The strong sea breeze instantly greets her with its freezing temperature and seems to clear her mind for a few seconds. After a deep breath, she walks over to Grige who was sitting on a rock on the beach.
"Why did you wait for me? It's freezing in this place.”
“I needed to think... and what could be better than the waves to help me, if you can stand the cold of course.”
“Yes, I understand what you're referring to....”
Both Lyaria and Grige remain silent watching the coming and going of the waves repeating themselves endlessly, although it is Grige who finally decides to speak after several minutes.
“How was it? Did you manage to convince him?”
“I hope so… but there is no doubt that now there is a greater chance that he will.”
"That's good to hear…" Grige doesn't feel the need to ask what she did, he can tell by her expression that she doesn't feel like talking about it and doesn't feel comfortable.
The silence interposes itself again and this time it is longer than the first one. To tell the truth, Grige had a ton of things to organize if he wanted to make the trip, but for some reason, he decides to stay a while longer just like Lyaria.
The sway of the waves, the cold wind that turned anyone's cheeks and noses red, and the hard rocks he was sitting on were enough to trigger memories of his childhood. Those were times of peace and quiet, though not without problems, but the old stage of innocence makes him wonder why he didn't follow the path of a fisherman, a dangerous and challenging, but honest one. However, Lyaria's light sneeze makes him remember her presence with a faint smile and also the reason for his past decisions.
“I seek greatness. How high will I get without anyone looking over my shoulder...?” Grige firmly believed that if he wanted to get to this destiny, Lyaria was a shortcut he wasn't allowed to avoid. That's what he whispers to himself and no one can hear.
“Let's go to a warm place, I'm tired of the cold and thinking.” Grige suggests considering Lyaria's sneeze and what it indicated.
It was at that exact moment, when both decided to return to the town, the heavy footsteps of a third person are present calling their attention.
"I have some information that I'm sure will interest you. It turns out that the prison started to fill its cells unexpectedly fast and the description of one of those inmates is that of a bruised and half-dead young boy.” Dartan, without waiting for greetings, tells everything he knows without ceremony.
"Do you think he might be the one we're looking for?" Grige asks his brother
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“I have a way of knowing.” Dartan smiles and motions with his hand for them both to follow.
Lyaria was in a tavern sitting next to the two brothers with a light meal on their plates. After being exiled, she was forced to use these establishments continually, finding them comforting, as long as they were clean and not overflowing with drunks, of course, which is why when Dartan proposes to discuss their information in this place, she doesn't hesitate to say yes.
“I saw the moment in which he boarded the ship and the testimony we got from that guard for money also corroborates it.” Lyaria gratefully accepts the new information that prisoners recently arrived in the dungeons, but even so, she believes what her own eyes saw more than rumors.
“Of course, one should never believe mere words. However, it is worth making sure.”
“I agree.” Grige also shares his brother's opinion.
"The problem is how to do it... I don't think we can focus on both tasks at once, preparing for the sea and infiltrating the prison." Lyaria was the main interested, but this did not prevent her from presenting her doubts.
“Not everything has to be on the sly, sometimes the best thing is to enter through the front door and see it directly, right brother?”
“Hahaha! Correct! Although they will not be directly our eyes. I have an acquaintance, a peerage guard preparing to escort a guest of the Baron. I just have to ask him to be attentive and check each cell, it is the easiest and safest way to confirm the rumor.”
"What guest?" Lyaria asks intrigued. Winter was coming to the doors of every home and the roads were becoming less and less passable, for a guest of honor to decide to make the entire trip to the north... he had to have a special reason.
“Well… that… I still don't know. The truth is that I didn't ask much either, my mistake, the next time I write to my contact and ask about it.” Dartan smiles awkwardly, insulting himself inside, it wasn't like him to let such important details go by.
“Whoever it is, doesn't change what we have to do, prepare ourselves. All that's left is for the old man to give us the go-ahead and we can start with the real preparations. But before that... Lyaria, we need you to tell us a bit more about who this person is that we're trying to rescue. I hope that, by this point, you trust us enough to give us details.” Grige is serious, and it was clear he wouldn't take a no for an answer.
“.......”
“It would help me to know his well-detailed traits and characteristics, after all, he's not going to be the only one inside those dungeons.” Dartan presses too, albeit in a more relaxed voice, characteristic of him.
“Ezer, Ezer Inmerlan. That's his name...”
At the moment when Lyaria names him, there is a long silence between the three in which both Grige and Dartan react differently.
"Ezer... Ezer... Isn't him? Oh! This, this makes things more interesting. 50 coins and gold, which is not for less! Now I understand why you were so reluctant to give us details.” Dartan admits it to himself, the moment he hears that name, immediately thinks of handing him over and collect the reward.
Grige, on the other hand, remains silent resting his chin on the palm of his hand lost in his own thoughts. Like his brother, he knew very well what those 50 coins represented. It was enough to achieve great things and move a lot of people, enough to get to the top without depending on anyone else and this fit exactly with his goals and why he decided to support Lyaria. With that sum of money, there was no need to use the young woman in front of his eyes.
Lyaria knew very well the temptation of gold. All the silver she had with her was barely worth a couple of golds and all of this would go to the repair of the ship. Even if she sold all the equipment that was carrying with her, the sum of 50 gold was way over the top.
"Are you willing to help me?" She asks it directly and without embellishments, she had to know their intentions clearly or else, she herself would go on without them.