Journal Sixteen
The dinner occurred right after I had finished my exploits in Dionna.
In addition to picking a few pockets, I went by a popular theater troop in the city. The kind that uses a bit of firework to excite the crowd on occasion, or put on a bit of magic. I picked up a curious little bottle of a substance a little more powerful than dynamite. Or so I was told. Why, you ask? I'm not entirely sure, but I thought it useful at the time. As for the dinner, we all came to have one, after their business was done and my exploring in the city was done. As for the 'invited' guests, they didn't all come at once. After we had ordered our food, a rather unfortunate soul sat at the head chair. A Calagari, interested in our compasses� Not that he named them, but I understood the references he was making. So did everyone else. After a few general, but unimpressive threats, the other guest arrived. I don't know if it is a custom to invite yourself to someone's table by cutting the throat of the man at the head of the table. But for Giovanni Villanova, I suppose that's a minor infraction. The Calagari had a few guards, who suddenly became very uninterested in staying once their benefactor was dead. I doubt they themselves got very far. Fortunately for us, Villanova knew less than the Calagari did, or he would have just taken the compasses right there. But he knew something was awry and the presence of the now dead Calagari, cued him in. I suspect it was their presence alone that did it. There is a great enmity between these two princes, or so I am told. Our food arrived, although most of us had lost our appetite due to the gasping Calagari underneath the table. Accept Volker, he was unfazed by the altercation. Villanova considered him a moment just before the fork went into the Eisen's mouth. He then told him that the food was poisoned by the Calagaris. Volker put down the fork. And then Villanova looked nearly everyone who would meet his glance. Accept for Reynaldo, who cast his eyes down, and myself, who, I felt, Villanova's eyes passed over. He inquired our business, quietly taking in our (false) explanation. Villanova knew better, I'm sure. But he didn't know exactly. But he did leave and left with his own threat. And a warning wrapped into one. We were going to be accosted by the Calagari's later that evening. And that we were not to only win the altercation, but kill the intruders. Or� Everyone in the diner died as a result of our failure. Not only everyone in the diner but their relations as well� With that, the prince left.Return to Uncommon Valor