Emil looked down at himself, inspecting his new clothes. He had few complaints. They looked decent, inconspicuous, and above all, didn't hinder his movement or weapons. Truth be told, it was better than what he was wearing this morning. Even so, he felt it necessary to voice his solitary complaint, "I really do appreciate the new clothes, but did you have to burn the old ones? There was still a lot of use left in those."

"I only did what was right. It was my fault that this happened to you, and you used the situation to protect me. Consider it both thanks and apology. "

"And the burning? That an apology too?"

"God's no! Anything that smells that bad should be burned! It would also have drawn attention to us and made us easier to identify should those guards come looking."

"Makes sense, but what about you? You could've gotten yourself some new clothes."

"Didn't have enough money for that."

"You... how much did you spend on this?! How much is left?!"

"I believe this is that part where you'd tell me to keep my voice down." She motioned to the surroundings. and though they were currently in a deserted ally, there was no way of knowing what eyes or ears were on them. "I spent more than I wanted to, but if I had to stay around that smell for much longer it'd have been you getting burned. I have enough for maybe a meal and one night's stay at an inn."

Emil buried his face in his palms and let loose a heavy sigh. "We coulda sold those old clothes or something, at least the shirt and cloak."

Kaitlyn froze in realization, clearly not having thought of that. "...oh... sorry."

"Nothin' to be done about it now. Let's see if we can find ourself some food. I hope you aren't expecting something fancy."

"The last few months, 'fancy food' means actually having a meal."

A chuckle could be heard from Emil, "Welp, guess we're getting fancy after all. C'mon, I see just the place." He motioned out of the ally and across the road.

"The Black Barrel? Even this town has a Barrel? Can't say i'm particularly excited to go to the 'Black Barrel' though.

"Welp, this place probably has cheap food and might even be part inn. Just... keep your hood on, don't make eye contact, and... don't mind the noise too much."

"Huh...?"

Emil paused, turning around right before he exited the ally. "This... may be an unpleasant experience. I'm going to have to ask you to play along, or at the very least, don't fight." He extended his arm to her.

"Wait... but..."

He motioned to his arm again, and she took it. The pair somewhat awkwardly made their way across the street and entered the shadiest Barrel establishment either of them had seen.

The door creaked open, and they could both feel several pairs of eyes, and a few single eyes, on them. Most of the patrons appeared to be an unsavory lot, the kind that you'd want to avoid after they'd started drinking. Kaitlyn tensed and involuntarily latched onto Emil's arm tightly. Emil, for his part, was used to this sort of crowd. He pulled her slightly closer to him and led her to the bar. He could feel her shaking slightly as she kept her head downcast.

Emil whispered, "It'll be fine, just don't let anyone look you in the eyes, and don't say anything against me." She nodded lightly in response. Once he had her confirmation, he waited for the barkeep to be free, "'Scuse me. You have rooms?"

The barkeep responded, sparing just enough of a glance to count the number of people. "Aye, we do. That'll be one room for a few hours or...?"

"The whole night."

"Oh?" The barkeeper paused, glancing over the pair. "Well, can't judge a book by its cover. Just... try to keep it down. Everyone else does eventually try to sleep."

Emil struggled to keep a straight face as he felt force applied to his arm. He continued, "You serve food too, right?"

"We do. What'll ya have?"

"The daily special, twice."

"Aye, and anything to drink? Maybe loosen ya' up a bit?"

"We'll have 2 cups of wine, red. Can we get that brought to our room?"

"Oh, getting right to business. Yea, we can do that. That'll be..."

Emil handed him the amount before being told, exact change at that.

"How..."

"You know better than to ask, don't you?" Emil slid another copper coin over. "For your discretion."

The barkeep nodded happily and presented Emil with a key, which he took. The pair retreated to their room immediately.

The door closed behind them, and Emil looked down at Kaitlyn, though all he saw was the back and top of her hooded cloak. "You can stop trying to break my arm now."

"Did you hear him? The things he said?! He thought..."

Emil put a finger to her lips. "And none of that is my fault. Listen for a moment and you'll understand why he said what he did."

Kaitlyn strained her ears for a few moments. She soon wished she hadn't. She turned red to her ears, released herself from Emil, and put distance between them. Fireballs were starting to form in her hands.

"No, none of that. We're in a Barrel establishment. Surely you know the rules."

The fireballs receded into nothingness. "You start the fight, you pay the tab."

"Good. Now, you understand, right? The place is cheap, but it's not like people spend a whole night here."

"How the dickens are we supposed to get any sleep?"

"By the time our food arrives, most of them will be done. Worse comes to worse, we can just order more wine."

"How are you so calm about this?"

"My 'mother' worked in a brothel. I grew up near and in it. I've slept with far more noise going on, some of it worse.

"That's..."

"Relax, if I wasn't able to sleep, nobody was, and if that happened, someone would check on things. That's all I have to say on the matter. I doubt you'd want details anyway."

As much as she wanted to contest him, Kaitlyn knew that she didn't want details. She'd already learned more than she wanted to know. She opted to change the subject, "So, 'discretion', huh? I honestly didn't expect to hear a word like that from you."

Emil scoffed, "It's probably the fanciest word I know, and one of he most useful. You can say a whole lot with 1 simple word."

"So, what did the extra coin get you?"

"Hopefully, forgetfulness, at the very least, silence."

She didn't need to ask further. and she'd have lost the chance anyway as there was a soft knock at the door. The sound of something being set on the ground was heard shortly thereafter along with receding footsteps. They'd made it a point to be heard walking away, though the fact that they approached silently was not unnoticed by either of them.

Kaitlyn was about to get the food when Emil stopped her. He spoke in a hushed tone, "Give it a moment. We're 'busy', remember?"

"I most certainly do not remember and do not agree."

"If we want to blend in, we need to play the part. Us staying the whole night is already unusual."

"But..."

"Don't ask questions you don't want answers to." Emil crept toward the door and put his ear to it. A moment later, after the footsteps trailed away, he retrieved a tray with 2 plates, 2 pieces of bread, and 2 cups of wine. He inspected the food. "At least you gave me the time to get my belongings." He pulled out a vial, uncorked it, and put 2 drops in each drink.

"What did you do to our drinks?"

Emil paused, turning slowly towards Kaitlyn. Everything she said, and essentially every action she'd taken after their fight, had made one thing increasingly clear: this woman was not as advertised. "I'm checking for poison. It'll start to bubble if there's something dangerous in it." They both leaned over the cups, watching, waiting. After a few minutes passed without changes, Emil deemed the drinks safe.

He handed Kaitlyn her serving. A modest portion of sausage with stewed potatoes served in a wooden bowl, and a chunk of bread. It wouldn't have been appropriate to call it a slice, as it had clearly been pulled from a loaf instead of cut.

Emil began stuffing his face, and Kaitlyn decided that any noise would be better than their chewing and the noises from the neighboring rooms. Now that she'd thought about it, the noises had stopped. There was only the sounds of them eating. "So, how much coin do you have left?"

"2 copper pieces." He paused his eating, got up, and locked the door from the inside. He sat back down and continued eating his food as if it would attempt to run away.

"If you were left with so little, why give the barkeep extra?"

"There's some things you can't buy with money. Other things, money helps with. It keeps him from telling anyone which room we have, or from confirming any unnecessary details about us to anyone aside from the law."

"So, for a bit of extra peace of mind?"

"You could say that. If anyone got extra details about you, we'd probably end up destroying the place to escape." He spoke in a whisper, as if fully expecting someone to be listening. "I know you don't trust me, but you should take tonight and get a good night's rest."

"And what of you?"

"You're worried about the wrong person here. I'm not the one that the whole underworld has their eyes on. I'll look out for you, at least until we figure out what we're going to do." He picked up his wine cup and gulped down half of it. His food was already gone. "I'm gonna guess you haven't slept well in a while."

"And you expect me to sleep well here? With my assassin, in what is basically a brothel, above a seedy tavern?"

"Better than the woods, at least."

"There's only 1 bed!" It had taken her a while to notice, but the room did only have 1 bed, a washtub, and a desk and chair. The lamp on the desk gave of a flickering warm glow. It was an old oil lamp, not even a mana-fueled one. It was clearly not a place intended for staying any notable duration.

"Took ya long enough to notice. I'll be sleeping at the desk." Emil gulped down the rest of his wine and positioned himself at the desk.

"...I can't figure you out."

"Good. Predictable assassins don't live long."

Kaitlyn finished the last bits of her food, along with the wine. She wasn't usually a drinker, and red wine was not her drink of choice. It dulled her senses, made her sleepy. She laid in the bed and muttered, "A good assassin probably doesn't take such good care of their targets..." She passed out seconds later, finally letting her guard down and succoming to the fatigue of the day.

Emil glanced over at her. She looked almost content. He chucked, "A 'good' assassin, huh? Not sure if there is such a thing."