Search and scandal

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a well decorated and decently made room of an inn, I don't remember much from last night other than bringing back Silaqui's sword to her brother and his family. I decided since my job was done and I could finally move on with my life, I put my clothes back on, however, my coin pouch felt a lot lighter than usual. I went over to a small table in the room and emptied it, the only thing that was in there was a pile of copper pieces, "Son of a….how did this even happen?" I asked myself as I paced the room, I tried to remember to the best of my ability what happened last night. After I delivered the letters and the sword, I went back to the inn, I drank, I ate and then I...Then it hit me, there was another person in the room with me. As soon as I could remember her face a flood of memories came and hit me like a rogue wave at sea.

Last night I followed the half-elf, Alethra was her name, she took my key to the room and opened the door for me, as soon as we came in she pushed me against the door and pressed her body against mine, already breathing heavily she began to kiss my neck as I undid the strings of her bodice, without any of my help she took it right of and we kissed passionately, lust took us over as this kiss was not of love but simply of physical attraction. I undid the buttons of her shirt and felt her nearly nude upper body, it didn't last too long as she almost, with a bestial ferocity began to take off all of my armor. Once it was all off, all I remember was seeing her whenever lightning flashed from the window, I watched her as she climbed on top of me. Most of it was moaning and heavy breathing as we spent the night together passionately entwined in each other's arms, then there was a moment, she was on top of me. She took out a vial that had a pinkish-purple glow to it, her eyes began to glow the same color as she poured this glowing liquid into my mouth, from there it was pure black nothing until I woke up. She must have used this mysterious potion to erase my memory of last night and take all my gold and silver pieces.

I stormed downstairs to meet with the goliath bartender, "Ah, good morning friend, how did you sleep last night?" he asked as he was cleaning a glass, "Do you know where Alethra went?!" I asked, he gave me a very confused and concerned look, "Who?" "Alethra. You know, the half-elf that works here?" I said. He looked even more confused, "Sorry friend, there's only five people that work here, that's me, Embos our Dragonborn cook, Travok, and his sister Eridred our dwarven financial advisors, they take care of taxes and such, and finally sweet little Gynnie, she's the only barmaid here, recently she's been a little bit sick, however last week she sent us a letter saying she's starting to feel much better and will likely come back to work next week." "Well that's nice and all, but have you at least seen a half-elf woman? Slim hourglass figure, long dark brown hair, dark hazel eyes? Any of it ring a bell?" The goliath shook his head, then the cook he mentioned spoke up, he was a silver scaled Dragonborn, "Oi! I've seen her!" he said, "You have?" "Yeah, thought she was a new hire so I didn't pay any real attention to her, didn't see her for the rest of the night till before you came down." "She must have planned it the whole time, find some outsider, take him to bed, take all the silver and gold in their pocket, and leave. She also used a potion to modify my memory, make me forget about last night, thankfully I'm not stupid enough to not notice that my coin pouch was lighter." After a quick drink that was on the house, they pointed me to the town guard's tower, told me I should talk to them further about the situation.

I made my way over to the tower, it was relatively tall, nothing too impressive, it was simple brick and mortar, the door was pretty nice to look at, it was much bigger from the inside, I walked down to a desk where an elven woman with black hair and a large scar over her left eye sat, she seemed to be writing down notes or forms of some kind, she looked up at me, "What do you need boy? And make it quick, as you can see I have my hands full." "I was robbed last night, skimming over many unnecessary details it was a half-elf woman, slim hourglass figure with dark brown hair, dark hazel eyes, her name is Alethra." "Very well, since it's likely only been a few hours since the crime happened, and you seem to be able to take care of yourself, let's make a deal." "What kind of deal?" "my son joined the guards some time ago and well he's had a hard time making friends and mostly been avoiding any serious work." "And what? You want me to be his friend or something?" She let out a deep sigh, "Well...not exactly, he just needs a good kick in the pants to get him going and not be afraid to deal with this line of work. Go along with him to find this woman, chase her down, if she puts up a fight, let him knock her out, something to get his motor running." I took a moment to think about it, it would be nice to get some help in this endeavor, besides, with her ability for potions I'd need all the help I could get. "Fine, but I'd like payment for this venture." "I'll give you 300 platinum." I wanted to negotiate at least 100-500 gold but when she said those very words, I closed my mouth faster than a tabaxi monk and shook her hand, "You got it." "He's probably in his quarters now, it's on the third floor and the sixth door on the right." I nodded and proceeded to walk up the stairs.

Once I was on the third floor I stayed on the right-hand side of the hallway when I found the room I heard something going on inside, I could barely make out what was being said inside the room when out of the room walked out a human man with short brown hair and a chin strap beard came walking out with a huge smile on his face, when he saw me he somewhat maintained it, "Ah sorry friend, didn't mean to startle you. I'll be on my way now." He walked away at a quickened pace. I looked into the room and saw a rather pretty looking half-elf standing there, his platinum blonde hair tied into a low messy bun, he had a slim but muscular figure, as mentioned he had a pretty face and steel grey eyes.

He leaned against a desk behind him and moved a loose hair behind his ear, I noticed he had a feather earring on as well as a loosened shirt and unbuckled pants, "So, how may I help you, stranger?" he asked looking me up and down, "Well, I-" Before I could say anything, he interrupted me, "Oh! my apologies," he said fixing his shirt and buckling his pants back up, "Where are my manners, my name is Dorn Aruanna, I suppose you have met with my mother downstairs, nothing but business that woman, never wants to have any fun. I just think she needs someone in her life to reignite that spark, that or simply someone whos willing to risk a broken pelvis bone to sleep with her, seriously that woman's thighs can crush watermelons, it was too much for my father to handle sadly, that or he died fighting a band on knolls as she said." I was severely confused as to how this spiral of a conversation transpired. I shook my head, "Well listen it's nice to meet you, now I have a problem with this half-elf lady." he raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

He walked behind a divider, "Tell me the situation, and please feel free to express every detail of how it happened." I turned around and told him what happened, from the moment I first met her, to what happened that night, to where we are now. He came back out from the divider adjusting the chest plate of his armor, "So my mother believes I can't handle something as simple as someone stealing money?" "Well that wasn't the point but I believe I owe you that much," I said inspecting my dagger, "Well then, let's get on it, shall we? I'll meet you outside, I just need to gather my supplies, my sword, and such you know." I nodded and walked back down the stairs and out the door, strangely enough on my way back down I didn't see Dorn's mother sitting at her desk, perhaps she went out to patrol the town or something, I'd rather not dwell on for too long. I walked out the door and leaned against the wall to wait for Dorn.

After about a good five to six minutes He came back out in his full armor, a bright blue cloak, a small hand crossbow at his hip, and on his back a large and very well made claymore. "So, as per your indications, we are looking for a half-elf female, slim, dark brown hair, and all correct?" "Yes. I don't know how long it'll take us to find her in this town, but I'll gladly stick by you until we d-" "Is that her?" He points directly at a half-elven woman, how as luck would have it, was the woman we were looking for, "by the fucking allfathers it is." As she passed us she looked in our direction and had to do a double-take, her eyes widened. We all stood there in silence before she took off running full speed, "Get her!" I yelled. We ran after her and chased her through alleyways, passed through fruit carts, hopping over knocked over tables and chairs, pushing aside anyone in our way, Dorn pulled out his hand crossbow and fired a bolt at her barely missing her ear, "Damn it!" he yelled.

It was already midday when we first found her and it was likely only 15 or 20 minutes of us chasing after her, but still felt like we had been chasing her for hours on end, "Gods damnit! Can this bitch just hold still as I try to shoot her? She ran down another alleyway and there was no one in sight, Dorn steadied his aim when he pulled the trigger of the crossbow, nothing happened and she turned a sharp right corner, "Jamming piece of junk!" He yelled as he threw it to the ground and smashed it to bits, "Let's go we're gonna lose her!" I said yanking him away from the current source of his frustration. We kept running after her, the sweat racing down our foreheads and drenching our faces, she started to run uphill when Dorn said, "I have a stupid idea." Without looking I replied, "Then do it, man!" I heard him unsheath his sword, and with a loud grunt, the next thing I saw was his claymore fly through the air and land directly in front of her burying itself in the path, she nearly fell backward and tried to run in the opposite direction when Dorn, in a full sprint, knocked her down onto the ground and started to put shackles on her wrists, "You...are….under arrest. Gods above woman how much stamina do you have?" She said nothing as he picked her up and walk her back to the tower. Though tired and covered in sweat she gave me a sly look, "You look like you did last night." she said as we walked her back, "Shut up." I said shaking my head.

When we made it back it was late in the afternoon and the sun was barely starting to set. A couple of the other guards were there to take her away, "Wait!" I stopped them, she looked up at me with a smile on her face and pursed her lips for me to kiss her, "I just came to get my money back." I took her coin pouch and emptied it on the desk as they took her away. "Let's see, I had one, two, three….50 gold and, one, two, 40 silver." I took back the amount I had and put the rest back in the pouch and left it on the desk, "Hey Dorn it looks like your mother isn't here yet." He looked around, "Yes, that is quite strange, she's here all the time, except when she's on patrol, but besides that, she never leaves for this long." "Yeah, she still needs to pay me for this whole thing." Dorn chuckled, how about we stay in my quarters for the moment, wait until she comes back. Until then we can drink and talk about things, How about it Mr.Crowfeather?" I shrugged and followed him up to his quarters where we sat around and drank and told each other about things that happened in our life.

I drank the last of the whisky in my glass before I said, "A-and after that ordeal, his father up and tried to kill me! It's not my fault your son had that much fun with me, besides I'm sure I wasn't the first, and I doubt that I won't be the last." Dorn chuckled as he poured me another glass, it was starting to get dark outside and it seemed his mother hadn't come back yet. "Oh my, Shane you lead such an interesting and wonderful life. You could continue it here," he said setting down his empty glass, "What do you mean?" "Join the Greyfort guard Shane. You won't need to pay off any debts, it's not too far from the sea so you can sail with your crew, the rain here isn't as bad as the storms down on the thunder coast, the only downside is the attacks from the goliath clan, but even those are starting to dwindle." I shook my head and kept drinking from my glass, "I doubt an Ulfguardian is welcome among the many ranks of the empire." "Well, if I can't convince you to stay here forever, I could at least convince you to stay for tonight." He set down his glass and drunkenly walked over to where I was sitting and placed his hands on my thighs and looked at me directly in the eyes, "What are you doing?" I asked him, he said nothing as he leaned in closer and planted his lips on mine, they felt soft, I could still taste the whisky on them, he moved down to my neck, at that moment I asked myself, "What am I doing?" I blocked out that question when he laid his lips on mine again.

Once again, I spent the night with a half-elf, only this time he didn't take my money. The night was full of gentle candlelight, a soft bed, and the sound of moaning, there were moments here and there where he softly nibbled at my ear and my neck. Though we ran after someone at top speed nonstop, drenched in sweat, he smelled somewhat of perfume, a sweet-smelling mix of an exotic floral arrangement along with a gentle aroma of perfectly ripe fruit. I could never get that smell out of my head, nor the touch of his skin, or the silkiness of his hair. Everything about that moment felt amazing. That is until the next morning, I hoped to wake up next to him and slowly start to wake him up myself, enjoy the moment with him a bit more, however, his mother had other plans.

I barely had my eyes open when she came in kicking the door wide open and yelling, "Dorn! Have you been sleeping with-" She stopped when she saw the both of us, I took in my surroundings as best I could, his mother wasn't alone, she had brought in the man from the other day, and another half-elf into the room, "Um...I can explain…" Dorn said, "You see we were waiting on you to come back, and we got to drinking and we just-" "Stop. You. Get dressed, get your payment and get out, same with you two." I awkwardly put my clothes back on, took my platinum, and left.

To this day I still wonder whatever happened to Dorn, some say that there was a huge scandal that was kept secret, others ay he left Greyfort and never returned, no one has had a solid lead on what happened to him, maybe one day I'll find out.