Ala Mhigo’s True Sons

Rosetta rolls her eye as she descends the stairs from Little Ala Mhigo, she cracks her neck as she walks. “Unbelievable,” she mutters under her breath, carrying the goods she had been contracted to deliver. Since Ala Mhigo proper was reclaimed for her citizens, the small settlement many Ala Mhigans had made their temporary home had fallen from grace, run now be less than savory people. Ala Mhigo’s True Sons, they called themselves, run by a man named Cordwein… or at least it was, which is why the highlander finds herself so frustrated at the moment. Cordwein had disappeared a little over a week ago taking most of his top lieutenants to scavenge treasure on some far-off island, leaving his son Cartreight in charge.

“Oye! An’ where you think yer goin’, tart?” A man with barely 20 namedays to his chin calls after Rosetta. Young and fit, with short red hair, he wears a long leather coat and no shirt, so as not to obstruct his muscular body. His friend gather around to cheer him on as her derides her.

“I’m paid to delivery parcels, not take shit.” Rosetta calls back over her shoulder, not slowing as she approaches her brother with the satchel of good in hand. She loads it into his pack with a sigh. “Tell your father when he’s back—”

“Tell me father? I ain’t no messenger boy!”

Rosetta turns to face him now, standing at the bottom of the hill with him still towards the top of the stairs just outside the entrance to the cliff dwelling. “You’re some kinda boy. And I don’t deal with children, I deal with men.”

Cartreight’s friends, as fickle as they come, ‘oooh’ and tease when Rosetta throws his taunting back at him. “Why you little—”

As he’s about to reach for his daggers and lunge down the hill, an old hand grabs his chest to hold him back. “Rosetta, please!” The old man shouts, a calmness to his voice that only ever seems to come to men of advanced age. “I’m sorry, I was occupied with something else. What’s happened here?”

Cartreight’s face snarls as he looks the old man over. He wears simple cloth garb, leaning heavily on a wooden cane. His hair is stark white, made to look even starker against his darkly tanned, almost leathery, skin. Yet his age belies an unmistakable strength. Limp and all, you can see he’d best an Adamantoise if it came to it. “You takin’ ‘er side old man?”

Nal’Torun turns to Cartreight, a smile trying desperately to be neutral, but showing signs of exasperation all the same. “Rosetta has been working with us for as far back as—”

“Taking advantage is more like!” Cartreight interrupts, turning now to Rosetta. “100 stacks of gil? My old man might have been charmed by yer smile, but not me.” He grins a sly grin, “A court who overcharges is just a whore who goes broke.” His mates cheer and hollar, back on his side now that he has the upper hand in their verbal sparring match.

Rosetta just shakes her head, turning to Nal, “When he gets back send a post moogle.” She says before turning to mount the chocobo.

She hears the draw of the string first, clumsy hands that have never fired the bow in a war before. She rolls away from Ranger and behind a rock, the arrows skiffing off the hard red stone.

“Stop! Enough!” Nal’Torun calls out, but the sound of feet pounding the hardpan tell Rosetta his words are all for naught.

She draws up the bow, turning to her brother. “Circle behind them!” She orders. The dark green chocobo does as he’s told, and moves West.

Despite hearing her obvious plan, the archer and the thaumaturge both turn to attack Ranger, leaving them open to Rosetta down below. She quickly notches and fires two arrows in rapid succession, striking both targets in their shoulders, neutralizing them in screams of pain. Cartreight, snarling, now draws up his daggers and dashes down the hill, his two mates following close behind with swords at the ready. Rosetta just stares back with a grin, squaring up to them. Before they have time to consider why she doesn’t seem worried, Ranger reminds them, charging into the trio. The other two are knocked down cleanly while Cartreight loses his footing and begins stumbling forward into Rosetta’s awaiting knee. He stops suddenly, but his lunch comes flying out of his mouth in a putrid spray of yellow and green before he crumples over his feet, winded and groaning.

Rosetta pushes Cartreight to the ground as she puts her bow on her back. With a sigh she kneels down beside the young highlander and removes the satchel of gil on his hip. She hefts it in her hand, figuring it has a little more than what she’s owed, before turning up to Nal’Torun who limps down the hill, but in no rush. She looks back to Cartreight, rolling him over so he can look her in the eye. “Let me tell you how this works for the future, yeah?” She clears her throat dramatically before saying. “I do the work, then I get paid.”

“Rosetta,” Nal’Torun starts as he gets closer, “what can we—” She holds up the satchel and gives it a hefty jingle, obviously more than the 100 stacks she’s owed. “Consider it an apology.”

Rosetta scoffs, walking over to Ranger who is now sitting on the two men he’d tackled to the ground. “I’ll consider it a down payment on an apology, Nal. And if Cordwein has a problem with that he can come find me when he’s back.”

Nal’Torun takes a deep breath, obviously pained by the extra fee, but also fully aware he’s bargaining from a place of weakness. “I’m sure he will.” He watches Rosetta grab the satchel from her chocobo’s pack and accepts it as she hands it to him. “I am sorry, Rosetta, I—”

Rosetta raises a hand, cutting him off. “Save it. Next time I make a delivery? Jr. here better have learned some humility, or he’ll lose more than his last meal.” She turns back to Ranger, still sitting on the struggling knuckle draggers. “Would you get off of them? We can’t suffocate customers.” Ranger warks back in response, before standing up, a heavy foot on each assailant’s leg prompting new howls of pain. She rolls her eye and climbs up onto the saddle. “By the twelve I hate coming to the desert.” She says wiping sweat from her brow, and spurring Ranger West towards the pass to Central Thanalan.