The doors to the seedy tavern burst open rather unceremoniously as a halfling and two humans entered. The halfling was attired in finery, while one human wore heavy armor and the other the robes of a binder.
"Mistress, mistress where are you?" The halfling cried out, trying to be heard over the din of the place.
He surveyed the layout with a sniff as a portly man, the owner of the establishment, approached meekly. "Forgive me, Master Tibbers, servant of the most esteemed House of Arneste, but who are you looking for in a place like this?"
"He's looking for me, Jaculus."
Most eyes turned to regard a lone woman in the corner, smoking a cigarette. Her hair was black, her skin slightly ruddy, and her green eyes glinted a baleful yellow as she glared at the halfling.
"Tani Barnes?" Jaculus asked, bewildered. "What do you have to do with the House of Arneste?"
"Fool!" Tibbers snapped, his voice silencing the crowd. "Know your place, that is Lady Litania Arneste, daughter of Count Darius Arneste and heiress to the Samael Estate."
"That is enough, Tibby-Wibby," Tani, or Litania, commanded in a sing-song voice. "You're scaring the patrons."
"As you wish, milady. Your father commands you return home, however."
"As my father wishes." Litania puffed out one last smoke circle before standing. She fished out a gold coin and announced, "Free round on me!"
The tavern erupted into a mad scramble to the bar as the coin sailed into Jaculus' hands. In the chaos, Litania managed to evade Tibbers and sneak out the back into the alleys.
She smirked at her luck, but knew that the stuffy halfling couldn't have found her without help.
"You can come out, Typhann." She whispered into the shadows. "You too, Sithonis, I know you're here."
Two small forms fluttered into the lamplight. One was an ordinary-looking raven, the other a blood-red imp, one grinning sheepishly.
"Sorry mistress," the raven rasped. "I tried to lead the fiend astray--"
"Bah," the imp snorted, "you couldn't lead a whore queen to souls. I do admit to leading the 'slip' to you, milady." The imp, Sithonis by name, replied to Litania's thoughts. "Your father commanded me to find you."
"And to bring me home, too?"
"That wasn't his instructions to me," the little devil cackled, "That right belongs to the halfling currently trying to get out of the mob inside."
"I hate him," Litania spat. "I hate that man who pretends to be my father!"
The imp flew up and perched on the young woman's shoulder. "We discussed this, the deal was learning the truth about your real father and to not talk about it."
"Him and all his stuffed-up 'noble' friends," Litania ignored the devil. "I wish Asmodeus would claim them all! Hell, I'd send them to him!"
"Would you really?" Typhann, the raven, asked.
"Yes, I would."
"Then perhaps you should read this?"
Litania turned to the imp, holding a letter in his claws. She took it, reading the front. "Who's Janiven?"
"Hell if I know," Sithonis shrugged, "but bird-boy and I found this in your town mailbox. The letter says to meet her at that Cato's joint later. She wants to discuss the future of Westcrown, or something like that."
Not knowing what to make of that, she read on, intrigued...
