The King's Gambit (S'Lon and Jorhan D'Athlaan)

[Trinity]

Stephan had to pull out, so it's just you two. =)

So they had decided on Fovart's. Talk to the Vysttichi whom played a very big role in the entire thing -- heck, according to his confession in the Herald he practically could be held accountable for assisted murder! But because of his confession, the Watch had apparently not arrested him. The Shvakkim was where he would be located, like always.. Dwelling inside his established business, minding his own and just making some crowns to keep himself alive with.

The Shvakkim was kind of quiet that morning, with not many people out and certainly not a lot of people in the Blacksmith's. As they approached, they could both see a little tuft of smoke coming from the rooftop, the evidence that Fovart's furnace was rip-roaringly started up at the moment, even this early.

The entrance through the door brought suprise to their greeter's face. The tired Vysttichi looked up and grunted, almost the same time that Fang, his dog, did. The old hound got to his paws and lazily clambered over to them, dragging his paws slightly with no signs of irritation -- but then again, no signs of the whole 'happy to see them' like most dogs tended to have when a foreign person entered their home. He gave a few sniffs as his owner got to his feet from behind the counter and rested his elbows on it, giving a big yawn before addressing the pair:

"Serale... and Welcome to Fovart's Blades and Bows.. Eh, forget the formalities. What'd yeh want?"

White strands of hair drifted into his face as he tucked them back away angerily, seeming to taunt him. Irritation flashed in those dark violet eyes, a customary hue of pupil for a Dark Elf. He had folded his hands together and crossed one foot over the other while he waited. The only sounds in the room after Fovart ceased to speak were the crackling of a furnace, which backed up to the stairs that led to his little apartment overhead, and the sniffing and/or panting of Fang as he sat in a sleepy state, looking at the Ranger and the Sea Elf in mild confusion. But it didn't take much to confuse such a silly animal, after all. His brain size was like, what, that of a peanut?
Fovart's quite possibly could be that small too. But no one ever dared to ask him just how much of a brain he had and how much he actually used of it. Some decisions (like letting assassins on to your rooftop) just were not smart choices, were they?

[Jorhan D'Athlaan]

Well! This was certainly not what he had expected as a welcome at Fovarts. According to all that he had heard about the place, the first thing one could expect on entry was to almost have his throat ripped out by the dog, followed by a verbal mauling from the proprietor.

Maybe he’s feeling bad about what he did with the assassins. Can we use that remorse to our advantage? “Serale Fovart, I have need of a good quality hunting knife with a wide blade about twelve inches long and a sheath for it. I have heard that your store is the best place to come for high quality weaponry, not just in town but in all of the Sherian, so here I am to buy the best whatever the cost!”

He hoped that the mention of being prepared to pay slightly over the odds if necessary would pique the interest of the vyssie behind the counter enough to make him listen to the other questions, which would come after the transaction for the knife had been completed. Jorhan hoped the tired looking man would need to go to the back of the store to get the knife as this would give him a chance to discuss with S’Lon how best to broach the subject of the killings; something they should really have done outside the store before entry. Still. If they had to wing it, that’s what they would do, after all, any further information they could get from the smith could be vital in discovering the whereabouts of the killers.

[S'Lon]

The walk down to Fovart’s with Jorhan had been a quiet one, both of them lost in their own thoughts. He could not speak for the elf but the thoughts were running in circles in S'Lon’s head. He had jumped into this situation with both feet and with the best of intentions, but now that they had started he had to admit to having little idea of exactly what they were going to do or what questions they were going to ask.

He followed Jorhan into the familiar surroundings of Fovart’s shop with decidedly mixed feelings. They had the agreed strategy of Jorhan opening with the purchase of a knife, but, ah! How to move the conversation on to the events of that past yet so important day. He had experience of the Vysstichi before and was distinctly unimpressed with the the chances of bullying anything out of him, even with threats of the Thanes displeasure, after all, officials from the Guard would already have questioned him.

He listened to Jorhan’s opening gambit and wondered what was to happen next.

[Trinity]

The Vysttichi Elf regained his composure and gave a little sneer as Jorhan spewed compliments. Fish-Elf, that's all he was. Gilled at the core and loved the water and surface to boot! Surface dwellers, geeze. Fovart shook his head and replied with a bit of well intended sarcasm, "You're too kind." Hunting knife. How much did he charge for those again? Oh yeah, it was a little over the regular amount for a normal, mundane knife. Thirty crowns sounded good to him. Wasn't some big weapon anyway.

"Hunting knife's gonna cost you Thirty crowns, Fish-man." He replied, looking around him to see if he had one up front. Blast, he'd had to leave a Sea Elf and a little human in the front of his store, unattended. They'd better not take anything.
With a quick glance to his dog, Fang, he said:
"Fang, watch 'em. I'll be right back, need to get it from the back." Then, his eyes laid on Jorhan and on S'Lon for a second, before he turned his back and went off into the store room to find the knife for Jorhan.

Fang gave a little whine and lifted his head, sniffing after Fovart but too lazy to get up and follow. The dog stood up for a second, spun in circles to stomp his bedding back down and plopped back down on the pillow he was on, the only thing that seperated him from the floor.

Shuffling could be heard from back there, and the occasional clang of metal as swords were moved and unworked metal cast aside. Even the outright cursing from Fovart fell in murmers down into the main room. For the moment, though, Jorhan and S'Lon were alone and probably had enough time to converse in haste before Fovart returned.

[Jorhan D'Athlaan]

Well, they’d got their few seconds away from Fovart as he went out back to collect the knife, a chance to discuss tactics without being overheard. Except by the dog, who didn’t look the most intelligent hound ever begat in this fair port.

“How do we approach this man? I suppose he must be greedy, after all he took the money from the assassins in the first place.” He was more musing aloud than talking to S’lon at this point but since his experience of this sort of thing was nil, he was willing to listen to any ideas the ranger had. “We have to decide whatever we decide quickly though as I don’t suppose it will take him long to find the knife. It is probably a toss up between trying to ‘persuade’ him by rough tactics or maybe offering a reward or bribe for information.”

He thought about the way the man had called him fish elf and bridled a little, he would have enjoyed trying to rough up the store owner but didn’t think that was appropriate given that they were working for the Thane. “It certainly doesn’t seem as though buttering him up with flattery will have any effect!”

Jorhan waited for any input S’lon may have, keeping one ear open for the return of Fovart.

[S'Lon]

S'Lon had been amused by the way the two elves had interacted and having experienced Fovart’s brand of humour before he had been prepared for the way he had needled his companion. “Well, now you have met him you perhaps can see why it was not easy before to discuss an approach. I must admit that although I know he must have some information that we need, I am at a loss to suggest how to extract it.”

“Tempting though it must surely be, rough tactics as you describe them I suspect I think will end with us in trouble. Fovart after all is an important member of the community, and he must have influence somewhere else I would have expected us to be interviewing him in the gaol.”

“He certainly has a great deal of pride in his work, and maybe that’s an alternative approach but I can’t really imagine how we could link that with the questions we need to ask.”

He scratched his head and thought for a moment. “I suppose that really we could simply ask what we want to know, perhaps with the authority given to us by the Thane, but to be honest I suspect that we will end up with bribery.” He smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

[Trinity]

Fovart soon returned from the back just as S'Lon had finished having his say with Jorhan with the blade. He laid it on the countertop in front of Jorhan and motioned toward it, indicating that he could inspect it for himself to see if it was to his liking or not. The Vysttichi glanced toward Fang in the corner for a second and asked the dog, " 'Cha what 'em real good, Fang? Hah. Good mutt." What a watch dog, lemme tell ya.

Turning back to the 'Fish Elf' and his friend, the Dark Elf made sure to inform Jorhan that he could take a look at the blade before coughing up the crowns, so to speak.
"Make 'em real good, I do. You ain't satisfied, I remake it for yeh. Go 'head and look at it, Kid. Even if yeh ain't skilled with a knife, I swear it ain't gonna bite yeh."

Sitting down on his stool, the blacksmith crossed his arms and watched the two for a moment. Since when did a Fish Elf bring a human companion in with him, and he didn't speak up? Did that one want something from him too? Maybe he'd scared him into not talking or summat. Served him right, too! Human knew his place, that was a good and rare thing amongst his kind. Fovart's ebony complexion broke into a sly smile and he threw his head up in the direction of S'Lon, as if to point at him with his chin and eyes, or something.
"Yeh, Human! 'Cha want summat from Fovart too, er yeh jus' 'ere to keep the Fish company?" Perhaps he was a fisherman and this was his catch, haha! Ah, Fovart always amused himself. Well, sort of. It didn't take a lot to amuse him, honestly.

He'd left the door to the back room open slightly, and the two could see that there was indeed a stairwell that led up to a bedroom on the second floor, and then quite possibly the roof. Probably the same stairs used by the 'CoI', whatever that stood for, to get to the top of the roof and do the asassination in the first place. But how were they going to drag information Fovart probably had not revealed to the Watch out of him? How did you even ask someone like this guy about things like that? Hmmm...Well, S'Lon and Jorhan were indeed about to find out, by trial and error at least, now weren't they.

[S'Lon]

S'Lon sighed to himself as Fovart could not resist keeping up with the baiting and now had expanded it to include himself. He had little experience with Vysstichi prior to his stay in Narim, but it was becoming clear that even one as supposedly civilised as Fovart just couldn’t escape the traits that made them so despised among the races. It was annoying that he had not taken longer to find the knife as there had been no real chance for discussion but then how much time did it take to find a knife?

The smirk on Fovarts face began to irritate him and he realised that it was going to be even more difficult than he had expected to get anything useful out of Fovart. It was all a game to him and whatever tactics they employed, he would just play along and then twist it at the end out of spite. If they paid him, there was no guarantee that anything he said could be relied upon, probably the contrary as taking their money and misdirecting them would keep him amused for the rest of the brightening.

Without a chance to confer with Jorhan he was going to take a chance with a different tack and see if his sometime partner would catch what he was doing and play along.

“Yes, I want something” he said slowly and in no particular hurry. “Since you ask, my reasons for being here are relate to you.” He met the Vysstichi’s gaze and locked onto it – for this role he was not going to take a back seat and he was not going to let the dark elf dictate the conversation either. “If you had been looking out of your windows here a short while ago, you would have seen myself and my colleague here having a long and interesting conversation with the Thane and the Chief Constable. I’m sure you will be delighted to know that the main subject of our conversation was you.” He walked forward and placed both hands in front of him on the counter and leaned in slightly.

“It seems that your name is attracting a lot of attention just at the moment,” he lied, and if anyone thought that this lie was a whopper then the ones that were going to follow it were going to be in a different league altogether. “Our dear Thane seems to be still rather upset that someone was careless enough to stick arrows in his Prefect and he is rather keen to find out who did it. I’m guessing that you think that just because the Watch did not arrest you before that you are off the hook, but all that Baldor has been doing is giving you some rope and now the time has come to see how well you have tied it around your neck.”

He leaned back from the counter and dropped his hands onto the hilts of his Sai. “Your arrogance is misplaced, and the problem with assuming everyone else is stupid is that you allow yourself to make stupid mistakes, thinking that no one will spot them.” He took a few paces to the side and glancing towards Jorhan, who by now was probably wondering what was going on, he have him a wink. Facing back towards Fovart he pinned him with a stare and resumed his point. “Lets look at the facts of that day shall we? The tale you told the Watch was that a group of men persuaded you to allow them on the roof and that you were gullible enough to think there was nothing suspicious in that.” He paused for a second to allow that to sink in. “But I’ve seen nothing about you to make me think that you would allow any group of strangers into the private areas of this building and even if you did you would certainly not leave them alone. But then they weren’t strangers were they?” He stated.

Not allowing time for a reply he pushed on. If he gave the dark elf time to think he might give him an edge and S'Lon wanted to push him a long way in the hope that something useful would be uncovered. “Something else interesting that the Chief Constable told me was that all the arrows that were recovered carried your mark, and that mark I know well as its on the arrows and bow you sold to me. I’m guessing that when we find those responsible for this outrage then we will find that the bows were supplied by you too.”

He leaned on the counter again and so brought his face a little closer to Fovart, hoping that his nerve would hold long enough and wondering if it was going to be possible to intimidate the elf. “So, what happened then, did you offer them bows and arrows in case they got bored with standing on your roof admiring the view?.”

“The more that your tale is investigated the less likely it becomes. Now we have a group of hooded and armed strangers standing with your permission on your roof killing the Prefect with your arrows fired from weapons supplied by you. You see, the one really big problem with your story is that they never left your roof by the stairs but left by magic, and a group that could leave by magic could just as easily arrive by magic. Its clear from the way they acted that they were very cautious about being recognised, which tells us that they were people who could be recognised and why would they take the risk of wandering the streets and talking to you when they could have just appeared on your roof?”

Going for the kill, he put the pieces together. “The reason its taken the Chief Constable this long to take action is that its taken time to check out your story of this group of hooded strangers arriving in your shop. And its very strange as the Watch can find no one else in this part of Narim who saw such a group in this area or enter your shop. The truth, Fovart, is that there was no group of hooded strangers wandering the streets, instead the group met in your shop, didn’t they? They weren’t hooded and they weren’t strangers when they arrived and I would guess that they may well not have been armed either, since I’m thinking that they are not all the sort of people who are normally seen carrying bows around Narim. That’s why you allowed them onto the roof and the question now is just how involved are you?”

He stood back up straight and made his closing points. “Its clear that you are deeply involved, but what Baldor wants to know is whether you will tell us what you know or whether he will need to send in the Watch to arrest you. This is your only chance to come clean without the whole town gossiping and linking your name to the murder, which is what will happen if you are arrested. So… what do you know and who are these CoI?”

He continued to hold the gaze of the Vysstichi and wondered what would happen next.

[Jorhan D'Athlaan]

Jorhan picked up the knife and looked along the edge, it certainly looked like a good blade, although how much he actually new about knives could be written on the back of a five crown note in letters three inches high. As he was examining the blade, he heard S’lon begin to talk to Fovart, telling him that the watch and the Thane had taken a big interest in his part in the Prefects assassination and that they were on the point of arresting him!

This was news to him but he assumed that it was a plan to try to get the vyssie to talk. He listened to the way in which the young ranger was playing it and tried to decide the best way to help. He could back everything that S’lon was saying or he could offer an alternative, maybe trying the old good watchman-bad watchman technique.

The options were difficult to weigh up and he decided to wait a little longer before joining in at all; if S’lon got the answers by the line of questioning he had adopted then he would be largely redundant. If it didn’t work, then he could maybe offer the embattled store keeper a way out in return for information, claiming that the Thane had empowered him to cut a deal.

It may not work but would at least give them another option if required. But for the time being the Thelyri would bide his time and see what happened!

[Trinity]

Well, Fovart was definately not expecting this. As the human barraged him with accusations and threats, the man's eyes widened considerably. He had no part in that mess! He only let them use his roof! Fovart had no involvement in this stupid CoI.. Thing! Heck, Fovart hated what they stood for! By the time S'Lon was done, Fovart was fuming. Fuming and angry. So angry, he wasn't thinking too clearly about what he said and was probably very, very vunerable to dropping hints he conviently did not tell the Guard.

"Look 'ere!" Fovart bellowed in retort to S'Lon, staring him down in the eyes, hands about a foot away from the human's. "I admit that I knew 'em, okay? Yeh, Yeh I know Breon, got a problem with it?! He frequents meh store, goot customer! He comes in one day, says Fovart, I need ta get to yeh roof. Now yeh I did question 'em, feth! Er I was gonna, but then he slipped me some crowns an' I shut mah mouth, alrigh'?! I know tha' was wrong, but I'm a sucker fer coins, alrigh'?!" Fovart took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. Yelling at customers was not a good thing. But this.. this whelp, he was not a customer. Curse him! May Jalat take his soul from where he stands. Argh!

"I may have supplied them arrow, I don' know. The insignia ain't mine, thou'. I'm ta believe they carved it themselves, goody goodies. That's what they are, high and mighty goody goodies. How'd he leave, by Arcane means is righ'! Don' yeh people know anythin'!" Fovart threw his hands into the air in exhasperation, bringing them back down roughly on the counter with a loud... Thump!

"Take a gander fer a second. Know much 'bout Arcana, kid? Maybe your fish friend does. Pop Quiz, boys! Wha's a spell in the sphere of Sorcery that can transport a mass group of men? A journeyman can do it random-like and a master can do it with percision, Kids. Learn up on yer spells! Geeze." Wait. He'd just dropped a piece of information that he obviously hadn't told the guards in his report. That was the second thing he'd said that hadn't shown up in the report. But did they pick up on the other one..?

"Tha' group o' good-do'ers always wearin' their cloaks! Think it some replacement fer the billow part o' the robes, I guess. Not the same color robes now, nope, Maybe they try to hide it. I Dont. Know." Finished Fovart, and then finally finished cooling off. He'd dropped a lot of information in his angry rebuttle to the false accusations. That wasn't good.. But it might have given Jorhan and S'Lon a basis for more questions. Or information that they needed. Perhaps they could pry just a little further... But who knew how much further it would be until Fovart just up and decided he had enough and made them leave?

"Now, yeh gonna pay fer tha' knife or don't yeh like it?" Asked the Vysttichi, sending his glare towards Jorhan. It wasn't an angry glare at the moment, an exhausted one yes. A tired one, sure. Irritation? Definately. But Fovart was now too irritated and agitated that S'Lon had accused him of all that nonsense to have the energy to be angry. After all, he just kind of exploded it a few minutes prior... And something told him.. Something said, Fovart, them kids are gonna pry further.
And somehow the Vysttichi was pretty sure that was true.

[Jorhan D'Athlaan]

Jorhan counted out the money for the knife and put it on the counter. “It is an excellent knife, and I am very pleased with it, thank you” He was trying to digest the information that Fovart had let slip in his tirade against S’lon and wondering how best to use it. He’d definitely said that someone called Breon had been involved and that he knew the man well, so he would be known by others in Narim as well presumably.

“It must be hard to make a living selling the odd hunting knife at thirty crowns a piece I suppose, that’s why the money from your pesky, cloaked do-gooders must’ve come in handy. Presumably you’ve sold them enough weapons to form a small army, which would swell your coffers nicely, then took a nice hefty bribe on top to allow them up on your roof fully armed!”

He paused for a second and turned to S’lon “I wonder how the Thane will equate these so-called do-gooders with the cold blooded murder of his Prefect. Certainly doesn’t sound like a particularly pious action to me!”

Turning once more to face the vyssie he thought about the fact that he had said the spell which …teleported? the group off the roof was one which was practiced by a master sorcerer. There can’t be many of those in Narim! Jorhan however didn’t know anything regarding sorcery, and didn’t know who might practice it in the town. He hoped that S’lon knew more about the realms of arcana than he did, but that would need to be confirmed by the young ranger.

He thought about the other things the smith had let slip and could only remember one more thing, although the significance did not make itself apparent immediately. The cloaks were a substitute for robes! That was surely a clue but how did they get more details out of him? Who would wear robes anyway? Monks? Scholars? They certainly didn’t sound like assassins but what were assassins like?

“Why would these assassins wear robes Fovart? Not the most fitting attire for a gang of cut-throats! Eh?”

[S'Lon]

S'Lon had paused to allow Jorhan to reply since Fovart had directed his last comments to him and perhaps now that Fovart had dropped his guard a little a change of approach might keep him off balance. His original tactic had worked as well as he ever could have hoped and it appeared that he had caught Fovart completely off guard. The flow of information had come so fast that he suspected that some points had passed him by, but with luck between them they would catch anything important. He had to privately admit a certain relief when Fovart’s attention was taken off him and directed towards Jorhan, there were certainly a few moments where he wondered if Fovart was going to attack him and in hindsight cornering him in a shop full of weapons was perhaps not the safest of things to have done.

He listened carefully as the Thelyri launched his own assault on the unfortunate shop owner. The tables certainly had been turned in a fraction of a candlemark and the cocky, yet surly vyssie could certainly never have expected this when he had opened up his shop that morning. He surely had thought that he had escaped any involvement or consequences from that distant brightening.

As Jorhan spoke he quickly ran through what Fovart had said to see if there was anything missing. Breon, he got, though who he was and where he could be found was quite another matter. Interestingly Fovart seemed to be quite familiar with the insignia since S'Lon did not recall mentioning that it was carved on the arrow and as far as he knew it was not common knowledge. He had hoped that Jorhan would also pick up on the Arcana since it was something that S'Lon knew nothing about but since he didn’t S'Lon would have to wait, though perhaps it was tied up with the robes.

He puzzled it for a moment; do-gooders, arcane and robes. He was sure they could get some more details on names and locations but he would be happier if they could cross check those against what had been already said. He really didn’t want to go away and allow Fovart time to put together a story. Back to his puzzling he wondered what sort of groups it could cover – perhaps religious would cover it nicely but somehow it didn’t seem to fit since such groups were often part of the power hierarchy so perhaps it was some sort of guild instead – oh well time would tell.

For now he had nothing to add and settled for a glower at Fovart while he waited for his answer.

[Trinity]

Fovart returned S'Lon's glower for a moment's time before snapping his attention back to Jorhan in an angered moment. Well crap, he'd let slip the thing about robes. Yeh, he knew what Breon used to do for a line of work. Didn't need to tell these punks that, though. He could bluff through it...Right? Of course.

The comment about him letting fully armed men onto his roof annoyed him. How do you tell someone is fully armed if they are wearing cloaks? Things can be hidden under fabric, blast them! Oh well, think what they want. Fovart was only guilty of accepting a bribe. And, not being a government official, accepting a bribe was not a bad thing and was perfectly normal and alright for a shop keeper. At least, he would tell himself that. Why shouldn't it be? Hmph!
"Y'know, y'her too much of'a wise guy, Fish. Why would asassins wear robes 'ee says, Fang! Why would asassin' be wearin' robes..." Fovart was walking around, shaking his head and making a few hand gestures while watching his dog. It only looked up when the word, 'Fang' was spoken, wondering (more than likely) if he was going to get fed or something.

Fovart spun ninety degrees and slammed his fists on the counter, looking at Jorhan with a good bit of irritation in his eyes. He didn't blink as he spat the words out.
"They weren't always asassins, alrigh'? Not at all. Went that a'ways because their line 'o work was too bland okay?" Fang whimpered in the corner. Fovart looked up at him and barked his name. "Fang!" The dog got to his paws and lumbered back behind the counter and then through the storeroom, laying at the foot of the stairs. Jorhan and S'Lon could still see him there.

"Now, I haven' an idear what it was they did before hand, mkay? Breon neva' mentioned it. Jus' told me was from 'is las' line o' work. Wanted me to match the fletching on the arrows to the color of some stupid sign that was stitched into them. I don' know what it meant. An' dat's Jorel's honest truth, alrigh'?" Fovart was very irritated now. He stamped back a few feet and crossed his arms.
"Yeh got yer hunting knife, Sir Sea Elf. If dere be nothin' else fa' ya in me store, I'll be askin' yeh take yeh leave." And there he stood. What would they do, press for more info? What else could they do? They had some information, but nothing that would lead them to a different location yet. Oooh this was a pickle wasn't it...

[S'Lon]

So…. This was how it was going to be played? S'Lon watched the Vyssie as he responded to Jorhan’s questions and his defiance strengthened S'Lon’s resolve. S'Lon’s hesitancy and reserve drained away and with it went any remaining nervousness leaving him with an icy control. Clearly they had allowed Fovart too much thinking time and now he thought that he was back in control of the situation. Perhaps it was time to disabuse him of that notion. They had a couple of facts and that was a whole lot more than they had when they came into the store but nothing really that would leave them anywhere.

It seemed that they had nothing to lose by staying and pushing for more and certainly they had no reason to leave since that would leave them completely at a loss as to where to go next. There was some risk that Fovart would set his dog on them and S'Lon guessed that he had already tried to intimidate them with the beast. It was a risk to consider and pushing a Vyssie too far could have that effect, but on the other hand Fovart did not know that he had been shall we say stretching the truth about the Thane and Constable ordering them to investigate Fovart and it would be a bad mistake for Fovart to attack representatives from the Government. Well then, lets see if the situation could be stretched a bit further.

“Leave?” He asked, eyebrows crawling up his forehead, and glanced over to Jorhan as if to see if his ears had miss-heard him. Returning his gaze to Fovart, he straightened himself up, appearing to be unimpressed with the closed stance the Vyssie had adopted. Coldly he looked at the Vyssie and stated: “I’ll leave when I’m finished, unless that is you are coming with us?” He paused for a moment to let the question sink in and then continued. “And if you’re coming with us then I suggest you find yourself someone to look after your dog for a few days, and you had better forget about any business you had in that period. In fact you might well forget about your business at all, because once you are installed in your new quarters in the dungeons then it may well be that the Thane might forget about you – you know how it is, sort of out of sight, out of mind as it were.”

He sighed with resignation and shook his head in sorrow. “It seems that you have not been listening to what I have been telling you, have you? It’s been twenty cycles since the Prefect was assassinated and no one has been caught yet. The problem is that its taken too long, its not as though this was some back street assassination, it was done out in front of everyone. Not only was the Prefect killed but the Aedile was nearly hit and the Thane was also targeted. If they weren’t interrupted, then who knows where it would have stopped. The Constable and the Thane are becoming laughing stocks since they can’t catch the people who did it. Unless they can parade the person or persons responsible out in public then the whole city is going to fall apart. The time has come where if the Thane can’t find the person who did it then he will settle for someone else. And since even you admit that you were involved, who do you think the most likely candidate for that is going to be?” He sighed again and returned his gaze to the Vyssie. “Who do you think the public will believe when the Thane points you out as the person responsible, its not as though your race has a good reputation, now is it?”

Twisting the dagger he added, “and of course don’t forget that the Government seems to have developed a taste for repossessing shops that the owner no longer has need for. In fact, I guess the only reason you are still in business is that you are the only weapon smith in the city at the moment. On the other hand, balance that against the Thane’s own survival and I think we can both guess which way he will decide.”

He dared not stop, for to do so would allow Fovart chance to get a word in edgeways. But despite the pressure he continued to deliver his words slowly and with icy precision. “Now, I don’t think anyone wants that to happen but we can’t help you unless you help us. When I leave here this brightening, either I will leave with the information I need or I’ll leave with you and then it will be between you and the Thane.”

“Lets start at the beginning and this time, we won’t forget those little details will we? Now there are a lot of little things you conveniently forgot to mention. Lets start with who exactly is this Breon, what is this organisation he used to belong to, what’s this new scheme he’s got running with its coloured insignia, who is in it with him and where will we find him? Oh, and while you are at it, why don’t you tell us more about how you seem to be such an expert on the Sphere of Sorcery and how it relates to the transportation of a group of men?”

It was tempting to attempt to appease Fovart but it seemed a bit early for that given the way that he had responded before and once they had some more information perhaps they could reward Fovart with the coin that he seemed so obsessed with. S'Lon himself had a need for some more arrows for a start and a good price might go some way towards soothing Fovarts ruffled feathers.