It was early morning when Rania woke up in the still room. Kethren’s lodgings were closer to the docks at an inn that had been loud and full of drunk sailors and dock workers. He had explained that it was cheaper to lodge here than anywhere else in the city and he barely noticed the noise. It hadn’t occurred to her, naïve as she was, that the noise would work in their favor. The bed moved around a lot and banged against the wall, yet the sound had barely registered to her around everything else. It was a strange contrast, to hear the quiet of the inn now after it had been loud for so long. She blinked blearily as her eyes adjusted and shifted, realizing she was snug against Kethren, his arm draped over her waist. She could feel his soft breath against her back. She felt relaxed and it was the first time she had ever truly taken comfort in another person’s company. She lay there for a few moments more and then sat up, her long hair spilling over her back and shoulders. Below her, she knew that Kethren was awake because she heard him move and caught a glimpse on him rising up on his elbow, propping his head up. “Are you leaving?” he asked quietly.
“I had better, I have a long ways back to Jorlaan.” She pushed her hair out of her face, the tips of her ears dragging along her palm. It was so rare for her to feel, let alone see her own ears that it startled her at first. “I have to pick up my sword, anyway,” she added, as though to cover her hand jerking from her ears.
“Alright.” As she made to get out of bed and get dressed, he pulled her down beside him and cupped her face, his thumb tracing the edge of her ear. “We are who we are,” he told her softly and his eyes were bright and intense, much lighter than her own dark amber eyes. “Never forget where we came from.” He pulled her face close and kissed her. Briefly, she clung to him, wanting to keep this feeling of comfort locked away. When he drew away, she immediately turned away and left him in bed to get dressed. He didn’t say anything else about their people, though, telling her at the door of the room, “Be careful out there.”
“I think I should be saying that to you,” she told him. His mouth lifted briefly.
“Go on,” he said instead and nodded, neither admitting nor denying her words.
The innkeeper looked at her knowingly when she left, but didn’t say a word to her. Outside, the air was cool and moist compared to the hot stuffy air in the inn. Rania remembered her way back to the oval marketplace and after a few tries down the wrong streets, she found her way back to the other side of the docks, where Deon’s shop was located. She had half-expected that she would need to wait, as the sky was only just turning light with the beginning sun, but she found him working outside at the forge when she arrived. “I figured you’d be here early,” he grunted when he saw her, wiping his forehead. “I’ve got your sword ready for you.”
“Perfect.”
He retrieved the sword and sheath and handed it to her. As she drew it out of the sheath, considering it seriously, he said, “I’ve been thinking since yesterday...you’re a mercenary, are you not?”
“Yes, I am,” she answered, sheathing the sword and then clasping it back on her hip. She felt much safer with it there. “Was there something you were interested in me working on for you?”
“Well...yes...but you see, it’s something I gave up on several years ago...My young nephew ran away many years ago when he was still just a boy...I’ve given up hope of ever seeing him again. When I was younger, I went looking for him myself. I searched high and low, I paid soldiers to look for him, mercenaries...but none of them could find him.”
“Do you mind if I ask why he ran away?”
Deon sighed, rubbing a hand over his aging face wearily. “For the longest time, I had raised him under the pretense that I was his father...when he was about nine or ten, I told him the truth, that I was his uncle and how his mother had died. I never knew anything about the father – she refused to tell me – but he didn’t believe me. It set him into a rage. The poor thing...he was so angry, he was crying his eyes out. But there was nothing I could do but watch him suffer. I don’t even know if he’s in the city or if he’s alive. It’s been so long...over ten years by now, I imagine.”
“Not such a young boy anymore then.”
“No...no. But if you could find some kind of information about him – anything! – even if he’s not alive, I would greatly appreciate it. The truth is...it’s haunted me. And now that I’m getting older, closer to dying myself...I’m not sure I could handle not knowing what happened to him. His name is Cayden...but that’s if he’s even going by that name anymore.”
Rania was not fond of taking two jobs at once, but the blacksmith’s expression look so miserable that she uttered a small sigh and closed her eyes briefly. The name sounded familiar to her, so she guessed she had already heard of the boy on a previous venture. She suspected that she would be able to find something out, just enough to satisfy Deon. “Alright,” she said, nodding. “ will see what I can find out. I will be heading to the other side of the continent, so it may be some time before I am able to come back to report to you. But I will do my best.”
“Thank you,” he said in relief, smiling a bit sadly. “I have a bit saved up that I can pay you with. Let me go get it – ”
“No,” she interrupted, holding a hand up. “For something like this, I would prefer not to take payment until I finish the job. Keep your savings for now.”
He appeared puzzled at her generosity, but nodded.
After she left the city, the name lurked in the back of her mind. With how many people that Rania had met on a daily basis, she would not be surprised if she had come across the missing nephew at some point herself, but she could not recall where or when she had heard the name.
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Haemon considered Ezra with a wry smile. It was one of the rare times that she had joined the rest of the group in the meeting Azael had called for that day. She was in a surprisingly good mood that day, seated next to Tia, the two of them chatting away. Tia was one of the few people that could get along with Ezra and her unpredictable mood swings. They were on the far side of the long room, drinking mead and ignoring everyone else for the most part, although Tia flashed a smile up to anyone that passed by. Haemon was already seated at the wooden table next to Cayden, who was silent next to him. The room was the biggest in their refuge, used primarily for meetings and meals. The torches lining the walls for light made it warm, but the pockets of air prevented it from becoming too humid. The walls were lined with some of their less expensive spoils for decoration – torn tapestries, tarnished shields, and rusting weapons, to name a few.
“Is everyone here?” Azael asked Haemon as he approached the table, his face already set in a scowl. Haemon eyed him, raising an eyebrow. “What?”
“You might want to drop that expression before you start talking about this,” he said with a smile. “People might think you’re going to kill them to rid us of our problems.”
Azael’s scowl deepened as he snorted. “Wouldn’t be such a bad idea.”
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“Right. Well, everyone’s here if you’re ready.”
“Good.” Azael set a black block on the top of the table that had a rounded stone atop it. He picked up the rounded stone and knocked it on the block a few times, getting everyone’s attention with the high-pitched ring that was released from it. “Alright, alright, come here to the table, would you?” he called out once the room was quiet. People trudged to the table, taking seats in the rough, mismatched chairs that were clustered around the table. Ezra took a seat towards the end, crossing her arms across her chest and throwing her curly black hair over her shoulder. The newer bandits took one glance at her and inched towards the front of the table, clearly unwilling to sit near her. “So, I’ve decided to call this meeting to talk about our current...lag...in wealth that we’ve been having.”
“Lag?” Darrin chuckled. “I think our coffers are going to be empty at the rate we’re going!” There was a collective rumble of laughter at the comment. Azael frowned harder than ever.
“I’m glad you’re aware,” Azael said, flattening his hands as he stood at the front of the table. His eyes flickered over the group briefly. “As you know, our biggest problem is that Yarvuul Woods has become almost impossible to travel through. There’s less and less people traveling that way and since Haemon’s run-in with the creatures there two months ago, I wouldn’t take a chance in trying to go that way anyway. What we need is to come up with is a plan of action because otherwise we’re going to be forced into petty theft. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I don’t particularly find that to be high on my list of things I enjoy.”
“What are our options?” Cayden asked in a reasonable tone.
“We can move our sights further north or further south,” Azael replied, “take clients, or move our base.”
“And where would we move?” Ezra spoke up with a sneer on her dark, brown face. “The security in the city is too tight and those street rats wouldn’t let us get near the fat purses of those nobles. There’s barely anything down in the south – that region is too poor because of all of the damn monsters lurking around.”
“Amazingly enough, I am aware of all of this, Ezra,” Azael said in a cold, barely suppressed tone. “Which is why I decided to hold this meeting. I can’t make this type of decision on my own. Our best bet is to take in more clients...but that’s not something I find appealing. What do the rest of you want?”
There was a pause as everyone seemed to absorb the information. Ezra eyed the table and then snorted derisively, slumping in her chair. Azael did not spare her a second glance, peering at the faces of the other bandits. Most of them had been here for quite awhile, with the exception of the newest recruits. Stealing and killing for money and goods was part of their lifestyle. Once someone took this path, it was hard to turn around and try something else. The safety of a large group rather than being a single thief was the appeal of a group like theirs and especially when it was smaller than the expansive one of city thieves.
“Is the king not sending men out to deal with the problem in the forest?” Tia spoke up at last. Like Ezra, she had a dark face, but she was older and there was just the slightest trace of smile lines in her nut-brown skin. Her black hair was pulled back in a severe bun at the base of her neck and her usual friendly face was settled into a solemn, anxious expression causing her to appear closer to her real age of forty.
“The king’s been gathering his lords to him the past few months and from what I could get from the reports, he has half of the city blocked off. Most of the mercenaries were given contracts to kill his men, but the majority of them are locked up waiting to hang right now. There’s been no moves on the king’s part to do anything about the rest of his kingdom.”
“I don’t think there’s anything they could do,” Haemon admitted, stirring from his silence. “Even the sorcerer with the duke was only able to keep them away.”
“But there’s got to be some explanation for why those things are suddenly there,” Tia persisted. “It can’t just be that they’d always been there.”
“The goblins had always been around, though,” Ryker pointed out, “yet they’ve suddenly begun to plague the kingdom. There has to be something that’s triggered all of this.”
“Whatever it is, we can’t handle it on our own just for a bit of gold,” Azael cut in sharply.
“We could wait it out, then,” Tia suggested hesitantly, glancing around the table. “Do what we can to keep gold coming in...and just wait it out. I don’t want to move – this is our home.” She paused, drumming her stubby fingers on the table. “I would like for us to try going north and south further before anything else. If that doesn’t work...then I suppose we can take more clients. But I don’t want to move.” Azael nodded and looked at the others. Ryker looked thoughtful and then looked to Haemon.
“Haemon? What’s your opinion on all of this?” he asked.
Haemon glanced at him, not entirely surprised at the question. He knew that since he was one of the commanding bandits in the field work, most of them would follow his example. Ryker and Cayden would follow him in whatever he ended up doing, as he worked with them more than anyone else. Darrin, being older and set in his ways like Tia, would follow her example. The newer bandits would wait to see the popular consensus and follow that. Ezra would be the random card to throw into the mix, as it would all depend on her mood. She went from happy to foul in a second flat, but because of that, her opinion wouldn’t be weighed all too heavily. “I’m willing to try anything to stay here,” Haemon said at last with a dismissive shrug. “There’s no purpose in stirring things up and getting thrown into the castle dungeons on the other side of the forest. My opinion is the same as Tia’s.”
Ryker nodded slowly. “I feel the same way and I can take care of going into the south because I’m used to the monsters down there.”
“I would like to stay here, too,” Cayden spoke up. “I don’t want to return to Keystun.”
“Darrin? Ezra?” Azael prompted. Ezra seemed to be sulking and shot him a dirty look when he said her name.
“I don’t care one way or another. Do what you want, but I’m not doing any mission in the south.” She stood up and swept from the room, her long legs taking her out in only a few strides. Azael sighed at her attitude, rubbing his face, before he looked to Darrin in question.
“This is home,” he said simply.
“And we agree with everyone else!” one of the new recruits piped up, setting his face in a defiant, proud expression. “We’ll do everything we can to maintain the proud name of the eastern bandits!”
“Good,” Azael said with a dry smile as he glanced at the three. “I was hoping that was what you’d say. Then it’s settled.” Everyone left the room, although the newer bandits clamored towards Azael, eagerly awaiting some sort of orders. “Just go run around outside or something!” he snapped. “I don’t need you right now.” They all left, almost relieved to not have any important mission assigned to them. Once the room was empty, it was just him and Haemon. Azael slumped in a chair, staring glumly at the table.
“Why the long face?” Haemon asked, stepping up next to him and clapping a hand on his shoulder. “You got what you wanted, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t think they’d be so...idealistic.”
“Or maybe you’re just cynical?” Azael glanced at him, but didn’t answer. “Listen, just be thankful that Ezra didn’t throw up a storm like we were expecting. It’s going to be harder than expected, but they know that. These are people who have gone through a lot and have dealt with whatever life has to throw at them. They know better than to look at it cheerfully like it’s going to be a walk on the beach. Don’t underestimate them.”
“I don’t,” Azael sighed, “but I can worry. That’s my job.”
“No, you get that job when you have children.”
“Don’t even joke about that!” Haemon laughed. “Anyway...now that this is over, are you planning to head towards Jorlaan?”
“Of course, of course. And I’ll bring back that stupid crystal for your client. Who is it, anyway?”
“I’m not sure...,” Azael admitted, rising to his feet and following Haemon out of the room. “I’ve only met with him once and it was at night and he was cloaked. I don’t even think it’s the actual client, but someone he sent. I don’t blame him for the secrecy, talking with bandits wouldn’t be viewed too highly. He made it sound like it would be hard and I scoffed at him...I never thought it was going to be like this, though – none of my bandits being able to even find the damn thing.”
“I told you, don’t worry about it,” Haemon said with a roll of his eyes. “I’m more than capable for the job. There must be something that they’re missing. A hidden panel, switch, or something. It must be pretty valuable if the man’s taking all this effort to hide the damn thing.”
“Too much effort, if you ask me. I’ve seen lords take less care with their most expensive possessions.”
“And that’s why we love lords like that. Easier to steal from.”
Azael laughed at that, shaking his head. “Yes...I suppose that’s true.” He paused outside of his own room. “Be careful this time around, won’t you? I don’t need you on bed rest for another two months.”
“Yeah, yeah, I hear you.” Haemon waved a careless hand as he continued past Azael to get prepared for his trip to Jorlaan.