“I believe I was quite clear when I said that I wanted half of the treasure that was aboard the shipwreck I found for you,” the delicate creature says matter-of-factly to the Regent.
“Well, yes, but the item we were looking for…a ring…was not there.”
“You didn’t tell me to find a ring. You told me to find the remains of a Volgan pirate ship that was wrecked near the Dark Isle over a thousand years ago. I did that, and now I want half of what you recovered - as promised.”
“You ask for what amounts to a king’s ransom for a failed expedition,” he says as if he is explaining something to a small child. He clearly is unafraid of the tiny woman that stands before him.
She sighs, tilts her head at the man and says softly in a voice that while sweet somehow makes the guards look up and take notice of her, “If you don’t pay me now, you may end up finding out just how much a king’s ransom really is worth and how painful it is to part with.”
The man sounds fairly perturbed as he tells her while gesturing to a moderately sized chest filled with gold pieces, “That is your payment. That, and not a copper more. Now, if you don’t mind, I have business to attend to.”
He turns away from her and bends over a scroll. She has clearly been dismissed.
“Oh…I don’t mind at all,” she says in a voice that would have caused a wiser man to shudder in trepidation.
The Regent was not a wise man however and he did not even look up at her. She takes the chest with her, lifting it with surprising ease and departs without another word.
His daughter disappeared that night never to be seen again. The only clue they ever found was an empty chest in the girl’s bed chambers that looked suspiciously like the one Unity had toted out of the Keep earlier that day.