8 - Graven

I've had two father figures in my life. The first one, Darvin Bramblebuck, was a kind man married to a lovely wife. He had to take care of me and about a dozen other screaming orphans, but he always treated me well. My second father figure was an ambitious thief named Grigor Kulenov. He took me in off the street, not out of the kindness of his heart, but because I could be useful to him.

Can you guess which one told me to always keep my shirt unbuttoned so nobody would remember my face?

I know I always come across as unflappable, in control, always ready to improvise. But it's not easy. You know me as the lusty tavern girl who's always bedding a stranger, right? It's easy when it's a comely stranger. Less so when the stranger is a homely ship captain you need to find a ship's location from. Then his head explodes. His literal head, it's not an innuendo.

It just... gets hard after a while. Yeah, make the joke. Sariel makes men hard. Never heard that one before. Emmy likes to talk about keeping up appearances and decorum, but I don't think she knows that I'm always doing that. I always have to come across as Sariel, the girl who's always up to be bedded. Otherwise, they'd take me seriously instead of take advantage of me. It's hard, but it makes my life easier.

Does that make sense?

This isn't even mentioning everything else. I've been stabbed, cut, strangled, poisoned, crushed, set on fire, hit by magic, and drowned more times than you can count. Especially drowning, I'm not sure if Umberlee wants me to suffer or she's taking pity on me. Anyway, I remember a lot of that stuff. I remember the fear I felt the first time another thief stabbed me and left me bleeding out. I remember being strangled by a sahuagin at the bottom of the sea, thinking I was about to die. Obviously, I didn't die - not permanently, at least - but I sometimes catch myself thinking about it all.

But at the same time, I love doing what I do. I love the thrill of a bandit's blade missing my neck by a hair, or diving deep into the sea, or finding a moment of passion with a stranger. I don't need to be an adventurer anymore. I could easily retire to an easy life of running the tavern. But I don't, because I love what I do, even if I hate it.