The Morning dawned and Haley's stomach growled, the apple hadn't fully saited her appetite but it had been slightly better than nothing. She stretched in bed and gave a soft yawn. Standing up she looked over herself and then in the small mirror in the room. She took off her nightdress and admired herself.
"Looking good, sweetheart." she said to the mirror.
She smiled, she had always been proud of her body even if it had disqualified her for leadership. Only those born sexed female and not epicene were allowed to lead the Akatar. But honestly she wouldn't trade herself for anything or anyone for that matter. She went into her bag to pull out clothes for the day, she didn't have much so she would have to either buy new ones or get the few outfits she had washed soon. But that was a problem for the future, today she needed to find work and information.
There was a knock on her door as she was slipping on her leather boots.
"A moment," she called out
She finished with her boots and moved to the door. Opening it just slightly to see out of. Varrin stood in the hallway nervously playing with their fingers.
"May I come in," they asked, shifting their weight from one foot to the other looking at her but more looking past her.
"Of course, come in," she opened the door to allow her visitor entry.
She sat on the edge of the bed and gestured to the chair in the room motioned for Varrin to move it closer to her.
"What do you need?"
They looked at the floor a moment before meeting her eyes, Varrin's eyes were like those depicted in dragon murals nearly all one color, in this case a forest green, and with snake-like slit in them. The small amount of light coming in through the window made their scales shimmer. They were a truly beautiful creature.
"I must confess that I have no idea the first thing about gathering information covertly or otherwise." They blurted it out while holding eye contact as though it was something they had been told, not something they did naturally, a forced gaze that caused Haley to shift her body before she smiled and let out a soft giggle.
"Oh, is that all?" she gave a sigh of relief. "I had thought you had changed your mind about helping."
"Oh . . . no . . . I just don't see my expertise being of great use here."
"And why tell me?" she asked, leaning forward and tilting her head slightly. She exaggerated her movements to accent her body language, she had learned that Varrin was slightly oblivious to words, perhaps this would help them get more comfortable and understand better.
"Well . . . you seemed to take charge of the situation and put us all on a path last night, so I thought maybe you could help me?"
"Ahh, ummm . . . well I was gonna go find some work today for the morning, you're welcome to come with me and then later in the morning we could take a stab at it?"
"Please don't stab anyone that doesn't deserve it?"
"I don't plan to. It means that we'll try, I'll show you how I get things done and maybe that will help you find your own motions?"
"My own motions?"
"Yeah, it won't do for you to do everything like everyone else, I'm sure you know that. So by watching me succeed or fail you can decide how you would have done things differently and what the outcome might have been." She leaned back a little, "How used to working with other people are you?"
"I worked for a while with a bunch of scribes, they said I had good work ethic. I helped them translate an ancient text from Xoth that was exciting. Afterwards I decided to move on and see what other things the world held for me. I signed up as a mercenary because I thought it would be another exciting adventure. I'm glad I was there to help you. You seem a good person. Even if I don't completely understand you sometimes?"
