The Cast Die

Vac wasn't sure what to think. At first he thought this was a simple visit to the religious site of Ceres, but then Medea told him that the higher ups here were helping the attacks done by the bandits. He kinda got what Medea had been thinking, but he had to admit it annoyed him as well.

‘And now this thing about the city of nine dragons. What else hasn't she told me yet?’

With these thoughts clouding his mind, he followed behind Medea in silence as they went to meet the high priest, who sat — nice and pretty — near the top of the temple or rather the gateway in his own private office, that was clearly decorated in style.

The portly man looked up from the document he'd been reading and said, “Oh, Princess Medea, what a wonderful surprise. I heard you'd arrived, but I wasn't sure you'd deign to visit my humble self. Please, take a seat. Now, how can I help you?”

Medea sat with her legs crossed, and fixed the man with an icy stare as she said, “Oh, it's nothing much. I just thought you'd like to know that we found the Labyrinth. The same one whose whereabouts this temple said had been lost, with the records gone due to a tragic fire. Or at least it's what's been said by all of you for decades upon decades.”

By Medea's standards, her treatment of the man was outrageous given his rank and status. It was blatant provocation, but her status as the princess of Sicily and the truth of her words afforded her a leeway few others had.

The others in the room visibly stiffened at her words. Except for Vac, who had some idea of what Medea planned to do. To his credit, the priest held his nerve, raising his hand to temper his men while saying, “You're indeed right, princess. We failed in our duty to Ceres all those years ago, and truly regret it. Now, since it was indeed our duty as priests to take care of the Labyrinth, I suppose you wouldn't mind handing it back over to us, would you?”

Medea frowned and said, “Aren't you assuming that we know how to access it, good sir? I'm afraid the bandits didn't tell us that. The one who might've known unfortunately died as he took a poison pill. All we know is the entrance, which is being guarded. I wonder why you thought we knew?”

Vac smiled inwardly.

‘That’s a clever lie. The bandit who was likely working for this stultus is still alive, and they did get the ritual to the entrance out of him.’

The priest stiffened and waved his hands as he said, “O- of course, that's truly tragic. We merely thought you would have succeeded. Yes, very sad indeed. But you would allow us to send some men to investigate, won't you?”

Medea nodded seriously, as though affronted by the suggestion that they wouldn't.

“Why of course! We'd welcome it! Though I must say we wouldn't recommend it. It's pretty far from your quaint little city here, and the bandits are still a major issue. It's likely your men will face… problems along the way, ones that might not allow them to return safely. We would provide our own guards, but unfortunately our manpower is largely taken up by the numerous battles we have, both close to home, and further away.”

The high priest and most of the other priests in the room really seemed to be trying desperately to prevent their faces from contorting with rage, with varied amounts of success.

The man sat in silence for a while before sighing and then spoke in a robotic voice, “Well then, princess, I think our conversation here is coming to an end. Let me know if we from the noble city of Eleusis can help you in any other way. I'm sure even the grand kingdom of Sicily has issues we can help with. Good day, my lady.”

Medea stood up, took her time to stretch, and said, “I don't think there's anything you can help with that we can't handle ourselves, but we appreciate the offer and the alliance, of course. We'd hate for anything to get in the way of that.”

As they left, Medea smiled at him and asked rhetorically, “Not bad, huh?”

Vac smiled slightly before frowning as he said, “Sure. Now, I think you owe me an answer about this city of nine dragons.”

Medea sighed and replied, “Alright.”

On their way back to the capital, they took a little detour, in the direction of the kingdom of Sparta, until they came across the destination, the fairly small city of Karystos, or as it was commonly referred, the city of nine dragons. While they were still in the air and a while away, Medea pointed down in its direction, guiding Vac’s attention. And what he saw grabbed his attention immediately.

It was a walled city, except the walls themselves were made up of the townhouses and city towers, built upon each other until they made the bulwarks of the castle-like city structure. The houses were all packed together, as though pressed tightly into a box. Rather than spreading houses out, they were built on top of each other, stacking up to form what were effectively tall decrepit towers, far more resilient than they appeared.

Vac took a deep breath as he drank in the sight. Then he asked, “What created this sort of place? And why were you so touchy about it?”

Medea sighed and answered, “The reason I'm touchy about it is the cause of its existence itself. It was formed as a result of a territorial dispute between Eleusis, Sparta, and our kingdom of Sicily. We couldn't come up with an agreement, and numerous skirmishes were fought over it to no avail. Eventually all parties effectively abandoned it, though we wouldn't allow the others to have it either. And that created a strange situation, where there was effectively no governmental overview of this one small and crowded city. And in place of a proper government, gangs rose up, nine of them. And that's why it's called the city of nine dragons. Now, the issue began decades ago, and yet there are still nine gangs, with minimal changes to the power balance.”

“How is that possible?”

“It's because of her, the Balancer, the one Lady Ceres told you to find. Each time a gang is in a losing position, she helps them out and resets the status quo. Each time it seems like a small conflict is going to escalate, it's doused. This one person alone has maintained the balance there for decades, and so the gangs have effectively formed a system of non interference with each other. And the scariest part is, we know practically nothing about her. The main source of information we have on the ongoings there is through the performing troupe that comes out sporadically to perform all over the place, and the cheap fake goods that are churned out in droves. But what we've heard is not pretty. So please, Vac, don't go there in search of this mystery woman until we take back the city and restore it to a proper condition.”

Some of her phrasing seemed off, and he had to admit he sort of liked the idea of a city without a government, though the gangs didn't seem better per se. But nevertheless she wasn't wrong. There were other things to settle before that.

‘I need to get back up to the sky island first. It's a pity, there's still so much to see and do here, and we do need to know and understand the world below, I understand that now.’