CH 2

A week, two, three… then a month had all come and gone without so much as a peep from any would-be debt collectors. Nelson had all but given up hope that someone would finally ease his boredom. Esta had been standoffish the whole time. Not that Nelson found her to be unfriendly, or unkind, but she kept to herself and avoided talking with him unless it was necessary. He figured the death of her mother and step-father had caused her emotional distress that he could only somewhat understand.

His ‘mother’, who, he had learned, was not his actual mother, was sick enough that he had allowed himself to work as a bandit and a slaver for his father. Those were the lengths he had gone to save her. Now her life was in the throne’s hands. Anyone else would have been glad of the King’s aid, but Nelson was wary.

He considered his options many times over. There was no way his mother was in any state to be moved and those caring for her were the best chance of recovery she had, but working for the Crown? He was no noble, no person of high standing. He was a thief, a charmer, a scoundrel, sometimes he was even a murderer!

Idly, he watched Esta cooking. She at least knew how to make rather fine meals out of what little they could afford. Had he any mind for this kind of life, she would have made him a fine wife. Though he had no interest in her or this fake title.

Just as he was about to nod off, a knock on the door startled him to an alert state. They were not expecting guests. Had his thoughts been answered? Had the Goddesses finally brought him the debt collector!? Or… was this just another beggar asking for handouts? The amount of those, even in this remote, dangerous location, surprised him.

He almost flew to the door, not caring about the look Esta was now giving him. He needed a distraction, and yelling at another beggar was better than nothing at all! Swinging the door open, Nelson put on his best menacing face, which instantly switched to one of joy as soon as he spotted who it was that visited him.

Two elves stood before him, or malruthiia as he had learned from a rather vocal, wilder elf he had almost killed before all this mess. The two were twins, though not completely identical. A brother and sister. The similarities between them were still enough that had either of them changed their hair to match the other, it would be near impossible to tell who was who.

Fair hair, one short, one long. Green eyes and lith frames. What they lacked in differences with appearances, they more than made up with personality and skills.

“Atraas! Inleet!” Nelson called out loud, then realised his step-sister was still within earshot. He glanced inside for a moment, then twitched his nose. She knew nothing of the King’s plan, or why her parents were dead. Everyone assumed they had killed themselves. Nelson intended to keep her in the dark. There was no reason to drag her into this mess as well. “I’ll be back in a moment,” he called out to her but gave her no chance to reply as he stepped out of the farmhouse and closed the door behind him.

As the three moved down the pathway, the smell of the marsh assaulted Nelson’s nose. He had grown somewhat accustomed to it when inside, as he could mask the smell with scents and flowers, but out here, it was almost overpowering. He hated this place with a burning passion.

“We didn’t think you’d survived, when we heard the Crown had caught up to you,” Atraas, the male malruthiia claimed. He glanced down at the dozing pigs for a brief moment before looking back at Nelson.

Inleet gave her nod of agreement, chiming in with, “especially since you changed your name to Nelson. Is that your real name, or another alias?” The question was a fair one. Nelson had used many aliases in his past. No one had ever known his real name, save for the woman he had once called his mother.

“Real name,” he said, keeping his tone rather nonchalant. “Asher, for all intents and purposes, is dead. Let’s keep it that way for now, shall we?” He said, throwing on the utmost charming smile. Out of all the fellow misfits he had worked with in the past, these two were the only two he could consider trustworthy and his friends.

He had given no one his real name, which was, of course, Nelson, but he played this off as just another alias. If only to keep these two guessing. He trusted them, but that didn’t mean he was naive enough to think they wouldn’t betray him at some point if someone paid them more than their friendship was worth.

“You do not know how hard it was, figuring out who this ‘Nelson Whitefield’ was, or even guessing it might be you,” Atraas said, folding his arms and rolling his eyes. He then continued to complain, “all the old gangs have either been caught or gone into hiding lately. Ever since ‘Asher’ was caught by the Crown.”

Nelson mulled over Atraas’ words for a moment. Had these two been looking for him? Or were they trying to find out what new noble was living this far out to rob them? Or was there a third option for them to have come out here?

“Well, as you can see, I am alive and well, and absolutely miserable,” Nelson said, offering a shrug of his shoulders. “This is my punishment and curse for being an illegitimate child,” he uttered, leaning against the fence of the pig enclosure.

“Ain’t you a noble now? How is that a punishment?” Atraas questioned with a smirk. “That means you’re rich, have power and…” he looked around a little, taking in the area surrounding the farmhouse. “Okay, so your land is pretty bad. So we can scrap that off the list…”

“Add gold and power to that list,” Nelson said, rolling his eyes. “I have a title, but that’s it. There is no gold here, I looked, and I have no power in the courts. Not that I’ve spoken to any of them yet, but I can only imagine what they’re saying behind my back.”

Inleet chuckled and shook her head. “Do they even know your background?” She asked, grinning cheekily. “Though knowing you, I can guarantee you are going to charm the pants off of people… literally speaking,” she added the last part with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

“I’m sure I’ll have several of them moaning my name eventually,” Nelson replied, chuckling in amusement. “But besides all that, I’m sure you both didn’t come here for a good old catch up,” he then suggested his question without directly asking it. He knew they had sought him out for a reason. Friends or not, people like himself and them did nothing without reason.

The twins looked at each other and then looked back at Nelson. It was Inleet who replied, “that’s just it. We don’t know why we were told to seek ‘Nelson Whitefield’. We were just hired to find him and aid him.”

At this, Nelson’s brows raised curiously. Who in Yukiro’s busty chest would want to hire these two for the task of aiding him. Did they know of the task the Crown had placed on him? Or was this another task? Or maybe they were hired to spy on him? It all depended on who it was that had asked.

“Who hired you?” Nelson asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Atraas shook his head. “That’s just it. We do not know who it was. They just said that if we wanted to stay out of the Crown’s gaze, it would be in our interest to find you and aid you,” he answered, his face twisted into one of worry. He shifted on the spot, anxiously looking at his sister.

Nodding, Inleet looked down at her hands with an expression that seemed bored. “They paid us a lot of gold though, with promises of more if your task succeeded. I guess that means you’re stuck with us,” she said, now grinning widely again.

Nelson chuckled softly. However, his relaxed expressions hid the truth of his thoughts. The only ones who knew of his task could promise the Crown would turn a blind eye to them and could pay them enough coin, was the King himself, or the Knight Captain. He thought to ask but decided it wasn’t worth the risk of them finding out the truth.

“I suppose I should be thankful for the generous benefactor then,” he relayed as he looked back to the farmhouse. “Unfortunately, I haven’t had a whiff of a clue as to my mission’s start. I assumed trouble would come to me, but so far, not a single thing outside of pig shit has happened.”

“Then what you need are two sneaky elves who can dig around for you with no one being any the wiser,” Atraas replied, his sister nodding and smirking in agreement. The two had always been great scouts and informants for his little group of misfits before he had gotten himself involved in his father’s debts.

Nelson mulled over his options. He could turn them away and let them enjoy the coin they had now. They probably wouldn’t care. Someone had paid them once and not doing as asked was no skin off their back. Or he could accept their help and send out his agents to dig around for information or leads. If his assumption was right about the benefactor being who it was, then they knew far too much to let them go if they failed.

“Alright,” he finally answered with a nod of his head. “There’s no harm in making you richer by helping. Maybe the benefactor will visit me and give me some of that gold too, though I doubt it,” he chuckled and shook his head. His life, title and ‘lands’ were payments for them not beheading him and for him to do as they demanded. They had no reason to pay him.

“So, we're going to stay here?” Inleet then questioned, her cheeky grin lowered to a dull smile. “The smell is not as bad as the sewers, but it stinks of shit all the same.”

“Don’t remind me… my clothes stink of it,” Nelson complained. He then folded his arms, a thoughtful look on his face. “I could hire you both as farmhands,” he thought out loud. “Everyone wouldn’t think twice about two elven folks working for a nobleman on the farm. I mean, I’ve had to learn this crap just to make it look like I am serious about my new role, but…” he trailed off, looking at the two.

“We can journey to town too, without people paying us much attention compared to you. People talk around servants far too much as you know too well,” Atraas responded with a sharp nod of the head.

Inleet giggled and twirled her hair in her fingers as she cooed, “I’ll miss seeing you infiltrate various places as a servant, Nelson. You always looked great in fancy clothes.” Her gaze trailed over Nelson’s outfit now. It wasn’t fancy, not even close, but that didn’t stop her from leering at him.

Of course, he never minded. The three of them had shared a bed many times in the past. Such was the life of someone in the city's underground. You took pleasure from where and who you could, but never formed strict attachments to anyone. He didn’t think much about gender. He would sleep with anyone attractive enough. Or rich enough to steal from later.

“I may still dabble in that,” Nelson finally commented with amusement. “I have a feeling that, noble or not, I’d still get away with that kind of thing.” A light chuckle escaped his lips before he pushed himself away from the fence. “Let’s introduce you two to my step-sister then… and try to behave…” he paused, glancing at the two. “I don’t want to drag her into this. She might be as old as me, but she is innocent in these things. She grew up as a noble,” he said, his voice low.

The twins looked at each other, then looked back at Nelson. He waved them off while rolling his eyes. “It’s not that I care about her, but we can’t bring too many in on this mission, and if she knew what really went on, which I’ll have to explain later, then she might open that mouth of hers. I’d hate to kill her needlessly.”

Inleet snorted out a half-laugh. “Cold even to family? That’s just like you, Nelson… well, I’ll behave. You know I adore playing the hapless maiden!” She said, seeming far too excited for the part she was going to play.

Atraas shook his head. “I’ll not ruin this either. I want that second payment. That kind of coin could set me up for life!” He said with a small smile. “Besides, trouble follows you around like a shadow. I want to be there when it catches up to you. It’ll be fun,” he added the last part with a joyous tone and a wiggle of his brows.

Nelson couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. He had missed these two rascals.