[Palacrisis D Jones]

The meal was finished the waitress had taken away dishes and plates but the basket of breads remained despite the slight query on the girls face as Palacrisis placed his hand over the rolls. They were ammunition and he had his eye on a particular round granary cob about the size of his fist…but not yet!

He turned his attention back to his dinner companion his concentration complete as she spoke

You know Alicia you are not the only one who has problems with love and relationships, there was a girl in Tearsfall, we had declared love for each other and …well you know the sort of thing that happens We were very close yet she left me, not a blasted word or note. I was devastated and yet funnily it was the catalyst for me. I gave up the Tearsfall job and moved south met J’lyara and became an Imperial Consul … he shrugged …. if I had married the girl in Tearsfall perhaps none of this would have happened. The fates move in strange ways and sometimes I feel like a puppet on the strings of the gods being pulled along on the winds of fate. There will be a new love in your life Alicia …I know you do not believe it now but the gods are planning yet another surprise for each of us, it may not be soon but I will wager when it does come it will happen when you least expect it .

He had ordered brandy and whatever Alicia wanted and settled down to savour the fine bouquet, he toyed with the bread roll running it around and around in his fingers. Old baldy was holding forth getting louder and redder faced as bumper after bumper of wine poured down his throat. A merchant or trader possibly he thought he tensed getting ready to throw the roll but alas his target leaned forward to shout some lewd remark to his companion obscuring his aim.

He leaned back waiting for his next chance. Its odd Alicia I had been toying with the idea of buying an estate in the country somewhere to escape to when life gets too much to bear but I hesitate believing that somewhere there is another twist in my tale. I have a small farm near Taralon but I never have had the time to do anything with it so I was thinking of Centripax being midway in my patch. Yet something holds me back perhaps I shall look again once winter finishes.

Alicia ‘s hand snaked out like a striking viper but speed is not everything and all that happened was that a bemused fat man was looking at his pint pot where there had been good crown ale was now a bread roll, and a puddle of ale that was seeping down the front of his trousers. He looked around but there was nothing to see after all the well dressed couple on the second tier of the inn was far too sophisticated to throw bread at a body.

Baldy brayed a loud raucous laugh, throwing back his shiny pate and opening his mouth wide, Pala winked at Alicia and with a flick of his wrist sent the hard cob spinning through the air. As a lad he had been a bit of a local expert at stone throwing and what’s learnt deep in the muscles of the body is not normally forgotten. the roll flew downwards and ……landed on the table it bounced and shot away and headed towards the expensive twenty sided bar.