Chapter 28: Good Intentions

“Walk me through it,” said the silver badged Watchman, “one last time.” He was a ruddy faced man in his 40’s, perpetually weary looking but he’d been okay enough up until now. His helmet was off and carried under his arm as he made Razia go through the same story for what had to have honestly been the tenth time that night.

Sure, Razia could’ve complained if she had a mind to. Privately, she took the questioning as a good sign. Maybe they were actually going to listen to her instead of just locking both Quentin and Philus up, never to be seen again. You never knew with the Orchrisus Watch, which way things would go. Sometimes they showed up and protected those in danger, sometimes they held back and only showed up to handle the clean up after a crime had been committed. Sometimes, they just made things worse and there was nothing you could do about it. It was like that in Orchrisus, it was like that back on Nalek, and Razia suspected it was the way the law worked everywhere. She’d take what she could get and not provoke them.

“Sure,” Razia said, forcing a smile on her face. At this point she was beyond exhausted and just wanted for them to go home and lick their wounds. Real ones, in Quentin’s case. “We were at the Fighting Beetle. My friend --”

“The moonkissed,” The Watchman supplied with a curl of his upper lip.

“Quentin,” Razia said, trying not to raise her voice too much. “Came in with his friends and I gave him my drink. He drank it and it turns out it was drugged. We left, and then three men followed us and jumped us. Quentin and his friends defended us while these men pulled knives and tried to kill us. One of them died in the fight. It’s really that simple, Sir.”

The Watchman scoffed quietly, but didn’t say anything. He looked over to where Gregor lay on the ground, unblinking eyes staring up into the night sky. His guts were on the ground in a pile next to him. For as gross as it was, it was almost tidy. Razia couldn’t help but look every now and then with sick fascination. The Watch had done nothing to cover him up, or even close his eyes.

Once the first few had shown up (courtesy of Isa who did not run away to save her own hide, like Razia thought) they wasted no time in getting both Quentin and Philus in shackles, despite the fact that neither of them were in much of a condition to resist. Quentin at least still had some fight in him, apparently. But ever since he killed Gregor, Quentin was mostly silent, staring off into space and still swaying a bit. Not long after, more Watchmen showed up, until there were just under ten of them there, keeping the public at bay while the rest of them were questioned.

“Alright,” the Watchman said, sighing. He pointed over to where the rest of the girls were standing. “Stand over there and wait for me to figure some things out. We’re almost done here and you ladies can get out of my hair.”

“Thank you,” Razia said, mostly out of habit. She looked past the Watchman where two of his colleagues were questioning Demetrius and Jonas. They pulled all of them apart separately and questioned them, sometimes multiple times. All the while Quentin’s wounds went untreated. Sure, they wiped away the blood and made sure they weren’t likely to be fatal, but apart from that they seemed content to make Quentin wait. No matter how many times Razia or her girls told them what happened, they continued to treat him like he was the cause of the problem.

“Are they going to let us go soon?” Samantha asked in a tiny voice. Razia joined her against the side of a building and threw an arm around her shoulders. Samantha wasn’t a stranger to seeing violence, but being attacked again and seeing a man disemboweled had shaken her.

“Soon,” Razia promised. “How’re you all holding up?”

Around the group of girls, dull sounds of acknowledgement sounded out. They were doing about as well as she expected. Maria wrung her hands together. “Did you know them? The ones who attacked us.”

“Are there more coming?” Isa asked sharply. “The entire reason you keep him around is for things to be safer. Tonight wasn’t safe at all. Is this what we can expect going forward?”

Razia bit back her annoyance. “There shouldn’t be any more coming,” Razia said. “I’ve run into them a couple of times. They had a grudge against me and now it’s over. This was building up for a while and I should’ve paid more attention to them, but we’re safe. I promise you we’re as safe as it gets in this city.”

Silence. She should’ve expected it. Almost a week of things going swimmingly didn’t mean shit in the grand scheme of things. It didn’t undo years of grabby clients, assaults, pushy pimps and others who sought to exploit them however they could. It gave them just enough of a glimpse into something smoother to make them resent it when the fantasy ended.

Samantha pulled Razia tighter and squeezed her. She put on a weak smile. “I still trust you.”

Razia’s throat tightened. That meant more to her than Samantha could ever guess. “Thank you,” she said. To the rest of them she continued, “This is just a momentary hiccup. I’m still looking for a place for us to work at more permanently. We’ve been feeling out places and I think we’re getting a good idea of where we do best. You’re free to stick with me, or leave if you want. I’m not giving up.”

Judging from the guilty expressions she saw, Razia had touched a nerve. Samantha was the first to speak up. “I’m not going anywhere. We’ve been having fun. Tonight was…” she swallowed. “Not great. But they’ve been better than they were at the Silk Lounge. I haven’t had to give any freebies as a favor to the boss.”

There was a murmur of agreement. “I might have a patron,” Maria said, “but until he makes it official I’ll stick with you.”

“I’m out,” said Amy, throwing her hands up. “I don’t like the way the Watch is looking at us. They’re looking at us like we’re diseased and tainted too.”

“What do you mean ‘too’?” Jenna demanded, turning on her friend with a scowl.

“You know damned well what she means,” Isa said.

Razia could spot a brewing argument a mile away, and this was going to be an explosive one. She was saved from having to break it up before it began. Demetrius and Jonas walked away and the Watchmen who weren’t guarding the prisoners conferred in the center. She held up a hand for silence and the girls joined her in watching.

The conversation didn’t last more than a couple of minutes. The silver badged one, the ranking officer among them, did most of the talking while a couple of them seemed increasingly annoyed. One gesticulated wildly at the girls. Silver Badge sighed and nodded. He walked towards them. Razia’s stomach dropped. This wasn’t going to be good.

“So you ladies can leave,” he said, in the tone of a person with a ‘but’ coming.

“But?” Razia prompted.

“We’ve got no way to know whether your friend is innocent or not. We’re arresting the both of them. They’ll spend a night or two in our Tower before being sent to court, where an Arbiter will determine their guilt. Honestly though?” He shrugged. “Chances are the idiot with the drugs is going to the Mirage for a few years. Your friend will either join him,” he said.

“They can’t!” Samantha blurted. “He’ll burn if they send him there!”

Silver Badge shrugged again. “No one cares. They’ll either send him there too, or he’ll be sent to the Colosseum for killing a man. Either way, I wouldn’t expect to see him again. I’m sorry,” he said, sounding anything but. “Without reliable witnesses, we have to treat them as both in the wrong.”

“Reliable witnesses?” Isa said, not bothering to hide her anger. “The fuck do you think we are? We were here. We all saw it. You just spent a fucking hour having us tell you again and again.” Some of the other girls voiced their agreements.

Silver Badge made a face. “Yeah, and if there was a one of you that was reputable, maybe that would matter. The court’s not interested in the word of a bunch of whores.”

“What about them?” Razia gestured to Demetrius and Jonas.

“They were involved in the fight. Their word doesn’t mean much either. Especially when trying to get a friend off for murder. That’s all there is to it,” He continued, raising his voice to stamp down a number of protests. “If you don’t like it, maybe check out the courts over the next few days and see if they’re willing to accept your testimonies. As far as I’m concerned, this is done. You’re free to go now.”

He turned away from them, ignoring the half a dozen girls now cursing him out. Two Watchmen dragged Quentin to his feet by the shackles around his wrists. Four of them each took a hold of one of Philus’ limbs and lifted him up to the waiting prisoner carriage. Now that it was over, they wasted no time in loading the prisoners up and locking them inside. Razia’s heart skipped a beat as Quentin disappeared from sight.

No, this wouldn’t do. “Go home for tonight,” Razia said to the others. “Straight home. I’m going to take care of this. Meet me in Maggie’s Den at sunset two nights from now and we’ll discuss what we’re going to do in the future. If you want to have anything more to do with this.”

Judging from a couple of the faces, not everyone would show up. But that was fine. Out of the thirteen girls who left the Silk Lounge with her, nine of them still showed up in the evenings. Most of them only for a couple of hours and then they were done, but Razia felt she was still doing a decent enough job of keeping them afloat. Even if it was just her, Samantha, and maybe Isa and Maria she’d be fine with it. She had her group, and she wasn’t going to let them down. Not again.

“Two days, then,” Isa said, sighing. She left without looking back, and Amy joined her. Jenna stared after her best frenemy with a pained look on her face, but she didn’t follow.

“I’ll be there,” Maria promised. She threw her arm around Jenna and led her away, whispering something in her ear. That made Razia feel a bit better, knowing Maria would be looking out for her and maybe helping her stay. She liked Jenna, when she wasn’t caught up in a flirtatious sort of permanent fight with Amy.

That left Samantha, who wasn’t going anywhere. “What?” Samantha asked, a bit of her old spark coming back. “I know you didn’t mean me! I’m staying with you tonight.” She put her hands on her hips. In truth, Razia did mean her too, but she didn’t have the heart to tell her so.

“Thanks Sam,” said Razia, looking over to where Demetrius and Jonas stood, waiting for her. “But let me handle this, okay? They’re going to be pissed at me, and I deserve it.” Samantha nodded in return.

Razia walked up to Demetrius, stopping a few feet short. There was no use coming into strangling distance. Not when the stocky man looked like he genuinely wanted to kill her then.

“Congratulations,” he said with bare restrained anger. “You got Quentin killed. Not through his job or anything we could predict, but by bailing your ass out of trouble. You proud of that, bitch?”

She took a deep breath. “No,” Razia said, “I’m really not. But I’m also not going to let him die. I’m going to get him out of this.”

Her response just made him even madder. “How? How?” Demetrius threw his hands into the air and Razia flinched, honestly believing that he’d go so far as to hit her. He didn’t, but he was still on a tear. “You gonna break into the Watchtower and let him out? You gonna go up there and shake your ass and see if one of them will trade his life for a good fuck? What’ve you got?”

Razia forced herself to stand up straight and still, keeping her eyes on Demetrius. From behind her, Samantha came up and linked her arm in Razia’s for support. Jonas also came up, though for his part it looked like he was ready to try to restrain Demetrius if things got more heated. “I’ve got the Supreme Arbiter. Or rather, Quentin does. He’ll make sure Quentin gets out safely.”

Demetrius stared at her as if she suddenly grew a second head. “Just like that? Gonna stroll up to the most powerful man in the courts and say, ‘hey, could you let my stooge out? He got arrested trying to save my worthless ass’.”

A lot of Demetrius’ anger was justified, and Razia could hardly blame him. But that didn’t mean she was willing to just take whatever shit he gave her. She leaned forward, eyes narrowed. They were almost the same height. Yelling at someone without having to look up at them was a rare treat. “That’s exactly what I’m gonna fucking do,” Razia snapped.

“I don’t hear any solutions from you. You wanna be mad? Fine, be mad at me. Hell, I’m mad at me. But I actually plan on doing something about it. Can you say the same, Demetrius? What lengths are you willing to go to to save your friend? Huh?” Razia jabbed a finger into Demetrius’ chest.

Some of the rage left his face, replaced by embarrassment. “What’s someone like me gonna do? I’ve been working at the Colosseum for thirty years now. I’ve worked with...I’ve known Quentin for fifteen,” he amended, eyeing Samantha, who looked away. “I’ve seen what happens to people the courts don’t give a fuck about. About all I can figure is hope you can get away with a bribe to say goodbye.

“I’ve met the Arbiter. He’s been around the Colosseum a bunch lately, making sure things are...Coming together. He’s a professional. There’s no way he’ll risk his job over this. Not when a replacement is already waiting.” Demetrius looked down, jaw tight with frustration. “Besides, do you even know where he lives?”

“No,” Razia admitted. “I figured either you would know or I’d figure it out and go straight there. Or maybe go to the courts and see if I can get in that way.”

“Figures,” Demetrius said, sighing. “You talk a big game, but you’re not gonna get it done.”

“I know where he lives,” Jonas piped up. Every face turned to look at him. He shrunk in place from the sudden attention, but then straightened up and repeated himself. “I know where the Supreme Arbiter lives.”

“How?” Demetrius gaped.

“Where?” Razia turned from Demetrius entirely. “Give me his address and I’ll get Quentin out. I swear I will.”

Jonas’ eyes flitted between the two of them and his mouth opened wordlessly as he tried to figure out which question to answer first. “He was taking a tour of the facilities, checking out our security after that guard was killed. Him and Amicus. Amicus was trying to get him to come over for a party, and the Arbiter was trying to get out of it. He asked the Arbiter where he lives and he said…”

Jonas screwed up his face in concentration. “I think it was 242 Starry Heights. That one neighborhood that’s down near the river and gated. Still on the north side, I think. Can you really get him out?”

Razia nodded. “I can try. If I don’t succeed, then I’ll make the Arbiter’s life miserable.”

“If you don’t succeed,” said Demetrius, “I swear on my life you’ll die if Quentin does. For ten years now he’s gotten by through good training, safe living, and predictability. There’s no way I’m going to sit by and let him die for mediocre pussy.”

Razia nearly burst out laughing. Instead she put on a look of pure fury and said, “How dare you? I happen to be excellent pussy. And I’m not going to let him die. Maybe he’s lasted this long through being safe and predictable, but he hasn’t been happy. Does that matter at all to you, or just that he’s still breathing?”

Demetrius looked taken aback. “Of course I care if he’s happy. What does --”

“I’ve been working with him, every day,” Razia continued, taking a step forward. Demetrius took half a step back. “Doing everything I can to show him a different life. Maybe a better life, maybe not. I’m trying to make that morose bastard happy. Whatever you make think of me, I’ve got nothing but good intentions towards Quentin. I’m at least trying to get him out of the rut he’s stuck in. What’re you doing?”

Demetrius didn’t answer. The four of them stood there in the middle of the street at night with people walking around them, giving them plenty of space. Jonas looked like he wanted to talk, but he stayed behind Demetrius for the moment. To Razia’s surprise, it was Samantha who spoke up.

“I don’t know Mr. Q well,” she started hesitantly. Razia put her hand on Samantha’s arm and squeezed it reassuringly. Samantha smiled and continued slowly, “but in the short time I’ve known him, he’s seemed pretty okay with things going on. He’s been laughing and smiling when we’re out at night, and even seems to be happy about the fight he got into over Isa. He’s talked about it a few times, like he couldn’t believe it happened, but he was laughing.”

Samantha looked between Demetrius and Jonas. She was taller than one and heavier than the other, but she still peeked out from behind Razia like she was afraid of them. “When I first met him, he didn’t seem like the kind of person to laugh much. And he’s been really kind to all of us. It’s...It’s been nice.” She stopped there, the words and courage drying up.

There was silence again. It went on long enough that Razia was about to say goodbye and leave Demetrius to his anger and frustration, but he spoke up again. when he spoke this time, the anger was gone and he sounded thoughtful instead. “What is it you want with Quentin, anyway? What’s he getting out of this? What’re you getting out of this?”

Razia spread her hands out. “He’s letting me live with him. I get a place to stay and I show him parts of life he’s been missing. All I want for him is to know that I made a difference and maybe opened his eyes a bit. Either he stays on his current track but knows what else he could be enjoying…” Razia tilted her head, eyes shooting to Samantha to indicate that she didn’t know Quentin was the Butcher. “Or I show him a better way, and he leaves and does something else.”

That threw Demetrius for a loop. “You want him to...stop?” he asked.

Razia shook her head. “No, I want him to want to stop. I want him to want something instead of just going along with what he’s got until it kills him. Is that so bad?”

She could immediately see that it wasn’t. Demetrius bowed his head in thought. After a few seconds he swallowed hard and shook his head. “No,” he said, “I guess it isn’t. So sure, go for it. Try. And I guess be careful. When the Arbiter knows that you know, he might just throw you in prison for it. It’s happened before.”

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take,” said Razia, fully sure she could slip out of any trouble coming her way. She had thus far.

Jonas put a hand on Demetrius’ shoulder. He nodded to Razia. “Then get him out. I don’t know him too well, but he’s a good sparring buddy. And I really wanna see him perform on the Blooming.”

Demetrius elbowed the kid in the side, jerking his head towards Samantha who looked around wide eyed and confused. They were lucky, Razia thought, that Samantha wasn’t quite sharp enough to make all the connections. It was obvious there was something going on, but it wasn’t clicking with her. “Then fine,” Demetrius grumbled. “But my previous statement stands. If he dies, so do you.”

“Deal,” said Razia.

Without another word Demetrius turned around and left. Jonas followed after him, looking over his shoulder once. Razia stayed there, taking a deep breath and mentally going over everything she would need to get things to come together. 242 Starry Heights, near the river. Razia could work with that. The higher end the place, the easier it was for her to sleaze her way in.

“Razia?” Samantha asked in the voice of a child scared to ask a question.

“Yes?”

“Who is Quentin, exactly?” she asked, staring at the shrinking forms of the gladiators down the street.

“Our friend,” said Razia. “That’s the only thing that matters.”