Adventures of Jessa: the Adventures Continue

23

Back at the inn there is a small fight between Jessa and her guards. Well not just her guards, but all of them. They all want to go with her. The fight is especially hot between Jasper and Kristoff.

Lady Fey shows up and ends that fight. "If you go without my champion then you will die."

"Please, Jessa let me go as well." Kristoff pleads, "You know that next to Sorsha I'm the best one at sneaking about in the dark. I'm damn near as deadly as you fighting as well."

Jessa lets out a small laugh at his words. "You are better, far better than you were when you were first assigned as Dhiren's guard, but you are no where near my equal. If you wish, I'll start sparring with you instead of Dhiren?"

"Fine, you're right. I'm not and I'm sorry for saying that, but please. Of all the guards I'm the best." Kristoff feels the need to go, he's afraid that if he doesn't that something will happen to either Jessa or Dhiren.

"Lady Fey, is this one of those crossroads you keep bringing to my attention?"

"Yes, if you choose your companions poorly you all will be killed including my champion."

"Yet, you insist that I take Jasper. Is that not cheating?" Jessa asks the irritating deity.

Fey just smiles before replying. "You had already decided to take Jasper. I was just informing the others so that they will stop pestering you about him."

"You know me so well then, Fey?" Jessa is a little irritated by her smug reply.

"I have watched you from the time you were born. I have paid attention to how you react and to why. I could have been wrong, it wouldn't be the first time, but the chances were that you had already decided that he would go with you. I didn't lie though, if you don't take him then you will all die."

"Are there any other hints that you can give me?" Jessa demands.

"No, if I say anything further then you will fail in your errand this night."

"Taking Jethro, is that a good move on our part?" Dhiren speaks up at this point.

Fey smiles widely at this. "This should be interesting to watch. I haven't watched him in a real fight other than at Silva in centuries. I wouldn't leave home without him if I were you. Not like he would let you any way."

"Very well, Kristoff, you have proven yourself worthy. Although there are others that have proven themselves, I don't wish to take more. This party is already more than I would prefer to take."

Jessa words stop the others from complaining. Sorsha wishes that she could go as well, but Jessa had warned her that she won't take her. She wants Sorsha to have the best chance of returning to her children as possible. Sorsha understands, and is thankful for Jessa's concern, but at the same time it doesn't stop the yearning to go. 

"Ricardo, you will stay here. Sorsha is in charge, but I want you to keep watch over the mules. We'll be leaving the day after tomorrow and they need to be ready to go."

"Yes, princess, I will make sure that nothing hurts them." Jessa nods once sharply. She has been keeping a sharp eye on him. So far he hasn't caused much trouble and has held his own in fights. But, his attitude is still not the best when it comes to listening to Sorsha give commands.

They dress in their darkest clothing and once more meet in the common room before slipping out of the doors. As promised the king's guide meets them and takes them to the location of the assassins guild house. The guide leaves them once he makes sure they know where it is. That's why they don't see him circle back and enter through a secret way.

That's also why he doesn't see their newest companion join them.

Jethro makes them all invisible and they all then go to the door. Jethro opens the door and they slip inside noiselessly.  Immediately to the left they see two assassins. Jethro and Jessa take them out, but they missed the two that were one their right. 

Kristoff and Jasper take them out.

But it's the one that they all missed that Dhiren takes out. The one that was hiding up on the ceiling. He barely manages to catch the body before it hits the floor. All the others look at Dhiren in awe, including Jessa.

Dhiren ignores their stares and only starts moving slowly forward. They are all careful, assassins are known for booby trapping their walkways. Paranoid bunch you would think that they fear people coming after them to kill them all or something. Jessa smirks to herself as she thinks that.

They slowly make their way through the warren of passages and take out all those that they find. Jessa is perhaps the least surprised of them all when she finds their guide among those that they kill.

Once they make it to the sleeping quarters they are able to kill the older ones no problem but the younger ones present a problem. They don't want to kill ones that are innocent.

The children take the matter out of their hands. They notice their dead bunk mates and set up a screaming disaster. The companions are therefore forced to start killing the younger ones.

Over all it takes them several hours to go through and kill all the assassins. Jessa takes time to go back to the head assassins study and go through all their papers. She finds that she will still be hunted since an unknown person has set a considerable bounty on her head.

What she finds most interesting is that the person was someone from beyond Lexin. In the land where the enemy was amassing.

While Jessa was busy doing that Kristoff and Jasper were relieving the guild of all their money. Jethro had given them both bags of holding and they are very glad that they have them or they wouldn't have been able to carry it all.

Finally they finish their looting and Jessa finishes her hunting in the office, having found the information that she wanted and more besides.

As they are leaving the building Dhiren with Jethro's help starts the building on fire.

Jethro also makes sure that the nearby buildings aren't set on fire as well. It wouldn't do to start the city on fire at this point. That might make the king a bit upset and they don't need that.

The companions return to their inn and slip into their rooms and clean up before meeting with everyone in the private room. There they make sure that no one will be able to over hear them as they relate what they did and what they found out.

Jessa smiles proudly at Dhiren as she thanks him for taking down the one that she missed. Dhiren smiles sheepishly and looks down pleased but embarrassed as his cheeks turn a nice pink shade.

None of them are smiling once Jessa informs them of what she found.

"This mystery man, he's not one of the dragon kings, so just who is he?" Dhiren asks the question they all would like to know.

"Now here's where the prismatic and fairy dragons would come in handy. They would be able to scout out beyond Lexin and see if they could find the enemy."

"Only if they could stay quiet, Jessa. Not many of them would be able to. It took me years to learn and even then it wasn't without difficulty." Mel tells them coming visible to their eyes once more.

Jasper and Kristoff take out the loot they found while going through the assassins guild. Jessa looks at them hard but goes over it as well. Anything that has been enchanted she sets aside and warns them to not touch until she has a chance to figure out what the enchantments are.

Once they are complete, the loot is divided among all of them and Jessa gives the enchanted items to those most in need or best able to use them.

They find that they now have several potions of healing and they divide those up among the guards.

By now it is very late and so they head off to bed.

It isn't until the next morning that they find that Ricardo never returned to the inn after checking on the mules.