Why Would Anything Be Easy?

Ostiarium
JP with Bandorchu, Lucian, and Omni

The two once-upon-a-time mercenaries, now something either of them would likely have trouble to define, made their way to the illustrious Drunken Hare, this time on foot. Now on eye-level with their fellow countrymen, they could sense the people’s dread, but also their grim determination even more palpable.

Whatever else you might say about Helians… they certainly did not go down without a fight.

They had barely made it down the stairs of the tavern when Alexis was approached by the bartender and handed a note, accompanied by mumbles about ‘some blond bloke’ leaving it for her.

Alexis blinked, somewhat taken aback that the man apparently was pretty sure he had the right person at a glance, but true enough, she immediately recognised Voah’s handwriting.

She frowned as she read, tossing the bartender a coin and an appreciative nod, than indicated to Tarmen to return back to the streets, handing him the note to see for himself.

So far the news boded well for Voah that she was able to (at the very least) have an audience with Sir Zane, and now her fate was in the hands of the ruling powers. If the Purger had his way, and Stoneshade agreed, her time was up, but this was a colony of the Empire of Salos after all, and their authority superseded that of the Inquisition here in Arcadia.

Tarmen couldn't understand the letter at first, disbelief requiring an extra look over before he could begin thinking again. He had expected any meeting between her and any of the higher-ups to be life threatening.

"So the old Wolf's love of the law is our savin' grace. Crazy woman certainly has someone on her side. Doesn't say why she isn't here though, so what now?"

Alexis sighed. She wasn’t really in the position to complain about anyone’s recklessness, not with her track record.

“Wise to seek out Zane.”

She didn’t comment on Tarmen’s assessment, but she felt the old knight’s aid stemmed from more than his law-abiding nature. Man had to make some hard calls in the interest of the whole before, and she was deeply grateful that he seemed to consider Voah more valuable alive than dead. Her friendship aside, he was damn right about that, too.

“Her old lodgings… huh. Can’t say I visited her before, but I am pretty sure we can rule out the keep. Most likely, she stayed with the other church folk when she first came here.”

She pulled a few wayward strands of hair out of her face in a gesture laden with exasperation.

“…and that would probably be under extra surveillance right about now, thanks to the fucking brotherhood. So if we are going to see her, it’s not necessarily going to be easy. Because why the fuck would anything be.”

Being around the religious folk was a mixed bag all around. They had a tendency to be fanatic, so you had to be sure where their loyalties lied, which they didn't. From his experience as well, they were often suspicious of the non-religious, which was... complicated for them.

"Only one way to find out though and I'm not too pleased about it either. Could try and sneak around, make sure it isn't some trap."

He had questioned Zane's willingness to work with her and the possibility of her seemingly able to be back at the church was enough to make him nervous. It was seeming to easy.

“First order of business would probably be to get around the guards patrolling.”

Alexis mused.

“Think we can manage to convince them to just let us through somehow, like, officially? You heard Carver. Everyone is on edge. People sneaking around is exactly what they’ll be looking for…”

“We do have some freedom to search for arsonists. Plus with our record they don’t have much reason to doubt us.”

While he wanted to keep their heads down until they knew Voah hadn’t been captured and they were in the clear, he couldn’t deny Alexis’s point. Hiding in plain sight after all.

“Worth a shot at the least.”

Alexis nodded.
“Then let us take that shot.”

With that she began moving towards the Misty Ward. The last time she had gone there purposefully, it had been to pay back a favour to a man driven by unseen voices to procure some ancient map in order to obtain the missing part of a mystical relic.
It had seemed like a rather steep price back then. Man. She had certainly been forced to put things in perspective since that time, hadn’t she?

But, yet again, this concerned someone she cared deeply about. So she would go through with it. Things had been set in motion. If Voah had chosen to expose herself then there was no telling when and even if they would have another chance to meet before … everything.