“You’re not from around here, are you?”

Rohaan most certainly was not. For one thing, he had not been to his homeland since he’d left it as a child. But truthfully, he didn’t actually know with any certainty exactly where he was from. He had an idea, a region at least, but he’d never found it on a map or any sea charts he’d ever seen. He and Berlin once spent hours sorting out where he’d come from, and the only thing they’d settled on was that Rohaan was from an island somewhere off the southern coast. But was that south directly? Southwest? Southeast? There was a lot of coasatline down there. And he’d never tried to scope it out.

Rohaan let a slow smile spread on his lips. “No lad, I’m not. Not remotely. I can guarantee you ain’t never heard of the place I come from. Ain’t important. But for the record? South. [i]Really[/i] south. But like you said, don’t matter. Lemmy hear this plan of yours.” As he spoke and without looking behind him, he reached up a hand and dropped his very very bare apple core onto a plate held by the resident serving lass as she passed. 

Rohaan watched the boy as he explained he was going to the Capital and why. At the mention of Orthreloth he just sort of laughed as if remembering something fondly, but that mirth sort of melted off his face as Xander went on. He squinted at the parchment he was handed, slowly making out the words. Many were unfamiliar to him, and though he did learn his letters, he was never very quick with them. Rohaan handed it back when he was finished, then leaned back in his chair and gazed at the fire for a moment as if thinking. He was silent for a long time.

It was a bad idea. Rohaan was full of those, so that didn’t necessarily stop him. But it was something to consider. This lad was probably some upstanding type, liked well enough back home. And all he wanted was to save his sister. Rohaan, on the other hand, was not the sort of man one wanted to be seen with. He was not a ‘good’ man exactly, though he wasn’t the monster most made him out to be. Life had cornered him and he chose to fight—that was all. 

Rohaan knew what it was to be alone. He knew what it was to be desperate. And he wondered if this kid from some little hamlet would make it alone. Judging by the fear in his eyes, he probably wouldnt. And the shifter remembered clearly being half starved, severely injured, and hiding out in an overturned barrel in a filthy shit-strewn alley. He remembered a bear of a man wearing sailor’s clothing coming towards him with an offering of bread, hard cheese, and an orange. Berlin had saved his life in more ways than one. It was time Rohaan returned the favor.

All of the casual mirth seemed to have left him as he turned his chair around to face the lad directly. He was very serious as he leaned forward and said, “I have been to Orthreloth. Now, provided you can actually survive the trip there, they won’t just let you walk into the Athenaeum—-“ he said this a little bit slower, it was a somewhat unfamiliar word to him, though he’d heard it before “—-just because you ask nice. As far as they know, you’re a dirty rotten thief. Now, I don’t think you are. But they don’t know that.”

Rohaan spoke in a conspiratorial whisper. “But I am. The dirtiest and the rottenest. In fact, I have a bit of a warrant out for my arrest in Orthreloth, actually. The city guard and I go back a ways.” He chuckled a bit. “The Cloaks too. That’s a story for another time. My point is, I can get you there, and I can get you in, and back out again. No one better. But before you gimme some sad story about how you ain’t got much coin, or worse, before you start throwing it at me, I don’t want it. Money ain’t worth much to a man like me. No, what I want from you is merely an answer. It has to be honest! And you have to promise to keep things quiet.”

Rohaan glanced around for a second, then very carefully pulled up his hood—just a little. The firelight finally reached his full face, and even in the orangey firelight the chilling too-blue color of his black-ringed irises was sharp and distinct. Even if Xander had heard nothing of shifters and their infamous eyes, it was obvious the blonde stranger was not exactly human. 

“Just how far are you willing to go to save your sister, Xander?”