Random 43

"Smacking Ludovic in the face in front of other people?"

He grinned. "Maybe in private, then. That isn't such a bad idea after all, now that I think about it."

She answered very quietly, "Very straightforward. Very straightforward way to get into serious trouble, too." If he'd been trying to shock her, he could finally count coup. "Just how-" she broke off as at least one way to stop Ludovic from involving authorities Sebastian insisted on avoiding occurred to her, and slipped into her mothertongue for a clipped, undirected curse.

"Possibly," Sebastian said. "It is straightforward."

Then he paused and spent a while looking at her curiously. "Pardon?"

She'd finished eating while brooding and being watched. Waste not, and all that.

"Means I need a break. Loosely." Very loosely. "Let's leave." She was worried someone else might overhear in here.

"All right." The swashbuckling type sighed and glanced at his plate, then got up. On the way out he waved to the proprietor. The half-elf didn't seem the faintest bit bothered by any curious looks he might have gathered from strangers.

Just outside he put on his hat and looked left and right. He wasn't going to poke Sylvie just yet. He decided to give her some time to speak or do something else until the next crossing of streets.

He tossed his smuggled pastry to a wet dog huddling in a doorway.

Sylvie linked arms with Sebastian and kept silent, most of the time not looking at him. She tried to calm down enough to form a question that would make sense, or an explanation. It was slow going.

All right. Give her some time then. Sebastian did -- he could very well tell there was something going on. It would have been awkward to say something. So instead he concentrated on just walking and watching the rain, listening to its noise. He had almost grown tired of it. Care for what you wish and all that.

Eventually Sylvie came up with, "Sorry, but that was a bit much." She explained quickly and evenly, "Back home, the difference between a break-in and randomly attacking someone may be between some months of trouble sorting things out and afterwards having to build a new life from shambles, and an execution. You'd have thought I'd noticed I'm not at home anymore. Anyway, what did you have in mind there?"

To that Sebastian replied with a nod. Yrn suddenly sounded like a far more dangerous place... or more ordered? "It's fine. I've been expecting some kind of conflict of ethics or morals ever since we started." Pause. "But I don't know what to do yet. I've been debating the choices with myself. You must have guessed that I didn't exactly leave his accommodations empty-handed. Not that I found anything immensely useful. Some embarrassing things, yes, but nothing that pertains to this particular catastrophe. Ideally that would, well, really mean that we start with Langoll, first. We need proof, don't we? The best we can get out of the Sabas is words." Or written confessions, but he didn't want to get heavy-handed.

Yet.

"I saw the letters." Morals aside, she figured that at least no-one apart from Auker and her even suspected Sebastian, or something would have come up. He hadn't exactly tried to keep a low profile today.

And as to Langoll, well, that would be more relying on luck. The sudden switch back from talking about crimes on their side to collecting proof startled her into a hiss, not quite deciding between a chuckle and a sigh. "Damn, you're giving me a headache."

"I'm sorry," he said, both gently and the faintest bit cheekily. The cheekiness drained away. "I get that a lot," Sebastian concluded and watched a dead rodent drift down the slightly sloping street.

Sylvie didn't comment on that.

Next stop was picking up Ayu-Asra from the Shrine. Sylvie would rather have left him there until tomorrow, but she did not want to do that to anyone.

When she entered the Shrine's kitchen in front of Sebastian, her headache got ever so slightly worse.

Auker was lying stretched out on her back in front of the fireplace, the dragon curled up on her stomach, both sleeping soundly. Papers were strewn around the room, letters, on first look mostly whole, and some shreds and half pages from a book.

Sylvie hung up her cloak and started to collect the papers, noting not particularly careful handwriting and a certain lack of columns and numbers, guessing it had been a diary. Most of the book was still holding together, and had fallen under the table.

"Oh," was all Sebastian said when he surveyed the damage and guessed exactly what had happened. He started collecting the bits too after putting away his outside wear, shaking his head. Of all the things that little pest had to go and do things like this.

He was a fair bit nervous that Auker might have read the diary and far more concerned that Sylvie might read it. When he spotted the rest of the book, he reached his hand out for it with a frown.

He guessed that Auker had drank another bottle of wine. It occurred to him that, despite everything, Auker seemed strangely fit despite the amount of food and drink she consumed. He really did have to ask her about her past.

What she happened to pick up in a place that was bright enough to catch some words was the top halves of two pages that had not been facing each other when the book was still whole. The left page was a sort of comparison between two women, or, more precisely, certain physical charms and skills they possessed.

Sylvie straightened up with the back to the fire and held the page up so it was in the light that fell over her shoulder to read the right side. It held some speculation about a different woman, as well as griping about her playing hard to get. Sylvie only understood about half the names she was being called there, but judging from those she understood, it was a sign that Ludovic was no complete fool he had never used any of them to her face.

Sebastian got up, holding the rest of the diary. He had no way of telling if Ayu-Asra had trashed the pages talking about Sylvie, but -- what was she reading? The half-elf blinked and, finding himself incapable of doing anything else, walked next to Sylvie, diary in one hand. The half of his face that was visible in the firelight looked both serious and concerned. Not a sound.

Sylvie's eyebrows were raised, but mostly she looked tired. Quietly she asked, "That is Ludovic's, isn't it?"

"Yes," he said just as quietly, realising suddenly that this woman scared him on some level. It was a lovely thought.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. With a "I'm not surprised" she handed over the pages and letters she had in her hands to Sebastian, and went to check if any had flown past Auker.

One of the dragons' heads looked up at them for a moment, yawned, and settled down again.

He really hadn't wanted her to see that. Sebastian crushed the pages inside his fist and thought for a moment, unable to stop himself from frowning. A glance settled on Auker, but he really couldn't blame her -- drunk as she probably was, if the wine bottle next to her was any indication. The half-elf sighed and set everything down on the table except the crushed pages, shaking his head. He wasn't sure if he should have blamed the Lady Luck this time.