... And Baby Makes Three.

It was a dark, stormy night, the kind where all sorts of shady deals and liaisons occur. With the approaching bad weather, travelers had been forced to find shelter, at least for now, and always a popular shelter was a tavern. Warm food, at least room temperature alcohol, entertainment, it was fairly obvious why it was such a popular choice. It was a good bet at least.

Thus, Fēowertīne's gamble had paid off when she recognized a certain wagon. Quietly, she slipped into the building, her cloak sprinkled with the beginning drops of the rainstorm, and looked around. She spotted what she'd come for in the corner of thee room, though with some sort of company. She silently moved through the crowded room before coming up to the table.

"Do not give that man a single dinar, he's abandoned me three times now!" she announced loudly, planting her hands onto the table in an act of defiance as she looked between the two. The man looked between the girl and the hunter before him before finally excusing himself, the cloaked girl taking his seat quickly. "... You almost had me back at the crossroads," she stated quietly, staring across the table at Heinrich with her usual dull, angry stare.

The man Heinrich was making the deal with was a thin man, with a pallid complexion, apprehensive expression and a troubled brow that were all hallmarks of one who'd been in a community that had ran afoul of the worst depredations of a corrupted beast and badly needed it dealt with.

The bush-bearded man looked to the girl and over at Henrich. [color:730b=#fff]"Is this true, sir?"

Heinrich, meanwhile, sat opposite of him, a cup of warm mulled wine in one hand, rosy-cheeked and cheerful as always. "No, sir, it is not true! I only abandoned her once. Just the one time." He held up a index finger, so there was no confusion. "And before you ask, this is not my daughter, this is not my anything. Hence the abandonment."

The man fumbled with his fingers on the table. [color:730b=#fff]"Actually, I think…would it be alright if I looked for another hunter for this?"

Without so much as missing a beat, Heinrich cheerfully responded. "But of course, sir. It's your money! Its your prerogative to want to spend it in the most efficient way possible as you see fit! But do remember, the price I offered to deal with your pest problem was for today. Should you hire one of my competitors and they are not able to take care of your problem, when you come back to me we may have to renegotiate prices with that taken into consideration."
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"I'll uh…I'll keep that in mind! I'll leave you two to it then." He wasted no further time pushing off from the table and leaving to find someone else who could take care of his problem.

It was only when he was gone did Heinrich finally look at and address Feo. His face split into one of those big, sardonic grins of his, but there was definitely a glint of irritation and malice in his eyes. "Oh, Eve two. Fancy meeting you here…how's the cough, then?"

As Fëo was doing some rather crazy accusations to discredit Heinrich to the man he was talking to, someone came to the tavern. This person being more of a shrouded figure, with the image of her body completely blocked by the cloak she wore. Her eye scanned the place, landing on the source of some girl making a big fuss over something, and two men talking about something she said. From the doorway, Kassandra took one step ahead, and heard that apparently she tarnished some sort of deal between the men.

And on closer inspection, one of them looked awfully familiar...

"Mmmh..." Kassandra stood there, looking at the man walking away from the table, which allowed her to look at the remaining man, and realized that he was actually that hunter that accepted the wolf job previously. The competent one... What was his name again? Henry? Henritch? "Heinrich.""Shut up you."

And to make sure she didn't gain any looks of people due to the weird whisper that came from her cloak, Kassandra walked towards the table where the two were sitting at. Her eye turned towards Heinrich, as a stern look remained on her face. "Hey. Is that girl causing you trouble?" She barely knew the man, but it seemed that the girl ruined some job opportunity for him. And that was rude.

"Much better, thanks to that doctor you so kindly abandoned me at," she replied, those dull eyes keeping up their intense stare-down. "You are a hard man to find, though there were many lips loosened by the tale of a young girl trying to find her neglectful father, it's certainly a tale I'll have to keep close to my heart, 'Papa'." In the short time she'd known Heinrich, and from reading up on him in Nigon's journal, she'd gotten the idea that the way to dig her heels into Heinrich was to besmirch his good name.

It seemed that was a way to get the attention of other people, though, as suddenly a young woman came up to address her. In response, not tearing her eyes off Heinrich, as if he'd one-up her again if she did, she pulled out a bag of dinars, which was surprising considering she had given everything she had to Heinrich the last time they'd met.

"I'm a paying customer as well," she replied, assuming Kassy was one of the workers there. However, she did pull her hood off finally, and with that, the older woman would realize that it seemed she was familiar with both of these people; despite her green hair, her face was spot-on for a certain bratty young lady she'd left with Anna. "Please do not misunderstand, this louse of a man is a relative of mine, and this is a family affair."

"Blood claims blood, and this is no kin of mine." He responded dismissively. The only appropriate response to that kind of slander. OH, it was that mage girl from the last wolf hunt. Her name was Kassandra, was it?

"Nothing major, just a nuisance." She was the one who wasn't an idiot who thought they could actually do any hunting while hung over, if he recalled right. At least she knew how to handle herself. It was less awkward when they didn't expect you to come bail them out every minute or so.

But back to the matter at hand. He didn't ask how she'd come to more money, or even acknowledge the existence of the bag of gold at all. "Alright then. I ask you then, what do you need done? And keep in mind I am a hunter. Not a nanny, or a bodyguard and I'm sure not your papa."

Despite Kassandra always having an unamused look on her face, her eye squinted when Fëo revealed herself. For a moment she thought she went insane out of annoyance, but the young girl had an uncanny resemblence to a certain higher-than-thou witch she met not too long ago. In fact, it was so uncanny, that if it wasn't for the different color of hair, Fëo would look exactly like her. And that wasn't something Kassandra didn't enjoy one bit.

She mentioned how this was family business, and Heinrich denied it. He could be some adoptive guardian, but Kassandra highly doubted that, and despite him mentioning that she was 'just a nuisance', for all Kassandra knew, she could be Eve with some sort of hairpiece. And given how she seemingly screwed him over, she wasn't going to let Eve or some henchwoman of hers sours someone else's day. The very least she could do is not leave him alone with her.

"Sounds to me that something else is at work." She said calmly, before sitting down next to Heinrich. "If this is a job offer, I have you know that I worked with this man in the past, and so far we exceeded all expectations. You want to run this by me as well as him." Was she trying to steal Heinrich's job opportunity? Not exactly, she just didn't want this little girl to not bother him. He definitely didn't deserve a thorn in his backside.

"...? Are you not a tavern wench?" Fēowertīne asked, perplexed by Kassandra's behavior. Normally she'd ignore someone interfering with her task at hand for as long as she could, but it seemed that she was intent on getting involved in this, one way or another. "... Well, there is no money to be had for you then. My business is with this louse and him alone."

For now, the young girl pulled her bag of dinars back, almost defensively, from the two.

"If I have to continue paying you for the courtesy of not being abandoned when I'm ill or looking away, I am willing to negotiate. But understand this; if you manage to lose me next time, She will hunt you down Herself and decide if you have the Answer She seeks or not, right then and there. If you don't... and maybe even if you do... Well, regardless, since you've met Her already, that's your fate if you try to run," Fēo stressed, staring at the man across the table from her. She kept her words ominous mostly because of their company, partially for her own good, and partially in an attempt to chase her off. Sometimes people fled at the sight of danger, she'd learned. "It's in our best interests that you stop making this far more difficult than it needs to be. I assume you can understand that much, at least."

Oh, threats, and menace! Everyone was all riled up about this weren't they? He smiled, and held up his hand to hold Kassandra's retort.

"Well now, it sounds like we have very different views of this situation. Have a seat, I only wanna explain this once."

Despite the fact that greed was surely one of Heinrich's worse vices, he makes no attempt to take the money, in fact, he slides it back to her. "I'm not running from your mistress Feo." Huh! He did remember her name! That might have been more cause to celebrate, if he didn't mention it with a low, serious hiss.

"If she wants me, no doubt she'll find me. My answer's gonna be the same then as it is now. How she feels about that is entirely on her, but you know what I won't tolerate?"

Like most rhetorical questions, it was best if it was never answered. Heinrich moved right along, and explained the point. "Anythin' getting in my way for the convenience of whatever tumbles around in her head. If its troublesome, and I don't need it, I leave it behind."

He had been glaring down at her at this tirade. But afterwards, he pulled back into a smile and said with his usual mock joviality. "Now, with that in mind, since I left you i--n the hands of a doctor and not fending for yourself on the cold hard ground of the wilderness, I Might add-- make you?"

Uh oh.

"Do I look like one?" Kassandra said, practically snarling at Fëo. There were bandages covering her forehead and her right eye, and a dark blue cloak covered her entire body, which was clad in a mix of heavy and light armor, and this girl believed she was some sort of prostitute? They barely made conversation, and Kassandra already felt the girl was insufferable. However, this didn't deter her from her plan, as she stated how, while she didn't shoo her way, she won't be payed for whatever Fëo was about to propose to Heinrich, and she even pulled the bag of coins away. If it wasn't because she intruded out of semblance of 'good will', she'd say to him that the owe her.

But then, they'd get to the point.

Throughout the talk, Fëo talked about how she was seemingly wanting Heinrich to do something, and that apparently she was the proxy of someone else, a cagey sort of talk that only made Kassandra glare at the girl. Given the uncanny resemblence, she had the mild suspicion that this ominous person was Eve. And by 'mild suspicion', she basically was jumping to such a conclusion, and was waiting for the girl to say something that'd prove otherwhise. "So what, you are being stalked by a cagey brat and her mysterious 'mistress' because they want to make you an offer you can't refuse? What have you gotten yourself into, Mills?" She asked to Heinrich, not caring if Fëo listened to her derogatory adjectives.

"..." Fëo was clearly troubled; she wasn't expecting such an explosive reaction from Kassandra, and while it seemed like she wanted to say something to Heinrich, her expression slightly changing when he explained what he would do if Eve ever came, she seemed to hold back. "... If you simply don't make it so hard to study you, I can prove that you have nothing to do with what She wants, and then neither of us will have to lament the next encounter with the other. ... Do you honestly think I want to do this?" she finally asked, before glancing back at Kassandra's way as she asked Heinrich about what was going on.

"You can hate me if you want, but it's for your own good. Sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong is a dangerous way to live," she said quietly to the older girl, staring up at her with an expression lacking the slight twinge of malice she had when talking to Heinrich. Honestly, it was lacking in much of anything. "'Ignorance is bliss', isn't that what they say?"