Joras POV
Joras was sitting on a tree stump near the central market tents, twiddling his empty coin pouch. He had been down on his luck recently, having lost all the coin he got from the last job. He was even on a roll in the beginning, then the world turned on him and he started losing every single hand he played.
He thought the den operator was taking pity on him when they offered him a quick loan to give him an opportunity to recover his luck, but little did he know it was a trap! He lost it all and now he had to pay a sum of 100 small silvers. Joras was never good at math and he did not understand what the interest meant, but the short story was that the amount would double almost every three months if he did not pay them back.
He had considered not paying but the two muscles standing by the operator's side gave him the feeling that he would be in a world of hurt if he tried to renege on his debt. Joras was dreading telling his brother the sum he owed when his brother returned from his mission. No wonder his brother told him to stay away from the gambling dens.
"Blasted goblin, every one of them." Joras had not just been down on his luck recently, he blamed the Lights Above for everything that went wrong in his life. Why couldn't he be born in Ironhold and live out his life peacefully like the rest of its citizens. He just had to be born in the kingdom of Korrun.
Ever since Korrun was conquered by Ironhold more than 100 years ago, all the wealth generated had been siphoned off to fund the ongoing war by Ironhold. That made making a living difficult, and Joras's father had to join the military to support their family. Unfortunately, his father did not have talent in magic and died as cannon fodder — their mother died from overworking multiple side jobs to support her two sons.
The brothers got mixed with the wrong crowds since they were orphaned from a young age. One thing led to another and they ended up joining the Ironhold military to escape their troubles. But little did they know it was straight from the oven into the frying pan for them.
With little talent for combat, Joras soon found himself between a rock and a hard place. The first choice he had was to join the legion of warm bodies that would be thrown at Fort Ashenward and become one of the thousands of bodies that littered the Cinder Pass. The second choice was to sneak into Vesperia and join one of the many sleeper cells while carrying out small missions.
Forced to choose between certain death and a perilous journey behind enemy lines, he chose the latter. His brother had more talent than him and could have climbed the ranks in the military but had chosen to join Joras to keep him out of trouble.
"Fenwyr's luck, if only I was born a noble's son." Joras cursed as he tucked the empty coin pouch into his pocket. He recalled the kid with the merchant a few weeks back that threw around silver coin like they were dirt to buy a useless trinket from that old hag. He had contemplated robbing them as they left the camp. However, after they had a short conversation with the hag about where the claw of the trinket came from, they quickly disappeared before Joras could make up his mind.
"That was probably the merchant's nephew that he wanted to buy a gift for. Would have fooled me if that kid didn't speak" Joras muttered to himself. The old hag was probably too deaf to catch it, but it did not fool him. It was rare to see a kid at the camp so it immediately caught his attention. He would have also relieved the silver coins from the hag if not for Draven's rule of not robbing from one of their own.
"Who are you talking about?" his friend Dax asked from the side.
"Just some rich kid I saw a few weeks back throwing silver around like they were copper" Joras shared. "Would have saved them the trouble of wasting coin but they left too quickly. If I saw them again they would not be so lucky this time" he spat as he looked listlessly at the ground.
"Ooo. What do they look like?" Dax asked. Joras got annoyed — Dax was never the brightest but he was convenient to keep around to run errands. One thing Joras liked about Dax was that he never really asked questions.
"I don't know? The kid was wearing a mask and a cloak. I didn't get a good look. He was with some old man. Why do you ask?" Joras explained in an annoyed tone.
"Is that them?" Dax pointed at a pair walking into the camp. The pair tried to be inconspicuous but the wooden mask on the shorter person made them stand out like a sore thumb. Most people just used the hoods of their cloak to partially obscure their face.
"Lights above! That's them. You're a genius" Joras patted Dax on the back as he quickly got up. "Come with me, let's keep an eye on them" Dax just grinned stupidly for being called a genius by his good friend. Joras thought the world was finally blessing him with good fortune.
The pair went to a few stalls to ask about various stuff, before stopping at one of the few armorers in the camp. Dax was about to continue walking towards them when Joras pulled him back. "What are you doing?!?!" Joras hissed in a low voice.
"Aren't we robbing them?" Dax asked innocently. "Not now you dimwit! There are too many people. Also if we start robbing people in the middle of the camp, no outsiders will visit the camp again — Draven will have my neck for that!" Joras hissed in a low voice.
Dax just gave him a blank look, looking confused. "Urgh, just follow me and don't do anything unless I tell you to." Joras cursed his friend's lack of intelligence. Then again, a smarter man would probably not follow Joras around, let alone be at his beck and call.
They kept their distance this time, so Joras was not able to hear the actual conversation through the hustle and bustle of the other stalls at the market. They unrolled something partially from a satchel, letting the armor smith touch it for a bit before pulling it back.
The old man then got very animated and then engaged in a furious debate with the armor smith. After a few minutes of back and forth, they seemed to come to an agreement. The merchant handed over the satchel and then the armor smith slipped something in his hand to the old man as they shook on it. Most people missed it but Joras caught the glint of gold catching light through the small gap before the gold coins changed hands — and more than one at that!
"Hahaha! We're gonna be rich!" Joras smacked Dax in the shoulder as he chuckled excitedly. He only hoped that the pair would not waste their new found wealth on frivolous stuff before leaving the camp. The kid in the mask seemed to look around for a while before deciding to leave, apparently finding nothing interesting this time.
"Yes! Bless the light, something going right for once" Joras cheered as he watched the pair head to their wagon by the entrance of the camp. "Let's go Dax, before we lose them"
Joras contemplated attacking the pair the moment they left the camp but was afraid it was too close to the camp for Draven's liking. The old man looked like a merchant by trade, so he might not have any combat spells. The kid was probably still trying to figure out how to sense his mana core even if he had already awakened. He decided to wait till the duo was a little further down before taking action.
When the pair hit the main road, it was apparent that they were heading to Hollow's Reach as that was the closest town in that direction. They were waiting for a good chance to jump the pair but there was always someone else passing nearby. Every time Joras thought it was a good time to attack, someone else always passed by or overtook them from behind.
"Fenwyr's luck! They will reach the town at this rate before we get a chance." The wagon moved on steadily and soon it reached too close to town for Joras or Dax to take action. This close to town, any scuffle would potentially bring in the town guards which were too much for Joras and Dax to handle.
They hid by the bushes as the old man parked the wagon in the yard, before they made to part ways. Joras was not sure who had held the gold coins, but his target was clear. The old man headed into the city while the kid — which Joras managed to confirm now since the kid had removed the mask some time during the trip to town — was heading south along the city walls.
Joras saw the kid stop in the smithing row to talk to someone and hand her some coins before turning to leave, heading further south down a small road that seemed deserted. "Hmm, we'll have to go after the kid. We'll kidnap the kid, if he has the coins then great. If not, we'll use the kid to ransom the coins from the old man"
The kid seemed to be at least 12 years of age based on his height. Joras would need to assume he might have already awakened for a while and could already wield one basic spell for worst case planning.
"You follow him from behind, make sure you keep your distance. Find a rock or a big stick. I'll try to cut him off and distract him. You then knock him out from the back once I have him distracted" Joras would keep his distance and give the more dangerous job to Dax. He would close the distance and use his Wind Blades if Dax and the kid got into a scuffle. The kid would only have himself to blame if he lost an arm or two.
Dax nodded and proceeded to follow the kid down the path as Joras circled around, using his Air Manipulation spell to give himself a boost and try to cut the kid off before he could get to wherever he was heading.
15 minutes later, Joras was panting hard as he ran ahead through the forest, following the road that the kid was taking. He bent down to catch his breath before the kid reached the stretch of road that was out of sight from the town.
"How in blighted grounds is the kid able to keep running without losing his breath?" Joras had thought it would be easy to cut the kid off with his air spell giving him a boost. However, the kid started jogging once he was past the bridge in front of the smithing row. The kid also never seemed to lose his breath after continuously jogging for a while.
Joras had no choice but to push himself harder and run ahead, especially since he was trekking across uneven ground in the bushes and had to go around bushes and trees. He managed to catch his breath and walked out in the middle of the small road to wait for the kid and Dax. He would need to distract the kid long enough for Dax to catch up.
Joras didn't have to wait long before the kid showed up. The kid visibly slowed down when he saw Joras standing in the middle of the road with his arms crossed. The kid came to a stop about thirty yards away, looking at Joras with his brows furrowed.
"Can I help you?" The kid asked.
"Yes. Yes you can." Joras answered slowly, hoping to drag things out until Dax approached from behind.
"With?" the kid asked warily.
"You see, I'm in a bit of trouble. I had borrowed money from some bad people." Joras started rambling about his debts, not knowing what topic would keep a 12 year old occupied.
"And...?" the kid seemed to get into a stance, as if he was ready to fight.
Just then, he saw Dax approaching from the back, slowing to a crawl as he slowly approached the kid from behind. Good job Dax, just hit him on the head from behind.
"I was wondering, if you would be willing to donate some of those gold coins you have to get me out of my debt" Joras said.
Dax was approaching from behind, Joras tried not to let it show on his face. Just as Dax was getting close, the kid seemed to realize something and tried to turn around, a flash of light appearing in his hands.
Dax panicked seeing the kid react and swung the thick branch he had as hard as he could, smashing it across the kid's head. The branch broke and splintered while droplets of blood flew out as the kid went down, collapsing to the ground.
Joras panicked and started walking up to Dax, afraid that he might have accidentally killed the kid. Joras was not worried about the kid's safety but was afraid it would be more difficult to ransom with a cold body than a warm one.
"Blasted goblin Dax, that was too hard. What if you killed him?" Joras chastised Dax as he walked up.
"Sorry Joras, I panicked! He wasn't supposed to turn around." Dax apologised as he stood over the kid's body.
Right before Joras could approach to check the body's pockets, he saw a brief sparkle around the kid's head before his eyes snapped open.