Random 99

"Was that a promise?"

Sylvie blinked, only belatedly realising how that could be taken. After a little sigh she said, "A promise to worry later."

He smiled. "Good." With that, her in his grasp, he turned down into that little alley that was becoming so familiar by now...

Sylvie tried to return to the present and concentrate on current problems. The first thing that came to her mind was that it would be really bad if they had misjudged Jon and he would turn against them. She didn't think it likely, but with the surprises about the Gold Coin and Montmore fresh in her mind, it was worrying enough. Quite apart from the practical problems, the more you trusted someone, the worse betrayal was, and Sebastian seemed to like the old man.

Looking at the half-elf as he opened the back door to the shrine, she found that the idea he could be putting on an act for her, which had unnerved her yesterday morning, felt more like academic speculation now.

Inside, she greeted Kord, and dropprd her backpack against the wall near the door.

"Took you a while," Kord said gruffly, sitting at the table with a cup of tea and scones in front of himself. By the smell of it, someone had made them or bought them just moments earlier. He smiled broadly at Sylvie but only nodded to Sebastian. "News?"

Sebastian, having fallen quiet, decided to move Sylvie's backpack to where he'd stashed his previous satchel before; just under a counter. Then he settled to tending the fire. "Some," he said sourly.

"Some of it good, some of it bad, and some of it weird." She stretched. "Should I try to wake Auker?" That was directed mostly at Sebastian.

"Best I do it. We've still some time," Sebastian said, glancing at Kord. "If you want the good and bad and weird summed up, it's that one of the secular authorities caught up to what we've been looking at once both Sylvie, Auker and I started prying."

"Oh. That's good," Kord said, then noticed the look the half-elf was giving him. He looked askance at Sylvie; why did Foxglove appear so miffed?

"Montmore's behaviour was irritating." She had another guess or two, but that might do. "It would be nice if someone could explain to me at some point how many authorities there are, and how they relate to each other and the clergies. If it's important." She checked how much tea was left in the pot.

Plenty, as it happened. Kord put on a confused face. "Well, by law, each set of clergy has some say, but the authorities... who knows? Ramend and Smiling Jack's would. I only deal with ones concerned with poachers most of the time. Why?"

By that time, Sebastian had left the room, humming some alien melody.

"I think of them mostly as those who uphold the law. Which might not be entirely on our side. That shit he does you had no idea how to, remember?" She poured herself a cup of tea. When a sip showed it to be not too hot, she drank half of it.

The giant opted to stare at Sylvie for a while, grinning. Yes, this one was feisty and very much worth a proper marriage. "Yeah, I remember. But there's two kinds of laws, divine and down-to-earth. In my case it's sometimes both, see? But like I said, I only know a bit about the bureaucracy. Don't have to deal with them too often unless one of the folks gets so drunk they can't even tell some lordy's stable isn't their own stable." Kord leaned back in his chair and fiddled with his glasses. "So that runt is uptight because of secular folk barging in?"

Staring past Kord's shoulder, Sylvie said, "I'm not sure, that's why I asked about those intersections. Maybe it was that Montmore treated him like a research project, like a rare animal. Not a person." She looked Kord in the eyes and tilted her head. "Have you ever used the name he chose for himself?"

It seemed it was only now that something clicked in Kord's mind. "Wait, Montmore's government? Huh. Fancy that. Auker's been singing his praises," the man said, sipping his tea and staring at Sylvie admiringly as he thought over his next few words. "Pointy? He hasn't indicated which he prefers. Anything I call him, he seems unhappy with."

He set the cup down. "I don't know why Montmore would treat him like a research project, but rare animal, sure. He is rare, in terms of we usually don't see his like around -- no offense, but fey people and ones who work for the gods are rare. As are people who work for gods, but that tyke?" Kord shook his head. "Don't know what to make of him." Or you.

"Agent representing the city, region and country, Montmore said. And Sebastian said what he calls himself earlier today, right in this room." Her voice was soft, and her smile melancholy. "Think an animal likes when people poke it with sticks to see how it reacts? Shit, for an actual animal, research often ends with being cut open to see how their body works, hide tanned for display. It's creepy to treat a thinking being like that."

The words sank in for some review inside Kord's brain. "I'm not even sure what he is, honestly. He's not human, that's for sure," the man said by way of explanation, "but I didn't figure there'd be cutting up of the body unless for the purpose of food." The big man looked a little out of it, though he still thought he didn't need to afford anything akin to respect to the half-elf.

Sylvie looked flabberghasted until she realised the "cutting up for food" comment was about animals, not Sebastian. She took a deep breath. "I don't see how human or not human matters. He's clearly a person. Nobody gets to chose their parents."

"Nor family, yes, but I expected him to be a big man about myself and on the older side. That? Hell, I was never told he's that strange until the Marm told me who to look for."

Sylvie took a sip of tea and smiled. "You do call him the Old Lady's eldest son. Gods seem to be bloody damn strange."

"Not my place to judge them," Kord said, shrugging like a country bumpkin ought to. At that point there was a fair bit of screeching and cursing from another part of the shrine. "Wonder who he got her to wake up," Kord mused out loud. "Last I saw, sister Auker was out cold like the dead."

"Whatever it was, it worked."