Naru woke to a dreary day. By this time on any other day he'd have been out of bed and working. However yesterday had not gone well at all. He had challenged a man, Uziel, to a competition of skill and his lack of understanding of his mark's abilities had backfired on him badly. If only he hadn't gotten caught up in his hubris and had truly embraced his newfound connection to whatever godhead had bestowed Crest upon him, then he was sure he would have walked away a champion. Now, he didn't even want to show his face in the marketplace. But he had a passion burning within him. Naru was going to make Uziel and all the onlookers feel the envy that he felt, he just didn't know how yet.
The faelnir thought about ways he could get back at Uziel. He had been thinking since he had lost the competition, but hadn't come up with anything realistic. Practical ideas such as murder wouldn't go far towards earning everyone's envy, "More like I would earn a nice jail sentence," he concluded. "Perhaps I could frame him for a crime and have him locked away instead. But no, I come back to the same issue - it won't earn me the envy of my peers." Naru thought long and hard about what would make him jealous.
It didn't take long to come up with a list of all the things that would make Naru jealous. Unfortunately, they all revolved around being more successful which didn't help. "Alright then, I'll have to improvise. Maybe I can dig some information out of a servant. If I know anything about people it's that they have no shortage of complaints about their superiors." And so Naru set off, eager to stay out of sight so that he might not draw attention. It would certainly look suspicious if he was hanging around Uziel's house - he was going to spend as little time around the estate as possible.
Naru would eventually arrive at Uziel's home and would hide behind a tree. He tried to gather some information about what was going on, but it didn't look all that eventful. Uziel was hosting a wealthy looking guest, the kid was stuffing his face again, and the wife was handing a piece of paper to one of the servants. She was dressed in more luxurious clothing today and had earrings that seemed to shine even more spectacularly than the necklace had yesterday. He found it hard to tear his eyes away from the earrings and even harder to tear away from the woman. He had stared so long that he had almost lost sight of the servant who was heading off towards the marketplace. "I can't lose him!" he would think as he hurriedly ran after.
Turning the corner, the faelnir arrived barely in time to spot the servant in the bustling marketplace. Naru had given up all efforts to lay low and now found himself trying desperately to wiggle through the crowd. "Wait a minute, why don't I just blink," he would think. It only took a couple seconds to identify a good landing zone so he directed his energy and made the blink. He would repeat this several times and find himself blinking right behind the servant who was now carrying a basket of food. Naru opened his mouth to speak, but he quickly realized that he hadn't thought this through at all. He wanted to blink away, but it was too late. The servant turned around and saw Naru standing there like a deer in headlights.
"Oh it's you," the servant would say after giving Naru a long look, "how've you been? Not taking yesterday too badly I hope." The servant seemed more preoccupied with pointing out goods to the stall owners than he did surprised at Naru's presence.
"I, uh," Naru would stammer, "yeah I gave myself a hard time yesterday but I think I'm better now."
"That's good to hear," the servant said as he hoisted more goods into his basket and handed over his money, "most people that challenge Uziel don't turn out so well."
"Well I walked by his house again today and saw that his wife was wearing pretty amazing earrings. Uziel must be quite the craftsman. I can't be too disappointed that I lost to that," Naru said with a sigh. He was glad the servant was open to talking. His initial surprised look had likely went in his favor. "As long as he doesn't think I was following him I should be ok."
"Yes, it's undeniable. We move around a lot and I've never seen anything quite like what Uziel can make. It's a shame that he only lets his wife wear the marvelous pieces. She changes her jewelry every week or so and I've never seen her wear the same jewelry after that. I've always wondered what they do with the old pieces when they're done."
"They move around a lot? Then why did Uziel say he was here to stay for the rest of his life? And I'm also curious as to what happens to the jewelry if the wife doesn't wear them anymore. Maybe selling those is why he got so rich?" Naru would be lost in his thoughts as the servant looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Oh," the faelnir would respond, "yes it's odd isn't it. Well maybe I'll apply to be his apprentice, then I could learn the secret for myself!" Naru gave a forced laugh but the servant didn't look amused.
"Uziel doesn't take apprentices. Anyways I best be going." And with that, the servant disappeared into the crowded marketplace.
"Well I certainly gained a lot of information from him," Naru would think, "but who should I try next? There was the old guy from the other day who first told me about Uziel, but I doubt he has anything useful to share. That leaves the kid and the wife, and possibly the other servants." Naru thought about confronting the wife, but he could think of a million ways that could go badly. He'd settle on the kid for now.
Naru wasn't all too keen on interacting with the kid again. He had only talked to him the once and the kid had made fun of him and laughed. No, he was going to have to send in someone to gather intelligence for him. He had never done something like this before, but he knew that he wanted someone in the kid's age group to do the questioning. He picked out the first rowdy looking kid he saw and offered him a prize if he did a favor for him. "All you have to do is ask this boy is what his mom does with her old jewelry. Do that and the prize is yours!"
Naru pointed the kid in the right direction and told him to come back quickly. Half an hour later, the kid returned and said, "Okay, where's my prize?" Naru asked, "did you ask him the question? What did he say?" The kid stood there with a blank look on his face and said, "I forgot." Naru slapped his own forehead with his palm. "Nevermind kid, no prize for you." Naru would blink away before the kid had a chance to kick him in the shins.
The faelnir needed someone more reliable to question Uziel's kid. He clearly couldn't have the next questioner ask the same question, so he'd have to come up with something else. This time around, he would tell a baker that Uziel had tasked him to order a delivery. "Just deliver a basket of sweets to the kid. And ask him what his mom's hobbies are and report back to me. Uziel is trying to pick a good gift for his wife." It was a terrible lie - why would a husband need to ask what his wife's hobbies were? The baker shrugged and went through with it anyways. When she came back she had a sour face and reported that, "he said his mom's hobby is being rich and that I'm a lowly wretch. Then it took me forever to get money out of his mother who insists that they didn't order any sweets! She said nobody that looked like you even worked for them!"
Naru started to sweat and said quickly, "I was just following orders, sorry!" He would blink away and try to stop breathing so heavily. He hoped that the wife didn't put two and two together. He didn't think of the possibility that the woman would reveal anything about him. "I don't think I'm cut out for this behind the scenes manipulating," Naru would think. In any case, the man thought that he had to call it quits on snooping around. There was no way it would be a good idea to keep poking around like this; he didn't need any more attention being drawn to him. Naru made his way home and started to plan out what he could possibly do with the knowledge he had gained today.
Naru woke the next morning sweating madly. He had dreamed that he was in prison for some untold crime. No doubt he was feeling distressed about doing some shady things over the past several days. It was nothing compared to what a real criminal may commit, but the faelnir had been plotting. He aimed to uncover the newcomer Uziel's secrets and in doing so earn the envy of his peers. Or at least that was how this mess had started. Naru had found himself poorly cut out for sneaking about and gathering information. He found it even more unnerving to think about what he would have to do to others to fulfil his goals. The only thing keeping him going was the fact that he would rather fulfil his dreams than be mentally sound. "Get a hold of yourself," he thought as he washed away the sweat, "you've still got a ways to go." He would focus on finding his inner peace so that he wouldn't feel so damn stressed out.
The man's plan for today was to take what he had learned yesterday and act on it. He had learned that Uziel moved often, even though he said he was here to stay. He had learned that the wife changed her jewelry every week and the jewelry was never seen again. And he had learned that Uziel didn't take apprentices. He hadn't gotten a lick of useful information out of their kid, but Naru already had enough to figure out that Uziel was definitely hiding something. "I just have to figure out what it is."
Naru would soon find himself staring at Uziel's home, wondering which lead he would follow first. The wife hadn't been wearing the necklace from the competition when he saw her yesterday, so he assumed she had already stopped wearing it. That meant that it was either sitting in their home or they had gotten rid of it. "I'm sure that any big wig in the city would have spent a lot of money for that necklace. But the servant said that Uziel only lets his wife wear the best jewelry. They must be hoarding the jewelry or something." He couldn't think of any way to look for the necklace without breaking in, and that was going to be a last resort.
Before the faelnir could think of something else, he noticed that something was going on inside the house. Through the window he had seen a large object being thrown and a loud crash could be heard even from where he was standing. He then saw Uziel and his wife shouting at each other. No servants were in sight so Naru decided to sneak up to the home. He jumped into some bushes outside an open window and tried to listen in. Unfortunately, the argument had died down by this point.
"So you'll have a new piece for me by tonight then," the woman said matter of factly.
"Yes Rose, by tonight. I wish you'd understand the toll it takes on me to make such elaborate jewelry." Uziel sounded defeated. It was a much less authoritative tone than he had had in front of the crowd.
"Don't forget that if it weren't for that jewelry you wouldn't have me. And if you didn't have me, you wouldn't have any customers. I'll be off then." Naru couldn't see anything from where he was, but he was sure that Rose had walked away gracefully and left Uziel to fume on his own. This was followed by stomping sounds and a lot of metal clanging. His workshop must have been set up somewhere inside the house.
Naru popped up from the bushes and spotted exactly where he wanted to blink. A few quick jumps later and he was outside of the estate again and feeling slightly drained. "It doesn't look like there's any way around it. I've got to find some way to get my hands on that jewelry tonight. And if that doesn't work then I've got to dig information out of the wife somehow." If only he knew something about breaking and entering this would be a lot easier. At this point, Naru had too many demons to contend with to break in on his own. "Maybe I could hire a couple of thieves to break in for me."
As Naru sat there brooding, he didn't even notice what was going on around him. "Hi there, it's Naru isn't it?" It was a sweet voice, an arousing voice. Naru turned his head and saw Rose standing right there. "Oh, umm," Naru struggled to find words to explain why he was standing around outside the estate, "yes, I was just thinking about the other day and wanted to walk by."
"It's strange," Rose said, "there was a baker that came by yesterday and said a man with perfect complexion had told her to deliver some sweets to Uziel's kid. Then last night at dinner that little snot told me that someone had asked him about me. You wouldn't happen to be related to these incidents, would you?"
Being the terrible liar that he was, Naru had no good response. "I've got nothing to do with that! I'll be on my way, nice seeing you miss Rose!" "Did I really just call her by her name? Crap." Naru turned and started walking briskly. He would quickly disappear into the crowded marketplace and head on home - his only safe haven, aside from Kage's treant spy that was always watching him. When he finally arrived, he slammed the door behind him and clutched his hair in frustration. He took off his shirt and threw it in frustration - the heat wasn't helping either. Nothing was going right for him, and now the wife was definitely onto him. "Maybe I should just move and start up somewhere else. There's got to be somewhere I can go where nobody knows my name and I can start over. Next time I'll do it right. Next time I'll…"
Naru's thoughts were interrupted once again with a loud knocking on his door. He opened the door and was stunned. Rose had apparently followed him home and she shared his stunned look. Her eyes traced his bare chest's every outline and she seemed like she also couldn't find words to say. Remembering his manners, Naru offered, "oh, hi. Sorry for running off earlier, would you like to come in?" He really hoped she would say no and just spit out the reason why she had followed him. He thought, "actually, I think I'd be happier if she said nothing and didn't tell me that she reported me to the authorities for suspicious activity."
Unfortunately, Rose nodded and walked past Naru into his very unimpressive home. The nervous host hurried over to get his guest some water, as it was the only drink that he had. Rose, on the other hand, looked around the home and walked over to where Naru kept his things, including one of his best pieces of jewelry. Naru approached Rose slowly and pressed the glass of water into her hands. He could
"This jewelry is quite amazing. I can't imagine how much something like this would cost to make," Rose said longingly, "anyways, the reason I came here was to tell you I know what you've been up to. You're not the first man to look into my husband and I'd highly recommend not throwing your life away for something so childish." Naru wasn't quite sure what to say. He had been found out and was starting to feel awkward for being half naked in front of his guest. He would have donned a shirt, but his eyes were locked on hers.
"But now that I'm here," Rose continued, "I think I'll add that money isn't everything. It looks like there's a thing or two that my husband hasn't been able to provide for me that I might find elsewhere." Naru was starting to think he knew where this was going. He thought, "godheads, I know you owe me nothing, but I think this might be a little too much for me to handle."
Naru's heart started to beat stronger than ever and he sure was perspiring profusely. It was all he could do to take deep, controlled breaths to keep his heart steady. "Well then," he would say carefully, "if you want something, you should go get it. That's what I always say. I think you'd be able to find what you're looking for at the library tomorrow morning." Rose would smile at him and say, "I look forward to it." She would rub a hand across Naru's face as she walked by and saw herself out of the house.
"Oh fuck, what have I gotten my poor self into?"
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