The Eagle

He fingered the coins on the table again as he set down his empty mug. The fire banked in the old stone hearth of the inn did little to warm him. Elyanor sat across from him, her hand wrapped firmly around her own mug of ale, her deep black hair pooled around her shoulders.

"So you've confirmed it?" He asked as his mug was replaced with another one.

She nodded, firmly. "It was him."

"Damn." He let his breath go in a whisper. Damn Mortimer Strong-Arm.

Elyanor moved in closer. "We're not sure how he did it. But we do know it was him. The first letter Shadow sent indicated that she was suspicious that something odd was happening..." Soon after leaving her home, The Shadow had caught wind that something was following her... at the first occasion, she had dropped a line to Elyanor - the Silence - knowing that if anyone could help her figure things out, she could.

"So it is the Inevitable."

Silence leaned towards him and placed a hand on his arm. "No, not THE inevitable. Simply an inevitable."

He shut his eyes. "But invincible."

"No, not invincible. She hasn't communicated much, probably for the concern that it would find you or the family. But we've done some poking around. She may yet have a way to beat it... or we may yet find another."

"And I'm stuck here!"

"For now, yes." She gazed at him pointedly, then smiled. "Who would have thought that I would be looking after you, Barty."

He rolled his eyes. It had taken many years, at the beginning of his relationship with Igraine, to understand the place that Silence filled in his wife's life. The two women were inseparable, sharing a deep love that was so similar yet so incredibly different from the love he and his wife shared in their own way. After finding out that she was being hunted, it had been his wife who had sent Silence to find him, to guard him. Over the years, he and Silence had developed their own affection for each other. But it had always been clear that Igraine was the center of their world.

He knew that Igraine would be working to defeat the Inevitable in her own way. And he knew that Shadow would be tracking down the complicated weave that damn Mortimer Strong-Arm had woven.

He grabbed Silence's hand and looked, unflinching, at her deep eyes. "I'll get on it from my end." He saw a slight - so slight - light of relif fill her eyes. She had never been one to betray any emotion. Somehow, his wife had been the only one who had ever been able to crack the Silence's stern demeanor.

The thought made him long for Igraine more, miss her more, crave to have her near again. The bile rose in his throat at the thought of the Strong-Arm, Mortimer the Crow. So many years ago he had tried to take Barty's empire from beneath him, acting to have him assasinated as he came into his inheritance. The whole halfling world of their city had been watching to see what Barty would do. Shadow turned the tide when she breached the contract on Barty's life.

"He may finally succeed..." Barty mused, as he looked down at the table, Silence's hand in his.

"Never, Eagle." She whispered, hoarsely.

He grimaced, feeling despair. But the firm look in Silence's eyes steadied him. "He will not succeed. I will continue to meet with my associates. We can take care of the business end of things. And you, Silence...."

Her gaze hardened. "I will take down the Crow."