Daughter of Treason Ch. 05

"Oh, so you don't know. Well then, I won't tell you, but I promise you'll like it."

She felt conflicted. She really didn't like secrets, but Shino seemed so excited, she found herself reluctant to call him on it. Eventually, she settled for a simple, "Okay. I'll just take the other two ingots, then."

"Sure!" his gaze was distant, unfocused, as he apparently began plotting in earnest. They exchanged distracted farewells, Kei took both the unclaimed ingots, and on impulse, set out to find Miranda. The taller woman was sitting against a wall in the kitchen, staring out the window. "Miranda, I'm off to the market. Could you assist Shino while I'm out?"

"Yes, Mistress, I shall."

Kei's smile was just a bit strained; that form of address would take some getting used to. "Thank you." The arched words seemed to be lost on Miranda, who just smiled, bowed, and slipped out of the room. Kei sighed, feeling distinctly unsatisfied, put the ingots in a sack, and went back to don her boots.

She felt slightly better once she had the comforting weight of the footwear, and the dagger therein, on her feet. She put the ingots in a sack and, feeling an urge to get moving, swept down the stairs and out the front with only the briefest of farewells. Once on the street, she took a deep breath of the city air, fetid with a tang of salt from the ocean, and smiled. Home.

<<<<<Malefactum malefactoribus beneficiumque bonis face>>>> >

Her first stop was the metal merchant in the Beacon City Promenade. The ingots were exchanged for coin, albeit less than she viewed as fair, and from there she made her rounds at various shops, particularly for a few more domestic goods and a significant expansion of her wardrobe; though she would grimace at the thought of wasting money unnecessarily, she was acutely aware of how limiting owning only three sets of clothes was, especially when one set was being appropriated by a human leech, and the other was soaked with blood and was dangerously distinct. Besides, the dress made her feel pleasantly... normal. It was a feeling she could get used to, provided that she kept one or two sharp objects on hand, just in case the situation changed.

When she returned, Shino was bustling about the forge, with Miranda called upon only rarely to fetch this or that tool. Kei felt a secret pleasure at how little attention the elf was paying to the blonde, particularly when compared to the attention he gave her. "Welcome back! Did everything go well?"

She favored him with a smile. "Yes, yes it did." She hefted one of the parcels in her arms for emphasis.

"Do you need a hand?"

She eyed the iron tongs in his hand, and the ingot in the fire. "Don't you have your own hands full?"

"Uh..." He looked at the tongs like he had forgotten they were there and gave a sheepish grin. "Yeah. Uh, Mir, can you give her a hand?"

Kei shook her head. "No need, but thank you for the thought."

"You sure?" he extracted the ingot from the fire, breaking eye contact only long enough to complete the task.

"I'll manage." She said with a warm smile. "Besides, I'm not entirely done with errands just yet, so you can offer your assistance next time."

He shot her a happy smile and was about to go back to his work when a thought struck her. "Actually, if you don't need her, I would like a few minutes with Miranda."

"Sure, it's fine by me, I guess."

"Don't worry." She said, reading his expression, "I'll be nice."

Miranda looked uncertain as she followed Kei upstairs, but barely hesitated. The shorter woman dropped the parcels off in the bedroom then moved into the kitchen, motioning to the only chair for the taller one to take a seat.

Miranda sat on the floor.

Sighing, Kei pulled the chair around to face the blonde. "Your childhood," she said without preamble, "tell me about it."

It took a few moments for Miranda to parse the question, but once she understood, she answered readily. "There is little to tell, Mistress. I cooked and cleaned more often than I was lain with. The days were easy, and passed quickly."

"How did you come to be there? Can you remember life before...?" She gestured vaguely at her companion's usual submissive posture.

"No, Mistress. I have few memories, and those feel sometimes like just a dream."

Kei frowned. "You said earlier that the men who... kept you, that they were guards. What," she asked, coming to the heart of the matter, "can you tell me about them?" Miranda was silent for a time, prompting Kei to urge, "Well?"

"I'm trying to think, Mistress, but they have blurred together. They were like all my old masters; some were kind, and some were not and seemed to enjoy the cries of me or the others as they-"

"Others?" Miranda had Kei's full attention now.

"Yes, Mistress, the other girls."

"Do you remember how they came to be there?"

She paused thoughtfully, before shaking her head. "No, Mistress, they would just show up one day. The older ones cried, sometimes for days. The younger ones were only confused, and wept only quietly. We didn't like the loud ones. They brought the unkind masters. I... I think that was how I learned not to cry."

"Can you remember anything about the masters, the building, the neighborhood, anything?"

Kei's focus was frightening in its intensity, and the rage simmering just below the surface threatened to spill over. Miranda noticed this and began grasping at straws. "Um, it was a big, stone building, Mistress, with iron bars in all the windows, and stone floors. It was two stories tall, with a wooden roof. The buildings around were short, and wooden, and..."

She trailed off, catching her Mistress' disappointed expression. She had, hitherto, described half of the guardhouses, most of the warehouses, several mansions, a few guildhouses, and at least one Artisan's Hall in every poor district in all of Beacon City. Kei was about to change tactics when Miranda cried, "The fountain! Mistress, there was a fountain, or the remains of one. We wanted to play in its pool, but they told us the water was dirty, and if we wanted a bath we could draw water from the well ourselves. Does that help, Mistress?"

She said it so hopefully, as a puppy eager to please, that Kei couldn't help but to say, "It's... Yes. Yes it does." In truth, it was little better than nothing; it might make it easier to confirm a location, but still left the entire city as the search area. But she looked so pitifully pleased with herself for remembering that Kei couldn't bring herself to answer bluntly. Instead, the dark-haired woman opted to change the subject. "How did you leave?"

"They sold me, Mistress."

"To the Rat gang?"

"No, Mistress, to a merchant, but he did not keep me long; he sold me after his wife found out." She frowned. "She was not kind."

"Did that happen regularly, girls being sold?"

"I don't know, Mistress. Sometimes one of the others would be called away and not return, but we were never told what happened."

Kei sighed. It seems that Miranda didn't have much information to go off of. Still, the girl had done her best. "Thank you," Kei said, "for bringing this to my attention."

Miranda bowed. "I am here to serve, Mistress."

"That will be all," she said with a tight smile, "go help Shino. I have a few more errands to run."

<<<<<Malefactum malefactoribus beneficiumque bonis face>>>> >

The tradition, when searching for information, is to visit bars, buy drinks, and generally schmooze with the widest assortment of people possible. While no one seemed to have any information on a squat stone building with a fountain out front, the rumors going around indicated that the guards had adopted a strange new perversion of their official goal of maintaining law and order; while petty theft and coercion among the poor ran rampant, too costly to stomp out, if a debtor owed large sums to a merchant, it suddenly became profitable to enforce the old laws about debtors becoming 'indentured servants.'

In a new twist, another individual could 'volunteer' to become the proxy servant. Labor is labor, the merchants reasoned, so it doesn't matter who served. Kei didn't know what kind of monster would volunteer their own child in their place, but she intended to find out.

The nearest guard house was a quarter mile walk away, close for the slums. She walked briskly; though there was still plenty of daylight, walking in the slums alone did not feel comfortable, something even the weight of the dagger in her boot did not fully alleviate. She attracted attention only a few times, and managed to shake them by a combination of swift movement and ducking into clusters of people.

By the time she arrived, she was hyperaware of the eyes of others on her. This meant that, when she recognized the crumbling heap of stones in front of the guard house as a ruined large stone fountain, she decided that no, it was not worthwhile to ask around about the men within, particularly when some of those guards would shortly go missing.

After all, if she wanted to know something, she had but to ask them in person.

<<<<<Malefactum malefactoribus beneficiumque bonis face>>>> >

The area looked, as usual, different at night. The squat stone building, ugly and ragged-looking in the daylight, appeared a fortified citadel, armored in shadow and menacing in its bulk. Ironically, the very features which cut an impressive sight, namely its irregular borders, were the very same ones which made hiding easier; the shadows left strips of high-contrast darkness in the light of the moon, and a corner had a chunk missing, which gave her a convenient gap to fill. The human eye finds outlines, so Kei borrowed the building's, standing where her profile would blend into the building's; a casual observer would see the outline of the building and stop looking, particularly when the shadows leeched all detail from the interior of the shape, further obscuring her figure.

The stealth was, perhaps, unnecessary, but Kei had overheard a few passerby talking about one particular individual who, in one excited woman's words, "brought down some trouble on those rat bastards." Although she felt a secret flush of pride at the implicit approval, she decided that it would be a pointless risk to be seen hanging around.

So she stood in the shadow of the building as the night air set in. She was grateful for the thick fabric of her night clothes, but even with the tight-woven fleece, the cold seeped in, stiffening her joints. After the third hour of this, she was considering getting up and leaving; the only men to leave did so in groups, and she doubted her ability to incapacitate three men without doing any of them irreparable harm. But just when she was about to slink away, a solitary man in full guard uniform strolled out of the building.

She scrambled to pursue much less gracefully than she would have liked, but he seemed unaware. However, rather than patrolling the dark alleyways as she had hoped, he instead opted to walk down the dead center of a street illuminated by moonlight. She could follow and hope he didn't take notice of the black-clad figure walking down the street behind him, or...

Kei slunk to a nearby house, a one-story hovel, really, with a low hung ceiling, and scrambled up onto its roof. She made more noise than she was comfortable with, but the guard appeared to either not notice or not care about a brief scuffling sound in the night. She took comfort in this as she took off running, half to catch up and half to build momentum for the jump to the next building.

At first, she relished the momentary weightlessness and rush of adrenaline at the peak of a jump, looking down at the cobbles below and having time to wonder if she'd make it only after the next ledge had raced forward to meet her boots. But as time went on, fatigue replaced exhilaration and she began to wonder if she shouldn't have risked traveling at street-level instead. To make matters worse, the intermittent sound of running boots just out of his line of sight was beginning to spook the guard.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

She skidded to a halt behind the peak of a gabled roof, hoping her breathing wasn't as loud to him as it seemed to her. She had been sticking to street-side roofs to better keep him in sight, but now she was regretting the idea. And the moon is to my back, too. Damn. The weak backlighting would only make her more visible.

"I know someone's there!" The man's tone held less certainty than his words, but for her even suspicion was dangerous, and the guard didn't seem likely to move. What she needed was a distraction.

She waited until he spoke again, another uncertain, "Hello?" to shift her weight and draw a dagger. She risked a glance over the top, gauged the distance to an alley across the street, and threw the dagger in its direction.

The metal clattered on cobblestone, and the guard spun around to face it, away from her. "Aha!" She rose from her hiding place. "I know someone's there! I heard you!" She padded down the far side of the roof, grabbed the edge, and lowered herself down. "I don't want to hurt you, so just come on out!" The ringing of his short sword as he withdrew it from its sheath covered the sound of her boots hitting ground. "Come on, now! Come out now, and we can put away our swords and talk all nice and civil-like." She rose from her crouch and padded over. Less certain, "I know you're there." She was a quarter of the way to him. "Is anyone there?" three quarters, just a few more steps. "...Hello?"

She brought the sap down on the back of his neck, and his world went black.

<<<<<Malefactum malefactoribus beneficiumque bonis face>>>> >

Kei arrived home in little time; she had been going slowly, cautiously, but apparently she had not hit him hard enough, as he began to stir. She had bludgeoned him again, but when he groaned again ten minutes later, she was reluctant to repeat the process for fear of causing permanent damage; she would not inflict more than pain without knowing if he was a good or bad man. Regardless of his moral standing, he was waking up, and she needed to get him bound and in a soundproof area quickly.

The lights in the house were still lit, the extinguished lamps backlit by the warm glow of the forge. Good, they're awake. She knocked heavily on the door and shifted her grip on the body. The man was heavy enough, and the added weight of the chainmail felt like an insult. No response came, and Kei knocked again, harder. When Miranda, bleary-eyed, pulled the door open, Kei did not make a pretty sight; sweat was running down the thin strip of exposed skin between nose and brow, cooling rapidly in the night as if to mock the labor which brought it about, her breathing was ragged, a bang had escaped and was persistently getting in her eyes, and the groaning figure she clutched in one hand was slipping.

Miranda, on the other hand, looked just shy of pristine; her new dress, a robin's egg blue, was a touch rumpled, and there were a few grains of sleep in her eyes, but her hair fell straight, and her cheek had just the barest hint of flush. She had been so touched at the gift of such simple garb that her smile had been infectious, and Kei had found herself happy that she had bought the taller woman something reasonably nice as well as functional.

Now, however, she cared little for niceties. "Give me a hand; he's waking up.'

Shino was still at work at the forge, the fires burning brightly as he hammered away, pounding an ingot into a handle. He spared her barely a glance, and not even a comment for the body on her shoulder. For the best, perhaps. No need to involve him more than necessary. Miranda and Kei carried the guard to the basement, whereupon Kei promptly tied him up as thoroughly as she could; the taller woman looked nervous, but the shorter one was brooking no dissent. "Thank you, Miranda, that will be all." When the blonde didn't move, Kei repeated with emphasis, "The more he sees, the less safe it is to let him go."

What Kei didn't acknowledge, much less mention, was that she was beginning to care about what the servile woman thought of her. Miranda's insistence on her Mistress being a lady was flattering, but it carried with it the expectation of noble decorum, an expectation which would surely lead to disappointment if the blonde saw her Mistress torturing a bound man.

Mercifully, the woman in question bowed and left with a "Yes, Mistress." When she was alone once more, Kei moved over and checked the furnace. It was cold, rendered unnecessary by the heat of the forge upstairs, but she did not want to burn bodies on the ground floor. So Kei occupied herself loading wood in until more groans signaled the awakening of the guard.

Crouching in front of him, she waited patiently for his eyes to flutter open, and him to mutter groggily, "Wha' happ'n?" before she began the interrogation.

"You were struck from behind. You are a guard?"

"Yeah, City Watch. Where am I?" A pause as he tried to rub his face and realized why he couldn't. Then, with growing panic, "Why am I tied up?"

"You are in a safe place, the basement beneath my home. How long have you been a guard?"

"Why am I tied up?" he repeated more urgently. "Why are you wearing a mask?"

"Answer my question, and I will answer yours."

"Eight years, now why am I tied up and why are you wearing a mask!?"

"One question only. You are tied up because I am unsure if I can trust you, and would like to keep you from making the mistake of attacking me. Are there any civilians in the guard house?"

Her answer calmed him down, but only slightly. "Yeah, just civilians, none of us are in the navy. Why are you wearing a mask?"

"In case I decide to let you live." She replied simply. "Are there any children in the guard house?"

What little calm that had been gained was shattered. He began squirming, fiddling with the ropes. Normally, Kei would wait and let him tire himself out, but she had bound him in a hurry, and needed to distract him from working the knots. "Oh, enough of that. If I was going to kill you immediately, you never would have woken up to begin with. Now, if you really want to help your odds of seeing another sunrise, answer my questions. You would be well advised," she said, warning in her voice, "to do so, completely and honestly."

The guard responded only with a few choice remarks about Kei's parentage and person, and more squirming. Snarling, Kei drew a dagger, seized the guard's collar, and pressed the blade to his throat. "You live by my good graces alone! I had hoped to have a civil conversation and send you on your way, but if you're so eager to meet your end, I'll be happy to oblige you!"

He didn't respond, just stared at her, frozen in fear. Eventually, having been given no excuse to execute him, she grunted in frustration, pulled away, and began to stoke the fire again. She was still fuming silently when the guard said softly, "There's two dozen. A couple weeks ago, there were only eight, but the boss told us to round more up."

She turned slowly, not wanting to scare him into unresponsiveness again. "Who is your boss?"

"Lieutenant Greye."

"Where can I find this Lieutenant Greye?"

"He's in charge of the night watch, so in his office in the guard house when he's on duty."

"And he ordered you to... collect more little girls?"

"Not just little girls." He stared at the wall to his right, not meeting her gaze. "We were told to take any valuable targets."

Kei took a steadying breath. "Elaborate."

"We were... told to prioritize. Women are easier to resell, and Halastians sell faster than Miasians. But most of our marks don't volunteer their wives or sisters." He took a deep breath. "So we are to come back in the night with a Brute Squad, round up everyone, and make a clean sweep."