Evangelus Feyal was the maintenance man of Atlas Verde.
No, that wasn't who he was, but that was how he felt. There were days when this sinking realizing would seep into his system, and the state of his affairs would paralyze him with grief, but there were other days, sunny days of solace like today, where he would grit his teeth and buckle down under adversity. It didn't matter that the hard work he did would never amount to anything – his sibling status made it so he could never be considered candidate for the next ruling lord and he knew it. What mattered today, and what should matter every day to him, was the work he did for these lands, his lands – Atlas Verde – and how the people benefitted from his labors. That was true glory.
He left the horse at home – ol' Benjamin has worse knees than Evangelus did these days, except Ben could play the age card, while Ev, however, could not. At a young age of twenty one, the last thing Ev should be doing was walking with a limp, but ever since the 'incident' so many years ago, it was how he walked – and, unfortunately, it was the only way some people around the province remembered him. It was a mark of a hero, they said, to be wounded (re: crippled) in the heat of battle, protecting your lands, but Ev would smile politely at these statements and move on. It was not a mark of glory. It was a mark of failure.
So he spent his days making sure he never failed again. Today – he was on the hunt, for a low-brow criminal that had managed to escape the attention of local Atlas Verde guards. A lazy 'maintenance man' would've spotted the nuisance and just amped up security, but Evangelus was more hands-on than that. If the guards had not noticed him before, they would not notice him even if they were alerted of his presence.
Hell, even Ev didn't know much about the crook, except for the fact that he was sly. He made a living swiping small amounts of food and goods here and there from vendors' stalls, who would never notice until it was too late. He never ran from those he stole – no one ever noticed him. He was here, right now, in this sleepy town – perfectly hidden in plain sight. When he'd strike, Ev would never know. But the mark of the Feyal family and that of a knight was still on his person – if they saw him about the city, they'd know to watch their back.
Still, he tried to keep a low profile – but it wasn't possible, not with his trademark limp, and not with the local townspeople occasionally waving cheerfully towards him, sometimes thanking him for small things he'd done for them in a past, things they would never forget. He could not be rude to them – these people were like his flesh and blood – but he did pull the cover of the shadows closer to him, trying in vain to lurk in the sunlight.
It was not working well for him. Still, he kept his eyes and ears open, but it was a vain attempt. How do you look for someone when you don't even know what they could look like? And worst of all, the thief could probably change his appearance at will, which would explain how he had never been caught. Ev groaned, leaning against an empty vendor's stall, watching the people go to and fro. He crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head to himself, sighing. He was the maintenance man of Atlas Verde – was he not? Wasn't it his job to find people like this, lest he be considered a failure again?
Time passed, the sun inched its way across the lazy blue sky, and still, there was no suspicious activity to be found. He did, however, out of the corner of his eye, see a familiar face, or what he thought was a familiar face. Whoever the person was, she turned her head quickly, so that Ev could not get a closer look. This was not the thief, Ev thought, but the fact that the face had been so familiar to him was enough to make him persuade the figure through the crowd. He made his way through the sea of people, following that familiar girl, with that opal pinkish hair. Even with a limp, his determination did not slow down his pace, and eventually, he was in arm's reach.
He placed a hand on her shoulder, not really thinking how such an action might startle someone who was just going about their business. "Excuse me, miss," he started, his voice tentative, but reverberating with curiosity. "Do I know you from somewhere?" It was not really the smartest thing to say to get someone's attention, but he was curious, and despite Ev's zealous patriotism, he needed a distraction from this impossible case.
