Chapter 173 – Rest and Recuperation

Caeileera

We emerged from the portal Nyx created within a small, rectangular white marble chamber with a red pentagram carved into the floor. The room was lit by weird octahedral crystals with electric currents constantly flowing inside them.

‘Storm Crystals,’ Nyx explained, seeing what I was looking at, and then turned to my Jelly. ‘If you want, I can teach you to make those. It should be a fun way of training your powers, and they can be used to make great mood lighting for certain… activities.’

She raised her right hand and made a slow, flicking movement with it, causing the lights on one side of the room to turn from white to blue and purplish pink on the other.

Lilyth actually chuckled seeing that, causing Aki, starry-eyed, to look at her and rapid-fire beg her with clasped hands:

‘Canyoucanyoucanyoucanyou…’

‘Of course, my love,’ Lilyth took Aki’s hands into hers. ‘Anything to make your days happier.’

‘Thankyouthankyou…’

No! No! No! We weren't supposed to pressure Lilyth into anything. Why do you have to be such a light bug, Aki?

The worst part was, I didn't want to ruin that. What kind of a partner would I be if I came in and rained on their parade?

I looked at Nyx, hoping she would be able to assist with this. The goddess, who, judging by her faint frown, also wasn't thrilled about the development, caught my gaze and gave me an almost imperceptible nod that seemed to say “I will be the bad guy here”. She cleared her throat and asked:

‘Are you sure you actually want this, Lilyth? You shouldn't do something you might not like just to please others.’

Aki made that hurt pet expression that always broke my heart. Still, we had to be resolute. THIS wasn't about us.

Lilyth squeezed our blue-haired light bug’s hands tight and said:

‘Making Aki’s and Caeileera smile is something that always brings me great joy. You are right, making those crystals might not be for me, but what does it hurt for me to try? Arts and crafts always helped me clear my mind back h-home.’

Nyx nodded.

‘Good answer,’ she smiled and gave a nod of approval to Aki, who immediately jumped towards Lilyth, wrapped her hands around her neck and started showering her with kisses.

‘I… love… you… so… much…’ she said between them.

Aki

The next place we visited was Lilyth's new room - a spacious but sparsely furnished chamber with a bed large enough to fit the three of us, a couch, a wardrobe, a tome-filled bookshelf and a desk/workbench. The floors were white marble again, but the walls were painted blue, giving the room a “located on a cloud” vibe.

‘This place is so cool!’ I gave my expert opinion.

‘Glad you like it, kiddo,’ Nyx beamed. ‘I originally had a smaller room prepared for Lilyth, but given how the two of you are going to be visiting her from time to time, I had to switch it for this one. I imagine the two of you might choose to spend the night from time to time, or will just want a quiet evening, and I am nothing if not an accommodating host.’

Nyxie gave us a conspiratorial wink and then pointed at the bookshelf.

‘Some novels, history books and magical guides. Explore at your own leisure. Let me know if something catches your eye and either requires materials or could be dangerous let me know. I will make the necessary arrangements. You set the pace here. You can spend all of your time here reading crime stories and p… romance novels if you want.’

‘I’m veeeeery… interested in seeing how large your collection of those is,’ Lilyth said with a wide grin.

‘I find what you are insinuating there insulting, furball,’ Nyx said in a mock offended tone. ‘On an unrelated note, if you want more books, my personal library is the Northern Spire.

‘Don’t you mean in the Northern Spire?’ I asked, confused.

‘I said what I said,’ Nyx replied matter-of-factly.

Ren

The keep felt empty without the girls. I was really looking forward to spending some more time with them, as I didn't have much time or strength for that due to the work to establish the trade route. Still, that was almost complete now, and all that was really needed was to get the Viscount to sign off on it, as we would be interfering with the monopoly the Ror River Trading Company has held for decades. In practice, it would probably involve establishing what cut of the profits we should be giving the noble to “make up” for the “lost income” the Viscountcy would be getting from RRTC.

I fully expected us to be fleeced, given how their boats only stopped in Len-Cas, Tyr-Mel and Fal-Mel, and neither Dan-Hem nor Mer-Cas used their services all that much. The tax would be worth it, however, as securing a monopoly of our own would prevent RRTC from muscling in on our territory.

Still, we didn't expect them to go down without fighting, so we would need to hire bodyguards, and this is where I was glad that Grandpa Harkan came to visit. He suggested that we could hire some warriors from the Bloody Perch Clan as guards. I would need to go there personally, as per the old tradition of leaders needing to win the loyalty of their subordinates themselves.

Nowadays, it was mostly a custom of “if you want to hire someone, do it yourself”, and it was considered in bad taste to use intermediaries, but in the past, there would be whole ceremonies, trials and rituals involved. It would also be a good chance to get me formally inducted into the Clan, since, thanks to my misadventures, I have passed my rite of passage to earn my bow many times over. I would have to discuss with Nyx how to break the news about what happened to the family heirloom to Grandpa. Maybe he would have an idea how to stop the clan babbling out my secret, OR worshipping.

I really miss my old life sometimes. Who would have thought being a crime lord would be the simpler period of my life? At least I now understand why Nyx and the others hate being worshipped. I wonder if this is how they started for them, too? Leading a normal life and then suddenly being thrust into something like this?

I shook my head to get rid of those thoughts. There would be time to investigate how to “god” later. I had other pressing matters to attend to, and my old skillset would come in very handy.

Having left Savri to take care of the still unconscious Phosi, Deirdee and I left the keep to pay a visit to our dear old friend Marvheeyn the goldsmith. Old Ren would likely have made an example out of him. Things have changed, though. Old Ren would have been dead by now, for one, and suffering a punishment by Ereshkigal. I wouldn't even have Leera with me, as she would have been snatched up by the Blood.

I wish there were a way for me to stay alive and keep her.

There was no time for me to grieve, though. Now the New Ren had to act.

Marvheeyn knew exactly how much Viemoo shit he was in the moment we entered the store. He made a move to run away, but then slumped back to his chair when he remembered there was only one entrance to his store. He took a deep breath, stood up and turned towards us.

‘Miss Ren, it has been a while. What brings you to my establishment?’ he said in his best businessman voice and turned to Deirdee. ‘Hello to you too, miss. Had I known you were friends with Lady Yamaoka, I would have given you a much better rate on the gold I bought from you. I will make it up next time, as I am afraid I don’t have enough money on hand to compensate you right now. And may I -’

‘Cut the shit, Marv,’ I interrupted his grovelling. ‘I know you sold my friends out to the Ghosts.’

‘Oh, gods…’ he muttered. ‘So it was the two of you that killed them. M-may I inquire where your other friend is? The nicely dressed blue lady.’

‘Phosi is currently occupied with other matters,’ I said.

‘We can ask her to pay you a visit, though,’ Deirdee added with a pleasant smile, as if she were inquiring about someone's grandchildren. ‘I am sure she will be very happy to... get to know you better’

All colour bleached from Marvheeyn’s face.

‘Please… don’t,’ he pleaded in a weak voice. ‘I have a family. I’ll tell you everything you want to know. Please!’

Initially, I thought that there wasn’t much to the goldsmith’s story that I wouldn't have been able to guess on my own. I never knew the full extent of Marv’s dealings with Kojiro, but their business relationship must have been good, given how much preferential treatment it got me. So when my brother decided to join the Red Masks and met his end at Lilyth's hand, that fairly lucrative partnership ended. While goldsmiths never particularly lacked for money, we did move a lot of gold through his establishment, so this extra money stream drying up must have nonetheless hurt. Not that I felt sorry for him.

The Ghosts started moving in on our territory about a week after the dust from the battle of Mer-Cas settled, and they found Marvheeyn a few days after that. Initially, they were establishing a protection racket, but after the goldsmith revealed the previous services he had rendered to our family, a different kind of arrangement was made - one where he would point out rich customers of his to the organisation.

That was when the educated guess part ended. Predictably, initial operations of the Ghosts have been clumsy. Getting the lay of the land wasn't a quick and easy process. That abruptly changed about three weeks after the gang arrived. Suddenly, they became almost hypercompetent and began to select the best targets with almost surgical precision.

At the same time, Marvheeyn noticed new recruits with the gang: dour, humourless brutes who looked down on the rest of the bandits.

The strangers most likely. But why would they choose Phosi and Deirdee as targets for a mugging? Overconfidence? It doesn't make any sense otherwise.

‘The man in the green shirt… was he one of the “brutes"?’ the former assassin asked.

‘No,’ the goldsmith shook his head. ‘As I understand, he is… well… he was part of the Yamaoka Clan before the whole mess started.’

Probably someone so insignificant that even Kojiro didn't want him for his band. Is this it? Did Green-Shirt oversell his importance and pose as a local expert?

‘Final question, do you know how many hideouts the Ghosts have in the city?’ I asked. ‘And don’t make stuff up. I’ll understand if you don't know.’

‘They never shared that with me,’ the goldsmith shook his head. ‘The only place I knew of was a small safe house they had down the street. It has been empty for a few days, though, since… you know.’

Since they decided to become lunch for Phosi.

‘I overheard them discussing something about an alchemical synthesiser and making Kirsee, the only Magitek Engineer in the city, create it,’ Marvheeyn continued. ‘I don’t know anything more about that, though. And that’s about everything. I suspected they also had more hideouts in the city, but I have no idea whether it was just the place that exploded yesterday or there were more.’

So I guess our next step is talking to this Kirsee.

We thanked Marv for his help, got the directions to the engineer’s workshop from him and told the man to report to my grandfather.

‘Lord Yamaoka is here?’ he squeaked, an actual wet patch appearing on his trousers.

‘Yes,’ I confirmed. ‘But I imagine he is in a forgiving mood and might have lucrative ventures for you in mind. Just tell him I sent you and about the services you have previously rendered to the Clan.’

Grandpa had no idea that Marvheeyn even existed, but we had to keep tabs on the goldsmith. If we didn't “recruit” him, who knows who would?

‘Just change your clothes first,’ Deirdee said while wrinkling her nose.

‘That man is completely spineless,’ the assassin remarked as we were following the directions Marv gave us.

‘Don’t be too harsh on him,’ I replied. ‘He-’

The rest of my response was cut off by a deafening boom. I looked towards the source and saw a massive fireball blossoming in the distance.

Well… fuck.