A Second Chance

When I finally arrive at the wartorn field, I'm surprised to find Spliffert looking like an entirely different man than when I first met him earlier this morning. He's sober, for one, and he's terrified. He stands against the fence looking into his wolf corpse riddled field, hands shaking. When he finally notices my presence he looks to me with desperation, but surprisingly not anger.

"Shit." He laughs. "Hey, man."

I wasn't expecting this. I thought for sure he would be livid, but this passive chillness is worrisome.

"Hey. The job is done." I extend my arm and point to the field.

"Thanks, I noticed. You smoke?" He offers me a small cigarette and much to my surprise it's entirely legal, just normal halfling's leaf imported from Merryburrow. Nothing shady about it. Hell, it's not even cheap tobacco either. Expensive, by the looks of it.

"No, I'm good." My only vices are erotic fiction and drinking when I'm sad, thank you very much, neither of which I've had too much use for as of late.

He nods and takes the cig for himself, lighting it and filling the air with a somber cloud of forlorn tobacco haze as soon as he takes his first drag. "I can't stay here anymore, man." Spliffert says, staring into the middle distance. He blows lovely little rings of smoke one after the other, watching them float away.

"Is this about the money for the quest?" I ask. I lean my elbows over the railing of the fenced in field, joining him in looking off to the horizon.

"Nah. I got enough. Even in factoring whatever shit you think is necessary for... whatever the fuck that huge thing is."

I turn to him and ask sincerely, not using any of my threatening tricks, but just asking. "How many wolves did you actually think there would be?"

"I dunno. Ten, at most."

Sighing, I look away. "You lied to me."

"Yeah. I was high." He laughs and takes another drag of his halfling pleasure. "And scared shitless."

"One of my girls barely made it out alive."

Spliffert turns to face me, surprising me by showing genuine concern. "Shit. I'm... I'm so..."

"She's fine, she's with a healer I know. But whether or not I can forgive you for this depends on one thing. Were you aware of the adult one? The big one, I mean."

He shakes his head dismissively. He's not lying.

"My earnings ain't been shit these last few years. Got a lot of debt racked up by now, and Dewhurst... it's not a nice city to live in under those kinds of circumstances, ya feel me?"

I'm starting to get a little on edge, I'm not used to spontaneous heart to hearts with drug farmers. "Why are you telling me this? I don't care about your circumstances. You submitted a formal quest to the Guild, signed the paperwork and are obligated to pay. And under Guild discretion I'm able to use my powers as Guild Master to re-negotiate a quest's classification if the situation was not as described. This was registered as a higher end Bronze ranked quest, where in reality very easily should have been a high Silver... dare I say even a low Gold."

"How much?" Are the only words he can say.

"100,000G. I understand your financial situation is rough and I'm willing to negotiate a payment-"

"Sell the field. Should be enough, it's ready for harvest anyways. You guys have been harvesting wild steezweed and shit and selling it in town, yeah? It's easily worth that much. Just please..." He looks to me with that same, miserable look of desperation and I feel as if I've just been punched in the gut. "Let me keep my coins so I can split and find somewhere far away to live."

This isn't right. Not at all. "What kind of trouble are you actually in?"

"I wasn't lying, lack of earnings put me in real hot water over here. The people above... nah, maybe I should say the people below me aren't happy with my output and quality. There's a bit more than 100,000G's worth in the field though, for sure. It's just no point in me sticking around only to find out what they're gonna do to me after the harvest is up."

I squint my eyes deeply in thought and look away. "If I sell your field as payment for our services then your superiors aren't going to be very happy with me. You would be putting me in a very, very dangerous position."

Ashamed, Spliffert looks away. "Yeah."

"Especially after you lied to me."

"Yeah..."

There's a silence between us as we sink into the depths of our own thoughts. The choice is obvious, and it sucks so bad that just thinking about it makes me sigh.

"Get out of town by tonight." I say.

Spliffert is taken aback by my words and struggles internally while putting out his cigarette. "You're... you're really sure about it, dude?!"

Dejectedly, I nod my head in confirmation.

"Even after I tried to fuck you over and... fuck, man...!" He sobs ever so softly as I leave the railing and point my finger at him.

"You don't need to get emotional over this. I'm only doing my job."

"I thought you already did, man, this is somethin' else entirely..." He laughs and shyly looks away.

"The job of a Guild is to help those in need, and I take my job very seriously." I smile, crossing my arms. It's kind of embarrassing to say in all honesty, but I can't help myself. "As long as there's enough to cover the payment then I won't complain. So go on, get going."

Spliffert nods his head and starts running into his house, but before he disappears he looks back to me as I turn to walk home. "You're a pretty good guy, you know that?"

I laugh and shake my head from side to side. "I wish I could say the same. Wherever you end up next time, don't make the same mistakes."

The humble drug farmer makes a determined expression and clenches his fists with focus. No more words are said because none are needed, and I begin the walk back to the Guild with a small bit of optimism for whatever Spliffert does with his life after this.

Do I actually think he can change? Well... does it really matter what I think? I changed, so it only stands to reason that others must be able to do the same even if I've never personally witnessed such a thing in this accursed town.

It may be rather naive of me to believe, but I truly think he'll be fine so long as he doesn't stop trying.

Gods, this tiring slog of a day made me get all sappy and sentimental... This isn't like me at all. I really need that nap, and soon. At a brisk pace I do my best to hurry through Dewhurst's dirty streets. With practiced expertise I avoid stabbings, insistent crystal dealers, cheap prostitutes and even a mugging attempt which I was thankfully able to thwart by glaring at him without my glasses. I'd take temporary pain in my eyes for a moment compared to a knifing any day, thank you very much.

It's around four in the afternoon when I return at last to my comfy, shithole of a Guild. If I know Opalina she'll be keeping the girls there for a few more hours yet, and sure enough the place is empty when I arrive. I stretch myself out thoroughly and go into the office to take up a pen and parchment, scrawling out a notice for Sam in the off chance I'm not awake when she comes back. I tell her about the deal with the butcher and promise to reward her if she can manage to get it done today, as well as mentioning where I buried their weapons for safe keeping.

I'm not keen on pushing Sam so hard after having her patched up earlier this same day, but it's important that we transport the wolves before they start to spoil. If we leave them out for too long, Bludman will definitely use this as grounds to pay less, and I won't be having that.

I leave the note folded up visibly on top of the table we typically eat our meals at, and to make it more obvious I write "Your Highness" on the front with nice, large letters to get a good jab in at her expense. With all that out of the way, I make my way to our bedroom and undress myself lazily down to only my boxers below. This has been a long day, and there's no need for me to care for decency anymore. I don't want to wear pajamas- I just want to be mostly naked and sleep this off.

I'm sure I won't be out for the night since it's only four something or other, but a rest is loooooooong overdue.