CHAPTER V
'MINERVA'
I've learned a great deal in the five weeks Clytemnestra and I have been working at the Crossed Staves. With my magic I find I can alter or maintain most of the simple properties of things around me. Things like temperature, state, mass, the wavelength of light and sound. These things are just numbers to me now, numbers I can rewrite at will, provided I have physical contact. More advanced magic, real spells still elude me, but I feel powerful, moreso than I probably should, but perhaps, less? Even these simple tricks can be used in a huge number of ways.
Yes, my magical studies have advanced in their own slow way, but perhaps more importantly I find I now feel as though I understand the world I'm living in. It's a simple thing, and a simple thing to feel, but I never knew how critical that feeling could be until I missed it.
There is no sickness here, and little illness. No parasites, no fleas or bed bugs or their kind, nor viruses and harmful bacteria. Or at least, if those things exist, they do not cause diseases. With no moon, the tides are slight and the seasons mild. Crops may be grown year round, at least, in this part of the world.
The thrusting, muscular mountains against which Pyre Silver is built are overflowing with valuable metals and minerals, especially the silver for which this city is named.
In this world, there is no religion! The very concept is unknown – no one has ever thought to postulate gods and monsters. Aniviv, who is well educated, could barely understand the questions I put to her on the subject, and seemed to write them off as the bizarre sort of ideas one should naturally expect from a sorceress. I found that hilarious and I'm not sure why. She made excuses and left quickly.
That explains something that I had not realised had been bothering me. Unconsciously I think I had noticed it. No temples or shrines in the city. No-one ever prayed, or swore, or or even mentioned prayers or gods. Again I asked Aniviv, by far the best educated person on the staff, how people explained the things they don't understand, she thought the question was silly, things which people don't understand cannot be explained yet.
No sickness, no gods, no shortage of food or land or materials... Yet for all that there is still war, and crime. It just goes to show that human nature is the same here, mostly. Avarice is not to be sated no matter how abundant the things we crave are. I call it a good thing. Desire is what drives civilisation, and what drives individuals. That's something that comes home to me very personally today!
Clytemnestra and I are eating spicy beef soup in the taproom, watching the early lunchtime customers when Ti approaches us.
"Miss.. Er... Miss Juno and Miss Isis want to see you both," Ti tells us.
"Did they say what about?"
I'm a little worried, wondering if I've done something wrong. We've barely seen either of the sisters since our memorable 'interview' five weeks ago.
"No. Just, can I go fetch you when you're done eating?"
Clytemnestra stands up, "Of course."
Ti leads us through into the sisters' apartment and to the same little parlour where we had played with the sisters that first day. She knocks on the door, but doesn't enter when it opens.
One of the sisters, and I still cannot tell them apart (save by taste!) bids us sit and offers us sweet white wine in crystal glasses.
The other speaks next, "How are you both? Settled in?"
"Very nicely, lady, very comfortable," Clytemnestra replies, and sips her wine.
"Mmm. Nice to have a roof over my head again," I add.
"Excellent! Juno and I couldn't be happier with your work," ah, so this must be Isis in green satin today, and that is Juno in blue, "The place is as well ordered as it's ever been, haven't had a real brawl since you started."
I nod as though I agree. It chills my soul to think what might qualify as a real brawl, given some of the scrapes I've seen here.
"Better, even! Some of the nobility like to go slumming once in a while and they've latched onto the Crossed Staves since they think it's safer than the competition," enthuses Juno.
"Swimming in money," adds Isis happily.
Juno becomes more serious, "Only one dark spot on the horizon."
"Nasty is what I'd call it," says Isis, "Extortion!"
"Blackmail," Juno.
"Vendetta," Isis.
"What is?" I ask, worried.
"Those scoundrels you replaced," says Juno.
Isis exclaims, "Scoundrels is the word! We told you they were doing other work besides?"
"Thuggery, hired muscle," Juno clarifies.
"Yes?"
"Well," says Isis, "It was worse than that! Mixed up in the Half Feather, they were."
Juno sees our puzzled looks and explains, "Criminal gang, bastards to a woman."
"Bastards. They paid us a visit this morning," Isis goes on, "Tried to take a slice of our pie."
Juno nods, "Tried to intimidate us! Cheek!"
"Of course, we didn't get where we are today by being intimidated," Isis points out.
"And we didn't stay where we are today by not having hired muscle of our own."
I have a feeling I know where this is going. This 'Half Feather' doesn't sound very threatening, as a name, but then, if the gang itself is, it can probably get away with a soft sounding name. Besides, Clytemnestra and I are only two people, one of them not one tenth the sorceress she's supposed to be. How are we supposed to fight gangsters?
"Obviously," Isis continues, "there'll be a little something extra in it for you, since this is a little over what we hired you for."
"Not to mention our own significant gratitude," Juno adds, less than subtly.
"Say no more," Clytemnestra says, damn her, "We've no more love for banditry inside city walls than we have for it in the wilds."
How my face isn't showing raw horror I can't imagine, "What... What exactly is it you want us to do?" I ask, trying to keep my voice businesslike.
"Warn them off," says Isis.
Juno adds, "We don't really care how."
"Folks don't tell us how to do our job and we don't believe in telling folks how to do theirs," concludes Isis.
"Commendable attitude," Clytemnestra reckons, "It does you credit. Although we will need a little more to go on. Where does this Half Feather operate from? Who is in charge, do you know?"
"If we knew that we'd tell the Prince and scoop the bounty on their heads," Juno points out, reasonably.
Isis carries on the thread, "And the same for where they hole up, I think it's part of being criminals."
"The two who were here this morning said they'd be back tomorrow, same time for our answer," explains Juno.