In the morning Cutlery found Haze in the dining hall. At first, she thought she was a first sliver again. The memory of his morning announcements and horrible quests surfaced. He glanced at her, smiled, and went back to his paper. The dining hall was crowded unlike normal. Cutlery had slept in so it was odd seeing all the early birds still in the room. As the last late risers filtered in the paper crinkled. Haze folded his paper and swallowed his drink.
"Thank you for waiting early birds. I regret to inform everyone here that one of our fourth slivers has perished." Haze said calmly. The room stayed quiet. A few gasps went around, good actors, or perhaps they cared.
"The other two feinted but were quickly resurrected from death shortly after. They are being questioned now, but no suspects are currently found. If any of you suspect you are poisoned, about to be assassinated, or in danger overall outside your missions, let us know. For now, there is an open position on the fourth floor and another in the fifth's private chambers. Work hard, you might be promoted." Haze said. He took another drink.
"Secondly, the Temple is approaching. If it stays on schedule, which it never does, then it will be here in five to seven days. Likely longer since it always seems to make stops along the way." Haze said. He eyed them slowly and breathed in.
"This is the single most important event that occurs on Potestatem so things are gonna tighten up. The loss of a medium-level sliver is a bad omen. If you want to get more slivers then now is the time to perform. Your missions will be strict and precise. Everything must be perfect for the Temple's arrival. Many important tower events are leaning on the Temple's arrival. Don't let heretics or other idiots crash the party." Haze said.
A clink sounded as Haze set his cup down. The paper went under his arm as he stood.
"We will find those who hurt our own. We will benefit from the Temple's arrival. Lastly, we will all create a peaceful Zurkonia." Haze said. He exited the room.
That was the first time Cutlery had heard him say they would create a peaceful Zurkonia. Must be a low priority. A few youths in the room exchanged excited glances. Their mutiny, their coup, and their plans would happen on the day of the Temples' arrival.
Everything was falling together. Soon, they would step up into positions of authority. Or, at the least, the Tower would suffer for its crimes against its people.
Someone said Haze had posted a new calendar outside the lunch hall. Everyone was pushed out to see what their all-important jobs would be. The paper was a smaller version that focused on the next ten days alone. The now larger spaces were packed with details.
Cutlery found herself marked for observation and silence patrol. Scary name. Under it said she was to quietly watch along the listed streets for trouble and report suspicious activity. In crisp easy-to-read lettering, it also stated to silence and put an immediate stop to any threats to the safety of Zurkonia. She was going to be watching parade routes and making sure no one ran out into the parade or fired a fireball at a bunch of nobles waving at the people. The work went for twelve hours a day, for five days. She would switch with Jake who had the night shift. At least she got to work during the day.
A mission with briefing was her first task on the entire sheet.
The rest of the list showed everyone with similar security jobs. So the third sliver would be filling the role of evil cronies. Hopefully, no heroes showed up and killed them like side characters in a fairy tale. The end of the list said they would have many days off after the Temple passed.
For now, the rebellion began to scheme. Everyone split apart into their teams. Each group needed to figure out how to fuck up their jobs in the best way possible. She and Jake met in Tool's room. Tool had told them,
"You guys appreciate my good equipment, unlike the brutes who just want sharper swords and the arcanists who just want more magic complexity." So Tool worked away at some projects and occasionally suggested things to use.
"We could see how many pickpockets we could get into one crowd." Cutlery suggested.
"A magnet!" Tool yelped.
"A what?" Cutlery said.
"Get a shiny rock that makes shiny things come to it and the pickpockets can steal all the coins at once!" Tool said excitedly.
"We aren't trying to get money, and wouldn't that get noticed?" Cutlery asked. Tool frowned and simply turned back to their project.
Cutlery and Jake made one final idea. They would create a fake scare for the nobles. In fear, they would retreat into a seedy spot. There are some local cutthroats they could tip off would be waiting. They had a lack of leadership skills and hadn't been in the city recently. If the tower suspected them of anything those would be their excuses.
Other small ideas kept coming. By the end of it, Cutlery realized she was gonna be cut loose in the city, for the first time in months.
-
Cutlery had prepared for the Temples festivities well. Her training and gear operated well outside the tower. Tool had crafted hooks and caltrops for her movement and traps. With some light practice, she could even throw the hook and let it snap onto things while she was already in the air.
She stood over a Zurkonian thoroughfare. Four hours into the first day of parading nobles had yielded no crime. Everyone was drunk, young, or a good citizen. So she sat down with her back up against a chimney. There were town guards who dealt with fundamental issues. A stumbling drunk pushing over a roadblock was not her problem.
Exercising her position of power over the low rabble was nice, but also boring. Grabbing a commoner twice her size and throwing them back into the crowd could be fun. From her watchpoint, she could see one man leaning heavily on the loose strip of cloth that guarded the road.
A sigh escaped her as he fell and three guards a hundred feet away came tromping over. Glancing down into the alleyway below her, she saw no waiting assassins. Across the road to the other rooftops showed no archers. Her position on a street corner showed her nearly half a mile of the road to her left and right.
The altitude of her roof also put her above every nearby roof. Anyone who wanted to hide from her would have to go into a building. From what she knew, no one could cast a spell through a window so she would see them smashing or opening the glass to do so.
All in all, the job was easy. Extra brain power could focus on looking for the noble float they had picked out in the preparation. It would be a nearly defenseless and shiny float. The nobles on it were from some long-established family that supported the tower. They had decided to stand on the edges of the float and wave and shake hands with the commoners. A wildly progressive idea. This left them without walls or guards between them and the people. The middle of the float would be dominated by a huge statue shooting out water.
An item produced a constant stream of water that changed color and sparkled. Small bits of metal were mixed into it for the sparkle effect. The metal looked valuable. This part of the floats description was emphasized earlier that day. Meeting with her old street rat gang, Cutlery had told them of the coming nobles.
The group of children Cutlery had used in her Many Home times did not recognize her new adult form. They did recognize the value of the information. They went scampering off to sell it to every street gang and criminal enterprise that used them for rumor-milling.
If the rats had done a good job, which Cutlery trusted they had, the "safe" street she would lead the float down after an accident occurred, would be filled with violent individuals. So as the small crowd of hooded, bulging cloaks gathered in the square behind her building, she did nothing.
