The next hour was spent explaining and re-explaining the situation. Isolde had, in fact, not told her teammates about Brivaria’s trip to the woods nor had she informed them of where she was going. With the order to stand down until the Count arrived, everyone in Seasoned Steel was left to their own devices. If questioned later, Isolde would say she was keeping an eye on the angel and her team in case of another attack. The lephori woman doubted Brivaria and friends would be left alone for too long.
Giselle was terrified to learn that Isolde worked for the man who was planning to kill her and more terrified to learn Brivaria had also been working for him, if only for a short time. She needed some time to calm down which gave Nyx and Isolde an opportunity to go shopping. It was a rainy, miserable day for said shopping so Kseniya opted to stay at the inn with Brivaria, Trixie, and Giselle.
Brivaria should have gone shopping as well but Giselle needed emotional support. In this case, that meant turning back into a small deer and being pet. The winged girl sat with Giselle on her lap and Trixie on the bed next to her. The reason the angel should have gone was that the Count was throwing a party the day after his return. The kicker was that the party was both for nobility and adventurers.
It seemed there was a tradition where every noble participating in the hunt would hire an adventuring group as part of their hunting team. Each hunting team was made up of the noble, who was expected to participate in the hunt directly, and up to five adventurers usually from the same team. If that team did not possess a ranger or tracker capable of hunting the hind then the noble could substitute one adventurer for a skilled huntsman capable of finding the hind. It was tradition for the Count and each baron to name the team that would accompany them on the hunt at the Count’s pre-hunt party.
According to Isolde, Count Dancarlo would be selecting the Seasoned Steel for his team. Strings were being pulled to get Lucian out of jail to give them four people. Brivaria and her team were expected to go to the party as supporters of the Count even though they wouldn’t be participating in the hunt on the man’s behalf. While none of this really mattered as the hind in question was no longer in the forest, Brivaria and Giselle still needed presentable attire. Nyx, too, for that matter. Kseniya was the only member of Divine Blessing who had something conventionally nice to wear. Trixie was Trixie so she didn’t count. The team would go on a proper shopping trip on another day when it wasn’t raining and when they had a little more coin in their collective purses. For now it would be good enough if the two women scouted out the city shops.
Brivaria was thankful she was at the inn when the storm picked up. The inn had no glass windows but it did have shutters and those rattled furiously under the heavy rain and winds. The thunder was strong enough to be felt as much as heard. Trixie crawled under the sheet Giselle had been using and began making distressed, Trixie noises.
The loud peals of thunder took the angel back to the first stormy night the two shared on the savanna between Keaton and Tenome. She’d held Trixie while the two huddled in their tent. For all of her bravery, storms were too much and the angel understood. She stroked Trixie’s head and made soothing noises. Giselle was also shivering in the angel’s lap so Brivaria kept one hand on Trixie and one on Giselle.
Kseniya watched for a time but eventually slithered over to help calm the two. Giselle was a person, a land spirit, and a deer are all rolled into one. She would grow out of this phase soon, the angel assumed, but Trixie was another story. The golden needed all the pets and attention. She whimpered at each crack of thunder.
“We should get some of those fluffy ear covers for your cute, cute doggy,” the lamia said gently while taking her turn petting the scared pooch.
“When we have a bit more coin, I’d like to do that. As it stands, I’ll have to restock on Trixie’s food soon. I don’t think I’m a fan of the whole exchanging money for goods thing after all,” the angel lamented.
“Yes, it is a much nicer system when you have plenty of coin to spare,” Kseniya agreed. The two lapsed into silence. For a long moment there was only the sound of Trixie’s soft whines and the rumbling thunder. Eventually the serpent woman spoke again. “You should know we were attacked again while you were gone.”
Brivaria’s shoulders slumped. She’d really been hoping for a reprieve. The angel hadn’t even been around this time. After a long suffering sigh, the blonde girl asked the question that needed to be asked.
“What happened?” She cast her gaze to the sorceress and Kseniya offered the winged girl a weary smile.
“Assassin or some such. He slipped into one of the rooms we were staying in upon first arriving and stabbed the man sleeping in it. Seems like he was aiming for us but didn’t know we moved rooms,” the lamia explained.
“He? As in a person?” the winged girl asked with a raised eyebrow. Kseniya nodded.
“No monsters this time. This man was competent however. He withstood the Phantasmal Assault skill from a silver rank adventurer while fighting Nyx no less.”
“That’s disconcerting. Did you catch him?” Kseniya shook her head.
“No, he got away,” she sighed before continuing, “stupid adventurers blocked the hallway so I couldn’t get a shot at him with any of my better spells. Ironically I think it would have been better had it been the three of us but so it goes. Nyx got his dagger. The kitty has some very sticky fingers when no one is looking. Candice has a friend who might be able to help us find the owner.”
“I suppose that’s something. Did the guard get involved?” the angel asked, delighted to finally hear some good news.
“Yes and they’re adding in extra watches around this area. The whole city guard has been on high alert since the Ogramite incident the other night. They’ve tripled the guard so I think the nights of being ambushed by monsters on the way back to the inn are over,” Kseniya explained. That was more good news to Brivaria’s ears.
“You know, I expected city guards to be more…” the angel paused to look for the right word.
“Competent?” Kseniya asked with a grin. “I think we could get a watch escort if we went to them with all of the things that have happened in the last week however I don’t believe that would be wise.” Her eyes flicked down to Giselle.
“Right. I just want them to be better than this. I want them to find the people attacking us and make it stop,” the angel said with more than a little frustration. She’d expected so much better from the people here. It felt like they would have to take matters into their own hands.
“They are guards, not seers. They cannot stop a crime before it happens though they do have some capable trackers. This is a city, not a town, so there’s a decent chance they do catch the man who broke into the inn. Monsters are trickier but thugs and killers? Those are things they are equipped to handle, you know?”
“At this point I hope we find them first. I’d like to punch the people responsible for all this at least once before we turn them over to the guard.”
“Feisty words, little angel. If the innkeeper’s friend is up to the task, you may get your wish,” the sorceress while reclining back on her tail.
Giselle eventually got over her fright of the storm and soon the little deer was running around the room. Trixie did not so Brivaria spent more time comforting her dog. She was cuddling the golden sunchaser and running her fingers through the dog’s fur when there was a knock at the door. Nyx and Isolde had returned.
The shopping trip was successful. Nyx’s ability to only wear the color black proved a formidable thing indeed as she presented the group with a black cocktail dress. Barton wasn’t big enough to have racks of unused, specialty clothing ala some of the bigger cities. Most folks who didn’t sew their own outfits wore loose, baggy clothing that had a distinct, one-size-fits-all theme to it. More niche or specialty clothes had to be custom-ordered but there were always orders that were either unpaid or canceled midway through the process. Nyx described a potential dress for Brivaria as the latter. It wasn’t top shelf but it was pretty good by Velk standards or so Nyx claimed.
Giselle received a couple of outfits. One was a set of drab, brown traveling clothes. They were thick enough to be warm as the weather got colder and that was the sum total of their positive qualities. The second was a green dress that had some misaligned stitch work at the bottom—probably the work of an apprentice clothier. According to Kseniya, it would be fine for a party of adventurers trying to dress nicely but would be wholly insufficient for a true event of the peerage. Brivaria decided all of those words translated to “it was good enough.”
Also they had a mild panic when they remembered Giselle’s horns, only for the land spirit to climb into the dress and activate Form Change while inside it. Giselle’s horns would have been a problem on par with Brivaria’s wings normally but when she shifted forms while inside the dress with her head peeking out, she was basically wearing it upon completion of the change. It meant there was no easy way for Giselle to take off the dress or other such clothes without a form change but that was fine for now.
Brivaria’s situation was more complicated. The clothiers had anticipated Zenith Penrose and prepared some outfits that might appeal to the zephyri mercenary. They were leery about another winged woman needing a dress with a supposedly smaller purse to pay for it—A.K.A., they wanted to mark up their wares for a wealthier buyer but weren’t above selling them at a fair price assuming Brivaria was a real person. All that to say Brivaria needed to go shopping herself if only to prove that she existed.
Finally there was the matter of Isolde and her team. The lephori really wanted to tell Alden about Giselle. Brivaria could tell Isolde trusted the leader of Seasoned Steel. The angel had spent a little time with him and he seemed like a decent person. Yet for as much as Isolde trusted Alden she didn’t trust Tobias and Lucian nearly as much. The water mage and rogue had a history of questionable decisions. While their proverbial hearts were always in the right place, the results were disastrous and recent evidence did them no favors.
A compromise was reached. They would tell Alden after the party but before the hunt. There was already too much to do at the moment. Likewise there were enough problems to tend to without introducing another. Brivaria prayed things would settle down. Ideally they’d find the kidnappers, free the missing people, Giselle would then go free, and everyone would live happily ever after. The angel somehow suspected things wouldn’t work out so nicely.