Radeon paused under the cabinet and let the new question turn over in his mind.
He stacked what he knew of their work into clean piles.
Weapon dealing. Bounty hunting under false banners. Assassinations that wore the excuse of justice. Highway robbery dressed up as toll collection.
The whole underbelly of Goldkeep Crownmarkets fed on it. Radeon wanted it all.
But stripping the underground forces bare was more than profit. It was leverage. Eliminate their teeth bared at him, and the honest merchants would cling to his city for safety.
It was one of the keys to a political foothold in the Crownmarkets, a way to make his peak seem less like a novelty and more like a necessity.
After another sweep, the silverfish returned. The five ghosts slipped back into his hollowed form and shed their insect shapes.
They submitted their findings through the system like dutiful clerks. Radeon felt their elation, grinning ear to ear inside the link.
