The Fair Trade

This piece is inspired from my Wednesday night games. Here we have a rival warband's leader imprisoned after a hard fought battle. Against the wished of Thora, the rat's ransom was accepted and the creature was returned to its own kind to wreck more death and havoc on the streets.

If you are interested in the fiction behind the picture:

“Release the Skaven.”

The words echoed in Thora’s mind, though she could hardly fathom that they had truly been spoken. Her eyes were like fire as she looked to the wormy merchant and his sister. What insanity was this?

“Do no such thing!” she hissed at the warrior woman holding the key to the lock which secured the heavy iron bar door. Her attention was back on Silas in an instant, “Have you lost your mind? The only releace waiting for this monster is death… and it will only be granted with that when I am done with my questions.”

She looked back at the beaten rat and snarled, “And I am far from done.”

Silas seemed unimpressed by the Amazon’s fervor. “The Skaven have met my price. This creature has been ransomed. There will be no more interrogations or beatings. Now do as I say and release it.”

Thora couldn’t beleive what the merchant was telling her. “Surely even you, loathsome and base as you are, are not that greedy. This is their leader and more than that, the most deadly of them. It’s cunning and evil, through to the bone. You can’t let this thing go. I will not allow it.”

The merchant stiffened at this, “Allow it? Who do you think you are? A slave. What is for you to allow? I own you. Do not forget that, little whole. You think because I allow you liberties to carry a weapon and move about unchained that you are in some way my equal. Perhaps I have become to lax and generous.”

The words had hardly left his mouth before the pistol was cleared from her holster and pointed at the merchant’s face. Just as fast, the pistol was cleared from Katharina’s holster, pointing back at the Amazon.

There was a tense moment of silence, before Silas spoke, “This is why I make the decisions, slave. You are a blunt tool with no mind for anything beyond killing. I told you if you obeyed and served me, I would collect your whore sisters. Have I not been true to my word? You pull that trigger and it all ends. Do you think my sister will not kill you? And even is she does not, do you think she will be able to secure a ship to take you across the sea to the New World?”

Thora grit her teeth. She had never hated a man as much as she hated this one, and yet, he was right.

“I don’t care what you think about this creature. Its ransom has been paid. You will obey your Master, like the slave that you are, and free it.”

With that, Silas turned from the Amazon and made to leave the cellar, pausing that the steps, looking back at Thora, “In fact, Katharina, dearest sister, why don’t you see to the creature’s release. I’ll be taking the slave to my bedchambers where I can better remind her of just what she is in charge of around here.”

Katharina scowled at this but before she could speak her brother cut her off, “I will hear no objections. When I return her to you, if I return her to you, see that you keep your bitch on a tighter leash.”