[h1][b][i][color=goldenrod][center]Valanthe Vanatar[/center][/color][/i][/b][/h1]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/eOqRyHH.png[/img][/center]

Steps echoed from the hallway, the rhythmic click of heels on the polished floor. A high, decidedly polite laugh, and the tail end of a conversation drifted into the room.

"Miss Vanatar, do you really intend to join the rabble assembled in the study? I'm not quite sure what Mr. Garrick was thinking..."

"Any good party needs a wizard, Haldir, and perhaps a touch of class," Val replied, with another velvet laugh.

[hr]

Following in Haldir's measured step, Valanthe strode into the room, dressed in a brilliant sapphire dress that touched the ground, she was a swirl of graceful movement as she entered the study. Her time in the local jail had been mercifully short and the week spent lounging in the only hotel of Forsaken, pitiful as it was, had left her feeling much restored. The profits from her latest gambling venture had been sizable and she spent the money on clothing and jewelry befitting a wizard.

"Valanthe Vantar, master wizard, at your service," Val said with a formal courtesy and a warm smile. "But please, call me Val, there is no need for pointless formalities."

She paused, examining the party that Garrick had assembled. Where Haldir saw coarseness, Val instead saw potential. She hated to work. She hated physical work even more still. Fortune once more shone upon her, she thought as she stared at the rugged individuals spread out across the study. A rough looking orc sat splayed across a couch. A tiefling lazed in a chair that verged on tipping over. A foreigner Val surmised, noting his strange armor and curved swords. Two rustic looking tabaxi filled out the party, rather large tabaxi at that if her past experience had been any indication. Taller still was the goliath, sitting on the floor of the study. However, for all her interest in her new colleagues, Val's eyes lingered the longest on the fire gensai sitting aloof from the others.

A smile danced across the moon elf's lips, as her eyes sparkled with growing mischief, "Well now, Cinder Nordes, as I live and breathe, what a wonderful surprise. I had no idea that you were in town again!"

"... shit."

A long sigh came from the genasi as she pinched the bridge of her nose, as if warding off a headache. "Val, for the love of the gods, tell me you're going to ditch immediately after this meeting is over."

"A wizard stays true to her word, Cinder. The mere idea of worrying Mr. Garrick is positively abhorrent to me. Besides, I could never imagine abandoning a dear and beloved friend in her time of need," Val said, striding across the room in gracefully as she lifted her sweeping dress slightly off the ground. Before Cinder could object, Val wrapped her slender arms around the Fire Gensai and pulled the other woman into a close hug.

"Oh Cinder, to see you here and to have you join me on another grand adventure is a warm balm to my soul. I have so missed our delightful conversations during my dusty travels in these quaint lands."

The lithe frame of Cinder was rigid and hard as stone, tensed against the embrace, and shaking with barely contained rage as her hair started to crackle and smell distinctly of smoke. 

"Valanthe Vanatar," Cinder hissed into her ear, "I don't know what game you're playing at, but if you don't let go of me I swear I'm going to sear a permeant fist-mark into that smug face of yours."

"Dearest Cinder, it gladdens me to see that you are as fiery as ever. The two of us will have such a grand time," Val whispered with a laugh, pecking Cinder lightly on both cheeks in the elven manner before she pulled away.

The hair went from crackling quietly to bursting into a roaring fire in a matter of seconds, and the genasi was quite literally seething when Val pulled away, her fists clenched as she held herself back from letting her temper run away with her. This was hardly the place for that after all. She muttered a very long string of curses before moving as far away from the elf as was currently possible, shooting daggers at Val the entire time.