#i can make the treviso vs minrathous choice worse for crow rook :)

[ofcrowsanddragons]

De Riva story time prompt! 10, 15, or 35?

15. Breaking the Law: Tarquin & Crow Rook

"Is it really breaking any laws if you allegedly commit a crime in a foreign country?" - “Mags” de Riva

Thank you for the ask! Asks are open for the Rook Story Time prompts.

---

I wasn’t bothering anyone when the Templar walked into the bar.

That was largely because it had been a long day, and I really did want a drink. I was trying to cultivate contacts in Minrathous, and being a regular was a lot less clumsy than walking into a tavern and demanding that everybody talk to me about their problems. I only did that if there was a time crunch.

I tracked the man’s movement by sound as he approached where I was sitting in front of the proprietor, who was currently experimenting with the creation of a drink that might be fit for human consumption. It was fascinating, honestly. The Templar’s gauntlets thunked heavily on the bar as he dropped his forearms onto the surface and turned to me.

“You,” said Tarquin, jerking his neck toward the side of the room where the tables were. “With me.”

“That’s presumptuous, Tarquin,” I said, swivelling my shoulders to face him. I kept one arm on the bar as I sipped the dregs of my drink with the other. “How’d your first day go?”

Tarquin’s glower intensified. “It was shit,” he said, “Which I knew going in. Are you interested in a side job or not?”

He walked away without another word.

“Another round of the usual for both of us, then,” I murmured to the bartender, dropping extra coin on the polished wooden surface in front of me. It was the only furnishing in this dive that could really be called nice.

---

I glanced over the paperwork. “You really don’t waste any time, do you?” I asked, my voice faint.

“Can you do it or not?” asked Tarquin.

“Hypothetically,” I said carefully, “I could. See this?” I pointed at the simple embellishments on the Soporoti papers, “Creating the travel papers for six non-mage citizens travelling in a group would be simple enough that it might be more suspicious that their head of household actually has it all put together.”

Tarquin looked between the Soporoti and Laetan papers that he must have borrowed from work. “And the mage? Hypothetically?”

“The supplies are expensive,” I said, “That doesn’t mean I don’t have them. But what are you getting me into, Tarquin? You’ve worked, what, one or two days as a lawman and now you’re coming to me for forgeries. Am I supposed to believe that?”

“I’m just a lowly grunt, Antivan,” Tarquin said, his voice snide. “The only reason I don’t think you’re a plant is that I’m not nearly important enough to rate that treatment.”

My hand was clenched into a fist where I knocked it lightly against the table. I leaned forward, looking him in the eye. “You. Came. To me,” I said, emphasizing each word. “If I’m going to jeopardize my position in my household, I need to know why.”

Tarquin leaned back, letting mouth widen into an unpleasant grin.

“Say anything about my sleeping arrangements and I walk, Tarquin,” I said flatly. The banter between Tarquin and I always edged past the level of respectability. I did my own part in encouraging that, but it had been—as Tarquin might say—a shit week.

“You can’t,” he said, dropping the leer and looking away. “They’ve been hiding out in an empty flat in my neighbourhood, but the landlord is coming around soon. They need to get out of the city before anyone looks too closely.”

I cursed. “Slaves.”

Tarquin picked up his mug and drank.

Well, who needed sleep, anyway. “You’ll need to leave the documents with me overnight,” I said, “And I can have the new ones for you by mid-morning. I’ll leave them for you in a drop—this is too hot for me to hand to you directly. Tell me everything about them: relationships, family resemblance…”

“It’ll pass muster?”

“Have some faith,” I said with a smile, showing a hint of teeth. “By noon tomorrow, your neighbours will have those legitimate documents they must have misplaced.”