LongestRoad Then they decided to train me

My training as a spymaster after I was caught by Brala wasn't easy. It was one of the most difficult, most intense periods of my life. I was regularly frustrated, enraged, and sometimes shamed by the tasks he set for me, and the lessons he gave me. Despite all of that, it was also one of the best times of my life. Brala, as he usually preferred to be, was an older man, slightly overweight, and had one of the most brilliant minds I'll ever have the honor to work with.

In my time training with him, I only managed to surprise him a few times. Brala, on the other hand, surprised me more or less continually. He tought me to never underestimate anyone. You'd be surprised how many people make that mistake. He looked quite old most of the time, but Brala was only a few years older than me. That was his first lesson for me. Appearances can be altered to suit the occasion, and can quite easily be used to deceive, or to draw whatever conclusion you desire.

Appearance isn't just in how you look though. A basic disguise, wearing an outfit and grooming to appear to be something you're not is all well and good, but it's useless without the manners and mannerisms to match. What good is it to dress as nobility if you act like a commoner? And so while I was quite handy with a makeup kit and was able to reconstruct my face and change my hair very quickly and thuroughly, that was only the most basic part of my training in disguise. Brala tought me many things. How to act in polite society. How to walk like a laborer. How to speak like a sailor, or a merchant, or a farmer. Along with all of this, I read endless scrolls and books on the basics of every profession so that I could speak at least passably as if I were a practitioner. I'm not a master of every trade, not by a long shot. I'm not even particularly good at most of them. But I could convince all but the most observant that I was by talking to them.

Meanwhile, I was also learning to be more agile, more stealthy, better with a blade, any and all physical disciplines. Never my strong suit, I was deemed passable at most, but never a master.

My true calling was my gift with words and manners. I could convince just about anyone of anything, and on several occasions, did.

One of my earliest tests was to gain entrance to the Lady DelRis's private chambers, where Brala and Lady DelRis would await me. It was intended that I should sneak in quitely, climb the side of her tower, and gain entrance by one of the windows. Not being the best climber, and being unsure of my ability to charm the lock on the window without being noticed, I decided for an alternate route.

I started outside of the manor, as the test required, and began by using the same scheme that I'd used to break in to the manor in the first place, though I used a somewhat different disguise. I was a merchant seeking to sell my wares to the house chef. I was peddling wine from across the city. It gained me entrance to the manor at least. Amusingly, I even sold a bottle to the chef before I continued my way through the house. From there it was easy enough to slip away for a moment while "Showing myself out", change my disguise as a messenger from another noble house, and then proceed up into the tower.

The hardest part of the whole test was convincing the guards at the door that they needed to let me in despite their orders. The lady DelRis had posted two guards outside her chamber door with strict orders to not allow anyone inside, and if they recognized me, to clap me in irons and put me in the house dungeon and notify her. Well, all of the guards had those orders. Since I was still walking freely through the house, I'd passed that hurdle. The guards outside the lady's door were two stout, strong, and while not brilliant, not unintelligent men. In my month or so at the manor under Brala's tutelage, I'd even diced with these particular men. I was told to become familiar with the guards, since they'd need to be able to recognize me on sight, so that I could move about the house freely when I needed to. Well, that would just add to the challenge.

I walked up to the door in the livery of house Meleron, an associate of house DelRis, and asked the guards for the location of Lady DelRis. It was an amusing conversation. Gedrin, the larger of the two guards, was very appologetic but insisted that he couldn't allow anyone to enter the lady's chambers. No matter how I begged or pleaded he simply wouldn't allow it. His partner, Drulnir, stayed quiet for most of the conversation, looking at me with an odd expression on his face. I was worried for a moment that he recognized me. Then he broke into the conversation and asked me a couple of questions about house Meleron, and about a few specific people in the house. Luckily, I'd remembered Brala's lesson on being prepared, and had studied house Meleron as a potential cover. I had no idea before I'd gotten to this point how lucky I was that I had decided to do so. I was able to answer Drulnirs questions easily, and was startled to discover that I'd missed the detail that his sister was in the employ of the Melerons.

Well, apparently my information was current enough to convince Drulnir that I was who I said I was, and he began taking my side in the whole matter. That was the key. With Drulnir's help, we convinced Gedrin to enter the lady's chamber and request that I be allowed in. They were surprised, of course, but I was eventually allowed in to the lady's chambers, and even convinced everyone that my messege was for the lady alone. Once the guards had left the room, and Brala had taken position on the opposite side of the room, I whispered in the ear of the lady that I'd just passed the test. The expression on her face as I stood up and removed my disguise was pure amusement, but nothing compared to the expression on Brala's face when he realized that I'd even taken him.

From that point on, my training shifted. The concentration went from general training to infiltration by misdirection, something I was far better at than Brala, but his training was exacting, and my skills did improve even past the point they were at then. While he did insist on continuing my training with a blade, and at skills of stealth, they were secondary from then on. So far as I know, Brala is still in the employ of house DelRis, though I haven't seen him in years.