Admittance to Merridian

Sergei brought Zaida straight to the customs office. There, he turned her over to the staff, and turned himself to leave. A uniformed man asked the newcomer to turn over her weapon before situating himself at a table with her. He set down a small stack of parchments, a pen, and an inkwell.

He began what sounded like a practiced questionnaire with a tone that lacked an ounce of enthusiasm. "Welcome to Merridian. My name is Dan, what is yours?"

"Zaida."

"Lovely," he said obligatorily while staring at his paperwork. He penned down her response. "What is your occupation?"

"Sellsword."

Dan looked up from his parchment. He studied her to discover whether she was joking or not. "You... wouldn't rather I put down 'mercenary'?"

"Sure, you can go with that," Zaida nodded.

Dan's gaze lingered on her a moment before taking down her answer. "Where are you from?"

"Homestead."

"You came here from a town called 'Homestead'?"

"Yes," Zaida said, her tone almost twisting it into a question.

"Never heard of it." Dan wrote it in all the same. "What's your business in Merridian?"

"I was hoping to settle here."

Dan nodded with his eyes still trained on his parchments. He moved the piece he had been working on aside and drew a new form from his stack. "Have you arranged for residence in the town?"

"No," Zaida said.

"Then you will be housed in the church hospice until a permanent residence is settled upon."

"Um, might I - by any chance - seek lodging anywhere else?" Zaida spoke hastefully, as if she wished to speak before the customs official put anything in ink.

Dan raised an eyebrow. "Have you got a problem with church hospices or something?" Zaida did not reply. "What's the matter? Especially sinful one, are you?" Zaida stayed silent. "You and me both!" Dan gave the table a jolly slap and dissolved into laughter.

Zaida found it difficult not to laugh along with him, at least a little bit.

"Alright then," Dan said as his giggles ebbed, "I'll set the housing form aside. If you change your mind you'll have to return here to get it sorted." He cleared his throat before continuing. "Have you got any debts or warrants that might follow you here?"

Zaida answered the remainder of Dan's questions and finalised the bureaucratic process of immigrating to Merridian. With that out of the way, she moved on to find a post for herself in town. After some miscommunication, confusion, and clarification with townsfolk, she was pointed to the knight corps, as it was "the only place in town that could put a no-good war-glutton like yourself to use."

She was told how the knights were a prominent and respected order in the town. They were dedicated to defending Merridian from the sporadic attacks mounted by the Demon Lord's army. Zaida was not certain she was cut out for fighting demons, but it seemed as though there was little other warring to be done there.

It was the very beginning of what could be called sunset when she rapped her knuckle on the door to the building that sported the sign she had been told was the symbol for the Order of Dyna. Personally, she thought it a tad strange that a corps that was supposedly dedicated to combatting spawns of hell would identify themselves with such a demonic icon, but if she had been misled here, she would be corrected soon enough.

The door was torn open by a less than tranquil woman. "For fuck's sake, in case you haven't heard already: no, this office is not a bloody brothel now!"

"I'm sorry?" Zaida offered, leaning back in a recoil.

Seeing that the visitor was not whom she had been expecting, the woman's expression softened, though only marginally. "What do you want, love? If you're after a quickie, look for someone handing out recruitment papers and they'll set you up."

"I was looking for the Order of Dyna, but it appears I have the wrong-"

"Yeah, that's us. What do you want?"

Zaida blinked, attempting to refocus herself. "I'm new in town. I was a sells- mercenary before, and I was told the knights would be the best place for me to find work."

The woman leaning on the doorframe did not look elated at the mention of Zaida's work history, but there was also contemplation in her expression. "Hm... Oi, Tivra!" the woman shouted over her shoulder into the building, "Dyna say anything about accepting mercenaries?"

"Accepting whom?" came a response, faint with distance.

"MERCENARIES," the woman repeated, evidently indifferent as to whether any neighbours minded the noise.

"We took on a baker too thin to pass for a coat rack this morning - I'd bloody kill for a mercenary."

The woman in the doorway turned back to Zaida. "Okay, come on in."

The newcomer was rethinking her immigration as she followed the knight inside. They passed through candle-lit halls before arriving in an office where one person was waiting. The woman was seated at a desk, but even so, Zaida could tell she was tall. She had a long, thin nose and prominent cheeks. Her skin was a dark brown and her black hair was styled in an undercut.

"I'm Edie, that's Tivra," introduced the woman Zaida had followed. Edie was marginally shorter than Zaida. She had a wide mouth and thick eyebrows. Her skin was a tanned white, and her brown hair mostly hung loose in curls, with a braid left swaying between her shoulder blades. "You're looking to join the knights? Good choice. What's your name?"

"Zaida."

Edie nodded. "Tell me, Zaida - and be honest now - it's because we're hotter, right?"

"Pardon?"

Edie half-sat on a desk near Tivra. "Than the nuns I mean," she elaborated. "Now, I get it: living in unofficial chastity, it puts a flame in your loins. So I can understand so many folk running off to grovel for the church. But the way I figure it, anyone coming to us to sign on, has to think we're the more alluring bunch, you get me?" She looked to her compatriot to make sure she was following along. "What I mean is: you join up with the church, you change your dress, learn some hymns, and you're nearly a priestess."

"I think you're oversimplifying it, but don't let me interrupt." Tivra rested her chin on one fist, clearly willing to humour Edie for her own amusement.

"Meanwhile, with us knights," she continued, "signing on is a much bigger deal. You've got to get in shape and maintain it, you've got to learn to fight, and you've got to be ready to set your life against a demon horde. Now who's going to choose that over pew dusting?" Edie held up her arms in a shrug before raising her index fingers to say wait. "Unless... they think the fucks will be that much better." She laid a hand on a cocked hip and put on a sensual face. "Then again, who can blame them."

Tivra leaned back in her chair and gave a slow, sarcastic clap. Her smile was broader than it had been before. "Bra-vo to Miss Edie for the philosopher-of-legend logic there. Truly an inspiration." She picked up a dry stamp and tossed it at Edie. It bounced harmlessly off the woman's abdomen. "No! Folk join the knights because they want to stab things, or because they want someone from the corps to crush their head with their pecs. Spend less time convincing yourself that you're the most attractive woman in Merridian, and more time making sure the recruits know which way to point their swords." Tivra shook her head in equal parts amusement and dismissal.

"Whatever," Edie dismissed her right back. She faced Zaida. "You didn't answer my question."

"I'm sorry, but I'm in need of some clarification here." The mercenary massaged her temples. "What kind of bloody town did I walk into, and what are you two talking about?"

"What do you mean?"

"The sex stuff!" Zaida threw up her arms. "You two are talking like there's a rutting competition between yourselves and the church!"

"Are you not from town?" Tivra asked.

"No! I already told her as much," Zaida waved at Edie.

"Oh yeah," Edie said, as though the words spoken at the door were just now registering with her.

"Recruitment's been down for a while," Tivra explained. "We need warriors to fend off the Demon Lord's army, but people aren't signing on like they once did. Used to be that the church in town was able to keep the demons out on prayers and faith alone, but they've been bleeding disciples too."

"They weren't doing too well even before Dyna came along," Edie said passive-aggressively.

"Anyway, yesterday Dyna - the captain of the knights - comes out of the church telling us all that we're going to experiment with a new recruiting method." Tivra held out her hands, as if to ask can you guess what that is?

"Sex?" Zaida offered, hoping she was misunderstanding.

Tivra tapped her nose. She wore a strained expression, as though she herself did not have the greatest confidence in this strategy.

"What? So the warriors of this town are expected to start... whoring themselves out to the masses to bolster recruitment?" Zaida scoffed.

Edie scrunched her nose. "Well when you put it like that..."

"That's not quite how it is," Tivra said, raising a hand in promise of a catch. "For one thing, it's voluntary. Obviously the captain isn't ordering her knights to offer up their bodies to any who want them. Secondly it's a, um..." she looked to Edie to provide the word she was looking for. "A sort of a tease. It's not so much about saying join the knights and I'll let you fuck me. It's more of a... well, like a lantern to draw in the moths." She and Edie shared a nod, like the analogy was just close enough for their liking.

"That idiom describes someone's attraction to something that will hurt them," Zaida stated.

"No it doesn't," Edie rebuffed. "It simply means that they are drawn to someone or something."

Tivra interrupted the two. "LOOK, that's not the point. The point is that if you want to join the knights, we'll be happy to have you. We all know we could use the help from someone that's used a weapon before this week. If you don't want to be a part of our latest... recruitment initiative, no one's going to **** you."

Silence hung as the three women looked between each other, awaiting Zaida's answer.

The mercenary took a deep breath. "Would I get a bunk as early as tonight?"