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Raullaur	Raullaur makes his way to the house that Bright and Silk share--and he was a guest at for a while--dressed in his standard cream-colored leather and white silks, daiklaive across his back and sheathed. When he arrives, carrying a scroll case in his right hand, he rings the bell at the front and then waits patiently--save for the tip of his tial lashing back and fort in irritaiton.
Bright Journey	Bright and Silk share quite a place indeed...a mansion within the central Temple District. It's a decent sized, if not the largest such place in Great Forks, but it's conveniently located and quite the nice place indeed. The mansion door opens, and standing there is a young, mousy but pretty brown-haired girl in a maid's skirt and apron. She offers a polite, if perfunctory smile as she looks up (and up...and up!) at Raullaur. "Ah! Milord. Please forgive me, but I was not told to expect you. Did you have an appointment?"
Raullaur	The lion-man shakes his head. "No appointment. I hope that either Silk Moon Lotus or Bright Journey are in. If either of them are, will you please tell them Raullaur is calling?" Warm, friendly enough and he smiles (not with /too/ much fang) back at the young gir.
Bright Journey	The young lady looks thoughtful for a moment, debating. "Hm. I'm not sure if either are available, but by all means, come in and make yourself at home in the sitting room. I can have tea ready for you in a few minutes while one of us sees if they are available. Come in." She leads Raullaur to the very familiar sitting room. Of course, there are no refreshments set out today, but it's a nice enough room anyway. The sound of the front door seems to have attracted at least one other maid, this one more woman than girl, who good-naturedly shoos the girl off upstairs while she bustles off to the kitchen. There's drinks available in the sitting room in only a touch over five minutes, and only a minute or two after that, Bright Journey appears in the doorway. She's wearing a short dress as usual, her long pink hair pulled back casually and her armor elsewhere (or is it Elsewhere?) for the moment. "So! How are you doing, Raullaur? The streets aren't -too- crazy now, I hope."
Raullaur	Raullaur laughs a bit. "I enjoyed the festival," he says with amusement. "And got to talk more with people after it--I hope you don't mind Amethyst and I sparred in your training room? A lot of sound and fury, but...couldn't touch each other at all." "Anyhow, I came here because I was given this...and none of us can /read/ the thing at all, and so I hoped you could tell me what's going on with it." He sets the scroll case on the table.
Bright Journey	Bright chuckles and gives Raullaur the sidelong glance he deserves. "Heh. I bet you did! Mind you, it's not that special...there's festivals all the time, one way or another. But so long as you're careful and respect the sanctity of the place...and, well, don't just waltz in, I mean. Silk has rules for that kind of thing, I'm sure. But...hm. Okay. Unroll it here on the table and maybe it's at least in a language I recog...nize..." Bright's voice peters off as she considers the scroll, frowning.
Raullaur	"We were careful, and made sure things were cleaned afterwards," Raul says, and opens the casee, taking teh scroll out with characters writtenin deep black ink that flows over vellum. The scroll is in Old Realm, stating: Greetings to the Warlord of Lions! To the Sun's Chosen! To Raullaur, Commander of the Lion's Pride. The skill of your Company is white evident, and has even reached Our august ears, so that we wish to bestow on you the honor of a commission. Outside the illustious city there is a group of bandits well-armed and inhabiting a First Age dwelling. They have caused us great Insult and Offense by attacking Our People going about their Lawful and Proper Business. Therefore We say! Go, go to destroy them. Secure their base and dwell within it, you and yours, to make us safer. Take all of their possessions as your rightful tribute! And then return to Us once you are successful that We may further express Our pleasure. The signature is illegible.
Bright Journey	Bright frowns to herself, tongue tucked in one corner of her mouth as she looks the scroll over. She glances up at Raullaur and gestures to the pictograms carefully inked on the parchment. "Old Realm," she simply says. "A fantastic way to show off trememdously...and make sure a lot of the people in this town won't understand. A few will, though, especially the gods. I wouldn't pick it as a 'secret code' or anything. It's a real pain to translate, though. Let's see..." Bright looks up and waves over the first maid from earlier. "Dear, do you think you could get me..." Her voice trails off as the maid hands off parchment, ink, and quill. Her manners and bearing are correct, but that tiny hint of pleasure at shutting Bright up mid-ask is undeniable. Bright chuckles good-naturedly and accepts the writing materials, then bends over the table and gets to work. It's slow going. Bright natters on as she considers the symbols, explaining their meanings...and their meanings' meanings...and how those meanings change when next to those other pictograms...and the idioms that mean completely different things... Yeah. Old Realm is a pain in the ass, clearly.
Raullaur	Raullaur looks at the markings, and then the letters, going back and forth between two equally incomprehensable sets of markings. Still, he waits and patiently, while sipping a strong wine. And his tail flicks back and forth more, the only visible evidence of his frustration.
Bright Journey	Granted, Bright has no idea whatever that Raullaur can't read Low Realm. But it's pretty obvious she catches onto his mood. She glances up with a little grin in between symbols, flips her hair behind her, and looks up at him. "Hey, relax. Old Realm really isn't something that can be rushed, or I might misread it as an invitation to moon the Emissary of Nexus or some godsdamned thing." Eventually, she finishes the translation to Low Realm and reads the first line with a flourish. "Greetings to the Warlord of Lions! ...Wait, I thought you were the only...eh, nevermind. Greetings to the Sun's Chosen!" Bright eyes Raullaur over the top of her parchment. "Whoever this is obviously saw the daiklave. You know if they did, the Wyld Hunt will eventually."
Raullaur	Raullaur nods and chuckles a bit, "Well, if it is that, at least I look good with my pants off. Maybe the Emissary would be flattered?" And he listens, and hmmms. "Polite, at least. Sounds like the sort of thing a Herald would say before offering a gift or a challenge."
Bright Journey	Bright chuckles again, but shakes her head a bit. "I mean...we joke, and I'm fine with it but in all seriousness don't screw around with any of the leadership in Nexus. People die that way, y'know? "Anyway..." Bright pauses for a moment for dramatic effect, then reads the rest of the first paragraph out loud. She then shrugs and hands Raullaur the translation. "Eh. I'm your scribe, not your herald, apparently. Here you go."
Raullaur	Raullaur looks at the markings. "Ok. But what does it say? I only listen! These marks mean /nothing/! Words, spoken, given sound by living breath, those I understand. Markings, dead, on a flat surface I do not understand." He shakes his head and sighs. "Sorry. I won't actually do anything to the city leadership."
Bright Journey	Bright blinks, and then actually manages to look sheepish for a bit. "...Oh. Sorry about that. I didn't even think about it, but obviously I should have. Still...not a bad idea for you to learn eventually. Don't feel bad about the Old Realm thing, though. That's not worth learning for most people." t At this point, Bright stands up, translation in hand, and reads it out loud, complete with theatrical flourishes and trilling R's. It's easy with the flowery language, though!
Raullaur	Raullaur listens and then leans back and thinks. "This 'We' thing....sounds like it's the city, but..." He frowns. "THe bandits in a First Age dwelling. Something's not right there. I can have scouts go to look around, and see what's happening." He flicks his tail slowly and then looks back at Bright Journey. "I don't like having contracts where I don't know exactly what's going on."
Bright Journey	Bright can only nod in reply, looking at the translated text with purpose behind her eyes. She looks up at Raullaur again after a moment. "Just the fact that they don't state outright who they are is...honestly? It's absurd. It's...well, even assuming only the right people can translate this--and there's not a whole lot of people who could--nothing in here at all says who wrote this. It's just...I don't know. Trying to pull at your pride, I guess. Whoever it is doesn't think much of your intelligence. It's hard for me to believe the city would use Old Realm, or not just -send a herald-. I mean, why not, if they're bandits? If the letter is honest there's nothing wrong with going there. Of course it isn't."
Raullaur	"So something's wrong, and this is either a trap, or I'm being used as...what's the term? A cat's-paw?" Raullaur chuckles and flexes the claws out of his fingerpads a moment before letting them retract. He chuckles. "I wonder who's behind this, and what they want..." He ponders a moment, "Do you think it could be the City just acting so out of character no-one would think it was actually them?"
Bright Journey	Bright just shrugs, palms up. "Look, put it this way. I'm a lot better at reading -people- than words. Saying who exactly sent this and why is a little bit of experience and a whole lot of guesswork, so I kind of don't want to go further with that. I think you're best off going there...but expecting an ambush and keeping an open mind. Maybe check them out before charging in, and not assuming they're who you should be fighting." Bright picks up the scroll and the translation and hands them both to Raullaur. "No matter what you do, be careful. Someone knows who--and what--you are. If they wanted to draw you somewhere they think they have the advantage there. Be careful."