The Letter - Interlude

Note

I have started to uncensored all of the swears within this novel. Because of this, for this chapter and others before, it is now uncensored.

…

"I can't believe it. How could she do this to us."

"Dear, please calm down."

"Calm down…calm down. That deal had been in the works for years and that stupid bitch runs and actually gets away at the last moment. How do you expect me to calm down!"

In the town of Cassus, while everyone was out and about enjoying themselves, going about their daily business, in a large mansion near the centre of town, the Quinterus family had received some bad news.

"She didn't run away. Not this time at least. You heard the same news that I did. She was kidnapped by…an Orc."

"The nerve. Kidnapped by an Orc. No one has seen an Orc for decades. I have half a mind to have those guards beaten till they start telling the truth. Kidnapped by an Orc…how absurd."

It had only been two days since they had sent their daughter Ameril off to the town of Caldaria in order to meet the man she had been engaged to. But then, out of the blue, a messenger had arrived a short while ago, telling them the terrible news of what had happened.

He had explained how there was an incident along the road. The guards that had been travelling with her had been attacked out of nowhere. There had been no demands or warning. The only thing they knew of for certain, was that at least one of the attackers was an Orc.

After sending the messenger away, Lady Quinterus had scoffed at the tall tale the guards had provided.

"I bet she whored herself out to one of those guards. Convinced him to free her once they got to the town and then send that messenger to tell us that stupid story."

Lord Quinterus could only sit there quietly and listen to his wife go on and on about the failings of their daughter. It was farfetched, the idea of an Orc being involved in her kidnapping, but he had to wonder, if it was a fake story, why use something so ridiculous.

It made no sense.

While his wife was coming up with more convoluted excuses and theories about what their daughter had done, he was leaning towards it being the truth. Just because no one had seen Orcs for such a long time, did not mean they no longer existed.

She went on about her seducing the guards or tricking them in some way, but he knew those men. He had handpicked them to take her as they were very loyal, both through their respect of their family and the fear that failing them brought. They wouldn't do something as stupid as freeing their daughter. They knew how much damage he could do to them and their families if they did.

He just couldn't help but laugh at how unlucky they were for this Orc and possibly others, to come out of hiding and attack the carriage that she was travelling in. Of all the times and chances for it to occur. How unlucky do you have to be?

"We need to contact him. Well need to tell him that she actually has been kidnapped and that we are looking for her. He will find out soon enough, and we can use this to gain some sympathy. That might stop him from suddenly cancelling the engagement, knowing there is a chance they could still be wed."

It was a sound idea. While she may go over the edge sometimes, he could always count on his wife's council when facing troubles. He couldn't keep count of the number of times she had helped pull him out of the fire when they had started their life together.

As she had said, they needed to focus on damage control. The deal had taken a long time to set up so they could not afford for it to be cancelled. The amount of coin and connections they would lose would set them back a staggering about. They would not be broken by any means. But as a noble wealth meant everything, so even losing a small amount was a weakness that others could find and exploit.

Finding Ameril should have been the highest priority on what they needed to do, but in the long run, it didn't make the top ten. Sure, they would have to put on a show, but as far as he and his wife were concerned, they had already lost Ameril and her use to the family.

Being taken by an Orc meant one thing. She would soon no longer be a virgin.

And the deal had explicitly stated that detail as being non-negotiable.

Should she be found and then presented to him for the wedding ceremony in that state, it would cause a whole load more problems than her just being kidnapped.

It was possible the Orc or Orcs had not had a chance to defile her, but they were known for their voracious need to breed with women of other species…and it had been two days since she was taken. By the time they organise for people to go searching for her and wait for results, it will have been a good number of days. By then, surely the Orc will have achieved its goal.

That's not to say they wouldn't try searching for her. Of course. She was their daughter. It would look very odd and suspicious should word get out that she had been kidnapped by an Orc and they decided to do nothing about it. Sending people to look for her needed to be done.

Or at least, look like it was being done.

It wouldn't be hard for them to gather some semi-capable people to search the nearby forest for a small amount of coin. It would be just enough that it looked like they were refusing to give up hope that their daughter was lost. Image was another key factor as a noble after all.

While this was all going on, they needed to make other deals. Set up connections and trade goods with the right people. All of which would be needed to temporarily bump up their worth.

This needed to be done to make up for the losses when the engagement deal is cancelled, or, better than that, show their worth and help set up a new deal in place of the engagement. If it was known what a good investment they were, then losing out on taking another wife might be something that could be disregarded. Everyone liked having more coin after all.

But should that not work, there was always another option. It was a long shot, but not an impossibility.

All they had to do was provide an of age girl that was a virgin for marriage. With luck, they could find one in one of the orphanages. Whether it was a noble that had lost her family or a commoner mattered not. They could easily drill aspects of nobility into the her. The man needing his wife was not particularly picky when it came to the actual education and statures of his wife. Just that she had to be reasonably young, albeit thankfully of age, and a virgin.

Such things would disgust the common man, but in the world of nobility, this happened more often than not.

Should worse come to worse and they couldn't find such a girl, then there was always the option of splitting the deal with one of their partners that had a daughter of similar age. Only so many of them would agree to such a thing, and this would mean they would lose out on some of the coin from the deal, but they would still make a decent profit from the split.

So, as he was now trying to say to his wife, it was not all doom and gloom.

"You are right. We have options. I shall send a letter to the Mercenaries guild asking for a group to search for her. Thankfully the guild leader owes us a favour so giving this mission to one of their… lower ranking groups should be fine. They get experience and we get to save some coin."

Lord Quinterus watched his wife walk off to the office in order to pen the letter.

Now he just had to make good on his end and implement some of the deals the had passed before and find set up new ones.

Everything would be okay.

*knock**knock**knock*

"Enter!"

"My Lord, there is a messenger with a letter for you. He said it is about an incident that occurred a few days ago."

Lord Quinterus walked over to the guard who stood to the side of the messenger who was holding out the missive. He quickly took it from the man with a thank you, sending him on his way.

As he walked back over to his chair, he just noticed the oddity of this letter's arrival. It didn't explicitly state who the letter came from, and when the messenger informed his guard what it was about, he just mentioned it as 'an incident'. There was nothing about the kidnapping of his daughter or the Orc.

He tore open the envelope. There had been a seal, but no unique marking was present showing who it was from. Yet another strange detail.

It was as if the sender did not want anyone to know they had sent it.

Once he opened the letter and read the contents, his eyes went wide.

As he re-read the letter he couldn't tell if what he was seeing was an opportunity or a problem. It could be either. Or it could end up being both.

All he knew was that he needed to carefully think about his response and fast. With what it said, it looked like the incident would be resolved sometime soon.

"It is done. He is sending one of his newest recruits to…what do you have there."

Walking over to Lady Quinterus who had just entered the room, he passed the note to her silently. She then held it up to the candlelight and started to read what had caused such concern on her husband's face.

Lord and Lady Quinterus,

I heard about the kidnapping of your daughter, and I am sure you are heartbroken over it. Fear not as I have been looking for this Orc for quite some time. So much so that the most skilled band of Mercenaries I know are on its trail.

It is only a matter of time before they catch up with it and the other Orcs it travels with, so I am sure they will get to your daughter before any harm befalls her.

The only problem is that hiring such a group has taken quite a toll on my wealth. The question then is, how much you are willing to pay to get her back? Or would it be better to say, not have her back, should the Orcs have had their way with her?

I await your reply.

Lord Abern.