Rendezvous

[Dianelopa]

"Oh," said Dianelopa. "Well, then we go in there. It's not so nice there. It smells bad."
She didn't mean to insult the place, she just needed to say something to keep herself calm, to be sure she'd be able to face the creature without fainting again.
Anja was there, the same heap of gray hair and spindle legs as before. Dianelopa thought she looked a bit pitiful, not dangerous, as she'd thought the first time. The jade cat did not get warm.
"Hello Anja," she said coolly, forcing herself to look at the eye. "I am sorry I was so impolite before. I had a very bad flash back and now I know what it was and I can deal with it." But the red bloody eye was making Dianelopa feel queasy again and she felt herself wavering. She planted her two feet staunchly on the floor like a soldier coming to attention, blinked once and kept her gaze fixed on Anja. She cleared her throat and her voice came out loud and clear, "What do you want from me?"

[Anja]

Following the girl's question, Anja spent a great deal of time simply staring at Dianelopa, holding her eye. Having lived three centuries, patience was more a given than a virtue. As she studied this young recruit, her mind fluttered through the possibilities. She thought back to Mr. Rivey, the psychotic young nobleman with a penchant for seducing and then cutting up older married women. She had fashioned for him a vomitous set of tools with which the handsome and well-born sadist might enhance his ghastly routines, and he was one of her more favoured clients. They shared a certain evil mien.

She thought of the thief, Thad, who was, it would seem, a tad too friendly with the wolf-damsel that stood so proudly, yet so uncertainly before her. She thought of Rivey's latest victim, whose bloody death, wreathed within the bedsheets of her four poster prison, drove her cuckolded husband to the rope, and she thought of the mansion that now lay empty in the wake of its master's passing. She had taken care to lay out feeler webs in those sewer passages that connected to the mansion's kitchen systems, so that she might keep herself assured of the building's continued vacancy, or the eventual lack thereof. Relatives, or barring any other close associates, Marnian authorities, would eventually move in and take responsibility for the doling out of material effects. Until that time, and until the bodies were discovered, the place was open to any thief that might decide to wander in. And a thief making a score is wise to be grateful to his sources...

Finally, she spoke, in the Greatweaver tongue, smacking her lips, clacking her tongue, and gurgling up a writhing mass of sticky consonants. Puck translated.

"Anja wishes for you to bring Thad into the Parlour room. We have some information for which he might be grateful."

[Dianelopa]

"yes, ma'am", said Dianelopa surprised. "I thought you all didn't trust him." She turned about to leave, but then stopped and looked at Anja again. "You aren't going to hurt him are you?"
As there was no response from Anja Dianelopa turned again and headed for the door. She was glad enough simply to get out of that room.
She said a curt good-bye to Puck, scurried through the parlour and went outside.
The sudden burst of sunlight almost blinded her after having been in that dark place for so long. She took a deep breathe of the fresh air and was already feeling better. Now to find Thad she thought. I wonder where he is. Even though she had a strange feeling about the project, the prospect of seeing Thad again made her shiver with excitement.

The sun was high in the sky. That meant he wouldn't be down at the river looking for boats to rob. He did that in the evening and at night. During the day he'd probably be in town, maybe even sleeping if he'd been out the night before. It had been a while since Dianelopa had last seen him at all. She'd been too busy and hadn't gone out much except to do errands for Puck or Benjamin. And none of those errands had ever brought her into the crowded, dirty, and poor streets of Thad's part of town. But she went there now.
There were three pubs Thad tended to hang out at. All of them were raucaus and a young girl going in them alone could not be expected to be treated lady like. But she had been there before and people knew she was under Thads protection. Unless, of course, she wasnt.

[Anja]

As luck would have it, Dianelopa had guessed right with the first one, and Thad laid mark to her arrival almost immediately her foot had crossed the threshold. 'Twas truly a dive for the rotten-hearted and the destitute, and, truth be told, Dianelopa was the only creature in the whole bar worth looking at for Thad. He was the virile sort, and had been through most of the wenches that frequented the Belligerent Sod, or at least caught word from those who had gone through them. He had never thought much of them, probably because they had let themselves be hooked in such a disgustingly simple and passive manner. One didn't have to be a man at all in order to conquer them. But Dianelopa... she's different.

He held his ale up, and tilted his head ever so slightly at her when she caught his eye. A grin formed at the corner of his lips, one that probably looked wily and murderous, but the truth was that it held a modicum of true happiness at the sight of a lass for whom he had begun to foster a degree of respect. Yes, Thad might even go so far as to say that he was growing fond of her.

[Dianelopa]

Dianelopa spotted Thad at once and her heart beat a few extra thumps. Whatever misgivings she may have had seemed to melt away when she saw his grin. Others may have thought it was an ambiguous kind of grin, but Dianelopa didn't. She hurried over to him. "I have to talk to you," she said. "Let's go outside."

This was no problem for Thad. Going outside with Dianelopa was by far preferable to sitting in that dump, listening to idle chatter and drinking an ale of poor quality.

With Thad at her side, Dianelopa automatically began heading in the direction of the sewers. The streets were crowded and everyone seemed to be going about their own business, but Dianelopa didn't want to take a chance that someone would hear, so she just walked quickly without saying anything.

"What's the matter?" Thad asked. "Why don't you tell me what you want to tell me?"

"It's private," said Dianelopa. "There are so many people here."

"Well, this is the city," said Thad. "What do you expect. And no one listening."

"Make sure of that," said Dianelopa. "Is anyone following us?"

[Anja]

Thad cast his artful stare over their surroundings, and attuned his ears to the muffled recesses of Marn's wary evening ambiance. "Nay, miss, we are in solitude."

The thief was most curious to know what it was that the girl had on her mind. He knew that she had been working for a shadowy operation that held to Marn's sewers, but little more. He assumed that this was something to do with said operation, and he licked his lips. I might just get me a piece of the pie here... But his natural greed did nothing to blind him to his healthy distrust of shadowy operations, no matter how pretty and fair their employees might be, and Thad wouldn't set one foot in those sewers before he got some sort of reassurance of good faith.

[Dianelopa]

"You know the place," Dianelopa said. "There by the sewers where you watch the boats. That's where we're going. To the sewers. They want to tell you something, but I don't know what it is. My job is to bring you."

Thad grunted. A sound that clearly expressed dissatisfaction and Dianelopa was fully aware of it.

"I've known them a long time," she said. "They've never done anything to hurt me. They just want me to do my job and keep my mouth shut. I trust them. But.." she stopped and turned to Thad to study what the look on his face would tell. He was frowning and he was definitely going slower than she wanted to go. She took his hand the way a mother with a slightly recalcitrant child does. "I do not believe they want to do anything to harm you, but don't worry about it. I am here and I will protect you."
At that Thad burst into laughter.
Now it was Dianelopa's turn to feel dissatisfaction. "You don't believe me," she said. "But you ought to."

[Anja]

Thad wasn't exactly a chauvinist, but he did carry a degree of stubborn male pride about him. It was more an ancillary precaution than anything. Being a softie for the fairer sex would probably get him killed, in his line of work. "I don't need the protection of a lass. I just like to know what I'm getting into."

He let his hand fall from her grasp, and quickened his pace until they neared the sluice grate leading from the shallows of the Ofriyu Mar and into the lightless world of the Greatweaver Anja. Looking dubiously at the grate, he nodded at it. "In there eh? Ladies first, I say."

[Dianelopa]

The grate opened when Dianelopa pulled it. A mild but not very pleasant smell emanated from the opening. "Come on," Dianelopa said. "Just follow me. It's going to be fine. You'll see."
She walked into the parlour with Thad a few steps behind. "We're here," she announced.

[Anja]

A wizened elven nose was slowly revealed, from its bridge to its nostrils, as Puck lowered his book to appraise the Parlour's guests. It was with a reluctant hand that he set the book aside and adjusted his robes in order to accommodate a more upright posture. He had barely reached the chapter's halfway mark ere Dianelopa's successful and impressively fleet return demanded his attention. Very well. The effects of Lord Grumyre's unfortunate poisoning will have to be perused at a more opportune time. Lord Grumyre was, of course, a fictional character. Puck's love of adventure stories was nigh insatiable.

Looking at Thad and Dianelopa, he waved a hand across the table, indicating that they should seat themselves. "Thank you for being so quick, Dianelopa. You may sit with us if you wish. Good evening, Thad. My name is Puck."

[Dianelopa]

Thad nodded, but before he could say anything Dianelopa broke in, "This is my friend Thad. We are here to find out what our task is."
"Yes sir," said Thad looking nervously around the room. "Odd place," he said. "Always kind a wondered 'bout it."

[Morry]

This town was tamer than the one he knew. The one he'd grown up in, Zhaltev, had been like a prison to him. His inability to control his shapeshifting had made things much more difficult for him since he was a small child. He was usually the one to receive the brunt of beatings because he was weaker than many of the others. The fact that he couldn't even take a fully wolf form was simply an insult to injury in that godforsaken town, and he was actually happy to have been kicked out of the place. This new city was an equally dark place, however. Often when he took to begging on the streets, most would pass him by without a second glance. Shifters, it seemed, were not looked upon with kindness here, despite the fact that Adamor often acted more human much of the time.

The hardest part about living in the streets was actually the shifting itself. Luckily, Marn had a nice section of woodland just beyond the city borders. It was a place he could shift, hunt, and act like the untamed werewolf he was for half of the nights of his life. Morry had very little control over his behavior as a half-wolf. When he was in town as a half-wolf, he was often curled in a corner of some dark alley to avoid conflict with anyone. Never, unless he was very drunk, would you catch Morry as a wolf in the city whilst he was hungry. Hunger often could drive him to prey on whatever was most available and easiest to catch. Often this prey was seen in the shape of a human or some other creature of Marn, and would likely have him ended. Morry's life was a balancing act that he was not very good at. He was a poor hunter, a failure in a sense, with more human characteristics than wolf much of the time. He was, in the perspective of the city-goers, nothing more than a bum who did nothing for society. He was a pick-pocket, a thief, and a very untrustworthy individual. He was self-centered and stupid, and, just to top everything, had a bit of a rage problem.

Tonight was an easy night. Tonight wasn't a night where he had to boot himself off to the woods to transform against his will. Tonight was a night that he had noticed an abandoned building that had not seemed to hold any signs of life for many a night. Adamor was not entirely sure if nobody was living there, but the place looked easy enough to loot anyway. Morry was an opportunist; he was always looking for a place to grab some supplies from, and he was beginning to get low in the food and clothing departments.

So, in the cover of night he had made his way into the building and had fallen asleep on the floor on an expensive rug throughout the day for no reason other than having extremely low energy. Oh, Morry. Will there ever be hope for you?

Indeed, his looting excursion had become a slumber party. How quaint.

[Anja]

"Odd place," he said. "Always kind a wondered 'bout it."

Puck spoke dryly, but not impertinently so. "Yes, so we've noticed. But the place we've got in mind for you will be far more profitable for you than such musings. And probably less dangerous..."

His eye rested covertly on his novel as he leaned forward and drew out a sheaf of parchment from the witchwood coffee table's inlaid drawers. Bringing his gaze back up to their guest, he tossed the parchment across the table. "A rough sketch of the Venreace manor, whose inhabitants, both respected bastions of Marn's antisocial elite, have regrettably given up the ghost, and as chance would have it, are not expected to make any public appearances for quite some time. Their passing is, therefore, a secret known only to the manor's walls, and those who breathe within them. My superiors have the latter in their employ. What this means is that we are, in effect, handing you an exclusive, very nearly risk-free pilfering."

Puck folded his hands in his lap, and waited for Thad to say something. There was no point in spilling conditions and quid pro quos until the cat was somewhat in the bag.

[Dianelopa]

"Me-o-my" said Thad. "That ernt what I expected. You want me to do some thieving? Loot for you or me? But I don't know. Why are you wanting me to do this? It's a trick maybe? You'll send the guards over to nab me?" He tried to stare through the imperturbable Puck to discern what his intentions were, but Puck's face told him nothing. So he turned his attention to Dianelopa to see if there was some kind of collusion. Her face was easier to read. She looked as if she'd just heard some kind of weird fable. "Guess you weren't specting this," he mumbled to her. "So you better figure out what you think about this. Is this elfy guy making a trap for us here?"

"I, I don't think so," Dianelopa stuttered. "I would say, why would they want to put the guards on us. I would say why.

"Yeah why?" said Thad somewhat mockingly. But the thought of an empty burgher house filled with the leavings of a spent fortune, or maybe even the fortune itself, was arrousing his greed and making his hands itch to get hold of whatever glittering objects he could find. It sounded very lucrative, if it was true. He took Puck's drawing of the house and studied it. "So your coworkers made the map and don't take the loot?" he said to Puck. "This place IS odd. Still, I might take a look," he added tentatively, 'but tell me why you tell me about this."

[Anja]

Puck smiled. Not as dumb as he looks. Reassuring. "The late Mr. Venreace had, among other officious tasks of pomp and circumstance, the duty of granting, (or not granting,) his seal of approval to the goings-on of the local morgue. All documents authorizing the removal of something from this highly guarded public holding require his seal of sanction. This seal you will find somewhere in the mansion. Its safe deliverance into our hands will meet with our direct and profitable gratitude, in the form of further information that a young, upwardly mobile character like yourself would consider to be of remarkable value. We know everything, Thad."

He leaned forward and plucked up a white chocolate glazed dragonfly from the bowl on the table. As it crunched and crumbled between his teeth, he studied both Thad and Dianelopa, taking in their reactions with a nonchalance that was not betrayed by the careful thoughts brewing in his mind.