[IC] New Beginnings

[Fetzen]

The tavern's owner's face had turned into a kinda ambiguous mixture of a gentle smile towards his new guest and a fair share of unhappyness about his new guest praising his auxiliary. He didn't like to hear that -- he wanted to be able to continue to thrive in his own world of prejudice. Or was it because his auxiliary threatened to sit down onto one of his chairs and have a brief pause, watching his master having to cook a meal for his guest now ?

Batharyn indeed sat down, the wooden thing beneath him protested so loudly that Selina could easily hear it. He was kinda bored -- his mind had already completed its preparative thoughts about the little raid he was going to commit tonight. She was strange, yes, so he'd have to be careful. In every other aspect though it was nothing he hadn't done many times before though. Routine whereever he mentally looked at. For now however he still was on duty, even though that meant that he'd have to idle around for a while until someone else would come or she'd have completed her meal.

It took a few minutes to prepare the meal. Given that her request had not been all too simple this time could be considered quite short, implying that the tavern's owner had a firm grasp of the concept of preparing thigns in advance and trying to keep them warm and edible as long as he could. How far he actually went with this idea and how much it impacted the quality of the original product ? Batharyn couldn't really tell. He preferred to eat his meals elsewhere where he didn't have to pay his own master for them.

[Hellish Hin]

Salina ate her food relatively slowly, not because she wanted to savor the food but because she wanted to give people a chance to have their curiosity piqued by her presence. Now that Batharyn seemed to be settling down and didn't seem like he was going to head off to her room any time soon. That gave her time to set up a client base at least for the night.

As she ate, she reached up and pulled her hood down, letting her long silver hair tumble down the back of her black cloak. She discretely glanced around and saw a few of the patrons looking at her curiously which pleased her. When she had finished her meal she thanked the barkeep with a smile then wandered over and sat at a stool around the fire. She picked a younger man who was pretending like he wasn't looking at her but was making very obvious glances in her direction.

She sat across the room from him and didn't say a word but she also did not take her eyes off of him. He was embarrassed to find she had noticed him looking at her but even when he looked away, he could feel her piercing gaze on him. This was one of her many tricks to draw people in. She looked at them as if she knew them and it would either make people uncomfortable enough to confront her or curious enough to come talk to her. Either way, she got what she wanted. This man was no different. After about two minutes of her staring, he finally stood to approach her.

[Fetzen]

Batharyn's attention was divided among three things: Salina, the entrance door and his employer. Hopefully the latter one wouldn't interfere with his little observation plan because the thing in between would suddenly be pushed upon by yet another, impatient customer. And hopefully none of the ones already here would come to the conclusion that he needed some mor beer, wine or other annoying stuff.

Sitting there as he was, the thief was well aware that he himself was attracting some attention due to his appearance and the fact that he was the only one around here not eating, but apparently just relaxing. Of course this wasn't true: His mind tracked every move Salina made, and tried to track every move the people around here made. The best thing that could happen now was that someone would approach and engage her in some kind of conversation. Such a thing could only cause distraction for her and additional delay in case she'd suddenly feel the need to cancel and go upstairs.

And there it was... A young man had fallen victim to her almost unnaturally staring eyes -- maybe he should try to learn that trick if that was possible: Lure people towards him and lighten their load while sitting instead of following them and waiting for the opportunity... Very convenient! Batharyn remained there sitting for another minute or so, then he sluggishly heaved himself off the chair and walked towards the bar as if he'd have to inspect something behind it. Having reached this position behind Salina's back and being crouched as if indeed messing around with the abundance of bottles beneath the counter, he let another half a minute pass before heading upstairs silently. Luckily enough even his so much hated employer dud not appear to notice his auxiliary's move. That primitive lock would hardly be any obstacle...