Ares Vellen leaned back in her chair with a quiet smile on her face, the picture of contentment in comparison to the frowning and scowling men seated with her. Her right hand was casually thrown over a set of cards, keeping their value from the eyes of others. Breaking the tense silence was a curse from a man on her left - a great brute of a man with beady black eyes. He threw his cards down in disgust announcing his fold, glaring at Vel with annoyance. Immediately after his outburst others followed leaving Vel and one other man as the only players left in the card game. For a second they stared at each other, but the other man wasn't able to crack Vel's relaxed look with his own. With a low sigh he tossed his cards in as well. At the act Vel's expression deepened into a full grin as she revealed what cards she actually held. Immediately an outpouring of more cursing and yelling ensued as the others realized they were bluffed out of their money.<br/><br/>Chuckling at her companions reactions Vel stood up from the card table and wandered over to one of the empty dining tables across the room, her want of cards fulfilled for the night. Looking around Vel scoped out who had turned out in The Hilt this night, the tavern nearly fully occupied by Mercenaries. It seemed there was an influx of the usual people, but that was not so surprising as it was nearing winter, and most campaigns had been ended for the year. Including hers, which was why she was here in the first place.<br/><br/>"A drink Sir?" a barmaid said interrupting her line of vision. A slight blush involuntarily ran up the back of her neck as Vel noticed, that the barmaid had pulled her top nearly down and off of her...large assets. Clearing her throat Vel nodded, not bothering to correct the wrong prefix. In her chain mail and tunic her small breasts and hips were impossible to detect, and though her lean face was feminine in shape, no one suspected she was female and she felt no need to correct them. After all, why would she hand out free information about herself?<br/><br/>"And whatever dinner you have prepared," Vel added her voice adding to the image that she was a man; it wasn't particularly low or rough, but it was huskier than most. The barmaid nodded and made Vel's flush creep a little further by leaning in and trailing a finger down her bare neck.<br/><br/>"Anything you wish Sir," the woman purred before winking and salaciously slinking off. Vel just shook her head, trying to will her flush away, and by the time the barmaid returned, for the most part the succeeded. Digging in to the rather good food Vel thought back on her old childhood home, wondering how her brothers and sisters were doing. After a few minutes on that train of thought though, she broke it off, not willing to let herself be homesick, and certainly not willing to let her homesickness force her to return to the place she left. Here, she was her own person, not dependent on anyone, and though she was not encased in marble walls, but in sound and clean wood and brick, she was happy.<br/><br/>All was relatively quiet in the tavern, as the mercenaries occupied themselves with playing card games or dining, not like the taverns in the heart of the city where any man could walk in and behave as he liked. Mercenaries, while loud at times, were not usual brawlers, each of them rathering to prove their prowess on the field, not with a bar stool. But the relative peace was disturbed when the doors opened to reveal those who were very obviously not Mercenaries and very obviously clients. For a second the volume rose as the new development was discussed, but it soon faded to the normal chatter. Vel simply raised an eyebrow, curious to see which Mercenary was approached for hire.<br/><br/>(sorry about the length, but I just wanted to give a good starting spot.)