The Mercenaries - Interlude – Part 2

Meryl was quite a distrustful person. Had been since a young age.

She was born as a part dark elf and high elf, but her characteristics are most discernibly that of a dark elf. There are many common similarities between the two races, pointed ears, longevity, and good looks, but the main difference between the two is the skin tone, eye colour and the stigma that is associated with being a dark elf. High elves can be varying shades of pale white to tan, along with the usual eye colours you would see, such as blue, green and brown, dark elves are generally dark grey with blood-red eyes. Many see them as cursed, given these attributes, or that they were originally the offspring of elven and demon relations. But whether one of these is the case, or it is just how genetics diverged many years ago, no one knows.

With this being the case that she was born as a part high elf and dark elf, you would imagine that she grew up alongside both dark and high elves and that her parents consisted of one being a dark elf and the other a high elf. But that was not the case for her.

Her parents were actually both high elves. So when she was born, as you can imagine it was quite a shock to them. Not long after her birth, her mother ended up alone, her father claiming that she was unfaithful…but that couldn't be further from the truth. She had only ever loved him, so when he left, it crushed her. It was just pure luck, or unluckiness that she was born as part dark elf. It was likely they both had dark-elven ancestors and didn't know. Not that such a theory helped save their relationship.

So, after he left, her mother was the only one around to take care of her. But, even at a young age, Meryl could see the lack of love in those eyes as her mother held her.

Her understanding was spot on when her mother threw her out once she was considered an adult, which for elves is twenty-one years old.

Before she was forcefully kicked out of her home, she had attended the local school, where she spent several years learning all that she could. It was almost clairvoyance or something, but she made sure to learn as much as she could and put her all into her studying during her time there, afraid that something would happen once she left.

How right she was.

But while she gained a lot from her time there, the other students ended up causing her to become distrustful. Being the only dark elf in a school full of high elves was hard. It was a struggle as she contended with rumours, whispers behind her back and even a few fake friendships, all of which really hurt her through her time there.

So, by the end of it all, she became mistrustful of anyone and everyone.

Which obviously got worse when her mother threw her out.

After the much-needed grieving period over the situation, she had to put it behind her and get on with her life. So, she travelled, picked up some skills, and made a living.

It was her good luck that she happened upon a village filled with many races and people, where she learnt the skills that would keep her alive, in more ways than one.

It took time for her to even consider it, but she met and eventually learnt from a master swordsman how to fight and found a rapier to be her weapon of choice. With the lifespan of dark elves, she trained and travelled for a good six years, allowing her to become extremely proficient with her weapon. She got so skilled that she learnt how to perform tricks with it, and at one point joined some performers and learnt how to sword dance. She kept her distance from them, and after some years the group parted ways with her. But she continued travelling using the tricks and sword dancing skills she had gained to impress people, earning some good coin as she went from village to village and town to town. All the while she made sure to keep her combat skills fresh in order to survive on the road.

She continued to travel and over time made a name for herself. But given how long elves lived, there came a point where performing the same dance and tricks just grew boring. She wanted a change. And that is when a mercenary group came by one of the villages she was performing in.

Their leader asked if she could actually fight with it, and so after setting some conditions, she had a duel with the sword woman in their group.

It was a long and spectacular battle but in the end, she lost due to a cheap trick the woman performed. She was obviously upset, but the leader just commented about how a cheap trick could stand between you dying or living to fight another day. The whole group was very impressed with her and offered her a position with them. After looking into them, and learning all she could about the group, she agreed to join. It helped that from her inquiries she found that they were not armatures but a well-known and honourable band of mercenaries.

But even with her success in life after being thrown out, nothing had ever rid her of the mistrust she felt towards others.

…

After joining them, she participated in several missions. Most were bog standard and simple, such as defending a caravan or taking out bandits. But there was one mission that caused her mistrustfulness to flare up.

It was one where they had to take out a slave trader.

It all seemed legitimate and from what the baron that hired them said, it seemed all above board. But once they found the slave trader, it was a different story.

The man they found wore inexpensive clothing and was shocked to see them. She thought they were going to question him, but Stefan, their leader, ended that thought with a swipe of his great axe. The kicker though, was that he had no slaves or any coin with him.

After they returned to the baron and were paid, she questioned it. Stefan said that all the slaves had been sold according to a ledger he had given the baron. He also said that the baron would use all of his power to find and bring back the people that were sold. And that the lack of coin was likely due to him hiding it somewhere.

But she couldn't help but think back to how he was dressed and his shock at seeing them. Not that he was shocked to be found, but more that people were after him due to him being a slaver. And what slave trader has no slaves or coin at all? Sure, he could sell a good number, but having none at all just seemed…odd. It was also odd that he hid all of his coin. Surely, he would have some on him too, you know, buy slaves or even food for that matter.

A lot of it just didn't add up.

And her mistrust only got worse on the day they travelled to Lord Abern's estate in Caldaria.

…

She had listened to Lord Abern talk and even gasped after hearing about the Orc and about his son's death. Like before, everything he said sounded truthful…even with the mention of an Orc, a monster that hadn't been seen in a long time. She even agreed with taking less coin to help out a grieving father, even if he was a noble and could probably easily afford the full price. But once she left the room, things took a strange turn.

"Does he normally catch up with Lord Abern on his own when you come here?" She asked Helena, the swordswoman she fought in their 'interview'.

"Yeah, normally. He's worked for Lord Abern way before we even became a group. They're old friends."

"Huh, ok."

It did still seem a little odd to her, but she didn't think too much of it.

They were currently following a maid that took them upstairs and down a hallway, bringing them to several rooms, one for each of them. After the shock at the luxury of it all, they made themselves comfortable and unpacked for the night.

Before long though, nature was calling for her and she headed out of the room… only to bump into someone.

"Sorry." they both said at the same time.

She assumed that it was either one of their group or a maid, but as she reorientated herself, and got a good look at whom she bumped into, she realised it was neither of them.

The woman before her was dressed head to toe in finery, but not so much that it made her look ostentatious. That's when it occurred to her who this was. Only one woman would be wearing finery like this in this house.

"My Lady, I sincerely apologise for hitting you," Meryl said as she moved into a kneel.

"Oh, please no. You don't have to do that," the lady of the house said as she pulled Meryl up, "It's as much my fault as it is yours so there is no need to apologise like that."

Meryl looked up and saw the sweet smile on her face. She could feel the kindness exuberating from her. But all she could think was that the reason she acted so kind was because she wanted something from her.

"So there is really no need to trouble yourself. Actually, saying that…who are you?" The lady questioned.

"I'm Meryl. I'm part of the group of mercenaries going after the Orc that killed your son. Did Lord Abern not mention us?" Meryl replied confused herself now. How could Lord Abern not tell his wife about the group of strangers staying with them?

"Emilia" she said beckoning to herself, "But no he didn't. Although he hardly tells me things like that anyway. And just so you know, he was not my son. I grew to care about him of course, but he was born of Lord Abern's first marriage," she said looking a little upset. Whether it was because of the death in the family or something else, she could not say.

"I'm glad he has someone going after that monster. It was horrible news…even if it was a little odd."

Meryl jumped on that.

"Odd, odd how?" she asked.

"Well, first is that it was an Orc in the first place. None have been seen for ages."

At that, Meryl agreed.

"But then also how it killed him but did nothing to his friends. And besides how could he along with his friends not deal with one Orc."

She recalled Lord Abern mentioning his son's friends but now realised he said nothing about what happened to them. She had assumed they were injured, but according to Lady Emilia, it seems like the Orc just let them be. That was odd.

"You mean it didn't attack them."

"I don't quite know. It's possible it may have attacked them, but no one else was killed. All Lord Abern said was that beast-kin nearby took them as prisoners. Why they would do that I don't know. I know Lord Abern has no love for beast-kin, but it's not like they are slave traders or anything. It was a village that did it, not some bandits, otherwise, they wouldn't have been sold off as prisoners but as slaves or something."

As Meryl thought about it so many questions rattled through her head. If the beast-kin took them as prisoners that means they either saw an opportunity to get some coin and ransomed them back without a real reason for imprisoning them. Or he and his friends were committing some type of crime and that's why they were imprisoned. But this also led to the stranger question. Why would the Orc leave his friends alone? Was it smart enough that it saw it was outnumbered, even though it managed to kill one of them somehow, and then leave? And if it did leave them, did it do so for the beast-kin specifically? Surely they would have fled after being attacked by an Orc. That or go after it. How did the Beast-kin then capture them? Were they working together?

This whole situation just kept spiralling and ended up creating more and more questions to be answered.

"I don't even see why he went on a hunting trip anyway. They were all terrible at it."

"What do you mean by that?" Meryl asked the lady of the house.

"Well, I've seen them go on a dozen hunting trips before, but I have never seen them bring back anything. If you're that bad a hunting why bother."

This just added another question about what happened. Could it be that the hunting trip was just a cover for something else?

"Sorry for rambling on, it's just that I've had all these thoughts on the matter but no one to tell."

"Why not inform Lord Abern?"

"Ah, no. He doesn't…it's not…." The lady said looking a little sorrowful at that, "Anyway, I'm sure you have heard me talk for long enough. I had best be going, and given the speed you left the room I assume you had somewhere to go too."

At that, the need to head to the privy came flooding back to her. So, after saying her goodbyes, she headed away, all the while her mind tried to wade through the mess that was now stuck in her head. A mess that was sure to reduce her trust in Lord Abern and maybe even the group she was with.