Henri followed Roland to the table, but stayed a bit behind him, not speaking and sort of, glancing everywhere. The usual outlet for his anxiousness was to fiddle with whatever he had on him, but that wouldn't be very tough of him would it? For now his hands stayed in his over sized coat pockets and he stayed quiet while Roland and their employer were talking.

And it seemed to be going remarkably well, the guy wasn't very intimidating, was polite enough, and if he wasn't mistaken, he was just as anxious as himself. It almost made him less nervous, except every redeeming feature this man had also in Henri's mind made him a viable candidate for some sneaky business, and how the heck was he supposed to answer the question about them being big tough guys?

All in all he probably wouldn't be totally relaxed until he knew what kind of business they were dealing with, for no he continued standing around trying to look serious, cool and indifferent. Hopefully soon they could sit, he wanted to get one of those platter things.

His stomach gurgled loudly.

Fighting the urge to stare in a dumb-struck manner, Roland took the spare chair from the table, skillfully skid it over to Henri, walked away and claimed another chair from a nearby table, and then returned, un-strapped his sword and laid it on top of the table, and sat down opposite his potential client; he remained completely silent throughout the entire ordeal.

“Honest?” He asked and then violently jabbed his thumb in Henri’s direction: “he isn’t, no, but he is trained to fight and he won’t abandon you if trouble strikes. That’s better than half the guys in the militia, and better than all the thugs who’d even talk to ya about whatever it is yer selling.”

Roland took a long, deep breath and released it slowly, a whole minute felt like it could have passed, though it didn’t, and then he broke the silence by slapping his palms down atop the table; it gave a resounding smack, and he spoke again: “We’re young and we’ve been trained, but we haven’t done this before. I’m guessing we’re not the only ones,” he smiled a knowing smile. This looked like it was going to be a gamble on all their parts and dishonesty would’ve just been a hindrance to them in the long run. A shame, too, because Roland was looking forward to duping some hardass into thinking they were super warriors like out of the stories.

“Plus, we’re totally the best yer gonna find,” he added and this time his smile was much larger than before. He was telling the truth.

The man glanced at Henri quizzically, not noticing that Roland had gone off to take a chair for himself. His attention fell upon Roland again only when he was back at the table--or, rather, when he set a sword upon the table, which caused the man to have a bit of a knee-jerk reaction. Which is to say, threw him off guard and caused a twinge of anxiety and panic for a second or two. He . . . he should have expected this. A sword. Or other weapons. He really, really should've expected that. Especially since he had his own weapon! But really, in all truth, he did not anticipate someone actually coming and actually being kind of rough and tumble and intimidating. It made him not want to deal with these guys. Either of them. Even though Henri apparently, at least according to Roland, wasn't that tough, he was still with Roland and still trained, and fairly devoted when he was put into a situation, apparently, so, right. Right. In a brawl, they'd just beat a person to death. Why was he even dealing with them? They were so theoretically terrifying that he really kind of just wanted to bow out, pay for his room, and leave on his own. Not even risk fighting them. Never even risk fighting them. That was officially the last thing he wanted to.

Suddenly he realized why he wanted to hire someone like that.

"Okay," he said with a smile, "Sold!"

And then he paused awkwardly as he continued to realize that he had no idea what these guys' names were and they had no idea what his was, either.

"Umm," he extended his hand awkwardly, nervously trying to avoid the sword at all costs. Keep his arm a mile away from it, if possible. "I'm Vacio."

Their employer didn't exactly invite them to sit down, but it would be rude to refuse the seat Roland just tossed to him. He could just loom beside him (an effect only possible when Roland was sitting since he was taller) and add to the bad ass look, or he could finally sit down, where he could fidget nervously under the table at the closest thing to a compliment he ever got from his friend ever.

No comment from Henri. Not that it was needed, Roland knew exactly what to say. What sold them seemed to be honesty, and really if you were going to entrust someone to protect you it helped if they were you know, actual trustworthy people.

Mind you they still didn't know what they were being hired to do. They would have to discuss the businessy type details over a meal. He'd been quiet this whole time, which was very unusual for Henri. Even around boss type figures he would have at least managed a peep by now. He was running on empty, no food, no sleep nothing.

"I'm going to order some food, do you guys want anything?"

“Roland Dufort,” he said and offered his hand from across the table. “The clueless fella who still hasn’t given his name is Henri Bernard, by the way.”

Almost to punctuate what Roland had said, the man who had ducked into the kitchen earlier appeared at their table and dropped a heavy platter of fruit, bread, and cheese onto its surface; he left grumbling something under his breath.

“Oh, and he’s usually asleep at this time of day so he forgets things sometimes,” Roland said by way of excuse and finished in his head: Like me buying the food when we came in, you ijit.

The platter lit up Henri's face like a Christmas tree, obviously he was very glad to see it. In no time he put himself to work on the fruit, trying to be mindful of his friends and not hog the plate. Having some food in him definitely changed him, he was still nervous, but with a bit more life in him,

"Oh uh, sorry, hi," he put some cheese onto some bread. "where did this platter come from anyway?"

yet not so many brains in him.

Offtopic: Sorry 'bout that. Last couple of weeks have been busy as hell.

"Roland Dufort, Henri Bernard," Vacio said, nodding his head a bit as he devoted the names to memory, before cheerily replying, "It's nice to meet you!"

He supposed he should move on to business, then. After all, they were getting themselves something to eat. Maybe something to drink. It was a comfortable enough occasion to talk business, right? At least, Vacio was pretty sure that was how it worked.

"Umm, so," he started, only to pause awkwardly.

It was times like this that Vacio wished he had a "business etiquette" book or anything like that. Something he could read that would rightly tell him what to say and when to say it. Well, whatever! This was kind of an enterprising task, so he was going to have to man up eventually. Why not start now? Except that he was the least manly person here, next to Henri, but that was all just semantics at this point.

"B-basically, um, I'd like to hire you guys are bodyguards. I've got . . . kind of a long journey ahead of me, and I'd otherwise be walking it alone," he finally came out and said.

Roland held up one of his hands and stopped short of swatting Henri upside the head. Life really would be much easier if he would just pay closer attention to things. Oh well, Roland tapped a finger idly on the table and listened to Vacio speak.

“Bodyguard work, huh?” Well that was pretty much what he expected already so it wasn’t that big of a surprise. What was surprising, however, was that it was for a long journey, apparently, and that was a bigger time investment than what he was expecting. Not that he was in the greatest position to turn it down.

“How long a journey?” Roland asked

A shocking and obvious realization dawned on Henri. Vacio couldn't have gotten the food for them since he had no idea they were coming. If he got it for himself he was scoffing down someone ELSE'S food, but hopefully he would have said something. That meant...ROLAND payed for it! Wasn't Henri supposed to pay for the meal? They were too far into the business discussion for him to interrupt. He'd definitely pay Roland back later.

The real shocking and ugly realization was how -big- this job was. This wasn't in the city, and this wasn't just for a day or two. He'd have to find someone he'd trust enough to take care of the lighthouse while he was gone, and the only person he did trust was coming with him in the journey, and he definitely wasn't leaving him to go it alone. A lot of questions needed asking, and he was pretty sure he wasn't going to like any of the answers.

Suddenly the progress he was making on the platter stopped, partially because he had already eaten quite a bit and should stop to save the other's some, and mostly because he was nervous. He didn't eat when he was nervous.

"A . . . few weeks, maybe," Vacio replied, a hint of nervousness in his voice.

He wasn't too sure about that one. He could only guess as much. Well, in the best case scenario, that was it. A few weeks. Worst case scenario, he had no clue.

"There's a big city out east of here. They say it's called New Guasa," he paused, "Or, umm, well, it used to be called that. I really have no idea what it's called anymore. Only that it's dangerous. A-and, umm, well, halfway across the continent."

The way he talked about it, though . . . it was almost as if he had as much of a clue about where he was going as Henri and Roland. Sketchy details and visible apprehensions, the sort that scholars and scientists got before going out on a blind journey into discovery. Henri and Roland had been out on investigations with people like that before, at the very least. Which wasn't to say Vacio was the same, or that his motivations were the same, only that he talked about this journey ahead of him with the same brand of anxiety.

New Guasa, huh? Roland had never even heard of the place and he was positive Henri hadn't, either, but that was fine, he guessed. How hard could it be to get to this 'big city', right? Disregarding that, Roland couldn't shake the feeling that something, somewhere down the line, had been misunderstood . . . Well, it probably wasn't that important.

"Any idea about the roads out east, then?" He asked, curious. Last thing Roland wanted was to walk into an ambush meant for merchants and caravans and the like; he knew that the empire liked to keep a vigilant watch over most roads and all, but River's End wasn't quite the beacon of civilization - and neither was the surrounding land. The militia was good enough to keep undesirables out of town and Colonel Dasari only helped matters, but outside of town was a different story. Vacio would know more about the outside world than Roland and Henri, at any rate; he should also know the condition of the route they'll be taking. That was the plan, at least.

A couple weeks eh? Well that was alright, nobody at the table seemed to know where this New Guasa was, but all the same Henri and Roland had always been dying to get out of town, and now was their chance, and they could earn some good cash at the same time. This job seemed more like a precaution, like a just in case safety issue, since this Vacio didn't know where he was going or why, and that was cool, better safe than sorry, unless of course he just wasn't telling them why.

That wouldn't stop him though, Henri was going and that was that, he couldn't just leave his friend to do it alone with some sketchy military sort of guy or whoever else would take the job. In fact, what did that make them then?

Oops. Anyway he'd bring up his concerns once Roland and Vacio were talking, since he didn't want to interrupt. Later tonight he could sort out the issues of the lighthouse, probably ask someone from Roland's family to tower sit for him while he was out, they'd get payed of course, it was just that they were one of the few folks he'd trust something that important with.