”<span style="font-style: italic"> Tywardrea, city of ancient magic. Home to a multitude of creatures from Beyond the Wall, in especiality elemental kin. A festive place where cultures meet and bonds are made</span>” Frita closed her travelers guide and took her surroundings in. Tywardrea, Tywa for short, was a colorful place for sure, and home to colorful characters. However, with the high number of magically gifted citizens, and a scarce police force, it was also a place, where the strong often ruled the weak. Not a good place to wander down back alleys. Too bad this was exactly what Frita was here to do. She tightened her cape around her shoulders, making sure not to show too much skin. She wanted as little attention as possible while she was here.<br/><br/>As Frita began her walk down Mainstreet she took in the town. It had been a long time since she was in a town this large, and she had missed it. Countless merchants riddled the streets, yelling and boasting and selling their wares to the many people rushing through. “Genuine Argick luck potions for sale! Guaranteed to make your luck turn for the better! Only 2 silver pieces!” shouted an extremely tall man, at least a meter taller than Frita. Perhaps he had blood of a giant of some kind, or an earth elemental perhaps. She tipped her glasses and analysed the “elixir”, which had a simple light incantation on it to make it sparkle, but was otherwise nonmagical. Smiling to herself, she grabbed a couple of silver coins from her purse and used her thumb to edge a small symbol into them. She approached the vendor and pushed the coins into his palm. He looked happily at the 4 shining pieces of silver and handed her two bottles. “Looking for a bit of extra luck miss?” He asked with a friendly demeanor. “Always,” she responded “but I’m truly a bigger fan of karma.” She gave him a sly look, which he didn’t catch, and went on her way, drinking one of the elixirs, which definitely contained honey. “Honestly, with his charisma and large stature, one would think he could make a living just selling honey.” She mused to herself, placing the second bottle in her pocket. She skipped down the street in a great mood. Perhaps luck really was on her side today.<br/><br/>Frita was searching for an older man called The Whip. A 36 year old half ogre, cruel and strong beyond the human scope, who had run an illegal drug ring in the nearby town of Shar, but had fled, allegedly to some buddies of his here in Tywa. Finding the group that was hiding him wouldn’t prove much of a problem, but getting to him without causing too much collateral damage could prove difficult, and causing a scene in this particular town wouldn’t go over well with its leaders. Not with a name like Frita Zhoon.<br/><br/>Asking around, Frita found a contact called Mouse, who should be an old friend of The Whip. Frita wondered to herself how often these guys ran into people with the same nickname as them. The Whip and the Mouse both sounded kind of obvious. There might be one in every city. Would they change their names if they joined the same gang? She had caught a girl named Gray Mouse once, maybe it was something like that? These were the thoughts traveling through her mind as she entered into the Scarlet Tint, a seedy tavern in Tyra, a festive dive for lowlifes and thugs with enough gold to buy their sorrows away. The place reeked of booze, smoke and sweat, and a poor rendition of a dancing row was being played by a musician, who probably never had a single lesson on the lyre on which he was playing. The place was crawling with jolly drunkards. It was loud, with gambling and partying. Not the worst place to spend an evening, if you liked brutish company, which Frita did, on the occasion. Frita sat down with a drink in front of Mouse, a balding man with numerous scars, loose fitting but generally nice clothes, piercing eyes and a compass-like device on his wrist, whose needle spun once every few seconds, seemingly at random. She wanted to identify its properties, but it would be a bad play. Mouse seemed like the paranoid type, and he definitely wouldn’t wait for her to finish an analysis. It’d also be rude.<br/><br/>“What’dya want missy? Drunk rat like me ain’ much worth yer time.” He said, a sleight slur to his words, which seemed like he was playing up his drunkenness a bit, perhaps to throw her off, or just to illustrate a point. Frita leaned her head on her knuckle and smiled. “I’m looking to set up a trade with an old associate of mine. I hear he’s fallen on some bad luck, and I’m hoping he’s desperate enough to let me help him get back onto his feet,” she took a slow sip of her mead “putting his talents to use for me.” She gave Mouse a sly, knowing smile. Mouse smiled, clearly knowing what she was talking about. He cast a quick look to his side reflexively, which let Frita follow his eyes to the back of the head of a man who wore a characteristic orange scarf. It was the Whip, no doubt about it.<br/><br/>Frita gave Mouse a friendly smile, pretending not to have spotted the man, which seemed to work. “My friend might have had to leave town a bit quicklike, but ain’ mean he’s up for jus’ any ol’ business what come his way. How can I know yer wort’ his time, eh?” He said with a glimmer in his eye. Not the cheapest ask for a bribe she’d seen, but certainly not the slickest either. She didn’t really need Mouse anymore though. Whip was right over there. The question was how to approach the situation. Even with her light disguise, the chances of him spotting her was too high, and she didn’t know how many of the people in this tavern would come to his aid. Fighting 20 or 30 people whose abilities she didn’t know was ill advised, even for her. Especially since the Whip was a rather formidable fighter all on his own. Thinking quickly, she devised a strategy. She would approach him from behind, quickly use her stone handcuffs, which she could control with her magic, to capture his hands and then force him to the ground by making the cuffs fly downwards. While doing so, she would use her fire to create a pathway between her and the window, grab her target and flee outside, where she only needed to run about 100 meters before being in a crowded location with guards. The thugs wouldn’t be ballsy enough to follow her there.<br/><br/>Taking a deep breath she stood up. “Perhaps I can prove myself in a quick match.” She said to Mouse, beckoning him to the darts board. She put 5 silver pieces between her fingers, showing him, “If you win you get a nicer evening, if I win, you’ll show me to your friend”. Mouse darted up, “Always up for a wager dove! But be warned, I’m no one to be trifled with!” She followed him towards the game, which meant they would pass right by the Whip’s table, where she would execute her plan.<br/><br/>Frita held her breath, tensing up in her entire body as she readied herself to unleash the full scope of her powers. Just before the two of them passed by the table, she heard a large thud. Mouse fell on the ground and a young, handsome man fell in front of him. It seems they managed to bump into one another, as Mouse was keeping an eye on the Whip as they passed. The handsome man looked confused and a bit dazed. He also looked completely out of place. He wore a white and black checkered set of clothes, had beautiful long white hair, with three braids running down it in the back. His eyes were a beautiful silver, and even on the ground, he seemed to have a calm dignity about him. Definitely an elemental or maybe even angelkin, Frita thought to herself as she, for a second, was mesmerized by the otherworldly beauty of the boy. “Oh, I’m really sorry sir!” He exclaimed as he got up in a single fluid motion, using air currents to aid him. He reached a hand down towards Mouse, still sitting on the floor, having spilled a mug of mead over his outfit “Yer sorry!? Not yet you ain’ you stinkin’ whitehaired bastard!” Mouse jumped to his feet, furious, drawing a knife from his side and taking one step towards the boy before falling to the ground unconscious. “Now now, play nice with others. No need to lose your temper.” Frita said, having just used her stone hand to knock the poor man down. She looked towards the boy. “Are you alright?” She asked calmly, as she retracted the stone from her hand.<br/><br/>“YOOOOOUUUU!!!” The loud roar suddenly erupted from right next to them, as Whip rose up, towering above the two of them. He drew his whip, which uncoiled and revealed with a huge swing that the metal infused weapon was capable of cutting through tables. He took a step towards them, his killing intent palpable, as a number of others drew weapons as well all around them.<br/>“Crap!” Frita heard herself say, as she reflexively stepped back from the man, and summoned fire in her palms. “This was what I was trying to avoid…”