Happy Ending?

[Amber Brightwing]

OOC: Continued from here.

She mumbled to herself as the ratta walked off. She had patience, a lot of it even at times and although she had a bit less of it with the oversized vermin at the moment, it was still enough not to just fly away. And it’s not like he gave her much reason to be patient either. Why didn’t he just say what he had to say in Vortex? Given that he had been the one to deliver her the offer here as well he must have know what she was supposed to do on beforehand. And what was so bad about giving a number? ‘A nice collection of crowns’ didn’t exactly give her more information then she already had. For a rich man the number of crowns in a ‘nice collection’ could contain about as much numbers as the total amount of crowns a bum would be happy with.

With a sigh she opened papyrus folder. Regardless the reward, it couldn’t harm to give a look at her task was and, but most of all, she didn’t trust the ratta. She had no idea what he would try to do when she bailed the job and that was reason enough to continue for now. He had been able to sneak into her room without her ever knowing and he had been able to find her almost immediately after she had entered Paxia as well. If he could do such a thing once, then he could most likely do it again, and it wasn’t too hard to damage a fae.

Seeing the meagre information provided she gave another sigh. Why couldn’t he just be more clear with the whole thing. She had a picture, a title, and possibly a name – she had no idea what ‘Happy’ could stand for – which was enough to locate and identify the target, but there were several other things that would have been interesting to know. Like if he had any arcanic skill, or maybe body guards or something with arcanic skills. You know, things that could be useful later on. She liked to have as much information as possible about things, because the more you knew on before hand, the less chance something unexpected would happen and the more likely you would know how to handle it if something did happen.

Edit: It seemed that I forgot to copy the next part:

And now? Well she still needed a location to sleep and to drop off her belongings and perhaps after that she could have a look at the location on the paper. Or maybe she could combine the two things. She glanced back at the papyrus. Senior Aedile…

Maybe she could buy a small hovel somewhere. A small attic or something shouldn’t be too expensive and it’s not like she couldn’t afford it or that she desperately needed the money, and chances were good that she’d be back on regular occasions regardless the outcome of the whole dealing with the ratta. Vortex didn’t sell any fae sized equipment after all. And property generally didn’t devaluate in price, so she might be able to sell it back in the worst case.

Having made up her mind she headed towards the Aedile’s office, which shouldn’t be too hard to find with the help of some friendly people willing to give directions.

[Surge]

The Aedile’s building was an easy one to locate, especially given the brightening’s time of day as more and more people filtered through the entryway to buy, sell, and discuss all manners of business in concern to houses. A few quick turns down the winding streets of Paxia, a quick trip across the bazaar and then plunging into the heart of the city, Amber Brightwing easily found her destination as the bronze enamored plaque on the side of the stone structure distinguished it for what it truly was. Underneath the Aedile’s Office title, in curved loopy italics was the name Habby Burfoot, Senior Aedile.

So Happy was a misspelling?

“Serale.”

The words were spoken quickly as the Sprite fluttered in through the doorway, a busy looking Cether behind the desk directly across from the doorway glancing up quickly to check over her presence. To the right was a blonde haired human who was quietly plowing through a load of ledgers and paperwork.

“What can I do for you today?” the Cether waved off his previous customer and shoved a heavy tome to the side, standing up in his chair and offering his hand for a shake as curiosity gleamed in his features.

[Amber Brightwing]

The first thing she did when arriving at the Aedile’s was checking if the address was the same as the one on the piece of papyrus she had been given. If it wasn’t then she must have been given his home address or something, which would save her the trouble of finding that out if proved to be necessary.

The next thing she noticed was the bronze plaque on the wall. Happy… Habby… Misspelling or bad handwriting, who would tell, but it seemed to resemble well enough. Once she had entered the building and she actually saw this Habby person, she was given sufficient confirmation that this was indeed the target she had been given. A Cether resembling the picture, a Senior Aedile and almost matching name. Now all there was left to do was let him die in some way, but first she would look into some housing.

Serale, you must be mister Burfoot. I’m Amber Brightwing and I’m interested in buying myself a new home. You see, I’m going to be in Paxia on regular occasions and since tavern bill can add up quite a bit after some time I was thinking of purchasing my own little place instead. It would be mostly to have a place to sleep and maybe store some stuff and with my size it can be something really small. Some unused attic room or some tiny apartment or something along those lines would be more then enough. And I would like to have at least one window of some kind that I can use as an alternative access.

The city might have some Fae housings as well, but she didn’t necessarily need one of those. As a matter of fact, a Fae sized house might be around other similar houses, which wasn’t exactly something she was very fond of.

[Surge]

The address to the Aedile’s office did not match up to the address Amber had been supplied with, leaving the Faerie to presume that she had indeed been supplied with the more…intimate spots the Cether frequented. Did he have a wife and kids? A sick invalid relative? Perhaps he looked after a few orphans? Unlikely that the Fae cared, but still worth pondering for the sake of simplicity.

The Cether frowned as his hand hung solitary in midair, dropping it finally after a second or two into Amber’s speech, it was quite evident she was not going to shake it after all. Settling back down in his seat and clucking his tongue in disapproval, he murmured inaudibly beneath his breath as he pushed aside a few bits of paperwork and selected the heavy tome that was concealed underneath. “Very well, I’ll see what I can do for you,” he shrugged idly before scanning over the loopy text scrawled out in black ink.

A few minutes passed as he marked pages, flipping through a variety of papyrus parchments until he finally looked up at Amber once more.

“I have a small single-room apartment in the Northern district of the city, near the docks. It’s rather run-down, it’s been out of use for a good number of eras really. Nobody seems to go for the single rooms anymore. I’d be willing to sell it to you permanently for a thousand crowns,” he shrugged before flipping another page. Paxia wasn’t necessarily keen on building new estates for Fae, given that most of the race tended to move in with kin and relatives, or simply purchase a lot of land and construct their homes arcanically.

“I also have an apartment you could rent out if you like, it’s two bedrooms near the middle of the city. Furnished, has a nice overlook of the bazaar. It goes for twenty crowns a cycle,” he added half-heartedly, glancing up to see what Amber thought.

[Duvel]

Edit: bah, wrong account again. And I never noticed he offered his hand either. I should really sleep out one of these days

[Amber Brightwing]

The Fae did care for such trivial things, albeit not much and only to the point where they could possibly be a witness of some kind. But at the moment such things didn’t occupy her mind. Now she was only thinking of the house she was about to buy. And it seemed that Paxia was going to be a tad more expensive when it came to housing then Vortex. Back when she had bought her two room apartment in the good part of town, it had cost her less then a run-down room in docks here. Or perhaps she had just been lucky.

The rental apartment wasn’t really what she was looking for. A quick calculation learned her that it would take fifty cycles or ten months to equal the price of the room. That wasn’t that long and she wouldn’t be able to sell it again in case she no longer needed it either.

How run-down is run-down? I mostly need a roof above my head and a good lock to keep out unwanted guests.

That last thing had only recently become an important issue thanks to a certain someone paying her an unexpected visit.

And it doesn’t have to be a single room really. Do you have any other decent homes in the lower price ranges?

Although she would go for the cheapest acceptable solution , she could afford something a bit more expensive.

[Surge]

Cheapest acceptable solution, or at least option, being tricking him into leaving the ledgers open, killing him afterwards, and taking care of the business transaction herself minus the actual passage of her crowns into his grubby hands.

The Aedile checked over the short description given over the small room, frowning before flipping a page and failing to find any more on it. “It’s furnished, on the top floor of a rather old apartment complex. Most of the rooms, if I remember correctly, on the top floor are pretty abandoned. I believe it has a rather bad leak from the rooftop,” he confessed, shrugging as he turned to look up to her. “Other than that I believe it’s sparsely furnished, bed, counters, a chest bolted to the floor – I haven’t seen the place for a while. There is a nice window overlooking the city of course,” he turned a few pages to check for more information for her other requests. She really –had- came at a bad time in the season, especially near the middle-end of quota, but then that only meant he was willing to wheel and deal with her as much as possible if it came to clenching a final deal before his expenses were due.

“There’s a few other rooms here, near the bazaar. A three-room house, single-floor, with a small garden in front that’s for three thousand crowns,” he didn’t think she’d be spending that much money, but he was willing to elaborate if it proved necessary.

“There’s also a two room condominium you could purchase in the southern apartment district. It has a balcony, large windows, second storey. Really nice district as well, a few local restaurants and taverns about. The Silver Tongue even. That one will cost you one thousand nine hundred crowns,” he nodded curtly, glancing up to see if she wanted him to go on…or no.

[Amber Brightwing]

Definitely the cheapest solution, but unfortunately not very acceptable. First of all there was the witness. Although she could be dealt with it didn’t make things much easier. Second, she didn’t have a clue whatsoever how one took care of such a transaction. Perhaps that could be solved by waiting until the hobbit had done so for her, but even then she was pretty certain that if she’d try such a thing it would end up evidence that would serve as a big arrow pointing in her direction, which wasn’t something she was interested in.

Hmm, I’d rather not pick that one then.

She didn’t like the sound of the Docks much as a neighbourhood to live in that much and a bad leak left alone for too long was never a good thing. Wet wood started rotting or growing funguses. And she wasn’t to certain it would have some decent lock either.

Three thousand is too much, nineteen hundred... Well, I don’t know… It’s a nice place I guess.

She frowned as she thought about it. It was a bit much, but she could afford it. The house was in a decent condition opposed to the first and the location was a better as well. The restaurants and taverns weren’t much of her interest in what they offered, but they do indicated a more peaceful area, which was always a good thing. She decided that she was willing to pay the extra crowns for it, but waited a few seconds longer to see if any more appealing offers came. She didn’t know if Aediles were much like other merchants, working for a city and all, but she figured it was worth the shot.

[Surge]

“Er well…okay,” the Aedile appeared a bit flustered at her rejection to the initial home, that being the lousy room in the docks’ apartment complex. Damnit, and he was hoping he would have sold that too. Cheeks blushing red, he frowned noticeably and flipped through the ledgers again, muttering curses underneath his breath as he hastily began to procure up another replacement.

That was, until Amber voiced her sentiments towards the second house.

“Oh!” he spoke, grinning now as he saw the silver lining in the clouds ahead. “It’s a nice place, honest, decent folk live there and it’s well-patrolled. I, well, hmm. I could let it go for sixteen hundred crowns if that would ease your worries?” he maneuvered the bargain as best he could, well aware that sometimes you had to ease the edges so it’d fit through and make for the perfect deal from time to time. After all, it was nearing the end of quota.

“Habby I’m going to head out for the afternoon,” the secretary suddenly spoke, interrupting the transaction as she stood and began to collect her belongings.

“What? Did you finish your paperwork already?”

“Yes sir, it’s on your desk.”

The Cether grumbled, looking down and, sure enough, there was the paperwork he had asked to be completed. The girl was probably smart in leaving before he gave her more. As the wooden door shut behind them, Amber came to realize that she was alone with the Senior Aedile finally.

[Amber Brightwing]

She didn’t understand why the Aedile was seemingly upset about her rejection. There didn’t seem to be much reason for it though. As she saw it, it was a dump and way too expensive for what it was worth. She probably wouldn’t even have taken it for a lower price. Especially because she could afford something decent.

Sixteen hundred? Yes, I guess that’s an acceptable price.

Three hundred crowns less was a nice improvement for a few seconds of waiting. The Cether seemed to be very eager to have something sold today. She didn’t try to push it any further though as she found it an acceptable price, especially when you compared it to the other option she had been offered.

I’ll take it.

And then suddenly she started thinking about her initial mission again. Whether it was the sound of the door shutting behind her that made her aware that she was alone with her target or having found a place to stay and no longer having to care about it, but her thoughts quickly drifted towards more darker thoughts.

Oh, and I was wondering, do you happen to know what kind of spheres they teach here? You know, arcana and all. Maybe I could start some training here if they have the sphere that interest me.

Although she was rather curious what spheres were thought in Paxia it was hardly her primary objective with asking the question. What had bothered her so far was that she had no idea if the Aedile knew any arcana or not. Because if he did she would have to make sure that he wasn’t in meditation or anything when she cast some spell. If he didn’t… well, that would make things rather easy.

[Surge]

“Very well then. I’ll need to see your Visa,” the Cether spoke as he stood up in his char once more, marking the line of text that described the house with his quill before glancing up and extending his hand for her identification papers. Plopping back down once he had it, he took out two forms of papyrus and began to rapidly scribble down the address and brief description of the home she was purchasing. Glancing from her visa back to the papers, he filled out all lines of script save for his signature, not entirely foolhardy to forget that she still needed his authorization, and he still needed her crowns. Closing the heavy ledger and handing her back her Visa, he withheld the deeds with a small crooked grin.

“I’ll need the money now,” he blandly advised, drumming his fingers along the wooden edge of his desk as he glanced down at the two pieces of paper, one the deed itself, and the other a copy for her to keep. Organization was bliss within this sort of city after all.

But then things got…complicated.

A sudden knock on the door and then someone entered from behind Amber, causing old Habby to raise his eyebrows at the appearance of the stranger, a glimmer of uncertainty entering his eyes. “S-serale, how may I help you?” he asked as another faerie came alongside his previous customer.

This fae was different. Amber could tell it, let alone sense it, as his demeanor was as cold as steel and as impenetrable as stone. Black unkempt hair nigh uncommon for such a lightly toned race adorned his head, his crown, as dark amber eyes regarded her presence with a cursory glance, eyeing her up and down with a flitting smirk. Black wings languidly fluttered behind him, his body adorned in a matching set of midnight-hue robes with the glitter of steel at his side. A needle of sorts?

“Don’t you have somewhere you should be going?” the Fae spat, his voice stern and grave as he glanced at her once more, eyes straying downwards only a little.

[Amber Brightwing]

Here you go.

Without any hesitation she handed over her visa. She didn’t mind him not signing before he had received her crowns either. At the moment she had no intention to rob him from his money – or more correctly, the cities money. His life on the other hand she did plan to take, but that would be done after she had her house. She was just about to take out her purse when they were interrupted.

It would be an understatement to say that she was surprised when she looked around to see who had interrupted them. Black hair wasn’t too uncommon – she had black hair as well – but black wings she had never seen in her entire life. Black wings she had never seen or even heard of in her entire life. Confused she just pointed at his wings and stated the obvious, half questioning.

Your wings are black.

His rude behaviour quickly made her return to her previous self however. Odd how this was probably the first fae ever to be so rude against her and at the same time it was also the first she didn’t feel like pulling out his wings or something. At least not right away, as she was too curious to where he came from and why he was acting so weird. She’d gladly teach him that he shouldn’t be rude once her curiosity was satisfied. Maybe he was sick or something? Or could you dye wings? In any case, she wasn’t about to be pushed aside that easily.

Excuse me, but at the moment I don’t have a place to go. I was just in the middle of the transaction to buy me a place, so if you would be so kind to wait until I’m finished. You are being rather rude at the moment.

She eyed him suspiciously. There was something she didn’t trust about him. Not that she had trusted anyone else in the last pattern or so, but somehow something felt different about him, and it weren’t just his looks.

[Surge]

The Fae stared at her, alluring amber orbs tracing her figure before wandering back up to her face.

“Yes. Yes they are.”

It was a rude response to an obvious question, but then, what else was he left to say? Crossing his arms smugly in front of his chest and glowering at the Aedile sitting before him, he glanced between the Cether and the Fae with a look of impatience written across his face. His right shoe began to tap the invisible force of air just in front of it as he ran a hand through unkempt hair and continued to glance between the two.

“Well! Get on with it then!” he muttered as he continued to float lethargically in midair, hovering in perfect control of his motions. Amber could see the glint of steel clearer now, a metal tube of sorts nearly as thin as a needle. Still frowning, the dark Fae turned towards as his lips curled slightly behind enigmatic eyes. “And I suggest you hurry up.”

Hand trembling slightly, the Cether waited for her to hand over the crowns for the deed.

[Amber Brightwing]

No explanations on the oddly coloured wings. Too bad, she was still very curious and that probably wouldn’t be going away anytime soon. Oh well, she’d just search for him later and beat an answer out of him or something. Or look it up in the library, which would be far less tiring, although far less fun as well. The glance of steel made her consider the last option though. Was he armed? What use was a weapon for one as tiny as a faerie? Wouldn’t he be better off learning magic or something? What a nutcase.

A good thing hurrying up had been only a suggestion, because she didn’t plan doing so. Quite the opposite even. She flew towards the Cether, both to give him the crowns and to stay at some distance from her dark winged counterpart. She hadn’t felt to comfortable about being close to him before and now that she had seen the steel hanging by his side that feeling had only grown. Keeping him in the corner of her eye she started dug up her money and handed sixteen hundred crowns worth of bank notes to the Cether.

Here you are… So, as I was asking a moment ago, do you happen to know what kind of spheres of arcana they teach here?

She noticed the tremble in his hand and wondered why anyone wanted him gone. He seemed to be such a push over. If it had been her, she would have thrown out the fae ten times already. And now that she thought about it, he’d given in quite to lower the price of the apartment as well. She was probably doing the government a favour by getting rid of him.

[Surge]

“I, uh, well. They teach Elementalism at the Academy, and uh…Sorcery too. The Mysticism teacher died recently…pity that…but there’s also a Fae who teaches Thaumaturgy,” the Cether frowned, brow furrowing as he tried to recollect let alone remember just how much he knew about the city. Technically he should have been the most knowledgeable man for the job, especially granted he was supposed to assist others in finding jobs, works, civic interests, and the likes. But that damn Fae fluttering behind her…meh…

“Hey. I thought you said you were hurrying up already?” the black haired Fae asked, a handsome devil, yes, but not necessarily the best mannered. Still languidly hovering in the air behind Amber, unkempt hair dashing to and fro about his head, he was slowly polishing the thin metal tube that had been unlatched from his waist. He had a brown silk cloth in his hand and was rubbing along the end of the tube whilst staring at the Aedile, of which decidedly swallowed hard at the sight of the instrument.

Albeti Amber had moved away, she could readily tell that it was a blowgun of sorts. One of the natural weapons the race had developed, though most weren’t crafted in such sleek silver metal. Dark amber eyes flickering between the Fae opposite of them and the Cether behind the desk, it didn’t take long for a small hand to select a finely crafted dart and fiddle with it for a moment. “I thought I suggested you leave,” he recalled, turning to Amber with a roguish grin on his face.