Reporting In

The sun was setting in the mountains to the west when Cudd made his way through the corridors of the keep to his mistress's ready room, a small stack of papers clutched lightly in one hand. It had been barely an hour since the boat had moored at the Barrum docks, but Cudd had been busy checking with contacts and troops and putting the finishing touches on the report he had prepared on the ship.

He knocked firmly on the heavy oak doors and stood patiently, waiting for Aerfen to see him.

Aerfen looked up, recognizing Cudd's knock, and smiled. Kaissi had left not long ago, and she'd been bracing herself with some coffee before looking over the financial notes that Pr'kopytz had put together form her from the account books they'd managed to pry away from Laufrey. Content though she may be to let Laufrey take care of a lot of the running of the realm, she wanted to make sure she understood perfectly well exactly what it was he was doing.

"Come in," she called, not bothering to get up from where she was comfortably ensconced before the fireplace in a loose silk robe. She stretched, smiling as Cudd let himself in.

"My Lady" Cudd said as he entered the room. He knew full well that her official title was "Jarl" now, but he still clung to her old title when they were not in public, partly out of deference to their history together and partly because he knew it amused her.

He was unsurprised to see her lounging in her favorite robe in the large chair by the fire. The life of a ruler suited her. He approached and proffered her the stack of papers, noting as he did so that she was already engrossed in financial reports and ledgers. Apparently she had been busy as well.

"All in all, we did pretty well. We made some contacts and gained a foothold among the smugglers in the city. We also founf some interesting intel about their deployment and security. It's all in the report. There are some points we'll need to follow up on, but we only had a week. Nothing that we can't take care of over the winter months with a few lower level agents."

He paused briefly and cleared his throat, seeming uncharacteristically hesitant.

"There was an... incident... on the docks. We had to liquidate an asset and things didn't go exactly according to plan. Fortunately, everything worked out in the end. We weren't found out."

Aerven leafed through the papers Cudd handed her, nodding as he delivered his oral report, but glance up when he hesitated. "What happened?"

"Galinn and I took the asset to the docks and I disposed of it, but a couple of guardsmen happened to be passing by at that exact moment. They saw me. I managed to escape and Galinn charmed them into thinking he was just a bystander. He's resourceful and quite powerful. And worse, he knows how to play the game. I talked to him on the way home and he's as formidable with words as he is with spells. We'll need to keep a close eye on him."

Aerven nodded slowly. The enchanter had turned up out of nowhere - Laufrey seemed genuinely fond of him, and everything Stern had turned up supported the story that Galinn had lived in Barum and fled after Marvold has his own queen killed. "Powerful and resourceful is something we can use - what I want is a better sense of where his loyalties lie. Are they to Laufrey? To Oskorinn? To himself? Or something else entirely? The first two we can use, the third we can work with... The last would be more dangerous."

"Understood," Cudd said with a nod, "I'll see what I can do, but it may be too early to tell quite yet where he'll come down. He claims that Marvold killed his parents in the same maneuver that killed Lauffrey's mother. He seemed sincere about it, and there was no reason to believe he was lying. He also mentioned a sister that he was very reluctant to talk about. I thought it would be worth looking into. If nothing else she could be leverage."

"Mentioned her but didn't want to talk about her?  Hmm.  Well, I've heard of her, at least.  They're supposed to have taken off together."  Aerven shrugged.  It would be good to keep an eye on Galinn, and she trusted Cudd's instincts if he thought the enchanter bore watching.  "See what you can find out, and I'll see what else Laufrey has to say."  She paused considering.  "Laufrey hasn't been strange about him, but it might be worth having someone check - subtly - just to make she there's nothing shifty going on there, if he is a powerful enchanter."

"As you wish," Cudd said with a nod, "How have the preparations been going here? Anything that needs my immediate attention?"

"Things are fine here. Osia's busy - she's a pain but at least she knows what she's doing. The mammoth herders are on the march - they're slow, coming up along the river. I'll look over your reports and we'll have another meeting..." She paused, considering the scheduling issues and weighing how much patience she had for dealing with Osia. "Early tomorrow. Bordaghi, the mammoth contingent's commander should be arriving in town himself sometime today, so your timing is excellent." Aerven smiled. "I'll expect you around for that, but I don't think I need anything else immediately."

"Very well," Cudd said, "In that case I'm off to speak to Istra about some training issues. I'll be in the barracks if you need me."

He gave a slight bow.

"Good night, My Lady."

As soon as Aerfen acknowledged and dismissed him he turned to leave.