Author's note: So here's another chapter. I have some plans for this story and its possible length is kind of frightening me (nothing so strange, you've seen longer, but I'm afraid of the obligation...). I'm not sure about how often I'll be able to update, but Chapter III is halfway here :) . I didn't want to make this one too long.

Chapter II – Uncle?!

"So, Duncan", I tossed over, "what's it gonna be?" He ignored me, but I had had it coming.

"Don't take me lightly, child", he told her. "I was once an adventurer, too, and I most certainly know a couple of tricks more than you do!"

"But you are still unarmed, are you?", she chuckled, raising the sword a little.

"Sal!", he commanded. The barman was quick to fetch something from below a counter and throw it to him. It was an exquisite-looking blade and as the girl didn't even try to stop Duncan, he caught it straight by the hilt and immediately put it to "his" defense.

"Wow, if only I had known you had such a sword around, uncle...!", she noted amusedly, freezing him where he stood.

"Uncle...?"

I had frozen where I had been sitting, too. The thought of a niece about to pay her uncle often visits had only started breaching through my mind and warming me up again.

She pushed her free hand, apparently the right one, against her hip, dropped the left one and said in a simplifying tone: "Uncle as in... Daeghun's brother?"

"Of course, lass, it's just that... I hadn't hoped the time would be coming so soon."

"Who really had?", she commented, stationing her leather-covered butt atop the nearest table.

"And now about your little joke, Aca—"

"Please, call me Bright... and I'll be calling you Duncan."

Again he was surprised, but nodded, displeased. "I'm not asking for that... Bright, lass."

"Well, you are getting it."

She continued on in a lower voice, obviously trying not to get heard by wrong people such as myself. I understood the visit was about some shards, but that didn't help me much. Duncan gave the girl what was supposed to be one of those and what I saw as a rag-muffled piece of crap from his pocket. There was mention of Sand, the local wizard and merchant, when shortly afterwards, he appeared.

He complimented this Bright girl assuring her she was nowhere alike Duncan, and this time, she couldn't help it but blushed.

But, of course, as soon as the wizard took the problem into his own hands, an explosion happened. Gave Duncan's apron a whole new yellowish tint, but the lucky niece made it rapidly retreating below her table. That's some reflexes, I thought.

It was quite a sight after that, with her all arching and curling as she was getting out of her shelter on all fours, careful not to hit her head. Talk about easy to get in, hard to get out, but from my point of view, it was perfect. After she stood up, I had decided to look away for a while, give our uncle some space to breathe. I hated him for having to do so, of course...

But I kept listening. Intensely. The talk had turned toward getting into the Blacklake district. I grinned at the girl's misfortune, knowing that no-one powerful enough to grant her that passage would ever do it without trashing tons of his unfulfilled duties at her first. And being such a catch, she should have been grateful if she didn't need to grant that someone a passage herself.

Duncan and Sand had pointed her out the two possibilities – working for the City Watch or the Thieves' Guild. She appeared deep in thought and showed no kind of attraction for either, waiting for the elf to leave her alone. When he did, she approached her companions' table once again, with Duncan's worried gaze still nailed to her.

"So, Neeshka", she addressed the tiefling in a playful tone, "you think Cormick'll be glad to see us?" And she burst into a maliciously sweet, echoing laugh.

"He did mention a reward, you know", the smiling tiefling remarked.

"Yeah, I'm sure it would have turned out worth it!"

Duncan, typically for him, stuck his pointed snout into the matter again. "You're not about to sign up with the thieves, lass, are you?"

Surprised, but not outraged, she turned to face him, spreading her arms in a shrugging notion. "Do I look like a city guard?"

I already knew our little niece was going to rock the Flagon apart. And I felt somehow grateful for it.

So she half-ironically sang a couple of nice and merry songs, dedicating them to our beloved Duncan, and he couldn't have asked for more. Then she fell over a table, sending some previous guests' half-empty mugs crashing onto the floor. Fell down dead-tired, I figured, just like her three companions did - the women before her, the dwarf shortly after. And just when I was getting comfortable with the sight of her newly uncovered upper legs and a pointed behind, Duncan came over and took her into his arms.

He had a little trouble carrying her, because she was his height at least, but in the end got her out. He never returned for the others, so their accommodations turned out... rough. I wasn't sure why that was, when he was such a goodhearted fool incapable of my kind of malice, but with being late in getting out of those backrooms, he had gotten my blood boil - again.

From my table by the fireplace, I kept watching her as she came and gone. She had become the only damned woman that could catch my eye. And why in the hells hadn't I said something more thoughtful when she looked at me that one time? No opportunity arose for days afterwards.

There only was this day when I had decided to shake the whore off my mind and go do some healthy hunting with Karnwyr. Haven't had quite enough prey to make a feast, but it was enough for the two of us. And for the sake of looking like a fool to my own self, I ran right into her the night I returned. The intriguing thing was, she was just leaving. Alone. Dressed in black, wearing a hood that might had fooled anyone but a man who had been gazing at that tricky face of hers for days and envisioning it at both decent and indecent heights in his sleep.

With my mouth completely threaded together in surprise, I suppose she read my stare as angry when she almost bumped into me in the doorway. She grinned at me uncomfortably, whispering a seductive, but nervous "sorry" into my ear as she easily slid by me. I turned around, considering whether to whistle after her, but she was getting away into the night at a high speed, her step betraying determination and guilt. I walked in, deciding not to prove as much of a gossipy shithead as that debt-dealer Duncan... lacking the sense to keep his ugly trap shut.