[Solo] Conduct Unbecoming

[Cardon Ludocus]

12th Day of Autumn, 515 AV Continued from "Back in the Saddle" Cardon pulled his cloak tightly around his arms as the sun crested over the walls of the Mithryn Outpost, the long shadows of morning stretched over the dirty streets. Clods of dirt lay in piles and impacted into corners, hay scattered along the horseways and packed down with dung. He could see his breath float into small gentle clouds in the biting chill of the autumn morning, the wisps of white enough to distract him from the cold as he waited outside of Toppe’s Traipsing. He’d spent what time he’d not used to sleep last night pondering the best ways to catch this thief of secrets and only a few options had availed themselves to him. He didn’t have much to go on, other than a time of day and the sandy color of the boys hair. With the diversity of Syliras and the Mithryn Outpost, there were far too many suspects for that to narrow it down. What he had to do was catch him in the act. Perhaps if he could get a look at his face, find a significant key feature about him, he could be identified. If he could be shadowed back to wherever he lived, all the better, but first things came first. He needed to talk to his client, maybe she would have something that could help him. He breathed into his cupped hands under his robes, trying to warm them from the chill and wishing he’d thought to wear his gloves before leaving the house this morning. He glanced down the street in each direction, hoping to see the young redhead, no matter how much she terrified him. Even with the melting pot of Syliras and the surrounding lands the home of the Inarta people was far away, and her family was the only one he knew of in the Outpost. Just as he’d made up his mind to head home to retrieve his gloves, he spotted her trailing behind Valerie Toppe, her mentor and owner of the shop at which she made her earnings. The Mistress wore long dark grey full-cloak that hid most of her form from view, save for her tall leather boots fastened with simple steel buckles. Odessa, beside her, sported a teal ¾-cloak, showing off a fitted white blouse with delicate lace at the fringes and dark brown riding pants tucked into boots styled in a similar fashion to her mistress. Both of their eyes met his at the same time, Valerie’s smooth features sliding into a soft smile as they approached him, while Odessa’s face remained entirely unchanging. Swallowing his anxiety, Cardon pushed away from the wall to meet them at the door.

[Cardon Ludocus]

“Good morning, Cardon!” Valerie said cheerfully, pushing one side of her cloak over her shoulder to expose a sky blue blouse in a similar style to Odessa’s, with a matching skirt that flowed down to the middle of her shins. She wore fur-lined mittens that made him acutely jealous, and he quietly wondered what that sort of thing would cost him. “G’morning, Mrs. Toppe, Odessa.” He said, bobbing a short bow to each of them in turn. “Chill in the air is coming back.” “True enough,” she said with a smile. “Is that what brings you here? Warm clothes for the coming cold?” “Hmmmm, well,” he pondered as she unlocked the door to her shop. “H-how much would a pair of fitted, fur-lined leather gloves cost?” “Depends on the type of the fur.” She stepped inside, closing the door behind the trio as Odessa scurried off to start a fire in the hearth. “Stranger the fur, higher the price.” He shook his head, pulling his hood down from around his ears. “Nothing too maddening. Rabbit, perhaps? That shouldn’t be too hard to find… Failing that, deer I imagine.” She smiled, quickly doing a set of figures in her head. “T’would run you no more and no less than six gold mizas. If I put you down for it now there’d only be a few ahead of you. Could finish them before weeks end. The orders for warm clothes haven’t started piling up just yet, and I could use a distraction while I wait.” Cardon paled at the price, swallowing nervously as he began pacing the entryway. “That, uh, may be a little more than what I have available. Perhaps making them of some sort of wool?” “Not going to want anything worse than medium wool for that, so… that would come out to nine Silver Mizas.” Cardon looked away, trying not to look too embarrassed as he spoke. “A-actually, I’ve only got six Silver and eight… I have gloves at home, so if there’s nothing for that price I’ll make do. But I just keep hearing this winter intends to be brutal, and I want to be ready, you know?” Even now, looking out the windows of the shop he could see frost on the ground, clinging to the stray pieces of hay scattered around. “Hmmm…” she pondered aloud. “I have a pair of wool mittens I’ve used for the past few years. They’re in excellent repair, if a bit worn in. And they’re made for a woman… but you’ve always had oddly slender hands, so they might fit you. I could sell them to you for 6 Silver and 7 if you could spare it.” A smile blossomed on his face and he turned back around to approach the counter as she busied herself looking through drawers. “E-excellent! That would be wonderful. Do you have them here?” “Somewhere…” she muttered, nearly to herself. “It may take me a short while to find them, if you don’t mind waiting.” “Of course not,” he said, new cheer in his voice. “Actually, I was wondering if I could speak with your apprentice for a short while. Perhaps now would be the best time?” Just then the hearth crackled to life, warmth slowly emanating throughout the room as the redhead stowed the flint and steel in a nearby drawer. “Fire’s ready. I’ll only be a moment, Mistress Toppe.” Valerie mocked a sigh, the corner of her lips twitching upwards as she continued rifling through her catalogued goods. “Very well, very well, but don’t be long. We open soon and you have seams to sew.” Odessa nodded her consent before pushing the door open and leading Cardon out into the chill of the morning.

[Cardon Ludocus]

Cardon shivered as the cold air hit him, looking over his shoulder as Odessa closed the door behind her before motioning towards the alley between this building and the next. She nodded her consent and trailed him, their footsteps crunching in the lightly frosted straw that paved the path. The alcove wasn’t much in any sense of the word. Short and narrow, with walls that looked like the woodworker was in a terrible mood as he crafted them. Even the packed earth that made up the floor was pitted and covered in sharp stones, but it was private, which is more than they could say for the interior of any of the nearby buildings. He turned to her, leaning against one of the crooked, splintering walls, his slowly freezing ears tempting him to pull up his hood once more. She crossed her arms over her chest, her face unreadable save for perhaps the look of general irritation at everyone and everything she always wore. “What’s this about?” she asked, looking left and right down the open streets before returning her attention to him. “Have you found something?” Cardon smiled a small, demure smile. “I have a lead, but to follow it I need your cooperation.” Her eyes flashed first with satisfaction, then determination, the only sign his words had affected her at all. “What do I have to do?” she asked flatly. “I-” Cardon stopped himself, glancing down at his feet. He had to ask her for permission to enter her home, likely with key in hand, perhaps the only key she owned on an apprentice's salary. And with how her privacy was being invaded already, he was unsure how she’d react if he pushed the issue. She sensed his hesitation and her eyes turned steely, staring him down like a wolf on a rabbit. “What is it?” she said coldly, and in such a way that it sounded more like a demand than a question. Cardon sucked chilly dawn air between his teeth, feeling the cold bite at his gums and, a moment later, his lungs hoping in vain that the cold would help harden him against such an intimidating conversational partner. Unpleasant things were difficult enough to say to the kind flower girl at the market every tenday without that hard, menacing glare upon him. He stuttered before laughing nervously at himself, pawing at the words in his mind until they flooded from his lips in a rush, like the breaking of a dam after the spring melts the mountain snow. “W-well I was talking to some people who live and work near you, and they say they saw a blonde fellow skulking around your place ‘round midday, and that he was the only one out of the ordinary around there. Now you said this’s been happening fairly often, so I’m guessing that if he was there the last couple of days he might come today, too, right? “And so I thought that maybe the best way to catch him was to wait for him there, and maybe get a look at him while he’s doing it, see? B-but for that I’d need permission from you to go into your house a-and wait for him. I mean, I could do it from outside, if you wanted, but I stand a better chance of figuring out who he is if I can wait inside.” He paused, and she stared him, her gaze boring into him as he swallowed nervously. “So...uhhh...what do you think?” She just looked at him for a long while, almost passively, as if she were caught in her own mind. Cardon shifted from foot to foot, his steps crunching beneath him in an awkward attempt to fill the silence. When she finally spoke he nearly jumped out of his skin. “You,” she said, her hands sliding beneath her cloak as she looked down into it, “are as jumpy as a rabbit after a full pot of coffee.” She extended her arm to him, holding a simple iron key in the palm of her hand. “You really need to stop that if I’m going to continue to associate with you. People are going to think I beat you or something.”