We got the cart ready for business, hooking up the horses and getting it moving to where we had set up the day before. I was hoping that a few of those higher-ranking individuals I presumably saw earlier would be willing to discuss some more about their defenses, specifically the magical wards. It needed to be subtle though, given that it was a very specific thing to ask about under normal circumstances.
For now, we simply started setting up to attract people to our little cart of goodies. I did a few mental preparations and quick breaths to calm my nerves before adopting my barker voice again. Luckily, I didn’t have to embarrass myself for long before some people came over to investigate. Maybe word about my little shop got out from the first day and I might get a steady stream without much effort. Wishful thinking, but one can hope, right.
I engaged in some menial conversation with a few customers, trying to establish a base line from which I could segue into a more interesting topic. There were varying levels of success in this endeavor, but I could not yet get to a more familiar conversation with these people yet. Many would simply give a one- or two-word response to any question I asked, and the others were prone to the cold shoulder, apparently wanting to shop in silence. I suppose with an increase in authority there comes an increase in attitude.
Finally, I got one who seemed amiable enough to hold a conversation with. He appeared to be in his thirties, maybe early forties, and carried himself with distinction without coming off as overly haughty. I got the conversation rolling with some basic talking points just to reel him in, then I started to direct him towards my real goal.
“Tell me sir, do you enjoy your position here? I had a conversation recently with Lord Kirthwain and he did admit to there being trouble from time to time, yet it was always handled with ease. While I have no reason to distrust his words, I'd like to hear it from the mouth of a man who stands upon the walls if it is true.”
“Aye, Lord Kirthwain speaks true. We don’t often have to deal with a situation with more than a passing amount of danger. We have many ways to repel attackers and keep our own forces safe.”
“Yes, the good lord did mention something about a very expensive magic ward around the castle. I must admit, my curiosity has peaked about that. It sounds like quite a sight. Have you ever seen it in person?”
He nods with a slight smile. “Indeed, though only on a few occasions. It is a rather beautiful addition to our home, made all the more so when you know it keeps you safe.”
I chuckled a bit to establish a slightly joking demeanor, though I kept enough pointedness to make my next question real enough. “It wouldn’t happen to be open for a curious individual to get a look at this grand magical contraption, would it?”
The man chuckled a little right alongside me. “I’m afraid that isn’t something that would fall under my authority. If you truly wish to ask such a question, you will have to find one of the captains. They have their office for official business closer to the entrance you came through. I’d recommend asking for Azaren, he’s the most... laid back, I suppose you could say.”
So, it’s the captains who have access. They’re most likely also mages of some distinction as well, so I'll have to tread carefully around them. I gave another slight bout of laughter before finishing up my conversation. “Thank you for humoring my question, and if I find time, I might just ask for a tour, but I don’t know if there will be time.” I gave a noncommittal shrug to the whole thing, giving the false impression that I wasn’t snapping at the bit to see it.
I gave the man a small discount on his purchase in thanks for the conversation. A little bit of encouragement to continue talking to me should he find himself in front of my cart again. He thanked me for my generosity and made off with his discounted goods, allowing me to focus on the rest of my potential sources of information.
The new knowledge I was after wasn’t as potentially dangerous as the wards, and I found it rather quickly. I just wanted to know where I could get a drink around here and the favorite bars of some of the soldiers. People tend to say some rather interesting things while drunk, and it’s much easier to get away with some shenanigans when everyone is bleary eyed and unfocused. There were a few different answers that I received to my question. Three different bars took up the majority of where these soldiers like to hang out while off duty, so I had some options to choose from.
We were getting some good information today, a lot to work with now while I look for the killing strike. While I was mulling over all the options I had, I became aware of some loud, obnoxious voices getting louder by the second. My attention was naturally drawn to this disturbance, and I saw a trio of boisterous Thrainians talking energetically with one another, laughing as if they didn’t care that everyone was able to hear them. Just then, one of the group loudly announced to the others the presence of my cart of goods, drawing all their attention over to us.
These three looked like they would be trouble. The way they walked, talked, and regarded everything just exuded the type of arrogance and superiority complex that is bred by aristocracy. I made the executive decision to interact with them as little as I possibly could and hope that they didn’t stay long.
They looked over my display of goods with mockery on their lips. They touched everything. While most of the customers I had up to this point just looked at what I had to offer, only ever picking things up gently if they were interested in buying them, these three on the other hand didn’t have any regard for others’ property. They roughly handled anything they wished to observe more closely, usually just to make a joke about how shoddy it was compared to something else of theirs and generally coming off as assholes.
Just fuck off already, I don’t have time to deal with your bullshit. These blowhards were driving away others who might have wanted to shop, and thus were costing me potential information. One of them started to roughly handle one of the expensive tea sets. “You break it you buy it.” I warned them.
The man gave me an unamused looked for a second before breaking out in a smirk and holding his free hand up in surrender. He put the teacup down and turned away, but not before making a snarky comment. “Didn’t need a shitty tea set anyway.” I wished I could just throttle him unconscious and be done with this headache.
One of them that was currently out of my sight then said something disconcerting. “Hey, I found something interesting here.” The way he said that immediately set off alarms in my head as I spun around to see the asshole in question lurking over Kala with a lecherous look plain on his face. It was all I could do not to lunge over and punch him in the face.
Kala was trying to avoid eye contact with him and was turned in a defensive, yet meek, position. “Didn’t know you liked fucking animals.” The asshole next to me said, clearly taking a shot at his friend.
If he was offended by that, he didn’t show it and continued to ogle Kala. “All we have around here are scrawny, sick looking things, hardly something that anyone could call attractive. This one on the other hand, she’s well taken care of. I can appreciate curves on anyone.”
The amount of hatred I felt towards this guy was boundless. Just then he turned towards me. “Merchant, how much do you want for her?”
I couldn’t stop my brow from twitching, but I managed to keep most of my composure. “Not for sale.” I stated coldly.
“Come on, everything has its price. I’d be willing to spend gold on her.”
“Not, for sale.” I repeated again in a slightly more agitated voice.
The dead man walking just clicked his tongue in disappointment. “Fine, probably want to keep her to yourself. You wouldn’t have a problem with me renting her for a few hours though, right? I promise I won’t break her.” Then, the man with a death wish reached around and groped Kala.
That was all I could handle as the rage inside me reached critical mass and threatened to spill over into fury. I marched up to him unnoticed as he was too busy feeling up Kala to notice me. I grabbed him by the offending wrist and removed it, squeezing painfully. Luckily, I still had enough of my faculties to not simply crush the bones, though it was extremely tempting to do so.
The man squirmed and tried to remove his arm from my grasp, but my hand was a variable vice that seethed with untold anger. The current look on my face was neutral, but my eyes could probably melt steel with their gaze at the moment. I stared straight into the asshole's eyes and deadpanned for the last time. “Not, for, sale.”
With my point finally making it through that thick arrogant skull of his, I let go of his wrist just as he gave another tug. The result was him stumbling backwards like an idiot before nursing his pained wrist. I ignored him and turned back towards Kala.
“Have the others start packing up, we’re done for the day.” I didn’t want to stay out here a moment longer. I was liable to kill someone if I did.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Once Kala had obeyed my command and went to help the other two get everything back in the cart, I turned around to the trio of shitheads to tell them to fuck off when something hit me in the face. It wasn’t anything heavy, or particularly painful, but it did cause me to flinch and become stunned for a moment. The asshole who had groped Kala was glaring at me with a sneer on his face. I looked down and saw a glove lying on the ground.
“You’re going to regret that you bastard.” The prick said with venom in his voice.
My brain took a moment to piece together what this was or meant, but it finally hit me. He just challenged me to a duel. That was a problem. I couldn’t be getting into sword fights with random spoiled pricks. “I’ve already wasted enough time humoring you today, get lost.”
His sneer deepened at my attempt to blow him off. “You don’t get to walk away from this. First you dare to cause me pain, then you attempt to ignore me? This insult will not stand, and if you do not accept my challenge willingly, then I will raise this matter to my superiors and force you into a duel of honor.”
Well, shit. Now I was in a corner. I had no idea if that was even a thing or if he could convince someone to take him seriously or not. Considering the money that he allegedly had, he could probably just bribe enough people to force a duel even if he didn’t have a foot to stand on. It seemed like I was going to have to fight him.
A sigh escaped me. “You’re really pushing for this, aren’t you?” I probably should have been more worried about the ramifications of this duel, but there was a part of me that wanted to punch his face in and might have been even eager to do so. “So, where is this duel going to take place and what are the rules?”
The man grabbed the handle of the sword on his waist and drew the blade with a scraping sound of the metal on the sheath. “Right here, right now, till surrender, or death.”
Those were some high stakes and raised a little bit of hesitance in me. Normally that would be a set of rules that I would always win, but given the situation, I couldn’t afford to take a fatal blow, nor could I surrender to him as he would probably demand something ridiculous for it, possibly even try to take Kala again. The only option was to win.
It seemed the act of removing his sword had drawn a lot of attention from the bystanders who started to gather around the commotion. At least we wouldn’t want for witnesses to this duel. I walked over to the middle of the road while removing my sword sheath from my waist along with my overcoat. Despite the air of calm I was trying to give off, the impending fight had caused a spike in my adrenaline and my heart was starting to pump in anticipation.
I removed my own sword from its hold and threw the sheath and coat back towards Kala who caught them out of reflex. The look of concern on her face as she watched me was palpable, but that only inspired me to take this more seriously. My opponent stopped a few paces across from me and leveled his blade at me. His sword was thinner and slightly longer than my own. While I was no expert in swordplay by any measure, I could clearly see that his choice of weapons as well as the stance he chose seemed to hint towards a thrust heavy style of fighting.
I got into my own ready stance, a well-practiced one thanks to Velshi. The asshole’s eyes looked my form up and down and adjusted his own slightly, becoming less relaxed. Maybe he expected me to just be a normal merchant without any official training. Carrying the weapon only for personal defense. Still, that spoke to the fact that he was no slouch when it came to fighting and could recognize and adjust to a threat.
The tension in the air could have been cut with a knife, or in this case a sword. I mulled over the options for handling this fight. There was always the option of brute strength, overpowering his defense and getting into grappling distance, but I was hesitant to take that path. If I showed too much power, that might raise some questions about how I was able to accomplish those things. I didn’t get to think any longer than that as my opponent decided that he would make the first move.
He opened with a lunge, aiming to stab me in the chest. I retreated a step and swiped at his blade to knock it aside. The clang of metal on metal sounded out and the swords collided, and his blade was pushed away from its intended target, but before I could even attempt a counterattack, he had already danced backwards away from me and out of my range. He was a nimble one, that was for sure.
We continued in a sort of stalking pattern, circling one another. I had to attempt to attack him as well or else this would eventually end with my defeat. Stepping forward quickly, I made a slashing motion, hoping to maybe catch him on the arm. The man twisted his body, almost unnaturally, while using his thin sword not to bat, but to redirect my own in a flowing manner.
He wasn’t done with that, however. His sword came back around and made a cutting attack of his own at me. That had caught me off guard and I stumbled out of the way of his blade, just narrowly avoiding it. He continued to press his advantage and cocked his arm back for another thrust. I was off balance and could only twist in such a way that the blow wouldn’t hit anything important. The tip of his blade plunged into my left arm just below my shoulder, and I winced as the familiar bite of metal was registered.
I saw a smirk flash across his face, but I turned it into a look of surprise when I attempted a counterattack without more than a half second hesitation. He pulled his sword out and backpedaled while trying to fend off my advance. Evidently, he expected me to shrink from the pain or become hesitant, but I instead became relentless, and he wasn’t prepared for that. In the midst of my wild attack, I made a feint, which managed to open his lower half to my blade. He attempted to dodge, but the tip of my sword became bloodied after it cut a shallow wound in his leg.
We had both landed a hit on the other, though his was better than mine. The wound on my shoulder was mostly digging into the flesh, but it was also deep and bled quite a bit. The cut I gave him on his leg might be causing him some pain and affect his movement, but it wasn’t going to be an issue in the long run.
The injury I inflicted upon him seemed to have at least one positive development though. He seemed much more hesitant to close the distance between us now. Me seemingly ignoring the pain of the stab wound might have had something to do with that as well. It gave me a little time to think at the very least.
He was a slippery snake, much more limber than Velshi was in terms of an opponent, though his strikes felt like limp noodles when considering strength. The slight reach advantage of his weapon was also a problem. I couldn’t just keep trying to go for the trade in terms of damage as he appeared to be more cautious about that now that I've shown that I can take a hit and keep moving. I probably couldn’t win this by fighting like a gentleman, so it was time to use everything at my disposal.
The plan was to end this with the next clash, anything less than that would just see diminishing returns. I faked my left arm being more injured than it actually was, coddling it close to the body a bit. His eyes registered that detail with a studious gaze, so I was ready for the next step.
Jumping in quickly I did a speedy overhead swing that would hopefully force him to block it. My luck held out and he brought his sword up to stop my blade, apparently feeling confident that he could considering I only used one hand. As soon as the metal connected with one another my trap was sprung. Using my left hand which he had entirely dismissed, I got close and jabbed my fingers in the wound on his leg, digging deep.
He howled with pain as I tore at his wound, opening it wider and magnifying its intensity tenfold. I didn’t stop with just that. In a follow-up motion I stomped on his opposite foot with enough force that a few of his toes might have been fractured or broken. With both his legs now suffering a debilitating injury, all it took was a firm ram with my shoulder to send him to the ground.
The final nail in the coffin was one last boot to his sword hand, breaking his fingers and his grip on the blade as he once again cried out in pain. With a flick of my foot his sword was cast aside, and I stood over him essentially victorious. The only thing left was to make it official.
Pointing my sword at him I asked him in a slightly winded fashion. “Do you surrender?”
His face contorted with spite. “Jump into the pits, bastard!”
He had balls to deny mercy like that, but I was also kind of hoping that he would. A slight sinister smile graced my face as I dropped to one knee over him and brought the pommel of my sword down to meet his nose. With a slight spray of blood from his nostril, the nose was broken and mangled into a barely recognizable version of itself.
As he coughed and sputtered from the blow, I asked him again. “Feel like surrendering now?”
He spat blood, continuing his stubborn streak. “Fuck you!”
It seemed he wasn’t quite tenderized enough. Fine by me. This time my pommel hit him on the mouth, splitting his lip and breaking a few of his teeth. A follow up blow caught him on the side of the jaw, sending him into a daze of pain. This was rather brutal, I could recognize that, but I didn’t want to kill him, and it didn’t hurt that I had a bunch of anger that I needed to get rid of.
“How about now?”
“F-fuck off.”
Pride won’t get you anywhere buddy. I ditched the sword into my other hand, instead opting for a good old-fashioned beat down. My punches were comparatively light considering what I could have done to him, but I still made them plenty painful. This continued for a few more seconds before he finally brought up his hand in a pathetic attempt to block the blows.
There it is. A man can be brave in the face of death because, normally, they only have to face it once. Take away the death and give them pain instead, and they’ll break, sooner or later. “Got something to say to me?”
“I-I shurrender.” he garbled out of a face that was starting to look more like freshly ground hamburger.
That was good enough for me. I got off him and took a few steps back as he rolled onto his side and started coughing and spitting blood. Hopefully I beat some humility into that skull of his. “Can someone call a healer?” I asked the crowd.
“One’s already on their way.” A random soldier said from within the crowd. That was good, less waiting would be needed. It only took a few minutes before the aforementioned healer arrived. The healer took one look at the situation and started heading in my direction.
Once he was standing before me, he started going through his satchel and removed a crystal with the intent to heal me. “You’re starting with me first?” I questioned him.
“I’m starting with the quickest fix. You only have the singular wound, and you can consider this part of the victor's spoils.” Well, I wasn’t about to look the gift horse in the mouth. Besides, the asshole on the ground could take the few extra pain filled moments to think about what he did wrong.
One skin crawling healing session later, I was free to leave at my leisure. This had been a rather risky turn of events, and looking back with a much clearer head, I probably could have handled it better. Stop being an emotional idiot. You just jeopardized the whole mission for personal reasons.
I kicked myself for the poor decision making, but at least it worked out in my favor at the end. It was a shame that this event had basically called an end to today’s information gathering, but I was too exhausted to continue that at this point. Maybe it was time for me to get a drink. I really needed one right now anyway.