Adrian8562

In the rotting port city of Daggerfall seventeen year old Kael Vos moves in the shadows not out of principle, but because it’s the only way to survive. Fresh to the city and tied to the howlers, a street gang clawing for relevance in a city choked by crime, Kael takes the jobs he’s given no questions asked. He’s not a killer, not yet but he’s no hero either, just another blade trying to make rent. 

When a simple debt collection job goes sideways Kael finds himself branded unreliable. He’s caught between rival factions ready to tear each other apart. Nine criminal houses carve Daggerfall to pieces, the cities noble lord looks the other way as long as his belly stays full. 

As pressure mounts Kael must chose between playing the pawn in a game he barely understands or carving his own path In a city that eats men like him alive. But survival in Daggerfall comes with a cost, and blood always pays.

daggerfall: the nine nooses

The stone was ahead he saw it for a second, clutched in the arms of the shortest boy, darting between two carts stacked with burlap and splintered crates

Kael followed, boots slapping stone still wet from last nights rain, pain flaring in his stitched side. He gritted through it. Didn't stop

But the kid turned sharply between two buildings narrow, jagged with crates and old scaffolding. Kael followed and hit a wall of noise

The alley spilled into a busy back lot, crowded with market runoff and crates being loaded onto wagons. Shouts. Metal on wood. Dozens of people

He spun, checked faces, checked corners nothing. Just the fading echo of footsteps and his own pulse pounding in his ears

He stood there for a moment, catching his breath, hands on his knees

Then turned back, slower this time. The weight in his coat gone. The sting in his side louder

Kael stepped into the candle lit room, closing the door behind him. The air inside was thick with bitter herbs. Mara sat where she had before, hunched over her table, grinding something dark and oily in a clay bowl

She paused. Just for a breath. Then kept grinding. "So you lost my stone."

"I didn't ask what happened," she said, not looking at him. "I asked if you brought it."

She let the mortar drop into the bowl with a soft thud, then pushed herself up with a groan. She crossed to a cabinet and opened it with one hand

"You know how many stones I keep stocked?" she asked, rummaging inside

"Two." She pulled out a small cloth bundle, no bigger than a closed fist. "One for my work. One just in case someone like you fails me"

"Since you lost mine," she said, "you're going to make it up to me, by delivering this"

Kael eyed the bundle. Wrapped in gray cloth. Tied with twine. No markings. Didn't rattle

"Not yours to ask." She looked him in the eye for the first time. "Take it to a man named Uren. Stall twenty four, Hollow Row. Gray canopy with a cracked sign."

Kael stared at the bundle a second longer

"You hand it to him. You say it's from Mara. That's all. Don't open it. Don't look sideways at it. Just deliver."

Kael hesitated for a second thinking what might be in the cloth eventually though he took it, slipping it into the inside of his coat right where the stone used to be

She nodded. "And Kael don't drop this one."