When the two debt collectors knocked on the door, the woman sitting in the complete darkness of the room was pleased. Enough that she lit a candle before she called out for them to enter. They would only show their faces here if they'd not only collected that smith but sold her as a slave. The only question she had now was how much did that smith sell for? After all, she had experience working in aluthium, making her rather valuable. More so than the amount of money that she'd been loaned in the first place.
However, when they debt collectors entered, they looked like they had bad news. The woman sitting in the room didn't like bad news. In fact, depending on what about their news was bad, they might end up getting sold as slaves themselves. The only way that they could be saved from that is if the smith didn't get away and they'd merely been unable to sell her for as much as she should have sold for because other smiths had gotten sold at the same time.
Unlikely, but possible.
Yet, neither of the debt collectors spoke. Instead, they seemed to find the floor rather interesting and wouldn't look up at her.
It quickly became apparent that they were waiting for her to speak. Something that grated on her nerves, but still didn't allow that to enter into her voice. If she did that, they might try running before she had a chance to learn what she needed to know from them.
"You're back, so that must mean you caught that smith who'd been dodging you for weeks," she said, acting like she was just that oblivious to their current actions.
"No, we caught her…" the one with blue eyes started to say but trailed off like she couldn't bear to admit what had happened.
"But she got away?" the woman finished for her debt collector, the threat clear in her voice.
"In a way," the red eyed collector answered, her voice sounding like she was ready with an excuse. Which had better be good if it was to save them. "Someone else paid off the debt."
The woman blinked. She hadn't seen that coming. She'd gone to great lengths to find a smith like that who was in financial straits and would net her a nice profit by offering her terms that would allow her to get sold into slavery. Not to mention how her family would be next. Yet, now that plan had ben stopped
"Tell me the details. Who would have the money to finish paying off her debt?"
The red-eyed collector shook her head. "I've never seen her before. She appeared to be a mercenary, but beyond that I couldn't say."
The woman blinked. She'd expected maybe a friend of the smith, but to have a stranger pay the debt off wasn't something that had ever crossed her mind. And yet, it happened.
"Find out what you can about her," the woman ordered, realizing that while the mercenary might be a stranger, that didn't mean someone else didn't have their eye on that same smith. It could easily be someone else trying to get their hands on that smith and control her in a different way. Possibly by making her so grateful that she wouldn't think of betraying her new mistress. "I don't think this encounter was as coincidental as it might have appeared."
Both of her collectors nod, their faces one of genuine relief. While the woman hadn't gotten the results she wanted, it at least revealed another player who might be a threat to her sometime down the road.
Which wasn't something she could allow. She needed to put an end to this as quickly as possible. Otherwise, she might find herself losing money as those who owe her money will start finding themselves with the ability to pay her off despite the pains she took to ensure they'd be forced to let her sell them.
As her debt collectors left, she suddenly became aware of a new presence. One that had to have arrived while she was dealing with her debt collectors. Otherwise she'd have immediately shifted her focus to her new visitor.
After all, this visitor wasn't one she was unfamiliar with as well as knowing just how much her appearance must mean for her right then.
"You did good at sending your collectors out to find out more about that girl," the other woman said from behind her. "I've seen her before, but I don't know that much about her myself. Whatever you learn about her, let me know. I like surprises like that even more than you do."
The woman nodded, feeling more nervous as the other woman spoke. She couldn't have shown up just to listen to her collector's report, could she? She had to have arrived for something else. Something more than just to tell her that.
"What- was there anything else that you needed?" she asked, her throat suddenly dry, even as she realized her mistake. She knew better than to talk to this woman as if they were on equal footing. If that woman came to kill her, she knew there wasn't anything she could do. Especially since she couldn't think of what reason the woman might have to kill her. She hadn't failed in anything so far. At least aside from this latest debt collection, but that was clearly hardly her fault since it was a stranger who had paid it off for that smith.
"I came because we have a new task for you. One that will either need you to collect all your debts as quickly as you can or to let them actually pay them off. Either way doesn't concern me, just as long as you free up your resources so we can move forward with that plan."
The woman blinked. When her visitor said 'that plan' it sent shivers down her back. "What does that mean? Is there something specific I should do once I've freed up my collectors?" she asked, feeling like this might be her chance to move up the ranks. Maybe up to a position where she didn't need to fear her visitor might kill her one day for no apparent reason at all.
"I'll let you know once we have need of you," her visitor replied calmly. "Until then, stay ready. We'll be ready to move as soon as I can get everyone to focus their entire forces on this plan. I finally have the scapegoat we need for the plan to fully work."
The woman blinked. She wasn't sure she was supposed to have heard that last remark. That her visitor had a rare lapse of the professionalism she kept herself cloaked in. The professionalism that kept people like the woman from even thinking of trying to discover who she was. As they knew if they learned of that information, no matter how high up they were, their lives would be forfeit. Only the people at the highest levels of the organization would know her identity and the woman knew she couldn't expect to ever rise that high. Not when she was still struggling to keep herself from getting killed from being considered 'useless.'
A knock at the door startled the woman to where if she wasn't already sitting down, she knew she'd have fallen to the ground. "Be ready for when I return again," her visitor warned before she was gone as if she had entered the shadows herself. An act the woman knew wasn't possible.
At least she was pretty sure that it wasn't possible. The fact that her visitor disappeared so seamlessly made her wonder sometimes.
When the knock came again, the woman jumped again. Mostly because she'd already forgotten she had someone waiting at the door for her. She rose up, mostly because she didn't trust her voice right then and walked to the door.
When she opened the door, she saw the young man she'd been spending her nights with his hand raised to knock again. "Are you coming to bed, mistress?" he asked without waiting for her to say anything.
The woman sighed. She knew she should punish him for leaving her bed while she dealt with her business, but right then she was glad that he'd interrupted her meeting with her visitor. She didn't think there was anything more that her visitor wanted to talk about, but that same visitor did enjoy tormenting her by her subtle threats as well as occasionally poking her with a dagger, if not cutting her skin a little with that same dagger.
The fact that her bed warmer had come to collect her rather than doing what he was supposed to was a fact she could overlook under the circumstances. For one thing, he needed to know that what he did could have gotten him sold to someone for that transgression and yet, he risked it. Which said to the woman that it was possible he knew something that there was no way for him to have known about in the first place. Unless there was something else about him that made him different from other twigs. Something that made him more valuable than the woman had even imagined.
Still, the functions he played in her bed wouldn't change. Especially since she needed a distraction right then to take her mind off of the meeting she had with that visitor.
_
Maelias' home was just above her shop and while it felt small to Jenn, she had a feeling it was considered average size for those in this world. Especially considering how small many of the residential buildings that were being built in the settlement were. Which was another reminder for Jenn that she needed to come up with a name for the settlement instead of just calling it 'the settlement.'
As they entered the house, Jenn was surprised at the three children who ran up to greet Maelias. There were two boys and one girl. While she knew that the smith had a family, she hadn't expected it to be so large.
Holding up her two sons in her arms, Maelias escorted everyone to a living area that took up most of the space in the house and also looked to Jenn like it was the size of her room on Earth. Though Jenn couldn't get a good enough look at them to even get an estimate on their ages but they did appear to be rather young.
"I'm not sure where Hiliash is, but he wouldn't leave the kids alone for too long, so I'm sure he'll be back shortly," Maelias commented, gesturing for Jenn and her guards to relax. "Once my husband arrives, I'm sure he'll be more than happy to cook something for all of us to eat. Especially since my debt has finally been repaid."
Jenn nodded at the graciousness of Maelias, though she wasn't sure how to broach the subject of getting her to accompany them with her family. It appeared that Maelias had a comfortable life here, with a home and an occupation that allowed her to care for her entire family. Something that Jenn wasn't sure she'd be able to counter very well. Especially with how she couldn't say that where she'd be offering to take Maelias would be as stable in regards to housing issues. At least for the near future.
"So, what brought you into Veloutra? I doubt that it was to help me," Maelias asked as Jenn got herself as comfortable as she could by sitting on a rug with her back against the stone wall.
"True, we didn't even know about you until we arrived and had our little collision," Jenn answered conversationally. "What we came here to do was see what slaves were being sold that might have some skills we need."
"What kind of skills?" Maelias' tone suddenly turned frosty and Jenn supposed that it wasn't just those who were slaves that had a poor outlook on the subject in this world.
"Masonry, Carpentry, and maybe a few other things," Jenn replied as if she didn't detect Maelias' sudden shift. "Though, once we purchased them, they'd be free to not accompany us if they didn't want to. As we don't allow slavery in- in our band."
Jenn had been about to say 'world' but stopped herself because she didn't care to go into the finer details of where their main base was when she couldn't say that Maelias would believe what Jenn would be saying. Not when they'd just met and still didn't fully trust each other.
"Easy to say," Maelias replied, sounding like she was regretting bringing them with her to her home.
"Fair enough. Though, the main reason that we don't allow slaves in our band is many of us in the mercenary band are escaped slaves," Jenn replied, keeping her voice low because she couldn't be sure how well her voice would travel outside the windows of this home. It was very possible that others would be listening, if only to get more gossip to spread.
"How did you escape? Not many would openly admit that because in this city, whoever had bought you could still claim you if they became aware of it."
"We were saved by our leader, the Blue Rose," Jenn answered without hesitation. She wasn't sure how, but she was able to talk about herself as the Blue Rose without any hesitation or giving any signs that she was talking about herself. She was pretty sure that she hadn't been able to do that when she first started, but it wasn't important enough for her to think too much about so she merely pushed that thought out of her mind. "She's the one that rescued us from being slaves and is the leader of the band."
Maelias shook her head. "It sounds more like a children's story to me. Like you're trying to convince me of something that everyone knows doesn't exist."
Jenn shrugged. "Whether you believe us or not isn't our concern. While we weren't looking to recruit a smith, we wouldn't object to having you and your family join us and see what kind of life you'd be able to make for your family among us."
Jenn felt like she should tie a gag around her mouth to keep from talking. She hadn't planned on putting that offer out for Maelias until they'd talked a while longer. Especially from how what the reaction mentioning what they'd come to do had elicited from Maelias. And yet, the offer had come out as if it was the most natural thing to do.
All she could hope right then was that it wouldn't hurt the possibility of Maelias joining them.
"You want me to join you?" Maelias asked, sounding shocked, but not offended. Which made Jenn breathe a quiet sigh of relief that she hadn't shot herself in the foot with her offer. "Why would I take my family to go with you when we're doing fine here?"
"Are you really doing fine?" Jenn asked seriously, not sure where she was going with this. She just had a feeling that her paying off Maelias' debt was only providing a temporary relief on keeping her from being sold into slavery. "How do you know that the run of bad luck you had that made you take out that loan wasn't someone's plan? How do you know that the loan you got hadn't been designed to make it so you wouldn't be able to repay it in time?"
The door to the house opened and a man came through. He was wearing a hooded dress that looked a little higher quality than most that Jenn had seen up to this point. "It sounds like our guest has the same thoughts that I've mentioned to you before," he remarked while the children ran to greet him, much like they had their mother.
Jenn could only assume this was Hiliash. Though, what he said didn't seem to sit well with Maelias.
"And what make you any better than those who may have done that?" she asked, clearly not ready to back down from her initial stance. Which Jenn couldn't say that she could fault this woman for wanting to be able to stand on her own without accepting assistance from another person. Even though Jenn was pretty sure that everyone needed help sometimes and refusing that help was more of a sign of stupidity than actual independence.
"Because we're offering you a choice. If you don't come with us, we won't try to force you or to get you ruined or anything. If you choose not to come with us, when we leave, we won't be back. You'll still be able to come looking for us if you want, but we won't be trying to pressure you into joining us if you really don't want to."
Jenn hoped that she was salvaging her blunder. That she was at least making a compelling case for Maelias to at least consider the offer instead of rejecting it outright. Though, it certainly didn't hurt that her husband seemed to be on the same page about them leaving somewhere, even if it wasn't with Jenn and her people.
"And what if it really was just a run of bad luck?" Maelias asked, looking unconvinced. "What if now that I'm clear of that debt, that things will look better for me and my family?"
Jenn nodded, not denying that possibility. "That is certainly possible, but ask yourself this: are you really willing to risk your family's future on something like that? If you're wrong, you might find yourself in the same boat as you had before with no guarantee someone like me will save you at the last minute."
"Wait, what happened?" Hiliash said as he paused in his preparations for making a dinner, clearly not liking the implications of Jenn's statement.
"I'll tell you later," Maelias assured her husband before turning her attention back to Jenn. "You're right. I don't plan on risking my family over such a gamble. The cost would be too great if I were to lose that gamble." Maelias ruffled the heads of her children as they passed by with whatever game they had going right then. "The question I want answered from you is how do I know that you're not trying to do the same thing? How do I know I can trust you?"