Topal

  --- That Morning ---

  Years of work, finally about to pay off.

  Rising at the crack of dawn after falling asleep in an alley on the edges of Lavote, Topal meticulously made her way toward the city’s center. She made twelve stops along the way. To anyone else, they would appear random and meaningless if they saw her at all. A loose brick in the wall of an abandoned hut. An old, dried up well. The hollow of a fallen tree. The lip underneath one of the sewer outlets.

  Each one held a small fortune by Scar standards. Twelve small pouches with a mix of coins in all denominations totaling 1000 Fuvre – Hangkiti’s currency.

  Scars kept everything they owned on their person and if anybody knew you were carrying around that much, they wouldn’t hesitate to make you regret it. Any money they earned was quickly converted into something immediately useful.

  That money was the most Topal had ever seen in one place, let alone held in her own hands. She had been collecting it for nearly a decade, scrounging together from every odd job she could, stowing them secretly and separately. Over the years, a handful of her stashes had been pilfered, so she learned to keep them all small enough to avoid major losses.

  She carefully slipped each pouch into her cloak, stuffing them in hidden pockets lining the inside. Even so close to realizing her goal, she knew better than to count on the future until it was solidly in her hands. The worst possible situation would be if she ran into trouble on the way to the Merchants’ Guild now that she had the whole payment on her.

  Pulling up her cloak’s hood, she kept her head down and moved through the shadows. In the outer city, her biggest concern was desperate people looking for an easy score, so she did her best to avoid drawing attention to herself. As the streets angled upward and she climbed the crater at Lavote’s center, she knew she had to change tactics.

  While she would prefer to keep her face hidden there too, that would only draw more trouble. Once she was out of the slums, she dropped the hood, stood up straight, and walked as confidently as possible – slowly, but with a clear purpose. In the Merchants’ Quarter, you had to act like you belonged if you wanted to avoid getting shaken down by Honors.

  Common sense told Scars to stay out of the merchants’ quarter all together. She would have never come near it if she didn’t have a sponsor. Clutching the letter of introduction to her chest, she stepped into the brilliant, marble-lined streets with her head held high. Unfortunately, no amount of confidence would hide the scarf covering her face and the web of scars peeking out at its edges.

  “Hey! You there!” a harsh voice called out less than ten seconds after crossing into the Quarter. Fully expecting trouble, she pulled her hands out of her cloak, making sure they were fully visible, and turned to see three Honors moving in her direction. “What are you doing here?”

  “I have a meeting with Kevra Veyra at the Merchants’ Guild,” she said, holding up the letter. “This is a letter of introduction he gave me to prove I have his permission to be here.”

  The Honors all scowled at that, but the closest one extended a hand to take the letter. He unfolded it and quickly scanned the contents, his scowl growing deeper.

  “This is legitimate,” he said, handing it back. Just before her fingers grabbed it though, pulled away. “But I’ve never known the guild to do official business with Scars. What is the purpose of the meeting?”

  “Registering for a merchant’s license,” she said, the breath catching in her throat as the weight of the coin suddenly grew heavier.

  Earning your license was no small affair and required a heft membership fee, a big investment even by merchant standards. If you had a direct connection to the guild, you’d work as an apprentice while you saved up, gaining experience along theway. Scars would never even be considered for a license, but Topal had been laying the groundwork for this day for years.

  She intentionally took cheap work as a “navigator” for merchant caravans – a euphemism for a bodyguard. Owning real weapons was illegal for anyone other than Honors, so if you needed protection, your only legal option was to shill out huge amounts of money for someone with an Ember. However, because Honors almost exclusively worked in cities, they weren’t qualified to deal with vit or anything else you’d expect to find in the wildlands, so you’d almost always be paying more for less. “Navigators” were one of Hangkiti’s worst kept secrets, considered a necessary evil by most despite their conflict with the law.

  After years of working as one, Topal had built strong relationships with several licensed merchants who all vouched for her and put her in touch with Guildmaster Veyra. He gave her a price and a deadline of six months to come up with the money. It was a nearly impossible task, but she had been saving for long before that.

  Needless to say, a Scar visiting the guild headquarters was a once in a lifetime opportunity. All that work would go up in dust if she wasn’t able to pay the fee today. Honors were known for confiscating anything they considered “suspicious” and there was nothing more suspicious in their eyes than a Scar with money.

  “A Scar with a license?” the Honor asked. “That’s a new one. I don’t suppose you’ve already paid your dues?”

  “I have,” she lied, trying to stay as polite and casual as possible. “I’m going there to take my exam. Is there anything else, or may I go?”

  His eyes felt like fire on her as they stared holes through her clothes. After a moment though, he exchanged a look with the other Honors and sighed.

  “You’re lucky we’ve got bigger things to deal with today,” he said, finally giving the letter back. “Stay out of trouble.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said as respectfully as possible and hurried away, but not so fast as to look even more suspicious. As she walked, she made note of his parting words. One thing she learned in shadowing her merchant friends was that information is power. Whatever the Honors were focused on was probably important enough to keep an eye out for.

  In preparation for that day, she had memorized a map of the merchants’ quarter, but it was her first time formally walking its streets. Guildmaster Veyra came to a guild office on the edge of the city for their first meeting. She was simultaneously impressed and disgusted with the pristine, white streets.

  The whole merchant’s quarter itself wasn’t very large, built around a wide, central boulevard that stretched from the harbor to the Lords’ Residence with three to four blocks on either side of it. The guild headquarters was on the main boulevard, but she kept to the smaller side streets until the last possible second. When she did finally step out onto it, she was surprised to find a huge crowd gathered there in front of a huge wooden stage blocking the entire street.

  They clamored to get as close to the stage as possible, but Topal was entranced by the heavenly smell of a feast wafting from the tents. Her mouth watered as a pang of hunger stabbed into her stomach. She would have wandered over to join the crowd if the sight didn’t inspire as much anger as hunger.

  They’re still doing shit like this after everything that happened?

  The succulent aroma turned sour, and she set her eyes on the guild hall instead. It was an ornate building with towering, vaulted arches and sculptures poised on the ledges of each floor depicting past notable members. She couldn’t help but smile as she imagined them jumping from their perches and shattering across the street below.

  Guarding the door were a pair of Honors. Unlike the others, they let her through without issue once she flashed them the letter and dropped Kevra’s name,

  The inside of the building was just as decadent, with tapestries covering every floor and paintings on every wall. All of the furniture was carved, hardwood with garish red upholstery that looked too expensive for her to dream of buying, even with all of the money on her.

  Topal had done what she could to clean herself up. She washed her clothes, bathed in a stream outside of the city, and cut her hair shorter so it looked less unruly. She was the cleanest she had ever been, but even just standing in the same room as those treasures made her anxious, as though her presence was enough to damage them.

  “Excuse me,” she said, walking up to the front desk and handing the letter to the man behind it. “I have a meeting with Guildmaster Veyra.”

  He did nothing to hide his sneer but didn’t say anything beyond that as he pulled a rope on the wall behind him labeled “Veyra.” A few moments later, the familiar bumbling face stepped out from one of the doors nearby. He had the sense to dress down during their first visit when he was in the outer city, but now he was in his full, garish glory.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Oh, yes!” he said, taking the secretary’s place behind the desk. “I am so sorry. So much has been going on recently that I nearly forgot you were coming. How are you?”

  “Pretty good. I’ve been looking forward to today.”

  “Fantastic! I’m glad to hear it,” he said, pulling a stack of papers from one of the desk’s drawers. “Now, you’ll have to fill out some paper work, but before that – do you have the dues?”

  “Of course,” she said, dumping the pouches onto the desk. As soon as they hit the desk, he handed them off to the secretary who piled them onto a small scale with a weight on the other side.

  With her cloak returned to its normal weight, she breathed a sigh of relief. Now all she needed to do was pass the written membership test – which she was confident that she was ready to pass after everything she had studied.

  As soon as the scale evened out, the secretary gave a nod of approval. “Alright, that is the full membership due paid in full. Now we can handle the testing fee and paperwork processing fee. That will be another 500 Fuvre.”

  Her blood ran cold. “I’m sorry, the what?”

  “The rest of the fees you need to pay,” he said, his polite smile never faltering. “Once we have those, we can proceed.”

  “I don’t have any more money,” she said blankly, unsure which of the dozen emotions running through her should be taking charge. “You just said I needed the thousand for dues.”

  “Oh goodness. I’m very sorry if you forgot, but I made it very clear that you would need to make the full payment with all accessory fees upfront. Unfortunately, without them we can’t process your application.”

  Topal remembered their conversation like it was yesterday and he made no mention of extra fees. Suddenly, his polite smile twisted into a smirk.

  He never planned on following through at all…

  “I’m very sorry about the misunderstanding,” she said, trying to put on a polite fa?ade to match. One of the lessons burned into her by the merchants was to never let a rival know what you were thinking. Giving out your emotions like that was a surefire way to be taken advantage of. “It looks like I won’t be able to complete my application today after all. I know your schedule is very busy, but could we make another appointment a few months from now so that I can gather the rest of the funds?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head in disapproval. “I was already taking a big risk on someone from your background. Do you really think you’ll be able to have your affairs together in such a short time?”

  “I absolutely can,” she said, leaning forward over the desk. “I know how rare this opportunity is and I will not waste it.”

  500 Fuvre in a few months is nearly impossible, but I’ll manage. I just have to work even harder.

  “You do have a true merchant’s spirit. I knew I saw something in you,” he said, nodding approvingly. “Come back three months from today with the total sum of 1500 Fuvre, and we can get your application underway.”

  “Thank you so much! You won’t regret it. Now, if you just give me back my money I’ll get out of your hair.”

  “Oh?” he said, but the look on his face made it clear that there was no confusion. “I’m sorry, there must have been another mistake. All payments relating to dues and fees must be submitted at the same time unless a payment plan is agreed upon in a prior contract. Any partial payments are considered null and void. Standard guild policy.”

  As if to punctuate his statement, the secretary dumped the coins from the scales into a single large bag, which he then dropped into one of the desk drawers.

  “W-wait…” she stammered, unable to hide her emotions any longer as she watched her life’s savings vanish. “That’s not fair. You tricked me!”

  Kevra feigned a pained expression. “I did no such thing. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Rules are rules If you have any problems with it, take it up with the bylaws.”

  “Fuck you,” she shouted, lunging across the desk and grabbing him by the collar, no longer concerned with dirtying his fine garments. “Give me back my money or I’ll cut your lying tongue out and stick it up your friend’s ass. I won’t be-”

  The sounds of the doors being thrown open stopped her in her tracks as she heard the heavy footfalls of Honors charging at her. She immediately dropped Kevra and turned to face them. Ironically, all of her weapons were stowed outside of the city to avoid trouble with the law.

  I’ll just have to take one of theirs.

  While she avoided fighting Honors, that didn’t it had never happened. In her experience, the majority of them relied far too much on the expectations of formal combat. They weren’t used to actually getting their hands dirty, so she could see the fight going in her favor if. She dropped her stance and braced to dash forward as soon as she found an opportunity to strike but was shocked to see them stop just out of her range.

  Instead of looking at her, their eyes were set on Kevra, who was brushing himself off with a single hand held up to stay their fury.

  “Come now, there is no need for violence,” he said, turning to face her directly. “Topal, I really did mean it when I said I saw a true merchant’s spirit in you. I believe you would be one of the few of your kind capable of making something of yourself given the chance. There has clearly been a lapse in communication that has left you at a disadvantage, but I still want to give you that chance.”

  He pulled a sealed envelope from his coat pocket and slid it to her then signaled for her to come closer. She leaned over the desk, still careful to keep an eye on the Honors.

  “This is a very special job offer,” he whispered, barely loud enough for her to hear, let alone anyone else. “According to the merchants who recommended you, you are one of the few people in the city with the skills necessary to complete it. If you make good on it, you will be able to cover all of the fees needed to earn your license, buy stake in a caravan immediately, and still have a small fortune left over for the trouble. Doesn’t that sound enticing?”

  She snarled but couldn’t deny her curiosity as her eyes flicked to the envelope. Her hand reached down toward it, but he pulled it back.

  “Ah ah,” he tutted. “This job requires the utmost delicacy. Do not open it until you hear the bells toll tonight and are away from prying eyes. I recommend acting as soon as possible after opening it, as you won’t be the only person with this offer. Do you understand?”

  At that point, she was too intrigued to do anything else. “Fine.”

  “Good,” he whispered, handing her the envelope and pulling himself back. Then he turned his attention to the Honors. “I’m sorry about the commotion here, but this young woman is here under my protection. Will one of you fine sirs escort her out of the Merchants’ Quarter? And by ‘escort,’ I do mean escort. No funny business.”

  The pair of Honors exchanged confused glances. “But sir, we have orders from the Residence to-”

  “Yes, yes, I know your orders,” he said, rolling his eyes. “100 Fuvre to whoever sees her safely back home. First come, first serve.”

  Their confusion immediately turned to greed as they both jumped to accept, but one was ever so slightly faster. The other cursed under his breath as he returned to the door.

  “Excellent. I do look forward to meeting again Topal,” he said as he waved her off.

  The bitter resentment burning under her skin was still fresh, but the odd turn of events sobered her enough to keep a straight face. As the Honor ushered her back out into the street, the smell of the feast outside once again slapped her in the face.

  “In the seven centuries since our founding, Hangkiti has stood tall as a bastion of grace.” A grating voice cut through the aroma. Center stage above the crowd, a young man wearing fine Advocate robes was giving some kind of speech about his goddess. “Under Fam’e’s guidance, we smothered Phakfi’s tyranny with love and lifted our people up to the heights of enlightenment, but that was not the act of a single leader. I am only able to stand here today because of the devotion that everyone here has shown for our goddess and her siblings. From the bottom of my heart, I wish to thank you all and promise that I will continue that legacy, raising us to even greater heights!”

  Staring daggers at the man on stage, she resigned herself to following the Honors.

  *** *** ***

  “That’s what you get for trusting them,” Ingfe chastised Topal, her head planted firmly on the bar. He was the owner and bartender of the Roots. At first glance he looked ancient, but in reality, was only very old. Despite his apparent frailty, not a single Scar dared to cause trouble in the Roots. “I warned you.”

  “I don’t wanna hear it,” she said, pulling at her hair in frustration. The only thing that could make that day worse was hearing the same tired lecture from him for the hundredth time.

  “Well you’re gonna anyway. I’ll keep sayin’ it until you get it through that thick skull of yours,” he said, tapping the back of her head for emphasis. “Don’t. Fuck. With. The. Guild. You’d have been better off using that money to start up something off the books. That way, the money stays in the community instead of lining a merchant’s pockets. Plus, if you get fleeced, it’ll be by someone you can get back at instead of someone hidden behind a wall of Honors.”

  She seethed at his touch. If anybody else had been treating her that way, she wouldn’t think twice about making them regret it.

  Her goal hadn’t been money. At least, not in the long run. It didn’t matter how much wealth someone from the outer city built up, that still wouldn’t change how they were treated. If anything, it’d just put a target on their back. She wanted to go through official channels to earn the same connections she was worried about being used against her.

  Honors fucking with a Scar? Nobody bats an eye. Honors fucking with a licensed merchant? There’d be hell to pay. From there, she could climb her way up and earn enough power to actually change things. Of course, she had already explained that to Ingfe, but it always ended with him telling her that she was living with her head in the clouds. It was a good plan, but that didn’t mean it’d make for anything beyond an ideal.

  If that day was any indicator, he had a point.

  “Lay off her,” a much younger voice said from beside Topal. Kut – one of the countless children that Ingfe watched over – said as she dumped a pile of bundled herbs onto the bar. “You ain’t gonna do anything but make her feel worse.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” he said. “That pain in her chest will stop her from making the same mistake again. I want to make sure it sticks around for as long as possible. You’d do well to learn from it too.”

  “Sure thing, old man. I’ll-” whatever witty response she tried to deliver was undercut by a ragged coughing fit.

  Kut’s parents had been living in the basement of a building in Lavote’s slums when she was born and she spent her entire infancy there. By the time she was two, she had already started developing rotpot and it had only gotten worse since then. By five, the cough had reached the point that most people in the outer city considered fatal. Her parents abandoned her, disappearing into the city.

  Even thinking about that made Topal’s blood boil, but she was in the minority on that front. Ingfe took her in and offered her somewhere to live and work for as long as she had left but held no ill will toward her parents. Even Kut didn’t seem to care, casually cursing her parents if they were brought up but otherwise paying them no thought. Children had a coin flip’s chance of making it to adulthood anyway, so it didn’t make sense to waste time on someone who’s already dead.

  Supposedly, Fam’e’s Advocates had a cure for rotpot, but charged over 50 fuvre just for one round of treatment and it could take a few to completely cure it in later stages. It was a huge amount of money for someone like her parents, but not impossible to scrape together. Topal proved that.

  If I had just put that money toward her treatment, I could have cured her rotpot. I could’ve cured two or three people. Sure, a license could’ve gone further, but now I don’t have either…

  Suddenly, his words swirled in her head again as her missed opportunities sank in. Kut’s coughing fit was just starting to wind down as Topal slammed her palm on the counter and stood up.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Ingfe called out as she stormed out of the building, but she had no intention of giving him the satisfaction of an answer.