“I’m sorry to see you go. You’ve been a big help to us.” The merchant held out a small bag of coin, and Erik took it from him with a slight bow.

“Always glad for the job, and you can’t be too careful now-a-days.” Erik had ridden alongside the second, and largest, merchant caravan that had entered Milliard County from the Rithan Duchy. Disguised as a mercenary, he’d fended off one attempt to sabotage the caravan and one attack by a bear who was eager to eat some of the more perishable goods. The merchants only knew about the bear. Erik kept his encounter with the thieves a secret since he’d dealt with them out of range of the caravan during the night.

“More reason for us to wish you were continuing on with us. But you’re meeting that friend of yours you mentioned here in Yivim, right? Too bad.” The merchant’s wife put her hand to her cheek and pouted.

Erik flashed her a winning smile. “I’m sure you’ll do fine past this point.” He didn’t mention that Duke Rithan’s men were continuing to tail them from here on out. He had a bit of investigating to do here in this border town, so he’d have to part ways with them.

“Right, right. Take care then.” The merchant and his wife rejoined the caravan, and the group urged their horses forward.

“Now, let’s see….” Erik walked down the main street, his horse’s lead in his hand. He spotted the inn when he came in sight of the market square. It was the largest building on one end. Next to it on one side was a small courier station, and on the other side were the town offices.

He tied his horse’s lead to one of the posts outside the courier station, and went inside. He dodged a young man heading out with a bag full of letters and parcels and found the head courier behind the counter.

“Anything for Ignatious Menthi?” he asked, leaning his elbow on the counter. While the duke’s shadows wouldn’t contact him directly unless there was an emergency, they would send regular reports under his alias to the local courier stations. His first order of business would be to check up on any reports that had been sent.

“Hm? You’re Mr. Menthi? I was thinking those letters were misdirected since I didn’t know anyone by that name in town.”

“Yes, I’m traveling through, but I left my travel schedule with my parents and fiance. They like to write me when I’m on the road.” Erik smiled, illiciting an echoing smile from the courier.

“Ah, I see. How lucky you are to get letters as you travel. One moment.” The head courier stepped into the back room. In a moment, he returned with two letters in nondescript, but thick envelopes.

Erik thanked the head courier, took his letters, and stepped into a small corner of the courier station with his back to the corner. No one was likely to disturb him for a bit here. First, he looked over the envelopes, only his alias’s name and the town name were on them, but what he was looking for was evidence that they’d been opened and read by someone they shouldn’t have.

The glue that was used was quite strong and would tear and fray the paper when opened. Even if someone wanted to glue it back together and did so perfectly, the distress would be impossible to cover up unless they replaced the whole envelope, and thankfully, the envelope paper seemed to be consistent with what the shadows had sent in the past. With a little flow of mana from his fingertips, the hidden fibers in the paper darkened just a bit.

Taking out his small knife, he slit open the first one. It seems luck may be on our side.

The letter was a coded report about how the first small merchant’s wagon had had an accident. The horse appeared badly injured. The shadow tailing them wasn’t allowed to step in unless the wagon was under attack, so they had been forced to watch as their first bit of hope to get good merchants and goods into Milliard had a run-in with bad luck. But it seemed that a young lady had helped get the horse back on its feet–though perhaps it wasn’t as badly hurt as was first though–before leaving in a hurry. The shadow had tailed the young lady a short ways before going back to the merchant wagon, and reported that the young lady had seemed quite ill after helping the merchants, but soon recovered some. Once the shadow was certain the young lady wasn’t dangerous or about to collapse off her horse, they had returned to the merchant wagon and drafted this report. A sketch of the young lady in question was included as well at the bottom of the report.

This one is quite thorough. The situation seemed a bit odd, but the important thing was that the merchant wagon got to continue on to Mills Yard. It was probably nearly there by now. He took another glance at the sketch. It was decent and showed the most notable features. Quite decent looking.

He folded the letter up and put it in his coat’s inner pocket before opening the second one. This one simply confirmed that a watcher was already in place for the caravan that just left and that the road ahead towards Mills Yard seemed clear.

So, the trouble lies here in Yivim or between Yivim and Rithan. He’d had a lot of time to think about things on the ride to Yivim, and even more so when he’d interrogated the thieves that had hid near the road and targeted the caravan. He’d secured those few that had surrendered and left them to get picked up later. But they had mentioned that their boss had just told them that good supplies were coming through that day, and they had set up to take advantage of it. It seemed like a good excuse, except when it was clear from earlier reports that only the merchants coming in from Rithan had been getting attacked. Clearly somewhere up the chain, someone was targeting those bringing quality goods into Milliard County.

He folded and stored the second letter away and headed out of the station. Shielding his eyes from the glare of low-angle sunlight, he reclaimed his horse’s lead and walked the market square. All seemed fairly quiet. The market was mostly deserted since it was nearing evening time. But the frantic tone in a voice nearby broke the stillness and caught his attention.

“Are you sure? You’re absolutely certain that you can’t buy these from me? I’ll even take just what the stones are worth if that’s what you can give me.” The woman’s voice sounded desperate. Erik knew that only something bad could make someone that desperate to sell some jewels. And while the current state of Milliard County certainly qualified as desperate times, the next statement had Erik’s instincts on high alert.

“Miss, I’m sorry. Even the stones are high enough quality that I couldn’t give you what they are worth, let alone sell them. I’m not a jeweler by trade. You’d be better off trying to sell something like that in Rithan. I could tell you I’d buy them, but I wouldn’t think you’d accept the little I could give you for them. I just want to be honest with you.” The shop keeper scratched his head and sighed.

“Okay. I see. Sorry to bother you then.” The woman’s voice sounded completely dejected. Clutching the items she’d tried to sell to her chest, she turned around. That was when Erik saw the woman’s face. It was the young woman from the sketch.

Looks like she’s only gotten bad luck despite doing some good on the road here. That didn’t sit right with Erik, especially knowing what she had done had helped the duke’s plans. Not to mention the report had said she seemed ill as well. Could she possibly be selling those jewels to get medicine? Then why was she traveling if she was ill?

Erik stepped forward. “Miss, I couldn’t help but overhear. May I take a look at what you’re selling? I’m on my way to get some food and drink at the inn. Mind if we talk there?”

She looked up so sharply that the hood of her cloak fell back. Her dark silver hair shone like steel in the sun, and even through the travel dust and dirt, she was pretty and held herself differently from other townsfolk he’d seen.

“A meal? I don’t have any money on me. I was trying to sell these to get some to travel with, so I’m afraid I won’t be able to buy anything at the inn. But if you’re willing to buy these jewels from me, I’d be grateful.” The look she gave him was guarded, but she clearly didn’t have many options it seemed, so talking to a man dressed as a traveling mercenary wasn’t something she could avoid.

“I can cover the meal, don’t worry. We can deduct it from what I owe you for the jewels if I purchase them. But if I don’t, then consider it a consolation for wasting your time. There’s no need to feel obligated.” Erik began walking towards the inn, knowing she would likely follow once he made a move to leave.

“Well, if you insist. We can talk over a meal.” Her words and tone were firm, making it clear that just talking over a meal would be all that was involved. Erik had to give her points for that. She put her hood back up, her graceful movements once again making her stand out, and grabbed her horse’s lead before following him.

With the words of that report starting to replay in his mind, the mystery of this woman seemed to grow as he watched her out of the corner of his eye. Well, I needed to visit the inn to catch some gossip anyway. Perhaps I can take care of more than one thing this way. He’d see that the woman’s good deed was repaid, maybe unravel a bit of a mystery at the same time, have a good drink with company instead of alone–which he detested–and still manage to keep an ear out for any leads for his investigation here in town.

Yes, perhaps I’ll find out why there’s desperate woman who moves and talks like a noble selling jewels no common person would be able to get their hands on legally.

When they’d both tied their horses to the posts, Erik gave a boy standing outside the inn a few coppers to give the two horses some feed while they were there. Then, he held the door of the inn’s common room open for the woman.

“After you, miss,” he said with a smile.