They say it's a small world

[Vega]

11th Ymiden, 717

They'd gone into Rharne itself, with the aim of looking around and doing a spot of shopping. Vega had been quite happy, she'd spent what she considered to be a ridiculous amount of money on a dress, but it was a nice one and she was pleased with it. It didn't even occur to Vega that the amount she'd spent on the dress was miniscule compared to the amount she was going to spend on the horse and all the equipment needed with it.

The difference was that the dress was just pretty, whereas the horse was useful. They'd done some looking around and had chosen one, but were going to go back and get it later, on their way out of the city and back to their camp. The truth was that she had no idea about horses other than the fact that she liked them. Still, Arlo had helped her and steered her away from her first choice. That horse had been given a free spirit, she'd whispered to her friend. She hadn't liked the answer she got particularly but she listened and she'd ended up with a good deal. Or so Arlo had told her and she had little choice but to believe him, really.

Still, once all that had been sorted, they'd agreed that they were going to explore a bit. It was exploring for her and re acquainting himself for him. He'd grown up around here, after all. Vega hadn't mentioned going to see his mother again, that was up to him and she wouldn't push.

Yet.

So pleased had she been with his help in choosing the horse, who she was going to name 'Storm', she told him, Vega had offered to buy them both lunch. "There was a place in the Earth quarter when we got here. The Butchers' Block. We can go eat an' if yer very good, I'll buy you a drink to say thanks."

All in all, she'd been in a good mood. Which of course, was doomed.

It had just caught her eye, the notice and Vega had frowned as a word jumped out. "Why're they talkin' about Desnind?" She turned and stomped over to the board. "Look at this, Arlo." Vega's eyes had turned an immediate and solid red as she read the bounty notice.

Turning to her companion who was still (just) shorter than her but growing less so each day, Vega had a look which spoke of trouble for someone. "My aunt's friend went missin', she told me. Not long before I got there. In Cylus. I'm gonna check this out, you want to help?"

Off Topic

1 x orange cotton dress with lace trim = 17gn 5sn (5gn x 3.5)
80 x arrows = 2gn
Horse (trained) = 100gn
Saddle = 25gn
Bit, Halter, Bridle, Leather Reins & Blanket = 43gn

TOTAL: 170gn 5sn deducted from ledger

[Arlo Creede]

Standing around in dress shops wasn't exactly Arlo's cup of tea. He'd been game for going along her, but he'd lasted all of three bits inside the shop before he'd stepped outside and left Vega to it. All of those women smiling at him knowingly, as if he and Vega were together. Or as if they were a spare whim away from pinching his cheeks.

He'd thought she'd never come out though, and began to wonder what women actually did behind those changing curtains that took so long. Their next destination was much more interesting though. She wanted a good horse, and Arlo wanted to make sure that she got one. Which led to him having to convince her that a refined and spirited animal was nice to look at from a distance as it ran free through an open field. But the view from the saddle wouldn't be nearly as pretty as it bolted and meant to swipe her off under the nearest low slung branch.

Even Peg wasn't immune to whims like that though he'd never admit it. It wasn't that long ago though since he'd run loose through the streets of Rharne, and found plenty of trouble to get into. Each time he'd accompanied his mother or stepmother to market, he'd managed to slip away on his own and do as he pleased. He remembered many of the shops and landmarks they passed, and he'd always liked how the streets, some of them, were as much sets of stairs as through ways.

"You'd best hope that your horse doesn't live up to its name," he teased her as they went. "Some folks say an animal like that will." He'd definitely let her treat him to a meal however. Growing taller and filling out was hungry work after all and at times getting his fill was like having a hollow leg. But before they got there a notice had caught her eye.

Arlo doubled back and joined her, having a look at the thing himself. It was a bounty. And Desnind? "If it was recently or a season ago, then I guess we might know the person whether it was your aunt's friend or not," he figured. Even if they didn't know the name, the face might turn out to be a familiar one. There hadn't been that many in Desnind after all. She was going to check it out though regardless, and he saw no reason not to go along. "Maybe we should talk to the Lightening Knights?" he suggested. "See what they know already and what they can tell us?"

[Vega]

Vega had been more than impressed with Arlo lasting the few bits he did in the dress shop. It had been her intention to spend little more than that in it herself, but by Xiur's light, those women were like no one Vega had ever met. They chatted, they gossiped, they asked a lot of questions about Arlo. In the end, she'd made up an outrageous story about how he'd kidnapped her from a convent where she'd been learning to be a priestess in an order of silent service. Then followed tales of adventure and high jinx on the land and sea, ironically, all of which were true. Finally, she exaplained they'd come to Rharne because he was meeting the woman he'd been in an arranged marriage with since he was two and a half.

She didn't think they'd believed her, but she'd enjoyed telling it and it stopped them asking questions. So, she'd caught up with Arlo, new dress in a bag and quite pleased with herself. He wasn't going to back into that shop, she was sure, so it probably didn't matter that she'd made all that stuff up. Besides, he was the follower of the greatest storyteller of them all so why should she think he'd care. It had been, therefore, an amiable walk to the stables and she'd been good humoured when he'd steered her away from the one she'd liked.

The notice, though, that turned her mood right around and Vega frowned as she looked at the notice. "Alright. Food first, then the Knights." Looking at him she grinned. "You're hungry. I can tell, cos you're awake." So, off it was to the Butchers' Block

Vega ordered herself a Lamb Rack and a mug of beer, and whatever he wanted. "So, the women in the dress shop were soft on you. Till I told them what you're like, of course." Her eyes were a bright blue as she spoke to him and grew moreso as she pointed out. "So, I've tried not to ask, but I can't quite stop myself." Not realising quite what a non-sequitur she was making, Vega continued "When are you gonna go see your mother? I don't think I should come with you, she might think the same as that lot in the shop thought an' then she'll be broken hearted that I'm not gonna be her daughter in law."

Pure mischief crossed Vega's expression for a moment but then she decided not to suggest that, it probably wasn't fair or nice. Instead, she looked at him and grinned, then lapsed into silence for a few moments. After their drinks and meals had arrived, Vega sniffed her rye bread, pulled a face, then put it on Arlo's plate. "So, we eat this, drink this, go see the knights and find out what we can, aye? I reckon it's her you know. I mean, how many people can of gone missin' from Desnind in Cylus? It's pitch dark and all the nonny-nonny in the world ain't gonna stop folks from talking about lots of people going missing."

Thinking about Desnind made her smile though, "I wonder how Asari is. That woman had the best fingernails I've ever seen. I wonder about Ti'niva, too, I miss him. He was dead serious, mind. Like, wow. He was kind to me though, when I first got there an' he found my aunt and everything." Her thoughts turned back to the cave system and the little girl they'd saved. Asari had been there and Vega could have happily kicked her from one end of Desnind to the other, in fairness.

"Might be a chance for me to show off my Xanthean, too. Oh yes indeed." Half finished, she pushed her plate away. "You're gonna get fat, you are."

Off Topic

2gn for food and drinks. Deducted

[Arlo Creede]

Food first, then the knights, she said and Arlo agreed. It had been several breaks since he'd last eaten and because of it he was ravenous. If they were going to be looking into that bounty, who knew how long it might be before he got another opportunity to eat?

"It's been awhile," he argued when Vega teased him about it. Just a quick look at the menu once they sat down and he ordered the steak medium rare and a mug of beer. "Yeah?" he asked while they were waiting for their food and she mentioned the women back at the shop. "Which ones? They all looked pretty long in the tooth to me." Didn't matter he guessed, he wasn't looking. Or if he had been, he hadn't seen anyone there besides Vega that he figured was the nearer side of thirty rather than the farther.

He'd go see his mother, maybe next trial or the next, he figured. "It's shearing season," he said once the waitress had brought them their food, he'd thanked her and dug right in. "My stepfather will say I've timed it just right, to lend him a hand." He hated sheering season, didn't like the smell of the sheep and all that wailing and bleating. "They'd like you, if you decided you wanted to come along."

When she handed him the rye bread, he took it, but picked up one of his honey rolls and handed it back. "You might like this one better," he said. "They didn't seem to have much scrap, did they?" The Sev'ryn, he meant. He'd liked them. They'd been welcoming and friendly. But if they'd learned anything from their time searching for the young girl, if their guide had been much of an example to go by, they didn't put up much of a fight.

The mention of Asari though brought a frown to his face while he finished off his stake. "I knew her before then. She got herself into trouble at the festival for criticizing the locals and their ways. But I think they didn't like her on principle." A matter of race, he meant. "The woman who came to put her to rights wasn't exactly nonny nonny about it either," he added, bending to a one time exception by using one of Vega's favored quips.

"I won't get fat, I'll only get taller," he argued when they were done and had left the Butcher's Block. So it appeared to Arlo that maybe the best place to start their search was in the Sky Quarter of the city. "It's where the Lightening Knights live, the Lightening Cathedral is there and so is their command center." They were still in the Earth Quarter and would need to do some walking to get there.

Once they reached the sky quarter though, the streets were quieter, less populated, and definitely tidier. And he guessed that maybe the command center was the place to go first. "You know her name? Your aunt's friend, I mean," Arlo asked Vega. If she did, or knew anything about her or the circumstances surrounding her disappearance, then maybe it was better that she do the asking.

[Vega]

"All of them. Like clucking hens they were. Gross." She nodded at his assessment, though, they were all long in the tooth. "Gracie, the one with black hair? Her daughter's just twenty and Gracie thinks you and her would be a lovely match, you know." Vega rolled her eyes and then grinned at him. "Here's to Gracie's daughter, eh? Cheers." Clunking her mug against his, Vega gave a crooked grin.

Thoughts of visiting his family farm, though, led to her leaning forward with a fascinated glint in her blue eyes. "Shearing season? Like sheep?" That sounded intriguing to the young mixed blood woman, but then he said that, should she come they'd like her and Vega sat back quick smart and shook her head. "That's what scares me, thanks. U'frek forbid that any young man's parents ever meet me, much less like me." That, Vega explained, was a very slippery slope. "Next thing, I'll give a stuff what my hair's doin' an' I'll feel the need to not swear or something. No, no, we're all good."

His assessment of the Sev'ryn, though, provoked a laugh from Vega which was deep and honest. "Yeah, not so much no. Like, teddy bears." His frown about Asari caused an expression of curiosity to cross Vega's face and she looked at him with interest. Unlike usual, where she'd tease or bite at him, Vega listened and a matching frown crossed her face. "Seems to me," she spoke more seriously than she usually did, but then it was an important point. "If I wandered round Desnind in high heels and painted nails, I'd expect people to be less than impressed. She relished in looking different, in being different, and then she got a martyr complex when people called her on it." Vega shrugged, her opinion on it was what it was, "but then I wasn't there with you, so I'm probably basing it on her poncing around in heels whilst gardening and dressing like an idiot when she knew better."

With a slight grin, Vega considered that it was probably a good thing she wasn't basing it on her own forgiving nature. Still, the Lightening Cathedral sounded like a good place to start and she nodded when he reassured her that he wasn't going to get fat, just taller. Whilst that might happen for a while, soon after it would tip she thought, but then she decided against saying anything.

"Shi'ran. That was her name." Vega had needed to think about it for a few moments but, once they got there and offered help the Knights were initially unsure, until Vega used that name, then the two of them were taken into a small room. Yes, it was the Sev'ryn woman Shi'ran who had been enslaved, it seemed. They were given a name, Eleanor De'liandros. Apparently, this was the woman who had kidnapped Shi'ran and had then enslaved her here in the glass quarter. They had searched the house of Eleanor De'liandros, so were happy for Arlo and Vega to do the same, should they wish to.

The Lightening Knights were quick to point out that this was a potentially dangerous woman and that, whilst there was a reward out for her, they couldn't be held accountable... Vega stopped the man who was talking by the simple expedient of talking over her. "Yeah, we get it. We're expendable an' if we manage it by some miracle, you'll pay us. It's alright. Can we see the notes you've made?"

The knight looked at her, then glanced at Arlo with a raised eyebrow, but then shrugged and got their notes. Vega was more than happy for Arlo to look through those, although she couldn't deny that she hovered around behind him, reading over his shoulder. Once he'd read everything he could, she looked at him and the look on her face told a story that he would be more than familiar with. "Shall we start there, then?"

[Arlo Creede]

Arlo had obliged, but also frowned when they toasted to Gracie's daughter, who surely by twenty arcs must be considered some sort of spinster. Least in some circles. He remembered that when he was younger and still at home, how his mother and her gaggle of friends had gossiped about so and so's daughter who'd failed to find a match before her eighteenth birth trial. He never heard much, due to him making himself scarce soon as possible, lest one of them try to match him and the girl in question.

If she'd been looking and hadn't found a taker already, chances were she had a large wart on the end of her nose or maybe a laugh like a donkey, Arlo declared, but obliged the toast all the same. It was pretty decent beer after all. "Like sheep," he'd confirmed when she asked about shearing. "And lambing season too." He didn't care for that either truth told, when some of the ewes had trouble and he'd been expected to help.

"I wasn't implying they'd try to make a match," he told her. "I only meant they'd like you, and maybe put you to work while you're around. Maybe my mother will be happy knowing you're around to pull me out of the ditches if I need it. Suit yourself though." Farms weren't for everyone after all, and though he'd grown up on one, they weren't for him either. But a visit would be nice. He did miss his mother and who knew when he might see her again.

"The woman that came and sat down with us," Arlo remembered of their time in Desnind, and Asari, "Didn't want her around. Wasn't shy about saying it either. All I'm saying," he added and shrugged. "And then warned me about who I associated myself with before it was done." Of course he'd only met Asari a quarter break before then, and had been forced to detach her from his arm just a few bits later. He hadn't needed to be told twice, or even once.

But then there they were, speaking to the Lightening Knights. As for the one who'd looked his way and raised an eyebrow, Arlo merely shrugged in return and smiled helplessly. He didn't tell Vega what to do or how to do it. He might have tried once and regretted it. Hardly likely anyone else could either. "We'll be alright," he told the man. "Won't be doing anything foolish." Which was relative, he guessed, considering that trouble at times seemed to stalk the two of them. At the least, they had no trouble finding it.

So, if this Eleanor De'liandros was on the run or hiding, it meant that her house was sitting empty. Arlo was all for looking, they might be able to find some clues to where she'd gone. And wherever that was, maybe they'd find the woman she'd enslaved. So that's where they'd start and after looking through the notes and thanking the knight for his help, they set off to look for the house. As a boy, Arlo hadn't spent much time in the Glass Quarter, but the house wasn't difficult to find.

And since it was empty, it was also unlocked. Stepping inside and taking his first look around, Arlo considered how they might go about it. "The way I figure, if she's smart enough to evade the authorities, she'd have taken some care to avoid leaving any clues behind as to where she's gone," he considered. It seemed even more likely, considering the authorities had already searched the place.

Still, there might be something. Everybody got careless once in a while. "Maybe though, if Shi'ran is clever enough, she might have left something behind in hopes of someone finding it. Like a trail to follow?" he suggested. Something that might have belonged to her in particular. A note, if she'd been especially bold about it. Or something more subtle. Those were the things he thought they might better focus on finding.

[Vega]

Vega glanced at Arlo as he spoke about his family farm, but said no more. The flecks of dark blue in her eyes stood in stark contrast to the pale lilac they currently were and she smiled and concentrated on her food before they set off to the guards.

Which led to them being here. Inside this house. "It's a bit well to do innit?" Vega said and looked around with wide eyes which by now had shifted to mostly orange. "I've never seen a house like this, Arlo. I mean, I haven't really been in a lot of houses, but look at this place. All this stuff." She put a hand out, almost touching a particularly beautiful ornament and then decided against it. "Bloody stupid, who needs all this?" She grinned and listened to his point.

It was a good one, in truth and she considered it from all angles that she could think of before answering. "Yeah. I mean, if I was her, Shi'ran I mean, I'd do that. Or actually, I'd pound Eleanor's face till she looked like a squashed tomato on a bread base. But, that's me. Alright, fair play, that's a good idea."

Considering it, Vega motioned around a little bit helplessly. "Where's the galley gonna be in here?" Vega had lived on a ship all her life and, since leaving that situation, she had spent precisely two nights not sleeping under the stars in a camp. House layouts were not really something she understood. "Or her bunk, maybe?" With a grin to Arlo she instructed, "lead the way, landlubber. It makes you an expert."

Once they'd got to the kitchen, Vega whistled. "It's big. Alright, I'll look this side, you that one? There's so much wasted space. Look." Standing in the middle of the room, she held her arms out side to side, stretching her fingertips. "Nope, I don't get it. We'd never waste so much space." Still, she moved to her side and started searching.

First, she let her eyes scan over the place, trying to see if there was anything which just looked out of place. When there wasn't, she went to each surface, lifting each thing on it and looking underneath it. Then, she emptied the cupboards one at a time; each one was emptied then restocked once she'd checked it. Kneeling on the ground with the cupboard door open, she spoke up. "I don't mean to be funny about your family, Arlo. I'd like to meet them."

She kept her focus on what she was doing, "I reckon I'd be dead good at shearin' sheep too. Bet you I'm a natural. I'm coming up with nothing here." She glanced over at him, one eyebrow raised. "What about you?"

[Arlo Creede]

"Fancy," Arlo agreed when they first walked into the house and took a look around them. The floors were polished wood but not the cheap stuff you found in most commoner's houses, and they were polished to a high shine with expensive carpets scattered here and there. "Me neither," he said.

He'd been in nicer houses than the one he'd grown up in. But not this nice. His family hadn't known the kind of people who could afford things like this, or would have bothered with all the expensive tchotchkes scattered all over the place. "The knights must've figured we were alright," he uttered, resisting the urge to touch something just for the sake of it. "and not worried we'd loot the place while we're here."

He grinned though when she predicted what she might do, was it her taken captive instead. "You'd make a terrible slave," Arlo agreed. "I figure the kitchen is probably at the back of the house," he added then and headed that way. "Ours at home is. Our neighbors too. Usually they've got a back door leading out in the garden." And it appeared that even the wealthy kept their kitchens in the back. Or at least that's where it turned out to be.

Arlo's impression of the kitchen's size was different than hers was. "It's not a ship," he said as she tested the width by spreading her arms. In fact the room appeared to have every convenience that someone who cooked would like to have, had they the nels to afford it. "Lot's of work space," he said. "If I was the type to stay put, I wouldn't mind a kitchen like this." They weren't here to admire the kitchen, though, or for him to imagine the things he could do with one like it.

He shrugged though when Vega mentioned her intentions regarding his family, and while he searched through a drawer beneath the stove. Just wood there, and not much of it. "I'm not bothered," he told her. "They are funny. Least my mother is. I'm never sure if she means to be or not. But she is. And it's itchy," he added when she considered whether or not she'd like shearing the sheep.

In the meantime he'd come up with a couple of things. After finding just a few remnants of wood beneath the stove, he'd come up with a knife handle with the blade broken off. It had been a cooking knife probably, maybe the typ to slice vegetables with. Showing it to Vega, he frowned. "That's strange isn't it? I mean the woman that owns the house has money, and could afford all the knives she wanted. Even if it was the slave who broke it, why keep the handle and not throw it away?" For that matter, if they were going to, then why not keep the blade too?

"There's this too," he said, and handed a small object to Vega. "I didn't see it on the floor before I opened the wood drawer, but it was there when I closed it. Must have fallen out or gotten dragged out from underneath." It was a small, tarnished metal token or coin of some sort that dangled from a faded loop of red yarn, like somebody might've worn it around their neck.

"You see there? There's some sort of picture, a symbol or maybe some words on their. Don't know it myself but does it have a sort of Sev'ryn look about it?" he asked. Whatever it was, definitely not the sort of thing someone with money and expensive tastes would wear, Arlo didn't think.

[Vega]

She'd make a terrible slave? Vega snorted and left it at that, but the implication was clear she believed. If that was true of her, well he suffered the same affliction and in droves. That houses had kitchens which led to a garden made sense, but why that had to be out the back didn't. Still, Vega didn't argue; the ways of those who lived on land was downright odd.

Once in the kitchen though, Arlo looked almost wistful at the kitchen and Vega gave a good natured laugh, accompanied by a (mostly) gentle thump on the shoulder. "You look like you've just seen a beautiful girl. You're such a weirdo, Arlo." She said it fondly, because she meant it that way. Which did nothing to change the truth of it.

He was a good sport about his family, which Vega was grateful for but she said nothing more on that. The knife handle, though, that was just plain weird. "Well, two things, I guess. Where's the blade, first off? Second, if I was a slave an' I had that, I'd think it might be a weapon of some kind. Or... yeah, that's Sev'ryn." Vega turned her gaze, looking down at the thing and ran her fingers over it almost reverently.

"It's a symbol of Moseke, an' it's a dedication to her. Life well lived, that's what it says. In, like, Xanthean." Vega frowned, a deep scowl on her brow. "This sucks, Arlo. Right. So lets get this draw out, see if she used the handle to scratch something. Cos look, where the blade snapped off, it's still sharp. You could, if you were careful, use it to make a mark or somethin?" It was a long shot, she thought but pulled the drawer out to look. There was no mark there, nothing that she could see.

There was something they were missing, here, Vega was sure of it. Then, she looked down at the handle itself and examined it more closely. On it, scratched into the snapped off blade were flecks of black. "Look, Arlo, it's like it's black paint?" She looked around the room and then nodded towards the coal bucket. Moving over to it, there was nothing that they could see, but then Vega frowned and shook her head. Standing, she lifted the bucket and emptied the coal into the cold fireplace. Then, she took the bucket and grabbed a rag, cleaning out the bucket. "Arlo. Look."

In the bottom of the bucket there was, indeed, a scratched message. The name Master Shavelle and an address.

"Canny. Think that's who she's bein' sold to?" Vega looked about as far from amused as it was possible to be. Either way, they were done for now and needed to go and report their findings.

[Pash Raj'oriq]

Thread Rewards

Vega

Skill Knowledge:
➳ Animal Husbandry: Horses have personality
➳ Animal Training: Less spirited animals are easier to train
➳ Detection: Spotting what's out of place
➳ Detection: Spotting wealth
➳ Investigation: Searching for clues in someone's home
➳ Investigation: Considering things which are out of place
➳ Investigation: Secret compartments
➳ Investigation: Trying to think where clues could be hidden
➳ Mount: Horse: Getting to know your horse is important

Other Knowledge:
N/A (nothing ventured, nothing gained)

Loot: Horse (trained), Saddle, Horse accouterments, arrows, and a nice orange dress. Oh, and some food, too. Checked on your ledger, thank you!
Injuries: N/A
Fame: N/A
Devotion: N/A

Points: 15
These points cannot be used for magic.

— ⟡ ⟡ ⟡ —

Arlo

Skill Knowledge:
➳ Animal Husbandry: Horses have personality
➳ Animal Training: Less spirited animals are easier to train
➳ Detection: Spotting what's out of place
➳ Detection: Spotting wealth
➳ Investigation: Searching for clues in someone's home
➳ Investigation: Considering things which are out of place
➳ Investigation: Secret compartments
➳ Investigation: Trying to think where clues could be hidden
➳ Mount: Horse: Getting to know your horse is important

Other Knowledge:
N/A (nothing ventured, nothing gained)


Loot: N/A
Injuries: N/A
Fame: N/A
Devotion: N/A

Points: 15
These points cannot be used for magic.

— ⟡ ⟡ ⟡ —

Comments:
Arlo leaving the dress shop—I laughed and that was only the second post! Thank you. Not together but oh so much trouble when around each other, Vega and Arlo are great reads as friends. Their dynamic is well-written and a lot of fun. Thank you.