Digging Deeper [Closed]

[Kiley Daire Guerrin]

(( Firstfall 11, Late Afternoon, @Breanna Guerrin ))

The ride out hadn't been awful. Truly it had been a bit refreshing, and the time it took to get to Rainesfere helped clear her head of most of her wayward thoughts. They could stay back in Redcliffe, with Teagan, for now. She had a job to do here, and she intended on doing it without daydreaming.

She still had a few thoughts here and there, but the scenery on the way to Rainesfere had been lovely, and she thankfully didn't encounter any bandits on the road. Adelaide seemed happy to stretch her legs for a longer ride, too. The horse hadn't seen much travel since coming to Ferelden, just the occasional jaunt over to Denerim from Amaranthine.

The town was friendly enough once she had arrived, and she spent a little time going through the market and getting the feel for the people that milled about. It also added the benefit of being directed to the correct residence for the Bann.

Once Adelaide was settled at the stable, she approached the front door. She felt nerves flutter in her stomach and tried to quiet them down. Breanna was important to Teagan, his blood, and whether or not they had talked about it, very likely his heir. Teagan was important to Kiley, in very many ways, and she felt that she needed to give the best impression she could here. Not that she expected to remain a fixture in Teagan's life, but she would be part of it as long as he required and desired.

This investigation, after all, was about the safety of his daughter. Kiley had not really had the chance to meet her at the Ball, and their social circles had not crossed afterwards. She knew her background, much like the king a bastard who was raised to position. A younger Kiley might have found such things truly scandalous, but not anymore. Her friendship with Alistair helped there, but also her experience out in the world at large. One did not have to be born in the proper way to still have a noble bearing. Kiora might have disagreed with her on that.

Of course, that didn't mean Breanna didn't already have an opinion of her. Her reputation was pretty well spread, and well, Breanna had been at the Ball with Kiley had made a fool of herself with Teagan on the dance floor. She supposed she would find out today if that had given the Bann a poor opinion.

She waited at the door after a good knock, wondering if the Bann herself would greet her or if her household had servants who would answer.

 

[Breanna Guerrin]

There were some days where Breanna didn’t understand the desire to want her job. All it meant was being inundated in paperwork, after all. Did people think it was all power and no work?

Then again, considering who was the person that seemed be doing all the behind the scenes, perhaps that was exactly what he thought.

Breanna sighed, setting aside the latest contract that would serve to improve the walls around the marketplace. Rainesfere was growing, and if there was one thing that the Blight had proved was that defensible walls were incredibly useful. Now that there were funds to do so, she sought the best possible contractor… only to find that most of them were already working in Haven. Yet there was one place that the Chantry did not bother asking, and Breanna had no qualms whatsoever about doing so - the dwarves.

Orzammar, however, was proving difficult. Considering the fact that they did not go to the surface, it did complicate matters. But everyone informed her that they used to be much more difficult to work with - at least now they were willing to send supplies. Before Bhelen’s rise to the throne, they were notoriously secluded. At least now, they were slipping her information about what ‘Surfacers’ were recommended for the job. She wondered how much kickback they were sending them for those recommendations, but she was willing to give it an opportunity to present their work.

But when one of her staff informed her that there was someone to see her, she motioned for them to be brought in, fully expecting it to be in regards to said wall. When a human woman was ushered in, to say it caught Breanna off guard was an understatement. “Lady Kiley Daire, milady.”

Rising to her feet, she motioned for her to sit. “Good day, Lady Daire. Please, take a seat. Andrew, can you please fetch us some tea?” The latter was less for Lady Daire and more for herself, but it didn’t hurt to look like a proper hostess. “Welcome to Rainesfere, my Lady. How might I be of service?”

 

[Kiley Daire Guerrin]

Kiley followed the servant who lead her down the hallway to what she assumed was Breanna's office. She waited as she was announced, and then entered the room with a bright smile on her face. She had never really had the chance to speak with Breanna, though they both had been quite the topic of gossip circles before. Perhaps they would be able to find a common bond in that. She did give her a proper bow once she was across the threshold.

Breanna gestured for her to sit, and she did so, “Good day, Lady Daire. Please, take a seat. Andrew, can you please fetch us some tea?”

"And a good day to you as well, Bann Breanna," It seemed Breanna did not share Teagan's penchant for whiskey during business meetings. Or perhaps that was just meetings with her. She crossed her legs, and folded her hands over her knee as she gave a smile to Andrew who left the room not a moment later. She turned back to Breanna, who seemed to have some of the same worry lines that Teagan did. Truth be told, she saw quite a bit of his features in his daughter, though definitely subtler and less angular. Though the nose was certainly had similar qualities.

"Welcome to Rainesfere, my Lady. How might I be of service?” she asked, and Kiley produced a missive which she leaned forward to hand to the Bann.

"Thank you for seeing me. I promise I won't be an inconvenience, or take too much of your time. I'm here at the behest of your father," she nodded at the letter. "to look over incident reports over the last few years. Anything where mercenaries or bandits have been harassing the populace, out of the ordinary vandalism, and things that might seem just small annoyances, but could connect to a larger picture."

She paused, giving Breanna a moment to review the letter's contents which was just the affirmation that Kiley was working for Teagan and requesting permission for her to go through the records. "I don't believe I will be here longer than a day, and if need be I can find a room at the local inn so I won't be in the way here when I need to retire for the evening. I found something in Denerim that appears to connect Lord Spearman to a great many things against your part of the bannorn. I'm hoping that your records here will help me corroborate these connections."

 

[Breanna Guerrin]

Breanna nodded, although a part of her was irrationally annoyed. Despite her desire to retort aloud to reveal such a thing, she bit her tongue and instead looked down to the paper before her. Teagan knew damn well that she wouldn’t turn away the woman if he had her delivering the news to him, and that he had cornered her into the position of accepting this woman’s help irritated her more than she cared to admit to. She could handle this. Without him. This really wasn’t a matter he needed to concern himself with, but because it involved her, there they were. And here she was with some woman she didn’t know wanting to look over her books.

Great.

At least there was no doubting the validity of the letter. If there was anything she could be certain about, it was that no one could recreate the method in which the father and daughter addressed each other in such correspondence. If anything ever arrived that did not have at least two postmarks, she was always concerned. It was a habit that had formed early, and one that had never gone away. Sure enough, there were two comments about Hurin, and one about how he’d been cornered to listen to the latest attempt to woo him... She already knew her own comment to that was ‘how many horses were they willing to purchase you for?’

After she ripped into him for not giving her a warning that this Daire woman would be coming.

"I don't believe I will be here longer than a day, and if need be I can find a room at the local inn so I won't be in the way here when I need to retire for the evening. I found something in Denerim that appears to connect Lord Spearman to a great many things against your part of the bannorn. I'm hoping that your records here will help me corroborate these connections."

Now, admittedly, that was interesting to hear. “You are a friend of my fathers; I would not dream of allowing you to stay elsewhere. I will see to it that you have a room prepared for when you need it. And I make certain that the information you need is available to you. My only request is that you share with me and my adviser about whatever you have discovered in Denerim.” Teagan had told her some things, but this was new. It was proving more difficult not to take her annoyance out at her, instead of the rightful individual.

 

[Kiley Daire Guerrin]

Breanna was mostly unreadable as she recounted her purpose. There was the smallest bit of tension in her jaw that made her think she was perhaps annoyed with the situation, if not her. She wanted to make a good impression, especially if she was going to continue to be in Teagan's employ. It meant interacting with Breanna in the future would be a very likely circumstance, and she did not want their relationship to be tense.

When she mentioned the information she had discovered in Denerim, Breanna seemed to perk up a bit with curiosity. She was positively polite in her response, “You are a friend of my fathers; I would not dream of allowing you to stay elsewhere. I will see to it that you have a room prepared for when you need it. And I make certain that the information you need is available to you. My only request is that you share with me and my adviser about whatever you have discovered in Denerim.”

That was a valid request, and Kiley nodded, "Of course, my lady. I did not bring it with me, but I have my notes on names included, payment figures, letters, and some of the events described therein. And thank you for your hospitality, I hope it won't be a great imposition."

She reached into the small satchel on her hip, and pulled out the sheaf of papers she had brought with her. Some of the handwriting was quick, and possibly hard to read for anyone other than Kiley, "The main crux of what has the Arl concerned is the threats against Rainesfere and you personally contained in some of the unsent letters that were found inside it, but there are notes of payment being dispatched to a small village north of Rainesfere as well. Spearman is not a smart man, my lady. He has made pretty obvious notes about what some of these payments were meant for, and I believe if I can connect some of the names and dates to incidents in your bannorn then we'll have enough evidence to put a stop before they go further."

She leaned forward, offering the sheets of paper in case Breanna wanted to peruse them.