"My Lord Farmer…"
"Don't call me that. I'm no Lord." Interrupted Farmer. He hated when people associated him with the aristocratic world, even if it was just by calling him something like Lord with the best of intentions.
"Very well, good Farmer." The innkeeper rose to his feet and introduced himself with a bow. "My name is Zed and allow me to take this opportunity to offer my services or any assistance in whatever you may need."
"Actually," Replied Farmer as he smiled mysteriously. "I do need your help with something. I need you to smuggle my companions back to the port."
"But captain!" Complained Krill. "The plan was to scout the city and leave afterwards."
"Don't be a fool, Krill. I don't know why the city lord himself didn't come tonight, but there's no doubt in my mind that preparations are being made to close the city's gates tighter than a colossal dragon's arse. If I were Nightsky, I'd pressure me by targeting either my ship or my crew. I trust all of you to be able to take care of yourselves, but I don't want to risk it without having a full grasp of Nightsky's strength. That's why you'll all return to Alana's Regret tonight and tell Lampa to set sail into high waters. You need not worry about provisions; I'm confident I'll have successfully dealt with everything in seven days."
"Seven days?!" Exclaimed Zed. He was dumbfounded. To accomplish such a task in merely a week was something only a heavenly being could do.
"That's right." Confidently nodded Farmer.
"Farmer, you can't stay here by yourself." Spoke up Serena. "A few of us can leave, but you'll need others to stay behind in case you need to send a message."
"The young Lady is right, captain!" Echoed a few others.
Turning his eyes to look at everyone seated at the table, Farmer had a hard time to question the logic behind Serena's suggestion. Nonetheless, he came to a solution very quickly. "Fine, then. Jona, you'll stay with me. The rest of you will head back. That's an order."
There were a few groans of protest but no one voiced out their discontent. Thus, the party followed Farmer's instructions and immediately left the Little Garden with the accompaniment of Zed. Hidden within the cover of darkness, they were easily able to leave the city without any incident and they made their way towards Alana's Regret.
Little did they know, however, that a shadow was trailing them as they did so.
Zed returned to his inn half expecting it to have been attacked. He was relieved when he saw that everything was as he'd left it. Entering into the dining area, he was surprised to find that Farmer was nowhere to be seen.
With Farmer gone, Jona was taking care of his granddaughter who'd regained consciousness at some point during his brief absence. She was sitting at a table with a bowl of cheese and mushroom soup in front of her. Yet, the bowl was untouched and she held her head within her hands. With just one look, Zed could tell that she had been crying.
Sitting beside her, Jona was awkwardly trying to talk her into having something to eat. However, he was as clumsy with words as he was with women in general and was failing miserably.
"Grandfather!" Noticing the appearance of Zed, the waitress sprang to her feet and hurried to hide herself behind his back. "Grandfather, that man is still here…" She whispered timorously.
"Silly child." Sighed Zed as he pulled her into his embrace. "Don't you know who he is? He's the noble Farmer." Seeing the confusion in the girl's eyes, Zed continued. "He's the pirate lord of the Azure Sea to the South-West. But, worry not, his deeds are noble and heroic; he has saved thousands of unfortunate souls during his travels."
"Your grandfather speaks the truth." Spoke up Jona with pride. "The captain may act like a mad devil to scare evil men, but he treats with infinite kindness those who are nice to him. As Naosh preaches: repay a good deed with a river of blessings and evil acts with a river of blood."
"Come, now is not the time to speak of these things." Said Zed. "Where is your captain, good man?"
"My name is Jona, good Zed." Said the pirate bowing respectfully. "He has gone upstairs, to sit on a balcony."
"My child, I shall go speak to Farmer; you stay with the good Jona and have some of that delicious soup." Zed pushed his granddaughter and had her sit at the table, despite her still being visibly shaken. Nonetheless, she obeyed her grandfather and began eating.
Nodding in satisfaction, Zed left the room and climbed up the stairs in search of Farmer. He found him sitting on a chair on the balcony of the fourth storey, the highest in the inn, calmly taking in the view. Farmer was sitting with one leg crossed over the other in a relaxed position. In his hand was a half-emptied bottle of fire-ale; one of the strongest liqueurs in Zed's establishment.
"If you're worried about payment for the booze then don't worry, I left a gold coin on the bar when I took this bottle." Casually said Farmer without turning to look at Zed.
"Don't insult me, please. It is my honour to have you drinking here; I could not accept your payment in good faith."
"So this is what it feels like to be in the good graces of a mighty city lord, even if it's a former one." Farmer smiled and turned his head to smile knowingly at Zed and gestured the innkeeper to take a seat beside him.
For a moment, Zed looked at Farmer in utter shock before sighing and sitting down next to him. It was already clear to Zed that one couldn't examine Farmer with normal standards. "How did you know?"
"Please, Zed, don't insult me." Replied Farmer, sardonically imitating Zed's words. "It was a simple deduction. I merely asked myself why you would remain in my company after I tortured Nightsky's son; especially considering you have your granddaughter with you. After all, the man will seek reprisals for this matter. The answer to that can only be that you and the girl are already in a precarious position. I sincerely doubt anyone else would be foolish enough to welcome me unless the threat of death already loomed over their shoulders.
"Then I asked myself what your status could be that, despite being in danger here, you not only remain in the city of Yort but you established your own thriving business. I must confess my shortcomings because I did not find the answer immediately. At first, I guessed you might be a former brother in arms or a distant family member to Nightsky; but then you intended to request that I kill him. This fact alone showed me that the enmity between you two is one that cannot be understated. Thus, the only conclusion that follows is that you're the former city lord who had his position usurped.
"Knowing this, I had to ponder the true reason why you and your granddaughter still remain here, alive and well. This is a matter with which I am not confident in the answer I've come up with." Farmer chuckled deprecatingly to himself and continued. "As far as I can tell, it must be a mix of a few reasons. Firstly, Nightsky cannot kill you without a valid reason, lest he risk an uprising. Secondly, he wants to keep an eye on you so that you won't run off and raise an army to raid the city. As the former city lord, you must have a deep knowledge of the city's secret passages and other vulnerable spots; the prospect of laying siege to this city is nowhere near as daunting for you as it would be to anyone else. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, he's keeping you hostage for some reason. For what, however, I do not know just yet."
"Truly astonishing." Muttered Zed in a low voice. "You are indeed akin to a heavenly being. Your deduction is nearly flawless."
"Just nearly?" Asked Farmer in disappointment. "It seems I have yet to improve…"
"Good Farmer, your intelligence already far surpasses my own; to be able to understand so much from so little is already a testament to your heavenly wisdom. And at such a young age! To hear you say that you have yet to improve is to insult everyone in the world."
"You're overestimating me. I merely observed a few things." Replied Farmer humbly. Everything he knew, he learned from his late master. And, compared to him, Farmer still had a long way to go.
"I am not." Sighed Zed. If only his son had been half as capable as Farmer, then perhaps they wouldn't be in their current predicament, Zed thought to himself. "Please wait for a moment."
Standing up, Zed bowed respectfully to Farmer and left the balcony. After a few minutes, he returned carrying a neatly wrapped package which he gently placed on a table in front of Farmer.
"The matters of which we are speaking now are ones that need the accompaniment of the finest of wines." After saying this, Zed unwrapped the package and revealed a finely decorated onyx bottle. He then opened it and poured two glasses out for them.
Smelling the alluring floral fragrance, Farmer couldn't help himself from saying "Good wine!" with a smile on his face.
"This was given to me on the day of my son's wedding. It's a nearly six-hundred-year-old dwarven wine, brewed from a mixture of arcane herbs and wild fruit. I sincerely hope it is to your liking."
"You honour me greatly with this glass." Knowing that it would be impolite to refuse such a grand gesture, Farmer nodded to Zed and proceeded to sip from his glass carefully. The dwarven wine filled him with pleasure as soon as it hit its palate. In addition, it was dangerously strong. "Delicious. Your son must truly be a great man to warrant such an extravagant gift."
"He was." Sighed Zed sorrowfully. "Good Farmer, my son was killed a few years ago by Nightsky during his uprising. You're not wrong, me and Lana, my granddaughter, are hostages in this city. Nightsky keeps us here because of my son's wife. She's a high-ranking member in the Mystic school of sorcery further inland and Nightsky keeps us in here as insurance so that she won't come seeking revenge."
"I see. But wouldn't your problems be over if you managed to escape and get a message to her?"
"It's not as simple as that. Nightsky sends a large amount of tribute and talented individuals to the school every year. This has been a large contribution to them and the status of the school has raised considerably since Nightsky came to power. Even if we were to leave, we'd probably be killed before we even got close to the school; and the school wouldn't lift a finger to investigate!"
"I see. He is indeed a cunning bastard." Chuckled Farmer.
"He is indeed. That's why I beg you not to underestimate him while you're here!"
"Believe me, good Zed, I do not." Farmer smiled mysteriously. "It is you and Nightsky, instead, who are underestimating me."
"You speak like one who has a full grasp of things." Zed furrowed his brows. Although he trusted Farmer to succeed, he was struggling to feel comfortable when Farmer kept making such sweeping statements. "Would you care to elaborate?"
Farmer finished his glass of dwarven wine and poured himself another one without waiting for Zed to offer it. "There are three key elements to ruling a city effectively. One needs a stable force, a solid grasp on information, and a strong control over the local economy. Failure to meet any of these three requirements, even if it's just one, leads inevitably to mutiny. I'm guessing that's what happened to you."
"Now you speak as a master of politics." Said a disgruntled Zed. "But you're right yet again. How does this bear any relation to your intentions?"
"Everything, my dear Zed." Farmer paused to look up into the sky. "I will bring chaos to Nightsky's doorstep by destroying his domain over these three areas of the city politics."
"How in Naosh's name do you intend to do that?!"
"That's a secret." Turning to Zed, Farmer flashed him a smile that wasn't a smile. "So sit back, and enjoy the show."
"As much as I want to trust in your words, this will be no easy matter." Sighed Zed. "Nightsky is a cunning man and it pains me to say this, but he's probably already watching your every move."
"Not probably. He certainly is." Emptying another glass, Farmer poured himself another. "See that building across the street? The one with the red roof and a blacksmith at the bottom? There's two guys keeping an eye on us from one of the windows there as we speak."
Shocked at Farmer's revelation, Zed sprung to his feet sweating large beads of sweat. "Then why are we chatting idly up here?! We need to leave! Assassins will be coming soon!"
To Zed's further astonishment, Farmer ignored his words and remained calmly in place. Furthermore, he raised his glass and nodded at the opposing building. Then, he poured the strong alcohol down his throat and raised a thumbs up to the two spies.
"Relax, my dear Zed." Chuckled Farmer. "I sat here so that they could get a clear view of me. Let me tell you a story. There was once a general charged to defend the capital of a kingdom as his king left with the army to conquer nearby lands. The king only left one thousand soldiers for his general and took all the rest with him. However, the king's brother raised an army of his own to usurp his brother's throne; an army one hundred thousand men strong!
"The general, upon receiving these news, was at a loss for what to do but he didn't resign himself to death. Thus, he came up with a cunning plan. When the king's brother arrived leading an army so grand that the earth shook when it marched, he found the gates of the capital city wide open. And, sitting right at the gates, was the general calmly playing a lute! The king's brother grew wary of the sight in front of him, believing that it was a trap. As such, he promptly ordered a retreat and the general was victorious." Finishing his tale, Farmer drank another glass of wine and poured the last of the bottle out. "That's what I'm doing now. Sitting here and drinking myself drunk and saluting those two spies every time they change location. Can you imagine their faces? They probably have no idea what they should report!" He guffawed loudly.
"Do you think it's because they don't know how many of your crew are here and are afraid of mounting an attack?" Pondered Zed after thinking about the situation for a minute. He had listened to Farmer carefully, wondering how he would react if faced with the facts as they were now and concluded that this was what he would worry about.
"Nope." Farmer brushed away the question tactlessly. "They know you smuggled my crew out of here. In fact, you were followed and I suspect that my ship will be attacked at some point tonight."
"Naosh save us! We need to warn them!"
"No need." Farmer laughed at Zed's reaction. "Nightsky has acted exactly as I expected him to. And if he thinks boarding my ship is easy… Well, let's just say that my ship is, without a doubt, the most dangerous place in or around the city of Yort at the moment. Let me rephrase this: if someone dares attack it, they will die a miserable death. Of this, I am certain."
Zed took in a long breath of cold air at the extraordinariness of the man sitting before him. He couldn't help but think back over all the events of this short, yet unbearably long, night. The first time he saw Farmer, he took him to be a vicious monster; albeit one he could make use of to get revenge. Then Farmer surprised him and deduced truth of his secrets with the perceptiveness of a scholar. Next, he spoke with the authority and wisdom of a politician. Finally, he had sounded like a great strategist who could see through any scheme used against him in a matter of moments.
The former city lord couldn't help but ask himself what the result would be if he were the one facing off against Farmer. The answer to that question sent chills down his spine because he realised that he'd have no hope of victory.
Looking at Zed meaningfully, Farmer guessed the thoughts going through his mind. "That's why I said that both you and Nightsky have severely underestimated me. This game, although slightly boring, will be over in seven days."
This time around Zed didn't doubt the veracity of Farmer's statement. In fact, he became eager to see the look on Nightsky's face after seven days had passed!