Just wanted to say that I'm sorry if I miss any spelling mastakes as most of what I have so far was writen at like 2 or 3 in the mornning, please let me know what you think so far I have some big ideas for this story.
Brown haired, blue eyed, beauty, Kaleena, youngest child of the merchant Marcus Cadder, was the best thing her family ever had. The problem was her other life she was the a major player in the black market getting rid of things for thieves, of course there was the other problem the one that only five people on earth knew about. She had spent the last five years of her life in a secret mirage, well secret estranged mirage to the king of thieves. It all happened one drunken night in a poker game, Jordan Marker low level thief but good friend of Luke Parker the king of thieves, Carter Mart player on the black market, Liadan Harsher the local Madam of Corus and of course the king of thieves himself. Everyone was cheating the only problem was that Kaleena and Luke kept coming up in a draw every time cause for some weird reason they always cheated the same way with the same cards.
After a while of losing Jordan threw out "Why can't you two stop that, if your going to cheat stop doing it the same way."
"Do you think that I'm doing this on purpose, it's not even like it would come down to this if you didn't know how to cheat better." said Kaleena.
"Well let's make this interesting then. How about this if I win," Liadan started turning toward Kaleena, "You have to cut me a deal on the things I buy from you?"
"Fine, not like your going to win anyways."
They played the hand Luke and Kaleena came up as a draw again. Five times different people at the table made bets with Kaleena or Luke and each time it ended the same, then Jordan said, "I've got one for both of you if I win this hand, you two..." he trailed off for a moment before continuing, "have to get married."
"Why would you say that?" asked Luke.
"Well I don't know," he paused, "you two can't seem to stop cheating the same way, and you have to admit that is a bit weird. And it not like your complete strangers, you kind of know each other."
"Why not," Kaleena said taking a long swig of ale, "it's not like you've ever even gotten close to winning yet."
"Alright," said Luck slugging back another pint of ale himself.
Liadan and Carter looked at each other thinking the same thing, this can not end good. And of course no need to go into detail Jordan won, so about three in the morning Liadan, Carter, Jordan, Luke and Kaleena found themself standing in front of a Mithros and Great Mother priest and priestess. Since that day Kaleena and Luck haven't spent more then ten minutes in the same room without having a yelling match, it got so bad that Luke left Corus and started running the thieves in Persopolis that was five years ago.
Now Kaleena's twenty-two and trying to run her father's shop for him, since she has been doing this she has brought in so much money that her father has become the wealthiest merchant in all of Tortall. She had also become the notorious as "Doll Face" the best seller on the black market, while Luck was now twenty-seven and while few thieves remembered his face anymore he was just as notorious.
Kaleena was sitting on a elegantly carved chair in a back room of the Dancing Dove, where after Luck had left she had taken to conducting her business. She was looking over some numbers she had written up on thing that she had sold recently, when there was a knock on her door. She look up as the person came in without even waiting for a reply. "Liadan, do you need something."
"Yes and no, I was wondering if you could get your hands on some of those strong spells for guys who can't get it up? The girls are getting sick of them so I thought I'd ask."
"Um," Kaleena said chewing her lip a little, "I can look into it but you know that it's hard to get those I'll let you know what I can do in a week." When Liadan didn't go on she said, "That business and when I asked if you needed something you said yes and no?"
"Well, um, I thought I should tell you before it starts getting around that Luke's coming back to stay."
"How long have you known?"
"About a week, we were kind of afraid to tell you."
"That I can understand, but don't worry about it I've grown up since then." On a side note she added, "and it's not like we have to cross paths a lot."
Liadan gave her a look of are you dumb while thinking since when have the two of you not really crossed paths a lot, why before he left you two where always running into each other.
And as if to answer Liadan's unspoken thought she said, "I've changed the way I think, Mithros I even cheat differently, there is no way we will be crossing paths like we used to. So when is he coming back, I'll need to move my things and come up with a new bass of operations, the last thing I need is to be here or bring my work home with me?"
"In a four days."
"That's not much time, you should have told me sooner. Would the girls hate me if I convinced you to let me work there?"
"Not if you got me one of those strong old spell, Mithros, they'd most likely help you move."
"Fine I can take a hint give me a day I'll hit my contacts hard and find one but I will need to have some help moving this stuff," she said gesturing to the things around her.
"No problem, leave it to me, Girls," and with that said about fifteen of Liadan's top girls came in and started gathering thing up. After a few minutes she said, "Well what are you waiting for go hit those contacts women."
Slightly stunned Kaleena walked out of the room that for the past five years had been non-family business office, with a sigh she walked out and started hitting her contacts.
Kaleena was selling a rather cheaply made knife to a man for well more then it was worth when a dark shadow fell over her. Looking up she saw the one face she had never expected to see standing at her families shop, it was so unexpected that her mouth went dry. He stood there while she quickly finished her sale then said, "we need to talk."
"What about?"
"I don't think you really want to go into this here."
And as her mind had gone completely blank on her the moment that she had seen him like an idiot she ask again, "about what?"
With a sigh he said, "about us."
Then as her mind clicked back to working order she said in a very rude tone, "fine, go wait out side I'll be there in a minute." And having said that she walk into the back door of the shop heading to her father's office. Painting a fake smile like nothing was bothering her she walk into the room and said, "father I need to go out for a while and stretch my legs. You think you can handle the shop by yourself for a while I'm not sure how long I'm going to walk?"
With a smile Marcus Cadder answered his daughter, "take the rest of the day your oldest bother is coming by today to help me seems that wife of his wants him to start working again."
"Thanks Dad, I'll be home for dinner then."
Kaleena walked out the back entrance to the shop gritting her teeth and thinking Why is he here? He had to have only got here this morning from what Liadan told me, there's no way this is going to turn out well. He was standing there at the entrance to the small ally behind the shop, from what she saw he looked like he had been working harder on his fighting skills then he had when he left. The way he was leaning against the side of the wall you could tell that he was much more sensitive to what was going on around him then he had ever been before. He look almost as if he could just tare off and take anyone in any direction.
That not to say that she herself wasn't a bit more wary of the world around her, but her job was more to try and keep to the shadows and only show yourself when the buyer was insight where you wanted them kind of thing. She could fight and she was good at it but she couldn't just go out there and get into fights, fights brought attention and in her business that was bad and she also had her families reputation to think about. She hadn't made her father's business what it was to day to get everyone into trouble.
He waited for her to come over and then started walking, she knew where he was headed, after all it was where she would have headed to talk in private conversation of a sensitive nature. And it just happened to be the room she called her office not even a week ago.
He said nothing till they both got in the room and he closed the door, even when he did start talking it seemed as if he didn't really want to speak though if it was because he knew that they would start yelling or because he didn't want to speak Kaleena wasn't sure. "We need to talk about our relationship."
"What about it? Come on just spit it out Luck, my time is money."
"Alright then, I'll make it short and sweet just for you," he said with heavy sarcasm, "two month ago an old friend of mine asked me to do him a big favor. To pull it off I need to really get married to some one so that no matter what a truth spell will see it as the truth."
"And your problem is what?"
He growled slightly, "Are you forgetting that we are still married?"
"You're," she started then like an idiot it hit her, "How soon is all this till you need this to happen?"
"Last month," he said flatly.
"You do have a problem then don't you, even if we were to get a divorce it would take months."
"Now you understand why we need to talk."
"Alright then what do you want from me then?"
"As I don't have time to wait, and I do see this as partly your fault."
Kaleena interrupted him angrily saying, "Don't you dare act as though you aren't to blame in this as well, you were there too and you lost just like I did."
Luke growled angrily, "I said you were partly, as in so am I. Just hear me out before you start yelling for once or this is going to take a lot longer and the last thing you want is to miss dinner." He added the last part with a sinister smile.
"Fine," she said with a angrily, " finish what you were saying."
"Alright then, as I was saying," he looked over at her, "stop crossing your arms and sit down." He gestured over to a chair in the corner next to the fire place and waited until Kaleena rolled her eyes and angrily walked over to the chair and flopped down in it. "It all ways amazed me how you seem to lose all those manners your father drilled into you when your around me."
"It was my mother who drilled them in and get to your point already."
"None of this leaves this room," he said it in such a way that Kaleena finely understood just how he had gotten to be the king of thieves. She nodded then he continued, "As I said before an old friend of mine ask a favor of me. One that requires that I be married, one that no mage could ever crack meaning that it has to be real, and as you and I are already married and it would take for to long to undue this." He took a long pause, "I need you to go through it again and act like we're really married, not like we have been."
"And why would I do that? What's in it for me? I don't own anyone anything, the way I see it, it's's your problem not mine."
"Answer me this then, why haven't we fixed this mess. I mean it's been five year Kaleena, what ever stopped us?"
Her brow bunched together as she thought, what had stopped us. She stammered, "Well I don't know we," she thought, "we," she gave a shrug, "we never got around to it."
"You know that's not it, yeah we hardly ever got along after that night but nothing ever stopped us from getting a divorce. If anything people would think that we should have rush to get it in the very beginning, but no one other then the priest and priestess, Liadan, Jordan and Carter know about it. And I can tell you that Jordan and Carter both wonder why we haven't gotten one."
"Well none of that answers my question, what's in it for me? I mean to do what your asking means that there will be almost no way of us ever braking this off. And I'm not really sure how well you'd fit in with my family," she added the last just to emphasize the point in such a way as to not show that slight bit of fear running up her spine at what he was really suggesting.
Of course Luke knew her well enough even without really knowing her to know what was going on in her head, after all to get where he was a the king of thieves having run it in Persopolis you really had to know what was going on in peoples heads. "Look I'll get you more business then you ever imagined."
"Don't need it I've got all I need," she said getting herself composed again.
"Fine then what do you want?"
"To do what you asking?"
"Yes."
She thought a few minutes in a long drawn out pause before saying, "The biggest favor you have ever owed anyone in your whole life, when I come up with it you drop everything to give me what I want."
Without even pausing he answered, "Fine."
Thrown off by how quickly he answered she ask, "did you just agree?"
"Yes."
"That's not like you, it must be something big that you owe to get you to say yes to this."
"It's not as though your not going to have to put work into this as well, are you going to do it or not?"
"What is it that your doing exactly that you need this?"
"Give me your answer first."
"Alright," she took a deep breath and thought and without even knowing what she said she answered him with, "yes." It was hard to tell who reacted with more shock to her answer Luke or herself, they both had figured that she would put up more of a fight.
As Luke and Kaleena began to work out the particulars Liadan, Jordan and Carter grabbed a table in the back of the main room in the Dancing Dove. "Well what do you think? You think that they're working it out in there or not?" asked Jordan.
"Hard to say we all remember the last time they were in the same room with each other. We had to pull them a part they all but killed each other, for all we know they have already killed each other." Carter said with somewhat of a smile on his face.
"Well they've both grown up a bit since they last saw each other. The problem is what he's asking her to do, it all goes back to that one question in the end." Liadan said as if knowing something that the others didn't.
"And what question is that again?" Jordan asked.
"Oh come on you know the one," after all she got was questioning faces she said, "Why haven't they divorced?"
"Oh that one, I think that it has to do with the same reason they agreed, I think some part of them really does want to be married," Carter said.
"Yeah, right? The only reason they agreed was cause neither of them thought that they would lose," Jordan said, Carter and Liadan just look at each as if saying that's what you think.
Just after this was said Kaleena and Luke came out both looking some what subdued for either of there personalities, when they came over to the table Kaleena said, "You could have told me, as it stands I'm thinking of ways to kill all of you." Just then the door opened as someone left and Kaleena noticed that it was dark outside. "Oh shit I'm late for dinner," she yelled running as best someone can in a crowed room to the door.
Luke sat down as the door closed behind Kaleena, Liadan giving him a weird look, "What?"
"You didn't tell her the whole story did you?" Liadan asked some what angrily.
"I told her enough."
"Damn it, Luke, you can't do this to her she's a good girl, I don't want to see you using her," she said angrily.
"I'm not using her," Luke said with such force that everyone at the table just stared at him in shock as he went on in a angry tone, "and it's not like she's one of your girls Liadan, so just leave it alone."
Jordan was the first to recover saying, "Are you alright man? We meant no harm it just well it does look a like bad with you not telling her the whole story, we're just trying to look out for both of you."
"What are you trying to get out of this Luke?" Carter ask.
His answer was so quite that none of them were sure of what he said, to Carter it sounded as if he had said, "a doll" to Jordan it sounded as if he had said, "my place" and to Liadan it sounded like "her" but maybe they were all right as it stood none were far from what he wanted.