It had taken several hours of bumpy, muddy roads and a lack of good light pouring in through the carriage windows that my travelmate had finally given up hope. With a heavy sigh, the elderly man removed his reading glasses, slid them into a leather case inside his jacket, and set his book onto the red cushioned bench next to him.
Glancing out the window with cold steel eyes, he cleared his throat and spoke with a soft tone that was barely audible above the clattering of the wheels against the rocks and pits of the road. "What a horrible day for travel, isn't it, ma'am?"
I too clutched a book in an open position, not a single word read from it this entire ride. Rather, I had been surveying the horrible weather conditions that had dogged me my entire trip out of Radasanth. "Yeah, it is pretty bad out there. This rain has been falling for days, now. Anytime it wants to let up is fine by me."
The old man snorted his consent, his pitch-black mustache twitching briefly on his upper lip. The carriage hit a particularly nasty bump in the road, sending the contents inside bounding off of the benches. The old man reached up to keep his hat from falling off of his balding head; I instinctively reached for my traveling satchel, hoping that none of the contents would spill on the floor. I managed to snatch it by its clasps and bring it back up to the bench without incident.
"Sorry about that," we heard the carriage driver call from outside. Neither of us responded.
Once we were settled once again, my compartment companion got a little curious. "These roads can be a bit dangerous during this time of the year. Bandits and such. I'm surprised to see a petite thing like you traveling by yourself--no offense, of course."
"None taken," I casually replied. "But trust me, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself."
The gentlemen gave me a quick once-over, taking in my casual traveling fare of a black blouse top, dark blue jeans, and black leather walking boots. I could only imagine what he was thinking at the moment; about whether or not my claim was believable. Decided to put his mind at ease and give him a definitive answer, I leaned forward slightly and met his gaze. "For the record, I'm a former assassin and Warrior of the Dajas Pagoda. Skilled with knives and poisons, and a master at hand-to-hand combat. It would take more than a few roadside bandits for me to worry about survival."
The man tilted his head backwards a bit, obviously taken off-guard by the admission. I put him at ease with a quick smile, leaning back and crossing my left leg over my right. "It's okay, I actually retired from both years ago and opened up a bookstore on Janus Street in Radasanth. If you're ever interested the latest fiction and non-fiction delights, you should stop on by. We have quite an impressive inventory."
A moment of silence passed between us as he nodded, processing everything. "So what brings you out to Concordia, then? Especially if you have a store to run..."
"Well," I said, patting my satchel, "I'm on a bit of a special delivery. Part of my bookstore's services include the acquisition and delivery of rare and peculiar tomes for special clientele. Normally I would hire a couple of mercenary buddies from my days as a cutthroat to deliver them to their new owners, but this particular book warrants a personal delivery."
There was a glint in the man's steely eyes. "Ah, something very special and top-secret, I assume?"
I laughed. "Hardly. It's simply a grimoire detailing the summoning of several demons and the contracts they are willing to make with the summoner. The client wishes to procure it only for research purposes, of course. Care to see?"
He squirmed a little bit, hesitant to take a peek at the book. As I smiled and reached for the brass clasp keeping my satchel closed, he raised his hands. "No, that's quite alright, ma'am."
I shrugged. "Okay, I understand."
More silence in the carriage, as the old man tried hard to scrape up something to say. I took his mind off the subject. "So what about you? What do you do?"
He was eager to talk about something a little more normal, and leaned forward to address me, resting his arms on his knees. "If you must know, I own one of the sawmills in Underwood. Big logging town, Underwood."
"I'm familiar with it, yes."
"We've been having some troubles lately... Financial, personnel, equipment; all sorts of troubles. Normally I run my businesses out of my office in Radasanth, as my company has interests all over Corone and in Scara Brae as well. Like you, I figured this particular incident requires my own particular talents."
"You're not going to fire everyone and burn the mill down, are you?"
He let out a hearty laugh. "Good heavens, no! Is that how you solve problems in your bookstore? No; I'm just going down there to survey the mill and have a nice chat with the men I hired to run it while I'm attending to manners elsewhere. See if we can't figure out what's going on so we can get back to running at one hundred percent."
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