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Snippet #1649426

located in District Alpha, a part of Revelation: The Cure, one of the many universes on RPG.

District Alpha

The wealthiest district in Revelation.

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Perhaps irrationally, the first thought that Loki had upon realizing that there was a child in that cell was that it must be Siri. It probably wasn’t, of course, but all the same for a single moment, terror blocked her throat at the very thought. Then she realized it didn’t matter if it was or not, because someone, somewhere, was feeling that same sensation, only worse, and had been for as long as this kid had been missing.

Her moments of selflessness and generosity were painfully few and far between, but just then she didn’t much care whether this information would get them any closer to what they wanted, they just needed to get the kid and get out of there. Of course, rationality descended soon afterwards, and her expression receded into grim lines as she approached the unmoving pile of blankets.

The little boy stirred weakly, and not even the process of gathering him up into her arms seemed to wake him. That wasn’t a good sign, and Loki frowned. “We need to find an exit,” she said, aware she was stating the obvious but speaking more to say something and fill a silence than to provide anything meaningful. Unlike herself, perhaps, but then, this wasn’t exactly the sort of situation she was used to. Maternal instinct wasn’t really something she embraced or even professed to possess, but at the same time, she supposed it wasn’t so strange to want to help the poor thing.



The following day; Assassins' Guild meeting room

The princess sat in the chair at the far end of the room, though at present the stiffness in her posture was more stress than decorum. Her muscles hadn’t relaxed since she’d begun that midnight heist on the Gilgamesh Estate, and she hadn’t slept in the twenty-four hours since. Everyone was here, and she was sure most of them had noticed, which under ordinary circumstances would have been absolutely unforgivable. At the moment, though, even Amon was showing subtle signs of strain. The others, perhaps a bit less so, but then most of them hadn’t spent the majority of that last sun-cycle putting together the twisted dimensions of the Prime Minister’s plot.

In the end, she wasn’t sure which was stronger: his forward-thinking or his megalomania. Probably the second, and she was grateful. The documents Seth had entrusted to her bore a similar mark in the corner to the one found at the edge of the map Victoria and Pandora had provided. At first, she’d been disappointed they couldn’t get in deeper with the Liberation Movement, as the magi called themselves. But all of that had disappeared beneath a rising tide of alarm when they’d explained what they found instead. Amon had confirmed that Ishtar was an old friend of his, but if she was passing him information so directly, there was something very wrong. They’d had something of a falling-out shortly before the madam married Azazel, and their contact had only been sporadic since, not to mention strained.

The writing itself was nothing terribly extraordinary, though it was very private- the Gilgamesh family business records for the last months. Aside from the fact that slaves were on the roster, there was nothing of note. Slavery wasn’t even technically illegal, she just didn’t happen to like it. She found, though, that much to her surprise, Seth had included copious notations next to certain items. It seemed as though he had been onto something, attempting to work it out by himself, but lacking the ability to do so. What she did find peculiar was that of the twenty-some slaves Duke Gilgamesh had bought that month, not one of them had served in the home, according to Seth, and the factory ledgers did not indicate any change in employees at all for the period.

The question of where they were going wasn’t too hard to answer- the cells beneath the man’s home were an obvious enough location, but the why was much more difficult to discern. Why buy them just to keep them imprisoned? And why, despite a purchase of more than two dozen, were all the cells save one empty? Where had they gone after that? That was, surprisingly, a question answered in part by Scheherazade. The girl had taken one look at the odd marking at the top of one of the pages and frowned, brows knitting together thoughtfully. After a few hours, she’d brought Loki a tome on Revelation architecture that she’d been reading a while ago and pointed out that the inked symbol recalled an old mason’s mark from the city’s founding.

That hadn’t meant much until she and Amon had done a little more digging. Apparently, the mark was actually used in masonry only after first being a religious icon from the time before the city was necessary or existent. Elisia herself had reappropriated the old cult mark of the goddess and had it stamped into the bricks that built her palace and the surrounding buildings.

Of course, it was only when Amon told her about the room beneath Beta with the same sigil etched into the floor that her confusion started gradually receding, leaving a burgeoning dread to fester in its place. The map was a separate but equally vital piece of the picture. I don’t think the magi fully understand what they’re doing, she could not help but think, but part of her wondered if, great manipulator as he was, even Gilgamesh had the wherewithal to plan this by himself. It just seemed like
 she must have miscalculated what he was capable of, because this was beyond what she had thought possible.

Inhaling deeply, she tried not to sigh before she spoke. “Right, well
 apparently Duke Gilgamesh has gone off the deep end.” She had never been any good at sugar-coating things, and she wasn’t going to start trying at the moment, horrible as that was. “It seems he has been buying slaves for the sole purpose of killing them. Amon, Danterus, and Giacomo found a
 room underneath Beta with evidence of as much, and Eos and I stumbled upon where he’d been holding them.” They’d also stumbled upon Lord Chandler’s son Benjamin, but the boy had yet to respond to medical care and was still largely comatose. “It seems that his political prisoners have been receiving the same treatment. I don’t know what he thinks he’s going to achieve, but it’s a safe bet that it would sound absolutely insane to most if not all of us and is probably also religiously-tinged. I can’t tell to what degree the magi were aware of this, but Azazel’s wife at least seems to have had some knowledge of what was going on.”

“Like as not, the man himself won’t hear any of it,” Amon pointed out dryly. “He doubtless sees Gilgamesh as his puppet, not the other way around, and refuses to believe he’d be capable of doing something like this right under his nose.” The Guildmaster’s eyes fell to the two maps. Loki had noted that the one given to Azazel and Ishtar was bereft of the other’s more incriminating marks. “We’ve been discussing it-” ‘we’ meaning the smiths, Giacomo, and Amon- “and it seems most likely that Gilgamesh’s men are going to be setting charged explosives beneath the city. Probably around the time of Gilgamesh’s trial.”

Loki nodded. “It wouldn’t surprise me if the mages conveniently chose that day to march as well.” It meant that she and Caelin at the very least would be otherwise occupied and in a very specific place when the events occurred, as would the Duke himself. The eye of the storm is the safest place to be? I think not. Rubbing at her temples, she glanced back up at the others. “It’s not all bad news though. Thanks to a bit of good thinking and a bit of dumb luck, Chandler’s moderates will help us if we can present enough proof. I think I know how we can get it without incriminating ourselves, but it will take a bit of convincing. Garbiel has secured us the assistance of the second most influential guild in the city, and pressure from the smiths is bound to turn a few of their business partners into more amicable men as well.” She discretely chose not to mention that part of the reason for that was a well-timed hit.

“If this goes the way I think it’s going to go, we’ll be doing three things at once: putting on a show for Parliament, diffusing explosives belowground, and stopping the magi from destroying the city. Volunteers?” The question was asked in resigned tones, as though the very utterance of the single-word question was a great labor. In a way, it was. This small group of people had done more than they should ever have needed to for the city, and most of them would probably remain unrecognized for that- assuming they even survived this. Some of them would probably even remain hated for the rest of their lives. Loki didn’t really want to think about what this whole rebellion was going to do to Pandora’s chances of not being assaulted on sight should she ever presume to enter Beta.

“No matter what you decide, we’ve got a week until the trial. If you’re still in this, you’d best prepare yourselves however you can.” Closing her eyes, she slowly leaned back into her chair. There was a great mountain of tasks for her to surmount personally before then, and already she was running contingencies and trying to account for the ever-incalculable illogical human factor. It only seemed to grow more difficult with time.