Elwen the Conquered

Looking at the store, Cira’s ‘house,’ Elwen noticed that it was larger and taller than the other buildings neighboring it. It was four stories tall, compared to its neighbor’s three and was slightly wider. The foundation of the building was made of large, rectangular blocks of a light grey stone. The bottom of the wall was made of similar stones, rising up to about Elwen’s waist. The building was framed in large wooden beams, with the face of the building being a light blue color. The blue color was somewhat unique, she hadn’t seen a building painted in such a light color. The other buildings she had seen were painted in more earthy colors, if they were painted at all.

There were two large glass windows on the ground floor, on either side of the doors, showing off several finely tailored dresses, jewelry of various sorts, some with modest ornaments and other set with large, clear gems, shoes and boots of different colors, with elaborate embroidery, and various beauty products in glass containers. It seemed that Cira’s family’s store was targeted at women, and based on Elwen’s sparkling eyes, a successful one. That and the silver trimmings along the windows and door.

Entering the store, they were briefly greeted by an employee, before she recognized Cira and ran off, probably to get her employer.

She quickly returned, accompanied by a woman, around thirty, wearing a green dress with yellow floral embroidery. Her brown hair was tied up in a bun, with thin strands of hair framing her face. Her blue eyes were frantically looking around, until they found Cira, and she rushed at her, crying her name and hugging her tightly when they two were close enough.

‘Strange’ Varian thought ‘Shouldn’t both her parents be here?’

Once the woman had calmed down, while still hugging Cira, she instructed the employee to guide them to a waiting room, while she took care of Cira.

The waiting room had two long couches, made of dark wood and velvet cushions. The two faced each other, with a low coffee table between the two. There were various decorations around the room, like paintings and porcelain vases. The room was used for business meetings with wealth customers, so it was necessary to decorate it as such. Varian sat down on one of the coaches, and Elwen joined him.

After a few minutes of waiting, Cira’s mother entered the room.

“Thank you for returning my daughter to me. I am Selena, Cira’s mother and owner of this establishment, the Moren Company.” She says, gesturing to one of the employees behind her. “Please, accept this reward for your efforts. I know it’s not much, but it’s all I can spare at the moment.”

The employee, carrying a tray with a large bag of coins, walks forward and places the tray on the table.

Varian looks at the bag for a moment, before returning his attention to Selena.

“I am Varian,” he says, “and this is my companion, Elwen. I would be glad to accept this reward, but if I might ask, how were you separated from Cira in the first place? She is too young to be left alone.”

Elwen was surprised, she thought that the whole reason Varian wanted to help Cira was for the money, and so he should have tried to get more money. She didn’t know how much was in the bag, but it seemed to be gold, based on the coins sticking out from the top of the bag.

Selena looked regretful, but answered his question. “I had taken Cira on a business trip. After we lost her father, I didn’t want to leave her alone.”

‘So that’s why we only saw Selena, the father is dead’ Varian thought.

“It was just to the next town over. I didn’t think anything would happen, so we only took a few guards with us.” Selena explained, “But when we got back, we were attacked by bandits. We hurried back as quick as we could, but there was some commotion as we were entering the city. By the time everything settled down, Cira was already missing. Luckily, it seems that she was only lured out by the smell of one of the local bakeries, and not kidnapped.” Elwen nodded, agreeing that the smell of freshly baked bread was enticing. They would certainly make her want to investigate. Cira would have felt the same.

“These thugs you encountered; did they deliberately target you?” Varian asked.

“No, I don’t think so,” she responded “they looked like regular thugs. We’ve encountered their sort before. Why do you ask?”

“We encountered a small group of them on our way here.” Varian explained, taking out one of the Reaver’s tags, “They seemed to be looking for Cira. They each carried one of these tags.”

“Hmm… I don’t recognize the symbol. It’s concerning that someone might be targeting Cira though…”

“Do you know of anyone who might gain something by kidnapping her? Any enemies?”

“Not that I can think of…” She ponders.

“Have you noticed anyone acting strangely?”

“… There was one man, one of my late husband’s friends, but they had a falling out a while ago. Something about expanding their businesses into another town. After my husband died, he came to me, wanting to me to marry him. He kept coming even after I told him no, so I drove him off and banned him from the store. But it wasn’t that serious, I don’t think he would want to hurt us…”

“What was his name?”

“… It’s Broadrick, but I don’t think it could be him.”

Varian places the tag on the coffee table. “The captain of the guard told me that these men call themselves ‘Broadrick’s Reavers.’ It’s possible that it’s a different man, but it is quite the coincidence.”

Selena was shocked “B-But what would he gain! Why would he do this?”

“Your husband owned the company, yes? When he died, the company passed to Cira, right? You run the company, but Cira is technically the owner.”

“Y-yes… But how does that help him? He wouldn’t get anything by attacking her…”

“No, but he could force her to sign over the rights to the company, couldn’t he? His attempts to marry you were probably also to gain control of the company. Maybe he was even behind your husband’s death, if he was the same age as you, he should have had a long life ahead of him.”

Selena paled, not imagining that someone she once knew could try to do such a thing.

“You should strengthen security around this building, maybe consider hiring some guards. Elwen and I are currently hunting this group of thugs… I’ll let you know if the situation develops further. Until then,” Varian says, standing up, “be careful. Especially of those who were friends of that man.” Selena nods, emotionally exhausted about what could have happened to her family, about how Broadrick betrayed them. Seeing her this, Varian begins to leave, making sure to take the gold bag with him. Elwen scrambles to leave with him, giving Selena a quick bow and thank you to the employee that led them here.

They left the store, joining the busy street.

Elwen was still curious why Varian didn’t try to get more money, so she asked him.

“Yes, the initial goal was to get money. However, they appeared to be wealthier and more influential than I initially expected. After they gave us this bag of gold, I decided that it would be better to have a favorable relationship with them. This should cover our immediate concerns,” he said, jiggling the bag of coins, “and being friendly with them will help us in the future, especially if we can eliminate that group of thugs.”

Elwen hadn’t thought about it like that, but Varian’s reasoning was sound. A long-term relationship could provide opportunities to make much more money than they might be able to get now. Either way, Elwen was happy, as they needed the money, but she also didn’t want to extract money from Cira’s family. She and her mother were both really nice, and she would much rather be friends with them.

“But what are we going to do now?” She asked, “We still can’t go up against those thugs…”

“First, we are going to find somewhere to stay for the night.” He said, tying the bag to his belt. “Then, we count our reward and use it to get some better equipment. After that, we gather more information. I don’t want to be going blind into this.”

Elwen nodded, looking down at the equipment she had spawned with. Even if she wasn’t a fighter, her equipment was woefully lacking. Not only were her clothes rough and irritating, they offered very little protection. They certainly would not be able to protect her in a fight. They could barely protect her from the elements.

Varian’s equipment was much the same, although he had a sword, while she only had a short dagger. He, even more than she, needed an upgrade. After all, he was the fighter of the two. Not only would he want a new sword, but he would also want armor of some kind. That alone might eat up their entire reward. There were still other things they needed, too, like tents and cooking implements, if they were planning on leaving the city for more than a day trip.

Varian asked a passing local where they can find an inn, and Elwen asked him if there were any with good food. The local man laughed, before pointing up the street and telling them where to find a nice inn that had good food.

The inn was called ‘The Horn’s Rest’ and was apparently run by a retired adventurer. Elwen was excited because the man had said that it has some of the best food for its price in the city.

When they entered the inn, they were greeted by the innkeeper. He was a dwarf, short and stout like the rest of his people, with a long, reddish-brown beard. He wore a simple tunic that left his muscular arms exposed, showing that he never lost his edge after retiring.

Varian asked the man for the price of a room for the night, and paid him five large silvers. The meals were not included in the price, costing six silvers each.

Taking Elwen up to the room, he let her lay down and rest while he counted the gold. All in all, they now had just over two-hundred gold coins, the reward, and as well as four silver coins and twelve copper coins, which they spawned with and took from the thugs.

Planning the rest of the day, Varian decided that they would go shopping for their gear. While they had spent a lot of time getting Cira home and speaking with her mother, they should still have a few hours until it got dark.

Their first stop would have to be a blacksmith. He needed a new sword. The current sword he was using was rusty and dull. He could just sharpen it, but he didn’t know how far the rust penetrated into the blade. If it was more than just the surface, it would compromise the integrity of the blade. He also couldn’t shave away too much of the material because the sword would become too fragile. It was best just to get a new sword. If he was lucky, he might be able to use his [Appraise] skill to pick out a diamond-in-the-rough. He wasn’t sure how far a hundred gold coins would go, but it would be best to conserve as much money as they could.

Next, they would go shopping for clothes. Elwen was already complaining about how uncomfortable the ones they had were, and he agreed. He could tough it out, but he would rather not. He also needed armor of some kind.

After that, they would get whatever camping equipment they could find. They needed tents, bedrolls, pots and pans, something to start fires with…

There was a lot they needed. If they needed to, they could stay in town until they earned enough money to get everything they needed, but he would rather get started as soon as they could. Hopefully their reward would cover the necessities.

Their last stop would be to the local NPC bank to deposit any remainder, save for a small amount of cash that they would carry on them. It wouldn’t accrue any interest, but it couldn’t be stolen while in the bank and they could withdraw from it anywhere in this kingdom. It wouldn’t be available in any of the other NPC kingdoms, nor the player kingdoms, but it was important that they secured the gold somewhere. A player bank would also work, but it was possible that it could be stolen or the bank could go bankrupt. They would get interest, depending on the bank, but it was riskier.

Eventually, they would need to come pick up the gold to move it elsewhere, but for now, the funds would be securely reserved here, in case they needed them. They could also exchange some of it for smaller denominations which were more frequently used, like the large and small silver coins.

They would need to buy a larger coin purse, maybe one that was enchanted to protect against pickpockets and thieves. They were lucky not to be robbed on their way to the inn, but he didn’t want to try his luck.

They probably wouldn’t be able to find a proper enchanted one, magic users were rather rare, but there were several ways of using magic without being a magic user. For instance, runesmiths could imbue weapons and armor with what were essentially enchantments, despite not being able to use magic themselves. What they were looking for was an artificer, someone who dealt with magical artifacts and equipment. They would most likely have something like a bag of holding as well, which would be useful on their journey. They might be expensive, but if he used the money he was planning to put in the bank, they should have plenty, and whatever was left over would be put in the bank.

Varian put the coins back in the bag and then tied it to his belt. It was bulky and stood out a lot, but it would have to do for now.

Finalizing his plan, he decided it was time to go. He went over to where Elwen was napping and started poking her on the cheek. How she could fall asleep this quickly, he did not know.

“Wake up sleepy head. We still have work to do.”

“Mmmm… five more minutes…” She mumbles.

“You can get five more minutes in two hours.” He said, this time yanking her up so that she would definitely wake up. She did wake up, but for some reason, was rather irate with him. He wondered why. Afterall, he was taking her shopping. Girls like shopping, right?

Once they were back on the street, Varian told her the rest of their itinerary for the day.

He makes it sound so easy,’ Elwen thought, ‘But this is going to take all evening, isn’t it? … I just hope that man was right about the inn’s food, if I have to eat disgusting food like that again…’

And so, the two began their first proper shopping trip. Elwen would be more excited, but her feet hurt too much from the long walk to the city.

‘Maybe we can get shoes that don’t hurt too…’ She thought, slowly getting into the mood.