Wine, Spies and New Acquaintances

[Baltasar de Cordova]

It was a warm day, late summer, and I had not yet opened the shop. Things were falling into place, small details needed to be finished, but I needed a day off, badly. It was my passion, it was my job, but I was also here, in Terre d'Ange to enjoy myself. So, this day found me outside, walking in teh Artisan's District. And if it helped me to find out more about my competition, all the better. Nothing was wrong with having a mid-day glass of wine. Only it would have been nice to have it with someone, rather than alone.

I sauntered through the streets, head held high, a light beige shirt on my back, designs sewn into it in the same colour, adding more dimension and an almost shimmer as I moved in the sunlight. I left it untucked, though my arms rumpled it at the sides where my hands pushed into the deep pockets of my brown doe skin breeches. My boots were high and of deep brown, polished leather, the sun gleaming off of the toes.

My hair fell in dark locks, shifting in and out of my vision as I moved, looking to the left and the right, passing the shops that would be my neighbours, and looking inside. Some were opened, some were closed.

[Mirsada Anezka]

The walls of my shop had felt close today, the heavy summer sun beckoning me outside. SO I’d left the shop in the capable hands of my assistant and headed out to wander the streets.

This was my favorite time of year, when the air was so thick with heat you could feel the weight of it was you took it in. The skirt of my burgundy colored gown made a soft breeze as I walked, the cotton a thin shield between my skin and the heat.

It had been awhile since I’d really been out in the District with no destination in mind and I noticed a few new stalls. I wandered over to one with glass beads and began to browse.

[Baltasar de Cordova]

I continued on down the walk, peering into windows as I did, a clothing shop across the street catching my eye, and therefore my mind, as I walked. It would be somewhere I would have to look later, once it had opened. The clothing shown in the window looked to be of fair quality, and a nice cut that would flatter me nicely.

As I thought on it, my feet propelled me forward, though my eyes did not see the route my feet were taking, and I turned one second too late as I walked straight into another person. I looked now, my eyes focusing, and saw it was a woman.

[Mirsada Anezka]

I had been intrigued by the quality of the beads and had not been paying attention to anything else when suddenly I was nearly knocked over.

“Elua!” I exclaimed, grabbing onto the stall to keep me feet.

[Baltasar de Cordova]

"Elua's balls!" I cursed at myself, moving my hands to steady her, but falling short, not thinking a woman would want some strange man's hands all over her. She was pretty though. Very pretty. Exotic, like some had viewed me, in a sense. Some of her features were very d'Angeline, while others were not. Her tanned skin, for example. Though her dark eyes and hair could have been from any of the provinces of this country. There was something ... different.

I smiled apologetically at her, the words to the same following shortly after. "I am sorry, my lady, please forgive my terrible clumsiness," I said, bowing low, earnestly sorry for my damned foul up. Twas not a good foot to start out on, or at least I thought. Most women do not enjoy being nearly run over by a man, at least not in public.

"Are you alright?" I asked, looking her over, using the excuse of making sure she was, indeed, alright, to take quick stock of her assets. It was terrible, I know, but one could not blame a man who had lived most of his life in a foreign country.

[Mirsada Anezka]

I just managed to keep my feet and straightened back up. My first glance was to the stall, checking to see if I’d destroyed any of the merchandise, but it all seemed to have survived. Next I glanced at the man as I smoothed my clothing.

“I’ve survived,” I said with a chuckle. The man was well dressed and certainly polite, leading me to believe it had indeed been an accident and not some ruse. “No real harm done.”

Another glance and I noticed the foreign cast of his features, very handsome features.

[Baltasar de Cordova]

I gave her my most winning smile as she smoothed her dress, and leveled her gaze upon me. I tilted my head to the side, inquisitively. "I should hope not! Or I would feel rather terrible and have to offer my services until the debt be repaid. So, woman who I nearly plowed through in my lack of attention, is there something less lengthy that I might call you by, in case I make any other mistakes that need apologizing for?" I asked with a crooked smile. I noted that her dress was rather beautiful, and set off her skin tone nicely, though I did not voice these opinions, at least not yet.

[Mirsada Anezka]

I chuckled again, my own head tilting to the side slightly. “I don’t know, it seems rather fitting that after nearly knocking me down you should have to struggle through my name,” I replied, smiling. “Or can you think of a better compensation?”

[Baltasar de Cordova]

"Hmmm," I murmured thoughtfully, tapping my index finger on my chin in thought. "Well, do you eat and drink, my lady?" I asked. I knew she would say yes, no one ever says no to that question. "If so, I might have thought of something that might suffice as repaymen for my misstep." I quirked an eyebrow, wondering if she might take the bait.

[Mirsada Anezka]

“Food and drink as compensation for nearly sending me into the street to be trampled by horses?” I asked with a wry quirk of my lips. “I don’t know if that’s quite fair.”

I heard the proprietor of the stall chuckle softly, a sound that was quickly muffled by a hand or cloth. I couldn’t be sure which since I kept my eyes on the stranger.

[Baltasar de Cordova]

"Hmmm," I murmured yet again. "Well no, maybe not as compensation. Maybe that's just because I want to." I broke eye contact to look at the smirking person in the stall, and the wares that were there. "Did you see anything that you might have liked, before I so rudely interrupted your perusal?" I asked. Maybe some finely wrought glass beads would persuade her to at least take some sustenance with me. I could always find other ways to pay for my insult. A naughty thought entered my mind and quirked my lips, but I checked both, clearing my throat. "Anything you wish," I said spreading my arms wide, "shall be yours."

[Mirsada Anezka]

Oh he was charming, and I think he knew it. Along with knowing how handsome he was. As yet though it seemed of the harmless sort and not the sort that was a trial to be around.

“When you interrupted me, I was looking at these,” I said, pointing out a container of green glass beads with bits of gold flake within them, “And trying to decide if I liked them better than these,” I then indicated some deep blue glass beads with white flowers painted on them. “Which do you prefer?”

[Baltasar de Cordova]

I regarded both choices, glancing back between the young woman and the choices, judging their colour against hers.

"Well," I said, grasping my chin again pensively. "If they are for you, kind and hopefully forgiving lady, I would choose the green. It would go well with your skin tone, the dark locks and eyes. If it is for someone else, or something that won't be adorning you," I said, taking that chance to glance over her body. She was nice to look at, that was for sure, "then mayhap the blue ones. Depends on who they are for," I explained, smiling at the end of my answer, hoping it had won me some points, and maybe the right to find out her name.

[Mirsada Anezka]

I’d not missed the way his eyes moved over me and in fact I rather enjoyed it.

“They are for me, so the green ones then,” I said, smiling. I nodded to the proprietor who began to wrap them up. Then I turned back to the man. “Thank you for the help in choosing.”

[Baltasar de Cordova]

I bowed, one arm bent in front of me, the other behind. "Twas nothing but my pleasure, my lady," I said, looking up at her from my bowed stance. I took my coin purse from my belt, loosening the ropes to pay for her beads.

"Do I get a name? And if no name, at least the pleasure of taking you for brunch?" I queried, counting out the coin amount needed to purchase her beads that the merchant had voiced.

[Mirsada Anezka]

I reached out and laid my hand over his, stilling as he counted out coins. “You can buy me a meal and a drink,” I said, smiling. “And perhaps a gift later.”

[Baltasar de Cordova]

I raised my brows, but nodded. I knew better than to argue with a woman, and she seemed to have her wits about her, and they alwasy were more independent, more passionate. I put my coin away, smiling. "Alright, and where will you, my lady?" I asked then, wondering where she might prefer to go. I also wondered how long she had been in the City, but figured the inquisition could wait, for now. Instead, I beamed at her, giving her a charming smile.

[Mirsada Anezka]

“Cher Fantaisie,” I said after paying for the beads and then tucking them into my purse. I turned to face him again and smiled.

“Mirsada Anezka,” I said, offering him my hand.

[Baltasar de Cordova]

I took the hand that she offered me by the fingers, gently, bowing my head, raising it to my lips, I looked up at her through my own thick lashes and pressed my lips sweetly to the smooth skin of the back of her hand, just a moment longer than decorum would have prescribed. "Enchante, I murmured. "I am Baltasar de Cordova. " I raised my head, standing up straight. "I don't believe I know where that is, though. Will you lead the way?"

[Mirsada Anezka]

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Baltasar,” I said, not missing the extra time his lips spent on my skin. “And it would be my pleasure to lead the way.”

[Baltasar de Cordova]

I offered her my arm with a smile. "Shall we, then?"

[Mirsada Anezka]

Returning his smile, I slipped my arm into his. “That way first,” I said, indicating an angle across the square. “It’s a bit of a walk, I hope you don’t mind.”

[Baltasar de Cordova]

"Me, mind, not with you on my arm, how could I mind?" I said with a sideways grin. "Besides, I'm young and hale, I can take it."

[Mirsada Anezka]

“Young, hale, and full of charm,” I said with a chuckle. “You are just all sorts of things aren’t you Baltasar?”

[Baltasar de Cordova]

I nodded as we walked. "Yes, that and much much more. Perhaps, you will be lucky enough to get to know these things," I said with a wink and a full laugh. "And please, beautiful Mirsada, call me Balta. Baltasar... makes me think I am being chided. And you are not my mother with a wooden spoon and an apron chasing me through the vineyards," I chuckled.

[Mirsada Anezka]

I laughed low and deep at the image his words brought forth. “Balta it is then,” I said, smiling. “Whatever could you have done that would warrant such punishment?”

[Baltasar de Cordova]

"Well," I smiled, "I must confess, I was the perfect child. She never ran after me through the vineyards, mainly because she knew she would never catch up. Usually it was a rap on the knuckles after I tried to filch some sort of sweet dessert she had made. I have a terrible sweet tooth."

[Mirsada Anezka]

“Is that so?” I asked, looking at him and smiling. “I shall keep that in mind should I be seeking to tempt you into something.”

[Baltasar de Cordova]

"Something tells me you won't need to rely on anything other than your own charms for that, Mirsada," I murmured, walking beside her, but keeping a respectful distance between us, though, even in the warmth of the day, it felt like I could feel the warmth of her body. I was sure it was just thoughts roaming through my head that I shouldn't have been having.

[Mirsada Anezka]

“Oh I think my charms will fall greatly short of yours and I’ll need to resort to other plans should I have the desire,” I replied, smiling. I let my fingers brush lightly against his arm, enough so be felt, but light enough to be an accident.