Chapter 96 – Praise Lucita

Having smoothed things over with Annalisa went a long way toward calming my nerves, even if it didn’t solve all our problems. Over the next week, we continued to shore up the shrine of Lucita, and I’d made sure my partner didn’t end up an adherent through debt.

I followed through with my plans over the next week and purchased shares of several businesses throughout the downs and the lower city. Such things could only be done with a significant lump sum, and the flourishes were in and out probably even faster than Annalisa managed at the tables. I was already providing protection to quite a few of those docks and businesses, but ownership is a different matter entirely. I didn’t want to be just a gang leader.

With recruiting going up came new problems, as well. Low-rank adventurers not already on the take were starting to notice the Pack of Knaves on the bounty boards. Some of our people had even been swept up. Pit talent was leveraged to protect more of our operations, which included the Mop, three other brothels, two gaming dens, and a smuggler’s wharf with a customs officer who was an indebted patron to the aforementioned brothels and gaming dens.

Despite being pulled in so many different directions, I found my increased sensitivity to the suit of storms had widened my sense of clarity and made me better able to parse the chaos of the lower city. The whole balancing act hinged on my scheming and Annalisa’s partnership. But calms can only last so long, and you can only prepare so much for the storm to come.

I went to the shrine early in the evening to check on the new warding. While the church had mostly focused on anti-divination wards to detect and deter cheating (a cardinal sin under Lucitian doctrine), Alondalis had helped me bolster the actual defensive measures present in and around the shrine to something even better than those we had at the Mop and scattered around Barrowdown. The Seekers Guild had already gotten a taste of how effective those measures could be, and they’d yet to come sniffing around the lower city again. I wasn’t looking forward to their next attempt.

I found the elf in the northeast corner, examining a set of carvings he’d made on one of the outside wall under the careful eye of a shrine paladin.

“Looks like your arm is mended up,” I said. “Barthan take a look at it for you?”

Alondalis stretched the arm that had been in a sling when last I’d seen him. “Indeed he did. Curious fellow. I’ve never seen a mender cast curative charms with one hand.”

“What happened to his other hand?” I asked.

“It was holding a flush, I believe,” said Alondalis, tapping his cheek. “Human card games change too rapidly for me to keep up with the rules. I myself was eliminated from the table quite quickly.”

I groaned. All my agents were going to end up wearing Lucita’s colors. I pulled out my black pine deck and drew the three of towers, examining the handiwork around the exterior of the shrine. I could appreciate the elf’s careful hand for carving that suggested a practiced hand belonging to an experienced mage.

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“Sorry we couldn’t bring up any fertilizer for you,” I said, off-hand.

“It’s of no consequence,” said Alondalis. “From what you’ve described, the creature you encountered was likely to be a Voledon Exterminatus. Its fecal matter is much too acidic and low in phosphorus to make good growing beds. In fact, it likely would have eaten through those bags I provided you. Had I known one took up residence there, I would never have recommended a visit.”

“Well, it worked out,” I said, thinking about the sealed letters of credit I’d handed over in the past few days. That sudden influx of flourishes had been like a second wind to my efforts. At least I managed to sell one book before Daggertongue torched the others.

“Indeed. Did you succeed on your other endeavor of finding valuable magic items?”

“Possibly,” I said, switching to look at the awareness wards scratched onto the next building on the block. The towers in my deck hummed with satisfaction at such thorough defenses. When the sharks came for Lenise again, they’d have to come in force or get completely rebuffed. Still, the fact they wanted her so bad remained murky to me and the Wills had been confusing when I sought illumination. Could it just be that she was a vulnerable scion of a hated rival? Something told me there was more to it. I just had to wait until Lady Pelladine finished her translation and provided me with a copy. “We found a couple trinkets before we got side-tracked and had to escape from a pair of adventurers who recognized us. I should be hearing back on a pair of appraisals any day now.”

“I shall light a candle in the shrine for your odds,” said Alondalis, tapping his scribe along a rune.

Hopefully we wouldn’t be digging through shit again any time soon. I’d promised Annalisa that if we did another delve, it would be focused on extracting items from monsters before they passed them. And in truth, we’d gained a tangible strength increase, both to ourselves and the Barrow Knaves as a whole, thanks to finding the elven library. Though, if Daggertongue was being forthcoming, it sounded like we shouldn’t have been able to. He hinted at that whole place having some sort of magic seal on it until we managed to break through.

At the time, when we’d broken through to the Plane of Ice, I’d thought it was because I’d tackled an exhausted Annalisa through a partly-formed portal. I’d dragged her across the threshold, freezing and knowing something was watching us. But maybe she struggled with that portal because of wards against intrusion that the Golds had set on the library long ago.

The four of knaves hummed in my pocket with subtle heat.

“Appreciate it,” I said, excusing myself. Once I found some privacy a few streets down, I pulled out my deck. “What is it, Mithra?”

“Hello to you, too, Darcent,” she sent, along with a twinge of annoyance. “There’s a dwarf here at the Mop looking for you. Nice boots on. Got a package with him.”

“Most people going to the Mop have a package with them,” I said. She sent a brief hint of amusement. She was becoming apt at using the card to speak to me through her deviltongue, even over long distances. She was even better at it than Annalisa, and I’d made a few more duplicates so that I could run messages to some of her other contacts in the lower and middle city from time to time.

“Cute, but this one’s looking for you, and I don’t think he’s into my type,”

“Plane-touched?”

“Women.”

I paused. Mithra generally had a keen intuition when it came to people—though it didn’t take much in that regard. If they didn’t find her attractive, chances are they wouldn’t find any woman attractive. Still, I only knew one dwarf in fancy boots.

“That’d be Hawkley, then. I’m on my way.”

“See you soon, lover,”

I didn’t bother to correct her as I severed the bond. She’d been extra friendly after the purse laden with silver that I’d handed her along with a substantial bonus for her to skim. She said that now I was what she called, in the business, a minor leviathan. Someone with just enough money to go broke trying to prove they weren’t. A particularly juicy target for a working woman, with a bottomless purse until their last silver turned out.