104. Date Night: Tabitha

One good thing about these expensive Inns. It had a full-length mirror in the room. That and the in-house baths. I towelled my wet hair and examined my naked body in the mirror. My breasts hadn’t changed. They were still on the smaller side for my liking. I looked too skinny. You could see my ribs. Hell, you could see my stomach muscles. I was nothing like the soft feminine type, but that wasn’t the main problem. The main problem was I had too many scars. Not just my arm and leg, which were still healing, but from Jern. As soon as we got to Kirghiz, I was going to find a healer with a Flesh Manipulation Specialty and have them removed. I was also considering enlarging my breasts, but with small breasts, it was easier to mimic being a male, and that was useful. I wish I had Wiremu’s appearance Skill. He can’t teach it to me until it gets to Journeyman level, and I haven’t been able to get my own skill. I make do with disguises, sound, movement and Shadow.

I looked through my clothes. I wanted something sexy, provocative, and maybe a bit on the dark side. I didn’t want it to look like a full-on seduction, as I am sure that would raise alarm bells for Eluf. We also had business to discuss. I wanted to be distracting. I am sure the Distract Skill led me to the full-length black dress with the split-up the leg showing a lot of thigh. It was the leg that wasn’t wounded as well. At least the flesh had closed over the wounds, even if they were not fully healed yet. I had to be very careful about moving my arm as the bone was going to be weak for a while yet. Ört would prefer I had it in a sling, but that wasn't happening. I used makeup to tone down the worst of the scars. Eluf was a warrior. I am sure he has scars of his own.

I had booked a carriage to take me to the date, which was at Eluf’s private townhouse. As I waited for it to arrive, I thought about the day. I spent almost the whole day with Comedic Rhythm. We practised for the next set of shows and altered some of it to account for my weak arm. Most of the day was to try and settle Canwr and Bwr. Mostly Canwr. She is very strongly in favour of taking Elufs sponsorship. She is very unsettled and thinks the sponsorship will give her security. She is from a noble house, so I think she forgets all the backstabbing politics that go on. The very same backstabbing politics that are pushing us into this deal.

My read on Eluf is that he is not a bad person and not part of the corruption that abounds in Obalno. In fact, he may be opposing it. Hence the purpose of the deal is not to corrupt Comedic Rhythm but to separate it from the Elemental Traders. If I can come to a deal with Eluf, I can get a nice influx of Coin. He can wear some of the expenses and hopefully provide some guards for security. We are very short on guards after the last attack, and the Mercenary Guild’s black-listing of the Canine Queens makes hiring very difficult.

I was very conscious there were still some Imperial assassins around with a target on Abigail. My gut feeling was that if the Imperials weren’t in control of this mess, they certainly encouraged and empowered it. Hell, I am taking notes because this is exactly the sort of thing I am going to do to them, but better. I have already got ideas on how to improve on this mess, and my Racketeering Class is already giving me nudges, or as I put them, good ideas.

A footman met the carriage at the entrance. Maybe he was a butler. I am not sure. That highlights a weakness in my abilities. I have not spent time around the nobles and high classes, so I can’t mimic them well. I might take time to be a maid to observe nobles. Eluf came to the door, so I showed plenty of leg as I exited the carriage. I went straight up to him and greeted him with a smile and a kiss on the cheek. I didn’t have to play the noble here. I was the merchant and seductress.

Eluf led me inside and up the stairs to a balcony overlooking the small but immaculately landscaped backyard. There was a table set for two with candles and a waiter in the corner with a bottle of wine. My Spatial Awareness did not miss the two guards on the ground floor and the two in a room off to the side of the balcony where we were eating.

The conversation was pleasant over the wine and the entree. I directed most of the conversation to Eluf, and I found out he had returned to Obalno about a year ago after spending fifteen years in the army. He was in the officer track and worked his way up to Captian before coming back at the Duke's request to prepare to take over. His father's health was steadily declining, and he was picking up more and more of the responsibilities as he learned the ropes.

This certainly had my Racketeering Class up and listening. Sure old age, and death from old age, happen, but the higher the attributes, the longer the life. If you neglect your Physical, Mental or Spiritual attributes, they can waste away, and this gets harder and harder to stop the older you get. A human with an average constitution of around 100-120 would expect to live about 150 years before they start to decline. The decline would happen over another 50 years or so, but you can work to extend your life, and the alchemists and healers are always looking to extend life. Human nobles can live well over 200 years as they have access to the best of everything. Elves and Dwarves live a bit longer, and Catkin's lives are shorter. That is why fifteen years in the army is not such a big commitment to someone like Eluf. I would expect someone like me to die violently well before that.

The current Duke celebrated his centenary and a half only two years ago. This reeked like Wiremu’s week-old fish.

Eluf was smart and funny. The wine flowed, and he was used to small talk; the conversation was entertaining. We got down to business before the main course came out, and I got everything I wanted because I am just that good. All I gave up was an extra month of performances in Kirghiz. It left me thinking I should have asked for more. We got the documents, altered and signed them and toasted our new partnership. I was getting a bit tipsy, but I had a reasonable Physical Constitution to handle it.

It was as dessert was being cleared away that he sprung his trap.

“You may not know this about the army,” he started, “but when you get promoted to Captain, you are sent away for six months of intensive leadership training. There are Strategy and Tactics taught, but the main focus is on gaining the Leadership Specialisation, status defence and attack, and developing the Mental Attributes to back them up. I was very good at it. Your Confuse Status Skill is probably early Journeyman level, but you don’t have the Mental Strenght to back it up. Alcohol, a relaxing and distracting atmosphere, the flush of success, and the foreplay of a date all help create cracks allowing me glimpses of who you are. To add to that, I chose to develop Keensight, which helps me put things together.”

Well, that was sobering. “So who am I then, Mr Captain, sir?” I gave a mock salute. I figured I would keep playing up the tipsy act. “I am very interested in how well you have put me together.”

He smiled. It was a genuine smile, like he enjoyed puzzling me out. It will be interesting to see what he has worked out.

“First up, you are no simple Merchant and Entertainer. You are a warrior and have survived a lot of fighting. You are currently favouring your arm and leg, meaning they are recent injuries, probably from the other night's attack. You also have a lot of old injuries and scars on your chest, leg and back, indicating a lot of fighting over a long time. Keensight can see the makeup you are using to hide them. I am sure there are more I can't see. Your walk indicates high Physical Agility and a mobile knife or sword style. The calluses on your hands support that. The calluses are on both hands, suggesting dual wielding, which is unusual. I am keen to spar with you once you are healed.” He smiled in anticipation. “I am a basic sword and shield fighter myself.”

I doubted there was anything basic about his fighting. “You want to spar with me even though I have been hiding things?”

“All people hide things. I am good at this mental shit, and I enjoy puzzling things out.” he said, “Besides, we are partners until at least three months of performances in Kirghiz. I am just sad I won’t be able to travel to Kirghiz with you.”

“Your use of the Skill, Confuse Status, is reasonable,” he continued. “You have learned the trick of having it lighter on some of your classes than others so people with some basic skills will pick up that you are a Merchant and Entertainer. What you may not know is that the higher the class level, the harder it is to hide, and the more effort needs to be put into hiding it. I sensed your three highest-level classes, and Entertainment is not one of them. Thief is your highest level Class, and then Merchant. Then there is something I have never heard of but am fascinated with. It seems to be your fighting class and is called Shadow Predator. What is that?”

“A girl has got to have some secrets,” I quipped, as I was a bit stunned at how much he had gleaned.

“Oh, you have many more secrets than that,” he replied.

I smiled. “It is indeed a specialised fighting Class. Maybe I will show you when we spar.” I thought I could pass off some of my Affinity Skills as being from the class. It was not unreasonable. One Skill, anyway. He has also given me many insights on how I can hide my status better. I have no doubt that was intentional.

“I like that ‘when’ word there,” he said. “The key question, though, is, what are you doing here? You have cropped up in too many reports and places for it to be a coincidence. Investigator Whitby is very suspicious that you were behind the robbery of Enchanters Supreme. I can understand why.”

“Investigator Whitby is your man?” I asked.

“Investigator Whitby is no one's man. He is intelligent, honest, and relentless, and I just give him the backing to do his job.” He said that as if just stating a fact and that matched what I had seen of the Investigator. “So why are you here?”

It was time to put my cards on the table. Some of them, anyway. “I assume you know the Watch is riddled with corruption?”

“Yes, that is why I am backing Whitby, and I have other irons in that fire,” he said.

“The Watch is just the tip of the iceberg. There are links in business, the gangs, and the Dukes administration. It all seems to be coming from a single source. We haven’t found the source yet, but an Imperial stink is coming from it.”

“Are you with Military Intelligence?” he asked.

“No. We met with Major Sione, and we are doing him a favour, but if MI knew what we were doing, I think they would have a coronary despite their high constitution.” I didn’t want to go into too much detail there.

“You have to be working for someone.” he insisted.

“Consider us independent contractors,” I said.

“Do you know what happened to Tjenner? He was the link I was following regarding the corruption in the Watch, and now he is dead.” He sounded a bit frustrated at this.

“I know you put Whitby on the case. What has he found?” I figured this was a chance for some intel of my own.

“He traced it to the Seadogs gang, but he is not convinced they did it. There are some anomalies, apparently.”

“Whitby is very thorough,” was all I said. Then I continued, “With Tjenner gone have you noticed anyone else acting out of character? If Tjenner was the link, they are probably scrambling to form another link with the Watch. Their system has been disrupted, so mistakes are more likely.”

His eyes narrowed, “Did you have him killed to shake things up?”

“Of course not,” I lied.

His eyes narrowed even further. Damn, all high Mental attributes.

“What we do need to do is watch and take advantage of this opportunity, though,” I pushed on. “If you could keep the pressure on the Watch, we will sort the gangs.”

“Gangs plural? The Seadogs and who?” He was sharp.

“There is a Smuggler crew that is in our sights. I don’t want to say more at this stage.” I didn’t want to say more, mainly because we hadn’t found much more.

His attitude changed to be very thoughtful. I considered that to be a bad sign.

“I imagine the smugglers are the imperial link.” He was clearly piecing things together. “You seem to think you will be able to take out one of the strongest gangs and a Smuggler crew all by yourself. Do you know stopping smugglers and Imperials is part of the Navy’s role? They could help.”

I wanted to encourage this line of thinking, “That's good. We will definitely call on them when we need help.” I wasn’t going to let him know about the Pack Rats. That will bring all sorts of risks and watchers down on them.

Time to change things up and distract him from thinking deeper for now. “So now we have two partnerships going. You clean the Watch and Administration, and we will help with the gangs and Imperials.” I lifted my glass, “Let us toast our agreement.” He followed with his glass, and we toasted our second partnership.

“Now, partner, I hope you will not let this lovely romantic dinner and ‘dating foreplay’ go to waste.” I gave him a winning smile and changed my stance so my leg was fully exposed to his Keensight. I let the strap of my dress fall off my shoulder, exposing the top of my breast as I sauntered over to him. He was definitely using his Keensight. I could tell from his reaction. I was going to enjoy distracting him.