As Valdaris settled into an inconspicuous spot, he could overhear the whispers of their conversation, their voices rising and falling like the lapping of waves.<br/><br/>“There must have been a pursuer, but I heard the explosion. I was away clean after that,” the assassin said sitting across from the other woman. Her braided auburn hair swayed back and forth as she observed the room with her careful eyes. There was no food in front of her, as there was with the other woman, the assassin’s focus entirely on the restaurant. The tension was knotted in her shoulders and back, as she seemed not even sure if she believed she had gotten away cleanly.<br/><br/>No other patrons seemed interested in the two women as they spoke, and no one stood out to Valdaris as someone who would be any kind of bodyguard or potential threat.<br/><br/>“Well done then, Curate,” the other woman said as she took a small bite of her chicken. With a napkin she dabbed the corners of her mouth and then pulled a small leather bag from under her robes. Delicately, she placed it in front of the assassin, whose green eyes flicked up to the woman before she quietly pulled the bag under her arms and scanned the room again. Her gaze fell on Valdaris, but in the span of a heartbeat her eyes trailed off elsewhere, as if she had never registered Valdaris at all.<br/><br/>“Come, relax,” the other woman said. “You are taken care of.” The assassin’s back untensed, her posture relaxing slightly at the woman’s words.<br/><br/>“You have made arrangements then?” the assassin asked.<br/><br/>The woman nodded, sweeping her long black hair over her shoulder. “Yes, Enjiope. You’ll be on the road before nightfall. Go to the Order’s chapter, as planned. Rafael will meet you there this afternoon with a carriage.”<br/><br/>Enjiope nodded, her bright green eyes catching the light through the window as a half-smile formed on her pretty pink lips. Her elven features were striking. She looked like a woman of elegance, even if the clothes she had changed in to were simple and not befitting of this higher quality eatery.<br/><br/>The woman took one more small bite of chicken and then dabbed her mouth again. She stood, holding her hand out above the table, offering it to Enjiope, who dipped her head low and took the woman’s hand into her own, kissing it.<br/><br/>“Leave out the back, little dove. I do not wish for us to be seen together now,” the woman in white said as she gathered herself with a deep breath. Enjiope stood and deftly tucked the coin purse she’d been hiding under her arms somewhere under her white tunic as the two women went their separate ways.<br/><br/>There seemed to Valdaris to be only the front door that he had seen and the back door that the other woman had alluded to.