The past few days had been long and arduous, and now Seth was worn out, tired, and without a fort to his name- the Sailors had put him to good work, and left him with nothing. He now stood at Haverton Pier, looking out into the water, as the waves crashed endlessly onto the beach. At a soft mew from Rita, who sat perched on his shoulder, Seth smiled lightly scratched her between the ears. "It's quite pretty, isn't it?" He wisppered to her as she began to purr. He tilted back his head, eyes closing as a breeze ruffled his hair. It was, at least, a nice end to the chaos. The Pier itself seemed to be winding down for the night, Ire, in the distance, was turning bright orange, the sky in turn, fading to pink, and red. "Very beautiful, indeed..."

Amani pulled her cloak in closer to her body, caught the passing whisper of a stranger and glanced his way. He had a cat on his shoulder. Amani missed cats. "Don't be fooled, traveler." She said cheerfully, stopping and reaching out to let the cat sniff her hand, "In my country there is a saying that is often true-- the desert lily has poisonous leaves."

Once the cat had given her leave, Amani stroked its head, scratching it beneath the chin. "This is fine though. I am immune to its poison because I tasted it every day. It is the same with Old Rose, yes? A similar sort of flower. And if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger."

How much did I have to drink, earlier? Obviously not enough to make herself fall down drunk, but still enough for her to be chatty with strangers. Whatever. She liked shoulder cats.

"Oh," Seth turned to meet the woman's gaze, not expecting a passing stranger to speek with him, "Indeed, I just recovered from some of that poison, myself." He smiled politely, "Rita seems to like you pretty well, what's your name, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Hmph." She wasn't annoyed, she was thoughtful. "It is true you are not from here, then." She laughed, "No, I do not mind telling you my name. But make care of who you ask. I am Amani. And since I have given you mine you must now tell me yours."

It was an order which was somewhat softened by Amani's obvious delight that the cat liked her.

"Seth Richards," He said, easily skipping over the embarrassment of divulging his first name, "It's a pleasure to meet you." There was a pause, "True, I've never been here before, but it doesn't feel like a very friendly place. Any other advice you could give me? You see, it's only by a series of unfortunate events that I am here in the first place- it would be nice to know enough about the area to survive until I can earn enough money to get a boat back home." He grinned sheepishly.

Amani looked the boy up and down, "Don't get in bad with the brothers. Don't try to charm a woman with a sword. And if you are an honest man-- perhaps find a horse and ride to someplace else. " The woman simpered and winked, "This is a good place for thieves, cutthroats, and drunks. You can decide which of the three I am, later."

She paused and pulled out a worn pocket watch, glancing at it for a moment and then putting it back, "Do you need a job?" She asked suddenly, beginning to rifle through her pockets looking for something.

Whoever said that there was no such thing as a free lunch or dinner was definitely right, thought Murmur nursing her bloody nose, staggering slightly down the pier, watching the water through the chinks in the wood.

The pier didn't look all that sturdy, but then it never had done. She glanced nervously out at the sea, the colors blurring slightly in a haze. Since her mother's death, large bodies of water made her feel nervous, heck small bodies of water made her nervous- it was why she stuck to the gin.

Squinting a little, she saw two figures on the pier, and though her vision was failing her slightly, her ears could clearly make out words.

Hello thought Murmur, that kind of phrase was almost like a mating call for conmen.

. that phrase, not so much. No money. No point. Still, she was kind of bored...

"Stay away from the fish stall on the corner," Murmur found herself saying, "If ye wanna survive, honestly...there's stuff there older than I am."

Seth seemed to perk up immadiately at that, "Yes, that would be wonderful." No use stealing from the poor...



Seth barely noticed the comment, though politely held back a gag which was fighting to well up his throat at a sudden stench, which he took to come from the dirty-looking girl with the black eye. To stave of fthe gag reflex, he simply smiled at Amani as she continued her riflings.

"Ah. Can you fight?" Amani asked, and then stopped herself when a noxious creature approached.



Amani hated dirt. She rolled her blue eyes skyward when Muck approached, and looked her up and down with obvious disdain on her face, "You smell like the dead. I do not think the fish could smell much worse. It appears, Seth, I have forgotten to mention another thing most people in Old Rose avoid."

She paused delicately, "Soap." Amani narrowed her eyes at Murmur, "Away. Go. Come back when you have taken a bath."

Although I doubt that'll ever happen.

Seth nodded, "I'm pretty handy with a dagger, can also handlt myself pretty well with unarmed combat..." Great, there went his air supply. That meant he had to breathe. And the wind didn't seem to be liking him much. He took a sharp, quick breath through his mouth, and held it. Oh gods, the stench was so bad he could practically taste it!



It sounded rude. But Seth said nothing- the girl did need a bath, to look at her it seemed she had quite the aversion to soap. He wondered if she was simply afraid of it? Or perhaps she didn't like water. Either way, she wasn't very pleasant. Oh dear, he was about to run out of breath....

Murmur sniffed and looked at the woman with a similar expression of disdain- well as much disdain as she could manage. A golly in Old Rose trying to lord it over everyone else, enough to make you feel sick.


Murmur grinned and spat happily on the floor. She was proud of her smell; it was her heritage, the way her mother had smelt before her, the smell of fish trade in the summer and haggling over the price of rotten food. The smell wasn't sweat...it was her blood- well, there was probably a little sweat.

Murmur curled her lip at the woman...shooing her away like some street cat.

"Think you own the pier now do ye?" she snapped, holding her hand on her hip. "Why should I leave- got just as much right to be 'ere as you. Ye trumped up golly."

Her eyes slid away from the woman, to the male of the two- he seemed to be having some difficulty, gasping for air and wincing slightly. "The first time ye smell it is always the worst," she said with a small smile, "but once ye get accustomed, folks in Old Rose ent so bad...at least no one runs around tellin' ye what te do or when te take baths," she shot the woman a sour look and spat on the floor again.

"Ehh..." Seth had had his fair share of conflict in the past few days, and now wanted nothing to do with it. Even without taking that into account, this was not a conversation he would want to get himself into, so he took a few steps back to wait out the storm.

The mugrobi woman wasn't particularly perturbed by the way Murmer was speaking to her. In fact she liked it better than the way most of the brothers treated her-- with weasle like flattery.

"I can assure you it has nothing to do with my heritage and everything to do with the baths." Amani said daintily. "What you say is true, though. For the most part I can't smell most of Old Rose, anymore. It is only the very potent smells that penetrate my sense of smell now."

She smiled at Murmer in what she hoped was a non malicious way, "And like I said. You smell like the dead."

Amani looked her over quickly, "If you do not want to leave, what do you want?"

The change in the glador's voice from disdain to, well, Murmur didn't quite know what caught her a little off guard.

She blinked, it wasn't often a golly smiled at her or stood around her for this long.

"Occupational hazard," she shrugged, or at least it was, she reminded herself, before she lost her business. "I like it, anyroad. S'good as a suit of armor sometimes: ent many women can go the places I can in Old Rosie without getting in te much trouble"


Wiping her nose on her sleeve, Murmur shrugged.

"Te tell ye the truth, I ent really thought that far ahead...waitin' for things te die down before I show my ugly mug in the city. I was plannin' te either rob ye or con ye-nothin' personal mind- I need a drink . But he said he ent got any money...and I reckon I've been as subtle as sledgehammer goin' about it." she screwed up her face "ent like I can just sneak up on people."

She eyed the woman, "Ye sure ye don't just wanna give me some money? It'd save me a lot of hassle." Murmur let out a large barking laugh and blew her nose noisily on her sleeve.

"Is that so? I'll have to look into it."

Yeah, in a million years.



"Yes you did not choose a good pair to steal from. I might have run you through." She shrugged apologetically. "Business hours, you see?"



"I don't have any to spare, unfortunately...I do have a job you could do, however..." She mulled it over. Amani wasn't usually a planner, but she didn't like the job she was about to do...not alone anyway. If she used this woman and Seth it would make things much easier.

"It would not be too hard for you, since you have such an unusual...ah...aroma." She pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket, reread it, and put it back. "You would get payed, of course."

Ok, so maybe there was no storm. Seth straightened up, but looked at Murmur, awaiting her reaction.




He smirked, that was probably true.




So she's a thief like me. Not surprising, really. What with that stench, it would be rather difficult to keep a job... He wasn't really judging her, simply observing.



Seth blinked, Wait a minute.... Was she about to give away his job? His ticket back to Vienda?!



That's what it looked like. "Hold up, I thought you were going to give me this job.." He said slowly, uncertainly. It wasn't that he didn't think this girl needed a job- he certainly didnt' wish her any ill, but he needed the job to get home. "I mean, unless you need more than one person, I call dibs."

Looking at the galdor’s cloak, Murmur didn’t doubt this, only a certain kind of person wore a cloak the way she did. The human gave thanks to Vita that she’d avoided being turned into fresh Murmur on a stick.

Murmur wished, just once that the "just give me the money" bit would work, but she hadn't been that lucky so far. However, the prospect of a job caught her attention.

Work for a golly? Murmur bit her lip and stuck a finger in her ear pensively. She could practically hear her mother screaming drunkenly inside her head for even considering such a thing- even if this one was unusually tolerant of her.

She found herself caught in something as close to a moral dilemma as she'd ever been in. And then the male, the human, finally piped up,



Like a child only holding on to an old toy because she knew one of her siblings wanted it, Murmur decided that she desperately wanted this job...that she needed it more than anything in the world.

"Hang on a minute," she said looking at the human, "why would she hire ye, someone totally new to the area, who hasn't got a hingle's erse about how old Rosie works when she could have me, someone who's been here for months?"

"Enough, both of you." Amani said severely, tucking a strand of stray hair behind her ear. "I have a job for each, if you agree to it."

She pulled back her coat, revealing two swords and a gun, and put her hands on her hips. "I have some ah...intimidating to do, yes? It is not a big enough one to worry the witches, but the man has run a few of the brothers through so they're sending me." A small frown graced her face.

Why they don't just kill the man is beyond me.

"I could easily do this on my own, but one of my street birds has told me his brothers are in town...it would just be easier if I had extra help." She pulled her hands off her hips and stretched languidly, "It would be your job, Seth, to provide with extra muscle-- and yours ah..."

Amani examined Murmur, "What should I call you by? I am Amani."

““Name’s Murmur, if yer interested. Not Mutter, or Mumble, or Maunder. Murmur- an’ if ye want to make a joke about speaking up a bit coz ye can’t hear me properly I’d prefer it if ye got it out yer system now.” She hesitated a little, not sure about touching a golly. But putting it aside, for the sake of manners if nothing else, Murmur spat sloppily onto her hand and held it out to the galdor to shake, "Good to know ye, Amani"

In her head, Murmur's mother started screaming about untrustworthy gollies again. Oh shut up, Ma, you're dead thought Murmur firmly and it’s your fault I’m in this situation to begin with- so don’t tell me you wouldn’t do the same for a bit of gin money. I’ll still be ready to kill ’em all when the revolution comes.

Amani hesitated for half a second before sighing and clasping hands, "The feeling is mutual, I am sure." After they let go, she discreetly wiped her hands on her coat.

"As I was saying, you would serve well as a distraction, Murmur." She struggled around the unfamiliar name, "I trust you do not need help in coming up with a plan that will draw off at least one of the brothers-- you see, they have heard Hawke is after them and never leave each other's company, anymore."

Seth was about to respond when Amani cut him off.



"I'm listening...."




Seth tilted his head slightly. She seemed to be dancing around a few facts. He didn't like that. Just what does she want to get me into?


"So, hang on a minute. Exactly what is it you want us to do?" He asked this cautiously. "And who is it you're wanting us to take out?"

Amani pulled out the piece of paper she'd look at earlier and peered at it, "A man named Vance Black. Who is now accompanied by two brothers whose names I do not know. What do the names matter anyway?" She sounded genuinely puzzled.

Who cares? It's a job.

She put the paper back into her pocket, "All we are doing is subduing the two brothers and then I will have a small 'chat' with Mr. Black. When I am doing this you both may look around the house for money, if you wish." Amani winked at Murmur specifically. The more havoc, the better. Maybe it would make the lesson stick.

And Murmur looks like a woman who can cause a lot of damage to a house in a short amount of time...

"Then, depending on how things go and how well you do, you will get payed."

"Hmmm...." There was certainly more honest work Seth could be doing. But honest work would take longer. And he did so want to get bck to Vienda. Or at least out of Old Rose. Who knew? Maybe this would be good practice for big jobs in the Resistance? If he could manage to get an important job out of them. And this woman did seem to be pretty respectable. For a golly. He sighed, "Alright, I'm in."

Murmur watched as the boy cautiously made Amani rehash the situation. Poor dear wasn't going to last a second in Old Rosie like that, Murmur had realized long ago that in a place like this, with nothing to lose, nothing ventured was nothing gained.

Sure, she'd probably end up in a gutter someday with a knife sticking out of her erse. But at least she'd be able to say she'd made a clocking good go of things

Murmur made a hungry noise and grinned. This sounded like a good job, heck it was something she'd do for free.



"Distract a couple of blokes, destroy a house...piece of piss," said Murmur shortly, "When do we start?"

"You know, I do believe we have our own recruitment department, last time I checked."

Amani heard the smooth, familiar voice before she saw movement out of the corner of her eye or even felt the inklings of a field. A well-dressed, middle-aged blond man appeared from the crowds on the street, stopping to lean with utterly roguish nonchalance against the closest support beam for the pier near the three. He was perhaps a little too clean and fine-featured for the average Harbor inhabitant. His sun-touched curls were tamed only by a fetching, wide-brimmed hat, and beneath the folds of his leather duster, the butt of an unusual pistol was visible.

Corwynn was grinning, clear blue eyes all but lost in the weathered age-lines of his face, "Unless you got a promotion I don't know about, Amani."

The galdor gunman let his discerning gaze travel Seth and Murmur's faces, lifting his four-fingered left hand and pretending to thumb his nose thoughtfully instead of guard his senses from a most unusual odor, "Hired thugs are a creative solution. Do they have names?"