Homecoming[Open]

[Seian Verian]

Seian stood at the prow of the ship, looking ahead. He saw the familiar city skyline looming on the horizon, though he'd never actually seen it from this direction. The city was beautiful in the dusky light, with red sky behind it. Most prominent was the lighthouse, one of the beacons the city was known for, which seemed to tower over everything else.

It had been nearly two years since he'd seen this city. He'd set out, determined to learn everything he could in order to better himself, and now, he'd come back for the same reason. It seemed fitting, really, that he should come back to the place where everything began, where the life he now led began, and where any life there may have been before had, presumably, ended.

He felt excitement, as well as a nameless apprehension, at the thought that he was finally home, or at least so close he could nearly grasp it. The city was familiar, but at the same time, held its own perils. His triumphant return wasn't so triumphant that he was invulnerable to the dangers of the city, or the intrigues that could take place here.

He hoped all would go well.

***

Seian was disappointed, but not surprised, when he arrived at the docks, to find that Malik wasn't waiting for him.

He'd sent word ahead to Malik about his return, but hadn't really expected the older man to be there. Malik had a large family, and was always busy with their affairs. Malik and his wife had been caring for a young granddaughter when Seian left, and he'd received word that there was another of the same, which they were also caring for part time. Their daughter, always a whirlwind of bad decisions, put a great deal of responsibility on her parents.

As well as being busy, neither Malik nor his wife Karyl was in the best of health. Karyl suffered from lupus, and Malik himself had a weak heart.

It was strange, Seian thought, how so many in his life had such frail health. His own family had horrible ilnesses that ran on both sides. But then, he supposed that was just how it went.

Regardless of any of that, he needed to continue on. He would go to Malik and see if Malik knew anything about what he could do next in order to try and learn more.

As Seian walked on, heading away from the dock, he suddenly heard shouting, some sort of commotion nearby. He paused, and looked in that direction, curious.

[Artemis Black]

It was always a pleasure to catch the latest arrival of newcomers and returning travelers to the Fellsgard docks. People always did such silly things in their rush to be on solid cobble streets again. Exhausted travelers also tended to lose coin more readily than wary land-bound citizens. Artemis grinned at a sudden uproar. It was almost prophetic when a fist hit a face. He craned his neck to see over the roof he leaned against. He'd not expected the fight to break out so close.

It looked like a classic case of tax evasion. A frumpy looking matron had stepped off the boat leading a tattoo-laden tough carrying a heavy chest. The tax inspector, doing his duty had asked to see the suspicious box's contents. Unfortunately, it seemed no particular cargo was expected in the vessel because the tax man's escort was a pair of rugged looking sailor's. The city tended to use the cheap labor when it's constantly over-stretched guard force was deemed unnecessary.

Artemis grinned as the first sailor went down to a wicked hook. Nothing like some free entertainment to distract fools further. He made his way down a haphazard pile of boxes and into the shaded alley below. He'd find someone's purse to snatch in all the chaos.

[Dáire]

Dáire scowled down at the street, and the stupid woman was now feigning innocence to the tax man, while the tattooed oaf decked one of the gruff looking sailors for trying to take the wares from him. Dáire’s wares. Well; his clients but that wasn't a concern at the moment. What was, was how he was going to extract the silks and rare counterfeit herbs from that box. All without getting snagged himself in the process. They weren’t the only things in the chest, there was a lot of useless extras in there to bulk it out but if they opened it … ugh, he didn’t even want to contemplate the shit that would down. By Ny’thas grace, they should have left it where the letter has specified. He sighed, this day had started off so well too.

Deftly hopping down from the roof he’d been lurking top, he moved like a long shadow across the street and crouched behind a stack of crates, mere yards from the chest and ensuing scuffle. It was times like this he wished the elves were small like the fae, passing unnoticed would be so much easier. Pulling his cloak tightly around himself in an attempt to minimise his presence, he stuck to the shadows as best as possible, positioning himself so he popped up right behind the huge human brute. The chest left sitting right at his heels.

He looked like nothing more than a spreading shadow as he crouched over the chest in the rapidly fading light. His heart hammered in his chest as the sounds of fists hitting flesh continued, the coppery tang of blood soon drifting along the air. Nimble fingers soon had the lock on the chest picked, the quiet click giving him some sense of relief. Thrusting a hand into the cracked lid he rooted around, quickly identifying and removing the necessary packages within the chest. In a single swift movement, he stood and spun on silent heels; cloak pulled tightly against his lanky frame once more.

He’d only just reached the denser shadows that totally absorbed him when one of the human males kicked the now unlocked chest over. What had been messy turned into utter chaos, nearly all that had been watching the spectacle made a dive for the contents of the box. The frumpy older woman letting out an ear-splitting scream that followed Dáire around the corner as he fled. That noise could raise the dead.

Too focused on what was behind him as he continued forwards at a brisk pace. His head near snapped off his shoulders as his right side collided with another, sending him careening off to the side and struggling to keep a hold of the two extremely valuable packages. Stumbling back a few steps, he glanced back and locked eyes with deep hazel ones, his own silver ones nothing more than faint ghostly apparitions within his deep hood. A human, a very tall human stood before him.

[Seian Verian]

Seian watched as chaos emerged, around just one little chest come off the ship. He hadn't the slightest clue what was in it, but he could recognize that it must be important, and also that whoever was responsible for this transfer of goods had massively mishandled it. The tattooed man must be an absolute idiot to assault the tax man and his assistants- Unless those tattoos were removable or he knew something of glamour magic, he was going to need to get out of the city or go into hiding, to avoid the guards.

Seian stood watching, idly interested in what was going to happen.

He did notice when the hooded figure came out of the melee, rushing toward him- However, he didn't realize quite fast enough that he was coming directly toward him, and wasn't able to move out of the way fast enough.

He stumbled a bit as the figure rushed into him, but kept his feet. They stared each other right in the eyes.

"Hey, I don't want to fight-" Seian started to say, and then he noticed several people running toward them.

"Stop him! Stop that thief!"

"Oh gods why..."

Seian knew now that if he didn't do anything now and was recognized later he might come under suspicion, however mild. He wanted nothing to do with that.

"Sorry." he mumbled, and lashed out.

He was carrying a staff, which was useful both as a walking staff and for using magic. Anyone with any degree of knowledge in the subject would recognize it for what it was, but he hadn't been willing to leave it behind.

It was also useful as a quarterstaff, and he used it now to try and trip the figure. He put his full strength to it- If he was going to avoid getting looked at by the guard, he might as well try to curry favor outright and stop the thief.

[Dáire]

“Jukkete, Botuu, Haaku” Dáire looked past the huge human to see several civilians and a guard sprinting down the street he’d just travelled. Repeating his tirade of swear words his attention returned to the human, just in time to hear him mumble an apology, to who? Him? A moment too late Dáire realised why, the mans staff swept across the ground in a swift arc, pulling both Dáire’s legs out from under him and he crashed onto the damp ground, one of the packages spilling from his grasp.

One fluid movement later and Dáire was back on his feet, two daggers the length of his fore arm in hand. He looked down at the ground by his feet to see the paper on the toppled package had been damaged, an orange powder lightly scattered along the dirt. A growl rose in his throat as he looked back to the man, safely tucking the silk package into a pocket, “You have no idea what you could have just cost me!” He advanced a few steps on the human, blades swinging threateningly, “Can this job go any more wrong,” He grumbled to himself in Elven, “Moron transporters and now do-gooder inventions.”

Dáire made sure to keep his body slightly angled, so the packages a few feet behind him didn’t leave his sight. The other humans were getting too close for comfort, if this human tried to stop his retreat again, he’d have to act and nor merely threaten. The staff he held looked familiar, a niggle at the back of his mind telling him he should be wary, but damned if he could remember why in that moment.

[Artemis Black]

Artemis had managed to grab a near full coin purse off one of the collapsed guards while pretending to help the man. Things had erupted into a proper brawl rather quickly as people scrambled to pillage the boxes contents. One particularly large elf had made a quick grab of something out of the box and started sprinting. Artemis decided to follow the fellow and see where he was headed.

Rather than fall in with the roiling mob, the thief scaled a low wall and was up above just in time to see his quarry smash headlong into another massive man. ‘There are certainly a lot of large people out today. Wonder if it’s something in the ale.’ he thought to himself as he listened to the string of curses.

Then the innocent bystander swept a staff out, and things got terribly interesting. Artemis halted on a sloping roof just above the pair of squabbling men. The elf was talking a lot for someone who wanted to run away, and he had blades out, good ones, that he clearly knew how to use. He wondered if he could hop down and snag one of the packages, but waited to see how this would play out.

[Seian Verian]

Seian wasn't prepared for the figure to get up so quickly- He tried to strike to knock the elf back down mid-movement, but the strike clattered off of the cobblestones below.

He backed up nervously as the figure spat words angrily at him, and draw two sharp daggers.

"I... I... Um..."

He hesitated, his staff held defensively in front of him, not sure what to do. He didn't really want to get hurt, and he wasn't much of a fighter (as evidenced by his inability to even come close to keeping a prone foe on the ground). He couldn't use magic here, or he'd be arrested for sure, not just looked at suspiciously.

He swore, and turned, running away himself.

[Dáire]

Dáire felt bewilderment flood his expression as the very tall human before him, who had at least 100lbs on him, stuttered, seemingly unable to get words past his lips. Dáire head tilted as he raised a brow questioning, watching the man for the moment or two it took him to decide against continuing Dáire’s confrontation.

The sound of feet drawing near spurred Dáire into action, sheathing the blades, he swooped down grabbing is somewhat damaged package with due care, and made for one of the alleys in which he knew would allow him to reach the roofs. Allowing him to head south relatively unhindered and more pressingly at this point in time, take him out of easy range for the guard now barrelling down upon him.

[Artemis Black]

Artemis watched as the staff wielding do-gooder lost his nerve. It was always fun to watch people crumble when the reality of a sharp blade pointed at the gut presented itself. The giant of a man turned and fled when faced with the challenge. The elf was more organized but did much the same after he grabbed his pilfered goods.

Figuring it was safer to follow the frightened man, Artemis moved along the rooftops keeping track of him. When the fellow ran out of steam the thief slipped down a ledge and landed around a corner ahead. Then he casually walked into the open, his hands empty and held loosely at his side. “Bit of a scuffle at the docks that was eh?” Artemis asked the man, hoping he was still off kilter enough to not try and swing at him. “Glad you got away in one piece, those blades looked sharp and well used.”

[Seian Verian]

Seian kept running for a bit, until his adrenaline began to fade, and he looked back behind him and saw that the elf wasn't still behind him. Finally he slowed down, noticing his own hard breathing. He felt ridiculous. He could justify striking out with the staff and trying to keep the elf down, he could also justify running away when real danger presented himself, but it didn't change the fact that he felt absolutely absurd and pathetic. He wasn't a fighter. He may have been a giant, but he was a thin, reedy little bookworm who had only a bare minimum of combat training.

Which was why, his nerves still frayed, he let out a small yelp as someone came out and remarked on what had just happened.

"I, um..." he stared at the person who had just come out.

"...Yes, well. I would have sooner avoided the fight in the first place. I just didn't want to be seen to be the person that let a thief walk away unchallenged."