There are few in the Undercity that know the origins of the Cartel. Nobody could guess that they came from humble beginnings. They started out as a mp lighter company that was hired to maintain the illumination for the workers and inhabitants. By the time the Undercity had grown rge enough to become self-sustainable the mp lighter company began to realise just how much power they wielded. Light was everything when you lived underground, you couldn`t function without it. So when the mp lighters instituted a basic maintenance tax nobody could argue. When they instituted a food tax farmers could hardly refuse. Then came the product tax and the protection tax and not long after the mp lighters became the Cartel.

  The Cartel had occupied numerous buildings all over the Undercity marking them as outposts. They stored mp oil and made daily distribution easy enough. They also served as a base of operations of tax collection and muscle. It was in one of these dens of corruption that Grey found herself, by way of invitation.

  She sat in a small furnished office that seemed to double as a store room. Multiple chairs, desks and book shelves were stacked in the corners and papers in various phases of dishevelment littered the surfaces. The furniture was of good quality too, still had all their pieces with only partially worn varnish.

  Sat across from her behind a far too rge desk was Mr Gibbens. A middle aged man with thinning hair and a grubby ill-fitting suit. He was in the middle of eating a pte of grilled rat steaks covered in mushroom sauce. He had been doing so ever since Grey had sat down. She waited awkwardly for him to finish unaware that he was making a point.

  “You know, I haven`t had a meal that good in a long time.”, Gibbins decred, pushing the pte aside and wiping his mouth with a dirty cloth. “To think all it cost me was a few coppers. At that rate anyone can afford it don`t you think?”

  “Um yes.”, Grey replied, sitting anxiously, entirely out of her comfort zone.

  “I`m told you’re the one we have to thank for that. You did what no one else could and finally put a leash on those rabid little rat catchers. Quite remarkable of you really. A month or two ago you were nothing to my knowledge and now you’re the owner of a sizable rat meat empire. Very impressive, I do wonder what you could possibly be spending all that wealth on.”, the man commented, leaning back in his chair picking at the meat in his teeth.

  “Well umm actually to correct you there, I`m not the owner. The farms are technically owned and operated by the catchers running them. With some assistance from the Goblin folk for things like distribution and so on. It doesn`t really have anything to do with me at this stage if I`m being honest.”, Grey expined honestly.

  “I see, very noble of you.”, the man`s demeanour changed, growing visibly irritable. “I guess I best cut to the chase then. We require someone to pay a service and product tax for the operation of these businesses. I recon sixty percent is a fair number. And since I have you here, you can be the one to collect it for us. Sounds like you know all the parties involved”

  Grey`s eyes went wide at the demand but quickly returned to their normal resting stance. She breathed calmly and shifted in her seat.

  “You know, I had heard that the Cartel was corrupt and arrogant but I had personally never experienced it myself. In the interest of pying along to what reason do the farms owe you sixty percent of product obtained and profit earned?”, Grey enquired defiantly.

  “For the use of the mp light of course. Every citizen is obligated to pay towards the maintenance of the cities illumination.”, Gibbins replied angrily, starting to lose the st of his meagre patience.

  “Lamp light. Of course.”, Grey sat silently thinking to herself. “Surely you understand that sixty percent is just too much. Perhaps we could reach a more reasonable figure? Say twenty percent?”

  As much as Grey was starting to despise the Cartel, she could not deny that they pyed an important role in the Undercity. She felt it only fair they should get something for the work they do. She was about to realise just how na?ve she was being.

  “Listen here you little shit! Don`t think you are the first to try and py this game better than us.”, Gibbens yelled, rising from his seat in an attempt to assert dominance. “Let me put things pinly for you so they can get through that thick skull of yours. The Cartel now owns sixty percent of all rat meat produced by those farms. Failure to adhere to these terms will result in a visit from our Enforcers. I guarantee you that they will not be as polite as me. I expect you to organise what we are owed by the end of the week.”

  Grey rose from her seat and looked the man in the eye meeting his gaze with equal ferocity.

  “Mr Gibbens, you and the Cartel might control the light but you do not control the food. It`s an industry you lot never could quite get into, you have the wrong temperament for it I suspect.”, Grey decred, storming out of the man`s office refusing to py his game.

  [---]

  The moment Grey had informed Willow of the Cartel`s demands she called an emergency meeting with the council. She had the authority to do so but it was the respect she generated that made it happen so fast. She expined the situation and was a little startle to find herself yelling passionately by the end of it. She took a deep breath and was relieved when she could sit down, she was starting to feel a little self-conscious.

  Silence gathered quickly and some of the council members began to look around confused. Willow joined them, looking over at Gobson who remained passive. He just sat there eyes closed and arms crossed. His apprentice noticed the confusion and forced a loud cough to get his attention.

  He opened one eye and took a quick look around, “What do you suggest Willow?”

  She was a little taken aback by being singled out but felt capable in answering the question. She pulled herself together and stood back up.

  “I think we should take a stand. Say no, stop paying their taxes, stop letting them dictate terms.”

  “You want us to fight the Cartel?”, one of the farmers enquired aggressively.

  “No, no. I think she wants us to try and re-open negotiations. Maybe get them to dey the tax a little longer.”, spoke another farmer.

  “You want to try and negotiate with the Cartel? You will end up negotiating with an Enforcers boot.”, responded another.

  The room exploded into conflicting opinions each one expressed with more and more aggression.

  Willow looked to Gobson for guidance, hoping he would reign everyone in and restore order. He just sat motionless.

  She tried to speak up but their combined voices were too much. She tried yelling but simply became another sound in the cacophony of tongues. Finally, she snapped, and climbed up onto the table stamping her boots to get everyone’s attention.

  “Enough!”, she yelled at them all. “Why are we fighting amongst ourselves? Our anger should be focused out there, not in here!”

  “We can`t fight the Cartel. We need their oil.”, argued one of the farmers.

  “They need our food! More than we need their light! We can adapt to the dark, ration what oil we have, breed fire flies. I`d like to see them adapt to an empty stomach. If we take a stand and remain united in our purpose then they will have no choice but to treat us fairly for once. We can prosper again, like we have been. We won`t have to toil away so hard for minimal gains. We would be free, to do more than just survive. We could thrive.”, finished Willow, looking at Gobson, a fire in her eyes.

  He remained passive, giving Willow the trust she needed.

  She smiled and stood firm in her boots confident in herself.

  [---]

  The meeting ended in uncertainty, some wanted to fight but others we unconvinced. Willow wasn`t too surprised, they had been under the thumb of the Cartel for so long. It would take more than an impassioned speech to convince everyone to swim against the current.

  Willow pushed the thought aside, she had a meeting with Gobson to attend. A meeting called for by him according to his apprentice. Perplexing considering how ready he was to sit idle and let her take the reins of the meeting. Made her curious as to what he would want to talk to her about.

  She met him at his farm, he was sat on the front step of his hovel watching his apprentice work the field. The generational cycle.

  “Hard worker. You must be proud.”, said Willow, an introduction unnecessary at this point.

  “He is. I am. I let him take over completely a few days ago.”, Gobson replied, slowly rising from his seat.

  “You`re hanging up your boots? That’s a big decision.”, Willow remarked.

  “It`s time. The Undercity no longer needs me. It has you now.”, he decred to Willows shock.

  “I don`t- I think- I mean- I just hope I`m ready. I would be lying if I said I wasn`t terrified.”, she confessed.

  “You`re ready. You have all my knowledge.”, he reached around his neck and took off a neckce with an old wooden key on the end of it. “And now you have my secrets.”

  Willow took the key and looked at it confused. Gobson gestured behind her to a dark corner of the farm.

  “It`s for my shed. In it you will find everything you need to convince the rest of the counsel.”, he added, walking into the field to talk to his apprentice.

  Willow looked over at the inconspicuous shed in the shadows. It was a small and dipidated thing pressed close to the wall. She struggled to imagine was worthwhile secrets it could contain. Still, she needed all the help she could get, she would take what was offered, no matter how big or small.

  She unlocked and opened the shed door revealing a rge dimly lit cavern dug into the wall. It stretched on for miles and was covered in strange colourful mushrooms unfamiliar to her. The walls were lined with what looked to be years’ worth of harvests, dried and preserved. Close to the entrance was a small workstation with all sorts of alchemical paraphernalia and jars of colourful oil. The same oil she was shocked to see fuelling the mps in the hidden cavern.

  “Beautiful isn`t it.”, Gobson chimed in beside her. “My great great grandfather carried with him knowledge of hundreds of mushroom varieties. My great grandfather discovered these ones. My grandfather carved out the cavern and my father and me started cultivating them and kept them safe. Safe from the Cartel until someone could stand up to them. I think that time has come.”