Pathfinder: Sacred Order - Chapter 69

Lord Kurtwell,

Since I have departed from the academy, my days have been long, boring but easy. Yet, you are not here to listen to me inform you about my day to day life, now, are you? I’ll cut right to the main point.

Lord Lezhalt is young, but he is hard to read. I’m not sure what his goal is. Recently he had two visitors, one from the temple of Saint Michael and another from his family’s business. I’m not sure what the visit was about, but when the priest arrived she had two scriptures, and when she left she had a sack of silver. I’m unsure if she sold the scriptures to the lord, or was there another purpose behind the matter. This brings forth the question of whether the lord can read them? As we all know the language is difficult to learn and only taught to members of the order.

As for the man who visited him, I found out his name was Henry. He was there to give the lord a chest, which I assume was full of silver as well. I expected him to leave first, but was surprised when he left after the priest meaning his visit was as important as hers.

His mansion is lacking guards, he only has one named Jack. Which is the head guard at the estate.

Jack is young but easy to talk to. From him, I found out a little bit more about the incident that took place at the estate which caused the rumor to spread that the lord was dead. Turns out the guards that were hired previously rebelled against him, their goals unknown. Jack did not go too much into detail about the subject, but given time I can find out. It seems that incident has caused a wound to appear on his heart, one that has yet to heal.

Besides him, there were maids. Not normal, they are all talkative and love to mess with the men. Even the young boy seems to be captivated by their charms. Talking to them I found out that they used to be whores at a brothel called ‘Midnight’. Seems that lord Lezhalt has saved them from a life of prostitution. I tried to discover how, but they are tight-lipped about the matter.

I mentioned a young boy, he is a bit clueless about certain things. It was not until he told me he was a commoner who lost his home did I realize why. I would have walked away, but he seemed to have some more information to share. Mostly about his relationship with the lord, saying how he knew him for a while but he disappeared one day. The kid also mentioned some other matters, but I fear he is delusional as he stated that lord Lezhalt used to be homeless like him. It seemed to be a slip of the tongue as he hurried up and said that was a mistake, but I’m not sure I believe him. After all, how could the lord have been homeless? There was also his wild tale of his friends who joined a rebel army. A bunch of nonsense.

The young boy has a younger sister, she attends to the garden while he keeps the stables clean and horses fed. She is unlike her brother, she’s shy. She refuses to talk to me, but she seems to have taken a liking to Teressa.

Speaking of Teressa, her role in the mansion is more important than my own. I do not know what she did, but she seems to have gained the lord’s favor. He took a liking to her, and she is almost always by his side.

Luckily the two of us have a decent relationship and sometimes bathe together. During that time, she speaks about the lord. Teressa believes him to like her, but she only wants to be a knight. It was from her that I learned about the gathering that lord Frost will be holding soon. Lord Lezhalt was invited to it, and he seems to be planning on taking her.

Lord Frost is an ambitious man with great influence, even my father is cautious of him. I wonder what he wants with the young lord?

When more information becomes available I will notify you.

From your loyal knight.

If it was not for that letter he received the other day, he would not be here. Usually, he would not bother about what was going on in the city, but Jacob piqued his interest.

He was young but had this mysterious air around him. Somehow he found Damien’s Heart, something that the knight’s order has been searching for, for years. Instead of asking for something normal, he requested a knight’s vow.

With the relic, he could have asked for anything and the knight’s order would have seen his request was met. As long as it was within their power.

As a notable figure within the city, he was interested to know what Jacob was thinking.

That is why he was here, just to spy on Jacob. With all the other nobles around, he was curious to see how Jacob would act. Who would he ally himself with?

Most of the content within the letter contained useful information. He did a bit of his own digging and found it all to be true. Except what the young boy said, that was a dead end. No need to even go down that path.

However, his relationship with Jacob had to be special. Why else would a noble take in an orphan? He was tempted to search into the kids’ background and see if he was a half-brother, but that was a stupid thought. Lord Lezhalt’s father only had one child, everyone knew this. He did not even mess around when he was married.

As for the comment about the rebel army, he was still debating about it. Rumors have been making their way around. It could be true, but the last rebellion was four years ago. It was crushed within three days.

The likelihood of another one happening was very slim, and even if it did occur, everyone doubted it would last long. The Valorian Empire survived five hundred plus years for a reason.

It was just a pity he did not have Teressa as a spy. Her position was better, just as he imagined. Still, he would make do with what he had.

Taking another sip of his wine, Lord Kurtwell stood back against the wall with his eyes focused on Jacob.

Jacob followed lord Frost, listening to him speak about his relationship with his father and praising his daughter. Filling him in on his daughter’s achievements – that he was so proud of.

“Take a look around you, all the people here are the future of the city. That there is lord Howard, he is not much of a businessman like me or your father was, but his family is focused on the military aspect of life. They have six generations worth of prestige, and are all high ranking.”

Lord Frost said as he looked over at a man in the distance.

Jacob’s eyes followed, landing on the brawny man.

“Next to him is lord Stratford, his son is a strategist in General Dunkan’s army.”

He went on, pointing out two more figures that he thought Jacob should be interested in.

“Why are you telling me about them? I have no relation with any of them.”

Jacob asked, trying to see what game lord Frost was playing.

Although the information was useful, Jacob doubted he would use it. What did he need to know them for, when he knew about some generals? The only one that he may talk to was lord Kelly, who had family members working under the ministers.

“That is true, you do not. But I do. I’ve been lacking in my attention towards you, but I want to fix that now. As my future son-in-law, you should get acquainted with them, and their heirs. Having friends in high positions is never a bad idea.”

Son-in-law, something Jacob had no thoughts of becoming.

From the circle of friends lord Frost pointed out, he could see that they all held some sort of special status. Their group was small, but Jacob made out a few faces that looked over towards them with longing in their eyes. As if they wanted to be one of them.

“That is something we can agree upon, but what about the Baron?”

Agreeing, Jacob shifted the focus of their conversation over to Baron Cecil. A man who had the attention of Sterling.

Maybe lord Frost could provide him with information he lacked.

“Why are you interested in him? He is a man of action, let’s leave it at that.

Jacob assumed lord Frost would tell him something about the man, but he evaded talking about him altogether.

“Then what about him?”

Seeing that his first target failed, Jacob looked over towards Sterling. He only knew a little about him, but wanted to see what lord Frost thought.

“Oh, lord Stubrik, an interesting man, but not someone you should have ties to at this moment.”

“Why not?”

Jacob asked.

“He and Baron Cecil are at odds at the moment.”

It seems that their feud was not a secret as he first imagined it was. Sterling probably only told him a little bit of what was actually going on, forgoing the more important details.

He could only wonder why Sterling wanted to kill him. It could actually be for money, but his gut was telling him there was another reason. He needed to pry for more information.

“At odds?”

“A minor dispute, nothing for you to worry about.”

Once more, lord Frost dodged the subject. It irritated Jacob seeing him smoothly evade the topic.

“I’m more worried for you, inviting them both here. Are you not afraid of what might happen.”

Changing it up a little, Jacob decided to pretend to be concerned for the lord. Maybe this appeal would work in his favor.

From the way Sterling glanced over at the Baron, one could tell that something was bound to happen sooner or later.

“There are few things in this world that I’m afraid of, and a Baron, let alone a lower class noble is not one of them.”

Hearing those words gave Jacob an insight into lord Frost’s strength. Still unsure of what the man was plotting, Jacob was sure that he invited the two of them in hopes of something occurring. Whatever happened, lord Frost might benefit from it.

He must have enough power to still stand after the conflict, or enough influence to make sure it stayed under the rug.

“It is good that you ask questions, as they can give you information you lack. With information, you can do just about anything. However, I would like to ask you about a matter. Why did you hire prostitutes as maids, and bring orphans to your estate?”

“I needed a helping hand, and they fit my requirements.”

Jacob smiled calmly as he answered the question, just giving him the bare minimum.

With lord Frost’s question, Jacob came to realize the man was watching him. How else would he know about the people at his mansion? Yet, he does not seem to know about the knights as of yet, or else he would not have asked who Teressa was.

“You could have come to me then, I would have found you people with a better standing.”

“I’m fine on my own.”

“You sound just like your father.”

Lord Frost commented as he recalled lord Lezhalt’s father and their friendship. He too said he would be fine on his own, ignoring the help he had offered. In the end, he died.

Still, it was not a bad thing. He left his young son behind making it easy for him to come in and look over him. Once Jacob saw how much he was doing to help him, he was sure to come to him for more help.

When that happened, it would not be long before all their businesses and assets fell into his pocket. It was a waiting game, but he was a patient man.

“It seems that we have to cut our reunion short, someone requires my attention. Before you return to that woman’s side, be sure to greet Angelia. When you have time, you can find me with the other lords, I’ll introduce you to them.”

Bidding farewell for now, lord Frost walked away to mingle with his associates. Before Jacob even had time to gather his thoughts a young woman approached.