After nightfall

[Ziad]

That evening, after his shift was over, Ziad made it over to the tavern of the women he had talked to before, Kriss. As he walked along the streets, his boots softly echoing on the cobble stones he wondered why he was even doing that. The obvious reason behind something like that - making friends or meeting socially with a woman - sounded strange to him after all the run intos they had had and all the snappishness she had displayed towards him. She was sure a difficult one to read, probably one of the kind one better kept away from as a man because her kind usually meant trouble where trouble was neither appreciated nor necessary. But still, here he was. Probably because he had promised it. Yes, because of that, he told himself. And besides, why not? He would hopefully get some good warm food that way and he had hardly eaten anything until now.

He was wearing his usual garments. the fact that he was captain of the city guard had luckily bailed him out of the question whether or not to change his clothing to something more...impressive, because his uniform already was and he could always get away with wearing it since he had been on duty until a few moments earlier.

With mixed feelings he reached the tavern and stepped in.

[Caipra]

Caipra turned in the street leading to the tavern just in time to see Ziad getting in.
The old lady had forgotten her silk scarf at Kriss's place after the lunch, that's why she came back here before going home. But she thought that she would have been here before the chief's guard. Now, the Archer would surely think she had made it on purpose.
Caipra smiled, amused by the situation, and entered the tavern only one minute after Ziad.
She was standing behind the guard when she said, in an innocent tone.
"Oh, good evening Ziad. It's been a while since the last time I've seen you here."
In fact, Caipra hadn't seen him much here since her friend Sinbad and his crew had left Basra, a few weeks ago.

[Kriss]

Kriss closed the door behind her with a little relief. The things which had happened there during the last hour changed her into someone really new. A stylish dress, tasteful pair of shoes and the gently draped black curls hid that simple tavern's owner and showed the lady - slim and elegant. Some delicate perfume just completed the beautiful entire. Kahlan had taken care for all the details, even if Kriss had not really wanted to go along with that.

She did not remeber when she had been dress like that for the last time. But it did not really metter then because she had to go there. Go and eat a dinner with him.

Kriss still was not really sure why she had invited him and she started to dislike the idae even more than before.
Why hadn't she offered to buy him some gift in exchange for staying with Aniel?
Why had she left her son with him?
Why did he always have to come in the exactly wrong moments?
Attempted to answer these questions would be pointless.
It all had happened already and she could not change things. She had to eat the dinner with capatin of the city guard - person who irked and intrigued her at the same time.

She could even found some good points of the whole situation. She had cleaned the tarass and she had an evening off from her spoiled son since Kahlan had stayed with him.
Yeah, it could not be so bad.

Kriss took a deep breath and proudly walked downstairs.

[Ziad]

He only noticed the old sorceress when she was standing directly behind him, but Ziad´s reflexes were too well trained to flinch when he was startled. Therefore he just turned around to look at Caipra, wondering what she was doing here. "Well, I could say the same for you, Caipra." he said, the edge of a smile on his face, but then he heard steps and looked ahead.

When he saw Kriss there were two thoughts at once, seemingly colliding in his head: one, that she was beautiful, yes, more beautiful than he would admit to herand two, that he was glad that he had decided against dressing in something else. Oh well, he had decided after all that he could look impressive enough in his uniform as well.
An eyebrow rose when she walked down the stairs and partly because he couldn´t help it, partly because talking kept his jaw from dropping he asked. "Are you...expecting someone else?"

[Kriss]

Kriss was slowly walking downsatirs, still with a big mess of her minds and she was looking around the tavern. It was not very crowded that evening. Just a few regular guests sitting by the one of the tables.
She turned her head and noticed Ziad who was strangely watching her. She also noticed someone else, someone she had not expected to see.
Is Caipra really so nosey? She thought.

When she came closer she nodded at Ziad and said,
"No, I was expecting only you.... Caipra, may I know what are you doing here?"

[Caipra]

Caipra was about to answer to Ziad when Kriss walked downstairs. The archer was looking beautiful in that dress, new dress, she could tell. The old lady had never seen her like that. She looked different. For the first time, Caipra was able to see the beautiful lady hidden behind the mask of a tavern's owner. Another side of Kriss de Valnor was standing just in front of them.

The old lady noticed that the look of Kriss hadn't leave Ziad indifferent. He simply couldn't look away from her as she was coming closer. But the tavern's owner, loyal to herself, didn't pay so much attention to him and gave him a short answer.
As for her, Caipra was expecting Kriss's reaction, that's why she simply smiled and answered.
"Don't worry, I won't bother you for long." She said, looking at both Ziad and Kriss.
"I think I forgot my silk scarf here after the lunch. And as I was not far from the tavern, I thought I could come here quickly to pick it up. Have you seen it?"

[Kriss]

Kriss was watching Ziad and Caipra very carefully with a confused expression. They both were looking at her as if she had been a ghost. Was something wrong with her? However, she decided to ignore it or at least try to.

Indeed, she knew that Caipra had left her silk scarf here. Her son had been running with it on his head before she had taken it away from him and put it in some safe place.
The archer smiled at the thought of this picture and answered,
"Yes, I saw it. It's in the top drawer under the bar. You can take it."
But whether Caipra had left this scarf accidentally or intentionally been left unanswered.

Then Kriss turned at Ziad not to leave her guest being ignored.
"Why we don't go on the terrace? I'm sure our dinner is already waiting. So shall we?"
She pointed the open door.
Sooner they started to eat, sooner he was going to leave.

[Ziad]

Woman had listened to the short exchange the two women had shared with a slightly raised eyebrow. Women, he thought. It was quite obvious that Kriss was feeling as uncomfortable as Caipra was gleeful about Caipra having trodden in on him as the tavern owner´s guest and Kriss herself so obviously dressed to impress. Which meant he was having the upper hand since apparently he belonged to the small group of persons (1 person to be exact) in the room who didn´t really have anything to feel awkward about. Something about that nearly made him chuckle in amusement, partly because from what he had gathered about Kriss so far, she was probably rather annoyed with the situation right now. Could mean some fun.

"Of course, my lady." he just said, managing a perfectly galant smile at her words, a small, mischivious voice inside his head wondering whether he maybe should stir the rumours that had apparently started to form in Caipra´s head.

[Caipra]

Caipra watched Kriss and Ziad without saying anything, but still with this amusing smile on her face.
In a way, she was happy of this situation. They were the only people in Basra who knew everything about her, including her abilities with magic, and she was glad to see that they were not ennemies. She couldn't tell for sure what was going on between those two. Maybe the imagination of the old lady was going too far, but at least she really thought the two of them could make a great couple...but that was not hers to decide.

For now, she was standing in front of her two friends who were having dinner together, and the wise sorceress knew it was time for her to disappear.
"I won't retain you any longer." She said.
"I hope you'll have a nice evening. And thank you for the Scarf, Kriss." She made a sign of her head to Ziad, made a wink to Kriss and slowly walked toward the bar.

[Kriss]

My Lady Her slaves had used to call her that way what could make hearing it from him even satisfactory but for sure the context of this statement was quite different.
Kriss threw him a stormy glance wondering what kind of game was he playing or whether something had not hit his head today. Then she turned her head to say goodbye to Caipra with even more tempestuous look. She was walking away what brought Kriss some kind of relief. The archer really did not want to know what the old woman was thinking about all what she had seen. One thing was sure, she would not let Kriss forget about it so soon.

She turned back at Ziad. With a single gesture of her hand and a smirk she invited him to go ahead in the direction of the terrace.
Great Odin, it was going to be a very long evening.

[Ziad]

Ziad followed her invitation and walked past her onto the terrace, noticing her smirk but unable to hold back a remark, not now that he felt self assured. "Quite a quick change of moods tonight. What was it that set you off? The old lady who might gossip now or me being corteous?" The smirk clearly was his now.

[Kriss]

She exactly knew that he was playing with her. For a first time she thought then about his point of view at this, let's call it: verid situation. She quietly giggled to herself at the mental picture of that show with her in the main role. The whole scene was ironic enough that she decided not to delve into it even more, not to plunge herself even more.

She followed him on the terrace. Just like she had thought - everything was waiting for them. With another gesture of her hand she invited him to sit down and answered for his questions,
"Indeed, you being corteous is rather unusual phenomenon for me but as for the gossip... Well, I don't need to be afraid of my reputation. I'm not a captain of the city guard."

[Ziad]

Ziad gave a shrug as he followed her, noticing that she had obviously put quite some effort into laying out things and preparing the food (or having it prepared) which made him sure he still had the other hand, because she didn´t seem like one who would invite him out of mere nicety even though he had been looking after her boy.

"I´ll leave that kind of worrying to you, gladly." he said, walking out onto the terrace. "You seem to need it far more than I do."

[Kriss]

She frowned. Now, she really did not follow his entangled minds and words. She would have answered something but the thought of her illegal gouest in the attic held her tongue under control. She could not afford him to be her enemy. Not now.
She decided to ignore it.

Kriss sat down by the table and asked spontaneously,
"I hope you like sea food?"

She had asked her cook to prepare some traditional North food, specifically, a fish. She was simply curious of his reaction to a traditional dish from her homeland.

[Ziad]

Ziad had a look at the table, wondering what she had prepared - or being prepared. He could tell that he was hungry, he hadn´t been eating much throughout the day, as usual when on duty.

"Well, what can I say," he said with half a grin, meaning his words in a humorous way, not to insult. "I´m a soldier, we aren´t picky."