Sanria stopped, both of her hands on the strap of her pack, and stared at the stranger who leaned against the gates of the city as nonchalantly as if he owned them. "I'm sorry... do I know you?" she asked.
"My apologies, Vorcet Thophen at your service!" he said, offering a bow.
"Sanria... Sanria Stone. And... I don't think now would be ideal. I'm meeting a friend."
"I had a feeling that was the case," Vorcet said. "Then a question or two before you continue? Though a bit of an explanation so this sounds less like a case of stalking."
"That would ease my mind a bit," Sanria admitted.
"I've had a watcher in the city looking and listening for something specific. It reported back your conversation with a certain sword wielding man."
The idea of having her conversation overheard, even reported on, made Sanria a little edgy. "And what of this conversation concerns you?"
"The part regarding your interest in balance."
Sanria was stunned, but kept the expression well in check. "How so?" she asked.
"When the god's were banished I saw the hole left in what was keeping things together. I've spent a little effort attempting to gather some people of like mind together myself. Two more people that seem to have an interest so similar was something I could not ignore."
While Sanria dealt with the idea of being recruited even as she recruited and for the same reason, she also remembered Fenlauch's words. She couldn't learn balance alone, for such an approach was imbalanced as well. Fenlauch had re- quested her to find others. Why not this one who sought her out for exactly the same reason she sought Kineada?
"So you seek balance as well?" she asked.
"Ever since the fall of the old religions it has been my goal," Vorcet replied.
"Well, I suppose having you come along with Kineada and I wouldn't be an issue. I assure you, if you do anything, I'm certain he could dispatch you quickly."
Sanria could, in fact, make no such claims - but the man unsettled her a bit. "I assume you'd like to join us then?" she asked.
"Very much so. And as to your concerns about me being dangerous, once I would have agreed with you, but no longer. I gave Violence up long long ago."
"I think whatever questions you have about balance, he'll be able to answer."
"I've found little enough answers on my own," Vorcet said. "If you think this, Fenlauch? can help Id love to speak with him."
So it was that Sanria found one more. It struck her as she walked away from Vorcet to find Kineada that she now had three people. It wasn't balanced, but from an uneven number of minds came agreement and concord. Three people could never polarize. Three people in truth, was more balanced than two ever could be. A smile lighted upon her lips. Fenlauch would be pleased.
