Fable - Ask A Familiar Face

[Val]

Alliria

Val stepped off the ship and took a breath, hand running through his hair as he glanced around the docks.

This was not the first time he had ever been to Alliria, but it had been a while. Each time he visited he was reminded of just how busy the city actually was. Everyone was constantly running around and doing something. Most were on their way to some job or in the middle of doing one. Even the richer folk, dressed in silks and wearing fancy hats seemed to be rushing.

Compared to Alliria, Oban was a sleepy country village where everyone took it easy. It reminded him just how easy it was to disappear in a place like this, how simple it would be to just...go. A fact he knew for sure of course, given that he himself had suggested it to Wren. Lips thinned for a moment, and then he felt a gentle tap on the shoulder.

"Sir. Should I take your luggage to the Estate?"​

A frown touched his face for a moment. "Jeb, I told you. Val is fine when we're not in Oban."

The other man nodded his head, though a shrug rolled over his shoulders as if to say it was simple habit. A sigh escaped him, and he just shook his head.

"Yes just take it there, and tell the Captain he moor the ship." They weren't in any hurry here. His father, over the last few months, had insisted that Val take more of an active role in the business. It had been meant to be a way to get the young man to actually do something besides womanizing and partying, but of course Val used it for something else.

It was an opportunity to do what he had truly been doing all along; rob the rich and give to the poor.

With more responsibility, came more knowledge. Knowledge Val had put to very good use. More than a few ships had gone missing, only to reappear days later with their cargo stolen and the sailors telling stories of a group of thieves boarding in the middle of the night as if they came from nowhere.

Now Val intended to do something similar in Alliria.

"Right, Si-Val. Should I get you a carriage?"​

"What? No." He said with a shake of his head. "I can use my own feet. The Estate isn't that far from here."

"Yes but it will be closed up still and you'll want to-"​

"Just, don't worry about it." He said with a sigh. Shaking his head Val began to walk off the pier and towards the bustling crowd, deciding that any further discussion would just be more of the same.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

The dock markets were a goldmine. Droves of merchants sailors, flogging their wares and stocking their ships with supplies. Either way, coin purses were fat this was where the wealthy came to spend them. Wren had been working for just over an hour and had already made more than she had in a month. She was hunched over under a shabby brown cloak, cane in hand and her hood covering her face as she weaved her way through the throngs of people under her guise.

Several times people shoved her out of their way with impatience, and each time she staggered this way and that, falling into people, some kinder than others. She didn't take from those who chose to help her, there were more than enough who would rather kick at her legs and cane for her to fill her pockets with.

"Move! Filthy hag!" one man yelled at her as he gave her a violent shove, and she let out a high pitched whine as she landed on the cobbles. That was when it happened. Her cloak tore, and three coin purses hit the stones, and drew far too much attention. Wren cursed under her breath and reached to grab hold of them, but not before the man who'd shoved her could check for his own purse and find it missing.

"THIEF!"

Shit.

"Guards!!" he bellowed over the crowds as Wren staggered to her feet. He attempted to grab hold of her shoulder but found an elbow thrown into his face and he crumpled. "Stop that thieving bitch!!"

And she was running, far faster than an old woman had any right to run.

 

[Val]

Val was making his way through the crowd as though there was no trouble in the world, mostly because for him there really wasn't any trouble.

He had come to Alliria to do his fathers work, but he knew while here he would do his own. There was a certain smugness that clung to him because of that knowledge. He felt as though he was getting one over the Old Man, and that always made him feel happy.

His dad deserved every slight that was dealt to him, that much he was sure of.

As he walked Val began to whistle, the tune so quiet over the din of the crowd that only those directly next to him would actually be able to hear.

"STOP THAT THIEVING BITCH!"​

The words echoed out from his left.

Lips thinned and his whistling stopped as he half turned to see the crowd shift and part. The Old woman squeezing her way through the people that moved away not to get involved. Val was not one of those people, standing stoically in front as Wren came crashing into him.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

She felt like she'd run into a wall. The man had a solidness about him, as though a flood could wash around him without uprooting his feet. Wren fell back to the ground and glanced up, her eyes flashing amber as they widened on the familiar face, her own face half covered with a dark scarf.

"Fuck." She looked away quickly and stammered, clearing her throat and reminding herself of the persona she had adopted and quickly changed her voice again. "Ah- eh, sorry lovey - so sorry." she rambled with a quick glance behind her, those shuffling feet getting closer.

Wren rolled back onto her feet to dart off again, this time looking where she was going. Reaching a dead end formed of approaching guards, Wren hopped up from crate, to stall, to awning and finally to rooftop before disappearing into an alleyway and swiftly discarding her cloak and cane. She emerged back onto the main street dressed in fine, black leathers, her head dipped under her hood as the guards rushed passed her in search of the 'thieving bitch'.

 

[Val]

There was something familiar about the woman, something that was...his head shook for a few seconds as his lips thinned. No that was impossible. He was about to open his mouth to say something back to her, the voice holding that same familiarity.

Before he could get out a word the woman darted off.

Val was left standing, the guards suddenly rushing off by him. One of them shot off a quick bow and an apology.

"Sorry ser, chasin a Thief."​

For a few seconds the visiting noble just stood there, trying to puzzle out what the fuck had actually just happened. "Was that?"

He mused to himself, thinking back on the half covered face.

It was hard to forget Wren Kingsley, the prison break that they had conducted. The night that they had shared together. It had looked like her, but the eyes...they hadn't been right.

Val looked around for a moment, peering through the crowd in search.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

Wren glanced over her shoulder, watching the guards with a small smirk under her mask before she turned her attention through the crowd again. Val. It had been Val, she was sure of it.

She pulled herself into a doorway to scan the faces. He couldn't see her, not like this, but she couldn't leave without seeing his face, the one she loved to hate, the one that she thought about often. He wasn't difficult to spot, standing a little taller and sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the mundane.

She had to stop herself from wandering over to him. Perhaps he'd know about her sisters.. She kept her eyes on him and a small smile on her lips under her scarf, wondering what trouble he was here to cause. Wishing she could cause it with him. She pushed herself from the wall with a sigh, and disappeared into the alleyway toward the poorer streets of Alliria to finish her work for the day.

 

[Val]

Val searched for a few more minutes, his eyes scanning the buildings and the crowd.

He was so sure...the eyes had been wrong, but the expression, the surprise in her gaze...it had all been right. Lips thinned, but he had to give in eventually. Alliria was a bustling metropolis. Dozens of people filed past him and most of them didn't care for his search.

"Get the fuck outta ma way."​

One man swore. "Sorry."

Val said as he peered around, chewing his inner lip. He knew that she was here in the city, but what was the chance? Fate was often cruel, almost never kind, but maybe...maybe...

He chewed his inner lip for another second, and then shook his head. He wouldn't find her here, but before he left he would search her out.

That was a promise he made himself.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

"Just keep walking. He'll no doubt see sense and put you out of your damned misery.." she muttered to herself as she walked, catching a child staring at her from atop a pile of crates as she talked to herself.. "What!?" she barked at him, another flash of amber in her green eyes, and the child scurried off calling for his mother. "See." Wren snorted to herself with a shake of her head.

Wren was used to charming people into giving her what she wanted, used to dressing up in finery and flaunting herself at the rich and powerful and then robbing them blind. She was used to having idiots fall at her feet whenever she fluttered her lashes or smiled at them. Now? Now her work was done behind her mask and under her hood, now she hid herself away like this. It was no different to how she'd had to hide in Oban. She didn't want to see or speak to anyone, especially not Valren.

As night fell and the streets quieted, Wren spread the coin she'd made out amongst the urchins and poorest families. She didn't stop to talk to them any more, she barely looked at them at all when she handed them the coins, but she took their thanks and kind blessings with a brief nod as she moved on.

She had taken to staying out all day and night, returning home when she was sure the safe house would be in darkness and those inside it would be asleep. In the meantime she'd try her best to avoid trouble with the guards and the city's rival gangs as she wandered the dark streets alone.

 

[Val]

Val spent most of the rest of the day getting in touch with a few 'friends' that he had in the city.

Most of it was done through intermediaries. One note or another slipped into the hands of a workmen, passed to another, and then eventually reaching the person that he was actually looking for. It was an easy enough task, and one he fulfilled from his Estate.

As it turned out Jeb had been right. Most of the place was utterly empty, furniture covered with sheets to keep the dust off and everything set away. No one had been there for quite some time. It would be days before it actually felt alive, even with Jeb setting about uncovering everything.

Not that Val cared all that much.

What he cared about was the news he received after the sun fell over the horizon.

Wren was good at disappearing, good at hiding out in Oban and better at going unseen in the forest. Yet Alliria was a different animal. It was difficult to go entirely hidden in a city of near half a million people, especially when you were giving money to the poor.

"You're sure?" He asked the man standing in front of him.

"Lad saw her tonight, she pressed a copper into his hands. Hard to forget a woman like that."​

Val nodded, though his reasons were different than many others. "Hard to."

From his pocket he pulled out three gold coins, slipping them into the man's hand and quickly seeing him out passed the gate.

"Will Sir be having dinne-"​

"Val." He corrected Jeb again as he moved towards the door. "And no, I'll be back later."

The noble said as he headed towards the one part of Alliria he'd never been to; The Shallows.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

"You." The man barked at her as she just about walked into him on the docks. It took her a second or two to realise it'd been the same man she'd robbed a week before. Ah shit.

He drew his blade with one hand as he reached out to grip her wrist with the other. "Right hand or left, little thief?.." he grunted, already yanking her hand down onto a barrel. Wren cursed at him and pulled back before her knee flew up at his crotch and he buckled, giving her time to make a run for it whilst he barked and swore after her.

Wren slipped into an alleyway, pressing herself tight against the wall as she waited for the man to run passed her followed by another two of his companions. Once they were clear she slipped into the nearby tavern and found a dark corner to lay low and spend some of her well earned coin on some really bad wine.

 

[Val]

Val made his way through Alliria like a tidal wave.

He didn't care about those still on the streets. He didn't care about the gangsters watching him as he strode through the streets. He didn't care...well he didn't fucking care about anyone at all except for Wren.

It had been months since he'd seen her, and all that time she had been at the back of his mind. The memories haunted him, always tugging at his thoughts, always there. It was that moment that they had shared, the one neither of them had ever spoken of.

Val glanced over the signs that he saw within the street.

The Shallows was filled with a dozen bars, but he chose the one that Wren had slipped into.

Maybe it was luck. Maybe it was fate. It didn't particularly matter. As Wren sat down with her vile cup of wine Val stepped through the door, a few heads turning to peer at the noble that had stepped into their hole.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

Wren looked up as the murmur of the little tavern hushed, her emerald gaze widening slightly on Val. He had to be looking for her, why else would he be in the Shallows?

Shit.

She slunk down into her seat and dropped her gaze, tugging her hood about her face in the hopes that he wouldn't notice her in her shadowy corner.

 

[Val]

His gaze flickered over the room.

A dozen tables were filled nearly to the brim. People were drinking, laughing, playing cards or dice. It was as raucous as any tavern that Val had ever been it. In the best of circumstances finding someone in all the noise would have been hard, but he knew what he was searching for.

It was the figure in the corner of the room. The only one that was trying not to be seen. The only one trying to hide itself that caught his attention.

The black hood drawn over her face, the way that she seemed to shrink into the wall. Was it her? Did she know?

He felt a smile tugging at his lips.

Val didn't waste any time, didn't want to give her a single minute to step away. He moved towards the table with the sunken figure, his hand knocking over the wood as he reached it. "I'm looking for a beauty from Oban."

He looked down at her. "Don't suppose you could help me?"

 

[Wren Kingsley]

She physically felt his presence looming over him before he knocked on the wood. His words were not well chosen, and she'd have laughed at how comical they were if they hadn't broken her heart a little.

"'Fraid not." she murmured with a shake of her head. "There are no beauties here. Best try the harbour." she told him. She wanted to look up at him, desperately so, but her gloved hand reached to tug at the rim of her hood, ensuring her face was hidden.

 

[Val]

Val frowned for a brief moment, glancing down at her as she pulled the hood down even further over her face.

They hadn't known one another for long, just those few days in Oban...but that had never much mattered to him. If she had been anyone else he might have bought into her words, might have believed her, but Val knew that voice.

He could still remember it whispering his name into his ear. "Really?"

Val mused out loud.

"I think they just might be hiding here." Slowly he reached out, grasping the hand that lowered onto the table. "Wren."

 

[Wren Kingsley]

Wren's shoulders slumped as he took her hand, a resigned sigh tumbling from her lips as she stared at it. She couldn't bring herself to look up.

"What're you doing here, Val?.." she asked quietly. "You shouldn't be in this part of town when you can't blend in." she smirked weakly to herself. She blended in far better now than she had done before Varo had gotten a hold of her, that much was certain.

 

[Val]

"I don't need to blend in." Val told her quietly, the smile on his lips more than plain.

He was glad she didn't try to throw him off, didn't try to toss him away or give some excuse. His fingers gently tightened over hers, thumb softly stroking over her skin.

"I have a way about me." That cockiness was still there, the swagger that had infuriated her enough to plant a knife against his ribs the first time that they had met. "And If I get robbed."

His shoulders rolled in a shrug. "It was worth it."

Even as he spoke Val could feel that something was wrong, that there was a change. He didn't know what, didn't know why, but he could feel it.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

She watched his thumb brush over her knuckles and her eyes closed for a moment, allowing herself to enjoy the gentle touch whilst she could, certain that he'd reconsider and no doubt flee the moment he looked at her.

She could hear that smug smile on his voice without having to look at him at all. Her eyes rolled and she gave a pained laugh under her breath. "You certainly do..." she agreed with a slow shake of her head. "Glad to see some things never change.."

"You came here just to find me?..." she asked, pulling her hands from the table and wrapping her arms around her sides.

 

[Val]

His hand was left empty as she drew back, pulled away.

Lips thinned for a moment as he watched her, head tilting. Laughter erupted behind him, the raucous sound of the Tavern's patrons enjoying themselves. Val glanced back at them for a moment, before turning to face Wren again. "Of course I did."

He said quietly, watching her and trying to peer beneath her hood.

Her arms wrapped tightly around herself, holding to her figure as if she needed to guard herself from even him.

Had his mind clouded those memories? Had he imagined what he'd felt? His lips thinned for a moment, and then his head shook. No. He remembered how she had felt against his skin. How the two of them had practically competed to pull out the other within that Prison.

Val drew himself up offering his palm across the table.

"Let's get out of here." He said with a smile. "There's better places to spend your time."

 

[Wren Kingsley]

Her brow furrowed at his answer, her chest tightening slightly. She felt him stand and shot a glance to the hand he held out. She'd been about to refuse him when the trio who'd been chasing her down wandered in and barged their way up to the bar to question the barman, the words 'thieving bitch' catching her attention.

Wren inwardly groaned and took the offered hand, using Val as a shield and ushering him along quickly to leave the dingy place, and she tugged him around the corner and onto an alleyway before letting him go.

"Val you.." she cleared her throat and rubbed at her brow. "You shouldn't have come here. As much as I appreciate that you did. I'm not the best company right now.." she grumbled. She wasn't the best company ever, but she and Val had certainly learned to enjoy each other's company in the past despite how they'd loathed one another.

"You should go."

 

[Val]

A small chuckle left his throat. "When has that stopped me?"

He asked with a shake of his head.

There had been a small spike of...something when she had taken his hand. Hope perhaps, something else maybe, but it slipped away when they stepped outside and she tried her best to shove him away once more. The lamp-light of the Shallows was bare, and out here he could see her even less than he had in the tavern.

"How about for once." Val offered her. "You stop being stubborn and just listen to me?"

He motioned to the alleyway around them. "I don't know what or who you're hiding from, but I can guarantee you they won't be searching the Inner-City."

Slowly he reached out to her, fingers extending.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

"I'm stubborn?.." Wren sneered quietly, hearing the three storm back out onto the streets, knowing she was close.

"I'll go back to the inner city with you but then we part ways. Alright?.." she huffed, and settled her hand in his to grip it and let him take the lead.

 

[Val]

"Oh fuck off." Val said with a roll of his eyes as he practically seized her hand and dragged her into his chest.

For just a brief moment he pulled her close, the top half of her face still hidden beneath her hood as he leaned down and spoke a bit more quietly. "We're going back to my estate."

He told her simply.

"And If you try to run I will throw you over my shoulder." It was an empty threat, they both knew. If Wren wanted to escape him all that she would have to do was draw the breath from his lungs, but that reality didn't matter much to him. "Got it?"

The threat was more than real, his arm readying to grab her if she tried to slip away.

 

[Wren Kingsley]

For a moment, she lapsed into an affronted silence, her face a contortion of incredulous rage as he pulled her to him and spoke to her the way he did. But that warmth, even the smell of him was a comfort, and she allowed herself just a brief time to relax against him and nuzzle her cheek against his chest with a huff.

"You know I'd beat the shit out of you, right?..." she muttered with a quiet laugh under her breath.

"Alright. Let's go." she agreed with a sigh.

 

[Val]

Val grinned. "I seem to remember one of us having the upper hand against that tree."

His fingers softly squeezed her hand for a brief moment as he spoke, hand drifting over her hip as he smiled to himself.

Despite that though, he knew he was right. Wren could ring him out in a second. Something Val did not need a reminder of. Though his pride would never allow him to admit it for even a second. For a moment he let himself linger, enjoy the warmth of her, and then he pulled away.

Within just a second he tugged her out of the alleyway and onto the street.

The two of them kept close, moving quickly through the roads of the Shallows and back into Alliria proper. Mud disappeared from below their feet, replaced with cobbles and constructed roads. The raucous sound of taverns and celebrations died out the further into the city they went, until eventually they breached the gates of the Inner-City.

A simple wave was all that Val needed to pass by the Guards, his garb and the way he carried himself enough of a signal for the men keeping out the rabble.

Before long they found themselves before his Estate, the front gate pushing open and revealing a small, empty sitting room.