Zotikas: Episode 1: Clash of Heirs by Rob Storey, Tom Bruno

business perspective.
Originally, it was a place of sporting contests for feats of might and
strategy, built in the same century as its two companion structures in opposite
corners of the Plaza.
    Contests were still held there, but losers left dead
and winners only lived to fight again. Supposedly only violent criminals
sentenced to death ended up in the Arena. But Kieler knew better.
    In his operations with the Coin, Kieler had
occasionally used the services of the Lurani brothers, who ran a smuggling ring
of medicine and medical supplies from the Glums. The Merckles, who had the
state-sanctioned monopoly on health care, had traced the Lurani’s down through
their own industrial spy network.
    The Lurani brothers had ended their lives in a
dramatic but sadistic contest held in the very same edifice that Kieler was now
surveying. The contraption designed for their demise consisted of two separate
tanks with one brother chained to the bottom of each tank. Each brother had a
bucket and each tank had water running into it. The men could bail the water
out, but the contraption was designed to carry the water one brother bailed,
into the tank of the other brother. Eventually one drowned the other trying to
survive. Wracked with guilt, the surviving brother was eventually pitted
against another criminal and killed.
    Their crime was far from violent. But the
interpretation by the Omeron appointed courts was that it was violence against
the people of Avertori in general by undermining their health care.
    Kieler caught himself gritting his teeth and stopped.
Slink Squad had bought from the Lurani brothers. They had been good men with good
intentions. The Omeron needed to be taken down.
    The ageless shadow that Kieler had ditched undoubtedly
worked for one of the Omeron families. Thankfully, Kieler saw no sign of him in
the plaza below.
    He looked due east to where the Grand Stair climbed at
least fifty stories from the edge of Plaza Floraneva up to Garrist Ring. It was
a long climb. But the block-wide stair, adorned with statuary and cafes and
tall buildings up the middle of it, was far more difficult to watch than the
trams that ascended under the Stair. House Cortatti would be his primary
opponent. They knew why he was coming and what he looked like. If they could
stop him before the gala, he—and any claim Orlazrus Ortessi might have
made—would soon be forgotten.
    The Grand Stair curved gently and majestically up to
the northeast and ended at the promenade of Garrist Ring. Up the centerline of
the Stair ran a stately line of towering buildings, each grand unto itself,
owned by Omeron families with sufficient status. Connecting each of them near
their tops was an exclusive private tram (for ruling family members only). The
tram ran from the Arena, across Floraneva to the first family office building,
and then up the Stair to each successive tower until it finally ran above the
only bridge to the Palace of the Executive Chair.
    The nearest of these family headquarters, Vel-Taradan,
overlooked Plaza Floreneva. It consisted of a complex of three graceful towers
and belonged to House Vel. Kieler thought it the most desirable location since
it was nearest the fading beauty and bustle of Plaza Floreneva.
    Looking to the top of House Vel’s three towers, Kieler
saw the private, suspended tram car (nicknamed the FamTram) leaving the station
at the top of one tower, probably taking a load of self-important dignitaries
up the stairs to the gala.
    I wonder if Velator himself is aboard that tram, Kieler thought. The head of house Vel had been
reclusive in Kieler’s lifetime, spending most of his time in the mountainous
city of Velakun from which House Vel originated. When Kieler was very young, he
had learned from his father the tales and histories of Velik, Velator’s
ancestor and the founder of Avertori some thousand years ago. It was Velik and
Boreas who reclaimed the city from the decay and wild creatures that infested
the ruins of the