Chapter 781: The Hole

Upon returning to the compound, Jadis was filled with a strong sense of frustration. As much as she wanted to take immediate action against those who had wronged her and the people she cared about, she didn’t actually know who those people were. She wasn’t the right person to go about the task of uncovering the masterminds behind the plot against her, either. Jadis was no inquisitor, or investigator, or even an amateur sleuth. She couldn’t even go into a bar to ask questions without every single person in the building staring at her, watching her every move, and potentially coming up to her to ask for a blessing from Lyssandria. Well, the last part wasn’t wholly true, since most people in Eldingholt were respectful enough of avatars that they gave the ones they saw in public their personal space, but still. Jadis just wasn’t suited to quiet, subtle, or discreet work. Therefore, she was forced to sit back and wait while those who were suited to such tasks did their thing.

Jadis did not like waiting.

“I’m sorry, this is all I’ve got for now,” Maeve apologized as she placed a stack of rough-looking papers onto Jadis’ desk.

The papers were of various sizes and shapes, some of them stained, others torn or crumpled. A few were obviously not paper at all, but pieces of cloth that had been cut into squares and written on, and there was a single piece of thinly cut wood at the bottom of the pile.

“What are these?” Jay asked as she pulled the piece of wood out from under the rest to see that it had been used as a sort of notepad, a terribly penned chicken scratch inked across its surface.

“Notes from various informants who sold what they overheard during the inquisitors’ investigations to information brokers,” the spy explained as she settled into a chair. “I bartered for the original documents rather than copies, just in case there was anything that the brokers might have missed. I did a quick scan, though, and it all seems to line up with what we heard at the trial today.”

“You bartered for this information?” Aila said with a cold gaze. “What kind of barter?”

“Nothing to do with any of us,” Maeve quickly reassured the mage. “Information I had on some of the nobles from the tea party, mostly. And coin. But not as much as it probably would have cost me earlier in the week. Everything in here is kind of old news now since so much was discussed during the trial.”

“I’m guessing that there isn’t much that we can use here, is there?” Jay said as she tried to parse out what had been written on the wooden plank. The person who had written on it had some seriously interesting ways of spelling words. “Other than to verify what was said in the trial was true to what was found during the active investigation.”

“Pretty much,” Maeve shrugged. “Unless there’s something extra hidden in the margins we can work with. But probably not.”

Jay sat back in her chair with a sigh while doing her best not to look too disappointed. She didn’t want to discourage Maeve’s efforts. After all, she hadn’t even been given a full day to dedicate herself to the issue of finding out who the hidden culprits behind the riot were. It would be unreasonable to expect more from the woman, even if she was a master of her trade. She had still hoped for more, though.

Jay sat at her desk in her office with Aila and the recently returned Maeve, alone except for Thea and Noct who both stood on guard, one at the door and the other at the window. Jadis hadn’t asked the two quiet women to do so, but they had silently taken up those positions and were on high alert, so she didn’t try to argue with them. If they felt that they needed to guard her, then Jadis wasn’t going to get in their way.

Everyone else was either gathered in the open dining area discussing the trial or sitting in Hope’s nursery doing the same. Jadis was, of course, in all three places, and therefore knew what was being said by everyone. The general mood was positive, at least as far as Cobbler’s likely acquittal went, though the question of who was behind the riot was on everyone’s lips. Villum was convinced that cultists were behind everything, a stance that Meli, Nevan, and Orla all agreed was highly likely, while Terrance strongly argued that senators in Volto were behind the attack. His argument contended that since there were so many authority figures in that nation, at least a few of the Voltonian senators had backed a clandestine attempt at disrupting the new airship manufacturing company in the empire without even realizing the connection to Jadis. A mildly amusing thought, but not at all outside the realm of possibility.

Most of those gathered, however, didn’t have a strong opinion on who had orchestrated the plot against Fortune’s Favored. Or rather, they had very strong opinions, but too many to settle their minds in one direction or another. There just wasn’t enough information to work with.

“Alright, where do we go from here?” Jay asked Maeve and Aila, though she spoke loudly enough that she hoped Thea and Noct knew that their input was welcome. “What should we do next?”

“Right now, you need to come downstairs with me to the work yard,” Maeve said as she pushed herself back to her feet.

“Why the work yard?” Jay asked as she also stood up.

“I’m jealous of you and Bridget and I could use a good fucking somewhere we might get caught.”

“Maeve!”

“Just kidding,” Maeve held her hand up to forestall Aila’s outrage. “We’re meeting with Ned. Just us. No one else.”

“I said I didn’t want him in our compound ever again,” Jay frowned at the Fetch. “He’s lucky I didn’t fly him to Weigrun and drop him off in Alawar.”

“He won’t set foot in the compound,” Maeve reassured her as she moved to the door and patted Thea on the shoulder. “Come on. I don’t want him to get antsy and leave before we get there.”

“I’ll take a look at these in the meantime,” Aila told them as she gathered up the notes that Maeve had traded for. “If there’s anything important for us to know in here, I’ll find it.”

Leaving the redhead to her self-appointed task, Jay followed Maeve downstairs and out into the dark and mostly unoccupied work yard where the bones of the newest Leviathan-class airship were still in early stages of construction. There was also the experimental airship design that Sabina had been working on as well, though its frame was covered in an obscuring tarp to prevent casual onlookers from viewing it in its current stage. While Jadis didn’t worry too much about industrial espionage considering the inherent limitations of enchanting, that didn’t mean she wanted to advertise the new product before it was done.

Several guards, most of whom were members of Bridget’s clan, patrolled the work yard at night. Jay saw a couple of them pass each other near the service entrance where a third was standing at the gate, smoking a pipe. Other than those watchmen, there was no one else in the area. Of course, just because she couldn’t see anyone, that didn’t mean that a master spy like Ned Aubert wasn’t present. If he was, though, that would mean that he had broken his contract with Jadis, which would be a seriously bad idea on the man’s part.

“You’re going to want to shrink yourself,” Maeve said in warning before she popped open the lid of the storm drain that was built into the stone floor of the work yard.

“You could have warned me that I’d need a light…” Jay muttered as she watched the shapeshifter jump down the drain.

“Don’t worry, I have that covered,” Maeve’s voice echoed up from the stone tube. “Hurry up, I don’t want to be late.”

Doing as Maeve suggested, Jay shrunk her body down to half her normal height before dropping down into the storm sewer. The world around her was plunged into complete darkness, the only source of light coming from the opening overhead. Before she could complain, however, a soft orange light lit up the stone drainage tube.

Maeve’s flesh had transformed into something that was vaguely glassy, a warm glow emanating from within. Shifting so that she was tall enough to reach the sewer grate, she pulled the cover back into place before shrinking down to the same size as Jay’s miniaturized height. Smiling, she motioned for Jay to follow her.

“This isn’t going to lead us into the actual sewer for the compound’s waste, is it?” Jay frowned at the unpleasant thought.

“No, those pipes run separate to the storm drains,” Maeve shook her head as she led the way deeper into the underbelly of the city. “There are huge underground reservoirs that store water in case of drought or other emergencies, and the storm drains lead to them. The waste lines go through special treatment chambers Ulya’s and Tamar’s temples maintain with rituals. Purifies that water before it goes back into the river.”

“I remember the reservoirs,” Jay said, thinking back to the winter attack on the capital. “The cultists and Demons were hiding in one. Didn’t know about the treatment chambers.”

“One of the many wonders of the capital. With so many people living here, the river would be a polluted mess if they just dumped the shit and piss directly without magic to treat it. More cities should do things this way, but there aren’t many other places in the world with so many priests and mages gathered in one spot.”

“Another project for Sabina to think about,” Jay murmured as she kicked a loose piece of wood of the way so that it could continue to float down the slowly moving stream of water. “Among a hundred others.”

After that comment, Maeve and Jay stopped talking, the echoing drainpipe encouraging silence. Several twists and turns were taken, though the movement was ever downward, to the point that Jadis started to wonder if they were going to pop out of a drain cover in the undercity in the same neighborhood that Violetta and her family lived. The many children of that undercity location still came to Fortune’s Favored for both free meals and small jobs, with a growing number of older teens applying themselves to full-time work like Violetta, Chace, Dexter, and Lon, the original bunch who had been caught playing in the compound’s storm drain. However, before they quite reached the point where Jadis felt they would be in that particular section of the city, based on her enhanced sense of direction and orientation, Maeve stopped in front of a blank stone wall that looked no different from the rest of the drain tube.

“Don’t tell anyone else about this place,” Maeve warned as she put her hand against one spot on the wall. “The less people know, the easier the secret is to keep.”

Jay wasn’t at all surprised when the wall split open to reveal a hidden passageway. Having seen similar places before in Kastoria, she had expected that there would be the same sort of tricks in a city like Eldingholt. Following Maeve inside the passageway, the wall closed behind them, sealing off the smell of mildew and grime, giving Jay a chance to breathe in deeply as a sweet smell of pipe smoke and alcohol filled the air.

“What is this place?” she whispered as she continued to follow Maeve deeper down the passage that was lit with soft lantern light.

“This is the Hole. One of the information brokers set this up centuries ago,” Maeve replied. “He made it as a place for spies, smugglers, and anyone else of that sort to come, have a drink, and discuss business without having to worry about the lawful sort overhearing and reacting badly.”

“Should I be in a disguise for this?” Jay asked dubiously.

“No,” Maeve laughed. “Most people here would see right through it. Also, the information broker who runs this place would be insulted by the attempt. You aren’t supposed to hide who you are here.”

“Right…” Jay murmured as the tunnel rounded a corner and she saw the Hole for the first time.

The place was a cylinder five stories tall, with five open balconies filled with tables, chairs, and a bar on each level. Enchanted lights hung on chains from the ceiling high above, lowered at different heights so that the center of the cylinder was filled with soft light. The murmur of conversation filled the chamber, no one conversation standing out more than any other. The entrance that Maeve led Jay through was on the fourth level, allowing them to overlook most of the space, though there were wooden screens in place that made it hard to directly view anyone.

“Doesn’t a place where all the local spies go to meet sound like, I don’t know, a bad idea?” Jay whispered to Maeve as she followed her around the outer edge of the large, circular fourth story.

“It’s a terrible idea,” Maeve agreed immediately. “No self-respecting spy or smuggler would ever come here. It’s so painfully, obviously a bad idea that it makes perfect sense to do. At least, for the sorts of people that are supposed to come here.”

As she spoke, Maeve subtly indicated one of the tables that they were passing. Taking a look, Jay nearly stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted a familiar face among a small crowd of seedy-looking individuals. She didn’t know the woman, not personally, but she was one of the many nobles who had gathered around Princess Lynn at the tea party. A margrave, maybe? Jadis wasn’t sure. But definitely a noblewoman.

“The upper crust likes to come down here and pretend that they’re being sneaky,” Maeve said in a voice dripping with disdain. “Makes them feel special to be part of the club.”

“You’re telling me dukes and margraves and other nobles are sneaking through the sewers so they can larp as spies?”

“Larp?”

“Play pretend.”

“Right. Well, no, they don’t sneak through the sewers,” Maeve pointed upwards. “There’s a much cleaner entrance. This one was just faster.”

Coming to a stop at an empty table that was surrounded by wooden screens no different from the rest of the floor, Maeve sat down and motioned for Jay to sit next to her. Electing not to change her size back to normal, Jay hopped onto the chair and resisted the urge to swing her legs back and forth and instead interlaced her hands on the table before her.

“Now we wait?” Jay asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Now we talk,” Maeve corrected while looking at one of the empty seats.

“About what?” a third voice issued forth from the empty space.

Jay at least managed to retain her dignity by not looking completely surprised by the invisible spy talking in her ear.