Silk took a moment to catch her breath, dusting herself off while casually side stepping an axe that came hurtling from the tavern interior. The explosion had given her a moment of respite, as well as some degree of initiative. She could ill afford to squander it by rash action. The situation was becoming complicated. Normally she would have agreed with Matthew’s assessment of the situation, that the best way to kill the snake would be to remove its metaphorical head. However it was his comment as to the hordes combined intellect, or lack thereof that made her consider a different approach. She was about to voice her plan when her ears pricked up at a sound that was all too familiar to someone in her line of work.
“As lovely as that sounds we need to leave, now. The guard will be here soon. Looking the other way is one thing, letting the city burn down is another,” Silk said with obvious meaning as she motioned to the commotion emanating from inside the tavern. She motioned toward a side street and headed into the darkness that it provided. It was a dead end but the wall at the far end was relatively low. She wandered over to it. She could scale it easily enough on her own. “You know, burning down a city isn’t something you do every day, you might want to keep a low profile, at least for a few days,” she said as she offered him a leg up should he need it. The sound of armour was getting closer.
Once on the other side Silk carefully scanned the area before advancing into another side street, equally dark and dismal with only the faintest glimmer of illumination from above to light their path. The sound of the commotion was broken up now by the sound of an angry, authoritarian voice that with each step faded into the background. “Those idiots didn’t have the combined brain cells to track me down, not to that tavern, let alone this city. The fact that they were waiting for me on some highroad is even more suspicious.”
Silk increased her pace slightly, eager to be away when the arrests started getting made. “Whoever sent them knows me. Knows me well enough to predict my movements in advance. That’s a pretty exclusive club,” Silk said thoughtfully. It meant that whoever it was that had commissioned this little romp was most likely someone she knew. It was highly unlikely they would have come in person. More than likely they had hired a middleman, and a good one at that.
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The thing about fire is that, well, it is hot. It burns. It does not induce calm states of minds in those that it has touched in any meaningful way. Anger, pain, confusion, rage but never calm. Which was why the current leader of the still smouldering Corpse Raiders turned on the approaching guard with the fury of an unbridled sea storm. A bad idea in retrospect, despite a clear height advantage over even the tallest guard by a clear head. “And who the fuck invited you!? You parade ground prancing piece of fifth! You tossers were paid well to look the other way, now do what you are told and look the other fucking way!” he shouted in reply, realization slowly dawning on him that this man did not look like any normal city watchman.
Unfortunately the current leader of this particular band of raiders was not a man well equipped to dig himself out of such situations and so soldiered on regardless. The brute force approach. He pointed out of the door to some men who had managed to stumble outside. “Find the bitch, gut the wizard!” He then looked at the knight with obvious disdain. “Out of my way lickspittle.”