“You have to be prepared Maya, they’ve tried to take a lot of people lately” Sariya spoke calmly but firmly as she patrolled the streets with the latest recruit to the city guard, Maya. She’d only joined up a couple of days ago and Sariya made a point of personally training new recruits several times within their first few weeks. She was a busy woman, but there was no way she was going to allow standards to slip. Maya seemed like she could use the training, her mind always seemed to be wandering.

Sariya quickly moved in to a side alley. It was so sudden Maya barely noticed. The red headed woman lurched in to motion, scrambling after her captain. She went to turn the corner and there was a jolt of pain in the side of her head. She awoke moments later on the floor, the figure of Sariya looming over. The captain didn’t look impressed. “Well are you going to get up?” there was a tone of sarcasm in her voice and her eyes narrowed. “In a moment” Maya groaned, she still felt a bit dazed from whatever had hit her. Sariya moved almost without her noticing, before she realised it the captain was straddling her chest and had her hands pinned behind her head. “If I was that assassin that’s been lurking around, you’d be dead by now” the captain spoke in a growl but if Maya could read it correctly, it was more of a playful growl than one of frustration. “I told you to be prepared and yet you didn’t even see my attack coming.” There was a growing smile on Sariya’s face. She walked the line pretty well between authoritative commander and playful friend to every member of her guard. It was probably one of the best skills she had as a leader of such a group, at least Maya thought so. It gained her a lot of respect from her soldiers. “You should’ve seen how stiff you went as you fell” Sariya continued taunting her, the smile becoming a giggle. Maya blushed a little, embarrassed to have been beaten so easily. She had only been doing this a couple of days but she felt the need to impress, to show her value. “I… I’ll do better next time” she replied
“You better” Sariya said, rising and offering her hand to help Maya up. “It might not be me attacking you next time” the captain’s words were ominous, definitely intended as a warning.

They wandered the city for at least another hour, Sariya giving out lessons as they patrolled. The pain in Maya’s temple had been reduced to a dull ache, she reached up for it a couple of times, checking for a lump. Sariya noticed and slapped her hand away every time. “Be proud of your wounds” she had said “Let them serve as a reminder that you must learn”. They stopped in the middle of a quieting market street, most of the traders had already left, a few were still packing away their wares, with some loading them on to carts. Sariya turned, surveying the area “Sun’s getting low” she said “Come on, we’ll go check the guard posts and then there’s somewhere I want to take you.”
“Where?” Maya asked with a hint of shock in her voice. She had expected the captain to order her home when her patrol was complete so that she might rest and be ready for tomorrow.
“You’re new around here, right?” Sariya tried to seem innocent but there was a devious smirk on her face.
“Yes…” Maya replied
“Just trust me,  you’re going to love this place” Sariya set off toward the main gate, a renewed vigour to her step.

Sariya threw open the door, nodding and smiling at a few patrons of the tavern who apparently knew her. Maya followed her in, a bit less flamboyant. The place was packed, there were a couple of different card games being played at tables by the door. It wasn’t the same game but both had remarkably good drawings on the cards. People were loudly speaking with each other. It made for a bustling atmosphere filled with laughter. Some of the people in the tavern, “Gawk Inn” as Sariya had said it was called were dressed remarkably strangely. Maya liked some of the outfits but they were decidedly foreign. “Stop staring” Sariya said as she hit her playfully in the arm. “What is this place?” Maya asked, frowning.
“Rule one, never be surprised by what you see at the inn” Sariya said with a smile  
“I can see why that’d make sense here…” Maya trailed off as she continued to survey some of the odd scenes that were unfolding around the inn.
“Just be happy you didn’t have to hear that from some overly excited elf” Sariya apparently expected Maya to understand what she was talking about but out of all the things she’d seen so far, an overly excited elf wasn’t one of them. “Hey Feyre!” Sariya shouted across the bar. A cute brown haired woman in a dress turned around and hurried over to them. “We’ll have two bottles of the thirsty wench please honey” Sariya said. The girl nodded. Sariya was sat at a stool by the bar, apparently completely unfazed by what was going on around her. “She must come here regularly” Maya thought to herself. “Where’s Pebble? I haven’t seen her bouncing around the place yet.” Sariya asked. The girl, Feyre, blushed at the question. “She’s uh…”
“Ah, come on Feyre you can tell me, we’re all friends, right?” Sariya smirked, she had a knowing taunt to her voice, as if she just wanted Feyre to tell her something she already knew.  
“She’s uhm… upstairs. She’s… busy with a guest I think” the girl looked down  the entire time, unable to look Sariya in the eye. Sariya grinned, apparently having had her suspicions confirmed. “I might need one of those rooms myself later” she thought to herself as she spun round, eyeing Maya as she handed her one of the bottles.