Downtown Druid

Dantes arrived back at the club a bit later, and found Jayk waiting for him by the tree.

“Where were you?” he asked.

“Setting some things up for later.”

“I’ve finished looking into the other Finger’s dealings.”

“Oh?”

“I had Tak help me, he has a real knack for this kind of work. We figured out that one of them is definitely linked to Godfrey.”

“Fritz?” Dantes asked. Both he and Argenta suspected Fritz the most given his myriad financial dealings and focus on gambling and loan sharking. He seemed like a perfect target for greed.

“No, we went through everything we could, and while his work occasionally touched what Godfrey and his people were doing, there was no direct connection, and in fact he seemed to avoid him when he could.”

“Who then?”

“Drake. He and Godfrey had worked together to put down that factory strike on the docks. He burned everyone inside alive, and collected a handsome reward. From there we found four more direct links between them. We also believe he’s receiving messages even now, though how he’s receiving them, we’re not sure.”

Dantes nodded at him, tying off the bag of seeds and letting it fall to the ground next to his throne.

“Do you have proof?”

Jayk sighed. “No, but I wrote everything out with Tak’s help. I had to actually write it, he doesn’t know his letters.”

“Give it to me. I’m taking it to Argenta now. With the letter she intercepted and the information we have, we should be able to confirm it. Cannonfire is going to start hitting the walls at any moment. If Drake is working with Godfrey, who knows what they could be planning.”

Jayk pulled a bundle of papers from his coat, as if he’d been expecting Dantes to ask for it. Dantes nodded as he took it, and tucked it into his own coat. He made his way onto the roof and shifted into batform to fly towards Argenta. He’d been keeping tabs on all of the Fingers, and knew she wasn’t at the Sin, so he instead made his way towards her home in Uptown.

Her house was carved of the same black stone as the wizard towers. He wasn’t sure if it had some particular properties that she sought, or she just liked to be aesthetically consistent. He passed over her very well kept and mannerly garden, and landed on her balcony, shifting into himself as he did so.

Gren was already waiting for him as he landed.

“You are unexpected,” he said in his usual calm polite tone.

“I can never tell if you enjoy working for Argenta or not,” said Dantes as he fixed his coat.

“She is one of the better masters I’ve had since arriving here. She’s had me take far more blood, and isn’t nearly so interested in having me perform parlor tricks.”

“But you’d still kill her if you had the chance?”

His eyes seemed to smile. “Of course. It’s in my nature. Why are you here?”

“I have information showing a connection between Godfrey and Drake. I think he’s working for him.”

He nodded. “Right this way.”

The door inside opened, and Dantes was walked through orderly and almost impossibly clean and sterile home. It was all ebony, marble, and ivory with only some splashes of red all throughout. It was probably more expensive than any other home he’d seen in Rendhold, but at the same time it had a much simpler look than many other Manors in Uptown. He was led through a few halls until Gren pushed open the door to the study. ℟�

Books lined all four walls, most of their spines giving no indication as to what was inside of them. Argenta sat in a thick robe writing at her desk , her white streak loose, but the rest of her hair pulled back in an orderly fashion. There was something a little tantalizing about her in a robe, probably because he’d only ever seen her in very efficient and plain clothes in the past.

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“Argenta.”

“Dantes,” she said, as if seeing him was within the realm of her expectations and in no way a surprise.

“I believe Drake has firmer connections to Godfrey than we thought, and I believe he may make a move soon as well.”

She placed her pen down and took a long breath. “Do you have proof?”

Dantes took the journal Jayk had given him and handed it to her.

She read through it, slowly, seemingly unconcerned with Dantes waiting as she went through all of the information piece by piece. Dantes didn’t mind, he had a number of ways to stay busy. He began going through all of the gardens to ensure their health, checked on the ongoing burning happening outside the walls, made sure his men in the Pit were still in good health, and checked to be sure that none of the other fingers were making strange moves while he and Argenta were meeting. Drake was watching a Pit fight in the guild district, Fritz was idly fiddling with an abacus and writing down numbers while snorting lines of dust, and Diamond was enjoying a bath with the help of a young man and woman.

The door behind Dantes opened, and he reached for the knife in his sleeve before realizing that it was Alby. She stopped in her tracks.

“Dantes! It’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you too. Haven’t noticed you in the club lately, though maybe that’s just because you’ve gotten better at staying disguised.”

She laughed a bit. “I would’ve assumed it was because you got thrown into the Pit.”

He shrugged. “That’s likely part of it.”

She looked at Argenta. “You said you wanted to see me, mother?”

“Yes. I’ll come get you after I’m done here.”

“Oh, okay.” She looked at Dantes. “Bye.”

“Have a good night,” he responded as she walked out the door.

Argenta read a few more pages of what he’d given her, occasionally having Gren look at them, after which he would disappear and return to whisper things in her ear.

She looked up at him after turning over the last page. She looked as if she was about to start in on a discussion about what she’d read, before changing her mind at the last minute.

“I don’t like whatever is going on between you and my daughter,” she said.

“You want me to stop talking with her?”

“If you didn’t have a reputation for avoiding relationships with younger women I’d have had you killed, but I don’t like you talking with her about the business either.”

“I’m trying to do you a favor. Either I can teach her what she wants to know, or she’ll seek it from someone less trustworthy. I have no ill intention toward her, or you.”

Argenta processed that information for a moment, before pushing it away. “I think you’re right. What you’ve found goes with what I’ve found as well.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve been following all of the other fingers for some time as well. Checking on business dealings both new and old, and keeping track of all of it to see connections. While Godfrey was here, he could cover things up himself with a deft hand, but without him things have gotten sloppier, especially since you were thrown into the Underprison. With what you’ve just given me, I think it’s confirmed.”

“So, what do we do about it?”

“We can’t attack him directly.”

“Why not? The little crystal that recorded a lowlife getting his throat slit? I’m already in the Pit anyway, and besides, they won’t know it was me,” He knew that wasn’t the only effect the crystal had, but he wanted Argenta to continue underestimating him.

She laughed. “You thought it was only a recording? As if we couldn’t get away with murder. The crystal is a piece of Elfland. It’s a fey artifact of great power that lets one make Feybindings even without magical talent.”

“How is he getting around the pact?”

“That’s a good question, but with Godfrey’s abilities maybe he has a way to break feybindings? Fey magic is different from godly magic which is different from demonic magic, and different from true magic.”

“I think I can get around it too, in my way. Let me take care of Drake.”

“Your druid abilities give you some method to work around it?”

“I think so, but it’s going to be complicated.” It wasn’t, but there was no reason she had to know that.

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. “Do it then. Though at this point all that will do is maybe buy us time. When the cannonfire starts, when we see Viscent ships on the horizon… I don’t know if we’ll be able to do anything about it.”

Dantes smiled looking her in the eyes. “I can win this war.”

“What?”

“I can end it myself. I can stop the Frasheid army, and the Viscent army when it lands.”

She frowned. “Then do it. Why wait?”

He shook his head. “I know there are pardons on the table. I want one, and I can get you several hundred raw recruits from the Pit willing to take the deal as well.”

“A random cutthroat is one thing, but you are known. Gavain himself ensured you went down, and the guard has ridden high on putting you away this whole time. Besides, do you even need a pardon? You come and go as you please already? Does it really matter?”

“It does.”

“For what? Pride?”

“That too, and I want them to know it was me. I want the city to know that I saved it, and I want the city's enemies to know that I can save it again, and again, and again if I have to.”

She looked at him. She’d taken all of his other statements seriously, taken him seriously, since the moment they’d begun working together, but now he was stretching the limits of what she could believe.

“Let’s say I’m wrong, and I couldn’t end it alone. What if I can at least tip the scales? I can get you a bunch of bloodthirsty men on the front lines at the very least, have them obey the guard’s order explicitly, not to mention what I can do with a few thousand rats. Isn’t that worth whatever political capital you need to spend to make it happen? Or is your pride too great for that?”

She met his gaze and stood. “I can do it. I can make it happen, but someone else needs to suggest you specifically. My ties to crime are known, and the rest of the council won’t agree if I suggest it. Can you make that happen?”

Dantes felt Jacopo watching through his eyes as he stood there. “Yes, I can.”