A woman’s schemes
Jay decided to question van Claven's daughter next. She seemed close to her father and Jay thought it would be most probable that she knew something about their background and plans.
Her father had willingly told about their past, but only the part were the Defiers still had been the victims. For the rest of the story, Jay doubted it would be that easy to learn about it.
Taking the careful approach, Jay even knocked as he entered her room.
Vanessa still lay on the bed with her eyes closed, but Jay noticed she was awake. Closing in on the bed he sat down on the border and silently looked at her.
"You can stop faking to be asleep…" J.
"Where is my dad?" V.
"The cells next door. He told me of his sad past…" J.
"Then what do you want from me?" V.
"I want to learn about the plans you had after plundering Millshire and where your were set on sailing.
What was your job in all of this and how did an intelligent young woman you are end up like this?" J.
"The answer to how I ended here is simple. I followed my father in his plan to throw over the rulers of this kingdom. He is my only family left after my mother died in the fires of Arathor…" V.
"You're talking about the fires you Defiers laid?" J.
"Yeah, as if…" V.
"No, it's true. I heard it first time as I met a man called Erlan Drudge and couldn't believe it as well. It was some sort of revenge for not paying the craftsmen after they rebuild the city and reinforced Arathor's defense." J.
"LIES! YOU'RE LYING!!!" V.
"Scream however much you want, but it won't change this fact…" J.
"I won't believe you, ever!" V.
After letting Vanessa calm down a bit again, Jay went on with his questioning. She didn't really refuse to talk, mostly because Jay had hinted her father had talked as well.
This way he learned why they kept hiding in these mine.
Her father had negotiated with a group calling themselves the Bloodsails. They were Pirates operating in the south and van Claven had planned to join them and attack the sea routes to Arathor next.
For that they needed a ship and together with some ship builders and engineers he had started to construct the Juggernaut.
It was going to be the spearhead of the attack force once it got finished, but the construction took years, even with the support of the goblin workers. Because of that they had searched for a place to hide in advance and after her father got a hint, found this cave facing the south.
To his question what van Claven had promised the Bloodsails, Vanessa only had a vague idea. She hadn't been present when her father made the deal, but she knew they had to buy themselves in.
His guess was that being the reason they hoarded gold and valuable ores from Millshire and the Kingdom.
But to his surprise she stated they only took half of it like they had agreed with the leaders of Millshire.
That brought Jay to another question he had to ask. It was about Arya and her connection to the Defiers, to be more precise if she worked together with them.
"As far as I know that girl threw a tantrum in Millshire when she got wind of what was going on there. In the end she couldn't do anything and was sent down here to survey the progress of our operation." V.
"I can't believe she'd do such a thing like surveying when she was so against betraying the kingdom, right?" J.
"That was no problem after the higher ups there had enslaved her. My guess is that her nagging had kept the duchess from whoring around and so she got rid of that bitch." V.
"Seems you two don't get along?" J.
"Hmpf, that little whore is like her mother. She made my dad pretty eyes and wouldn't stop even after I told her to. She denied she was doing that, so I had to take more drastic measures." V.
"Oh, and those where?" J.
"I had hidden a couple of gold bars and bags of gold shortly after she had visited the storage where we stored them previously. Then I went to my father and told him that we were missing quite some funds.
He instantly went and checked that, only to find we really were missing some. That had been about a week ago…" V.
"And then?" J.
"The plan fired backwards. Instead of keeping her away from him, my dad had her compensate for the loss. To my surprise that was with her body, but being his plaything she was off limit for me to mess with…" V.
A bit disgusted by her jealousy, Jay rose from the bed and went towards the door.
To her question what was going to happen with them, he really had no answer to that point in time. She surely was a beauty and even had quite some skill, but her devotion for her father was creepy to say the least.
If he could stop her from believing her father blindly, things would be different.
For latter, his fate was sealed. There was no way Jay would let the man live on, but he had some questions to be answered first.
One of those questions was still who the backers for their plans to revolt in the kingdom were.
With that in mind, Jay went back to the cell room and again sat on the chair he had placed opposite to van Claven's cell. After taking the same relaxed position as before he again asked for the people supporting him.
Like Jay had guessed van Claven kept silent and only stared at the youth before him.
That look he threw Jay would have been quite intimidating, had the once proud leader not been tied up and unable to move other than like a worm.
"If you don't want to tell me about those backers, then what about the little Miss Arya? I heard she got send down to the mines to watch your progress…" J.
"The girl? What does it concern you?
If you have some kind of crush on her then I'm sorry to tell you, but you should forget about her." EvC.
"What are you implying?" J.
"Heh, she had stuck out like a sore thumb up there in Millshire and got herself enslaved. I know that because she got ordered to listen to my command.
At first everything went well, but last week my daughter had told me the girl stole some of our gold. That was something I couldn't ignore. But I guess she made up for it with her innocence." EvC.
Van Claven had a victorious grin on his face as he gave his answer. Jay though sat unperturbed in the same relaxed position he had been in the whole time.
It took his captive some time to notice that until he had to ask himself about it.
"If you are not some kind of admirer, then why did you ask about the girl?" EvC.
"If she was your plaything, then what about the goblin I found humping her?" J.
"Oh that… She hadn't admitted her betrayal even after I asked her. When Captain Greenskin asked for a bonus hire as his men got ahead of schedule, it seemed like the perfect solution to me to grant him some time with her…" EvC.
"Perfect solution?… Okay, back to the first question: Who in the capital is backing your group?" J.
"…" EvC.
"No Answer again? Fine… The girl has a name by the way, it's Arya!" J.
Raising from the chair, Jay left without looking back.
In his mind he had already started picturing how van Claven would meet his end. Dismissing those thoughts a bit irritated of himself, Jay went back to the young woman he had just asked about.
He had given her more than enough time to calm down and as he by then knew she really was a victim there, he needed to free her as soon as possible.
Knocking carefully and then opening the door, Jay found her still sitting on the sofa. The only difference was she had the blanket he gave her thrown over her shoulders and seemingly found another one close by to lay over her legs.
After he reached her, Jay instantly stored the rope binding her away and sat down next to her.
Arya first rubbed her wrists and thanked him, then inquired why he suddenly released her. Jay told her he had learned of what happened to her, so he released her first thing.
She smiled and thanked him, then rose from the sofa and walked over to the closest buccaneer, grabbed the dead man's shit and turned back to Jay. She didn't seem the least bothered that she had been completely nude in front of Jay, except of the black collar around her neck.
He had gotten a nice view on her slender body, the pert butt and her relatively flat chest until she had put on the white shirt. Not only in her mindset was Arya quite different to her mother.
"Say, how did you get enslaved if I may ask? I didn't even know it was possible with nobles like yourself…" J.
"Though I think the why is more important, I got no problem to answer that first. It was a woman that had arrived in Millshire about two weeks ago. I didn't know her or met her before, but she came visiting me after I learned about what my mother is doing…" A.
"A blonde woman in her late twenties?" J.
"You met her?" A.
"Only briefly, but I already had a hunch. I'm really sorry to press for it, but can we go back to the enslavement once again. …" J.
"No problem. What you said previously is at least half true, as nobles can get enslaved like anybody else, but nobody would normally dare to do so.
In my case it's a bit special though.
What they did with me is called eternal enslavement. I even got brought to some ruins outside Millshire. I can't say for sure but my guess would be it was to the east and quite far, but I had been blindfolded the whole time since they ride loaded me on the carriage, sorry."
"Eternal enslavement?" J.
"Though I say this, I have no clue myself... It was something I picked up from the man who did some kind of ritual back then.
Before you ask, I couldn't see him as they took the blindfold off only when I was already brought down here to the mines." A.
"Thought as much, but that's enough to work with. That brings us to the why then, right?" J.
"Got some brain in that pretty head of yours, huh? Yes, I had already told you I had noticed things going awry, when I followed one of those shady people going in and out of the mansion and the warehouses. The people there had clearly been some kinds of bandits and stating my name I had the chance to look around.
Contrary to what got made public our goods and gold in stock was plenty, so one evening I snuck into my mothers office to searched for proofs of her betraying the kingdom.
I found and read some letters with pretty obvious instructions to close off all other mines and such things.
It was also then when I learned how grave our financial issues had really been.
The real problem though hadn't been the lowering income, even the risen taxes and demands for Arathor were manageable, though not easy to do so:
The expenses for people I never knew had gotten higher than she could manage, until suddenly all of those expenses stopped.
A number of funerals matching the one of those clients got paid a short while after the expenses stopped, so I could imagine what happened..." A.
"Did you tell anybody about it?" J.
"At first I didn't, as I only thought those people had to do with her lifestyle and sexual tendencies… yes I knew about them. Whoring around in the whole house was something she couldn't keep secret form her child that lives there as well!
The moment I had found a proof, I confronted her directly, but not before I wrote a letter to Arathor.
The result is what you see now: I got myself enslaved by that woman and sent into the mines only to get sullied by that bastard. It's not like I give too much on appearance, but I can say my life is pretty much ruined…" A.
"Hey, ain't you still the tough and intelligent young woman from before? I mean, the truth behind it is something else like I just learned, but back then your mother tasked me to find and possibly rescue you.. And I plan to fulfill my task!" J.
"And what then? You think I get to leave the place ever again when I'm back?" A.
"We'll see about that when the time comes. To where did you sent the letter?" J.
"It went to the royal court, more precisely to the only person I know personally there, Lady Katarina Preston. She is a noble from a family that is part of the royal court since generations and once visited Millshire. It's not like I could address it directly to the court, right?" A.
"Yeah, I guess, though it's a shame something like this isn't possible. I'll report about that once I go back to the capital." J.
"Let's see if that works out." A.
After sitting together in silence for a few seconds, Jay took out an apple from his inventory and offered it to Arya. She gladly took it while throwing him a "thanks" and began eating.
Only after half of it was gone and they had sat there a bit longer in silence, did Jay resume to their talks.
He recounted to her what he recently learned from Vanessa.
It was about her telling her father that Arya ripped them off because she thought her getting too close to van Claven.
"WHAT did that mean cunt do??? You're kidding, right?" A.
"Nope, sorry.
That girl has real daddy issues…" J.
"Heh, yeah. And those are totally unfounded if I may add!
Believe me, I got a taste of it when he first deflowered me thanks to that bitch." A.
Hanging his head a little as he had no good reply to her words, even though she even sounded mocking stating them, Jay rose from the sofa again.
Arya grabbed his hand in that moment, thinking he was shying away to her statement and told him not to feel sorry for her as it couldn't be helped anymore anyway.
To that Jay gave her a small smile and went to the door after excused himself for a while. The woman who tricked both, her father and Arya was going to learn about the truth, even if she didn't want to.