Honor Amongst

Ranulfe woke up with a start. He was dreaming something that caused him to be restless and this spilled over into reality. His heart was pounding, his brow damp with sweat. He held his breath, all senses on alert and he tapped into the adrenaline surge. There was something wrong.

He had been lying low inside of his room in Norg. The men he had been witnessing in public left him feeling uneasy albeit not in danger, but there was no reason to tempt fate. Instead he had been keeping his profile low and not venturing away and into the streets of the smuggler's cove. Something was wrong, however. His gut had never failed him before.

There was no noise outside of his door, no light breaching his room and no reason to be alarmed. Bare feet settled onto the sturdy floor, Ranulfe light on his legs. He crept towards the doorway, retrieving his blade from beneathe his pillow first. There was something wrong.

The door would be trouble. He looked it over for a long moment, wondering how to open it without alarming anyone on the other side. He determined it would be impossible to do so if there was someone watching the doorway. It would be in poor interest to try and sneak away if he had in fact been cornered finally. Ranulfe stood tall, weapon in his hand and walked across his room. There were people here who knew he was here and he knew it. His gut told him there was danger awaiting him and he had no reason to second guess himself, as ludicrous as it seemed to suspect such a thing.

The door opened. With his guard raised, Ranulfe stepped foot outside and into the walkway lit only by the soft candlelight from the main room below. There didn't appear to be anyone there, but it was still dark. Ranulfe listened as hard as he could, strained his ears the best he was able. Once he determined there was no threat in his immediate surrounding he took the steps down.

Sitting at the sole table remaining in the large room was a woman, blonde, in her thirties. She was drinking something steaming from a small cup before her; Ranulfe presumed it was tea. She didn't acknowledge him until he was down the steps and his feet were on the floor in front of her. He didn't say anything and she took a long sip of her beverage before eyeing him up. To Ranulfe's surprise there was a sense of kindness in them.

"We have a small problem." She said finally, carefully placing her cup on the saucer before her. She folded her hands and let out a long sigh.

"No one knows who you are, child. You appeared in my city without a word, no one can identify you. None of the people you speak to in the day employ you, none of the people you speak to know where you came from. Furthermore, you arrived shortly after the day when I was expecting supplies. There has been word reaching my cove of a shipwreck where there were no survivors. Do you see the trouble, young man?" She spoke to him with a mature tone, though it ruffled his feathers that this woman, who was not considerably older than he, addressed him with such a title.

"You think I'm suspicious." His tone was curt, withheld. There was no reason to betray anything she didn't know. To his second surprise, she laughed gently.

"This is Norg, child. I'd only be suspicious of you if you weren't suspicious. The trouble is that you appeared in my neck of the woods without so much as a word, and no one can trace you. My finest men have been monitoring you and I will admit, you are a complete mystery to this place. No one arrives in my city without my knowing, and no one eludes my spies. I will be brief with the information I want from you, and you will answer me or you will be dead before you can stutter." Her tone was suddenly cold, her eyes harsh. There was definitive truth in her words. Ranulfe nodded.

"What is your name?"

"Ranulfe Elspeth."

"You are Tenshodo? Or merely pretending?"

"I am Tenshodo."

"You come from Bastok?"

"Yes."

"There was no boat coming to Norg from Bastok. How did you arrive here?"

He paused. A mistake. She rose from her seat, flicking her wrist forward and exposing a kunai.

"I boarded a ship from the Brugaire Consortium. There was an incident, the men on board were smuggling explosives and weapons, and there was an explosion. I woke nearby and came here for refuge."

"You say you boarded a ship. You were not crew?"

"No."

"Why then?"

"I have nothing left in Bastok. I wanted to pursue my life from our capitol."

She paused, pacing around the table and examining the weapon in her hand.

"Nothing left in Bastok? No family, no friends? Why didn't you join up with the Adventurers there, or become a Musketeer?"

"No family. My mother is deceased, my father absent from our lives. My sisters have become adventurers as well. I did not become one because I failed. My entire family belongs to Bastok, a nation I will have nothing to do with."

She seemed to dwell on this for a moment.

"You are a thief?" she finally asked.

"I am..." His eyes darted away, not knowing how to answer.

"You are...?" She waited for his reply.

"I am Tenshodo."

She smiled, laughing gently to herself, amused. "Yes you are. Come with me, Ranulfe Elspeth. You interest me."