Diaries of an Ooze Witch (Entry 3.7) (Patreon)

3.7

I had Jeru do a bit more research on this Gabrin I was dealing with. While I may have brokered a deal with him, I was a far way from trusting him in the slightest. What I needed to know was where my iron was heading and for what purpose. It pained me to have the family iron stock on the Black Market, but if earlier rumors were to be believed, my Brother had done just that. To think that he would involve himself with the criminal element, allowing our product to be distributed to such deviants.

When Jeru returned, he shared what he had gathered. Apparently, Gabrin had been a fairly constant player in Placedo’s Criminal Underworld. While he mostly stuck to the drug trade, it wasn’t too long ago that he began dealing almost exclusively in iron products. It’s been noticed that since Boheme Trading Company blew into the city and they took over the iron market, Gabrin has been taking care to shore up control of whatever iron winds up on the Black Market. Rumor has it that he’s been selling it almost exclusively to the Uhl Kattan at market price.

I could feel a chill go up my spine. Bad enough to be dealing with the Black Market, but to have the family iron be in the hands of those reprobates? The thought chafed on me. Regardless, I would have to persevere despite my misgivings.

Jeru then presented me with some interesting news. Up until a little while ago, Gabrin was keeping a consistent operation running. There was some turmoil between Gabrin and the Uhl Kattan, something about a break in the iron supply that had sorely been felt. From Jeru’s observations, that’s probably why Gabrin was missing a finger. To this, I could only concur. The Uhl Kattan were well known for their cruelty and taking a finger for past transgressions seemed up their alley.

I offered my opinion on what that could mean: That he was trying to pay off his debtors by selling my family’s iron. Truth be told, it certainly felt like I had more leverage than he was letting on. Jeru then informed me that there was more to the story. He mentioned that Gabrin was seen interacting with a seedy looking merchant by the name of Ketzgel. This caused my ears to perk up as I recalled meeting a man by that name earlier in my soujourns into the city. From what Jeru had been able to surmise, Gabrin was taking out loans from this merchant for a task he needed performed. Some time would pass before the two would meet again where Gabrin would repay the loan. I didn’t need much more to reach my conclusion that he was keeping his iron operations afloat with the capital of the Boheme Trading Company.

Working with this new knowledge, I applied it in a way that made sense to me:

1.      Boheme Trading Company lends Milan to Gabrin to buy up iron.

2.      Gabrin buys up all the iron on the Black Market.

3.      Gabrin sells the iron to the Uhl Kattan at a bloated price.

4.      Gabrin meets with his Contact in the Boheme Trading Company and repays his debt.

The order of operations made some sense. Gabrin stood to make a profit off of iron sales with borrowed money. By buying off of disenfranchised merchants, he could most likely purchase their stock at a discount before selling that same stock to the Uhl Kattan. Still, there were some holes in this plan that didn’t quite add up for me. Why wouldn’t the Uhl Kattan buy the same iron off of those merchants and skip the middle man that Gabrin truly was. They could probably have saved a mint instead of getting extorted by Gabrin.

Jeru weighed in with his own theory. Perhaps the reason the Uhl Kattan went through a middle man was precisely because Gabrin was a middle man. If the Uhl Kattan had gone through other merchants, word would have spread of them stockpiling iron for their own shady purposes. By using Gabrin, they could limit the amount of people knowing their movements as a whole without risking the authorities cracking down on them.

I mulled over his response. It was true that the Uhl Kattan preferred to work from the shadows, as a criminal is wont to do. Still, that didn’t explain why they needed all of that iron or why the Boheme Trade Company was propping up the Black Market sales of iron. It wasn’t like the Uhl Kattan were renowned for their blacksmithing operations, they had to have been moving it somewhere else. And why did they take Gabrin’s finger? Did negotiations go south at one point and they exacted vengeance for a slight Gabrin made? And where did that leave my Brother, William? It was safe to assume that he participated in this scheme as a supplier of iron, but was that really the extent of his involvement? And what of the woman who had drove him to madness? Where was she in all of this? I had a handful of answers but felt like I was no closer to the truth. My sleep will most likely not be a sound one.