Team Dark set off as the fourth bell tolled, breaking the pre-dawn silence of the city. Raven made it a point to look outside the open slats of the armored carriage as they sped down the empty streets. He had expected the transition to be a gradual thing, where the safe and peaceful streets of the nineteenth district, home to strike team Dark, would slowly devolve into the lawlessness that made up the vast majority of the outer ring. That was not the case. As they swept through the nineteenth, twentieth, and entered the twenty-first district, everything looked exactly the same. The first sword’s effect was palpable. But the moment they crossed the widened avenue that separated the twenty-first and twenty-second districts, the destitution and desperation returned.
Crimson Ring Chapter 12
| The bath, as it turned out, was more opulent than anything Raven had seen in Bhadestan, and that counts Carrion’s tower. The wash basin was large enough to accommodate his full body with plenty of room to spare, and the water itself was filled to the lip, an appalling waste of the precious resource. Beside the tub, stacks of crystalline blocks that resembled masonry bricks, some two dozen in total. Half glowed softly with alchemical blue light, the other a soft red.
Crimson Ring Chapter 11
| The first place First Sword Abon brought Raven was the dormitory section. It comprised twelve identical personal rooms, each equipped with a bed, a desk, two wardrobes, and four storage chests. Every member, from the first sword down to Raven—the newest member of the team with the lowly rank of recruit—had the same amenities. Raven suspected that was more an indication of the first sword than what he had seen so far of the peacekeeper corps structure.