A Price Paid Ch. 01

High tables peppered the bar area and an aged, but the décor in dark autumn was pleasing to the eye in a bright and homey kind of way. It didn't want to be widely known or widely known as a dive. It was well lit, but in such a way that there were a few shadowy areas where those that hit it off could have some privacy.

"Hey, Mae, what ya say?"

Looking to Ikan, the portly bartender that every bar she'd ever been in seemed to have she grinned and spoke up with that familiarity that only regular customers truly had. "I say, what I usually say, and that's that I want a small bottle of summer rum."

He smiled back, scratching at his scruffy beard "Ooo, I have the honor of Mae's company for tonight while she nurses a bottle of the cheap stuff."

She sidled up to the bar. All you have is cheap stuff." She pulled the coins from her pocket and enjoyed the metal on metal sound as they rubbed against one another in her palm. "That's why I come here."

He pulled the small, dark brown glass bottle from under the bar and placed it between them with a clean, heavy glass next to it. "Here I thought it was your secret attraction to me."

"Oh, absolutely. It's all I can do not to jump the bar every time I come in here."

"Any battle scars for me to see and maybe plant a kiss or two on?"

She dropped her coins. "Not yet, and hopefully not ever."

He harrumphed with a twinkle in his eyes as he picked up the coinage one at a time. "You make sure you let me know, girl."

"You bet." She grabbed her bottle and headed to one of the high tables opposite the bar, sat down, poured a glass of the light brown spirit, savoring the sweet and the smooth of it coupled with that smokey hint provided by the rare wood from which the casks it was aged in were made. There was a narrow window of time after the rains of spring to cut the trees so that the wood would add just the right flavor.

She thought she might want to taste the expensive version someday, but was unsure how that might come out. Her palate might be so accustomed to the cheap stuff that she feared she would actually be unable to appreciate the finer version. Or she could fall so in love with it that she might never be able to go back to what was within her means. For, now, at least, she had what she wanted before her and was content to sip quietly and entertain her thoughts with the music and the soft murmur of conversation in the background coming together to be a pleasant white noise.

Mae took that time to ponder her present, her future, and the rum. She was so immersed in that that she didn't immediately notice the man at the bar glancing in her direction every so often, hoping to catch her attention. When she finally did see him gazing her way, she found that she didn't much mind. His dark hair curled naturally and he kept it to his neck. His grin was easy and his dark eyes carried a playful, yet devilish glint. He had no swagger to him. He didn't need it, as this was a man who looked supremely comfortable in his own skin. He was dressed well, but not so well that suggested a young man wealthy on his parents money coming down to find some impressionable, lower-class pussy to bed.

He raised his glass to her and she returned the grin before purposefully turning away and directing her gaze out the window. Mae spent the next few minutes watching the few people moving up and down the street as they made their way to their destinations, getting a look at them as they passed under the lamp lights. That was interesting in its own way, as she sometimes picked interesting looking people and made up stories about them. Though tonight she found herself waiting for his gaze. She could feel when his eyes were on her and when they weren't and she waited.

She was pondering the notion that a couple walking by were both married and engaging in a torrid affair when she heard the stool opposite her squeal across the floor and stress slightly under the weight of a body. "Come here often?"

Mae's lip curled upward, taking a few extra moments to watch the couple disappear from view, no doubt in order to find somewhere private for their salacious tryst before turning to look at the man from the bar, half-finished drink on the table before him. "I'm sorry, what?"

He repeated himself cheerfully, seemingly uncaring of the notion of repeating himself. "Come here often?"

Her head tilted as she appraised him up close and finding him as good an idea up close as he was from across the room, "Often enough to know that you don't."

He liked her. She was straightforward. "Fair enough. I'm from the north, Hohver, actually, not far south of Idros. I arrived a few days ago and thought I'd start actually seeing the city."

"I've been to Idros on garrison duty. I might have ridden through Hohver on the way in or out, but I couldn't tell you."

His laugh was smooth and hearty, "That's all right. I doubt many from there could tell you either. It isn't even on most maps, I don't think. I'm Nax Hane." He offered his hand to her as he would to any man. "Please feel free to call me Nax. Might I ask your name?"

"Mae Kaven," she said, taking the proffered hand, noting how he let it caress her skin on the way back to his side. "'Mae' is fine. And might I ask what brings you so far south?"

"Very pleased to make your acquaintance, Mae Kaven." He sounded quite proud of himself. "Business opportunities take me all over, though I admit that I don't get to the capitol city very often."

She nodded, "So what brings you here? Have you already seen the parks in the upper quarter? Monarch's Row? The National Museum? I highly recommend them."

"And I'm sure they're lovely, but, to tell you the truth, I almost never visit such places. They're for people to congregate about to help businesses in the area. As such a man myself I can appreciate that aspect, but, that said, for myself, I go to places like this. I go to places where the people who live here go, not to the places other outsiders go to."

"I get a real feel for the place and a true sense of the people that live there. I get to meet," his disarming smile returned, "lovely people like you. So, tell me, are you still a soldier in Erette's fine army?"

"I am."

He joked, "Any battle scars to kiss?"

She managed to not roll his eyes, but couldn't quite keep the sigh from her voice. Men looking for kissing and counting tours were as common as the sunrise. "No. And I sincerely hope to never have any. I'm not in it for the glorious battles or capturing honor. It's a job. I'd like to think I'm good enough at it, but it's a job. I'll serve the time I promised to serve for the money and the benefits and then get out."

"You almost make it sound like prison."

For another two years, three months, and sixteen days, I have to do what I'm told and can't leave." She emptied her glass. "So, yes, there are similarities." She paused, chiding herself for how she sounded, "Don't get me wrong, I don't hate what I'm doing and it's honorable work. It's just..."

He finished for her. "A stepping stone to other things."

"Exactly."

"What are those other things?" He seemed genuinely interested in knowing.

"I'm actually not sure yet. It's one of the reasons I occasionally treat myself to a bottle of wine and a seat here. I like to daydream and," she paused, appreciating the view for a moment, "contemplate the possibilities."

He seemed almost apologetic. "Far be it from me to further disrupt your evening, but I might suggest that you contemplate a dance."

She did in fact do so for a few moments before deciding, "Why not?" Indeed, she hadn't planned for tonight to be a manhunt, but if a pleasant enough one happened to put himself in her path, who was she to send him away?

He offered his hand in the definition of chivalry and she took it and allowed herself to be led out to the small dance floor where a few other couples were also swaying to the melodies that shifted from one to the next without pause. He took the lead again, knowing how to do so without making it feel like he was pulling her about as some did, "You've been taking strangers dancing for a long time."

"My parents insisted that I know how. They didn't want their son to be an animal with no semblance of culture. I have to say, while I hated it growing up, it has proven to be beneficial."

"So what is it that you do?"

"Fur trading, mostly."

Mae looked him over again. "You don't exactly look like a fur trader."

He laughed. "I'm not coming back from a hunt. I am, however, hoping to open up a new market. Sometimes you go in wearing your product because that's what they want to see. Sometimes a potential business partner, especially in the Upper Quarter, sees that as lowbrow, so you have to go in looking more like a peer. Did I manage?"

She tried not to stroke his ego too much. "I suspect you did all right. How do you think you did?"

Nax shrugged his shoulders ever so slightly. There's another meeting tomorrow, so I must not have completely ruined things."

"Congratulations are in order then, I suppose."

"I wouldn't go that far," he said, moving with her in their space. "There's still a million things that can ruin it but," he bobbed his head back and forth as though he were debating options back and forth before looking pleased while drawing her closer, "But I'd say things are looking good."

Mae let the moment of closeness linger. She felt the heat between them and let herself like it for a while. He moved closer and her heart jumped. She closed her eyes as he drew closer, then thought better of it. Mae decided she didn't have quite enough of a sense of him yet to invite him home and also didn't quite have enough alcohol in her to make up the difference, so she pulled back.

He pulled back along with her and gave her a contrite glance, not wanting to hold her gaze. "Forgive me, Mae, if I overstepped. Clearly I misunderstood the moment. I apologize."

She tried to keep the moment light, as he really had done nothing wrong. "No need. I just don't want you to think I'm so easily had."

"I never thought you were, Mae." He brought her hands together so they were still locked between them before planting his lips softly upon hers. "The finest things take effort to have. They must be earned."

He has such lovely eyes. "Why don't we go back to the table and drink a toast to your lack of failure in your business endeavors."

He shook his head and put chin to chest to try to hide his amusement. "That sounds wonderful."

Returning to the table, Mae happily grabbed her bottle and poured generously into both heavy glasses, handing Nax his as he slid smoothly back onto the stool. He took a moment to glance at her curves with some semblance of class before taking the drink.

Mae raised hers into the air with a smile, "Here's to a lack of failure."

"To the bliss of not knowing yet if you've failed or not. That way success is certain."

The glasses came together with a hard clink.

The fingers of Nax's free hand moved in an intricate pattern with practiced ease under the table.

As he finished, the density of the air in front of one of the barmaid's legs increased for but an instant, but that was instant enough to send her lurching forward. She gasped in surprise and, while she was experienced enough at her job to keep from sending the contents of the entire tray arcing towards the floor, she did lose the two mugs of ale closest to the edge, their contents spilling just before mixing with the broken glass. She looked at the mess with dismay, knowing it would be a fight as to whether or not it came out of her pay. The laughter of the patrons that surrounded her filled her ears, but she bit her tongue, knowing it would only make things worse.

Mae turned at the sound of mockery and shattered glass, so she did not see the lightning speed at which the hand Nax had under the table came out, his thumb pressing a small switch on the side of his ring, allowing two drops of clear fluid to drop into Mae's drink without her notice. When it was done Nax was happy to recapture her attention. "Oops. Looks like it's been a long night for her."

"If it hasn't been, it looks like it's going to be," she agreed, looking back and being met with his disarming smile that drew another from her. "Where were we? Ah, yes, to the occasional gift that is uncertainty."

"To a tomorrow that goes as I hope."

"That, too."

They drank, both of them downing their drinks and Mae held hers as she spoke, "If it all does go right tomorrow, that's a step forward for you, but a step towards what? What's the goal here? A business empire? Enough wealth to buy your own House and place in court?"

"Court, Mae?" He shook his head and chortled at the absurdity. "Nothing so grandiose, I assure you. This gets me closer to...enough. I would like enough wealth to not have to worry about wealth. I'd like enough to be able to leave behind. I'd like to leave behind enough to give my someday children the start towards their dreams and desires that I didn't get, but not so much that they don't have to work for their dreams. I suspect this deal will put me there."

She was thoughtful for a time. "Honestly, that's a lovely sentiment. I wouldn't mind being that sure of things myself."

He leaned in. "So, tell me about you, and don't spare a detail."

She flushed, thinking it must be the rum, but then conceded that it might be the man. He was a very handsome young man. "I promise you, we're a fairly average bunch."

He seemed intrigued. "'Fairly' promises to cover a substantial bit of territory, so I invite you to share. I'll bet it's interesting."

She shook her head as she smirked, knowing beforehand that that was very unlikely to be the case. Nevertheless, the began with the broad strokes of growing up in a small village near one of the larger lakes in the east. As she spoke, however, the rum seemed to hit her again and a wave of heat rushed through her from head to toe as though she could feel each individual nerve in her body tingle.

Then the heat thickened in her skull and began to descend upon her brain like a thick morning fog. "My brother has three of his own, twelve, nine and...and..." She tried to come up with the other number for a moment before she sighed, blowing it out slowly as her shoulders slumped forward.

Nax's tilted his head, pondering the change in expression, "You look strange, Mae. Are you all right?"

"I dunno. I feel...strange. Weird."

"Warm?"

Mae struggled with the thought, "What?"

"Do you feel warm all over?"

Her brows rising, then knotting was the only answer she was capable of.

"Do you feel like your mind is drowning in syrup?"

"Uh-huh."

"Warm, gooey syrup?"

That was it, she decided.

"Your mind feels so drowned that it takes too much work to tell me lies, doesn't it?"

She thought about lying because he mentioned lying, but then she'd have to think about how to put together something that wasn't the truth right now and it just seemed so very difficult. "Yes."

"And doing what I say? It's easiest just to do what I say, isn't it?"

"Yes?"

His voice hardened, tickling that part of her brain that was trained to respond to a superior. "It's easiest just to do what you say."

"Yes."

"Tell me, Mae, do you live far from here?"

That was easy. Answering let the fog roll smoothly. "No, just a couple of blocks down the street, past the bakery."

"Very good." He was quite satisfied with things despite the fact that this little operation was thrown together quickly by an employer who believed time was of the essence. "You want to take me home now."

That was the right idea. It was what he wanted and it was easiest to just do what he said. "I do. I want to take you home now."

"Let's smile and have you take me home."

She smiled and it only looked slightly pasted to her face because her eyes weren't quite in the moment, not that anyone but Nax was in a position to notice. They rose almost together and he moved to embrace her. Lips to her ear, he whispered, "Stop smiling, say nothing, look relaxed, and take me home."

Her body complied and they weaved their way around the high tables to the door and Ikan took note as one of the customers he was fond of headed out. He thought nothing of it, as it wasn't the first time she'd found a man for the evening. He called out to her as he wiped down the bar of the leavings of those who reached the point that they were spilling almost as much as they drank. "See ya later, Mae."

Nax nearly winced, He'd hoped to get out with no notice at all, but, alas it was not to be. He wasn't worried about himself so much as anyone noticing unusual behavior in her and trying to intervene. He didn't know if it'd be usual for her to respond or not, but caution in this case meant saying nothing. It was simply the least risky choice over any response that might not sound like her.

He felt better once they reached the street. He put his arm around her, so he could be a bit more attuned to her movement and so that, to bystanders they just looked like any other couple out for an evening stroll together. When they neared people, he would order her to giggle as he prattled on as though he'd said something witty. She walked with him down the street and Nax had to admit that he loved these particular jobs.

He watched her walk, one foot in front of another because she had to, her mind so deliciously fogged that there was no why. She was told, so she obeyed. She didn't move like a machine, but there was a stiffness that he knew well by now that told him her will was supplanted. But it was her eyes that excited him. It was a tease that he was happy to have to contend with because he could only catch a glimpse when they passed under the fleeting yellowish light of a street lamp. In those moments he could see the emptiness in her eyes. Nax could see in her eyes that there was nothing behind them save what he would put there and that made his cock hard, which was a wonderful thing because his work hadn't even truly begun yet and in some critical ways, he was aching to begin.

Near the end of the second block, they took the left he expected into a small alley between two shops. Halfway down the darkened space, he stepped behind her, allowing her to lead him up the stairs to the door of the small space she rented above the merchant. "Open the door and go inside, Mae."

Reaching down into her cleavage, she retrieved the iron key from its resting place and unlocked the door with the barest glimpse downward to line up key to lock, though she didn't register the action. The door opened with a squeal of disagreement and she stepped inside while he used the hint of light creeping in from the street to see the candle on the small table to the left of the door. Using the simplest of spells, he compressed and excited the air around the wick until the heat yielded to flame. He repeated the spell as he entered behind her in turn until the room was revealed.

It was small and clean, though the latter essentially mandated the former as there wasn't room for much clutter. It made sense, he supposed. If she were concerned about saving for her future, all she needed was a place to sleep, and that's all she had. Mae stood as though rooted to the floor just beyond the door while he turned and locked it, tossing the key on the table by the door. He took a deep breath, relishing the exhalation and the pleasant tingle that his cock sent through his body in anticipation.

Now for the fun part, he thought as he looked into Mae's vacant, wide eyes

"Take off your clothes, Mae."

He watched with growing hunger as she slowly revealed herself to him, staring ahead at the wall and at nothing as her clothes, garments as inexpensive and utilitarian as her home piled up next to her. Nax liked what he saw, especially since the plain clothes were more than modest enough not to hint at what might be beneath. Her body was as fit as he'd expect from an infantry soldier. Her limbs displayed her strength. Her hips were wide and her breasts small enough to fit entirely in his mouth and he looked forward to doing so before his work was done, as she was going to be quite agreeable shortly.