Vexil.
Looking around the corner, Zam the ex mercenary slightly grimaces as it continues to drizzle this spring morning here in the city of Vexil.
The youngest member of the group pops his head back, then looks back down the alleyway behind him when he hears someone approaching.
"You know I'm not exactly looking forward to a certain mage turning up" quietly says Zam the ex mercenary in the elven language.
"No matter what the others say" adds the teenager who is originally from The City Of Ruins, who then looks around the corner again.
Standing with her back against the wall just behind Zam, Lisell Maera the scout who has just walked up the alleyway, quietly says in the same language "You know why we're doing this?" followed by "As in you and I?".
The ex mercenary as he continues to look around the corner, shakes his head no in reply to that from the attractive young woman who is an officer in the Scouts and Rangers division of the Armies of Farque.
"Because we're beneath his notice" says Lisell Maera or Lis as she's more commonly called by the others in the group.
Zam briefly glances back at her, then as he looks back around the corner, the scout Maera quietly tells him "The others garner too much attention".
"The two of us" continues the scout leader who hails from the city-state of Brattonbury, followed by "And to a lesser extent Dalin, don't stick out like the others".
She then says "All the others are noticable to say the least" Lis briefly pauses before adding "Except for Helbe who no one notices because he's hardly ever seen".
Zam nods in agreement to that as he continues to look around the corner, down the street to the left, to a certain shop.
That two mornings ago, an individual he was discreetly following, visited for a fairly decent amount of time.
"That place isn't exactly busy" quietly says the ex mercenary who hails from The City Of Ruins, he then adds "Just like a couple of days ago when I was following that fellow".
The scout Maera as she continues to lean up against the building they're beside, nods her head in agreement with Zam.
Then the attractive young woman whose mother was a street prostitute, and whose father was a sailor, who she never met.
Quietly says to the teenager who is the youngest member of the group "That means pretty much everyone who goes in there is either selling or buying the stolen goods that's going through that place".
The ex mercenary nods his head in agreement, then he quietly says "Pretty good scam if you can get in on it".
Lis is in agreement with that, then she quietly says "And all funded by a prominent member of the Mage Council of Vexil".
The attractive young woman who pulls the hood of her cloak up higher on her head to somewhat protect herself from the constant drizzle falling this morning, then adds "Who just happens to hate Mira, and wants him found".
Zam nods his head in agreement to that from Lis as he continues to watch the shop, which is a mix of a curio and chandlers business.
A shop here on the edge of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in the city, which though seems to be a legitimate business.
Is actually a front for stolen goods, expensive stolen goods too. Pretty much all funded by a member of the Mage Council, the mage Garmen Senior.
As his son, the mage Garmen Junior was killed by Mira Reinholt the mage in the recent border unrest in the winter time, up in the hill country of northern Vexil and southern Girdane.
"Think they'll expose him, and what he's doing?" quietly asks Zam the ex mercenary, followed by "To the rest of the Mage Council, and the City Council as well?".
"Who knows?" is the quiet reply from Lis after she takes a quick look around the corner too, before she leans back up against the building they're next to, here at the mouth of the alleyway.
"Knowing that lot" continues the scout Maera referring to Lord Farque and the others, specifically the members of his personal council.
"They'll probably take whatever it is that the mage Garmen is making from this front" adds the attractive young woman who is an officer in the Armies of Farque.
"Sounds like something they'd do" murmurs the youngest member of the group who is originally from The City Of Ruins.
Who falls silent as through the drizzle he spots a couple of men, each carrying a wooden crate on a shoulder.
Approach the shop from the other end of the street, a street that's fairly empty this morning due to the constant drizzle.
The ex mercenary watches them enter the shop, as he does, he quietly describes them in elvish to the scout Maera who is behind him.
It's not too long before they come out of the shop, neither one of them with the wooden crate they had when they entered the curio and chandlers business.
After Zam informs Lis of this, they both look directly opposite the alleyway they're in, and up to the rooftop on the other side of the street from them.
The youngest member of the group nods, and he along with the scout leader in the Armies of Farque, spot movement up there through the constant drizzle that's falling this morning.
Dalinvardèl Tanith the elven spy is on the move across the rooftops on that side of the street, heading after the pair who have just been to the shop that they're observing this morning.
"You know Helbe has got one of his viewing spells around here, watching that shop and everyone who goes in it" quietly says the attractive young woman originally from the coastal city-state of Brattonbury.
"Where it is" adds Lis, who continues on from that with "Is anyone's guess" she follows that in a dry tone with "He's probably back at the inn, with his feet up drinking a pint of ale, watching all this, while we're out in this half arsed rain that's falling this morning".
"Probably" wryly says the teenager who before joining the group scratched out a meager living as a mercenary in The City Of Ruins.
"No I'm not" quietly says Helbe the elven thief from behind Lisell Maera and Zam, causing the two of them to flinch in fright at the sudden appearance of the elven masterthief.
"Hell" mutters the scout Maera, who then nods her head, when the young elven noble from the island principality of Laerel, quietly tells her and Zam "You two go to the spot around back, to see if anything is taken from the shop, or turns up from back there, to take what's just been dropped off".
The highly talented elven practitioner of magic then tells them that Beldane the cleric, along with Lord Farque and Dorc da Orc.
Are now up in the building directly opposite the curio and chandlers business, watching it from a third floor room there.
He then says to the attractive young woman originally from the city-state of Brattonbury, and the ex mercenary from The City Of Ruins "I'll just go in and see what's happening".
The elven master assassin who is a member of the royal family that rules the island principality of Laerel, and is a member of Lord Farque's personal council, the undead warlord's envoy to be exact. Suddenly disappears as he blurs himself, then shifts away to the shop that's under observation from various members of the group.
Zam and Lis exit the alleyway they've been in, and cross the quiet street to another alleyway, which they hurry through.
Once at the other end, the youngest member of the group leads the way around the corner to the left.
They're in a lane, and the ex mercenary who is expected to attain the rank of blade master sometime in the upcoming summer.
Crosses the lane, with Lisell Maera following closely behind him. And after a man pushing a hand cart goes by in the other direction.
The two of them slip into an alley, from where they watch the rear of the curio and chandlers business they've been watching this drizzly spring morning in this part of the city of Vexil.
"Think something will come out of it?" quietly asks Zam the ex mercenary who is slightly relieved that one of the buildings on a side of the alley, has overhanging eaves. Offering a bit of shelter from the constant drizzle that's falling across the city of Vexil.
"Maybe" is the quiet reply from Lisell Maera the scout, who once again is leaning on the wall behind the youngest member of the group.
Though the two of them can easily see the rear of the shop that they've been observing since just after dawn this morning.
The attractive young woman who is an officer in the Scouts and Rangers division of the Armies of Farque, quietly says "Just hope this isn't a waste of our time this morning".
The teenager who hails from The City Of Ruins, who is agreement with that from the scout leader, is just about to say something else to the attractive young woman who was born and raised in the city of Brattonbury before she was found by the group at around eleven or twelve years old.
When suddenly the back door to the curio and chandlers business opens up, and a figure, holding a small sack, makes his way out of the back door and into the lane.
"Who's this then?" murmurs Lisell Maera, Zam the ex mercenary is wondering the exact same thing as the man disappears from sight as he heads down into a connecting lane.
"Should we follow him?" asks the teenager who hails from The City Of Ruins as he looks back at the scout Maera.
"That's your answer" says Lisell who nods to the back door of the shop they're watching, Zam looks that way, and sees Helbe the elven thief briefly standing in the open doorway.
"Get him" quietly says Lis after seeing the hand signal directed at them from the young elven noble who hails from the island principality of Laerel.
Zam takes off after Lisell Maera who heads off first, running around to the other lane, which she first enters, followed by the ex mercenary who is the youngest member of the group.
Who looks back and sees that the highly talented elven magic user has gone from the open back door of the shop.
Try not to kill him when you take him, kind of need him alive, is what both Zam and Lis here in their minds from Helbe the elven thief.
The person they're after briefly pauses as he hears the fast approaching scout leader in the Armies of Farque.
He goes to turn around to see who it is that's in the lane with him, when the scout Maera runs into him, tackling him to the ground.
When Zam gets there, he grabs the fellow, who is on the ground, groaning in pain. The ex mercenary lifts him up off the ground. While Lis is already standing, holding the small sack the fellow was carrying.
The attractive young woman takes the fellow by an arm, and with Zam holding him by the other. They haul him along the lane they're in, and move into an alleyway that runs off it. Just glad no one saw what they were doing.
"Who is he?" asks the ex mercenary in the elven language "No idea" is the reply from Lisell Maera in the same language.
"Name" says the scout officer in the Armies of Farque who has switched to the common language as she pushes the fellow back against the wall to their left.
The man, in his mid twenties, groans as he tries to bend over at the waist, but Zam and Lis keep him upright.
"I said name" quietly says the scout Maera in a threatening tone, who figures she probably broke some of the fellow's ribs when she tackled him.
"Gasper" is the reply from the fellow after he winces in pain when he takes a deep breath to try and calm down.
"Hold him tight" says Lis in elvish to the youngest member of the group, who nods yes in reply to her.
The scout officer in the Armies of Farque opens up the small sack Gasper was carrying, and she lifts an eyebrow in surprise at what it contains.
And before Zam can ask her what it is, Helbe the elven thief suddenly appears beside them, and says in elvish "I'll take him" as he takes the fellow by the arm.
"And I'll take that too" adds the elven masterthief who takes the small sack off the attractive young woman who hails from the city-state of Brattonbury.
"Go back to watching that shop" continues the young elven noble from the island principality of Laerel, who along with the man named Gasper, disappears.
Zam the ex mercenary and Lisell Maera the scout share a look, then after the teenager who is originally from The City Of Ruins shrugs his shoulders.
The two of them turn and make their way out of the alleyway, and head through the lanes back to the spot they were watching the back of the curio and chandlers shop backdoor.
As they do, Zam quietly asks the scout Maera in the elven language "So what was in that sack?". "You're not going to believe it" is the quiet reply from Lis in the same language. Who as they walk through the drizzle this spring morning, tells the ex mercenary what it was, that the fellow named Gasper had in the sack that he was carrying . . . . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment