<~> Chapter 221Not half a bell ter we were called into one of the meeting halls with Feyria Wihorn. The moment I stepped in, I reized the familiar sensation of being in a [Zone of Silenbsp;and could sehe presence of a few other simir magics that would obfuscate our versation.

  Feyria smiled at me as I walked through the door aured to the seat across from her. There were two men with her that looked like they were guards but she was the only oting at the table.

  "I suppose if you're asking to speak with me then it must be about the proposal I gave you and your friends. Is that why all of you came?" Feyria asked.

  All of us took our seats across from her and I cleared my throat. "We want to participate in your pn and warn you about something that will cide with the riot."

  For a moment she looked as if she had faltered, the sed piece hadn't been what she expected. "A warning? Of what kind?"

  I looked over at Lorriene who cleared her throat to get the elf's attention. "I'm a member of a group that opposes the Tamin churd svery as a whole. We made tact with a high-level member and told him a little about the riot that would soon happeends to step in and... cull the members of the Tamin chur the fusion. He is afraid of them taking trol of the city in the wake of the uping riot."

  "Whealked to him, he was already pnning on having the Duke of Torquin assassinated and subtly supp Marquis Saffadder as we discussed earlier," Silva added.

  Feyria's eyes narrowed. "How high level?"

  Silva met her gaze. "Double mine, at least. He is probably in the low one-hundreds."

  Her brows knit in ption. "He intends to cull the Tamin church? And then what?"

  "Leave before someone else high-level shows up to challenge him," Lorriene replied. "He knows that this would be aion that may attract h levels in the area but his goal is to weakeamin church's hold on this city during the riot. Even if a few level one-hundreds from the Tamin church showed up after, they wouldn't have the mao trol the city before someone else stepped in. He directly told us to avoid killing any guards so the city doesn't bee too destabilized. He hoped the elves could take trol of the city to secure it from monsters ahe capital to Marquis Saffadder eventually, ohe Duke of Torquin is out of the picture."

  Feyria crossed her arms and leaned ba her chair. "You wao mobilize an army to take trol of the city at the same time as our pn to crush the sver's guild? What about the cult of Amphores?"

  I frowned. "Acc to the man we're talking about, they're iionally pushing the try into a civil war. He believes the reason the cult targeted Baron Morrister and t Kornd was to incite people to rebel while their colrs are suppressed. Other than Marquis Saffadder, there are no other nobles even close to being svery abolitionists left and if the colrs aren't funal, it is a lot easier for the sves with higher levels to start an actual sve rebellion. Ohe King's death es out, if there's no one popur with the general popuce ready to repce him ohro'll create further division. You guess where that path leads."

  "Does that make Marquis Saffadder a target of this cult?" she asked.

  "I believe it does," I replied with a nod.

  Feyria frowned and tapped the table in thought. We sat in silence for a few minutes while she worked out whatever she was thinking.

  "The cult of Amphores will use their colr suppression in three days from now. It will be difficult to get a battalion out here in time but I believe I make it happen. When it causes an issue ter, we'll just say that we brought them in to help secure the embassy. No one will believe we brought that many troops just to secure the embassy but that problem will go away the moment we cede the city to a noble from Torilimal. The nobles of this try will just be happy that we took it out of the Tamin church's trol, as long as we aren't the oo 'cull' them. We won't be able to use that excuse if someone cims it before Saffadder and we don't give up the city though. You have to give me an assurahat it will not be the Duke of Torquin who shows up before the Marquis. If we refuse to give the city to a Marquis Saffadder, it will just spark a war."

  Silva nodded. "That will be arranged. roup was already pnning on assassinating him and supp the Marquis. If you promise to take over the city and cede it to the Marquis, we'll kill the Duke before he hears the news of the capital falling. We'll pce all the bme on the cult of Amphores. They've murdered two other nobles already and are about to attack the capital. Some may suspect the elves were involved but you make the case that you just happeo be in the right pce at the right time."

  "So about the pn to infiltrate the sver's guild..." I said.

  Feyria turo me and frowned. "Right... This pn hardly feels important after the versation we've just had, but I suppose we should hammer out the details of it as well. I have access to magic items that remove colrs as well as magic items that will disguise you. I have a spatial mage that gate you in, but he suddenly got pulled into a more important job and 't e with you," she said giving a meaningful look to Silva. "You'll have to find your own way out of the Sver's guild, but this riot is going to be a lot more bloody areme than I had thought before. If members of the Tamin church are going to be attacked at the same time the sves should have an easier time esg into our arms."

  "What about colteral damage? The sves that are more motivated by revehan escape?" I asked.

  "There's not much we do about that. Let's just hope any is bar their doors and stay off the streets wheime es," she replied.

  "What time is the riot happening, and when are we going to infiltrate?" I followed up.

  "The cult is going ter the riot at about midday in the bazaar. We'll wait until the fighting is widespread before we send you in. The Sver's guild has strong wards against gate magic but e is able to bypass that. They shouldn't expect you ing from the inside, but they will have guards patrolling the hallways unless whatever the cult of Amphores does in the bazaar draws them there. Depending on how destructive the riot is, you may only o deal with strong guards if you go into specific pces, like their records vault. I would advise against it, as tantalizing as destroying their records may be," she said.

  "Why would their records be so important?" Bel asked.

  Feyria gave her a fused g answered the question anyway. "Their records list ahat had been bought or sold as a sve through them and the capital is their tral repository for . If the records were destroyed, they would have no proof that they owned ahat they recaptured and wouldn't have a tally of how much money people owed them for sves purchased on loan. They might have the capacity to rebuild some of their records with copies distributed throughout the try, but it would take them time to colled not all guards in every city they operate in would cooperate with holding people they found or allowing them to hold people themselves without timely proof. They might hold someone for the time it takes to receive a record from the capital but they won't hold someone if they have to first track doy of someone's history and then send it to the capital and then send it to a city oher side of the try. Someone could be waiting for months on the guild's word alone while they hunt doy of the record they may not even have. From most cities' perspective, it wouldn't be worth the effort."

  She shook her head and tinued, "And if wot out that the records were destroyed, they wouldn't even try to aodate them. It would crush the anized sver's guild on its own. All of the local branches would be forced to bee indepe, and their money isn't evenly distributed either. Many of the branches wouldn't have the moo stay open, pay their taxes, or buy new sves. Lots of the local branches would close instantly. The capital branch of the Sver's guild is the most important piece for their operation of the greater outfit, they will have really strong people proteg their records vault. They essentially don't have a choi the matter."

  "I wasn't aware the bran the capital was so important," Bel said quietly.

  Feyria shrugged and turned bae. "Like I said, it's not worth attempting to go for their records. They will have high-level people proteg them, there's no doubt about that. The records are more important thaual people they have in cages because destroying the records would cripple their entire distributed business, not just the local one."

  I frowned "It almost sounds like they operate like a bank."

  She nodded. "They essentially are a bank ihing but name. Even their 'sve tokens' are sold as specutive currency."

  "If the records are that important, shouldn't they keep a backup?" I asked.

  "Their operation is te for that to be feasible. They have to keep paper records of everything to operate, making multiple copies and st ret enough copies for them to be useful somewhere would be far too expensive for them to maintain. The only anization that could possibly maintain a backup of their records would be the Libraries of Sorsette and there is no world in which Sorsette would approve of that. They probably keep some backups but likely only for the highest value sves and the majority of the sves they deal in wouldn't qualify." Feyria g Torien and Man. "They would keep backups for the Pantharians though."

  Lorrieerrupted. "Wouldn't matter in our case, I was told Lilith purchased my nieces directly and my 'master' also teically purchased me through the Sver's guild."

  Feyria nodded, "Then you should have nothing to worry about as long as Lilith and your master in name don't try to recolr you themselves. Any escaped Pantharians that you e across should be wary though."

  "I'll pass that along," Lorriene replied.

  "Anyway, there isn't much else to discuss. Once you are inside, use the magic items I give you to free any sves you ahem that you're starting a sve rebellion. You tell them not to trust the cult of Amphores but that's up to you. Make sure to tell them that they escape to the Northern Greens if they don't have anywhere better to go, all elves afolk are wele."

  "What about humans?" I asked.

  She raised her eyebrows. "You would seek to help humans as well?" Her eyes trailed along my group of friends. "I assumed you were primarily ed with beastfolk. Humans are also wele to e to the Northern Greens, though they are likely to be relocated to other tries ter. Zarcuda is happy to take afolk from other nds with a few exceptions, and the Northern Greens will of course take afolk rejected from those specific isotionist tribes."

  I wasn't sure how to react to the assumed racism cast on us but I chose to bite my tongue. I suppose that mafolk are distrustful of humans even if I haven't entered it much. A majority of the people I dealt with were either beastfolk or elves with the exception of Cecilia, who is also an adopted elf. I uand it could look that way in this atmosphere in the same way that Jasper had wondered if I had a problem w with men. I wasn't making these choices, it has just kind of happehat way.

  I cleared my throat. "We'll also need disguises. Pantharians stand out in a crowd and I am pretty reizable myself."

  She nodded. "I anticipated that. I have two dozen shimmerscale potions that will visibly disguise all of you as e beastfolk for a full day. Just tell me how many you need and I provide you with them."

  I looked over my friends. Me, Bel, Man, Torien, Silva, Lorriene, and Mimi? Would the potion even work on Mimi correctly? I wasn't sure. Even if it didn't, Mimi hide as something else. "Seven potions then. Everyone else will be proteg our carriage and passengers while we wait."

  "I'll have seven potions ready for you when I give you the tools to remove the colrs then."

  "Three days from now. Is there anything else we should know?" I asked.

  "I'll be clear aerate this point. If you are caught, the Northern Greens will deny any involvement with you. I will not e and save you and I wouldn't expect Tarklin Silvergrove to stick his neck out for you either. It ot be known that the elves are spiring to start a riot, would support kingsyers and assassins, or attack a fn institution. Do not expect us to help you if you're captured."

  I nodded. "Tarklin Silvergrove told me as much."

  "Then we are clear," She said with a nod. "I do wish you luck though. May Fortuna smile on you."

  Saine

  Hello! The pn is set on the elven side! It seems Feyria didn't know as much about the cult as we thought she may have. There will be a feters to tie up some loose ends before we head into the infiltration! I hope you enjoyed reading!

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