Emily walked wordlessly into the inn with Alex’s arm over her shoulder. He was awake courtesy of the tonic, but he was barely conscious and Emily had a feeling they weren't in the clear yet.

When Alex leaned too harshly on Emily she grunted as the wound in her side had flared up. Pulling the axe out had not been fun but once Emily had drunk her tonic it had started to get better.

“My goodness Samuel I said find out their strengths not half kill them, man.”

The Noble stood as the man, whom Emily now recognized as Samuel, shut the door behind them.

“Yeah, they were stronger than you lead me to believe, put me through my paces, to be honest.”

Samuel said as he moved round to the other side of the table.

“Well, that certainly is something. Please come over here Ma’am, Sir. I guarantee you will not be harmed further and if everything is in order you won’t ever see me again.”

Emily looked down at the two seats on the opposite side of the table. Dumping Alex in one and falling into her own, Emily scowled up at the Noble.

At this distance, she could smell the faintest scent of jasmine and dark spice coming from the Noble.

His looks were nothing to write home about but he carried a certain sense of dignity on his shoulders.

As though he’d planned for every outcome of their meeting. Maybe he did, he controlled the script right now.

“My apologies for the rough invite, but Samuel is a friend, not a subordinate you see, so the best I can offer you is my apologies. Oh, and our good Alewife here will get you whatever you fancy while we talk.”

He motioned to the bar while Emily’s eyes remained trained on Samuel

“Hester? The most expensive thing you have on your menu, hell if he’s paying, make it two.”

The woman didn’t respond but Emily caught a thumbs up in the corner of her eye.

When Emily looked back at the Noble he smiled as he muttered under his breath.

“I am hereby enforcing my domain’s laws”

Emily felt a chill come over her as a skill set in around them, and the warm inn became filled with a righteous air. It felt similar to when Emily had probed the Innocent title.

They were being watched and judged, and Emily hated it.

“First, I’d like to ask if you were part of the scheme to have me assassinated to curb the spread of news on the war front.”

“No,” Emily said with finality.

“Do you have any connection to the faction that orchestrated it?”

“No.”

“So you were just out for a walk and decided to help me.”

“Yes, it was interesting at the time, but I’ll be damned if I don’t regret it.”

Samuel snorted in amusement.

“Stop being so drab, man. You got your answers and they saved your life.”

The Noble glanced at Samuel and cleared his throat.

“Yes well, of course I’m grateful, but I had to be sure.”

Emily decided she’d been afforded a question of her own.

“How did you even find us and who are you?”

The Noble paused and smiled to himself.

“The how is easy—my men informed me the moment you showed up on the lower levels. The fact that you were able to dodge me for almost a week was the real surprise. As for who I am, that is not something I’m willing to tell you.”

Emily shrugged.

“Okay stay mysterious then. Are we done here or are you going to keep asking boring questions?”

The Noble looked about ready to agree when Samuel butted in once more.

“Sorry, but no. We would have been, had you not shown such a colorful array of blood arts in that alleyway.”

The Noble immediately sat up straighter and narrowed his gaze on Emily.

Hester arrived near the table just then and deposited Emily’s drinks and another round of wine for her uptight customer.

Only when she had left did the conversation pick up where it had left off.

“Are you in possession of an illegal title?”

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Emily simply shrugged again

“I don’t know.”

They both waited as though expecting more and Emily sighed. Going on to explain that she wasn’t sure if her active title was black-listed or not.

“I’ve never heard of that title,” the Noble said as he looked over at Samuel.

“To be honest I don’t intend to get into any trouble in the keep. There are plenty of critters out there to feed my title, so why would I alienate myself from the only place I can rest safely in.” Emily said while twirling a strand of her hair.

“Be that as it may, there are laws in place my title will not allow me to ignore. You pose a significant danger to us. The only exception would be if you were working with us.”

Alex’s head had been lulling while they had been talking but now he straightened his posture clutching his temples.

“Go on then, tell us what you want, that was your aim wasn’t it?” he asked groggily.

“Swear fealty to the keep.”

“No,” Emily said before anyone could get a word out.

Alex glanced at Emily and shook his head.

“We can’t do that, but you won’t have to worry, we’re removing ourselves from the equation. In the next couple of days, we’ll be heading down south, and we won’t be returning.”

The Noble pursed his lips as he interlocked his fingers. The air around him became tense as he exuded displeasure. This man was probably near the same rank as their white-haired abuser, perhaps a bit lower, but still enough to give them a hard time in their condition. Just as he was about to speak Samuel groaned.

“Hang on a minute, before you go letting that title rule you again. Why don’t we employ them in a different capacity? You said you were going down south, directly into the heart of the brewing conflict?”

The Noble looked up at his partner with a frown but Samuel had his gaze locked on Emily who nodded in turn.

“What if the ‘Frontier Explorers’ employed them to get word to our allies in Lorethil? That way you are not breaking any of the keeps laws and they are heading down there anyway.”

Emily glanced between these two powerful men, something about that name was familiar. Glancing over at Hester was all the reminder Emily needed. They were a faction focused on exploration and sticking their noses in other people's business. No wonder this man was here.

Emily wanted to shoot down the idea immediately but before she could get a word out, Alex's boot kicked into her shin.

Grunting Emily glared at Alex as he began to speak.

“Will this message draw the ire of your enemies?”

“Probably, but in all likelihood, they won’t even know you are working for us since this is all off the books. Plus you’re plenty strong, I think you’ll be able to survive an assassination attempt or two.”

As Samuel said this he shot the Noble a questioning look.

“...Yes, I think that could work. I could make you an information packet of two cities troop movements”

Emily couldn't keep quiet any longer

“Who said we’d do this for you, as you say it puts us in danger”

Samuel shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, you don’t have to, the other option is to put you to work in the mines. But if you do decide to take the mission you have your freedom and even get paid if you manage to complete the delivery.” he finished it off with a wink and Emily understood.

They were letting them go under the guise of a mission, but Emily still couldn’t see a reason for it.

The Noble smiled for the first as he seemed to be able to read Emily's mind.

“If you are wondering why I’m doing this, I don’t want you here anymore than you wanted to be here. If you can't accept that then just think of it as me being grateful for saving my life.”

Emily couldn’t see any downside to the deal they were overlooking everything, even her title. Alex had already come to the same conclusion and nodded to the duo.

The Noble and Samuel nodded to one another and they got up.

“I’ll have Samuel drop off the ‘reward’ with the Alewife here, so make sure you collect it.”

As they moved toward the door Emily couldn’t help but size Samuel up again. He had long since recovered from the wounds she had given him. If they were to go another round the results would likely be the same. As the two powerhouse stepped out of the inn Emily could only grind her teeth.

Twice now she had been led by her nose because she was outclassed and that was twice too many.

The need for power was just as urgent as before, Emily mentally moved the lesson with Ashe up on her list of priorities.

When the door creaked shut, Hester came over to them.

“What in the blood hell did he want with you's two?”

“To thank us,” Emily said sourly.

“Really? That sounds like a crock-a-shit by the look of you's. Go wash up while I go 'pologize to the rest of mi patrons for that scene. And don’t waste my liquor girl, it's rude.”

Emily looked down at the two mugs of fancy-smelling alcohol and picked up one taking large gulps of the burning, neon-blue beverage.

With the first one down the hatch, Emily groaned as she got up from the chair.

“You need help?” she asked Alex.

“Nah, I’m going to rest here for a minute and think things through. We were damned lucky to meet one of the only accommodating Nobles in here.”

“You know him?” Emily arched a brow

Alex’s eyes moved away as he spoke.

“No, they’re normally just more uncompromising ”

Emily shrugged too tired to argue with him.

“Suit yourself,” she said as she began walking down the stairs.

When she got to the second floor she noticed a lot of people coming out of their rooms and heading upstairs. Pushing against the flow of people Emily’s pace slowed and it was during this time she felt an arm grab her wrist.

Emily turned around and got ready to kill a man, but when she saw who it was she relaxed.

Jesse looked up at her from the lower step, a worried look across his features. Emily followed his gaze to where her hand clutched at her wound and snorted.

“You should see the other guy… actually never mind he’s probably good for another round.”

Jesse’s eye remained fixed on the deep wound.

“Have you called a healer? That looks really bad.”

Emily shook her head as he pushed past him.

“Don’t worry, I’ve had worse, this much should heal in no time. I’m going down to the baths, come with me?”

Jesse looked up toward the way she had come from and then back at her with an uneasy look on his face that morphed into a gentle smile.

Now it was Emily’s turn to grab his wrist and drag him down to the fifth floor.

They separated at the two doors but Emily spotted him as she made her way over to the green pool again.

Her wound was healing at a decent rate and she could just use her vitality, but as far as she could tell the tonic was still working.

Just as she was about to climb in Jesse came up to her in all his charming beauty.

“This pool isn’t right if you are recovering from physical wounds, come with me.”

He guided her over a bath with yellow waters and she happily lowered herself into it. A trail of red seeped into the water before whatever herbs were in there neutralized it.

It also caused a burning in the wound, but Jesse told her it was cleaning the wound so she endured.

They chatted comfortably, Emily dodging all his questions about what happened and enjoying the water's pleasant aroma.

Jesse began massaging Emily's shoulders at some point, and it was clear that some skill was at play because the aches in her ribs were quickly overpowered by pleasant sensations.

Emily spent the better half of the day in the baths moving from pool to pool, until her fingers and toes shriveled like prunes.

By the end, Jesse nearly had to help her back to her room as the heat had made her light-headed. When he went to leave, she grabbed his wrist again—she’d had more than enough annoying things happen today and was more than happy to indulge.

Blood points: 16