Bordell's Tales, Chapter 1 : Two faces.

Only a faint dark blue light can be seen at the horizon. The day has finally decided to come, but it won't show his brillant sphere for at least an hour. The rock is pretty quiet. Only the hammer of Greffit can be heard. He is working on a master piece that have been ordered by Roderick itself. Everyone knows that Greefit always prefer to work alone and at night. The steel of his hammer resonate through the silence of the night for a few moments and everything come silent. The silence is then broken by a bird's song. the sound mix itself with the sounds of the wave that broke on the rocky land where the castle have been build.

You're walking on the northen wall. Night watch duty have always been given to the squire, to train them to stay alert, to get used to sleep less. It isn't that the rock could be attack. The rock have never been attack, and the order have no known enemy, but for a squire, the worst days of his life always come after he has been spotted sleeping on the wall. It has been over three hours you've been walking on the wall. For a moment, the gentle sound of the sea is carrying you to the dream world, but Greffit's hammer is waking you. You decide to walk up to the tower and take some water in the bucket to wake you up. You continue to patrol like that for an hour, when the sun finally show itself. His light seems to boost your body with energy, and the slumber that was hovering over your head just dissapear. At that moment, Greffit's hammer finally come to silence, but others sounds start to fill the place. Among them, you hear some knights starting to train, followers starting there daily tasks.

Half an hour later, a guard come to you. You know him. his name is Kyle. He is a nice figther, and had been at one time a squire too, but after a disease has taken both his wife and son, he had fallen in alcool. He lost his rank of squire after he has started a fight with Kriegspire. The fight end after five minutes, but Kyle was so drunk that Kriegspire had only needed one punch to knock him out, and that after having dodge all Kyle's attempt to punch him. Such behavior would have forced Kyle to leave the Rock, but because of the circumstances, he was allowed to stay in the guards. Now, he tries to not touch alcool anymore, but he has been found a few times death drunk.

"Hi Xavier. The night havn't been too long? I've heard Leopol have been summoned by Roderick last night. Do you have clue why?"

Your mind have been wandering so far that you had forgotten that. Last night, your knight have been summoned to see the council. He left you alone during the night, recommanding you to take some sleep as you had a watch this morning. When you woke up to take your shift, you saw that Leopol's bed hasn't been disturbed. Leopol seems he just had pass a whole night awake. You know what it's mean... Leopol have been given a duty and he must have passed the night planning what to do. But for now, you don't have a clue what it could be.

Xavier pauses--the lack of sleep has caused his mind to be more scattered than usual. "I... no, I don't know why." He looks at the horizon to think--has no one spoken to him since then? "I should probably go look for him now that my shift has ended--do you know where he is?"

Kyle stares at you a moment. "Hey, isn't it your job to know where you're knight is?" You hear the clash of two swords behind you. Kyle seems to look at where the sound come from, and he lose all his hapiness. You follow his eyes and see Kriegspire training with Bellmon, his squire. "Ask him. After you, he's the most likely to know where Leopol is."

Xavier raises an eyebrow <This guy is telling me what my job is?> "He left after he was called and I haven't seen him since. I've been on duty, anyway, so I haven't been able to check on him either."

He follows Kyle's gaze to Kriegspire, "Thanks, I'll check with him in a bit. What are you doing up here? You don't have watch duty now, do you?" Bordell turns back to Kyle with a half-smirk, to see his response.

After Kyle's answer, Xavier pats Kyle on the shoulder and turns to go to Leopol's room. He intends to knock on his door and check inside there to see if Leopol is indeed doing some planning. If not, he will go to the grounds to talk to Kriegspire.

"New assignment, I'll be on the walls for the whole week. The captaion told me that fresh air would help me. As if he knew what I need." he shakes his head with a bit of exasperation. You leave him and walk down the stairs.

Your steps leads you in small alleys that wind between the building. The rock is small, and so all is close. The only large open ground are the training ground and the garden. You arrive at the castle and enter the knights' wing. Your footstep are the only one resoning in the hall, but you can hear some whisper in the rooms. The people are waking up and preparing themselves for the day.

You open the heavy wood door of your room and find it empty. You are about to close the door and go back to the training ground where Kriegspire is training his squire when your eye catch a pile of cloth behind Stone's bed. It looks like he has finally came back, and has decide to go and take a bath in the baths. Stone has the habit to take a bath once per day, telling that cleaning the body also clean the mind, and that it also help him to awake himself in the morning.

OOC: I dunnot know what is Bordell's habit for his baths, but it is sure he hadn't the time to take one before his night watch, so his last bath is at least from the day before.

There is two communal baths, the kinght's and ladies' bath (There isn't much women knights, and many kinghts are married, so the term have come from that and have stick.) Only squires and upper ranks have access to it. You know that Leopol generally take short bath, but the bath is one of the place he like to relax and think. Your intuition tells you he will surely be there for some times, so you take your time to prepare yourself, in case he would come back soon, but he doesn't show up. You go take your bath. On your way there, you meet some knights and squire that are doing there daily tasks. The life in the castle have finally awaken.

You enter the bath and you see Leopol in the far coner of the bath alone. On the other side, knight Kell and his young squire are talking about history of the order. Kell is talking about the second invasion, and some strategy that have been used by the order to slow down the Slitherin.

Leopol doesn't seem to have notice your entrance. He looks like absorbed in his thoughts. Last time you saw him like that was during the winter, the day before you left with him to stop some barbarian raid at the border. Your intuition told you the task to come is not some routine.

You enter the bath and leave your knight alone with his thoughts. You quickly wash yourself and get out of the bath. You take your cloth and you dress yourself. As you are about to leave, you hear your name behind you. You turn around and looks behind and see Leopol looking at you.

"Xavier, come here."

<Ah, a bath.> Xavier had not had a chance to bathe in a while, so getting grime off of his body was a welcome opportunity. <Leopol looks pensive, so I'll for him to finish his thoughts. In the meantime...> He took care in taking an extra-good bath, but also not to take too long. Due to the intensity of Leopol's thoughts, Xavier might not have another for a while.

Getting out of the bath, Xavier dressed himself to go look for Leopol who was no doubt ahead of him somewhere, maybe he was--

"Xavier, come here."

Maybe he was right behind him. Slightly surprised, Xavier turned around to meet Leopol's eyes. "There you are. Have you slept at all since you were called? You should get some rest before we do whatever it is we are to do this time."

"Thanks to have not disturb me." He says, not beleiving that you just spot him. "You're right, we will be leaving, and tommorow morning. I want you to makes a few things for me. First, go see the stablelad. We'll need six horse ready. Ours, Kriegspire's and his squire's horses and two pack horses. I want them to be equipped for travelling, and ask him to put some used equipment. Then, you'll go to see the tailor. Ask him a few hunter's clothing for the four of us. Finally, you'll find Kriegspire and tell him that we will eat together with our squire in northen private room. I'll tell you there the detail of all that. Once all is done, you're free to do what you want until the dinner time, but you should just relax a bit."

He let himself slide in the water, leaving only his head out of the water. He closes his eyes and add.

"If you need me I'll stay here and relax for some times. Then, you'll be able to find me in the library. I have some maps to study before the dinner."

Xavier nods, "No problem. If you have time, try to get some extra sleep since you did not sleep last night. I would like for you to be as alert as possible." He nods to Stone and goes on his way to the stablelad and then his other errands. <Four riding horses, two pack horses, complete with equipment, hunter's clothes, and then dinner in the private room. And leaving first thing tomorrow? This must be extremely urgent. Definitely not just barbarians.>