Shadows of betrayal

It was night again, Stahn left the tavern late as usual and told me to finish up and head home. He had no idea what I was planning. I went to the dressing room, put on my dark clothes and my hood. After that I began following Stahn’s trail and wandered after him into the forest. He would look over his shoulder every so often in order to make sure no one was following him. There’s only one reason he’d be doing that, and that’s if he was doing something he wanted no one to see. The path Stahn took had many twists and turns, sometimes he’d come back the way he came. It was as if he knew I was tailing him, this is bad. I should head back as soon as I gather enough intel. Eventually we made it to a spot we visited before, out of the darkness came a man dressed in a dark robe.

“My my, it took you longer than usual to get here.”

“Sorry for the hold up, I had a feeling I was being followed.”

Damn, just as I thought, he was on to me. I had no time to worry about my safety, soon enough Stahn took out a bag and handed it to the robed man. He opened the bag and pulled out one of the stones.

“It’s amazing how you manage to gather products of such fine quality."

“What can I say, I have a good source.”

A good source? Just how is he gathering all these mana stones? As I pondered that, the robed figure began mentioning something.

“Along with this payment, you won’t have to worry about tax payments this month.”

“That’s not necessary, you guys taking this stuff off my hands is really helping me out.”

Tax payments? Why doesn’t Stahn have to worry about his taxes, the only reason would be-

“Lord Twiggo…”

Remembering my position I covered my mouth and hid behind a tree. Luckily they didn’t seem to hear me, but this changes things. Stahn is working with that tyrant, which means he’s my enemy. I’ll never forgive that man for what he did! With that conviction in my heart, I took out my notepad and wrote down what I knew and what I had just found out. After I wrote everything I tried to walk away, but then I heard something sharp hit the tree I was behind.

“Come on out, I know you’re hiding there.”

I should’ve known better, this whole mess is too big. Of course I’d get caught! I ended up coming out of my hiding spot. After making myself known, the robed man told me to take off my hood. Stahn hesitated upon seeing me, but immediately reclaimed his composure.

“I should’ve known it was you.”

“You know this woman.”

“She’s a member of my staff, our book keeper at that.”

“I see, well she’s good at her job. Perhaps a little too good.”

Stahn looked startled by the man’s choice of words, I see, so I must know too much. However, I wasn’t going to leave the stage before getting some satisfaction. I took out the small crossbow I had and shot towards the robed man. I managed to knock his hood off, but the moment I did a group of shadowy figures surrounded me. They pinned me to the ground, but I was able to identify the robed figure. It was Buford, the butler working under Lord Twigo. As for these figures, they were his shadows. I found myself annoyed by the situation, and that’s when Buford looked at Stahn.

“This girl has a nice head on her shoulders, what’s her name?”

“It’s Whitney Tattle.”

“Tattle? I see, so that man left behind a daughter.”

I was enraged by his words, I found myself trying to fight off the men holding me to the ground. It was no use, they were too strong. Buford came to me, with a smug smile on his old face.

“Apologies My Lady, it appears the time has come for you to leave the stage. Don’t worry, you put on quite the performance. I’m sure your father would be pleased.”

“Keep my father’s name out of your mouth!”

How dare they bring up my father after what they did to him. I wanted to shout more but I froze upon seeing the knife in Buford’s hand. He raised the blade high and prepared to stab me through my skull. I screamed as he brought the knife down, but that’s when something surprising happened.

“Wait, you said those bandits could use a little incentive right? You could give them Whitney, she may not be easy on the eyes but she’s good with numbers. Maybe they can use her.”

Buford paused for a moment, then he gave an understanding nod. He ordered his men to take me to the Pewter mines, two of them picked me up and carried me away. I looked towards Stahn, shocked that he saved me. In response he looked away, so he did have some guilt. Then why, why is he doing all this?

****

It had been a long while since I was pulled away from Buford and Stahn, with only these two here I may have a chance. I hope this works.

“Excuse me, I need to use the restroom.”

The two shadows looked at me and then at each other, I wonder if they’ll even consider it. I doubt-

“Okay.”

“Wait, really!?!”

I can’t believe that- Wait, that shadow’s voice was high pitched for a man. Both the shadows undid their hoods, revealing two women. The woman with black hair was the one who responded to me.

“You can relieve yourself, but one of us will watch you. That poses no problems right?”

“Damn, Buford must’ve known I’d try this. He sent his female officers to make me feel comfortable and to watch me in cases like this. I can’t waste this chance though, I’ve got to try.

“That’s fine.”

“Alright, you go watch here.”

She pointed towards her friend, her friend stopped picking her nose and looked shocked.

“Huh? Why me!?!”

“Because you ruined the recent mission, now go watch her.”

“*Sigh* Yes leader.”

I found myself being watched by her partner, she had long green hair and soft blue eyes. Eventually we made it to a spot where I could relieve myself.

“Could you turn around, I want some privacy?”

“Nope.”

“Pretty please?”

“Nope.”

“Oh come on! I have to go number two and I don’t want-”

“Don’t care.”

She had a look on her face that told me she’s seen worse, looks like I’ll need to get active.

“Alright, I’ll get started. By the way, does it feel a bit windy to you?”

“Nah, it’s dry as a bone out-”

I kicked up some dirt and created a smokescreen, the woman cut through the dust with her knife.

“Where the hell did you go? Come on out?”

I obliged her and came out, with a large rock. I hit her upside the head and knocked her out. After that I made my escape.

****

Mavis was taking her sweet time, then again maybe I should blame the prisoner. I decided to investigate and found Mavis playing sleeping beauty. The prisoner was nowhere to be seen, of all the times to do a lousy job! I kicked her hard and she immediately woke up.

“Eek! Ebony, why’d you kick me!”

“Where’s the prisoner?”

She looked around and then back at me.

“....Uh oh.”

“Five weeks without pay, starting today.”

“Phooey!”

Mavis cursed her fate, but she wasn’t getting out of this one. Now we have a problem, Whitney knows too much. I knew we should’ve executed her.

“I’ll take this as an opportunity, come Mavis.”

“*Sniff* Are you gonna beat me with a stick again?”

“That depends on how this next job goes, we’re gonna kill that girl and tell the boss it was an accident.”

Mavis looked shocked to hear my words, even more so when I told her who was taking the fall.

“You’re shouldering the blame for this.”

“What, that’s not fair!”

“Would you rather Master Buford find out about your recklessness?”

Immediately she went silent, Master can be quite convincing when he’s mad. Mavis began to tear up and sniffle, so I decided to throw her a rope.

“I’ll let you keep your pay since you’re taking the fall.”

“You really mean it? Yay, I can buy sweets!”

Gods, why is this womanchild under my jurisdiction?