Clover Kingdom / Diamond Border (Saint Peter Cathedral District / Lower Market): January 15th, 1016.
It was a hungry day for the world. The upper city had bells ringing, banners waving and enough clean white stone to make people forget that hunger did not care about prayers, yet if you were to look closely in the lower market streets. To be more specific, near the food wagons, clinic routes and nervous merchants being watched by armed church knights with smiling faces and ugly hands. You could see ariella tepes finally stop trying to cut the devil's throat and start squeezing the mouths that kept him breathing.
The atmosphere suffocating.
(Ariella Tepes's POV)
Ariella watched three wagons burn.
Food.
Medicine.
Stabilizing powder.
All marked for lower movement.
All turning into ash.
The merchant who owned the wagons was kneeling on the stone road with his forehead pressed against the ground like he was trying to crawl inside it.
"Grand commander please. I didn't know it was going to the black die syndicate. I swear I didn't know." Said the merchant while tears dripped from his eyes.
Ariella stared down at him.
He was lying.
Badly.
That was unfortunate for him.
A church knight beside her asked with a serious look "Should we hang him grand commander."
The merchant started shaking even harder.
Ariella was silent for a moment.
Then lifted one finger.
A dagger slipped out of the church knight's belt and floated beneath the merchant's chin.
The merchant stopped breathing.
"You fed the underground." Said ariella nonchalantly.
The merchant shook his head quickly and said with creased eyebrows "I was forced."
"By david swallow." Asked ariella with cold eyes.
"Yes. Yes by him. He threatened my family." Said the merchant quickly.
Ariella stared down at him for a long moment.
The dagger pressed closer.
A tiny line of blood appeared beneath his chin.
"You are still lying." Said ariella calmly.
The merchant started sobbing harder.
Ariella crouched in front of him slowly and said with pale blue eyes that had no mercy in them "Do not mistake me for a priest. I do not need confession. I need usefulness."
The merchant froze.
"Your wife remains breathing. Your children eat under church watch. Your shop stays standing. In exchange, every lower buyer, every hidden invoice, every black dice courier and every route boy you have seen in the last year will be written down before sunset." Said ariella calmly.
The merchant nodded quickly and said just as easy "Yes. Yes grand commander. I will. I will."
"If you lie, I will know. If you warn them, I will know. If david swallow saves you, I will burn the street to remind others that salvation is blood." Said ariella nonchalantly with cold eyes.
The merchant collapsed into tears.
Good.
Hope was useful when placed under fear.
Ariella stood up fully and said "Next."
A butcher was dragged forward.
Then a healer.
Then a old woman who owned three bathhouses, two tunnel clinic rooms and enough nerve to spit at one of ariella's detachment commanders before being struck in the face.
By noon, seven merchants had closed lower routes.
By evening, three healers had vanished.
By night, two route collectors hung from church rope near the old well.
A black market clinic burned with green holy oil.
Four children cried outside a sealed bread house while church knights stood in front of it with spears.
A young priest walked beside ariella and asked with a pale face "Grand commander, if we pressure too many suppliers, the underground may retaliate."
Ariella looked at the smoke rising above the lower market.
"That is the intention." Said ariella with a cold glint in her eyes.
The priest went silent.
Ariella kept walking.
"David swallow has turned dependency into power. Food. Medicine. Shelter. Movement. He made gutter trash believe the black dice mark means survival." Said ariella calmly.
She stopped beside a alley where several poor people looked away the moment her eyes moved toward them.
"So I will end everything." Said ariella calmly.
The priest swallowed.
"He survived you before." Said the priest carefully.
The street went completely silent.
The priest immediately regretted being alive.
Ariella slowly turned her pale blue eyes toward him and said "Yes. He did."
The priest bowed his head quickly.
Ariella looked back toward the lower streets.
Five years ago, david swallow had been bloody, loud, small and irritating.
Now he was still irritating.
Just taller.
Richer.
More difficult to remove.
"That is why this time I will not merely strike his body. I will strike everything that makes others keep him alive. I will eradicate everything and if I fail I won't be ariella tepes." Said ariella nonchalantly with city of her arms spread grandly.
…
Clover Kingdom / Diamond Border (Black Die Underground City, Black Mansion): January 15th, 1016. Midnight.
(David's POV)
I read the report.
Then read it again.
Then read it one more time because apparently I enjoyed ruining my own mood.
The office was completely silent.
Nyx stood by the wall with her arms crossed and her tail twitching like it wanted to strangle the air.
Jarred wasn't drinking.
That was how I knew the report had become disrespectful.
Benjamin stood beside my desk with his hands folded behind his back.
"Say it." I said calmly.
Benjamin adjusted his cuff and said "Five suppliers have closed lower routes. Six more requested limited movement. Three healers missing. One clinic burned. Two route collectors dead. Seven families taken under church watch. Southern medicine stores will last nine days if rationed."
I closed my eyes.
Smiled.
The room became colder.
Nyx's ears flattened slightly and she said "David."
"She's not attacking me." I said softly as the room started to shake from my mana.
Jarred sighed and said "She's attacking the mouths."
"Correct." I said calmly while opening my eyes and looking at the map.
Ariella had finally stopped acting like a walking weapon.
Now she was acting like a ruler.
That was much worse.
I stood up from my chair and walked toward the map.
"The underground is not held together by love. Love is useless unless it can be eaten, sold or used to keep someone from stabbing you in your sleep." I said calmly while folding my hands behind my back.
Nyx stared at me.
I tapped the burned clinic mark on the map and said "These people follow me because I make survival predictable. If ariella makes me look unable to protect that predictability, fear leaks."
Benjamin nodded and said "Correct."
Jarred scratched his beard and said "I hate when enemies use brain stuff. It makes me look unintelligent."
"Because you are." Said nyx while rolling her eyes.
Jarred gritted his crooked teeth pointed at her and said "That was hurtful and true. I hate you."
I ignored them and said calmly "Open the emergency food stores. Double guards on clinics. Move healers through benjamin's inner doors only. No normal route access. Nobody from the surface enters without being checked by three different people that hate each other."
Benjamin bowed slightly.
"Efficient." Said benjamin with a smile.
"Pay the frightened suppliers. Threaten the greedy ones. If someone closed because ariella scared them, we make them feel safer with us. If someone closed because they thought they could raise prices during hunger…" I said calmly while trailing off.
I smiled.
Jarred grinned.
"Can I." Asked jarred with a wider grin forming.
"No." I said calmly.
His grin dropped.
"Why." Asked jarred with squinted eyes.
"Because you don't know the meaning of quiet." I said calmly with a sigh.
Jarred looked offended and said "I whisper sometimes. I am very educated so why is everyone unsympathetic toward me."
"The walls complain. I can feel master david's brain cells decrease from each word you speak so please be silent." Said benjamin calmly.
Nyx started laughing.
I looked back at the map and said "Find the leak."
The room went silent.
Benjamin's one eye sharpened as he asked "You are certain."
"The burned clinic was moved three weeks ago. Only inner route captains knew." I said calmly.
Nyx's grin died.
Jarred set his bottle down fully.
That sound was heavier than it should have been.
"So we have a rat." Said nyx softly with cold eyes.
I smiled.
"Good. I was running out of examples." I said with a chuckle.
"Public." Asked benjamin.
"Eventually. First quiet. I want names before screaming." I said calmly while rubbing my smooth chin.
*Crack* *Crack* *Crack*
Nyx cracked her knuckles and said "Finally. Something romantic."
I looked at her.
She grinned.
"Your idea of romance is a crime scene. I will wish for your death." I said calmly with a kind smile.
"Your point." Said nyx with squinted eyes.
I sighed and looked back at the map.
Ariella had touched my food.
My medicine.
My routes.
My reputation.
Fine.
I would touch her fingers.
Then the wrist.
Then the throat.
The black magenta grimoire beside me opened slowly.
The pages turned by themselves.
I smiled with a ugly look in my eyes and said softly "This city eats because I allow it. If ariella wants to starve it, she can come learn what hunger does when it has people who need it more than I do."
…
THE END…