The Charlatan

15. All Ears

Safiya woke to a clang that sounded somewhere below her. She looked to her sister; she was still curled up in herself, sound asleep. Only Honey had also been jerked awake, to Safiya's chagrin. Rooming with questionable thieves was not a thing she enjoyed. The gods were most certainly testing her now, but to what end? Honey looked to Safiya, who stood up and tip-toed over to the edge of their terrace of safety to peek over the metal railing. Someone was shuffling about a couple of floors below them, barely illuminated by the faint rays of the sunrise. They didn't seem interested in what was happening above them, where Safiya and her group of weary travellers took rest. Relieved, but nonetheless on guard, Safiya quietly made her way back to her sister's side and motioned to Honey that there was no danger, but to keep quiet.

The group did not wake for another few hours, not until the sun was up and more than just a single worker clamored around below. All the while, Safiya sat in silence. Thinking. She thought about the past few days – the destruction of her home, her arrest, Priyanka's yet-unattended injury, Velt's confusing questions and interrogations, and the cause of it all: the Veltie King. It had to have been him who ordered the military movement, who ordered the desolation of her town and country. She had a task set by the gods themselves, to avenge her family and the innocents lost, but when she had finally come to face the evil soul, who had been unarmed, she had done nothing.

Why?

Pain in her arm jerked Safiya out of her mind and back into her body. Yes, I must focus on what is around me at this moment, not on what once was, she thought as she held her arm and peered at the faces of her companions, who were slowly waking. One by one, the group sat up, joined last by Clara. As Safiya watched Clara converse briefly with Honey, she thought of it. There was still one way to decisively destroy the King of Velt and his entire empire, and that was by the Charlatan.

"So, who is the swindler?" The auburn-haired lady named Charlie piped up. Safiya listened closely as Clara ceased conversing with Honey and turned 'round to face her friend. She wore a hesitant expression.

"I do not know who the Charlatan is. Dispatch tasked me with a delivery from Genesis to the Citadel, a letter for King Arc Jin, and I took the job. The King, for some reason, decided to lose his marbles to the building that houses him and declare me the Charlatan, a liar and grand extortionist, who bankrupted the country, simply out of convenience." Clara began matter-of-factly, but diminished to a low grumble by the time she ran her words.

"I thought you had to have been framed, but I did not realize that the real culprit was still mystery," Charlie answered as she folded her arms. "To be frank, I thought the whole of the Citadel would have been shut down if someone had embezzled the entire country out of its gold."

"It didn't?" Clara inquired. Charlie shook her head.

"Not many of us knew what had happened. Your wanted posters appeared almost overnight, but I had not seen the King until, well, just this moonrise. I only knew some of the story because of my proximity to drunken guard and constabulary members. Even with that, the news that we are bankrupt is new to me as of your telling just now. Even with the banks closed, no one thought that their hard-won earnings could be gone forever. The cityfolk were readier to deny bankruptcy than they were to deny that the King may have been murdered. That is the Veltie way, I suppose."

Murder? The word echoed in Safiya's head. Velt was indeed notorious for its history of violence and warmongering, but to default to death in order to avoid a dent in their riches was a level of greed Safiya had always thought existed only in hyperbole.

"Your country seems... rather extreme," Safiya finally interjected. Clara flashed her a strange look. Charlie sighed.

"With our history, most of us jump to the conclusion that our ruler has been overthrown when the scent of battle hangs in the air," Charlie explained. "We had a hereditary monarchy until only recently, and that system proved disastrous enough for coup upon coup to take place. This was before my time, but most of the cityfolk were around when fights for the throne and assassination plots were common news items. With no information but posters of Clara with WANTED: The Charlatan stamped on it, the people kept using their gold, albeit a bit more carefully since they only had access to what they had on hand."