Titus Scarnetti stood in front of his estate home. Or what had once been an estate home. Most of the home had to be torn down after Lord Blackmoor and a band of stone giants ransacked Sandpoint and the Scarnetti estate. Blackmoor believed Scarnetti had a rare ore in his possession and had stone giants tear his home apart to find it.
The man was insane. Unfortunately, he was also thorough. Half of the building was torn down. A third of what was left ended up burned. There wasn’t much left, but Titus was not about to let some lunatic and a bunch of giants get the best of him. Titus Scarnetti was not that easily undone.
Construction was in total production. Scarnetti Manor was coming together and looked even more regal than before. However, Titus looked like a man who hadn't slept in a week. Most likely because he hadn’t. Due to that exhaustion, Titus didn’t hear one of his newly hired thugs walk up behind him. "Boss," he said to Titus. "Someone here to see you."
Titus turned to face his hireling. The man met Scarnetti’s gaze for a moment before turning his attention to someone standing several feet behind them. A young man dressed in a uniform watched the construction with a passing interest. Titus didn’t recognize the man or the uniform, but he doubted this was a business call. "Your home suffered substantial damage,” said the young man. “Was this from the giant raid?"
"More or less." Titus watched the young man studying his home. "Are you with the builder's guild?"
The young man watched two men framing an exterior wall. "I understand you donated funds to help restart four new mills that had previously been forced to close."
"I'm giving back to the community, and it gives to me in return," Titus said. "Now, as you can see, friend, I'm very busy. So who are you, and what are you doing here?"
The young man turned to Titus, hands folded behind him. "My name is Maximus Merilander of House Merilander. I was told that you were a person of authority in this..." He searched for the words. "...quaint town."
"You heard correctly," said Titus. "I may not be the mayor, but I have some sway around here."
Maximus smiled. "That is precisely why I am here. What can you tell me about the grippli named Jayvielle Deverin?"
Titus flinched, then frowned at the name and his reaction to it. "He sticks his nose where it doesn't belong. Him and his friends. He gets away with it because he's cousins with the mayor, Kendra Deverin."
"The mayor of this town is a grippli?"
Titus shook his head. "No, she's human. What's this all about?"
"I'm trying to find him."
"You a relative too?"
The young man’s smile disappeared. "No, I'm going to kill him."
Titus reached into the inside pocket of his coat and pulled out a cigar. He bit off the end and lit it, filling his lungs with delicious smoke before exhaling long and hard. "Ah. What's this got to do with me?"
"I believe you are a man of power and influence. Yet you are not the mayor of the town you live in." Maximus watched a man pull a trussed window up to the second floor, where two others waited to set it in its frame. "When your home was destroyed, you could have left. Gone somewhere else and started fresh. Yet you chose to stay and rebuild."
"This is my home," Titus said, watching the construction. "And I don't give up so easily."
"Neither do I."
Titus kept watching the workers as they continued to assemble his home. "What can I do for you, Max?"
Maximus stepped up to Titus and stood beside him. Both men watched the work going on in front of them. "Nothing that will implicate you in what I'm going to do. I need information."
"That I can do." Titus clenched the cigar between his teeth. “What do you need?”
"Jayvielle and his friends left town days ago."
"Yes, they were going after the giants that attacked Sandpoint."
"How noble," Maximus said, and the hint of disdain in his voice was not lost on Titus. "His cousin, the mayor, are they close?"
"As close as a woman like her can be with a fr-... someone like him.” Titus took in a breath of smoke. “I’m not privy to their personal interactions, but he certainly sees her as family."
"Interesting,” said Maximus. “Where I might find her estate?"
Titus pulled the cigar from between his teeth and dropped it on the ground, crushing it beneath his boot. He took two steps forward. "If you're planning on killing her, I don't want to know about it."
There was silence for several long moments. "Good day Mister Scarnetti," Maximus said.
"Good day to you, Maximus Merilander of..." Titus turned, but the young man was gone. He shook his head. "Kids," he grumbled before returning to the ongoing construction. He watched as his home showed hints of its former glory. Titus caught himself smiling, but he couldn’t decide if it was his home or his visitor that was the cause. He decided he didn’t care.
