Timestamp: 45th of Zi'da, 717 - 19th Break
Location: The Bronze Boar
Wanted: Dead or Alive.
The poster had been nailed to the wooden bounty board that sat outside the Earth Quarter Guard Station for the past arc. Despite the reward increasing incrementally every season, no one had managed to capture - or even spot - Bahati Ekua. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t still in Rharne. People continued to disappear and, after five Rharnians vanished while travelling through the Stormlands during Ymiden, tales told about the slaver grew wilder than ever.
She could put a person in slave manacles and take them to Athart without them realizing.
She could walk past a platoon of Lightning Knights without being recognized.
She could disappear in a poof of shadows and reappear halfway across the world.
She ate children for breakfast and their parents for dessert.
Admittedly, the last rumour seemed less likely than the rest, but it spoke to the fear that had wormed its way into the heart of Rharne’s populace. Children were warned not to be out in the Stormlands past dark, and even grown men had grown warier as they travelled alone between the city and their farms.
Sabine had yet to meet anyone affected by the slaver’s actions, but she knew enough about slavery to spark deep feelings of disgust every time she passed by the bounty. She would think of her father, enslaved to the Andaris family, and she would spend the next break trying to keep herself calm. But she hadn’t felt compelled or capable enough to actually hunt Bahati down; not, at least, until today.
The forty-fifth of Zi’da.
The exact trial when her father was arrested, three arcs earlier.
Maybe she couldn’t help her father today, but she could at least help the people that Bahati had enslaved. She could hunt them down, rescue them from their chains, and bring their kidnapper to justice. Easy as pie.
She just needed a bit of help.
Earlier that trial, Sabine had left twenty-five notes scattered around Rharne. They’d been left on tables in bars and slipped beneath doors and pinned to park trees. While the paper itself varied in texture, the notes all held a common message. They contained a call to action, a request for camaraderie, an appeal to the greater good, and, most importantly, a promise of gold.
“Hate slavery? Have a set of useful skills? Interested in (legally) earning a coin purse of gold? Come to the Bronze Boar tonight when the sun goes down and ask for the woman with the long braid.”
It was admittedly a quick-penned and cryptic message. Perhaps too cryptic, Sabine considered. Her hands tightened around her whiskey glass. A cursory glance around the tavern showed many patrons, but none who seemed to be heading towards the booth she’d commandeered in the back corner of the first floor. She crossed and uncrossed her leather-clad legs and self-consciously smoothed her white blouse as her doubts rose.
Would this be something she’d end up having to do on her own...?
Location: The Bronze Boar
Wanted: Dead or Alive.
The poster had been nailed to the wooden bounty board that sat outside the Earth Quarter Guard Station for the past arc. Despite the reward increasing incrementally every season, no one had managed to capture - or even spot - Bahati Ekua. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t still in Rharne. People continued to disappear and, after five Rharnians vanished while travelling through the Stormlands during Ymiden, tales told about the slaver grew wilder than ever.
She could put a person in slave manacles and take them to Athart without them realizing.
She could walk past a platoon of Lightning Knights without being recognized.
She could disappear in a poof of shadows and reappear halfway across the world.
She ate children for breakfast and their parents for dessert.
Admittedly, the last rumour seemed less likely than the rest, but it spoke to the fear that had wormed its way into the heart of Rharne’s populace. Children were warned not to be out in the Stormlands past dark, and even grown men had grown warier as they travelled alone between the city and their farms.
Sabine had yet to meet anyone affected by the slaver’s actions, but she knew enough about slavery to spark deep feelings of disgust every time she passed by the bounty. She would think of her father, enslaved to the Andaris family, and she would spend the next break trying to keep herself calm. But she hadn’t felt compelled or capable enough to actually hunt Bahati down; not, at least, until today.
The forty-fifth of Zi’da.
The exact trial when her father was arrested, three arcs earlier.
Maybe she couldn’t help her father today, but she could at least help the people that Bahati had enslaved. She could hunt them down, rescue them from their chains, and bring their kidnapper to justice. Easy as pie.
She just needed a bit of help.
Earlier that trial, Sabine had left twenty-five notes scattered around Rharne. They’d been left on tables in bars and slipped beneath doors and pinned to park trees. While the paper itself varied in texture, the notes all held a common message. They contained a call to action, a request for camaraderie, an appeal to the greater good, and, most importantly, a promise of gold.
“Hate slavery? Have a set of useful skills? Interested in (legally) earning a coin purse of gold? Come to the Bronze Boar tonight when the sun goes down and ask for the woman with the long braid.”
It was admittedly a quick-penned and cryptic message. Perhaps too cryptic, Sabine considered. Her hands tightened around her whiskey glass. A cursory glance around the tavern showed many patrons, but none who seemed to be heading towards the booth she’d commandeered in the back corner of the first floor. She crossed and uncrossed her leather-clad legs and self-consciously smoothed her white blouse as her doubts rose.
Would this be something she’d end up having to do on her own...?
Off Topic
Reviewer's Note: -2gn for the whiskey, -50gn for 25 pieces of crude paper (2gn x 25)
