This is a bit of a linking chapter where a few things get sorted out and hopefully people get to understand Ayla better. The following after chapter is nearly finished and will be up in a few days. Had to divide them into two chapters, it was too long otherwise.

Chapter 20

Namarra

Ayla woke late the following day after her late night. Judging by the sun she reckoned it was nearly lunchtime. Just enough time to have a bath before food, what could be better? Well perhaps food before a bath, she'd compromise and make it a quick one. She was in a very good mood, last night had been rewarding and profitable. Wellyn had been put to rest and that sword he had left for her was beyond anything she had expected. She'd have to show it to Trotter, get him to properly identify it's properties. Plus she had the armour and weapons from the kidnappers she could trade. The gold she had found could be put towards some decent armour, this time the traders would take her seriously with the amount she had to spend. The drab dresses had outlasted their usefulness, frankly she couldn't wait to dump them.

Of course that meant she'd have to drop "plain unobtrusive Maude" and become "Maude", well she was sick of her anyway. Irenicus was locked away, there wasn't so much of a need to be anonymous. She'd have to explain to the Thunderburps and hoped they wouldn't be too disappointed that the "innocent lady kidnapped by pirates" was in fact a capable fighter. And it would stop the problem of people assuming she was helpless, not that it hadn't been useful. It was just so annoying being disregarded, it didn't sit well with her at all. Especially when people like Anomen assumed she was helpless like the entitled kidnapped bint.

Ah yes, Anomen, her train of thought mulling over her plans for the day and the events of the night before came to a screeching halt. She replayed the scene behind the curtain in her head and tried to make sense of it. She'd been drawn to his body, his muscles, she wanted to feel his strength under her hand. That she was sure about but beyond that, what? Perhaps she should have carried on to have found out? But then he'd looked so shocked she doubted he would have been happy about it. Probably would have gone that curious shade of red like he did in the Coronet. Hang on, was that what all that was about? Oh, then it was really just as well she hadn't reached her hand out. But then, what about all the other men and women she saw around together they seemed to be happy enough touching each other?

She shook her head in frustration, it was just another thing that was lost in the black hole that used to be her memory. There was no point driving herself mad trying to find an answer, she just had to hope that one day she would understand. A step at a time, that was how she had kept going so far. In the meantime, the smells wafting up from the kitchen reminded her what her next step should be. She bathed and washed her hair quickly and donned her remaining intact dress and headed downstairs for lunch.

She had hardly stepped into the common room when Thalia with Samuel in tow bustled over to her,

"Well here she is at last, our very own heroine. Who would have credited it? Dealing with a murderous gang of cut throat kidnappers who were operating as bold as brass right under the guard's noses. You must come and sit down and tell us all about it. Here Samuel, didn't I tell you there was more to our Maude than met the eye? And there you were telling eveybody she was just some poor waif who had washed up at the door."

"Yes dear, you were quite right",

Samuel didn't bother arguing that it was he who had known from the start that Ayla was anything but a helpless stray. From the moment he had seen her in the kitchen dressed in her rags and clutching her sword. That his wife had decided to treat her as an orphan and not listen to him was an argument he'd already lost.

"You know about the kidnappers?" Ayla couldn't hide her suprise, it hadn't occured to her anybody would know.

"Of course dear, it's the talk of the district. Bit of good news like that makes a change from everybody talking about the murders and being afraid to step out their front doors. There was another two last night, can you believe it? Two poor souls with nothing but the clothes on their back."

Thalia sighed and shook her head and Samuel put his arm round her and give her a comforting squeeze.

"But let's not dwell on that, only thing you can do is pray the Gods look after them. We want to hear about your adventures and that handsome knight you found."

They ushered her to a table and bombarded her with questions as she ate. Thankfully Thalia answered a lot of them herself which gave her a chance to eat. It seemed the guards were as big a gossips as Thalia and everything they had told them about finding Tirder was now common knowledge on the street. Even the matter of Wellyn and Llynis, the recounting of which caused Thalia to tear up and "feel her heart breaking for the poor little mite". Samuel didn't say much, he was content to let his wife grill Ayla. But she got the impression that not a lot got past him and she wasn't surprised when Thalia let her know that they used to be adventurers themselves. Rather than let them carry on with the impression she was some betrayed lady, Ayla admitted to being a fighter herself. Whereupon Thalia, without missing a beat, upgraded her history to being betrayed by her former companions and sold to pirates. The "ne'er do well" was still featured though, which gave Thalia the opportunity to encourage Maude to take up with the knight.

As soon as she was able to get away after eating without seeming rude, Ayla fetched Wellyn's sword and headed out. She had examined it herself but couldn't tell anything more about it than that it was very old, beautifully made and looked to have some magical properties. She hoped Trotter would be able to shed some light on it and anyway, she needed to sell the gear she had stashed last night. She was just making her way round the back of the kidnappers house when she heard a low whistle,

"Psst, Maude, hey Maude, need to have a word with you"

Turning towards the sound she found Rampah urgently beckoning her over,

"Rampah? What's wrong, why are you lurking around here?"

She saw him most days up near the market begging and usually dropped him a coin or two herself. She still felt grateful for his help and her name, and he hadn't betrayed her.

"Waiting for you to step out. Saw something, got something, thought you might be interested. Don't want to tell the guards, don't want that sort of attention. Hundred gold pieces and it's yours".

"A hundred? You have to be kidding, what on earth could you have that would be worth that much?"

"Something from a murderer, something you could use to find him. Rampah found it near the bodies, picked it up and kept it safe."

"Why would I want that? You should give it to Lieutenent Aegisfield, he's the one after the murderer not me. Where'd you get the idea I'd be interested?

Rampah looked disappointed at first and then a look of cunning crossed his face and he gave Ayla a knowing grin.

"Because you got the kidnappers..."

"Oh, you know about that?", well Thalia had said it was the talk of the district so she shouldn't be surprised Rampah would be up on the gossip.

"and you want money, and there's a reward posted. Got to be easier than risking crossing the Shadow Thieves," Rampah winked and did the nose tapping thing again.

"How much is the reward?"

"Hundreds Rampah heard, but Rampah daren't do it himself. Nah, needs someone like yourself, good with a sword who can defend themselves. So what you reckon?"

Ayla considered the offer, it was true she didn't want to get mixed up with any thieves guild. And if all she had to do was find out who and then hand over the information to the guard, it couldn't be that risky.

"OK Rampah, here's what I'll do. I'll give you twenty now for the thing you found and if I can use it and collect the reward, I'll give you the rest. Sound fair?"

Rampah nodded after a little thought and she gave him his twenty gold. Whereupon he placed something in her hand before she had time to really see what it was. She dropped it with a shreik,

"Oh you old bastard. What the hell, urgh that's horrible, why didn't you warn me?" and then danced around shaking her hand to get rid of the feeling of it.

Rampah doubled up laughing at her,

"She thought it was skin from the bodies, ha, I got her good. Nah, it's just a bit of leather, look, from his armour."

Ayla stopped but could still feel shivers up her arm and peered at the offending article laying on the ground. Then gingerly picked it up using only her fingertips to have a closer look. It was very thick and rough and an odd greyish colour and clearly had been treated.

"It's a strange type of leather, never seen anything like it before. How am I going to find out what it is?

"Take it to the tanner of course, he'll know what it is"

"The tanner?"

"Just down the alleyway opposite the market. When you get close, just follow the smell. I got to be going. Ha Ha, I got her good I did, she thought it were their skin."

Rampah wandered off still chuckling to himself and Ayla reluctantly tucked the piece in her bag still feeling faint shivers in her fingers.

She headed for the kidnappers house and let herself in. The body was gone, as were the two outside, and the house appeared quiet and undisturbed from the events of the night before. Except for the large pool of blood on the floor which she stepped around carefully. Last night she'd locked up what she had found in a handy chest while Anomen's attention had been taken up with the damsel in distress. Well at least she'd been useful for something Ayla thought. A couple of sets of armour, weapons and other bits and pieces. Then she staggered across the road to where she could usually find her fence, Trotter, very glad that it wasn't too far.

"Maude, good to see you. Reckoned you'd be across to see me with the results of your heroics. Here, set it down and let's have a look at what you've got."

She dropped the load gratefully at his feet,

"Hi Trotter, so you've heard about last night as well? Does everybody know?"

Trotter grinned at her,

"Yep, you're quite the celebrity round here. Of course I knew from the moment I saw you deal with those muggers that you'd make your mark. Got in on the ground floor so as to speak. Hope you won't go forgetting your original "business associate" when you hit the big time. Still remember Trotter when you find something interesting."

"Of course, you've always treated me fair. And talking of interesting, I need you to take a look at this."

She pulled out Wellyn's sword from under her shawl and was pleased as she saw his eyes light up. It was a real beauty and caught the sunlight as she held it out to him.

Trotter let out a low whistle,

"You weren't kidding, that is interesting. I'm going to have to have a much closer look at that." He took an eyepiece out from his pocket and settled it firmly over one eye. Then she heard him muttering as he examined the sword.

"Banded gold pommel, set with rubies, this is old, really old, can't tell where it's made, elven perhaps, maybe dwarf, but it's been round a long time, enchanted blade. You say you got this from the kidnappers? What's two bit lowlife doing with a blade like this?"

"No, not from them...umm a ghost gave it to me."

Trotter looked at her and raised his free eyebrow, then shrugged and went back to examining the sword.

"There's something else here, look, etched on the blade, tiny though. Here, I need you to hold it up in the light so I can get a better look at what's written there."

He handed it back and Ayla held it so it caught the light as he had shown her,

"Looks like a name, course it would have a name, ancient maybe famous blade like this. Now let's see, that's an N...ahhh yes got it...Namarra, the name's Namarra."

"Namarra?" Ayla repeated the name as she held out the blade and suddenly, everything fell silent. Her ears seemed to pop and she could hear nothing, no sound of the city, no birds, no gulls, no river, nothing. She looked in alarm at Trotter who was saying something but no sound reached her. She shook her head and cupped her ear to show she couldn't hear. Trotter looked confused and then rubbed his own ears, so it wasn't just her then. He tried saying something slowly so she could lip read but when he was met with a blank stare, he grabbed her hand and pulled her along the street. Then just as suddenly, she took another step and everything returned to normal.

"Well I'll be blowed, Maude, that's a silence spell. That is some sword you've got there, reckon it might be legendary. Not thinking of selling it are you? I'll give you three thousand straight up."

She wasn't listening, instead she was hopping in and out of the "silence", completely intrigued by the effect. This was a spell, with the sword she'd cast a spell. She'd never considered studying magic, something about it felt false to her, as if the power wasn't really hers. But from a sword she could use herself to fight with, that was different, she could own it. She wondered how long it would last. Then she wondered how else she could use it, could be useful for thieving. Could she do it again? She said the name and another area of complete silence settled around her and they had to move futher down the street. Trotter was not amused,

"Alright that's enough now, we'll be off the bridge at this rate. Come on, let's head back and wait it out, I need to take a look at the other stuff you brought."

As well as the armour and weapons there were a pair of boots that were enchanted to help avoid arrows. She didn't really fancy wearing dead men's boots, on the other hand, a useful enchantment like that wasn't to be wasted. She'd get some thick socks and try not to think about it too much. And also she needed a bow, if somebody couldn't shoot her so easily, it would make her shooting them much more effective.

"So Maude, last chance, can I persuade you to sell me the sword, three thousand like I said, set you up that would?"

Ayla shook her head, it was a large sum but she couldn't sell Wellyn's gift,

"No, sorry Trotter, absolutely not. It was a present you see, I can't sell it, it wouldn't be right. Wellyn, he wanted me to have it. But what I can do is sell you my katana, can't easily use them together and I need the practice with the long sword. So how about it?"

Trotter brightened considerably, it was a fine sword. Fair enough, "Namarra" was something else, but it was a darn good bit of business whichever way you looked at it.

They settled a price and Ayla started heading back to the Five Flagons extremely happy with her new sword and shortbow. Now all she needed was some armour and she'd be set and could seriously start to plan her journey back to the Sword Coast and her past. Of course she'd need some more money, not only for traveling and Inns. If she was going to try and find her wizard "Xzar" who she had remembered, who knew how long it would take or what information she might have to pay for? That reminded her, she could make a start on earning that reward as she was practically passing the tanner's shop.

She cut into the alley Rampah had told her it was on. He wasn't wrong, not far down, the strong smell of the tanning process hit her and she started to look for the door. It was hardly a welcoming building, the windows were boarded up and you would have walked straight past if you weren't looking for it. She tried the door thinking it would be locked but it opened easily and she stepped into the gloomy interior. The smell inside was much stronger and she had to fight the urge to gag. She recognised the smell, rotting flesh overlaid with the tang of chemicals from the tanning process, it made sense.

Ayla looked for somebody attending the business but the place seemed to be empty,

"Hello, hello, is there anybody here?" she called as she made her way further into the shop.

She heard an answering voice from the downstairs and started browsing and feeling the leathers on display as she waited for them to arrive. There were a range of colours from light tan through to dark rich brown and better than anything she had seen in the armourers shops. She made her was along the display, marveling at the quality and feel of the hides, and then she saw something that caused her a wash of recognition. Black, glossy leather, so black it seemed to swallow the light.