55. The Upright Man

Kinch escapes into Hrava’s sewers, noting their relative cleanliness and the city’s terror under giant occupation. He observes a subterranean marketplace where refugees barter heirlooms for food, revealing the collapse of surface life and the new economy of scarcity and risk.

While eyeing arrows, Kinch is quietly intercepted by street children he had seen earlier. Trusting his luck, he follows them into the Worming Vault, a moss-lit tavern-brewery ruled by Ürmehen, an Upright Man who thrives outside the old Guild order.

Introduced before Ürmehen’s armed retinue, Kinch establishes himself as a capable fighter. Ürmehen recognizes Kinch as a Galt and, after crude propositions, shifts to business. Kinch asks about the royal crisis; Ürmehen claims the Guild, expelled by King Hagli, provoked the giants by sending men disguised as Oustri, and that Hagli fell heroically at the canal.

Pressed on Queen Mireya, Ürmehen says her location is unknown—at least to anyone willing to say. Too rich to bribe, Ürmehen demands sex as payment for the truth. Kinch refuses, recalling Low School training but seeking another way.

Spotting Ürmehen’s Towers deck, Kinch proposes a wager: a Towers game for the information. Ürmehen, a confident player, accepts, and Kinch stakes his dignity on the outcome beneath a city terrorized by giants.