"Marian Ribiachi." The judge was seated at his desk, Marian was still in her armored tunic but her weapon was placed on the desk in front of the judge. The room was fairly lavish, red tapestries with the Red Hands grasping fist proudly displayed along all the walls, the desk itself was a fancy wooden thing that appeared hand crafted with gold inlays. The chair he was seated at was high backed and matched the desk. Marians chair was a bit more simple, just wood with small padding.
"Never heard of her." It had been two years since Marian fled, but she had learned many times annoucing her full name was a bad idea. Its not like anyone in the Red Hand territory would really care her father had been executed in Ronerawth for being a traitor, but it was better safe than sorry when dealing with any kind of authority.
"Oh please Marian, there is no need to hide your identity we are all friends here." He had stood up and moved to the edge of his desk. Marian was seated but not restrained, but she could sense the power the Judge wielded was not one of martial strength. She hadn't dealt with a judge before, but had heard of their abilities and didn't want to tempt ones wrath.
"Friends who murdered a fellow mercenary, took my job, and have me locked up here?"
"You aren't really locked up are you? No bars on your door, shackles on your wrist? No you are merely being kept, its a shame you got caught up in a kidnapping, but we don't fault you. In fact we want to," He paused to think over his next choice of words, "Reward you."
"I'm listening." Marian was an opportunist, even back then, her loyalty has always been as far as her coin purse. I can respect that.
"We have a situtation brewing with a councilman, he's becoming a little unhinged, his obsession with his niece kind of prompted this little show in the first place."
"And so you want me to talk to him?"
"I want you to kill him, before you react all indiginantly know that I have two seperate places I could send you, either Ronerawth to face the music for your father being a traitor, or our own prison apparently a couple years back a mysterious brown skinned woman murdered a couple guards and escaped with a known spy, now the survivors didn't get her name but I'm sure they could be coaxed into indentifying her if need be."
"Not exactly much of a reward killing a man." Marian was between a rock and a hard place, but she still wanted to work a deal.
"The reward comes after, but there's no point in discussing it with your task at hand. You know of course I can't directly help you."
"Of course or you'd be open for your own government coming after you for murdering one of your own."
"Exactly, though after its done things will change, for country, for you personally, and for me, it all works out, once he's dead. So we have a deal?" He extended his hand, Marian had a sense of hesitation like she was making a deal that would not be the easiest to back out of.
"We have a deal." She shook his hand and felt a shiver run down her back. It wasn't exactly making a deal with a dark creature, but it certainly felt like one according to Marian. She still got shivers about that meeting even when talking to me about it. Which sounds about right for dealing with anyone in the upper parts of the Red Hand government.
No comments:
Post a Comment