Fortune Favors the Bold

A JP by Nim and T

"Fair enough. Let's go now, my friend, before we get caught up in another misunderstanding."

They turned a corner, and V stopped a ways down, turned, arms crossed as he eyed the elf curiously.

"So...you must be Solandriel, right? Seems like quite an exciting afternoon for a potion seller, don't you think?"

"You have no idea," Solandriel grunted. "I have had greater fortune and misfortune today than perhaps any other. Speaking of which, to what do I owe your very-much-appreciated intervention?"

Now given a calm moment, V looked Solandriel up and down, taking in his full physique and image. Up close, he was not as flimsy as V had first thought. It wasn’t a warriors build, but this elf had known hardship, his scars said as much.

“Well, I’m in need of an enchanter, though I was told that you may not be all that skilled in such arcane arts. I wanted to know if perhaps you knew someone who might be of use, assuming you wouldn’t be.”

It was really a trivial thing, though V had only expected to track the elf down and ask him, street brawls and assasination attempts were a bit more than unexpected.

Solandriel sighed. "Your source was correct; I have very little experience with the arcane. My wife, on the other hand, is a certified rune crafter and an expert potion maker. She'd probably be able to help you, but alas…"

The elf launched into a rather bizarre tale in which he claimed he and his wife had been kidnapped by assassins who were forcing them to craft a certain type of poison, and that he had been sent out by his wife ostensibly to find the ingredients they needed, but in actuality he had been sent to find a legendary human assassin that they had met a century prior and which, by some miracle, he had been able to bump into in the alley they had just been in. After convincing the legendary assassin to rescue his wife, two of the kidnappers had attacked them, one of which was the woman that Solandriel had been accused of mauling.

"... All that to say, I really wish I could help you, but right now, I need to try to find Miss Kalena if I didn't get her killed so that I can have a chance of seeing my wife alive again," Solandriel concluded breathlessly.

V nodded, doing his best to follow along and take in all that the other elf had said, “Well, that is quite the excitement, indeed. So this… ‘Legendary Assassin’ you’re after, I take it she was that woman that stumbled off before I showed up. She seemed quite capable, hopefully she does pull through…”

V stood, hand on his chin, seemingly mulling over things in his head.

“Well, this seems like rather risky business, though you may be in luck, risky business happens to be my specialty.”

There was a sudden look of certainty in his eyes, he snapped and smiled, “It’s settled then, I’ll help you. And once your wife is saved from harm’s way, the fulfilment of my arcanic needs will be your payment.”

The swarthy elf spoke fast, not at all looking to renegotiate, and offered his hand to finalize the deal he had just fabricated. Solandriel stared at the extended hand and shrugged. "I'm sure Gerda will get angry about this, but sure, what the hell. It's not like I can get too much help right now," he mumbled," reaching out to shake on the deal.

V beamed, giving the elf a hearty and strongly spirited-shake.

“Ah! Nothing like starting a new op!”

With a fair bit less enthusiasm than V had mustered, Solandriel replied, "Right, well, first things first, we have to find Kalena. Last I saw, she was heading, umm, that way…"

Thus the two elves made their way back into the market searching for the mysterious badass that fairer elf had hired earlier, operating on little more than a brief sighting of the direction she had been running in. This could take a bit...