Reinholdt/Ari/Damia | OUTSIDE THE BLUE WREN CAFE - 4:40PM
“If I were the guildmaster,” Ari said as they began their afternoon jaunt across the city, “I would hide in plain sight, the better to amuse myself as everyone failed to recognize me. He could hide somewhere inaccessible, but he wouldn’t -- it wouldn’t be any fun for him, after all.”
Her blonde companion snorted. “Then it would be too much a child’s game. Though,” she scanned the people milling past, “I do wonder if he isn’t a child in a grown man’s body.”
“Having a little fun won’t kill you, I promise, darling,” Ari said, rolling her eyes. She had to wonder if the game had a secondary point, though she couldn’t discern immediately what it might be. but one did not become guildmaster, she suspected, by doing things for no apparent reason. “Admit it, hide and seek is more entertaining than rehearsal.”
At her side, Damia barked a rude laugh. “Most things are more entertaining than rehearsal with that company. Save for you, of course. However would I get through it without your lovely visage?” A jest, but a familiar one. The game was always too tempting.
Now, where could their little guildmaster be?
Several hours of searching saw them back in the Theatre District once more. “I still think he wouldn’t pass the day without appearing here,” Ari said stubbornly. It was, after all, the seat of his guild, the epitome of hiding in plain sight. But the district wasn’t small, either…
“Coffee,” Ari decided. “And then, I’ve one other idea.” Her thirst, however, would prove their good fortune; as they approached the cafe, Ari stopped just across from the unfamiliar busker to watch his effortless shuffling. Not a familiar face, she noted, which was odd; she’d come to know most of the street performers by name after all these years, and he was skilled enough that she ought to have known his face. He shuffled and tossed his cards with the careless ease of the best gamblers she had encountered, yet carried himself and spoke like a born performer. A strange counterpoint. And his voice…
As he spoke again to his audience, she felt a grin come across her face. No matter the modulation or added accent, voices were distinct things. If one knew what to listen for, they didn’t lie. “Well,” she said quietly, “my ears tell me we’ve been successful at last. Your thoughts?”
It took a moment to catch her meaning, but upon listening further, the corsair quite agreed they’d found their target, looking rather ridiculous in his getup. There was no mistaking his voice, even if it’d gone up or down an octave. The hiding was over.
She put on a smile. “Shall we?” And so the two of them meandered toward their disguised spymaster, by all appearances looking to enjoy a show.
But now the show was over.
Once they had drawn near enough, with the most innocent look in her arsenal, Ari spoke: “I suspect that we are bound to draw the joker… sir.”