On coins – An exasperated preceptor

“Once again, a small silver is about 25 coppers, which can be split in halves of fourth. With four small silver you get a grand silver. Then you apply the rule of Eights, eight Grands for a small gold, and eight small gold for a Crown.”

Early spring / Mercy 782 ADM – Eternal Empire – Modona’s upper district – Lennard’s forge of Fire

As they struck the deal something strange happened, the smithy’s door opened smoothly, letting in a young man that couldn’t be more than a few years older than Ulysse. He was dressed in flowing orange robes with blue patterns of foreign make with beads of silvers hanging from threads and small chains, they made a soft clinking sound as he moved. His face bore a confident expression and a wide smile showing white teeth, contrasting wildly with his dark tanned skin and darker half-long curly hair.

Ulysse tensed up for a second, dark skin he thought, was it one of these man-eating elves. Then he looked at the boy’s ears, short and round, completely human.

“Hello dear friends, please allow me to pay on your behalf as a show of goodwill.”

The phrase had clearly been rehearsed and sounded a little awkward, Ulysse was about to decline the offer when the youth’s follower entered, looking more like an hunter than a guard. His appearance captivated Ulysse. The man, or ‘thing’ if you were a religious zealot, or yet a Saryn if you had learned about other races, wore light armor, a long-curved blade at his side and a crossbow on his back. More importantly he was covered in scales the color of sand and had a tail sprouting on his lower back as well as two orange frills starting on his neck and lining the back of his head. His eyes were bigger than a human’s, slitted and seemed to be moving independently, looking around for threats. Ulysse knew from his time reading books that the lizardkin had vicious small pointy teeth behind their snout.

The entrance of a well-armed non-human seemed to put Grace on edge as she took a step-in front of him a hand on her longsword’s hilt, it was then he realized he’d been staring. A tense silence saw the four of them stilling for a few more seconds. The dark-skinned youth cleared his throat before spoking again.

“Sorry I might have mistaken you for someone else, your features are quite exotic here you see, I had taken you for one of the Merentahs.”

The youth didn’t sound derisive or mocking but Ulysse was a tad offended at that, he was a born imperial, though it was true that his ancestors came from the far-east or the north, their exact origin had always been a taboo at home, he had only theories.

“I am one of the Merentahs, you can call me Ulysse. And who would you be?”

His interlocutor didn’t seem at all surprised at his name, seemingly expecting it, most likely seeking him in particular. Ulysse was starting to be intrigued by this whole matter.

“My name is Osen of the Kabey clan.”

Kabey… He had heard that name and quite recently at that, they were the peoples uncle Robert would be going against, they were enemies of his family.

His expression must have shown because Grace looked ready to draw her sword, he took at look at the counter where they had left his gift, it was still here, unlike the smith. This Lennard must have sold them out.

“There is truly no need for violence, I once again assure you I came here full of goodwill.”

Osen took a step forward, a hand in his pocket making both of their bodyguards flinch, he took out a small coin of gold and four grand silvers, putting it on the counter, small golds were worth 8 grand silvers, more than enough to pay the smith for the sword and selling them out.

“I hope you will not take it out on the smith, he didn’t know we would be visiting.”

“Whatever, I will convey your goodwill Osen Kabey. Now we will see ourselves out.”

It all felt like a trap to Ulysse, he grabbed the scabbard of his gift intending to leave.

“Please, I beg you to listen to me.”

His declaration made Ulysse hesitate and the youth took that occasion to keep talking.

“As you seem to know our families have been on bad terms recently, we sell much of the same goods after all. And after the raid yesterday I was told by the elders that I needed to… invite you to our domain, today, no matter the cost.”

“Wait, you mean the Kleites attacked you. And by invited, you mean to take me hostage?!”

“Sadly, yes to both though I would prefer to call you a guest rather than an hostage. We intend no Death nor harm unlike yours, no Vengeance either. However yesterday’s event…” He said the last words with anger.

“…made us realize we were outmatched in the field. Our elders have chosen to conduct negotiations, and you are a necessary argument for us.”

This time it was Grace that answered.

“we are leaving. Try to stop us and face the blade of an Olian knight, harm the boy and what happened yesterday will pale in comparison to the Vengeance our house will bring.”

Osen raised a clenched fist as if to order his bodyguard into combat then took a deep breath.

“I see, you force my hand then.”

Grace took Ulysse’s arm with a tightly gripped left hand while drawing her eternium longsword and jumping back with inhuman strength. The knight had barely put him behind her back that a twang ran out together with a short screech of metal and a pained grunt.

Ulysse was dropped straight to the ground as the knight, now sprouting a bolt, took her sword in both hands.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The Saryn hunter didn’t have time to reload before she rushed him, moving in a blur as she channeled without a hint of light, sign of her mastery. A long curved saber was taken out of its scabbard at the last moment, parrying the knight’s longsword. The bipedal lizard channeled both Body and Mind, but showed a slight violet glow in his frills, lacking the knight’s skill.

The two fighters were very closely matched, chaining assaults each heartbeat. Grace had mastered both blade and armor, using the former mostly offensively but parrying a few dangerous hits, while she used the second to gracefully deflect most attacks. The hunter used his lighter gear to outmaneuver the knight, pulling out some truly impressive dodges. But as they kept at it, it became clear the crossbow bolt had severely handicapped Grace.

Or so everyone thought, the lizardman was about to parry one of her blows when the red splotches in her eyes lit up, they were an emanation of Fire. The divine element spewed forth from her blade, smiting the lizard's hand as he only parried her blade, not her flames. The tides of the fight had now turned back, her steel plate allowed her to fight offensively while the flame coated blade and the burns it had left kept her enemy on the defensive, unable to commit in a attack that could harm her in a meaningful way.

Now less worried by the well being of his knight, Ulysse started to worry about his own, looking around he could see this Osen had gotten away from the fight and was now standing in front of the door. More worrying he could hear the clinking of bottles and footsteps rushing through the back of the shop.

“Grace, there are more from behind!”

“Hells, run kiddo, don't wait for me and call the guards.”

He had to do something now, Grace might have won the duel with time, but not if more were to join it, then her chances would take a sharp turn. There were a few windows but he was likely going to cut himself on them, the back exit was obviously no good. It left the front door, the Kabey youth was standing in front of it and stood a feet over him but he was unarmed, or at worse had a knife under his robes. Don’t bring a knife to a swordfight.

Ulysse ran in the front door’s direction, taking a small detour from the channelers' fight. An attempts was made to intercept him but it was foiled by Grace. He’d barely passed them by and drawn his sister’s sword when the back door burst open with five thugs carrying heavy maces. Four of them joined the fight against the knight while the fifth picked up the discarded crossbow and started reloading.

Ulysse now stood less than three meters from Osen, pointing his blade menacingly.

“Get away from the door, I wont hesitate to cut you.”

“That’s kind of you to warn me, I'm sorry I cant let you go.”

The youth made some strange gestures with his right hand while he talked.

Ulysse lunged forward, intending to thrust his sword at his adversary, yet nothing happened as it should have. Osen had blurted out some words in an unknown clicking language, and somehow Ulysse’s feet caught on a bump and he fell to the ground, almost impaling himself on the drawn sword.

He was stunned for a second after falling then saw that near his feet the earth had burst through the floor. He didn’t have time to think about it however, the boy that stood over him had kept gesturing, this time with both hands and was chanting in his clicking tongue.

A small rumble from under him was the only warning he got before a wave of dirt rose to try and swallow him. In panic he rolled away and slashed at the wave, where his eternium blade struck, the earth stopped moving as if cut of from whatever made it move in the first place.

It was magic he realized with a start, it could not be otherwise, none of the gods were named Dirt so it couldn’t be a miracle and eternium was said to be the bane of all magic. It appeared the Kabeys were monsters, demons, or worse necromundians. All the books he had read said magic was evil, it corrupted body and mind, whatever aversion he still had towards harming the boy went away, after all he didn’t want to have his soul stolen.

“We’ll tell of you to the inquisition and you will burn in Fire you mm-monster!”

“What, and go for mutual destruction necromundian.”

Shocked at the insult, and the implications it carried he didn’t act until Osen threw yet another spell at him. This time three balls of dirt flew at him, aimed at his sword arm to try and disarm him. He managed to dodge the first two and cut into the third, thinking it would fall over like the wave of dirt, however while the magic went out inertia didn’t, the two halves of the ball slammed into his belly robing him of breath.

Compared to some of his sister’s punches it was tame. Ulysse dashed forward and cut at the youth, the mage suddenly rose his left hand while barking something and a rock tore from the ground slamming into Ulysse’s sword and making it lose its mark.

He realized the mage had been holding back, if the projectiles had been stone he wouldn’t be standing up right now. Stones of this size could easily injure his small self.

“Just surrender, I don’t want to break bones but I won't let you harm me either.”

This time it was Ulysse that didn’t wait to engage. His foe was young, even if he was a mage, so he likely had a limited array of spells at his disposal, he would gamble on him not having many defensive ones. Wielding his sword in a shoulder height thrust his opponent predictably repeated the same move. The rock came flying at his sword but never hit it. Ulysse hadn't fully committed to his attack, it was a feint, in a whirl his upper thrust transitioned to a lower slash with a simple downward pull of his handle.

His blade was about to gut the taller mage when a blur appeared at his side, his sword was painfully wrenched from his hand, sent flying into the wall by a brutally effective slash of the lizardkin bodyguard. The next instant Ulysse was lifted of the ground by his collar, held in one hand by the frowning humanoid.

He hissed at him, “Comply and she lives.”

“Put me down!”

Ulysse was forcibly turned towards his knight, flailing wildly, only now realizing the clash of metal had stopped. Grace was laying on the ground together with one of the thugs, dead, she however was still struggling weakly against two thugs holding her down. Three bolts stuck out of her armor and her helm was misshapen as if struck repeatedly. Yet suspiciously little blood had flown, she had likely channeled Life or Mercy during the fight and Ulysse had no doubt that she would try something reckless if he didn’t surrender, he had heard of knights shrugging of greater wounds.

The lizardman took his crossbow and fired a bolt, it went deep into the floor, centimeters from the knight’s head.

“No! I'll comply, I'll comply.”

“Good, now don’t try anything funny little human, I bite.”

He curled up his lips, showing pointy teeth, to accentuate his point, then dropped Ulysse who landed awkwardly on his feet.

Osen was still a little out of it, a hand on his belly, shocked at his near death experience, his bodyguard called out to him.

“Bossman, what are we doing now?”

“We hu… Veless, pick up the Merentahs swords, don’t let them touch theses and make sur the boy doesn’t run.”

He pointed to the thugs holding Grace, “Tie her up, and you pick up your friend.”

The goons got to work with their tasks, picking up their swords, Grace and a dead body whose neck was deeply cut into.

Ulysse resigned himself, hoping his family would come save him from whatever they wanted out of him.

“What will you do now demon?”

“Demon?! I’m human, you imperials and fear of magic. For all their faults the Merentahs didn’t seem to be afraid of us.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“I am taking you to our home were you will stay until tomorrow, then we will bring you back for negotiations.”

“We good to go bossman.”

The lizardman was back, cutting of further questioning. He was now carrying their weapons on his back and a now unconscious and tied up Grace in his arms, it was impressive how easily he carried her, with her armor Grace must have weighted over 100 kilos.

“Good.”

The young mage turned towards the thugs.

“Thank you for your service to our clan, we will remember it.”

He produced a small gold coin from his pockets and flipped it to the best dressed of the thugs.

“Here is your payment, with an extra for silence and lives lost.”

“Tis always ‘pleasure ta work for you Kabeys. We takin our leave boys.”

After the thugs had left through the back exit Osen opened the front door, revealing a walled coach in orange colors.

Ulysse was pushed outside the shop then inside their coach before he could protest. It was completely silent inside, a sign of privacy enchantments. There would be no calling the guard.