Q & A:

I will throw various, painful things at you if you don't update! Update now!

I'm updating! I'm updating! *makes face* yes, I know I'm supposed to be updating once every two days…but that 'two' has somehow (mysteriously) been replaced with a five. Or a four. Heh…sorry.

Is Lauryn one of the riders? Or are they her lackeys? Because it kept calling the Nobles' Bane trio "him" and "he", but that was from AArc's perspective and maybe he couldn't tell one was a girl. What country does this take place in? How old is Lauryn now? Is the book in the first person? Are you sick of me asking pointless questions? Eh? EH? *prods Krizsta with a stick, for yet another odd reason*

Is Lauryn one of the riders? Or are they just her lackeys? Hmm… And yes, Aarc's perspective can be skewed, so a person he thought of as 'he' maybe not be an actual 'he'. …onto the next question. This takes place in good ole' Tortall. How old is Lauryn now? Well, since the whipping occurred sixteen years after the prologue part where her family gets killed *starts to calculate but runs of out fingers… and toes* that makes her officially 22 years old. The book is only in first person during the introduction. So it is no longer in first person (however, the very last chapter may convert back to first person). *stares at the last part of the paragraph the reviewer left for her* *pulls out another stick* On guard! (or however you say it)

Who is Aarc?

Well, he's a very random poor slave/servant boy whom I snuck up to and poked/bothered, until he agreed to narrate for my third chapter. Yes. That is why he is there. *nods* Will you ever see him again? Well, he may make an appearance. You never know… but I can tell you that he is not a main character.

Will there be any fluff present in this story?

Fluff? Perhaps. Romance? Yes. Are fluff and romance the same thing? Blah.

How long will this end up?

Eh… longer than 25 chapters. I can tell you that.

Why did the book choose Kally? She's a noble.

I'll be clearing this up later. It'll make more sense at the end.

4. Diversion

"Are you feeling all right?" Daine asked with a look of concern.

"Oh, I'm just fine. Just a bit tired," Kalasin said as she excused herself. The goodbyes were finally said, the passengers were all on board. Finally, the ship was setting sail to Carthak.

But at the moment, Kalasin couldn't care less. All she wanted to do was go to her cabin and continue reading her book.

Once inside her cabin, she locked the door and settled onto her bed. She pulled out the book from the bag she had stashed it in and flipped it to the second chapter.

I can finally get back to reading my story.

~*~*~

Nobles' Bane: Chapter 2

As she and her companion entered the inn's dining room, she turned her head to give the room a once over. The only remarkable guests were a lord and his companion. They looked to be nearly finished and almost ready to leave. She turned to the brown haired man at her side.

He shook his head at her and then ambled over to an empty table. "Get me some ale, you stupid wretch," he ordered as he stumbled into his seat.

She lowered her gaze. "Yes, sir." She shuffled over to the innkeeper who was smoking a pipe behind his bar. "My master would like some ale, sir," she whispered almost inaudibly.

"Is that so?" the innkeeper snorted. "Yeah, well I'd like four copper pieces first."

She ducked her head and reached down into the small purse at her belt, pulling out four copper pieces and placing them onto the countertop. "Here you are, sir."

The innkeeper swiped the pieces of copper off the countertop and replaced them with a mug of ale. "Enjoy," he said snidely.

"You, girl! Where's my ale!"

She wrapped both hands around the mug of ale and cautiously lifted it from the counter. She turned and slowly started back to the table, trying her best to keep the ale from overflowing out of the mug.

But because she had her attention focused on the ale, she missed the crooked piece of wooden flooring which jutted out right where she stepped.

The girl and the mug of ale pitched forward, the girl hitting her forehead onto someone's knee and the ale landing in that same someone's lap.

"You idiot!"

The girl glanced up in horror, for in all places for the ale to land, it had landed in a lord's lap! A lord's lap!

She pulled herself upright and glanced around for a napkin. "Oh no, sir. I'm terribly sorry!" She spotted a napkin and quickly pulled at it, but the napkin was stuck underneath the lord's plate of food and when she pulled at the napkin, she found that she was also pulling at the plate of food.

The plate overturned, throwing unidentifiable pieces of leftover meat all over the lord's shiny black boots.

"You brainless--" The lord was too angry to even finish his curse, he reached out and gave her a sharp kick in the side.

She let out a cry as she was pushed back, and she screamed when he stomped down on her fingers like a temperamental child.

An arm wrapped itself around her waist and moved her away from the lord's reach. Her companion whispered a curse roughly in her ear, but his arms were deceptively gently. Then he immediately debased himself in front of the lord.

"Please accept my most profuse apologies, dear sir. The foolish girl didn't mean to dishonor your so. Please don't hurt her. She's a wasted wretch, dropped upon her head as a babe, but she's all I have. Please don't hurt her."

"Get her out of my sight," the lord growled.

"Yes, yes. Of course." He turned to her. "Get up! Get up! We're leaving now, all because of your stupid clumsiness!" He grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. As he dragged her towards the door, she glanced back. The lord was glowering at her. Well, she didn't care for him or his boiling anger. She lifted her gaze from the lord to the hallway that led to the inn's rooms, where she saw a young man standing there at the edge of light and shadow, watching the lord with a dangerous glint in his eye. She gave him a sharp look before turning her gaze back in front of her.

Once she and her companion, an older man and close friend who went by the name of Axe, were outside, the grip he had around her loosened and gentled. They continued walking in silence until they reached the edge of the small village they had just been in.

Where they were joined by the young man she had seen hiding in the hallway back at the inn and three horses.

Danel immediately reached for her injured fingers once she and Axe got close enough. "Vistra, are you all right?"

She pulled her sore fingers back. "I'm fine."

He gave her a dark look, obviously not believing her. "If I had known that bastard was so violent, I wouldn't have agreed with the plan."

She shrugged. "It doesn't matter, just let it go."

"We should have killed him," Danel continued.

"Perhaps," Axe said. "But that doesn't mean that you should have been sulking around in the shadows of the inn. What if one of the others had seen you?"

Danel made a face at the older man. "Well, they didn't."

"Which was only by luck," she quickly pitched in. "You were standing half in the light. If anyone had turned their eyes away from Axe and me, they would have seen you easily."

"I still think we should have killed him," Danel said sourly, knowing the argument was lost.

Vistra mounted her horse, Bile, a sign for the others to follow suit.

"Well here," Danel handed Axe and Vistra a bag each, "I separated his gold on the way here."

"Did you get everything?" she asked as they set off on a light canter.

He grinned. "I wiped him clean out."

"Took you long enough," Axe grumbled.

Vistra eyed her bag suspiciously after eyeing Axe's. Then she raised her narrowed gaze to Danel. "You gave me more money," she accused.

"You got hurt on the job," Axe reminded her. "You deserve more."

"That's not--"

"Oh, give up, Vistra," Danel interrupted her. "You give away most of your gold anyhow."

She glared at him.

"He's got you there," Axe agreed.

She transferred her glare to Axe, but he was even less fazed than Danel.

"Fine. I'm splitting the gold for us next time."

The others just laughed, knowing that what she said wasn't true. She didn't have enough patience to sit about and divide gold. It was always Danel who did that. He also traded in the jewelry he stole, splitting the gold gotten from that.

"So," Danel said, "where are we off to now?"

"You mean, other than to the next little village?" She raised an eyebrow.

Danel made a face. "Must we go to another village? Why not a city? We haven't been to a city in awhile. Isn't the capital of Corus supposed to be near by?"

"Less than two days ride," Axe confirmed. He gave Vistra a side-long glance.

Axe knew that she didn't like Corus. She didn't usually like big cities in general, but Corus was more personal.

She shrugged. "Sure. One more small village, and then we'll go."

Danel shot a victorious fist into the air; Axe and Vistra shared amused glances.

They set up camp after they got a good distance away from the previous village. Just as Vistra was rolling out her bedroll, Danel called out to her.

"Vistra?"

"Hm?"

"I'm sorry."

She glanced up in surprise. Danel was rude, rowdy, bold, a show off, and an insatiable flirt. He was never sorry.

"About what?"

"About being too slow."

"Too slow?" she questioned.

"Yeah, back at the inn. If I had been a little quicker with the gold gathering, then you and Axe wouldn't have needed to cause a diversion from keeping the idiot lord from leaving. You wouldn't have gotten hurt," he said almost uncertainly. "I'm sorry."

She shrugged easily. "Don't worry about it. It's a hazard to our profession, remember?"

He frowned.

"Go to sleep, Danel. Don't worry about it."

After he had gotten into his own bedroll, Vistra lifted her head and saw that Axe was watching her. His eyes flickered to Danel, but then came back.

She shook her head at Axe's troubled gaze. He had warned her about Danel after all. She found herself mouthing to Axe the same thing she said to Danel.

Don't worry.

Then she turned over in her bedroll and went to sleep.

~*~*~

A.N.: Was that confusing? Yes? *ponders, not sure if that's a good thing or not* Oh yes, and I forgot to tell you Rosefyre, that I had had a paragraph written that declared who was who… but perhaps I forgot to add it in when I emailed it to you, or perhaps it got deleted during one of my cut and paste rampages.

I'm sure there are lots of questions now. *hides behind a wall*. Well, come on. I'm ready for you.

~krizsta