Damacon and Aurex Tiber waited for the last of the trogs to depart before letting go of the tension they didn't even know they were holding. The moon watched them in silence—pale, pitiless—as the last evening light vanished behind the western mountains. Harpy shrieks from the distant southern coast broke the silence for a moment. Another successful battle for the trogs.
'The stage was set!' Damacon reveled in its success. 'By dawn I should have the carriage filled with gold again!'
Aurex began to walk towards Damacon. Eyes still full of daggers.
Damacon let out a yelp and scurried off into the safety of its caravan as the man approached.
It was almost comical to Aurex Tiber if the creature didn't just destroy years of hard work just moments ago.
The troglodyte made itself busy inside as if it had no time to talk, floor boards creaking as it stepped to and fro. As if there were anything inside to keep it busy, beyond the two dorm rooms of its sleeping companions.
"Strange that you aren't joining your brothers in arms, Damacon" It ignored the man as it nervously looked for something that it would never find.
"Damacon!" The merchant jumped in place at the roar of the old man. A commanding voice that not many could handle. Including Damacon.
It turned to face the Mayor.
"What do you want, Tiber? I do not have time to talk about trivialities with you." Damacon walked up to the front of the carriage and grabbed the reins of the horses before sitting down. It motioned them to get moving but the horses only stepped close enough for Tiber to scratch their ears, their dark eyes watching Damacon with the same suspicion as their master. They wouldn't budge, no matter how Damacon barked at them. The troglodyte licked its lips nervously, its pale skin slick with sweat, fingers drumming the reins with restless energy
"What's the rush? We have much to discuss, young merchant." Tiber tilted his body to look over Damacon's shoulder at it's non-existent inventory. "To be honest I wasn't expecting a return on my investment so soon!" The statement struck Damacon exactly where it hurt the most.
It's purse.
Tiber had an endless supply of daggers tonight for the troglodyte.
"It's like I said—the Sol' convoy stole the meat and left me without a coin!" Damacon's body became moist as it nervously thought about the unfair debt being placed upon it.
"I guess next you'll want to blame my horses for taking you east towards the convoy instead of west to Kiel, like we discussed." He kept his voice leveled but his empty stomach wanted him to growl.
Damacon's anger started to supersede his nervousness at that remark.
"You set me up! The Seal Sol of Commerce you gave was a fake! The Lord in charge of the convoy told me himself. I would've been captured had I not been so quick on my feet." Damacon stated proudly with his head tilted upwards.
'Quick on it's feet indeed! Always an unforeseen happenstance with you when something or someone went missing'
In truth Damacon wasn't far off. Aurex did try to set Damacon up but the Seal of Commerce was legitimate. Sending it to Kiel was an excuse to sell the story of how Damacon should avoid a wealthy Lord and his convoy passing by at all cost. Greed dripped all over the trog as it left town yesterday.
It looked absolutely pathetic to Tiber underneath the moonlight. He felt absolutely pathetic if he was being honest with himself. So much wasted effort teaching Damacon to trade and ride. He'd thought teaching Damacon to trade was a kindness. Then came the graves.
He'd once placed more hope in Damacon than even Shakti. The trog's grasp of language had impressed him from the start, in Kiel, selling rabbits on the side of the road. Within the year it was bringing back supplies and exotic goods to town.
But Damacon's greed was insatiable.
Aurex Tiber was tired of the constant schemes but what really drew the line was its constant contempt towards Shakti. The results were always the same.
It would anger Shakti and the death of another innocent villager would follow.
'His people's blood was on his hands.'
'And for what?'
'For an imaginary hoard of gold that Shakti was stowing away in its little hole, in the mud, it called its home.' Aurex seethed at the thought.
Damacon grew too burdensome to handle.
Aurex was fed up explaining the arrangement he had with Shakti to it. How it worked for free and had no concept of currency but Damacon always dismissed his explanations as lies.
The grave he ordered to dig for the child today made him rethink what 'guiding his fellow creature to divine harmony' truly meant.
Aurex Tiber was ready to collect his penance.
And Damacon was way overdue.
"Five hundred gold pieces." It was all he could say without exploding in righteous fury.
Damacon licked its lips nervously as it considered the amount Aurex Tiber just said.
"Listen to me Aurex, I do not have any coin left on me! I'm also no fool, the harpy meat is expensive but the amount stolen wasn't more than sixty gold." Both knew the price of the supplies but Damacon couldn't help itself as it began to negotiate the inevitable.
Aurex stood in silence—a silence that always managed to unnerve the creature more than any threat.
"Fine, eighty gold like we agreed upon before I left town. But you know damn well five hundred is unspeakable!"
'Unspeakable? Unspeakable are the sins you've committed under my watch!'
"ENOUGH!" Aurex's hand blurred, and suddenly a dagger slammed into the boards between Damacon's legs. Punctuating his rage onto the dagger point. The release was enough to reign in his anger back both at the vile thing in front of him and himself.
"The rest is for you to leave town tonight with my horses and your wretched soul still bound to your body." His voice faltered with barely contained rage.
The trog fell on its back from where it sat and scurried back into its carriage, scratching the wood in its haste. Aurex heard the sound of a loose plank being lifted and coin being counted before the plank was placed back onto the carriage. The trog appeared once more with a purse tightly clenched in hand.
"This is roadside robbery at its finest. I've lost all respect for the type of noble man I took you for. You're a snake, Aurex Tiber a dirty little snake!" Damacon's anger lifted the Mayor's spirits just a little.
The horses were worth twenty gold apiece. Damacon's life, Aurex figured, wasn't worth more than the pair. The other three hundred and eighty gold was reparations for the families who've lost loved ones during its time here scheming against Aurex Tiber.
"You better be on your way then before I charge you another five hundred for my lost Seal of Commerce as well" It was a kindness the greedy creature didn't deserve but given all the same before Tiber stepped aside.
Damacon didn't hesitate to leave after hearing this, letting its horses carry their new master towards the marsh. Tiber let him run, same as he'd let a pig run on butcher's day.
"Maybe have an excuse ready as to why you arrived so late to the battle after ransacking Shaktis treasure!" Tiber yelled out into the night as the clatter of hooves faded into the darkness, the stench of Damacon's lies still hung thick in the air. Damacon grinned at the thought of treasure as Tiber's words gnawed at the back of its mind.
'Maybe having an excuse ready if things didn't pan out as it expected wasn't the worst advice.'