It was safe to say that she was feeling nervous about walking up to the witch’s home. Lieta Woodfield usually could put up an act to get out of trouble if she needed to but to fool a rumored witch so she could, essentially spy on her, was a bit harder in her mind. The elf, Aeirillen, was supposed to be making sure that trouble didn’t kill the girl. She didn’t see the elf around as she headed towards the house. Oh well, she thought. She remembers hearing something about elves and magic so Lieta was just going to assume that Aeirillen was close by. And if the elf wasn’t and Lieta needed to run, she was sure that she could do that as long as the witch didn’t set the pond to a boil again.
The old woman answered her squeaky door after the girl knocked. Lieta gave her a forced smile and held the basket in her hand, full of bread rolls and other baked goods. The girl then proceeded to tell the woman that she heard word of a lonely elder in the home and wanted to help her around the house. The old woman did not seem pleased at first but finally gave in. Lieta was led to certain rooms, like the kitchen and the living area, to clean.
Of course, Lieta was used to cooking and cleaning. For years, she supported herself after both her father and mother were killed at the market for not having what the thief wanted. The young woman of sixteen years knew this part of the job was going to be easy. It was getting the information she needed that would be hard.
The week went by and the witch began trusting her with other errands. Lieta went to the market and bought food supplies and dark cloth. She helped with sewing robes and feeding a crow that the old woman adored. But the woman’s small herb garden and basement was still off limits. The girl was used to cooking herbs, so she was suspecting that there was something the woman was hiding. And the basement? Lieta was going to have to do some breaking in to get into there.
It did not take her long to convince a Beggar’s Alley boy to give her some lock-picks for this. She just needed to practice again and hope to have alone time in the woman’s home. In the meantime, she kept Mr. Fiontann informed of what she was seeing.
It was another half week before she was trusted enough to be left alone to clean. The old woman mentioned something about needing to work in her garden in the back. As soon as the squeaky door was shut, Lieta rushed to the basement door and began messing with the steel lock. She felt her heart beat rapidly as she was nervous about breaking into something that wasn’t hers. Her cheeks were growing red as nothing happened. Then clank! The lock fell and she pulled it from its spot. Searching for a candle, it stalled her a moment longer before she could sneak down the cranky wooden stairs.
Each board squealed as she walked down. She cringed because the crow was beginning to make noises. Lieta hurried, jumping down the rest of the stairs to take a glance at the basement. From what she saw, other than cobwebs and little black spiders shaking their firsts, were a rotted body and a few watchman uniforms from the Combe Watch. It was hard for her not to gag. She bent over from the sight before catching a label of an empty bottle. On it was a name and the word poison. She went over bringing her candle. More bottles were with the first one and she made sure to pocket one. There was also a note and a list of herbs for a poison. She pocketed the letter as well before bounding back up the crying stairs. The lock was locked again. Then she went back to work for the rest of the day, hoping the woman did not go downstairs. At the end of the day, she made sure to run back to Bree after getting into Combe’s center. Mr. Fiontann was going to want to see what she had.
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All written by the awesome player of Lieta!
