A WIP of me, my boyfriend’s durge (@lockwood-art), and friend mel’s baldurs gate trio. a terrible trio of people who end up killing nearly everyone they come across :’)
Saelethil has just crawled out of a ditch with a wound that failed to kill them. After hanging out with some new friends (that they met in the ditch) it’s time to confront the stabber.
It’s an active fight, but I think a good way to introduce this character.
cw: murder, impalement
It doesn’t take long to get out of the nicer part of the city to the haunts that Saelethil is more familiar with. And as soon as they are ... they turn their mind to business. To Maire, who is, unfortunately, their best contact here.
They debate getting a change of clothes, but there’s a drama to showing up at the doorstep of the man who tried to kill you in a shirt torn by his knife. They unbutton their coat and head to the Bar and Stool.
They don't bother with pleasantries (probably best to avoid them anyway) just walk straight up to the bar, waiting for the bartender to notice them.
When he does, his eyes go wide. Sael smiles.
"W-what are you doing here?"
Sael leans their elbows on the counter, looking completely unperturbed. "Here in this fine establishment, or here on the mortal plane?"
"You don't want to be doin' this," he says, almost a plea. To stop while they're ahead. Or at the very least not dead. But not dead and satisfied are two very different things, and Saelethil needs information. Especially with the opportunities this contract opens up.
"I have a score to settle, where's Maire?"
Maire, it turns out, is working a job close by. She's still in the casing stage, so while she'll be upset to be interrupted, it probably won't get either of them killed. Saelethil decides to chance it.
She's quick with a blade and quick on her feet, but perceptiveness was not one of Maire's strengths, and Sael is able to sneak behind her and tap her shoulder without being noticed.
She whirls, knife already out, stabbing right where their heart would have been if they hadn't moved out of the way. That confirmed it, she wasn't trying to kill Saelethil last night. If she was they'd be dead. Simple.
"Hello."
"Saelethil." It's amazing how much derision can fit in those three syllables.
"You sound so thrilled to see me."
"I was hoping never to again."
They shrug. "I've been told I'm exceptionally hard to kill. Though knifework like that is on you. It was sloppy enough that I'd almost think you've never done this before... Or were paid."
She stiffens, not super noticeably, but Sael recognizes the way the muscles in her back tighten.
"I need a favor."
"Why the fuck would I do anything for you?"
"I'm still alive-"
"Exactly!"
"Which means you failed to kill me. And you know how Luce gets when you fail."
Maire walks up to Sael and holds a dagger in front of their face.
"Then maybe I should just kill you here." She carves a line across Saelethil's cheek, her expression becoming confused as their own expression fails to change. She backs away, her threat having completely failed to land. "You're fucking creepy."
"And you need to work with me to save your hide, do this and you're out of my debt."
She glares at them, but she puts away the dagger, so that's progress. Saelethil presses on.
"I need you to deliver a letter. Directly to the recipient."
They raise an eyebrow.
"Lord Alva."
He's a minor noble, a house that could rise to prominence with the right marriage maybe, but Saelethil isn't the only person to have noticed its potential. Still, it should be easy enough to break into.
Maire does the mental math and appears to arrive at the same conclusion because she holds out her hand. Saelethil gives her the letter.
She's about to turn on her heel to go when the sound of heavy footsteps echoes through the alley. Maire and Sael both freeze.
Every footstep echoes like tolling bell, vibrating through Saelethil's entire body. They don't breathe, as if, if they stay quiet, just fade into the shadows, they won't be noticed. The city watch can't possibly expect to find anyone after all, not while making noise like that.
Except they turn the corner, in all their stupid, loud, platemail and overinflated ego.
Maire, whose brain is still working, bolts. The sudden movement jerks Saelethil out of their own stupor and they follow, though the second's head start means that when Maire and Sael's paths split, the three city guard follow Saelethil.
They weave through the alleys and sidestreets to the best of their ability, but they don't know these streets as well as they need to and eventually their luck runs out. The alley dead ends and its the guards between them and freedom.
They look for an avenue of escape and see their salvation in the form of a tall windowsill. If they could make that jump, they might be able to get on the other side of the watch. They leap and one foot lands on the sill, but the other doesn't. It's caught in the grip of one of the city watch.
"Hey, where do you think you're going?" he says, yanking their leg. Their foot slips from the narrow sill and they land hard on the ground.
They immediately kick, twisting their body to get as much force behind it as possible and hit the soldier right in the side of the knee, dropping him to the floor with them.
He swears but doesn't release their leg and their subsequent flailing doesn't get them anywhere.
"Fucking thief," he says, pulling them along the ground. "It's scum like you that make this city the shithole it is."
"Stop squirming!" a second voice says from above them. The second guard, a woman. She punctuates the command with a heavy kick that drives the air from their lungs. They curl around the injury instead of continuing their fruitless struggle. Besides, there could be an opening here... they whimper to encourage the guard to keep going, even after they've stopped moving.
It takes two more heavy kicks, one of which crunched to convince the first guard that they're no longer a threat. He lets go of their leg and stands up, presumably to deliver a kick of his own.
Before he can, Saelethil draws a dagger and rises up in one smooth movement, driving the blade into the weak spot in the armor at his hip. He screams and backs away and Sael draws another dagger as they move too, closer to the mouth of the alley.
But there are still two guards to deal with and the woman sees what they're doing and grabs their shoulder.
She slams them against the wall, a strong arm pinning them between brick and guard and Sael recognizes this position and as much as they squirm and scrabble and try to escape, they're well and truly trapped.
Their heart jackrabbits in their ribs and their head fills with static, so they don't hear whatever it is the woman says when she leans forward to sneer in their ear.
They don't think, they lift their hand and drive the dagger into the woman's throat. She lets go to scrabble at her neck, dropping Saelethil to the ground. They run forward, right into the path of a sword. They leap back, bloody dagger still in hand.
There are a lot of disadvantages to fighting against a sword with a dagger, the biggest being the length difference. A dagger is a close range weapon and one of the main purposes of a sword is to kill anyone before they can get that close.
Saelethil tries to parry the blade, but it slides off their dagger and slices over their bicep. The next time they try to close the distance they barely escape getting impaled as the guard catches on to their strategy and leaping back so they aren't skewered loses them ground.
They take another small step back, their stomach tightening at the thought of moving deeper into the alley, then make a sloppy attack that comes up short and leaves their flank completely exposed.
The guard takes the bait and closes the distance, thrusting his blade into their side and leaving a huge opening. Sael lunges forward, sliding along the blade, impaling it further into their body, and stabs him over and over again, until blood spurts every time the dagger sinks into his flesh, and again until they're sure he's dead.
They slide off his sword and grab it, turning to sink it into the last living guard. After all that, he doesn't put up much of a fight.
They stare at his lifeless body without really seeing it. Gradually, as the adrenaline fades, they realize that they’re shaking. They drop the sword with a deafening clang.
They're shaking goddammit. This shouldn't phase them, it doesn't phase them, even their best day a year ago was worse than a little kicking around. They had no reason to feel like this.
It must be the hangover. The hangover and the blood loss, they never actually ate this morning. That explained it. And the trouble breathing? Probably a broken rib. All physical issues that they could deal with. They were fine, though it was disappointing that they needed to reassure themselves of that.
They clasp their hands together to try and control the tremors. It doesn't really work.
It dawns on them that they're standing next to three bodies, and they're very clearly covered in blood. They need to leave, find... somewhere... to go, and recover, and probably eat.
The Bar and Stool is absolutely not an option, and they have little familiarity with the areas that aren't part of Luce's domain. Certainly no knowledge of anywhere safe to hide for a bit.
They briefly consider making their way to the dead body ditch to just lay down for a bit but there's too heavy a sense of finality to that.
But the Golden Sword... it's not a terrible idea, and the clientele seem like the type that wouldn't be phased by Sael's current appearance, so long as they didn't leave a literal trail of blood to the door. That's what they'd do then, carefully, and taking back alleys, they'd make their way to the Golden Sword.
