Re: The Question of Heresy (Game Thread)
"Acquire workers?" Lili thinks about this for a moment, letting it sink in. When it does, it looks like she suddenly has new life in her, and she whispers to herself, "So he might be okay? Still alive."
She steps out from behind the bed and approaches Thiopia.
"There isn't any work in Corscala. If there was, no one would need to be press ganged into it unless it was a death sentence. People here are desperate. There's no future. Everyone who had the means to get out of here has already left. I was lucky, before they died in the fires, my parents taught me to read and write, and recently I had a contract as a scrivener a few stations uphive. I was staying there for the past couple of months, only keeping in contact with Saul by vox calls - and to my shame, I got so worn out that I didn't call him very often toward the end. I only found out he'd disappeared days after it had happened. I came back to Corscala only a few days ago to find my brother's apartment torn apart, just like this. I started to ask around town, but people, even those I've known since I was a child, they won't look me in the eyes. They won't say anything, as if in doing so, they'd bring the same fate onto themselves!"
She hugs herself tightly and shudders. "The way they refused to talk and the looks in their eyes, it was like they were certain that Saul was dead and gone. I slept here the last few nights, scared out of my mind. The people here in the habstack whisper about others who are missing. Others like Saul. Every night, handfuls of people are vanishing. There are so many theories going about, but I don't know what to believe. You aren't the first to suggest press gangs. There's some that blame Luntz and his underhive gangers over at the Union, but... I don't know about that. The gangers here have that same look of uncertainty in their eyes..."
Lili trails off for a moment, placing her hand on the edge of the upturned bed, grasping a metal rung tightly while her other hand lets the lightly filled rucksack drop to her feet.
"It was odd. When I first got here, no one had reported Saul missing, even though no one had seen him. I was afraid to file a report at first myself, but I was in the Square and saw Warden Locan on his own looking... lost. When I told him that Saul was missing he got angry at first, but then he suddenly got really quiet, and looked as though he might even break down in tears right on the spot. He made me swear by the God Emperor and by Saint Drusus to never mention Saul's disappearance again, especially not to the other enforcers. It was strange, he seemed more frightened than I was. I guess he must have reported Saul missing if there are outside contractors investigating."
Lili shifts the rucksack around a bit. "I'd actually just been making up my mind to leave Corscala. I came here to pick up the few things of any value that I could carry and leave on the last train out of the station this evening. I stayed here one last night, hoping in vain that he'd turn up, but it's clear that something bad has happened to him, and I don't have the power to save him. Unless I get out of here, I might not even be able to save myself. There's more vanishings every night. More people not turning up. If they've fallen into the clutches of this unsavory element you mention, then I wish you luck in exposing them, and freeing my brother if he's still alive. That's all I know. It's not much, but I really have no clue where my brother's gone or who he might have been talking to this past month while I was away. There's nothing for me here in Corscala now except evil."
She hefts her sack and pulls it over her shoulder.
"I should probably be getting going if I'm going to make that last train."
