Hiding in plain sight? [Maria]

Era's market was a bustling mess of noise. People swarmed the streets in vast numbers from vendor to vendor. It was hard to believe that the town was now practically being ran by Grimoire Heart. It was hard to tell who was converted to the dark guild's motives or who just really didn't care. The latter seemed most likely though since the town didn't seem as... "harsh" as she would have expected.

Any other time, Aergia would have stayed away from such a place. A place where there was so much people and so much noise. A place where she could very well run into some dark mage who likely wanted to drink her blood... or something. But, curiosity was one of her greatest faults and in spite of herself, she found herself going from vendor to vendor, trying to blend in with the mix of people. A task made slightly more difficult considering her attire, but so far she hadn't had any actual problems.

Well, except for the old man before her who was now trying to overprice her on what he called a "scent lacrima". The item seemed to have the ability to make her scent detectable for up to one hundred meters as long as she's carrying it. "five hundred thousand jewels is far too much for this," she said stoically.

"Take it or leave it lady. I got a lot of people who will be willing to pay twice that for this thing."

She worked her fingers along the lacrima with a silent hum. "That's a lie and you know it. But, I'll take it anyway," she said with a sigh. Sure, she could probably bargain him down to a better price since she knew it wasn't even worth half that. That and after giving him the five hundred thousand she would only have about four hundred thousand left. But caring about all that would of course be too troublesome, and since she had the money, might as well just buy it.

"Here, take it. If it doesn't work, I'll be back," she threatened. Not really, it's too much work to walk back here, she thought handing over the money and started off again. She looked over the crystalline ball, trying to pick up a scent from it. Nothing. It seemed to only allow others to smell her as she could see people were now more alerted of her presence. Considering she was trying to keep a low cover, perhaps buying such a lacrima wasn't a good idea, she was beginning to think. She shrugged off the thought, choosing to instead remain naive and ignorant to her own tendency to bring trouble her way.

The matters of her gambling debts was one she skill fully avoided. It felt so long since she had gotten her debt to the ridiculous amount it was today. And of course, being herself, she avoided the troublesome problem rather than faced it, only causing it to escalate to where it was right now. To the point where she now had even more trouble that she was trying to avoid in the first place. There were several people who she owed at this point and even now she was avoiding payments however she could, further adding to the problem.

Still, at least for the last few months or so she hadn't had any run in with her creditors. She had made easy work of avoiding them in the pass thanks to her cloning magic. The idiots. Still, the day would come, she knew, when she would probably be forced to leave Fiore once the matters in the continent became too troublesome. That'd of course be for more reasons that one though since besides her debt, there were far too many troubles she had otherwise. Problems she chose to remain ignorant to.

And as the woman departed from the stand, she got but a few feet away before she was confronted. She stopped and inclined her head just slightly to the young looking girl. Even though she only looked at ehr face, she had taken in a lot about the woman's features already. She couldn't help herself from do that. Natural observation really. The girl didn't look much, she summed up, alas, looks were deceiving and the request was strange.

She perhaps should have been cautious, but her mind found the task too tedious to be bothered with. And instead of taking precaution or just saying no, with a shrug, the woman took the order from the strange young woman. Once again, her own convenient naivety was leading her into trouble since it was quite obvious this wasn't something good. But, oh well.

"Mind telling me where we are going?" she asked dully. She didn't care really, and as she was now caught up in examining the lacrima at her hands, she probably wouldn't hear the answer anyway. But a a little bit of mindless conversing never hurt.

"As long as your paying, sure thing," the Enca Princess responded. She still found the entire thing strange, but the woman was at least offering to take her to a bar, so that was perhaps a good sign. That or she was trying to get her drunk. She pushed all the thoughts from her head once they become too troublesome and followed in the woman's foot steps.

She was grateful that the path to the bar wasn't too great. The girl's interaction with the town's folk at least somewhat implied she was native and friendly. Perhaps luck was finally going her way as she could see herself twisting all of it to her further advantage. Probably befriend this girl and use her to get whatever she wanted. The girl seemed stoical thus far though, intensely so.

And as she had inquired her about the lacrima at the clone mage's finer tip, Aergia's attention was stolen from the orb for just a bit. As per usual, she saw no reason to liee. "It's suppose to be some kind of smell lacrima according to the vendor I bought it from," he explained, ending with a final shrug of her shoulders. Why do you ask?"

The bar the girl had chosen was quiet. Perhaps too quiet. It drew the young elf's suspicion for she was always known to be observant and intelligent in her own laid back way. Yet, for all her suspicion, she ignored it all and let the thought fade into the back of her mind. For it was the type of place she liked regardless. For her, nothing was better than a place that was quiet while at the same time allowing her to enjoy a good alcoholic beverage to her heart's content.

The bar audience of course followed her, for the woman always stood out. As usual, she ignored the gazes and followed the woman to a comfortable little spot and taking up a chair. "I'll have the same, keep bringing them as I finish them though," she said. If her mother ever heard her speaking in such a way the woman would probably pinch her severely.

She made herself comfortable, her focus still on the lacrima in her hands though. She still had little didea how the darn thing worked. Without looking up, she answered the question tossed her way. "I travel a lot, I'm originally from Enca though," she said, seeing no need to complicate things with lies. She never really saw the need for it; ask her and she would answer. "Isn't names usually the first topic of conversation though?" she arched a brow.

Old woman? If Aergia had actually heard that she perhaps would have been offended to be called such. Probably not, after all, it was too much work to make a big deal out of something as subjective as age. Everyone had their opinion of what was old and young. After all, to her, the girl before her seemed like just that... a girl. True enough, she had blossomed early, as by time she was sixteen she already looked well into her twenties. Whereas, the young girl before her didn't look a day over sixteen. So, perhaps indeed, Aergia was the old woman and Maria the young.

It was questionable whether the young girl was even old enough to be drinking. But, it mattered not, for the laws of the land had always been flexible. Her mother and father—mainly her father really—had many times allowed her to sit at the tables of their families many feasts and drink to her heart's content. Mainly wine or champaign, or the stuff with so little alcohol, but she always loved alcohol to calm her thoughts, and so, even with wine, she would easily drink until she was bordering upon drunken stupidity—much to her mother's chastising.

Alas, in Fiore she had yet to have such luxury of drinking to her heart's content. For despite her reckless habits most times, she knew to tread lightly in the foreign land. In Enca she was a princess, soon to be Queen. A Goddess in fact for her unique birth had assured it. Alas, in Fiore she was just another citizen. One who stood out even more so for her ears, beauty and choice attire. Especially the latter, for she had indeed been charged with public indecency at some points in her ventures on the continent.

For the most part the young girl before her seemed to look pass most of that. She knew it probably was not good intentions, but for now she wasn't exactly sure what the girl's intentions were and at least with a name, she would know better when they met once in the undoubted future. Then again, she wouldn't be surprised if she forgot the name the moment the two went their separate paths. The beer mug now at her grasp, she let her fingers play with the handle mindlessly. "I wasn't entirely serious about names," she said with a shrug, "I'll most likely forget it by night fall. Regardless, it is a also a pleasure to meet you, Maria," she said with a nod, offering her hand. Her mother at least thought her to be respectful.

She took a swig from the beer, immediately downing half of it, a bit of it escaping at the corner of her lips and falling onto her chest and down the fine crevice of her bust. Her mother was probably roll in her fine robes from that and a lustful man probably rolled in his grave alike. Finished, she looked back towards the woman, showing no surprised that the woman knew her name. After all, the entire encounter was shady from the beginning and she had quite the reputation. She wouldn't be surprised if the woman knew what time she was up in the morning.

She felt the need to correct the woman in that her proper title would be "Aergia of house Xi", nonetheless, she didn't. Far too much trouble to correct something so trivial even though her family always made a big deal of it. More importantly, she had a bigger problem here. She looked at the woman slightly surprised once she had revealed her intentions. "Who is your client? I thought for sure I didn't owe any payments to anyone for at least another two or three weeks," she responded a frustrated frown marking her lips. She finishing her beer and waved for more—she was going to need it.

""Mr. Box," Aergia repeated andthen chuckled. Evening in the situation she found humour in the name. Still, she had no idea who that was. Clever name." The bartender, Mat was it? had returned once more with another glass and she took another long, wonderful swig from the drink before setting it down and hissing in content.

She swallowed, paused, and then continued. "Any chance I could meet this Mr. Box. Surely we could come to some kind of agreement orsomething," she said, furrowing a brow. "Since I pretty much spent the last bit of my earnings this week on buying this lacrima here as you can see." She realized she might have been playing with fire here, but the girl seemed reasonable, much more reasonable than those who had come for her before. Still, Aergia knew not to judge a book by its cover, since it was questionable how the girl even got such a task to begin with.

Awaiting her answer, she took another long swig from the beer mug, finishing it as well. Once more she waved for more.

"That's surprising, I thought for sure you were here to beat me to a pulp till I gave you the money or forcefully drag me. That's usually how things go when someone comes after me for money," she said, shrugging once more. "Guess I'm glad they are finally learning. Makes things much more... pleasant." She took another long swig from the beer, intent on finishing it all off.

Hearing the girl request they leave, she stopped and then whined just slightly. "So soon. I was hoping I could get another drink or two." With a sigh in defeat, she finished the drink as she knew arguing - if one chose to call it such - the issue with her could only serve to result in one of those "troublesome" moments she hated. Besides, the girl probably hated buying drinks for her already.

She started towards the thought, but the hand around her wrist caught her off guard enough she stumbled as she was held back. "You want to drink more. I'll buy you all the drinks you want, hun." Aergia looked back to find that her hand was captured by a well built man of older age. He seemed between a mix of sober and drunk as she could smell the alcohol on his breath, but yet he seemed controlled and relaxed in his advance.

A sigh escaped her at the situation. It was certain to happen at some point after all. Some guy seeing her attire and thinking it his invitation. She was surprised it took so long really. "Thank you for the offer, but I'd feel guilty using your money," she responded stoically, albeit maintaining some semblance of respect. The man didn't take her seriously of course and pull her closer, securing his hand firmly on the tender flesh of her exposed bottom.

"Just take the offer, sweet buns, I'll be worth it if you do, trust me." He tightened his grip on her bum and then winked at her. The sexual undertone in his words made her feel noxious to her core.

She wordlessly looked at the girl, Maria, who was just about out the door, her expression read "are you going to do something about this?" She of course didn't think of the woman as her caretaker, but it was the girl's task to escort her, so she was hoping she could trust her with such a task without any trouble along the way.

"I wouldn't worry about me getting intoxicated, it'd take practically a entire days worth of beers to do that," Aergia said. "And that debt comment was vicious. Well played," she added stoically.

Aergia stood without moving from the man's grasp. The man's grip on her butt was so firm it hurt and every second of it made her feel noxious as she knew curiosity was getting to him. She saw the girl give her back a look and she interpreted the meaning rather well. Although she was hoping she didn't actually mean that aergia had to deal with this herself. Oh how she hoped.

No doubt she could take down the man, but it really wouldn't be very efficient. Clone magic had helped her many times... many times, alas, it was a supplementary magic rather than one meant for actual fighting. Sure, she had taken down many men such as this one with it. But, considering her rather poor physical conditioning and her gender being a disadvantage she still always need edat least three or four clones to take down most men. She'd likely do more damage to the bar than the man himself before the fight would be over and done with.

That said, she was more than pleased when the girl had stepped in to her aid. Like lightning she was there to her aid. If Aergia actually cared for fighting she perhaps would have been impressed by how powerful the girl was. Or perhaps if she didn't here the girl's claim. Girlfriend. She turned to her, not as much surprised as confused. "Was claiming me your girlfriend really necessary?" she asked with a sigh. She probably should have waited until they were out of the fire to say that, but the surprise made her ask immediately.

"Is this your girlfriend or not?" the guy asked from his position on the floor.

"Yea, yea, I'm her girlfriend," Aergia responded if only to pass the situation. Not entirely believable, but the man didn't look like he'd pry further if it was Maria making the claim. She seemed to have some sort of odd respect from others.

The man laughed heartedly. "Where'd you find such a girl, Maria. I can see every bit of her from down here," he said. Aergia scowled at him, although she had learned long ago that whereas in Ena people feared angering her, in Fiore, dressed as she was, no one ever really took her seriously. It came off looking more cute than angry. She moved away from him so as to stop him from looking up under her strands of clothing.

He stood and grinned. "Either way, I know better not to touch her if she's yours. You should bring her around more often though. Just seeing her is a treat," he said with a wink. Aergia scoffed. She was planning to return to the bar for a drink after this whole money ordeal was over and done with.A real drink. Now she wasn't sure. Then again, that was assuming she even had any money left after this.

Aergia stumbled slightly as she was rushed outside by the girl. She felt like a child now. Considering the situation she really didn't mind all that much. The sooner they were out of the bar the better. Alas, the elf princess could feel it. She knew it. A lecture was coming. She really didn't need to be lectured by some little girl who, other than being same height with her, seemed half her age at best.

"Considering you just claimed me your girlfriend and he just rest his hand on my butt some people would say he deserved being beaten a little too hard. With the way you reacted anyone with a brain could have see that the two of us weren't together. Thank god that guy didn't have one I guess though," she responded stoically. She knew she making a scene out of nothing since they managed to escape regardless, but she felt that it was important, more or less. "Either way, a fight would have been troublesome indeed I guess."

"I know what you are getting at, but I'm sorry, I won't change my clothing for such petty reasons," she said. There was no anger in her tone, albeit there was a hint of indignation. "If you have such a problem with it perhaps you should wear it too. One person is a stand out, two people is a statement. Or something like that. I don't really care."

"How far is this place anyway might I asked?" she added. She knew she was perhaps being a handful so she asked the question rather politely.