“The difficult thing in prosecuting those in high positions who abuse their power isn’t finding evidence of their wrongdoings. The hard part is delivering that evidence to the hands of higher authorities while staying alive, as the criminals in question will do their damndest to stop you.” - Kisamedes Aeostolis, philosopher from the early days of the Clangeddin Empire.
“So, what do you think?” asked Aideen when Celia returned to their room at the inn in Pesor that night.
The three had been in the city for nearly a week, where they took the time to observe the situation at hand. Pesor itself was at the same time better and worse than the villages around it. The center region of the city was the territory of the rich and powerful, merchants and minor nobles that held power over the land around the city.
Outside the central district lived people who belonged to the middle class, those who operated small shops and eateries and the like. They were somewhat better off than the often emaciated villagers of the region, but not by that much. It was clear that they also toiled hard to make a living and barely managed to make ends meet.
As for the rest of the city, it was dominated by the slums. Ramshackle buildings that often housed multiple generations of a family within, where those who barely survived from one day to another lived. They were often worse off than the villagers in the region, their diet often scrounged up from the trash or stolen. Needless to say, their life was a difficult one even at their best days.
“There’s definitely a lot of corrupt shit going on,” said Celia with obvious disgust in her voice. She had seen how corrupt lords and officials could ruin a place back in her homeland, so she always had a strong hatred for such things. “The rich merchants almost certainly employed at least several gangs each to get rid of people they didn’t like, while the guards were bribed to turn a blind eye.”
“About matches up with what I’ve seen so far, yeah,” noted Aideen with a nod of her head. “The Baron definitely got his cut from all the bribery going on too. From all accounts the man is shrewd and cruel, all this monkeying around the rich merchants did is likely with his knowledge and approval. This Mord is likely his pet as well.”
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“Most likely. Anytime some people try to change the situation around here by way of dealing with the Baron, Mord pays them a visit. Definitely no coincidence,” grumbled Celia. They have learned more of Mord’s “feats” during their stay in town, and since all the victims were people who were trying to go against the baron, their guess was almost certain. “What do you have in mind?”
“Lucea gave me some seals to include in letters that would signify it as high priority delivery for the Empress. I’m going to send one from the messenger guild branch here,” said Aideen. The messenger guild was an establishment that Khaer Ul formed in his later years as Emperor, which allowed people to send messages more effectively, with branch offices present at any major town.
“If the people there are in cahoots with the Baron, wouldn’t they intercept it?” pointed Kino out with a questioning tone.
“That’s the point, yes. If the Baron sees the letter, I bet he’ll send his pet killer over to pay us a visit, and we can get more information from them,” stated Aideen nonchalantly, to which Celia and Kino nodded. “If the letter went through though, Lucea and Oleg will likely send people to clean things up over here within a month or so at most, so that would also take care of matters.”
“In case the letter doesn’t go through, though, I’ll send another, more comprehensive one from Fort Bharat later. That way things will get cleaned up in due time, and Lucea can take the credit as well,” she added. “We’re foreigners here, so it’s not too good to deal with this matter entirely on our own. It’d make it look as if Lucea needed outside help to clean up her own home.”
Aideen was decisive once she made up her mind, so the very next day, she sent out the letter through the local branch of the messenger’s guild. She had dyed her hair a brownish-red hue to hide her identity after she noticed that things weren’t right in the first couple villages of the region she passed, as she was uncertain on whether stories about her have reached so far or not.
Given the relative proximity though, the chance was high that at least some people in the town would be familiar with the tales of the Maiden in Silver, in which case her silver hair would be a big giveaway.
At the same time, Aideen purposely didn’t hide her actions or whereabouts, and simply returned to the inn she was staying in after walking about the city for a while. Along the way, she felt eyes upon her, likely people keeping track of her whereabouts, but ignored them, since that was exactly what she aimed for to begin with.
It was always easier to handle matters when the target was lured out from its hideaway rather than to look for it, after all.
Sure enough, late in the night an intruder barged into their room at the inn.
Perhaps barged was a wrong word to describe the matter, as the intruder was definitely trying their best to sneak in unnoticed. To Aideen’s trained senses though, he was about as conspicuous as an auroch trying to sneak up to a hunter in the open plains. Even Celia and Kino – in the latter’s case thanks to her sharper senses – noticed the intruder’s arrival before he could do anything.
Though to be fair to the intruder, the other two weren’t even asleep at all when he arrived to begin with, as unliving like them didn’t need to sleep too often.