"Evening, ladies." the lead man of the three said in a smooth tone, "My name is Dieter, and these are my associates. I couldn't help but overhear that you might require a security detail."

Anisha's eyes closed slowly, visibly irritated with the interjection. Elaina supposed it was probably a good thing that she'd not done the same. She was undoubtedly looking for work but cutting in on someone's conversation at dinner for an introduction seemed like a poor way to go about it. At the very least, it wasn't to the half-elf's taste.

"Dieter," Azade repeated as she leaned back in her chair. The swell of her breasts grabbing the attention of the other two men, Dieter's gaze remained fixed on her face. Elaina watched as the hint of a smile curled at the edge of Azade's lips; she was testing his focus, "You heard right, we have a shipment of valuable goods that we need to get back home. We are concerned about how long the order is taking to fill with the man we're working with. We think a few extra precautions might be worth our time."

Dieter gave a wide wolfish smile; he was a tall man with short-cropped brown hair and cold eyes who seemed to take meticulous care of his personal hygiene. Elaina noted that his attention to detail didn't seem to extend to his armor; which looked as though it had not only seen better days, but better years. The contrast struck Elaina as strange. On the one hand his hair was well kept; he was shaved, and judging by his smile, he looked closely after his teeth. On the other, His armor looked like it was second hand and lacked any form of embellishment. Whatever markings or design work had once been on the armor looked like it had been worn off, or perhaps purposely ground off.

Elaina took a long slow drink from her cup as Dieter spoke, "Nothing wrong with a little extra security for a large bit of cargo."

Azade remained perfectly relaxed in her seat, looking the man and his companions over. She seemed to be trying to decide whether she was going to invite him to sit down or not. Elaina figured that his armor's second-hand quality wasn't a disqualifier for service so long as he had a good sword arm, and the sword itself was in decent enough condition by the looks of it. Elaina's attention then focused on the swords they wore seeing that their weapons were identical down to the scabbards. Unlike their armor, all of their weapons looked considerably newer and much more well kept. The pommel had some sort of engraving work on it that she couldn't quite make out from where she sat.

"What are your rates?" Azade asked, though there was something in her voice that told Elaina she still hadn't made up her mind yet.

Dieter looked back at the other two, who both seemed to shrug nonchalantly, "Well..we need to get some coin to head down to South Gate so we'd be willing to take the job for say..." He rubbed at his chin a bit as if doing some sort of mental math, "5 silver each, per day?"

Anisha nearly spit her drink back into her tankard, "*Fifteen!?* Are you fucking insane? Who the hell charges fifteen a *day?* You better have two extra men waiting out front for that price."

Azade's brow furrowed, she seemed to be bothered by the price as well, "It does seem a bit steep, don't you think? We're on something of a budget."

Dieter cocked his head to one side, seemingly prepared for this response, as if it was all scripted. Before he could get to his next line, Elaina moved from her chair over to one of the empty ones next to Anisha.

"Anisha!? I haven't seen you in months! How are you?" The red-haired woman exclaimed as Anisha leaned back away from her. There was a shadow of disgust on her face; she really didn't seem to be much of a people person.

"Excuse me?" Anisha asked.

Elaina's eyes looked over at Dieter, who seemed to have been caught off balance by this interruption, strangely Azade didn't. She remained poised and simply looked on with a gleam of interest in her eye. Elaina's gaze shifted back to Anisha, "It's Elaina! Remember? We met in Watertown during the Alchemist's entrance exams."

Anisha's eyes narrowed, searching Elaina's face. She seemed to find what she was looking for because her eyes lit up in feigned recognition a moment later. "Oh. Oh! Ohhh! Riiiight. Sorry, I didn't recognize you with uh-" She paused and made a vague motion at her own head, "your hair. It's different. How are you?"

"You're an alchemist?" Dieter interrupted, his words dripping with skepticism.

"What?" Elaina said, looking over at him as if only just realizing he was there.

"You. You're an alchemist?" he repeated, crossing his arms over his chest slowly.

"Umm.. no," Elaina said hesitantly, "Why would you say that?"

"You just said you were." he motioned between Elaina and Anisha with one finger.

"No, I didn't," Elaina said, glancing between Azade and Anisha, each of them trying to hide a little amusement.

"Yes, you did. Just now."

"Mmm, I think I would remember something like that, though."

"What do you mean you think you'd-" Dieter's arms uncrossed now as his frustration grew. The men behind him chuckled slightly. He turned to shoot them a glare of warning before whirling back around to scowl at Elaina, "Are you fucking with me right now?"

"No, I just wanted to talk to my friend Anisha." Elaina gestured gently toward Anisha, who she hadn't even actually met before in her entire life.

"But you're not an alchemist?" he quirked an impatient brow, "Despite what you just said."

"What did I say?" Elaina feigned confusion again.

"That you hadn't seen her since the Alchemist entrance exams!" his voice rose a little now; various people sitting on the balcony grew a little quiet to look in his direction. He immediately noticed the attention he was drawing and quieted himself.

Elaina looked over at Anisha for a long moment, silently asking if she should continue this game or cut him loose from the cycle. She didn't indicate one way or another, as if she hadn't yet decided either.

"Ohhhh!" Elaina said with mock realization, "I see, you think that I'm an alchemist because I saw her at the exams."

"You're not?" his brow furrowed, his voice coming now through gritted teeth.

"No," she said with an air of finality, "I was just there. I wasn't taking the exams. I'm no alchemist."

Azade let out an amused snort, Dieter's face grew a shade redder, "Is there a reason I've been made to suffer this inane distraction?"

"My apologies." Elaina said in a way that actually managed to sound apologetic, "Perhaps I just got too excited. I didn't mean to interrupt your...uh...what was it you were doing?"

"We were negotiating a price for his services." Azade answered for the gruff merc, "We're looking to bring home a large shipment of goods from town, and we're running a bit late. So we're considering picking up a little extra security to make sure we make it back home safely."

Dieter motioned with one hand toward Azade, "There you have it, important business you've interrupted."

"How much?" Elaina asked as she took one of the rolls from the middle of the table and began to shred little pieces off to pop into her mouth. The look of warning in Anisha's eyes said she was close to crossing a line with this little game of hers.

"Fifteen," Anisha said incredulously.

"Silver?" Elaina scoffed a bit, "No offense, sir, but you can't even tell who's an alchemist and who's not. I think you're immensely overcharging."

Dieter shifted his weight, growing loud again, with more of the people on the balcony taking notice than last time, "I was just about to negotiate the price when you-"

"I'd do it for three." Elaina interrupted, suddenly serious. Her eyes locked with Dieters as she chewed her bread lazily. Anisha and Azade exchanged glances, both adjusted the way they were sitting to face Elaina a little now.

"Three?" Azade queried, "You're a warrior?"

Elaina could practically feel the scrutiny in Azade's gaze moving over her like hands patting her down, checking her for the necessary physique one expected of a fighter.

"I am." Elaina nodded, shifting in her chair to show Azade the sword on her hip.

"Simply carrying a sword doesn't make you a warrior, girl." Dieter scoffed, "You've no armor! How do you expect to protect them if you can't even protect yourself!"

"I have armor." Elaina countered calmly, "But after hearing what was on the menu for this evening, I determined that the roast beef probably wasn't a threat."

Anisha gave a brief snort while Azade's smirk grew a little wider. Unlike the two women, though, Dieter did not appear to be amused in the least. Raising his voice earlier had brought unwanted attention, he seemed to be forcing himself to keep from doing so again. The struggle was visible now. The calm and collected sellsword from earlier was too rattled to continue with whatever his original plan had been, yet he seemed unwilling to back down.

"You joke, but are we just to take your word for it? You've given words and nothing more. For all we know, that sword isn't even yours. There are several ways you could have come by it. Just because you wear it, doesn't make it yours to wear."

"Like your armor?" Elaina countered pointedly, narrowing her eyes on Dieter.

The space between all of them went quiet for a long, tense moment. Azade and Anisha glanced between the two of them as they stared silently at one another. Elaina did not take her eyes off Dieter, nor did he take his off her. She'd had time to examine him now up close while she walked him through the ridiculous verbal dance that she had. When he'd crossed his arms, she'd stolen a look at the pommel of his sword and was able to make out how it had been shaped and engraved. She'd also got a better look at the armor itself. Noticing how the markings and color had been purposely ground from it rather than being worn off through wear and tear, the way she had initially thought.

"What did you say to me?" Dieter said with a forced calm in his voice. It was actually more intimidating than him raising his voice had been, but Elaina was not deterred in the least.

"That's right." Elaina began, setting the bread down and dusting the crumbs from her fingers, "You have a little trouble keeping up. Your armor... it's stolen. You took it off the corpses of other men. Maybe men you killed but maybe not. Yours fits alright, but theirs fits for shit."

Elaina looked back at Dieter's two cronies and then back to him, "You've ground the markings off your cuirass, but the shape is still rather distinct, isn't it? Crafted in that sort of antiquated style that they like over in Zelmesca Falls, hmm?"

"You see, when I first came to Zelmesca, it was with my sister. She'd been turned by a vampire against her will and against the protocols of vampire law. We came to the Obsidian Court in hopes that she would be spared the fate of the one that sired her." Elaina spread her hands briefly before clasping them in front of her, "She was. But she was required to stay there for some training. I remained there with her until I could get my bearings. I learned a lot while I was there. I trained in the sword, I learned warfare, and many other things I won't bore you with. One of the more fascinating things I learned though..."

Elaina pointed at the armor that Dieter was wearing. "Was what the vampires and their servants were wearing. I saw it all the time. There's less plating along the arms and legs; the focus is entirely on the chest and back. My armor is sort of similar in a way because I was tutored in a style of swordsmanship that favors that freedom of movement."

"And this story proves... What?" Dieter said calmly, though his cronies looked like they were about to crawl out of their skin.

"By itself? Nothing." Elaina admitted, "But your swords all match; they're in better condition and bear the shape of a bear's head on the pommel. The guard also has that distinct stylization to it. Such swords were made specifically for the Orbonne company, were they not?"

Both Azade and Anisha's eyes shifted now to Dieter, with explicit recognition in their eyes. Both seemed ready to spring from their seats, Elaina didn't move. The Orbonne company was a moderately sized group of professional soldiers hired by the Abyssals to shore up their numbers during the war. The Orbonne company specialized in dealing with occult and undead threats. This made them ideal allies against the predominantly psychic Order of the Crimson Light and the Vampire Obsidian Court. Elaina wasn't sure how it had happened, but something had gutted the command structure of the Abyssals. It had somehow left the Orbonne company vulnerable for a short time. Most of their company had been slain in a great battle, with dozens upon dozens of their numbers being hunted down in the following weeks.

"I noticed all of you perked right up when you heard the name of who they work for. So I can only assume it's a name you know from the war---some kind of personal vendetta. You've no interest in the work; it's this 'Myanna' you want to get to. But you had to make a show of it, hm? So that they wouldn't be suspicious of you? So you started the bidding for your 'services' high. You were going to set them at ease through the ruse of negotiation of those rates so that by the time it was over, they would just be counting themselves fortunate for having got you at a bargain."

Azade's eyes flashed with anger, but she said nothing; instead, she simply rose slowly from her seat. Elaina couldn't help but notice how long her raven black hair actually was as it spilled down her back and nearly to the floor. It was like a flowing black silk curtain that reflected the light of the lanterns beautifully. Dieter took a single step back now, the game was up, he'd been discovered. What was worse, his identity had been revealed to just about everyone within earshot on the balcony.

"You thought I wouldn't notice." Elaina pursed her lips, "But I did."

Dieter's hand went to his sword, and with a sudden jerk of her leg, Elaina kicked the chair opposite of her out from under the table and into his knees, interrupting his draw and costing him precious seconds. The red-haired woman leaped over the table, snatching up one of the table knives as she moved. When she landed on the other side; she held the back of Dieter's skull in one hand, the other had the blade of the knife pressed to his throat.

"I haven't even drawn my sword yet." Elaina whispered to him, a lock of her hair had fallen into her face when she'd moved and it fluttered a little when she spoke, "I've got you dead to rights here with a table knife. I can't imagine it'll cut cleanly the way my sword might, but I'm willing to give it a try, are you?"

Around them everything had gone silent as the eyes of the people on the balcony had all fallen upon them, looking on with bated breath. Elaina heard the low creak of Dieter's gauntlet as his grip tightened on his sword only part way out of its scabbard, his eyes transfixed on hers only inches away. Behind him, his cronies were frozen in place. The silence around them grew.

"Don't." The redhead warned, as the edge of the knife began to bite into the flesh of his throat, "You've already seen that you're not smarter than me, nor faster than me. At this point, it wouldn't matter if you were stronger than me because you've already lost. But if you sheath your weapon, you can leave here with your life and perhaps a scrap of dignity."

The other patrons inside the tavern went about their business, utterly unaware of what was transpiring on the balcony. If it were not for those patrons and the revelry and the music that went with them, the balcony would have been so quiet that one could have heard a pin drop. The silence stretched on for what felt like hours as Elaina watched a single bead of sweat make the long, agonizing journey from Dieter's forehead down the side of his face to his chin. Before it could drop, he slid the sword back into its sheath, bringing his hands up in surrender. His men similarly held their hands up. Once they had, Elaina withdrew the knife, letting Dieter go. The trio stepped back slowly and glanced around to find the door. As they did, Elaina also took a look around, noticing that there were more than a few others out here who had placed their hands on their weapons. All of them ready to defend themselves if a full-scale melee had broken out.

When the three men reached the doors, they put their hands down, storming through the taproom to exit through the front door. The balcony's silence held on for only a moment longer before everyone seemed to return as one to their meals and conversations. Despite how quickly and confidently Elaina had acted, she could feel her heart racing. Hell, she practically heard it threatening to leap out of her chest. Before the adrenaline had a chance to leave her, she picked the chair up that she'd kicked at Dieter and sat down in it.

Azade slowly took her seat as well, she'd been stone-faced for the stand-off with Dieter. Now that he was gone, her expression began to soften, "You learned all that from the vampires?"

Elaina shook her head gently, "No, ma'am, Just that last part I learned from the vampires. The rest I learned from the books in the vampires' library."

"Fucking hell." Anisha spat with mild amusement as she caught the eye of the barmaid who'd just come onto the balcony, signaling for another round.

Azade's lips twisted back into that faintly amused smirk she had been wearing earlier, leaning back in her chair to look Elaina over. Elaina herself was fighting her body's urge to shake a little, lest she ruin her daring moment of heroism.

"I'll pay you seven. But don't call me ma'am, do I look like a 'ma'am' to you?" Azade corrected, slightly irritated at being called such an honorific. Anisha side-eyed the redhead and brought a hand up to her neck, making a subtle cutting motion with it while shaking her head so she would know not to bring it up again.