Seinerd and Dagena had been arguing for what had been over an hour. Dagena had just confessed to attempting to run away from the luxury home she lived in, she hadn't thought it all through and with Seinerd's help was starting to identify the problems with such a simple plan as packing up and leaving.
Her mother always threatened this when she got into a fight with the Duke. Threatening to go back to her father's Duchy and feed him all the lies needed to start a disastrous war between her father and her husband.
But Dagena couldn't return to her grandparents, she couldn't return to where she'd never been, and more importantly, there stood the risk of said grandparents sending her back home, personally, in what would amount to the most embarrassing day of her life.
'At least she'd thought that as far as possible shelters.' Seinerd silently thought to himself as he tried and tried to access the situation and come up with a solid explanation that wouldn't get him spiked by the Regent or the Duke
"Do you even have any money with you, a single copper?" he asked, sounding a bit desperate looking for a modicum of reason behind her thinking.
"No!" Dagena huffed, frustrated with all the questions and realizations she was having, "I already told you, I just have my best clothes, warm and fashionable, as well as the coach."
"Then why won't you go back home? Save up some coin and try this adventure of yours later?" Seinerd couldn't believe he'd resorted to being an accomplice and even an advisor to her ridiculous escapade, "The coach driver isn't gone just yet. You could yet still go back to Aville."
She scoffed, getting comfortable on the bed, "And get robbed by the banditry? No, thank you."
'Why couldn't she show so much thought towards her planning as she is now?' Seinerd lamented. True enough, there was much banditry in the Duchy. It had always been a favourite occupation to some no good doers but as the war progressed and Aville's involvement became more pronounced, the night raids, robberies, banditry and generally just crime had increased, making it very unsafe to be out at night, entourage or no.
Sighing, Seinerd once again resigned himself to the whims of the noble lady, "So what do you intend to do next?"
Dagena let out a sigh as well, and almost whimsically replied, "Well, I'll have to stay the night here of course, but then you'd need to provide some accommodation for the driver, it's the least you could do after he brought us all the way here."
Fighting back all manner of dishonouring words, Seinerd let out a sigh, frustration abound he thought it good to take a step out into the cold to cool off, "I'll go do that now." He said, his smile strained to the point where his eyes shut, "Here's some coin just in case you get any hungry, the food isn't bad but it isn't exactly good either." He said setting three bronze coins on the dressing table in the room.
"I'm going to be awhile out, so don't talk to anyone but the innkeeper, goodbye." And swiftly, without needing words of affirmation from Dagena, Seinerd left the room, his feet quickly trotted down the stairs loud enough for Dagena to decipher he was almost sprinting away.
At this, she only laughed.
***
As Seinerd stepped out he took in a breath calming himself from his hurried pace whilst reviewing what he needed to get done. The driver, who Seinerd quickly found lying in the stables, huddled up in a mound of hay, shivering with the little warmth it gave.
Shaking him awake, Seinerd gave the man a warm smile, a true one this time, "Here, get something hot for your stomach in the Inn and ask the Innkeeper to set you up somewhere warm no matter the costs," he said, dropping a few bronze coins into his hands.
Seinerd caught himself giving a blank cheque, 'no matter the costs'. He sympathized greatly with working-class men like the driver at his front, his father was one such man, and here he was as well, working whatever work came his way to keep his livelihood afloat. He, just like any other man, had dependents.
Seinerd smiled wistfully, the gratitude expressed by the man's eyes had him reminiscence times when a single copper would have had him ecstatic.
"Thank you so much, Milord!" the driver exclaimed, grasping onto the hand that offered him manna.
"It's no problem," Seinerd smiled, retrieving his hand from the man's rather tight grasp, "Lady Dagena will be heading back to Aville tomorrow morning just so you know, I, however, will be staying here for a while to complete the work I'd been sent on. I'll be a while so please look after the Lady."
As the man nodded the affirmative to every word he spoke, Seinerd dusted the hay off his clothes and threaded out to officially begin his mission in Harsem.
Stepping out of the stables and into the clouded sun, a sun so dim you could bear to look at it. The inn was an oddball, strangely situated on the outskirts of the town right ahead, away from common trade centres and places of worship.
Seinerd had surmised that it's obscure and somewhat hidden position served well for criminals on the run or just hungry, the innkeeper's rather raucous personality only gave him more reason to be cautious about it all.
Had he not hurriedly paid for the room before Dagena had awoken and revealed her planned intent, he wouldn't mind bearing all the risk of possibly being robbed. The inn was the perfect place to spy on the Count without too much interference or even being found out.
As Seinerd approached the town, the outline of what was a large, thick and tall wall encompassing the entirety of the town peered into view. It was a magnificent work of human creation. As he got closer the towers and wall began to envelop Seinerd in their shadow.
There was a line when he'd got there, prospering towns such as this one afforded to keep control of who entered and left the place. Unlike other towns, this one being sieged and controlled could be disastrous for trade and distribution of produce to other parts of the Duchy and Kingdom. It was an economically vital town one worth building a wall around.
There were other walled off and protected towns, but this was the first and only one in the Duchy of Aville, the biggest taxpayer to the Duke and it wasn't even the capitol.
After a bit of waiting, it had gotten to Seinerd's turn to go into the room of the first guard tower. He sat down and waited for the man working the walls to appear and give him the common search and interrogation process before having him go past.
It was a security system Seinerd wasn't too familiar with as this would be his first time in a walled city. But he was apprenticed under the Chancellor of Aville when he began refining the proposed idea for the Duke. At the time, there was no effective method in deciphering a robber from a trader in a trade town, as a result, trade began to dwindle as merchants vacated the town in search of safer avenues to trade. Seeing the potentially large source of income about to escape them, the Duke and the Count of Harsem conveyed and this system was born.
The system itself was fairly easy, with detailed reports from the steward of Aville and Harsem, the men guarding the gates were charged with accessing the incoming flux of people every day for useful skills. People with skills needed in the county and town immediately got shifted through, others were questioned thoroughly on their intentions in the county, and advised on where best in Aville to take their work.
Rejections occurred often as many young men held the belief that they could make it better in a large town rather than their obscure city village, what's worse, without a skill.
At long last, for what was about thirty minutes of waiting, a tall, strongly built man walked into the room through a different door than Seinerd had used to enter. He had a sword strapped to his waist and wore a shiny piece of armour with the insignia of the Duchy of Aville styled into the breastplate. He belonged to the Duke, Mathilda, the Regent.
"Ah! Sorry to keep you waiting," the man smiled sheepishly, his voice young and jovial, "I'll be asking you a few questions and I want you to waste no time hesitating to provide an answer you must also look directly into my eyes as you do, is that understood?" he asked staring directly into Seinerd's eyes.
Seinerd gulped and provided only a nod. And the man instantly lost his jovial attitude as he rapidly began asking Seinerd questions.
"What is your name?"
"Seinerd Blanc,"
"Where are you travelling in from?"
"Aville,"
"Why are you here?"
"Medicine,"
"For who?"
"My father,"
"And your mother?"
"…Dead." A truth Seinerd resigned with despair
"Do you kill?"
"Wh- No!" at the sudden, and piercingly offensive question his mask began to crack.
"Do you rape?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Do you rape?" the man repeated this time narrowing his eyes at Seinerd, cautiously reaching for the hilt of his sword.
"No, I do not rape."
Still cautious, the man did not relax his stance, "Are you here to kidnap someone?"
Learned his lesson, Seinerd retained his calm posture and answered simply, "No"
"Who sent to spy?"
An audible gasp escaped Seinerd. And soon, the man's eyes glared accusingly at his.
"Confess,"