The streets of Telantha are infested with vermin. The battle at the gate drove them out; the fires that swept through the refugees' hovels forcing them out of their homes and forcing them to find new ones. I see rodents everywhere now, in places they have no right to be: bath-houses, the hospital, eateries and inns. Most people ignore them. I exterminate them. Until the King appoints a man as Head Ratcatcher I don't suppose there's any reason for me not to. It is, after all, my job to maintain the public order.
Far worse is the human vermin. Content 'till now to pick the pockets of the poor and steal from refugees, criminals of all sorts have crept out of the slums to prey upon the city proper, just as the rats have. I find myself running to keep up with them.
So many murders, madmen replacing madmen even as others dissapear (the Rat) or die (the Fury). So many robbers. Desperate, picking pockets in front of my eyes, robbing from my house, holding up the Lady Zarika Mao before an entire ball filled with noblemen and their guards, they seem to give no consideration to the consequences of their actions.
And when confronted with those consequences, they lie. I know they lie; this does not anger me. What angers me is the absolute indignation that possesses them when one has the daring to call them on their lies. They act as if it is their RIGHT to steal, and that questioning them is the crime, itself.
I met with trouble recently, trouble that forced me far from Telantha. I returned to find my home, already robbed once, now picked clean. I found a man wearing some of my possessions, and they had not even been stolen by him. Thieves seem to prey upon one another as surely as they prey on the righteous.
The man who stole them is now in jail. That is more than I can say of many others. They seem to worm their way past justice as surely as they worm their way into people's closets and purses. I fear my days of lenience may be over.
Posted by Aanson at 09:17 PM | Comments (1)