It looked like the others had the interrogation of Talpin well in hand, so I left it to them. I had that date with Sina after all. Given my heroic deeds as of late, I think her dad was more than happy to let me take his daughter out. I mean, not only did I rescue her, I brought the conspirators who kidnapped her to justice and thwarted a huge threat to Alestia- a hero of the realm, as it were! Although he prolly wouldn't be too pleased that I was totally planning on nailing her that night. I mean, I felt a little guilty that I was taking advantage of his trust like that. But not enough to not bang such a sweet piece, that would be just silly!

So I took her to a nice place her father recommended, which would've been pricey, but given my recent actions, the meal ended up being on the house. I regaled Sina with stories from the past few weeks, and she was impressed. It was way too easy to talk her back to my place. After we got back to my room, it didn't take but a few minutes for our clothes to hit the floor and we got down to business. In the afterglow our little session, I heard a knock on the door, so I put on my trousers and went to answer it. I figured it was Cass or Grey letting me know how the whole Q&A with Talpin went, but it was Liri.

Crap! I didn't know why I suddenly felt guilty or why I was trying to hide the fact that I had a girl in the room, but I opened the door a crack and slipped through, closing it behind me to talk in the hall. Liri wanted to talk, but about nothing in particular. She said we just hadn't really hung out in a while and wanted to see if I would tell her about the times I had. She didn't know the exact details of everything that had been going on, but given the number of people I ported through her room, it seemed like me and the others had been having a crazy time.

I apologized to her for that, and told her the way that particular power worked, I had to really concentrate on a specific place. And the first thing that seems to spring to mind when I think of Alestia is her. I saw Liri's cheeks color a little at that, but told her she doesn't have to worry about me doing that anymore. She said it was fine, but I told her what I had been doing was dangerous and I didn't want anything to happen to her.

She joked that she didn't know I cared so much, and I told her I'd be devastated if something bad happened to her because of me. Liri looked deep into my eyes, and in hers I saw that she was touched by the sentiment. I leaned in closer, and felt her lips touch mine. We kissed for a minute and when we broke apart she smiled at me, and went to open my door.

“Whoa!” I said, “What're you doing?”

“i think we should continue this conversation in your room,” she replied. When I hemmed and hawed, I think she mistook that as me being worried about her dad, and she told me not to worry, he was out. She pushed me out of the way and opened the door… and saw Sina lying on my bed.

Sina quickly covered herself and asked who Liri was. I introduced Liri as my friend (I noticed her stiffen at that remark) and that her father runs this place. Sina greeted her meekly, embarrassed at the position she was in, and started putting her clothes back on under the covers. Liri apologized and said she didn't realize I was “entertaining guests” and she'll leave us be and stormed out of there. “Will you excuse me for a moment?” I asked Sina, and ran to catch up with Liri.

“Wait up!” I yelled. I didn't understand why she was so mad. Its not like we were going out, but I guess that situation in the hall was a pretty intimate moment. And I guess it is pretty douche-y to kiss a girl right after banging another one. And thinking about it, I suppose I did avoid letting Liri know I was going out on a date for some reason, so its not like she knew I was there with another girl.

“Just get back to your little girlfriend!” she spat. I asked her what's up and told her its not like we're going out, and we haven't for a long time. She looked like she was about to bite my head off but then held her tongue and quickly composed herself. “Sorry, you're right. We're not going out,” she replied curtly. I had a feeling there was a “and we never will again” there being left unsaid. I apologized again, looking searchingly into her eyes as I did. And it wasn't really anger there, or sadness. Just… disappointment. Like I had left her down somehow. As guilt set in, she told me to just go, so I did.

I went back upstairs to take Sina home. “What was that about?” she asked. “Nothing,” I replied, “since I'd been a way for a while, she was hoping we could catch up, that's all.”

“Oh, okay,” Sina said breezily, thinking nothing of it. I walked her back to her house, not really paying attention to what she was saying and thinking about that look in Liri's eyes.

**

The next day, met up with the others to talk with Philip about what they had learned from Talpin. Philip said we would get some laurels from the Electorate, and a cool 100k. It seemed like Cassie was disappointed we weren't getting Talpin's seized lands, and Grey was thinking up of ways to parlay this into a seat in the Electorate. Heh, I applaud them for their power-hungriness. I mean, I wouldn't mind a seat in the governing body myself, but they seem to be more driven than me.

Anyways, Philip had some troubling news- there was a hit out on our heads (20K each!). While I would like to see some mook try, I was more worried about Liri and her family. Its funny how things seem to work out though. Philip not only had an offer of a job for us that would allow us to leave the city to lead the danger away from our loved ones, but if we played our cards right, we might get a chance at those elector seats that we were wanting.

A baroness, Nicele Hames, had a problem, she had lost contact with a town in her barony, and she wanted us to investigate. In return, she would “adopt” us, which would make us patricians. Since she has no heirs, once she kicks it, we would be in line to become electors. Anyways, she sent her knight captain and a force of 100 knights to investigate, and only he returned alive. Apparently, they were attacked by supernatural creatures, and it was only by virtue of his manifestness that he survived. Hence, she was hoping we could help.

We'll save her town, we told her, and made our way to the Barony of Fellarch posthaste. We got there that night, and had dinner with the knight captain, a young man named Searn Dreval. He had totally cool jet black scale mail armor and carried a wicked looking grim-scythe. I dunno, there was just something about the death motif he had going on that I thought was awesome. For some reason I felt the need to impress him, so I regaled him with stories of our adventures after he informed us of his experiences in that ill-fated town.

We headed to the town, Manderbel, the next morning. Some Kobolds attacked us, but we made short work of them. While the rest of the gang carved through the bulk of their forces, I teleported behind them and tried taking out their shamans. I managed to take a couple out before one of them waylaid me with a weakening spell. Luckily, I don't think the others, particularly Searn, noticed. I would be totally mortified if he saw me less than my bad-ass self.

Anyways, once we got to the village, that's when things got weird. We investigated the town and found a large gem set up on a makeshift altar in the mayor's office. Grey messed with it, and next thing we know, we were stuck in a pocket dimension apparently in the gem. We talked with the denizen of the gem, a Masayuman samurai of great power who wore a great helm that he could not removed. He seemed to be a god, yet he had a sort of amnesia, not knowing who these followers were that had gathered around him. Still, he was still compelled to answer their prayers.

He could get us out, but it looked like after we got sucked in, someone had grabbed the gem and was absconding with us. Cassie checked with her powers and saw it was the minions of that priestess chick in bed with Veris. After a few hours, they stopped at an inn, and once Cass saw it was safe, the faceless samurai sent us out of the gem.