Only a short amount of time had passed since Dalanesca’s first encounter with Icarus.  Although the meeting had not started out on the best of terms (she had a lovely scar forming where his blade had gashed her thigh), the events that had transpired led to a much more amicable environment between the two of them.  They had discussed much, and there had been hints here and there as to indicate that the two of them had met at some point in their pasts; however, neither one of them could remember clearly, as hard as they tried.

Fortunately, Icarus had a journal with a mildly detailed account of their previous meeting.  While no names were mentioned, the description and sketches were enough to convince her that it was about her.  Such happenstance had led to her asking for his assistance - something that, at the time, she had been unsure if he would be willing to offer.  To Dalanesca’s surprise, he had accepted.  He just had some things he needed to take care of, first.

In the time since their meeting, Dalanesca had stayed low.  She had chosen to stay out of Mamlak as she was uncertain if friends of the dispatched assassins that had been trailing her for the last contract she had chosen to accept would come after her for what had been done.  Adeluna City was out of the question, as well, for stepping out of her line of work had upset quite a few of her regular clients and she was almost certain that a bounty had been put out on her head - not to mention the angered client from another contract she had failed to fulfill.

As she knew the cover of a large city would be more fitting for her, she headed to Vilpamolan.  The town was a breeding ground for pirates and thieves, but there were so many unsavory type people in one compressed area, it was a good cover for her.  With all of the chaos and drama surrounding the people already there, no one would be able to track her down - unless she wanted them to.  A regular run-of-the-mill woman may have been terrified to stay in one of the rooms above the tavern that Dalanesca had chosen to take up residence in, but she had more than enough practice at defending herself.  

She had sent word with a courier to Icarus of where she was staying, in hopes that he still planned on holding up his end of the deal on meeting up with her.  The message was a vague enough that had it been intercepted, 

”Still helping?  I’m in an undesirable place - little hard for me to find work here, now.  Haven’t quite taken to wearing an eyepatch yet.  I’ll be here for a while, assuming you are able to complete your task at hand.  See you soon, I hope - I’ll save you a seat, but don’t get drunk and fall out of it this time.

-D.”

Her routine was fairly monotonous.  She would wake in the morning and venture out to Moritus Swamp, fight off some of the nasty creatures that were there (something about fighting gave her peace), and head back to town.  She passed a small clearing on the way back, where she would stop and relax in the silence for a short period of time, before heading back to the tavern in town where she had a room.  She would spend some time down at the bar and head back to her room when she was inebriated enough to the point she could go to sleep.  

A few times here and there she had taken up a small task helping some people out.  Most recently it had been a caravan guard who wanted assistance passing through the city itself - she didn’t blame them.  The two men and one woman of the group did not seem ready for Vilpamolan - but she got them through the city without incident.  

-

Dalanesca sat at the bar with a flagon of meade in front of her.  She had lost the assassin’s garb for the time being, dressed quite simply in a loose white tunic with a leather corset worn over it, leather leggings with rawhide laces up the sides, and a pair of thigh boots.  It was enough clothing where she could hide a few small daggers and her spine sheath, but that was it.  She had, so far, been able to avoid any major incidents (though she was sporting the remnants of a black eye from a brawl she had gotten in a few nights ago).  

It was here that she sat for the past few nights, in hopes that the courier had found Icarus and that he would in fact be there soon.  She found herself hoping that the merchant had been moved to safety successfully, and she planned on inquiring about that shortly after he would arrive - if he did arrive.

Perhaps it was sheer luck or some binding of fate, but Icarus was saved from having to travel all the way back to Mamlak by a courier that had caught up to him in Vilpamolan.  Tipping the man a few silvers was no big deal to him after he had just received a payment, and he took time to walk into the nearest tavern before he read the message.  Sitting in the corner he had occasionally inhabited when work brought him to this city and particular tavern, Icarus kicked his feet on the table and opened the letter.

From his prior engagement, Icarus had been told to seek out a fellow merchant that had been in a bit of a dire strait and could use his assistance since he was so talented at what he did.  That assignment would wait until later when he could devote the time to it and he had already given Dalanesca his word that he would assist her at the soonest convenience after his business with the merchant was finished.  Now that it was, he would seek her out among the various taverns until he came across her.  

He sought her out, taking a few hours as he went tavern to tavern, spending a little bit of time in each before moving on to the next.  All the while, the man that was slowly beginning to build a reputation as a guardian of others wore his mask, keeping his face hidden in mystery to those that had never met him.  After a seeming eternity, he came upon the tavern where he could see her relaxing at the bar, a flagon of mead resting before her.  

Icarus took a moment to scan the tavern to ensure there were no threats in the area like last time.  Either pursuers were being exceedingly careful or there was no threat present in the building.  He walked up beside her and sat down, back facing the bar with his elbows propped on the counter.  Just because he hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary didn't mean there wouldn't be anything.

"I'm here, surprised to see you made it all the way out here.  You saved me the trouble of turning around and going back.  What's the job?" he asked.

She didn’t look directly at Icarus when he sat down, but chose to reach out and grasp her beverage in front of her, bringing the edge of the flagon to her lips and taking a long draw of the liquid before setting it back down.  She then turned towards him, and noted his presence, offering him a quick smile.  ”Nice to see you,” she said, reaching out for another drink of her meade.  She set the glass back on the counter with a clunk, and gave him her full attention, first choosing to address his comment on how far she had made it.

She gave him a bit of a shrug, accompanied with a quiet laugh.  ”I’m not exactly popular much of anywhere these days,” she quipped.  ”I figured a city full of criminals and pirates would be a good place to hide out,” she added.  The barkeep stopped by to offer her a refill on her meade, and she ordered one for Icarus as well.  He returned shortly with two full flagons, setting one in front of each of them, before bustling off to do something else behind the bar. 

”Guess the courier found you at the right time, then,” she said.  ”Sorry my message was so cryptic, but I couldn’t chance it being intercepted,” she added.  ”Got quite a few people who are unhappy with my decisions to back out of some contracts. Fortunately, I haven’t really had any major problems since Mamlak,” she said, but raised a hand to point out her blackened eye that blemished her face.  ”Major problems, mind you… I just can’t keep my mouth shut when I drink,” she continued.  ”Told a man he looked like his mother had bred with a goat… he didn’t like that,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.  ”Everyone else got an awful lot of enjoyment out of it, though!”

She eyed the mask he wore over his face, and couldn’t help herself from expelling the words that had popped into her mind.  ”D’you ever take that thing off?” she asked.  She meant no offense to him, but it truly bothered her that she knew his face and was unable to see it when he spoke to her - but again, she could also understand the necessity for concealing one’s identity.  After all, she was the one hiding out in a town run by pirates.  

She was silent for a moment at the question of what sort of job she was looking for assistance with, trying to find the best way to phrase what it was she wanted help with.  Eventually, she decided that it would be best if she just tried to piece her thoughts together as they came - he could ask questions if he needed clarification.  ”I need to figure out how I came to be here,” she said, and the intonation of her voice made it quite apparent that ‘here’ did not mean Vilpamolan, but rather the world she was now in as a whole.  ”And I think… Well, I mean, your journal made it obvious, that I knew you, somehow?  Something happened, before, and we met, or… well I don’t know.  Do you know?” she asked.  She ran a hand through her long, dark hair, and furrowed her brow in frustration.

”We came from the same place,” she said, though her words faltered as though she was not sure.  ”And I’ve run into a few people who seem just as familiar to me as they do to you, some even more so,” she added.  Her voice had almost taken on a sad tone, as though she found despair in the unknown.  ”There’s got to be something,” she said, truly struggling to express her mind.  ”There have to be clues, or someone who knows… do you think you can help me find them?” she asked, her eyes looking directly into his own.  There was a look to her gaze that almost pleaded with him for his help - she was grasping at strings.  She was unsure if he would offer his assistance or not, but she needed to at least ask him.  ”I’ll pay you, or whatever… but consider helping me, please…”  She stared at him a bit more, the sadness of her voice darkening her eyes, before turning away from him to take another drink of her beverage, hoping that his answer would be favorable.

His companion's logic made Icarus chuckle a bit.  She had a solid point in the sense that the city was as good a place as any for her to hide out, perhaps better due to the fact it was a rogue city state of sorts given the aristocracy was essentially at the mercy of the pirates.  He could recall several instances of others in his previous life where associating with the dregs of society was the best option and had kept him safe at times.  

"You'd be surprised how quickly one is forgotten in a city like this.  Taking the high road is often a bit more of an arduous task, especially when one has gone from such a vastly different station in life," he said, agreeing with her on the point and realizing she was in the middle of a difficult transition.  Her joke concerning her recollection of insulting a man's appearance made him chuckle.  "I suppose one can call that animal husbandry," he interjected.

She questioned his mask, wondering if he ever took the mask off his face.  For him, it was a bit more important than simply wearing a mask for the sake of it.  The mask had belonged to Cain, his immortal master and the man that trained him to greater heights than most humans could hope to aspire to.  He supposed it was due to the fact the man was more than four hundred years old and had taken his time perfecting the form of his vampiric nature to become trained to perfection.  Icarus received some of the best tutelage the man had to offer.

Cain had proven to be a man that, although dark in his very nature, had sacrificed everything he could numerous times to ensure the survival of humanity.  He had been cut to pieces facing Obelisk, fighting to protect Yggdrasil, the world tree of their realm, only to regenerate and rise to the occasion and defeat him.  Even the assault on the mortal realm by the Devil Gods had been halted temporarily by his great sacrifice as he expended all of the dark energy he had collected from Obelisk and exploded in a wave that wiped clean the battlefield of all demons for miles.  It brought a great respite for the weary mortal alliance and rendered him comatose quite possibly until the end of days would be upon them.  

He was the man Icarus strove to be but would never submit to the immortality of vampirism to accomplish that goal.  Icarus wished to eventually pass on to the next life and be reunited with all the loved ones he had lost along the way, from Rygar to the father he never knew was truly his, the mother who died of a broken heart, the wife who killed herself when he died the first time, his student who died protecting those he loved out of her service to him, and even those he served alongside.  They would all be reunited in the afterlife and experience a paradise together the likes of which simple mortality could never know.  It was that belief alone that kept him pressing onward out of the love he held for all people that he could leave them able to see their children growing without pain or fear into adults who would beget further children.  The mask encompassed all this and was a reminder that he was doing everything out of memory for those he loved.

"Suffice to say, I much prefer the anonymity the mask offers.  If no one sees my face, it makes it easier to blend in when I choose to remove it," he explained, offering a partial truth.  It wasn't untrue, just not a full truth.  She didn't need to know these additional things, at least at this time. 

She explained more about what in particular concerned her and for the first time, Icarus cocked his head toward her.  Dalanesca had pieced only about the same amount of information concerning her past as Icarus had done for himself.  Certainly, he knew of his time within his own world, but the transitive life he had lived for years in the other world was broken into bits and pieces.  He scarcely even recalled her from his previous life.  Thinking for a moment with his arms crossed and one hand on his chin and the mask, Icarus weighed the options.

"Honestly, I can do this pro-bono so long as it doesn't become too terribly troublesome.  I stand as much to gain from this as you do because I have similar problems concerning the recent past," he explained.  "So, where did you think we should start first?" he inquired, thinking of how he could assist her.