Although the Lord Ruler had once been a man, there were none alive who knew him as anything but a god, nor had there been for more than a thousand years. Instead, all knew him as the tyrant god-king who was not only unspeakably cruel, but took pleasure in that cruelty. Perhaps that was why he had first thought The Undercity. Sub-Luthadel was its official name. Uncreative but accurate, for Sub-Luthadel existed just beneath the Lord Ruler's capital city of Luthadel. However, the name had been corrupted by the many generations of women who had been sent to The Undercity, and now it was known simply as Sudel. Jaysten thought that it was also probably no coincidence that Sudel brought to mind the old Terris word Seudeli, which meant hope. Likely the women who had been sent to Sudel in the beginning had needed to feel like some sort hope surrounded them as they were forced to live the rest of their lives in the darkness of The Undercity.
Of course, the other reason for Sudel, Jaysten knew, was the control that Sudel gave to the Lord Ruler over the skaa. There was no chance of the skaa becoming so powerful in the capital city through the sheer force of numbers if the number of women available for reproduction was limited. Of course, the Lord Ruler could have just killed the women, but there was always the possibility that skaa reproduction rates would fall as they had among the noblemen. He couldn't afford to let the skaa population drop too low. Not when they were the backs the city was built upon and the bodies that kept it running. So instead they had been taken to Sudel. And, of course, it was so much more fun for the Lord Ruler to keep the women oppressed underground.
Then there was also the fear that Sudel had instilled in the skaa. Girls and women, often teenagers, disappeared without notice all the time in Luthadel. When Jaysten had lived among them in Luthadel proper, she had been all too aware of that fear. The assumption was that the girls disappeared because of the crime that took place in Luthadel, particularly in the poorer areas, or because some nobleman decided to take her to his bed that night and later have her killed. It was a terrifying, accepted truth that women simply disappeared in Luthadel. It was simply part of the way of life in Luthadel, a hard city fit for a hard god. There had been rumors, of course, about Sudel, but most dismissed them as ridiculous. After all, who could reasonably believe that an entire city full of women was lurking in the depths beneath Luthadel?
Who indeed? Jaysten thought as she weaved through the very real corridors of Sudel. It had been a long time since the Founders had been forced into the caves beneath Luthadel to create Sudel. Jaysten could only imagine their terror when they were kidnapped and taken underground and told that they would spend the rest of their lives there. However, those women had not let their fear control them and make them idle. Instead, they, and the generations of women who had followed, had used the intervening years to create the sprawling underground labyrinth that was Sudel. They had built and excavated until it was truly The Undercity. Jaysten doubted that the Lord Ruler had ever known about the true vastness of Sudel. In fact, she had often wondered just exactly why the Lord Ruler had allowed it. Why, when he had oppressed the skaa so much, when he took so much pleasure in oppressing the skaa even, had he allowed the women of Sudel to create the city as it was today? And allowed them to rule themselves? Of course, the simple answer was that he thought women were weak and not worth fearing.
He had, of course, been wrong.
Jaysten knew of the reports of the Lord Ruler's death, and by the hand of a woman no less. Even now, the thought made her smile. The reports also talked of the chaos that had arisen in Luthadel following the Lord Ruler's death. Of course, the Lord Ruler's death had little affected Sudel, which had largely ruled itself for at least the past two hundred years. The primary difference was that they were openly free to leave Sudel now that he was gone. Not that many had. Why live in Luthadel when you could have so much more, so much better, in the darkness below it? Besides, the Sudelians were resourceful. They had found ways out of the underground caves years ago. The fact that you could leave Sudel if you really wanted wasn't new. The only difference was the openness of it, which Jaysten supposed changed things but not by much. It only meant that it was more possible that someone from Luthadel would discover Sudel, now that there was no Lord Ruler to guard it and keep it secret.
No, what the Conclave was discussing today was what Sudel should do Luthadel now that they could do something if they so wanted. The Conclave had already been debating about this for weeks. There was a good chance they still wouldn't reach a decision today, but Jaysten was still interested to see their progress towards a decision, although that wasn't the primary reason she was attending the assembly today. Triedess was giving her report to the Conclave, and Jaysten knew she could not miss that. Jaysten hadn't been able to pry what Triedess had learned about the incident at the northern reaches out of her. She had instead insisted that the Conclave be the first to know. So here Jaysten was, entering the assembly hall uncharacteristically early to ensure that she could get a front row seat.
She would learn what had happened. She had to learn what had happened. Maybe once she did, she'd finally be able to sleep again. Triedess would tell the Conclave that she understood what had happened, that it was all taken care of, that it wouldn't happen again. Jaysten had been blindly holding onto that hope as she'd been alternatively looking forward to and dreading this day. Because there was a possibility that Triedess would not say those things. That she would say what Jaysten had been fearing and what had been keeping her constantly awake since that day.
That she would say that there was something stirring in the darkness of Sudel. Something that had awoken since the Lord Ruler's death.
Jaysten closed her eyes and steadied her breath as she waited for the assembly to begin.