Closed Only the Good Die Young... (Zandelia)

[Shai]

Timestamp: 514, 22nd of Spring

Shai yawned and tugged her ebony hood down further over her eyes, it was five bells too early to be awake in her estimation. On the other hand, traipsing down Stumble Alley during the night was suicide, at least in the afternoon sun she could stick to the center of the street and hopefully make it unmolested. If not she would spit in some eyes and flee as they cleared their vision, crude but effective. On any day, at any time although, Shai would not venture into the dubious alley without good reason. Today her goal was simply said and laboriously done, within her little rucksack sat nothing more than a blank book, a quill, and ink well. It was her intent to find information regarding herbs in the surrounding area. She had found the building once many years ago while traversing the roof tops and the general recollection of it was enough to find it during the day.

Stepping lightly through the door way the little Symenestra showed enough of her face to the librarian that her lack of identity would be cause for immediate eviction but otherwise moved straight for the shelves. Perusing them took longer than she would ever have imagined, while it seemed fairly organized not all of the books seemed to be written in common. Or then again, maybe they were in common and the hand writing was so poor the spider could decipher it given common was her second language. Eventually though one shelf in a wall of complexly titled tomes stood out; Flora and Fauna of Eastern Sylria volume 1. Sounding quite official the thief snagged it and opened it on the spot. Much to her dismay the title was mostly masquerade for the interior was more a journal than a true book. Some entries had drawings and others just disorganized notes. Triply aggravating some entries were nothing but names of plants that Shai had never heard of it and without a picture had no way of knowing if she had seen. Still it was the best she could locate without further investigation and so the spider took it with her to the table.

Without looking up from the parchment, mouthing the words as she attempted to read the scrawl, she settled down into a chair. In periphery sort of way Shai was aware that someone else was seated at the table, but with her pale nose shoved into the text inexpertly seeking useful information, she never really identified her companion.

[Zandelia]

The Library of Sunberth, she had found herself there once again in the endless search for knowledge that could be useful to herself, to the Scars and anyone else in the city that would be interested in buying information from her. She had tried to form some sort of process at the beginning she dimly remembered through the fog of growing lethargy. She had chosen shelves, made her way across them book by book and found nothing but sufferance – though she had to admit that if anyone asked for her opinion about weather events over the last fifty years or so she might be able to help them. It was one piece of knowledge she now possessed and she saw no sue for it, like all the rest of the slow composite she was building. She had needed things upon the past of Sunberth, that much was true, however she had failed to appreciate the scope of what that task would entail.

She had then tried just reading select authors upon topics that she found to be more appealing but the task had soon proven to be a dead end once again. For the most part each book she had sifted through seemed to be a repeated hash of observations and thoughts that could be found in others by the same authors. A few had been decent, mostly to do with commerce and the economy over the years – gold was always a decent motivator for both putting pen to parchment and the teaching required to do so cogently. It was a torment though, she knew possibly more than most in Sunberth now about the past of the city but nothing of the events she wanted to know – the rise of the Daggerhand and the other syndicates.

I do, however, know a lot more about the heroic tales of Olsten and Ordrek, the mage cult rule and the uprising that ended it. Or the legends at least. A foundation perhaps, though the mines still elude me. The y re referenced in most texts in passing which probably means they have been here since before the writing of this building was ever begun. The beginning of the city…perhaps? she asked herself as she placed her quill into her inkpot once more and rubbed the heel of her palms into her eye sockets – one was useless of course but the tension could still be felt there from the Bells spent in study.

“Okay, so what do we know?” she muttered to herself as she continued to rub gently, “the mines have been here since the beginning perhaps. The start but no one knows much about it and the people don’t care. Haven’t really seemed to care much over the years. So bad past regarding it considering the mythology” she sighed.

“Mage cult comes in, enslaves the populace and then starts fighting amongst itself. People take advantage and a few rise up as figurehead heroes. So the people will follow leaders if they think they will improve their lives and not touch their freedoms…so…they will follow after all despite their ideals” she continued through the logical progression of thought as she recalled the notes that she had made within the pages of her journal upon the table before her.

“Then Robern arrives and the Sun’s Birth…what was their leverage? Wait…wait…economy was weak wasn’t it? I’m sure that I read it and noted it down…so. So, weak economy, people suffering? Comes along, organizes things so that they work? People don’t argue because their lot improved – for a time – and when it was too late realized what they had whored themselves with?” she asked herself tiredly.

“Which means that they would have had an alliance despite the fighting perhaps? An agreement, loose of course, as to the terms of rule and the street wars? There must be a record…somewhere!” she growled to herself and removed her hands just in time to see one of the chairs opposite her taken by another.

She leant back into her chair and closed her mouth, turning the monologue into an internal one as her mind prodded her, distractive and insistent. She ignored it and wondered how she would have managed it, placed herself in their shoes and used her own abilities to come up with a plan. A shadowy one perhaps, the ghost of one but still there. Similar to what she was trying to do for the Scars now. Build connections, a network that you can use to reach anyone…anywhere. Learn their weaknesses and where to strike. Remind them of that quietly, politely. Ask if they would rather join or be eviscerated. Elegant, simple, effective – a bastard’s plan. She frowned as something was growing, a sense that something was out of place or not being noticed.

She looked at the woman reading, some book upon plants from what could be seen from her vantage point. There was something about the face, or what was hinted at beneath the hood, the delicate cheekbones and the lips. The turn of the chin and the jet black hair poking out here and there. The eyes…they weren’t human eyes, glistening a deep purple in hue and altogether too…large for…

A spider…in Sunberth? I only knew one but she should be dead she told herself, mind rebelling but intuition wishing it weren’t so, that there were others left somewhere.

“Shai?!” her voice was quiet, a whisper almost as if saying the name would break some sort of magic that was currently at work upon the world around her, conjuring this phantom of the past, “is that you?” she licked her lips once, fingers shifting upon the table to close her journal so that her full attention was upon the woman now – clearly a woman.

She took in the body, largely hidden by the long black cloak favoured by many in Sunberth as concealment as well as protection from the elements. What she could see of the form hinted at a thinness that bordered on the malnourished, or at least if she were human. She couldn’t be though, with that pale complexion that, though the shadowed lantern light could have been tricking her sight, seemed for all the world to possess a light webbing of dark veins around the lips.

[Shai]

You are being observed the Irylid intoned through Shai’s thoughts. Nestled between her petite breasts he appeared as an ice-like crystal on a silver chain, he peeked out from beneath the tie in the black cloak.

The spider’s feature’s scrunched as she lost her place in the book, Why would you… Chell I told you watch for tails three days ago. Slowly she relocated her place, a note hardly legible it was so miniscule and began rummaging through her rucksack for the book without turning her gaze from the text.

You never told me not to look. The annoyingly correct familiar replied and then faded into silence. He had sounded sullen if that was even possible for him and Shai knew she’d get nothing helpful from in for at least a week now. As the book slipped from the bag, a voice so quiet that if it weren’t feminine Shai would have thought it was Chell again. “Shai…” Startled amethyst eyes peeked over the bindings of the herbalist’s text.

Soon forgotten the text was placed on the table while the spider’s gaze locked onto to the other woman. For a moment her face froze. A heartbeat. Pearly pale lips curled into a familiar malicious smile. Of her former associates, Shai assumed they would be dead or if fortunate no longer in Sunberth. “Zandelia” she murmured, to maintain the atmosphere of the library. As the spider looked over the other woman she let her hood fall back, the library wasn’t so populated that her identity was in danger. “The years have seen you well.” The harsh cadence of a native Symenos speaker still punctured her Common speech even after years.

Her lithe hand rested on the book as her mind sped through plans. How could Shai utilize this new development? Not to mention out of all of the old associates Zandelia would be by far the most useful, in general the men had been hindrances. The exception, of course, was Antar but he could be counted on. Given her new set of schemes were shockingly legitimate for a thief in Sunberth, getting there would require considerable numbers of dubious deeds. It wasn’t nearly so one-sided either, in the end everyone who assisted her would benefit in one way or another. With her other hand Shai reached into her sack and pulled out the quill and ink. She thumbed open the inerudite text though her attention was only hardly upon it. “But the eyes can deceive, have you truly been well?” Shai’s attitude towards the humans had softened marginally since she had left Sunberth last at least in some respects; it was a respect in which old associates fell well within. At the same time something rather feral had been added to her movements, she did not seem any more dangerous than she once was but there was a permeating tension in her mien.

“Anthony and I have been... well we are alive.” And only good enough so that Sunberth was their destination, was the leased breath’s implication. Life twisted and turned. Even two people skilled as they were, found they were still vagabonds and Sunberth was their home. Shai’s lack of denial regarding her conclusion was what allowed her current plans to foster. If you were going to live in Sunberth, you either suffered under the yoke of poverty or cracked the whip. While whips were not part of her repertoire, Shai wasn’t averse to adding a new weapon to her arsenal. Shai tried not to laugh, and internally chided herself, it was a metaphor. “Have there been any lurid happenings in Sunberth since we last met?” A gentle probe, but Shai wanted to find out just what Zandelia knew that could help her.

[Zandelia]

There was a pause for a few chimes at the words of the female Sym, perhaps a mixture of surprise and relief but not even she was sure what she felt at that moment. It was strange, to see someone from her past, who hadn’t been eviscerated by life the way most others had. She spoke of Anthony too, she presumed that was Antar - he had left also she seemed to recall. The relationship between the pair had been somewhat close though Zandelia had never managed to discern exactly how close the two were to each other, they were very private individuals. After a while the smile formed, faint but unstoppable for a flickering before she snorted briefly and leant back in her chair - the books and research was forgotten for now and instead she basked in the present.

“Years apart, roads traveled and gods know how many trials faced for both of us and you say the years have seen me well and want to know about Sunberth siftings…haven’t changed I see,” she stated thoughtfully, “the years have seen far more wrinkles than I would like and too much experience to want to even remember. Sadly neither situation can be solved” she tilted her head slightly and her gaze grew distant as it slipped past the woman briefly to look into the shelving.

“Planning some schemes are we? I remember that we lived in interesting times…for a while. Alas, those chapters have been closed. Quite forcefully by the Daggerhands. All dead, everyone. I can’t find anyone left and until I saw you assumed that I was the only one left” she stated simply, hardly.

She didn’t think Shai would be overly concerned, she was independent and capable and truly had not really integrated with the Crimson Edge as far as she had known. Zandelia, however, still saw some deaths as a sadness. There had been good people, creatures, at one point. Drawn together through hunger and the desire for protection and now somewhere littering the ground as bones - picked clean by scavengers by now most likely. Still, Antar was alive also and that was a blessing - he was a good fighter and knew how to fight dirty. She knew the Scars would need people like that, as they would need thieves of Shai’s skill. She knew there would be nothing given for free but then that was Sunberth.

Nothing comes for free, everything costs something. She will need things, I will need things. Antar will, Bitzer will. Trade for trade perhaps. We shall see she wondered to herself as she considered how to continue the response. Shai was asking for information, in a cursory way and that usually cost something.

“Alive is good, better than dead. I would say that I am glad to see you but it means you must be in this city once more. Not the nicest of places. Still, we make do with what we can and seek to change what we don’t like,” she left the words there to see if they would be hooked upon, they were not usual Sunberthian sentiments, “I am fine, a survivor as always. Traveled for a time and now return to the ancestral home to see what can be made of it. We all have ways of living” she looked Shai in the eye then and smirked slightly.

“You sound tired…was the journey so difficult? Or is it that you can’t wait to sleep and then wake up to the smell of rotting wood in the morning?” she stated deadpan.

“As for what has happened, that is a good question. Usually means someone makes payment to me but…for a friend…I can tell you some things,” she scratched the side of her head before running her fingers through her hair and sweeping it back, “Robern is dead, his generals scattered and targeted. One - Rokan - killed by a Hound who now has disappeared. Whisperings of smaller groups solidifying under a banner for those as are interested in taking part. Selling them down the river would prove bad business from what I have heard,” she held the gaze solidly at that phrase, pointedly, “the Sun’s Birth have been hit too. Weakened but not to the same extent. Merv is the same as always, the people are restless and for once seem to have had enough of being oppressed”

“Things are changing and, for the right people, this could be a good thing. If exploited properly. Personally I’d assume you’d like to know of various items of lift able nature, I seem to recall you had a talent for it” she did smile fondly then, “no more mist though, or Craven. Much more boring than that these days”

“Why did you return Shai?” she asked softly, “you could have gone anywhere and yet you return to this cesspit. Most would never want to see it again. Did you not enjoy what you saw of the world?”

[Shai]

Shai listened politely, fingering the corners of pages in her book. It was a lot of information,
much of which amounted to upheaval. Nothing allowed a thief free rein like the chaos of instability. When the new tyrant arose and likely one would, she would need to be established already. Too entrenched to be easily removed, because this time she intended to make Sunberth her home. “If you do not plan in Sunberth, you are dead.” she replied, planning was exactly what she was doing. Before she had not intended to stay here long, it was a layover at best. Now this place would be her home and to do that properly would require a grandly planned long game.

“It was unavoidable with that group. What is the human adage?” Shai clicked her nails together, “Mm yes, do not stab the bear. They had to be aware they would be targets. Too large to go unnoticed and too aggressive to be hired.” There was little love lost from the Symenestra for the Crimson Edge. If Zandelia or Antar had been among the massacred that would concern her, but the rest had merely been useful and now they weren’t. In fact of all that came with them on their journey to Alvadas Zandelia was the only one she could regret not coming. Certainly Eridanus was useful and that strange clay man, but Bob had been his usual foolishness and Zenai had only exacerbated it. All of this meant she would need to find new hired muscle though, that would take time.

Shifting to put her writing tools back into her bag, she stopped at a jerk. The first step in a long game often appeared as a crawl. “Alvadas was beautiful but disturbing. Ravok did not suit me. Riverfall… had its pitfalls. I found that it did not matter if I agreed with the world, it did not agree with me.” Flipping her writing journal open to the last page, she nodded as Zandelia spoke. “I am tired you are correct. In a way the best of the journey was spent in the wild world. Dangerous in its own right, maybe more than the cities, it held a quiet that did agree with me.” What she didnt tell the old friend was that walking through the treetops had felt more serene than any peace she had found on the rooftops in the city. “There is something about the dark of night in the wild places. It felt like home.”

“I take nothing for free Zandelia, but I did ask without offering and you gave anyways.” Shai recalled that even years ago it had always seemed the woman kept keen attention on rumors or at least her eyes on events of importance. Dabbing her quill at the edge of the jar she began to scribble in this back page of her journal. Shai could hardly care less about the Daggerhands, they held little of concentrated value except mizas in their businesses. Stealing mizas in any quantity took a surprising amount of effort, but stealing trinkets of high value that could prove profitable. Taking small items meant she didn’t need accomplices, no cut. Well except for…

Meet at dusk in the treeline beyond the old cemetery in two days
-Saris

Using her nail like a letter opener she perforated a square around the note so she could rip it free with a neat edge. Shai offered the missive to Zandelia. “When you find someone who wants to buy something another will not sell. Give them this and tell me. If they do indeed need me, you will find you have made mizas.” Shai gave the woman another card to play, a way to further herself, or truly both of them. It was the best gift the spider could think to give.

As for her reason for return Shai spoke quietly in turn.”Sometimes you see in to who you are my friend, and when you do you see how you cannot fit in their world anymore.” Shai had considered returning to Kalinor but she was no longer a perfect Symenestra girl who left there, she had strayed on so many counts; too many to count. Even had she gone to the dwell there Antar could not easily have survived, her family might well have attempted to push him over the web anyways. “Sunberth is the place of… rightness, for some kinds of people.”

[Zandelia]

“Or at least dead whilst still walking, quite a few of those around these days they just don’t think about it,” she stated in response the comment about planning, “that’s the problem with this place. One of the problems. No one thinks. Good for those who do but yet the city stays forever in a grave of age old making” she sighed, it was a bitter-sweet affair to be sure.

In some ways it was to her advantage that Sunberth was, in point of fact, Sunberth. She could move relatively easily and got away with things which in most other cities would likely have ended already in her having been hunted down and made an example of. There was much to be said as well for the city’s love of personal liberty and the freedom it provided for all who lived within its warrens to either survive or die - the survivors probably harder than most other people in the whole of Mizahar. Yet still there was something growing within her philosophies that told her Sunberth could be more. She wouldn’t want to impose the same rigid law and order as in other cities but there was surely many things she could do to try to help the smaller people to thrive a little better than they had been doing for the last several scores of years.

And if I make something better for myself along the way with their help then all the better. A work woman should get paid after all, and fairly too she noted as she considered the rest of what had been stated with a small frown.

“You stab a bear, just make sure you kill it if you do I think,” she mused aloud, the reference to that animal was an apt one to make, large and powerful, “there were too many reckless souls I suppose. Long gone now, only the wily and the careful remain. A lesson for us all, if a sadly brutal one. But then life is cruel here, we should have known” she continued smoothly, keeping herself composed about the Edge’s demise as best she could.

“Perhaps not, your kind find little love in most places I hear. And I doubt it was more love than I found upon my own travels. Nyka hated outsiders even if they were human, let alone anything else. The Spires was nice once it was saved…yes…we were saviors apparently. Those as survived anyway, no rewards or parades though. Think they wanted us out of there to be honest, friendly bunch the Jamoura” she snorted at that - they were so long as you knew they could cave your chest in if you got in the way of their society.

“A note?” she asked curiously, “an offer in point of fact. I give to those as deserve it or need it. Old friends should not be hindered, it would be a shame to see you die Shai. Only way to live here is to know what is happening. I gave you a fair chance, nothing more. What you do with it is up to you. Should you require my services in the future…well I’m sure we can come to an arrangement” she slipped the note into the inside of her coin pouch after folding it neatly.

She looked at the woman deeply then, she never in Zandelia’s experience gave anything without purpose. As far as she could tell she never did anything without a purpose either - whether it was personal or professional. She would need to watch how she developed in the city and what items suddenly went missing without a trace. There was a plan within Shai somewhere, the trick was to find out what it was and how if included herself.

“Sunberth is right for many people, if they are so inclined. I will not pry into your affairs but if I can help you then I will. Too few people here are skilled at what they profess to do. You are talented and as such useful. More than that you are a friendly face and there are not many of those around these days”

“I do not remember you doing things without a reason, so tell me, what do you need? Or rather…what is it that you want?” she asked simply.

[Shai]

“The note is not among old friends, though I agree that is what we are. It is among associates. A way to make money a way to find help, it is both of these things. In business, my partners always profit.” Dangerous, murderous, monstrous; all of these things Shai had proven to be during her time in Sunberth. The only thing she had never shown herself as was a failure. If the spider was pointed at a mark she would achieve it, sometimes that meant drawing progressively harder on her resources but in the end she always won. Or her adversary died, but the Symenestra counted that as a win as well. The world was no worse for wear for one less human, they bred like fungus anyways.

“What I want is a difficult thing, but it is made easier with Mizas. And so that is first what I want. What that leads to is…” She seemed once again to grapple for words, though she spoke Common relatively well specific words still evaded her. Especially owrds she didn’t use often, “Peace.” She finally affirmed.

“As for reasons. Anything done without reason is wasted effort, my friend. A spider does not catch her prey on accident.” Once upon a time the term spider might have offended Shai, but years on the surface had made her take it as a badge of honor. She still found the moniker ‘widow’ somewhat distasteful though. “It is through planning and preparation. So instead of guessing that you would take this job, which is what I did when I offered the note; I will ask.” Shai took a beat to look over Zandelia once more and then the room around them, “What is it you want? If it is something solid not like my peace, I will see it in your hands as a gift of good faith.” Words of the wide world that was happy the Symenestra did not know well, but the words of her trade game like venom to her lips.

Shai wondered for a moment what normal female friends talked about amongst humans. She doubted it was larceny, perhaps it was more like in Kalinor. The news of a family two nests down was generally accepted in hushed tones, new exceptional weavers and dancers were common topics, and the follies of the young were ever popular. The Symenestra imagined both she and Zandelia had seen enough follies of the young to never want to mention them aloud. She could guess the two races were not so dissimilar in this matter, it was the pair conversing now that were strange.

Having been in the library of Sunberth only a handful of times, Shai had to continuously remind herself not to sweep the room for valuables. There were several to behold and the thief occasionally caught the whim to fantasize how she would take certain items. The plan always faltered at the door though, the room had been laid out such that the only exit was right beyond the librarian’s desk. She had never seen the woman cause harm but Shai could only imagine how many thugs in Sunberth had tried their hand at taking her stock, and given that she still sat there somewhat ornery but consistently aware, this thief would not be the one to test her anew.

[Zandelia]

“Peace? You wanted peace and so you came back to Sunberth,” she stated, turning the phrase around in her mind and contemplating it from Shai’s perspectives as best she could, truly she didn’t understand them overly well, “I see…I think. Well, to that end I wish you well. Few people find such an elusive beast, but you are quite a hunter so perhaps you shall succeed”

It was a curious quest she had to admit, one which she thought all people pursued but usually through other achievements and listed goals. Shai had decided to skip hose it seemed and aim straight for the heart of the matter. She was sue there were other things she sought to achieve yet it was telling that she stated the goal was peace. To her mind she was not entirely sure peace was ever fully achievable. Contentment was, perhaps, but a lesser substitute in many ways. She had heard tell of sages, old men usually, who had attained inner peace to such a degree as to be almost magically serene but - she had to admit - she held no proof that they ever had existed, or continued to exist if they had at one time walked the world. And then the mirrored question, it was a dangerous one in some ways.

What is it that I want? I have much, have lost much, some things I have yet to have in my grasp. I cannot ask for companionship as I already have it. Contentment? I am not so sure I can ever be such a thing. Peace? No, peace is an illusion for me. I live upon the dissent in others… she went through the list mentally and found few things could be answered truthfully.

“A better future, for myself and others. I don’t mind freedoms in Sunberth, I love them. Yet there are things here that I would change if I had the power. I suppose what I ultimately want…is a dream. What I can have…that is another matter entirely. You offer me something solid, I never really needed gold or items”

“I can always use information if you ever come across anything interesting, or someone who is willing to stop me from getting knifed in the back if it’s coming. Solid though….solid is difficult. My world shifts, never truly solid. If you want to get me gold then feel free, others see its value and I can use that against them if needs be”

“Yet that is again not really what I want but what others crave. Unless….unless…I require a uniform. And a tattoo, a specific tattoo. Or the convincing illusion of one perhaps. Of the kind where you could walk with daggers and not be seen as an enemy…if you would like to get me something my friend” she smiled slightly at that.

“I have plans, you can be involved if you like. I already know of a few places that could be lucrative to one such as you. I thank you for the promise, I will send someone to you I’m sure. I would say though that…should I do so…well they would be disposable afterwards. So have fun with them if you like”

“But yes…what I truly want is a better tomorrow for this city. There once was an uprising here, bloody and brutal. Against the mages I gather. The people were free for a time. Then the syndicates began and everywhere there is brutality and blood. A good environment to grow strong in agreed, enjoyable…perhaps. But things like slavery…I have a personal score to settle there. And the people all suffer. They scrmp for dirt and see it as fair when they get kicked in the stones repeatedly. Robern is dead and his influence with him. I think we could have a corrupt city that - at the same time - keeps the general populace realtively unharmed” she shrugged then, it was a fickle dream.

She still struggled with the growing sense that she was becoming more decent of late, less tolerant of pointless cruelty certainly. She was not above it all in principle it was simply that nothing seemed to be directed. It was all chaotic and lacking in purpose. Why beat a shopkeeper who can’t pay what they don’t have to be extorted for? Why murder a child for fun? Why rape someone simply to see them crumple afterwards?

No, some things had to stop. She turned her gaze back to Shai then, no longer distant and unfocused but sharp and full.

“You speak of prey and a job. Outside of the offer you have presented…what other jobs would you want to see done? I do not mind talking business here, it’s probably the most intellectual place in the city after all”