Part 2 Chapter 6

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A ruler who has at least the rudiments of common sense seeks information from many sources. The advantages of this approach are obvious. Different witnesses describe events in different ways, so their reports complement each other, creating a more complete and accurate picture. It is easier for the ruler's servants to resist temptations to adjust the truth in the direction they want. Finally, the form of the report and the presentation of the facts makes it possible to understand how certain court factions feel about the event to have time to react in the right way.

Celesta justifiably thought she was not a bad ruler.

Information flowed to her in full-flowing streams, allowing her to navigate well in all spheres of society. First of all, of course, from the Morvanites. Cultists penetrated all levels of power structures; one could find them in the government of the tiny town and among the highest officials of the kingdom. The advantage of them was their loyalty, reaching to the absolute, and the disadvantage was that this loyalty had to be maintained, which was sometimes very difficult. They also had to take into account a peculiar vision of the world that affected the accuracy of the reports.

The next most effective was the department that dealt directly with intelligence. Probably right to say religious intelligence, though Elder Kalderan's subordinate also monitored movements among merchants and nobles. But historically, the main opponents of vampires at this point were various cults, temples, and monasteries, so it was primarily the department that kept an eye on them. Somewhat less attention was paid to the state security services, whose employees acted as natural enemies and sworn partners by their official duties.

The flow of information from the financiers was somewhat one-sided, but very qualitative analysis. Money likes counting and silence, money doesn't like surprises. Elder Gardoman's team was usually the first to notice trends in commodity flows, anticipating changes in the political scene, and a large number of agents allowed a quick response to unexpected events. With no shortage of resources, they preferred to bribe recalcitrant officials. Flexible morals made it easy for the financiers to provide dirty money laundering services, hence the appearance of good connections in the criminal environment. Celesta was irritated at times by their fixation on wanting to make money by any means necessary but on the whole, she was pleased with them.

Latham occupied a special place. Not as Captain of the Guard, but personally, as the rising from death heir to the family of the Counts of Kossa. The old families, who retained their lineage magic, stood apart in the noble hierarchy. Completely closed caste, which is almost impossible to enter from the outside, you must be born in it. The status of its representatives from age to age fluctuated, not sinking, however, never low, they lived by their own laws and measured others by their own standards. Despite his rebirth, Latham still belonged to their circle, and they spoke frankly to him. As a result, sometimes he reported news that became known from other sources much later, or was not known at all.

Information also came through other channels, for example, a number of urban communities had close ties with the army regiments stationed in the vicinity or the clan structure - the risens continued to communicate with living relatives, gradually helping them to rise through the ranks. There was a lot of information, at times even too much.

Nevertheless, Celesta has learned one simple thing in centuries of government: dozens of the most detailed reports do not equal a personal impression. It's better to see for yourself.

Compared to her memories, Lascaris has changed greatly, while still managing to remain the same. The city had grown, it was surrounded by an extra ring of walls, many public buildings of fine architecture had sprung up within it, and the authorities had set up trading sites in the vicinity for merchants' carts or arriving nomads. Thanks to the long peace, the peasants of the neighboring estates managed to establish orchards, which in spring filled the air with the scent of flowers; it became fashionable to arrange flood meadows for fish breeding. The peace of the inhabitants was guarded by a powerful garrison of guards serving the duke.

Mistress arrived in Lascaris with a minimal entourage. A sturdy carriage without much ornamentation and with the coat of arms of a little-known family, five guardsmen, two dozen men - dozens of similar nobles passed through the gates every day, leaving bribes and being recorded in the registers. The vampires owned several inns in the city through third hands, but they stayed in the one run by mere mortals. Celesta suddenly wanted to get away from the society of her kindred, to dive briefly into the motley, vibrant human sea, to imagine herself as an ordinary human for a couple of days at least. It was a strange desire, one she did not resist.

"Latham," she called to the assistant. "Visit Sattar, please. Tell him I will interrogate the prisoner next night. Not this night, but the next."

"Does Messena intend to visit someone else?"

"Not at all. Messena just wants to look at the city with her own eyes before she meets its elite. She's already noted a few things that surprised her, and she suspects she'll see a lot more."

"Dare I ask what aroused the surprise of the Blessed Mistress?"

"Well, the chapel on the opposite side of the square," Celesta pointed to the window. "There's a distinctly dark direction. Why was it allowed to exist? Such demonstrative disregard for the royal edict "On the prohibition of abominable cults" is not typical of the dukes, they prefer a more cautious approach."

"As far as I can tell, Messena, is some kind of mountain god. At any rate, the style is similar."

"There must be a reasonable explanation," the mistress agreed. "I just don't see it yet. Or another example is the ropes. A merchant in the street boasted that he had successfully sold a large batch of ropes at a good price to the steppe people. What did the nomads need them for? In small quantities, I agree, they need them. But a lot and, judging by the context, often?"

"I must admit, Messena, that I find it difficult to answer."

"So do I. And the questions are interesting!"

Lascaris was the only major city in the Taleya Kingdom that had its own Mage Guild. The Guild continued to exist, as it justifiably considered itself the successor to the old one, which still had Hastin as a member. After the Academy was disbanded, its staff was assigned to the Spiritual Directorate of the Left Hand Ministry. The wizards looked at the prospect and scattered, most of them to Zonna, the rest wherever they went. Yuinarik, the blessed Duke of Lash, wisely sheltered the fugitives, moreover, he created his own Guild on the basis of the then operating branch of the old one. Given the Duke's influence and the number of swords in his service, amid the civil war that was gaining momentum, the central government dared not argue with him. Later the next king restored the state Guild, but it was reluctant to join, unlike the Lascaris Guild.

The bloodsuckers were friends with the mages, for the most part. But they remembered that they had different masters. Therefore, the wizards' attempts to entangle the city with a tracking network, noting the energy manifestations of the undead, were looked upon without approval, and the development was quietly sabotaged. At the same time, they developed methods of concealment themselves and were very successful at it.

They'd better figure out how the sensors of the College of Nine Pillars find us, Celesta thought. Though we have no spies there. A weakness.

She and her retinue were not hindered by the mages' efforts - all the guards were experienced enough to be able to conceal themselves. She saw no need to take any additional measures. They arrived in the city late in the evening, so Mistress quietly took a bath, ordered a light dinner in her room, and spent the night learning news from other cities through mirror communication. She even managed to doze off for a couple of hours after dawn, preparing to go out under the crushing pressure of the sun.

Unlike the frivolous Zonna, the merchant Lascaris liked to see women wrapped in veiled dresses, with their hair covered and preferably with a cape over their faces. The influence of nearby nomads was showing. Of course, it was not, and could not be complete copying of barbarian customs, but on the whole, morals were much stricter. Celesta benefited from this; she even took an umbrella to protect herself from the sun's rays. A pair of guardsmen, who refused to leave her unattended, wore wide-brimmed hats. The Mistress did not argue with them, though she would have settled for an escort of men.

To begin with, she decided to just look around. The places of interest to her were conventionally divided into three groups - the known property of the community, the unknown, and the lairs. The latter were always plentiful, the older a vampire got, the better he understood the necessity of having an unknown lair. Celesta had once had a pair in Lascaris, though she was rarely in town, a long time had passed since then, and they must have fallen into disrepair.

Oddly enough, she was half wrong. A new house had been built in place of one of the lairs, but the other, hidden beneath the cemetery crypt, remained undiscovered. The only drawback was the pile of garbage piled into the shelter. The Mistress estimated the scope of the work, waved her hand mentally and did not fix it - she remembered the location, and she could get into the mud if she had to, she use to it.

As she walked toward one of the markets, which she knew for certain from the reports, belonged to the vampires, she thought about the frequent problem of ownership. Who was the real owner of the house they bought - the community or its head, who had allocated the money? If the money is communal and can be verified, then the question is removed, but if it is his own? Or if it was partly his own? Another problem was the retinue that every old vampire acquired over time. Chicks, apprentices, mages, ordinary mortals, serving him from generation to generation - who should they obey in the first place? A very pertinent question in the case of a powerful risen's a conflict with the head of the city's community. Until now, Celesta had to deal with each particular case, guided by common sense and existing traditions, but it could not go on. There were too many vampires, and a full-fledged legal framework was needed.

It's probably a good thing she has to think about it. Better to wallow in bureaucracy than to live by the right of the strongest. Even if you are the strongest.

Lascaris was one of the key nodes in the network woven by the vampires, which enmeshed the countries and allowed them to live quite comfortably. Exist. Just as Zonna was considered a medical center of sorts, and Bardi a domestic bank, so Lascaris was deservedly called the main trading place. Everything was sold and bought here, from common stones to seafood that had not been transported by who knows what means. As a consequence, the Community needed many buildings, warehouses, and other facilities to conduct its business. Or rather, not the Community itself, but the ordinary or not-so-ordinary people who served it.

By unusual in this case, we mean mages. The Dark Guild, though it counted Taleya as its primary home, was itself too fragmented an organization to be limited to a single nucleus. Here in Lascaris, the authorities treated them leniently, allowing them to sell their wares and provide various services to merchants, not always legitimate. Another thing is that the common people still disliked the wizards. Strange situation - almost all the nobility possessed witchcraft abilities, proud of them, developed them, while the rest of the estate at best tried to ignore them. At worst, a discovered sorcerer could be killed. The same traders who actively used artifacts or potions preferred to keep their distance from the manufacturers, limiting themselves to purely business relations on the principle of "you to me - I to you".

Mages, of course, felt the attitude. Those who could - try to get close to the ruling class, occupying the position of advisors or astrologers, who could not - clumped together and, gradually, found themselves under the protectorate of the Dark Guild. The quality of human material is not the highest, but because of their profession, they often have access to confidential information, which they are willing to share with the benefactors.

However, even among them, there were really unique people. People who attracted Celesta's special attention, who she valued, who became her personal agents.

"Hello, Homie," the mistress said, making sure there was no one else in the shop. "Stand up. I've been told not to prostrate in front of me for so long."

"Of course, Mistress."

He always answered like that, continuing to do things his way. Celesta didn't try to find out what was going on in his head; she had enough to know that she didn't doubt Homie's loyalty.

"At last I can see your wonderful shop with my own eyes," she remarked, looking around. The bodyguards stood outside the door, clearly intent on keeping anyone out. "I have to admit, I imagined it to be a little bigger."

"This room is sufficient for the sale of tea, Mistress. I keep other goods in the back room."

"Оh? Is there something there you'd like to brag about?"

"If the lowly servant will be allowed," Homie smiled and bowed, simultaneously pointing with an inviting hand.

His neighbors regarded Homie as a prosperous merchant of rare teas, those in the know knew of his membership in the Dark Guild, but few could name his internal, rather high, rank. To Celesta, he was still a common street boy, picked up and given to Hustin for training out of pity.

After seating her in the place of honor and brewing her favorite kind of tea, Homie waited for her to take the first sip before he sipped from the bowl himself. He remembered that she disliked the local round cups with square handles, and kept a suitable pair for her.

"Right here," the owner pressed a knot on the wall without getting up, pushing aside a false panel, "I keep what the important gentlemen actually come to me for. Mostly they're interested in potions against impotence and poisons, something else they rarely order. There are samples in the windows."

"I'm surprised," Celesta was genuinely impressed as she looked over the rows of bottles with glued labels. "The variety is more plentiful in the stores of Zonna but ninety percent of their products are cosmetics. Though I'll be honest, they excel us in this matter."

"It is only natural, Mistress, that edicts tie the hands of mages. It is difficult to develop science when the hangman's silken cord is on your shoulder."

"Is it really that bad in Lascaris, too?"

"No, the Duke doesn't give us any offense... As much as possible. Sometimes we have to be a bargaining chip in his games with the central government."

"With whom, exactly?" Celesta clarified. "The King, the Chancellor, or the Orders?"

"The hardest part is with the priests - they oppose us as a united front, regardless of mutual relations. The Chancellor's administration wants us as part of his Guild and combines carrot and stick, the King confines himself to edicts. He doesn't seem to care about us."

"So it is," Mistress agreed. "He's counting on Lash's help against the Chancellor, so he's wary of pressuring. Many temple structures, on the one hand, are his natural allies in this matter, but at the same time, their appetites are excessive. And they are at odds with the Duke. I am planning something to weaken their influence, but it will take a long time to prepare. How do you feel?"

"What do you mean, Mistress?" Homie didn't understand the question.

"You're well over two hundred years old, even for a mage is a decent age. Maybe your ailments have plagued you, and you dream of retiring, moving to a quiet estate not far from Taleya, and babysitting your many-odd great-grandchildren. The operation is complicated, long-term, and more than a decade away. If you leave, leave now, before it begins."

In response to the proposal, the magician smiled sadly and shook his head: "My children and grandchildren are grown, some of them long dead, and my great-grandchildren are almost strangers. My pupils are closer than my own family. And how long will I live without a serious business? Not long, I think. No, Mistress, I have nowhere to go and no reason to go. Don't worry, I'll last as long as it takes."

The answer didn't surprise Celesta. Not all people are capable of sitting in retirement; for some, death and cessation of activity are equivalent. Homie was one of those. She nodded thoughtfully and checked for the first time that no, she could not turn him. Pity.

"Then listen..."

Homie's main task was to look after Sattar. The head of the local community never gave any reason to doubt his loyalty, otherwise, he would have been sitting in another position, if at all, but the Mistress had been very badly burned several times in the past and was now cautious. However, since Sattar had no thoughts of selfhood, Celesta additionally oriented the agent to gather information about influential groups in the city.

The situation in Lascaris was more complicated than it first appeared. During the civil war, to prevent Lascaris from joining his opponents, the Fool was forced to transfer the duchy to the status of a personal ancestral domain. Since then, the dukes have been far less dependent on the king and have inadvertently served as a reminder of the fragility of existence, because they have become a point of attraction for aristocratic opposition. Their influence was now and then declining, at times Lascaris seriously prepared to declare independence, at times it lost some of its privileges but in general, it remained the same. Of course, many in Taleya did not like it.

Shortening the hands of the Lash was hindered by huge money, a perfectly trained personal army, and friendly relations of the dukes with the strong tribal unions of nomads, ready to come to the aid at the first call.

Since the force option had to be postponed, the capital's minds tried to intrigue. Considering that among the duke's vassals there were also enough specialists in turning people into blind instruments, the game was going with variable success. From a certain point of view, the city resembled a seething cauldron under a loose lid - the puffs of steam rising to the outside world were nothing compared to the simmering brew within. In Lascaris, the royal Secret Service, the chancellor's Jasper Guard, spies of noble houses and religious organizations, agents of large financial and trade associations, and many others were at work. Even steppe chieftains had intelligence sent in. Before going after the duke, it was necessary to understand the true intentions of all the players.

"We can't act directly," Celesta explained as she sketched out the plan. "You see, it would be strange for vampires to summon the priests to organize a sacred crusade into a country that is two months' march from their frontiers. But a Duke has the right to petition the King to defend his borders against the hostile undead. The King, in turn, will strain the priests, who are formally obliged to obey him in everything. We understand that this is not the case in practice, but that is the challenge so that they cannot refuse."

"Mistress, the Duke will not want to ask the King for anything. For him, it is a loss of face and permission to interfere in internal affairs."

"Then he has to want to," the diminutive undead mistress accepted his objection. "I'd have to give him a good reason, a good reason from society's point of view."

"It's hard," Homie admitted. "I can't think of anything right off the top of my head."

The man had picked up the habit from his undead mentors of being motionless in moments of contemplation, and now he sat staring at a single point, clutching the cold tea bowl in his hand. Celesta wondered if she'd been too quick to dump it on him. Maybe she should have done it more carefully. On the other hand, it was better to announce such news at once and in full, so that the executor could clearly understand what his superiors wanted and not wonder if those superiors had lost their minds.

"In short, think of a hook to hook the Duke. He is the key figure in the plan, without his support it is pointless to try to organize anything."

Without getting up, Homie bowed low, folding his palms in front of his forehead: "Of course, Mistress. I will not fail you."

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