The elevator opens onto hush and velvet. Rosmira stops at the room marked on the log, while Leon and Jews tense on either side of her. Ahead, the air carries perfume, blood, and one clear answer, Darath is here, and whatever follows him has already found this floor.
Rosmira
The blood smell is fresh.
A door down the hall cracks open before Rosmira can knock. Darath appears in a gray coat, calm as if he expected her. Behind him, a shadowed watcher lingers just inside the room, and Leon shifts forward at once.
Darath
You came fast. I was hoping your escort would be less obvious.
Jews
Careful. She is not alone, and neither are we.
Darath’s gaze flicks to Leon, then back to Rosmira with a thin, dangerous smile. The hallway feels too narrow for all of them, too charged for pretending this is only a warning.
Leon Wolfe
Rosmira, tell me if we are walking in or walking away.
Darath lifts one hand, not quite surrender, not quite welcome. Inside the room, a second presence shifts closer to the door, as if waiting for Rosmira’s choice to decide whose side the night takes.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure proof of Darath's alliance
“Well first jews arent you mine get your butt over here. and you daraths havent seen you since the bar.”
SUCCESS (Superb Conversation, rolled -1)
Rosmira
Come here, Jews. You are mine for the moment. And Darath, I have not seen you since the bar.
Jews
Mine, is it? That is a bold way to greet me in a hallway.
Jews
She steps in anyway, letting Rosmira claim the space with a knowing tilt of her chin.
Darath
So the bar was not your final stop. I did wonder if you would come looking.
Darath
His smile thins as his eyes flick once toward Jews, then settle back on Rosmira.
Jews closes the distance first, shoulder brushing Rosmira’s as if to prove the point. Darath remains in the doorway, but his posture gives way by a fraction, enough to read as invitation rather than blockade.
Jews
You do have a habit of collecting trouble, Rosmira. Fortunately, I am feeling generous tonight.
The room behind Darath is still, the shadowed watcher waiting while the hallway’s tension loosens into a private, dangerous kind of familiarity.
“so darath let me gone head and tell you im with leon and jews both belong to me. As far as this bloody killing spree it either stops or you get stopped.”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled -2)
Rosmira lets the silence stretch just long enough to make the doorway feel smaller. Then she states it plainly, Leon and Jews stand with her, and Darath is done hunting them.
Darath
Straight to the throat. I can respect that. For tonight, the target is not Leon.
Jews
There, that was almost civil. I was beginning to think you only knew how to loom.
Darath answers by producing a torn foil card from inside his coat and holding it where the hall light catches the name. The gesture is lazy, but unmistakable.
Darath
My ally checked in under my name, and the proof is already on the desk for anyone who knows how to read a registry.
Rosmira
Then keep the bloodshed off my people, or I stop you.
The words land cleanly. Darath's smile sharpens, and somewhere deeper in the room the watcher shifts. Rosmira's aura dampener gives a tiny, brittle click, spending the last of its steady hum to hold the moment together.
Jews
Well. That was admirably blunt. Darath, if you have anything useful, now is the time to be useful.
Quest Complete
Secure proof of Darath's alliance
Skill Upgrade: Conversation Superb→Legendary
“I ask Darath who his ally is and if he will be a problem later”
SUCCESS (Legendary Conversation, rolled +0)
Rosmira lets the question sit in the air, calm and direct. Darath’s expression shifts from amusement to something flatter, more careful.
Darath
My ally is the one who reads rooms faster than I do. The one in the hall, the watcher.
He lowers the torn foil card a fraction, like the answer costs him more than he wants to admit. Jews tilts her head, listening harder now.
Darath
They are not my enemy. They are my insurance, and lately, my warning bell.
Rosmira
Will they be a problem later?
Darath
Only if I lie to them, or if someone forces them to choose. Tonight, they chose to wait.
The hallway goes still around that admission. Leon stays close at Rosmira’s side, watching Darath’s face for the part he is not saying yet.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn whether the watcher in the hall will be a problem later
“want to explain why you had 3 watchers on my mates while we were dinning the other night.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Conversation, rolled +2)
Rosmira
Why did you have three watchers on my mates while we were dining the other night?
Darath
Because I did not trust the room, and I did not trust the people circling it. Three eyes meant I could spot the same lie from different angles.
Darath
One watched the door, one watched the staff, and one watched your table. Not to threaten you, Rosmira, to keep Leon from being cornered by someone else first.
Jews
So that is what he was doing. Annoying, yes, but not random.
Leon Wolfe
You could have just said that instead of making it feel like we were under inspection.
Darath
If I had said it plainly, the wrong person might have overheard. Tonight, I am trying to be understood instead of feared.
The confession lands cleanly. Darath keeps the torn foil card low in one hand, and the hall outside stays quiet enough to hear the softened hum of the carpet lights.
Quest Complete
Learn whether the watcher in the hall will be a problem later