Arcane glanced up for a moment before returning her gaze to the black blade she was working on. "Going to see an old friend."

Shifter reminded silent for a moment, waiting for her to expound upon the reply. She didn't. Finally he ventured on. "Could you be anymore vague?"

Once again she stopped her sharpening stroke and seemed to consider his question for a moment then shook her head. "No. I've tried. That's about as vague as it can get."

"I thought we were partners."

"No. You said you wanted to come with me. You never said anything about us being partners."

"Fine," he replied, going silent.

Arcane went back to working on the blade for another minute or two before she glanced back up at Shifter to find he was pouting. He's actually pouting. Shaking her head, she spoke again. "You do have a weapon, right?"

He nodded, pulling the sides of his dusty jacket back to reveal two rather wicked looking guns resting innocently in their holsters at his sides. Showing off a bit he drew the guns and whirled them with the practiced grace of the most disciplined gunslinger. "Believe it or not, I'm better after a good drink."

"Good," affirmed Arcane, nodding. "Because we're going to the castle of the Barbaroi."

His reaction was as Arcane had expected it to be. "WHAT?! Are you insane?"

"Nope. I need some information from him."

"We are talking about the same castle, right? Crawling with demons, cursed, the castle which no man has ever entered and lived?" he exclaimed, obviously agitated by the idea.

"Yep, sounds like we're on the same page."

"Oh," he replied, losing a bit of steam as he holstered his guns. If Arcane was so calm about the idea, then why should he worry about it? Maybe its because she's a dhampir and I'm not. He'd taken notice of the fact that her injured hand was half healed already from being shot earlier in the day. She'd need a new pair of gloves though. Suddenly something she'd said earlier caught his attention. "Wait, you consider someone like the Barbaroi a friend?"

"I use the term loosely," she murmured. "I took a job or two from him a few years back. Also wound up salvaging someone else's botched work, so you might say that he owes me one." Though she wasn't quite sure the Barbaroi would see it that way.

A somewhat awkward silence fell between them, stretching uncomfortably across the passing minutes. Admitting that you worked for the Barbaroi, even in the past, was probably the farthest thing from a character endorsement you could get. Soon the only sounds in their small campsite was the crackling of fire, chirping crickets and the soft grating sound of Arcane sharpening her blade.

"So what kind of information are you after?" asked Shifter, his curiosity finally getting the better of him.

"Past six months or so I've been getting visits from some less than upstanding wanderers who are looking for the hunter, whoever that might be. They never mention his name or why they want him, so I don't know all that much about the mark. All I know is that he's a dhampir. Apparently it's a common misconception in the dark world that all dhampir hang out together or something. To make a long story short, I want to know why I'm being harassed."

"I guess they think its because there are so few of you left," suggested Shifter, poking at the fire. The reflection of the flames dancing in his dark eyes. "Probably because you do reckless things like looking for trouble with the Barbaroi."

She glanced up at him. "You do not want to let that go, do you?" Sighing softly she put the blade aside, satisfied with the job she's done. She leans forward a bit, the firelight illuminating her pretty face. "If you want, you can wait outside or you could always just leave."

He thought it over for a minute then sighed. "I guess I'll wait outside of the castle. I mean, you need someone to watch the bags, right?"