Drake closed his eyes, enjoying her touches as they spoke. “Have you looked in a mirror lately? Sober you isn’t much better,” he said, keeping his eyes closed. He thought for a moment. On one hand, it was a bit of an ego boost that he had been called a ‘sexy dragon-man’, but he wondered just how strong he was. “You might be overestimating what I can do,” he replied. “Besides…I doubt confronting them head on will change anything. Especially when we don’t even know what they’re really after.”

The draconian thought for a moment. “Somehow I doubt it has anything to do with marrying you off at this point. I wonder…” He opened his eyes. “Don’t you have a lot of connections through Raile? Why not just ask him to look into it? I’m sure he can manage something…” For a price…

“We should be meeting him soon, right?” He rolled over, his gaze meeting hers. “Let’s just enjoy the downtime we have, and we’ll see what he can dig up. Meanwhile, we keep up the work. Sound like a plan?”

There was a smirk as she closed her eyes, “Sober me appreciates the compliment.” When he said she had overestimated him she shot up. “I have not! You turn into a fucking dragon Drake! A huge, really sexy, fucking dragon. I was half dead impaled on you and I could tell you were massive and powerful. If I wasn’t half-dead at the time I would have tried to take you to bed with me!” It probably wasn’t helping her case and she gave him a sheepish smile. “Point is, I don’t think you are giving yourself enough credit. You fought off an entire pirate fleet.”

Vela recoiled a bit, “Oh hell no probably not but I still don’t want to look at him or talk to him. I punched him in his face and got sent to segregation as a child. Worth ittttt~” She thought about it a bit and huffed. “I am not keen on Raile knowing everything. He might sell it. Or not. It depends. That man will do anything for silver.”

Snuggling up to Drake she nodded, “Alright, alright we’ll talk to Raile.” She kissed him softly. “But I get the dragon-man to myself~” She pounced him as soon as the words left her lips.

–

The meet-up was in a few days and Vela stood waiting for Raile to show up at their spot. They were in the lovely city of Cameroon to stay away from the last place Vela was in. “Is this a good idea?” She looked up at Drake.

“It’s not the worst idea,” Drake said as they waited in the local tavern. The place was called “Haven’s Host”, and was a fairly common place for those not of Cameroon. The two had taken a table in the back corner so they could see everyone coming in, and had already ordered their drinks. It had taken Vela a bit of convincing not to over-order on the alcohol, something that Raile was likely to appreciate.

It wasn’t long before the fair haired merchant walked in. He spotted the two fairly easily, and made his way to the table with a smile. “Good job you two! That last haul was quite a great find. I was able to sell a few of those gems for well over market value, and garner a few good favors from a rather feisty noblewoman…” Raile kicked back and ordered a drink. “A job well done indeed.”

“So…before we get to the next job, Raile…” Drake said as he glanced to Vela, and then back to the merchant. “We have a…question.”

Raile perked up, and noticed how flighty Vela was being, and how serious Drake was. “Oh? Well, if this has anything to do about those angel’s, you don’t really have to worry. Even if Vela is royalty, I’d never sell her out.”

Drake just stared at him. “…wait, you know?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” he asked. “I like keeping tabs on my employees.” Raile smirked. “I know quite a lot…information is another commodity, and for the right price, you can learn quite a bit.”

“You’re…terrifying,” Drake replied. Does that mean he knows about me?

“A bit,” Raile responded, though Drake wasn’t sure if he was answering the terrifying statement, or answering the question. The draconian had a feeling it was a little of both.

She sat at the table kicking her legs thanks to the chair’s height. She had this disinterested look on her face as she looked down at the Cherry Tart she had convinced Drake to let her have. “Only one?” Drake gave her that look. Tavern fights were her go to and it was disappointing her not to fight the blonde bitch in the corner that kept looking her way.

Vela sat up straight as soon as Raile figured out why they were meeting with him. “So you knew?” She blinked a bit. “Of course you knew. You always know. It’s actually scary how much you know sometimes.” She took the cherry out of her drink and ate it throwing the stem before chugging her drink.

“So, that brings me to this next question. What the fuck do they still want with me, Raile? I ran away a long time ago. They obviously know I’m not dead. They know where I am if I stay in a spot for too long. Quite frankly, I’m getting bored of showing them my ass.”

Finally, after a few moments, she slammed her hands on the table and stood up, “If yer blonde skank ass doesn’t stop glaring my direction I’ll fucking gouge your eyes out.” The blonde woman sunk in her seat and finally looked away from her. “Thank. You.” She jumped back up onto the seat and looked at Raile. “Now. Angels. Information.”

Raile held up his hand, “Fine, fine…you’re being pretty snippy, Vela-bean.” He ordered a second drink, and kicked back. “Let’s see…I did a basic rundown of who you were when we started working together. Blah, blah, runaway princess…didn’t really care about that. But then people came looking for you, and that’s when I dug a bit deeper.” His second drink came, and he took a long sip.

“Vela, you’re the first born. Probably a disappointment too, since they would have wanted a male heir. But, they made do with what they had. You see, the first born, when it comes to a noble hierarchy, has a lot of special…privileges, and that isn’t always about choice either. The Alsephina family has a vault hidden away in Canelux…no idea where, or what it has in it. Anyway…it had a special seal put on it when you were born, using your blood. The firstborn’s blood can be quite powerful magic. And for whatever reason-”

“They want to open the vault,” Drake finished. “And you don’t know what’s in it?”

“Surprise, surprise…there are things even money can’t buy. No one really knows what’s in it.” Raile shrugged, and looked at Vela. “What about you? Any idea of what it could be? I doubt it, since you didn’t even know why they were after you.” He sighed. “My guess is it’s a weapon. The family isn’t exactly on the best of terms with the world right now…”

“Being chased down isn’t exactly fun for me Raile. If it’s not them… It’s ex-boyfriends who I looted before I left em.”

She kicked her feet softly, “I know a little about the vault. I had honestly forgotten about it. Yes, I was a disappointment to my father which is why he can go fuck himself.” She got her second cherry tart and sipped on it now. “It was getting drilled into my head it was important I get married and give birth to a son so that they could inherit it. I couldn’t give a fuck about it honestly. The only reason I haven’t raided it is that I don’t know where it is and I really just don’t want to open it for them. Fuck them.”

Putting her hand on her elbow she relaxed and watched Raile. “That’s all I got for questions though. Not a lot I can do with the information. They did find us in Kanuri though so they are most definitely tracking me down. I wouldn’t be shocked if Rhenakos also has been questioned but he wouldn’t sell me out. He likes my ass too much.”

He was a simple man with simple likes.

“What should our next play be?” She looked at Drake. It was unusual for Vela to actually care about what another thought. “Don’t you say a fucking thing!” She pointed at Raile. “Mind ya business and we’ll keep making ya silver.”

There was a sly look from Raile as Vela yelled at him to keep his mouth shut, but the merchant complied. He had that scheming look again as he sat back, waiting for Drake to answer.

Drake thought for a moment, and crossed his arms. “Not much we can do but work on the next job,” he said finally. “We don’t really have a reason to go after the angels…just gotta keep avoiding them.” Vela seemed to approve of that answer, and Raile produced a set of scrolls and papers.

“Good. Here we go,” Raile said as he unfurled the scrolls. “To the Northeast, there’s a ruin said to be the home of a tribe that worshipped…ah, what’s the name….Etanu? Before the big guy was imprisoned, he supposedly roamed the lands. In order to appease him, these people worshipped him. Judging by the fact that they’re all dead, I’m pretty sure Etanu didn’t care. Anyway, there’s supposed to be some fancy relics there. If not, there’s bound to be something worth it all.” He rolled the scrolls back up and passed them over to Vela.

“So, same as last time, then? Get what we can, send it, and meet later?” Drake asked.

“Aye,” Raile replied as he took a sip. “Hop to it…and…for the love of Gods, Vela, please don’t break this tavern.”