The sun glared down, the heat oppressive. Summer clamped down on the city like a vicious predator, drawing sweat from its inhabitants like blood from the neck. People moved at lethargic paces through city streets, going about only the business that needed to be done. Nobles remained in their manors. Along with the wealthiest of
Alliria, leaving the poor to do the work while the sun burned high overhead. It was so hot that even the ever present pickpockets and thugs maintained a low profile. The most active thing in the city were the flies.
She moved through the streets, seemingly unconcerned with the heat. Her usually tan skin had darkened considerably as the summer waxed on, until it was a healthy bronze gleaming with a film of sweat. In deference to the heat, she wore little more than she had to for the sake of decency, the top half of a shirt cut to expos e her midriff to the flow of air, and 'pants' that ended high on her thighs. Both were stained dark with sweat.
She moved with purpose through streets filled with slow people melting under the sun.
Weak, she scoffed in her mind. The climate reminded her very much of the plains she had come from. The Norei were primitive by comparison to the city folk, but these people had grown soft with their comforts and their luxuries. The former tribal warrior had vowed long ago not to allow the sickness of the
cities to infect her, and so far she had been successful in that
Loose braid of white hair flipping back and forth behind her as she moved, she made her way towards one of Allirua's commercial districts. She had a meeting to make with an informant, someone who might have a lead on the criminal Two-Faced Eddie. It was not a contract for money that she sought this information, but rather a personal debt. The sonofabitch had killed one of her people, right on her own property. They had tried to do her in as well, but failed at it. The resulting fines for breach of the peace had been unpleasant - she hated the idea of money, but had to accept it as part of the bargain she had made long ago.
Regardless, some debts required blood to be paid. Honor was a thing the civilized peoples did not understand; honor to the self, to the ancestors, and to the enemy. Eddie had no honor, and he and his - like so many she had faced - would get none in turn.
There was a crowd gathered despite the oppressive heat in one of the markets, which was where she was headed in any case. Heavy sword on her back blanking in its harness, rubbing at the calloused shoulders, she made her way to the meeting point.
Which was where the crowd was gathered.
Aeyliea grunted, already not looking where this was going. The crowd was sparse, but still thick enough to slow her progress. She resorted to elbowing people out of her way, receiving dark looks and temporarily raised fists. She had the look of a fighter about her, lean and athletic, well sculpted. Beautiful, really, in a hard way.
She did not have to push all the way through the crowd. A couple rows back, she could see the corpse dangling from the corner of a roof, bllod-smeared face ghastly for the lack of eyes and tongue. Someone had even hammered a stake through a rat and then through his chest, a ham fisted declaration of his crime.
She stopped, and looked at that face. In all truth, that was her contact and, true to the crimelord's code and methods, he had caught him before any information could he disseminated and tortured him to death, making an example out of him too.
Always wanted to know how they get their victims in place without being seen in broad daylight, though. A question to be answered a different time.
Pushing down annoyance - nearly rage - she turned and pushed her way back through the crowd with a scowl on her pretty face.