** Hope everyone's doing ok this week. If anyone would like to know I've been watching TV for 5 hours straight**

Chapter 12

"Excuse me," Aveline chirped, gently setting aside her skirts and kneeling onto the floors. Ick, they were sticky- she quickly pasted a smile over her disgusted expression. "Here, allow me." She pressed her clean rag into the puddle of spirits, mopping up the brown liquid. The room was loud enough that no one even acknowledged their entrance, save for Eli whom Aveline could feel burning her back with his curious gaze. She didn't even glance his way.

Across from her, the poor serving girl brushed a stringy red strand of hair from her eyes and looked up in tired surprise. "Oh, miss, you don't have to-"

"Nonsense." Aveline gave her a sympathetic smile and extended a hand. "I'm Aveline. This is Lyla." She gestured to the girl behind her, who was standing there awkwardly and twisting her hands. "Rough night?"

"Ayka." The server climbed to her feet, glancing uncomfortably over her shoulder at the crowded bar behind her. "And you've no idea."
Ayka tightened her hold on her serving tray and seemed to remember her place. "Was there something I could do for you?"

Aveline pursed her lips as she tried to think the matter through quickly.

The count of people that she could trust was dangerously low here. And she didn't need any outward suspicion from asking too many questions. But she needed to be getting information from somewhere, and that meant taking some risks.

Ari had mentioned that most of the hired help had either emigrated or were native to Kibet, so it was still possible that these people weren't loyal to whatever higher authority was in charge here.

The sound of jeering brought Aveline back to the present and she glanced behind her- a few customers were shouting for more drinks, in none too polite language.

Aveline appraised Ayka once again; the poor girl couldn't have been more than fifteen.

She forced herself to ignore the annoyances behind them and stepped to the side, catching Ayka before she could hurry to do her job.

"Actually, yes." Aveline decided to emulate Ari and get to the point; that always seemed to work for him. (Ari always got everything he wanted. She was getting distracted. Again.) "As you perhaps know, some of the princes and princesses from other kingdoms have disappeared. Princess Leilani thought she saw her missing brother in this inn just a few days ago. We were wondering if you might have perhaps seen anything suspicious."

Ayka blinked once, then twice, three times. Her eyes darted around furiously.

Ah ha.

"It's not my place to say, miss, and you shouldn't speak of such things here," She nearly hissed, her words both a warning and an entreaty.

Aveline knitted her brows together meditatively, not at all put off. "But couldn't we simply-"

"Oi, wench! Gin over here, you sack of baggage!" Another drunk shouted from the next table.

Lyla automatically looked at Aveline in alarm, eyeing the fist that she had clenched into a ball.

Ayka shrugged tightly. "That's my cue."

"Aveline-" Lyla stepped forward, but Aveline had already whirled around to face the balding, yellow-teethed drunk who had spoken.

"Watch your filthy mouth, you cretin, you are addressing a lady."

Aveline's sharp words echoed in the humid, yeasty-smelling room, and the crude laughter began to subside into an uneasy silence. All gazes had swung to them. Out of the corner of her eye, Aveline could see Eli slowly climbing to his feet.

The man in question sluggishly looked at her, flexing his swelling biceps. "What was that?" He slurred menacingly, his bulging, wandering eyes nearly popping out of his pink forehead.

"Aveline, let's go," Lyla urged, Aveline could feel her hovering worriedly near her elbow. But the brute was standing up, surrounded by his equally muscle-laden companions, and Aveline's hand twitched impatiently at her side.

"It's quite all right, Lady, I am below his station, and I deserve to be treated so," Ayka said meekly, her freckles staunch against the pale terror of her face.

Aveline shook her head and looked the other girl straight in the eye. "Miss, as a woman and a citizen of Kibet, you are the equal of anyone here."

There. She was finished. Curling and uncurling her fingers, Aveline fought off the adrenaline, released a puff of breath and pivoted on her heel to leave.

But lumbering footsteps were following closely behind. In a moment Aveline could feel that stupid bar idiot standing behind her, breathing hot, fetid air down her neck.

"Answer my question, whore!" The insult hurtled through the precarious silence, piercing the air.
Aveline closed her eyes. Lyla cursed.

Aveline's fist had swung before she even knew what she was doing- automatically, instinctively, gleefully, making satisfying contact with the mushy texture of oily, sweaty skin. His head whipped to the side of his beefy neck and a glob of spit flew out of his mouth with his resounding howl.

The room erupted with noise. Everyone began yelling all at once. Aveline's opponent recovered quickly from his shock and charged at her like a bull. His fists whizzed past her cheek, an array of knuckles slicing through the air.

Feeling charged into her fingertips, as if someone had struck a match in the pit of her stomach and blew until it spread throughout her body. Aveline skipped backwards a few nimble steps, a mocking grin playing along the edges of her mouth.

"Come on, tough guy," she taunted, landing another blow to his ribs.

Everything suddenly began happening very quickly. Ayka had cowered into the corner, and Lyla and Eli were shouting her name, and more bar patrons were storming into the fray. Aveline ignored them, ducking as one of the ogre's friends threw a punch and narrowly missed her jaw. She swung her feet under his legs and tripped him up- his chin landed with a crack on the floor.

More people had stumbled into the scuffle, and Aveline couldn't tell who was fighting who, or why. This was perfect, really- everything was all coming together in the mayhem around her.

And she could feel, the nerves on the top of her skin buzzing with the contact, her heartbeat pounding at a comfortable, familiar pace, her senses tingling with instinct and intuition. This, Aveline could handle.

"I cannot believe you," Someone commented from beside her. Aveline whipped around, her fists raised, but it was only Eli who had somehow squirmed his way towards the center of the circle and grinned at her while bodies dropped around him. "You couldn't wait until morning to start a bar fight? Give us all just a few more hours?" He quipped, taking a defensive stance beside her.

Aveline rolled her eyes into her next punch. "Forgive me for interrupting your pressing appointments."

"Honestly," He continued, grunting slightly as he kneed a drunk man in the stomach, "couldn't you follow the example of your pretty friend, here?" He jerked his chin towards Lyla, who had huddled behind Aveline with her arms firmly crossed. Aveline had to commend her bravery. Despite having grown up in a palace, she hadn't fainted, thrown up, or swooned her way onto a sofa, which made it a lot easier for Aveline to protect her from where she was.

"Lyla is a Lady, and does not fight," She explained, offering no further explanation as she kicked another opponent aside before he could reach the Duchess's daughter.

New interest blossomed on Eli's features as he considered Lyla. "But of course, miss." He winked cheekily at the blonde, who scowled.

Footsteps were scattering down the hall, and Aveline reckoned she only had a few moments before the Kibetian guards came to break up the fight. She haphazardly scoured the room for a back exit, wondering if she could sneak out with Lyla before she was identified as the perpetrator.

In that moment, one of the drunkies took advantage of her brief distraction and managed to clip her in the jaw. Pain shot up the lower half of her skull. Taken aback, Aveline pressed a hand to her mouth; her fingertips came back red. Snapping her back head up to meet her assailant, she grinned through the blood that stained her lips— realizing belatedly that she probably looked like a demon from hell.

Eli was on him before she could retaliate herself, while another attacker approached her from behind and curled his beefy arm around her neck. The inn guards crowded the entrance just then, briefly suspending the noise. Behind them, Ari was scrambling to get a good look inside the room. She glimpsed his dark curls as he shoved his way in front of the guards and caught her gaze from where she stood in a headlock.

Aveline couldn't imagine the pretty picture they made from the doorway; beer mugs spilled into the floor, patrons caught mid-punch, the serving girl trembling in the corner. Eli, pulling the greasy hair of another drunk, Aveline's mouth dripping blood as her head popped out from underneath a hulking barbarian's armpit. And poor Lyla, standing awkwardly in the center, her soft hands at her sides.

Aveline broke the silence. "Ari, how kind of you to grace us with your presence," said she, cheerfully, dropping to her knees. With a small grunt, she lurched forward, flipping her attacker over her shoulder. His massive body shook the room as he plummeted to the ground.

Her movement broke the tension; the shouts resumed and punches continued to be thrown around her. The inn guards somehow joined the fight in an effort to break it up, shoving in between the patrons and spitting threats in their short, harsh accents.

Aveline, panting heavily, stood up amongst the chaos and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"You started without me." Ari's tone was thick with amusement as he assessed the scene, his eyes fastening on something behind her.

Aveline frowned. She was about to scold him when he suddenly jumped in front of her, reached across her waist and tugged a dagger out from the black belt that she'd sashed across her hips.

"Don't move," He ordered, pointing the weapon firmly at someone who must have snuck up behind her when she wasn't looking. Aveline quickly glanced over her shoulder.

"It's only me," said Eli, holding his hands up in surrender.

Ar's eyes flickered to Aveline, and then back again. He lowered the weapon. "Alright?"

"Fine." She waved a dismissive hand. "We should leave before there's trouble."

"Pardon me for disagreeing, Aveline, but I think there already is," said Lyla, scooting out of the way as an angry barmaid tackled someone across the table.

"This? No." Eli shook his head. "This is only a bar fight. For now," He nodded at Aveline. "I'd run before the inn guards catch you, darling."

She was already walking away, her steps long and sure. "They won't."

**This chapter was sorta Aveline-centric. Hope that's ok. See y'all next week ;) **