Mystic Ink - Ch. 40 Assault on the Brothel

“Are you certain about this?”  The priest asked in confusion, Cass supposed that this was a rather odd request, but it was a legal one.

“Indeed I am,” Cass replied smoothly.  “I see no reason why a brave and determined, hardworking girl should be sent to the Sand because of the foolishness of her uncle.”

“Her blood is tainted…”  The priest hesitated as he looked over the adoption paperwork.  “And you are both so young…”

“There is no legal reason to reject this.”  Cass deliberately ignored those two statements, since the first was simply stupid and the second was true enough.  Cass had Odal drag the family in, and the lot of them were to be stripped of their caste and sent to the Sand.  Cass did not really care about Tina and Gorv though.  The first should have just answered her damn questions and Gorv had actually let himself get drunk enough to rob a priest.  They reap the idiocy they have sown.

But Cass liked Natalie.  The girl showed more strength of will than the rest of her family put together, and it would be unfair for her to be dragged down with them.  Life was not fair though, but fortunately that worked both ways sometimes.  Natalie would be unfairly stripped of her caste, if it wasn’t for Cass exerting the status of her own caste to adopt Natalie.  Legally, at least according to the Warriors she asked regarding her problem, Natalie would not be considered part of her previous family and so wouldn’t be stripped of her caste.

“That is true,” the priest sighed and signed the papers reluctantly.  “Though this is a bit strange since you lack a surname, so this Natalie will retain the surname of Netsa…”

“That is perfectly fine,” Cass smiled and thanked the priest for his help, despite his hesitance.  She had what she wanted.

“Odal,” Cass made a gesture and the man fell in behind her as she walked out of the temple.  “Is everything ready on your end?”

“It is…”  Odal seemed quite anxious about the whole affair, but as long as he had done as Cass had asked…  “To anyone watching it should seem like you are simply adopting the girl.”

“Which I am,” Kind of.  Officially, according to the kingdom of Beermutar, they would be mother and daughter.  Realistically, Cass had no intention to raise Natalie, she would probably go through maid training like Birdie when she got back to Tyine.  Natalie would admittedly be in an odd position as a freewoman servant to a slave, but Cass was fairly sure her Master would approve.  Natalie had quality that was wasted in her current position.

All of that thought aside, the appearance that adopting her was all Cass was doing was important.  The correspondence between the Priest district and the Warrior district during this had another purpose.  Cass told Odal to gather Warriors he could trust, which she was going to borrow when she attacked the brothel that Tina had worked as a ‘guide’ for.

Odal glanced around and whispered under his breath, “are you certain you want to take part Cass?”

It grated a bit to have Odal refer to her with such familiarity, but it was a necessary annoyance.

“I need to do this Odal,” Cass replied, and Odal nodded seeming to think she was doing it to save the children.  In truth, that was a secondary consideration.  She wanted to know who owned the place, she wanted the guest list, and she wanted to know the Matron’s connection.  Not that Cass was not happy to be helping them, but she knew this kind of thing could never really be destroyed.  Another would pop up to take its place soon enough…

“Those bastards will get what they deserve,” Odal growled, incensed and seeming to barely contain his fury as he thought about it.  “I will personally see to it.”

Cass thought that if they deserved anything it would be to feel the pain they inflicted on others.  Cass had felt pain, she was fairly certain Hall had known pain, but the ‘clients’ in a place like this likely never had.  However, she was also certain Odal did not think that far.  Likely he just meant killing them.

“Make sure Natalie remains under guard though,” Cass reminded him.  “A place like what was described does not exist without help from above, I don’t doubt there are a fair few Warriors who know about the place and don’t do anything.”

The Warriors who met with them were all grim faced and armed to the teeth.  Cass herself only brought a single dagger with her, she had other ways to fight after all.

“Greetings Warriors,” Cass said simply.  “You all know why we are here, so lets get it done.”

Cass did not realize, but her ‘to-business’ attitude was well received among the Warriors.  To them, this was not a mission to be cheery about.  Odal had picked men who were trustworthy, and for the most part in this particular case that meant men who had a particular hatred for the kind of thing they were going to bust.

They arrived there late in the evening, the sun was setting and they had the building surrounded.  Like all buildings in the Sand district, it had a rundown look to it, but it was quite large for the district, and the windows cleverly hidden behind shutters appeared to be made from actual glass.  It glowed with light from within, but no sound was heard, attesting to the soundproofing that must have occured.

In other words, any Warrior doing his job that passed by here on patrol should have noticed that it was a little odd.  Likely no Warriors who weren’t bought out by the people running this place ever really approached.  Well, they were in for a surprise tonight.

Cass gave the signal and the Warriors move in as one, Cass herself though had her own target.  Leaving Odal gaping behind her, she leapt up to the second floor window and smashed through it into a hallway.  The cuts from the glass rapidly healed as she stood up and could hear the fighting on the first level.  The soundproofing was a benefit to the Warriors and Cass, this hallway was lined with doors, but none of them opened.  The inhabitants had likely not heard anything…

A heavily muscled man who had been sitting in a room clearly for attendants and employees did.  

“What the fuck is going on?”  He sprinted out with a short cudgel, probably more used to dealing with drunken customers than an actual assault.  Cass did not bother to explain and simply smashed the man’s throat in and moved on.  She had not seen any windows on the third floor, and her guess would be the ‘manager’s’ office would be at the highest level, so she had jumped to the second and looked for the stairs.

The man gasping and choking as he scrambled on the ground slowly stopped moving as Cass found what she was looking for.  She would have to hurry, the Warriors were likely cleaning up the downstairs resistance.  She flew up the stairs and came to another hallway, the door at the end generously labeled to make her life easier.  Though she did hope that the manager was still here, his door shouldn’t be soundproofed so he should know something was up.

Except that when Cass kicked down the door she found that it was thicker than she expected and stuffed with cloth.  It had been soundproofed, and it was not that she had made a mistake and entered one of the client rooms.  Including Cass, there were three people here, one of which was a seven year old boy bent over the rooms desk.

The man grunting and sweating behind the boy was one Cass recognized…

“Well, well.”  Cass smiled cruelly, “I have to admit, I certainly did not expect this.”

Odev pulled out of the kid and tossed him to the side without a second thought, “You stole the words right out of my mouth Strioi whore, I am guessing that I should not have had that door soundproofed so well.”

“You seem quite calm about this,” Cass raised an eyebrow and snickered.  “Though I admit I can see why you would be in this kind of place, with that size the only ones you could impress would be children.”

“You are lucky you are not my type bitch,” Odev snarled.  “Or I would teach that voice of yours to scream.”

“What is with second rate thugs saying that to me?”  Cass mused, “You don’t have the power to stop me Odev, much less get a single peep out of me.”

“Power?” Odev was laughing now, “listen Strioi whore, you might have fought against people who did not know your strength and useless little shits out on the streets who had no skill, but against a fully trained Warrior?  You have nothing.”

Odev jumped at Cass and Cass stepped in with a punch to meet him, but his body twisted in midair to dodge the blow.  As he passed by his fist connected with the side of Cass’s head causing her to stagger.  Without pause, Odev swept her off her feet and tried to stomp on Cass’s throat.  

Cass grabbed the door that she had kicked off its hinges and swung it at him with her superhuman strength forcing him to jump back, rather than keep it she tossed it after him as she got up.  Odev dodged, but the door took out a part of the wall and the night air rushed into the room.

“You might be as strong as a monster,” Odev chuckled.  “But you lack skill, this is a fight you cannot win.”

“My allies will be here soon enough,” Cass wanted to defeat Odev before that, but it was becoming clear that she had become overconfident and arrogant.  This man might actually be able to kill her…

“Well you see,” Odev smile went wide.  “A couple of my old buddies are playing around downstairs.  Those Warriors of yours might be decent fighters, but the three of us are the best of the best.  Inside a building, where we cannot be surrounded, in these narrow hallways where we can fight one or two at once instead of all…  Well, you have bit off more than you can chew bitch.”

That…  Might be a problem if he was not lying, but Cass was not a Warrior, or even a Strioi.  She was a Hajian slave and mage, and she was not as unarmed as she seemed.  She would shatter their common sense and their goddamn skulls with it.

“I will admit,” Cass said honestly.  “You are the better fighter, and if I keep fighting you like this…  Well, we both can see where that would go.  But the problem for you is that I am not a Warrior.”

“As if I would let you cast!” Odev roared and came at her again.  Cass kicked out and missed as he skillfully dodged and prepared to strike out at her.  But he was flung away by a sound like a thousand whips being snapped as his skin was flayed with cuts nearly a quarter of an inch deep.

“Hmmm,” Cass had meant to pulverize the man completely, clearly she needed to practice more and refine the magic tool. 

Odev got unsteadily to his feet and swore at Cass, “If you think that along will stop me, you have another thing coming.”

The angry Odev got, the faster he became, but unlike a thug on the street, he did not lose the precision of his movements.  Further, despite Cass’s attempt to use her anklet again, Odev had figured out how it was used from that single attack…  Still, it kept him back from her…

For the most part that was, Cass lost her footing for a moment, tripping over a part of the broken door and the next thing she knew she had been smashed through the desk and was coughing blood in the wreckage.

“Die whore!”  Odev thundered and Cass realized that she could not avoid this blow, but then Odev stumbled as well.  The boy he had so casually tossed away had grabbed his ankle, and that was the opening Cass needed, her next blow crushed his ribs and sent him tumbling to the ground.

“Fucking…  Bitch…”  Odev gasped, glaring at her.

Cass simply ignored him and stomped on his groin with the power of her anklet and was had to admit she was impressed he could scream that loudly considering she had more or less smashed his chest in.  He was not dead, but he would be soon enough.  With wide swathes of his body flayed and broken, he was turning pale as he lost blood and was unable to move, so Cass just left Odev to slowly bleed out on the floor.

The boy was afraid of her, but as a person from the streets, she knew one of the best way to calm a person in his situation.

“I did not come here for you,” Cass waved towards the door.  “Take anything of this bastards you want, and do whatever you want.  You can talk to the Warriors downstairs or you can ignore them, we won't take you anywhere if you don’t want to go.”

Most people would stop to comfort a person who had literally been being raped just minutes ago, but this kid was likely an orphan from the Sand.  Warriors did not ‘rescue’ kids like him, had Cass been in his situation she would have had no reason to believe her rescuers were any better.  But a rescuer who does not care what you do, you can relax because they aren’t here for you.  Stay of their way and they will ignore you was the message he had been given.

But Cass had tried to get across, in a way that a kid on the street might understand, that it would be ok to talk to them.  Still, it was up to him, she wasn’t about to adopt him as well after all.

What she would do, however, is search the room and pocket the guest list as well as some interesting correspondence from people who requested ‘home visits.’  Cass smiled, who would have guessed so many highly placed people would frequent this kind of place?  With this list she had essentially put a muzzle on a solid fraction of the Warriors and Priests, as well as a few Merchants and some Strioi.

There was the sound of running in the hallway and Cass quickly hid the document in her clothes and turned to see who would enter the room.  If it was another fighter like Odev she would likely have to jump out the hole she had made in the building…  However, that was not neccesary.  

“Ah, Odal,” Cass nodded to the man.  “I presume everything went well downstairs?”

Odal was staring at the finally dead Odev who was lying in a pool of his own blood on the floor.  “You killed a Warden…”

“Warden?”  Cass raised an eyebrow, “I am not familiar with the title, he was a Warrior sent to the Sand though.”

“Wardens are senior Warriors,” Odal was apparently stunned by this.  “They are expert Warriors, almost like Spirits of War on the battlefield…  And this, this is Odev!”

“Was Odev,” Cass corrected walking over and kicking the corpse.  “I will say that he was quite strong, if it weren’t for a little bit of unexpected help I would be dead right now.”

“He was a living legend…”

“Well, now he is a dead one.”  Cass did not see what was so important about the man dying…  His throat could have been slit in his sleep ever since he entered the Sand, his body left in an alley somewhere and no one would have known.  “Unfortunately, I was unable to find a guest list.  We should tear this place apart and search it top to bottom and see if we can locate it.”

“Of course, my Lady.”  Odal bowed slightly, still quite shaken by the dead, naked, warden in front of him.  “I will relay your orders immediately.”

“Oh, and Odal,” Cass stopped him before he left.  “I think I will need you to train me in combat for a while, my power makes me overconfident…  But it seems that against a truly skilled opponent…  I am lacking…”