Chapter 114: Pillar of The System

"Most of it is exactly what Lee already told us," I said, sitting down on the cold rock. "The rest is details. There are women and men for rent for pleasure, if anyone is curious."

"Nobody is curious," Sera said.

"Arthur looks curious."

"I am not!" Arthur yelped, going pink to the ears.

Lee coughed into his fist.

"There is also a market somewhere inside the palace," I continued. "A proper one, with stalls and everything. You buy things there with coins, and you get coins by handing in Gifts." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

I lifted a finger.

"A Latent rank Gift is worth ten coins."

Sera frowned, her face twisting. "Do I really need to know about economics?"

"Hehehe." I leaned back on my palms. "If you want people at your side, you have to control the economy first. Swords can be dodged, but hunger cannot. Whoever holds one of the pillars of the system has almost already won."

"That is very dramatic," Sera said.

"It is also true."

She did not argue, which was the highest praise I could expect from her.

"Now, listen properly. A Latent Gift is ten coins. An Awakened rank Gift is fifty, I think. A Bound rank Gift is two hundred. To leave this realm and go home, you hand Culex five Bound rank Gifts, and the door opens."

"Lee told us that much," Mary said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "But even so, Latent Gifts are easy to get. A hundred of them is a year, maybe two, of steady hunting, and that is already a thousand coins. I do not understand why people stay here. Lee said some of them even have children."

"Two things," I said. "First, the trade only goes one way. You can exchange Gifts for coins, never coins for Gifts. That is illegal, and if you are caught doing it the other way around, you are dead."

Mary’s lips parted slightly.

"Second, yes, some people have children here. I think that is their choice, Mary, and not ours to judge."

She looked down at her hands for a moment, then nodded slowly. "You are right. I am sorry."

"Do not apologize to me. Apologize to the baby."

"What baby?"

"Any baby. It is a good habit."

Sera snorted. Even Mary’s mouth twitched.

I let the laughter settle before I went on.

"By the way, Lee, you said the palace looks like a temple? I do not see it. It is all black stone and red windows, and there is not a single god in sight. It looks more like a fortress that forgot to be holy."

He shrugged. "I do not know. Looks like one to me."

I sighed. "Anyway, I have started pulling threads. I planted the idea that members of the Twilight Order are coming to attack the palace. The rumor will be out in a few hours, maybe sooner. People there are starving for something to whisper about."

"You told them already?" Arthur asked, wide eyed.

"I told three people, and I made them promise to keep it secret."

I did not say anything more about that. Instead, I rubbed the back of my neck.

"I also think we may have a possible helper in there. I will not say more until I am sure. And I will most likely be grabbed by Culex’s people at some point and questioned. Tortured, if they are creative."

The air on the rock went very still.

Sera’s head turned slowly toward me. "You say that like you are discussing the weather."

"I will be fine."

"Edmund."

"I am wearing the locket. And I prayed to Ouroboros for concealment. To them, I am only a Fighter, a scared little one, not an Awakened at all. They will squeeze me, find nothing, and decide I am harmless."

"And if they do not?"

"Then I will use the Door and come straight back here, and you can say you told me so."

She did not smile, but the tension left her shoulders by a fraction. That was enough.

A breeze rolled across the rock, carrying a smell that crept into my nose and settled there like an unwelcome guest. Sweat, old smoke, damp canvas, and something older and deeper than any of them.

I glanced sideways at Lee.

’How many years has it been since this man took a bath?’

It was a fair question, and not one I would ever ask. This shore was not a place for baths. It was a place for surviving, and a man who had survived it for over a year had earned the right to smell however he wished.

I kept my face perfectly polite.

"So," I said briskly, "we have a problem to solve. We need coins, and a lot of them. Whatever Gifts you do not need, I will carry in and sell."

Sera sighed, as if the sacrifice were physical. "I have two Awakened rank Gifts I have no use for. And seventeen Latent ones."

"I have one unused Awakened rank Gift," Mary said, "and five Latent."

"None unused Awakened for me," Arthur said sheepishly. "But I have four Latent that I have never touched."

Lee was last. He scratched his jaw, thought for a moment, and spoke as casually as a man listing the contents of a pantry.

"Seventy-three unused Latent. Eleven unused Awakened."

Silence.

All four of us turned to stare at him.

"What?" he said.

"Seventy-three," Sera repeated.

"I have been here for over a year."

That was fair, and the staring softened into something like respect. A year of hunting every second day, a year of keeping things he could not use, hoarding them like a squirrel preparing for a winter that never came.

Of course, none of us had offered a Bound rank Gift. Every Bound Gift was a pillar of its owner’s strength, too powerful and too well matched to be thrown away. That did not mean Awakened rank Gifts were poor. They were simply easier to part with, especially if they did not suit a person’s life or fighting style.

I counted quietly in my head.

"Latent," I said. "Seventeen, five, four and seventy-three. That is ninety-nine Latent Gifts, or nine hundred and ninety coins. Awakened, we have two, one, none and eleven. That is fourteen, so seven hundred coins."

I let the total settle.

"One thousand six hundred and ninety coins. Add some of mine and Theodore’s, and we are at around two thousand."

Arthur whistled softly. Sera’s eyebrows rose.

"That is a small fortune," Lee said.

"It is more than most people in that palace will see in their entire lives."

"Which is exactly the problem," Mary said.

We turned to her. She had been quiet, her eyes distant. "If one boy walks into the market and sells this many Gifts in a single day, people will talk. Where did he get them? Who is he? Why does a frightened newcomer have a mountain of treasure?" She shook her head. "It will draw suspicion. You need people. Disciples, or something like them. Many hands, each selling a little. If a hundred people sell a few Gifts each, it is only another day at the market."

I stared at her.

’She is right. Completely right. After all, Money that moves in a flood draws eyes. Money that moves in a thousand drops is invisible.’

I turned the idea over, and it began to unfold in my mind like a map. There was a fixed amount of coin circulating inside the palace, a closed purse that every tenant, soldier and captain drew from. If we could gather enough hands to move the Gifts, and enough Gifts to move the coins, we would slowly come to hold a large part of that purse. And whoever held the coins held the market. Whoever held the market held the bread.

’We already run one pillar before anyone knows we exist.’

The thought sent a shiver of pleasure down my spine.

"Alright," I said, standing up and brushing the dust from my trousers. "I have to go back. The longer I am gone, the more likely it is that someone knocks on that bathroom door and asks whether I have died. Give me the Gifts."

They did not hesitate.

One by one, they brought out what they had saved. I will not describe them. They were only Gifts, glowing faintly in the lightning, each one a small stored memory of a fight survived.

Sera dropped hers into my palm with a grudging scowl. Mary set hers down with both hands, like a person laying a flower on a grave. Arthur gave his with a cheerful grin. Lee unloaded his in a long, jingling stream that made the rest of us step back.

I closed my eyes and reached inward.

Each Gift dissolved into me as it touched my skin, a stream of faint light sliding up my arm and sinking through my chest, flowing down into the hidden warmth of my Core. They settled there quietly, one after another, ninety-nine Latent and fourteen Awakened, like coins sinking into a deep well. Mine and Theodore’s would join them once I returned to the palace.

When it was done, I opened my eyes.

They were all watching me.

"See you again," I said.

I raised my wrist, and the bracelet answered.

Lines drew themselves across the air. The door opened, and grey fog poured out over the rock, cold against my ankles. I looked back once, at Sera with her arms folded, at Mary’s quiet smile, at Arthur waving like a boy at a harbor, at Lee standing a little apart, his arms crossed and his chin lifted.

Then I stepped through.

The fog swallowed the sound of the wind, and the world fell away.