A Bloody Smiley

A man was running naked in the cold, for a moment everyone in finders alley was stupefied and then laughter burst out from everywhere. A grown man running naked around is usually not so much a comic site but a naked man chased by the fat butcher of the town was nothing new. The butcher was old and his wife, fortunately or unfortunately was not. It was a common sight after every two months, the wife will seduce some one or other and in the night, the butcher will chase that man out when he returned home.

In a tavern across the gully, a woman with her face covered in a cowl was watching these incidents silently. She was dressed in a loose fitting black dress with riding leathers. The tavern owner was standing behind her respectfully, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead time and again. The tavern was empty and a few people were lying in a heap on the ground outside its door. The moment the woman has entered, these men were whistling and cheering at the show of butcher and his wife's lover. The woman has requested for quiet but no one has paid her any heed and went right back on cheering. Suddenly a gust of wind has flown and those men were deposited outside. The moment she has shown powers of wind, everyone knew she was a mage and silently waited upon her pleasure. But the woman has quietly sat on a stool and kept quiet after that. The innkeeper didn't dare to further speak, so he was silently waiting for her orders.

After a few moments, when the men outside in a heap has went their ways and that butcher has returned unsuccessfully after chasing her wife's new lover, two men entered the finders alley and went directly towards that tavern where the mysterious woman was sitting.

"Lady Anterfey, we apologize for the delay."

The mysterious woman removed her cowl and a pear shaped face peeked out. The face was tanned as if the woman was used to remain in sun for hours. The tavern owner recognized the name and his sweat started flowing faster. Nobles were scattered through the empire like dime a dozen due to the heartful scattering of seeds by the generous nobles in the empire but House Anterfey was not one of those. Their history was one of the oldest in the empire.

Araxtasia was a land divided in two class of nobles - warriors and sorcerers, while they were ruled only by those who possessed the power of both warriors and mages- Warlords. They possessed the capabilities of both warrior and mages and it resulted in huge difference in their strength compared to either warriors or mages. The current overlord of Araxtasia was Tiāntáng Róngyà, the seventieth generation of Rongya family. Previous generation claimed that Rongya's have the protection of gods due to which the Rongya family was unchallenged in Araxtasia, while the younger generations said that who is mad enough to challenge the strongest family in Araxtasia.

Anterfeys were one of the most powerful subsidiaries of Rongya family. The current head of Anterfey family was Commander Veerza Anterfey, a no nonsense proud lady in her seventies, who was in charge of law and order in empire's capital Amantar. Her power in the capital was so great that even other nobles when saw her black warhorse immediately changed their path and if by mistake they somehow crossed paths, they would bow and pray like they have seen the gods. Her highness was said to be extremely well versed in politics of the city and was assumed especially close to the dowager queen as she has been the one to promote her to her current position. For many years no one has challenged the Anterfeys in the capital as few could and those few that could were not interested.

The woman sitting in the tavern was not Lady commander herself but a young woman in her mid-twenties. She was the expected heir of the Anterfeys, a favorite of lady commander and powerful warlord in her own right. She currently served under the imperial guards and was in charge of protecting nobles in eastern part of Amantar. She was a favorite of the noble houses as the she has saved quite a lot of them from foolishly challenging each other. The imperial guards were responsible for the safety of nobles but the most frequent cause of death among nobles were not assassins but rather duels, which were provoked by the younger generations over the smallest issues. She has made her name meditating, restraining and preventing a lot of hot headed young noblemen from throwing their lives. Though those greenhorns were rarely thankful but their families were eternally grateful for saving their heirs. Her meditative personality was not her only personality though and those who assumed that she was rather cowardly where shocked when in an attack on her watch on nobles by a group of around two hundred men, the attack was ruthlessly crushed and more than two score men were personally cut by the younger lady Anterfey, Sheersa Anterfey.

She turned her head and told the innkeeper that they were not to be disturbed for an hour and passed him a silver ingot. The innkeeper didn't waited and immediately emptied his staff and himself.

"Have the job been completed?"

Silence ensued in the surroundings as the two men fidgeted. Finally one of the men lowered his head and extended his hand . He took a deep breath and said.

"This piece of paper and corpses of thirty five men of our team were lying when we reached there. We searched for any clues but the whole area was cleaned professionally and we didn't dare openly investigate ."

The heir of house Anterfey heard the news calmly, then inspected that page and asked-"Is this someone's calling sign?"

"Not that we know of, lady. At least no one from the city uses this sort of sign."

"Fine. Leave this mystery for grandmother to investigate, after all its a crime in the city. Return and keep following the earlier plan."

The two men quietly left. After that a ripple occurred in the inn behind Lady Sheersa and the city commander entered. She took the page from her granddaughter's hand and inspected it. On the paper in question, blood was used to carve a smiling face. Until now this type of face was used in festivals but it was a first to be used in a crime and most probably as a provocation.