Purity of Mind

Chapter 8: Chankota

I don't know what I was expecting when I set foot inside Chankota. Probably some outward sign of their xenophobia: Propaganda posters or keen-eyed citizens looking to turn in a spy for a reward. Instead, it was normal. If teleportation was real and someone had been teleported directly from Opal to where I now stood, they'd be hard pressed to tell the difference.

Even the buildings had Opal-style flat roofs. I'd expected their hatred of outsiders would extend to architectural styles as well, but apparently the extra expense of adding sloped roofs like the Empire prefered was just too much. Especially because that style had come into fashion due to the kind of rainfall that Chankota was unlikely to see on a regular basis.

I made a special note of the flat roofs - that would help in case I needed to escape.

As I walked, though, I began to see the more subtle indicators of the city's attitude. The main thoroughfare I'd been on was clean and its buildings in good repair, but those buildings were not residential. This part of the city was for warehouses and a very few money-changers. For interfacing with the foreigners just outside the city, in other words. Nobody wanted to live anywhere near the outlander's quarter, even with some distance and a city wall between them.

When I left the main roads for the side streets where I'd hopefully stand out even less - no sense testing the limits of the wizard's magic - my suspicions were confirmed. I had a long honed ability to determine the tone of a neighborhood, and this was not a good part of town.

I knew how to carry myself in such a way that I wouldn't be bothered; thankfully I didn't need the magic for that. Aside from a few appraising glances from figures further in the shadows than I was, I nobody even noticed me.

My street smarts, it seemed, were still intact. I knew the heart of the Empire would be different, but Chankota was apparently enough of a desert city for my instincts to carry over. What I needed to do now was find my way to a better part of the city. While this district almost certainly had a police station, it'd be undermanned at best and actively corrupt at worst. It wasn't the sort of place where someone's personal effects would be kept. I was looking for an office in a more affluent area, but not too affluent - the extremes of the city both had token police forces only, though for very different reasons. If I could find the governmental buildings, that was my best bet. For that, I'd need to get to the center.

Finding the center of Chankota was easy - its multiple city walls basically made it a bullseye. The inner gates of the city weren't guarded at all, at least not in these parts. I had to re-join the main thoroughfare, but only lurked there for long enough to cross into the new district. This was slightly better; a business district that had already shuttered its doors for the evening, though as before the side streets held more activity and much of it illegal or at least frowned on. I knew how to carry myself here, too. Aside from the constant calls of the merchants, which no amount of body language could silence, I again passed through unscathed and unnoticed.

The police station here was full-sized but likely only slightly more effective. The legitimate merchants would want protection, but the "protection" that the thugs of the previous district no doubt provided the less legitimate merchants would ensure that the police turned a blind eye to the side businesses. Also not a place to keep goods you didn't want stolen.

Dalostaed had spent a disproportionate amount of time teaching me words for various parts of law enforcement. Either he suspected that I was likely to run afoul of it, or he had personal experience. Possibly both, given his willingness to have the wizard help me. As such, I was looking for one type of police building in particular. All those I had seen so far were labeled 'Pulsin', the Hidna word for 'police'. The translator had emphasized that the person in charge of auctioning off the effects was called a 'Sheriff', and the word for that was 'Shersif'.