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There were few places more crowded, unsanitary and criminal-ridden then a Constantine tavern. Unfortunately for the city's reputation, the central marketplace of Constantinople belonged to one of those few places. If one stood and thought for but a few moments, he would wonder why the hell anyone would want to even be anywhere near the central marketplace.
Some unknown force must have convinced the Constantine population however that the marketplace was a good place to be after all, as the marketplace was still as human-packed and sweaty as every day of the year. Hundreds and hundreds of people slowly made their way through the crowds, either looking for purses to cut, people to con, things to sell for overpriced prices or death by trampling.
'Aql Dahri was an exception however. Since the central marketplace is such an important part of the city, it needed to be observed if he wanted to do his research properly. As such, he had transformed himself and joined the unending armies of rabid dogs that wandered the streets and braved the masses.
The first thing that 'Aql noticed just how corrupt Constantinople was.
Yes, everyone knew the Byzantine capital was big, and that big cities equal corruption, especially when so much wealth is concentrated in such a small place. But Constantinople took everything to the limit. He observed several pickpockets bribing guards, traders fighting price wars with more then justs words and guards doing more then just keeping law and order ( in fact, if they were not wearing their guard armour, you would never suspect them being guards ).
After the 23th brawl ( for some reason, 'Aql could remember such details humanoids and even some ethereals found obscure ), he decided he had seen enough. He began wandering around the marketplace in search of a place where he could transform in a somewhat more mobile and less spitful form unseen. After more then just a few minutes of searching, he found an alley. He transformed ( with the entire completely unneeded and unsubtle light show magic tended to produce ) and 'Aql took his Constantinople-human-"undercover" form as an fat, human, orthodox scholar by the name of Theopannes Erasmus. He had discovered that his form had been beneficial to him in two ways; scholars and priests seemed to be the only persons left who had somewhat of a social status, which had helped him numerous times in his research, and by being a priest he had also learned about just how important religion was for those superficial humans, even if that religion lied about every single thing you could lie about. Really, the fact that the humans could constantly just ignore "supernatural" events and demons popping up here and there by just saying it's all the fault of a fallen angel puzzled his mind.
Of course, he was a completely rational and intelligent ethereal being, but still. It was amazing with what incompetence and ignorance humans managed to keep their society standing. Well.
Society. The abomination he had decided to study.
He was brutely interrupted in his train of thoughts though. A small cloud of dust speckles flew in to his eyes. He shook his head and looked at the source. Apparently, he was not alone.
What was floating before him was hard to describe. It was a, well, a gigantic cloud of dust speckles, that had floated up from it's hiding ( the dirty street tiles ) and was, well, "breathing" on him.
An
Aerico.
An annoying laugh emitted from the cloud. This Aerico was either very easily entertained or was too weak to do anything more dangerous then blowing dust speckles in his face.
However, perhaps he should not underestimate the pesky demon. Just a single plague infected speckle could easily kill half of Constantinople. Unfortunately, this had been proven before several times already.
The Aerico began "flying" around him while breathing more and more dust and accompanied filth at him.
'Aql sighed. This was a situation he just didn't want to be in. He could try forcefully dispatching the little demon, but he didn't want to risk alerting the entire city by throwing around magic.
He quickly decided to end this petty annoyance another way and transformed in to a small beetle. He quickly scuttled down one of the sewer drains in the streets which lead to the Constantinople "sewers", hoping that the Aerico would be held interested by the lightshow his transformation produced long enough to get away from him.
Unfortunately, the Aerico wasn't interested at all in his little lightshow, and instead immediately followed him in the sewers while still breathing small dust speckles on him. Which was quite a feat, since he was now but a inch long. 'Aql was getting slightly pissed off. This was not working.
What shall 'Aql do?
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Topic: The RPFG: We do not ask how many, but where. (Read 15175 times)