She sat by the glow of the stones embedded on the walls, while she worked on mending a dress for one of the girls that worked. Just last week the girl was requested by some of the more foul patrons. Upon resisting, her clothes were torn. Thankfully, Jade was alerted by some of the ladies of the business, so she came and put a stop to their... unwanted attention.

Jade Glowminer was a well preserved zombie undead for her age. She was thin in the waist with an ample bust. Her skin was a lovely translucent green color, with light jade colored eyes. All these pointed to her name. Jade was her name, but her favorite color was scarlet red. However, she hadn't worn this color since she last saw her husband. She now mostly wore black, with white for special occasions.

She stared up at the ceiling. It would be soon, she could see her husband again. Her and her husband, Nicholas Grimnight could see each other once every fifty years. This was the final agreement they could make the clan budge. This was all because her daughter wouldn't agree to a marriage proposed by her clan. She never blamed her daughter, as she married for love. It wasn't her place in the clan to speak out against it, but it was her that helped her daughter leave Sosuhalf City to make a new start in Saigunrai those many years ago.

While thinking of the past, she felt her heart soften when she thought of the present. She hated the work she did, but was comforted by all the news she gathered on her daughter. Her daughter was now the first consort of The Holy Witch King... HER daughter! How proud she was that her daughter found a good partner, and with a bonus of a high t.i.tle, it didn't get much higher than the monarch of a kingdom!

Though, she felt sad after thinking about it again. She would never get to see her royal son-in-law... How could the king of a nation acknowledge the matron of a brothel as a mother-in-law...?

"Sigh..." Jade went back to patching the dress. She treated all the girls in the business as her daughters.

*******

"Hey Boss... We got another job." A geist walked into the darkened room. Sitting at a white bone desk, a large zombie was completing paperwork. The entire room was thick with the smoke of burnt offerings. This smoke carried a dark red tinge to it. Only the smoke of Brimstone dust would cause this type of effect. This was one of the strongest dusts to be used for burnt offerings; however, the large zombie undead bossman seemed unfazed by the offerings.

He looked up from his stacks of paperwork. "Yeah... Who's it from?"

"Grimnight clan..."

The bossman sat up in his sit, displaying his full size. He was a colossal undead. His face was a square shape with one black eye and one white eye, left and right respectively. His white eye was slashed over leaving a large scar that started at his hair line down to his cheek. His skin was a dark purple color, and his expression was apathetic.

"Ah, I love business from the clans. They pay well, and don't like questions. What's the job?"

"That's the part I think is funny, listen to this." The geist took out a scroll and read it aloud.

As he finished, the boss commented, "Huh... They want us to make a move on their own business? This stinks of conspiracy."

"So we aren't going to pull the job?"

The large zombie boss laughed, as his muscles in his suit quivered, "Of course, we are going to pull the job. Who cares why they want it done, it's all about wither they are paying or not."

"Oh, they paid... and paid extra for it to be done today."

"So soon? Whatever, Get Lil' Joey and the goons together and make it quick."

"Oh, uh, what do you want to do with the body?"

"What do I look like the cleaner, dump it into the river, burn it, sell it for mushroom food, I don't care... Now get outta here, I got paperwork to do."

The geist bowed deeply, "Yes, Boss Crag." He turned quickly to leave but was stopped, "Hey, What was that loud boom earlier?"

"Not sure yet, we waiting on a report from the local rats. We should know soon."

"Alright, go on."

Finally, the geist darted out the room. Once outside, he started getting the shakes. He went down the hall and to an open room to the side. He finally made it inside and fell to his knees, with the door closing behind him. Laughter burst out all around him.

"OH, Jonny here got another taste of the offerings in the boss's room!"

"Yeah! He was talking like he could walk in and out with no problems, now look at 'em." another voice was gaffing.

"Hey now, we all know the big deadman on deck is jonny. He can take a plate and it won't hurt!"

"Shut it, you guys... Boss was doing a pile of paperwork... You know he burns extra when he's doing paperwork!" Jonny spoke up from his shaking.

"Oh boo hoo... What are you? Clergy? Get ya a.s.s up. What did boss say?"

"We pull the job. What else you think he would say."

"He doesn't find it out? We going to knock over a brothel owned by the same people that's putting up the job... What about the Doomcry clan's protection?"

"Look. Boss said pull the job, he didn't say nothing about the Doomcry clan, he didn't say worry about it being the same people, he wanted to know if they paid, and they did... So we do it."

"Alright, alright, alright..." The undead goon rubbed his bony fingers together... "So who gets to go?"

"Lil' boss and his goons."

"What! What not us?"

Another undead popped the speaker in the back of the skull, "What makes you think boss going to let you do this job. I knew we weren't going to get this job, when you botched the Casper Job."

"Bonehead, you were with me when we pulled that job. You're at just as much fault as I am!"

"Who you calling a bonehead, Bonehead!"

Finally, getting to his feet in an unsteady faction, he barked out, "Break it up yous too... sheesh. Look. Ya got ya own job, today. Make to it."

As the goons were breaking up, one could be heard, "Yeah, but who wants to extort, when you get loot... Extorting is too much talking, not enough stabbing."

"Hey, Hey, get back here Tommy. You know your running boy this month."

Another undead, who had his head low trying to sneak out, cursed under his breath.

"Yeah, yeah... What is it capo?"

"Oh, you only remember I'm the capo, when you don't want to do something is it, ya git."

"Hey, capo, it was the other guys laughing. I'm just sitting in the back."

"Get ya self over to the Lil' boss, and tell 'em what's what. Now get." Capo kicked at Tommy.

Tommy covered his head, and ran out the room.

"Sheesh... I thought when I made capo; I'd get some respect around here." He had his hands on his hips. One could tell that there was a slight shakiness to his legs, making his argument seems all the more questionable.

*******

Jack was walking with Bishop Johnson, when they finally made it to the front of the Elegant Darkness Manor. It was a tall building, at least eight floors with a wide entrance. It was actually a nice looking building, with no advertis.e.m.e.nt of what business they were doing, very discreet.

"Take your leave, Bishop."

"As you will, your Grace." Bishop Johnson bowed, turned, and quickly made his way to one of his undead-at-arms stationed far away.

[I have no idea how long his grace will take...] While walking with his Grace, Bishop Johnson had already cleared all the surrounding businesses and restaurants of anyone. He would compensate them from the city treasury.

Jack walked into the manor, and approached the counter. Clink... Clink... Clink... The Femur Ferula tapped on the white stone flooring.

The Hostess was fiddling with her bony hands behind the desk, polis.h.i.+ng her oval gem stone nails. It was common for skeletal undead women to embed small gem stones into the top ends of their finger bones. False finger nails for Skeletal undead, if you will. Even with the clinking sound, she didn't pay much attention.

"Ma'am. I am looking for Jade Glowminer."

Without looking up, "The matron doesn't provide services, but we have other willing beauties, if you like." She continued to polish her nails.

"Ma'am, I'm not looking for a good time." [Though Jack was really interested in how undead achieve this.] "I have business with Jade Glowminer. Please call for her."

"Sir, if you have biz..." The hostess finally looked up into the imposing form of The Holy Witch King in full regalia. Standing so tall with his hooded vestment, that only showed the dancing flames in his eyes.

"I'm kind of in a hurry. Thank you."

The hostess didn't pay attention to the Femur Ferula. If she had, then she would have known it was The Holy Witch King, but she didn't terry. She dashed like the wind to the side stairs, and up she went.

Jack leaned on the desk, while rapping his fingers. So far this had been way easier than he thought it would. He figured he would get here in the middle of some fight with her clan, and almost on que...

With a loud bang, the door of the business flew pa.s.s Jack and landed behind the desk, where the previous hostess had been standing. Jack lifted his head and looked at the entrance to see a large zombie undead making his way into the shattered door frame, followed by a group of undead. The lead zombie wore a thin white s.h.i.+rt and rough pants, his followers were dressed in bandit attire.

[And this was what I was expecting...] Jack inwardly sighed.

"This is, like... A hold up. I need all the broads to like, empty ya savings and jewelry into a sack, pillow or otherwise container. Also I need this to be given by the matron of the business or Imma start releasing these little girls from their unlife one by one... Like where is everyone?"

After a long rant, the large undead finally asked the question. How these dunces made it through the lines of undead-at-arms was a mystery.

Jack stopped leaning on the counter and coming up to his full height, turned and stared down at this group of ruffians.

"Who are you?"

While the zombie was quite tall and large, he was still dwarfed by Jack's tall figure. The Zombie leader looked up into the flaming eyes of Jack.

"Like what's this supposed to be? It's not abyssal's end. Isn't it a little early to be playing dress up?" He laughed, and soon his goons were laughing.

[This dufus has no idea who I am...]