Chapter 6: A Fortune of Fear
The door creaked loudly as I pushed it open.
Inside, the shack was freezing. The only heat came from a dying fire in the small hearth. My siblings were huddled together on a pile of straw and old blankets. Elara, my sister, jumped up immediately, shielding our little brother, Finn, behind her back.
"We… we don't have any more money, Brother," Elara stammered, her voice shaking. "I gave you everything this evening. Please…"
Finn peeked out from behind her, his face smudged with dirt from the construction site. He flinched as I took a step forward.
My heart shattered. They think I'm here to beat them for more drinking money.
I clenched my jaw. I couldn't comfort them. Not yet. If the "monster" suddenly became a "saint," they wouldn't trust it. I had to be the "arrogant winner."
I walked to the center of the room, where a lopsided wooden table stood. I pulled the leather pouch from my coat.
Thump.
I untied the string and upended the bag. A cascade of silver poured out, clattering loudly against the wood. The pile glimmered in the firelight like a small mountain.
Elara's eyes went wide. She stopped breathing for a second. Finn stepped out from behind her, his mouth hanging open. They had never seen a silver coin, let alone fifty.
"B-Brother?" Elara whispered. The fear in her eyes didn't vanish; it got worse. She looked at the money, then at me. "Whose is this? Did you… did you rob a merchant? Did you hurt someone?"
"If the guards come here…" Finn started to cry.
They assumed the worst. They assumed I was a criminal.
"Shut up," I snapped, though I kept my voice devoid of actual malice. "I didn't steal it. I won it. The Gilded Tankard held a drinking contest. I won."
"You… won?" Elara looked at the coins, trying to process the information.
"Yes. And I'm not spending it on drink," I lied—well, it was half a lie. "This place is a pigsty. The roof leaks, the walls are rotting, and it's freezing."
I slid five silver coins across the table toward Elara. That was more money than she made in two years of scrubbing floors.
"Take this," I commanded. "Tomorrow, you don't go to the manor. You go to the market. Buy meat. Vegetables. New blankets. And medicine for Finn's cough."
Elara stared at the coins, her hands trembling. She didn't reach for them. She looked at me as if I were a stranger wearing her brother's face.
"Why?" she asked softly.
I turned away, walking toward my own bed so she wouldn't see the crack in my mask.
"Because I'm tired of living in a dump," I grunted. "Do as I say."
Outside the Shack
Silas crouched in the mud, pressing his ear against a gap in the rotting wood planks. He had heard everything.
He gave them money, Silas noted mentally. He didn't hit them. He ordered them to buy food and medicine. And he claims he plans to fix the house.
Silas narrowed his eyes. This was not the behavior of a selfish drunkard. This was the behavior of a man with a plan.
He slipped away into the darkness to report back to Lucas Van Der Hoven.