Entropica Infinitum

[Szuzak Mos]

The earliest memory he could summon was that of his second birth. For so long they dreamed to smell and taste rain. Not what they knew to be rain but the real thing. Rumors and hearsay was the best they could get. A rat's life was sought by none. Beneath the crumbling musing of ancients they drank the least contaminated remains they could find. They ate most of what deposited from the waste terminals and as far as the sky went- whatever shards of perverse light that made it to them always harbored a yellow-green hue.

"A newborn." She remarked. "He's so frail." The sound of their steps came to a halt.

I can taste it. I can feel it.

"Poor bastard. Couldn't even finish the meal..." The second voice resembled that of a man's.

The sound of a blade being drawn was sharp. It stung his ears and he wanted to move. Agony like he had never experienced before. Not even the time he ate that poisonous "goblin rat". Every cell felt like it was burning. He wanted to cry but no tears came. He wanted to scream but he hadn't the strength. His fingers clawed on the cobblestone if only to relish what it felt like.

"He's smiling." She soon squat beside him at the behest of her companion.

He felt the tracing of her fingers through his hair and when his lids opened he was blinded by the sky. It was raining always. But the unfiltered light burned. He couldn't help it. He looked up at her silhouette and how much it hurt was a blessing compared to all else.

"Whatever got him really got it good." The man's voice echoed in and out as a wet thud could be heard.

"He couldn't have possibly... he's starving." She rest her hand on the back of his head and the sound of another blade scraped his ears.

He shifted so slightly mustering what strength he could. His lips parted but nothing came out. Then what he tasted next would cast a shadow over him for the rest of his being. That thick pungent metallic taste. At first a drop on his tongue. Then more. He gasped and writhed, the ribs showing through his pale iridescent skin were nearly moving as he scrambled.

"Easy there. Easy." She held him by the shoulders and her face came into view.

"Mercy looks like a lot of things. This isn't it." He tightened his grip on that leather hilt. Each finger had its own signature.

Wrestling and plying as he might he was unable to even lift his legs let alone wiggle his toes. Heaving breaths barely managed to lift his chest and the croaking that came from his throat resembled that of a dying reptilian.

"These wounds look like Rakdos." She traced her nails over the gashes in his side.

What should have been countless nerves screaming in his mind was only the sound of the rain. The scent. The blinding grey above; a million times brighter than those faded yellow and green impostors that he'd wished upon for years unknown to him now.

"Just end his misery already." The sheathing of the blade had him resting easier if only noticed by the way his fingers unfurled.

"Don't be so hasty. If he survives he could be a wonderful asset." The sound of leather straining filled his ears as soon he was weightless and the bright sky vanished beneath the stone masonry. "If you survive we'll have to give you a new name. How about Szuzak?"

A grunt could be heard from behind them. "He'd be better off dead with a girly name like that."

"Well I quite like it." She retorted. "Should he live."

[Szuzak Mos]

" I once told you about a sailor who described drowning to me.
Yes, he said it was like going home.
I was lying. He said it was agony. "

(( Warning: the following contains themes of suicide and is not suitable for all audiences. Please read with care. ))


Fire seared pale flesh. Warping boils lived a thousand lives on the surface of skin; forming and popping and oozing and peeling endlessly from head to toe. For the first time those lids opened to the blinding eternity. Just past noon that blazing inferno scorched the beaten stone floor. Against the thick door his nails broke and his blood dripped. Somewhere between nails and wood and the coarse bloody scream- there was a rebirth.

"You're at a crossroads Szuzak." That voice, the one he'd heard before, she was on the other side of the door. He could see that vague outline behind the bars. Twin pools of jade looking down at him as he raked that thick wood, skin peeling, that burning unending.

"Maybe you disagree right now but you have been given a second chance. To live, to die. Many would think you fortunate and me among them." She smiled, he couldn't see the curl of her lips but he could hear it in her voice so clearly.

"Right now I'm giving you the choice you didn't get the first time. Most people don't get to choose how they die Szuzak. It's right there if you want it." She looked at the hole blasted in the ceiling and that bright beam of light piercing through.

"What you're experiencing now is the final stages of your transformation. No two worlds are alike. What you have been given is known by my names: a curse, a gift, a blessing, slavery, death, undeath and the list goes on... for a long time. Those may be true but to really understand it, well, it's more of a pact. Without your consent this was brought upon you. That which gives all things life is now your death." Her hand gestured through the iron bars at the light.

"That which beckons most to sleep and eventually their death will be your home. Under the stars you live and thrive. That which you once held holy and close is now sacrilege. Do you see, Szuzak? This pact is an inversion of the things you knew. You give up all of that for something far greater. Food will turn to ash in your mouth, drink will never sate... vicariously you may live as others die. An existence predicated on the broken rules of nature. If I had any more answers for you I'd give them but... one step at a time."

A railroad spike hammered through his skull every waking moment. The smell of burnt hair and flesh filled the air. Warm red oozed around those eyes as they fixated on that wake of agony.

"This is a rare opportunity Szuzak. Most of us don't choose how we die and even fewer do we get to choose how we live. You could step into that light and that would be the end. Erased from time, all time, and I'd go about the rest of my day and the city would be none the wiser. Or..." She trailed off and the locking mechanism clicked and turned and soon the thick door opened. She stood with a black cloak and soon it was tossed atop him.

"Or you choose the other option. You embrace this chance you've been given, you seize the opportunity, and you help me save this city. What'll it be?"

[Szuzak Mos]

" Don't part with your illusions.
When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live. - Mark Twain "

Overlooking the winding ivory obelisks, twin eyes caught the fleeting curve of light breaking over the clear skies. Pristine piers of perfection; the night's chilled embrace brushed the pale skin exposed from that jacket and ushered him down the spiral stone steps. The boulevard awaited and so he went over the initial of his routine. An arched bridge suspended by several buttresses on either side towering over the newly minted houses and shoppes of the middle district.

Brine swelled within flaring nostrils as the few fishermen left reeled in their final hauls jovially mistaking the higher tides as boons of fortune. Once across the first monument he turned right and descended for a literal eternity until he drew closer to the canal and began to work his way towards the second instruction. He passed the hushed conversation beneath the bridge and as the pair of ill-intent looked to him he refrained from looking back. Torches and amber lamps began to flicker in the distance and soon began greeting him as he followed the canal to the Second Precinct.

Each night began the same. He walked, he watched and he waited. Only as he turned down the Promenade there was something new. Out of place and sore to the eyes, the young boy was in rags. Filthy from head to toe. Turned and looking away it wasn't until Szuzak stood and that disheveled dirty blonde hair shook to meet him was it apparent. The sound of various ornaments jingling noted his crouch as he took a better inspection of the boy.

"Can... you speak?" He looked into the boy's eye and after some time got the answer eventually. "You're... going to die if you remain this way." The elements, the denizens of the Tenth District or something worse would ensure it. He raised his right hand and snapped his fingers igniting a blue flame. The boy traced and watched the dancing light speechless.

"Imagination.. creates reality." He flicked the blue flame and it took place in that empty socket beside the boy's eye. His cheekbones rose as he did and he began to continue on his daily routine.

[Szuzak Mos]

" People would sooner savor sweet lies than chew plain truths. "

"What... am I supposed to do?" He looked down the alley and back to her.

"Watch." Her arms folded and she smirked.

He looked down the alley once again at the mildew along the stone columns and the rat that scurried between the cracked foundation and disappeared by the hunched man. Turning back to her his creeping doubts manifested in one hand rubbing through that moppy hair.

"Watch... what?" He grimaced.

"Everything. Nothing. This is an important step towards our goal. You will go where I send you and you will say nothing to no one. You will be a shadow: watching, waiting, watching some more and waiting some more. When you come back you will tell me what you saw. Then I'll send you somewhere else and it repeats again."

He looked back down the alley and back to her.

"Down... and to the right?"

"Yes. Do you remember the way back?"

"...Yes.."

"Good, get going then. I will await your report."

After a moment of pause he turned and slowly made his way down the alley before pausing at the intersecting paths. Right he turned and his steps eventually faded in the distance.

"He's too quiet Shethi. Something is off about him." Her companion hadn't moved from the shadowy escape from the pale lights overhead. Out of sight and out of mind.

"He's a newly turned vampire and your concern is that he's too quiet?" She scoffed and shook her head. The two of them began to head down the alley only to turn left.

"We'll see how he does with a few of these and if he can be trusted then he could be the edge we need. Besides even if he doesn't pan out it's not like we've invested much. What are the odds that we just found him there? If I didn't know any better I'd say something or someone was looking out for us and the city." They descended to the underbelly and continued on.

"A sickly thing like that.. I could kill him with one hand. Even if he is a vampire." He grunted as they continued.

"Should it come to that. For now...." As they stepped inside a doorway and it shut behind them the flood of warm candle light went out and only the dripping continued in the recesses of the once proud district.

[Szuzak Mos]

" To lose patience is to lose the battle. - Mahatma Gandhi "

The flickering dance of that ember light whipped back and forth as jade eyes scanned left to right, left to right, left to right. Long hushed were the streets outside with only the occasional bump and smash to break the unnerving serene of night. Empty stands sat beside the lone warrior keeping the room lit with dried wax having failed to make its escape from the alabaster rings, a succinct contrast to the dark stained wood table she called her office. Documents lay spread across, maps overlapping ledgers overlapping letters and now a missive from the didactic one above. As she dipped her quill and readied her response there was a creak in the floor panels. "Not another f&%$ing rat..." As jade circles rose it was Szuzak looking at her. The bang of her knees striking the thick table resolved in a groan and a few more expletives before she leaned back in her chair. Her head shook back and forth before she rest the quill in the jar.

"What are you a descendant of the rats around here?!" She laughed and gestured. "I'm shocked Jedicho didn't hear you come in either. I told him to keep an eye out for you in case something went wrong." Still even now, she could hear him lumbering about in the other other room.

"Was that... a likelihood?" He remained staring at her before she kicked the chair out for him.

"Take a seat. It's always a possibility Szuzak. You have to consider everything in this line of work." She scoot in and covered some of the various documents on the table before folding her hands. "Alright, let's hear it."

"Well...." He rubbed the back of his head and looked up at the ceiling. There a spider crawled along its web before disappearing in the old wood frame. "There were some... deals. I couldn't make out exactly what they were trading but... it wasn't weapons... or drink." He rubbed the back of his head once more.

"Hmmm so more of that fabricated tonic we've been seeing lately. I wish I could say that surprised me. What else?"

He looked back down now at the floorboards, how their stain had faded and how he could see through the cracks. He wondered if he could always do that or if this was one of his "blessings" now. Looking up to her he shut an eye and tried to recount further. "There... were a few rats." She rolled her eyes with a curl of her lips hearing that.

"That would also not shock me. Once upon a time in this city things were different you know. Clean air and water for everyone. Enough food to go around. But things always change. That's why we're... sorry, continue."

The lumbering grew louder before the door burst open, "Shethi, there's still no--" he paused as he lowered his head to fit through the door frame. It wasn't until now that Szuzak fully grasped the mere size of the man. Broad shoulders, towering over any other human he'd seen and even rivaling some minotaurs.

"You were saying?" Shethi grinned at Jedicho's shocked expression.

"How did you get in here?!" He stomped, each step threatening to splinter the aged floor beneath them. Szuzak's eyes widened on his approach before Shethi rose quickly with a hand out.

"Relax! Maybe if you were doing your job you would have seen him arrive!" She said with a laugh before a shooing wave of her hand.

"I have been watching! No one has entered or left since we got here." His eyes squinted at Szuzak as he snarled and turned slamming the door behind him. Various bits of dust and droppings fell from the frame, no doubt to be forgotten as the other... things beneath the floor.

With a sigh Shethi fell back into her chair and ran a hand through her hair. Now in the light, Szuzak could see more clearly that she was starting to get some silver in her red hair. Crow's feet had made themselves welcome about her tear glands and for all intents and purposes- it seemed she could care for herself in most odds in the streets.

"I don't know what his deal is. Clearly you are here." She gestured with her hand at the seated Szuzak. "Some men are stubborn, that's just how it is. They think they know everything and they can't be wrong. Sometimes it's nice to show them otherwise." She winked. "Continue."

He scratched at his temple and looked down to her desk now. He could see the corners of a well-etched grid on coiling paper, what he assumed might be a map of one of the districts. "That's.. about it. Nothing else happened."

She crossed her hands behind her head and she nodded. "Or did it?" His brows rose and he tilted his head.

"No... nothing else.. happened." His confusion caused her to smile and chuckle.

"Nothing happening is in itself, something happening Szuzak. I put you on a.." She tilted her head back and forth, "busy street. People being stabbed there for less than a loaf of bread is the normal. Things are.. different. Changing. No one's dumb enough to go and start trouble on the promenade or where the guilds are operating but in the slums? You telling me these people all had a change of heart? They can now just survive without doing what they've done?" She leaned back and exhaled tapping her fingers on the desktop.

He looked at his hands on his knees. "No...."

She leaned forward and lost the humor in the timbre of her voice. Her shoulders rose just a bit, her breathing grew sharper and her heart pumped faster. He could hear that. He wasn't sure when that happened but he could hear it so vividly. That thick iron-laced crimson pumping. He looked up and saw the look that many had had in history in those eyes: the eyes of a radical.

"These people don't care about us anymore. They are so consumed in their make believe pantheon of guilds and politics and who gets to rest on a golden throne while the rest of us rot. Not for much longer. Us.. all of us, we're going to make our stand." She slammed her balled fist on the desk. "Will you help us?" She looked up at him with that stare. Jewels in the dark.

[Szuzak Mos]

“ What do you say to a man that by his own admission has no soul? Why would you say anything? - Cormac McCarthy ”

The stream beneath the ivory bridge trickled and bubbled as the dying light of the sun stretched across the horizon and skewered pink into the inevitable navy and black. Crisp was the night's chill as it brushed against those cheeks with those eyes squinting. Tap tap tap, the little lithe feet tapped against the railing as the bird caught cadence with his stride.

"The marketplace is astir. Seems the goods of some vendors are going missing one at a time." The bird chriped.

He spoke nothing as he continued his way down the Promenade.

"Fruit, bread, even a small serving of ale to boot. Any thoughts of this?" The bird chirped and looked at him, still keeping stride.

"I'm not.... the constable." He rubbed the back of his head, pausing now to look to the bird.

A stifled laughter came with a fluttering of feathers as the beak pecked beneath one wing and a tiny pair of bird cheeks rose then fell again. "Keep an eye on it. If you attend to it before the Guilds take notice it will be worth your while." And with that the bird flapped and disappeared into the vestiges of the day.

[Szuzak Mos]

" Ask the right questions in the right way and truth is inevitable. "

Hajan stood on the edge of the dock as the fog rolled over the waters. Every week the shipments arrived at the same time always with the warm globes that heralded their approach. Today would prove to be no different. A fleet that never failed to show but had no visible path no matter where he took his row boat- it had to be the single greatest mystery he had ever known. Or the second. As he checked the time piece in his hand he shook his head.

"It's unlike him to be late..." The sunkissed scruffy man scratched the salted beard he refused to trim as it branched unkempt past the comfort of his ragged scarf and over his cloaks.

"I'm..... not...." A simple correction, that nigh sent Hajan into the foggy water, came with a simple rub to the back of black hair.

"Never... a damn reflection or warning with you....." The middle aged man clutched his beating heart through his cloaks before slowly releasing that fabric with an exhale escaping his burly chest. Scars carved their way through that wrinkled and dirty face as he rest thick meaty fingers at his hips and watched the fleet sail on by. Silently they sent simple quakes through the water. The city would be blissfully unaware of their entrance yet again as their cargo passed his careful eyes.

"Gotta tip my hat to you. This captain you're dealing with is a real pro. Can't trace these ships to safe my life... Not that I'll ever have to, right?"

A pair of cheekbones rose as he stepped with the same phantom grace of the ships along the dock and watched as they made their way to the shore. Figures shrouded as mere ghosts in the fog began their tedious job of muted transports for the crates that they soon wheeled off in copious carts. "He is dependable. And he doesn't ask questions." Lithe pale digits curled around that exposed temple several times before he turned to Hajan. "Why..... did you ask me to meet you here...?"

There was a hesitation that never meant anything good in Hajan's body language. "Well, y'see ..we got a problem." He crossed those thick oak arms across one another before his chest and atop that barrel of a stomach. "Been finding a few of our crates discarded in a few alleys around the quarter. Someone ain't seein' it through to the end like we agreed. Got a few rats." He looked as the last orbs floated on by in the thick fog. "Needless ta say, this won't end well for me if we don't figure out where the leaks are coming from. Got any ideas?"

He watched as the couriers continued loading the crates and one by one those wagons creaked and rolled over the aged cobblestone on their way out to the various thoroughfares that plagued the city. "One......" His cheekbones rose as he watched the wagons rickety exit echo in the fog before all those orange lamps bled out on the horizon.

[Szuzak Mos]

" In secrecy is strength. None can oppose one who cannot be found. "

Purple swathed any orange that crept closer to the horizon with every passing minute. Over the ivory bridge he strode as he had many nights before and he would many nights to come. Brisk licks of the wind off the stream teased and swept that dark hair across juxtaposed pale skin while he stuffed his hands in twin pockets. He turned right after the bridge and continued on his patrol heading for none other than the marketplace tonight. Why? His curiosity got the better of him of course. That conniving bird planted seeds that even he did not want to acknowledge yet they tugged his threads along this pathway as he began to enter the quieting bazaar amongst the twinkling stars that would soon make their presence known overhead.

"What do you mean you're going to raze my stand too?! He is the one who stole! I have been vending here for my entire life without issue!" The shop keep protested even while being restrained by the white and red and leatherbound embermages. The sight of torches in the night soon bled more unwanted orange into the bazaar as his stand was devoured by flames. "Your brother's crimes are your crimes. You stood by and lent support, so you too must face judgment." The neighboring stalls were soon evacuated as in the center of the marketplace the flames grew higher and the sounds of cries and pleas and shrikes were soon overcome by cringing and struggling wood that soon collapsed inward on itself.

He continued on as he paused by a half-eaten piece of bread. Looking down at it and up he began to enter the alley. The longer it went the further he got from the smoldering flames as the elegant marketplace with its tidy stone and beautiful lamps soon devolved into wet stone ways and overhanging belongings strung across lines between the various makeshift housings. Most were abandoned but even now he found traces. A shirt torn, a knocked over bin that remained teetering before he was at the end of the alley. There behind the pile of bags he could see the blue flame circling, tracing, watching back at him as he crouched down and rest his hands on his knees.

"You.... shouldn't be here... you know...." He looked past the boy before he held up an index finger to his lips in a 'shhh' sight. As he turned one hand flexed as his jacket strained beneath the pressure as a blade shoved its way through his hand severing several fingers to the alley. Thick red seeped from them as their bones were visible as white little 'o's to the boy's lone eye.

"Y-you really managed to catch that?!?!?! Incredible! Y-you're incredible!" The foul odor reeking off the bony man was enough to cause the boy's vision to blur as the man before him blotted in that dark jacket and the rancid contortion of bones jut and jaggedly snaked between the alley with his laughs. Rotten yellow teeth formed that grin as the flicker of blades being flung once more pierced through the man in front of him.

"B-but you couldn't dodge those could you?!" Longer swords poked through that now slumping body as he fell to his knees and coughed, splurting more of that thick ooze from his mouth into the alley's forgotten stonework. Before the boy's eye it secreted between weather-spurned bricks. Crimson sludge that took its sweet time as it seeped into that jacket and around those blades, trickling and pooling from their ends as he shook and stood back up.

"Oh! Oh you can still stand?!" Now the boy could see better; the man was gaunt and wound from head to toe in filthy gauze. Bandages that did little to ward off the stains on his skin and the dried brown all over hung tattered and trailing like limbs off a ghost. His movements were of no sense to the boy as he leapt from one wall to the other before spinning and piercing the darker haired man's feet with two more blades pinning him.

"He-he's mine! I've been following him for some time now and he's going to be my delicious treat!" That tongue slicked over another blade in hand before the first one showed itself. A white ophidian swam right through the cloaked man leaving a hole through his abdomen. Another swam its way through his left arm, chewing it in a spiral as it suspended unattached by any visible appendages any further.

"What....... is this?" He turned and saw his arm floating. No blood exited that wound or the new one in his chest while the blades remained. The gaunt white haired man with that scraggly gauze and that rotten laugh drew closer with his bloodshot eye before pushing the man over to his back.

"These are my babies!" He leapt atop the man and began stabbing him in the chest. Over and over; the sound of bones crunching soon meshed into the gory splatter and the unending tenderizing of what had once been muscle. "You're incredible!!! You're not human!!" His cackling echoed in the night as he looked up at the blue fire that couldn't look away. "Oh don't worry! You're up next! He won't die as long as my babies remain!" Remain they had; carving up the body and clothes with no hesitation- they continued their weaving and eating as he finally grew tired of stabbing the man. "I got tired of people dying so quickly so I made my babies! They eat and eat and eat and eat and eat until I've had enough fun!!! But when the wind blows or you open the doors or windows they go bye-bye!" He rose up slowly and began kicking the scattered bags away before revealing the blonde haired boy.

"Now it's time for my delicious prize! He lunged with a knife in hand as the boy cowered, hands lifted over his face and his lone eye squinting shut. He waited knowing surely this would be the end. He still waited. And then nothing came. He slowly opened his eye as the gaunt cretin shook and rattled in place. Those bloodshot eyes wide as he was frozen mere inches from the boy.

"I told you........ you shouldn't be here." The voice came out from behind him as he turned and saw the dark haired man behind him in the alley. But as he stood, he was also being slowly picked apart by those white serpents in the air, pinned to the alley ground. "Wh-what is this some kind of?!" He coughed as the boy saw him shake, but remain unmoving. The scraggly white hair whipped around as he looked frantically from side to side before looking down at a small blade extruding from his sternum. "Wh-what is this?! When?!"

He stood close enough to be his shadow as he stepped closer from the entrance of the alley, the same blade in hand as he slowly drove it into that aged and rotten gauze. "Gaah! You-you really are incredible!!" He screamed out as he was stabbed by the same blade and another arm from the left. The right. Above. Below. The bags morphed into more blades that began stabbing him over and over. "Ahahahaah! I can't-can't believe this!" He looked up at the sky as the endless blades pierced him over and over again.

The boy watched as he stood mere inches from him and was tremoring all over. That gauze, that rancid smell, he was unmoving and his bloodshot eyes seemed to looked through the boy. The serpents curled in the air and coiled and swam free. Behind the forgotten killer the dark haired man waved to the boy beckoning him over. Slowly, he came out and briefly ran around the paralyzed man to him.

"Do you..... have a name?" He watched the scruffy blonde haired boy look between him and the rag wearing assailant. "Oh I see.... they are interesting.... aren't they?" He looked to the serpents before holding out his right hand. One came and began to orbit before another and another. "I.... do believe.... they need a home. Like you." He looked to the boy and his cheekbones rose. "I have a name. Would you.... like to hear it?" He reached for the boy's hand. The two left the alley.

[Szuzak Mos]

" The most insidious thing in the world is nonsense that sounds just plausible enough to listen to. "

Slowly he stepped through the alley sliding and slinking amongst the darkness as the dirty water dripped down. Rivets of rust and grime filtered what had been sterile water into an intestine's nightmare. That murky water rippled and pooled as he stepped through it and turned left, yes left, that was right, returning the opposite way he had been instructed to. For a moment he paused staring at the pair of legs that stuck out beneath the bags of waste and the cardboard that lay atop him. His groans were the only indication he was still alive aside from the occasional rustling that followed.

"If only..... I could end it all." He mourned while passing by and eventually came up to the small lit housing tucked away in the unsightly underbelly. The broad shouldered Jedicho had been waiting, arms crossed as he saw Szuzak approach with a snarl.

"I don't know how you got past me last time but it won't happen again." He exhaled with a snort sending those nostrils waving. "I'm watching you. You so much as lick those fangs of yours and I'll smash you into a thousand pieces. Even the most talented necromancers won't be able to make due with what'll remain."

"........" Szuzak waited, one hand twitching at his side as the other reached over to steady his arm. "I... am here to report to Shethi." He looked up with half-hearted resolve.

Jedicho only grunted before pushing the door open roughly enough to endanger some of those screws flying in various directions and splintering some of the wood. "Don't be mistaken. I don't share her optimism about you. Maybe one day you'll go and step outside and it will be a little less cloudy. Maybe the mages will devise a nice weather spell to give us the bright sun down here. Then you'll vanish right into thin air. Poof." He unclenched his hands as Szuzak walked inside and soon knocked on the door.

"Come in." Her voice was a wonderful reprieve from that of the larger Rakdos native. As he stepped in he approached and awaited her gesture to take a seat across from her. "And what do you have for me today?"

Szuzak paused and looked over his shoulder, watching as the shadow at the door steadied and turned back, finding the right volume. "It's as you said. Within the upper districts the power is concentrated around the guilds. They squabble amongst themselves in their ivory towers while the rest of us down here are fed the literal.... toxic waste." He pinched his nose, that smell even now was too much.

"They have the means to change it Szuzak." She leaned back and ran a hand through her hair. "The means have always been there. But without someone to step on the highest echelons wouldn't be the elite. They have entire squads in the Orzhov dedicated to ensuring that food is destroyed instead of being shared. There are entire furnaces dedicated to destroying clothes as well as valuable resources. Do you see? Their greed is slowly strangling the poor. To feed and clothe those that need it would be the same as putting a hole in those fat pockets. And they wouldn't dare. I'm sure you saw what happens when a shop owner refuses to pay their protection fee." She slammed her fist on the desk. "No more. This can't continue. We are more than just stepping stones." Her brows furrowed and her jaw clenched so tight he thought she might shatter her own teeth.

"So.... what do we do?" He asked, scratching his temple as he watched the candle light flicker and dance.

"We end them." She pointed at the map of Ravnica. "We make sure that we break it and they can never fix it. No more guilds. No more factions. Just one people. One city. No below and no above." She wrapped her knuckles on the map and shook her head.

"And..... what if it's worse than now? What... would we do then?" He asked looking at the dancing flame.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, we need to get rid of these greedy bastards before we figure out what comes next. A new and better city will be built on the ashes of this one. You will help us Szuzak. You can be a part of the necessary change. Next, we need to go visit someone. He'll help us in the next step."