The Breaking of the Calm

Jocelynn slid the coins back across the counter to Oruvand. "You expect me to rent you a room after the mess you have caused? You partner cuts my guard, and threatens to wreck my inn. I am going to tell you one more time. I do not have an elf staying here. Like I told her. You are free to freeze outside, but not in my inn."

Kalena saw the Madam's enforcer stepping toward Oruvand to forcibly show him out, and without hesitation she opened fire. There was a tinkle of glass as the arrow punched through the window and struck the hulking man in the gut, where it impaled him, the steel head jutting bloodily out of his lower back. She swiftly notched another arrow and sent this one speeding right at Jocelynn; it snagged her dress sleeve, violently jerking the Inn Keeper backward hard against the wall and pinning her arm at an odd angle above her head.

Kalena quickly kicked away the rest of the glass and frame of the shattered window and swung inside. Within seconds, she had another arrow in her bow and aimed in the direction of the unknown man and woman who had just entered. Using a longbow indoors was hardly ideal, but at point-blank range it would be very hard for her to miss, and the power of the weapon would also be quite devastating.

“This is a lawful raid,” she announced. “So please refrain from doing anything stupid that will get yourselves killed. We are seeking the elf that is wanted for the murders of least nine citizens of the realm. His hands, and the hands of those who have brazenly given him shelter, are stained with the blood of his victims. Now we know he is here, and any attempts to thwart his capture will be met with deadly force.”

Her bowstring held at the ready, Kalena advanced into the room with the litheness and power of a jungle predator, her eyes carefully scanning for potential threats.

“Stand aside, beefcake, and you too, wench,” she said harshly, shooting Simon and Katya a very dangerous look and gesturing them out of the way as she came up alongside Oruvand, a man who cut a far more formidable figure than she, and who still had his crossbow in hand and prepared to fire.