Somewhere in Dustown
38 Autumn, 10 months after Garbon’s death
Ethan looked at the short list in front of him. It held five pictures representing five people – shorthand crafted by an organized but illiterate young man.
Ethan was very good at finding people. If his friends were hiding in Northgate, odds were good he was going to find them. Once he had eyes on each of them, he could figure out a way to deliver a message to ensure each knew where to meet, how to dress, and who to look for during the Autumn’s Turn Festival.
“Ok. Let’s get started…”
The first image was a circle with red hair. A single check went by that name. He knew where Vanja was for the time being.
Next came an image of a fox.
Ethan didn’t expect to find Roux in a bar. More specifically, Ethan didn’t expect to find Roux in front of a bar that he’d just been thrown out of. Three men squared off against him in the street. The fight did not go his way although it was far from one-sided. Of course, Ethan understood that Roux wasn’t really fighting with those men; they were just giving him something to swing at.
The three men eventually limped away, leaving Roux bleeding, leaning against a building and calling for the cowards to come back and finish what they’d started. Ethan watched as Roux eventually walked away himself, pushing through a group of onlookers. He looked terrible even beyond the beating he’d just received. He looked… like his father.
Ethan wasn’t sure what to do with this. He hadn’t expected to find Roux like this. Ethan was good at lying and murdering people – Roux needed some hard truths and was already well on his way to killing himself.
He followed his friend back to the apartment where he was staying. The place was a dump. The kind of place drunks who spend all their money on drink live.
Bishop spent most the night hours talking to Ethan about the perils of alcohol. About how it could ruin even the strongest of men. How people who found themselves in its clutches often needed immense amounts of care and even then, relapsed often. It was a life-long struggle. One that Bishop knew all too much about from personal experience…
Ethan understood this was sage advice.
Sage advice he proceeded to ignore completely.
Roux awoke to a bucket of very cold water thrown across him. He was sick with disorientation – a hangover amplified by freezing temperatures and the bright light of day beaming into the room after the leather flaps that acted as blinds were cut down.
“Wake up!” Ethan added, completely unnecessarily. “Daylight’s a burnin’ boy! Get yer hide in gear and get to workin!” his vocal impression of Arlo was impressively accurate, although Ethan had no idea how the man actually talked to Roux; he couldn’t remember seeing the two ever have a conversation.
Roux staggered, retched, and attempted to both attack and defend a figure that wasn’t within range. His fury was that of a vicious, blind, sick animal.
Once he finally collected himself enough to understand what was happening, he noted his friend standing with a now empty bucket in front of him. “E… Ethan?” he asked. There seemed an appropriately implied ‘what the fuck?’ added to his name.
Ethan wasn’t in costume; he assumed Roux’s head would have enough thrown at it without Ethan appearing as a complete stranger.
“Yeah. I found out who the Wolf is. We’re going to kill him and cause a whole mess of trouble for the Swans …” Ethan watched as the disorientation began to thin out and his old friend, sick or not, started coming back.
“But I don’t have time to babysit a drunk so… I’m just going to show up each day and throw a bucket of cold water on you until you’re sober enough to stop me.” Ethan opened the door to the outside and started walking away. “See you tomorrow, buddy!”
After the third day being woken up this way Roux had done a reasonable job of barring the door (but not the window), and by the fifth day Ethan had a fresh new bruise beneath his eye and a pleasant smile on his face.
Ethan checked off the boxes next to the fox.
The next image was of some crudely sketched trees.
Getting in touch with Bax was easy. Ethan had to reestablish a communication line through the street kids since The Baker ‘died’ in the apartment fire and the kids didn’t know Ethan from Adam. That was easier than it sounds – the kids didn’t trust him but they delivered his message, used Ethan’s name. Bax had confirmed that he was friend and the new line was set.
This time, all he had to do was approach that particular gang of street urchins and they would relay the message to Bax (the next time he visited the city). Of course, the little bastards also played a small game of extortion with Ethan, raising the price of a message each time; the cost was up to twenty-five copper. Ethan felt confident they would deliver the message even if he refused to pay, but he also didn’t want to risk alienating the group. They seemed to have a fondness for Bax but life on the streets was often a game of survival and long-distant friendships could be fickle things even under the best of circumstance.
So he paid them.
The real challenge was in knowing how much information to try to pass along. Ethan settled on a compromise. He gave the kids three silver to tell Bax a time and a place to meet. He was to meet with a prostitute Ildylen’tra at The Majestic in Dustown, and asked her for the “midnight special.” Ethan didn’t trust the kid to remember the name (in spite of her insistence) so he handed her a sealed letter as well. Inside, there was a decent picture of the dark-skinned half-elf. She wore her hair trimmed short – even if she decided to change it, it wasn’t going to grow out in a matter of weeks and this way Bax knew a face even if he couldn’t remember the name.
Ethan would have to arrange for Ildylen’tra to hold a costume for Bax and would need to arrange for Vanja to be expecting him. Bax would get the real meeting place from her. In costume (and leaving from a highly trafficked brothel), the two could even travel to the meeting place together.
Simple enough.
He checked off both boxes for Bax, trusting the kids to deliver what Bax needed to know.
The next image was a pair of theater masks.
Despite his best efforts, Ethan was not able to locate Talith. Based on his freshly designed Wanted posters, he assumed his friend was still somewhere close by (and had likely had recent encounters with Swan soldiers). Yet he couldn’t find any leads.
The only places Ethan had yet to check were the personal homes of the Great Houses and the Painted Swan barracks. He couldn’t risk checking either of those places, but both also seemed unlikely to be housing his friend. Talith didn’t know any nobles (that Ethan could recall) and he seemed unlikely to join as a rank and file soldier with his face plastered around the city.
Ethan was at a loss. For the time being, it seemed his friend had disappeared.
He’d have to hope one of the others knew something of his whereabouts…
The costume he adorned was elaborate by any standard. He appeared almost a hundred pounds heavier, most of it from his enormous fake belly. He had bulbous nose, unappealingly thin whiskers, and a bad completion. The Fat Man wore a threadbare suit and hat and a single gold tooth. Ethan had become a very ugly man. It was perfect.
He snuck into Vanja’s room and was waiting for her when she returned. She was startled by the appearance of a stranger. Ethan noted fresh cuts and bruises but he was too deep into character to give them much consideration.
“Evening!” the Fat Man said. “Saw you last time I was here getting myself pleasured. Madam insisted you wasn’t a working girl, but I paid her five gold so she let me wait in here for ye to come back. She said she was sure you and I could work something out…” He grinned an unappealing grin.
Vanja didn’t respond with words. Instead, the silence of the room carried the audible popping of the girl’s knuckles as she balled each hand into a fist…
Ethan had to leave out the window because his costume was very much ruined before he was able to explain the joke, and the thrashing she dispensed didn’t end immediately after he finished announcing himself.
Still, he managed to give her the time and place where the meeting would take place. What’s more she knew that Bax was going to be sent to her by Ildylen’tra earlier that same night.
Ethan marked off the last image from his checklist with two swabs of cotton in each nostril; Vanja had refused to use her healing magic for some reason…
Episode navigation
Previous
Previous:
Vanja, Meet Ethan (Bax)
The New Client (Talith, Vanja)
After the Fire (Ethan)
Spoiling for a Fight (Roux, Vanja)Next
Next:
Arrival (Astarael)
Two Meetings (Roux)
S12 E01: The Autumn Festival (All)
Back to: