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Madrar

The Shadow in the Dark.
Web of Deceit

4E 204, 13th of Frostfall
The Rift

"You can run," the heavily armoured Nord called to his quarry, "but you'll only die tired." If the fleeing man heard, or cared, he showed no sign of it. Vadde Drestor sighed, and clanked after the Imperial. He gave no heed to the noise he was making. After all, it wasn't like the thief he was chasing didn't know he was there. And by the direction he was going in, it was clear the man wasn't local. Nothing waited him that way but a sheer rock face, curving around back the way he'd come. On the other side, was a dive into the freezing, fast flowing river. Vadde was blocking the only way out of the valley, though it appeared he was alone in that knowledge.

This particular target, was a thief. Not, apparently, a part of the thieves guild that almost ran Riften. Nor was he particularly smart. He'd stolen from Maven Black-briar herself, and apparently left an arrogant letter behind. What had made up Vaddes' mind on whether the thief was stupid or not, was the fact he'd decided to stay in the Rift after the deed. It had been nearly a week since the theft had occurred, or so said the contract. The man had been living in a small cabin, and hadn't seemed to be expecting company.

Until Vadde had kicked down his door. He could run pretty, fast, the Nord would give him that. A small clump of trees obscured his vision, and as Vadde made his leisurely way around the copse, he pulled his crossbow, one of the dwemer variants, from the straps on his back. Sure as the sunrise, the man was standing before the rock face, desperation evident in his body language.

From the pouch at his belt, he selected a bolt, and fit it into the firing groove of the 'bow. He grabbed the levering mechanism with one hand, and pulled, drawing the string back until he heard it go into place with a satisfying 'click'. "It's dead or alive." Vadde called. The morning was a quiet one. He was sure the Imperial heard him. "Last chance."

The man finally turned, one hand going to the knife at his belt. The bounty hunter sighed. Whether the man actually thought Vadde was stupid enough to let him get in close, the Nord would never know. He levelled the crossbow and fired, grimacing as the bolt tore through the Imperials' tunic, and slammed him to the ground. He lowered his weapon and strolled over to the dead thief, kneeling beside him.

The mans' possessions included the short, straight bladed knife, a small coinpurse, which Vadde took for himself, an assortment of rings, ranging from plain silver, to intricately carved ones, and some were studded with more jewels than the bounty hunter thought necessary. However, none of those things had been listed as stolen on the contract. In fact, the object of his search wasn't in any of the thief's belt pouches, but rather, hidden in a small pocket, on the inside of the mans tunic.

The object itself, was a necklace, forged of gold chain, with a spherical pendant, also of gold, and a large ruby set in the center. "I can definitely see why Maven wanted this back so badly." Vadde muttered. He placed the necklace into one of his own belt pouches, and stood, dusting his knees off as he did so.

"You never were one for second chances, Nord." A gravelly voice stated from behind and to his right. Even as the first words reached his ears, Vadde was turning, pulling the steel bladed war pick from the loop in his belt. His reaction, however, was unwarranted. Standing before him, was an Argonian male, with a head of horns, a pair longer than the rest,his scales, grey, darker around his eyes, and mouth, and paler on his exposed forearms and throat. The scales directly underneath his eyes, leading down to lines at each side of his neck, were dyed a pale blue.

He wore a set of dark ringmail armour, with a bandolier stretching from his right shoulder to his left hip. Like Vadde, his belt was burdened with several small pouches. On his left hip, he wore a straight, steel blade, and on his right, a curious, four edged dagger. Slung over his shoulder, was a large satchel. The steel tips of several javelins could be seen emerging from it. The Nord bounty hunter grinned at his Argonian friend. "Hello, Ash. Fancy seeing you out here." Of course, Ash wasn't the other hunters actual name. But the nickname didn't bother Vaddes' friend any. He slipped his weapon back into his belt. "You got business with our friend here?" He jerked his thumb towards the dead thief.

Ash peered at the corpse. "Had business with." He corrected, then sighed. "Maven's not going to be happy with you, Drestor. I think she had some special kind of punishment lined up for him."

Vadde shrugged, "the contract said dead or alive. He thought he'd take his chances with me. If Maven's not happy about it, she should have been more specific." He turned back to the corpse, knowing that he now had the unenviable task of taking a piece of the man back with him, as evidence he was dead and wouldn't be bothering the Black-briars again. He drew his dagger, and made his way back to the dead man. "So," he said, as he worked on removing the thiefs' head, "how'd you know to come out this way?"

The other hunter snorted from behind him, "come on. There are only so many places you can hide in the Rift, that doesn't already have someone hiding inside. I was hoping to catch him at whatever shack he holed up in. It only took me a couple of tries. I recognized your handiwork on the door."

The Nord grunted as the head finally came free of the body, "nice to know I've got a signature." He hefted his prize, and caught the cloth sack Ash tossed his way.

"Surprised no one else has wandered out this way. Three thousand is a lot of gold for one thief."

"Sure is." Vadde agreed.

"So..." Ash drawled, drawing the word out, "we're splitting the prize fifty-fifty, right?"

His friend snorted and shook his head, "Don't think so. Didn't see you being threatened with a knife."

The Argonian chuckled. "Was worth a try. Come on. Let's head back before something shows up for the body." That lightly phrased suggestion stole the mirth from the Nord. Of late, the locals had been murmuring about strange disappearances, usually on isolated farms, or villages. A man in his line of work did well to listen to such rumours.

He tied the sack shut, cleaned his blade on the thiefs tunic, and sheathed it. "Sounds good. I'm buying when we get back to the Bee and Barb."

XXX

4E 204, 13th of Frostfall
Riften, The Rift
The walk back to Riften wasn't extremely long, but even so, the sun was beginning to set when the unlikely pair, Argonian and Nord, made it to the northern gate of the city. They joined the throng of travelers and merchants, who'd finished their business in the Rifts villages, and passed through under the scrutiny of the gate guards. "You're just in time." One of the guards commented, "We were just about ready to close up for the night." And indeed, as soon as the last of those seeking entrance had passed through, the exterior gate guards filed inside, and the heavy, ironbound doors slammed shut.

Vadde glanced over his shoulder to see a pair of guards wrestle a heavy wooden beam into place, barring it securely. "They sure aren't taking any chances." He noted, as the friends made their way towards mistveil keep.

"Can't say I blame them. People are getting paranoid. Even those inside Riften.
"
"Not our problem though, eh? We've got a night of drinking and fun ahead of us." The Nord bounty hunter pointed out. In all honesty, Vadde Drestor couldn't care less about Riftens' problems. He was interested in making a good amount of coin in the Rift, but if these disappearances started causing him trouble, there were other holds. Other provinces, too, come to think of it. And Solstheim was slightly less unpleasant this time of year than usual.

"Could be our problem if it turns out bandits are behind these kidnappings." Ash said, sidestepping a pair of women, hurrying from the marketplace. "A very profitable problem." The two shared a laugh. Certainly, if the jarl of Riften decided to place a bounty out on whoever was behind the abductions, Vadde would happily sign up. If the price was right, of course. One didn't survive very long as a bounty hunter by doing charity work.

The guards at the keep recognized them, or Vadde, at least, and opened the doors. Maven Black-briar, her expression haughty as always, stared as he approached. Ash leaned against the wall, watching his progress. When he was a little more than a meter away, the woman glanced at the stained sack in his hand, and wrinkled her nose. "Am I to assume, then, that the thief would not come quietly?"

"That'd be about right" Vadde replied, holding the bag out to her. "I brought him back anyways. Thought you might need some, ah, reassurance that he wouldn't be taking from you again."

A disgusted expression came to her face. "What use would I have for a head?" She asked, "do you have my necklace?"

Without a word, he reached into his bet pouch, and pulled it out, letting the light glimmer on the ruby. She reached for it, and he dropped it into her outstretched palm. She inspected it carefully, presumably searching for any flaws in the gem or surrounding metal. When she was satisfied, she nodded to a pair of men, standing by several small chests in a cart. They brought the cart over to Vadde, and his gesture, deposited beside him. "You do good work, bounty hunter." The woman conceded. "I may have work for you in the future."

"Pleasure doing business, ma'am." He replied, grabbing the carts handles. He left the keep, Ash in tow. A quick stop at his safehouse, located in Riftens warehouse district, and with enough traps to keep out all but the most determined thieves, and the pair of hunters headed to the Bee and Barb. Soon enough, they were laden with mugs of ale, a table to themselves, and more than content to spend most of the night in the tavern.

Ash hefted his mug, "to a hunt well done."

Vadde nodded, and clanked his own against the Argonians. "Aye. And many more to come."

The other bounty hunter eyed him over the rim of his mug. After finishing his drink and setting it down, he asked, "you think Maven will contract us to look into these disappearances?"

The Nord shrugged. "Don't know. She's the jarl of the Rift now. She can probably just have her court wizard search out whoever's behind it."

"And what, send the guard to deal with it?" Ash laughed, and Vadde couldn't contain a chuckle of his own. They both knew the Riften guard only helped those who made monthly 'donations' to them. And Vadde suspected Maven made more than a little profit off of those donations.
He shrugged, neither knowing nor overly troubled by it. "We'll have to wait and see." He concluded, waving the serving girl over to their table for more drinks.

The rest of the night went by with the two hunters spending more time drinking, and less talking. By the time Vadde fell into his bed, with a woman whos name he didn't know, nor care to know, the inn was all but deserted. He woke up several hours later, with a warm body pressed against him. He glanced towards the window, wincing, even though it was an overcast day. He extracted himself from the bed, ignoring the womans' mumbled complaint. Once dressed and rearmed, he headed downstairs. Ash wasn't in the common room though the noise of some excitement carried to him from outside.

He found his friend leaning against the wall of the inn, watching a group of guards haul something from the canal. It took Vadde a moment to realize it was a corpse. "One of the missing farmers?" He asked.

Ash shook his head and pointed past the ring of guards, who were trying to disperse the crowd of curious onlookers. "A legionnaire. From fort Greenwall, I'd guess."

"Didn't know bandits were brave enough to go after Imperial soldiers." Vadde said, scratching at the stubble on his chin. One of the guardsmen shifted slightly, and he got a better look. In that instant, he knew that no bandit had killed the soldier. Most of the right side of his torso was missing, simply torn away. From the sharp intake of breath, it was clear Ash had seen it as well. "Well," Vadde muttered, "I guess it's not bandits behind this."
 

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