Bounty-ful

Aurelia once again smiled in a fashion that showed both charm and caution.

"Delicious."

In the mean time, Kestrel grabbed Thea's plate of veggies.

"If you're sure. Thanks. The plan is to take off and scout the area as soon as we have enough info, but we might have to wait for our source to find a few things out before we can take off."

"That is very good to hear," Ephraim said, taking another bite, "few places really appreciate what bleu means; it is good to find somewhere that does."

"Indeed," Aurelia nodded, "I'll have to remember to try it here in the future."

Everyone had barely finished eating when a young man, no older than about 15 came over.

"You're the folks looking to see Aki?"

"That would be us." Ephraim confirmed, "Is she here?"

"She's waitin' for you in a room upstairs," the youth said, scratching dirty blond hair, "If you wanna follow me, it's the first one on the right."

Kestrel got up immediately to follow the young man. Aurelia lingered for a moment, taking a cautious glance around the room before heading after them.

Thea skipped after them, still acting the part of a child.

Ephraim waited for Aurelia to begin to stand before doing the same. "This is going to be very interesting." He said quietly, so only she would hear.

Aurelia raised an eyebrow but was otherwise expressionless.

"Let's hope not," she said in a flat tone just as quiet as Ephraim's.

Unsurprisingly, the youth led them to the first room on the right at the top of the stairs. Though the room was sparsely furnished, the walls were thick and had traces of anti-listening spells that would be evident to those with mage-sight. There was a small window on the wall opposite the door, but the window was closed and bore the same traces of anti-listening spells. There was a worn table with a drawer and half a dozen old chairs arranged in a roughly circular fashion, with one chair sitting opposite them.

The youth cleared his throat.

"If you folks wanna have a seat, Aki'll be by shortly."

"Nothing wrong with interesting." Ephraim whispered, brushing past Aurelia to sit down.

"There is when I'm trying to keep someone safe," Aurelia said bluntly, sitting in a chair not far from Ephraim. Kestrel chose the chair closest to the table.

"Izzat ev'rybody?" the youth asked, still standing by the door.

Thea looked around the room, then sat near Aurelia and Ephraim. In response to the boy's question, she said,
"Yep! That's all!"

"Oh, don't worry, I have no intention of harming anybody, certainly not our captain." Ephraim whispered back to Aurelia, careful to make sure Thea didn't hear, "I am simply intrigued, that is all."

"I'll hold you to that," Aurelia replied, "With my blade, if need be. But you're not the only one I'm worried about."

The youth closed the door and turned the key in the lock. The anti-listening spells flared to life. He walked around the group to sit in the chair on the other side of the table, slinging himself across the chair to rest on the arms. He grabbed his messy blond hair and pulled; the wig came off easily, revealing spiky red hair cut in a much more feminine fashion.

"So, what is it you folks are looking for?"

"Now that would be interesting" Ephraim thought, before speaking to she who was (presumably) Akiralta, "Information, quite simply."

Akiralta raised both eyebrows, clearly unimpressed.

"Well, I'd think that much would be obvious."

Kestrel cleared her throat.

"It's a man we're after. Name of Ghom Warden. Took off with half a treasury, so we're after the bounty. We're hoping you'll find him for us for a share of the bounty, since we hear you work on spec."

Akiralta was silent for a minute.

"You've come at a bad time. I'm going to be tied up with something else over the next few days in town here, so I can't be gallivanting all over the mountains. Now..." she trailed off, looking thoughtful, "Maybe we can propose a trade of sorts. Your information gathering for my task in town here. No money involved."

Ephraim looked skeptically from Akiralta to Aurelia and Kestrel, "This should be good" he thought wryly.

Kestrel frowned.

"What sort of trade?"

Akiralta sighed, ruffling her hair absently. She took a moment to begin.

"There's a man in this town, Jaston Counter. He was an accountant for the Marid family up until a couple of weeks ago, when he suddenly grew a conscience, gathered up his things and a a few notes on the Marid businesses, and struck out for Litan. He'd be dead already if he hadn't been smart about it--he told them he was heading out to visit relatives and they only figured it out a couple of days ago. Long story short, I need the info he has, but he doesn't trust anybody. The Marids have sent an assassin, which helps me out if I play it right. If he knows I saved him from an assassin, he might trust me. Or, at least he'll trust whoever saves him. Looking at all of you, I just realized that it doesn't have to be me. If you get my drift."

"So, you get the relatively low-risk job of information gathering through your unknown contacts and special methods, while we take down a professional killer?" Ephraim asked, "I will admit, you certainly know how turn a situation to your advantage."

Akiralta shrugged.

"There's four of you, and he's only expecting to take out a bookkeeper. Meanwhile, you get my best work, and to encourage you to do yours, I'll throw in a freebie at some point in the future."

She looked from face to face.

"If you want a few minutes to talk it over, I'll leave you to it."

Akiralta placed the messy wig back on her head, adjusting it in a manner that seemed extremely well-practiced. She re-formed her expression into that of a dull youth again and ambled over to the door, exiting and closing it behind her. Aurelia got up and turned the key in the lock. She turned back to the others.

"Well. What do we have to say about that?"

"Sounds like fun to me!" Thea said, "I left home looking for adventure, so I'm good. Besides, we have a lot of talents that the assassin won't be expecting."
As she finished speaking, there was a bit of a glimmer in her eye, as she was excited about the prospect of finally getting an adventure.

Aurelia raised an eyebrow.

"Huh. And here I was, thinking that the whole thing sounded unnecessarily dangerous."

"Well, what are our options?" Ephraim asked, "it seems to me like it might be necessary danger if we want to get this guy."

Kestrel noded slowly.

"I agree. Our biggest problem will be taking out the assassin in a way that Counter will see without getting him killed. We'd have to bungle it pretty bad for the assassin to start going after us."

"Not necessarily," Ephraim said, "the killer was hired by the Marids. If they really don't want to take any chances, this could be far more dangerous than you'd think. If we do this, it probably won't be easy, she" he said, referring to Akiralta, "is probably downplaying the danger so we're more willing to agree. Worst case, we all die, she doesn't get her information, but at least she's still alive. Best case, she doesn't risk her own neck, and in return gets something potentially extremely valuable."

"But she was originally planning to do it on her own," Kestrel pointed out, "So it can't be too bad. Though I guess we don't have any idea what she's actually capable of. Since the Marids are sending the assassin, I bet it's one guy for discrete-ness who's just really well trained."