Seersucker

Ch 53: Any chance that could be a deluxe bath?

Dantes smiled and stood, meeting Vera for a big open armed hug. She smelled of roses and vanilla, her taste in perfume hadn’t changed. The scent immediately brought a flood of memories to the surface of him playing as Vera and his mother chatted, cooked, and played cards.

She released her embrace, still smiling as she looked him up and down, only a slight twitch of her eyebrow indicating some mild discomfort over his state of dress.“Edmond, I wasn’t sure I’d see you again. Pleas...

Ch 52: It's been a while

The first mile or so that Dantes walked was nothing, but empty alleyways filled with trash and rats. Even with the mile of space between the Maw and the wall that sealed the space off, people still preferred to live as far from it as possible. Dantes couldn’t blame them, he hadn’t particularly wanted to live as close to it as he had either. He saw only vermin as he walked those first steps in the city, and he exchanged cursory hellos with them as he went, much to their surprise. Eventuall...

Ch 51: Watch out below, fu-

As Dantes rose up, clinging desperately to the first branch the Mother’s Reach had sprouted he realized very quickly that it was starting to widen. He threw himself up so that he could switch to standing on it, but was soon forced to dodge as two more branches began to sprout nearby and nearly hit him, he crouched down and found himself being thrust further and further from the trunk as the branch widened and expanded. He was forced into a completely reactionary posture. Dodging new branche...

Ch 50: Ten copper on the big one!

Dantes stood in the center of the Maw, feeling the sun warm his skin. It was a feeling he missed, though that hadn’t made him seek out the Maw in the past. Putting yourself in the center of a beam of light was something one should typically avoid in prison. Still, he hadn’t exactly been smart about that since everything had started with the Elfland Kings. He’d put himself into the center of things more and more, and he’d enjoyed every second of it. It felt like tasting who he was befo...

Ch 49: None of that’s your blood, is it?

Jacopo crawled in Dantes’ jacket and settled into a pocket towards his back.

“This is a much better method of travel,” he said, burrowing as far into the pocket as he could.

“Really? You seemed to move much more quickly when we were running through the tunnels together.”

Jacopo began chewing on a small piece of lint, settling into a position reminiscent of sailors laying in hammocks. “No, this is definitely better.”

Dantes chuckled, still covered in blood...

Announcement

Hey everyone,

I've officially reached the back-end of my backlog, and so will be moving to the planned 3 updates a week rather than 1 a day.  The schedule is going to be Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Once I build the backlog back up a bit, I'll be expanding the number of early access  chapters. Not sure by how much yet, I need to figure out what's sustainable.

Thank you all for reading!

- Seer

Ch 48: Meet me in the Maw

Dantes and Jacopo crawled through the tunnels, leading a horde of rats and roaches. Dantes had almost no difficulty adjusting to being a rat, but in spite of that he had a bit of trouble keeping up as Jacopo led them through the quickest and most efficient route to Orc territory. It was what amounted to nighttime in the Pit, and the majority of the Orcs were asleep, though around ten had gone on a hunt for beasts with Blud. He had tracked them until they were too far away to make a difference...

Ch 47: Are there any you would want me to spare?

They all sat there in silence for some time, then Dantes stood, and began putting his hands under Tel’s body, attempting to lift him.

“What’re you doing?” asked Merle, though he didn’t move to stop him.

“I know a place where I can actually bury him. In real dirt. Unless you had other ideas?”

“We usually cut their heads off so that the collar can be removed, then throw them to the rats. We carve their names into the collars, and put them here.” Merle moved t...

Ch 46: And then nothing

Through the roach he could feel that a number of people were moving about, and sense that there was a lot of blood, and screaming. He attempted to move closer, but the movement of people was too dangerous, and when the roach's leg was crushed by a Collared rushing by, he broke the connection. He needed to go there himself.

He checked his kit and began moving through the tunnels to Collared territory. He sent several rats ahead and tried to determine what was going on, but all he could r...

Ch 45: Your surprises are no longer surprising

Dantes gently placed a small candle down on the floor of the wide cavern. He took out a small burnstick, lit it, and gently placed it against the wick of the candle. It lit easily, and then he moved a few yards down and lit another one. He repeated this process until there were a half dozen candles lit in a long straight line.

He reached out his senses feeling all of the life in the wide cavern starting to stir from his activity. He focused his attention on the cave moths nearby, not wi...

Ch 44: It seems it's always 'the hard way'

By the time Dantes was done, his hand was sore from the reverberation of the cane. He stopped just short of killing Grimald, he had a feeling that the Executive would find some way to charge him for the death if he went too far. He tossed the cane to the side and stretched. A small crowd had gathered to see what was going on, and Rumpert had witnessed the beating himself, ledger in hand and cold smile still sitting on his face. Dantes held out his hand, and Jayson handed him back his jacket w...

Ch 43: How can I help you?

The Shadow Cats eyed the weapons, Jayson with curiosity, Jayk with suspicion, and Zak with obvious desire.

Dantes ate another spoonful of stew from his bowl, it was surprisingly good, Jayson was a talented cook. He gestured to the weapons, “Take whichever you want. They’re elven make, good quality from what I can tell.”

Zak stood and took the longsword from the group of weapons with little hesitation. He gave it a few test swings, and Dantes could tell almost immediately tha...

Ch 42: Those aren't to eat, they're to bargain

Dantes watched the corpse disposal with mild fascination. He was no stranger to rot and decay, not in midtown, and certainly not down in the Pit. Still, seeing it sped up by the frenzy of rats and roaches, while the roots of the nearby plants dug into the corpses, their roots finding fresh blood in their veins, that was thankfully a unique and new experience for him.

When they were done he moved over to each of the bodies and pried off the ears he’d had his fellow vermin leave for him...

Ch 41: Gorge yourself

Dantes moved through the corridors at his usual pace so that he wouldn’t warn his followers that he knew of them tracking his movements just a few chambers behind him. He started to have individual roaches and rats cross their paths, or make loud noises. At one point he even had a few roaches fall from the ceiling onto them. The older of them managed to stay calm, hiding any impact the actions of the vermin had on him, but the younger let out curses under his breath, barely managing to keep...

Ch 40: Shouldn't have been such an unrepentant-

Dantes placed a small pouch of weed, and a handful of blood-red grapes onto the raised stone in front of him that acted as a table.

Wane shook his head. “I’m out.”

Tel reached into his pocket and put a handful of copper coins down.

“Coin, eh? Where’d you get that?” asked Dantes.

“Did a favor for someone in the Consortium,” he said coyly.

“What kind of favor?” asked Wane with an eyebrow raised.

“The kind that paid me in copper ...

Ch 39: Free booze, women, and money

Jacopo watched as the orcs filtered in one by one. The smell of smoke and drink was heavy in the air. Dantes had given the weed he’d bought from Clay to the orcs so that they could get high as well as drunk while their deal with the changelings was completed. Jacopo watched as Dantes greeted each of the orcs as they entered, handing them a drink, making a quick witted joke, and telling them to enjoy themselves. There were no bouncers, and the nameless had been moved to their usual quarters ...

Ch 38: Here's the gist

The Undermarket was full of the stench of booze and sweat. All of the various small bars scattered throughout it were full of cheerful drunken orcs, still high off their victory at the supply drop even weeks later and, most likely, fistfuls of dust and weed as well. Dantes didn’t attempt to keep a low profile as he typically did. Instead he pulled his hood down, and walked with his rapier clearly visible at his waist. He exchanged nods with several orcs as he walked through, and even had to...

Ch 37: The dainty wave of a highborn woman

Dantes awoke the next day with a splitting headache. He laid awake with his eyes closed for what must have been at least an hour, then he attempted to sit up. The moment he was upright, he vomited, narrowly missing his bed. He stayed still for a few moments, then wiped his mouth with his bare hand and crawled over to the water pitcher, his hands and knees cushioned by the bed of moss that now covered everything in the cave. He actually felt a bit better after expelling that bit of poison. He ...

Ch 36: Doing a bit of flexing

Dantes walked toward the Consortium’s undermarket bar. He felt good. He’d put on even more weight thanks to his climbing routine, easy access to food, and the whey tip he’d gotten from Merle. On top of that coin jangled in his pockets from the last two deliveries of what Mez had begun calling his, “Bloody Brew”, due to its dull red hue. Only Dantes and Jacopo knew how appropriate the name truly was. Life was horrible overall, but also as good as it had ever been for him since he’d...

CH 35: Mating yes. Also murder.

Dantes stayed off the main paths, but from he could see through the rats he had watching behind him the Orc’s had ceased their assault in the Maw itself and started consolidating all of the goods, beating the new prisoners, and generally asserting their newfound dominance. Still, he stayed cautious, weaving through those lesser known passages until he made it back to Collared territory.

There were more than a dozen collared standing guard, most of them broad and muscular adherents of ...

Ch 34: Violent doesn't mean stupid

Dantes made his way into Collared chambers, exchanging nods and hellos with those he recognized as he made his way toward the usual location of the dice game near Tel’s room. The game wasn’t happening, but Wane, who he was looking for anyway, was leaning against the wall thumbing through an old grimoire.

“No game today?”

Wane carefully took a small bookmark from behind his ear and slid it into the page he was reading before turning his head toward Dantes.

“Fraid no...

Ch 33: What would you say is the largest kind of tree?

Dantes moved out of the brothel and out onto the narrow ‘streets’ of the undermarket. Unlike in Collared territory where everyone knew who he was and their behavior toward him had changed, in the undermarket he was nondescript enough that no one seemed to recognize him. There were a few glances and whispers of course, especially when they saw the rapier at his waist, but nowhere near the recognition he received in Collared territory. He kept watch on himself using a few rats he stationed ...

Ch 32: A Fey's sense of honor

Dantes and Televor moved through the tunnels between the Collared and the undermarket. It was busy, but not unusually so. It was common for the undermarket to be more active immediately before and immediately after a delivery from the Maw. Prisoners were placing bets as to what they thought would happen, trying to scrape together the materials they’d need to make a run for supplies themselves, attempting to make deals with the gangs to ensure they’d be guaranteed some food, or even just d...

Ch 31: Antennae tickled his lips

Dantes was in a darkness so black that his darkvision couldn’t pierce it. He could hear the sounds of skittering in the dark all around him. He could feel the small steps of a million legs all across his body, his arms, his eyelids. Normally the sensation would make him flail in disgust and terror, but in this case it felt like he’d been tucked into a warm blanket. He stayed still, acknowledging, but not struggling against the sensations that surrounded him.

“You…expected…this...

Ch 30: I'm no rat

After they’d finished an hour of nitty gritty discussions, everyone shook hands and felt that solid mix of satisfied and dissatisfied that always came with business agreements. Dantes feigned a frown, letting all parties feel that they got the best of him, even though he’d just turned the ability to grow fruit with a few drops of blood into a profitable enterprise that would take little daily maintenance in which all parties thought his cut was lesser than it actually was.

When they...

Ch 29: You're not here to kill me, I presume?

Had Dantes been focused on something other than the dice game, he may have placed some rats in the tunnels between the Undermarket and the Collared, so that he could keep a closer eye on when the Consortium had arrived, seen the elves and prepared for them, but he had no such foresight, and found himself cursing under his breath. Still, he was in a relatively safe situation overall.  The Collared weren't a powerful group, but they could easily handle two elves if they needed to, and it w...

Ch 28: I did it very carefully

By the time he reached the edges of collared territory Dantes’ legs were screaming at him. He had considered, roughly halfway there, seeing how much favor and how many rats it would take to move the small cask for him. He decided against it of course, it was just the impractical thought of an exhausted body.

He checked ahead with a few rats and noticed that two guards were posted at the entrance. Both were alert, and focused on the path he’d be traveling down. He took a moment to re...

Ch 27: Tempt the gods to ruin your day

Dantes slid his hand into the next divot in the wall and pulled himself up, resting his feet between a narrow crack. He looked up, seeing another small divot and sliding his hand into it, he pulled himself another half a foot. He was about fifteen feet off of the ground now, but still felt steady. He’d been a second story man long enough that heights didn’t give him any pause. He looked for another hand hold higher up, but didn’t see one. He looked to the left and saw several more that ...

Ch 26: Brazen and bold

The blunderbus fired and Jacopo was launched with it to the far side of the room, slamming against the wall. A man screamed, though whether it was Iron or his paramore, Jacopo was in no state to determine. His ears were ringing as he took several stumbling steps away from the wall he’d slammed into. He saw blood beginning to seep from the bed, trickling down the stone frame and onto the ground. He shook his head in an attempt to regain his composure and ran out of the bedroom door and into ...

Ch 25: Too many are born with the sun on their faces

Jacopo moved through the tight dwarven halls quickly and quietly. There were no cracks in the walls for him to slink through, so instead he had to rely on the shadows in order to make his way through. Dwarven darkvision may have made that a problem, but because they lined their halls with braziers that cast harsh light, they may as well have had human eyesight. A price they paid for aesthetics. This was an insight that Jacopo had thanks to his connections with Dantes rather than independently...