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Keleth sighed, The gold's running low, and I'm not gonna stoop so low as to paint fences to earn my bread ... For the month or two he'd stayed in Aboad Komano, little had happened, and frankly, he preferred a bit of peace and quite after the frantic lifestyle he'd been leading. Still, gold didn't earn itself, and it was still the most important thing in the world for him, so he had to get some soon enough. Pulling on his pipe, he stared out at the ocean: from where he was sitting, on the terrasse of a port Inn, he had a lovely view on the waters of the port, glistening like golden honey thanks to the sun, which was at its zenith. Ah, almost feels like paradise, just not enough blood ...

As he watched the port view, he caught out of the corner of his eye a man walking towards him. "Pat" he thought, an informer who was scouring the city for info and possible job offers. Before the man even arrived close to him, Keleth placed his pipe on the rough-hewn table and shouted at the man: "If it's killing some more rats or doing some roofing, I'm not fuckin' interested Pat !" The booze might of been the reason for his slightly violent outburst, he'd also been spending his cash on good alcohol, to pass the time you know. As the small burly man approached, he replied in a small, shy voice: "Actually, not this time Keleth, it seems quite interesting. An offer for a far-away trip and many riches to be won. It looks promising to say the least ! The ad says it's in need of warriors and that it will take you far to the north; across the Solemn Ocean !
-Really; the assassin perked up an eyebrow; where do I sign up ? If my ennemies are coming here, I doubt they'll bother searching across the Solemn Ocean, and I do need the gold ...
-It said that you should go to the ship called the "Good Intent", a ship with large blue sails I'm told, tomorrow I think. The employer should be waiting there.
-"Good Intent", bah ! Pathetic name for a ship, feels I'm working for some bleeding Paladins ! Hm, anyway, I'll go there tomorrow, if this guy has posted the job right now, I won't bet on him going straight back to the ship afterwards. One last thing, what's his name ?
-Alùn, or Athùn, something like that, son of Baten I think. he'll be the captain too.
-Good, now go Pat, fly, scram !" Despite his usefulness, Keleth still hated Pat, the worm had about as much backbone as an eel. The little man scurried away like a beaten dog.

Tarn picked his pipe back up, taking another drag, and let the day pass by, uneventfully to say the least. Sometime during the night, he left the chair and retired to his mouldy bed, falling to sleep with the prospect of a safe escape route from his ennemies in the morning.

The next morning, Keleth geared himself up, putting on his trousers, boots, shirt, cuirass, gloves, a knee-high black overcoat and finally his cloak. He sheathed his daggers, strapped his quiver and bow to his bag, and pulled his hood up. Passing the innkeeper with a small hand gesture, the assassin left the inn. He marched down the docks, adjusting his body heat to feel comfortable in his attire despite the blazing morning heat, and quickly found the ship called the "Good Intent". It was quite remarkable, with soaring-high blue sails, a sturdy and large build, and crewman busying themselves around it. He found someone standing by the gangplank, and approached him, letting him start the conversation.

Alùn made busy of himself that morning with his maps, measuring string, and protractor, making some last-minute calculations on what route the Good Intent was to take northward. The storms in autumn around the Red Strait were imfamous; perhaps they should abandon that shortcut after all. Then, though, they'd have to sail all the way around the Kamen Bulge, which would take weeks. But that might not be so bad if they stopped to resupply on the One-Eyed Island after--

"Cap'n!"

One of his crewmen had popped his head in through Alùn's cabin door. "Cap'n, there's two strangers here. I think they're mercenaries here for the expidition."

The captain stood and walked past the young man. "Thank you for telling me, mate," he said in passing.

The mercenaries were not hard to spot; one was a lightly-armored man with a beautiful pendant around his neck and the other was an Avian woman clothed in a scant, foreign dress and carrying a large battle-scythe like the ones used by the Warrior-Farmers of Madfeld. Alùn approached them calmly (though his men seemed eager to give the two--particularly the outlandish half-human--a wide berth.)

"Hail," he aknowledged, raising his right hand in a Litawjan greeting, "I am Alùn, Son of Batien, and captain of this ship. I presume you are both here because of the call for mercenaries I posted?"

"Yay, freaks, prophets and mimes, what a joy-ride !" the assassin mumbled. Shouting out at the mime on the mast, he added: "Little girl, dodge this !" and he threw a small fireball towards her. Not even bothering to watch her evade the projectile, he stared at the supposed captain of the ship: "Listen, if you need some men for your expedition, you'll need an assassin like me, not a mime. My name is Keleth Tarn, you might of heard of me, but I bet you lot haven't." he stated first at the captain and then at the other would-be adventurers. Just in case, he pulled his hood down. Inspecting the others, it seemed only the Avian with the scythe looked dangerous, and she seemed to be pretty pissed off by the goings-on, like me he thought. "So capt'n, signing me on or not ?" he asked, placing his left hand on the hilt of his dagger, in case proof of his prowesses were required, or if he just got pissed off with the other kids. On a second thought, lets see how they react to this ... Keleth placed his right hand on the ruby pendant, and a moment later it glared with an intense blood-red light, bathing the surrounding people in its sanguine haze of colour. Gods I love this jewel ! ...

Just the mocking tone of the bird-girl was enough to tense Keleth's muscels; nobody mocked him. "No, I don't just do fireworks ..." His left arm shot up, pulling his dagger out of its sheath in the blink of an eye. Spinning around with astonishing grace, he brought the black blade against her bare neck: "Not so cocky anymore, are we birdy. Now, don't mess with me, understood ..." He let the full weight of his words sink into all those around him, including the captain. His arm was getting increasingly hot, the girl's body heat seemed to be astoundingly high, but he shrugged the slight pain away, and fixed the captain: "I asked you a question ..."

As Keleth held his dagger to the Avian's throat, her whole body seemed to flare up in anger, and she grabbed his arm, with amazing strength and speed, shoving it behind his back, and slightly burning his skin. Then, releasing the assassin's arm from her grip, she stated: "Don't push me rookie. I won't think twice about hurting you next time." Before she even finished her sentence, Tarn rolled forward, turning around in the middle of it, and faced her again, his eyes glaring with fierce anger. He stood there, in a defensive stance, legs flexed, dagger in front of him, and his whole body tensed and concentrated on the bird-girl.

Hmm, stronger than I thought, I'll have to watch out for her. But she'll pay for humiliating me ... He would not pursue this fight here, today. No, it could wait for later, but it was not finished. In one final act of defiance, he flung his other dagger, the one strapped to his thigh, towards the Avian, just above her head, narrowly avoiding it, before sheathing his other one. "Let's all stop this now, before we kill eachother and leave the poor captain without any employees. You've seen or heard what wr can do, Alùn, what'll it be ?" I feel like I'm not gonna enjoy this trip very much, not good enough public relations I guess, hmph ...