[center][h3][color=ff9900]Vekyzz[/color][/h3][/center]

Vekyzz had made his way into the main hall of [i]La Resplenda[/i] a bit earlier than would have been necessary in order to meet Riverend's requirements, but, truth be told, the tiefling had hardly enjoyed any sleep this night at all. He had arrived in the middle of the night: battered, scarred and with various points of his body aching he had been happy not having to see that horse again for a while. How many unpleasant encounters with the ground had there been over the past few days of travel ? Vekyzz had lost count at some point. He had passed the guards and not paid much attention to his surroundings, knowing that so far he had always been able to rely on his employer to do his part of the job and protect him from foreign influences. Still even in this state it had not slipped past the tiefling's attention that the overall security precautions were very high in the city. But why ? Maybe he'd try to find out, but not today. He had rented the very next room available for not too many coins and tried to organize himself in a creaking misery of a bed not truly fitting him, waiting for the next sunrise to release him from this state.

The only good thing said next morning so far was the certainty that his grey-reddish complexion would do a good job at hiding the various bruises and the rings around his eyes. The assassin had no interest in anyone of his future companions seeing just how tired he was right now. Speaking of which... where were they ? And where was Riverend ? He had been battling the boringness of that piece of parchment already read over and over again for at least an hour by now! It would have been easier if there had been anything left for him to think about given the rather sparse and vague information he had available, but his mind was forced to idle. At least his stomach was busy since he had already eaten some bread and raw ham.

Then, finally, something more interesting happened. Vekyzz' profession had infested him with a slight habit of inspecting people once he felt that they might bear even the slightest relevance for him. A pair of greedy tiefling eyeballs focused in on the Brith and her clothes, what might be hidden below them... and her curves. Ultimately though he got stuck at the crown and branches and what had been added to them. He hardly knew anything about the Wolframs, but having read about them in Riverend's message he had investigated enough to recognize their symbol. So she had to be one of the individuals he had been tasked to guard -- and she looked rather helpless. Seeing just how Kjellfrid did not even dare to look at him it dawned upon Vekyzz that she might prove to be a quite fragile member of the party. Preferrably the only one... Being unsure about how to pick up a conversation in the most elegant way, Vekyzz purposefully dropped Riverend's piece of parchment onto the table in front of him, thereby blatantly exposing the company's sigil to her sight if she'd dare looking. He wanted her to recognize that he was the one she might be looking for, hoping that she'd go for the first word and relieve him of that burden.

Next came a man that probably looked as physically incompetent as the wicked bastard that might once have tried to split the poor fellow's head, but had only managed to rip apart his scalp in a tedious process. Asking about that nasty scar right across his face might prove to be quite interesting, but was he even one of the persons he was looking for ? Karlus and Vekyzz briefly met eyes as the former eyed the latter and the latter had not yet finished scrutinizing the former. Then came the kind of conformation Vekyzz had not been looking forward to: Somebody asking around for Tali Riverend could only mean that he'd be part of the party.

[color=ff9900][i]That lad hardly is the equivalent of one of my legs! How is he supposed to defend himself ?[/i][/color] part of the tiefling's mind cried out. Another part reminded him that there were other possibilities. Hadn't the message mentioned a meek [i]mage[/i] ? A question to be put high up on his priority list...

[color=ff9900]"Ahem.... here, please!"[/color] Vekyzz directed his words towards Karlus, trying to get his attention not only with his chesty voice, but also with one of his index fingers first pointing at the mage, then at the table. It felt odd not to whisper, but to fight against the noisy environment of a tavern... Why did humans have to be loud so often ?

Then came the third, virtually announcing himself with a loud and no less unnecessary bang. And unlike the other two this guy's approach was as straightforward as possible. He was big and heavily armored, cheering up Vekyzz's mood and outlook right until three words spoiled everything again: Brithbitch, liege and tiefling. They made Vekyzz briefly forget about Kjellfrid sitting in front of him and Karlus probably approaching -- he just wanted to snap back.

[color=ff9900]"Does this Elric Farmoon grant the same kind of pleasure to every Brith or Tiefling customer of the North Astorian Trading Company ? Maybe somebody should report that... Can't be good for business."[/color] Vekyzz, having been to busy compiling his words to pay attention to much else, had fallen back into a tiefling's more usual whisper. However now it was heavily contaminated with disapproval, almost giving it a threatening touch.

[color=ff9900]"Nice to meet you. I'm Vekyzz and I guess the Brith right next to you as well as a mage are going to join us as well. So I'd greatly appreciate if there'd be no insults of any kind."[/color] Vekyzz had to stop himself from adding more to his words. He didn't want things to escalate, but if anyone it seemed as if Elric was the one in need to be... contained ? Vekyzz tried not to react upon the man's grimace, but couldn't prevent some of his smaller facial muscles from twitching. Hopefully the Brith wouldn't be too disturbed when seeing that mockery of her own kind on his cloak. Personally he certainly would have liked for it to just disappear for that very possibility.

And where was Reverend ? Remembering his friend's stance towards punctuality it was easy to see that something had to be off. Hell Reverend had even provided a warning about something happening to him! Vekyzz stomach cramped up a little at that thought... Leading this party of apparently vastly different individuals into something he himself did not know about was not a prospect the rogue was looking forward to. Even that was assuming that everyone would accept his authority in the first place.