Chapter 3

Dotrive

It is shocking how one can live without the necessities of life provided one has the little luxuries. It is the thing that possesses no survival value, that gives value to survival.

~Lenwess, elf philosopher and playwright~

Dotrive Lefarin sank back into the lush red velvet chair twirling his glass of elfish wine. His head was swimming slightly. He sighed loudly and munched at the orderves on the table. A plate of roasted olives, snails fat on milk, and squid brazened in its own ink.

He was notably ogling one of the escorts. A fellow elf slightly taller than Dotrive wearing a flowing emerald green dress of the thinnest silk which allowed an obscured view of her breasts as it clung to her otherwise naked body. He blended in comfortably, an average client in Empire city's most expensive brothel. His Elfish ears where picking up every conversation within thirty meters. Not one of the conversations was on a legal topic. Dotrive prided himself on his thorough knowledge of the illegal working of any city he found himself in.

He had seated himself in a discreet table and was doing his best not to make an impression,dressed in expensive but understated cream trousers, coat and vest with a fay blue shirt underneath. It was a difficult task. Elf's drew attention naturally, and Dotrive was exceptionally attractive. He stood just under six feet tall with short cropped dark hair and eyes. His features where boyish. He was young, by elf standers, and had an impulsive nature that was very uncommon for his kind. Other Elfs, most notably his brother, considered him to be erratic and indulgent. It was one of the reasons he spent his time carousing port cities and following leads far from home, that and he got unparallelled results.

He failed to hear the elf escort approach from behind him. It gave him a slight yearning for home, humans where so dam noisy. The elf's woman's name was Norine. She was arguably the cities most expensive commodity, and Dotrive's contact. Her hair was tied into a bun in the manner of human nobility, with a single provocative strand trailing down her cheek. This strand tickled Dotrive's neck as she spoke to him, filling his nostrils with her perfume. His Elfin nose smelled the rose water she bathed in, the exotic spices covered by mint on her breath, and the subtle alluring scent of her sex. The last scent being an expensive but powerful trick to elf customers, a trick that did not fool Dotrive.

“Officer Dotrive your marks have arrived.” She whispered into his ear and batted her eyelashes.

He craned his head to see a pompously dressed man enter the room. A pair of the brothel girls removed his red fox fur coat and broad beaver pelt hat for him. His name was Phillip Crevoski, an infamous pirate, now retired from the waives to a job as an administer of smuggled goods. What interested Dotrive was not Crevoski but the six men that followed him in. The men clearly had light leather hidden underneath their simple brown blouses. Short swords and dirks belted to their waists and they seamed unreasonably angry considering they had just walked into an incredibly expensive brothel.

“Thank you Norine. Your one of a kind.” Dotrive stood up and finished his drink.

“Am I still seeing you later?” She asked as Dotrive walked away.

“I'm not sure you can afford me.” He joked. “And yes.” He called over his shoulder.

Officer Dotrive Lefarin stumbled a little as he sauntered towards the kitchen, the wine was making his head swim a little more than he liked. He pushed through the doors of the kitchen snapping his fingers and shooing the kitchen staff out of the room. They stood confused for a moment but the hint donned on them and the bustled out. He flipped off his floor length coat in one smooth motion, reveling an eight point leather holster expertly hidden underneath. He rummaged through the kitchen supplies for a few seconds searching for his weapons, stashed in and amongst the older pots. Having found it and, unwrapping some dirty rags, Dotrive pulled out his pride and joy, six gold plated oak wood wheel-lock pistols. The sheen of the silver and gold metal contrasted beautifully with the dark wood grains. Next, a pair of slender silver dirks nine inches long. He ran his hand along the smooth blade and handle curving in the delicate manner of a woman's back.

The wheel-lock was a remarkable contraption that Dotrive invented himself, with the help of a rather impetuous young dwarf he had the displeasure of spending a week with.

blastingpowder had actually been discovered by the elf's hundreds of years prior for the purposes of entertainment. Ironically the Orks where the ones that had given it a destructive re-imagining. The powerful gray powder was currently in the middle of revolutionizing the world. The Imperium was the only nation to formally integrate powder weaponry into their military do to a method of manufacture they held secret, even from the skilled searching of Dotrive. They had already integrated matchlock muskets into their pike formations. While powerful, the matchlocks where inaccurate and unreliable and downright inartistic.

Dotrive's wheel-locks were works of art. He had derived a system that used spinning gears levered by a trigger pull to produce a spark. Hand crafted with customized ammunition, the pistols where very expensive to produce but the result had more than paid for itself.

Dotrive inserted his weapons into the leather holster and swaggered out into the main room dramaticly throwing his floor length cream coat back on.

“Philip Crevoski!” Dotrive rang out as he walked towards his target.

The human looked up at the elf, it was all the conformation Dotrive needed.

“You are accused of crimes against the kingdom of the Daywalkers, damn I intended to say the Sunelfs. Including, but not limited to, piracy, racketeering, and murder.” Dotrive paused at the table and crossed his arms, slipping his hands into his holster. The seven men starred at him slack jawed. His mind was racing and the world was slowing down, making the humans respond even slower then they already are.

“I'm done waiting. You are guilty, the sentence is death. Now here is the point where you all try to kill me.” He paused to allow the dimwitted opponents time to process and then to attack, there where dramatic legal differences between self defense and execution.

The six body guards began to draw their weapons and stand up. Dotrive uncrossed his arms revealing two of the pistols. The pistols made a momentary winding noise as the spun up. An instant later two loud shouts rang out punching two of the guards in the chest and spraying the table with crimson. The bullets pierced through the hidden leathers as if they where simple cloth.

Dotrive took a moment to recognize the irony of possessing the same number of pistols as the target had guards. He released the pistols and drew the next two. The round table allowed for a perfect field of fire to each of the persons seated at the table. The next two guards went down immediately.

Dotrive released the pistols and drew the next two. The arterial spray was obscuring the view of the final two targets. He calculated as best he could where the last two targets were and pulled the triggers.

The first guard was hit in the forehead and the second was took the round in the ribs, a slower but still certain death. Dotrive released the final two pistols as the first pair bounced off the ground.

Without wasting a moment, a dirk was flying across the table, catching Crevoski in the throat.

Dotrive checked his clothing for splatters of blood and straightened himself up before politely nodded towards Norine.

The rest of the room was staring at Dotrive. “No one will be arrested unless they fail to thoroughly enjoy themselves.” Dotrive smiled as the staff hurried in to clean up the mess.

He and Norine drug the body of Crevoski into the kitchen and began to strip him down. Norine pulled a small charm one of the corps's many necklaces.

“Look at this a tiny ivory face, I do believe that it is smiling at me.” Norine held the charm up to the light.

Dotrive snatched it out of her hand and slipped it into a small lead box.

“What was that all about?” She asked.

“It's a totum.” Dotrive answered. “Ivory stores up nerva and releases it over time. Witchcraft, used to alter the attitudes of people near it. The smiling face makes you want to trust the wearer of the totum, but the face is not actually happy, it is mocking you.”

“I could use one of those.” Norine grinned

Dotrive smiled back. “The poor men of this city. But this does not yet come together. Keep searching, I suspect that there is another one.” He said sifting through the dead man's pockets.

“What about his cane?” Norine suggested.

Dotrive fumbled with the large ornate cane for a moment before he discovered that the golden ball on the top could screw loose. He pulled it of to revile another ivory totum, this one of a skull wearing a top hat. A feeling, similar to that of the way your hair perks up in a storm, washed over Dotrive and he immediately replaced the cap.

“Whatever that was I felt it.” Norine said.

Dotrive handed the cane to her. “Destroy this, I can't carry it with me. And be sure to write me if any of your clients are found carrying candles.” He instructed.

“Candles?” Norine asked. “You're not that romantic.” She joked.

“Ivory witches are pain, but it is the wax withes you have to worry about. Alas I have to run.” Dotrive planted a small kiss on her cheek and recovered his weapons before rushing out of the building.

His eyes adjusted immediately to the bright light as he melded into the crowded street. He looked to the tall buildings of Empire city, the capitol of the human civilization known as the Imperium. In the distance, poking over the skyline, Dotrive could just make out the top of the building known as Heavens roof, the largest freestanding dome in the known world. He passed by several large banners advertising the need for colonists to settle in Hopeland, the Imerium's newest state.

Dotrive pulled his collar up high and made his way towards the market street. Empire city has an exceptionally high population of foreigners. Even so, Elfs where not a common sight in the residential area's. The market streets where a hub of international commerce and culture, much more accommodating to remaining unnoticed. Grown out of a series of five streets that intersected around a small park, the market streets had become the international center of luxury goods and fashion. Elfs prided themselves on being the standard by which fashion and luxury was measured. This was only true because many human's where obsessed with Elfish culture. More Elfin goods where sold bought and sold in Empire City than any other city in the world, though that could be said of nearly any commodity.

He hustled into the market square and stopped in front of the large marble fountain depicting leaping dolphin with water continually jetting out, one of the city's many great feats of engineering. An elf woman sauntered by him modeling an A-symmetrical blue dress made of an exotic material that clung nicely to her form, embroidered on the sleeve was the brand of the Perene' Dove. Tiny bells on her ankles chimed with each step, drawing the attention of those around her.

The scent of hundred of exotic perfumes and spices wafted through the air accompanied by the sound of dozens of languages spoken by all any number of races. The buildings around the fountains where exquisitely well decorated and built out of finely cut stone and marble. It was a design derived from the interweaving of cultures that made up the fabric of Empire city. Signs decorated the elaborate buildings advertising famous brands. The Lordwood, elf furniture. The Orline' Lily, elf perfumes and delicacies. The dwarf smiths of High forge. Dotrive had heard a rumor that the famous dwarfen smith Thunderfell was working in the empire city, a smith known for inventing how to temper vivid color into the steal while forging.

It all was a stark contrast to the buildings that Dotrive had just fled from. The majority of the city was built with symmetry and a simple but efficient design. Dotrive almost preferred the residential areas. He would never live in one, but he enjoyed experiencing different cultures, and the pompous elite around the fountain square seemed to be the same no madder what city he was in.

The grandeur of the market street was an appropriate representation of Empire city. Empire city was a sprawling metropolis. It was the largest and most densely populated city in the known world with a population of almost four million people over a three hundred square mile spot of land in the center of the Crescent island.

The Crescent island was the birthplace of the Imperium, an ambitious people located on a large island shaped like a crescent moon with Empire city resting in the center, like a star twinkling in the center of partial moon. Being in the center of the Mitus sea, Empire city started as a trading port protected by the Crescent island around it and the narrow passage of water known as the Fortune's gate, a reference to the possible riches to be found in the city beyond.

Dotrive made his way to a nearby tailors shop, inside the elite clothing shop he would find a contact that could deliver a brief of his assignment back to his central command in Perene`. Afterwords he would find another business to address to his comforts.