Grancourt Family/Secret Society of Da Way

(This page will be added to and probably rejuggled when there is more txt, for now enjoy the story! - There's a RP from the player of Karandras that will run alongside these RPs and hopefully we'll get them up somewhere too)

Assailants in the Dark

It hadn’t been a good night.

In fact, it hadn’t been a good last few nights. Now he came to think about it, it hadn’t really been a very good couple of months.

For the first time in a long while, Laurie had the chance to reflect on the past and not have to worry about whether the guards were going to torture him tonight, or if he would get caught having a picnic with some local vagrants in the local hay barn and “accidentally” setting fire to the whole stock, only to find out the vagrants weren’t vagrants at all, but policemen who knew all about Laurie.

It seems things had turned pretty sour for him since he turned to the shadows. He couldn’t quite shake the feeling that some higher power had it in for him. His “Lady Luck” seemed to want him to fail recently and more and more he felt he was being stitched up whenever he went about his “business” – always getting caught before he’d even walked into the place. At least, in Atamara this seemed true.

While he thought about the brief but fun time he had after disembarking in a foreign island somewhere, he remembered how it had been to have nobody know your name. It had been rather lonely really, but at least he didn’t look suspicious. Perhaps over here it was just a case that everybody knew his face…especially all the local girls (not that he complained!).

As he brought his mind back to the present, he realised the bath water had turned cold and the palms of his hands had gone all wrinkly. He never could understand why the skin on the palm of your hand and the sole of your foot was lighter than that of the rest of your body, but then again, he usually had better things to worry about – like how to escape a locked cell with no window and 4 guards stood outside the door. He was quick with his tongue, but not THAT quick.

Jumping out of the tub, and sloshed the water everywhere (who cares? They have people to clean it up anyway, gives them something to do) he reached for the warm towels and dried himself off. He liked his little retreat. Warm and cosy, and the landlady and her husband always seemed to know when he would arrive. They’d be there waiting for him, with a warm bath and some hot soup no matter what hour of the night he turned up. Obviously, he also enjoyed the fact that the couple had their 3 lovely daughters working for them around the house, handing him warm towels for instance (and pretending to hide their eyes behind their hands as he got changed for his nightly “business”).

He always took a bath before a “night on the town”. Apart from making him clean and less likely to be noticed by his odour, it also relaxed the mind, gave a man time to think, time to breathe, time to relax. As he thanked Jelana, the youngest daughter for handing him his clothes he heard light giggles coming from behind the door and light footsteps heading away into separate rooms. He knew the game they wanted to play, but tonight was different. Tonight he had a mission!

Silently closing the door behind him, he heard the faint click on the latch as he dropped it quietly into place. Once out on the street his senses heightened. His long, hard days of training had at least been of some use. His hearing was acute, being able to pick up some of the tiniest out of place sounds in amongst the usual noises of the night. Quickly slipping around the side of the house, making sure nobody had seen him, he let his eyes become accustomed to the dark of the shadows. This was how it always had to be. Become one with your surroundings and the wont betray you. Become one with the night and you can use it to your advantage. He had been trailing a certain group of people for the last few days. He hadn’t made any sort of a move yet as he was unsure of just exactly how many there were, and whether they would notice if a few of their friends went “missing” for good…

Gradually his eyes became used to the darkness, and he carried out his usual checks. Despite being able to think on his feet, he always felt it better to be safe than sorry (not that it seemed to be paying off recently!). Rolling up his long black trousers he fixes the small silver dagger his mother gave to him as a wedding present to his calf, hidden underneath the small hard leather sheath. Standing up straight, and letting his trouser-leg fall back to cover his ankles, he centred his belt (also black) and felt the cold hand steel of the throwing stars tucked in small pouches behind the fabric. They were a relatively new weapon to Laurie, but he had always had a good eye and arm with the bow, and you could throw two of these much faster than you could fire two arrows. They were also rather silent, which was a plus. Finally he swung his small quiver around his back, shouldered his light bow and set out.

The night had grown quiet around him. It was now way past midnight and most of the taverns had already emptied. He knew of a few places that stayed open in Sullenport longer than most, and he also knew that the trouble was usually over in that end of town. The Carelians were very pre-occupied with maintaining public order and trying to win over the peasants right now, and much of the force was being taken away from policework. He had taken it upon himself to do something about that, and as he stepped lightly, making almost no sound, across the cobbled backstreets of Sullenport he listened to the sounds of the night.

Passing under a slightly open window, he saw the flicker of light from a bed-lamp silhouette two figures embraced in love. There it was again, that lonely feeling…shaking his head he refocused his thoughts. He could hear the sounds of their lovemaking, hear their whispers, almost feel the emotions in that room. “STOP IT LAURIE” he said to himself.

He had paused under that window for maybe 10 seconds at the longest, but in that short time a new sound accompanied the couple in their love-nest. Soft footsteps, but swiftly getting louder could be heard running down the mainstreet. Laurie backed himself against the wall, now directly under the overhanging window and waited for the person to run past. As he listened carefully he could tell the footsteps were likely those of a female. The gait suggested a certain amount of hip swishing, and he wondered why a girl would be out on her own at this time of night.

Just as he was about to reveal himself to the would be lucky female and slap on the charm, he quickly forgot that thought as he was astonished by a figure leap from the roof of the house he was hiding by onto the next one in the street. The figure seemed to be wearing some sort of flowing skirt, but was definitely that of a man. Understanding quickly who this could be, he broke away from the house and began to run along the backstreet parallel to the mainstreet, placing the rooftop figure between him and the girl. While he ran he saw ahead a movement in the dark under the archway. Quickly darting behind a broken down cart he paused to watch the figure under the archway slip quietly around the back just as the girl’s footsteps reached the main door to the temple.

“Two-on-one?! That’s not fair” he thought to himself as he watched the rooftop figure land in front of the girl and the second figure move out from the shadows to join him. Suddenly his attention was drawn to a bold red sash tied around the shoulder of the ambushed girl, noticed her long brown hair and suddenly something twigged…“Kari!” he gasped softly and quickly made his way towards the group, now stood at the foot of the stairs. Running to catch up in time, he watched as first the man, then the second attacker who appeared to be a woman carrying a double-ended sword made attack after attack at the girl. Laurie heard the clash of blades as he got closer and saw Kari defending as best she could with a small dagger, rolling out of the way, but being pulled back by the strong man. Suddenly he launched her a good few feet into the air, and as she landed awkwardly he saw the woman with the double-ended sword charging towards Kari, helpless on the ground.

As he put on a sharp burst of speed, forgetting all pretence of being quiet now his hand reached into his belt and pulled out two stars. Quickly launching one towards the man, not really aiming properly he threw the other one with a lot of force at the advancing woman, sword held above her head, about to strike…

…the star missed Kari by inches, but also missed the advancing woman. However, startled by the sudden flash of silver passing close to her head the woman hesitated for a fraction of a second, giving Laurie all the time he needed to rush past Kari and dive into the woman. Quickly snapping his hand out he took hold of her sword, and gripping tightly, with his leg swinging neatly behind her calves he tripped the woman and took her weapon.

As he righted himself he saw the man, just as stunned as the woman, pull a throwing star out of his shoe and begin to get to his feet. Laurie swung the double-sword around and pointed it at the woman on the floor. Hearing Karandras roll over onto the floor he raised the weapon and let the woman stand, but made sure to place himself between the two assailants and the girl.

As the woman got to her feet, he addressed them: “Sinistra, Dextera”, he nodded formally to each in turn, “nice to see you both again”