After the show had ended I found myself surprisingly eager to go speak with Boss Strise. He’d had an acquaintance in the city scout out our new pickpockets ahead of our arrival and then met with them the previous night outside of our camp. No doubt sizing them up before briefing them on our troupe’s particular scam. And I wanted to ask him a few questions on the subject.
When I jumped into the covered wagon and confronted him he’d been surprised to have me, and more so his precious profits, back in such haste. He and I both knew I usually liked taking my time before returning with his hat after a successful show, giving myself a chance to skim a little more of those generous donations.
“Well my my, Sorrel, it’s not usually you I have in a hurry to climb back on in here with me,” Boss said while removing a plain iron monocle from his blind right eye, “Can’t be that you were looking forward to seeing me of course. So now why don’t you go on ahead and give me back my hat and say whatever it is you want said. Ain’t gonna take long for the others to pack up and come hollering for their cut of pay after all.”
I handed over the hat, now plump as its owner, and looked into the milky white of his blind eye. The empty socket where his left had once been was far too unsettling for me to be willing to look into for long. I had been the one that took it from him many many moons ago and thinking about it brought up memories I’d rather forget.
“The thing is, Boss, I was curious about those new hires,” I said softly before trailing off.
“Oh were you now?” came his reply as his fingers happily fondled all of his new coins, “Weren’t because you were feeling bad about what happened with the last set we had now, was it?”
His words stung and I did my best not to show it, despite him not actually being able to see me.
“Well no,” I started, “I mean I guess that was a part of it. And I admit that what happened in Brigandstan was largely my fault, though not entirely, but still...I guess I just don’t want anything bad to happen to them, okay? Not if it can be helped. These ones probably have no real idea what it is they’re getting themselves into by joining on with us. Unless you already told them about our cu-”
“Well now is that all?” he butted in cutting my words off abruptly, “Why, Sorrel, you know I’m always sure to look out for my own. Course they did say they’d be happy to travel on east with us through to Grace so I ain’t see any reasons not to ensure them safe passage for so long as that takes. Barring any unfortunate happenings during botched performances I don’t rightly see there being any real issues at all. Mind you, I guess if you’re addressing this with me it’s actually a bit of special treatment you want me to show them now isn’t it? So tell me, Sorrel Fellingwood, should I take it this is you forcing my hand to follow your terms of our pact?”
“Fine then. If that’s what it’s going to take for you to acknowledge them as people instead of just your newest little play things to ensnare and break then so be it. It’s earlier in the year than I’d have liked to use it, but follow through with this and you can consider this year’s favour paid.”
“Heheheh well in that case it’s my pleasure doing business with you. Lucky me to be bound with someone so painfully softhearted. Now is that all?”
“Well I-”
“Oh for the love of the Goddess, kid, they’re a brother and sister pair with what I was told to be ten or twelve years between ‘em. Her name is Per- Pre- Ah shit, I don’t know something starting with a P I guess. Don’t ask me what the little brother’s name is. Only impression I got from him was that he’s probably dumber than spit. Either way, far as I can tell they ain’t got nothing to their names short of each other. And that’s everything I cared to remember.”
“I uh, thanks, I guess.”
“Don’t mention it. Ever. I can’t be having the rest of you cretins thinking it’s acceptable to come talking at me about anything other than what it is I pay you lot for. Oh yes and, speaking of which, I’ve added a tidy little bonus for you today for so elegantly taking the fall for the sake of my precious show. Do keep up with that level of effort in the future please.”
Growing increasingly disinterested in hearing any more from this loathsome man I held out both of my hands in the way that I knew he wanted. Both palms up like a beggar despite my cut of those many coins being thoroughly well earned. With a slight grimace, he parted with a small sum of his most precious things. We shared a few brief words more before parting and then I was free to enjoy the next couple of hours before the spell’s full effect would wear off. After that point it would become increasingly dangerous for any of us to stick around inside the city.
In all, my bonus had totalled an extra copper whole and a dozen iron bits o’eight. On top of my usual two wholes and twenty-four bits it would barely buy me a good meal in this town. Holding my earnings tight, I slinked off down the nearest alley and ducked into hiding behind some empty crates before dumping out all of the coins I’d managed to sneak up my sleeve at the end of the show.
There were seven more wholes, thirty-odd in bits and a gorgeous pair of gleaming Silver pieces. The road weary knew best to secure their funds in various places and to that practice I was no exception.
First I pulled a small purse from the pocket on my overall’s bib. It fit like a happy little sparrow in my palm and was pocked with little jagged marks from all the irons and few coppers held within. I loaded in my newest bit pieces along with four coppers to make it look like a vagabond’s honest savings, then placed the purse back into the pocket over my chest. Then, looking around to ensure that absolutely nobody else was near, I leaned my head forward and pulled off my cap.
The long points of my ears sprang out through my hair in an instant, all too eager to be freed from their fabric prison. They throbbed painfully after spending so many hours tucked up against my scalp and compressed by my cap’s snug band. If my hands weren’t full I’d have rubbed them but this wasn’t a safe place to dawdle with coins out and my ears exposed. A mess of unkempt hair fell in front of my eyes and I blew some of it away while the rest stuck to my nose.
The purse inside my cap had a heft to it lacking in the first. When full it sat like a large stone in my hand though for the moment it wasn’t even close to being halfway there. I gently poured in my sweet Silvers and the remaining sum of copper wholes. They made a merry little sound as they joined with a small mass of similar metal pieces. As for my sum total of six Golds, I accredit those for the blisters on my feet while keeping them safely guarded inside my boots. I placed my true savings back inside my cap and then bundled it under my arm a moment. Giving myself a brief chance to gently massage the lengths of my ears.
When they were hidden I looked like a scruffy human lost somewhere in their mid-twenties and often times I was mistaken for a boy. Largely in part due to my tall and slim figure but my baggy clothes and the visible scars on my hands, wrists and right cheek also helped reinforce that image. Not that I minded the extra layer of protection. As a travelling career criminal it was a dangerous world and countless times more so when you were seen as an object of desire. Being found out as both a woman and an elf would be my greatest undoing.
Even among the troupe it was only Boss Strise, old Everrnak and the soup witch who knew these particular truths about me. That was, after all, how I’d been when they found me. A lost little girl surviving in the Frontier Woods, garbed in beast skins and brandishing a branch I’d sharpened into a spear. Of course we’d all been much younger in those days, other than old Everrnak. That ancient husk had aged so much before my time that his body seemed to simply refuse growing even a single moon older. They say after that eternity had simply let him be.
I gave my head a shake to clear it from such pointless pondering and took my hands away from the sides of my head. Nice as the relief of my fingers kneading them and the sensation of cool air against my ears felt it was for the best that I put them away again. Respite was something that I’d always known to be fleeting.
After my brief stint in the alley I’d stood and readjusted myself. Then I made my way further into Fellorne, toward the city’s wicked heart where some of the best, and cheapest meals could be found. The city itself was designed as a massive circle, surrounded by tall perimeter walls made of stone, with large gates in each of the four cardinal directions.
Millgate to the north where bakeries, food markets and humble commoner housing could be found. Maingate to the west where the more well-to-do and affluent lived in tidy row houses tucked in nicely among luxury shops and boutiques. Quarrygate to the south where the bulk of Fellorne’s industrial sites were located. And then there was Eastgate, more commonly known as Fallengate, where even over the last few centuries the various councils to rule had never truly managed to gain any actual ground. The lawless side of town where so long as it didn’t spill out from the shadows then pretty much anything went. I had business there later. But first I really did need to eat. Ever since my big slip-up I’d been reduced to half rations so even before this last show my mana reserves were getting dangerously low and I wouldn’t have another chance for a real meal again until we hit our next big town.
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Weaving my way through the crowds wandering every which way in the streets I found my thoughts still occasionally drifting back to a person I hadn’t even met yet. I just couldn’t shake her it seemed. Even for me it felt strange and I was by no means a stranger to pondering over beautiful women. But this girl, something about her had felt different. Still, no matter how I tried, I just couldn’t place it. Her eyes, it had to be something about her eyes. Like there had been something dancing in them that was only just barely keeping me from truly seeing in. A shift in the air suddenly stole my concentration. The relatively calm aura that had been drifting around me had become something foreboding and sinister.
Without realizing it, I’d already made my way into the inner circle of the city. The Adventuring Commons. Only a mere two blocks away from the well fortified walls surrounding an ancient and terrible manor and its wildly overgrown grounds. The black mark at Fellorne’s very core and without a doubt its largest attraction by far. They called it the Fool Lord’s Tomb. A dungeon at the very epicentre of the curse that once devoured all of this realm’s vast stretches of land. The place was steeped in endless shadow with an impossible internal layout that was constantly rearranging and full of dark pits which gave birth to nightmarish creatures and undead abominations.
I could feel the maliciousness from within that horrid place as it seeped out into the air. The only thing holding it back from escaping the Adventuring Commons was the constant influx of adventurers delving into that dark place and slaying the curse spawned beasts prowling within. Well that and a powerful barrier which, according to the current council, was incredibly expensive to maintain.
Still, unpleasant as the air was for those particularly aware of natural mana, the prices in restaurants around the Commons couldn’t be beat. They were all in a heated competition with each other to try and rake in the most coins from the kinds of people with a hunger than can never truly be satiated. And successful adventurers were known to frequently have plenty of shinning pieces to spare.
I was in the northern Commons and so walked along the curving road toward the eastern edge. Proximity to the slums of Fallengate drove down prices for the unfortunate businesses located there but did little to effect the quality of the food. It was also the one quarter of the Commons where restaurants and shops didn’t regularly switch names and owners. Something which to me spoke of a certain special quality each of those overlooked holes in the wall held.
The further east I went the less I had to manoeuvre around people. Until finally the only ones around me were fellow lone wanderers and some small parties ranging in numbers from five to three, with the occasional pair dotted in between. Armour clad fighters, cloaked casters and all manner of adventurer that one would expect to see. To their eyes I likely registered as nothing more than a worker from one of the nearby shops, if they even noticed me at all. And true enough to that thought, though I supposed I hadn’t really been paying much attention myself, I was suddenly smacking hard into another person.
My forehead met with his chin as the beak of my cap rammed up and into his eyes. As our skulls bounced off of each other the hard metal of his breastplate knocked all the wind out from my lungs. My chest rebounded from his and for the second time that day I fell flat on my ass before smacking my head against the ground.
Through the ringing in my ears I understood that the man in front of me was shouting angrily. The lucky bastard was still standing and not looking any worse for wear so I didn’t see a need for all of his sudden aggression.
That was, however, until I saw the dropped pouch full of smashed vials and the iridescent puddle of mixed potions and tonics pooling around it and rapidly seeping away between the gaps in the road. Well fuck. That definitely looked expensive.
The man grabbed me by the front of my overalls and pulled me back up to my feet and then he let me go for a second before punching me in the stomach for all he was worth with a gauntlet covered fist. I staggered a few steps back and a stream of vomit and spit flew out of my mouth and splashed onto the road between our feet.
I dropped to my knees, gasping and gagging, desperate for just a little air. Nobody passing by on the street doing more than stopping to stare or carrying on blindly by as if they didn’t see. I looked up at him through teary eyes. Doing my best to take all of him in.
He was a well armoured man with a slightly above average looking build and he stood only a little taller than me. The lines on his face suggested he was well into his fifties or sixties at least. He had a longsword strapped to his waist and what looked to be a leather pack on his back. His neck, chin and cheeks were thick with stubble and the hair on his head was cut short. It was a sandy colour that had noticeably salted. His eyes were a stormy ocean’s bluish grey.
He looked down at me and scoffed in disgust. I fought back the urge to blink away any more of my tears and then directed the bulk of my remaining mana into him, returning his punch in kind through our linked gaze. My mana searing a memory of white hot agony into his brain before it then informed his stomach that it was in fact supposed to be suffering.
He clutched at his plate covered abdomen and doubled over while I got back up onto my feet. And them I grabbed his head in both hands and slammed his face as hard as I could into my knee. The effect was immediate and as soon as I released his head from my grip he slumped over sideways into a semi-conscious heap.
There was a shocked cheer from the few adventurers who’d stopped, likely suspecting they’d get to watch me get my ass beat. I paid them no mind as I looked down at the mess around me. Ruined potions, stomach bile, spit and the big man’s blood. I’d smashed his nose almost completely sideways, doing his face no favours. Honestly, I was more concerned about the noticeable spots of wet crimson his nose had left spattered and soaking into the knee of my overalls.
Sighing and clutching my aching belly with one hand while rubbing the back of my head, I hobbled away from the scene. Better to not be around once the bruised fighter got back up wanting a rematch. The adventurers who’d gathered around carried on their way. Everybody leaving the beaten man where he’d fallen.
A little ways on I saw a familiar sign I’d seen the last several times I’d visited old Fellorne town. The faded words painted onto it read: Greedy Groon Alehouse and Eatery. A most comforting sight indeed. Grunting through the pain and cloudiness in my head I pulled open the heavy door and heaved my way inside.