Stare carefully watched the demon with her brow raised. Even as delicious-smelling food came - pies and pastries with curls of steam that wafted the gorgeous and tasteful scents towards them, she still kept her eye on him, cautious but keen to know more of him. It seemed in a way that there was even closer of a tie between herself and Nosdyn. They both suffered, or had done, at the hand of cruel masters. This ... 'Boss' of his, with no more name than that, seemed a man shrouded in mystery, but one who had the allowance to let Nosdyn roam free. Her heart thudded with empathy and sympathy for him, longing to understand his predicament more - yet, she had a focus to do. She had a job to do. She could guarantee nothing with her situation in life, it would simply have to give her trust to him.
"It is not so much a location as a family," she said quietly to the demon as Mrs Deerling set the food before them.
With a finger raised she noted Nosdyn to be silent a moment as she smiled to the cook. Mrs Deerling took time to tell them the contents of the pastries.
"Lamb and basil, pork and potato, salmon and rosemary. I hope you do enjoy them."
"Thank you, Mrs Deerling," Stare said quietly, but gently. There was a pause.
"You are welcome," said the big-bosomed one, and then she bowed her head and made her way out, a curious glance thrown towards Nosdyn at the last moment. It was a lingering one, that spoke of uncertainty yet also trust - as if she was trying to understand why Sir Vitruvion would allow such a strange creature who had the air of someone unpredictable into the house. Stare thought, 'Clearly she has never been to the Hollow. Clearly she knows nothing if its existence.'
When the cook was gone she turned back to Nosdyn, voice quieter than before still.
"The Heysans are one of the most powerful families in the city. Thesus is not a noble, but he is rich and on the inner council. His daughter married a Duke ... since she has provided information to us in the past, I do not see Vitruvion wanting to end her or her husband. Just cut off her connection to her father. The tricky part will be in tearing down his merchant empire. That is key to this whole thing. We need to bring shame to him, ruin the Heysans forever. Have his daughter never want to speak to him, his wife abandon him, his son and wider family ... all dead or abandoning the name. As to Thesus himself," she let her voice down to a whisper. "It would be best if he was dead."
She took up a pasty and with a sharp clack of her beak she snapped a piece off. Then, tipping back her head she swallowed the pastry back, letting it fall down her throat and swallowing like an animal and a few lithe movements.
Then, once done, she looked back at Nosdyn, not able to see his reaction under his mask. But she went on, "We start in trying to find out the state of his business, and causing it to fall. Luckily, with Vitruvion as my patron, money for bribes is not an issue."
I have already said in a new solo thread I am writing that the business is actually going bankrupt.
