the numerous resin incense burners about the room; inundating the colorful silks hanging from the walls with their sent. Silks which accentuated the bright and intricate rugs which lay all about. Golden statues of the sacred animals of his people such as elephants and tigers and the likenesses of the Goddess in meditative poses adorned the desk, coffee tables and bookshelves about him.
Before long, he found himself in the center of the room, gazing upward into the recessed glass that formed the ceiling. And he watched as coy fish swam about overhead, like visions in the mid-day suns’ light.
Standing in the stillness of the moment, his shoulders visibly relaxed. And he seemed to enter an almost meditative state. Maybe he imagined that he was one of those fish. Swimming effortlessly through the crystal water above him…floating. Flying. Careless.
The thirty year old water-filled skylight had been commissioned by his predecessor; his mentor and father figure, Ascendant Renga Kouki. A man now a decade dead who hailed from the eastern lands of Murrlel.
Kouki had said that the coy tank helped him to maintain his “center”. He’d used that word a lot. Center. Much had been said about Shrivastava never putting much stock in the fixture or the practice. Adesh was many things. Sentimental wasn’t really one of them. But it was apparent that he always had a soft spot for the old man. And when the office, and the position, passed to him, the heated tank seemed to be the one thing that he couldn’t bring himself to do away with.
Besides, there was a certain beauty to the eastern styled aquatic skylight that few could deny. And on exceptionally bright days, when the glass dome that covered it wasn’t submerged in snow and the offices’ thick curtains were drawn, the suns’ light would cut through and liquid shadows would dance about against the golden light throughout the room in a way that the entirety of the office would appear as though it were underwater.
Days like today.
The snow had been lightly falling outside all week, as it so often was. And given the brightness of the suns’ light in the room, it was safe to assume that maintenance had been doing their job well; sweeping and salting the roof.
The Ascendant breathed deeply and released his stress with a single exhale. And there he stood, looking up in a daze. Swimming mentally through the space in the office around him from the look of him. Swimming with the coy fish above him. Allowing the warmth of the suns to soak him.
But a knock from the direction of his office’s entrance served to shock him out of himself. And turning towards the already opened door, he saw a young, dark-skinned woman standing by the threshold. She wore a very clean cut, dark coloured dress suit that clung lightly to the onyx curves of her body just so.
His dwalli daughter.
With a weary smile, and a wave of his hand, he beckoned her forward.
Entering the room just enough to place a grouping of important looking documents on a nearby accent table, the young woman greeted him with- “Sorry to bother you, but I have something you need to see.”
Her voice had the nearly alien sounding flat tones of someone who’d been mostly deaf their whole life.
And so she had been.
Looking up at the ceiling tank again, Adesh could see the wavy shadows of workers moving about above. Real life had fully asserted itself. And his stress suddenly returned with the acceptance of this; made evident by the heavy sigh that followed. Using his hands to converse nimbly with the young woman in handspeak, he addressed her. “It’s fine Abebi. What’s the big news?”
Retrieving the papers, Abebi walked briskly through the space to Adesh’s side; the dark-coloured headscarf encapsulating her cotton-like hair, bouncing chicly as she swayed her lithe hips in stride, and handed him one of the reports she brought in with her as she rested the rest on the arm of a nearby couch.
The roll of Adesh’s eyes betrayed that he would have preferred it if she’d dressed a little less provocatively. Something he’d oft told her before. But such were the times and the dwalli people weren’t quite as…conservative as the malani were.
Or prudish, as Abebi had been known to refer to them as.
Regardless, Abebi herself was a professional woman through and through. And it was easy to see simply from her appearance that she prided herself on her job and how well she did it. “Finding your center?” she asked; seeming to slip thankfully into handspeak as opposed to having to converse in, what was to her, an awkward feeling verbal manner.
He smiled slightly. “Strangely enough, yes. I think I was. But unfortunately, the world once again makes itself present before me.” He waived the file around to accentuate his point before placing it on his desk and opening it. “Hmm. Interesting you should bring me this. I was just thinking about our Assimian cousins.” He stopped and seemed to re-read some passages. Once he did, his whole demeanor changed. His smile faded and he fell into seriousness. “When was this prepared?”
“Just now. Katelyn-”
“If you’re not about to tell me why it took so long for her to report this to me,” he interrupted “then I’m not interested.” Adesh checked his timepiece. “This is already two-day old information. Elias just gave me a report yesterday that he received concerning Katelyn and nothing untoward was mentioned.”
“He wouldn’t have known. Apparently, she was confronted after she left the last meeting she had with his subordinate. She’s been compromised quite completely. She said she couldn’t get it to us any sooner; wasn’t sure if she were still being watched. In the aftermath, she’s fled south into the desert to make tracking more difficult for her pursuers.”
“By the Gods and Goddesses above! Tell me I’m reading this wrong. She actually manipulated The Flow to fend them off? In public view?!”
“Yes.”
“She did that rash and stupid of a thing and she still couldn’t handle the situation then and there?”
“She tried to talk her way out of it, but they apparently wouldn’t bite. It was three on one and she was cornered. What would you have had her do?”
“Taking up for her, are you?”
“Someone has to.”
The look on Adesh’s face betrayed that he likely would have slapped her down for such a statement had she been anyone else. But this was his daughter. Never had he raised his had to her in such a way. And he wasn’t going to start today.
“Fine.” he answered. “Was the endeavor fruitful at least?”
“She’s not certain how successful she was. Apparently, Katelyn was given quite a run for her money by one of them. She knows that there were shots that hit true, but her opponent made it difficult for her to employ her gifts properly. And she didn’t have the time to confirm kills. She’s requesting to come in and-”
“No!” he said shortly and aggressively; forcefully slamming his fingers together in the hand motion. Then, as if suddenly realizing that he’d escalated too quickly, he backed down. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. I’m aggravated at the situation. Not at you. Katelyn’s overseeing too many of our balani-centered operations there for me to pull her. Besides, if there’s any chance at all that this could be as bad as what she can surmise from her point-of-view, then we have to assume it’s worse. In which case rashly upsetting our dealings would solve nothing and it would only serve to bring the wolves that are hounding her to our door. Has the link gotten involved?”
“Not that she’s been able to discern. To be honest, there doesn’t seem to be much for the local law to want to bring in such a high profile group for. No real witnesses to her weaving, if she’s to be believed…which I do. And if they weren’t killed, then there’s likely not even a murder or group of murders to investigate in the first place.
“Someone maybe firing a gun off in an alley. Nothing more. They’ve likely already put the incident on the back burner for the time being.
“Impossible. No blood? No traces left behind of a scuffle? There’s something else at play here. We need to address the source of this problem. Not just treat a symptom of it by pulling her out.”
As he started to read over everything more closely, he placed a dark finger on one of the pages to bring Abebi’s attention to it, then started to sign again. “These same three names have shown up before concerning Katelyn over the past few months. I’m certain I’ve seen them in at least two other reports. And now here they are again, directly interfering with her. Interfering with me. Once is inconsequential, twice could be coincidence, but three times is a problem.”
Abebi shifted her stance to take some of the weight off of one of her feet as she listened. She’d apparently been doing more moving around than she cared to today in the heels that she was wearing and her feet were hurting. “You’ll get no argument here.”
“What in the name of Brŭmal is this ‘Tribunal’ anyway? Who exactly are these skip tracers? What do we know about them?”
“I figured you’d ask. I had your people look into just that. And they found some things about them that you may find interesting. For instance, they’re all munificences by trade. Not bounty men.”
“What? Then what are they doing chasing down people?”
Abebi shook her covered head. “Haven’t the slightest.”
Adesh grunted his displeasure. “I don’t like unknowns and unpredictables. Which one of them is the head of this particular snake? I need to know where to cut this problem.”
“They operate independently. But in this instance, it’s most assuredly Samahdemn Astaroth. A swalii. If you were to ask me, I’d say he’s the root of your problem. Take care of him, the problem goes away.”
“Convince me.”
“The other two have a long, easily trackable history with the I.A.M.H. Successful, but utterly unremarkable. The group didn’t gain its reputation or notoriety until after Astaroth’s arrival. It signaled a shift in how they conducted business; the key to what they seem to be becoming. Whatever that may be.”
“Circumstantial.”
“Then, what would you say if I told you that from all that could be figured, it wasn’t the Tribunal as a group that started this pursuit? Astaroth started digging into Katelyn on his own. His name is the only one on the contract that he seemingly accepted for her capture.”
“I’d say that I still can’t see why in the name of Brŭmal a fiend killer would accept a contract to hunt a human. Let alone three of them.”
“To be fair, they were well into the bounty hunting business before Katelyn. But frankly? She has a rather sizable amount of coin tied to her contract. Add to that the fact that an Askew’s nothing to be taken lightly and that Katelyn has put under the ground more than a few lawmen who’ve attempted to collar her, and you have a recipe for why she’d make a luring target for a man with Astaroth’s particular expertise.”
Adesh sighed depressingly. “If it’s not one thing it’s another.” he spoke. “Coin and a challenge? There has to be more to it than that. And if that is it, then we’re obviously not spending enough capitol or instilling the locals with enough shut-the-fuck-up to keep our investments safe there.”
Abebi lowered her eyes in thought. “Well, if there’s more going on beyond the obvious, then I’m not seeing it.”
“And as far as this swalii who was offered the contract, if his motivation is the coin as you say, then what’s the other two’s reasoning?”
“They didn’t seem to have a dog in the race.” Ababi responded. “Neither of their names are tied directly to this. Astaroth likely roped them into the hunt when he realized that having help wasn’t the worst idea.”
“I’m hearing a lot of supposition from you Ababi. Guesswork. I don’t move off of guesswork.”
“Look at the paperwork again. I’m telling you. Despite all of the ‘guesswork’, Astaroth is the linchpin that you’ll need to address sooner or later.”
“And the other two?”
She shrugged. “Depends on how you choose to handle Astaroth I’d imagine.”
“You don’t want me to contract him.” he said, knowing his daughter’s mind on the subject of wet work.
“Better than the alternative.”
“Is it? What do we know about these other two?”
“Well, your people surfaced quite a bit about Jeruian Benefield and Waimund Caine. Taken individually, they’re professional records are fairly run-of-the-mill for munificences. But when working together, they’re anything but vanilla. And if you kill Astaroth, they could cause issues for you. Not to mention that it would cause unnecessary friction with the I.A.M.H.”
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
He looked keenly at Abebi; staring into her pitch black eyes so intently that an outside observer could be forgiven for thinking that he was trying to look into her soul. “I see.” he said at length. “I’ll defer to your feminine intuition on this one then. Educate me further. Benefield?”
“Benefield came into the fiend hunting business pretty young. And took to the logistical side of the trade strongly. It’s believed that information on their skip tracing targets is sometimes gifted directly to him via as of yet unidentified lawmen contacts. College educated. And a second level degree in biology makes him a proficient killer of beasts. Never married but once seemingly betrothed to…an adzæ, of all things.”
“Really? He beds what he hunts? That must make for some interesting pillow talk. Have we traced him to a Family?”
“Nothing to trace. Despite the relationship as it was, there’s no record of him ever being accepted as a familial familiar, nor was he ever turned.”
“Odd. A mutual relationship between a vampiri and a mortal that’s not a power play of some kind by the fiend in question? Stranger things have happened I suppose.” As full of curiosity as I know he was, this wasn’t really the time for it. “You refer to them in the past tense. Why aren’t they tied together anymore? Bad blood?”
“In a manor of speaking. The would-be wife, Anjali, was murdered. Hate killing. She was ambushed by a group of anti-adzæ extremists. Caught a face of silver nitrate. And while she was confounded by that, well…” she passed another of the files to her father. “…You can read it. I’d rather not. Not again.”
Taking the file, he thumbed through the procured transcriptions of lawmen reports and forensic photos. “I see.” he signed to Abebi after several long moments. “Gruesome. And afterward?”
“Interestingly, all responsible parties are either missing or dead; having fallen under mysterious or unresolved circumstances. There’s no real evidence to speak of, but I think it’s fair to say that we can surmise what happened to them.”
“Well now. Seems like this Benefield fellow is full of surprises. Were the other two involved?”
“Astaroth wasn’t an associate of theirs at the time. But I strongly suspect that Caine was deeply involved.”
“And how close is the law to them?” Adesh asked, attempting to figure how far down this rabbit hole went.
“They’re not. There’s no case files that your people could find that linked to them. Nor are there any that link any of these incidents together as a whole.”
“So we have three possibilities.” Adesh postulated. “Either the lawmen are inept, the lawmen don’t care or-”
“-Or the Family stepped in.” Ababi answered. “I’m fairly certain that it’s the latter. There’s light evidence that supports the Ŝpranzas using their resources to protect them. Both during and after these thinly veiled executions; understandably so.”
“And their relationship with the Family now?”
“It seems that for all intents and purposes, they’re both estranged from them. Once again, understandably so…from what’s likely Caine’s and Benefield’s points of view anyway.”
“Good enough. Queer though this entire affair is, at least we won’t have to deal with vampiri should this come to blood. Makes this whole thing easier for us to navigate. Less trouble that way. I don’t want to stir up the adzæian nation any more than I want to step on the toes of the Association if I don’t have to. But we should still keep an eye on that.”
“Hmm.” Ababi stated with a blink of her dark eyes.
“What more do we know about Caine?”
“Caine is prior military. Released with honors after six years of service. He obtained a first level degree in general studies during that time. Never married. And he’s a world class shooter by all accounts. Or, at least he probably could be officially if he ever decided to make it a career. Nothing much more on that front.
“But this leads me to more information concerning Astaroth. And more to the point of why he should be your focus.” Abebi shifted her weight between her feet again. “Prior to nine or so years ago when he started working as a huntsmen, it seems that he too was military, like Caine. But for far longer. Exactly how long, we can’t tell. Nor do we know what he was doing during that time. A lot of his service information is shrouded. But we believe he was a prominent figure within the Hesijuan services for at least…two decades.”
The Ascendant walked around his desk and took a seat in his heavily leathered chair. Raising an eyebrow in curiosity. “Shrouded by who?”
“You likely won’t believe this. But as far as can be figured…Sovereign.”
His eyes widened. This was undoubtedly one of the most powerful women in the free world. If not the most powerful. She didn’t bother personally signing orders to seal someone’s files unless they were one of- “The Ordained Order of Sovereign’s Royal Knights? You’re telling me he’s a fucking Knight?”
“That’s what it seems like. However, if he was ordained, he hasn’t been invoking the title since he cropped back up after his service. And that’s not all. Page six. Third paragraph.”
Adesh read silently to himself for a moment then- “By Brŭmal.” he whispered to himself. “Is Katelyn sure about this? A Magi?”
Abebi nodded. “She’s very certain. She says she ‘felt’ something odd in him when she fought with him. Her exact words were that he ‘wasn’t right’. And I believe her. Magi seem to have a sort of sixth sense when it comes to their kind.”
“Records?”
“None. I wasn’t able to find anything. So you’re left leaning on what Katelyn told me.
“Otherwise, we know he’s the first son of a prominent lord, although it would seem that they’re estranged by all accounts. He had land, serfs, the whole nine yards. His family’s money, power and influence apparently covered up more than a fair bit of illegal activity before he finally fell into disfavor. But your people were able to dig a lot of that up with little issue.”
“Nothing stays buried forever.” Adesh proclaimed.
“And among other things that were much more easily found, he was apparently a slaver.”
“His family get their money from the slave trade?”
“Nope.”
“Then why bother with trading in people if he was already wealthy beforehand? It’s more trouble than it’s worth if your profit margin isn’t high enough. And it’s rarely that high as an independent trader.”
She shrugged her shoulders.
Adesh read some more.
“And what’s with all of the rebellious behavior in here? All of the trouble with the law?”
“Maybe he was sore about the fact that his family nearly killed him.”
“Nearly what?”
“Killed him.”
“Hold a moment Ababi. You’re telling me that his parents tried to commit filicide? And he still stayed?”
“Not purposefully. Reckless endangerment is more like. Did you know that not every swalii has an Amalgamate? I’ve been reading up on them and it’s a fascinating culture.”
“True. But it’s not that many who don’t as far as I know.”
“Not true.” Ababi corrected. In spite of the fact that they’re actually born with those plugs they all have in their arm and lower back; some kind of petrified bone outgrowths apparently, only about ten percent of the population are joined.
“Hesijua has an organization called the Amalgamate Control and Distribution Society who compile a great deal of information on any subject to be joined. Not the least of which is a full DNA workup, family lineage, hereditary medical records and, in some cases, even psychological profiles. And it’s through this tech that they get their unnaturally increased lifespans, cognitive output, hand-eye coordination, stamina, muscle tone, vision and hearing. Those who don’t get joined are no better than, or live any longer than the rest of us humans.”
“That’s all very interesting. But what does this have to do with his near accidental murder?”
“Their Amalgamates are implanted somewhere near the spine and it attaches itself to their plugs and their brain stems. At least, I think. It’s all very queer. Needless to say, it’s a dangerous proposition if a joining doesn’t take properly. And Astaroth’s body was outright rejected by his chosen Amalgamate altogether.
“Apparently, and the details are sketchy at best, he was never supposed to be joined in the first place. I’d say that his family’s money had a lot to do with it. And after the incident, their coin swept it all under the rug.”
“Bribes? Just to get him joined?”
“That’s my assumption.”
“They did know it could kill him, yes?” Adesh asked; flabbergasted.
“I assume. It’s all common knowledge for them.”
“Then why take the chance? Or did they just not care?”
“If I were to venture a guess? Reputation maybe? To save face? It’s fairly common for Hesijuan nobles to join. It would look bad socially if he couldn’t be. Maybe even effect their status among their peers. So under the knife he went at ten years old.”
“Hmm. No wonder he’s estranged. How bad was it? He’s apparently not crippled.”
“That’s what you’d think, but you’d be wrong. Getting a hold of any of the science behind how all this works was neigh on impossible but I can tell you that for as young as they are when they undergo this silliness, there’s no reason he should have survived a mismatch.”
“So what were the effects?”
“From what your people could piece together, some kind of way, Astroth’s Amalgamate tried to completely assimilate his spine and the muscle tissues in his left leg. And it supposedly assaulted almost all of his major organs; heart, lungs, spleen, liver, pancreas, kidney…you name it. One of his ears was also reportedly affected and his right eye was decimated. It was apparently surgically replaced at great expense with some type of artificial glass covered lens. Once again, the science is beyond us.”
She scratched at the billowy mop that lay hidden underneath her headscarf before she continued. “There were supposedly a number of Hesijuan scientific journals that attempted to explain the strangeness of his accident and the subsequent miracle of his...not dying. But I’ll be damned if I couldn’t dig much of it up.”
Adesh appeared unmoved. “Is there any way we can better confirm any of this?”
“I asked myself the same thing. But this was information that was hand delivered to me personally by Lesedi herself. And she says there was nothing else to be had. So I trust it.”
Adesh’s eyes seemed to perk up at the name. “Few are the moments when our illustrious ‘Queen of Intelligence’ lends herself to delivering information that she could’ve sent by courier.”
Silent nods.
“Well, all of that aside,” Adesh asked, “what about this assumed Magickal affinity that Katelyn is claiming he has? That’s supposed to be an impossibility among their kind. Can we confirm it at least?”
“I tasked your researchers to find…anything on the subject.” Reaching down to the papers on the couch, she picked up a weathered scientific journal and tossed it onto the desk; motioning towards a dog-eared page. “As luck would have it, Lesedi dug this up.” Opening the magazine, Adesh saw an article titled The Queer Consequences of Unintended Melding: The Magickally Gifted and the Technologically Burdened.
Its author was Magister Valancia Vences.
How much of the technical dissertation before him he fully understood as he thumbed it is unknown to me.
But it was very clear that Adesh understood exactly want it all meant for his organization.
“So let me get this straight. We have a Knighted swalii Magi, a gunslinger and a tracker hounding us. All of whom are proficient fiend killers and who have ties to the law as well as undefined connections to multiple militaries. Is that really what you’re telling me? Is all of that even real?”
“No. Technically, a Knighted swalii Magister, a gunfighter and a tracker are hounding Katelyn. And yes, it’s apparently very real. As I said, together, they’re anything but vanilla.”
Adesh tapped his fingers on his desk in contemplation. “No wonder they nearly got the best of our little Askew. She was out of her depth. She’s fortunate they didn’t kill her. Find all three of them. Start by having one of our people get a hold of the Magi’s shard. I want an echo of it in my hands before-”
“No good. I already had your people look.” She was starting to get audibly irritated with his use of the word “our” to refer to the Conglomerate’s resources. “I was quite serious when I said that there were no records to be found on him. He doesn’t have a shard. Your people know he was registered in the Link; the article I gave you proves that much. But there’s no record of him within the Athenaeum. It’s possible that it was pulled by Sovereign’s cabinet. Assuming that he was actually ordained and Knighted. We don’t have a lot of information on the inner workings of the Order or how they deal with their Magi.”
Shrivastava sat back and looked up at the ceiling again. He watched the fish swim about the delicate curves of the masterfully shaped decorative glass. The tic-tock of a grandfather’s clock in the far corner supplanted the room’s silence as wisps of stray incense smoke wrapped themselves around the duo before vanishing into nothingness.
“You surprise me Abebi. If I didn’t know you any better, I’d swear that I hear adoration in your voice.” he stated as he apparently returned to the moment. “And never have I known you to take such an interest in a possible target. Do you admire this man? Maybe…something more?”
She dismissed the suggestion out of hand with a scoff. “Please.”
Adesh seemed unconvinced.
Ababi continued; unfazed by his silent skepticism. “Whether by chance, providence or on purpose, the Tribunal is a presence. A force. You could probably do worse than extending them an invitation to the Conglomerate as opposed to bloodying your hands. The Associates could temper them. And you could use them. Killing them would be a waste.”
“Always looking for the nonviolent solution, aren’t you?”
“There’s always a nonviolent solution.” she countered.
“If only you’d been born hearing…and with a stouter constitution for the rougher work we do. What an Associate you would have made.” he said almost wishfully. “But, I wonder; would you have been decisive in such…wet work?”
“In such a fiction, I would have been what you taught me to be.” She signed; the smile fading from her face slightly as she spoke. As if speaking about her place within the organization somehow left a bad taste in her mouth. “But I needn’t be an assassin to serve you, or to help oversee your day-to-day workings. Which I much prefer to do other than dipping my toes into mess like this by-the-way. After all, what else can I do? That being said, I still motion that you could do wholesale without the coin we pull in from the slave trade. I saw the report concerning the Sybella, the Antilope and the Swift. The Antilope loosing eighty and four of two hundred and thirty bodies to sickness and the Swift floundering? It’s a loss you wouldn’t be facing if you’d just leave it all alone.”
Adesh silenced the young woman with a wave of his hand and stern glare. “Don’t try to segue to this. I’ll not debate this with you again. You know my position on that and it’s not changing. The world works the way the world works and I’m not out to be a hero and change it. Besides, the organization has use for slaves. And I’ve got enough of an ulcer insofar as those ships are concerned right now. So let’s just stick a pin in that for now.”
Abebi’s face was awash with disappointment. “Fine.”
“Careful with that attitude.” Adesh warned. “Regardless of what you may be to me personally, when it comes to business, I’m still the Ascendant and you’re my subordinate.”
The dwalli woman bit her lip and nodded. “Of course.” she signed with obvious aggravation. “Will you at least consider having someone approach Astaroth before you do anything rash?”
He seemed to stew over the idea for a moment. But in the end, he shook his head stoutly. “I can’t allow that. Astaroth sounds like more trouble than he’s worth and we don’t know nearly enough about him for my liking. He and his colleagues have made themselves an issue.” He sighed loudly and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “If I’m to groom you to take my place one day-”
“-I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it.”
Ascendant Adesh found himself smiling despite the woman’s brash nature. “I know you do. Well, since we don’t have a shard to work from, we’ll track Astaroth and his group the old-fashioned way. Check the hospitals local to the incident and work outwards.”
“I’ll put someone on that.”
“Good. This is a problem we’d do well to handle quickly. Talk to our herbalists and get a dose of liquid nightshade for-”
“-That’ll do little good. For Astaroth anyway. Astaroth’s Amalgamate will likely metabolize the poison too quickly for it to be effective. The thing was designed to keep him alive after all.”
“Larger dose?”
“Any dose of anything large enough to kill him outright I imagine will be too large to get past normal smell or taste.”
“Can we get someone close to him?”
“I doubt it. Their circle of known associates is pretty small. Mainly just each other. And from all your people could gather, Astaroth is slow to trust almost anyone. Most of the people who deal with them on a consistent basis seem to be other Magi; all tied to You-Know-Who. To get to them that way, you’d have to get into the Link first. I’m just guessing, but I think that’s a timetable you’re not willing to consider.”
Adesh looked as if his head may actually explode. It wasn’t often he had such a clear and present problem from a singular source that still managed to be so resistant to being solutioned. “You assume correctly.” He answered. “Katelyn won’t have that kind of time or opportunity with these men chasing her down. And neither do we.” Adesh pondered to himself for a moment. “An accident?”
“How big of an accident are you looking to cause? Once again, Caine and Benefield would be soft targets sure enough. But if what we’ve learned of Hesijuans, and Astaroth in particular, are true, it would take more than a passing happenstance to get rid of him. Maybe more than what could be covered up under the guise of ‘accidental’. The Amalgamate-”
“That fucking Amalgamate!” He spat aloud angrily as he flung his hands up in anger; cutting off Abebi’s thought. His calm veneer cracking under frustration. “I’m sorry. That was…unwarranted. It wasn’t directed at you.”
“I know.”
“Okay. Fine.” Adesh said with a nod of his head and a reasserted calm. “These men won’t die in their sleep, nor through poison or an accident. I suppose our hand will have to be felt in this whether we want it to be or not. Put a group of two Associates on standby.”
Abebi sighed. “Since you’re committed to doing this, that may not be enough.”
“Oh?”
“There’s one last thing…but it’s purely speculative. If your nerves can take it that is.”
The Ascendant ran his dark hands through his smooth hair in frustration. “What more could there possibly be?”
“The Grand Spire Sir.” called a voice aloud. “May I?” a dark skinned dwalli asked from the threshold which Ababi crossed earlier. Bald with an old scar that ran from his left ear nearly to the corner of his mouth. His left eye cloudy; not clear and russet like his right one. The sight in it nearly half gone by his own account. A missing ring finger on his right hand rounded out the man’s battle-worn visage.
“You may as well since you’ve apparently been watching us talk from the doorway. What do you have to add to this that makes it necessary for you to show yourself to me unbidden Elias?”
Elias Deveraux entered the space and stood next to Abebi; nodding at his peer in respect as she shifted her weight between her sore feet a final time; seemingly ignoring the nod. “Astaroth may be responsible for the Grand Spire incident.” he stated as he joined the conversation in handspeak; his missing digit having long since forced him to concoct his own unique version of the visual language.
“The Grand Spire Incident?” Adesh asked.
Elias nodded.
I don’t think Adesh knew whether to laugh or scoff. And both Elias and Ababi could see the gears turning in his head. Adesh started to speak, then withheld it. He went back to the papers on his desk, flipped back and forth between a few pages, looked back at Abebi who nodded her confirmation of Elias’ statement, and the ascendant shook his head in response.
“So he absconded?”
“That’s what it seems like.” Elias answered.
“So he’s one of the-”
“No Sir. Not ‘one of’. If we’re trusting to the belief that our information is right, then we think that he may have acted alone.” Elias corrected.
“You do realize that you’re talking about a single man? A single, solitary man?”
“I do.”
Ascendant Shrivastava paced his office as the duo of subordinates watched him work mentally through the information.
“Dwarven stonework is the finest in the world.” he eventually said. “Were either of you aware that the lower Spire reaches almost a half mile down underground? Or that from the surface, that its above ground portion is nearly twice as high?”
“Sir.?” Elias asked, not seeming to understand where he was going with the query.
“There are dwarven scholars,” Adesh continued, “who go so far as to claim that the surface portion of the Spire was actually carved from a once existing sliver of mountain which, after the Spire’s construction, had been cut away in its entirety by their skill and its precious minerals used to succor the construction of nearly every other dwarven city in existence.
“Now, I don’t know if either of you believe such things, but regardless, there are few who can deny that it’s still a monolithic structure in every sense of the word. A monument that’s truly ‘of the world itself’.”
“Your point?” Abebi asked.
“My point is that I need you to understand the gravity of what you’re suggesting. Even if you bought into the assumption that this man came close to causing irreparable damage to the world’s quintessential and most steadfast masterpiece of dwarven construction…you’d still be buying into the assumption that this man came close to causing irreparable damage to the world’s quintessential and most steadfast masterpiece of dwarven construction. With his bare hands nonetheless.”
He allowed the two to ponder the truth, and weight, of that statement for a moment. Before continuing. “Nevermind. Let’s assume for the moment that our sources are right and we have before us the man solely responsible for one of the greatest non-war related atrocities in history. How much of this was Katelyn aware of?”
“None.” Elias confirmed. “When we spoke at the lounge, she knew little of the Tribunal. She knew that a group of presumed bounty hunters had been trying to track her down and asking questions when she was operating out of Erune. When she relocated her operations to Euuil, she’d thought that she’d lost them, but then they caught up to her again. It’s safe to say that she was concerned that her cover wouldn’t protect her much longer, but neither of us were aware of who these men really were, how soon they’d move or how far south it was going to go once they did.”
The Ascendant seemed to chew on that for a moment.
“Abebi?”
“I’d be…hard pressed to disbelieve it.”
Apparently, deciding to accept it as a good enough excuse because of his daughter’s endorsement, he continued. “How can we be so sure that this Astaroth is the…abomination that we think he is?”
“Well, as a Knight, he’d have had unrestricted access to the under-gardens.” Elias stated. “Also, both the Bastion and Hesijuan authorities proper thought that the Craft was to blame long before the Link’s investigative teams verified it. And given his volatile history, training and his natural affinity for heka-”
“-Please tell me we have more to go on than ‘The swalii’s history was dodgy’.” the ascendant pleaded. “I can’t move numerous Associates for that. I won’t. If I’m sending an entire team after this man and his friends, then I need to be absolutely certain that the situation calls for that kind of overkill. Absolutely certain.”
“You’ve moved them for less.” Abebi challenged; obviously still sore at the fact that he was sanctioning the hit. “You won’t be that certain.” she stated flatly as she shook her covered head. “We don’t have anything concrete enough for that. But as far as your people can estimate, the period of time between when they believe he vanished from Hesijua and when he popped up on this side of the world fits the timing of the incident at the Spire, if one were to assume that he went on the run. And that will have to do.”
Apparently he couldn’t argue that point. “I just can’t wrap my head around it. Why would he do it? Why attack the hand that fed him?”
“I don’t have any answers for you Ascendant.” Elias stated.
Adesh turned his gaze to Abebi, who simply held up her hands in defeat.
“Could this be the reason why we can’t find a shard? Maybe Hesijua’s already searching for him?” Adesh speculated.
“I don’t think so.” Abebi argued. “It’s too quiet of a thing, be that the case. If his shard had been pulled, or if there were an extranational manhunt of some sort, we’d be hearing whispers of it all over the place.”
“Assuming that’s the case, who helped him stay hidden? Who’s protecting him now? Who would back a terrorist?” the Ascendant asked.
“Could be next to no one. We’re seeing very few hands in this. Very few trails. That lends itself to one of two things.” Abebi implied.
Adesh nodded. But he didn’t buy it. “So either one person with considerable reach is helping him, or he has done all of these things himself.” he affirmed. “Given his background, I suppose it could be either.”
“And yet…?” Elias asked.
“And yet I don’t believe it’s one nor the other. I refuse to believe that someone can just be…lucky enough to fumble past so much by just lying low. Regardless of the positions he’s held in life. He has to be backed by some organization or guild.”
Abebi shrugged. “Possibly.”
After scanning the paperwork again, the Ascendant began to pace around the office once more. Stopping only to part a thick set of curtains and gaze out of the windows onto the snow covered city below. Steam powered automobiles and horse drawn carriages shared the stone roads far below them. And the smoke stacks of nearly every building in sight belched out thick clouds of wood or coal burning smoke.
“What kind of noble wakes up one day and decides to slum with lowly slave traders, turns around to obtain Knighthood, then becomes an Absconder by nearly destroying their own Order, kills a city block’s worth of people, and then falls into the munificence business behind it all?” he asked after several long moments of staring out the window. “Just to turn to bounty hunting after all’s said and done?
“All we have is conjecture. We’re missing something. Something substantial.”
“If you ask me,” Elias offered up, “the logic behind his personal decisions is unimportant. Knowing your enemy is all well and good, but I wouldn’t advise fumbling around in the dark with these three.”
“True enough.” Adesh agreed. “Astaroth’s motives at this juncture aren’t our concern.” Shrivastava turned to look at Abebi as she moved next to him. “Killing him is.”
Elias had hardly been able to keep his eye off of Ababi from the moment he’d entered the room. And her unintentional soft sashay to her father’s side caused his glances to transition abruptly from covert to overt as his myopic gaze followed every movement of her body hungrily as she moved.
The unconscious way that the chocolate skinned woman swayed her hips seemed to drag the basest of behaviors from him. But then again, who could have blamed him?
Maybe it was the shape of her head scarf, teasing him with promises of how thick and full her hair was; possibly causing him to imagine what it would feel like should it fall loose and lay against him.
Or maybe it was the sight of her long legs, and postulating what it would be like to have them wrapped around him that made him forget himself.
I couldn’t say.
But the Ascendant apparently hadn’t failed to notice his absentmindedness.
“Mind the way that you look at my daughter when you’re in my presence Elias; lest you wish to lose your other eye.” Adesh said aloud without his hands and without turning his gaze from his view of the city. “Not killing you isn’t something that I’ve ever fully settled on. The position you retain is a precarious one and the line you walk with me is as narrow as a razor.
“Respect above all things.”
“Yes Ascendant. Of course. My apologies.” he groveled with nervous mortification.
“Don’t apologize to me. Apologize to her.”
Doing as he was ordered, Elias moved to where Abebi could clearly see his hands. “I apologize for… I was watching you as you walked away.” He looked to the Ascendant for approval. But his face was blank as he continued to look out the window. “I meant you no disrespect Abebi. I just thought… Well, you and I…”
Abebi laughed hardily, likely out of sheer amusement. Watching people stumble over their words in handspeak always amused her. Especially as it pertained to Elias.
“Calm down Elias. You’ve offended me no more than any other man has. At least, not in this instance. I know no offence was meant. So no offence is taken.”
“You’re dismissed.” Adesh ordered. “Leave please, before I forget myself.”
Elias nodded and left promptly without another word; embarrassment and fear plastered all over his aspect.
“You didn’t need to shame him.” she signed as the door closed.
Adesh gave his daughter a sideways glance. “Why not? He deserves far worse. Surely you don’t care that much?” he signed inquisitively in response. His hand motions were saturated in agitation. “Why you suffer the fool is beyond me. And why you asked me to, even more so.”
Ababi’s face soured slightly behind her smile. “Of course I don’t care. He’s not…the man he once was. Regardless, he’s a resource that the organization put coin and time into to train and utilize, and it would have been a waste to discard him aside because of what happened between us…a situation that I already rectified to my satisfaction. Much like I’m advising you as far as Astaroth goes.
“Besides, as you’re well aware, he’s never been anything I haven’t been able to handle on my own. Mine aren’t battles you need fight for me.”
“Of course. You’re right. Please forgive me the desire of a father to protect his daughter.” he answered quickly as he rubbed a melanated hand over his face to stave off his weariness.
"I'd never hold that against you."
“And while I understand your reservations on the subject of Samahdemn and his acquaintances, I have to disagree. I have to keep us insulated.”
“The decision’s yours to make.”
“Glad you agree. Reach out and have the local hospitals scoured.” he stated as he hurriedly shifted the conversation away from Elias’ lack of discretion. “If Astaroth or his colleagues are still anywhere in Euuil, I want them found and tracked. In the meantime, I’ll ready a full team of four Associates for the journey there.”
He seemed intent to leave it at that. But then, after a beat he added- “And once he recovers from his embarrassment, I’ll have Elias conduct them for measure.”
“Are you certain you want him lead the team?” she asked. Her lack of confidence in her father’s decision apparent.
“Do you doubt Mr. Devereaux’s ability to handle the situation?”
“Pretty lie, or ugly truth?”
“Speak your mind Abebi.”
“I doubt anyone’s ability to effectively deal with this group. It feels too…one sided. Even with you sending five people. If I were you…which I’m not, and I were intent on killing them…which I’m not, I’d send more men still.”
“Still trying to convince me to step away from contracting these men’s lives? Or do you actually believe the stories of the Order’s prowess? Dodging bullets?” Adesh did some vague movements to imitate himself being shot at and maneuvering around the gunfire mockingly.
“If I’m being honest, I don’t know what I believe. But regardless, I think I’d rather you err on the side of caution. Just off of the strength of the rumors of his Magickal affinity alone. Every rumor has at least some basis in fact. Unless, of course, you’re using this as an excuse to send Elias to his death.”
Adesh shook his head. Ignoring his daughter’s words. “No. I’m already acquiescing to your suggestion to send more than one Associate as it is. That’s enough. And if Elias can’t handle the situation, then he was a poor Associate indeed. The numbers are good.”
“But the risk to your people-”
“Is acceptable. Yes?”
Abebi relented.
“And have our people continue to dig deeper into these three in the meantime.” he added. “I’d like for our Associates to have more to work with should they need it by the time they make it to Alphava. I want to know what organization, or organizations, are backing them, and what their interest is in us. I’d be a fool to believe that a group of men like this is sniffing at our front door by accident or chance. I’ll not chalk this up to something as simple as a bounty on one of our people…no matter how sizable. Even if that were the case, if they dug deep enough to find Katelyn, then they have to know that they’re butting up against us. And anyone who continues to sniff around behind that knowledge has to be working for someone.”
“Coin is the Great Motivator father.”
“True. But it only motivates so much. And I find it hard to believe that there are many who would openly assault the Conglomerate for it.”
Ababi nodded her understanding. But as she turned to leave and execute her father’s will, the Ascendant gently placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her mid stride.”
“Something else?” she signed.
“Yes. I’ve had a change of heart. I don’t much care for the idea of swapping out my most promising people in the field for those who are lesser trained. Especially in Katlyn’s case. We have few people who share her…abilities. But prep a replacement for her anyway. If she wants to return, I suppose I’ll allow it. But only temporarily; until after this situation is resolved. And make sure whomever you pick is thoroughly briefed on all of our interests in Euuil. They’ve some big shoes to fill.”
Abebi smiled. “And who says you don’t care about your people?”
Adesh returned his daughter’s grin. “Go on now, Miss. Shrivastava. You’ve a lot of work to do.”