#vievieveda

"I can't imagine you're not hearing the same total bullshit that I am from vendors right now," she said as the pair sat in her private booth within Scourge House.

Though the sounds of screams and laughter and moaning could be heard beneath in the distance Evelyn's booth was protected by members of her guild and apart from most of the violence, sex and gambling that took place in the main area. Lifted high above the crowd it was only accessible after passing check points and guards, no one able to access the guild leader without her and her people knowing about it. There were, obviously, still weak points, as Evelyn had made sure she would still always be able to see the stage from it but for the most part neither woman need interact with any entertainment they did not choose to.

"Everything from apples to Zhephendol vodka is more than double the cost it was in prior weeks because of this festival," she vented, as she imagined the other woman would. It was, of course, a lie, and one that Evelyn's guild had beaten out of the supplier for a hefty discount, but it didn't make the idea of it any less frustrating. "It's just more bullshit that's going to come along with these emissaries too. Suddenly getting anything from the Kingdom's is going to have some extraordinary tax because they've put their minions out here."

Evelyn shook her head slightly, picking up her drink, an edelflower rose gin, eyes on the stage as one of the performers began to swallow fire they had previously been twirling with a distant laugh and fire on their tongue. "I truly do not think any of this will come to be any good."

Taurus had a lot of apologising to do. His head had ached the day after the festival and the night he had spent in his wolf form tearing down caresses hung high with the pack, he didn't even know about the drained messengers until his daughter had stepped outside to collect their milk and started screaming. He had spent half the day consoling her and half the day trying to determine from the pack if they remembered anything about the prior evening that would relate to the scene because if they did they needed to tell someone now before it was discovered too late. No one seemed to know anything.

Still the events, as well as his sore head, detained him from doing what he knew he had to. While the wolf didn't know Kanaloa that well, Veda was family, him saying otherwise had been...cruel, to say the very least, and he knew he needed to apologise to her. So, much in the wolf's fashion he intended to apologise the same way he had to his daughter and her mother over the years, with an expensive gift.

He'd gone through his collection of jewelry that he typically used for trades and found something he thought was rather pretty, a set of gold earrings with purple stones. To say they was Veda's style would be to assume he knew her style and from his recollections he'd never seen her in any jewellery that specifically had caught his eyes long enough to remember. In his mind this only meant she had never been able to, not that she may have chosen not to.

With the small jewellery box tucked into the breast pocket of his leather vest he headed inside Blood, Sweat and Beers at the slowest time of day, mid morning, and sought Veda out, hoping to find her behind the bar, open to forgiving him.

As Evelyn had checked in with Zelda after what had occurred in the town she too intended to check on Veda. With Veda not being under her guilds protection however it was not immediate that she was able to make time for the act and if she was honest with herself she was, in part, avoiding putting Vee in an uncomfortable position. Evelyn knew the way she had spoken at the gala made her look relatively suspicious, even if she herself did not believe anyone in town to be responsible. Evelyn did not want Vee being associated with someone who could potentially harm her business, especially since she knew she could not help protect it.

Still, it had been a week or so now and Evelyn could no longer restrain her concern for her friend and stopped by the tavern late into the evening, when most were drunk and passed out on tables, when others had left and all that remained were those who were used to staying up all evening.

The horned woman stepped into the establishment in a red dress a few shades lighter than her horns, the soft fabric clinging to her skin as though it existed glued to her rather than hanging off her, a deep slit down her chest to her core. It would have been extravagant if it was not how she dressed daily, always in some sort of dramatically dragging dress, fabric shifting as her long legs walked through the tavern in search of her friend, heading directly for the bar as it seemed the most obvious place to find her.

"I hope you are not still upset with me," Evelyn spoke as she reached the bar. While she had not upset Veda as much as some of her other companions had she did notice Vee's departure when Evelyn had become defensive in regards to Francesco, previously unaware Veda even knew of the nymph.