NOVEL FROG Chapter 17: Conversation
“What have we done? We apprehended some criminals for you, you are welcome. But where are my manners? I am Amaya and this is Lucy.” I said pointing at Lucy, who gave a small nod. “And who might you be?”
“I am Jessica Evans, leader of the guard. And the man you picked a fight with is Elias Richter, a high inquisitor!” She seemed rather upset.
“High inquisitor?”, Lucy inquired. “That makes no sense. It has only been a few days since the assassination attempt. High inquisitors don’t just sit around idle, it should have taken weeks for one of them to arrive.”
“Unless he was already on his way, or waiting nearby.”, I theorised. “The idea might have been for him to investigate the murder of the duke. Although that would have looked suspicious.” We were still missing some information. Who did they intend to blame? And how would they convince the people?
“STOP ACCUSING THE HIGH INQUISITOR! You have already caused enough of a mess.” Jessica was getting rather angry.
“Stop pretending you don’t know what is happening. The Empire is making a move and the duke hired us to stop it.” I was getting annoyed by her attitude.
“You are here provoking the Empire, then you will leave us with the mess. Our relationship with them is good. The high inquisitor deserves your respect! You don’t know who hired sir Meiser. We will cooperate with them and find out what really happened!”, she insisted.
“The only thing this Elias deserves is a good beating.” This conversation was going nowhere. I had a feeling that Jessica did not get her job because she was skilled. And she seemed rather pro Empire. “Come on Lucy, let’s go.” We walked away leaving a fuming Jessica behind.
“Do you think she is just incompetent or part of the plot?”, I asked Lucy.
“I assume she got the job through politics. While the duke is in charge, in theory, the city council holds a lot of power too. So she might be an appointment to appease someone. The real work is done at the lower ranks anyway.”
“So she might tell the inquisition everything we do to look good in their eyes.” I sighed.
“You know we could check out the docks. Goods from the Empire arrive by ship through the lake. So everything they smuggled into Iron Rock would have arrived at the port.”, Lucy suggested.
“That is a good idea.” We started walking towards the harbour. “Lucy about that fight, are you alright?”
“Yes. I was a bit confused but I did not even feel his spell. I am not sure why to be honest. Did you protect me with magic?”, she asked.
“Oh. I never told you but I am immune to lightning and you seem to be as well. I meant mentally, are you alright? He did try to kill you.”
“Wait… we are immune to lightning?!? That… that is huge. Very few creatures have a trait like that!”
I chuckled. “Welcome to the realm of mythical creatures.”
Lucy recovered quickly from her shock. “Why am I still surprised with you?” She sighed. “Now Elias was less surprising. The Empire is very human centric. Humans can still be slaves, and non humans can be normal citizens, but there is a wide belief that humans are better. A lot of them look down on others. They are also very fond of ranks and a clear social hierarchy. The beastkin tribes were conquered by the Empire long ago. A lot of people still think of us as savages though. Many beast kin still worship Goreath, the god of the hunt. While humans tend to worship Imperius. He is the god of rulers, the god of nobility.
Seeing a former fox kin slave challenge his people must have really enraged the high inquisitor. He probably saw me as nothing more than a pet. My death was meant to be an insult to you and the Dominion. Now that he has seen some of my power he will think I am a different person though. Just like the duke. After today most people will believe that I was your fellow agent and infiltrated the embassy with a magical disguise.”
“While that is fascinating you haven’t actually told me how you feel about it.”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I have always considered people like him untouchable. More like a force of nature. It is still sinking in that I am now at the same level. That there might even be a chance for some payback.
But I can tell you this, electricity is the main element used to punish slaves.” She looked at me and smiled. “And you gave me my immunity to it, thank you.”
“You are welcome.” I smiled back. We continued our way to the harbour. With the amount of gold I had we should be able to loosen some tongues. Tavern keepers might be able to tell us something. We could also use magic to sneak into some warehouses the Empire used.
The sight when we arrived was breathtaking. It was only the harbour of a lake but the lake was massive. Besides sailing ships I also saw what appeared to be a steam powered vessel. I wondered if they had magical steam engines. I stood there staring at everything like a tourist. I suppose I was a tourist, in a way. Lucy seemed amused by my behaviour.