#I have not written yrja before so hopefully I got her voice right

[dawnslight-aegis]

24. bar

(guest starring @aster-skies's yrja~)

Kaede sat at a table in a quiet corner of the second floor of the Bobbing Cork, a large sack of gil in front of her, as well as several weapons, a few loose gemstones, some rare alchemical reagents, and a ledger. How she had ended up being the one to divvy up the spoils from two separate adventuring forays, she did not quite know. It would have been simpler to take it to Tataru, and let the Scions’ coincounter do the work, but it was rare indeed these days to have the luxury of a job that wasn’t associated with the Scions – and their finders’ fee. She didn’t begrudge the organization their cut, but it was nice to do some honest adventuring again. Besides, after that nonsense with Leviathan, she was more than happy to keep her distance from Mor Dhona for a while. Fighting primals was one thing, getting skewered by a chunk of ship railing and almost bleeding out was entirely another.

By all accounts, Marz’s group’s cleansing of Amdapor had been considerably less entertaining – and more disgusting – than Kaede’s own visit to Halatali, but both had been lucrative in their own ways. Though she had to say, gladitorial prize money was a good deal easier to portion out than random artifacts and bits that might or might not have value to the right person.

The soft scrape of wood on wood drew her attention back up, to find the other side of her table occupied by a tall, elegant viera woman, her white hair drawn back into a ponytail and a tankard of mead in each hand.

Yrja Eruyt was likely the only person in the bar to draw more attention than Kaede herself – and so a strange sort of kinship had sprung up between them, shortly after meeting a few moons previous. Precious few people Kaede had met understood what it was like to be so completely surrounded by people so much different than oneself. Add in the mess that was the Echo, and, well – Kaede was certain that the only thing separating the two of them into “adventurer” and “Warrior of Light” was Kaede’s own tendency to let herself get drawn into other people’s problems, tied down with duty and responsibility. Yrja did not seem to have that problem, coming and going as she pleased. Sometimes Kaede envied her freedom.

…It certainly didn’t hurt that she was gorgeous, either, not to mention deadly with a bow.

She accepted the mug of mead the other woman handed her with a smile. “Have they entirely destroyed the bar yet, or are they simply well on their way?”

“Last I saw, my brother and his miqo’te friend were very loudly arguing about which of them could more successfully seduce Admiral Bloefhiswyn,” Yrja murmured with a smile over the lip of her tankard, and Kaede rolled her eyes.

“Of course they are. At least it’s not Kan-E-Senna, I think that might actually get us arrested,” Kaede muttered under breath, shaking her head. “And Marz?”

“Fleecing some men in Triple Triad, I believe. Though, to her credit, they had been quite crass to the waitress.”

Sighing, Kaede rubbed her forehead. Right on cue, shouting began emanating from the first floor, followed by a string of doman swearing.

Both women glanced over the railing to see the xaela with her hands propped on her hips, staring down several angry wildwood men as a small keeper of the moon girl nervously clutched her drink tray and looked back and forth between the groups. Yrja crossed her legs and tipped her head in a graceful gesture. “I believe that means you owe me five gil?”

Sliding one coin from her own pile to the viera’s, Kaede rose and began packing up hers and Marz’s share. Doubtless it would be needed to pay for repairs. Or bail. “I’m beginning to regret this recurring bet. Yrys always manages to wait until someone else causes trouble to jump in. And that someone… is usually Marz.”

The sound of splintering wood heralded the devolving of the situation into an all-out brawl. Another look down revealed a howling elezen man on the ground, Marz’s foot on the back of his wrist, a knife a few ilms away from his hand, a broken chair still held loosely by a red-haired viera man, and several bar patrons fleeing the scene entirely.

“How many bars is this?” Kaede asked as she slung her bag over her shoulder and tossed two pouches to Yrja.

“That they’ve started trouble in, or been banned from?”

“Is the number different?”

Tipping her head in consideration, Yrja chuckled quietly. “I suppose it isn’t. Shall we reconvene at the Seventh Heaven?”

Considering its status as a front for the Scions’ headquarters, sooner or later that would be the only tavern where certain members of their party were allowed to drink together, apparently, and Kaede sighed. “Sure. I heard there were a few leads on other jobs there, anyway. Turns out some of us might need the extra gil.”

“So it would seem,” Yrja replied, and together they descended into the chaos to retrieve their respective responsibilities.