15 Vhalar 720 | Azrael Blackfire | Raelia, Abandoned Tavern
"This is the Three Sisters." The stranger had insisted over and over again. Each time he did, he irritated Azrael just a little bit more. It couldn't be! It was a dead end, just like everything else in Melrath had been. Build up, a journey, great expense, and in the end, nothing to show for it. Azrael had found the most success in Melrath by simply diving headfirst, literally and figuratively, into seemingly bad situations. Everyone told him not to go with the spirit in the river, and he did, and now he was in an abandoned tavern all by himself again.
"No, no, this can't be the Three Sisters, I was told that- I..." Azrael paused, trying not to give away the encounter with the spirits who had sent him on this journey. He couldn't tell a stranger. Not this one at the least.
"Well I don't know where you're getting your information from, but it was wrong. No one comes here this time of the arc." The stranger replied. They went back and forth for about a break before the stranger tried to usher Azrael out of the tavern. It was that little ushering that Azrael found strange. If the tavern was indeed abandoned, why could he not linger? Why did the stranger want him to leave? He left without putting up much of an argument but six trials later, on the 15th of Vhalar, Azrael found himself back in the tavern walking the empty floor in search of anything useful.
With the stranger nowhere in sight, Azrael stood behind the bar of the Three Sisters, kicking over a little trash on the floor. Trash. Strange. It wasn't strange that there was trash in an abandoned tavern, it had probably come from a squatter. Squatters... how was this building abandoned? That question had bothered Azrael for quite a while and been the main reason he returned to the tavern. He did not think in the big picture. He did not think about how he could use his allies, specifically the ones working for the government of Melrath, to find out more about the tavern. He only thought to explore it himself.
Well "himself."
Totrial was his trial to watch over Thorn and so he had brought the child-like ithecal with him to the abandoned tavern. Thorn seemed to have more than enough fun wandering around beside Azrael. He didn't ever wander very far from the treasure hunter. "See anything?" Azrael asked the child who looked at him and made a small pew noise. "Don't worry, I didn't see anything either." Azrael lamented to the child who began reaching up for the bar's countertop. Azrael nodded and lifted Thorn onto the counter as a cloaked figure darkened the doorway of the tavern.
"Azrael?" A familiar voice inquired in some surprise as the figure moved into the tavern and pulled his hood down from his head.
"Yanish?" Azrael responded, calling out the name of the stranger with the dagger. He recognized the cloak and the man from trials ago, but why had Yanish returned to this place? "What are you doing here?" Azrael beat the mysterious figure to the question he was most certainly making his way to. Thorn turned from where he was standing on the bar counter and watched Yanish with suspicious eyes.
"I use the tavern for work, I wasn't expecting anyone to be here." Yanish said, cleverly sidestepping the real reason he was in the tavern. Azrael noticed it. Work. What kind of work was Yanish using an abandoned tavern for? Probably something he didn't want someone to know about... which made Azrael want to know about it more. However Yanish was quick to shoot his question this time. "What about you? Why are you here? I thought you'd move on when you didn't find the sisters you were looking for."
"As did I, but I can't." Azrael admit to the mysterious man as he took Thorn down from the counter and set him on the floor. Thorn moved behind Azrael, not trusting the new man. "I made a promise and my word is binding in more ways than one. It's all very complicated but... I have to do this." If nothing else, he understood that he was bound to the pact he had made. Anyone who made a deal with him was bound to that deal but so was he.
"What were you hoping to find here?" Yanish asked as he moved a little closer to Azrael. They couldn't exactly pour each other a drink but there was a certain level of secrecy to meeting in an abandoned tavern. It made sense Yanish would want to use it for whatever business he was involved in. Yanish looked down at Thorn who was standing a little closer behind Azrael. "And why did you bring a kid?"
"Don't mind the kid, it was just my trial to take care of him." Azrael said, dismissing the little ithecal with a small wave before addressing Yanish's other question. "I'm not sure but this is the last lead I have. I have to be missing something, maybe forgetting something they told me..." The mortalborn seemed to trail off in thought a little but Yanish suddenly seemed intrigued.
"They? Who'd they?" Yanish probed and Azrael caught himself, realizing he probably shouldn't tell Yanish anything about the spirits. Azrael was ready with his cover because he'd practiced it before. Tell the truth, just not all of it.
"I'm a treasure hunter, I made a friend and they gave me a lead to follow but it was a little vague and I think I might be forgetting something important that they said." Azrael explained without revealing anything too personal. Yanish smiled, seemingly amused by this game of verbal cat and mouse. Yanish was up to something and it seemed to him that Azrael was as well. Yanish liked the game. He wanted to know more. Azrael on the other hand was not quite as perceptive. He did not think the man in front of him would be of any great use to him but it didn't hurt to be kind. "You said you had work here. What is it you do?"
"I work in trade." Yanish snapped quickly. His answer sounded more rehearsed than Azrael's had. Trade. Alright, but what did he trade? Yanish seemed to sense the next question coming and tried to get ahead of it. "The sort of trade that benefits from a lack of eyes and ears."
"Oh, that is my favorite type of trade!" Azrael said in a falsely optimistic tone. "You get all of the best items from it. Are you a peddler or a middle man?" If Azrael could buy the items directly from Yanish, that would have been simplest... but life was never simple and Yanish didn't strike Azrael as the type to really stick his neck out. Yanish seemed more... careful than that.
"I'm the broker. Money and items change hands through me." Yanish explained, each answer giving away a little more information than he wanted to give away. Azrael wasn't intentionally leading him with the questions, but he was curious and he did want to know more about this man who'd lead him to a dead end. Yanish seemed to stiffen a little at the sound of footsteps passing outside the tavern but Azrael did not notice them. "You oughta get out of here. I have work to do."
"I think I'll stay." Azrael countered as he moved over to one of the tables and plopped down in the chair. Thorn followed him but kept Azrael between himself and Yanish the whole time. "I've always wanted to watch an illegal trade happen." Azrael grinned mischievously and Yanish seemed to grow a little aggravated. Yanish crossed over and grabbed Azrael's left arm to pull him from the chair but the moment his hand gripped Azrael, the mortalborn's hidden blade popped out from beneath the vambrace on his right arm and Azrael brought it to Yanish's neck. "Hands off. You got lucky the first time. I wasn't paying attention. It won't happen again. You want me out, convince me to leave." Yanish scowled at Azrael and slowly let go of his arm.
"Fair enough." Yanish looked around the tavern for a few trills before he got an idea. "Leave now and I'll bring you on for my next job. You said you were a treasure hunter right? Well I've been in Melrath long enough to know there are no treasures here. I'll offer you decent work and if you're good, I'll hire you again- but you leave now, deal?" Azrael grinned and stood up, holding out a hand for Yanish to shake.
"Deal." And the pact was made.
