Beetle sat down at the table, without asking permission first. Something that wouldn't bother most other adventurers, but Sir Nicolas was a noble at heart and of heritage, and he was bothered by it, though he chose to keep quiet. Beetle's feline eyes swiftly switched between the two, eagerly snatching up every detail they could give him. "Neither of you are from around here." He said. "You're not related by family either, and you're not lovers." Sir Nicoals spoke. "If this is what you came here to talk to us about, I suggest you move along, neither I nor my companion have time fo-" "Let him finish." Scarlett cut him off. She'd placed a hand on his shoulder, softly pushing him back in the chair. Sir Nicolas sighed and reluctantly complied. Beetle smirked, a feline purr rising from his throat. "I'm surprised to see one of the legendary Knights of Callisway be so awfully rude." The teasing tone in his voice was enough to anger Sir Nicolas, and it took all of his willpower not respond further. Scarlett wanted him to finish, and if Sir Nicolas was unable to keep mis mouth shut, that would never happen. Scarlett tilted her head. "Knights of Callisway?" Beetle nodded. "Yes, my dear, he is one of the mercenaries of Fort Callisway. And if I were to guess, I'd say he's one of their elite warriors, one of their knights." Scarlett looked to Sir Nicolas, who nodded. "That is correct."
Fort Callisway, a fortress located between Hillsfar and Yƻlash. A fortress inhabited by several families of mercenaries, it was owned by Lady Swea Joyann Primion, Sir Nicolas' mother, and her husband, Zylros, a Half-Elf who married her after her first husband, Sir Nicolas' father, died. The fortress had roughly 2000 soldiers, all of which had different pasts and reasons to join the fort. Currently, 200 of these soldiers had shown the skill and courage neccesary to become one of the Knights of Callisway, the elite warriors, the most effective, and most expensive of the mercenaries. Many rogues and cutthroats would immediatly surrender when they saw that one the knights had been sent after them.
"How could you tell that I am a knight of Fort Callisway?" Sir Nicolas asked. Beetle smirked. "I saw you fight that dragon, and I can tell, just by listening to the way you talk, that you're no ordiary Dragon Slayer. Only very few people could go toe to toe with a fully grown black dragon and live to tell the tale. The only conclusion that made sense without including an abnormal ammount of magic, would be that you're a Knight of Callisway." Sir Nicolas nodded. "You're quite observant, Beetle, but I must ask you to come to the part of this conversation where you give us the reason for it to happen in the first place." Beetle nodded. "Alright then, the reason I came to you was so I could talk to my old friend here." He nodded toward Scarlett, who blinked in surprise.
"It's been so long..." Beetle looked into Scarlett's eyes. "I thought you died back then..." Sir Nicolas sent Scarlett a questioning look, to which she replied by shaking her head almost unnoticably. Beetle continued. "How did you survive?" Sir Nicolas realised what the bard was talking about. Scarltt had said that he looked familiar, and now he was talking to her as though they were old friends being reunited. "What exactly happened back then?" Sir Nicolas used the short break created by Beetle's question to cut in. The bard sent him a warm smile, though it was clear that he was bothered by the knight's interruption.
"Why do you want to know? I don't see how it's any of your business." Sir Nicolas was fast to respond. "I'm asking on behalf of both myself and Scarlett, as she seems to suffer from some kind of amnesia." Beetle raised an eyebrow and looked at Sir Nicolas. "Who's Scarlett?" Sir Nicolas was just about to answer, but was cut off by Grorgos' booming voice. "Beetle! I'm payin' ye ta' play on tha' stage! Not ta' steal tha' nobleman's gal!" Beetle looked at the two of them, who both shook their head in unison in response to his unspoken question, and then he put on that warm smile of his, a smile that drew the attention away from the irritation in his eyes. "I'm on my way, Grorgos." He got up from his chair, and looked at Scarlett. "We'll continue this conversation later, Sophitihia." With that, he walked towards the stage.
"Who's Sophithia?" Sir Nicolas looked at Scarlett. She wasn't moving, her gaze was frozen to the spot Beetle had been standing at when he said the name. "Scarlett?" He was getting worried. She normally wouldn't act like this. When they were riding through the streets of Neverwinter on Strongwing's back, she acted in a similar way, although still much different, she seemed to sink into herself, to try to hide from the many people staring at her. Now she just seemed paralyzed, he'd only seen her do this once before. Back when he'd first met her, back when she saw a glimpse of her past life. "Scarlett, what do you see?" He wasn't sure what to say to her. He wasn't sure if she would answer, if she could even hear him. But he'd traveled with a psychic once, and whenever she had a vision, he would still be able to communicate with her, and have her tell what she saw. "I'm standing at the entrance to this very inn." Scarlett responded. "Beetle is standing by my side, and on the other side... A man I don't know." Sir Nicolas was mildly surprised that she'd been traveling with Beetle in the past. "Who is this other man?" He asked. Scarlett shook her head. "I don't know... His skin is dark, and he's wearing a black cloak... I can't make out his face, it's hidden by his hood." Scarlett hesitated slightly. "He pulls out an orb made of crystal, and looks through it, he looks at every person in the inn, then he points at one of them." She got up from her chair, and pointed toward a table, where two people sat. One was an elf, wearing a simple, bright orange outfit, his long, white hair set up in a pony tail, reaching down to his red rope belt. On the other side of table was a woman, it was impossible to tell her race. She wore a long, black cloak, hiding her body without showing any skin, and black leather gloves hiding her hands. The hood on her cloak was drawn up, hiding her hair, and her face was hidden by a silver mask, bearing the crescent moon symbol of the elf god Corellon Larethian. The only way one could tell it was a woman was because the black outfit underneath her cloak revealed her feminine curves. "What happens then, Scarlett?"
Scarlett hesitated again. "I look at the woman he points out, it's a simple farmer woman. I use my blessed power to see whether or not she is follows the path of evil... I see that she does..." Sir Nicolas could easily guess what came next. He knew Scarlett well enough to know that she was barely able to stop herself from attacking once she found something evil. "We walk up to her, and ask her to come with us. She knows what we want, and she comes with us, she says she doesn't want to destroy this inn. She walks with us, as we leave the city, and walk a bit further away. Then she reveals her true form." She stopped talking, as though the words got stuck in her mouth. After a short pause, she continued. "Before any of us, maybe except for our cloaked companion, know what happened, the simple woman we walked with just before had turned into a demon. A Succubus. She knows she can't defeat the three of us, and as I and the cloaked man draw our weapons, and Beetle draws his ocarina and begins playing, she chants an incantation in a language I haven't heard before." Once again, she seemed to temporarily loose the ability to speak, as she pauses. "Suddenly, a large demon, a Balor, is standing in front of us. The battle is long and hard, in the midst of it, the Succubus disappears, and then..." She stopped talking. She looked at Sir Nicolas, who had been listening to her story with a growing interest. "With a mighty blow from the Balor's whip, I fall to the ground, and the demon's sword slashes through the air toward me... The next thing I see is the cloaked man fall to the ground, his head rolling a along the ground, followed by the Balor's head... I scream a name... Tizofel... The name of the cloaked man... Then I hear Beetle play a song on his ocarina, and the both of us disappear, just as the Balor explodes."
Sir Nicolas didn't know much about demons, but he knew that a Balor would explode in a bright flash of light, destroying everything within roughly one hundred feet. He looked at Beetle, as he stood there, playing on his ocarina, the crowd around him cheering and dancing. The cheetah was dancing around his legs as it had been when he first saw it. This man saved Scarlett's life back then, but if that was the case, then why did Beetle say he thought she'd died? He then remembered what he'd called her, Sophithia. He didn't know who Scarlett was. "So your name was Sophithia, back then?" Scarlett shrugged. "I would assume so." Sir Nicolas sent her a coy smile. "So, am I supposed to call you Sophithia from now on?" Scarlett shook her head. "No, it doesn't matter what my name was back then... I'm Scarlett now, and I'll stay that way for the rest of this life."
Sir Nicolas shrugged. "Which ever way you prefer it, milady, I need to go get some fresh air." With a nod from Scarlett, he left the inn, and walked through the streets of Neverwinter. As he walked, he repeated what Scarlett had told him in his thoughts. Not only had she been traveling with Beetle in her past life, but also another man. Tizofel. He had discovered a demon by looking through an orb made of crystal. Sir Nicolas had heard of crystal orbs that allowed people to see through magical disguises, and he assumed Tizofel had used such an orb. His thoughts were interrupted by a hand being placed on his shoulder, followed by a strong arm being slung around his waist, and him being forcefully dragged into an allyway.
