A Late Appointment (Sunrise)

[Continued from Drive to Freedom.]

Eleint 8th, night.

She had planned that morning to go with Ellowyn to the temple of Olidammara together at night, but that was before she'd ended up making a detour in the slums to fight a pitched battle in the Westside streets. By the time she returns home from Luther's house, the sun is already setting a brilliant blinding orange. She has just enough time to tell Ellowyn to leave without her before being gently-but-firmly hauled up to her rooms by a troubled Veshti for a thorough debriefing on what the hell just happened and why Sunrise is arriving home in one of Luther's personal armored carriages.

The debriefing takes a while. If Sunrise hadn't already set her heart on this meeting she might be tempted to abandon her plans for the night, but she doesn't want to flake out when it could be important. She dresses with hurried care and darts out to the temple, riding in one of Veshti's carriages. The streets are packed tonight and by the time she's halfway there she honestly isn't sure if the carriage saved her time or not; still, after the street fight today, there's something safe and comforting about the walls of the open-air carriage and the way it keeps tourists from shoving her aside or knives from slipping between her ribs.

Tonight is only the first night of Alefeast but the crowds are already out in full at the temple of Olidammara. There is no formal celebration scheduled for tonight--the child-friendly and educational play of The Great Escape was this morning and again this afternoon--but wine flows freely in the worship hall, and the holy eatery to the left of the worship hall is packed with diners enjoying good food and toasting with excellent drink. It is here in the eatery where Sunrise knows she will find Elinor and Lucky--if she can only find them.

Truth be told, she only sees them because Lucky is hard to lose in a crowd; his rich blue skin and the gold and silver tips embellishing his horns stand out against the candlelight. He sits with Elinor at a table in the middle of the floor, wooing her shamelessly without care for her station. Such is the prerogative of the temple priests, of course: class and birth and name mean a great deal in Brilight, but the priests of the gods are sometimes able to climb above such petty considerations if their patron temple favors them. Tonight, if his grin is any indication, Lucky seems especially determined to be favored.

Damn those orcs, I really did want to watch the play.

The thought flitters through her mind as she scans the crowd. This could be important; she tries to stay focused, but her traitorous stomach growls loudly at the scents of food surrounding her. The pastries of the morning's meeting are a distant memory, and the broth she sipped at Luther's was hardly filling. In between there was excitement, exertion, blood loss... she hesitates and her willpower crumbles. By the time she slides, uninvited, into a seat at the table with Elinor and Lucky, she has a plate piled high with meats and cheeses and fruit and a mug of dark ale. "Hi," she says, shooting them both a dazzling smile.

"Sunrise!" Elinor throws her arms around her ward-sister, leaning over from her seat. "How are you? Oh, can I have one of your turkey legs? They were fresh out when we ordered. Those must be hot off the spit."

Lucky watches this with amusement in his eyes, content to wait for the girls to do as they will.

"Yes, yes, here - I grabbed too much, I'm starving, you would not believe the day I've had," she says, laughing, moving some of her own food onto Elinor's plate. "How was the play? Please tell me it was terrible and I shouldn't feel bad for missing it!"

Elinor laughs and helps liberate Sunrise of several items on her plate. "Oh, Sunrise, it wasn't awful!  It was... well, it... was a work of heart," she says diplomatically.

"The writing was preachy and the singing was off-key," Lucky promises her with a grin. "Would I lie to you?"

"Always, but at least you're cute when you do it," she shoots back at him with another grin. "So what's happening tonight? Basically this, but more of it?"

"Basically," Lucky agrees with a wry smile and a seductive flick of his gaze over the two women. "Give or take, more or less. The celebration doesn't get officially raunchy until later in the week, though there's always a few overachievers who begin early. But tonight is about good food, better wine, and as much gaming and gambling as can be fit in the night hours."

He chuckles. "Which means I'll be busy later, but they're still warming up the tables outside."

She rolls her eyes. "Please tell me you're going to be running tables, not playing at them," she teases. "You don't seem like the sort to throw perfectly good money away."

She eats for a minute, letting herself savor the simple pleasure of good food after a long day. "Although if you're going to be busy, I may have to drag you away to someplace private sooner rather than later."

"A little of column A, a little of column B," he says with an easy grin, reaching to steal a buttered ear of corn off Elinor's plate and biting into it with relish.

Then his eyes dance. "Why, Sunrise, I'm flattered. An evening spent with the two prettiest women in Brilight? I might die happy."

She grins. "Elinor did say I could steal you away for a little while," she says, winking at her friend. Eyes widening, she gives Lucky an over-the-top innocent face. "So. Does the temple of Olidammara have someplace private, for people who don't want to be overheard?"

Lucky's grin turns wry--this isn't what he's been hinting at and she knows it--but he nods. "I have a place. Of course, if I take you there then I leave my poor Elinor alone and she'll be snapped up by vagabonds within minutes."

"Lucky!" Elinor laughs, still eating merrily. "I think I can manage myself for half a candlemark!"

"Are there many vagabonds in your temple?" she teases, then rises and offers him a hand. "You'll just have to be a dashing hero and steal her back, then."

"Even a moment spent without my darling at my side is torment," he declares ostentatiously, but bends to give Elinor a kiss before leading Sunrise out of the eatery. They glade past the worship hall and head back to the private rooms: places for the needy of Brilight to stay, for traveling pilgrims to rest, and (in the very back of the wing) for priests to use when they're in need of quiet repose after their duties.

Lucky unlocks one of these rooms with a complicated key and leads Sunrise in, locking the door behind her and leaning against the nearby wall. It's a nice room, if a bit small after becoming accustomed to her suite at Veshti's; there's no kitchen or sitting area, but the bed is big and the attached bathroom looks comfortable and roomy. He gives her a wry smile and shakes his head. "Alright, what is so important, Sunrise? I know you didn't crash Alefeast just to see my pretty smile."

Once they're alone, the smile slides off her face. "I talked to Somber," she says quietly. "He said I could trust you." She meets his gaze, serious. "Was he right?"

Lucky arches a sharp eyebrow at her, unsure whether to find this ominous or amusing. "Probably depends on the subject," he admits with a little laugh. "I won't turn you in to the city guard for tax evasion on all those concerts you've been holding, but I can't promise I won't steal your girlfriend."

She raises an eyebrow back, mirroring his expression. "Let me clarify: can I trust you not to repeat anything I say to you to anyone likely to put an arrow in my back? Because I already had that happen once today and I don't care to repeat the experience."

Lucky's ruby eyes widen. "...alright," he says, nodding in acknowledgment that this is a highly undesirable outcome of events. "In that context, yes, you can trust me not to blab."

She nods. "Okay. Good." Taking a deep breath, she perches on the edge of the bed. "I need to know anything you can tell me about Betreygis Redfang."

Lucky's mouth sets in a thin line. "My advice is to not date him."

"No, nor marry him," she says with a humorless laugh. "You're aware of his family's reputation? We don't need to maintain any polite fictions about that?"

"I know he's a bastard, and not in the way orcs usually are," Lucky says, referencing the stereotype that orcish children are love-children. "I know he's in public mourning since his wife left him, and I wish him only the best of luck." As dry and deadpan as Lucky's tone is, it's impossible to tell if the 'him' there is Betreygis or Thorn.

She snorts. "No, I meant more in the 'extended crime family' sense, but. Yes, that too. That's been going on for, what, a year now?" She looks intently at Lucky. "Has he been up to anything else recently that you know of? Or suspect?"

Lucky frowns at this and moves to sit on the bed beside her, pulling his leg up so he can face her. "Okay. What's this about? I wanna know before I get myself in deep."

She sighs. "A missing girl. A very important missing girl who might be in danger."

Lucky frowns and hesitates for a long moment. "Look, uh. If this is about Betreygis' missing wife, I really don't know where he is," he explains.