"She beat us there again, Lieutenant," the younger Watchman with the cleanly pressed uniform uttered to Cullen. If a roll of the eyes made a sound, the Watchman's action would have been more than evident. Still, Cullen didn't need to hear the eye roll to taste the disapproval in the new Watchman's tone.

Cullen's voice, while rough around the edges, held a note of carefully suppressed joy. His inexperienced counterpart was, luckily, too green to notice. "Whatever you may think about Scathachians, Rydell, just remember one thing: on any given day, they will out-think, out-drink and out-manuever you at every turn." His salt-and-pepper head measured out a nod, "And Isuelt DeRomiano will do it twice over for fun." He had his back to the young officer, and it was just as well, too; it helped to conceal the smile on his lips.

Rydell murmured something under his breath as he turned to sift through some of the paperwork that had been left for the Watch. It was a large box of ledgers and books that told the latest chapter in the tale of female trafficking on this west side of Rydin and the surrounding territories outside the city. Isuelt had been following the trails of a few lesser known slavers that frequented the docks. Their loose lips had aided her in pinpointing a house where they were keeping not girls, but records of them. Isuelt's hope had been for the former, but the latter would have to do. She had left the unfortunate man whose job it was to guard the place tied up along with the box of ledgers. The man's swollen left eye was nearly ready to pop, while the thin, but still steady stream of blood leaking from his lips told the Watch that she hadn't beaten them by much to the destination.

"In fact," Cullen continued, "I wouldn't be surprised if it was her and not that little old lady who tipped us off about this place." Rydell looked up from his kneeling position just in front of the beaten thug to glance at his commanding officer. "A tip out of the blue like that' And then everything here for us"just missing a damned bow?" Cullen's mind was piecing together all he knew of Isuelt's modus operandi. "She's good. And even better for handing us the credit?" Cullen's voice trailed off as he heard footsteps coming into the room. A few patrolmen were coming to help with the paperwork and the tied up criminal. Rydell had a head start on them and left with a few ledgers in his arms while two of the other Watchmen were charged with carrying out the still unconscious bookkeeper. Cullen was left alone to bring up the rear as the rest of the books were soon taken from the room. His thoughtful eyes grazed the walls to the window sill, the thin curtains moved slightly in the breeze. "What are you after, DeRomiano?? his voice was just barely above a whisper, more for himself than anything. He'd been trailing behind her for months now and she was almost certainly blazing a path. He'd have to ask her what she was following besides traffickers the next time he saw her. Whenever in the world that was going to be.