Iron was unlatched, and the gate creaked open loudly before the two tired, unscrupulous rogues. Calliope still clung to Neil, the thief hefted her up a bit so he could do one last walk before he could put her down. Damn, as tired as his arms were, she felt nice against him. Taking in a deep breath, he strode in. Had he been less hungry, thirsty, and exhausted, he would have taken more time to look around. Still, what he saw wasn't wholly uninteresting. 

He had never been to Bania before, and he hadn't known what to expect. It was off-putting seeing the town so very much alike to the ones he was used to, and yet so alien at the same time. The houses and less elite building were made of pure wood. Neil did not have a background in buildings, but he had a keen eye and could tell the timber was axe-cut if he hazarded a guess. Three men with large mustaches, one sporting a wispy beard that pierced the air all smoked from strange pipes, watching Neil and Calliope and commenting to one another in their native tongue. A woman walked alone on the otherside of the road with a strange rod in her hand, carved in the likeness of a wiseman, hurrying to finish some unknown business. Children played with a dog under the copse of a roof, and men and women occasionally passed by, going about some tasks of their own.  

He saw temples with elaborate rooftops and statues of either men or gods, Neil could not tell, framing the short and wide stairways to their doors. Along a spring to the north, past two other streets was a bathhouse, and a strangely shaped windmill spun in the distance. All of the buildings around ten feet apart, if not more. Particularly the storage sheds and other outbuildings, likely to prevent the spread of fire. Neil realized halfway through his observations that Calliope was whispering in his ear and explaining bits about the town. He felt certain she was trying to remind herself to keep up the act, but he appreciated being the guinea pig, all the same. 

Once they made it down what Neil guessed was half a mile, there was a clearing in the town. Neil didn't believe it was the center of town, but it looked to be a hub. The structures were broken up from a street pattern to a circle, leading to six different short streets that would look like a star from a birds-eye view. In the center was a stone firepit, ablaze with a lively bonfire. A man with a long beard and clad in robes chanted a litany in a language Neil guessed was not Banian, at least not the modern dialect. Next to him was a totem of a three headed god, and at the entrance of every road were big men with bardiches, watching the townsfolk go about their business like hawks. They did not look to be the normal guard Neil had seen swaggering around, armed with sabers or shorter but broad-bladed axes.

It was inevitable one of them would spot the sly, roughed up aristocrat carrying a pretty, regal looking dark haired woman wrapped in cloth. 

"What are these guys?" Neil asked Calliope quietly as one approached. He bore a long hat that draped right, looking almost crumpled to Neil, and a thick, long coat that covered what he imagined was padded and iron armor. He looked strong enough to wield his huge weapon, and even used it like a walking stick, one handed.

"Streltsy," Calliope said, and called to the man in Banian. Neil heard the words Yiga and Gregor, but couldn't catch anything else as the sorceress spoke to the tall brute who eyed them. Neil had to admit to himself, Calliope speaking a foreign language by his ear did something strange to him, but he tried to push that away for now and think on the problem at hand. If there even was one. 

The Streltsy barked something, and then motioned for them to follow. He looked like his face was set in a perpetual glare, but evidently was convinced to help by the dark assassin's speech. Calliope smacked Neil like a horse on his behind and Neil's legs started moving before he even realized, the two being lead to an aesthetically pleasing and homey building with a porch and a large sign above it in Banian text and the symbol of a golden bear's paw. Surprisingly, the Streltsy did not stop there, but stepped onto the porch and walked in. Neil followed in his wake, raising an eyebrow as he stepped into the blessedly warmer room.

All eyes turned to regard he and Calliope, who merely clung to Neil and met every gaze in hers. Neil didn't know what was happening, but everyone who looked at her turned away when she regarded them, shaken from some experience they saw in her dark orbs. Neil loved Calliope's mystique and she had his attention in more ways than one, but his arms were about to get pulled out of their sockets. 

"Can we get a room and some clothes please?" Neil asked desperately, interrupting the Streltsy who spoke to a woman he guessed was Yiga. They both turned with unreadable expression, and with a small request from the woman, Calliope tossed her a small pouch of coins. Yiga mentioned one more thing to the Streltsy, who excused himself as the matronly woman led them up the stairs, and Neil felt relief.