“My Name is Elane. I am sorry for the behavior of my Apprentice. He is…”
“PRISONER ESC… ARGH!”
“What is going on!?”
Well I know what is going on. Seems I am not the only one who is at their limit with the whole imprisonment.
“SNOW! Over here! Do not kill all of them, they are just stupid!”
A Wall of darkness entered the Cell and after vanishing a Rat girl sat on my lap.
“There you are! Those guys just asked over and over where we came from. As one wanted to slap me right now I just could not stand it anymore!”
“So, you are talking how sorry you are while still interrogating my Family…”
“Karl! Immediately stop all Guards! Do not lay your hands on the Pri… on our Guests or I will decapitate every single one of them myself!”
All Guards ran at the same time to stop any more interrogations. Well too late for most of them, as I will not appease with only some apologies.
“Where is Rendlar? Does he know, what you did to his Customers?”
“Rendlar? You mean the vice… So you are sending them from here to Meldek, but why?”
“To prevent the thing from happening right now? How do you explain the reasoning behind our sudden incarceration?”
“I am ask… No, sorry. We have gotten a tip of a Ratkin having made a rather large sum of Money, so there were some questions we wanted to ask.”
“That is questioning? Wow, I am so glad to not be invited to Tea by you. I might have my armor cleaned from all the blood and gore afterwards.”
“You… Well I understand your misgivings, as this was not meant to happen. You should just be put in a cell for a while, until we can question you about something written in Seldars Diary.”
“...and this is?”
“A Mana well was found by his Apprentice Mink. She lead him to an expedition and never returned.”
“Oh, and you could not connect their vanishing with maybe dying against a faction they had no way to win against?”
“...I am courteous to you, so please… be courteous to me too!”
She really thinks I give a damn right now. First they incarcerate us without reason, then they interrogate us, threaten us, try to break our bones and slap Snow. Now they play victim as if they did not start the whole shitstorm.
“Snow, let me stand up.”
“Hop!”
Jumping from my lap I stand up and go over to the apprentice. Elane watches me but does nothing. He just keeps silent and tries to play dead, but he looks ever so often to us with shock in his eyes.
“Wait… What do you want from…”
That were his last words. Should have told something cooler. They did not remove my armor and just sat me down. So, I have still my nice gauntlets with the electric cores.
This time he had way more resistance against the invading electricity. So Mages are also resistant against Magic. Good to know, bad for him I can overcharge now with how much Mana is inside of Ava.
“What are you doing?!”
Elane stood up and made a kind of magic Shield. She guards against my attacks, but right now she is not my target. For now at least.
“Making a point!”
She is still a bit dazed and starts retching of the fried smell of human flesh.
“You all started this disaster, and suddenly you want to be talked to in flowery language! We just came to sell our produce, but suddenly that is a taboo! While bringing your City wealth, you throw us into the dungeon and have the audacity to say we shall treat you with respect!”
She finally seems to understand, what is going on. Yes, we are close to a Battle, and she just talks about being courteous to each other while we are right now in a smelly, moist and dark cell inside their Prison.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Tell me Elane! Is this the kind of place to be diplomatic, or is this only the waiting room for your esteemed guests?!”
While spreading my arms around to make her look where we are, she realizes how demeaning she sounds asking for courtesy inside a jail cell for maybe the worst kind of offenders.
“Please be at ease. We will right now make some preparation while you get escorted to the visiting Room. I am sorry for not realizing how uncouth I was. All your people and possessions will be brought to you immediately.”
The guards looking into the cell scurry away, as she claps her hands. Maybe now it is going in the right way, otherwise this City will burn.
…
“Welcome to our humble Town. My name is Harvey, the Leader of the Caste of Blue Ice. I’ve heard about what the member of our Caste has done to you. Sadly I also heard, he has already been punished by you, before we could do it.”
So he is the new leader of the Town? Harvey, what a strange name for a Mage. Whatever, we are right now in the meeting Room of their Fort. I notice some strange fluctuations around the room, might be a way to attack us.
“Ava, Snow and company.”
His brow twitches a bit. I do not care.
“We apologize about the handling of you, as we did not know you are Mages too. Some people just look at the clothing to see the person instead of their demeanor.”
How nice… Now it is my fault for not wearing a conical hat to walk around their city? Are they for real?
“Sorry, I did not know, there was a rule for people to wear clothes specific of their magical capabilities. I will remember next time.”
“You stupid…”
With just one look he made the Member on his side stop talking. Well at least he can keep them in check while they are near him. Maybe work on your range for that ability.
“No, we have no such rule. Please let us lay down the sarcastic knife and find a solution of this debacle. It would not help us all to further stoke the flames. We have called for your friend Rendlar to come to the Fort. Right now he seems unavailable, but will be let through right away.”
I just nod. What should we do otherwise?
“Do you want some Tea?”
“No I am good. I think we should just drink our own water. Snow?”
Giving me a flask of water I just jug a swig and give it back. It should tell him I am wary of poison. I am not stupid, as I just killed one of their apprentice and Snow had ended one and crippled three guards.
“Shall we start the talks? I would like to tell my side of the story, and hope you can later explain what happened.”
“Well, I had already heard the Guards telling me what happened, but it would be beneficial to hear the other side too. Please do tell.”
So I explain how we just came for selling purposes, the writ was ignored, we were put in separate cells and while we did not even resisted in the slightest they just tried to insinuate what they would do to Snow, tried to break my fingers and nearly slapped Snow while we were already working on the appeasing from Elane.
“I… understand your discontent, but for you to just kill…”
“Do you have someone you love? Family who is so dear to you, that you would do anything for? How about I tell you I will do what I want with that person and give you the broken rest of her back when I am bored?”
“You… Wh… Ha… No I understand. I am sorry, you might be a bit impulsive, but have the right on your side. In the Name of Blue Ice I apologize. For the meantime you are our guests, I hope you do not go right away. I would love to know where you come from and how you got such interesting Vegetables.”
“For what reason?”
“What?”
“For what reason do you want to know where we come from and where we got our things? Green Fire is now History, after trying to take our valuables. And you want to know our position just because you might visit for Tea and Cookies?”
“That is not the reason we want to talk. We just…”
I wait for the answer. Maybe he hopes I would just interject or maybe show again how impulsive I am to veer the Discussion into some other direction, but I just look at him.
“We just want to know, where our Friends live, so we can be more welcoming later on. If we know the direction there can be a road be arranged or maybe we can keep the track clear of bandits. It is just for our benefit on both sides.”
“Excuse me Lord Harvey? Rendlar vice President and Miss Celia President of the Peddler Kings branch are here. They want to answer the audience request about their supplier and customer, um… Named Lord Null.”
“Lord Null?”
“Ah, that is me. My true Name. Now I can not be incognito anymore. Dang.”
“So your Name is truly Null. Ava is just a pseudonym?”
While waiting of my answer, I do not answer. Why should I?
“...Ah, let them in. We do not want to be rude to our visitors.”
Finally the Peddler King reinforcement is there. This will be messy, but funny at the same time.
“Lord Null, are you all right?”
“Hello Rendlar! Yeah, they just wanted to break my fingers, and I fried one of their apprentices as revenge, but we are right now being all friends with each other.”
The sarcasm was just oozing out of me. Snow giggles slightly, but everyone else is rather staunch.
“Hello Lord Null. I have heard many things of you. My Name is Celia and I am glad to meet you finally.”
Well she is not really happy, as she just wanted to have me useful before being robbed, but such are merchants.
“Nice to meet you Celia. As you see we are right now in a precarious situation. The end result might mean no more produce, I hope you understand my plight.”
“That must not mean, we should just go different ways. We would be happy to support you with your selling of your products.”
It was not Celia but Harvey who interjected. Does he really think he can bend a strained relationship like that back with all those cracks visible?
“No offense Lord Harvey, but how will that even work? Now that everyone knows how valuable the things are which are send through here, how would there not be more robbery attempts and greedy eyes looking for usurping this towns Caste to hold the Line for themselves? They will come with hostile intentions also to our Lands, as they will search far and wide for our location. There is nothing to mend, as all is not only broken to pieces but ground to dust.”
Ho, the panic and chaos in all of their looks. Blue Ice is thinking of how to bring everything back to how it was, Peddler King is calculating their losses and how much they will punish the Caste without being retaliated against, Guards who were with us interrogating us sweating profusely and pray at least their families will survive their culling, and I look just at Snow as I scratch her behind her ears. Total Anarchy! I love it!