The City Of Vexil.
They got back to the city yesterday afternoon. And that's when the weather closed in. And sometime during the night it started raining.
So in the morning, Zam the ex mercenary finds himself walking through the rain. It isn't a particularly cold spring day. But the rain, though not heavy, is constant.
And as the teenager who is originally from The City Of Ruins walks through the streets of Vexil. He sees that the city isn't as busy as it usually is due to the rain.
The youngest member of the group looks at Lisell Maera the scout who is walking beside him, who has just tapped him on the arm.
She gestures across the street, and the ex mercenary spots Beldane the cleric standing under an overhanging awning in front of a shop.
The scout leader in the Armies of Farque, along with the ex mercenary wait for a wagon to go by, then they cross the street, and join the fighting cleric beneath the awning.
"The royal thief has found some more of them" quietly says Beldane the cleric "City guard?" asks Lisell Maera the scout, who follows that with "The city council?" she then adds "Mage Council?".
The powerful practitioner of magic who is a member of the church of Glaine shakes his head no, then quietly says "Company guards".
"A trading company?" quietly asks Zam the ex mercenary, and the cleric in the half plate armour nods his head yes in response to that from the teenager who hails from The City Of Ruins.
Beldane gestures them to follow him, and they step out from beneath the awning, and head off in the rain.
Walking down the street, then turning into a lane, the powerful spellcaster who is originally from the kingdom of Nastell, tells the other two "Paying a bit too much attention to one of the counting houses we've used".
Beldane briefly pauses as a pair of goblins carrying wooden boxes go by them, then the cleric in the church of Glaine says in elvish "They were asking questions, and found out Mira was at the counting house when the first lot of gold came down from the northern hill country".
Both Zam and Lisell nod when they hear that, then the three of them fall silent as they continue walking through the rain.
The fighting cleric eventually leads them to an old tower near the edge of park in the northeast of the city of Vexil.
The tower, a former guard tower that's disused. For the simple fact a fair chunk out of the top is missing. And there's a lean to the tower. Which suffered damage during the Battle of Vexil a little over two and a half decades ago.
Beldane pushes open the door, and the youngest member of the group, and the scout leader who is originally from the city-state of Brattonbury, follow him into the tower, glad to be out of the rain.
"Thanks" says Zam the ex mercenary after the fighting cleric waves a hand, and both Zam and Lisell find themselves dry, with tendrils of steam briefly coming off them.
"Who did you learn that from?" asks Lisell Maera or Lis as more often than not she's called by those who know her well.
"Helbe?" adds the attractive young woman who is originally from coastal city-state of Brattonbury, where she was found as a child by the group at the time.
Nodding his head, Beldane says "I did" followed by "It's also why I don't get wet while it rains". He then grins when the scout Maera sourly smiles and says "Lucky for some".
Zam slightly nods at that, as he's noticed that all the spellcasters in the group never get wet when it's raining.
The only times the ex mercenary has seen them getting wet from rain, is when they don't want to cast, or they're actively casting other spells, and just forget to keep themselves dry.
Though the youngest member of the group has never seen Helbe the elven thief get wet from rain fall at all, no matter what.
The powerful cleric who hails from northern Nastell, where his god Glaine is predominantly worshipped.
Leads the way up the tower, and on what's the fifth floor of the tower, they enter a chamber. The floor of which slopes to one side accounting for the lean of the old tower.
"He'll be back soon, no doubt" says Beldane the cleric as the find the chamber empty, who nods his head and says "Didn't interfere with them" followed by "Let them go on their way".
In response to Lis asking him "What did you do with those two he found?". The officer in the Scouts and Rangers division of the Armies of Farque then says "He's following them I take it?".
"He is" replies the powerful practitioner of magic, who continues on with "To see what else he can find out about them, and their company" he follows that with "And their interest in Mira".
The mage himself is keeping a low profile now, staying back at the Merchant's Rest inn, and not leaving it at all.
Since many people who are after him, which are quite a lot. Know that he's either in the city, or has been in the city recently.
Nearby, in the offices of a trading company here in the city of Vexil. Helbe the elven thief makes his way from the warehouse, into the adjoining office.
The highly talented elven magic user who is blurred and shielded, shifts into the office through a slightly open window shutter.
Which one of the occupants then closes so that none of the persistent rain gets inside as the wind outside has changed direction.
The elven masterthief who hails from the island principality of Laerel reads the minds of the trio in this office. Then he follows one of them out into the hallway beyond.
Within the mind of the man he's following. The elven master assassin sees he's heading to the office down the hallway. The young elven noble who is a member of the royal family that rules the principality of Laerel.
Sends that fellow the other way, and outside to the adjoining warehouse to do something else entirely different.
The elven master archer, whose mother is the heir to the principality of Laerel, and whose father is the Warden of Quinthain. An elven forest city to the east of the Lands Farque.
Makes his way into the office at the other end of the hallway. Quietly closing the door behind him without anyone noticing.
The blurred and shielded elven magic user goes straight to a floorboard next to the chair, behind the desk.
The highly talented elven spellcaster faintly smiles to himself after he presses on one end of the floorboard, and reveals a hidden cubby hole.
He takes out a fairly hefty coin bag, full of gold, and pockets it. Grinning to himself as he does so.
After all he's a masterthief, and has a reputation to live up to. Besides not that anyone else in the trading company is going to miss it.
As the co-owner whose office this is, has been stealing from the company without anyone knowing.
Helbe the elven thief as he kneels, turns around and mutters "Fuck" in the royal elven language when he sees Narladene the ground pixie standing on the desk, with a disapproving look upon her face.
"Old habits hard to break I see" dryly says Narladene the ground pixie in the elven language as she stares at the grandson of the ruling prince of Laerel.
After softly cleaning his throat, the elven magic user nods his hooded head, then says in the regular elven language "Something like that".
Then he gets up, and moves closer to the drawers in the desk. The elven master assassin who is a member of Lord Farque's personal council, undoes the hidden lock in one of the draws, and opens it.
Helbe the elven thief or prince Helbenthril Raendril to give him his full name and title, takes out a ledger.
He's not interested in what's written in the ledger. What he is interested in, is an envelope between two of the pages in the ledger.
He takes out the envelope, and opens it. Taking the letter out of it. Which he quickly reads to himself as the ground pixie who is attached to him, watches on.
"Damn" murmurs the young elven noble from the island principality of Laerel, who then adds "Looks like they're hiring trading companies to locate the mage".
In response to Narladene quietly asking him "What is it?". The tiny winged creature who is originally from the Sunreach Mountains, then asks the elven master archer "Who?".
"The Mage Council" is the quiet reply from the elven princeling who returns the letter to the envelope, which he reseals, and puts back in the ledger, which he returns to the draw he took it out of.
The elven masterthief resets the hidden lock for the draw, telling Narladene as he does so "Seems a number of companies, not just trading companies, are taking payment from the Mage Council to find Mira".
"And in the Mage Council, you mean that mage Garmen?" says the naturally magical creature who first met Helbe in the city of Leeabra, the capital of the kingdom of Druvic.
The blurred and shielded elven magic user nods in response to that from the ground pixie, then quietly says to her "I don't think the rest of the Mage Council cares that much about Mira being here in the city".
The highly talented elven practitioner of magic continues with "True, they want to keep an eye on him, so he doesn't get into any trouble".
Narladene wryly smiles at that, as the mage Reinholt is the one in the group most likely to get into trouble with the exception of Dorc da Orc and sir Percavelle Lé Dic.
"But they're not overly zealous about it" says the elven princeling from Laerel, who follows that with "Unlike the mage Garmen".
"Who still doesn't know about Mira's involvement in his son's death?" says the tiny winged creature, who briefly pauses before adding in a dry tone "Or your involvement?".
Helbe the elven thief winces at that, for it was he who actually killed the younger mage Garmen, during a confrontation in the hill country of northern Vexil in the winter that's just gone by.
Softly clearing his throat again, the elven master assassin quietly says "No he doesn't" then he nods his hooded head. In reply to Narladene saying "I guess it's to do with their past then?".
"He still can't get over the fact that Mira survived the Battle of Vexil after being kicked off the Mage Council, then exiled" quietly says prince Helbenthril Raendril.
Who follows on from that with "Considering he was the one at the time, who actually teleported Mira out of the city, right into the middle of the enemy army".
"Where he met little, er I mean Lord Farque" quietly says the naturally magical creature who continues on with "And Dorc".
"And the world has never been the same since" dryly says Helbe the elven thief, who then adds "Come on, let's get back to Beldane".
The ground pixie nods her head, and makes her way onto the right shoulder of the elven magic user she's attached to.
"He's back at that old tower" quietly says Narladene as the young elven noble from the island principality of Laerel slips out of the office.
"Lis and Zam are with him" quietly adds the tiny winged creature who is originally from the Sunreach Mountains.
Helbe the elven thief nods his hooded head, then the blurred and shielded elven practitioner of magic, follows one of office workers outside.
Then he shifts away, heading to the old abandoned tower where Beldane the cleric, Lisell Maera the scout, and Zam the ex mercenary are waiting.
On this cloudy, rainy, though not particularly cold spring morning here in the capital of the city-state of Vexil . . . . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment