John
Tiny Vik
Delekou, Araedia

"What?  Not a bottle?  Not a cup?  Not even a drop?  This is ridiculous, if I may.  I'm to be under the impression this is a bustling port of this country, a country that trades with Terresol; and you haven't a single serving of Rebeburg Mead?"  Vik was standing on top of his barstool, his palms against the counter, as if threatening to leap over it and search the bottles himself.

"Sorry, kid.  Haven't had any shipments from the Dwarves in years."

"How dare..."  Vik clenched a single fist, and Tiddlywinks meowed, "What are you asking?  I'm clearly still wearing my shirt."

"*Mraow*."  Tiddlywinks said.

"Inside joke with who!? I'm your only friend!"  Vik raised his hands in exasperation, "You're confusing sometimes."

"Uh...," The Bartender said.

"Oh, you.  I forgot you existed.  A bottle of the house white and three bowls of stew at that table."  Vik pointed over his shoulder, grabbing the wine and tankard when they were brought out.  Skipping again, he returned to the trio, and set the bottle and mugs on the table.

"Here you are!"  He turned to Arin, "I also asked him to bring us a meal my friend, something not salted and from a ship barrel."

Lo, did Vik realize, the stew special was salted carp delivered fresh this morning off the ship.
Loretta
Levi Cortez
Araedia

*"I love you, Aleqar." Levi smiled warmly in the faint light created by the small torches that burned along the walls of the hidden compound that the Eclipse called their home. Aleqar ran a soft hand down his face, and he leaned into her touch.

"My feelings for you are inconsequential, for I cannot act on them. I am the leader of the Eclipse, and you are one of my men. It is hard enough being a woman leading men, much less if I show weakness by being romantically involved. Just know it is for the best, Levi, that I do not show you anything no matter what I am feeling." A small tear ran down Aleqar's face as she looked into his bright eyes, and as she opened her mouth to speak again Levi silenced her with a kiss, a small one, quick enough to go unnoticed by the guard at the door.

Aleqar looked at him again, this time her eyes were filled with anger, but there was a hint of sadness behind them. As he opened his mouth to say sorry she clenched her jaw, before catching him in a lover's embrace. THey stayed like this for hours, before they both fell asleep.*

*"A coin?" Levi woke up early the next morning, but still after Aleqar. She had snuck out, leaving nothing but a small coin emblazoned with the rising sun, and Levi pocketed it, shaking his head in confusion.*

There was a weight missing from Levi's pocket, one he couldn't help but frantically try to fill. It was not obvious, but his eyes were studying their surroundings, looking for that small golden coin that he had been palming not more than a few minutes before. The last resort Levi could go to was the people around him, but he was sure not even they would know what he was talking about. The sound of metal hitting the floor shook Levi out of his frantic search, and he looked up at the two strange men sitting in front of him. They both seemed oblivious to the noise he had just heard, and the look of confusion etched itself across Levi's face. He stood up, an excuse about needing a pot to piss in slipping its way through his teeth as he looked back. At the shorter man's feet, Vik was his name, laid Levi's coin. He could tell from the long scratch running along its face from where a dagger had slid its way along the golden coin. A small nudge and it was free, kicked where Levi could bend over and adjust his shoe and pick it up.

*"NO!" Levi's yell echoed throughout the city square, and the armored men around the woman's body began looking around before a thin blade erupted through someone's chest. Levi roared, blocking a sword swing and reacting with a strike to that man's neck, piercing his jugular in a small eruption of blood. The other two scrambled to their feet, but before they could get to their feet Levi attacked both of them, striking them down with two quick blows. He screamed again as he looked down at Aleqar's body, her head a few feet from her body.*

**"It's your fault."** Her bloodied head said, before the vision faded and Levi was standing in the middle of the tavern holding the coin, tracing it with the flat part of his thumb. He silently walked outside, and Arin looked up at him and looked back at Vik. 

"Something is definitely wrong with that one." He said softly.
John
Tiny Vik
Delekou

"No, my dear boy, I think he might be exactly the right man for the job." Vik giggled quietly before taking a small sip from a tankard he filled with wine.