Eldritch Guidance

However, there was more to the Red-light district than just brothels. Across from them were casinos. The loud sound of slots spinning and blaring horns blared out whenever someone hit a jackpot, along with bright flashing lights. And, further down was a series of bars and restaurants that served alcohol and a variety of other mind-altering substances, with a giant tower with pink neon light off in the distance.

Almost every vice was on full display here, and large crowds of people were all here to take part in those vices. Constantly entering and leaving establishments, or just casually walking around.

Standing in the middle of the streets were Joe and his team. They were looking around. Dan was wide-eyed as he looked on, with an almost childlike fascination.

Joe: “Your country roots are showing,” he said toward Dan, noticing the recruits\' look of awe.

Dan: “Sorry, it\'s just that I’ve never seen anything like this back home. And, I\'m just surprised by all this. I didn’t think there would be casinos here either."

Joe: “Yeah, I\'d be surprised if they had something like this from where you\'re from. Everyone calls it the Red-light district, but they pretty much bundled up every illicit activity you could imagine and set up shops here for it.”

Dan: “It\'s not just that. I know that there is no one to enforce anything, but I am still surprised by the blatant disregard for all the laws.”

Joe: “Laws like what?”

Dan: “Isn\'t prostitution and gambling illegal in Golgotta?”

Joe: “Good thing that\'s not what\'s going on here.”

Dan: “Are you kidding me? I can literally see a slot machine through the front window of that casino over there.”

Joe: “A thing you need to understand about this place is that everything here operates under technicalities. Even if cops came around here, they couldn’t do anything about this. Everything here is ‘technically’ legal.”

Dan: “How does that work?”

Mike: “Let me explain. Those casino you see over there. You have to exchange money for tokens to play at the various games and tables, but you can’t exchange the tokens back for cash. Because of that, it’s not considered gambling under the law.”

Dan: “Ohh. So, people are just playing for fun and no cash I guess. That’s kinda weird.”

Mike: “Not quite. You see those stalls over there that sell smokes,” he said while pointing to one of the nearby stalls.

Dan turned and saw a small square booth near one of the casinos that looked like it sold scratch tickets and cigarettes. Sitting in the booth was some sort of shark mutant with a white shirt and suspenders who looked bored.

Dan: “Yeah, what about it?”

Mike: “You can take the tokens you get from one of the casinos to one of those booths, and they will buy them off you for the same amount you spent on them.”

Dan: “What!” he said, sounding surprised. “Wait a minute,” he mumbled, realizing something.

Joe: “Yup. And would know it, you’ll conveniently find one of those booths outside every casino in the area.”

Mike: “It’s a loophole. You get one business to sell and gamble with the tokens and then get another to buy the tokens. Thus, it’s not legally considered gambling. And of course, the booths and casino are both owned by the Nighthounds. They managed to figure out a slightly convoluted way to legally gamble.”

Dan: “How do they skirt around the law with the brothels then?”

Joe: “Not sure. But, I’m sure it’s another convoluted way to make it ‘technically’ legal like the casinos.”

Mike: “From what I understand, They are technically registered as hotels. And, those half-naked people you see in those display windows are not prostitutes, they\'re employees offering ‘room services’. You\'re technically not paying to get your rocks off at a brothel, you\'re paying for a room and which person they have in those displays over there to give you ‘room service’.”

Dan: “Oh, come on. It’s obvious what they\'re doing over there,” he said while pointing to one of the nearby brothels.

A mostly human-looking mutant girl with floppy rabbit ears notices Dan pointing in her direction. She seductively bit her lip while making a gesturing motion with her index finger for Dan to come to her, she also made a provocative pose to push her breast out further. Dan saw that and blushed before turning back to Mike and Joe.

Joe

: “He he. This kid is still so innocent,” he laughed at Dan’s embarrassment.

Dan: “Ugh,” he mumbled in frustration.

Mike: “It might be obvious to you and me, but that\'s the way it is. If you tried to bring a legal case against it, the establishment can argue they didn’t sell any sexual service to you, and that what\'s going on between consenting adults in one of their rooms is none of their business.” he said, ignoring Dan’s embarrassed look, not wanting to dogpile or make fun of him for it.

Dan: “But, it’s obviously not a hotel.”

Mike: “Yeah, but If you ever go into one of those brothels, it has everything to be legally considered a hotel. It has rooms with a bed and working toiletry. It\'s also very clean. The girls and guys you hire for ‘room service’ clean up everything after you\'re done.”

Joe turned towards Mike with a curious look.

Joe: “How do you know the prostitutes you hire are the ones that do the cleanup? That seems like a little too much detail for you to know just from only secondhand accounts. Unless this is a firsthand account…”

Mike: “Um, anyways. The brothels are the main source of income for the Nighthounds as I understand.“ he said while looking away from Joe.

Joe: “Are you just going to ignore me?”

Dan: “Not the casino?”

Mike: “I’m sure the casinos get a ton of cash. But, it is the brothels that are the real money makers around here. Rich kids from the university and nobles are really into having sex with mutants and spend a whole lot of money here. Sleeping with a mutant is exotic for them I guess,” he explained to Dan, while continuing to ignore Joe.

Joe: “OK. I guess I am being ignored.” he said, giving up figuring out why Mike seems to know so much about the brothels in the Red-light district.

Dan: “Please don’t take this question the wrong way, but why are the rich so OK with sleeping with mutants? You told me before that many in the upper class in Graheel don’t like associating with mutants.

Mike: “Simple, they\'re hypocrites. Despite how racist some of them are against mutants, they\'re all too happy to lust after them and want to sleep with them. And, they can live out their sexual fantasy here without worry about it coming back to bite them in the ass later. The Nighthounds prevent any information about their clients from leaking out, as they know it’s bad business if they allow unsavory rumors to spread it\'s more prestigious customers. On top of that, the majority of mutants are sterile and immune to most diseases. Perfect if you want to avoid unwanted children or an STI. Add it all together, and you got the perfect plan to funnel money from the upper echelons of society to the Nighthounds coffers.”

Dan: “Ohhh…damn. This whole place is fucking crazy.”

Mike: “Tell me about it.”

Joe came up to Mike and grabbed him by his shirt aggressively, wrapping the fabric around his fist to give him a better grip. Mike was surprised and tried to move back as far as the slack in his clothing would allow.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Mike: “Whoa! Fucking calm down! Fine, yes! I might have gone to a brothel once a long time ago!”

Joe didn’t say anything in response to Mike’s claims of attending a brothel. He then grabbed Dan as well and pulled his whole team out of the middle of the street and off to the side, before letting them all go.

Mike: “What the fuck are you—” he stopped mid-sentence, as he noticed the approach of someone.

Walking down the middle of the street were two men. One of them was a tall golden retriever mutant with big brown eyes and golden fur from head to toe. The other was a shorter normal human-looking man with spiked black hair. They both wore matching gray ties and black custom suits with vertical stripe patterns woven in. The shorter non-mutant man looked to be wearing something that looked akin to a dog collar around his neck.

Both these men carried themselves with an air of authority. Nearby pedestrians saw them and made a wide berth around the imposing men at their approach, some looking a little nervous by their very presence.

Joe made a clear gesture to his team not to say anything.

The two imposing men kept walking forward right towards where Joe and his group were just standing before they were pulled to the side. Tension in the air was high. Joe and his entire team just looked on as the two men passed them by without even glancing at them.

The two men kept walking and eventually made some distance away from Joe. Everyone started to relax again.

Dan: “Gulp, w-who were those two? Everyone looked scared of them.”

Joe: “Don’t know them personally, but those two were clear as day Nighthound members. High ranking ones too. You don’t normally see those kinds of members on the outskirts of the Red-light district. They normally stick to the central area of the Red-light district, where the more expensive establishments are.”

Mike: “What do you think they\'re doing here?”

Joe: “Don’t know. But, that’s not why we’re here.”

Dan: “Um, how did you know they were Nighthound if you don’t personally know them?”

Joe

: “If you see a mutant wearing an expensive suit, it\'s like a fifty-fifty chance that their Nighthound members. But, the real tell is the dog collars. That non-mutant guy was wearing one. Only mid to high ranking members of the Nighthounds are allowed to wear those collars. It’s the clearest indication of their association with the organization. So if you see anyone wearing a dog collar, stay clear away from them. They\'re dangerous.”

Dan: “More dangerous than the Nighthounds without collars?”

Joe: “Maybe? Actually, don’t fuck with anyone from the Nighthounds. They\'re all dangerous.”

Mike: “The ones with collars are definitely higher up on the pecking order, so I can only imagine that makes it a little more dangerous.”

Dan: “What\'s the deal with the collars? Why do they make high ranking members wear them?”

Joe: “Don’t know. I\'m sure it has something to do with their weird obsession with loyalty. Anyways, let’s begin searching. It’s been a really long time since me and Mike came here, so I can’t remember where everything exactly is. We’re looking for a bar called the Milky Nips.”

At the mention of the bar\'s name, Dan slightly giggled.

Joe: “What are ya, like ten? Almost all the businesses here have sexual innuendos to their name.” he said while rolling his eyes.

Joe started to wander off from the group, leaving Dan and Mike to search together again, as they didn’t want Dan by himself.

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Joe walked along the street through the crowd of people. He noticed a group of male university students wandering into one of the brothels. They were all laughing and seemed to be having a good time. All of them were wearing yellow robes, a sign they were likely from the Gilded Sun college. The kind of people the veteran detective expected to find here.

He noted the group and made a mental note to stay away from them. He already got in trouble with arguing with Gilded Sun students before and didn’t want another incident.

He continued to search through the street for another twenty minutes. Sex workers constantly tried to draw him in with their provocative display every time his eyes met theirs. The number of people walking around was excessive. It seems like it was a busy day for the Red-light district between the casinos and brothels. He was having a hard time looking for that Bar he told his team to search for. There were too many people getting in the way.

“Ugh, I chose such a terrible day to come. Should have come during midweek instead of the weekend. There would have been less people.” Joe thought to himself.

As he moved through the hordes of people, in the corner of his eye he saw someone. Joe thought he saw a pale woman wearing a black and white frilly ballroom dress, with a wide-brim hat obscuring her face with a veil hanging from it. The woman looked like the one he lost sight of near Vaal Street.

Joe turned his head towards her, but another passerby walked in front of him and blocked his line of sight for a brief second. As the person blocking his sight quickly walked by, Joe looked toward where he thought he saw that strange woman, she was gone. It was like she was never there. Instead, in the area where he thought he saw the mysterious woman, sitting there was a figure in purple robes.

The figure looked to be female and had a table set up with a crystal ball on it. It seemed like some sort of fortuneteller. His curiosity now peaked, he approached the fortuneteller.

As he approached, the fortuneteller lifted her face to look at Joe. Through the hood of her robes, Joe could see a relatively young woman with intricate tribal tattoos on one side of her face and a whole bunch of piercings. She had a calm look to her with welcoming green eyes.

Fortuneteller: “Are you here for a reading?”

Joe: “No. Did you happen to see a pale-looking woman with a frilly black dress just walk by?”

Fortuneteller: “I can’t say I\'ve seen anyone like that today. Anyways, can I read your fortune?”

Joe: “No, that’s OK.”

Fortuneteller: “Are you sure? It’s free.”

Joe: “A fortuneteller giving out free fortunes, around here? Little odd don’t you think,” he said, curious about the fortuneteller\'s intention.

Fortuneteller: “Well, I did a reading for myself today, and it said that I must give a reading to the first man that approaches me, which happens to be you."

Joe: “OK, in that case. Might as well I guess.”

The women nodded. She then put her crystal ball to the side and pulled out a deck of cards. Once Joe saw this, he became disappointed.

Divination magic is very real, if a bit inaccurate a lot of times. It still used modern magecraft theory in its application and was recognized as a legitimate type of magic for it. However, Joe knew there was no form of divination magic that used cards to try and make predictions. As far as he knew, only people who still practiced the superstitious “old ways" were the ones who still used this form of archaic divination.

Fortuneteller: “What? You thought I was a Seer of Argon or something?” she said, noticing Joe’s disappointment.

Seers of Argon were the most famous divination users. Boasting the highest accuracy of their predictions above any others. Many world leaders looked to those seers for advice and guidance. They were the gold standard in the field of divination magic.

The fortuneteller was clearly not one of those seers.

Joe: “No, just…not a big believer in the old ways."

Fortuneteller: “The old ways don’t need you to believe in them,” she said as she shuffled the cards in her hands.

After a few seconds of shuffling, she started pulling cards from the deck and laid them out in odd patterns on the table. The cards that were face up had all kinds of imagery from sad maidens to crows and beetles on them. None of it had any particular meaning for Joe. Eventually, the cards she laid out started to form a semicircle on top of the table.

The woman pulled out one final card and flipped it face up in the circle she had made. The card she flipped was a bit surprising to see and eerie, on it was the image of a skeleton in black robes holding a wicked-looking scythe. Below the image was the word: “Death”.

Fortuneteller: “It seems that death walks with you, and maybe it’s what you need.”

Joe: “You\'re not telling me to go kill myself?”

Fortuneteller: “No, what I mean is that cards tell me that something is clinging to you. Something you must let die. Maybe something like regret, but the cards also indicate it’s much deeper than that. Both related to regret and something more, and in that death stands beside you. Tell me, do you have some sort of regret?”

Joe: “That’s none of your business.”

Fortuneteller: “That\'s a yes. You are unwilling to talk about it, which is a sign of you continuing to run from your problem. And, that’s why you need death. To put an end to something so that you may move forward.”

Joe: “OK. You\'re good at cold reading, I\'ll give you that, but this is not telling me much about my future.” he said, indicating he didn’t believe what she was saying.

Fortuneteller: “I’m getting there.” she said, as she looked over all the cards she laid out.” Let’s see. The cards are telling me that the current path is pointless. That you will not find what you\'re looking for. Instead, you may end up finding… nothing?” she said, sounding unsure about the last part of the fortune.

Joe: “Nothing? Why do you sound unsure about it?”

Fortuneteller: “Because this is a first for me. The cards have never come out like this before. It’s more than nothing. It’s like there is a gap in your future for some reason. A void that can’t be seen. Maybe I\'m reading this wrong.”

Joe: “You’re not very good at this.”

Fortuneteller: “Oh, shut it. Now, what do you want to know?” she said, sounding a little annoyed at Joe’s comment.

Joe let out a really deep sigh. He didn’t really believe anything this lady was saying, but since he started the process of getting his fortune, he figured he’d go the whole way.

Joe: “If the current path is pointless, what must I do to find the thing I’m looking for?”

The fortuneteller nodded and dealt a few more cards from her deck onto the table.

Fortuneteller: “It says here, what you seek is closer than you think. To know what you search for, seek the truth in the… false…druid?” she said, sounding unsure about the last part of the fortune again.

Joe: “False druid? What’s that supposed to mean?” he said, both confused and a little surprised.

Joe was expecting an extremely vague answer like most charlatan seers might give people, but what the fortuneteller said was strangely specific. It was still confusing and sounded like nonsense to Joe, but it was more than he expected.

Fortuneteller: “Um, not sure. This card here is the druid, and the druid represents natural order and old knowledge. But, it’s overlaid with the devil, which means it is a lie. So, false druid. But, seeking truth in a lie doesn\'t make sense. Hmm, I’m definitely reading this wrong."

Joe: “Again, you\'re really bad at this.”

Fortuneteller: “Pft, whatever. You get what you paid for.”

Joe: “I didn’t pay anything.”

Fortuneteller: “Exactly.”

Joe just rolled his eyes at the fortuneteller.

Joe: “Anyways, I wasted enough time. Do you happen to know where a bar called the Milky Nips is?”

Fortuneteller: “Hmm, maybe I know. But, don’t you wanna buy a girl a drink first?” she said with a smile while making subtle gestures towards Joe.

Joe let out another sigh. He knew these kinds of people and could read them like an open book. She was using doublespeak to basically say she wanted him to pay her for the information. The grumpy detective reached into his pocket and pulled out fifty glints and placed it on the table.

Joe: “Let\'s just skip to the part where you tell me where it is.”

The fortuneteller quickly scooped up the money, almost before it even touched the table. She then started giving Joe directions.

Fortuneteller: “Head up the street there and make a right turn at Kissy Hotel. It is just around the corner,” she said while pointing in the direction Joe needed to go.

Joe turned his head and saw that the hotel the fortuneteller mentioned was only thirty feet away from where he currently was.

Joe: “It’s that close? You couldn’t just tell me?”

Fortuneteller: “Girls gotta eat somehow.”

Joe rolled his eyes again at the fortuneteller. He headed off to find his team and headed over to the Milky Nips bar.