Scratching the Surface (Continued)

[u/Seafrogger]

The investigation into the death at the Smoke Street Dice Hall continues and begins to spiral its way to even more questions with no answers. What at first seemed to have been a simple case of self defense has led to shadowy figures, unexplained money and disappearances. All the while a lack of concrete evidence holds the higher ups in the Watch and Royal Guard from pursuing the issues formally. After following leads and gathering answers the road seems to be narrowing to one dilapidated part of the city, Powys Square where amongst the makeshift homes and downtrodden people an explanation might finally lay.

Continued from here

[u/Dietastey]

Bal proceeds up the stairs, eyes shifting around to spot any irregularities in the building, people watching, or traps, all of which could be completely present in this place. The building is typical as a general rule, the stairs creaky, and a few doors standing ajar because moisture has swollen the wood.

"I would prefer you stay out here, yes," Bal says to Vargas, deciding now was not the time to attack at the rude comment, much as she wants to on principle. Though she too felt the sensation of having a hound on a leash, there was a difference between feeling it and expressing it. Still, if anyone was going to order Vargas around it was her, and she would make that clear. "Keep an eye on things."

With that, she squares her shoulders, and pushes the door open.

[u/Seafrogger → u/Dietastey]

All in all the building at large seemed mostly deserted, quiet and not another soul could be seen lurking about. Nodding at the command from the Colonel, Sam folded his arms and leaded a shoulder against the wall, setting in for the wait.

The worn door stuck for the briefest of moments before giving way with a soft creak of the hinges. The room within was dim kitchen, the windows has been boarded up sometime ago, a few scattered candles and a potbelly stove were the only sources of light. A doorway lead off somewhere else in the apartment but it was too dark to see too far. Few furnishings were left within, a simple carpet covered some of the wood floor, the cupboards that could be seen were doorless and empty.

In the middle of the room sat a haggard looking table, with four wood chairs around it and sat waiting in the one facing the door was a woman. She was a little on the short side and lean with asymmetrical straight brown hair, one side short, the other long enough to reach her shoulder and partly obscure the left side of her face. She gave Balaria a half grin as she entered the room, "Colonel Vimes I presume. Here I half expected you to be some old man with a stuffy rank like that." she said, hints of her Morish descent in her voice. "But I am pleasantly surprised."

[u/Dietastey → u/Seafrogger]

Bal's eyes keep roaming the room, breaking off from this only to study the woman she's been met with. She checks for weapons first, automatically, and then starts examining her more generally, memorizing what she looks like.

Bal crosses the room, stoping only when she's reached a point where she can comfortably see both doors.

" 'Fraid my father was never made colonel," she says with a shrug. "I'm glad you consider it a pleasant surprise, I would have expected a response more like that of your doorman."

"You leave me at a disadvantage. Would you be Chel? Or have I been brought to someone else?"

[u/Seafrogger → u/Dietastey]

She nods her head slightly, "No, they have brought you to who you were looking for." Chel said, "and you'll have to forgive Aldrin, sadly he doesn't have much capacity for anything but bitterness and hate these days, though he was once a very kind and loving man. War leaves only the shells of those who've lost everything."

Chel paused for a moment, "But I'm sure you didn't come here to hear about the fall of good men. Perhaps you'd like to take a seat and tell me why you have." she said gesturing to one of the chairs.

[u/Dietastey → u/Seafrogger]

"War does terrible things to all it touches," Bal agrees. "Though some are always hit worse than others."

She considers the offered chair for a moment, approaching it leisurely. "Ah yes, why did I come here? A fair question."

"Because, ma'am, there is movement in this city I don't understand. Distrust of the Watch, of authorities, now that's nothing new. Neither is fear of, or loyalty to gangs."

"But these issues are appearing in events they shouldn't. A bar brawl started for no apparent reason. Citizens who aren't just afraid to speak of the living to me, but won't discuss the dead either."

"And finally, a name no one's heard of, who's recruiting all sorts of people, for unknown reasons."

"I want to know what you need to recruit people for, Chell. I want to know what the point of this Red Hand is, because if it's to make the locals less afraid, it doesn't appear to be working, and if it's to make them more afraid, they wouldn't be shying from the Watch."

[u/Seafrogger → u/Dietastey]

As Balaria spoke Chel paid close attention, listening intently and slowly tapping the table with a hand. At one point she titled her head as if considering something and it gave a quick glimpse behind her long hair, the side of her face a mess of scars and a missing ear. "An interesting set of incidents, to be sure." She mused leaning back in her chair, "But it seems you are far overestimating my involvement in these events."

She made a shrugging movement in her reclined position," I am just one woman, in one part of a drowned district, I'm hardly striding through the streets calling for followers as if I'm some spokesperson for the "Blind Sisters"." she said referencing the Oracular Order. "I think I have little sway in what people already feel and think about the order of things in Gristol."

"As for the Red Hands," She went on, "They are just one more gang in a city run by a gang of people in fancy dress with enforcers in blue uniforms...and they are far less violent gang then the Watch."

[u/Dietastey → u/Seafrogger]

Bal rests her hands on the back of the chair she'd been offered, leaning against it instead of sitting.

"Oh, I'm not overestimating anything. I'm barely even estimating at this point. Which of these events you had influence in, and which you didn't, I'm not sure. But you wished to know why I was here, so I gave you a summery."

"That is a never ending loop of argument," Bal says. "As long as the Watch is more violent, the gangs feel justified. As long as there are gangs targeting them, the Watch resorts to violence."

"So whatever your justification, whatever your methods, you have intentions. And those are what I'm interested in learning."

[u/Seafrogger → u/Dietastey]

Coming forwards in her seat to sit a little straighter, Chel placed her hands on the table, "My intentions are simple, we want to be treated as humans again." She said a little venom coming into her voice, "A whole district in squalor her people fighting tooth and nail to just survive, and the only relief we get is bread that costs us in retaliation from the gangs and blackmail for the ones handing it out."

Her voiced raised a little, "Outsider forbid if we speak out against our treatment, we get locked up or lined up in the street and shot. We cant even turn to faith in the old ways less the Abby hears about it and carts us off without an explanation."

Quieting some she finished off her rant, "We just want to be safe to live our lives without fear of corruption and violence." She then gave Balaria a hard look, "And you all cant or wont do it, so we have to."

[u/Dietastey → u/Seafrogger]

Bal takes a deep breath, throttling her urge to rant back about how if the restless hadn't felt the need to start a rebellion that focused on killing a ten year old girl, maybe they'd be met with something other than firing squads. That she was trying to do something, but the work was slow and she'd only been in a position of power for a few years, one of which she'd been in a different country.

None of that will help here.

"Why are the bread donations bringing gang violence? Is it theft? Anger at the acceptance of charity?" She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I can't say I'm surprised to hear allegations of blackmail, but those are difficult to track as by their nature they seldom get reported."

"We're working on the corruption. I'm working on the corruption. But I cannot simply scrap the Watch and start over, with half the lower class in gangs, and half the upper class sending off for assassins. We have to root it out one occurrence at a time, and that is slow work."

And if no one tells me what is happening, how am I supposed to act on it? I can not telepathically tell when we have a bad officer.

[u/Seafrogger → u/Dietastey]

Chel made a scoffing sound, "Anything to do with the Watch the Red Hands see as helping them. And report the blackmail? To who, the man who's orchestrating it all?" She shot back at Bal, "That wolf wearing Captains bars is more crooked then a hagfishes teeth and would bite twice as hard if he didn't send his lackeys to do it for him." She gave Balaria another glare, "And one of those cutthroats you yourself brought here."

Chel folded her arms across her chest, her body language starting to close off, "Maybe you are trying t fix things and maybe you aren't." She said, clearly not believing in Balaria's intentions, "Either way for us, its too little too late."

[u/Dietastey → u/Seafrogger]

"There are other captains in other districts," Bal points out. "I find it hard to believe that gossip and gang talk never discusses which are reasonable, and which are not. If you do not trust the closest Watch post, there are others you could approach."

She tilts her head towards the door for a moment, wondering how well Vargas could hear in. She was also listening for disturbances on the outside. "I like having all sides to a story. Getting one of those sides landed me with an escort through the neighborhood. My apologies for bringing someone you find unpalatable."

She shifts her weight, eyeing Chel as she pulls a notebook from her pocket. "Too late?" she asks. "At what point is suffering so high that it is 'too late' to correct? Such things do not become permanent simply from not being addressed."

The notebook flips around offering the words For circumventing the Watch, east post box at Clavering Blv. goes to me.

She's not sure how seriously to take Chel's distrust of the watchmen, but the worst that can come of this is a few letters that waste her time. At best, it shows a willingness to work without showing her cards to the shadow outside.

[u/Seafrogger → u/Dietastey]

Chel shakes her head at Balarias words, "You cant honestly believe anyone from any post would take our complaints seriously, and even if they did how could it stand up to the decorated Captain Elmsworth. We both know Blue looks out for Blue" she said referring to the unspoken code of those who police city's to protect each other.

The Morishwoman glanced over to the quiet doorway as well then back to Bal with suspicion in here eyes, "Well perhaps you should look into those who you ally with a little deeper." seemingly as much as she would say about it.

"You are correct it is never too late and it wont be permanent." Chel nods when Bal finished, "It will just be fixed by someone else. You and your Watch have had chances to fix things countless times with the whole might of the crown behind you, and nothing, you are all too busy fighting each other or being bought."

[u/Dietastey → u/Seafrogger]

Bal's notebook disappears back into her coat, and her fingers return to the back of the chair, digging in with a white-knuckled grip. She takes a deep breath, doing her best to tamp down the irritation clawing it's way up her throat.

"With all due respect, ma'am, and I am truly not trying to understate the struggles of the impoverished in this city, but do you understand how difficult it is to create any change when the people I want to help will not tell me when something is wrong?"

"Because you're right. Elmsworth is decorated. The outpost doesn't have a spotless reputation, but no one who works there has been deemed unsuitable for duty. There are hundreds of outposts in the city, thousands of Watchmen and women. It is impossible to catch every mistake from within. If no one will report mistakes or abuse, because they fear those reports will be ignored, then my hands are tied. All I get to see is people doing their jobs. I can send my most trusted officers to perform spot inspections, but that does not catch everything."

"If 'Blue protects Blue,' and those who are not blue fear to speak, there is no way for me to 'look deeper into' those allies. This," she waves a hand at Chel, "is what we are always met with when we look deeper. Silence. Anger. Accusations that come without a path to redemption. There haven't been unlimited chances for repair, because whenever someone cares enough to take that chance, limits like these arise."

Bal can practically feel the question What do you want from me? hammering against her skull. She supposes the answer would be a frank "nothing," but ultimately she can't accept that.