[RP] Cryptic fic, everyone's favourite :)
Yesterday's Hundred Secrets session was somewhat epic, involving as it did the living reflection of a dead centipede god, a secret army, and a set of daring escapes.
Valor Joven.
His was one of three names that remained on a list only she knew about.
As Lady Joven left the table and the house servants drew aside, Loy left her image in place against the wall and slowly crept closer to where Lord Valor and her mistress Lady Prudence Rose spoke quietly about the affairs of state.
The list had never been long, though it had been years in the making. And more years still - patient days spent in dusty libraries, or quietly setting servants talking without their being able to quite remember who had brought up the topic - in order to cross off most of the names that she had added.
Three remained. Aleks. Deft. Valor.
She had seen him once before, years ago, before she had become Lady Rose's maidservant. From a distance, of course. Just close enough to get an impression of fine clothes and dark hair and a presence that would command respect even without the stories. What he had dared. What he had learned. Who he had killed.
Which reminded her. Loyalty stood at her lady's elbow and considered what to do about Carlo and Neddra. The obvious thing was to have them killed, of course. They had seen too much of Rose's other skills. In the circumstances it had been... imprudent... for Rose to come back to rescue her; though she had rather thought she might, because she had known Prudence Rose for long enough to appreciate the vast irony of her name. Still, Carlo had come to her only a few days ago to speak of improved metals for Rose's knives, and that meant he had not only seen but thought.
It would be a pity. She had become, against her will, almost a little attached to them; even though they would insist on seeing her as a person rather than a person-shaped piece of furniture, which was more a danger than the kindness they probably believed.
Still, they were useful for now. Valor himself might be a more pressing danger. There were only two possible reasons he might have recommended Rose to the Cartographers' Guild; and one was that he knew about Rose. The other, of course, was that he knew about Loy.
She watched him closely, analysing, as she had been taught, the glance of his eyes, the timbre of his voice. Ten years she had been waiting for this opportunity, and this moment, standing across the table for him as he spoke in oblivious ignorance of her presence, was one that was unlikely ever to come again.
The colour of his hair, of his eyes, of his tanned skin; she catalogued them each in turn. The shape of his nose as he turned his head aside for a moment to explain to Rose how few could be trusted (and why would he have reason to trust Rose, the sister of such a brother as hers?). Everything. She tried to take in everything.
Ten years she'd waited for this moment.
And she still couldn't tell.
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Apologies for the cryptic, but the other PCs don't know Loy's secrets, and it will be far more fun for them to find out in character :)