All For Marks and Jewelry

Writers: Eimi, Clancey, Bree
Date Posted: 16th September 2005

Characters: Verora, Meijah, Otriana
Description: Otriana plans to go to market but is waylaid and killed on the way, along with her guard.
Location: Garnet Valley Hold
Date: month 8, day 1 of Turn 3
Notes: Follows "I Can Be Useful"

Otriana finished packing up a little sack of snacks, and said goodbye to her daughter. Otrina was pouting and looking very angry about being denied going along with her mother to Market at the nearby Hold. But Daynar had resisted, saying he couldn't spare enough guards to accompany both of his women, and it would not be proper for them to be out without proper escorts. What he didn't say was that he only had one or two guards he could trust to keep both of the women in his life from meddling with books and dragonriders, but Otriana knew her husband very well, and in this case, certainly bowed to his wishes. Promising to bring back some new things for Otrina - one of the things Daynar approved of was buying pretty things to make his daughter prettier, so she could catch a good husband - and went out to meet her chosen guard, Gikal. The man was young and handsome, and Otriana found herself looking forward to spending a day out from under her overbearing husband's thumb. With her finest necklace clasped about her slender neck, and even a ring on one of her fingers, Otriana smoothed one of her finest riding dresses down and decided she would do. She so rarely got away from Daynar, and she loved to dress up to go to Market. They set out on a pair of nice runners, not talking, though Gikal kept glancing at Otriana when he thought she wasn't looking. Perhaps he was reaching a little above himself .. for some entertainment...? Meijah watched the road from the top of a rock outcroping. The rocks provided sufficient cover to hide behind, but more than that, there was a blind curve just below him. Now if only he could keep Verora from fidgiting! He regretted having to bring her, but he had promised himself, and her, that if the information she had given him was wrong he would kill her on the spot. She looked nervous, and he half wondered if he really wanted it to all be a lie or not.

When Gikal and Otriana came into view below them, Verora had all she could do not to heave a sigh of relief. She'd had no idea what affect Lord Aswic's death would have had on the Hallmaster's routines, but it looked like her information had remained good this time... for now, at least.

Gikal looked slightly nervous as they passed beneath the rocky outcropping above them. He did not expect trouble on such a well traveled road, but one never knew. Otriana was talking animatedly to him, unaware of her guard's concern. "What a beautiful day for a ride, Gikal.. " She was saying, when a sudden noise interrupted their peace. They heard the noise too late. Meijah was already in the air, knife poised as he pounced on Gikal from atop of the outcrop. They both tumbled to the ground.

Gikal fought bravely, but surprise was the victor as the guard's life spilled out on the ground. Otriana shrieked in a most unladylike fashion, and tried to hit Meijah with the sack of snacks, trying to distract him long enough to give her guard time to fight back.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered why there was only
-one-. When it became clear Gikal was gasping his last breath, Meijah lept to his feet and grabbed the runner's reigns. As if a sack of sweets could do much damage! He sneered up at her panic stricken face. "Unless you wish to suffer the same fate as your man here, woman, you'd best get both feet on the ground as quickly as possible."

Panic had indeed set in, and Otriana's lovely eyes were wide in fear.
What was he going to do to her?! "Please.. I'm a Lady with little of value... don't hurt me." She tried asking, first. Daynar had beaten what spine his wife had -had- right out of her, making her an easy target. "_Down_!" Meijah roared.

Otriana fell to the ground from her runner, tears blurring in her eyes.
"P-p-please.." She begged, tossing her necklace at his feet as she watched Gikal's life vanish before her eyes. "You have more than that. At least you'd better _hope_ that you have,"
the ex-guard growled as he reached down to pull his knife dripping from Gikal's body. "Verora! Get down here and hold the Hallmaster's wife."

A flash of life appeared in Otriana's eyes, for just a moment. She _knew_ that name. Another woman; perhaps she would help? Shifting her weight just a little, Otriana felt her belt pouch - full of the marks the brigand no doubt wanted - fall forward. She thought she would throw it as far as she could, then run...

The woman who picked her way down the side of the hill looked nothing like the Headwoman who had greeted Otriana only a few sevendays ago.
Dirty and bruised, she stumbled more than once on her way down the hill and exhibited little of her previous grace. "Why do I need to hold her?"
she demanded angrily, reaching the bottom of the hill. She'd hoped to have nothing to do with this mess. "Because I'm not so sure that the woman doesn't have a mind to run,"
Meijah said, fixing the craftmaster's wife with a steely stare, "and I am not letting her go until every mark is in my hand."

Otriana stared in shock at Verora. Being Holdless was not agreeing with her at all. For that short time, she lost her ambition to run, but when Meijah glared at her, she found one little bit of spine, and moved her hand, grabbing her belt pouch to throw. The movement was obvious, as she was unpracticed at this sort of thing, and slow - she was frightened to death. Before she could throw the pouch, a foot jammed into her side, pinning her to the ground, and making her cry out in pain. "Don't get any foolhardy ideas. Now tell Verora exactly where you keep all the valueables. And I do mean _all_ of them," Meijah said as he dug his foot in a little deeper, just to drive in the point that she was in no position to refuse.

Verora skirted around Otriana and reached for the pouch in her hand, depriving her of the chance of tossing it away. "I can't exactly take the jewels while you're standing on her."

Otriana moaned softly as she was punished, and as her money pouch was taken away. "I h-h-have nothing else..." was her soft, pathetic answer.
"W-we were on our way to the Market.."

"Now, madam, there are two ways we can do this," Meijah said calmly as he began thumbing his blood-soaked knife. "You can tell us both _exactly_ where every bit of valuable is, _or_ I can kill you and search you. I just killed a Lord Hodler, his Steward and his guard, so I think I would have very little problem killing you I should think. Now, would you prefer?"

Otriana's eyes bulged wide. "YOU! You did that?!" Shock and dismay crossed her lovely features, now twisted in a mockery of shock and fear.
It never occurred to her to lie, nor did she have the spine to do so.
She lost the ability to speak for a moment, then finally whispered, "That's all I have.. just the p-p-pouch.. we were going to market.. "
she repeated again, looking with devastating realization at the dead body of her guard. A look of dismay crossed Meijah's face as he looked at the woman. "Truly? That's _it_? That's all you have?" He looked at Verora out of the corner of his eye, enjoying the way she was turning white and squirming a bit. "You swear to me that you have nothing else, on pain of death?"

"Yes.. y-y-yes! That's it! Please let me go.. " She finished in a whimper, forgetting she was wearing quite a nice handful of marks in jewelry too. "All right, if that's all you have than I guess I have no choice but to let you go," Meijah said, his face looking terribly frustrated and dejected. "Go back to your Master husband, and tell him that he better have more than one guard the next time he or any of his plans to travel this road! You tell him that!" He turned to Verora. "That's all she has, eh? I thought you said she'd have more, you sharding whore! Walk her to the bend in the road. I'm sick of the sight of her!"

Verora glared at him. "She's wearing five times that in jewelry you idiot." The former Headwoman's voice turned to a sneer. "But perhaps you don't recognize the value of such things, since you're a common guard." Meijah leaned into Verora until she could feel the breath coming from his flaring nostrils, and could feel the prick of the knife's point at her stomach. "_Walk_! You walk with her and don't turn back!"

She jerked back and wrapped her hand roughly around Otriana's arm, all but dragging the smaller woman down the road. If Meijah wanted her to walk, she'd walk--around the bend where she could take the wretched woman's jewelery for herself. But she didn't get the chance. Just the were about to reach the bend Meijah let his knife fly. He grinned with satisfaction at the sickening thunk as the blade hit the mark with precision.

Thinking she was going to escape, Otriana moved as quickly as she could against Verora's grip. She wasn't getting away from her, though, either, and her last thought was one of despair, timed just when the knife plunged into her back with a wet sounding 'thunk', sending her sprawling face forward into the gravel and rocks, her life ended just like that, and all for a bunch of jewels and one pouch of marks. It happened so fast that Verora stumbled the ground with her, shocked to see the knife in Otriana's back. Her eyes flicked to Meijah and she found herself scrambling back, terrified by the smile on his face. She could remember finding Meijah, thinking that she had molded _him_ into a fitting assistant. Only now, far too late, did she realize just who she was held captive by. She might have killed as a means to an end, but Meijah _enjoyed_ it. He stood over the woman until he was sure she had breathed her last and locked his eyes onto Verora's as pulled the knife from the lifeless body, dripping. Slowly he crouched down next to the wide-eyed woman and lifted the edge of her skirt. He never took his eyes off hers as he wiped the blade clean on the fabric. His voice was an ice cold whisper as he said, "If you ever mistake me for an idiot or for a common man again, I will tie you to the nearest tree and use _your_ body for target practice. Do you understand me, Verora?"

She nodded, unable to move as fear gripped her. She was going to die if she crossed him. She'd thought about it before abstractly, but now she realized it. She was going to die. "Good," he said with his sneer-like smile. His fingers gently traced along her lips slowly. "Now, I want you to strip this woman of every piece of jewelry, and don't you dare doubt that I noticed every single piece of it. Do you understand?"

Verora nodded, but as she carefully stripped the Hallmaster's wife of her belongings her hands trembled. Finally she understood just what she'd gotten herself in to... and life as a Headwoman didn't look as bad as it once had.

Last updated on the September 16th 2005

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All For Marks and Jewelry