The next morning I gathered everyone coming along for our alchemy shopping trip. Jessie, Bethy, Benny, Callie, Celine, and Gabe all filed out into the inn to have breakfast before leaving. The others decided to sleep in, so it was just us. "Anna." I said as we approached the bar. She was behind it, cleaning glasses. "We were hoping to wrangle breakfast, and maybe talk to you about some of the local shops. You have some time to sit and eat with us?"

Smiling, she set her glass down, before calling over her shoulder. "Mattie! Tell Cheswick to make a round of bacon and eggs. Then get Lionel out here to man the bar. I'm going to be eating with guests."

An annoyed voice bellowed back. "Gods! I'm doing inventory! Can't you do it yourself?" From the back of the inn, and Anna gritted her teeth, holding up a finger for us to wait as she stalked into the back. After an extremely uncomfortable few minutes listening to Mattie get torn a new one, Anna came back out, pasting a happy smile on her face.

"Sorry about that." She said brightly, I've got a table for you over here." She gestured to the far end of the room. "So, what exactly are you looking for. I won't even charge you for this, because direction to local amenities is more than covered under your room tab. You should take advantage of my wisdom, not many people are entitled to free access." She winked at us. "You're lucky I like you kids."

Looking around at the others, I gestured to Callie and I. "We need elixirs. Neither of us has used our allotment, and we're within a thousand points of E-rank." Honestly I wasn't happy about needing to rank up so fast. As miserable as training was, I felt like it was benefitting me. Once we hit E-rank we'd be on the officer track as per our contract, learning command. We'd miss out on basic training.

"How much will you need?" She said consideringly. "Are the rest of them going to be ranking up with you?" She studied our friends. "Because honestly, that might be a problem. Elixirs are tightly controlled. Getting two thousand points worth might be doable if you look in the right place, but the empire doesn't like people achieving mass rank ups through means outside the imperial roles. Alchemy has a...negative connotation here."

I cocked my head. "They can't. They're not close enough to the next rank. We have alternative means for them to reach E-rank." Nat was working with the two of them. They were only twenty five hundred points away give or take, and between Celine's resources and Jessie doing a bit of off the books healing, they could cover that in only a few months. But I was more focused on the possible ramifications of that news. "How negative exactly? Will we be arrested for using elixirs?" I hadn't considered that alchemists would be something they might not like in such a carefully controlled place.

"Nothing so extreme." She said with a wave. "Don't forget that elixirs are expensive. Nobles are the only ones who can really afford them, so they've taken steps to make sure there are ways to acquire the materials. It's just that those ways tend to be less out in the open. I know a place nearby where you can get your hands on some elixirs, but they're going to cost a premium."

I wasn't worried. I had plenty of money after our trip out here. I wasn't excited to burn it all, but I would if I needed to. Our timetable had moved up now. Luckily, we had four months to before the battle to take over the territories was set to begin. That was enough time for Jessie and Benny to hit E-rank with Nat's help, and hopefully some of the others too. It was also enough time for Callie and I to learn to command troops. I just hoped whatever Spencer Tolbert (if it was him) had planned wasn't going to come to fruition early.

I glanced at Callie, who had picked up my mood from the bond. She couldn't read my mind, but she could feel my impatience, regret, determination, and all the other minute emotions mixed into my current mood. Callie and I knew each other better than almost anyone, and given the circumstances, it wasn't hard for her to extrapolate my thoughts from what I was feeling. She gave my hand a squeeze and smiled encouragingly, and I could feel the love and support through the bond.

"We're interested." I said finally. "I assume this place accepts chits?" Anna smiled and nodded pleasantly. "Alright, then we'll have breakfast before we go. Can you guide us there? Or give us a map?"

She pulled out a beautiful silver hand mirror. "Of course. Do you have your mirror on you?" I blinked dumbly at the thing, and she groaned. "You really need to get one of these. Without access to the scan network here, you'll need mirrors to function. Even if your rings can still make calls to each other, not being able to interface with the locals will be a problem."

"Can we get them wherever you're sending us?" I asked. "Because I can shell out for fifteen of them as long as they aren't too crazy. Given everyone has one, I doubt they're going for too much."

Nodding, she put hers away. "There are different models, but you can get a barebones mirror for five F-ranked chits. I'd recommend investing. They should have some at the thieves quarter."

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Benny perked up. "Thieves quarter huh? That sounds pretty cool. Is that where we're going? Are there people with thief jobs in the empire? How does that even work? There's no way they could be on the imperial roles, how do they rank up?" He seemed fascinated by the inner workings of the empire, and I didn't blame him.

"That's...complicated." She said hesitantly. "Theoretically, the dark professions shouldn't be imperially sanctioned. More realistically though, theft and assassination are bound to happen, even without support. Most thieves guilds have arrangements with the local noble. Nobles apportion the renown for an area, and once it reaches them, it's theirs to do with as they please. Often they support the darker guilds and businesses in exchange for a greater say in how they operate."

I frowned. "They can do anything with it? What's to stop them from keeping it all? If they skimmed a bunch off the top they could make themselves much stronger, couldn't they?" The idea that people could control something like renown and actually portion it out like currency was staggering to me. How did it even work? I knew that the Emperor's power had a lot to do with it, but it still blew my mind.

"The Emperor stops them." She said simply. "The Empire is a machine. An esoteric one to be sure, but a machine nonetheless. Every person plays a role, and in order for that to continue they need to be supported. There are ways to increase the net gain enough to have a bit of extra renown to funnel toward other pursuits, such as thieves guilds and the like, but the nobles still have to pay their citizens. If you don't pay the baker, no bread gets baked, the workers don't eat, and eventually, someone comes to investigate. Nobles who try things like that die in public and horrifying ways. The Emperor IS the Empire. To participate and fail to do your duty is to spit in his face. No one is that stupid."

I wondered if the renown generated by people like me, who weren't on the roles, was one of the ways to increase net gain like she said. Honestly the whole thing was so weirdly abstruse I had no idea how anyone could track it. Probably why there was a literal god running the show.

"So the thieves had a deal with Clairdon?" I asked, considering who was probably in charge of the roles in this are. "Will they get involved in the battles?"

She waved my concern away. "Viscount Creck. Barons aren't stable enough to make a long term deal with. Thieves, assassins, and the like, tend to work with more static authorities. Viscounts usually. Their territories don't change hands nearly as often. As I'm sure you know, Mastery is a watershed. Picking a fight with a Master at anything less is a difficult prospect, and it's a rare Baron who can manage."

Which made sense. My Solid Path made me a dangerous opponent at F-rank, but even an Illusionary Path like Callie's Path of the Abyss made a huge difference in combat. All Masters had Paths, and with both stat and Path advantages, it was bound to be a nightmare to try to beat one. Not an issue I'd have if I was punching up ranks, though I'd still have all the other obvious problems with fighting someone stronger.

"So we're supposed to visit this thieves quarter? What's to stop them from thieving US?" I asked cautiously. My group was pretty tough, but here, where we were so badly suppressed, multiple E-rankers could easily roll us for our stuff.

Anna rolled her eyes. "Stealing things to sell only works if you can sell them. Do you think anyone would go to the thieves quarter to buy things if they were just going to get robbed. Thieves that let other thieves steal in their territory don't last long. The quarter is the safest place in the city. Though most of Saltzberg is pretty safe. The guard doesn't allow street crime. Arrangements with the viscount or not, they still serve their purposes. Most robberies are burglaries, and they tend to avoid violent confrontation."

I'd wondered how the guard played into that whole thing, given she'd said people still had to serve their purposes. My thoughts were cut off as Mattie stalked out of the kitchen in the back, carrying a pair of trays laden with bacon and scrambled eggs with cheese. She slammed them down in front of us one after another, turning to glare at her aunt when she finished. "Please enjoy your meal." She hissed through gritted teeth. Then she spun and stormed out of the room.

"Wow, she really hates being polite." Said Benny through a mouth full of eggs. Celine glared at him and he swallowed. "I mean...why's she so upset?" He said weakly. I held back my snicker at the irony, not wanting to draw her ire myself. She was formal and polite most of the time, but Celine could do a pretty good withering stare when annoyed. That would really mess up my meal.

Anna sighed. "She's been out of sorts lately. Lionel too, but his anger is more of a quiet seethe. Mattie takes after my brother Marcus, when she's upset, EVERYONE knows it. Their parents sent them to work here against their will. They were worried about them getting in trouble in the capital. Lionel offended the heir of a Viscount and they packaged him off to Saltzberg to keep him out of sight. Mattie in particular feels caught up in things that weren't her problem."

I winced. "That does sound rough. It's nice of you to look out for them though. I'm assuming you can't just warn the Viscount off?"

"Soft power is more my style." She said with a shrug. "I protect my own, however. I was able to get my friends from the other night out of trouble. Though one of them was beaten in a particularly merciless fashion by someone carrying a big stick." She gave me a pointed look.

I took a sip of the glass of juice that had somehow appeared with my meal. Guava. It was pretty good. She rolled her eyes, turning back to her food when she realized I wouldn't apologize. He'd deserved it. We all enjoyed the food (the bacon was a deliciously crispy maple and brown sugar cured treat) but soon enough it was time to go. Anna sighed and stood up herself. "Well, I suppose with no mirror I'll have to just show you the way. Come along, children. I'll teach you all about honor among thieves."