Speaker 1: The scum Kings, created and written by Mike Daltrey. The
blade at my throat was withdrawn. Corvin gave another one
of his slight, almost imperceptible nods, and the violence ceased
as quickly as it had begun. His men released us,
their movements economical and without malice. It was the detached
efficiency of a butcher who had just stunned an ox.
Corvin didn't speak to us again. He simply gestured at
the pouch of silver sitting on the table. One of
his enforcers, a thick necked brute with dead eyes, stepped forward.
He didn't ask, he simply took it. He walked to
a nearby table, emptied the few pieces of silver onto
the wood. There were few coins, and his counting consisted
of him simply taking them all and leaving behind two
for us. He scooped to pile into a purse of
his own, then picked up one more coin from our share,
leaving a solitary solari behind clean up fee. The brute
grunted a flicker of a cruel smile on his lips.
He picked up and dropped the last coin back onto
the center of the table. It landed with a soft,
pathetic thud. Corvin's men left us in the ruin of
our own arrogance. They were ghosts, slipping back into the
shadows of the gutters, leaving only bruises and blood in
their wake. Two of them dragged Kle's body out by
the ankles, his head bumping against the grimy floorboards, the final,
undignified journey of a man who had gambled his pride
and lost his life. The tavern was silent save for
the low moans of the wounded. The other patron studiously
avoided our gaze, turning back to their watered down ale.
We were a blight, a bad omen a lesson in
the brutal economics of this place. Sat there for a
long time, stewing in our own failure. It was Selaine
who finally moved, her face a mask of cold, controlled fury.
She walked to the table where Corvin's man had done
his accounting. A single solitary silver solari lay on the sticky,
dark wood. It gleamed in the dim light, a tiny,
perfect sun in a world of shadow. Trying to salvage
some scrap of leadership from the disaster, I cleared my throat,
the sound was harsh in the quiet room. All right,
I said, my voice hoarse. It's not much, but it's
enough that'll buy us a proper room and food for
a week while we figure out our next move. Selaine
didn't even look at me. Her eyes were fixed on
the coin. With a slow, deliberate movement, she reached out
and picked it up. No, she said. The word was
quiet but absolute. What do you mean no, I growled,
my frustration flaring. She finally turned her gaze to me,
and her gray eyes were like chips of ice. This
coin is the reason Kale is dead in an alley.
It is the reason we are all bruised and beaten.
You flashed one of these and brought the entire gutter
down on our heads. She held the coin between her
thumb and forefinger. Spending a solari in this place is
like screaming, I have more of these to every cutthroat
within earshot. This is not for food, It is not
for a room. Then what is it for? Stigging rumbled
from his corner, his voice thick with pain. It is
a seed, Selaine said, her voice dropping to a low,
intense whisper. It is the only thing of value we
have left. It does not get spent on daily needs,
it gets planted. We will not touch it. We will
not even speak of it again until we have a
plan that guarantees a return on the investment. Her calm,
unshakable certainty was more worrying than any outburst. She wasn't
advising me. She was informing me of a new law.
It was a law I knew was wise, even as
painful as it was. I it will grow. My words
sounded weak, even as I spoke with the voice of command.
Sileen may have laid down the law, but I was
the one who approved and enforced it. Still, she was
the one who laid it down, And as much as
I knew she was right, it felt sour in my stomach.
Without another word, she took out a clean scrap of
cloth and carefully wrapped the Solari in it, folding the
edges with a jeweler's precision. She tucked the small, precious
bundle deep into a hidden pocket within her tunic, her
hand lingering over it for a second. The full weight
of our new reality crashed down upon us. We were
not just beaten and bankrupt. We were now at odds
with our We had a fortune we were forbidden to
spend a light that would attract every predator in the dark,
and a treasurer who had just put our only hope
under a lock and key of her own making.