Tribe of the Mountains Chapter 16 — Thebes   Underground caves, secret passages, sewers. All of the usual weak points of a building in tales. Also, all of the most guarded points of a building if its owner has both money and a minimum of intelligence. Anora the First Philosophical Musings

There are some advantages in the architecture of a city that was once destroyed and reborn. Sometimes, the destruction is used for a much needed urban reform.

Thebes, for instance, was practically destroyed by a horde of the hungry dead and saved both by their powerful Greco mages and by a Nordic fleet that saw a chance at profit. Of course it took days to clean the old city, full of twisting roads and small alleys and, in the end, most of it was simply destroyed.

The humans found that it was much easier to torn down a building during the day, destroying it from its foundations and then torch the remains with mage fire for good measure than to go into a dark place looking for zombies that see better than you in the dark and have a lot of advantages in close combat.

After the battle ended, the local aristocracy had been mostly killed or fled and all that remained were the merchants and mages, both Greco and Nordic.

As they say, crisis sometimes is a synonym of opportunity. The city was rebuilt with Greco technology and Nordic practicality, and became a lovely place. The first thing that they did was set their homes in the hills of the island, surrounded by high walls and with storage places inside the compounds. Then, they elected a mayor and this first charismatic leader set a ring of buildings around each of the two port areas, the river and the sea port. This ring of four or five stored buildings was built to accommodate the poor, avoiding the creation of slums but also protecting the inner city and the rich homes since this populated area became a natural place for any sea monster to stop by.

The buildings, with their narrow corridors, dark apartments and desperate hardened inhabitants became both a natural line of defense and a place to recruit troops. One interesting thing about the soldiers of Thebes is that they know that if they fail, their families will be the first to die, when the flesh eating monsters reach the buildings.

Of course, if a plague of living dead, if they attack a building it will be the end of this building. There are escape routes, but the city will not hesitate to destroy the infected place after giving some time for the living to escape. A trap for the living but also, for the dead.

No wonder so many of these buildings have chapels to the sun God on them. They believe that, since the wasting disease was weaker in the sun, Apolon can give protection in the times of need and keep the building clean.

Despite their gloomy interior, these buildings were well built, with reasonable ventilation and a sewer system. They had food stalls inside the buildings and even a playground for children together with a daycare center in the better administered ones. The rent was cheap and the buildings tend to have some slaves to do some of the hard work. Of course, if you do not pay the rent you will become one of these slaves and your living quarters will be much worse.

Beyond the buildings of the poor the city is a complex system of hills with cisterns or artificial lakes at the top and rich homes at their slopes. In the valleys or just less higher ground there are parks, some commercial establishments, the forum, much of the temples and some houses of people rich enough to get a home out of the buildings, but too poor to place their homes in a more defensible place.

The roads are wide; there is an abundance of public baths, a public library for the citizens and the huge complex of the mage academy. Interesting to note is that there are mage towers spread around the city. Some think that mages love to live in high places because of some magical reason, but it is simpler. Mages are long distance fighters and the city wants them in high places from which they can rain death from above.

Oh, most of the folks that live in the buildings are not citizens. A citizen must have either a commerce or land. If you have any of these you can vote, use the public library and request some services from the city, among other things. You also pay an annual tax, but nothing is perfect, isn't it?

The city was even more beautiful then I remembered. Even the buildings inhabited by the poor looked nice. From the outside you couldn't see the small apartments and long, dark corridors and, apparently, the mayor decided that fixing the painting at least of the ring of buildings surrounding the harbor would get him some votes. Interesting if you consider that you must own land or a business to vote, perhaps some of the small shopkeepers had made some pressure.

Anyway, I rode slowly, with my sword tied by a peace knot, leaving the port area with its myriad depots, taverns and bordellos. Along the way I had to stop in many taverns since I was hungry, really hungry as the part of the Goddess inside me needed nutrients.

Even after fifty years a person eating so much would raise “wasting disease” alerts in the minds of a few, so, I spread my feeding and used the opportunity to listen to tavern gossip, helped by the enhanced hearing given by the Goddess.

The city was growing, there was talk of new business everywhere. Slave trade had never been a good option for this city since the tribes loved to free slaves and add their numbers to their own, but now the way was mostly open and there was an increase in demand from the Romanish empire as it conquered new lands and built new farms. As a consequence, the tribes and small towns in the west of the continent were being attacked by Nordics to provide slaves.

On the other hand, the bigger cities and the nations that had trade agreements with the Nordics where prospering due to the increase in trade. While, at the other side of the continent, the Greco islands were also getting richer since most of the material coming from the west coast was passing through Thebes, crossing to New Rome and being shipped to the islands for distribution to the rest of the empire. The Romanish governors didn't care that the grecos were getting rich as long as the taxes were paid.

All this information was useful and proved that closing the pass would be stupid, too many people making too much money. But, the amount of angry, desperate females that would be passing as slaves by the pass would allow us to grow into a new empire if we wanted to take the risks.

I also learned that more than a few merchants already knew that the pit was about to release a new burst of magical power in a year or so. It seems that I was not the only one that knew the signs. Also, the great dragons where moving, redefining their territories and offering protection to new cities in exchange for metallic weapons, wine and other things. Most thought that the drakes wanted to create their own empire, but I knew better. They were waiting for the new magic, while those that wanted to mate had to do it now before the excess magic made it impossible to have healthy "babies" for a few years.

For a dragon, a stable territory with tame humans was good to attract partners. I wonder how many know that while magic increase the powers of mages, elves and dragons it also make it more difficult to have normal children. Magic incentives mutation, after all. Humm … time to have a baby before things got too magical.

Well, at that moment I had more pressing personal business to attend. After eating in a nice tavern by the forum I continued on my way passing close to the mage academy and its huge towers, going to the westernmost hill, where most of the Nordic merchant houses were located.

My father`s home was actually a group of buildings, one with depots and offices where he did most of his bookkeeping and met with the captains of his ships and caravans. Another, much better protected, had his personal library, the women`s quarters and his bedroom. Well, there were other buildings, workshops and a place to keep slaves, but these two were the most interesting to me.

Of course, I had access to neither as I rode by in my horse, pretending to be only a curious passerby. After all, the complex was surrounded by a high wall with thick ironwood gates. Also, I was certain that if I passed in this road again the security would start to take notice.
 
 
One interesting thing about Thebes, though, is that, despite a lot of the dirtiest jobs being done by slaves, the household jobs and most accounting is done by freemen and women. Scouting the buildings, finding if Stephen was still in the library, would take a long time, but there was a shortcut, I was sure that some of the employees would accept what I had to offer.

Besides, storming the building, fighting everyone inside and rescuing my beloved may sound nice as is the "oh so classical" sewers crawl but, my father had lots of guards and, at least one mage doing security at any given time. I could deal with them, but not without raising “ wasting disease” alarms. I would, of course, check the sewers, but my father never was stupid.

I found the employee entrance, observed for a while and then left to go to the fields around town. There I rode as far as I could, to a nice glade in the woods between two farms, far away from the damned red magical stones, took out my armor and contacted the Goddess.

What a relief !!! I felt whole for the first time in months as I talked to all my sisters, sharing memories and asking for advice. In the end, it was Bastet that gave me a solution for a serious problem: I had to watch and learn from the employees, but I could not be seen watching father`s house for a long time.

So, I followed my sister`s advice, first I donned my armor and looked for a sewer entrance somewhere. It was not very difficult, since there were a few maintenance openings to the storm drains here and there. Searching at night, I found one not so far from my father`s home.

The entrance led to a large chamber where many pipes converged. Its purpose was clearly to work as a hub to join many pipes, but also, as the pipes were all above the chamber`s floor, as a place where some of the material that could clot the pipes “down stream” would decant and stay waiting for a slave to come down and clean it. All nice and, actually a big chamber, but none of the pipes leading in the direction of my father`s home was big enough for a person to crawl.

As Bastet had expected, I also didn't see any red gems. I am sure that they put some of these expensive stones underground somewhere but, since these pipes where too small even for zombies to crawl, they had not taken this precaution. So, I cautiously sent a dark tendril a ways down a pipe, then I told the tendril to grow, absorbing the organic material around it (yes, “that material”, beggars can`t be choosers). It grew and spread through the pipes, especially in those close to the surface, it also dug a little getting in places where it could listen to what people where talking. In other words, I didn't dare approach my father`s home with the tendril, even from underground, since the stones at its walls might give warning. But, all around the house I could listen what was happening and feel the movement of people. I had placed the house under surveillance.

And I waited, of course, not all the time in the hole. I actually rented an apartment close to those used by the most “interesting” maids of the house. There were many of those apartments available, since mortality rate was high and a Sahuagin (fish men) attack five years ago had resulted in some deaths. So, I only had to tell the landlord (that worked for my father) that I had found a job and was staying for a while before going to the north and he was happy to accept my money.
 
 
Within a week I was already sure that Stephen was still in the library, with one side room being converted in a bedroom with a latrine. I also knew that not all maids were happy. In his old age my father was getting tired of my mother and his concubines, perhaps in a desperate bid to feel alive he was now trying to take the maids to bed. Weird, since he had slave girls for this kind of service, but perhaps the challenge was also part of the attraction.

Actually, he and the prettiest maids where playing a kind of game when he was home, the girls were trying to extract as many gifts or favors before going to bed with him, he was trying to give as little as possible before taking a girl to bed. Of course, once he took a girl to bed another game started, with her trying to keep him as much as possible to get as many favors before he got tired and dismissed her.

A dangerous game and the only that the girls could play, if the girl was married she could deny my father at least for a while, but if she was not she was doomed from the start. Losing the job meant a beating from her father or other male relative since women could not own property and most of their income went to their household. Sooner or later they would, of course, tire my father, perhaps loose the job and … well, some were smart enough to either marry or find a trustworthy male relative and convince my father to either give a piece of land or a job in one of his many businesses.
 
 
Anyway, this state of affairs had been going for the past three years. One girl held my father for six months and ended elevated to concubine, one killed herself, one got a piece of land for her and her husband … and the one that I found interesting was a special case.

She knew how to read, was the daughter of a weak mage that used kinetic spells to help in one of father`s ships and was gorgeous in a childish way, with chestnut hair, green eyes and a sort of childish appearance that I found endearing. My father had approached her with a sweet tongue and she used it to get better wages for her father, but Elric (my father`s name) was going in a trip and in a hurry, so, in the end, he took her by force.

So, ashamed and violated she got home that day and her father pretended not to see anything. The usual deal, she had only to keep quiet and pretend nothing happened and latter her father would use the increased wages to pay a little extra dowry, so that her husband also would pretend to ignore certain facts. All normal, but she had thought that Elric was going to wait and so, had not taken the usual herbs.

She was now the mother of a beautiful baby girl and had to live in shame, out of her father`s home, in one of the smallest apartments in the building. At least, she had not lost her job and was even promoted to the library where the work was softer and her ability to read useful. I am sure that her daughter would soon be working in the house of my father or one of my brothers, and so was she. This fact, actually, increased her despair.

Do I need to tell you that this girl was perfect?

Now, I just needed to seduce her.
 
 
Author's Note: thanks Sephrena.