Re: Entering the Thieves Guild (Hugh & Vax & open?)
Having made the calculation that a fight was more likely to start if he interfered than if he let Hugh handle himself alone, Vax didn't move from his chosen station until Hugh looked in his direction. It didn't mean he wasn't tense - the instant the man approached Hugh, Vax had put his tankard down and watched the exchange, such as it was, with a coiled readiness a bout him - but he'd at least done well enough not to draw the man's attention more than necessary. Once Hugh was left alone, Vax dipped a nod in response and drained what was left of his drink, suddenly sure he'd need it, before pushing himself out of his chair. The raven settled herself on his shoulder again, facing the tavern as Vax followed Hugh out of it.
As menacing as the surrounding area had felt going in, Vax found it more welcoming now than it had seemed before. Perspective, he supposed. That tavern had felt too much like a box closing in around them.
Hugh's murmured words earned a smirk from Vax. Despite the fact that they certainly weren't out of the jaws of the beast yet, he lifted a hand to give him a friendly clap on the back before he waved the statement off entirely. "Hugh, darling, we don't have to waste coin on paying off guards. In my experience, the beauty of guards is that most of them are just dull enough that they won't know what hit them until you're too far away for it to matter."
There was really only one place they could need to go where paying off a single guard would be the price of admission, but Vax let Hugh lead them in the direction of the ruins anyhow - just in case he was mistaken. Once they were a good ten yards or so away from the closest pair of guards set at one of the entrances, Vax pulled gently at Hugh's elbow to stop him. Under the guise of the pair of them simply being a couple of wide-eyed visitors to the city goggling at the ruins, he traced a pattern in the air in front of him, hidden behind Hugh as a shield, that made the air shimmer faintly at his fingertips before he murmured a few words and seemed to push the nearly invisible sigil toward the pair of guards. Nothing visibly happened, but Vax seemed satisfied enough with his work to shoot Hugh a bright smile as he moved toward the entrance to the ruins.
"Gentlemen," he greeted the guards warmly, and for some reason both of them smiled back as if they were at last passingly familiar with Vax and somehow on good terms with him. "You won't mind if I take my friend here for a little turn through the ruins, will you? In and out, no one but you two fine souls will ever know we were here."
The guards exchanged a glance, then one chuckled and shrugged and went so far as to take a step to one side to widen the path into the ruins. Playing into the effect of his spell, Vax reached to clasp one on his shoulders with both hands, then the other. So one spell and a little slight of hand later, and Vax was leading Hugh into the ruins and looking for the nearest path downward.
"We should prooooobably make ourselves scarce," Vax offered in a low voice, glancing back toward where they'd come from. "They'll wonder at what they've done once that wears off and it's probably best we don't make it worth their time finding us. Do you want half of this?" He'd drawn one of his hands into a fold of his cloak, but now brought it forth again to brandish a fairly neatly wrapped brown lump that shook a few crumbs loose when he wiggled it in Hugh's direction. "One of them had his hip pack just wide open and I'm starving. Couldn't help it, it just fell into my hand."