Quoted By:
<span class="mu-g">"Well, what is it like where you both come from then? Blackwater? What does Jon's debt have to do with it?"</span>
"...Blackwater is a big city. It's not like here or the place you grew up in. It's different there. People can get into a lot of trouble there if they start burrowing money."
<span class="mu-g">"Why would anyone need that much money for? Couldn't they just work to pay it back?"</span>
"Heh. Your innocence is very cute. No, in Blackwater, almost all debt it issued by the Merchant's Guild. They're very rich and powerful. Their masters learned the secrets of numbers from Dragons. They learned about things like compound interest and percentages- these are advanced, math magics. It means someone who takes a loan from then and doesn't pay it back may be stuck paying it back forever; even higher then what they originally took back."
<span class="mu-g">"Wha- That's horrible! Surely that goes against the law- the Law of the Golden Prince? Why would everyone agree to those terms?"</span>
"The Golden Prince's law only prevents people from passing debt onto their children; but not for people's own lives. Sometimes they don't know any better, but most of the time its because they are manipulated. Who do you think owns all the gambling dens and bawdy houses in Blackwater? That's right- the merchant's guild does. Once they get their hooks in someone, they don't want to let them go. Especially someone with skills like Jon..."
<span class="mu-g">"What about Jon? What could they possibly want with him? He doesn't have some special skills a bunch of criminals would want."</span>
"Oh come on, Elly. Haven't you seen? Jon is so much more practical and down to earth then Richard or you or even the Slug. He's distrustful of people and doesn't view life as something precious. He's a big man, strong, but also stealthy. What kind of work could a bunch of godless plutocrats get out of a man like that?"
<span class="mu-g">"...I don't like what you are implying Nasir."</span>
"What was he carrying before he came here? Just a dagger, right? I wonder if, in order to pay off his debt, what the Merchant's guild were making him do in those shadowy streets of Blackwater..."
<span class="mu-g">"Are you trying to turn me against him? I don't want to hear this anymore."</span>
"Just don't give your heart too willingly to him. Maybe he's more like the Shadow then you think."
<span class="mu-g">"Shut up, Nasir. Why do you foreigners with your weird dress and weird bald heads need to come and stir up trouble?"</span>
Just then, Jon's voice echoed from the small crypt they had been investigating.
<span class="mu-b">"Over here! We found something!"</span>
