407 Crescin 30, Daleth

"You really should stop dangling yourself on the cliff and do that," Ralei said from beside Ariden as he dipped his head to light another oshella stick. "I know you said you won't get addicted but I worry."

Ariden took a long drag and savored the sickly sweet smoke wafting around his head. "You have my permission to knock me dead if I start talking about qasmele. That stuff's more harmful than oshella. Besides, this," he took the stick from his lips with two of his fingers and waved it around. Ralei's face crumpled as a draft smacked him in the face. "Isn't dangling myself over a cliff. It's more like...living dangerously."

Ralei coughed into his fist, a rather large one considering his size. "That's exactly what dangling oneself on a cliff is," he said. "Why have you called me out here?"

Ariden smiled. It was hopeless to talk Ariden out of something and Ralei knew that. The two of them have a history together. Ralei had been a soldier in the Potentate's private army and they've ran into each other more times than Ariden bothered to count. He could almost say the soldier developed an affection for him considering the soldier had practically raised him when his own parents couldn't.

Now, Ralei was a retired veteran, living his days tilling soil and growing fresda on his small hut in the forested parts of Fimrio. Ariden thought it boring and asked the soldier if he ever missed his days of swinging swords and stopping evil. Ralei had snorted back then, saying, "If I ever miss seeing someone's head fly off, I'll tell you."

Besides, it wasn't as if Ariden's habit of smoking oshella came from elsewhere. It was Ralei who gave him his first stick and told him it would help in calming him down and on focusing his thoughts. A common practice in the army, certainly. Helped keep them awake and alert during night shifts.

"I can't even catch up with my buddy now?" Ariden tilted his head to one side, flashing his friend a smirk. "Seriously, how have you been, mate?"

Ralei's eyes scanned his face. If there was anyone Ariden learned to read people's faces from, Ralei was the best bet. Finally, the soldier sighed and leaned an elbow against the tavern's counter. Suddenly, sitting on a high stool didn't look so good when it was a humongous mountain man as Ralei was doing it.

"I've been good," Ralei said. He ran a hand down his slicked-back dark hair. Unlike Ariden, the soldier could get away with keeping it long and plaited down his back in a strict, low tail tied with a twine. The scars running down his arms, face, neck, and exposed chest from his unbuttoned tunic told Ariden the soldier didn't have a fun time in the army.

"The fresda's going well, considering there weren't a lot of earth sprites knowledgeable about gardening in the neighborhood," Ralei continued, swirling the ale he ordered in his hand. "I've recently taken up mining, just small-scale ventures. Nothing big. It's a good way to keep shape and stay active. Oh, I've started weaving on the loom, too. You should drop by to see the latest one I made. It's a scene of a stream with fowls—am I boring you?"

Ariden blinked. "Sorry, what?" he asked, his chin slipping from the hand he propped it against earlier. "Oh, yeah. That. Good going."

Ralei, knowing Ariden all too well, grinned and took a swig from his glass. "Up to which sentence did you stop listening?"

"Around the gardening thing," Ariden admitted. The soldier was quite used to him spacing out on conversations he wasn't interested in anyway. "But really, whatever it was you said after that, I'm glad you found something you really love."

The soldier threw his head back and laughed, a little bit too heartily. Some of the patrons from nearby tables flashed them a look. Ariden gave them an apologetic smile. "Love?" Ralei was saying. "Not necessarily love. More like, I need to do something to avoid going insane."

Ariden scoffed. "You're not too old, are you?"

"It's rude to ask anyone their age," Ralei wasn't frowning when he said that. "But I'm turning two-hundred and twelve this year."

Ariden's eyebrows arched. "Really?" he asked. "Not too old, then. Does that mean you spent most of your sixties until your hundreds in the army?"

Ralei bobbed his head. "Maybe more than that," he finished his drink with the last sip and set his glas gently on the counter. "I enlisted when I was forty."

"Ah," Ariden said. "Well, I have something to get your mind off your old age."

Ralei clicked his tongue and rubbed his hands. "And there we go," he said. "You should have spilled the versallis earlier."

Ariden snorted. "You know the thing with me, friend," he said. "Patience is the key."

"Fool a fool, maybe," Ralei hummed. "We both know patience is the last thing you have."

"That's true," Ariden said. "But well, it seems I have found a new mission for myself, Ralei."

Ralei jerked his chin at him. "And that is?"

Ariden grinned, having rehearsed what he's going to say in his head. It was sure to get the soldier to his side and on board. "I want to change Avaloran society but with a catch," he said. "I want to do it from the shadows."

The soldier didn't speak, waiting for him to continue. Ariden obliged. "Do you have things you wished you could make an impact on but you couldn't because you're bound by law?" he said. "If you agree to my plan, we could do exactly that."

Ralei scratched his beard. "What's your plan and what things are we changing?"

Ariden repeated his plan the third time. "As for the things we're changing," he grinned. "We can change anything we want to."

"As long as we don't get caught," Ralei supplemented.

Ariden's smile died. "Yeah, that too," he mussed his hair. "But seriously, it's worth getting caught, right?"

Ralei shook his head. "I guess I still have a ton of things to be surprised about with you," he said. "I'm in. But I don't want a cut. Consider it being me keeping an eye on you and making sure the Potentate doesn't catch on to us."

Ariden fished the third slip from his pilzai and slid it across the counter with two fingers. "Same place, same time as the others," he said. "Feel free to bring people in but don't tell them you know who I am. Oh, and also, don't be late."

Ralei took the parchment, gave it a quick look, and tucked it inside the pocket of his trousers. "Me, late? You forget, Prince, I'm a soldier."

"That you are, mate," Ariden clapped his friend on the shoulder as he slid out of his stool. He could only do that when Ralei was sitting down. "I'll be off. Nice catching up."

The soldier raised two fingers while the other three were wrapped around his glass. It was a subtle salute. To an onlooker, it looked like he was just saying goodbye but he and Ariden had mastered the art of staying discreet. It's another reason why Ariden wanted him on the team. For them to pull this off, they'd need a brute force who also knew how to be covert.

Ariden ducked out of the tavern and blended with the sea of fabric and heads as he made way to the palace.