[center][h3]Auriëlle[/h3][/center] Auriëlle hated the road and hated the small, constricting villages she was forced to visit between Acadia and Ketrefa. The muddy, dirty places were disgusting. Yet she needed shelter and food. When she first ran away, she just stole some farm-daughter’s clothes that hung out to dry. These days she made her money in a different way. She entered the local tavern. Up north those were the places you went to meet people, or to be met. The second she took her place in front of the hearth and paid for her watered down wine (she hated ale), three local thugs approached her. How could they not? She was unlike any woman they’ve ever met. Nice looking, homely, with that one scar on her cheek that showed that she wasn’t afraid to get into trouble. One side of her fiery red hair was braided and was used to tie the rest of her hair into a pony tail. The copper knife on her hip was just cherry on the pie. “So what’s a pretty lil’ lady like you doin’ in a place like Norfulk, eh?” The stick-thin thug asked as he took his place in front of her. Auriëlle had seen it all. It made her tired. So instead of answering she opened her hand and let a flame burst forth from it. Then she grabbed her mug of wine and took a small sip. “Let’s skip the introductions and the comments, shall we. I’ve already heard it a thousand times” She said with a disinterested tone. When she was twenty and just ran off, the comments some men threw her way were disgusting. Why did they talk to a woman that way? After two years she got used to it. Somewhat. “You’ve got a job for me, now that you know I’m a sorceress. So tell me what it is so I can get paid and leave this shithole.” The thugs looked at each other. Auriëlle often told herself she could smell their fear. That wasn’t entirely true, but she saw it. They were tense. One was nearly gripping his club. She didn’t want to fight. Not here. She wanted to sleep. But she would if they were stupid enough to take a swing at her. The leading thug spat on the ground and then said: “Fine. I’ve gotta customer not payin’. I need you to convince ‘im. Think you can handle it?” Auriëlle downed her wine and got up. “Just point me in the right direction.” Minutes later and under the cover of dusk, Auriëlle made her way to the house. It smelled nice. From the stall outside she could see bits and pieces of herbs laying around. She hated bullying herbalists. They were often the cleverest people in a village. Some could even write. Gods how she missed writing and reading now. One time she had met a herbalist kneeling in the middle of the woods and praying. Some of them were very, very odd. She politely knocked on the door. After some time and some rustling behind the hinges, it opened up slightly. “Come back tomorrow.” A man behind the door said. He tried to slam the door shut again but it was blocked by Auriëlle’s foot. “I need to settle a debt.” She could basically hear the man swallow behind the door. He opened the door more and opened his mouth but Auriëlle was ahead of him: “I don’t need your excuses. Just the coins.” “And why should I give it to you?” The man was about mid-thirty. Strong, with a few more scars on his arms than Auriëlle. His rather rugged appearance told Auriëlle that he used to fight. A lot. Maybe a wandering boxer or a militia volunteer. She raised her arm and sparks of lighting arched between her fingers. “Just give me the money. We can both walk-“ A fist cut her off. She took it straight in the face. Before she knew it she was down into the muddy ground. Something hot dripped from her nose. Instinctively she rolled. Just in time. The man had jumped where she was a second ago. She put one hand on his shoulder and pushed the lighting through him. He couldn’t even scream out in pain. His entire body locked up and then fell flat into the mud. Auriëlle got up and kicked him on his back. “Idiot! I could’ve killed you!” “But you didn’t.” the man said in between coughs. “I can’t pay you.” Auriëlle ignored him and turned towards the opened door. Where two little kids, neither more than eight, appeared in the doorway. “Daddy is everything okay?” One asked. Auriëlle stopped in her tracks. “Go to mommy.” She said, hoping to get the kids out of the way as she forced the man to pay up. The job didn’t pay enough to deal with children. Nothing would pay enough. “We’ve got no mommy.” The youngest said. Great! Perfect. Wonderful! Cadien’s Curse, she just couldn’t get a break! All she wanted was to sit back for a night and then sleep on something else than moss with a belly that was filled with an actual meal. Yet here she was in the dusk, in a mud street beating up the only parent of two. The man got up, but didn’t try to attack her again. He just pleaded with her: “Please don’t take my money. It’s all I have! Tell them I’ll pay later. My kids, they need to eat. Please.” “Shut up.” Auriëlle mumbled under her breath as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “I have an idea. Give me any coins you can spare now. I don’t care how much it is. Just give them to me.” Half an hour later she walked back into the tavern. Nobody cared that she was half-covered in mud. The fact that they didn’t care was even more reason for her to hate this place. She approached the three thugs and dropped the very light sack onto their table. “The debt’s settled.” One thug lifted the purse and dropped it again on the table. Now the three thugs could clearly hear the lack of many metal clangs. “No it isn’t.” The leader shot back. “What? I told you clearly how many coins he owed us.” Auriëlle took a chair from one of the tables and seated her near the thugs their table. She peered into the three candles lit on the table. They grew large and hot. Some fire jumped from one candle to the other. Just three years ago she couldn’t do that. Now she did it because she wanted it to happen. There was no spell. No runes or hand signs. It was just her, wanting something to happen. “I could burn all three of your faces off right here, right now if I wanted to.” She said as she kept peering into the candle lit fire. “Now tell me his debt is settled.” All three of them released an annoyed grunt, but knew she probably wasn’t kidding. So they just nodded. “Good.” Auriëlle took the purse off the table and put it in her own mantle’s inner pocket. “Payment for my services.” She said with a tone that would not accept any discussion about it. This annoyed the three thugs even more. “And finally, you three are going to swear you’re not going to bother that man again. You’ll swear it on Tekret. Do you understand?” The three thugs shared some wild eyed looks with each other. A small grin formed on Auriëlle’s face. She knew what would happen if she just got up and left tomorrow. By the time it was lunch time, the herbalist would be bleeding on his own floor. She made that mistake before. Never again. Priests of Tekret told her that swearing something on Tekret’s name drew the god’s attention. Making the agreement binding on a divine level. She wasn’t sure how much to believe of that. The past twenty years she wasn’t so sure about any of the gods. What mattered now was that the thugs believed it. “Swear it and I won’t have to make sure you don’t become an issue in the future.” Auriëlle pressured them. One by one they gave in and nodded. When all three had nodded they said: “We swear on Tekret that we won’t bother Horace again.” “Pleasure doing business with you, gentlemen.” Auriëlle said, as she got up and walked up to the bar. She dropped the small purse on the counter and said: “A bed for the night.” The bartender lifted the coin purse, then emptied its contend on the counter. It wasn’t much but he shoved a few coppers back her way. Which she quickly pocketed. He also bit down on one silver piece to check it. Then he gave her a grunt of acceptance and motioned her to follow him upstairs to her room. [hider=Summary]Auriëlle grew up and became a travelling sorceress for hire. Though she hates the muddy, small, ugly towns she has to walk and work in. She gets a job from some local thugs to gather some debt from someone. That person ends up being a father of two with no mother in sight. So instead of taking all his money, she only takes what he can spare and then forces the thugs to agree that the debt is settled. Then she also forces them to swear on Tekret that they won’t bother the man again. She pockets the few coins they got to settle his debt to cover the expense of her service and uses it to get a room.[/hider] [hider=Prestige] [b]Post length: 7.8K Words[/b] + 4 Prestige >> Auriëlle [/hider]