"What do you think of Lady Dyrianna's offer?"

"It seems quite generous."

"Yes, it is generous of her to offer to let you pay to renovate her damaged property for her and establish a satellite brothel on the docks she can take over in five years when you move out." Eleena's voice is flat. "Or do you plan to take the restoration you've done to the building with you?"

"I..." She frowns. "What if we stay, then?"

"Then she has leverage over you as your landlord, something she would enjoy the privilege of for the five years up until then as well. She wants to make you a satellite branch of her church with some funny ideas, not an organization that could compete with her for dominance of her Guild."

"... What about the contraceptive, and the Sinflower?"

"A genuine gift, but worth less than you might expect. She already is producing the formula; she's left you to have to rederive it from your sample. By the time that's done she'll own the market. Certainly, having your own supply and the knowledge that this is coming is worth something, but she's deliberately helping less than she could. As for the Sinflower - it's clearly designed by Sunaira to help her church, and as such would you keep it out of the hands of the people it's obviously intended for when they will surely obtain it eventually?"

"I see. Is there any chance we'd get a guild licence from her if we turn down this deal?"

"Not a hope." 

Eleena runs a hand through her hair. "The contract will be clean. She has you where she wants you. Just... be slower to assume good intentions. You're becoming a piece in the War of Strings now. Try to keep up."

Kumi nods. 

"I hear you."

"Assuming we go through with this, we'll need contractors. And a sense of how poorly off the building is. I know all the designers in the city - there's no question we'll be able to make it beautiful at a relatively low cost. The issue is making it safe and structurally sound. I have less connections there. Some set designers who might know people." 

Eleena crosses her arms. "I don't want you to owe money to Lady Dyrianna if you can help it, but the more labor my people invest the better I make her property. Either way she wins. We could argue the improvements give us partial ownership of the building in court, but the city's lawyers are mostly owned by Norgorber and I don't want to give him an in. Not to mention that winning a case against Lady Dyrianna is... difficult."

She sighs. "I think in this case we just have to accept that Lady Dyrianna is going to have some leverage, whatever we do, and work to mitigate that as best we can. It's probably better to do the renovation as cheaply and well as possible - after all, you will be using the building for some years even in the worst case."

"Perhaps we could give the work to people from the Docks? The Dockworker's Union is theoretically on our side, here, and ought to have decent carpenters and builders. And it might buy us a little goodwill."

"It might, yes. There would have been Goodman Hugen of House Candren until a few months ago, but... he's disappeared, and I don't want to burden his inheritor with our troubles. She has enough problems. You normally might consider Lady Adrielle, the harbormaster, but she's in bed politically with Lady Dyrianna. What do you know about the Citizens' League?"

"It's the political faction that's in favor of both elections and religious freedom. Popular on the Docks and in the Coins. Headed by Lady Adrielle, as I'm sure you're pointing out." 

"Politically, it's an alliance of many of the dockside noble houses, the Dockworker's Union, the Firebrands, and Lady Dyrianna. Along with the cult of Norgorber. They don't advertise the Norgorber part, but it's natural given that it's the religious freedom bloc. Dyrianna supports it because if you ban Norgorber, maybe you don't stop there. Perhaps you then go on to ban Calistria. She has never been a comfortable goddess to host."

She interweaves her fingers. "If you wish to work on behalf of the dockworkers, the lower classes, the courtesans - then you will inevitably become a part of the Citizens' League. Your selection of allies is entirely drawn from it."

She looks seriously at Kumi. "Do you believe that the Cult of Norgorber should operate openly in Absalom?"

Ugh, politics. There's a reason why she never became a hetaera. 

"I can honestly say I've never considered the question."

Eleena gives her an unimpressed look. "Think about it."

"I can't say that I'm in favor of Norgorber having the ability to manipulate people and control the city to such a degree that you can't get a lawyer who isn't a Norgorber cultist. But at the same time, I'm sympathetic to Lady Dyrianna's fears that if you ban Norgorber, perhaps other politically inconvenient deities are next. It feels like a victory for Asmodeus to say that you can't worship who you want."

"I recommend you come to some clarity on this issue before your political alliances depend on it. Or else you may end up believing what your allies do completely by accident."

Kumi nods. "Thank you for the advice, Lady Woodsong." 

She fidgets with the fur on her right arm, petting herself a little. 

"May I take some time to go speak to my priestesses?"

"Of course. I'll get your blossom to you as soon as it propagates."

A few hours later, once everyone's returned from their personal expeditions...

The anticipated meeting in Shelyn's church has come. 

It's awkward. She can feel Simon looking over her shoulder now, after Eleena was so kind as to remind her that she is an ally and not a fellow priestess of her faith. She's got a lot to hammer out today and she doesn't know that she wants Shelyn's church to know everything she's saying. 

Nonetheless, she has no options to schedule this meeting more clandestinely; it's known to Simon that it's expected, and if it vanishes abruptly it'll raise questions. She'll just have to stick to business.

"Ember, Rose, Pen." She nods to each in turn. "Have you had success?"

Pen nods. "I was able to contact a cell of the Firebrands that operates on Besmarra's Boardwalk already. We talked a bit, got used to each other. They were cautiously optimistic. I think you'd like them if you met them - one of them did my caricature. We discussed the possibility of hiring bouncers and security from them and they said that if the establishment was a legitimate temple of a good goddess they'd definitely have someone up for the job."

"So far so good. Ember, Rose, what did the Dockworker's Union say?"