A Proposition

The Inn was warm and lively, filled with the smell of good food and the sound of an expertly played lute by a young bard. The Vampire walked Salazar over to an empty table and sat down. Aware enough not to cause a scene, an admittedly intrigued, Salazar sat down across form her. “Echo.”, she offered a hand which Salazar shook, finding it cold yet soft, “Salazar.”. She held intense eye contact for a few seconds and was met with a stone-faced Salazar, then she rolled her eyes and laughed, “Come on, relax. If I intended to harm you, I would have picked quite possibly the worst place to do so in the whole city at this time of day.”. Salazar did agree that it was clear she wanted to talk, for now at least, “Fine, I’m listening bloodsucker. Don’t waste my time.”. “Don’t call me that!”, she pouted but failed to get a reaction out of him, “Whatever, let me get to the point. I have big plans in this city. Plans for power and wealth, which, ironically, require both power and wealth to undertake. Noone has proven to be worthy of more than being my pawn so far, but I felt you approaching the city from miles away. I am so curious, what are your abilities?”, she leaned forward with pleading eyes, partly exposing her cleavage, “Please tell me.”.

“Nice try, maybe I’ll show you later.”, Salazar shot her down, “I do find myself short on allies currently I must admit.”. He didn’t want to admit that he essentially just wandered into a town filled with powerful warriors and inhabited by a sage without a plan. That was precisely what he had done though. “We could work together, bloodsucker, but I only do specifics. What exactly is your plan, and would you hope to achieve it?”. Echo frowned, “You need to stop calling me that.”. “What, bloodsucker?”, Salazar chuckled, “Isn’t that what you are though?”. “I don’t call you water-sucker or meat-muncher, do I? It’s just… demeaning.”, she seemed unwilling to back down from this, even though her expression didn’t show genuine anger. *Maybe just a powerplay*, he thought, “Fine, Echo, will you tell me about your plan?”.

“Of course, I will.”, she smiled, “Our way to power is through the local underworld. The nobility is frequently visited by dangerous warriors, sometimes even heroes.”. Salazar had heard his former Mistress talk of heroes occasionally. They were ridiculously powerful individuals with divine blessings. Even with the aid of Urien, a hero was completely out of his league at this point. “Your expression tells me I don’t need to elaborate on how fucked we’d be if we ran into a hero at this point.”, Echo said and Salazar confirmed with a nod, “Good, so you see we must first construct a strong foundation in the underworld, accumulate power, influence and knowledge, before we can leap at those noble throats.”.

Salazar liked how that sounded. He was much more familiar with the generally dark underbellies of society than the ballrooms and festivities that nobles loved so much. “I agree, but how do we get a foot in the door there? Got connections here?”, he asked. “Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. So impatient, pretty boy. There are three major groups within the city. The Alabaster Family, the Black Banner Clan and the Lowrunner Gang.

Alabaster is the toughest nut to crack, the control gambling and ****, touch tips with the nobility quite regularly.

Black Banner is slippery, hard to get a grip on but a mighty asset once we do. They are assassins, thieves and spies, dealing in ****, expensive things and information.

Lowrunners are mostly protection rackets and prostitution. They are a good candidate for a first target, as they are spread pretty thin and not too strong individually. We would do well not to underestimate their considerable numbers though.

What do you think, who do we target first?”.

“You know a lot; it would be advantageous for me to work with you. I’ll have to consider the options and tell you tomorrow.”, Salazar pushed his chair back and moved to get up. “I bet you’re tired.”, Echo quickly got up and moved towards him until there was only an inch between them. She looked up at him, “Do you want to share a room? Cut costs, you know. You still haven’t shown me your powers yet.”. Salazar raised an eyebrow, it was hard to tell if what was flashing in her eyes was a lust for battle or for fucking, but he decided he was fine with either, “Sure thing, bloodsucker.”.