Fall 70, 124
Naru hadn't slept very well the previous night. He'd dreamt that he'd been beaten to a pulp by the various husbands of wives he'd slept with. He had only woken up when they decided to kill him which was a very ominous feeling. "And there weren't that many husbands. I can't imagine what this will be like after a couple years." Naru groaned and tried to bring happy thoughts to the forefront of his mind. His mind wandered to the previous day where it remembered that he'd made the decision to help unhappy spouses cheat.
It wouldn't be easy, but he could at least give it a shot. He already knew who the woman would be… the wife next door. He felt a certain amount of pleasure from corrupting the woman's mind and he was quite certain he could convince her to cheat again. The only problem would be finding the right man for the job.
Naru rolled out of bed with a groan and thought about how he'd go about achieving this new goal of his. It wasn't like people just advertised they were unhappy with their marriages - it was likely one of the most guarded secrets a person would have. People that were unhappy enough to divorce wouldn't have to keep it a secret, after all.
Naru had no intention of asking people if they wanted to cheat. He'd have someone else do that for him!"Bartenders know a lot of gossip, maybe they'll have something for me." Naru was getting pretty desperate by now. He'd not thought finding unhappy couples would be this difficult.
"Sorry kid," a bartender would tell Naru when he explained his intentions, "I usually hear about people who've gotten cheated on, not people who are looking to get laid."
"It's just so frustrating," Naru said with a frustrated pounding of his fist, "I guess my plan is a wash. You know what'd be great? A place where I could buy information. You know, like a business."
"Are you kidding me," the bartender asked jokingly, "have you never heard of an information broker? There's a couple of guys that work down the road who will have the best information in town. Just hope that you can afford the cost!"
Naru stared at the bartender with wide eyes. Never in his life did he think someone would actually make a living off of selling information. Naru thanked the bartender and used his directions. The directions were terrible, but the building was easy enough to find by asking around. The establishment looked more like a house than a business from the outside. "I'm glad I asked around. I'd have never found this place on my own." Upon stepping inside, however, it was very clear that this was exactly what Naru needed.
Books, papers... Every sort of record keeping tool could be found scattered throughout the cottage. There was an old man sitting at the desk, sleeping and a much younger man sitting next to him. The brown colored eyes of the older man fluttered with fragile attempts to stay awake.
Naru approached the two men, and wondered why the old man didn't just take a nap. Even the younger man seemed to have issues paying attention. He simply sat there and read his book. One would be hard pressed to find a singular duo with less energy. "Hi," Naru would say when he was several paces away, "I'm here to buy some information."
Slowly lifting a hand, the older man adjusted the sleeve of his white shirt. "We sell all manners of information." With that said, he collapsed onto the wooden table in front of him. A sudden plop into the hard wood of the chair, followed by a slam as his face got acquainted with the wooden table, left the faelnir feeling like this was yet another dead end.
The old man sat up in attention with his eyes wide open, "well," he'd ask with emotion, "what will it be?"
"I'm looking for any husband who has cheated on his wife," Naru said plainly.
The younger man listed the fee unexpectedly. This left Naru to think about why it was so cheap. Maybe he wasn't being specific enough.
"Just to be more clear, I'm looking for someone who is a good looker, wants to cheat again, and his wife doesn't know about any of it." Naru knew better than to be too vague with what he wanted.
"Ten times the price," the younger man said.
"Really? A ten-fold increase?" Naru would shake his head in disgust at the vagueness of the pricing. Regardless, he would pull out money and handed it over.
"His name is Albert and he lives just down the street. He will be arriving home in approximately twenty." The younger man spoke with a very matter of fact tone and did not say another word for the remainder of Naru's visit. The faelnir would simply roll his eyes and head out to find this "Albert's" house. "I can't believe these kinds of people exist."
If there was any good that had come out of that goose hunt, it was that Albert was easy to find. He was a muscular man, about six feet tall who was playing with his kids outside of his house. He'd stare at the man until he finally made eye contact. Albert looked away, but Naru would wait - he had all the time in the world. Over an hour passed before Albert's kids finally tuckered out and Albert had little choice but to approach Naru.
"Do we have a problem," he'd as in an intimidating voice, "you're not the first person to show up asking for trouble. The last one ended up with a broken face."
On any other occasion, Naru would have been scared out of his wits. Actually, he was scared out of his wits. The only think keeping him from instinctively shying away was the fact that he knew he held a stake in this conversation. Naru knew that he'd need to employ the help of the godheads to assist him with what he was about to say
"Albert. I have a proposition for you. I know you've cheated on your wife in the past, and I have no intention of ever revealing your secret. I need you to cheat one more time and you'll never hear from me again."
Albert looked at him confused and asked, "what? Why? Are you crazy?"
Naru shook his head and said, "let me explain. My neighbor feels trapped in her marriage. I just need you to help me show her that marriage doesn't have to be a bore. She's quite the looker too, I assure you won't regret it. I want nothing more than to spread happiness."
Albert stood there in deep thought before saying, "so you're basically here to say you've found me someone to cheat with? You should have opened with that!" Albert's façade was wiped away and he was as jovial as could be. "So how does this work? When do I meet her?"
Naru broke out into a smile and said, "Meet me and the woman at the inn tomorrow at midday. I'll do everything in my power to distract your spouse. See you there." With that, Naru went home and started to plan out the big day.
Naru woke that next morning as excited as ever. He'd more or less blackmailed a man to sleep with another woman, although it hadn't been all that difficult. The man had been so happy to hear what he was being tasked to do that he'd come close to thanking Naru for the opportunity. But Naru wasn't focused on the man; it was much too easy to find a man willing to cheat. He was more focused on the very sheltered woman who needed to be coerced into cheating. "Oh yea, I totally forgot to tell her about any of this. I'd better get on that."
The faelnir tried to recall what the woman looked like then said, "I guess I'll just go see her in person." One look at the sky told Naru that it was near midday which meant he had little time. The faelnir would stumble out of his home and over to the neighbor wife's house. She was watering plants and was quite apprehensive towards being approached. "What are you doing," she whispered strongly, "you can't keep coming over here. People will be suspicious!"
"Then I'll be quick," Naru said in a hurry, "I know you had a good time the other day. I thought about it, and I felt bad knowing that our night was only a bandage for your needs. So, I found a man for you."
"You did what?" the wife shouted as she dropped her watering pail.
"Calm down would you," Naru said in a hushed voice. He'd put a hand over her mouth. "You know as well as I do that you need this in your life. The man is strong and good looking and I think you two will have a good time. He'll meet you at a nearby inn later. I'm going to go to your husband's shop during that time and make sure he doesn't go looking for you during lunch."
"I just don't know," the wife said as she stared at the ground, "I want to, but this just isn't right."
"I set all this up just for you so if you don't even give it a shot then there will be consequences." At that, Naru stormed off towards the marketplace. For him, the day had only just begun.
Naru wasted no time going to the wife's husband's shop. It wasn't far from his own workplace and only knew where it was because the man was always bragging about owning his own shop. He'd never admit it, but being jealous of the man's success was the only reason he'd initially taken an interest in his wife. Something about seeing a better off man made the faelnir crave to have a taste of what they had. "I wonder what I should tell him. It's got to be a good excuse so he doesn't bother looking for her if she finds out she's gone."
"Hi there," Naru would say as the husband welcomed him inside, "your wife wanted me to tell you that she's got an important errand to run. She says she might not return home until tonight or possibly tomorrow morning." He wasn't a good liar, not by a long shot. The husband looked at him curiously and asked, "where has she run off to? Why didn't she come tell me herself?" Naru started to sweat, but he didn't have time to come up with anything better. "I've told you everything she told me," he'd say, "I've got a busy day ahead of me so I'll be on my way." The husband shouted more questions, but Naru wouldn't listen. It was time to go to the inn and wait.
Upon entering the inn, Naru was perturbed at how silent it was. There were people sitting and working, but everyone had otherwise kept to themselves. He had only just now realized that he hadn't given either the man or the woman a good description of each other. Luckily, neither had arrived yet.
Naru would head up to the innkeeper and place money on the counter. "one room for the night please. You can keep the change if you agree to keep quiet about goes in and out. "
After getting his key, Naru would wait for Albert and the neighbor wife to arrive, then escort them to their room. All this activity was giving him a headache so he'd keep it brief. "Okay. I told your husband that you're on an errand that might keep you until the morning. And I'll get to your wife after I see you off." Naru pressed the key into the man's hand and said, "have a good time you two!" With that, Naru would run off towards Albert's home so he could handle his wife.
Naru didn't even make it half way there before he tired out. He was sick of running back and forth and the heat was killing him. He'd find himself sitting in the shade and wondering how things were going in the inn. He could picture the wife not wearing any clothes and blushing very heavily. Naru found himself fantasizing much too much.
The faelnir eventually found himself at Albert's home where his wife was taking care of some cleaning. Everything inside of him wanted to tell her that her husband had to run an errand, but his excitement had built up over the trip. His mind had twisted the plan and he now wanted nothing more than to take Albert's wife for himself. He wasn't even attracted to the woman, but that didn't matter at this point. None of this seemed like a good idea, but he had to try.
Fueled by his desires, Naru walked confidently up to the woman and told her that he needed to talk to her in private. "It's about your husband" was all she needed to hear to take him seriously. "I've got some information about your husband that you really want to know about," he'd start, "I need you to leave and come with me. This won't take long."
"Okay, I'll come. But be warned, I'm onto you and I carry a knife. Try to trick me and you'll be sorry!" The haughty woman raised her head with a look of self importance and the two headed off towards the inn. His head was pounding more than it ever had before from how nervous he was.
At the inn, Naru would get another room and the promise of privacy for another chunk of money. As he took her upstairs to the room, he assured her that what she needed to see was in one of the rooms. She couldn't feel any doubt but she was still wary of being in an inn with a complete stranger. She walked up the stairs with her knife in hand, fueled only by the assumption that she was about to find out secret information about her husband.
He'd motion for Albert's wife to come in and look through a small hole he'd cut in the wall. When she saw what her husband was doing in the other room, the knife fell from her hand and she opened her mouth to scream. Naru was prepared for this and he was quick to close the door and cover her mouth before she could make any noise.
"You see," Naru would say calmly, "your husband's been cheating on you." The woman was fuming and struggling to get free. "No, you can't yell. If he finds out that I told you then I'm dead." She started to calm down, but her emotional state was still a fiery mess of rage. He'd let go of her mouth and begin to run his hands down to her shoulders. "Now you're free to go if you want to head on home and wait for your husband to finish up in there. Or you can stay here with me. I'll not force you to do anything."
