Chapter 12) One Last Hope
Vey leaned back against the wall, still catching his breath. "Alright… one more thing. What the hell happened to the Black Market? Last time we passed through, you swore it was still a safe channel."
Cael's jaw tightened. "It's not anymore."
"What do you mean 'not anymore'?"
"I mean it's gone," Cael said flatly. "Not burned down, not emptied , just closed to us. Completely."
Vey frowned. "That doesn't make sense. They've never cared about reputations before. If you had coin or trade, you walked in."
Cael gave a bitter laugh. "Yeah, well… now they care. Or at least they care about our names."
"Why?"
"Varn's crew," Cael muttered. "LR Varna's been busy. They've been spreading our names all over the network. Not just whispers , loud, ugly stories. Painting us as liabilities. As traitors. As people you don't touch unless you want trouble."
Vey's eyes narrowed. "So they've poisoned the well."
"Exactly. And the Market listens. Now if we show up, it's not just a bad deal , it's no deal. They won't even let us near the gates."
Vey swore under his breath. "That kills the whole plan."
Cael nodded grimly. "No Black Market means no discreet hiring, no anonymous trades, no way to gather a crew without broadcasting it to every informant within ten miles."
"Which means," Vey said slowly, "we have no safe way to build our team."
Cael's voice was flat. "Not through them, no."
Vey rubbed his temples. "Perfect. So our one clean path is gone, and every other option's going to leave footprints."
---
Vey kicked at a loose stone, the clatter echoing down the narrow alley. "Then we need a new way. Another route to find allies , real ones , people who can stand with us against this mess."
Cael shook his head immediately. "Every path we try leads straight to the worst outcome."
Vey's brow furrowed. "You don't know that."
"I do," Cael said, his tone sharp. "Because if we screw up once , even once , and Arcane Division catches wind, or worse, the Internal Circle itself hears about it… we're done. No second chances. No safehouses. Just a quick, ugly end."
Vey stayed silent, his jaw tightening.
Cael went on, voice low. "We're already marked. The Black Market won't touch us. My name's flagged in the Arcane Division , Marlo himself knows it. Varn's crew is already hunting us. Every broker, every informant, every rat in this Zone? They've been told we're poison."
Vey exhaled slowly. "So we're boxed in."
"Boxed in?" Cael's laugh was humorless. "We're choking. No one here trusts us. And even if we did find someone, it'd take one whisper, one slip, and the Circle would know exactly where to cut."
The rain outside the alley picked up, drumming harder on the rooftops.
Vey asked, "Then what? We just wait for them to close in?"
Cael's gaze sharpened. "No. There's one last way to find real allies."
---
Cael's voice dropped to almost a whisper, like even the rain might be listening.
"There's one name left we can try. The Black Consortium."
Vey frowned. "Never heard of them."
"That's because they don't put up signs or shout their name in the streets. They're huge, Vey. Bigger than the Powder Vein. Bigger than anything the Circle pretends to control. And inside them? There are layers , whole webs of smaller crews, gangs, clans… each one running its own racket."
Vey crossed his arms. "Sounds like chaos."
"It is," Cael admitted. "But it works for them. The public , the normal public , doesn't know a thing. The criminal world? They only talk about five of the major subgroups. Five out of… who knows how many. Dozens, maybe hundreds."
"And you think we can just walk in and shake hands with one of them?" Vey asked, skeptical.
"We don't need all of them," Cael said. "Just one crew inside the Consortium. One that doesn't care about politics or who's killing who in which Zone. They don't play the Circle's game, and they don't bow to Arcane Division."
Vey studied him. "What do they care about?"
Cael's eyes hardened. "Business. Profit. Their own survival. And they'll kill anyone who gets in the way of that , no hesitation, no second thoughts."
Vey gave a short, humorless laugh. "So if we screw up, they just put a bullet in our heads."
"Exactly," Cael said. "Which is why we'd have to tread carefully. But they're our only real shot. No politics, no allegiance to the Circle or Division. Just the kind of muscle and connections that could actually keep us breathing."
The rain kept falling, the alley growing darker as clouds swallowed the last bit of light.
Vey finally asked, "And you know how to find them?"
Cael's answer was quiet, but certain. "I know where to start.