"I don't know if I count, I never took my place."

“It won’t matter to people down here, they saw a glowing creature fall,” Kim says gently. “You can take that as encouragement, that people will listen to you like you have the words of God.”

"They shouldn't, though. No one should be placed above anyone else."

“Some people need guidance.”

"They should listen to me because I'm right, not because I can glow."

Kim laughs. “Mm, glowing shouldn’t play a part in decision making.” 

She wriggles a bit, getting comfortable on the floor. “What do you want to do first? To complete that goal. We discussed Hell...”

"I don't know this place well at all. Allies, maybe?"

"That'll be slightly harder to do," Kim says. She's a little against talking to other people, at least for the moment. But she's not going to lock Lillian up until things are safe. 

She doesn't want that.

"Maybe we'll make a trip back to the Flit urchins sooner rather than later," she says with a smile.

"They did seem very knowledgeable about the city."

"They are. Second only to the cats," Kim laughs. 

"It would be nice to see them often. They're sweet."

"Very much so."

Kim grins.

"All right, Hell to maybe find your father, find the urchins for to see about allies-" 

A thought occurs to her. It's not really a done thing, but it can't hurt to ask. "Senna, could you and your fellows be lookouts?"

"Mrr. Perhaps. The cats are hardly united, but we... Dislike... The current order as much as most."

"Dislike we can work with. Thank you."

Kim taps her chin again in thought. "Maybe the revolutionaries...no, they're as likely to kill you as the Ascendant are."

"The zailors didn't tell me much about the factions. Who are the revolutionaries?"

"Mostly? Crazy."

Kim thinks a little. "They mostly oppose the Masters and the Bazaar. I've heard that there's a more...organised group wanting to start the 'Liberation of Night', whatever that means. I guess the Ascendant oppose them, in a way. There's a natural order to things and the Ascendant would die and kill to keep it."

Kim gestures to herself. "Present company excluded."

"...Who are the Masters? And the Bazaar's a sweetheart, at least from what I've heard."

"The Masters of the Bazaar. They're...uh...odd."

"Do they rule here?"

"Mmm...no? Not in the literal sense. They control the Bazaar, which is large and plenty of echoes flow through it. The revolutionaries would rather it not be controlled by them. I'm...not actually sure they have a plan for the after."

"I think you mean a different thing by the Bazaar than I do? It's the creature this city is resting on. You seem to mean something with money?"

"...the what?"

"I thought what the zailors were calling the Bazaar is the creature under the city? Those spires are part of it's body."

"I know what it is, it was a messenger for the judgements until recently - my sister told me this really romantic story of how it fell in love with this area's judgement, but the judgement loved another and sent the messenger to relay its love, and the other judgement rejected the first, and the messenger begged the council of judgements not to make it deliver the rejection, or else its love would die of heartbreak. They gave it seven cities of time to find a worthy love story to deliver with the rejection, to convince it love still existed, but my sister said it's on five cities and still hasn't found one."

“London is the Fifth City,” Kim quotes, like she’s realised something terrible. 

She falls against the wall, hand against her head. “We live atop a giant creature longing after a judgement.”

"I think it'd be a good ally, it also probably doesn't like the Chain."