Frost 25th, Year 119, Age of Steel
Every city had its underbelly. A place where the evils of the world tended to congeal and fester into an ugly mess of parts and disjointed attempt to keep order. No matter how badly the people of the world tried, there would always be an underbelly. There would also be the linger of Malgar's touch and there would always be those who thrived in this kind of sorrowful pit. Alyssum liked to think it had a little bit to do with the lack of chaos, or more specifically, the lack of freedom. Some of the laws made sense and seem necessary, but sometimes laws were just pointless and did more harm than good. Or worse yet, were just twisted in a way that showed obvious prejudice. Kalzasi tried to be good, but it had a couple of those laws. There was a very obvious bias for the av in some of its legal proceedings, the noble houses themselves being made up entirely of the winged men and their wives. There was, of course, a slight bias for women as well, but only those women who were married into these families.
There was no fair way to really get citizenship. You just had to grovel at the feet of one of these winged lords and pray one of them took pity enough on you to lobby for your citizenship. It wasn't about being worthy of it, it was about knowing who was in power and about sucking up to them. It was in no fashion or function fair. There were no standardized requirements, no legal processing aside from what was already described, no testing, nothing of the sort!
Sure, one could say that those lobbying for new citizens then had to be careful not to pick bad people who might cause damage as it would reflect poorly on them. But what was stopping them from just never supporting anyone in their quest for citizenship? What prevented then from just putting some kind of stranglehold on the ability to become a citizen and actually do business in Kalzasi. She wouldn't have minded that much if it wasn't for the fact it kind of put a stranglehold on business which could then show a very obvious sense of preference which wasn't in any which way fair to the people of Kalzasi or those trying to become people of Kalzasi. Alyssum had a lot of the same problem with Atinaw since it's the definition of citizenship was tied to kinships, which was a different problem entirely. But at least there was a standardize legal process of going through the druids and it was the same set of standards for everyone. Kalzasi didn't have that!
This was why Alyssum outright wrought joy from finding ways to circumvent twisted little system like this one which had undertones of racism and classism that made her blood churn. It was practically a fucking insult to Naori, putting arbitrary chokeholds in place that weren't even designed well! So walk her happy ass right around the system inches from crossing the line she did.
Which led her to where she currently was. Dealing potions on a side street of the slums just a little ways away from one of the more popular brothels, sitting up high on a box with her legs dangling over to better survey the crowd.
Now technically, she could not get in trouble for what she was about to. While she was circumventing both the business laws and taxes she was legally in violation of neither. As dictated in the section of the laws regarding what a business was, it was an organization or enterprising entity engaged in commercial, industrial, or professional activities. It could also be the organized efforts and activities of individuals to produce and sell goods and services for profit. However, within the statement of what a business is there are certain clauses regarding the levels at which production takes place to constitute as a business. It was likely a very old clause that had been created a long time ago when Kalzasi was still relatively young and didn't have the commercial oomph to really define anything as a business yet. But people were still probably buying and selling at the time so there needed to be regulations.
Alyssum had very carefully made certain that the amount of product she was selling would remain under that limit. Hence why she was only selling five potions. The other five she would be used as bartering tools when it finally came time to try and get the metals she needed for the gift.
Now came the tax laws. According to the Kalzasi tax laws, any amount of money made in a single season which remained under 5000 df could not be taxed, likely as a protection for those who were truly in a tough spot. Like those living on the streets, who were probably just for the most part surviving off the good graces of those around them. Alyssum, however, could quite easily abuse this law as a protection for herself should anyone actually pay attention to what she was doing.
With all that said, the guards here in the slums weren't all too attentive to the goings-on of the people. If screams in the middle of the night could be ignored, then Alyssum pawning off her terrible potions could also be ignored.
She'd made sure to take her human form though, as well as flip her cloak inside out so that the black side was showing. Her hood was currently up and the clothing itself was pulled tight around her, hiding both her eyes and the marking on her skin. All she really needed was to look passably human and she'd be golden.
Her eyes scanned the crowd below, taking in the sea of strangers. The real question would be finding someone who found her potion worth buying.
She'd intentional decided to stalk the streets after work so that there would be more of the less reputable people wandering around. Ones that would hopefully be taking turns towards the brothel nearby. Those would be the ones she decided to target. She didn't really have the courage to walk in and try to sell it there. She'd tried once before. Twice, actually. The first time she ever tried she'd been 30, but she'd gotten chased out by a concerned 'older' woman because she was 'too young to pick this kind of life'. That had been an interesting encounter. The second time she had to leave because the owner actually tried to get her to work for him, saying he had quite the market lined up for someone with her features.
Alyssum didn't take kindly to the implications, so she took revenge in typical Alyssum fashion. Spreading rumors about the place until its clientele stop showing up and it had to shut down.
Just as she was thinking about calling it for the night a man walked past, walking with his shoulders hunched and his gait taking him straight for the brothel. He carried himself with such a lack of confidence that she was pretty sure she could target him. He didn't look particularly rich, but he did look well off. Not to mention ashamed.
She flung herself off the box, chasing down the man. "Excuse me! Sir!" She shouted, getting his attention. He turned to her with a terrifying look for a moment before it shifted into a glare.
"What do you want?"
"Why, to sell you my product," she said with a chipper grin, pulling one of the potions out of her cloak. "Let's call it a... performance enhancer. You walk like a man who has no confidence in himself or his ability to please a lady. Just a single dose of my potion and you'll be having no problems going and getting going!" She chipperly said in a sing-song. She had to be careful to moderate her tone as she wasn't used to how loud she could be in her human form and if she spoke too loudly she might embarrass her customer. It would be a shame if that was what made him leave. As opposed to the multiple health risks associated with taking a potion from a random stranger.
He turned scarlet for a moment, his eyes glancing between Alyssum and the potion. He couldn't get a good look at her face because of the way she was covering it with her hood. "This will actually work, right?"
"Hemlock guarantee,' she said, the only part of her face that was visible being her grin.
He dug into his pockets with a grimace. "How much?"
Hmm, how much indeed. She decided to high ball it since she really didn't have much to lose. He'd try to barter down no matter what price she gave him. That was just the way people were. If she high balled it, she could at least still make a profit. When she told him the number his eyes figuratively bugged out of his skull.
"That much? I'll give you half," he said. There was a note in his tone that made it pretty certain that he wasn't going to be convinced to go any higher, so Alyssum nodded and decided she was okay settling at half. It was still more of a profit than she thought she'd be making. "How many more do you have?" He asked as she handed over the potion and waited for her money.
"Five," she said. She didn't think she'd be getting rid of all of them in a single night, but the man was apparently desperate and pulled out money for all five. She handed over the other four potions and counted out the money before she allowed him to skitter away, going straight for the brothel. She didn't get the chance to warn him about overdosing, but given the sizes of the bottles, he would probably be fine. She wrinkled up her nose and turned on her heels, tucking the money into her pocket. She hated dealing with people who felt so... slimy, but money was money. She was gonna need a lot of it.
