Completed A terrible misunderstanding

[Rämna Sisters]

"Mmm..." A soft groan escaped rosy lips, and Faith grimaced at the sunlight coming through her closed lids. She raised a hand to block the light, and squinted out from behind it.

She was sitting on the ground, leaning up against something. A building. She was in an alley. She looked to her left and saw an open street. Every now and then a horse or a pedestrian would stroll by, but overall calm. Where was she? She couldn't remember, and her head was still fuzzy.

She looked to her right, and saw a person lying face down. She gasped, and stood immediately.

"Oh no," she whispered. "No, no not again, no!" She stood motionless for a moment, hands clenched over her mouth. She quickly looked back to the street, had anyone seen her?

Faith swallowed, and gathered her resolve. She approached the person slowly and knelt down next to them. It was a man, with short hair and a stubbled face. He was breathing, mercifully. "Praise be to Grace," she whispered in relief. Placing a gentle hand by his jaw, she turned his head enough to see a nasty welt on his forehead. It had begun to bruise.

She pushed up her sleeves and placed both hands on the wound, one over the other. She closed her eyes, and exhaled gently. A soft, yellow light began to glow from beneath her palms. It persisted for as long as she exhaled, a few seconds, and then went out. Opening her eyes, Faith could see that the wound was gone.

The man groaned, and his eyes twitched. Faith stood up quickly and backed away, she mustn't be here when he woke up.

 

[Jakub Bram]

He stretched, walking his usual route. Right now he was on his way where he could usually find contracts and other work, and this route was a nice shortcut. He had his helmet slung at his side and whistling a casual tune, halberd held by his shoulder.

He soon reached a corner, turning it. He took a second to survey the scene. He stretched a little, still waking-up. He looked over the first person, a man incapacitated on the ground, he looked uninjured, so the best bet was a long night of drinking. The second person he saw had some basic gear on them, they probably traveled or dealt with the outdoors somehow, but that was besides the point. She had been kneeling over him but was now moving away.

He could only really think of one thing to ask.

"What exactly is happening here?"

 

[Rämna Sisters]

She looked up quickly at the words, distress evident on her face. "I can explain..." she began, but was interrupted by a loud groan from the prostrate man. Turning again, she saw that he had pulled himself up to his elbows. He rolled over heavily, rubbed his eyes with a dirty hand, and blinked them open.

It seemed to take him a minute to focus on the pair, but when he did his face changed from bewilderment to anger.

"You!" he sputtered, pointing at Faith. He stood clumsily, glowering at her the whole time. "You got a lot to answer for." He pushed aside his leather coat and drew a short knife from his belt. He moved forward, pointing it at her.

Faith backed up, her hands out in front of her. "Please, I promise you whatever I've done to you I am sorry."

But the man was undeterred, and continued his advance.

 

[Jakub Bram]

“Oi, oi, oi.” He said as he stepped forward, sticking out his halberd to block the man’s advance. He gave him a light nudge to move him back as he stepped inbetween the two parties.

Obviously there was something more to this than a long night of drinking. He said out loud as he tried to piece together what was happening. “Right, one of you better explain what happened right now, I wanna hear both your sides.” While he waited for a response, he mused on the options. Maybe the man had been injured and she had healed him via magic, but still, that was odd due to his violent reaction to her, something else had happened. He was pretty sure his long night of drinking theory was out the window, both seemed perfectly fine, no signs of a hangover. That leaves the option of a fight, but then why would she stick around and possibly even heal him.

 

[Rämna Sisters]

The man stopped short of Jakub’s halberd, eyeing the newcomer up and down. Seeing the full armor, and a weapon usually reserved for guards and infantry, he raised an open hand in a sign of submittal and sheathed his blade.

”This one,” he spat, pointing again at Faith, although keeping his arms closer to his body lest they be severed by the blade at his navel. ”This one cheated me of twenty pounds, then...” he paused, looking somewhat sheepish all of a sudden, ”Well... then beat me when I... confronted her here.” He clearly did not enjoy revealing that he had been knocked out by the woman in front of him.

Faith sighed, a defeated, tired sound. ”Oh dear...” she whispered. Now that she thought of it, her coin pouch did feel unusually heavy. ”Sir, I am terribly sorry. I... I was not myself last night. Please, take your money.” And she extended her coin pouch to him. She hadn’t had much in it before, anyway, and whatever extra would be compensation for his troubles.

The man looked to Jakub, and slowly accepted the coins. He looked thoroughly confused at Faith’s apparent change of heart. ”Well... alright.” he grumbled, tucking the pouch into his belt. ”We’ll chalk it up to bad ale, but you better watch yourself. You stepped on bigger toes than mine last night.”

He raised his hands again to signal his agreement to peace. ”Can I go?” he asked the armored man. Faith also looked to Jakub, apprehensively wondering what he would think of the situation.

 

[Jakub Bram]

"If you want, I can't exactly stop you since the situations been cleared. However I’d still like to know exactly what happened from your point of view.” He turned to Faith, addressing her. “You say you were not yourself last night, yet you appear to have not been drinking. So unless you were under some sort of magic or high, there must be some sort of proper explanation?” He eyed her curiously. After all, if something was going on, it was his job to know what was going on in the ci-

Oh wait, no it wasn’t.

He opened his eyes wide for a second and blinked a little. This was wayyy past his authority since he no longer worked for the city guard. However, he was more than a bit committed now, and was still curious, so he waited for a response.

 

[Rämna Sisters]

Faith thought quickly. How to explain herself? She could say that her twin sister was the real culprit. That was true, but it wouldn’t explain why she had been lying in this alley. Perhaps a half truth then.

”I... don’t remember,” she said quietly.

The other man scoffed. ”You didn’t look drunk, but you must have been. Or you’re lying.“ He stepped back from the halberd. ”Look, I’ve got people to see and need to get cleaned up. I don’t have time for this, but I better not see you around again,” he leered at Faith before turning and walking away, muttering to himself.

Faith was relieved that he had gone, but that still left her with her recent savior. He had stepped in to protect her, at his own risk. Not that the little knife would have posed much threat to his armor, but she did appreciate the gesture.

”Thank you for your help, kind sir. I am very sorry to have gotten you involved.” She bowed her head as she spoke. He was owed a proper explanation, she knew this. Too bad, he seemed like a nice man, but he would surely abandon her once he found out the truth. They always did.

”When I say I was not myself... I mean I truly was not myself. I was... someone else.” How to explain such a thing? She continued. ”My sister-“

”There!” A voice cut her off. A woman in a fine red dress was pointing at her, and a second woman dressed in dark leather armor had started running towards them. ”That’s the one! Bring her to me!”

Her eyes wide with panic, Faith turned back to Jakub. ”I promise I will explain everything, but I am innocent and I need to go. Now.”

The woman in the red dress called out again, this time to Jakub. ”Guard! That woman is a thief!“

”I am sorry to ask your help again so soon but I must hide,” she said. She hoped he believed her. She hoped he knew somewhere she could go. What city were they even in? Jakub had no reason to trust her. Would he run with her, or turn her in?

 

[Jakub Bram]

He looked at the man calmly as he talked. It looked like he had come to similar conclusions he had. Still, either way he was leaving now. He raised an eyebrow at his back, then turned to Faith as she began talking to him.

He listened calmly, she didn’t seem to be dishonest and he knew better to interrupt her while she was getting to the point. However, new arrivals came before he could hear that point.

Right away he didn’t like the look of them. He eyed them up and down and something didn’t sit quite right. He calmly put on his helmet, looking as if nothing were amiss. He had the immediate urge to distrust the two women.
“This is a really bad idea...” He grumbled to himself, then spoke louder addressing them, stating. “Now I’m sure this is all some misunderstanding we can sort out, something similar just happened.” However, once they got close, he quickly stuck the butt of his spear beneath the feet of the one wearing leather, sweeping their feet out from under them and putting them on their back. He then quickly pushed the one in the dress, it wouldn’t take all that much to make her trip over it. He then grabbed Faith and yelled, “This way, move move move.” In a voice that got drunkards to obey. He tried to lead her towards the direction of his home, taking a longer but more confusing route for his pursuers to follow. The only thing that would remain is to see if Faith would follow.

 

[Rämna Sisters]

Faith grit her teeth as the two women grew closer, hoping that they only wished to apprehend her, not kill her. Jakub seemed like a good man, and at the moment she must seem anything but, so it was a pleasant surprise when he toppled the women, grabbed her by the wrist, and pulled her along with him. She followed, trusting him to lead her to safety. She hadn’t much choice of course, but he had already protected her twice, what more could he do to prove his intentions?

Her feet hit the ground in long strides, kicking up dust behind them. She could hear voices behind them, but they were faint, and they grew fainter with every turn the pair took.

Whoa hey, what are we running from? A voice in her head chimed in.

Faith‘s expression turned to anger as she ran, scowling at nothing. ”You.” So much venom was in the thought that she actually said the word under her breath. ”What did you do?!” She hissed. She didn’t care if Jakub heard her, she was too angry at the voice that had spoken.

What? Nothing! I mean... I might’ve played a game or two...

”Shut up, shut up!” Faith wrenched her attention back to running, and Melody’s voice subsided.

 

[Jakub Bram]

He hurried along, they were almost there. He heard some muttering from faith but he chalked it up as just panic as the ran. They had quickly gained a large distance on their pursuers, and they soon reached their destination.

It was a pretty humble looking shop, two stories, rather narrow and a glass front-door, and the opening of produced a slight tinkling. "What's up bro?" Jackub called out to his brother, who was yet to be seen. "Nothing much, you're back early." A voice called out, from a door behind the counter. "Something came up, I'm gonna head upstairs for a bit." "Alright." Jackub took a second to shed some of his armor, putting down his weapons and helmet, which gave Faith some time to look around the store.

It was full of odds and ends, nothing in particular, the largest items tended to be equipment of general usage. Tools, packs, a few weapons. A couple of traveling provisions as-well. Despite the various items it was all pretty well organized. Overall, it was pretty small, but not small enough to be too cramped. Jackub led Faith up a flight of creaky stairs, which led to a couple of doors and a small room with a table and a window with a view of the street to the side.

He pointed her to the table, saying, "Have a seat, I'll be right back." Before heading downstairs to leave her with her thoughts for a moment. Once he returned, he was toting a cup of tea, offering it to her, he'd rather be caught dead then be a bad host, even if it was to a rather suspicious person, and, as he had a seat, he stated, "So to say the least, you have some explaining to do."

 

[Rämna Sisters]

After a frantic few minutes Jakub finally stopped running. Faith looked up for the first time, she had been too focused on watching her feet while they fled, making sure she didn't trip on the uneven dirt and cobblestones. She was breathing heavily, her face flushed from exertion, and she brushed aside the strands of hair that had gotten stuck to the sweat on her skin.

She followed Jakub into what appeared to be a quaint general store of sorts. It was the kind of place she would have enjoyed browsing, for it contained all the necessities for a traveling cleric, save perhaps the holy symbols. She didn't have long to look, though, before she was ushered upstairs.

She nodded as he beckoned her to sit, still a bit winded to speak, and gratefully rested in the chair. She took off her thick cloak and undid the top button of her jerkin, just enough to free her neck and let some air in. She didn't dare open the window, and watched the street from behind the glass.

Jakub returned, looking a bit more human without all of his armor, and he had brought her tea. "Thank you very much, sir," she said, taking the cup and having a sip. She immediately realized how thirsty she was.

"So to say the least, you have some explaining to do."

"Yes, of course," she replied, setting the cup down. She gave a heavy sigh before looking at him, speaking clearly. "First, my name is Faith Rämna, and I cannot thank you enough for your aid. If there is anything you require of me, please ask, and I will do my best to repay my debt. Second, what I am about to tell you will sound... very strange. But I promise you, it is the truth." She pulled a small silver talisman from a pocket. "I swear by the Holy Creator."

The air in the room was stiflingly still, and she could feel the heat returning to her cheeks as she spoke. "When I told you I was not myself last night, I meant it quite literally. I am afraid the crimes against that gentleman in the ally and, I assume, the women on the street, were committed by my sister, Melody."

She gave this a moment to sink in as she took another small sip of tea. "The reason those people attacked me is because we share a body." This was where she lost most people, and she continued quickly to cut off any premature questions.

"I am in control of myself during the day, but once the sun sets Melody comes out. Sometimes I know what she is doing, but usually it is as if I am asleep. I do not know what she did last night, but I am terribly worried that she may have hurt people. She is... troubled."

 

[Jakub Bram]

He sat down, getting comfortable as he got ready to listen to her story. She however, looked profoundly uncomfortable, and it only took a few moments for him to figure out why.

I mean, it makes sense, in a way, at least. It would explain a lot of the actions having been taken. But still, it is a rather unlikely and unfortunate situation to be in. He made a face as he thought, saying, “Well... Huh.” As he stood, opening the window to let in some fresh air, it had gotten a bit stuffy.

As he sat back down, he scratched his chin then, after a moment said, “Well, assuming you are speaking the truth, there are a couple of options.” He said, tapping his foot a few times on the ground as he thought. “We can either try and get you out of the city to avoid trouble, which in of itself is risky and likely to cause trouble.” He let that thought hang in the air for a moment, “Or we can try and come clean to whoever those ladies were, and, no offense, and for lack of a better term, plead insanity and try to explain the situation. From there it would probably come down to a matter of proving it.” He sat for a moment, letting her mull that over, “Although personally, they give off a weird vibe to me. The last real option is to simply hide out and wait for things to blow over, probably the least risky. In the end it comes down to your choice. I am personally inclined to believe you for some reason, so if you need to hunker down for a bit or simply need a place to sleep, I’ll throw ya a bone, we have an extra room.”

Rämna Sisters

 

[Rämna Sisters]

Faith was astounded by Jakub’s understanding and lack of questions. It truly was a measure of his character that he accepted her explanation outright, or at least did not immediately dismiss her as mad. On the contrary, he moved right on to helping her further.

She considered the options he laid out. She did not much like the idea of confronting the women that had pursued them. The one in armor had charged with blade drawn, and she didn’t look like she was coming to talk. The other one, in the fine dress, she looked wealthy. In Faith’s experience, wealthy women didn’t tend to take to the streets unless they had a very personal stake in something. Wealth in Alliria meant power, and powerful people could get away with a great many things.

Hiding was the most appealing, but that would be putting this man in danger. She didn’t even know his name, but he had risked a great deal in assisting her. It was very chivalrous of him, if not foolish.

She was about to speak, when she saw the leather-clad woman walking on the street below. She jumped back from the window. ”That woman, she followed us!”

In the shop below, their pursuer entered. She was tall and broad-shouldered, with curly blonde hair and bronzed skin. On her belt was a short sword, which she had sheathed just before stepping through the door. She approached the counter slowly, running haunting golden eyes over the various goods.

”I’m looking for someone,” she said without introductions. Her voice was deep and seemed to carry the burdens of a woman twice her age. ”A young woman. Tall, dark hair...” she eyed the armor Jakub had discarded, ”...traveling with a guardsman?”

 

[Jakub Bram]

He sat and enjoyed the sun a little as Faith thought. Then suddenly, he heard her panic. Following her words and sight, he saw the woman as well, and quickly moved away as well. “Right.” He whispered. “Don’t move or make any sound, the floors here are pretty rickety so we don’t want her to figure us out. My brother is reliable, he’ll talk her off and if necessary I had my helmet on, so they probably won’t recognize me.” As if on cue, walking could be heard underneath them as Jackubs brother left the back room saying, “Fraid’ I wouldn’t know anything about that.” He paused a second, noticing the stare, “Interested in the armor? It’s pretty common, lot of people get it, similar to guard armor so lots of ex-guards gets it. That particular one isn’t for sale, my brother is handy with fixing things see, and if you look the chain mails broken. It’s just in for maintenance right now, it was brought in a couple of days ago. I could point you to the black smith if you like?” He rambled on. He was quick to catch on that something was wrong with his brother right now, and the best bet was to lead her off. So, throw in a long shopkeeper ramble, and with the fact that technically, none of what he was saying was a lie, and she would probably wander off. “If you got any issues with your armor, I could ask my brother to fix it up.” He started, about to continue on another long ramble.

 

[Rämna Sisters]

The blonde woman stared down the shopkeep as he spoke. The footprints outside definitely lead into this shop. Looking around she was frustrated that the store was not full of more breakable things. Armor, food, traveling gear, not exactly the best for an elaborate display.

Her hands rested on the hilt of her sword and she continued to pace around the establishment. "This woman, she's dangerous," she continued unabated. "I'm trying to protect this town. She's hurt people, innocent people like you. Of course she is tricky. No one would be to blame if they were fooled by her at first... so long as they turn her in now..."

She had moved right next to the counter now. "Some very powerful people would like her apprehended. People who would be very grateful to anyone who assists them." Those golden eyes bore into Jakub's brother, looking for any sign of weakness, any indication as to where the pair had gone.

Faith sat tense and quiet. Melody, what did you get me into?

I didn't do anything! It's not my fault I'm better at cards than some fancy broad.

You attacked a man!

He attacked me! That bitch set her goons on me after I... well after I took my winnings.

Melody was lying, there was more to it than that, but her concentration was broken by new sounds from the first story.

"Alright," their pursuer said. "Call your brother then." She drew a short knife from her boot and cut one of the straps on her leather vest. "My armor needs work."

 

[Jakub Bram]

Jackub sat there silently, slowly reaching for a sword in a scabbard nearby. Listening. Below, as the woman talked, his brother slowly laid his hands on a crossbow underneath the counter. He didn’t trust this. He called out though, “Ey bro! A customer wants so repair work.”

Jackub took a deep breath, standing. He held the sword, quickly attaching it to his belt as he walked down the creaky stairs. They would be gambling if he had put his helmet on in time. “How can I help?” He asked, putting on the friendliest face he could muster. “What’s broken, the strap there? Easy fix, just a couple of coins and we’ll be done right away. “

 

[Rämna Sisters]

”Of course,” she said, reaching down to a pouch on her belt. No sooner had she removed the contents that she flung her hand back towards the ground. There was a loud bang and a thick, foul-smelling smoke filled the shop. Hidden by the dark mist the large woman barreled past Jakub and bolted up the stairs.

Faith heard the commotion, getting to her feet. Heavy steps pounded up towards the small room and soon the leather-clad woman had flung open the door. A grin of victory slashed across her face when she saw the cleric, and she drew her blade and charged at Faith.

Yellow light filled Faith’s hands and she put up a defensive ward as best she could, but all she could manage in the short time was a formless shield. It held against the assailant’s blade, but the woman was not deterred. She swung again and again, smashing against the barrier of holy light that had begun to fracture.

 

[Jakub Bram]

They stood, coughing, as they glanced around. They had heard the rickety creaking and quickly followed up. Jackub's brother holding the crossbow as Jackub drew his sword. They quickly appeared behind the woman, Jackub raising the sword to bring the pommel down on her head, to hopefully knock her out. Should that fail, his brother was there with the crossbow, a large piece of wood at the end. It doesn't exactly travel a large distance but it has power and it has enough weight to make an orc keel over. Both of the brothers were cursing, but focused on the task at hand. The only hope was that they could move quick enough before the shield that they had only just spotted broke.

 

[Rämna Sisters]

The shield shattered, breaking away into glittering wisps of light, and the force knocked Faith back against the wall. Jakub’s sword connected with the woman’s head, prompting a roar of pain from her. She staggered, but did not fall. Instead she turned and swung wildly at him.

Or at least she would have, but her arm was caught. A hand had reached out to grab her wrist, holding the arm outstretch. A second later, another hand shot forward and the palm slammed into the back of the woman’s elbow. There was a sickening crack as the arm bent very much the wrong way.

The blonde woman shrieked, dropping her sword. Then, only seconds later, she found herself being grasped from behind and thrown through the window by the very girl who had been cowering before her moments before.

That same girl shook out her arms and pushed her hair out of her face as she looked back at Jakub and his brother with wild eyes.

”Whew! What did I miss?” said Melody.

 

[Jakub Bram]

They watched the woman sail out of the window. “Well, I believe you may have just killed someone.” “I’ll go check if she’s alive.” Jackub’s brother said, as he hurried down the stairs.

After a moment of awkward silence, he spoke, “I’m just going to assume that you are the sister she mentioned, I guess.” He figured this from the vast change in attitude, along with the mannerisms and the suddenly willingness to throw someone out a window. Good thing it was open. “Care to explain what exactly happened the previous night, I guess?” He was still rather unsure on this whole two sisters thing, but he figured he may as well roll with it. He was a little committed now. “Got a half drunk cup of tea there if you wanna have a seat, should still be warm.” He said, as he cautiously sheaved his blade. He poked his head outside. His brother was quickly approaching their former assailant, shouldering the crossbow as he reached out with some medical supplies he grabbed on his way out.

 

[Rämna Sisters]

She peered out of the window from which she had just flung some heavy lady. ”Ah,” she said, nonplussed. ”It happens.”

She stepped back and eyed Jakub up and down, but her face faltered a bit when he mentioned her sister. ”Oh, Faith told you about us, eh?” She looked a little sheepish. Although he seemed to be unusually accepting of the predicament, especially given her violent arrival, Melody worried about what Faith may have said about her. There was a reason that, during the daylight, she was kept under mental lock and key. Faith didn’t trust her, didn’t approve of the things she did. And so what if last night got a little crazy? Most of the time things were fine.

She sighed. ”I was worried that last night wouldn’t be all wrapped up by morning. It was just supposed to be a card game, but, well, you never can tell who’s gonna try to pull something.”

Melody? What happened? And what did you do this time?

Faith’s voice echoed in her mind. ”Uh I just saved our asses again is what,” she said out loud, in what was a very one-sided conversation to Jakub and any onlookers. ”And I was just going to tell, uh, what’s your name?“ Looking at Jakub. ”Well I was just going to tell him the story so listen up.”

She sat, taking Jakub up on his offer and drinking some of the now lukewarm tea. ”So I was playing cards with these rubes and I was doing well. Like, really well. And I’m raking in the coin and they start to run out. Now smart people would stop playing at this point, but no, they just had to get their money back. So this one lady, older gal in a red dress, bets her necklace. It’s got this big ruby in it so I say ’sure.’ Well obviously I win and then she decides she don’t wanna give it up. So I get upset and... well...” She trailed off, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a fine necklace with a red stone. ”I took it. It was mine anyway. But then she sicks her lapdog on me,” She gestured out the window with her thumb, ”So I book it. Some other guy we was playin with caught up to me in an alley though and thought he’d try and get back his coin. Pretty sure I won that fight but that might’ve been near sunrise.”

She took another sip of tea, feeling satisfied that this explained everything. ”So yeah, I’m totally the victim here.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The “lapdog” gurgled in the street. She was alive, but badly injured. She couldn’t stand up, and it was a struggle just to breath. She worked for some very powerful people, and she would make sure they made these people’s lives hell for what they’d done.

 

[Jakub Bram]

He sat, listening. Increasingly the story he was given felt untrue, and if it as true, it was likely omitting a few details. So, he voiced his opinion.
“No offense, but I think your lying to me in some capacity. Either you are not mentioning several things that happened or are just outright lying. Judging from the fact that the ‘lapdog’ came at you with immediate deadly intent, that implies you did something to deserve it. Combine that with the first guy claiming that you robbed him, you certainly aren’t telling me something. “

He sat, ready to jump into action, he didn’t get on Melody trying to run or fight him but it was good to be paranoid.

In the meantime, his brother reached the lapdog. He poured a bit of a health potion down her throat in order to stabilize her. Once that was done and she was still weak he restrained he and quickly removed weapons from her. Then he dragged her inside and up the stairs l, grabbing a nearby chair and tying her to it, then feeding her the rest of the potion and attending to some of the wounds that didn’t heal right away. She’d certainly live and probably be able to talk soon-ish.

 

[Rämna Sisters]

Melody didn't much like being contradicted, and she wore a face of feigned innocence at Jakub's accusal. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean," she said, placing a hand over her heart dramatically. "Besides, it looks like you've chosen your side pretty clearly. Helping my dear sister hide from these folks, are you?" she looked around the small room. "Unless you had something nefarious planned for her? For shame, she's such a naive girl." A comical expression of horror, but it quickly vanished. "Either way, it's probably in your best interest if you help me get away from-- aagh!" She groaned, clutching her head. This time her expression of pain was real, her eyes squeezed tightly shut against the light.

She recovered in a few moments, straightening back up and speaking softly. "Sorry about that, Faith doesn't like it when I'm out during the day. Stay asleep, girl, I am helping us," she said to a blank wall.

~*~*~*~

The woman in leather armor coughed harshly after swallowing the last of the potion. "You should not have helped me," she said to Jakub's brother. "You have my thanks, but I can't protect you." She looked around, "So... why did you help me? What do you want?"

 

[Jakub Bram]

He raised an eyebrow at the theatrics. She certainly knew what he meant. His pondering and her questionable acting was interrupted by a very real expression of pain. He was standing to assist before she quickly recovered. He didn't offer any comment on her talking to a wall.

Soon, the woman in leather spoke, Jackub glanced sideways at his brother, and they shared a knowing glance as he wen't down to brew a pot of tea for the new visitors. Jackub spoke, "Simply trying to get the full story, I have one real solid question for you. What did she." He pointed at Melody, "Do to warrant you charging at someone unarmed being questioned by what you assumed to be a guard? Although I will grant you that, well, I guess the sister here knows how to fight unarmed, but anyways, if you could please answer the question so we can know exactly whats happening." He leaned back a little, trying to give the message that he was relaxed.

He wasn't. He had the overwhelming feeling that both the women around him could and possibly would gut him like a fish the moment he let his guard down. He was about ready to spring up and fight if the situation called for it, and laid a steady hand on the pommel to his sword as he tapped his foot on the floor.

 

[Rämna Sisters]

"She stole from my employer. Tell me, do you know the Maralaise family?" Her golden eyes pierced through Jakub. She smirked. "No, you wouldn't, you aren't nearly important enough. Suffice to say the Maralaise get what they want, do what they want, and if you know what's good for you you'll stay out of their way." Her gaze turned back to Melody at these last words.

Melody made a mean face at the woman. "I didn't steal nothing," she hissed, "That old bat lost it fair and square."

"You cheated the whole game!" The woman retorted. "And when we caught you you started a brawl and fled."

Melody's face tried desperately to hide that she was very guilty of these accusations. It failed spectacularly. "I... listen I... if she's such an important lady how come she's gambling in some pisswater like wherever we were?" She tried to change the subject.

At this, the woman's face turned from anger to what might have been embarrassment. "My lady... enjoys mingling with the common people from time to time." Her eyes found the floor. This was probably a very personal subject. She looked back at Jakub. "I came at her with a blade because she floored three men in the pub. And no one steals from the Maralaise."

Melody looked at the woman, then at Jakub, then back and forth several times. She let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine," she said, and she took the necklace back out of her pocket and threw it at the tied-up woman. "Take it back." She crossed her arms, visibly upset. Maybe it was Faith in the back of her head, but she didn't actually want any more trouble, especially if it would put these two young men in danger. Apparently they had saved Faith, which also meant they had saved her.

The woman looked at the necklace in her lap. "I'm afraid it's too late for that. If I don't bring you to the Maralaise, someone else will."