Maya tentatively shook Alison’s extended hand, still wondering if it was some kind of a trick.
"How many people do you have? Did you come up with a plan yet? What is your final objective?" Maya bombarded her new partner with questions.
"I don’t have a plan." Alison looked away. "And I’m alone."
"...that’s a joke, right?"
The redhead didn’t answer.
"Great." Maya sighed. "I hope you at least have a good reason for doing this?"
"I do." Alison stated confidently.
"Alright then." She stood up, wincing from the pain. "If you want to take out the black rose then just killing my family won’t be enough."
"Why not? Once we get rid of the leaders the organisation will fall apart, no?"
"Sure - and they’ll go to a smaller gang leader and reform the syndicate under a different name." Maya shook her head. "No, if you want to put a stop to the organised crime in the pit you have to make sure ALL the criminals are unwilling to band together in bigger groups."
"But how do we do that?" Alison crossed her arms.
"We could kill all of them, that would solve the issue once and for all." At the guard’s unimpressed stare she shrugged. "Should have guessed you wouldn’t be a fan of murder, alternatively we can just curse all the members of the syndicate, so that any organisation they join will fall apart."
"Curse them - you know, kidnap one of the members and use their blood to put a curse on everyone is black rose."
Alison put a hand on her forehead.
"Do you have any ideas that don’t involve mass murder or torture?"
Maya rubbed her chin, trying to think of a solution.
"...we could maybe scare the shit out of them to discourage them from crime? People in the Pit are exceptionally superstitious, they have our own myths and legends, so we can use one of them to our advantage."
"That’s better." Alison nodded. "Do you have a specific story in mind?"
Maya’s eyes fell on her sickles laying in the corner of the room.
An hour later they found themselves in front of a wooden door in the quiet part of the Pit, with Maya knocking on it in a specific way.
"Who?" A voice came from inside.
"It’s me you idiot, you should really install a visor." Maya suggested.
There were a few clicks and hits, before the door swung open, and they entered the dark building.
Once the door closed behind them a singular lamp lit up, and they could see the man the voice belonged to - a richly dressed merchant with a bushy beard.
"Piff." Maya greeted.
"Young Lady, what a pleasure to see you!" Puff rubbed his hands. "Although I suppose you’re no longer a part of the black rose family, are you?"
"You sure learn things fast." The blonde girl snorted.
"It’s my job miss." He gave a toothy grin. "Now, I assume you didn’t come to wallow about your situation, so what do you want?"
"I need some info and a few enchanted items of the exclusive category."
"I assume you’re planning on enacting your revenge?"
Piff drummed his fingers against the table standing in the middle of the room.
"A lot of people from black rose come to me to buy things - I would be losing a lot of customers."
"Don’t worry." Maya rolled her eyes. "Miss perfect over there didn’t want to kill everyone, so we’re doing something different, your clients are safe, even if they’ll lose a job for a bit."
"Perfect then, what items you need?"
"A featureless silver disillusionment mask, black hover cloak and a few smokestones - also tell me where Pops’ speech will be."
She could see the gears turning in his head as he listened to her request.
"Is ’the Judge’ going to condemn black rose’s plans?" Piff guessed.
He nodded and disappeared into the backroom in order to retrieve the requested items - he returned holding a silver mask and an elaborate black robe with a heavy hood.
"That’s all I could find, the mask already has double mirror charm, but it needs the disillusionment - it’s modular though so It’ll take ony a few minutes to add it."
"Ah, that one is one of my finest merchandise - not only does it have hover charm, but it also produces terror aura and it even has one charge of anchor gate."
Maya squinted at him.
"You’re not trying to scam me, are you? Something like that is way beyond your or your supplier’s abilities to create, where did you get that?"
"I would never try to scam a loyal client like you!" He sounded a little offended. "But you’re right, I’ve bought it from a guy who claimed he was from outside mountainfall. According to what he said, he stole the thing from one of the retainers at the Tower."
"Why did he sell it to you then?"
"He said he needed money, and that he could always steal another one."
"Do you remember his name?" Alison spoke up for the first time.
"K-something, I don’t remember, it was a few years ago." Piff shook his head and looked at Maya again. "Anyway, the speech will take place at the gallows, your old man really has a flair for theatrics."
"Good, now go install that charm." She nodded.
Once Piff disappeared into the backroom again, Alison asked:
"What’s ’the Judge’?"
"A fairytale told in the Pit - a faceless entity wielding sickles, said to punish those don’t respect their place in the hierarchy. If I had to guess it’s a story someone from the overcity made up to keep the criminals in the Pit in check."
"And people believe that?" Alison raised an eyebrow.
"Obviously, otherwise the entire city would be embroiled in constant gang wars - it’s just that my father goes against what everyone says, and is planning to expand his operation outside the Pit."
"So you’re going to dress up as the Judge and kill him in front of the entire organisation, to fool everyone into thinking the stories are true." Alison concluded.
"I’m done." Piff announced, emerging from the backroom. "I threw in a voice modulation charm as a freebie."
"Thanks." Maya took off a signet ring off her finger - a beautiful golden one, with a rose bud chiseled into the onyx stone on top of it - and tossed it to Piff. "That should be enough."
"More than enough." The merchant grinned. "I think I’ll keep it, I have a feeling they’re going to become very rare soon..."
Maya and Alison went back to the dilapidated house the guard has made their headquarters.
"So would you care to share your plans in full?" Alison asked.
"Sure - my dear father is going to announce his ’conquest’ plans to the entire organisation in two days. Thanks to Piff we know that it will take place in the gallows, the poorest and most populus region of the Pit."
Maya sat on the bed and continued.
"Tomorrow we’re going to set up part of the plan - we’ll install the smokestones in the stage and prepare a remote activation runestone. On the day of the speech, you will wait until he announces the big news and then activate the smokestones."
"I’m guessing you’ll enter then and publicly execute your father?"
"Yes, if everything goes well the smokestones will create enough of a distraction for me to slip in unseen and make everyone shit their pants."
"And if it doesn’t go well?"
"I’ll have to improvise - so pray that it works."
There was a moment of silence, before Alison asked:
"Why did your father decide to get rid of you now?"
"That’s a bit of a personal question, don’t you think?" Maya faced Alison. "I’ll tell you if you tell me why you came here to destroy black rose."
"Alright." Alison agreed a bit too quickly.
"There was no single accident that caused this, my father’s paranoia simply finally got to him, and told him I was a threat." She shrugged. "Granted, he was right that I wanted to replace him - not with me though, but someone different who wouldn’t chase me when I escaped this shit hole."
"You wanted to leave the Pit?"
"Of course I did - most people do, and some them even manage to - but it’s much more difficult when you’re part of the family which controls the place. Now your turn to share."
"My reason for doing this is very simple - the capitan claimed that it was impossible to get rid of the black rose, and I disagreed with him. He told me thst I’m welcome to try, and if I succeed he’ll make me a lieutenant."
Maya stared at Alison in disbelief
"You said your reason is important."
"A promotion is important?"
"No, showing that incompetent people who don’t even try to solve problems shouldn’t be in charge of things is important."
"If you say so..." Maya sighed. "Anyway, we should rest, getting things right tomorrow is more important than the actual execution."