[Location] Thane's Estate

[Kalinda]

„The first plane. There is a market in a cave near the Marauder’s Den Pub. They claim to be selling harmless things there, food, weapons, armor, clothes, but they are not. They make their business with stolen goods and are bribing business owners. I’ve also been informed that they kidnap citizens of your Empire, take their visas away and sell them on the local slave markets, claiming that they are barbari and thus legal slaves. I would appreciate it if they could be dealt with. They’ve been interefering with my plans. Of course I would give you something in return. I’m sure that a stable Har’oloth would be in your best interest, and if all goes according to my plans Har’oloth will be a stable city that would never even think about attacking your Empire again.”

“Greedy and vain, yes, that’s what he is”, she agreed. “Sometimes insane. His self esteem is a bit too high, and he has a certain way of talking about things that makes one careful. He’s a manipulator. He is good at what he does, but I would keep a close eye on him, Lady Thane. Don’t tell him that I said this though. I’d rather not have my name mentioned in this context.” She did not want his anger. So far working together with him and being his ally worked to her advantage. He had promised her great things. Who would say no if a certain human promised to serve Har’oloth to you on a golden platter?

“I just wanted to discuss those things with you, Lady Thane. Is there anything more you want of me? I must return to Har’oloth soon."

[Harle Quinn]

Yea sure whatever.

Harle was obviously pissed off, and had to wait the time needed until the thane arrived.

[Amber Brightwing]

OOC: Oh well, my intention was for me to come to your office.

Amanda was busy copying some papers when Dimitri walked in. When he walked in she looked up to address him.

“Serale. You can just go in. The thane is expecting you. Do you want anything brought to drink?”

If the answer was negative she would just continue with her work, otherwise she’d get up to see to his needs.

When the Head of the Guards would enter he was immediately greeted by the Fae sitting at her usual place, a small pillow in the middle of a huge desk made of reddish brown wood. Her smile quickly turned into a frown though as she saw a second person entering as well. She had not expected him to bring along any friends.

“Serale. I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask for your companion to leave us though. I wanted to discuss something with you in private and I’d prefer that the things talked about stay between us as well. I’d like to have your opinion on an idea and it would be only fair to talk to you first before making any further inquiries as it’s directly related to your job.”

She smiled and said no more. Before she’d reveal any further details the other human would have to leave the room first.

[Roland Moonstar]

Early one morning during the first Aslanica of the first cycle of the new season:

Roland walked up to the guards. He had spent most of the spring as a quiet pillar-of-the-community sort in Vortex, and now that summer was here he decided to stretch himself a bit and see what was going on in the city. Who would-- or should-- know better what was going on than the Thane?

As usual, he had the appearance of a well-to-do well-dressed man in a tailored-made charcoal suit, flanked by his usual entourage of body guards, assistants, minstrels and Looie the Lutran; the sea otter wore his usual white powdered wig and black robe.

He smiled at the guards on duty. "Serale. I would like to make a social call on Thane Amber Brightwing." He handed his card to the nearest guard; though the man had once (at the behest of the former Duke) saved all of Vortex he did not assume that everyone knew who he was, for the nice thing about the Allerian Empire was how people constantly travelled around in it. "If she is not available today, then an appointment for the future will be fine. This is not business, per se... more on the order of paying my respects to the current administration."

It was, after all, the Duke who had first financed the Legion of Justice, and it was men like Sergei and Andrei who had first worked with Draekial and Roland while they were setting it up. So Roland felt at home in Vortex, and he looked upon the guards with frank admiration. He could not even remember the number of times he had visited various Thanes in Vortex, though he did recall his first meeting: back in the days of Aramil, he had come here to offer to become Senator of Vortex.
Sadly, it was an ill-timed decision as that evil mage in Alleria Prime and his Rak'kyra dissolved the Senate, and Roland had left Arium to offer his services to Audrey and Lysandria in general. Which had worked out well for him personally, with an appointment at Lord Justicar and a pattern being called "your honor," and "your excellency." But he was not so sure it had been good for Vortex.

After all, it was upon his return an era or two later that he had been forced to take up arms and raise a small army to defeat the forces of Ardgan the Merciless. And even Roland could not prevent the death of Dimitri's father, the Duke, nor do much about the various factions splintering the city.

Still, no use ruminating over the past. He instructed his entourage to wait at the gates. Roland himself waited now for the guard escort to arrive to take him inside.

[Amber Brightwing]

As the elf was giving her the needed information, Amber quickly took a quill and jotted down some words in the corner of on of the papers lying next to her. Though she should be able to reproduce the short titbit without taking notes easily enough she didn’t entirely trust herself not to forget to send Dimitri a letter on it later on.

“Thank you for the advice, but I already intended to try and keep me somewhat informed on his doings. Do you mind telling him your name when I contact him about investigating the little market mentioned earlier? I think he’s clever enough to see through the excuse of an anonymous tip.”

If the relation between her and the Head of the Guards was as good as it seemed to be then she didn’t think it should be a problem. It seemed only polite to ask for a confirmation on it though.

“As for now I think we have discussed the most important things. I will contact you if anything else comes up and feel free to contact me with any problems I can help with or suggestions as well.”

Unless anything else came up she would let Eilantha be on her way again after a some last words of goodbye.

[Amber Brightwing]

“Would you like something to drink while waiting?”

The question had been both out of politeness and because the she didn’t like the obvious displeasure of the woman in front of her. Even though the secretary couldn’t do anything to speed things up (so Harle had nothing to be pissed off about) she felt some guilt for it anyway.

A little under a candlemark later Amanda came to Harle.

“The thane is available now.”

She was lead past the guards into a room where a thick red carpet, Arakmatan in style, lay on the floor. A huge desk made of reddish brown wood stood in the middle of the room. Several stacks of paper lie on the desk, forming small towers on each end and with only a handful of leaves here and there between that. Occasionally a books lay on the desk as well. Two huge broadswords , ornately decorated with silver and numerous gems, were hanging on the wall behind it, swords with hilts that were filled with a multitude of gems. Two cosy looking chairs were standing in front of it and two more could be found in a corner next to a small table. A couple of bookshelves and a fireplace completed the furnishing of the room.

In the middle of the desk sat a small Fae, the current thane of Vortex, on an equally small pillow, legs crossed and her eyes on a sheet of paper in front of her. When Harle entered the eyes went up to the visitor.

“Serale, I'm Amber Brightwing, thane of Vortex, how can I help you?”

[Amber Brightwing]

The guard to his left nodded.

“If you’ll hand over any weapons you might be carrying and follow me sir. You will receive them back when you leave.”

Once lead inside, Roland would find a hall with white marble walls, richly decorated with paintings of exotic places, of beaches, snow covered mountains, jungles and swamps, of Vysstichi, Humans and Halflings. Two staircases on each side went up to the next floor. At the end of the hall, two more guards were standing each on one side of a door. They were Human and looked very alike, due to being twins. They had short black hair, black eyes and skin so pale that they almost looked as if they were dead ... or undead. They wore identical uniforms of black and purple, the colours of Vortex. They were muscular and the armour underneath their uniform made them look even bulkier. Upon closer inspection Roland might even recognize the duo as they were Sergei and Andrei, former personal guards of the previous thanes.

Roland was led into the office to the left of the guards. Inside sat a woman with curly blond hair at shoulder length and a friendly smile. After Amanda was informed of his wish to see the Thane it took her only a moment to find out when she was available.

“This afternoon would be the earliest the Thane is available. Otherwise it’ll have to be for tomorrow.”

[Roland Moonstar]

“If you’ll hand over any weapons you might be carrying and follow me sir. You will receive them back when you leave.”

Roland caused his hands to turn invisible for a moment. "As you can see, I am... un-armed."

All the minstrels in Roland's entourage politely laughed and applauded, since that's what they were paid for. Looie just rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath in Lutranese about the imminent rise of the sea otters.

Roland turned back to the guards, and handed over whatever he had on him, including his two-handed polearm, his spellbook, and an odd pyramid-shaped thing that smelled frankly of fish, but which Roland assured the guards was a Lutran weapon of devasting intent.

* * *

He paused when passing the guards and said hello to each, along the lines of "Serale! Andrei, how are you? How's Sergei doing?" which he thought was actually quite funny, but it lacked a certain something when a bunch of drunk Dorins weren't standing around chuckling along with him.

Frowning a bit, he made his way into the room where Amanda sat. He listened for a moment, and nodded, returning her smile with a warm one of his own. "Tomorrow is fine. There's nothing urgent or pressing. As I mentioned to the guards, this is not business, or ... at least not yet, anyway. The first meeting I make with a politician is always just to pay my respects, so I don't expect the whole thing to take more than a candlemark or two."

That out of the way, Roland smiled at the receptionist some more. "Hi. I like your haircut; it's very flattering. So.. uh... is there a Mister Amanda, perchance?" He winced, even as he said it, and was glad the caustic and cynical Lutran was not around to mock him.

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

(OOC: Got to keep you on your toes!)

Dimitri bowed gently before nodding gently and dismissing his man, if the Thane had news for him then it was important to hear it. When the man had left Dimitri stood with his arms hanging loosely by his sides, the fingers of his right hand rubbed together. It was a situation that amused him, she was too intelligent to be controlled so he had to work behind her and hope that he had enough leeway to maneuver. Things were changing in this city, Thane or not the power of his House would rise again and Vortex would be reformed slowly and surely in an image he inspired.

"What is it you wish to discuss Lady Thane?"

[Amber Brightwing]

The two guards just looked at each other for a brief moment at Roland’s antics, but they said nothing of it and just guided him inside. He had somewhat more success with the twins guarding the Thane’s chambers.

“I’m good, thanks for asking. You Sergei?”
“Could be better.”
“And Sergei’s doing great as well. Good to see you again.”

They left it at that and let Roland continue his way into the secretary’s office. At Roland’s rather unsubtle advances, Amanda didn’t really know how to reply for a moment. Her smile was still there, but blood was quickly finding it’s way to her head.

“Eh, no, well eh, not yet. I mean I’m eh, I’m seeing someone, but we’re not married yet so eh…”

She cleared her throat as she regained her composure. Fortunately the guard had already left for his post at the gate again so there wasn’t anyone else present. The remnants of the blush still lingered on her cheek though. Having gotten over the initial surprise she actually felt quite flattered by the question. If she wouldn’t have had someone already she might have considered a follow up on it.

“Tomorrow was it. How does the early afternoon suit you mister Moonstar?”

[Amber Brightwing]

She nodded as Dimitri ordered his lawyer to leave the room without further questions as to why she made the request. It would become clear to him soon enough.

“First to answer on the question you asked in your letter. I don’t see any reason to split the office of Aedile nor why I would give you a job as minister of Trade. I find it very convenient when all matters concerning the economical and financial state of the city are centralized. Also, I think that the current position of Council President is already close to for what you had in mind so we already have a similar post that’s filled in. The two people taking up the post of Aedile and Council President are both experienced at what they do and I don’t have any complaints on them so far. Add to that that you don’t really have any credentials as far as the actual job goes so I’m sure you’ll understand my reasoning for the decision.”

Aside from that she had no intentions whatsoever to give this man more power then he already had, but that she wouldn’t tell him of course. In this particular case that argument hadn’t even been needed to decide what to do.

“But that’s not what I wanted to see you for. As you might remember, I have asked you not to move into the Blood Alley Gang territories yet. That’s because I had an idea that might work better and I would like to have your input on it. Taking street by street would be a slow and resources consuming process and we still wouldn’t be sure whether they wouldn’t just eventually become an underground organization hiding from the law. I think that the best would be if we could take them out in one swift stroke, taking over their headquarters, taking out a good part of their members and most importantly taking down their leaders and their cohesion. Inevitably, new groups would rise out of the ashes, but they’d be a lot smaller and easier to control.”

“Unfortunately, setting up a force capable of doing such a thing would require a lot of time and money and once the task would be done we might have a surplus on forces we don’t really need, consuming even more money. I don’t know how much information you have gathered on them, but they are training their forces quite seriously and have the advantage of being able to hide behind the walls of their fortress, so we will have to assume their will be heavy resistance when trying to walk in. That’s why I was considering whether we could ask the provincial forces to do our dirty work. They use their muscle to take them down and we use our guards to mop up the remainders and establish control over the area.”

“So what do you think of such a course of action?”

She sat back and waited, not sure what he would say.

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

Dimitri shrugged gently at the first part of the Thane's speech, "Fair enough, I merly negotiate often with leaders of cities and so forth for my own commercial gains and thought the city might benefit from being included, but it is no great loss to me Lady Thane." Dimitri would merely have to advance his own commercialism and continue his links with other cities.

"As for the idea of getting provincial forces into the city it is absurd." Dimitri could see no point to this plan, "If you do this you win on one front, true the blood ally gang is destroyed and the greater threat is over, but you win that battle you surely loose the war, the citizens are outraged you allow a provincial force into the city, the same forces that killed their families not too long ago when they seiged us, the guard and army we have are angry because you put no little trust in them, you look weak for you cannot sort problems out without referring to your superiors everytime a little problem crops up, and finally if you allow imperial troops into the city there is no guarantee they would ever leave, chances are there would be a mass riot and slaughter in the Southern Quarter and then the provincial forces may take the opportunity to attack the Dark elves below us which is clearly the Empires long term course of action anyway."

Dimitri paused and smiled softly, "I apologise for my negative outlook lady Thane, you are an Imperial official, I am as well however I am also deeply connected to this city, I feel I have the mindset of a citizen of Vortex and I would be angry if a provincial force were allowed in here, we are an independant people Lady Thane and the people do not love or trust you enough to manipulate the provincial forces into doing our dirty work, you may as well capitulate with the enemy if you follow through with your plan."

Dimitri could have let her continue with this plan but he decided to openly voice his concerns, chances are she would ovverule him anyway, he was merely a sounding board but it was no skin off his teeth if the Thane persued this reckless course, "There are three methods I would advocate for dealing with this problem, either hire a mercenary band and use them to destroy the gang with our guards mopping up afterwards, second use the velvet glove of diplomacy and negotiate with the leaders, support them against one another and watch the House of cards fall apart, or finally use the natural resources of Vortex to your advantage, surely some necromancers would still be able to give you a....expendable force to mop up some bandits?" He knew the last plan was illegal but he dared her to reprimand him about it, Vortex and its necromancers had long been friends of his family and as such he felt he could mention them safely. "But it is your eventual decision Lady Thane."

[Kalinda]

The Matron of the Second House leaves …

“If you absolutely must”, Eilantha said. “I have nothing against your telling him that I gave you this little bit of information, but please keep the rest of our conversation private. It wasn’t the most polite thing to talk about him behind his back.” She had not suddenly gotten a bad conscience, she just wanted to stay on his good side for the time being. He was unpredictable. Who knew what he would do if he found out that she had talked to the Thane about him?

“Serale, Your Grace.” The Esh’alhier almost curtsied. She was a proud woman, an arrogant woman, but there were certain things that were necessary. She wanted the Thane to like her, to trust her rather than criticize for her arrogance, for her utterly inappropriate behaviour. It was a necessity. She turned around and left the room with a smile on her face.

[Kalinda]

… and the Daughter of the Third House arrives!

The 13th Brightening of Ponutis

A carriage arrived at the Thane’s estate in the late hours of the afternoon when the light wasn’t as harsh anymore and life in the streets already began to slow down. The carriage was black, and curtains had been drawn in front of the windows, but it was otherwise unremarkable. Two horses were drawing it. The coach driver was a vysstichi dressed in black and green leather. Another vysstichi was sitting at the back of the coach, and two men accompagnied it. It looked like the carriage of a noble or a richer citizen. Some of the wealthier inhabitants of Vortex preferred to travel in such a fashion, accompagnied by guards.

The carriage stopped directly in front of the gate. The coach driver jumped down and opened the door. A woman stepped out, a young vysstichi, eighty, ninety perhaps. She was wearing a long black silk dress that was decorated with complicated silver ornaments, but no jewelry and no makeup. Her face was rather plain, not ugly – there were very few vysstichi that were truly hideous – but it was amazingly unremarkable. Her lips were thin, and there was something about her face that suggested cruelty. Her eyes though, her eyes were special, deep, silver pools.

She walked towards the guards as if she owned the place. Two women, dressed in black and green uniforms just like the men, followed her.

One of them positioned herself in front of the guards. “We announce the arrival of Alyanna Vhid D’issan, Daughter of the Third House of Har’oloth and Priestess of Haya. The Thane is expecting her.” Alyanna did not speak to the guards herself. Such a thing was below her. She was standing there, arms crossed over her chest and stared at them as if she wanted nothing more than put that dagger she carried at her belt where it hurt the most.

[Roland Moonstar]

Ammburrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (pronounced like "Timberrrr!")

Roland nodded. He was a man of good grace, and the moment Amanda mentioned another man in her life, he dropped all interest in her, though he sighed once in disappointment to let her know how much he regretted the bad timing of meeting her only after she was with someone else.

He rapidly adopted a clipped, formal, business-like tone. "All right. Tomorrow it is. The afternoon is good. Here is my card. Should it be necessary to cancel, please send a guard or messenger to my estate in town. "