Carnage was fun and all, but sometimes, Yeitso preferred the more delicate art of putting the frighteners on someone. He had many potential employers for such purposes. He'd worked for several bookies and loan sharks, of course. And then there were the would-be racketeers who wanted to drum up a little business for their 'protection' scam by making it clear to folks that they had something they needed to be protected from, and the street-gangs looking to expand their turf, or at least defend it, without starting a full-scale war. These jobs paid the bills, but there wasn't much art to them.
More subtle uses of fear, though, could be quite entertaining as well as profitable. A favorite was the lovelorn suitor, seeking to clear the field of one or more rivals; he'd hoped that this job was going to be one of those. It took precision frightening to goad someone into moving to another town, without tipping your hand that this was deliberate; he'd learned that many times, the one being courted was offended to have one suitor drive off the others in such a fashion (of course, a minority were into that sort of thing, but then they tended to want it done personally by the ultimate victor, rather than by proxy; humans were strange).
Sadly, when he got to the estate of his prospective employer, he was disappointed to learn that this wasn't quite that. The stuffed shirt who introduced himself as Mr. Phineas didn't want to drive off a romantic rival.
"It's my daughter, you see. She's very beautiful, but also impulsive and rash. Several unsuitable young men have come seeking her out, lately, and I would like them to... not do so, anymore. Sadly, as several of them come from wealthy or powerful families themselves, I cannot simply have them killed; there would be too much hue and cry. Your... fixer, I believe his title is? He assures me that you are capable of persuading someone into departing the field without executing them, or even leaving a trail that could be traced back to me. Chase them off, and I'll pay you 10,000. If you manage to limit awareness of my own involvement, I'll double that."
The deal was struck, and Yeitso given a list of names and photos--four men seeking the young heiress' favor. He decided to space things out a bit--while he certainly COULD drive all of them off in a single night, that might be a bit too overt for his employer's designs.
So, over the next several nights, he observed his targets to learn about them. The Gambler was easy--sabotage a match, then pretend he was a legbreaker coming to collect; unable to pay his bills, the deadbeat fled to safer pastures. The Rake was almost as easy--he simply pretended to be chasing the cad off because of a different potential conquest. The Scholar was trickier--Yeitso had to whisper through a window, and explain that the man's research was causing 'certain persons' to become unhappy, and that he should take his studies elsewhere. This was mostly a guess on Yeitso's part, but apparently the Scholar really was digging into sensitive materials, and was on a caravan to Magestar by the next morning.
This left only the Hero--a wannabe Cyber-knight with few vices he could exploit, still in the early phases of his training. Yeitso decided a bit of prophecy theater was in order. So as the Hero walked home one night, cutting through an alley he'd used many times before, he was suddenly struck with a blast of cold air from behind, and felt a small nick on his arm, siphoning the strength from his sinews. He turned, drawing a vibro-blade with numb fingers--he'd not even learned, yet, to summon the psi-blade that the Knights were so fond of--but the point dipped as he beheld the masked giant looming over him. Before he could speak, Yeitso's low growl came out.
"Ah, the Scion of Destiny. You have a choice, Little Hero. You can stand your ground, and perish here and now. Or you can leave home and begin a quest to better yourself, and return to this place in ten years, when I will be waiting for you to do fair battle." As he spoke, Yeitso leveled Coyote's Paw at his throat.
"Choose now. If you are still in this city before dawn's light, I shall assume you chose a noble death." For a moment, the Hero seemed ready to lunge at him, but then he whirled about and fled into the night. Trailing him, Yeitso confirmed that the young man had, indeed, decided to travel the continent--he even heard him tearfully tell his parents that it would be a decade before he returned.
Back at the manor of his client, Yeitso was pleased to receive the 20K Credstick in payment, along with congratulations from Mr. Phineas on a job well done. As he was about to leave the study, he heard the voice of a young woman, distressed, calling out,
"Father?" Motioning him to stay put, Phineas went out to the atrium. Yeitso, bored, observed through a crack in the door as the old man consoled his daughter--who, Yeitso noted, was indeed quite toothsome--who was upset that, within a week, she'd been abandoned by all of her potential beaus.
The father assured his distraught child that,
"You will always have me," and drew her into a comforting embrace. Just as Yeitso was about to withdraw his head from his spy-point, though, the father's hand drifted down just a bit further than a fatherly hug normally would.
Pulling back, Yeitso grinned to himself.
Ah, so this was a romantic rivalry, after all. He slipped out the french doors to the patio, and across the lawn. No reason to stick around at that point.