Taen looked at the city looming in front of him. “Pas’en is about what I remember it being.” He snorted. ‘Haven’t been here since I got rid of Prince Rasgen’s father. I guess his son turned out alright. At least the walls aren’t falling down.’ He mused idly as the memory returned and the distance slowly vanished. He started to whistle a ballad to pass the time, pretending for all the world that he hadn’t ridden three horses to death and used up his supply of stamina potions on them to get to his destination as fast as possible.
He got down off of his horse and waved to a guard like they were old friends. Taen wore rich, brightly colored clothing in the mottled style that was popular among the rich in cities closer to the Tlalmok border. “Name?” The guard asked, completely at ease with the evidently wealthy traveler.
“I’m Taen Nacan.” He said, holding onto his horse at the saddle.
“Profession?” The guard asked in the bored voice of long performed labor.
“Merchant.” Taen Nacan replied shortly.
The guard looked up at him in a bit of confusion.
Taen remained relaxed, “My caravan is a few days behind me, I came ahead to enjoy some relaxation at your finest hotel and meet some old friends before I actually get to do some work.”
“Ahhh, so business and pleasure, dangerous combination, that one.” The guard joked amiably and marked it off on his log.
Taen raised a single finger as he made a point, “Well when you love what you do, business ‘is’ pleasure.”
“Can’t argue with that, alright, go on in. Enjoy your stay in Pas’en.” The guard said politely.
Taen got back on his horse and rode on in, within a few moments, the guard will have completely forgotten almost everything about him. Taen looked around the city, not many people were out and about yet, and most of those that were, wore collars of various types. Leather, iron, even a handful of bronze. The streets were mostly dry from the rain, but the smell from the collection point in the lower district through which he was forced to pass, was considerable. ‘I wonder how many visitors are turned away by that stench alone.’ He wrinkled his nose in disgust and spurred his horse to move a little faster. The steady clip clop noise of hooves on cobblestone picked up with the speed and the odor was left farther and farther behind.
The merchant’s guild was easy to find, it was conveniently located near the most expensive hotel in the city. He dropped his horse with a stablehand, took a ticket for identification and walked to a large, opulently decorated building with a broad entrance framed by polished marble pillars. The building, he knew, was chiefly wood, but it had a thin stone facade that was vanity in the form of a building. ‘Still, it is nice to look at.’ Taen thought dismissively as he walked into the building. A slender woman in a bronze collar worked behind a counter, she was well dressed with a white long sleeve shirt and a gold vest over it, with a deep blue skirt hanging down below her knees. Her blonde hair hung down her back in a braid, and she had a pleasant, soft round face with equally soft brown eyes.
“Welcome to the guild, sir. Whom are you here to see? Or are you here as a long term residence."
This part sometimes annoyed Taen, but he put a pleasant smile on regardless. ‘It may be useful to be so easily forgotten but… damn if it isn’t at least a little frustrating to reintroduce myself again and again.’ He mused, and said, “Taen Nacan, merchant of Kai’sen. We’ve actually met before, Terese.”
She blushed a little. “Sorry, sir.” She bowed her head in deference, “I must be tired today, I never forget our honored counterparts of Kai’sen.”
He propped his arm on the smooth polished countertop and leaned toward her. “It’s fine, just pull me up in the registry, give me the business token I keep on reserve, and I’ll go over to the hotel and check in. In the meantime, any interesting rumors going around?”
Terese’s eyes lit up. “Oh, sir, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you, but… I’ll tell you anyway!” She said with a seductive little wink and began to chat while she pulled out the large registry tome and began thumbing through pages.
His brown eyes held to hers as they chatted like old friends, and by the time he walked out with a token in hand, his mind was abuzz with details about the curious woman to have brought chaos and wealth into Pas’en. A few minutes after he was gone, Terese couldn’t have described him at all.
Taen was still pondering the rumors when he approached the front desk of Notilions. He slipped a gold coin of Kai’sen onto the surface of the counter beneath the clerk’s nose. The clerk smoothly reached up and pocketed it, then his face lit up like the morning sun. “How can I help you, Sir.” He said as he leaned forward, his pencil thin mustache and beard were neatly trimmed, and Taen immediately felt him to be obnoxious.
However, he played along, “I’ve heard rumors of some disruption lately, a foreign woman, made quite a splash, spent quite a bit of money…” Taen didn’t have to prompt further.
“Sir you wouldn’t believe, she hired our city’s finest musicians, charmed the Prince…” He went on about how she’d bested her slaves in hand to hand combat and treated the highest nobility in the city as if they were casual acquaintances and peers, and had the money to back up her presumed status. He frowned, “there is one odd thing though.” The clerk said a little uncomfortably.
Taen reached out and touched his arm, charm oozed off of him like perfume sprayed in the air, and the warm light of friendship flowed from Taen’s sincere eyes. “Oh, sounds juicy… go ahead… you can tell me.”
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The clerk looked left and right as if they were co-conspirators and hoarsely whispered, “Well, it’s her two slaves, see she’s been gone for around two weeks now, but… well it isn’t unusual for a trusted slave to be given important tasks in their owner’s absence. But these act with almost total autonomy, why one of them even arranged for permission to visit the Prince recently. They’ve made inquiries about buying land, lots of it, buying slaves, it’s… well she has the money. But still, leaving that much to two recently bought Komestran slaves? They seem to do the work, they don’t cause trouble. I just…” He scratched his head as Taen ate up the information.
“Well it’s just strange how driven they seem to be, completely without marks of discipline too. I guess the really strange part is how thoroughly they’ve been broken to her service without the usual methods. Honestly some of the bigger flesh dealers are thinking about asking about her homeland’s methods so they can try them out for themselves.”
“Wow, that is amazing. You must have quite an eye for detail.” Taen said pleasantly, “But I’ll just bet that someone that rich has acquired a favorite servant here at the hotel, someone she uses regularly.”
The clerk nodded enthusiastically as he responded. “Oh yes, young Karlo visits her slaves regularly to see to their needs, and was seeing to the Lady Aiwenor daily until she left. That’s him over there.” The clerk pointed to the young man at the top of the stairs staring at a brown haired woman walking toward the exit beside a demon-elf. “And those are her slaves.”
“Both bronze?” Taen asked and turned a casual eye to the two after they passed him by.
“Yes, strange, I know. But maybe it makes sense given the frequency of their solo outings. The brown haired one… what was her name… ‘Priceless’, she makes most of the arrangements while the other one goes out most of the time.” The clerk said conversationally, “As I said, strange, but they work hard and never speak ill of their mistress.”
Taen pondered that a bit, his eyes lingering in the direction they went, long after they’d vanished from sight. ‘I see, well with a name like ‘Priceless’ she must be the one in charge, especially if she’s arranging things for the other to go out. Strange for a little mouse of a woman to be in charge of a rare demon-elf slave… must be an exceptional mind above the bronze.’
“Alright, well… I’d like to get the room as close to theirs as I can and… have that young man stop by my room later, I’ll need a few things, and if someone of her wealth trusts him, well I’ll give him a chance myself.” Taen added.
“Very good, sir.” The clerk replied and annotated the name, room, and request in his book. Taen handed over a handful of additional coins, accepted the key, and headed for his new residence. “This might actually be an interesting assignment.” He mused to himself as he ascended the spiral stairs. A few minutes later, the clerk had forgotten every detail of what Taen looked like, and most of what he’d spoken about.
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Prince Rasgen sat in his private office reading one of a stack of letters. In most respects it was an ordinary place. A pair of richly appointed ornately carved dark wooden chairs, a simple desk with a set of drawers, a window that overlooked the city. On the desk sat an inbox and an outbox, an ink well and a set of quills. Beneath the desk, was the very enthusiastic Contessa Lodira, wife to one of his oldest ministers, and young enough to have been his grand or perhaps great granddaughter.
She wiped her face as he made room for her to remove herself from beneath the desk. “You were right, Prince of Pas’en, you do take your job seriously enough to keep even the finest distraction from interrupting your work. All I managed was to slow down two things.” She tittered with amusement and put the back of her hand against her cheek as she laughed, as if to make a futile attempt at hiding the fact that she found the entire affair hilarious.
Rasgen cleared his throat and let his eyes linger on the abundant cleavage that the very low cut dress failed to properly cover. His eyes followed the bounce until she moved away from the desk and had her back to him. “Yes, well, I’ve won that bet at least.”
She smiled lasciviously and faced him again, tossing her long auburn hair with a teasing flip. “I beg to differ, Highness. I won just by getting my husband to let me come back here again.” She put on a pouting face, thrusting out her lower lip and making it quiver as if to weep, “It gets so lonely out in the country home, but my husband doesn’t trust me at all.”
“I wonder why that might be.” Rasgen said rhetorically as he sat back down and scooted himself close to the desk.
Her pale cheeks turned rose red with a false blush, “Oh don’t be like that My Prince, it’s his own fault that he can’t keep up with me. If he wants me to be happy, he shouldn’t be jealous when I play around. If he were so worried, he should have just married an old crone. A woman has needs, you know.” She shook her hips a bit, but Rasgen ignored it.
“Still, nobody really cares that anyone plays around, but a little discretion is in order. You rub it in his face, it’s not like he had a choice about when he was born or about getting old. I’ll be that way myself one day if I don’t end up like my father.” Rasgen’s tone was more serious and he picked up a quill and paper.
She looked down, a little ashamed of herself, and spoke seriously for the first time since she’d joined him in his private office. “I know… but... I just…” She put her left hand on her hip and rubbed her forehead, “Everyone else is gone, anything… anything is better than just waiting around. I want to have fun, I can’t have that while locked up in a country estate, and he’s… not a bad husband, he’s just not a good lover. Look at me… My Prince.” She said and went over to where his desk was, she put her hands at the end and leaned over, letting her ample, youthful breasts fall on full display before his unwavering eyes.
“One day… I know this will end. My body will weaken, tire, grow old. My beauty will fade, and that is if I’m luckier than the rest of my family. I don’t want to waste the now, I didn’t ask for that marriage, nobody asked me what I wanted. Why should I waste away pretending to be happy and throw away the days I’ll never get back?!” The Contessa Lodira exclaimed a private frustration that she could never have said anywhere else.
The Prince then looked at her sadly, “I am sympathetic. I’m going to have to marry soon, myself. I’m already older than the last few Princes of Pas’en and I need to produce heirs. I’ve only put it off because… because…”
The Contessa Lodira reached out and touched his cheek. “Because you want nobody in the world but Sobella sitting at your side. And she can never… ever give you the next Prince. I know… I’m so sorry, My Prince. It seems we’re both caught in webs we can’t fly out of.”
She straightened up before his hand could rise to touch hers, and that moment of seriousness was gone, “As we’re stuck in the webs woven by the spiders of tradition, well we can at least roll around in them before the spider eats us, and have a little fun along the way. Tell Sobella I’ll see you both tonight, and maybe I’ll go see my husband at his city residence tomorrow and let him know I’m here.” She tittered a little, and walked out shaking her hips with such vigor that it reminded the Prince of two cats fighting in a burlap sack.
‘I’m very sure he’ll hear about your return before then…’ Prince Rasgen chuckled and pushed his previously unhappy thoughts aside and went back to the letter at hand.
“Damn… none of the coalition wants to listen to me. I swear… maybe I should just order… wait will she take my orders? Ask… Captain Aiwenor to go to another city on vacation, or a trade mission, get her to spend one of those nations into recession with those damn coins of hers.” He set the quill down as a dawning realization hit him.
‘I’m really expecting her to succeed. She goes after two hundred men, one of them a Headman class swordsman... with twenty five of her own, and I don’t even imagine she’ll fail.’ Rasgen tapped the desk and then reached back to ring the bell for Sobella to join him. The bell would go off in her own quarters, where she was no doubt handling foreign correspondence with the demon-elf city-state. ‘I hope her mood has improved, seeing Kaiji like that really got to her, given how much alike they look, it’s no wonder. It’s got to be like looking at her own past the day she was presented to me.’ He cast off the thought and focused on writing his response.
‘To Yanmelu, Prince of Hanak’sen, I send greetings. I have received your request for justification, regarding my urgent desire for primacy of purchasing the lands of fallen Komestra. I must respond to this with the deepest of regrets when I say that I should not, and so cannot, comply. I can only swear my oath as a Prince, as a royal brother and member of the coalition that brought down Prince Sado, that this is in all of our best interests. And ask that you grant me this once off the field, the trust we showed one another on the field. The fewer who know the reason behind my request, the lower the chance that the problem spreads. I implore you, son of the stars, reconsider your answer. With fondest wishes for the fates of all our cities, Prince Rasgen of Pas’en’
Rasgen set the quill down. “Abrupt. Very abrupt, but Yanmelu is rather on the direct side, hopefully this will have his attention.”