Wanted

‘Alright you lot,’ Drax barked at the group of young guards training in the courtyard. ‘That’s enough for the day. Go wash up and get some rest.’

The majority of the guards welcomed that order with exhausted sighs and a chorus of ‘Yes sir’. Orlia watched as the rest of them put their training weapons back on their respective racks and began to filter back into the barracks. Unlike the others, she didn’t feel tired in the slightest. All of this training was barely a warm up for Orlia compared with the shit that Merrin had gotten her used to. Trying to keep up with someone who was more than two heads taller than she was had its benefits, even if she did curse him every chance she got.

‘Hey, you coming, Arlise?’ One of the other guards said from the door to the barracks.

Orlia was fairly sure his name was Liekhr, a runaway from Valenveil who refused to tell anyone just what it was he was running from. Not that Orlia blamed him, everyone was entitled to their secrets. Though that had never stopped Orlia before.

‘You go on ahead, I’ll catch up later,’ she told him.

He didn’t question her, instead he gave her a quick, sharp nod before disappearing inside. The door slammed shut behind him and Orlia was left alone in the courtyard.

Well, almost alone.

Drax stood with his arms crossed as he surveyed the courtyard. He looked over at where Orlia was and gave her a confused look.

‘I thought I told you to rest?’ He asked her.

‘It takes more than that to tire me out,’ Orlia laughed and put her sword into its sheath.

‘Does it now?’ Drax asked with a raised brow. ‘Well how about you come and help me out with some sorting. You’ll have to learn it eventually.’

Sorting things didn’t sound overly exciting, but Orlia knew that Merrin was busy, and there was no way she was going to hang out with just Danny or Matthias. Besides, getting to know more about what happened that wasn’t just training was a decent way to kill some time.

‘Sure,’ she said with a smile and followed Drax into the barracks.

The main office of the barracks was at the very top of the building. It overlooked the whole of Ashenport and with the help of a spyglass you could even see what was happening down at the docks. It was no wonder that most of the high-ranking guards knew what was going on at all times. It wasn’t because there were spies or moles out with the regular people, but literally because they could see everything that was going on anyway.  

The windows gave a clear view of the forests both South and West of Ashenport. If Orlia looked closely, she could just about make out the small tendril of smoke that was coming from Karliah’s smithy in the South. It was barely noticeable through the thick winter mist, but it was unmistakable.

Orlia had walked to the dark elf’s smithy enough times to know its exact distance from Ashenport in any weather. It was a two hour walk on a winter’s day, but only an hour and a half in summer. Normally the cold weather meant that the woodlands were impossible to traverse for anyone who wasn’t used to the lay of the land. 

Those who didn’t leave Ashenport very often would usually ask Drax to spare a guard that they could use as a guide. Drax — being Drax — was usually happy to oblige but told them that they were better off asking the Dockmaster for one of his men who would take the shipments to the various settlements. Only once did he make the mistake of suggesting that Merrin, who knew his way around the forests better than anyone else, helped the poor townsfolk find their way through the forest. 

Orlia learnt five new ways to tell someone to get lost and three increasingly imaginative death threats that day.

Drax never asked again, but he also didn’t seem overly surprised that Merrin had turned it down.

‘The view’s incredible, isn’t it?’ Drax asked in a low drawl.

He had come up to stand beside Orlia to join her in looking out at the Southern Forest.

‘You can see everything from up here,’ she noted and turned to look at the rest of Ashenport itself. 

She tried to see where the Clocktower stood in the North-East corner of the town. Its spire was barely visible in the heavy fog and the ruins of the stone walls that surrounded the small settlement that used to be separate from the town itself. 

‘Well, almost everything,’ Orlia pointed towards the Clocktower.

‘Yeah,’ Drax groaned, ‘arguably the one point I need to see.’

‘Why don’t you just add a crow’s nest on the roof?’ Orlia asked.

‘I think my days of climbing onto roofs are over,’ Drax shrugged. ‘Besides, I have better ways to know what’s going on in there.’

He gave Orlia a knowing look and raised his brows.

‘Me?’ Orlia questioned and pointed to her chest. 

‘Yes, you.’

Orlia never signed up to be a mole, and she certainly wasn’t going to betray Merrin’s trust like that. If she had to throw away her new job as a guard, then so be it. She’d rather be kicked out of Ashenport forever than piss Merrin off. 

‘I won’t be a mole for you,’ Orlia said to him.

‘I’m not asking you to be a mole,’ Drax explained, ‘I’m asking you to keep an eye on them.’

‘What?’

Drax took a deep breath and looked towards the Clocktower. His lips pressed into a thin line as he considered his words.

‘I’m sure you’re aware that Merrin doesn’t trust me,’ he said and looked to Orlia for confirmation. 

She was aware of that, pretty much everyone who knew Merrin in the slightest knew that he didn’t like, no he hated, Drax. Most people thought that it was just because he hated any form of authority, but Orlia knew better. 

Merrin had never told her about anything explicitly, but she knew from passing comments that a lot of his hatred of Drax came from his friendship with Merrin’s step-father, Caspian. Any time that Caspian was brought up, it was quickly followed by a comment by Merrin about how useless he was, and that he wouldn’t care if he never came back to Ashenport. Orlia never pressed for details, as she knew that he would tell her in his own time.

‘Yeah, he’s made that pretty clear,’ Orlia admitted.

‘Well, I want you to make sure he keeps out of too much trouble.’

Orlia couldn’t stop the abrupt laugh that erupted from her. She clasped a hand over her mouth just a second too late and looked up at Drax with wide eyes.

‘I’m so sorry,’ she pleaded.

‘No, that’s perfectly fine. I know how stupid it sounds,’ he said with a forced smile.

‘I mean, I can’t make any promises, you know how he is,’ Orlia told him.

Merrin had a way of getting into trouble even when he wasn’t trying to. Even a simple trip to the market could end up with Merrin being threatened by some of the guards. Orlia didn’t exactly know what he got up to in his spare time between working at the docks and hunting, but she’d heard her fair share of stories from the older guards about Merrin’s little ability to find trouble wherever he went.

Her personal favourite so far came from a man called Trolfir, and he would regale the new guards with various tales about all the shit he’d caught Merrin doing. In this particular story, Merrin had managed to break into one of the houses in the Western section despite all of the extra guards and multiple locks per door. Despite being able to break in, he didn’t steal any of their valuables like gold or jewellery. No, that wasn’t what he wanted. In fact, the only thing that anyone had noticed missing was small amounts of all of their seasonings and spices. Apparently Trolfir didn’t have the heart to actually arrest Merrin for it considering the people he stole from didn’t even realise it was missing. 

The reason it was Orlia’s favourite story was because when she then told this to Merrin, he told her that he actually stole a lot more than just some spices. In fact, he stole so much that the total value would’ve seen him in jail for years. But, he knew that people who lived in the West of the city would never notice what he stole. He never actually told her what it was, but she had a few guesses. 

Knowing Merrin it was probably something small like pins, nails or anything else that he could give to Karliah to melt down into something useful. But it also could’ve been pieces of stone or wood that he shaved off of various parts of their house. Whatever it was, only Merrin — and possibly Zane — knew.

‘I’m aware,’ Drax said. ‘But that’s where you come in.’

‘Oh?’ That intrigued Orlia. If she wasn’t supposed to fully stop Merrin, then how was she a part of this plan?

‘The thing is, as long as I’m Captain, I can control how severe of a punishment Merrin gets if he’s caught.’ Drax explained slowly. He crossed his arms across his chest and looked over at the Clocktower. ‘I’ve tried to stop any of the guards from arresting him. I know he’s not going to change even if he does get punished for it. And if stealing stops him from doing anything worse, then I can deal with replacing a couple stolen goods.’

Orlia nodded in agreement. Most of the goods Merrin stole were easily replaced, if anyone even felt the need to replace them anyway. 

‘But, my word only goes so far. Anything that happens outside my jurisdiction is out of my hands. I could try and stop the other cities from finding him by hiding him in Ashenport but the moment I try and tell him what to do, he’ll go out of his way to make my job as difficult as possible.’

‘And why are you asking me?’

‘Because you’re the only one he’ll listen to other than Zane. And somehow I doubt that I’ll be able to convince Zane to help me with anything. He might not hate me to the extent Merrin does, but at this point I think he just barely tolerates anyone who isn’t Merrin.’

‘That sounds about right,’ Orlia agreed. Zane barely even tolerated her let alone anyone else. She could be in the Clocktower with Merrin and he’ll seem fine. But he wouldn’t even humor her questions with even a half-arsed response. It wasn’t anything personal, and Orlia knew that. He just didn’t like people in general. Most people in Ashenport asked too many questions about every part of him: his appearance, his family, his job, anything they could ask, they did. 

‘And that’s where you come in.’ Drax said with a slight smile. ‘All I need is to steer him away from doing anything too serious, especially if it’s outside of our jurisdiction.’

‘Why are you only asking me now?’

Drax sighed and walked over to the wooden desk on the Northern side of the watchtower. He moved aside a stack of various contracts and missives until he pulled out the folder of wanted posters from across Aedria. He thumbed through half of the sheets and pulled them out, when he did, Orlia could keep a straight face. 

Drax spread the posters out across the table, and Orlia saw the all too familiar face looking back at her.

Merrin.

On every poster was a portrait of him with ‘WANTED’ written across the top. Underneath the images were varying statements of ‘DEAD OR ALIVE’, to ‘WANTED : ALIVE’ with a variety of rewards available for Merrin’s capture. 

‘Where are these from?’ Orlia laughed. 

‘Mostly Emberhelm, you don’t happen to know anything about that, do you?’

She might’ve known something about it…

‘No.’ she lied.

‘Orlia.’

‘Maybe.’

‘Was it bad?’

‘Uh…’

By a normal person’s standards, what Merrin got up to in Emberhelm was horrific. 

But then again, to a normal person’s standards anything to do with the unlawful retrieval of bones and threatening a holy man was horrific. 

It just so happened that Merrin took it a step further.

‘I know about it,’ Orlia said and ignored the look Drax gave her.

‘Will there be hired thugs knocking down the gates of my city?’ he asked.

‘I don’t think they’d go that far, but I’ve told Merrin that it’s best if he doesn’t go back to Emberhelm during this lifetime. Or the next few.’ Orlia said as she thought about the growing list of crimes Merrin had committed not only in Emberhelm, but also in an increasing amount of towns and settlements across Aedria.

‘One day that boy is going to have to repent for his sins,’ Drax sighed and shook his head.

‘He’d sooner fight every God that ever ignored him than get on his knees and pray again.’ Orlia corrected him. ‘But I think you already know that.’

‘Yes, I am unfortunately aware of that.’ Drax took a deep breath and looked back at the Clocktower. ‘But this is my last option.’

‘I mean, I can do my best. But I can’t make any promises.’

‘Your best is all I can ask for.’

Orlia nodded and decided that it would be best to move away from the topic of Merrin to something a little more related to what Drax was asking her for in the first place.

They spent the next few hours just sorting out various bits and pieces that ultimately meant nothing. All of the different stacks they made we supposedly sorted by necessity and [], but it didn’t really mean a whole lot to Orlia considering the majority of her stack was just posters of Merrin.

Drax instructed her to put them all into one pile,which they would then use as fuel for the fire. Until someone actually convinced Drax that Merrin shouldn’t be out of jail, or in some cases out the gallows, then Drax would continue to ignore every single one of the posters that showed up on his desk. 

As the minutes passed, Orlia began to realise just how many wanted posters Merrin had. In fact, there were only three that weren’t for him. One was for a bandit leader over on the West coast, another was for a rogue mage who managed to destroy multiple settlements and their graveyards after he tried to get bones for a ritual, and the last was for a woman who had stolen a load of shit from one of the nobles on the mainland then fled to Aedria. 

‘You can toss that last one too,’ Drax said as he looked over at Orlia.

Orlia was already considering getting rid of it, it’s not like anyone on Aedria cared what happened to the mainland. 

‘Do you toss everything that comes through about the mainland?’ she asked him as she put it into the burn pile.

‘Most things,’ Drax shrugged. ‘I tend to keep anything that I’d get in trouble for burning.’

‘Which are?’ 

‘Oh you know, pleas for protection from Lords on the mainland, the High King begging for resources and taxes, the odd ask to dock ships in the port.’

‘We pay taxes?’

‘The High King wants us too, but there are probably a total of three people in the hold other than the Lord and Lady who earn enough to be worth taxing.’

‘I guess that makes sense.’ Orlia said and turned back to the papers.

Most people in Ashenport lived off of a barter system, the only people that didn’t were the alchemist Madame Rosevin, the old blacksmith Rydel Norrora, and the owner of the tavern on the West part of town. Everyone else just traded their goods, and that included Madame Nilveru over at The Drunker Mercenary, people would supply her with food or trays, and she’d supply them with food and drink. 

It worked well for everyone. It even worked for Karliah, who would take old weapons or any other type of metal, and melt them down in order to make new weapons or building materials. It would confuse travellers who went to her shop for a new blade, but she had her loyal customers who brought her whatever scrap they could find. 

Merrin was by far her favourite, as he would usually rock up with enough scrap to last Karliah a whole month. Orlia didn’t know where he got all the scrap from, but she guessed it must’ve been something to do with his little thieving sprees.

By the time they had finished with the various stacks of paperwork, the sky outside had begun to darken. 

‘You did a good job today, Orlia,’ Drax told her as she combined their two stacks.

‘Thanks,’ she said and looked back at the stack of Merrin’s wanted posters on the side. As she did, an idea crossed her mind. ‘Can I take a few of these?’ 

‘Take the stack, I’m sure more will show up tomorrow.’

She took the stack, and left the guard’s tower.

***

The Drunken Mercenary was bustling with dockworkers, market traders, and more than a few local thieves. The bar maids were busy running food and drinks to the various tables and when she entered, one of them turned to her and smiled. 

Ilya was one of the newer bar maids at Mercy’s, she hadn’t really told anyone about herself yet, but it had taken Merrin not even a week to find out who she really was and where she came from.

Ilya, or Imryll Loratoris, was a nymph from the Eastern region of the mainland, Ebra. She was only twenty-three years old, but had spent the last five years running from the legion of soldiers for a multitude of crimes including the assassination of Lord Meyruba. Once she realised that there was nowhere on the mainland that was safe for her, she asked the sailors on one of the ships to Ashenport to help her, and they did.

She told Drax that she needed to hide from the Eastern Legion, and he didn’t so much as think twice about letting her stay. He told her that she could find work at The Drunken Mercenary, and Madame Nilveru would let her live there for as long as she needed. 

Merrin saw through her lies of ‘looking for a new life’ and ‘wanting a change of pace’ immediately. A few days later he told Orlia everything he’d found out.

Orlia didn’t want to know how Merrin got those answers, but she knew that he had a way of getting people to talk even if they were a closed book.

Orlia looked around Mercy’s for the man in question, and saw him lounging against one of the tables near the tavern’s noticeboard. He had a wolfish grin split on his face as he listened to whatever it was that Matthias was telling him. 

As Orlia crossed the tavern towards her table of friends, Merrin looked over to her and smiled. As she got closer, there was a brief quizzical look that crossed his face as he gazed down at the stack of papers she was carrying. She had decided to take every single poster she had sorted, including an extra stack that Drax hadn’t gotten around to getting rid of yet.

‘There she is!’ Matty said as he looked over his shoulder at her.

Danny, who was sat beside Matty looked up at her as she walked past. It didn’t take him long to realise that she was carrying a significant amount of paperwork with her.

‘And she’s brought a shit-load of paper,’ Danny laughed.

‘Not just any paper,’ Orlia said when she sat down. ‘They’re official documents.’

‘Official?’ Merrin asked and tried to look at the top one.

‘Oh yes.’ She gave him a wide smile, but kept her hands over the top of the stack. ‘Very official. In fact, I’m meant to be destroying these.

‘Oh?’ Merrin raised a brow. ‘And what’s a low-level recruit like you doing with all these ‘official’ documents?’

‘Well, Drax said that I could have them as he’d inevitably get more by the end of the week.’

‘Really? And how could he be so sure?’

‘Let’s just say it’s been a bit of an on-going issue.’

‘And pray tell what is this issue?’

Orlia smiled at him as she moved her hands from in front of the posters. Merrin looked down and a fleeting look of surprise crossed his face which was quickly replaced by a smug grin.

‘You’re joking?’ Matty scoffed. ‘You’ve got to be joking.’

‘Not in the slightest,’ Orlia told them.

‘You wanted to show me my own wanted poster?’ Merrin asked her.

‘I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was just one,’ Orlia shrugged. 

‘But there’s more than one,’ Danny guessed.

‘Yeah,’ she sighed.

Orlia moved the top poster aside to show the other wanted poster that was underneath. She then moved the next, and the next, and the next. With each one she moved, the look of disbelief spread across each of the boys’ faces. 

‘The fuck are these all from?’ Danny asked with his mouth agape. 

‘Emberhelm mostly,’ Orlia replied as she held one of the posters up beside Merrin. ‘The resemblance is uncanny.’

‘Which fucker did you piss off in Emberhelm?’ Danny questioned Merrin.

Merrin shrugged, but there was a knowing smile across his face that told Orlia that he knew exactly who he had pissed off.

It took them more than an hour to go through the whole stack, and the whole time they did, Matthias and Danny tried to guess just what had happened in Emberhelm for Merrin to have this many posters begging for his capture. As the night wore on, their guesses got more and more outrageous. By the time they decided to go home, their ideas had settled on Merrin razing the city to the ground and building an army of undead soldiers from their corpses. 

As they left Mercy’s, Orlia stuck one of the posters on the noticeboard, much to Merrin’s amusement, and gave Merrin half the stack to take back to the Clocktower.

‘You are one lucky boy,’ Orlia told him as they walked down the empty streets of Ashenport.

The cold air bit into her skin, and she couldn’t wait to get home and warm herself up by the fire. The stack of posters were about to be her best source of warmth for the rest of the week, and she secretly hoped they’d give Drax even more next week.

‘ Maybe I should branch out,’ Merrin joked. ‘See how many people I can get after me before one of them actually tries a little harder than a poster.’

‘Don’t even think about it,’ Orlia warned him casually. ‘That Clocktower isn’t as safe as you think.’

‘I could trick it out,’ he shrugged. ‘Add a couple traps, maybe a rune here or there. No one would ever see it coming.’

‘You’re the worst.’

‘And that’s why you’re burning my posters.’ 

Orlia kicked the back of Merrin’s legs. He didn’t so much as flinch as her attack and just laughed it off.

He wasn’t wrong. 

Orlia would burn a million posters if it meant she got to see him for the rest of her life. And that was a promise to herself she was willing to keep.