Swamped

Yikes Fogel, I didn't...uhh... gonna tuck this one into a spoiler...

Marshguards aren't keen on sharing their back story, but in this case...

SpoilerShow

Foster care isn't that great most places, you suppose you're lucky to have had it at all - although having an abusive good for nothing drunk of a caretaker didn't do you much good. It still sickens you to think how much of him rubbed off on you.

Ash was one of the boys the old man brought in. He was younger than you, but not by much. He didn't take the hits like you did - he'd find a way out, blame someone else, divert the old man's anger to another, sometimes you.

Ash always had ambition. He worked to understand the flow of power in the community. He needed to know who was in control and why. He was a quick study. You think it was him who planted the idea of "renting" the boys out for couriers in the old-man's head.

At the time, you admit, you kind of liked the kid. You forgave him the occasional whipping you got - you figured you were just covering for him. Hell you even practiced reading together. And the courier job was better than some of the other things he could have rented you out to do.

Ash was rising in the ranks fast. Merchants had a lot of money and...well that was the nice thing about meritocracy, even a foster kid like Ash could get some property and power if he showed the aptitude for it.

Funny how the old man finally bit it. Drunk in the street right as a loose caravan ran him over. You don't think it was coinicdence that, just a week before, Ash discovered the old-man had found his stash of savings, and promptly drank it all away.

You recall Ash wasn't even mad. There was a flash of anger for a moment...but it subsided. At the time, you had thought he let it bounce right off of him, but now you think he stored it away someplace deeper.

That was the turning point in your relationship. Ash was free to climb the ranks and it became clear that you were not his friend or his family. You were, at best, a pawn to him.

Around that time, Ash began to have trouble sleeping. It started as a restlessness, twisting and turning in bed. As it went on though, he began to wake up suddenly at night. One night, you woke up to the sound of screaming in the portico of the merchant's manor. Ash was outside, half dressed with a horse's bridle in his hand. He was crying out "Make it stop!!" You had run to help him, but when you reached over he pushed you back, whipping you with the bridle. You saw true rage in his expression then - he was furious at something, maybe himself.

The rumors were he had been sleepwalking. Apparently some night-maids had seen him wondering around the last few nights. Like he was unconsciously trying to go somewhere, but each time he'd suddenly wake up and storm back into his room.

That night in the portico was the last instance of sleepwalking you know of...You wonder if Ash still sleeps with his wrists bound to his bed.

None of that is relevant to what Razor wants to know.

He'll want to know about the slaves.

He'll want to know how Ash realized he could maximize profits by dealing in unscrupulous activities. How when he discovered the merchants underground trade he found ways of maximizing it, instead of trying to shut it down. How sometimes people just went missing, and the more that did, the more the wealth of the merchant community grew. How you finally realized that, in Ash's mind, people are pawns, and pawns can be property.

But you can't tell Razor that, because if he knew that he'd rally the troops and attack the Bogknight base in an instant. Razor has no mercy for slavers.

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You left after you found out what you had been helping, what you had a hand in building. But there were some questions you still had about Ash. Why did he keep you around even after he gained affluence? Why did he let you carry messages about the trade if he was one of the few that knew you could read? Why the hell, after all these years did he finally decide to leave and come to the swamp?

You did realize the answer to one question you had about Ash, however. You couldn't have known until you experienced for yourself. You knew why Ash could never sleep, and why he kept himself tied to his bed at night.

The Swamp called out to Ash, and he fought it.

...sooo consider the non-spoilered bit my actual suggestion, the rest is just...wordy musings.