Hunting the Hunter Ch. 05

She didn't have to do or say much when she got to the table since the lot of them were already chatting away without her. Young master trainee was off somewhere and Max was listening intently as Mirisa gave him the skinny. They accepted their beers from her with little more than an acknowledging nod. Feric caught her eye briefly, but turned his eyes back to Mirisa quickly enough. She slid into an empty chair beside him and leaned forward, her chin in her hand— pure listening mode. She also kept her eyes forward, but there was some strange awareness, like tension or electricity humming between her and Feric that was insanely distracting and she had to fight to keep her attention on what was being said. Something felt...odd.

She shook it off and returned to the conversation. It was all stuff she'd heard before. Mirisa was leaving out the really juicy details, like where there were currently hiding and that they were in fact part-time lions, but Ina was surprised that Mirisa was giving him as much as she had.

She explained that they'd originally come from the Dragon tail mountains and had several of what she referred to as reclusive 'villages' scattered through the mountains which would share hunting grounds and inter-marry such that nearly all of the groups had some family tie to the others. She, for instance, had been the cousin of Pern, Feric's late wife, and when their people started getting attacked and disappearing, close groups banned together. That was how her and her own partner had ended up with that particular group. She had been very close to Pern, like a sister apparently, so it had made sense to group together. The same went for Feric's own sister who had stayed with her brother and sister in law, having been still single when they'd first abandoned their home almost two decades ago in search of safe haven.

While she said all this, Ina could feel that weird tension slowly increase until it was eating away at the back of her mind and causing her to shift uncomfortably in her seat. A quick glance at Feric told her that he was feeling something similar...though his face was outwardly calm. Somehow...she just new. As Mirisa kept talking— describing the journey through the mountains, their movement from city to city, being slowly hunted across the Imperial province—Ina crept a hand along her thigh beneath the table until the back of it came to rest against his own, which rested on his knee. She turned it palm up so that she could run her thumb over the back of his fingers.

She clenched her jaw to suppress her surprise when he startled her by lifting his own hand and bringing it right down over hers. For a second she thought he meant to push her away, but he just left it there, covering her own, palm to palm.

Mirisa wrapped up her explanations, but the strained tension had already begun to diminish, so that by the time she was done, it was little more than a gentle hum, like the murmur of distant crickets on a warm summer night.

Feric surprised her again by jumping into the conversation before she could. "I suppose you're wondering what all this means to you." He asked Max with a wry smile.

Max turned and looked at him with mild surprise. "Well...I hadn't gotten that far yet..but I suppose that would have been one question that would have come up."

Feric nodded. "Inanna asked you meet us because, as Mirisa explained, we're on our own here and friendless. I know we've not much to recommend us, and no proof of our innocence aside from there being no proof of our guilt..." he paused and gave a warmer yet still wry smile, "and of course this crazy imp's good opinion..." The men both chuckled and both women raised an eyebrow at him archedly. Go female solidarity. He ignored them and continued unfazed and as charming as ever. "But I like you, and I feel I can trust you...so I suppose we're asking you to trust us...and if, or when you can, to help us as well. You've already done it once, and I wanted you to know how deeply I appreciate that and that we would like to continue to know you, and perhaps offer what we can in return. I'm sure that after we've put an end to this—"

" 'If ' we can put an end to it." Mirisa interjected.

He tilted his head in acknowledgment. "Yes, if we can, then we'll likely be more help to you and yours, whether that be your own personal family and friends or the Imperial guard itself." He sighed and looked down at his lap a moment to collect his thoughts before continuing, the hand covering hers, squeezing as he did so. "There isn't much more to add really, at this point." He smiled that smile of his...the one which felt like a bright summer's afternoon, and Inanna watched Max succumb to it. Really though, the guy didn't have a chance. Those smiles were dirty pool. They were as bad as Des's smiles, and hers were practically lethal weapons...she was sure that in some provinces they were considered as such. All Max could do was mumble something to dismiss the thanks then grunt as men are often wont to do when they're given praise they don't know how to take.

After that, the conversation carried on amicably with Inanna drifting in and out of it. She was still distracted by the hand holding hers and by all the other plans she needed to take care of in the coming days.

Her girl, Des, she of the killer smile, would be arriving shortly, unless there had been some major difficulty. Difficulties were sort of Desdemona's thing though, so Ina couldn't see it being a problem. When they had worked and traveled together that had been her schtick. Ina tracked down the baddies and Des facilitated. 'Facilitate' doesn't sound like much on paper, but it was shocking how often uncooperative ship-masters, suspicious locals, and greedy politicians (among others) seemed to pop up in the middle of a venture and put a major wrench in the works right at a critical moment. Des could navigate the cities and courts like Ina could the wilderness, so between them they'd had quite the racket going.

And, had they had both been card players working their respective games, then Emily, the Neverar, would have been the ace in the hole. She was the young progeny, the miraculously unlikely hero: a sweet young girl who became a crucible for a dangerous mix of political intrigue, destiny, and a healthy dollop sheer dumb luck...and not always the good kind either. The result was the creation of a living breathing weapon of immense power—god killing power, squeezed into the delicate body of a barely legal mage's assistant.

What a twisted fetching world they lived in, and in what a weird bloody time. But that was over now. Des and Inanna were all that was left of that venture. Left to comment and remember like some tragic chorus lingering over the wreckage after all the real heroes, and gods, and villains had long fled the stage.

"What do you say Inanna?" Ina blinked back to attention with a start and looked up into Max's expectant eyes. Damn. Where in oblivion was her head?

She sighed and shook her head. "Sorry luv, I've got a million things running through my brain just now. What is it you want to me to weigh in on?"

He chuckled. "Nothing...just noticed you drifting." They smirked at one another.

"Prick."

He grinned and saluted, then turned back to Feric. "I'll keep my ear to the ground and send word to Ina if anything particularly interesting crops up. But you" he pointed at her, "you're gonna owe me something." His eyes glinted. She narrowed her eyes.

"Oh yeah?"

"A name."

"No fetching way."

"Oh come on Ina...for the love of Talos, give me something, anything, there's a promotion coming up and I need it. It's bad enough I fraternize with the enemy already. That doesn't look good for me." He softened his words with another smirk, but she shook her head.

"First off, half the legion has fraternized with me buddy...so don't think that's going to work. I was a bridesmaid at Jessica's wedding --"

"She made captain by the way—"

"--if you'll recall. Just me and a house full of you people...plus one— and good for her but don't interrupt. Secondly, no. No names." she paused to consider it. "But..." she crooked a finger in making him lean over the table toward her and she lowered her voice considerably. "There's dissension in the ranks. There's some shit going down with the higher ups that the furry one don't know about. Who knows...maybe they'll turn him in themselves at some point."

He rolled his eyes. "Fat chance. What kinds of things though?"

She shrugged. "Well, a lot of it is just rumor, since I'm not in with the 'higher ups', and frankly I'm not sure if I believe it myself, but" she paused to lean in even tighter, "I've heard the DB thrown around in hushed tones during a couple of back room conversations. So something could be going down there, maybe even in the way of a hook up. Though-" She leaned back and paused to take a sip of her beer then reconsidered mid swig, lowering the mug to glower at the unappetizing contents. Imperials and their bullshit mass-produced crap...first the spear, now this...what ever this was. She hesitated to call it ale, that was for damned sure. Her stomach turned slightly, and she frowned harder at the mug. 'Well there goes my iron stomach' she though bitterly.

"Damn it woman, 'though' what?" She looked up from her swirling bits of what she could only imagine were once drowned rat, and smiled bemusedly.

"Though," she continued, "I know the blue squirrel is supposed to be violently opposed to that particular group of people, so if there is dissent it might be related to that...if it's all true."

"Rumors, eh?"

"Yeah. But you never know."

"Shit."

"I second that. Don't know if it'll do you any good."

"Yeah a name would be nice."

"Not gonna happen...though I can tell you the count of Skingrad is still miffed with them. Won't do business with them, period."

He rolled his eyes. "What law abiding Count or Countess would."

She only had a 'you -must-be-joking' look as a response for that. "Shall I make you a list?" She added after a moment to emphasize her point.

He waved her off. "Yeah yeah, I get it. Anyway, I'll send word if anything comes up, otherwise I'll catch you in another week or so baring any more run ins with necromancers or these hunter fellows."

She frowned at him then looked around the table. "Necromancers...did I mention that?"

Mirisa chuckled. "You really were out of it just now weren't you? We were just telling him about the 'basement' as you call it."

Ina smirked back. "Well I hope you said nice things about me." She frowned as a thought suddenly came to her, jostled loose by the mention of the necromancers. "You know...why don't you two head off without me...I think I want to take care of some business locally before I head home. I'll meet up with you later once my affairs are in order."

All three of them raised a curious eyebrow. "Should we be concerned?" Max asked with a smile.

"Indeed." Feric added, though with a darker expression. His hand constricted around hers again before releasing it completely. She stood, stretching her arms over her head and cricking her neck.

"I'll be fine." She noticed Feric's beer was only half finished. "You gonna drink that, light weight?" His expression softened back into a wry smile and he slid it toward her. She rewarded him with playful smirk of her own and saluted the table with the mug before putting it back on the table to everyone's confusion. "I don't want to drink it...I was just going to tell you not to bother, it's not worth the havoc it's going to play on your innards." She pointed to her own still full mug as evidence.

"Yearnin' for the liquors of home?" Max asked laughingly. She squinched her face up in disgust.

"Hardly. Have you tasted Greef? Or Sujamma? I mean it works great, but as for taste... those Redguard kids though, they brew a damn tasty Ale." She twiddled her fingers at them. "Don't wait up." She turned and called out to the Inn keeper, "Roxie baby, consider your neighbors evicted." Roxie looked up and smiled back, waving. Ina saluted the general room. "If I don't come back, boys and girls, then drink a round in my honor...but don't even think of putting it on my tab you cheap, Imperial bastards." the room grunted at her and a few tankards raised in farewell.

She was out the door and nearly at the woods' edge when her name sounded out behind her. She turned to find Feric making his way over to her, alone. He came to stand before her, toe to toe, but he didn't reach for her to touch her. His expression was neutral, and mild, and she wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Who is the DB?" He opened. She resisted the urge to smile.

"You're not going to get all control-freaky on me are you?"

He remained mild. "I merely wish to know what I may have to deal with in the future. The people under my care are my responsibility after all."

She nodded. "I seriously doubt you'll have to deal with them...and if you did I'll have to go ahead and gut some people for misbehaving...but DB is common shorthand for the Dark Brotherhood. You heard of them?"

He frowned and tilted his head like a dog who'd heard something strange...or really, like a cat. Literally like a cat in this case. "I've heard the name in passing, but I'm not familiar with them. Are they thieves as well?"

"Of a sort. They're assassins." She tilted her head back at him and slipped her arms around his waist, pressing her body against his. He left his hands at his sides, but she felt his body lean slightly into hers in a way that encouraged the contact. It may have been subconscious...but she wasn't choosy. She didn't pull away, but ran her fingernails up his spine instead. "Full disclosure?" She asked with a light smile.

"Not holding my breath." His voice was a dry growl...but she could see the hint of a twitch in his cheek...the one which usually accompanied a full blown boyish dimple, though it didn't quite make it that far this time.

She chuckled. "Wise man. But," she pulled one arm from around him and laid it on his chest. "if you can keep this a secret...and I mean secret...no one, at all...maybe Mirisa...but even then it might not be so hot...but anyway, if you can keep a secret, I'll let you in on it." His expression was still difficult to get a read on when he nodded. She shrugged mentally and decided to proceed. "The guild asked me to be an unofficial, off the books intermediary for any illicit interactions with the DB, the kind of interaction that they would never, ever have...naturally. Of course illicit is redundant since everything either club does is technically illegal, or at the very least questionable by the standards of decent folk. In exchange, the guild, or at least certain members, are in my pocket until they see an opportunity to get out of it again."

A little smile finally appeared like a ghost, hovering around the corners of his lips. "Ah, so they aren't helping you out of the goodness of their hearts."

"Nope." He nodded.

"That actually makes more sense." He let out something like a humorless laugh. "It's relieving in a way." She cocked a curious brow back, and he shrugged. "Don't get me wrong, the thought of you in that position is unsettling at best...but at least I know where they stand now. I suspected there was a cost, and now I at least know what that cost is."

"So you're OK with it?"

"No." That earned him an even higher brow arch. He chuckled for real this time, "But I'm not going to get all 'control-freaky' about it." She smiled back, and wrapped both arms around his waist.

"There's hope for you yet, handsome."

"Hmm." He finally moved and wrapped his arms about her as well, capturing her much smaller frame in his embrace and resting his chin on top of her head for a moment before bending to brush his cheek against her ear. The movement sent a tinkling rain of sensation down her neck and into her limbs before miraculously settling in her belly where they joined those damned butterflies that always got so fetching restless in his presence. It reminded her of the weird feeling she had gotten in the Inn when he was staring at her.

"Hey...what was that in the Inn anyway? That look you were giving me at the bar?" She asked the shoulder she was leaning against. It shrugged at her.

"You don't want to to know."

She smirked back at the shoulder. "Control-freaky?"

The shoulder slumped ever so slightly. He made an ambiguous sound which may or may not have been a grunt of begrudging affirmation. She purred.

There was a long moment of silence in which she pet the shoulder, though she wasn't quite sure if it was done with approval or condescending remonstration. Eventually he sighed and changed the subject.

"Are you sure it was such a good idea giving that information to Max, all things considered?" He whispered against her ear.

She smiled against the fold of his robe. "I know what I'm doing. You sure it was such a good idea swearing fealty to the legion?" His chest bounced ever so slightly under her cheek.

"Trust me."

She pulled away far enough to look up into his face and smiled. "Done." He smiled gently back and brought a hand to the side of her face so that his fingers could trace its outline from temple to jaw then leaned in to brush his lips against hers.

He brought his forehead to rest against hers. And she tilted her's upward as she caught the warm, clean scent of him in her nose and mouth. He exhaled and she flicked her tongue out across her lips to catch it. There was something calming, soothing, about his scent, his very presence. It was like drifting to sleep in a cool green meadow on a warm day. She just wanted to curl up against him and melt into oblivion, floating lazily adrift in his wake. He sighed heavily, pulling her out of her musings, and she returned the sound, less than anxious to return to reality.

"Whatever you're doing...be careful?"

"I always am." He pulled away and gave her a comical, disbelieving look.

"Appearances can be deceiving?" He intoned with a slight smirk.

She gave him her twisted grin and patted him on the cheek. "See, I told you there was still hope for you." He smirked back and graced her lips with another light, feathery kiss.

She dropped the smile and reached up to grip the back of his head, her fingers twining and fisting in his soft golden-brown locks, and proceeded to show him what a real kiss was supposed to look like. He was making progress, after all, and that was to be rewarded.

And damn but he tasted good.

@@@

On any day one would find the air in Moss Rock caves cool to the point of frigidity and the grey moss coating the walls from which it took its name, near dripping wet as it clung to the porous walls. Now, though still clinging with determination, it was black and singed, and the air about it was stifling and thick with heat.

The smell of death which usually lingered, lingered still, though the sharp tang of fresh blood now mingled heavily with the stale rot. The floor of the great alter room was scorched from the middle of the room outward, with nothing but a small, crouching figure at the center of its dark bloom.

A gloved hand reached up from where it rested on a tensed thigh and twisted in the air with a flourish.

"Tada!"

With a sigh she stood, and pulled off the ruined gloves, tossing them to the equally ruined floor.

"Gross." Inanna grimaced and spat the grizzly taste of blood from her mouth as she wiped the splatter from her cheek with the back of her hand — an unfortunate byproduct of close range combat. The victim this time around was a young human woman she'd finally taken out after a few rounds with both the material and summoned zombies that had been protecting her. She was surprisingly young for a head mistress. At least Ina had assumed she was since her robes were more elaborate than the others. She felt a pang of conscience over the girls youth...but the sensation was quickly overwhelmed by the more immediate and palpable nausea brought about by the sight and smell of the various corpses littering the room, all in varying states of putrescence and decay. And most of them having nothing to do with her presence there. "It was like this when I got here, I swear." she muttered.