Kapitel 6: Spycraft
Everything fell silent. The merchants were running their mouths and Serenica heard nothing at all.
Her focus was entirely on the businesswoman.
Roughly, the chairs were positioned in a way that gave away the status of the members. One corner had the fresh produce bigshots sipping the wines of the booze importers who sat nearby.
One corner was full of merchants with lots of foreign connections and so on. It wasn't that hard to identify them based on their clothing, either. There was just one exception. It happened to be the still unnamed blonde. She had the demeanor of a judge, but women weren't allowed to be judges.
Serenica noticed a red ribbon in her hair.
The woman had striking blue eyes and a serious look on her face.
Someone from the upper ladder of the city guard came up to her and whispered something into her ear. Engaging in a rather intense moment of eye contact with the man, she whispered a few words back and turned her back to him.
By now, Serenica had connected a couple of dots.
The city guards were under her command. Nominally, someone else was in charge. Of course a woman couldn't legally lead such an organization. This one had to use covert power to get her way.
The gray dress was a subtle way of making herself associated with the guards who all wore gray on the clock.
Serenica made herself as small and invisible and possible.
The woman cleared her throat.
"I hate to switch the topic. However, my main concern isn't the orphanage."
Serenica had missed the conversation entirely. They could have talked about stealing eggs from a dragon and she would have been happily oblivious.
"Why are there less orphans than during any year in the history of Neul?" the woman asked, her eyes wide and fixed on a man in a long black coat.
Everyone squirmed in their seats. What an awkward thing to say.
"Let me explain," the woman said.
"I hope you will, Mariana," the black-coated man said.
"There are less births," Mariana replied, raising an eyebrow. "While it sounds great that parents stay alive and no one gets sent to an orphanage, that place is still the only viable way of gathering statistics about birth rates. There are more people in Neul than ever before, yet less births. See? This isn't about people dying less often. This is about them not getting to exist at all."
Serenica bit her lip. She should have expected this woman to be clever, but it was a different thing to see her rubbing her common sense in everyone's faces.
"So, with that being said, we also have another thing to worry about. Usually, deformed babies are easier to abandon for obvious reasons. The orphanage houses about ten times more of those now than it did ten years ago. Let that sink in."
The entire council was still squirming, albeit for different reasons.
"Something is happening," Mariana said. "We have tested the water. As you all know, I employ the most talented and prestigious doctors in the city. They found nothing. We have tested the food…"
The fresh produce department stopped squirming and froze into a collection of human statues.
"Don't worry, dear friends, you are not at fault. Neither is it the air, or syphilis, or an increase in alcohol consumption. Everyone still drinks the same amount. Which, frankly, is a whole fucking lot."
The curse word bounced off Serenica's ears, forcing her to appreciate this ballsy woman a bit.
"Then I found out that there's something we have not realized. Only certain people are afflicted. We interviewed a few hundred women. Only people with a decent or good income had these unexplainable deformations in their families. Someone is targeting the ones we need the most."
Poor people could choke, of course, that thought crossed Serenica's mind, but she had no time to get enraged.
"This is witchcraft," the man in the black coat said. He sounded agitated. "If there is no earthly reason for this, then there is an unearthly reason. Everything happens for a reason."
"Exactly," Mariana said. "I have already sent a request for the city guard leaders to start investigating. While outlawing witchcraft entirely would be a lengthy legal process, we should at least use the restrictions we do have in place and crack down harder on certain things. Witches pretending to offer some other services and then selling their magic. Witches selling regulated substances without an official license."
Serenica saw where this was going. She didn't like it.
"Then we must join your efforts," a merchant said from behind a row of high priests. "These things are already written in the law. We must only act."
Everyone nodded solemnly. The meeting ended the same way it had begun: without any cohesion or an actual timeline.
Serenica picked a suitably crowded exit.
She fetched the rifle from Blackbones. The old pirate was not delighted to have her bothering him so often.
Serenica rolled up a ball of tobacco to stuff into her pipe. She lit the mass evenly with a long match, trying to lose herself into the smoke and the glowing of the little flames.
She opened the window.
The wind was not cool or fresh but it still prevented her from choking to death inside. Additionally, she could eavesdrop now.
Someone was talking about his wife outside.
Someone else joined the conversation with a ridiculously unrelated complaint about money.
Eventually, Serenica heard enough to understand that the event was about the married man trying to dodge a debt and the other one being passive about getting back the gold he obviously wanted.
"Listen, I don't have shit," the debtor finally snapped. "Wife just spent everything I had on medicine."
"You keep on doing that," the creditor sighed. "It's always about your stupid fucking wife and your sons. Makes me think you are the biggest idiot of them all."
"Well, it's not about my damn sons any longer because they fucking died!" the debtor shouted.
Serenica could hear his veins pulsating on his temples.
An icy lump dropped into her stomach.
"…What?"
"You heard right. My stupid fucking wife fed them her own pills. At least they don't have to suffer but now I have no pills, no money and no sons, and my wife is about to kill some doctor and get herself into the gallows!"
Someone threw something metallic onto the street, judging by the noise.
"There's some payment for you! Don't expect more!" the debtor roared.
Geschenke
-- Geschenk
erhalten Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein