Lady Furino’s Estate, Castle Gardens, Present Day
Fire and bickering children were damnable enough, but Aubri was not one to think that the day's misfortunes were done. In the Republic it was said that all fortunes and tragedies came in threes. So why not a flying mound of flesh straight from Dremora's Shade to be the third?
Aubri smiled, a sly cat's grin overcoming his face as the mound descended upon them.
"Children, stay close," he said, gathering his own courage and drawing the bauble of a sword "gifted" to him by Pater Silverblade.
No buckler to fight with, as I was tutored in. The sailor's stance is still good for quick footwork, though. Of course. He untied the sword sheath and held it at range, a blunt and thin excuse for a shield.
"They are discontinued coins. The new coinage commands a premium in the Most Serene Republic and, well, gold still spends. My name is Aubri Silverblade. This one is Brother Amerigo Spadoni. And you are about to see something wondrous, something few among the living have ever seen. The handiwork of a Brother of the Republic."The cloud began to settle, overtaking the walls, the windows, the very air above them. A hundred hundred faces surrounding them in a half dome, laughing, chittering, taunting. Aubri gently prodded the Angelite to settle behind him with the butt of the sword sheath, spreading his stance in preparation for the inevitable rush of action to come.
"Brother. My eyes are open and I regret to say, we are surrounded. There is no place for it to escape you."And what is your purpose in such a place? By Pater's logic, to stand in place and die in an acid bath, allow the Republic to declare war, sack this city, and bring glory to our household by your bones."In our home, there is a game that the swindlers play at the docks. One man makes a great commotion and hurls all manner of insults at the first arrivals ashore until they throw anything they have at him."With a gentle and slow push to the backs of both the Changeling and the Angelite, Aubri led them in one step, then another, faster and around in constant movement as the cacophony of voices began to buzz, then merge, then slow- then spit their poison into Aubri's and the children's wake.
"And the other man cuts the purses from their belts."