[OOC] All the old posts:
Part 1 - Here
Part 2 - Here

[IC] They left the pub with a roar of cheers from the drunk soldiers.  A mixture of feelings brewed inside Ravira as she followed the Commander upstairs to his room, but mostly fear.  This was the moment where all her fears could be put to rest.  She had never in her life lived without fear and to change that, was actually a little scary.  What was it like to not have to live without always watching your own back?  But on the other hand, a thousand things could go wrong.  There was a real chance she would walk into Lie's room, and leave it as a corpse.

Lie unlocked his door, giving Ravira a sideways glance as he held the door open, letting her enter first - still desperately trying to place her face.  He removed his peaked cap and placed it on a small, round table.  

She quickly summed up the situation.  Lie appeared to still be every bit the soldier she remembered him as.  His sword was slung lazily at his side, and think leather armour hidden under the cloth uniform of the army.  Even in her real body, there was no way she could ever defeat Lie in combat.  There was no way to know how he'd react if she just tried to talk to him.  One yell would bring all his soldiers upstairs.  There was only one thing that would get his attention.

"Look," Ravira said bluntly.  She reached out, felling for the magic box like the Alt mage had taught her.  Lie's hand reached for his sword.  

"Who are you?" he growled, his friendly disposition gone instantly.  Ravira remained calm, and slowly removed the money bag from the box.  When it materialised, she opened it up, showing the gold to Lie.

"I need you to do me a favour."

He stood there in shock.  "Uuuh," he peered up at the girl again, there was something about her face.  He knew her from somewhere.  Maybe he was really drunk at the time, because he couldn't remember her now.  The flash of money had calmed his mood though.  "Sorry," he said nervously, running a hand through his mess of hair.  "Who are you?"

"Oh Lie, I'm hurt!" Losay joked, adding in a sweet voice, "you don't remember me?"  She changed her way of talking, switching back to her native dialect.  Lie swore under his breath.  Ravria smirked, placing the money back into her magic box.  Under her breath, she whispered, "revertere."

~~~

Saena led them to a small set of tables and chairs.  She grinned to herself.  It's been a long time since she'd had a meal like this, and despite how it looked, it was delicious.  Steet food was the best food.  Sure the nice clean inns and pubs they'd been eating at was nice, but the streets were alive - they were teaming with atmosphere.  There were people everywhere.  Old ladies fanning their wood fires, buckets of still-live fish by their sides.  Saena brought the bowl to her lips and took a long drink of the broth.

She laughed to herself.  "I wonder what happened to Ravira.  Bastard.  There's no way she'd dare come to a place like this."

The two stood in silence.  Lie was not entirely sure what to do.  It had been two years.  The army still wanted Losay dead, but so much time had passed.  Nobody thought they'd see him again.  "What are you doing here?" Lie spoke slowly and quietly, saying each word with fear and fury.

"I need you to do me a favour," West repeated, this time in his native dialect.  "I want you to give me protection."

Lie said nothing for a long moment, his mind just ticking away.  "What?" he finally said.  He realised how loud he was talking, and added quietly "Why?  What are you doing here anyway."

"Don't worry," West said casually grabbing one of the beers from Lie.  "I'm not here to cause you shit, you know that.  I just want to scavenge something from Ilma Taleb."  He took a long drink and sat on the floor, his back straight against the wall.  Actually being here now... West found he was no longer scared.  Lie held all the power, but all he'd done so far is gape.  He couldn't have asked for anything better.

"Ilma Taleb?  There's nothing there.  Everything that was worth anything was scavenged decades ago."

"I'm hoping that it's still there.  You know I wouldn't be here unless it was important."  

"Hmm," Lie simply said in reply.  A long pause.  "You heard about Eros right?"  West looked away.

"Only today actually."

"It was your mate, you know."  West didn't reply.  After a long awkward pause, Lie continued.  "Did you know he was studying magic?"

"... Who?"  Did he mean Eros?  During his final years at the army, West was apprenticed directly under Eros.  In the years that he knew him, there was never even the smallest hint that he was studying magic.  If they'd found out, he would've had his title stripped at the least.  He was next-in-line for the position of General - which traditionally had only been offered to people who didn't practice magic because it was considered ever-changing and unreliable.  

"Eros," Lie said, sitting down on his bed.  "Found magic books in his room when we cleared it out.  Found a bunch of other shit too.  His diaries and stuff."  He took a drink of his beer and continued.  "He'd been making plans to overthrow the Yahn.  Really detailed.  He had roles for everyone.  You, me, Threo.  Threo and myself almost took the shit for it because Yahn couldn't trust us when we said we'd never even heard about it.  I guess he didn't push it any further because he'd lost enough Commanding Officers recently and the place would fall to pieces if he lost another two."

"You're shitting me."

"I wish I was."

"I can't..." West was lost for words.  Eros had been doing all this behind everyone's back?  It was boggling.  He always seemed to be on Yahn's good side.  West put it all aside.  It was too much to think about right now, and he still hadn't got what he had come for.  "How's Charlie anyway?" he asked, changing the topic.

"Don't call him that.  Show some respect."  Lie scowled.  "Threo is fine.  Still alive, still here, still saving."  Lie finished off his beer.  "Alright Losay, I'll sell you that protection," he finally said.  "But you have to do me a favour."

"...what?" West asked cautiously.  

"The army's gone to shit."

West managed a small laugh.  "It's always been."

"You have no idea.  I wish things were like when you were around.  We've lost even more money.  It's only a matter of time before everything falls apart.  There's no real leadership."  Those were strong words coming from Lie - he was currently next-in-line.  "Yahn is training up some kid personally.  I don't think things are going to change even if he died."

"What's his name?"

"Arc."

"I don't remember him."

"Yeah you wouldn't know him.  He's some bright-up-and-coming from Dan Demora."

"All the cool kids come from Dan Demora," West said with a sly smile.

"Whatever," Lie replied bluntly, unimpressed.  "Eros was right."  Lie swore.  "We need to fix this before it gets any worse."

"I'm not going to the King's Army."

"I'm not asking you to!  That wouldn't fix anything.  That'd just be a massacre!  There has to be something out there.  Mate, you've seen the world.  I've lived my entire life in Dan Durem.  Eros had this list of ... ancient magic trinkets and who knows what, but it was destroyed with the rest of his stuff.  You have to find something and end this."

West let out a long sigh.  "Alright," he finally said with a nod.

"I want to hear from you again.  Don't just say that because it'll get you what you want."  West held out his hands as a sign of truth.

"You'll hear from me again."

~~~

Saena stretched her back.  Good meal.  Maybe ever the best meal she'd had in a long time.  It was better than the crap you'd eat at pubs overseas.  She hadn't noticed it before now but she missed Ziran food.  It was so unrestrained.  No formality.  No cutlery.  Everything fresh from the nearby farms.  Eating in a good district of Kabasera, right on the streets amidst the atmospheric night-life.

She wouldn't be here for much longer though.  Two days?  Maybe a little longer if they couldn't find a ship to Tzel'kora out of Morikov straight away.  She wondered what Tzel'kora was like.  It was bigger than Zira of course.  Maybe even bigger than Altaire.  Lots of magic too.  Hopefully it wouldn't make things too difficult.  She'd heard that in Altaire, some doors couldn't even be opened without magic.

"What's Tzel'kora like?" she asked the two girls.  "Anything I should know?"  She paused for a second before adding, "How do you say 'hello'?"

Lie sighed at nothing in particular and raised from the bed.  He opened the closet on the far side of the room, and after fiddling around within it, pulled out the false back.   West approached him from behind, and saw him flick through a pile of papers, before pulling out the one he needed.  The protection form.

There were possibly 100 of these in circulation around Zira.  The army had a bad reputation for ... betrayal.  To put people who the army legitimately didn't want harmed at ease, they were given one of these.  Navaro downstairs probably had one.  The mages only made a very limited number of them, and it'd take them months to make even a single one.  The holder of one of these documents was magically protected from all members of the army.

Lie took it to his small table, moving his hat onto a nearby chair.  He considered the consequences for one more moment before finally signing the single character which made his name. 

"Here," he said, rolling the paper into a neat scroll.  West removed the money from the magic box, and cautiously handed it to Lie.  "Wait," Lie said, opening the scroll again and writing another line.   West looked nervously at it.

"...What's it say?"

Lie rolled the protection up again.  "On the assumption the gold is real.  If that is just a sack of enchanted rocks..."

"It's real," West pled.

"Then you have nothing to worry about," Lie said with a smirk.   It was real gold, West knew that ... but for some reason he couldn't help but feel uncertain.  "So where are you off to now?"

"I think my uh... companions are waiting down at the docks."  Hopefully they hadn't found a ship out yet.  This late at night... it was unlikely.  He'd still have to rush to find them.

"Who are you travelling with?"

"Three girls from Tzel'kora.  Sisters."  He lied, not yet willing to give up Tsane.  Maybe later he might have a change of heart, but not now.  A grin spread across Lie's face.

"You're travelling with three foreign girls?  You lucky bastard!  Any of them lookers?"

"Two of them are pretty good," West said with a nod.  Then added more sullenly, "one looks a bit like a horse."  Lie laughed, and pried open his bedroom window.  West stepped out. 

"Remember, you said you'd contact me again."

"I will."

~~~

"Anha," Saena repeated, trying to mimic Ismene's pronunciation.  "Anha'haren."  She repeated the words a few times. 

There were still plenty of people out.  However, they would have to leave early tomorrow.  As soon as the gates opened if possible.  Morikov was a long walk.  They could head straight for Ilma Taleb, but that'd mean they'd have to stay the night there.  Staying out after dark in that region was pretty much suicide.  Raptors and all that. 

"We better find a place to sleep," she said lazily.  They didn't have much money so they didn't have a lot of options.  They could probably afford one of the scummy rooms rented out by visiting sailors.  They were a half-silver or less a night.  Not good accommodation, and the girls wouldn't like it.  Or they could sleep outside.  It was good weather, and a lot of visiting sailors actually preferred it.  It wasn't uncommon to see hammocks slung between the wooden pillars on the pier.  ... The girls would probably like that less.  But hammocks could be reused for many days and it'd save money for food. 

All this aside, Saena was dreading having to tell the possibilities to the girls.  "Let's head down to the docks," she simply said.

Navaro's was a fairly long walk from the docks.  This was West's domain.  He knew which streets were safe and which ones the army inhabited.  He might have protection, but regardless, he didn't want the army knowing he was in town.

He wasn't sure how the meeting would go.  Chances are they'd still be mad at him... and perhaps with good reason.  He hadn't expected it, but talking with Lie had actually put him in a really good mood.  Maybe getting out of that damned female body helped too.  Acting civil, actually went really well in the last meeting.  He had something to offer Lie, and got something in return.  Too easy really.  But what could he offer Tsane and the girls?

~~~

Saena looked around the docks.  Ah, the place was as grim as she remembered.  Merchants almost always used the Port City to dock their ships.  All that was left was a few grim ships of the People's Army, and grey industrial ships.  There were a couple of ships which probably belonged to well-to-do ambassadors from other nations.  The were built in a style that Saena had never seen before... and considering they were docked here and not any of the cheaper ports meant that they probably wanted to speak directly to the king, and not suffer the trek to the capital city.

"Well," Saena said uncertainly.  "I guess we can ask around, but I'm not sure where to start."  He walked towards one of the nicer ships.  Could this one... but then in the dim light, Saena noticed the crest of Altaire on one of the flags.  She looked around for any clues... which is when she noticed West walking amongst the crowds.  Not Ravira... but West.  Why had he dropped his disguise?  What was he doing here?  The anger welled in her belly once again.  She slipped away in the crowds, unseen.

Quietly she approached the two girls.  "I think I just saw West."

If West was mad he could cause a lot of trouble.  Considering the way they broke up... telling him the truth about Eros, chances were he'd be fuming.  He'd be out for revenge.  It was terrifying.   Ai was right.  If they could find a ship right now they could board it and easily avoid him.  However, it was looking more and more unlikely.

"Kabesera doesn't have a very big port actually.  Mostly used by local fishing ships and the King's Army," Tsane admitted grimly.  "We'd have more luck if we went to Morikov... it's about a day west from here.  Or we could go back the way we came to the Port City.  There'd be one there for sure."  

~~~

West heard Common.  Sure, Common was spoken by quite a few people in Kabesera, but it kinda sounded like them.  Karmodis always had a bad habit of talking too much.  West made his way through the crowds of sailors and the other scum that hang around these parts.  

That was them!  West considered it for a moment.  They probably hadn't seen him yet.  West thought about the situation for a second.  How could he approach them without a fight breaking out?  Unarmed?  Could his sword fit in his magic box?  It wasn't very big... but it was a magic box.  He stepped back into the crowd, unclipped his sheath.  This was stupid.  All this'd mean is they'd roast him faster.  But with no better options he felt for the metal box and slid it inside.  After fiddling with it, so it was laying along the box's diagonal, he was able to close it.  He sighed to himself.  He hadn't walked around unarmed... since he could remember.

Finally, he approached Saena, Ai and Ismene, hands raised so they could see he was unarmed.

They hadn't just blasted him with fire.  That was a good sign right.

"I'll make this quick, and you want, it'll be the last you ever see to me.  I have two things to say.  Firstly," he looked directly at Ai.  "I want my book back.  I'm going to finish this.  I don't care if you come with me or not, but the book is mine and I want it returned."

West considered it for a moment.  He had hundreds of possibilities.  Break into their hotel room and take it.  Inform Lie that there were two Fire Mages from a rich foreign family in town.  Neither were guaranteed to work and West reminded himself that he was trying to be civil.  That book was worth a fortune.  That's why he took it in the first place.  However it just be so much easier and so much quicker to just agree to their outrageous terms. 

"Fine," he said after a pause.

"Secondly," he said, focusing on Saena.  "I have a preposition for you."  He reached his hand into the magic portal and retrieved the protection order that Lie gave him.  He unscrolled it and held it up to Saena.  She leant a little closer to read the small print, taking particular note of Lie's signature.

"Lie?  How?  How did you get that?"

"Unlike you, I still have a few friends in the army," West answered.  "I will give this to you."

"What?"  Saena wasn't sure what to think.  Even after he told him about Eros?  It had to be some kind of trap that Lie was in on... but it looked so real...

"You can't have it now.  Obviously, right now I need it more than you right now.  But if you come with me, I'll give it to you as I board the ship out of here."

It was tempting.  It was extremely tempting.  With that document he'd be able to stay in Zira and never ever have to worry about the army.  "I..."

"As long as the gold is real," Saena struggled to read Lie's handwriting.  "What does that mean." 

"Don't worry, the gold was real."  There was a long silence in the group.  Saena wanted the document to be real.  It'd be an answer to all her dreams.  But it couldn't be.  West wouldn't just offer a gift like this. 

"It's a trap..." Saena said.  Her voice croaked. 

"I can't really prove to you it isn't.  If you don't want to believe me, that's unfortunate... but I can't say I don't blame you."  West shurgged.  "I guess all I can say, would I be walking around like this without some kind of protection." 

Again, Saena didn't reply straight away.  It was her only chance.  This would not present itself a second time.  If she turned it down now, she'd always be wondering 'what if it was real.'

"Okay," she said, her voice quivering with uncertainty.  "I'll come with you."