The Power Of Ten: Sama Rantha 189 Chapter One Hundred And Eighty-Nine – Thick As Thieves

Perfectly aware that the Wagon was also living quarters for everyone, he had them park it right up against the side entrance, so they could enter it without having to go outside. They did ooh and aah over the hot bath, and each getting their own bed was a thing, but in case they had to leave quickly, he didn't want them moving much into their own rooms, which they agreed with.

They came down from his examination, to find Errant at the big kitchen table with Feist, Grim, and Hazé going over papers, and various expressions on their faces. They slid into the other three chairs waiting for them, wondering what everyone was looking at. Feist slid some folders over to them, and they quickly dove into them.

For about half an hour, n.o.body really spoke. Errant unfurled a fairly accurate map of the city in the center of the table, and began to push thumbtacks of various colors into it, here and there. Grym snagged the black ones and began to push them in thence and so, expression flat. Feist snagged the grey ones, and began to do the same hither and yon. Veis eagerly added white and clear ones to a few places after the girls conferred together.

By the time they were done, several dozen tacks were scattered all around the map of the city, like little stars of potential... something.

Hazé looked patently amused in her mature guise. "That looks to make for an incredibly busy workday," she noted.

"Yah," Grym murmured, his gemlike eyes cold and hard. "Prieztezz, ve vill be relying upon du graze. Doze be de zites of zlave zhops of de Rockborn. De only vay to zet dem free be to get dem to our landz afore dey can be zkried und followed."

"Teleporting freed Rockborn slaves? Interesting." Hazé steepled her fingers. "I am afraid I have no lived-lines running to the clans in the Kohletes, hidden and unfriendly to humans as they are. Where would I bring them?"

Grym ruminated into his thick black beard. "Know du of Clan Dauer?" he finally asked.

To the surprise of both him and Feist, she nodded. "I have run there in the past. Kaldenheim represents one of the far ends of what I have traveled to."

"You are more traveled then I expected, Starsister," admitted Feist.

"Well, having a Master around who hailed from the Hove inspired me to expand in that direction," Hazé winked at him, and Feist pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Granted, it is still two jumps away, and I can only move so many at one time, without taking other actions..."

"Und ve canna rizk returnink dem to der own clanz und leading de Empire dere," Grym breathed. "What manner of precautionz need du take, Starsister?"

"The limit is based on ma.s.s. Ma.s.s shrinking them might work. If there are a bunch... then petrifying them, and Itemizing them onto a scroll would work best."

Grym took in a deep breath. "Eazy to zolve at de far end," he grunted, and she inclined her head. His eyes turned to Feist. "I may need du to run mezzagez, Ztalker."

Feist shrugged as he considered his targets. "The Inquisition wants independent verification of those targets, either traceless pa.s.sing or guilt verified." The fact pretty much all his targets shared s.p.a.ce with a tack of another color was lost on pretty much n.o.body.

"The colored ones?" Verd asked, interested.

"Places the Light and the Scepter, the Fire and the Sword, and the Shadow and the Knife indicated we might like to investigate," Hazé said serenely. Some stood rather starkly alone, some well into the central, higher portions of the city, and others joined to other colors.

"Oooooh..." said all three girls together. "What's the color code?" Amber asked.

"Standard ascending ROYGBIV threat level," Errant informed them. No reds, only a few oranges, numerous yellows and greens, a couple of blues, one indigo. "Why he'd leave an indigo behind, or even the blues..."

"What is it?" Veis asked in interest.

"A Fallen Celestial... he wasn't clear on what kind." Errant pulled a long face looking at the tack, up on the fourth circle. "Way under the fourth circle. Most of these are under the city proper. It turns out there are extensive tunnel networks under the city... some of them a great distance under the city..."

"Well, ours are only volunteers for extensive application of property redistribution," Amber sniffed, glancing at Errant, who simply grinned slightly. As a n.o.ble knight of the city, engaging in such violation of the law and pettiness was beneath him... but these were people who sorely needed to be punished, and if that meant people who weren't constrained in doing so, well, wasn't that the whole reason Heaven was so open-minded about doing the right thing in different circ.u.mstances?

"Mmm, showing the servants of Shoul how it's done, shall we?" Hazé laughed gently.

"Certainly, there is enough to keep us busy a season or more," Feist agreed. He shook his left wrist, where a servant's bondclasp was on his wrist. "How do you intend to conceal Master Grym moving about? The Rockborn are not allowed to wander about in Zynozure, Heavenbound."

"I expect him to get rather impressively familiar with the subterranean routes that have sprung up, and during the day working on smithcraft. What's your Masterwork at, Master Grym?"

The Clanhammer's axe-like nose rose proudly. "Tirty vid veapons und rote metal, young Mazter."

"Excellent. There's a very basic smithing set up in the barn. You can cover yourself with work, and a smith who can work at +20 is crazy-good even in this city. If I spread word, there'll be no shortage of people wanting good work from you from the Orders. No one will be allowed to touch you... and what you do in the night, well, no one's going to say anything." Errant waved his hand and looked away, staring at the ceiling.

Grym grunted acknowledgement. What Errant didn't know, he couldn't be forced to admit.

"So, let me clarify things, to be safe. Errant doesn't need to know what happens in the white and the black, and the grey, if they turn out to be true, become colored. The colored ones are basically open season?" Verd asked.

"Well, as I understand it, some of the colored are actually fairly important people who yet managed to escape the Inquisition, even during such an exciting time as this," Errant replied somberly. "And 'a Void Brother said it was okay to kill you' just doesn't go over too well in a court of law anywhere."

"Oh." Verd looked up at him, down again, back up at him. "You're still going to kill them, right?"

"Of course. I'm just not going to go bragging about it to the Inquisition. I might get drunk with them and mention a thing or two, alas, alas..."

Hazé was well aware of that tradition, and laughed behind her hand, giving the girls a look that would be explained later.

"So, shall we start planning some of our moves?" Errant continued, his silver eyes starting to shine. "I think the girls want to set up some groundwork, and we need you all to get familiar with the city... and at least some of the ways to go up and down without having to go through the gates."

"That might be very useful for not being in the right Circle after some unfortunate events," Hazé agreed smoothly, and everyone nodded.

------

The actions of the Inquisition seemed to have settled down during this period of time. Although there was a hidden threat of violence simmering under the surface, as the shadowy hand of Ha.r.s.e had stirred and flexed muscle that none of his divine opponents wished to see revealed, overt use of the Inquisition's power had quietly calmed down.

Emboldened by the withdrawal, the Churches of Huul and Imprus led the outcry against the heavy-handed tactics of the Church of Ha.r.s.e, making loud and righteous claims about abuse of power, lack of right, interference in the affairs of other faiths, ignoring the law, vigilantism, and even levying charges of being infiltrated by the very things they were claiming to fight in insinuating whispers and a rumor-mongering campaign of truly epic proportions.

By the time they were done, it was as if the Church of Ha.r.s.e was responsible for all the evils they'd ostensibly been sweeping away, riddled with corruption and heretics who were using the blindness of their followers to commit even greater treasons before the Emperor!

And then, little things began to go wrong for them.

The High Priest of Imprus was observed to have several dealings with prominent figures of the South, where the faith of Imprus was old and unshakeable... and whose dominance was something that Church dearly wanted in Rosencrux.

An 'independent' n.o.bleman was revealed to have a h.e.l.lpact, his soul sworn off to Nessus, and his veracity thus now literally nothing more than a mouthpiece of h.e.l.l, at best, and a fool of fools for getting into a deal with literally everything to lose. Two days later, a Heavenbound knight of the Ruby Heart challenged him to a Warlock's Duel by ancient right, and slaughtered him on the spot, firmly putting a stamp on his uselessness.

One prominent Imprusar's enslaved work force of Rockborn, long captured by slavers as prisoners of war, evaporated. Their overseers were found dead or unconscious, and the entire work force, including some trusties who had secretly been selling out their kin, had all vanished, with scrying magic unable to find them. Needless to say, the man's loss of such a skilled workforce meant his manufacturing losses were going to be tremendous, as he couldn't simply replace such skilled craftsmen... and he rapidly lost a dozen different contracts dependent on having access to dwarf-wrought metal.

This Huul Priest was found to be sleeping with that Knight Imperious' wife on the side; this haughty merchant-lord of Trose had a son found caught red-handed cutting up a general's daughter in his private torture-cellar; this minister was found indulging in the drinking of human blood in a sunken drug-parlor in the depths; that force of house guards were burned to death in a warehouse full of smuggled goods that sent a certain merchant company into a tailspin of evaded taxmen come to investigate; this courtier was robbed and hung upside-down, naked, tarred and feathered, before the temple of Eryl, which resulted in a very strong investigation by said Church into a number of missing women's belongings found in a secret place in his home...

The treasuries of the Guilds of Furriers and Barrel-Makers were burgled, despite being warded by the full authority of the Guild of Thieves... and then accounting irregularities came to light as a lethal combination of embezzlement, tax evasion, fraudulent records, and substantial bribes paid out and accepted all came to light as the missing records found themselves in all the wrong places.

The coffee houses and tea shops had themselves quite an exciting time again, as Inquisition raids and horrible revelations of mad cultists and shapechangers were instead replaced by wars of words, sweet juicy scandals, and t.i.ttering at the misfortunes of their peers and betters.

Zynozure was once again the center of the Empire, where all the daily entertainment you could wish for was happening!