The festivities were getting to be a bit much for the cloaked man heading for the exit of the tavern. It had been a long couple of weeks and keeping up his illusion was not as effortless as it usually was. He supposed he'd better head back to the inn room he was indefinitely renting and get some rest before he slipped up.
"There's a young lady in there looking for a dance with you." A voice notified him from behind a pillar. He paused. Tempting as it was, now was not the time for it.
"I'm afraid I will have to keep her waiting. I am retiring to my room."
"You would leave her at so early an hour to be alone in your room? Go and entertain her. You are unlikely to turn into a pumpkin if you are out past midnight." The deep voice chuckled.
The words seemed pointed, like they held deeper meaning. It was almost as though this man could tell…
The cloaked man spun to face the voice. "Who are you?" he growled. His disguise faltered for a moment and his green eyes flashed from beneath his hood.
A large dark man stepped out into the moonlight beneath the archways. "I mean you know harm friend." He smiled. "Just some advice from one warrior to another." There was a hint of sarcasm in his voice. What did this man know?
"What do you know of me that you can hand out advice as though we are friends? I have never laid eyes upon you before."
His smile widened. "That's funny, for I have never laid eyes upon you either, and I am good with faces. Yours is nameless and…" he paused for emphasis "alien."
The smaller man visibly stiffened. "Speak not in tongues. Reveal your thoughts." His hand moved subtly to his dagger in his cloak.
"You are not who you seem. In fact, every time I have seen you in the past season, you have had a different face."
A harsh laugh met that. "What is this nonsense? Surely, a man with a different face is a different man! I think you've had far too much ale, my friend."
"Ah, well you would think that would be the case yes. Except that I followed you out here and your face has already changed since you left the bar. You have grown taller as if my presence threatens you." His eyes glinted with victory. "I know who you are, but you need not fear me. I told you already that I mean you no harm."
Very green eyes narrowed sharply. "Your knowledge is a danger to me. I cannot take your word for it and you know that. Why have you told me this?" The dagger was slowly pulled from its hiding location.
"It must be lonely, always hiding."
That was it? He mentally rolled his eyes. "You know nothing. As… kind as your intentions may be, I cannot let you carry whatever knowledge you think you have."
And the dagger was there, plunged into the larger man's chest up under his plate mail armour. He coughed, a trickle of red running down his chin from his open mouth. An open mouth that held amusement rather than surprise.
"I know you would rather no one knew your current… situation, but I do, and there is nothing that you can do about it, Loki Laufeyson."
Loki's eyes widened in shock as the dying man before him disappeared suddenly, as though he was never there. This was not good. This was very not good.
