TheNexusProject/TheStreetOfQueens
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The Street of Queens
by Moxiane
- "Oi! You! Yes, you - you scruffy little beggar. Fuck off back to the docks where you belong!"
- - Sergeant Huy-Junaur on patrol, rousting the simpleton Lokara
- "So, a necklace of chain-gold and silver down to here ... excuse me, my lady ... with a hundred sparkle-cut blue-white diamonds in an interweaving Sun Heron-derivative pattern, and matching earrings. I think we can have that ready in six to eight weeks."
- - The Lady Eight Starred Doves' fitting for a necklace designed to outshine her nemesis, Icefire Jasmine
Away from the worst of the smog that infests the lower throughways of Nighthammer, close to Abattoir Rise on the edge of the Nexus district, is the Street of Queens. As much as the district is famous for its prodigious industrial output, the Street of Queens is well known amongst the rich of the city for the ability and craft of its jewellers and artificers. Crowns and pendants, necklaces and rings, all fall from the fingers of the artificers like rain from clouds, and it is a rare wedding or party that doesn’t have most of the gewgaws on display originating from it.
The Street of Queens is fairly short; at a brisk walk, a man can get from the Gold Fountain at one end to the Bale of Stars at the other in less than ten minutes. Unlike many of the other streets in Nighthammer, however, the cobbles are kept clean (mostly), and the riff-raff and labourers who inhabit the district are politely (but firmly) asked to keep out by the retained guards.
Rumours
- Not all of the jewellery sold in the Street of Queens was made there. Only two months ago a whole family was slaughtered in Sentinel’s Hill, and their jewels were seen for sale in a shop on the Street not three days later.
- One of the shops is actually a front organisation for the Brothers of Belzarius, a group that the Council of Entities has outlawed within the bounds of the city.
Secret
- One jeweller has started a decent trade in hiring thieves to steal back pieces he sells, whereupon he melts the metal down and reuses it for another person’s commission.
