Fable - Ask What's in the Box?!

[Alexios Marxan]

Sometimes mercenary work wasn't as lucrative as he hoped it would be - sometimes he needed to go and chase his fortunes by alternative means. Usually this meant he went into some underground fighting ring and threw a key fight to rake in some highly rigged winnings but sometimes he got suggestions from some of his less-than scrupled contacts. They offered good money but the tasks were usually quite a bit more dangerous and, in some cases, downright stupid to attempt.

But their money was always good.

Robbing an auction house in Oban had sounded like a bloody awful idea and, so far, it was about as bad as he had expected. Their goal was a lockbox that held a jeweled tiara and a septer. Apparently they were relics from... somewhere important historically, Alexios honestly hadn't paid much attention after the price for the two items had been revealed.

Seriously - that was "holy shit" levels of money for two shiny old things.

Getting into the auction house hadn't gone too badly and grabbing the lockbox had been fairly easy. The problems only started when they got out onto the streets and suddenly half of the local guards had been alerted. Hence why they had gotten a river boat as their getaway vehicle but he was beginning to regret that since the lockbox was heavy enough to be slowing the boat down.

Muttering angrily at the head of the riverboat, Alexios was trying (without much success) to break the lock on the box. If they could dump the box then they could get away quicker. The team had originally had four members, including himself, but two of them had been killed getting to the boat so it was just him and the last remaining member of the team who was steering the boat from the back.

Without looking away from his work, Alexios held a hand out behind him.

"Hey!" he snapped out to his partner, "You got the lockpick? I think I'm ready to try this..."

Unfortunately for Alexios, his partner was dead, having taken several arrows to the back a few bridges back from the pursuing guards. It was only the river's natural current and the body propping up the steering that meant the riverboat was still moving in the right direction. Fortunately, however, the guards were caught up trying to get their own boats so he had... some time before they were on him again.

He waved his hand, impatient for the lockpick.

Charlotte Beaufort Caliane Ruinë

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie never liked to miss an opportunity.

She had risked being in town to get a new pair of boots when the commotion had started down the road near the auction house. For the first few moments Lottie had the unique opportunity to be one of the crowd as they watched the guards start after what looked like a couple of figures clutching a box. As usual the rumour mill had already started and she had soon heard six different stories about the reasons why a couple of no goods would be attempting to steal some of the crown jewels that had once belonged to the Princess Izania who had sacrificed her own life in the war against the hoards of the steppes.

"They say she had a face that could break a thousand hearts," said the man who had been serving Lottie, passing over her new pair of boots with a small shake of his head. "Who would steal such a thing?" Me, the highway woman thought and her eye lit up as she took the boots from him, slinging them into her pack. They would take a little easing in but she had paid extra for the nice supple leather.

Once she was done she slipped off through the crowds and headed towards the river; it made the most logical sense as a getaway point from here in the city. Of course it was also one of the most stupid with the Griffin knights that patrolled the waterways. Lottie was curious to see how the fellow thieves would get out of it and what was a visit to the city without catching a show?

Sure enough as she hopped onto the top of the famous seawall she saw the two men tumble into a riverboat.

"Ooof," Lottie followed them with all the grace of a cat, shaking her head when she saw the arrows go through one of the poor men. That was when her eyes landed on the box. She wondered just how much they were worth, probably the bigger than their sisters last haul for certain. "You know what would look nice with those new boots Lottie? A new jacket," she mused to herself as her fingers danced about the handle on her whip which sat coiled against her hip. Lottie went from a casual stroll to a sprint to pull herself alongside the boat and then with an areobatic move that would have really pleased her ballet tutor she landed on the riverboat with a gentle rock.

The man in front of her had his hand out towards and she looked behind her at the lock pic in the now dead mans hand, and passed it to him.

 

[Alexios Marxan]

With all the commotion and all the shouting of the guards, Alexios could be forgiven for not hearing the death rattle of the man he would call accomplice... and not much else. He hadn't really known any of them well enough to actually know his name.

Honestly why would he have cared either way?

Taking the lockpick offered to him with a grunt of thanks, he twisted and raked at the lock with a combination of the lockpick and the point of his dagger. He groaned a little bit as he eased at the lock.

"Almost got it..."

He glanced over his shoulder quickly.

"Make sure to hang a right up here."

Pausing in his work, he turned back around from the lockbox to notice that his partner in crime was dead and a woman was there instead. Staring at her for a long moment, Alexios decided he might as well be as honest as he usually was.

"... how do you not creak with all that leather on your legs?"

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

"Wax, keeps it supple," Lottie leaned on the rudder to keep them going in the direction he suggested. Her voice and mannerisms were casual and relaxed as if she hadn't just appeared from nowhere and as if there weren't still guards after them. It wouldn't be long, she wagered, before the Griffin Knights were darkening their little boat with the shadow of their wings. "But I've found it's worth it, leather is a lot better at protecting you from arrows than linen," case in point, dead henchman number one. Lottie flourished a hand towards the body.

Her eyes flicked up towards the river ahead of them. If they kept going straight they were going to end up sailing all the way to Alliria which was not something she imagined her sisters would appreciate her doing. There were no offshoots to the Straight so they would need to find a way to moor and escape across land if they wanted to not be an easy meal.

"I assume you have some sort of plan?" Hopefully one that wasn't stupid. Lottie had met plenty of other thieves in her time as a highway woman and she knew smarts were a rather hard commodity to come by.

 

[Alexios Marxan]

Wax huh?

Neat.

He was getting leather-care tips from a dominatrix, whip-using, streetwalking acrobat? Was that it? He... he honestly had no idea what was going on right now but the important thing was that she hadn't tried to kill him yet.

Though with all the leather he was about 80% sure that if she did try to kill him it would involve her trying to crush his head with her thighs. Seriously, the amount of wax used to prevent chaffing would have been expensive!

"... usually I'm wearing steel." he admitted with a tilt of his head, "Actually armoured, you know? Sucks for water though."

Some sort of plan?

Oh right yeah, the plan.

The plan that he and his accomplice would have used had said accomplice not gone and been so rude as to die. Really rude that but he would let him off he supposed - being dead and all. He went back to working on the lock since it needed to be open for the plan to work.

"Right so the griffins will be coming soon and that's good - we want that." he explained even as he raked the fuck out of the lock, probably ruining his dagger's edge for life in the process, "I need you to tell me when it looks like they're ready to dive in to swoop us up. When they do that, shout me and for the love of every God that's ever fucked a virgin as a swan - close your eyes."

The lock clicked open and he whistled as he took out the tiara and the scepter - golden with diamonds and sapphires set in them. He tossed the tiara over his shoulder at her.

"Catch."

He'd look stupid with a tiara but a royal pimp-cane? That he could style.

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

"We... want the Griffins to catch us?" Lottie sounded dubious as she looked back over her shoulder. There was no flutter of wings as of yet but she could hear the sound of horns from the city. It wouldn't be much longer. she turned back to her new companion just as he threw the tiara at her. It was an automatic thing to snatch it out of the air and she turned it over curiously in her hands, an odd expression passing over her face. The fact if she was caught she would be wearing one of these day in day out was not lost on her. Oh the irony. She placed it on top of her bouncy mouse-brown curls.

"Flashy getaway gear," she glanced back over her shoulder and sure enough, she spied two of the beasts launch themselves into the air and give chance. "Well here we go, I hope this plan of yours actually works," doubt crept into her voice but... but she wanted to see what he was planning on doing. Lottie of course had her own ideas should she have the need to escape and as she already had one of the jewels... well.

It wasn't long before the shadows of their wings darkened their boat.

"Now!"

 

[Alexios Marxan]

Did he want the Griffins to catch them? Of course not, that would involve being grabbed by talons and shit and that sounded fucking awful. Why would anyone want that? He was sure that a dominatrix acrobat like her met a lot of masochists but that would be a step too far even for that special kind of kinky, surely?

"Nah we just want them within sight of us."

Closer would be ideal but he knew that he was going to have to take what he could get at this point. He looked over his shoulder and nodded to himself even as he started to call upon his magic. Centering it in his left hand, he wrapped his right arm around her waist to pull her in close to him.

He stared at her even as he molded the magic in his left hand behind his back.

"Remember what I said about closing your eyes?" he asked with a grin, "I probably also should have asked if you could swim."

With her warning, he closed his eyes tightly and thrust his left hand above them. The spell ruptured around them in a sphere that kept them safe from the flames but expanded outwards in a rush. The fire alone would have caused the griffins to rear back but the bright, blinding, white of the fire meant that it actually worked like a flash-bang, burning their eyes as they tried to look at the two thieves.

Dragging the woman, and the tiara on her head, with him he dove into the water of the river as the ship crashed and shattered, hiding the noise of their submersion. Sinking due to their combined weight and the weight he had been carrying in his pack, he opened his eyes and grabbed hold of a length of rope.

A length of rope they had planted a week ago near the bottom of the river with submerged air barrels along the length of the rope. Dragging his accomplice with him to the first air barrel, he spoke quickly to preserve the air they had left.

"I've blinded them and the debris will make it look like a desperate spell gone wrong - the dead guy will give them bits and pieces enough to think we're dead too for long enough to get away." he told her quietly, pointing, "The guide rope takes us along the bottom of the riverbed to where it connects to a service tunnel. You coming with or you got a better idea?"

A better idea now that he had basically stranded her with him... he would be impressed if she had one honestly.

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

"Woah, hey now bucko," Lottie pressed her palms against his chest and pushed as he grabbed her about the waist in a surprisingly firm grip. Her smile and blase attitude was quickly disappearing in favour of a frown and an increasing possibility he was going to end up on the wrong end of the back of her hand. "At least buy a girl a driiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink," the highway woman found herself going from pushing him away to fisting her hands in his shirt and pulling him closer as magic tinged the air and then exploded about them. He had been right about closing her eyes. The light was painful to look at even for a second and she found herself not only shutting her eyes but burying her face in his chest to further block out the white light.

Frigid cold replaced burning heat as he threw them both into the water. There was a second of panic in the confusion and Lottie managed to scrape an lung full of air into her chest before she found herself submerged entirely. There was probably a thousand questions she should be thinking of but the main thought that was swirling about her mind as he guided them down to the bottom of the river was how she couldn't believe she was going to have to try and save her new boots so soon after getting them.

Lottie came up coughing and gasping into the air barrel, allowing him the time to talk. When he asked if she had a better idea she looked at him with rising fury.

"Surprisingly enough, no, I don't have a better idea for how to get out of a river," she shoved the tiara into the inside of her sopping coat. "I do have a place we can hang out afterwards though."

 

[Alexios Marxan]

He was amused by the way she was glaring at him all the way through but, despite that, seemed amenable to the idea of him getting them out of the mess he had gotten them into. Though if she mentioned that he would be very happy to point out that she was actually the one to JUMP into this situation with both feet.

There was probably a lesson there about looking before you jumped but what did he look like? A teacher? She would figure it out on her own or it would all work out - and he really wanted it to all work out.

He grinned a little bit.

"Sorry Princess, not your idea of a good first date?" he taunted her, "Come on, let's get moving - I don't like being this wet."

Pulling himself along the guide rope, he continued along the riverbed, popping into one more air barrel before he pulled himself into the service tunnel, hidden behind the wood of a couple of ships and part of a side dock. Standing further into the tunnel he sighed, out of sight of any of the griffins or regular guards as they tried to captured the blinded griffins and uncover their 'bodies'.

He twirled the scepter in his hand idly as he waited for her accomplice to extract herself.

"So I believe there was mention of your place?"

As he said this he pulsed with fire magic, warming himself and almost entirely drying his clothes as he did so. He reached out a hand to offer the same trick to her. Not because he was being nice but because two dry people were hardly going to be accused of being part of a river-based explosion.

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Up until the whole thrown into the river part, it had actually been like quite a few of her first dates. She sighed with a roll of her eyes and then followed his lead along the riverbank. It was actually quite a smart getaway plan. Lottie couldn't help but make notes as they went along for her and her sisters own heists in the future just in case there was a need. They tended to stick to the forests outside of Oban but there was always the odd occasion someone in the city thought they recognised them and they had to make a quick getaway.

Once she had pulled herself out into the service tunnel she tugged off her red frock coat and attempted to wring it out. Her whole body was shaking as the cool air hit her through her wet clothes so when he offered to warm her up with his magic she didn't protest.

"Yes," one last shiver ran through her even once she was dry and she put her red coat back on, hugging her arms about her. "This way," Lottie knew the city like the back of her hand, excusing the cliche. She had been raised here, had torn through the streets to escape nannies and chaperones and had then been raised in them when her sisters had taken her out of the gilded cage she had once lived in.

They were already on the outskirts so it didn't take long to lead them from the city proper and into the woods. She set a seemingly random route through the trees, stopping every now and then to check a mark in a tree before heading off in a slightly altered direction. After a good half an hour of walking they finally came upon a camp. As far as camps went it was quite the good set up and had clearly been in place for quite some time or set up by people who were used to living in the open.

She cupped her hands about her mouth and made a very good replica of a birds call then paused to listen. Shrugged.

"My sisters are away so your chances of survival are strong. Tea?" Lottie moved over to the warm campfire and the pot that hung there.

 

[Alexios Marxan]

Alexios wanted to keep twirling the shiny stick thing (scepter) for some reason but he was smart enough to know that even those who hated the guards would rat him out for being that blatant. So he kept it under his clothing, hiding it as he warmed her up with a touch of his hand and a flare of his magic.

"Lead the way."

He was not saying that just because he got to watch her arse as it tried to stay inside the constricting leather. But he wasn't going to lie and say he didn't notice and appreciate the sight - just that it was secondary to the fact that she actually knew what she was doing.

Honestly he wouldn't have even noticed (or cared) about marks on the trees had it not been for her. The camp they came across was nice... it suggested that the people who camped here did so at least fairly regularly and were rather neat and tidy.

Raising an eyebrow at her birdcall, he paused when she mentioned her sisters. That was either a threat or the beginning of a porno and he wasn't a delivery scribes so he was thinking it with the former. Sitting down on the ground, he groaned a little bit as he stretched his back.

"Tea, coffee, whiskey, the blood of a virgin... whatever you've got that'll get rid of the 'just escaped' come down."

Adrenaline was a lovely thing while it was there but when it went away it absolutely sucked. He idly spun the scepter around his hand again.

"So - did you expect that when you jumped in my boat? Or were you hoping for something else?"

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie opened the lid of the kettle and then set it back down.

"Gimme a sec," she threw her jacket over a nearby chair and then disappeared to one of the hammocks, rummaging around underneath it. There was a series of curses and then a triumphant noise as she found what she was looking for; Blanche's homemade meade. The girl drank like a fish and Wren had tried to stop every night becoming a drunken one by setting a limit on the alcohol that was in the camp but Blanche always had extras tucked around.

"I apologise for how strong it is, my sister makes it and she doesn't consider it strong unless you choke on the fumes," Lottie passed him a glass and then sat down on one of the wooden folding stalls that dotted the camp. She took a small sip and grimaced until the burning faded. Considering the three were the daughters of the most famous wine maker in Oban she was always impressed at how bad her sisters was.

"In truth I don't know what I was expecting, a bit of adventure maybe. I was definitely curious how you planned to escape on the river considering the Knights," it seemed like a fools gamble but it had paid off for him - for her too in the end she supposed. "The name's Lottie by the way."

 

[Alexios Marxan]

When she went to collect something, Alexios took the opportunity to look around the camp in more detail. He didn't know where they were and that was a bad thing if this woman decided she wanted to try and kill him. Alexios was, understandably, very against the idea of himself being attacked.

But when she returned with alcohol he was actually a little bit more relaxed. While he couldn't say for sure where they were, he had a rough idea as to what direction the city was in so that was good enough.

For now.

"Your sister is a woman after my own heart." he joked as he accepted the drink, sniffing it once before immediately recoiling as he felt several dozen of his nose hairs suddenly die from the strength of the smell alone.

He blinked a few times.

"... alright yeah that's much stronger than my usual fare. But I'll learn."

Taking a drink of the alcohol, he managed to keep himself from coughing it back up but it was a near thing. It hit even stronger than he had expected. His eyes watered a little bit as he shook his head, suddenly feeling a LOT more awake, like he had taken a shock to the testicles.

"Yeah we... we had a big discussion about exiting the city when we planned the heist. They wanted to go by road." he shook his head, "But I veto'd. No way to get out of a chase on the roads without causing mass casualties to distract them."

He didn't know her well enough to know that he didn't want to kill people because it would have been inconvenient to him in the future. Not because he valued their lives at all. He raised the drink in toast to her.

"Pleased to meet you and your thighs Lottie." he joked with a grin, "I'm Alexios. New around town - anything to do for fun around here?"

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie smirked when he took a sip and nearly choked. Blanche's tastes in alcohol were a required thing but she had been drinking it since she was a young girl and had gotten at least somewhat used to the fact she couldn't taste anything else for the day following drinking it. At least it hadn't been the moonshine she had found, that would have knocked them both out cold.

"Probably wise - there's a lot of highwaymen in these parts too and you might have lost your treasure to them," like her sisters who most definitely would have taken the opportunity to rob a fellow robber. Her eyebrow rose at his comment on her appearance and she rubbed a palm self consciously over the tops of her thigh, her lips twitching into a small semblance of a smile.

"Pleasure to meet you too, Alexios. I take it I get to keep the tiara?" her sisters wouldn't find it amusing at all that she held the crown she would have been wearing anyway if she had gone through with her marriage to the Prince and not run instead. Lottie would though. "Well, it depends on your idea of fun. But from your activities over the past few hours... well then yes I suppose there are plenty of things to do for fun," she took another sip of her drink. It didn't burn as much this time. "Plenty of fun things to steal, people to annoy. It's a land of plenty. Where are you from if not Delradia?"

 

[Alexios Marxan]

Yeah being robbed would not have been a good ending to this little story. He wasn't above robbing himself but he was very against being robbed himself - which totally made sense to him. If he had stolen something himself he didn't want to have his hard work ruined by some other thief after all!

He chuckled a little bit and when she palmed her thighs he gave her a very deliberate wink - after all, his comment on her thighs had not been a bad thing. Like at all. There were better ways to die than highway robbery and those thighs were much higher on his list.

But best not openly say that for now.

"Yes you get to keep the tiara - I was mainly here for the scepter." he twirled it in his hand again, "Some dusty old book said this thing was supposed to be enchanted but I'm not feeling anything."

Laughing a little bit, he tried the alcohol again and managed to avoid making an ass of himself trying to drink it. It was, in fact, rather enjoyable once you consigned yourself to not feeling your tongue for a few hours or tasting things for probably longer.

"Might stick around if that's the case." he admitted, "The company is good so far and the takes are big. Me though? I'm from Elbion originally, never stick around for long though because I'm a mercenary by trade. What about you and these sisters of yours?"

He smirked and shook the drink.

"Wine makers or something?"

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie took the tiara out of the pocket she had stashed it in and slowly turned it over in her hands. It was fine craftsmanship but not something she would be able to pawn this close to Oban, she would either need to travel a few cities over or break it up and sell it in parts. With Blanche's metal bending magic it would be easy enough to do.

For now she put it on her head and sprawled back in her chair, legs kicking up to drape over the arm of the wooden chair.

"Can't help you much with enchantments I'm afraid - I know a few people you could ask but Elbion seems a better place for that," Oban has much stricter with their laws on magic. Her lips kicked up into a smirk as she watched him sip at the booze some more and then when it got low she topped it up once more.

"We're all from Oban itself," she twirled a lock of hair about her finger and watched it spring up after letting it go. "Blanche fancies herself a wine maker but I don't think she would make a good one... at least... not for taste. I think they would have to put limits on how much someone drunk," she laughed.

 

[Alexios Marxan]

She had the tiara in her hand, playing around with it and he couldn't exactly say anything about it now could he? He was spinning his loot around in one hand, she was entitled to stare hard at her tiara. Fifty fifty loot splitting meant you lost the right to question what people were doing with their half in his eyes. Sure others might think differently but he had his honor... even if it was a weird sense of it.

He frowned a little bit but shrugged.

"Too much to hope for that the woman who literally jumped into my lap mid-heist, who had a hideout ready and waiting, was also someone who could appraise my supposedly magical loot." he admitted with a laugh, "That would have been way too contrived, right?"

Alexios had to admit that, having tasted the alcohol in question, he was damned sure whoever made it should not be put in charge of making alcoholic drinks for people. Shaking his head a little bit, he looked around them.

"Don't suppose you know of any good landlords in the city?" he asked with a joke, "Got good contacts or something if I decided I wanted to make for residency?"

The richest city this side of the world... he could do worse for places to live.

"Elbion - I'll check there, thanks."

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

"Way too contrived," Lottie answered with her own laugh. She barely knew about her own gifts let alone how to sense magic in other things or work out what they did. Her magical education had been limited growing up as a woman in a kingdom it was outlawed for women to possess such skills. Still, she was quite curious what it could possibly do. "I would probably get it far away from here if you're planning on selling it, as quickly as possible. If it does have magic they'll be wanting it back. Magic isn't really all that common round here," she grimaced. Especially not in men. If the Prince discovered he was missing something that gave him more power? Lottie shivered at the thought.

"If you're wanting to stay, there's plenty of prime forest real estate," she swept her hands around the camp and put on her best salesman voice. "Or there are some lovely hovels in the slums in the city itself! Of course, if you sell that pretty sceptre you might be able to get something with windows," her lips kicked up at the corners into a smirk.

"I would offer you a hammock but my sisters aren't crazy on men hanging around."

 

[Alexios Marxan]

Yeah trying to sell the thing this close to where he had stolen it was just asking for trouble and, despite what people might say about him, Alexios didn't go looking for trouble. Case in point the stupidly sexy thief and highwayman.

Or was that highwaywoman?

It didn't matter - what did matter was that if and when he decided he wanted to move to this place as a base of operations he would have someone he knew. Someone he could call on for... well not so much a favour so much as offering to owe her a favour. He didn't think she'd go for the idea that she owed him a favour for him saving her from a predicament that he had caused.

She would probably violently object and so would the mythical sisters he kept hearing about. He chuckled a little bit.

"Oh I aim my sights high." he assured her, eyeing her lightly with a laugh, "When I come back here I'll have to invite you up to my lovely apartments or something... whatever this thing will actually buy me."

The trouble with fencing stolen goods was that you could never get even close to it's true value. He hummed a little bit.

"There's a story there - feel like sharing?" he teased her lightly, "What's so bad about men that would prompt your sisters to contemplate using stabby things on me. Aside from my roguish charm of course."

Seeing that the fire was close to going out, Alexios moved over to it and stuck his hand into it. Working with his magic he stirred up the embers to keep burning using his magic rather than traditional fuel. It would work for a few hours. He pulled his unblemished hand free and took another drink.

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

"I'll look out for my invite in the mail," Lottie chuckled. The company was surprisingly pleasant compared to what she could have ended up with when she jumped onto that boat. It had been a risk, a toss of the coin as to whether it would be an adventure or certain death. Perhaps both. Aside from getting soaked everything else had gone pretty well. She placed the tiara on her head amongst her mousy brown curls and then put her hands behind her head, stretching her legs out towards the now ramped up fire with a sigh of contentment.

"I guess," he wasn't from around here so there seemed little risk in it. "We're from quite a good family and you know what happens when a rich man has loads of daughters and no sons, sell off to the highest bidder right? Well that didn't sit to well with my sisters so they left and took baby with them," she grinned and took a sip of the drink.

"The rules around these parts aren't exactly women friendly; no magic, limited education, yada yada. Hence the frowning upon men being around. Well, it's mainly my oldest sister who doesn't like 'em, Blanche - who made this lovely concoction - is usually too drunk to care," Lottie laughed.

"What's your story then?"

 

[Alexios Marxan]

From a good family huh? Must have been nice. His father used to tell him bedtime stories about how his family had once been bigshots but given it up in order to pursue a lifestyle they wanted. They had wanted freedom and so they had given up whatever vague power and influence they had had once upon a time... and now Alexios was using that same freedom to try and claw himself some power and influence.

Funny how circular history was sometimes.

"Ah I get it." he actually did and it wasn't a practice he really approved of, "We claw our way out of the tribes selling daughters for goats and call ourselves civilized when we sell them for shiny gold coins instead; civilized indeed."

Looked like she hadn't taken it lying down though so good for her. He raised an eyebrow.

"So you did all that back there without a lick of magic?" he hummed, "That's honestly pretty impressive not going to lie."

He knew that he often relied on his own magic a bit much in some cases. She wanted his story? Raising an eyebrow, he decided to humour her.

"I'm a mercenary mostly - I kill people for money mostly for the money and sometimes because people just really, really, need killing if you get me? Just looking to advance myself." he smiled as he took another drink, beginning to feel it actually hitting him, making his somewhat dizzy now, "Wasn't born with a crown or jewels on my head but if I get my way... I'll die with them on my head."

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

"Jewels and crowns aren't all they are cut out to be, least like this you have freedom," Lottie smiled. Once you started moving up in the world people expected things from you, looking to you for things. There were social ques and ways you needed to address people. It was a whole other game and it was exhausting. Lottie wished him all the best of luck in that new world and wondered how long he would last in it.

Least he had picked one of the richest kingdoms to do it in, she guessed.

"Not sure I could handle the mercenary life. Killing isn't really my style if I can help it, it's far more fun when people remember a short woman robbed them blind," a grin etched itself across her face. She had been in town when people had spoken of her antics and how they attributed her work to a band of fearsome men. It always amused her their pride was actually the thing that meant nobody had come close to catching her yet; nobody was looking out for a trio of women on the highways.

 

[Alexios Marxan]

At least he had his freedom?

Spoken like someone who had never known that the cost of the freedom to be free from judgement meant the freedom to starve. The freedom to never be certain your landlord wasn't going to rent out your home out from under you while you were away working. The freedom to know that if a noble decided you looked at him the wrong way?

You were fucked.

"Having nothing isn't a freedom - it's a prison. Chains that hold you down and people that sneer down their noses at you your whole life." he smiled at her with a tilt of his head, "You chose this life, this freedom. Me? I never had a choice Lottie. Maybe I'll get a crown, jewels and some real Fuck You levels of money and influence and find you were right - but I want the chance to make it a choice I can decide to make, not something thrust on me."

Nobles and intellectuals had scorned him for saying even that little amount about his true thoughts on the matter. He doubted that Lottie would do so however - but equally he wasn't sure she would be able to fully understand. She was the inverse of what he wanted to be and that gave some understanding but she would likely never see the world as he saw it.

As a game, a competition, that he refused to lose.

"Killing's just another skill, you get used to it until you can practically do it in your sleep." he admitted with a shrug before laughing a little bit, "I get the impression you've wounded the male pride of many a man in that city, by yourself and with your sisters. If you can swing it so I don't lose my junk to an angry sister, I'd be interested in pulling some jobs with you."

He had some ideas on how to make the money he needed after all.

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie snorted at his last remark.

"I don't think anyone can guarantee that, even the whole Griffin Knight Battalion. But, I would be happy to do another job or two with you if you end up moving to this neck of the woods for sure," she laughed and took another swig of her drink. She doubted anything short of divine intervention would ever stop Wren from trying to peel the skin from any man who spoke to her little sister. She was more protective of her than her parents had ever been.

"So I guess you have more ideas to plan your way to the top over here?" she still didn't think he was entirely flying by the seat of his pants.

 

[Alexios Marxan]

Ah a conditional acceptance of his offer of another team up! He was happy to have received such considering how much he was going to be doing in the area. There could always been something he could do and he looked forward to showing Lottie that he was more than just a "fake your death and swim away" kind of guy.

Usually there was more blood than she was likely comfortable with though so there was that. He would likely have to plan around her inclusion to either minimize the bloodshed or, more likely, limit her exposure to it. It wasn't like he wasn't happy enough to do it himself after all.

"I've got some plans, aye." he agreed with a bright smile, "A little blackmail... some favours to do for people... evidence to disappear for others and, of course, some thieving."

He spun the scepter around.

"You know the phrase 'go big or go home'? Well I'm not going home so instead?" he laughed a little bit, "I'm planning on using every dirty trick in the book I know to get what I want. Never had a seat at the table before - so I'm going to take the whole fucking table."