Who: Rowan Stark & Atticus Drake What: The captain of the Red Guard is after a known drug peddler Where: The Highlands When: Later afternoon/early evening Warnings: TBD
Rowan Stark was the Queen of Hearts most trusted man in the Red Guard. It's why she'd promoted him to captain not too long ago, after the last one had lost his head. Quite literally, in fact. You would think that would have made someone nervous to fill their predecessor's shoes, but Rowan was fairly confident in his ability to do his job and keep his head. All it really took was a certain amount of competence and a strong desire not to anger the queen, and your chances were as good as any. The Queen of Hearts was a fickle woman who was easily angered by virtually nothing, but Rowan was careful. He was the sort of man that tried not to rock the boat, or else he was exceptionally good at being incredibly subtle about it. He wasn't at all worried about the state of his own head.
That was what the captain of the Red Guard before him had lacked, really. Ingenuity. As another nameless face among the guards, Rowan had proven time and again that he was exceptional, until they had to finally notice him. He wasn't going to be satisfied with being another lowly foot soldier for the rest of his life. Rowan was quietly goal oriented, careful not to make any waves as he slowly worked his way to the top, but he was determined to get there. While his family's status in the queen's kingdom hadn't been pauper level to begin with, they could use the good standing, so Rowan had taken it upon himself to bring that to the Stark house. A soldier's family was set up for life, but a captain's family had a certain amount of prestige. Rowan had worked hard to get it.
As far as kingdoms went, the Highlands was kept on a pretty tight leash. The Queen of Hearts ruled without a king, and her law was the only law. All subjects were beholden to her, and punishment for crimes against the crown were swift and severe. There weren't many laws in the Highlands but the ones they had were kept by all. No stealing, no disobeying the queen's soldiers, no bad mouthing the queen's name, no peddling illegal or unsanctioned goods in or outside of the royal market, no trespassing on the queen's private lands, and absolutely no manufacturing or distributing of recreational or deadly poisons. The queen didn't like anyone to have those kind of resources outside of those directly employed by her majesty herself, and so she regularly had her royal guards out in the city raiding homes of suspected dealers and rounding them up if necessary.
Which is how Rowan had come to be at the home of one Atticus Drake that afternoon, in uniform and on official business of the queen. Atticus had been a suspect of interest for awhile, but so far, no one had been able to catch him in the act, and the previous raids they'd subjected his home to at random had turned up nothing, which endlessly frustrated the queen. She wasn't a woman who gave up easily, and today she had sent Rowan and a few other guards to search the man's house for the second time in a month, hoping this time they would find the evidence they needed to take him away. For a crime like this, there most likely wouldn't even be a trial, just a swift beheading. Rowan stepped up to the door and rapped sharply on it with his knuckles. "Open up in the name of the queen!"