Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 8

“I can’t help but feel that this is a giant distraction,” Liam said.

“If by ‘distraction’ you mean ‘entertainment’,” Marim replied, “then I agree.”

Daytime jeers transformed into nighttime fears that offered a curious spectacle for the men of House Restelo. After giving themselves plenty of imaginary things to be fearful of, the patrols in the neighbouring jurisdictions spent more time jumping at shadows on their own turf than continuing their harassment of House Restelo’s retainers.

“You should do something to scare them,” Marim said.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Something. They’ve been messing with us all day. It’s only fair that we get our turn.”

“If we mess with them any more than they already are,” Liam said. “They’re going to cause accidents.”

Marim’s patrol froze and looked up at the starry sky as a scream drifted through the air.

The patrol relaxed. Across the street, their opposite numbers continued to look all around themselves with weapons brandished. A few stole fearful glances at a nearby alley, but none dared to approach it.

“Hey Liam,” Marim raised his voice. “You hear the latest?”

“What?”

“They’ve been saying that House Restelo has an Assassin from Ijaniya working for it.”

“Hah?”

Across the street, the other patrol’s fearful tension went up by three notches. Marim’s men chuckled. A member of the other patrol took notice and glared at them, spitting on the street before calling for the others to resume their patrol.

“Did someone really say that?” Liam asked.

“Yeah,” Marim answered as they went on their way. “Something about hiring a guy to butcher Lousa and his closest subordinates. It’s ridiculous, but it still scared the hell out of anyone trying to come over to buy things.”

“Our people are hurting from that,” another patrolman said. “We need a way to get their business back.”

Normally, avoiding their part of the city was impossible, as sections of a city were organised by industry. All of the leatherworking shops, including the cobblers and tanneries, were somewhere within House Restelo’s jurisdiction. The Alchemists were next to the tanneries since both of them stank and artificing shops like Raquel’s ended up by the Alchemists since Alchemists were also arcane artisans and supplied many reagents for enchanting. Most of the arcane artisans in the city had been expended as soldiers in the war, however.

Outside of the Prime Estates, which had its own exclusive market, everyone in the city needed something from the industries in House Restelo’s jurisdiction. Unfortunately, the existence of the labour camps outside of the city provided an alternative source of necessities, which were sold at the stands in the city plazas.

“Did the Royal Court say anything about what happened last night?” Liam asked.

“Lord Restelo’s still pushing his case,” Marim said. “The Knights won’t say anything more than that. It’d be nice if these other houses fucked up again to give us more ammunition for a court battle.”

“What about new allies? If the royalists are against us now, shouldn’t we be making friends with the conservatives?”

“It’s a pragmatic choice, but doing that would be as if we’re admitting that we’re purposely undermining the royalists. The issue isn’t a matter of who has power – it's about who has the moral high ground. You see it in the way that the other houses are attacking us: it’s never physical threats. It’s all about looking for ways to break down our righteous stance.”

Liam nodded at Marim’s words. He couldn’t say that he was wrong, at least with what the other houses were apparently doing. It had always been a puzzle how Nobles could do what they did without ever getting in trouble, but his time in the Holy Kingdom had answered much of it.

Simply put, it was a matter of following the rules and not getting caught if one broke them. One might say that it was the same for everyone, but Nobles knew the rules and how to use them infinitely better than the average commoner. Just as important was the fact that they had the means to put their expertise to use, making them extremely tricky to confront directly over anything.

“If the other houses believe that rumour about us having an Assassin,” Liam said, “what will they do?”

“Beats me. I figured you’d know better.”

“You make it sound as if I sit around plotting other people’s dooms.”

“Well, I don’t either. Neither do the Knights nor Lord Restelo. We all do what we think is right.”

“What’s right, huh…so that means if what they believe is bad enough, they’ll take measures to do what’s right.”

“I suppose that’s one way to put it. Get any ideas?”

“If people can hire Assassins, is there such a thing as hiring anti-Assassins from somewhere?”

There seemed to be a profession for everything, and something like that would be his biggest source of trouble.

“Assassins are basically monsters,” Marim said, “so maybe an Assassin for the Assassin? Like using a monster to fight a monster.”

“…then I hope they never send a monster our way.”

Liam split off from the patrol as it entered the western plaza, returning to the rooftops. The unpredictability of the situation was the worst part of it all. No one knew what they were doing so people would try whatever they thought was a good idea. At least there were limits set by the Holy Kingdom’s prevailing sense of common decency, but an affront to that sense could also provoke extreme reactions that one wouldn’t experience in places like Re-Estize.

He hopped over an alley, taking note of the changes below. During the day, Sir Pires had ordered his men to clear away all of the refuse and obstacles in the alleys that Rogues might be able to hide behind. Liam hadn’t spotted a single intruder the entire night. As with Esme, everyone was probably terrified of setting foot in House Restelo’s jurisdiction after the latest attempt ended in a fatality and all of the rumours circulating in the city made things seem even worse than that.

I should see Remedios soon…

She probably had a mountain of questions for him. Unfortunately, he still had nothing for her to act on.

Just before dawn, a set of shouts drew Liam to the south side of the jurisdiction. One of the Restelo patrols was already there watching a broad man struggle against two armsmen from the neighbouring house as he waved a hammer in the air.

“You killed him! You killed my boy!”

A woman’s faint weeping could be heard from a nearby alley.

“What happened?” Liam asked as he dropped in behind the patrol.

“Idiots stuck a kid that was out doing chores,” the patrol sergeant replied. “There’s going to be hell to pay.”

Liam shook his head. It was the unfortunate, seemingly inevitable culmination of the other houses’ behaviour over the last day. Even innocent children could appear as Assassins to a man who was convinced that evil lurked behind every corner.

“What does that mean for us?” He asked.

“I don’t want to think about it,” the sergeant replied. “The way it played out, it’s not something we should be happy about.”

In other words, House Restelo would be adding more blocks to its jurisdiction. Both the crown and the citizens had no tolerance for protectors who killed those under their charge.

A pair of men accompanying a Priest appeared from the direction of the plaza. The Priest vanished into the alley, only to reappear less than a minute later, shaking her head sadly.

“Why?!” The man with the hammer finally broke down, “Haven’t we suffered enough? First Demihumans, then Demons, and now you damned southerners!”

The patrol stood around the man powerlessly, unable to answer his grief. They appeared just as shocked once the reality of what had happened had fully sunk in.

As dawn arrived, word of the incident spread quickly across the city, resulting in an unnatural stillness that lasted past the end of Liam’s shift. Liam stayed in the city after the end of the company debriefing, loitering around the sparse markets of the western plaza for a while before heading deeper into the city. Things were subdued even at Prart Gate in the east. People picked up what they needed before immediately going home. Needless to say, the Prime Estates were far more heavily guarded than usual. Each gate had triple the sentries and they were turning away anyone who didn’t look well-off enough to have business within.

So much for seeing Remedios…

Sneaking around in the dark was one thing; trying to stroll through a well-guarded passage in broad daylight was another. He could wait to see whether she would come out into the city on patrol, but without knowing what her route and schedule were, it would probably involve a lot of waiting around.

Liam returned to House Restelo’s jurisdiction to find one of the patrols standing outside the alley where the fight with the enemy scouts had taken place. He walked up to the group, trying to catch a glimpse of what was happening beyond them.

“Stand back. This is…hm? Aren’t you the leather girl’s guy?”

“What’s going on?” Liam asked.

“Holy Order’s here,” the patrolman answered. “They’re investigating the scene from the other night and taking statements.”

“But A Company wasn’t involved.”

“You don’t have to tell me. The Holy Order answers to the Holy King. If he tells them to go, they go and they go according to their own schedule.”

Most of B Company didn’t go to bed until around midmorning, so it sounded like they would be called out to be questioned before then. The Nobles didn’t like outsiders poking around their labour camps and they wouldn’t give the Holy Order an excuse to enter.

After taking a closer look at the Paladins investigating the alley and the single Squire tending to their horses – he didn’t recognise any of them – Liam went to see Sir Pires in the gatehouse. The Knight was sifting through a pile of documents on the desk in the captain’s office, looking none too pleased.

“Liam,” he said. “I figured you’d be having dinner by now.”

“I went to see what the city was like after what happened, sir,” Liam replied. “Nat’s supposed to be bringing in some goods around now, as well.”

“How is it out there?”

“Quiet,” Liam said. “No one’s in the streets if they can help it.”

“I don’t blame them,” Sir Pires sighed. “No one’s died a violent death in the capital since the end of the war. A street patrol killing a child…it’s unheard of. Did you hear about the Holy Order?”

“I saw them in the alley on the way back, but I didn’t stick around to speak to them.”

Sir Pires drew a fresh sheet of paper from the desk, then took up a quill in his hand.

“They’re still going to want your account; I can only imagine what the other houses will try to pull if they’re the only ones testifying. Let’s hear what you have to share.”

Liam launched into a detailed account, leaving it unembellished. Sir Pires jotted down notes as he spoke, shaking his head at the end.

“A catastrophe, but how one thing led to another is understandable enough. The Paladins that they sent are veterans, so they should be able to see how things escalated and that it was an unfortunate accident.”

“So should I say the same thing to them, sir?” Liam asked.

“You may want to shorten things a bit,” Sir Pires answered. “The full story may make for a good cautionary tale to share with new retainers, but the court will only want the key points. I’ll speak to the other men to make sure their testimonies line up with yours.”

“I’m sure they’ll have noticed things that I didn’t, sir.”

“That’s not what I meant. It’s just a fact of life that some people just love like bragging about their exploits. These are public testimonies, so we want to keep things as plain as possible even if we do have exceptional men.”

He nodded in agreement. There was little reason in letting enemies know about one’s capabilities if it didn’t serve some specific end.

Liam left the gatehouse to deliver his testimony. Along the way, he came across Nat, who was leading a wagon filled with crates. Two labourers pulled the vehicle from the front while another three pushed it from the back. Due to the grain shortages in the northern Holy Kingdom, its cities had long abandoned their use of draft animals.

“Hey, Nat.”

Nat instantly stuck herself onto him.

“How many loads do you have to go?” Liam asked.

“We just started,” Nat answered. “Enchantments are expensive! The amulet and ring you got are worth a wagon load of food each even with the crazy prices.”

“Sorry for the trouble,” Liam said. “So you have one more wagon to deliver, huh.”

“Two.”

“Two?”

“I got something for myself.”

“Oh? What is it?”

Nat’s smile widened into a grin.

“It’s a secret! You’ll find out soon enough.”

A foreboding feeling fell over him as he eyed the girl attached to his arm. Whatever she had purchased, it was undoubtedly something that would help her be more ‘useful’ to him. He could only hope it was a magical tool or something else that would benefit her after his mission was over.

When they arrived at Raquel’s shop, they found another wagon blocking the storefront. A small crowd of locals was already gathered in front of it, including Nat’s mother. Raquel was nowhere to be seen, but a man in a Merchant’s coat and hat hopped off of the wagon and walked right up to Liam.

“You must be Nat.”

“Nope.”

The Merchant blinked, taken aback by Liam’s response. After a moment, he walked over to ask one of the men unloading the wagon. Liam walked into Raquel’s workshop with Nat. Raquel was leaning back in her chair with her feet crossed over the counter.

“We brought your stuff,” Liam said. “A guy parked out front came to bug us, though.”

“Probably the Merchant from yesterday.”

“The one that cleaned out your food?”

“Cleaned me out except for my conjured stuff,” Raquel grumbled. “Nothing’s worse than watching conjured food rot. All your mana goes poof for nothing.”

One of Nat’s labourers entered the shop with a crate of food. The Merchant came in on his heels. Liam pulled Nat away as he reached for her. The Merchant stumbled by and turned around, pointing his finger.

“You! You’re Nat!”

“Sure am…”

“I’ll pay you five per cent more than this woman for the food you’re selling her!”

“This woman?”

“Sure!” Nat said.

The Merchant counted out his payment on Raquel’s counter. Once he left, Nat pocketed her profits and slid the rest over to Raquel.

“What just happened?” Liam frowned.

“Who knows,” Nat shrugged. “I saved some time and made some money, I guess?”

“You should have haggled that jerk up to nine per cent,” Raquel said.

“Would that have worked?”

“Yeah, I was marking up your food by ten per cent.”

“Oh.”

“At least you have some enchanting work now,” Liam said.

“I would,” Raquel replied, “but we never decided on what to stick on your bracers.”

“We didn’t? But I thought we decided what to put on the piece after that.”

“We did, but we skipped right over the bracers.”

Huh?

He couldn’t recall what enchantment he had ordered for the bracers, so it must have been true.

“Sorry,” Liam said, “I was in a rush to get to work. What do you think should go on them?”

“I narrowed it down to three options,” Raquel lifted her legs off of the counter and sat up. “First…do you do any archery?”

“Not normally,” Liam said. “I throw things sometimes if I need to.”

“Hmm, alright. If you used a bow, I was going to suggest Lesser Bracers of Archery. In that case, your two best options are Lesser Bracers of Might and Lesser Bracers of Shielding.”

“What do they do?”

“Bracers of Might assist in performing strength-related activities. Jumping, lifting, climbing, grappling – athletic stuff, basically. Bracers of Shielding provide magical protection in place of a shield. It’s great for anyone that doesn’t use them and a favourite of mages that don’t want to cast Shield Wall on themselves every few minutes. I got a pair on right now.”

Raquel rolled up her right sleeve to show off a silvery bracer.

“Out of curiosity,” Liam said. “How much magical protection do you have?”

“About as much as a dismounted Knight in full plate, I guess? I don’t have Martial Arts or all of their fancy defensive training, though. Whenever a Demihuman reached me during the war, I’d get swatted around a bunch.”

“You’d think such an impressive display of your craft would encourage people to buy your stuff,” Nat said.

“Well, again, the Royal Army gave me plenty of business before the war. Immediately after the war, no one could afford anything. Since you’re buying stuff now, I figure things are looking up.”

Having magical shielding sounded invaluable, so he went with the Lesser Bracers of Shielding.

“What’s left to enchant?” Liam asked.

“In terms of the usual stuff that prevents you from getting hurt, just the armour. After that, you have your head, something for your face or maybe earrings, back, gloves, and waist. Oh, magic clothing like a shirt works under your armour, too.”

“That’s a lot.”

“Like I said the other day, it gets easier the more you narrow things down. The last general defensive item that you need is one for magic resistance, which is usually some form of Cloak of Resistance. As the physical sort, you’ll also want Minor Gloves of Dexterity and a Belt of Ogre Strength. That leaves three spots free for situational enchantments.”

“How long will those take?”

“It should take around two weeks including the trip to Canta for the boots.”

“People can get magic items faster than I thought,” Liam said.

Raquel barked out a laugh.

“It only feels that way because I didn’t have work lined up already. It takes about a month to provide a single person with a full set of basic enchantments. When a procurement officer from the army strolls in one day and asks you to make items for a division’s worth of officers, that’s a decade of work for the Captains alone.”

“So when the Holy Kingdom returns to normal,” Nat asked, “you’ll be too busy to do anything else?”

“I’ll be busier than busy,” the mage answered. “Honestly, though, things are looking pretty grim even if I’ll be doing well personally. The north lost most of our already limited arcane artisans when Jaldabaoth invaded, then the army burned through the survivors by using us as soldiers. With how ignorant and superstitious this country is about non-priestly magic, it’ll take the arcane side of the artificing industry over a century to recover, if ever.”

“At least you’re not getting raided anymore,” Liam said. “I’ll try and think of things I’ll need for those last three enchantments. Nat, when can you have those boots ready?”

“I can bring in a pair tonight,” she said.

“Then I guess we’ll see you this evening.”

Outside of Raquel’s shop, the food Merchant was being swarmed by even more citizens than before. It looked like word of the cheap food had spread beyond House Restelo’s jurisdiction and people were coming in for it, bad rumours be damned.

“I wonder how long this will last,” Liam said.

“Not long,” Nat replied. “The food we’re getting from the labour camp is shipped in from across the bay. They’ll start restricting how much camp food can go to the city, but the summer grain harvest will be in soon. Once all that new food floods into the city, prices will collapse.”

“Do you think so?”

“It’s obvious. The Nobles have been keeping prices high in the city to suck away all of its gold. When they lose control, prices will fall off a cliff because the value of everything relative to the limited gold supply should be super high. I hope I can build up a lot of coin before that happens.”

“…did you always know about this?”

“It didn’t take me long to figure out once I saw how the camps worked.”

Getting stronger is scary…

The types of artisans that ran workshops in the cities were also a type of Merchant, so Nat’s advancement not only meant she was more skilled at leatherworking, but also at running a business and reading markets. She could feel her way to correct answers in fields related to her profession with just the basic education afforded to her by her family.

“So, you’re making gauntlets, a belt, and body armour next, huh…”

“Yup! Oh, about the body armour…they don’t make any in the city and I couldn’t find examples of it anywhere. Is there any chance you could get your hands on something like that?”

“I’ll take a look around,” Liam said. “Where have you been so far?”

“Just House Restelo’s jurisdiction,” Nat replied. “And the western plaza. I never liked going anywhere else, even when I lived in the city. Um, where are we going?”

“Ah…the Holy Order is taking statements about what happened the other night. I was on my way to talk to the Paladins investigating the incident before I ran into you.”

Fortunately, the Paladins were still there, though they were now recording testimonies from the scuffle’s participants. Marim looked over his shoulder at Liam and Nat’s approach.

“There you are,” he said. “Sir Pires said you had already gone ahead, so I was surprised I got here first.”

“I found Nat along the way. What did the Paladins say?”

“‘And then? And then? And then? And then?’”

Liam laughed despite the gravity of the situation. One of the Paladins looked up from his notes, directing a stern frown in their direction.

“Who is that man?” The Paladin asked.

“Ah, this is Liam, Brother Hugo. He’s our company’s thief-taker – the one that discovered the fellows we ran into.”

“Is that so? Wait where you are. I’ll be with you shortly.”

A discomforting feeling spread throughout Liam’s body. Back in Fassett Town, words like that from the authorities were usually a prelude to being extorted, cast as a scapegoat for something, or taken into an alley to be beaten up and robbed. Rationally speaking, he knew it wouldn’t happen in Hoburns, but he couldn’t shake off the unpleasant sensation.

“Don’t mind it,” Marim told him. “I showed them the broken links in my mail where I got stuck and all I got from them was ‘and then?’”

Which was fine. Sir Jimena didn’t want anyone to attract too much attention and neither did Liam. A few minutes later, the Paladin came over, flipping through his stack of notes.

“You’re the thief-taker, Liam?”

“That’s right.”

“Testimonies state that you were the first to inform Marim’s patrol of the other party’s presence.”

“That’s true, as far as I know.”

“How did you find them?”

“They weren’t hiding or anything – just standing in the cul-de-sac at the end of this alley, exchanging information.”

The Paladin’s quill scratched over his parchment. Liam couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“After that,” Brother Hugo said, “you informed Marim’s patrol of their presence?”

“Yes.”

“The other party asserts that an Assassin attacked them before they encountered Marim’s patrol. Is that true?”

“They looked a bit too healthy to be assassinated when we detained them.”

“Answer the question.”

“If by an ‘Assassasin attacking them’ they meant someone they couldn’t see was attacking them, then yes. I started throwing roof tiles at them when I saw them draw their weapons and prepare an ambush for Marim’s patrol. You should have noticed all the broken pieces of clay in the alley near where the fight happened.”

“Is there anything else you’d like to add?”

“That’s pretty much all I did,” Liam said.

“I see.”

The Paladin put away his materials, then reached out to grip Liam by the arm.

“Liam, you’re coming with me.”

“Huh?”

“You have been accused of two counts of assault and battery by Lord Stefano Vizela and Lord Camilo Alva.”

“But–”

“Hoburns is the property of the Crown and an alley is a public thoroughfare. Furthermore, those charged with city security have no right to detain or attack citizens without warrant or legal justification.”

“But I just told you they were going to attack Marim’s patrol! They literally did!”

“That’s your claim. Other testimonies claim otherwise. The truth of the matter will be determined in court.”

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