Alone in the Dark

Rogue in Hunting

Keana watched the four Lansend soldiers leave the Royal Guard way station and used the roof tops to follow them through the city to the inn they were staying in. Only four soldiers. There had been a fifth soldier with them initially, but the man had left before Keana had returned to Sytheville. With his networks running themselves, Keana had been idly following the four as they spent their days with the Royal Guards and their nights in their inn.

He had sat in the tavern, unseen, listening to them talk amongst themselves over a surprisingly controlled amount of ale. They were waiting for word from the village; he had learned that much, and Keana could only suppose that the fifth soldier was there. Were the Lansend forces Vix's contact? Did she work for the Lord of Lansend?

It would explain her reaction to the dead bodies, the look of relief as she glanced at them and didn't see the one person she had been looking for. Was she in love with this Lord? There had been emotions on her face he didn't think she was aware he had seen. That thought caused his heart to hitch for a moment, before he swallowed it stubbornly. There were more important things at hand than wondering about his failed love life or being jealous about a pompous fool who was most likely dead.
Keana shook his head, watching the Inn's door for a long moment before turning back towards his own tavern as the sun began to set. He had always assumed Vix worked for someone in the capital itself, though Lansend made sense the more that he thought about it. Lord Kannein was reported to be the Commander of the armies and the security of the nation, perhaps she worked for him.

Was Vix's loyalty to his position? Or his family?

He had seen the man in Ilumnia a couple years ago, as the nobles rode through town with the newly crowned Queen Regent, flanked by the Queen's Foxes. Kannein O'Vara, the man who had helped engineer peace with Sellexu, was a national hero. A man he had assumed was an arrogant prick just by the way he carried himself and scowled at the dirt and shadows of the free port city. He had a face that a person just wanted to punch and Keana had steered as far away from their parties as he could at the time. Though his runners and rogues had all reported a troublesome time moving around those white cloaked guards, who always seemed to be aware of any spy in their vicinity. They weren't excessively experienced, but someone who knew the basic workings of a company and the trade of the rogues had trained them.

Keana stopped dead in the street and swore, doing the math in his head and nodding to himself. He had never allowed himself to think about the specifics before, had avoided thinking about Vix to the point where it had blinded him. Now that he was piecing it together, the answers were all quite obvious.

Vix had even spelled it out to him in the name she had used, Vix. Or Vixen, a female Fox, which was the name of the Aupanan Queen's supposed diplomatic corps who doubled as bodyguards for the Regent. Keana smarted at the idea that he had been left to work for the Queen's Consort or used to bolster the Queen's security forces.

She had left him, or used him and left, once she knew enough to be of use to the Queen's plans. Keana couldn't make himself believe that Vix had it in her to have lied and beguiled him for the purpose of merely using him. He had believed that she enjoyed the world and life he had shown her. She may have even stayed if he hadn't of pushed the issue she had been deflecting for months.

"Idiot." Keana muttered viciously to himself, shaking his head.

He walked through the door of his tavern, moving across the room, intending to head up the stairs and breaking something out of frustration when he heard someone call his name.

"Sir! Sir, we've been looking for you" His lieutenant walked up to him, waving towards a scout, a young girl who had shown promise of late, who had been in Sythe. "News."