Day 2, Winter, 515 AV
Persa contemplates the informations of the victim, mostly repeating them so she doesnt forget them. She takes a deep breath as she thinks of every step she has to make, mainly how to approach him. She has all the day ahead of her to think and re think what is the best way to act.
As the sun slowly begins to set and the temperature falls even more, the mild weather of the midday change to a more cold climate in the evening. Having regained her confidence, she steps out of her house in the search of the person Kaharat mentions, deternined to steal this contract. By using the map the guards gave her in the gate, she searches for the house, which was thankfully close to her house. Her legs shivers from the cold weather, the shirt and her long purple tunic not being enough to stop the cold from surpassing the clothe and into her body. Her lips are shaking as well. She swears to herself that the next day she is going to buy something heavier to wear.
The victim's house does look better and more decent than her's, although not too much. From the outside, it is consisted of two small windows, both in the right of the door. Persa is standing across the street, trying to figure out if he is inside his house, although she cant spot any moving figure through the wfindows. She tries to look better at the house, but a woman staring at a house for too long would definitely draw the attention of someone. And it did draw the attention of a guard, who came up to Persa for explanations. "Are you.. looking for something lady?" His presence and voice scared Persa, who was busy trying to look through the house's window. "Um.. no thanks" she says to the guard although he finds it hard to believe her "I believe you are looking for something." he turns his head to the house Persa was observing at "Do you seek the person who lives in this house?Do you know Rohebak?"
Persa then realizes that by pretending to be a relative of Rohebak she may find a way out "Oh yes, i know Rohebak. Although no, he is not really a relative, only a friend that i havent heard of from a long time. Is he..in?" The guard did not anwser, instead, he remained quiet, looking at Persa. He seems like he is calculating something on his mind, before finally speaking "Did you say.. you are a friend of Rohebak? Are you.. sure?" He leans his head backwards to take a good look of Persa's body "And you look very young. You dont look like the type of person Rohebak would be dealing with nor befriend. So i ask again, why are you looking at this house?" this last phase comes out of the guard's mouth more as a demand for an anwser.
Persa feels cornered by the guard's aggressive stance knowing that if she doesnt give a proper anwser the guard would think that she is spying on someone. She then decides to take a flirty approach. She turns her body, facing the guard, she looks at his eyes, and she slowly places her hands on the guard's chest, caressing it as she speaks in a low-pitched voice, as sensual as she can. "Okay, there is something i wanted to hide from you. I am friend of Rohebak, although.. not the kind of friend you had in mind. I have, well.. being paid a lot of times from Mister Rohebak, to pleasure his more, intimate needs" The guard suddenly burst out laughing! "Ha ha ha ha, so you are one of his whores? Good old Rohebak, no matter how old he gets he is still into that kind of game. Alright, Rohebak is not in his house though. He is in the Kulkukan Tavern i think. Have a nice..night" The guard says and he leave. Persa takes out her map again as she examines it to find where this tavern is. Then Persa goes to the Kulkulan tavern and Inn which is a little bit far. That gives her the opportunity to familiarize herself her with the city more. Entering the third tier of the city on her way to the Kulkulan tavern she can see men carrying large packs and baskets of what seems to be food and drinks from the Riverfall port directly to the Kulkulan tavern. It seems that the inn get its food supplies from sea trading.
After pushing the door to get in, she notices that the inn is overcrowded with people. It must be the most popular place in Riverfall. That would make her mission even more difficult, because first she needs to spot Rohebak. "He is old.. grey haired.. big nose.. wide mouth...." she recalls the information given by Kaharat. She looks at the inn client's as much dicsreetly as she can, with a smile in her face, to show her good intentions and trying to avoid eye contact. After 2 or 3 minutes she spots Rohebak sitting in a table, alone. He seems pretty happy, enjoying the environment around him. Persa feels that he is the kind of person who enjoys being surrounded by people without the annoyance of having them as friends. Then she tries to evaluate the worth of his clothes. A black chaperone hat that is placed on the chair near him, a dark green sleeved cotte and a simple hose. "Not really worth of my time but i have to do this.." she mumbles as she spots a table that is within his range of vision. She takes a seat in this table, adjusting her body in a way that is totally visible to Rohebak who is sitting across her. She waits until he gives her a mere look, then Persa smiles at him, then she turns away and she humbly lowers her head still smiling, showing him a sign of affection and shyness. She repeats the same tactic again, signalizing to him that he charmed her but she is too shy and/or humble to go directly to him. This is a tactic Persa had employed again in the past, a tactic that involves making the man feel wanted, raising his self confidence so he makes the first move. Over more, Persa decided not to go straight to Rohebak, because some men are alarmed or afraid of such dynamic and straightforward women.
"A true huntress will deceive her prey to believe he is the hunter and she is the hunted. You make the victim to want to visit your lair. If you abandon your lair to hunt down the victim, you are not a huntress at all"
Persa recalled some of her mother's teachings. But Persa wasnt her mother, that means she doesnt have her seducing abillities, and of course Rohebak wasnt willing to stand up and come to Persa's table. He did however, beckon to Persa to come and take a seat at his table. And she did just that.
"Hello. I am Rohebak. And what is your name?" He says with an overconfident look, looking Persa straight at her eyes
"My name is.. Salvia." She smiles as she lowers her head again, avoiding eye contact with the man. She lied to the Man so she can hide her intendity in case anything go wrong. Besides If she manages to steal the contract, the first person he is going to suspect is Persa.
"Okay Salvia, its a pleasure to meet you, would you like me to buy you a drink? Dont be shy, im very generous to girls like you.. always happy to be accompanied by such a beautiful pair of eyes" He raises his glass to drink his ale.
"Thank you for the compliment. I believe those eyes made the right choice to join such a polite, courteous and generous man."
The rest of the conversation didnt unfolded as Persa planned, however, because Rohebak grew tired of the small talk and wanted to cut to the chase. Persa couldnt avoid it, as Rohebak insisted again and again that it was time to leave the inn and go to his place. Persa didnt claim otherwise, as she had already another plain in her mind.
To the way back to his home, he talked a lot about how successful he was in the past, his days trading in jewellery and the countless number of affairs he had with women. Upon entering his house, Persa first thing was to carefully examine the house and the furniture, considering the possible locations of the contract. The house was small, one level, so it wouldnt require a lot of searching. To the left there was a big closet, next to the closet was a small cupboard, and next to it an even smaller sideboard. To the right of the house, there are some paintings in the walls, and some miscellaneous items, like brooms, some baskets containing fruits, and a rusty, unusable desk.
"This is my home. It reflects my failure on keeping up my businesses, im afraid. Not the way of life i ve used to nor what i had in mind. Twenty years ago, when i was in Sylira, i had more than 3 houses in my possession. And now, this."
Rohebak definitely sounds desperate on how things turned out for his life, although Persa doesnt feel nor she can afford feeling any sympathy and remorse for this person. "May i visit your bedroom. You know, i have a thing for.. bedrooms" she says in a flirtatious manner. The bedroom is plain too. One big bed and two small cupboards on the right and the left of the bed, and a wooden bookstand on the left wall. She quickly opens the drawers of one of the cupboards, finding only a book and a quill. She hears footsteps so she doesnt have the time to check on the next cupboard. "Salvia do you like the bedroom? Well save it for later, now I have prepared something for you. Follow me" He goes back to the main room where he gives her a glass of wine.
"Its a fine wine coming from Sylira. Go on, taste it" Persa takes a sip while approaching him. "Thank you. You are very hospitable and friendly. You shoulnt worry about your job and your past..for now you may not be so much wealthy and successful like the old days, but you have me. And thats all that matters.." she takes the glass of wine from his hand and put both glasses on the rusty table. She then takes his hands and slowly leads him to the bedroom. "Here, rest in the bed, get undressed. I am going to bring some grapes. I love grapes" She leaves the bedroom, but instead of going to the icebox to find fresh grapes she immediately start searching through the cupboard for the contract. She rejects the closet because its would not make sense to store it in there. She tries not to make too much noise when opening and closing the drawers.She finds nothing except some plates, forks, spoons, cups but nothing of interest. "What is taking so long? Do you need help?" Rohebak asks, only to be assured by Persa that she will be back. "No, i just found the grapes, i am coming" She then procceed to the sideboard where she finds a yellowish paper with a big stamp on it. It must be the contract she has been looking for. She grabs it and store it into her pouch. She opens the door, and leave the house with a fast paced walk, occassionally looking behind her to see if he is after her or if she has drawed the attention, before safely reaching her house. |
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