In the Back

[kumati]

She didn't let the temper out until the door to her paid room was closed. At that point, she regretted punching the door frame.

Biting back a curse at the flare of pain, she strode to the bed, divesting herself of armor along the way. The chain came off one-handed with surprising ease, but she gave up on the right boot, finally slouching on the bed in a mood somewhere between tantrum and annoyance.

She was definitely not accustomed to this place. Here, she had to hide. She wasn't used to hiding, and it was biting at her restraint. A few comments here, a couple threats there - it added up, and already she felt more attention being paid by some, and not the kind of attention she preferred. "From enforcer to...to this."

She started digging through the pile of armor and clothing on the floor, halfheartedly looking for what she wasn't really in the mood to find again. She found it anyway. The parchment was thick, the folded edges worn, and seal long gone. Its sister note had been given to who it had to go to, but this one she kept.

It didn't say why she was sent here. Merely that she was an asset to be used, that she would follow orders, that she was to remain here indefinitely. The paper was crumpled by angry fingers and tossed at the smoldering flames in the fireplace.

She missed on purpose.


Before Sundren...

The parchment was heavy, the folded edges sharp, and the seal unbroken. The flames from the table lamp stretched towards it, a hairsbreadth of space denying it the new source of fuel.

An annoyed sigh from the doorway. "If you're gonna burn it, do it already."

With a growl, the letter was thrown across the room. Being paper, it didn't get very far, landing a mere few feet away at the foot of the bed. The voice at the doorway gave an amused chuckle. Tanne moved her glare from the yellow-black flames to the window, deliberately turning her back to the unwanted companion. The sound of light steps approaching and the rustle as the sealed document was picked up caused her tense, fighting the urge to grab the parchment and give him a strategic kick. Or two.

"Oo...oh. Is this...?"

"Yes, it is."

"Personally delivering a note of his. Must be yours, from what I heard."

"Drop it," she growled, turning to see her escort holding the letter over the flames.

"Oh, sure. I can burn it. Or do you mean hand it over? I'd love to see what happens." The knowing gaze was grinding her nerves and he knew it. "So. Where's the body?"

An annoyed sigh, this time from her. "Left it in the barn at the last stop."

"Hrmph. Guess you can't get a good courier these days." The parchment was set gently down onto the table. "If I take it, you'll take me out, and you still won't burn it. You don't dare."

Fists curled, she grabbed the cursed document from the table, tucking it furiously into one of the pouches on her belt. A warning look was shot his way as she turned her back again, daring him to attack with something more than words.

Fists curled, she grabbed the cursed document from the table, tucking it furiously into one of the pouches on her belt. A warning look was shot his way as she turned her back again, daring him to attack with something more than words. "He sent another messenger."

"Did he?" At the expression she shot his way, he crowed. "Ha! He's smarter than the both of us, you know. You don't turn that note in personally..." He didn't bother finishing.

She relaxed ever-so-slightly, moving to sit on the bed. She knew that he knew where her hidden dagger was, and that her motion was only meant to cover her reaching for it. The inn didn't allow its guests to carry their weapons in plain sight. He didn't move; the implied threat failed to faze him for once.

Silence reigned for several moments, the atmosphere tense.

It was Tanne who spoke first. "I'm on my own once we reach Waterdeep."

"I'm taking you to Luskan."

"No, you're taking me to Waterdeep."

"Do I look stupid to you?" The shout elicited a fist banging on the opposite side of the wall. Tanne shot her companion a mocking look. His continuing statements were not kept quiet out of courtesy to the inn's other guests. "Do I look stupid, Redell? The exile's yours!"

The look in Tanne's eyes hardened. Her companion groaned dejectedly, turning his back to her this time. Redell didn't get her way for no reason; she'd earned her reputation by following through. And she was better than he with a blade.

"You know he knew you were going to do this."

She looked up from the pack she was tightening on her compact frame. "Yeah. May as well show some resistance."

He could've shoved her own dagger into her back several times during the conversation. He never did. "Why Waterdeep?"

"Two routes: land and sea."

"...the ships leave Luskan."

She shrugged, pausing at the door. "What, no goodybe?"

"You're going bare." He held out a hand. "That's the only way I'm telling you where the other courier is."

If that second letter made it and hers didn't, more than just her life could be forfeit, and she knew it. She handed over the best weapon she had, stepping forward almost nose to nose. "Be glad you need what's left of your fingers," she whispered, pointedly not looking at the stump of a pinkie left from his last infraction.

"The ship leaves Luskan," he found himself hoarsely whispering. He must have named the boat, for she was out the door and down the hall before he blinked. He finally moved after a minute or so, checking his pouches and then the room. He considered the lamp, but attempting to burn the inn down would serve no purpose, no matter how tempting.

"Speaking of temptation..."

The next few minutes found a single guest terrorized out of their valuables.

[kumati]

Things were beginning to come into focus. Like most things seemed to, it happened suddenly and quickly after a long (though not so dull) wait. A job offer, a invitation to work with others in another tight circle...whom she had some suspicions of, but still accepted.

She'd spent two hours that day at the game tables, losing nearly every hand and not truly caring. The conversations and rumors running amok had made it worth it, fear underlying the tone of several would-be winners. News of the Great Hunt caused her to abandon the latest game and leave, heading to an isolated location. There was somewhere else she needed be.


Before Sundren...

"...and I cannot believe you would even consider such an action!" The priest stopped, expression remarkably calm considering the bright red of his rage. He said nothing for several moments, something that Tanne was glad of. The minutes had dragged by enough already, though she knew too well he was far from done.

The priest paced, black robes dragging loudly across the tiles in the (for her) uncomfortable silence. The guards had been dismissed for this, and the room was all the more ominous without them there. Not that their presence would have lightened the punishment; not at all. It was simply easier to be fearless in front of an audience, to not cry out or to snap out choice commentary, no matter how stupid. Without that encouragement, she could only remain silent. She wasn't so favored now.

When the pacing stopped, she raised her head. The priest who had pulled her out of the aimless mischief of her teens, forming her into a "messenger" answering only to him, had his back turned to her -- but she made no move to draw a weapon. She wasn't stupid. He wasn't that powerful, all things considered, but he held far more of that precious commodity than her. Divine retribution is greater than mortal, he was fond of saying, following that with the nonverbal reminder that he wielded both with efficiency.

She dropped her head again as he moved to turn. "I've been overly generous with you," she heard. "This is not the first time this has happened, but it is the last. Leave." The finality of his tone spoke far more than the words ever could. Home is home after all, regardless of anything else.

[kumati]

A mess! That was the only description of this.

Tanne paced the room, bare feet padding lightly back and forth between window and door. "Blasted paladins!" she growled, clenching her favored weapons and just hoping someone would dare to come barging into the cheap room. No one did, of course, so one of the blades ended up thudding into a bedpost. Anger only temporarily resolved, she slouched onto the cheap mattress, pulling out a talisman the size of her palm and turning it over and over between her fingers.

The events of that previous evening had been expected, eventually, but not so soon. "Kidnapped. He thought I was kidnapped." She sat deep in thought for more than an hour, considering and rejecting different avenues of escape from this mess. Execution of the plans was where her strength had always lain; that and adjusting them when unexpected problems arose. The initial planning, from retrieval to escape, had been her partner's territory. But she didn't have a partner here to fill that niche.

She traced the outline of the symbol on the disc, muttering to herself. An unexpected idea traced the edges of her mind, causing her to clench the talisman tightly and shove it back into its place of keeping. Some risks just had to be taken.

Before Sundren...

Its when things are going exactly according to plan that one should worry.

The assignment had been carried out, the goods dropped off, the payment acquired. As dawn edged its way above the horizon, she and her partner had one more stop to make before they would find their own beds. An easy reminder to a new convert of oaths made. One reminder was usually more than sufficient.

To begin with, the odds of a drunk falling through the poorly constructed door were slim. That the drunk was accompanied by a warrior, a wizard thumbing through her spellbook, and an overly zealous priest of some deity she couldn't determine, and that all four of these people were the sort to charge in to help a nameless person...well, the odds were considerably smaller.

Charge they did, the warrior drawing a longsword and the priest yelling something about Helm. Her partner was out the window and long gone before the warrior's blade was out of the sheath. Tanne stumbled close behind, the convert having decided that maybe he could find new friends by tripping her.

The following chase was long, arduous, and incredibly annoying.

The wizard somehow maintained a close tail on her, running inhumanly fast. The crowds slowed Tanne significantly; the wizard and the warrior seemed to fly straight through. She spotted an exotic looking bird at one point, and though the flung dart missed it by a figurative mile, it did cause the wizard to back off a few paces. It didn't help.

Once toward the edge of the market, she attempted to duck into an alley only to be blocked by a new stack of barrels. Doors were locked with no time to work them open, and the one time she flipped through a window ended up with her hand on cauldron of hot stew. She thought of taking to the roofs, but was struck by a missile of fizzling static; the fall off the ladder was thankfully short.

Frustration and anger only continued to build; she was not incompetent, she reminded herself more than once. She's been caught only once in the past five years. She would not be caught this time... A clear alley was a straight shot to a main thoroughfare. Another ball of something found its way to her back; she could hear the leather of her armor hissing. She paused for a brief second halfway across the street, eyeing all possible routes of escape. The pounding of heavy boots echoed in the alleyway behind her, causing some passersby to pause in their strides.

The unarmed man dressed in peasant attire screamed target so loudly that if she'd been paying closer attention, she would have run the other way. With would-be captors a literal arm's reach behind and her endurance all but gone, she did the first thing that came to mind. She grabbed the man at the shoulder, spun him around harshly and set a dagger at his throat. The adventurers came to a wary halt, weapons still drawn. The warrior maintained an iron, challenging gaze with her.

The peasant didn't move at first, what with a razor-sharp blade next to his jugular. The he started to chuckle. Tanne, utterly confused by this action, broke the lead warrior's gaze and glanced at her hostage. Before she knew it, she was over the man's shoulder and on the cobblestones, staring through the spinning stars at the building in front of her.

A temple to Selune.

Her dizzied gaze wandered to the nearby face of her former hostage, the man leaning over to presumably check her wounds. An amulet depicting the eyes and stars of the goddess Selune hung prominently from his neck.

She cursed Beshaba loudly.

[kumati]

The attack in the woods, while unexpected, was certainly timed well. Her whispered comments seemed to go unnoticed amongst the tumult, as did the fact that her arrows flew but twice in the battle. The battle itself was brief, resulting in the defeat of the paladin.

Sitting at the table of yet another rented room, she pored over the text she had written upon the parchment, making certain it was as exact as possible. One alliance had been made public this day...not that it hadn't been so since she had met the outspoken druid. She clicked her tongue in annoyance. “But that you could know, hm?”