OldCity Newsletter 13 - 02/07/06
From FiranMUX
What's The Word
Evening falls over the Old City, and with the darkness comes a faint breeze from the river. As residents open their doors and windows to freshen their homes, a tired soul makes her way into the Nook. Her clothes are clean, but for a fresh coating of dust, and have greyed from age. Usha, one of the young urchins working as a messenger, opens the door to the Barnacle Inn, and drops into the nearest stool.
Pulling out a few stenis, Usha calls over Yelda, "Bus'ness were good taday, I'll 'ave some flatbread." Yelda nods, and ducks into the kitchen, returning after a minute with the bread and a mug, which she fills with some ale. It's become routine, now, to pay the messenger for her news with a mug of ale, and ain't like it's the good stuff anyway.
"Good, ya say? Anythin' said bout th'war?" Yelda asks, pulling up another stool, as the business hasn't picked up since the lunch rush ended. "Feck, there's bin all sorts a speechifyin done," Usha mutters, after taking a sip of the ale. It's warm, and bitter, but helps to wash the grit of the day out. "Ya'll ne'er b'lieve what happent ta Barabus. Got hisself a last name, Biterus, cause he bin tastin all th'food stuffs fer th'soldiers, an' ain't e'en got a lick a knowledge bout poisons. But he ain't dead yet, an' th'Griffon soldiers is likin that."
Yelda shakes her head, "What bout Moira an' Pakeera? With both a them gone ta th'front, I'da figgered they'd be testin' th'foods." Usha nods, "An' they prolly is, in between patchin up them soldiers. I heared a lotta griffon pilots got killed, some was tryin ta fly at night. An' apparently some a them soldiers got kilt cause a bad medicine, or somesuch. Ya think Pakeera's tryin ta kill her some wallers? Ta git back at 'em fer takin her from her kids?" Yelda smirks, but shakes her head, "Nah, I don' think she'd chance it. If she got found out, they'd take her kids away fer sure." She watches a couple of Republic guards strut into the Inn and calls out, "Be right with ya!" then adds, in a whisper to Usha, "I does hope all a /our/ soldiers git back in one piece. Not just Moira an' Pakeera, but Jazayeri, leadin them damned fool griffon raids, an' her son Jariko, who somehow be in charge a guardin his high-an-mightiness Judanus, an' th'rest."
Usha munches on her bread, drinking her ale sparingly until Yelda returns, and continues, in a low voice, "So, speakin a soldiers, there's one what's apparently bein missed. One a th'whores told me, when I brung her a present from a noble, that right out in the Nook for all to see there were Hessa and Niobe and Verus (feckin scummy waller) were talking about fecking and all sorts of shite. Verus were braggin that he likes it and does it all the time. Niobe said she thinks it's a'rigth but she ain't goin ta feck 'erself bowlegged. Especially with a certain... someone is marching with the Griffon army. Hessa however argued that she hates it all! Useless save for mating for babies or some such."
"An' then, when I were deliverin' stenis ta one a them other whores, I seen fer m'self, prolly bout half an hour later. No one is left but Hessa and Niobe. Hessa heading into the Inn. Lord Adan comes out of the Dove looking randy and riled! o.O Niobe like usual calls him 'Lord War' sarcastically. Hessa perks up and has to have a look see, in the end the two slink off together towards Hessa's place! Apparently she's found someone that might be more to her liking than those normal Firan men."
Yelda scrubs the bar, listening to Usha's news. That's one good thing, the bar's cleaner than it's been for an age, now that Usha comes by regular-like. "An' speakin' a men, I saw two Parnassis men taday! Panyos an' Havidius, both! I were takin a message ta Tandus Plaza an' saw Panyos, feedin his livestock at the Parnassis Insula, cross th'water, an' then Havidius were in Charter Square. I din't see what he were doin, cause I was goin th'other way. But feck, s'good ta see Fists kids is still round, ta help keep Pakeera's kids from runnin round like crazy beasts. Or worse, like floofs." Usha snickers at her own joke, then chokes on the dregs of her ale, spraying it on the bar. "Out! If I wanted yer spit on my bar, I'd a wrung y'across m'self!" Yelda barks, and lunges for the girl, but Usha's already out the door, leaving a very grumpy barmaid behind her to clean up the mess.
