The day started out just like any other day. Which was quite annoying, as I'd been going crazy with boredom these past few weeks. Not even bilking foolish travellers at cards (Its not my fault I'm gifted with the “sight”) or annoying my favorite girls, Cass and Liri, was doing it for me. I was just hanging at the inn, when "Bugrom" told us to get the place extra tidy and be on our best behavior (hey, I don't cause that much trouble!) because an old friend of his (and an Elector!), Philip Madrigal, was dropping by that night.
Since that was the most interesting thing to happen lately (well, other than Cass and Grey thwarting some would be muggers on the way back from the library the previous night. I was kinda pissed that I missed out on that action), I decided to divine whether anyone would try anything on Bagram's friend that night. I didn't actually expect to see something of import! But I got visions of masked brigands attacking the inn close to midnight. I didn't see them going after some old dude though. Rather, they were trying to kidnap this cute red-head I had never seen before.
I told Bagram and the others of my vision, and he was understandably vexed. It turns out the girl was Philip's daughter Hilda. He wasn't aware that Philip was bringing her along, but if I foresaw her there, she was going to be there. We discussed whether we should warn him and tell him not to come, but in my years with the gift, i've learned that even when you know what's coming, things don't turn out the way you expect if you try to avert it. Obviously, someone was after his daughter, and if he just didn't come at all, then she might still get kidnapped, but I wouldn't know where or how. We had enough information that we could let the kidnapping attempt proceed, but then turn the tables on the attackers and ambush them.
We would warn Philip and his daughter (she looked pretty cute in my visions, I couldn't wait to meet her for real) when they arrived, but in the mean time, we would secretly take precautions to protect them. Cass and Grey rigged the front door to quickly shut via a simple mechanism, in the hopes of splitting up the dozen or so attackers I saw coming to make the fight more manageable. When the Madrigals arrived, Cass would switch places with his daughter, and not only would the inn be closed for a “private party”, the party-goers would be trusted associates of Bagram that could handle themselves in a fight.
When the Elector and his daughter arrived, Bagram told him of my visions and our plans to protect him and his beautiful daughter. And she was beautiful, even more so than in my vision. I greeted her, though she was a little shy. Of course, Cass and Liri quickly tried to warn her off, but luckily she didn't take them too seriously. Anyways, she and Cass switched places, and Hilda and I went upstairs while Cass stayed in the main room pretending to be Philip's daughter.
Greg waited near the door, ready to spring the trapped door when the attackers arrived, while Cass used her ability to sense living creatures to stay alert and warn her when the kidnappers were approaching. I guarded Hilda in one of the upstairs rooms, while Trent was in the next room, keeping lookout over the street along with his pet hawk Swiftwind.
The Madrigals arrived around 8, and my best guess from my visions was that the kidnapping attempt would occur close to midnight. So that left a few hours to kill, alone in the room with Hilda. Like I said, she was a little shy, so it was kinda awkward at first. But Hilda eventually opened up, and I learned she was hesitant to speak because she was embarrassed of her accent. I told her she was being silly because I thought her accent was cute. Hilda thought I was teasing her, but I assured her I was for real.
Apparently, when she used to visit Alestia when she was a kid, her cousins in the city used to make fun of her mercilessly for the way she talked. I told her they were probably just jealous and were trying to find any way to cut her down. I think she took the complement for what it was (I'm used to Cass and Liri thinking I'm trying to get something over on them when I try to say something nice) and we just had a nice time talking. An hour before midnight though, I remembered we weren't actually on a date and readied myself for the upcoming attack. I also cast a protective spell on her, one that would leech the power of blows so they would feel like nothing more than a light tap.
Once I did that, she started to get nervous, so I tried to ease her mind by showing her a few parlor tricks. It seemed to work, in fact, Hilda started to get a little incensed (well, only jokingly mad, really) that I was able to guess every card she picked. She got a little too close while “telling me off”, and we caught each others eyes, the air charged with… something. I was just about to lean in and kiss her when Cass mentally told me of the approaching riders. I swear she somehow knew what was going to happen and did that on purpose to ruin the moment!
I quickly told Hilda to duck in the corner farthest from the door and window and stood in front of her protectively. Cass messaged me in my head something about the attackers splitting up. Several tense seconds later, a masked man burst through the window. I quickly ran up and sliced open his throat, instantly killing him. It happened so fast, when Hilda yelped, I wasn't sure if it was because of the attacker or my burst of speed. I've been told it can be quite disconcerting when I rush around like that. After I killed the guy, I went back to standing protectively over her, waiting to take on some more baddies.
Turns out we planned it too well, because less than half a minute later, it was all over. Grey was able to trap the first couple of baddies inside and split their forces, and he and Cass managed to knock them out. And apparently Trent had already sniped one just as my attacker burst in, and shot down the guys still outside while his tree spirit attacked them from the ground. One had managed to get away, but Swiftwind was following him. And I was wanting to test my swordmanship on some of these bastards!
I stood Hildy up, though she was still a little weak kneed over the ordeal. After she regained her wits, she hugged me tight. I don't know if it was the heat of the moment, but she looked up expectantly, and I leaned in… and that's when Liri ran in (what is it with these girls, is it like a friggin tag team to make sure I don't get play?!) to say everything was all right. I quickly broke from Hilda, but Liri shot me a dirty look all, “While you were playing grab-ass, the others were taking care of business!”. Hey, there was a corpse in the room! Its not like I was just sitting here fooling around!
I guess our next step is to turn these guys over to the Alestian authorities and figure out what they want with poor Hildy. Until then, I'm not leaving her side.