Chapter Text
My name is Eli Fields. I was born and raised in an average-sized town in Longtrail, but far removed from the noise and bustle of the city of Crichwell Omialt. Once I came of age, I found work in my father’s small business where I worked on both the analog and digital side of things, keeping records, making corrections where needed and ensuring the business was living within its means.
The “Freeze” changed all that. The majority of our family and business’s financial reserves were stored digitally, and so when the financial networks went dark, things quickly ground to a halt. And when services were restored at last, we found our accounts had been completely emptied. And with so many other people and businesses affected much the same as us, the banks could not help us.
Could not, or would not, I wonder?
The result was worse than a lay-off. Our family business completely folded, and I, my father and many others were forced to scramble to find work elsewhere, just to put bread on the table. Meanwhile, news both digital and hardcopy spoke of the wealthier class in a city I knew only by name not merely having endured this financial crisis, but flourished in it.
Unfair? Absolutely. Suspicious? Easy to posit, but harder to prove. The only silver lining to this sudden poverty was that the widespread nature of it freed my father and I of any such suspicion. We were victims of this crash just as much as the next person.
Before the Freeze, I had often heard my father say that I had a knack for detail, for being thorough. On one occasion he speculated that I could make a living on my own at Crichwell Omialt, particularly at "BC&J". I shrugged off the praise and didn't think much of it until years later. While working yet another dead-end job, my manager there made the same observations about me, and named the same organization. But he went a step further; he apparently knew someone in the city with ties to this “BC&J” firm, and next thing I knew, I had a contact card that I was able to act upon, once I'd saved up enough scrip.
BC&J. Forensic Investigations & Financial Crimes Consulting. 14 Ledger Row, Crichwell Omialt. That was all the small, premium paper card said.
Why not, I thought. I'll probably never know who really lined their pockets at the expense of my father’s business, but maybe working at this firm, finding answers for other such victims will be an answer, of a sort, for me. And perhaps, this offer won’t be just another dead end.
And so I made the journey. The train ride to Crichwell Omialt was bumpy and noisy with the chatter of passengers and the clatter of metal upon metal as I laid eyes on the city for the first time from my window seat. I saw...division. The immaculate glass and stone skyscrapers, glistening highrise apartment buildings on one side, and on the other, the rusty, sooty, towering stacks of heavy industry with a multitude of shacks and run-down tenements filling in the spaces between.
One side shining in the sun, while the other languished in the dimness of its own steam and smoke. The city was like two sides of a coin, with one vast bridge connecting them. I thought they couldn’t be any more different.
And then, I began to see something they had in common. No matter how much the sun did or did not shine on them, both had their share of shadows. And then I got the feeling that would prove to be more than merely a visual observation.
After a long walk from the nearest train station, I soon arrived at 14 Ledger Row. The building was several stories tall, and yet by comparison was quite short. It was well-kept, but looked old. While it was on the nicer-looking side of the city near its edge, it didn’t seem like it quite belonged on either side. And as I gazed upon the building’s main doors, confirming the building number finally revealed the meaning of the mysterious, vowelless acronym on my contact card.
Benson, Colgate & Jamieson. 14 Ledger Row.
No business description. A gaze at the nearby skyscrapers that seemed to look down on this place, made me wonder if that was deliberate.
I suppose I’ll find out soon enough.