37. Slavers - I might have messed up

“Wait, wait. Describe the brands again,” Thwain said, careful not to step onto Slimey as we walked briskly away from the portal.

“Here, hold on.” I stopped our forced march after we crested a hill and leaned down, clearing some grass. I dug the toe of my boot into the soft ground, ripping the turf and carving the triangle. Then, I raked my boot downwards to make a vertical line through the middle of the triangle, followed by two more lines, one on either side of the first. I stepped back and admired my work. It was wonky, but it worked.

“Hmmmm…” Thwain mumbled, examining the design. “Remember the story of the lamia and the jackals?”

“You mean the one that One-eyed Jack Pickup used to go on about when he got a little too tipsy? The one in the pyramid?”

“Yeah… The one Donald used to go on about.” Thwain said with a little extra emphasis on Donald’s name.

“What about It?”

“Well, do you remember what he said the jackal humanoids had as their symbol?”

My mouth dropped open as I pondered the implications. “Ok, hold on. My parents heard the story more times than both of us combined. Meet you at base?”

Thwain nodded, summoning his wings and taking off as I equipped my necklace. I merged with Slimey and zoomed back to base, only taking a few detours to clear a few hills worth of slimes to see if I could get any good loot. I tried not to complain as we only picked up four white loot orbs before platforming a tower up with Jean’s assistance.

By the time I walked into the base, Thwain had gathered Pyro and my parents in a large cavern. I quickly sketched the symbol in loose soil on a table that Pyro had raised for me. My father’s expression fell, the deepening of his wrinkles aging him by decades.

“Slaver brand,” he said gravely.

“Slaver or slave?” I asked.

“Slaver,” he said with a curt nod. “Proudly worn by a few groups. The Parted Summit, the Sons of Merchandise, Abnar’s Destroyers…” He trailed off, looking ashen. “Where did you see this symbol, Tay?” He looked at me with watery blue-gray eyes.

“I… So… I saw…” I looked between my father and Thwain. I swallowed and wiped my hands on my pants. “They were hanging in the back of a church. Church of the Tower, I think,” I clarified. “Like… Bodies. Hanging from the walls.”

My mother put her hand over her mouth. My father swayed on his feet. “And the mark was… Next to them? Above?”

I shook my head. “No, Pape. They were branded with it. Some fresh brands, some old tattoos.”

My mother seemed to straighten at that, an edge of steel in her spine and in her voice. “Ah, then, in that case, they deserved it. I fully support the Church in this matter.” With that, she turned around and stalked off. My father nodded halfheartedly.

“Ouais… I guess it’s for the best, then. If they were branded, they must have been caught with slaves.” He seemed to gain strength as he spoke, his posture straightening, his shoulders set. “Yes. I agree with your mum. If they were slavers, no matter the group, they probably deserved it. I haven’t always agreed with the Church’s politics or their inaction, but I’m with them on this one. That, and they feed the poor. Those are probably the only redeeming qualities of that… Organization. Anyway, enough of that. I’m going to check on Mame. You know she’s got a soft spot for the Church, despite everything.”

I forced a smile and nodded, my stomach roiling. I leaned heavily against the table as I watched my father walk away.

“Fuck did you do?” Pyro asked, slapping me on the shoulder. “You look guiltier than a corn in a nun field.”

“A - nevermind,” Thwain interjected before steering the conversation back. “Théo, here, declared war on the Church.”

Pyro shrugged. “Been there, done that. What he do this time?”

Thwain shot Pyro a warning glare. “He attacked the inside of a church of the Church and threw slimes at them.”

I hung my head in shame. “I attacked them unprovoked. It’s not like when you guys were ambushed and had to defend yourselves from them. I’m sorry, I just got so mad at seeing the bodies, I didn’t think they’d be… You know, in the right or whatever. I just figured there’s no good reason to… Oh.” No good reason to kill. Right. I had been doing a lot of that lately, despite my supposed moral superiority. I looked up at my two best friends. “What do I do? I’m the monster, aren’t I?”

Even Pyro and Thwain looked guilty. I knew it, I had fucked up so bad that they already regretted helping me out this last week.

“It’s, errrr… I’m sure we’ll all do worse by the time this is all over.” Pyro attempted to console me, but the thought didn’t make me feel any better.

“We’ve got bigger issues than a few regrets,” Thwain said, cutting through my self-recrimination. I cocked my head at him curiously. Pyro just rolled his eyes as if unsurprised by another inconvenient disaster.

“It’s Market Alley,” Thwain elaborated. “The gangs have banded together and taken it by force. They had people spread out in strategic locations all the way through the market. They struck all at once, taking out a major portion of the guards. By the time anyone realized what was happening, it was too late. Milos says they’re charging a premium, now, even for basic needs. Even water is going for a few coppers.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Market Alley!?” I exclaimed incredulously.

“Banded together?” Pyro spat out, half caught between a laugh and a snort.

Thwain nodded. “There was still a whole lot of blood shed on both sides, but they’ve secured the stalls. People are starting to panic. Food isn’t being handed out anymore, water is running low. If it doesn’t rain soon…” He shook his head gravely.

“People gonna have to farm,” Pyro stated gruffly.

“You know they won’t,” Thwain replied sourly. “Some will, sure. But years of complacency doesn’t just go away.”

“Can they?” I asked. “How many people are stalking the portal, now that more people are going to be passing through?”

Thwain just shrugged. “People are desperate. If anything, it’s gotten worse. More people are skulking about than ever before. Milos even said that there were demon sightings and cults actively on the move. Though, I’m not sure how many of those rumors are because of Sunder or my wings. Ritual circles are being found in basements and in a few spots in the sewers, too.”

I groaned. Everything was all happening too fast. “Ok, then what do we do about Tanner?” I asked. At the confused look the other two gave me, I furrowed my brows. “You know, the healer guy from the Church’s portal?”

“Who da fuck is Tanner?” Pyro asked.

“More like how do you know his name,” Thwain said, his cold eyes piercing right through me.

“Shit. I forgot to tell you, didn’t I?”

“Fucking spill,” Pyro shouted.

“Ok! Ok! I went to check out the portal yesterday. There was a group farming. Things went south, so I stepped in. People still died, though. I didn’t actually manage to do much other than make the situation worse.”

“So, the healer’s name is Tanner? He made it out?” Thwain asked.

“Yeah, he made it out. Along with another guy. There were two other unclassed and an Awakened. The Awakened, though, got mobbed by slimes. They went ballistic, the monsters did. Well, the party too. But slimes streamed in from everywhere without being aggroed, I swear. She tripped and smacked her head. Slimes mobbed her. Everyone was so frantic that they were fumbling around, getting in each other's way. By the time Tanner got to her, she was gone.” I clenched my fists. I had been too slow. Too afraid to confront them.

“What about the bodyguard?”

I looked up, blinking tears away from my eyes. “What?”

“The bodyguard,” Thwain replied. “I saw her a few times, but she always kept up her invisibility when the party was farming.”

“The… Bodyguard…” I mumbled.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t she step in?” Thwain rubbed his chin. “Unless she hadn’t been there. Maybe the other Awakened replaced her?”

“I… They tripped.” It was all clicking into place in the worst way.

“They what?”

“They tripped. Stumbled.” I huffed out a bitter laugh. “The Awakened, the chick with the sword… Gerald, Gerard, whatever his name was. They all tripped or stumbled. The blond woman tripped out of nowhere before smashing her head. Gerald, the unclassed guy, seemed to lose his footing and fell into the mob of slimes. And… And…” I paused, caught between relief and horror. “She didn’t stumble. She didn’t attack. She was pushed right into Slimey. Guys, the bodyguard… She pushed them all to their deaths.” My eyes went wide, my gaze focusing on the images of the past.

“Assassin!” Pyro yelled, almost cheering.

“Assassin,” Thwain said darkly. “I thought she was there to watch over them. Nothing bad ever happened while I was watching, so I figured she was… You know. Keeping them safe and whatnot. I mean, sure, there was always the possibility that she wasn’t a bodyguard, but everything always seemed to go so smoothly.”

“Da fuck’s the real target?” Pyro asked.

“The new Awakened?” I suggested. “If she didn’t strike when she wasn’t there…”

Thwain shrugged again. “She’s been watching them for a while, for sure. Maybe she’s been slowly escalating her sabotaging or waiting for the perfect moment.”

“Maybe she got unclassed people killed til they got another juiced up classer as a party member,” Pyro hypothesized.

“To what end?” I asked, throwing up my arms. “What good does that do her, to kill some of the party?” The others didn’t have any more answers than I did. It might have been a rivalry or a grudge. A debt repaid. Then, there was the question of how they got their classes. Obviously the three Awakened had gotten their classes somehow, but we hadn’t spotted anyone crossing the floor other than us. Sure, they could have gotten them before us. That would make sense, but that still left the question of how they got them in the first place.

“How well do you think an armored carriage fare against slimes?” I asked, an idea coming to mind.

“Carriage would be more than fine,” Pyro said confidently. “Horses, though, might be different story. Hard to cover ‘em and still have ‘em run easy an’ far. Why?”

I nodded slowly as I described the carriage I had seen. It would no doubt survive the trip to Floor 2, probably even without a scratch if it had been enchanted at all. That just left the question of the horses.

“Spirit beasts?” Thwain suggested. “If they’re summoned, they might have more resistances or be more expendable than living, breathing horses.

“Ok. So, we assume they have spirit horses pulling this carriage. Why don’t they boost everyone in their organization? Why the whole purity non-intervention thing?”

“Hard to say,” Thwain said.

“Cuz they’re bastards,” Pyro spat at the same time.

“I’m sure the ones at the bottom aren’t horrible people,” Thwain chided. “They might just be following the Church because of the good they’ve seen them doing. Or the comfort that faith brings. Or hoping that a Tower God chooses them to be a champion. It’s happened before, as you know.” He shrugged again. We had been doing a lot of that. There were too many unknowns and not enough answers.

“All I know,” Thwain continued, “is that there’s an agenda at the top. There’s a reason they’re actively discouraging people from farming, that they’re encouraging the collapse of the Slums. We just need to figure out why.”

“Do we?” Pyro asked. “Fuck’s the point? I say we fuck ‘em up and let the gang eat ‘em the rest of the way.”

I frowned at that. “That’s another problem. What are the gangs thinking, taking over Market Alley?” I rubbed at my temples. “They’ve had so long to move, to organize, to work together. Why now?”

“New leadership,” Thwain said. “They call her the Blood Queen. They say she’s from a higher floor and that she needs specialized substances to keep her going.”

“Like how Sunder needed to be fed blood?” I asked.

“Mmmh. I don’t know if it’s a good sign for the Slums or not, though. Might explain why everything’s been so out of whack lately, though. If she brought items or artifacts with her and has been distributing them…”

“We need ta get stronger, then,” Pyro announced.

“How? We’ve been constantly grinding,” I objected. “There isn’t much more we can do, is there?”

Pyro grinned. “Well, I’ve got ta keep muh self down here,” he said. “Wouldn’t want the base ta fall in on yer’ parents an’ all. But you two… Ya better hit Floor 2 and hit ‘er hard.”

I shuddered at the thought of legions upon legions of goblin eyes tracking my every move.