The Meeting

Three individuals that have worked together for years find that things aren't always perfect.

Elize sighed as she leaned against the wooden crate. She disliked waiting. In fact, she disliked it so much, that it was one of the few things in this world that she could say she actually hated. Why would someone arrange to meet at a specified time, and not be there at the time that was agreed upon? She was not accustomed to doing business in this fashion. In her mind, being late signaled a lack of discipline. It meant that you didn’t take your responsibilities seriously. And if you didn’t take your responsibilities seriously, then by that account, you didn’t take her seriously. She inhaled deeply and let out a frustrated sigh.

“Relax”, a calming voice from beside her said. ”You know he shows up whenever he chooses.”

“Yes, I know,” she said through gritted teeth. “You would think that after all these years he would learn some punctuality. You would think that he would have learned by now that we are supposed to be professionals. How can clients take us seriously if we don’t even present ourselves seriously? How can he not understand that? Does he not realize how it makes us look if a client is waiting on us? And how can you be so damn calm?!”

Quarion took a deep breath and exhaled deeply. He rose from his meditative stance and turned to Elize. He looked directly into her eyes as he placed a hand on her shoulder. The mage always did this to calm her whenever she began to get irritated or angry. Sometimes it had the intended effect, other times it irritated her further. This was one of the latter.

“Don’t give me that look, Q. I’m not the one you should be counseling.”

“But you are the one that is here.” He replied. “Look, he’ll be here. When have you known the little thief to miss out on a chance to make some coin?”  

She shrugged not wanting to hear yet another lecture on keeping her cool. “I get it, Q. But if he really wanted to get paid, he should be here waiting with us, so that as soon as the boat arrives we can get going.”

“What does it matter though? Our client has not even arrived himself. Getting upset will do nothing to benefit you. You need to relax.” He gave her an amused look and smiled. “Have you tried meditation?”

“Don’t start with me Q. That isn’t funny.” She tried to stifle a small laugh and looked away to hide the faint smile.

“See, things are not as bad as you are making them out to be. I’m sure he will be here shortly, before our client is, and we will be ready to depart as soon as they arrive.” Quarion looked thoughtful before continuing, “Of course, he may have been arrested once again. He may be locked up in a cell somewhere. Which means that this job may just fall through.” He feigned a look of mock fear.

“Stop it, Q. That isn’t funny.” Elize began to pace, “What if he did get locked up again? We need this job. I’ve almost enough saved. From what Oz told me, this job would give more than I needed.”

Quarion saw the look of despair on Elize’s face. “I was only joking. I very much doubt that they caught the little thief. Even if they did, I am quite certain that they would not be able to keep him locked in a cell very long.”

“But what if they did this time?” Elize replied.

Quarion looked away, “Would it be so bad if they did? I mean, it is not as if he would not deserve it. To this day I still do not understand why you help him. He is a thief and I am quite certain that he has killed as well. And I do not think that it was only in self-defense.”

“I know what he is capable of, Q. But he is necessary right now. He pays well and all the jobs so far have been honest.” Elize looked down as she continued, “I’ve killed as well. And I don’t see you labeling me as a murderer.”

“That is because you have never taken advantage of innocents to exploit for your own gain. You have only killed those that wished to cause harm to you or others too weak to defend themselves. I do not trust Ozzirry, I never have.”

Elize began to get angry. She always disliked being in between Quarion and Ozzirry. She knew the things that Ozzirry was capable of and she had an idea that what Quarion said could be true, but at the moment Ozzirry was the only steady way of making any sort of living in this world. She also understood that sometimes you had to do things that you weren’t proud of, but were necessary. Her own hands, after all, were far from clean themselves. She knew that Quarion didn’t understand this because he never had to lead the type of life that she had led before she met him. The type of life that Ozzirry led as well.“If you don’t trust him, then why are you still working with him?” she asked.

Quarion turned to her, “I am not working with him. I am watching out for you. I am making sure that he does not take advantage of you. I am making sure that he does not lead you down a wrong path."

Elize opened her mouth but her response was cut short by the ringing of a bell signaling the approach of a ship. “Great! Now our client is here and Ozzirry is still nowher…”

“The elf is right,” came a smooth voice from the shadows. “Ya really should relax.

In one swift motion, Elize turned, drew her sword and had it pointed at the speaker’s throat. As he moved out of the shadows, she saw that it was Ozzirry. His red eyes looked up at her, one eyebrow raised.

“Ya might wanna take it easy wit that thing. Wouldn’t wanna hurt a friend would ya?” Ozzirry said placing a finger playfully on the tip of  Elize’s blade. “’Sides, if I was gonna kill ya, I coulda done it ‘bout an hour ago.”

“Wait, so you’ve been here the entire time!” If Elize was irritated before, she was angry now.

“Aye, been here since midday,” he replied, the smile on his face showing his sharp teeth. “You two need to really work on checking your surroundings, not to mention makin’ so much noise when ya walkin around. So, ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’. You been arguing over me again?”

Quarion rolled his eyes and turned away. “I am sure that I have made myself very clear, thief.”

Showing his swiftness, Ozzirry made a quick movement and was in front of Quarion in no time. ”Maybe you should remind me once more, mage,” the last word said with disgust. “Make no mistake, I only bring ya along cause she can’t seem to leave ya behind. If I wanted ya dead, I’d a killed ya long ago. Or anytime ya doing ya prayer thing. So, if I was you, I’d try not to antagonize me so. Or I might forget that she wants you around.”

“And you should not mistake my calmness for complaceny either. I will do what I feel is necessary to keep her safe. Be it from danger outside this group, or inside. You should be locked up with the rest of your thieving companions. I doubt you care about anything in this world, other than yourself.”

At this, Ozzirry drew his dagger in a flash, “That’s it, pointy eared freak! I’ve had about enough of your high and mighty self-righteous talk!”

Ozzirry lunged with his blade. Just as Quarion began his hand movements for what could have been a damaging spell, Elize stepped between the two.

“That’s enough!" She yelled as she placed a hand on each of their shoulders, pushing them away, “Look, the client’s boat is pulling up. We don’t need to be having this kind of discussion in front of them.” She looked down at Ozzirry, “I’m sure you had your reasons for not telling us you were here. I’d like to believe that you meant well.” She turned to Quarion,” I appreciate that you want to keep me safe, but I can handle myself. You know I can. I don’t need you to watch over me. Let’s escort them to the town, get our payment and we’ll deal with this later.”

She let go a sigh of relief as Quarion lowered his hands and Ozzirry sheathed his blade. It was always like this whenever Ozzirry was the one who set up a job. She wondered if she had lied and told Quarion that she was the point of contact, if maybe he would have been less annoyed by Ozzirry’s presence. She noticed that Quarion was always extra protective whenever Ozzirry was the point of contact. But she knew that if things went bad, if they were in any danger, that they would always put aside their differences and work together. The three of them made a formidable team, and their reputation had spread across the continent. If you needed protection, if you had cargo that you wanted delivered in one piece without it being stolen or if you needed someone to deal with a threat, you got into contact with one of them.

Today's job was an escort. Ozzirry said he had a contact that mentioned his name to a person who needed an escort for something he considered valuable. He said the man was going to pay three times what they normally charged for a protected escort. So, Ozzirry contacted Elize because he knew that she needed the money. He hadn’t given any other details aside from where the person wanted them to be when he arrived, which was going to be by ship.