4 months later

It was a cold winter's day when all four of the district's leaders had come together. That very morning before dawn, they had each received a note demanding that they meet in a bar in the center of the red-light district. Gathered together were the queen, the king, the jack, and the ace. Each in charge of their own section. The queen controlled all female escorts and prostitutes. The king controlled the male. The jack was in charge of retail and food and the ace was in charge of security. 

Despite what others might think about the red-light district, there was a semblance of leadership. Granted it was skewed, rigged, and unjust, but they were the leaders of this dumpster of secrets. Each leader played a role and their roles helped the district flow in its own tampered way. 

The reason these four pieces of the red-light district had gathered “willingly” to this destitute bar in the poorest part of the district was due to the calling card they each had received to their respective “homes”. Nothing but a bundle of darkness in the shape of a wolf-like creature had invaded each of their private residences. The darkness had a smoky look to it and when it confirmed that the recipient had seen it, it burst into what would seem like nothing if not for the scorched ash letters left in their wake.

The message wasn’t ominous or intimidating. It simply read ‘Hager’s Bar. Dawn.’ but they each had a feeling if they ignored this message, trouble was sure to follow. When the second to arrive, the Ace, saw the queen sitting in the corner to the left wearing a casual commoner’s attire, he was certain she was the one who summoned him. But when she looked up to him with her wide green eyes, his brown ones narrowed. Minutes passed by and the King and Jack also arrived only to share similar reactions to the first two. So there the four of them sat, anxious to see who or what had called them here.

15 more minutes passed by and it was officially dawn when the bar doors opened one last time. In front stood two cloaked people and behind them, another figure stood. The two in front kept the doors open for the last figure and when they were all inside, the figure on the left who was the tallest and broadest of the three stood in front of the doors. 

The morning sun seemed non-existent as all seven people sat in the dark and gloomy bar. No one opened their mouths out of curiosity about who had gathered them here. Ignoring the figure guarding the door, the two other figures were standing dead center in the bar. The taller of the two stepped forward to greet everyone.

“Good morning full house.” The voice that greeted the four was sultry and smooth like velvet. And it definitely belonged to a woman.

She stepped forward once more and raised her hands to her hood. All three of them wore matching leather cloaks that came with a hood. The material was high-end, not something that suited this motley trio.

When she removed the hood from her head, all four of them gasped and stood up. Who stood before them was undeniably a woman. They could slightly make out her curvaceous and well-endowed body underneath the clock. What shocked them though was her skin and hair color. Rarely seen in the Empire, especially the capital, stood before them a woman with dark brown skin and hair so silver, it could pass for white. Her pouty lips were in an obvious smirk as she took in their shock.

The queen was the first to recover. With her fiery red hair and emerald eyes, she jumped up eager for the chance to add some new diversity to her girls. 

“You must be a woman from the southern continent! Your white hair leads me to believe you have some relations with the northern ducal family! For you to come to seek us out means you wish to exploit your looks correct? Let us talk for a moment before we include the others.” The queen walked around the table and made her way toward the brown-skinned woman eagerly. The other three were still too shocked to comprehend who they were seeing before them.

The southern continent that had come to the empire for trading roughly 30 years ago. The empire was shocked to learn they were not alone in this world. This was when they learned there was someone to the far east of them as well. The Empire had just been rebuilt now that the temple of Dawne was under new management and no longer a key force on the continent. At first, people were apprehensive when they showed up on their ships. But once they looked past the skin color, they realized this entire country of people had many things that the empire did not. And the Empire was hooked. 

When the emperor at the time asked why they waited so long to come to their western continent but not the eastern one. The representative simply said,

 “The gods told us we would be persecuted if we came.”

She said this with a smile on her face while pointing to the sun. 

The emperor instantly caught on and demanded a more detailed explanation of what the soldiers and knights found when they broke into the main temple of Dawne.

It was there that one of the temple raid captains fessed up. The brown-skinned woman, how ragged she looked. Her ghastly skinny and malnourished body. Her uninterest in the revolution soldiers and lastly, her blatant loathing for the temple, its priests, and the word demon.

The emperor immediately called for the representatives and issued an apology before explaining to the representatives what the captain had told them. They in turn cried over this unknown woman who suffered as if she was one of their own. 

As such, rarely did anyone from the southern continent come to the Empire unless it was strictly business. They all had a brown or deep brown complexion similar to Salem. Many of them had kinky hair or intricate braiding styles. Most of the hair colors were blonde, red, brown, or black. Very rare for silver if they were young. Let alone their eye colors were general green, brown, and hazel. Not this deep red Salem had. 

This of course was brought to the attention of Salem thanks to the God of Death.

The mocha-skinned woman shot the queen an interested yet icy look.

“Katherine, I did not permit you to speak or approach me.” Her tone of voice sent chills down the older woman's spine so fast that she had no choice but to take three steps back. 

“I didn’t call you all here to have you treat me like livestock for the nobles.” She removed her cloak and handed it to the person next to her. Without the cloak, her full body came into view. She stood tall and proud in leather form-fitting pants, an overly large white blouse, and boots. Her silver hair reached down to her waist and seemed to be twisted into individual locks, albeit very thin.

She had jewelry with designs not usually seen in the capital on her wrists, around her neck, in her ears, and on her fingers. Something one would find by the ports on pirates. Basically, not decorative and full of jewels. But simple and probably with meaning.

“I'm here to offer you four a business proposition that will change your lives, your business, and everyone in this district.” 

The slacked mouths of the full house slowly closed when they realized that this woman had not come here to be told no. 

The king, ace, and the jack all stood up and moved to the center table that the woman stood in front of. Katherine, the queen, with narrowed suspicious eyes followed suit.

The brown-skinned woman gave them a pearly white grin and sat down at what could be called the head of the table.

“Good to see we’re all on the same page.” She began, “My name is Salem and I came here today with the intention of rebuilding the slums from the bottom up..”