Four years ago

  Aelfredd was ready when Geurten left Cassie’s place through the back door. From his perch atop a nearby building he was able to track the fence through the Flats by leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

  While he followed the fence, a silent and invisible ghost even in broad daylight, Aelfredd considered who the contact for this operation might be.

  The Syndicate in Falkaria City was an ancient institution, deeply enmeshed in day to day life of the city’s residents, and to an extent the rest of the Kingdom as well. The five houses that operated the syndicate here in the City were nominally independent from the houses that operated in the Kingdom’s other major cities like Fjaarlgard in the North and Bonsurmer in the South. In practice the power they wielded here in the capital, and the wealth that came with it, allowed the capital’s Syndicate houses to exert a great deal of influence over the operations of the smaller houses elsewhere in Falkaria.

  Syndicate houses were structured identically everywhere. The rumors and tales Aelfredd had heard led him to believe the strict ordering and hierarchy of the organization to be the result of the Syndicate’s roots in pre-Fall Atenlan society. The details of the exact role the Syndicate’s precursor organization had played in the Empire were murky at best, but Aelfredd had discovered some indications that the group may have even had an official role in the Empire’s administration.

  This historical connection to the Empire was realized by the modern crime organization in the form of one of the best networks spanning all three kingdoms. From Klaav to Summor, the Syndicate had the best connections for moving goods, people and information throughout the lands of Atenla. Despite their connections, the houses were always in constant competition with each other, constantly at war both within and between the cities that served as their primary areas of operation.

  Beyond smuggling, the Syndicate had its fingers in every aspect of criminal life in Atenla. Each house tended to specialize in one sort of crime or another, but they all dabbled in everything from organized gambling and prostitution to more sophisticated crimes like extortion and protection rackets, even a bit of price fixing basic commodities. In Falkaria, due to the outlawed status of magic, the Syndicate had a stranglehold on the massive black market for fuels.

  Because magic – and the fuels – were outlawed in Falkaria, but still immensely popular, the massive scale of the fuel black market gave the Falkarian Syndicate a reliable and consistent financial base the houses of Summor and Klaav lacked. As a result, the five houses here in Falkaria City were without a doubt the strongest of the Syndicate houses anywhere in Atenla. The leading houses of Falkaria City had their fingers in criminal operations spanning across Falkaria and into the neighboring kingdoms.

  Surprisingly, the Syndicate wasn’t all bad. At least here in Falkaria, the houses took care of the citizens of the Flats that were neglected by the wealthier nobles and even merchant classes. When food was scarce, they provided. Of course they still preyed on them to fund their operations through the gambling and numbers rackets that had always been the vice of the poor seeking to get rich quick. As Aelfredd had recently learned, the houses even funded healers like Melora so the poor could have access to medical care and healing.

  Each of the five houses was led by a caesari, a title and role traditionally handed down within a blood family, to a son or daughter. The Syndicate operated as a meritocracy and had no sexist predispositions to the idea that only men can lead. In fact, many of the most feared caesari throughout history had been women. Rarely, someone outside the blood family that led a Syndicate house would take over the title, usually riding a wave of blood. Families did not willingly relinquish control of a Syndicate house.

  A caesari would then have any number of legati, house lieutenants, that reported to them. The number of legati in a house grew in direct relation to the size and power of the house itself. None of the houses in Falkaria City had less than twelve legati running their operations. Each legati in turn ran a cell known as a legionni, and each legionni focused on a specific activity to support the house’s operations, like running a gambling racket or smuggling operation.

  Eventually, Guerten had made his way to a nondescript warehouse near the docks, on the southern edge of the Flats. The warehouse abutted the cliff that served as the border of the Flats, and Aelfredd strongly suspected the Syndicate house operating the warehouse was taking advantage of that fact and had bored tunnels into the cliffs that could be used for smuggling and other nefarious purposes.

  Guerten knocked quickly on the warehouse’s smaller side door, glancing furtively around as he waited impatiently for the door to be opened as it eventually was by a Syndicate thug. After a brief conversation, which Aelfredd didn’t bother to amplify his hearing to spy on, the thug gestured and Guerten was led into the warehouse.

  Quickly surveying the warehouse, Aelfredd spotted an area in the back corner, abutting the cliff face, with a much greater density of windows on the top floor, just below the roofline. Experience told him this would be the overseer’s office space, and that Guerten was likely to be led there to interact with the legati in charge of this operation.

  Amplifying his strength with powder magic, Aelfredd vaulted onto the warehouse’s roof from the nearby building he’d been perched on. He made his way over to where the windows were and prepared to use stickiness to dangle upside down from the eaves in a position that allowed him to peer through the windows. Before he went over the edge a quick glance at his arm confirmed the invisibility from his smoke magic was still active.

  At the first window he looked through all he could see was the main warehouse, with shelves full of what appeared to be grains and other foodstuffs. Odd inventory for the Syndicate to be storing, but perhaps it was just a cover for something more valuable, like a fuel smuggling operation.

  Sliding down the wall, Aelfredd made his way to the next window. Here he was rewarded with the expected sight: Guerten, flanked by Syndicate thugs, standing in front of the legati’s desk. The legati himself sat behind the desk, his back to the window and facing the room’s only door. Next to the legati stood a tall, thin woman who was giving Guerten a close inspection as the two thugs pushed the fence forward to meet with the legati.

  Amplifying his hearing with powder magic allowed Aelfredd to eavesdrop on the conversation in the room, and things did not appear to be going well for Guerten.

  “You’re late, fence. You were due to drop the book off with me over a week ago. My buyer is not pleased.”

  “It’s not my fault, Rais, you’re lucky I’m here at all. That ‘rupting Illusionist came after me before the quickman I hired could even bring me the book and nearly killed me. Slit my throat wide open.”

  “How on Atenla did you survive that?”

  This could be bad. Aelfredd hoped Guerten knew better than to involve Melora in this affair, but his experience with the fence told him it wouldn’t take much for Rais to get him to give her up.

  “The quickman himself, he arrived just in time and… managed to save me.”

  “That is a bit… unbelievable, Guerten. Fortunately for you, I don’t really care to find out the truth of the matter. If I did, Renna here would be able to help me extract it from you no doubt.” Rais inclined his head towards the woman standing next to him when he said her name.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  As he invoked her name, Renna turned towards Rais and inclined her head in deference, acknowledging the compliment. When she did, she also glanced out the window and with that glance her eyes widened as they looked directly into Aelfredd’s own.

  Ah Fall, she was a ‘rupting souser. That explained Rais’ statement about her ability to extract the truth. Aelfredd felt a fool, he should’ve expected the legati to be employing a user of the root’s magic to detect eavesdropping.

  “Quickman!” she shouted, and the room exploded into action. The thugs came around the desk and took up guard positions around Rais, expecting an attack.

  In shock, Aelfredd simply hung where he was for a minute, not quite sure what to do next. He could run, but if he did that he would be giving up his only chance to find out who was really behind hiring him to steal the book. Everything he’d learned recently had only made him more interested in finding answers to his questions.

  He could smash the window, barge into the room and start swinging, hoping to capture Rais and conduct his own interrogation on the legati for answers.

  In the end, he decided his best bet was to simply surrender himself to the legati and beg forgiveness for eavesdropping. After all, he had been hired into this scheme, and he was ostensibly an agent of the Syndicate just like the legati. That should offer him some degree of protection from Rais’ anger.

  He turned himself in to the thugs guarding the warehouse’s entrance, and when he was brought before Rais he was somewhat surprised to find that the legati was more amused than angry. Even seated, Rais was a large man with the dark features common in the families that ran the Syndicate houses. He was well dressed, but not ostentatiously so, in modern clothing that wasn’t too stylish and dyed in dark grays just short of black.

  “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Red Death himself. I assume no other introductions are necessary?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, making clear to everyone in the room that Aelfredd had been spying on their earlier conversation.

  “Geurten, I am quite disappointed you allowed yourself to be followed here.” It seemed that while Rais was not angry at Aelfredd, he might have different feelings towards the fence. It seemed being angry at Guerten was becoming more and more common in the Flats these days. “We will have to discuss your punishment later.”

  Guerten had the presence of mind to look abashed at Rais’ admonishment.

  “Of course, there is still the question at hand. Why were you spying on our little discussion quickman? Did you want to see if I would punish the fence for delivering the book late? We’re you concerned that error might blow back on you?”

  Aelfredd chose to remain silent, tolerating the legati’s penetrating glare.

  “I think not, hmm? If you were afraid of punishment you’d be long gone by now, not still lurking about. I presume you know what the book is by now, yes?”

  With a curt nod Aelfredd acknowledged the truth of that.

  “Perhaps you wished to steal it back? It’s quite valuable, but I think you are smart enough to know it’s too valuable for you to possess. More likely to get one like yourself killed quickly than make you rich.”

  Rais paused to consider the situation for a moment, and eventually he erupted in a rich belly laugh.

  “Are you really just curious? Did you really just want to know more about the book?”

  Try as he might, Aelfredd couldn’t avoid a slight blush on his fair features and couldn’t bring himself to maintain eye contact with the legati.

  That only made Rais laugh harder.

  Despite everything he had told himself about needing to run the source of the job down to better protect himself and Turgeon, Rais was right. He was truly just curious. Following Guerten here had probably only endangered the boy more than simply turning over the book and washing his hands of this job would have in the long run.

  How could he have been so blind to his own motives? It was sloppy, and endangered his primary mission to keep the boy safe. He was into this whole scheme too deep now, and he didn’t see a way to extract himself safely from the mess he’d landed in.

  A sudden explosion loud enough to drown out Rais’ laughter and Aelfredd’s pounding heart shook the warehouse and sent dust sifting down through the office space. After the initial shock of the blast wore off, Rais quickly took command of the situation, directing one of the thugs to guard the office door while indicating that the other thug in the office, Renna, Guerten and Aelfredd should follow him.

  Reaching under his desk, Rais flipped a latch or switch that caused a large portion of the office’s wall to swing inward, revealing a passageway that (as Aelfredd had suspected) led into the cliff face the warehouse abutted. Grabbing the book from his desk and placing it delicately into a padded leather satchel, the legati ran into the passage and didn’t pause to see who followed.

  Aelfredd delayed for a moment, but quickly realized that the passageway was likely his best bet at escaping this situation safely. Sounds of fighting, weapons clanging and men screaming, were reaching the office now from the main warehouse. Whoever had initiated this attack to recover the book wasn’t holding anything back, assaulting the warehouse with a large enough force to take down an entire Syndicate legionni.

  Rais’ thugs took the rear guard of their small party, managing to close and secure the hidden door that led from the office into the cliff bored passage. The passage itself was rough hewn, cut directly into the rock of the cliff face and angled slightly upward. That aspect did surprise Aelfredd somewhat, he’d been anticipating a downward sloping passage that would lead to a smuggler’s cove with lake access and a dock operation for loading and unloading small craft.

  A lack of light was also a challenge in the corridor, there were no torches or other light fixtures and the only light for them to see by was emitted by a strange device carried by the souser, Renna. Root magic was not a speciality of Aelfredd’s, and an admitted gap in his knowledge, but he did know that practitioner’s were able to imbue objects with enchantments and magical powers. Perhaps Renna had some sort of light enchanted device that she had activated in the tunnel?

  “Where are we going Rais? I’m tired and can’t walk very far, I’m still weak from almost being killed for this ‘rupting book,” Guerten whined as they walked.

  “Quiet, fence!” Renna hissed. One of the thugs threatened to hit Guerten and he flinched away, but Rais merely touched the thug on the shoulder and shook his head.

  “Do you want to live, fence?” Rais asked calmly and Guerten nodded, “Then you will follow us and keep quiet.”

  Aelfredd knew better than to ask questions at this point.

  They were in the tunnel a long time, probably an hour or more of trekking in the near darkness. At no time did Aelfredd detect any noise in the corridor behind them, even with powder magic enhancing his hearing. It appeared as though the assault force had not yet detected the secret door in Rais’ office. They might actually make it out of this unscathed. Well, Rais’ had probably lost at least half the soldiers in his legionni in the assault, but that was his problem.

  Eventually the passage dead-ended in a stone wall. Rais groped around on the wall to the right of what Aelfredd hoped would be another hidden door, eventually triggering a latch that caused a segment of the dead end to swing inward towards them. Stepping across the threshold, Aelfredd and the small party found themselves in a cramped cellar with a standard wooden cellar door opposite the wall they’d emerged through. The thugs closed and secured the door behind them.

  Based on the length of time they’d spent in the passage, and Aelfredd’s fairly attuned sense of direction, his best guest was that they were in the cellar of a building somewhere in Topcoin, above the cliffs and near the divide between the merchant class housing and the noble’s estates.

  “This is where we must part ways my new friends,” Rais declared once the door was secure. “It should go without saying, but I am a syndicate legati and therefore must make this explicit: the two of you are now in my debt, and I call in my debts. Expect to hear from me soon. In the meantime, Renna, boys, we have a very important delivery to make. Our buyer is not a patient man, and his anger would be an even larger problem for us than what we’ve just escaped, so we must be going.”

  With that, Rais and the other syndicate operatives left Guerten and Aelfredd in the cellar. Aelfredd made to follow them out, but one of the thugs pushed him back down the stairs. “You’ll wait one hundred heartbeats before you follow us, quickman. We’ll not have a repeat of earlier events.”

  Aelfredd put his hands up and nodded his acceptance, resigning himself to a few moments’ more time with the detestable fence.

  “You’ll get me home safely though, right Aelf?” the fence begged.

  “You’re on your own Guerten,” Aelfredd denied him as he began to make his way outside and towards home. Turgeon was probably worried sick about him by now. “I’ve got my own problems to see to. You don’t have the book anymore, and they know who you gave it to so you shouldn’t be of any value anymore.” Harsh, but true.