I realized today the folly in keeping my report logs in my own house and I can't exactly just walk up to the Seraph Headquarters everyday and report personally to Captain Thackeray. That would be a bit too obvious for anyone watching me in the future. I know I haven't drawn any attention yet, but I will if I can manage to figure out how to do my job right. I just have to stop thinking like a seraph and start thinking like a bandit. I enlisted the aide of my lieutenant, Blodwen to help me find the right spot. It had to be somewhere easy enough for me to get to, but hard enough to reach that others wouldn't accidentally stumble upon the location. Blodwen went and found a planter for me and I immediately liked that idea. I could wrap my journal in linen and bury it in the planter. Maybe wrap it in something more waterproof. If it ever comes to it, this journal may be needed to clear my name in the future, depending on how deep in the underworld I get myself buried.
I saw a planter I liked better. One that was up high without any doors leading to it or windows. I don't want innocent civilians coming across my records anymore than I want bandits and outlaws finding them. After figuring how to get up there, I'd realized I'd been there before. I wasn't as careful back then and anyone could have seen me there, so we looked for a different place. Luckily I saw a different planter a few roof tops down.
I decided this new location was perfect. I can only get there by walking off the streets above it. There are no doors or windows leading to this balcony that are large enough for anyone to come out of. The tree seems to be growing out of groves in the stone and cracks in the pavement, so no dirt to hide my book in. There is a little arch behind the tree though, and I found a loose stone where I can hide my journals. Now, only Blodwen and myself know this place. I will probably sent work to Logan as well in case something happens to myself or Blodwen he can collect the journals in the future and clear my name. He promised he'd get there eventually. I'm half excited about this assignment It's a great opportunity to bring down the organized crime syndicates in the city, but my family thinks I'm a disgraced seraph and have brought dishonor down on my house. The only way to make it all better is to do my job the best I can now and hope it all comes to light later.
It's a good thing I have friends like Blodwen. She's been through the war with me. She knows how much I have lost and though I like to tease her for being a street rat, and she me for being born noble. . . there is no social class among the seraph, only rank. I outrank her, but we are both equal in being seraph. Though being a street rat, she doesn't have to worry about the whole dishonor-your-family side of this assignment. I made sure to remind her that she can't call me Captain anymore. Not even Captain Tightpants. But I also told her she can't call me Artie, and she refuses to call me Lord Dylane.
We went out on the bridge. The bridge is perfect because we can see anyone that is close enough to hear us. But we were not alone there and so we instead went to a bit less secure of an area, but still in The Great Collapse.
We talked about the best way to start getting our job done. We've been on this assignment for a week or so now and haven't gotten anything done. I realize I have to get busy or get fired for real. I know how fickle the other nobles are. If I don't secede at this assignment, I might as well really have been disgraced, fore that is all they'll remember. My good deeds now have to outshine my fake bad deeds.
Blodwen suggested we find a tavern. Well first I told her to go pick a pocket and she rushed off to do that, but I had to call her back. We can't do our jobs from behind bars. We first went to the large inn in the Ossan Quarter, but nothing much was happening there. So we decided to take a tour of the bars and headed over to The Busted Flagon. We stood and listened, but didn't overheard any shady type of talk. Finally I just had to ask. If I were a bandit type person looking for work, who would I see about that? No one answered.
I was about to leave to go back to Maiden's Whisper to ask there, when I saw this pretty Sylvari. I've never really noticed a Sylvari woman before, but something about her caught my attention. It might have been the red. I love a lady in red.
She loved Mr. Fluffins. I had to tell her how we were in the war and he's fought centaurs. She asked if he had no fear, and I said he did not. He was battle born after all. He was born and raised fighting centaur. I won't go into great detail any flirting I might have done, but I did realize later that to keep my cover I might need to stop bragging about being a seraph. It'll be hard to curb my pride in my nation and the other seraph. Well, the good ones. My company seemed to have a lot of the bad ones, which is why we were picked for this job. Well, those of us not actually disgraced and sent to jail. Also there were a few selected to be cleared and transferred. We couldn't all be bad, that'd been to obvious.
Sylvari are curious people and ask many questions so I thought maybe she'd know some criminals. I asked her, but she did not. And she seemed suddenly less interested in me as well. That's another side affect I hadn't thought of. The type of women I like aren't going to like me if they think I'm a dirty scoundrel.
At the Maiden's Whisper, there was again a very sparse crowd downstairs. I asked again if anyone knew where I could find crime work, but no one answered. It might not help that I've run around this tavern going on about being a seraph before. Maybe they haven't heard the news yet? I went upstairs and there seemed to be some shady people standing there. I asked them but they didn't know either. Looking back they were in colors like the Order of Whispers weren't they? Maybe they weren't the right people to ask.
I was too distracted by the manner of the clothing the woman was wearing to pay attention to the colors they were in. The pants showed she was a serious type of girl, but that top was totally brothel house wear. Not to mention it's complete lack of support. She'll regret that when she gets older. . . or so my wife used to tell me.
Back outside I hoped behind the fruit booth before Blodwen could to turn her joke on her. Mr. Fluffins stole the show and the joke by putting himself up for sale. We may seem like goofs to many people, but if you knew what we'd been through with our company and it's fall and the death of my wife. . . there's a lot solemn there, a bit of lighthearted antics are needed to keep us sane and going. To keep us hopeful in these dark times.
We went to the jail to see if there was anyone imprisoned that we could ask about crime. There was not. I told Blodwen that if she'd picked a pocket they'd have put her in the little hole in the wall cell. The one that's only big enough for her to lay, not even sit up in. She asked if I had made her a reservation and then told me it was thoughtful when I said I had. Really, Logan as told us that if we're caught without anything good to show to get us out, he may not be able to help us. We have to get our job done to clear our names. Though I'm sure if we stop now we could clear them. I don't intend to stop however. I intend to clean up the city from within the underground.
We stopped by to see my mother, but she wasn't there. So instead I walked out on the glass dome and told Blodwen to wait right there. She's such a good little solider that she did exactly as I told her to as I ran down the stairs and under the glass. She pretended to be angry when she realized, but I know she thought it was funny. More of that lighthearted antics to keep us going. Besides it was too far for me to see anything.
We decided to go roof hopping again. We do this a lot to make ourselves look shady to anyone that might see us, to see if any one that really is shady is up there doing so, and to learn the in and outs of the city that most don't think about. I hadn't told her, but I had set up fake house front. I had to have help of course. Such a permanent illusion isn't easy to pull off. I used a couple of friends I had that are priests of Lyssa. I almost joined them once, before I was a seraph. The only way to Illusion House is across some roof tops and down the back, then in the back door. It'd been nice if the door to the illusion could have worked, but that'd taken a bigger illusion and not something we could have pulled off. It was either door, or no door, so the door is in the back. Since the house is an illusion we can't hang a door on the frame, it's just open. The oddest part of course is that the visual of the illusion is only on the outside. From the inside we can see through the fake walls. Once inside the only way out is by those neat little Asuran devices that instantly travel you to an Asuran waypoint.
Now we have our meeting house where we can go to speak business with our other seraph, relax, and report, or in my case, receive reports. With the business side out of the way I decided to give Blodwen a bit of a treat. She loves chickens and there is a villager down at Fort Salma that signs a song about chickens. I took Blodwen there so she could hear the song and she did indeed love it. Then we went swimming. Besides chickens, she also loves quagaan so I showed her a quaggan village near Fort Salma. Of course I pretend I was just heading in that direction and it was all an accident I don't want her thinking. . .well it just seems improper for me to take too much notice in what she likes and go too far out of my way to provide it. I suppose it could keep morale up though and thus keep her doing her job well. These days her job is mostly watching my back, so I'd like her to do that well.
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