Emily's eyes went wide, as if she just realized what she was doing. "Uh… well, it's just that where I'm from jackalope are considered fake. That they don't actually exist," Emily replied, looking like she wasn't sure what her fate would be for having drawn the duchess' attention like that.
The duchess turned her gaze back to Jenn. "How do you know that that's what they're called?" she asked, and if flames had come out of her mouth Jenn wouldn't have been surprised.
"That's what they called themselves," Jenn answered, hoping that would be good enough. I didn't ask them if they knew any actual jackalope, but they have rabbit ears and deer antlers, if that helps." Jenn described them for Emily's benefit more than the duchess'. That way Emily would at least know that she wasn't making them up herself just to have something to tell the duchess.
"Would you be willing to introduce one of my representatives to them?" the duchess asked, looking like she wasn't as interested in what she was saying as she had been a moment ago.
Jenn wasn't sure if she was able to read the duchess as well as she'd like, but right then she couldn't help but wonder if this was a kind of test. One that she might need to actually fulfill if she agreed to the request.
"Uh, I could, but first I would need to check on the world where the Blue Rose had us build a place to live," Jenn replied. Then as she was about to continue, she suddenly remembered something else about the wolf-kin. "Oh, and in about maybe three months or so, we were going to have a competition of who'd be the fastest to participate in the wolf-kin's spring… uh… something."
Jenn felt like kicking herself again for forgetting something that she thought should be so simple. Something that she was pretty sure the wolf-kin would expect her to remember.
The duchess nodded like she expected as much, which made Jenn clench her teeth. She felt like she was floundering when she should feel relaxed that no matter what she did, it'd work out. Or at least according to Star.
Jenn had a brief moment where she started wondering if maybe Star had made Jenn trust her so she'd do something like this. Something that would leave her vulnerable and screwed. Completely screwed by what position her inability to deal with something so simple would cause her to put herself in.
However, she quickly pushed that thought out of her mind. There was so many other ways that Jenn could have imploded in on herself that this would have been rather an inefficient way to have gone about it. Especially a few times when Star had been able to pull her out from her self-doubts during the past month.
"When its ready, I'd love to have a representative take a look at it," she said. Technically it's not my land, so I can't tell you what your people can and can't do with it. Although, I would like to know how you came across the knowledge of that gate to begin with," the duchess said, her gaze boring into Jenn.
"Uh, well you'd have to ask the Blue Rose," Jenn replied. "She's the one who showed us where it was when she freed us from being slaves."
"You were a slave!" the duchess remarked, as if she found the news surprising. Which only made Jenn feel like she screwed herself over there. That it'd only be a matter of time before she admitted that shed been sold for a large amount and not to just anyone, but to the duchess herself..
"Uh, yeah?" Jenn asked, her voice wavering as she tried to collect herself from her major slip up. "Didn't I mention that before?"
The duchess shook her head. "All you told me was that you weren't the one whom I purchased at great expense and just disappeared on the way here."
"Mother, if she's an escaped slave, we could get a reward for turning her in!" Fluerine said, startling Jenn. She'd forgotten the girl was present.
The duchess shook her head. "Maybe, but she's also registered with the mercenary guild. If I took her into custody, it'd create a headache that would be difficult to deal with. Even if she was the one that I spent around a hundred and seventy or eighty ziks on. Not only has it been a while since she would have disappeared, but as a mercenary, they don't care what past the person has, only what they can do in the future," the duchess explained more gently than Jenn would have expected from her.
While Jenn was sorely tempted to admit that she was the one who had cost so much, she felt like it'd be a bad time to do that. As such, she instead could think of doing was shrugging. "Well, let's just say that I'd rather not talk about it, okay?" Jenn said, hoping that the duchess wouldn't press the matter.
"But-!" Fluerine started to protest, but the duchess putting a hand on her head silenced her.
"Don't worry about any of that. If she was the one who cost me that much, I'm sure we'll be able to work something out that will keep her from being a slave again or from me having to deal with the guild," the duchess said to her daughter. Then turning back to Jenn, she continued, "Who are the 'us' that you mentioned? Are you talking about everyone in the forest with your Blue Rose or was there a select group that you meant?"
Jenn felt like the more she said, the more she was digging her own grave. She couldn't say if that was going to help her out in the future, but she could see that she was doing it to herself. Maybe she had underestimated the duchess, but it felt more like she was saying everything that she needed to say in order to gain the duchess' full trust, even though she felt like she was digging her own grave with every word she spoke here.
"Um…" Jenn hesitated, she wanted to be honest with the duchess, but at the same time she really didn't care to rat her people out. However, she was confident that she needed the duchess to trust her. Which meant she had to rely on the duchess' word that she wouldn't try to recapture any of them.
So, she did her best at coming up with an adequate response. "At first it was all of us, all those with the Blue Rose," Jenn said, hoping she wasn't making a big mistake. "Then we started adding others to our numbers as we formed a mercenary company. One that would allow us to take the job of patrolling the Forest of the Lost."
"Hold on, none of your people are scared of the Forest of the Lost?" Emily blurted. "Everyone around here seems to have a fear of it!"
Jenn merely shrugged helplessly. "I wouldn't know. I guess most still have a bit of a fear of it, but they're free to not join us if they are."
"Let's get back on point," the duchess said. "If what you're telling me is true, then your Blue Rose owes me a lot of money."
Jenn couldn't say if she really agreed with the duchess about it or not, but at the same time, she suspected that the duchess had already pieced together enough of the details to have figured out that all, if not most, of Jenn's people were slaves from the caravan that was heading to her castle. Which meant that all of Jenn's people had technically been owned by the duchess when they'd been brought over through the gate that first time.
"If that's true, then what would you like us to do in order to repay that?" Jenn asked, hoping that the duchess was more reasonable than she'd assumed previously.
"Well, first, I'll need the names of everyone that you have among your people, whether they're from when you started recruiting others to join or not. Second, I'll need a list of what is available on that world that your people have laid claim to. Third, I'll need you, or someone that's trusted as much as you, to come by every month to give me updates of what your people are doing," the duchess stated, her face as unreadable as a steel mask. "Beyond that, I'll need to figure out how much I lost from your Blue Rose stealing from me. Once I do that and have gotten an idea of what your people can do, I'll let your people know what else there'll be."
Jenn sighed. She doubted that any of her advisors were going to like this, but she couldn't say that she was surprised at the demands. If anything, she was more surprised that the demands were so light to begin with.
However, regardless of what she or her advisors would like or not, she knew this was going to be the price. A price that she would gladly pay because it meant that she and her people wouldn't have to worry about this hanging over their heads. Even if she met resistance among her advisors, she knew that she'd be able to convince them about the importance of accepting this offer meant. How they'd at least not need to worry about being discovered by anyone later on.
_
Ralph couldn't say that he was impressed with the bandits who came to trade with Heanith. First they looked like they hadn't cleaned themselves in quite a while, if ever. Second, they looked too eager to reach for their weapons, as if Heanith hadn't already had a counter ready for that.
None of them seemed to think that Ralph was there, which he took as a good thing. He wasn't sure what he'd do if they did pick up on his presence. As he couldn't just pretend that he wasn't' there if they actually discovered him.
"Is this all that you brought us?" the bandit who seemed to be the one in charge of this group asked, sounding as if she was getting ready to refuse to make the trade of four large wooden beams, six bars of iron, and two large sacks of grain.
Ralph wasn't sure how Heanith planned on getting all of that back to her cabin, but she had to have had something in mind, since she didn't say anything about the amount of what was put before her. Only one item did she say anything about.
"Wasn't it supposed to be three bags of grain?" she asked, sounding rather bored. "If you don't have another bag of grain, you could then put in a sack of potatoes. It's been a while since I had any of those."
"We're not allowed to give you any more," the leader told her flatly. "If you feel that you're being mistreated, you're more than welcome to talk to the boss about any changes you want made to our agreement."
Heanith merely scoffed, shook her head, and let it go. Ralph wondered if maybe he could help even the playing field with what they were supposed to bring versus what they were actually putting out for Heanith to take.
"It's good that you're so willing to see things our way," the leader commented, as if she'd struck a big win with Heanith not saying anything about it.
"Of course," Heanith replied. "It's always been this way, you guys cheating me out of what had been agreed."
"If you don't like it, you could always stop showing up, right?" the leader asked, a grin on her face making Ralph think that's exactly what she wanted.
Heanith merely shook her head, picked up one end of a wooden beam and started to drag it towards the trees she'd come out of. Ralph was surprised at her physical strength. The fact that she'd been able to pick that up really impressed him. Although, he wondered what would happen to the materials that had been dropped off that she was otherwise leaving behind.
Ralph certainly didn't trust these people, but he knew there wasn't anything he could do without alerting them to his presence. Something he knew played to their advantage at the moment. Even though he had to watch and let things go that he'd much rather do something about.
"Do we try to follow her now?" one of the younger bandits asked, this one looking like she might have fallen in a pile of manure at some point recently. She certainly put off an odor that made it seem like it.
The leader shook her head as she turned to head back down the mountain. "No, we leave now. Once she comes to get the last of what we traded her for, then yes. We follow her then. I've gotten nearly a complete map of her traps. There's nothing she can do that we can't eventually overcome. We'll get what she's working on and a nice bonus with it too."
Ralph understood what was going on as he heard the words spoken. Heanith might have made a series of traps that she relied on, but if they were nearly mapped out, then she either needed to change them up or get ready to take off.
Although, Ralph couldn't say how 'complete' the mapping was, since no one could really tell until they finished it, but that wasn't something that was important. What was important was the fact that these bandits thought they were almost done with it. Which meant Ralph felt the need to take a look at it, if possible, and see just how complete it was.
If he helped with carrying any of the materials that had been left behind, Ralph was confident that he'd only be able to carry the iron bars one at a time or maybe a sack of grain. He wasn't sure how heavy the wooden beams were, but he was confident that he was no where near in shape enough to even carry them like Heanith had been.
However, if figured that he could at least get Heanith a sack of potatoes to help even things out, provided these bandits had something like that. After all, he couldn't tell what supplies they had to begin with or even if it was a spur of the moment choice to short her or if that was something they'd planned from the start.
Yet, he had a feeling that he'd be able to find something to correct that 'imbalance' if he took his time. Once he saw how complete the map of Heanith's traps were, of course. Ralph also didn't plan on taking it, no matter how complete it was, since he didn't know how many copies of the map there were, or even if there was a physical copy to begin with.
Ralph listened to the bandits talk among themselves as he followed them quietly, wondering if he was about to screw himself over by doing this. As far as he knew they couldn't know that he was there, but that didn't mean they didn't have any countermeasures against anyone approaching their camp unseen.
With how this world was, Ralph wasn't going to put anything as 'impossible' or unlikely with how much he'd already seen on this world. He wasn't sure if there would be a time when he'd start thinking that something wasn't possible on this world, but if that day did come, it'd be a long ways away from this one.
"Did you hear that?" one of the bandits asked suddenly, looking in Ralph's direction, making him freeze where he was.
"Hear what?" another asked dismissively. "Don't try to get yourself out of the trouble you put yourself in yesterday. You know none of us are going to help you out of it so you can stop trying to make it out like you should be put back in your old position."
"This has nothing to do with that!" the young woman insisted.
"Sure, sure," the other person replied, just as dismissively.
Ralph felt like if he wanted to, he might be able to try and find an ally in this camp, but quickly threw the idea out. Even if he did, he couldn't trust that she wouldn't just go back to them once she had something that she thought would get her out of whatever trouble she was currently in. Plus, as far as he knew, she'd just call out the alarm the moment he made himself known to her.
Besides, he knew that wasn't what he'd come for. So, he did his best to try and move more carefully to keep that person from noticing him again; assuming he was the one who made a sound for her to hear in the first place.
When he reached the camp, he felt appalled. Not so much at the size of it, but rather with how run down it looked. Even the leader who had spoken to Heanith didn't have a tent that didn't look like it was ready to fall apart with a good gust of wind.
However, the unhygienic appearance of the camp certainly looked like it was at least part of what had contributed to the appearance of the bandits who'd spoken to Heanith. In fact, a fight that looked to have broken out where the people in the camp used as a latrine made Ralph suspect the person who he thought had fallen in a pile of manure might have fallen in the latrine. Likely with the help of someone else in the camp.
The smell of the camp was horrendous and Ralph decided that he needed to do what he'd come there to do as fast as possible. Otherwise he might faint from the stench the camp put out. Part of was no one bathing, Ralph was certain, but other parts almost felt like they were deliberately trying to make their camp as pungent as possible, although he was pretty sure that that part was more his imagination than anything else.