Tale of Eldramir

Ezekiel didn’t say anything for a moment. He felt that interrupting the moment wouldn’t be a good thing, as it seemed like everyone here had issues to settle with Sasha.

However, before things could go too much further, Sasha finally seemed to work up the nerve to speak.

“I can pay you all back!” She exclaimed in a shrill voice as tears started running down her face.

That brought everyone to a pause, even the other helpers that had approached from where they were originally waiting.

Tori, at a gesture from Kurt, waved her hand, and the branches holding Sasha still extended from the wall of thorns. They turned, flipping the girl upside down, and bringing her face to eye level with Kurt and Chester.

“What do you mean by that?” Kurt asked quietly.

Chester was more suspicious than curious, however, and wasn’t as interested in what she had to say.

“I don’t think we should be letting her run her mouth right now. She got me a couple times already. I’d rather not get one pulled over on me again right after finding her.” Chester suggested cautiously as he waved a hand at Tori.

Sasha tried to speak up to defend herself, but found her mouth covered by several vines.

“To be honest, I agree, but the amount of money she’s cheated us out of, and the other businesses as well, isn’t small. If her words are a lie, then it’ll be entertaining before we punish her, but if they’re true then that’s at least a thousand gold that she somehow managed to find.” Kurt was utterly emotionless as he spoke, but his words were met with approval by most of the party.

“Excuse me,” Ezekiel found himself speaking up, “while I admit that getting paid what you all are owed is a good thing, you’re not going to go too far with punishing her, right? The job was supposed to be bringing her in, not killing her.”

The other party members frowned, but none of them seemed to be too angry at Ezekiel’s words. If anything, they seemed more annoyed and tired of something.

“Where’d you say you were from again?” Kurt suddenly asked.

“I was exiled from the Empire on trumped up charges and greedy Inquisitors.” Ezekiel bluntly stated.

A look of realization crossed the faces of the various party members, including Chester.

“That explains it. I’m assuming that you had a bad interaction with a couple Guilds?” Kurt inquired.

“A Tier four Guild joined forces with a Cult to kill me for being a Void Mage. Specifically, one that contributed to the development of Void Magic.” Ezekiel stated. This wasn’t too much of a secret, and the fact that he was exiled was known to the government of Sanafalls, the guards in particular. He figured these people would be able to find this out easily enough if they asked around back at the city.

“... That’s... worse than I had expected but explains a lot. Regardless, killing kids isn’t something we do here. Regardless of whatever the Empire or other world factions might say on the matter. The Church would not allow it to happen. Such people are usually only pirates or other outlaws.” Kurt explained.

“Yeah! Like these morons.” Casey chimed in, pointing to the corpses of the Hull Breakers that they’d killed, and the one that they’d captured. “All Tier three pirates have a standing bounty on their heads. The bounty is higher if they’re alive, so we try to do that when we can. But that porter who ran away wouldn’t have one, or at least, wouldn’t have one for being dead anyway. Also, since we’re at a higher Tier than he was, we might’ve been fined for killing a Tier below us if we did that.”

As he listened to the explanation, Ezekiel found himself becoming more and more surprised. A part of him had been operating on the very little information he had managed to get from the Empire regarding the Archipelago. The rest was partially influenced by the history and movies he recalled in his past life. Neither painted good pictures of what life would be like.

The confusion and enlightenment must’ve shown on his face, however, because Kurt spoke up once again, clarifying things further.

“That’s not to say that all the islands have these policies. Just the ones that are under the influence of the Church. There’s a lot of islands that have decried the influence and administration of the Church. Usually, ones ruled by people from factions that only ever had the Church as advisors, or lesser roles of teaching and research. Like the Empire.” Kurt explained.

Ezekiel was now starting to rethink his living situation up until this point. He knew he had it good in his life in the Empire, but now it seemed like life outside the Empire was much more mixed than he’d expected.

Kurt, having had enough of the distractions, turned back to Sasha, who had somewhat calmed down, but was still fidgeting nervously.

“Let her talk. I want to hear what she has to say. As well as where she got her Spirit. From what I know, she didn’t have one before she left the city.” Kurt said with a nod to Tori.

Tori once again waved her hands, and the vines wrapped around Sasha’s mouth loosened and retracted. She took a deep breath before speaking.

“In my bag! It’s not booby trapped! I swear!” She said as quickly as she could.

Kurt and Chester exchanged glances.

“She hasn’t booby trapped her bags before. Usually, the little knick-knacks she’d use were smoke bombs and other things that she needed to throw and such.” Chester said, having the most experience with directly dealing with her.

Kurt, being of a higher Tier, and having a Spirit to support him, walked over to where Sasha had thrown her bag to the side when she’d tried to make her escape. Just to be safe, he formed a few water tendrils and turned the bag upside down.

Much to everyone’s shock, a small pile of unrefined and misshapen gemstones fell out of the bag.

“Holy shit!”

“By the Ancients...”

“How the hells-”

Multiple exclamations broke out through the group at the sight of the rock encrusted gemstones lying on the ground. Even Kurt and Chester had wide eyes, and Tori nearly released her grip on Sasha as she saw the amount of wealth that was lying in front of them.

Ezekiel, having some knowledge of the market price for such things, due to his relationship with Shari and the Alkena auction house, moved closer to take a better look.

Bending down to examine the uncut gems, he mentally tallied what he knew of the process of getting the gems cut, and then selling off the final products. He found he wasn’t able to get accurate numbers, since there were too many variables to take into account, as well as the difference in values and businesses in the Archipelago, compared to the Empire. But he was able to form a rough estimate.

“Anything interesting there, kid?” Chester called out, having little knowledge of gemstones himself.

Turning to the rest of the group, Ezekiel realized that everyone seemed to be waiting for him to reply. For a second, he was confused, but then he remembered that he was an official affiliate of the Church of Ten. Even if he wasn’t as knowledgeable as he was, just the uniform implied a certain level of education.

“Well, I’m using my knowledge from the Empire, so it might be different here, but there is potentially twenty-five hundred gold here. Maybe more if you can find a good gem cutter and jewelry for fittings. Even if you can’t, the gemstone dust can be used in certain enchantments. The Church alone would be willing to pay a few hundred gold for the more broken pieces. If these things are real.” Ezekiel explained.

“What do you mean if they’re real?” Chester asked, his business sense kicking in, and his suspicions regarding Sasha coming back.

“Some gemstones are really nice to look at but aren’t formed right. A Cavern Mage who knows what they’re doing can usually tell right away, but there’s a small trick I learned that should be able to prove if these are worth as much as they seem to be.” Ezekiel told him.

“Those are real! I swear they are!” Sasha nearly screamed as she tried to allay their concerns.

“There’s also the issue of where she even got them.” Kurt said.

“I found them in the caves!” Sasha cried. “I didn’t steal them! Tuff helped me find them!”

The new name grabbed their attention. The four hunters, Ezekiel, Kurt, Casey, and Tori all looked over to the wrapped-up groundhog. Seeing the attention falling on him, Tuff snorted in disdain and looked away. Ezekiel couldn’t help but think this little groundhog was too sassy for its size.

“Regardless, let's check if these are worth as much as I think they are.” Ezekiel said.

He gestured for Chester to come over, and using the Radiant Mage’s magic, lights were formed inside the gemstones. As beams of light flew out of the stones, Ezekiel examined the patterns in the light, to determine their purity, as shadows would be cast if the gemstones weren’t clear.

From the results he could see, it seemed like the stones were of a fairly good quality. At least as good as valuable as he had mentioned before.

“They’re good. I can’t say how much more they’re worth compared to my estimates, but it should be pretty close to what I mentioned before.” Ezekiel said with certainty.

Much of the group broke out in glee at the thought of getting their money’s worth back, as well as a bonus since this was technically worth more than what they were owed, even after the parties that weren’t here were paid back.

The only one that looked unhappy at the situation was Sasha, but that was expected given her situation.

“Alright people, it looks like we made some good money today. Especially for a trip that would’ve put us in the red otherwise!” Kurt called out.

Ezekiel couldn’t help but duck his head in embarrassment, now knowing just how much this job was actually worth. He felt incredibly lucky that it had turned out to be so profitable.

“Best of all, now that we know there’s an untapped gemstone mine, we might be able to get a finder’s fee when we report back to the city.” Kurt’s words were met with more cheers as the party thought of the possibility of more money.

“Alright then. For now, since it’s getting late, we’ll head back to Oxren. Take a few turns keeping watch on the prisoners, and then head back to Sanafalls first thing in the morning. Agreed?” Chester declared to the party.

No objections were made, and they quickly made their way back to the village.

On the way there. Ezekiel couldn’t help but pull back to where Sasha was being held. Now wrapped in enchanted ropes provided by Casey, who apparently had them on hand, just in case, due to past experiences on prior jobs.

“If you don’t mind me asking. Why did you give up so fast?” He asked her quietly.

This was something that had been bothering him since they’d captured her. From what he understood, Sasha was someone who was fairly headstrong, and was more than capable of convincing others to see things her way. He had expected her to give them a verbal runaround, not just give them a bag full of gemstones right off the bat.

His own first interaction with her had also implied that she was willing to get others in trouble to keep herself safe. So why hadn’t she done so this time?

For a moment, Sasha didn’t seem like she was going to reply, but just as Ezekiel was going to walk away, she quietly spoke up.

“I only did what I did because the Hull Breakers came after me. I always intended on paying back what I owed. I just couldn’t when I had a noose around my neck.” Sasha stated. “Now that I’ve been caught, it doesn’t really matter anymore.”

Her tone wasn’t frustrated like he thought it would be. Instead, she just sounded tired.

For a second, Ezekiel felt like he could relate to her more than expected. He knew exactly what it was like to have a group of people want to kill you. That tiredness was something he easily recognized.

With that in mind, when they arrived at the inn, he went to bed with the hopes that things would end up better for her. But that would have to wait until they got to the city.

Ezekiel and his party ended up returning to the city much more quickly than expected, though they still ran into some complications given they had decided to take the fast road back.

It had briefly been debated as to whether or not using the trade road would be better, given that they didn’t have a set deadline like they did before. However, given that the Hull Breakers would find out what happened to their team, Kurt and Chester decided that it would be best to take the risk.

Luckily, it seemed like the Wild Spirits realized that their party was just passing through, and they only had to fend them off twice this time and returned to Sanafalls city well before noon.

Seeing the walls of the city in the distance, Ezekiel realized that there was a possible issue that needed to be addressed. So, he took the chance to speak with Chester and Kurt while they were still a ways out.

“I think we need to report this to the Church before we report it to the guards.” Ezekiel said as they stopped for a short break.

Kurt and Chester looked confused for a moment. Not entirely certain why Ezekiel was suggesting this, so he took a moment to explain.

He went over the fact that there were only four people who would’ve had the information regarding the cabin, as not even Sasha’s mother was aware of it. One of those people was a Grand Scholar from the Church, the other three were either guards or a district administrator.

Chester and Kurt quickly realized what Ezekiel was getting at.

“You think that there’s a traitor in the city government?” Kurt inquired for confirmation.

“It makes more sense than a member of the Church, especially one so high ranking. Given that we know that the Hull Breakers can wear their symbols freely as well, means that someone has been looking the other way.” Ezekiel explained.

“The only reason they can walk around is because they’re only Tier two. If they were Tier three, they’d be apprehended or killed on sight.” Chester muttered under his breath.

He didn’t like the fact that the Hull Breakers could walk around the city with little issues when they displayed their symbols, but technically they could only go after those with bounties on them. This was a method that the Church and governments in the archipelago kept things in balance.

If the various sides didn’t have certain restrictions and allowances, then there’d be no means of safe communications between the various groups. The ultimate enemy were the Cruor after all.

“Even so, if the Hull Breakers were willing to send four Adept Hunters after Sasha, then that means that they were ready for someone to come after her, and they really wanted her dead. She knows something that could bring someone down, either in the Hull Breakers, or in Sanafalls itself.” Ezekiel argued.

Chester and Kurt shared a look. Chester just shrugged, but Kurt looked conflicted.

“I’m not comfortable with going to the Church first. It was the city that demanded her arrest first.” He stated.

“Yes, but it was also the city that rescinded their investigation. Milicent specifically stated that the docks wouldn’t be pursuing Sasha anymore. The guards don’t technically have a reason to even take her out of our hands. Look, if you have an issue with this, or feel that the city is owed something, give them the Hull Breaker. I’m sure that they’ll appreciate that.” Ezekiel said.

“You also have the potential gemstone mine that you can get rewarded for, right? The Church won’t have the workers or the means to make use of that information right now. Even if they did, they’d likely outsource to the city anyways.”

Kurt was looking more convinced as Ezekiel continued to argue his point.

“Fine. I’ll have Casey send Kiri with a message.” Kurt finally agreed to alert the Church.

“Can you also send her personally, in a separate route?” Ezekiel asked.

Kurt looked exasperated, and Chester looked amused at Ezekiel’s methodical preparations. Neither expected there to be any issues with sending the message, but they were so close to the city that there wasn’t any problem with sending Casey ahead with a message.

With that said, the party prepared for the final stretch, and after preparing letters for Casey to carry to the cathedral, they set out, expecting to arrive at the gates within a half hour or so.

At which point, Chester and Kurt found themselves quite happy that Ezekiel was being so meticulous in his preparations.

Kurt, Tori, Chester, and Ezekiel were surrounded on all sides by their Tier two party group members. Between them was the, once again, unconscious Hull Breaker Adept, and a bound and gagged Sasha and Tuff, who were looking around in frantic worry.

The entire party, sans Casey and Kiri, was surrounded by dozens of guards from Sanafalls. This included Eugene and his team, as well as Alfred and numerous other Tier three guards.

“What the hell is going on, Alfred!” Kurt yelled out.

All of the party had pulled out their weapons, fully intent on either defending themselves, or breaking through to run away if possible. The guards did not look like they were willing to play games or take them in nicely.

Looking over at Eugene and his team, Ezekiel did notice that he seemed to regret being there. Upon seeing Ezekiel’s gaze, he couldn’t help but look away, in what Ezekiel assumed was shame, or at least a little bit of guilt.

“Kurt, I’m sorry, but we’ve received information from the dock administration that you and your friends were seen working with Hull Breakers. You know what that means for you.” Alfred tried to explain. His voice was tight as he nervously held his weapons handle. He hadn’t drawn it yet but was prepared to do so.

“Working with-! We just fought and killed three Hull Breakers yesterday! I have their heads in a sack, and one more alive for you to check for bounties! Who the hells even told you such a stupid lie!” Kurt was furious, and Ezekiel nervously glanced back at them. He hadn’t thought the generally strict man was capable of showing such fury.

“If such claims are indeed lies, then just come with us quietly, and I assure you that you’ll all receive fair treatment, and the matter will be fully investigated.” Alfred said as he tried to calm Kurt down.

“If I may.” Ezekiel said as he pulled his badge from where it rested on the front of his robe.

Kurt started to relax when he saw this, remembering that Ezekiel had him send Casey out earlier. If they stalled for long enough, then they’d get help from the Church soon.

“I think that there’s been a major misunderstanding. I know for a fact that you, and Captain Eugene over there were a part of the meeting regarding my assistance in the matter of the investigation and capture of Sasha Melen. As you can see, we have her in captivity, and were hoping to report to the Church regarding this matter.” Ezekiel explained. “Perhaps you can go to them and see what they have to say first? We have no problem waiting here until they arrive.”

Alfred looked nervous as he saw the badge, as did the rest of the Guards. The Church was too important for the safety and general running of the City to just ignore. But the Guards didn’t work for the city.

“I’m sorry, but according to the orders given by the district’s council and the ruler of Sanafalls, we need to take you in first, then we can bring the Church in on this.” Alfred stated.

“I see. May I ask what will happen to our prisoners?” Ezekiel asked. “If I remember correctly, the order for the investigation and capture of Sasha Melen was rescinded two days ago.”

“They’ll be kept separate from you so as to be questioned individually. They will both be put under arrest for the duration of their time here. Your information did include a statement about how Sasha Melen was colluding with pirates.” Alfred said.

“Against her will.” Ezekiel clarified. “Well, if you do this, I can say this for a fact; if you take Sasha away, without providing sufficient protection, she is going to die.”

Alfred looked nervous at that statement. He and the rest of the guards began to tense up.

“What do you mean by that?” Alfred asked.

“Someone leaked the information I gave you, Eugene, Carrian and Milicent, to the Hull Breakers. That’s why we have their corpses. They were waiting to ambush Sasha in a cabin that only the five of us knew about before yesterday. I didn’t even tell my team anything outside of the village name until we actually got there. So, it couldn’t have been them. Only you, Eugene, or Milicent.” Ezekiel said.

“But, Mili said-” Alfred quietly began muttering before cutting himself off. He briefly shook his head before looking back up towards Ezekiel and his party. Ezekiel made a note of his slip up and prepared for a fight. It looked like his stall tactics were at an end.

“It doesn’t matter what you say. We have our orders. Guards! Arrest them all. Take them prisoner, if possible, but do not hold ba-”

Everyone standing in front of the gates suddenly found themselves drowning from the air as the immense pressure of two Legendary Glacial Mages weighed down on them.

“I’m sorry. Did I just hear ye say you were taking one of our affiliated apprentices prisoner? Without holding back at that!” A loud feminine voice called out from the city.

Grand Scholars Carrian and Scarlet Rayness calmly strode out of the wide-open gates leading into Sanafalls. Carrian looked calm and composed, but the majority of the pressure seemed to be coming from him. Scarlet, on the other hand, was openly glaring at Alfred and the other Tier three guards.

Coming to a stop beside the frozen still Alfred, Carrian looked directly at the man who he had spoken to quite cordially just a couple days ago. He held up a hand to hold Scarlet back from proceeding too much further.

“... Alfred. Who told you to do this?” Carrian asked.

For a moment, Alfred didn’t say anything. Even as Carrian let up the pressure to let the man move freely. He just looked at the ground. Staying quiet.

“Alfred. Just to be sure, I checked on Milicent before coming here, given the information we all received two days ago. She’s left the city. She’s been gone for hours now.” Carrian told him.

Alfred looked up in shock before his face settled into a pained grimace.

“Milicent came to my office this morning with a signed document attesting to the witnessing of Chester and Kurt dealing with Tier three Hull Breakers within city limits roughly two nights ago. She also gave me an arrest warrant signed by all the district administrators declaring a bounty on Kurt and Chester, as well as any Tier threes associated with them.” Alfred explained in a low tone. “I was a bit suspicious, but Mili and I worked together for years.

A moment passed in silence as everyone ran those words through their heads.

“I suppose this means that I’ll need to request a bounty be placed on Milicent’s head. We’ll also have to call an election for a new district administrator.” Carrian said.

“Yeah. I know for a fact that the tanner district, construction district, and merchant district didn’t sign nothing in the past few days.” Scarlet exclaimed with certainty. “That’s forgery on three counts right there.”

Alfred looked even more upset at Scarlet’s words.

“I’ll pass the documents on to you for inspection as soon as we return to City Hall.” He stated.

“That’s a good start. Scarlet, can you take these fine vigilantes back to the Cathedral? I think they could use some additional rest and relaxation, given their harried appearance.” Carrian requested.

“Sure, thing boss! This means I get to inspect the youngest one, right? I got letters for him from his family back home. Might want to let him take a looksee soon.” Scarlet declared.

For his part, Ezekiel perked up at the mention of letters from his family. He hadn't heard anything from them in the past six months, and what’s worse is that he couldn’t even be mad. He hadn’t tried reaching out to them via letters or anything else either.

“Ooooh. Maybe that's something we can work on too!” Shine said excitedly.

“What?” Ezekiel asked.

“A way to talk over a distance! The Remnant said that all the Temples were aware of each other and the things that happen to them, right? Doesn’t that mean that Void Magic can send information to far places?” Shine said.

“I’ve never seen any artifacts or Relics that allow that, but you might just be right. We’ll mark that down as another thing to work on.” Ezekiel replied. His mind began to wander as different concepts and ideas began running through his head. He’d need to start refreshing his enchanting knowledge soon.

Ezekiel was then snapped out of his thoughts and conversation by Scarlet as she nudged his shoulder.

“Hey, kid, are you okay? You’ve been standing around for about a minute not saying anything.” Scarlet asked as she bent down to get a closer look at Ezekiel to make sure he was alright.

“Ah! Yeah. I was just thinking about stuff.” Ezekiel couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed at his lousy excuse. “Like what’s going to happen to Milicent.”

Scarlet frowned at hearing Milicent brought up again.

“She’ll likely be blacklisted from Sanafalls and its subsidiary islands. Probably join up with the Hull Breakers directly if she can. I never liked that bitch. Always too lenient on the less than pleasant Guilds. Not much to do when she was elected by a district though.” Scarlet said.

“Anyways. You can figure out how you want to deal with that later. We got to get you to the Cathedral. You need to make an official report.”

Ezekiel couldn’t help but grimace as he thought about the paperwork he was going to have to do. He also wondered what she meant by how he’d ‘want to deal with that...’ Deal with what? It wasn’t like he intended to ever see Milicent again.

With those thoughts in mind. Ezekiel followed along with the group back to the Cathedral. Besides the little hiccups here and there from a traitorous pirate, he felt like things had gone quite well.