Tankards and Tempers

Chapter 231:Bank Job

Laska's eyes fluttered open as the morning sun hit her cheeks. The elf let out a brief groan as she stretched, causing the soft sheets to slide over her bare skin as it it was a soft caress.

The tattooed elf took in her surroundings; a small yet cozy apartment in a tenement in the center of town. The bedroom was connected to the living room without a door separating the two rooms. The living room itself had a small table, a settee, a bookcase and a kitchen block and was adorned with a few simple pictures and flowers. Her sensitive elven ears picked up the sounds of hooves and wheels on cobblestones outside the window. Judging from the sound, the apartment was on the third floor.

In all fairness, this was the first time that Laska had paid attention to the particulars of the apartment as she had been too preoccupied the previous evening. The reason for her preoccupation, and the reason why there were two sets of clothes rather haphazardly strewn across the room, was lying next to her in bed.

Laska stirring and laying on her side had apparently woken her up. Yennith was a human woman, twenty-three years old, raven-haired, slender yet slightly muscular and very pleasantly enthusiastic in bed.

"Hmmm," Laska could hear Yennith moving towards her. "Good morning, gorgeous," she said while letting her fingertips run over Laska's side while bending over to kiss Laska's neck. "Last night was fantastic."

"Hah," Laska smirked while Yennith moved on to nibble on her earlobe. "You know how to treat an elf, Yenni." Pleasant memories of the previous evening and most of the night came floating back. A great evening of lovemaking, talking, more lovemaking and even yet more lovemaking.

Laska shifted and rolled over to face Yennith. "Well..." she grinned. "It's still early. And this bed is very, very comfortable."

"By the gods," Yennith smiled. "You are insatiable."

"And don't you forget it," Laska said and leaned in for a kiss. The kiss lasted for a moment until Yennith, rather reluctantly, broke the kiss.

"I'm sorry. I would love spending more time with you, but if I do, I'll be late for work," Yennith sighed and, after running a thumb over Laska's cheek, sat up on the side of the bed and started looking for her clothes. "Oh, dear, my uniform is all crumpled up."

Laska sat up as well, embraced Yennith from behind and started to gently bite her shoulder. "Hm, sex greater than work, Yenni."

"Laska!" Yennith giggled. "Work pays for rent. Rent keeps a roof over my head. Roof good. Roof friend."

Laska groaned and let herself plop down on the bed. "Become an adventurer. Be your own boss. Set your own schedule."

Yennith got up from the bed while Laska lay on her side. The woman started to gather up both her clothes and Laska's. "Not everybody has such a successful career at adventuring like you and your friends have, Laska. The average lifespan of the adventurer isn't very long. All things considered, I'd rather be a guard. Much safer."

"And booooorrring," Laska sighed and plopped on her back. "If you were an adventurer, we'd be shagging right now."

"If I were an adventurer, I'd probably be dead already," Yennith sighed. "I know myself. I'm not talented enough to do what you do. If you see a dragon, you rush over to beat it up. If I see a dragon, it'll be spare underpants time for me."

"Dragons ain't nothing special," Laska shrugged. "I have a dragon trophy above my fireplace back in Athkatla."

Yennith shook her head. "You truly are amazing. I wish I could do what you do, but... really, it's not for me. Guarding a big vault might be boring, but at least you don't run the chance of being reduced to cinders."

"Fair enough, Yenni," Laska said. "But you'll meet more cute girls in the Life."

Yennith smiled as she walked back to the bed and gently put down both her and Laska's clothes. She lent forward and brushed lips with Laska. "Wellll... I suppose I should take a bath before heading off to work. Care to join me?"

Laska smirked and both women headed off into the bathroom. About half an hour later, the two of them stood outside the apartment, fully dressed. Laska in her usual vest and leather pants, while Yennith was wearing the gaudy guard uniform of the City Bank of Mintar, a mixture of gold and red with a ridiculously oversized black helmet with a pointy spike on the top.

"Will I see you again?" Yennith asked.

"I'll be in town for a few days more before we'll be moving on," Laska smiled. "I'm sure we could arrange for further... liaisons."

After a final kiss, the two said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. Laska found herself on the streets of Mintar. Mintar, an inland trading town, had shown a surprising amount of bustle. Children were running around playing games, traders were hawking their wares and the people were generally minding their own lives. It was hard to see that there was a horrible war going on in the west, but the people were very much aware. Refugees has been pouring in from the west and surrounding the city walls were many refugee camps.

Viconia's cynicism was aptly disproven as many of the Mintar people had been donating heavily to both the war effort and a multitude of charities to ease the suffering of the many refugees fleeing from the violence. Despite everything, the war felt very far away. The attackers centered mostly on the heartlands of Tethyr, rather than the outlying cities inland or at the coast.

Here in Mintar, it was also much easier to actually get reliable news about the war and it wasn't looking good for Tethyr. The Tethyrian army was faced with a superior force of mercenaries, assassins, drow raiders, Fire Giants and, most terrifying of all, a massive dragon flight. Especially the dragon flight was taking its toll on the Tethyrian army. Tethyr had unwittingly become the Nexus of the Bhaalspawn war.

The Tethyrian soldiers were overworked, low on morale and had suffered defeat after defeat. Every attempt to break the siege at Saradush had failed. Entire divisions had been slaughtered by the dragon flight before they could even get halfway to Saradush and then the remaining armies were routed by the giants. The situation was looking desperate and hopeless. None of the countries surrounding Tethyr were in any position to help. Calimsham was unwilling to send troops through the sweltering desert while Amn was too pre-occupied with the Sythillian army pressing against its borders.

And then there was the incompetence at the top - some soldiers in the tavern were complaining loudly about General Melchett's chosen tactics, which consisted of throwing waves and waves to soldiers into the slaughter against overwhelming forces in an attempt to 'move his liquor cabinet five foot closer to Saradush', as the soldiers claimed.

All in all, the situation was going to get a lot worse before it would get better. Laska, however, knew that getting the heart from that damn bank was the key to it all. No immortality, no Yaga-Shura. No Yaga-Shura, no siege of Saradush. All those people in Saradush - Laska would save them all.

Lost in thought, Laska almost bumped into a young boy handing out flyers on the sidewalk.

"Oh, excuse me," the boy said, and Laska felt his eyes roam over her body. "Hm," he blushed. "You're a very pretty lady."

"You're a little young for me, kid," Laska smirked. "Try again in five years."

"Oh, oh, no, it's not that, I," the boy blushed. "You see, we don't see many elf girls here and, uhm..."

"Can you blame them after that crap civil war you've had?" Laska replied. Elves still weren't very welcome in Tethyr. Though most people were decent enough, she had been faced with icy stares and the occasional racial slur since she had entered Mintar. Not that Laska minded all that much, but the 'knife-ear' comments were becoming a bit unoriginal.

"Well, uhm," the boy said. "I'm handing out these flyers, you see?"

Laska took one. "What's this? 'Charity Date Auction'?"

"It's for fun and for charity," the boy said. "We have this local tradition where the most pretty girls in town are asked to join the auction. The girls are auctioned off for a day and the proceeds go to a good cause, like restoring an old building or renovating housing for the poor. This year, the proceeds will be used to buy food and clothing for the refugees. You, uhm, more than qualify as a pretty girl and we don't see many elves this far east from the Wealdath. You might bring in a lot of money."

Laska blinked. "So it's like... a slave auction?"

"No!" the boy said, horrified.

"Prostitution?"

"No, no, no, no, no, no, the person who pays is merely paying for the right to spend time with you," the boy said. "They won't own you or anything and you decide what happens."

"Alright," Laska pocketed the flyer. "I'll think about it."

"Thank you," the boy said. "The auction starts the day after tomorrow. I hope to see you there!"

After that, Laska made her way to the inn. When the party had arrived in town, they had found an inn which was almost right in the opposite of the street of the bank. With some money as incentive, Viconia had arranged for them to stay in a large room at the top floor of the inn, with its windows facing the bank. Mintar was a rich town, and it reflected in the way the inn was built: it was large, spacious and even had proper indoor plumbing.

Of course, Viconia wouldn't be Viconia if she hadn't started to immediately organize the effort. And that was how Laska found her; standing over a hastily made model of the street put together from small boxes, strips of paper, tin soldiers and breadsticks.

"Ah, there she is," Imoen said while she looked up from the model. In the background, Korgan was snoring in a chair while Jan was keeping an eye on the bank with a spyglass. "What's that you're reading?"

"Huh?" Laska said while looking up from the pamphlet. "Oh, it's this thing for a date auction. A boy handed this to me in the street. It's a charity event, I suppose"

Laska put down the pamphlet on a second table and stepped over to the model on the larger table.

"You made this just now?"

"Yep," Imoen beamed proudly. "Though Vic didn't want me to use noodles for the street lights."

"I've told you once, I won't tell you twice. The scale would be way off!" Viconia said.

"You were okay with using the beans as manhole covers even though they're not round!" Imoen challenged.

"That is besides the point," Viconia said. "And toothpicks were perfect for the fence around the bank."

"Pfffft," Imoen sighed. "Like that's not totally out of scale too. Those noodles would have been fine!"

Laska nodded. "Alright, seems like you two spent your time well."

"Well, spill the beans," Viconia said, looking at her expectantly. "What did you learn from the girl?"

"Guys," Laska shifted uncomfortably as she walked over the second table and took a sip from a decanter of water. "I feel kinda scummy about this. I'm sure if..."

"Don't be foolish," Viconia scoffed. "Sex is one of the best interrogation methods. You must have learned something."

Laska sighed again. "Look, I honestly wasn't planning on flirting and dancing with one the bank's guard. I wanted to make good on my word to jump into bed with the first boy or girl I saw when we'd arrive in Mintar. How was I supposed to know that the cute girl I met at in the tavern was part of the staff at the very bank we're planning to rob?!"

"And here we were thinking you were being pro-active by seducing a prime target on the first day in town," Jan chuckled. "Kinda reminds me of uncle Puffy. He learned he was going to die one day, so he pro-actively cut his own head off to speed up the process. Poor fellow never was very bright. But then a necromancer pro-actively attached a minotaur head to his body."

"That's a weird combination," Imoen scratched her head.

"Indeed. The minotaur was none too happy about it either. Can't say I blame the poor fellow, being used to tower over people and all. So the fellow decided to bullrush the necromancer, completely forgetting he now only had stubby legs and was quite top-heavy, thus he got his horns stuck in the cobblestones. After that, the necromancer decided to cut off the legs and attach stork legs instead, which didn't do much for the top-heavy nature, I can tell you. All ended well, though, as the minotaur got a fine job at a school to scare innocent young gnomes out of teenage pregnancies. You want to start young? Well, then, this rotting gnome with stork legs and a minotaur head will be the one delivering your baby."

"Right, that didn't make any sense at all," Laska rubbed her head. "In any case, meeting Yennith was just an extraordinary set of circumstances. I had no idea I was flirting and dancing with a member of the bank's guards. Didn't even know what the uniforms looked like at the time!"

"Uh-huh," Viconia sighed. "The bright gold uniform with had 'First City Bank' written on it wasn't a clue?"

"Eh, well," Laska grinned wickedly. "I wasn't very interested in the uniform, but rather what was in it."

"Indeed," Viconia pressed. "Well, what have you learned? Do tell."

Again, a thoughtful look crossed Laska's features. "Like I said, I feel a bit scummy about it. I mean, she told me a lot of personal stuff during some very private moments."

"Oh, no, you don't get to complain!" Imoen admonished. "I spent all night looking out the window trying to figure out at what times the guard shifts changes and what entrance they use while you were rolling around in bed with a cute girl. Besides, she got to have a good romp with you, didn't she?"

Laska rubbed her chin. "Okay," she sighed. "When you put it that way... Yenni said that the night shifts were very boring because there is hardly anyone to talk to."

"Which means the night shift probably consists of a skeleton crew and they patrol alone," Imoen said. "We can use that."

"Also," Laska said. "She said the safe itself wasn't magically protected, but that there was loads of nasty magical traps which are activated at night."

"Makes sense to have a smaller shift, then," Imoen said.

"Aye," Laska said. "The traps are apparently quite dangerous. Singed her hair a couple of times when she got careless. Yenni wondered why the night shift is necessary at all."

"Anything else?" Viconia asked.

"Well," Laska said. "Yenni mentioned she loves the skylight above the bank's main hall. It's very high up and on clear skies, she can see the moon and stars through it. She also mentioned the skylight is close to the safe because she can clearly see through the skylight from her usual post."

Imoen nodded eagerly. "Now that's something we can use too. We still need to scope out the interior of the bank and we should probably do that today. Let's keep an eye out for that skylight."

It was at that point that Jan piped up. ""Did she say anything about type of safe? Armor thickness? Classification of the locking mechanism? Production year?"

"Jan, that's not exactly pillow talk," Laska raised an eyebrow.

"It is for gnomes," Jan nodded with a grin.

Viconia cut off any further discussion. "It is enough," she said. "Though you would probably have gotten more information if you had picked the boy your Yennith was drinking with last evening. He seemed more young and impressionable."

Laska shrugged. "Can't have everything."

"Indeed," Viconia said. "But thank you. You did well."

A smiling Laska stood up a little straighter. "Anything else need to be done for the cause?"

Viconia motioned to Sarevok sleeping on the bed. "Imoen and Sarevok have been up all night keeping an eye on the bank."

"Pffft, Sarevok is such a lightweight. I'm not tired at all!" Imoen said. Indeed, she was looking rather bouncy. No doubt the prospect of a bank job had seriously increased her already impressive enthusiasm.

"Your turn for a mundane task," Viconia broke in. "You and Korgan will be watching the changing of the guard during the day."

"What? All day?!" Laska blinked.

"Yes," Viconia nodded. "All day. Emphasis on the 'all' in that statement!"

"But Yenni started just a moment ago, so that's a guard shift at eight in the morning," Laska said. "So there. I can start in the evening now."

"Yes, but we need to know how many guards, what time, what entrance and a description of the guard. I want to know if they do double shifts on one day," said Viconia. "Imoen and I will scope out the bank's interior later today. You will start your watch with Korgan right now. So there."

"I can give you a very accurate description of Yennifer," Laska tried.

"And what about the other guards?"

"You got me there," Laska sighed.

Viconia grinned as she handed Laska the spyglass. "Wake up the dwarf and get to work."

A few minutes later, Korgan and Laska had relocated to the roof of the inn, four stories high. As one of the highest buildings in Mintar, Laska and Korgan were offered a magnificent view of the streets below and the skyline beyond. The elf and the dwarf were sitting on two comfortable fold-out chairs, watching the bank below.

"Argh, how long have we been here? Is it evening yet?" Laska whined. "It's like we've been here for hours!"

"Five bloody minutes," Korgan snorted.

"It feels like five bloody centuries," Laska sighed.

"Ale?" Korgan asked as he tapped handily re-locatable wooden keg he had brought from the tavern below.

"Please," said Laska as she took one of the tankards.

Korgan resumed staring through the spyglass. "Oh, somethin' 'appenin'."

"Something at the bank?"

"Nah, two fishwives be beatin' themselves up with some cods," Korgan said.

"Let me see!" Laska said as the dwarf and elf struggled over the spyglass. "Oh, yeah, there they are. Shame to lose a perfectly piece of cod that way. Hm, I could do some good with that cod. Smoke the cod, add some garlic butter, serve on a bed of lemon."

"Och, ye be makin' me hungry."

"How long have we been here?"

"About ten minutes."

"ARRRRRRRGH, this is boring!"

"More ale?" Korgan asked.

"Yes, please," Laska groaned.

"We be goin' through the ale pretty bloody fast," Korgan growled. "I swear, if I be seein' those guards, I'll be takin' me axe out and chop them in three bloody halves!"

"Ditto. Wait... What? Three halves?" Laska asked.

"Yes," Korgan grinned. "I be choppin' in half at the stomach, then chopping off the other half's head. So, three halves."

Laska thought for a moment, but she was tipsy enough to accept the logic.

"Oy, oy, oy, oy, oy, oy, oy, oy, oy!" Korgan shot up in his chair.

"What is it, what is it?" Laska sprang up as well.

"I just be spottin' two snails crossing the road. I be bettin' ye ten silvers that the one on the left be arrivin' on the other side first."

"You're on!"

"Let me see, let me see!" said Laska as she was trying to coax Korgan into giving her the spyglass.

"Mine be winnin', elf!"

"No way!"

"Yes bloody way!"

"Argh!"

"That'll be ten silvers."

Laska fished ten silvers from her pouch and tossed them at Korgan. "Of course I picked the loser. I was sure the white cat would win that fight."

"Never be bettin' against a black cat."

"How much is that you won from me today?"

"Close to five gold," grinned Korgan.

Laska sighed as she folded the spyglass shut and lay it on the small table in between their chairs.

"Ale?" Laska asked.

"Yeah," Korgan held out his empty tankard. As Laska poured them both a drink, the two of them sat back and enjoyed the afternoon sun.

"You ever think about what we'd be if we weren't adventurers?" Laska asked.

"No," Korgan responded.

"Really? Never?"

"Second thoughts be fer daft pansies," Korgan shrugged.

Laska shifted a little in her chair. "Okay, so think about it now. What would you'd like to be if you weren't in the Life?"

Korgan rubbed his beard for a moment. "Ach, a butcher!"

"Really?"

"Really."

"A butcher?"

"A butcher!" Korgan grinned. "I be takin' me axe and be walkin' to a cow. And then I be sayin' to that cow: 'what ye be lookin' at, ye soddin' black-white spotted beast?!'. And then I'd be roarin' and chop 'is bleedin' 'ead off! Next! HAR HAR HAR!"

"Heh," Laska chuckled. "You know, that's not much different from what you do now."

"Aye, it be a gift," Korgan shrugged. "And ye?"

Laska thought for a moment. "I don't know, really. I'd probaby still be in Candlekeep. I'm not smart enough to be a reader, so I'd probably be a barmaid in Winthrop's inn. Could be fun really."

"So ye'd be drinkin' yer own ale, startin' yet own barfights and shaggin' yer clientele?" Korgan smirked.

"Most likely, yeah," Laska smirked.

"That be not much different from what ye do now."

"Oooooooooooooooooh," Laska groaned as the sun was finally setting. "My bloody life is wasting awaaaayyy..."

"Ugh, no! Bloody no! This be horrible! This be bleedin' insane!" Korgan roared.

"What?" Laska shout of out of the chair. "What?! WHAT?!"

"The ale be bloody gone! We bloody drank it all!"

"No!" Laska hissed. "It can't be gone! I can't go on sitting here without booze!"

"Tavern below the inn," Korgan shrugged.

Laska sighed. "No, no, no, they water down the drinks too much here. Ah, screw this, I'm going to the liquor store. They have the real stuff there."

"Och, be bringin' some of da hard stuff!"

Laska knew she had little time - the sun was already setting and the liquor store would be closing soon. Still, rather than facing the prospect of spending a few more hours up on the roof without booze, she raced out the inn and rushed into the liquor store. The store itself was reasonably spacy and offered a wide selection of wines, whiskey, ales, sherry and absinth, ranging from very cheap to very expensive. She, however, was the only one in the store, bar the owner.

"Hey," shouted the halfling propriotor of the liquor as he was vigorously writing in his ledger. "We're closing in a few minutes!"

"I just need a moment," Laska said, took a basket and started putting bottles in the basket. Hoping to top it off with a small wooden keg, Laska walked to the side of the store and found a nice selection of portable kegs. As she was picking out a keg, Laska caught something from the corner of her eyes.

Five guards of the bank in those horrible gaudy uniforms passed right out the window. Laska, ducked behind a pillar and watched them go. Cursing herself for not bringing a notepad to write down the particulars, she hoped Korgan would pay attention. She had to make do with remembering the faces of the guards. As the guards walked by, the crept underneath the windows, trying to get a good look. From the quiet corner of the liquor store at the end of the windows, she observed the guards walking towards the bank until they finally went out of view - Laska could not see what entrance they used to enter the bank. Again, she hoped Korgan would write it down.

Just as she was about to take her purchases to the counter, she heard a door close, followed by the snick of a lock. Laska rushed to the door and saw the halfling walking away, deeply engrossed with his ledger. Apparently, he hadn't seen her in the shop from the counter, must have thought she had left and closed up shop.

"Gods be damned," Laska snarled as she yanked at the doorknob. The door, of course, did not budge. "I'm locked in here! HEY!"

Laska suddenly blinked. Then grinned broadly.

"I'm locked... inside... a liquor store!"

"Where is that damnable elf!" Viconia snarled as she pulled up her hood while she and Imoen left the inn. "She hasn't been in all night and nobody in the tavern has seen her."

"Maybe she found someone to spend the night with?" Imoen shrugged. "She does that more often."

As the two rounded about the corner, they found a large group gathering around the liquor store, looking inside through the storefront windows. Viconia immediately felt her heart sink in her chest.

Her fears were confirmed when they found Laska dead drunk and passed out amid a plethora of empty bottles. Their friend had drunk wines, ales, sherry, champagne, scotch and absinth at her heart's content. Judging from the amount of alcohol intake, it was a surprise that she was not dead.

The halfling owner of the shop was apparently discussing the issue with the city guards. Imoen rushed in immediately, told some sob story about her sister's problems with alcohol-abuse along with the appropriate water works, paid the halfling his price and dragged the still sleeping Laska out into the street.

Back at their room at the inn, Laska was propped up onto a chair and was treated to a bucket of water to the face.

"Wha?!" Laska shouted at the rude awakening. "What the hell... Ow, my head! I feel like there's a warparty of orcs dancing on my head."

"You moron!" Viconia shouted. "Do you realize what you've done?!"

"Not so loud," Laska hissed.

"You've wasted an entire day of work! You and Korgan were supposed to keep each other awake! He fell asleep the moment you left. He did not see a thing!" Viconia shouted.

"Oh, my head," Laska groaned. "But... I remember it all. There were... uhm, guards. Uhm, I think there were three. Uhm... No... Four. Two? I... I think knew what they looked like."

"All you know is alcohol-fueled haze!" Viconia sighed. "And you know what's even worse? You've compromised yourself! We're trying not be noticed in this town! Why do you think I'm always hooded?"

"I don't see the problem," Laska said.

"I do! The city guard knows what you look like and the entire town is talking about the famous elven adventurer who drank half the liquor store in one night!" Viconia shouted. "Do you realize how much damage you've done?!"

Imoen shook her head. "I... gotta agree with Vic, sis. We're trying to be inconspicuous here. Kinda important when you're planning a heist."

"Okay, I screwed up, I'm sorry," Laska rubbed her forehead. "It won't happen again."

"That's not good enough this time, Laska," Viconia said. "For the sake of us all, you are no longer part of this heist. Korgan is more reliable than you! At least he remembered to take notes during the stake out!"

Laska blinked, stunned at being dropped from the heist. "But.. I want to help."

"You want to help, Laska?" Viconia said in an icy tone as stepped over to the table. She picked up the pamphlet, walked back to the chair and shoved in her hand. "Here. Go play at the date auction and stay as far out of our way as you can. Us grown-ups have a bank to rob. The children can play the dating game."

Viconia stomped out of the room, leaving a stunned Laska behind.

"She's didn't mean to be so harsh. I think," Imoen said in soft tone. "But she's kinda right, big-ears. You have compromised yourself. It's better for us if you're not involved."

"B-but," Laska stammered.

"Sorry," Imoen said with a tiny voice and patted Laska on the shoulder before walking out of the room.

The elf who was left behind stared at the floor with a very hurt expression on her face.

Far away from Mintar, a very nervous young drow was sitting in a booth at the Sotted Spider, opposite to her date. The inn itself was reasonably quiet, seeing it was nearing the end of the evening and most drow had either gone home or retired to their rooms for the night. Yazfryn was wearing what appeared to be his best clothes. Now, he wasn't rich by any means, and his 'best clothes' were just the ones he hadn't worn to the spider pasture today, but still Sendai was flattered he had made the effort.

"Did you like your Rothe steak?" Yazfryn asked.

"Hm?" Sendai looked up. "Oh, yes, it's very good."

The Sotted Spider was the center point of the drow community, for the commoners at least. It was a meeting place, a restaurant, a festhall. Basically it was the place where hard-working drow came to be entertained.

"I asked the chef to pay extra attention today," Yazfryn said. "There was a lovely girl I was trying to impress."

"Really?" Sendai blinked. "What's her name?"

Yazfryn chuckled and then patted her on the head. "Never change. You're cute just the way you are."

"Oh?" Sendai whispered. "Oh!" she concluded when she finally realized what Yazfryn was talking about.

"You've not been very talkative today," Yazfryn said.

Sendai nodded. "I, uh, didn't have much to say, really. Besides, it's rude to talk with your mouth full."

"Fair enough," smiled Yazfryn.

"I do have a question, though," Sendai asked.

"Shoot."

"W-what do you think of... our mistress?"

Yazfryn frowned a bit. "Your namesake?" he said, making Sendai nod briefly.

"Not much to tell, really," Yazfryn said. "I don't know her personally and I've never seen her speak in public. Kinda weird, really. Drow mistresses love to talk. Then talk some more. Then talk about their glory. Then talk about getting more glory. Then praising sacrifice to whatever god she happens to worship at the time. But mistress Sendai isn't bad, I guess. She's doing good things for the commoners, so I guess she's okay."

Sendai nodded, seeming quite relieved.

"I..." Sendai was about to say when suddenly, a young tall drow female wearing a very skimpy dress sauntered over the booth and leant over the table. For a moment, Sendai expected her boobs to fall out of her dress as she bent over.

Her long white hair fell over her shoulder as the female purred at Yazfryn. "Come to my room, male and please me, Yazfryn. I have an itch only you can scratch."

"Arrgh," Yazfryn said in frustration while Sendai's breath caught in her throat. "Pellanune, don't you have anything better to do? I'm here with this lovely female."

Pellanune's head turned towards Sendai and she offered the younger drow a look of pure disgust. "Seriously? This inferior female? She doesn't hold a candle to me! I claim this male for the night. Do you think you can challenge my claim, puny one? I'll crush you like a bug!"

Sendai was seething. She knew that drow females could claim a male for their pleasure whenever they wanted. This was true for every layer of drow society, from nobles to soldiers to the commoners. She just hadn't expected to be confronted with it on this lovely evening.

Pellanune took Sendai's silence for submission, grinned at her and took Yazfryn by the arm, pulling him from the booth.

"Hey," Yazfryn said.

"Don't resist, my pretty," Pellanune grinned. "I claimed you fair and square."

"Pellanune, you're drunk," Yazfryn shot back. "Go sleep it off."

"I'll sleep after I've been sufficiently pleased, Yazfryn," Pellanune hissed.

Sendai's nails dug in the wood of the table as she saw this upstart of a female drag her date away to the stairs. She had to do something and what she did was purely instinct. She jumped up from the booth, ran after them and threw a hand up in the air when she had almost reached them. Immediately, magic fire shot from her fingertips and before she knew what was happening, Pellanune's hair was on fire.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Pellanune screamed as she ran out the door, looking for the small pond that was in front of the Sotted spider.

Sendai trembled at what she had just done, but Yazfryn was suitably impressed. "That was awesome!" he grinned. "I didn't even see the candle in your hand."

"C-candle, yes, candle," Sendai gulped. "I, uh, will she be okay?"

Yazfryn looked out the window and chuckled. "Yep. She's out like a light next to the pool. She managed to douse her hair. It's a lot shorter now."

Sendai forced herself to not hyperventilate. It had to be done, after all. It had to be done. "S-so, has she claimed you before? Have other females?"

Yazfryn blushed a bit. "Apparently, some females like me. Pellanune... I won't complain about her skill in the bedchambers but... I was spending my evening with someone else. Someone I like a lot more."

Sendai blushed as well in response. "I, uh, I..."

"Should I consider myself claimed?" Yazfryn smiled.

Sendai spoke a little too quickly. "You should. Y-yes, you s-should."

Before she knew what was happening, she found herself in Yazfryn's arms. Sendai trembled as her body seemed to more on its own accord. Their lips met, and she felt his warmth. Never been kissed before, Sendai let Yazfryn take the lead. Her lips parted, their tongues met. And then it only got better.

As an amateur kisser, Sendai forgot to breath. A rather important ingredient for living, the need for it soon grew greater than the desire to continue the kiss.

"Wow," Sendai whispered. "I, uh..."

"Was that your first kiss?"

"Yeah," Sendai bit her lip. "That obvious, huh?"

"Kinda."

Sendai motioned to the staircase, which led to the private rooms. "I... don't think I'm ready for that. Not tonight, at least."

"I... I wasn't suggesting anything," Yazfryn said.

Sendai was not surprised by the answer. Females set the pace, after all.

"I release you from my claim," Sendai joked.

"One more freebie," Yazfryn grinned before leaning up for a second kiss. Sendai was only too happy to accept.