though Jinn imagined that the only sailors who had ever entered the place were either long retired or owned small ships that they occasionally visited.
Jinn felt eyes upon him and the eladrin as they crossed the common room, joining Allek at a table that afforded a view of the entire bar and seating area. He caught more than a few sneering looks from the growing crowd and paid them no mind, sitting back and letting his gaze wander from one person to the next, trying to appear casual. He studied clothing, visible weapons, those who were quiet and watchful, and those who laughed and caroused. His eyes were drawn to the roughness or smoothness of exposed palms and took note of their footwear, marking filth and cleanliness, loud heels compared to smooth, quiet soles.
Altogether, he could piece together one suspect from among several familiar traits, though could not attribute any particular crime to the amalgam. No one presented themselves as anything other than what they seemed, and with Allek's admission that several unconnected murderers had already been placed in the Watch's custody, Jinn began to realize the difficulty of the task the Watch had undertaken.
'Rorden Allek!' a young woman at the door called out, extracting herself from a small group of admirers and sauntering over to their table. She was a short, curvy woman festooned with lace and jewels, a tight-fitting crimson dress leaving little to the imagination as she leaned against their table with a conspiratorial wink at the rorden. 'How is my favorite niece of yours, Rorden? I haven't seen Alma in ages!'
Jinn noticed a brief shadow cross Allek's features, and Quessahn looked away uncomfortably. However, the rorden composed himself quickly, his voice bearing not the slightest hint of what he truly felt.
'Mistress Lhaerra,' he said, 'I fear that Alma has taken ill of late-'
'The poor dear!' Lhaerra exclaimed, an exaggerated look of concern on her face disappearing quickly as a round of laughter from the bar caught her attention.
'Give dear Alma my best, will you?'
She was gone before Allek could respond, lost in a crowd of smiling suitors and jealous rivals. The rorden merely sat in silence, eyes seeming to burn a hole in the tabletop for a moment before returning to his perusal of the common room. No one else approached the trio for some time, and for that, Jinn was grateful.
As the evening wore on closer to evenpeal, he sipped at a glass of water, earning scornful looks from the barkeep. Jinn fought the urge to suggest leaving, seeing little in the vapid decadence of those gathered that reminded him of the Vigilant Order.
He saw them more as prey than predators. The more they drank, the more closely he watched, waiting for signs of an approaching threat that might sniff and prowl at the weaknesses of those with too much coin and too little sense.
'Are we entertaining criminals in taverns rather than the jails now?' a young man at the bar called out to the amusement of his snickering companions. Only a few among them tried to shush the tall, lithe young man in black trousers and doublet, a fine-stitched storm cloak thrown over his shoulder to reveal a jeweled rapier at his side.
'Callak Saerfynn and his toadies,' Allek said, nodding to the bar with a half-lidded gaze that turned more than a few heads back to their drinks. 'Coins too shiny for the commoners and nary a kind word to the servants that tolerate them.'
'Wits as dull as their gilded blades,' Jinn muttered as Quessahn stood, tight lipped and with fists clenched. Jinn was prepared to intervene should the eladrin attempt to confront the group, but he relaxed when she turned away.
'I'll have a look around,' she said almost calmly. 'I need to stretch my legs.'
Over the laughter and dull roar of conversation, Jinn heard the bells announcing evenpeal outside, the last bells of the night. The sound was comforting to him, more acquainted as he was with the later hours, and he renewed his scrutiny of the tavern's guests. Most of those in the city with foul intentions did their work under night's cover.
Allek shook his head and rubbed his eyes. 'I feel a fool here already,' he said, pushing away from the table. 'I'll have a quick look upstairs, and we can leave soon.'
'Take your time,' Jinn replied, narrowing his gold eyes and sensing an unmistakable hush hiding among the tavern's crowd, a familiar calm that raised the hairs on the back of his neck. He absently tapped at the pommel of his sword, searching for what had caught his interest, some movement among the crowd that stood out from the rest. He added quietly, 'And be careful.'
It slid among the young and perfumed, the wealthy and foppish. A shock of dark blue traced with lightning- white lace. With bright hazel eyes, she watched him demurely over the shoulder of one oblivious patron then another as if she moved apart from them, commanding space for herself by presence alone. Long, blonde hair, strands of it framing her soft face, fell down her back as she approached, appearing between two shocked young men like a ghost. Dark crimson lips smiled, and her eyes wandered to the patterns on Jinn's cheek, down his neck where they branched between his shoulder and collarbone.
Despite her beauty, or perhaps because of it, Jinn held still, waiting for a knife to appear in her delicate hand or horns to sprout from her forehead. The woman, in one way or another, was the predator he had expected to find. She sat across from him wordlessly, her body curving in practiced motions to accentuate its many attributes.
'You are Jinnaoth,' she said matter-of-factly, leaning forward with a grin.
'And you are the third stranger in the last day claiming to know of me,' he replied, sensing a game in her sparkling eyes, a game he was determined not to play. 'I grow tired of being marked before being introduced.'
'Rilyana,' she said. 'Rilyana Saerfynn.'
'You'll be the sister, then,' he said, glancing to the disapproving glare of Callak by the bar, her brother red faced with drink and on the verge of what was likely an unseemly display of violence for the likes of the Storm's Front.
'Unfortunately,' she said, following his gaze to Callak casually. 'I hope you'll not judge me too harshly by his example.'
'It seems I am forced to think just the opposite, wondering how the brother is related to the sister at all,' Jinn said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. 'The sister that knows my name. I must also wonder what else she knows about me?'
'I have my sources. Despite its size, Sea Ward is actually quite small,' she answered, staring deep into his golden eyes, though whether her stare was challenging or an attempt at seduction, he could not be sure. 'You don't want to be here, do you?'
It seemed an innocent question, but Jinn felt the depth of it, even if such was unintended. A flash of the brilliant light from his dreams passed through his thoughts, the celestial glow of an ancient home abandoned. Though he tried to banish the image, it was strangely persistent, and he felt a slight pressure in his chest. Alarmed, he felt eyes upon him, glowering at him beneath a bushy brow from the doorway, the faint tap of Archmage Tallus's gnarled staff putting him on guard. A twist of pain wrenched his stomach, and he winced, reaching for his sword and comforted by the coolness of its grip as he glared at the wizard.
'What sources, pray tell?' he said as Tallus was covered by the crowd, lost to him near the tavern's door. A needling sensation pricked at his palms and worked slowly up toward his wrist and forearm.
'Pardon?' Rilyana asked innocently.
'Who told you about me?' he asked directly, standing as the pressure in his chest seemed to spread through his body. His mind raced, wondering what spell had hold of him. Instinct told him to draw his weapon and present it, but he resisted, confused by the sudden urge.
'Ask me nicely,' Rilyana said coyly, ignoring his discomfort and flashing gold eyes.
'What?' he managed to ask as a scream echoed from upstairs, silencing the tavern's patrons. Smoke curled along the ceiling, and raised voices warned of fire as the crowd began to swiftly disperse. The ceiling shook with some unseen struggle, and a small explosion turned the crowd's dispersal into a desperate press. Rilyana disappeared among them, and Jinn stumbled forward, searching for Tallus when he caught sight of a growing shadow on the far wall.
Heartbeat thrumming in his ears, his sword fairly leaped into his hand, some remembered battle cry teasing at his tongue, waiting for the trumpets of war. Massive, black-feathered wings took shape, hovering over the heads of the crowd and sprouting from armored shoulders. A wavering, blank visage watched him with coal black eyes that danced with the sparkling light of a thousand souls. Jinn was pulled forward, each step his own but compelled by a greater force, dragged like a lodestone to the north. A feral grin spread across his lips as the angel regarded
