Ren’s POV
The last few days had been, contrary to my initial expectations, rather comfortable. As strange as it was to me, settling back into the Crimson Barrel felt good, almost like returning home after years away. Of course, if your home happened to be a rough and tumble bar/gambling hall that attracted the worst the city of Leyden had to offer.
I had taken up Phillip’s suggestion and had begun to research the nobles that I would soon have to interact with in the coming months. First was the history of the family I would be posing a member as, the Searn family. With most of their land in the underdeveloped East, they had played at best a minor role in kingdom politics over the last several decades. That wasn’t surprising in itself; without large amounts of wealth, resources, or a valuable position geographically, the family simply didn’t have too much to offer other than the little weight their noble title offered.
What the records didn’t tell, and what I had only learned after several conversations with Phillip, were the circumstances that had effectively led them to become a front for a crime ring – albeit a successful one – from the lower quarters. Apparently, the elder Searn had been rather old when the migration of nobles from Ostlyn to Leyden began. The young scion of the family had quickly developed a severe gambling problem after arriving in Leyden. This also allowed him to explore some unconventional interests that he would otherwise have never found, a fact that Phillip had originally found interesting but rather trivial. This changed, however, when the elder Searn died and left his son, now riddled with gambling debt owed to establishments controlled by Phillip, in control. After introducing the now-family head to the situation he found himself in, Phillip leveraged the man into going along with this scheme.
The other family I paid heavy attention to was the one that I would be infiltrating, the Adyllan family. Unlike the Searns, the Adyllan family had a fairly prestigious background. They hailed from the merchant city of Adyllan. Where the Serst river ran south from Ostlyn to the Interior Sea, the city of Adyllan sat on the delta formed by the intersection of the two. This provided both fertile land and a position poised to receive trade from within the kingdom as well as from other nations bordering the Interior Sea. The wealth that this position generated had allowed the family to wield a significant amount of influence in the past.
Now, however, the family’s energies were being transferred into objectively less fruitful pursuits at the behest of the current Lady Adyllan. Her recent acquisition of a Cesian relic was not a unique occurrence. From what Phillip had gathered, Lady Adyllan had held such an interest since her youth, furthered by the close distance between her family’s holdings and several sites rumored to contain Cesian ruins. The latest relic was simply a prominent reminder that her efforts were generating results, if at the cost of lost political influence.
Phillip unfortunately been unable to find much other information that would assist me in gaining the trust of her family. I would have to find direction in that regard on my own.
After several days of research, I was hoping to familiarize myself with some of the changes that had occurred around the city in the six years I had been away. Phillip shared the sentiment that I needed to leave the confines of the Crimson Barrel, but had a different avenue in mind to channel such an excursion.
Calling me into his office, I once again found myself confronted with Cassandra. Little had changed since I had first met her several days past, but she had added a black cloak to her normal wear as if to suggest that she would be working late tonight. Taking a seat in the chair beside her, Phillip began.
“Ren, I hope the past few days have been fruitful for you. Before you assume your new identity as a noble, however, I want you to become more familiar working as a pair with Cassandra. Recently, several merchants have been profiting heavily from cosmetic sales to nobles. These merchants are relatively new to the city, and have set up shop in the eastern district, quite close to the border of the lower district. One of the merchants will be hosting a gala tomorrow night. I want you to assist Cassandra in stealing some of his newfound wealth.”
Looking to my left, I noticed that Cassandra’s face had soured. It appeared that she wasn’t very happy with this idea. To tell the truth, I wasn’t either. I generally completed my work over the course of several days; getting into a position to facilitate a robbery wouldn’t be easy in a single night.
“I have a layout of the man’s house from the time of construction,” continued Phillip, “I leave it to you two to work out exactly what you will do, but I want this done relatively quickly. I trust that two of my most talented employees, former or otherwise, can do such a thing.” The last line carried just a hint of a threat, as if to suggest that this partnership getting off to a rocky start would be heavily frowned upon.
Just as I was getting ready to protest, Cassandra reacted faster. As unhappy about the arrangement as she seemed to appear, she simply nodded her assent to the job and left me no option but to do the same. Despite my misgivings about this, from the short time frame to having to incorporate a relative unknown into a plan, it appeared that my partnership with Cassandra was about to begin.
Cassandra’s POV
After once again being reminded about the unfortunate changes occurring in my life over the past few days, I began to dread being called into Phillip’s office. Gone were the simple days – break into this house, follow this target, even the occasional request to remove a problem more permanently – replaced by this infernal partnership with a lackadaisical playboy.
After my first meeting with Phillip, I had talked to a few of my contacts around the city to find out more about the man I would soon be stuck with. It turned out that his history was rather bland. From some of my contacts inside the academy system, I found out that he was formerly a student there. By all accounts average except for his acting ability, he simply vanished from the rolls one day almost eight years ago. From the information I had heard about his work for Phillip, it must have been around this time that he fell in with the lower district crowd.
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However, from what I could find about his activities after leaving Leyden, he appeared to be more inclined to gallivant through the countryside than take on any actually challenging work. So, I simply couldn’t expect much from the man, though I had never expected much from anyone in this line of work that hadn’t grown up in the lower quarter. The harsh reality of survival pushed one to perfect whatever they could do, and I couldn’t expect someone with his type of upbringing to understand or match that.
I made myself clear on that point when planning out the work that Phillip wanted done tonight. After taking a look at the layout of the building we would be targeting, I simply stated that I would be slipping in through a window situated near the merchant’s bedroom in early hours of the morning. If Ren could make that any easier, he was free to do so, but I fully expected to be able to do this on my own.
And that’s how I currently found myself walking on rooftops in the dimming light of the evening. While nominally paying attention to Ren as he walked in the streets below towards the target’s house, I was diverting more attention to the shoddy craftsmanship of the roofs I was walking on. Designed with necessity rather than appearance or smoothness in mind, the roofs of the various buildings made for a treacherous surface to walk on. While I had spent years doing so, it was still necessary to ensure I didn’t twist an ankle or slip down an unforeseen incline.
Having just passed over a particularly tangled patchwork of tiling, I once again checked on Ren, only to see him being hustled into an alley by two rather large thugs. While I wouldn’t have been personally against him being roughed up slightly, it wouldn’t do well to give Phillip any reason to complain about one of his old favorites from being hurt. So, I changed directions in order to be positioned over the alley Ren had just been pulled in, ready to drop down and free him.
Ren’s POV
Although I hadn’t been back to the lower quarter in almost six years, some habits die exceptionally hard. For example, I wasn’t silly enough to walk through the lower quarter in the outfit I would be wearing to the merchant’s gala later tonight. I also noticed the tails I had picked up soon after leaving the Crimson Barrel. While Cassandra was supposed to be looking over me as I moved towards the merchant’s house, her earlier behavior had suggested that she viewed me as a nuisance at best. While I was determined to show her otherwise, if only for my own pride, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was taking her current duty laxly as a result of her opinion of me.
It was little surprise, then, when two men built rather similarly to Eric approached and forced me into a discretely situated alleyway. The me of eight years ago, the one that had been man handled by Eric attempting to leave the Crimson Barrel, would have been trembling in fear at this situation. The time I had spent in the lower quarter working for Phillip, however, had taught me many things. Even if I hated the needless violence that the lower quarter bred, it had taught me how to deal with the basic tough that you saw in this area. While I wouldn’t be able to deal with a large group, I was fairly confident in my ability to deal with two. After all, life on the road required me to deal with sticky situations from time to time, so my self-defense skills had not suffered over the last several years.
The trick was to not play the game that the average tough expected you to play. Big, intimidating, most toughs expected a smaller person to be too terrified to do anything productive. So, as I was roughly shoved against a wall, and the tough on the right began, “We’ve seen you coming in and out of the Crimson Barrel a lot lately. You work for Phillip, yeah? We’re gonna need you to send him a messa…” It was at that point that I quickly kneed him in the groin.
Eliciting a rather loud string of cursing from the man, I used my now free right hand to quickly jab the tough on the left in the eyes. Using the time that bought me to pull the dagger I carried on my person, I slashed the back of the man on the left’s knees. He quickly collapsed, grasping at his legs in pain. Turning briefly back to the man on the right only to see that he was still writhing on the ground, I bashed the man on the left over the head with the hilt of my dagger, knocking him out for the time being. At that point, I forced my voice to become deeper than normal and, doing my best to give myself a half-mad look, stared at red-soaked tip of my dagger.
Looking back at the man on the right, I began, “So, you said that you needed to send a message to Phillip, yes? You’re not wearing any of the common symbols of the gangs in the lower quarter, so I’m somewhat curious as to who you are.”
Getting nothing but a “Fuck you,” in response from the man, I knelt over him. “Now, that’s no way to talk to someone. Frankly, if you’re not going to give me at least a modicum of respect, I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way.”
Steeling myself for what I was about to do, I plunged my dagger into a hand that had been creeping towards the man’s belt. As the man writhed, I twisted the dagger and asked, “Would you like to change your answer now, or should I move on to your other hand? Personally, life here will be rather difficult if you can’t use either hand again.”
Seeing the look on my face, the tough visibly paled. He stammered, “Okay… okay. I’ll talk to you. Just not here. If word got out that I talked, I’d end up much worse than this.”
“Good, that’s a smart decision.” I replied as I withdrew my dagger from his hand. Taking a moment to orient myself, I looked up and said, “Cassandra, you can come down now.”
Cassandra’s POV
The situation in the alley had not played out how I thought it would, not at all. Originally, I had planned to let Ren simply get roughed up a bit before stepping in and stopping the two other men. However, once they had been secluded in the alley, he immediately and violently dealt with the situation in front of him.
While his fighting ability – albeit only against some low-level muscle – was not what I expected from a man Phillip hailed as a consummate con-artist, what he did next was even more shocking. Appearing to pull a page directly out of Phillip’s text book, he began torturing information out of the man that hadn’t been knocked unconscious. His appearance while he was doing this, from his almost insane eyes to his taut body poster to his ice-cold voice, seemed to be coming from a man used to inflicting pain to get what he wanted. Not at all what I was expecting from a man who had spent the last six years robbing merchants of petty trinkets and baubles.
So wrapped up was I in this contradiction, I visibly jumped when I heard Ren call my name from down in the alley. Whether he had simply guessed my presence or actually noticed me somehow, I quickly dropped down to assist him.
Not sure whether to expect the laid back man I had met several days before or the dark figure that was not a minute ago torturing a man for information, I kept as much distance as possible while waiting for him to continue.
After Ren asked, “Cassandra, where’s Phillip’s nearest safe house? We need to drop these two off to get more information out of them, but we can’t very well walk them all the way back to the Crimson Barrel like this.” I responded, “There’s an inn he owns a street or two back. We can move them through a few of the other back alleys to get them there.”
Ren let out an exasperated sigh and added, “I suppose that means our work tonight will have to be put off. Getting information out of these two is more important. After all, anyone targeting Phillip needs to be dealt with.” Looking down with disdain at the two men on the ground, he laughed and said, “Besides, I’m looking forward to what else I can get out of these two,” causing the man still conscious to grow even paler, if that was possible.”
“Well, let’s get going then.” Ren said, and walked off in the direction that I had pointed, pulling the man whose hand he had stabbed with him. So, I began to drag the other thug behind me and quickly followed after him.