Friends In The Lowest of Low Places

"And me!" Blaze spoke up, never one to be left out.

Shiv took the seat offered, while Blaze ran over to the balcony and hopped up on her tiptoes to see over the banister.

"Lucille tells me you have a business proposal?" The princess cut right to the chase.

"Yup." He slowly grew a small stool underneath Blaze so she could see better. "I've got plants. Normal ones, special ones, illegal ones, the whole shebang."

The blonde's eyebrow jumped to new heights. "You're awfully bold, telling me that you have illegal items in your possession."

"They're plants. Not items. And how so? You just make the rules; not follow them."

"I believe you have me mistaken for a tyrant." Her tone turned sharp.

"You can't change the rules whenever you like to better suit your wants and needs?"

"... I can."

"Sweet. How would you like a flower that, when mashed up and rubbed on your skin, makes that skin very, very fire resistant for about half an hour? Or a cactus that, when consumed, enhances the effects of all kinds of flowers just like the one I mentioned first? Or, perhaps…" Shiv went on to mention several more of the plants in his possession as well as their effects.

When he stopped, the princess had a contemplative look as she studied his face. A few seconds of her searching stare made him uncomfortably begin to shift slightly in his seat.

"Where are you keeping them?" She asked suddenly, standing up and walking to the banister, she turned her gaze to what lay below.

Shiv hesitated, then followed, moving to stand next to Blaze. He was amazed by what he saw.

Below was a vast colosseum filled to the brim with a silent mass of people. It looked like they were talking and moving about, being perfectly normal human beings… that didn't make a sound.

The princess was lost in her thoughts, and seemed to have forgotten the question she'd asked him. "My father, in his own royal balcony, doesn't have wind mages create a sound barrier to keep the common rabble's noise away. He always spins some lie like 'a true ruler should listen to his people'. What do you think of that?"

'Wind mages can silence things? I need to get one of those to follow Uriel around.'

"I think I want to know why you think he's lying." Shiv responded, leaning out over the balcony. When he did so, he was shocked by the abrupt transition from hearing relative silence to hearing the roar of thousands of people in the crowd. He quickly pulled his head back into the balcony.

"The only reason he does it is so that he doesn't have to listen to my mother nagging him about listening to the people's pleas." The princess continued, a vindictive expression on her face.

Shiv couldn't help it; he laughed. "That makes sense." He sat back down and crossed his ankle over his knee. "I have a sample of each plant on my person, and no, those samples do not have seeds or anything that could let you grow new plants from them." Shiv lied with arrogance plastered over every inch of his being.

"What if I did want your plants- when would I get them?"

"The moment you give me the money."

They talked for several more minutes before the princess decided that she did, indeed, want those plants. Several minutes later, they had worked out the amount Shiv would be paid, and he remembered something else to mention." Oh, I have massive amounts of normal food crops that I'm looking to sell as well. I honestly have enough to feed everyone in the capital for a solid couple of weeks. Though if you wanted them, it'd take a bit longer to deliver simply because of the massive quantities we would be dealing with."

The princess's eyes lit up. "Yes, I am very interested in your food crops."

Shiv rubbed his hands together in excitement, and they began to work out the details for this deal as well.

They finished this and both turned to look into the colosseum, and Shiv was surprised to see a woman in a very large hat standing on a platform in the center of the colosseum, apparently giving a speech, judging by her broad gestures and the way the crowd was jumping up and down at certain moments. All around her, on the ground of the colosseum, were incredibly strange looking people. There were several giants, a few hunchbacks, some people with four arms and even a man with two heads.

Shiv got up to get a better view, and watched with surprise as the strange people began dancing and making weird motions. Soon after they finished, all of them cleared out aside from a hunchback and the two-headed man, who began battling. Shiv could tell that the fight was staged, with each and every movement carefully choreographed, but despite that, or maybe because of it, the fight was that much more interesting to watch. One slip up, and there would be two one-headed men down there.

He watched the fight with interest until its conclusion. The two-headed man surrendered when he fell to the ground and the hunchback shot a ball of fire in between his heads. They left the arena, the hunchback with his head held as high as it could go with his deformity, and the two heads on the other dejectedly faced down.

Lucille spoke some words from atop her platform, then two pairs of giants exited and clashed with each other. Shiv nodded to himself and sat back down.

The fights reminded him of someone else - Briggs. 'Didn't Briggs talk about dating a princess?' He causally glanced back at the blonde woman, making brief eye contact. 'I mean, she's pretty… but she doesn't seem like Briggs' type.'

"There is one more thing." The princess had been watching him curiously the entire time he'd watched the fight. "How would you like to have a monopoly on the food from farms in this city?"

Shiv tried desperately to keep anything from showing on his face. 'Is she testing me? Does she already know my plans? How could she? Only… only her ex husband knows my plans.'

"Hah! Who wouldn't?"

She studied him in silence for several more seconds, causing Shiv to seriously consider the fact that he probably had something on his face. 'I hope it's not blood.'

"Recent developments have forced me to move much faster than I usually would, but it is what it is. I will help you monopolize the food crops of the capital."

Shiv's mind raced faster than it'd ever done before. 'The more the merrier, right? I don't think she'll be too much of a hindrance.'

"Sounds good to me. Oh, I was curious - how's your husband?" He instantly regretted asking that. He'd meant to ask if she had a husband, but it just came out as it had.

Her expression darkened. "He is dead. In the future, I would rather you did not mention him."

"Ah, yeah I'm sorry. I'm a foreigner, y'know, and we have different ways… and stuff. Sorry." Shiv searched frantically for something else to talk about, but eventually settled on, "I'll go ahead and get your plants ready." He stood up, adjusted his sweat-stainef shirt, nodded at the nobles who were all pretending that they hadn't been staring at him moments before, grabbed Blaze's hand and left.

"She was pretty." Blaze said.

"No, Blaze. She was scary. Very, very scary."

"Oooh Brother asked me to tell him what you were afraid and now I know!" She clapped and laughed.

"Hey! Don't go telling that shaggy oaf stuff like that."

Blaze ignored him and skipped happily the rest of the way out of the castle.

Back in the city proper, Shiv finally noticed the distinct lack of people crowding the streets.

There was, however, an extremely familiar face among the still sizeable crowd of city folk going about their business. Shiv made a beeline for the man and walked with him to a bar the man had chosen beforehand. The bouncer at the door didn't even blink when Blaze walked in like she owned the place.

"Who is that scary man?" She whispered to Shiv in a very loud whisper.

"Whisper quieter. And this, this is Burnface. An old pal of mine."

And indeed it was.

"I came here on the right day, right?" Burnface asked as he looked around nervously.

"You did. And I've got your boss's money, as well as a new set of orders. Also, I want you to let him know to start on the thing we talked about."

Burnface nodded as if he understood, though Shiv sensed that he didn't. With a sigh, he reiterated. "Just tell Briggs to begin working on phase one. And tell him that there's been a slight adjustment to the plan, that being that we have someone in the capital aiding us."