First Bloom - Windfall

Wyatt spent the next week recovering his fighting agility by training with the boys. Either his time in bed had brought his fighting skill down or the boys had made the best out of Andrea’s training. To the northerner’s merit what he lacked in skill he made up for in strength, when his blows were parried the boys still ended in the ground and if he had decided to follow-up they would be nothing more than a crimson smear on the ground. While the boys were playing sticks Andrea made constant trips to the market and bought different herbs, oils and spices from various merchants, she even went as far as putting special orders to some of the shadier bootleggers.


When the end of the week came Wyatt called for a reunion at the pub, not only the crew was there, some of the larger gangs had their leaders present or some of their larger bruisers. During the meeting Wyatt told them that they were planning to hit the slavers and finally bring them down in such a manner that they would not even think of going after any of their members, and if all went well, even the people of the slums could finally walk during the night without fear of never returning home. Before he presented the plan Andrea pulled him to the side and asked him to let her handle that part in her own manner.


One by one she called the groups by gang and told them different starting points for the plans.She was being deliberately dishonest. She hadn’t heard of any of the gangs working with the slavers but she wasn’t going to risk her hit be interrupted just because someone couldn’t keep their mouth shut or was just too greedy to think beyond their crooked nose. Before each group left she asked for a number and list of names of the members that were going to be present in the operation.Afterwards she had the boys tail the groups just to cover her bases and ensure none of them were so dumb they had to go running immediately to rat the plan out to the affected party.


The boys returned with no strange news, seemed if there was a rat at least it was patient.


Finally the night of the assault arrived and the kids reported a strange presence in the gathering point for a gang called the gilded crowns, without hesitation Andrea dispatched their best archers and a group of heavy hitters to bring down that lot. They weren’t going to fight they just needed to incapacitate and she had sent them equipped to do so. Sadly that meant that if the guys didn’t report back quick they would be expected in the slavers base. They needed to move quick and land on them from every possible angle.


They moved sticking to shadows and by the weirdest and most convoluted routes. They weren’t gonna waste the advantage of having set them up by being spotted before they were in position to hit them hard.They avoided a couple of incidents by having the kids deliver sleeping dart directly into the lookouts throat. Almost as if blessed by the lord of shadows, the moon hid behind a heavy cloud casting the whole city of arminier in darkness just as they surrounded the slavers compound. Andrea had asked Wyatt to allow her to lead the infiltration unit, as she moved to the windows she saw Wyatt and the larger groups mob the doors and await the signal before starting the breach.


Andrea made sure all her people were positioned and then she pressed a small whistle to her mouth and blew into it. The sound was very similar to the crowing of the local birds, of course it was weird to hear it at night but it would at least gain them a second of confusion. The sound died into the night and all hell broke loose.


The sound of shattering wooden doors quickly mixed with the roar of the bandits assaulting the slavers and the confused running of the slavers as they tried to regroup and were quickly cut out from moving into the more defensible areas of their stronghold. As the battle sounds peaked Andrea and her unit moved into the compound as silently as they could and avoiding of all the main avenues of the compound and sticking to the darker recesses of the building. Every now and then they would move out of the shadows to incapacitate a guard, even when knocked out they would cut some of them in parts where they couldn’t ignore they had been wounded.


After much moving they noticed the sounds of battle begin to die and just as they did they came upon a large set of doors with iron bands. Andrea gestured for the unit to flatten against the walls and in an almost too quick movement she kicked the door in and ducked sideways just as two bowstrings twanged and two bolts embed themselves into the wall on the wall behind where Andrea’s chest had just been a fraction of a second before.From their hiding spot the assaulters rolled a couple of clay spheres into the room with a very short wick already on fire protruding from them. The muffled explosion came a couple of seconds later and the room filled with smoke.


The coughing of them men inside the room was followed by the clatter of their weapons and the thudding of their bodies limply hitting the floor. As they waited for the air to clear Andrea heard a door slam on the back of the room and she could just feel in every bone in her body that the slaver leader was getting away. She tied a cloth over her mouth bandit style and rushed into the room navigating by memory of what she ad seen before the bolts made her hide behind the wall.It took her a couple more seconds than she might have wished but soon enough she found the wooden door and crashed through it into a large hallway, barely lit, probably a back road to escape unnoticed.


Without hesitation Andrea ran down the hall following the echoing of feet slapping on stone. She took turns with an agility that would be expected of a professional thief and not a master healer, but then again she was not your run-of-the-mill herbalist. Soon enough she noticed the slapping had faded away and the next turn took her into a long road that seemed to break into a well lit room. As he crossed the threshold she dropped and rolled the only signaled that she had read the situation perfectly was the swishing of metal as it cut the air and the clang as it stuck stone on the walls. Andrea spun out of the rolled and smiled as she faced the woman that she had been looking for, finally taking her in.


The slaver leader was covered in straps and metal studs over tight leather armor in black. She had a long blade in her right hand and a stiletto on her left. Her stance was sloppy but Andrea had seen her move and knew that was just a feint to draw in a rushed attack and land a quick kill. Andrea was not gonna give her a chance for a quick kill. She pulled her short sword on her right hand and pulled what seemed like a well oiled dagger of pure black metal still dripping with an amber substance. The ring leader looked her over once and smiled, it was a wicked expression not meant to convey humor but hunger and bloodthirst. Again bait, this time Andrea decided she would take it. She lunged and as the slaver woman moved to strike Andrea moved lower and used her shorter knife to redirect the slavers blade away. She knew the knife would be coming as a follow up, And as it did Andrea moved in and used her elbow to catch slaver in the jaw sending her staggering backwards.


The older woman cleaned the blood from her lip and smiled before going on the offensive. Andrea dodged a couple of slashes and then moved in this time smacking the knife from the slaver’s hand with the flat of her sword. The woman yelped in surprise and before she could react Andrea had moved awfully closed and locked her blade arm behind her back forcing her to drop the sword. The blade clattered and Andrea kicked it away before letting her stiletto draw a thin line in the woman’s forearm.As she felt the blood lightly touch her fingers she jumped back and released the slaver. She sheathed both her weapons and took her battle stance once more.


There was no reason not to enjoy getting back at the woman that had sent her down this road. She was gonna pay her back dearly for having caused her so much grief for measly gold. The woman moved forward in an eastern battle stance and blocked Andrea’s first two strikes before moving in and landing a kick in ANdrea’s solar plexus. The kick had enough force to make the younger girl stagger backwards gasping for breath and managing to barely jump out of the way before the slaver landed on her a flurry of kicks. Andrea once agains darted to the side and then feigned a lunge forcing the woman to go into a blocking stance that gave the northerner an opening to strike with a full fist into her rib. The woman grunted and readjusted her body to block but her balance was off, Andrea took the opportunity to pivot and use the momentum to kick her feet from under her as the woman fell backwards her fall was broken by a knee directly behind the lungs that kicked all the air out of her. She landed with a heavy thud and before she could react she felt a series of strikes hit the side of her torso further forcing her to cough and preventing her from gathering any air. As the world became fuzzy she saw Andre astradle her and launch two attacks to her shoulders which soon made her arms flopp uselessly to the sides, then with no resistance andrea lifted her right arm and delivered a pinche that made the whole world go black.


When the slaver leader came to, her soldiers had their hands tied behind their backs and strapped to long and thick logs that made moving almost impossible unless you had the full cooperation of the other five people strapped with you to it. Slowly all the men regained their consciousness and as they did the lights turned fully on revealing a large warehouse on the docks, one they had once used to smuggle eatern girls into the city without the guard ever being the wiser. On the higher windows and ramparts archers with their bows or crossbows waited patiently but ready to unleash a flurry that would end them where they lay. As she thought about it a large voice boomed across the warehouse.


On on several crates had been piled high and on them stood a large man, Andrea and other gang leaders. The address was quick and left no room for retort.If any of the slivers wished to live further than a month no more kidnappings would occur inside the city and all trafficking would be done beyond it’s gates, if any damage should come from assassin’s to the gang leaders they would also die. The method of deliverance was a fine poison developed by Andrea, once the symptoms showed they would be unable to recover so it was in their best interest to collect every month a solution which would delay the inevitable.There were of course attempts at clarifying what would happen in different scenarios but Wyatt quickly informed all present that this was not a negotiation but a simple advice to let them know what they needed to do if they should find themselves willing to live. The poison they had administered had hundreds of safeguards worked into it so if they were administered anything but the right solution the symptoms would be triggered, also by not infecting everyone if they thought a solution had worked and cured them they would end up triggering the poisons on someone who was infected.


Needless to say the slavers did report some of them dying over the first month due to taking non adequate antidotes. Andrea would have felt bad,but she knew all too well what those men had done and perhaps death had been a release too good for them. Before they released them Andrea walked up to the slaver leader, a woman she discovered to be called Orchid, and inquired about Sabetha. The woman at first refused to say anything but andrea quickly pressed a leaf coated in a yellowish substance to her skin and the woman yelled at the top of her lungs before hanging her head and whimpering, Andrea lifted Orchid’s head by the chin and removed the leaf, there was not a mark that the leaf had been pressed aside from a little residue of the yellowish substance. Andrea explained that the substance hurt as if molten metal was dropped into the skin but no real damage was done, thus, the body could be made to relive that moment for hours without actually allowing the person to shut down. She pulled a set of other leaves and waited. The woman soon blurted out whatever information she had about Sabetha’s location and Andrea pressed another leaf to the woman’s arm. The woman calmed down and looked and Andrea who explained only the first leaf had been coated in that , this was a salve that would remove the lingering sensation. She was willing to do what was necessary but she was not a sadist.


Without any more concern for what would be done to release the rest of the slavers she darted into the night. Towards the stables, she needed to save Sabetha tonight before any of the noblemen found out they had attacked the slaves and moved them or upped their security in hopes of not losing any irreplaceable ones. She soon got to the stables, climbed onto a horse and darted out of the city and into the fields, on the outsides of the city where the camp homes of the nobles were kept. SHe had to recover Sabetha, despite how little time they spent together, she had to recover the only other person that had fed her fire of freedom.

First Bloom - Coming Storm

Soon together with dealing with Wyatts sickness Andrea would be asked to check on other gang members and sometimes other elements from the criminal underworld of arminier. Still despite being absorbed in the tasks of a healer, Andrea constantly asked herself how she could help the children avoid danger. Inspiration came during a discussion with one of the clients,The wound had been inflicted during a transportation job, he had been ambushed by the slavers in an alleyway and had lost the item he was carrying to delivery.

Andrea knew the slavers were dangerous but due to the nature of their jobs they were disliked by other criminal gangs and they relied on brute force to perform their ambushes. During the next days she began forming a plan and canvassing the areas around their burrow. After two weeks and with Wyatt much recovered she finally invited him to see what she had accomplished.

They walked to a plaza near the slums temple and she was carrying a bag with several parchments each with a very distinctive silk ribbon and shape drawn onto it. All the way Wyatt made small talk but inquired not at to what she wanted to show him and what was the basket for. As they got to the plaza she handed the basket to a merchant and asked Wyatt to remember the ribbons and shapes as well as make them a mark that only he could remember. Afterwards she asked him to walk with him and get a large mug of beer from a street vendor. Slowly she led him winding through the streets and as they did she would suddenly produce one of the marked parchments and hand them to him. They soon left the slums and entered the temple district where once again she produces a parchment almost out of nowhere. Finally they entered the financial district and as she sat at a fountain she bent down and from behind her feet pulled the last remaining parchment.

Wyatt grabbed the last one examined it and smiled before inquiring how she had managed to get the parchments duplicated and moved about the town without him noticing. Andrea explained that no such thing had happened, the parchments had been moved across town by the boys through a series of routes she had traced. Each route required the boys to take advantage of their small sizes and nimbleness, not to mention they each had a rope and other equipment that allowed them to traverse the route without being seen. Any larger person that tried to walk over those routes would find himself falling through a clay roof or simply unable to find footing. The merchants stored the items for them and the boys retrieved them from the closest merchant to take them to their final destination. The merchant system was set up thanks to offering them protection from smaller thieves by the use of their own men posted on certain sections.

Wyatt listened intently with a thin smile on his lips. Once she finished he took a long look at her and finally broke into a full toothed smile. The plan was perfect but Andrea had to consider that the older men with him were good with a blade but not experts, if it came to blades with the slavers the slavers were more brutal and greater in number, he would support her plan and inform the gang of the changes, but also he would need to further train the men so they could handle their own in a swordfight. Andrea smiled and let him know that she also had a plan for that and was more than happy to train them.

Over the next days other gangs began to come to the pub and leave their goods to be moved during the day and fenced with whoever they chose to make the sell.

When the delivery business was slow Andrea would take the idle men to the yard behind the pub and train them hard and without giving them any respite. At first the men were skeptical about her capacity to train them and their snickering and remarks soon had Andrea fuming. On day she finally had enough. She took a deep breath and asked Arlen and Bair to move forward with their fighting clubs.

The two men swagged forward exuding certainty and then she asked them to get into position and strike at her. Arlen laughed and shook his head before mentioning how she was exposing herself to too much pain. The bored look in Andrea´s face was as insulting as she expected it and as she saw both men respond to their wounded egos and lunge she sidestepped and smacked Arlen on the shin and Bair on the wrist. Both landed on the ground and their clubs skidded away from them. Andrea still Angry turned to the other men and asked if any still doubted her skill, if so she would be more than glad to let them test her for themselves in pairs, but for every one of them that failed to land a blow she would expect a silver coin and a very heartfelt apology if none could be provided she would take her payment by smacking them around until she felt satisfied. As she finished her speech she saw Wyatt enter the yard and smile. From behind her she heard scuffing and turned in time to catch Arlen by the wrist, twist him using his own momentum and smacking her club against his plexus making him fall to the ground gasping. She shook her head and continued Addressing the group.

After a couple of days and some attempts to hurt her they soon understood that there was a reason she was training them and it wasn’t her pretty face. They soon came to respect her when after each spar she would tend to their wounds to ensure they weren't going around bruised and battered. What had been nothing but another prison soon became her home. It had started with the friendly greeting of men and children as they saw her pass and grown up to them inviting her over to play drinking games or card games with them. Sure some had made passess at her, but her rejection and sometimes a twisted wrist had served as a reminder for the other men that her pretty face was not to be mistaken for an easy target.

A full year had passed and Wyatt was not only seen as a gang leader, other gangs came to him for advice and sometimes even for mediation amongst disputes that would in other times end in blood. Andrea never meddles in this affairs but Wyatt would sometimes consult with her out of respect for her way of thinking. Sure she had not come here thinking of becoming a criminal’s healer, but somehow she felt she was dealing with a wound that would fester if left alone, and that was the cities crime. Sure the criminal factor was still there, but the tension of the slums seemed to have diminished greatly over the last year. The days were safer, the merchants didn’t look over their shoulder the whole day knowing theft was now limited to richer neighborhoods as Wyatt had determined that it was no use robbing from those that could help them hide.

One night she sat one of the roofs with Arlen sharing an apple when she saw the shadows move. A small group of men probably no larger than five were running from shadow to shadow and looking out of their hiding places. Andrea and Arlen crouched over the roof ledge and dipped into the shadows while keeping their eyes over the men. Arlen was the one that noticed they weren’t part of any gang and quickly deduced they were slavers. Andrea’s teeth ground against each other and her eyes were filled with rage. She moved forward and felt Arlen’s tight grip on her arm. She turned and saw him shaking his head. He was right if they attacked they would only raise the animosity of the slavers, more because she sure as hell would not be willing to kill them just to ensure they never caught anyone again. As they watched the men moved over a narrow street and jumped out. A startled yelp was muffled and as quick as they had appeared they disappeared in the shadows carrying away a young woman.

Andrea knew it still happened but it was a completely different thing to suddenly face the event so directly. She jumped off the roof and noticed Arlen did not follow, perhaps her demeanor told of how little company she wanted. She walked all the way back to the pub and drank herself into a numb stupor.

Her headache the next day was horrible. She had drunk far more than she was capable of handling, and the young men with his back scratched lying next to her told her she had also gone and taken her rage out in a more recreational manner. She moved to her herb cabinet and mixed up something for her hangover as she put on her trousers and shirt. The young men in her bed rolled and asked her to return to bed she smiled and patted him on the head before telling him to sleep it off but leave before she returned and left the room without any more comment. As the hangover subsided and she sat under the shadow of a large tree in the yard watching the men and older children train it seemed curious how she was good enough to even cure a hangover after poisoning herself. Like lighting the idea cracked all other thought from her mind and she gasped. A devilish smile drew itself on her face and she gulped the rest of her remedy in a single pull before running into Wyatt's room without any previous warning.

Wyatt got up and picked his axe from the ground taking a stance in a too quick manner for a man his size, as soon as he saw Andrea he dropped his stance and sat back down. Without missing a beat Andrea proceeded to explain to him a plan to bring the slavers under control, she would need Arlen, Bair and another pair of the best fighters for it, but once done, the slavers would think twice about ever coming into the slums to take anyone from them. Wyatt mulled the plan, asked dozens of questions and made dozens of complaints all of which Andrea put to rest by either invoking the archdukes law or simple camaraderie amongst the other criminals, or, right people as they began calling themselves after Wyatts ascension into crime lord status. Finally Wyatt smiled and nodded, they would carry out Andrea´s plan, but he would need time to prepare for his people and he was coming whether she wanted it or not, this was the kind of thing that could boost his almost legendary status if done correctly. Andre smiled and nodded, it was time to get even with the woman that had seen fit to throw shackles around her, she was gonna enjoy this.