“If he is here, then someone will have gotten him already; the bounty you have on his head is certainly big enough.”
Adrianna was on the trail of an old associate of her father’s. She had heard through the city gossip that he had wound up losing the Emperor’s graces. While that alone meant little more than the occasional government harassment, it barely took a little bribery and blackmail to engineer a scandal that deposed him from his lands. The bounty on his head was just laziness on her part.

[color=#cccccc][i]“Politics can be violent and ruthless, even in peacetime. Those who stand against you can and will use every blunder you make against you however they can.”[/i][/color] Adrianna recalled her mentor's lessons on politics, corruption, and morality.
[color=#cccccc][i]“Isn’t that illegal?”  younger Adrianna asked.
“All is fair in love and war, child. Make no mistake that politic is a war ... a war of word and of wit.”[/i][/color]

To that end, the Travelers’ insignia stitched loosely onto her cloak served a similar purpose. It commanded power, authority, and sometimes fear without having to initiate with a threat of force. Here it was all she needed to get a lowly merchant talking. She had flushed the rat and set an abundance of traps. All that was needed now was for the trap to be sprung. She just sat back and waited for word he may have been caught. She had arrived in Mezzar to follow up on one such lead.

[color=#d65d87]“Where would someone hold him if they captured him? How would I find that captor?”[/color] she questioned the merchant.
“If the soldiers knew how much you made his head worth, then he would be kept at the prison.”
[color=#d65d87]“And what if someone else got to him first?”[/color]
“It wouldn’t matter. They’d make up a reason to seize him and claim the bounty themselves. They’re not paid enough to pass that by.”
[color=#d65d87]“Right. Where is the prison?”[/color]

[hr]
She approached the prison gate. Four guards stood fairly laxly at their posts. One who she presumed to be in charge amongst them noticed her approach first. The rather inhospitable response she received was hardly to be blamed. She had on her breastpiece, tassets, and bracers - the bracers not being visible beneath her cloak however - and a bladed staff slung across her back. She was far from the picture of innocence. “Halt! You are not permitted to enter!”
She tugged on her cloak just slightly, enough for the insignia on her shoulder to become visible. [color=#d65d87]“I’m looking for a fugitive. I’m here to collect him and deliver the bounty owed.”[/color]
She extended a rolled parchment from inside her cloak. The guard took it and examined the wanted poster. “You can’t possibly be able to pay that much. What kind of trickery is this?” the guard demanded.
[color=#d65d87]“I most certainly can. Now I would like you to show me to the warden of this facility so I may speak with [i]him instead[/i],”[/color] Adrianna replied calmly though her expression grew impatient, so she pulled a gold coin that she started twiddling between her fingers, [color=#d65d87]“now let me pass.”[/color]
“You dare expect me to take a bribe?!” the guard bellowed, “I am not some dishonest pig for you to insult as such!”
Adrianna had put away the gold coin, instead thumbing the sling of her staff. She could easily take these four without unsheathing her blade, but that would just be the start of her problems should she need to strike.