Idol Week 19: Invitation
A light was shining in the window. Someone was still up. Hopefully not his mother; that was a conversation he wasn't ready for yet. He pushed the door open a crack and peered in. His thirteen-year-old sister Thessalia was sitting at the table reading. He tapped the door lightly to get her attention.
Gari? she mouthed so as not to wake their parents sleeping in the next room. He tilted his head to indicate she should come outside. She closed her book and followed him up the hill that was the roof of their dugout house.
“What's going on?” she asked as they sat next to each other on the ground.
"I need to talk to you, Thes. Something happened," he said.
"Did you get caught?"
"Kind of."
"Shit," she whispered. “So does that mean you're going on the run now?”
“No,” he said slowly. “Actually it turned out to be a good thing. I think I might have a solution to all of our financial problems.”
She gave him a confused look. “What do you mean?”
“Well, let me tell you what happened from the beginning..."
^^^^
Two hours earlier
Gari crept around the corner of the stable. His fence was listening to one of the farmers complaining about his stupid horse who kept picking up stupid stones in its stupid hoof. Slowly and carefully Gari untied untied the coin pouch from the fence's belt and replaced it with a pouch of spinels from his own pocket. Silently he retreated into the shadows where he took a few minutes to tie up the coin pouch so it wouldn't jingle and slipped it into his boot top. Once that was done he stood up and walked casually towards the inn yard.
"You're very good at blending into the shadows."
Gari froze in place.
"Not so good at getting caught, though. You'll want to work on that." A hooded figure stepped away from the inn's back wall. Gari noted the figure's height (a little over six feet), its shoulders (broad), and the beard (blond) and guessed Human male. Not just any Human male, but one who looked so plain and ordinary he would fit in anywhere in Thornland, as Gari saw when the man pushed his hood back.
"I've been following that one"—the man jerked his head towards the stable corner where the fence was still standing—"for about six months now and I have to say that you two have one of the most discreet exchanges I've ever seen. Instead of leaving the goods and money in a drop spot you let him hold onto everything while you pick his pockets. It's a neat trick, but risky. But I suppose you two have a plan in place if someone sees you doing it, don't you?"
Gari remained still and silent, his eyes never leaving the man's face.
"The first time I saw you doing that I said to myself, there's someone I need to know. So I've made a point of watching you whenever I come to town. You've seen me plenty of times but you've never noticed me before, have you? I'm just an ordinary man, the kind nobody looks at twice." He chuckled. "That's my gift: being ordinary. I can blend in with a crowd the way you blend in with the shadows. That's a gift, too, you know. It's why I'm talking to you right now. I want to help you develop that gift."
Gari twisted his lips to the right to express his skepticism.
"You think I'm a thief, don't you? Well, sometimes I do dabble in the larcenous arts but that's not my primary profession. I'm actually a collector. My specialty is secrets. You like secrets, don't you? I've seen you going around town listening to people. Hearing what they say and what they don't say. Putting it all together to figure out the real story. You've peered through your share of windows, listened under your share of eaves. How long have you lived here?"
Gari remained silent for a moment before he answered. "Fifteen years."
"Fifteen years,” the man repeated. “And how old are you? Twenty-five?”
“Twenty-eight.”
The man nodded. “I was close. So to be as good as you are you must have started your sneaking-around career pretty soon after you moved here. Got to have something to do, right? Everyone needs a hobby. But by now it's getting kind of boring, isn't it? There aren't that many people here in this jumped-up village. By now you know all the skeletons in everyone's wardrobes by their first names by now, don't you?" He paused. "I know what you're thinking. 'What the hell is he going on about? Get to the point. Arrest me or whatever it is you're going to do.' All right, then I will.
Gari stiffened as the man moved closer. When they were next to each other, the man said, “I'm not going to arrest you, boy. I work for Sir Jorn* and I want to recruit you.”
"Who in the Light is Sir Jorn?"
"Someone who doesn't spend a lot of time in the light. He prefers to hide in the shadows the way you and I do. And, like you and I, he collects secrets. But he does it on a much wider scale. He collects secrets from all over Thornland. He also likes international secrets, from Kardansk and Esparol and all the other countries in the south. And when he gets them he picks out the most important ones, the ones that explain what's really going on in the world, and he reports them to the King.” The man dropped his voice to a whisper. "He's the Royal Spymaster."
Gari whispered back. "You want me to be a spy?"
"You were born to do this," the man replied. "I've been working for Sir Jorn for thirty-five years and I have never seen anyone who can disappear into the darkness the way you can. And that's just what you've learned on your own. Just imagine how far you can go with proper training."
It was tempting, Gari couldn't deny that. He loved sneaking around and Goldhill had long ago become boring. But then his conscience tugged at him. "I can't just pack up and leave,” he said. “I have responsibilities here. My family..."
"I know,” the man interrupted. “Your father is getting sicker and sicker. Now he can't work anymore. Your mother has to take care of him and keep up with her embroidery business, which is why your sister had to drop out of school last year to help her. You're a junior journeyman lapidary so you don't make much, which is why you started stealing 'cracked' stones from your employer and having your sister charge them so you can sell them on the black market. Even with all that you can barely afford the medicine your father needs.”
"Exactly," Gari said.
“What if you're caught? You would be fired, you would go to jail, and your family would lose your income. But if you come with me, not only would you be protected from prosecution but you would also be making a lot more money than you ever could in this little town. Sir Jorn pays generously, even while you're in training. You'd make enough money to be able to support your whole family by yourself. You could pay for your father's medicine, you could get someone to help your mother care for him or help her in her business so your sister could go back to school. You could even send her to the mages' preparatory school if you wanted.”
Gari's silence returned.
“You should, you know. She's good. A little fae able to charge stones the way she does with only a grammar-school education and a patched-together charger? She's as good at magic as you are at sneaking. She should go to prep school.” The man patted him on the shoulder. "I'm not asking for an immediate decision. I leave for Torenden City in three days. Meet me in the tavern at sunset day after tomorrow and let me know if you'll be going with me."
Gari had already made his decision. "What am I supposed to tell my family?"
The man smiled knowingly. "You're smart. You'll figure it out."
^^^^
Back at the house
"Wow," Thessalia said. “That's the chance of a lifetime.”
"Yeah," said Gari. "How could I refuse?"
"What are you going to tell Mum and Dad?"
"The truth."
"Really?"
"Yes, really. I thought it all out on the way home. I'm pretty sure Dad already knows I've been stealing stones so I'm going to tell them I got caught and in order to keep out of jail I made a deal to go into government service. The wages I get for that service I'll send home to pay for Dad's care."
"And you think they're going to believe that?"
"Sure, why not?" Gari shrugged. "What's important is that this money will pay for everything we need. Mom can stop worrying...”
“She'll never stop worrying,” Thessalia interrupted.
He ignored her. “...we can afford Dad's medicine, and you, my thistly little sister, are going to get to go back to school. Which I know you want, so quit complaining.”
“I don't know,” she said. “It just sounds too good to be true.”
“It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For both of us. I'm getting a chance to do something interesting and exciting and you get a chance to be a mage. So quit your bitching and let's go inside. I'm really tired and I want to go to bed now.”
After Gari went inside, Thessalia stayed on the roof staring at the sky for a long time. He was right. This was their chance to grab the dreams they thought they could never achieve. Up to this point, their luck kept turning in the wrong direction every time they thought it was going up, but something in the stars reassured her that this time luck was going to turn the right way.
________
*Pronounced “Yorn.” Thornish is a Germanic/Norse language.
Gari? she mouthed so as not to wake their parents sleeping in the next room. He tilted his head to indicate she should come outside. She closed her book and followed him up the hill that was the roof of their dugout house.
“What's going on?” she asked as they sat next to each other on the ground.
"I need to talk to you, Thes. Something happened," he said.
"Did you get caught?"
"Kind of."
"Shit," she whispered. “So does that mean you're going on the run now?”
“No,” he said slowly. “Actually it turned out to be a good thing. I think I might have a solution to all of our financial problems.”
She gave him a confused look. “What do you mean?”
“Well, let me tell you what happened from the beginning..."
Two hours earlier
Gari crept around the corner of the stable. His fence was listening to one of the farmers complaining about his stupid horse who kept picking up stupid stones in its stupid hoof. Slowly and carefully Gari untied untied the coin pouch from the fence's belt and replaced it with a pouch of spinels from his own pocket. Silently he retreated into the shadows where he took a few minutes to tie up the coin pouch so it wouldn't jingle and slipped it into his boot top. Once that was done he stood up and walked casually towards the inn yard.
"You're very good at blending into the shadows."
Gari froze in place.
"Not so good at getting caught, though. You'll want to work on that." A hooded figure stepped away from the inn's back wall. Gari noted the figure's height (a little over six feet), its shoulders (broad), and the beard (blond) and guessed Human male. Not just any Human male, but one who looked so plain and ordinary he would fit in anywhere in Thornland, as Gari saw when the man pushed his hood back.
"I've been following that one"—the man jerked his head towards the stable corner where the fence was still standing—"for about six months now and I have to say that you two have one of the most discreet exchanges I've ever seen. Instead of leaving the goods and money in a drop spot you let him hold onto everything while you pick his pockets. It's a neat trick, but risky. But I suppose you two have a plan in place if someone sees you doing it, don't you?"
Gari remained still and silent, his eyes never leaving the man's face.
"The first time I saw you doing that I said to myself, there's someone I need to know. So I've made a point of watching you whenever I come to town. You've seen me plenty of times but you've never noticed me before, have you? I'm just an ordinary man, the kind nobody looks at twice." He chuckled. "That's my gift: being ordinary. I can blend in with a crowd the way you blend in with the shadows. That's a gift, too, you know. It's why I'm talking to you right now. I want to help you develop that gift."
Gari twisted his lips to the right to express his skepticism.
"You think I'm a thief, don't you? Well, sometimes I do dabble in the larcenous arts but that's not my primary profession. I'm actually a collector. My specialty is secrets. You like secrets, don't you? I've seen you going around town listening to people. Hearing what they say and what they don't say. Putting it all together to figure out the real story. You've peered through your share of windows, listened under your share of eaves. How long have you lived here?"
Gari remained silent for a moment before he answered. "Fifteen years."
"Fifteen years,” the man repeated. “And how old are you? Twenty-five?”
“Twenty-eight.”
The man nodded. “I was close. So to be as good as you are you must have started your sneaking-around career pretty soon after you moved here. Got to have something to do, right? Everyone needs a hobby. But by now it's getting kind of boring, isn't it? There aren't that many people here in this jumped-up village. By now you know all the skeletons in everyone's wardrobes by their first names by now, don't you?" He paused. "I know what you're thinking. 'What the hell is he going on about? Get to the point. Arrest me or whatever it is you're going to do.' All right, then I will.
Gari stiffened as the man moved closer. When they were next to each other, the man said, “I'm not going to arrest you, boy. I work for Sir Jorn* and I want to recruit you.”
"Who in the Light is Sir Jorn?"
"Someone who doesn't spend a lot of time in the light. He prefers to hide in the shadows the way you and I do. And, like you and I, he collects secrets. But he does it on a much wider scale. He collects secrets from all over Thornland. He also likes international secrets, from Kardansk and Esparol and all the other countries in the south. And when he gets them he picks out the most important ones, the ones that explain what's really going on in the world, and he reports them to the King.” The man dropped his voice to a whisper. "He's the Royal Spymaster."
Gari whispered back. "You want me to be a spy?"
"You were born to do this," the man replied. "I've been working for Sir Jorn for thirty-five years and I have never seen anyone who can disappear into the darkness the way you can. And that's just what you've learned on your own. Just imagine how far you can go with proper training."
It was tempting, Gari couldn't deny that. He loved sneaking around and Goldhill had long ago become boring. But then his conscience tugged at him. "I can't just pack up and leave,” he said. “I have responsibilities here. My family..."
"I know,” the man interrupted. “Your father is getting sicker and sicker. Now he can't work anymore. Your mother has to take care of him and keep up with her embroidery business, which is why your sister had to drop out of school last year to help her. You're a junior journeyman lapidary so you don't make much, which is why you started stealing 'cracked' stones from your employer and having your sister charge them so you can sell them on the black market. Even with all that you can barely afford the medicine your father needs.”
"Exactly," Gari said.
“What if you're caught? You would be fired, you would go to jail, and your family would lose your income. But if you come with me, not only would you be protected from prosecution but you would also be making a lot more money than you ever could in this little town. Sir Jorn pays generously, even while you're in training. You'd make enough money to be able to support your whole family by yourself. You could pay for your father's medicine, you could get someone to help your mother care for him or help her in her business so your sister could go back to school. You could even send her to the mages' preparatory school if you wanted.”
Gari's silence returned.
“You should, you know. She's good. A little fae able to charge stones the way she does with only a grammar-school education and a patched-together charger? She's as good at magic as you are at sneaking. She should go to prep school.” The man patted him on the shoulder. "I'm not asking for an immediate decision. I leave for Torenden City in three days. Meet me in the tavern at sunset day after tomorrow and let me know if you'll be going with me."
Gari had already made his decision. "What am I supposed to tell my family?"
The man smiled knowingly. "You're smart. You'll figure it out."
Back at the house
"Wow," Thessalia said. “That's the chance of a lifetime.”
"Yeah," said Gari. "How could I refuse?"
"What are you going to tell Mum and Dad?"
"The truth."
"Really?"
"Yes, really. I thought it all out on the way home. I'm pretty sure Dad already knows I've been stealing stones so I'm going to tell them I got caught and in order to keep out of jail I made a deal to go into government service. The wages I get for that service I'll send home to pay for Dad's care."
"And you think they're going to believe that?"
"Sure, why not?" Gari shrugged. "What's important is that this money will pay for everything we need. Mom can stop worrying...”
“She'll never stop worrying,” Thessalia interrupted.
He ignored her. “...we can afford Dad's medicine, and you, my thistly little sister, are going to get to go back to school. Which I know you want, so quit complaining.”
“I don't know,” she said. “It just sounds too good to be true.”
“It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For both of us. I'm getting a chance to do something interesting and exciting and you get a chance to be a mage. So quit your bitching and let's go inside. I'm really tired and I want to go to bed now.”
After Gari went inside, Thessalia stayed on the roof staring at the sky for a long time. He was right. This was their chance to grab the dreams they thought they could never achieve. Up to this point, their luck kept turning in the wrong direction every time they thought it was going up, but something in the stars reassured her that this time luck was going to turn the right way.
________
*Pronounced “Yorn.” Thornish is a Germanic/Norse language.