Tattered Souls - Part 7c

Rastellion leads the way into the Trading Hall. He's greeted by the usual hubbub of voices - goods being hawked, deals being negotiated, caravaneers making their plans.

Curiously, Zandrianna looks around the bustling hall. "If you don't mind, I'll just poke around. Mayhap I can find something of use for the association, or .." She sees a stack of freshly delivered hides stacked near a wall and wanders off to take a closer look.

Rastellion pushes his way through the now-familiar throng over to the main desk. "Hey Wilt," he says, trying to force a natural smile. "Anything in for me while I was away?"

Wilt Foxbrush looks up in surprise. "Rastellion! What are you..."

"... doing back?" Rastellion finishes for him. "Well, I did have to leave a bit unexpectedly. I figure I need to get the Association's affairs back in order now."

Wilt nods. "Oh, good. All straightened out, then? I knew it must be just some misunderstanding." He turns to look through the boxes on his shelves and misses the bleak expression that crosses Rastellion's face. "Here you go," he says after a moment, turning back. "Several tickets came in ... oh, and that trader from the Blue Mountains was looking for you the other day. Something about arranging another shipment? But, there, that's the lot."

Rastellion takes the papers and starts looking through them. "Thanks Wilt!" Then he heads over to the notice board on the far wall.

Across the room, a lanky fellow glances over from his conversation as Zandrianna steps past him. He frowns for a moment as if searching for a name. "Zandrianna, isn't it? You were in here a week or two back, looking for Rastellion?"

Zandrianna pauses at the man’s desk. “Yes, Zandrianna. And you're Goeff, I believe? You were most helpful then." She smiles at him, before turning to look around at the activity. "Is it always so busy here?" she asks.

Goeff blinks at her. "Busy?" He looks around. "I suppose. You should see it on a market day." He nods to the dwarf he was talking with. "Thanks, Galdo. I'll see you tonight." Then, returning his attention to Zandrianna, he leans in a little closer and says, in a lower voice, "So, did you find Rastellion the other day? Everything work out for him?"

For a moment, Zandrianna doesn't hear him as she's staring longingly at a small, toddler sized bed. Finally, she shakes her head and looks back over at Goeff. "Hmmm?" she asks distractedly, "Oh, yes. I was able to find him, thank you. As for working out ... well we're dealing with that."

Goeff looks slightly taken aback. He runs a hand through his hair, looking worried. "It's not resolved? I'd have thought... by now... I mean, surely it was just a misunderstanding?"

Zandrianna glances around the room and then lowers her voice, while shaking her head. "It is a very big misunderstanding. And there's been a ... complication." she adds, not sure how much to say to Goeff, or whether she trusts him with Immalaine's private details.

Goeff puffs his cheeks and blows out an irritated breath. "Pff! Isn't that always the case? All the taxes and tariffs I've had to fork over, and for what? Just so those bureaucrats can complicate matters more." He leans back on his desk, warming to the subject. "There was this one time..."

He breaks off as Rastellion, who's come up behind him, places a friendly hand on his shoulder. "Hello Rastellion! Welcome back. Zandrianna was just telling me you're still trying to clear things up?"

Rastellion shoots Zandrianna an aggrieved glance at this. "Something like that," he mutters, looking uncomfortable. "Ah... I'll speak with you tomorrow, Goeff. I'm just back in town today and I need to check in at the Association."

Goeff nods. "Fair 'nuff." He gives Zandrianna a cordial smile, then resumes his seat and starts hunting through a stack of parchments.

Upon seeing Rastellion's expression, Zandrianna opens her mouth to say something, but then she simply nods. "Well, if you're done here shall we head out for lunch? I really need to go get Althessia and get her fed before I return to the offices to tend paperwork."

Rastellion starts with her toward the door. "Aren't you going to spend the day at home with Althessia? I'd have thought, after being away.."

He holds the door open for her, then for young Watcher who's just entering. As he follows Zandrianna out, Rastellion doesn't notice the recruit turn back, nor the considering expression on the man’s face.

Zandrianna replies, "Oh, I've a spot for her to play and rest in the offices. She seems to like being there with me. We'll be fine. Shall I bring any food back? I noticed Rossiath was baking when we left, I could stop at her house on the way and see if she'd spare any us to eat later."

Rastellion opens his mouth to protest further, then just shrugs. "I suppose." He glances up at the sun, gauging the time. "I'll see you over at the Association in an hour or so?" He rustles the papers he still holds. "At least this will give me a distraction from ... well, it needs doing."

Zandrianna gives him a sympathetic smile, then turns and heads toward the gate on the far side of town. Rastellion straightens his shoulders and heads in the opposite direction, up the hill towards the Association's town offices. Neither notices the Watcher who slips out and trails, at some distance, after him.

When Zandrianna returns to the Bree offices, about two hours later, Althessia in her arms, she finds Rastellion sitting at the main table, poking listlessly through the paperwork that's accumulated in his absence.

Zandrianna looks toward her own desk and sighs, while Althessia giggles in her arms. "Well," she says, feeling tired just thinking about the work ahead of them, "I guess I’d best get started." She heads to the back office, placing Althessia on a small rug to play with her stuffed animal, before sitting and starting to sort through her own paperwork.

For the next several hours, she tries to make sense of the tangle - orders, receipts, requests - that have accumulated since Rastellion left Bree, and even more during her own recent absence. Althessia seems unaffected by her mother's growing frustration, gurgling happily on a small rug under a table as she gnaws on the ear of her stuffed toy boar, before finally falling into a doze.

A few times, Zandrianna rises with a question for Rastellion, but the sight of his glum expression, and of the papers he seems merely to be shoving around his desk, send her tiptoeing back out. "But what else can we do but wait?" she wonders.

When a knock comes on the main door, in the mid-afternoon, she rises with a sense of relief. "Anything to get me away from this morass," she thinks, hastening to answer.

A young boy stands in the hallway, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. He gives Zan a sharp look. "Man tol' me th’ sign down front says Bree 'Venturers onnit. 'Re you Miss Zanni Anna?"

Zandrianna nods. "Yes, I'm Mrs. Zandrianna. May I help you?"

The urchin attempts to look past her into the offices. "I gotta message fur a Mis'er Rassle Lion. It's im-por-tant." He draws the last word out, as if trying to emphasize just how vital his charge is.

Zandrianna calls back to Rastellion. "Can you come here a moment, Rastellion?"

As she turns, the boy darts past her into the front office, where Rastellion is just turning in his chair. The urchin stops in the center of the room and looks around, gawking. "Blimey, theresa lotta paper in here. You write all this?" he asks Rastellion - then, without waiting for a reply - hops over to a large salmon displayed proudly on one wall, one of Altheric's finest catches. "Coo, tha's a biggun. 'Sit real?" He stands on tiptoe and tries to touch it.

Rastellion frowns at the young lad - who's getting dirty finger marks on the wall - then looks to Zandrianna. "What?..." he mouths.

Zandrianna comes up behind the lad, gently moving his hand away from the fish. "Yes, it's real. A friend of mine caught it. Do you like fishing?" she asks, before turning to Rastellion and whispering, "I don't know. He says he has a message."

"Mhm," the little one says. He turns and puts his hands on his hips. "I once caught un e’en bigger than thatun!" he announces, glaring, as if daring the two adults to contradict him.

Zandrianna smiles. "That's Mr. Rastellion," she says, pointing. "You said you had something important to tell him?" She looks over at the nearby table. "Why don't you tell us what is so important, while I go fix you some food?" Not waiting for a reply, she heads over and unwraps the pie she'd brought along for later.

"Yeah, I gotta message," the boy say, but his eyes, then his feet, follow Zandrianna. "What kinda pie?"

"Apple," she answers, "but the message first. Then the pie."

The boy crosses his arms. "But I was tol' I'd get a copper -- I mean, five coppers -- for bringin' th’ message." His eyes stay fixed on the pie.

Zandrianna finishes cutting a slice, before turning back to the boy as she nods her head. "Well then, you'll have both - the pie and the coppers. But first, we need the message." She looks down at the piece of pie she'd cut him, the thick layer of sweet apple in the middle visible to the boy's eyes. "Of course, if you'd rather I give this nice, big piece to Mr. Rastellion …"

Rastellion pulls his thoughts back to the present. "Oh, yes... that does look good Zandrianna," he says, in an exaggerated voice. "And I am so hungry!" He starts forward, but the boy jumps between him and Zandrianna.

"Was this old fella, down in th’ Stone Quarter. Says ‘e’s yer uncle, an’ says t’ tell you …" The boy screws up his face in an effort to recall. "Says that one of them's ridin’ off and he's goin’ ta follow and see if that un’s goin’ t’ where the thing you’re lookin’for is hid." He opens his eyes. "Whadd’e mean, mister? Issita treasure? Can I come?"

Rastellion shakes his head. "No, no treasure. That's all the man said?" The boy nods emphatically a few times. "Well," Rastellion continues, "then I think you've earned that piece of pie, don't you, Zandrianna?"

Still thinking over the boy’s, Zandrianna doesn't register Rastellion question at first. "Ceolfred's gone off to ... oh, what Rastellion?" She looks down at the hopeful young face. "Of course he's earned it," she said as she holds it out.

As the boy turns his attention to stuffing the pie into his mouth as quickly as he can - as if afraid it might be taken away from him otherwise - Rastellion mouths to Zandrianna: "Immalaine."

Zandrianna nods, her eyes filled with worry and hope, warring for dominance over each another. Rastellion takes a breath to say something, his face also betraying conflicting emotions.

"Canni haf anoffer?" the boy interrupts, spewing crumbs over the floor.

Rastellion clenches his jaw slightly - then, at a thought, steps forward and extracts a second piece of pie. "Sure you can," he says starting toward the door with it. "To eat on the way home."

"Don' haffa home," the boy corrects, following. "Stayin' at the orph’n’ge." He makes a grab for the slice, but Rastellion holds it too high for the greedy fingers until he's opened the door. "Off you go then, and here's your pie."

"Thanks misser!" the boy pipes and, starting to gobble it already, turns and races down the short hall toward the stairs.

Rastellion shuts the door. "Ceolfred," he agrees, starting back. "He must be hoping that one of them's going to lead him to Immalaine."

"I can't think of any other reason he'd follow them. But," Zandrianna adds, her voice laced with worry, "I do hope he'll be careful. I mean, he's a hunter by trade but tracking animals and tracking men …"

Rastellion shakes his head. "Don't worry about Ceolfred. He’s uncanny. I've seen him just vanish into the forest, like he's not even there. No ... he'll have no trouble following and remaining unseen. I just hope he finds Immalaine and..." He turns away. "... and that she wants to come back at all. Otherwise.."

A knock on the door interrupts his last words - and he puffs out an amused breath "I think our urchin just realized we all forgot the 'one-I-mean-five' coppers he was promised."

Zandrianna hurries to the moneybox and fetches coins out of it.. "Here," she says, "give these to him."

Rastellion waves her off, having already pulled the coppers from his own pocket. "It’s not an Association expense, Zandrianna," he says, reaching for the door handle. "Don't go making my job with the books that much harder I... oh!" He breaks off as he sees three members of the Bree Watch at the door.

"Aye, tha's him," says the oldest of the three, clapping another, the recruit from the Trading Hall, on the back. "Good job spottin' him, lad. Tha's officer material you got if you keep it up."

The third guard - a beefy fellow with hands that look big enough to wrap around Rastellion's shin - puts one paw on Rastellion's shoulder and presses down.

"You're that Rastellion fellow?" the officer demands, stepping forward. Rastellion is too stunned by the sudden appearance of this trio to do anything other than nod.

"Then by the power granted me,' the Watcher continues, "by the Mayor and the municipality of Bree, I hereby place you under arrest!"