DISCLAIMER: Well, this chapter was not written by me. In fact, it was a rewrite done by a friend of mine, and, though loosely based on my previous chapter 69, its, in many ways, a completely new story. After posting my original chapter 69, I grew more and more dissatisfied with it, to the point that the story started to embarrass me. It contained about a BILLION cliches, bad dialogs and descriptive phrases, I was about to scrap chapter 69 from the story. So, when Asynca offered to do a re-write, I was very delighted. And she did a wonderful, wonderful job... I hope you'll enjoy reading this story as much as I did...

"Mmmm..." Rose exhaled at length, letting her eyes fall shut. Confident hands smoothed a splash of cold massage oil along her back to be warmed by her skin. As her lover worked into her tired muscles, a faint rosehip aroma reached her nose; she smiled slightly in recognition of Laska’s choice of scented oil.

A brief flicker of lightening lit the room, reminding the lovers of the roaring hail outside dulled by the thick walls and roofing. In the warmth of the open fire and each other’s company, it was easy to forget such details.

"Comfy...?" Laska enquired, gently probing the knots at the base of Rose’s neck. Rose felt strong thighs astride her hips as the moon elf maneuvered to a more convenient position.

Rose breathed out a second time, feeling the weight of her head against her forearms. "What are you doing to me...?" She murmured vaguely, allowing her vibrant imagination to entertain the idea of a hot sun, beaches and baby oil. Oh, and skinny dipping... Hmmm...

"What?" Breath tickled her ear as Laska whispered into it, so close her lips nearly brushed. "You mean... this?" Laska smoothed the oil up Rose’s arms, flattening herself against the half-elf’s back. The new weight and the detail of her lover’s form against her skin caused Rose to inhale - sharply - through teeth and a smile. Had she more energy, she would have used to the sleekness of the oil to roll underneath Laska to face her. Too tired to bother, however, she dismissed the idea for another time.

Soft, teasing lips met the tip of Rose’s ear...

THUMP!

They both jerked a little, startled by the sudden loud knocking from the front hall. Laska’s body pulled away from Rose’s back, and a series of elvish expletives were violently forced through the elf’s tightened lips. Everyone else was asleep.

"Just ignore it," Rose instructed her lover, relaxing back into the mattress.

Laska looked from the door to the expanse of oiled, sensual skin spread out before her. The choice was clear. "Yes, mistress..." She chuckled, and descended upon Rose’s ear once more.

THUMP! THUMP!

"Argh..!" Laska sat back again, exasperated. "I’m taking Ipsiya to the door, and whoever’s on the other side..." She swung her leg over Rose and put a bare foot against the cold floor, swearing. On the way to the door, she collected and donned a dressing gown in a single, aggravated movement.

"Hurry back..." Rose mumbled into her arm.

Laska jogged down the hallway holding the robe closed with a hand, planning the offensive names she would call the interruption when she opened the door to him. Gripping the doorknob, Laska wrenched the door open, poised threateningly to give their intruder a piece of her frustrated mind. "Alright, you! I-"

It never came to that.

Laska’s words died on her lips. Standing in the doorway, dripping puddles onto the verandah with her sodden clothing, was a slight human woman. Her soaking brown hair was plastered against her perfect face, her hood having offered her no protection from the storm. She had clearly been leaning on the door, as she fell inwards as Laska swung the door open. The swinging momentum of a large, hastily packed suitcase brought her past Laska into the room, and she gladly followed it.

Laska, too surprised to be her usual unsympathetic self, only muttered sarcastically, "Come in, why don’t you..." She closed the door quickly against a blast of icy wind assaulting her bare legs.

"I..." She woman turned back to face the much taller elf, meeting her glare from underneath long eyelashes. Laska pursed her lips slightly, not in the mood to be flirted with. "I’m sorry to disturb you. You weren’t sleeping, were you?" Her voice was throaty, quite sensual. That huskiness sounded very rehearsed, and didn’t ring true to the skeptical elf.

"Sleeping?" Laska looked pointedly down to the gown she held shut. "No. Not exactly."

"Your gown is inside-out." The woman observed, then changed the subject. "Is Rose in?"

Laska raised an eyebrow, first at the sudden desperacy in the stranger’s tone, second at the mention of her lover. "What?"

The woman took a step towards her, meaning to reach out and touch her arm. "Is she here? I was told I could find her here... Could you wake her for me? I need to talk to her."

Laska avoided the touch instinctively, resisting the urge to bat the arm away. Suddenly, she felt stifled. Who was this woman, invading her house and her personal space?! And why did she want to speak with Rose?!

Before she could give the woman a piece of her mind, a figure rounded the corner from the hallway, her hair lose around her shoulders and a sheet wrapped carelessly around her middle, with the edge of it trailing along the ground. "Laska...?" Rose queried wearily, rubbing at her eyes with the back of her free hand.

The soaking woman’s eyes lit as she recognised the voice, and she spun, heading towards the sheet-clad figure. Rose was snapped out of her half-asleep state on site of this woman, and she took a step back, stunned. "O-Oriona?!"

"Oh, Lyndi!" The woman threw her arms around the half-elf, and Rose, too shocked to react, looked over Oriona’s shoulder at the astounded Laska with wide eyes. Fortunately for the intruder, the hug ended before Laska had time to instruct her sleepy muscles to march over and pry the woman off her half-naked lover. "Look at you! I hope I didn’t wake you up!"

Laska, frozen in bewilderment, repeated, "Lyndi?"

"Her full name is Roslynd," Oriona explained dismissively.

"You never told me that before..." Laska murmured, and watched in horror as Rose’s eyes ran in length over the other woman’s wet clothes that clung to her saturated body.

"What happened to you?!" Apparently not having heard her lover, Rose’s hand darted up to the woman’s cheek, and fingertips gently touched the surface of a fresh bruise on the woman’s cheek, "Who hit you?!"

"That’s not important, Lyndi, now that I’m here..." There was silence for a moment, broken only by hiss of a short breath from the elf still rooted by the door. Eventually, it was Oriona, and not Rose, who acknowledged Laska. "Is this your new girlfriend? Nice choice."

Laska seethed at being referred to like a horse at auction, the hand that kept her robe clothes whitened from her tightening grip.

Rose looked up distractedly until her eyes feel on Laska, and her face relaxed into a gentle smile, "Yeah, this is Laska, Oriona." She inclined her head in reference to the two. "Laska is my heart..."

The affectionate assertion did nothing to sooth the elf’s rising temper. "*Charmed*" She snarled, turning a threatening expression on Oriona that promised broken bones unless the woman would remove herself from her lover.

"I... see..." To her credit, Oriona connected the dots, and her hands fell from Rose’s shoulders. Then she turned her head back to Rose. "Lyndi... I know it’s late. But... it’s raining outside. Could you put me up for the night?"

"Of course!" Rose replied too quickly, almost... automatically. Avoiding Laska’s accusative glower, she took the woman’s hand. "I’ll take you to a spare room, here, come with me..." She led the smiling woman up the stairs as Oriona shrugged off her wet overcoat, leaving it in a heap on the floor.

Laska realised, to further fuel her aggravation, that Oriona arrogantly expected her to hang the coat up. "We’ll - see - about - that." Laska growled, walking pointedly over the wet coat, and returned to the bedroom to await the return of her lover.

Although it was only a couple of minutes before Rose returned to their bedroom, Laska had already put away all the oils and candles, and had buried - or rather, barricaded - herself under the covers. The fire had been doused carelessly, bitter smoke rose from the damp embers.

Rose cringed, realising how the recent scene must have played out to the elf. She bit her lip and paused by the bed, her eyes on the floor.

Laska shifted slightly beneath the covers, having heard her lover enter. "Lyndi?!" She demanded, simply.

"Nickname. One I’d rather leave behind, actually." Rose sat herself on the bed, spreading out the sheet that she’d been wearing over them both, before sliding with relief under the warm blankets. She inched towards Laska, who proceeded to mirror her advances with parallel retreats. Finally, when Laska had reached the edge of the bed, Rose bit her lip. "I know how that must have looked."

The reply was an unconvinced snort.

"I was surprised, that’s all. I haven’t seen her for ages." Rose explained, adding emphatically, "You know that nothing could ever alter how I feel about you, Laska."

There was silence for a moment while Laska digested Rose’s explanation of her reaction. Eventually, a pair of searching eyes peeked over the top of the blanket. Recognizing this as a sign of acceptance, Rose assaulted the other woman with desperate arms. Unable to continue the sulking boycott of her lover, Laska allowed herself to be swept into a tight embrace, smiling gently into the skin of her lover’s neck.

After a few peaceful moments relaxing against her hero, Rose sighed. "She left me. After two years... without a note. Nothing. I helped her out, showed her what little I knew about being a streetwalker so she could support herself... We even shared the rent of a derelict apartment, together."

Laska’s silence urged Rose to continue.

"I guess I figured she would eventually. Did you see her face? She looks like a porcelain doll, doesn’t she? She fell into favour with some of the wealthier clients... and moved up. Without me." Rose paused, remembering. "I saw her a year ago, visiting the bridge district in who-knows-how-long. She looked straight through me. She didn’t even acknowledge I was there."

Finally, Laska spoke. "You led this... female." For once, she restrained herself from harsher language. "...to sleep in our house?"

Rose shook her head, sighing, "I saw her, all I could think of was the laughing girl who rubbed mango in my face after I’d teased her about her human ears."

Laska’s tone was audibly controlled. "One word from you, Rose, and I swear it, I’ll cut her into fifteen separate pieces."

"We can’t just turn her out into that storm. Also... did you see that bruise? There must be a reason she can’t go back to her own home."

"She’s using you," Laska commented, with agonizing bluntness.

"What’s new?" Rose retorted, smarting from Laska’s painful observation. "I don’t want to think about it now. Let’s just sleep, shall we? I’m about to pass out from exhaustion... and I’m so, very, very comfortable..."

Laska kissed Rose’s neck slightly, and then relaxed, allowing the events to melt from her brain as she drifted off.

"There," Viconia nodded approvingly as the blue glow of divine light faded from Oriona’s cheek and shoulder. The drow, clad fashionably in her early-morning robe, swept herself smoothly into her chair at the breakfast table. Opposite her, Laska was glaring daggers into the forehead of the human as she stabbed violently at her own breakfast.. Observing this, Viconia raised her eyebrow teasingly at Laska, who shot a mock-anger scowl back at the cleric, before returning to her homicidal fantasies.

"Thank you." Oriona smiled warmly at the drow, her gentle voice never hinting at the manipulative opportunist she was. Her first act of insensitivity for the day had been commandeering Rose and convincing her to sit beside her, and not Laska, during their breakfast. "It is so important for me to have beautiful skin in my line of work," she explained. Then, very obviously giving Viconia the once-over, she added, "What about you? You could certainly earn a fortune with that sensuous figure and lovely dark skin, honey." Laska’s sharp eyes spotted Viconia managing to avoid choking on her breakfast at the manner in which Oriona addressed her. She snickered, despite herself.

Viconia caught the human’s gaze sharply, to prevent it lingering on any of her ‘sensuous’ curves. "Oh, I know," she replied, oh-so modestly. "But I no longer wish to submit myself to the awkward gropings of lust-filled, foolish males."

"Is that a fact...?" Oriona leaned a little towards the drow, showing a little too much interest in what had just come out of the drow’s mouth. Viconia’s elegant self-restraint wore very thin when people made advances on her, and the clench at the corner of her jaw was growing progressively tighter. Panicking, Rose reached over and picked up the pancake plate, offering loudly to Oriona, "More pancakes?"

Whether Oriona got the message or not was unclear, as her eyes lit up at the suggestion of more pancakes, and she allowed her plate to be refilled, offering directions to Rose as she complied.

Viconia looked across at Laska, and raised an eyebrow. Laska took the opportunity to reply to the drow with an I-told-you-so expression and pursed, tight lips. Viconia looked sideways at Oriona gushing at Rose, and then stood, pushing her chair away from the table, "I think I’ll take my leave," she said finally as Minsc entered the room, yawn/roaring.

However, before the drow could exit, there was a resounding scream.

Everyone looked up.

"DEAR SUNE, DON’T YOU PEOPLE HAVE A CAT ?!" the human woman shrieked, and flung a small rodent across the room as she backed against the wall, her eyes darting all over the floor, apparently searching for more of them.

"BOO! THERE you are!" Minsc called jubilantly as a colossal hand swung up and caught the rodent mid-air. "Boo doesn’t like flying, do you Boo?" He held the furry critter against his cheek.

The look of complete and utter horror on Oriona’s face as Minsc petted the pest was priceless.

Viconia put a hand up to her mouth to disguise a snicker. Laska’s eyes flicked to Rose, who, she was grateful to note, was raising an eyebrow at Oriona’s squealing fit.

Dynaheir broke the uncomfortable silence that followed by looking up from her spell book, and enquiring calmly as if nothing had ever happened, "How long wilt our guest be staying with us?"

"That’s what I’d like to know." Laska interjected coldly from her side of the table.

"Aye," Korgan spluttered, emerging from being literally immersed in his bowl full of breakfast. Then he leaned toward Viconia who was standing near his seat, whispering, "I be seein’ Laska be no’ likin’ our guest, eh?"

Viconia crossed her arms across her ample chest, exchanging a look with sulking Laska whose keen ears had heard Korgan’s remark. "I daresay Laska is looking a little... how should we say... green-eyed....?" Then, she had the audacity to wink somewhat teasingly at the suffering elf, who replied with an expression that promised revenge.

At that very moment, the door swung open and Keldorn strolled in, leaning his scabbard and sword beside the door and quietly whistling the end of whatever tune he had been playing out to himself. He quickly realised everyone was watching him, and glanced around, his eyes falling on the new face at the table. His neutral expression rose into surprise.

Oriona, forgetting quickly about her search for more rodents, giggled girlishly in a way that made Laska’s raw nerves grate. "Oh, Sir Keldorn! Not jumping into any rivers to avoid me, these days, are you...?" She turned a warm, fiendishly innocent smile on him, adding, "Have you changed your mind...?"

Laska gagged audibly.

"I assure you, no!" Keldorn stammered, nervously reaching for his recently discarded sword again, as if this woman’s advances were something he could parry. "Actually, I was just checking in on the house. Clearly it’s in good order. I’ll... be on my way, then," he blurted, and proceeded to hastily exit. Oriona looked crestfallen, like a small child who’d lost her ball.

"Well, you’re clearly a popular choice," Laska observed sarcastically, relishing the opportunity to sneer at the courtesan.

Oriona looked down her nose at the elf, offering her a rather disdainful expression, before sashaying off down the corridor toward her room.

"Please try to be polite, Laska..." Rose gave Laska a look showing some degree of frustration.

"If she were down on her knees, pleading for your forgiveness, I wouldn’t even waste an arrow on her."

Dynaheir and Viconia raised eyebrows at each other, beginning to make sense of the story. Korgan, oblivious, had gone back to loudly consuming his breakfast.

Rose shook her head with exasperation, and left the table to make peace with their guest.

After a short period of mulling over whether or not she had been rude to her lover, Laska stood to follow.

"I missed you, Lyndi." Oriona perched her beautiful self stiffly on the edge of the spare bed. Rose stood before her, arms crossed, impatience apparent on her face.

"You never wrote," Rose responded, dryly. "Now, will you get to the point and tell me who caused those bruises?"

Oriona’s face acquired a distant expression. "Lord Pehllus, did. With that purse of his."

Rose wasn’t sure if Oriona meant that metaphorically, or literally. "Pehllus?" She confirmed, flatly.

There was actually a smile on the courtesan’s face. "He wants to buy me, you know, all to himself. He doesn’t want anyone else!"

"Pehllus. The same Pehllus who beat three streetwalkers to their deaths in the past two years?" Rose paused, shaking her head, "Woni, you’re joking, aren’t you? Even you could see his temper through his massive purse."

"I’m NOT one of those streetwalkers, anymore, Lyndi!" She stood, emphatically, "I-I can control him. In all the time I’ve been with him, he’s only hit me three times..."

"He’s a brutal sadist, Wone. Look what he did to Sylvia." Rose reminded the woman, putting a firm hand on her arm to try and convince her.

Oriona cringed at the reference to the brutal beating that Lord Pehllus had given a client who had refused to do something that he requested. "That won’t happen to me!" She asserted, unconvincingly.

"Leave him..."

Rose realised her mistake when Oriona’s expression relaxed. She hadn’t intended to sound like she was requesting that Oriona leave Lord Pehllus and come to her, but given her tone of voice, it could have been interpreted in just that fashion. Before she could react, lips pressed against hers, desperately.

Showing no restraint, Rose pushed her roughly away. "Woni! What are you DOING?!"

"I still love you, Rose!" Oriona rationalized the kiss, her eyes pleading the half-elf.

"Wha...? You-You can’t just pretend nothing ever happened, you know!" Rose backed away from the woman. "You can’t just leave like that and then come crawling back when your life falls down around you!"

"What are you talking about?! I’m rolling in it! I have houses, silk, beautiful lace... Look at me. See my hair? I have it curled by the Peacocks’ Feathers woman!" She tugged at a perfect caramel-coloured ringlet.

"No matter how you dress, the clothes still come off, don’t they? In the end, you’re still kneeling in front of someone, begging for more but wishing it would end, aren’t you?"

Oriona pouted, but was silenced.

"Exactly! Look... come work for me at the Mithrest inn. You can be a waitress. If any of the men try to take advantage of you, we can have them thrown out! It’s not exactly the kind of living that supports several houses and imported silk... but it’s respectable."

"You care about me..." Oriona observed, scraping feebly the bottom of the barrel.

"Only as one woman to another, Oriona," Rose forced the woman’s full name from her lips. "It’s over. It was over when you left me. When you left me, alone in that cold, damp house, without even a stupid note, Woni. It was over then..." Rose’s throat tightened as tears brimmed in her eyes. "Those nights I spent crying..."

"You cried for me?"

"I cried for myself! All those months of my life I wasted with you!"

"ALRIGHT, PARTY’S OVER!" The door crashed open and Laska burst through it, with a look not even a demon would cross. She advanced on Oriona so quickly that the woman couldn’t even take a step back before Laska shoved her against the wall, the breakfast bacon-knife against her throat. "How DARE you make my Rose cry, you sniveling, pompous, manipulative-"

"LASKA! Put her down, NOW!" Rose demanded, her voice edged with pleading desperation.

Laska looked from Rose to Oriona, torn between obeying her lover and avenging her lover’s pain. A hand flicked Laska’s ear, "You’ve been listening to us with those giant elven ears, haven’t you...?"

Laska yelled fiercely, and pressed the knife more firmly against the human’s throat.

"NOW, I said!"

The enraged elf let out a breath, and withdraw the knife from the woman’s throat, moving away from her reluctantly.

Oriona stroked the ivory skin of her precious throat, like a child who’d been spanked. "You savage! I’ve known men who’ve loved animals, but none so fierce as you! You should be a pet, not a lover!"

Laska feigned a sudden advance as a warning, making the woman yelp and shrink back against the wall, "Why don’t you just beg her to get back with you, again, you spoiled, beaten whore?! I bet you’re really good at begging..."

"STOP IT! Please, BOTH of you!"

The two looked from each other to the angry half-elf.

Rose folded her arms again, regaining her composure. "Laska, please leave before you hurt someone."

"ME leave?! She barges into OUR house, interrupts us, and I’m supposed to-"

"Just go, okay? I don’t want more fighting."

Laska swallowed, only resisting the urge to brutally murder the woman who smirked triumphantly at her from the opposite wall by a hair’s breadth. Berated, she slunk out of the room with her tail between her legs.

"As for YOU, Woni...." Was the last thing she heard as she exited.

Viconia was reclined comfortably on the lounge downstairs, having dressed, and was leafing casually through a children’s story book, whilst periodically bouncing a small rubber ball against the wall. Khitthix, trapped inside by the awful weather, retrieved the ball and returned it hopefully to his mistress’s hands.

Laska blew in, smoldering with confusion and anger, and stomped pointedly past Viconia, who didn’t even look up from her light reading.

Viconia turned a page. "Don’t worry, if you’d stop breathing like a dragon, you’d be able to hear she’s telling that woman exactly where to go."

"Eavesdropper." Laska hissed.

Viconia looked up at her, raising an eyebrow. "You’re one to talk. Besides, I didn’t even need to extend my senses. I think perhaps if you speak to Jan next week, he’ll ask you if everything was sorted out respectably."

Laska continued her scowling and headed towards the descending staircase. "If you need me, I’ll be in the wine cellar."

"Always the first place I look, anyway." Viconia called after the sullen elf.

No sooner had the door to the cellar slammed shut and been loudly bolted, a second pair of footsteps trekked into the lounge. "Oh, Viconia. Did Laska go into the cellar?"

Viconia gave Rose a look that enquired why Rose had even bothered asking. "But I wouldn’t go down just now," she advised. As Rose made to leave, Viconia continued. "In the Underdark, relationships that end in betrayal always end permanently, Rose," she let her words seep in. "Drow wisdom is often invaluable."

Rose digested Viconia’s subtle advice. "I’m not getting back with her, Viconia."

"Then stop allowing her to take precedence over the feelings of the woman you’re in love with."

"Ouch." Rose acknowledged Viconia’s painfully spot-on assessment of the situation. "You’re right, Viconia. I’ll keep that in mind."

Viconia nodded as the half-elf left, and returned to her book.

As Laska grudgingly answered the knocking door, she was presented with the charming smile of a rather overdressed nobleman. His hair was combed meticulously to one side, every comb trough in his hair perfectly separated, and not a single hair out of place. The purse that hung from his jeweled belt was so full, its seams stretched from the pressure. A rapier hung uselessly in his scabbard, probably more for decoration than any more martial use. His face was, well, flawless.

Laska looked him over once, then snorted, draining her tankard. "Note to self," she slurred, "When the door knocks, IGNORE IT." She stepped back to swing the door closed.

A foppy foot blocked the path of the door to its latch, "Now, now..."

Laska yanked the door open so quickly its handle slammed into the wall on the other side of its hinges. She looked from the offending foot to the owner, fortunately too drunk to coordinate a frontal assault.

The man smiled, showing a line of immaculate white teeth, and a single gold tooth where one of his canines should have been, "Is she here?"

"If you’re talking about Rose," Laska growled, immediately taking him for another of Rose’s mysterious exes, "She’s not, and she’s never been here."

"Rose...?" Apparently the name didn’t ring a bell with the fop, because he shook his head. "No, my dear woman. I’m looking for Oriona."

Laska raised an eyebrow, suddenly more interested in what this nobleman had to say. "Who wants to know?"

"Lord Pehllus, in the flesh," he curtsied pansily, as if he expected Laska to recognize his title. Laska was torn between congratulating the bastard for beating up Oriona, and slogging him for picking on street whores. Pehllus continued, "I believe she’s here, and I would like her returned to me. Perhaps we could come to a... mutual agreement?" His hand patted the purse at his side.

Laska eyed the purse, realizing that this man could probably single-handed fund her ploy to rescue her childhood friend from where she was locked away. However, Rose would probably skin her hide if she delivered that.... wench to this man. Besides, there were other ways of amassing cash and supplies. "No deal." Laska replied simply.

The fop’s smile fell away, and he looked surprised. Clearly money had never failed to provide this man with whatever he should want. "No?"

"That’s what I said," Laska leaned over to retrieve the door from the other wall; an exaggerated movement given her drunken state. "Now get off my property before I castrate you for picking on women."

The fop looked mildly annoyed, "Listen here! That whore has been contracted to me! Return her at once, or I’ll report you to the street-"

He never finished his sentence, as his mouth met with the solid fist of a drunk, sullen and aggravated moon elf. He was knocked backwards from the force of the blow, the sickening crack of breaking teeth shocking a shriek out of him. Laska shook her tingling hand, realizing what she had intended to be a warning punch had actually been amplified by her drunkenness, breaking his once-perfect smile forever.

She spotted a single gold tooth rattling on the ground in front of her. Bending down, she plucked it up and tucked it into her pocket.

"Laska...?" A soft voice asked from behind her. Rose appeared, eyes puffy and red. Laska opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted as Lord Pehllus regained his composure. "You.... you fiend! My teeth!" He touched the blood gathering on his split lips.

Rose looked past Laska to the man at the door, freezing. "Lord PEHLLUS?!"

Pehllus snatched his glare from Laska to focus on the new entrant. Clearly, he recognised her, "Oh, you must be Rose." He figured, wiping blood gingerly from his mouth with a handkerchief. "Although, I think I called you something else last time I saw you."

An iron grip at the fop’s collar nearly lifted him off the ground, "Is that so?"

The fop callously ignored the threat, "What are you, anyhow...her henchman? Or her pimp?"

Laska’s face folded and she wound up to mug him a second time with the tankard in her other hand, when the third voice interrupted them again, "No, Laska. I can handle him."

Laska glanced back at her lover, as Rose repeated, "I can." Her eyes darted around the room to rest on the broom propped in the corner. Retrieving it, she wrenched the tail off, and held it expertly. "Come beat up a whore, you disgusting coward!"

Pehllus found himself fully on the ground once more as Laska released him, an anticipatory grin lighting her features. "Is this some sort of Joke?" He condescendingly regarded the small woman dressed in lace brandishing her broom-staff with near amusement. "Me? Fight a harlot?"

"You scared?" Laska enquired casually.

The fop touched the corner of his mouth and checked his finger for more blood. "Of course not! Very well, I can’t say honestly I won’t enjoy it..." He drew his flimsy rapier and advanced on the redhead.

In one swift and brutal move, the woman slammed the staff to the underside of the Lord’s rapier arm, jarring the muscles that gripped it. The other tip of the staff swung forward and knocked the loosened weapon from his grip, sending it spinning across the marble floor. Without pausing to allow the Lord to digest being disarmed, a third move jutted to staff toward him, slamming him neatly in the solar plexus.

He fell to his knees, winded and coughing weakly.

Rose stood threateningly over him. "These days harlots fight back. Perhaps we’ll all get lucky and one will kill you."

Laska’s sharp senses spotted the glimmer of light off a blade from the open window. "No cheating!" She called, and pitched her empty tankard at what was obviously one of the nobleman’s personal guards. He dodged the drunken throw, but didn’t reappear at the window.

Distracted by the events at the window, Pehllus never saw the final blow until it collided with his precious nose. Dazed and stunned, he fell to the marble flow, pawing at it as droplets of blood dotted the floor around him. Finally, he dropped, unconscious.

"Tight swings, there." Laska commented appraisingly to her lover, before calling toward the window. "You can come and remove your Lord now!" The guard came into full view in the window again, perplexed, as Laska gestured at him to climb in. After Rose’s display, she knew she didn’t have to worry about the guard trying to assault either of them as he carried the body out the open door - ironically stopping to politely shut it as he exited.

The lovers stood separately, regarding each other.

Rose broke the silence. "I’m sorry, Laska. I didn’t think about how you must feel about this whole affair..."

Laska smiled slightly, her eyes clouding affectionately as Rose let the broom clatter to the ground, rushing into the elf’s embrace. She kissed the top of Rose’s strawberry hair as they hugged, "No, I’m sorry. Viconia was right - I can’t face the idea you ever loved anyone else. But I’ll deal with it."

Rose pulled away to look up at the face of her lover, "She can stay somewhere else. I’m through with covering for her mistakes."

Laska was touched by Rose’s sensitivity, and hugged the woman tightly back against her chest, "Thank you."

"I guess you’ve made your choice, then..." Oriona lifted her case. It had been packed for her and presented to her as emerged from bathing room by a suddenly very jubilant and helpful moon elf.

Rose’s expression remained neutral, and her voice calm. "No. You made it for me when you chose money and lifestyle over love."

"Surely you didn’t expect us to live in that hole forever!" Oriona justified indignantly.

"You said you didn’t care about the straw-stuffed bed. Not so long as you were sharing it with me." Rose’s voice was devoid of emotion, as if she were encountering a tale told by someone else. "Getting rid of Pehllus was the last thing I’ll ever do for you, Oriona." The woman in question raised her eyebrow at Rose’s decision to use her full name. "I wish you luck, but I don’t think I ever want to see you again."

Oriona regarded her ex-lover soberly, before she nodded, and departed silently.

As Rose watched her leave, Laska rounded the corner and welcoming the contemplative woman into her arms. Rose leaned back against the solid figure, a hand covering the arms about her shoulders.

Laska nuzzled Rose’s temple with her chin, "Sad?"

"Not really. Apprehensive," was the reply, accompanied by a deep sigh.

"Anything I can do to help?"

Rose reflected for a moment, and then turned her head a little to look over her shoulder at her lover. "Well... a massage would be nice..."