CREEEEAK—BANG!
On World 34 (Silk-Marsh Planet), the heavy black iron shutters of the Grand Venom-Spider Pill Pavilion in the center of Green-Web City were flung open at the crack of dawn.
Out stepped Elder Eight-Eyes, the Rank 6 Peak Golden Core branch leader of the Venom-Spider Sect in charge of World 34.
He was a skinny, hunched old man wearing a robe woven from greasy black spider silk. On his forehead, right above his two real eyes, sat six glowing purple spider-eye tattoos that blinked whenever he was calculating profits.
Without even opening his real eyes, Elder Eight-Eyes cleared his throat, raised his chin toward the street, and shouted his usual morning speech:
“Listen up, you coughing swamp-dogs! Today is the fifteenth of the month! Because the swamp dampness was extra heavy last night, the price of a single Green-Gall Antidote Pill is now fifty Spirit-Herbs or five hundred copper coins! No credit, no half-pills, and anyone who coughs blood on my marble front steps pays a ten-coin cleaning fee! Line up in three neat rows and hand over your money!”
Silence.
Not a single cough echoed down the wide stone street. Not a single trembling hand reached up to offer a basket of herbs.
