Published at 22nd of October 2023 9:41 am

Book 2: Chapter 4

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“I need a watch, or something like it,” Garrett muttered, stretching his arms and shoulders as he looked around.

The morning sun was streaming strongly into the office, but Garrett didn’t know exactly how much time had passed. He had been completely absorbed by his planning and it was only when Obe knocked on the door that he had snapped out of his hyper focus.

“Want me to come back later?” Obe asked, not offended that Garrett had forgotten about him.

“No, no, now is best. Let me just get my desk organized and we can begin.”

“Sure.”

Obe took a seat in one of the chairs that Garrett had requested be moved into the office while Garrett got the papers spread out over his desk into reasonable piles. Taking out a new sheet of paper, he placed it in front of him and gestured to Obe that he was ready. They had been doing a daily meeting like this ever since Garrett had taken over the gang, and while Obe had not understood what the point was initially, he had grown to really appreciate the chance to talk to Garrett.

“No major changes since yesterday as far as the Family is concerned, though there are some troubling developments in the Heifer Street fight.”

“What happened?”

“Well, the son of the Delver gang leader got baited into a fight with a couple of the Howler boys and ended up hurting one of them pretty bad. Why he drew a knife I don’t know, but he’s gone into hiding, and both gangs are trying to find him. Thomas Howler has said that if they can’t find him they’ll take the fight to the Delvers, but the Delvers are standing their ground.”

Closing his eyes for a moment, Garrett nodded and then made a note on his paper.

“I see. And this boy who is hiding? What’s his name?”

“Frankie. His dad is Gavon, one of the two leaders of the Delver gang.”

“Remind me. This dispute is over the ownership of the street?”

“More the meat processing plant that is on the street,” Obe said, leaning back and crossing his legs. “The Delvers are a butcher gang. Their name comes from Delver Horn, who was the original owner of the butcher business and most of the members are butchers who worked for him. The Howlers are followers of Thomas Howler, a thug who has styled himself as a businessman. His favorite thing to do is find businesses and buy them for little to no money by strong-arming the owners.”

“Sounds like a delightful guy,” Garrett said. “That kid, Frankie. Is he a big young man? Brown hair and a sad excuse for a beard?”

“Heh, sounds like him. He is the size of an ox, which is why it’s strange that he pulled a knife in a fight. His fists are enough to flatten just about anyone.”

“Are there other gangs taking interest in this?”

Sitting up, Obe nodded, his expression serious.

“Yes. The Grave Walkers seem to have an eye out, as do the other gangs to the north of us. Heifer Street is located on the northern edge of our territory, and all the gangs north of that seem to be keeping a close watch on the situation. But the Delvers are a mean bunch and know their way around cleavers so there are not many who will make a direct move.”

“Good. That will give us an opportunity,” Garrett said, tapping his chin lightly with his finger as he mulled over the best course of action. “It would be great to have access to a meat processing plant when the city opens back up because there will be intense demand for the meat that comes streaming into the city, so let’s put our feelers out.”

“You want to make a move on them?” Obe asked, his forehead furrowing. “We don’t have the force to do that. Both gangs could chew us up and spit us out before breakfast.”

“Then we better start recruiting awakened,” Garrett replied, smiling. “Put out a notice. We are looking for people to join the Family.”

“Sure, I can do that. I wouldn’t expect too much, though. There really aren’t that many unaffiliated awakened in the city. Most are too busy being adventurers to mess with a small-time gang like ours.”

“Growing, Obe. Growing. We are not small-time.”

Laughing, Obe waved his hand as he leaned back in his chair.

“Whatever you say, boss. Other than that conflict, there aren’t many new things to report. We’ve moved two loads of goods through the tunnels without any issue and are planning on a third load tomorrow night. The only thing is that we’ve been noticing more of those piles of dirt.”

“You can ignore them,” Garrett said, not looking up from the note he was writing. “Some of our friends are digging another tunnel for us.”

Shivering slightly at the word friends, Obe’s attention was caught by what Garrett was implying.

“We’re expanding our network?”

“Yes. We’ll be going under the wall. Speaking of which, we need to procure timber and stone. The closer to the swamp we get, the softer the earth becomes, so it would be great to get the materials we need to shore up the tunnels. Last thing we want is a cave in while we’re moving goods. We’ll also need to make sure we’re not collapsing the wall when we pass under it.”

“We’ll need to dig pretty deep to get under the city wall.”

“Not as deep as you think,” Garrett said, shrugging. “It seems like we can dig through part of the buried wall that has sunk into the ground. We also need to find a good spot for it to come up in the swamp. I’ve picked a few spots, but we need to send someone we trust out to survey.”

Seeing Garrett looking directly at him, Obe grunted and nodded.

“Fine. I’ll add it to my list of the hundred other things that you’ve already assigned me.”

“Thanks. Just think of it as encouragement to hurry up and get more awakened into the gang,” Garrett said, looking over at the door just before it burst open to reveal Ryn.

“Garrett!”

“Ryn, how many times have I told you to knock? There is no need to thrust yourself into a room with such vigor.”

“Ah, sorry, sorry. I just get excited.”

Striding over, Ryn nodded to Obe who was leaning back in his chair, clearly familiar with these sorts of interruptions.

“We need to meet with Carraway. He said that there is word on the date they’ll open up the city, and we’ll need to talk about our stock of soap because they’re going to start shipping again. What will we do if they ship all their soap out of the city again? We won’t have anything to sell! People are really liking our soap.”

“Just relax, Ryn. We’ll meet with him and talk it through. I’m sure that we can come to an agreement. We’ll go over after lunch, but first I have to finish talking with Obe.”

“Ah, right, right. Sorry, Obe. Didn’t mean to interrupt your conversation. I’ll leave you to it.”

Obe just waved as Ryn rushed out of the room in the same whirlwind style that she had exhibited when she entered, and a moment later Garrett and Obe were alone again. Shaking his head, Obe continued where he had left off.

“Not much else going on. Everyone is talking about when the city will open up. Oh, and the gang summit that is coming up.”

“Gang summit? Talk to me about that,” Garrett said, leaning forward with interest.

“Once a year, the gangs get together and establish the rules for the next year,” Obe said. “It’ll happen in about three months down in the crypts. There are ten seats at the summit for the ten strongest gangs in the city, and the rest of us in the smaller gangs just go and listen. They settle big disputes, negotiate for different benefits, and fight over who has control of what. Mostly, it’s just the big gangs deciding things among themselves and telling the rest of us how it’s going to be.”

“These ten gangs. Are they all in this part of the city?”

“Oh no. We have the Grave Walkers, which is the gang arm of the gravedigger’s guild to the north east of us, and the Hunters to the north, who are supported behind the scenes by the adventurer’s guild. To the south, Janice Manor, which is that estate on the island in the bay, runs the Janice gang. They’re mostly sailors and swamp rats. Those are the three seated gangs in our area.”

“And I assume that for another gang to take a seat at this conference, they need to replace one of the other gangs?” Garrett asked, his expression thoughtful.

Nodding, Obe returned an amused look, clearly able to see where Garrett’s questions were going.

“Yes. But don’t think that’s easy. It’s been almost a dozen years since one of the ten lost a seat. Even at the height of the Ghoul’s Tooth gang’s power, we never had a seat. Not only do you need to have the strength to defend yourself, but you’ve also got to be enough of a threat to the other ten that they’ll listen to you.”

“That makes sense. Well, it’s certainly something to aspire to,” Garrett said, putting his quill down. “But for now, let’s focus on what is right in front of us. Take a team to 47 Gerald Street. You should find Frankie hiding in the basement. Do me a favor and bring him to me. Quietly if at all possible.”

“47 Gerald Street? How… never mind.”

Standing up, Obe waved his hand.

“I’ve given up trying to figure it out. I’ll head there right now.”

After Obe had left, Garrett closed his eyes and let his mind touch the light connection that had alerted him to the butcher’s presence in their territory. For the last two months, Garrett had been spending his experience points like water to create a network of dream seeds in the mortals who lived around the Dreamer’s inn, establishing an information network to alert him to anything strange. It took some work to filter through all of the information and feelings that drifted his way, but in cases like this one, it was indispensable. During his conversation with Obe, he had run through the last few days of thoughts, emotions, and memories from the northern side of the gang’s territory and had been rewarded with a brief glimpse of Frankie being brought down to hide in a basement.

After confirming that he was still there with a subtle nudge to the woman who carried the dream flower, Garrett was positive that they would find the young man there, allowing him to dispatch Obe with confidence. Slowly pushing himself around the desk, Garrett thought over what he had learned. There were an incredible number of opportunities in this city, and if anything, he was having trouble narrowing his focus. Garrett wasn’t particularly power hungry, and the idea of ruling over others had little interest to him, but safety was another matter entirely.

This was a wondrous, magical world, but a dangerous world as well, and Garrett knew that it wasn’t just monsters that he had to watch out for. Getting out a new piece of paper, Garrett thought for a moment and then drew a circle, dividing it into three even sections. In the first, he wrote the word personal, and under it soul spark. Moving to the next, he wrote waking world and Kline Family. In the final section he wrote Dreamer’s Rest and awakened dreamers. Once he was done he let the ink dry and he considered it.

The paper in front of him clearly identified the three areas in his life that he needed to focus on if he was to ensure his safety. First, there was his personal safety, which was directly tied into the level of his soul spark. As a shaper, he was strong enough to establish himself in the city, though he strongly suspected that there were more people of his level, or possibly even higher levels, hiding their strength. His path toward growth was reliant on the experience that his class brought him, so there was no need to rush forward in trying to grow to the manifesting stage.

In the waking world, his strength was primarily concentrated in the growing Kline Family, or the Flower gang, as people had taken to calling them, but they were still quite weak. While Garrett had control of both Viper and Pax, and a terrifying army of ghouls lurking under the city, he was fully aware that this power was only helpful while it remained in the shadows. Ghouls were one of the biggest threats to the city, and as soon as they were discovered, the full might of the adventurer’s guild would descend. If that didn’t work, the city guard would land on them like a ton of bricks, not resting until they were destroyed.

If I want to establish myself in the waking world, we need power that walks in the light, in the dark, and in the deepest shadow. I can leverage Carraway and Ryn to create the visible strength, through a powerful merchant group, while at the same time building up the Family’s power base among the gangs. I should try for one of these ten seats that Obe was talking about. At the same time, I can continue to expand the flower ghouls, and maybe see if I can add some more monsters to the mix. I wonder if I can replicate the way the ghouls were created to make other hybrids. It would be great to get something bigger and tougher. Heh, maybe a maragoth.

Amused with his own thought, Garrett turned to the last section, the dream. He was excited to see how he could develop Dreamer’s Rest and the awakened dreamers who he had gathered. For now, his plan was to allow the team of six to try and establish a safe zone around the inn, while making sure that there were no issues with the system that he was establishing. If that went well, he was confident that he could start inviting more awakened into the dream, using them to farm experience as they carried the dream flowers out into the dream. Ultimately, Garrett knew he was on a collision course with the other Great Rulers, and the fact that he had been able to claim the Dreamer’s Inn as his own personal territory clued him into the path he was going to walk.

While he didn’t particularly care about ruling, he also wasn’t going to roll over and submit to anyone else, especially a mysterious dream monster, and the only other option was growing until he could beat them at their own game. Staring down at the piece of paper, a slow smile spread across Garrett’s face. There was much to do, almost too much, but that just meant that it was a challenge worthy of giving his all. His frantic fight to survive was done, and now it was his turn to make the moves.

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