{"id":2196,"date":"2015-04-14T00:01:16","date_gmt":"2015-04-14T04:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tellest.com\/?p=2196"},"modified":"2015-04-28T06:59:44","modified_gmt":"2015-04-28T10:59:44","slug":"a-most-unusual-patriot-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/a-most-unusual-patriot-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"A Most Unusual Patriot – Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week<\/a>, we introduced you to a new story set in the world of Tellest. \u00a0Aaron Canton had worked with us before (and if I have it my way, he’ll continue to work with us well into the future!), and we were happy to have his personal touch on Tellest once more.<\/p>\n

A Most Unusual Patriot<\/em> introduces a new hero to the world. \u00a0Jadie Rivers is a young, ambitious member of Westwick’s thieves guild, and after a strange bit of diplomacy, a treaty is signed with the gnolls of Warus – the perfect opportunity for her to investigate and put her skills to “good” use. \u00a0But when she stumbles upon Hwarl, a gnoll gladiator, she uncovers a more sinister plot.<\/p>\n

Read on and enjoy the second part of Aaron Canton’s\u00a0A Most Unusual Patriot!<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\n

A Most Unusual Patriot
\n-Part Two-<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Coliseum was one of the star attractions of Atalatha.\u00a0 A towering structure of marble and granite, it was easily the largest building in the city, and it could be seen from almost any road within Atalatha\u2019s walls.\u00a0 The fights were attended by large crowds of people, and those people had equally large amounts of money for gambling, concessions, and souvenirs.\u00a0 Pickpocketing her way through the Coliseum was definitely on Jadie\u2019s list of things to do before returning to Westwick.<\/p>\n

But not yet.\u00a0 At the moment, she had a tunic to return and a conspiracy to deal with.\u00a0 She just had to infiltrate Hwarl\u2019s room, she thought, and uncover his weapons cache.\u00a0 Then she could expose the conspiracy and save the day.\u00a0 There would be time to loot the city later.<\/p>\n

Truth be told, she was slightly annoyed that Lady Trefaer had never showed up at the treaty party the previous night.\u00a0 It surely wouldn\u2019t be held against her that the rumors of her appearance were inaccurate, but the very idea of returning to her teachers without completing the mission rankled.\u00a0 Still, she was<\/em> going to stop Hwarl and his conspiracy.\u00a0 That would hopefully outweigh her failure.<\/p>\n

The gladiator quarters, a four-story building with dozens of rooms and a courtyard for sparring, were located two blocks from the Coliseum.\u00a0 Jadie reached it just before lunch, having checked to make sure that Hwarl was scheduled for a duel at that time, and made her way to his room.\u00a0 She reached his room and examined the lock for a moment before knocking to make sure nobody was home.\u00a0 Her right hand was already fingering the silver lockpick in her pocket.<\/p>\n

But footsteps sounded from within the room, and Jadie only just managed to fix a smile to her face before the door swung open to reveal a massive human.\u00a0 She saw two more guards in the room behind him, sitting and eating sandwiches, but the man at the door moved to block Jadie\u2019s vision.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re not Stebbins or Rawlston.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who?\u00a0 <\/em>Jadie passed Hwarl\u2019s tunic to the man.\u00a0 \u201cLaundry for Mr.\u00a0 Hwarl.\u00a0 Is he in?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s dueling,\u201d said the man and began to shut the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cSorry to disturb you!\u201d Jadie managed to chirp just before it closed.\u00a0 \u201cNobody told me he had people here.\u00a0 I was just going to leave the tunic on the door\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re new,\u201d snapped the man.\u00a0 \u201cAnd we\u2019re just here for the week, so if you have any more laundry you won\u2019t need to worry about \u2018disturbing\u2019 us after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

New?\u00a0 He must have got them while he\u2019s waiting for the deal to go through,<\/em> thought Jadie.\u00a0 \u201cActually,\u201d she began, but the door had already shut in her face.<\/p>\n

She stared at it for a moment.\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 He has guards in his room, and it sounds like more are guarding him personally.\u00a0 If I want to search the room, I\u2019ll have to fight them.\u00a0 <\/em>She paused.\u00a0 That could be a problem.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jadie wasn\u2019t inexperienced in combat, at least as far as thieves went.\u00a0 She knew about fighting like a thief fought\u2014a push at the top of a ridge, a knife in the back from the shadows, a few drops of poison into an unguarded chalice of wine.\u00a0 But if she broke into Hwarl\u2019s room, she\u2019d be stuck in a heads-up fight against several brutes.\u00a0 She wasn\u2019t likely to win that one, magic or no.<\/p>\n

Sighing, she left the gladiator quarters and walked to a local park.\u00a0 Sitting with her hands nestled in the flowers, nudging them into pleasing patterns as she rested, she went over her options.\u00a0 Fighting all his guards wasn\u2019t an option.\u00a0 Nor was going to the authorities.\u00a0 She wasn\u2019t that well-versed in politics, but even she knew the government would be reluctant to arrest a gnoll from Warus the day after signing a treaty with one of the most influential gnoll packs in Warus.\u00a0 She\u2019d need hard evidence before risking that, and she didn\u2019t have it.<\/p>\n

But she still had to do something<\/em>.\u00a0 The entire reason Westwick was permitted to exist without paying taxes to the crown was that, as her teachers had drilled in to her, the Thieves Guild had another duty besides simply enriching themselves and their community.\u00a0 It was their job to deal with threats to Raleigh, its cities, and its people that couldn\u2019t be handled by the authorities.\u00a0 If she failed, she would let down her whole community\u2014and the Thieves Guild, which had permitted her to join their ranks at an unusually young age, proclaiming that they believed she would be an asset to their team.\u00a0 Giving up was not an option.<\/p>\n

I could try to surprise Hwarl and his bodyguards in an alley, but what if Hwarl just goes straight between the Coliseum and his quarters for the next week? <\/em>thought Jadie.\u00a0 Or I could try to pick off his bodyguards.\u00a0 But then he\u2019d just get more, and he\u2019d be alerted.\u00a0 I need some way to isolate him from them.\u00a0 Does he go anywhere without them?<\/em><\/p>\n

And then it hit her.\u00a0 The Coliseum.\u00a0 Duels are one-on-one.\u00a0 He can\u2019t bring his bodyguards into the arena with him.\u00a0 And I could sign up, challenge him…<\/em><\/p>\n

She\u2019d still have to beat a trained fighter in a fair fight, but at least she wouldn\u2019t be outnumbered.\u00a0 And she did have some advantages.\u00a0 He might underestimate her, for one.\u00a0 She had magic, for another.<\/p>\n

A rose curled around her hand, the thorns nestling between her fingers like a gauntlet, and she allowed herself to smile.\u00a0 She could make it work, she thought.\u00a0 Do her Guild proud, and her community too.<\/p>\n

And score a great victory while she was at it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, we introduced you to a new story set in the world of Tellest. \u00a0Aaron Canton had worked with us before (and if I have it my way, he’ll continue to work with us well into the future!), and we were happy to have his personal touch on Tellest once more. A Most Unusual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[349,145,146],"tags":[836,273,840,837,149,61],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Tellest_WebHeader-x2-e1427024822542.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1UVey-zq","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2197,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196\/revisions\/2197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}