"Don't look at us dude. We're waiting for the boss too." one of them tells. "Should be here any minute."
There is a chair or another wall to lean at.
A short time later the door opens and another dock workers comes in, followed by Andrea Marinelli. "So we meet again." he grins. "About that job - I need to see if you're worth the money. So show me how you hold up when you don't land a lucky hit."
"Beat him up." he orders the dock workers. Marinelli leans back and watches the show.
Two of the dock workers approach.
"Yeah, rich kid thinks he's funny. Haha didn't lough."
Vorkatos punches the guy that hit him.
The third one joins and they all keep pummeling Vorkatos
Vorkatos gets well aware he won't win this fight with the second fist in his face. So instead of fighting to the bitter end, he acts like the third hit knocked him out and falls to the ground.
and loughs at himself as he falls, he's the worst actor he has ever seen.
"Kick him some lore and then throw him on the garbage." Marinelli orders.
Vorkatos has to take two more kicks, before the workers pick him at the arms and drag him out of the office. Through the warehouse it gets back to the harbor front where they drop him on a stinking pile of garbage. Mostly it's broken crates, but also rotten food and old fish. Once a week this pile is set on fire, but that is in two days, so it is really disgusting.
Meanwhile at The Pig's Whistle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Persephone scrubs the floor, which doesn't take as much time as yesterday. She wipes the surfaces, and once that is done she moves on to the kitchen, where the floor still needs the initial treatment.
Once the work is sone she prepatres two sandwiches for lunch for herself and Isabella with what little ingredients are left.
Isabella comes back around noon with a boy from the market who helps carrying all the groceries she bought. She hands him three coppers and off he goes.
"Put that away in the storage." Isabella orders. "Oh, a sandwich. That is nice." She starts some smalltalk with Persephone.
Persephone does as told and then sits down to talk and eat. Once she finishes her sandwich she tells Isabella goodbye and leaves for the next job.
At the House of Flame she's searching for the hidden side entrance. She is half expecting it, but still surprised that the hidden door opens easily from the outside. Inside she finds the grey 'dress' in the locker. Before she is forced to change in front of someone again she quickly changes into that dress. She checks for a lock, and as she doesn't find one she doesn't put her pouch in the locker, but ties it to the white rope.
Just as Persephone is done the lock of the door further into into the temple turns. The door opens and the elven woman appears. "Follow me."
The elf leads through several doors and winding corridors to that one corridor with the ten doors. "You know the drill. I'll come back once you're done."
Persephone works through the rooms with some routine. She starts to get a feeling, how to move with this dress, though it definitely not made for working. I wonder why that elf cares what I looks like and what I wear. It's not like anyone sees me here. This time she knows to change the sheets first. Crazy. I wonder what they're doing here that they need to change sheets every day. Maybe it's an elf thing?
As she is done she stuffs all the sheets into the laundry bin and turns towards the door, expecting the elf to appear.
Persephone's impression is reinforced as she notices most of the rooms look like they haven't been touched since yesterday.
The elf appears within a minute. She takes a look into one of the rooms, but doesn't say anything about it. Neither does her face give away what she thinks.
"Follow me." she leads Persephone through the hidden doors and the winding corridors back to the entrance room with the lockers. "Here is your payment." the elf tells holding out a gold coin between thumb and index finger.
Once Persephone takes that, she pulls out another coin "Take a bath. Take this coin to a coiffeur. Get your hair done. Get your nails done. Get some makeup. Be here when the sun sets. You'll find a white dress in your locker. You'll get 10 gold for standing in a room and looking pretty. Don't tell anyone. Don't be late."
Persephone is baffled. She stares at the elf, not noticing that her mouth stand open. Ten gold? What's the catch? That's too good to be true! I'd have to scrub The Pig's Whistle for a hundred days to make that money! But none of that comes out of her mouth. Like in a trance she takes the second coin.
The elf turns and leaves.
Persephone puts the coins away and quickly changes in her everyday clothes. What am I telling Isabella? Sorry, can't come, got a better offer? Or faking an emergency? Maybe I won't tell her and tell an excuse tomorrow? And where will I find someone to fix me up?
She leaves, still in thought and bumps into someone on the crowded palce outside. "Sorry." she mumbles and moves on.
Suddenly she remembers where her stepmother went to get beautified, back then, when her father was still alive. Sorry Isabella. Persephone hurries through the streets to the place she rememebers in hopes that it still exists.
The beauty parlor is still there. It's former glory is gone, the gilded letters brittle. The mistress of the salon is still the same. Persephone recognizes her by the attitude. Snobbish towards the emplayees and overly friendly to the customers. But she has gotten old. The hair is grey, but of course still perfectly styled.
As Persephone enters she watches her with suspicion. "How can I help you my dear?" she inquires with a furrowed brow.
"I need to look pretty for the evening." Persephone tells and takes the gold out of her purse.
The suspicion disappeard off the mistress' face and is replaced with a smile. "Of course my dear. That's what we're here for. Take a seat, we will start shortly." she tells and grabs the coin.
"Melanie, come over here and wash the hair of that young lady." she orders.
Several of the experts in the salon work on Persephone for two hours. The hair is washed, kempt and cut into shape. The nails are cleaned and painted. Body hair is removed. Cremes are applied. And finally makeup is applied to her face. "That was quite some work, but we made a swan out of this mousey duck."
As she sees herself in the mirror, Persephone has to fight back the tears. That is what she could have been all those years, if it wasn't for her stepmother. Instead of the maid with the limp and the callous hands she could have been a princess. The woman she sees, isn't one to scrub a floor on her knees. Tonight she will be beautiful, and if it's only for standing in a room.
After six hours Vorkatos comes to his senses and pukes as he sees where he's at, by now there is little difference in the smell of Vorkatos. 'What a f%#&ing piece of s@+#, my sword would have been more fitting for this s&#%head.' Vorkatos retches again but there is nothing to come out. After a while of coughing and more retching, he picks himself up and makes his way to the chapel at the graveyard. Still crooked of his hurt but determined.
He ignores all around him and the comments that are made, because right now, he feels like cleansing this city of it's filth and he doesn't want to be a criminal just yet. However he still catches a few phrases like :"Did the trash start moving?" and "When did the fishes grow legs?"
Having arrived, Vorkatos enters the chapel, paying no regard to the folk around.
"I saw you flinching when you heard the name Marinelli, why did you not care to tell me huh? Did you want me dead? Vorkatos accuses Grimburrow
"Oww, that looks painful." Father Grimburrow contorts his face. "Let me help you." He holds up his holy symbol and speaks a short prayer which releases golden glowing energy that heals all of Vorkatos' wounds.
With that out of the way, he answers the question. "I prefer everyone to stay alive. Yes, I recognised the name Marinelli. And I was worried, that his father might show up here to complain about the hardh treatment of his son. I didn't expect someone to come after you."
Now standing upright, Vorkatos tells with a bitter tone: "Looks like Marinelli took it personal. I went to the tavern to get another job, at the docks this time. What a coincidence that he gathered 3 men to beat me up, throw me into the trash to leave me to rot and die! ... I wonder if it runs in his family."
With his words loud and clear he wants to convince Father Grimburrow that something must be done about this. While his speech is for personal reasons, he appeals to the sense of righteousness in Grimburrow but also the people in the chapel even if there are few or maybe none.
"After all, I still thank you for taking care of these wounds, but I'm going to show myself out to fix this godforsaken aweful smell."
And that is exactly what Vorkatos is going to do, clean himself up.
"I can provide you with a bucket, water and soap." Father Grimburrow offers.
"Marinelli is an aspiring merchant that moved here a few years ago. From what I heard, he wants to become a big fish and he is not fussy about the methods."
"But the only thing you'll earn when you openly confront him will probably be more beatings, or worse. This is a power struggle on another level, than the one we get to play. But if you want to know more I can introduce you to the owner of a general store that has made the unpleasant aquaintance with Marinelli's goons."
Looking at his clothes again, Vorkatos sees the green gleam of fish fat. "We'll do that, but first, I'll gladly take that bath." And so he does.
After a long and very thoroughly bath of his armor, clothes, himself and everything else, Vorkatos returns.
"Is now a bad time or are you ready to go?" Vorkatos asks friendlier this time, to him it seems Grimburrow at least understands him and with his healing he's a powerful ally for sure.
"Now is as good as any time." Father Grimburrow replies. He puts down the book he is reading and leads the way.
This part of town is the old one and it shows. The alleys are narrow and winding, the ground is hard-packed dirt. The houses are put together closely and seldom have more than two storieys. Towards the hillside the houses are bigger and in grand style and the streets are paved with cobblestone. Between those two areas is one block where many of the old businesses reside. Not the smiths or similar loud or otherwise unpleasant businesses. But the stores, the bakers, groceries, tailors, shoemakers, hatters, and Zokar's General Store.
Father Grimnburrow enters. "Hello Zokar. How are you doing?" He looks around to make sure no one else is in the shop.
"I want you to meed my new aquaintance here." He points to Vorkatos with his hand. "He had an unpleasant meeting with you know who and you might have some common interest."
"Good to see you. How are you?" Zokar greets Grimburrow.
"Hello. I'm Zokar. Nice to meet you." Zokar offers a hand to Varkatos.
Vorkatos shakes hands with Zokar, "Vorkatos, nice to see you too."
and gets straight to the point: "While I don't want to brag about the details of my story, let's just say I got beaten up for hurting their pride, I'm plenty interested in yours. Maybe we can help each other out, should it come to any more unpleasantries."
"It is getting late anyway. How about I close my shop and we sit together in the back?" Zokar suggests.
As Vorkatos agrees Zokar locks the front door and turns the open/closed sign. At the back is the kitchen with a large dining table. Zokar offers Father Grimburrow and Vorkatos a seat and some watered wine. "My family lives in this city for many generations. Since back in the days when there was only the city up here and the harbor down at the shore. And my grandparents on my mother's side opened this shop. It's nothing big, but it has fed our family well and we even got wealthy enough to build a fancy house."
"But now this wannabe important guy comes with offers 'you can't refuse'. Like selling the shop to him. Or buying my supplies from him. And as I told him to get lost, my supplies from other suppliers got lost on the way as the transport was raided. Or some bullies loiter around my store. And of course nothing can be directly blamed on Marinelli." Zokar talks himself into a rage.
Vorkatos thinks for a bit and then asks: "What about your suppliers? I'm sure they're not happy about those raids. We could ask them for help to secure not only yours, but all of their supplies as I am sure, you're not the only one being harrased."
Vorkatos continues his thoughts: "We could hire some people for ourselfs, might as well open a second business. Show this wannabe that there is no place for cheats."
"But of course that would cost a lot of money, so money shouldn't be our main priority here, but to make sure things happen the right way. I myself would be willing to invest, but of course 20 Gold aren't going to get us far. So we really should reach out to everyone hit."
Bringing his thoughts to an end, Vorkatos realizes that what he said, might be a bit much for him and the people he talks to, but he's willing to do what he said and therefor wants to convince Grimburrow and Zokar to at least try: "Now I know this sounds like a lot, you probably think me crazy. Maybe it doesn't even work, but if he's got the power to ruin you, I don't think something simple will bring us far."
"I guess you're off to a good start. I'll leave now, I need to tend to the chapel."
"I wish you the best for your endeavor." Father Grimburrow tells and shows himself out.
"I don't know. It was an annoyance, but it was only one delivery that got lost. It cost me nothing and I got it two weeks later. Also the bullies. They were there for a few days. They stopped that mostly. Maybe once a week one walks by, hammers oh the window with a fist, laughs and moves on."
"It is the fear what could happen that is supposed to wear my resolve down and keep the customers away." Zokar explains.
"I know two more shop owners that had a similar experience. But we're talking shop owners here. Like me, we do business. We fight with special offers and good service to win some customers. But we don't know what to do about this. For sure some would chip in if you find a way to fix the issue, but beyond that?"
"And I thought there was a good reason why this wine is watered" Vorkatos hits the table hard enough for the mug to fall down.
"First you explain to me how terrible everything is and then you duck when I want to do something about it. Reach me when you have some real problems. I might just help you then, if you beg nice enough." Vorkatos rages with hate and leaves, this day was way to s#@%ty for him to deal with it.
His next destination: The Pigs Whistle. To drink away his frustration.
The Pigs Whistle is full with patrons and the party they have every evening is well underway. Only Isabella looks annoyed when she is not talking to one of the customers. She seems to be behind on orders and rushes to clean mugs before pouring the next round of ale.
Vorkatos enters The Pigs Whistle and takes seat at the bar. He's looking to raise his bottle of fine wine he bought here to make a toast to this all so beautiful day, only to realize that it's broken and in the trash at the docks. Vorkatos wants to rage and tear this place down, instead he collapses and starts laughing while crying and complaining to the void: 'Why, just why?'
"Probably best to leave this place and all the s@#$ that comes with it."
"Bad day?" Isabella inquires and puts a mug in front of Vorkatos.
After a few seconds of pitiful sobbing Vorkatos answers: "Remember that fine wine you sold me? It's now broken in the trash at the docks, where the son of Marinelli let his men throw me, after they beat me up. So uhm... yeah, my day was great."
"Ok, you win that one. Persephone not showing up makes my day s**& too, but your's is worse." Isabella tells and moves on to serve some more ales.
As she comes back she offers Vorkatos "How about you do her job, and for that you get free drinks - the hard stuff. Not the good stuff, but enough to delete that day from your memory?"
"I'll do that, don't expect any good cooking though." Vorkatos agrees and that'll be the rest of his day. Cleaning and pouring drinks.
Somewhere else in town
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Persephone walks through the streets towards the house of flames. She sees the city like it was the first time. Instead of looking to the ground and avoiding eye contact like she used to, her new confidence gets another boost. She smiles at the world and looks people into the eyes. Her life is about to take a turn upwards.
When she comes close, she tunes her new attitude down. She is probably not supposed to draw attention to that secret entrance.
Inside she finds a white long dress and a golden cord in the locker. She changes into it in a hurry to be done before the elf comes. How does she always know when to appear? she wonders.
As always the elf appears shortly after Persephone's arrival. She eyes Persephone up. Her face shows approval. "Follow me." she demands.
The path is the same as always and leads to the corridor with the laundry bin and then into the room with the red satin walls. "Lay down on the settee and wait." she orders.
Finally she leaves the room through another secret door on the other side.
Persephone follows the elven woman. Even though it's the third time already, she is lost after a few moments again. She tries to pay more attention to the surroundings, but the elf moves fast and she has a hard time following as it is.
In the red room she lays on the settee as told, and tries to drape her dress to keep it decent. Left alone her thoughts start to wander. Now I'm going to see what the room is used for.
It feels strange to lie there. All the surfaces are still clean. The fresh sheets she applied in the afternoon are untouched. The mirror makes her uneasy. She is placed in the observer position. But what for? Just sit still, don't think and take home ten gold. It can't be that bad.
The door opens again, and a neat handsome but older man in a white gown of the same light white cloth the dresses are made of he smiles at Persephone a knowing smile.
The elven woman leads the man to the pillows and blankets in the middle of the room. With gentle but unmistakeable guiding she makes him rest there his back propped against the pillows in a half sitting position.
Looking him into his eyes, with her hypnotic pink eyes she makes his gaze follow her. Stepping back she rises to her toes. She speaks a elven phrase and moves her arms in a wide and complex gesture. Music starts to play in the room. Like a small orchestra of strings performing. She dances through the room. With graceful fluid motions she spins from one pose to the next - pausing for a moment to look at him - and then moving on.
The man is fascinated. Not able to look away. He follows the motions, the gestures and gets caught by the pink eyes ever again.
But suddenly he feels uneasy. His heart pounds stronger, but not of arousal, but rage. In the midst of this joyful music, this fascinating beautiful elf moving about he doesn't feel calm, or aroused, but starts sweating. He sits up and stares down.
Seeing she lost the man's attention the elf swirls over, kneeling down in front of him. Staring into his eyes she crawls over him and pushes him down into the pillow. Her expression changes from playful to that of a predator. The flat hand on his chestcloses, her fingernails scratching over his skin, drawing blood.
At first the man squirms uncomfortably beneath the elf, but then something strange happens. His eyes turn amber, his teeth seem to grow and his brows to grow bushier. He pushes the elf away.
Taking the momentum of the push, the elf stands and steps back. "There you are. Come out, don't be shy." she tells. Another elven phrase later the elf disappears from sight.
Persephone watches the performance anxiously. All that rouge was unneccessary. she thinks as she feels her face glow.
As the man sits up she worries, what might be wrong, but as she finds herself alone with that man, and his unnatural change all color vanishes from her face. She freezes in shock.
The man grows more and more hair - or fur. His bones noisily rearrange while he screams in pain that becomes more and more a roar. A snout grow out, long white fangs form and a tail grows out. A strong, elegant panther. An amazingly beautiful and strong animal. Baring his teeth the animal stares at Persephone, ready to pounce.