Chapter 14: Lock Down

Sarana pulled the hooded cloak around her a little closer as she walked through the red light district of Averlon. This particular patch of the city was known as Peelers Pit by both the local inhabitants and authorities alike. Why such a name? Well, this particular section of the city was on the low lands. Which meant there was a constant water drainage problem. This combined with its close proximity to the wall which meant very little sunlight actually reached this place. All of this resulted in this place being the most inhospitable place to live in the city. However, its close proximity to the wall meant that it was a hotbed for smugglers. This meant that this place was also a place for criminals and the poor. The aforementioned poor were also the group which the criminals exploit and recruit from. Hence the word “Pit” being in the name as this place really was a pit of vice and suffering.

As for the “Peeler” part of the name, if you came for pleasure you would be peeling someone’s clothes off. That and the local thugs and criminals had a habit of skinning people alive to send a message to their enemies. So hence the name…

Overall this place was a horrible place to live but if you wanted something that you couldn’t get normally. The Peelers Pit was the place to be...

Sarana has for the last week tried to arrange for her passage out of Averlon. The villages should have been attacked today. Which means the noose is tightening around her neck. She needed to get out of here soon, if news of the attacks spreads she would be done for. Who knows Lord Averlon might even use her as a scapegoat and crucify her to appease the masses. It has happened before after all…

All her arrangements however have failed. There was no way out of the city through legal means due to the lockdown of the roads. So the only way out was through the smuggler trails, but from what she heard even the smugglers have stopped shipments. Effectively from what she has heard this city was really under a lockdown, legal or otherwise.

There was only one organization that could completely stop all smuggler activity. The Syndicate… she hoped she was wrong but her gut knew her suspicion was right…

With no more options, Sarana has decided to come to an old ally of hers. She had a lot of favors to call in and she planned to use them all to get the hell out of this city…

When she reached the unassuming door she knocked and she saw a shutter open.

“Who goes there?” Sarana heard the man on the other side ask as his beady eyes narrowed on her hooded visage.

“Lady Sarana. The Royal Spymaster.” Sarana said as she lifted her hood just enough for the man to see her face from the light leaking out through the shutter.

The shutter closed with a click and the sound of numerous latches being undone could be heard on the other side of the door. Then the door swung open and Sarana stepped into a dingy corridor.

“You wanna speak with the boss?” the man asked with an edge of caution in his voice. Sarana looked over at him and saw the very definition of a thug. Muscular tattooed arms, ungroomed lice-filled beard, horrible sour smelling clothes, he even had a scar running across his face…

“Yes.” Sarana said with a nod.

“Follow me.” the man said gruffly as he walked down the corridor.

He arrived at a seemingly random patch of wall and pushed one of the stones. Sarana heard a click and the stone gave way to reveal a doorway.

“Down there, the boss is…” the man began as he gestured down a flight of stairs.

“I know where.” Sarana snapped impatiently as she headed down the stairs.

The stairs led down to a door, she could hear music being played on the other side of the door. Sarana roughly pushed the door open to reveal a large well-lit room filled with people indulging in every vice known to man. She looked to the right and saw what looked to be a well-dressed nobleman with his trousers at his ankles, on his lap bounced a particularly pretty whore. The man took a swig from a bottle before burying his face in the whore’s chest.

She looked to the left and saw what looked to be a boss of a local gang snorting up a red powder off a table, all the while a pair of nude women clung onto each arm. As Sarana looked around she saw it was pretty much the same story everywhere she looked. There were probably at least two dozen “Clients” having the best time of their miserable lives.

Whatever her old friend is, he is a good entrepreneur. He is one of the three crime lords of Peelers Pit. His wealth rivals even Lord Averlon, he is after all the leading distributor of that red powder everyone was snorting. Heaven's Dust, a hallucinogenic drug that is all the rage now in the underworld. Apparently, it made the user feel like they were in heaven, a rush of elation, and every pleasure imaginable is amplified. So the users, snort it and proceed to drink and fuck their way until morning.

Sarana walked past group after group of laughing men and moaning whores. From what she recalled this place charges exorbitant sums for one night of rapture. Her old friend was never short of clients, it’s always booked to capacity and people have been murdered over a slot in this den of pleasure.

Eventually, she arrived at a door and she walked right past the two guards and opened the door. No one would dare try this unless they knew exactly what they were doing. So the guards did nothing as she entered the room.

The first thing she saw was her old friend sitting at his desk with a whore straddling him, moaning as she bounced.

“Ahem,” Sarana said impatiently.

The whore’s head snapped back to look at her, shock evident on her face. She immediately got off and scurried to the corner of the room. Sarana saw her old friend let out a sigh as he reached down to pull his pants up.

“You scare too easily.” the man drawled as the whore visibly flinched at the comment, fear colouring her eyes.

“Cornenk,” Sarana said as she gazed at her old friend. He had green skin, small pointed ears, small beady black eyes, and two fangs protruding from his bottom lip with an overall brutish facial structure.

Cornenk was a half Orc, most Orcs are dull creatures but Cornenk was half-human. Pure orcs were getting rarer and rarer; their gene line was degenerating at an ever increasing rate. His mother was captured by an Orc raid in the territory of a city-state far away from Averlon. The Orcs didn’t have females so they relied on the females of other species to reproduce. Legend has it the Primordial Devourers created the Orcs as weapons of war, a weapon that was soon replaced by the Hives like the Armazaftund that lived in the desert to the northwest. The legends also say that the Devourers unleashed the Hives on the Orcs to test the Hive’s effectiveness. The Orcs lost and were branded unworthy. The scattered remnants were left to go extinct with the Devourers so disinterested they couldn’t even be bothered to finish the job. Another tale to add to the long line of cruelties done by the Devourers. May they never return…

As for Cornenk’s mother, she was eventually rescued. However, not before Cornenk was already in her belly. It’s against the laws of heaven to intentionally end a pregnancy so Cronenk was carried to term. He had the body of an Orc but his mind was very human, with a tinge of that typical Orcish brutality.

“Sarana, what brings you here?” Cornenk asked as he flashed her a fanged smile.

“Business.” Sarana replied as she took a seat in front of his desk.

“Of course…” Cornenk said in mock disappointment.

“You know if you ever to visit for pleasure I’ll let you have a night here for free. I could get some nice handsome men for you.” Cornenk said with a laugh.

“Perhaps some other time. I have something urgent to discuss with you.” Sarana said.

“Well, what do you need?” Cornenk asked his face now much more serious.

“I need to get out of Averlon,” Sarana said in a hushed tone.

At those words, Cornenk let out a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He paused for a moment as if thinking. Then he looked up at the whore still standing nervously in the corner of the room.

“You. Get me a bottle of wine from that cupboard.” Cornenk said as he pointed at one of the cupboards at the far end of the room.

As the whore nervously walked over to the cupboard. When her back was turned, Cornenk took out a handheld crossbow that was under his desk and calmly shot her in the back. The whore gasped as she toppled face-first onto the ground. Sarana looked at the whore and saw her eyes wide in terror as blood-red foam bubbled from her mouth. The whites of her eyes turned red as her face turned purple.

“Sand Lynx Venom?” Sarana asked with a sigh. It made sense to do this to an extent. The less witnesses the better but honestly the guards outside already knew she was here. She had told them who she was to get inside in the first place.

“Yes, fast-acting and it paralyses. It’s hard to get a guaranteed kill with something of this size.” Cornenk said as he dumped the crossbow onto his desk.

“I’m guessing something is wrong? Or have you not killed anything these last few months?” Sarana asked as she raised a brow.

“No no, I killed some welp last week… and yes something is very wrong, couldn’t risk word of our conversation leaking out,” Cornenk said as his eyes hardened but at the same time filling with paranoia.

Sarana furrowed her brows at this display, something was most definitely wrong here. That kill was starting to look like panicked paranoia more than casual brutality.

“I’ve tried to get out of the city through my own channels but I had no luck. I was wondering if you could help me?” Sarana asked, deciding to begin with a simple question.

“You’re still out of luck…” Cornenk said with a grimace.

“Cornenk, you owe me. If it wasn’t for me Lord Averlon would have had your head.” Sarana snapped in response, silently hoping whatever is making Cornenk so paranoid wasn’t what was going to keep her in this city.

“I know, that’s why I can’t help you. There’s no way out of this damned city unless Lord Averlon allows you to leave. If I could get you out, you wouldn’t be talking to me, I would be long gone from this place…” Cornenk said with a grimace.

“You want to leave?” Sarana asked, surprised. If he left we would be giving up alot, it took a decade to build this criminal empire. To leave now would render all his past efforts moot.

“Of course I do, Sarana I found this on my pillow when I woke up two weeks ago,” Cornenk said as he opened a drawer and pulled out a gold feather, the calling card of the Syndicate.

“Fuck… have you tried? What’s stopping you from leaving?” Sarana asked as she felt a headache start to appear.

“Nope I didn’t try, I’m stupid enough to try. The only thing that’s stopping me is the fear of death. You know Boren? The boss of the White Scars?” Cornenk asked.

“Yeah, why?” Sarana asked as she remembered the name of Cornenk’s number one competitor in Peeler’s Pit.

“He’s dead,” Cornenk replied with a grimace.

“Dead?” Sarana asked, her voice cautious. Though crime bosses were powerful, the Syndicate could fell Empires, so killing one wouldn’t be that big of a deal. They were known as king slayers for a reason.

“Yeah dead. I heard the other bosses were trying to leave as well. So I was waiting for one of them to try it first. Boren was stupid enough to try and now they’re scraping what’s left of him off his bedroom ceiling.” Cornenk said with a sigh.

“So they didn’t kill him when he tried to leave?” Sarana asked.

“No he made the arrangements, he was supposed to leave the next day. From what I heard he pulled out all the stops to keep it quiet. Not quiet enough apparently…” Cornenk replied with a grimace.

“What have you heard from the Syndicate?” Sarana asked as she leaned forward, starting to feel very anxious.

“Rumours as usual. Although the rumours all say the Syndicate doesn’t want anyone leaving the city. You can get in just fine, you just can’t get out, so the shipments are still coming in. But it won’t be long before the suppliers realise their supply wagons don’t come back…” Cornenk said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“That’s not the worst thing, the rumours say Lady Vengeance is here in Averlon.” Cornenk added as he lowered his voice as if afraid to be overheard in his own office.

“Cornenk, my contacts say she’s in six different cities. This just makes it the seventh.” Sarana replied, her mind trying to cling to every last bit of plausible denial. If Lady Vengeance, the leader of the Syndicate is really here in Averlon then she’s done for…

“I know, my contacts say more or less the same thing. It wasn’t six cities for me it was more like four, I don’t have as many contacts as you. But I just have this bad feeling in my gut, the new monster appearing, the dead adventurers, the lockdown, and the Princess being let out of her magical cage. Now the Syndicate is making moves, cleaning out the more unruly gangs, killing crime lords and now they say Lady Vengeance is here? There are too many coincidences here.” Cornenk hissed as sweat began to bead on his brow.

“How did you know about the princess getting out? No, how did you even know about the Cradle?” Sarana, shocked, she kept this whole thing under wraps to the best of her ability as far as she knew she was the only one that knew about the Cradle in Peeler’s Pit.

“Sarana, someone had to build that mansion, it didn’t exactly pop out of the ground like a mushroom. Those construction workers talk too, at least they did before you killed them all. That combined with the convenient time of her supposed death and you buying so much black market Ether, plus rumours of mages going into the forest. It’s not that hard to put two and two together.” Cornenk replied.

“Okay, but how did you know she got out?” Sarana asked as she started to wonder how much information was actually floating around.

“You stopped buying Ether, didn’t you? The only reason someone buys this much Ether as consistently as you did was that you were powering something. Something secret, so it has to be off the books. So when you stop buying the Ether it means you don’t need to power that thing anymore.

But don’t worry, as far as I know, no one else knows about it. I just had my suspicions for a while that’s all. I asked some questions when I helped you get your hands on those construction workers all those years ago. You just confirmed my suspicions. Most of the clues came in by chance anyway. I wouldn’t have looked into it in the first place if I didn’t have access to those workers.” Cornenk replied as he waved his hand as if trying to dissipate the tension.

“If you are the only one that knows about the cradle then why are the other bosses trying to leave?” Sarana asked.

“Because the Syndicate is hitting them a lot harder than they are hitting me. You know me. I don't like using gangs, I prefer professionals, they are easier to control. I have a few gangs under my thumb but those are the more organised ones.

When the Syndicate locked down the city some of the gangs decided to try and smuggle things out anyway. You know how those gangs are, they think controlling a street or two makes them all-powerful. Makes them think they are powerful enough to try and defy kingslayers.” Cornenk said.

“I assume you kept your gangs on a tight leash during all of this?” Sarana asked.

“Of course, I don’t have a death wish.” Cornenk deadpanned as he gave Sarana a look, silently asking her if she thought he was an idiot.

“Right, sorry.” Sarana muttered in response.

“Yeah so anyway, the Syndicate didn’t like that at all. So they cleaned house, in one night they wiped out eight gangs, everyone involved in their show of idiotic bravado have seemingly vanished into thin air.

So no, there is no way out of this city. The Syndicate has turned this place into a prison. No one gets out. Unless you can persuade Lord Averlon to let you out, you’re out of luck.

If I find a way out I’ll let you know but don’t count on it. I doubt the Syndicate is sloppy enough to leave a way out of the city.” Cornenk said with a grimace.

“Even if you find one it might be a trap, a convenient way to catch the really problematic ones.” Sarana replied with a sigh.

This was really bad, Cornenk was right there were too many things happening at once for this to be a coincidence. The monster, the breach of the cradle and now the Syndicate is making moves. There’s even the goddamn rumour of Lady Vengeance being here in Averlon. If she really was here, she needed to get the fuck out of Averlon. Something bad was coming…

“I suggest you stay put, I know you ordered those attacks on the villages. If things get really bad you can hide out here with me. Not sure how safe it will be with the Syndicate roaming around but it’s better than being in the palace with the whole city out for blood.

You probably already know this but don’t do anything stupid. Remember the number one rule here in Averlon. It’s not ‘don’t fuck with Heaven’ or it’s not ‘don’t fuck with the king’. The number one rule here is ‘don’t fuck with the Syndicate.’ If they ask you to go you ask where, if they ask you to jump you ask how high.” Cornenk said seriously.

“Thank you Cornenk, this wasn’t what I hoped for but your offer is appreciated,” Sarana replied with a resigned sigh.

“I’ll keep an ear to the ground and let you know if anything major crops up. Your channels still have access to some of my men right?” Cornenk asked.

“Yes, you know who they are?” Sarana said.

“Yeah, I think so. I think it’s best if we don’t confirm anything, just send a message through one of your channels and I’ll reply.” Cornenk said.

“Will do, it’s been nice talking to you Cornenk.” Sarana said as she stood up.

Cornenk opened his mouth as if to reply then he froze and his eyes darted over to where the dead whore was. His face went pale and Sarana felt a chill go down her spine. She whirled around and what she saw turned her blood to ice.

Where’s the body?