by Cody Loewen
“I don’t see how it could be complicated,” I eventually respond. “Anyone we find stealing, or killing, or anything else that could be considered evil, we take them out, and eventually one of them will be our target, and we leave this city a much better place behind us.”
“Do we get to judge who is considered good and evil based off of one action that we happen to see?” he asks me, the concerned expression still plastered across his face, clear as day. I am starting to get frustrated at this cryptic line of questions, unsure of what he is trying to get out of me.
How could a murderer not be considered evil? Why shouldn’t someone caught stealing be punished? How would that not make this town a slightly better place?
I give him an angry shrug and motion for him to continue, at a loss for words, and getting angrier as the conversation continues. He takes a second to gather his words at my insistent gesture, obviously formulating his argument.
“Is a man who steals from someone with excess to feed his starving children really evil?” he asks me calmly. I don’t know how he can sit there so calm as I get angrier. I feel like we are wasting time just sitting here talking when we could be out hunting. “Is a mother who kills a man trying to steal her children to sell them to a merchant traveling through for a couple of coins considered a bad person? Sometimes it isn’t as simple as you think. We don’t know the story behind these people or their motivations enough to make that judgement. I trust the ruby to point out the true evil. We cannot make the decision ourselves. We need to wait and learn what we can and see if we get a sign from the gem on what to do next.”
I see what he is saying and force my anger down. He is right of course. It is hard for me to swallow my pride and admit defeat, but I don’t see any other way. Unable to respond without saying something out of anger, I nod silently to him, a brooding expression on my face as I focus my stare on the wood of the table in front of me. We sit there in silence for quite some time, Rayfe allowing me time and space to fully come down from the conflict between us. Eventually, I gather the mental strength to raise my gaze and meet his eyes. He wears a friendly smile, his eyes devoid of any judgement toward me. I let out a sigh, clearing any remaining negative feelings between us from my mind and focusing back on the difficult task before us. Knowing that my plan wasn’t the right way to go, I don’t trust myself to dictate what our next move is.
“So, what do you suggest we do next?” I ask Rayfe, trusting in him to have the answers, like he usually does.
“Personally, I think we should take advantage of the fact that it is the middle of the day and find a safe place to sleep tonight. I’m sure this one is going to take longer than the daylight we have left.”
I nod in agreement, noting the reasoning of the suggestion. I don’t necessarily want to be out trying to find a place to take shelter for the night in the dark, when the criminals will be out in force. I glance around the room, considering our options.
“It looks like this is only a place for food and drink,” Rayfe says, noting my confusion. “I was under the impression that this was a full inn, but it looks to just be a single room, so we won’t find lodging here. We will need to find shelter elsewhere.”
Without any idea of the layout of the city, or options for places to buy a room for the night, we decide to ask the bartender that one last question, which he happily answers, pointing us in the direction of another similar looking building closer to the walled fortress. We easily follow his directions and are soon sitting in our own private room on the second story of an inn that seems slightly less run down and dirty than most of the other buildings in town. The room sports a heavy wooden door equipped with a metal deadbolt that should keep out any unwanted visitors. We leave our traveling gear behind in the room, only taking our weapons and the clothes we are wearing, as we return to the street, ready to do some hunting.
We assume that whoever we were sent after will be somewhere in the worst parts of the city, where the crime is the highest, so we gravitate toward the dirtiest and poorest areas. I force myself to not make any rash movements, trusting in the gem to guide me toward the person that we are here to kill. We come across every form of lowlife, from young pickpockets who ignore us because we have nothing of value on us besides our weapons, to gangs of thieves hanging out in groups in the dark alleys between buildings, to drunks with reaching hands and short tempers, but none of them trigger any reaction from the gem.
As the sun falls behind the wall, and darkness comes over the city, the real criminals come out. We sneak past gangs standing in the middle of intersections, ready to rob whoever is unlucky enough to cross their path. We make the decision to retire to our room for the night, planning on resuming our search tomorrow, when a single man steps in front of us, seemingly out of nowhere. He wears a wild expression on his face and holds a long, jagged knife in his hand. Covered in a thick layer of dirt and grime, he doesn’t say a word as he steps toward us. My hand moves to the pommel of my sword, ready to draw it if I need to. The red mist that comes from the gem when we face a target isn’t present, and I know that this man is not who we seek.
“I beg you leave us be,” Rayfe says to the man, but if he even hears the words, I can’t tell. He holds the knife in front of him and continues approaching slowly. I begin to slide my sword from its scabbard, but Rayfe’s hand on my shoulder stops me.
“I’ll handle him,” he says to me, and I nod, knowing it won’t take two of us to deal with the man. “You don’t want to do this,” Rayfe tells the man, and once again it’s like he doesn’t even register the words. Rayfe extends an empty hand out to gesture for the man to stop, to no avail. Suddenly, he rushes forward, slicing the air as he charges, aiming for Rayfe’s outstretched hand. Rayfe snatches the limb back quickly, easily avoiding the knife, and draws both of his swords as he steps backward.
The man hardly slows, continuing his charge despite the fact that he is obviously not equipped for a fight against Rayfe. He slashes out again, and Rayfe catches the knife with one of his swords, easily redirecting the strike and throwing the blade from the man’s hand. Now unarmed, our assailant reaches out with two grimy hands, and Rayfe quickly ends the conflict with a quick blow of one of his sword pommels the man’s temple, knocking him unconscious in front of us. We step over the crumpled form as we quickly move through the dark street.
“Let’s get back to our room,” Rayfe says, his swords already returned to his belt. “I don’t want to kill anyone tonight, but I fear someone is going to leave us no choice if we remain much longer. We can pick up the search in the morning.”
Without any further incidents, we find ourselves standing in our room for the night, door locked behind us. I unfasten my scabbard from my belt and set it down on the simple wooden table beside us. Rayfe does the same with his blades.
“What a wonderful city,” I state bitterly. Rayfe laughs at the remark, ever cheerful.
“Maybe we need a new plan,” he says. “We are going to end up doing what you wanted to do if we stay here for too many more nights. I'm not looking forward to another encounter like that one.”
I think about what he had said in the bar earlier, about crime being committed by a person who does it for good reasons not necessarily because they are evil.
“Maybe we are looking for the wrong type of person,” I say to him after a minute of thinking. He gives me a quizzical look and motions for me to continue, curious about where this is heading. “Remember what you said about the struggling people doing what they have to do to survive and protect their families?” What if we aren't looking for one of them after all? What if we need to be looking for someone who is doing evil acts who doesn't have a deep need to for survival or protection?”
Rayfe nods as he digests my words, and I can see his brain working from the expression on his face.
“I think you might be onto something,” he says, running a hand through his hair in thought. “The only people we have seen so far who aren't struggling are those
merchants in the square. Are you thinking that one of them is who we are after?”
I think for a moment before shaking my head.
“I don't think so. First, the gem would have given me some sign if we had passed so close to one of them. Kind of like how we didn't get any indication from the ruby when we were near Edgar and his village, but the minute that the gnolls were upon us, the anger came over me. That might be the clue we have been looking for. Also, those merchants didn't appear to be doing anything that could be considered evil. While they may seem better off than most of the people here, they didn't seem to be taking advantage of them. Even the struggling people seem to be able to afford some of the items, and I didn't see any other signs of evil from any of them.”
All of a sudden, a moment of realization comes over me, and I snap my head up at Rayfe, my mouth ready to burst with my thoughts. Seeing my own thoughts mirrored in his eyes, I see that he must have had the same epiphany that I did.
“The governor!” we both exclaim at the same time. Rayfe gestures for me to continue, obviously on the same page as me, ready to hear all that I have to say.
“The bartender basically told us that all of the problems in this city stem from his greed!” I start excitedly, feeling as if we are solving this mystery that seemed so impossible a few hours earlier. I can feel adrenaline begin to build as I unravel the clues and begin to see the start of a plan forming in my mind. “This town was a rich, happy and bright place, with a bustling fruit market that kept its citizens full and wealthy, providing a large amount of trade for the traveling merchants. When this new governor came into power, he decided to take all that away, taxing the citizens and stripping them of their main income source by taking all of the fruit for himself. He is taking money and food from people who already don’t have enough of either, when he has more of both than he will ever need!”
“He has to be the man we are looking for!” Rayfe responds when I finish my train of thought. “Where a poor man who steals to feed his starving family could be seen as committing an act of good in a way, a rich man who steals from people who are so poor they are barely surviving can only be seen as evil.”
“Now we know who our target is,” I respond, not a doubt in my mind that he is the man that we are hunting. “We just need to figure out how to get to him. It’s going to be a little harder than killing some bandits or gnolls out in the open. How are we even going to get into his walled fortress?”
“For now, I think we need to get some rest,” Rayfe answers calmly. “We don’t know for sure that we are correct, even though it seems like the only plausible choice. Once we have slept, we can begin to plan an infiltration of his home, to get close enough for you to know for sure whether or not he is our target.”
I nod in agreement. Even though I am excited to see this puzzle solved, I know that I will be no good in a fight if I am exhausted. I climb under the blanket on my little bed and fight back my nerves and excitement enough to fall asleep.
Chapter 21
I wake up full of energy, before the sun has come over the wall. Rayfe rises from his own bed shortly after, and we quickly lace up our boots and get ready for the busy day. We decide to eat some of our traveling rations for breakfast, taking advantage of the time to begin to formulate a plan on how we are going to go about breaking into the governor's fortress. The salted meat and dry bread may not be the warm meal we ate yesterday at the bar, but it fills us up and provides the necessary energy we need.
“So how are we going to do this?” I ask Rayfe with a mouthful of bread. “We haven’t even been near that fortress enough to know any details about the wall or the building within.”
Rayfe thinks for a second, taking the time to swallow the food he is chewing before speaking.
“Well, I think you just decided the first part of our plan for us,” he finally responds. “There's no way we can formulate any kind of plan to get inside the building while we know nothing about it. We need to know whether we can climb the wall, the number and placement of all the guards around the building and as many details as we can possibly gather about the fortress itself. I can't imagine that the governor is going to let strangers just walk around his home and study its structural details. We are going to need to do this without drawing their attention. Are you ready for a stroll?”
We repack our traveling bags and stash them in the room once more, only taking what we absolutely need for the day with us. Rayfe grabs his coin pouch this time, thinking that having a little bit of money might be helpful where we are headed. It is easy to see where our path lies, as the fortress is easily the largest building in the entire city. Once we are only a few rows of buildings away from our target, we slow our pace, taking in what we can from this distance. There is only one entrance into the mansion, barred by a huge wooden gate, two armed guards standing outside of it. The wall itself seems to be made from huge trunks of trees, shaved down into smooth poles. I do not see any way we can climb them, meaning that the gate is our only option to get inside.
“I think we've seen everything there is to see about the wall,” I say after a few more minutes of watching. “But I can't make out any details of the mansion with the gate closed.
“Well then, we need the gate to open so we can see what lies beyond it,” Rayfe replies, nodding in agreement at my previous statements. He glances all around us, making sure that we aren't drawing any unwanted attention. “I think we need to wait here for a while and see if they open the gates.”
“Do you think we will catch sight of the governor himself?” I ask him. “We might be able to tell for sure if he is our target if I could just see him.”
“I doubt that he shows his face much more than he needs to in this town,” Rayfe replies after a moment of thought. “After what he has done to these people for his own selfish gain, he has to be smart enough to know that he will not be welcomed out here. I would bet that he has his guards do his bidding, and anything he needs is brought to him inside by his servants.”
We lean nonchalantly against the building where we stand, just two people in conversation. As minutes turn into hours, we sit and pretend to play a dice game that Rayfe just happens to have in his pouch. Our long wait is rewarded as we hear the groan of rusty hinges swinging open in front of us. Double gates open, allowing us our first glimpse at the building beyond. The giant structure seems to me made of large, rectangular black stones, stacked like bricks. They look to be shaved smooth, denying us any chance to scale them, just like the wall that hides them. I see two more guards standing at the door to the fortress and make note of two more pairs walking in the yard between the wall and the building.
Unlike a traditional castle, there is no exterior battlement for guards to watch from above, but I hold no illusion about the presence of several more unseen guards inside the structure. I focus my attention back to the wall itself and the wide-open gates. I catch a glimpse of a merchant pushing his cart laden with silks and other fine fabrics through the opening. Without a second glance, the guards wave him through as the gates quickly close behind him.
“We need to find a way to be invited inside those gates,” Rayfe responds as the heavy wooden sections slam close. “I don’t see any other way we are going to get to that building. Sneaking in doesn’t seem to be an option, and there doesn't look to be any way we can go over the wall.”
We wait for another couple of hours, watching two additional merchants make their way into the building. Other than the two of them, and the merchant we already watched enter, no one goes in or out of the building.
“It looks like the only people who have access to the mansion besides the guards and the and servants are the merchants,” Rayfe says as we finally call an end to the surveillance, making our way away from the inner wall, as to not give away our purpose here. “I’d say our only shot is to convince the guards at the gate that we are merchants who seek trade with the governor.”
“We look nothing like merchants,” I respond, glancing at
his traveling gear and then down at my own. “We are clearly not dressed as merchants, and I don’t know how many of them carry weaponry like ours. How are we supposed to convince anyone?”
“Getting some appropriate clothing shouldn’t be too hard,” Rayfe answers thoughtfully. “But without anything to sell, we won’t make it far. We need to find some way to display a stock of goods for the governor.”
“How do you suggest we do that?” I ask him, unsure of how we are going to find disguises, let alone a whole store’s worth of goods to bring into the mansion. “I don’t plan on being here for weeks while we gather those things.”
“There is a much faster way,” Rayfe says to me carefully. “We go out tonight and borrow the things we need.”
I immediately open my mouth to argue against a plan that involves stealing from good people, but pause, taking a second to think. There really is no other way to create the proper disguise to get inside the walls in a timely manner.
Besides, once we take care of this governor, everyone here will be better off.
“Okay, let’s do it.”
He shoots me a surprised look. “I didn’t think you would go for that one at all,” he says. “I thought that was going to be an argument for sure. It’s settled then.”
“I want to help these struggling people, and I want to do it fast,” I respond, explaining my thought process out loud to him, while justifying the crime to myself as well. “If that means taking a few changes of clothing and some supplies from the merchants for a night, then so be it. They will benefit in the long run from the citizens being able to afford to buy more of their items when the taxes are removed.”
