Shiina tasted smoke in the air as they got back to Al Jirtea. The primary sources were obvious. Several noble mansions were burning. However the lines of smoke suggested other places had been set aflame either by accident or on purpose.

  "So this is what a city being sacked looks like," Delilah said, as they approached the gate. "It really does look like what Robin and Linsey said."

  "Who?" Shiina asked as she turned in her 'backpack' form.

  Delilah spared her a glance. "Some of my old neighbors. They moved in about twenty five years ago when their city got destroyed in the Greenriver rebellion."

  "This is pretty calm as a revolution goes," Zanya said. "The fires look like they're mostly contained. And there's hardly any corpse piles"

  "Better than the city deserves," Hafsa sniffed.

  "Deserve or not, you'll want a place to sleep," Ife pointed out with a swish of her tail. "And on that note, let's see if we can find a place to eat."

  Zanya gestured towards the poor quarter. "Let's try the restaurant we visited before. We've got a few things to discuss."

  Shiina let her eyes wander over the streets now. Instead of merchants and slave porters the people wandering seemed to be gangs of freed slaves and tribal warrior patrols. The gaudy showmanship was dead, replaced with broken windows and nervous energy. Still the invaders seemed to keep things from getting too out of hand.

  Too out of hand probably depended on who you were though. Several buildings were strewed with corpses or smoldering from arson. Ironically there was less damage as they moved down into the poorer areas.

  The restaurants all had 'charity' stalls out front, though it was possible that was more a bribe to avoid being set on fire. Either way the street tasted great, and Shiina was happy to see the place they'd visited before was still around.

  They entered and several servers called out 'Welcome!' For some reason they'd all added a veil to the outfit. However Shiina recognized their Arbiter contact as the woman hurried over. "Would you like a booth?" she asked.

  "Please," Ife replied.

  They were led to the back, Shiina sliding off Delilah's back to take the center seat. As the others sat down the woman shut the curtain, before turning her glare at them. "I can't believe you really started a revolution! Was that really the best way to solve things?"

  Ife gave an indolent shrug. "Best? That is for the gods to know. But it did work, and we're satisfied."

  "It would have been nice for a warning!" The woman hissed in annoyance then slumped. "Whatever. I got the girls out of the 'adventurer's guild' and into good work, and the place hasn't been burned down so I suppose it's for the best."

  Hafsa's ears folded back. "Alright, first thing, why the hell are you rescuing a bunch of pampered slaving bitches from their just rewards?"

  "Don't be judgemental," their contact snapped. "They took that job because they didn't want to get married into some rich guy's harem. Sure some of them were annoying children but that's not a good reason to hand them over to a bunch of angry adventurers."

  "How about the slaves the spoiled princesses spent their lives exploiting?" Hafsa snapped.

  "Hard to find a person who didn't get something out of the slave system, except the poor bastards shoveling shit," the woman retorted.

  Shiina coughed. "Uh, can we talk dinner before any more fighting?"

  "I am hungry," Delilah admitted, as Ife snickered.

  Hafsa and the serving woman seemed to calm down. "We have lizard tail roast today. Bread and wine are complimentary. Should I take the coin out of your recompense for your work, or do you want to pay after?"

  "We need to split the original, so we'll pay after," Zanya said.

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  "Right, and that's point two." Hafsa looked all of them over. "What's this talk of jobs and pay? You aren't working with the revolutionaries. Who are you people?"

  Ife grinned. "We're Arbiter agents. Working with the revolutionaries was a side job."

  "Arbiter agents?" Hafsa looked confused. "The hell is that?"

  "We kill people who reopen dungeons," Shiina said proudly.

  Zanya pulled out the bag of supplies they hadn't used, including the arbiter rune. "We work for a loose organization of powerful wizards who don't want to deal with the world collapsing into ruin because of idiots messing with dungeons. We were sent here to prevent a dungeon reopening, and then swapped over to freeing the slaves after that was resolved."

  "Shiina and I were insistent," Delilah added.

  The serving woman took the spare gear. "And probably saved the city from a nastier invasion which I do appreciate."

  Hafsa's tail twitched as she glowered. "So they didn't care about the mess the city was in. They just were cleaning up a dungeon problem." Shiina wasn't sure why the catgirl sounded so annoyed.

  Zanya took it in stride however. "It's a job, not a charity. Morality doesn't come into it. And it's probably the least oppressive job you can get. We get missions and otherwise run around doing whatever we like."

  After a moment Hafsa leaned back, her expression softening. "Okay, point. I haven't had experience with paid work, but that sounds about right from what I've read. Any other rules along with the job?"

  "Please don't openly advertise all our secret agents and hideouts," the serving woman said. "And that's about it. Anyway I'll be back with the roast." She slipped out of the curtain.

  "Yep, that's it!" Shiina said. "Well I think they mess with memories too when we leave, but that's more so people can't sift through your brain after you quit right?"

  Ife snorted, tail wagging. "A crude way of putting it, but yes."

  Hafsa sat tail slowly shifting as she thought for a few more moments. "Right. I can work with that. Assuming you're willing to work with me. Which I'm guessing you are given you're spilling your secret society stuff."

  "Zanya and I will be happy to have you join us," Ife said. "Shiina? Delilah?"

  "Sure!" Shiina smiled at their new friend.

  Delilah nodded. "Happily."

  The serving lady came in with a bottle of wine and the roast right as Hafsa perked up. "Great! And we've got something to toast with." The catgirl took the bottle and expertly uncorked it with a twist before pouring everyone a perfect half glass.

  "Cheers!" they all said. Shiine did the polite sip before turning her attention to the roast. The meat was chicken like, but it had an earthy taste on top, along with the fiery spices. Delilah would be needing mint for this. Fortunately Shiina could weaken tastes when needed.

  As they settled down, Shiina peered over at Zanya. "Where are we going next?"

  "The best route would be cashing in some of the clout we earned with the nomads to get to lamia territory," Zanya said. "That would get us to Bone Mountain in a week. And from there we can go into the Principalities for dungeon work. With a side trip to get some silk dresses"

  "Are there any dungeons in lamia territory?" Hafsa asked. "The only people who talked about traveling through there were trying to get some snake tail."

  "Well there has to be the one that the lamia came from," Delilah said.

  Shiina considered that. "I kinda wanna see what someone else's dungeon looks like. A proper inhabited one instead of other combat dungeons."

  "Sadly we'll only get to see the entry rooms. But we can do a bit of merchant work taking the spices and perfumes from the dungeon out to other places. That's the reason most travelers visit. The lovely snake girls are just a side benefit." Ife's tail swished as she smirked.

  Shiina rolled her eyes at the weird mammal stuff. Still, a dungeon society. And Bone Mountain! Shiina liked both those options. "That sounds good to me!"

  "I've got no clue what I'm doing, so sure," Hafsa said.

  "Since I think the other option is waiting for caravans to start again before taking a week going through the desert and another two weeks to Bone Mountain, I prefer this plan," Delilah said.

  "Settled then," Zanya said. "We'll start tomorrow."

  I've read a number of treatises on how modern conflict is more civilized and how most civilian casualties are due to high leveled battles in the city. Everyone I've spoken to on the matter insists this is nonsense. "Abrupt changes in government" are somewhat common with Arbiter work, so I've gotten a crash course on what happens when a city goes into revolt or is conquered.

  Apparently chances are good that there won't be any serious violence if this is just a fight over territory and the conflict is just one army marching in and taking the local nobles hostage for ransom. But a lot of wars happen because one side really hates the other. For example because the nation was a horrible group of slavers who were raiding their neighbors for years. Or because of a centuries long blood feud. And then things get messy.

  The takeover of Al Jirtea wasn't that bad because a decent part of the local population was in support of the takeover, there weren't many people here to begin with, the battle was over fast, and because the people who invaded wanted most of the city intact. The instructions for situations that are messier than this are apparently 'leave, hide in the sewers, or join the winning team.'

  Zanya says the best option is 'leave' and usually before the problem starts. Which is why we usually just get out of the city after the job is done.