Chapter 221

Not half a bell later we were called into one of the meeting halls with Feylaria Winethorn. The moment I stepped in, I recognized the familiar sensation of being in a [Zone of Silence] and could sense the presence of a few other similar magics that would obfuscate our conversation.

Feylaria smiled at me as I walked through the door and gestured to the seat across from her. There were two men with her that looked like they were guards but she was the only one sitting 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?" Feylaria asked.

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

For a moment she looked as if she had faltered, the second 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 church and slavery as a whole. We made contact with a high-level member and told him a little about the riot that would soon happen. He intends to step in and... cull the members of the Tamin church in the confusion. He is afraid of them taking control of the city in the wake of the upcoming riot."

"When we talked to him, he was already planning on having the Duke of Torquin assassinated and subtly supporting Marquis Saffadder as we discussed earlier," Silva added.

Feylaria'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 contemplation. "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 an escalation that may attract other high levels in the area but his goal is to weaken the Tamin 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 manpower to control the city before someone else stepped in. He directly told us to avoid killing any guards so the city doesn't become too destabilized. He hoped the elves could take control of the city to secure it from monsters and cede the capital to Marquis Saffadder eventually, once the Duke of Torquin is out of the picture."

Feylaria crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. "You want me to mobilize an army to take control of the city at the same time as our plan to crush the slaver's guild? What about the cult of Amphores?"

I frowned. "According to the man we're talking about, they're intentionally pushing the country into a civil war. He believes the reason the cult targeted Baron Morrister and Count Korland was to incite people to rebel while their collars are suppressed. Other than Marquis Saffadder, there are no other nobles even close to being slavery abolitionists left and if the collars aren't functional, it is a lot easier for the slaves with higher levels to start an actual slave rebellion. Once the King's death comes out, if there's no one popular with the general populace ready to replace him on the throne, it'll create further division. You can 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.

Feylaria 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 collar suppression in three days from now. It will be difficult to get a battalion out here in time but I believe I can make it happen. When it causes an issue later, 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 country will just be happy that we took it out of the Tamin church's control, as long as we aren't the ones to 'cull' them. We won't be able to use that excuse if someone claims it before Saffadder and we don't give up the city though. You have to give me an assurance that it will not be the Duke of Torquin who shows up before the Marquis. If we refuse to give the city to anyone but Marquis Saffadder, it will just spark a war."

Silva nodded. "That will be arranged. Our group was already planning on assassinating him and supporting 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 place all the blame 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 can make the case that you just happened to be in the right place at the right time."

"So about the plan to infiltrate the slaver's guild..." I said.

Feylaria turned to me and frowned. "Right... This plan hardly feels important after the conversation 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 collars as well as magic items that will disguise you. I have a spatial mage that can gate you in, but he suddenly got pulled into a more important job and can't come with you," she said giving a meaningful look to Silva. "You'll have to find your own way out of the Slaver's guild, but this riot is going to be a lot more bloody and extreme than I had thought before. If members of the Tamin church are going to be attacked at the same time the slaves should have an easier time escaping into our arms."

"What about collateral damage? The slaves that are more motivated by revenge than escape?" I asked.

"There's not much we can do about that. Let's just hope any innocents bar their doors and stay off the streets when the time comes," she replied.

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

"The cult is going to trigger the riot at about midday in the bazaar. We'll wait until the fighting is widespread before we send you in. The Slaver's guild has strong wards against gate magic but our mage is able to bypass that. They shouldn't expect you coming 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 need to deal with strong guards if you go into specific places, 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?" Bella asked.

Feylaria gave her a confused glance but answered the question anyway. "Their records list anyone that had been bought or sold as a slave through them and the capital is their central repository for coin. If the records were destroyed, they would have no proof that they owned anyone that they recaptured and wouldn't have a tally of how much money people owed them for slaves purchased on loan. They might have the capacity to rebuild some of their records with copies distributed throughout the country, but it would take them time to collect and 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 down a copy of someone's history and then send it to the capital and then send it to a city on the other side of the country. Someone could be waiting for months on the guild's word alone while they hunt down a copy of the record they may not even have. From most cities' perspective, it wouldn't be worth the effort."

She shook her head and continued, "And if word got out that the records were destroyed, they wouldn't even try to accommodate them. It would crush the organized slaver's guild on its own. All of the local branches would be forced to become independent, and their money isn't evenly distributed either. Many of the branches wouldn't have the money to stay open, pay their taxes, or buy new slaves. Lots of the local branches would close instantly. The capital branch of the Slaver's guild is the most important piece for their operation of the greater outfit, they will have really strong people protecting their records vault. They essentially don't have a choice in the matter."

"I wasn't aware the branch in the capital was so important," Bella said quietly.

Feylaria shrugged and turned back to me. "Like I said, it's not worth attempting to go for their records. They will have high-level people protecting them, there's no doubt about that. The records are more important than the actual 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 in everything but name. Even their 'slave tokens' are sold as speculative currency."

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

"Their operation is too large for that to be feasible. They have to keep paper records of everything to operate, making multiple copies and storing recent enough copies for them to be useful somewhere would be far too expensive for them to maintain. The only organization 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 slaves and the majority of the slaves they deal in wouldn't qualify." Feylaria glanced at Torien and Morrigan. "They would keep backups for the Pantharians though."

Lorriene interrupted. "Wouldn't matter in our case, I was told Lilith purchased my nieces directly and my 'master' also technically purchased me through the Slaver's guild."

Feylaria nodded, "Then you should have nothing to worry about as long as Lilith and your master in name don't try to recollar you themselves. Any escaped Pantharians that you come 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 slaves you can and tell them that you're starting a slave rebellion. You can tell them not to trust the cult of Amphores but that's up to you. Make sure to tell them that they can escape to the Northern Greens if they don't have anywhere better to go, all elves and beastfolk are welcome."

"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 concerned with beastfolk. Humans are also welcome to come to the Northern Greens, though they are likely to be relocated to other countries later. Zarcuda is happy to take any beastfolk from other lands with a few exceptions, and the Northern Greens will of course take any beastfolk rejected from those specific isolationist 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 many beastfolk are distrustful of humans even if I haven't encountered 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 understand it could look that way in this atmosphere in the same way that Jasper had wondered if I had a problem working with men. I wasn't making these choices, it has just kind of happened that way.

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

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

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

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

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

"I'll be clear and reiterate this point. If you are caught, the Northern Greens will deny any involvement with you. I will not come and save you and I wouldn't expect Tarklin Silvergrove to stick his neck out for you either. It cannot be known that the elves are conspiring to start a riot, would support kingslayers and assassins, or attack a foreign 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."