Playful Mischief

In spite of the darkness, Kalena could not but help notice that Kline was practically ogling her. He was not being the least bit discreet about it either, and she smiled at how he must have thought the dim light made his admiration not so obvious. Not that she minded of course – the moony attention from an attractive man certainly flattered her vanities, and the former career she pursued had made her quite vain about her looks and grace; they were definite assets for a contract killer. As the two conversed, she started to oh so casually cock the hip out a bit more that she had her hand on, but just then a wave of sparkling light appeared overhead.

Kalena looked up to see a number of fey had flown out of the woods and were now gathering in the air around them, illuminating the wagons and the road. She immediately tried to protect her eyes, not wanting to lose her night vision from the glare of the magical, lambent lights radiating from each individual faerie. What were they doing? Were they just satisfying their stupid curiosity or were they up to some playful mischief? Oh how she loathed the impish little creatures that were such a bane to human travellers. Though loyal as she was to Queen Thalia, Kalena could understand Asgurt's desire to cleanse the rascally vermin from his kingdom.

“You mean who wants all this wine sold?” Kline continued speaking, looking at the casks, and when he said the word 'wine' there seemed to be a flutter go through the fey lights. “It would be Baron Lowson. He is a new noble and this is the first shipment he is trying to sell at the Capitol. I have pretty much worked for him for all my life, so… here I am. That lot is here because they owe me a favor, not for the Baron,” he said, with a grin.

“Lowson?” Kalena said, frowning. It was a peculiar name for a noble. “I can't say as I've heard of him. I'm only acquainted with the city gentry for the most part. Is he a good man, this Baron of yours?”

She squinted her eyes under the radiance of the faeries. Were they after the wine? She was trying not to look directly up at them and risk blinding herself. She did not have any of her throwing daggers, but if worse came to worse she might be able to down them with some stones, which, thanks to her training, she was quite adept at throwing too.

Kline suddenly, and very bizarrely, broke into verse:

“We have traveled along this road,
These are the first bandits we have seen,
Most highwaymen rob when they have no
Gold.

It is strange and odd, so it seems,
Other nobles want the land of Lowson,
I would not put it past this to be a.
Scheme.”

“Why Captain. You're a poet and didn't even know it!” Kalena gave an amused laugh at his spontaneous attempt at bardship. Had he been into the wine? “Not bad, not bad at all, but I wouldn't quit my day job just yet if I were you.” She smiled and then nodded at the actual content of his words. “I see now why you were so suspicious about the motives behind the bandits. You could certainly be right about a scheme. A bandit attack of that size so deep in Dalen is not unheard of, but it is rather rare. They might well have been hired by one of the Baron's enemies, especially given the amount of coin they had in their possession. In the royal quarter where I live there is court rivalries and intrigue, and I doubt it's so different among the nobles that live beyond the capital. So far from the Queen's eye, the scheming and backstabbing might even be much worse.”

Kalena noticed some of the purplish light from the faeries was beginning to fade in brightness and hoped that they were about to take their leave; if so, she sought to encourage them. “Go on, get out of here, shooo!” she called out, swiping her sabre through the air threateningly, the deadly blade making whooshing sounds, but moving too low to hit any of them.