Rendezvous

[Dianelopa]

"I remember now," said Dianelopa. "You're right, Benjamin wanted them to have food. I was to tell you that. A nice dinner for them. There were two of them, a man and a woman. They went to get a massage and they're coming here afterwards. I don't know what they want and I don't think they are trustworthy. I am also hungry, and I would like to have food as well. But..Benjamin wanted me to go up to that massage place after I told you this." She paused and looked at Puck who was listening attentively.
"Thad. He had nothing to do with them. He's a thief. He comes here to rob boats cause it's dark here. He didn't see me go in here. I waited til he was gone. I know he was gone. I can hear very well. I told him to go away. That's all." She sighed, felt her stomach rumbling, frowned and then added a bit despondently. "I guess I have to go."
Dianelopa got up, walked slowly to the door and then made her way toward the building with the orange stained lamp.

[Anja]

Puck took some time to consider her words, and as she was leaving, he put up his hand. "Wait just a minute, dear. If these dinner guests are of the "acquaintance" sort, rather than of the "friend" sort, I'm going to need your help in making sure the meeting goes smoothly. With that in mind, and also to alleviate your hunger, I would like you to accompany our "acquaintances" back here and join us for dinner. Czeyla will probably have our food ready by the time you arrive at the house, so you can help carry it back. The grate will remain unlocked for now, and for the duration of the meal. We wouldn't want our guests to know the location of the lock. It took a lot of time and mechanical effort to conceal it in the rocky ground out there, and there's a reason for that."

Puck put his foot back up on his footstool, and continued reading his paper.

[Dianelopa]

"OK," Dianelopa called. It was with a bit of relief that she noted that she would soon be able to get some food into her stomach. In fact, she was now in a hurry to pick up the guests at the massage parlor and get them back to the sewers where there would hopefully be a nice meal of something considerably more substantial than dragonflies waiting for them. She ran up the hill, eyed the somewhat tilting houses at the top and saw one with an orange lantern. Must be it, she thought. She went to the front door and banged the knocker, but no one came. In fact the house looked dark inside. Now what? she whispered.
Suddenly she remembered Benjamin's words, 'strictly below ground', something that hadn't made sense then. She decided to look and see if there were some way to get below ground. She then saw the steps leading down to a door looking more worn than the upstairs one. She knocked.

[Chezak D'Maroe]

A half hour had passed. Chezak was leaned back into the couch cushions and pillows, letting the softness help relax his muscles. He brought the glass of wine to his lips and tasted. It was his second glass, but it still tasted great. There was much to be said for the comforts of society.

It was too bad he didn't much like society.

His gaze traveled to Maeve, the strange woman who captivated him, even without the charms, spells and trinkets she seemed to use to enhance her natural charms. In fact, he liked her in spite of those things.

Chezak looked up as one of the beautiful young girls brought him a tray full of bits of bread and cut pieces of cheese. He reached up and took a couple pieces of each, smiling politely at the young girl as she somehow managed to both blush and wink suggestively at him, as one of the other girls had.

He knew that this was a supposed massage parlor, but he wasn't naive enough to think that some of the girls wouldn't offer more if there was an extra bit of bishan in it for them.

At the thought, Chezak glanced over to Maeve again. Almost immediately there came a knock at the door from the entranceway, barely heard.

[Anja]

Almost as if her tanned, round little ear had been separated at birth from the wooden door, Czeyla bustled out of the kitchen towards it as Dianelopa's knuckles rapped the discreet summons. A billow of savoury steam followed the parting of the push door leading into the kitchen, and it brought with it the scent of fresh vegetables, seasoned meats and tantalizing sauces. The masseuse answered the door in her apron, and looked Dianelopa up and down.

"You must be Benjamin's new frien', yes?"

She looked to Benjamin, who, having managed to once again beat his own personal record of looking as relaxed as possible in a chair, nodded sublimely, and looked at his three companions. "My friends, it looks as though my associates are ready for a meeting. Czayla, I trust your culinary efforts have neared their aim? I'm sure Dianelopa will help your girls with taking it all down to the Parlour."

Czayla's face drew up in abject refusal. "Oh, nononono, Benjamin, you leave this to me. Go, take your delightful friends, and get settled. Soon, my girls will be along with a feast fit for the weary traveler."

At this, Sandwheel snorted. "Hmmph. Didn't smell any mushrooms..."

[Dianelopa]

Dianelopa stood there in complete confusion, the overwhelming smells of food making her dizzy. "Puck said..." That was all she could get out. She didn't remember what Puck had said. In fact, it didn't matter. Her nostrils quivered and she simply began to follow the smell into the kitchen. She'd waited long enough for food that seemed to be promised but was always out of reach. Now there it was in front of her. She took a ladle from the nearest pot and filled it, blew on it a few times to cool it and then ate. She stabbed a juicy steak of some animal from one of the pans and bit into it. She went to the next pot and tasted and the next pan and tasted. The food was delicious, wonderful. The rest of the world around her could just as well have not existed.

[Chezak D'Maroe]

Chezak sat up in the couch as their host let the woman from earlier in. He glanced over, dredging his memory for her name ... Dianelopa, he thought.

He nodded at Benjamin as he addressed them, then lifted the wine glass to his lips and emptied the remainder. He glanced over to Maeve to see how she was doing as he stood. Chezak new better than to offer her his hand, which is what he wanted to do, but instead settled for standing near her in case she needed some steadying.

Dianelopa had vanished in the direction of the where Chezak assumed the kitchen was, as he had heard the occasional rattle of dishes, pots, and pans from the direction. He wasn't sure what her message had been, as he had been more concerned with Maeve, but he had heard her say something about a 'buck' or 'puck' before she disappeared.

Chezak waited for everyone else to be ready, content to leave the speaking until they met with Benjamin's counterparts.

[Anja]

Benjamin stood up from his relaxed position and fixed Chezak and Maeve with an affable look.

"Shall we?"

Moments later, they were in the Parlour, making introductions with Puck. Puck had brought out extra chairs, and raised the table so that they could eat comfortably when the food arrived. He smiled and invited them to sit down.

"Hello, friends, my name is Puck. I understand you've helped Benjamin out of quite the scrape. I also understand you'll be wanting something in return. I'll cut right to the point. The complication with that is that most of the things truly worth giving are worth a little more blood. Namely, the blood of a certain giant python."

Anja had been briefing Puck, and now sat crouched behind that iron door, in the adjoining room, listening intently, ready to whisper to Puck should he need guidance. Her legs tingled on her feeler webs as she got a sense for their guests. Lithe, strong... an elf, tall and fleet of foot, and a... perhaps a very graceful woman, thin and powerful.

She looked at the situation as a win-win scenario. Either they would manage to slay the terrible pythoness Azomiy, or they would die trying. Either way, she would be out of their debt, and could go back to not being bothered by pesky humanoids. She hated new clients, especially when she was at some sort of karmic disadvantage to them. They got so self-righteous about it when something was owed them.

Back in the Parlour, Puck was eying his guests, waiting to see how they would react, and Benjamin was making himself comfortable, packing his pipe with more of Sandwheel's tobacco. The badger himself was, of course, at Maeve's side, and now looked at Puck, concerned. He had too much respect for Anja to challenge the matter. Well, bugger, I'ma have to go with 'em, aren't I?

At Czeyla's establishment, the kitchen was filling up with staff. None of them seemed to notice Dianelopa's pilfering, they simply took the food out from under her and began carrying. Czeyla herself saw the gravy-stained lips and chuckled.

"You can go an' join your friends, dear. My girls will handle the carrying."

[Dianelopa]

Dianelopa watched the food disappearing from under her nose. "Umph," she said.
But she thought, that food is too good to let it just march away. So without really hearing Czela's words she simply followed the girls, or rather the whiffs of inviting fragrances emanating from the pots, down the road to Benjamin's parlor.
Benjamin, Puck, Maeve and Chezak were already sitting at the table when she got there and for the first time her mind was slightly distracted from the food. She glanced at their faces, Benjamin's was calm, Puck less so. The other two she couldn't interpret, but she thought they might be trying to digest something that might have been said. Then she saw the empty chair which she figured must be there for her. She sat down. She was still hungry, but not the biting hunger that had overwhelmed her before. "What's the matter?" she asked. "Don't you think eating this wonderful dinner will make us all feel better?"

[Maeve]

Maeve had spent the last (half-hour? hour? day?) in a stupor, dazed by lack of energy. Solidly in her mind sat the promise of food, and beyond that she wasn’t sure of anything. Normally under these circumstances with such an attractive man near her she would have been seducing him, but with the charm on her wrist and the threat of being rejected, she didn’t wish to waste any more energy.

She’d been in worst straits, and at least she could smell food wafting through the house. She also had fresh apple juice, offered to her when they first arrived. That had rejuvenated her enough not to fall into a dead sleep.

They were now sitting at a table, and a man she didn’t know was talking. She was still clutching her empty glass, and she put it down beside the full wine glass near her plate. She sniffed at the air to get an idea of what they’d be serving. It seemed like the typical quasi-peasant human fare.

There were two parts of the human diet she had a hard time with: alcoholic beverages, and animal products. Despite having human ancestry, she was half-dryad predominately, and dryads had a very strict diet of various plant matter. When she was healthy she rarely ate, so it didn’t normally come up, but in this case it would. She was so tired, she could hardly think, so she thought she’d just have to deal with it when the time came, even if she came across as rude.

Meanwhile, this new guy was talking. Hazily, she paid attention. She knew she probably looked sleepy, but couldn’t do anything about it. He said the blood of a certain giant python and she immediately caught up in the conversation. She sighed, audibly. As a few servants began walking into the room and laying down plates, she said, stopping to take a weary breath occasionally, “We saved one of your people from…a horrible fate…and you demand we do…something else?” Normally she would mask the indignant tone in her voice, but she was beyond caring.

[Chezak D'Maroe]

Chezak followed swiftly Benjamin back to a new place, where he sat at a table with someone whom he assumed had the power to grant the request for something in return for saving Benjamin's life.

He listened carefully, covertly looking over at Maeve to see how she was doing, and how she was taking in the conversation. She didn't look all that tired, but something in her eyes and the set of her features made Chezak think she was simply good at hiding it.

When Puck finished speaking, Chezak waited for Maeve, who heaved a sigh. She voiced her thoughts, which were similar to his own, in a tone of voice Chezak wouldn't have used in the lair of someone who was obviously as powerful as whoever led this group. He glanced warily around, leaning back in his chair in order to keep one hand close to the long knife on his waist. Using a voice like Maeve was could get them in trouble, as could refusing a request from people such as these. He didn't want any trouble, but he was always prepared for it.

Chezak spoke up then, to try to put everyone back at ease, as servants came in to put dishes of food on the table, consisting of soups, a roasted duck, various vegetables, and other decent fare. "As Maeve says, we could have just as easily slipped by these bandits on the road, and left your associate to his fate. Instead, we took it upon ourselves to rescue him from the hands of that fate, and the bandits, at considerable risk to ourselves. He has offered a reward, of which it was intimated that it would be more than just," he waved his hand at the food left on the table and the vanishing servants, "a nourishing dinner. If you need another ingredient to create whatever it is you are willing to part with, then I would suggest you send someone else to do so."

Chezak paused a moment, making eye contact with each of the people seated at the table, Dianelopa last. She didn't seem to have the brains to think much past her next meal, but he included her nonetheless. He trusted her least of all, because something about her hinted at a hidden power, no matter that she obviously would simply do whatever the people in this room told her to. Chezak knew from experience that looks could be deceiving.

With the slightest nod to the woman, Chezak agreed with what she had said. "Now, we should eat, in order to be better able to discuss matters of import on full stomachs, so we aren't all so irritable on empty stomachs."

Putting action to words, Chezak reached to begin dishing food onto his plate.

[Anja]

Puck smiled at the retorts he received as he dished food out onto his plate. "You know, Benjamin here is of the old school. There was a time, before you youngsters were born I'm sure, where hyperbole was expected of a gentleman when expressing his gratitude. Now, you make it to be a hanging offense. You mustn't take things so seriously, my friends. Certainly, if you wish to take the money and run, so to speak, we have a few odds and ends of which your coincidental little escort job is worthy, but if you wish us to trust you enough to let you into our inner sanctum and show you the true secrets of our craft, it's going to take a good deal more than that. Either way, rest assured, we do not cheat you."

He took his first bite and smiled. The duck was good fare, cooked with health and improved vigour in mind. These were two things that, at his age, he could not do without.

Benjamin did not seem to be paying attention to the conversation. He was off in a corner, hiding behind a newsprint, and smoking by a small vent so as not to disrupt the meal with the scent or tobacco haze. Sandwheel moved beside him onto a footstool, having been brought his own portion of mushrooms and grub, and he seemed quite content to devote his immediate attentions to food, and nothing else.

[Maeve]

You know, Benjamin here is of the old school. There was a time, before you youngsters were born I'm sure, where hyperbole was expected of a gentleman when expressing his gratitude. Now, you make it to be a hanging offense. You mustn't take things so seriously, my friends. Certainly, if you wish to take the money and run, so to speak, we have a few odds and ends of which your coincidental little escort job is worthy, but if you wish us to trust you enough to let you into our inner sanctum and show you the true secrets of our craft, it's going to take a good deal more than that. Either way, rest assured, we do not cheat you.

Maeve relaxed a little and also began to take some food, making sure to avoid the meat. Before she began to eat, she spoke, her tone bemused, "No offense, gentlemen, but I neither want to be 'let into your inner sanctum' nor know your 'secrets'." Her eyes hovered on the man who had led her here, hiding behind a newspaper and smoking. The scent of the tobacco still stung her nose, but it was only one of many present smells. Her unusual eyes settled back on the other man. "Chezak and I were promised weapons of power as payment for not only saving Benjamin, but escorting him back. We have done that. Now I only wait for you all to uphold your end as your..." she fumbled for a word, turning her hand over in the air as she thought, "associate, stated."

Her piece spoken, she began to eat. Her fork carefully picked out small portions and settled them daintily in her mouth, where they were chewed thoroughly and silently. While her instincts screamed at her to shove the food down and leave, she retained her manners and fought off her sleepiness.

[Dianelopa]

Dianelopa had no idea what was going on. No one had told her what had happened. She hadn't even heard the beginning of the conversation. But now, her hunger sated, she was clearly aware of the annoyance and disturbed feelings in the room. She didn't like it.
She looked squarely at Puck and said, "Thank you for this delicious dinner. I must go now." She pushed her chair back, stood up and walked out of the room.

[Chezak D'Maroe]

Chezak ate mostly in silence, watching the stilted conversation, rife with silent threat and tension. He mostly restricted himself to vegetables and a bit of duck, along with a small helping of rabbit that had been placed near his elbow.

He only shook his head slightly as Maeve continued in an antagonistic way, but made no comment. He didn't think that Benjamin had included him in the offer for weapons of power, and didn't particularly want or need one. However, he felt that keeping his mouth shut for now would probably be the best thing.

Chezak did keep an ear open for Puck's reply to Maeve's question, as that would be the response that could put the two of them in trouble. He had a feeling that their best bet, should trouble appear, would be for the two of them to simply run. To that end, he quickly mentally retraced the way they had come down into this room below the streets, while still listening for Puck's response.

He found it somewhat odd when Dianelopa simply stood up in the middle of the conversation and excused herself from the table, then simply left. He didn't spare it much thought, but it did cross his mind that from what little he knew of the woman, that action was in keeping with her personality, or distinct lack thereof.

Despite everything, Chezak was enjoying the meal. If he was honest with himself, his woodsy fare and his own cooking was nothing to be excited about.