Enlightened Empire

Thick clouds covered the night sky of Saniya, as they did on most days of the year. Even in the most lively city of the south, darkness ruled once the sun sank into the sea. It was a time when the city’s unsavory elements came out to earn their keep. As usual, all of them were busy at work, when their bad deeds were interrupted by an intruder.

Without warning, the clouds parted and let through a single sliver of silvery moonlight. The ray bounced off the surface of the Mayura River and turned it into a mirror of white. From there, the lights spread further into the dark alleys of the city. As the surroundings were illuminated, all the gangsters, killers, spies and cheats shrank away and rushed to the shadows, in search of sanctuary from the light. For these creatures of the night, even the brightness of the moon was too much to handle.

However, two solitary shadows didn’t have the same luxury as the others and had to remain under the searing shine of the moon. After all, they were stuck on a tiny boat in the middle of the Mayura. Thus, they had to accept the bright moonlight without any defense to call their own.

\"Damn, what’s that blasted weather doing now!\" Although moonlight was hardly a rare phenomenon at night, Kizco still couldn’t suppress a curse.

\"Get us to the shore. Quick, before someone sees us!\" his partner ordered.

While they were flustered at first, the two shadowy figures didn’t panic. Now that they were already in the light, they could only hope that no-one would see their escape, or that any observer would overlook them as a normal part of the scenery. With strong, even strokes, Kizco moved their small rowboat away from the three islands at the center of the river and towards the shore of the mainland. As soon as they reached dry land again, they jumped onto the pier in unison. Soon, they would disappear into the darkness like all the others. However, before they could attempt their escape, they were greeted by a figure who marched towards them from the city roads.

As soon as they realized who had come to meet them, both dark figures stiffened again. Yet by the time the newcomer had come close enough for a conversation, they appeared quite natural, like two commoners who had been lost at night.

\"Evening, boys.\" the new arrival said. As his form emerged from the darkness, a bright light from his left hand illuminated the area, and with it, the arrival’s identity was cleared up.

His clean, well-cut robes were a dark gray, almost black, that made him blend into his surroundings at night. A wooden stick in a sheath on his hip showed his combat prowess, while the lantern in his left shone into their eyes. Although he looked like a robber eager for an easy score, he was someone even more dangerous, even more nefarious: This was a member of Saniya’s new ’police force’, a group of warriors delegated to enforce the southern king’s tyrannical will onto his people.

Right away, the two men who had come ashore weighed their options. If the police was alone, he would be easy to take out and dump in the river. However, their sharp eyes pierced through the darkness and found a second police man, waiting around a corner in case something happened to the first. With no choice left, the two looked at each other and took on the meek appearance of commoner fools.

\"Good evening, master. What’s wrong?\" Kizco came forward and asked, his back slumped to show his submission.

\"What are you doing here in the middle of the night? Don’t you know it’s dangerous out?\"

\"Of course, sir. But we were surprised by the nightfall. It was so warm today that we didn’t notice when it got darker.\"

As soon as he said it, Kizco realized that he had screwed up. It was already the middle of the night, how could anyone not realize the darkness for hours? As expected, the police man’s eyes narrowed as he looked around for anything suspicious.

\"What were you doing out there in the first place? Who are you two?\"

\"We are brothers, master,\" Kizco tried again. \"Fishermen by trade.\"

\"So you were fishing in the middle of the night?\" the police man looked back and forth between them, while his hand slowly reached for his baton. In response, Kizco raised his hand with faked fear, while he searched his brain for an impromptu excuse.

\"Ah, no. We were fishing earlier, when my grandpa’s heirloom fell in the water. We’ve been looking for it all this time. We only found it floating on the water when the moon came through, so we rowed back as soon as we got it.\"

\"Uhuh, and what is that item of yours?\" the police man asked, no less suspicious than before.

A moment ago, Kizco had still been proud of the story he had come up with on the spot, but now he began to sweat bullets, despite the cold night.

\"Ahaha, of course it is uhm... my grandfather’s...\" While he was speaking in stops and starts, he searched his pockets for anything he could pass off as an heirloom. After all, he knew that he would be asked to show it off to the police man as soon as he named the item. What did he have that could be considered an heirloom, not to mention something that would float in an open river this close to the ocean without sinking and without drifting out to sea? From the start, his excuse had been full of holes, and it was only a matter of time until the police realized.

Behind him, Kizco could feel his partner tense up as well. Without another way out, they would have to take down the two police and hope they would get away before reinforcements arrived.

\"Your grandfather’s what?\" the policeman pressed on and looked past Kizco and towards the second spy.

\"It’s his...\" Slowly, Kizco’s hand closed around the dagger hidden in his clothes. No matter how well-trained these new guards thought they were, they wouldn’t stand a chance against a proper cultivator, much less one with a weapon. Yet just as he put strength in his legs and got ready to jump forward, the policeman’s actions surprised him.

\"Your boat’s drifting away,\" he shouted and pointed his lantern towards the shore.

\"Huh?\" with a dumb face, the two spies looked behind them, just to see their boat trundle away from the pier and down the river towards the ocean.

\"Oh crap!\" Kizco shouted. \"We didn’t moor it!\"

Without a care for the police, both men charged after the boat. Although the police chased after them, it wasn’t to catch them. A few minutes later, they were back to the pier. All three men were drenched by the waters of the Mayura now. Somehow, they had managed to catch the boat before it was out in the open sea.

With a sigh, the police man wrung the water out of his long sleeves.

\"Okay, I’ll be off to warm up,\" he said in an annoyed voice. \"You guys make sure you don’t go out this late at night anymore, and fasten your boat properly. Learn your knots, even I know that much.\"

Although he still had a stern voice, the policeman trembled from the cold water and the nightly temperatures. He may still be suspicious of them, but he had been distracted by the boat incident, and would rather get in front of a tavern’s fireplace than spend one more second with the two unlikely fishermen.

\"Of course, master. Thank you, master.\" While the two bowed again and again, the police officer disappeared back into the street, followed by his colleague, who had been waiting within the darkness all this time.

As soon as the threat was gone, both spies took a deep breath. However, they didn’t linger long to celebrate their luck. After they gave each other a nod, both men followed the police and disappeared into the streets as well. Within the darkness, they would find their secret headquarters.

__________________________

Inside a dark and seedy room, a small door opened to let in two dark figures, still wet with river water. At last, the two spies had crossed through the darkness and were safe. However, two of their fellows were already sitting there, and they were not happy.

\"Where were you?\" one of them moaned. \"Vicao’s cell is still missing as well.\"

\"We’ve been held up. Don’t mention it.\" Kizco replied and took a seat himself. \"More importantly, did we find out anything new?\"

All members of their small team operated in small two-man cells. They only met in this secret room once every ten nights, to assemble any information they had collected, and send it back north through secret channels even they were not privy to. At the end of their missions, all members of the operation would be punished and rewarded together, and since they never had contact with their masters, there was no way to inflate their own contribution in any way. With this method, they were forced to work together, whether they liked it or not. At least it reduced tension and improved cooperation during missions.

\"Nothing, as usual,\" the first spy complained. \"It’s impossible to get into the main islands. Especially Chukru Island, and that is the one where they hide all the important workshops. At this point, we’re simply wasting our time in this place.\"

All the newly arrived craftsmen and merchants had made it easy to enter Saniya itself. However, Chukru Island sat behind Rapra Castle and was isolated from the rest of the city. Yet this was the exact place they needed to infiltrate. After all, their official mission was to uncover the secrets of Saniya.

Learning these secrets would give them great clout with their master, but work had been slow. The new police force was everywhere, and many of their fellows had already been apprehended over the past few months. However, for the first time since their arrival, Kizco had some progress to show for his efforts.

\"Hah! If you think it’s impossible, you understand nothing of proper spy work,\" he replied with a smug grin.

\"Wait, you found something?\" his incredulous colleague asked. \"But I thought you just sat around on the Mayura all day. You didn’t sneak onto the island, did you?\"

\"Of course not. But a real master doesn’t need to sneak anywhere to gain some information. Let me enlighten you, you amateur.\"

Kizco spread his hand to emphasize his words.

\"First of all, what is our mission?\"

\"To sneak onto Chukru island, find and steal the secrets of the southern king.\" \"Idiot, of course that’s not it,\" Kizco reprimanded. However, his opposite looked unhappy with his own inferiority.

\"Then if you’re so smart, why not just tell me what our mission is?\" he complained.

\"Of course. I’m glad to educate you, friend,\" Kizco said. \"Our mission is to find out how to make all those products that have been selling so well among the nobility in the north. I believe Master doesn’t like how much money his warriors are sending into the south every season. This has gotten so bad that a few northern lords have begun to ban Saniya goods in their cities, but the warriors and commoners just travel to other estates close-by to get them. Of course master isn’t interested in mere ’secrets’. What master really wants is for us to find the secret production methods of these valuable goods.\"

With their constant production of purple dye, vanilla, Chutwa glaze, glass and soap, the southerners stood to dominate Medala’s entire economy in the near future. Recently, Saniya had even begun to mass-export high-quality salt and their mysterious fertilizer to the north. Thus, it was clear what Kizco’s master had really wanted when he had asked them to steal Saniya’s secrets.

\"So you thought that was some great revelation, you genius?\" his upset fellow shouted. \"Everyone can figure that much out with a bit of thinking. But even if we know that, nothing changes. Even if our end-goal is different now, we still need to get onto the island. They make all their secret products there, and everyone who knows the production methods lives there as well, as do their families. They never leave the island, for no reason whatsoever. And no one is allowed on unless they live there as well, or unless they are government workers. It’s easier to get into Rapra Castle than it is to get onto Chukru Island.\"

\"See, that’s why I’m the genius here, as you said,\" Kizco replied, unperturbed by his friend’s pessimism. \"We don’t actually need to go to the island to find out how they make their things. We can find out a whole lot just by looking at the daily shipments to the island.\"

At last, his slow friend understood Kizco’s deep plans.

\"So that’s what you have been doing on the river,\" the enlightened spy said.

\"That’s right. We got the idea after our last meeting. If we know what they are transporting to the island, wouldn’t we know what they need for their secret dyes and such? We spent the entire ten days since then traveling around on the markets to see what the king’s men are buying in bulk. Over the last few days, we floated around on the Mayura and watched every single ship that left for Chukru Island. Together with that and some sneaking onto ships during the night, it was easy to tell what sort of stuff they’ve been transporting.\"

\"But all you get is a mess of materials, isn’t it? They produce all kinds of stuff over there. How would we know what belongs to what?\"

\"Sure, they carry over all kinds of things, and I’m not a craftsman myself, but we don’t need to find out all the production methods at once. From the resources we’ve collected, at least a few of them become obvious.\"

\"Like what?\" His fellow leaned forward, finally clued in on Kizco’s brilliance.

\"Well, what’s the single most valuable thing Saniya has exported since their new king took power?\"

\"The dye,\" the slow warrior realized.

\"That’s right,\" Kizco replied with his head held high. \"Purple dye. And what else was Saniya known for before the king arrived? Something that’s also purple in color?\"

As understanding dawned, his fellow looked at Kizco with large eyes.

\"You guessed right,\" the genius spy answered his own question. \"It’s the lavender. They’ve been harvesting and drying all the lavender around the city, and they’ve moved all of it onto Chukru Island. Now I don’t know how, but they somehow extract the color from the flowers and put it in their glass bottles. Now tell me again how that’s just a ’mess of materials’.\"

Even though Kizco had provoked a response, the others in the room were far too entranced to be angry.

\"Unbelievable,\" one of them whispered.

\"That’s right. Now you see my genius,\" Kizco repeated, now fired up and ready to blow their minds some more. \"Here’s another one: The king has been buying shells from the market en masse.\"

\"So he likes shellfish.\" His fellow’s conclusion elicited a sigh from Kizco. Why was he the only smart one in the group?

\"No, that’s not it. He is buying empty shells, not full ones.\"

\"Why would he do that?\"

\"Think, idiot, think. It’s clearly an important material for their production, or they wouldn’t be shipping them over to Chukru. The question is for what? Now, do you know the other name for Chutwa glaze? Especially the commoners call it like that.\"

Again, his fellows showed that they had some basic knowledge and sense, even if they were a bit slow.

\"Shellcraft?\" One of them guessed correctly. \"So the shells are ground and turned into glaze?\"

\"That has to be it, right? There is probably more to it, but the method should be easy to guess with some more experimentation. Once we supply that sort of information, master will-\"

Just as the spies were getting excited at the prospect of glory and rewards, the door opened out of nowhere, and everyone turned quiet and alert. However, they relaxed the grips on their respective daggers as soon as they saw the new arrival’s face.

\"Vicao, Cusi, you’re late,\" they told the last men of their operation, as the two entered the room.

\"Forget it, and drop whatever you have been doing,\" Vicao announced. \"None of it matters any more.\"

\"What did you say?\" Kizco complained. \"We just received some incredible information.\"

\"No, I mean it,\" Vicao repeated with a grin. \"I just found us a way onto Chukru Island.\"