"What terrible taste..."
That was the first impression Aelis had, as she got off the for-hire carriage. She consulted once more with the carriage driver about the address on the slip bearing Duke Lurris's seal. After being assured that this was indeed the place, and with the carriage driver gone his way, he had agreed to come back to pick her up in two hours, Aelis slowly made her way to the building nestled under the bridge.
It was no fancy manor, mansion, or castle she had come to expect, nor was it at least a public place for townspeople to hang about. It was an old run-down inn, that see lovely business days before the bridge had been constructed. After which, it had fallen into huge disrepair. Why in the world would a man as expensive as the Duke pick a place like this for a rendezvous?
She clutched her skirts and raised them, good thing she was wearing her riding shoes today, and sauntered up the creaking stairs, carefully pushing the door open.
"Duke Lurris?" she spoke into the dark room as plumes of dust danced at her feet. She quickly raised her fan to her nose.
Behind her, the sun was starting to set.
It wouldn't take a genius to realize that the Duke was of course not here, in a rundown hovel under the bridge at some of the shadier corners of Orira, and Aelis figured as much as she rolled her eyes and began to turn around.
All of a sudden, rough sturdy hands grabbed hold of her arms and someone slammed the door shut.
What idiots...
"Tie her arms! ARMS!" a woman's shrill voice yelled and rough hands twisted Aelis' arms behind her and soon she could feel ropes fastening around her wrists. Aelis blinked to stave off the dust and to catch a glimpse of who her assailants were.
The rough hands belonged to an unknown man who was rolling up his sleeves. He looked like a stablehand - possibly a servant of whoever the woman was. Aelis could not remember ever having laid eyes upon this woman. She racked her brain trying to think of what to do. The woman was dressed in some sort of dark outfit and had a fan spread over her face.
Wait a minute.
"That's my fan," Aelis said curtly.
Well, one thing Aelis could tell for sure was that her captor was a noble lady. This was not some sort of mugging or robbery, but she was intentionally captured - although she had expected that, the moment she saw the rundown inn.
For a brief moment, no one said anything. The man stared at her, before looking at his mistress who had the most confused expression on her face.
"What are you even talking about?" the woman shrieked. She had one of the shrillest voices Aelis had ever heard. Her own guardian angel was probably shuddering every time she spoke.
But who was she?
Aelis was fairly sure she had never seen this woman's face - she had clenched the fan in her wrist as she stepped towards Aelis, showing her pretty yet frustrated face. People didn't normally wear their House colors although Aelis couldn't tell what color she was wearing in the darkness anymore.
"My Lady -" the stablehand started to say before she struck the fan at his face, effectively shutting him down. She probably didn't want to reveal her noble status. That would mean that they didn't intend to kill Aelis. At least as of yet. She narrowed her eyes and tried to feel her hands. They were still tied tight.
"You!" her captor pointed her fan at her. Aelis couldn't quite see yet, but she could smell the tang of blood among the musty dust. She probably struck him pretty hard.
"What do you want?" Aelis tried to keep her voice from shaking.
"How dare you vie for the Duke you no-name harlot!"
Ah, she was a fan.
While that made things easier to understand, for Aelis, it also made things considerably harder. She had no exact idea about what this woman wanted. It wasn't as if Aelis was walking around with the Duke in her pocket for every assailant to take from!
"Pardon me," Aelis said, "Are you close to him?"
"How dare you!" The woman smacked her cheek with the flat of her fan. "I was this close to marrying the Duke!" Aelis's cheek stung in pain, but surprisingly it was the woman who was crying. Her voice was all over the place sounding nasal and whiny.
"Do you like him so much?"
"I love him! LOVE HIM! What do you know about loving him?!" she wailed, crumbling to her knees.
Just about nothing. But Aelis couldn't outright say that. She did not want to be on the other side of her fan.
"He is my one true love!" the woman continued to say, wiping her face and turning around to face the closed door, "Only I understand the darkness inside him, only I know how to soothe him and calm him." She clasped her hands frantically like some heroine of a romance novel, "Only I can save him! Do you understand?"
She turned and Aelis and crawled to her, her dress dragging on the sticky and dirty floor. And she raised the hand with the fan as if to slap her again.
The door stormed open and the woman squealed.
Perhaps luring Aelis wasn't the crux of her plan after all.
Who should it be but Duke Remonn Emeral of Lurris who stood against the darkened evening staring into the rundown hovel with eyes darker than a winter's night?